Long Time, No Post

Well I know.... It's been one heck of a long time since I posted an update regarding my Diet To Go diet. But it's also been one heck of a summer. Not only have I not posted here about my journey for the last month and a half, but I haven't even kept up with the other people's blogs who are using Diet To Go. So there you have it, I'm officially a slacker. :)

Problem is... I've been gaining and losing the same 3 pounds ALL SUMMER LONG!!! One of my biggest issues was regarding the minor surgical procedure I had done on my left big toe. I had immediate water retention due to the "trauma to my body" and the resulting weight gain from that. And because of my crappy blood circulation in my body, what was supposed to take a couple of weeks to heal up actually ended up taking 2 months to heal up. And because of that, I had to pause my gym workouts because I couldn't wear sneakers.

Then the SUMMERTIME EVENTS started. First we had my husband's birthday and the trip to New Jersey. As soon as I lost the weight I had gained from those two side-by-side events, I had the toe surgery. Then after that came Father's Day. Well of course we had to have Dad over for dinner as we always do, and so there came those pounds I had just lost. So a couple weeks after that, got those pounds lost again, and we have company come to visit from out of town for several days. So once again, gained a few pounds from that. Several weeks later, I've lost those pounds and now it's my birthday. There is much ado over my very significant 50th birthday and many dinners to celebrate. Well of course I gain a few pounds there. So now I'm in the process of trying to lose THAT regained weight.

I want summer to be OVER! Ah, but wait! As soon as summer is over, guess what?!?! We're going away on a much needed vacation. As a present to me for my 50th birthday, my husband and I are taking a 2 week tour of the Western US which will include stops in many of the National Parks. This is something that we are really looking forward to doing. But again, I suspect I'll gain a few pounds due to the deviation away from the Diet To Go meal plan. My body is all about gaining weight and will do so at any possible opportunity.

GRRR! It's just sad when I think about all the weight I've lost over the summer, probably 10-15 pounds, but it's regained weight that I've lost so I see nothing happening on the scale. I need to get back to the gym and I'll do that as soon as school starts up again for the year (in about 3 weeks). The gym is a madhouse in the summer with all the kids using the kid-friendly facilities there, so we tend to stay away from there in the summertime and swim in our pool here at home every night as our exercise. But it's not the same as an hour on the elliptical, so once I get back to that routine, it'll help me drop the pounds off a bit faster I hope.

But I just needed to bitch a bit and vent a bit and also get back to being accountable for the mess that is my eating program.

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Week 14 Results and a helpful link

Well, I'm happy to say that I've lost enough actual weight to offset all this water retention. Still retaining a lot of water and probably will throughout the summer. Not only does PMS cause water retention for me, but exposure to the sun does as well, and we've been doing a lot of swimming now that the pool water has warmed up considerably. But I'm back down to my 15 pounds total lost, so I probably lost an actual pound of weight this past week despite the water retention. YAY!

I found this link today via an email I get from SparkPeople.com. It's called 30 Ways To Outsmart Temptation, and since the DQ Blizzard temptation is one that I deal with on a weekly (if not daily) basis, I thought these pointers might be handy for others who have diet demons and temptation issues. Here's the link: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/calendar_2009_skinny_cow.pdf

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Week 13 Results

Grrrrr...I hate water retention. Yep, I'm one bloated gal this week. The sheets on the bed leave dents in my skin which I can see when I wake up in the mornings. My rings are tight on my hands. My ankles are swollen. Everything feels tight. So it's not a surprise that when I weighed in today, I am up a pound, for a grand total of 14 pounds lost instead of 15. So disheartening, but the battle continues...

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Week 11 And Week 12 Results

{smacks head} Geez, I just now realized I never posted last week's results! I guess the whole toe surgery thing was more of a time consuming affair than I had anticipated. So ok, Week 11, I lost one pound and now Week 12, I've lost one pound for a grand total of 15 pounds lost! YAY!! I am now back down to the weight I was in the summer of 2003. So I'm really feeling a sense of accomplishment.

Now granted, I'm not perfect in this journey. I slip up a lot. Due to the toe surgery issue, I haven't exercised in two weeks, and I may not exercise next week either (we'll see how it goes). So to have lost 2 pounds in two weeks despite not exercising is even better.

