binge-giving

well that's me there on the right, crossing the finish line with my friends heather and kristy. my 41 minute time blew away my 44:10 from last year, which was my goal. i am running another 5k on sunday, and my hope is to finish at or before 39:59. i really want to see ANY number below 40. tonight i ran 60 second intervals at the gym at 6mph (10 minute mile if you're mathematically challenged like me). my new goal for the new year will be to run a 10 minute mile--even if that's not my pace for an entire 5k. just ONE mile at 10 minutes would really make me happy!

soooo....about thanksgiving. i did great with my eating---from the time i posted my last entry on tuesday night until...oh....about 7:00pm on wednesday. that's when i ate pizza and drank beer while baking a huge guinness chocolate cake with my brother. and since the cake didn't exactly come out of the pan as planned, there were lots of spare cake crumbles that SOMEONE had to eat. you don't just throw away guinness chocolate cake crumbles! who's with me? anyone? anyone?

the next morning i ran the 5k. i truly felt great. there was no point during the race when i wanted to die, which is a major improvement from the other 5k's i've done. last year i only made it a mile before i walked, and this year i made it quite a bit farther. also, as i crossed the finish line last year i was trying to hold in puke. this year, i felt like a million sweaty bucks. run. believe.

so i did what any fitness buff would do and went home and had a piece of the chocolate cake. what??

our thanksgiving meal was at 2:30pm. it's a long story, but it was pretty much a disaster. i have to say that as far as thanksgiving meals go, i didn't do TOO poorly. instead of turkey i had this: roasted butternut squash stuffed with mushrooms, rice pilaf and goat cheese. i barely ate any potatoes or stuffing, mostly because they weren't that good. and no dessert, mostly because the service was so horrible that we gave up after being there for 3 hours and went home before dessert was served.

but then i went to my friend betsy's house and ate 3/4 of a plate of regular thanskgiving foods later that evening. however, i still didn't eat dessert, if that counts for anything.

on friday i met friends for lunch and i had scallops, brown rice, clear soup and 4 pieces of sushi. later i had a pumpkin ice cream cone. then i left ohio for michigan, to see ohio state play michigan on saturday.

that's when i gave up.

we ate combos in the car (my favorite travel snack), along with several of these treats my friend had spent the day making with her family. later in our hotel i had 2 beers along with half a quesadilla and chips & queso. on our way to the stadium in the morning we stopped at burger king where i had tater tots and an egg/cheese/bacon burrito. at the game i had kettle corn, peanuts, and hot apple cider. following the game we went to TGI fridays where i had a chicken, shrimp and cheese skillet, french onion soup and vanilla bean cheesecake. heehaw.

on sunday i figured i might as well throw myself a grand finale. i had some more cake for breakfast. for lunch i had a big mac and fries with a peppermint mocha. then i went to a movie where i had a small popcorn (with butter of course) and later that night, three pieces of french toast.

have you passed out yet? i can't even believe it myself, now that i can see it in print. but i have shared my triumphs, so i figured i owed you honesty regarding my 5 days of complete and total gluttony. but today i had absolutely no problem getting back on my reboot plan. juice, soybeans, hummus, black bean dip, and i burned 300 calories on the treadmill. i don't even WANT to eat junk anymore. yesterday i felt like complete and total garbage. i told my mom if she sliced me open, toxic green sludge would come out of me. that's how the inside of my body felt. not fun.

so i'm going to take the week to work out, eat right, then get on the scale....hopefully it will be back to where it was before i crashed and burned. i'm not too worried about it. i had a good time, i didn't stress, and now i'm back to the program. my jeans still fit this morning, so i figure the damage is minimal. onward and upward.

if you fell off the wagon too, that's ok. just please get back on it with me. you've worked too hard to blow it now at the end of the year. set a new goal and let's go after it together. let me know how you're doing.

