Starting weight (7/15/08):    279.8    (1/8/08):    285.2
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 30.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1311 / 30.3
Yesterday’s exercise:  none
Weight Yesterday:  257.4    Today:  256.6
Change today:  -0.8   Loss-so-far:  23.2 lbs.  /  28.6 lbs.

Last night, Hubby and I went shopping (again!) and I picked out a couple of shirts for our son, Kevin.  Mike looked over my shoulder at the tag on one of the shirts and said, “Is that going to fit him?”  It was a Large.  I said, “Have you looked at him lately?!?”  Hubby shrugged, “Yeah I guess he’d wear a large now.”  Kevin’s lost 25 pounds now.  As it turned out, the shirt fit Kevin with room to spare.  He might have even pulled off a medium.  Maybe.

I’m so proud of him - and glad for him!!!

As I mentioned before, I lost weight when I was 15 but then by the time I was 17, I had put it all back on, plus more.  The thing is, back then I didn’t have a clue how to eat to maintain my weight.  I’m so glad that Kevin and I had the opportunity to do both the calorie-counting and the carb-counting together, and that we both learned the math…!  We’ve talked about this, Kevin and I, and once he gets to his target weight, he’s going to switch back to calorie-counting but with still an eye on the carbs.  I don’t think either one of us will ever just be able to eat with wild abandon again, ever.  Ya can’t un-know whatcha know. 

So my son will experience his junior and senior years of high school as a person of “normal” weight.  I wish I could have done the same!  Those years are waaaaay behind me now, though, but the years ahead of me are yet to come — and *I* will experience most of my remaining years as a person of normal weight.

I will.

3182

Starting weight (7/15/08):    279.8    (1/8/08):    285.2
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1800 / 22.2
Yesterday’s exercise:  none
Weight Yesterday:  258.0    Today:  257.4
Change today:  -0.6   Loss-so-far:  22.4 lbs.  /  27.8 lbs.

I didn’t exercise this weekend.  Took the weekend off.  Now I’m feeling guilty, a little bit.

Funny how I could go days and days without exercising and it didn’t bother me one bit but now that I’ve been getting some kind of exertion in every single day for the past three weeks - now I feel guilty if I don’t.

It’s the DDR, ha!  It’s not guilt I’m feeling, it’s withdrawal!  It’s addictive, that game.

Anyway, I plan to get back on track tomorrow.

Today Hubby and I went shopping.  I was looking at some clothes and finally just walked away because no matter what size I might buy, I feel like it would be a waste of money.  I can’t buy size 26 anymore, they swim on me.  I bought a pair of size 24 jeans a few weeks back and they are loose on me already.  I’m not yet into size 22 but when I do get into that size I have a bunch of clothes put away that I haven’t been able to wear for a long time, so I don’t see the point in buying that size either.  It’s a nice pickle to be in.  =D 

3143

Starting weight (7/15/08):    279.8    (1/8/08):    285.2
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1407 / 20.5
Yesterday’s exercise:  1/2 hour DDR
Weight Yesterday:  257.0    Today:  258.0
Change today:  +1.0   Loss-so-far:  21.8 lbs.  /  27.2 lbs.

Yep, that pound I lost - it came back.  But this afternoon I found out a good reason why it made such a timely reappearance… it was here to greet TOM, that’s why.

See, I’m supposed to be done with ol’ Tom!  I had a bunch of tests last year when I was so sick and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, and one of the tests was to measure my hormone levels and the results said that I was POST-menopausal - which my doctor confirmed meant that I should be done, done, DONE.  Well, I’m not done.  I did skip a month, though, which I didn’t mind one bit.  I was hoping, though, that perhaps I’d finally finished.  No such luck.

