WEEK 8 -- DAY 55 -- SUNDAY AT HOME

I love being at home on Sundays with nothing to do.  Had an everything bagel with butter for breakfast.

For dinner, we decided to make corned beef and cabbage.  I know, it's not St. Patrick's day yet but we felt like having it.  This is really such a bad meal for me as I put so much butter on the potatoes and the cabbage that it can't be healthy. 

In addition, I love it so much that one plate is never enough and I usually go back for more.  I had better plan on being really, really good tomorrow or I'm sure I will have gained weight this week.  As if that wasn't enough, had a piece of Entenmann's cake for dessert.  Like I said, when I'm bad, I'm really bad.

WEEK 8 -- DAY 54 -- OUT FOR DINNER SATURDAY

Wow, it's pretty tiring doing six blog entries in a row and trying to remember what I ate each of these days.

Went back to the morning croissant.  During the day had a snicker's bar.  Haven't had that in at least 54 days.  This used to be a daily occurrence.

Went out to dinner to Red Lobster this evening.  Can't help myself....I love Red Lobster.

Had the crab and artichoke dip with some chips for an appetizer.  Then had a Caesar salad which was unusually good. Then got the two Rock Lobster tails, lobster linguini with an alfredo sauce and a little bit of mashed potatoes.  They had some decadent desserts which I did not have which was a miracle.

WEEK 8 -- DAY 53 -- EATING OUT AGAIN

How fun is this Day 53 picture.  I wish I was someplace in the sun near a lighthouse -- because being near a lighthouse means you're near the water.

Deviated from my normal croissant this morning and had a carrot and nut muffin which was pretty large.  Only ate half of it. Had nothing else during the day.

Dinner we went to a great restaurant at Harrah's Casino in Chester called The Cove.  Once again, it took so long for dinner to be served that I had only twenty minutes to eat.

Ordered lobster tails, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.  For the little bit of time I had to eat this, it was delicious.  It takes so long to get the tail off the shell that I hardly had time to eat everything which was a shame. I'd love to see anyone pass up this wonderful thing of beauty.  So I'm thinking, how bad could this have been?  We'll see I guess.

WEEK 8 -- DAY 52 -- HOME...CAN I BE GOOD?

I woke up with the greatest of intentions this morning and had a Weight Watcher's breakfast of pancakes and turkey sausages.  It started off good but didn't end up that way.  I just kept looking for things to eat the entire day.  This often happens to me when I'm trying to lose weight.  You have one of those days where you just want to eat everything.  Thank goodness I didn't have too many things in the house that I like to eat. 

I had two White Castle hamburgers for dinner.  I grew up loving these hamburgers. I think, looking at this picture, you'd have to admit that this looks pretty good. I'm glad there were only two left in the box because had there been more, I would have eaten all of them.  I then had a few pieces of candy and some cookies and topped it off with some chips and dip.

Oh what a bad day it was!!!!

WEEK 8 -- DAY 51 -- ONE MORE DAY AWAY

This morning I treated myself to room service which consisted of a lightly toasted buttered bagel, a side of bacon and some tea.  I love having room service.

Headed home at about 2:30PM with dreams of being very good the rest of the day.  Halfway home, these dreams began to change when I called my husband and asked him if he wanted me to pick him up something for dinner.  He decided on an Italian hoagie which began to sound good to me as well.  So I ended up getting two hoagies;  one of which was mine. 

I even believe I had some other snacks during the day, which probably included a bag of chips, but at this point, I can't remember what they were.  Suffice it to say, I wasn't a model dieter today.

WEEK 8 -- DAY 50 -- STILL AWAY

Wow, this is a bright and happy 50.  I think I've already mentioned how much fun it is finding the different numbers to use everyday for my blog entries.

Today I was away from home once again and had an Entenmann's apple turnover tart for breakfast.  I think the box said these were 310 calories a piece.  Didn't eat anything else during the day until dinnertime.

