Crazy schedule

I missed taking my lunch break at work again yesterday. It was busy! I started at 9 and was supposed to leave at 5, but I made some appointments later in the day and then had some walk-in clients so everybody ended up late. This time, I didn't forget to eat. I just didn't have time to eat!

So, lunch turned into dinner. I had brought a salad and I scarfed it down in the car in the parking lot while I was waiting for my car to heat up.

Of course, today I was expecting that since I hadn't weighed in a few days, the scale would be nice to me. But no! Maybe it's waiting to surprise me.

Another one bites the dust!

I'm down another pound. Woohoo!!! It's been slow going, but I haven't been starving myself or anything, so that's ok with me. Yesterday was another busy day at work. I worked 7 hours and was told when I started that if I worked anything over 6 hours, I had to clock out for 1/2 hour for a break. I honestly forgot. Me, forget to eat? Never!! But I did. The boss chastized me later for not taking my break when I was just "goofing around" on the computer. I wanted to say "Excuse me! I'm new here and I was looking at courses the company offers to improve my education plus making up scenarios to enter in the computer to understand how the system works better!!! How dare you say I was goofing around?!" Instead I just apologized and told her I hadn't even thought about it, and it didn't feel like I'd been there 7 hours already, which was the truth. It sounded a whole lot better than challenging her, and the day really had flown by.

I wasn't hungry during that 7 hours since I'd eaten before work, but I chomped on an apple on the way home, and got home about 9:30pm. Well, surprise, surprise, one of our dog had puppies!! Now, of course, the puppies weren't a surprise, but her having them that day and during the day was. So, I had to go to see them all and sit with her in case she had more. Another family member had been with her for hours helping as needed, so I relieved him of midwife duties. I grabbed a Chex Mix bar (very yummy!) and ate that while I hung out with her. Nothing was happening so I took a break and ate dinner, at 11:30pm. Talk about crazy schedule! At midnight, I went back and sat with her for 2 more hours. She did have one more during that time, but the poor thing was stillborn. I dropped into bed, exhausted, got up in 4 hours to check on her again, went back to bed, and just got back from checking on her this morning.

She has 9 puppies! Adorable!! I hope they all make it, but I kind of doubt they will. She's thin from putting all her energy into the pups, and this is her first litter. We'll just try to work with them all and make sure they get to eat as much as possible. Plus, this is a big breed, and they sometimes unknowingly lay on the pups and end up suffocating them. Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Too busy to eat!

I don't think I remember being too busy to eat in a long, long time. Yesterday I worked at my part time job from 11-4. I ate breakfast, did a few things around the house and left by 9 to run errands before work. I threw an apple and granola bars in my tote bag for a quickie lunch at work. The first two hours I didn't have any clients, so I just worked on case studies. But then someone came in and I helped them. It took about 30 minutes. He left and someone else was right there waiting for me. It took me an hour to help him. As soon as he left, there was another client for me. She stayed right up until almost 4pm, but had to run home for additional paperwork and didn't come back for another 1/2 hour so I stayed until after 5 with her. It wasn't until I got back in the car to head home that I realized I'd never eaten!! I scarfed down the apple & granola bars while I ran a few more errands on the way home. Unfortunately, when I got home, I snacked on more crackers and then made dinner even though I really and truly wasn't all that hungry. Hubby had been snacking too, so he wasn't really hungry either. I'm not sure why I bothered other than it was "time" to eat. Silly of me!

Nothing to report

I have nothing to report today. It was a nice day, in the mid-40's. I spent some time outside, did some quick shopping, and did some office organization. It kept me busy, but alas, not totally in control of food. So, nothing good or bad really to report.

I'm eating too much pbj lately, and know I'd better slack off again. I just had a sandwich for my "dessert" after dinner, which was a burrito. Ugh. They don't even GO together! Well, tomorrow is a new day, so I'll focus on a better food plan for starting the week.

Down 1 more

I've dropped another pound, so that makes 5 total. Exciting!

