Tag Archives: splurging

Tis the season to be chubby, fa la la la la la la la la la la….

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Hello Double Chinners! After last week’s tremendous loss, I struggled this week. Here’s why:

Amazing sugar cookies from my friend!

It wasn’t JUST the cookies, of course. It was spiced Morroccan lemon chicken, with a salty, creamy gravy, dotted with whole kalamata olives. It was a pile of soft, fluffy couscous, draped with thin slices of lamb. It was a steaming bowl of ramen soup, laden with piles of udon and half an egg. It was a breakfast quiche, served as we cruised the Marina at Matt’s annual work Christmas brunch, topped with brown cheese and freshly chopped spring onions. It was all of these things.

I’m feeling a little… chubby. But, my jeans still fit and my brain is still in the right place, after a temporary “whoops” of a weekend. It’s so tempting to just be like “Eff my diet! It’s the HOLIDAYS! EAT ALL THE THINGS!” but I know if I do that, every pound I’ve cried and obsessed over this year will come back to me… because there is nothing my fat loves more than to be with me. My fat and I have the worst co-dependent relationship in the world. It’s like that clingy boyfriend you never really got rid of in highschool, whom you dumped years ago but still “pokes” you on Facebook. I totally just want to be like, “It’s Christmas! Nom nom nom nom! Who needs pants that button anyways?” (Especially now that I work from home and a fancy getup for me involves gnome pajamas.) But, I can’t. I must stay strong. Fat and I don’t need to be attached at the hip.

Anyone else struggle to stay on track when the holidays roll around? What was your breaking point this year, if you had one? If you haven’t yet, how are you staying strong?

 

 

 

Weekly Weigh In #5 – The Big Bad Bloat

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I went in to my Monday morning weigh-in knowing and expecting I’d be up a couple of pounds from the weekend’s indiscretions – what I didn’t expect was that the scale would blow up with 4.5 extra pounds! Thankfully, my saintly registered dietitian talked me through it, and I was able to understand that it’s mathematically impossible to gain 4.5 pounds in three days. To do that, I would have needed to consume and not burn off an extra 15,750 calories – the equivalent of three triple-layer buttercream birthday cakes.

While it wouldn’t be far-fetched to gain an extra pound from the overeating I did (but even that’s a stretch, as I don’t think I overate 3,500 calories – my fitness pal said it was only 1100!), 4.5 pounds is not likely. But it isn’t far fetched to gain as much as 7 pounds in bloating, sometimes overnight! My body hasn’t been used to salt and oil – and a meal like fried chicken was just enough to puff me up like a blowfish. The RD’s recommendation was lots of water to help beat the bloat, and to get movin’, as aerobic activity can also help diminish puffiness and swelling.

I’m not going to let this little setback screw up my downward trend – and now I know that even a little bit of “cheating” can really de-rail what the number on the scale is. The good news is that there are some non-scale victories showing up – like the fact that my jeans are loose, I feel more energized and I’m getting full faster. Now I feel motivated to do really well this week, and not let the temptation of junk get the best of me. Do you find when you splurge a little bit that you bloat up like a beach ball too?

Puffily yours,

 

Weekly Weigh In June 11th

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Water Aerobics has been helping me shed some flubber! PS - Like my new swimsuit?

I approached Monday’s morning’s weigh in with a little bit of caution – I had been tracking well, but splurged on movie theatre popcorn, and also went slightly over my calories on Friday night. All in all I knew I didn’t “blow it”, but I wasn’t sure I’d be in the weight loss zone. Well,  I must have done something right, because this week I….

Lost 2 pounds!

YAY! I was kind of in disbelief, because this marks two consecutive weeks of having awesome weight loss success. I’m down five pounds in two weeks, which is shamefully more than I’ve lost in a year. Damn yo-yoing. Anyways, It just goes to show you that sometimes it’s just the smallest little things that can make a huge difference. Here’s what I’ve been doing that’s contributed to my success so far:

1)   Meeting every week on Monday mornings with my registered dietician. She keeps me in check and helps me work through upcoming challenges… and she reads my blog!

2)   Drinking water. Lots of it! It’s crazy how sometimes I confuse hunger with being thirsty. I’m trying to drink water now when I feel snacky.

