Yesterday was NOT a good day - how come I onlyblog when I have eaten-eaten-eaten? First of all I took the little ones to Gettysburg shopping - no - wait - first of all I cut the date bar and ate two pieces of it. THEN we went shopping, and I indulged in two chocolate cookies at Subway. Later we ate at the food court and I had a HUGE baked potato loaded with marg, sour cream, cheese, bacon bits and chives. Followed by an Auntie Anne's pretzel and a half - Aiden couldn't eat all of his. When I got to work, I discovered that I was mistaken about the date of the Christmas luncheon, and it was yesterday, not today. So there were LOTS of leftovers - shrimp salad, chicken wings, cheese and crackers, and, most fatally, mouth-watering brownies. So whatever I may have lost on Sunday when we went to the Ravens game, I have now managed to regain plus!! Today will be MUCH better, I am resolved - even though I AM going out to lunch with two of my neighbors - and to Alice's, no less! Watch this space for more confessions!!

Forgive me, FRP...

for I have sinned....

What an incredibly BAD food day I've had today! A piece and a half of rice krispie bar with home-made chocolate icing this morning, followed by a coddled egg & a slice of toast for breakast (yes, the rice krispie bar was before breakfast... blame Mom, it was all her fault!!).... A twix at work on a quick break (and 2 sandie cookies - one of my coworkers made them... how was I to say no??) to hold me over to dinner, then a cup of cheddar potato soup, half a turkey, bacon & cheese sandwich for dinner - and a piece of apple dumpling pie with ice cream for dessert. Oh, the calories I've ingested today!!

Still, the saving grace of the day is that I have actually WORKED today to offset some of those calories... Shoveling a car out of the snow at work, pushing carts through the parking lot and the snow, moving bag after bag after bag of ice melt (at 40lbs per bag, they're not the lightest things on the planet...), helping to unload a truck delivery at the end of my shift (ok, so I only did that for 20 mins or so, but every little bit counts, right?!)...

I wonder what day we're weighing in this week? How long do I have to get rid of those extra calories from today??? :0) It's a pay week too.... Watch out bank account, here comes a big hit for you this week!!

Halfway there - YAY!!

As hard as it is it believe, as of this morning, I am HALFWAY to my weight-loss goal on this FRP (food reduction plan), as Mom likes to call it! I have officially lost 27lbs - that's exactly half of my 54lb goal. YAY!!! I'm very, very excited about it all!

Halfway... I'm only 7lbs off my Christmas wish goal of 200lbs, which I'm obviously NOT going to make, given that Christmas is only 9 days away - although we are having a seriously reduced Christmas on the goodies front this year... No East End bars, no banana bread, no date bar.... BOO!! Even so, to have come this far in the last 4 months is shocking: who'd have thunk that simply changing your diet and watching your portions would affect your weight so very, very much??!! I know I would never have done so! More to the point, I don't even really crave the foods I used to eat so much any more either - I do occasionally still want french fries & burgers, and when I do want them, I generally go ahead & eat them, but I don't feel like I could eat them every day, the way I used to feel. And point in hand: on Sunday, I had fried chicken fingers & french fries for lunch, then just could not face the french fries that came with my turkey sandwich for dinner that evening (yes, I ate out twice in one day... it was a hectic day, believe me!).... And - perhaps most shocking of all to anyone & everyone who has known me for more than a New York minute - I actually MISS salads when I don't have one for a couple of days! I'm craving healthier food instead of candy, sugar & lots & lots of salt...

So now we'll have to see how challenging losing the remaining 27lbs is going to be. I haven't been under 200lbs in longer than I can remember, so even just getting that far would be an incredible result! Watch this space for more updates!!

No thanks to Ione's wonderful cooking, I only gained one pound in Minnesota last week - I had expected it to be at least five! I discovered this WONDERFUL breakfast cereal in her larder that is laden with almonds and dates and oatmeal and brown sugar and ......................calories! I have THROWN OUT the name of it - anything that tastes that good cannot possibly be good for you! So I am back to the FRP grind - kinda. Yesterday after church I went to the Mall to do some shopping and ended up with an Auntie Anne's cinnamon sugar pretzel somehow making its way down my throat! Ah, will power, how capricious it is!!

What a strange week!

Well, Thanksgiving was great (and food-filled, as my last post shows!), and now here we are 5 days later - and what a strange 5 days they've been! Mom is in Minnesota, visiting Grandma (as of early Sunday morning), hence why she hasn't blogged anything recently, so I've had the house to myself since then. Black Friday - or Stupid Friday, as it's referred to at work - was actually nowhere near as bad as I had thought / expected it to be - although towards the end of the day I did SOMETHING that threw my back out of whack, and that left me lying on the floor in PAIN for the next three days! I tried to go to work on Saturday morning - managed to crawl my way through a shower, getting dressed & getting to work, but came home again just minutes after I got there - I could hardly stand up at all. I was off Sunday anyway, but ended up calling out for Monday too - so I missed 2 full days of work because of it. Groan!

Still, the good news is that I have done no real or permanent damage to my arm (from lifting the washing machine, I mean). The doctor cleared me back for full normal work duties - whatever I did was muscular only, and that will just clear up on its own in its own sweet time!

As for diet, heaven only knows how I'm doing this week. I haven't been eating a whole lot (except for the rather large plate of chicken pasta at Ruby Tuesdays last night...), but at the same time, lying on the floor is not exactly good exercise either... Still, weigh-in day is Friday this week, since Mom isn't back from MN until Thursday night, so I've got a couple of days yet to try to work off whatever gain I've had so far. The scales will tell!!

Thanksgiving: a wonderful time to be grateful!

Well, I have FINALLY updated the Success Rate charts at the bottom of the blog page tonight - something I hadn't done in over a month, I'm afraid to say. But now it's up in all its glory, along with the updated chart on the right of the blog page, so everyone can see how successful we've been so far. And we really have been very, very successful: Mom is under 200lbs for the first time in almost as long as she can remember; I have just bought my first pair of (American) size 16 years in at least 15 years, if not longer - and am close to hitting my 200lb-by-Christmas goal - and Eileen is looking GREAT with her 16.5lb weight loss. I am so proud of all of us!

Having said that, this week was Thanksgiving - yesterday, to be exact - which is a time to reflect on all that we are grateful for, which we did - and to eat to excess, which we also did, with gusto! What a wonderful meal we had (even if it was mostly bought at the supermarket!): moist, succulent turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, wild rice, green salad (made, for once, with MELON jello instead of LIME jello - Mom said she wondered why it wasn't as green as normal when she was making it!!), bread rolls, pumpkin bread (home made - thanks, Kathy!), cranberry apple casserole, stuffing, crudites... followed by apple & pumpkin pies with whipped cream... Truly a scrumptious - calorie laden! - meal to be very, very grateful for. My waistline, however, not so much!

Which explains exactly why our goal for this two-week period - as indeed it will also be for the Christmas period - is to simply MAINTAIN our current weights rather than to actually lose anything. If I can succeed in that goal, I will be a very happy camper indeed!

I said I don't believe our scale, and I don't: when I got up yesterday morning I weighed 193, but when Eileen appeared two hours later - and after I had had my breakfast - I was 196. And I didn't eat THAT much for breakfast! We took the 193 as my weight, anyway. And Eileen gave me the money for the bank from last week, so I deposited $13 in our Heifer Fund, which now stands at $152. Today is Thanksgiving, and I expect by the time all is said and done I will weigh in at 206! I am determined to eat minimal amounts of everything good, but a woman can only do what a woman can do! More tomorrow!!

Well, it was weigh in morning, and I lost 2 pounds, which means I have to pay the Heifer fund one dollar. Not too bad, but I still hope to lose one more pound so that I will be below 195 for Thanksgiving. Then I suppose I will just put it all back on again! But hey! we need to suspend our die - FRP until after the holidays, just set a goal of maintaining rather than losing. Eileen gained, but that is not surprising, given her broken arm, while Esther Marie met the goal in SPITE of her wounded arm! We'll weigh in on Wednesday next week instead of doing it on Thanksgiving Day, though that would be ideal day to give us incentive!

So much for resolutions!

Well, so much for my resolution to blog more! That seems to have gone rapidly by the by... But at least my resolution to eat less - and eat better - hasn't gone quite the same way! I have cut down the quantities again (less bread for a start!), and have bought some fruit for the house, so at least I have healthy munchies again. I do have to confess that both Mom & I caved last night and had chocolate milkshakes from Roy Rogers, but oh! they tasted sooooooooo good! Well worth cheating!

As for riding my bike, I did that yesterday to work & again this morning. The plan, of course, was to ride it home again this afternoon - except that I was silly, tried lifting a dishwasher on my own, and promptly hurt my left arm! So Mom had to rescue me from work (my hand & wrist swelled up & went numb for a couple of hours!), and consequently the bike is still chained to the fence outside the Lawn & Garden department... Oh well, just means I'll have to go get it tomorrow is all!

Bring on the weigh-in this week... I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

I lost TWO AND A HALF POUNDS at weigh in yesterday - but I don't believe the scales! If my goal was to be below 195 by Thanksgiving, then I have already met it! The down side is that Eileen GAINED two and a half, so I DEFINATELY don't believe the scales! We have agreed to suspend her losing until her arm is somewhat healed and she can get back to geetting more exercise again. I was given a nice compliment yesterday when a lady I know told me it was time to QUIT losing before I lose my tush altogether!!

So I've noticed a direct correlation...

between my interest in keeping to this diet challenge (or FRP, as Mom insists on calling it!) and the frequency of blogging on this site... The less I do the latter, the less interested - and more likely to cheat on - I am in doing the former! So new resolutions as of today:

1. Blog more often
2. Be at 200 lbs by Christmas
3. Be at 190 lbs by the time I go to Honduras for Valentine's Day!

I also need to start riding the bike more again - weather permitting, of course (it's done nothing but rain all day today...). As much as I groan about getting on the thing, once I'm actually on it, I really do enjoy riding it - to work, at least! How I feel about riding it home again really depends on what kind of day I've at work, and how much running up & down the length of the store that I've had to do!

But more than anything else, what I need to do is wrap my head around this whole food / snack thing again. I'm embarrassed to admit that I have eaten everything & anything that's come my way over the last few days: way too much bread, way too much candy (marathons, twixes, a mini bag of m&ms, a couple of mini bags of candy corn, potato chips... the list goes on & on...). I have very bad expectations for tomorrow morning's weigh-in - but with my new resolve and new, achievable goals & timelines, am very hopeful that things will turn around again in the very near future & I WILL meet all my goals and deadlines!

