Sick

I just wanted to stop in so nobody thought I was ignoring my blog or not visiting. I've been sick as hell the last few days (since my last post) and haven't been on the computer much except to check my email or read a blog every now and then. It started with tummy trouble on Tuesday and yesterday and today I've had horrible headaches. I have no idea where the headaches are coming from, but they're bad; almost as bad as the migraines I've had in the past.

Love you all; I'll visit soon.

Surprised!

I've been avoiding the computer and the scale all weekend because I've been eating poorly. Well, that and we've been busy. Saturday was Paul's birthday (it was very nice!) and yesterday we had a barbeque with his parents. I made an absolutely beautiful pineapple upside down cake Saturday morning since it's Paul's favorite. Luckily, we sent half home with his parents!



Anyway, I wasn't expecting to see a loss at all, and was bracing myself for a gain. I was kinda blown away when I saw that I've lost 3.8 pounds! Yippee! The only thing I can figure is that I ran my butt off most of the weekend and that counteracted all the bad crap I ate. I'm not complaining!

The weeks should start getting more regular and "normal" now. There are no serious holidays coming up for awhile, and Paul won't be taking any more vacation days for now. I'm hoping that'll help me stay honest during the weekends, at least more than I have been. I was happy to see a loss this week, but I doubt it's going to happen every weekend where I eat like that.

Hope everyone else saw a loss this week!

Bizarre food day

Yesterday was an odd day. I woke up really early with a sore back. I hadn't slept well and had no appetite for breakfast. I started the morning with coffee and once I got nice and caffeinated I started cleaning. Lunch time passed and was forgotten. I was so immersed in cleaning that I didn't even think to stop to eat something. By the time dinner time rolled around I was famished and ate way too much pasta and a greasy (but delicious!) pork chop. All in all, I should have planned better and not eaten all my calories in one meal. Live and learn eh?

Tomorrow is my husband's 32nd birthday. I get to go gift shopping for him this afternoon so I'm sure I'll get plenty of exercise while I traipse through store after store looking for the perfect items. He always get so weird about his birthday. Not like he's scared or angry that he's getting older, but...I don't know...anxious about gifts. He never wants anyone to get him anything (with the exception of me...he doesn't mind gifts from me, but only because he knows I'll get them anyways!) but he doesn't like people doting on him. He told me last night that he hopes my parents forget it's his birthday. He also doesn't want a surprise lunch or dinner sprung on him like it was on me. I understand that; who wants to be stuck somewhere they don't want to be?

It'll all go okay though. I'm hoping once these vacations and three day weekends are over I can get my shit together and really start focusing on losing. This 'eat good for a few days, blow it for a few days' crap has got to stop. I think the only thing I'm succeeding in doing is throwing my body out of whack.

Oh, I almost forgot! My mother in law called yesterday to let me know that the surgery is a go and that she's planning on putting her ward in a home for five days so she can have the surgery and have a few days to recover. This works out for everyone because she gets a few days extra break with just her husband around and I don't have to put anyone before anyone else. Now I just hope that nothing gets in the way of her getting surgery. There always seems to be something. She's been up a few times for surgery and it's fallen through for various reasons.

I hope everyone has a great weekend; enjoy that extra day if you get it off!

Normalcy

Paul's back at work and I'm...sitting here catching up on everything and planning the day. It was awesome having him home, glad he's back at work today though! I can't seem to get anything done when he's around. Not due to him being clingy (which used to be a very real problem) but because I really like spending time with him. Who'da thunk it?! I get to spend extra time with him next week too, because he's off for Memorial day. Hope another long weekend doesn't do me in like this one did! When my schedule changes, my good eating habits hit the road.

Now it's time for a confession. I'm a daily weigher. I've heard that it's not good for you mentally to see your weight fluctuate so much (because it does!) but I weigh first thing in the morning and leave the scale alone for the rest of the day. I can't help it! I'm down by almost two pounds since yesterday so I'm convinced that I was holding on to a lot of water weight. The temperature here has soared in the past week and when it gets really hot, I hold on to fluid. I don't sweat a lot at all; it just seems to stick to me. So, I'm not stressing the weight gain at all. It'll come off; it's all good.

