Breaking Addiction

So I have officially decided that I think I have a real live full blown addiction. There is a candy jar at work and even when I want to leave it alone, I find myself having 'just one little one.' ...A couple times a day. And let me tell you! On a bad day... it's a lot more than just one little one. And I love to cook, but when I get on a cooking kick, I cook pretty things. Like cakes and cookies and banana bread. Mmmm...

I know that when you are craving sweets you are low on water. Anything else? And the last day or 2 I have been craving tomatoes like crazy! This morning I had a toast and tomato sandwich for breakfast and I was in heaven! :) Last night neither Dave or I were very hungry so we had some pita chips and hummus for dinner and I just had to put some tomato chunks on mine. So what is in tomatoes that make my taste buds sing today? After a short Google search, we find that tomatoes are just LOADED with Vitamin C. And I have had a sniffly nose and canker sores. Mystery solved. 

Anyway. I am publicly announcing that I am going to break my sweets addiction and more specifically my chocolate addiction. No more days where all I eat is junk. No more Twix and Milky Way bars for lunch. And more veggies. More fruits. More cooking at home. More good stuff. 

Hopefully that'll do the trick. I tell myself to only have one a day or none and then I think 'meh. it's just me. nobody will care if I have another.' Not true anymore! :D 

Tickers N Things

If any of you wants help setting up a ticker or a sidebar button & things, give me a call & I'll teach you how to do it. It's pretty easy: just a matter of knowing where to copy & paste.

Rethinking Rewards

So, initially I was thinking that I'd reward myself every 5 pounds. Now I think I'll make it 5 pounds or 2 inches from any one measurement. That means that I'm nearly to a reward, which is encouraging. I've really been struggling not to sabotage myself this week. I'm sooo good at that. So I'm going to take some steps & acknowledge that I am making progress, and if I can keep it up, maybe I can reward myself next week.

Oh Boy

Ugh. It did not go well today. I ended up cutting the run short & coming home early. Couldn't breathe. Maybe because it was so humid? Also, my antibiotic is doing some unpleasant things to me, and that could be contributing. Whatever, it didn't go well. Very disheartening. This week is turning out to be a very difficult week for the exercise: I was going to run yesterday, before I went to the dentist, but I messed up when I set my alarm and I didn't have time. So I did it today. But now I feel like shoe scrapings, and if I want to get my 3 runs in this week like I've been doing I have to have another bash at it tomorrow.

Here are the measurments I said I'd do 2 days ago. It's been that kind of week.

Bust: 44 1/2 (up 1/2", but it's a different bra that makes me feel a bit like Madonna. I retired it, but when I started running I needed more than 2, and the new one hasn't come in yet....)
Waist: 36 3/4 (down 1 3/4"!!!)
Belly: 45 1/2" (down 1 1/2"!!!)
Hips: 45" (down 1/2"!!!)

OK, I feel much better about life now that I've taken those; my weight is actually UP a pound at 201 this week, and it's been driving me crazy. But those measurements are very reassuring: There IS actually progress for all the work that I've been doing! Maybe one of these days I'll get to go get myself one of those non-food rewards we talked about a while back! I'd almost given up on getting there because I've been so stuck at the same place, even with running. This is very encouraging.

Lose Weight Without Counting Calories

I thought you all might appreciate this article. It is about loosing weight without counting calories; basically it just reinforces everything you have been saying and doing - it is always nice to get validation =) Have a GREAT day!

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/4382/lose-weight-without-counting-calories

Cross Training

Heh.. so today all the elliptical machines were full, so I thought I would try a new thing that my coworker suggested. It's sort of similar to the running system Rit is doing, but on the stationary bike. I start out warming up at my usual level of resistance for a warm up. Stay there for one minute, then I increase the resistance by an interval for each of the next three minutes, then go back to the beginning and start again. Do this 4 times and by the end of 20 mins it should "kick your butt".

