Taking it easy now to let loose on Memorial Day/Monday.

Today's report:

Your Daily Summary

- 1

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1200	1737	- 536	1201

Exercise:  1 hour/Tae Bo Ripped Extreme w/ weights

Tomorrow's menu is all pre-planned.  All I need is a grilled fish taco recipe.  I'm going to stay within my calorie limit each day except for Monday - Memorial Day, when I will - basically - eat and enjoy everything I feel like. BBQ, dips, mixed drinks and/or Corona beer... I love the start of summer, and the grill and hammock and the pool being opened.  So many poolside snacks and grilled meals are healthy though, so even letting loose won't be that bad with just a little thinking ahead.  I make a great 7 layer dip w/ cheese, sour cream and veggies for tortilla chips.  That and some Corona Liteor a Malibu BayBreeze drink will be my indulgence.  Maybe a dessert too.  So I'll make sure to have some lean meat and veggies on hand for grilling.

Pre-planning.  Good stuff....

Back on track

Todays Report:

Your Daily Summary

123

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1200	1423	- 346	1077

Exercise: Crunch Step & Sweat w/ 10" step

The Damage: + 1.6 lbs

Weight this morning:  145.6  (+ 1.6 lbs from last week)

I am grateful and relieved that it's still below 146.  But then I think of how it COULD have been 143 if I'd had a good week... But this is life.  And my progress chart is going to be very interesting and pretty with all these peaks and dips.  (I can always find something positive to focus on.) 

Oh, what a horrible week I did to myself!

So I hit my goal of 10 lbs last week and celebrated by launching into 5 days of overeating and not exercising.  Not ONCE have I exercised since last Tuesday.  I have lots of excuses:  friend's bday dinner, another friends gathering w/a tableful of snacks and drinks, a wedding, traveling for the weekend... They are excuses.  Not reasons.  There is no reason to have eaten all the crap I've eaten day after day.  I'ts frustrating now to think that I hit my goal last week and I have to work to acheive that again now in another week or two.  But I am getting on that scale tomorrow morning and looking at the #, and posting it here, and dealing with the reality of my bad choices.  I'm trying not to let it get me discouraged enough to feel like everything's been in vain, because that's ridiculous.  Eating healthy and exercising for 4 months can not possibly be a waste, even if I ate so much this week that I'm back up 10.4 lbs to my starting wt.  STUPID.  I gotta let it go and get back into my healthy routine.  I knew all along I'd have bad spells at times.  I will again at some point.  I can make physical progress the majority of the time, and consider these times to be mental or emotional progress.  I messed up.  I'll deal with it.  I'm still goal oriented, dammit!

OK, now...Humble pie time:

Tues:  Ate 1413 cal.  Burned 463 cals.  (60 min Tae Bo Ripped w/ weights)
Wed:  Ate 1969 cal.  No exercise
Thurs:  Ate 2158 cal.  No exercise
Fri: Ate 1835 cal.  No exercise
Sat: Ate 2646 cal.  Burned roughly 650 cals (on feet and moving around almost all day)
Sun:  Ate 2109 cal.  No exercise
Mon:  Ate 1824 cal.  Burned 624 cals.  (78 min Shed & Shred 1&2 w/ weights)

My recommended daily calorie intake to lose .8 lb per week has been decreased from 1210 to 1200, so my weekly intake should be 8,400 calories.

I consumed 13,954 calories.
I burned 1,087  cals (2 hrs 18 min of exercise.)
TOTAL WEEKLY CALS:  12,867  (4,467 cals over goal.  That's 3 and a half extra days worth of calories.  HA!  How lame is that?)

Off to do my workout now....

My Mexican restaurant challenge

I'm on my way in a bit to celebrate my oldest friend's 40th birthday at a Mexican restaurant.  (Oldest meaning we've been friends for 35 years, since Kindergarten - not that I don't have any friends older than age 40.)  I ate very well for b'fast and lunch, had a healthy afternoon snack, and I'm playing around with MFP to see what I can/should order for dinner to stay on track for the day, since yesterday was abominably bad and I didn't workout last night either.  Problem is, there's no way of knowing with any certainly what the calorie and fat content is of, say, deep fried chicken flautas, or chicken fajitas, or hell - even black bean soup!  There are so many different ways to prepare these things that I can only guess at it.  So I'm planning to play it safe and stick to the appetizer ceviche de Cameron (shrimp marinated in lime w/ other salsa ingredient) and a bowl of black bean soup.  But damn, that's boring!!!  And that leaves me pretty safely under my calories even without factoring my workout in.