I have been trying to figure out why it's so hard for me to stay in healthy mode when Paul's home. I think it's due largely to the fact that I don't see him for large chunks of the day and when he's home for the weekend he's not exhausted like during the week. Therefore, I like to do special things...cook big breakfasts, go out to dinner, have snacks while we watch movies or play video games. Unfortunately, all those goodies add up every weekend and it sabotages the hard work I've put in during the week. I seriously need to formulate a plan to help me with that. Fool proof snacks for at home, "safe" things to order from restaurants. I'll try to work on that this week.

Paul's birthday is on Saturday. I'm planning on getting him one of the black and red Nintendo DS's because it turns out that as much as he bitched about not liking hand-held games, he loves mine! His favorite colors are black and red so it's awesome that they've got one with both colors. I'm also looking in to getting him the two Transformer games for it because he's expressed interest. Don't know if I'll be able to find them though. He's not big in to sweets, so I can forgo a cake (thank goodness!) but I may take him to the Thai restaurant we haven't tried yet. Either way, I'm not going to stress a birthday meal...life's too damned short to miss out on a good birthday dinner every once in awhile!

I do have some semi-stressful stuff coming up soon. I'm hoping I can get through it without eating the world or killing somebody. June 6th my mother in law has to go to Las Vegas for either surgery prep or surgery (I haven't gotten all the details yet). She wants me to either go with her to help her drive or take care of her ward Jerry while her and my father in law are gone. I hate driving in Vegas, and I don't particularly like Jerry. BUT, I promised I'd do one or the other and I can't flake. I don't mind helping but everything is a drama with my in laws and I'm not really looking forward to it. Around the same time, my Aunt, Uncle and cousin are coming for a visit. I abhor my Aunt and don't really even want to visit. She's an uppity snob of a woman and I seriously believe that she must shit exotic flowers from the rain forest...nothing else would be good enough for her! My cousin is a sweetheart, and I can take or leave my Uncle...he stays quiet (probably to avoid my Aunts wrath) so I barely even know him! They're coming the week of my Dad's birthday, which is the same week my mother in law is going to Vegas...argg! I'm stressed that my Mom is going to get on her high and mighty horse (what better way to battle her sister but to play that she's better?!) and be pissed that I'm helping out my mother in law during that time. My mom isn't a fan of my mother in law (they've fought a LOT in the past 12 years) and every time I do something for my mother in law my mom takes it as a personal attack. Cross your fingers that I get out alive!

Ugh, anyway. Sorry for the long rant. My family is my biggest stress factor and I pretty much like to avoid even spending time with them. If I could hang with my step dad the entire time and help him work on the house or fix a friggin' car, I'd be thrilled, but chances are I'll be stuck shmoozing with the female side of my family. Blah.

Nothing really to do with dieting or losing weight, but it's certainly a big stresser for me!

Edited to remove some personal family details. I have some snoopy family members and the last thing I need is to deal with any backlash from someone reading something that might piss them off.

And it shows- Weigh in Tuesday

Hey ladies! Sorry I haven't been around to update, but I've been spending a lot of time with my husband - and trying to stay cool! The temps have risen so much in the past few days that it's crazy. It's only going to be 97° today and I was actually happy to hear that! Luckily, tomorrow and Thursday are supposed to be a lot cooler and we have a good chance of rain...I'm crossing my fingers!

So, as for weight...I gained 2.6 pounds this week. I haven't been following a schedule, exercising or eating well so I expected it. I'll get back on track soon though.

Off to visit everyone now...hope y'all had better results than me!

Tired

I'm tired today. I finally got my craft room cleaned up and though I'm proud of it and happy it's done, I'm sore and cranky. Sometimes I just get sick of the everyday hustle, you know? I have it easy by a lot of peoples standards...I don't have to work, we don't have kids and most of the time my husband is great. I hate days like this where I'm in a funk for no reason. I hope it gets better as the day goes on!

Yesterday was a meh day food wise. I did well all day, until dinner (like normal!) We had barbeque chicken, some amazing cheddar bread and I ate cherry cheesecake for dessert. I should have known better, if for no other reason than I haven't been eating much sugar the past couple of weeks and the cheesecake sent me spinning. I was physically sick to my stomach after I ate it and need to remember that next time I decide to indulge in something that I know I shouldn't be eating.

We're coming up on the weekend again and this one's going to be a little different. My husband has been working a lot of overtime lately and he's burned out. He does forklift driving and loads custom made patio doors onto trucks. Most of these are 200+ pounds apiece and some of the bigger customs are 400 pounds. He loads most of the 200 lb. ones by himself. He managed to get his boss to allow him to take a couple days of his vacation, despite being their busy season. He needs it and I think it'll do a world of good, but it also means that he'll be home to throw off my schedule (sounds awful, doesn't it?!) I don't care though, I'll be happy to have him home and maybe he can go back to work next week feeling a little fresher. It does mean that I probably won't update much, but I will if I can, just to keep me honest.

