Cheat Day Heavy

I had two bad ideas yesterday. First was having a cheat day when I was going to be home alone all day. It means I basically spent the entire day eating while watching TV, eating while playing the Sims 3, eating while watching more TV, and oh yeah, eating while playing more Sims 3. And I did two loads of laundry and vacuumed the downstairs. That's about it. Oh, and I rode the exercise bike - for all of five minutes. Ha!

The second bad idea was going grocery shopping while I was hungry (hadn't eaten breakfast). As I'm sure you know, if you go grocery shopping while you're hungry, everything looks good. I ate xtra cheddar Goldfish, I ate chocolate chip cookie dough, I ate chocolate chip cookies, I ate frozen waffles, toasted and covered in maple syrup. Oy. I ate so much I had trouble falling asleep last night, I was so full (and kind of sick, honestly).

So now I will be spending the week attempting to reverse the damage. I didn't step on the scale this morning, and will be avoiding it until Friday, but let's just say that I'll be happy if I get down to 208 this week, because I know I gained weight yesterday.

Also, I think riding the exercise bike is good every so often, but I don't get that much of a cardiovascular workout from it. Maybe I just don't go fast enough, I don't know. I tend to get a better workout from videos, though, so I'm going to start cycling through some I have in my Netflix queue to watch instantly. If I do those for the rest of this month, three or four times a week, then I should be able to do the 30 day shred next month! I really want to test out Jillian Michael's claim that "you can lose up to 20 pounds" in one month while doing it! Not that I really expect to lose 20 pounds in one month, but I want to see how much I do lose.

I'm feeling kind of down on myself today, because I just ate SO MUCH yesterday. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not really accomplishing anything, even though I know that's not true. The weight may be coming off slowly, but at least it is coming off, and I'll keep up that steady forward progress.

That doesn't stop me from wishing it could all come off FAST, though. :P

If I do a video tonight, I'll let you know tomorrow how it went.

Rambling

I don't really have much to say today, but I wanted to update anyway. Jim and I had a very nice weekend, and Sunday turned into sort of a cheat day while we ate Lay's Stax and watched football games. :) It's all okay, though, because I got back on track with my calories yesterday, and my uterus is finally doing it's monthly job, so I'm feeling good.

So, my mammogram went well last week. It wasn't bad at all - a small bit of pain while they were squished, but nothing unbearable. When I was done, she went and looked at them and told me she'd see me next year, so I guess I'm fine. I'm sure my doctor will talk to me about the scans when she sees me in February anyway, though.

Thursday morning I have to go get blood drawn for my annual fasting bloodwork. My mother had diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, so there is a lot of stuff to look for in my blood, to make sure I don't follow her down those paths. Fingers crossed.

And then in February I get to go back again to get a cyst cut out of my head! I don't know if I mentioned it in here, but I found a bump on my head in November, I think, and have since found it is a cyst. It's been bothering me - it hurts when I comb my hair, wash my hair and sleep on my right side - so the doctor is going to cut it out. She warned me that she would have to shave a bit of my hair, but I knew that, and it'll grow back and I'll be able to cover the shaved spot, so it's fine. Then she said I wouldn't be able to wash my hair for two days! Uh, that's a bigger deal than you shaving a patch of it off. Hee. So I scheduled the procedure for a Friday, so that my greasy haired days can be on the weekend, when I'm not at work and don't have to leave the house if I don't want to.

Okay, that's all I have for today. I'll be back Friday, if not before, with my weigh-in. :)

No More Cheat Days!

At least for the next six weeks.

Yes, it's true - I'm giving up my monthly cheat days. They're just no good for me! I'll still have cheat days for special occasions, but I don't need one each month. I go into them saying that I'll only eat a few extra things, but I won't go totally crazy, but of course once the day comes it turns into an excuse to eat every freaking piece of junk food in sight, and I end up gaining 2 1/2 pounds in one weekend.

Uh, that last part may have happened this weekend. Which is why I've made this decision.

So, for the next six weeks at least (I might take a cheat day for Halloween), I am going to stick to around 1450 calories per day, and we'll see where I am when those six weeks are over.

As for current progress, thanks to the August 31st cheat day, that time of the month, and this last cheat weekend (because yes, my cheat "day" turned into a cheat weekend, because I have no self control), I'm still about 2 1/2 pounds heavier than I was on August 31st. Sigh. Basically, I just wasted two weeks.

No more cheat days, except on special occasions! Here are my cheat days that I'm allowed for the rest of the time I'm dieting:

*October 31st (or November 1st if it works better for J's work schedule), for Halloween

*November 26th for Thanksgiving

*December 25th for Christmas

*A second day for Christmas, to be determined, for when J and I have our own Christmas dinner, with our ham and sides and maybe a Christmas dessert

*February 14th, for Valentine's Day

That should take me to my goal weight, I hope, and I don't think there are any days that count as cheat days in March or April anyway.

So. Six and a half weeks until my next cheat day. I'm looking forward to making some real progress in that time. :)

The Peril of "Cheat Days"

I think I need to drastically rethink the idea of "cheat days." A cheat day, of course, is the one day per month that I'm allowing myself to eat whatever I want, without recording my calories in sparkpeople. There's only one problem with this concept - I seem incapable of stepping away from the bad food.

Seriously. In one day, I do NOT need to eat some of each of the following: Goldfish, Hint of Lime Tostitos, a giant Hershey's bar, a sampler of Whitman's chocolates (four pieces), brown sugar and cinnamon Pop-Tarts, a couple small handfuls of Pringles, homemade macaroni and cheese and mozzarella sticks. That's what I did yesterday, though.

What the heck? A "cheat day" is all well and good, but there needs to be a limit! Seriously, have a little bit extra of a few things, not that many.

So here is my vow for my next cheat day, which is September 13th, I believe. I will have ONE OR TWO extra snacks, plus not worry about whatever I eat for meals. AND THAT IS ALL. I will NOT use the term "cheat day" as an excuse to eat everything under the sun.

And if I go back on that promise to myself, then cheat days will just go away altogether.

And I think the Flavor Blasted Xtra Cheddar Goldfish have already had their death warrant signed. Once I open those things, I just can't stop eating them, and no one needs to eat a whole bag of those things in one sitting. They just don't. I don't. Good-bye, Flavor Blasted Goldfish. I loved you, but you're just no good for me.