Update on Progress

So… It’s June. The first pic, me at 172 pounds in January of this year. The second pic is me at 135 pounds in June of this year.

I’ve got another 5 pounds to lose, but I’m not really “working” it right now. I’m still watching what I eat during the day, but generally eating a bigger dinner than I ought to for weight loss. So I’ve been hovering at the 135 mark for a few weeks… and I’m ok with that.

I need to get back into my water-and-stairs routine daily and stop eating out so much to shed those last few pounds, but I just haven’t been in the “zone” lately to want it enough. Not to worry- I’m so close I won’t drop the ball now! Especially when next weekend is earmarked for a new wardrobe purchase!

The bottom line is that I feel great, better than I’ve felt in years. My skin is better, my heartburn issues are much less than they were, even my cracked heels are healing up some. With a predominant history of diabetes in my family, the extra weight I was carrying was just asking for trouble. And I have more energy!

Easter Candy!! Everywhere!!

So, what do YOU do when there are two marshmallow chocolate eggs left over and 2 peeps?  I mean, you can’t give some kids more than the others… they KNOW.

All this Easter candy around is driving me crazy.  I’ve absently eaten a handful of M&M’s, a small peanut butter egg and a couple jelly beans so far… I didn’t even want them.  They were just there.

I will be glad to get back home and back to work and back in my routine!

More Wardrobe Malfuntions

First of all, luck ‘o the Irish to ya!  Erin go braugh and go kiss someone because they are Irish.  Hey if you can get away with it…

So, yesterday I pull on some typical weekend pants… and they won’t stay up.  I can literally put them on and take them off without unbuttoning them.  No, they don’t have elastic in the waist.

So this morning, I decide to see if I can fit into a pair of size 8 wool slacks just for the heck of it.  They are tailored and lined and were expensive, so they tend to run a little larger.  Can you believe they fit?  Oh, yes they did!

OK, so I have a serious muffin top wearing them but that’s easily covered with a blousy shirt  that ties at the waist.  How silly is it that I insist on wearing these pants today just because I can?  Turns out it’s very silly as I just caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom and realized they are too short.

So what, did I gain height when I lost weight?  Or have I always worn these as high waters?  Either way, these are going in the donate box when I get home!

An Interesting Diet Strategy

An unexpected outside force has impacted my dieting these last two weeks. The one thing that can put me in knots and actually make it hard to eat.

I’ve been dating.

Whether or not it works out, doesn’t really matter when it comes to dieting. The nerves of being out with someone for the first time in, um… forever or so… means I can hardly choke down a bite.

I had actually sorta planned to think about maybe kinda trying to get out more in June, when I’m at my goal weight, but not now. And to be honest, the June plan was about planning to think about going out more, not actually go or anything.

But… planning doesn’t really cover everything does it? So when this guy asked me to go salsa dancing with him I thought, why not? You don’t find guys who dance very often, so I didn’t want to pass that up. And he seems pretty nice.

Funny weight-loss related story: Last night, we’re playing pool and he says, “Um, I think you need to go check your pants, I think the hooks in the front have come undone.” ROFL!! I bought clothes in December for going back to work. They fit then… but the pants I was wearing last night had gotten too loose. (YAY!) Because I’m not buying any clothes until I reach my new size, I just kind of pulled them tighter and put a safety pin in to hold them shut… but the edge rolled over and the silver hooks were just hanging out there for all to see. Wardrobe malfunction…

Too soon to say if this will turn into anything more permanent, but it’s given me a clear advantage… not only can I hardly eat, I’m getting out instead of sitting in front of the computer. Who knew the real world could be sorta fun?

My Clothes Fit!

Today I’m wearing an outfit that I wore about 4 weeks ago… and shouldn’t have. I stuffed myself into it, held my breath and hoped for the best. But today I put it on and it fits!! Loosely, even.

Finally some concrete proof that the weight loss is having an effect- I am super motivated now. I’m even planning a trip to the gym tonight!

