Tuesday July 3rd

Welcome to Tuesday July 3rd. Today the scale said 211lbs.

Not the 2lb loss I was hoping for this week - but it's not Wednesday yet.

This weekend I was up at the cottage with friends and family. We had a big family meal with 23 guests on Saturday night. I did "okay" with food this weekend. I ate too much on Saturday though! I brought a cucumber and some yellow pepper to cut up so if there were dips, salsa I could taste but not get into the crackers. I didn't resist the Brie cheese though.

Overall, packing my lunch and breakfasts was a good idea. Made sure I had portion control in place for the entire weekend. Made it easier for me at dinner to make better choices as well.

I resisted chocolate birthday cake, warm melt in your mouth white buns with butter, I resisted home made chocolate chip cookies and those store bought Belgium cookies. I tasted the diet ice cream just to realize it has 120-140 calories per quarter cup - that's a lot of calories - and the fat content was not lower and it had potato starch in it!! Potato starch will metabolize onto one's hips very fast! Not a healthy choice in the end. After reading the ingredients I discovered diet ice cream means "no sugar" - it sure does not mean lower calories and better for your health - so I'll stay away from the ice cream. Another sneaky food was peanuts in the shell (unsalted). They are 330 calories per 1/3 cup. Another calorie buster if your not paying attention to portions. So after Sunday I avoided the peanuts too.

Overall I did well - I could have done better, I could have done much worse!! So I'll balance it off to "okay".

I kept telling myself that I don't have to celebrate with food. That it is the people I'm here for. When the chocolate cake came out for someone's birthday - I sang happy birthday then ran away - out of the cottage and to the great outdoors so I could not be tempted in any way.

I kept looking at the food this weekend and thinking about the summer. I would be easy to get caught up with "celebrations" - that's what happened to me last summer. Every weekend in the summer there is a reason to celebrate with food - whether it be guests at a cottage, a party, a shower, going out to dinner with friends, back yard BBQ's - each week there is some "special" event that is designed to derail a person who is eating well. My goal is to keep saying "no" - enjoy the company - but not the food! The gratification of the food now seems wonderful - but the future impact of eating is devastating when I look in the meal, step on the scale. In the end the instant gratification is not worth the health risk tomorrow. (at least that's what I keep preaching to myself to help me through the chocolate cake moments!)

Namaste

B.