Oh, and I definitely need to buy new pants... even the girls at work are commenting on the fact that my jeans are now too big for my waist & my behind!!

No blogs means no FRP - though I did lose one pound at weigh in on Thursday. But I have been very b ..................... well, not good ever since. But now I am determined to get back on board. I really, really would like to see 195 before Thanksgiving and maybe 190 by Christmas. Who knows by next summer I could even be in a bikini - never that I have ever aspire to a bikini, but the thought is nice, anyway! I'd rather be off my cholesterol pills!!!

I need new pants!

My jeans are all too big for me now - yay! And I'm on the last hole of both of my belts - I keep meaning to get new holes punched into them at work, but so far haven't got that far - which is a really great feeling, as I don't remember the last time I SHRANK out of my pants, instead of GROWING out of them!!

Today could be a bit of a food day, though, as we're going to lunch with the Red Hats - Mom's "women of a certain age" group who loudly & proudly proclaim that red & purple DO go together, and that just because you reach "a certain age" doesn't mean to say you can't still have fun. We're having appetizers here at the house, then going on to a restaurant in Union Bridge (I think...) - I feel a burger & french fries coming on! But it's a beautiful day, so I'm hopeful that I will ride the bike to work this afternoon, which will let me work off whatever I have for lunch!

Weigh-in in 2 days... I HOPE I will at least have lost the 2lbs I gained last week!

FRP - phooey! Do you have any idea what you have to DENY yourself if you embark on a FRP? Try baked potatoes with butter and sour cream. Twix. Brownies. Birthday cake. ANY cake. Coffee rolls from Dunkin Donuts. And now Halloween candy. Bah, humbug - but only because I kinda forgot that last and kinda SCOFFED the last named! I guess I can resist anything except a Tootsie Roll! I THINK I did alright Sunday and Monday, it's just that I know I will have to pay the price (literally!) for Saturday come the next weigh in. Hopefully I can just have stayed the same and not GAINED!!

ast

One pound. Gained. Oh, woe is me! But, as EM said, at least it wasn't a pay week! I don't expect I will make the goal next week, but if I can lose this plus one more, I will feel - well - a LITTLE lighter! I have just had oj and cheerios for breakfast and am determined to have a good day today. I am even going to have a - well, this machine won't type that word - bar that - ah - REGULATES you (!) for my dessert. THAT will fix that one pound!!

Oh dear, here we go again...

How on earth did Thursday come around so very quickly again??? This has not been a good food OR exercise week for me, and I'm afraid to say I'm expecting to see a gain tomorrow when I step on those scales... Still, thankfully, it's the middle week, not the pay week - or I might be looking at going bankrupt!

I went for lunch at a Korean restaurant today, and I'd have to say I was very impressed not just with the food, but with the healthiness of the food: the appetizers were all vegetable-based - radish, cabbage, turnip, zucchini, swede - and my main course was vegetable tempura, a DELICIOUS melt-in-your-mouth beef in soy sauce and sticky white rice. It was absolutely mouth-watering - and fairly healthy! Yum!

So the scales will tell the truth tomorrow morning... Fingers crossed the truth isn't TOO painful!!

Right. I cheated. Again. I'm not sure how serious it was, but I am always exasperated with myself when I eat after work. Especially when I eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Granted it was one of the little itsy bitsy
tubs, but I was SO hungry for the chocolate fudge variety, so I bought it and I ATE IT! Maybe I was feeling I deserved a treat after my good report from the dr. - weight down 16 lbs., blood work good, even my ankles aren't swollen! I'd had oj and cereal for breakfast, mac and cheese with 3 little pigs plus LOTS of spinach salad for lunch with a square of dark chocolate to act as dessert, 2 orange slices (that's the candy type, not orange oranges!), and then the ice cream at 9:30. Well, tomorrow's weigh-in will tell the tale.

I have made it through the day - at least until 9:30 tonight. I had oj and cheerios for breakfast, chicken cashews with rice and spinach salad with honey dijon for lunch at 1:30 followed by a lemon pudding for dessert. I did have a tiny cheat tonight when I had a mini-bag of corn candy, but that was just a Halloween treat to make sure they were good enough for the customers! Roll on tomorrow!

- as I was saying when this @/@@?** (!) machine posted that blog without my permission(!) I am still on the wagon even though my upper body is dangling off precipitously - kind of like when we went white water rafting - I was saved then, and I will be saved now!!!

Okay, okay - NO MORE BIRTHDAYS!!! Having read EM;s blog and now having to make my own confessions, I am resolved to have not to have any more sprecial days as long as we are on this FRP! Except of course Thanksgiving and Christmas - but we'll make those zero pound goals weeks and hope to at least not GAIN weight during those holidays! Yes, I made the cake, a goofy looking chicken cake, and yes, I nibbled - and nibbled - and nibbled. And ate a big helping of tater tot hot dish. And TWO bread rolls WITH butter. Ah, mea culpa, mea culpa - I am a sinner big time! But, like my eldest daughter (elder? there are, after all, just two of them!), I am resolved to get back on track today. Luckily

I can resist everything except temptation...

.... said Oscar Wilde. Unfortunately, it could as easily have been said by me, as my will power this weekend has amounted to exactly... zero. Zip. Nil. Nada. Having been so proud of my achievements to day, I have COMPLETELY blown it this weekend. It was my nephew, Aiden's 10th birthday, so Mom made him a birthday cake. Which involved two 10" rounds - and she only used half of the 2nd one, and left the remaining half in the kitchen... Then she made icing - ICING!! - for the cakes... Anyone who knows me knows that ICING is my biggest (and most constant) sugar weakness: I can eat whole tubs of store-bought icing in one sitting if I don't pay attention to what I'm doing. So she made a large batch of icing... And I got to lick one of the beaters, and clean the bowl out, and now the unused icing is torturing me from the freezer... But it's out of sight, so I can pretend it's not really there!

However, that could not be said of the fudge at the craft store at the mall. They didn't have plain vanilla fudge (the one I generally prefer), but that didn't stop me buying a small package of the chocolate fudge (after MUCH deliberation, I hasten to add... I wandered around the store for at least 15 minutes before giving in to that particular temptation!) - which I then proceeded to devour in the space of 10 minutes at home last night!

And this morning I succumbed to the bagels - mini ones at least - at church and had two of them between the services....Plus the left over birthday cake from Aiden's birthday dinner here at home tonight (good cake, lots of leftover icing... What WAS a girl supposed to do??!!)

So now I'm sure I've regained every ounce of every pound I had lost up until today, and it's back to square one for me! Tomorrow starts a new week (it is Monday, after all), and a whole new bunch of resolve... Back to the diet, big time!!

I think it is rather presumptuous for SOME people to change OTHER people's blogs, but be that as it may, I shall forgive and forget - THIS TIME!!! We went grocery shopping today and the kitchen is awash in food yet again. I have already eaten too much and it is only 1:30!! I ate one bar of aTwix before we even got to Giant, and since we got home and got every thing unpacked I had two spoons of peanut butter and a pack of Oreo thin crisps. I've made hash and apple sauce for lunch - we'll see how I go for the rest of the day. The weigh in this morning was better than expected - but I still have to pay $2.50!!!

Uggh.. Need to increase my calorie intake!

So today I started off with a bowl of cereal for breakfast, then followed that up with a portion of hamburger & beans, a bread roll & about 6 baby carrots for lunch. Which, until I got home from work at 10.45, consisted of my entire food intake for the day. Except that of course I came home HUNGRY, so now I've just polished off a bowl of cinnamon apple oatmeal (110 cals) & a packet of popcorn. I feel MUCH better - my tummy is no longer grumbling at me! - but I really do need to regulate my eating better so that I'm not having these late night snacks / mini-meals when I get home from work. That really is not the way to lose weight!

This Thursday - day after tomorrow - is our next weigh-in day, and the end of the latest 2 week challenge. After having gained 2.5lbs last week, I am not feeling at all confident that I have lost any weight this week - but hopefully I will at least have yo-yo'ed back down to the weight I was BEFORE Mom's birthday!!

Well, I survived New York. No, more like I GLORIED in New Yark! What a city - to visit, that is! And I was delighted to find that Prab has grown into such a fine young man - well, 40 IS young from the vantage point of 67 (I still find it hard to believe that that number belongs to ME!)! I ate alright in NYC I think - cereal for breakfast at 6a.m., then lentil soup and a FAT BLT at a diner in Times Square about 2p.m. I did cheat a little on the way home when I had two chocolate chip cookies, but I needed the sugar for the drive home!!! I did drink rather a lot of diet coke, but that must have been walked off during the 1000 blocks we walked - and walked - and walked!! Or maybe it was shivered off - New York was coooooooold. Or it could have been BLOWN off - the wind at the top of the Empire State Building was virtually a gale! But still, we had a WONDERFUL time, and I think - I hope - I BELIEVE I will about break even come Thursday morning. But I will have my $4 ready since I don't expect to have made the goal this time.

I will NOT give in... well, not any further... !!

I am HUNGRY after work tonight, and having just found out yesterday that I GAINED 2.5lbs in the last week, I am doing my best to avoid eating everything in the kitchen!! I have had 2 grapefruit since coming home from work, and about 10 grissini (and trust me: I really do want to eat the rest of them..!), and have decided to quit at that... The saving grace of all this late-night food is that I have WORKED tonight - running all over the store, climbing up & down ladders, lifting cases of drinks (well, ok, that was this morning - but it's still exercise and it still counts!). I have done enough physical exercise today to excuse - if not quite justify - my late night snack!

So now it's time to get serious again. Come next Thursday I now need to have lost the 2.5lbs I gained this week, PLUS lose at least another couple of lbs if I'm going to stay on track. I would LOVE to be at 200lbs by Thanksgiving (+/- 6 weeks away), but that may be completely unrealistic - it would mean losing an average of 3 or more lbs per week between now & then, something I really don't see happening. It's great to have dreams, though!

Truly, truly the wages of sin are - weight gain! I had gained 3 1/2 pounds when Eileen and I weighed in this morning. Oh, mea culpa, mea culpa! I am just hoping that by next Thursday I will at least have lost that and will be breaking even. But I think I better have some $$$ on hand just in case! I am so pleased for Eileen, and looking at her you can really tell she is losing. Same for Esther Marie. And I am, after all, just along to lend encouragement - NOT!!!

YOOHOO....