It's her birthday!  I should join the girls in our round of frozen margaritas.  And have a few chips w/ salsa when we 1st arrive.  Chicken fajitas must be better than deep fried flautas or chimichangas, and I can limit the amount of cheese and sour cream I include in a fajitas, as opposed to the kitchen-prepared deep fried stuff...but those fajita wraps are really not worth all the calories they're loaded with.  (Is it rude to bring my own healthier wraps?  ha!  That's kinda psycho...)

Man, dining out is HARD!  Not just the unknown nutritional content and cooking methods, but also the temptations!!  I want to plan ahead and handle this well.  But even now, away from all the temptation and fun, I'm already thinking "Mmmmm....flautas" (that was my Homer Simpson voice.)  If I'm going to cave and order flautas, I should prepare for that now and skip the chips and margarita, AND get a to-go box right away so I can pack up 2 of the 3 before I even start digging in.  Order my shrimp and black bean soup appetizers so I'm not hungry, and then control my portion of the indulgent part.

OR I could stick to the shrimp and black beans for dinner and order the deep fried banana cheesecake dessert thing they make....which is so good I could cry thinking about it.  (That's really good, FTR.)

Ugh - this is how my mind is racing all afternoon.  I could shush it all and just say "go and enjoy and savor this one night."  But as I said, yesterday was so bad, today's 1000+ cal burning hike got cancelled AGAIN, and I see this as a great opportunity to learn some self control to serve me well in the future.  And hell - even tonight.  When I get home tonight, I will feel GREAT to be able to say I stayed on track and am proud of myself.

I'm actually, honest-to-God, nervous a little bit.  Ha!  This is sorta comical, actually.

Update in a few hours....

Time to buy shorts. I think. Maybe.

Today's report:

Your Daily Summary

250

CALORIES REMAINING

Goal	Food	Exercise	= Net
1200	1413	- 463	950

Exercise:  Tae Bo Ripped Extreme w/ weights

I'm going a little longer with the heavier weights now, getting through more reps before I have to switch to lighter dumbells.  That feels good!

I'm almost ready to buy some summer shorts.  I've avoided wearing shorts for years because they just don't look good on my thick legs.  Now, I'm just about ready to try some on and see if they look better on me.  I love the brightly colored shorts I keep seeing in catalogs w/ the loose, drapey tees or layered racer back tanks over camis, and short boots or high heeled sandals.  I think I need to go shopping soon.

I can't say I'd ever want my legs to be this skinny, but I love this outfit and want to shop for something like it.

I don't want to wear these shorts, but I'd like to wear these abs.

ONE! FOUR!! FOUR!!!! 144lbs! 10.4 lbs lost!! 3 since last week!

Let this serve as a reminder to us all on our weeks when we're dumbfounded by the scale not budging despite all our effort, or going UP when it seems scientifically impossible for us to have gained weight.... It will all balance itself out over time.  Keep working, keep making good food choices even after you consume a meal you regret and feel like you've "lost" the day of progress.  KEEP AT IT.  I had two of those days this week.  I had over 1,000 calories just for Mothers Day brunch this Sunday.  I was discouraged and started thinking the week was going to be a waste and I'd have to wait til next week to make progress.  Last night I almost didn't workout because I had resigned myself to the probability that I'd have gained weight this week.  I thought of PlumPetals and her early morning "should I get up and workout?" post, and decided I wanted to feel the way she felt after just doing it.  About 15 min into it, I started getting really motivated, thinking about making a dent in the scale # I'd see this morning.  I was determined to...even if it was only .1 lb, and even if it was due to lost sweat rather than burned fat.  I ended up burning 54 more calories than usual with this workout...used the 10 lb dumbell where I had been using the 5.  Kicked higher.  Squatted lower. 

I FEEL AMAZING!!!!  I could really, truly reach 140 by June!!! 

My fiance and I just set a wedding date of October 20th.  I should be well out weight loss mode by then, but my primary goal now isn't even to enjoy the summer at 140 lbs, but rather to develop eating and exercise habits that will keep me there into October and beyond.  My fiance and I are happy Catholics and we're not living together (or doing anything else together) until we're married.  So all that cellulite on the back of my thighs and butt I'm so determined to burn off?  He hasn't seen it yet.  And if I keep this up, he never will.  (Uh - "keep this up" meaning the diet/fitness routine, not the abstaining from sex routine.  That routine I'm counting the days til I can give up forever.)  I want to look the best I've ever looked on my honeymoon.  I'll probably wear clothes on the airplane, but after that, I plan to stay naked the entire 1st week or two of marriage.

144!!!  PSYCH!!!!!!