Wednesday, May 31, 2006

About the heat....

One benefit of it being so hot yesterday was that my desire to eat too much in the evening completely disappeared! I had one piece of pizza and a serving of sugar snap peas for dinner and that was it. Kind of strange. Maybe we'll leave the A/C off all summer just to keep my weight down. Maybe not. It was pretty miserable yesterday with no A/C. I can understand the purpose of sleeping porches--it was really nice outside, but really stuffy in the house. It takes the house so much longer to cool off once the sun is down.

As predicted, no exercise yesterday. And would you believe I have to go out at lunch AGAIN today? I didn't know we were almost out of laundry detergent and I have to get the laundry done before Claire and I head off to camp this weekend. But I'll make it a fast trip and go to the gym afterwards.

Food so far today has been the usual boring stuff--cereal, milk, coffee, almonds. I'm drinking green tea now. The stuff is just nasty, but I drink it anyway.

Ack!

159 this week. Not surprising--I'd be impressed if I was able to eat out 5 days straight--all meals--and not gain weight.

I did exercise last night--300 calories burned in 30 minutes on the treadmill. Going for more of the same tonight and hopefully adding a little more yardwork. I am late getting my vegetables planted. I bet I am the laughing stock of the neighborhood since I just plant them in among my other landscaping...this year I think they'll actually have to go in with the roses. That'll be funny.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

OK

As long as there is even one person who doesn't want to give it a rest for a while, then let's keep going. But we still have to find some way to re-motivate ourselves, and there's no way in HELL I'm going to take pictures of myself in a bikini. I swear, the remaining weight on me is all sagging around my stomach, and I don't see any way of getting rid of it short of surgery. Dumb big babies. Why couldn't I be long waisted and give birth to six pound babies?

Small motivation: new workout clothes. I hit Target today for bug spray, sunscreen, duffle bag, etc. for the weekend and also picked up a pair of running shorts and two workout shirts--a super-lightweight tank and a fitted tank with a built-in workout bra. The fitted tank is a little victory for me--a year ago I wouldn't have been caught dead in it because I would have bulged so much around the sides. Maybe I'll take pictures in that and I can work on my arms and shoulders. It'll probably also show off my non-flat stomach without causing nightmares.

I didn't report on food over the weekend. It's better that I don't, but at least I was in good company for the tea yesterday afternoon--two cucumber sandwiches, one roast beef and boursin cheese sandwich, a piece of butter cake, a scoop of berries with whipped cream, a scone with jam, one tiny lemon curd tart and two key lime tarts. That kept me going through dinnertime, then at bedtime my stomach was growling so I had a glass of milk, an orange (I should have stopped there) and an ice cream sandwich. Lunch was pasta salad, breakfast was cereal. I can't remember any food before yesterday. I don't think I was totally horrible, but I wasn't really great either. Oh, Amy and I were scrapbooking on Saturday and there were all kinds of goodies sitting out and neither of us ate much of it at all. I had more than she did--one cookie, a handfull of Poppycock, two big M&M's, and I think that was it. I had a mozarella, pesto, and tomato sandwich for lunch with some chips and a pickle and a root beer. Oh, I forgot about the cafe goodies that day--regular coffee and a bagel, then a scrapacchino in the afternoon. No WONDER I didn't eat the goodies! So that just leaves Sunday unaccounted for. I'll leave it that way because I really don't remember what I ate!

Today so far: cereal, milk, and coffee for breakfast, almonds for snack, orange, pretzles, and string cheese for lunch. I'm drinking a diet Coke now, and I still have yogurt in the fridge.

Discombobulated...

So it's Tuesday, not Monday, and I forgot all about stepping on the scale. Oh well. I know you are all dying to see how much I weigh, but you'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

Food yesterday was totally gross, so I probably weigh like 400 lbs or something. Breakfast was a small omelet with tomatos and cheddar, a piece of sausage, an english muffin, 2 glasses of soda, a chocolate milk and some fruit juice (I was totally dehydrated from drinking Sunday night.) We skipped lunch because we were on the road, and dinner was LD turkey hoagies. Joe & I split one roll between the two of us since they were not proportional in length to the sausage thing. That was yummy. Then I ate this chocolate mud cake thing for dessert because I was dying for chocolate. I did exercise yesterday--yard work--I think I mentioned that already though. I'll go back to walking or running tonight when I get home, if I ever get to leave work.

So far today I have eaten: an apple cereal bar, a small pack (4) of those gross orange crackers with the waxy peanut butter in the middle, a salad with light ranch dressing, a banana, a yogurt and some pretzels.

I'll blog as long as someone out there is reading. It is very sad to think you all don't want to read about all the things I eat every day ;^) That means I can eat MORE. Oink oink oink. Wasn't that one of the things Kate Hudson suggested as a way to lose a guy in 10 days? Good thing you guys aren't guys or this would be disasterous!

Maybe we should do something like take a monthly picture of ourselves in a bikini or some sort of potentially less traumatic type of clothing we wish we could wear as a way to mark our progress other than just using the scale. We wouldn't actually be required to show anyone, because I wouldn't want y'all to have nightmares or anything, but it would be a visual way to mark progress and hopefully motivate us to keep going regardless of where we are in the long term scheme of things. Some days it would probably just depress me, but at the same time I control my own fate and it would be a reminder to not give up.

135.5

Ugh. I wasn't any better yesterday. Actually I had a lousy day yesterday -- no good reason, but I got in a progressively worse mood as the day went on. The (bigger) kids played next door so I felt like I couldn't go anywhere or do anything. By the time they got home I thought Daniel would be home soon so I could go ride my bike or go for a run, but then he didn't get home until nearly 7, by which time I was a total grouch, so I really didn't want to exercise. I haven't done anything since Friday when I swam a half mile, which isn't actually that strenuous as exercise goes. And because I was such a pill all afternoon and evening I ate five or six Samoas and some Thanks-a-Lot cookies (and wondered why there wasn't more food around the house). And I ate a large helping of ice cream for dessert. But when I went to the grocery store later on I found I wasn't in a mood to buy junk, so that's a good thing.

I find I'm disinclined to take time off the blog after all -- yesterday when I was down I kept checking email and the blog and nothing was coming through, which made me feel even more trapped at home, but at least there was the hope that something would show up here! I hate the thought of being more out of touch with y'all than I already am. I do think I'd keep exercising a little bit, and my food can't get a whole lot worse. But I'd miss the blog anyway. I just don't know how to make the diet better!

Up again

I have no idea what happened! I was doing OK hovering around 207-208 then on Saturday I stepped on the scale and was up to 211.8. I did nothing bad on Friday or Thursday really. Well - that would be OK because my period was getting going and the jump is normal for my period. But it hasn't gone away!! I was 211.2 both Sunday and Monday and today I was 210.6.

Long weekends stink because I forget about weigh in day. I am off today and tomorrow to make a really long weekend for me. This morning I weighed myself - because I almost always do - but I totally forgot that it was weigh in day. Oh well.

I don't know if I like the idea of stopping the blog for a little while. I really don't think coming back to it in two months is going to make it fresh and new. I think it will actually have the opposite affect. I think what is now sort of a habit will become a chore when you have to start up again. But it is up to you guys. I think the logical stop time will be when Katie is in Europe.

I am not more active in the summer. Not really. It is HOT in the summer and I am more inclined to sit and stare than in the winter. It is harder to get myself motivated to do anything active in the summer -especially exercise. I do more outdoor activities in the summer - but they really aren't much more ACTIVE then the indoor activities I do in the winter. I don't go hiking, or swimming, or canoeing, or anything that you can't do in the winter - and in the winter I shovel snow, and carry around heavier clothing. I am more apt to go sleding than to go hiking. I definitely would rather be cold than sweating.

133.2

Up from last week--I seem to be just moving around in this 132 - 135 range, which I guess is fine but after all those months of steadily losing, this is getting dull. I stayed around 132 all of last week, ate too much and exercised too little all weekend and didn't weigh myself or even wear my pedometer and then was up a pound today. No big surprise.

I wonder if Emily's idea is right, but I don't know if taking the whole summer off is a good idea. I don't know how I'd do. On the one hand, I'm definitely more active in the summer, but I also know that if no one is "watching" me, I'll overeat and get really lazy about exercising. It's bad enough that I have to get on here and admit that I only got to the gym twice last week and did pilates twice, but if I didn't have to report, how likely would I be to exercise at all? Maybe a three or four week hiatus would be better? That length of time might be a good challenge to see how well we fare without constant vigilance but not so long that we'd lose a lot of ground if we aren't well behaved.

Or maybe we could take a break while Katie is in Austria? Five weeks (is it five weeks?), during which time she'll be walking constantly and eating nothing because it's all too expensive and we'll be here gorging on American summer food (mmmmm, buttery corn on the cob! Popsicles! Oooooh, and aren't the snowball stands open now?). She's already teeny-tiny, even though she never posts anymore (she was 128.something and 129.something the last two weeks). Anyway, since she'll be away from the internet for those five weeks (a fate worse than, well, not death, but possibly an IRS audit) that might be the natural time for a break and then we can see how we're doing. What do you all think?

This is a weird week for me--no work (=no gym) yesterday, long off-site meetings on Thursday and Friday, and I have to find some time to get out at lunch to get things for this weekend (Girl Scout Encampment--I'll probably lose weight because it's constant walking and really gross food) so I know from the start that I'll only get in one day at the gym. In the evenings I have a ton of laundry to do, packing for the weekend, and Thursday night at Mom's, so I have to do all the laundry and packing today and tomorrow. So probably no evening exercise either. Sheesh. But at least I'll be active for the most part, and away from a lot of snacking, so maybe the week won't be a total loss.

