Payoff

My body sends me the weirdest messages.  The last two weeks, I stayed on plan, didn't splurge a ton, and exercised as I have been since I started Challenge #2.  I managed to lose 1.4 pounds over those two weeks combined.  This past week, I went to ColdStone twice, tried to eat more so that my calories burned through exercise didn't erase my calories in through food, and I even ate a calorie-laden (delicious!) burger from Red Robin.  I weighed in at 147.2 pounds this week, which is a loss of 2.8 pounds--double what I lost the previous two weeks combined!  What gives??  Back in Week 5 of the Challenge, I joked that my body wanted me to eat more Cheesecake Factory, because I lost a large amount of weight after way overeating there.  It's definitely a pattern--the weeks when I indulge some of my not-so-healthy cravings, I lose more weight.  I have no idea why that is, but I like it.  :)  I hate depriving myself, and I definitely didn't feel deprived this past week--and my efforts still paid off!  I've lost 15.8 pounds since I started the Challenge 9 weeks ago--that's an average of 1.75 pounds per week.

it IS perfection!

So I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week and the week before--I feel like I'm back on track again, although I guess that will remain to be seen in the coming weeks.  I do finally feel like my clothes are fitting me a bit differently--not a remarkable difference, but I have noticed that my jeans aren't as tight.  Still a little tight, but not skin-tight!  My upper body hasn't changed much, in that my shirts still fit the same--I wish I could lose some of the roundness in my arms and in my back.  My stomach also definitely still looks like I've had three kids--I'm not sure how to fix that problem.  A friend of mine (who has gotten crazy healthy and lost an insane amount of weight the last year, and totally inspires me every day!) said she also has the extra skin hanging off her stomach from her babies--and she doesn't know what else to do since she has some rockin' abs under that extra pouch.  I don't know how the contestants on The Biggest Loser can lose hundreds of pounds and not have all that excess stuff around their mid-section...it makes me wonder if they all have a skin removal surgery or something before the finale?  They've never said anything about a surgery on the show, though, so I think if they do that behind the scenes, their results are a bit disingenuous.  I'm not at the point where I only have excess skin--there is definitely a lot of fat still hiding in my stomach folds.  I don't know where I've lost those 15.8 pounds, but I sure hope it starts coming off my stomach one of these days!

I still need a shirt like this!

The next big milestone for me on this adventure is 17.5 pounds lost (weighing 145.5 pounds)...that will be halfway to my goal weight.  I might be able to hit that next week, but I know better than to count my chickens before they've hatched...especially after the last few weeks!  Dan told me that we should celebrate when I hit 20 pounds down--and I said, "What--with cake?"  Ha ha.  He suggested cake, pie, and ice cream.  I told my mom that idea, and she came up with a brilliant plan--I could have my big gluttonous celebration when I hit 20 pounds, and then gain 2 pounds at the next weigh in from all the goodies, and then celebrate 20 pounds lost again the following week!  Brilliant plan.  I think I'm mostly looking forward to when I hit 141 pounds--an odd number, perhaps, but it'll be when I hit the "normal" range on the BMI chart for my gender and height.  I don't know when I was last in the "normal" range, so I think that will be pretty exciting.  I'm glad I have some of these smaller goals to look forward to, because the fact that I'm not even halfway to my overall goal weight makes this whole process seem a bit daunting--it feels like it's been a really long time since I started all of this, and that means I still have a really long way to go.  It's a lot easier to stick with it when I'm feeling encouraged and finally noticing some payoff.

So, just to prove that I am listening to my body and really trying to comply with the message I'm hearing, we went to Cheesecake Factory last night.  I actually got the Skinnylicious Chicken Salad Sandwich that I ordered, and I shared a piece of cheesecake with the kids--and I didn't feel like I was skimping on my life at all, which is essential for my sanity and my ability to keep this up.  Bring on the weight loss!  ;)

10 Pounds (and Cheesecake)

Um, I've lost 10 pounds.  Seriously.  I was feeling so down last week about my effort and my weigh-in (even though it was right in line with what I had previously lost) that I didn't think this week was possible...but apparently it was.  I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and weighed in right at 153 pounds...10 pounds lighter than when I started 5 weeks ago.  I lost something like 3.4 pounds this past week--it just blew me away!  I'm not complaining, but I totally don't get it--I didn't do anything different at all, other than I did try to be a bit more active this past week on my non-exercise class days.  I think my cleaning schedule is helping as well, because getting this house cleaned on the schedule requires daily effort above and beyond my previous days of afternoon naps...  I was worried about the weigh-in yesterday because I had a bit of a misstep on Saturday...

need I say more about my misstep?

