STRONG is the new skinny

The past two weekends, we've been out on the lake.  Which means lots of fun and sun, and lots of crap food.  As you know, I've been bouncing from 171-174 for months.  But with these two lake trips, I managed to hit 180 this morning.  YIKES.  However, I am not getting too worked up about it, because I'm still super proud of all of the things my body can do that I used to not be able to do.  And I know it's because I stuffed my face with sweets, sweets, and more sweets with sugar on top, so I pretty much deserve it.  You could even say I earned it. :)

Two weekends ago, we went sans-kid, and had a grand time at Hubs' corporate retreat. And since I have no fear about trying new things, I attempted to wakeboard.  The first time out was a disaster, because neither I nor the Hubs knew what we were doing.  We went back to shore and watched someone else do it, so the second time out went MUCH better.  I wasn't ever able to stand up, but I did get the board under me a few times.  And I'm proud of that.

This past weekend, we took the kiddo, and the water was choppy, choppy, choppy!!  We played in the morning, then went inside for awhile.  The water was low enough that we could walk up the boat ramp, but that meant swimming under the dock, which my daughter did NOT want to do.  Proudly, I swam over to the ladder (with her on my back), and then climbed the ladder with her in my lap.  As much as I hate, hate, hate my "dunlop" belly, I sure was glad for it this weekend, because it gave M a place to sit while I climbed!!  I felt so strong as I hauled myself and 33 extra (dripping wet) pounds up about 10' of ladder.

Later, the boys went to get the jet skis out of the water, but there was some mis-communication, and no one ever went down with the trailer.  So, my mom, the kiddo, and I went down to see what they were doing, and the kiddo decided she wanted to get back in the water.  At that point, it was like 3' waves, but I figured why not?  YOLO!  Once again, I climbed down the ladder with M in my lap.  And did a one-armed backstroke to get her out to the jet ski.  And then was able to toss her up onto the back of the ski, hold her with one hand while hauling myself onto the ski with the other hand, and get us both up on the jet ski, without breaking a sweat.  Not to mention that I did it in 3' waves, while she was paralyzed and crying, while Hubs was trying to keep the ski from tipping or crashing into the dock.  I was SOOOO happy.  I almost cried, thinking, "here I am, worried about what my gut looks like in a two piece, and yet, I can save my daughter and myself, no sweat."  And that's what this journey has always really been about- what my body can do for me, so that I can keep up with my kid.

But back to the size issue...  since the scale is not my friend, I decided to take some measurements, to get a better account of how I'm doing.  I have been meeting with a trainer, and just wasn't amused to see the scale going up after busing a$$ with her!  The latest measurements I could find were from Body Back, about 11 months ago.  As of today, I'm down 13 pounds from then (it was closer to 23, but.. oh well).  But that equates to 4.5" lost in my chest, 4" gone from my waist, 3.5" from the upper thigh/hip and 3" from my thigh circumference.  Which shocked me a little, and made me super proud.  I'm not ready to throw out my scale yet, but that sure does feel awesome!

It's been awhile since I've updated.  I guess it's because there's no news on the weight-loss front.  Things have been WILD at work (yay for an up economy!), so blogging has taken a back seat!  I've still been yo-yo-ing the same 4 pounds since March.  Boo for that.  So, while the scale isn't moving, I've decided to focus on other things.

I committed to doing an Olympic Distance Tri in September.  I found a 12 week training program, which required running, biking, or swimming 4 days/week, then biking and swimming on the 5th day.  I put my gym membership on hold (since it doesn't have a pool), bought myself a cute new tri suit, and rocked Week 1 of the training plan.  And then I came down with a miserable head cold on July 2.  The Friday after July 4th (the end of Week 2), I spent about an hour at work, before giving into the Siren song of my bed.  And I slept for 17 hours (!!!!).  I thought surely that was enough rest, and was still feeling optimistic. The next Tuesday, I went for a quick run.  I ran just under 2 miles, and then spent almost 30 minutes doubled over in my driveway, alternately hacking up a lung or trying to catch my breath.  At that point, I decided to give myself some time off from cardio, to let my lungs rest.  I gave it another week and the cough was still lingering, my co-workers started to comment, so I went to the doctor.  She sent me home with a z-pack and a bronchitis diagnosis.  That killed Weeks 3 and 4 of my training program.  That's when I decided it was time to face reality, that even at 100%, I wasn't going to be able to train for an Olympic Tri in 7 weeks.  But, after 3 weeks of little-to-no activity (remember, my gym membership was on hold, so I couldn't go lift), I'm feeling soft and slow.  I've only put on one pound above my normal 170-174 yo-yo, but now I'm holding at 175 even, and my pants and getting snug.  So, I went for a (short, slow) run last night, and was finally able to breathe again.  Hooray!

