Starting to feel a little out of control

I am getting that over the honeymoon feeling ... the one that can either sabotage me or strengthen my resolve to lose weight. I can still see me on the other side of this, 100 and some pounds thinner, so I think we are looking at strengthening the resolve. But I feel like I have been on a salt binge for 3 days now (I know I have) and I need to get more fresh fruit into me.


Yesterday, I was fine in the morning ... then we had Taco Bell for lunch. I was good... a Fresco soft taco and an order of pintos and cheese. But there is salt in that. Then for dinner, I had my Mom's spaghetti pie (it was good) but it had cheese all over it. I am pretty sure it was about 11 points for a slice of that. I didn't go over points yesterday. I know that for a fact, but I know that better, less salty, food choices could have been made.

Of course, every day is a new day and I know that today will be a better one. I just need to lay off the salt, and life will feel a little more in control. For the time being. :)

Have you lost weight?

I was at church this morning, and I was walking out to get a glass of water. I had had a donut that morning (1/2) and then someone brought in a thing of donuts, and I had another 1/2 ... well, I ate two bites of it. I needed to go throw it away and get some water. I wasn't feeling the hottest ... lightheaded, really ...

A friend of mine, who ushers, was in the back and she asked me the question: have you lost weight?

Why yes, I sure have. I didn't think it was too noticeable. Of course, my parents said something to me, but you can kind of expect that. But when someone else notices, then it feels good.

So this week, we return to some sort of normalcy around here. We don't have anything at night (well, I have a few meetings), but we don't have that nightly commitment of 4 hours being gone. I need to make some meals this week, too.

Oh and another thing I have added: activity points. I mowed the front lawn on Friday and the backyard yesterday. And it was h.o.t. I gave myself 4 AP each for each session, which in turn gives me 8 extra points for the week. However,I have been UBER careful in not using those 35 weekly points. I can't see me needing to eat 40 extra points on top of what I eat this week. I understand that these are given for those times when I can't always count on being able to eat within my daily allowance.

Now I am off to dye some yarn. Off to sweat in the basement.

Another successful weigh in!

Three more pounds have bit the dust!!!! A total of 13.8 pounds has been lost, and I have 1.2 more pounds to go to reach my first five percent lost.

I am appreciating the program SO much more now. I allow myself for little decadences here and there. I allow myself a piece of fudge or a cube of cheese. I allow myself some ice cream every once in a while. But I am very, very careful throughout the day. I make so many better decisions than I did a month ago. I am more mindful of what goes in my mouth.

And now, the kids are having to make better eating decisions. They want a snack, they have to eat a piece of fruit. They want something to drink, someone tries to reach for some pop, and I tell them they have to have water. Of course, my hater of all things water (# 1) bemoans the fact that she has to consume something that tastes like nothing. She can't stand it. My sister suggested that she add some lemon to it. I told her that would be a no because then it would turn into her squeezing as much lemon juice into a cup of water, and adding sugar to it.

So this week has been our vacation Bible school, which has allowed me to be very careful with what I am eating. We have been eating dinner there beforehand, and the first few nights were pretty good. The first night we had baked chicken, cooked carrots, and green beans. There was also a salad, so that made for a good meal. The second night was spaghetti, so I had some of that. Last night, we went to pork tenderloin (fine) and scalloped potatoes. I ate five bites... it allowed me to have some, but I didn't have to eat them all. Tonight, we decided to stay home and get pizza.

Pizza... six points a slice for a slice of cheese pizza. I cut mine in half, and call it 2/3 of a slice. What I find that works best is me going in and putting in my points ... so tonight I said I would have 2 slices and 2 pieces of Crazy Bread. Instead, I cut a piece in half, ate it, and had 2 pieces of Crazy Bread. I didn't have that second piece, and I was just fine with that.

I am on week five, which is hard to believe. It seems like I just started, really.

The journey has begun. 1.2 pounds to the first goal, then 14 more pounds to my second goal of 10 percent lost. Then I start all over again with a new five percent and 10 percent goal.

Now I have to go convince my girls that bedtime actually means going to bed.

And the week starts again

This week, we have Vacation Bible School. My husband and I are shopkeepers (we do a re-enactment-type of school every other year), and we are basketweavers. However, these basketweavers are not masters at their trade. I fear that these basketweavers will be bringing staplers to attach the reeds to the basket base, just to get started. We'll remove them .. eventually.