So, on this particular bike, I started at 9 for a minute, 10 for a minute, all the way to 13 for a minute and then back to 9, four times, all the while keeping up a pretty good and consistent pace. Ugh! But the end of 20 minutes I was ready to die. This really did kick my hiney. I am pretty sure I'm going to be sore tomorrow.. Woot!

Boot Camp!

Boot Camp!? The sound of that makes me cringe just a little; it sounds painful; but pain = progress...right?!?! They have a boot camp this next week in the park by my house. A personal trainer I know from my athletic days is teaching it and it is FREE! I am going to go check it out and see if I can't make some more progress. I am happy to report that I have worked out everyday for the past 8 days. I should be hitting the "habit" mark by the end of the week! Yeah! Getting up early is getting a LOT easier and I am feeling better. No measurements to report yet, but I will have to start taking them this week. The Boot Camp offers a body fat analysis. I love that! I only wish I never let those few extra pounds creep on; oh well - they are coming off. Boot camp...here I come! =) I start Monday; between now and then, I plan to make certain I work out everyday and see if I can't kick it up a notch so my personal trainer friend will be awe-struck =) Anyone who wants to can come join me =)

Day 8-Minus-2

It's day 8-2 because I figure that there are at least 2 steps between where I'm at and where I need to be in order to pull of Day 8's "run 2 walk 1." Today what I set out to do - and did - was run 2 walk 1, run 2 walk 2, 5 times, for the usual total of 30 minutes. It was hard work. But I did it. I plan to do it again on Wednesday. Well, maybe. That's the day that I'm getting more work done on my root canal & I typically don't feel great after doing that. Plus I'm going to the zoo with Monkey. We'll have to see. If I get up nice & early & go before all the excitement it can still be done. (By nice & early I mean around 8.)

I got a new toy the other day: a stopwatch. It's pretty fun. Monkey loves it. It beeps. I like that I can now keep better track of my times. I decided to stop counting my warm-ups in my pace, and only count the part where I'm actually running. Or working on running anyway. As a result, my pace today was just over a 15 minute mile! Not bad: I'm almost as good as I was in 4th grade, only this time it's not killing me. No asthma-type attacks. It doesn't hurt. (Which is not to say that it's not WORK. It's kind of like giving birth that way.) Also, we're have a possible opportunity to buy a used treadmill. Depends on the cost. I wonder if I can do some sort of trade for part of the price: I'll bring you bread, you give me the equipment you're getting rid of because you never use it anyway. I'm sure there'd have to be some money exchanged, but that might bring it down into a range that we can do right now.

Tomorrow I plan to weigh-in and check my measurements. Anyone with me?

Good Feeling!

So I just updated my other blog and at the bottom there is a tracker for the week of how many times I exercised and what I did and all that good stuff and it's soo nice to see something on there for every single day of the week! I can't claim as much victory as Rits, but wow! I exercised 6 days this week and I'm probably going to either run/walk or swim tonight! GO ME!!! :D 

Working Hard: Day 8, Attempt 1

This was hard today: it was hot and pushing myself to run longer stretches is not easy. The program for today said that I should run 2 walk 1. I never really thought that was a realistic goal for doing in a single day, at least for me and my ability to breathe while I run. Here's what I actually did:

3 min warm-up.
1) Run 2 walk 1.
2) Run 2 walk 1.
3)Run 2 walk 1
4)Walk 2.
5)Run 2 walk 2.
6)Run 1 walk 2.
7)Run 1 walk 2.
8) Run 1 walk 2.
9) Run 1 walk 2.
10) Run 1 walk home.

The 9th and 10th sets were really hard to start, but once I got going they weren't so bad. My pace worked out to about the same as it has been, but I'm ok with that for a couple of reasons. First, it's HOT. And humid. Ugh. Also, I ended the 10th set just a bit further away from home than I thought I was, so walking home for my cool down took longer than usual. So I'm pretty happy with how things went today.

Also, I found a feather and brought it home to show Monkey.