So....I guess a little sin isn't so bad for some....I cann't believe it myself, but I still managed to lose weight this week....another 3lbs no doubt!! I am so excited. I am also wearing a pair of jeans that are a size smaller then when I started. Size 18's here I come...(that is my goal to be in them by Thanksgiving!!). Esther didn't weigh in yet because of her work schedule, so she will do that when she gets home today. Mom did weigh in, and well, turning 67 obviously made her party a little TOOO hard...she had a gain this week, but I will let her tell you how much. So....were we go...this next week I havfe to lose one more pound to that I don't have to put money into the bank....I think I will make it!! I am under 250lbs...I don't remember the last time I could say that!!

Sin. Sin-sin-sin. Why oh why does it have to be so DELICIOUS! I am, of course, speaking of yesterday's HUGE sin at the Cheesecake Factory. I was so excited when Eileen slipped and told me where we were going, and the restaurant more than met my expectations - we even got to eat OUTSIDE, which is something I love! Eileen was so funny, picking up the pigeons, and they didn't even seem to mind! Esther Marie has described our food already; it was sooooooo good - and sooooosinful, but so worth it! After all, I will NEVER turn 67 again!

Blowing it in style!

So we have ALL blown our diet today, in very grand style!! In honor of Mom's birthday, Eileen & I took her to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday - a wonderful, decadent restaurant on the waterfront in Baltimore. Mom & I went there in February with her friend Denise, and Mom has been dreaming of having their Chicken Bam Bam (?) ever since. So today, we went - and she did - along with a share plate of nachos with cheese & spicy chicken, and a slice of plain cheesecake for dessert. Eileen also had the nachos, and for her main course had about a half portion of shrimp pasta fettucine, but really was not impressed with it, so left the rest - but munched on a lot of bread (when she wasn't busy using it to feed / capture the pigeons, that is!), and had a slice of white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (I think that was the flavoring..) for her dessert. As for me, I also munched on the nachos (they were good!), then had spicy chicken with cashew nuts & rice for my main, and a slice of dulche de leche caramel cheesecake for my dessert. All three of us ate a lot of bread too. Oh, and did I mention that the portions are HUGE at this place???

We ate like queens - and pretty much polished off our plates - and consequently all feel like we won't eat for a month now! It was very good, but very bad for our diets... We'll be lucky if we haven't each gained about a dozen lbs today!!

Phew

I am so relieved to hear that you two have not had a good week either!! The only positive point of this week was that, to my horror, I discovered that Chick Fil A has discontinued their peach milkshakes!! Thursday and Friday were both actually okay, then Saturday and Sunday were rough. I actually don't think they were that bad, but at the same time, I cann't really recall what I ate, so I cann't say they were good. Okay, this blog is getting as confusing to write as it is undoubtedly to read. SO...long and short....the scale will be the ultimate teller.....but with moms birthday lunch tomorrow, I am not holding out for a huge lose, and will be happy if I break even, so fingers crossed.....

Well, I am 67 years old today, and I have NOT done very well the last week of my 66th year. I guess it began on Friday when I made a brownie for church - I can resist anything except a brownie! Saturday was alright - except for that brownie I ate! - but Sunday was disastrous. I went to a "bull roast" with my friend Janet, and OH! how I overate! Three plates of food PLUS a piece of cake - oh woe is me! However, I am determined to be back on track this week and to have made at least a passable beginning at making this fortnight's goal of 4 pounds. I will say that I felt good in my clothes yesterday, so I know it is all worthwhile.

8.23 km / 5.14 miles later...

Work is over for the day and I am collapsed on the sofa, one cat curled up against my thigh, the other asleep on the newspaper at my feet, feeling pretty much every step of those 5 miles today! Work was, thankfully, steady, and the team kept me pretty busy running from one end of the store to the other (hence the miles covered), which made the time go quickly - and helped to work off my bad food intake today! You know when the day starts with a Bavarian-creme-filled chocolate donut and a diet coke that it's not going to be the best of days! Lunch consisted of a peanut butter sandwich and a slice of fudge brownie, and dinner was a hot dog and a Caesar salad from Target - so dinner wasn't toooo bad, but after the excesses of earlier in the day.... Like I said, it's good job I walked so much at work - even if I am aching from it now!!

10lbs gone....I think 56lbs or something to go....

You would think that that statement would be daunting, but I am still on a high from having reached the first 10lbs!! I am positive about being able to continue losing, and even though it has taken this long to lose the 10lbs, I feel as though it is the healthiest lose out of all my 20 years of dieting, because it has come off slowly, and all the experts say that is the way it will stay off. AND....this is not boasting. I have been eating better, no doubt, and I have been walking more then I have in forever, thanks to getting that back pasture open...but I have not REALLY worked that hard so far. I want to start doing some toe touching in the evening....I did those things before, and although it was not huge in making me lose more weight, it did help my stomach to flatten(okay, well that is the word we need to use, even if "flat" is not really the RIGHT word....) out a little....

So...now on to the next goal which is 4lbs. I think I will can I think I can I think I can.....
I will also make more of an effort to blog more...
Eileen

Yay, we DID IT!!!

Well, the weigh-in this morning was very, very successful and we are ALL very happy today!!! Our goal was to lose 4lbs over the course of the last two weeks, and here is how we did:

Mom lost 3.5lbs
Eileen lost 6.5lbs
I lost 5lbs

That means that for this period the Heifer account only gets $0.50 cents!!! Sorry, Heifer - but it also means that we've all done really well with our diet!

Our next goal is again 4lbs by October 22nd. Let's see how well we do this time round!

Uh-oh... It's that time again!

Tomorrow is the end of our latest two week challenge, wherein we were to lose 4lbs. I'm afraid to say I don't think I've lost a single ounce in the last two weeks! Certainly at last week's weigh-in I hadn't... Still at the same 222lbs I was at the week before. Which in and of itself is not a BAD thing, per se... Better to stay steady at one weight than to have gained, that's for sure! However, tomorrow is the payday weigh-in, and I would really like to have lost at least SOMETHING this week!

As the weather changes I can see that food is going to become much more of an issue. Through the summer months - or at least the last 6 weeks or so - eating light hasn't been much of a problem, even though it's been a dramatic change to our "normal" diet. With the warm weather, it's easy to eat less, and to eat lighter foods like salads. As we move into the colder weather (it's dropping to 48 degrees tonight, supposedly!!), the temptation is going to be to eat "stodgier" foods - goulashes, spaghettis, etc. - certainly not salads! So the next few weeks / months are definitely going to be a new challenge!

Exercise is still an issue. I rode my bike to work more last week, which was good - partly because I'd made a commitment to the kids in my Sunday School class to ride it as part of our Creation Caretaker week, and partly because I really did want to ride it & get the exercise. This week I've only ridden it once so far, on Tuesday - and even then, only one round trip, rather than two. I do go to work tomorrow, and I will ride it - weather permitting - at least one round trip (i.e., 2 miles). The 2nd round trip I will have to take my laptop to work (believe it or not, we don't have any "normal" computers at work - only the ones that run the POS system), as I've got a project I need to try to finish for work. And it's impossible to ride my bike and take the laptop along!!

So we shall see what we see tomorrow morning... The Heifer account is at least looking healthy! We got the first bank statement today, and it is currently sitting at $134.50. If we keep this up, we'll have enough to buy an entire ox by next July!!! :0)

Well, third time lucky - I been trying for three days to post, and this cursed machine always lets me get about half through and then EATS what I am writing.I just

"I can resist everything except temptation..."

Ok, so the first month was all about being virtuous - not eating anything I shouldn't be eating, giving up the majority of the junk, sugar, french fries, milkshakes... And it worked well for me. Eating more fruit, tripling my salad intake, beginning to do a little exercise... It was working.

This new month seems to be all about trying to avoid temptation - and for the most part not doing very well with it! I'm doing ok on the exercise thing - I rode to work yesterday after my break (i.e., I only did 2 of the possible 4 miles), and again this evening, so that's good. Although the fashion statement I made on my way home - dressed in bright yellow coveralls & a bright yellow jacket over my jeans, t-shirt & sweatshirt jacket - was definitely a sight to behold!!!

But oh, I could about eat everything and anything in sight - in fact, yesterday I gave in and had both a twix (230 calories all on its own!) AND a cup of hot chocolate - hence why I biked back to work my break! Plus eating in the evenings - lots of fruit, a bowl of popcorn yesterday evening, a Fiber One bar tonight... The first week of this new month is over, and the weigh in was neutral for me - I didn't lose anything, but I didn't gain anything either, which was the saving grace of the weigh-in!

So we shall see... I fear I shall be paying a fair penny next Thursday into our Heifer account. Not sure what to do next to continue losing weight. The first 11.5 lbs went fairly easy. Now the real work begins! I think I need to up my exercise program - definitely time to get out that Biggest Loser Workout DVD Eileen lent me - and to ramp up my willpower to not eat the wrong things!

Friday today and I think maybe I haven't done all that well. EM and I impulsively went to Applebys for lunch instead of me bakin potatoes and steaming some veg and frying a bit of ham. We shared a pecan-crusted chicken salad - yum, yum - and also shared a bacon-cheeseburger and fries - oh, why does SIN have to taste so GOOD! I haven't eaten anything since 1:30, though I did have my one diet coke about eight tonight. Maybe I have to give that up, too. But I don't feel the least bit depressed, surprisingly. I'm too focused on all the things we have coming up - the concert, Prabjahl's visit, Chelsea coming, pitching Women of Faith to the Red Hats, etc. etc. etc. No doubt that is the clue to successful dieting - keep too busy to think about the fact that you're dieting!

Hooray! Eileen lost THREE pounds this week! EM and I thought she was really getting discouraged, having had such a difficult two weeks. But no, she was as enthusiastic as ever, and ecstatic when she got off the scales this morning! EM stayed the same, and I gained half a pound. Guess I really can't cheat - at least not two days in one week! Yesterday I went to CLV and bought a jar of tomato jam I had seen in the gift shop there. I had some on toast this morning after my oj, but it was nothing like Mom's - it had lumps of tomato in it and tasted slightly tart. I'm thinking I could put it in the blender with some sugar and a bit of cinnamon - but then do I really need the calories?!! I walked to work today, took me 29 minutes, and I had alloted 40, so I got paid for 20 minutes extra work! But more importantly, I got EXERCISE! I was in LS for a free lunch today, also - two kinds of salad, a grilled chicken breast, and two slices of rare roast beef. It was okay, but I wouldn't drive all the way to Finksburg, where it came from, to get more.