Since my gym is on hold until October, I decided to try working out with a trainer that my hair stylist recommended.  Tomorrow is my first session, and I'm SUPER excited.  I met with them for an initial consultation, and she's had 3 PCOS clients before me.  She knows a lot about my disease, and is excited to work with me.  Before I met with her, I tried to spend some time thinking about what to tell her that my goals are, where I came from, and what I'm working towards.  I was telling a co-worker, as I flipped through (fitness and fashion) magazines looking for my "goal," that I think part of the reason I've lost focus right now (besides the failed tri!) is that I don't have a defined goal.  I haven't found an old picture of myself, nothing in a magazine, no number on a scale... nothing that I can have in my head as something to work towards.  I feel GREAT about how I look right now, about how I feel, how fast I can run, how heavy I can lift.  The only thing I want to change is my "dunlop" gut, and since I can't see that 99% of my day, I tend to forget about it.  When I look in the mirror, though, I don't see "problem areas" like so many women do.  I see, "hey, that all looks average," and not good or bad.  So, my co-worker and I decided that we should both be mindful or working towards "better," but we both agreed that we don't really know what that looks like for us, but hope we will know when we get there!

Which brings me to the other things I've been focusing on lately... my munchkin.  The other day, I was on the floor, and she was climbing all over me, and she jiggled my belly, and said, "Oh, Momma's fat," I think.  I couldn't tell if it was "fat" or "flat," so I asked her to repeat it.  Only, I couldn't understand which one the second time, either.  Which got me to thinking... I've NEVER used negative language, about myself, about others, in private, nor in front of her.  I have no idea where she picked up that kind of idea, if indeed she was saying "fat".  So, I am challenging myself to speak highly of her and of myself any chance that I get, and not just appearance based!  I want to give her a positive self-image before society gets a chance to tear it down.  The other morning, I offered to paint her toenails, and I said, "Come on, let's go paint our nails," and she said, "why are we doing it?" (I'm guessing she meant why aren't we going for pedicures) and I said, "Because momma wants to do it.  Momma's good at painting nails, you know.  Momma's good at everything."  The Hubs was a bit taken aback (I may have heard him snicker in another room), but Kidlet seemed to like that answer.  And the next day, I explained to the Hubs what I was doing, and he was entirely supportive. 

Two other things have recently happened that have further affirmed that my hard work is worth it.  First, a friend and I went to a pole dancing workshop (LOL!).  I did my normal look around, to see if I was the biggest in the room (the answer to that used to be yes).  I was pleasantly average (there's that word again!).  So imagine my surprise when it was time to get on the pole, and I realized that, with the exception of the teacher, I was the strongest in the class.  The ladies who were larger than me were all moaning and groaning about how hard it was.  And the ladies who were smaller were politely moving themselves around with a grimace on their face.  But I dove in with reckless abandon (as I usually do) and kept thinking how easy it was!