Monday, May 29, 2006

I'm Back!

Sorry I've been MIA without prior explanation--the last week has been really hectic. I've been reading the blog but haven't had the chance to post. I had a multi-day training class in Vienna (again) and then we spent the weekend in Kennett Square PA at a wedding. I was home one night from Vienna before we hopped in the car to head out again. We got back today. I hate weddings that suck up an entire 3 day weekend. We had fun though. Jessica's family is really snobby though. I imagine Amy is the only one who has met Jessica--Jeff Sampson's now wife.

I have no idea what I weigh--haven't had the chance to step on a scale since last weigh in day so tomorrow could be a shock. I ate a lot this weekend, but we walked about 5 miles on Saturday at Longwood Gardens and then last night at the wedding Sandra & I danced like maniacs. I am so sore today, especially around my waist. I have no idea what I was doing that made that area sore. I came home and spent about 2 hours outside doing much needed yardwork, so I am going to pay for that tomorrow. I can already feel it in my legs. Other than that, I haven't exercised at all like usual. Back to that tomorrow.

I am going to go eat dessert. And then probably go to sleep. I am really tired and very happy to be home for a change.

Me three

I haven't been watching my food for months (except for avoiding sweets in Lent) and lately the serious exercise has been down to two days a week. I know I can do better than that but I can't seem to get worked up about it. And I should especially be alarmed because my weight is crreping upwards -- I was 136 this morning. Today I need to be extra-special good, and every day until my weight is back down.

I went shopping for shorts and capris this weekend, and I came away feeling that size inflation has run amok! I started by pulling 10s off the shelf at Target, and I had to put them all back and get 8s. (And they're kind of low-rise -- by my standards -- so they feel like they're falling down.) Then at another store the 8s were baggy and I wound up with a pair of 6s -- and even those are roomy. I have NEVER in my life been a 6, barring when I WAS six, and I'm not now. I was a 10 -- 8 if I got lucky -- when I weighed 117 in high school. This is ridiculous. I should be a 12. If I'm going to be a 6 or an 8 I want to have earned it!

I have no idea how to fix the boredom problem. I thought about saying we should take the summer off from blogging, so it would be new and fun in the fall, but I fear that we'd lose too much ground. Anyone have a better idea?

Friday, May 26, 2006

Me too Bored!!!

Every once in a while I do the whole "this is for the rest of my life" thing and it makes me sad. I don't really miss the whole eating WAY too much thing - but I know the days of eating several servings of something really yummy are a thing of the past. Sigh.

I have been religiously recording my every calorie. Well - almost every calorie. I lose it towards the end of the day. I don't know why. I can stick to my healthy balanced diet ALL DAY, but when 4:30 hits all of my will power goes away. I then eat junk. This probably wouldn't be a problem if I didn't eat my healthy food all day. If I saved my food then I could eat it when I am munchie late in the day.

Last night at 9pm I remembered that I had to bake for a bake sale. That is the kind of calories that I don't count... the ones where I lick the icing spoon and stuff. I'll bet they add up. I made a Texas Sheet Cake. Everytime I make one I am surprised at how easy it is. You don't even have to wait for it to cool to ice it. Very handy when you are baking at 11pm. (Oh - did I mention that instead of baking at 9pm when I remembered Katie and I went to Bonefish and baked when we got home?) The cake took exactly an hour and that included paying our tab and driving home!! 8-)

Bored, bored, bored

With the whole diet and exercise routine, that is. Been to the gym twice this week, pilates once. I was supposed to do pilates again last night but got busy packing scrapbook supplies for this weekend's crop. I should have stuck with pilates because after all of the time I spent going through my photos and papers and embellishments, I ended up doing what I always do--threw a bunch of things into my two largest bags, packed the tool box, and called the job done. So what this means is I'll have to go to the gym AND do pilates today. Yuck.

Food--been pretty good this week, actually. My only difficult day was yesterday. It was the college's spring convocation so they fed us lunch and planned an ice cream social for the end of the day. Lunch was an Italian buffet; I ended up having a salad, roll, and half a piece of vegetarian lasagna, diet coke, and NO dessert. That was hard to pass up--you know how good those desserts always look in buffets? I had to keep telling myself that they probably taste not very good and I'd regret having it. Then I kept up my good behavior by skipping the ice cream social entirely because I know I'm way too weak willed. Dinner last night was LD herb pot roast, a salad, and bread. Can you believe that Claire loved the pot roast? I thought for sure she'd take one look at it and demand a grilled cheese sandwich (which is what Connor had). But she ate every bite.

We've been found out, by the way. My friend Vicki was trying to track me down and came across our blog, so now she knows all kinds of details about my life, and you all's as well! But she offered to help me prepare for the swimming part of the triathlon. She's always been really athletic and is a certified swim instructor--she could probably do a triathlon tomorrow and then go put in an eight hour day at work.

I've been wondering where everyone is too, especially Julie. Did she go on vacation and I missed that? What's up?

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Back to the blogging board

OK Toots(es)! We are losing focus and momentum. I know many of you have reached - or are pretty darn close to reaching your goals - but about half of us still have some work to do. We agreed in the beginning that we would all continue to post after goals were reached because we are a group and because maintaining is harder that losing (so I have been told - I am maintaining JUST FINE). With the exception of weigh in days we have all gotten very lazy in our postings. In fact - NO ONE posted yesterday at all. Bad, bad.

OK - MOM actually TRIED to post - but her stuff was lost. Please note that there is now a secruity verification "word" and box at the bottom of where you write your posts. Make sure you fill in the box. I tried to post without that and it won't let me. I think that is how mom's two posts disappeared. Emily - you may be able to figure out how to get them back - but I don't see a way.

Katie - I know it isn't as conveinent for you to post now that your school blocks blogs - but you DO get online almost everyday at home. The Blog isn't blocked then, it it? If you can im with Charles when he SHOULD be working - you can take 5 minutes to post on the blog. If your system is still not allowing you to access the blog - sign onto the regular computer. It isn't THAT much effort.

I will be the first to admit that there are times when work prevents us from getting on and posting... but we all need to try to get back to where we were at the beginning of this adventure. We were all so good back in the fall and winter. I also know that we probably all seem like we are posting the same things every day. That MAY feel true - but it really isn't. I don't think I have EVER read anyone's post and thought "Hummm, seems like I read this one already."

So - like with exercising we need to set goals for ourselves. We need a "no excuses" on posting. Or if you aren't prepared to do that we can try a "One more than last week" rule and build up to it - or a three to four posts a week goal.

OK... Enough of that. My meeting with my trainer yesterday was postponed by HIM this time. Luckily I didn't get the message - so I went to the gym and did my usual workout on the treadmill and the abs machines. Sadly, this was the first time in almost two weeks that I went to the gym. It is SO easy to be too busy this time of year.

My weight yesterday was 207.6 and up to 208.8 today. I was surprised by this. I really ate pretty well yesterday until last night. Last night I had a meeting at happy hour. Seriously - we had a meeting in a bar at 4:30pm. We had bar food. I was surprisingly restrained - but bar food is pure fat, so even just breathing the air in happy hour has to be fattening. I did have two ciders and then a margarita. I have decided that - while i love margaritas, I don't like the sours mix they use for it. That gives me reflux.

Katie and I are at war with the ants. Of course, this is nothing new. We are currently on the flying ant variety (really - they are flying ants and not termites). They are annoying and freaky and getting upstairs - which the other types have not. I got so fed up that I sprayed a good chunk of the kitchen floor last night. (This type has been having field parties in the middle of the floor rather than by windows, doors or on the counter... I am not sure why). By about two hours later I was sick to my stomach with a god awful headache. I blame it on the ant spray. That has happened to me each time we have done more than a spot spray of the stuff. Katie cleaned it up around 11:30 - which was good. The smell was so bad I couldn't stand to leave my bedroom -even though I was forced to to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Once she cleaned it up I began to feel better. I am running to Lowes today to get another brand of ant traps and the sticks you stick in the ground. I have heard they work pretty well. This has definitely been the worst year for ants.

Anyway - after being sick all last night, I would have expected my weight to be lower... But, my period started today - which means my weight should go up about four pounds now. Sigh.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Same Story - different day

Today I was 208. Up a pound from last week. Considering how upset my stomach has been the past several days I am really surprised that my weight isn't lower. Oh Well. I haven't been exercising at all. So - serves me right.

I just ate Coldstone birthday cake. It is a bad time of year for birthdays - and I am not sure why I don't resist better. Maybe because it is always lunchtime and I haven't eaten yet.

Speaking of pedometers... HOW is it - even walking all over Catonsville - can Brian get 26000 steps in a day? That is 13 miles (give or take). At 3.5 miles an hour that is almost four hours of solid walking. And 3.5 mph isn't that slow for a walk. Who has time to walk that much???

And another thing??? How is it - Sarah - that you and I were at exactly the same step count on Sunday when I had been wearing mine for almost three hours longer than you (I put mine on my PJs when I first got up and I got up early on Sunday). I was doing laundry and dishes at home too! I am throwing the damn thing away! Katie - you need to check with your friend at work to find out what kind of pedometer she has - if it really does attach to her leg.

I may actually go to the gym today. Tomorrow I am REALLY meeting with the trainer at the gym.

Moan and groan

I almost forgot to complain when I weighed myself today, but then I remembered it was Tuesday. I was 134.0. I haven't been eating all that well and I only exercised officially on Wednesday and yesterday, though I did walk to Kroger on Sunday (but that's so short it hardly counts, and I made Mary and Alexander walk up the hill so I didn't have to push them up it in the stroller).

