WEEK 5 -- DAY 31 -- BACK ON THE SADDLE

For once I can say I'm proud of myself.  I got my "bad day" syndrome out of my system and got back on the saddle again after falling off the horse yesterday.

Started off with a Lender's frozen bagel with butter.  Went to the supermarket this afternoon and bought a bunch of Weight Watcher frozen dinners.  I honestly think I might like these more than the Jenny Craig dinners.  They definitely give you more food for almost the same amount of calories, so I feel more full.  My guilty pleasure was having three small pieces of Italian bread with it.  I also had three Chips Ahoy cookies for dessert.  In the past, I would have eaten the entire sleeve of cookies so I'm pleased I only had 3 which amounted to 160 calories.

According to my Lose It app, I'm still down 420 calories from what I could have eaten today.

Had a little bit of a scare today.  I tripped and fell outside right on both my knees using my hand to brace my fall.  I'm shocked I didn't break my wrist.  The very bad news is that both of my knees are killing me right now.  I had a bad right knee from a fall I took at Atlantis in the Bahamas over ten years ago.  I was at least happy that I've never had pain in my left knee.  I'm just hoping this pain is not going to be chronic and will be gone within a few days.

I bought enough dinners to last me for a few days.  My plan is to eat like this tomorrow and Saturday.  Sunday is the Superbowl and I'm not making any promises for that day.  I might even weigh myself on Sunday morning.  Last week I weighed in on Monday so this would just be a day sooner.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 30 -- DOWNHILL

Well, as anticipated, today was not a good day.  I started off with Eggo Waffles and, of course, that requires butter and syrup.

Mid afternoon why not have some chips and onion dip?  OMG I'm going crazy. And then make some nice fattening egg salad for dinner with mayonnaise on white toast.

OKAY!!!! I'm done.  It's out of my system.  Tomorrow is a new day.  I'll be at the supermarket buying some weight watcher dinners.  And this would not have happened if Jenny Craig would have sent me some meals I actually like in the three day sampler I ordered from them.  Oh well, I have only myself to blame.  But it's like riding a horse.  When you fall off, you pick yourself up and get back on the horse.

I fell off my plan.  Tomorrow I will pick myself up and get right back on it.  Glad I got that out of the way.

WEEK 5 -- DAY 29 -- THE DAY AFTER

It never fails.  The day or two after a not so great weight loss is always downhill for me.  It didn't start off so much that way but it ended on a downward spiral.

I was running late in the morning (still in AC) and my usual breakfast place (Roma) was closed.  I then headed over to Starbucks and the line was out the door.  I then ended up at The Metropolitan and all I could get was an apple turnover.  I only ate half of it.  I know....not great but I was desperate.

During the day I had a Starbucks 190 calorie snack which consisted of nuts and cranberries.  I was leaving there right about dinner time and was at a loss as to what to eat.  I stopped at Starbucks on my way out of the hotel thinking I could pick up a sandwich.  No such luck.  I ended up with a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.  All in all, not such a bad day until 11 o'clock at night when I was starving and couldn't keep myself from going downstairs and getting two small bags of Lays potato chips.  Why do I do this?

And then once I do this, it almost assures me that I'll be bad the next day as well.  Thank goodness I'm not weighing myself until Tuesday....I probably gained weight.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 28 -- 4th WEIGH-IN -- 223.7 lbs.

.3 lbs. lost this week

7.8 lbs. lost this month

7.8 lbs. lost YTD

Yes, you're reading that weight loss correctly. I didn't lose 3 pounds this week.  I lost .3 pounds -- there's a big difference when you put that point before the three.  Somehow I knew my weight loss this week wasn't going to be good yet I was hoping for at least a pound.  I did weigh myself a day earlier than I was supposed to and did weigh myself much earlier in the day than I usually do but the fact remains, I didn't lose a whole pound this week which was my goal.  The good news is that my goal is to lose a pound a week so for the month of January, that would be a total of 4 pounds and so far I've lost 7.8 pounds.  I find that when I'm doing this, I always have to look on the positive side or I'll fall back into eating whatever I feel like again.  But I'm still saying in my head, "why did I eat those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the night before I was going to weigh-in."  Had I had the Jenny Craig dinner that I had planned on having, I would have seen a pound weight loss.  Oh well, lesson learned.