The second thing is that I took the Munchkin ice skating.  The last time I took someone skating was probably 5 (or more) years ago, when I was at my heaviest.  We took my "cousins" and I wanted to cry by the end of our second lap.  I was sweating, out of breath, all of my muscles were tired, I wasn't having any fun... it was miserable.  That trip made me feel terrible about myself, and made me question if I could have kids in the shape I was in, since I couldn't keep up.  However, as we all know, it took more than that to get my booty into gear!  So, my daughter has been asking me to take her skating for a few months, ever since she saw a figure skating competition one day, when my dad was channel-surfing.  We finally went last week.  I kitted her out with pants, thick socks, and mittens, fully prepared to spend about 6 minutes on the ice.  Well.  She took to it like a fish to water, and we spent an entire hour on the ice!  We stopped for lunch, and she pestered me the entire time, "can we go ice skating as soon as I eat?"  It was absolutely precious!  And the icing on the cake was that it was easy for me.  I was sweating from head to toe, but I wasn't out of breath, I wasn't tired, my muscles weren't shaking... I didn't even realize we had been out there an hour, and could have gone for several more!  It was an amazing feeling. 

I tried to find a photo from last time to compare, but I couldn't
This was quite the workout!!!

Update

It's been awhile since I've written a post.  It's the usual reasons... things got busy at work, life got in the way, I don't have much to say, yadda yadda yadda.

Well, the first update is that the scale is stuck.  I've been bouncing from 170-174 for longer than I'd care to remember.  However, the good news is that I'm still losing inches.  My belly flap is still shrinking (hooray!), and I'm toning up in general.  But it sure is annoying to not see the numbers on the scale reflect that!

I completely understand women who are skinny fat, and weigh 120 and start lifting and then gain to 135 but look smaller.  Totally, completely, get why that happens, because those girls didn't have much fat to lose.  But I don't get why I still have plenty of fat to lose, but I can't get the scale to go down.  I guess it seems like yes, I gained 5 pounds of muscle (for example), so I must have lost 5 pounds of fat, since the scale stayed the same but my pants got bigger, but I have so much fat to lose, why isn't there a deficit?

 I know the main reason that the scale is stuck is that I've been totally slacking on my cardio.  My sister and I are casually training for a 10k, and I'm training for an Olympic Tri, so I have plenty of cardio to be doing.  But it seems like every time my sister and I plan to run, her baby needs to eat or it rains.  I swear, we have had the rainiest evenings lately.  It's almost like it rains just in our vicinity, and just enough to make it too gross to run!

The only other big news that I have is that I cleaned out my closet.  I mean, as things have gotten too big, I've thrown them aside.  But I went through EVERYTHING.  The swimsuit drawer, the coat closet, all of it. I posted it all in some resale groups,  and have been trying to make some money off of it.

Oh, and I guess the last big thing is that I treated myself at Athleta.  My plan was to go on a spree when I hit the 100 pound mark.  But, I had to go buy a swimsuit to start Tri training, and since I was there... Well.  Three hundred and fifty bucks later, I had a new suit.  And a few other things that found their way into my bag.  Crazy how that happens.  But, I came home, took out the suit, handed the rest to Hubs, and told him not to give it back to me until I hit the 100 pound mark.

Whole 30 recap

So, I promised a Whole 30 recap.  It's late, so I don't know how detailed I will get, but here goes.

Everything that they promised would happen, happened.  My sleep improved, I felt less bloated, I stopped getting "hangry," I felt less bloated, had clearer skin, lost some weight, was able to lift heavier in the gym (after an initial dip in strength)...  It was pretty amazing. 

I didn't even do the program the "right" way, since I'm still not done reading the book (it's been a busy month!!).  And I'm still looking forward to realllly doing it in July, AND Husband is on board to do it with me.  HOORAY.

So, the drawbacks:  it's craycray expensive to buy high quality meat. And it's extremely alarming to read labels and deeply regret everything that you've fed to your child for the past two years.  And it's hard to eat out.  And reintroducing food is a pain.  Like, literally.  I ate some white rice today and I feel like I might die right now.  My face is super broken out, but that could easily be from sunscreen, since we've been outside so much recently.  The sugar detox SUCKED big time, I thought I was going to vom at my desk on Day 8.  And I missed ketchup (all of that naked meat!) and PowerAde Zero way more than I realized I would.  And I felt like I thought about food all the time, since I was always trying to figure out what to avoid in the break room (everything), or had to remember to pack a lunch, or try not to eat a snack.

