#SaturdaySkinny: Oh Hello Again! — Weight Off My Shoulders

It's no surprise that my head hasn't been in the game. By this time, almost 4 months into being in Amsterdam I fully expected to be down well over 10 pounds. But unfortunately that is not the case.

I've written here on the blog already about the hard adjustment I've had - mainly due to stress - and it has had a huge impact on my emotional state... which impacts my eating state.

Hello! My Name is Dani and I am an Emotional Eater!

After 12 days of traveling for work, I got back to Amsterdam and was determined to get #Back2Basics. I was worried coming in to weigh-in this week that I would be at a higher weight than when I got here. But I knew I needed to get back into the meeting room to refocus.

One thing I do want to say is despite working 86 hours in 7 days while in Boston, I loved being able to hug and soak up the good vibes of my friends and family. I hadn't seen them in about 3.5 months and it was really good for my soul. I really tried to focus during my time with them and barely took any pics over the course of the week. So I don't have much to share from that side: I was either working or trying to see as many friends as possible. Luckily I get to have another work trip back to Boston in 27 days! Woo!

I came back to Amsterdam wanting to use the positivity and love from my friends to re-energize my weight loss efforts and pick up where I left off with my fitness. While work was once again stressful this week and will only get more so over the coming months, I was proud of myself for not stress eating any of the days and getting myself to actually take some form of a lunch break and step away from the computer. I have been getting into a habit of eating while working and not moving from my desk/office for hours at a time. This isn't good for my mental or physical state.

My chiropractor says all the sitting it really causing my lower back and hip pain so she wrote me a note to get a Vari Desk at work so I can stand during the day. I would try to stand in one of our phone rooms, but then I lose my extra 2 screens. Folks who use multiple screens feel my pain! ;) Now that it is approved, I play the waiting game for it to arrive.

So this week I got #Back2Basics and focused on movement and water.

Happy to say that going into weigh-in I was on a roll. And yes as noted above this week I need to add tracking back in. I know! It is the only way I succeed and I recognize that for sure.

It was nice to have our little Saturday morning back: sleep in (aka to like 7:45am), bike to WW, grab coffee (to drink after weigh-in), weigh-in and enjoy the meeting. I had missed this sense of routine since I had been traveling the previous 3 weekends.

The wife weighed in first and rocked it. I'm wicked proud of her. She is down 13 pounds since getting to Amsterdam and is in ONE-derland!! Way to go babe!

I will honestly admit I am a little jealous, but I know I am not doing what I need to do to succeed. I am half-assing it.

Three positives from last week:
1) Got back to 100oz of water a day
2) “Took” lunch aka walked away from my desk for at least 15min of me time twice
3) Reunited with my Peloton and got back in the pool

Shockingly enough I was down 0.6.

I sort of thanked the scale gods and quickly ran away from the scale. I was determined to give it a better effort this week. I did get to meet another #ExPat in the meeting. Alexandra had emailed me through my blog and said she was living in Amsterdam and might be joining WW. She had done it previously. She showed up to the meeting and we had a great time chatting. I am looking forward to chatting more next week! :)

After the meeting the wife and I were ready to have a nice low-key weekend. We headed out for lunch before seeing Avengers: Infinity Wars. Once we got home, we ran some errands before I jumped on the Peloton. The weather was so gorgeous that I was pumped to be outside. Today we got coffee and a bagel before I ran 8 miles. The wife put my tri bike together while I was running. So nice to see Roxie out of the bike box/shed. Can't wait to take her out for a spin as we look for our first triathlon to compete in.

The weekend was exactly what I needed. I made an effort to limit how much work I did and I could tell my mind and stress level thanked me.

To help us organize the day trips we want to take around the Netherlands, sights we want to see in Amsterdam and restaurants we want to eat at, I put them all in our fun Amsterdam Adventures jar. :) We are planning to check out 1 restaurant a week to curb our desire to eat out too often (and save points).

Here's to another week where I focus on balance and remember the other ways to handle stress rather than emotionally eating...