Another lesson I learned is that I really need to change my eating habits if I'm going to continue to lose a pound a week.  So far I've eliminated the almost pound of candy I used to consume on a daily basis and I've tried to eat in moderation not snacking during the day like I used to.  But that's not enough.  Now I have to start eating less fattening things.

This week might be good.  I'm back in AC for a few days and then will be home for the duration.  No more trips for awhile.  It's so much easier to watch what I'm eating when I'm home.  Today, at Borgata, I had a cinnamon scone from Starbucks for breakfast and was back at Izakaya for dinner where, once again, I had the kobe beef and fried rice.  The bad news is that I had half of the s'mores dessert they serve which definitely wasn't a good thing.  Hopefully, I'll be better tomorrow.

 

WEEK 4 -- DAY 27 -- HOME AGAIN

Another day at home and I don't have to go anywhere in this below 20 degree weather.  Started off the day with a toasted bagel with butter and a cup of tea.  My goal is to have another very good eating day to make up for some of my sub par days earlier this week.

I did a lot of paperwork during the day thinking about what I would have for dinner.  I was totally committed to having a Jenny Craig dinner but, as the time approached, it didn't appeal to me.  Part of the problem is that when I ordered the three day supply, the meals they sent me were ones I really don't like so I was having a hard time eating one of those tonight.  I wish I would have because I ended up having two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white toast.  Yes they were great. And yes, they were three times as many calories than the Jenny Craig dinner would have been.

But even so, I still was almost 500 calories under my daily budget according to Lost It.  I'm not supposed to be weighing myself until Tuesday but I'm going back to AC tomorrow so won't be here on Tuesday.  Therefore, I have to weigh myself tomorrow.  Please, oh please, let me be down a pound.

If my Lost Fit calorie counter is correct, I should be down a pound because I've eaten 2000 calories less than I should have this week.  This should mean that I've lost weight. Hope so.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 26 -- A DAY AT HOME

I've said this before  -- a Saturday at home with nothing to do is one of my favorites.  Was going to try to have something low cal for breakfast but woke up to an almond croissant my husband had gotten for me at the bakery this morning.  Who am I to turn down such a nice gesture?

Went out later in the day to get my nails done and stopped into the supermarket to get something for dinner.  Got my husband some stuffed cabbage and mashed potatoes.....got myself a Weight Watchers dinner which was actually pretty tasty.  It was rigatoni in vodka sauce and was under 300 calories.

Whenever I have a few back to back not so great days, it's always good to have a real diet kind of day.  According to my Lose It app, I've eaten 1006 calories under what my required amount is in order to lose a pound a week.  This means I'm about 2000 calories under my budget for the week.  I plan on having another good day tomorrow so if these numbers continue, I will have had to lose at least one pound this week.

EDIT:  By 9PM I was hungry and ended up having 4 Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip cookies.  Still well under my calorie budget.

How do you know you're losing weight other than the obvious?  For me, I notice that my watch is looser on my wrist.  I remember years ago when I was trying to lose weight and was walking everyday.  One of the most significant things that I noticed was that my calves got smaller.  One day I was getting a pedicure and the person who did my pedicures noticed that they were thinner.  That was a great day.  I want that to happen again.  I can't walk now because it's below twenty degrees but hope to add this to my weight loss "plan".

WEEK 4 -- DAY 25 -- STILL IN AC

Twenty five days in....more than three weeks....less than a month but almost through with my first full month.  Haven't cracked yet.

Started off the day in AC with my very favorite thing at The Borgata....room service.  On the menu today, a toasted, buttered bagel, a side of bacon and some tea.

Again, no lunch but my usual snack of raisins and almonds.  Dinner....not so good.  I opted for the French Onion Soup at The Metropolitan restaurant and some pan fried dumplings.  I didn't like what was inside the dumplings so took out all of the filling and just ate the outside which is some kind of pan seared dough which I dipped in a little bit of soy sauce.  Such a healthy meal.

My friend, on the other hand, who is on a "real" diet, had the grilled chicken sandwich which she took off the roll.  Now that's the way to lose weight.  So far this month, she's already lost 9 pounds to my 7.5 pounds.  She has a lot less to lose than I do so even though it's only a difference of 1.5 pounds, the difference is significant when you divide it into how much she needs to lose.  Oh well....baby steps for me.