Low-cal Quiche

Hey, I made a yummy quiche! When I cut it into 8 slices, it's about 200 calories a slice! My program that does nutrition facts for me hasn't been re-installed since Andy gave me a new hard-drive, so I can't tell you much more than that. But it made me really happy when I looked at the nutrition break down. I have pictures and a link to the recipe here.

Hooray for Friday :)

Ah, Friday. For no real reason, except that I get to sleep in tomorrow, I love Fridays :)

Today I set a new record for myself on the treadmill (and i think treadmill running has to be different and not directly compatible with real-life-outside-running): a mile in 13:11. Wohoo! And I jumped rope last night for 20 mins while watching tv ('til I was sweating enough to gross myself out and then stopped so as not to irrevocably smell up my little apartment)

Well, my dress is in! Tomorrow evening I'm going in to be fitted.. here is the real test of all this hard work.. what kind of alterations will be needed?? When considering that aspect of things, almost I don't want to loose any more weight - otherwise the dress won't fit! Hehehe... but then my brain kicks in and I remember that losing weight is GOOD and healthy and right and taking a dress in is ever so much easier (and better on the ego) than letting it out.

Accomplished; Day 6

I did it! I did the first week of the Learn to Run program! And I did days 5 and 6 the first time I tried them! I'm feeling pretty good about that. And it definitely made a difference to be out earlier. Although the temp was rising quickly in the 30 minutes that I was out: it was 87F when I got back. That's HOT.

EA - Session 2

Hello. You know my name. :) And I am so very happy to report that I have a much better week going than last week. Last week I exercised once (Saturday) and I ate a whole bunch of junk food. This week, I have gone running twice and my junk food intake is much less. Yes. Even with the junk only day yesterday. Dave and I just got back from a 40 minute run around the neighborhood. Still sticking to Rits's running program, but we got in a warmup today. I count that too. I'm outside and I'm moving. So - dang it! - it counts. :) And our time was somewhere just below 16:00 for a mile! We knocked off over 20 seconds! YEA!!! Of course that doesn't include the warmup, but that's ok. WE IMPROVED!

Accomplished: Day 5

Hot. Humid. Didn't want to go. Went anyway because Kate posted that there's only 11 weeks to the wedding and that means I need to loose 2.27 pounds a week between now and then to be at my first goal by her wedding. Not only did I go, but I pushed the Monkey in the stroller (he's 31 pounds, plus whatever the stroller adds), and I still made it through Day 5. I'm feeling pretty good about my workout today!

Happy Tuesday Ladies!

So today was a pretty good day on the whole. We're going to operate on the idea that it's not so much what and when you eat, it's the amount of calories.  :) So based on that theory, I did pretty good. I ate a Starbucks muffin and vanilla shake for breakfast, munched on bite-size chocolates all day since I didn't have lunch, and then ate a hamburger and salad and watermelon for dinner. That sounds good, right? In my defense, the hamburger had tons of veggies on it... :D Man. I need to get up on time and make real food.  

On a happy note, I very successfully completed Day 2 today. A good brisk walk around the neighborhood with Dave tonight. We walked about an 18 minute mile for 30 minutes. Happy Tuesday! :D

Progress

Well, yesterday I turned the page in my little exercise book and realized that there are 11 weeks until November 6th! Wohoo! Also, it is a weigh-in and measurement week. So, this morning I measured myself and much to my (happy) surprise, despite only having lost 1 pound (versus the 3 or 5 I would have liked) I did in fact, loose an inch around my waist, and just under an inch around my hips and a half inch around my bust. However, my forarms are still growing.. heh.. Not quite sure how I feel about that, but I figure as long as I don't start looking like a body builder or anything I'm ok.
Still, I feel like my clothes are fitting noticably looser, and I'm considering going to visit some clothing stores, not so much to buy anything (i'm going to wait a little bit longer for that), but to check and see what size I might fit into these days.

EA - Here I come!!

