168.4 Last Keep Trim Day

I maintained my weight perfectly yesterday and still weigh 168.4! I was all set to go on our walk, but Scott was gung ho to go to the sale at Big 5. We bought me these new pretty purple plaid house shoes that I will keep on when I use the Lifestyler stair step exercise machine. I think I will also tape up my ankles before I use it for awhile. Thanks for the suggestion, Mom.


Happy New Year, everyone! Here is what I ate yesterday and maintained my weight, with just 15 minutes on the stair stepper and no walk:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk,
Black unsweetened coffee
1/4 Dinner plate Costco combo pizza,
1/2 can Campbell's Select Harvest Healthy Request Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla Soup
Diet Coke
Baked chicken, onion and carrots
Lots of water
1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart

168.4 Keep Trim Day 15

I walked a mile with the dogs yesterday, and then another two miles with Scott later on in the day. It was the first time he had come out walking with me since he slipped and broke his arm, about 6 weeks ago. His arm is getting much better.

I love this pair of size 12 Anne Klein jeans that Mom sent in her hand-me-down Christmas box! These are the only women's jeans that fit me properly. Usually the hips are too tight and the waist is too loose. These are perfectly proportioned for a real woman!

I am having so much fun downloading free books from Amazon onto my new Kindle Keyboard 3G! It's a new marketing scheme all the publishers are using. The books are free when they first come out, and a lot of people post about them being free and read them and post on Facebook how they like the book. When they think they have enough publicity they start charging for the book. This takes a different amount of time for each book. It could take a month or just a few hours.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still lost .4 pounds on keep trim eating, because I walked three miles:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Half a dinner plate of combo pizza from Costco, Diet Coke

Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, cauliflower, yellow pepper and carrots, lots of water

2 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts

168.8 Keep Trim Day 14

Still holding steady well below my target keep trim weight of 171.4. I weigh 168.8 today. I walked the dogs 2/3 of a mile yesterday.

I am extending this keep trim eating period for the New Year's Eve party we're going to. It will be casual, just a potluck and board games. A potluck means I want to be able to taste everything people bring, though. My plan is to taste everything, but eat very little. That is straight out of Dr. Tarnower's book about the Scarsdale Medical Diet.

I love this picture! Here I am in skinny cut size 12 jeans that Mom sent. I love this pink top, too. It is so comfy! I look like a normal person: not fat and not skinny. The relief I feel in lack of headaches and lack of general soreness in my feet and ankles is the true reward, though.

My right Achilles Tendon is almost healed from when I stretched it too far, too fast the other day on our Lifestyler stair step exerciser. Thank you for the suggestion to wear good exercise shoes while I am on the stair stepper. I don't really understand how they can help me not stretch my Achilles Tendon too far, but they can't hurt. Maybe if I wore some high tops with ankle support they could prevent me from hyper extending.

Here is what I ate yesterday, and managed to lose .2 pounds on keep trim eating:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
4 slightly burnt decorated sugar Christmas cookies
Half a dinner plate of combo pizza from Costco, Diet Coke
Salmon patty, 2 cups steamed broccoli, cauliflower, yellow pepper and carrots

169.0 Keep Trim Day 13

Doing awesome at 169.0 pounds when my goal for this keep trim eating period is 171.4! Here I am in this photo in grey hand-me-down office pants in size 12, courtesy of Mom, who is now a size 6 and weighs 128! She is shorter than I, so that size looks good on her. You can tell she is my mom, though, because our legs are exactly the same length and we wear exactly the same size shoe.

After dinner last night I had a craving for cookies. Wouldn't you know, I remembered the slightly burnt Christmas cookies we had set aside to be dog treats. They didn't seem quite so burnt as they did when I had 6 dozen unburnt cookies at hand. I ate three and they were yummy! There are a few left, and I might have them with my coffee this morning.

We prayed and prayed for temperatures above freezing last night and this morning so that we wouldn't have to drive through ice or snow to take Scott to the doctor this morning. Praise God, it has been in the 40's this whole time! This is just a general practitioner visit today. Next week he starts physical therapy for his arm, so we will be praying for non-freezing weather on Jan 5th, too.

Here is what I ate yesterday and only gained .2 pounds on this keep trim day:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
Leftover baked chicken, onion and carrots, Diet Coke
Another brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
1 can Campbell's Healthy Choice Beef Soup (1 can = 2 servings)
3 slightly burnt decorated sugar Christmas cookies, caffeine-free tea

168.8 Lost .2 Pounds One Day on Keep Trim

I lost .2 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating, and now weigh 168.8! In this picture I am tossing all the Christmas present wrapping paper while wearing Mom's hand-me-down pink shirt and the slippers she sent me. You can see our new cross stitch decoration hanging on the TV cabinet over my head.

All the size 12 hand-me-downs that Mom sent fit well! I now have 8 pair of pants that fit. Some of them are too cool for our winter weather here, though. It's still nice to have them! I also have 6 size 10 hand-me-downs waiting in the closet until I can fit in them.

I still have a bit of my cold, but it is getting better. My right heel is a bit sore from being too "gung ho" on the stair step exercise machine yesterday. I figured out how to strap my Kindle to the front of it so I could listen to it read me a book while I exercised. Consequently, I exercised for 12 minutes straight. This is about 6 times as long as I usually stay on the stair stepper. I will have to be more careful not to pull my Achilles' Tendon when I do this. It's a great way to exercise, though, especially when I am sick and don't want to go out in the snow.

We have two inches of fresh snow this morning. It looks beautiful, but I hope it melts before we have to drive to Scott's doctor appointment tomorrow morning.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .2 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 can Campbell's Select Harvest Healthy Choice Italian Style Wedding Soup, Diet Coke
1 hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed broccoli, lots of water
Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk

169.0 Keep Trim Day 11

It must be Christmas magic. I lost a pound yesterday even though the neighbor gave us a dozen frosted Christmas cookies just when I was relieved we had finished eating the ones I made! He says he made 1,000 of these and passed them out to the neighborhood.

He wants us to call him if we have a birthday and want a cake decorated. I won't be doing that, but here is my free advertisement for his work. It is beautiful! Reminds me of Peeta from "The Hunger Games" series of books by Suzanne Collins.

Maybe fighting off this cold helped me lose my pound yesterday. I sure didn't consciously fight very hard. I fell asleep at 6pm, woke up for an hour at midnight, and then slept till 7 am!

Up until I fell asleep, I was having lots of fun making my new Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G read to me! It read Ezekiel 29 to me and then most of Jane Austen's novel, "Persuasion."

