Another week, another pound gone.

This is just great news for me, and surprising since I had a hard time staying on track this week. Just imagine how much better it might have been if I'd really focused my attention on controlling my eating habits! Especially since I worked my butt off ever since last weekend. (Not literally, of course, it's still there....believe me!) I did a lot of walking, gardening, lawn mowing, and lifting, and tried to do something every day.

I mentioned before that I'm doing the President's Challenge to get 30 minutes of exercise (minimum) 5 days a week for 6 of 8 weeks. I was just on the website to enter all my activity for the week. I'll have completed my 8 weeks in 2 more weeks, and in order to achieve the goal, I can't miss doing some form of exercise for 5 days each week. It's because I already missed hitting the goal on 2 weeks. I don't feel like a slacker, but I must have goofed off more than 2 days each of those weeks. I don't remember not doing something, so that's why it is so important to write it down. This applies whether you're trying to lose weight, track exercise, log your spending, or whatever. It's so easy to think you'll remember and then you don't.

Well, enjoy your weekend, whatever you're doing. It's going to be a hot one here, but I've been making good progress weeding our vege garden, so I'm sure I'll be out there over the next 2 days again. It might be early in the morning or later in the evening just so I don't overdo it, but I'll be there. It almost looks like a garden again!

3-day weekend coming up for me

After all my plans for last weekend, most didn't materialize since I ended up helping hubby with farm equipment problems. So, I have ALL the same plans for this weekend, with an extra day to accomplish them. We'll see how it goes.

I'm down another pound, wonder of wonders. But I need to be careful. I've been a little lax these past few days, and giving into cravings, mostly at night. We had a few crises - up one night late with the vet stitching up a horse that got cut very deep. A lot of times in the summer, we don't eat until after dark, but this time it was midnight. Needless to say, I cooked something quick and easy, but it sure wasn't healthy....hotdogs. A few other nights, I had dessert after dinner, which is a habit I've been trying to break, but when I get stressed out I just eat out of habit.

So...my plan for this weekend is to try to THINK before eating. I'm not writing down the calories for each meal, but maybe if I focus more on good healthy eating I can break a few of the habits that have started to creep back. We go to a cookout tomorrow night, and I'm going to try my best to keep under control then too. I think after this weekend I'll start writing down the calorie count again and tallying for the day. The pattern I've seen is that when I write it down, it stays somewhere between 1400 and 1600. When I don't, and do a mental tally at the end of the day, I can remember 1600-1700 calories but am never sure what I might have forgotten. The magic scale seems to know all though!

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.

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.

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?!)

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!