Headed on home now where I will hopefully be good all weekend so when I get on the scale on Tuesday, I will show some kind of weight loss.  I'll be happy with a pound.  For my 4th weigh in when I did this in 2010, I had lost 2.5 pounds that week.  I don't think that will happen this week.  We'll see.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 24 -- AC BOUND

It probably sounds like I spend a lot of time in Atlantic City which I really don't as a rule.  But I do like to play in poker tournaments and The Borgata is having their "Winter Open" so I've gone down to play in a few of the events.  Today was the Senior event -- I thought perhaps I could beat some old people which I couldn't.

I left the house at about 10:30 stopping into my local bakery and picking up a raspberry croissant to eat on the way.  Had my handy, dandy snack pack with me so had a handful of raisins and nuts as a snack.  For dinner, I went into The Metropolitan and had a tuna with sliced hard boiled egg on white toast and some French fries.  I don't know why I order fries because I only eat a few of them.  When I get a sandwich there, they load it up with tuna fish that I end up taking half of the tuna off the bread.  I got knocked out of the tournament early and went over to Showboat with a friend of mine to play in another tournament that evening.  The only mistake with doing this is that the poker room is right next to Johnny Rockets restaurant....a place noted for their milkshakes and egg creams.  I couldn't resist.  I grew up in Brooklyn where we had egg creams all the time.  Here's a picture of egg cream ingredients.  It's hard to pass up something that looks like that. It was a little tough trying to come up with the calorie count for an egg cream on my Lose It app but, even with this, I was only over by 347 calories.  I also think that some of the calories I'm assigning to the things I eat are way over how many calories they actually are. I know it's not good to be over at all but, when I'm away from home, these things happen.  When I was with my friend, who is also on a diet, I showed her the app and what I was eating and she noted that even though I was within my calorie budget each day, the things I was eating contained a lot of fat.  This is something for me to think about going forward.  I might be on my "own" plan where I can eat what I want....just with moderation....but I still have to consider how much better it would be to change some of my choices.  Food for thought.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 23 -- LOSE IT!!!

I'm absolutely loving my Lose It app.  Not only does it tell me how many calories I've eaten for the day, it also tells me how many calories I can eat each day and still lose a pound a week.  Then, as if that wasn't good enough, it then tells me how long it will take me to reach this goal.  So then, if you lose more than a pound a week, the initial date changes and the goal becomes closer.

When I first signed up, I weighed in at 226 pounds and said I wanted to get down to 150 pounds losing a pound a week.  My daily calorie budget is 1759 calories and if I lost a pound a week, I would be at my goal by July 9, 2014.  That's a long way away but it is what it is.  So today I plugged in my weight loss of two pounds and now I will achieve my goal by June 25, 2014.  This will be fun doing this.  Also, as the week progresses, it tells me how many calories over/under my budget I am.  Did I already say I'm loving this.

Today was a day at the theater on Broadway to see Evita.  The play was fabulous with Ricky Martin in the lead as Che Guevara.  I had seen the original back in the late seventies with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patankin.  This one was very different but still great.  Going into the city always presents problems eating-wise if you're trying to diet but, since I'm not on an actual diet but on a "plan",  it really isn't a problem.  I think if I weighed myself everyday, and got up the next morning and saw I had gained weight from the day before, it would be a problem.  But, since I don't weigh myself again for another six days, I'm fine.

Before we left, I had about 1/16th piece of an Entenmanns Raspberry loaf to tide me over until we got into the city.  We got in an hour before the play started and parked in a garage right next door to Juniors.  I remember Juniors from living in Brooklyn -- they're famous for their cheesecake.  So we stopped in there and I had a bagel and a cup of tea as it was freezing out that day.  I also introduced Linda to my new Lose It app and now she's hooked.  For dinner we went to Lida Bastianich's restaurant Becco. I had a little bit of three different kinds of pasta and this Panko crusted Fluke.  Dessert was the problem.  We had the most delicious Panna Cotta ever.  When I got home, I plugged everything into Lose It to see how many calories I had consumed during the day and I was still under by 22 calories.  So a successful day into the city.