Conference Crazies

While I usually lose weight at conferences from missed meals and late nights, I’m not so sure about this one. I drank a lot more wine than I usually did… but I don’t remember ordering more than 1 a night. It seems they just appeared as the first one was about to be gone… but I did a TON of walking so I think it all balanced out. I may not have lost, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a gain.

I was happy to meet the very tall, very lean and very nice Simon Heseltine on this trip and catch up with Jenn. (We both tried a little subliminal sabotage on each other… ) I still don’t know why Simon thinks he needs to lose weight, but it’s fun having him on board.

Sooooooo….

What did I eat this week? Oh dear… a different nationality each night!

Night 1: Christine Churchill and I ate burritos. They were good! Not sure why we picked burritos- I think we were just tired of walking. (Reminds me of the last time I was in London and Jill Whalen and I ate pizza because we weren’t sure what else to try.)

Night 2: Thai food. You’ve seen the pictures on Simon’s blog…it was a lot of food. And a lot of fun. Poor John Marshall- he was sitting across from me and saw me pull out the credit card to pay and offered to pick up my dinner so we didn’t have to hassle with the card. Unfortunately, I was paying for Chris Churchill’s dinner (we kind of traded off who paid) so he ended up paying for both of us. (I tried to let him off the hook, but after a good laugh, he still insisted on paying.) What a nice gesture!

Night 3: Brazilian Steak House. Death by Meat. It was interesting… men walking around with big swords of various roasted meats and they would slice some off onto your plate. Andrew Goodman seemed to find something funny about my comments about meat on sticks… also it was Mikkel De Mib Svensen’s birthday. I did NOT eat the desserts someone ordered.

Night 4: Mediterranean with Chris and Mikkel. I limited myself to a chicken-tomato sauce appetizer. But I seriously needed to eat before we went to the SES after party, where I drank way too much. (Some people consider falling down twice to be exercise… leaving my purse behind at the bar was definitely additional exercise! Thanks again to Matt Paine for walking me back and finding the handbag. )

Night 5: Cuban food. I love cuban food, but settled on a chicken in garlic sauce appetizer. Who needs to eat when you have such interesting company? I ended up at a table with John Marshall and his sister and brother-in-law and we had a really fun and entertaining conversation.

Night 6: Indian food in Covent Garden. Mona Elesseily and I specifically went searching for Indian food. It took a while to find a place and even longer to get our food! When it finally arrived, it was very good. I ate too much rice but managed to avoid the bread and crispy things that come with the meal.

Breakfast was usually a skinny latte from Starbucks and lunch was picked out of the conference lunch bags- never very much there that I wanted to eat.

Dance Your Way Skinny?

OK, maybe “dance” is too strong of a word. Before I go any further, Happy Valentine’s Day, all!

I read somewhere (that I can’t find now) that you burn a few extra calories by listening to music. Not much, but it stimulates brain activity and that can’t be bad, can it?

Since my MP3 player disappeared last summer I haven’t really done the music-while-working thing, but my oldest got a nice iPod for Christmas…

Putting on headphones is like going into your own little world and it’s been rare that I’ve had an opportunity to have my own little world. Either I’ve had kids to listen out for, employees coming in and out, phone ringing constantly or even officemates just talking to me the whole time. It’s a rare luxury for me to feel like I’m allowed to tune out and tune in to my own tunes.

But my new cubiclefarm job puts me in the middle of a large group of very quiet workers. Very quiet. Which makes it ideal for a little tuneage to accompany my day. I just have to hold back from singing out loud, which sometimes is very difficult to do.

I don’t think it’s going to show a significant change, but I know I’ve been toe tapping along with my music all day and that can’t hurt. Maybe even a little shoulder dancing when no one was looking. (At least I hope no one was looking.)

Tomorrow: Benchmark day.

Don’t You Love Being an Adult?

Adults get to make their own choices. They don’t “have” to do anything, they choose to do it. I never realized taking a low-carb approach to dieting would fuel so much debate- add weight loss to the religion and politics ban on polite conversation. People get very passionate about it.

