*sigh* Here we are on Friday. The weekend outlook included few plans, probably just a good deal of relaxation and hanging out at home. Now it feels like stress and chaos. Funny how things always seem to happen on Fridays just in time for the weekend.
This week at work has been very busy, very high stress. I've been bringing that home with me - The kind of thing it's hard to stop thinking about. Nothing will be resolved until Tuesday, so I am carrying it on my shoulders through the weekend. I was kind of hoping I could just forget about it until we go back to work on Tuesday but the thing about the brain is that you can't always make it do what you want. There's also other things adding to the stress and it is starting to be overwhelming.
This time last year I would have found it to be the perfect reason to whip out the Velveeta Shells & Cheese and a pint of Cold Stone's cake batter ice cream with gummy bears and M&M's. Today food cravings don't really cross my mind as much when I'm stressed. Maybe it's the fact that I'm just really tired and exhausted and would rather go to sleep. It's probably because we don't keep junk food in the house and at this point I'm used to not stress-eating. Now my biggest obstacle is social eating.
I've lost 2 of the 3 pounds I gained from last weekend. I skipped exercise yesterday because my brain was unbelievably fried but made up for it today since school got out early. I somehow managed to work chocolate birthday cake into my agenda every day but was lying to myself a few times and eating about twice as much as I was marking in my food app. Even though I still lost weight it's a terrible habit to lie about my food intake. Today I was thinking about eating more pasta than I had planned for without tracking it, but was able to get back on track. What's the point in lying to myself about it? It's going into my body, so I can't avoid the repercussions! It's a silly kind of denial that just doesn't work.
Hello EP friends! Guess what? I'm 30! Man, I'm still recovering from my birthday on Saturday - Physically and mentally. Holy cow, my husband is an awesome man. He had this whole elaborate plan. Let me tell you about it!
I knew DH was taking me out to lunch and dinner on Saturday, which was my 30th birthday. He told me he was taking me to Katie Downs on the Tacoma waterfront and I was excited because I'd never been there before. We get there and DH parks, I get out and get ready to walk across the street. Instead he takes me over to this black bus that's parked there and introduces me to the driver who says happy birthday. I get inside and this bus is like a giant limo on the inside - It's a party bus! The windows are tinted, there's wraparound seats, a mirror on the ceiling, and... a stripper pole! I'm walking around this bus in awe while DH loads case after case of beer on board.
So then he tells me that we're taking a trip around my 30 years of life, and that our first stop is "where it all began". We ended up at the hospital where I was born, and my parents are there waiting for me! They join us on the bus and then we go to my parents' house where there's my sister and my best friend! They join us on the bus and we go down to my high school and take some pictures with sis and best friend since we all went to school there. After that we go to Wild Waves/Enchanted Village where a whole bunch of other people are waiting and they join us on the bus! Yay! So now the party bus is full of people... And one of them brought Jell-o shots. Double-Yay!
We were on the bus for half the day, drinking a ton of full-calorie alcoholic drinks and Jell-o shots, eating chips, and my mom bought a ton of McDonald's french fries which I happily stuffed in my face with wild abandon. Because at that point I probably had about 6 Mike's Hard drinks and who knows how many shots. We played games like a really cool crossword that was all about me, and some of the girls competed on the pole. My favorite was my sister-in-law's "sad stripper" impression. Funny stuff.
After that we went to the area where DH and I got married, our first apartment, and our final stop was my favorite casino, where other family members were waiting to join us for dinner. I played some slots, made a whole dollar profit, and then ordered a French dip. And you can't have a birthday without cake. It was a yummy chocolate cake with the good kind of dense icing, not that whipped airy stuff. Cherry on top - Mike's birthday card to me had a pack of playing cards inside. On those cards was written a message: Looks... Like You're... Going to... VEGAS! I had a hard time believing I was going to Vegas considering everything he'd done for me already. Woohoo, we're going to Vegas in July!!! I've never been there.
At the end of the day I think I consumed a good 4,000 calories. I was in physical cramping pain the next day, so thank god there were no more plans. Once I felt better I worked out like a maniac for an hour and a half - Zumba for 50 minutes and then my favorite Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones. It rocked!
Up 3 pounds this morning and I have no regrets. Best birthday ever!!!
Thursday - We went to The Ram as a last minute decision before seeing The Avengers. I wasn't expecting to eat out and had preemptively filled my purse with Starburst for the show. I ordered the Foccacia club with bacon and turkey and cheeeeeeeeese.... And Caesar dressing and of course Foccacia bread. I was going between waffle fries and sweet potato fries and went for the latter. I ate half the sandwich because it was HUGE (of course). I never let food go so that was a big step.