WEEK 4 -- DAY 22 -- 3rd WEIGH-IN -- 224 lbs.

2 lbs. lost this week

7.5 lbs. lost this month

7.5 lbs. lost YTD

I absolutely couldn't wait to get up this morning and weigh myself. 

How happy I was to see a 2 lb. weight loss.   The only remotely scary thing is that I ate hardly anything yesterday so I'm sure a lot of this weight loss was due to that.  So I'm wondering what it would have been had I ate a bit more yesterday.  This is why it's good to weigh yourself on a Tuesday and not a Monday.  Who wants to weigh themselves on a Monday right after the weekend?  That would be crazy. Allison Sweeney is having something on her website for The Biggest Loser and you have to weigh in on Monday.  Again.....that's crazy.

I'm also involved in that Diet Bet Challenge that I spoke of earlier.  So far, I'm down 4.8 lbs. there so I'm 52% towards my goad of a 4% weight loss for the month.  If I make it, I get to share in the $18,150 pot for my $50 investment.  I just have some concerns about people being able to cheat this system and participating in the pot......not sure how they would do it but I'm sure it's possible.

I'm starting the day off with a blueberry muffin and hoping to continue later on with a Jenny Craig dinner.  Tomorrow I'll be in the city seeing a play and going out to dinner so that's not going to be a great day eating wise but I will try to watch what I eat.

So I just plugged in that large blueberry muffin into my Lost It app and it's 546 calories.  That's incredible and it's the last time I'll have that.  I'm loving this app because it tells me how many calories I have eaten in a day and then how many calories in the week.  And then it tells you how many calories under your weekly budget you end up at.

This afternoon I had some celery sticks with peanut butter on them for a snack.   The celery is basically nothing calorie wise but the two tablespoons of peanut butter is huge at 283 calories.  After seeing how many calories my blueberry muffin was combined with my snack, I knew I HAD to have a Jenny Craig dinner which I did.  I went with the Mesquite Chicken which was decent and filling.

Had I not had that Lose It app, I wouldn't have known how many calories these things were and would have continued eating them.....which I won't do any longer.  A lesson learned today.

Calories Today: 1175   Under Budget by: 571

WEEK 3 -- DAY 21 -- BACK AT HOME

Three weeks in and feeling good.  Tomorrow is the big weigh-in day and I'm excited.  It seems like so long ago since I've weighed myself although it's only been a week.

We had breakfast at The Metropolitan at The Borgata this morning.  I had a toasted bagel with a side order of bacon and a cup of tea.  I love having breakfast there.

We hit the road right afterwards and ended up home before 1PM.  The one bad thing about going to Atlantic City is that when I get home I'm totally exhausted.  I hadn't gone to bed until 4AM so this explains why I was so tired today.  The rest of the day at home is one of relaxation.  I had missed seeing my favorite show, Downton Abbey, last night so that was one of the things I did this afternoon.

For some reason, I'm not hungry at all.  I wanted to have a Jenny Craig meal for dinner but I'm just not feeling hungry so I'll skip that.  I know anyone would tell me that skipping a meal is no way to lose weight but I'm not going to eat if I'm not hungry.  Besides, I'm weighing myself tomorrow morning and this will probably help the scale.

Please, please let me have lost a pound when I weigh myself tomorrow.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 20 -- AC AGAIN

My BFF and I headed to Atlantic City today to play in a ladies' poker tournament.  I didn't have time to eat breakfast before I left so just had a roll and butter in the car while driving down there.

During the day, I had my handy, dandy snack baggie with me and had a few handfuls of raisins, almonds and sunflower seeds to tide me over until dinner.

We at at the Japanese restaurant Izakaya which is so amazing.  It's the first time my friend has ever eaten there and I assure you it won't be the last.  For the third time there, I had the exact same thing that I had on my first two visits -- Crispy Rock Shrimp appetizer which we shared and didn't finish between the two of us.  Then the Kobe beef and vegetable fried rice.....only eating half of the beef and 1/3 of the rice.  Thank goodness we didn't have time to have any dessert as their S'mores are to die for.  I know we'll be back there again because it's just that good.

