I Should Be Ashamed, But I'm Not

One of the few things I did this weekend. Make (and eat
some of) this Light Butterfinger Cake. Delish!

I had my fourth weigh-in on Friday during my Weight Watchers foray, and it was disappointing. Less than a pound. 0.8. I did the math in my head three times before I accepted it. I had done everything right that week. I had watched my "points" like a hawk. I was about to get super bummed when there was  voice in my head. It was Chef's.

"A loss is still a loss. Besides, we're changing our lives, not just the scale," the voice said.

He didn't say it at exactly that moment because he was still in bed at the time, but he had said it before, so I had that in my back pocket. I did better as I got to work, but still a little miffed so I checked out the Weight Watchers site to see if there were any more pointers. One said something about concentrating on the long term (which echoed Chef's words) so I did the math. 

If I were to have a week like last week, where I ate predominately well but still lived my life and enjoyed a few treats,every week for a year then I would weigh 41 pounds less than I do now. Which actually would put me WAY under my lowest weight ever as an adult and probably around where I should be to be well within the healthy BMI. So I got over the weigh in (clearly I'm sharing here, but I haven't been obsessing as I might've), and had a great weekend.

So why should I be ashamed? Because I did absolutely nothing over the weekend.

Let me rephrase that. I clearly did some things. In fact, I did things that I really wanted to do. But leaving the house wasn't one of them. I actually left the apartment ONCE from Friday night until I left for work this morning. Chef did the grocery shopping on Friday night, and ran out when we had any "urgent" items we needed.  But for the most part, I did this:

• Did not put on make up all weekend, and mostly pajama-type clothes
• Leisurely read the two huge Fall fashion mags that I had been stockpiling
• Took baths and read the novel I just started
• Watched the "Weight of the Nation" documentary series (not all of it)
• Watched various detective movies, most but not all featuring Al Pacino
• Ate copious amounts of french fries and beef (on my cheat day)
• Played with cats
• Downloaded an iPhone app called "cloth" that allows you to store and sort pictures of your outfits (as well as weather conditions)-- I'm hoping this will eventually help cut down on the amount of time that I spend picking out clothes in the morning
• Pinning about 100 new weight watchers or skinny recipes on Pinterest for future use
• Repainting my toes and fingers
• Having a wonderfully lazy weekend with my husband
• Made a "light" Butterfinger cake from this Pinterest recipe that was actually damn good

It was glorious and this morning I feel great! So I'm not ashamed that I did exactly what I wanted to do this weekend. Which was nothing much. 

What Should I Do This Weekend?

It's Friday which means that two glorious days and three nights of time away from work are just a few hours away. The question now becomes "What should I do this weekend?".

There's a word in there that complicates things a little. The word is "should". Here's what I should do this weekend (productive version):

• Organize drawers and weed out too big clothing items once and for all.
• Work out for an hour each morning.
• Stretch after said workouts.
• Shop for nutritiously sound food with Chef.
• Play with the cats.
• Write for at least an hour each day on my current projects.
• See Harry Potter.

Here's what I should do this weekend (take advantage of California version):

• Go to beach.
• Go to the farmer's market.
• Try a new ethnic restaurant.
• Find a flea market.
• Explore a new neighborhood.
• Work out each day at least 45 minutes.
• Shop for local foods with Chef.
• Cook healthy meals.
• Browse a local book store. (Get the Confessions of a Prairie Bitch book that Anne recommended).
• See Harry Potter.

Here's probably what I'll end up doing:

• Sleep in late.
• Work out for 45-60 minutes.
• Go grocery shopping at Ralph's and Trader Joe's with Chef.
• Eat somewhat healthy but highly processed meals.
• Watch crappy TV and good movies while lounging on the couch.
• Put off doing any kind writing until I feel guilty about it.
• Think about going to the pool but then decide it's too much trouble (it's about 40 yards away).
• See Harry Potter.

What are your weekend plans?

Back to Reality

The free flow of food is over. The lack of working out has come to an end. The commute resumes. The avoidance of email is no longer an option. It is back to reality.

But reality isn't all that bad. I feel fairly productive today and not at all hyperventilating with the amount of work to do. In fact, I even took the opportunity to delegate some. Now if I only had more people to delegate too. Hmm.

The other "back to reality" moment will be tonight when I need to go to the grocery store. I avoided it on Saturday, our usual grocery day, because frankly by the time we checked out of the hotel, I had already decided to take the rest of the weekend to do as little as possible.

And know I must face the consequences. I noticed some flabby arms in my wedding photos and will be concentrating on eliminating those (and my belly) in the next couple of months. Anyone got some healthy recipes to share?

But the good news is that I have time and, at least for now, patience. Two things that you can never have too much of. Oh and money. You can never have too much money, but that's not one I'll claim.

A Great Couple Days in LA

I had a conference I was working in LA yesterday which means that I was actually home at a decent hour and that Chef and I got to run some Friday errands. We then went to our favorite hole in the wall Mexican place, hit William Sonoma in Beverly Hills and got treated to champagne and a 40% discount at the Banana Republic in honor of the royal wedding. Not a bad Friday night.

And then today after Chef got up at 5 a.m., I rolled over. I get up at 5 a.m. every week day so I refuse to do so on the weekend. I ended up closing my eyes and getting up at 8:30. Hit the gym, hit the shower and then we packed up for our usual Saturday morning grocery run. I'm firmly convinced that you can do anything you need to in LA as long as you do it before noon. We got in and out and home.

Just in time to realize we're hungry. Since I'd worked out and was craving red meat, we went to Irv's burgers. It's literally a hamburger stand on Santa Monica Blvd that has some tables outside. The little Asian lady that works there draws a quick portrait of each customer on their paper plates. It's literally only a little more detailed than a stick figure, but was so cute.

And the food was good. Just well done food at a good price. Plus we got to sit the beautiful, breezy sun drenched patio. It was one of those days that we were just glad to be living in such a beautiful place. And it made me realize how much I love LA. The vibe of the city. There are shits here but there are shits everywhere. It's mostly just the ability to have access to anything I could imagine. And the weather.