Dan and I decided to go out to dinner with the kids on Saturday, and we wanted to go to a place for which we had gift cards.  We have a number of Cheesecake Factory gift cards, and that's one of our favorite restaurants.  I got online after we made the decision to head there Saturday evening and looked up their nutrition--no wonder I never lost weight before...holy crap, is their stuff terribly fattening!  I usually order their chicken salad sandwich (LOVE!!!), and in my research, I discovered that sucker has a whopping 1230 calories in it...more than my entire calorie budget for a whole day!  I needed to game plan and strategize this trip to Cheesecake, because there was no way I was spending 1230 calories on dinner.  I made the decision to only have a small bite of bread from their amazing bread basket, and then to order my usual sandwich, but ask them to box half of it before it even got to the table.  The kids have been begging us for dessert, and you can't go to Cheesecake Factory without some cheesecake, so we decided to get one slice of the original (712 calories) and split it amongst us all (no whipped cream for me!).  That's reasonable, right?  Well, things were a little rough when we got to Cheesecake Factory, and I got thrown off my game...  Jake fell asleep in the car, so I took Alex and Abby up to the restaurant to get us on the table list and wait with them while Jake got a much-needed snooze with Dan in the van.  The restaurant wasn't as busy as we anticipated, so they seated the three of us right away.  Eventually the waiter brought our bread basket, and I tore off a half of one piece of the sourdough (a big weakness for me)...and it was warm, fresh out of the oven.  Uh oh.  I knew right then that it wasn't good--I can't resist warm bread.  Plus, I was feeling a little sick and just wanted to eat something because I was so hungry, so I had another small piece.  Then Abby wanted some, so I tore some off for her, and the next thing I knew, I was holding a piece that I must have been eating without realizing it while I looked at the menu...oops.  At least I didn't put any butter on the bread, like I usually do.  I studied their new "Skinnylicious" menu to see if anything could compete with my beloved chicken salad sandwich when lo and behold, I discovered that my chicken salad sandwich IS on the Skinnylicious menu!  For $2 cheaper than their regular portion, you can get a "skinny" version for only 540 calories--not great, but I had 570 left in my calories for the day, so I could do that!  Woohoo!!!  I promptly ordered the Skinnylicious sandwich and was feeling pretty good about it.

still a lot of calories, but way better than their normal portions!

Dan and Jake eventually came up to join us at the table, and the food arrived.  My sandwich looked suspiciously like it always does, and it came with a side of fries instead of a side of salad like it was supposed to.  I figured they must use a light mayo or something to make the Skinnylicious version less deadly, so I reasoned that it looked the same, but had lighter ingredients.  I was a little confused by the side, but I figured I wasn't going to eat the salad or the fries (because I didn't want the extra calories), so I wouldn't complain to the waiter that I got the wrong side.  I ate my sandwich all gone--it was delicious.  When everyone was done eating, we got our bill--and on our bill, there was a line that read "Chicken Salad Sandwich - $11.95."  Hmmm...the Skinnylicious menu said the sandwich was $9.95.  I felt a little ill--our waiter had rung the sandwich in wrong, and I had just ingested the 1230 calorie version without realizing it.  I didn't even get to order it with half to-go, because I thought I was ordering the smaller, healthier version...  I couldn't go back and un-eat it, so I was stuck with all those calories, and ended up way over my calorie count for the day.  Even with that massive intake (which also included a few bites of cheesecake...), I still managed to weigh in 3.4 pounds lighter the following morning--maybe the lesson is that I need to eat more Cheesecake Factory??  ;)