Week Two Results: Carry-Ins and Eat Outs and Calories -- Oh My!

Another successful week – 3 more pounds lost! Yay! That’s a total of 6 pounds in 2 weeks. Another couple of weeks like these and I should hopefully be able to tell a real difference. Being able to see a difference on the scales is a true motivator. So is noticing a difference in the way your clothes fit. Keeping track of inches lost also helps as well. Since muscle weighs more than fat, if you’re replacing one with the other you may not notice so many pounds lost as you do inches lost.

This week I was faced with a couple of trials of the worst kind: a carry-in at work, and going out to eat. Friday everyone from my old unit at work brought in food as a send-off to those of us leaving due to a recent reorganization. The temptation to pig out was overwhelming! I did choose a couple of goodies I wouldn’t normally have eaten while dieting, but I kept the portions very small, like only one pinwheel rollup and one 2 x 2 piece of a breakfast casserole. I took some of my dill pickle rollups and ate a few of those, since I knew exactly how many calories I was eating with them. Did I want to eat more? You bet I did! Usually these events at work translate to an all day graze for me…with God only knows how many calories and carbs. But at the end of the day I could look back and feel satisfied with knowing that I didn’t succumb to temptation and stray (too far) off my regular eating regimen.

Speed bump number two came on Tuesday night, which was our wedding anniversary. Since it was a weeknight we decided to stay close when choosing somewhere to celebrate. We went to a local restaurant we hadn’t been to for a while. Going in I hoped I would be able to find some sort of grilled chicken or fish (go figure!) on the menu, with maybe some green vegetable on the side. I was surprised and delighted to find there were many! Using the rationalization that it was our anniversary, I went out on a limb and chose tilapia stuffed with crabmeat and shrimp, and steamed broccoli. I really, really, REALLY wanted a baked potato with lots of butter and sour cream, but all it took one was one look down at my thighs to squelch that craving. I also passed on the rolls and butter too, which wasn’t hard for me since I’m not much of a bread eater. The fish did have a bit of creamy sauce on it, so I tried to eat around that as best I could. The best thing, however, was me filling up on only half of the meal. I was actually able to put down the fork with lots of food left on my plate, and I brought the rest home for the next day. Not only did I turn a potential pitfall into a night of relative success, I was able to enjoy my special treat two days in a row! I’m still missing that baked potato, though….

This week I also boosted my exercise a little, which I hope will help things along. My 20 minute preset workout goes in steps from resistance 1 to 5, then back down. (The machine has resistance settings all the way to 10.) After only a week this routine started feeling a bit too easy, so I decided to push the 30 minute button and see what happened. This one starts at 3 and goes up to 7 – three times *gasp* – like three mini-workouts strung back to back. By the time I hit level 7 for the third time, I was really feeling the crunch. I felt like I was trying to run uphill with a dead body over my shoulders, and my brain was in full Danny Glover mode: “I’m too old for this sh*t!” By the time I was done, though, the display said I had burned 525 calories and over 90 carbs. Wow! What a boost from the 290 calories the 20 minute workout!

Annnnddd...After all of this focus on giving myself a body makeover, this week I decided that also includes my head. So, after four years of growing my hair, I decided to cut it all off. Yikes! I made an appointment at the beauty parlor and just did it before I could talk myself out of it. And am I ever glad I did! With all of the sweaty exercise I'm doing nowadays, it's so much easier to take care of. And I'm pretty sure the long hair just made me look that much shorter and fatter (at least it felt that way) so I got an added bonus in the process! So...whaddya think?

All-in-all it was a great week! I guess it helps that I don’t mind eating lots of the same foods over and over (such as my yogurt every morning and grilled chicken salad for lunch.) Kinda takes the worry out of wondering what to fix. And since I have to be at work so early (I leave the house at 5:45 a.m.) easy really works for me. But I only have one more week of this early business and then my schedule changes and I’ll have more time in the mornings. I may branch out then and see what other goodies I can find to add to my menu. : )

When I started this blog I intended to end each post with some quote or funny ditty about aging or weight loss…or both. It was only after I had posted my second entry that I realized I totally forgot. Imagine that! So, to make up for lost time, here’s three for this week.

Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age. – Victor Hugo

If it weren’t for the fact the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn’t get any exercise at all. – Joey Adams

And this, as submitted to Reader’s Digest, is what happens to your diet when you don’t read the fine print:

Needing to shed a few pounds, my husband and I went on a diet that had specific recipes for each meal of the day. I followed the instructions closely, dividing the finished recipe in half for our individual plates. We felt terrific and thought the diet was wonderful—we never felt hungry!

But when we realized we were gaining weight, not losing it, I checked the recipes again. There, in fine print, was "Serves 6."