The Importance or Writing Things Down!

I was so thrilled with my 19.2 weight loss that even though I have about 10 more pounds to go, I stopped writing everything down. I figured I was so far on my way and felt terrific that it wasn't necessary to write down what I was doing. While writing everything down I was still eating everything I wanted to eat, I just kept track of it. Anything I really craved or desired, or even if I had a boost your metabolism day or special dinner or birthday. No matter what it was and no matter how much I happily ate, I wrote it all down.

So I didn't think I needed to do that anymore. And looking back I went through Costco and at double of all the samples. (I was hungry and it was a Friday so they had twice as many samples as they do on a Monday or Tuesday.) That alone was probably 20 points or 1,000 calories. You think I'm joking but a lot of the Costco samples are super fattening. (they're not sampling raspberries folks!) Then my girls wanted See's candy. I've had See's candy the entire time I've been on this diet. Usually I just have one piece and it is satisfying and delicious. I haven't wished I could have more. But in this case, my kids ordered what they wanted, I got the free sample and ordered what I wanted. Melissa Madeline didn't like her free sample so I ate hers. So suddenly I'm eating 6 pieces of See's candy instead of one. Again, not the end of the world, and certainly not the one reason I gained weight but I didn't even really want the candy. I wasn't even craving it. I was eating it because it was there and eating it just to eat it. Just to put something in my mouth.

So then at the end of that week of losing the 19.2 pounds, I tore my rotator cuff. So not only was my movement very restricted but I was in pain and I felt sorry for myself and I had four birthday parties to go to and I ate like crazy at all of them. Ate cake and dessert and tons of the snack food that was out, plus eating extra meals. Then because it was vacation I ate sugar corn pops and hot dogs and that was all just a snack before I ate dinner and cake. And then I go back to lay down! Not the best combo. Plus, I had wine because I usually have wine when celebrating with friends and wine always makes me want to eat more. I couldn't exercise because even in walking you need to swing your arm and my shoulder hurt too much to walk except slowly. So I was only walking to get where I needed to go and not for any kind of exercise. Only in this last week, when I had the anti-inflamatory medicine was I able to go on a walk with my hand in my pocket so I wouldn't swing my arm.

So the bottom lines is that I've gained 3.8 pounds. I'm still down 15 pounds so I'm fine. I'm not mad at myself or regret eating the food. It was kind of an interesting experiment. In mean, what if I had still lost weight doing all of that. It was have been a fun discovery. But since that experiment didn't work I'm going back to writing things down and entering them in my computer. (I could only use the mouse with my left hand and can only type with keyboard in my lap, so that also hindered me from entering things on my computer. And until these last few days, writing was a bit of a challenge too.)

So I'm back on track with food journaling. And if it seems tedious or like something you don't want to do think of it as writing a story about all the delicious food you are going to eat. I had the best handmade cheese at this party on Saturday night and these really delicious mushrooms and corn. To write it down just makes me remember how delicious it was and how much I enjoyed it. It is a wonderful memory! And even the lemon cake with the lemon icing that my mom made yesterday that I could not stop eating was so delicious so it is a nice memory to write that down. (Good thing there were other people at the party or I think I would have eaten the entire lemon cake by myself!) But when I write about the samples at Costco, that is not a lovely story or happy food memory. That was just eating because it was there. I would have been better off just buying a container of blueberries and eating them as I walked around the store. Or stopping to eat a real and yummy lunch before I went in. So think of the beautiful and delicious food and make sure you are enjoying it so that you will want to write about it. And if it isn't worth writing about it isn't really worth eating.

Today I'm picking up Jason's sister at the airport with her soon to be 3 year old Benjamin. The girls are SO EXCITED to see him they couldn't even sleep last night. We're going to Disneyland for Benjamin's 3rd birthday. And you can bet I'll be having Fried Chicken and a hand dipped Corn Dog when were there. And I'll write it down and enjoy every bite! (And if anyone needs to know where the Corn Dogs moved to because of construction the new location is over in the farm area at Disney California.)

Eat a good story! Maili