Yes, I have been absent from both here and even my own site, www.w8challenge.com

Thank you so much to those loyal friends who continue to worry about me!

So often we see our fellow weight-loss-bloggers disappear when they are being “bad.”  It’s embarrassing (at least for me!) to come on here and say “I went off plan with food” or “I haven’t exercised all week.”  Especially when those posts are preceded by upbeat ones that make promises that I didn’t keep.

*Sigh.*

But here’s the thing:  July is almost over.  I barely exercised at all this month and my weight is showing it.  It’s so FREAKIN’ HOT is my excuse - but it doesn’t play well considering all the exercise equipment I have inside the air-conditioned house!!

So I’m gonna do it again.  Start over again.  Because, in the end, that’s all we can do, right?  Can’t undo the past, can only move forward.  And if it means I have to “start over” 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times, it doesn’t matter, as long as I keep returning and …

…never give up!

Sorry, lol, that last one just cracked me up.

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Weight today:  232.6       Change since last week:  -4.2 lbs.
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Okay so I went out of town for a couple days and when I came back - *poof!* - I had lost over 4 lbs.  What is up with that?!?  So over July 4th I gained nine pounds, then lost six for a net gain of 2.8 lbs since the end of June.  Weird.  Freakin’ weird.  I’m really happy, though, that it’s three pounds net and not nine pounds net.  That woulda sucked.

I’m still not exercising.  There’s been a lot going on and it feels like I don’t have the time but I know - I mean I KNOWWWWW - that ya gotta MAKE time.  I know this, I just ain’t doin’ it.

UGH!!! Did I just write that?!?  ME??  I wrote a whiney, negative, waaa-waaa sentence which happens to use the word “ain’t” all-cocky-like????  Shame on me!

Ha!  I crack myself up!

Okay so here’s a sentence to counteract that other one up there…

There are 15 days left in July and I AM going to put in at least 20 hours of exercise in those 15 days.

Much better.  =D

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I haven’t been weighing in.  Remember me?  I’m the OCD-gotta-weigh-myself-every-day-maybe-more-than-once-kinda-person?  Oh I’m not gonna change back into the never-weigh-myself-because-I-don’t-wanna-know-kinda-person that I used to be, nuh-uh.  Lately I just need a bit of a break.  From the weighing.  From the counting.  From the day-in-day-out-pressure.

I’m still staying on-plan with food but I’m definitely not “kicking butt” in the exercise department like I was planning to during the month of July!!  Not yet anyway.  The month is still young!

Today I had to take my mom to her doctor’s appointment.  It went well but turned into an all-day-do-all-her-errands-while-she-has-me-captive thing.  One good thing is that I put in almost two hours solid walking.  Until my feet hurt.  My knees ached.  My back hurt.  I was hungry, thirsty, and cranky.  But, she’s my mom, whaddya gonna do.  It’s not like I can tell her No.  No I won’t take you to pick up your prescriptions?  No I won’t take you to WalMart so you can get more lilac baby yarn for the afghan you’re knitting?  No I won’t stop at the grocery store?  No I won’t push you around in the wheelchair?  No I won’t drive you to Subway on the way home?  No I won’t go inside and get your food for you?  Of course I wouldn’t say No to any of those things.  She’s my mom.  And she’s 82 years old.  And she’s not gonna be around forever.

In other news, I’ve discovered Facebook.  Yeah yeah it’s been there all this time and I’ve been resistant to going there and getting sucked in.  But I finally go and submit myself to the sucking-in-process and realize that most of my family is on there and no one told me!  Geesh I feel like the last one to arrive at the party!  It’s kinda fun though, once you figure out how it all works.  I actually found two old-old friends on there, people I haven’t spoken to in 10 or 20 years!!  Very cool!!

