The Yoyo Pound

I know, I haven't posted a blog in a while and many of you have been asking when the next one is coming. So here it is.  I can sum up the last 3 weeks in pretty much one sentence.  Up a pound, down a pound, up a pound and a half, down a half pound, up a half pound, down a pound. Let's see, where does that put me?  I believe I'm still up, but never do I allow myself to be up more than 2 pounds above my goal weight. Through my yoyo weeks, I have discovered something very important within this whole process.  It takes one weekend to gain a pound and about 5-7 days to loose a pound.  Anyone else see a problem here besides me?


This is a very tough time of year. Lots of goodies, parties, and stress. Put them all together and voilà, you have just gained yourself about 5 extra pounds. So what do you do? Well you have a plan, that part is key.  Rachel and I have devised a plan for me so that each day it is minimal effort to form and follow the plan. We have created menus for each day of the week. Breakfast is pretty much the same everyday for me and I'm okay with that.  Lunch varies depending on what dinner is going to be. We try to stay away from both lunch and dinner having too many carbs. Then we have a "pool" of snacks that are thrown in there.  So if you create 10 of these meals you can just keep rotating them every other week. The plans for the day include everything you will have to eat that day - breakfast, lunch, dinner and all snacks. It's quite helpful in many ways. First, you know what you are going to have for dinner every day of the week (I exclude weekends from this system - hence the weight gain on the weekends, we'll talk about that later...). Second, you know exactly what you need to get at the grocery store for that week - the shopping list is done. And third, you don't ever have to decide what to eat, just look at what's next on the list. Of course, you have some flexibity in there too, its not written in stone, but it is a good base.  


I do have to admit, although we have the system pretty much automated, I still do like checking in with Rachel daily about the plan, somehow it makes me feel not so alone in the process even though I know Rachel's not following the plan with me - she has her own plan, but somehow if we talk about it, I feel like she is following it with me. That is the nice part about having a personal trainer, you're not alone. Excercise and weight loss are just easier when you have someone to go through it with. Its like working out with a buddy, cardio goes so much faster when you have someone right next to you doing it with you, not to mention the fact that just having a buddy may have gotten you down to the gym in the first place to do the cardio.


So the weekdays usually go okay, most of the time...The weekends are a different story.  I don't like to cook on the weekends so that leads to either going out to dinner, getting takeout or just having quick - not so healthy - meals.  This apparently is where the extra calories are sneaking in. But its still hard for me to believe that 3500 extra calories are sneaking in to create that extra pound. It just doesn't seem possible.  Granted, I don't keep track of my calories quite as closely on the weekends, but I don't go crazy either. Unfortunately, the scale doesn't lie.  There is no magical fix, I just have to keep better track of what I am eating on the weekends, monitor my weight, and perhaps devise a better weekend plan.


I hope as the new year approaches, all of you who have said, "I really need to loose weight", or "I need to start exercising" are able to find the time, ambition and desire to do that for yourself.  Actually, if you just find the ambition and desire, you will find the time. And once you start, it's addictive because it changes your life in a way that you will never want to go back to where you were. I am probably in the best shape I've been in since high school and I feel fantastic. But it is a lot of work, every day.

I wish all of you a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. May your dreams be many, your wishes be fulfilled, your hearts be happy and your food be healthy - after all, you are what you eat - which in my case would make me a chocolate covered almond!


Merry Christmas!


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"Slippery-Slope" Territory

Well I'm back on my "new" closely watched maintenance plan per my recent "slippery-slope" episode. That's what Rachel calls it when you go into maintenance mode, "slippery-slope territory", and combine that with the holidays coming up - it can be a recipe for disaster if you're not careful.  