Hooray - Eileen lost THREE pounds! We all three rejoiced for her, she was so sure she had gained! We weighed in this morning, and Eileen was so sure she had gained; she had had such a tough week, what with Kyros and the death of Debbie's daughter. Esther Marie had stayed the same and I had gained half a pound, so she and I have some serious work to do this coming week, while Eileen only has to lose one more pound. I bought some tomato jam yesterday while I was sinning at CLV, so of course I had to taste that this morning. It is nothing at all like Mom's was - this has big chunks of tomato in it and is really quite tart. BUT - I had to have two slices of toast to try it out! I'm thinking I may put it in the blender with a bit of sugar and some cinnamon - but then, do I REALLY want the calories? Chocolate bars I can do without - but good tomato jam? Maybe I will just leave it alone!

Who said biking was a good idea???

My success of yesterday with the bike went to my head... and has quickly gone to my aching body this evening! I needed to go visit a church member this afternoon, who lives about 2.5 miles from our house, and I- full of (as it turns out false!) bravado - decided it would be an easy bike ride, and far better for me than driving. Of course, what I didn't take into account in that thinking was the fact that the route is far, far, FAR more hilly than my little route to & from work! I made a valiant effort, though, and only ended up walking the bike for about a third of the round trip distance... Needless to say, though, I am both pleased to have done it (and got through it!), and am tired and aching from having done it!

But the best part of it is that before I got on the bike, I was HUNGRY - even though I'd had a perfectly acceptable portion size of chow mein hot dish and salad for lunch not an hour earlier. I could quite happily have devoured every warm / hot thing in the kitchen (and was doing my best to avoid doing so...). Yet when I got home from the ride, I was thirsty, but my hunger had pretty much gone. What was left of it was quickly dispatched with a couple thin slices of home-made banana nut bread - far fewer calories than everything else I had wanted to get my hands on before the ride!!

Tomorrow it's back to work. There is a strong wind blowing tonight that is forecasted to continue blowing through tomorrow - and which did not help my ride this afternoon by any stretch of the imagination! - so it will depend on the weather in the morning whether I ride to work or not. Watch this space for more details!!

ugh ugh ugh

So, so far this diet plan has not been working for me. Ever since we started there has been one thing after another after another that has served as "distractions" to my plans. First the death of Ethan, then the Women of Faith weekend, then the Kairos Outside weekend, and then the death and funeral of Amy. So, maybe, well probably, I have been using all of that as an excuse, but for whatever reason, I have not been doing well, and would not be surprised this week if I am back up to my beginning weight. So I need to start over and get my head into the game....it is, if nothing else, costing me too much!! I am starting back tomorrow with no soda. I think I did better when I gave it up cold turkey right at the beginning of this whole thing, so as of today, there will be no more soda.
So....Heiffer International will likely get more money from me this week....but that will be the last of it....
Eileen

I DID IT!!!

For the first time since getting the bike, I have managed to ride it to and from work for the full 4 miles - i.e., I rode it to work at the start of my shift, came home on my lunch break, rode it back afterward and then rode it home again. Yay, me!! :0)

Having said that, I am BEAT tonight - I was very busy at work for the 2nd half of my shift, and riding the bike home was almost torture... I actually considered getting off and pushing it instead of trying to pedal it up the (very shallow!) inclines! I am, however, extremely proud that I finally managed to do it, and am looking forward to doing it again on Wednesday!

Foodwise, it's been a good day - thankfully, since I let Mom lead me astray yesterday! I confess we shared a medium double-pepperoni pizza - not too, too bad on its own... except that we shared it at 9.15pm last night!! It was, however, absolutely heavenly. I'm a sucker for good pepperoni, and I was hungry for pizza, so it all worked out well - it would just have been better had it not been so late in the evening!

Anyway, today: banana nut cheerios with a glass of milk for breakfast, spicy honey orange chicken with mashed potatoes, sweet corn, carrots & a lemon ginger pudding for dessert; a yogurt & an apple on my break, and another yogurt & apple I got home tonight - again, late (it was about 11pm), but I figure that riding the bike for 4 miles - and walking a LOT at work tonight (I got a real workout at work!) - means I can get away with it! :0)

I guess week-ends are not for me - yesterday was a terrible day! I started out all right with oj and cereal, but it was all downhill from there - a mini-donut, FOUR chocolate chip cookies, bread and honey (just to assure my self it was GOOD honey - HA!), pizza, two diet cokes - oh, woe is me! But I am back on track this morning and relishing the fact that my clothes still feel a little looser. I do so hope I will be under 200 lbs when I go for my physical next month!

I THINK I made it through the church picnic - at least I avoided the dessert table until the very last minute when I ate three crumbs off the brownie plates! I kept telling myself - a minute on the lips, forever on the hips, a minute on the lips, forever on the hips, a min - well, it kinda sorta !worked! I did have one and a half hamburger patties without a bun and spoonfuls of six or eight of the other dishes, mostly cole-slaw type salads, but also mac and cheese and a jello/whipped cream/marshmallow concoction. Oh, and I did have a mini-muffin off the dessert table that EM brought me off the dessert table, but it turned out it wasn't very good - kind of the wages of sin! I did have two large glasses of lemonade - I've no idea if it was calorific or not. I had had oj and corn flakes, vegetable soup and two diet cokes earlier. Okay, okay - I probably did NOT do so well! It won't help today that EM bought me a jar of HONEY!!!!!

No fries, but..

So I behaved myself today, and did not give in to my (strong!) desire for a large plate of seasoned french fries - more than anything else because I couldn't remember which restaurant does the REALLY good ones! (TGI Friday's, as it happens... I remembered too late!)

However, having had a very low cal count day (banana nut cheerios & a glass of milk for breakfast, and a small bacon & egg roll for lunch), I kinda lost it at the church picnic this evening... A hamburger (no bun), a hot dog (with bun), one slice of cheese, a few doritos, but the fruity "salads" (little wonder Americans are so much heavier than the rest of the world when a "salad" is jello, whipped cream, grated cheese, and mini marshmallows!), the cake, the brownies, the banana bread (baked by mom!).... I gave in and ate too much! Actually, I didn't give in: it was a conscious decision before I got to the picnic that I was going to enjoy the food and not worry about the diet for one night. And that was exactly what I did - especially when my friend Anna offered me the icing from the slice of cake she took, and icing is a REALLY big weakness of mine... I can buy the containers of Duncan Hines icing and eat the whole thing in one or two sittings if I'm not careful! Hmm... Little wonder I need to lose weight!

Tomorrow, resolve returns and I will be back on track - and back at work, which means back to getting my exercise running up & down & round that 10,000 sq.ft. store!

Looking in the mirror this morning, I thought my face is beginning to change shape. Great - EM loses off her middle, and I lose off my FACE!! More svelte her - more wrinkly me!! It's no doubt due to the fact that I ate a rice krispie bar after my lunch yesterday and a hunk of cheese when I got home last night, TOTALLY breaking my vow not to eat in the evening. I wonder how Eileen is doing at Kyros this week-end. What with that and then the funeral of her friend's daughter on Monday, she is facing a tough week. My heart goes out to her - all of this is so much harder for her than it is for EM and me. We are two people working towards the same goal; she is one person with a family to feed, a business to run, and a hundred and other demands on her time and resolve. Dieting takes the energy to make sensible choices, and I suspect that at the end of the day she is just too exhausted to do anything more than just fill everybody up and get them into bed at a somewhat reasonable time. I remember those days so well!! I will try to do better today than yesterday, though with a church picnic to go to, I know I will be sorely tried!

Oh for a large plate of french fries....

I could just kill for a large, large plate of hot, fresh, salty french fries... Forget anything else - just give me the fries and nobody gets hurt!!!!

So instead of satisfying that urge, I came home like a good girl, and ate a very good, delicious, crisp green apple. It was very tasty... but it was NOT a large, large plate of ... oh, you get the idea!!

I'm excited today to realize that my "new" blue jeans - bought about a month ago - are too big for me, and that the belt my nephew gave me for Christmas last year can now be done up on the last hole and not have me turning blue for lack of being able to breathe! All exciting stuff! It's also a good incentive to keep on going with this challenge. I haven't fit a size 12 jeans (or anything else for that matter!) since I was a teenager - give or take 14 - and while I certainly don't believe I could ever get back into a size 12 anything and still be alive, it would be very nice to get down to a size 14 - from my current 18 / 20 / 22, depending on the manufacturer.... That WOULD be exciting!!

I think I need to buy a slightly more expensive pedometer though, as I'm not sure how much I trust the one I currently have. If it is to be believed, then I walked approximately 4.5 miles at work today, and about 6 miles at work yesterday - and that without cycling to work. Plus that doesn't take into account the non-walking physical work at my job - things like pushing / pulling carts, lifting 50lb vanities etc etc... I certainly won't get FIT doing this job, but I definitely am getting exercise doing it!

Now I just need to get serious about riding the bike and about trying The Biggest Loser work out video... Stay tuned for more news!

(PS And I STILL want those french fries!!!)

Well, I put $14.50 in the bank today. Heifer is doing very well out of these Heffers! We weighed in this morning, and I didn't have to pay anything - I made the goal! Esther Marie had lost 2 lbs and Eileen - well, she paid the most! We've set our next goal at 4 lbs. I made a chicken salad for our lunch, and we had half a cantalope each for dessert. I had my one coke of the day with Eileen when she came back this morning for a game. I have to admit that I licked the chicken salad spoon after work this evening when I was transferring the leftover to a smaller container. That's the first time I have reneged on my no-eating-after-my-main-meal vow. But I haven't been struck by a bolt of lightning yet!!!

Ugh.. weigh-in day tomorrow...

Well, tomorrow marks the end of our 2nd two-week challenge - and hence the end of the first month of our diet challenge. It'll be interesting to see how we've all done, given our weekend away in Philadelphia last weekend!

I'm concerned that Mom really isn't eating enough - I think she should be getting at least 1200 calories a day, but there are many days when she's barely hitting 800. I know she thinks she should eat less because she's older & it takes more for her to lose it, but the answer to that is exercise - even mild forms thereof - not eating less. And getting her to do any of that is nigh on impossible....

As for me, I have to admit that my exercise plan has been woefully lacking this week too. I thoroughly enjoyed Philadelphia - it was a great conference, and exploring the city was very, very interesting too - but somewhere I lost my energy and my voice, and I'm still trying to find both. My voice went out on Friday afternoon & still hasn't come back - very depressing, given that it's barely a month since I recovered from my LAST bout of it, which lasted 2 long weeks. As for my energy, I feel like I've run a marathon (which, in fairness, I've never done) and haven't slept in a month - although I've actually been sleeping straight through the night. I'm not sick per se - just totally energy-less. So needless to say I have not ridden the bike at all this week (but fair shake - it was raining yesterday too...). I'm hoping the rest of this week goes better than the beginning & that I'll be able to ride it tomorrow & Friday though!

