WEEK 6 -- DAY 42 -- HAPPY VALENTINES'S DAY

While there's something to be said about being on a diet and not letting anyone in your family know you're doing it, it's quite another thing when Valentine's Day rolls around and your husband gives you a big fat box of Godiva chocolates. "Candy", I said, "How nice!" I'm pleased to say that I haven't even taken the ribbon off the box and I don't intend to.

He also went to the supermarket and bought food to make a chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and corn.....one of my favorites. I obviously had to eat it. But as long as that's all I'm doing, it really wasn't too bad. I just have to make sure I pick up the slack tomorrow.

So I made it through the Valentine's Day festivities all in one piece. I'm sure I weigh more than I did when I weighed myself on Saturday morning but I'll never know!!!

WEEK 6 -- DAY 41 -- 6TH WEIGH-IN

1.5 lbs. lost this week

5 lbs. lost this month

14.5 lbs. lost YTD

One day, a few weeks ago, I spent a few hours finding all of these great "success" graphics online. I'm happy that I get to use another one this week since I lost 1.5 pounds. There's nothing sweeter than success. I know my weight ticker says I've lost 15 pounds so far but that's because it can't calculate half pounds.

I definitely feel thinner and actually bought a little quilted vest yesterday to wear to my daughter's house today. It's a size smaller than I was previously buying so that made me happy. The real test would be if my daughter noticed that I had lost weight. The last time I saw her was at Christmas and I was over 230 pounds at the time. Now I'm under 220 pounds so it should be noticeable....especially to someone as discerning as she is.

We were sitting on the couch and she was staring at me. She told me that she liked my new eyeglasses but still kept staring. "You look good", she said...."Are you thinner?" I said no and went on changing the subject. Later we went out shopping and I told her about my "plan" and how I was doing. My son's girlfriend was also with us so I told her as well. They were all excited and then started to give me advice. "Stop right there", I told them. "This is one reason I wanted to do this without anyone knowing.....so no one would give me advice. For the first time in my life, I want to do it my way and it's obviously been successful." They agreed and no further advice was given.

I definitely ate more at her house than I have in the past six weeks because we had lunch as soon as we got there and then later on an antipasto salad. They all had pizza after that but I was full so I only had a few bites. She also made delicious Valentine's Day cupcakes and I couldn't disappoint her by not having one. But, once again, this is the beauty of my very "successful plan".....I can do this stuff and still lose the pound a week I want to lose.

Tomorrow's the actual Valentine's Day. I still have to get through that and then I'll be good to go.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 40 -- Pre Valentine's Day

We've had so much snow this week that it's been hard to get out. Consequently, my Valentine's Day shopping was way behind. We're going to my daughter's house tomorrow which means I better have presents. There's no one in the world who likes a present more than my daughter. So that was my plan for today.....shopping, shopping and more shopping.

I spent a few hours at the mall and, towards the end, started to get light headed. I still had to do food shopping for my mother, who's living in a retirement facility, so I figured I had better leave the mall before I started feeling even worse. By the time I ended up getting home, I felt awful. All I wanted to do was go to bed. As a result, I ended up not even eating dinner. Considering that I would be weighing myself tomorrow morning, I figured it couldn't hurt. Sometimes, you end up losing less when you don't eat. There's plenty of diets out there that tell you to eat a few small meals a day.

Well the weigh-in is less than twelve hours away. Looking forward to it!!

WEEK 6 -- DAY 39 -- SNOWBOUND PART DEUX

Today was the second day of my "snowboundedness". The power finally came back on at 9:30AM which was a sign that the day was going to start off well. I was so excited that I have been doing so well on my plan the past two days and just knew that nothing would steer me off course today. Here's a picture of my backyard "the day after" with the sun shining. What a difference a day makes!!!

Since yesterday's combination of the mini blueberry muffins and the Jenny Craig ravioli was so successful, I went with the exact same thing today. I heard Dr. Oz say that you shouldn't feel that you have to eat a lot of different things when you're trying to lose weight. If something works for you, just stick with it. So that's what I did.

We're going to my daughter's house in New York on Saturday for Valentine's Day which means I'll be weighing myself this week on Saturday before we leave. I'm not stupid enough to think I would want to weigh myself the day after that since I know I'll be eating more than usual on that day. So it's only two more days to my weigh-in. I look forward to this day more than any other day of the week.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 38 -- A Snow Day!!!!