But, the basic recap is that I loved doing it.  I felt amazing, I looked rockin (everyone started commenting on how thin I looked in the final week), win-win.  I fully intend to be one of those "90% paleo" type people for the next month, and then do another hardcore round of Whole30, and then back to Paleo for the long term.  So long as it works with my Tri training.  I think if I can keep the protein intake high, I will be okay.  Maybe I'll be Paleo + protein shakes + ketchup. :)

I know what you really want to see, though are the pictures.  So here you go.


After

Before



After

Before

The biggest change that I see is in my "Dunlop" belly (that flab that's dunlopped over my swimsuit bottoms) and right below my boobs.


I really wasn't trying to make goofy faces or stand strangely in the Before shots.  I felt awkward and was trying not to laugh.  And in the after, I was grinning, of course.  It looks like I'm trying to thrust my boobs out in the after pics, cause Husband kept telling me to move my hand.  So here's another "after" with my shoulders forward, but my hand is blocking my belly improvement.

Anyway.  I lost 7 pounds in the first 15 days.  And then I hung out there until my birthday weekend, when I put 5 back on.  And then lost 2 by the end.  So a net loss of 4 pounds, for someone who wasn't being terribly strict.  I think this is a great long term plan for maintaining, but it's not conducive for me to do while still trying to lose weight.  Because I end up eating too much fruit and not enough protein.  So I either need to change that, or do something else to lose the last 10 pounds, and then come back to this. 

I am SUPER thrilled with how much of my lower belly that I lost, since that flap is my next goal.  HOORAY. 

Whole 30: 26-30

Day 26
Breakfast: Paleo pancakes
Lunch: Salad (sans dressing), Grilled shrimp, steamed veggies, sweet pot fries
Dinner: Banana, pork loin, dinner roll, ice cream

Hubs knew he let me down on my birthday, so he's making up for it this morning with paleo pancakes.  Hope they're good!

Also, it seems like my clean eating is rubbing off on hubs.  We were invited to lunch with my parents, to a place that is famous for all you can eat fried shrimp.  Debating whether or not to go, hubs said, "I always feel bad after I eat there.  It's just a mess of grease, and I don't think I want to go eat that.  But, I guess I don't *have* to get anything fried.  I guess I could get something else."  Yay hubby!

I was so bloated and miserable at the end of the day.  Crazy what one bad weekend can do.

Day 27
Breakfast: Paleo pancakes (leftover)
Lunch: Club bowl at Which Wich (no croutons + avocado)
Snack: TCBY White Choc Mousse
Dinner: Paleo meatballs, green beans, broccoli, blueberries

After how miserable I was on Sunday, I tried to keep things a little more in check on Monday.  I felt much better at the end of the day.

One strange thing about how much better I'm sleeping is how much more vivid my dreams are.  I've been having some WILD dreams.  Last night's was Hunger Games style warfare, and I was trying to save my daughter as well as myself, only we had GPS on all of our clothing, so we couldn't get out.  I kept trying to wrap us in foil to disrupt the GPS signal.  It was nuts, but completely (scarily) realistic.

Day 28:
Pre Workout: 1/2 banana
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with salsa
Lunch: Lettuce wraps at CPK
Snack: nectarine
Dinner: Baked salmon, steamed zucchini, Chenin Blanc wine
Snack: ice cream

Hubs and I decided to meet up for a spur of the moment lunch at CPK.  I had a long (internal) debate with myself about what to order.  The Thai Chicken pizza (my fave thing to get there), the Waldorf salad (sounded good), or the Lettuce wraps (because I really wanted Pei Wei).  I ended up with the lettuce wraps, because the pizza dough sounded really gross.  It's been crazy hard to keep sugar out of my meals the last several days, but I don't remotely miss grains.  I won't have any problem keeping those out for the long haul!

I was exhausted yesterday, and really just wanted wine for dinner.  Or ice cream.  So I did.  I fell back into old habits, that when I had a hard day, I went straight for comfort foods.  But, I made a point of savoring it, and I stopped when it no longer tasted good.  So at least there's that.