The weekend went fairly well, eating-wise. We ate out twice yesterday, and that always proves to be a challenge trying to find something. I have decided that Arby's is one of the worst places to find something healthy to eat. I know they have those salads, but they seemed to be loaded with all sorts of stuff ... and they are already pre-made, so it isn't like you can ask them to hold off on the cheese or anything.

I had a Jr. Ham and Swiss Melt ... 4 points. But I am a sucker for their cherry turnovers. Get this .... EIGHT!!!! (had to spell it out to get the point across) points. Had that been at lunch, I would have bypassed it. But we all know I am a points-hoarder at the end of the day, so I had like 16 points left for the day.

So I splurged and got the turnover. It was good.... flaky and cherry and just the right amount of frosting. I have to thank my dear old father for starting me on those.

So on to another hectic week of yarn dyeing, basket making, and four softball games. Add in there staying on program, getting some grocery shopping done, and maintaining my sanity ... it should make for a very good week.

I gotta feelin'

I am sitting here listening to Black Eyed Peas right now .... I Gotta Feelin' ... LOVE that song. It is so upbeat. Just love it.

And as I am sitting here, typing, I'm thinking yeah, I do gotta feeling. I have a feeling that things are turning in a direction where I am gaining control back of my life. I have been in that hole of "so what?" for so long. So long that I lost myself.

I gotta feelin' that tonight's gonna be a good, good night....

This year's gonna be a good, good year.

This is the year I lose weight.

This is the year I start to feel better about me.

This is the year I start to buy all new clothes.

This is the year I feel like I am going to get a full time job after not having one for almost two years now.

This is the year.

I gotta feelin'...

On another note, today was weigh in day. I have lost another 1.6 pounds, for a total of 10.8 lost in 4 weeks! Not too shabby!!!!!

Slow and steady wins the race. The race for life.

What a week this has been!

As soon as I turned around today, the weekend seemed to be over!!!

We had meetings all weekend (I am on a pastoral search committee) and we have another one this afternoon.

But what I realized: I eat HORRIBLY on days that I am really busy. And I don't mean pig out. I ate in moderation, but I had my bowl of bran flakes before I left, and then ate 1/2 chocolate donut in the meeting. I didn't get into the box anymore after that, but I have a whole thing of Panera bagels on my kitchen table. I ate 1/2 chocolate chip bagel yesterday afternoon, and then had a blueberry bagel last night (but I did have points left over so I had to eat something, and I was hungry).

But it just seemed like the day ... I don't know. I was surrounded by my two biggest temptations: donuts and bagels. I was proud of my willpower, though and proceeded to drink quite a few bottles of water.

So this week should be settling down a tad. I have a lot of yarn dyeing to do, and tomorrow and Tuesday are supposed to be stormy, so I won't have the "can we go to the pool?" question looming over my head every 20 minutes.

I am looking forward to this week's weigh in. I hope there is a loss. If there is, it will be a small one, but that is what I expect. At some point, the small ones need to start catching up with me. As long as it isn't a large gain.

TOTM is around the corner, too so I will be battling the pre-TOTM bloating. Lovely!!!

All right ... I am off to meeting # 234501449222 of my life.

Another small victory for my body

I have SO much stuff going on this weekend (I keep living in the land of denial) that I needed to get in to weigh in before time got away from me. I chose to go in this am and wasn't sure what the result would be. There are times when I think I have lost, and I haven't. But today was a loss of....


4 pounds!!!

I was VERY pleasantly surprised, considering it was about 3 hours later in the morning than when I normally weigh in, and it was only 5 days after my weigh in last weekend.

But hey.. I will take it. That makes a total of 9.2 pounds down. I can handle that. I have six more pounds to go to hit my first goal of 5 percent. Weight Watchers sets it up to lose the first five percent and then 10 percent and then we can set our own goals after that. I have decided to keep up with this same goal setting pattern: 5 and 10 and then re-set when I hit those goals.

I also calculated the points of a Ben and Jerry's pint of ice cream, which is something I would have consumed, or close to have consumed, before WW. It is terrible. Let's just say it was over my daily Points allotment by 3 points.

Now I have gone down in my Points allotment by one, so I have one less point a day to play with.

Last night I was left with 7.5 points for the rest of the day. I had a whole wheat tortilla with reduced fat cheese and some salsa for a quesidilla. I ate half of it, and gave the other two quarters to my girls. It was all I needed.

I am loving the 100 Calorie packs of Fudge Stripes. LOVING them.

I picked up a box of WW mint cookie bars at the center today and ate one on the way to Wendy's. YUMMY and CHOCOLATEY! They were good.

All right, I have three kids breathing down my back to go to the pool.