My Knight in a Shining... Mazda3?

The hubby came home this afternoon, just in time for lunch. If I've never said it before, let me say it now: I LOVE THAT MAN.

He came in, did all the dishes while Ava and I slept -- her 10pm bedtime also included a "midnight" snack at 3am... after I went to bed at 1am. Then after he got done, Ava woke up, and he took her to lunch and let me sleep for another whole hour. THEN, he brought me back lunch from Chick-Fil-A, and then took Ava with him to the park! It was awesome! It was amazing! It was... QUIET.

So I called the spa and scheduled some medieval torture. With the Mini-Match coming up, if there was ever a time to get it done, now is that time. The lady who had me was awesome too. Very nice, very sweet -- and checked EVERY ingredient on EVERY product to make sure it was all okay for me and my allergies. We also commiserated over the problems of having a nut allergy, since her son has one too.

For medieval torture, I came out fairly well relaxed.

I'm still sick, though. I feel like I should have hacked up most of my lungs by now, but there still seems to be at least one left in my chest, somehow. I think my allergies are having a serious effect on my recovery though. I didn't do all that well today, and I didn't have any antihistimines... and then when I finally did, it was like night and day. I just felt SO much better. But I also realized sometime yesterday that I'm taking somewhere between 6 and 10 benedryl a day.

Oh well. It works. After that, who cares?

I also went out and bought some makeup for the Mini Match this weekend. Should be interesting.

Living the Single [Mom] Life

Ugh. I know since I quit working that I've really lost track of time, including days of the week. So since the hubby left on Sunday, and I've been entertaining The Avanator 24/7. Since her naps are somewhat abbreviated -- now we're down to one two-hour nap, on the incredible days -- it gets a little taxing. Especially when considering she gets up early (before me is early) and goes to bed somewhat late. Tonight it was 10pm, and that was nearly miraculous. Sunday night was a midnight bedtime -- NOT my idea -- and last night was 11pm. Tonight I actually got to pretend I have a life and watched five back-to-back episodes of The New Adventures of The Old Christine, soaked my poor feet, and then remembered I forgot to eat dinner.

I think if I were a single mom, I'd KILL to have a job for some "down time"... The hubby gets home tomorrow, and then stays for almost a whole 24 hours before he heads back out for another business trip. He said, "Well at least I don't have an out-of-town girlfriend." You know what? If he did have one, I'd probably be fine with it, as long as he took the booger with him.

Ugh. What a week. I love the booger, I really do, but... she's a little high maintenance in the entertainment area. I caught myself thinking tonight, "Well, at least the week's almost over." And then this voice in my head popped in and said, "Honey, I hate to break it to you, but it's only Tuesday."

It's not all bad, of course. We played today and had a pretty good time. I handled things a little better not being quite so sick... and my parents are coming up to handle her for the weekend. But it's just so consuming.

This weekend will be slammed too. The Mini Match is on Saturday, squeezed in between two days of autocrossing. It's the largest autocross event of the year, in conjunction with another region. We're expecting over 215 drivers. It's going to be insane. So on Friday, I have my last lesson before the Match, drive to Laurens to prep for Saturday morning, go home, and then get up Saturday morning, to be in Laurens at 8am (or earlier). I leave just after lunch to go put on my dress, makeup, and do my hair, for the Match, drive directly to the Greenville Country Club, dance until 6:30pm or so, and then head home, pass out, and head back to the autocross the next morning, again at 8am.

WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING???

I had to cancel my dance lesson on Monday because I was sick, and didn't really have a babysitter for Ava. When she was younger -- and less mobile -- I took her with me to the lessons, but now she's all over the place. So I'm a little worried/anxious.

Ugh. What a week this is shaping up to be.

The Plague: Day Five

Going on Six. I would have rather have been scraped out of bed with a spatula and smeared across a gravel parking lot than gotten out of bed this morning. Thursday when I went in to the doctor, I had a scratchy throat and wanted to make sure it wasn't something like strep.

