Is it a "10"?

I read a post in another blog this morning written by a woman that has a lot of insight into this whole weight loss business. And there was something she wrote that reminded me of something I saw on a talk show years ago.

The blogger wrote that she had felt bad about eating "sub-par" food, because it just wasn't worth it.

What I had seen on the television long ago, was an interview with a woman that was giving advice on cutting calories. What she had said was, "Go ahead and order that chocolate cake for dessert. But after you take one bite, you need to determine where it falls on a scale of 1-10. If that cake is not a 10, then don't eat it. Don't waste your calorie intake on food that is not absolutely what your mouth was watering for!"

I should have listened to that advice. It's always floating around in my sub-conscience, but I rarely have the need to implement it. But this weekend, I should have.

Bunna and I had the opportunity to go out to eat, which doesn't happen often considering our work schedules. We decided that pizza would be a great way to celebrate our night off together. Honestly, there are only two foods that we usually go to when we have a need to splurge: pizza or Mexican. Friday it was pizza.

We ordered a medium pizza for the two of us, and had salads while we waited. When the pizza came, I looked at it like it was made by aliens.

"Bunna, this doesn't look like I remember it. What's wrong with the crust?"

"I don't know. Does it look wrong?"

"Yeah. It's not all soft and squishy. It looks hard... and overcooked And where's the cheese? It looks like there's no drippy cheese."

"Do you want me to ask them to re-do it?"

"(sigh) No. It'll be okay. It's just not what I was craving. I wanted floppy, cheesy pizza."

So we had our pizza. When the girl came around to check on us, I asked her about the crust. She said if we wanted the soft, squishy crust, we should have ordered the pan style. But we had ordered the regular crust, and it was so disappointing.

So bottom line, I should have listened to my inner voice telling me to save the calories. "Don't eat it if it isn't a 10!" This pizza was a 4, at best. Ugh.

We were determined to make up for that bad choice. Sunday, we went downtown for a street festival, and did quite a bit of walking. We decided to counteract that sub-par pizza we had on Friday night with a slice from a well-known, college-student-frequented hole-in-the-wall dive.

Pie Hole Pizza, served on paper plates, is always a guaranteed home run! Outa the park! And they didn't disappoint.

I had a slice with artichoke heart, jalapeno and onion. Instead of a marinara or alfredo sauce, they used ground mushrooms as the base. It was heaven, and most definitely a "10" on my mouth-watering pizza scale.

Now, if only I can take back those calories I ate Friday night. Grr.

New Size

Just thought I'd drop a note here real quick...

Went shopping today, and although it has been in the back of my mind that my size 14's are getting a little sloppy in the waist, I didn't think I was ready for the next smaller size. I think the reason I thought that was because I have a pair of 13's that I found at a garage sale for a buck, and I was having a hard time buttoning them. They are a button fly, and once on, they just look odd. But, they are a 13, and from what I recently learned about sizes, they are a junior size, and therefore have no hips built in. The misses sizes, being the even numbers...(8, 10, 12, 14, etc.) are made for adult women with normal hour-glass shapes. Junior odd sizes are for girls who have yet to develop their "child bearing hips". :-)
So I grabbed a pair of clearance jeans from the rack today. I carried them around until I just finally broke down and decided to try them on. I swear... I'll never get used to holding up a pair of pants that look so extremely small for me, and then finding out they fit. It's such a weird feeling pulling them on.
In the dressing room, you take them off the hanger, and open the button and zipper. You hold them up to put one leg in, and they look like a child's pair of pants. But then, you pull them up. And you get them over your butt, and then you zip and button them. Holy cow. They fit.
I stood there looking at myself wearing a pair of size 12's. A minute before, I thought I'd be standing there with them gaping open, and cursing myself for even trying to squeeze into this next size so soon. But instead, I wanted to burst out of the dressing room and tell anyone within earshot, that "THEY FIT!!! I'M IN A 12, PEOPLE!!!"
I refrained from making a fool of myself. I think the women milling around the clearance racks at JC Penny's would not have been amused. On the other hand, I might have missed my one and only opportunity for a serious round of applause! Darn.

Who is this healthy girl?

It just occurred to me, that if this is real, solid weight loss, and not just a spell or a fluke, then I've lost 80 lbs!
Let me think back for a minute... My original weight was 256. (Ugh.) I set my initial goal for 90 lbs, then revised to 86 lbs, so I could end at an even weight of 170. (Thank you, OCD.)
I am currently 176. Am I really only 6 lbs from my goal?? How did this happen? Where have I been? Sometimes I feel like I've stepped out of my own body, and someone else is running the show. Once in a while, I step back into my skin, and say WHOA!! Who is this person with all the motivation and the thin thighs? LOL
This is awesome. I love becoming the person I should have been all along. Having energy and having my brain tell me what's good for me is normal now. That brain thing is important. I used to hate having my conscience make me feel guilty everytime I reached for a cookie. It feels good to know I can have one, but choose not to. And if I choose to, I know what it takes to have it NOT show up on my hips again.
This is great. Plus, I weigh 8 lbs less than Bunna now. Isn't that the way it should be? Boyfriends should weigh more. It just seems right that way.