Friday - We celebrated a friend's birthday. Turns out they ate before coming over so it wasn't much of a challenge at all. Eating was like any other day. Panic averted!
Saturday - We went to my sister-in-law's burning party and I burned old printed pictures of my heavier self. The food was really light, especially since I don't like 7-layer dip. Yay! I had some chili and chocolate cake. Easy peasy. I wanted seconds of the cake but resisted.
Sunday - Mother's Day brunch was great. I ended up eating so much fruit that I got full really fast. By the time brunch rolled around I ate just a little bit of strata, red potatoes and half a cinnamon roll, skipped the bacon. Mother's Day dinner was harder. There was trail mix and it was so yummy I couldn't stop eating it. My favorite pupu (appetizer) is Lil Smokies and those were served, but they tasted funny for some reason so it was easy not to eat too many. We had lasagna, bread, and Caesar salad for dinner. Dessert was a home made ice cream cake that was so good I went back for seconds.
The scale has me up a couple pounds today - This last weekend reminded me of Christmas! All the food and socializing... Even though I have late meetings every single freaking day this week, I'm making exercise #1 on my list. Gonna get it done one way or another. Next weekend is my big 3-0 birthday so I'm sure there will be more eating involved, so I gotta prepare because I want to indulge!
Wow, I am pretty amazed about how much better I feel after a workout. I was in a pretty foul mood when I got home an hour ago, for no reason at all - No, it's not PMS. I mean, I was annoyed with being extremely exhausted, having to attend an hour long staff meeting, having a fire drill in the cold/rain, and having the campus' water turned off so we couldn't use the bathrooms... But what's to be in a bad mood about? Then I ate some chocolate from my Teacher Appreciation Week candy stash I was given yesterday, and then I ate Teacher Appreciation cookies and popcorn at the staff meeting.
I was feeling pretty moody and tired to the point where I was ready to forego exercise and take a nap - which I never do - instead. But something possessed me (my conscience?) and I got through the super tough 30 minutes of Jillian's Level 2 of 6 Week 6 Pack. I feel a million times better now.
I read some good ideas from my EP friends here on how to deal with food for the 4 events going on this weekend. I'm still open to other ideas if anyone thinks of some! I can use all the help I can get.
I'm scared of this weekend. I mean not only am I not a very social person, but I tend to hide behind food - Sometimes I think I use it to calm my nerves while taking part in conversations and/or I use food as a way to have something to chew on instead of talking. I'm a person of many words on paper but not in conversation. Oh, and of course I also happen to just love eating good food.
I'm saying this because there are four things going on this weekend and they will all involve people and food. Yikes! What do I do? Friday is a birthday celebration but we're not sure what we'll be doing yet. Saturday night is a party. Sunday is two Mother's Day celebrations. I normally wouldn't be too concerned, but there's almost never more than one event going on in any given weekend. Four is over the top for me.
If anyone has suggestions I'd be interested in hearing them - So far I've got the chewing gum technique, attempting to log unknown foods beforehand, and exercising an extra day or two. I don't really plan on drinking so that will help, too. I'm not sure I have the willpower to "just say no".
This past Saturday we went out with some friends to a dueling piano bar called 88 Keys. I went in with the intention to drink (since I rarely do) and that is exactly what happened. It doesn't take much to get me toasted. Half a glass of wine and I'm tipsy. I had like 4 rum/diet sodas and an energy drink dropper. Talk about a hangover. I planned ahead so it all turned out fine. I stole some fries and they were amazing, not because they were good but because I haven't had them in a long time. hehe
Today our freshmen began a persuasive letter unit. They will have to choose a health issue and write a letter to a real person or organization, trying to convince them to take some kind of action. The main teacher (which isn't me in this case) had them do some small group brainstorming on chart paper and the present their ideas to the class. Interestingly, obesity was on all 7 posters. I am certainly glad that they are so acutely aware, especially since most students at my small school are not obese.
Their thoughts seemed to go straight to obesity and poverty - an issue that most of them deal with every day. Anyway, I felt the need to post about this because I wasn't expecting these fourteen and fifteen-year-olds to come up with this topic so quickly. They were webbing their ideas, talking about what they think causes obesity and what the impacts are.