He said I looked okay, aside from an allergy-aggravated sinus problem, and at the time, I FELT okay -- at least compared to the last few days. So Friday, I didn't feel great, so I stayed home most of the day, aside from one or two Sanity Trips. (Apparently I need to leave the house once per day or I start getting some sort of weird cabin fever.) But I was feeling well enough, so I just kept thinking, "I'll get some good sleep, and in the morning I'll feel better." Saturday rolled around, and I played some golf with the hubby. Only nine, though, because I still felt pretty lousy, but the day was too nice to waste, and I really wanted to enjoy having back-to-back babysitters. Then after golf, we dropped in at Sonic, and I had a mini-banana split. (They're so ADORABLE!)

Then we went home, got showers, and the hubby and I went to enjoy a nice dinner out at the American Grocery Restaurant, and the evening at the Symphony. The soloist, Karen Gomyo, played a Stradivarius violin called ex Foulis. I have no idea what makes a virtuoso, but she played for something like half-an-hour with no music at all. She just played. (The hubby's comment, "You know she's just making that up as she goes, right?") It was really incredible.

The restaurant had some really amazing coffee, too. This place in Traveler's Rest, The Leopard Forest Coffee Company, owns a coffee farm in Zimbabwe, and sells it here in South Carolina. Could be a nice little adventure trip to take sometime... you know, after the recovery.

But I'm on antibiotics now. The doc had the good sense to send me off with a prescription. I don't know why I didn't get it filled earlier, but I guess later is better than never. This week is almost entirely shot though, and it's not even Tuesday.

I also need to figure out a nice thank you gift for my babysitter's mother. I called her to see if my babysitter was available. She said that Leah, my babysitter was in play practice, but that she -- the mother -- wasn't far from the house, and wouldn't mind coming over for a few minutes to keep my booger occupied for awhile. It was a godsend, I have to be honest. My daughter just wanted someone to play with, and this was exactly what she got. For two hours. It was awesome. Cookies? Maybe cheesecake?

But hopefully tomorrow will go better.

:crossesfingers:

Sick -- and Not Just in the Head

I have some sort of cold or something. Probably allergy related, being that it's that time of the year. But then again, living in the South, it's always that time of year. Since I got my own personal Typhoid Mary, I've been getting them a lot more often, however, it is better than when I was pregnant, thankfully.

But I spent most of today and yesterday in the house, doing nothing but trying to coax my body into fighting this thing off. Obviously, I'm eating whatever I feel like -- including three sleeves of Premium Saltines and two half-boxes of Kashi cereal. Way to fall completely off the wagon, huh?

But I'm feeling some better today, especially after a two hour nap with my daughter. If I'm a notch up tomorrow, I'll be back on the diet. But only if I'm feeling better. I won't be doing anything in the way of exercise this weekend, except maybe some golf, and sitting on my butt at the Symphony. But by Monday, I should be back up to 100%, and back at the Y.

I still haven't figured out quite how to manage the carbs and my workouts together. I think I'll just start out with a slice of whole grain bread. (No pumpernickel in sight at the grocery store.) I'll see how I feel during/after the workout and then go from there. I would just like to be able to do as much as possible before the Mini Match and autocross this weekend.

Guess we'll see how it goes.

The Confession

Hi. I'm SouthernTiger. I... God, I don't even know if I can say it. Okay. Here it is. I... I'm a... I'm a Carb Addict. And today, I went too far.

Honestly I just meant to give myself a little something to work with to get over being sick, and, um, yeah, I over-did it. Go figure. But hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling better. And hopefully my little Monster Munchkin didn't get it too... although it's really tough to not pass things along when you wake up regularly to someone shoving a pacifier in your mouth. I'm not sure if she does it for "safe keeping" or if she's trying to share. Sort of cute and really odd at the same time, though.

She also started walking tonight. Almost three full feet. It was awesome! She even did it TWICE! So maybe we'll have another way to get her a little more worn out before the bedtime process.

Obstacle(s) of the Day

This morning, as luck would have it -- or maybe more like Murphy's Law -- I woke up sick. Not terribly sick, but enough that my lymphnodes are pretty swollen and uncomfortable. And enough to know that today is not a great day to work out.