Well, Good morning ladies,

I think that this EA is a good idea. I have to admit that I haven't done well lately. I haven't exercised much. I haven't been watching what I have been eating or drinking much water. Luckily, I haven't really gained much - 1 or 2 pounds - it could have been worse!!

I did go exercise yesterday for a little bit. We went to sentry - but we didn't get the time right - so we didn't get to be there for long. But I have to admit that it felt really good to be there and exercising. :)

I am so impressed at all of the rest of you and your willingness to keep going!! YEA!!! All of you!!! Good to hear from you too Nicole. I am so impressed with those of you who are running. That is really cool!! Good for you!!

I think that I am going to stop worrying so much about what I am eating and concentrate more on exercise. That has worked for me over the last several years of losing - It is really slow that way - but I am losing. I am still at 47 pounds total loss.

I went and tried on clothes yesterday - I want to get a litle bit for school. My clothes are getting pretty hammered. I was able to fit in size 16s quite nicely. I am down from size 22 at one time. Not too shabby. I would love to get into a size 10-12!! There are always lots of stuff on the sale racks in those sizes!!

Weigh-in/Measurements

OK, so it's not so much of a weigh-in cuz my water weight is going crazy again. I've been drinking most, but not all of my water, and I can always tell that on the scales because it makes me bloat. Yuck. So we're going with the 200 from a couple of days ago for weight. And I'm doing measurements again this week.

Bust:44" (no change)
Waist: 38.5" (no change)
Belly:47" (new measurement)
Hips:45.5" (down .5)

Yay! I've got change in my measurements too, in addition to the good news on the scale! There's already a little bit "less to love!" I'm actually a bit surprised that there's not more change in the tape measure, because I feel thinner. Guess that must just be in my head. I can live with feeling better about myself.

I added the belly measurement because I've got a baby belly now (surely it's not the ice cream!), and it's not really at my hips or my waist, but it's definitely the biggest thing there and the part I'd most like to see shrink. So I'm going to measure it.

Check This Out

New Beginnings - Day 1

I have nothing to say for myself. I love reading all of your progress reports and each time I do, I think, "I should do that!". How does that saying go, "there's no time like the present" or something like that. So, I am taking 100% accountability and starting fresh and new. Today I commit to eat healthier and get back to my regular exercise routines. I want to get svelte with the rest of you!!!!

I took Kate's advice and bought a notebook/daily planner. It never ceases to amaze me how I can walk into a store like All-A-Dollar and find something I have always wanted, all my life, for one dollar =) I walked out with a very practical weekly planner and a package of envelopes (Josh will be happy). I really like to check things off a list, so I think this weekly planner will really be fun! I can make myself little notes and keep track of how many days I am exercising. It's amazing how much motivation comes in the form of being able to put an "X" in the box every day. It will kill me to miss a day; this should work brilliantly! =) I put in an "X" for yesterday for taking the dogs (I was dog sitting for my sister) for a nice Sunday evening walk. So, I am off to a good start! Sadly, I did not wake up early enough to exercise this morning; I really like exercising in the mornings the best. That is okay, the day is not over! I will get it in tonight after work. I want another "X". =) Thanks for the motivation! You are all amazing; I have a lot of work to catch up; thanks for including me and giving me all the good ideas and encouragement!

Yeah.. I like the idea of EA.. hehe

Hi my name is Kate and I don't like to exercise. I have been going to the gym fairly regularly, but not exactly pushing myself much at all. I also don't do so wonderfully with the eating well thing either. I weighed myself over the weekend, and while I did loose a pound since the last time I got on there (and I'm not saying that's not wonderful) I realized that I'm not exactly on track to reach my goal. (I'd have liked to have lost more like 3 in the last few weeks) But no complaints.. it's not that far off track.. and I'm not ragging on myself. (I find pointing out the positives works ever so much more effectively anyway) Mostly, I'm just acknowledging that I could be doing better. (thus the recent lack of posts.. less goodness to point out)
So!
My next course of action is to push myself a little more on my workouts. And to stop the late night bowls of cereal. I'd like to say I'll stop the late night snacking all together, but I think it's best to take baby steps where it comes to changing my eating habits. So, this past week I bought apples to be my late night snack. And I'm trying to only it eat if the drinking-a-big-glass-of-water-to-see-if-I'm-really-hungry approach doesn't work.