Some peoples' diet nemesis is the calories consumed from alcohol, some have problems with snacking on chips or sweets. My nemesis is ice cream. And it's a big one. I think my car is auto-programmed to drive to the Dairy Queen any time I head in the easterly direction around here. But then I think about reality... it's not realistic to say that I can never have ice cream for the rest of my diet journey, or even the rest of my life. I HAVE to be able to learn now to manage it, to be able to be like a normal person and have an ice cream every now and then and not totally overdo it to the point of sabotaging my diet results. So far, I've been able to do that, still averaging a little more than a pound lost each week, but it is a CONSTANT mental struggle for me and something I have to analyze and plan for if I want to indulge in that treat.

So for those who have specific diet demons, just try to be wise about it, and plan for it and maybe just have a smaller portion of it than you usually do. Even though the DietToGo plan is incredibly easy and the food is tasty, there are still times when that diet demon raises his/her head and makes me want to indulge in my ice cream nemesis. It's my job to learn when to say enough is enough!

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My Left Toe

It's been about 32 hours since I had the ingrown portion of my big left toe surgically (and hopefully, PERMANENTLY!) removed. I decided to go ahead and do both sides of the toenail area while it was numb, and that should take care of any future problems I might have had with the inside margin of the nail along with the ingrown and somewhat infected outside margin.

Although I've had problems with ingrown toenails for years and years, this was the first time I've ever gone to a podiatrist to have it taken care of. I honestly don't know why I never went to one before this, maybe I was scared that going to a "specialist" would involve more painful procedures than I was willing to have done, but I have to say, Dr. Christopher Dobry at Frisco Foot Care was just wonderful. He was extremely patient with me, did everything he could to minimize the pain of the shots required to numb the toe, talked to me about various subjects throughout the procedure to keep my mind off of what was being done, and from what I can tell so far, did a fine job of the procedure itself.

When I had an ingrown toenail removed from the very same location 6 months ago by my Family Practice doctor, it took nearly 2 months to heal up. This time around, I can already tell that the healing time will be substantially less. I have minimal pain and I'm already putting pressure on it when I walk. A much, much better experience this time around.

So many thanks to Dr Dobry, I'll be back again soon to get my right big toe done and that should hopefully be the end of any more ingrown toenail problems, well, at least a 97 percent chance for permanent solution!

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Week 10 Results

I'm happy to report that the last remaining pound gained during our New Jersey trip is now gone! So I'm back to the original weight I was at right before we left. Yay!

On a more painful note... I've got an ingrown toenail that will be excised on Tuesday. I have the worst toenails known to mankind and I have had to have ingrown toenails surgically removed since I was in my early 20's. And no, I do not wear confined shoes that squish my feet, I wear Birkenstocks almost exclusively now (except when I go workout at the gym), but my toenails are just genetically messed up and this is unfortunately something I have had to do periodically all my adult life.

This time around though, I'm going to a podiatrist instead of to the family doctor. When I called for the appointment, the receptionist mentioned to me that I would be given the choice to have either a "Correction" or a "Permanent Correction". I would assume the "Correction" is to just have the offending piece of toenail removed, but the thought of a "Permanent Correction" is very appealing to to me even though I have no clue regarding what's involved.

If I never had to have this done again would be soooo nice, because having the doctor inject that deadening stuff into my big toe is incredibly painful, and I actually put off going to get this done longer than I problably should just because of the pain from that shot. So next week, I'll post an update on what happened and how it's going. But I'm sure dreading Tuesday morning....

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It Was Tut-riffic!

The King Tut museum exhibit has been in Dallas for about the last 6 months. Greg and I have kept saying we really should to and see it before it leaves town for good. Well we finally went to go see it yesterday, on the closing weekend! How's that for procrastination?! But anyway, it was really quite interesting, and the craftsmanship of the items they found in his tomb along with other tombs in the area was extraordinary. Some of the most intricate jewelry and wood work, those Egyptians really knew how to be patient and take the time to do something right.