I keep trying to hold off buying any more jeans because once I get down another 10-15 pounds I have one or two more pairs of jeans I can wear. Then, when I drop even more, I think I have another 3 or 4 pairs to wear. I'm just not sure how much longer I can hold out without buying some. Right now, I'm wearing jeans I bought at a yard sale last summer. They fit okay, but I ripped them one day when the loop at the back (carpenter jeans) caught on something. I've been wearing them anyhow, just not in public unless I have a long jacket to cover them. Well, today I thought about patching them, only to discover the inseam and fabric is wearing out. They'll be ready for the trash VERY soon. So, the race is on....can I lose weight fast enough to get into the jeans I already have, or do I break down and buy a new pair?! Maybe I'll hit a few thrift stores next week. I don't mind paying $1 - $2 for another pair, but I don't want to spend $15-$20 right now!

Back down again to where I was

I got back down to where I was before I went "off the wagon", meaning I lost those same 2 pounds again. Whew! Glad that's done. It must have been the stall cleaning that worked my butt off! LOL. Now it's all progress from here on out.

I'm still controlling my diet coke intake. I've had some diet sodas off & on, but I would estimate I've cut back at least 75-80%.

There was an article in our newspaper this week about reading food labels. I thought I would learn something I didn't know from it already, but all it really said was to make sure to pay attention to the servings per container and make sure that you are properly calculating the calories by multiplying the servings by the number of calories per serving if you consume the whole container. Watch out for bad fats, like partially hydrogenated or trans fats. Watch sodium content, whether or not you are on a low-sodium diet. Canned soups can be horrible for that. I do read some labels but probably should pay more attention to them.

Focused on wrapping up 2008

Yesterday, I focused on wrapping up 2008 finances. I didn't get so far as getting ready for taxes, but I updated checkbooks, Microsoft Money, and a few spreadsheets I keep for tracking ebay sales, coupon savings, and rebates. It kept me busy for hours! I noticed I wasn't as interested in snacking either. I had too much to do!

With any luck, today will be just as productive and distracting. I have to clean some stalls in the barn. Now THAT is unappetizing as well as being productive and distracting!! I should have switched days, though, and done the computer work today when it's only going to be in the 20's and the stalls yesterday when it hit 51 degrees. Oh well. It will be a good arm workout anyhow, and I doubt I'll be still long enough to feel the cold.

I think I should start noting any exercise I do too. I spent an hour outside feeding our horses, which is a lot of lifting and bending and walking yesterday. Later I helped unload a truckload of wood. Today, I'll be doing the same with the horses, and then working on the stalls. It should definitely keep me out of trouble!

Starting over.....I BLEW IT!

How frustrating can this be? My inability to control myself caused me to backslide by 2 pounds. I had lost 4 and already gained 2 back. Frustrating, annoying, embarrassing, you name it, that's how I feel. I can blame it on the goodies all over the house, the stress of the death in the family, the stress of a job interview, and all those things that happened since the first of the year.

So, today, I am starting over. "If at first you don't succeed...", and all that. I CAN DO THIS!!!!!! I know I can, if I just focus on it. Or maybe I need to not focus on it. I can't really decide what works better. I just know that I have loads of stuff to keep me busy so I shouldn't be thinking about food except when I get hungry. (It might be a first for me, but other people do it, why can't I?!)

Evenings are difficult for me

For some reason, I can maintain control all day, and then it falls apart in the evening. Of course, the kitchen is still filled with baked goodies from the funeral, and sweets are my downfall, so they sit there calling my name! If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.... I'll try to do better today.

In good news, I have not had to buy jelly yet. Why is that good, you ask? Because it means I haven't been wolfing down PBJ sandwiches as much! Some people think that's only to eat when there is nothing left "good" to eat. To me, they are wonderful, so I eat them whenever. Sometimes, two or even three a day. Since I've cut back significantly, and only allow one or maybe none each day, the jelly and peanut butter are lasting longer. Easier on the budget and easier on the waistline!

No more diet coke!

