Kari’s Blog

Well yesterday was bowling night and while I was able to resist the curly fries and tots, someone brought in cheese curds from Tillamook and someone else brought a birthday cake for one of our team members. I had a handful of cheese curds (good LORD those things are delicious!), and a tiny piece of cake, and a diet soda. I shouldn’t have gone for so much cheese, but there’s protein in it, right? Right? Sorry, rationalization is bad, I know. I over-indulged. Lesson learned! Measure out a few pieces to treat myself and then step away from the bag!rn

rnTomorrow morning I leave for my 10 day trip to England & Scotland. It will be hard eating well since we’ll be on the go a lot. I’m going to take some breakfast bars to help me skip the "Engish Breakfasts" and all the grease those entail, and also try to get a light sandwich for lunch if we’re near any kind of deli or sandwich shop. With all the walking, hopefully that will balance out the couple of pints I’ll probably toss back each night! ;-)rn

rnSo, it’s likely I won’t be online until I get back (although if I find an internet cafe I might just check in!). To all my buddies who have been so supportive and who are doing so well in their journeys - THANK YOU, keep it up, and we’ll chat soon!!

I found this article about smart indulgences and thought I’d share it with everyone. Good stuff!

Well this morning was my official personal "weigh-in" day, and I lost 3.5 lbs this week! I am super super proud of myself for being careful about what I ate this weekend. Normally I go in these cycles…I’m good all week, but then I eat junk on the weekend, so then I say "Oh I need to be good this week to make up for it…"….but then I’m bad on the weekend, and it’s just a cycle where I gain a couple lose a couple and never see the number STAY down! That’s why I chose Monday for my weigh-in day…..if I know that I have to step on the scale and record my weight Monday morning, I will be much better about what I eat over the weekend. Well, it worked this weekend! We went to a pub Sunday morning to watch the Arsenal v. ManU game, and I ate some breakfast at home before we went so that I would not be tempted to order the oh-so-fat-filled-and-delicious English Breakfast that they serve there. Seems to have worked! This whole "eat before you go" idea is working wonders for me!

I had resolved not to weigh myself other than on my weekly weigh-in day…..but I broke down and stepped on the scale this morning, and it was a happier number than it was before! I won’t record my ‘official’ weigh in until Monday, but things are looking good! I’m still somewhat amazed what a difference jotting things down in this blog makes. Keeping a food journal never worked for me after I did WW the first time…it always made me feel like I was denying myself food for some reason. But since I have a general idea of ‘points’ for most of the foods I eat now, I just keep a total in my head day by day and make sure I’m near my target range. But the writing down of thoughts & feelings, successes & failures, plans & goals, etc. is new to me and it’s making a huge difference!rnrnIt’s going to be a busy weekend as we get things together for our vacation next week, but I’m making time for a good, long, invigorating run on Sunday and a massage on Saturday. rnrnCiao!

I’m in a bowling league which is purely non-competitive, and mostly organized just for the social aspect (i.e., we all SUCK at the bowling part). So this usually turns out to be a good mid-week reason to get together to drink and eat greasy bowling alley food. Someone always orders a big basket of fries to set on the table and everyone picks at them. I always resolve that I’m not going to eat them, but then there they are, in their piping hot goodness, and I give in. But last night, I was determined to resist! I planned ahead and ate a bagel with some peanut butter before we left the house so that I would be a little full when we got to the alley. And when the fries eventually showed up on our lane, I honestly thought about coming on here and blogging this morning and that people would be paying attention if I messed up….and it worked! I drank water and told myself I didn’t need greasy curly fries dipped in ranch dressing, and sure enough….success! Now I know I can do it and I won’t have to fear bowling nights anymore. rnWell at least I was successful at the food part, I only managed to bowl a 115 which is pretty paltry, even for me. Maybe the fries are a performance enhancer, lol. But I’m willing to sacrifice my bowling score for a healthier me.

I would rate this weekend as "fair" on the discipline scale. I had a couple of pieces of pizza Friday night with some friends, which was bad. But Saturday I attended a memorial service, where there were tables piles with huge amounts of "comfort food" (my family is horrible about grief-eating!), but did not eat any of the cookies/cakes/etc that were out. I had planned ahead, knowing that there would be huge piles of food, and had a sandwich and an apple before we headed to the memorial. Sunday I indulged when my fiancee made a big pot of pasta….I know my serving sizes and I probably had 3-4 "servings" on my one plate….oops! It was tasty though. I got some running in with the dog before it started raining on Sunday, and it felt good!rnrnThe super-feel-good-moment of the weekend was Saturday afternoon when I went on an unplanned shopping excursion. The fiancee needed shoes so we were at the mall, and while we were there of course I browsed some shops too. I hate hate hate HATE trying on pants because I have ‘runners legs’ which means I need something two sizes bigger in the thighs than in the waist, and I usually have to buy the bigger size and then cinch the waist, which is ugly. Anyway, on a lark I tried on a pair of nice black work slacks at Banana Republic….size 8. And they FIT! And they’re a size EIGHT!! Single-digits baby, here I come! I don’t care if they do run big or size them small to play mind games with you or whatever, that was a nice little boost when I needed it!rnrnThis week’s goals:rn1 - DRINK MORE WATER! I’ve been horrible about this recently, andrn2 - Hit the gym at least 3 times.rnrnFavorite quote I read on someone’s whiteboard at work this morning:rn"Can’t lives on Won’t Street". ;-)rn