But enough of the lovely bodily functions talk, as of this morning I have lost a total of 14 pounds. So that week 6 weigh-in was mostly a result of the stomach thing, but I missed only two meals as a result of this weeks problem. So I’m thinking this is a rather accurate measurement. Yippee! Also, since my last visit to the doctor last July, I’ve lost 21 pounds. Yippee, again!

I think I’m going to be a bit short of the 20 pound total goal where I wanted to be at the end of Month 2 (which comes next week), but perhaps I can make up for it in Month 3.

And there’s no week 7 weigh-in because the Monthly Visitor was this week, and I learned from last month that that’s no time to step on the scales.

Next week is the PMS/Monthly Visitor Week, and that didn’t bode well for weighing last month, so we’re not going to try that this month.

Therefore, after weighing this morning, I handed Hubby our bathroom scales and asked him to hide them for two weeks. He looked at me funny at first. Then I told him, “Because I know I’m going to weigh myself every morning to see if that 20 pounds is still gone, and when it starts creeping back up, I’m going to get frustrated. And next week is time for the monthly visitor.”

Without another word, he took the scales from my hands. I don’t even know where he went because I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

Well, now I have a need for one. I haven’t had a wardrobe malfunction yet, but some of my jeans are getting rather loose — to the point where they need to be adjusted if I’m lounging on the couch or the bed in them.

I also noticed this morning that my favorite pink shirt fits even better than the last time I wore it. It’s a simple button-down stretch shirt (gawd, I’d just LOVE to kiss the person responsible for weaving lycra into jeans and dress shirts and pants and everything else!), and when I first wore it, it was just slightly snug around the belly. Ladies, those of you who are thick in the middle know what I’m talking about. Shirts that sort of cling to that bulge that hangs over our jeans. Well, this morning, there was no clinging. My shirt now hands bulge-free. Well, not counting my boobs, of course.

Of course, I’m still not tucking my shirt in yet!

But I do that, and I’m satisfied during the week. I don’t moan and whine when someone brings in French fries from some fast food place for lunch. I don’t feel these horrible cravings for fattening foods because I know I’m going to have my chance to indulge but not go completely overboard. I think it works for me.

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the morning a couple of weeks ago when I weighed and the scale said I had lost a total of 11 pounds (after weighing the previous morning and  it said I had lost a total of 8 pounds) was a fluke. It was water weight; it was something other than true weight loss.

So this morning I am at 10.5 pounds gone. Doesn’t that sound so much better than just 10?

All in all, I’ve set out to do what I wanted to do in the month. I’ve exercised three to five pounds a week. I’ve kept my calorie intake inline with what’s on SelfDietClub.com. And I’ve lost ten pounds.

So now that I’m in month two, I’d like to lose another ten pounds. This past week I wasn’t an angel when it came to food, but I didn’t totally gorge either. So I’ll be approaching next week with renewed focus on my meal plan. Exercise is a no-brainer. I just get up and do it. Meals take more planning, so I’ll be spending some time this weekend evaluating what those meals need to be this week.

I feel like throwing the scales out the window. I know, I probably shouldn’t weight at all, but different “experts” say different things (isn’t that always the case?). Some say you should weigh everyday. Some say once a week. Some say never; just let your clothes be the judge. While some outfits do fit better, it’s not as much as I’d like.

All I think is that I’ve hit a slow spot, but I thought that would come later — like maybe after the first 20 or 30 pounds, not the first 10!

It’s just so freakin’ frustrating.

But I’m trying (hard!) not to get discouraged. The whole monthly thing could be adding some bloatage (not a technical term, I know ), and a couple of people have suggested that even though I’m mainly doing cardio right now, I could have built up a little muscle and that, of course, weighs more.

So I’m focusing on the good stuff I’ve done this week and trying (hard!) not to think about what the scale is saying.

For those of you playing along at home, that brings the total to eight pounds!

Well, it wasn’t that bad. I do believe, however, that I need to take in a bit more protein and water before starting morning routines. I felt a little shaky, as if I were dehydrated or my blood sugar was low.

And I did the LOW-intensity workout! I’m afraid to see what the high-intensity workout is. I didn’t complete the whole cardio part because I think I pushed to hard at the beginning. I skipped to the cool-down after 20 minutes.

I still plan on doing my yoga DVD when I get home, which is 60 minutes long, and according to SelfDietClub.com, 60 mintues of gentle yoga burns 350 calories for someone of my weight.

I think tomorrow I’ll try my “Walk Away the Pounds DVD.” I think that one might be a bit easier on me. We’ll see.

…an offer to choose a piece of candy from a coworkers candy dish

…a chocolate-covered peanut butter candy

…a whole spread of munchie foods at a baby shower — including sausage balls, cake, cocktail weenies, chips and dip and other assorted rich foods

And I didn’t agonize over this either. I flat out said no and kept right on going. I knew that if I ate something, it would have to go on my food diary, and I didn’t want to know how many calories it would add.