I was at the Borgata and a friend of mine has a black card which entitles them to bring a guest to Borgata's exclusive buffet called Amphora Lounge.  They don't serve as much as the regular Borgata buffet but what they do serve is exceptional.  I started off with about 5 shrimp and a salad with croutons and a very delicious creamy dressing.  For dinner I had a little bit of a few things....ravioli stuffed with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, lobster and cheese macaroni and the most delicious braised short rib I have ever had.  As a matter of fact, it's the first time I ever had a braised short rib but it won't be the last.  I also had a chocolate covered cannoli for dessert. 

Definitely not a diet lovers meal but definitely a delicious one.  Thank goodness I don't weight myself until next week so I don't know what kind of damage I did with this meal.

WEEK 7 -- DAY 49 -- 7th WEIGH-IN -- 219.5 lbs.

1 lb. lost this week

3 lbs. lost this month

12 lbs. lost YTD

Last week I weighed myself on a Monday and I'm doing it again on a Monday this week as well.  The reason is that I'm going away for a few days and won't be near a scale.  Going away usually presents a problem and I'm quite sure this isn't going to be an easy week for me in the diet department.  But the good news is that I did lose a pound this week.  Doesn't sound like much but, on this plan, that's all I need to lose every week to be successful.  According to my Lose It app, I will be down to my goal weight of 150 on June 28, 2014.  I don't really think this will be the actual date because I'm sure there will be weeks where I lose more than a pound.  The bottom line is that this week I have been successful at achieving my goal.

Once again, I'm trying to recreate an entire week's worth of eating.  I hate that I do this to myself.  I was hoping I had made some entries into my Lose It app indicating what I had eaten each day this week but to no avail.  So I might be missing some stuff along the way.  I did stop in at the bakery this morning and got an almond croissant.  Nothing else during the day until dinner when we went to Izakaya and I had my usual Kobe beef and vegetable fried rice.  They took so long to deliver the food that I only had about 15 minutes to eat it before I had to get back so I probably only ate half of my meal.  But I'm still excited I lost a pound this week and hoping for another one in the upcoming week.
  

WEEK 7 -- DAY 48 -- Sunday is Fun Day

It's Sunday and I'm home so that's fun.  Had a cinnamon raisin bagel for breakfast with cream cheese.  I do put an inordinate amount of cream cheese on my bagels which is not a good thing I'm sure.

Finished off the rest of the onion dip and chips....there wasn't that much left.

My husband had made homemade vegetable soup which I had with some garlic bread.  I'm sure there's hardly any calories in the soup but the three pieces of garlic bread were certainly filling.  This picture that I found on Google looks exactly like what the soup looked like.

I think tomorrow will be my weigh-in day....it might not be pretty.

WEEK 7 -- DAY 47 -- HOMEBOUND

I love when I get to stay home for the entire day with nothing to do.  Today was one of those and it was a Saturday which is even better.

Guess what??? No croissant for breakfast.  My husband went out and bought me a corn muffin so that's what I had.  Midday I had a little more of the onion dip and some chips so when dinnertime came around, I wasn't that hungry.

Decided to have a 1 1/2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.....not great but also not horrible.  Had nothing else after that.

It will be curious to see if I lose any weight at all this week.  My guess is I won't because I haven't done one thing all week to try to lose weight.  We'll see.

WEEK 7 -- DAY 46 -- BACK ON TRACK

Usually when I have a bad eating day, I follow it up with another bad eating day.  Today was not the case.   I had my usual croissant (I really need to get something else in the house so I stop buying these). 

Didn't get around to having dinner until about 7PM.  I was away from home and we, once again, went to our favorite "Noodle" place where I had the usual Won Ton Soup and some Fried Rice.  I don't know why I even order the soup.  It's in a huge bowl filled with noodles as well as the usual Won Ton dumplings.  I hardly eat it because it's just too much.

Didn't get home until about 1AM so had nothing for the rest of the day after my Chinese feast.

WEEK 7 -- DAY 45 -- WHEN I'M GOOD, I'M VERY GOOD

But when I'm bad, I'm even worse.  Today was one of those days.....Valentine's Day as well.

This seems to be the exact same period of time when it happened to me in 2010. It must be that I can go six weeks or so with being good and then sometime during the seventh week, I crack.  Today I cracked.  And it's not even that I went so crazy eating junk. That wasn't the case at all.  I've been starving myself to win that Diet Bet Challenge and I was craving FOOD.

