Fell Off the Carb Wagon

Just a bit. I still got rid of croutons from my salad, but ate the tortilla chips that were already in my salad. On Tuesday I gave in and ate a Brie and pear sandwich (it was a multigrain bread).  So was I horrible? No. 

I stayed away from WW this week though so I don't know if I lost or gained. I feel good and from my ridiculous scale, it seems as if I've stayed the same.

I got lots of exercise this week and I'm hoping this will continue through this week.  Still trying. Still making decent choices but wondering why I'm not seeing a drop. I fear for my thyroid.  At my last check up my numbers were "off". Now I don't know if because I was told that, my mind is playing tricks on my body.  Ugh!

So I'm still frustrated but I have a much better outlook than last week. Pushing pushing pushing.. just keep pushing... 

Frustrated

I gained a pound.

I'm getting frustrated with this whole thing. Again, I feel better and lighter. That's how I feel. I worked out three times this week and I feel my arms getting toned-that's amazing!

I've turned away cake, cookies, etc. Thrown away buns and bread from sandwiches. I've given away saltines that come with my hard boiled eggs. Why that one pound gain? Why isn't this melting away?

The only time I came off of this was a couple of bites of dessert last night. It was not enough to make me gain a pound...not with everything else I'm doing. 

I'd re-think the lo-carb thing, but my blood sugar levels have been better and I don't feel bogged down and sluggish.

It's hard to compute that the week I went to Vegas, I managed to lose a half a pound but when I do everything by the book, I'm gaining. 

So so frustrating...

Short and Sweet this week...

So it's been a little over a week on the lo-carb dealio.  I feel GREAT!!  I keep forgetting how much eating breads, pasta, rice, cookies, etc makes me feel sluggy.  I feel lighter (even though my weigh in shows that I'm up .4) and feel like I have more energy.

I stuck to it completely...no cheating.  I pulled croutons out of my salad for goodness sake! 

So now that I'm over the carb hump, I'll start tracking the WW points to see what the combo will do.

I'm not discouraged by the wee gain, because I know that being Diabetic, I will have a harder time losing it.

Until next week...  :)

100.4 pounds to lose... :0)

Forty and Focused

Hello my friends,

In my last blog I mentioned a sore throat and cough oh and did it KICK MY ASS and stayed around until right before my birthday. I lost the battle with table salt because I needed my food to taste like ANYTHING so salt became my friend again.

What you say? Birthday?

Yes. I turned 40!!!!!  and I spent it in Vegas....drinking and eating and making merry...(thanks to my boyfriend who had been planning this surprise for me since Christmas and thanks to my many friends and family who made it out to celebrate with me).  Ahh bliss..

But this is a weight loss blog.  I went to Weight Watchers today for the first time in over a month.  I was ready for the worst considering my Vegas extraveganza... 

I lost .8 of a pound. WOO HOO!! I am officially down 9 pounds since I started.

Now I need to kick things into gear. I mentioned in an earlier blog that about 1 1/2 years ago, I was really focused and let my friend's layoff derail me. The stress of taking on extra responsibility for no additional compensation and frankly the guilt I felt because I still had a job threw me for a loop.  What I was working on at that time was a goal to lose 100 pounds and to start training to be a personal trainer. I was so focused and driven that I managed to go home for Christmas and still lost weight! My strategy was to not eat bread, pasta, rice or sweets for one year or until I reached my goal weight and it was working. I lost 13 pounds before I gave up trying.

So here I go again. This time, I'm well aware of how I deal with stress so I'll try to find other outlets so I won't be derailed. I am going to do a combination of Weight Watchers and a lo-carb program. Again: no bread, pasta or rice for one year because let's face it. I know what it tastes like and it's not exactly one of those items that one NEEDS to have, plus, I'm not giving it up for good...just until I lose the weight.  I'm also giving up sweets, again, I can wait until I lose the weight. I think that I were giving it up for good, I wouldn't be able to maintain it.  I started this the day after my 40th birthday and aside from a cookie slip-up on that first day, I've been really really good.  So I'll count my points but keep it lo-carb-esque (in other words, I'm not going all Atkins/Southbeach...if I want to eat a tomato..I'll eat a tomato!)

My goal: lose 100 pounds WHILE training to become a personal trainer...  I want to do this by my 41st birthday...    and I will.

Current weight: 243   Goal weight: 143    (I'll consider those 9 pounds already lost as my cushion.. :0) )

Muffin Tops and Mushroom Clouds

Hello folks,

I write to you this week plagued with a sore throat, cough and clogged up head. No Weight Watchers this week but according to my home scale, I've gained about two pounds.  It's ok, however because I just zipped up my size 22's.