Obstacle Number Two turned out to be the fact that She Who Must Not Sleep has found a way to defy our newfound car-ride process for getting her to doze off for us. Instead of fighting us tooth and nail all night, she dozed off in the car, just like magic, and then THREE THIRTY AM, she woke up. Fortunately, I didn't hear anything until 4:30, but what I woke up to was her babbling away... in the living room, not over the monitor. I thought that was a little odd, and then I rolled over to see what the hubby thought about it, and realized he was gone. I rolled out of bed in my usual zombie fashion, tromped into the living room, to find my daughter happily waving away at me, as if it was 2pm in the afternoon.

"What are you doing?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot, and said, "We're playing. Can't you see that?"

So I took over so he could get some sleep. In the end, thank God she was snotty, because that let me not feel bad about drugging her up with benedryl. She even slept in until almost 9am.

Everyone says, "Oh, she needs to be on a SCHEDULE. ROUTINE is the KEY!" They say this like it's some sort of ancient guru-like piece of advice, the keystone of all good mothering and bedtime magic. Even my mother said it, including details of how it was all supposed to go down. Bath, pajamas, a little reading, rocking and a bottle.

Problem was, we had done all of that. In fact, it had been working like a charm for several weeks. We honestly don't know what happened, outside of the fact that our daughter threw us a curve ball, and we didn't really recover from it. So we instituted the car ride. It was like magic. Pop her in, and out she went. It was amazing!

So when my hubby went out of town, and my parents came in to help me out -- since I was completely losing my mind with the sleep problems, and we had only figured it out the night before -- I left Grammy and Grandad to take care of the bedtime routine.

"Oh we'll be fine," mom told me. "We'll give her a bath, and we'll rock, and we'll have some milk, and it'll be great! She'll be out by the time you get home!"

Dad looks at me and says gruffly, "We got this under control. Get outta here."

When I got back to the house a little while later, I come in and find mom sitting on the couch with the Energizer Bunny I spawned, wide awake, of course.

"I take it you didn't take her on a car ride, huh?" I said.

Mom looks at me, bleary-eyed -- her bedtime is normally 8pm or earlier, and it was now getting close to 10pm -- and says, "Nevermind what I said! You're doing the best you can with her!"

So anyway, I woke up late for the Step Aerobics Class, which I guess is okay, considering how I'm feeling. But I did ride the recumbent bike for a little while, and then the elliptical.

The up-shot to today is, my scales say I've lost five pounds since Thursday. This is the most I've lost without pharmaceutical assistance since last October. Not only that, but I feel like I look better, too. Like my shirt is starting to fit me the way it used to. So today, I may be going off the diet so that my body devote some energy to recovering, but tomorrow or the day after, it's definitely back on. Maybe with a little modification for my workouts, but it's definitely back on.

The Yo-Yo

Ever hear that joke about ADD kids?

Joke: "How many ADD kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

Answer: "Wanna go ride bikes?"

Yeah, it's a bit like that inside this little brain of mine. For every decision I come up with, I rethink it six different times and come up with twelve more options... repeat process. Dieting and exercise is apparently no different.

I started the low-carb thing, right? The South Beach Diet, because I've been flatlined in my weight since, well, let's be honest. OCTOBER. I started working out in February, and I thought, you know what? Screw calorie counting, I need to work out. I know what's a sensible meal, and what's not. I can NOT eat at Outback every week. That's reasonable, right?

And then when May rolled around, oh GUESS WHAT? Still at the same weight, and my clothes still fit moderately the same. Great. Zero net progress.

So I went to the doctor about it, because I was driving the hubby INSANE over it. And let's be fair. I have a slight propensity to obsess over things. Hardly even noticeable.

So the doc says, hey, no big deal. I've got some meds. Sometimes a girl's metabolism gets shot when she has a baby. It's not unusual.

So I take the meds. And I lose another ten pounds. (Actually I started losing the weight after I got a 24 hour stomach bug and tossed my cookies and drank nothing but Gatorade for a full day and a half. Ain't viruses great?) I decided to go off of them, mainly because I would get lightheaded if I forgot to eat, and it was the sort of lightheadedness where a little red light starts blinking in your head that says, "For the love of God, you idiot, don't DRIVE!"

I kept the ten pounds for a little while, and then my in-laws and a series of other events came around, and I gained BACK the ten pounds. Plus a little. How this is possible after skipping ONE WEEK, I will never know. I think, "Okay, I guess maybe I need to do more." So I started doing more classes. More variety.

The scale? Same numbers.