Yesterday I ran on the treadmill again, this time with it on manual. I just put it on 0.5% grade, because the steeper grades kill me but absolutely flat makes my shins hurt. I was able to run four miles, starting my pace at 5.5 mph and pushing it up a tiny bit each mile to 5.9 for half of the last mile (and then I knocked it back down to 5.5 for the second half, and I found I can't quite do 6.0). So my 5k was slightly faster than last Wednesday but not as challenging. I didn't get a stitch but the bra was still not as comfortable as a normal one, breathing-wise -- but I don't bounce too much. Running at a consistent pace I could tell my form was terrible -- I tend to wobble from side to side over every few steps. It's a wonder I don't fall off.

Anyway, after the treadmill I again hit the bike for 20 minutes. I don't have any problem with that -- in fact, it's a real break. But I think if I did the full 11 miles on the bike, or even half that, and then went to the treadmill I'd find it a lot harder.

Daniel and I discovered that the Blacksburg Classic 5k (in March or so -- we see it gearing up each year but we've never done it) starts almost in front of our house, so he plunged out the front door yesterday and ran the route. Turns out 5k on the roads in Blacksburg is a lot harder than 5k on the Huckleberry! I can only imagine how much worse it's going to be than the treadmill.

Food yesterday was better than usual in terms of balance, though still a bit much. I ate a ton of raw veggies with dinner -- everyone in the house likes to munch on bell peppers, even me, so I really should chop one up every night! For dinner we had the dill meatloaf which is supposed to be low fat, but I used ground round (which is at least a little lean) instead of sirloin, whole evaporated milk instead of skim (I didn't have any skim on hand), and 1 T butter instead of 1 T margarine (it tastes better and the sauce thickens better!!) so that killed that. But when I got full I stopped eating. Mostly. We also had roasted potatoes (they use olive oil, so not totally lean, but not too awful). For lunch I had PB&J -- I was in the mood for a sandwich but we were out of lunchmeat. But I didn't snack terribly during the day (the GS cookies are all in the freezer and I didn't break into the marshmallows or chocolate chips). I did have ice cream for dessert (but now the Heath Bar stuff is gone -- of course, there's still strawberry cheesecake ice cream!). Sheesh.

132.0

Yay! I lost all the weight I had gained last week and then some from my May 9 weight. All I need to do is lose two pounds over the next week and I'll be on track for hitting 130 by Memorial Day. I don't think it's going to happen--that's a lot of weight in a week, and I've got Memorial Day weekend in there with scrapping all day Saturday, probably with lots of unhealthy snacks. But I can try, right?

Another milestone yesterday--I clocked over 16,000 steps on the pedometer. Actually I was at 15,787 when I was getting ready to go to bed, so I walked around the house until I got to 16,000. This is nowhere near Brian's record of over 26,000 last week when he was searching all of Catonsville for his cell phone, though.

Exercise yesterday--treadmill (bumped it up to 5.1 m.p.h.), walk with Davey AND Connor (carrying Connor on the uphill parts), and running errands midday--that's why my step count was so high. Normally I'll do either errands or the gym, but not both.

Food yesterday--cereal for breakfast, almonds, yogurt, and an orange for daytime snacks, cheese and crackers for lunch, two cookies after work, pasta with carbonara sauce for dinner (hardly healthy or low calorie, but we had leftover bacon to use up, and it's one of those rare foods that both Claire and I like), and an apple with cinnamon sugar on it for a nighttime snack. Not one green vegetable, or any other color vegetable for that matter. Only two pieces of fruit, and one of those with sugar. OTOH, sprinkling the apple with cinnamon sugar adds about 10 - 15 calories but makes eating apples bearable, so I'm going to keep doing it.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Sorry I disappeared!

Last week was insane--not only no time to post, but no time to exercise, and on a couple of memorable days, no time to even take a break to go to the bathroom! I'm so glad that week is behind me now. The only official exercise I got last week was on Monday--running and pilates. Not one other thing for the rest of the week, and each day I finished up at around 8100 steps.

The weekend was only a bit better. Again no official exercise, but I was out and moving a lot more--lots of yard work on Saturday, walking around Georgetown and a two mile walk with Davey on Sunday. My food hasn't been great, but not terrible either. On the really busy days last week I didn't eat anything at work that I couldn't eat with one hand, so I'd have my almonds, string cheese, and pretzles but not fruit or yogurt. Not exactly healthy, but at least low calorie! Both days this weekend I ate normal amounts and didn't gorge between meals. Sunday was the worst of the two days for food--two pancakes and two pieces of bacon for breakfast, an espresso bar for what was I guess lunch, and then I had a chicken and mozarella and pasta and vegetables thing for dinner. Like Amy, I only ate about a third to a half of it; unlike Amy I didn't eat the rest of it later. In the evening I had a granola bar and a few marshmallows (they were being shot at me through a marshmallow blow gun Brian made, so I figured it was safest to eat the ammunition). On Saturday I had cereal for breakfast, a salad, crackers, and an orange for lunch, black beans and rice for dinner, and popcorn (light--only 110 calories for half the bag!) and a beer in the evening.

Re-grouping Again

OK - I was horrible all last week - and I want to be better this week. That is my goal - to be better this week than I was last week. Of course, that isn't a very hard challenge for myself.

Yesterday I ate a plate of fat. Sarah and Katie were there to witness - and they did not drag me away from it - so I took that as approval to eat the fat. I do realize that outside of the garlic scented atmosphere that eating that plate of fat was probably NOT the best idea. It was REALLY yummy. Also in my defense, it didn't sound as bad as it turned out to be. It was described as ham and spinach with some kind of cheese wrapped in a thin pasta and baked. I thought spinach and baked, how bad could it be. I ordered the cream sauce because my stomach was already feeling acidy from the two cans and one jar (10 servings total) of mandrin oranges I ate on Saturday. I must have been needing vitamin C because I would have eaten more if we had them. The cream sauce was like melted icecream thick. It was SO YUMMY! The spinach was little tiny flecks and the some kind of cheese was a lot of it! I only ate about a third of it - but since that was at about 4pm I finished the rest off at home around 10pm. Needless to say my weight was up to 209 this morning.

The only exercise I got this weekend was walking around Georgetown with Sarah and Katie - which was not very strenuous.

It was a good weekend.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Where is everyone?

This has been the week from heck for me! I don't have time to get into it all now... My food has been iffy and my exercise has been non-existant. My weight has stayed below 208 - today it was 207. I cancelled my training session this week because I discovered early on Wednesday that the bonus checks were all screwed up (through no fault of my own). I then spent the next three days fixing this and fielding calls and emails from irrate team members. Ugh.

Sigh! I am SO glad today is Friday!!!

Whew.

The last few days have been really busy at work and I have been exhausted by the time I get home. Last time I exercised was Tuesday. I am only working a half day today so I plan to hit the treadmill sometime before going to sleep tonight. Food hasn't been great but hasn't been horrible.

Well, better get moving so I cna actually elave on time today...

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Running

My mega-bra arrived earlier this week, so yesterday I put it on and jogged on the treadmill at the gym. While it did not stop 100% of the bouncing, it reduced the level of motion to no more than you see on a normal-chested woman, and the bounce was neither uncomfortable nor embarrassing. Unfortunately, not having run in seven years, I had no idea what my pace should be nor what distance I could manage, and I didn't know the settings on the treadmill, so I tried using a pre-programmed run. My initial pace was comfortable, but then the machine pushed it, and then it dropped it back but with a steep hill, and on the whole it was a big pain. I finally told it to quit bothering me and I managed to put it more or less on manual, but in the meantime I'd developed quite a stitch, and I'm not sure if it was because the bra constricted my breathing that much or if it was because I just couldn't handle the pace at all. At any rate, I exercised on the treadmill for just under 35 minutes and just over 5 k. Then I went over to my nice, safe exercycle and cycled for 20 minutes more. My grand total for calories burned, as reported by the machines, was 483. Today I am sore through the ribcage and in my thighs.

The running was fun, though, and I think I'm ready to say I'm training for the triathlon!

I can't remember all my food from yesterday. I had my usual breakfast and for dinner I had leftover spaghetti, followed by two and a half glasses of wine (and I'm turning into a serious lightweight!!) and three slices of cheddar. I had macaroni and cheese for lunch, just a half portion, and then I shared a "love it" Apple Pie a la Coldstone with Cecilia, so I probably ate just ove the "like it" size -- Cecilia really likes ice cream and ate a bunch! It's the snacking I can't recall. Probably one serving of almonds and one of pretzels, and I know had about a dozen of the mini-sized toffee cookies Mom and Dad left behind. And I think I had a half a banana, but maybe that was the day before. Hmmm. I need to write things down better.

Today I had my usual breakfast, and for lunch I had a yogurt and a piece of the cheddar bread toasted and with margarine. I've had either four or six thin mints and three or four toffee cookies (they're very small, and they're all gone now). I've also had about four pretzels. I haven't hit my eat-everything-in-sight time of day yet!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Munchy

Boy did I have the munchies last night!!!! I had been pretty good most of the day - and then once I got home from work I totally had the munchies! Actually, it started a little sooner than that. When I went to Mom and Dad's house I snagged a "Breakfast Bites" pack. (Did you know that they didn't have Little Debbies anymore???) Then when I left work I drank my V-8 on the way home. Once I got home Katie said she wasn't hungry yet - so I grabbed TWO string cheeses. Then I was still hungry. I can't remember eating anything else at that point - but I was really munchie - so I made dinner. (Porkchops and spinach.) That didn't help. I proceeded to eat two servings of GS Cookies (only three more boxes and then they will no longer be a threat!), a Special K snack bag, and a hard cider. That was it... But that put me 400 calories past my goal of 1200 calories. Sigh.