I stopped at the store on my way home today and was checking out the prepared food counter.  The had some chicken marsala with mashed potatoes and I was craving it.  So I got two small pieces of chicken and an order of mashed potatoes.  I also made some corn and ended up eating the entire thing.  My husband was out of town today but had left me a small box of candy before he left.....even he doesn't know I'm on a diet.  So I had three pieces of the candy as well.  I can't remember the last time I had candy.  For someone who used to eat almost a pound a day, this is quite an accomplishment.  And especially the fact that I only ate three pieces is amazing.  So a bad day overall but certainly not disasterous.  At least I'm still blogging about it.

EDIT:  I just thought of something else I did today at about 9PM.....I decided to have some onion dip and chips.  You know you're being really bad when you do something like this.  As Scarlet O'Hara once said, "I'll worry about that tomorrow."

WEEK 7 -- DAY 44 -- DIET BET IS OVER!!!

Wow, this isn't going to be easy.  I've complained about having to do this before and here I am having to catch up on 4 days of eating as I'm really writing this on Sunday....not Wednesday.  I'm going to have to recreate almost my entire week.

Today I stopped into the bakery and got my usual almond croissant.  Didn't get around to eating dinner until 9PM.  I was away from home and ended up getting a cheeseburger and a small bag of chips.  That's all I had the entire day.  If I do say so myself, the cheeseburger was darn good.

This was also the end of the Diet Bet Challenge and I achieved my goal of losing 9.3 pounds in a 30 day period.  It was a little tough going at the end but I made it by starving myself on the last day.  I had invested $50 into this challenge and I got back a whopping $64.19.  Hardly worth the effort but, had I not been trying to lose this weight, I might not have lost as much as I did in the past month.  So, for that, it was definitely worth it.  The only bad thing about something like this is I usually crash when it's done.

WEEK 7 -- DAY 43 -- I'M SO GOOD AND I'M SO HUNGRY!!!!

Love this number 43 I found online.  Well, I've exceeded how far I came in 2010 when I only blogged about my weight loss for 42 days.  Today is 43 days and really doesn't feel as if I've been doing this for that long.  I've lost 11 pounds so far and, according to my Lose It app, if I kept losing a pound a week, I'd reach my goal on June 22, 2014.  If I can lose more than a pound a week, this date would come that much sooner.

I was home today and didn't leave the house until 2PM.  I also didn't eat anything until I left the house.  I stopped into the store and got a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.  This is all I ate the entire day.  I'm pretty much starving myself today so I can win that Diet Bet challenge.  Hopefully, this will give me that .8 of a pound weight loss that I need to win.

I also can't weight for this challenge to be over.  It's really been a lot harder than I thought it was.  I thought losing 9.3 pounds in a month would be easy but it definitely wasn't.  I'm going to be so disappointed tomorrow if I don't reach my goal.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 42 -- 6th WEIGH-IN -- 220.5 lbs.

2 lbs. lost this week

2 lbs. lost this month

11 lbs. lost YTD 

I just love this Day 42 picture I found on Google.  When I did this in 2010, my blog only lasted 42 days.  Well, I'm at that point again and I don't see myself quitting anytime soon. I was so happy to get on the scale today and see a 2 lb. weight loss. After my .3 weight loss two weeks ago, I realize how hard it is to consistently lose weight every single week.  I've committed myself to not getting upset if my weight loss each week isn't what I want it to be.  Yes, I want to lose a pound a week but if I lose less than a pound one week and more than a pound the following week, I'm still reaching my goal as far as I'm concerned.  If, by the end of each month, I've lost 4 pounds, then I'm successful.  This week has definitely been a success for me.

And yes, had my croissant again this morning.  Went to TGI Fridays for dinner and was really trying to eat something with as little calories as possible because time is running out for my Diet Bet challenge.  I thought Friday's used to have a menu that actually listed the caloric content in some of its meals.  If they used to have it, they don't any longer.  I shared the spinich/artichoke dip with a friend of mine and didn't even eat the entire part of my half.  Only had about 4 of the large tortilla chips with it. Just looking at this picture I found online makes me hungry.  I could clearly eat this entire thing all myself. For dinner, I opted again for the Blue Cheese Lettuce Wedge and, again, only ate half of it.  How bad can that be?

