Monday:  276.6 lbs., burned 2539 calories, consumed 1285.
Today:  278.2 lbs., Activities:  8.9 mi. on the exercise bike.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I went grocery shopping - well, I was supposed to shop over the weekend, so by Tuesday, I was like, out of everything.  My Eating Plan is really really no fun when I don’t have any of my low-cal foods to fill up my day.  The Big Plan calls for me to surround myself with foods that are allowed, so that I don’t stray toward foods that aren’t.

It absolutely amazes me, though, just how much food I can fit into my day when I have low-cal alternatives around!  There’s no way I could possibly feel deprived.  Here’s what I ate the last two days:

Tuesday      Breakfast:  Had to shop before a staff meeting, didn’t have time.
Lunch:  a big ol’ salad made with romaine, smoked turkey, cottage cheese, pickle slices, sunflower seeds, raisins, and lowfat Catalina dressing, ranch-flavored rice cakes on the side, and a sugar-free banana-fudge pudding with ten little teddy grahams for dessert.
Snack:  two slices of whole-wheat bread with low-calorie margarine and peanut butter.
Dinner:  Raw broccoli and carrots with fat-free ranch dressing, and two chicken burritos with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, lettuce, and fat-free sour cream.
Snack:  Ritz crackers with cheddar cheese and pecans.

Total Calories for Tuesday:  1285

Today       Breakfast:  slept in until 10:45, didn’t see the point.
Lunch:  a large caesar salad with blackened chicken and shredded parmesan (with the dressing on the side so I only used about a tablespoon) and a couple of onion rings from my husband’s plate.
Snack:  a dark chocolate sugar-free pudding with teddy grahams and a third-cup of pistachio nuts.
Dinner:  another big salad (like Tuesday’s lunch), with smoked turkey, plus broccoli and carrots with ranch dressing and two slices of whole-wheat bread with low-calorie margarine.
Snack:  a banana smoothie made with 2% milk, sweet-n-low, vanilla, and banana.

Total Calories for Today:  Incredibly- only 1064…!

This blows me away.  It’s a lot of food.  It’s plenty of food.  It’s yummy food and it still includes things that are satisfying (like chocolate, sweet, and salt).  What blows me away is that a single meal at Chili’s - for example, their Chicken Crispers - is almost 2,000 calories!  There was a time when I would have - without a thought for its caloric value - scarfed down a Chili’s meal and then ordered dessert besides.

I can now eat for two days - within the same range of calories that I once consumed for a single meal.  Now that is a significant change!

773

Monday:  275.4 lbs., burned 2305 calories, consumed 1231.
Today:  276.6 lbs., Activities:  4 mi. on the exercise bike.

It just keeps going up and up, lol.  It’s amazing to me each time this happens.  I just can’t help but ask myself, how can a person gain five pounds in just five days - while exercising and counting calories?!?!  Totally amazing - but at least it’s not upsetting.  It’s normal fluctuation and the price I pay for peeking at my weight every day is that I am tuned into those ups and downs.  I still can’t help but look though.

I went grocery shopping this morning and bought all kinds of yummy stuff.  Yummy, low-calorie stuff.  Shopping for groceries has never been this fun!  Strange, I know.

Update on the home front, tonight I was actually able to redirect my daughter’s behavior, wow.  She was in a (her usual) nasty mood and was snapping at her brother and at me with absolutely no provocation whatsoever.  Finally, I stopped what I was doing and asked her, “Okay what’s really up with you because you’re biting our heads off!  Is there something else wrong?”  She admitted that, yes, she was upset and told us why and it turned out that it was a total misunderstanding on her part and she was “being mad just in case.”

Big sigh!

Anyway, for the rest of the evening she was civil.  Pleasant, even.  It was weird.  I’m not complaining by any means, but having lived through the past five years with her in the house, a whole evening of “pleasant” qualifies, without a doubt, as weird.

764

Sunday:  no weigh-in, burned 2822 calories, consumed 1435.
Today:  275.4 lbs., Activities:  None, unless fighting with your teenage daughter counts.

It rained tonight so I didn’t go out for a bike ride — and I just didn’t feel like riding the exercise bike today.  On another day I would have scolded myself, “It doesn’t matter what you feel like, Eileen, get off your ass and do it!” but today I was a bit distracted by my eighteen-year-old daughter.  *Sigh*  Why does the route to adulthood for girls require such drama and general nastiness along the way???

I know my mother cursed me.  I remember her speaking the words of the magic spell, the same spell I have, in turn, cast upon my own daughter.  It goes something like this:

“You shall, for payment in return, someday have a child just like yourself.”

*Wicked, evil laugh*

749

Saturday:  273.6 lbs., burned 3523 calories, consumed 1687.
Today:  no weigh-in, Activities:  4.35 mi. on the real bike.