3)   Realizing that little bites, licks and tastes add up. The things I pick at when I’m cooking can definitely add up, so I’m trying to be mindful of tracking every single thing that goes into my mouth.

4)   Allowing myself at least one good “splurge” a week – but realizing I need to balance it out with good choices otherwise, like the movie popcorn last week. I made a conscious decision to eat light the rest of the day and the week, and it didn’t mess me up on the scale.

5)   Letting myself feel crazy motivated and enthusiastic about my success. I’m a pretty enthusiastic person, and when I’m happy about something, I feel that much more propelled to keep going. I have some momentum now, and I love sharing with my friends that I’ve had some good weight loss.

How’s your week going so far?

Weekly Weigh In #1

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Hey hey –

I’m starting weekly weigh ins again at #1 since I’m just beginning weight watchers…again. Today was a good day because I weighed in… and I am down

2.4 pounds!

Yay! I’m so glad I had good results, becuse now I’m motivated to keep it up and keep on trackin’. I want to be down another two next week – and I can do it if I stay strong, positive and focused.

Here’s one thing I love about Weight Watchers – you can still indulge. I just had some air-popped popcorn with real melted butter on it, and that was no biggie, because it fit into my daily points. I lost weight this week and was still able to eat Chicken Parmesan, drink two hard apple ciders, and eat candy. They’re not always healthy choices, but they’re realistic choices when at an event. I love that nothing is “off limits” and I can splurge as long as I’m honest about it and make sacrifices elsewhere, like having fruit instead of crackers.

My 2.4 pound loss was definitely the highlight of my day, because I feel inspired and encouraged. What was the highlight of your day today?

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Weekend Get-Away: Big Bear Lake

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Hello, Double Chinners! Sorry things were quiet around here for a few days. My hubby and I were in Big Bear Lake celebrating our one year anniversary of our wedding!

Score! We're Married!

While I’m not proud of it, I didn’t track a single thing through out the weekend. This was not wise, as it lead to copious indulging in things like creme brulee and NY strips… BUT… it was my first wedding anniversary, I splurged, and I had a great time! (Happy to report: back on the WW tracking train today!) It’s not really related to weight loss, but pix are fun – so let’s take a little pictorial recap of Big Bear, shall we?

Here we are at Juniper Point:

Exploring Big Bear Lake

And here’s Matt in our creepy haunted B&B (I’ll save that for another post… but let’s just say – 5 year old little girl ghosts? SCARY)

Matt looks for Casper

Here’s an amazing hand-made marshmallow from a great cafe called the Copper-Q where we had hand squeezed lemonades and iced coffees after sunny afternoons outside:

Stay-Puft, you got nothin' on this!

Here I am eating an awesome turkey sandwich on squaw bread from the “Big Bear Belly Deli”. It was a really tasty sandwich but almost had too much cheese. Or maybe I’m just not a fan of cheddar with turkey. *shrug*

I <3 sprouts

Here I am at a really haunted restaurant we ate at called The Log Cabin. (Over 100 years old – the waitress said apparitions of women in blue aprons (which was part of the original uniform) walk back and forth throughout the kitchen) I had some AMAZING biscuits and gravy with fried eggs. I should have had a heart attack on the spot from all the fat and salt, but they were incredible and brought back major memories of my grandma’s southern soul food cooking.

Is there a ghost behind me?!

Here we are at the Moonridge Zoo, which was full of rehabilitated animals. Their three grizzlies were there after raiding a campground three times too many. Can you see the big bear in back of our heads? It was fun hearing these guys snort and huff and puff as they lumbered around their enclosure. We also got to make the coyotes howl. That was cool.

Da Bears

Then, we had a fancy dinner at a place called the Peppercorn Grill. I had a NY Strip and Matt had the porterhouse. It was good – but couldn’t top their Artichokes Romano appetizer. It was baked artichoke hearts covered in balsamic vinegar, garlic, and parmesan bread crumbs. The creme brulee we shared for dessert was perfect – a nice crispy shell and cool, sweet custard underneath. So good. So, so good. So worth the few pounds I probably puffed up.

Before we pigged out at the Peppercorn

We drove home yesterday morning and had to pull over to capture some of the sheer scenic gorgeousness. Big Bear is absolutely stunning and a super friendly little town – and it only took two hours to get there from Los Angeles. We’ll definitely be going back!