The number 30 is good. It's an even number. It's divisible by 10 which is also an even number, as well as by 3. It starts with the number 3. (
3 is one of my favorite numbers and I like to group things in 3's.) 30 is how old I turned on my last birthday although I've been asked if I was the nanny or the babysitter. What kind of babysitter or nanny takes 4 young ones out to McDonalds in the morning for breakfast? (
We had just dropped the car off at the shop for the day and were hungry... Funny older British lady stared at us the whole time and then asked if I were the nanny. Honest to goodness...)
30 is also, coincidentally, the number of pounds I have now lost! While 20 is good, my goal was to get down to 30, because it's an even number that for me would be less than weighing 200 lbs. Actually, this morning was 30.4 lbs... !
More things I have learned this week:
1. Take breaks. If I work out hard every day than it doesn't give my body a chance to recover. It's okay to take a day and make the decision to not work out. That doesn't mean I'll be sitting down all day, oh no, just that I won't be jogging that morning or doing lunges with added weights.
2. Eat. Although I'm doing low carb, I found out it's important to track my calories too. Because veggies and fruits aren't exactly high in them and I eat a lot of veggies with some fruit. And the basic tenet of weight loss is more calories burnt than taken in. I have to eat a certain minimum or I start getting shaky and dizzy like I was earlier this week. Not on purpose mind you, but we were at family's house and I wasn't in charge of the food. They had pizza, I had a piece of cheese and a tomato because that's all they had in the fridge that I could eat. And some peanuts I found in my purse. Situations like that are actually why I tend to keep nuts in my purse! And then I eat when I can.
Of course, I can't just gorge myself on steak all the time and expect to lose... Sure it's low carb, but a 16 oz steak is still a lot of calories! :-)
3. It's okay to treat yourself, as long as it's a wise treat choice. I took the kids to Orange Leaf, a self-service frozen yogurt place here. 2 kids share a bowl and mommy fills it with their flavor choice. Then they each get to pick a topping for their yogurt. It keeps the portion sizes small as well as the cost. Yesterday I decided that I'd treat myself too. After all, dragging kids through the mall is no picnic and I deserved it. I was also trying to get in enough food to feel better after not getting enough the couple days prior. But instead of getting a full bowl of the chocolate peanut butter swirl, I got about 1/2 a cup (
which is a serving of ice cream and I figured, yogurt too.) of the classic tart. Likely less sugar being very lightly sweetened plain yogurt. And topped it with a couple fresh strawberry chunks and some almonds for protein and fiber.
It was amazing! Not what I'll do all the time, but after looking up nutrition information, I will feel a lot better about an
occasional bowl for myself.
I also made the choice to have a slice of pizza. After all day microwave shopping I was too tired to do much for dinner, so we hit up the local take-n-bake place. They (
not Papa Murphy's, sorry...) have a seafood pizza with alfredo sauce that I had to try. One slice, enjoyed it immensely as my first slice in 2 months, and then left the table. Yesterday wasn't typical for me at all, and I still lost a little, but it proved to myself that I can have those things every once in a while without losing control and eating everything in sight!
And I felt a lot better yesterday and today with enough food in my system for survival, :-).