So I celebrated with one of these:

Okay, well, I didn’t exactly have what’s in the picture here.  But I did treat myself to something like it — even went over my calories for the day, wow!  Hubby and I had an appointment this morning in Largo, right down the street from this Philly’s Cheesesteak place - omg I LOVE their food!!! - and I haven’t eaten there in ages!  It occurred to me after our appointment that I could actually have a cheesesteak without the bread.  After all, the best part is what’s inside the bread!  This picture was the closest I could find to what the beef looked like - I ordered it with cheese and onions (and mayo and steak sauce!) and they put it in a little container for me and gave me a fork.

Heaven.  HHHHHHHHHHEAVEN. 

At the end of the day, though, when I added up my food, my carbs were fine (as expected) but the calories, oh my, this lovely treat set me over by 400 calories!!

1.)  It was worth it.
2.)  I’ve been good.
3.)  Tom’s visiting.  And like I said, I’ve been good.
4.)  The cheesesteak place is 14 miles away, I won’t be back again soon.
5.)  I’m thankful that my diet allows cool stuff like beef and cheese.
6.)  It was so totally worth it. 

3122

Starting weight (7/15/08):    279.8    (1/8/08):    285.2
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1399 / 18.6
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/4 hour DDR
Weight Yesterday:  258.0    Today:  257.0
Change today:  -1.0   Loss-so-far:  22.8 lbs.  /  28.2 lbs.

I was very surprised at my weigh-in this morning - in fact, I think it’s a mistake somehow.  And I fully expect to see a slight gain tomorrow which will be a correction of that mistake.  It’s just not possible to lose a whole pound in one day.  Is it?

Not that I’m complaining.  I usually complain when my scale doesn’t show a loss and now it seems I’m complaining when it does.  I guess I just don’t trust it.

Ever since July I’ve been tracking my weight loss since then.  It was like I was starting over, so I started over.  But those first 5.4 lbs I lost before July were so HARD to lose that I don’t want to forget about ‘em!  So now I’m tracking both.  Eventually I’ll just collapse them and stop tracking two weight loss figures.  Maybe.

I’m jazzed that I’m getting so close to the 30-lb. mark.  It’s amazing how much better I feel, physically, after taking only 30 of my extra pounds off!   I can’t imagine what it’ll feel like to take off 30 more!

Now that I think about it, I’ve been on numerous diets over the years, but I don’t think I’ve ever lost more than 30 lbs at a time.  This will really be a new experience for me, to finally move beyond the initial “honeymoon” stage of a diet into long-term commitment.  Very cool. 

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Starting weight (7/15/08):        279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Tuesday’s calories & net carbs:  1381 / 24.6
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1081 / 25.0
Tuesday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hour DDR
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hour DDR
Weight Tuesday:  259.2  Yesterday:  258.6    Today:  258.0
Change today:  -0.6   Loss-so-far:  21.8 lbs.

Yesterday at work, M. and I were playing with the DDR again and another co-worker pulled out her cell and took a little movie of us.  OMG we played it back afterwards and cracked up!  What a hoot!  Yeah well y’all already know I’m all fat and flabby and I already told y’all that my parts flop around in ways they shouldn’t, so what the hell, yeah, I’ll let ya see.

Wait, before I give you the link, I wanna say a couple things.  My feet still get all lost on the DDR pad and I get so busy watching the screen that I don’t look down to see where my feet are supposed to be.  Of course I had to do this while being filmed, lol.  The “oops” was me noticing that the arrows weren’t landing in their goal on the screen, and so then I corrected that.  The other thing I want to mention is that I’m flat-footed.  My feet are fairly small and narrow (for a fat person) but they do look weird because they are so flat.  I didn’t realize how weird until I watched this movie of myself in socks.

So much for Paula thinkin’ I’m cool for doing DDR.  Wait ’til ya actually see me in the act, Paula, LOL.

The last thing I suppose I should mention is that I’m the one on the left.  In case ya didn’t recognize me.  =D  Yeah and I’m wearing those big-ass capri pants again, so woohoo you get to see those, too.  Okay, here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAHEzGit_pI

Be kind, lol.