As a high school student, I had developed an keen interest in Egyptian history from my World History class, and it stuck with me as I grew older, so I was really happy to get to go and see the exhibit. Greg found it interesting, but he doesn't do real well in large crowds (he gets a very strong feeling of the invasion of his personal space in crowded conditions which makes him very uncomfortable) and so he enjoyed it for awhile, but he was also glad when I had had my fill of it and was ready to head home.

One unfortunate thing happened though... we left home at around 11am to head to the museum and in our rush out the door, FORGOT to bring our DTG lunches with us, so by the time we got home at around 5pm, we were STARVING! Needless to say, the lesson learned here is don't allow yourself to get so rushed that you forget to bring your food with you. So once we got home, we ate both our lunch and our dinner. Yummy goodness!

One last thing to share... I lost one of those pounds I had gained during our time in New Jersey, so I'm starting the new DTG week up just one pound from when we left. Not too bad at all, I feel it was a very successful trip. :)

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Home From Jersey

Well we're back! It was a nice trip, but I was ready to come home. There's nothing better than getting back into your own bed, sleeping with your own pillow, using your own bathroom facilities and keeping your own routine schedule. I guess traveling just gets more difficult as you age and get set in your ways. :)

I weighed in this morning to see how I did over the trip. I am very happy to report only a 2 pound gain which is fantastic considering my past history with trips to New Jersey and the number of "food and drink fests" we were required to attend during this trip. We were celebrating two birthdays and one First Communion and so they brought out the "big guns" as far as the meals were concerned. Based on past experience, I consider this a major accomplishment and I'm just tickled to death that I came home without the 10 pound gain that I had last year.

So now we finish out the week WITHOUT any DTG meals (I can canceled the order for this week since we were to be gone for most of it) and we start back up with the routine on Saturday morning. It would be great if I could lose the two pounds on my own before we start the new week, but I'm not holding my breath for that one! Maintaining where I'm at while I finish out the week will be accomplishment enough, but I'll still try to shoot for a loss if I'm able to do so.

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Post Birthday Recap

My husband's birthday was yesterday, and it's our tradition to take each other out for whatever dinner the birthday person would like to have. Last night, he chose Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner. So here's a recap of my meal...

1/2 of the dinner salad
1 of the medium hot wings
about 1/8-1/4 cup of garlic mashed potatoes
and about 2 ounces of the 6 ounce steak I ordered
1 slice of bread with butter

I left the restaurant with that really full feeling and was afraid I had overdone it. Because we're leaving town today to head to NJ for a family occasion, I decided to get on the scale this morning so I could get a good representation of any weight change during our trip. Much to my surprise, I lost a pound! After the dinner out last night! Needless to say, I was one happy camper this morning. Still hoping to make good choices while we're away so I don't go backwards in my journey. Will post again once we're back in town.

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Week 8 Results

We got our iPhones this past weekend, and so far, they are pretty neat. I can see my emails on it, listen to music at the gym on it, read the NY Times newspaper on it and so much more. Yesterday, I had to go to the doctor because I have an infection in my big toe where part of my toenail is growing back out after being surgically removed due to being ingrown. Anyway, long story short, I was driving home yesterday and I saw this car in front of me which had their business name and phone number on it. The business was for a handyman service, and sometimes I could use a service like that (my husband is NOT good at handyman-type projects around the house), so I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the back of the car when we were stopped at a stop light. So now I have the name of the business and their phone number saved as a picture on my phone. So there's another good use for the phone. Overall, I'm quite happy with the purchase, but I'm still recovering from the sticker shock... those darn things are incredibly expensive. Oh well, the price you pay for technology.

Now, on to my Week 8 results... This week, I've had no loss and no gain. Just stayed the same. Bleh! Although, when you think about it, that's ok since we had just gone out for Mexican dinner with my Dad to celebrate Greg's birthday the night before. I did pretty well with that... didn't have my usual margarita and drank iced tea instead, and only ate half of my meal instead of the whole thing. Now if I can stay the same after our upcoming NJ trip, I'll be jumping for joy!

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iPhone, Here We Come

Well, after putting it off for the last couple of years, we are finally going out to get iPhones today. My husband's cell phone is gasping it's last breath and so before it dies completely, we're going to go get new phones. Oh yeah, we could go ahead and just get him a less expensive phone to replace his ancient one, but hey, Greg's birthday is this coming week and our inner "techno-geeks" have been patient and waiting for two years so it's time we did it. Once we've had it a few days, I'll have to post our reviews of the new phone.

