At the 8 week mark, at my Saturday morning weigh-in, I had lost a total of 15.6 pounds. That Saturday was also my sister's 28th birthday, and she had invited me and some other people to met for lunch at Chili's. This wasn't a problem, as I had planned ahead by looking at their nutritional information online, and I was also able to order of the kids' menu. So, I got the half rack of ribs, some fries, some of those yummy corn chips with salsa and a glass of tea, and did not hit an unreasonable number of calories. I did try out the gelato stand at the mall when I went there after lunch, but I did do my exercise. So, while I didn't hit my 1000 calorie deficit target for the day, 704 was still acceptable.
I don't think I stepped on the scale the next morning, but that Sunday was a bad day. It is a family tradition to go out for someone's birthday dinner on a Sunday around lunchtime. The birthday celebrant gets to pick. My sister picked the family's perennial favorite, Texas Land & Cattle Co. The problem began with the fact that this restaurant does not provide nutritional information on their website. So, I just ordered what I wanted to eat (chicken fried chicken with crispy fries, and I had my other sister's bowl of delicious steak soup, and just one slice of their sourdough bread, and Pepsi), instead of trying to count calories. To compound the problem of what I ate for lunch, the naughtiness wasn't over. After lunch, we went back to the house to present my sister with her birthday gifts, and to have "cake" and ice cream. We didn't actually have cake. We always have leftover cake, even when we buy the smallest one from HEB's bakery department. So, my other sister volunteered to pick up brownies and/or cookies from Tiff's Treats, and she ended up getting 9 of the brownies, to cover all the family & significant others. Let's just say my brownie was about 9 square inches of chocolatey deliciousness, with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side. The only other thing I ate that day was a bowl of Corn Pops with a half cup of skim milk, but the damage had been done...
This past Saturday, I stepped on the scale and was 1 pound more than I had been the week before, but that was still an improvement over where I had been earlier in the week. This was the first time I had actually gained weight between weigh-ins. But, I think it has been an important learning experience. Yes, I ate what I wanted, but there were obvious lower-caloric choices I could have made (like the grilled chicken with a baked potato) that wouldn't have done near the damage, even if I didn't know how many calories it was. It was also a bad day to have as my "off" day for exercising, even though I'm allowed one day off each week. If I had instead taken the previous day off, I'd have broken even with the calories in vs. calories out on Saturday, and I would've be so much less out-of-whack on Sunday.
I am, however, happy to say that, although I haven't taken an official weight - that is this Saturday morning - as of this morning, I am down 1.2 pounds from where I was for my week 8 weigh-in (which means 16.8 pounds, total, "unofficially"). I didn't get my exercise in today (that "excuse" will be my next post), but I watched what I consumed (usual breakfast and lunch food items, but no juice, sugar-sweetened tea, or Kool-Aid to drink, only water), and carefully planned what to have for dinner to allow me to still hit my 1000 calorie deficit target for the day, but not still be hungry (a tasty serving of chicken tortellini with marinara sauce, one slice of Texas garlic toast, and 20 calories worth of Parmesan cheese) after I finished eating.
And, let's just say, I'll be more careful in the future. One day of being REALLY naughty can undo weeks of progress. Makes me wonder how I'm going to manage when I'm at the Milblog Conference next month. That weekend is the end of Week 16... I'll definitely need to make sure I get some exercise in (that fancy hotel is sure to have a fitness center with a treadmill), and I'll have to make wise choices about what to eat (and drink), and I may even be packing some snackage for the trip that I'll know how many calories it is. And, we'll see where I am this Saturday morning...
5 comments:
I'm so proud of you!
Hey, every once in awhile it's all right to over indulge...life's short. Enjoy!
Keep up the good work!
I've found it helpful simply not to keep foods that are a temptation around the house.
Oddly enough, though I have an outrageous sweet tooth (chocolate is my downfall every time) when my husband was in Iraq for a year I purged the house of anything I didn't want to tempt me and stopped eating sweets entirely.
It takes time, but eventually your taste buds adjust if you can get off of sugar and you find that on those rare occasions when you DO indulge, just a tiny portion is almost more than you want. I ate mostly steak and vegetables (and some fresh fruit), staying away from complex carbs almost entirely. My husband (without our talking about it) did the same thing in Iraq but he did have a small bowl of ice cream every night after dinner - same size every time.
Unfortunately, when he got back we both backslid a bit! So now I'm trying to get back on my old routine. For me at least, it's easier to find a solid list of foods I know are good for me and stick with that most of the time.
Anyway, congratulations! I think you're doing great. Just remember, when the daily ups or downs get to you, that you're changing the way you're doing things for life. So if you 'fall off the wagon', don't beat yourself up too much. With consistency, you'll achieve your goals.
Oh heavens, the return-from-deployment backsliding. I know it all too well.
Now I am dealing with the rertun-from-SERE pigout fest my husband is enjoying. He's putting 20 lbs back ON, so it's hard not to keep pace with him :)
Congrats to you for making a correctable mistake and recouping.
I've actually done pretty well with the sweets. I have cut back on the sugar. I very rarely drink sodas, and for when I just "have" to have one, I bought some of those 8 ounce cans that are 100 calories, and I have just one... I've even worked at cutting back on the amount of sugar I add to my sweet tea, and I've not been drinking as much sugared Kool-Aid (and I don't want to be using artificial sweeteners, since I don't have a medical need for it, and the long-term effects are questionable). Like I said, yesterday, I pretty much drank water (except for a cup of hot tea with some stevia natural zero calorie sweetener the little coffee bar had available, because I was looking for something to warm me up a bit after having been outside in the cold).
I've also learned that if I completely deny myself sweets, I'll binge, and that's not a good thing. I put a couple of cookies in my lunch. I've got some individually packaged Dibs ice cream in the freezer. I even bought a box of Twinkies the other day. But, I know how many calories they are, and I pay very close attention (the Sunday after my sister's birthday notwithstanding...) to my calorie intake in comparison to how many calories I am burning.
One thing I've done that helps a lot is preparing food ahead of time and freezing it. Back when I decided to start this, I bought a Seal-A-Meal. It was worth the money I spent. There are times when I am on my own for meals, and before, I would just pick something up on the way home from work because I didn't want to have to clean up in the kitchen after cooking just for one. Now, I can cook something up, divide it out into individual servings (like that yummy chicken tortellini), mark the package with the date, contents and calorie count, and put it in the freezer. All I have to do is heat it up, either by placing the vacuum-sealed bag in a pot of boiling water, or by opening it up, and putting it in the microwave. And, I've got a variety of things in the freezer to pick from. I was smart for yesterday and packed a lunch to take with me, because I knew I was likely to be away from the house until I got home from work, and I probably wasn't going to get my exercise in. So, when it came time for dinner last night, I counted up how many calories I'd already consumed, and how many more I could still eat and be on target for the day (599). So the tortellini (350), sauce (70), Parmesan cheese (20) and the slice of garlic Texas toast (150) filled me up and came in just under the wire. And, I still had my 2 Deluxe Grahams cookies with my lunch, but I also substituted Wheat Thins Chips for Cheetos to go with my ham sandwich in my lunch, which saved me 60 calories.
Oh, and I'm down another 1.4 pounds today (18.2 total). I think I burned extra calories just being out in the cold so much yesterday ;-)
Good job. I know from personal experience how tough weight loss can be.
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