Today the weather forecasters predicted that we would get somewhere in the area of 12" - 18" of snow. For once in their lives, they were correct. Based on the fact that I was going to be snowbound all day, I thought it was going to be hard to stay on plan. Let's face it, what else is there to do when you're stuck in the house. I started off with my usual Hostess blueberry muffins and tried to stay away from the refrigerator/pantry all day long. By 4:30PM, rather than having a snack, I opted for the Jenny Craig cheese ravioli. Here's a picture of it......I wasn't able to find a picture of just the ravioli alone but just know that I didn't eat the macaroni and cheese as well as the brownies shown in the same picture. As soon as I finished eating, the power went out.

There is nothing that makes me angrier than having no power. Since we also have well water and a septic system, when we lose power it also means that we have no water and no use of flushing toilets. It's simply miserable. Once the power went out, I went upstairs with some candles and my book and my book light and read for the rest of the night. At one point it was so cold that I was actually reading with gloves on while under the covers. The power did not return until 9:30AM. Here's a picture of my backyard taken from my upstairs bedroom.

So as bad as the power outage was, it certainly kept me from eating anything else for the day. So all in all, another successful day of eating and way below my recommended 1650 calorie intake.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 37 -- Back On The Wagon....For Sure!!!!!

After yesterday's momentary lapse, I can only go up from there. I woke up feeling positive. I wasn't hating myself about what I'd done. It was time to move on. I started off the day with my usual package of Hostess mini blueberry muffins. I reach for these because they're fast and quick. I'm sure scrambled eggs and toast would be much healthier but I usually don't have time to cook in the morning. I know I've reported in the past that I have Entenmann's blueberry muffins in the morning and today I realized that they have been Hostess brand all along.

Late in the afternoon, while in my office, I had two mini Milky Way treats simply because I was starving. I'm going to have to bring in some healthier snacks so I have something to reach for when it's 4PM and I'm hungry. When I got home, I had a Jenny Craig thin crust pizza (delicious) followed by some sugar free jello with a little bit of Redi Whip on top.

I found this great site (the one where I get the weight loss ticker I use) called My Fitness Pal and you can actually plug in what you've eaten and it will give you the caloric intake as well as how many grams of fat, carbs, etc., each item contains. If you plug in what you've eaten for the entire day, it will tell you how many leftover calories you have that you can still consume. Based on my current height and weight, it calculates how many calories I can eat in a given day in order to lose weight. The total they have allotted me is 1650 calories. I can't even imagine how many calories I consumed yesterday but I know it's well above what they recommended. Since I've been on the plan, I must be consuming less than the 1650 calories or I wouldn't have lost the weight I've lost. For instance, today it says I've only consumed 575 calories and it says if I continued this way for the next three weeks, I'd lose another 15 pounds. (This is a sample of what their calorie counter looks like.....it's not mine but you get the picture).

Well, that's not going to happen because that's unrealistic. But the bottom line is that I'm happy that I was able to get right back on the horse again after yesterday's debacle. (By the way, I just did the calories for all I ate on Monday and I was only 90 calories above what's recommended for me). Now I really love this calorie counter.....I don't feel half as bad as I did about yesterday. But don't worry. I hope I won't be doing this for another 36 days.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 36 -- BACK ON AND OFF THE WAGON

Now that the weekend is over and my company is gone, it's time to get back on the wagon. I started off the day with a Jenny Craig blueberry muffin with high hopes of continuing with a Jenny Craig dinner. Somewhere between 4PM and 5PM, I fell off that wagon.

Having done so much food shopping for Super Bowl, thoughts of the things in my pantry and refrigerator were circling around in my head. Since I hadn't had any of the chips I had bought for my party, I kept thinking about the Cool Ranch Doritos and nothing could keep me from having some. Sitting down with a Diet Coke and some Doritos is heaven. There's no way you can eat a Jenny Craig dinner after having Doritos.....no possible way. So I thought I wouldn't eat anything else for the rest of the day. Then I started thinking about the leftover Hawaiian meatballs and heated those up. Now I was on a roll......and it wasn't a good one. After the meatballs, I decided to have a Super Bowl cupcake (which I also hadn't had the day before). And as icing on the cake, I had a Reese's peanut butter cup.