All day today I’ve been hungry, which is weird because generally I don’t feel hungry anymore.  Well, unless I wait too long between meals and then I feel really hungry, like stomach-growling hungry.  No, this was more like wanna-snack-on-something hungry and yeah, I was surprised by it.  I ate two sugar-free Jellos and that didn’t help.  I ate two slices of low-carb bread with peanut butter and that helped for a while, but not long enough.  Even now, at almost midnight, I’m still “hungry.”  I hope it’s not like this tomorrow!

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Hit counter web design gallery.

Starting weight (7/15/08):        279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1311 / 22.5
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hour DDR
Weight Yesterday:  259.2    Today:  259.2
Change today:  -0.0   Loss-so-far:  20.6 lbs.

Yep, on this day in the year 2000, my husband Michael and I looked into each other’s eyes and pledged the rest of our lives together.  It was, by far, the smartest move I ever made.  (Not discounting bringing three awesome children into the world, but they were pure wonderful luck, not a testament to my smarts at all, lol.)  Today is also the anniversary of the day Mike and I met in person for the first time.  I can’t believe it’s been ten years! 

Way less importantly, today is Day #70 on my carb-counting journey… 10 weeks!  That first week back in July was amazing - I lost 10 lbs in 8 days - fully half of what I’ve managed to lose altogether (since July).  Looking at it that way, I was thinking that it took me 9 weeks to lose 10 lbs, but that’s not true.  I know now that the weight loss in that first week wasn’t real weight loss, it was the effects of ketosis on the millions of fat cells in my body as they opened and released excess water that they’d been storing.  Thing is, I’m beyond that now - my fat cells, though they will fluctuate in how much water they store, went back to normal.  So somewhere along the line in those last nine weeks, I actually lost 20 lbs. of fat.  FAT.  Not water. 

That puts me at 2 lbs. per week which is exactly where I wanna be.

I went back and looked at where I was after 70 days of calorie-counting.  On my 70th day, I had lost a grand total of 8.6 lbs.  Forty-five days later, I gave up because despite having logged over 130 miles of bicycling during the month of April, my total weight loss after 115 days was… drum roll… 9.0 lbs.  Just four-tenths of a pound less than I’d weighed 45 days earlier.  Geez, no wonder I gave up.  With my funky metabolism and the effects of Graves Disease, the calorie-counting thing just wasn’t working for me.  At all.

I truly felt that carb-counting would be my last hope.  Thank God that it’s working!

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Starting weight (7/15/08):        279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:    884 /  23.9
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hour DDR
Weight Yesterday:  259.2    Today:  259.2
Change today:  -0.0   Loss-so-far:  20.6 lbs.

Hey I’ve been playing around with my blog design page and figured out how to add the “Welcome to My Blog” thing, even figured out how to add a picture.  What I really wanted, though, was a thing I saw on delitaagain’s blog, that tells where (geographically)  each visitor is from - how cool is that?!  For some reason, though, my blog theme isn’t letting me add that kind of widget.  Oh well.

Today at work I hooked up the DDR and invited one of my other co-workers to give it a try with me, since I have two pads now.  M., who is 50 years old, is hispanic and loves to dance, she got right out there and shook the place up.  =D  She was a natural!  I kept saying, “Another?” and she kept telling me to “Bring it on!”  LOL, what a hoot!  At the end of almost an hour, we were both a little winded and sweaty.

Good thing I don’t have a real job, LOL.

Actually, I do have a real job, it’s just that the boss is very supportive of extra-curricular activities, even during the workday - wait, no - especially during the workday!  She believes that each and every one of her staff members are incredibly talented and hard workers who need healthy diversions to keep balance in their day.  Yeah, it’s me.  Incredibly, the one with the X-Box is the boss.  Hehheh.

Tonight was the season premiere of Dancing With the Stars - woooohooo!!  I love that show!  I hadn’t really been into TV for a really really long time but then within the past couple years I’ve gotten addicted to several shows:  Greys Anatomy, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, and LOST OMG LOST My husband and I watched all four seasons in just 4 weeks.  I miss Lost!

