Day 163 - Halloween is More Fun at Goal Weight

Every year my friends throw a big costume party at Halloween, and every year, the thought of trying to figure out a costume that wouldn't make me look HUGE filled me with DREAD.

So this year, I was totally and seriously tempted to dress up in something really scandalous and skimpy for Halloween... I mean in the total history of Halloween for me, I'm not sure I've ever been in good enough shape to pull of some skimpy French Maid/Cheerleeder etc costume without looking ridiculous. So, I'm thinking - why not now? I've earned it, right?

So, I went out shopping to a Halloween store and I could NOT believe how slutty 90% of the adult women's costume's were... and I thought...NOPE, NOT FOR ME, NO THANK YOU...

I will still wear something that shows off my figure (e.g. I won't be dressing up as a pumpkin)... but I don't want to look like a tart either...

My idea is for my husband to go as a Magician (cape, top hat, magic wand) and for me to go as a bunny. But the bunny costumes at the store were all "a la playboy bunny"... so all I bought was a set of bunny ears and a white tail. Maybe I will wear them with white shorts, white tights and a white t-shirt..??

Yesterday, I discovered a new amazing snack... it was so good. For 150 calories, I had 2 ryvita crisps with 1 wedge of laughing cow cheese spread on them and then 10 grapes which I sliced in half and arranged on top of the cheese. I also tried a new recipe in my crockpot for dinner. It was sweet potato chili (vegetarian night at our house). Since I had a vegetarian dinner, I had some turkey breast in my grilled sandwich at lunch, it was a nice change...

I've also decided to add my daily exercise at the bottom of my food chart. Just the minutes, not the calories burned (because I don't eat them all back...)

Day 162 - What I am doing differently this time

First off, I just wanted to report that my weight is back down to normal this morning following the weekend (125.6)... not that I was really worried about it, but getting used to those fluctuations that come as a result of eating a little more every once in a while is one of the hardest parts of weight loss maintenance (for me, anyway...)

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that this is not the first time I have successfully reached my goal weight. And it's pretty early in the game (43 days since hitting goal)... too early for me to confidently declare that THIS time I'm not gaining the weight back.

BUT, I do feel differently this time. 43 days, believe it or not, is longer than I have ever made it before. I tried to sit down and really analyze what I've done this time that was different from the previous times.

1. I am making better food choices: I find that this time around, I am eating like I am still on a diet... I am just eating more. Let me explain. For example, last Thursday night I had an omelet for dinner. I used egg beaters, light cheese, 1 tsp olive oil, lots of veggies. This is EXACTLY the same way I would have prepared my omelet when I was trying to lose weight. But because I am not trying to lose weight, I also added: one slice of whole wheat toast with light butter and sugar free jam, two slices of peameal bacon and a small side salad with no dressing... it was a lot of food. In the past, once I reached maintenance, I would have given myself "license" to make my omelet the "old way"...e.g. real eggs, more cheese, more add ins and more butter/oil for frying. But that would drastically increase the calories in my omelet without increasing the AMOUNT of food that I got to eat... so I would still add side dishes and the end result would be WAY too much of an increase...

2. I am staying in control: Not once since I have been on maintenance this time, have I let one bad meal turn into an entire day/weekend/week of bad meals. This past weekend was a perfect example. I ate too much Saturday night, but it was OK, because I didn't binge when I got home, and I went right back to my normal eating on Sunday. I have gotten much better at just forgiving myself and moving on with it... this is a biggie!!

3. I am not treating every event as a special occassion: It seems like my husband and I always have something on, each weekend (a dinner with friends, wedding, party etc) and I now understand that they are just "meals" and cannot all be excuses to overindulge. So, I will "scan" a month out and see all what occassions I have coming up (we have a lot in November), and they can't all be splurges, so I decide WAY in advance which ones I will treat like regular meals, and which ones can be splurges. And when I say "splurge" that means, a bun from the breadbasket and a dessert - NOT a crazy pigout!

4. I have been weighing myself EVERY day: This is all about refusing to pull the wool over my own eyes! Even when I am pretty sure I will be "up" because I overate at dinner the night before. No excuses, no denial. Just face it, and move on...

Those are the biggies. I mean sure there are other things I am doing... like sticking to my exercise and my proven routine and "go to meals" monday to friday. I follow my food rules almost religiously. I let myself have the treats, for example, every Sunday morning for breakfast, I have toast with butter and jam and scrambled eggs and I look forward to that ALL week long.

Here is my food from yesterday. I was inspired by Finding Radiance to try an egg sandwich on waffles for breakfast and boy was it good! My kids loved them too. It kept me pretty full until lunch (not quite as full as oatbran or oatmeal, but full enough!).

Day 161 - Did I Slip Up?

I'm up about one pound after the weekend... did I slip up? I don't really think so. I have to keep reminding myself, that I'm not actually on a DIET anymore...I can relax just a bit!

Remember the plan that I talked about on Friday for my Italian Restaurant meal? Well, I really did TRY to stick to it... and it kind of makes me angry when you do everything possible to order the healthiest meal, and then the waiter puts it down in front of you, and its covered in cheese, or has a cream sauce that wasn't mentioned on the menu!! I should probably start sending stuff like that back, but I don't like to be difficult... especially when we are out with other people.

First off, I ended up having a piece of bread from the bread basket... I hadn't intended to, but it's usually my favorite part of meal out and a treat that I THOUGHT would be OK... and it would have been, if the rest of my dinner had been what I was expecting!! I ordered the shrimp cocktail which on the menu said "traditional shrimp cocktail with horseradish sauce". I assumed I would get the red cocktail sauce they usually serve with this dish. I got a mayonnaise based sauce, and it was dumped over the shrimp and the lettuce, not served on the side for dipping. The seafood linguini was drizzle with oil - LOTS of it, I could tell... and I had one glass of red wine.