good news, bad news

i'll start with the bad news first: i think i'm getting sick. i did week 5 day 2 of c25k, then went to zumba. before class started i sneezed and thought, "uh oh." suddenly i felt SO tired. i was good for nothing in zumba after that. i went through the motions but i felt like a fish flopping around out of water. i met a friend after class and my throat started to hurt a little. more in the way of "i've been screaming my head off at a ballgame" than a "sore" feeling, but still not right. now i just feel tired and cruddy. super. i had been hoping all of the juice, veggies, exercise, etc would make me immune. i haven't been sick a day since feburary 4th.

i hope this is not sickness, because i can not lose a single day of training for the turkey trot. it is in exactly 2 weeks. as of today i can run for 16 minutes, but that's not even going to get me through half of the 5k. i know i will have to walk some, as i did last year. i just want to have the same or better time as last year. i will say that when i ran tonight i felt really good. my heart rate stayed in a reasonable place, and dropped quickly when i stopped running. i feel really physically fit from a cardio standpoint. but i know i can't jog 3 miles or anywhere near 3 miles. i wish i had started training a few weeks earlier.

so anyway, the good news. if you're a facebook rebooter, you already know because i couldn't contain myself this morning. on october 22nd i bought jeans at old navy in size 16. i could button and zip them, but they muffin topped me too much to actually wear. i hung them up where i could see them every day. today, not even 3 weeks later, i decided to try them on to see how close i was. they were perfect. buttoned, zipped, no muffin top, totally comfortable all day. when i walked into work wearing my new clothes, a co-worker said, "wow, you look like you belong on the cover of a magazine." i asked if the magazine was hustler. he said no, more like an avon catalog. hmm. odd choice, but i'll take it.

the other good news was that i weighed myself for the first time since monday morning--meaning the first time since my birthday meal at bravo. i was down 2 pounds. that means i lost the pound i gained in new york, plus one. whew. tomorrow, with a little luck, i will fall into a new "decade" on the scale. i REALLY want to lose 5 pounds before the turkey trot, to weigh 25 pounds less than i did last thanksgiving. that alone should help me have a faster time.

ok, i'm rambling. time for tea, then bed early. really hoping to wake up feeling normal.

foodstravaganza!

it started with cookies. 
every wednesday we have this horrid staff meeting that steals souls with its pointlessness and absurdity. today my boss attempted to make it nicer with gigantic, soft, chewy, chocolate chip cookies from the amish bakery. i was slightly concerned, but after the meeting i had my warm lemon water, then pounded 16oz of green juice. that filled up my belly and i thought, "i've totally got this." the cookies looked good, but i was satisfied by smelling and looking at them. but then the real trouble started.

brownies. 

with a cream cheese layer on top. 

with brownies crumbled on top of that. 

that's right folks. brownies topped with brownies.

these were courtesy of the same girl who brought in the white chocolate chip cheesecakes on monday. you may remember her as evil betty crocker devil woman.

that's when things started to fall apart in my head. this morning the scale stayed on the same number it has been on since monday morning. if i had been on a weight loss high, i think i would have been ok. but i was on a plateau low. it's pretty clear now that i will not hit 30 pounds by friday morning, and i'm pretty disappointed. i'm not pish-poshing the 27.7, but i just REALLY wanted to hit that 30 pound mark.

so i decided the only thing i could do was get out of the building. i invited a friend to lunch at subway. i figured i deserved to eat a meal after walking away from the baked goodness, and i knew i could have a big salad with red wine vinegar at subway for barely any calories. so i had a really nice, fun lunch, and came back to work feeling pretty good about things. i figured by that time they would have demolished the baked goods.

but they hadn't, for they had been distracted from the brownies and cookies....by....

pizza and chicken strips. along with dipping sauces of every flavor. and as i put it on the reboot facebook page, "i am a slut for condiments." it's not unusual for me to find tiny bottles of ketchup, mustard and mayo in my christmas stocking. so chicken strips alone would have been one thing. but chicken strips with buffalo sauce, honey mustard, bbq sauce, garlic sauce, cheese sauce and pizza sauce? oh HELL no! and i'm not a fan of pizza meats, but of course this happened to be a garden veggie works pizza. sigh.

after consulting the papa john's website, i found out i could have one chicken strip for 65 calories and 2.5g of fat. and so i had one. and then i had a 1" x 1" bite of brownie. it was divine.

