My Path to Outer Skinniness

Okay, well maybe not death. But severe punishments anyway! I am pretty sure I've gained one or two pounds. The weekend did not bode well for me. We went to the pacific rim festival where I ate a very healthy lunch, but drank a rather unhealthy amount of sake. The enabler then wanted to go to Red Robin for dinner. I tried the lettuce wrapped teriyaki chicken burger sans mayonnaise to try to make it healthier. I'm sure the french fries didn't help much though. Sunday I ate pretty well for lunch. I had a white bean chili courtesy of cash & carry. Dinner was a mess though. We went bowling and the enabler suggested I eat what I want because we don't get out that often etc... I wanted to believe him so I ate tater tots again. I also had beer. Yesterday I did super well. I had soup salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden - under 400 calories if you do it right - and I even did well for dinner. I had leftover salad with a piece of baked salmon. But then I ate a 700 calo...

Today I weighed in at 175.8. I found this loss a bit shocking considering what felt like self-sabotage last weekend. I can't believe I've been at this a month. It doesn't really seem like it's been that long, and I haven't really felt like I've been as diligent as I should have been. But I'm 10 pounds lighter today than I was 30 days ago and that feels pretty good! I was noticing my arms in a photo yesterday and I realized they look better than my wedding photos. Here's a comparison: I don't know if it's really all that obvious, but I'm happy anyway. Dragon boating has really helped my arms a bunch too. I did my measurements on spark people as well and my waist, hips and thighs are all about half an inch to an inch smaller. I think in about 5-10 more pounds I'll actually be down a pant size! 

Here I thought the only repercussions of eating naughty food this weekend would be a lack of weight loss. Well, I get to pay more than I thought. The large amount of kalua pork I ate yesterday is taking it's toll on my stomach. My stomach that doesn't get fed this much meat anymore and probably doesn't know what to do with it all. I guess the good news is that I have no desire to eat anything. So returning to the diet is easier!

Okay, maybe not the kind of naughty you're thinking! But I did let myself eat things that I knew were going to be very bad for the calorie counting trek. I ate all sorts of things. I had beer. I had chocolate (gluten free but not butter free brownies are super good!). I had wheat pancakes with bacon and real maple syrup. And, I didn't really get all that much exercise. BUT (and that's a very big but, but a but nonetheless), I was completely aware of every thing that I ate. I knew my almond roca were 200 calories. I knew that the battered halibut and the half a bowl of clam chowder were probably well over 1000 calories. I knew it. But I wanted to enjoy a weekend of eating without making myself sick full and without having to say no to everything. Fat Camp! So now I have to hit the ground running again starting tomorrow. Today's a wash already. We went to the cheese factory - nuff said. But tomorrow! Tomorrow will be the day that I prove that I can relax a couple d...

1. I stopped at the restroom in the hotel by the waterfront on my way to dragon boat practice tuesday. There's a full length mirror there. As I came out of the stall to wash my hands I noticed my reflection in it to the side of me. On my way out I stopped in disbelief. I was wearing a very form fitting tank top that dries quickly. Usually I expect to look like a stuffed sausage in it. But I didn't. I had to turn to the side and turn back again to make sure the mirror wasn't at an angle or something that would make me seem thinner. But it wasn't. I actually look better in my clothes. 2. On the way home from dragon boat practice I was thinking about this and also thinking about how I'm tired of counting calories. It occurred to me that I only have to count vigilantly until I weigh what I want to weight. And since I don't, I need to keep doing it. I would be devastated if I gained any weight back. I've reached this point in my dieting many times before. The d...

Well, today there is good news, and there is bad news. The good news is that I went a couple of days without tracking my calories at all. I know that the tater tot day was probably well over my calorie limit. But I went back to Saturday and Sunday and tracked what I had left today and found that I had stayed within my limits just fine. I think what's helping me succeed is the sheer terror that I'll gain what I've lost back and have to monitor this closely again. Whenever there is food in front of me and I don't know how many calories are in it, I am actually scared to eat it because it will undo all the work I've done. The bad news is that I have been really fighting the urge to comfort eat. I found out for sure today that Wilson will be hiring within the district and I won't be teaching there. I have been gearing myself for this job since Novermber/December last year when I knew Steve was retiring. It's a terribly difficult blow for me. But I think the ...

There's this song I used to listen to on an old DC Talk cd that I always think of when I hear the words Will Power . I find it amusing. Yesterday was a weird eating day in the life of Bethany. I was completely not hungry all day. I finally caved and had a slim fast (my new favorite breakfast lately because I'm too lazy to make anything) when my stomach started it's own gurgle symphony. At around 4:00 I realized I hadn't eaten still. So I went to the good old subway in the mall and had me a veggie sandwich and an oatmeal cookie. The cookie was more calories than the whole sandwich. When I got to work at 8 I felt really sluggish and I realized, for probably the first time in my life, that I was aware of how my body was functioning based on what I'd eaten. My blood sugar was low. So I got food in the snack bar. The picture is how the snack bar feels to me. It's the point of no return! It will consume you! I managed to do well for the entree, but I caved and ...

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I weighed myself. This marks the end of week 3 of the calorie counting challenge and I'm still hanging in there. At the lowest, I weighed in at 179.1 (there was some ounce changes with different clothes I was wearing, but all at 179). Even though it's only a pound, given my circumstances I'll take it as a win. I am very happy to have this boost of confidence, especially after a weekend of untracked camp food! Yesterday I sort of waited until the end of the day to calculate all my calories. I ended up doing pretty well. At some points of the day I actually had to force myself to eat because I didn't want to cook for one and because I just wasn't all that hungry. When I tallied everything up I was right within my limits. I think I've started getting the hang of this better. I wanted to mention two inspirations that I've had in the last week. Tuesday I went to New Seasons when I got done dragon boating to get a...

I'm getting kind of tired of tracking my calories. It's become more tedious than it was originally. I think this is partly because I went three days without tracking. Now it feels like a daily chore. I have incentives however to continue. I may as well just come out and say that Paul and I are starting to research and learn about having babies. ***WE ARE NOT PREGNANT YET***. (everyone always asks whenever I mention the "b" word) Nor do we expect to be for at least a few months if not longer depending on how things work out. There are several factors to consider such as whether I get this job in the fall, whether we can afford the birth we want right away, where we're going to put a baby, and other things as well. That said, I need to get healthy for any of this to matter. My biggest concern at this point is that I might have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). I've read about four different books that describe the symptoms and I match every single one of ...

Well, I guess it will take a couple more days to really gauge how the experiment in non-tracking went. Paul and I went camping this last weekend and I decided it would just be easiest to pack good food options and not eat all day. This was easier said than done. I didn't realize how much of camping is just sitting around and eating. I kept trying to keep a mental tally of what I'd consumed so that I would kill my progress. It was hard! I weighed myself today when we got back and thankfully I'm not up any, but it will be awhile before I'll probably see the real results of my experiment. I have high hopes though. I had a few things that probably worked in my favor while we were there. First, instead of s'mores I took a box of 100-calorie pack twinkies. Roasted twinkie bites are super delicious! And low calorie! I did eat ONE s'more. I feel like this is an accomplishment. Paul probably ate about 6. Second, I hiked roughly 6 miles yesterday. I went on a hike by...

In this calorie counting stuff I've spent much of my time google searching nutrition information for foods I eat and then trying to calculate my stats based on what I find. Sometime's it's pretty difficult to make adjustments for portions. Like, if I only ate 3 french fries but the information is for a small fry size, how do I estimate how many calories that is? I finally stumbled on a website that does it for you. It doesn't have everything on it, but what it does have is SO HELPFUL! And, it has pictures of the food so you can make sure that what you're getting facts for is actually what you ate. Check it out! http://www.caloriegallery.com/

Good news #1: Yesterday was a good day. It was the first day of week 3 of the calorie counting challenge. I made it! I'm down 6 pounds in two weeks. Now I just have to keep it up. Good news #2: The second success was a good dragon boat practice. All of the issues I had before are becoming more solvable. I got wax for my paddle. I found out I have a renewal on my inhaler prescription so I can go get that, I got to paddle in the front of the boat which I really loved so I was really able pushed myself. Good news #3: I remembered that we had a very belated wedding gift from my parents friends Ken and Leslie Conachan. They gave us a gift card to Target. So I asked the husband if I could use it for a better bathroom scale and he said sure, so I got a fancy new scale. The thing I was most worried about was that it was going to say that I weigh more than I thought. Luckily our previous scale wasn't as bad as I thought and I am right where I thought I was. The other cool thing ...

I really need to get a better bathroom scale. It's not that I think ours in inaccurate, it's just that I think it's really hard to read and thus hard to tell which line the dial is actually pointing to. I'm going to say that I probably lost 1 pound this week. Maybe slightly more but, again, it's hard to tell. I'd rather be under-indulgent. This isn't really the shining glorious achievement that I was hoping for. But I suppose after the large weight loss I had from the first week I couldn't expect my body to keep adjusting that quickly. As long as I keep losing, that's what matters. I've been sort of watching sales and pricing out bathroom scales. It's a bit of a draw to figure out what a good choice would be. There's reviews for everything and nobody's really unhappy with their scale. They also vary so greatly in price that it's hard to tell if more expensive is necessarily better. As long as it's accurate and doesn't br...

Here's the infamous video as mention in the last post. You really can't see me except for when I'm not paddling. Which is pretty much what I expected. Super. At the very least it's good to see what some of the better paddlers are doing from this angle. Typically I have to go from what I see behind them or next to them. Hopefully I'll be able to integrate some stuff into my paddling. Besides that calorie counting is going okay. Today is Week 2 Day 6. This week doesn't look as promising for weight loss, but I'm not getting heavier so that's a reason to keep at it right?

Well, I was feeling so great about my progress and then my house of cards collapsed ever so slowly. I had the girl at the nail salon ask me if I was pregnant. NO. JUST FAT. THANKS FOR ASKING. This morning at dragon boat practice I kind of lost it. My back hurt because I can't afford to get it adjusted at the chiropractor, I couldn't breathe because my inhaler's almost empty because we can't afford for me to go to the doctor to refill the prescription. The boat was off balance so I had to lean to bury my blade which exacerbated the first two problems more. I also didn't have any wax for my paddle so I had to grip it harder which made me more tense and hurt my wrists. The last insult to injury is that I got seated in the back of the boat where the gunnel curves a bit and the seats are closer together and more narrow. The best part is that our coach filmed us today. I've been really trying to push myself so that I don't get cut from races anymore. I show ...