Day 11 -better decisions

Today was a good day. First of all I wasn't so hungry. I ate more substantial meals, and being home part of the day helped too. I didn't get stuck with vending machine choices for afternoon snack. Second, my wool pants that i need to wear to a pre-inaugural event fit me. Considering I'll be outside wrangling VIPs to the right doors in 15 degree weather, this is an exceedingly positive development!

Meals were all homemade. Dinner was fabulous tilapia I bought at an overpriced fishmonger. It would have been really lovely except for the wrath of my children at being forced to eat it. If I just fed them Kraft Macaroni and Cheese every night and never made them brush their teeth we'd have a very peaceful household.

At any rate I don't feel like I'm on a diet. I feel like I've embarked upon a massive lifestyle change. I needed to compensate for the various events that precipitated weight gain. Below are events and associated approximate weight changes from about age 25 to now.

1. summer diner waitressing job. food started to gross me out after being around it so much, and I was on my feet all day and jogged in evening. I actually dieted that summer. (1994) -7

2. moving into walkable Boston for grad school, and ironically, into a location just a bit too far from 3 different T stops. It was just as easy to walk/rollerblade than to deal with Kenmore Square T. (1994) -7

3. getting sick with gallbladder disease (1994) -10

4. becoming utterly and completely lovesick (1998) -5

5. moving from city to suburbs - no more rollerblading everywhere (1998), +10

6. settling into couple routine of lots of eating out (1999)+5

7. 1st pregnancy (2001) +12 post-baby, say 1 yr later

8. 2nd pregnancy, complete haze of 2 babies, one who was sick for 2.5 years and didn't sleep. (2004) +12

9. ability to sleep, older toddlers, new job (2005) weight up and down constantly +/-7 lbs, depending on rate of exercise/sleep/sweets intake/rotovirus exposure.

10 entering late 30s (2007) +3

11. return to office job 5 days a week, end of stroller pushing (2008) +7

12. decision to take matters seriously and change all habits drastically (2009) ???

(not sure if the math adds up perfectly on this, but you get the point)

The above list I think explains why baby steps are no longer helpful. Small changes like moving to whole wheat, reducing sugar, trying to walk more, etc. can change 5 to 7 lbs.  But alas to compensate for sitting most of the day, pregnancy/nursing, or driving everywhere, aging, one must be drastic. One cannot override having one's ass glued to either a minivan seat or office chair by simply bypassing birthday cake. Maybe I should have figured out a way to exercise today....

food log

breakfast

coffee with milk 1pt

whole wheat naan with 2tbs peanut butter 6pts

tall skim latte, mid morning 1pt

lunch

1.5 cups couscous and beluga lentil salad with feta and red pepper 3pts? couscous hard to measure due to density variance

banana 2pts

snack

0 fat yogurt 1pt

dinner

many oz tilapia, sauteed onions, tomatoes, hot sauce, drop olive oil, decided upon extra tilapia instead of the never-ending bowl of plain couscous in the fridge.

snack

9 soy crisps, 50cal, 1/2pt

exercise

none, unless traipsing around a hot mall looking for dishwashers and extra warm clothes for the inaugural counts...it seemed like exercise due to the sweating and disorientation