Almost cracking the 250 mark again!

This morning's weigh-in was as fabulous as I had hoped. I am down another 4.3 pounds to 250.9. That is the closest to being under 250 that I have attained in a very long time. I know there's still a long way to go and lots of holidays and travel on the way, but I am feeling ready for the long haul. I have now lost 12.3 in two weeks, which is phenomenal, but it also represents the first time in a long time when I stayed on my eating program for two straight weeks. That really has not happened since my surgery in September, 2010. I'm pretty excited.

Passover starts in just a week and a half. That's a really a hard time for me to stay on track. There's plenty of food to eat that is low-carb/calorie, but there's also lots of matzo and margarine. I LOVE that stuff! Matzo gets picked on for being tasteless, but that's not true. I think it's great, especially covered with margarine, or butter, or jelly, or cheese, or tuna, or gefilte fish or...you get the idea. It's really easy to overeat on Passover! Our dinners at home normally consist of the same three elements: a 300 calorie or less main dish, a salad, and a low-cal veggie like broccoli. On Passover, though, we have a variety of carbs on the menu. There's not just matzo but also matzo ball soup, potato kugels, kishka with gravy and other yummy things, not to mention the macaroons, kichels, candy and cakes that we already bought. I am hoping the dessert items mostly get eaten up by the guests at the two seders.

The year that I was scared about dying from the hernia I got through Passover just fine. In fact, I lost weight that week. I got the news about the hernia the morning of the first seder, and the meal was already planned and cooking. I went to the table that night prepared to eat some of everything but not much of anything. It worked, so that's my plan for this Passover as well.

Meanwhile, tonight we have two couples joining us for dinner. Mark has been foiled all along with tonight's menu. He had wanted to make the delicious brisket in Merlot that he made when Rudy was here. He ordered a brisket last Wednesday, but on Monday he got an email from AviGlatt saying it was on back-order. Yesterday when it still had not come, he decided to switch to a turkey cutlet recipe. He drove up to Whole Foods because that's the one place that regularly carries lots of fresh and frozen kosher poultry. NOPE! No turkey cutlets. He bought four pounds of chicken breast cutlets instead. He came home with the chicken wondering what recipe to use, but I think he can just substitute the chicken for the turkey and be fine. He agreed. So tonight the menu is a home made tomato soup that he will start soon, chicken cutlets baked in Cajun seasoning and potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and parsnips, homemade cornbread, and a salad. For appetizers there are eggplant dip and hummus with veggies and crackers for dipping. He's making fruit crepes with berries for dessert. Yeah! That's a LOT of calories for dinner tonight. I need to approach it like the seders, eat some of everything but not much of anything.

Another way to make today work is to keep breakfast and lunch super low. My breakfast is usually the same, 200 calories. I can cut that a bit by either not eating the yogurt to save 80 or cutting one sausage link for 40 calories. Lunch will be at home, so a salad with some canned tuna for under 200 calories will be it. I can face dinner having only had between 320 and 400 calories. My plan allows up to 1450 calories per day, so that leaves a tad over a thousand for dinner.

I happen to know that one guest is bringing several kinds of wine. I'm sure she will expect us all to have some. Depending on the type of wine, a four ounce glass will be between about 100 and 175. I'm not a big fan of wine anyway, so one glass will be more than sufficient for me.

So that's enough of a blog today! I have to do some housecleaning today to get ready for the guests. The floors need some attention plus some general tidying up. I also have a mani/pedi at 2 p.m. That should get me home by 4:30, ninety minutes before the guests. A busy day ahead!

Wish me luck on sticking to my plan! Tomorrow I will right about our interesting trip to the Alzheimer's Research Institute in Tampa with NARFE yesterday. Right now it's time to get started on today.