Rachel keeps close tabs on me these days which I have to say does keep me marching in the right direction. Every day we talk about food and what I will be consuming that day. Now mind you, these are not general conversations about food, they are pretty specific.  "What did you have for breakfast, What did you have for a snack, What will you be having for lunch?", and so on. And if she doesn't like my answers, she modifies it. We often plan out the day's meals in the morning, calories and all. Now you might think this is a little over the top, but for me, it's really helpful. I just look at what's on the list next and eat it - usually keeps me on target.  This is not to say that I never vary from the plan, because believe me, I do. Sometimes, after we've planned out an entire day's food, Rachel will text me and ask how lunch or snack was and low and behold, I've already varied from the plan. Within a few minutes, the phone rings with the voice on the other end saying, "It's only been an hour, how could you have varied from the plan already???" I don't know how it happens, it just does.

So yes, planning food for me is helpful because most of the time I do pretty much stay on target. It's kind of like having your meals planned out for the week. It's so much easier when you already know what you are going to have and don't really have to think about it.  It's the same concept but instead of week by week, it's day by day, meal by meal. Like I said in my last blog, I'm still in the "I've reached my goal - time to celebrate" mode so food planning is a very necessary part of my life right now.

This brings me back to my last blog, maintenance really is hard, way harder than I thought it would be. It makes me think about what my my father always said to us growing up whenever we said something was hard, "Nobody said it was going to be easy, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it." He had alot of profound words of wisdom for us during our formative years. And interestingly, I find myself repeating them to my own children now. But I guess it is true, people often don't do things or quit things because they are hard. But it's conquering those "hard" things in life that give us the most satisfaction. So I march forward hoping that some day this all will become "easy" and just second nature. I don't know if it ever will, but I hope it does, because it is hard!


So I have an unfortunate story to share with you. The other night I decided I was going to make these "healthy" mini muffins that I like (see the picture to the left, you'll see shortly why they look that way). They actually are relatively healthy as chocolate treats go (whole wheat flour, egg whites only etc.) and pretty low in calories. We recently finished a major kitchen renovation (2 months without a kitchen) so I've been wanting to bake some things that I haven't had for a long time. I mixed up the batter, put it in the mini cupcake tins, and baked them in my new convection oven. Ahhh... what could be better than to bake a chocolate dessert in your brand new kitchen! I checked the muffins often, since I am still getting used to the new oven, and finally decided they were done. First pan comes out, no problem, they look perfect! And then it happened...I pulled the second pan out and as I lifted the tray out of the oven I hit the edge of it on a bit of an overhang where all the control buttons are. The tray falls to the floor and lands upside down! And there, splattered on my new floor are my precious, healthy, relatively low calorie, chocolate mini muffins. As I stood there looking at those muffins splattered all over the floor I thought to myself "5 second rule" (which according to Myth Busters, is actually more like a 60 second rule).  Normally, I would have scooped them right up and put them directly into my mouth. Unfortunately, like I said, the kitchen is really newly renovated to the point where the new wood floor had not been vacuumed or mopped thoroughly yet. So I did scoop those chocolate mini muffins off the floor and sadly threw them into the garbage. It wasn't the fact that I had to clean every little crevice between the floor boards where the chocolate managed to seep into that made me so sad, it was the fact that I had to throw chocolate away! It can be a cruel world out there sometimes, but as we all know, life is not fair.

And I thought losing weight was hard...

"Now that you're at a good weight, its time to maintain." - Aahhh, the words I've been waiting to hear for a long time. It was one of the thoughts that kept me going during my weight loss, "just get to the weight you want, then it will be smooth sailing to just maintain." Unfortunately, how we often imagine things to be, and how they actually are, can be very different.

Throughout your whole weight loss you watched what you ate and you finally reached your goal, so it only seems natural that it would be time to splurge a bit, doesn't it? You start to eat all those things you couldn't have for so long, and they are good! And then you get on the scale and it starts to read maybe a pound higher. No big deal, it's just a pound. No eating changes necessary for a pound as far as I'm concerned. Next week you hop on the scale, another pound up, hmmm... might want to start addressing this. After all, you did just throw out all your "fat" clothes (yes, you did!) and just supplied yourself with a nice new wardrobe that you want to continue to be able to wear. So you call your personal trainer (or training buddy) and tell them that perhaps you may have splurged just a tad too much and maybe it would be a good idea to revisit the "maintenance program". Now in my case, Rachel is all over this, and immediately puts me back on "the plan" - checking calories, food plans for the week, weighins - the works. As she said to me, "You are not gaining this weight back on on my watch." And so the splurging party is over and the "maintenance plan" gets put into place...for real.

