1.2 pounds in 16 days

Hola!

Sorry for the brief hiatus...I mentioned in my last post that Zach's son was staying with us and it pretty much consumed any free time I had. Then, last Tuesday, I woke up to HORRIBLE sciatic nerve pain on my right hip. If you haven't had that, you are very lucky and I hope you never do! It is among the most painful things I've endured. It feels like someone stabs you with a knife, twists it so that pain shoots down your leg, and you feel like your leg is going to give out underneath you. Not fun. I got some muscle relaxers, pain meds, and Today I'm doing better and hope to be resuming my normal step count soon.

Despite the many trips to Taco Bell (Zach's son's favorite place to go), amusement park "food", trips to Dairy Queen, impromptu snacks and/or 4th meals, and the copious amounts of candy at the house, I somehow managed to lose weight while he was here.

To be honest, when I stepped on the scale yesterday morning, it actually showed a lower number - indicating that I lost more than 1.2 pounds. According to that scale, I lost 2 pounds. But I doubted that number so much because I knew that my eating had been erratic and definitely not as healthy as I usually am. Thinking that maybe I was a bit dehydrated, I rounded up to the nearest number. I figure if the 2 pounds are accurate, it'll all work itself out the next time I weigh.

I am proud that most times I ate only half of whatever was in front of me. Not only because it meant less calories consumed but because I actually was already satisfied and felt like stopping. There were times when Zach and his son would eat through "my" foods - like the 45 calorie bread, reduced fat peanut butter, or my Skinny Cow treats - very quickly rather than eating the stuff that we purposely bought for them. I wanted to yell "THAT'S *MY* FOOD! STOP EATING IT!" which obviously meant that something was being triggered. In reality though, there is always enough. And sometimes I stockpiled my favorite food and in the case of the peanut butter, I just went to Costco and bought two huge jars for them to devour. One time I told Zach that if he ate the second to last Skinny Cow treat it was his job to go and get more.

Although I've done a lot of mental work around food, I was amazed at how many times my desire to eat "my share" of something popped up.

Overall, I think I did fairly well. I racked up a ton of activity by going to batting cages, playing mini golf, playing at amusement parks, Dave and Busters, GoKarts, and human mazes. His son will be able to come and visit us over Christmas break so I'll have another shot at practicing a more balanced attitude towards food and being a sorta-step parent.