Day 17

Missed a few days (eek -- I just looked at my last posts and it's been almost a week!) last week because I got sick. I never did throw up or have any real problems, but I was queasy and then fevery and really tired. toph stayed home on Thursday to take care of me and Jasper, and I took two naps and lounged about all day. It was actually quite nice, except for the part where I felt really lousy and couldn't do anything more laborious than walk to the bathroom without needing to lie down afterward.

A minor win: I asked toph to bring me juice and some ice cream, because I felt like I could only handle really mild stuff for my stomach. I ended up drinking a small glass of the juice, and not even touching the ice cream! I tracked my points the entire time, too.  And, even though I feel like I hardly ate for two days, I actually ate most of my points both days. It's just that I was eating small amounts of comfort foods (grilled cheese sandwiches) instead of lots of vegetables.

I also finished another week, so here are my results:

• Stuck to my points (2 weeks in a row!)
• Lost 2.9 pounds! Thanks, stomach flu, for making me not want to eat the world for a few days
• Exercised twice

Blah. Exercise is still getting the better of me. I did do some nice yoga workouts on the Wii, and I'd like to expand that this week.  The weather is back to cold and rainy (from freezing cold and windy), which is not much of an improvement. I am really looking forward to warmer spring weather, as I think that will inspire me to get outside again and start walking/running. At some point I am just going to have to put on a sweatshirt and get out there, but right now I am feeling ok about taking things slow as long as I keep making progress.

My mom and I talked last week about maybe doing an alternating schedule of a week of really being strict about the program, eating cleanly (no sugar, lots of veggies, no booze), and exercising regularly (5x/week), and then taking a week of a more relaxed program like I've been doing so far. What always intimidates me about giving up things like wine and potatoes and pasta is the idea of being without them for a long time. Maybe if I can give them up for a week at a time, I can start to extend the time inbetween slowly, rather than going cold turkey. I know the best thing is just to stop eating that stuff, because eating it makes you want to eat more of it, but I know that when I feel deprived, it's just a matter of time before I go off the wagon. If I KNOW when the deadline is and I plan for it, maybe I'll be able to stick with it.

That all sounds like a lot of negotiation. I sometimes feel like I should be able to have more willpower and just suck it up and really commit. But I know myself, and my life, and I want to set up something that will be successful long term, not a really clean program that I stick to for 3 weeks, drop 15 pounds, and then spend 4 months off program gaining them back.  Which I have done I don't even know how many times.

One thing I do want to do is stop eating so much beef, though. We really like steak, and ground beef is really handy. But lately we are having beef a few times a week, and that seems like too much. Ideally I would love a vegetarian meal once a week that felt like enough protein to me.  I'll have to keep looking at that. I tend to default to cheese as my vegetarian protein, but it's not like it's any healthier than meat!