Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry I've been bad about keeping up with my blog.  It's been a crazy few weeks in so many ways.  This is the first time in 10 years I haven't worked about 80 hours during Holy Week.

I've been making the most of it.  Gardening, shopping, cooking (both good and naughty foods), decorating the house, cleaning, general running around - it was GLORIOUS!!!

This is what normal people do?  How cool.  It's beginning to sink in that I'm a normal people and that I've finally transitioned into humanity.  Hooray!!!  How appropriate that I've come to this conclusion the week we celebrate Easter?  I am indeed the same woman, but with a completely new life, and I am blissfully happy about that.

Now, for the good news.  I have finally made my second 5 pound goal.  18 more of them to go!  I CAN and will do this.  But I think I'm going to have to wait until after this week to see some decent numbers on the scale - I'm enjoying peoplehood A LOT! 

I figure it's a fair trade - after all, this ditching the fat suit isn't about doing it as fast as possible.  It's about changing lifestyles, being conscious of what goes in my mouth and how much I'm moving.  I'll be moving plenty this week, so I'm planning to enjoy life - even if I'm a bit sore from working the garden.

I truly feel as if spring is here - in here *points to heart* and here *turns in a circle arms outstretched in joy and abandon*!

Peace my friends, peace.

Ahhh... Sweet Relief! Literally

Well, I made it through week one of the experiment and darned if it didn't work like a charm.  I'm down 3 lbs from last week.

Apparently my body (and mind) prefer this cycling thing.  I could tell even just a couple of days into this that it was going to work for me.  My attitude was better, I found it MUCH easier to stay within my calorie limits for the day, and even the Low-cal days weren't so bad because I knew I'd be able to get relief if I could just stick it out for a few days.

I cheated and jumped on the scale on Wednesday, just to see whether it was working or not, and DANG! I weighed less in the afternoon dressed than I did in my pjs first thing in the morning on my last weigh-in.

Yesterday, my lowest calorie day, WAS tough - there's no question.  But I had the memory of the number on the scale that went down and the thought of: "This IS working, just stick with it for a few more hours" going through my head and yup, I made it.  With a couple calories to spare!

I can see some changes in my face again, which is my favorite part of dropping pounds, and overall, I really feel like I'm making some progress. On top of that, I have more hope today than I did at the beginning of this journey. (Can you tell I'm a little excited?)

I'm two months in, and I hadn't been seeing the progress I wanted to: only 8 lbs in 2 months.  BUT, I'm making progress in the fact that I've finally found a plan that is working for me!  And, heck, 8 lbs gone is 8 lbs I'm not lugging around anymore!

Whooohooo!!!  Life is good! Fat suit, get ready to rumble!!!

Cycling? Me?

No, not on a bicycle, but rather intake.  Changing it up.
Obviously, since I haven't lost nearly as much as I thought I would by this point in time, something isn't working.
Sooo... we're going to try cycling my intake - loads of food on Friday, less on Saturday, less on Sunday and so on, until Thursday rolls around and it's almost a fast.
I might be able to pull that off, and with a crappy little old lady metabolism, this might just shake it up enough to get some significant loss out of me.
Damned fat suit - get off me already!

Busy is good... and sometimes it isn't.

Sooo... once again, it was technically (Fri. scale said one thing, re-do on Sat said another -lots lower) a no-loss week last week. 

Am I surprised? no.  Disappointed? not really - and here's why.

I'm learning to try new things, food-wise at least.  So that's a positive change.

I'm eating healthier in general.  That's a positive change.

I have a better attitude about getting/keeping active.  That's a positive change.

The negative comes from the fact that being busy makes it harder to actually live these wonderful, positive changes.  The dreaded school play has stolen my workout partner (who happens to be a delightfully insane 12 year old mini-me).  The other thing that this evilness called a school play has stolen from me for the past 3 weeks is the ability to do my weekly cooking for the family.  Having meals already in the fridge all week had been the modus operandi of the family for the past 2 months.  (Geez, has it been that long already?)

You would think I would eat healthier and exercise more when left to my own devices (and NO, my perv friends - you know who you are - not THOSE devices).  But it simply is not easier to eat healthier when I'm alone.  I found that I would either not eat (bad for me) or eat whatever I could find in the freezer (really bad for me) or worst of all, just graze all night long.  Soooooo....

The black hole of doom known as the Middle School School Play is over!!! My workout parter is back and I spent all day Saturday AND Sunday cooking some amazing recipes for the week.  Watch out fat suit - you've been served!

Running around like a Chicken with my head chopped off - not a good idea...

Been busy...