So we shall see what the scales tell us tomorrow... Hopefully the news won't be all bad, although if it is all bad for us, that means it's all good for Heifer!

I think I am back on track for weighing in tomorrow. Esther Marie upbraided me yesterday when I told her I had left my weight as 220 on my new driver's license. But I'm worried that if I am stopped 3 years from now, I might really BE 220 lbs! Yesterday I had a dish of orange/grapefruit compote and then cornflakes for breakfast. We had spaghetti for lunch - lots of sauce, not too much pasta - with one slice of bread and butter (fake!), carrots and a small dish of peaches - but I didn't have the syrup they were canned in, which is all sugar. I was good Monday, too, though I can't remember now what I ate! I know when I recounted it to EM in the evening, she scolded me for not eating enough! Tomorrow will tell the tale. I don't think the girls realize that it is that much more difficult to lose weight once you pass 50 - even more so pass 60 - and well nigh a miracle when you're pushing 70! Egads - can that really be ME?!!!

Well, we made it through a WONDERFUL week-end without being TOO bad. We stopped for something to eat when we got gas Friday morning and decided to cheat just a little by buying something for our breakfast. I got a piece of pound cake, oj and some 2% milk, which wasn't too bad - but not as good as a bowl of Cheerios! We got box lunches Friday and Saturday at the Conference - a sandwich, chips, a piece of fruit and a cookie of some sort plus a small bottle of water. Again, not too bad, but heavy on the carbs. Friday night I had a bowl of French onion soup and two pieces of a chicken quesadilla. Saturday night we drove around Philadelphia (what a beautiful city it is!) and I had a delicious spinach/smoked turkey salad. So far, so good. But then, oh then, come Sunday we took a tour of the city on an open-top bus and decided to hop off and have our lunch at the City Tavern. A fatal decision for dieters. I had beef pot pie with cabbage and assorted summer vegetables, delicious varied breads with real butter, and a berry cobbler WITH ICE CREAM. Oh, groan! I was still thinking that, since it was at noon, I could not eat the rest of the day and not be too horribly off my REP, but then Eileen announced that Alan was making dinner for all of us - steak, sweet corn, and fresh baked bread. Suffice it to say, I am NOT going to makethis fortnight's goal - I just hope I won't have to pay double for weight GAINED!!! I am back on track this morning, though - oj and cornflakes for breakfast, my one diet coke of the day (hey - I cheated on that, too, all week-end!) at my side as I type this. Whatever I eat before I go to work, it will be minimal and probably green! Watch this space for further confessions!!

And the results are in.,..

So week three, it's 7am, and we're just about to leave for Philadelphia and the Women of Faith Conference. Before leaving, however, we weighed in - a day late, since I had to start work at 5.15am yesterday morning. The results are:

Mom 206.5 - a loss of a 1lb
Me 224 - a GAIN of 1/2lb!!!
Eileen 255.5 - a loss of 2lbs - YAY, Eileen!!

So now we're away for 3 days - hopefully the weekend will not adversely reflect our diet attempts!!

Back on Sunday nigh t/ Monday morning - watch this space for more updates!

I TRIED to blog yesterday, but this #%*/* machine (sorry, computer) ATE it before it was finished! Let's hope I - WE - do better today! As EM blogged, Tuesday was not a good day. I'm not sure I ate too much, but I know I ate all wrong. Chocolate cookies? Steak fries? CheeseWhiz? I think not! I did have a very good Asian salad when we were out with Eileen's, however, so I kinda sorta redeemed myself - I did NOT eat the cornbread OR the doughknots. Today has been better. Two slices of toast with minimum butter and minimum raspberry jam and a small of milk for breakfast (I was feeling fed-up with cereal). I had a 100-cal. bag of cookies for a midday snack, then the scrambled eggs/ham/cheese at 3:00 followed by a 60-cal. dish of peaches (I threw out the syrup) and a no-sugar tapioca pudding to end it. No more toast. So I don't think I even had 1000 cals. today. No exercise - EM is twitting me about not skipping, and that rope stares me in the face so often that I have begun not even to see it! We are weighing in tomorrow instead of today since EM started work so early. The three of us are off to Philadelphia tomorrow for the week-end. NOW our diets will REALLY be tested!

No exercise, but no food, either!

(Posted by Esther-Marie, who is obviously too tired to realize that she was logged in under Mom's login for the blog instead of her own - must be time for bed!!)


Well, yesterday was not a good food day for us - Mom & I had lunch at Carroll Lutheran Village with Charlotte, which for me was a small salad, a philly cheesesteak type sandwich (ground beef & melted cheese on a hotdog bun) and a small portion of steak fries. Which in and of itself was not dreadful - but the HEAVENLY double chocolate chip cookies (2) for dessert probably put me way over the calorie count on their own!

Then yesterday afternoon there was a fund raiser for Eileen's best friend's son's scout troop (could I get any more apostrophes in that sentence??) at a fast food restaurant near her church. Dinner there involved a delicious chicken caesar salad - with a slice of cornbread (yum, but boo...) - and Eileen, wicked child that she is, ordered a half order of cinnamon sugar Dough-knots with icing, which she then proceeded to tempt me with. And as Oscar Wilde once said, "I can resist everything except temptation...." so you know how well she tempted me!

Today has been a different story, however. A cup of banana nut cheerios and a glass of milk for breakfast, a rice krispie bar for a midday snack, scrambled eggs with ham & cheese & two slices of whole grain / whole wheat toast for lunch / dinner, and a bowl of orange / grapefruit compote with a jello sugar-free chocolate pudding for dessert. All told, maybe 1000 calories today - but, sadly, no exercise, as I stayed up WAAAAAAAY too late last night (2.45am, when I had to be up at 7.15am for work!) - I was writing baby shower invitations for a girl at work - to be safe riding the bicycle to work!

Tomorrow will be a different story, though: I'm off to bed now, as I have to be at work at 5.15 tomorrow morning, and I will DEFINITELY be riding the bike in the morning (weather permitting, of course!). Sweet dreams, everyone!

Get on yer bike!!

I have sounded sooooo British all day today, it's been really quite astounding... I know I generally sound at least a little British at different times (believe me: if nothing else, the customers at the store won't ever let me forget it!), but today has really been something else... Hmm.. Wonder why?? Of course, I made the FATAL mistake of using a very English word - trolley (for cart) at the store recently, and my line manager / boss will never ever let me forget it, but even so... !

My resolve has held well today, and I even got to ride the bike again tonight, so I'm feeling very virtuous tonight. A glass of OJ, a cup of multi-grain cheerios and a glass of milk for breakfast, the nachos & pecan-crusted chicken salad for lunch (ok, I confess... I also had a half-order of french fries - TGI's does SUCH good fries... but I didn't eat the whole order, so that has to be worth something, right?!), and I've just had a bowl of the orange & grapefruit compote for a night-time snack. The real bonus was that I got called in to work this afternoon to cover someone who'd called out sick, so I got to ride the bike to / from work - 2 miles of heart-pumping exercise to help work off the calories. Yay! :0)

Monday - and I think I am still okay. For one thing, the prunes have worked yet again after five days of lying dormant! For that reason if no other I KNOW I have lost! Esther Marie and I went to the Outlet Mall at Gettysburg today ostensibly to get her some more knee highs, but the unspoken ulterior motive was to have lunch at TGIFridays. I suggested to EM that we could probably order her socks on-line, but she immediately took it to mean that I didn't really want to go to TGIFridays; nothing could be further from the truth! We had a coupon for a free appetizer and, having perused the choices carefully, we chose nachos. The cheese was the only no-no, but how do you get cheese off a nacho?!! The chef came out and talked to us all about nutrition, and the waitress was so kind - she never even suggested we have dessert!! We both ordered a Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad, which is delicious for a minimum number of calories. That, with my cornflakes and orange/grapefruit compote for breakfast, has been the sum total of my intake today. But if I hadn't sworn off eating in the evening, I could go in the kitchen and have one of everything right now!!

HAH.,...I was lost because I had no computer, not because I was doing badly or anything. Actually, I think the weekend went fairly well. I had a KO meeting on Saturday which is always full of YUMMY food and LOTS of chocolate. Well, I had no chocolate, and only had one serving of breakfast and one of lunch. I did have two small cups of Diet Dr Pepper, and then I stuck to water for the rest of the day. Sunday, I had a very lazy day, and only actually ate lunch and dinner....so that was a good day in all.....Today I had my milkshake....I have decided that I will have one a week....better then the one a day that I was doing.....I have had no soda other then what I mentioned before....oh, and one can of Diet Coke at moms....I think it is unfair that they keep it in the house!! Lets see....I really feel as though I am losing....and hopefully the scales will agree with me this week....we are not weighing in until Friday, so I have one extra day to work on it....
Off for now.....Eileen

New week, new beginnings, new resolve...

Well, the weekend was challenging... I spent most of it hungry - and had a lot of food on Saturday to prove it, but not enough on Sunday, consequently having to eat late in the evening yesterday. Saturday morning I had @ 1 1/4 cups of Cheerios for breakfast - it made no sense to leave that little bit in the bag, after all - a whole grapefruit, and a (70 cal) chocolate jello along with a small glass of milk. Then I had a pecan-crusted chicken salad (YUM) from Applebees (definitely my favorite!) for lunch - along with 2 slices of their garlicky bread - I just really wanted some bread.... By the time I got home from work, I was hungry again, so I had a slice of bread with a little butter....

Sunday morning I had a large bowl of orange & grapefruit salad, 2 slices of multi grain wholewheat toast and a glass of milk. Then for lunch one slice of bread with the last 2 slices of processed American cheese and another of chocolate puddings. On my break, I had a banana, a small can of prune juice & a bag of (100 cal) fig newtons. By the time I got home from work, I was very hungry... I kept trying to ignore it, but gave in finally and had a peanut butter sandwich (VERY light on the peanut butter, as it is SOOOOO high in calorie & fat content!), after which I felt much, much better & slept like a baby!

So now today it's back to more sensible eating plans... I've had a glass of orange juice so far, and am now going to have a bowl of cheerios & more of that orange / grapefruit salad. I also intend to try the Biggest Loser Workout dvd that Eileen has lent me today - I've not ridden my bike at all this weekend, and NEED some exercise if I'm going to lose any weight this week!