Another good day

Yesterday was another good day. I didn't eat much during the day, but I made a really nice stir fry with chicken breast, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, water chestnuts, red peppers and corn with a few onigiri thrown in for starch for dinner. (That was a long list!)

I'm still cleaning my craft room...there finally seems to be an end in sight...I hope to get it done in the next day or two; I'm tired of looking at it.

Yesterday was good

I had a really good day yesterday. I think it's because I was running all over the place and didn't have time to think about junk food or boredom eating. I spent the majority of yesterday organizing and cleaning and dusting, something that's in the cards for today as well. I made a huge dent in the mess that is my craft room and three bags of junk later, it's a little less cluttered. After Paul got home we went on the hunt for some new jeans for him since he tore the right cuff completely off his last wearable pair. We found two pretty much brand new pair at a local thrift store and I found three new tops for myself. I love thrift store shopping SO MUCH. It only set us back $9.50!

We also did a little grocery shopping and I picked up a few things I've never tried. I got a Lean Cuisine roasted chicken and garlic pizza and it was amazing. I also tried a Smart Ones broccoli and cheddar potatoes yesterday...that one was mediocre. I've never bought a "diet" type microwave meal before in my life and figured they all would taste like crap lol. The pizza was great though. Jenn, I know you like the paninis, does anyone else have a favorite diet type tv dinner? It was super handy to toss the pizza in for dinner last night because by the end of the day I was exhausted. They're not something I'll eat regularly because I like to cook and usually have the time, but I'd like to stock up on a few for times like this when I'm on the run constantly and don't have the time or inclination to make a real meal.

I also picked up some whole wheat flour, "light" margarine and Altern (Walmart's brand of Splenda) so I can get to work on finding a good muffin/bread recipe. I'm also using the Altern in my coffee, which brings one of my giant sized cups of coffee from a nasty 340 calories to a modest 64. I bought a ridiculously expensive tin of stevia tablets over the weekend to try but they were terrible.



They're supposed to taste similar to sugar, only sweeter but all I know is that it tasted like ass. Cloyingly sweet aftertaste ass. I put two tablets in my coffee day before yesterday and when I tried it, it was strange. At first, it tasted like bitter coffee that I hadn't added any sweetener to. Then AFTER that taste came this really overpowering sweetness akin to Sweet & Low. I like my coffee and sugar and cream to meld into a creamy sweet caffeinated dream, not break up the flavor to the point of making me want to throw the entire cup out the window. So...despite my "raving" review...anyone like this stuff? Anyone want a 100 pack tin with three taken out of it? (Two for the coffee...one living under my stove)

But yeah...yesterday was nice. I under ate, but it probably made up for the chinese I ate the day before.

Not a bad start, despite a few bad choices

Despite eating crap during the weekend, cheating on my second day and eating chinese food last night, I'm down 5.2 pounds. Not bad at all! That's 20% of my first goal in a week.

I'm holding a little water on right now, just like Jenn said I would. Other than that, I think that I worked off my meal yesterday with all I did. I kept working until almost 1:00 this morning and once my head hit the pillow I don't remember anything that happened until 9:00 this morning. Ugh...I'm not even halfway done. Oh well *sigh*. I guess that'll just be my exercise for the next couple of days.

Dinner calorie overload

I've been so good today. I had Curves cereal with fat free milk and half a banana for breakfast. I had a salad for lunch, and I'm just about to blow it with Chinese from my favorite restaurant. I beat on myself for about an hour before I said yes, mainly because I know weigh in is tomorrow and I didn't want to screw it up. However, despite cleaning all day long trying to put things away from our move last night, every kitchen surface is covered in junk, dishes, and other crap. Even my stove top. I'd have to clean for another hour at least to get things moved around enough to make a meal.

Truth is, if I pushed myself I could do it. I just don't want to. I've been moving and hauling and dusting and washing all damned day and I'm exhausted. I'm not even halfway done and that is bursting my bubble more than knowing I'm going to eat a calorie laden dinner. I'm mainly just frustrated and pissy because there's so much to do, so much STUFF that I have no where to put it. I've had it. I'm going to start throwing shit away, giving it away, because in the 12 years we've been together we've just accumulated too much stuff. I'm not a minimalist at all, but I like to be able to walk through the house without piles of crap falling down everywhere. I feel like screaming!

