Hot By Thirty

One small toffee bar now is nothing in comparison to next week

I'm down two pounds this week. YAY. And I've got 9 Molly pounds left to lose. That's single digits people. WHOO HOO. I think I'll go have a celebratory toffee bar!

Why is it that every time I have something to celebrate I want to celebrate by EATING? I was talking to Phillip about this and he said that you're supposed to celebrate losing weight by buying new clothes. Which I can TOTALLY do, by the way. But honestly, my first thought turns to something sweet. Oh! I should have a piece of cake! Because: go me!

I'm starting to get a little nervous about all the holiday eating. Not NERVOUS. I mean, you do your best and if you fall off the wagon you get back on the next week la la la, but still. You don't want to lose all your momentum, which is what Christmas feels like to me. (Well, besides all that Birth of Christ stuff.)

We're having a party this weekend and I can tell you now that nothing at our party is going to be good for you. And we're having four Christmases this year. FOUR. We're going to have our own family Christmas on the 23rd. We want to have some time to ourselves to open the presents we give each other and you KNOW I'm going to put out a plate of treats. I HAVE TO. The 24th belongs to the party at my grandma's house with extended family and you know what we eat on Christmas Eve? FRIED BREAD DOUGH. Smothered in the topping of your choice and most of us pick my grandma's egg salad. My aunt makes about 12 million of these little puffs of fried goodness and I swear, that's 20 pounds RIGHT THERE.

AND THEN. Christmas Day we spend with Phillip's parents, which is a nice respite from the insanity of my family, but still all about the food. Even more so, since Phillip and his dad expect to eat prime rib with all the fixings. AND! AND! This year there is even more going on, since my brother and his family are flying in the day after Christmas, which is when my immediate family is going to have Christmas. Got to have all the grandchildren there at once, right? My family Christmas is several hours of present opening (there's a lot of us) interspersed with trips to the snack table. Where there is nothing healthy. Of course. (And if there was, why would we eat it?)

So I am doomed. DOOOOOOOOMED. My best outlook is to lose as much weight as I can this week so the Christmas week doesn't do me in completely, but with my party on Saturday that's doubtful. Even if I didn't eat anything, I'm sure gin adds a few pounds. Sigh.

Stupid holiday dinners

I am up two pounds this week and feeling pretty rotten about it.

I KNOW I KNOW, Thanksgiving blah blah blah, but still. I am no Biggest Loser camped out in a weight loss compound with healthy food and a trainer. It takes a LOT for me to lose two pounds and now I have to do it again. I hate losing and gaining the same pounds.

Thanksgiving was pretty rough. It's actually not my favorite meal. There are many many parts of Thanksgiving dinner that I could do without. But mashed potatoes and gravy? MORE PLEASE. Apple crisp? Which we have for the people who don't like pumpkin pie? Which includes me? A NICE BIG HELPING PLEASE. WITH ICE CREAM.

Then I made the mistake of not sufficiently stuffing myself during the actual dinner, so when we got home from 'The Quantum of Solace' (good movie, even if it's horribly depressing) I made myself another plate of turkey and gravy. And there would have been mashed potatoes on that plate if there'd been any left. '

AND THEN? There was Thanksgiving Number Two at Phillip's family's house, and I ate even more at that one. My family makes this awful stuffing that's 99% celery (I HAAAAATE CELERY) (of course I hate the vegetable that requires more calories to consume than it contains), but Phillip's family's stuffing is fried rice. Sticky fried rice cooked inside a turkey. Oh, it is glorious. And then his mom made a cheesecake for dessert, which I could seriously finish off all by myself. Cheesecake is leaps and bounds above apple crisp (and pumpkin pie most certainly!) on the Tasty Dessert Scale.

I was feeling rather rule-abiding at my family's Thanksgiving and avoided as many carbs as I could manage. But as the weekend went on, my resolve broke down and Saturday night I found myself making pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and licking the bowl. (And the beaters, and the rubber scraper.) It's so easy to fall back into, "Eh, whatever, this isn't so bad." I know people think low carb diets aren't balanced and/or are too hard to stick to, but it's what works for me. And if I'm not consciously choosing to avoid dessert and bread and pasta and all that, THOSE ARE THE ONLY THINGS I EAT. If weight were not an issue I would happily subsist on cereal and cake and pasta with cream sauce. In a lot of ways, me on a low carb diet means I'm putting carbs in their PLACE. Which is "Some of the time" instead of "ALL DAY EVERY DAY".

I got back on track yesterday and even talked myself into doing the next routine on the treadmill (twice as long, gah), except Jack started howling halfway through his nap and Phillip had to pass Molly off to me to deal with Jack and darn it, I had to quit! Bummer, huh?

This week's goal is to lose those two Thanksgiving pounds.