On the subject of Greg's birthday... well, my dad is taking us out to eat Mexican food tomorrow night to celebrate. On top of that, we're headed out of town for a long weekend back in Greg's home state of New Jersey for our niece's First Communion, so that's going to be a huge food fest too (good Italian families never get together without TONS of food available). The next couple of weeks is going to be extremely tough and I just pray I don't gain back everything I've lost so far.

Last year when we went to NJ for the Fourth of July holiday, we had been doing the South Beach diet for about 5 months. I had lost about 10 pounds at that point. After we came back to town, I got on the scale and found I had gained the entire 10 pounds back. And now I'm very close to the same weight I was last year right before the NJ trip. Deja vu, if you know what I mean. I really hope the end result this time does not resemble the end result after last year's trip. I really am kind of stressed out about it because I've been doing so good with the DTG plan. I'll try to be "good" but you know how families can be... eat this, try this, why aren't you eating?? Ugh... Calgon, take me away!

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Week 7 Results

Another week gone and one more pound gone as well. Not much else to report... sometimes I just have a rather uneventful life and I can't think of anything to write about that wouldn't bore people to death. So that's it for today, one pound down for a total of 12 pounds lost and I'm so glad that they're gone!

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Week 6 Results

Wow! A week has already gone by! Last week was definitely preoccupied with taxes, emails back and forth with our accountant (because I'm in business for myself, that's a lot of extra work at tax time), paperwork, shredding old paperwork that's no longer needed because it's too old for audits, etc. I am SOOO glad it's over and done with for another year.

This past weekend and the weekend before, we got new mulch for the plants around the front of the house, and so Greg got quite a workout spreading a total of 45 bags of mulch. It sure looks pretty out there again. Gotta love spring!

Well, the results are in, I lost 1 pound last week for a total of 11. I was kind of hoping for 2 pounds, but that's ok, I'll take the 1, thank you very much! And with that news, I'm off to the gym to burn off one of my three sets of 550 calories for the week.

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Week 5 Results

Sheesh, it's already been 5 weeks, that's hard to believe. We are now officially done with all of the DTG weekly menus and we're now starting over from the beginning. This coming week is one of my favorites for the breakfasts... I LOVE the muffins and the cornbreads.

Ok, so at today's weigh-in, I was very happy to see that I lost the two pounds I had gained last week, plus one additional pound for a grand total of 10 pounds lost. Even more interesting is that I'm STILL bloated with PMS water retention, and so I've still got that water weight loss to look forward to as well (hopefully this coming week, my ankles are starting to look like elephant legs).

So overall, not bad at all. An average of 2 pounds lost per week, I'm very happy and satisfied with that. Let's hope it continues for awhile. :)

Oh, and check out the new ticker I'll be adding to my posts. A nice visual way to keep up with the total weight loss. You can find a bunch to choose from at TickerFactory.com.

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Denis Leary

Well, just a quick post cuz it's late. Just got home from seeing Denis Leary (the comedian and the guy from the "Rescue Me" TV show on TNT) at the Nokia Theater in Dallas. I'll tell ya, he's sure got a mouth on him. This was an early birthday gift for my husband who also hails from that general area of the world, and who also has quite a mouth on him too. So he really enjoyed the show. Since the "F bomb" is a fairly commonplace expression for those who come from New York City or New Jersey, it's not offensive (anymore) for me to hear it a whole lot. And Denis Leary sure uses it a LOT! I'll say, we both did a bunch of laughing... some of that gut tightening belly laughing when it's just one thing after another strung out in a row. My cheeks were also sore from the smiling and laughing too. So it was a fun, albeit verbally raunchy, evening out for a couple of semi-old farts. And we didn't have any drinks or snacks while we were there, amazing!

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Week 4 Results -- As I Expected

As expected, due to the PMS water retention, I'm up by 2 pounds. Not a huge suprise, but still a bit of a downer when you actually see it on the scale. So now we wait till this flushes out of my system and my fingers are crossed that I'm well rewarded in the end. :) Net result weight loss so far, 7 pounds.