But somehow it just doesn't seem fair. You made it, you reached your goal and there should be a big prize at the end because it was alot of work! And I guess there is a big prize to some extent. You get to buy new clothes in sizes you never thought you would see yourself in and you get compliments from people on how good you look. It's all good. But like all great accomplishments, the excitement wears off, from yourself and people around you. You don't get the satisfaction of stepping on that scale and seeing the numbers go down anymore. There isn't that constant encourgement anymore from people saying, "Wow, another pound, good job, you look great" or seeing your number change on the "Pounds Lost" board at the gym. You'd be surprised how much those seemingly small things can motivate someone. But once you reach your goal weight you don't really feel like you are accomplishing anything anymore, it's just maintenance. "Hey everyone, guess what? I maintained my weight this week! Woo-hoo!" It's just not the same...

So what does it all mean? I'm not really sure. But I do know that the work is not over once you hit your goal weight and that is a very important thing to remember. It is not a 3 month, 6 month, or year commitment - it is a lifetime commitment. Know that going in, and know that you will probably always need some type of support to get you through bumps you will face - because you will face bumps.

SOS - Dunkin Donuts Again...

It was a cold, rainy morning. I had just sat down at my desk at work, had my warm cup of coffee, and was thinking about a warm cinnamon roll...Yummm. So I mentioned to my co-worker how much I wanted a cinnamon roll and she agreed! Problem number 1 - it's never good when you throw an idea out there like that and someone else agrees with you...

So here we were, contemplating first where we could get a cinnamon roll, and second, if we couldn't find one, what would be a good substitiute. Dunkin Donuts came to mind. We've both been working out and losing weight so we knew this was probably not a smart choice but we still wanted it. But before one of us so readily hopped in the car, I heard a voice in my head tell me to do two things. First, text Rachel (my personal trainer, and I believe she was the voice in my head) to see if she had any "thoughts" on the subject - which I knew she would. And second, I decided I would go onto the Dunkin Donuts website to see exactly what they had that was similar to a cinnamon roll that might be good. That was a good move because in doing so, I navigated my way to the nutrition page, and there they were, the calorie count of every yummy tasting treat they had. After browsing through there for a while and seeing the calorie count of each item, we both decided it just wasn't worth the calories. I figured I would save those calories for a different time when I was out with a friend and we wanted to stop for a treat. And just about that time, I received a call from Rachel that she sensed I was having a "SOS - Dunkin Donuts" moment. We received the reassurance we needed that going forward with the cinnamon roll craving was not the best idea.

I wish I could eat all those yummy things everytime I thought about them, but the reality is you can't if you want to loose weight or even maintain your weight. If I had just said to myself, "it's just one ______" everytime I wanted a treat, I wouldn't have lost the weight that I did. You do have to pick and choose when you are going to have those things, so I choose to have them on special occasions or when I'm out with friends. But don't get me wrong, I still do have chocolate every day!

Wow! Big Pants

The other day I went for my Saturday morning workout at the gym in Chester. I came home and was ready to start my chores for the day. It was a cool day so it was time to pull out the long pants. I have 2 pairs of favorite jeans. I don't know how many years I've had them, but it has been a while. They are worn out in all the right spots (and some of the wrong spots) - so soft and so comfortable.

Now I knew when I went to put my favorite "doing chores" jeans on, they would be a bit large because I had lost some weight - but I figured I could just put on a belt and enjoy the comfort of my favorite jeans I hadn't seen since before summer. So I proceeded to dig them out of the closet and put them on...it didn't take long before I realized a belt was not going to help. Not only were they too big in the waist, they were just too big everywhere! You know how little kids in diapers have that "diaper look" to them, that's what I looked like. For a brief moment I did think to myself, "I'm just kicking around the house, maybe I'll just wear them." But then I thought, "You just lost a lot of weight and now you're going to wear 'diaper pants'?? What are you thinking?" So out came every pair of pants I had in the closet. I tried them all on and each time, the same result, some worse than others but all basically unwearable. I do have one pair of jeans that pretty much fit (I had bought them early in the summer). That was it, one pair.

