weigh in

This morning's weigh in was fantastic! I shed the pounds I had gained the previous week plus a little more. I'm now exactly 5 pounds away from my mini goal. I feel great. I'm hoping this momentum lasts!

When things get tough, I've just been chanting "Vegas, Vegas, Vegas" in my head until the urge to eat bad things passes and it's working :)

And I had to chant that a lot last night at dinner. They brought baskets of fries as appetizers and I fought the urge! I stuck to my tiny burger and drank 2 glasses of water. And it paid off!

Here's a pic of the tiny group we went out to dinner with. Such a fun night!

the challenges of going out to eat

David and I are going out to dinner tonight with about 18 of our friends (including their little munchkins). It should be an interesting but fun night! We are going to Red Robin because of it's convenience and well, they have good burgers and fries! I just took a look on their website to see if maybe they have nutritional information so that I could plan ahead a little. I need to really make sure that when we go out I'm watching what I'm doing and that it doesn't turn into a free for all.

To my delight, they not only have nutritional information but they have a customizer tool that lets you pick each and every single thing you plan to order then all you have to do is hit 'calculate nutrition' and it tells you everything you need to know.

So, I plugged in what I normally get when I go there. I knew it would be bad but my jaw dropped when I calculated the WW points. 28 points! 28!! That's one more point then what I'm allowed to have for the whole day! Ughh, how disappointing. And that doesn't even include the two Cokes I usually end up drinking which would up that total 5 more points.

It's quite the eye opener. My plan tonight is to have one of their smaller burgers that you have to ask for because they don't seem to make it readily known on their menu that you can get that (it's basically the size for kids). And I will only eat half of my fries. And I'll order a water instead of Coke.

I keep reminding myself of why I'm doing this but it still feels like I'm depriving myself. How messed up is that? My mind basically wants me to have clogged arteries I guess. I'm not depriving myself. I'm cutting down on the things that could eventually kill me. I'm treating my body with the respect it deserves. Just one more thing I need to remind myself of. These habits are hard ones to break!

something different

Since I've been drifting off plan way too much lately I have decided to try a new approach to getting to my goal weight. I saw how successful David was with having a contest to keep him on track and I have decided to start my own contest of sorts.

David and I have been kind of making Las Vegas a yearly vacation/anniversary celebration (aside from this year but that's what happens when you decide to install all new windows and doors!). We always have a blast and it's the perfect place to escape from the real world and have some real fun. So, my long term goal is to only take that Las Vegas trip again once I lose the weight.

I have a little over 50 pounds to lose and if I stay on track we should absolutely be able to take that trip in November of next year. I need this motivation. Nothing else seems to be working and this way, it's all up to me whether or not we take that trip. Pressure? Yes, but that's the kick in the ass I need.

I plan on posting pics of Las Vegas all over the place at work and at home. The main photos are going on the fridge and in the pantry. Whatever helps, people!

I'm excited for this. I'm really hoping that this is what I need to get me back to the real me...some real motivation!

woah!

So, remember how I said in my last post that I was worried about my willpower? Well, I was right. Falling off the wagon is an understatement. I near exploded off that wagon.

This past week I was HORRIBLE with food. And to top it all off I didn't exercise at all. What the hell happened? I have no idea. I got lazy. And my mom came for a visit. And truth be told, we tend to plan around food when we are together. Now, I'm not blaming my mom at all, I'm just saying it's easier to be bad with food around her because she's not one to put me back in my place like David is. David is my voice of reason. My mom wants me to be happy. And I took advantage of that, it's my fault.

I'm sitting in bed typing this dreading my weigh in tomorrow morning. I did a quick weigh in a few minutes ago just to give me a rough estimate on what tomorrow will bring. And the number made me gasp...outloud. Stupid, stupid me. I wish I could remember this feeling when I want to eat everything in sight. Maybe it would stop me dead in my tracks.

Oh, and when I saw the number on the scale I said to myself "well I might as well eat that 100 calorie klondike I'm thinking about because it's not going to matter anyway."

That's the voice inside my head. That's the voice that I need to put a muzzle on. How do I get rid of that stupid voice?

Ughhh!!! I don't even want to post my weigh in tomorrow... Maybe I won't. Either way, I'm putting myself back together again, dusting myself off and hopping right back on that wagon. These things happen, right? It's whether or not we get back up and keep moving forward that matters...

weigh in

I felt really good about this week. I was good with points, not great but well within the range I could have based on how much exercise I did. I indulged a little but was very diligent with breakfast and lunch. Saturday was a super win because I burned 1000 calories so I knew that would help.

Anyway, weigh in was today and I lost 2.2 pounds! I'm so proud of myself. This means that I only have 5.8 more pounds to lose before I reach my mini goal. Yay!

I'm looking forward to another good week. I'm a little nervous though because tonight I'm headed to Camden Yards for an Orioles game and you know that I'm not going to eat well! But I usually give myself Wednesdays to be a little less healthy and then I'm back on track on Thursdays. But this week is a little different. David will be away starting tomorrow until Sunday. Which means I, by myself, all alone am responsible for eating right which could be a problem. Here's to hoping my willpower is strong this week!

Yoda is famous!

Bored at work? Put together a puzzle of Yoda on Animal Planet! Just click the photo...

monitoring

Friday night, David and I went out to some sporting goods stores because we needed some supplies. I needed a new helmet since my old one seems to be falling apart. Not so good! So, I picked up a snazzy new one at REI and my head is now safe again. We also headed out to another store which I won't name but if you plug it in to your web browser incorrectly you could pull up a very inappropriate site :) Anyway, we were looking at the heart rate/calorie monitors because I have been wanting to get one to find out how many calories I'm REALLY burning when I work out. So, I picked up one that did the basics and got to try it out on my Saturday morning ride.

The last time I rode the W&OD trail I did 19 miles, that was my longest ride yet. Saturday I decided to push myself and I did 25.5 miles! Eeeek. That's huge for me. And it was a killer of a ride. Those last couple of miles are all uphill. I kept telling myself that it would be worth it because riding back would be all downhill and easy. And when I was done, this is what the watch read:



25 miles in almost 2 hours and 1,005 calories burned! I'm very pleased with myself!

Of course, I was hurting for the rest of the afternoon and on Sunday I was beyond tired but it was worth it.

I think I might have to return that heart/calorie monitor, though. There are numerous things that I don't like about it:

1: It bases calories burned on your gender and age. It doesn't take into account your weight, which makes it less accurate.
2: You have to physically take your heart rate (by touching your finger on the watch for at least 10 seconds) frequently so that your calories burned is more accurate.
3: If you sweat at all the watch won't be able to read your heart rate. Hello....everyone sweats when they workout. So I have to wipe it down and then take it (not very convenient when you are on a bike!).

So, we'll see. Either way, it was nice to see results like that after a grueling ride. I'm anxious to weigh in this week!