Tomorrow is also the final day for me to weigh in for my Diet Bet Challenge.  I had weighed myself the other day and needed to lose .8 of a pound in order to participate in the pot of money contributed by the participants.  Can't wait to see if I was successful.  Somehow I know people must cheat on this thing.  I was trying to think of how they do this and I figured it out.  They could wear one of those waist bands under their clothes that hold weights in them.  So when they weigh themselves the first time, they have a five pound weight under their clothes and each day take off some of the weights.  I, of course, didn't do this but I'm sure this is what people have done.  We'll see how many winners there are when all is said and done.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 41 -- HOME ALL DAY -- YEAH!!!!

Part of the fun of doing a blog is finding the pictures online that I will use each day.  Since I've decided to use the number of days I've been on my plan as the focal point, it's such a project which number to pick each day from the myriad of choices.

Today I was home all day and I really needed this both for myself as well as my diet.  It's so much easier when I'm home.  That being said, I hardly ate anything the entire day.  Not really by choice....I just wan't that hungry.

Ate a very late breakfast which could definitely have been considered lunch.  All I had was a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and a cup of tea.  That's all I had the entire day.  I know this is no way to lose weight but I'm not going to eat something simply because I'm supposed to.  If I'm not hungry, that's a good thing and when I get on the scale, it will obviously show this.

I only have three days left for the Diet Bet Challenge and not sure I'm going to be able to make it. Had I been home all week and had not gone to restaurants for dinner, it would have been no problem.  But circumstances didn't allow for that so I might just lose my $50.00.  We'll see.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 40 -- AGAIN WITH THE NOODLE BAR

Day 40 really sounds great to me especially considering that I only lasted 42 days when I did this in 2010.  During that time, however, I was at a faster pace in losing weight than I am this time.  The main reason for that is because I've had to eat at a lot of restaurants as opposed to eating a Jenny Craig dinner at home.

I know this croissant thing is getting boring but that's what I had again today.....an almond croissant.  After last night's snow debacle, it was great to eat something comforting this morning.

Again I went back to the Noodle Bar ordering exactly the same thing I had last night....the Won Ton Soup Bowl with noodles and the Vegetable Fried Rice bowl.  I can't tell you how good their Fried Rice is.  Here's a similar picture of what it looks like.  Obviously I didn't eat the entire thing but I could have. Also, I was in a place all day that was relatively cold so having the soup was a very welcome thing. 

Again had nothing else to eat all day long so I'm proud of myself for cutting out all of the daytime snacks I used to have on a daily basis.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 39 -- THE NOODLE BAR

Another day to recreate.  Again the breakfast croissant.  I really need to come up with something else but, when I'm in a rush, it's so easy to pop into the bakery and get something I really like.  I wouldn't have time to eat anything else before dinner so at least this will fill me up.

Was away from home again so for dinner went to the Noodle Bar and had a bowl of Won Ton Soup with noodles as well as some vegetable fried rice.  I tried to find a good picture of this.  I ate probably less than half of the entire bowl of soup.  There's no way I could finish the whole thing. Again, not sure how bad this is but it was my only option.  When I think of how much I used to eat on any given day, it's five times more than this so I hope this helps to continue my weight loss given considering that I'm not eating the pounds of candy that I used to eat on any given day.

We had a snow storm here late in the evening and I had to drive home in it.  It was clearly the most treacherous drive of my life and it's a miracle I made it home alive.  A twenty minute drive took me one hour and fifteen minutes.  I wonder if you lose calories when you're stressed and nervous.  If that's the case, I definitely burned off anything I might have eaten that entire day as I've never been more stressed or nervous in my life.  This is what my visibility was driving home.  And....none of the roads had been plowed yet.  Good thing I had just gotten brand new snow tires a few weeks ago or else I'd have never made it.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 38 -- TGI FRIDAYS

There's always a problem with not staying current with your blog because I end up forgetting what I did and what I ate that day.  I have three days to recreate right now so hope I can pull it together and come up with what was going on each of these days.

