Best Day in Awhile

Today is the best day I've had in at least Weeks. I'm down 2 sizes and I took a huge pile of clothes to the Cancer Society Discovery Shop to donate. I'd wanted to give them to fire disaster victims but no one would take them this time. It's such a weight off me, I even feel lighter.

I was 187 pounds this morning which is another weight. It's taken me 8 days to get from 189 to 187. I yoyo'd a little for a few days. I've faced the fact that it's going to be harder to lose the weight this time. I've been pretty good adhering to the diet and the schedule and the water...

A couple of days I didn't hop out of bed and get to breakfast. The last couple of mornings I got up at 6:30 and we'll see if this has any effect. I was having a hard time eating every 2-3 hours, sometimes it's been 4 and I skipped a few things like morning and afternoon snack a couple times. So ok, I wasn't perfect.

Anyway, now that the log jam is broken (187!!) I'm going to be good and get out of bed every morning.

The other thing is that I've decided to start doing the workouts. A VHS tape came with the diet and I tried to figure out how to convert it. Costco can't do it-copywrite law, and our VHS player is somewhere up in the attic. It would have taken some sort of cable, Weston said we'll hook it up to our DVD player to convert it. But I found the DVD on eBay for $1.99. Yay! 

My car is almost ready to leave the mechanic's shop. Tomorrow morning it's going for a front end alignment. Today we finished the brakes and got the new tie rod installed. I'll drive it over to the body shop on West End Road in Arcata after Dan installs the NOS gauges. (NOS = new old stock)

I'm posting a photo of the DVD so you can buy one on ebay for $1.99 if you'd like. It's only 18 min per day.

188 is Even Better!

After behaving all week I've started dropping again. I FEEL lighter. I was getting tired of steak steak and more steak but breakfast tasted really good today. Just the same ole steak and egg whites with spinach (and a little Heinz 57 sauce).

I could be making a mistake telling you about my 'cheats' because as I said before, you may get carried away and add my cheats to your own cheats. That isn't going to work...and if you get on the scale every morning, you will see if it works or not. If you're losing weight every day you either followed the plan to the letter, or you're getting away with something but that might not work tomorrow. So be careful!

This is my 2nd serious go-round with Michael Thurmond. The first time I look back on it fondly. I lost 64 lbs and 5 sizes. I wish I had stayed with it, and I kick myself almost daily.

This morning I tossed my cellphone in the wash and that's the end of it. So no new food pix, they're all gone. Luckily my new phone isn't expensive. 

Today we are looking at my poor car. From August 18th: 

I was going to go to Costco this morning, but first I had a quick stop at Kinko's. When I got to R St on 5th, there was a queue of 4 or 5 cars at the light, I shifted into 2nd gear, pumped my brake and I suddenly couldn't slow down, couldn't stop, I didn't have any brakes(!!) I looked at the space between the cars and the curb ( too narrow) but there was busy cross traffic, and I was going too fast--so I jumped the curb and headed for something that would stop me. In this case a concrete block hotel and a light post! The whole incident lasted less than 6 seconds. I'm fine, uninjured. 

So I'll concentrate on my car today. And more steak!

Breaking 190 is a BIG deal

When I weighed myself first thing this morning I was 189. Went back to get my camera and the scale said 188 so I fiddled with the scale a bit.

Sometimes I'll look at the scale and its not on zero to start with. I just tap it with my foot, it goes to zero then we can go.

Back on Track

This morning I skipped 192 and landed on 191. It was my reward for following the plan perfectly. I could say for a change. Because all this month, so far I was testing the limits. I've had Calzone, I skipped more than one snack one day, I didn't drink enough water, I made excuses about being too busy. I was a very bad girl.

Until I noticed the scale staying on 193 for 4 days in a row.