So high-ho, high-ho... it's onward that we go!

Okay, okay, okay - I cheated yesterday. Not a TOO bad a cheat, but still a cheat. I had two little chocolate chip cookies when I was with Mrs. Bush last night. I'm sure calorie-wise I could afford it, but I still shouldn't have eaten them. I had had cheerios and oj for breakfast, soup and a rice krispie bar for lunch, a fountain diet coke and a can of diet coke and an apple, so calorie-wise I was no doubt alright. But I still should not have had those cookies. Ah, well, hopefully I'll do better today.

-Posted by Mom / Carol (I forgot to sign in under my own name to do this blog!)

Grocery shopping was actually fun yesterday - well,, I always enjoy it, but yesterday was funner! Esther Marie and I examined the nutritional labels on everything we bought, and were we surprised by some of the things! I thought we could buy some of the Ben and Jerry mini-cups of ice cream, but even the little two-spooners had 220 calories. And those snowballs that I so love? Three hundred and twenty calories EACH - and I always ate BOTH of them. By the time we got to the check-out, we knew full well why we're in the shape we're in! So nose to the grindstone - on to the minus five!

I'm HUNGRY!!!

Actually, if I'm honest, I'm not really - I suppose I'm a little peckish, something that a piece of fruit would take care of, really - but my brain is telling me I'm hungry, and is practically begging me to go into the kitchen and devour everything in sight. Which I'm working very hard at NOT doing!! It doesn't help that we went grocery shopping today and consequently have a kitchen full of good things (low cal!) to eat...

But I must be strong... We had a good lunch at Bob Evans' today - mom had soup & a loaded baked potato, while I had a rather large salad and 2 buffalo wing sliders (just the meat, no bread) - although I have to admit I did also devour the french fries that came with the sliders! Still, BE does bottomless fries - you can have as many as you want - and I was very good, and did not order seconds on the fries. Although I would have loved to!

I have done a lot of running around today, but all of it has been in the car - we've had pretty much torrential downpours all day long, and several parts of the area are under flood warnings / watches, so the bicycle has stayed locked up, I'm afraid! Tomorrow is back to work, though, so hopefully the weather will have cleared up & I'll be able to bicycle to / from work again!

Meanwhile, Mom has just come home, so hopefully she'll be able to distract me from my wicked-wicked-wicked urges to go graze like a cow (or a heffer!!) in the kitchen!!!!

We lost, we lost, we lost!!

The first two week challenge is over, and we ALL managed to lose weight - we're off to a good start! None of us made the 12lb challenge - we really were reaching for the stars with that target, we can see with hindsight! - but it gave us all something to aim for, and we all managed to lose something! In the first two weeks, Mom has dropped 6.5lbs, Eileen 5lbs, and - much to my amazement & delight - I have lost 9.5lbs!! I know Eileen is disappointed with her loss this week (as was I last week), but at the same time in the last two weeks she has had to deal with a death in the family & traveling to Ohio for the funeral, the start of the new school year with her children, and a sleepover at her barn for 16 kids, complete with s'mores, sodas, etc etc. With that much distraction going on around her, she's done great for the first goal!

So now starts the new 2-week challenge. Mom thought we should go for 4lbs, while I felt 6 would be better, and Eileen diplomatically stepped in and said, why not split the difference and aim for 5? So that is the new goal: 5lbs by September 24th. This is a much, much more realistic goal for all of us, so fingers crossed that 2 weeks from now, we'll all be jumping with joy! We will have a challenge in the middle of it, as next weekend sees all three of us in Philadelphia for the Women of Faith conference, but hopefully being there together will help us all to stay strong and not stray toooooo badly from the path!

Meanwhile, Mom paid $20 (it was supposed to only be $15, but she didn't tell the teller that until the $20 had already been deposited!) into our Heifer account, so she decided it could just stay there!

And on a further note, we decided what to do in the event that any of us actually GAINED weight in any given 2-week period, instead of losing. In addition to paying the $1 per lb not lost, we will pay a double indemnity of $2 per lb gained - so, if the goal is to lose 5 lbs, but I gain 3 lbs in the next two weeks, I would have to pay $5.00 (for the weight not lost) + $6 for the weight gained - a total of $11. Hopefully none of us will gain!

BLAH

Repeat after me....A pound lost is a pound lost. Yes, I only lost one pound this week. I knew I had not done great, but with the extra walking I am doing I did expect to lose more then just 1lb. So, I have had my pity party with a wonderful peach milkshake, and now I am over it and will be back on track. Now, this week will be my first week where I don't have an "excuse" to cheat, so maybe it will go better at the next weigh in......Also, maybe my body will hurry up and get rid of this period that is threatening me, and that should help too...(sorry to be personal, but it is a weight issue.....)I really think I am making MUCH better choices on food, and so do not feel as though that is the issue, but we will see. Maybe I will need to keep a journal for a week and have Kathy and Heather help me figure out where I am going wrong...I do know that if you don't eat enough calories, then you will not lose, as well as if you eat too many obviously....Anyways...I will see what happens this week of being good all week, and go from there. Meanwhile....A POUND LOST IS A POUND LOST!!
Until tomorrow....
Eileen

Well, the deed is done, and all three of us lost - whoopee! I was down 2 lbs, Eileen was down one, and Esther Marie lost a whopping six and a half pounds! Of course, none of us made the goal of 12 pounds, which means that this morning I will deposit a sum of $15.00 to our Heifer fund. I think Eileen and I were both disappointed we hadn't done better, but EM was ecstatic, having felt very discouraged with only a 2 lb. loss last week. She's off to work now, Eileen is off to her horses, and I am facing housework - groan, moan! But first things first - I'm off to the bank right now! More blog later!

My resolve holds!

Yay, day two of riding my (sister's) bicycle to work - and it felt GREAT! Admittedly, I didn't ride home at dinnertime - I was very, very hungry & we have no quick, easy & healthy food in the house right now, so I took myself to Applebee's for the pecan-crusted chicken salad (YUM!) instead - but I did ride there and back! I bought lights for the bike today (just as well, since it was pitch black when I came home), as well as a neon yellow vest, so no driver can claim they can't see me on the road! Ah, nothing like the height of fashion to make a real statement!

Foodwise, it's been a bit of a not-so-good day for me. I was HUNGRY at breakfast time, so had a cup & a half of cheerios instead of just a cup. Then I had a can of spaghetti-o's for lunch with 2 bread rolls (all told about 700 calories, I think), and for dinner the salad at Applebees. Oh, and I've had a 3-diet-coke day today - very unusual for me, as I generally try hard to keep to two. The flip side of all that food is that I have run like a maniac at work all day - I ended up doing a full shift instead of a short one, as the original Head Cashier is at the hospital with her niece, who went into labor today. While the store wasn't particularly busy, I seemed to have a particularly needy team today - constantly calling me for one thing or another, which worked well for me, as it kept me running from one end of the store to the other - great exercise (and no, I wasn't LITERALLY running...) So between that & riding the bike, I'm estimating that I've covered about 4 miles! Unfortunately, I forgot my pedometer today, so I don't have a more accurate guess than that, but that's my feeling...

And now tomorrow we weigh in. I'm curious to see how I've done this week - hopefully at least as well as, if not better than, last week! The 12lb goal was overly ambitious, as we all recognize, but we had to start somewhere! Watch this space for the results & for the new 2-week goal!

Day 14 and I am really looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in. I know I haven't lost 12 pounds
- that was a silly goal to set - but I'm sure I have lost some more, anyway. And that's in spite of cheating today and drinking a carton of chocolate milk with my lunch when I was with Charlotte. I know it is helping that I don't eat anything once I get home from work at nine. And that the prunes continue to work, even if only every three days (this being the day!). I must go and skip now, since I promised EM I would if she was going to ride the bike to work, which she did. And then I have to go to work and hour early, so I will take my one diet coke to work with me. Roll 8am tomorrow!

Exercise wears you out!

I finally did it... I rode my (sister's) bike to work and home today! It was exhilarating... It was fun.. It was TIRING!! Of course, part of that could well be the fact that I was up at 4.35am, as I had to be at work at 5.15 /5.20 - so I got up at 4.35, showered, dressed, had a bowl of cheerios & a small glass of milk, then peddled my little out heart out to get to work on time! And considering that I hadn't been on a bike in oh... about 19 years (if memory serves.. there may have been one or two times in between, but nothing that stands out in my mind!), I think I did pretty well! Of course, by the time I actually got to work, my knees were KILLING me (I'm so old... LOL), and I was shaky as all get up - but it felt GOOD!

I biked home again at lunch time, and promptly fell into a deep nap on the sofa for 30 minutes! My plan had been to cycle back to work again after my break, but I overslept, so sadly had to drive back. Still, it means that I got a 2 mile bike ride in today - and discovered that I can both do the ride & survive it! So tomorrow will be my next attempt! It will again only be a 2-mile ride, though, as I'm only working a 5 hour shift tomorrow, so will only have a 30 minute break - not enough time to come home, even if I were driving.

Foodwise I continue to do fairly well, although I'm going to have to get more fruit, as we're almost out! Thank heavens for 100-cal cookie packets, though... I had my cereal for breakfast, a banana on my lunch break, then Mom made us baked potatoes, 3 small sausages each, and veggies for lunch, with a 70-cal rice pudding for dessert. I got home from my Trustees meeting tonight REALLY hungry... So I ate an orange & a bag of cookies! I'm feeling somewhat less hungry - although truth be told, I could still very easily eat everything in the kitchen!

Anyway, it's now 12.20am, and I've been up for hours and hours and hours, so I'm signing off & going to fall into my bed! Good night!

No too bad, hopefully

Well I had a great beginning to today. I ate a yogurt for breakfast, a chicken sandwhich for lunch, okay so it had a small milkshake with it, and then we did go out to the Chinese buffett for dinner. I did, however, have water to drink. I limited myself to one plate, where as usual I would have had at least 2, and maybe three helpings, and then I had a serving of banana pudding, and then resisted the urge to eat more pudding etc by eating water melon. It was good and refreshing. So, I probably ate too much today overall, but I am working more on changing my eating habits at this point, making better choices when we go out, and that I think I have done. THE BIG NEWS....I have made the cut. NO soda today, and I will not have anymore, period. I even had water at a restaurant which is HUGE for me. Also, as advised by my dear friend, I am changing from Powerade Zero to Gatorade 2, which is low calorie, not calorie free. Apparently the chemicals in the PZ is worse then the calories in G2, so I will work with that. Even though I don't like the taste as much. Really, I only need that kind of drink when I am hot and working at the barn, and other then that I will be drinking just water.