At first I sampled one of the Audible Books, because I read they have better inflection. I much prefer the normal books that have "text-to-speech" enabled. That way, I can read the words myself as the Kindle reads them aloud. With the Audible books, the words do not appear on the screen. I find I comprehend better if I both hear and see the words, especially while reading my Bible. I paid $6 for the electronic Bible I loaded on my Kindle. All of Jane Austen's novels have passed out of copyright and are free. (Author's life plus 75 years)

Here is all the junk I ate yesterday and still lost a pound through Christmas magic, even without walking:

Small bowl of  Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
4 frosted sugar Christmas cookies
1 can Campbell's Healthy Request Chunky Old Fashioned Beef Soup (1 can = 2 servings)
Another brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart
Leftover baked chicken, onions and carrots, caffeine-free tea
2 more frosted sugar Christmas cookies

170.0 Merry Christmas!

My keep-trim goal is 171.4 and today I weigh 170.0. I am 1.4 pounds heavier than yesterday. I did not walk the dogs yesterday, and that is probably most of why I gained weight.

Yesterday afternoon I came down with a cold from being out in the 20 degree weather all day Friday on that theater assignment. My nose is runny and I am sneezing. I had to cancel my Christmas singing at both churches. This morning I awoke with a scratchy throat. I am drinking hot coffee and that feels great on my throat.

All our Christmas cookies are gone, and the Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars, yay! They were fun while they lasted and I am really happy and amazed that I could incorporate them into my diet and not blow it! A planned cheat on my diet rules. No guilt.

We received some Christmas money in the mail Thursday, so yesterday we went shopping at Best Buy! We got an eInk eReader: the Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G with special offers. Here it is in this picture with a special offer for that Tattoo movie in my theater assignment. I downloaded all my favorite Jane Austen novels on it for free. They are so old they are out of copyright. We also got a Sony Tablet.

It had started snowing when we went out to the car, and it was a little slippery driving home. I was driving and I got a nice shot of adrenaline. We figure if we had stayed in the store 5 more minutes we would not have made it home. Only Scott knows how to put the chains on the tires, and he can't right now with his injured arm. All this happened before I started sniffling and sneezing yesterday.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

the last chocolate from my Advent calendar

Half a dinner plate of combo pizza from Costco, Diet Coke

1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart, caffeine-free tea

Baked chicken, onions and carrots, caffeine-free tea

Another brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart

168.6 Lost 1.6 Pounds in One Day

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating! It turns out the Mexican food at The Green Onion (a subsidiary of Carl's Junior) is not nearly so full of sodium as Qdoba's food (a subsidiary of Jack in the Box). I had two tasty chicken enchiladas yesterday, but no sodium bloat!

Yesterday I was working at a top secret job and saw "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It would have been a decent murder mystery if they just stuck with Daniel Craig's parts and left out the dragon girl. As it was, she got raped and took revenge. I could have done without those parts. They made the movie unnecessarily long, too -- two and a half hours.

It was cold in the theater, and as you pointed out Mom, keeping warm probably helped me burn off some extra calories. I just hope I don't get sick. I did go out to my car and crank up the heater in between showtimes. I only watched the whole movie once. Other than that, I only had to stay for the first half hour.

I walked the dogs their mile in the park before I left for the theater. Here is what I ate yesterday and lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 23 chocolate from my Advent calendar and December 22 from Scott's
1 200 calorie Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bar
1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke
1 cup raw carrots as a theater snack
2 chicken and cheese enchiladas at The Green Onion ($2.16, a third of a dinner plate)

170.2 Keep Trim Day 8

I did a perfect job keeping the weight off yesterday and stayed at 170.2. I walked a mile. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries, and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 22 chocolate from my Advent calendar
raw carrots and Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke
Leftover baked chicken, onion and carrots, caffeine-free tea
1 Hostess Fruit Pie, apple flavor

170.2 Keep Trim Day 7

Here is a picture of the Parmesan spinach dip I often have for lunch, with raw carrots. We get both at Costco. The Parmesan spinach dip is in the deli section next to the dairy refrigerator. It costs about $6 for 30 ounces. It has sort of high sodium, so now I limit a meal to one serving of this dip, which is 2 tablespoons, and then fill up on carrots.

I keep a small plastic container in the door of my refrigerator, just for packing this dip in my lunch. I also keep a small baggie in my crisper next to the larger baggie that these baby carrots come in, at Costco.

"Carrots and Parmesan spinach dip" is such an easy lunch to pack! I throw the small container of dip and the baggie of carrots in my lunch bag, top with an ice packet, throw in some bottles of water, and I'm done. My lunch is packed in less than a minute.

For the first time in my life, I went door to door Christmas caroling last night! I went with my Bible study group, which includes the elder pastor. We brought the young couple's kids along in a wagon. We handed out flyers inviting the neighbors to our Bible study and to our church for Christmas services. It was really fun and the neighbors really enjoyed it. Many of them gave us cookies. The young couple served cookies and hot apple cider when we returned to their home afterward to warm up. All those cookies did me in, hehe! Apparently the cookie diet only goes so far. I loved it, though.

I'm up 1.2 pounds to 170.2, but that is OK. This keep trim eating period's maintenance weight is 171.4. Success means finishing the keep trim period at or below 171.4. So far, so good! I walked more than 2 miles yesterday. My size 12 corduroy pants are getting loose.

Here is all I ate yesterday:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
December 21 chocolate from my Advent calendar
4 decorated sugar Christmas cookies
(2 mile walk)
2 cups steamed broccoli with 1/3 cup grated Mexican Blend cheese melted over it, Diet Coke
4 decorated sugar Christmas cookies
1 Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bar
(Shopping at 2 big box stores)
Leftover baked chicken, onion and carrots, caffeine-free tea
2 decorated sugar Christmas cookies
(over to my friends' to get ready for carolling)
3 chocolate chip cookies
(caroling out in the freezing night for an hour)
2 cups hot apple cider and one chocolate chip cookie

No more parties until Saturday and Sunday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Today we take Scott to the orthopedist. Tomorrow I have a theater assignment for the movie "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

169.0 Lost 1.4 Pounds in One Day Eating Cookies

I lost 1.4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 169.0! I cheated a bunch, too: I lost count at 12 decorated sugar Christmas cookies. Well, I also walked two miles yesterday and did about 5 minutes on the stair step exercise machine, if you take them all together.

No, I did not expect to lose weight by eating more than 12 cookies. It was a planned cheat on my diet during keep trim eating. I was indulging.

But now that I see this result, I remember that lately, on low-carbohydrate message boards, I have heard people say they lose more when they eat more, after a long period of eating less.

I don't pretend to understand the science of it. I only know I ate more than a dozen sugar cookies made with butter and decorated with more sugar yesterday -- and lost 1.4 pounds.

I did not eat anything in the time period that started two hours before I went to bed. I walked a mile before lunch and then another mile an hour after lunch. I have read various theories on how this timing matters or doesn't matter. I am just adding this data to my record in case it might be significant.

Here is all I ate yesterday, and lost 1.4 pounds on keep trim eating:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 20 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 slice of Christmas bread

5 decorated Christmas sugar cookies

(1 mile walk)

2 cups steamed broccoli with 1/3 cup grated Mexican Blend cheese melted over it in the microwave,
Diet Coke

5 decorated sugar Christmas cookies

(1 mile walk)

Baked chicken, onion and carrots, caffeine-free tea

At least 2 more decorated sugar Christmas cookies

171.4 Keep Trim Day 5

I did it! I stayed at 171.4! Keeping the weight off is getting easier and easier, praise God! Here is a picture Scott took of me yesterday, wearing one of his extra large sweaters. I thought it looked Christmasy until I saw the sniper movie poster behind me, hehe!

