New week, new motivation

I had a good weekend. Yesterday was my official weigh in day, and I weighed in at 196.2 for a 7.8 pound weight loss in almost a month. Not bad. Of course today I was up a little, but I attribute that too mexican lunch out. I made good choices (OK maybe I ate a few chips), but I special ordered my dish without sauce, left the tortilla and only half the rice. Also, I hadn't exercised in a number of days, so all explainable.

But I had a weekend of good choices. And I was surrounded by girl scout cookies everywhere! I have them in my house! I helped deliver them! I helped sell them in front of a store! They were serving them after church! Just didn't touch them, so hooray for me. I wonder what year I'm going to break down and just ignore the cookies and write the girl scouts a check! I support them, but my goodness all you read about is the childhood obesity epidemic. Surely we can think of a better way to support these girls!

Didn't really have anything too junky this weekend. Got to grocery shop by myself, and bought tons of veggies. Fresh, frozen, you name it, I've got it in my house! Think I'm going to roast a bunch of them today just to have to snack on or add to meals quickly.

Today I got to the gym bright and early. Did my 3 miles on the treadmill in 40 minutes. Added some inclines and did intervals of fast and really fast (for me). Was nice and sweaty when I'm done. Tomorrow I hope to do 2 miles on the treadmill and start with some weight machines.

And I have some new short term motivation! My husband and I decided to go to a black tie optional charity event on the weekend. We never do things like this! I tried on a black cocktail dress I wore to a wedding last year. I was disappointed to see that it fits just right and is not too loose. Last week I had to go to size 14 in my pants, down from 16. I've been in 16 for a long time. But the dress fits, I don't feel like spending money on a new one, so that's what I'll wear. Motivated to work out hard this week so I look and feel my best on the weekend and I can enjoy some of the food that will be served then.

I have a busy month or two ahead of me, and I need to carefully shop so I have healthy meals in. This week I'm set and ready for what comes my way!

Fat Tuesday!

I just realized that it's Fat Tuesday. What a fitting day to begin this blog! And no, I'm not going to do a blow out binge before lent tomorrow! Will I give anything up? I think I'll try to keep doing what I'm doing through Lent. 10 more pounds by Easter? That seems like a reasonable goal.

These are the little "rules" I've set up for myself over the past few weeks, and they seem to be helping:

• No sugar. I'm sure I'm having some sugar once in a while in the things I eat, but I'm not having ice cream, girl scout cookies (yes there are a bunch in my house now), valentine's candy, etc. Just not having it.
• Exercise 3-5 times a week, at least 3 miles on the treadmill. Right now I'm easily doing this, so might have to add something to this to challenge myself, but for now this is doable.
• No carbs with dinner. A protein and as many veggies as I want.
• Drink lots of herbal tea and water. I have two cups of coffee and sometimes 1 Diet Coke.

And that's it. Easy, manageable, I can still go out to eat. During these few weeks when I've lost 7 pounds, I've had pizza, chinese food, Indian buffet and McDonalds for pete's sake!. I do not fell like I've been suffering. Do skinny people feel like they are suffering? Maybe some. I think they just find the right balance and that's what I'm trying to do.