That's right!  I can get INTO my size 22 Venzia jeans. Will I wear them out? No.

You know that little pudge you get when you zip up your skinny jeans?  It's called a muffin top. Well, when I zipped up my "less fat" jeans, I got a mushroom cloud.

So as I am happy to have zipped them, I will be happier as I lose the inches and lose the clouds and the tops to go with them.  :)

I've been really good about the table salt.  I gave it up cold turkey only to slip starting on Thursday night because with this cold, I can't really taste anything. I've added salt and I've discovered Cholula Hot Sauce. YUM!

Until next week...

White Gold

I skipped Weight Watchers this week because even though I had exercised and ate right during the week I was afraid of the scale. I was retaining water (anyone who's experienced this knows the icky feeling that goes along with it) so I decided that after feeling so good about what I did this week, I didn't need to be disappointed.

I wrote an entire blog about fear but deleted it because I decided I want to talk about salt.  I use a lot of table salt. I love it. On EVERYTHING! I've salted salty items to make them more salty. I've salted a bit of pasta and then salted more after I ate through the part I salted. Salt! YUM!
I've cut it out in my life before. When I was watching my blood pressure. Now my blood pressure is fine and I'm off medication and I've been using salt more than ever before. Probably because I "couldn't" have it before. I imagine if I am ever declared Diabetes free, I'll probably hunt down those donuts I dumped in the garbage a few months ago.

I've decided that since it was the only factor in me not feeling my best, it's time to give it up.  I'll cook with it and that's about it. If it's on the food already, done. It's mine.  But I won't add it to my food. I started yesterday and I managed to get through the entire day without using salt. 

Hmmm..  I'm craving pretzels....

I am woman, hear me vacuum.

Sorry that I skipped a week folks! I skipped out on the Weight Watchers meeting last week and enjoyed my Easter weekend with a comedy show in Hermosa Beach (I wasn't performing...saw John Pinette--really funny!) and spent some quality earthquake time with some friends at Camp Pendleton.

This week I remained even as far as my WW meeting. I was quite relieved. In the past two weeks I went to Disneyland, ate the most incredible food for Easter and those bloody Marys surely didn't help matters. :)

I've decided to talk about shopping this week. I happened to be in a mall buying a pair of shoes "looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker." That's EXACTLY what I need, except these look more like Mary Jane's and feel like you are walking on air. Awesome.

On my way out of the mall, I decided, for curiosity's sake, to walk into Macy's. I haven't been in a Macy's in years because I find their sales people pretentious and their clothing hideous.

I've heard rumors that they have a big and tall section and my boyfriend's birthday is coming up so in I went. I happened to come in to the store in the Men's department. It's flipping HUGE... I'm looking... I'm looking... Finally I ask "do you have a big and tall section." "Oh yes, over there in the corner. Near the back wall." I walked over to the weensy big and tall section hidden in the corner. Nothing fancy, same prices as Casual Male. I found a shirt that I wanted to get but instead of telling me "2xlt" or "3xlt" it had the numbers. So I asked a salesperson in the section near the big and tall (see, no one was actually assigned to big and tall) to help me convert the numbers. The young man actually asked me if that info was listed on the shirt. I let him know that if that information was on the shirt, I wouldn't be asking him. He then admitted that he didn't know and then suggested that I hold the shirts next to each other. Awesome. No purchase today.

I asked him where the women's department was and he directed me to an escalator. As I arrived to this, another floor dedicated to one sex, I saw pretty displays of make-up counters and jewelry. I started walking around...looking...looking “Do you have a plus size department?"

I was directed to yet another escalator up to the third floor. I chuckled to myself on my way guessing that the plus size department was probably next to house wares or vacuum cleaners. No joke. As I arrived to the floor dedicated to fat women and house wares, on the right there was a display of Godiva chocolate and on the right, Bissell carpet cleaners and two beaten up chairs that looked like they were ready for the yard sale.

By the way, I've noticed that department stores no longer say plus-sized. The section for the robust is "Women's". Sorry my 48 year old size 7's. You are NOT women, but don't be upset, apparently "women" love overpriced, hideous clothing (actually much of the same clothing that I’ve seen when I shop at Ross but considerably cheaper.)
Have a great week everyone!
xoxo
Charlene

Macy's Third Floor, Westside Pavillion, Los Angeles

near the "Women's" department...