Hi everybody!
How was your weekend? Do anything fun? I was up bright and early Saturday morning on a hunt for new workout shoes. Unfortunately, I have big feet and pretty flat arches, so it’s not an easy proposition. I tried several different ones on and ended up going with ones that my friend, Shawna, recommended. They’re the Nike Air Zoom Structure Triax. They felt incredible in the store, but after a few hours of wearing them, my feet were pretty sore. I’m going to give them a good workout on the treadmill over the next couple of weeks and hopefully my feet will get used to them – I think it’s from the added arch support that I’m not used to.
I also bought a new digital camera. I was afraid my old one was about on its last leg, and with the trip coming up, I wasn’t taking any chances. I didn’t buy it on Amazon, but here is the one I got:
I’m not too sure how satisfied with it I am, as I haven’t had much chance to test it yet, but here are a couple of silly ones I’ve taken:
This one was taken with my Blackberry the other day and sums up how I’m feeling today:
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Last night, I read a new screenplay that my friend Riley wrote. I’m still so honored that she lets me read her stuff, because she’s amazing! This one was fantastic, too! I’m dying to see it on the big screen. I also finished “My Lobotomy” a couple of days ago. I’ve always been interested in psychology (which led me to get a Bachelors degree in Psychology in college), so this book was really interesting to me.
Currently, I’m reading Jeff Garlin’s book, “My Footprint.” He talks a lot about his addiction of overeating, and it has been a quick and interesting read so far. The only thing I haven’t liked so much is that he IS a comedian, and tends to take cracks at other overweight people.
When I finish it, I will start “Angry Fat Girls,” by Frances Kuffel. She had lost 180+ pounds and wrote the book “Passing for Thin.” She then apparently regained half of it. So obviously, this is a book I think I will identify with. And to be honest, I know that I own “Passing for Thin,” but I”m not sure if I ever got around to reading it!
As far as my eating this week, I did so-so on Tuesday/Wednesday (closer to the blah side). On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I did fairly excellent on my eating. By Sunday evening, I was hating myself again, because I pretty much grazed all day Sunday. I might have been able to justify it, if I had spent a tremendous amount of calories on something that I’d just really been craving or had been some kind of decadent opulence, but it was just grazing on stupid stuff. I couldn’t seem to help myself and was feeling extremely discouraged and was feeling that I’m pretty much a hopeless case.
But yesterday, I was back on plan, and by last night, I forced myself to look at the big picture. We’ve discussed before that eating badly does not make me or you a bad person. I’m still trying to convince myself of this. So instead, I looked at the fact that I had been perfectly on plan for the last five out of six days. And when I stepped on the scale today, it showed a 1.8 pound loss! I’m very happy with that. I’m still up from last month, but I’m still happy with that.
My mission for this week:
- Keep staying within my points
- Keep drinking lots of water
- Give my new shoes (and me) a workout
- Keep trying to work on the way I sit. I always sit with one leg bent up underneath me. This is the way of sitting that has always felt the most natural to me. I do it without even thinking. Unfortunately, I am well aware how terrible this is for my circulation, and I’m determined to break the habit (though I’ve been working on this for weeks and am still doing it!).
So what are you going to work on this week?
PS – Have you guys seen this article about the Lane Bryant TV ad? Made me furious!
Great weight-loss! Yippeee! I’m having one of those weeks as well. I just don’t feel as “in control” of my food as I have in the past. I think it’s because I’ve dipped into my weekly points and I’m really not used to doing that. I was also out at an event where I couldn’t count points exactly and that’s really thrown me for a loop. I also have to weigh-in tomorrow instead of my usual Saturday w/i day because of my daughter’s First Communion…throw in no time for exercise (by my own choice) and trying to get lesson plans together for 2 days…and well, you can see why I’m a little stressed about weighing-in tomorrow. Maybe I can be a rockstar like you and still lose? I’m hoping for a maintain.
Keep up the great work! You’re doing awesome!
Hi Francesca! Thank you! I’m sorry you’re not feeling as “in control” either. It’s not easy! I’ve always used a lot of my weekly points and have always been a big advocate of using them. Mostly from fear that if I didn’t learn to lose by eating them, then when my points dropped way down and I absolutely needed them, I’d be sunk. I have to admit that when I got down to my lowest, I was glad that I’d been eating them all along.
Being at events where you can’t count points is really difficult! I used to stress way out over it, but I’ve learned that you can only do the best you can. Good luck tomorrow at your weigh-in! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you! But even if it doesn’t show what you want, it should be awesome next week with the extra days to lose! It sounds like you’ve got tons going on! I’m rooting for you!
