Week Three Results: Keepin' On Keepin' On

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already since I began this journey! It’s a worn out expression, but time really does fly. I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied with things like exercising, tending to my flowers and my herb garden, etc., to keep from just vegging out in my recliner with my laptop and eating myself stupid. And what a difference it has made: three more pounds gone on weigh-in day! That’s a total of nine pounds in three weeks! Woot!

The new “do” was a hit, by the way. Got lots of compliments from family and friends. And it has proven to be much easier to care for in light of all the recent sweaty workouts!

Well, this past week was nearly a carbon copy of the previous week: a veritable cornucopia of dieting booby traps. We had another carry-in at work and two more evenings of eating out. How much temptation can one girl stand, I ask you?! There was an awesome selection of fresh veggies at this week’s carry-in at work, which allowed me to nosh off and on all day with virtually no guilt. (We won’t talk about the handful of Triscuits I ate. Shhhh!)

Friday evening we ate at a Mexican restaurant, where it seemed nearly every menu selection was either wrapped in a starch-laden tortilla, smothered in cheese sauce, or fried. Or an unthinkable combination of all three. (Can you say chicken chimichanga?) I settled for chicken fajitas—what, you didn’t think I would get beef fajitas, did you?—forgoing the tortillas and just eating the meat and veggies. I tried not to think about how much grease/oil was used in the sautéing process and did my best not to feel guilty for enjoying the meal. If I’m honest, I have to admit to a little backsliding, though. My entrée came with a dollop of guacamole on the side, and I simply did not have the willpower to not eat it. Bad, I know. As penance I spent an extra ten minutes on the elliptical the next day. Is there an upside? Of course there is! I ate about a third of my meal before I was full. I brought the rest home with me, and BJ and I finished it up the next day.

Saturday night found us at Olive Garden, the mother lode of fat, calories, and carbs, what with all of the cheese and pasta on the menu. But the food is sooooo yummy! Calling on my mad surf-the-Net-with-your-phone skills, I scoped out OG’s website for nutrition information. I found that the dinner portion of their seafood alfredo (which is my go-to dish there) has a whopping 1,040 calories. Yikes! But, by saying no to breadsticks, eating only a small portion of their house salad and only half of my entrée, I was able to keep dinner to around 700 calories. This was way more than I would normally eat at dinner, but this was our official wedding anniversary celebration (we had gone to OG on our very first date) so I didn’t let myself feel too bad for my dietary indiscretion.

So what is the point of all of this, you ask? The point is, you can eat foods you like and still lose weight, you just have to exercise a little common sense and a lot of self control. In the not too distant past, I would have gone to that Mexican restaurant and eaten half a basket of tortilla chips and salsa, a whole dish of guacamole, and that starchy, cheesy, deep-fried chicken chimichanga. Instead, I chose the less volatile fajitas (which were very tasty, by the way) and let myself be content with a couple of tortilla chips with my dollop of guacamole.

‘Cause at the end of the day, eating right and slimming down is going to make me feel a whole lot better about myself than eating that damn chimichanga.



Talk about your exercise in self control!