Another Weigh-in Wednesday

I have so much to talk about since I have been away from the blog for so long that I don't even know where to start.

I guess I should start with the weight. NOT GOOD! On our anniversary, three weeks ago, I refused to report it because I thought it was so bad. Two weeks ago, before the cruise, I reported that I was up two pounds to 262. Now, after two weeks and a cruise with my girlfriend, I am up to 267.8. This certainly is a new high. This represents a four pound gain since I left on New Year's Day for the cruise. It represents a 25.8 pound gain since we moved here last February. It represents a 62.8 pound gain from my lowest point of 205 back in February of 2010. That's over HALF of my total weight loss of 117 pounds. After losing that 117 pounds, I never thought I'd put them back, but you know what they say: Never say Never! How true!

So, here I am at 267.8. Now what! Of course, I have to reinforce the things I know that are the right things to do. I have to exercise and pay attention to what I order in restaurants. This is so much harder to do than to type. It was so much easier losing that 117 pounds when I went to work everyday, ate almost all meals at home, carried a prepared bag lunch to work, stuck to prescribed rituals and menus, and was scared of dying from the hernia! I need to bring back some of those behaviors even if I don't have the fear anymore.

Here is my list of things I can do to help myself:
1. Exercise every day, even if it's just a little walk.
2. Limit alcohol and avoid "girly" drinks with mixers. One shot of whiskey is only 100 calories.
3. In restaurants, eat no bread, no appetizers, no dessert.
4. Weigh in only once a week.
5. Write everything down in a food diary.
6. Drink a lot of water to keep full.
7. Use the sugar free gum, popsicles, and jellos as evening snacks.
8. Avoid grazing during TV shows at night. Drink tea, decaf coffees, and the items in #7 only.
9. Keep busy with activities that promote burning calories and keep me out of the kitchen.
10. Think positive thoughts about myself and don't beat myself up when I stray.

As always, I have plenty of obstacles to these things coming up again this week. We have company coming this week and next week. We have our "anniversary" celebration at WDW next week. There are always opportunities to over eat in front of me every single day. I'll let you know how it goes.

Now this blog is long enough for today. I can't even start to talk about the cruise yet. I will try to do that tomorrow, and I promise to include some pictures. The short version is that I had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed spending time with my great friend Barbara. The other short version is that Mark and I learned that we do NOT like to be apart. We both missed each other terribly and will probably not vacation separately ever again. More tomorrow.