Didn't have anything else to eat after that which is unusual.  When we're at The Borgata, we're usually up so late that we have an early morning snack at about 2AM like a toasted bagel or an ice cream sundae.  It was nice not to have anything this time.

Heading home tomorrow.  Must be very good tomorrow as weigh-in is the next day.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 19 -- JENNY AGAIN?

It's Saturday and I'm feeling a little under the weather.  I have a chronic chest cold that I can't seem to get rid of.  Last week, the doctor put me on one of those 6 day steroid Med Packs and in one day I was better.  Unfortunately, as soon as I finished it 6 days later, the symptoms returned.  So I don't think we'll be going to the movies this evening which is actually good as far as trying to lose any weight this week goes.

Yesterday I had bought blueberry muffins so I could have one for breakfast today.  I forgot to mention this to my husband and he went out and bought me an almond croissant which I just finished.  Delicious -- Yes.  Dietetic -- No.  Oh well.

Tonight I definitely plan on having another Jenny Craig dinner which will be back to back Jenny days which is always a good thing for me weight loss wise.  I will be having a dinner similar to one in the picture.

I was just looking back on this blog when I tried to do this in 2010.  On my second weigh-in, I was down 5.5 lbs. which is exactly what I was down on my second weigh-in for 2013.  That's pretty amazing.  So I went ahead and checked what the third weigh-in loss was in 2010 and it was 1.5 lbs.  I will be curious to see if it's the exact same thing in 2013 for the third weigh-in.  That would be fine with me.  Any weight loss would be fine.

There's so many different sites online that show you how many calories you can consume in order to lose weight.  I downloaded an app called Lose It and it computed that in order to lose one pound a week, I should consume 1759 calories a day. At the rate of a 1 pound loss a week, I would reach my goal of 150lbs. by July 6, 2014.  Obviously, if I lose more than a pound a week, I would get there quicker.  It also computed what I ate today which only came to 861 calories.  So today was a good day.  I know it's definitely healthier for me to eat more but on days I'm not feeling it, I'd rather eat the lower calories to make up for those days during the week where I might have gone over.  Sure hope it's cumulative over the week's time.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 18 -- STICK TO MY GUNS

Well I stuck to my guns and did exactly what I said I would do today.  It was a day of Jenny Craig food.  Started off this morning with the French Toast.  Here's a picture of what the French Toast looks like.  During the day I had a few handfuls of those tiny Ritz/cheese crackers.  For dinner, I had the Jenny Craig Beef Chow Mein.  And I'm done for the day.

I'm actually proud of myself that I didn't cave today and I can thank not weighing myself everyday for this.  Had I gotten on the scale this morning and seen a one or two pound weight gain from being away, I probably would have continued down that course and made it a three pound weight gain by tomorrow.  I dodged that bullet by not weighing myself.

Now it's the weekend and I have to see how that pans out.  If we go to the movies tomorrow, then that means we'll go out to eat.  I think I might push something like Red Lobster so I could eat some seafood.  If we stay home, then I will Jenny Craig it again.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 17 -- HOME A DAY EARLY

Some days are good and some days are bad.  I don't know why but it happens.  It's like a switch goes off in your head.

It started off good.  Had breakfast at The Metropolitan at The Borgata....a lightly toasted buttered bagel, a side of bacon and tea.  Really good!!!!  Ended up making a quick exit and coming home a day early.  It takes an hour and a half to drive home and my head was in a good place on the way home.  It was about 3PM and instead of stopping in the store and buying some candy when I left Borgata (like I usually do), I opted not to.  On the way home, had a handful of the health snacks I had packed for myself before I left.

Then I started to think about dinner and what I would eat. My Jenny Craig food had arrived the day before I left and I started to think about that.   Here's the problem though.....when you order the three day package, it's kind of a surprise.  You never know what you're going to get.  And I got mostly things I don't like......mesquite chicken, beef chow mein.  They have so many good meals and they send me crappy ones.  You would think they would send you the best sellers to encourage you to order more.  I also started to think about stopping on the way home and picking up a hoagie for my husband for dinner.  And then it began.  Well, perhaps I would like one as well.  Get him a large one and me a small one.  And that's how it begins for me.  I got a small ham and swiss hoagie and a small bag of chips.  As if that wasn't enough, I had this decadent chocolate/popcorn/pretzel/oreo pizza pie in the house that hasn't been opened. (This isn't the actual pie in the picture but I'm sure you get the gist).  I got it for Christmas and it's been sitting there just waiting.  I've resisted this long and tonight I folded and I'm so mad at myself.  But these are the things that happen when you're trying to lose weight.  You're not always going to be good.  There are always going to be lapses.  I went for 17 days without one and tonight it hit.

