Una ragazza magra

Well, this time my blogging silence meant I took a trip off the deep end.  It all started with a visit to my parents last weekend.  I knew I was going to go off (what else can you do at an Italian buffet??), and then I knew x was coming up, and then y, and you get my drift.  We’ve started eating lunch once a week with DH’s work friends, and that usually presents a bit of an issue.  Most places are difficult to navigate on my diet since it’s so calorie, sodium, and carb restricted.  On WW, I think I could do it without much of a problem, but even when my calories aren’t too bad, I still hold water, my weight spikes, and it takes me a couple of days to get back to where I was.  So, if this happens once a week, then half my time is spent playing catch-up.  I don’t really know what I’m going to do about that, to tell the truth.  If you have any brilliant ideas, I’d love to hear them.

That said, this once a week lunch did not at all force me to eat almost half a gallon of ice cream (in several sittings, at least) or two boxes of eggo bake shop muffin tops (very yummy– too yummy, in fact, for me to ever buy again), or a frozen pizza (single serve, at least), or the huge amount of cookie dough, or any of the other numerous and very bad for me things that I consumed over my brief “vacation.”

I think the biggest problem with a cheat like that is that it makes it so hard to go back on a diet again.  I did it today, and provided I don’t have a relapse this evening, things are fine.  I even have a planned snack coming up.  I also worked out, and I didn’t stop working out this week, even though I was eating incredibly poorly (however, the food DID seriously affect my workouts– I was so full that I felt really icky and cut out some cardio).

It was also tempting to just stay off my diet because this weekend DH and I are going to Ohio to an outlet mall, and there will be eating out.  We will also be at my parents to pick up a new dog (so excited!), and I’m sure there will be eating out there as well.  However, I persevered today and decided that even if I had to go off again, there was nothing to justify not being on plan TODAY.  I could potentially even stay OP tomorrow and then only have Saturday and Sunday affected.  At least I have no holiday cookouts headed my way.

Unfortunately, the sad effects of this little foray into the world of “real” food have left me with an additional SEVEN pounds.  I know a lot of this is actual food weight as well as water weight, but I definitely took in more calories than I burned, so at least a couple pounds of that is real (ugh).  I was doing so well, too.  On Friday I weighed in at my lowest ever– a full pound below where I was before DH got back from Iraq…and then I go and do something like this to myself and have to back track again.  It was like I was in denial the whole time I was off.  What is wrong with me?!?!?

Anyway, I plan to blog the rest of the week until the weekend gets here (when I’ll be away), and I’ll post again on Monday with the results of another weekend away from home.  Here’s the damage for today, and I must say, it’s pretty respectable:

weight at home:  167

Things have been going so well, and then I had to eat at Pizza Hut for lunch today.  I say “had to” because we ate lunch with two of DH’s work friends, and that’s where they chose.  There are seriously no good options there.  I had half a P’zone and some spinach and artchoke dip, and the calories were seriously high.  I ate smaller portions than I normally would have, so I guess I did decently there.

However, once that was over and I had “blown” my diet already, I decided I might as well have a couple of cookies while I was at it, so I baked up a couple from the frozen cookie dough (not a good thing to have on hand) and ended up eating about eight, I think.  Ugh.  Anyway, the grand total could be worse, and I didn’t eat breakfast, nor do I plan to eat dinner (not hungry, imagine that), so I still have a small calorie deficit today.

Today was my WI day, and I had planned to go before Pizza Hut, but it just didn’t work out timing wise, so I had to go after– 2 lbs. up, of course.  Still, I think most of that is food and water weight.  I drank two 32 oz. glasses of water with lunch, and I still had most of that in me, lol, when I weighed in.  I think it’s still there, too, which means I’m holding water.  Hopefully it will be gone by Friday.  It’s also that time of month, too, so who knows how that’s affecting me.  I always hold water around that time.

Despite these setbacks, however, I did manage to burn some serious calories working out.  I ellipticaled pretty hard for 45 minutes, burning 700 calories in the process– not too shabby.  Hopefully that will offset some of the eating today.

weight at MRC:  165.5

weight at home: 160

Yesterday went decently well, as did today.  My calories are still in check, but I need to get back to eating the “right” balance of foods.  I’ve gotten lazy and have been skipping some of my protein as well as the veggies.

I think that by tomorrow morning I will have recovered from the Taste of Tippecanoe.  I weighed in at 161 this evening (full of water from my workout, I might add), and I always weigh a couple of pounds less in the morning, so I think it will be good news tomorrow.  WI is also tomorrow for me, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of that.  I was only one pound away from my lowest ever last week, so hopefully I’ll cross that line tomorrow.  I’ll let you know!

weight at home:  161.5 (I dipped into the hummus that was leftover from the Taste this weekend.  I don’t think the calories were that bad, but the salty pretzels I dipped in it didn’t help my sodium levels any.  Hopefully all water weight will be gone by tomorrow.)