This is as bad as it gets. This is the first time in 36 days that I've done something like this so I really can't beat myself up about it. In the past, I would have done this, weighed myself, gotten depressed and kept on eating. Since I only weigh myself once a week, I have no idea how much damage I've done. I refuse to lie in this blog. If I fall short, I'm going to report it as this will help me along the way. As long as I can pick myself up tomorrow, I'll be fine. Stay tuned.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 35 -- SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

Well I made it through Super Bowl Sunday. As I already mentioned, we were having a mini Super Bowl party and I was excited about making a lot of different appetizers. As usually happens, I bought too much and ended up not having half of what I had planned. The good news is that I put out all of the chips and dips, etc. while I was cooking the appetizers so I never had a chance to eat any of that.

I made a Hawaiian meatball recipe from the old Betty Crocker recipe cards of the '70's. It was a great hit and I didn't feel I overdid it by having a few of those. Then I made a delicious crab and cheese spread that you put on english muffins and broil in the oven so everything melts on top. These were out of this world and I had a few of those as well. I had also bought chicken wings that we never touched and had planned on making an antipasto salad which we didn't do either. My son's girlfriend made homemade pizza and I had one small slice and I really mean small.

We were all so full that we never even had the Super Bowl cupcakes I had bought. I had forgotten all about them with the excitement of the Saints winning.

So all in all, I don't feel I did too much damage to all the hard work I've done so far on my plan. Tomorrow I'll be right back in the good eating mode.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 34 -- 5TH WEIGH-IN

3.5 lbs. lost this week

3.5 lbs. lost this month

13 lbs. lost YTD

Yes, you're reading that right. I lost an additional 3.5 lbs. this week. What makes this weight loss even more spectacular is that I'm actually weighing myself two days earlier because of Super Bowl weekend. My usual weigh-in day is on Monday but today is Saturday. So I've actually lost these 3.5 lbs. in five days.

Which brings me to another point. Who is crazy enough to have Monday as their weigh-in day? Only a crazy person would weigh themselves every week after the weekend. What I'm going to try to do is make this weigh-in day on Fridays in the future. To accomplish this, I will weigh myself on Sunday for next week's weigh-in and then on Saturday for the following week. And then the week after that I'll weigh-in on Friday and do that for the rest of the year.

You can't even imagine how excited I was when I got on the scale this morning. It just proves that what I'm doing is working. And I don't even feel like I'm dieting or that I'm missing out on anything. For the past five weeks, I've done everything I wanted to do and haven't turned down any social engagements. In the upcoming week, I'm having lunch out with a friend. If I was on my typical "diet", I would have made an excuse not to do this.

No one in my family even knows I've lost weight and I'm wondering at what point they will start to notice. As I mentioned, my son is coming home this weekend with his girlfriend so that will be the first test. If it's not noticed by them, I am going to my daughter's house next weekend for Valentine's Day. Surely she will notice. We'll see!!!

WEEK 5 -- DAY 33 -- Food Shopping For Super Bowl Sunday!!

This week I'm definitely going to have to make a change in my weigh-in day. There's no way I'm weighing myself the day after Super Bowl Sunday. My son called yesterday and said he would be coming home with his girlfriend to watch the Super Bowl with us. So, as any good mother would do, I spent the day shopping for all sorts of things he would like to eat that day. It's been years since my husband and I have had anyone here with us watching the game. My son was either in college or out of the country on this famous Sunday. My daughter was usually at a party somewhere else so it's exciting for us to actually be having a real Super Bowl party.

I can't even tell you how much restraint I had to muster after I got home from food shopping. We have an Amish Farmer's Market close to my home and I love to buy their bagel chips and some of the different spreads/dips they have all made out of cheeses from their farms. Usually, I would come home from the market and sit down and eat the chips with one of the spreads and I'd finish the entire thing. Today it went right in the refrigerator waiting for Sunday. This is a picture of a typical Pennsylvania Dutch Market although it's not my exact market.

One thing I know for sure......I will not be on any plan or any diet on Sunday. That's my reward for having lost 9.5 pounds in January. So which day will I weigh myself? You'll have to check back to find out.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 32 -- A Good Eating Day!!!

With thoughts of the previous day's potato chips, I vowed to be good all day today and I was true to my word. Between working and running errands, I was pretty much on the go all day. I grabbed one of the very easy Entenmann's blueberry muffin bags while I was running out the door this morning. For dinner, I had Jenny Craig's Fettucine Alfredo with Chicken. I always have a small roll and butter with this dinner and that was my guilty pleasure for the day. I followed that up with some sugar free jello with a little bit of Redi Whip on top.

