Vacation = weight loss? Yes, yes it does!

My hubby and I flew out to Los Angeles last Thursday for a
weekend band tour. The band was set to do a series of shows in the area. I wish I could say we were able to get a lot of sightseeing in, but that just was not the case. Show business certainly isn't all glamour, that's for sure. It's an awful lot of hurry up and wait. Still, it was nice to get away--and the hotel suite was nice. I kept my eating in check (ok, well technically we went to In-N-Out twice) Other than the burgers, which by the way were delish--I did really well. And we ended up doing a lot of walking, so I am sure that helped counteract the extra calories a bit. The shows were a huge success, and we all had a really great time. I feel very fortunate that the band members are such wonderful people and enjoyable to hang out with.

We returned from Los Angeles on Monday. The bad news is, I was sick with a cold by the time I got off the plane. The good news is, I managed to drop a few pounds during a good chunk of time that involved travel. Yay! I am so excited about my loss that it almost makes up for the crappy way that I have felt the last few days. One of my issues when I am sick is that I crave comfort food. Anything creamy is what I want most--macaroni and cheese, mashed, potatoes, etc. Clearly these are foods that are high in calories and fat and certainly foods I should be avoiding and only indulging in occasionally. However, I am sure that my ability to portion-control is even more diminished since my head is congested and I'm thinking cold medication won't help my thought process. Today I was craving chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and green beans from our local diner. Outrageously delicious --but not a meal I have more then a couple times a year. I had a left-over chicken taco instead and hot tea by what seems like the gallon because it makes my throat feel better. I am finally making some progress and I don't want to defeat myself my making a less healthy choice. I'm hoping to get to the grocery store tomorrow to stock up on healthy fare--we are dangerously low on even the basics at this point.

Anyway, back to my loss over the last two weeks---it's actually not a great loss for that amount of time, but honestly, right now a loss is a loss. I'm not going to dwell on how long it took. The scale is moving and I am getting a little farther away from 300-ville. I never want to see that number again and so the farther away I get the better I feel. My BMI went down a few points as well, which definitely feels good. So, my goal for May 10 is to lose 12 lbs, which means I have 9.2 lbs to go. That's just under a month, so it's going to be tight, but I know that if I work hard and be consistent, I will reach my goal. I need to think of a reward for myself. Any ideas for rewards?

Taking a Little Trip

Tomorrow morning, we are heading out to the hill country to picnic and hopefully see A LOT of gorgeous wildflowers. I look forward to this time every year. Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrushes, and so many more beautiful wildflowers are such a sight to see. It's amazing because when you see an entire field of bluebonnets, it looks like water! So pretty. I actually need to go and prepare our lunch for tomorrow. I bought individual mini loaves of artisan multi-grain bread for turkey sandwiches and I am going to make a pasta pesto salad. I think along with fruit and wine we will have a lovely lunch in the hill country. Oh, and our pup is going too, so can't forget the Scooby snacks! Ooh and I need to make iced tea to take along. I was going to make cookies, but I'm kind of glad I didn't have time because who needs the extra calories? Not I!

I am so thankful that we get to get away and spend some time together.

Whoa.

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Don't look now, but it's my second post of the week. Sometimes I amaze even myself.

My week so far has been good--I'm hoping my weigh-in next Monday will reveal the evidence of my work this week. I have cut way back on diet sodas--in fact, I think I have only had a couple in the last week!

Here's a wrap up of my week so far. Thank goodness it's a short work week, yay!

Monday-- I was not feeling well and took a sick day. I made a point of eating healthy and slept a lot. We still went out for an evening walk though as I was feeling better and needed to get some fresh air. Hubby grilled chicken and we had that plus small baked potatoes and fresh broccoli for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening catching up on DVR'd shows--Amazing Race and Rules of Engagement.