Good Morning Y'All!

So Rits made the comment that the rest of us aren't blogging, so I thought I'd start this EA session. (exercisers anonymous) Hello. My name is Emma. And I haven't exercised for 2 days. And before that, well. Let's just say it was a little while. 

But. Saturday I tried the running thing Rits is doing. I don't think I followed the format very well. Due to the lack of light - thus not being able to see my watch - and the lack of a stopwatch, I just kinda did a couple of sets of running for what seemed like a minute... ish. And then walk till I felt like I could go again. And I think overall it went pretty well! I ran/jogged 4 times, pushed pretty hard, worked hard, and didn't die! :) I like that last part the most. Dave and I went for 25 minutes without doing a warm up and we went about a mile and a half. So I think that works out to about a 16:20 mile. That's not too bad right? I don't remember what Rits was getting. Seems close...? So we'll call it good and start at Day 1 again tonight to try to get on schedule it being Monday and all. 

Progress Report:

Exercise in the last week - 1

Pounds lost - 4

Inches lost - Gotta find that measuring tape

New Goal - fit into a new temple dress by Nov. 6th. I went looking this weekend for a new one since mine is getting big and I found a really pretty one that's a size large and I almost fit. So I want to buy it before Kate's wedding. 

Accomplished: Day 3

I guess that 2 days of rest (I didn't exercise on Saturday) plus leaving Monkey at home was exactly what I needed: I did day 3 today, and I improved my pace by about 30 seconds! I love having little bitty goals and seeing little bits of progress like this. I knew when I was just over 1/2 way through my run that I was going to be improving my pace because I was hitting landmarks just a little early. That had the effect of making me want to keep it up, work a bit harder, because I didn't want to spoil it. And it worked! Makes me wonder what would have happened if today had not been 80 degrees: it was mid-60s when I was starting, and it's harder to run in the heat. Although there was a nice breeze most of the time and that helped a lot.

So what about the rest of you girls? I nobody else is posting anymore! Where are you at? You oughta post even if you're not doing as well as you like. You guys were so nice to me when I was loosing ground rather than loosing weight. I'd like the chance to cheer you through a tough spot!

Happy News on the Scale

Yay!! The scale says I'm down 2 pounds this morning! I'm pretty pleased about that, even though I just missed my exercise 6 days this week: I was soooo painfully busy yesterday. Fortunately yesterday was a light day anyway, so I missed a walk or yoga, rather than missing a run. But it's working, and working nicely!

Almost Day 3

Looks like I'll be giving Day 3 another go on Monday. I'm OK with that though. It's substantially warmer today than it was on Wednesday. And I was pushing a jogging stroller with a strapping boy in it this time, which I haven't been before. Even with that, I still did 9 of 10 sets. I did take several 3 minute walks (today's pattern was run 1 walk 2), but I don't feel at all bad about it. I have sweat rolling down my back and I've definitely worked. My pace was 17:06 - a little slower than last time, but still substantially faster than the first day. Plus, the various stats that I've got on my workout list are starting to add up, and it's fun to see how long/far I've run over the various time periods they track for me. Computers can be so cool.

Accomplished: Road to Running Day 1

I did it! I did day 1!! And it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be when I put on my shoes this morning. I hurt So Bad after running on Monday. I thought this was going to be awful. But it wasn't. In fact, it felt good. I could already tell that I've learned a few things about running. I'm sure there's going to be plenty more to learn, but so far the first is the worst. We'll see what sort of soreness punishment my muscles put out this time. And I have to look at what comes next. I know that tomorrow is a walk and I don't run again until Day 3. But I don't remember any more than that.