Now, tonight I did splurge with Mexican, but I’m not feeling guilty about it. I didn’t do it as a reward for being good.

Tomorrow, I add the exercise routine.

FOUR POUNDS GONE!

I’ll update more later!

So here’s my food diary for the day. With items that I made or items that aren’t on their list, I entered them in by hand. I actually went and computed the totals for my homemade chili because I just felt what they gave didn’t an accurate total. I was 100+ calories over their recommended average of 1374. That third chicken strip and the honey mustard dip were what did it. I could have gotten by with just two pieces and used less dip, but I’m still within the 1259-1499 calorie range that they recommend.

And here’s what else is cool about SelfDietClub.com — these breakdowns:

It’s like Quicken for losing weight!

Some of these photos will be cut off, but you get the idea.

Now, the nutritional computations aren’t going to be totally accurate, because they don’t know what vitamins/minerals are the items I entered in myself. But, I also take a women’s multivitamin every morning, so that just adds to all those numbers as well.

Anyhoo, that was my day. I didn’t go hungry. I ate a tiny piece of chocolate during the afternoon and it was totally enough to satisfy me. All in all, a day worthy of a pat on the back!

Must be strong… must be strong…

So between the chili beans and the soup, I’m all set for lunch this week. There will be no need to eat out, and these dishes are filling, lean and healthy.

We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep ya posted.

She told me that this stall is evidence of a mental block that’s still lodged in my brain that keeps me from actually DOING something and that I’m going to have to figure this out.

I told her straight out that I believe my block is the fact that I HATE the Long Haul. I know this change has got to be for good, and I’ve struggled so much before that I dread the thought of struggling again. I’m not a patient person. I want to see results immediately. It’s hard for me to realize that I didn’t get this big over the course of one day, one week, one year — hell, even a whole decade — so the struggle will always be there. Sometimes that makes me think, “Why bother?”

But one of my friends at work put things in a different light this morning. She’s lost 72 pounds since January 2005. It’s amazing the difference. I’m so excited for her; I really am. And she did it the old-fashioned way with good eating habits and good exercise — no fancy diets, no nutritional supplements, no prescription medication.

We talked this morning about exercise, and I told her that I bought two exercise DVDs from Amazon yesterday — The Biggest Loser routine DVD (the guy trainer, not the woman) and this Walk Away the Pounds DVD set (Her name is Leslie something). Anyway, I got around to explaining my dilemma, and she said that looking back on it now, she knew she just had to do something.

“I know that if I had not started last January, I would probably be another 20 pounds heavier.”

That’s what hit me. The thought crossed my mind that if I don’t do anything this year, I will be heavier when next January rolls around, because I have been gaining between five and ten pounds a year.

On the plus side, I have done pretty good this week. I haven’t had any French fries, which are a HUGE weakness of mine. I’ve had yogurt at breakfast, soup for lunch and small meals at dinner. Snacks have been either yogurt or nuts. Tonight was my first real splurge of the week — dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

So, I feel pretty good about things right now. Those DVDs should be here midweek next week, and I plan on putting those to use!

Well, perhaps it wasn’t that nasty. I think it was something to the effect of “I’d love to use this weight loss tool, but I have a Mac, and I was wondering how long it would be before you got this site compatible for Mac users.” I got this equally polite letter saying that I would be contacted when the site was compatible for me.

Fast forward at least nine months to last week, when I got that e-mail saying that Safari or Firefox users could not access the Self Diet Club. About freakin’ time! I had totally forgot about it!

So I’ve been to the site and signed up, and I have to say, it’s really cool. You create a profile with your age, height, current weight, goal weight etc., and the site calculates how many calories you should shoot for each day in order to lose two pounds a week.

It has a Meal Planner tool which allows you to choose foods you want to eat from a list, and it configures how much of chosen foods you can eat to meet your daily calorie allotment. Then you can print out a shopping list to take with you to the grocery store. Way cool, in my opinion.

You can enter everything you’ve eaten for the day in the Food Log to see how many calories you’ve taken in, and enter your physical activity you’ve done in the Exercise Log to see how many calories you’ve burned. Another “way cool.”

Track your progress with a line graph that will hopefully go lower and lower, and a community board area helps you find support and encouragement with fellow participants.

The drawback would be that it is for Self subscription holders only, but the magazine is a good one, and it’s rather inexpensive to get. Guys, however, might feel a little emasculated reading it.

I’m not crazy enough to start one in December!

To those who left comments here eons ago, I apologize for taking so long to moderate them! I’m a slacker!

Anyway, I think I went on my first diet in the fourth grade. Since the first grade, I had always been close to ten pounds overweight, which I suppose is significant for a young child.

The diet was one of those four days on, three days off things where you eat specific foods for four days — peanut butter, boiled eggs, baked chicken among select others — and then you could eat anything you wanted for three days. I don’t remember why the diet failed. My mother was following the plan as well, perhaps she decided it was time to stop.