Thinner

Remember that Stephen King book, called "Thinner"? It had to do with an overweight man that made a gypsy mad, and she put a spell on him to lose weight until he died. At first he thought it was his diet, then he realized he could eat anything and everything, and still lose weight.
I think I'm kind of at that point, although to admit it we seem to kind of jinx myself.
I feel like for the past couple weeks, I've paid attention to my portions and food choices, but have not stuck exactly to the plan as I designed it 7 months ago. For the past couple weeks, I've allowed myself to have restaurant dinners and an occasional sweet treat, but I have consistently been losing weight anyway.
Over the weekend, Bunna and I went out for calzones, then I went to a festival downtown and my son and I each had a pizza slice. Normally, that kind of thing would throw me off the next morning.
But all my indiscretions have only left me feeling like more of a normal eater. I want to be one of that group of healthy people that can have whatever they want, and still maintain a healthy weight. I think something has clicked in my metabolism that has gotten me nearly there.
How awesome is it to start out the weekend weighing 180, have a couple of cheats, and still weigh in on Monday morning 4 lbs lighter? Strange, right? I think the metamorphosis is beginning for real. Granted, I did a bit of walking over the weekend, and stuck to low cal snacks for the most part, but it's almost as if I'm the character from the book.
Seriously, the Tour de Fat festival I went to on Saturday is known for its really strange participants, crazy entertainment, and spectacles. (BTW, the Tour de Fat is a charitable party benefiting all things bicycle, put on by the New Belgium Brewing Co.) But it's highly likely I ran into a gypsy, maybe literally, that put this spell on me. How else do you explain this steady weight loss?
Yep, I've been hyp-m0-tized. LOL

Water Park

Let's see... where do I start? I've got a lot of things on my mind...

First of all, I have to say, I am so thankful to all the inspiration and support I got when I first started this new eating plan. If it weren't for the mental and emotional push I got from a certain family member, I would never have devised this little plan for myself, and I would not be where I am today. Thanks to my very special sister... you gave me the spark!! Love you. :-)

Secondly, I want to tell you about my water park experience last night. I haven't been to our water park in about 5 years, and that's mostly because I wasn't comfortable in a swimsuit. I refused to go and be one of those self-conscious parents that can't interact with their kids because they can't bear to wear a bathing suit. So instead, I just avoided the place altogether.

But when Bunna came home with the news that his employer was closing the water park for a private party, the timing couldn't have been better! Seventy-seven pounds lighter, and ready to play on the water slides! I had enough time to do some shopping, and found not one but TWO new suits that are both perfect for water slides! Both very modest tank/shorts styles.

So last night, we took off after work for the 8-11 pm party. We were all so excited to get out on such a hot day! The weather couldn't have been better! It was about 100 during the day, and only dropped to around 80 by the time we got to the park.

Going on all the slides as fast as we could was our main goal! We rode group raft slides, and 2-man slides and floated on the Endless River. We body surfed in the Wave Pool, and defied gravity on the Avalanche! And with almost no lines, we were able to actually run up the stairs! That's the best way to burn calories! Racing for first place in the line!

My absolute favorite ride is one they call Viper's Vortex. They put this one in a couple years ago, so this was my first time on it! What a rush! Imagine a big toilet bowl, with a slide entering the bowl on the inside edge, and a drain in the middle. You ride a raft full speed down a dark, steep slide and shoot out into the bowl. The challenge is to see how many times you can circle the bowl before it sucks you into the drain and you shoot out into the wading pool below. My son and I managed to make it 3 times around! Awesome!

The other raft rides were also new to me, but the rules were familiar. "Heaviest in the back". But this time on this visit to the park, I was not the heaviest. As a matter of fact, I was the lightest! Granted, Bunna and I are virtually the same weight, him being only about 4-5 lbs heavier than me. And my son, who is taller than both of us at 6'1", weighs about 30 lbs more. So on all the rides where I used to be the one facing forward, suddenly now I have to be the one going backwards! That made for a whole new experience!

But overall, it was a fantastic time! Being the huge, mega-fan of the TV show "WIPEOUT!", I couldn't help but re-name all the slides.

"Mammoth Canyon" is now "Sucker Punch" because I think I got a foot to the face when we banked up one of the tunnel walls. "Avalanche" is now "Big Balls" because that's what it takes to get up the nerve to go on that one!

