My Five Holiday Survival Tips......NOT

With the Thanksgiving holiday behind us I would like to share my 5 tips on how I survived the holiday without gaining weight.......ha! fooled you!  I am totally kidding since yes, I did survive, but no I did not come through unscathed.  In fact I ended up GAINING 4 pounds!  I really should be happy that it was only 4 as I put aside my no dessert/extra sugar pledge and splurged on Thanksgiving with a piece of pecan pie (my absolute favorite, go figure since it is probably the most sugar-laden pie there is) and a small slice of a decadent chocolate cheesecake my cousin made.

I should backtrack a little.  I found myself pretty much alone for 7 days because of the Wisconsin gun deer hunt season that my hubby and darling daughter drive 4 hours to the western part of the state to participate in. By choice I didn't plan much for myself to do those days.  I had a lay-off from work that whole week and I wanted to regroup and recharge my batteries after some stress filled weeks.  Time to indulge in my favorite pastime-reading! So off to the library I went for my fill of feel-good and self help books.  I also started reading the Fifty Shades Of Gray series for a little "light" reading.

In the end I figure I had way too much free time by myself especially at night because I became victim to the 5 gallon pain of ice cream I had in the house for my family.  Up until then the ice cream did not bother me one bit, but I think being alone with my demons took over my sane mind and the end result? Insanity!!

My only saving grace in all this was the fact that for most of my time off it was gorgeous outside and I did lots of walking until the Friday after Thanksgiving when it turned cold.

So my sad holiday tale ends with an extra 4 pounds, and I wish if the only reason would be the holiday I could live with that.  My struggle is way more than that and I work everyday to push those old demons back down to the basement where they belong.  We all have to remember that our past does not define us today!

Enough of the glass half empty stuff, because I am not that person in reality!  This is a new week and I do feel very good.  Even though I had an unexpected day off today I am making the best of it.  I already got a nice walk in today, am eating right, and I am doing some I really enjoy to do by writing.  So to my extra 4 pounds I say "off with you" so I can feel great in my skinny dress for Christmas!

The Plateau Sets In but Wait.....

Hummmmm...heavy sigh!!  I have not posted in awhile on purpose.  Yes, I hit the fearful plateau.  For two weeks I struggled with the scale pretty much staying the same,  then it slowly began to creep up.  This called for drastic measures.
 I pretty much dealt very well with the no dessert pledge, but I began to eat larger portion sizes than I should have and I let my exercise routine slack a little too.  What I was left with was a 6 pound gain and a big self defeated attitude.  Here I was accomplishing something I had little strength to do before (the sugar thing) but I just couldn't seem to loose anymore weight.  I knew I needed to up the anti or I was not gonna get to my goal.
So almost two weeks ago I went back at it full force with a stricter eating regimen, a diet cleanse that has me eating just protein and veggies at meals and two fruits along with my amino acids. No wine!(gasp), but I have been allowing myself one square of dark chocolate after 2 of my meals. Plus I make sure that I am getting at least 30 minutes of exercise in daily and I have begun doing some toning to get the flabbiness down.
Eureka!  I have again jump started my weight loss and am back on the right track!  As of this morning, I am back down to my 157 and am working on just 7 more pounds!
The best thing that happened this week was I got my health assessment back and I was elated to see my total cholesterol went from 240 down to 204.  This was done only 4 weeks after I gave up all that sugar!!  I am now on 8 weeks so I may wait awhile and have it retested.  Actually my weight was okay, I just need to work on the flabbiness.  I am proof positive that a small lifestyle change can really do wonders.  Do I miss the sugar?  at times, yes, but I made it through Halloween when there were lots of tempting treats at work!  I imagine the upcoming holidays will be the ultimate test.  Thanksgiving is coming up and my favorite pie-pecan!!  I will take it as it comes.  They say it takes like what 26 days to break a habit?  I am way past that now and my confidence grows a little each day.