The Taste of Tippecanoe happened.  Today I woke up, weighed myself as always, and clocked in at an all-time low of 154.5!  That’s right– I even weighed five times in different spots on the floor (perhaps it was unlevel?!?), and it gave me the same number each time.  I even weighed later in the day, and it was not a fluke.  I had thought this weekend would pose no food hazards, but I was terribly wrong.

We went to the farmer’s market today (walked 1 mile to downtown and 1 mile back, so we got some exercise in).  I ate a couple of bites of a danish and a couple of bites of a blueberry scone.  DH finished the rest.  However, when we were there, we noticed they were setting up for something big…you guessed it, the Taste of Tippecanoe.  I had never been to a Taste of before, and it was really cool.  I ate way off plan (dessert included), but I’m not overly insanely stuffed.  It was bad food, but I’m hoping that if I jump right back on tomorrow that it won’t do too much damage.  We did walk to and back again, so that brings me to a total of 4 miles walked today, and I don’t usually do anything on the weekends by way of exercise.

All in all, I wish I hadn’t had to go off my diet, but I had a really great time, and it was a very unique experience.  Also, I’ve found I’m a fan of walking downtown, so that might become a more frequent weekend activity for DH and me.

weight at home:  154.5– briefly, lol.  This is way low, but my scale has had a dead battery all week, so I really have no point of comparison.  We’ll see what happens tomorrow and Monday.

It’s been an up and down week, but I’ve still been making an effort, even though I’ve stopped posting (just been busy this week).  On Monday I ate out at BD’s Mongolian Grill, and I did better than I could have– one bowl of stir-fry (instead of a non-dieting three), and that really isn’t too bad for you anyway.  It was, however, LOADED with salt, so that made me hold some serious water for a few days. 

On Tuesday I went to a ladies’ night progressive dinner (talk about difficult!) where I did eat totally off plan, but I tried not to just totally pig out, so again, had I not been dieting, I would have done worse.  The biggest issue there came with my own dessert– I made a Paula Dean gooey butter cake, but I tweaked it and used orange and chocolate flavors because I love those paired together– it was totally awesome if I do say so myself.  Therein lay my problems– I ate probably a third of the dessert myself.  I cut them up and put them on a plate ahead of time (always a bad idea because then people can’t tell you’ve eaten some), so I had a couple little squares the night before, and then I had a square for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (didn’t eat anything else, though), and then I had several of the leftover ones when I got home…that was probably the worst part of it.  I still have some major food issues.

However, ever since, I’ve been doing okay.  I’ve mainly been subsisting on cheese toast because I’m too lazy to go cook something in my nonexistent kitchen (everything is moved out for floor refinishing this week).  So, while I’ve not been “on plan” I’ve been eating in a way that I should definitely be losing weight.  Overall, I’m down 1 lb. from a week ago– not bad, but not great, either.  On the bright side, I’m only 1 lb. away from my lowest ever, so I should hit that on Tuesday as long as I stay on track this weekend.

Here’s the info for today:

MRC weight:  163.5

After I wrote the last post, I updated my ticker on the bottom right and realized two things:

1.  My BMI is “healthy” again finally.

2.  I have less than 20 lbs. left to go before I get to my goal weight.  That’s pretty amazing, I think, considering where I started from.

Go me!

I had a slight setback today in working out; I forgot my shoes.  That’s right– I got all the way there and realized I didn’t have my shoes (I was wearing flip-flops, not allowed in the workout area).  They close two hours early on Fridays, so it was close, but despite having to go back home and grab my shoes, I still went, and I still did my strength training as well as a 30-minute, 400 calorie elliptical workout.  I had planned to go 15 minutes longer, but I couldn’t quite work that in.  30 minutes is better than nothing, though!

My WI also went very well today.  On Tuesday I was 168, and today I came in at 164.5, a 3.5 lb. loss in 3 days– not too shabby.  I’m now only two pounds away from my lowest weight ever.  I’m super excited to hit that because then the weight will be “real” weight loss and not just catch-up weight loss.  I suppose it’s real no matter when it happens, but you know what I mean.  I’m excited to make progress into previously uncharted territory.

Eating is a little odd today.  I made DH a chicken pot pie (the real homemade kind, not the canned soup, frozen veggies kind).  It was awesome– it was a Paula Dean recipe, so I’m not surprised it was tasty.  I normally don’t even like chicken pot pie, but I wanted to give it a taste since it smelled so good, and it was great.  I think it’s the canned mushroom soup that I don’t like from my mom’s recipe.  Anyway, I ate about four little tastes, so then I wasn’t hungry for lunch (I, of course, could have eaten, but why do it if you’re not hungry and are trying to cut calories?).  So, I just had “dinner,” and we’ll see if I get hungry tonight before I go to bed.  If I do, I’ll have a bar.  If I have the bar, my calorie differntial will still be almost -1,500 for the day, which is also great.