My weight was 207.4 this morning. I have an appoint with the trainer at my gym today at 4pm to do my resistance workout again. I am glad of that because I haven't been doing it in a month because I was so bored with it. I have still been doing the treadmill - but not at all this week or half of last week. I have been taking care of Chloe while Mom and Dad are gone - and even if I do the bare minimum there that takes most of my lunch break. I am always too tired (lazy) to go to the gym after work. So I have been particularly bad the past week or two. I have done no formal exercise.

I am at work today - but didn't pack my lunch last night. I just ate a bagel with applesauce for breakfast. I will have to try to find something healthy for lunch...

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Not me!!! 207 for me!

Yippee! I know that 207 is not great. It was where I was last November, January and March but after my recent scare into the teens (10 and 12 being my version of the teens) I am delighted that I am down again. Especially since I was going to go with surgury if I wasn't down two pounds this week. My body was scared - so it went down 3.6 pounds! Now - if I can keep it GOING down...

I don't know what to attribute this to. For a couple of days last week I was really watching my calories, but they didn't do much, so I stopped watching. That isn't true entirely. I am still keeping my chart - because I like charts... but my normal food intake usually is between 1200-1400 calories. But I haven't changed that at all. I didn't exercise formally much at all - so that wasn't it. I DID take my new vitamins like clockwork. Even the ones that I have to take twice a day - or whatever. Usually I am not good for vitamin taking more than once a day. I am drinking my Flora Key water each morning on an empty stomach - I have been taking my Colon Cleanse each night. I take two types of digestive supplements PLUS the liver one. I am so vitamined up that I have to start counting the calories in THEM too!!! But - this week anyway - it is working.

Last night Katie and I ordered our new door. We ended up getting cranberry because the brown was a special order too. Go figure. They are supposed to come out and measure and then call me with an estimate for delivery - hopefully soon! Then we went to Bonefish for dinner. I am beginning to think we need to get our own table there. As it is we do have our own bar stools. It is just like Cheers! Ever since I discovered that the crab cakes are less than 200 calories - I have been craving them - and I have always craved their salads.

When we got home we discovered that our new vacuum had been delivered. So we ran around like little FlyLadies vacuum and sucking up everything we could see. It was fun! And - the vacuum is pink! Did I mention that part? 8-) I especially like the little canister vacuum. It has a shoulder strap - and Katie and I figured out how to put it on our back so we look like the leaf blower dudes. Then we discovered we could put the hose on the outlet area and REALLY be leaf blower dudes. That was my exercise for the day.

My pedometer is definitely not working! Even the new one I got yesterday was only recording every other step - at best. At the end of the day it said I had 1100 steps - but I did a trip to Lowes, one to Home Depot, the bank, Mom and Dads, Bonefish AND our vacuuming extraveganza. Katie counted steps from her bedroom to the car - and that is 100 alone. Not counting detoring through the kitchen and back and forth to the bathroom. One trip to the bathroom at work is 150 - and I usually do four to five of them a day. I don't think my pedometer EVER was working!

Me, too, Ugh. 134.5.

I did exercise yesterday -- I went to the gym for 45 minutes on the bike -- and that's a huge improvement over the last couple of weeks. And I ate well most of the day. But we went to dinner at Red Lobster and I ate WAY too much. I thought I was being good ordering the "Cajun Salmon" -- salmon and shrimp with spices, but I missed the part about the lemon butter sauce. You couldn't taste the lemon. Or the Cajun spices. So it was really a bit bland. I had rice pilaf to go with it, a healthier option, and I ate the vegetables that came on the plate, too. But I also ate a biscuit and had a beer to drink, and then I had a slice of bananas foster cheesecake for dessert! So I had probably my whole day's calories and then some in that one meal. Ugh.

Today I have no similar plans -- except we do still have Cecilia's Coldstone birthday certificate to use this week, and it would be more fun while Mom and Dad are still here. So I might be eating too much again tonight! But I'll try to keep things sane the rest of the day. And I WILL exercise. Sometime.

Ugh. 134.2

Up from last week and WAY up from Saturday's low. I don't know why I'm so disgusted with myself--I'm still staying within my goal range of 130 - 135, but I'd really like to see the LOW end of that range and it's just not going to happen if I keep eating burgers, fries, doritoes, ice cream, and beer. It's really no surprise that my weight is up.

I have to to get Claire on the bus and go to yet another IEP team meeting for Connor so I can't go into detail about yesterday, but I ate well and exercised (twice--the gym at lunch at pilates in the evening). Why can't I have more days like that?

156.9

Down again from last week, and my lowest official weight so far. But not down a whole lot from last week, so there is still progress to be made!

Food yesterday: oatmeal, raisins, salad w/ french dressing, pretzels, banana, string cheese, yogurt, a cookie, 2 snickers bite sized pieces, some grapes, and LD roasted garlic chicken with rice.

Exercise was 300 calories burned on the treadmill. No idea how long, somewhere between 30-40 minutes. I set the target for the calories I want to burn and as I adjust the incline and speed the time goes up and down so I never really know how long.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Makes no sense

I was 133.5 this morning, despite having continued to eat like a pig all day yesterday. I had popcorn and birthday cake, and I had toasted cheddar bread and cantaloupe for dinner, and I ate some thin mints (I think just three) and generally grazed until bedtime. And I really didn't move around much, except restlessly -- not actively, anyway. So now I'm back to just a pound away from my lowest weight -- does AF really do this? I've never paid attention before, but y'all have been discussing it for eight months.

Today I'm being good so far, mostly. I started to nibble on the birthday cake (and had two tiny half-inch by two-inch pieces) but then I stopped myself and ate half a huge banana and a serving of pretzels. Now I just have to pay attention for the rest of the day (only twelve more hours to go... and we're eating out for dinner... oops) and get some exercise.

Mom and Dad have walked 45 minutes each day since they got here. Yay, Mom and Dad!

Three pounds in two days!

Saturday morning I hit a new low of 131.8. This morning I was up to 134.8. Yikes!

Needless to say, I was a big pig all weekend--I was doing fine both days for breakfast and lunch, then overate at dinner and afterwards--cheeseburger and fries Saturday, M&M's and popcorn, two and a half beers; Sunday was a McDonald's salad for dinner, Rolos throughout the afternoon, ice cream sandwich for dessert, Doritoes and beer in the evening. I ate so much yesterday that I was still full this morning, and I'm hoping that my weight drops a bit for tomorrow (popcorn and Doritoes always make me retain water anyway)--I was so good for most of last week that I hate to think I undid it all and then some by two days of overindulgence. That's so unfair the way it works--I knocked myself out over five days to lose one lousy pound, eating almost nothing and exercising, and then gained three pounds in just two days. Ugh.

Exercise on Saturday was a 2.5 mile walk with Davey and helping Eric pack up his kitchen and dining room. On Sunday I did nothing and ended up with only 7,000 steps on the pedometer.

After the weekend

I was a blob all weekend! Well most of the weekend - especially yesterday. My eating was not the greatest and I did no formal exercise. My weight on Saturday was 208.6, on Sunday it was 209.8 and thoday 209.6. That is pretty much all I have to say.

Yesterday I think I accidentaly made my espresso with decaf coffee. I can't remember what I last ground up for espresso - but that is what I used. Then I spent a good bit of the day alternating between reading and dozing.

I forgot to put my pedometer on this morning - which is probably an OK thing. It hasn't been working lately. So when I got into work this morning I snagged a new one from Kristy. Hopefully this one will work.

Katie and I shopped for a new storm door this weekend. I am SO excited to get one. Enough excited that I think I will skip the gym today to go to Lowes to order it. It is one of the nifty ones where the screen rolls up inside and the glass slides up and down with one finger. I have wanted a non screen storm door for a long time so we can leave the front door open in the winter and not lose too much heat. We want to get a new black door - but the one we want doesn't come in black unless you special order it - and I don't want to spend an extra $32 for a black one. We will probably get the dark brown instead.

Catching up

Well, I hit my new unofficial lowest weight on Saturday--156.2 only to eat my way back to 157.2 by today. We at pizza Saturday night and then leftovers from it yesterday. It's gone now, and there's only healthy stuff to eat in the house. It was a fairly active weekend though, so hopefully that will help balance everything out.

I exercised both Saturday and Sunday, but did nothing Friday b/c I went to ReCollections with Marian for the crop. I was so exhausted Friday it wouldn't have mattered anyways. Had I not driven to work with Marian I would have totally bailed on the crop.

My DVD player makes sound again (after we got satellite it stopped working--come to find out the little satellite boy never plugged the cables that make the sound happen back into the receiver!) so I will be digging out my MTV pilates DVD tonight when I get home.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Crawling out from under a rock

I've been in hiding all week because I've been so bad. I haven't even weighed myself several days, let alone exercised. I haven't even read the blog, and I usually enjoy that! However, on Friday I hosted a party for Daniel's graduating students and their families, so on Thursday and Friday I barely sat down -- though once the party was in full swing I ate a lot (though much of it was fruit and vegetables -- I should keep a fruit and vegetable tray out all the time) and had a glass of wine, a glass of champagne, and a beer.

Today has been terrible so far, health-wise. I haven't exercised, and I've had two waffles, two pieces of bacon, a large glass of milk, a glass of OJ (calcium rich), a KFC original recipe (i.e., very greasy) chicken breast, part of a biscuit, four potato wedges, a small piece of cake, and eight almonds. Everything has been out of synch for the past few weeks. I'm hoping that this week I'll get it back on track, but the further off-track I get, the harder that will be!