I do three classes in a day. For a WEEK.

The scale? SAME FREAKING NUMBERS.

So I got depressed, and reminded myself I needed to get back to it, otherwise I will never see the bottom side of that number. So I started the blog, to give me some incentive. Can you guess what happened then? You betcha. SAME THREE STINKIN' NUMBERS.

And then I had my little [unrelated] visit to the GI Doc. He suggested low-carb, and I said, "Yeah, okay, why not? I haven't tried that, at least."

Only problem is that with working out, you need the carbs. I'm dragging butt so badly in class, I can barely get through one workout, much less two or even just the elliptical. So I did some reading today (after I destroyed the kitchen with my daughter and actually reassembled the whole thing; go me!), and apparently I can have some carbs. Low-fat yogurt, oatmeal, or pumpernickel bread. (How they came to pumpernickel bread, I'll never know. Why not something standard, like, say, Indonesian flatbread from Jakarta?)

So tomorrow, I'll try to get some carbs in before I workout. I have some oatmeal, but it's instant. But I could possibly get to eat one of my Kashi cereals in the pantry. Kashi is supposed to be a low-glycemic load food. I would have to guess so, seeing that one of the cereals has 25g of carbs per serving, but only 5 of that is sugar, 5 more is fiber, and the rest is listed as "other." The new one I bought, Vive, has 43g of carbs, 10 from sugar, and 12 from fiber.

I'm sort of conflicted, though, because the scales finally moved. How can I really argue with any progress at all, after looking at the same three numbers on my scale for almost 10 months?

Oh, and by the way: I made it to a cycle class today!

Postin' It Up

Okay, so here are the week and weekend calories. They don't look too bad, I guess. These include my start to the South Beach Diet, which began on Thursday evening, September 11th.

(I also fixed all the images in the previous posts so that they link to the correctly-sized images, in case you actually wanted to read them... really, it's over-rated, though. Trust me.)


Last Weekend:


The Week:

The Autocross Weekend:

Autocrosses really do me in, but I am outside all day, usually running around, so I don't feel SO bad about the calories. But THIS particular weekend, I managed to snag a hotel room ALL TO MYSELF!!! So I took a long, fantastically silent bath, did some stretching, and buried myself in two beds worth of pillows. Literally. I had pillows under me, on top of me, behind my back. There's something to be said about an overabundance of pillows. So deliciously fabulous. Oh wow, I want to go back right now!

To top it all off -- and wreck my diet -- they had a hot continental breakfast. Doughnuts? Not a problem. I can ignore those. Bagels? Pastries? Again, meh, who cares? But OMG. Carbon's Malted Waffles? No. I must have them. They are so tasty, so deliciously buttery and soft. And if they're just a tad cripsy? EVEN BETTER! I've been really tempted to find a hotel in the area that has them, too, and just go.

:sigh:

But that will have to wait until after this whole Phase One of the SBD.

Today I Feel... Good?

It's been weird, but all day, I've been feeling pretty good. I got up, made myself an omelet (which is pretty miraculous in and of itself), got the diaper bag properly restocked, finished cycling my laundry, wrote an email or two, and got to the gym by 10:30 for my cardio/weightlifting class.

During class, too, I was looking at myself in the mirror -- normally a horrendously BAD idea -- but today it seemed like I looked a little less frumpy, I guess. The scales dropped back down, too. That's always variable, though. There is about three pounds variance in my weight from morning to evening, usually, depending on what I ate and did. I'm trying to drink lots of water, too, and today I think I did okay there, too.

I had a dance lesson, and my instructor liked my dress. He said it fit well, and didn't look like it would flare up too badly on the turns. The straps are pretty secure, too, which is nice. I can't keep a strap on my shoulders unless it's literally glued there. (And as luck would have it, I'm allergic to the "glue" -- double-sided adhesive tape.) I was feeling pretty decent even before I went to my dance lesson, though.

I got on the elliptical again today, and did almost 4 miles, which burned 400 calories. I'm going to try for the early cycle class tomorrow, but it's hard to get to that 9am class on time for me... but I'm going to give it my best shot, and the diaper bag is already packed.