After our nine-mile ride yesterday, the jacuzzi at the hotel was perfect, perfect, perfect.  We relaxed in the hot bubbly water for a little over a half-hour and then sat out by the pool, talking.  I could have stayed there forever!   This morning when we got up we intended to take a dip in the pool but the water was coooold (!) so we spent some time in the jacuzzi again.

After lunch we had an appointment to see a lady about a bike.  Two bikes, actually.  She had advertised a bike for sale in one of the local classified newspapers but really she had two for us to look at, one man’s and one woman’s.  Both bikes had been hanging on a rack in her garage for more than five years, so the tires & tubes were dry-rotted and the bikes were both a bit dusty and in need of oil - but they are good bicycles.  We bought ‘em both.  My hubby will fix them up.  So now Eric (my oldest son) will have a bike to ride if he wants to go with us on one of our outings and we’ll have a spare (woman’s) bike as well.

My knees were hurting - ouuuuuch! - and I really really did not want to ride again today but my hubby teased me through it.  “No pain, no gain,” and “Quitchyer whinin’,” said in just the right I’m-joking-but-c’mon-tone … and I was up on that bike and working through the pain.  After a mile-and-a-half, my muscles warmed up and my knees stopped screaming at me.  After two miles, I was feeling strong.  We went to the bookstore and back, and my knees are feeling better now than they did before we left.  How weird is that?!?

736

Friday:  272.6 lbs., burned 2651 calories, consumed 1589.
Today:  273.6 lbs., Activities:  9.22 mi. on the real bike.

We got a late start today so we modified our plans.  Instead of riding our bikes to the event in the town south of us, we put the bikes on the back of the Jeep and drove to a different event in a town north of us.  It was an art festival, which sounded like a fun place to ride around on our bikes - unless the streets were too crowded to ride, then we’d just park the bikes and walk.

But when we got to the event, it wasn’t what we’d imagined.  It was an art festival, yes, but it was not on blockaded streets, it was in a grassy fenced pasture.  And though there was no charge to get into the festival, there was a $5 fee for parking the Jeep, and then they wouldn’t let us bring the bikes in.  Pshaw!  We left.

Since we were in that town anyway, we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant in the whole world - an Italian restaurant which, among other things, serves the best coffee & cannoli anywhere - but I didn’t do it, I was strong!  My husband was all, “Oh we’re gonna go for a lonnnng bike ride so if you want a cannoli you can have a cannoli,” but still I didn’t go for it!  While we were eating, we decided we’d go bike-riding in the town’s downtown area, which should at least provide some interesting scenery.

We ended up putting in almost nine-and-a-quarter miles, riding around downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods - and also getting a hotel room :o) and that’s where I am right now!  The pool and jacuzzi closes at 11pm so we’re going to indulge ourselves in a nighttime dip in just a little while.  I know my muscles are going to be grateful for the hot water! 

 721

Thursday:  271.4 lbs., burned 2284 calories, consumed 1563.
Today:  272.6 lbs., Activities:  6 mi. on the exercise bike.

I stayed within my calories today but it sure didn’t feel like I was on a diet.  Hubby and I went out to lunch and I ate eggs and french toast and one slice of bacon.  The french toast was yummy so I didn’t even put syrup on it - it didn’t need it.  Then for dinner I ordered the pasta alfredo from Pizza Hut.  OMG that was yummy.

Kevin went to a friend’s house tonight and I didn’t feel like riding around again so I put in my time on the exercise bike instead.  Did six miles while watching the movie “Selena.”  I still haven’t seen the end - though I know how her real life story ended. 

Tomorrow we’re going to some kind of festival, riding our bikes there.  Woohoo!

711

Wednesday:  274.2 lbs., burned 2884 calories, consumed 1525.
Today:  271.4 lbs., Activities:  nada.

Was I ever surprised when I stepped on the scale this morning!  I’ve been waiting for this, the sudden dip that happens oh, about once a month!  I have no doubt that tomorrow I will follow the usual pattern and have put back a couple pounds again.  But the pattern also says that eventually I will burn it off and that sudden dip will become a reality - an actual, countable loss.  Yay!

“Almost fourteen” pounds sounds so much more significant to me than “twelve” did.  Also, today’s weight is so close to the bottom of the 270’s… I would love to wave goodbye to that particular group of ten forever and ever.  I didn’t think I’d ever get out of the 280’s and I’ve been here in the 270’s since March 9 - a month and a half!  But hey, at least I’m seeing progress.  Woohooo!

Both knees were sore today so I took the night off from bike-riding.  It’s back to the regimen tomorrow though - and then hubby and I are already planning a bike trip on Saturday to a neighboring town (about 7 miles away).  So I’ll definitely be breaking 100 miles this month.  :o)

692

Tuesday:  275.0 lbs., burned 2620 calories, consumed 1351.
Today:  274.2 lbs., Activities:  5.67 miles on the real bike.
April Total:  99.92 miles!