A couple from our smaller church invited us to a New Year's Eve party at their home, near ours! It is perfect for us: she said to bring our favorite potluck dish and our favorite board game. I only hope Scott feels well enough to come with me, but I got his blessing to go without him, if he doesn't. I am so looking forward to it!

I am extending this keep trim eating period two days, to accommodate the New Year's Eve party. The diet rules only say not to stay on the diet longer than two weeks. The rules don't say anything about not staying on keep trim eating longer than two weeks. It can't, because the idea is after you are at your target weight you stay on keep trim eating indefinitely.

Here is what I ate yesterday and maintained my weight at 171.4:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 18 and 19 chocolates from my Advent calendar

1 slice of German Christmas bread

Three cups of steamed broccoli with 1/2 cup grated cheese melted over it, Diet Coke

Half a dinner plate of combination pizza from Cosco's snack bar

Lots of water

three decorated Christmas sugar cookies

171.4 Keep Trim Day 4

Yay! I lost .4 pounds yesterday and I am back to my keep-trim maintenance weight of 171.4! I walked one and a third miles with the dogs in the almost snow. I did a few spurts on the stair step exercise machine.

Last night we had a recital at the smaller church we go to. We had our sister church over and both choirs sang. I was in our choir and I had lots of fun singing. Afterward, we served the Christmas cookies that all the ladies in our church had brought.

I brought most of those Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars and a dozen decorated sugar cookies. At first, I got away with not eating anything. I just made myself a cup of Good Earth Tea (which I also brought) and walked around socializing.

But then a lady from our church asked if I had tried her Christmas bread. I had to admit I had not yet tried it. She saw that I tried some and then she put three more slices in my Tupperware to take home! Here are the two remaining slices, in this picture. I had one slice after breakfast just now. She has a heavy German accent, and she says this is German Christmas bread. It has raisins, cranberries and small chocolate pieces in it. It is light and quite tasty.

Here is what I ate yesterday and managed to lose .4 pounds to get back down to my keep-trim maintenance weight of 171.4:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Half a dinner plate of ham, 1 cup steamed carrots, Diet Coke

Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, caffeine-free tea

1 slice of German Christmas bread

171.8 Keep Trim Day 3 of 14

I maintained my weight perfectly yesterday and still weigh 171.8. In other words, I am keeping the weight off!

Here is a picture of the Almond Roca Butter Crunch Bars I made Friday and am bringing to this evening's church recital reception. The bottom layer is cookie dough and butter, baked 16 minutes. The next layer is homemade butterscotch. The top layer is crumbled almond Roca. They are 200 calories per bar! I ate two of these on Friday, and I think that is why I gained .4 pounds on Friday.

I walked my mile yesterday with the dogs and then Scott came out with me for a short walk down the alley and back. It was the first time he ventured out of the house since he broke his arm. He says he might come to church with me this morning.

I had planned on indulging in a maple bar this morning at church, but alas the .4 pounds did not come off yesterday as I thought it would. No cookies or treats for me until it does come off.

Here is what I ate yesterday and maintained my weight at 171.8:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 17 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

Half a dinner plate of Costco combo pizza, black cherry seltzer water

Lots of water

171.8 Keep Trim Day 2 of 14

We baked Christmas cookies yesterday! We made traditional decorated sugar cookies and Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars. I ate a bunch of them and am happy -- and I gained .4 pounds which I will lose today.

I am going to bring most of the Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars to a church function this Sunday. They are ridiculously good but at 200 calories per serving they are too rich for my blood!

I walked my mile with the dogs in the semi snow. There is snow leftover on the ground in the baseball diamond of the park. It hasn't melted there. There are also chunks of ice in the grass. It is colder in the park than it is on the street.

Here is what I ate yesterday, the first keep trim day of this cycle, and gained .4 pounds:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

The December 15 chocolate from my Advent calendar

A combo slice of pizza at Costco, with Tropicana light lemonaid

Leftover Chicken and Onion, caffeine-free tea

2 Almond Roca Butter Crunch Cookie Bars, 2 decorated sugar cookies

171.4 Keep Trim Day 1 of 14

I stayed at 171.4 from yesterday to today, and this is my maintenance weight for this 14 day keep trim eating period. It is OK if I go up a pound or two, so long as I go right back down. Keep trim eating is about keeping the weight off.

Scott took this picture of me a few minutes ago. I am laying out the butter to get soft so we can bake Christmas cookies! I took myself off assignments for today, so Christmas break has begun!

Shopping at thrift stores, I can afford to reward myself with clothes, for staying on my diet. In this picture I am wearing size 12 corduroy pants that I bought at the Salvation Army Thrift Store last week. Every month I am in a new size, so these second hand clothing stores are a Godsend for me. I can't afford new clothes every month! It would also be such a waste to buy new clothes one month and then discard them the next. I only buy gently used items. It honestly feels like getting new clothes.

I was going to buy all new clothes once I reached my goal weight of 145, but now I think I might just continue to shop at used clothing stores. As my husband pointed out, I won't feel as guilty if I do gain back weight and can no longer fit into my thrift store clothes. I don't think that will happen, but it is a good consideration. Also though, the thrift stores employ local people, reuse resources and contribute to worthy causes.

I walked more than a mile yesterday. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 15 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

Chicken and Onion with baked carrots, caffeine-free tea

1 pizza snack

171.4 Diet Day 14 of 14

No fair! I am finally off my weight loss plateau, but this is the last diet day for this cycle and I only lost .6 pounds yesterday.

This is a picture Scott took of me just now, wearing one of my new size medium shirts. I am substitute teaching computer assisted drafting for a half day today. I am wearing this burgundy shirt with light grey corduroy pants. I just got called to finish the day in the drama class, too!

It snowed again last night and everything is dusted in white. It is very pretty. It should not affect the roads for driving, not enough for that.

Tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break starts next week! Two weeks of carefree living without worrying if there might be a call at 5:30 am to come in to work!

We have decided to plan on baking our Christmas cookies on Saturday, in case I get called in to work tomorrow. I am in a recital Sunday evening at the smaller of the two churches we belong to right now. Everyone is bringing Christmas cookies to share with the members of our sister church, who are coming to see our Christmas recital.

Here is what I ate yesterday and finally lost .6 pounds after a three-day weight loss plateau:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Cheat: December 14 chocolate from my Advent calendar

3 cups of steamed broccoli with 1/2 cup grated cheese melted over it in the microwave for 25 seconds, Diet Coke

Cheats: Samples at Costco: Applet, cube of Irish cheese, half a mozzarella stick, bite of taquito

Salmon patty, 8 steamed Brussels sprouts, black cherry seltzer water

172.0 Diet Day 13 of 14

I'm still on this weight loss plateau and weigh 172.0. I walked two miles yesterday. There is snow on the ground this morning, so I took myself off substitute teaching assignments. Scott can't put the chains on the tires with his broken arm, and I don't feel confident to do it properly.