And of course, "Viper's Vortex" is now the "Spin Cycle".

The water park is, in my book, the happiest place on earth. There's nothing better than spending time with your family, screaming and laughing, and truly having fun! And I'm so sorry I missed out on it for so long.

Look out, Roaring Springs! I'm back! ...how much is a season pass??

Vacation update.

It's been forever since I sat here and typed an entry with any real substance. I suppose I should update everything from weight to food choices now. Plus, I've been home from vacation for a week now, and haven't really posted anything from that trip.

Vacation was great. We planned on trying to stick to our calorie plan/schedule as much as possible, but vacations have a way of knocking you off track.

We started off great, filling the cooler for the 10 hour drive with water and Clif Bars. For the first couple of days, we had to hit a couple of restaurants before reaching my Mom's house, so I tried to stick with salads and proteins. I did fine, for awhile.

The first night at my Mom's, she had made lasagna for dinner. Don't think I didn't enjoy that! Yummy, gooey noodles, sauce and meat with delicious garlic bread.

Over the next few days, I got through the mornings watching everyone else eating fried eggs and toast, while I snacked on grapes and cantaloupe, and the occasional bran muffin.

For dinners, there was pizza one night, tacos the next. Then pizza again! LOL

One night, while we were in Santa Cruz, we spent a few hours at the Boardwalk. If you're not familiar with it, it is an amusement park right on the beach, with all the famous seaside treats! Salt-water taffy... corndogs...cotton candy... The last time I was there, I rode most of the rides, but there was an incident where I couldn't fit on one of the rides. This trip, I rode everything I wanted to, and there were no safety issues when the security bars wouldn't go over my tummy.

I swore that since we don't make the trip often, that I would have a corndog while I was there. But, alas, I did not. Bunna had one, and I nibbled a little off the edge of his. :-)

The final destination on this trip was my family reunion. Everyone brings a side dish, and we all bbq hamburgers and hot dogs. There are always plenty of homemade dips and desserts, so the eating, or "grazing", goes on pretty much all day.

I tried to maintain myself, but I'm a sucker for a good guacamole, and there were at least two really great ones at the picnic. Don't think I passed those up!

By the time I got back home, I hadn't weighed myself in days. I was only hoping for the best, but had my doubts about my success in maintaining.

When I left for vacation, I think I was weighing about 180.2. When I got back I was 2-3 lbs heavier. But since then, I'm back on track; back to that pre-vacation weight. This morning I was weighing at 180.4.

The doctor told me at my last appointment a few weeks ago, that I should just maintain for 3-4 weeks, and then if I still wanted to lose more, that I could stand to lose just another 15 more. I actually had more like 20-25 in mind, but I'll take one day at a time. For now, maintaining within a 3-4 pound range suits me fine.

So happy to be home!

On July 24, I weighed 182.4. Just before I left on vacation on August 6, I weighed 180.4. When I got home from vacation, I weighed 183.6, and now this morning, I'm back to 182.4.
These little fluctuations don't bother me. The doctor told me when I saw her, that a 3-4 lb change is always something we can deal with. It's when it gets up to 10 lbs that it starts getting difficult.
I'm still doing fine, considering the doctor told me to kind of "maintain" for about 3-4 weeks.

I ordered new work uniforms, and although the new size shirt fits great, the carrier coulottes are a bit small, but they have always run a little smaller than a typical pant size. When I started this, I was wearing a men's size 18 shirt. That's a collar measurement, folks. Now I'm wearing a men's size 15. The skorts/coulottes I wore in the beginning were probably a 26 ladies size, and now I'm in a 16. But the 16 is like a 14, and the 14 I just ordered is like a 12, so there's no wonder it's still too small.
Oh well, these sizes will all be a blur when I get down to where I want to be. All this transition stuff will be a memory. I want to wear an 11, and that's final! :-)
I'm having my coffee now, and will have my apple in about an hour. Then my egg beaters, and then leave for work. More fruit, and maybe a Clif bar, and then it will be dinner time. Hmmm... what's on the menu? No clue. But I know it won't be corndogs and pineapple upside down cake!

Back from vacation.

We're back from vacation, and apparently, the changing of beds every night took its toll on my back. By the time we got on the road yesterday to head home on the last 7 hour leg of the drive, I was in so much pain. Bunna drove, and I whimpered all the way from Tahoe to Boise. :-(
I'm anxious to get back on track, but I feel so bad all I want to do is have my coffee and lay on a heating pad today.
I did weigh this morning, and whether it's the water retention from the drive, or the small piece of pineapple upside-down cake I had on Saturday, I'm up three pounds. No biggy. That's an easy fix. This vacation was bound to have temptations, but that's just the way family and gatherings are. Once I feel better, and get back on my schedule, I'll be under 180 again!