Some Things Change and Others Remain the Same

There are a lot of times where I feel like I have really made a positive change in my eating habits. I definitely strive to make better choices at restaurants. I avoid foods I know will set me over the edge. When I have limited options or NO healthy options, I try to have a single serving of what is there and move on.

Until yesterday.

I was at a birthday party we had travelled to and there was pizza and cake. Seriously, that was it. I had 2 pieces of pizza because I was starving and had no cake. I was feeling proud of myself. See, pizza has always been a weak point for me. Also, it is important that while I lose weight, I also come up with habits that are sustainable in the real world. I was okay with my choices.

Then we left and the hostess insisted we take pizza with us. A LOT of pizza and we were stuck in the car for 5 hours. It turned ugly. I wasn't even hungry, but bored and it was THERE.

I have a long way to go and I feel sick and mad at myself today. BUT, I cannot change what I did. The next thing I need to avoid is turning it into a week long binge. I am doing so well and I want to keep it up!

Week 5 Weigh In

Since this is the holiday weekend, I thought I'd weigh in a day early. I am down 2 pounds to 257. Honestly, I am stunned, because I had wine many nights this week and I wasn't stellar with my following the WW points. However, I was nowhere near as bad as was my norm prior to starting this diet. Plus I had three great elliptical workouts.

Preschool is officially over, and I need to get into my groove for summer. Not just a schedule for us to kind of follow, but when I will schedule in my workouts. I am more determined than ever. The next two days will be bad, but I am going to make the best choices I have available.

Week 4 Weigh In

Weekly weigh in (drum roll please)

259, for a weekly loss of 1.5 and a total loss of 14.5. I am trying REALLY hard to be happy about this. I really wanted to have a bigger week, however, I am really happy to see 25 as the first two digits of my weight.

Highlights of this week:

• I started physical therapy this week for my back/hip. It is going well! I am not in any pain, and am able to do the strengthening and stretches without any problem.
• I had several great sessions on my elliptical. I also went on a few walks, so the exercise is starting to get there.

The worst part of the week would have been the cookies I made as a gift. A nice idea, except the container wasn't big enough for all of them and I had some extra. Now, I didn't binge like I normally would, but I ate more than I would have liked to.

SO, I need to move on and get over it. I would really like to try to lose at least 2 pounds every week. I know I am going to be having wine this week at least twice, so I need to be extra good with the food.

PLUS, I am currently at my lowest weight for 2009, but to get to pass my lowest weight for 2008 I need to be LOWER than 256. SO, in three more pounds I will be at my lowest 2008 weight. I think that would be pretty cool!

SO, my new goal is to lose 3.5 pounds to be at my lowest weight for 2008 AND 2009!

May Stinks... and so does Cod

So, I made a Cod dish on Monday. I put WAY too much cayenne pepper in it and it was almost intolerable to eat. Of course my husband liked it! The problem is that my house STILL smells like Cod. And YES, I took out the garbage and YES I cleaned the dishes I cooked with/ate on and YES I cleaned my cooking surfaces. UGH. Stinky!

The other stinky thing is that the weather SUCKS right now. It has been rainy and overcast and I am ready to just get summer started already. I know it will be hot and humid, but let's get this puppy going!

I feel very confident and strong with my weight loss efforts. I watched the Biggest.Loser.Finale last night and was SO motivated by those people! Their weight loss is staggering and I know there isn't a slightest chance that I will lose at that rate, nor do I want to! How does your body cope with dropping 140 pounds in 6 months? Craziness! I am proud of myself because I have been doing very well. I am not doing perfect, but life isn't perfect and if I have to BE perfect to lose the weight I want to then I might as well give up. I have to learn to live with the imperfections of my dieting and exercising just like I live with my personality imperfections.

I worked out on the elliptical yesterday for 45 minutes. I WORKED OUT ON THE ELLIPTICAL YESTERDAY FOR 45 MINUTES. Crazy! I felt amazing afterward! So proud of myself. I'll get there. It will not be tomorrow, next month or not even next year. But I will get there.

Week 3 Weigh In

Let's get straight to business. This morning my weight was 260.5, down 2.5 since last week. I am very happy with this. VERY HAPPY! Especially since yesterday morning I "snuck" a peek and was at 262.5. HOWEVER, I just went along with my day (which was Mother's Day) and did as normal with a few exceptions.

