Stupid scale!

Today's weigh-in did not produce a loss. I went from 180.8 to 181. I don't really consider that a gain. I know it's easy to say the scale sucks but I know I really do put quite a bit of stock into having it dictate if my work is ...well... Working.

Small victory- despite Saturday I was well under my calorie goal each day last week.

Small but important victories

Short and sweet -

Yesterday I was shopping with Ph and decided to check my blood pressure while he was talking on the phone.  I have a love-hate relationship with my blood pressure.  It's often high and I have a tremendous amount of anxiety wrapped up in it.  In fact, most of the time I will take it several times in a row - trying to meditate in between takes it get the number I want.  Makes a whole lot of sense, right?  Anyway - results from yesterday.

Today I decided to calculate my BMI, and got these results -

Take that world - normal blood pressure AND I'm now overweight.  I've never been so freakin' excited.

A year-end review

Myfitnesspal.com allows for you to look back at your progress over the last year, and I was actually a little surprised.

From the looks of it I steadily went up from last July through today.  What I was surprised at was how little I had gained.  I mean - I gained weight, don't get me wrong - it's just nice to have a reminder that I haven't undone all the work I put into losing my 22 lbs.

Last week was a winner with a 3.5 total loss, and I'm PUMPED.  I have 12.3 pounds to go for my halfway point, which means Philip will be shelling out some money to get me my Elephant necklace.  In case he or anyone else has forgotten it's the background to my weightloss "ticker."   : )

Yesterday I hung out with a friend who has lost 50 pounds and it was awesome to feel supported and feel like she knows exactly what I'm going through.

Anyway - see you guys on the flipside.  I'll weigh in again tomorrow to hopefully see the same number as yesterday or a little less. 

I think I'm back...

This past week I've lost two pounds and been under my calorie goal all but one day! W00t! Philip has been super supportive and so far we've made some smart choices for this weekend. The last few months that's been my biggest issue- eating whatever on the weekends. I think the week before I managed to eat two blizzards. No good! I think something has switched again and I'm hopeful. I'm 10 pounds away from my lowest last year. Fingers crossed!

Today I made a Key Lime Cheesecake. 227 cals a slice. The filling tasted great.

Ingredients:

8 oz softened 1/3 less fat cream cheese
8 oz thawed fat free cool whip
1 package sugar free lime jello
1/2 c Splenda
Graham cracker crust

Directions: mix, pour, chill. : )

It's good to be back.

Try and Try Again.

It gets pretty annoying to write about starting over so many times. *sigh* But hello again, I'm counting calories again. I've had several days of celebrations and vacation, which had my calories in the toilet. I was doing horribly, and seeing some pictures from my vacation, definitely slapped me in the face with the reality that I've gained weight again. Yesterday was Phoenix's year anniversary so I pigged out at Olive Garden. But now those days are done, I'm hoping that I can get back to being dedicated to losing weight.

I find that's the single most important thing to losing weight for me - that light bulb moment of I cannot and I will not over eat. Finding snacks and meals to eat isn't the problem. There's tons of things I can enjoy that fit into the 1500 calories a day I eat (including cake, more on that later.) A year ago, I was so so serious about saying no. If I didn't have calories left, I simply didn't eat it. It was truly that simple. I had this drive, this incredible determination that KNEW it was more important to get skinny than eat another piece of chocolate. Then something happened. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't quite flip that switch. I'm trying. Honestly, writing about it here, and acknowledging this process is very helpful.

I haven't weighed myself in a while. I don't really want to know. I plan on doing it next Tuesday. My friend Heather has lost 37 pounds and counting. She is doing great, and that has helped hold me accountable. Philip is now back at the gym, which pushes me to not make excuses and spend some time there also. In fact, I'm feeling like going there today.

So here goes nothing (again.)

A few days ago I found a low-cal recipe for a cake in a mug. I've never tried these recipes, so I thought I'd give it a whirl today. The recipe can be found here http://thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2011/11/aunt-bettys-1-2-3-cake.html

And picture via of the above site -

A few notes. The angel food cake mix I used actually ended up being 60 calories more (per container) than the chocolate mix I used. When you divide out the calories, this really doesn't make a huge difference, but for future reference I'll be using just chocolate mix. I imagine you could do this with any flavor though - lemon, strawberry, etc. It might be a quick way to make an individual portion of strawberry shortcake. I like the bloggers tip of 3-2-1. Makes this recipe super easy to remember. 3 tablespoons of mix, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 minute in the microwave. Trust the 1 minute. I let it go longer and it was super hot and a little over cooked. This makes a perfect cupcake size cake. I put the info in myfitnesspal.com and using angel food cake and chocolate it's 156 a cup. I imagine you could get this even lower if you used Pillsbury sugar free cake mix.

It was tasty! : ) Thanks for joining the journey again.

Are you tired yet?

So this week I decided to start taking care of myself again. I think I've said that same thing 10 times on this website. I've got some challenges to face this week. Radiohead concert is tomorrow, which means going out to eat prior. The weekends have been horrible for me lately. It's like I just decide calories don't matter on Saturday and Sunday. And then Thursdays... well that's "date night" and why not indulge?!? But no more. I'm almost back. I can feel it. I've counted calories since Monday and been under. Also - I worked out Monday, and I plan to work out before class today. Friday? Fingers crossed I do some type of physical activity.

I weighed myself monday and it was 181.8. That's the highest it's been in a while. It's time to take back me. Here's to it!