Tuesday, March 29, 2011

ZZZZZZZZZ

Logan
Myra
Duncan
Sweet sleepy babies. They have beds, but when you're only 3 months old, you don't care.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

A Day of Rest

It seemed appropriate to post this on the Sabbath, since it has to do with the importance of taking a day off. When I last posted about my weight, I was frustrated, overeating constantly and naturally, I wasn't having much success. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try taking a day off of the diet. I've read about that in several places, and it is an integral part of the Body for Life program that Mitch had success with in the past. So, 2 weeks ago, I took a random Tuesday off.  Totally off. I didn't log my food, weigh myself or track progress in any way.
And what do you know, I broke out of the plateau!  In fact, as of today I am only 1 1/2 pounds away from my goal weight!!

Here is this week. Notice the lack of red... Another thing that taking a day off has helped me with is controlling my appetite a little better.  I think some of this may be psychological. I know that there will be a day coming when I can eat what I want, so it is a lot easier to put down the cookie when I know I can have it if I want in just a couple of days.
Another funny thing... You know how people who follow a strict diet, like vegetarianism for example, notice that when they eat something that isn't a part of their diet they feel ill? Well, I always sort of poohed that phenomenon, but on my last day off, it totally happened to me! I had a lot of junk, since that was what I felt like eating, but after dinner (which was actually sensible, since Mitch wasn't taking the day off), I started to feel ill. It took me a full day to recover! And I'm definitely not looking to have another cookie dough binge any time soon. Mitch and I were talking this morning about how much better we are both feeling when we eat healthful, whole foods, as opposed to mindlessly eating junk. I'm thrilled with the weight I've lost, but just learning about what eating well really means for me has been such a great part of this journey. I really feel like a new person! A healthy person! And remember the skirt that started this? I wore it today, and it's a little big! But still cute.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Oh, the giggles!!


Mitch cann always make him laugh! We've been blessed with a seriously happy little guy.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Zoo!

By some amazing luck, Logan's Spring Break happened to coincide with Mitch's week off this month, so we were hoping to do something fun.  We tossed around ideas - Houston, San Antonio, camping - then all of our ideas were for naught when Logan started throwing up last Wednesday night.  We hoped for a 24 hour bug, but three days later, he was still sick, and Myra came down with it as well.  We all survived.  In fact, Mitch, Duncan and I were miraculously spared (perhaps because we hadn't shared the toilet water Myra was playing in a few days earlier - yuck!), but our fun holiday was pretty much a bust.  Myra was finally mostly herself again a week later, which gave us one day for some family fun.
We decided to take a day trip to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco!  Logan is mesmerized by the squirrel monkeys while Myra admires the red birdies.
There are a couple of cool playspaces at the zoo.  Logan loves the slides!
Mitch convinced Myra to go down this one.  It passes through the otter habitat and they swim around you as you slide.  Super cool!
Myra ad Mitch mostly stuck to more low key activities since she wasn't quite up to her usual self yet.
They both thought the chimes in the Asia exhibit were cool.  They ring when you jump on them!  Mitch is taking a peek underneath to see how they work.
They also enjoyed the teepees outside the bison habitat.
We saw lots of fishies!  Logan was pretty sure he spotted Dory, but Nemo was nowhere to be found.
The giraffe is always my favorite.  They are so graceful for such large animals.
Logan peeks through the fence to get a closer look at the brown bear.
Even Duncan had a pretty good time.  It was his first stroller ride!
Peek-a-boo!  I hope we get a chance to go again before we leave Texas, although we might not get a better day.  The weather was just perfect!  It was a great day!!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Plateau

I've hit a proverbial wall in my weight loss journey.  For the last 2 weeks or so, I've bounced between 129 and 132 pounds.
Here's my graph.  As you can see, it's been flat for a while.  I don't have to look very far to discover the etiology of my problem though.
Those are my last two weeks worth of calorie logs.  The red bars are where I have gone over budget.  Note the large number of red bars...  Entire batches of cookie dough are not good for my calorie budget.

Please no one hate me for this, but this is the first time in my life that I have really tried to lose weight in a healthy way.  A couple of  times in my life, I have made some weight loss attempts, but found myself somewhat pathologically fixated on controlling my intake.  I suspect that should a psychiatrist have evaluated me during those periods, there would have been serious concerns.  In the past, I've always been slim and eaten whatever I want, barring the aforementioned episodes.  I think this is the difficulty I'm having.  I've never learned the importance of self control and moderation in my eating.  If I felt like an entire box of Little Debbies, I'd go for it.  Obviously this isn't a healthful way to live, and more than the weight coming off (although that's great!) I'm really grateful that I am finally learning a few things about self control.  I really feel that at it's core, the Word of Wisdom is all about making healthful choices with regard to how you treat your body, and I'm learning a lot about how to do that better.