Best-laid plans

Work got in the way of my healthy dinner plan tonight.

I decided not to do the Crock Pot BBQ because I wanted beef stroganoff (a lightened-up version of one of my fave low-carb recipes). I took the beef out of the freezer and left for work.

However, by the time I got a chance to take my dinner break, it was an hour later than I normally go … and we were close enough to finishing for the night that it didn’t make much sense for me to leave.

That’s when the wheels fell off my wagon: I munched on popcorn and Goldfish crackers. (At least I didn’t hit the vending machine, eh?)

And when I got off work at 11 p.m., I didn’t do what I should have, which was head home and cook dinner for myself.

Nope. I ended up at the Wendy’s drive-thru instead. More proof that old habits die hard.

Well, it was still a more successful day than the one before. It’s a start!

Long, cold winter

I know, it's just an excuse — but this damn cold weather has been making it tough for me to stay OP.

I haven't been exercising. It's tough to walk with 3-foot-high snow piles still covering the sidewalks, and every time it starts to melt, we get more.

The weather is also making me not want to cook. I'm stuck in an "I don't care" kind of mood, where eating out — be it fast food or something else — just sounds easier. As a result, I haven't been planning ... and consistently eating more than I should.

Well, it has to stop. I know, I've said that before — then promptly let myself get derailed again. Getting to a meeting will help. Friday is payday, and I intend to set aside the money to go that following Monday.

Until then, I'll be back to taking things one day — one choice — at a time. Today's start? The first thing I ate when I got up this morning was a 100-calorie pack of Emerald Natural almonds. I love snacking on almonds.

Next up, finding something healthy for lunch and putting dinner in the Crock Pot. HG BBQ Pulled Chicken, here I come!

Finally back on track

I think my head is finally in the right place to take off the rest of this weight.

How can I tell? Today, when the Boyfriend and I were debating where to go for lunch, I told him we should go to McDonald's so I could order a 4-piece McNugget Happy Meal with apple dippers and a side salad on the side.

All that food was only 7 Points, bringing my total so far today to 9 ... and I'm perfectly satisfied.

This is much better than yesterday, when I had a Whopper Jr. with fries for lunch (11) and had eaten all but 1 of my 24 Points by 2 p.m. or so.

If I'm making those hard choices — the ones that taste good but not great — I'm well on my way. Not that McNuggets are a huge hardship ... but I'd still have preferred a burger. What can I say? I'm a red meat kind of girl.

Something's wrong

I know what I should be doing — so why is it so darn hard to get it done?

Yes, after a good Tuesday, I've spent most of the rest of the week heading off the rails. Bad food choices, little exercise ... the whole enchilada.

So I'm asking myself, "What is wrong with you?"

I know I need to eat less and exercise more. I know I should choose the salad instead of the burger. I know I should be snacking out of the vending machine at work or hitting the drive-thru for late-night snacks.

So what is my problem? Is it a fear of success? Failure? Just a simple matter of being tired of being "good"? Slipping back into bad habits I thought I'd banished?

I don't know. But it stops here. I'm going to get back to work cultivating that "no excuses" attitude. Starting right now.

No after-work snack for me tonight (but I will say yes to some water. I'm dying of thirst right now.) ... and the first thing I'll do in the morning is put on my walking shoes and hit the pavement. Yes, before I even check the computer.

It really is a simple matter of making choices. It's just that lately, I've been making bad ones. That stops here. I have to do this, for myself and for my family and friends. I know they're all pulling for me.

And I want to do it for my wallet. I can think of a ton of other things to spend $12 a week on, that's for sure! :D

A case of the munchies

Today should have been another stellar, OP day — but it wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped.

I started off strong with a 3-Point breakfast and a 3-Point snack, but by the time lunch rolled around, I was starving. I stopped at Subway for a buffalo chicken 6-inch sub on honey-oat bread. I tried to order sensibly, getting just the sandwich instead of the meal with baked chips. I was hungry enough to devour an apple on the drive from Subway to the house ... and I sliced up a zucchini and grilled it on George to go with the sandwich. That made for an 8-Point lunch, so I was already down 14 for the day.

Then the trouble really started. I had a Diet Soda Cupcake (2 Points), some Hungry Girl-inspired homemade Doritos (corn tortillas sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkled with a mixture of taco seasoning and Land O Lakes sharp cheddar seasoning, for 1 Point) and two clementines. I also snacked on a chewy granola bar (2 more).

And that left me with very few Points — 3 to be exact — for dinner. I ate a stuffed pepper and a salad with EVOO and balsamic vinegar (5 Points) and then had some SF Jell0 mousse (1). The after-work snack was some homemade popcorn, bringing my grand total so far to 27 Points.

No exercise to offset what I ate today. The walk fell by the wayside as I finished up my Golden Heart entry. So that means I've used 3 FPs for the day — IF I don't have a snack when I get home tonight ... and that's a BIG if. My post-work snacks are probably just habit by now, but I swear my stomach is rumbling right now.

Food	Units
hg egg mug classic on sandwich thin	3
slice chocolate pumpkin loaf	3
6-inch buffalo ckn sub, no cheese	7
honeycrisp apple	1
grilled zucchini	0
diet soda cupcake, halved, w/ 1 tbsp ff cool whip	2
hg-inspired homemade "doritos"	1
2 clementines	1
quaker chewy granola bar - oatmeal raisin	2
salad w/ 1tsp evoo, balsamic vinegar	1
stuffed pepper	4
jell-o mousse	1
homemade microwave popcorn	1
Total:	27

Table provided by Roni's Food Tweet, Eat, Post Generator.

FPs used today: 3; Total used for week: 4.5.