I recently started watching my soaps again, too, mainly because I can watch them online and so I don’t have to tape them and can watch ‘em whenever I want.  I started with General Hospital and then recently added All My Children (I’ve been an AMC watcher since 1978!). 

Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a dieting blog.  Well, I did mention my exercise for today (did another 45 minutes of DDR tonight before DWTS) but I haven’t mentioned food lately, or the fact that I am still at 259-point-something but that the scales are showing losses lately instead of gains and that is an awesome awesome thing that I’m reallllllly happy about. 

Ya mighta noticed that I started listing my calories and carbs at the top of each blog entry… Well, I did that to make myself just a little bit more accountable.  I won’t lie to myself or to anyone else about my food intake - every little morsel that goes into my mouth gets into the list on fitday, and already it’s made a difference, broadcasting my daily intake like that.  I’ve thought to myself, “I’m not gonna eat that late-night snack because it’ll put me over on my carbs and I don’t wanna show an overage on my blog entry!”  Oh, and I had been eating 30-35 carbs a day but I dropped it down to 25, mainly because I can.  I can quite easily get more than enough to eat on just 25 carbs a day.

I did notice, however, when I dropped down to 25 carbs a day that my calories went down - way down.  For example, yesterday I ate out at a restaurant and ate popcorn at the movies, yet my total caloric intake for the day was only 884.  Holy crap!  It’s just that twice in one day I had salad with chicken.  Low-calorie stuff.  It certainly wasn’t my intention to eat only that many calories - I didn’t even add them up until the end of the day, so I had no idea it was so low! 

For those who might think to caution me that starving myself will trigger a metabolic shutdown… I know.  =D

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Starting weight (7/15/08):        279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Friday’s calories & net carbs:        1253 /  21.3
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1309 /  23.9
Friday’s exercise:  1 hour DDR + 1 hour yard work
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 hour DDR
Weight Friday   259.8   Yesterday:  259.4    Today:  259.2
Change today:  -0.2   Loss-so-far: 20.6 lbs.

Been a busy coupla days.  We’ve been having trouble with our wireless router so on Friday we received a new one and guess what, it doesn’t work either.  I was rather annoyed to see the router wasn’t, in fact, new, but rather it came with a paper that said “refurbished.”  The phone company led me to believe they were sending a new one.  New, as in.. um… new.  Oh well.  I will deal with them on Monday. 

Yesterday was a good Saturday.  We went cruising for garage and yard sales, went out for lunch, and then stopped in at the local GameStop store to pick up another DDR pad.  Nope, nothing wrong with my other one, I just want to be able to play with my son!  I had a fun time with the game when my co-worker brought her pad into the office, so I just had to have another of my own, LOL.  As soon as I brought it home, Kevin and I tried it out - and he challenged me to a free-style competition.  OMG I went so fast, trying to get the little graph thingie to peak higher than his (ha, as if I could!), I thought I was gonna stroke out or something!  It was fun, though, and it burned some extra calories, I’m sure — which is, after all, the point. 

Then today was spent rather pleasantly.  I love Sundays that turn out like this one.  We started the day by sleeping in (which is not unusual for us on a Sunday) and then went to a couple more yard sales.  Hubby got a HD helmet (brand new, “never been worn,” said the owner, and true-enough there wasn’t a scratch on it, retails for $175, got it for $40, wooohoo), and I got a small pile of books. 

We ended up going to two estate sales, which I don’t really like going to.  They make me sad!  Here’s a whole lifetime of treasured stuff, up for sale now because no one in the family wants any of it.  The first one we went to, I could feel such an affinity to the woman who’s stuff was being sold - she loved crafts and obviously kept busy stitching and sewing, she had so much craft-stuff.  When I retire I’m going to do the same thing!

