Evaluating The Holiday and ReSparked

I had gotten pretty busy and didn't spark for a couple days. Holidays sort of make the focus go onto something OTHER than the routine, than journaling, etc.

But, I never had my mind totally off what I needed to do. I didn't exercise Thursday or Friday, so I have my sneakers on and plan to do my alloted cardio before showering for whatever we're gonna do this evening. I've eaten fine today, and I'm not terribly hungry at the moment, either.

So, the holiday and Black Friday:

Thursday: I ate breakfast, cause I knew dinner would be round 4 or 5 pm, depending on the turkey's doneness. We outdid ourselves this year, as the food was especially delicious (and plentiful, of course). My contribution was an organic salad with arugula, watercress, pears, dried cranberries, blue cheese with raspberry vinaigrette and toasted pecans. I thought it was great, the blend of sweet from the fruits and dressing, earthy and peppery from the greens and pecans, and the sour-deep taste of the cheese crumbles. I also took a veggie platter with assorted raw veggies. This way, I knew I'd have lots of F/Vs to select from. Instead of making the low-fat chocolate cake and baked apples, I spazzed and got pumpkin pie and key lime pie at Whole Foods. It worked out. I had about two tablespoons worth of the insides of key lime pie (I hate the crust of those pies, graham crackers are icky to me). And that with a bit of whipped cream did me fine, along with a couple bites of dark Belgian chocolate (60% mini bites, not truffles).

Later that evening, at home from my family's gathering, I got peckish. In order not to totally go into food depravity, I heated up some lentil soup, had a pear, called it a night.

The scale was fine the next day, other than a little salt uptick. Salt has continued to bedevil me, so I have not returned to 266 (I'm at 268 and change). I have been in stasis, not losing, but the salt regain hasn't left cause I've indulged in the salties. My bad.

It's still thrilling to see me in the 60's, but I"m really ready to move on, here, peops!

Black Friday: I had a beef craving (again, what up with dat), so we went to Chipotle. I had part of the Barbacoa Bowl (I asked for very little rice and extra beans to give me fiber-fill-me-up) and had the guac for the good fats and flavor. Hubby let me have one of his beef tacos. That satisfied my beef craving, so I had a very light dinner of leftover turkey breast in light gravy with some organic whole cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and fruit (papaya, orange).

Today, I've only had one meal--egg white garlic-tomato omelette with Ezequiel toast and St. Dalfour four fruits jam, Trop 50 orange juice lite, coffee.

I have noticed that when I have several 400 to 500 calorie meals in a row, my appetite is a bit quieter. When I have a a couple big meals in a row, my appetite readjusts upward. This makes me want to not binge, I can tell you. I like that I'm feeling calmer in terms of appetite, and I am so afraid to set up a binge by having a huge blow-out.

Anyway, I haven't lost this past week, I have held on except for salt bloat variations, and now it's time to lose a bit before Christmas sets up its obstacle course.

I have done some Sparking today--my breakfast, read some articles, etc--and I want to get my head on straight for a new week. I have my horrible tasting Zinc liquid supplement (since I kept coming consistently way low on that in my nutrition profile from my online food journal), and my B-complex/B12 tabs. I've got my Amazing Grass for an afternoon pick-me-up. I'm ready to tackle the next seven days.

On to my Saturday cardio, ab work, and stretching...

Enjoy your weekend, gals and ladies. And be very healthy in your choices~

Breaking the 11 Day Dry Posting Spell With a New Weight Loss Challenge

I've been battling a bout of depression--the Blue Ghoulies. I can sense when it's coming, cause my feelings flatten out, and I just want to sleep, and when I'm not sleeping, eat. I even told my hubby last week, "Oh-oh, you need to pray. I feel the black cloud coming back."

I've had periodic blues since I was 9. Eating well, resting well, controlling stress, praying, and singing usually help a lot. But when I get into a stressful time or miss sleep or whatever, I'm more vulnerable. And it will come without warning, for no reason (ie, life is going just fine and dandy). Anyway, I'm still beating it off, and trying to win this round. (Yes, I was prescribed Cymbalta, but I'm terrified of side effects, so I've stayed away from antidepressants as much as I can and just wait for it to pass. Inevitably, it does, though the bout I got when my mom was dying lasted more than a year and really, I think I was close to a heart attack or something, it was pretty bad and I was gaining weight at a scary pace, medicating with food.)