I did order myself the Last Resort bra. Everything I read about it said one DOES NOT bounce in it, though whether one can actually breathe in it is up for debate. I'll be eager to try it when it arrives. And maybe the price of it will be enough to guilt me into more frequent exercise.

I hate feeling like such a blob. My weight went all the way back up to 135.5 (and over 136 at night) this week, which is three pounds up from my low point, and that's in a fairly short period of time -- it would be so easy to gain all that weight back. My period started on Friday night (first real one since 21 1/2 months ago) so I've shed about a pound, but I'm dreading weigh-in.

Friday, May 12, 2006

I never thought I'd say this.......

I just had a great run. I'm generally with the rest of you--exercise is a painful and boring necessity. But I went to the gym today and the whole 41 minutes (added six to my usual length, plus another five of cooldown) felt great. After 2.5 miles, I felt less like I was jogging and more like I was loping along slowly. Very strange. I checked my heart rate after the 36 minutes of running and it was at a very healthy 164. If running were always like that, I could see actually liking it and looking forward to it. The only thing I did differently this time around was I skipped the few minutes of walking warm up--I figured that I had just walked from my office to the gym, so why did I need to warm up more than that? I don't think that would have the effect of making the run easier, though.

Food yesterday: cereal for breakfast, coffee, almonds, string cheese, crackers, grapes, an orange and yogurt during the day; baked potato, milk, and a granola bar for dinner/snack. I don't think the food pyramid would like my food that much.

Today I had a granola bar for breakfast, coffee, string cheese, pretzles, and an orange; just had cottage cheese with peaches for a snack, which should hold me until I get home.

Counting?

Have you all been recording your steps on your pedometer? Kristy sent a message saying to bring your log to her to get your prize for the month.

Send me your log and I will turn it into her.

I knew it wasn't working!!

I couldn't get back on the blog to post yesterday - I am not sure what was up.

Anyway - I KNEW my pedometer wasn't working. I think it depends on what I am wearing - but the skirt I had on yesterday wasn't letting anything register. I was running around all morning - 3 trips to the bathroom (which I know is 150 steps round trip), a trip to Target and then to Mom and Dad's house (so trips to the parking lot a couple of times). Anyway - after all that my steps were 134!!! By the end of the day I was at 1115 - and I KNOW it should have been closer to 4000 - at least. I went back an d forth to the other building - out to the DC and to various meeting rooms. This should have been one of my higher step count days. Oh well.

My weight this morning was 207.6. Yay! Going down still. My calories were really good all day (I went home at 8pm with 430 calories to spare - and this was after a late snack of pretzel nuggets. I was really hungry and still had a ton of work to do.) Anyway - shortly after I got home Katie called and said we were going to Bonefish. I had a house salad - lettuce, tomatos, pine nuts and a very light dressing - which I am sure wasn't really high in calories. But then I ordered the crab cake appetizer. This was mostly jumbo lump crabmeat, but some filler. The sauce was on the side and I didn't use most of it. I don't know what the calories were on that. I'd be willing to bet that the two combined were right around my 430 remaining calories... However, I did have three drinks - two martinis and a tequilla. So I was over my calorie count yesterday.

I didn't do any formal exercise. I couldn't get away during the day to get to the gym - and then I didn't get home until close to 9 and Katie and I went out promtly after that. We got home around 11:45 and then I went to bed.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

You burn more calories when you're awake, right?

That's what I'm telling myself at any rate--it helps me feel not so bad about not exercising the past couple of days. I was chained to my desk all day yesterday working on a looming deadline (next Thursday, but I had to get a draft out to people yesterday and still have my work cut out for me for the next week--this is an insane application) so didn't even set foot out of the building. Then in the evening I practically had to knock Connor out with a two-by-four to get him to go to sleep (o.k., it was melatonin, but I thought that after being up at 4 a.m. he wouldn't need it!), then of course he woke up coughing again at 4:30 this morning. After getting him and Claire to bed last night, I ran around doing all the nighttime stuff and got to bed at 11:30--I wasn't about to stay up another half an hour to exercise. I think I barely broke 6,000 steps yesterday. Today I have to leave work at 3:00 to get Claire to a Brownie field trip, so I didn't even bother bringing my gym stuff.

Food was pretty good yesterday--mock cinnabon for breakfast, almonds, yogurt, pretzles, string cheese, two pieces of fruit during the day, broiled fish, rice, and salad (straight from my garden--lettuce and spinach) for dinner, and a granola bar in the evening. Total calories: 1290. My weight this morning was 132.2--the lowest I've seen since we started this diet! I hope I can sustain that until next Tuesday!

On Track???

Two days in a row my weight was 208.6. I like that this is down... I was really panicking at the 210 and 212 numbers! I hope this is tracking correctly now. My goal for May is to get back to where I started in April - which was 206.2. Nothing glorious - but down from 212!! Luckily there are no candy holidays for several more months! I ended up blowing my last few calories on pistachio nuts before bed... just a few though.

I only did one more lap around the neighborhood - which means my exercise yesterday was only 1.25 miles walking. My shins were bothering me on both walks I took. I think that my shins ALWAYS hurt after a half mile, but I work through it and keep walking. With the neighborhood walk I am arriving back at my house JUST as the pain is peaking - and so I don't do another lap.

So far today I have just had coffee with skim milk. I am about to eat my cereal though.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Calorie Count

Katie and I just went to Coldstone. Even after we ate dinner - flounder, brown rice and spinach - I had 350 remaining calories and Katie had 425. We ended up splitting a small pistachio icecream with Heath, caramel and pecans. That came to 275 each and I consider them VERY well wasted calories. YUM! It was just the right amount. Neither of us was looking for any more to eat and both of us felt a little queasy by the time we got home. AND I have enough calories left to have some fruit or something if I get hungry later on. 8-)

I have to do another two laps around the neighborhood - maybe three. I only did the one before, which isn't enough to count as exercise for the day. I also have been home all day - which means my normal step count is pretty low anyway.

I got my new sports bras today. I posted on the comments below about them. I like them and they are pretty comfy - but I still bounce. I think the only way I WOULDN'T bounce is if the support from the bra started as low as my hips. Oh well. At least they ARE comfy and provide a little bit more support than my regular bras. They also fasten in the back like a normal bra. I don't see how anyone with ANY dimention can get those tube top bras on. You strain muscles just putting them ON.

Waking up hungry

Well - last night after dinner when I was unpacking my lunch box I discovered that I didn't drink all of my milk in the morning. So that bought me about another 27 calories. That left me with JUST under 80 calories to spend yesterday and stay at 1200 for the day. Katie and I each had 1/2 a cup of Reeses cereal - which was exactly 80 calories. I managed to make them last for a fairly long time while I was reading - which was good. I was hungry last night. I went to bed a little bit early (for me) just so I would resist eating anything else. I was really worried I would wake up in the middle of the night still hungry - enough worried that I was afraid just the worrying would wake me up! I didn't though. I don't know if the Liver Formula is helping - but I was surprised I didn't wake up. Anyway - I woke up early this morning (for my day off) and immediately thought that I should be hungry because I went to bed hungry - but AGAIN - I wasn't really. A little bit - but nothing out of control.

Last night Katie and I did a lap around our neighborhood to get us to the next mile mark. I didn't really do the math in advance - so even though we both reached the point we needed to reach I still wasn't sure how far that was. So this morning I walked the full lap - including the bit up to the entry driveway. Our neighborhood is 1250 steps. So two trips around makes a mile and a quarter. Four trips is two and a half miles. This is good to know just in case I ever decide that I need to get in a bit more exercise but don't want to do a video.

I am so super paranoid about repeating the running out of calories thing again that I haven't eaten anything yet - well, my pineapple left over from yesterday - which is only 30 calories. I had a big mug of coffee with about 1/3 cup of skim milk. I also took my Flora Key yeast stuff in a glass of water - but it got sort of chunky this time so I had to drink a second glass to get the rest of it out. So - I have gone to the bathroom abot 10 times so far. Yesterday I was in the bathroom a lot too - which helped to increase my steps for the day. 8-) I din't know why so much yesterday - but I like losing all the water weight. Today I was only 208.6. You should see my weight chart. It looks like sharks teeth this month. I have been up and down two pounds everyday for a week!

OK - Now I have to figure out a healthy breakfast to eat that has no calories. Sigh.

Tuesday report

I didn't do any formal exercise yesterday--Connor was up until 11:00 and monopolizing my time (we're going back to the melatonin tonight to get him to sleep earlier; he was also then up at 4 a.m.!) so I didn't do pilates, and it was an off day for the gym. I was, however, outside most of the evening--walking Davey and then doing yard/garden work.

Food was again not great but not awful--total calories for the day were 1445. I had the usual stuff during the day (cereal, coffee, almonds, pretzles, string cheese, apple, yogurt, orange) but then had a granola bar (100 calories) on the way home from work, a slice of leftover pizza (300 calories) for dinner, and a half cup of ice cream (160 calories) for dessert. I should have skipped the ice cream in favor of watermelon. I also had two diet sodas yesterday--two more than I usually have--but I was so sleepy all day that I could barely concentrate. Today feels like it'll be the same way. It's really hard to focus after a night of almost no sleep, so I may be dosing myself with caffeine all day. Ugh.

Tuesday follow up

Food yesterday: oatmeal with raisins, a banana, pretzels, yogurt, strawberries, string cheese, carrots, doritoes, 3 mini hershey bars, half of a LD philly cheesesteak and 9 tater tots. No idea what that calorie count comes to, but everything was in check except the doritoe eating. The bag is down to the crumbs, so it was probably around a serving realistically, but it felt like more because I was eating straight from the bag.

