Down 3 Pounds--Thanks to the Flu

I'm back in commission after a week and a half in the clutches of a miserable bout of gastroenteritis. The result? I'm down 3 pounds. Sweet! I'm going to wait to adjust my stats until I see if it rebounds a little now that I'm better. The bottom line is that as long as I don't gain more than 2 pounds over the holiday season, I'll be on track for my goal to lose 1 pound in December. This New Year's, I'll have to remember to raise a toast to setting the bar low...

I have to say I was getting pretty sick of being sick, but after seeing the results, I sort of wish it would have lingered through the holiday. Mostly it was just stomach pain and decreased appetite. I could handle that for 2 more weeks, right? Handle it? I could probably bottle it and hand it out as a gift or sell it on the street corner. (I'm just kidding. I know I need to learn to make good choices even in the presence of my typically insatiable appetite.)

Today I'm off to an office lunch. I've already placed my order for nice green salad. I also fully intend to have La Bomba, which is basically an orgasmic dessert made from a ball of ice cream covered in a dark chocolate shell. This is the one outing over the entire holiday that I'm allowing myself dessert so I plan to enjoy every morsel. And, hey, I am making some sacrifices: I have to munch away on greens while everyone else eats warm, cheesy baked pastas and hot buttery garlic bread. I'm also planning a very light dinner tonight to offset the whole thing. I don't want this month to be a repeat of conference season, but I don't want to obsess so I'm doing some careful planning.

On a side note, I felt so good about my weight loss that I wrote out a Christmas card for the Lizard Lady today. Every year I pretend to forget her and then cringe when I get her magnificent, sparkly Christmas letter in which she talks about how perfect her marshmallow life is with her candy cane job and gum drop husband. Honestly, people! As a single person, if I sent one of these letters out, people would think I'm a total narcissist. Why is it just because she has a little ice on her finger she suddenly has the right to go bragging to everyone on her mailing list. I'd understand if she had kids or something, but it's just the two of them. Stop the madness! Anyway, as you can see, I've risen above it and decided to send her a card. That's how happy I am. Really.

Hope you've all had a smashing week!

December Goals

The time has come to assess last months goals and establish some brand spanking new ones. I had three November goals which included 1)Lose 8 pounds 2.)Write down everything I eat every day, all 30 days! and 3)Get some physical activity 5 days/week.

The result? Well let's just say that I'm glad they're called goals and not rules. I didn't lose 8 pounds, I lost two. I wouldn't mind not reaching my goal if it wasn't for the fact that I know I didn't do my best. That said, regret is wasteful. It's far better to learn from mistakes and move on! I was much better at tracking my food, though I didn't manage to do it every single day. I did actually succeed in getting some activity 5 days a week, though. So 1/3 isn't that bad, is it?

It's a new month and my last shot at getting it right in 2008, so here are my December goals!

1.) Lose 1 pound. That's it, one pound. I actually considered aiming just to maintain this month, but I thought that would just be like giving myself permission to slack off too much. One pound is realistic, given the festive season, but still keeps my focus on losing.

2.) Record every thing I eat every day. Yep, trying this again. I think it's a valuable tool in my efforts to reign in my overeating.

3.) Get 45 minutes of exercise 5 days a week. More specific than last time, so not as easy to fudge.

What are you hoping to achieve this month? Let's make it a good one!

Good News and Bad News

I'm still pressing on with my monthly goals and I'm enjoying varying success.

I'm struggling along with the exercise piece, and doing a little better. I've felt more motivated to walk on my lunch break which is great for a variety of reasons. It helps me to unwind in the middle of my day because it gets me out of the office and allows me to release some of my pent up energy. It's also the perfect time for me to get in an hour of activity. I'm not disciplined enough to get up early and if I wait till I get home at night, I'll be too tired or too lazy.

I have been really disciplined about tracking my food on SparkPeople, which has really opened my eyes. Firstly, it has reawakened me to exactly what I'm putting in my mouth. I'm surprised by how many calories there are in some of the things I eat and by how unbalanced my diet is. For example, while I almost never get the recommended amount of protein, I frequently exceed the recommendation for carbs. Not a good practice for a pre diabetic.

So while I stayed within my calorie limit yesterday, I also ate SEVEN Pillsbury cookies. SEVEN. I know weight loss is about calories in and calories out, but I'm not just doing this to lose weight, I'm doing it to get healthy. Consuming empty calories is going to do little to help me get there. I need to make a better effort to eat foods that will nourish me, not just satisfy my cravings.

The good news: I'm tracking, exercising and limiting my calories.
The bad news: I'm eating garbage.

What can I say? I'm a work in progress and I'm making changes everyday. Hope you're having a good day!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Some day, I will be able to live my life without looking at everything through the lens of weight, but today is not the day. Halloween has always meant two things to me: 1. The chance to pretend to be someone else for a day and 2. the chance to eat ludicrous amounts of candy.

Dressing up is probably the best part of Halloween. I love the idea of putting on a whole new, completely unique self. My co-workers are really creative. They build their own costumes from stuff they have at home and they usually come up with some pretty clever stuff. I on the other hand , tend to be fairly unimaginative in my costume choice. If I can't purchase it as a package deal, I probably won't bother. What I've noticed is that my options for costumes are much wider than they were 50 pounds ago. It's nice that I can choose something other than nun or ghost now. Hooray for non scale victories!

As far as consuming massive quantities of of candy is concerned, that should not really be an option for me now. (Especially since I broke up with Jack!) I have tried not to eat candy with the reckless abandon I used to. That said, by the time we shut out the porch light, I may have eaten almost as much chocolate as I handed out. Uggg! I could have taken steps to avoid such massive transgressions. I especially like MizFit's suggestion to indulge planfully. I could have tried to find candy that I actually wouldn't eat. But I didn't do any of that; I pigged out.

Thankfully, tomorrow's a new day and the start of a new month. It's a chance for a fresh start and the formation of new goals.

I hope you had a happy Halloween and took advantage of the chance to be someone else and make other people smile today!

I Joined the Wellsphere Community

I'm always looking for new resources to make my weight loss efforts easier. To that end, I've joined the Wellsphere community. Wellsphere is a website that combines medical information from physicians in a variety of specialties with social support networks. The site connects users with local resources as well as a variety of blogs.

But what really got me enthusiastic about the site was the level of personalization available to users in the My Wellsphere tab. Create a login and you can join a variety of teams and communities. You can also set goals and receive regular reminders via email or text message, which I was really grateful for today.

Originally, I had intended to brew a cup of Earl Grey and spend my lunch hour with my feet up, attacking my new stack of paperbacks. I'd just opened my tea bag when my phone buzzed with a text message that inquired, "How much have you walked today?" as a friendly reminder that one of my goals is to walk 60 minutes a day, 5 days this week. So instead of kicking back, I laced up my sneakers and taking my usual route to the park, I enjoyed a walk that was good for my mind, body and soul.

It really is a wonderful season for a long walk. I'm sure it's been said before that Autumn is an absolute feast for the senses, and today was no exception. The weather was brisk, but not cold. The foliage was nothing short of amazing. My path was lined with glorious trees, determined not to go quietly into winter, positively afire with shocking oranges and yellows in shades rarely seen outside of a box of paints. As I walked, I was met with the rich aroma and the symphonic crunch of a carpet of crimson castoffs.

So why are you sitting here reading this? Get out there and experience it for yourself! Go on! But before you go, check out Wellsphere by clicking on the badge on my page or going to www.wellsphere.com. Feel free to post your opinions of the site in my comments. Hope you make time to enjoy the season!