and then i felt better.

in situations like this, i like to think about what i would have done if i wasn't rebooting. i would have started the day with a giant chocolate chip cookie. 206 calories. then the brownies would have shown up, and i probably would have had 3 during the day. 470 calories. then i would have had at least 4 chicken strips (260 calories) dipped in honey mustard (75) and buffalo (30) and 2 slices of pizza. 560 calories.

i would have consumed 1,601 calories at work today. then i wouldn't have gone to the gym, i would have come home for dinner. and guess what my family had tonight....pizza. by day's end, i probably would have had around 3,000 calories and no exercise.

instead i had juice, a large salad with tons of veggies, a chicken strip and a bite of brownie, an apple, fresh homemade guacamole, peach mango salsa, kalamata olive hummus, cucumber slices and whole grain pita chips...for around a thousand calories. and that was after an hour long turbo kick class followed by 5k training that left my shirt completely soaking wet.

so while i felt like i failed on the scale this morning, and i felt like i failed by having such intense cravings, and i felt like i failed when i took a chicken strip and a brownie bite....i still succeeded. and if i haven't lost 30 pounds by friday, i will have lost it by next friday. then it's on to the next goal.

a big, special, amazing thank you to the rebooters who talked me off of my ledge today. tony reminded me that if i attacked the food counter in the style of cookie monster, i would have to write "i can't believe i..." on my blog tonight. i know i couldn't have walked away from it without those people on my side.

tomorrow i want to work out about 6 times, but i'll settle for 2. i have a lot of (healthy) food in my belly right now, so there's a chance the scale will be ugly in the morning. that means friday morning is my final hope. then it's off to NYC....

does running late count as exercise?

that was the quote on the marker board at the YMCA this morning, which was appropriate, because i was there almost 3 hours later than planned. but better late than never, right?

today i did w4d1 of c25k. today's routine was run 3 minutes, walk 90 seconds. run 5 minutes, walk 2 minutes. repeat. i KILLED those 5 minute runs. i took my kindle today and enlarged the font so i was able to read while jogging. i think that helped to distract me. next week there's a straight 20 minute run. ack!

came home and weighed myself....success! the scale finally moved down, and the dressing baby is gone! 1.8 pounds gone this morning, leaving me with only 2.3 to lose before friday. piece of cake.

or...piece of CHEESECAKE? accckkkk! i got to work feeling strong, confident, happy and full of willpower. then jessica, AKA evil betty crocker devilwoman, showed up with white chocolate chip cheesecakes. no one could shut up about how amazing they were, and i wanted to bash them all in the face. finally i took one small bite, and it WAS delish. in my previous life, i would have had at least 3 of these badboys today. but i was satisfied by my taste.

i stuck to juice the rest of the day, other than a little bit of hummus when i got home from the theater tonight. i saw "spamalot" which was very funny and a nice distraction from being hungry.

so tomorrow....i should go to the gym in the morning because i have band practice in the evening. however, i got my hair highlighted today, and she straightened my hair. as soon as it gets wet it will be curly again. i REALLY want to get a day's use out of the straightness. sooooo....i'll probably skip the gym in the morning and hope to be home from practice in time to still get into the Y before closing time.

and that's the news from panda nation today. time for some magic tea, then hopefully sweet dreams. i hope everyone stayed strong today with the oodles of candy and treats lurking about!

trick or treat, smell my feet!

do you guys get annoyed when i post pictures of things we're NOT supposed to have?

anyway, hi! let me just say that i'm glad i don't have kids coming home with bags of candy this weekend! but this giant bucket of goodness is in my kitchen ready to pass out tomorrow night. i stood next to it while i made my tea tonight, and i wasn't even slightly tempted. which made me think about how pre-reboot, i would have grabbed one of each candy bar and taken it back to my room to eat in bed while watching tv. i'm ashamed by how little thought i gave to the things i put into my mouth before.