I wasn't home to eat today so had to wing it food-wise which isn't always a good thing.  Stopped for another one of the dreaded croissants today on my way out.  For dinner went to TGI Fridays.  I try to be good when going to a restaurant but I'm never sure if I accomplish it.

I ordered the French Onion Soup and the lettuce wedge with blue cheese, bacon and tomatoes.  Not sure how bad this was but could have been worse.  That's all I ate the entire day so hope it didn't hurt me.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 37 -- ANOTHER GOOD ONE

Was in a rush this morning and picked up a blueberry croissant from my local bakery.  I really need to find some quicker things to pick up for breakfast that aren't as many calories as this croissant.  I can't even imagine how bad it is.

During the day I had a handful of sunflower seeds and raisins and didn't eat again until dinner.  I had heated up Weight Watcher's Baked Ziti and was just sitting down to eat when my husband called to say his car had broken down in Philadelphia....about 35 minutes from my house.  So I had to leave the ziti and pick him up.  Didn't get back home until 9PM and hated the thought of eating all that food that late at night.  So only ate half of it which I'm sure wasn't more than 200 calories. 

It's getting closer and closer to the end of my Diet Bet challenge....only 6 more days to lose 2.5lbs.  Please let me get there.  I think if it gets close I will probably starve myself to make it.  I've come this far....I'm not going to lose over a half pound.

WEEK 6 -- DAY 36 -- MOVIE DAY

Wow, today is Day 36 and I'm still on board.  I'm getting closer and closer to the end of the Diet Bet challenge and I'm getting nervous.  For the next few days, I'll be getting on the scale more frequently trying to lose enough weight to participate in the monetary reward.  Not sure how much I would get if I'm one of the achievers but I definitely don't want to be one of the losers.  Today I had lost another half pound but this means I still need to lose another 2.5lbs. in 7 days.  I have to admit that this is going to be tougher than I thought.  The other thing that makes me nervous is that I won't be home for dinner in the next few days and eating out doesn't always do me well.

Today was movie day which also means "go out to lunch day".  We went to a great restaurant called The Metropolitan American Diner and they had a terrific menu.  It was freezing out so I opted for the soup and salad.  Creamy Tomato Soup with Cheddar Cheese followed by a Lettuce Wedge with blue cheese, bacon and tomato.  The cup of soup was incredible and filling.  I ate less than half of the lettuce wedge so I'm hoping I didn't ruin the success I've made so far this week.  When I came home, I didn't eat anything because I'm so afraid of not winning this Diet Bet Challenge.

We went to see the movie Ana Karenina which is on my list of the "25 Movies to See Before The Oscars".  The movie was absolutely awful.  I love Tolstoy's story but I hated the production of this movie.  I can't even explain it.  It was like it was filmed on a stage as a play with characters freezing at times.  It was so bad....I can't believe we stayed for the entire thing.  We almost went to see Silver Linings Playbook and now I wish that had been our choice.  I was afraid Ana Karenina wouldn't be in the theaters much longer and wanted to be able to check it off my list before it disappeared.  I absolutely love Kiera Knightly so this was even more disappointing that it wasn't good.

So tomorrow is Day 37 which means I'll only have 6 more days to achieve the weight loss I need to win the Diet Bet Challenge.  I really want this.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 35 -- ALL IS GOOD

Had another good day today.  Didn't have much time for breakfast which I know is terrible.  Had less than 1/8 piece of Entenmann's raspberry cake.  During the day had a handful of raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds.  For dinner had the Weight Watcher's sweet and sour chicken which was actually pretty good.  The only problem is that I wish it was larger.

I'm running out of time to lose that additional 3lbs. I need to lose to participate in the winning money for the Diet Bet challenge.  So any day I can be extremely good is such a plus.  Today was one of those days.  The dinner I had tonight was only 200 calories.  Any nutritionist would tell me this is definitely not the way to lose weight but it's my way.  That's probably why I've never been successful. I don't listen to anyone else's advice.  Oh well!

Tomorrow is movie day.  We're going to see Anna Karenina.  Every year I print out the list from Entertainment Weekly of the "25 Movies to See Before The Oscars" and I try to see as many as possible before the big show.  This is the third year I've done this and I never get to see them all before Oscar Night but I do see every single one of them in the month's after the Oscars.  I end up having to get many of them from Netflix.  I love doing this because I'm seeing many movies I never would have seen had they not been on the list.  We also go out to lunch before the show.  Hopefully I can contain myself.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 34 -- 5th WEIGH-IN -- 222.5 lbs.