So, no excuses. I own it. I'm eating a crappy dinner, but I'll do better tomorrow.

Recouping from the weekend

I am friggin' exhausted. The weekend was an absolute blur and it felt over in a flash, yet when it was happening it felt like it was lasting forever! (Does that make any sense?)

Saturday we got up bright and early to go to the swap meet with Paul's parents. We wanted to look around and be out of there before it got too hot. Our local swap meet has expanded so much since I first moved back here that it took us from about 8:30 in the morning until 11:30 to walk it all. I'm not complaining though...I got a little sun, got a little exercise and found a few nifty things on the way.

We didn't stop when we got home. We dropped off the stuff we'd bought, ran to the store so I could get a card for my Mom and pick up a couple of gift bags and then Paul dropped me back off at home so I could wrap her gifts and shortly after that my parents came over to do a video chat with my sister. THAT was fun! Put two non-tech savvy people in front of computers and watch the schadenfreude. My sister isn't very good with electronics of any sort and my Mom doesn't even know how to turn on a computer. Once I got them going though they were fine. They chatted for an hour or so and I uploaded some pictures for my Mom so my sister could see them. They left, Paul got home and we headed back out to go to my parents house.

My Mom didn't seem too impressed with either of her gifts. She opened the knit tablecloth I made for her and said "OH! It's another tablecloth!" Guess you had to be there...it was really anti-climatic. I also bought her a depression era candy dish because she's in to that sort of thing. It's green glass with flowers etched in to the base and a triangle shaped handle in the center...I wish I'd gotten a picture of it because it was beautiful. She said she liked it, but in the same breath she said it wasn't that old, like because it wasn't stamped with proof that it was a 1930 candy dish that it wasn't good enough. I guess I was disappointed because I wanted her to like it. I shouldn't have been surprised though because she's like that.

Oh well. Moving on. Food was fine. Mom made ribs, corn on the cob, scalloped potatoes and stuffed mushrooms. The potatoes and mushrooms weren't fit for human consumption, a fact I realized after I put them on my plate. My Mom gets her feelings hurt easily and I couldn't put it back :( Wasted calories ladies. They sucked. The ribs and corn were great though. Thinking back, that's really the only real meal I ate that day.

Sunday was pretty rough because we were running around so much. Mother's day sent us on a scramble to find some nice looking flowers. I'd wanted to wait because I didn't want nasty dried up flowers, but it turns out that that's about all that was left in the stores. I finally settled on matching African violets in cute little gift bags for two reasons. One; they were the same so there was no "playing favorites" (Anyone else out there deal with ridiculous shit like that between Moms?) and two; they were live plants, not cut so they'll last longer. It always makes me sad when I get flowers and they die a week later. At least this way they'll stay pretty as long as they take care of them.

I got even more exercise in last night when we rearranged two rooms. Yep...we were laying in bed, getting ready to go to sleep when my husband started complaining of being hot. I'd mentioned earlier in the day that because it was just the two of us and we don't get a lot of company we could move our bed out of our tiny bedroom and put in in the pop-out part of our living room, directly under the air conditioner. I was thinking about this because during the summer when it can stay 90-100° overnight, and sometimes up to 115° during the day, quality of life goes way down. It might look trashy, but at least we'll be comfortable and that's really all that matters to me. So from 8:30 to 10:00 last night we moved, and stacked, and boxed and threw shit every which way. This morning my entire house, from one end to the next looks like a cyclone hit it. Today I'll spend most of the day trying to rearrange so I can at least walk through the house without tripping over stray books and knick knacks.

Long winded post...I guess I needed to vent a bit. I didn't have the best weekend eating wise, but I'm optimistic that I'll see a good loss tomorrow. My first weigh-in..I'm excited! I decided to share my weight with y'all, since I know you won't judge me for it. I don't think I've ever told anyone but my husband what I weigh, but seriously...you can tell by looking at me, so screw it. 328. That was the magic number on the scale when I weighed myself last week. Yuck. Hope I won't be seeing that number, or any higher, ever again.

Day Four - The good, the bad, and the late.

I did really well calorie/exercise wise yesterday, but not so good physically. Around midday I started getting really severe cramps and by 6 pm I was in bed for the night. I've always had really heavy periods (when I actually get them) and cramps, but nothing like what I experienced yesterday. It was horrible.