It sounds like I'm eating the same things almost every day. Dr. Oz says this is a good way to diet. My option this morning was either eating the blueberry muffins or stopping into my local gourmet food store and picking up a croissant filled with blueberries or cheese. I thought about this and then figured one of these is probably close to 1,000 calories so I decided to pass. Before I was on my plan, however, this would be a daily non-thinking thing for me. I would stop in there, pick out one of their pastries and not think twice about it.

If there's one think I've learned in these thirty plus days, it's to "think before I eat".

WEEK 5 -- DAY 31 -- The Good and Bad of It

Started off today with a Jenny Craig breakfast.....blueberry pancakes and a sausage patty. As I've said before, the quality of this food is exceptional. Everything tastes great. My intention was to have one of her meals for breakfast and then another one for dinner. Midway through the day, however, I had cravings for some potato chips. (And this picture exactly replicates what I had...two little bags of Lay's). I don't think I've eaten these all month and now, in retrospect, I wish I didn't have them today either. When I do something like this, it changes my thinking and then, all of a sudden, the Jenny Craig dinner I had planned on having was no longer desirable to me. And I know from past experience, had I not had the potato chips, I still would have eaten the Jenny Craig dinner and would have been much happier.

So what terrible thing did I have for dinner..........Campbells Chicken Noodle soup with a buttered bagel. Between the sodium and the butter, not to mention the heaviness of the bagel, this was not the best choice. But the good news is that I don't have to weigh myself tomorrow morning so I have no idea how badly the potato chips and the soup/bagel will have affected my weight.

Tomorrow is a new day and one thing I know for sure......I won't be eating any potato chips today.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 30 -- Eat In Moderation!!!

I woke up this morning feeling so great about my January weight loss but now it's on to more success in February. Since I feel I look better and I'm actually fitting into more of my clothes, I find myself spending more time trying to figure out what to wear. When I was at my highest weight a few weeks ago, there were only a few things in my closet that fit so it wasn't too hard to figure out what I was going to wear each day. Now I definitely have more options and I'm excited to get dressed in the morning. Today I wore a suede jacket I haven't worn in awhile because it's a bit fitted. I have to refrain from buying any new clothes because whatever I buy now probably won't fit next month. It's amazing what a difference even the 9.5 pound weight loss makes.

I had my usual room service oatmeal and white toast this morning and loved every bit of it. I came home earlier than expected from Atlantic City and couldn't decide what I would eat when I got home. Since it was after seven o'clock already, I opted for two pieces of pizza at our local pizza shop. This was definitely not the best choice but it's all I had so I can live with it. I love Sicilian pizza so that was my pick. They only had one slice so my second slice was white pizza. I know this probably doesn't sound like any kind of healthy eating but, in the past, I would have had this and then some kind of cake and then some kind of candy. So, in actuality, it's a lot less than I used to eat.

My mother always used to say that she was thin because she ate in moderation. Eating in moderation was something I haven't done in years but I'm doing it now and I'm getting results. That's my new mantra.......Eat In Moderation!!!!!

WEEK 5 -- DAY 29 -- 4TH WEIGH-IN -- 9.5 TOTAL POUNDS LOST IN JANUARY

2.5 lbs. lost this week!!!

9.5 lbs. lost this month!!!

Well it was well worth the wait to finally get on the scale this morning and to see that I've lost another 2.5 pounds this month. That means I've lost 9.5 pounds in the month of January....even though the blog ticker says 10 pounds lost. For some reason it doesn't do half pound increments so I guess I'll have to live with it.

It also means that my plan is working. I'm only supposed to be losing one pound a week and would have been happy to have lost 4 pounds in the month of January....one pound for each week. Instead, I've lost 5.5 pounds more than that. How good is that??

What this proves is that I can do this and really not deprive myself. I was out of town for a few days this month, went into the city to have dinner, went out to lunch with a friend and basically didn't turn down any offers that involved eating like I usually do when I'm dieting. But what I did do is not punish myself if I cheated. Because I'm only weighing myself once a week, I don't even know how the cheating (if you want to call it that) affected my weight.

I'm back in Atlantic City today and tomorrow so I ended up grabbing a package of those Entenmann's blueberry muffins on my way out the door and that's what I had for breakfast. For dinner, I had my favorite tuna salad sandwich at the Metropolitan Cafe with a few fries.