I was careful all last week with food. I counted points, used my flex points as needed and I needed to use them all! Saturday was a huge challenge because we had two parties to go to, one over lunch and one over dinner. Luckily the lunch party was more like a circus and my kids were going crazy and I didn't have a chance to eat. I ended up getting Wendys.chili afterward. The dinner party was more subdued and they served fajitas. I had one steak fajita and it was delicious. I had no alcohol because I knew weigh in was pending.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was pretty nice. My husband made me my favorite dinner that he makes and even got me a king sized rice crispy bar, which is my favorite "cheat" when I am watching my calories. See, the whole big bar is a little over 300 calories and I love it. Much better than a pint of ice cream or a king sized serving of peanut butter cups!

SO, I am pleased with my weekly weigh in of 2.5 down and very pleased with my total progress of 13 pounds down. This week will probably be tough, so I need to stay focused. I'd love to break into the 250's. I think that is feasible, as long as my body doesn't turn into a water-bloated sponge!

Ortho News

I saw the orthopedic doc yesterday and things are looking good! I definitely have some issues, but I feel like it is manageable. She believes my problem is with my SI joint. Also, I believe I will NOT see the Chiropractor again. Don't get me wrong, I think that they can work miracles, but I am not comfortable with some of the neck/head stuff he was doing. She thinks that chiropractor is not necessary for me to get strong and reduce future problems. I also got some prescriptions and some appointments with a physical therapist.

On the food note, I think I am getting somewhere! I am doing so well with my points and I am not living entirely on junk food! When I want something that is typically considered a dieting no-no, I have it and plan my food for the rest of the day accordingly. It is working okay for me now! I feel very empowered about my weight loss now!

I also made another fish dish. I made tilapia with Dijon cream sauce. It was YUMMY!

Week 2 Weigh In

Bright and early Monday morning and the scale is 263. This means I have lost 3.5 since last week and 10.5 since I started two weeks ago. YIPPEE! My BMI is 42.4, which means I am still morbid obese. I am very happy with my progress this week. I only exercised one day last week and although I did use all of my flex points, I used most of them in one day, so I wasn't sure if that would hurt me at all.

I feel in control and excited about things now! I definitely need to do a better job at eating vegetables, limiting my caffeine and making exercise a priority. However, I got fat after years and years of trying really hard, so I assume it will take a while to lose it, even if I try really hard!

Saturday Update

What a week this has been!

This week is the week that Swine.Flu (H1N1) came to the United States. We actually have a confirmed case right down the street. Fun times, fun times. Of course, complete pandemonium has ensued and people are FREAKING OUT. From what I understand there is no vaccine for this. I ALSO understand that what we have been seeing is more MILD than the normal influenza A, which at any given times thousands of people have it in the US and no one cares. UGH.

On the exercise front, I've been a miserable failure. Monday I did my normal exercising. I was pretty happy about that. Tuesday I went for a walk and ended up with a huge painful blister on my heel which has turned disgusting. Of course, it was my own fault. I have these CUTE shoes I wear out and about and I decided that there was no need to get my tennis shoes on for freaking WALKING, so these should be fine. WRONG. Wednesday I did no exercising because I was cleaning. I literally spent an hour scrubbing the grout in my shower. Friday was no preschool thank you to the Swine Flu pandemic and I cleaned as well. Plus I was grumpy.

SO... how have I done with food? Technically, I am doing fine. I have used ALL of my flex points already (more on that later). Of course, in using those flex points I was shoveling everything in my mouth. Good times, good times. We decided to go out to dinner on Wednesday. I won't name the place we went, but it is a well known burger joint. I was in a good place and decided to be righteous and order the grilled chicken. I sat there in my WW glow feeling superior to the poor saps around me gorging themselves on burger and fries. I even had a salad on the side. Seriously, if it had rained I could have walked on top of the water puddles to my mom-vehicle to come home. I came home feeling all good about myself, went to the restaurants website and checked out the nutrition information to track the points. I was shocked, awed and disgusted in what I saw. Apparently they rub the chicken in freaking lard before cooking it. I counted the points and pouted and then ate teddy grahams (because that is all I have to indulge in). LOTS of points. Anyone with higher than a 2nd grade education would tell me that I should have checked out the nutritional information ahead of time. I would have if I had more than 2 minutes to get myself and my kids out the door.

BUT, even with the lard encrusted chicken and teddy grahams (which I have eaten nearly the whole box) I counted the points and used most of my flex points in one evening. So technically I am doing WW how it was intended when I originally bought the stuff. But I feel cheated in that I like to enjoy my flex points and wish I didn't use them all on freaking chicken!

I did have a sneak peek on the scale and it doesn't look like I have completely screwed myself up yet. We'll see what comes on Monday!