Day 55

The subtitle to this post should be... Overcoming Temptation.

I got up yesterday morning paid bills, made a quick Wal-Mart trip then went home and had lunch, did dishes, did laundry and straightened up most of the bedroom (the space between Hub's side of the bed and his shelf and dresser is his responsibility and subsequently you can not walk on carpet in that space...  Not that the rest of our room was much better but hey, I cleaned that up,) and packed for my weekend in T-town.

Hub's came home for lunch around 3 and I left for T-town around 4.  I rolled into town and promptly ran into MASSIVE traffic (which isn't much in comparison to say, Baltimore, but for T-town stand still traffic is a big deal.)  There was an accident so I ventured off the highway and looped around to the bypass and ended up only being about 15 minutes later than I thought I'd be meeting my mom, brother, other brother, sister-in-law and BEAUTIFUL niece for dinner at Carrabba's. 

This is where our sub-title comes into play.   I LOVE ITALIAN FOOD.  I love mozzarella cheese, especially fried, I love PASTA, I love meatballs, I love BREAD!  When I got there my family already had a table and appetizers (fried mozz, calamari and bread) and I sat down and started studying the menu. 

I ordered a bowl of Spaghetti and Meatballs with and Italian salad.  I only ate half the spaghetti and meatballs, all of the salad and I DID NOT TOUCH the fried mozz or bread.  It took a lot of restraint to not just say "ta hell with it" and dig in, but I knew that this would be the first of many restaurant trips this weekend and I stayed under my 1800 calorie goal!

I did not, however, consume 2 servings of fruit, eat enough protein or carbs and my sodium was way high.  I didn't exercise either...  Unless you count the 20 minutes I spent flying my niece around the house and playing with her...

All in all we had a fabulous dinner (one where we were there for over 2 hours) and great chill time with family.  My trip was long but it ended in a great time and a good practice of restraint and commitment to this diet!  Now I'm off to go figure out how to control tonight's "Girls Night In" dinner menu!

Day 43

Today has been a pretty good food day!  We were traveling back to the house and I made some excellent choices today.  We stopped back by my Dad's to have lunch and ended up going to a steak place.  I decided to go for their chicken strips (because they are DELISH) and instead of fries I opted to ask for green beans!  I also had a salad and a roll but managed to stay pretty low on calories!

We got home and went to the Y to run and then did our grocery shopping.  We're expecting snow tonight and I wanted to make sure we had food if we couldn't get out tomorrow. 

We did something tonight that I rarely do and had fish for dinner.  I'm just not a fan of food that comes from the ocean.  Never have been, but I'm trying to expand my horizons and decided that fish was the first step.  I decided on some Parmesan crusted tilapia and it was actually pretty good.  Not too much fishy taste.  Definitely something we can have again!

I'm hoping to get into bed pretty early tonight so I can be fully rested for when they DON'T cancel school in the morning.  I'm hoping for at least a delay, but probably won't receive that either.  OH WELL!  Here's to the end of a great diet week and the start of a new one!

Day 34

Today was an interesting day.  I had to take some of my kids to an Honor band at 7:30 this morning so it's been a pretty long one.  This also means that I had to eat out this afternoon.  I managed to resist fast food not once, not twice, but three times!  We went to a little cafe for lunch where I had half of a grilled chicken sandwich (I was too full to finish it!) and a garden salad with ranch.  Not my first choice but I didn't like their Italian!

I drank water all day and on the way home the kids were hungry so we stopped at a couple drive thrus on the way home and I held up my end of the bargain.  All in all a pretty good food day.  Dinner is in the oven and my calorie analysis says I'm on my 8th perfect day but I don't fully believe it.

Tomorrow is day 2 of the honor band and they cater in lunch so I'm hoping I can do as well tomorrow.  There will be a delicious dessert in my way tomorrow and I'm not sure if I'll splurge or not.  I know it's ok every once in a while, just have to weigh my options when I get there!  I guess a lot depends on what else they're serving.

I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get home in time to go swim but I'm still hoping to get to the Y after dinner to get in some weights and racquetball at least.  They close on an hour early tonight though so I'm on a tight schedule! 

Day 14

Today could have gone SOOOOO badly.  I am visiting my Mom this weekend and she is notorious for eating out.  Especially when there is company.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, because I rarely eat out when I'm at home, but I knew it would be a challenge to come here and be eating out for most of our meals.

I was mentally prepared to go over my calories.  We planned to eat out for lunch AND for dinner and we went bowling and got a GIANT bag of pop corn.  Now, I've told you about my weakness for pop corn...  BUT I kept as close track of my calories as I could today.  They gave us 8 oz cups at the bowling alley for our tea and I used mine to measure out my popcorn servings and I let myself indulge and have 3 cups.  I only ate half of my sandwich at lunch and I piled on the veggies at the Mongolian grill we ate at and went for noodles instead of rice.  I think I made good decisions all day AND I went to the gym with Mom this morning and did weights and 20 minutes on the bike.

I did have a bigger than normal day but I stayed under 1800 calories (I think)!  I'm pretty proud of myself!  I even talked my Mom OUT of the Baskin Robbin's Ice Cream across the street from where we had dinner.  I LOVE THEIR PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!  Hubs and I are even leaving early enough to be home in time to go to the Y before they pool and rock wall close!  YAY FOR GOOD/HEALTHY DECISIONS!

I weigh in tomorrow and I'll be using a foreign scale so I might use tomorrow as an unofficial weigh in and do one Monday morning at home.  I'm hoping for some more progress than I saw on Friday, but that was still more of a loss than last week so I'll take it!

I couldn't be happier about my restraint and dedication today.  I know I need days like these to let go and take a break and I'm glad I know I can do it without blowing my week!