All in all it wasn't the end of the world. When we got home, my husband left to drive the sitter home, and I thought to myself... In the past, I would have gone and ate a whole bunch of crap/chocolate/peanut butter/cookies right now, since he's not here to see me, and I had already "messed the day up anyway"... but I didn't this time, I wasn't even tempted, and I consider that a small victory.

I was 2 lbs up Sunday morning, and 1 lb up this morning. I'm sure I'll even back out the rest of the week.

The thing that REALLY worries me about this experience is this: what does this mean for my 4 week trip to New Zealand in December?? I will be eating three meals a day in restaurants. When you have one bad meal a week in a restaurant, its not a big deal because you go back to your usual routine the next day, and it doesn't stay with you. But I won't have the opportunity to go back to my regular routine for a MONTH... and obviously even when I TRY to make the very best choices in restaurants, it doesn't always turn out as expected!!

Anyway...not a big deal this past weekend, but I am really stressed about New Zealand...

Here is what I ate yesterday (on Sunday)... I ate a little less than usual to compensate, and I ran a 10km (and shaved 10sec off my previous 10km race, I did it in 50:33).

Day 158 - My Sense of Calm

I am finding that as time goes on, my sense of calm and my confidence in being able to maintain this weight loss is growing. For example, I have two meals out this weekend. I am eating out for lunch today with a friend at a Thai Noodle house, and tomorrow night, we are going out to dinner with my Parents and my brother and his girlfriend at an Italian Restaurant (their restaurant choice).

In the past, this would have gotten me into a HUGE panic... but not now. I know that today at lunch I can make an OK choice, and if I don't, I will scale back my dinner to compensate. For the Italian Restaurant, I have already scoured the menu and made my choices. At first I was disapointed that they don't have any grilled fish, or plain grilled chicken with vegetables on the menu. But, you know what, it's OK I can work with what they have. I have two plans depending on my mood when I get there...

Plan A: Appetizer - Shrimp Cocktail; Dinner - Vegetarian Pizza (ask for reduced cheese and take half the pizza home).

Plan B: Appetizer - Mixed Green Salad (dressing on the side); Dinner - Seafood Linquini in a Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce (eat all the seafood and about 1 cup of the pasta).

See how easy it is? I guarantee, whichever Plan I choose, I will enjoy my dinner because (a) even though it won't be the most caloric thing on the menu, it will still be GOOD, (b) I didn't have to cook it myself!! (c) I won't have to do dishes and (d) I will enjoy the atmosphere and the company of my family!!

Here is what I ate yesterday, my husband had a dinner engagement, so I enjoyed breakfast food for dinner (my favorite!)...

Day 157 - Motivation to Run

I find that as the evenings grow colder, and darker... it is getting harder and harder to find the motivation to get out for a run.

I have been trying to run right after work, before dinner when it is still bright outside. But, sometimes (like yesterday) I just couldn't do it, because I was too hungry. I'm a real wimp when it comes to exercising on an empty stomach...

So, I had to eat dinner and THEN go for my run after. By 7pm it was dark, and chilly and raining. But, I did it (8km, 45 minutes) and once I got home, I felt great and I was so glad I went. I don't think anything ever felt as good as peeling off my wet running clothes and getting in the hot shower, but MAN OH MAN, was it ever hard to get myself out there to begin with... I bribed myself with a snack (if I run, I can have a bedtime snack, and if I don't run... I have to skip it!)

Makes me wonder how I'll do when it's minus 20C and there is snow on the ground... I've already gone out and spent quite a bit of money on some proper winter running gear, so hopefully that investment will provide a little motivation...

Here is my food yesterday. Yes, I put baby good (pureed prunes) in my morning oatmeal... it was very good!

Day 156 - Charting Progress

I love creating little charts and gizmos to record and track my progress, and I could spend countless hours doing so (it's OK, it's time well spent...I could be EATING instead!!). I have created the line graph below to illustrate my weight fluctuations since I hit maintenance.

The red line on the chart represents my danger zone weight (130), if I touch that line, my plan is to go back into diet mode until I'm below. The blue line is my actual weight, see it going up and down? The green line is the "trend line". According to this "trend line", if I continue to eat and excercise as I have been, on December 16, 2012, I will weigh ZERO. I might have to buy another new wardrobe...

Seriously, though I really don't want to dip below 125... (I should add another red line on my chart at 125)... everytime I hit that line, I increase my calories to adjust...

Day 155 - My Calorie Intake

It occured to me, that since I always post my food diary each weekday, but I almost never get around to doing so on the weekends, it probably LOOKS like I eat far fewer calories than I do, and my diet must look pretty boring - same thing day in, day out. Right now, I am targeting an AVERAGE of about 1600 per day over the week, but Monday to Friday, I stay a little shy of that target, which lets me go a little OVER the target on the weekends.

So, instead of showing yesterday's food chart (which is pretty much like EVERY other one that I put up), I will show Sunday's.

For lunch on Sunday, I made a grilled sandwich in my panini press. I tried something new (e.g. not my "go to" avocado, tomato and laughing cow)... this sandwich combination was FABULOUS! I used sourdough bread. On one slice I spread apple butter, on the other I spread laughing cow. Then I added some roast turkey breast meat and threw it in my panini press (sprayed with cooking spray), until it was all hot and melty. Wow - good!

We also had roast beef for dinner on Sunday - a rare treat. I try to limit red meat to once a week or so (and I usually end up using my red meat quota for "hamburger night" during the week)...