So, I'm starting the New Year on a cusp--waiting to see if it will be sunny or cloudy internally, and hoping for sun, of course. :) I haven't fully slipped over the edge to the gloom, and I think that's partly because of family gatherings and the season itself, which compels a certain amount of joy from one's soul.

But...this is a diet blog, not a Princess Blues blog, so on to the diet stuff:

I totally crapped out of the old challenge toward the end. (Granted, ended it lighter than I began, but fizzled all the same.) But I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was when I started this blog in May. So, this blog has helped me lose, as has the encouragement, inspiration, and support of you fatfighting bloggers out there. Thanks, y'all.

For me, a new challenge is always a good thing, because it makes you accountable, no matter how lightly, sporadically, or iffily. I need that accountability.

Thanks to the TALES FROM THE SCALES crew for their challenge. On to Shannon's Easter Challenge.

Here's the deal. The starting weigh-in is today.

I got on the scale after NOT doing so for a couple of days, and, voila:

274.0

I kind of like that I'm starting on a Point Zero weigh-in. I don't like that I'm up from my previous low. But, considering the holiday excesses and the empanadilla feast yesterday (one and a half large meat pastries sopping with grease and two handfuls of barbecued potato chips. Two cups of sangria. Two amaretto sours (very unlike me to have more than a glass of wine at an occasion, but dang those were tasty.) The only healthful thing I had was the Vitalicious cake slice. hah. Sad.

So, I was up almost two pounds from my low.


Time to stop with the holiday gorging on fried or gravied delights and back to veggies, fruits, and healthful meals.

This challenge takes us nearly to Easter.

December 31st – 274.0
January 7th – Week 1 WI
January 14th – Week 2 WI
January 21st – Week 3 WI
January 28th – Week 4 WI
February 4th – Week 5 WI
February 11th – Week 6 WI
February 18th – Week 7 WI
February 25th – Week 8 WI
March 3rd – Week 9 WI
March 10th – Week 10 WI
March 17th – Week 11 WI
March 23rd – EASTER--Goal of being at 250 (or less) by this day

It's an 11 (or 12 week challenge if you want to weigh-in on Easter Sunday), and calculating a 2 lb weight loss per week, then my goal is to be 24 lbs lighter by Easter (yep, let's consider it a 12 week challenge.) It would be very nice to fit into a smaller size Easter Dress. (Though we don't really call it Easter, but Resurrection Day around my house, or Dia de la Resureccion, but I'll go with EAster since it's Shannon's challenge and that's what she calls it.)

The hardest part for me, without question, will be the exercise portion. To exercise 4 x a week at 30 mins. Sigh. It's really hard to move at my size--with knees complaining, ankles creaking, back spasming. But, I will be talking positive to myself every day. Even if I have to break it up into 3 10 minutes sessions, I do believe it's doable, so I need to "Just do it!"

Let me know if you're doing this challenge, too.

And here's The Princess wishing you all...

Scale Tale: Ticking Slightly Downwards, even with Cuban feast digesting in my gut

Hello, all. Yeah, I've been scarce. But I did want to come and report for the challenge.

Not the most exciting report. Mr Tanita says:

275.2

That's a loss of 0.4 pounds. Almost half a pound. I'll take it!

My face is breaking out, which may mean company's coming. We'll see. But I had some good days, some iffy days. Yesterday, after visiting a relative at the hospital, my sister and I went for Cuban food. I had a points-accumulating feast of:

1 tamale (Cuban style, with onions on a leaf)
1 cup garbanzo soup (oh, how I adore garbanzo soup) into which I dumped about a third of a cup of white rice to thicken
1 large slice of toston (fried green plantain) with salt
5 ounces or so of masitas de puerco con mojo(fried pork chunks with garlic-sour orange-olive oil sauce)
2/3 cup of congri (rice cooked together with black beans, aka 'moros y cristianos')
and 1 serving of coconut flan


Yes, it was delicious and comforting and my sister and I reveled.

I'd had a breakfast of about 400 cals, and then this calorie-rich lunch. So, dinner was a scoop of protein powder mixed with water and some coconut water (to balance the salty restaurant meal a tad).

I don't regret it, btw. I am unrepentant.

But today, I'm being very, very good.

Hi to all my blogging fatfighters. I'm praying for all of us to end the year at a lovely deficit. The only time we wanna have a deficit, huh? :)