Day 1 down and the rest of my lift to go / 188.6

This is only the beginning, again
I made it through yesterday, eating exactly my PointsPlus allotment of 29. I only had three servings of fruit all day (my personal limit), but lots of vegetables. I even managed to follow all the healthy eating guidelines (except for dairy - I can never get in three dairy a day).

The day wasn't without challenges. It started first thing in the morning when I opened our refrigerator in the garage to check on how many fresh vegetables and fruits were on hand. It's our "overflow" fridge when the one in the house is full. There wasn't a fresh vegetable or fruit in sight in the house fridge. I honestly don't think my husband would ever eat either one if I didn't insist on it.

Instead of fresh fruits and vegetables in our extra refrigerator I found a giant cheesecake from Costco with two slices missing. What the hell?! My husband gave me some lame excuse that it was for a party at work but he forgot to take it into the office so he decided to have a couple slices. I'm not sure if that's the real story, but he insists it's true.

When I got to the gym BOTH of "my" StairMasters were out of order. Seriously, both of them, how could that happen? I had my heart set on a good StairMaster workout. It's the cardio machine that gives me the biggest bang for the buck, easily getting my heart up in the 140 range. It's just about impossible to cheat on the StairMaster (because people are watching me it's embarrassing to slow down the speed).

Instead of the StairMaster I decided on an elliptical workout. That's when my iPod stopped working. It wasn't that it wasn't actually working, but the wheel thing stopped working. It was on a low volume, which I couldn't adjust. I couldn't get to a playlist, but had to listen to the songs with the performers listed alphabetically. I had no idea I had so many Black Eyed Peas and Britney Spears songs. It was really annoying. I finally took the time to sit down on the floor and do the reset thing and now it works just fine. Of course this was after my cardio workout, which by the way was hell. The fatter I get the harder it is to do cardio.

I didn't binge last night or eat anything that wasn't planned yeserday. Everything was entered in the online eTools. That's the first time I've done that in about two weeks.This is just the beginning. I have the rest of my life to stay on plan.

What I learned the last two weeks
There's something I've learned from my week of "not really eating that much" but gaining five pounds. It's that I have to pay attention to what I eat. I almost have to be obsessed by it. I will probably never learn to "relax" and "be at peace" with food. I know a lot of people are capable of doing this, and not stressing out about their food and they learn how to eat "normally".

My lesson learned is that I'm not one of those people. We're all different in this world and what works for a lot of people doesn't work for me. My peace with food means that I have to be completely committed to eating healthy and smaller portions, and I have to aim for this commitment 100% of the time. I can't go off for a week and eat full-fat cheese and candy whenever the mood strikes me. The resulting weight gain is simply not worth it.

Of course, I realize I can't be 100% perfect all the time, but it's my goal. I'm not a failure if I fall off now and then, but I can't fall off for an entire week.

Daisies
Now I'm off to plant my Gerbera Daisies I bought at Costco this morning (where I stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables, salmon and chicken...and no cheesecake!). They're so gorgeous I can't wait to get them planted and take a picture to post here tomorrow.

Then the gym later today when it's suppose to start raining at 5pm. Right now it's 61 degrees and sunshine. Around here you've got to enjoy that sun while you can, because it'll be gone in a few  hours and not return for days (Seattle, need I say more).