The Journey Continues through Temptation

So I have to say that I am proud of myself at this moment.  I hope the saying "pride goeth before a fall" isn't true in this case.  I got on the scale yesterday (my weigh-in day) and I was down about 3 pounds more.  That makes a total of 10 pounds since my weigh-in on the Monday after Easter.  So not too bad for 4 weeks.  I can do better by adding exercise, which is my next step.  I have been trying to get through my qualifying exams and I am on the last one.  My goal right now is to get through the next 2 weeks and turn my last exam in to the readers.  

But onto the temptation that I journeyed through this weekend.  On Saturday, I helped with the After Prom event at the HS.  No, Derek is not a junior this year.  They wanted some of the sophomore parents to help with the event.  Which was actually good, because I know what they had planned, what worked and what didn't work so well.  So that when I help plan for next year, I have that knowledge.  At the event (which ran from 11 pm until about 3 am), I was assigned to watch one of the entrances (exits) and to help serve pizza and keep the "candy bar" well stocked.  The "candy bar" had little candy bars, Twizzlers, M&Ms, marshmallows, pretzels, and little graham crackers.  A lot of "red light" foods available for grazing.  But this is what makes me proud, is that the only touching I did of that food was to stock the containers for the kids.  Granted, we were really busy for about an hour serving pizza to the kids, but after that rush died down there was a lot of free time with the candy staring me in the face, especially those Twizzlers.  It was late at night, I was tired, and the candy was readily available; all were the makings of the perfect storm or a chance for me to fall off the wagon.  But I held strong and just drank water instead!  Actually, following this eating plan is not too difficult.  I do miss rice, potatoes, tortillas and fruits, but if I can use this to jump start my weight loss, then in July I can rejoin Weight Watchers and keep up the success. 

Beyond that, most of my weekend was spent reading and working on the research to begin writing my qualifying exam.  I hope to get stuff on paper this week, at least a start.  
 

Two weeks

Well, it has been two weeks on this low carb plan.  I have lost some weight (about 5 pounds) although I hoped that it would be more.  I just need to stick with it and see what happens.  I still miss the carbs a little bit, but it has been easier than I thought it would be.  I have noticed though that my plate is meat and green usually.  This weekend we went camping and I ate according to plan.  I also took time to do some walking.  I know that I just need to stick with this and results will happen.  I didn't gain overnight and so I won't lose it overnight.  On Friday, I received a card of encouragement from a friend.  It will be something to reread when I need more inspiration to be able to continue.  Each day is a new struggle, but I have had lots of victories so far and hope to continue.  Also, if I happen to have a bad meal, then I just need to continue on and restart instead of quitting. 

New Eating Plan

I've decided that with the big 5-0 looming in my future, at the end of the summer, that I need to take better care of myself.  So one of the first things that I need to do is to lose the weight that has been hanging around for a while.  I believe that by making this journey more public, it will help me to be more accountable and therefore be more successful.  A friend of mine has been doing a modified Atkins diet - low carbs, and has lost about 30 pounds in about 3 weeks.  So I decided to try the same thing.  I was going to wait to start something until after I finished my PhD qualifying exams, but seeing Art's success spurred me to try it now.  

So here I am four days into this new life.  The first day (probably not a good day to start) was Sunday.  Now that in itself wasn't bad, but the fact that we had the EHS Basketball banquet that night, was hard.  But I did pretty well and only snuck a couple of bites of cheesy corn and cheesy potatoes.  So maybe you could say that Monday was the real first day.  Breakfast is eggs, meat, and cheese.  Lunch is meat, salad and vegetables.  Dinner is the same.  I do get to have dessert, sugar free jello and whipped cream.  Three days in and I have done really well.  I want to get on the scale to see if anything is happening, but I am trying to wait until Sunday and the end of one week.  

Tuesday, Mark and I went out to dinner at Chili's.  I went ahead and ordered chicken without the mango salsa, without the mango vinaigrette, without the avocados and without the rice.  After taking to Art, I could have probably had the avocados.  Oh, and I ordered extra broccoli and grilled shrimp.  I have discovered that Subway and their salads are a good way to eat lunch which is why I ate there the last two days. 

My plan is to eat this way without changes until at least the 1st part of July.  Now if I reach my goal before then, I can modify it.  I am going to try to blog about my experience, my successes and challenges that I may face during my journey.