Ahhh, nuts!

So as it turns out, last week was a combination of maintaining, and catching up. The weekend my mother was in town set me back two pounds, but I lost those 2 by the 9th of June. Then the rest of the week, I basically maintained that.
This last weekend, we had friends over and bbq-ed. Now, I could have stuck to my plan. It's not a problem to do that. I had food here that would have totally fit into my calorie count, and I would have stayed on track. But some days, you just have to say, it's okay. I went up as high as maybe 1700 calories on Saturday, so as it turns out, the maintaining continued.
Monday, I was back on track. But not until we spent a couple hours with Bunna's parents playing cards on Sunday afternoon.
On days when we play cards, everyone likes to have something to snack on. We normally have strawberries or grapes or even a bowl of cherry tomatoes on the table with us. Those are the responsible days.
But on Sunday, there was fresh caramel corn which I dipped into a few times. And then, I spotted the nuts. A jar of mixed nuts. Healthy, right? And once I opened them for a bite, Bunna's mom decided to pour them into a bowl for the card table. OH NO!!!
I have to admit, I love salted, mixed nuts. But after picking at the bowl that day, and coming home to find I didn't lose any weight over the weekend, I decided to double check the calorie count on those healthy little nuts.
Just a quick FYI on nuts... On the lower end of the calorie scale, you have peanuts, almonds, pecans and walnuts. Assuming there is no honey-crunch coating, you're okay with a small handful of those. They're high in protein, too.
But if you're digging around in the mixed nut bowl like I was, avoid the high-fat, high-calorie nuts like Brazil nuts and macadamias. An ounce of macadamias has 200 calories and 17 grams of fat! And one Brazil nut has 25 calories! Hands off those nuts!

Gray areas.

There's another blog that I read, occasionally, written by a woman that has been struggling with her weight for a long time. In one of her recent posts, she expressed her frustration with having had to attend an all day work meeting where the food was provided. Her choices and better judgement had been taken from her, and she was basically forced to eat what was provided to the group.
Because she hadn't stuck to her plan to keep her hunger at bay during the morning hours, by afternoon when lunch was served, she lost control of her will power. She ate bbq, and sweets, and large portions. Her entry into her blog that night was written by a broken woman. Her guilt was evident in her writing.
I am so glad I'm beyond that. There was a time when, for me, it was all or nothing. If I followed any plan and stuck to it for a week, I felt fantastic! But the moment I caved in, and had something that I knew wasn't good for me, I fell off the wagon, as if it were the end of the world.
What we need to remember is that there are gray areas in our lives. Everything can't be black and white. It's balance that we need to learn. If one is on a diet to lose weight, that diet can't be running their lives and causing guilt every time they have a piece of bread or a cookie. The trick is in balancing your activity with your calorie intake. It's simple, but takes lots of practice.
I'm to a point where I feel super confident about my choices. As long as I'm active, whether it's aerobic or not, at least I'm moving. And when I'm moving, I'm burning calories. Sitting on the couch doesn't burn calories. Housework burns calories. Yard work burns calories. Walking the dog, chasing the kids and shopping at the mall burns calories. :-)
We're back to the basic equation of calories in/calories out. Add them as you eat them, and then burn them off.

Eating alone.

For forty-six weeks out of the year, I'm a working mom that comes home at 6pm and makes dinner. During those weeks, depending on which season it is for my son's sports, (baseball, football), we either have a healthy sit-down dinner, or rush off to the field for 3 hours. Sometimes during baseball season, we aren't home until 9pm, and it's a mad dash to get something for him to eat before bed. On those days, I ususally just have a quick salad and hit the hay.
But on days when we don't have to be anywhere quickly, we can sit down to a nice green salad and balanced dinner... well, kind of.
My son loves his rice. He loves his pasta. And he loves his mac-n-cheese. These are all things that I avoid, but that doesn't mean I won't make them for him. We will always both have our protein and vegetable, but I just won't eat the starchy side dishes. I will have small portions of everything else, though.
For four nights out of the week, Bunna is home for dinner, too. And he normally eats what I do. He and I stick pretty close to that 300 calorie dinner plan.
That is the schedule for the majority of the year. But for six weeks in the summer, my son goes to his dad's. And with Bunna working a lot of nights, I come home to an empty house. It's not so bad, considering when it's just me, I can cook or not. My son has only been at his dad's for about 4 days, and I've been having a big salad every night. After my salad, I find a protein, but usually skip making anything else. I've been eating Boca Burger patties with a little ketchup or A-1 sauce. Tuesday night, I had three small slices of leftover tri-tip, and last night a small portion of leftover spaghetti noodles. Oops... no protein there! But I did have a hard-boiled egg on my salad.
Bunna is home from work tonight, and we'll have supper together. Maybe he'll come up with something more imaginative than what I've been having this week. Maybe we'll go out for soup!