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Puffed Up Like A Toad

Well ladies... I'm sure you can relate to what I'm about to say... I am puffed up like a toad and it's all due to PMS. My hands are swollen, my feet are swollen and I'm afraid of what all this water retention is going to do to my weigh-in results tomorrow. But soon it will flush out of my system and when it does, I sure hope the scales show a good loss to go along with it.

On the brighter side, today is a day for outside chores. My husband is planting new red-tipped photinia bushes along our property line, the side that borders our neighbors who think that a 1 acre backyard is meant for parking pickup trucks, boats, trailers, wave runners, travel trailers and anything else that can be moved along on wheels. We both get frustrated looking at the "parking lot" next door from our living room windows, so once these bushes grow up, they'll provide a beautiful screen of foliage that will hide the vehicles parked next door. Grow plants, grow!!!

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Week 3 Results

The results are in... I've lost an additional 2 pounds this week for a grand total of 9 pounds lost. That's 2 pounds despite my Blizzard treat from yesterday. Jeez, just imagine what it could have been if I hadn't indulged, I could have hit the 10 pound mark. Oh well, that was my decision for that day and there's no use speculating on what could have been. I'm very happy with 9 pounds in 3 weeks. When I tried to do the South Beach Diet on my own last year, it took me almost 6 months to lose 9 pounds, so DTG is working much better for me. The "no-brainer" aspect of it is my favorite part and the food is pretty darned tasty too.

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Hi, my name is Vicki and I'm an ice cream junkie

Well, today I did it. I went and got one of my favorite treats... a Dairy Queen Butterfinger Blizzard. I swear, if I ever need a part-time job, DON'T let me get one at Dairy Queen. I'd be as big as a tank if I worked there because I'd have a Blizzard every day. I LOVE those things. And so as I wrapped up week 3, I just had to satisfy the urge and so I got one. Ok, the deed is done and I'll probably pay for it tomorrow during my weigh-in, but it was soooooo worth it. :)

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I'm Ready For Spring

Springtime in Texas is a crapshoot. Some days are just glorious, some days are filled with rain and the chance for tornadoes. Some are full of sunshine and warm weather (but not too warm, yet!) and some are a flashback to winter. Today is one of those flashback days. It's back to being cool enough for a jacket with a sweatshirt underneath and they're even talking about COLD weather over the weekend. Ugh!

I'm ready for spring... you know, those nice warm days where you can open the windows in the house and air everything out. Unfortunately, spring and fall don't last nearly long enough around here. Before we know it, we'll be back to our normal 90+ degree temps, and swimming in the pool to cool off. But for now, I'd love a bit of spring before we get to summer.

And now I digress... I just wanted to thank those that posted comments to this blog about the loss of our cat. It was very nice of you to send your kind words our way, it's just sad that we all have to go through it when we choose to open our homes and our hearts to our furry family members.

Over the past week or so, I've come across a couple of DietToGo meals that I'm going to have to request substitutions for... One is the Black Bean Soup lunch in week 4, and the other is the Curried Shrimp dinner in week 5. Actually, I'm really surprised those are the only two meals out of nearly 3 weeks on the plan. So that just goes to show you how tasty the meals really are.

Oh, something else I forgot to mention... both my husband and I have switched our DTG plans from the 5 day/3 meals per day plan to the 7 day/3 meals per day plan. We both found that we have way too difficult a time controlling ourselves on our own over the weekends. For the past two weekends, I've weighed myself on Sat morning to see where I was and then the official weigh-in would occur on Monday morning. Well, I was in a much better position weight-wise on Saturday morning that I was on Monday morning for both weeks. That means I wasn't successful with my food choices on the days I was left to my own devices. So more control is needed, thus the change from the 5 day plan to the 7 day plan. I just need a LOT more practice in figuring out correct portion sizes for food cooked at home and at restaurants. So the food that arrives today will be for the full 7 days, and I'm looking forward to much better results over the weekends. :)

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It Was A Sad Day In Texas (and Week 2's Results)

I had an incredibly stressful week last week. One of my cats (we have two) was ill and wasn't eating. Anyone with cats knows that if a cat goes 3 days without eating, they can develop liver damage, so cats who don't eat are a big concern. I was hauling him back and forth to the vet every other day, trying different foods and ways to force feed him, the vet running different tests to see if we could find out what was wrong with him, etc.