Exercise was 30 minutes on the treadmill. I need to find a toning DVD that will hold my interest. The pilates for dummies just doesn't cut it anymore for me. I have a MTV pilates DVD, but it moves to fast. I really need something in between the 2 for the time being.

Weight was right at the 157. 3 mark again today. Hopefully I can break 156 in the next few days. I'm somewhere right around 10 or 11 lbs lost from my highest weight (not my beginning weight, which I believe was 166), which was either 167 or 168 on a weigh in day I think. Either way, this is the most significant weight loss I've had ever. I think all of that was lost since January 1 as well. Took me longer to get going that I would have liked, but I'm sticking with it. What is it Mad-Eye Moody says in the Harry Potter books..."CONSTANT DILIGENCE!" and if he didn't say it, he should have :^)

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

It's hard to be good...

Sigh. I added up my calorie count today. Actually - I have kept a running total all day. You know what stinks. I have been pretty good all day. Someone brought in Munchkins today and I didn't eat any (at first). Then much later in the day I looked up the calorie count and decided that I could have the 70 calories of one Munchkin (which I did). Then - without checking the calorie count - I had a large skim caramel macchiato. That was 231 calories!!! So - in just moments I consumed 301 calories. (As a note - I wonder if the iced caramel mac is less - that is what I had - doesn't the hot one have whipped cream? The iced does not.)

If you figure I am shooting for 1200 calories - 300 is 1/4 of my total intake for the day. And all I got was one munchkin and a coffee. Sheesh! And it is impossible to make up for it. I can't say - OK I will skip my strawberries (49 calories) or coleslaw (48 calories) or pineapple (38 calories). I would have to skip all three PLUS my lunch (175 calories) to break even. Since I didn't skip any of them (except I haven't eaten my pineapple yet) I am ending my day with less than 300 calories remaining to cover me through dinner. (Oh - I ate two more munchkins after I depressed myself and before I started writing here... but at least I had the lower calorie plain cake ones instead of the 70 calorie jelly filled one).

I also haven't been to the gym yet. I have been running around all day, and now I have work to do before i can go home. So I probably won't make it. If I can't get Katie to take a walk with me I will do my stupid video again.

Not good

Finally this site is letting me post! It wouldn't let me onto our page for half the morning, and then it wouldn't let me get to the posting page (just the comments pages) until now. Sheesh.

Anyway, my weight was 135.0 this morning. It's been drifting that direction for the past couple of weeks, though I've been lucky on weigh-in days. 135 is not a bad weight for me; it's the direction my weight is heading that is worrying me. And it's my own fault -- I'm still not eating well and not exercising enough. Yesterday when Daniel told me he didn't want to go to the gym my response was, "Oh, good, me, neither, and now I feel less guilty." Then he told me he didn't want to go because he was going running. And he did. Sigh. So then I felt like a real idiot.

It was close to 6 when we had that conversation, so with the normal stuff I have to accomplish in an evening I didn't have a chance to make myself exercise after that. I could have done a video later in the evening -- it would have been after 10 -- but I was a lazy bum and didn't. Ugh.

On the plus side, I have cut back on my snacking this week, and I've been making an effort to pay closer attention to what I eat, though I haven't been good about writing it down lately. Alexander and I made brownies on Saturday (while Mary was at her sleepover and Daniel was out for a poker night) and I ate too many of those, but it didn't get completely out of control (except for the three and a half the first night). And I'm trying to remember to choose fruit or almonds or string cheese over cookies and brownies and candy. There are no open boxes of cookies right now, and the Easter candy is just dregs. But I need to get back to making an effort at everything!

132.6

I'm really pleased with that weight! My period started last week and I dropped a pound or so in a day, then the rest is actual fat loss I think. I haven't been this low since just before the cruise (when I was 132.4 the day we left).

Yesterday's food ended up higher in calories than I wanted, but I still went to bed slightly hungry. I had cereal for breakfast, almonds for snack, string cheese, pretzels, and an orange for lunch, yogurt and a pear for snack, half a serving of pretzels while making dinner, 2/3 of a serving of ravioli and milk for dinner, watermelon for dessert. And I should have stopped there but I was sooooooo hungry at about 10:00 that I had a tablespoon of chocolate chips and two cookies. Total calories for the day was 1460.

I wish I could just go to bed when I get that late night hunger. I think a lot of times I'm not really hungry, just really really tired and I can't go to bed because I still have too much stuff to do, so I eat to keep my energy going through another couple of hours of stuff. I'm likely to do that at work too when I haven't gotten much sleep--I'll snack on anything in sight so that I don't get too sleepy and unable to focus. I don't know, though--last night my stomach was actually growling. Maybe it was because I worked out longer than is usual for me.

Up and Down again

OK - Today I was 210.6. That is up again over last week by .6. It is down from yesterday by 2 pounds. I have been doing these two pound jumps daily. I can't figure out why. I would not be at all surprised if I ended up at 212 again tomorrow!!!

I just totalled my calories from yesterday. Assuming the Reuben was 300 calories (which may be high - it was a really small half, or it may be low because I don't know about corned beef) I was at EXACTLY 1200 calories yesterday. My after work snack of the mini pizza was a little bit high in calories for a snack - but I only had one. If I am eating Girl Scout cookies - or even the 100 calorie packs of things - I am more inclined to eat two or more servings. So, I guess it is better than it could be. I added a new section to my daily charts that I have been keeping. I added a work out section in January - which is neat because I can see exactly which days I exercise and my trends of on and off exercise. I could also track my weight in connection to the days I exercise, but I haven't done that yet. I don't see much point, because my weight is just going up - whether I exercise or not. Sigh. Anyway - the section I added was just for a list of my daily foods and their calories. Reporting here what BAD things I eat is handy - but I think a shopping list with numbers of exactly everything I eat (including the 4 butter mints yesterday) is going to be a better view of what I am actually consuming. It is the big things like lunch and dinner that add up on the list. I am going to have to watch them more closely. It will also be a more useful thing to show a nutritionist or my doctor if I DO ever go for professional help.


I did my walking video last night. Right as I was starting it I noticed my legs were very achy. They are still achy today. I don't think it has anything to do with my exercising. I think they are just achy. I also have a sore throat today - so maybe I am just getting sick. I DID sleep 11 hours on Friday night. That is pretty unusual for me.

I just was looking back through my daily weights for the past couple of months. I am not sure what went horribly wrong - but it was mid March into April where I took a big jump up. I was lingering around the 205-206 mark for a long time then suddenly I went up to 208 and then 209 and so on. I think it was the quitting smoking!! Nicotine excellerates your metabolism, in addition to giving me an excuse to go to they gym. I think after coming home from the cruise (where I ate too much) when I resumed my normal activities, my body started to realize there was nothing helping it to process calories. It was at about the time I started smoking that my weight stopped climbing in the first place. Prior to that I went from 180 to 210 in about 4 years. I am judging this on my weight at my annual exams with my doctor. It was only in the past few years that I held steady - and last summer I was down by about 2 pounds. I'm just saying.

157.3

Not quite, but almost my 157.2 of yesterday. Definitely progress over last week.

Hmmm...a triathalon...I like the idea of having a goal like that but that actual act of doing it might kill me. I'm not sure where I'd train for the swimming part either. My friend Jenn from high school just ran her first marathon last weekend. She started training last October for it.

Food yesterday was excellent until I got home and binged on doritoes--which since they've taken the trans fat out of them, cause absolute havoc on my digestive system. My stomach hurt so bad last night. I had oatmeal with raisins and a banana for breakfast, a salad and cheese curls for lunch, 4 mini dark chocolate dove eggs from Larry's desk at work (damn him for keeping a candy dish!) then string cheese, about 4 tons of doritoes and then pears and cottage cheese for dinner.

Exercise yesterday was 30 minutes on the treadmill before work, and then 30 minutes on the treadmill after work. My legs were still aching pretty bad from yardwork over the weekend, so I just did one of the preset programs both times--no running. Hopefully today I will be less sore and can run again.

Monday, May 08, 2006

The Rest of My Food

Before I forget... After I got home I had the mini pizza (182.5 calories) 1/4 cup of coleslaw and the other half of my Reuben wrap. I have no idea how many calories that is - but Katie is still in the bath and I wanted dinner - so I finished it off. It wasn't big (it was the small half) - and sauerkraut is good for you. There wasn't much Thousand Island on this half. I don't know how bad corned beef is for you... Oh well. It was good.

Test Kitchen - part 2

This time I am not making samples of desserts - thank goodness. I AM doing sample snacks. I just did one so far. This is a variation of one of my favoirte snacks I used to do when I was on Jenny Craig. It is a mini pizza. I made it on a whole wheat tortilla (120 calories) with 1/8 cup organic spagetti sauce (22.5 calories) and 1/8 cup low fat shredded cheese (40 calories). You assemble it like a pizza, put it in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes and you have a little snack pizza.

My next idea I haven't tested yet. I was craving some of those honey mustard pretzels today (someone at work had a bag on her desk). I want to try a variation on that - flavoring them myself. Whole wheat pretzels are fat free and 120 calories per serving. My idea is to beat an egg white with mustard powder, a little bit of brown sugar and perhaps some cinnamon or garlic - or other spices. Or maybe molassas instead of the sugar... anyway. I want to shake the pretzels in a plastic bag with the goop and then (again in the toaster oven) bake them until they have dried out. I haven't tested this yet - but it seems like a good idea.

Another snack - which isn't really creative - is Reese Peanut Butter Puff cereal (not for you Sarah). That is one of the few cereals I can eat dry. 3/4 of a cup is 120 calories. It is whole grain and a nice balance of crunchy and sweet. (Good substitute for cookies.)