Most woman would probably be happy with the prospect of having to go shopping because they have nothing to wear. I however, am not like most women in that category. I do not like shopping for clothes but it's going to have to be done because one can not go around town in 'diaper pants.' It's just not right.

But here is a cool thing. I had bought a few pairs of pants from Eddie Bauer back in June. I only wore them a few times before summer finally set in. I went to put those pants on last week and they didn't fit either. They weren't horribly big but about a size too big. Since I had barely worn them and spent a fair amount of money on them I decided to contact Eddie Bauer and tell them my story. Do you know what they said, "Send them back and tell us what size you want. If we don't carry them any more, we'll refund your money." Eddie Bauer is awesome!

Despite the fact that I have basically made my wardrobe unwearable (mind you, it wasn't much of a wardrobe to begin with), I do love going to the gym - losing the weight and building the muscle. It's fun go to class and see my friends and people that have become my "gym" friends. Rachel Ryans Fitness in a very unique place, everyone there is so supportive of everyone else. Rachel herself is so 'in tune' with the needs of each person. It make me think of the bar "Cheers" - where everyone knows your name, but of course at Cheers they're just sitting around drinking beer - a little different than what happens at the gym, but everyone does know your name there.

Body vs. Mind

I've noticed something happening within myself. My mind and my body are on two different pages. And yes, this will shock all of you, but it surfaces when chocolate is involved.

I have cut down considerably on the amount of sweets in general that I eat. I really don't have much processed sugar at all any more. And "they", whoever "they" are (I'm assuming its experts in the field), say that once you cut down on your sugar intake, your body will not crave sugar as much. So the more you eat sugar, the more your body wants it, and the less you eat sugar, the less your body wants it. I have found this to be true most of the time except when it comes to a decadent chocolate dessert - my mind still wants it regardless of how my body feels. And so the battle begins, who will win? The body or the mind?

The other night I went out with some friends. They had a drink and a bite to eat. Since I had already eaten dinner, I chose to treat myself to a special chocolate dessert. There were a few good choices, including a big chocolate cake, but I finally settled on the chocolate mousse - thinking it was a better choice as far as portion size. I started eating the chocolate mousse, which was delicious, but then about half way through, my body started "talking" to me. It was saying "enough sugar", you know that feeling you get when you've had too much sugar, that's how I started to feel. But there were my eyes looking at about half of the chocolate mousse still in the dish and my brain said, "you can't waste that chocolate mousse, it's too precious, how often do you get to eat chocolate mousse?" Guess who won????

It wasn't my body (who was clearly speaking to me), it was my mind. Now what I probably should have done was excuse myself to the ladies room and called Rachel - my personal trainer/nutrition coach - and asked for a little help. She probably would have told me to ask for a little dish to take the rest home. I probably would have said there's not enough left to take home, I should just eat it. Rachel would have said it doesn't matter, take it home anyway and then you are not denying yourself of it or "wasting" it, you can have it later. And this advice probably would have worked, because it usually does work out when I call her. But none of that happened. I never called/texted her because my struggle wasn't with over-indulging on my calories (I was within my calorie count for the day), it was a struggle between what my body wanted and what my mind wanted. This was something new.

The point I am trying to make is having support and calling on that support when you need it is really key when trying to lose weight. Looking back, I should have made a quick phone call to Rachel, but since this was such a "new" struggle I was going through, it really didn't occur to me (or perhaps my mind didn't want to hear what she was going to say). So find someone you can call when you are trying to lose weight and get into a fitness routine. Find someone who will push you in the right direction even if that's not what you want to hear at the moment. It can be a friend, a personal trainer, a workout buddy, anyone who you think will keep you on the right track and tell you what you need to hear, which is not necessarily what you want to hear.

Yes, I ate the rest of that mousse even though I was "sugared out". I know, you're probably thinking this is not a good weight loss story because "the bad guys" won, and it's true they did. But I share this story for two reasons.

