Week 1, Phase 2: Not the Best

Stood on the scale this morning. No loss this week. On the bright side, no gain, either. I'm trying not to get too hung up on the number on the scale. My abs are looking more defined than ever, so I know my body is still progressing. But it sucks to not see that number go down when I know I still have fat to lose if I'm going to achieve my goal of a figure body. I want to lose 4.5 more lbs to hit 115. That sounds so crazy-- 115! I haven't weighed that little since high school, but now that I've hit 119.5, it seems so reachable.

I'm struggling with Phase 2 of my eating program. Instead of getting all my complex carbs with breakfast, they're now spread throughout the day. I should be excited about this, but it's not so easy. Instead of getting my nice, hefty filling bowl of oatmeal every morning, I get a bite of bread here, a pita chip there. It's just enough to get me wanting more, but then bam, hit my limit. No carbs for you! (you gotta say it like the Soup Nazi) It's a torturous tease.

Needless to say, I cheated at least once every day this week. By cheating, I mean I ate a handful of almonds when it wasn't a designated meal time and doubled my fat allotment. Or I ate too much fruit or ate it too late in the day. I also made the mistake of buying oranges at Costco-- they looked so good. But apparently oranges are super high on the carb list, esp. in the quantity at which I ingest them. Considering that my kids are favoring bananas (and mini-marshmallows, let's be honest) over oranges, and the hubby says they're "too complicated" (because they require slicing or peeling and they're juicy and drippy-- wahh), I'm the only one in the house who'll eat them. And I have tons left-- blasted buying in bulk. I tried bringing them to a family birthday party, sliced and ready for enjoyment. The hubby said no one would eat them. "Why not?" "Because they're drippy." "So's watermelon. Everyone eats watermelon." "I don't. Too drippy."

I brought them to the party anyway.

I was the only one who ate them.  And bam. Doubled my fruit carb allotment AND broke the "no fruits after meal 2" rule.

Those were the not-so-naughty cheats. Then there were the naughty cheats. And yes, I'm confessing because it is you, my 5 followers, who keep me accountable. Naughty cheat #1 came on Thursday, because that was my official cheat meal day. Which is another part of phase 2 that is difficult; I'd rather keep my cheat meal on the weekend, but now it's every 4 days, which means it's always changing and it typically falls during the week, when I don't really need a cheat. But back to Thursday . . . I needed to find some birthday and Mother's Day gifts, so I went to my friend's boutique store. She had free miniature gourmet cupcakes. They were adorable, and so teeny. Surely one would be okay, since it WAS my cheat meal day. I tried the lemon one. Yum. I continued shopping. Then I wondered what the coconut one tasted like. I absolutely adore coconut. One more teensy-weensy cupcake couldn't hurt too much, right? So, I casually sidled up to the cupcake table. I slowly, daintily savored the coconut cupcake. Mmmmm. I figured Thursday WAS my cardio day, and I had run 4 miles that morning in just 32 minutes. Surely I deserved one more cupcake; I had to taste the chocolate-chocolate chip one. Yes, people, I ate all 3 flavors!

Naughty cheat #2 & 3 I blame entirely on the social situation in which I was placed. Friday night, our lovely neighbors invited us over for a bbq dinner and s'mores. I did just dandy with dinner-- chicken breast, one slice of watermelon, and lots of salad, no dressing. Who ever thought plain salad greens could taste so good? But they really do now! I knew the s'mores would be a temptation. I have a thing for fire-tanned marshmallows . . . I meant to just allow myself one marshmallow. But when Kelly handed me her half-eaten s'more, marshmallow spilling out the sides (they made them with striped fudge cookies instead of Hershey's bars and graham crackers), I couldn't let it go to waste.

Saturday night was a big family birthday celebration. Again, I survived the finger foods for the most part, though I did have a few tortilla chips with my sis-in-law's homemade mango-avocado salsa. But then out came the Costco cake, ice cream, and drum roll . . . BYU Creamery mint-chocolate brownies. I had already told myself I wouldn't get cake, I'd just have one bite of whatever my youngest left on her plate. Let's just say, it was one very large bite. Even if I could have resisted cake, I could not resist tasting the brownies.

It was a rough weekend, folks . . . and so now we see why the number on my scale did not budge this week. This week when I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my little girl, I realized I was the caterpillar. All week, he ate fruits and veggies. And then the weekend came, and he ate his way through all sorts of goodies until he had a stomachache. Then he ate through one green leaf, and felt much better. Today is my green leaf day. I'm debating on if I should continue with phase 2 as is & just try harder, or if I need to make some adjustments so that I'm not caving in so easily to cheats. I did much better with 6 meals than 5, and much better with all my complex carbs in the morning. Today I'm feeling more like the big, fat caterpillar instead of the be-a-u-tiful butterfly. Maybe I need two weeks in a cocoon!

On a positive note, my re-vamped strength training program is going well. My triceps and abs were especially feeling it this week. I need to figure out how to isolate my glutes more-- it's so hard for me to get them sore. I can squat and lunge all day, and I'm still not sore the next day. I tried to lay off the inner thighs, but I was craving running this week. I got in 4 miles on Thursday, 3 on Saturday, plus elliptical since the stairmill was occupied, and I can tell the running is bulking my adductors. How do I get my running fix and keep my inner thighs slim at the same time? That is the question. I welcome advice.

And encouragement. Keep it comin'-- as you can tell, I need all I can get! This weekend, I plan to go watch an NGA Figure & Bodybuilding competition with my trainer. I figure this will either give me the push I need to work harder, or let me know that I'm in way over my head!

This week, I'm starting some coaching of my own-- gonna help my class participants and anyone interested to lose some body fat in the month of May. This should also help me do better this week, because I hate not practicing what I preach! We can do this, we can do this, we can do this . . .