Just. Breathe.

In most ways, this week has not given the results I wanted. Instead of starting on the 8 pound loss, I've gained two pounds. Guess losing an even 10 works better? Whatever... Granted, this was a hormonal ToM, and I could blame that. Done. I have done the planned 30-Day Shred (Jillian is Satan) every day, though, and my arms are killing me. I did take myself up to Level 2 pretty quickly because I'm an idiot I've done Level 1 several times before, just never for 30 full days. Level 2 has these things called walk-out pushups (or something like that) where you start from standing, bend and walk on your hands out to pushup position, do a pushup, then walk back and stand up. Who makes up these ridiculous moves? The weather has been awful and I'm a weather-wuss, so no running yet. It's supposed to stop raining tomorrow, and maybe get above 50 degrees, so perhaps I'll make the dog happy and get outside again. I obviously have to do something different if I'...

How fun is this? Bug found one of these on Pinterest and hounded me until we made one. I have such a newfound respect for those people who create entire months' worth of menus at once -- I feel completely accomplished if I get one week done! This is actually what we're doing this week. I've gotten chicken and beef out of the freezer in time to thaw without the microwave! Win! The cards are mostly color-coded -- red for beef, blue for fish...pretty much like those flexible cutting boards sold in a pack. The orange circle means I need to do some prework -- in the case of Monday's menu item, it was actually the side dish that needed to start early. Gray circle means grill -- R Dub is involved, requires preheating the grill. The little boxes hold blank cards, and the ones with other items to choose. For this week, R Dub picked through for his preferences, Bug added her input, then I made the decision -- total democracy. I do so much better when I have a plan -- w...

I'm so embarrassed I only had four posts in September! What is wrong with me? Work has been crazy busy, so maybe that's my excuse. I think it's more about not feeling I had anything new to share. People with toddlers are way funnier bloggers. Anyway, today I start again with the weekly weigh ins. Last week was actually the end of my 30-day (abandoned) experiment, but I did manage to (mostly) stay off the scale. Right now, I feel fat -- but that's temporary, I'm sure. Here's the deal. I'm not counting calories or points, so I can't report on how I've done with that. I eat Paleo -- that's either a do or a not-do thing. I need to reset my expectations - for this blog, for what I measure -- because otherwise I'll never have anything to write about. What I have done: Tried some awesome new recipes -- Paleo baked apples, zucchini noodles, salmon patties, bacon-wrapped meatloaves, butternut squash,  and homemade creamer for my coffee, ...

Twelve weeks. Three months. Eighty-six days so far on this journey. Feels like a milestone of sorts. Let's see... In only one of those weeks did I show a gain. And only twice stayed the same. I've stayed focused for the most part; those moments of really wanting to binge on something (Cheetos!) have been rare, and I'm usually able to make do with a few bites instead of 3 servings We've saved a small fortune by not eating out. Between running, walking, and using the elliptical, I've logged somewhere around 100 miles. That's about 9 a week. I drank enough water to float the ark. I finished a 5K in under 40 minutes and ran the entire distance. I now fit into three more pairs of pants I had stuck back in my closet. And I'm buying a size smaller shirt. As of today's weigh in, I've lost 15.1 pounds. I have 47 pounds to go. I think I really needed to take time to write this out for myself. While I'd love to say I've lost 30 pounds, that...

I tried an experiment. I've been stuck for a couple weeks, so I changed a few things last week to try to jump start weight loss again. I've also contended for the last few months that the day I weigh in matters, but I couldn't really prove it. I'm sure that scientifically it all evens out. But when discouragement sets in, the result can't be good. Yesterday (Monday, my usual weigh in day) I dutifully got on the scale in the morning. After being stuck for two weeks, I was down .4 pound. (There's a decimal point in front of that four.) That annoyed me a little. Just the day before, the scale had shown a much greater loss, so I decided to try something. Sundays are challenging -- I'm not home for a good portion of the day, getting my water in is difficult, and it is usually a rest day from working out. I try not to eat poorly, but if there's going to be a restaurant in my week, it's likely to be on Sunday afternoon. So my theory was that the numb...