Tuesday, June 19, 2012

How to Succeed with Birthday Cake

I come from a family of birthday-celebrators. Growing up, there were six of us in my immediate family. Plus my gram. And now my niece and nephew. Plus my bros-in-law. That’s a lot of birthdays. Each is celebrated with a Sunday dinner, cards, presents, and cake. It’s been 33 years of this.

Let’s do math.

33 years x 6 people = 198 birthdays

And that’s just for the immediate family members.

This year, I ate modestly. I had small portions at dinner. I had strawberry shortcake for dessert. I went for a 2-mile walk with my sister and mother.

Last night, Clay took me out to dinner for my birthday. I had already given myself permission to order anything off the menu. Anything. I. Wanted. I got the Copper River salmon with lemon risotto and asparagus. I even counted 1 TBS of oil and the meal STILL only came out to 16 PP.

I’ve come a long way since last April. I allowed myself to order anything off the menu, anything I wanted, and I still chose a decent meal. Before WW, that meal would have been a lot heavier in all ways.

Tonight, we paddleboat.

How do you celebrate birthdays?

Monday, June 11, 2012

Post from Hiatus

Hey kiddos. I’ve disappeared in a bad way, I know. But it’s for the good of summer, I tell you. I’ve been filling my nights with a second job and my weekends with some friends and family. My absence does not mean I’ve fallen off the wagon. On the contrary, my friend(s). I lost .2 pounds two weeks ago and a whopping 3 pounds last week, bringing me to my lowest weight yet! It was too good to be true though because I’m up already this week. I blame the weekend and the Macaroni Salad Incident of 2012.
I worked out six days last week. And one day I worked out two times. I call that “pulling a Clay.” Guess what I bought this weekend after months of thinking about the purchase? My very first pair of hiking shoes. I almost went with the boots that cover the ankles. Clay said that they offer the most support. That’s true, of course, but I felt more comfortable in the regular-shoe kind, so I went with those. In the end, if I’m not comfortable in the shoe, how fun is my hike going to be? And really, there’s a bigger chance I hurt myself if I’m not fully at-home in the shoe. That’s what I’m telling myself. Anyway, the shoes I ended up getting were Columbia brand and were 70% off at Gander Mountain! Get your booty there rightthissecond to snag the same kind of deal!
I’ve been a little bummed about how little weight I’ve been losing. Stephanie says that my body probably just has to live at this weight for a while. She might be right. But I will tell you this: my body is changing so much from P90X. It’s getting more fit and feels tinier. Even though I’m not losing a lot, I’m looking thinner and feeling thinner. It’s so weird how weight lifting can shift your body around so much. I love it.
These aren’t my shoes, but they sort of look like them.

Weight loss this week: 3 pounds (-.2 pounds last week)
Total weight loss: 43.8 pounds