I do have a half day substitute teaching assignment for tomorrow already. The week before Christmas break is the second-most difficult week to substitute. The week before summer is the most difficult. My assignment for tomorrow is in an elective, computer assisted drafting, so it should be fun and easy.

Here is what I ate yesterday and only managed to keep the weight off, not lose any weight, even with walking two miles:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 13 chocolate from my Advent calendar

3 cups steamed broccoli with 1/2 cup grated cheese melted over it, Diet Coke

Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed carrot sticks, caffeine-free tea

lots of water

172.0 Too Fat To Wear Wedding Ring

My wedding ring and engagement ring almost fit. That was the saddest thing about my weight gain: not being able to wear the wedding ring Scott put on me when we got married. I have made do with other rings, but it is not the same. Soon I will be able to wear my "real" wedding ring, and on special occasions I will be able to get my engagement ring on. (Updated later with a photo of my wedding ring on!)

Another weight loss plateau: I walked more than a mile yesterday and only cheated a tiny bit, yet I remain at 172.0.

Below is a picture Scott took a few days ago, of me in one of the T shirts he used to wear on the submarine. He wasn't in the food service division, but he had to fill in there sometimes. Those of you who knew Scott then know how tiny skinny he was. Look, I fit in these T shirts! I wear them around the house all the time now. They are the only T shirts I have that are not huge on me.

Even though I am at a weight loss plateau, I can tell the diet is having an effect. My weight is redistributing itself in good ways. The pants I bought just a few days ago are fitting better in all the right places. They do say muscle weighs more than fat.

Here is all I ate yesterday and only managed to keep the weight off, not lose, even walking more than a mile:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee  
December 12 chocolate from my Advent calendar (cheat)
1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke  
1 Tator Tot (cheat -- the lunch lady brought these out for the table where I was sitting with all the custodians!)
Leftover Chicken and Onion with carrots, caffeine-free tea

Edited months later to Add:

It feels like a night and day difference, wearing a real wedding ring instead of just whichever ring I had in my jewelry box that fit the ring finger on my left hand. I substitute teach, and a student even asked me how long I had been married, when I first showed up with a real wedding ring on my finger. He looked kind of surprised and puzzled when I told him I have been married 17 years. True, the ring is not the marriage, but it sure is a powerful image that tells people I am married.

I was too fat to wear my wedding ring for ten years -- so long that I lost it. I had to buy another one because I could not remember where I put it. The good news is that my new wedding ring is smaller than my original ring was! I got down to my goal weight of 145 in early march of 2012 and a month later I am still keeping the weight off.

I used to be too embarrassed to tell people why I took my wedding ring off. Now I am almost 50 years old and heck with being embarrassed. I bet I am not the only one who had to take a wedding ring off because of weight gain. If you have had to take yours off, keep track of it! Don't lose it. I am not going to name any specific place for you to put it because thieves read the Internet, too. Just keep a record of where you put it. Don't lose it! Losing my wedding ring is not as sad as being too fat to wear it, but it comes close.

My husband is much more sentimental that I am. He was really upset that I lost my ring. He was even happier than I was when I finally got down to my goal weight so that it made sense to buy a new one, though!

172.0 Diet Day 11 of 14

I lost .4 pounds yesterday and weigh 172 even today! I walked my mile with the dogs first thing after finishing this blog yesterday. I knew I had a busy day and I wouldn't walk when I got home.

Yesterday I helped our pastor lead all the songs at church! It was so fun and I felt overjoyed to be of service. He is from Appalachia and a few of the Christmas carols he picked I hadn't ever heard before he sent them to me on YouTube: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” and “One Small Child.” They are both beautiful songs and I am glad I learned them.

After that service I had an errand in town, and then I was due at the other church we are attending, for Christmas choir practice! That went well. We have two performances coming up there: one Sunday Dec 18 at 6 pm and the other on Christmas Eve.

I wore a size 12 outfit that Mom had mailed to me from her vast store of clothes that are too big for her. I also wore the soft white scarf she brougt me from her travels a few years ago. I got many compliments on it! I'm wearing these slacks again today to substitute teach in high school chemistry. They are a loose size 12, and soon they will be too big!

Here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to lose .4 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 11 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

Chicken and Onion with carrots, caffeine free tea

Lots of water

172.4 Comfy Size 12!

I lost .4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 172.4. I walked my mile. I spent $15 at the Salvation Army Thrift Store and now have two warm size 12 pairs of corduroy pants and two size medium pairs of sweat pants -- one with the US Marines logo on it, Hoo Yeah!

Shopping is so fun now that I am a common size. It used to be I would slink into the store and hope to find one or two things that fit. Yesterday I found two whole racks of size 12 and could pick and choose only the things I liked that fit.

I am still 27.4 pounds away from my goal weight of 145, so I only bought 4 size 12 items. When I weigh 145 I will be at least a size 10, maybe even a size 8. Either way, that is a size medium! I have already bought two size medium pajamas and two size medium sweatpants. The pajamas are comfortable. The sweats are snug right now.

I want to emphasize that looks and clothes are not why I am losing this weight. Looks and clothes are just an extra added benefit. (A really fun one, though!)

I am losing this weight for my health. I had terrible headaches when I weighed 240. Mom says it was probably from high blood pressure. How scary is that? I have not had a headache since June! Also, my ankles used to hurt if I stood up for more than a few minutes, let alone walked. That was a problem whenever I had a substitute teaching assignment. Now, I can stand all day and I get tired but I don't ache. I am sure walking a mile every day is helping to build up my strength at the same time that dieting is helping to reduce my weight.

Here is what I ate yesterday and managed to lose .4 pounds, along with walking a mile:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 10 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 salmon patty, 1 cup raw carrot sticks, Diet Coke

3 cups steamed broccoli, 1/2 cup grated Mexican Blend cheese melted over the broccoli

2 quarts of Spokane River water (The water here is the best I have ever tasted.)

172.8 Lost .6 Pounds in One Day

Back down to 172.8! Yay, I lost .6 pounds yesterday! Now that this latest sodium crisis is over, I want to lose down to 169 before this diet period is over! I really should be at 169 after five more days on the diet. It would be great to add a 169 photo to my photo gallery for December!

I walked two miles yesterday, in two separate walks. The dogs were confused at first when I took them out a second time, but they soon became elated. I let one chase a squirrel in the park. It was the most excitement he had seen in months. I am also continuing to get on the stair step exercise machine whenever I get my urges to run in the house. For those who don't know me, these urges come when I get excited about something I have just heard, read, written or said.

I did some more activity around the house, too. We put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. We didn't put the lights on it. Scott couldn't help at all with his broken right arm and the lights were more of a challenge than I wanted to take on. But the tree is assembled and hung with all our unique ornaments from friends and loved ones. We are really glad we put it up. Getting up and out of my chair every hour to do something around the house is really helping me to build exercise into my day without it seeming like exercise.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .6 pounds in one day:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 9 chocolate off my Advent calendar

Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, Diet Coke

Half a portion of leftover Chicken and Onion with carrots too, 7 steamed Brussels sprouts

Lots of water!