One really fun thing is that with using Runner's World's workout tracker they count a bunch of cool things. For instance, I have done more than 25 hours of working out since the end of May. And I've run a total of 7.2 miles. Those are fun. But the best part is that it'll map the route that I run and then tell me the pace. And the very first time that I tried running back in May I was "running" a 20 minute mile pace. Today my pace was 16:43!! And that's already improved from Monday's 18:03 pace. And those paces include time for warm-up and cool-downs. So I'm actually running a bit better than that. I'll probably get me some sort of stopwatch to get better times. My watch isn't very well marked for doing this sort of thing and I think I could get to caring about how fast I'm going. One of my favorite parts of doing this program is that it's time based: run 1 minute, rest, run 1 minute. This works a lot better for me than other ways I've tried to run.

Weigh-in & Progress Report

OK, actually, I didn't weigh myself this morning. But I am taking measurements.

Bust: 44 inches
Waist: 38 1/2 inches
Hips: 46 inches

I don't have any older measurements that would work to compare these with, so I can't say that I've lost so many inches yet. But hopefully next week there'll be some difference.

As far as my progress, I'm doing better with eating healthy. That is, we're home again so I can do some cooking! Plus, the garden is starting to produce. We had our 1st decent tomato sandwiches since we lived in Kaysville in 2002. Oh yes, those were YUMMY! There will be more. Just as soon as the rest of the tomatoes turn red. Would you believe that Monkey wouldn't eat one? I knew he wouldn't, so I didn't waste a tomato on him, just offered him a taste of mine. He spit it out. Obviously his taste buds are still immature. This time of year with all the tasty tasty garden veggies, it's petty easy to eat well.

I'm also more or less please with how the exercise is going. More pleased because I've been getting it in (Andy helps with the Monkey), and less pleased because the new running thing is killing me. This HURTS!! I just keep drinking my water and reminding myself that this too will pass. Andy says that it takes about 2 weeks for the body to get used to a new activity and until then it's gonna hurt. I've done 2 days now. Only 12 to go before my body realizes that I'm serious about getting skinny and running and it'd better just suck it up. Preferably suck it out of my various fat cells. I'm planning to repeat days 1 and 2 until I can actually DO day 1. Hopefully it won't take more than 2 or maybe 3 tries.

Article: How to Become a Runner

The training plan that follows is designed to get you to the point where you can run 30 minutes (about 2 miles) at a slow, relaxed pace. It's a simple, progressive program that begins with more walking than running, and gradually evolves into more running than walking.

Read more...

Pondering

I said a while back that I was going to post a "before" picture. Here it is! It's one of the ones that Nicole took when we were out to the Great Salt Lake. That was lots of fun & we got some great pictures & I think this one does nicely as an honest before picture, without being completely awful. So there's that.

Our Relief Society is going to be doing a 5k. I'm pondering. I've thought about doing one of those things before. I think I even signed up to do this one, although then I went on 2 big trips and sorta fell off the wagon as far as training goes. But there's most of 2 months before the race, and I'm pondering. Two months sounds like it should be long enough to learn to run 5k. The big question is, am I motivated enough to actually go through with it? Running isn't typically my thing. I'm a bit nervous about this whole idea. But at the same time, what an accomplishment! I'd like to someday do a marathon. In order to get there I have to start with where I'm at...

Not Doing So Hot

I'm really looking forward to when Andy comes home again: I'm not doing so hot and he is always such a help. In my defense, Monkey nor I are feeling terribly well. He's got a cold and I've got a tooth that needs a root canal. But I should still be drinking water. Odd that the dentist was able to put a tiny little smoking cold cotton puff on my tooth and it didn't bother me in the least, but drinking water makes it feel very weird. Not painful, exactly, but definitely odd. Fortunately this isn't something that's going to last as I'm going to have the thing fixed up. Anyway, I haven't exercised all week. I've had barely any water. On the positive side though, I think that I only gained 2 pounds while we were out East, so that's something.