In the past, I'd go out to lunch or out to dinner and then weigh myself the next morning and I'd weigh more than the day before. This would depress me and then I would eat again that day because I was mad at myself. This didn't happen to me once this entire month.

I still haven't added exercise to my new plan and I will be doing that soon. But it's great to know that I've been able to lose almost 10 pounds with just cutting back on what I usually eat. I'm now excited to begin my second month on the "plan".

WEEK 4 -- DAY 28 -- CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!!!!

Tomorrow is an exciting day. Not only is it my weekly weigh-in but it's also the end of the month weigh-in. According to my plan, at the end of this month, I should have lost 4 pounds. Well, I've already lost 7 pounds so it can only get better.

I came home after work today (after eating nothing at all) and had a bagel. I do love bagels and we have a store nearby that sells real New York bagels....the kind I grew up with. I was so tired from my snowstorm experience that I ended up falling asleep. By the time I woke up, I really wasn't even that hungry. It's now after 8PM so there's no way I'm going to eat anything now because tomorrow is the big day. I know, I know....this is no way to diet. But then I remind myself that I am not dieting so anything goes so to speak.

So, until tomorrow!!!!

WEEK 4 -- DAY 27 -- Oh What A Night!!!!

I was back in Atlantic City today. I planned on spending the day and returning home at about 8PM. But, once there, I was presented with a problem.....a snowstorm!!! It came on so unexpectedly. The weather people had said to expect 1-2 inches but southern New Jersey actually got 6-8 inches. To make matters worse, the storm did not stop until 3AM. I was so upset that I couldn't get home. I didn't have anything with me to stay overnight and, even if I did, there were no rooms at all at The Borgata.

So I ended up hanging around there until 5:30AM when I thought it might be safe enough to drive home. I had to be home by 9AM because I had to work at 10AM. The ride home was treacherous. Leave it to New Jersey to not even plow their highways. For the first fifteen miles of the ride home, I was driving on at least two inches of snow on the Atlantic City Expressway. It was all so white that you couldn't even see the lines dividing the lanes. (This picture looks similar to what I was driving in except I was in pitch black darkness). It was like one big massive road and cars were trying to stay in undefined lanes. As I approached PA, it got better and better as we didn't get hit with the snowstorm in PA. I finally arrived home at 7:30AM....just in time for work. That was the good news. The bad news was that I hadn't slept since the night before and I could hardly keep my eyes open.

So what's the point of this whole story. The point is that I was so disgusted at being stuck there, that I went downstairs in the hotel and got an ice cream sundae from Ben & Jerry's. As I was eating it, I realized that I hadn't really done anything like this in an entire month. No real cheating for me. But how bad can one sundae really be?

I guess I'll find out on Monday when I weigh myself.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 26 -- Umm Umm Good!!!!

Wow it was really cold here today. It was so cold all day that all I could think about was having soup for dinner. And, when you want soup, you really want Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. This can't have been a good idea because of all the sodium it contains but I had it anyway and it warmed me up. What a great comfort food.

And there's nothing better with chicken noodle soup than a buttered bagel. I'm laughing as I'm typing this because anyone reading this is probably thinking, "What kind of a diet is this?" And my answer would be, "ha ha, it isn't a diet, it's a "plan".

Even though this wasn't the best kind of dinner, it's not nearly as bad as I used to be because I was good the rest of the day. There's only three more days until my next weigh-in. This morning my scale was almost begging me to get on it but I resisted. I wore a pair of pants today that I haven't worn in awhile. This is the good and bad of dieting. You're always in between sizes. The size you started with is now too large and the next size down is still a bit too small. I have a closet full of clothes ranging anywhere from size 6 to size 20. I am now happy to say that I am too small for size 20 and almost too small for my size 18's. Hear me now.....I will never wear a size 20 again!!!

WEEK 4 -- DAY 25 -- Back to the Routine

I'm back home and back into my routine.....working, working and more working. I think my stomach must be shrinking because I don't even find myself hungry during the day. And, more importantly, I don't find myself craving anything. As a matter of fact, I have Reeses peanut butter cups in the drawer next to my bed and I'm not even dying to eat one.

