Day 90 - I've Gained Some Back (221)

First off, yup, I've gained back 3 pounds since my last post 2 weeks ago.   Hmmm--now that I've written that, think there could be any correlation?  My guess is there's no cause-and-effect relationship between lack of posts and weight gain, but rather a tendency to avoid blogging when I'm not "doing my best work", shall we say.

Excuse #1:  Work has been hell for the past couple of weeks--overwhelmed, with stress level through the roof.

Excuse #2:  Had a huge fight with a family member that upset me for days.

But those are just that--EXCUSES.  Truth is, I just decided to eat a lot of pizza and ice cream over the last couple of weeks.  I didn't want to; I tried not to; but I fell back into my old pattern of cravings, night eating, etc, and just went with it.  Probably I just felt sorry for myself and said to heck with it.

I also tried something else that probably wasn't wise during this time.  I tried a "diet", I guess you could say--the "Fast Diet".  The one where you eat 500 calories on Monday and Thursday, and eat "normally" on the other 5 days.  My not-even-fat cousin is doing this and  has lost 24 lbs in about the same time I've been working at this.  So I thought I'd mix it up a bit and give that a shot, along with 'Blasting.

You're supposed to eat a HEALTHY 500 calories on those days.  Cousin K has things like pepper strips, a small piece of chicken, carrots, a light yogurt, etc.

I basically white-knuckled it through the first Monday, but I didn't make wise choices.  I think I had a cup of hot chocolate with spray whipped cream and a cup of hot cider for the first 2 "meals" of the day.  Then I ate way too many pumpkin seeds (those suckers have a lot of calories!)

So I was at about 600 calories by the time hubby went to bed that evening.  And then ...?  Out came that damned Friendly's chocolate almond chip ice cream--AND I sat down with THE CONTAINER.

So my foray into the "Fast Diet" did nothing for me except remind me that I'm not good at that kind of restriction--especially when I'm already stressed.  (Ahem--isn't that 4-letter word "d-i-e-t" right in the name of that plan, anyway?  Shouldn't that have been a tipoff--hmmmmmm?)

I didn't even try to do it on Thursday.

Anyway, that gives you an idea of how the past 2 weeks has gone.  Pizza, ice cream, Halloween candy.  Although I *am* pleased that I (a) only bought one bag of candy for Halloween; (b) left it in the cupboard out of sight until it was time for goblins to start knocking; and (c) only succumbed to it THAT night.  I had just a few pieces--could have been worse!--but that helped me get where I am today, which is back up 3 pounds from my low.

It occurs to me that 218 was a mere 2 lbs away from a full TEN PERCENT of my original body weight.  I was  t-h-i-s  c-l-o-s-e!

But that's ok.  I also did my second official, timed 5K walk today.  That inspired me to get going again.

More on that tomorrow.  :-)