Fake weight loss

Much to my surprise, I weighed in at 143.5 this morning -- a 3-pound drop from yesterday. Yesterday's weight was false, because it was the same as the night before (I sometimes weigh myself at night as a worst-case-scenario for the morning), but even if it was off by a pound that would still be too abrupt of a drop. But I was glad to see the number from three weeks ago anyway, and at least I'm no longer completely on the wrong track.

But I learned whilst on vacation this week that it's still entirely possible to eat FAR too many calories even when one is avoiding meat and dairy products. For one thing, fish is still allowed in my Lenten diet, as are panko crumbs and frying oil -- and fried fish is not healthy. Most noodles are also allowed, provided they don't have egg. I ate fried fish multiple times, because I tasted Alexander's grouper on Friday night at the noodle house we went to, while I was eating a HUGE bowlful of noodle soup (and shrimp and vegetables -- the toppings were pretty healthy); his grouper was panko-battered and fried before being tossed into the sweet chili sauce. It was awesome. Then I ate the leftovers on Sunday. And in between we stopped at Wendy's, where I COULD have had a plain baked potato and a side garden salad (but they are otherwise short on meatless/dairy-less options) but instead opted for the fried cod sandwich (sans tartar sauce and mayo). I wouldn't recommend it -- all I could taste was the bun, so I got rid of that after one bite (it's just a sponge anyway), and then all I could taste was FRIED. Have I mentioned that, generally speaking, I seldom eat fried foods? Ick. It totally killed the taste of any fish, even though it looked like good, meaty fish. Oh -- and while I'm listing how much I overate, on Thursday we went to a pasta house, and I ate whole-grain (I'm hoping egg-less -- that didn't strike me until later) pasta noodles with a spicy tomato sauce, and they were ALSO outstanding, but I ate waaayyyy too much. Boy, it was good.

Exercise has been weak but not non-existent. I spent all day Friday walking around the Atlanta aquarium, which is bigger than Baltimore's but a terrible layout -- and it felt very commercial and not as informative as the National Aquarium. But I got pretty close to 10,000 steps, and I was on my feet for over four hours, so that has to count for something. On Saturday we hiked up Stone Mountain and back again (so I easily hit my 10,000 that day) which definitely qualified as exercise. But I missed Sunday and Monday (Mary had a make-up art class that prevented a gym trip and I didn't do anything at home). Today I plan to get to the gym while the big kids are at band.

I'm eating better now that we're home. Instead of waffles on Sunday I ate oatmeal with maple syrup (which was pretty depressing). I've continued the oatmeal pattern for breakfast, but I've switched to strawberries, which taste better than the syrup, surprisingly. But I keep hoping I'll fall in love with oatmeal, or at least find it so familiar that it's comfort food, and so far that's not happening -- I miss my breakfast cereal and milk! I don't want to use a milk substitute (or butter substitute, etc.) because that seems like cheating -- the point is to make a genuine sacrifice. Almond milk wouldn't have been widely available sixty years ago when the no-dairy diet was prescribed for all during Lent. (Of course, neither would no-egg, no-milk Girl Scout cookies, and I'm not doing well at staying away from them, either.)

Dinners will be easier -- so far we've had leftover restaurant food and salmon, but tonight we're doing one of the CRS meals. There are SO many good vegan dinners out there that aren't fake-non-vegan dinners, and so many good (lean!) fish options available that I'll be fine as long as we're home.