In the middle of all of that, my other cat started having extreme difficulty breathing, just out of the blue with no prior problems. So we raced him to the vet to find that his chest was filled with fluid, a result of him having lymphoma which we didn't know about. So now we've got one cat hospitalized with a mysterious illness causing him to not want to eat, and we've got another cat stricken with cancer. Because of the severity of the 2nd cat's condition and his age (they're 16 year old brother kitties), the vet didn't think he would survive the weekend, let alone manage a round or two of chemotherapy, so the vet drained the fluid off his chest so he could breathe a bit easier and they sent him home with us for one more night so we could say our goodbyes.

I can't begin to tell you how hard it is to decide to euthanize a pet. It is the most heart-wrenching decision I've ever had to make, and even though we knew he was very sick, he's been a member of our family for over 10 years (we got them from the pound when they were 6 years old) and we didn't want to lose him. But, out of pure love for this cat, we also couldn't watch him suffer and die a natural death from the cancer, so we made the really sad decision to euthanize him.

Our cat died on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at around 12:30pm. He was such a good boy over the years, the loudest purring kittie anyone had ever seen, and he was just the sweetest cat, a really even-tempered guy. His brother, my husband and I will all miss him terribly.

After the shocking loss of one cat, we still had another sick cat left. The vet had started giving him antibiotics mid-week last week because he had started having a low grade fever. After several days on the antibiotics, he slowly started eating on his own, just a little bit. By last night, his fever had broken and he was eating a bit more normally. He's still wandering around the house looking for his brother, so I'm sure he's a bit sad, but he's doing much better now.

And in the middle of all of the chaos from last week, I still managed to lose 2 pounds. So that's a total of 7 pounds gone. I'm just grateful for the loss, no matter what it was, because the stress from last week was pretty intense and I figured my body would react poorly due to it. Thankfully we had DietToGo foods during those days... if not, I probably would have eaten my way through Texas worrying about my cats.

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Week 1 Results

Well, week 1 is over and I'm thrilled to say I've lost 5 pounds! Due to some internet connectivity problems, I haven't posted as frequently as I had hoped this past week, but things appear to be working a bit better, so here I am again. So let me recap some of the tastiest choices I had this past week:

The Good Stuff
Bistro Chicken Salad - very tasty!
Chicken Philly Sub - loved the onions and peppers
Corn Bread Muffin - what can I say... excellent with the orange marmelade
Chicken Pesto Sub - some other DTG dieters love this one and I did too
Mountain Berry Muffin - with that raspberry cream cheese, it was heaven for breakfast
Thai Turkey Tenderloin - spicy and tasty
Breakfast Pizza - I don't even miss my Friday pizza once I've started my day with this

So there we have it. Five pounds gone and we're now into week 2. With as much weight as I have to lose, I hope to continue to see good losses for many more weeks to come. Thanks to DTG for making it easy and troublefree. :)

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"Normal" People Don't Quite Understand

For anyone who has never really had a lifetime issue with weight, you'll never quite understand how it feels for the rest of us who do have problems with it. Essentially, we are NEVER happy in our own skin. Imagine spending 20, 30, 40 years looking at yourself in the mirror EVERY day and being unhappy with what you see. There has not been a day that has gone by since I was old enough to know I was overweight that I didn't think about it. Really... not a single day where I haven't thought about it or that it hasn't affected my decision-making process at some point during the day. That's pretty sad when you really think about it.

This issue came up during a fairly recent conversation with my husband. He has always been tall and slim and never really put on any weight whatsoever no matter how much food he shoveled into himself on a daily basis. But now, as he ages, he's very unhappy to find that he's put on about 15 pounds and that he's having to watch what he eats. He's even more frustrated that he can't lose the weight as quickly as he thought he should be able to with minimal effort. So I asked him to think about it from my point of view... to imagine that unhappiness and frustration on a daily basis for 30+ years.

Despite the fact that we've been together for 15 years and I've struggled with my weight and dieting every day during that time and then some, he still doesn't understand the amount of power that being overweight has over me. As a matter of fact, I don't even think my own immediate family understands either. But it is what it is and it's gone on ever since I can really remember.