Day 29
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with salsa, banana
Snack: Banana and Pumpkin puree
Lunch: Tilapia and roasted sweet potato
Snack: Larabar (blueberry muffin)
Dinner: Fajitas

Since starting the Whole 30 (and I may have said this before), I feel like it's taking me longer to recover from workouts.  I mainly feel it in my hamstrings, they just stay sore forever, even when I didn't work them that hard.  So, that's why I scarfed down the banana and pumpkin puree.  I'm hoping the carbs will help me heal. I know that I need to stick with the starchy veggies on workout days, but I just love fruit.  Gah!

About 4:00, I started craving fajitas like crazy.  The hubs was working late and my BIL was out of town, so my sister and I ended up at my parents' house after our run.  We ordered Gringo's, and I chowed down on beef and chicken, grilled onions, and guac.  I also stole some queso from my daughter.  And I ended up eating about 10 chips, which I hadn't planned on.  I should have gotten up from the table or pushed the chips away, but I kept sitting and chatting, and ended up eating chips.  After I had eaten my satisfying meal.  GAH!!

Day 30
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with salsa, Sweet potato+pumpkin+apple+blueberry squeeze
Lunch: Baked salmon with steamed zucchini (leftovers), nectarine
Snack: Carrot+parsnip+apple squeeze
Dinner:  Snacks

So, yesterday, my legs were in agony.  Today it's my shoulders.  I asked a paleo friend for thoughts on why it's taking me so much longer to recover.  I'm not lifting as heavy as I did pre-Whole 30, choosing boot camp HIIT workouts instead of lifting.  This whole time, I've thought it was a lack of carbs that is keeping me down, since I was thinking that was the biggest change.  But, it finally hit me this morning:  Protein!!!  Before the Whole 30, I used to drink a protein shake for lunch.  35+ grams of protein every day.  And I doubt that I'm getting that now, since my lunch has been leftover chicken or fish with veggies.  I'm probably only getting about 4 ounces of meat at lunch, and another 6 or so at dinner (dinner is the same as before).  So, instead of trying to find more carb-y veggies to recover, I'm going to concentrate on packing in more protein.  Any advice on doing that without a shake would be great!

So, I hate eating dinner during the summer.  All I ever want to eat is fajitas and burgers, and of course, fruit! So, I had a banana at my mom's house.  And some baked Cheetos off of the Kid's plate.  And then some pineapple.  And then when I got home, I couldn't decide what to eat, so I had 1/2 of a banana that I found in the fridge.  And then I was still hungry (duh) so I had a chocolate cherry torte Larabar.  I really wanted to make a smoothie, but I couldn't even convince myself to get the blender out.  That's how much I hate being in the kitchen during the summer.  So, dinner was a sad affair.

So, that's it.  30 days of cleaning up my eating, paying attention to how I feel, yadda yadda yadda.  I took "before" pictures, and hopefully I will be able to snap some "after" pics tonight, and then I can do a whole recap post.  But the short version is that I feel amazing.  More energy, massively less bloated (my tummy is soclose to being "flat"!!!), easier to go to sleep (yay for naps!).  However, I'm not recovering from workouts as quickly, and I'm a little overwhelmed at learning how much sh*t is in the food that we eat everyday, which makes me queasy about feeding it to my kid!  Plus, I haven't finished the Whole 30 book, so I don't even know if I did this the right way!!

Ok, so that was a little more than a short recap.  :)

Whole 30 Days 19-25: Out of Steam

Day 19
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, bacon, pineapple
Snack: Larabar (coconut cream pie = yum)
Lunch: Cumin roast (leftover from last week still)
Snack: 1/2 larabar (blueberry muffin, ok)
Dinner: Off-roading

So, I got back into my high school jeans today.  Which is what I've been working towards.  So, I'm taking the night off from cooking to celebrate.  I ordered a pizza for the husband and the kid.  I don't know if I will enjoy it with them, but I do know that I am not freaking cooking!  And, I'm celebrating by allowing myself to have some PowerAde Zero.  I've missed it so much, and nothing quenches my thirst after a hot run as well as a PowerAde.  There's always tomorrow, and the rest of my life, to get back on the Whole 30 bus.  :)