in anticipation of halloween being difficult, i gave my mom several bags of smarties and asked her to pass those out this year. i knew i would never be tempted by smarties! she said, "we can't just hand out smarties, our house will be toilet papered!" i claimed that no one cares what kind of candy you give out, but tonight i found this online poll naming smarties the lamest of all halloween candies, so i guess it's good that she added the other stuff. as long as i keep not eating it, everything will be ok.

zumba was a lot of fun today. several people dressed up, so i didn't feel out of place in my panda costume. we got apples and cereal bars as treats, and she did a zumba cd giveaway. there was a lot of energy in the room, and i worked at 100% of my ability. the difference between what i can do on sunday afternoon vs. saturday morning is remarkable. i'll just never be a morning person.

tomorrow i'm going back to my mean green juice. i needed a break because it was impossible to get down after a month or so. but this week is the final push before i leave for NYC with the band friday morning, and i am so determined to leave ohio 30 pounds lighter than i was at our last gig on labor day. i had been at only 3.5 pounds left to goal on friday morning. but after "the dressing incident" i now have to take off 5 pounds in 5 days. crapola.

i know it's not like i FAILED if i "only" lost 28 pounds...but i set this goal and i want to make it happen. if that means two trips to the Y every day this week, then so be it. if it means shaving my head and cutting off my fingernails, then that's what i'll do. ok, that was a lie.

i saw a post on the facebook page today that really grabbed my attention:

Day 8. Nine pounds. I woke up this morning with a feeling I couldn't immediately identify. It's something pretty foreign to me. I have spent my adult life (I'll bet like most of you) on one diet or another. I am a diet expert. It's the results part that have eluded me. I can stick to a diet like nobody's business, but that's hard to justify when the weight loss just doesn't come. Today I realized I'm feeling........hope.

i could have written this post myself. for only the second time in my life that i can remember, i feel like i might really succeed at getting to a healthy weight. and the other time i felt that kind of hope i was on the complete opposite path, on the atkins diet. this time i feel like i've got a healthier plan, and that gives me even MORE hope. 

and now i've got to get some sleep. the Y opens in 5 hours and 15 minutes, so the crazies will probably start lining up in about an hour. i'm smiling as i visualize myself breaking up the fitness friends again tomorrow morning!

blood battle

my top four fears are spiders, ghosts, tornadoes and aliens. after that comes needles. i tried to face my fear by getting a small tattoo several years ago. i hated the way it felt and now i hate the way it looks. experiment failed. so today there was a blood battle (blood drive competition) leading into a rivalry football game tomorrow night. each year i try so hard to psyche myself up to do it. every year i fail. i mean, my mom still has to go with me when i need blood drawn, if that tells you anything.

this story doesn't have a feel-good ending where i overcome the odds. i decided not to do it. a big part of that was that i've just felt a little run down the past couple of days, and i really needed to be able to get through my workout tonight. but when i was making a list of pros and cons, one of the pros was, "it might make me weigh a few ounces less." and THAT is how you know you're a scale addict, folks!

speaking of addictions, i got an iphone today around 4pm. went to zumba at 6 with every intention of doing c25k after. but i couldn't wait to get back to my phone and practically ran out of zumba when it ended. technically it wasn't c25k day anyway since i did it yesterday. but i'm trying to take fewer resting days than scheduled so i can finish the whole plan before the turkey trot.

since i worked out, and since i've been feeling a little weak, i had a meal after the gym--a vegan bean "burrito" i found in the organic section at giant eagle, and some rice with peach mango salsa. tomorrow night, i'll just tell you now, i'm having white bread, chicken, eggs and i'm not sure what else is in there. my mom's dressing (you may call it stuffing) is the highlight of thanksgiving. this year however, circumstances dictate that we have to go out for our meal. so my mom made it for tomorrow night's pre-game party at our house, and i'm going to have some. there are some things that you just can't fight. i'm still winning the war against the mcrib, but this dressing...it's bigger than me. it is pre-made and in the fridge right now, and frankly i'm shocked that i'm not upstairs secretly baking a dish to eat tonight. THAT can be my victory. i honestly don't even care if i gain a pound. totally worth it.

oh..and please remind me that i said that when i'm crying on saturday because i gained a pound.

life before 6am

today i did something i've never done in my life: i went to the gym before 6am.

