Day # 365 - ONE YEAR!!
Well, I've made it through one entire year of dieting. As I stepped on the scale this morning, I was afraid I'd see a gain of a pound or two. Only because I was duped into accidentally eating pound cake by some church ladies who mislabeled a cake-stand winning mystery item. I'm so relieved to report I lost an additional 4 pounds since my weigh in last Thursday. With all this heat and humidity I wouldn't be surprised if they weight just literally melted off me over the weekend as we spent a good bit of it outside.
A recap of the year....
I started out strong in August and continued doing really well up until the Christmas Holiday. I had 10 days off and was home at my parents' house. Food tends to call my name when I'm there for an extended period of time. I never did really recover from all the crap I ate over Christmas. Christmas spilled into New Years and then into Valentine's Day...and St. Pat's...and around Easter I managed to start to get back on track. Sadly, I gained about 25 or 30 pounds back of what I had lost since August. Very disappointing, but as summer began and May approached (no summer classes for me!!) I started walking with a friend and turned it all back around. As of today, I've lost a grand total of 76 pounds since August 2006. I'll have to find some old pictures to compare to today. I'm sure my sisters can supply me with one from last August. And, I"ll have to take a new one of myself later tonight. I'm trying not to negatively beat up on myself because I could've been about 100 pounds lighter, if I hadn't regained some after Christmas. Darn those holiday foods!!!! All in all I'm very pleased with the past year. And, I'm going to have to start stepping up my exercise routine. I am walking between 4-5 miles a day now. I think I need to add something more to keep up the weight loss. I know it will begin to dwindle as I get closer to goal. But, then, I've never really had a problem losing weight. My problem is not letting it all come back again! That is such a struggle for me. I'll have to keep up this careful eating the rest of my life, I'm sure of that. No slacking for me anymore. And, it's so easy to give in and eat unhealthy foods. I'm happy to report I'm fitting in a lot of my cute (thinnest-sized) summer clothes I had. I have a few more dresses that I can't wait to fit into again. I need to lose about 10-15 more pounds for them to fit well. Hopefully I will before the summer weather is over and I can wear them at least once this year. I don't care that they're probably well out of style. I like them anyway! I do still have a good bit of weight to fit back into my slimmest size ever. And, thankfully that was winter wear. So, I won't have to buy new clothes until next summer....because by then I fully intend to be down to a cute skinny size 8 or 10. I'm not too too far from that. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that by next summer I'll need a whole new wardrobe!
Back to basics....
I did well all weekend. I worked on Saturday until 2. I ate very well that day. In fact, I don't think I ate enough. I was just busy and it's been so hot. I did treat myself to a piece of sugar-free apple pie at Eat 'n Park that night, so maybe I did eat enough calories. I think that piece of pie put me on the road to shame. Sunday I barely at all. We were at church all day from 8-9 p.m. working the festival. I had my smoothie for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and then later when we got home I was starving. I made myself some pasta and fresh mushrooms in marinara. I really try to only eat pasta when it's in a portioned form...like a frozen meal or something. I could eat and eat and eat pasta and never stop. I had two small bowls. Too much, I'm sure. Then, that's when I had the mystery cake. I probably didn't go too far over in calories. But.........then yesterday happened. I had Monday off. I smoothied for breakfast (yes, I made it a verb), but then for lunch we took the kids out to the Pizza Hut buffet. I would've been ok if I had stuck to the salad bar, which is where I did start off. But, then I had a breadstick...and then another. Ohmygosh those are so yummy. I also had 3 very very small pieces of pizza, which when you add it up is probably only ONE whole real piece, which isn't too bad. When I got home I had a small piece of the mystery cake. Which I later was told was actually pound cake...the worst cake to eat! Full of fat and calories. YIKES!! I then polished off the leftover pasta (not that much) for dinner. And, then I stopped eating. THANK GOODNESS!!! I would wager I was around the 1500-1800 calorie mark yesterday. That's why I was certain I'd have gained at least a pound, but I didn't. Whew....got lucky this week! I have myself back in full control. Today I smoothied again for breakfast. And, I brought a very good lunch. Turkey breast on a whole wheat pita filled with veggies. A small 100-calorie cookie snack, and fresh strawberries and vanilla yogurt for dipping those yummy strawberries. Then to control myself the rest of this week for dinners, I picked up a few healthy choice meals so that I just have to pop them into the micro when I get home. No fuss, no muss, no thinking whatsoever the remainder of the week. (What does muss mean anyway? ;-)
Hope you're all avoiding the heat and humidity. I am thankful for my air-conditioned office. I walked outside to head up to the post office to pick up some stamps and swore I was melting. Keep cool!!