190

JUST KIDDING!!! Greetings my dear blogger friends. I am sorry, sorry, sorry for this long delay! It has been a decidedly crazy month thus far, and I have about 10 more days of "unusual events" to go. My weight this morning was really 184.3 . Sad, but wonderful too. I sincerely expected a much higher number.

After three days in Orange County with some relatives, I did two days of damage control. I came home happy but water-puffed. I must have looked like a marshmallow. And two days didn't put my weight anywhere that I wanted it! Then I was off again. This time by bus.

I arrived home at 6:30 this morning from a seven day trip on a motor coach bus. I was one of 20 adults who took 70 teenagers to the Rocky Mountains for Steubenville Rockies Catholic Youth Conference. And might I just add here: I LOATHE the bus! Give me just about any other form of travel. Existing on a bus for a one-way, 20 hour trip is not pleasant. Living on the food available from any given gas station is even worse. Having absolutely NO control of the restaurants where you eat is . . . well it's torture.

And we aren't even going to visit the issue of liquids. Okay well maybe just long enough to say that at my age, you can't wait too long to go potty. Every three hours? Holy guacamole! I think you can figure out that if I drank water, I suffered. It's simply NOT a good idea to open up the bathroom on a bus that's carrying teenagers. There's already some unfamiliar teenage smells on the journey. No need to complicate the air even more! So water on the way out and on the way back was out of the question. Puff, puff, cocoa puff!

The UPSIDE of course, is that I gained about 7 pounds. Seven. I'll share what I ate over these past two weeks on another blog, but I can tell you with ease that these teenagers are offered more carbohydrates in one day than I eat in a week. It's cereal and muffins and donuts, buns with hamburgers and hot dogs, pizza crust, taco shells. . . it's insane. Seriously insane. Fresh veggies and fruit were a delicacy on this trip.

Soooooo, I am very pleased that I am not fatter than that little scale reflected today. I mean, we had Chipotle at midnight one night --closing out an amazing day of prayer with 1500 little calories. Can you say SCARY? Yea, I thought so too.

Anyway, I am going to check in later. I just want to let you know I'm alive and well and starting a fresh, new day. I hope yours is a blessed one. Peace.

Falling Off the Fatty-Wagon

What a fantastic 4th of July it was! I'm not sure about the weather elsewhere, but here in God's Country it was a picture-perfect day. Beautiful. And we are blessed to have been able to spend it on the lake. Amazing.

So how's my weight, you ask? It's okay. I am back up to 180. And I deserve to be. I indulged in all sorts of extravagances this weekend. Ones that I wouldn't have touched even a few weeks ago. But when you're in up to your elbows, its hard to walk away.

Every year on the 4th my big family (and I mean numbers of people, not scale numbers - haha) gets together. We rent a canopy. Set up tables. I get up very early and with a little help from some elves grill breakfast on the beach. Huge griddles. Pancakes and french toast. Bacon and sausage. Caramel rolls and orange juice. Chocolate milk and fresh coffee. A family tradition. And the pancake batter is prepared from scratch with eggs, sugar, flour, milk . . . the good stuff. The french toast mix gets a splash of cinnamon and sugar. And it's all outdoors, which seems to make it smell and taste 100 times better than normal. So I had some. I considered making some pancakes from the Fiber One mix I just purchased, but managed to persuade myself that it was WAY too much extra work!

Then we had an afternoon of junk food. Chips. Bars. Salsa. I didn't eat much of that. No, no. I saved myself for dinner. Nevermind that I didn't have any calories left from my budget after the third bite of my french toast earlier. Dinner was going to be goooooooood!

After our annual family "Talent Show" my brother put marinated corn cobs, beef and chicken kabobs and barbequed ribs on the grill. I had a beef kabob and some ribs. I also had about 1/2 cup of au gratin potatoes. Keep in mind I haven't had a potatoe since last Christmas!!! Oh. Tasty doesn't describe them! And then of course there were the brownies. Brownies and cheesecake with fresh strawberries. And I ate both. I think I ate four brownies!!!! I felt so guilty it was ridiculous. I could EASILY have taken the whole pan of brownies with a big glass of milk and climbed under a picnic table and polished them off all alone. I think that makes me a brownie junkie or something. lol. I have always loved brownies, but these brownies seemed to have my name written on them or something. They called me by name, I swear!

So the day after the 4th I stayed off the wagon from which I had fallen. Believe it or not, I had KFC. Yes. Fried chicken. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Cole slaw. But let me just tell you something. I never, ever, ever eat the skin on a piece chicken. I don't care how original the recipe is or how many spices they use. It's the scalp of the chicken. The scalp. YUUUUUKKKKK!!!!! And we aren't even going to talk about the calories in it folks. It's just flat out disgusting. Follicle bumps and all. Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross.

So. So, so, soooo.... that was my weekend. And although I got back on the fatty-wagon on Monday, those 3 pounds joined me. I'm grateful it wasn't more. Like I said -- if I can maintain this month I'm going to be in great shape and I'll be ready to go like gangbusters in August.

Meanwhile . . . my long-legged walking buddy is back at it, and my sis is in town. They're gonna kick my a.s.s. this week exercising. Don't tell them, but I'm secretly looking forward to it! :) I'll try, try, try to keep you updated. Life is crazy here in the country right now.

I'm off to bed. May God Bless you and keep you and hear your prayers loud and clear. Peace.

177.2

Hey all! Another great day in dietville. :) I'm still working off the weekend, and heading into a new one. A busy, food-filled one. So I'm trying to get ahead of the game. And it looks like that's working for me, doesn't it??? Yea.

I've been exercising a ton this week. Walked, ran. Walked, ran. And I'm doing a great job on my eating too. So I'm pretty happy. I just wish it wasn't so hard to stay in check when I get to the social stuff. I have so many more coming up this month. and I'm very worried about it. I'm sincerely starting to believe that if I can make it to August 1st without gaining . . . without sliding back into the 80's, I'm going to be in great shape. And let me tell you this, it's gonna be SUPER tough. But I will keep you in the loop. What I know, you'll know. Promise.

And I will keep exercising. That's going to be key. Without it I'm not gonna make it. We ALL know that!

Another dull post today, sorry to say. Despite all my "social" gigs I really have no life. Which explains why this is dull. It's all about the food and exercise. Hah!

So I'm going to sign off here. I'm going to try and post again before or during the weekend. It'll keep me honest and accountable. So until then, God Bless!