Of Knees and Diet Failures

Last week was not a good one in diet land. I'd been messing up with food. I didn't go to the gym on Monday because Jim was home and I wanted to spend time with him, not at the gym (we don't get to spend nearly enough time together). The gym was going to be closed on Friday for some reason. And then I said screw it, I'm taking the week off. So I didn't go to the gym at all last week. I didn't work out at home. I ate whatever I wanted, and that included chips, cookies, McDonald's - a lot of crap.

But today is my time to start over! I'm committed to counting calories every day, and sticking to my range. I'm going to hit the gym every day that it's open, if I can, and if not, and on the days when it's not open, I'll work out at home.

Sounds good! There's only one problem - my knee has been bothering me a little since the end of last week. I didn't do anything to it, as far as I know, it just hurts when I bend it in certain ways. But it wasn't too bad.

Until last night. I went to bed, and it hurt when I moved from my back to my side, and curled my legs up in front of me. Every time I moved toward the end of the night, I woke up in pain from my knee. It doesn't hurt when I walk, but if I bend and lift it, the pain flares.

I don't quite dare workout without getting it checked out, so I called the doctor's office this morning and got an appointment for today. We'll see how it goes!

But while working out may be sidelined if the knee needs to rest, the diet isn't! I'm sick to death of counting calories, but it's the only way I can be sure not to overeat, so Spark People is once again my best online friend. Bah.

And really I'm just sick to death of the whole dieting thing, but you know what? It's how it has to be. I can't stay 221 pounds, I can't keep eating a non-stop diet of crap. Things have to change. And now is the best time! (I'm also sick of writing these "I'm starting over" blog entries, but what can I do? I'll try to make this the last one I write.)

(Besides, my wedding is less than 10 months away now! Those size 8 jeans aren't going to fit if I don't get my act together!)

I'll let you all know how the knee turns out.

Wedding Countdown!

I woke up this morning dreaming about our wedding next year. I don't remember a lot of details, but I seemed to be stressing about the food - Jim is ordering Dinosaur BBQ, but what about the people who don't like that? Shouldn't we have burgers and hot dogs to cook on the grills, too?

First, isn't it awfully damn early to be stressing about details in a wedding that is going to be about the most low key wedding ever? I mean, damn.

Second, it may be too early to stress about wedding details, especially for a wedding that is going to be very short on "wedding" and longer on "fun," but it is NOT too early to stress about making my weight goal. So I added a handy dandy little timer to my sidebar. It's going to be there to remind me of how fast that wedding date is going to come!

Today is my first day back to the gym after being sick for the last week. It's also my first day back to counting calories on SparkPeople. I was good at working out before I got sick, but I haven't been doing good with food at all! It's time for that to change. This is one weight goal I don't want to miss!

And for further inspiration, I'm posting a before picture! Eek! Jim's Dad took the following picture of me with my new car, shortly after I got it. I'm aiming to be much slimmer than this by 9/10/11! Like, 90 pounds slimmer. :)