I have decided to drink water in the evenings, instead of caffeine-free diet soda or seltzer water. We'll see how well I do with that. It should be cheaper, in addition to being healthier. What decided me was when I realized my berry seltzer water smells like cough syrup. Nauseating!

173.4 Diet Day 8 of 14

Gggrrr! I stuck to the diet yesterday and watched my sodium and walked my mile and I GAINED .2 pounds! What is up with that? Well, I did cheat a little, eating my Advent chocolate and drinking a glass of soy milk before bed. That should not have been enough for me to gain, though?

I guess this is another weight loss plateau. Maybe it was brought on by the sodium in the Qdoba dinner I had the other day. I found some reduced-sodium canned soup at Winco, by Campbell's. It has 410 mg sodium per serving and there are two servings in a can. I bought one of each of the 6 that looked good. Scott and I can try them and then stock up on the ones we like. We are trying to stock up canned food for emergencies, but I didn't want to have a bunch of sodium that I didn't want to eat.

Here is what I ate yesterday and managed to gain .2 pounds without even having much of anything fun:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries (OK, those are fun!), 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

December 8 chocolate from my Advent calendar (OK, more fun!)

Leftover Chicken and Onion, Diet Coke

Hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 9 steamed Brussels sprouts, berry seltzer water (0 calories, 0 sodium, 0 caffeine, 0 sweetener)

1 cup of soy milk before bed (This may be what did me in. I have not been taking any calories two hours before bed. My stomach was unsettled, though, and this sounded so good. Plus, Mom has been after me to eat more calcium.)

173.2 Diet Day 7 of 14

I ate Qdoba fast food for dinner last night and gained .4 pounds of water weight from all the sodium Qdoba puts in their food. I only ate 1/3 of their meal! There was enough salt in 1/3 of a Qdoba meal for me to retain .4 pounds of water weight! Unbelievable!

Qdoba bills itself as a healthy fast food place. They grill all their meat so it is low in fat. A friend complained about how salty the food was, one of the first times I ate at Qdoba. I had only been watching my weight a few weeks and my taste buds had not yet adjusted to a low sodium diet. She was right, though! Qdoba, there is no sense in billing yourself as a healthy fast food place when you put all this sodium in your food.

I walked my mile yesterday. Here is what I ate:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee

The December 7 chocolate from my Advent calendar

Chicken and Onion with baked carrots, Diet Coke

1/3 of a naked Pork Ancho BBQ Burrito from Qdoba, no sour cream, no cheese, 2 cups of steamed broccoli, black cherry seltzer water

172.8 Lost 1.6 Pounds in One Day

I lost 1.6 pounds yesterday, and now I weigh 172.8. I walked my mile. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

The December 5 and 6 chocolates from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

1 salmon patty, 1 cup steamed broccoli, black cherry seltzer water

 Edited Later to Add:

I am now done with my diet and am maintaining my new weight of 145. In all, I lost 95 pounds!

Here are before and after photos. On the left you see me and my husband on the 4th of July in 2011. On the right here we are Easter 2012. On the left, I weighed 220 or so. On the right I weigh 148 or so.

In all, it took me 10 months to lose those 95 pounds. I dieted for two weeks and then took two weeks just keeping the weight off and giving my body a chance to get out of survival mode.

It took me 10 years to gain the weight, so getting the weight off in 10 months was not too bad at all. In addition to changing what I ate, I also had to change the amount of exercise I got every day. I previously did not move around much at all. I sat in front of the computer working all day and read or watched movies all evening. Since last May when I decided to lose those 95 pounds, I have at least walked a mile five days of every week. Some days I walk two or three miles.

I also have exercise equipment in my home -- a stair step exercise machine and a Total Gym. My strategy is to use these during the commercials whenever I watch TV.

I have found that eating prepared foods with too much sodium in them gains me more weight even than eating cookies, pie, and cake gains me. Those are my weaknesses. To avoid eating too much sodium (salt), I cook from scratch half the time now. The other half of my meals, I shop for prepared foods that are low in sodium. I have to read all the food labels, because their idea of low in sodium is not the same as mine. I have to keep my total sodium under 1,000 mg for the day.

174.4 Lost .6 Pounds Cause I Packed a Snack

I lost .6 pounds yesterday! We had to wait through our usual dinner time at the hospital after the x-rays were taken and before our consultation with the doctor. I was so glad I thought to bring the little baggie of carrots I had packed for my lunch. It kept both of us from buying high-calorie snacks from the vending machines. I made us dinner when we got home and we ate at 8pm, 3 hours later than we usually eat.


 It was an eventful day. Scott finally agreed to go see a doctor about his jammed elbow. The x-rays showed a chip fracture. There is really nothing they can do about it, but knowing it is a fracture is reinforcing for him that he needs to take it easy on that arm. The doctor prescribed 800mg Ibuprofen every 8 hours, to take down the inflammation. He says Scott can take that on top of the acetaminophen he is taking for pain.

I walked a mile in the halls during the regular drama teacher's preparation period. Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 cup raw carrots, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

1 cup raw carrots as a snack while held up in the hospital waiting room

1/3 pound hamburger patty, 2 cups steamed broccoli, black cherry seltzer (0 sodium / 0 calories)

I forgot to eat the chocolate from my Advent calendar yesterday, but I ate it this morning!

175.0 Diet Day 4 of 14

I weigh 175 today, so I lost .4 pounds yesterday. I walked my mile. Here is what I ate:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee

leftover Chicken and Onion with carrots, Diet Coke

December 4 chocolate from my Advent calendar, caffeine-free tea

1 salmon patty, 1 cup of raw carrot sticks, caffeine-free diet soda

175.4 Lost 1.3 Pounds Yesterday

I am definitely off my weight loss plateau! I lost 1.3 pounds yesterday. Now, when I say I need to lose 30 pounds to get to my goal of 145, it doesn't sound nearly so daunting as it did when I needed to lose 95! Thank you all so much for all the great support and advice.

I looked at Walmart for salt-free canned soups. There were none to be found there. Where do you get yours? We are stocking up for emergencies as well, and I would just as soon stock up on salt free canned goods. Do they make salt-free canned tuna and chicken as well?

I did walk my mile yesterday. Here is what I ate and still lost 1.3 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 salmon patty, 1 cup cooked carrots, Diet Coke

Chicken and Onion with carrots as well, caffeine-free diet soda

My December 3 chocolate from my Advent calendar, caffeine-free tea

Edited later to Add:

I did later find some reduced sodium canned and frozen dinners at Walmart. The cans were Healthy Request soups by Campbells. The frozen dinners were by Healthy Choice.