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Monday, Monday

Why do we always seem to start "diets" on Mondays? Since Monday is probably one of the more stressful days of the week, you'd think we'd be smart and start our diets on a different day. But nooooo....

So today was my starting weigh-in and the first day on the DTG meal plan. Overall, I was pretty happy with today's choices. Wild Cherry Muffin tasted more like Maraschino (sp?) cherries than Bing cherries (which I prefer), but it did hit the spot with my growling stomach this morning. And the apple butter that came with the muffin was quite good. I had my orange as a mid-morning snack and I was definitely needing it when I ate it, my stomach was rumbling like crazy.

The lunch item, Bistro Chicken Salad, was REALLY good. I heated the pre-thawed dish in the microwave for a couple of minutes and had a nice hearty lunch. Very tasty!

Dinner was the BBQ Chicken and I was quite satisfied with that as well. I received a small chicken breast, a good number of fresh green beans, some red potatoes (gotta love those red potatoes), and some pork n' beans without the pork. I ate it slow and savored the flavors and it kept me pretty full all evening.

However, around 10pm or so, I started getting quite hungry again, so I added in a Light Yoplait yogurt I had in the fridge. Total calories for the day including the added yogurt, 1266.

Monday is also one of my workout days at the gym. So I did 42 minutes on the elliptical machine for a total of 402 calories burned (according to the machine). I used the interval training setting so it varied from difficult to semi-difficult every two minutes. After the elliptical, I did about 20 minutes of additional upper body weight training using the weight machines.

So overall, a good day. :)

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Here We Go Again...

Well, here we go again... only this time, I'm documenting it so maybe my results will turn out different. Maybe putting it out into the internet ether will keep me on the straight and narrow and honest with myself.

What's the "it" I'm referring to? It's my never-ending quest to lose weight. I'm going to be 50 this year, and I have been consciously aware of my weight ever since I was a child. In my teens, if I gained a few pounds, I was reminded by my father that I was getting fat, and that's back when I weighed 110 lbs. He had some real issues with women and weight gain. On the flip side, I had a divorced mother who was so obsessed with her weight that she'd ask me, just a child at the time, if she looked as fat as that person we saw across the street, or in the store, or wherever. Of course the answer was always "no". I knew that was a loaded question, even though I was only a kid.

So over the years, I've done it all. Weight Watchers, NutriSystems, Adkins, the grapefruit diet, some diet where you only eat cabbage soup, Medifast (that one DID work, as long as I never ate a morsel, but as soon as I started to eat again, the pounds piled back on), South Beach Diet and more. I've also got a Laproscopic Gastric Band, aka Lap Band, which I paid thousands of dollars for and which only worked briefly for me. Once I started getting adjustments with it (where you tighten it up with saline injections), I started having problems with it. Either I couldn't eat without throwing up constantly, or I could eat everything in the world and there was no feeling of "full". I was never able to find the "sweet spot" that lapbanders talk about, so eventually I gave up trying. Now I'm 15 pounds heavier than when I got banded, so I'm desperate to get this issue of weight under control.

In the past, one of the more reliable ways I was able to lose weight was to just limit my calorie intake, so that's where I'm headed again, with a little help this time around. I'm taking all the guesswork and the search for tasty low-cal meals out of the equation and I'm getting my meals from Diet To Go. I'm starting with the 5 day/week 3 meals/day 1200 calorie/day plan. Then I'm going to try to handle portion control and food choices on my own on the weekends. I may rethink this 5 day idea after I've tried it, but that's how I'm going to start off.

So my first week's worth of food has arrived, it's separated into the daily meals in the fridge and freezer, and I start tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me because I've got a long way to go! I'm going to shoot for 80 pounds of weight loss. My husband will be participating in the journey along with me, because there is no way I'm going to cook separate meals for him while trying to work on my own lifestyle changes. When I gave him the choice to either cook his own meals or get the 1600 calorie DTG plan, he chose the 1600 cal plan. He wants to lose about 15 pounds anyway, so he'll probably have that done in about a week! Sheesh, men....

Ok, so I'll weigh in tomorrow morning before my first DTG breakfast and I'll start keeping track from there. I'm praying this works for me because, if not, I'm in a heap of trouble.

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