Looking on the Bright Side

So…awesome news.  My blog was recently featured in the blog spotlight under the health section of the paper!  Not that I need that to validate what I’m doing but it is a bit of an ego boost.  And face it, what writer wouldn’t want more traffic?  Especially if it’s in the form of free advertisement!  Oh, and insert shameless plug for my running buddy’s blog (linked to the right à).  She was actually spotlighted last week!  I love reading her posts.  She paints a beautiful picture of her races and makes me more and more anxious to get on with mine.

So, I begrudgingly stepped on the scale Monday morning.  I say begrudgingly because I refused to look at the number for the past two weeks.  My eating habits were way off track.  Picture a teenage girl elongating the word way in her sentence and you’ll sort of get close to how off I really mean.  In its written glory it would look something like this: waaaaaaaay.  I typically leave that sort of typing for text messages and Facebook comments but I really needed to get the point across.  (It’s still under exaggerated.)

Bad news first.  I gained.  Obviously.  Good news?  From zero to .9 where zero is clearly the ideal number, I only saw a .8 gain.  What that actually represents in terms of pounds is muddy to me.  That who 16 ounces to a pound thing but my scale reads in tenths bit is like toddler babble to a mother.  You think you understand but chances are it’s still gibberish.  The bottom line is that two weeks of worse than normal eating only equated to less than a pound gained.  I choose to look at the silver lining.  This gain could be the result of a number of things.  The first being water weight.  I haven’t drunk enough water over the past few days.  Water is vital for weight loss.  It helps flush water weight and impurities, neither of which probably occurred.  Then there is the whole strength training thing.  Muscle baby!  I’d like to think I’ve gained more than eight tenths of a pound of muscle (whatever that means in terms of ounces seeing as I’m no math whiz…don’t judge me).  And then there’s the obvious just plain bad eating possibility.  I tend to think it isn’t the latter because I did log everything I ate even though it pained me to see all the red all over my food log but in doing so I know I still had about 1600 calories left until I consumed my complete 3500 calories deficit needed to lose a pound.  I’m not saying all of those calories are equal.  I’m merely saying the damage incurred could have been worse.

My goal this week is to get back on track.  If you are like me you know how hard that is.  I could make about five excuses for why I quite possibly will fail this week but excuses never accomplish anything besides setting yourself up for failure.  Excuses give you a reason to stray off course.  Excuses are like that iceberg the Titanic hit.  Nothing good will come from them.  Instead, I’m taking each day at a time and making diligent food choices.  I’m splitting large portions with friends so I won’t be tempted to EAT ALL THE FOOD!  (Any day I can use a meme in my blog is a good day.)  I’m opting for vegetable loaded dishes to squeeze more in where I can.  So on, so forth. 

Lastly, I’m thinking about creating a signoff signature for each post.  Sometimes I’m not sure when to quit rambling which makes for an awkward ending.  Not that a signature will fix the issue but it certainly can’t hurt right?  Right?  I may test a few before I settle on one.  I want it to be relevant and original mixed with a bit of quirkiness.  After all, it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t just a little quirky.  If you have any suggestions I am totally open and will give you credit if I choose to use it.

Until next time!