218.4

Missed my 10 lb goal for the month by 0.4 lbs. bleeee

RECAP:
Feb 1: 253.6 (re-start)
Mar 1: 252 (-1.6)
April 1: 245 (-7)
May 1: 239.7 (-5.3)

JUNE
06/01: 228 (-11.7)
06/02: 227 (-1.0)
06/03: 226.9 (-0.1)
06/04: 227.1 (+0.2)
06/05: 229.1 (+2.0)
06/06: 226.6 (-2.5)
06/07: 226.0 (-0.6) [week: -1.9]
06/08: 225.7 (-0.3)
06/09: 224.2 (-1.5)
06/10: 225.7 (+1.5)
06/11: 225.9 (+0.2)
06/12: 226.5 (+0.6)
06/13: 226.1 (-0.4)
06/14: 223.8 (-2.3) [week -2.2]
06/15: 222.5 (-1.3)
06/16: 223.5 (+1.0)
06/17: 222.9 (-0.6)
06/18: no data
06/19: 227.4 (+4.5)
06/20: 222.1 (-5.3)
06/21: 222.2 (+0.1) [week: -1.6]
06/22: 219.5 (-2.7)
06/23: 219.8 (+0.3)
06/24: no data
06/25: 220.5 (+0.7)
06/26: 221.0 (+0.5)
06/27: 219.9 (-1.1)
06/28: 218.6 (-1.3) [week: -3.6]
06/29: 218.5 (-0.1)
06/30: 218.4 (-0.1)

218.5

I have a long weekend with plans coming up so making and sticking to these meal plans is going to be a tough one.  But, making meal plans is all part of the process so I gotta do what I gotta do.

Friday 6/30-Tuesday 7/4
Breakfasts = Amys beans, avo, tomatoes, fruit
Lunch most days: Chile Verde with hominy and white beans, fruit
Dinner most days: sweet potato, steamed broccoli and cauli

Friday 6/30 movie date - bring blueberries and chili. There is a special Indian menu right now and there are vegan options.  I really want one of these, but I know it comes with breads and I'm afraid if I order, I am going to eat it, so I should really try to be strong :(

Saturday 7/1 - dinner w/ friends.  Mediterranean salad and crudites w/ humus. The fear of overeating because I will not be weighing and measuring is strong

218.6

Today is my Wednesday Weekly Weigh In and - WOW- I had a good week! The prior 2 weeks were pretty annoying due to an irregular cycle, but it got made up for now. I lost -drum roll please- ... 3.6 pounds this week!! Huzzah! I am hoping to hit my -10lbs/month goal for June, but only have 48 hours in which to meet it by losing another half pound, but hey, miracles sometimes happen. I find it so amazing that I am losing pounds at the same rate as the last time aroudn in 2010, but without any exercise at all this time. Weight loss really is all about what you put in your mouth (but, of course, I know fitness is mostly about exercise. I never claimed I was getting fit - HA!)

I am STILL having a really horrid time trying to get into the other self-care habits (journaling, meditation, etc) that SPT says I should be doing to help make this a lasting endeavor. I am trying though! I moved my journals and my book of meditations out of the bedroom (where I almost immediately fall asleep every night) out to my desk in the living room. I am going to try to get into the habit of doing that stuff last thing before going into the bedroom. Maybe it will help.

weekly recap:

06/21: 222.2 (+0.1)
06/22: 219.5 (-2.7)
06/23: 219.8 (+0.3)
06/24: no data
06/25: 220.5 (+0.7)
06/26: 221.0 (+0.5)
06/27: 219.9 (-1.1)
06/28: 218.6 (-1.3) [week: -3.6]

221.0

I had a good weekend food wise. I made that huge batch of Gazpacho which I highly recommend! It is so tasty and light and perfect for hot weather. This is the recipe I used: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...recipe-1937573 It makes a HUGE portions for not many calories.  I had it along side of a bit of rice.

My new mantra "weight loss is not linear" (thanks 3FC user!!!!) is helping me stay sane watching the scale bounce around. Luckily it is always a downward trend even when there are daily bumps. I want to stop weighing daily, but I actually feel guilty if I don't, so mantra it is.


The workweek meal plan:

Breakfast: Almond Milk Latte, beans, avocado, tomato, strawberries
Lunch: big salad w/ beans, cucumbers, tomato - added Miso Soy Curls and Asian style dressing
Dinner: roasted red potato and steamed kale w/ hot mustard

219.5

This weekend's meal plan:

Breakfast: Overnight oats w/ chia, banana and berries
Lunch: Gazpacho topped with avocado and brown rice
Dinner: Sweet Potato stuffed w/ corn, black beans, and salsa and simple slaw

edit: got too hungry and didn't feel satisfied with the oats for breakfast, so I switched back to my beans and avo situation on Sat and Sun.

222.2

Well The Never Ending Period is still beleaguering me. As I suspected, just because it came a week early in no way indicated it would go away a week early, so here I am retaining water and hard-core jonesing for salt like a mad woman. I have been having bouillon instead of my hot tea, and pickles as part of my meal for the last 3 days. I don't even want to tell you what the scale is doing this week! But I will.  It's is 100% water-weight and I even feel puffy, especially in my fingers. I'm looking forward to next week when I will finally be able to see the work I put in this week pay off, because I sure as heck am not seeing it now.  Check this stupidness out:

06/14: 223.8
06/15: 222.5 (-1.3)
06/16: 223.5 (+1.0)
06/17: 222.9 (-0.6)
06/18:  (something around 227, I didn't bother to record it)
06/19: 227.4 (+4.5)
06/20: 222.1 (-5.3)
06/21: 222.2 (+0.1)

In the end, I am down 1.6 for the week which is just shy of my 2 lb goal.  I am really hoping that  next week will show a much bigger drop once I stop being so freaking hormone-y.