I even made breakfast tonight, for the rest of the week. Turkey sausage crustless quiches with cheese. The turkey tastes awesome, too! I actually ate the leftovers as a snack. The recipe called for 1/4th cup turkey sausage for 6 cups. The turkey only comes in one POUND packages, so I had more than enough for a full muffin pan. But I added more meat, since I'm getting tired of eggs already. I've had at least three omelets since Thursday, and I've had to buy another dozen eggs.

Tonight, though, I made parmesan chicken, which turned out really tasty. I was really surprised at how good it was. I used a container of parmesan cheese as "breading," added paprika, pepper, and italian seasonings, and baked it in the oven. No bread crumbs, and parmesan is moderately low in fat anyway.

I may have gotten carried away at the grocery store though. I picked up chicken -- which made tonight's meal, plus two others which are currently marinating in the fridge -- lean, thin-cut steak, mushrooms to stuff into the steak, and more mushrooms to be stuffed with spinach and cheese. But it's good that I'm really interested in what I'm making. I need to pick up some veggies here and there, too. I had some leftover asparagus tonight, at least. Not a lot, but it's something.

I still need to record my calories, and post them, but I'd actually like to get in bed before 1am, for a change. If my daughter takes a decent nap tomorrow, maybe I'll do it then. Cross your fingers for me.

Week 3 Summary: My Soul for a Cracker

Well. I guess it's going a little better. The number on the scales finally dropped... one pound. Okay, it dropped FOUR, and then went back up, although not ALL the way up. Regardless I'm just a little wary of throwing a party over it, when I have this Scale Flatline History.

However, I did try on some pants I have, and they were LESS tight in the thighs and in the waist, so I can be ecstatic about that at least. It's a sign of progress of some sort, and it's what I needed.

I also took up the doctor on his suggestion about low-carb dieting. I started on Thursday, and I've done okay. I was kind of flailing around for a few days, but I went to the library on Saturday and sheepishly checked out The South Beach Diet and the accompanying cookbook. It's actually a combo of low-fat and low-carb, which sort of sucks. Low-fat cheese is usually pretty terrible in my opinion, in addition to being dry, but I guess I can always poke around until I find one I like.

The headaches are better, though, and the cravings aren't so bad right now. I'm not terrible about my sweets, as a general rule, but I seriously miss my yogurt and my Kashi crackers. Breakfast is not going to be fun in the morning, though. I did okay this weekend, because I slept though breakfast and ended up at lunch, which was nice. (And wonderful of the hubby; thank you, sweetheart!)

I don't have anything prepared for the morning, though, and I need to make a run to the grocery store in order to start having an appropriate breakfast in general. All I've got right now are three boxes of Kashi cereals I'm dying for, that of course, I can't have. I can't skip it though, because if I do, I'll never make it though my workout classes. I skipped on Friday (accidentally), and it was all I could do to make it through a simple yoga class. Not that yoga is easy, exactly, but it's definitely a lower exertion level than cycle or step aerobics. I was actually grateful when the nursery came and got me to take my daughter because she was upset.

So tomorrow, it'll probably be tomatoes, cheese, turkey, and whatever else I might have time for, that's also Phase One Approved. I have some new whole-grain, vanilla-graham, probiotic cereal from Kashi that looks fantastic, but that will have to wait. I keep reminding myself that Phase One is only for two weeks, and I only have eleven days left to go.

My liquid intake has been terrible since I started the South Beach Diet (SBD), though. I got close yesterday, but still didn't make my goal of 60 ounces of liquid. I was making up part of that number with milk and fruit juice. The SBD takes out everything except a cup of decaf in the morning -- with Splenda as a sweetener -- and water for the rest. I'm not a very good water drinker. Even during a workout where I'm sweating through my shirt, I'm still really bad about not drinking enough. Which, of course, is why I've been recording the number of ounces I'm getting.

I'm still counting calories, too, and I'll post those up later, of course.

But I guess, overall, things are a little better. Not enough for a celebration, but definitely a tiny bit of a sign that I'm heading in the right direction.