The key here is to wake up tomorrow and get back on plan.  I will have a Jenny Craig breakfast and a Jenny Craig dinner.  That will definitely get me back on track.  I think I might even take my dog on a half hour walk.  This would be my first form of exercise since I started my program.  Here's a sample picture of some of the Jenny Craig food.  Unfortunately, they didn't send me any of this.  Pictured here is the chicken fajita which I love as well as the tuna salad for lunch.  In any event, I will make due with what they sent and promise myself to be good tomorrow.  I have a lot coming up in the next few days....dinner and movie with my husband on Saturday...back to the Borgata with a friend on Sunday...possible movie day on Tuesday and in the city on Wednesday to see Evita so there's not a lot of opportunity to not eat diet food in the next few days.  So I MUST do this tomorrow.  Let's see just how good I can be.

EDIT:  Just had a thought and wanted to add it here before I forgot.  This is what happens to be all the time when I begin to take liberties and I want to bring it to my OWN attention.  When I ordered room service last night, there was no need for me to order the apple crisp for dessert.  I'm trying to lose weight.  I did not need that.  Today when I got the hoagie, why did I get a bag of potato chips with it.  Again, not necessary.  And this is exactly what leads to me eating that piece (2) of chocolate pizza pie.  Okay, I feel better that I've put this in writing and hopefully I'll come back and reread it everytime I have a lapse.

EDIT 2:  And this is precisely why I'm only weighing myself on this "plan".  If I weighed myself tomorrow after what I ate today, my weight would definitely be more and I would get depressed and then guess what????? I would eat some more.  Just glad tomorrow isn't Tuesday....the day I weigh myself.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 16 -- OUT OF TOWN

I'm at one of my favorite places in Atlantic City.....The Borgata.  This is always a dangerous trip because there's so many great food options.  This morning I ate at Roma opting for a corn muffin and tea....of course I had to put some butter on the muffin. 

I had made a baggie full of raisins, almonds, pecans and sunflower seeds for a snack and had a handful during the day.

Right now, I'm waiting for room service.  I ordered Onion Soup, an Iceberg Lettuce Wedge with tomatoes and bacon and some dressing and some kind of apple cobbler for dessert.  I'm probably only going to eat a few bites of the cobbler.  I heard on a TV show that you should not eliminate everything.  It's better to order a dessert and only have two or three bites.  I actually haven't had anything dessert-wise in a while so I don't feel guilty about doing this.

In past visits here, I'm usually eating candy during the day and late as night as well.  I'm happy that I've been able to control this on this particular trip.

WEEK 3 -- DAY 15 -- 2nd WEIGH-IN -- 226 lbs.

                2.5 lbs. lost this week

                        5.5 lbs. lost this month

                 5.5 lbs. lost YTD

OH HAPPY DAY!!!  There's nothing better than getting up on weigh-in day, getting on the scale and seeing that you've lost weight.  I had such mixed emotions this morning thinking that I might have lost nothing.  I got on and off that scale three times just to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing.  I was weighing myself on a scale that has a dial with the darker black lines for every five pound increments.  The weight was just one past the dark line and, for a minute, I thought I was looking at the 230 lb. dark line meaning I was 231 pounds and had actually gained weight.  I looked again and realized I was looking at the 225 dark line so my weight was actually 226lbs.  What a great feeling!! One thing to note is that my ticker above does not seem to compute half pounds so even though I've only lost 5.5 lbs., it actually says 6 pounds.

Since I'm also on the Diet Bet Challenge, I was now curious to see what the difference was between the two scales I'm using as I have to use my digital scale for that weigh-in.  The difference is exactly 1.5 lbs.  When I weighed myself on Sunday for Diet Bet, I had clothes on and it was in the afternoon so I had already eaten a decadent almond croissant for breakfast.  My starting weight for that challenge was 231.6.  Today I got on that scale in the morning, having not eaten anything, and my weight is 228.8.  This means I've already lost 2.8 lbs. for this competition.  This is unbelievable as I have to lose a total of 9.3 lbs. in this challenge to share in the prize pool of $16,400.

