Day Seven: Ups and Downs and Mysterious Powders

Welcome to Day 7. I am feeling sort of "up and down" today about the whole thing.

THE PROS:

* I really did stay strong with my program this weekend in terms of calorie consumption and making good and healthy choices. I ate far more fresh meals based on produce and lean protein and less frozen meals that have the nutrition of cardboard in my opinion.

* Friday we had an office lunch and, thankfully, a Mongolian Grill restaurant was chosen making every single thing on my plate my choice. I feel that I did very well although I can't easily guestimate how many ounces of meat I had. I chose no starches or starchy veggies.

* I made it to the gym on Sunday am and walked briskly on the treadmill for 40 minutes even though i secretly wished my friend would bail on me so I could bail on my obligation. I am SO glad she didn't. This was the first time I darkened the door of that gym in a year and a half (other than signing Josh and Hayley up for memberships).

* Some of my friends had a brunch on Sunday (after gym) who are notorious healthy natural foodies and I was able to make myself an egg white omlette with a small amount of raw chevre and avacado, kale, tomato and red onions as well as a few ounces of lox while they ate latkes made of carrot, beets and potatoes along with sprouted bagels and all kinds of other yummies. I did allow myself the equivalent of a normal bite of the latkes. I HAD to try them :)

* I grocery shopped on Friday after work and re-stocked up on all the things i need to succeed easily, AND bought my kids very simple things they can make themselves so that, for the time being, I won't need to cook elaborate meals I cannot eat and feel tempted to take "just a bite".

THE CONS:
* I did not eat every 2-3 hours to keep my metabolism boosted, and instead had fewer and larger meals that still stayed in my calorie range.

* I did not focus on keeping my water intake to 80-90 ounces a day and, in fact, fell far below that.

* On Sunday night I found myself very "snacky" and ended up choosing to eat a Nori rice cake and 6 Triscuits which totalled 200 calories (which were within my daily caloric range).. but they were all carbs and salty probably making me retain fluids given my semi dehydration.

* my compression suit DIDN'T FIT ME! I could not get it on. They recommended ordering one size bigger than you wear because they are very tight fitting. The style I ordered didn't go any higher. Ah well. I will have to choose a different style and save this one for when i see progress.

This morning i set up my scale/body fat/BMI monitor. I braved myself. I weighed myself. After four tries, I took the highest one at 169 pounds. I am right now REFUSING to list my body fat percentage because I am in utter denial over it. I will track my fat loss and maybe one day I will actually post what that gawdawful number was. I have thought about paying bucks to find a professional to identify an accurate number just so I can be certain.

Worst of all, i just feel big and bloated today. My skirt won't zip up any higher than normal.. I feel large and icky. It could be because of not drinking enough water and hence retaining fluids and it could be because it is "the week before" wink wink.. or it just could be just BECAUSE. I wanted to feel like a new woman after 6 days. That is not realistic and just because the Impatient Dieter lost 20 pounds of water weight in two days doesn't mean i will come close to that. Different genetics. And I am sure she isn't 4'10".

Speaking of 4'10", before you berate me at how i am not THAT big at 169 (by the way, coming clean, my mammogram weight was 174.5 at doctor's office)you need to know that, according to sites like Weight Watchers, the goal range for my height EVEN at 45 years old is 97 pounds to 120 MAX. Before I turned 40, it was 117 MAX. So anything over 20% of 120 (24 pounds) labels me as obese. And if THAT didn't, my body fat percentage sure the H did.

So today is not a happy day for me. I am plugging along. I am HUNGRY today. I am about to leave work sick and achy and I am just plain discouraged. It is irrational. It is likely hormonal. But i am discouraged.

No worries as I will stay on track and plug along. Later, I will edit this and describe my mystery powder experience :)

Let's do this!

POST SCRIPT: I forgot to mention the mysterious powders. So my Hera Guru put up a blog about ... um... really good internal cleansing... which inspired me to add some nasty disgusting Metamucil to my water container. I kept some in a desk drawer at work "just in case" and behold I found a little baggy of some vague beige powder and dumped the whole darn thing into my water.

I guzzled down half of it proudly wondering what the big deal was and suddenly realized it tasted less... gelular globby than it was supposed to. Actually.. it tasted nothing like Metamucil... and i realized I had absolutely no idea whatsoever i dumped into my water. I am fairly sure it was plain whey protein powder, but for all I know it was arsenic.

Found the REAL bag of intestinal goodies and dumped a bunch of THAT into my now murky water and did drink the whole mess down. At the bottom I discovered what looked like an exotic sea creature so none of the intestinal benefits likely made it my way. It really sounded a lot more fascinating when i first posted the blog.