Let's talk about food....

It's weigh in day for me, and for the second week in a row I am up. I don't really have an explanation. I won't say it was a perfect week, but I thought I was doing fairly well. Yes, I know. These fluctuations can happen for many reasons. But seriously. A year. No progress. I don't want to talk about it any more.

Today...Well...Had an itchy, scratchy throat this morning so I gargled with Listerine; think I may have swallowed a bit by mistake and my tummy has been feeling funny ever since. Could be my imagination.

Have been virtuously eating my toast with almond butter for breakfast, ignoring coffee shop muffins for the past 3 weeks. This morning, I decided to heck with it. I'm having a muffin. I was hoping for chocolate chip, but they didn't have any. Had a carrot muffin instead, which has grated carrots and raisins...Almost good for me!

Yes, that's me being delusional. Blame it on the Listerine ingestion.

Then, at our morning meeting there were the usual chocolate chip cookies. Normally I have no trouble ignoring them because they aren't that good. But today they did look good so I ate one. It was ok, but not as good as the chocolate chip cookies I make. Just sayin'.

Decided to buy my lunch today, for a change. I had a falafel wrap and fatoush salad. It was yummy.

Then around 4:30 I had a beer. At work, sitting at my desk. But I did say no to the potato chips that were also offered.

Then we stopped for takeout on the way home and I had Green Thai Curry with rice.

Friday = Fun Food day!!!

Ok, so not a typical day.

I keep saying that food is my problem. It must be right? Because I do exercise. I'm not just making it up when I post about my workouts. So it has to be the food. During the week, my breakfast, lunch, snacks are pretty consistent. Evening meals and weekends tend to be where it all breaks down. Even then, I've always thought I wasn't doing too badly.

And yes, I have considered that perhaps this weight is just where my body wants to be. Problem is, this is not where my ego (vanity?) wants to be. Some days I can deal. Other days I look in the mirror and want to cry. I remember being slim. I'm having a hard time accepting the chubby.

Plus, technically speaking, I have that "overweight" label hanging over my head. I don't like it.

Coming back to the food again (I'm just a boomerang today aren't I?)...Every so often I will pull out a stack of cookbooks, look through them for healthy, [hopefully]tasty, low-cal meal ideas. I make lists. Meal plans. It lasts about a week and I get frustrated and lazy. Husband will have been less than excited about my efforts. I will be tired of cooking and washing dishes, coming up with new ideas. We go back to the tried and true. The easy meals. Which aren't necessarily unhealthy meals. Just not the optimum for weight loss.

But perhaps I need to make more of a commitment to it. Perhaps if I focus my blogging on healthy eating adventures, it will help me make that commitment. I did say that I need something new to occupy me now that gardening season is over.

I haven't come to any firm decision on this yet. Still mulling things over. I may still wimp out because I am at heart a lazy a busy person, with only so much energy to go around. But, I'm considering it.

And a non-food related P.S...

Some photos from today; can you spot the deer? There are two of them in there.







Here is Fred, eating some tasty grass.



And George peeking around the corner (sorry, this one is really blurry).



Suddenly Fred bolted across the lawn.



Looks like one of the deer startled him.



These were taken when we got home from work. I could see the deer when we pulled into the garage, so after I fed the cats I took my camera and went outside. I went to the corner of the fence and was able to take the photos, even though the nearest deer was not all that far away from me.

This was my second deer encounter of the day. The cats wake me up around quarter to five in the morning, wanting to be let out into their enclosure. So I stumble down, let them out, and then go back to sleep. On a good day, but the time we're up and ready for work, they are both back inside. Today was not a good day. I had to go out and get Fred, and let me tell you, he was not wanting to come out from under his bush. But the highlight - there was a deer standing right up against the opposite side of the fence (right behind my urns - all summer the bits of the plants that poked through the holes in the fence got chewed off, guess I caught one of the culprits in the act). I couldn't help but stand there and watch him for a few minutes before I dragged Fred out from under his bush. The deer stayed there the whole time. Guess he wasnt' finished with his snack.

BLBE Weigh-in #3

This morning: 144.5 lb

That's down 1.7 lbs from last week, but still up 0.5 from my BLBE starting weight. Still, moving in the right direction again - that makes me happy.

Would love love love to see 143 next week...getting so tired of these 144+ numbers. It is a long weekend though, and somehow those always turn into Lots-O-Food weekends...We shall see how it goes.

