Breakfast - chai, SK
Snack - small apple
Lunch - Progresso Chicken and Wild Rice, DP (few bites of Joseph's lunch - leftovers of wheat cheese tortilleni)
Snack - banana, 90 cal serving SK crackers, chai
Dinner - stuffed Salmon, saffron rice, steamed mixed veggies

Feel good today. Ate good! Need to get more fruit.

Ok...getting off track again. Actually, maybe I never got back on from my last post. Haven't been on here in a while either and thought it worked good for me to journal my thoughts and experiences so here I am.

I decided to start writing what I eat to keep a little better perspective of what's going in. I'll start right now with today. This'll be good because I can keep this page up on the computer and type in what I eat real quick like - since I keep the computer in the kitchen.

Breakfast - coffee, chai tea, 1 cup of Special K, 1/2-ish cup of skim milk
Snack - small apple
Lunch - can of Progresso Vegetable Minestrone (200 cal, 4g of fat), DP
Snack - SK snack bar (110 cal, 3.5g fat)
Dinner - piece of lite Texas Toast, whole wheat tortellini with cheese, marinara sauce, water
Dessert/snack - 90 calorie rice cake pack

Coincidentally, I was organizing the bedroom closet today to make room for MORE stuff that Joseph can't have and always likes to play with - stuff to keep out of his reach...and I came across a BIG stack of size 4 and 6 jeans! Oh man, talk about motivation. I don't think I'll be back in those 4's...but at least I got a good laugh out of my wishful thinking when I tucked those away, hoping they'd come back out. I don't think so!

Sheesh. It's been bad. I totally fell off the wagon.
I lost my motivation.
I lost my drive.
I found the thirst for bad food.

I blame it on the 500-calories-a-slice chocolate cake I made for Josh's birthday. It was serious! I'm back on though. Back to my fruits instead of goldfish for snacks, and back to 100ish calorie lunches. We usually don't run around much which makes eating well really easy to do, but the past couple of weeks had us eating out a lot and it really messed me up. Instead of making better bad decisions (like grilled chicken instead of the taco salad and portion control) I went all out and gave myself quite the tummy pooch. Arggg.

On a positive note I went to a yoga class at the Y and LOVED it! It was great. And frankly, I was more sore from that than from the cycle class! I don't have much else to be proud of though because I haven't been going routinely. I am going to give it my all now that things have settled down for awhile. Took a good long bike ride yesterday with Joseph but I felt like I had a ton of bricks riding with me. Don't know if it's all the sugar and bad food getting me down, but I have had NO energy the past several days. It's my body telling me to get back on track!

Weigh in 1/22 : 162
Weigh in 1/29: 158
Weigh in 2/5: 157
Weigh in 02/12: 153
Weigh in 2/19: 154
Weigh in 2/26: 150
Weigh in 3/05: 151
Weigh in 3/12: forgot to weigh in
Weigh in 3/19: 153

I hit a beautiful 148 when I was sick and didn't eat for a couple of days; being in the 140s really felt good - aside from the fact that it wasn't healthy. That is my new goal: break 150. Hopefully in a good week and a half or two I'll make it. Here we go...

Death on a Bike

I signed up at the YMCA yesterday and decided to hit the ground running. Or riding, rather! I went to a spin cycle class this morning, and after I recovered (as best as I could) from leaving Joseph with strangers with tears streaming down his face in the child care room, I almost died on that bike. It was a serious workout. Or anything at this point would be a serious workout to a beginner. The gal next to me said you can burn anywhere from 400-600 calories doing spin class. When I got home I checked a couple of online 'calories-burned' calculators and one showed 555 calories burned and another showed 597 calories burned - with my height and weight. That's some serious calorie burnage! How many times can I say calories, calories burned, or burn in one paragraph!? Ha.

