Hey, I haven't even eaten any Thanksgiving dinner yet!!!

However, something in my body must have reset this week, because I gained back 2 of the pounds I lost last week.

So, I'm barely back into obese, and I'm not 80# down anymore. Poop!

I guess this is good motivation to keep myself in check over the next few days of T-day madness. I have a Thanksgiving dinner today, tomorrow, AND Saturday that I'm slotted to attend. I might not go to the one on Saturday, though, if I can find some folks to go booty-shaking with me instead that night.

I know from experience that my body likes to do these little bounce-backs after a few weeks of good losses, but it's still not fun. My scale says that my body fat is lower, though, by a couple of percentage points. Hrmmmmmm.

Somehow I got put to task on making the foods I will not be actually eating for today. Mashed potatoes, homemade herb bread, and Nutella samosas. Oh yeah, and green beans. Those, I'll eat. ;) More bread-baking for tomorrow (a sourdough and an herb this time), and something sweet potato-y. I have some awesome sweet potato curries and such I could do, but my folks are traditionalists, so it will be something far too sticky sweet for my liking that I whip up instead.

I hope all my U.S. followers have a wonderful Thanksgiving and make it through without too much temptation or trouble. No stuck turkey, OK??? ;)

I am a Warrior!!!

Yesterday was the Warrior Dash....

And I did it!!

I finished!

I finished in less than an hour!!

I wasn't even totally wiped out by the experience!!!

Amazingly enough, I was actually somewhere in the back of the middle group of finishers for my wave. I only came in about 5 minutes behind my spouse, and about 3-4 minutes ahead of our friend that ran with us. I really expected both fellas to leave me totally in the dust (or mud). But nope -- I really held my own!

This was a huge facing-my-fear experience for me. All through school, I was the chubby chick who was picked last for teams, the slowest runner, etc. Running was my least favorite physical activity -- ever. So, I went into this experience with two very distinct minds. Logically, I knew that I would finish. After all, I'd been finishing within a decent time in training. Inside, though, some big part of me was convinced that I'd be the fat chick last straggler of the day, making my embarrassed way through the final gauntlet with all these people looking on and smirking/laughing at me.

After it was over, I was sore -- but not in my legs or feet. In my shoulders, across my back. Apparently I had been holding on to my fear and anxiety in a physical way and hadn't even realized it until it was all over. I literally felt like a noodle, and I really was wishing for a hot tub. heheh

Now, though, I am SO glad that I did it, and I think my spouse and a few of our friends that were there in other waves are going to try to hit more of these adventure races around Texas. The idea of a regular 5K doesn't really appeal to me as much, but I loved running through the muck and mud, sliding down hills, climbing over cars and walls, and wrangling my way through and over rope obstacles.

Bring it on!!!

80! Not Obese! and New Hair!

Hey so I guess I should update!

After 3 weeks of inexplicable great numbers on the scale, I'm solidly down over 80 pounds total since the start of 2010. Yay!

This milestone gets me a couple of others.

-- According to the BMI calculation, I am no longer obese -- now I am merely overweight. :D

-- And, I am 2/3 of the way to my goal range - I'm aiming for somewhere between 145 and 150 pounds.

Today I got my hair cut and colored. You can't see how bright the red is in this shot, but I have bright streaks of red in near-black. No more crazy salt-n-pepper hair, woot!

Day after tomorrow is the Warrior Dash. I'm not really sure I'm ready. I know I'll finish, but I don't know if I will manage it in less than an hour. I've been able to get my time down to 40 minutes to cover the same distance (3.2 miles) on the treadmill, but the race is on a horsetrail with 12 obstacles, so I'm sure my time will increase considerably from the treadmill time. I don't have a great pedometer, so I haven't been able to tell how I'm faring when I've taken my running out to outdoor trails. Guess we'll see!

Oh look, I'm on the radar again....

... and other thoughts.

So last night's Freak Homecoming Dance brought home something that I'd noticed every other time I've lost weight, but hadn't noticed yet this go-around. Usually, right around the time I hit onederland, I come back on the radar as far as attention from guys is concerned. I haven't been particularly social, so it hadn't come up too much yet, but last night it definitely did. I showed up, and the attention was *immediate* from a couple of guys I'd dated casually in my long-lost past (who haven't said hardly boo to me in the intervening "fat" years -- not rude to me, I was just invisible). And another guy that I never dated, but knew me back in the late 90s came up to me and was asking me what I'd been up to, why he hadn't seen me around since he moved to Austin, etc. The thing is, he HAS seen me around.... but I didn't register on his radar, so he never realized that we were at the same parties and such for the last couple of years. LOL

I got a little bit of the same sort of stuff at a local monthly social dinner recently. Several guys (who I've seen at these things every few months for the past 3 years) apparently just noticed I exist. It's weird and disconcerting. At least the female contingent of my various social circles is more observant (and less "radar"-oriented, it seems). heheheh

On the flipside, I have been noticing some other interesting phenomena. A post from Lap Band Gal got me to thinking about my attitudes about justifying food, and about how people react to food statements. And about how those attitudes and reactions change as I become less overweight.