The Glucerna menus that Katie and I used to do had a trail mix snack that we liked a lot. It was a blend of crasins, almonds and mini chocolate chips. I don't know the calorie count on that at all.

I didn't go to the gym today. I intended to come home and make Katie go for a walk with me. But, when I got home Katie said she didn't want to exercise she wanted to take a bath instead - so that is where she is. It is gloomy out - so I don't really want to walk alone. I guess I will do my walking video since we still haven't moved the tables in the living room. Sigh.

Just testing

This weekend Katie and I decided that we wanted to do a triathlon. How's that for a goal? Not a long one, just one of the short Danskin ones that's half mile swim, 11 mile bike ride, 5K run. And not soon, either. There's one in September that we're NOT going to do, although in reality I think we probably could if we put our minds to it, but I guess not if she's going to be in Vienna for five weeks. Anyway, we're aiming for next year, probably the same time of year. So we have nearly a year and a half to train for this.

I checked race results from previous years and it looks like in my age group, the winners usually finish up in about an hour and 20 minutes. Slowest finishers are right at three hours. I'm aiming for somewhere in between the one extreme and the other. But I have no idea what my current abilities are, so at the gym just now I gave it a try. Obviously not the whole thing (didn't have a bathing suit with me anyway) but I just wanted to know if I was even capable of running 3.1 miles and then getting on a bicycle (although I guess I should have done it in the other order). I'm happy to report that I don't think I'd drop dead if I went to do a triathlon tomorrow, although I might very well drown. I ran the 3.1 miles in 37 minutes (including a 2 minute warmup at 4.5 m.p.h.; ran the rest at 5 m.p.h.) and then hopped on a bike and did another 3 miles in seven minutes before I had to stop so I could get back to the office. I think I could have kept going another eight miles, but I wouldn't have been at all happy at the end. Of course if I had started this all off with 32 laps in the pool I may well not have been able to even run the 3.1 miles.

So I have a ways to go, but I think it's doable. Not looking forward to the swimming part. I never was much of a swimmer.

Anyone want to join us? Amy has already said that she thinks we're nuts. Brian says he'd rather get hit with sticks, but he's a boy so no one invited him.

NO muummmpppff...

Gol Ding IT! I stink at this no mercy thing. I have - since I posted - eaten one butter mint (12 calories) and then the leftovers from the lunch meeting just came out. I wasn't inclined to eat them, but I also felt bad saying no. So I had about 1/2 cup (less actually) of cole slaw and a bite of pulled pork. I have to figure out the calories on that.

I am picking at fresh pineapple right now. It is SO YUMMY!! I have decided that I will eat fresh pineapple everyday if I can. It has to be good for you! Please tell me it is good! It tastes so yummy that I would not be at all surprised if I was told that of all the fruits pineapple is the one you should avoid. That would figure, huh?

The weekend

The good news--an all time low today of 157.2...156 flashed on the scale, but it settled on 157.2. We'll see if it holds up to be official.

Other news, I ate junk this weekend but was also incredibly active so somehow it seems to have balanced out at this point. Food this weekend was an odd array of stuff: part of a frozen pizza Friday night that just wasnt' meant to be because when I sat it down for a second to answer the phone Harry gobbled down most of it. So I had pears and cottage cheese instead. Saturday...I cna't recall breakfast, hmmm...or lunch but I know dinner was a hot dog and then Sandra &I went shopping so when we got back I ate junk--doritoes, chips and flavored pretzels. Sunday I hadpeas and cottage cheese for breakfast, a humongous Rita's gelati for lunch, and then LD chicken rustica for dinner.

Exercise was 30 minutes on the treadmill Friday, tons of yardwork Saturday, then 30 minutes on the treadmill Sunday along with more yardwork. My body still aches from mulching and I only did the front of the house.

I was up at my normal time today (5:30) but didn't have to leave until 7:30 for a meeting with a client in Gettysburg, PA so I hit the treadmill right away. That wasn't as difficult as I had envisioned it being.

So far I've had oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, some water, a salad and now I'm going to have a 25 cent bag of cheese curls. A waste of 150 calories, but I sure am looking forward to them!!!!

Weekend update

I wasn't perfect this weekend, but my cheating was more along the lines of my cheating four or five months ago and not my recent cheating of eating everything in sight!

On Friday I wasn't able to make it to the gym, but when I realized this around 3:30 in the afternoon, I at least put on my running shoes and went for a 25 minute walk outside--much more manageable than the hour or more that the gym takes and almost as much exercise. I was great with food that day until two slips in the afternoon, only one of which was really avoidable. The first was when I was meeting with my boss. The college president came in and said she had cheesecake and did we want any, so Dave immediately said yes and said we could continue our meeting in the president's office. So I had cheesecake, but it was two itty-bitty (about a half inch by one and a half inches) pieces. Then just before leaving for the day another woman came by and said that there was food leftover from a meeting. I told her no way, I had already eaten enough. Then I weakened and went and had two crackers, six grapes, one piece of cheese and a cookie. THEN I came home and ordered pizza for dinner and had two pieces!

OK, so maybe that wasn't such a great day.

Saturday, Sheep and Wool Festival--cereal for breakfast. Intended to eat lunch at the festival but ended up not getting anything for myself, although I finished off Claire's ice cream cone and Brian's french fries, and then got cotton candy on the way out. I had a pear and mock cinnabon when we got home, then baked chicken and roasted vegetables for dinner with a pasta salad. At night, Brian and I had popcorn and a beer while watching another two episodes of West Wing.

Sunday--two eggs, a piece of toast, and an orange for breakfast. Mock cinnabon and five of the GS Lemon Cooler cookies for lunch (one serving--it helps that I don't really like them), a small piece of birthday cake (unintended--I had planned to have a larger piece!) at Kirsten's party, then dinner was a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and pickle, taboule, and broccoli salad. More popcorn in the evening.

So basically I just didn't gorge on a ton of candy, but I sure did take in a lot of food!

Exercise--nothing formal. On Saturday I was on my feet most of the day at the Sheep and Wool Festival, then the working horse thing across the street, then shopping. I know I broke 10,000 steps, but I can't remember by how much. Yesterday I walked a lot more--I hit 15,000 for the first time since keeping track. A lot of that was because I was at the playground with the kids for an hour after Kirsten's party and then I took Davey for a long and rambling walk. And I did the laundry, which involves a lot of going up and down the stairs.

No Mercy!!

Ugh! This is making me crazy!!! My weight is out of controll! It has been up and down everyday. I was inching my way back down and then Friday shot up to 212.2. Then I was down again to 210.6 on Saturday and 209.8 on Sunday. Then today I was back up to 212.6. I am really not sure why it has been so jumpy.

I was not that good over the weekend. I had a fat laden Gyros on Saturday and Maple Sugar candy at the Sheep and Wool festival. Saturday night Katie and I were at Christopher Daniels. Katie ate, but I stuck with liquid calories. Sunday was mostly just coffee for breakfast, curry shrimp for lunch, birthday cake (I had a small piece...) and then nothing until after Katie's concert. Then we went to Batemans where I ate half of a Reuben wrap and french fries. I don't even LIKE french fries. Anyway - so I was very light on my vegetables and fruit this weekend - kind of heavy on the calories, but not extremely so.

I didn't do any organized exercising this weekend. I didn't make it to the gym on Friday. I stayed at work until 6pm (12 hour day!) and then was just too tired to go. I slept 11 hours Friday night - and still felt like I need more. My steps on Saturday were 4646 (or something like that) by midafternoon - and then I forgot to put it back on when I changed. Katie and I were pondering why my steps were so much lower than hers on Saturday. I got up at 8am (earlier than her) but I didn't put my pedometer on right away. I was running around - just not with it on. She made a trip to Caribou, but other than that we were together all day. At the time that I was mid 4k she was mid 7k. There is NO WAY she walked a mile and a half more than me. I think my pedometer isn't registering my steps consistantly. I was checking it on Saturday. If I attach it to my waist band it only logs one in three steps - but on my pocket (of jeans) it catchs more. Since I don't normally wear clothes with pockets I usually have it on my waistband. I think my high waist is my problem. I am going to watch it more closely today.

So the no mercy part... I have GOT to figure out a way to start losing weight. I have added to my vitamins... I have Flora Key to help with the "good" digestive yeasts in my system, HLC supplement which are digestive enzymes to help me digest food, a Liver formula to help strenghten my liver to help in processing wastes, and a GI (colon) cleanse formula to help purge the excess waste from my colon. So - hopefully THAT all will help on one front. THEN - I am going to limit myself RELIGOUSLY to 1200 calories or less each day. At least for a while. As Sarah pointed out a few months ago, it doesn't seem like we lose weight unless we DO drop to that really low level. It stinks - since I always am very lethargic when I do go that low - but if I really want to lose weight I think that is all I CAN do. I am going to get back to the no excuses plan of exercise... even if it is just doing a 10 minute video at home. That 10 minutes was doing wonders when we first started this last September. I am going to committ to this for the next week (I know it will have to be longer, but I can't stand the concept, so a week is where I am starting) and then see how I am doing. If I haven't lost at least a pound by next weigh in day (a pound from where I am tomorrow) then I am going to go the GI Bipass route (just kidding!).

