151.2 "Food Should Taste Good" Brand Multigrain Tortilla Chips

I gained 1.6 pounds yesterday and am now 1.3 pounds over my goal weight. Today is a Scarsdale Medical Diet day. I can't blame these new multigrain tortilla chips we got at Costco the other day. I take full responsibility for having eaten them.

Be warned. These chips do taste good, sort of like a cross between corn chips and Wheat Thins. They don't taste quite as intoxicatingly good as Ritz Crackers, but I found them as addicting as potato chips. Once I started eating them, it was very difficult to stop. I find these multigrain chips more difficult to stop eating than regular corn chips.

Grains are dangerous for me. Eating bread, rice, pasta, or other grains only fills me up for a little while, and then makes me crave more of them. I call this flour cravings. Grains have lots of calories, so I usually try to avoid starting this cycle of flour cravings. I eat very little bread, crackers, rice, or pasta.

For exercise yesterday I walked two dogs a mile, in the rain. I also did a few minutes on the stair stepper, and some housework.

Here is what I ate yesterday, and gained 1.6 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, organic soy milk, and blueberries

Chili Dip and too many "Food Should Taste Good" brand multigrain tortilla chips (I ate about 6 servings, 60 chips. Each serving of 10 chips is 140 calories.)
Nature Valley Peanut Sweet & Salty Nut Bar

Baked chicken, onions, carrots and broccoli
2 sliced Gala apples with peanut butter and chocolate chips

151.0 Diet Day 1

I have to admit, every time I go into the teacher's lounge I am hoping to find treats on the table. Yesterday I overindulged in treats and gained almost four pounds. Today is a diet day. I am right back on my "lose a pound a day diet" until I am comfortably within my weight loss goal once again. My goal is 145 to 149.9.

Who knew it was even possible to gain 3.8 pounds in one day? I would have been OK with just one treat. It is hard for me to stop at just one, though. I tell you, eating flour causes flour cravings. I eat one flour-based treat, and half an hour later I am hungry again and craving another flour-based treat. They don't stay with me long at all.

Here is what I ate yesterday:

Fuji apple with peanut butter and dark chocolate chips
Two of these chocolate cupcakes in the forefront, with the white icing and the mini chocolate chips
Leftover gringo tamales
Three of the sugar cookies
Three of the lemon cookies
Three of the white cupcakes at the top of the picture
Beef and bean burrito with salsa
Fuji apple with peanut butter and dark chocolate chips
Two cups of corn tortilla chips
The other half of the bag of Pearson's Mint Patties

I walked briskly for 25 minutes of the regular teacher's preparation period. I also walked my dog 2/3 of a mile when I got home.

147.0 Prefer Substitute Teaching

This is what I am teaching in today. Yeah, I pulled my hair around just for this picture, so that you can see I have hair. Most of the time, my pony tail hangs straight down my back and you can't see it in the pictures. One of the students said yesterday, "You cut your hair!" So, some kids do see substitute teachers as people. Not many, but some do.

The students didn't cook yesterday, so I have no excuse for the .4 pounds I gained. However, I am still inside my weight loss goal of 145 to 149.9. One of the classes will be making Snickerdoodle cookies tomorrow, so I had best take it easy on the calories today. Three of the other classes will be making international dishes on Monday, and my assignment might continue into Monday.

One of the reasons I prefer substitute teaching is planning. The regular teacher has to plan all the lessons and how to grade them and what materials need to be ready when and how to explain all this to the students. That is my least favorite part of teaching. I like interacting with the students, the actual teaching part. My second least favorite part of a teacher's job is recording grades in the computer and printing out all the reports.

With this week-long assignment, I find myself planning out when materials need to be photocopied by and how and when I will announce things to the students -- in short I am participating in the planning. I am doing this on the phone with the regular teacher, rather than in written notes, and that is much more pleasant.

I don't mean to complain, though. I think complaining is the least productive thing anyone can do. I feel very blessed to have work that I enjoy. The other Family and Consumer Science teachers at this high school always ask me if I need any help, too. Their support is wonderful and makes all the difference.
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147.2 Flour Cravings

I fought flour cravings all day yesterday. I was successful. I drank water or tea instead of eating cookies. I kept telling myself it would be worth it when I got on the scale in the morning and saw I had lost a pound. I ate the bare minimum, and only lost .2 pounds:

Small bowl of Special K, blueberries and vanilla soy milk
Leftover baked chicken, onion and carrots
Small hamburger patty, 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce, broccoli

I only walked about a mile, is probably why I didn't lose more weight. I did do a few minutes on the Lifestyler stair step exercise machine, but apparently I did not exercise enough yesterday. That should teach me a lesson: suffering through cravings will only be worth it if I exercise, too. Exercising usually at least distracts me from cravings, so I don't know why I didn't just do it.

I experimented yesterday with wearing my hair pulled up higher. I think I like it best in the low ponytail I've been wearing lately. I haven't felt like wearing it up tight since I lost the weight.

I want so badly to get down to 145 so I can shop with my TJ Maxx gift card for new spring clothes! Thank you again, Mom, for that -- so much! Here in Spokane, spring means lots and lots of rain. I might see if they have light weight waterproof pants that I can start wearing on my walks when it gets too warm to wear my snow pants. I already have waterproof boots for spring. Right now I am wearing my snow coat every day, but last summer we each bought a light weight rain coat at Niagara Falls. Those should be perfect for when it starts warming up.