Hi, good to hear from you, girl! Thanks for mentioning the books you’ve been reading, I’m always looking for interesting stuff. You are lucky lucky lucky to have a writer friend like Riley who lets you preview her work!
As for the shoes…well, I could find nothing, I mean NOTHING comfortable to walk on the treadmill until my daughter bought me a pair of Crocs, of all things. (My feet are clodhoppers, Sasquatch variety.) Now I have 3 pairs of Crocs, they are ugly as can be, but I just adore them because they have given me back my favorite exercise: walking! Also, BTW, I bought an inexpensive recumbent stationary bike (you can find them on Craig’s list quite often), and it is so much FUN! You can’t beat sitting in a comfortable position (mine has lumbar support) and peddling your way to better fitness. (Don’t tell anyone, LOL, but I watched National Velvet, the original movie, while riding my recumbent & pretending to be Velvet on her horse. Hehe. Yeah, I’m weird.)
I’m curious if you ever got any effective treatment for your hearing/ear problems. I have severe tinnitis in both ears, which I have learned to live with for the most part, but the ECHOING in my right ear drives me crazy sometimes…especially in very large enclosed places, like stores, or in a room with a loud T.V….I have to wear an earplug in that ear, which provides very limited relief. Three different doctors diagnosed 3 different causes. Grrr…Frankly I think they don’t know sh*t. Coincidently, I only got the echo condition after I lost quite a bit of weight. This happened one other time when I lost a lot of weight too. So I think it may be related to a sodium/potassium imbalance, which I hope will resolve with time. (I deduced this myself, with no help from the docs.)
Well, didn’t mean to talk your ear off! Take care and have a great week!
Thanks, Rebecca! I have a generic brand pair of Crocs that are seriously the most comfortable things I’ve ever owned (I think they’re even more comfortable than the name-brand Crocs I’ve tried on, but I am having a hard time getting past the god-awful ugly part and haven’t had the guts to wear them in public lately.
I did have to laugh at your description of your feet, because that could totally describe mine as well!
My dad actually has one of those recumbant bikes that he uses fairly often. We got it for him when he shattered his kneecap. I’ve used it once or twice, but it is set for his height and isn’t so easy to change, so I haven’t used it all that much. I do think it’s a great thing to have! Oh and I’m adding National Velvet to my netflix queue as soon as I’m done here!
I’m so sorry to hear about your ear problems, too! Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck with mine either. After my ENT said that the next time I came in, he would like to cut a hole in my eardrum, I was like “nope, sorry, not gonna go back.” Since the problem with mine is that the flap thingy won’t stay shut, I think cutting a hole in my eardrum might be counterproductive. But maybe that’s just me. And I’m not willing to risk having more problems than I already have!
I do have a bit of tinnitus, but it’s fairly rare – my doctor says I have a bit of Meniere’s Disease, but my biggest problem is with autophony which it sounds like your echoing might be. Mine was diagnosed as patulous eustachian tube, which weight loss can definitely aggravate – that’s when mine actually became unbearable. Can you hear your breathing in your ear and your talking sounds funny, etc? I kind of describe it as feeling/sounding like I have a bucket on my head. I haven’t noticed a difference depending on what kind of room I’m in, though. Unfortunately, I tend to agree with your “they don’t know sh*t” comment. Over the past couple of years, I’ve pretty much given up all faith in doctors. Most just seem to want to come up with an easy diagnosis and ship you out the door.
Feel free to “talk my ear off” anytime!
I really do hope you’re able to find some relief!
Hi Pamela. Well done on your loss! 5 out of 6 days is so great. Not a hopeless case at all!
Maybe you could get one of those goth style anklets – you know, leather with metal spikes on it so that it will be impossible to sit that way without getting a spike in your bum!
Bearfriend xx
.-= Bearfriend´s last blog ..Quite a bit of walking and some pottery! =-.
Thank you, Bearfriend! And I’m laughing my butt off at your suggestion! Not a bad idea!
You’re right – getting off plan does NOT make you a bad person, weak willed, or anything else. The big picture is absolutely what you need to focus on – it isn’t how many times you fall off the horse, it’s making sure you get back on one more time.
Great job on your loss this week – if you eat well 80% of the time and slip up 20%, as you tend to and so do I, we will still show positive results MOST of the time. That is what you should focus on, not your perceived failures.
.-= Taryl´s last blog ..Quickie! =-.
Thank you, Taryl! I’m certainly going to keep trying to remember that!