One, is because weight loss is full of triumphs and tribulations, steps forward and steps backward, struggles between body and mind, a constant "discovery" process. It is a learning game in so many different ways. So chalk up those setbacks to a learning experience and maybe next time the outcome will be different. I know next time I'm having a battle between the body and the mind, I will call Rachel because I have discovered something new about myself.

The other reason I share this with you is to show you the power of the mind. My mind overruled my body - the physical symptoms I was feeling - that's pretty amazing. If we can channel our mind in the right direction, we are capable of amazing things.

Interesting Thing...

As you all know, I have changed how and what I eat quite a bit. And you might be wondering how this all works with preparing meals for the family because the last thing you want to do is prepare two meals for the family. So I am going to tell you what I have done. As far as dinner goes, what I usually do is prepare a normal meal - meat, vegetable, and some sort of starch. Initially, when I was trying to get down to my goal weight, I would just skip the starch part of the meal for myself, but I now have added it back in at a smaller portion. I eat lots of vegetables and salad, and I am also a little more picky about the kind of meat I choose. We eat a lot of chicken, fish and pork - I try to stay away from the fatty meats. On rare occasions, I will make myself something different than the rest of the family, but for the most part, we all have the same thing, I just change my portions of each food group. I know, this isn't very interesting - I haven't gotten to the interesting part yet...

We still do Subway when things are a little tight time-wise in the evening. We still do pizza usually once on the weekend. However, the kids get what they want for pizza and I get my own pizza. I usually have veggies, no sauce, no mozzarella, sometimes ricotta and then Parmesan cheese. You might think it's a little weird with no sauce or mozzarella but it's actually really good. It's not greasy or soggy which I love. There's nothing worse than opening up that pizza box and seeing all the grease on the bottom of the box or worse yet, soggy dough from all the watery sauce. I have ordered this pizza when out with a group of friends and at first they look at you like you are a little crazy, but when they try it, they like it!

Now here's an interesting thing that has happen with breakfast - yes, I'm finally getting to the interesting part. I was buying my kids the "sugar cereals", Lucky Charms (a favorite), Cinnamon Toast Crunch - you get the idea. One day, Rachel and I were talking about this and she basically said all those cereals were junk (I may as well give them a bowl of sugar for breakfast) and the kids should be eating better cereal. She brought me in a sample of Kashi Go Lean Crunch for both kids to try. I gave it to them and they tried it and said, "it's not horrible" - well that was good enough for me. I decided from that point on, I would no longer buy "sugar cereals". I loaded up on various healthy cereals (with Rachel's help) and placed them into the cereal cupboard. Now we probably had 5 or so "sugar cereals" that were more than half way full. I told the kids they could finish up what was there, but then that was it, no more sugar cereals. I also explained to them why they needed to eat something healthy in the morning and how they would feel better throughout the morning because they were eating better. I received the normal moans and groans about how the cereal tasted like cardboard and "why do we have to eat it, I don't feel any different".

But here's the interesting part (I know, you've been waiting a long time to get to the interesting part), the "sugar cereals" that were about half full a month ago in the cupboard, are still half full. The kids, on their own, have chosen to eat the healthy cereals instead of the sugar cereals. They still occasionally complain about it, but I think maybe they just like to complain about it. They are choosing their own cereal and they can choose the "sugar cereals" if they want - they are right there in front of them in the cupboard - but they don't. I think it's time to throw the "sugar cereals" out, they're not eating them!

Trip to Dunkin Donuts

Today I had to make a trip to Dunkin Donuts. I try not to go in there at all because I find it really hard to resist all the temptations. But today I had to go in to get an egg sandwich for my daughter. I won't bore you with all the details but the bottom line was she needed some breakfast food, neither one of us was at home and I had to get her something quickly.

I decided Dunkin Donuts was the place - and I was "going in", but was also smart enough to know that I needed to let someone know I was "going in". So I text Rachel and told her my plan. Needless to say, she was rather concerned with the plan. We got right on the phone about it and she tried to talk me out of it. However, I was already in my car and on my way there while still talking to Rachel on the phone. She told me she didn't think this was a good idea but if I was "going in", she was "going in" with me (on my bluetooth of course).