I was at a new Chinese place with my spouse and kids a couple of nights ago. Kind of like Pei Wei, but local and with less options. Anyways, there was a very obese couple eating at a table near where the line to order was. They had ordered the lettuce wraps as an appetizer, and I was really impressed with the large portion size (as I was looking to feed all four of us off it). I commented that "Wow, that's a big amount" or something similar, and immediately I could tell that she had interpreted it wrong -- her eyes narrowed and she mumbled something about how it was only chicken and mushrooms and lettuce. She would have probably taken it as intended from the 270# me, but it definitely went awry from the 191# me. Oops. I casually clarified that it was a lot of bang for the buck and proceeded to order one of the same for us, plus my entree, my spouse's, and a kids' entree for them to split. We then proceeded to discuss kids and her grandkids, so I think everything was fine from there, but there was a real moment of ACK on my part. I guess I'm going to have to think about what I say more closely, as I'm so used to being on that side of the fence that I still see myself there --- even if other people don't now.

My camera last night had serious blurry issues, so I didn't get any good body pics. But, there were other cameras and a pro taking pics too, so once those are posted, hopefully there will be one where I can see how I actually looked. I don't have a full head-to-toe mirror here, so I never did get to see the total package that I managed to wrangle for an outfit. ;)

The Halloween Candy Diet?

Um, OK....

So maybe me eating everything in my kids' buckets last weekend that contained chocolate+ (I like chocolate, but it's a weakness only if it's combined with nuts or cookies or something) was a trigger to get the metabolism rolling or something? LOL
And I kept nibbling on the pan de muertos we made too.

2.6 pounds down on Thursday, and another .5-1 gone unofficially since then. What???

And it's not like I had major exercise offsets or anything. A lingering respiratory bug has me doing my runs with more walking than running for the last 2 weeks.

I'll take what the scale says, but I'm very confused!!

Hopefully it will keep on going, though, because I'm going to be hard-pressed to make my Christmas Challenge goal if I hit anymore plateaus.

Tonight is a "Freak Homecoming Dance" that I'll be attending. I'm making my mum today (don't ask, the HUGE and obnoxious homecoming mum is apparently a Texas-only phenomenon), and am trying to figure out how to make myself tall enough that my dress hem won't drag on the ground. Fortunately, in Burner culture, platform combat boots go with *anything*, including ethereal vintage 70s formalwear. ;)

If I can remember to actually USE my camera, I'll get pics. heh

Put it back in!

So it would seem that I need to put at least .25 cc of what I had Dr. Ganta take out back in again.

I've hit something of a plateau, weightloss-wise, and my willpower has been lacking big-time. School got crazy, kids got sick. Then I got sick. My restriction is erratic at best, and much like before my last fill, I can usually take down at least 2 cups before feeling sated. I get stuck every once in a while, but it's usually only with chicken or pork. Everything else goes down fine, and in whatever quantities I choose to eat it. *sigh*

Still, there hasn't been much in the house to eat that's dietarily detrimental in quality (just quantity), until a couple of days ago. Then we took the kids to my spouse's place of employment, where they have trick-or-treating all over the building. Yep, candy. Lots of candy.

Two days later and all the chocolate-related candy goods have disappeared.... and we all know where they went. :(

I'm so glad we do the Sugar Fairy thing around here. So as of this morning, the candy is gone (including last night's haul), and given to someone participating in the Halloween Candy Buyback program. Whew!

I won't be able to go get filled again for a few weeks, though, I think. My copay is $50, and I just don't have the extra right now to do it. I just registered for my spring semester classes, so this month has a double tuition payment whammy. I'll just have to dig a little deeper and find some willpower reserves somewhere. Especially if I intend to make that Christmas Challenge.

C25K is going OK, I guess. Being sick this past week meant my runs were on the weak side, but I did do them, so that's something. :) I don't know how much distance I'm covering on my outdoor terrain runs, but the indoor ones are coming out to about 1.8 miles per 25 minutes. I have to get faster or my butt is going to be lagging way behind at the Warrior Dash in a few weeks. (EEEK!)

I hope everyone has been doing GREAT! I've managed to read blogs every 2-3 days, but I have had NO time to comment. I don't expect I'll have more time any time soon, as my 8-week distance learning class just started and I somehow have to find time to watch 26 hours of online videos and take exams and quizzes relating to them. And keep up with my other classes. hrm.

Yesterday was the last day of our gym membership. I loved that gym, but the Y is less than half the price for a family membership, so we start over there tomorrow!