I'm leaving today to go out of town for three days not returning until Friday.  This is always dangerous but this weigh-in is such a motivating factor for me.  The other great thing is that I don't weigh myself again until next Tuesday so I'll never know what my weight is when I get home on Friday.  And even if it wasn't that good, I'd still have four more days until weigh-in to make sure I lose at least one pound.

Loving my "weight loss plan" today.  And the good news is that my Jenny Craig food arrives today which will make it a lot easier for me than it's been because I'll always have something to reach for when I'm not sure what to have for dinner.  Feeling great right now!!!

Editing this post to add what I ate yesterday.  Picked up a raspberry croissant before I began my trip.  Had dinner again at Japanese restaurant Izakaya.  Had the Crispy Rock Shrimp as an appetizer and ate 1/3.  Had the Kobe beef again with a side of Fried Rice.  When I like something, I like to order it again when I go back to that restaurant.  At least I didn't order any dessert this time.

WEEK 2 -- DAY 14 -- DAY BEFORE WEIGH-IN

Two weeks in and the day before my second weigh-in.  Today was another movie day and, all in all, was not a great day.

We went to the diner for breakfast/lunch before going to the movie.  I had an omelette with cheese, bacon and onion which came with some home fried potatoes and two pieces of toast.  I ate 3/4 of the omelette, half of the potatoes and both slices of toast and I was FULL.  At the theater, I just had 1/3 of a diet soda.  Came home and had some fruit which sounds relatively healthy but.....I had some of that cream cheese dipping fruit sauce which made it much less healthy.  When I went upstairs, I had three handfuls of the very decadent popcorn sprinkled with chocolate.  Thank goodness I finished what was left so there's no temptation any longer to reach for it.  Now I feel like a fat pig and feel like I couldn't have lost any weight at all.  Thank goodness my Jenny Craig food arrives tomorrow. Went to see Lincoln which was good but a tad boring.  Daniel Day Lewis will definitely win the Oscar for this performance....the movie will not win for best picture.

When I weigh myself tomorrow, I'll be weighing in on two different scales -- my doctor's scale and my digital scale.  I'll be interested in seeing the difference in the numbers because I know that one scale will show a much higher weight than the other.  Just hope that one of them shows at least a one pound weight loss from last week.

One other thing of note.....I had gone to the doctor on Friday for my semi-annual checkup.  He just called tonight to say my blood sugar was up.  No surprise there as I had been eating candy like crazy for the past few months.  Hopefully, if I stay on plan, I'll get a better report when I go back in June.

Tomorrow I will be going out of town for three days which is never great for any kind of diet.  I will be bringing some Jenny Craig snacks with me which should hopefully help my cause.

Right now, can't weight until tomorrow's weigh-in.

WEEK 2 -- DAY 13 -- HOPE IT'S LUCKY 13

 DAY

Almost two weeks in and feeling great. Again, still feeling fat and don't feel like I've lost any weight this week but know I must have lost something since I've been eating so much less than I usually do.  Once thing is for sure......my blood sugar levels have to be lower as my candy consumption is almost non-existant.