So there I was walking into Dunkin Donuts with Rachel in my ear. I have to say, it was a little weird walking in there and placing my order with Rachel piped into my head (and at one point, I thought about putting her in my pocket...) but it certainly did keep me from ordering anything but the egg sandwich...for fear that the little voice in my head (literally) would start speaking to me. I do have to say, we had a good laugh over it. She stayed with me until I was well out of range to go back.

It's nice to have someone to help you through those little challenges in life. I don't know if I would have ordered myself a donut or not, I think there was a good chance I would have, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed every morsel of it, but I also know once I finished eating it, I would have regretted it and then would have had to adjust my whole days' food because of it, or not - which would have been worse. But you know what the coolest thing is? I am at the point where I don't say, "it's just one donut, no big deal", I know now that my whole eating plan for the day would have had to be readjusted had I eaten that donut. I hold myself accountable now. Really, how many times in a week can you say, "it's no big deal, it's just one ...", it adds up really fast.

Time for the "Sugar Talk"

There are a few things in life that just aren't fun to talk about. I've been cruising along the weight loss road, eating my chocolate, everything is going great. As I approach my target weight, something interesting starts to happen, the weight isn't quite coming off as easily as it was. Rachel and I try to "tweak" a few things, give it a little more time but unfortunately, not making a whole lot a progress. And then it happens...the words no dessert lover wants to hear "it's time for the Sugar Talk."

Now I know that chocolate has sugar in it - I've worked it into "my plan". But here's something I hadn't thought about before, other foods with sugar in them. The other day Rachel was asking me about how much sugar I had had so far that day. I proceeded to tell her that I hadn't had much at all, just a couple of chocolate covered almonds. Within the conversation, I mentioned that I had made banana bread the night before and had a slice of that. Rachel pointed out to me that banana bread has sugar in it, so it counted as a "sugar thing". I never really thought about that before. In my mind chocolate/candy = sugar. It never really occurred to me that other foods were considered sugar foods. That was a rude awakening. So apparently I have more sugar in my diet than originally thought.

Now you might say, what's wrong with sugar? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that sugar needs to be completely cut out, but through my weight loss battle and nutritional counseling, I have learned a few things about sugar intake. Sucrose, which is table sugar, is processed differently than fruit and vegetable sugars which go to the liver first. But sugar goes directly into the blood stream, causing insulin to be released in large amounts to "clear" the blood of the sugar. But this then causes "low blood sugar" within a half hour, making you feel tired and cranky....so....you then crave more sugar...and viscous cycle begins....

Basicly, the less processed food you eat, and the more slow burning carbohydrates you can replace sugar with, the more fat you will loose and the better you will feel, because your blood sugar will stay stable.

I am working up to a day (or maybe even two) with no sugar. It's a little scary but I think would be interesting to try. I just want to see what it feels like. I'll keep you posted when it actually happens.

Tough Cardio Day

Today was a tough day for cardio. I just didn't want to do it. I went down to the gym at lunchtime for my legs workout with Rachel. I was doing the leg press machine and Rachel said "we" (love the way she says "we" because I'm only seeing one person on that leg press...), but anyway, "we" are going to do 12 - 15 reps. I get to 15 and she says "5 more". I hate when that happens...but you know what, I did them. I wouldn't have if I had been by myself. I did complain and pointed out that she had said 12 to 15 - it didn't work. Rachel said she knew I could do more and told me she wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't push me. I guess that's true.

Normally I would do my cardio right after my workout but I didn't have time today so I decided I would go back down after work. Well after work came and guess what I didn't want to do? My legs were tired from my lunchtime workout and I was tired from work. So the decision needed to be made, should I go or not? And then I thought about the chocolate...yes, it always comes back to the chocolate. If I didn't go down to do my cardio that would mean less (probably no) chocolate after dinner - didn't like that idea so much. I went down and told myself I would do just 20 minutes since I had already trained 30 minutes on legs earlier. Well 20 minutes came and I decided I could do another 5 minutes. That is a strategy that Rachel taught me when you really don't feel like doing your cardio exercise. It works pretty well.