Here’s a tip for everyone out there who thinks they know best: Do what works for you. Thank you for your concern but I’ve read everything you are about to tell me about the dangers of low carb eating.

When it comes to losing weight, we all have our own quirks, weaknesses and cravings. We do our research, try some things out, and decide for ourselves what makes sense. That’s the beauty of being an adult- we get to decide what we eat, when and how much.

It’s great that you have an opinion, it’s great that you’ve watched the Today show and heard a nutrition guru speak, it’s great that you’ve read an article or two. Good for you! Go put all that knowledge into practice and show us all by example that you know the “right way” to lose weight.

How about this: You keep all your stories of your friends and cousins and aunts and husband’s co-workers wives dieting disasters to yourself and I’ll keep making my own choices.

Thank you for your concern, I know you mean well. Now shut it.

Being Home = Bad

Ok now, this is why I’ve gotten so fat! A weekend at home with the kiddos and I’m losing it.

My weekends are usually just me as the kids go off to visit their Dad, but this weekend there was just too much going on with birthday parties and other happenings and to top it off, my sister’s 3 kids stayed over as well. (She and her hubby went off for the weekend and since she’s watching my kids for a week next week while I’m in London… it’s not like I could really say no!)

So first, there’s the PTO bingo friday night …. with pizza.

Then there’s the being around the house all day with the kids snacking constantly and leaving open bags and containers sitting around the kitchen.

When it’s just me, myself and I, I pretty much stick to the same plan I have during the work day- portioning out my food in the morning and pacing myself through the day eating every few hours. But something about having the kids around just kicks in the urge to eat.

I have no idea why.

So, on top of everything else, I ran across a box of semi-sweet baking chocolate in the cabinet and decided that eating a half of one wouldn’t really hurt anything. But then I got to thinking, when am I ever going to use that other half? And I mean, the wrapper is open now… it was just tormenting me. So, I ate the other half.

I was surprised to find that the dark chocolate square was actually a lot better choice than the Weight Watcher’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sundae I had later that evening. The semi-sweet chocolate actually has very few carbs (because it’s not that sweet) and a lot of cacao (34%).  The almonds I munched on mindlessly were actually the biggest offender.

I hate to say that my day’s diet consisted of 3 slices of swiss cheese, a strip of bacon, a half a can of almonds, a couple Laughing Cow cheese wedges, a side salad, a Weight Watchers Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae and a block of chocolate. I’m not proud of it.

My exercise this weekend consisted of laundry. Lots of laundry.

I can’t wait to get back to work tomorrow and get away from the jokes and the and the and get the weight loss routine rolling again.

Thank you, SEOsFightfat- without the contest I think it would have been a lot worse. I was really feeling like giving up and going on a carb binge this weekend… but I fought it off.

Now, it’s time for

Chocolate, My Nemesis

After 5 days of perfect low carbing, yesterday I screwed up. The first part wasn’t so bad… I walked to the bank and then on my way back, I stopped at Quizno’s and ate one of their 200 calorie Sammies. (Oh man, was it good!) I ripped off about a third of the super yummy flatbread to save on carbs, but it was really, really hard to throw it away.

The problem with a few carbs is that they lead to wanting more carbs… by the time I got home, I was crashing and looking for something else to eat when I found them… in the top cupboard over the sink… the chocolate squares I bought at the after Christmas sales.

Justifying to myself that chocolate is an antioxidant (and really good for you. Really!) I practically inhaled most of a square. My daughter saw me eating it and said, “Are you allowed to eat chocolate on a diet?”

Shamed, I gave her the rest of it. But then… there were 7 others waiting in the cabinet. Much to everyone’s joy, I quickly handed them out to the 4 kids I had last night (my nephew was over) and got rid of most of them… but one of the dark chocolate squares was still there. Yes, I caved. I ate one and a half squares of really decadent chocolate.

While my intention was to do extra exercise to mitigate the damage, it didn’t happen. I ended up sitting on my rear watching Project Runway most of the night. And… ahem… eating whole grain, low fat quesadillas. Maybe one too many of those too.

Staying off the scale today because I don’t wanna see!