I am happy with it all at this point, I feel that I am making good overall choices. I have not had fries since I started, and I don't even really miss them. I would like a chocolate bar every once in a while, and maybe I will allow myself one after this weeks weigh in. I am not sure that I will make the goal, but even if I don't, I think I will still be happy.

I take it back - the prunes work WONDERS!!!

I've had two good days, quantity-wise, though probably not quality wise. I don't know why I am so averse to eating fruit - I certainly don't have that problem with chocolate! I did cheat and eat a small chocolate chip cookie yesterday, but I don't think I have eaten anything I oughtn't to today. I don't feel hungry now, but I still want to go in the kitchen and rummage around for something. Good thing there is somebody here keeping a watchful eye on me!

Eating healthier, but still not healthy...

It's been another good food day for me - a bowl of cheerios, small glass of milk and a whole grapefruit (YUM - it was delicious!) for breakfast, then a Stoffer's macaroni & cheese microwave meal for lunch/dinner (I know it sounds bad, but it's only 340 calories - of course, 140 of those are fat calories, but even so...), and now this evening I was HUNGRY, so I've had a punnet of raspberries, a banana and a non-fat raspberry yogurt for an evening snack. Oh, and 2 diet cokes to drink... All told, I don't think I've hit 1000 calories today.

Which brings me to the title of this particular blog. I am soooo eating far more healthily than I think I've EVER eaten in my life, but at the same time, I still don't think I'm eating very healthily. My fruit intake has easily tripled (but that's a simple fix - even one piece of fruit a day is better than the 1 - 2 pieces a week I was eating before!), and I am taking a multi-vitamin daily (primarily for the iron content, as I think my iron count was low even before I started this diet thing..), so in that regard I'm doing much better now than I was. Also, my calorie intake is down by at least 1500 - 2000 calories a day - no more cookies, potato chips, candy, icing (one of my big weaknesses...), french fries... in short, no more JUNK - and much, much less milk (I was drinking 2-3 tall glasses / day), all of which adds up very, very quickly - I think I'm averaging between 1000 - 1500 calories a day now. But it's not balanced, which it needs to be, and that I think needs to be addressed....

Still, I'll put that on the "for the next step" list!

Meanwhile, thanks to my sister & her husband, I now have a bicycle to try riding, and I even bought a lock for it this evening, so tomorrow morning I shall try it out and start biking to work this week - exercise, here I come! Someone warn the drivers on the road... !!! :-)

a fresh start

Okay, so you probably think that it is too early for a fresh start. But it is needed anyways. I was doing great until Friday, but on Friday we had a sleepover at the barn. I crashed, big time. There was soda, pizza(three slices), brownies(1-yes really), s'mores(only 2), and sodas....that was the killer. And then in the morning we had Donuts. I think I had three throughout the morning, and did I mention soda? I did not have any lunch on Saturday, I am sure my stomach was in shock, and I had a very healthy (not) peach milkshake for dinner. So, it was a big mess. Believe me, my stomach let me know just how badly I had messed up. So, today, I am back on track. I had a bowl of cereal with no sugar for breakfast, and then went on a long relaxing trail ride on Bella (yes mom...this IS exercise for me as well as the horse) then walked her out to the back field when we got home. I need to measure how far that it, but it could be a 1/4 mile there and back, and today I did it without resting and without huffing and puffing, so that was good. So after our ride I was treated to Salsaritas for lunch. My very healthy friend was with me, and she helped my pick a healthy chicken burrito, with black beans, rice, lettuce and a tiny bit of sour cream and a then also a black bean and rice side. It was surprisingly good, and very filling. I also drank water with it....so I am feeling much better. I do think I can make that 12lbs by Thursday. I have decided to stop "stepping down" off of the salad, and am just going to quit. So I am drinking the last one now....and that is it. I feel as though I am in a good place with this diet now. Also...I am going to walk out to that back field at least once a day. It is a good walk, not straight but not overly hilly. I will also go and get a pedometer so that I can see exactly how much I walk in one day, as I think with lesson and such I must walk at least a couple of miles a day. I also am going to start riding more, as this is good all over exercise....cardio, muscles the lot....

So, that is it for now...I will post more later....

Eileen

The prunes are not working!!!

The fruit salad is gone...

... long live the fruit salad! I made a HUGE fruit salad at the beginning of the first week - who knew 2 pieces each of apple, pear, banana, nectarine, peach, some strawberries & a kiwi would make SUCH a big salad?? - and finally finished it for breakfast this morning. And amazingly, it was still delicious - the apples still crunchy, the banana still looking / tasting fresh... Shall have to make another one soon!

I'm feeling good about food today - although it's just as well I had no cause to go to the supermarket, or I wouldn't be feeling quite so good! I did go to Target for a few things, and found that the cookies were just JUMPING OFF THE SHELF to get at me - those soft-baked, Peppermill Raisin Oatmeal cookies were just crying out for me to rip them open and devour them... and the bags of potato chips (of which I've had exactly none in the last 8 days...) were begging me to give in and munch on them! I resisted though - with great difficulty and greater will power - and managed to escape the store without turning it into a feeding frenzy first!

So food today: fruit salad & half an orange for breakfast, chicken salad (1/2 chicken breast, 1/4 of an apple, 1/4 cup of pasta, 1/2 handful of raisins & some slivered almonds held together with 1/2 tbsp of salad cream & 1/2 tbsp of mayonnaise), a slice of buttered bread & a sugar free rice pudding (70 cals & quite edible!) for lunch, and 2 diet cokes... My entire calorie intake for today has to be about 1200 calories. Not bad!

Oh, and I bought a pedometer this afternoon - and discovered that I walked the equivalent of 1/2 mile at work this evening. Nowhere near enough... REALLY have to start exercising (hint, hint, Eileen - bicycle?? Please???)

P.S. I do have to confess... I was so disappointed with the weigh-in results yesterday that in a fit of pique I went to McD's and chowed down on a large portion of their fries... Tasty, but disappointingly not as satisfying as I had hoped - probably because I felt my guilt level grow with each one I put in my mouth... !!

Bank

Well, we have created a bank account for our venture - or competition, as Eileen insists on calling it! We had $75.00 from the sale of the tv and had to add twenty five more in order to start a savings account. Much as I want to help Heifer, I sincerely hope it doesn't grow too fast, cause that would mean we were meeting our goals all the time! I think it probably will grow next Thursday, however, as I think we set this first goal too high. Time will tell!

Paying the Piper

So after much thought, we have worked out the "penalty" side of this challenge - aka the money-raising side of it. Whoever doesn't meet each 2 week weight loss goal will have to pay the pot $1 for each lb not lost - i.e., if the goal is 12lbs, and I only lose 7lbs, I will then have to put $5 dollars into the pot, but if Mom loses 10lbs, she'll only have to put in $2.

We're going tomorrow to open a bank account for this venture - we sold a TV this week that had been given to us for free, so that money ($75) is our "seed" money for the bank account. We decided to go with a bank account so that none of us would be tempted to spend the money (which would be a big temptation if it were just sitting around the house somewhere!)

Henceforth we shall be putting money in (on an honor basis - no-one's going to be checking to see whether we're keeping our word & putting it in!) every couple of weeks. At the end of the challenge, the money will be used to buy an animal through Heifer International (see the link on the right) for a 3rd world family -thus helping someone else to benefit from our loss!

4lbs lost....8 more to lose before weigh in day...

It is the first weigh in day. I lost four pounds on this first week. I had honestly hoped to lose more, but then I remind myself of the travel last weekend, and think that it probably is not so bad after all. This week I need to stay focused more, and cut down again on the sodas. I have been good about sticking to just one bottle of soda a day, but starting tomorrow I am going to change that to cans of soda, as that carries less, and then I will quit completely next weigh in day. So....can we make the 12lb goal in two weeks? I think we probably can....but the others are thinking we cann't....pessimists!! So yesterday I finished my day with a grilled chicken ceasar salad WITHOUT croutons, and a apple and yogurt dip for dessert. Today started with a peach and a yogurt. I have to fight the urge to NOT eat....so now I am going to go and see what I can scare up some lunch....for some reason I really want some oatmeal, so that may be what it will be....

Hurrah - losses!

We all three lost this week - what a wonderful feeling - that's ten pounds of ugly fat GONE-GONE-GONE! Now next week we just have to keep this up and maybe even increase it by a pound or so. I will definately add some kind of exercise and encourage Esther Marie to do the same. Eileen gets plenty of exercise with her horse business. My grandkids suggested this morning that I join them out at the barn. NO WAY!! But that jump rope keeps staring me in the face!

The results are in....

And for me, at least, they suck! I am very disappointed by this week's weigh-in, having lost only 3 lbs - I was sure against sure that I had done better than that. I am especially disappointed since I "cheated" on day 3 and weighed myself then - it showed I'd lost 4 lbs, so to end the week with a loss of only 3 lbs is a BIG disappointment. Still, if nothing else it shows me that I really shouldn't cheat if I don't want to be upset on weigh-in day!

Mom lost 4.5 lbs, and Eileen 4, so we're all pretty much in the same area - we're beginning to think that perhaps 12 lbs as our first goal was a bit of a reach!!

I think for me the big thing HAS to be exercise. I've cut my calorie intake by at least 1/3 if not 1/2, and have DRASTICALLY increased my fresh fruit intake - up from basically nothing to at least 2 - 3 portions / day with the fruit salad. Eileen has agreed to lend me her bicycle (which she doesn't use anyway), so I'm going to start cycling to work - it's 9/10s of a mile each way, and I figure that if I ride to & from work, and ride home on my (hour-long) lunch break, that would give me all but 4 miles of bike riding exercise a day - a start at least.... I will definitely need to do more, though, if I'm to meet my goals for this challenge...

Day 6 and I feel I am doing okay. As a matter of fact, today I feel I haven't eaten enough. Cereal and oj for breakfast, a cup of soup with half a bun with sloppy joe on it and a dixie cup of ice cream for lunch, a diet coke and a small container of cottage cheese before I went to work at 4:30. This is really my worst time, when I first get home at nine fifteen or so - I'm not hungry, yet I want to eat everything in sight. I haven't had any evening snacks since we started this, and I do not want to go back to it tonight. No exercise today - I may have to drape that jump rope around my neck to remind me to use it!

half way through today...