I did something this evening that I haven’t done for a long, long time.  I went for a ride on my bike — alone.  Kevin went to church (Wednesday night bible study) with one of his friends, so I had to decide:  skip the exercise tonight?  use the exercise bike instead?  or just bite the bullet and go out there and pedal through the wind alone?

I decided that it was silly to go on being so intimidated by the possibility of running into one of those jerks who cannot look at an overweight person without belittling them.  That’s what was stopping me?  What would I tell one of my children if they told me that?!?  I would say, “Don’t give an asshole that kind of power over you!!!”

Yeah, that’s definitely what I’d say.  LOL.

So I roamed through my neighborhood and through the neighboring neighborhood and I waved at folks in their yards and said hello to folks out walking and climbed hills and coasted down them and was gone for an hour and I have to admit, it was great.  No one to discuss the route with, I just went where ever the front of my bike led me.  I enjoyed the solitude.  I wished at one point that I had brought a book with me, it would have been cool to stop somewhere for a drink and a rest before coming back home.

Oh yeah, I’d definitely do it again.  =)

682

Monday:  275.2 lbs., burned 2576 calories, consumed 1504.
Today:  275.0 lbs., Activities:  3 miles on the real bike.

I have a new favorite lunch.  A few days back, one of my co-workers made herself a cold turkey-and-cranberry sandwich and I had never heard of such a thing.  She said it was a tradition in her family when they ate leftovers at Thanksgiving.  So I tried it, only instead of bread I rolled it into a fat-free tortilla, I used deli smoked turkey, and added a generous layer of lettuce.  Yummm!  The whole wrap totaled only 185 calories - the cranberry sauce was only 43 calories of it but wow the combination of flavors was very cool.

I’m so easily amused. 

Kevin and I went for a bike-ride today on our real bikes.  His arm is healing (has a really impressive scab going on) but he wasn’t in his usual good mood, so we only went three miles and came home.  Hopefully he’ll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Hey, today I’m at a grand total of 93.14 miles for the month!  I think I’ll make my goal of 100 miles for April!!!  How cool is that?!?

I’m feeling more and more strength in my legs now.  When I first started riding regularly, I spent all my time sitting on my ass.  Then when I started tackling hills, I started standing up when necessary so that I could use my own weight to push each pedal down, but I couldn’t maintain that standing position for long, my legs were just not strong enough.  Now I find I can stand up and pedal quite frequently - just to pick up speed, not just for the hard uphills.  It’s still a bit hard on my knees - but not nearly as hard as it once was.

I also noticed something just in the last few rides that I never noticed before:  I can feel the muscles straining in my abdominal muscles.  I didn’t think I even had abdominal muscles!!!  Ha!  When I’m pedaling hard, either for speed or for uphill, I can feel it across my midsection, the tightening of muscles that I don’t remember feeling before!  I know they’re buried down there under mounds of fat, but holy crap!!  They are there!!  Wooohoooo!!

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Saturday:  274.6 lbs., burned 2887 calories, consumed 1673.
Sunday:  273.8 lbs., burned 3525 calories, consumed 1583.
Today:  275.2 lbs., Activities:  4 miles on the exercise bike.

Saturday my husband and I went out on a quest for yet another bike.  My oldest son, Eric, wants to ride with us too, but he wants a bike like Dad’s.  So Mike and I went to garage sales and thrift shops, hoping to find a nice used deal.  No such luck, we didn’t find anything, but I’m certain that the quest will continue until we either (a) find the perfect in-great-shape-for-a-steal used bike or (b) say oh-what-the-hell and buy him a brand-new bike.  I’m hoping for (a).

So Saturday evening my hubby, our youngest son, Kevin and I rode our bikes to the bookstore and back.  It was a nice 4.6 mile outing.  Then yesterday - Sunday - we decided to ride up to Home Depot, duplicating our trip from Friday, only this time with Hubby along.  It was awesome - our 8.75 mile trip was totally fun and enjoyable - until we were about a half-a-block from home.  There we are, the three of us cruising down the hill, laughing with the wind in our faces, when suddenly Kevin’s front wheel went out of control and he and his bike hit the pavement - HARD.

I slammed on my brakes and I don’t even remember getting off my bike and going to him.  He was already getting up off the ground and he was moaning and gagging - he’d landed on his handlebars in his stomach and at that moment he felt like he was going to lose his dinner.  He had road-rash on both forearms - much worse on his left - but other than that, he was unhurt.

As hard as he hit the road, I honestly thought we’d be going to the emergency room with a broken bone or fractured skull.  Scared the crap outta me.  I know it was traumatic for him, seeing as he was the one hurt but I will never, ever get over worrying about my kids and hurting when they get hurt!

Today neither one of us felt like going out for a bike ride, so I put in 4 miles on the exercise bike instead. 

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