 1.2 lbs. lost this week

9 lbs. lost this month

9 lbs. lost YTD

And it's Super Bowl Sunday. And I lost more than a pound this week.  It doesn't get better than that.  I love when I've had a successful week.  And I know had I not had those Jenny Craig dinners the past three nights, I wouldn't have accomplished this.  When I did this same thing in 2010, at this point I had already lost 13 pounds.  So this time around, I've lost 4 less pounds than I did in 2010.  But, since I'm only trying to lose a pound a week, I'm already 5 pounds ahead of where I should be for the month.  According to my Lose It app, if I lose one pound a week, I will have achieved my weight loss goal by July 5, 2014.  Now that I've plugged in my 1.2 lbs. lost this week, I will achieve my goal by June 27, 2014.  Any little bit helps.

Today I'm making a special Chicken Cacciatore recipe from The Pioneer Woman for Super Bowl Sunday.  My husband also bought some shrimp and a bean nacho taco platter. Hopefully I won't go crazy today.  But, I won't be weighing myself tomorrow so I'll never know what damage I've done.

EDIT:  So I didn't go crazy and I'm so proud.  I had one shrimp and only 6 tortilla chips with about two tablespoons of the bean nacho dip.  I looked up the calories for the chicken cacciatore and it's hardly anything.  I only ate 1/2 of a piece of thigh and about 2/3 cup of noodles and all of the vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onions) on top amount to practically nothing.  Glad I didn't tell my husband to buy some Super Bowl cupcakes. 

WEEK 5 -- DAY 33 -- SATURDAY AT HOME

Part of the fun of doing this blog is finding different pictures of numbers to indicate the day I'm on.  Thought this one with a crown was cute.

Usually, my official weigh in day is on Tuesday.  A few times I've had to move it up a day or two because I was going away.  Last week I weighed in on Monday -- one day before I was supposed to and only lost .3 pounds.  This week I will be weighing in on Sunday because of the Super Bowl -- so again one day before I'm supposed to.  This wreaks havoc with my 1 pound a week plan because sometimes you need that one extra day to show a weight loss.

This morning I was dying to see where I was weight-wise and I also wanted to weigh myself for my Diet Bet challenge and report my results there.  For the Diet Bet challenge, I use my digital scale as opposed to the doctor-like scale I use for this blog.  I also have clothes on for the Diet Bet thing because I had to take a picture of myself for them on my scale and I certainly wasn't doing that unclothed.  So on the digital scale, I was down a full pound this week for the challenge.  This puts me at 66% of my goal.  This is going to be harder than I thought.  I have about 10 days left in that challenge to lose about 3 pounds.  It's going to come down to the wire.  I just might have to start exercising. Yikes!!!  Since there's money involved if you reach your goal, I certainly intend to get there.

Even though I'm not counting this for my official blog weigh-in, I did get on my other scale and it only showed a 1/2 pound difference.  This motivates me to be especially good today to make sure that shows 1 pound by tomorrow.  Already I've had a Dunkin Donut's cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese for breakfast and plan on having a Weight Watcher's dinner this evening.  Hopefully that will do the trick.  And I continued on being good by having the Weight Watcher's rigatoni dinner and nothing else.  Let's see if it shows up in some additional weight loss tomorrow.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 32 -- ANOTHER GOOD DAY

I just had back to back good days which makes me very happy.  Started off again with a Lender's bagel with butter and ended with another Weight Watcher's dinner.....this time the chicken parm.  It was pretty good although I enjoyed the ziti and rigatoni a little bit more.

Also topped it off with three Chips Ahoy cookies.  I love how I'm eating in moderation and not taking 20 cookies like I used to.

Hoping to have another good day tomorrow.  It's Saturday and I don't have much going on which usually leads to me being able to stick to my plan.  And then Sunday is the Super Bowl.  Not sure what I'm going to make that day but one thing is for sure.....I won't be having a Weight Watcher's dinner.