Day 26 & 27: Now Weight Just a Minute

Well hello!

I need to go grocery shopping. It is dire straights in my fridge and cupboards. So much so, that I've had to get really inventive. Behold what I came up with for lunch yesterday:Your eyes do not deceive you. You are looking at a spinach sandwich. I toasted two slices of multigrain bread and spread on some light onion and chive cream cheese. Then, I stacked as much spinach as I could reasonable get between two slices of toast and voila! Spinach sandwich. It was actually pretty good! The spinach was very fresh and had a satisfying crunch and the flavour worked very well with the cream cheese. Those are pink grapefruit slices you see in the background there. Citrus always gets eaten last around here, probably because it keeps so well in the refrigerator.

I found some leftover frozen vegetarian chili that I made on October 10th and had that for dinner yesterday. Not picture worthy.

I had my usual oats (1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 tablespoon almond butter and fruit of choice - today was a green apple) for breakfast this morning and then went on a nice long run in the sun. I was hesitant about going but once I was out there pounding the trail, it felt amazing. So glad I went. On my way home, I splurged on this:

More of a financial splurge than a dietary one, it was just a non-fat decaf latte. But it was very well made and it really hit the spot. Note on the bottom of the cup it boasts "Vancouver's Best Cheesecake!" This is not a word of a lie. Last cheat day, I had the privilege of a little taste and wow. No words. I am actually thinking of ordering a small cheesecake for my birthday this year (November 29th, so you better start your shopping now!). The only tough part is that they have a zillion flavours and it'll be agony to decide on one... Thinking about this...

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Okay so I've decided I hate my scale. Not the act of weighing myself, no, the scale itself. It is a royal piece of crap. It consistently weighs all over the map - plus or minus up to 10 pounds sometimes!!! I checked out the reviews on Amazon (I really should have done this before I purchased it) and found out that I am not the only one experiencing this problem. In fact, it only earned 1 star for the rating. And of course, I've long since discarded the receipt and the box (big mistake on my part) so I can't return or exchange it either. Poo.

So, in light of this, I have decided to purchase a doctor's scale. I know it must seem crazy, but I really need some accuracy in my regime. Having a wonky scale makes it so hard to see my progress and that in and of itself is discouraging. So I'm doing my research and I'm getting one. Fortunately, they're not as expensive as I originally thought they were - only about $150-$200 for a decent one. I just have to do a bit of looking around to decide which one I want to order.

Weighing myself everyday seems to work well for me. I am past the point of getting discouraged or excited by minor fluctuations. This small semblance of control really helps to keep me focused and maintain a tight rein on weight. It's not for everyone. But I think for me, it's an important part of The Plan. And long term, I expect I will weigh myself often just to make sure that I don't regain any of my hard-earned weight loss.

Day 18 & 19: Scratch That Itch

I finally broke out of the 160's this morning! Hooray! That must mean I'm doing something right.

Although I also discovered this morning that my scale is not really that accurate. When I first weighed myself, it showed that I was 158.8. I jumped for joy. Then a few minutes later I wanted to show Husband so I got on again and I was 162.2. What?? Booooo. But that seemed weird to me. So I then proceeded to bump, move, step on, step off, relocated and reset the scale. Now I'm 161 even. Without moving the scale, I stepped on a few minutes later. 159.8. I have no idea what was going on but I decided to just keep that last number as it was kind of the average of all the numbers I got this morning. And an important lesson was learned: That number really does mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. So next time I'm celebrating a 2 pound loss or mourning a 2 pound gain, I'm going to have to take that number with a grain of salt. Because apparently, it's really give-or-take 3 pounds.

So, unfortunately (and embarrassingly), I already failed my 50 day yoga challenge. I want to say it was beyond my control, but I think I let it happen. I was exhausted and when Sunday got too busy for me to fit in a yoga class, I relented and kinda gave up. I went for a long run instead.

I'm not too upset, I certainly did try and I'm definitely going to keep going to yoga everyday if possible. I think if I alternate running and yoga that would certainly make for a good fitness recipe. I will be going to yoga tonight, hopefully, as long as I can get Baby Girl down for bed at an early time.

Running has been going great. I am really getting into it. I can run for 30 minutes - no problem. (Although it should be noted that I run really slowly, at a snail's pace). And when the 30 minutes is up, I always feel like I could do more. That's just where I want to be for awhile. It feels great! I am so pleased with my progress.

I have been really lazy about photographing my meals lately. Or maybe it's more that I'm so freakin hungry by the time I eat that I'm not thinking straight. But anyway, here are the highlights from Cheat Day:

Chicken and vegetable yakisoba (homemade with leftover spaghettini noodles) mixed with lots and lots of edemame beans. Yummers!
And of course, lots and lots of almond butter. Mmmmmmm.

For dinner, I made some turkey tacos which turned out just OK. No pics.

The funny thing about my last Cheat Day is I wanted something but I couldn't figure out what. In hindsight, I realize that it was that Pumpkin Pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen that's been all over TV lately. To satiate myself, I tried eating lots of almond butter, a 100-calorie snack pack of chocolate covered pretzels, and a HUUUUGE bowl of cereal but by the end of the evening I was stuffed, but unsatisfied. And the scale was not kind to me the next day so to me it really wasn't worth it.

My valuable lesson learned on Cheat Day: If I'm going to indulge, at least make it count. It's not worth it to eat for the sake of eating. If it's not delicious then I shouldn't waste my time.

I spent all day thinking about that Pumpkin Pie Blizzard from DQ and I never got it because I was trying to behave myself. And now I wish I'd just gone ahead and satisfied that craving, rather than eating a lot of other stuff that didn't scratch that itch, KWIM?

Now I know.