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Weight today:  236.8       Change since last week:  +7.0 lbs.
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Okay, my Independence Day feast was awesome, awesome, awesome.  BUT.  It cost me SEVEN pounds.  OMG!!  Is that even possible?  I went off-plan for two days, TWO DAYS!!!  As of Monday my scale said I’d gained ten pounds.  TEN!!  And then in the past two days I lost three which leaves me with a net gain of seven.

It’s really hard to say right now if it was worth it.  The day off was wonderful - I feel like I needed it, needed to get away from all the “no I can’t have that” and the worrying and the counting.  Once I made the decision to have the holiday off, I totally enjoyed the freedom to plan our menu with no limitations.  My family enjoyed it too, LOL!  I spent the whole day cooking, which I never do (generally I hate cooking and avoid it whenever possible).  DS17 didn’t get off work until 4pm so I had the meal on the table when he got home:  Hamburgers and hot dogs (with buns!) and barbeque chicken on the grill, chips and dip, macaroni salad, potato salad, devilled eggs, fixed-up-baked-beans, fruit salad, and then strawberry shortcake for dessert.  This was the menu requested by my men and they dug in and enjoyed.  It’s amazing that a meal that takes all day to cook is devoured in 15 minutes or less!

We followed up the meal with a (rented) movie, went to see the local fireworks display and then shot off our own fireworks in the back yard - with a 11pm treat of smores (marshmallows cooked on the gas grill, lol).  It was the perfect day, framed by the perfect array of food.  On Sunday, I only went off-plan to indulge in some leftovers (didn’t go crazy though) and then Monday I went fully back on-plan.

It was an awesome weekend!  To the tune of SEVEN pounds.  Yikes!

This, I suppose, is testament to how our society views food.  It is so ingrained into us that our happy memories are so closely tied to our food enjoyment.  I enjoyed the fireworks and watching the movie with my men just as much as the food - but if you were to ask me in a few months what I remember about this year’s 4th of July, I can betcha the first thing that will come to mind is that meal.

Eh, the next holiday is -what?  Halloween?  Thanksgiving?  I have a long stretch of on-plan time ahead of me.  I’ll take this stupid seven pounds off again.  And again, if necessary.

I’m so not done with this journey!

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I think I counted wrong a couple times along the way but it’s been approximately one year since I went on the low-carb diet.  I totally expected to have lost more than 50 lbs. by now, but that’s okay.  Sometimes I think, “Well obviously this low-carb plan isn’t working for me anymore” but then when I go off of it I’m hit with such bad cravings that I scramble to get right back on.

With that said, I think I’m gonna take tomorrow off.  It is, after all, a holiday, and there isn’t gonna be another holiday for a long while.  Yeah I took a day off while I was in New Orleans, but this is different.

See how easy justification becomes?  Ha!

My boys want me to make a “traditional” 4th-of-July meal tomorrow, with chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers cooked on the grill and all the cool stuff that goes with that.  I was making a mental shopping list out loud in the car tonight and I kept saying, “Well I can’t have that, but…” After saying that four or five times, it occurred to me that I wouldn’t be eating much of this meal I’m preparing - pretty much nothing but the meat.  No buns.  No potato salad.  No macaroni salad.  No baked beans.  No fruit salad.  No strawberry shortcake (I could have some strawberries but no cake of course).  So yeah.  Meat and strawberries.  Woo.  Hoo.

Yeah I could make me some cauliflower.  I could even make it up to look like/almost taste like potato salad.  But still, it’s not the same as enjoying that meal combination that everyone else will be enjoying.  Because that’s what it’s all about, it’s the combination.  Not just the hot dog, but the bun.  Not just the barbequed chicken, but the baked beans too.

So I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m thinking yeah, one day.  Just one!

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Tonight we went to the movies and saw Ice Age 3.  It was awesome!  We all agreed that it was a great movie with a lot of laughs.  Two thumbs up!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

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Eileen - Day #361 - Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Weight today:  229.8       Change since last post:  -3.8 lbs.
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Wooohooooo!  I am - for the first time in 10 years - down into the 220’s!!!  BARELY into the 220’s but HEY I saw it this morning on the scale, that big shiny TWO, so I’m there!!!  YEAHHHHHH!!!!!