I have been reading about prescription weight loss pills. With the exception of one they all are just appetite suppressents. I am not sure if that will do me any good since I almost NEVER feel hungry. I don't eat because I am hungry, I eat because I like to eat. But I also really don't overeat - I just eat the wrong foods. I need to go back to eating the RIGHT foods and see if that helps at all.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Crack of Dawn

I am not posting my weight today. I was horrified by it - but I blame it on the fact that my bio-rhythms are completely off. I had to be at work at 6am this morning. This means I got up at 5:15. That would have been fine - except I didn't go to bed until 11:55pm. It is SO hard for me to get to bed early. I didn't get home from work last night until after 8pm (which is pretty normal for me). That means normally I have about 4 hours of not work, not sleep time each night (if I go to bed at 12 - which is also normal for me). I PLANNED to go to bed earlier, but Katie and I both had late work days yesterday so we decided to go to Bonefish for dinner. This is a sure fire guarentee that I won't go to bed early, and I will eat too much. Well, I was not bad with my food. I had a house salad, a bite of Katie's tuna sashimi, and two little Bang Bang shrimp. Then when my dinner arrived I had one bite of rockfish, one bite of the potatoes and most of the grilled vegetables. I did have two Mojitos to drink. So maybe it was the too much food for dinner - but I am blaming it on the hour and a half of missing sleep.

Today I have my Bonefish leftovers for lunch - which is probably compounding the bad food problem by eating it two days in a row. Grilled fish - you would THINK that would be healthy... but they marinate it in butter and top it with cream, I am sure of it, That is why it tastes so good! I had my usual 1/2 a bagel and organic applesauce with tons of coffee with skim milk for breakfast. I am planning to go to the gym today around 2 - and then I am leaving at 5 to go home and take a nap!!!

Tomorrow will be active exercise - Sheep and Wool Festival. Also plenty of eating opportunities. I will bypass the icecream and cotton candy (maybe) but I am not giving up the lemonade and lamb food (gyros or shish-kabobs or whatever). Yum!!!

I am impressed with both of the offered snack options. I may modify Sarah's and do one that I used to do when I was first on jenny Craig. Maybe not though - I am still thinking.

I made it!

To the gym, that is--30 minutes on the treadmill yesterday!

Food was great, except that I had to indulge in sugar to make up for being surrounded by idiots yesterday. Seriously--I went to Wal Mart to get triaminic for Connor, but of course triaminic is now a controlled substance and you have to take the little shelf card to the pharmacy to get the stuff. I was in line behind two people--one woman being rung up (prescription and then a million other little things) and another woman holding nothing. As I was waiting, the phamacist came over and started turning out the lights. They were closing the pharmacy for a half an hour for their break and told us all to come back at 2:00. I nearly ripped a few heads off, and considered sliding over the counter to get the triaminic (which was RIGHT BEHIND the pharmacist as he was telling us all to go away--I asked if he could just give me this one thing, told him that this was my break too and no I couldn't come back at 2:00, but he walked away. Jerk.). The cashier eventually dealt with me because I think she knew they were dealing with a crazy lady who had only slept for three hours. So anyway, I bought bottle caps (straight sugar, but at least only 60 calories per serving, which would be great if you just ate one serving, but I ate five).

The rest of my food yesterday was cereal, coffee, almonds, string cheese, pretzles, an orange, an apple, and ravioli. And I tested my snack submission last night (and again for breakfast this morning). I'll submit it now, but I'm still tweaking. It's a modified version of the Pampered Chef apple berry salsa with cinnamon chips. The original recipe has you sprinkling tortillas with cinnamon sugar and baking them, then making salsa with apples, strawberries, kiwi, an orange, brown sugar, and apple jelly (here's the original recipe: http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/pampered-chef-recipes/apple-berry-salsa.htm). But that takes too long and has too much sugar. What I did last night was chop up a couple of strawberries, sprinkled them with a tiny bit of lime juice (skip that if you don't like tart), cinnamon (or cinnamon sugar mixture if the strawberries aren't really ripe), and mint. Then I toasted a tortilla until it was pretty crisp, then ate the two together. It was kind of like strawberry shortcake because the tortilla is so bland and the strawberries so sweet. It was good, though, so I'll probably keep making it. And it comes in under 100 calories--80 for the tortilla, then I used two large strawberries for the salsa (12 calories total), plus a tiny bit for the sugar if you use that (this morning I used 1/8 tsp. of sugar, which is another 2 calories). Two large strawberries gives you 36% of your vitamin C for the day, plus fiber in the berries and tortilla (use whole wheat). I considered this morning making it into a breakfast burrito by just warming the tortilla and smearing on light cream cheese with the strawberry mixture. That would add another 35 calories (for one tablespoon of low fat cream cheese). It would probably be good, but I didn't have any cream cheese. I had too much lime juice in this morning's batch; last night's was better.

Thursday update & my snack submission

My favorite snack is baby carrots dipped in salsa. It's a technique you have to perfect--you take a little bite out of the baby carrot in such a way to make a little spoon to dip in the salsa. Double dipping is inherent, so you can't eat straight from the jar. I started eating this when I was trying WeightWatchers because both are 0 point foods on their list.

Thursday was atrocious AGAIN with food. No control what so ever. Breakfast was oatmeal, then I had a snack of string cheese & pretzels which really should have been my lunch, but instead I went and got a ham & swiss sandwich with chips. After work I scarfed down a Milky Way bunny and an orange, then we ate LD crab quesadillas for dinner and I had the other half of my peanut butter bar for dessert. Oh...I think I ate a pop tart bar somewhere in there too. I mean, seriously, I was binging as soon as I got home from work. Totally out of control.

I did spend 400 calories on the treadmill between running and walking. I would probably have dropped 2 lbs this week with my new running routine if I haven't been eating my way through everything.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Why isn't yogurt more gross?

Think about it... If you had a carton of milk and it was chunky/watery/yellowish - you would be disgusted (and impressed with your poor refrigerator cleaning skills). Even coffee if let to sit all day, when you pour it out finally and the chunks in the bottom dump out - you probably do the Icky Dance (or the Icky Twitch if you are alone at the time). So why is it okay - and even a GOOD thing - to eat yogurt. Why isn't yogurt more gross? I am eating mine right now with a plastic fork - and all I wish I had is a spoon. It is pretty good.

I went to the gym and again did 37 minutes on the treadmill and my abs workout. Why is it (since I am in a pondering mood) that working out on the treadmill is torture for the first 30 minutes or so - and after that it is much smoother sailing. I should be MORE tired, but instead I can feel my muscles limbering up and it is easier to get into my book on tape - or whatever is on TV. I can walk MUCH longer after 30 minutes - but getting to that point is like pulling teeth. I have to do the "You are 1/8th of the way done. Now, 1/6th done if you quit at 36 minutes, OK now you are 1/4 of the way there..." etc.

I hope we have something yummy for dinner. I am craving good food right now. (Having just eaten rotten milk with a plastic fork...)

New Challenge

This is actually a different kind of challenge - with not just one winner. My challenge to us all is to each come up with a new low cal. healthy snack. We all have our standards (mock cinnabon, pistachio nuts, yogurt with chocolate chips). What I am looking for from all of us is something that is tasty, snack like that has more value to it (lower calorie, higher fiber, more protein, whatever) than Girl Scout cookies - or whatever our down fall is. I know - in theory - what we SHOULD eat as snacks are fresh fruit and vegetables. But - SOR! - that is not what I am craving in the evening when I want to grab something to munch on. So - I want us each to submit a snack idea that would curb the cravings and prevent someone like me from eating cookies ALL DAY. Ideally, a snack shoudl be something that doesn't take more than a minute or two to prepare and is more than three bites. Three bites is just a teaser to me.

Everyone should submit their snack by weigh-in day next week. We will then ALL be winners because we will have five (or more) new snack ideas.

No Excuses excuse

I was awful yesterday. Awful with a caplital AW. I woke up to a beautiful day and prompltly put my exercise clothes on so I could take a nice long walk. I then got disctracted by a new book waiting for me - which I proceeded to read ALL DAY! I kept telling my self that I was on the no excuses exercise plan - but I wasn't on the no procrastination plan. Thus my downfall. Once the light was gone I told myself I had to do my walking video. (I had to do that one because I still haven't moved the dining room table out of the living room and the walking one I can do in my bedroom.) But - I didn't do that either. I DID, however, finish my book - at about 11:30pm. I ate not a scrap of healthy food. Mostly just girl scout cookies. I thought about making a LD dinner - but never did. Katie was running around all night - and so wasn't home to force me to eat something healthy for dinner. I had a spoonful of peanut butter for lunch. I also had a latte with skim milk. Otherwise it was all bad cookies.

Then - of course - since I had NO protein (other than the 1 spoonful of PB) all day I woke up at 3am and ate more girl scout cookies. Humph! To think this USED to be my normal eating habits...

Anyway - the result of all this badness was I lost 0.2 pounds. I was 209.6 yesterday and 209.4 today. Kind of the pizza diet affect. Anyway - I am determined to NOT let this be the norm. I am going to get myself back on track today.

Tuesday was a good day. I ate fruits and vegetables. I didn't eat too much junk food at night (I had a 100 calorie pack of Chips Ahoy in the evening). I went to the gym, made an appointment to meet with the trainer on May 17th, and did 37 minutes on the treadmill. I stopped 5 minutes short because I wanted to do my abs workout. I had noticed that my belly was getting flabby again and decided that I could go back to that piece of my routine fairly easily if I stopped walking a few minutes earlier than I normally do. I do my abs on three machines - one for my back, one for my obliques and one that is like traditional crunches with weights. I increased my sets to 15 (instead of 12 and 13) so did a total of 120 various crunches. Maybe it was my imagination, but I seemed to see a difference after even just one day of this. I am going to add it back in today with my workout.

Sarah - if carrying your gym bag with you every where you go counted as exercise I would be ready for the olympic team. I had my gym bag in my car the whole time Dad was in the hospital. It didn't seem to help.