Weight Loss Trick

One thing that I've struggled with but that has been immensely effective for me in my weight loss journey is to allow myself to splurge one day per week without feeling guilt over it.

No, this doesn't mean that all day I eat whatever I want to the point of gorging myself, though I do have days when this happens. When I'm on vacation, I do eat whatever I want for one day of the vacation.

I have had to learn to let go of the notion that food and guilt are related to each other at all. I have yo-yoed over and over again because I've thought that if I "blew it" for the day that I might as well eat and eat and then just start over the next day. Only the next day doesn't net better results.

Instead, I have to remember that food is my friend, not my enemy. I need it to live. As a result, if I splurge and actually plan my splurging in advance of doing it, I don't feel guilt.

Yes, I'm Still Alive...And Much Thinner

I haven't posted to this blog in a considerable amount of time. It seems I have a difficult time focusing my energies on more than one task at once. During these past few months, I've been on a weight loss journey. I'm almost at my goal weight, and even if I don't lose the remaining 10 pounds, I'm pretty happy with the journey. I'm fitting into smaller clothes then I ever have and had had anticipated I would even after hitting my goal weight.

In March when I became serious about losing weight, I was in a size 18. I'm now in a size 8. I've lost 40 pounds total.

The method I've used to lose the weight is exercise and healthy eating. I'm not on a diet. I have use a couple of simple rules that govern how I eat most of the time.

Eat only when I'm hungry

Stop Eating when I'm satisfied

Most of what I eat is food that looks like something my great grandparents would recognize as food (ie, less artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, processed food, etc.).

Exercise most days of the week

So, what I'd like to share in a few blog posts are things that have made the whole journey easier for me. Today's lesson I've learned is that when I'm in the grocery store, I tend to stick on the outside aisles where the fruit, veggies, meat, and dairy are. When I need to cut through the aisles to get to the cash register, I pick the pet food aisle or greeting card/cosmetics aisle to get from one side of the store to the other. That way, I'm not tempted to buy cookies, chips, etc.

Urg! Veggies

I've learned not to buy a bunch of perishable food the week before going on a week long, out of state vacation. I didn't eat nearly enough of it and half of it that I couldn't eat went bad before I came back.

The asparagus, in particular, was really nasty, as were the portabello mushrooms. I should have known better, but I was overly veggie zealous.

Kroger and Shell Gas

**I don't get paid to write stuff like this...**

My coworker told me the other day that Shell stations have an agreement with Kroger. I don't know if this is local to Nashville, but I scanned my Kroger Saver's Plus card in the credit card reader of the pump at a Shell gas station before swiping my credit card. It saved me ten cents per gallon. My receipt even said that I saved ten cents a gallon from doing it. So, my gas price went from 2.55 to 2.45. It even took the price down on the reader above the grade of gasoline when I pressed the 87 button.

Made my day!

3D Avatar

I recently saw my first 3D movie, Avatar. I enjoyed the movie a lot, and would consider going to it again. (No, I'm not some paid spokesperson that I have to disclose with these new laws regarding bloggers).

I had to wear the special glasses over the ones I normally wear. I have a bit of a small nose, so they barely fit.

Call me old fashioned, but I was expecting to the the 3D glasses where one lens is red and the other blue. I was wondering when this changed?

Also, I felt a little sick to my stomach during the movie, but I wasn't sure if it was from the 3D effects or something else. I did enjoy the 3D aspects of the movie, and I thought Avatar was a good one to try it out, though it was a bit expensive.