****Happy Dancing****  ****Happy Dancing Some More****

Ahem.

How did I do it, you might ask.  Did I burn a zillion calories this past week?  Did I exercise my butt off?  Did I work extra hard?  Nope.  I was SICK!!!  Arghhhh!!!!  I spent four freakin’ days in BED, laying around doing NOTHING!!  And I lost almost FOUR POUNDS!!!!

*Sigh*  It’s a heckuva way to lose weight but, hey, I’ll take it.

So yeah, sorry I disappeared again but between my mom going into the hospital and me being sick, I haven’t been spending ANY time online.  I haven’t even updated my own stuff on my w8challenge site either!!!  Thank goodness the site basically runs itself now because I just haven’t been around to do anything.

Speaking of which - today is the last day of the JUNE CHALLENGE!!  I just now added the JULY Challenge, so if you are an existing member and you want to continue in July, just click on the GROUP MGR button and July is now listed as a choice (in the third box).  You can join July and still switch back and forth to June.

By the way, my mom is okay.  She had a “dizzy spell” and then fell and couldn’t get back up.  My daughter was there with her and she called 911 and rode with her Grandma in the ambulance to the hospital.  Luckily there were no broken bones (Mom landed on her butt TG LOL), but her cumadin levels were really high (which probably caused the dizziness and disorientation) so they admitted her, kept her for three days and then sent her home.  I’m very happy that her doctor decided to take her off cumadin altogether.  This is the 3rd time her level got too high and it makes her very sick (and at risk for a bad bleed) when that happens.  Mom will be taking Vitamin K and a daily aspirin instead (she has a pacemaker so she needs her blood a bit thinned).

Thank you to everyone for your kind support and well-wishes!!  Y’all rock!!

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Eileen - Day #352 - Sunday

Weight today:  233.6       Change this week:  -1.4 lbs.
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Hey everybody!

Sorry I disappeared off the face of the earth like that!  I had a work-trip to New Orleans and I really expected to be able to post from my hotel room and say, “Hey everybody I’m in New Orleans” but as it turned out I was VERY busy while I was there (work-related busy and non-work-related busy) and so yeah I never did get a chance to post.

But I’m home now!  Exhausted, but happy to be home!

I took a day “off” from my diet while I was gone but nevertheless I’m still down from my peak last week and hopefully that will continue to be a trend.  I haven’t been counting anything (I get so sick of counting counting counting) but by now I know if I’m eating on plan or off plan and I’ve been staying on, well, except for that one day.  Can anyone guess why I went off-plan for a day?  I had to have something that I’ve heard about forever, something yummy that is native to New Orleans, something that comes in threes and has about a kazillion calories.  I’m betting someone here knows!

OMG I could write a freakin’ novel about the trip itself AND all the yummy food I ate while I was there!!  Yummy food that I ate WHILE on plan!!  I will say this - the low-carb diet was MADE for New Orleans!!!!  Rich yummy satisfying foods which don’t NEED the carb-stuff that comes with them!  I happily discarded carby sides and totally enjoyed the delicious array of amazing low-carb entrees that NO had to offer.  Okay my mouth is watering just thinking about them.  =D

Hey, I copied this from my w8c personal page:

Happy Father’s Day!

Edited to add:  YES!  The N’awlins favorite that I just had to indulge in was the classic order of Beignets from Cafe Du Monde!  I thought I’d post a couple pictures.  Careful!  Food porn ahead!  =D

Mm-mm-mm-mm-mmmm!!!

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Eileen - Day #343 - Friday

Weight today:  I dunno, I didn’t weigh in.
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I was a bit absent this week.  It’s been a hectic one, full of family drama.  *Sigh*  Dontcha just love that phrase “family drama?”  It’s borderline redundant.  In my experience, anyway.

