The Sun News Skinny

Summertime and the living's easy

My fellow blogger Vicki is right: summer's here. It's time to celebrate.

I'd like to offer up a toast to this glorious season for three reasons:

1 - The College World Series. Go Heels!

2 - Bicycles. The husband and I just got two new shiny Schwinns that we plan on using to cruise around the neighborhood (thank God for those water bottles).

3 - Losing weight. That sound you heard over the weekend? My sheer shouts of joy at clocking in at 148.5 pounds, only 8.5 away from my ultimate goal of 140.

Here's hoping you've got your own reasons, or maybe find some new ones, for celebrating summer.

Hot weather

Now that the temperature is soaring, I'm wondering if it's aiding my battle of the bulge. It seems like I'd been wrestling with the same 1 or 2 pounds for several weeks, but last week, I was down 3.8.

Water weight immediately came to mind. Being a Southern woman, I ``glow'' a lot in the summer, so I'm thinking if I stand outside on a regular basis, perhaps my progress will continue (I know water doesn't count, but my friends say TAKE IT!). But while I didn't think I was all that good the week before, there's the chance that without knowing it, I actually made some great choices without thinking too hard about it.

Nah, it was probably the water ... but I'll find out next week for sure!

Summer is here ...

And summer at the beach can strike fear in the hearts of locals. Let's face it: If you're here on vacation, you're on the beach with a bunch of strangers, but those of us who live here find ourselves in bathing suits a lot of the time with neighbors and friends.

I'm no skinny minnie, but I have to say that with the weight I've lost, I feel good enough about myself that I haven't worked up a sweat about wearing a bathing suit. In fact, I even bought a new one. And I have a hat to match (it just worked out that way).

So hear's to all of us who are fighting the good fight against flab. I'm going to shrink even more during the summer, but not being at my goal weight won't keep me from fun in the sun!

Tricks to sweet treats

In my first blog entry, I talked about learning a few tricks along my now 50-pound weight loss journey over the past year and a half. Recently, I added another one to my repertoire, just in time for summer and in celebration of losing a pound and a half since last week.

You know how the suggested serving size on a pint of ice cream is about a half a cup, something that sounds both insane and inhumane? I'd never actually taken the fine folks at Ben & Jerry's up on that offer until this week. I diligently scooped out my half a cup and instead of putting it in one of our bowls (which now seemed monstrous in comparison to my ice cream), I put it in a coffee mug.

Voila! I still got to enjoy my ice cream, and I didn't even notice the difference in portion size.

Well, that's not entirely true; I did notice that following the serving size meant I'd managed not to down the whole pint. That means more ice cream to go around and more sweet end-of-the-day indulgences for me.

Pounds well-earned

Sometimes, friends, it's better to wear those newly-acquired extra pounds like a road map of our lives.

Take, for instance, the 2.5 pounds I've accumulated over the past few weeks. When I looked down at the scale this morning, I saw the big honkin' biscuits from my hometown grill, the barbecue restaurant I proudly showed off to my best friend visiting from Boston, the delicious Mexican food we ate (and always eat) during our annual pilgrimage to western North Carolina.

This way, it's a little easier to face the fact that I've been a slacker. I'm still motivated to shed these last 12.5 pounds (or those new pesky 2.5 pounds, at least; I've got a bridesmaid dress to fit into soon, ya know), but I'm not kicking myself for eating awesome treats I only get once in awhile.

Here's to looking forward to success and to eating my favorite college-town burritos sometime this summer.

Losing perspective

That's the way I feel since I last checked in, like I've lost my focus. So much has happened in the last few weeks. I don't know about you - but when everything is out of control, my eating usually goes with it.

Despite living at the beach, I don't get a lot of visitors, so the fact that I had people here on vacation opened the door to dining at a lot of great places in a short span of time. Somewhere in there, we made a lot of changes here at work. Even if you think change is good, it's still change, and it throws a routine out of whack. Once my routine was shot, I predictably got sick and let things go way too long because I wouldn't slow down long enough to get well.

I did not, however, give up those weigh-ins. While I find them completely unpredictable right now - I was up 3 pounds a week ago (when it should've been 10), and I was down 2 pounds this week (and have no idea how that happened) - I'm still thinking about what I'm eating. I guess even though I'm not getting it right all the time, I'm getting it right just enough to see me through this rough patch so I can pick up the pace (hopefully in a day or two).

So close I can almost taste it

Step right up and fill in your cliche here: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel; the end is almost  near; all's well that ends well, etc.

Folks, you just may be witness to a modern miracle: I'm only 10 pounds away from reaching my goal of 140 pounds, something I haven't seen since the bangs-and-braces days of middle school.

I'm a competitive person, mostly just with myself, and I refuse to let anything, even a bachelorette party this weekend, get in between me and my more-reachable-than-ever goal.

What about you? What's your goal?

In for the long haul

We started a new 10-week session of Weight Watchers at work this week, and I didn't hesitate to write my check. Even though my deadlines sometimes get in the way of making a lot of meetings, I actually look forward to the official weigh-in and time with our leader, whether it's to confess or celebrate!

I have to admit I've been succumbing to stress recently. While I eat a lot of carrots for snacks and stick to well-portioned lunches, my weakness is the dinner hour, which for me has been getting later and later. Most of the time, I eat healthy, but the urge for comfort food is strong.

All in the family

The women in my family have a long history with chocolate, ya'll.

We don't so much keep green, leafy stuff in the vegetable crisper. If you wandered into my late grandmother's house, and opened the bottom left refrigerator drawer, you knew you were in for a handful of mini Kit Kats, Reese's Cups and Three Musketeers. My mom's house? Same thing. My sister's house? You got it. My house? Like clockwork. We even managed to nudge my brother's wife into following along.

What about you? What eating quirks or rituals did you inherit from your kinfolk?

Testing the system

I really put the system to the test last week. Or rather Market Common put me to the test.

I had several occasions to eat out and, coincidentally, all of them landed me at the new eating establishments on the former Air Force base. Some outings were for business, some pleasure, but they all came at the same time. My willpower was in jeopardy.