I hope that at least one of them chooses this topic for their persuasive letter. I would be curious to find out who their audience will be. Last year none of the freshmen chose obesity and it was not really a brainstormed idea. Must have been the format of the activity today.
Planning ahead saved me when I was losing weight and it continues to save me, especially on the weekends. I track what I eat in an app because I'm the type of person who can't keep mental track of what I eat. I'm even worse at portioning than I think I am, too! Put those together and you have a person (me) who can't get it together on the health-front.
Yesterday we had a glorious salmon dinner at my sister-in-law's house. Only thing is that I thought it was going to be on Saturday so I planned for that. I was going to eat somewhat light during the day in order to indulge in chocolate lava cake and wine that evening. Then I found out that it was going to be on Friday, about an hour before we had to leave. Woops, time to panic because I had a big breakfast, big lunch, and a Frappuccino in the afternoon.
Last minute planning is difficult, but I looked at what I had left for evening, which wasn't much, and committed to some basic strategies: Chew gum when there's food temptations before dinner, assess what foods are available for dinner before deciding what to put on my plate, stick to diet soda, and commit to some kind of exercise Saturday or Sunday.
The biggest challenge: The food was served restaurant-style, so I didn't get to pick what I put on my plate or how much. The only way to strategize with something like that was to not eat all of it. That is something I rarely do and am not good at! I'm a devout member of the clean plate club. Luckily the food was filling (and amazing) so it was easy to leave a good cup of chow mein and some salmon filet on the plate. Of course I was the only one so I was a little worried about being rude, but in the end I know it's the best thing for me and that's what it comes down to. No one asked any questions so I didn't feel the need to get defensive either.
I did break my own rules and have some wine with dinner and pot-stickers beforehand. My daily intake was about 2000 calories. Generally that is a lot for my height but I'm not sweating it. I did chew gum and not overindulge, plus I made sure to enjoy the company I was with. Success!
Technically I was supposed to start maintenance on January 18th, when I hit my goal. Instead I decided I would try to keep losing weight since that was the track I was on. Today I was telling DH that I really started maintenance this week, but as I kept talking I realized this is untrue. I had this misconception that maintenance means I should eat X amount of calories every day, and those calories should be the same every day to maintain. Turns out it's really a balancing act. Some days I go to social events and eat WAY more food than usual, and the only way to maintain weight after something like that is to temporarily lower calories and exercise more. That is what I've really been doing. This week just happened to be a week where there were no social events happening and so it was easy to eat X amount of calories every day.
Something else about maintenance that I find to be true is that it's not very different than what I was doing when I was trying to lose weight. You still have to control portions, aim for healthier foods more often than junk food, and exercise. It's all about balance.
I don't usually notice if I'm PMSing but it must just be one of those months. This week I've been super tired, easy to anger, extra hungry with more than usual cravings, bloated, the list goes on. It's been pretty subtle but once I started to recognize it I think I was able to work with it better - When I felt way hungrier at lunch today I reminded myself that I would be eating in an hour and that I wasn't going to starve. I drank Crystal Light, too. I had Subway with Sun Chips for lunch, but when someone brought jelly beans I ate a bunch o them with a co-worker. I eventually popped some Trident so I wouldn't eat anything else. I don't feel guilty about the jelly beans and mmmm they were good.
When I got home I was ready for a nap, but since I don't take naps I went ahead and tried my new Biggest Loser workout DVD. It lets you choose how much you want to do so I chose the basic level 1 with warm up and cool down that was a total of 30 minutes. It was too easy so I added on the other two levels to make it 50 minutes and that was better. After that I did 10 more minutes of ab work. I don't know what happened, but working out the first half gave me a bunch of energy.
I'm looking forward to getting lots of sleep this weekend. We're going to watch roller derby tomorrow night in Seattle - Rat City Roller Girls. I've never seen it before so it should be fun.
Drop Dead Healthy, by A.J. Jacobs, is written by a guy who is super funny and is trying to become "the healthiest man in America" or something to that effect. Basically he subjects himself to a ton of research and personal experiments involving all kinds of health facts, fads, diets, etc... The whole book is an anecdotal experience of the two years A.J. Jacobs goes through these trials. I was thoroughly entertained and educated at the same time. It's not about what "works" and what "doesn't work". It's more about looking at different sides of things, different perspectives, and also looking at research. In the end you can make your own decisions.
Then I ate some chocolate from my Teacher Appreciation Week candy stash I was given yesterday, and then I ate Teacher Appreciation cookies and popcorn at the staff meeting.
