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!