We left work early today, which was a nice change. The weather was beautiful and all I could think about once I got home was getting out for a walk. I took my camera with me and snapped a few shots.







Finally, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am here to tell you that I ate chocolate tonight. After supper I felt like I wanted something dessert-like, so I went ahead and ate chocolate. And I don't feel bad about it.

Yes, I am the one who said I was going to cut down on sugar. But I never intended to eliminate all sugar forever. I think I did pretty good this week. I wanted a treat tonight and I had it. And that's all I have to say about that.

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Daily Record
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Breakfast: 1 slice multi grain toast with almond butter, coffee with cream
Snack: 6 almonds
Lunch: Chicken Schawarma Wrap
Supper: Spaghetti Bolognese
Dessert: 4 Russell Stover Chocolates

Weigh In: +1.3

Weigh in day - 146.2 which is up 1.3 lbs.

I knew it wasn't a great week though. As usual: Exercise=Good, Eating=Bad.

Due to having company last weekend, I didn't do my usual grocery shopping and meal planning. Not that I'm making excuses.

Back on plan this week.

Must stop doing this....

I work all week, looking forward to the weekend when I will [theoretically] be able to relax. But lately it seems I just go-go-go all weekend. Even with all that go-go-going, I end up with too many things left undone.

It seems like it has been particularly bad of late. For the second Sunday in a row, I went to bed exhausted and aching. And for the second Monday in a row, I woke up with screaming muscles. I've been hobbling around all day. Are we done with this Kettlebell Experiment yet? Because it might be killing me.

Or it may also be the fact that I am a person who sits behind a desk from 9 to 5, 5 days a week, and over the weekend I barely sat down at all. I'm just not used to that.

I did can two more batches of salsa and make 1 huge batch of chili to freeze. My hands still smell like garlic.

So I gave myself the evening off. Partially because of sore muscles, but also because I feel like I need to reclaim a bit of that rest and relaxation time. I also may have eaten some chips and salsa. Which were not on the meal plan. Ahem.

I am not exactly starting this challenge with a bang am I?

But look how pretty...



Wouldn't you want to eat it?

Happy One Year Blogiversary to Me...

That's right. One year ago today - September 21, 2007 - I created this blog and wrote my first ever post.

I had started Weight Watchers at the beginning of September 2007, and had then started discovering blogs written by people who were doing Weight Watchers. It was a whole new world. I found it really motivating and encouraging to read these blogs, knowing others were sharing the same struggles. Which led me to think: Perhaps writing a blog would help me.

It's been fun exploring the blogosphere. I've discovered blogs that I really enjoy keeping up with, blogs that are informative, helpful, entertaining.

Unfortunately, as far as helping me reach my goal, the blog has not been such a success. I am pretty much sitting in the exact same spot I was when I started. As far as weight loss goes, it would seem that I have not yet managed to get it right.

I really don't want to be sitting here on Sept 21 of 2009 typing the same thing over again. So I am renewing my efforts. I have to work harder, work smarter, and figure out how to lose these extra pounds and get down to a healthy weight.

It sort of seems like fate that Angie decided to create The Biggest Loser Blog Edition Challenge which starts today. I figure it can't hurt to have a little extra motivation to work hard. Not to mention fellow challengers to give me a kick in the butt when I'm not giving my best effort.

So, a review of my weight loss status/goals...

I am 5' tall, 144.0 lbs as of Friday. According to Height-Weight charts, BMI measurements, and Waist-Hip Ratio I am over weight. I'm aiming to get down to 120 lb which puts me inside the healthy weight range for my height.

I've been tracking calories using The Daily Plate. I started out with calorie target recommended by the site. I adjusted it downward for the second time on Friday.

I have also been using PeerTrainer which allows you to join groups for support. It also allows me to publish a link to my daily log. The link is in my sidebar, so that's how you can check up on me.

I think my biggest issue is tracking. In particular, I tend to let it slide on weekends. Which may not seem like a big deal, but unfortunately I don't think I have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to calorie consumption. I find it too easy to come up with reasons why I can let myself off the hook for calorie counting and I do it too often. So I guess that's what I need to work on.

I have never posted a picture of myself before, but it seems like this is the ideal time to post a before picture. Let's hope that the after will be posted soon!