Today was my 48th birthday!  My husband bought me a beautiful opal ring (I, uh, picked it out myself over a month ago!) and we went out to the movies and dinner tonight, the four of us (hubby and both my boys… ahem, young men).  It was a really good day.  =D

We went to see Angels & Demons.  I was very impressed!  Ron Howard did a great job with this movie adaptation of the book!  Much better than he did with DaVinci Code!

We didn’t play tennis tonight, and that was my fault.  Earlier in the day I told everyone that I really wanted to play and so since it was my birthday my men agreed that yeah, we’d all go, but then it was so hot outside and I didn’t wanna get all sweaty before the movies, so I changed my mind.

But tomorrow is Saturday!!  Woohoooo!  I’ll definitely play tomorrow!

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Eileen - Day #338 - Monday
Daily intake goals::  < 35g carbs / < 1700 calories
Exercise yesterday:: none
Net carb grams yesterday:  ?      Calories:  ?
Weight today:  234.0     Change:  +3.2    Total weight loss:  -51.2
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What a week! The work-trip was quite productive and very very busy.  I’m very happy to be home.

I went off-plan on Saturday, then on Sunday I ate on-plan all day long, then blew it at the movies.  Yeah, the dreaded popcorn again!  OMG that is the only temptation that gets to me.  I love me my popcorn!

Today I’m back on the wagon!

It’s always incredible to me how much I gain when I eat off-plan.  Three whole pounds this time.  Three!  I’m assuming that it’s partly water-weight from so much salty stuff (low-carb is naturally low-salt) because even though I did go off-plan and eat a buncha stuff I’m not supposed to eat, I know I didn’t eat ten-thousand calories (three pounds worth!)!!!  I’m not worried about it, though, because I’m gonna work it off.

My hubby works the days shift during the summer, so we can play tennis in the evenings!  He worked a ten-hour day today and I left it up to him as to whether or not he wanted to go play and he said yes!  He wanted to eat first, though, so we didn’t get to the courts until 8:15, which meant that there was only about a half-hour of daylight left.  It’s okay, though, we got a half-hour in, of really good sweaty workout.  It was a good re-introduction to exercise!

Yeahhhhh I’m back!!!

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Eileen - Day #332 - Tuesday
Daily intake goals::  < 35g carbs / < 1700 calories / > 64+ oz. water
Exercise yesterday:: 30 min. tennis w/son
Net carb grams yesterday:  33.6      Calories:  1210
Weight today:  230.8     Change:  -0.4    Total weight loss:  -54.4
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Except for my knees, I feel wonderful!  My back is still giving me a twinge now and then but I can stand upright and move normally (not like a disjointed robot, lol) so I am very thankful for that!  I have a big (working) weekend coming up and I’m so happy that I feel so good!

Yeah, I’ll be at a hotel on Disney property from Thursday to Sunday.  I called the resort and asked them if they had tennis courts (omg am I addicted or what?!) and they said that they do have tennis courts but guests need to bring their own rackets and balls (which I expected) BUT it costs 12 BUCKS AN HOUR PER PERSON to use the court!  OMG!!  Poor Walt would be astounded to know that his dream for a happy place for families had turned into such a cash-sucking-leech!

Guess who ain’t-a-gonna be playing tennis.  **Frustrated and exasperated sigh**

Speaking of tennis (lol like I talk about anything else lately), I went to the court with my son last night and tried to play.  I say “tried” because it actually didn’t work out so well.  My knees were hurting me and I couldn’t run.  Granted, I don’t run all that much anyway but last night I couldn’t run at ALL, and that was frustrating me big time.  I know it’s because of the 2 HOURS of tennis that hubby and I put in on Sunday, that my knees are all swollen, but it was annoying nevertheless.  I gave up after only 30 minutes, and I left the tennis court in tears.  (Poor Kevin, I think he thought I was unhinged or something!)  (Okay maybe I was, a little.)  (LOL!!)

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