Heh, let's see if anyone gets the reference in my title..



So, it's seven weeks later and I've lost "only" 5 1/2 pounds.. not great, but hey- I'm going in the right direction. (And by the way, that's actually 18 1/2 pounds gone from my heaviest!)

In order to make my mini-goal of 20 pounds lost by May 31st, I need to lose an average of 2.07 pounds a week. That is completely doable so I'm not worried.

This is how I'm doing on the goals:

1. Eat healthier- basically follow the tenets of the South Beach diet and watch portion sizes. I am watching portion sizes by tracking calories using the FoodScanner and DailyBurn apps on my iPhone (great tools!) Since I'm sticking with a calorie budget, I'm naturally staying away from bad carbs and fats. For the first few weeks I was doing really well from breakfast through the afternoon, but once I got home I would cave and have a less-than-healthy dinner and snacks. But I've buckled down and gotten into a good routine of planning all my meals and snacks, so it's not really as difficult anymore.
2. Exercise- starting with 3 half-hour sessions a week of whatever exercise I choose. I will probably go between riding my bike, walking/jogging around the neighborhood and using my Wii Fit. I have plenty of room for improvement on this one and #3. I joined a gym near me, but I haven't stuck to a regular schedule on it yet. The next couple weeks I will make sure to plan my fitness the way I plan my meals.
3. Hiking with Daniel on the weekends. Yeah.. haven't done this yet since posting in February. It's getting warmer now, so I may have to replace this goal with something else. We'll see how it goes.
4. Drink more water than coffee :) This actually won't be too hard for me because those are the two main beverages I drink throughout the day and I usually stop the coffee after a few cups. Easy. I love water, so not hard at all. Actually, I haven't really had much coffee in the last couple weeks. Since I don't want to add extra calories with the half & half I usually add, I've stayed away for now.
5. If it's within 3 miles, walk or ride the bike. This includes the park, the community center and the library. I need to go to the library tomorrow, so I will drive home, park the car, change clothes and then ride the bike there and back. The library is about 2.5 miles from my door so that will be 5 miles round-trip. I didn't ride to the library that day, and I actually haven't gone anywhere that I could walk or ride to since then. I'll have to make it a point to go to the library this weekend. I may have to replace this goal as well because summer is coming.
6. Jumping rope. Daniel and I started a jump rope challenge a few weeks ago, but we haven't followed through on it much. Basically, however many jump ropes I do, Daniel has to do twice that. That's pretty easy for Daniel though so I may have to change his side of the challenge to three times what I do! Neither one of us have been jumping rope lately :P
7. No more random snacking! This is my biggest downfall. This is working well; I am snacking, but they're planned snacks now.
8. I will no longer accept treats and snacks from friends and family members just because they offer it to me- I am not obligated to make other people happy by accepting unwanted calories. Since I'm making this public, anyone who is reading this should know that if you want to give me something, it should not include sugar or high-fat- how about a veggie tray instead? :) I haven't had anyone really offer me any snacks.. DH was tempting me with higher calorie sushi rolls the other night, but I stuck to my guns and carefully tracked each piece of nigiri and sashimi as I ate it (with the iPhone apps-love 'em)!
9. I will choose an item of clothing from my closet that's just a little tight and try it on once a week so I can really tell what my progress is. Pounds lost don't mean as much as inches lost. I went through my whole closet and now I have a duffel bag full of clothes that will fit me again sooner rather than later.
10. I have a referral from my doctor to get my blood sugar tested. I will go this Wednesday morning to get that done. I didn't do this. The doctor had said the visit that he didn't think I had diabetes; he thought I had a "sugar sensitivity" instead which apparently is different. He did give the referral just in case.. but really what would I do if I had it?: I would try to control it with diet and exercise- and I'm already doing that so I think I'm good without spending the time and money on a doctor visit. Maybe I will later, but not now.

So you see, there are areas I will can better in, but so far I'm good with the progress I've made.