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!