Day 20
Pre-Workout: Banana
Breakfast: Tuna, avocado, and hard boiled egg salad, Cranberry, almond, raisin, and pepita trail mix
Lunch: Out with a rep to Jenni's Noodle House: Rice noodle, shiitake, bamboo, snow peas, sprouts with chicken
Dinner: scrambled eggs with salsa, 1/2 banana, Blueberry muffin Larabar

So, last night, I did have 2 pieces of pizza. We didn't have any good beer in the house, so I went for the pizza instead.  And I savored the heck out of it, because it was delicious.  And this morning, I am a bloated mess, my workout was super hard.  I knew that would happen, but old habits die hard, I guess.   I also didn't hydrate as well as I should have yesterday.  Oh well!

I'm starting to lose steam on this whole thing.  As I'm getting further into the book, I'm realizing what I'm doing wrong.  And instead of trying to fix it now, it's making me frustrated, and it's making me totally spazz out on my eating.  Like, for dinner, the husband wasn't home and I didn't get home until 7.  My daughter had already eaten, so I just needed to throw something together for me.  And instead of thoughtfully grabbing some veggies (which we have plenty of) and figuring out what to do with those, I took the easy route of cooking some eggs and calling it a night.  I am looking forward to doing this the right way, when the national Whole 30 cranks up in July (at least, I assume they are doing it this July).

Day 21
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with salsa, Ella's Butternut Squash, carrot, apple, and prune squeeze
Lunch: Pulled pork
Snack: Roasted veggies
Snack: Trail mix of cranberries, raisins, almonds, sunflower seeds, and pepitas
Dinner: Tilapia with curry rub, steamed asparagus

That was the last of the pulled pork.  So sad.  I had some steamed broccoli and carrots leftover too, but they had gone bad.  Bummer.  Now I'm going to be hungry! :(  But.. SCORE. I went into the break room to cut up my kiwi (the only food I had left) and there was a giant pan of roasted veggies, leftover from lunch.  I made a plate of carrots, squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and onions.  HOORAY!

Day 22
Pre-workout: Blueberry breakfast sausage
Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, almonds with raisins, blueberry muffin larabar
Lunch: Larabar (cashew cookie), sweet potato squeeze, 2 slices of turkey lunch meat
Dinner: Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli

I forgot my breakfast, so I had to scrounge.  I'm going to have to chow down on some sweet potatoes like crazy later, because it's a double work-out day today.  I've already learned that if I don't recover with carbs, then I don't really recover (my muscles are sore for a week!).  Here's hoping I can swing by Target later for some more squeezes, or I can pop my sweet potatoes in the oven before Body Back tonight!

So, I had time to swing by Target, but I did *not* have time to get back to the office for the lunch that I had thoughtfully packed.  So, lunch was a sad affair of the squeeze and bar that I bought at Target on the way to get my daughter from school, plus 2 slices of lunch meat that I was able to grab from the fridge as I was walking circles around my house, trying to put my niece to sleep.  Not surprisingly, I felt munchy, tired, and cranky for the rest of the day.  I finally felt better after I got some real food in at dinner.  But by that point, I was super frustrated.  After my mom came for my niece, I put some yummy-smelling meatballs in the crockpot, but they weren't done by the time I needed to eat, so I didn't get to enjoy them.  So once again, I scrounged for some food, and found a chicken breast to put with the broccoli that did cook on time.  When I do the Whole 30 in July, I'm going to spend some time planning all of my meals, and start packing a cooler to take with me, so that I won't keep getting stuck without compliant food.  Guess I'll get to enjoy the meatballs later this week!

Day 23
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with salsa
Lunch: Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, mango
Snack: kiwi
Dinner: pineapple chicken, roasted sweet potato

Once again, the food problem.  When I got home from Body Back last night, I realized that my avocados were rotten, and that I didn't have any eggs boiled.  Which means nothing to pack for eating post-boot camp.  So, I skipped boot camp in favor of a run with my sister this evening.