176.7 Lost .9 Pounds Yesterday

I lost .9 pounds yesterday. I walked my mile. I substitute taught yesterday. Here is what I ate:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

My December 2 chocolate from my Advent calendar

Half a dinner plate of ham steak, half a dinner plate of steamed carrots

Caffeine-free tea

177.6 Diet Day 1 of 14

I lost .2 pounds yesterday, on my last keep-trim day for this round. I walked my mile yesterday. Here is what I ate:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee

A whole Hostess apple fruit pie

My December 1 chocolate from my Advent calendar

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons spinach / artechoke / garlic / parmesan dip, Diet Coke

1/4 pound hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup cooked carrots, caffeine-free tea

1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart

177.8 Lost 1.6 Pounds Yesterday

Eating salt gains me more weight than eating sugar, it seems like sometimes. I took it easy on the sodium yesterday, but ate the sugar, flour and fat I craved. Look, I lost 1.6 pounds. It was all water weight, of course, but sheesh! I will definitely be getting some of those low-sodium canned soups and frozen dinners. Thank you for the tip!

Some people think eating salt is good for you during hot weather. I learned otherwise in a Human Biology class, way back at Santa Monica College in 1985. Eating salt makes the human body need more water. This is because sodium is an electrolyte. Together with potassium, sodium conducts electricity along your nerve axons. At the time I took this class, the mechanism which balances sodium and potassium in the nerve cells was not entirely understood. It was nicknamed, "The sodium potassium pump." Anyway, eating salt (sodium chloride) makes you need more water.

I walked two miles yesterday. Here is what I ate and still lost 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Half a Hostess apple fruit pie (Can you tell I love these?)

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Coke

1 slice American cheese

Leftover Chicken and Onion with baked carrots, caffeine-free diet soda

Comfy Size 14

I still weigh less than 180! Holding steady today at 179.2. I feel so much better than I did a year ago: my ankles don't hurt at all, I don't get tired standing up all day when I sub, no more headaches! I did walk my mile yesterday, with both dogs. Scott's arm is not well enough yet to help me walk them.

I don't think I could have stuck with the diet so long without these keep trim eating weeks. They are a great break when they come, and they are something to look forward to during the diet weeks. I enjoyed candy at Halloween and pumpkin pie / stuffing / mashed potatoes / gravy at Thanksgiving without the guilt associated with cheating on a diet. Each bit of it was a planned cheat on my diet, so it was guilt-free.

Here is a picture Scott took of me just now, wearing my new MEDIUM shirt and some size 14 pants from Good Will. This is the smallest shirt I am going to get, so I got it new, but I am hoping to get into size 10 pants eventually. There still is some fat around my face, but nothing like there used to be. I can see my ankle bones again, the swelling has gone down so much.

Here is what I ate yesterday and only gained .2 pounds (which I will slough off today!):

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee
1 Banquet frozen dinner: sweet and sour chicken, Diet Dr Pepper
Baked chicken, onion and carrots, caffeine-free diet soda
Half a Hostess apple fruit pie

179 Keep Trim Day 12 of 14

I gained .4 pounds yesterday, so today I am back to my maintenance baseline for this keep trim period: 179. I ate a lot of sodium yesterday, so I assume this is just water weight that will come off automatically if I drink enough water and don't overdo it on the sodium today.

With shopping and mall crawling before my movie started and then walking once round the park with the dogs, all in all I walked at least a mile yesterday. I went for the second time to see "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn." Scott and I had been once the day it came out, but there was so much going on in the movie that I wanted to see it again.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 cup pumpkin pie

Half a dinner plate of pizza, Diet Dr Pepper

1 can Progresso Beef Burgundy soup (1380 mg sodium!!!!)

1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart, caffeine-free tea

178.6 Keep Trim Day 11 of 14

I gained .2 pounds yesterday. I did not walk my mile, and that is probably why I gained. My maintenance weight for this keep trim eating period is 179, so I am doing fine.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup pumpkin pie
Half a dinner plate of pizza, Diet Dr Pepper
1 cup mulled apple cider at Christmas choir practice
Leftover Chicken and Onion with mushrooms and steamed broccoli, caffeine-free diet soda
1 slice of wheat bread with butter

178.4 Keep Trim Day 10 of 14

I lost .4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 178.4! I am pleasantly surprised, as I took just the amount of treats yesterday that satisfied me. I did walk my mile.

I can see how weighing in every day is, far from the chore I imagined it would be, actually a tool that helps keep me on top of maintaining my weight. I don't know why I resisted it for so long. Thank God I adopted the practice and the attitude to lose all this extra poundage while I still can exercise.

Another thing that is weird about this experience is not knowing how clothes are going to fit me from one day to the next. For about the past two years I have either been gaining or losing weight. I now fit into clothes I hadn't worn for 10 years or more. Some of these are even too loose on me. I have had to buy new pajamas because my old PJs were falling off me.

Anyway, here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to not only maintain my weight loss, but to lose another .4 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup of pumpkin pie
Half a dinner plate of pizza, Tropicana Lite Lemonaid
Baked chicken and onion with mushrooms and steamed broccoli, caffeine-free diet soda
1 brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart

178.8 Keep Trim Day 9 of 14

I'm back below 180! I lost 1.4 pounds yesterday. I walked a mile and two-thirds. I just ate the minimum I needed to keep my stomach from growling:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

Handful of raw baby carrots with 2 tablespoons Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Dr Pepper

1 hamburger patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, 7 steamed Brussels sprouts with nothing on them, caffeine-free tea

I drank lots of water yesterday, too. It is tempting to skip the rest of this keep-trim period and go right back onto the diet again. However, Dr Tarnower is adamant that our bodies need these keep trim periods, so I will stick to the schedule of two weeks on the diet and then two weeks of keep trim eating.

180.2 Keep Trim Day 8 of 14

I gained that pound back yesterday, but it is coming right off again today. It was a planned cheat on my diet for Thanksgiving, so I feel no guilt and I relished each and every bite. I did walk my mile yesterday. It was a great Thanksgiving Day.

I woke up and had my usual breakfast of Special K, strawberries, soy milk and black unsweetened coffee. I took both dogs for a mile-long walk in the park. Scott is still staying home to nurse his right hand, but says it is feeling better than it was. He is starting to notice the sprains in his fingers, which he couldn't feel before because of the pain of his jammed elbow. He is afraid to go out because even a light touch on his arm or hand is painful. He likes to keep ice on it through the compression bandage, to help control the swelling, so padding his arm inside the sling won't work.

We had our Marie Callender's turkey TV dinners for lunch with a few Pillsbury crescent rolls. I had Diet Dr Pepper. The TV dinners were only 320 calories, but they had 1180 mg of sodium! Yikes! I had a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert with a pot of decaffeinated Good Earth tea.

We were all set to have another TV dinner for dinner, when our friends came earlier than I had hoped and brought us each a huge plate from the Thanksgiving dinner we were supposed to attend. I had given them a big pumpkin pie and some ice cream that I had bought to bring to the dinner. I was hoping for a plate for the dinner, but I didn't dare expect it, and not in time to have for dinner! That was such a nice surprise!

So, we pigged out on really moist home-cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, great gravy, stuffing, yams, green beans, rolls, and two pieces each of my pumpkin pie!

