hodgepoge of random thoughts

So I had expected that one nice side benefit of my diet would be that Liz and I would start digging ourselves out of credit card debt a little faster, because I wouldn't be spending so much on junk food. This month is decidedly not a testament to that.

Now, to be fair, we spent a lot on the Niagara trip and the big barbecue, and the join up fees at the gym, and buying gym clothes and gym shoes that all won't be repeated every month.

So I'm not worried so much as disappointed. I had looked forward to smaller bills at the end of the month as another morale boost, and I'm not getting it.

But everything else is going according to plan, so I can't complain.

So far this (calender) week I've been 6/6 on my morning treadmill (doing full miles on Sunday and Wednesday), and I've made 4/5 of my evening workouts at the Y. I missed Wednesday because I was stuck in Columbus. I'm actually going to miss going to the Y tomorrow (they're closed for some minor remodeling) and again Sunday (they're only open Sundays in the winter), but I will do a upper body workout here tomorrow and maybe a second session on the treadmill Sunday to make up for the missed leg workout.

I've also been at or under points every day since getting back from the vacation, including counting up all of my points from the BBQ.

I'm making a concerted effort not to weigh myself until at least Sunday morning, because I spent all last (challenge) week weighing myself every morning as soon as I rolled out of bed. It was fun in that I was down every day, but then frustrating because I had a sudden upswing at the end of the week. (I had been down to almost 9 down on the week). So only doing a midweek and a end of the week report was the deal I managed to strike with myself.

It's sad though, I'm craving weighing myself right now almost as bad as I have craved any non-point-friendly food throughout this diet. I am so quick to develop addictions it is pathetic. Thank God I never tried smoking!

While I've been good at points, I feel as if I could be doing a lot better on individual food choices. Liz made up some coke cake cupcakes for me (thanks again for the tip!), and with the particular cake mix (organic from Whole Foods) and the smallish cupcakes that we made, they work out to only 1.6 points each. But they don't have any fiber or protein or omega 3's or anything... they're just purely empty calories. So they don't push me past my points goal, but they do fill up space on my chart that could be better used getting good vitamins and proteins.

My deal with myself is that I can only have one as dessert to a healthy meal, with a glass of skim milk, and only one a day. I did break down and have two yesterday, so I refused to have one today.

Another food choice issue is making sure i have enough protein. I've never been so close to being a vegetarian in my life. Not that there's ever any chance of me becoming one in earnest. But the only meat I've had in the past four days was the shrimp in my tv dinner at lunch today. I've been finding proteins in milk, eggs, cheese, and beans mostly, but I think I need to work harder at making sure that I am getting enough of those if I'm going to continue cutting meat out of my diet.


Another challenge is that I don't think I'm drinking enough water. Which is odd... drinking lots and lots of water is like the only healthy habit I had back before I ever even thought about weight loss. I'm used to being always thirsty, and I do my very best to always keep water on hand. Therefore I haven't bothered tracking my intake, as I just knew intuitively that I drink far more water than I need. But sitting down to think about it the other day I began to question that assumption. I think I will start actually adding water to my spreadsheet for the next couple of days and try to find out.


Ok, so this has rambled on enough. Thank you so much for checking in with my progress and for all of your support!