Must find a better way to cope with stress

I admit it: I'm a stress eater. I know this about myself and try to compensate whenever possible.

Today, I failed miserably. I told myself I wouldn't eat my way through a stressful evening at work — but I did it anyway.

I know there are other ways to deal with stress: Take a walk ... phone a friend ... take a stretching break ... run to a quiet place and let out a scream ... :D

But when you don't feel like you can leave your desk for longer than it takes to hit the bathroom, it's rather difficult to do any of those things. Much easier to snack.

Except it's not better for my waistline — and I've decided that the status quo is not working. After realizing a couple of posts ago that I've basically maintained my weight for a year (down about 50 but with about 20 left to get to goal), I've been trying to come up with ways to shake things up a bit.

One way would be to come up with suitable alternatives to stress-eating. Any of you out there have any ideas on how to stop snacking when I'm stressed out but feel obligated to stay at my desk, plowing through a pile of pages?

On habits

Why is it that good habits are so hard to form, but the bad ones come back at the drop of a hat?

Seriously. I've read that it takes 28 days to form a habit. In theory, that means if you can get up and work out every morning for 28 days, it'll be that much easier to keep doing it for the rest of your life.

It never works out that way. Yet the bad habits I thought I banished are never very far from mind. I thought I'd kicked the soda habit — until the Boyfriend gave me my 100-ounce, insulated jug. Now I fill it with Diet Dr Pepper from the Maverik more often than I care to admit. Worse, I'm starting to crave the caffeine again.

I'm going to try making a deal with myself: I have to finish a full jug of water for every fill-up with soda. Since it usually takes me more than 24 hours to drink one of those things, that'll cut back on the pop consumption. Then, hopefully, it won't be long until I want them even less often.

While my coworkers were eating pizza ...

... I was enjoying a California roll from my favorite local sushi place. I've been there so often — always ordering the same thing — that when I walked in today, the woman at the podium knew my name and what I wanted.

Hmm ... maybe I should take that as a sign that I eat too many California rolls. I try to go there at least once every other week (and sometimes more like weekly). But it's a good, filling lunch for few WW Points, which makes it a no-brainer choice for me.

Today, I paired it with a small bowl of cantaloupe I picked up while I was at the bank/grocery store. (There are advantages to having a bank with in-store branches.)

Overall, today was a great day — my first in about a week. I plan to make it the first in a string of great choices all weekend long ... something that will be easier because I'm working and the Boyfriend will be doing his own thing all weekend.

I have a meeting of my romance writer's group Saturday, which will make for a long day for me (up early to drive to the meeting an hour and a half away, then back home to work until midnight). That doesn't mean, though, that I have to eat things I know I should avoid. I'm perfectly capable of making good choices — even at a restaurant.

At least I'm going to tell myself I am. I tend to have trouble with that — a bad habit I'd like to change. For some reason, the things I know are safe to order don't appeal nearly as much as the ones that are bad for me. It's like I'm afraid they'll have disappeared off the menu the next time I go to whatever restaurant I'm in, and I'll have missed my LAST chance to eat whatever it is.

Then there's that whole "I'm eating out — why shouldn't I get what I want" attitude to counter. I know that every restaurant meal is not a special occasion and cause to splurge ... but I still have trouble not doing exactly that EVERY darn time I go out.

How do you safely navigate restaurant eating? Any tips on how I can change my mindset?

As expected

I see I now have TWO followers. I wish I had better news to share. The results of my official WI today weren't good: Up 6 pounds.

Yup. From having just 13 to lose, I now have 19. In one short week. I'm not surprised. I ate a lot of crap over the weekend. And I weighed in late in the afternoon instead of in the morning, and I've been skimping on the H2O, which means I'm more than likely retaining water.

Even so, I'm sure some of it's real weight, and that's ridiculous. After two years on WW, I should know better than that. I KNOW I need to track everything and get in plenty of exercise (both of which I did not do, especially late last week and through the weekend).

Anyway, it's like I said last night: I know a few days won't make me pack on all the pounds I've lost. Now's the time to turn things around and start the scale moving in the right direction again.

I know it's possible, because I've done it before. Heck ... I was down 1.8 pounds in less than a full week at my last WI. How'd I do it? Tracking and staying within my Points.

Duh. It's so easy (yet so darn hard).

H2O update

When my jug was almost empty this evening, I dumped the rest of my watered-down Diet Dr Pepper and filled it with ice and ... water. That's right. I resisted the diet soda urge. Hooray!

I spent the entire evening drinking on it, and still I only managed to down about one-third of the darn thing. I guess that's about 32 ounces, though, so that's not bad. And that's on top of the two large iced teas I consumed.

At least it wasn't soda. (OK, I did have some of that before I dumped it out — but not much. It was already pretty watered down.)

Can this mean I'm on my way back to the good habit of water-drinking? I sure hope so!

Friend or foe?

When I returned from my vacation in Salt Lake City last month, the Boyfriend gave me a present. You see it at left: a 100-oz. jug.

Discount the neon-orange color, and it could be a great gift. Really, it could ... but only if I manage to fill it with good ol' H2O.

Unfortunately, I've been filling it with diet soda instead.

I thought I had the diet soda habit kicked. For the longest time, I could go days without drinking one ... without even wanting one.

But while I was on vacation, it was all too easy to fall back into the diet soda habit. And the Boyfriend's gift, which I can refill at pretty much any gas station for under $2, hasn't helped. I've been back for two-plus weeks, and I'm still on a soda kick.

What I should start doing is putting $2 in my non-scale victory jar every day I avoid getting a refill. I might have to try that. Why, I could use that kind of cash to finance a new wardrobe when I get to goal!