Day 24
MY BIRTHDAY
Breakfast: Chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream
Lunch: Shrimp salad on lettuce, avocado, pumpkin bread
Dinner: Fried pickles, boiled crawfish, Abita strawberry beer, stuffed mushrooms, Italian cream cake

So, I sent the husband a list of 21 day sugar detox treats, and told him that he could make one for my birthday breakfast.  It's tradition in my family that you get cake for breakfast on your birthday, but I was going to stay strong.  Only, he thought we had all of the ingredients, which we didn't.  So at 7:30 last night, I told him that we could just do chocolate cake and ice cream.  But that it had to be a gooey, totally rich, and worth it chocolate cake.  And Blue Bell vanilla ice cream.  I enjoyed the heck out of the cake this morning, but the ice cream tasted super funky.  Husband warned me that it would.  He actually said, "why does it matter if it's Blue Bell?  Your taste buds are all messed up right now," and I wanted to say, "my taste buds are all normal right now, you mean," but I didn't.  But, he was right.  I did not like the blue bell vanilla.  Sigh.

For lunch, my mom, sister, and I went to a tea room that we love.  I made the "better" choice of not getting the sandwich sampler that I usually get (pimento, turkey, and chicken salad, all on white bread, with pumpkin bread and a bowl of fruit).  Instead, I got their salad with shrimp salad, no dressing, and then enjoyed two bites of my mom's pumpkin bread.

For dinner, my BIL chose a seafood place (it's his birthday, too).  The family split an order of fried pickles, and boiled crawfish.  They were delicious.  I enjoyed an Abita beer.  And then I ordered crabbed stuffed (steamed) mushrooms fro my meal, and they were disappointing.  So, I only ate 2 of them, and my dad took the rest home.  I don't know if it was me or the food that was the problem.  Then we all came back to my house, and my sister had baked an Italian cream cake, which I had some, but it was way too sweet!  I have a feeling that was me. :)

Day 25
Breakfast: Kolache of scrambled eggs and sausage
Snack: top of a blueberry muffin
Lunch: CFA nuggets, fruit
Dinner: Lamb and potato samosas, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chocolate samosas with chai ice cream.  Pimms cup, wine

We took a family trip to Sea Center Texas, so we grabbed breakfast on the way.  And in true processed food form, I was hungry like 15 minutes after we ate.  My daughter had ordered a blueberry muffin for the road, so I ate the top off of it.  And then I was finally full.  Blech.  For lunch, we popped into CFA before my daughter fell asleep.  I could have gotten the grilled chicken breast, and I could have thrown the bun away and just had the breast.  But I really didn't want to.  So, I got the nuggets, and they were massively disappointing. 

For dinner, we had planned to meet some old friends at an Indian restaurant.  We'd planned this for months, and I knew I was going to have samosas and tikka masala.  My faves. :)  The samosas were kind of bland, and the tikka masala was a little too sweet.  It was all fine, but not great. When I saw chocolate samosas with chai ice cream, topped with salted caramel, I thought I was dreaming.  Until recently, I had forgotten how much I love chai.  Salted caramel seems to be a big thing right now, and I love it.  And chocolate is... duh.    But again, it was a disappointment.  It was fine, but not amazing.

Then hubby and I went to a wine bar, where I got the Bee Sweet flight (muscat frizzante, moscato, pink muscat).  It was delicious, and I enjoyed spending some alone time with hubs.  We've both been going in a million different directions.  He loves his job, and I love exercise, and we both have goals relative to those things, and it seems like we never see each other.  So it was nice to reconnect, at our favorite type of place.  We got engaged at a wine bar in Lubbock, where we used to go at least twice a month.  It was nice to find a similar place in Houston (although the one in Lubbock is still better- better wines, better ambiance).

So, lesson learned this week:  Processed food is always disappointing.  Let's see if I can keep that in mind this week, as things continue to stay hectic, and it seems easier to make the fast choice.  Second lesson: alcohol still rocks.  :)

OMG

Well, there they are. I did it.  I got back into my high school jeans.  And I did it before the 4 year mark.  I've got a few months left (about 9 weeks) to blast through the last 8 pounds, to make it an even 100 pounds lost.  Stay tuned!

 

Tonight, I'm going to take a minute to celebrate.  I knocked out a quick 5k with my sister, so I am now going to enjoy the heck out of some PowerAde and a beer.