I am a happy camper now because it is after dinner and I am having my "treat" all because I forced myself to do my cardio today!

The Weight Loss Story

Many of friends have been asking me how I lost weight and transformed my body over the past 7 month. I thought creating a blog would be a good way to share it with all of you who are interested. I started working out with Rachel Ryan, a personal trainer/nutritionist and owner of rachelryansfitness, in Chester, CT, who is just wonderful! Since January, I have lost about 20 pounds, gaining instead, lean muscle mass. I have also increased my strength, flexibility, and cardio capacity. I had muscles hurting I didn't even know I had!

This is not a fun process, in fact you could say it's just alot of work. But I can tell you this, now that I've lost the weight, it is very rewarding. Rachel has also been my weight loss "coach", putting together a nutritional/eating plan based on my fitness needs and food preferences. I have been keeping a food diary on a website called "The Daily Plate". Rachel can then monitor my program online and make suggestions and "tweaks" to my intake. Yes, it means having to add up every morsel of food you put into your mouth. It's amazing when you start writing down and keeping track of the calories you eat each day how you become very conscientious of what you are eating. But more than that, when you have to report back to someone on what you had to eat that day, it makes it hit home even more. Nothing like getting that text everyday, "what did you eat for lunch? what's for dinner?" It makes it very difficult to cheat...

Every day I log in what I eat with the calorie count. I find if I don't do that, I'm not nearly as careful about what I eat. It's way to easy to grab something as you are walking by and pop it into your mouth if you're not writing it down. When you are keeping track and writing everything down and have to stay within a certain calorie count for the day, there are decisions to be made about whether or not you really want that "thing". You only have so many calories in a day, so you have to really decide what you want to "spend" those calories on.

Now for me, it's all about the chocolate. I love chocolate and I want it everyday. So when the kids are grabbing a cookie for themselves and I think, "well it's just one cookie, I can have just one" - that one cookie means I won't be able to have my 5 chocolate covered almonds that I absolutely love!

But you might be surprised to know that since January, I don't think a day has gone by that I did not have chocolate. You wouldn't think that a person could lose 20 pounds and eat chocolate everyday, but I did. I figured out a way to work in my chocolate and still loose weight. In fact, as I'm writing this right now, I am having my chocolate covered almonds...and writing it into my calorie count for the day. You see, it is possible to have your cake and eat it too...and lose weight. It just needs to be part of "the plan".

And then there's the exercise, yes, it's true, you do have to exercise. I always thought that I didn't have time to exercise, there's so much going on with work, kids, etc. you know the routine. But it's amazing how you find the time once you decide this is something you really want. Exercise for me now, is like eating lunch, it's just something I need to do everyday. Do I take a day off every now and then? Yes I do, but not very often. I find that for me, it's way too easy to get out of the routine, it only takes missing 2 days for me to lose my momentum, so I don't allow myself to do that. Actually, I am at the point that if I don't exercise one day, I don't "feel" good. I need it now.

A friend of mine asked me the other day, "Is it hard to eat different things than what other people are eating?" The answer is "yes!" It's really hard when you are out of your normal daily routine. I find the weekends to be really difficult, especially parties and outings.

There are still days when I may vary "off the plan" - Diary Queen's Blizzards are a favorite! So if you're in a car with me and you spot a Diary Queen...please don't ask if I want to stop, just keep driving. But those are the times when having a personal trainer/nutritionist are helpful. A quick text or phone call can make all the difference. I have been in restaurants trying to decide what to order and texting Rachel to see what I should have - actually, I usually have the kids text for me because they are way faster than I am. She talks me through it and we find something that lets me stay within "my plan".

There you have it, that's how I've done it. There are challenges everyday to overcome, but it does get easier. And when I fall off the horse - and I do fall off the horse, Rachel & I get right back on it and off we go!

I'll keep my blog updated so you can follow my weekly challenges and hopefully hear about my successes also. If you are going through something similar or thinking about taking this journey yourself, I would love to hear from you!