I am having no extras today, so I am hoping that pound will come right back off and tomorrow I will once again weigh 179.2. I still have 6 keep trim days left in which to accomplish that, if it doesn't happen by tomorrow, so I don't feel bad at all about enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving feast brought by a couple Christmas angels!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I ate breakfast before I remembered to weigh myself today, so we will just have to wait until tomorrow to see how I am doing. I did walk my mile. Here is what I ate yesterday:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 hot dog on a bun with 1 tablespoon mustard and 1 tablespoon dill relish, 1 carrot, Diet Dr Pepper
Half a dinner plate of baked frozen pizza, small green salad with 2 tablespoons light raspberry walnut salad dressing, caffeine-free diet soda

179.2 Keep Trim Day 6 of 14

Woo Hoo! Back down to 179.2! I lost 1.4 pounds yesterday. I did walk my mile, with one of the dogs, in the snow. I also did two 5-minute sets on the stair step exercise machine.

I am wearing my 34 x 30 jeans today! I finally have enough wiggle room in them to be comfortable. I wore my size medium pajamas last night, too. I can pinch a whole inch away from my skin in them.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still lost 1.4 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
Half a cup of parmesan spinach dip, 1 cup raw carrot sticks, Diet Dr Pepper
1 sample bite of taco at Costco
2 small hamburger patties, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed broccoli, caffeine-free tea
5 M&Ms

We received our Advent calendars in the mail yesterday. Thank you, Nancy! I wanted to break mine open right away and have the first chocolate for dessert after dinner. Scott talked me into having 5 leftover Halloween M&Ms instead. He pointed out I would have been disappointed on December 1st if I had eaten that candy now! We always have lots of fun with our Advent calendars, so thank you again!

180.6 Keep Trim Day 5 of 14

I gained .4 pounds yesterday. No extras today. I did walk my mile yesterday. Here is what I ate that was too much to maintain my weight at 180.2:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
Half a dinner plate of pizza, Diet Dr Pepper
Three fish sticks on a bun with tartar sauce, steamed broccoli with 1 tablespoon grated cheese, caffeine-free diet soda
1 Hostess apple fruit pie

180.2 Keep Trim Day 4 of 14, Eggies

I still weigh 180.2, so I am keeping the weight off! Yay! I did walk my mile, in the snow, with a dog. I was deliberate and calculating with everything I ate. It paid off! Yay! I am starting to think I can maintain my weight for life!

I had deviled eggs for dinner. It was the first time I hard boiled eggs with the newfangled Eggies that Scott brought home one day about a month ago. They are shown here in this picture I took with the eggs inside, floating in water inside my stew pot.

On the whole, I do recommend these Eggies things. It is SO much easier to get the hard-boiled eggs out of these, than out of egg shells. I think that is a pun on their name, too: Eggies = Egg Ease.

It was a bit tricky getting the eggs INTO the Eggies. The instructions say to assemble the Eggies except for that small circle on the top with the handle in it. Then, crack the egg into that small hole. Easier said than done! After a few eggs going all over the counter, I changed my strategy. I cracked my eggs into a measuring cup that had a pouring spout. It was easy to pour each egg into its Eggie with the pouring spout.

Here is all I ate yesterday and managed to perfectly maintain my weight, with no gain and no loss:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

1 maple bar at church fellowship

Half a dinner plate of fresh pizza, Diet Dr Pepper

2 deviled eggs (no mayo), green salad with 1 tablespoon Italian salad dressing

1 tablespoon white chocolate raspberry creamer in hot water at Christmas choir practice

180.2 Keep Trim Day 3 of 14

I lost .2 pounds yesterday on keep trim eating, so today I weigh 180.2. My maintenance weight for this keep trim period is 179. I walked my mile yesterday, with both dogs, in the snow.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .2 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
Half a dinner plate of Costco fresh combo pizza, Diet Dr Pepper
1 Hostess apple fruit pie, water
1 large hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed carrot sticks, water

Scott is OK. We called the VA and spoke with a triage nurse who did not think x-rays were needed. She prescribed RICE treatment: rest, ice, compression, elevation. I drove to WalMart in the snow yesterday to get a compression bandage and a sling.

While I was out, I also drove to Costco and got one of their fresh pizzas. My instinct seems to have been correct. Fresh pizza seems to have far less sodium in it than frozen pizza. I also got some Hostess apple fruit pies while I was at Walmart.

180.4 Keep Trim Day 2 of 14

I jumped up 1.4 pounds yesterday? I barely ate any more than I have been eating, and I walked my mile. This is upsetting. I have got to figure out keeping the weight off, how to just stay at a certain weight without gaining or losing. I also refuse to be on a diet every single day of my life, which is why I love the Scarsdale Medical Diet and its "two weeks on, two weeks off" plan.


Here is all I ate yesterday, to gain that 1.4 pounds. Maybe once again it is just bloating from water retention from eating too much sodium. If so, it should come off easily:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 10 oz Tony's Crispy Crust Supreme Pizza (ack! 1160 mg sodium!), Diet Dr Pepper
Cheeseburger on a bun with BBQ sauce, 1 cup steamed carrot sticks, caffeine-free diet soda

Since the 1.4 pounds is probably from too much sodium, I will just limit sodium today and see if the weight comes off in the form of water. If it doesn't by tomorrow I will do diet days until it does come off. This is exactly the type of adjusting that I am supposed to be doing on keep trim days, to learn how to keep the weight off, which is arguably the hardest part.

Scott slipped on the ice and fell on his right arm last night. He says he heard something pop out and back into place. I elevated his arm, put it on ice and gave him a gram of acetaminiphen every few hours. He was able to sleep and he ate this morning. I think he will be OK. His arm is not noticably swollen. He wants to go get it x-rayed today, so I looked up a bunch of places that might be open on Saturday and take VA Health.

179.0 Keep Trim Day 1 of 14

I lost .4 pounds yesterday and now I weigh only 179.0! It's weird, but dieting has gotten me out more and doing things. Part of it's because I feel more presentable. Another part is I have much more energy now that I am not hauling around those extra 60 pounds. Also, my ankles no longer hurt and I don't constantly have a headache.

My goal for the next 14 days is keeping the weight off. I can go up a pound or two so long as I go right back down in the next few days. Scott took this picture of me yesterday. I am starting to have some wiggle room in my 34 x 30 jeans! Next month they should be comfortable.

We just got back from seeing "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1." I meant to see it at midnight last night and I had even drunk Sleepytime tea and taken a nap, but the midnight preview was sold out. Great movie! At least as good as the movie version of Eclipse. Of course, I did not get anything at the snack bar. My breakfast held me through until now that I am home I am heating up some frozen pizza for lunch.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .4 pounds:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, plain coffee
1 salmon patty, 9 steamed Brussels sprouts, caffeine-free diet soda
Baked chicken, onion, mushrooms and carrots, Sleepytime tea

179.4 Diet Day 14 of 14

Yay! I lost .6 pounds yesterday, and I am back under 180! I even cheated on my diet and ate one of Scott's pizza bite snacks. Go figure. I did walk my mile yesterday, even though it was only 17 F outside. I probably looked like a dork in my orange camouflage snow pants and grey snow coat, but I was warm.