This weekend shouldn’t present too much of a challenge since we aren’t going anywhere, so I’m hoping make a lot of headway in these next couple of weeks before we visit family again.

On Monday I have a body test again with my trainer.  Since I’m within two pounds of my lowest ever, I could potentially also be again at my lowest ever with him– it’s a high goal to shoot for, but I suppose it’s possible.  If nothing else, it will give me a good bit of motivation to do well this weekend.

weight at home:  162.5

MRC weight:  164.5

Today went very well…not much to report.  I avoided a snack buffet at work.  It really helps if I just don’t even go in the break room, period.  Work hasn’t been a problem in months, and before that was one of my biggest challenges.

I didn’t work out today because I teach in the evening, but I plan to go tomorrow and Friday.  Monday is my body test/analysis after eight weeks of working out on my own and with a trainer once a week.  I’ve lost a pretty significant amount of weight (I think about 15 pounds) since the first test, but it’s not due to working out alone (as my trainer will most likely assume) but to my dieting.  Oh well– I’ll take it however I can get it! 

My calories today ware great.  Here’s my report for the day:

weight at home:  164.5 (down 1.5 from yesterday!)

Here’s the latest photo I added.  It was taken at the wedding we were at on Friday.  You can view the rest of my progress pictures here.

I haven’t posted in a few days, but I’m still dieting.  I went with my husband on his National Guard weekend, so I didn’t post these past few days.  Basically, I’m back where I was on Thursday.  I went to a wedding on Friday (small disaster– subway during the day because DH was part of the wedding party, so no time to eat; cake, donut, cheese and crackers at the reception; Uno’s pizza afterward).  It could have been worse, but not much!

If I’m traveling, I never do well.  I try to bring bars, etc. with me, but I inevitably end up eating off plan for dinner, at least.  This weekend was no exception.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse (I had 3.5 rolls– and if I hadn’t been on a diet, I would have eaten twice as many– not joking.)  Then we used DH’s meal voucher to go get dessert at Denny’s around 11 pm.  I had a slice of Hershey cake– it was okay, but just okay.  I mean, it was chocolate and sweet, but for as many calories as it contained, I would have much rather had something else.  However, that didnt’ stop me from eating it ALL!

On Sunday, I attempted to do better– bar for breakfast, skipped lunch inadvertently, and then by the time dinner hit, I was STARVED.  We went to TGI Friday’s because I had a B1G1F coupon, and instead of getting something I’m allowed to have, I ate the cajun chicken shrimp alfredo.  No idea how many calories, but if that wasn’t bad enough, I was still super hungry (DH was, too, in my defense– their portion sizes are insanely tiny for the prices.  We won’t be going back, even with a coupon.), so I decided to bake up some of the cookie dough I had made a few weeks ago (the same stuff that got me last time).  It was super-good, so I baked a second round, and I have no idea how many cookies I had, but I’m guessing it’s around ten– yes, TEN!

So, obviously, this weekend tells me I still have quite a few food issues, especially with regard to binging.  I think this diet is so restrictive/calorie controlled that when I get the chance to go off, I go WAY off.  The only real restraint I showed was when I ate so few (few for me anyway) rolls at Texas Roadhouse.  I focused on eating only 1 per basket that was brought (so, that tells you that DH had the other 3 per basket– how many do you think he ate?!?)  This, obviously, will not work on maintenance.  Also, I’m pretty angry with myself for messing up all my recent progress.  Probably what will happen is I’ll be the same weight on Friday as I was the week before– basically treading water.

It stinks, but at least I have two weekends in a row where nothing will be happening.  I have the most trouble when we travel somewhere, and that won’t be happening again until June 27th, when I know I will definitely be going off because we’re eating at an Italian restaurant/buffet where there are literally no good options, and I really like the food, so there you go.  Still, if I really put my best effort in for two weeks (well, actually two weeks and five days), I could literally be in the 150s– past my lowest ever before DH got back from Iraq.  That consideration is motivation right there.  Now all I have to do is stay strong on the weekend when DH suggests pizza or something…

Today I had a really good workout and burned some serious calories, so that helped a bit.  In the big picture, it’s kind of sad how little exercise really helps.  I say “little” because when you compare it with what eating good/bad can do, at least for me, it’s the biggest factor in weight loss or gain.  I still work out on a regular basis, and that’s great for maintenance and for regular health, but I’m not sure it has a huge impact on weight.  Here’s the breakdown for today:

weight at home:  166

MRC weight:  168 (three pounds up from last Friday.  In my defense, I was wearing jeans, and I have been in workout clothes (knit shorts) most of the times before, so maybe I’m really only two pounds up– might as well stay positive!)