My Weight-Loss Game Plan for August
Having already admitted that I am the queen of yo-yo dieting, that my weight loss success often leads me to failure, and my love/hate relationship with the scale, surely you won’t be surprised when I tell you that July was basically a plateau month for me. My weight fluctuated 2 to 3 pounds, never breaking the 159 mark. While I am super-jazzed to be down almost 18 pounds from my heaviest back in December (and I’m not letting anything take that awesome feeling away), I have to get the numbers going south again. Especially if I am going to hit my goal for the Cooking Light Food Lover’s Social Diet.
So I devised a plan in my head for August to get the weight-loss wheels back in motion. These are arbitrary, but in my mind will help me break through this plateau:
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1. No Drinking Alcohol from Monday to Thursday: I love a good Manhattan now and again—which is totally fine and in line with the Social Diet. But one leads to two (and sometimes three), and now and again has turned into almost every night. As I write this, I feel like this list is turning into the deprivation list. It’s not. I just need to cut back a bit on things that I am likely to over-consume. Plus, I’ll enjoy my cocktail on Friday and Saturday night way more because I will have really earned it.
2. Meal Plan: Cooking Light’s awesome Sunday Strategist posts have inspired me. Knowing the menu for the entire week in advance takes a lot of pressure and guessing off the table on busy weeknights. This past week we ate:
- Sunday: Grilled Chicken with Rustic Mustard Cream with grilled tomatoes and arugula salad
- Monday: Halibut with Bacony Corn Saute
- Tuesday: Leftovers from Sunday
- Wednesday: Tequila-Glazed Grilled Chicken Thighs with Guac and baked chips
- Thursday: Pan-sautéed salmon, steamed green beans, and basil pearl couscous
- Friday: Tonight I'm making Ma Po Tofu with Brown Rice
By planning our dinners, my husband and I are saving calories and money—a win-win! For lunch, I am a brown-bagger, and recently have been obsessed with making a big batch of quinoa on Sunday and taking it along with a cup of this Black Bean and Corn Salad, topped with avocado and Applegate Farms Organic Turkey or Chicken Breast.
3. Weekly Weigh-Ins: When I started the Social Diet, I stopped Weight Watchers. What I realized recently is that I liked the structure of having a weekly weigh-in. I knew that good, bad, or ugly, come Friday, I had to be accountable to the scale at my meeting. The Social Diet has let me wiggle out of that commitment. I still weigh myself at home, but like I mentioned earlier, I only record it if I am down. Not anymore! The Social Diet team has committed to a weigh-in day and sharing with each other in our UP app.
I set the short-term goal of getting and staying below 155 by Labor Day weekend. I’ll keep you posted on how the game plan for the month is working.
What's your current weight-loss game plan? Please share your tips! Comment here, email letters@CookingLight.com and tweet @Cooking_Light using #SocialDiet.