Be Strong!!

To be honest, I've never really been very good at the whole sustained self motivation thing. Sure, I'll get excited about a project, but that excitement generally will wane and often, eventually fade and then what's left is one more thing on my list of "Phases".. heh. My life is peppered by the various different phases that I've gone through over the years: Trolls.. Tye Dye.. Animal Prints.. and that's just for starters. Not that it's a bad thing by any means, I think I've become a more well rounded person (at least more quirky for sure) because of it, and I like that about me. However, it does mean that I do struggle from time to time with continuing with this whole workout regime.
Not that I ever forget that I'd like to loose x amount of pounds before November 6th, just that sometimes that motivation seems less pressing than my desire to order a pepperoni pizza for dinner (for just myself) on a quiet Friday night after a long week.

However, there are precautions that I've put in place to avoid such pitfalls as that. In addition to this blog, I have a sort of network of people that I randomly tell things to, when I need it. For example, at a church activity recently, they were serving tasty tasty brownies as refreshments. (big ones. without frosting... mmmmmmmmm) However, I'd already been very bad with my eating that day and I knew I ought not indulge in yet another unhealthy food. So, I turned to this nice boy who was there, a friend of mine, and said "Chris, I'm saying this out loud so that someone else can hear it: I am NOT going to eat a brownie." He laughed and said "Ok, you can't eat one if I don't eat one." Which worked out nicely because he can't eat chocolate in any form.

Then, just yesterday, I was standing on the platform waiting for my train on the way home from work and I was struck by this HUGE desire to eat some pepperoni pizza. I found myself justifying why it would be ok, even though it would be just for myself (Little Caesar's pizza is just $5.. that wouldn't even blow my budget!) even though, left to my own you KNOW I would eat the entire thing in two (maybe three) sittings. So, I sent a text message to my old college buddy that said "Karina, tell me not to order a pizza for dinner tonight". She responded beautifully "Two words.... Wedding Dress." Hahaha.. well said.

And I was good. Though, clearly I was having cravings. So, recognizing this as truth (and knowing it to be a recurring thing) Rather than suppress it and deny myself completely of all that is tasty and risk binging later, I decided to splurge. Splurge, yes.. Binge, no. Instead of a tasty pizza, I bought a little bag with four brownie bites for dessert to my healthy dinner.. brownies, yes.. but only four. I figured that was infinitely better than eating half of a pizza.. heh. And I enjoyed every one :)
Whew.. made it through another test.. Now to continue onward! Be strong!

Oh, also while I was feeling all less than motivated, I remembered that my little workout regime said that this week I was supposed to write myself a little note congratulating myself. So, I did that last night as well and attached it to my mirror. Surprisingly, it helped!

Set-backs

So, it's nothing I didn't expect. We went on a long trip, and this time instead of mostly being in family's homes, we were mostly in hotels. Hotels that don't have kitchens. So there was a lot more eating out on the Eastern States trip than there was on the Utah trip. I came back feeling like I looked similar to when I was 4-5 months pregnant. Happily, that feeling has passed! I've lost 9 pounds of water weight in the past couple of days. Hopefully I'm not done yet, because I'm still 203 pounds this morning, and that is not a happy place to be. Especially since I bought my jeans about about 185-190. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate! That's my mantra. That and I need to get back into the swing of exercising.

I planned my menus yesterday and I think that it' going to be some good healthy eating over the next 2 weeks. My garden is starting to come on: we got our "first fruits" yesterday. I brought in several squashes an ivory bell pepper and an onion. It's been yummy eating stuff that we grew ourselves! We have lots of green tomatoes, but so far there are no red ones. Not even any pink ones. So I bought some of those. And lots of fruit. In the summer time fruit is my "diet food" of choice. Tasty, low calorie, and full of good vitamins & stuff! Yummy.