i had to wake up early to help a friend get to work, so i figured i might as well make up for not being able to go to the gym last night. in my mind, i'd waltz right into the gym at 5:45 and have the run of the house. all of the finest freshly washed towels, pick of the best treadmills, peace and quiet.

holy hell, was i sadly mistaken.

that place is more of a madhouse at 5:45am than at 5:45pm. not only did i not have my pick of the BEST treadmills, i was relegated to the very WORST treadmill. the one that shocks you if your hands are sweaty when you check your heart rate. the one with not enough display options, so it switches back and forth, always lingering on the one you don't want to see at that moment. the one in the back row, too far to read the closed caption on the tv's. think steerage on the titanic, folks. but i powered through in my meager conditions and felt good about doing it before the break of dawn.

my plan was for that to be "last night's" workout, then to do another one after work today. heh. turns out four hours of sleep is not a motivator for a repeat appearance at the gym. i came home and blessed my family with my grumpiness instead! lucky them!

today i had a power struggle in my brain. it was the final day for our local farmer's market. they make these really amazing wood fired pizzas out of fresh, local ingredients. as far as pizza goes, these are as healthy as they come. but it is still flour, it's still some cheese, it's still a good 800 calories for the pie. BUT it was my final chance to have one until MAY! i fought with myself all day about it. in the end i decided i just could not bear to see the scale possibly go up instead of down tomorrow after the stellar week i've had. also my birthday is next week and i had previously requested my favorite meal: homemade meatloaf, mac and cheese, and pumpkin roll for dessert. but today i emailed my mom and called that off too. i just can't thwart momentum like this. i'm going to enjoy a special food treat on friday this week, so i have to sacrifice in some other areas.

so speaking of the scales.... i forgot to weigh last wednesday, so this is a 6 day total: 5.4 pounds! WOOT! that's an entire fat log in one week!  if i can lose 3.7 before next friday, i'll have met my 30 pound goal between labor day and the new york trip with the band. 9 days...that's less than half a pound a day. body don't fail me now!

now if just ONE person who doesn't have any idea i've been dieting would notice my weight loss, i'd feel like i'm really accomplishing something. i know i'm a fatass, but damn. 26.3 pounds and not one random comment? hmph.

and it's not because i think my car is sweet....

well i've become one of those people. the type that park out at the end of the parking lot far away from everyone else. it's not because i'm protective of my car. rather it's because i've been abducted by aliens who probed my brain and sent me back to earth as the kind of girl who chooses to walk farther than necessary to burn off a few extra calories.

today i planned to go to the Y after work to do my 5k training. but throughout the day i lost motivation. i had trouble sleeping last night, only getting about 4 hours. i felt a little shaky and ick all day. i tried everything i could think of to talk myself out of going to the gym at the end of the day. but the next thing i knew, i was jogging on a treadmill.

tomorrow night i have band practice, which is normally one of my favorite places in the world to be. but this week i'm really annoyed that i have to miss zumba and yoga to be there.

what has happened to me? the balance of power has shifted. the fat used to control me, but now i am controlling the fat. i'm telling it where to go. remember the fat logs? i am less than a pound from having lost FIVE of them now.

my intent has been to go all-juice for the next 10 days. but for a variety of reasons, i haven't made that happen. i've been drinking organic juice (lakewood) and eating healthy foods. tonight i made the best dinner. kashi tlc pita crisps (click here for a $1.00 coupon), my new healthy snack addiction. then peach mango salsa, cucumber, and ah-maz-ing guacamole that i made. it's incredible how good something like this tastes, and what a treat it seems to be, compared with the way i used to eat. let's be honest, if i wasn't rebooting, odds are 10:10 that i would have had a mcrib, fries, pumpkin pie and peppermint mocha for my dinner tonight-- 1420 calories.

i have really been overwhelmed by the comments i've received from people this week telling me that i've inspired them. i'll touch on that a bit more tomorrow. tonight i just want to stress again that if i can do this, you can do this. i'm not even doing 100% juice anymore, and i'm still seeing great results. so if you ARE still fasting, you'll see even better results even faster. however you are reaching your goals, the important thing is to stay in control, and not to let losing a battle keep you from winning the war.

