Perfect 10 - Week 3

It's Friday (well it's 12:25 so technically it's Saturday, but show a little grace please?), it's time for a Perfect 10 update. My three goals are to eat out less, lose weight, and work out.

• This week I ate out three times. My goal is once or less. Technically I think two of these times are ok and fall within the parameters of my initial post. Let me tell you about each of the times I ate out. The first time I ate out last was last Friday. I was supposed to meet a friend who I don't know too well (just met her once at hiking club) for dinner and to go to a comedy show. I told her I was going to be cutting it close to the starting time (7PM we thought) because I had a Zumba class that did not end until 6:30 and I would just meet her at the comedy venue. I made it to the comedy venue around 6:55 and it was COMPLETELY. EMPTY! I learned that the show didn't start until 8 PM. I called my friend and asked where she was. She responded "Oh we're close. In Pineville I think?" I googled where Pineville was to see how close she was, and realized she meant Pineville, MO, not Pineville, AR -- which is 57 minutes away. Um, how is that close?! Anyway, I told her there was no way I would be able to wait for another hour plus after the show to eat. I had just finished Zumba so I was hungry!! And now I was really somewhere in the annoyed to P.O.ed range because of this rudeness -- since when is an hour away a "little" late?! At this point in the story, I decided I had no choice but to go out (did not have time to go home, eat something, come back). I was annoyed because I was "wasting" my meal out eating by myself -- and I did feel like a bit of a loser chowing down by myself at a restaurant on Friday night. I really wanted to eat something unhealthy, and a lot of it. I get that way when I experience strong emotions -- and in this case I was so pissed. However, I did not use the opportunity to overeat. I went to the greek place and I ordered a side salad and a chicken gyros plate (just the meat) with rice. It is tasty. I ate half and saved the rest for the next day. I stayed well within my WW points for the day and made food choices I was really proud of. I have to say, the whole experience made me feel so excited, and like I really was changing my life rather than falling into the destructive bad habits of the past. I am sure I felt so much better about just making good choices than I ever would have been stuffing my face with something unhealthy. I ate out two more times that week -- once because I did not have time to go home for dinner (and could not figure out anything to pack that did not need refrigerated all day and/or nuked for dinner), and another time because - even though it should have been like the day before with the no time to go home for dinner thing, it ended up not being like that since I decided not to work out when I realized I had not had a workout-free day for over a week. By the time I realized this and made the decision, I was so excited/pumped to eat at Jimmy John's that I just decided to do it. Total for the week: 3 meals out. Two over my goal but technically only one illegal meal. Fail, but I feel better about it this week than last. I have to say that every time I eat out now, I wince a little on the inside because it usually costs $8-12 (I have been going to modestly-priced restaurants now). Did I really used to spend that kind of $$ everyday to eat out, and twice probably 3-4 times/week? Yes, yes I did. Oy.... I give my goal on this for the week a C+ again.
• My second goal was to get the WL train moving again. Slam dunk on this one: lost 4.4 lbs this week, although I still don't really get how I pulled such a big number. I did the same things I did the week before and didn't really step it up in any aspect of my program. Grade A+
• My third set of goals were exercise related. I wanted to attend three different classes weekly -- and I did: Zumba, Water Aerobics (and Aqua Abs for a bonus), and Body Sculpt. I think I have settled into a nice rhythm here. For the elliptical, I did not do anything on this goal and now (I think because I've been off the machine for so long -- I only did it twice this week because the gym is still packed and it is tough to get time on the machine) I don't care about this goal anymore. Not sure if I will continue to keep it or not. Grade A.

Previously unknown fact: My dad was a truck driver when I was a child (he just retired relatively recently), and when I was little one of my favorite things was to take short trips with him. One of the reasons was because I liked to spend time with him, but one of the other reasons was because when I traveled with him we would eat out and he would stop at McDonalds and get me hot chocolate. He told me when I was younger how he was sick of McDonalds and I just could not wrap my 6-year-old brain around that. I totally get it now, and the thought of McD's almost always revolts me -- but I do have to say that I love most of their breakfast sandwiches and now most days make a healthier version of the egg McMuffin. I use real ham (that I have honey glazed in my own delicious way -- not the deli variety), a 1 point super-high fiber English Muffin, a free-range egg I cook overeasy in one of those egg circles, and a wedge of laughing cow cheese -- preferably the garlic and herb variety. I usually have this with a side of cherry tomatoes.