I can't check my stats out for yesterday because the site I use is undergoing some maintenance, but I know I was a few hundred calories under my allowance. I also wasn't planning on exercising yesterday, but wound up doing so to see if I could help relieve the cramps. It worked for all of five minutes and then I had to stop after another ten because...well...let's just say that the movement got things flowing and I didn't want to have to deal with blood stains on my clothes. Jeez...let me know if I'm grossing anyone out...I can leave this kind of stuff out of my posts. It doesn't bother me, but I know some people don't like to hear about it.

Chances are I won't update much if at all over the weekends. We do a lot of running around and I try to stay off the computer at least a little so I can spend time with my husband. I'm going to try to avoid crap food, but it's really hard during the weekend when we're together, running around and it's convenient. If I have to eat it, I'll try to stay away from anything too fat laden.

Food for thought?

I love this video. I've had it bookmarked for over a year and I still go back to it from time to time. I don't agree with 100% of her views, but she's funny and smart, and a sexy as hell confident fat woman.

Help please?

I've got a question for all you old school bloggers who know what they're doing. How do you know when you have a new comment on a post? Do you just use the email option so you get an email when someone comments or is there another way? I ask because I've gotten comments on posts other than the most recent one and I've only noticed because I've gone back and looked. That's not the most time efficient way when your posts start adding up. I guess I've gotten spoiled to wordpress in that regard because your dashboard lets you know you've got comments and what post they're on.

Also, any great widgets out there that are too good to pass up? Educate me in the ways of blogger please!

Day 3 - Better today.

Today was a much better day. I did wind up going over in calories a little, but it was on healthy food and I'm okay with that. I got plenty of water in and I'll probably drink more before I go to bed.

I pulled out my Gazelle elliptical today and even though I was only able to do a half mile, I feel good about it. It's been a long time since I'd even set it up and I knew I wouldn't be able to go far, but I'm glad I was able to get motivated enough to start today. I'm aiming for at least three times a week. If I do more, great.

I was slightly unprepared when I started out this week. I'm hoping next week will be better since I have a better idea of what I'd like to have daily. I think I need to pick up a new bag of splenda. It worked well for me when I was on Atkins and it would make having coffee (without wasting calories on sugar) a lot easier. I also want to pick up more versatile veggies as well. This week I picked up cabbage, zucchini and crookneck squash, avocado, lettuce and cucumber which were all great, but I need tomatoes to balance out a salad, some different beans (because chickpeas are good and all, but I'm tired of them) and some mushrooms would be nice. I love vegetables, but I got out of the habit of eating any sort of them regularly because my husband doesn't really care for them. I forgot how much my grocery bill went up when I bought a good variety! I didn't buy a single piece of meat last week because we had enough in our freezer, and yet I spent $60 at the store for two people. Granted, a lot of that was my husband's soda and gatorade for work, but jeez!

Oh! Speaking of food, and craving and all that; I had an idea. I'll have to do some research so I can figure out the calories and everything, but I was thinking of making muffins for snack cravings that are loaded with zucchini and carrots. I love both in breads/cakes and thought it would add a little oomph to something that would otherwise be bad for me. If I could switch out the sugar with splenda and use whole wheat flour, maybe it could be a healthier alternative. I'm kind of excited about figuring it out. I could probably freeze them and just take them out as I want them. Hmmm...

Anyways. I'm rambly tonight. I'm going to go work on my sweater and watch some t.v.

Not as bad as I thought, initially.

I took Jenn's advice and calculated the junk I ate last night after dinner. Turns out I only went over by about 250 calories. At first. Somewhere around midnight I literally dipped a tablespoon in to the jar of peanut butter and ate it straight off the spoon with a handful of honey nut cheerios. Nice huh? That upped my oops to about 540 over. Ah well. This is going to be a long ass process and if I get upset over this I won't be going very far. It's not like I ate an entire cake or anything. Still, I need to be more careful. A few screw ups aren't going to ruin me, but if I allow it to happen too often I'm not going to see any results at all.

Which brings me to my next topic. Saturday is my Mom's birthday. I promised her a month ago that we would go over for a barbeque and I'm dreading it. I hate eating in front of my Mom anyway and to save my sanity I've chosen not to tell her about my trying to lose weight. I'll wind up with a couple hours of outdated advice and some "helpful" comments I really don't need to hear now or ever. Basically what this boils down to is that I'm going to eat whatever is served, but I'm going to try to keep everything in small portions. Gotta pick your battles, right?