Later in the afternoon, Hubby, Son, and I went to see “Ghost Town.”  I loved this movie!  It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a movie when the whole audience was laughing together - or gasping together - like in this one.  The humor was intellectual rather than physical (for the most part anyway) and though I’d never seen him before, Ricky Gervais totally impressed me.  I looked him up and he played an obnoxious character on the BBS version of “The Office,” which must have been good practice for this character, who was delightfully obnoxious, saying out loud what many probably wish they could.

Was a good weekend.  =D

2820

Starting weight (7/15/08):        279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1103 /  25.3
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hours DDR + 1 1/2 hours yard work
Weight Yesterday:  260.4    Today:  259.8
Change today:  -0.6   Loss-so-far: 20.0 lbs.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

LOL, finally!  Okay I just barely edged my way into the 250’s - but *swish!* nuttin’ but net!!  IT’S IN!!  Also — this means I finally hit the 20-lb mark!  Wooohooooo!!!  (Technically, it’s the 25.4 mark if I start counting from my highest weight in January.  20 or 25, it’s all good!)

Deep contented sigh. 

Okay, now that I celebrated, of course I started thinking about this milestone.  I entered the 260’s on 7/23/08.  This means that it took FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS for me to lose 10 lbs.  Crap.  That really sucks considering I haven’t cheated NOT ONCE.  (Well except for those net-one-carb-sugar-free-candy-bars and that wasn’t really cheating, just unfortunate.) 

Well, let’s see, there are 6.29 fifty-eight-day periods in a year.  6.29 x 10 lbs. is 62.9 lbs.  Which means that if I continue to lose at this rate, at this time next year I will still be in the 200’s.  God!  That SUCKS!  But wait - here comes my Mary-Sunshine-Pollyanna-Silver-Lining-Optimistic-Look-At-The-Bright-Side-Inner-Voice saying…

“But I’ll be DAMN close to ONE-derland!!”

HA!  Yes I will.  And ya know what?  I am gonna work even harder so the next ten pounds WON’T take fifty-freakin’-eight days to lose!!!! 

2740

Starting weight (7/15/08):  279.8  
Calories/Carbs Goals (limits):       1400  / 25.0
Yesterday’s calories & net carbs:  1152 /  15.0
Yesterday’s exercise:  1 1/2 hours DDR
Weight Yesterday:  260.2    Today:  260.4
Change today:  +0.2   Loss-so-far: 19.4 lbs.

Will I ever see that middle-5????  LOL incredible! I actually laughed out loud when I stepped on the scale this morning.  PLUS ZERO-POINT-TWO?!  Ya gotta be kiddin’ me!!!

I’m still waiting it out.  Seein’ that nine.  It’ll be worth the wait, I’m sure.  =D

To celebrate my near-loss (I think that 0.2 UP qualifies as an almost-down, doesn’t it?), I decided to mow the grass at the office this morning.  YEAH!  Push that mower up the hill!  Feel the burn!  I worked out there for an hour, which represents maybe a third of the work to be done, then came inside for a drink and a rest - and never went back out.  I got busy, you know, with work-stuff. 

My plan, then, was to resume said yard work when the sun moved from directly overhead - but then my oldest son called and asked if there was something he could do to earn some cash (I’ve never just handed out money, my kids had to earn it).  Guess who’s out there mowing the grass?  So much for the rest of my workout.  Can ya tell I’m all torn up about it?  LOL.

I already put in a half-hour of DDR today and I’m gonna put in another hour to burn off some additional calories - to make up for the lawn I’m not mowing. 

I will (I hope!) see that NINE tomorrow morning!!!

Edited to add:

My son finished mowing the drainage-ditch in the back yard but didn’t mow the side (an area where the riding mower can’t go), so I went out there and did it.  Then I decided to go ahead and trim next to the fence and next to the building — and around the dumpster enclosure.  I ended up staying out there for more than a half hour and when I came in I was drenched (sweat).  Yay!  I got a bit of a workout after all!  =D

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