After three weeks, my pants are starting to feel looser. This presents a problem when you're out of one size but not really ready for the next size. I actually went online and ordered some new pants last night and ordered two different sizes because I wasn't sure what size I was any longer. Can't wait to weigh myself on Monday. That will be the official end of January weigh in so I'll actually be able to post a monthly weight loss.

On my plan, the end of January needed to show a four pound weight loss. There's no question that January will have been a success since I've already lost three more pounds than I needed to.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 24 -- Home Again

After eating in a non "plan" kind of way for the past three days, it was almost nice to get back to my new way of eating. I pulled out the Jennie Craig food....mashed potatoes and some beef with gravy thing.....delicious. You have to admit that this meal looks very good in this picture. For breakfast I went with the bag of Entenmann's blueberry muffins. There's five little muffins in each bag. It's quick and easy to grab while I'm going out the door. Probably not very nutritious but I like them anyway.

I also had a handful of pretzels while working in my office. Pretzels are great but they are not something I look to eat when I'm not trying to lose weight. I had my dog in the office with me and she enjoyed the pretzels as well.

Even though I've been away for three days, I'm not feeling that tired or sluggish. It's amazing how much more energy I have now that I've cut down on my sugar intake. You can't even imagine how much candy I used to eat on a daily basis. It was my "food of choice" whenever I wanted to grab something. I'm proud that I'm now grabbing for pretzels!!

WEEK 4 -- DAY 23 -- Third Day in AC

As my trip to Atlantic City comes to a close, I decided to change it up for breakfast and ordered room service. One thing I absolutely love is oatmeal. Eating it also reminds me of my father who always ordered a huge bowl of oatmeal whenever I went out to breakfast with him. So I had a bowl of oatmeal (with some brown sugar in it and a little maple syrup), toast and tea. That held me over until dinner.

I was actually leaving Atlantic City at dinnertime and ended up having something pretty decadent if you're looking to be on a diet. They were selling these hot dogs and they were wrapped in a soft pretzel. The entire thing wasn't wrapped; just half of it. I have to say this little treat was delicious. Here's a picture of it although mine had much less pretzel. That's all I ended up eating so how bad could it have been.

I'll be back home in a bit and away from all this delicious food......until the next time I'm in Atlantic City.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 22 -- Second Day in AC

Well plan-wise, I've survived my first day in Atlantic City and think I did really well. Based on that, I pretty much did the exact same thing today as I did for yesterday's breakfast. I went with the scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast. I also found that eating the eggs (protein) really filled me up and I didn't find myself feeling ravenously hungry in the afternoon. (This picture is exactly what my breakfat looked like minus the bacon). So picture me eating only 1/3 of those potatoes and 2/3 of the eggs and that's what I had. Yeah, I'm proud of myself as well.

I didn't get to eat dinner until about 7PM and this time headed to the Borgata Buffet. As you can imagine, there were so many choices but I opted for the Italian fare. So I went with a little ravioli (filled with squash), some penne and a roll and butter. Then I passed the shrimp section and threw three shrimp on my plate as well. For dessert, I just couldn't pass up the bread pudding but only have a few bites of it. I now like this "few bites" idea because it doesn't make me feel like I'm cheating on my plan.

This rounded up Day 2 in Atlantic City.....will I survive Day 3?

WEEK 3 -- DAY 21 -- THIRD WEIGH IN

1.5 lbs. lost this week

7 lbs. lost this month

There's nothing better than weigh-in day and seeing that I've, once again, lost weight. This week I'm actually doing it one day sooner than usual (Sunday as opposed to Monday) so this weigh loss represents six days instead of the usual seven days.

This is the first day I haven't been home while on the "plan" as I'm in Atlantic City for the next three days. First up.....eating out for breakfast. This one was actually easy. I ate at the Metropolitan Cafe at The Borgata and ordered scrambled eggs and white toast. What I didn't know when I ordered was that there would be nice, beautiful potatoes on the plate with the scrambled eggs. You should have seen my eyes light up when I saw those potatoes. But I didn't go crazy.....I probably ate 1/3 of the potatoes and probably 2/3 of the scrambled eggs. I usually would order bacon with this meal but decided that would not be a good decision. (This picture does not have the potatoes in it but it serves the purpose of giving you an idea of what my meal looked like).

I'm not a big lunch eater and usually don't eat lunch at all. Any diet expert will tell you that's crazy but I've been doing this for so long, it's hard to change. I headed back to the Metropolitan Cafe for dinner where I had a tuna salad on white toast with some french fries. I probably ate less than 1/3 of the fries they gave me. I've loved tuna salad since I was a young girl coming home for lunch from school on Fridays when we couldn't eat meat -- Catholic training here.