The period-munchies did a number to me this weekend too. I had guests over for a small dinner party and I made fixin's for DIY vegan tacos and nachos. I managed to stay strong and not have any tortillas and made myself a taco-salad instead (OK I had 1 broken chip for the taste.  It was good, but not good enough for me to ruin things by having more than that taste). But, I did not weigh and measure so I know I overate. I also munched on cherries and strawberries while we watched a movie (set up the outdoor projector and watched a movie under the stars. It was awesome!) and I know I WAY overate those.

I did have a talk with myself beforehand and decided that I would be a little looser that night with the understanding that the next day it was back on track no ifs, ands, or buts. I did not want this dinner to turn into a defeatist binge if it turned out I felt uncomfortable weighing my food in front of people. I forgive myself this small transgression, and I will move forward successfully for the rest of the week.

Last night I was either super-hungry, or I had acid-belly that felt like hunger.  I am not sure which it was but I ended up drinking 2 glasses of almond milk and then I had 2 mugs of bouillon.  It helped, but it also may be the cause of why I went up 0.1 lbs overnight instead of seeing a loss on the scale. I really need to stay strong - at least on Tuesday nights when I know I am doing my weekly weigh-in the next morning.

I am trying to incorporate some more of the the BLE strategies for successful weight-loss, namely, the parts that aren't food related but more spirit related.  I picked up a journal for my daily thoughts, a 5-year journal and a couple of meditation books.  These are activities that you are supposed to do in the AM and PM so to get into a routine of self-care.  So far I managed one of the PM activities, and then played catch-up for two nights in a row.  I really need to figure out how to make the habit stick as I really believe Susan has it figured out!

227.4

Meal plan for this work week:

Breakfast:
1.5 c. almond milk latte
1/4 can of Amy's vegetarian beans
1/4 avocado
1.5 tomatoes
1 white nectarine

Lunch:
Fajita salad with brown rice and black beans, lots of veg and salsa

Dinner:
5 oz steamed Kale
1 small potato
1 apple

Daily calories: 1083

6/21: lunch plans at Nourish Cafe

223.8

Eesh it's been 2 weeks since I blogged? Whoopsadoodles! I have been keeping up with daily check-ins at 3FC and in the last week a reddit forum for BLE users. So far it is just me and one person, but every little bit of accountability is great for me.

I have been SO HUNGRY the last 4-5 days. I am trying very hard to stay on track and not overeat. It is related to TOM, but dang it is so hard to control even though I know with my brain what is going on, my body is being a huge jerk. I couldn't help myself at the grocery in the end and bought 2 plums and a bag of cherries that were not on my pre-planned list last weekend. I managed to not go crazy and eat all the cherries, but I am disappointed that I couldn't mind-over-matter my burning desire to buy them when they weren't on my meal plans. This was also the first time in 7 weeks where I ate outside of designated mealtimes, which is a line I am trying not to cross in my quest to beat food addiction.

For whatever reason, I have had a LOT of energy the past few days. I am at my office 10.5 hours a day, and I have an hour commute each way on top of that. I am usually completely zonked out by the time I get home in the evenings. Normally, I just plop my butt down and play video games for a couple hours until bed time. But, Monday night I got home and ended up doing some serious gardening for about an hour and a half (and I hurt my hip doing it, but that's a whole 'nother thing). And then last night on my drive home I was pretty much dancing in my seat listening to music, and when I finally got home I immediately got my puppers ready for a walk and headed to the beach and ended up walking up the cliffs a bit too; I ended up being out and about for over an hour! So weird, but I am not complaining. I love it and I hope that it continues every day!!

Scale wise, with TOM coming a week early and plaguing me for what I expect will be the full two weeks, I have been ignoring the scale as it crept up up up. But this morning when I weighed I had dropped everything that I was holding onto, plus some, so my official total loss for the week is 2.2 pounds.

I did just watch a fabulous blog from Susan Pierce Thompson on building flexibility into rules which I think I am going to start employing. For example, that hard rule that I do not eat between meals that I have broken twice in the last week, I was very disappointed with myself even though it was just 5 cherries on one day, and two plums on the other. I think my new rule will be: I will will only eat at meals times 95% of the time. That way, if I eat a tad away from meal time, I haven't broken my rule and I can still be in my all-or-nothing mindset without falling off the wagon.

I am going to try to employ a few more of the BLE lifestyle suggestions.  I have had little inklings of just giving up and eating what I want in the last week (period related?  Maybe, but I don't like it!). I have followed the brightlines very closely, and the meal plan is really my own makings but it does follow the principles laid out in the book.  I am going to do the nightly journaling (3 things to be thankful for, 5 year journal, and nightly checklist).  I did buy some books of positive thinking for my morning routine, and I might do some meditation, but that might be a little cheesy for me yet.  I am def not going to start making my bed every day like her suggestion, at least not quite yet.  SO that is my next set of goals: make the evening journaling and the morning positivity part of my life.

Oh and my husband stopped me mid-stretch today to ask me how much weight I've lost because he can see it.  30 pounds mofo!