Week 3 in Review, Back in the Right Direction!

Week 1, Monday, 10/5/15, Weight: 148.8 lbs.

Week 2, Monday, 10/12/15, Weight: 145.2 lbs.

Week 3, Tuesday, 10/20/15, Weight: 147.0 lbs.

Week 4, Monday, 10/26/15, Weight: 146.2 lbs.  Down 0.8 lbs from last week, and down 2.6 lbs overall in 3 weeks.

I’m glad that number’s going in the right direction!  But it’s pretty slow going, since I’m losing a little less than a pound per week.  In order to meet my short-term goal (5 lbs by my birthday), I have about half to go (2.5 more lbs) in 4 more weeks.  I should be able to do it, right?  Right!

From my food journal (yay, I’m still doing it!), I think I know what’s going on.  I can see that I’m doing really well with making sure I’m eating green vegetables: I ate them 2x/day every day this past week!  But, I hate to admit it: I had some form of “dessert” every single day too.  Also, I’m back to eating too much, quantity-wise.  In my journal, as I flip back, my daily entry lists are too long—too many items, and too much of them.  Now that I think of it, I don’t really remember feeling hungry very often this past week.  That first week, I felt slightly hungry, and I ate way fewer sweets too.  I have to remember that feeling a little hungry isn’t the enemy; sugar is (because I am still so addicted to it!).  If I’m not feeling hungry, it either means that I’m eating too often (by the clock instead of by hunger), I’m eating too much at meals, and/or I’m eating empty calories (dessert).  It’s so easy to slip back into my over-eating and sugar-eating habits, yikes!

Also probably a culprit: I ate out three times this past week, which is too often for me!  The first time I ate out (with a friend), I wanted French fries with my entrée, but opted for a side salad instead.  The second time I ate out, I really felt in the mood for waffle fries, and I decided that I didn’t want to deprive myself of them that second time.  So, I got the Friday fish fry (I did peel off the coating, though!), and I paired it with waffle fries and a side salad.  Unfortunately, I ate all the fries, so I need to work on that.  I have read that if you feel deprived, when you finally eat the item you’re craving, you tend to eat more of it than if you hadn’t felt deprived of it in the first place.  Still, I don’t want to give in to the urge of eating fries every time I eat out.  I’m not sure why I’m craving fries (weird), but I’ll have to monitor that, and shoot for eating them only every couple of weeks or less.  The third time eating out, my husband (JK) and I attended his work dinner party, so I definitely ate more that night than I should have: appetizers, steak dinner, dessert, and a cocktail—gulp! 

Looking back, I slipped back into baking a bit more this week too.  I decided to make a cake on Thursday for our “date night”, and it was so good that we each ate a big piece, and then JK didn’t have the heart to bring the leftovers to share with his co-workers.  Ha!  So, we had cake as dessert for two nights, and the rest is lurking in our freezer.  Sigh.  I also made homemade Sourdough Bread.  Since I haven’t made homemade bread in awhile, I’m sure we’re eating more of it (than we “should”) because we finally have it, and it’s so fresh and good.  Argh, what happened to my dedication?!

In good news, I got a decent amount of exercise this week: lots of dog-walks, 3 jogs, and a heavy-duty session of raking/mowing.  I’m even starting to slowly bump up my speed and time on the treadmill.  My jogging goal is to run 30 minutes straight on the treadmill at 6 mph – that’s 3 miles.  Right now I’m gaining confidence running 24 minutes at 5.4 mph (2.1 miles).  I'm thinking about doing a 5K Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving (brrr, cold!); we’ll see if JK is up for doing it with me…

The season’s first food challenge is upon us: Halloween is just around the corner—this Saturday!  My original thought was that I should buy only healthy snacks to hand out, so I bought some mini boxes of raisins and cute stickers to hand out (yay me!).  However, instead of stopping there, or buying additional candy that I dislike, I did also buy my favorite kinds of mass-marketed mini candy bars: Snickers, Twix, Reese’s PB cups, etc.  So, it will definitely be a battle for my willpower.  My plan is to not open any of the bags until the trick-or-treaters come, and just set aside a few pieces of candy for myself to eat afterwards, and then hope that most/all of it is gone when it’s over.  If we do have leftovers, I plan to freeze the rest, and/or have JK bring it to work.  Now I just have to hold myself to that!

My goals this week:

1. Keep up with the good things: working out, eating green veggies, and keeping a food diary.

2. Reduce my quantity of food consumed.

3. Eat fewer sweets.  Especially beware of the Halloween candy!

4. Shoot for eating out only 1 time this week.

5. Don’t bake any dessert during the week (eat leftovers from freezer if craving strikes).  The only exception: I may make homemade apple pie (a Halloween tradition).  We’ll see.

6. Stay strong on Sunday when we visit my in-laws: eat small portions, avoid eating too many sweets, and get some exercise!

Is anyone else on a new track for your happy weight?  Any comments, tips, or problems?  I’d love to hear them!

Forward Flavor!