On Sunday, my Little Sister told me her and Mama were going to dinner. I self-invited. Much to my horror, I discovered we were going to a buffet. I said why don’t we try the Asian restaurant instead? Nope, everybody wanted the free buffet with the coupon. I kind of freaked out. I text my Special Friend telling him I was scared. He likes to eat too; he understood and said he was scared for me. When the hostess asked what I wanted to drink I just said diet soda. Even though I don’t drink soda, I was just thinking about not drinking my calories/points. My mom ordered unsweetened tea, I always forget about tea. I ordered a tea as well and sweetened it with Splenda. I had a light breakfast that morning and 20 bonus points left in the week. I couldn’t do too much damage? Right?
I got little bits of everything but mostly meat and veggies. I ate a few spoonful’s of each dish and then scraped it all into one plate. I actually did it, I wasn’t stuffed to the point of being miserable and ate proportionately. But, it’s still hard for me to waste food. I grew up in the clean plate club. You couldn’t get up until you ate all of your food. Still to this day, I rarely leave anything on my plate unless I just didn’t like the way it tasted. But that day, I threw away good tasting food. It feels so wasteful, it’s probably people starving blocks away, and we pick over it and throw it in the trash.
Anyway, it was time for dessert. I figured my “get everything and eat a few bites” philosophy worked well with dinner, it should also work with desserts. WRONG! I got apple cheesecake, strawberry short cake, and 2 flavors of gelato Italian ice cream. It was all displayed so beautifully and tasted just as good as it looked. I started with a few bites but ultimately ate ALL of it. Me and my sister felt like pigs afterward. Lesson learned, if I have to get a dessert, just get one. After dinner we went home and worked out, hoping to balance things out. I’d probably have to work out for 8 hours to burn off all of that food.
The next day was my Weight watcher weigh-in. I took off my heavy sweater and exchanged it for the thinnest t-shirt I could find. This was the first time I was actually nervous about the scale, even though the whole week was great prior to the buffet. On Saturday, my scale at home said I’d lost 3 pounds. I stepped up at the meeting and lost .8 (eight tenths) of a pound. I almost felt bad for a minute, knowing that I had really done much better before the buffet debacle. But then I realized that’s almost a whole pound and I’ve consistently lost weight for 4 weeks. I literally haven’t done that in years. I lost 8.4 pound in January, and I’m no longer bursting out of my pants. They actually fasten now. That’s what I call success and a lesson learned.
Typically, in my life to avoid stress, confusion and forgetting things I make a list. I have sticky notes with lists everywhere, on my desk, in my purse, in my car, on the hall table, in the kitchen, on my phone. I always make lists. My maintenance guy is so used to me giving him a written list, that he is confused when I don’t. Anyway, in an effort to soothe my rambling anxious mind, I made up my Pre Race Day List. Here it goes:
Decorate Team in Training shirt with Mom (she’s crafty, I didn’t even know what puffy paint was)
Final 2 mile training session
Trial run with new race day shorts since the temperature increased by FOURTY (40) degrees!
Add Race day playlist to iPod, really just a bunch of Beyoncé and Michael Jackson with a little Hip Hop and Gospel too.
Continue to pray for no rain (the forecast is looking good!)
Study the race course map
Charge camcorder
Night Before, set out Race Socks, Race Shoes, water bottle, protein bar, Pin Race number Bib to shirt (with lucky gold safety pins from my 1st race), sports bra, comfy undies, iPod, Body Glide (Prevents chafing), Sexy Specs (cute sunglasses), cell phone, rain poncho, Team 413 temporary tattoo, Chapstick (not sure why I need it, but it’s on everybody’s list), Blood Pressure Med, vitamin, allergy nasal spray
Today was my friend’s son’s 3rd birthday party. Of course I wanted to bring my little niece. However, there was one little problem. If you read my blog you know that I rarely talk about children. I mean they are cool little people, but they typically don’t fit into my schedule which is why I don’t have any yet. But, for some reason I really wanted to take my niece. I was so nervous, I’ve never taken her anywhere alone. My friend assured me that I would have plenty of back up. When I went to my sister’s house to pick her up, as soon as I walked in the door, my niece exclaimed “Ni Hao Auntie!” Ni Hao…I asked my sister? Isn’t that Chinese for hello? My sister laughed and said yes it is, she watches some show like Dora the Explorer where the little girl speaks Chinese. How cute for my 2 year old niece to greet me in Chinese. I asked her about the special rules. You guys probably know our baby was a preemie (1.7 lbs at 24 weeks) so she’s got all kinds of stuff going on. Aside from severe asthma and allergies, my sister said no strawberries, no citrus fruit, no pork, no egg whites, no peanuts. “Uh….okay, is that all?” No wonder I’m nervous I thought to myself. She asked the baby is that all and she shook her head no. My sister says “oh yeah, no dairy or dogs”…. Well, me or my sister don’t eat pork and we’re both lactose intolerant so that part would be easy to remember. She saw my worried look and asked “Do you want me to write it down?” I said “no I think I got it all.” We loaded up her car seat into my car and we were off.
