My New Ending

I’ve felt like this most of today…

Friday my throat was sore and it has progressed until today is the worst I’ve felt so far. I thought rest over the weekend would help, and maybe it did, but I’ve been wishing I could sleep all day today.

Itchy eyes, sore throat, runny nose…basic cold symptoms. So it’s rest and fluids for me (though I keep snacking too…darn it. That’s stopping tonight.)

I am grateful for one thing…I’m feeling crappy the week between our conference and the week of Thanksgiving. I don’t have too much extra going on this week, so I can sneak in naps and hopefully get over this cold quickly.

I’m very pleased with this loss and here’s why.

Short Story:
I’ve had a week that was crazy busy from sun up to sun down. I’ve literally had about 30 minutes a day to sit and just relax. While this schedule did not allow for any formal exercise it did end up being one of my best eating weeks ever full of all kinds of non-scale victories.

Long Story:
If you look at my Daily Mile widget you’ll see my last workout was a week ago and this is true. My busy week started with laundry and house cleaning on Saturday to prepare for company coming for a week long stay on Monday.

Then this past week was a Bible Conference at our church wherein I helped in the kitchen preparing, serving and cleaning up refreshments for a break in the morning seminars. After that I would go home pick up the house, shower, get kids from school, iron clothes for evening services, direct the flow of showers and getting ready for those services and then we’d be out the door for evening services.

Somewhere in between that I made time to work on two poster projects for our church, have lunch with my husband one day and our guests another and check my emails. 🙂

It was crazy.

At the same time it was the kind of crazy that only happens a few times a year and is wonderful to be a part of. Especially when I’ve had successes, otherwise known as non-scale victories, in my eating like this:

• Our refreshments for the break were juice, coffee, fruit and donuts. I only had 1/2 a donut on the last morning. I took my 32 oz. water bottle and drank that every morning and brought my own snacks consisting of fruit and cheese sticks or a yogurt.

• When I went to Olive Garden for lunch one day I did not eat any breadsticks – for the 1st time in my life!!! I only had two servings of salad and one bowl of pasta fagioli soup.
  When my friends ordered seconds of soup I kind of wanted to, but realized it was only for one of two reasons (1) peer pressure “they are, so why not” and (2) “I don’t want to make them feel bad. They are larger than me and might feel bad for eating more when I’m not.” The latter thought was due to one of them confiding in me she is working on losing weight. But then I realized this is about MY journey and I needed to do what was best for me. I was satisfied and needed to stop. And I did. (HUGE victory for me!!!)

• I went to lunch with my husband some delicious meditteranean food and again only ate until satisfied.

In fact, this whole week I can honestly say that I ate only until satisfied every. single. day. I actually had to eat dinner at 9:30 the night before my weigh-in, so I know the scale was up a little due to that, because I have hovered between 180 – 181 all week.

Oh, I also have to add that I was able to wear a blouse this week that hasn’t fit me since I bought it a year ago, and an Indian outfit I wore a year-and-a-half ago has gotten big on me and I was able to pinch the sides in an inch on either side of the top to show a friend how loose it was.

When I showed my friend that she replied, “I’ve been meaning to tell you that whatever you are doing is working…you’re losing weight and I can tell!!”

So, while my weigh-in shows only a pound loss for the last two weeks I have to say the victories in my life with regards to weight and eating have been worth much, much more than that.

It’s why I’m proud to say for the record…

5 pounds down

15 to go

Have a great weekend and I will check back in next week!

Hello! I have a very busy week ahead, but wanted to pop in to share a wonderful non-scale victory involving a buffet dinner.

Today’s Weight: —–

I think I’m going to have to ban myself…from candy. argh. *shaking head* I haven’t eaten as much candy as the old Leah would’ve, but I’ve eaten more than a Hot 100 girl should be.

So, Saturday night I was at a church function in some jeans, a “stylish” t-shirt and cute cardigan from Target with some decorative trim. Towards the end of the evening a girl started gushing about how good I was looking. She was so sweet and asked if I’ve lost weight since I moved here.

I grew up in a home where whole chickens were cooked often for their meat. I’m pretty sure it’s because it was cheaper. It also gives a great smell to the house, and so I love to cook a whole chicken once in a while for that very reason.

Someone asked at the close of a post earlier this week, “What will you do to be good to yourself this week?” My instant reply was I will do what is best for me on my weight loss journey and not worry about pleasing others with how I exercise.