Tuesday--Went to the office....tried to stay away from the The Candy Jar, but did succumb to a snack size M&M's and one rolo. Not bad. I took my lunch, skipped breakfast and ate my apple/peanut butter for a snack. We walked again in the evening and for dinner we had left-over grilled chicken, brown rice with toasted pine nuts, olive oil, parsley and a bit of parmesan and a side of lima beans. And lots of iced tea with splenda! Does anyone know of any issues with using a lot of splenda? Tuesday is Biggest Loser night! My typical routine is to watch the show while I prepare dinner, which is great motivation to cook up something healthy and not snack mindlessly, which I am so prone to do when I get home from work. I am going to be sad when Biggest Loser wraps up the season--the contestants are such an inspiration to me.

Wednesday--Worked from home...hubby made breakfast of one egg and slice of 2% cheese on a sandwich thin (love those!), coffee with flavored creamer and splenda. Lunch was left-over spaghetti with meat sauce (a small portion) and snack was popcorn. Lots of tea and water. Took our pup for a walk. For dinner, we went out (these days meals out are not common) and went to a fave italian place. I ordered a veggie calzone (which was ginormous) I took more then half of it home for lunch tomorrow. Splurged with a diet dr. pepper! ha We went to Target to pick a few groceries, a baby shower gift, and a new stability ball (ours developed an inability to hold air).

And this brings me to Thursday--my Friday this week. I just need to persevere through one more day of work and then playtime on Friday. We are planning to jump in the car with our labrador and drive to the hill country to see all the wildflowers and picnic. Looking forward to getting away from the city.

I just remembered that I didn't say what I am thankful for in my last post. That will never do!

Today, I am thankful for:
*my hubby and our home
*the money to buy fresh, organic produce
*my pup, who gives great hugs, I swear
*one more work day!

This Week's Weigh-In

Today was my weigh-in day and ......drumroll, please.......

I lost 5.4 pounds this week!

I am so happy and excited about this loss. I have been extremely focused this week and have been making every effort to meet my calorie deficit. I had a deficit every day--even though sometimes it wasn't my goal deficit. I burned MORE calories then I consumed and it actually worked!

I am so pumped to work hard this week and continue to make progress. My current goal is to lose 5% of my body weight which is 15 pounds and I am 1/3 of the way there!

I have been thinking about the behavioral changes that I have started to implement in the last week that has contributed to my success this week.

* Planning meals for the week ahead of time and shopping for those meals (I did this on a Saturday). This week I mostly cooked from the "Getting Thin and Loving Food" Cookbook by Kathleen Daelmanns. Awesome book, btw.
*Logging my food on the Bodybugg site. This means also measuring/weighing my food--which is becoming less of a pain actually. I am so mindful of calories now. My hubby made a grilled cheese sandwich tonight and used 2 TBSP of butter! I told him that there were 200 calories of butter on his sandwich and he called me the calorie nazi! lol
* Making sure I packed my lunches and snacks for work days
*Only eating out for lunch one day a week (as compared with usually 5 days per week--I work downtown and there are of course MANY wonderful restaurants filled to the brim with temptations) As a bonus I have saved A LOT of dough. Ka-ching!
*Never going more then 4 hours without eating something
*Working my meals so that I have enough calories for one serving of ice cream a day--so I don't feel deprived and tempted to cheat. This has worked really well for me. It's the little things.
*I did 20 minutes of elliptical on the days I worked in the office (3 days) and the 2 days I worked from home I did a 20 minute cardio workout video. Saturday, hubby and I went to the gym and did strength training for a couple of hours. Sunday was a rest day.

Today I did go to lunch with a co-worker but I ordered a cup of soup and salad with balsamic dressing on the side. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical but later I also did about 20 minutes of DDR.

This week I plan to increase my cardio M-F by at least 10 minutes and we are planning to do another session of weights on Saturday. My cardio video also has a weight component with dumbbells, but it's minor. I really felt the weight session from Saturday. Hubby and I were both so sore both Sunday and Monday! I guess that's how we know we did something good though.

Today I am thankful....
...............for progress!

feelin' guilty

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Had a rough day.....work was crazy. I hadn't really craved The Candy Jar, but I did give in today and grabbed some chocolate out of the jar. I immediately felt guilty. Not because I had chocolate, because I don't really believe in completely depriving myself. One or two little pieces would have been acceptable. Unfortunately, I grabbed more like 10 pieces and devoured them. Boy, they were good. The steaming hot bowl of guilt that accompanied the chocolate was less than pleasant. I had also fully intended to work out tonight before leaving The Office, however I ended up working until almost 9pm and by that time all I really wanted to do was go home. So I did. Other than the candy, I stuck with my eating plan and did really good. Hopefully, it will all balance out.