I think my weigh in next Monday will be crucial to showing me if I can still do well on my plan even if I go away for a few days.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 20 -- Lions and Tigers and Quiche Lorraine....Oh My!!!!

The other day I was in the supermarket and saw a Quiche Lorraine that looked pretty good.....actually it was 1/2 of the pie. So I bought it and had a piece on Friday night and tonight had the other half of the half. I didn't eat anything else and was trying to find out online how many calories there are in this quiche. Here I am thinking that what I'm eating can't be that bad but I think now that there's a lot of calories in a quiche. Well I guess I'll know tomorrow when I weigh myself.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'll be away tomorrow and Monday which is why I'll be weighing myself tomorrow morning before I leave. In order to have lost one pound this week, I need to see 226.5 when I get on the scale in the AM. I will adjust my weight ticker before I leave.....keeping my fingers crossed that it does in fact need to be adjusted.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 19 -- "You Look Thinner", she said!!!!

Well it happened today.....someone told me I looked thinner. (The only picture I could find of the word "thinner" was a book by Richard Bachman with the same title....but it works)!!!! And it was none other than my own mother. The same mother who has made comments about my weight whenever the opportunity has presented itself. She just can't accept the fact that I'm heavy since I've been thin most of my life. But things happen and when they happened to me, I ate.

It will be interesting to see how much I've lost this week. My one pound weight loss had better be there. This week, however, I have to weigh myself on Sunday instead of Monday because I'm going away on Sunday and Monday and won't have access to a scale. So this week's weight loss will be based on six days as opposed to seven.

Nineteen days in and I'm proud I'm sticking with it. Blogging everyday sure helps the situation because it reminds me every single day that I have a "plan".

WEEK 3 -- DAY 18 -- It' a Jenny Craig Kinda Day

It's very important that I be especially good on my "plan" for the next three days because I'm going away on Sunday and Monday which will definitely make it harder while I'm gone. So today I decided to eat my Jenny Craig food starting with the blueberry muffin in the morning and the lasagne for dinner.

I've been on Jenny Craig numerous times and have always been moderately successful. What I like about it is the fact that I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat because it's right there. What I don't like about it is that when I don't eat the food, I feel like I'm cheating. Add to that the fact that I've never been able to do it for more than two months at a time and I hate going every week to report to a counselor, ends up in an overall dismal performance for me after the second month.

But the one thing about their food is that it tastes great. It's not diet food and doesn't have a diet food taste to it. That's probably because it is real food that's just proportioned properly. The thing that has always confused me about Jenny Craig food, however, is that the packaging is so awful. When I was searching Google Images today, for some Jenny Craig pictures, I came across this picture of some new packaging. I'm not sure if this is for real or it's just someone's idea of what the packaging should look like but, I have to admit, that it's so much better than what they have now (which is an ugly brown color). Whoever designed the original stuff really did not do a great job. Who wants to eat food that is packaged in boring brown packages? One can only hope that they are in fact revamping it.

So I'll try to do this on Friday and Saturday so my one pound goal for this week will be attainable.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 17 -- A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

Today was a day off from work which always makes it a little bit harder for me to stay on target. Add to that the fact that I went to a buffet tonight and you can really understand how hard this was.

But guess what? I was good. I had a little bit of a few things. Then it was time for the dessert and I had a choice of at least fifteen different things. I remembered what I learned the first week on this plan and decided to pick three things and only have a bite of each. It worked well. I felt satisfied and didn't feel like I was cheating.

So all in all, a very successful day of watching what I eat even when I've deviated from my normal routine.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 16 -- Two+ Weeks In

It's a little more than two weeks since I started and it's becoming more a way of life than a diet. I find myself not wanting to eat too many calories or to consume too much sugar. I definitely have so much more energy so, consequently, I'm getting more done than I usually do.

One of my favorite things to do, when writing these daily posts, is finding the different images to add some spice to them. Since what I'm doing is not referred to as "the diet" but is referred to as "the plan", I was happy to find this image on Google. It's actually the name of singing group out of Detroit. So I'll give them a shoutout on my blog.

I'm going to be away tomorrow and Thursday so it might be tough to blog and it will definitely be tougher than being home and watching what I eat. But I'm sure I will survive and come out on top as I have the past few weeks.

