Losing It!

When I lose weight one week, my tendency is to sabotage the next!

I  did it!  WOOHOO!  CELEBRATE!  Now I can have two snack size Cherry Ripe instead of one or devour an entire burrito from Los Cucos!  Cherry Ripe (for the uneducated chocaholic) is an Aussie candy bar – rich chocolate, real cherries and yummy coconut decadence.  My Mexican food addiction?  Well, let’s just say I need a 12-step program.  (Seriously, I do.)

Paying attention to when I’m hungry and to what comfortably full feels like is what has helped me keep 30 pounds off since August of last year.  Celebrating because I lost 2.5 pounds very clearly undermines my progress.  So – first thing this morning – I made sure I hydrated to dispel my morning thirst-craving which is disguised as hunger.  I’m never actually hungry until 11:00 to 11:30 AM on a work day.  Today was no different.

Last night, I asked Hannah, my almost 14-year-old, if she’d make my lunch.  She asked me what I wanted and I gave her a detailed list.  Ham, hard salami and American cheese with mustard on rye, a snack bag filled with baby kosher dills and a few strawberries.   We have some delicious homemade oatmeal apple and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the house, but I deliberately didn’t include those in my request to Hannah.  I hate mornings, absolutely abhor mornings!  I will wait until the last possible moment to roll out of bed and into the shower, giving myself no time to make lunch.  I have NO CHOICE but to take what Hannah made for me.  I will not have any extra time to gather a few cookies into a bag to top off my lunch.  What a strategy, eh?

I lost track of time this morning at work and before I knew it, it was 11:30 AM.  I was feeling a bit hungry, but I wanted to go to the gym first.  I grabbed my keys and made my way to the gym.  Troy the Terrible was sitting at his desk to the right of the front door.  I saw him, he didn’t see me.  😛  I looked away quickly before he could meet my eyes, checked in and went to the women’s locker room to change, hightailing it upstairs to the elliptical riders.

I want to know who picks the stations we get to watch while exercising.  I’ve got an hour for lunch, I only get a 25 minute workout and I have to watch “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” or, and now this one slays me, The Food Network.

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me.

Common sense dictates if you’re trying to lose weight, watching cooking shows is a self-defeating pastime.  Have you ever watched a cooking show and not lusted after any or all of the dishes being cooked?  Unless you have enormous self-control (I’m overweight therefore, I don’t!) watching those shows will make you hungry when you’re not – makes stopping at the Whataburger right outside the gym seem reasonable!!  I must be hungry, I’m DROOLING.  Who wouldn’t be?

Another behavior which clearly undermines the hard work involved with losing weight.  And there it is, in front of the elliptical rider, my machine of choice.  (Note to Santa: I need an iPod, 32 gig minimum please, so I can close my eyes and ride instead of watching those televisions!)

I made it through though!  I went back to the office and ate my lunch; I didn’t even finish it.  I ate the sandwich, all of it, because I promised Troy the Terrible I would increase my protein intake after working out, but I couldn’t finish the snack pack of pickles and didn’t even open the bag of strawberries.

We’d determined yesterday thawed boneless chicken breasts would become stir fry tonight.  Mmmmm.  It was sooo good.  This recipe is a keeper.  As an aside, I needed a chicken stir fry recipe, I googled, found a link for a recipe – Stir-Fried Chicken and Vegetables on the Food Network – eye-balled it for appetizing ingredients, printed it and made it for dinner.  How to use and abuse TFN intelligently.  No need to torture myself watching it all day long.

So today at the gym, I walked 1.2 miles in 25 minutes.  I sweat like a pig (pigs don’t sweat though, do they?)  It felt really good.  My calves are only whinging; no mutiny in sight.  I think I’ll wear sneakers to work tomorrow.  Besides, I was expecting a package in the mail today and offered to pick up the company mail.  Barefoot, I made my way to the end of the sidewalk in front of our building and back again.  I didn’t realize how hot it was when I started out.  The trip to the box?  Not so bad.  The trip back?  Brutal.  I now have blisters all over the pads of my feet.  Yes, I will be wearing sneakers tomorrow anyway.

It’s almost bedtime and I made it.  Tomorrow is another day.