I arrived home and ate a bit of dinner (roast beef) and settled in to watch Melrose Place on DVR. Starting to feel a little better now.

Today, I am thankful for....

....my DVR. (What? That's the best I can do right now.)

Everywhere I look....Cake!

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Cake is following me. It knows my name and how much I like it. It's in my fridge, in the form of my hubby's left-over birthday cake. It's at work too. A celebration for something or other. A gift of chocolately goodness provided by the evil wenches in the marketing department. No, I'm kidding, they're sweet. Sort of.

I ate a piece before I even realized what I was doing and before I remembered...wait! you are supposed to be cutting back on sugar! How does that happen? How does one scarf down cake on auto-pilot?

Thankfully, the rest of my eating habits today were decent.
Oatmeal, grapes, a turkey sandwich, a hamburger (however--made at home with 97% lean beef and the tiniest wheat bun you have ever seen), 120 calories worth of baked french fries, fresh carrots and celery, and yes, more cake. Oh, and coca-cola. Darn it. I need to switch to diet. But I mostly drink water.

Today was a scheduled work out day. I multi-tasked and read my book club book while on the elliptical. I was able to do 20 minutes, which is super considering my most recent exercise routine has involved getting off the couch to get a soda from the kitchen. It is really convenient to work out in my office's gym right after I stop work for the day. I also belong to a 24hr Fitness, but am much less likely to head there after work. I save alot of time doing cardio at work and am much less likely to blow it off.

Today, I am thankful....

...that Autum has finally arrived. I love this time of year!

Calories, Schmalories

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Ah, calorie counting. The great American female past-time. I don't enjoy it in the least. It's not so bad if you are eating something that has the calories right there on the side of the box. It's also pretty easy to look up how many calories are in an apple. But when you are talking about a home cooked meal with alot of ingredients and then trying to figure out how many calories are in each item and then how many servings in the finished product.....eesh. That's alot of effort involved just to figure out how many calories are in my dinner.

But hey, I know that in order to combat mindless calorie munching, I have to know what I'm taking in and how much more I left to work with at the end of the day. I need to know if I can have that fudgsicle, you know, the really important things. So, I jot it down and then try to figure it up. Gee, and I thought by becoming a therapist I could effectively avoid math for the rest of my life.

Here's the (fairly accurate) list of what I ate today.

granola bar...180 cal.
fresh broccoli, carrots, celery, 2 Tbsp jalapeno ranch dressing
1/2 c. spaghetti, 4 oz chicken breast, 1/4 c. mozzarella cheese
5 individual rolo candies and 2 mini milky ways (thank you, cube mate's candy jar)
apple, 2 slices pumpkin bread
5 oz grilled chicken, green beans, 3/4 c. herbed rice
Slice of left-over birthday cake--red velvet, and (gulp) two scoops of vanilla

Ok, so I really don't have the energy or patience to look up the calorie counts of anything besides the granola bar. Pathetic, right? Well baby steps is what I'm shooting for. I mostly stuck to my plan, I drank lots of water and ate something every couple of hours. Yeah, I had too much sugar. Will work on cutting that down. Tomorrow, 4 rolos!!!

Today was pretty good for a Monday. I have been working on a project at The Office for over a month and it was due today, so it feels really good to have that finished. One thing I have to do this week is read the book for book club. We are reading All About Lulu. I could tell you about it, but I don't know much about it yet. I have, however, heard it's great. Book club is Sunday, so I have 5 days. It's kind of funny, though that now we only promise to read the first half of the book. That's because historically, half of the group doesn't actually read the whole book. We figure half of the book is not so intimidating!


Today, I am thankful...

....that not only did my sweet hubby grill chicken for us for dinner, he is now currently doing the dishes while I write this. Wow, how did I get to be so blessed?!