It's been a crazy couple of weeks here at the fat farm.  Daughter has school play going on, which means practices until ungodly hours every night, making sure she has her black clothes ready (she's on stage crew) and trying to get quick healthy meals for the hubby.

Blech... I want my normalcy back.  Although I have to admit it has been a bit of fun being home by myself at night, exercising at will and catching up with my facebook buddies.  The other advantage is I can cook what I want for me. 

Scallops and green beans - salads galore, it has been kind of fun to cook what I like without worrying if everyone else will like or even eat the evening's fare.

On the other side, we are NOT getting our sleep so it's a bit like living in a viper's den - you never know when you're going to get bit, but you can be reasonably sure it's coming.

Oh, and how is losing the fat suit going?  welll..... Friday was kind of fun.  I bought a new scale - the weight watchers one - which we will be using from now on.  Heehee, it's calibrated a bit lower than the crappy old one we've had for 20 years.

Without actually losing more than a few ounces, I managed to drop 2 1/2 pounds this week.  and yes, I'm counting it... mainly because it's the scale I'm going to be using from now on, and since I suck at math, to keep adding the difference between the old scale and new one would just confuse the heck out of me.

Sooo - all in all, sucess! (sort of)  Daughter was really excited too, because not only did she drop the two pounds from the scale, she's dropped a real pound.  She's now beggin money off dad to put aside for her shopping spree as well.

Since we're going to get back on track after this week is over, we're just chalking it up to craziness and not stressing too much over calories, but we're still trying to be careful since there won't be any scale glitches to save our butts.

I am now exhausted from cooking all day yesterday on top of not sleeping from the crazy schedule.   What's on the menu this week?  well, we have chicken, and veggies.  Burbon Street chicken chunks, steamed summer squash, baked green beans, baked sugar snap peas, cucumber sticks, and other odd assortments of veggies.  Even though they will be quick meals, at least they're relatively healthy.

Spring is in the air and I'm going to be ready for it!  (can you tell from the stream of consciousness writing I'm not getting enough sleep?)  Remind me to post about coffee tomorrow!!

Indulger's remorse

Ok, we're having fun here right?

Notsomuch.  I knew it was going to be difficult to make up my overintake on calories this weekend.  And I AM being very careful for the rest of the week.

What I didn't expect was the freaking GUILT!  I was ok with it when I decided and I went in knowing what I was doing and was going to have to do to get back on track.  Now, I'm like that country song: "it started off Hey cutie, where are you from, and it turned into oh, no what have I done?"

I'm at the oh, no what have I done stage... ugh!  WTF was I thinking?  I know mr scale is not going to be overly kind two weeks in a row.

I only have 2 lbs to go till my next goal.  sigh.  I'll have to wait another couple of weeks, that's all.  It's not the end of the world right?  RIGHT??

Yes, it is not the end of the world, and it was very eye-opening for me to realize that a weekend of overindulgence was really my previous norm.  So, lesson learned, life lived and I'm back on track.

Now, move over Michael Jackson, I've got some calories to burn...
I feel...

BAD!

Being Bad... in a different way.

Sooo... confession time.

I took the weekend off. I ate some really, truly bad stuff and I know I'll pay for it.

Friday night: chili (homemade, but added sour cream and a little cheese)
Salad - ranch yogurt dressing
girl scout mint cookies and milk

Saturday:
1 whole bagel (butter, not cream cheese)
2 pickled eggs
McDonald's shamrock shake
Guacamole (homemade) with organic corn chips (not baked)
Souvlaki (homemade with lamb, no feta and homemade tzatzki sauce, lots of lettuce)
Wegman's white cake (1 piece minus most of the frosting)
more girl scout cookies and milk

Sunday:
Scrambled Eggs (yes with the yolk, and made with cream)
Bacon
reduced fat cinnamon roll (out of a package, how embarrassing)
green beans (liberally sprinkled with macadamia oil)
sauteed mushrooms (in butter and marsala)
potato salad (homemade, not too much mayo)
the biggest, juciest honkin' man burger ever made on a flat top griddle
and yes, more girl scout cookies with milk.

Oh... am I going to pay....

But you know, I knew what I was doing this time.  I knew I was going over my fat and calorie intake
for a total of 3 day intake of over 5500 calories!!! Yikes... well, it's not as bad as it sounds, I was only around 1000 total calories over my normal alottment.

The other difference (besides being aware of just how bad I was being) is that I know I've got to work extra hard to keep from a gain this week.  I'm only 2 lbs off from another goal soo, it's back to yogurt and lean meats and veggies again.

I hate having to work harder, but ohhhh... such fun on a weekend off!!