Oh, and this morning I weighed, and have lost 64 lbs. Only 22 to go!

Back to Square 63

Alrighty then! Back to square one, (or should I say square 63?)! I've lost those pesky 2 lbs that crept up while I was enjoying family and big meals over the weekend. Let's see... I'm less than a week off my schedule, so it should still be the end of August when I reach my goal.
But my back has been really stiff and sore the last two days! I'm trying to spend as little time as possible in front of the computer. When my back is like this, it makes it nearly impossible to tie my shoes, much less balance on my stepper.
I'm wondering if my sore back is a delayed reaction from the roller skating I did last Saturday. It's possible, I suppose. I need to get my core muscles in much better shape before I do those types of exercise. Not having strong stomach muscles puts so much strain on my back!

Oops! I slipped.

Weighed this morning, and as I expected, I slipped up two pounds. Over the weekend, I was eating more than what I would if I were just maintaining. I actually ate sweets that I wouldn't dream of eating if I were counting calories!
But yesterday, I had some grapefruit at 6am, an apple around 8, a small Clif bar at 11am, and some Egg Beaters at 1:00. Around 3, I had an apple, and around 5:30, I had a big salad with tomato and hard-boiled egg. Then I just had a plain Boca burger with A-1 sauce. So unintentionally, I probably stayed under 900 for the day. That's low, but I was so exhausted, and just wanted to sleep. I was in bed at 9pm.
I'm back on track today, and since I slept in a little, I'm only just now getting to my first cup of coffee. I'll have an apple soon, and then another coffee. I'm back to work today after taking 5 days off. So the jumping, lifting, carrying, climbing and hopping I do at my job, combined with the super warm weather we're going to have today, will have me sweating and losing built up water weight pretty darn quick. I'll be back to my previous loss point of 63 lbs in a day or so. Then I'm back on track for the next 23.

Back on the wagon!

Wow... My last post was June 2, and at that point I had lost 63 lbs. But over the weekend, I had lots of family gatherings planned, so I gave myself a free weekend. I got some exercise, and ate healthy for the most part, but I did have some treats.
I haven't weighed myself, and I'm almost afraid to! :-) Maybe I'll wait a day or two until I can get back on track. I veered quite a bit from the snack schedule and calorie counting I have become so conditioned to follow over the past four months. Today, I'm back on the wagon, and ready to tackle the next 23 lbs! But gee... after this weekend, it might be 25 that I have to lose to hit my goal!
It was so worth it though! I had spaghetti, tri-tip, grilled chicken, spinach salad, rhubarb pie, and oh yeah..... a cinnamon roll! I think my digestion is wondering what happened to the fiber? Where are my daily apples? Don't worry, Tummy. We're getting back to normal today.

Backache

Have had a sore back for a couple days now. Not 100% yet, so I'm moving a little slower than usual. I did manage to get on my stepper here at home for two-15 minute sessions. That's better than nothing.
I've lost 63 now. If it weren't for my backache, I'd be on top of the world! :-) But I'll tell you what... back before I lost these 63 lbs, if I had a backache, I would blame it on my weight, and sit on a heating pad, depressed about it. It's good to know that now, if I have a strained back, it's more likely from bad form during exercise, than from lugging around extra poundage. That's a plus.
Someone else I hadn't seen for a few months at work saw me yesterday. "You've gone and got all skinny!" Geeeeee... thanks. :-)