I thought I got a great parking spot at the huge mall, but I grossly underestimated the challenge of walking with a two year old. When we got inside the party she freaked out because of all of the balloons. She LOVES “ba-oons”. Inside the party we had so much fun. As a paralegal, I was a little concerned that I had to sign a waiver before she played in the bounce house. Of course I read every line, and hesitantly signed stating that I would not sue them for emotional distress, paralysis, head injuries, suffocation or death…This was just what the nervous Auntie needed to make her feel even more uncomfortable. Nonetheless, my niece got in the castle shaped bounce house (she survived), played musical chairs, danced to the hokey Pokey, and even rode the real train around the mall. When it was time to eat my friend offered her a fruit cup. I quickly called my sister… can she have a fruit cup??? She told me a small fruit cup was okay just not to let her eat like a whole orange. I was happy that my niece chose the breadstick over the cheese pizza or the pizza with pork sausage. We had a blast!
We went to Cabela’s sporting goods store after the party to look at the giant turtles and the aquarium. At the end of our adventure, there were no tears, no tantrums, no messy diapers. After I returned her to Mommy, my friend and I met up for our usual weekend movie marathon. We only saw two movies today “Just Go With It” and “Unknown”. Surprisingly enough “Just Go With it” was much funnier than I anticipated, and even though Unknown had an unexpected twist, I still wanted it to be better. Oh and before I forget, let me rewind, I knew today was going to be busy, so I got up and walked 2 miles at the gym this morning!
I’m still working it at work. After we ate steamed veggies with chicken and side salad, we headed outside and power walked for half an hour. I need to calculate the distance, but I’m sure it was over a mile. I’m so loving these results. I’ve lost about 6.5 pounds since I got back started on the right path a couple weeks ago. I had big plans to get back into the boot camp groove tonight, but my little sister called when she got home from school. She told me that she was “taking me to dinner in forest park, that she was driving and that when we got to the restaurant someone would buy our meal.” I’m so Type-A, and this loose plan of letting a brand new 16 year old driver “take” me to dinner and have it “paid for” by some mystery person was a not really specific enough for me. She told me to trust her. I had to drive over my parent’s house because she only has a learners driver’s permit. But check this, she already has a CAR! I had to trudge for miles through the snow on Mizzou’s gigantic campus and maintain a 3.5 GPA for a whole year before I got my 1986 Chevy Celebrity, and this chick is a Junior in High School with a car. Okay, so I’m a little jealous, but she does keep a 3.8 GPA, so I ain’t mad at her. LOL!
Anyway, I held my breath as she drove dangerously close to the cars parked on the street and claimed that the kid on the bike across the street was “too close and in her way.” I told her I had better not be risking my life and skipping boot camp, just so she give me some bootleg turkey sandwich in the park parking lot where everyone goes to practice driving. She assured me it was a real sit down restaurant. I was still nervous, because I just don’t do surprises well….
She actually drove pretty good, until she simultaneously stopped, bowed her head, closed her eyes and sneezed. “What are you doing???!!” I shrieked. “I had to sneeze” she genuinely replied, “I made sure no one was behind me I before I stopped” …. “Child, please don’t stop the car in the middle of the street to sneeze.” Geez… Anyway, we pulled up to a restaurant in Forest park near the golf course that I never even knew existed. It was a dead giveaway then, the mystery money man had to be my Dad. He is a complete golf fanatic. Dad joined us a few minutes later and treated his daughters to dinner. I’m sure if my Big Little Sister reads this she’s gonna be mad we left her out. Well it wasn’t my plan sis, I just rode along, get mad at the teenager. LOL! We had a great time, and I made it home safe and sound. Whew! What Did Carli Eat Today? B- Free donut in the kitchen at work, which of course not filling so I ate the banana bread I brought too. L- Steamed veggies with chicken and a Side Salad D-Philly cheese steak (took off half of the bread) with a side salad, and shared order of sweet potato fries. Dessert – A little bite of my sisters Apple streusel cheesecake.
On Sunday, my Little Sister told me her and Mama were going to dinner. I self-invited. Much to my horror, I discovered we were going to a buffet. I said why don’t we try the Asian restaurant instead? Nope, everybody wanted the free buffet with the coupon. I kind of freaked out. I text my Special Friend telling him I was scared. He likes to eat too; he understood and said he was scared for me. When the hostess asked what I wanted to drink I just said diet soda. Even though I don’t drink soda, I was just thinking about not drinking my calories/points. My mom ordered unsweetened tea, I always forget about tea. I ordered a tea as well and sweetened it with Splenda. I had a light breakfast that morning and 20 bonus points left in the week. I couldn’t do too much damage? Right?