i've crossed the line

last night i visited with a friend i hadn't seen in a few weeks. she kept saying, "i can't believe how much less of you there is!" i know i'm smaller, but i still don't feel like it's that noticeable. but she said, "you have crossed the line now. you used to be an overweight girl who was pretty. now you're a pretty girl with a few pounds to lose." ok, if by a few she means 40-50...but still, today i saw what she meant.

first of all, that picture you see is of size 16 old navy jeans, on my person, buttoned and zipped. do you know how long it's been since i bought a pair of size 16's? long enough that i don't even have them anymore. i gave up on ever being that size again. plus when i WAS that size, it was such a brief time that i probably only had 2 pairs of jeans anyway. now in the interest of full disclosure, these 16's definitely muffin-top me, and i won't be wearing them in public anytime soon. they are my new "inspiration" jeans, since all of my old inspiration jeans fit again. plus they were on sale for $17 and i figured i should snag them now before they're $30 again.

as i shopped today, i felt different. when i'd see my reflection in a store window or in the fitting room mirror, i didn't want to cry. instead of seeing how far i have to go, i could see how far i have come. when i was looking through the racks of clothes, i didn't feel like people were looking at me thinking, "do they even sell her size here? she must be shopping for a gift for someone else." i even tried on a coat at old navy that was too big, and they didn't have the next size down so i couldn't get it. really can't tell you the last time i couldn't buy something because they didn't have it one size SMALLER.

i took this picture of me in the fitting room. like i said, the jeans are the highway to muffin top city. but other than that, i don't hate the body in this picture. this girl looks kinda normal. and i can see the potential here when another 25 pounds come off. that will be life changing stuff...and bank account depleting stuff, because i don't know how i'll be able to stop myself from buying every single cute thing that fits me.

today is the reason why i didn't eat the 6 day old pizza. and it's the reason why i got out of bed this morning at 7:30 and worked out at the gym for 90 minutes. i actually had some pizza last night. brand new, hot, delicious pizza. 2 small pieces. and after i got home from the gym this morning, i weighed less than i did yesterday. that is how you eat pizza...occasionally and in a small helping. then you exercise it away. emotionally i am HAPPY that i had that pizza last night. but imagine how i would have felt if i'd finished that box of gross leftover pizza just because i was sad and bored.

so this is me on september 5th, two days before i started my reboot. this was the day i ate a milkshake, mexican for lunch, japanese for dinner and a blizzard to top it off. i remember thinking i looked really pretty that day. then i saw this picture on facebook and almost cried. now i'm so thankful this picture is there because i have something to remind me of why i'm doing this.

i had every intention of writing a blog last night, but got too sleepy. the subject was going to be how i found out "mcrib is BACK" at mcdonald's and how they have peppermint mochas and pumpkin pies are 2 for $1, and how hard this would make my life. but today....i don't care. if i want a mcrib, i'll have one, not three. not with fries and a shake. but i probably won't have one because it can't possibly taste as good as it felt to come home with a pair of size 16 jeans today. look out, 14's...i'm coming for you next.

now if i could only find a store with an iphone 4s in stock, this would be the best day ever.

STEP#5: "Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."

this leftover pizza (not mine) is in the refrigerator, and it's all i can think about. what the hell is my problem? it's SIX days old. it can't even be good anymore! but there's a little demon in my brain saying, "go eat it...eat it all, eat it in the darkness while everyone is sleeping and it will be our secret. say you threw it away and they will never know." i swear i need an AA type sponsor, i'm a fricking addict. so this blog post is my step #5, admitting to God, to myself and to my blog readers that i am a big fat idiot. i want this nasty, dried up, grease-laden pizza in my belly. and i want to wash it down with ice cream and doritos. and then to be entirely honest, i want to stick my finger down my throat and throw it all up, because i want to eat it but i don't want it to count. sigh.

