Confessions of a Die-Hard Dieter

As you may know, Jason and I recently lost 40+ pounds each. On that journey to lose weight we had to turn our backs on all fried food, all sugary food, and basically anything unhealthy. Gone were the days of pizzas, cheeseburgers, fries, ice cream, mac&cheese, and fast food.

Our eating habits changed, but we still loved eating out with friends. This was a challenge because we had to watch our friends eat the fried food we used to love eating while we ate chicken breasts and salads. We even had friends who said they've always been able to get their friends to cheat on their diets but no, not us. They were impressed. And obviously the determination paid off.

You know what happens to that determination when Christmas hits? Yeah, you guessed it. Down the tube. It was a gradual downfall. First just a bite of cookie, just one chocolate covered pretzel, then a sliver of pie. Ugh. By Christmas day I was eating seconds of stuffing (my mother-in-law's stuffing is amazing!) smothered in gravy. Followed by several cut-out cookies and a couple of buckeyes. Oh what did I do!

The week after Christmas we traveled to Florida to visit my mom and step-dad. We tried to eat healthy, but when you're on the road and don't want to stop for more than 10-15 minutes, fast food is what you have to deal with. Did you know that Burger King has a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole grain ciabatta bun? (I believe 470 calories.) I also got the Chick-fil-a chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread with the fruit cup. Not too bad.

Thankfully my mom is trying to eat healthy and this really helped us get on track. Of course we did more snacking than we should have. Then the last night in Florida we went to a seafood restaurant and I got my usual, garlic butter shrimp and hush puppies. (Oh yummers!!) And I finished dinner with the biggest slice of key lime pie I have ever seen. (No, I didn't finish it.)

I tried to off-set the excess calories with some running in the warm weather. I only ran twice though but I pushed myself more than usual. (I may have gotten a little lost in my mom's neighborhood and went a little further than I intended. In my defense, all the houses look the same down there.) Thankfully my family knows to come looking for me when I've been gone over an hour.

And then I did the unthinkable. On our way back up to Ohio we stopped south of Atlanta in an area with only fast food restaurants. We decided to get Domino's pizza. My first pizza since last July when we started our diets. We got thin crust (less calories) and lots of veggies, does that count for anything? Wow, that pizza tasted SO good. Unfortunately I had stomach issues the rest of the night. (Jason was so glad for that king sized bed.) ;)

So Tuesday morning I decided to step on the scale. I slowly slid the scale out from under the dresser. Checked (twice) to make sure that little pointer was on zero. (Okay, maybe a hair less than zero.) And then I stepped on and waited for the pointer to stop. And then I squinted and bent over, sending the pointer moving again, and waited again.

Holy. Freakin. Cow.

I only gained one pound.

ONE pound.

There's only two things that can happen after an experience like this. You either continue over-eating, snacking, and indulging and it WILL catch up to you. Or you thank God for the chance to indulge a little and jump right back onto the healthy eating.

I'm trying my best to get back on track, but I've got that sweet tooth back and I hate that. I know I have to avoid all sugar for at least two weeks before all the cravings are gone again. That's going to be a rough two weeks. But I've done it before, I can do it again.

You know what kills me though. If I had stayed true to my diet and ran a little more, would I have lost weight over Christmas? Probably. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? That's right, I'm going running. :)

(Side note, I started typing this an hour ago. I took a break in the middle to surf channels and ended up on Forrest Gump. When I run I think of Forrest saying "I was ruh-ning." So funny that I'd end this blog with Forrest running on the TV. I think that's my motivation right there!) ;)