So the spin class was pretty killer. I did like it though and definitely plan to go back. They have a great schedule at the Y with a lot of variety and good classes. There are a handful of different ones that I want to try so I should be able to find my niche pretty easily. Just gotta get Joseph over his daycare anxiety. Poor baby...he cried himself to sleep in one of the ladies arms. My heart broke when I came to pick him up and saw him there. I'm guessing it wasn't too bad or they would have come to get me. There are classes from 7:30-8:30 pm everyday too, so I can leave him with Josh and go in the evenings if the child care thing doesn't work out.

Anyway, BIG first step here, folks! I'm excited! Wish me luck! Hope this really kicks my weight loss into gear!

MyTrainerBob.com

I'm sitting here eating breakfast with Joseph - Special K of course - and checking out MyTrainerBob.com. He appears on The Biggest Loser, which I don't watch, but I caught a commercial for his website so I'd thought I see if it had anything good.

A couple of interesting points:

• Every 3500 calories is equal to one pound. So if you cut back by 500 calories per day, you should lose 1 pound per week. So if you cut back 250 calories per day – like 2 slices of bread – and increase your exercise to burn an extra 250 calories per day, you can also lose 1 pound per week!
• Get some sleep! When you don't get enough sleep, levels of a substance call leptin, which is a natural appetite suppressant, are lowered in your body. Sleep deprivation also causes your mental alertness to suffer and raises your irritability levels. So get some rest and give your body and your mind a chance to recuperate.
• You can cut calories and still eat the foods you enjoy, simply by cutting your portions in half. You'll consume 50% less calories without having to deprive yourself of any of your favorite foods. This is my favorite theory for losing weight. I've always believed that you should be able to eat what you want (I mean, within a balanced diet) and stay fit. I guess that is pretty much what I am doing now. I've rarely felt deprived on the Special K diet and I've lost consistently. Most of the time any feelings of "deprivation" are unhealthy habits I need to change anyway.

Not much else I really need on mytrainerbob.com though. They have a place to track meals and exercise and of course message boards. I like my blog journal better to keep track of my thoughts and weigh ins. ;)

I think I need to take my scale into the shop. Just when I think I need to crack down and eat better, I weigh in with a loss. Hmm...do they have home repair men for that? I wonder if it's calibrated correctly? I've done what the instructions say to calibrate it but besides, there isn't much to it in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, I'm actually losing that much weight. But still I wonder....

Weigh in 2/26: 150
Weigh in 2/19: 154
Weigh in 02/12: 153
Weigh in 2/5: 157
Weigh in 1/29: 158
Weigh in 1/22 : 162

Check out that pattern!! I lost four the first week, then one; four the third week then one; and now four again! Man, not much to look forward to for next week if I'm only going to lose one pound. ;)

In bigger (or smaller as the case may be - haha!) and better news...I've made it into my single digit sized clothes again! Oh goodness, you just don't know what this means to me. Now, I can't fit comfortably into all of it...but a few size 8 pants are definitely do-able with only a slight muffin top. It's really amazing how it works when you eat good. I still don't feel like I "look" like a size 8, but the proof is in the pudding. Or pants rather. Mmmmm, pudding. Anyway, and bathing suits are a whole other story right now....so I must keep on truckin! My new motivation for the next few weeks - BATHING SUITS!

I got lost in the hustle of getting ready for Summer's baby shower and didn't post for Think Thin Thursday. So here is my Think Thin Monday for last Thursday's weigh in post. Did you follow that?!

Weigh in 2/19: 154
Weigh in 02/12: 153
Weigh in 2/5: 157
Weigh in 1/29: 158
Weigh in 1/22 : 162

Hanging around 153-154 since then, so I guess I need to turn it up a notch so I can get back on track. Been pretty off track lately, what with the delicious baby shower food and a hamburger from Jake's last night! But I only had a few french fries and two fried pickles, and a glass of water...so quit shaking your finger at me. Actually I don't mind a good fatty meal every now and then. I'm not one of the "no fat ever" type of dieters - I eat well so I can splurge every now and again.

Motivation Reminder:
Get back into old clothes
Shannon's wedding in September (Sky changed the date on hers to next year to save a little more)

P.S. Lovin' the Progresso Soups for lunch! Still have cereal every now and then but the soup is more "mealy".