The most awesome thing happened yesterday after some students offered me some candy. I declined, explaining "I'm on a diet." This really skinny girl exclaimed, "I could never be on a diet! It sounds so awful!" I told her, "You're not fat, so you don't need to diet." She said, "But you're not fat, either." (!) I think she really meant it. I don't think she was just being nice. Yay! I am not fat anymore!

Here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to lose .6 pounds:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 salmon patty, 2 cups steamed broccoli, Diet Dr Pepper
1 Pappalo's Pizza Snack (cheat, 38 calories)
2 small hamburger patties, 2 cups steamed carrot sticks, unsweetened caffeine-free tea

180 Diet Day 13 of 14

I still weigh 180! Gr! The weight was coming off so easily a few months ago, and now I walk miles and only eat 900 calories and sometimes gain. I am getting frustrated. I did walk yesterday, and more than a mile, too. This is the stubbornest weight loss plateau yet. I am disappointed. I wanted to be at 175 before the next keep-trim period started. This is the toughest time of my whole diet. I can totally see why people give up under circumstances like this.

Fortunately, I have you in my corner! I know you are following along with me and praying for my success. That makes all the difference in the world, and I will carry on.

I just took this picture a minute ago, when I went out to start the car so that it would be defrosted by the time I need to leave for work. Isn't this beautiful? It is just frost on my driver side door's window.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still managed to maintain my weight (against my will) even with walking more than a mile:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee

1 cup raw carrot sticks, 1/2 cup parmesan spinach dip, 2 cans Diet Dr Pepper

Baked chicken and mushrooms, caffeine-free tea with nothing in it

I took it easy on the diet soda yesterday, because of my fear that all the sodium in the soda was causing me to retain water. I guess I could knock off the soda all together, but I don't think it has come to that point yet. I will try walking even more today and see if that makes me lose weight finally and get off this weight-loss plateau.
--------------------------------------------------------------

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180 Jenny & Tyler

I gained .8 pounds yesterday, so I weigh 180 again today. I did not cheat on my diet, either. I am hoping this is just water weight gained from taking in too much sodium. I drank a lot of Diet Dr Pepper yesterday, so that could explain it. I hope it does. I will take it easy on the sodium today and hopefully tomorrow I will weigh 178 and be back on schedule.

I didn't walk yesterday because I taught and then rushed home to eat my soup before we tried to take Scott out for Veteran's Day. We went to a local restaurant that was feeding the veterans for free. We arrived there early, before 5pm, but there was already a line about half a block long outside the restaurant in the freezing cold! We would have stayed anyway, but we had tickets for a concert that started at 6:30.

The Sara Groves "Reason to Gather" concert was wonderful! It was at the beautiful Bing Crosby theater in downtown Spokane. Sara was touring with a young couple who both play guitar, sing and write their own songs, Jenny & Tyler. I liked their music even more than Sara's! Tyler sings melody and Jenny harmonizes beautifully. They sang a few songs that had a Celtic sound that I love. I bought their 2011 Christmas CD "Love Came Down" and their regular 2011 CD, "Faint Not."

I did not walk yesterday, but that should not have made me gain weight. Nothing I ate should have made me gain, either:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup raw carrot sticks, 1/2 cup Parmesan spinach dip, Diet Dr Pepper
2 cups homemade low fat diet chicken soup (with very little salt), caffeine-free tea

[Edited later to add: 1/2 cup was way too much Parmesan spinach dip for one day. A serving is only 2 tablespoons, and has 230 mg of sodium and 100 calories. Part of the lifestyle change from fat person to skinny person is realizing how much of any food is too much. At the time I wrote this blog entry, I had not yet realized this.]

179.2 Diet Day 11 of 14

I lost .6 pounds yesterday, because today I weigh 179.2! I did walk my mile. We also shopped at Costco, which added a bit more walking. I did not eat any samples.

I forgot to add my Costco samples to what I ate the last time we went: a bite of butterscotch Almond Rocha Cookie which was heavenly, and a bite of green bean casserole which I immediately wished I had not taken. I used to like green bean casserole, but it just tasted like dirt to me. My diet is changing my taste buds and I guess I no longer like cream of mushroom soup, which is just fine by me. It is full of empty calories.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still lost .6 pounds:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup raw carrot sticks, 1/2 cup parmesan spinach dip, Diet Dr Pepper
1 salmon patty, 1 cup sauteed mushrooms, caffeine-free diet soda

179.8 Diet Day 10 of 14

Yay! I finally broke 180! I lost .4 pounds yesterday and now weigh 179.8! I did walk yesterday, but only 2/3 of a mile. It was snowing and windy and very cold. Next time I will remember to put on long underwear under my jeans! Now that I am so much thinner that won't even be difficult, with the 36 x 30 jeans that only a few months ago I could not even squeeze into.

Here is what I ate yesterday and lost .4 pounds of this stubborn weight that has been with me 10 years or more:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup soy milk, black unsweetened coffee
1 cup raw carrot sticks, 1/2 cup parmesan spinach dip, Diet Dr Pepper
1 large hamburger patty, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, caffeine-free tea

I have switched from my caffeine-free diet soda in the evening to caffeine-free tea because the soda has some sodium in it. I was losing weight with the soda just fine earlier on, but that was not the stubborn weight that I have had for 10 years or more. I know the sodium makes me retain water weight.

180.2 Diet Day 9 of 14

I lost .8 pounds yesterday, because today I weigh 180.2. I did brave the elements and walk my mile yesterday. I probably shouldn't have, though, because I woke up this morning congested again, in my sinuses. There was also 1/4 inch of snow on the ground this morning.

I won't walk again today, but I have got to do something that raises my heart rate for at least 20 minutes. That much is clear. I have to do aerobic exercise or I am not going to lose any more weight. My plan is to go easy but steady on the stair step exercise machine for as long as I can. So far that has only been 3 minutes, so pray for me! I can go much longer on the Total Gym, but that is not aerobic exercise.

Here is what I ate yesterday and still lost .8 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, strawberries and organic soy milk, black unsweetened coffee

2 cups low fat diet chicken soup, Diet Dr Pepper

1 salmon patty, 9 steamed Brussels sprouts, caffeine-free diet soda

181.0 Diet Day 8 of 14

I weigh 181.0 today, so I lost .4 pounds yesterday. I did not walk my mile, but I did do a few minutes here and there on the stair step exercise machine. My nose still felt a little tickley last night, but in the daytime I feel fine now. I should be back to work next week and I should be able to sing my solo this Sunday with no problem.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

1 cup Special K, 1 cup soy milk, 1 cup strawberries, black unsweetened coffee

2 cups home made low fat diet chicken soup! This was the first time I ever made soup. It was so easy I have no idea why I waited so long to try making it.

2 hamburger patties, 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli