lessinayear

I’ve been a little quiet the past couple of days. No blogs, because I’ve been trying to get my work done for the conclusion of my summer class. THANK GOODNESS it’s over this coming Thursday, July 2. But, less cool is the fact that basically my entire grade in the course comes down to that day — I have to give my in-class presentation that day, as well as turn in a short and a long paper, all at once! So yes, I’ve been stressing. This weekend has been full of homework, and freaking out about homework, and more homework…

Anyway, I got up early this morning to get back to work on my long paper (the biggest source of stress) and decided a Sunday that begins at 6:30 a.m. can’t get much worse…might as well go ahead and weigh-in. I was nervous about this week. I’ve had a couple of maintain weeks in a row that have disappointed, and I didn’t get to the gym toward the end of the week like I’d hoped (partially school and partially an unexpected visit from an out-of-town friend Friday that changed my plans). I also had wine with said friend, so I figured those calories might have messed things up…

But I sucked it up, got on the scale, and… 200! I’m down 2 pounds! (OK, just between us, it was ACTUALLY 199.5, and a big part of me wants to just go with 199, but I’ve been rounding up, so I’m going to keep with that… Just SO CLOSE to the success of Onederland!)

So I was reflecting on how that was the case, and I have a few thoughts. First, one of my personal struggles with weight loss is portion control. If you put it in front of me, I’m GOING to eat it, whether I’m hungry or not, whether I want it or not… I’ve REALLY been working on that. For me, I think that’s almost a bigger deal than exercise — recognizing that if I’m not exercising as much, I don’t need to eat as much… And I DID think about that a lot this past week. I knew, for example, that I wasn’t going to be able to make the gym Wednesday because of some meetings and deadlines at work, so I adjusted my food intake accordingly. Even Friday, when my plans to go to the gym turned into a lunch with wine with a friend, since I knew I was drinking some calories, and not exercising, I adjusted what I ordered for my meal, how much of it I ate, and also what I had for dinner that night…

And holy crap! It worked!

I know this isn’t rocket science, but it’s a pretty powerful reflection for me this morning. I feel really re-motivated by seeing that scale movement, and I’m SO happy that I just have to make it through Thursday’s final summer class and then I can throw myself more wholeheartedly into my exercise without the distraction of grad school for more than a month. Anyway, hope everyone has an equally eye-opening, inspiring Sunday!

There is definitely some sort of summer cold going around my office. Two people were out with it yesterday; two more are out today. The last thing I want is to be sick…

I’m wondering if my “off day” yesterday wasn’t a result of a little minor bug. I had a pretty bad headache by the end of the day, and I felt achy — more than I should have based on my workout yesterday at lunch. I took a quick nap between work and class last night (by which I mean, I took a quick nap for the last 30 minutes of work!), and that helped some. And then I just took it really easy last night after class — went straight home, ate a small, bland meal, and went to bed really early without anymore exercise or homework or housework. I feel a lot better today; I’m hoping I’ve staved it off!

I tend to have a good immune system (knock on wood!); I’m not one of those people who catch everything that goes around. I regularly take vitamins, and I do eat a really balanced diet, heavy on the veggies, which I know helps. But I do also work in an environment where people are very on top of each other, and we work in teams a lot, and we have different folks in and out of our office a lot, so sometime we all succumb to those viruses…

Anyway, in honor of feeling better (and just because we both could use a little pick-me-up), tonight my boyfriend and I are treating ourselves to a nice dinner out. There’s a local restaurant that specializes in all natural, organic food, and they have a lot of vegetarian options, and they’re very health-conscious about all of their preparation in a way that your average American restaurant, unfortunately, is not. It’s a little on the pricey side, so we don’t go very often, but it’s easily one of my favorite places… So, that’s tonight’s plan — just the two of us, a good, healthy dinner that neither of us have to cook, and conversation about good things (like our upcoming vacation to Disney World!) and no talk about work or school or the things that have had us down lately. Cannot wait.

Seriously. That’s what today is, I have learned from my co-workers. Luckily, no one brought any in. Unfortunately, someone did bring in other random breakfast pastries.

But - I am pleased to report - I had none. I had my regular bowl of cereal. I had my leftover sandwich half for lunch. And after lunch, when I was dying for something sweet, I STILL was good and just ate one of my 90-calorie granola bars. I’m feeling overall pleased with the food today, as tonight’s dinner plan is salad.

For yet another weekend, I won’t be at home and on a normal schedule. I’m driving to my mom’s house Saturday morning to meet up with an old friend from middle school who is in town visiting for a few days. We were best of friends in like 7th and 8th grade, and then sort of drifted apart during high school. We’ve reconnected over the past year or so by e-mail, so I’m excited about seeing her and hanging out for a few hours. Luckily, the weather is supposed to be really nice, so before or after our visit, I can also take a long walk with my mom’s dog.

Sunday I’ve got to drive back to Knoxville - and get started on my work for my summer class. Just got the syllabus, which is going to be booty-kicking. I spent much of the morning planning out my schedule for the month, almost to the hour. No kidding.

Anyway, friends - Happy National Doughnut Day! Let’s all celebrate by eating some nice, unsweetened fresh fruit!

One of my struggles in the weight-loss journey is knowing when to stop eating… I don’t eat very much unhealthy stuff at all — but I tend to overeat everything. I’m not good at listening to my body say, “Enough!” I have some CDs that are meditations on “conscious eating” that I’ve been procrastinating using — even though I need to — but it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

I’ve been proud of myself for the past few weeks about saying no to dessert. My boyfriend loves sweets, and almost every night he wants ice cream or a cookie or something like that after dinner. I had gotten in the habit of mindlessly eating with him. If he had ice cream, I had ice cream — even if I was stuffed and didn’t really want it. But lately, when he says, “Do you want a brownie?” I stop and think, and if I don’t want a brownie, I say, “No, I’m good, thanks.” (The interesting part is that he usually ends up not eating anything either — hmm…)

Anyway, now that I feel like dessert/after-dinner eating is under control, I want to work on actual meals. I grew up in a “clean your plate” household, which I know is part of my problem to this day. I feel like I HAVE to eat everything — otherwise it’s rude, or food’s being wasted, or… I don’t know! But it’s one of those deep-rooted things from childhood that I have to work through. So today, after the gym, I ordered a sandwich from a local restaurant (mmm — avocado, onion, sprouts, and cheese). I started eating. I ate half of it and paused to drink some water (another thing I’m working on — eating slowly, because I have a tendency to wolf my food down; my boyfriend is helping with this because he’s a very slow eater, so I try to pace myself with him, which is good). And then I realized — I was full.

So I wrapped up the other half and put it in the fridge. And the world didn’t end. And I’m fully satisfied. And I have lunch for tomorrow. This is going to be an ongoing battle for me, but I feel really good about making a good choice!