Well I am going to blog now, not for long, but so that I get back on track. I did okay this morning, but then at lunch it was Cecelias birthday and there was pizza, cake and lemonade and apple sauce...mmmmm....I did not do as badly as I would have if I was not on this blog diet though...I had two slices of onion and mushroom pizza, a big tablespoon of apple sauce, half a cup of lemonade and a SMALL sliver of cake...which was OH so GOOD. So....now I want more and more sweet stuff.....but I am typing so I cann't be eating....and I am leaving the house soon and will be away from temptation. Weigh in tomorrow...I know I have lost some, just probably not as much as I wanted too....hopefully enough so that I don't have to pay up!!! I will write more tonight on how I get through the evening....

The day before the first weigh-in....

Hmm... tomorrow is the first weigh-in, and I have no clue how I'm feeling about it. I THINK I've lost weight, but I'm not sure... And if I don't start doing some exercise soon, losing weight is going to be pointless, as I'll just be LOOSE flabby skin instead of just flabby!

As for my mother's comment that I'm just doing it to be "beautiful", I hate to disagree with her, but... Part of it is that I just don't like the way I feel at this weight. I've always joked that when I can see my belly under my boobs (and given the size of those, it would be a pretty impressive belly..) it's time to lose weight - and while I'm not QUITE at that point yet, I feel like I'm not too far off it. Another part is that doctors have been saying for years that I'm clinically obese (ridiculous thought if you just look at me), but with a BMI of 30.4%, I am technically obese. Another part is support - we all know that if you do something alone you are less likely to succeed than if you do it in partnership with others, if for no other reason than moral support. On my own, I'd likely do nothing whatsoever about losing weight other than ask on occasion if my clothes make me look fat. With my mom & sister involved, I'm likely to do more - as are they. So we support each other and hopefully we'll all reach good goals. And yes, part of it is wanting to have a slimmer figure - I can fully admit that there are fewer & fewer photos of me that I like as I just think I look too big in them! So yes, part of it is beauty related, I guess!

Having said all of that, yesterday was not a particularly good food day for me. I had my cereal & milk for breakfast, then went to the first picnic with Mom at lunchtime. One sloppy joe, a little couscous (is that really bad for you?) a few tortilla chips, a banana bread & cream cheese sandwich, a little salad, a little pasta later... I managed to avoid the desserts (peach pie, coconut pie), but to be absolutely honest, if I'd had to go into the gas station I stopped at one the way home to fill up, I'd have bought one of EVERY sweet thing in there and gobbled it all up quickly! Instead, I paid at the pump (thank heavens for the convenience!), came home and attacked the fruit salad...

Then I went to work, and found that boredom really is a very big hunger-manufacturer. It was a very quiet afternoon, and by the time I came home on my break at 5pm, I was HUNGRY - so I finished off the poor man's stroganoff (with 2 slices of bread) and a Diet Coke - and a slice of sugarfree angel food cake for dessert.

I did, however, count the number of steps it takes to go from one end of the store to the other - something I do a fair bit when I'm in my Head Cashier hat. It's +/- 225 steps - which I did at least 3 times yesterday. I wonder how many steps you take to cover a mile? I really need to get a pedometer - then I'd know how far I'd walked each day!

So now today it's back on the wagon. I've had my cereal & milk this morning, as well as a good large serving of fruit salad (it's a really good salad!). I go to work at 2pm again today, but I'm in my Customer Service hat today, so won't cover anywhere near as much ground.

Which brings me back to really needing to start exercising... Hmm....

I am going to sit here and blog, blog, blog until my wicked urge to go into the kitchen and get something to eat goes away! No doubt a natural reaction to having eaten rather badly today. I'm not sure I actually CHEATED, but going to two picnics , both of them pot luck, really boogles a diet! Both picnics were great fun and the food was yummy, just too much of it! I tried to take just a spoon of everything, but my self-discipline was sorely tested! AND I haven't skipped rope at all today. Ah, well, tomorrow is another day and then it will be weigh-in day. Much as I want to lose weight, I really hope both the girls lose more than me - I'm the only one that can afford to feed the Heifer fund!! I want to lose for health reasons, my daughters want to lose to be more attractive - I already think they're beautiful, both of them!

good day...

I started the day with a yogurt and thought, oh oh, now I am in trouble-that will never hold me over. Luckily, my morning was busy so I didn't have time to think about food. But then, I start worrying because everyone says you have to eat to lose....I hate that concept even though I totally understand it. Anyways...for lunch I ate a hummus sandwich again, it is amazing how satisfying that is, and a yogurt. And then for dinner, rushed and crazy but thanks to Brendan for cooking...I had a fish finger, a little broccoli and cheese, and about a cup of white rice with Ketchup(I know but I love it...). And then I had a piece of fat free angel food cake and a peach for dessert. I must confess that I did again have a diet soda....it is easier to get through the day. I am going to continue to have a bottle of soda a day for this week, and then next week I am going to switch to a can a day, and then I will be done. As long as I am controlling it, and not the other way around, I think I am okay. So I am feeling overall happy with today. I also cleaned all of my stalls, which is a great workout. Now that September is here, I also have to start working towards my "BIG" goal, of being fit enough to walk a half marathon next Spring....we will see how that goes....I also need to work more on drinking WATER....I am drinking Powerade Zero, but I think I need just good old fashioned water...

Exercise - now that's a biggie - and oh! how I I need it ! I had decided I would skip rope for my main exercise - after all, that's one of the ways boxers keep fit, isn't it? Esther Marie very kindly bought me a jump rope at the dollar store last week - the first couple of times I tried it, I found out that I have forgotten how to use the darn thing - after all, I haven't skipped rope in probably 50 years! But yesterday I managed FOUR skips - whoopee for me! I plan to add at least one more skip each day until I reach 100 a day - let's see - that will take well into 2010! I have been good so far, but today will be a challenge - I am going to a picnic at noon with my Red Hats group and another in the evening with my church ladies group - I will have to be really, really vigilante and discipline myself to only eat the salads - and I am SO bad at self-discipline - which is why I am so overweight now! Ah well - better a late start than none at all! I'll confess in my next blog!

Being a couch potato

Ok, so for all my big plans to start exercising today (I thought I'd try running after work, then thought Mom & I would take a walk tonight after she got home from work..), I ended up going to bed WAAAAAY too late last night, then sleeping badly because I was worried about missing my alarm (5.20am comes sooo quickly if you're not careful!), and consequently have done nothing at all since getting home from work this afternoon - other than taking a 1.5 hour nap on the sofa, that is!

Still, food-wise I think I'm doing pretty well. Today started with a bowl of fruit salad at 5,45am, then a banana at 7.45am; after-work snack was a slice of sugarfree angel food cake, then lunch was tacos - believe it or not, 2 tacos with 2 tablespoons of meat & dressing is only 250 calories! I was psyched to see that on the box! - followed by a large slice of watermelon. And then this afternoon the only thing I've had was a 100-calorie bag of cookies. Who knew you could buy different varieties of cookies in 100-calorie bags??? That's too cool... And now to round the day off, I'm going to finish off the grapes I bought the other day as a bedtime snack, since I'm feeling definitely peckish. Even if I succeed at nothing else, just changing my junk-food snacks for fruits will make a huge difference in my overall health, I'm sure!

Oh, and I've only had one Diet Coke today - not too shabby! :0)

Now if I could just get my rear in gear & get off the sofa, I'd be doing so much better!!! Still, tomorrow is a new day....

bad end to a good day....sigh

Okay, so I should not have been so boastful earlier. You see.....dieting with a full time job, plus 3 kids, plus a totally insane schedule is more then a little complicated! Plus, Esther put into my mind that maybe not going cold turkey on the soda is okay...and maybe just try one a day. Suggestions like that KILL me. So...I gave in and had a soda. Then my afternoon schedule got completely out of control, and so we ended up at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Almost disaterous. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, NO fries, but a small peach shake. Okay, Okay, that was bad. So, the sandwich was AWFUL, so I ended up not even eating half of it.....but the shake was, ofcourse, yummy...so I sucked that on down.....SO...does half a sandwich and a small Peach shake equal out okay? Certainly not on the health food front, but maybe on the caloric intake front I may just be alright...we will see on Thursday....

NO DESSERT.....well, maybe a peice of fruit or a yogurt......

AND why is no one else posting???

So...today my head is more in the game...finally. I started today with oatmeal and apricots and that was a satisfying start to the day. Followed that with a lunch of Hummus sandwhich on these neat little sandwhich rounds I found, just 100cals for the bread....a vanilla yogurt and a peach. So not too many calories there I don't think. Not that I am counting calories...that gets WAYYYYY too complicated. So, tonight, fish fingers, veggie and rice. I am going to eat off of a small plate, that way I will not load it up as much...and one serving only. And stalls and barn chores tonight will be my exercise...weigh in day is only a few days away, and I have that trip to make up for, so hopefully I can still make it to being the biggest loser!!
Thats it for now...
Eileen

Official day one for me...

UGH....so my head is totally NOT into this diet yet, and I am STARVING. Today I have barely done "okay". I had a banana for breakfast, a banana and half a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and then a piece of cake(I know....I know...but it is out of the house now....). 1 peach, a Caesar salad for dinner, a really unsatisfying rice pudding and a slice of no fat angel food cake. So...now I am done for the day. And really, I am not starving anymore. It was before the angel food cake that I was feeling so terribly deprived. The good news...I have made it through the day with NO soda.....I am craving it, but fighting the urge....I know that that is the biggest let down in my diet as it is right now. If I can kick the habit life will be easier...and cheaper. I figure I was drinking between 3 and 6 bottles a day....and that adds up.....Tomorrow I plan to have oatmeal for breakfast. It is low cals and fills me up with a lasting fullness....and then I have these neat little bread circles that are 100 calories a pair and I bought some hummus so I will have a hummus sandwich and some sort of fruit....and we will go from there.....

Day 4

Well, I've gotten this far without falling off the wagon, so to speak. Esther Marie told me she cheated and looked at the scales (I'll let her surprise you with what it said!), but I have been SOOOOOOOOO good. I maybe faltered a bit last night when I had about 6 pretzels while I was "granny-sitting" which I do for about five hours every week-end, but I don't know how many calories pretzels have, so I'm not sure how serious that was. We got this idea from watching Julia and Julie, where Julie blogs her experience of cooking one recipe from Julia Childs cookbook every day for a year. If you haven't seen the film - DO! I've had my glass of oj and my two prunes this morning - now I'm off to eat some cereal before church. I guess it will have to be Cocoa Krispies, leftover from BD (before diet). I really do not like to waste food, no matter how bad it is for me!