This week's itinerary:
1 Cardio-Weight Class
2-3 Cycle Classes (I didn't make any last week, and I'm severly disappointed with myself.)
2 Weightlifting Classes
1000 Calories on the machines

I'll Have the Not Cool with a Side of Frustration

I had a realization today. On this day last year, I weighed 14 pounds heavier. Just 14 pounds. One full year. I lost 25 pounds in a month, mostly due to my little girl, and her accompanying luggage. She was 7 pounds, not quite eight, plus the placenta, and if I estimate it correctly enough liquids to fill a gallon-sized milk jug, plus some.

I was feeling some better yesterday, I guess. But then I went to see a Gastroenterologist. I've had weird nausea off and on, randomly for years. I had six months solid just after college where I couldn't think about eating before noon without yakking. And no, I wasn't pregnant. Trust me. My husband finally made me actually ask someone about it, so today, I found myself sitting in a very well appointed doctor's office with beautiful oak furniture and heavy ironwork decor, talking to a man I just met about subjects I won't admit to the hubby I do, and hopefully never will. (It's gastroenterology, folks. Think about it.)

But sometimes I get this weird unsettled feeling, instead of true nausea, and throughout most of my pregnancy I felt this way. Like I was compelled to put something on my stomach, even though I wasn't hungry. It just didn't feel okay, didn't feel full, even though I knew I was totally stuffed to the gills. (Anyone want to guess why I gained 60 pounds during my pregnancy?)

The only thing the doctor could tell me was that there is nothing really wrong with my stomach, per say. However, he did feel like my random nausea was metabolically related. So I suppose on the upside, at least when it happens again, I can identify it, and write it down, instead of wondering "What IS that?"

On the downside, though, he did mention that in order to lose more weight, I might want to consider a low-carb diet. I have no idea how to go about this. I tried a low-carb diet for a week a very long time ago, and had such bad headaches and nausea, I just felt like I was falling apart.

I don't eat a lot of what people consider "bad" carbs -- rice, pasta, white bread -- and when I do eat carbs, it's usually whole grains with lots of fiber. However, if I snack, I'm usually desperate for a cracker. Breakfast is even worse. If I want to get out of the house at a decent time (or at all) , breakfast needs to be portable. I need to either be able to pour it into a bowl or rip open a package. Mostly, that means cereal or waffles or some other item that can be stuffed into a toaster.

I usually have Kashi Heart to Heart cereal, which is awesome, but it has 25g of carbs per each 3/4 cup serving. I'm also allergic to nuts, so most low-carb cereals are right out. The only breakfast bars I've ever been able to eat without a side helping of Benedryl have been Full Circle Organic Breakfast Bars. (The Apple Cobbler rocks, too, btw.)

Not only that but, I don't drink anything but milk, coffee, fruit juice and water. No soft drinks whatsoever, and not much tea lately... However, a 1/2 cup milk contains 11g of carbs, and fruit juice... well, yeah, that would have to go, no question. But what this means is if I quit carbs, that leaves me with... what? The water?

But honestly, my net progress in one year has been 14 pounds. That's a little less than one pound per month. In addition, I was here, at this exact weight on October 29th of last year, before I started back to the gym and workouts.

I get an eye-twitch just thinking about all of this. Not to mention I didn't go to the gym because I just didn't feel like it, and my parents were in town helping me with She Who Must Not Sleep, and gave me just enough excuse not to go. (She picked her own title. Believe me when I say my choice would have been different.)

It's so hard to look at my "results" and my input, and really feel good. I'm severely disheartened and frustrated. I guess in another week, I'll make a call on the low-carb diet, if the cycle/spin doesn't start to make some impact.

Week 2 Summary: THIS. SUCKS.

I have been feeling pretty confident about my workout schedule. I added cycling/spinning to my weekly routine, and I've been trying to do more weightlifting and aerobics in general. I thought I did okay last week. My caloric intake wasn't too bad, and aside from my car being invaded by a cockroach and preventing me from getting an official workout on Tuesday, I managed to burn a total of 4,064 calories.

Sure sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

My scales don't seem to think so. And okay, I haven't been on the more vigorous workout schedule for long, but maybe I was just hoping a little too hard. On top of which, during a belly dancing class I took, I just felt huge and awkward, and there were mirrors everywhere. I remember what I used to look like, and it just really seemed like I was nowhere near where I had been, so I was hugely depressed for most of the week about my weight. Not to mention when I went dancing on Thursday, none of my clothes fit well; they were all tight in the wrong places, and showed off everything I was trying to hide, and nothing looked good.