Day Two - Blew it.

***Warning...TMI ahead***

Day two and I already blew my healthy eating. I'm not letting it stop me, but it made me feel like crap.

I woke up to a crime scene this morning, blood everywhere and a foul mood to go with it. After I got everything cleaned up I had a banana and a piece of toast with a thin schmear of peanut butter and a cup of barely sweetened coffee.

The first day of my period is the worst. I get cravings galore, headaches, mood swings and the poos. (Told you it was tmi, sorry) I wasn't feeling well so I took a nap and when I woke up it was way past lunch time and Paul had gotten home early. I decided to skip having anything for lunch when Paul offered to get me a Coke icee. I knew I shouldn't have caved, but I was weak. We had a great dinner of steak and avocado sarnies (which was delightfully healthy despite being sinfully delicious) and afterwards I planned on having some fresh pineapple that I butchered myself. Alas, after eating dinner I got this wicked craving for chocolate and so I poured a liberal handful over the strawberries and pineapple that I'd already put in a bowl.

It could've been worse. A LOT worse. I'm not happy with myself, but I'm trying not to beat myself up and just say "fuck it". That's what's caused me to fail every time I've tried to chance my eating habits or diet in the past. Instead, I'll get up in the morning and maybe have a bowl of oatmeal or another slice of toast and move on. I hate having to think so much about food :(

I've got to find a less junky alternative for when I'm weak willed during times like this. Maybe I'll look in to some 100 calorie desserts or something.

Day One

Today was the first day of my new healthy eating lifestyle change. Doesn't that sound awful? I can almost hear an entire auditorium of middle schoolers groaning for me. As much as I'm trying to be behind this and be positive and poop sunshine and rainbows over it, I'm feeling a little down about it. I've already decided that this isn't going to be a fad diet, an obsessed spiral into losing weight fast or a quick fix. I'm going to honestly try to lose weight the smart way, by limiting my junk food intake, eating more fruit and veg and drinking more water. (I know, this paragraph is ridiculously comma heavy, sorry,,,)

Today was a good day and a meh day. A good day because I ate really well, a meh day because I had no coffee at all and waited until dinner time to have a soda. I decided that I wasn't going to completely cut out coffee and soda because I feel deprived when I do and it makes me angry and I want to drink a case of soda and 12 pots of coffee out of spite. I'm not even going the diet soda route because it doesn't taste as good and I've read recent articles that link artificial sweeteners to helping the weight stick. Anyway, I was so tired today from lack of caffeine that I took a three hour nap, pretty much guaranteeing that I won't sleep well tonight.

So, food:

For breakfast I had a banana, a piece of toast and a slice of cheddar cheese. I'd contemplated not eating breakfast at all, but decided that if I was going to do this right, I'd better eat breakfast. It was a little odd for breakfast fare with the cheese thrown in, but it kept me going until lunch.

For lunch I had a bento consisting of homemade hummus with cucumber slices, onigiri with star shaped nori on top, stir fried carrots and broccoli left over from the night before and watermelon jello and strawberries.

For dinner I had a grilled pork chop, half a baked potato and a big cucumber salad with a wild cherry Pepsi.

Todays meals were way better than I normally eat. Most of the time I skip breakfast in lieu of copious amounts of sugar and creamer laden coffee. By lunch time I'm ravenous but push myself to wait until around 2pm, where I grab whatever is quick (although that's changed a bit since I started making bento for lunch) and by 6 or 7 at night I'm ready to eat the wood paneling off the walls and I stuff myself. Today I wasn't hungry between meals at all except for when I woke up late from my ridiculously long nap.

I found this great site called The Daily Plate that is really similar to FitDay, but a lot more community based. It's got a calorie calculator that helps well...calculate how many calories you should be eating based on your weight and activity level. I'm not ready to share my weight yet...it's too embarrassing and I don't even like admitting it to myself. But, I will say that at my weight and activity level, to lose three pounds a week it suggests I eat around 1,918 calories a day. That's totally do-able and I won't complain if I don't lose a full three pounds every week.

Today I only had 1,584 calories, but I may or may not hit up some fresh pineapple or a single cup of coffee a little later. I plan on starting some sort of exercise in the next week or so, depending on how motivated (or unmotivated) I feel after my caffeine restriction.