It's Tuesday night so I'm getting in my dose of The Biggest Loser. Jillian is in the process of trying to "break" someone to get them to cry. Sometimes I think she thinks she's a psychologist. But I think she's met her match tonight.

You Go Jillian!!!!

WEEK 3 -- DAY 15 -- SECOND WEIGH-IN

1.5 POUNDS LOST THIS WEEK

5.5 POUNDS LOST THIS MONTH

-- THE TICKER LIES.

My weight loss this week was actually 1.5 pounds although the ticker says two pounds. I don't think it's able to calibrate half pounds. I might have to search the Internet for a new ticker because it bothers me that it says I've lost 6 pounds when it's only been 5.5 pound. I know it's a minor point but it still bothers me.

So, once again, I've achieved my goal of "one pound a week" weight loss and not only did I achieve it this week, I exceeded it. But I have to admit that it was a close call. This just proves that you have to coordinate your lower calorie intake with exercise which I admittedly have not done yet.

But here's the real kicker and this happened last week as well. Now that I've weighed in for the week, I found myself eating something I definitely wouldn't have eaten if it was close to my weigh in. Again, this is the beauty of the once a week weigh in. If I've sabotaged myself by doing this, I wouldn't know because it wouldn't be obvious until next Monday.

Which brings me to my next point......the Monday weigh-in. It's really not the best day to weigh yourself right on the heels of the weekend. So eventually I'm going to have to change this but it won't be this week as I'll be away on Wednesday and Thursday which definitely won't help my diet. It won't hurt it either because I'll still be watching what I'm eating.

So I'm happy with my results and look forward to my next weigh-in.

WEEK 2 -- DAY 14 -- Weigh In Tomorrow

Tomorrow can't get here quick enough. Now that I only weigh myself once a week, it's amazing how long it takes for seven days to go by. I'm sure I'll be up bright and early tomorrow to see the results. All it has to say is that I lost one pound and I will be happy. I have to leave for work early in the morning so I won't be able to post the results until I get home.....not that anyone is really following this. lol I used this picture because it actually looks like my scale.

Other than the Olive Garden/movie day, I had a pretty good week. Although I said I was going to try to drink more water this week, I didn't. But I definitely did cut down on my diet Coke, diet Snapple intake. Again, another week of no exercising. And yes, I'm using work as an excuse but I've been getting home past 7PM and still working when I get home (in addition to having to work both Saturday and Sunday). So I'm giving myself a pass this week.

It's amazing but I haven't been thinking about junk/food 24-7 like I usually do. I did notice that my pants were a little bit looser today so that's a definite plus.

The way I look at it is that with last week's four pound weight loss, I am no longer in the 230's. At a pound a week, it will take awhile for me to get out of the 220's but I'm patient.

In my office today, someone mentioned that they started the South Beach Diet today. I was so happy to tell him that I started something two weeks ago and had already lost four pounds. I was then especially happy to tell him that I wasn't even on a diet. That felt good. No Guilt -- No Strain on my plan. There will be no guilt trip at all on this journey. Hopefully, I'll enjoy the ride for all 52 weeks.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning!!!!

WEEK 2 -- DAY 13 -- More Fitness Info

I usually tape all of the morning shows (Regis and Kelly, Rachel Ray, The View) just to see if they have anything that might have been of interest to me. I like to watch them at night after the day winds down. So yesterday, Regis and Kelly kicked off yet another great segment...Live's Fitness Friday. They had fitness expert Tracy Anderson showing some great exercises from her studio in Manhattan. Lately I've been hearing a lot about this trainer and I am looking into her fitness videos as well. Apparently she's been touted by the likes of Jennifer Aniston and Gwynneth Paltrow -- just to name a few. Apparently Kelly has been going there for awhile now as she was familiar with all of the steps and moves. She had her husband Mark Consuelos with her and, while he's in great shape, he couldn't even keep up with Tracy and Kelly so it really looks like an unbelievable workout.

I haven't really gotten into the exercise phase of my "plan" as much as I would have liked. It's par for the course that as soon as I decide to embark on this journey, my business starts booming and I'm working more hours than usual. I know this probably sounds like an excuse (which it is) but it is what it is.

I was so tempted to get on the scale this morning but I resisted as I refuse to blow this "plan". Two more days to go before my weigh in.