but i won't do any of that. i just had a few pistachios to shut my stomach up. i had some tomato juice today and some carrot juice. some soybeans and some black beans. a few pita chips, an apple. it's a mixed bag for me right now. i really want to do a week of all juice, but it just got so....gross. and it's a LOT of work to make juice, as most of you know. but my original reason for starting this, the trip to NYC, is only 2 weeks away. if i could juice for a straight week i could probably drop another 7 pounds. but...ugh.

many asked if i had any effects today from last night's pepper disaster. my face and eyes were fine. i opened up new contacts, because i was afraid the pepper would never come off of the ones i had in last night, and i wasn't about to find out the hard way. although based on what i've read tonight, saline would have taken care of it because salt is one of the few things that the oil can bond to. live and learn. i do think i suffered what amounts to a chemical burn on my thumb. whenever i touched something warm today, it felt like it had been burned on a hot stove. when i took a hot bath tonight (sore muscles from last night's training session), it KILLED. at least i hope it's from the pepper because webMD says it could be anything from thyroid disease to rabies. wonderful.

i do have to say that even though i'm still about 40-50 pounds from my ultimate goal, i am happy with my progress. tonight i told my mom that since january 2010 i have lost 60 pounds. unfortunately it has been the same 20 pounds 3 different times. this time i HAVE to keep going instead of gaining it back and starting over. this weekend an old friend i haven't seen in almost a year is coming to town and wants to get together. while i wish i was going to be a surprise knockout and a size 8, i'm glad i know that i weigh 7 pounds less than the last time i saw him. hopefully the next time i'll be that size 8. so hear you me, demon. six day old leftover pizza is not the way to get into tiny pants. let's just go to sleep instead.

what do you want to talk about tonight?

for once, i'm kind of at a loss for words. today was uneventful. i struggled once again. my juice is just not going down easily. i need new juice, and it's my fault for not making it happen. i'm being a lazy juicer/produce buyer. i laid around all evening and ended up eating an apple whole. i also stopped at the farmer's market after work and had a nibble on their super special harvest meal, prepared by local chefs. they had butternut curry soup! holy cow. i'd had plans to make butternut soup tonight anyway. i should have taken its picture for the blog, but i was in too big of a hurry to hog it down after only having one small cup of juice all day. i need to get my act together, people.

this morning was my weigh-in. i only lost 2 pounds this week. but if you've been following along at home, you know all of the crap i ate. melt on friday, pizza and beer on saturday. i had the farmer's market pizza last wednesday. a pistachio binge on monday. so i'm pretty happy with 2 pounds. i'm SO close to my first big goal. hopefully tomorrow or the next day. the last time i weighed what i weigh now was july, 2010.

oh, i can talk about the upcoming weekend. i am a board member for a scholarship pageant, which is saturday. friday night is set-up and then the board goes to my favorite local italian restaurant. i am skipping that and going to my friend's house instead. saturday though....they bring in awesome doughnuts and pastries for breakfast. plus on my way there i'm picking up a dozen cupcakes from THE cupcake place i mentioned on my mom's birthday. for lunch, wendy's sends a bunch of free food over. then it's my actual job to take all of the judges back to the favorite italian place for another free meal. then after the pageant, everyone goes to applebees. plus backstage is filled with cookies and candy all weekend. on sunday i am going to hang out with a friend, and i'm pretty sure food is supposed to be involved. i can dodge a lot of this. the thing is, i won't WANT to. does anyone else have a weird hangup when the food is free? i was never super privileged, but i never starved as a child either. however, for some reason i have the hardest time passing up a free meal. would it cross my mind ever to go through wendy's drive thru right now? not a chance. but when they bring in the free burgers and fries, i will really feel like i'm missing out. what is the deal? it's like a $4.00 meal. i have 10x that much money just in CHANGE in my car. it's not like i need to hoard free food.

i did arrange to go late to the event on saturday morning so i can go to zumba first. and on sunday i told my friend i have to be home by 4 for zumba. so i'm committed to the exercise, but having to say "no" to SIX different "special occasions" in ONE weekend is going to be tough. i could use all the support i can get.

just gotta keep thinking about how things will be if i can drop another 20 pounds. we're talking whole new wardrobe. squeal!