I'm about to join something called Diet Bet.  It's an interesting concept.  You join a group and pledge an amount of money (in my case $50) and you pledge to lose 4% of your body weight in a month.  The reason I joined is twofold -- I like the idea of being in a weight loss competition and this challenge is being hosted by my two favorite reality TV personalities -- Jeff and Jordan from Big Brother.  Big Brother is my all time guilty pleasure and these are my absolute favorite ever houseguests from this show.  The challenge starts on January 15th but you have to weigh yourself two days before the challenge begins and today is the weigh-in day.  This kind of messes me up as I'm not due to weigh myself until Tuesday for my own challenge.  However, I have two scales in my house and they both give different numbers.  One is like a doctor's scale and the other is a digital scale.  For the Diet Bet challenge, you have to weigh yourself on a digital scale so the number I get on there today will be different from the number I would get if I got on my doctor's scale on the same day.  I'm going to be doing this in the next hour and I will edit this post with the weight. EDIT: Just weighed myself on the digital scale and my weight was 231.6.  YIKES!!!  This scale had better be off by a "few" pounds otherwise I'm more than I was when I started almost two weeks ago.  I did have clothes on and that represented 1 pound.  Oh well, I will know on Tuesday what my weight loss is and can't get crazy until then. So this means, for the Diet Bet challenge, I have to lose 9.3 lbs. which is 4% of 231.6, in order to partake of the prize pool which is now at $17,400. The other fun thing about this challenge is that if you're successful, you get to share in the prize pool which is divided up amongst everyone who has achieved the goal of a 4% weight loss.  So far, that pool has $9250 in the pot. (This was the pot as I typed this).  It keeps going up as you can see in my EDIT above. Apparently you can still sign up and partake in the pot as long as you lose 4% of your weight on the same date that those of us who weighed in on 1/13 do.  They end up having less time to achieve their goal.

As far as eating today goes, I've already had an almond croissant for breakfast.  Just had a handful of Cheezits.  Going for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner.  How healthy. lol  Tomorrow's another movie day to see Lincoln.  Trying to get all those Oscar movies seen before the big day.  Until tomorrow......

                                                           

WEEK 2 -- DAY 12 -- BACK AT DELAWARE PARK

Today was another one of those days where I wasn't home at all.  I left the house at 11AM and returned at 10PM.  That usually makes for a tougher eating day.

Had a cheese croissant while driving in the car to Delaware Park to play in another poker tournament.  It's an easy drive just South on 95 for about an hour.  I had brought a mixture of almonds, sunflower seeds and white raisins to snack on when I got hungry and this seems to work out well for me.  The waitress was coming around selling candy and crackers but I had no need to buy anything because I planned ahead and packed my snack.

Dinner break was at 6:30PM and the options at Delaware Park are so limited.  I opted for the chicken tenders with cole slaw and french fries.  I don't even know why I order the french fries because I only eat about 5 of them.  I also didn't finish all of the chicken tenders so dinner couldn't have been all bad.  Had two handfuls of the popcorn sprinkled with chocolate when I got home.  I know this doesn't sound great but, when compared to what I would have eaten 12 days ago, it's so much less.

If I could just win one of these tournaments or even final table one, I'd be so happy that I probably would have no desire to eat anything.  I know that my eating is a direct result of whether I'm happy or not.  Playing poker makes me happy because I enjoy it so much;  winning a tournament would make me delirious!!!!

WEEK 2 -- DAY 11 -- ANOTHER MOVIE DAY

I'm not feeling so happy with myself today.  It started off with my least favorite thing in the world to do.....a visit to the doctor.  It was just my normal six month checkup where he draws blood to make sure my blood sugar is under control and takes my blood pressure to make sure that is okay.  I'm sure when the blood test comes back, I'm going to get an angry call from him.

In any event, since he was taking blood, I had to fast until the appointment was over which was 11:15AM.  I was meeting a friend at noon at Cracker Barrel which is famous for their pancakes.  So, since I hadn't eaten any breakfast yet, I decided to have the famous pancakes which I combined with a side order of bacon and some white buttered toast.  It's almost criminal to post this picture of the actual pancakes on a weight loss blog.

Afterwords, we went to see The Impossible, which is a movie about the tsunami in Thailand in 2004.  It was an edge of your seat kind of movie.  Thank goodness I was so full from breakfast that I had no desire to have any candy during the flick.  I love going to the movies.  We try to see as many of the Oscar related movies as possible before the actual awards show.  Next up next week is Lincoln.

I was still full when I got home so really wasn't interested in any dinner.  But I did have two handfuls of Cheezits and then the worst thing I could have added -- one of those coconut Tastycakes.  It's small but I really felt awful after eating it.

The other curious thing was my weigh in at the doctor's office.  I did have all of my clothes on and I do remember that my doctor's scale always represented a different number than my home scale but, it had me weighing 232 lbs.  Even if my clothes weighed three or four pounds, that pretty much puts me at my weigh-in weight on Monday which stinks.  But then again, I'm not weighing myself again until Tuesday so I should be okay.  Time will tell.