I still went to classes, though, and I still watched what I was eating. It is only the second week of the harder workouts. I just need to be patient, I hope.

The Extended Birthday-Holiday Eating Marathon

As I said before, birthday calories shouldn't count. Even if it's not your own. In fact, if you THROWING a bash for someone, that should count as a workout. No kidding. All that running around, getting things straight, getting things clean, setting up, decorating, cooking... definitely a workout. I was up until 1am on Friday getting things ready for the hubby's birthday. We had a tailgate-style birthday, since the hubby is a real Tiger Football fan -- Clemson, of course. Is there another team?

My buddy made FABULOUS ribs, in addition to the wings I baked. He makes a kick-ass sauce that has become my hubby's No. 1 Favorite... which would have been good information to have before I made sixteen trips to various grocery stores looking for the previous number one. But how can you surprise someone if you ask them what they want? It's kind of hard to slip in those questions and be sly about it, you know what I mean?

For having a ton of food available, I was pretty good, though. I had eight wings (baked), a small section of boneless ribs, two "bones" worth of boned ribs, cinnamon sugar sweet potato chips (don't ever try them; you can't ever get enough), two oreos, and a minor amount of Tennessee Sin Dip, which I made low-fat by using yogurt cheese instead of cream cheese.

Part of what did me in was that the English Country Tea House was closing, so we went and had High Tea with scones and tea sandwiches, and a few pieces of cake... and a traditional pasty. About 800 calories or more, I think. I didn't have much of the cakes though, so I was moderately well behaved. But since it was the last day they were going to be open, my poor husband had to deal with an English Tea for lunch on his birthday. Fortunately for him, our buddy Rock was in town, and just his mere presence can level the playing field in the Estrogen versus Testosterone Battle, no matter how many girls you have in the room... or the building...

So to sum up the Labor Day / Hubby Birthday Weekend, my caloric intake for each day was as follows:

Friday: 1200 Calories
Saturday: 3166 Calories
Sunday: 2351 Calories
Monday: 1855 Calories

I did play a little golf, though. The course is fairly hilly, and I did carry my clubs, so that's something of a workout, even if we did have to quit at the Eighth Hole because of rain. (It was a really delicious day to be out, honestly. The rain was perfect!) I also played a little Wii Golf and Wii Bowling, which can be a little bit of a workout.

It was even somewhat quiet since we sent the Monster Munchkin off to visit Grammy and Grandad. But yeah, from the diet/weight loss perspective, not a great weekend. A lot of fun, of course, but not productive towards my goals.

:sigh:

Internet Withdrawl

My internet was out all last week. The cable company finally got around to fixing it on Saturday, but that was the hubby's birthday, so that didn't help me get a blog in... and then there was the Mad Keyboard Milk Disaster.


My infant woke up while I was fiddling with the cable modem, and Little Miss Ninja Fingers slid off her beanbag chair and crawled over to my keyboard as silent as you please. It was like a slow motion moment in the movies, where I looked over to see my milk precariously on edge and tipping slowly over my keyboard. And she has amazing aim, apparently. Almost all of it landed in the keyboard itself, somehow.


I figured, "Well, it already has a FULL glass of milk in it... how could I top that?" So I ran it under the sink and popped it into the dryer -- on a drying rack on "No Heat" of course. But yeah, it's gone to that keyboard heaven in the sky. So Tuesday night, I dropped into WalMart and bought a new one.


And here we are, wired again!


Back on topic: last week, I promised to post my calories, and I have them right here. I think I did fairly well last week. Lots of good exercise, eating within moderation, even though I'm craving chocolate chip cookies so badly I could scream. And there are THREE packs of Oreos from the birthday celebrations sitting on my counter, and I haven't eaten any this week. I'd consider that a success in and of itself.


At least it looks like a good week by the numbers.

My Net Caloric Intake:
MONDAY = -585 Calories
TUESDAY = -775 Calories
WEDNESDAY = -158 Calories
THURSDAY = -1061 Calories
FRIDAY = -453 Calories



All in all, looks pretty decent, huh? And then the weekend happened. All I can say is Birthday Calories shouldn't count -- even if it's not your birthday.

But that's for another blog, I guess.