But I am trying to be good!

Eat, drink, and be merry

My greatest challenge in weight loss is social gatherings, drinking, and overall FUN. I know this is something that my pal Nicole has blogged about in the past and I've realized that it is probably my greatest hurdle to weight loss. For example, my boyfriend and I had talked about seeing a movie on Thursday. I agreed. My plan the entire time has been to go to my Drums Alive class at the Y and then to go to the movie after. Well I mentioned that to him and he was a little upset "I thought we could go get dinner before hand, c'mon it would be FUN!" What?! did someone say fun? I love FUN!!! I politely declined and instead I am going meet him after my class to go directly to the movie. Not as fun, but less expensive and more responsible than FUN. I have also been avoiding making any plans before 7 pm on weekdays so that I never have an excuse not to go to the gym.

Then today I got an invitation to go to a friend's pie potluck. I love pie. I really do. Eating pie definitely falls under the category of FUN, but I said no on that invitation knowing that it would be my undoing and lead to a week of being disappointed in myself and losing the momentum that I have been building.

Yup. I am trying to be good although it may not always be fun.

EDIT - We are going to get dinner before the movie after all, but we are picking a later show so I can work out and then we are going to eat at Ruby Tuesday's (2 for 1 coupon/thought it might be funny) which has a huge salad bar. FUN!

Tangerine dream.

I failed to mention that what really renewed my dedication to lose weight is my brother's wedding in March, which falls on my 26th birthday. The following is my dress.

I want to looks as good as one possibly can in this dress. I have to say the cut and style looked better on me than on the model, but the color...well...that's another story.

In the red.

Drat, I'm in the red by 1.5 points. I need to remember that this is the very best I have done in months and for going to an Indian Buffet on day one, that's pretty good. It was the vegan toffee chocolate that pushed me over the edge. I don't really regret that. That was delicious. I do regret the three tater tots, the granola bar eaten for the sake of boredom instead of hunger, that second piece of bread at my parent's birthday dinner, the pint of beer when a bottle would have been fine, the two life savers, the serving of pretzels, the one piece of sushi, the half and half the one day I decided to put it in my coffee. Those are the things I regret. Those foods that I didn't really care about, that I could have taken or left added up to be: 11.5 points, which is two servings of ice cream, 6 glasses of wine, two small pieces of pizza. Foods I feel deprived of, foods that I love because I ate things that I felt mediocre about. I have to remember that for every single thing I eat - those are less points I have to put to something I really, really love. Then again, I could have just refrained from eating any of those things and then I'd come in way under my points, a feat I have never, ever accomplished. I like to walk the line baby.

Here's to a perfectly on point week next week. It is activity packed. Tomorrow I will do strength training followed by either cardio or pilates, Thursday I will do Drums Alive (it was cancelled last week), Saturday I have plans to go Cross Country Skiing, Sunday plans to do the elliptical and weights at the Y, Monday I have improv class which is fairly physical and Tuesday is yoga.

I am so glad that my legs work again. It's a good feeling.

HRM?

Do you think a heart rate monitor is a must have? Are there any that you would recommend?

I realize that I actually have a really difficult time gauging how effective my workouts are.

What happened?

I have 2.5 flex points left and three activity points. I am not sure how it happened. It just did, and it happened fast. Today was my friend's birthday party. It started with ice skating at the Depot (which I am surprisingly decent at) and then off to Grumpy's for dinner and cake. I had eaten at Grumpy's before and figured I would get a salad but instead opted for their vegan chili and asked for wheat not white toast (much to the chagrin of my friends who rolled their eyes while I made this request). I had a giant platter of hot cheesy tater tots, jalapeno poppers, french fries and chips and I resisted. I was asked again and again what drink I would like to have and I said water. My chili came and went and I allowed myself 3 tots. We decided to play darts and I ordered a hot toddy because I thought I could "afford to" and it was delicious and wonderful and I savored it until the end. Then it was time for cake where someone brought me my own piece of cake. I held it, looked at it, tried to offer it to other people and then left it on one of the table's the party had reserved and started to walk away when some girl said "But that piece was cut just for you" "Yeah, but I'm not really hungry" "Oh, but it's SO good." And I just walked away. When we left Grumpy's I felt pretty amazed and proud of myself but then I went to my friend Lindsey's and I just felt voracious. Over the course of four hours I ate 2 oranges, a serving of pretzels, and a small bowl of cereal. Even though these choices could be construed as being healthy, I didn't really have the points for it. I am going to have to be a saint over these next few days. I just need to remember that just because I may use up all my points for the week, that does not mean I have blown it or should give up or should eat and eat and eat because all hope is not lost. I will be triumphant!!!

In other news I start improv classes on Monday and I am really, really excited.

Gainsies

I gained. I am now at 148.4 lbs. Was I good last week? No. However I was expecting to be even more or less, but man, this is too much. I promised myself I would never be at 150 lbs again and I am getting very close to that threshhold. I am going to say that:

1.I had my period
2.I ate right before weigh in
3.I wore jeans instead of exercise pants

However, this is a good reinforcer that I have to really work at this if I want any progress to happen. Normally I overeat on Wednesday night because I have an abundance of points and am either feeling elated or disappointed after weigh-in which either way gives me an excuse to eat. I also put off eating until after my meeting and am starving so I ate before my meeting yesterday and it worked. Day one and I am in my desirable points range for the day. I figure anytime I go under 26 points in a day, I am doing well, spreading my 35 points over 7 days.

Tonight I am going to go to a class called Drums Alive where I pretend exercise balls are drums and play them. I'm really excited for the silliness that will ensue.

She's baaaack!

Hello blogland. I am back. Although I was never really "there" much anyway and only have a readership of two. However, I need to write this down somewhere so I won't forget it.

I will be at goal weight by my brother's wedding on March 13th, which is also the week of my 26th birthday. I will be at goal weight. I will be at goal weight. After the holidays I weighed in at 146.8 which is an all-time high since I began this journey. My lowest weigh in ever was at 141.2 only 6 pounds away from goal. So here I am, I have 11.8 lbs to lose in two months. That's in about nine weeks. I know it is ambitious but I think this is what I need to kick me into gear and get going. I am pretty good at maintaining, but just have trouble getting back into that place of losing being a top priority. This time I will do it. Anders is trying to lose weight too and we are supporting eachother. I am also giving myself prizes. First, I am going to buy some new athletic shoes with my next paycheck. When I reach 142, my 15 lb weightloss goal (which I have been at before) I get to dye my hair and here's the doozy. I am not allowing myself to buy a single piece of clothing until I hit my goal weight (except for my bridesmaid dress and a muchly needed new bra).

That's a 1.3 lb loss per week. I can and will do this.


I just got internet at home and my tracking has been stellar.