4/27/11 297lbs

Hooray! I lost a pound! Considering the past two weeks have been my busiest ever, that is a miracle. I don't even know what I did to lose. I didn't walk, I didn't drink nearly enough water. I did make pretty good choices though. We had lots of salads for dinner, even had a salad for lunch over the weekend. Our Easter dinner was a disaster, so I didn't eat a whole lot of it. How many times do I have to tell people not to buy meat at Walmart?!?! Steve bought ribs at Walmart and they were basically bone-in slabs of rubber despite his painstaking, day-long preparation.

Oh, Thyroid Update! The doc said that the first test it was up and then the second test (which was a week later) it was down a little bit. All my other hormone levels are normal, so she doesn't want to put me on a thyroid medication that could cause heart palpitations and high blood pressure. My Grandpa died from a hyperthyroid, so I'm not in a big hurry to speed up my thyroid if its not needed. I'm going back in September to have another check. She said if its up then she's going to send me to an endocrinologist. My hope is that by September I will be down about 50-60 lbs and I'll be healthy as a horse!

I don't have much else to report this week. Like I said, I kinda feel like I've cheated the scale this week. But that one pound has sky-rocketed my motivation, so next week I'll have plenty to talk about.

4/20/11 298lbs

Usually I have my little gain every four weeks. Its only been three. I did have a crazy week last week. I ate out almost every meal, and while I made good choices it was still eating out. Didn't drink nearly enough water either. Also didn't walk at all, well unless you count the countless treks in and out of Wake Forest Baptist Health Center. I already had a busy week planned, and then the education department added about 100 new CPR classes.

If I'm not eating because I'm stressed I'm eating because "I deserve it." I don't have time to reward myself with anything else, like a facial or a massage, so I eat.

This feels like the hardest thing I've ever done. I have to tell myself not to do something, not to go to McDonalds, not to go to Krispy Kreme, etc. I have to listen to myself. I have to discipline myself. It's miserable. Its funny because I look at last week's blog and think, "Who wrote that?" "Who is that optimistic person?" Because right now I've gone back to my old habits of, "Who gives a crap." And, "I'll work it off later."

It'll be interesting to go back later and look at my different blogs, the bright peppy ones where I'm sure I can stick to this forever and the dark negative ones where I'm sure I'll be fat forever.

4/13 294lbs

Well, I lost 2 more pounds. My total loss so far is 14lbs. Yay!

This week's theme is "choices". I'm amazed at myself. I've been making really great choices. I went to the movies last week and DID NOT eat popcorn. That is a huge feat for me. I drank about a gallon of Diet Coke, but no food. I have gotten into a bad habit of having Jimmy John's deliver to my office when there's a Subway within walking distance. My Jimmy John's sub is way more points than a Subway sub, plus I get a little bit of activity points. Steve made us a shrimp pasta dish and he left me a TON of pasta, I just threw half of it out. Kept the shrimp and some of the pasta, but didn't feel one bit guilty about throwing it out (he didn't notice anyway).

One thing I've noticed is that I spend a lot of time by myself. As soon as I find myself in social situations I eat like crazy. Its like the girl who only smokes when she's in a bar, I only eat bad when I'm with my friends. I need to work through that.

So in the past when I had crazy-busy work weeks I would eat nothing but hamburgers and french fries. This has been one of those week's and I am happy to say I have not indulged in anything like that. I do have this weird thing that I do at certain times of the day, I'll find myself blindly going to the vending machine and getting a snack. When I say blindly I mean I really don't even realize I'm doing it until I'm eating the food. This week its been related to water. I've been trying to drink more water, so I'm standing at the vending machine to get a bottle of water and the next thing I know I'm eating Fat Free Fig Newtons. I have been making pretty good choices like the FF Figs though. And I am drinking water, not Pepsi, so that's good. I also find myself prioritizing food/planning in a weird way. Like the other day I had to decide between putting my meals together for the day and taking a shower....didn't have time for both. I went with the meal planning! I took a shower later that day of course, but I had to make the choice to stick with my plan.

Even though I didn't eat hamburgers and fries, I did try a couple of lighter options at some fast food restaurants. The Hardee's BBQ Ranch Turkey Burger is 12 points and its not very big. Luckily I get a lot of points on WW, so I had the budget for it. It did taste good, but I need more food for that many points. I also tried Wendy's Grilled Chicken Wrap. It's 7 points and it is also not very big. I did feel fairly full after eating it, so I guess it was worth the points. The Turkey Burger had a ton of lettuce tomatoes and onions, so I at least got one serving of vegetables out of it.

4/6/11 - 296lbs

Wow, 7lbs since last week. Well, I'm pretty sure last week's gain was water weight, so technically I probably lost 5lbs. But still, I've lost 12lbs since I started....HOORAY!

This week's blog is dedicated to my new renegade method of walking. Last week my friend Ashley and I wanted to walk kind of early in the morning, but it was raining. The mall was our first choice, but it was too early. So we went to Wal-mart! Three laps around the outermost aisle of a Super Wal-mart took 30 minutes. On Sunday I had gone to the grocery store kinda early to avoid the church crowd. I knew I was going to be lazy the rest of the day, so I took it upon myself to walk up and down the aisles of the grocery store for 30 minutes! At the grocery store you have to go up and down the aisles and one lap around the outside three times to get a 30 minute walk in. Pushing a cart full of food adds resistance. My friend Genea and I have taken to walking for 30 minutes around downtown before Trivia on Tuesdays. It takes a little strategy to stay out of the scary neighborhoods, but its fun to see downtown in a new perspective. Genea and I also walked a couple laps around the movie theater parking lot last night because we always go to the movies on the Tuesdays where there is no Trivia.

I also wanted to give my friends a little more insight on the EFT that I mentioned back in my March 8th post. The website that I got the steps from is www.EFTuniverse.com. This stuff is like Prozac, I'm telling you. I don't want to list the steps on here because I don't want to get in trouble for like copyright infringement or something, but I really recommend it to anyone who is dealing with any kind of inner pain. Even if its minor, I mean my stuff that I'm dealing with is not that major, but I still do it and it really levels me out. Its awesome stuff.

Weight Watchers is going great so far. One thing I'm realizing is that I have to add stuff to everything I eat. I have to add dried fruit to my oatmeal, I have to add granola to my yogurt, I have to have hummus with my carrots or peanut butter with my apples. So I'm trying to eliminate one of those things at a time. I am also stepping myself down from full-fat dairy. This week I bought 2% everything. After a few weeks I'll be going non-fat.