One of the changes I've made is to try to cut out diet soda, mostly my diet coke addiction. I can honestly say that I've had NO diet coke this past week, and just a glass or two of diet root beer. I think in the long run it will be better for me, since I sure don't think all that carbonation can really be healthy for a person.

Do I feel better? Maybe a little. Do I miss it? Only a little! I guess even last year I was trying to work up to this a little, trying to drink other things than diet coke, just to see if it was the coke taste I was craving or just drinking it out of habit. I still was drinking a lot of diet sodas, and it really was just a habit. I've been drinking more water (yeah, me!), crystal light, and tea. It's really not too bad. I drink milk at least once a day, usually with a meal, but in between I'm sticking to the other drinks.

I think I will allow myself to drink the diet coke once in awhile, but I've got to keep it to a minimum. It really got out of hand for awhile, and it gets expensive to buy all those bottles or cans. Plus, then I have to gather them all back up for recycling.

As for my weigh-in this morning, there wasn't any new progress in any direction. I'll hit the scales again on the weekend, and steer clear of the goodies in the meantime. Maybe I'll get it to budge another pound. Wish me luck!!

Ugh!

There is SO MUCH food in this house - delicious, fattening food. Scalloped potatoes, baked macaroni & cheese, fried chicken, potato salad, brownies, german chocolate cake, cookies, pineapple cake, and on and on and on. I think the healthiest thing is jello & fruit salad, but I'm sure it's not sugar-free jello and the fruit was probably canned in heavy syrup. This is all leftovers from a pre-funeral luncheon that somehow ended up at our house. We've had help eating some of it, but not nearly enough help. I've been trying to be careful, but it's so hard to do!

I did fine today during the day. I had a job outside the house. I took a reasonably healthy lunch and that was it. But somehow by the time I got home the willpower had dwindled away. I don't think I went overboard, but I did have a few sweets.

I might do a weigh-in tomorrow morning just to see if anything has changed. Whether it goes up or down or stays the same shouldn't matter at this point since it's so early in the game. I'll just do my best to get back on track and keep going!!

Sitting around the house

Today is the first day since I started this blog that I have not been busy, busy, busy. I've either been working, at the hospital, interviewing, or in training. Now, this shouldn't be much different from when I was working, because I was working from home, but today I'm having a little harder time controlling and focusing. It must be the weekend, or maybe coming up on "that time of the month." Sorry if that's TMI (too much information), but there are absolute definite times of the month that I cannot seem to control my hand-in-mouth problem.

It's not been horrible. Breakfast was a nectarine and 2 lite pieces of toast with a dab of cream cheese and jelly. Yes, cream cheese and jelly are not "diet" foods, but a balanced diet does supposedly include a little bit of fat to keep you feeling full longer. Mid-morning I had a banana. For lunch, I had chicken noodle soup (the whole can!), plus 2 slices of whole grain bread, one with a slice of provolone, and one with some PBJ. All of that would have been ok, I think, except that then I was craving this dessert thing that someone dropped off. It's kind of like a mousse. I allowed myself a few spoonfuls and that was it. Maybe it wasn't all that bad, since I did use control. After all, I could have had a huge dish of it!

Missed a few days

I missed a few entries, but have not abandoned anything. My dear MIL passed away January 1, so it was NOT the great start to the new year that I'd been hoping for. I would usually have used excuses in a situation like that to "start the diet" next week, but I'm trying hard not to think of it as a diet that starts & stops. I want it to be an ongoing method of focusing on what I eat, why I eat, where I eat, etc so that I can control it better. I'm proud to say I've done okay these past few days!

The day we spent at the hospital with MIL, I chose wisely in the cafeteria - a sandwich wrap with grilled chicken, mustard, and lots of low-cal veges for one meal, and then later a tossed salad with light dressing and a banana. Both were very good!

Yesterday between an interview for one job and going to another job, I was very hungry. Instead of fast-fooding it, I stopped at the grocery store and snagged some sliced ham, an apple, and green tea. I did falter a little last night. People had stopped by our house with tons of food, but I tried to be reasonable with that too.

Through it all, I managed to drop another 2 pounds, so I updated the ticker on the side. Go me!