Sanibel Day One

We made it to Sanibel Island. Its good to be here. I love to travel and visit different places but I am NOT one who likes the actual travel part, the getting to the airport 2 hours before your flight, sitting for another 1 1/2 hours in an airplane, waiting another hour between flights and sitting another 3 hours to get to your final destination. Seems unproductive to me, not a good use of my time. The only thing I managed to accomplish yesterday was to consume a large amount of calories and burn off about 0. Oh well, we are here now. We got in about 4:45 and arrived at our hotel around 6 pm. We found a little pizza place called Island Pizza. It was pretty good actually. Its funny to read consumer reviews. One says, "Horrible. Go somewhere else." and the next one says, "Best pizza I ever had."
We wandered around the main strip a little while and took our first walk on the beach.
This morning we woke up around 7 am and took about a 2 mile walk on the beach. It was so lovely and peaceful. We quickly noticed what we had been told; there are lots and lots of shells on the beach here. We quickly became experts at the Sanibel Stope which is a term locals give to visitors when they bend over to pick up the beautiful shells.
We also noticed flocks of pelicans and also saw a school of dolphins in the distance.
After our walk and after breakfast we borrowed a couple of the hotel's bikes and hit the trails. I was really looking forward to this part of the trip and it didn't disappoint. We rode for about an hour and a half and made a pit stop at the Sanibel Bean. The espresso chip ice cream was fab. We rode back to the hotel and spent several hours on the beach. Tonight we will drive to Captiva and find another restaurant to experience.

Trip time

Its here. The day we leave for the trip. We will drive to Moline tonight and fly out tomorrow morning. I haven't quite reached my goal but came close. As of this morning, I am down 11 pounds. I have been sitting at 10-10 1/2 for about 3 weeks which is frustrating but at least I've not been gaining. I need to kick it in gear when I get home and get back to good eating habits. I will also need to start training for RAGBRAI so that should help. I will try to blog each morning so Brenda has something to read while she drinks her coffee.

Update

Just an update on the off chance that anyone actually reads this.
I have pretty much maintained at 5 pounds and am HIGHLY disappointed with myself. Its no mystery. I haven't been sticking to my eating habits as I should.
When I'm on it, I'm ON it. When I'm not, I just kind of wander around aimlessly, snacking here, picking something up there. Shame on me.
I have 1 month from tomorrow before we leave and I bet I can lose 8 more pounds.

My First Weigh In

Drum roll please.......I am 5 pounds lighter than I was last week at this time and I AM THRILLED!
I had some BAD days last week. Thursday found me FAMISHED by 5 pm and all of my calories consumed. My self-talk quickly kicked in and I started belittling myself, telling myself I was foolish to think I could ever lose weight or control my eating. I gave in to my temptations and had a big bowl of cereal, which isn't THAT bad of a snack, but I was grumpy with a capital G for the rest of the evening.

Friday was Bob's day off and he suggested we go out for lunch.
"No" I said. "Everything I eat has to come out of a box. I'm too fat and stupid to eat like normal people."
He continued to encourage me. We did end up going out to Pablo's and I had a half of a chicken quesadilla (which was fabulous by the way). I also treated myself to some ice cream because I was really craving it. I usually have ice cream several times a week so I figured once was pretty good. It did the trick. It kicked a craving I was having and I felt like I wasn't being deprived.
So, thanks to God's mercy on my pathetic personhood I have this good news to report.
That fuels me for this week to see what I can do. My goal...3 more pounds.

Day three

Yeah....Day 3. I pretty much made my own meals today which made it kind of difficult to count calories exactly. Jenny Craig really helped me learn how to do that but I've lost practice. I would venture to say I hate about 1500-1600 calories, all of which were healthy. The only "sweets" I had were the creamer I put in my coffee and the 100 calorie suzie q cupcakes I ate after supper. I guess although I didn't stick to my 1200 calories, I can see that the food choices I did make were healthy, maybe I just had too many. I can't be too hard on myself. I did much better than I normally do on my days off, I really did. I also logged in just over an hour on the treadmill this morning.
Tomorrow I hope to be to work by 6 am and work until 3. This means I won't be able to get a workout in in the morning. I have a VERY busy day at work tomorrow, full of clients and now, I just found out, court. Hopefully, I won't have time to get hungry. Worst case scenario is that I eat out of stress. I will continue to pray for strength and self-control. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phillipian 4:13 (Including eating healthy and losing weight.)

Day Two

Today was tough. After having such a "good" day eating-wise yesterday, I was scared I was gonna mess up today. I spent so much time thinking about what I would eat and when I would eat it and if I would die of hunger or if I would cave into my hunger.
Thankfully, I have a good friend at work who is doing Weight Watchers and has lost nearly 40 pounds. She is definitely a person to have on your side; so encouraging and motivating. She always has a recipe to share. I love her.
I walked on the treadmill about 40 minutes this morning and ate probably around 1200-1300 calories. Again, another day I consider successful. I just keep praying for grace and that I would have other things on my mind. I'm hoping my obsessing will only last a while longer until I get used to this.
Tomorrow is a day off of work and I'm really scared I will get bored and eat mindlessly. Again, I will be praying!!

Join Me

I, am fat. I, am tired of it but apparently not tired enough. I am almost at the highest I have been while not pregnant. About 8 years ago, I joined Jenny Craig and lost 27 pounds. It was not difficult at all. I was "in the zone". In September of 2001 I finally got pregnant with my 4th and last child. I was thrilled. My OB GYN said that the 1200 calories I was eating each day was not enough and I needed to eat more. No problem. I over did it. I have gained back nearly all of the weight I lost on JC and I could kick myself if I could lift my foot that high. In the last 5 years I have gained probably 15 pounds. ARRGGGHHH!!!
Bob and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary in April and booked a trip to Sanibel Island in Florida, leaving on April 22nd. I am excited except for the fact that I will need to wear less clothing than these comfy, well-covering clothes I have on in the winter. I am terrified. So, I figure I have 2 months from today to loose some weight. My goal is 15 pounds which is very do-able in that timeframe. Not to say I don't have more (much more) to loose but I feel that's a reasonable goal.
I will share my journey and look for accountability partners through my blog.

I don't have a problem with exercise. I exercise pretty much everyday and switch up between my treadmill and DVDS. This morning just before 5 am Bob and I did the Biggest Loser Last Chance DVD which took us about 40 minutes. Then I got on the treadmill for 30 minutes.
Eating went really well. This is usually my downfall. I just eat and eat and eat. Usually, mindlessly. I'm shooting for 1200 calories a day and I think today I landed around 1000 which is VERY VERY unusual for me. What works for me is to not write down what I ate but to write down each morning what I WILL eat. I was so busy at work today that I didn't have time to eat lunch until 2 something and then I figured it was too close to dinner to eat lunch so I snacked on some baby carrots and fresh broccoli. LOVE IT! I have been eating Healthy Choice meals for lunch and supper which make it easy to keep track of calories.
So, thanks to answered prayer, today was a success. My first step on this ride. I am thankful that God distracted me enough to not have my mind on food to much today. One day down, about 59 to go.