That was my wake-up call. I'm now resolved to do this Right now, no matter how painful I'm thinking this is in the moment. I have days when I'm more likely to feel agrieved. Finding parts for my car has been a challenge and getting wrong parts and having to pay $15 to return them had me particularly in a little huff yesterday but I stuck with the plan, perfectly. Can I have a star on the calendar, please?

When the plan calls for 3 oz steak and two egg whites, I throw a huge handful of spinach in the pan first. Let it wilt, add the egg whites and let set before turning. They'll be fluffier.

Once Again

I'm going to repeat myself often, get used to it 😊

I have to remind you to step on the scale every day. It's going to keep you honest. The scale will poke you every time you think you can get away with variations-and sometimes you can.

Last week I had dinner with Rhett and ate Calzone. The next morning, my scale said that was ok. The next night I had Calzone again and the following morning I had gained a pound! This is why weighing every day is essential.

I'm still at 193 today, which means I have a day ahead of adhearing perfectly to the Michael Thurmond plan. No ifs ands or buts...

WhooHoo 192!

Sorry, I've been super busy trying to find parts for my car and being on hold 3X yesterday for a total of 137 minutes took a big chunk outta my day. 

I've reached 192 lbs, so that's 14 lbs down in 24 days. I keep having to remind myself the starting date was August 16th. So if some of my posts don't add up-Sorry! I don't have any new recipes to report but I did mix up 1/2 cup of rice with chicken and skinny creamed spinach. Delicious!

I've been buying and making things for Rhett that I can't eat so he doesn't feel Deprived. There's almost always Costco chocolate chip cookies in the house for his work lunches and other times. I made cottage cheese bread for him today. The recipe came with my bread machine but I switched dill for the chives and added parmesan cheese and garlic. The smell was fabulous of course.

Here are a few photos from the last couple of days:

This was my breakfast this morning: A large handful of wilted spinach with 2 scrambled eggwhites and 3 oz steak.

I was running all over the place and didn't take steak out of the freezer. I stopped by the Grocery Outlet and picked up 2 pkgs. of steak $5.99 each.

For one of my snacks today I made 3 oz steak and a couple handfuls of spinach with a heaping Tablespoon of Creme Fraiche. It didn't need flax milk, this tasted terrific with fresh nutmeg and cracked pepper.

Am I Busted?

I'm limping along with my tablet this morning. My laptop needed to go into the shop until Monday. Usually, I start a post I see what it looks like, I log on with another email account to see what readers see, log back on, edit.  Writing today with an onscreen keyboard over what I am typing is just nuts. It's due to being too lazy to get out from under the covers and go in the next room where I have a desktop computer. After trying to edit on this thing I see it's impossible to finish without the desktop computer.

I have to confess that gaining a pound 2 days ago was really hard on me. Not just for myself but because I have witnesses this time, everything is magnified.

In the past, a couple of setbacks would have made me quit. Again. But this time is definitely different. I've publicly committed to lose weight and now I'm stuck. But in a good way. We need each other to get over the humps. I'm going to require a few high 5s and in return I will be there to give you, my readers and friends a few high 5s when you'll inevitably need one too.

When I weighed myself this morning, another pound had returned and in my mind there was only blame for thinking my cheats were okie dokie when having so many of them is obviously Not okie dokie. I can give up salad dressing, just not marinade. Besides, it burns off when I grill the steak, right? I can go back to broccoli because that worked. I'm wondering if I'll ever see skinny creamed spinach again?

My husband reminded me our scale is sensitive to changes in humidity.

Let me ponder that. Ok, then in a day or two when the scale changes again, will I have lost 5 lbs? We'll have to wait and see. For now I'm Busted. I'm keeping my shot of Bailey's in my coffee. But no other cheats today and no salads with dressing, no skinny creamed kale. Just broccoli. I can do this.

Put plastic wrap on the cookie sheet, so they won't stick. I get a big package of TriTip from Costco.

Cut them larger than 3 oz because they will lose weight when cooked.

Ready for the freezer, then put the frozen blocks of meat in a ziploc bag.