I have to give a huge shout out to Shannon over at PhatMommyDesigns for my new blog design! She rocks!!! She also did my design over at MeBeingCrafty, which is awesome. Check her out, I love her designs and know I’ll be back for more when the time comes.

I weighed in today for a 4.2 pound loss over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t weigh in last week because my Mom and Step Dad were here visiting! We had a great time while they were here – I snacked a little more then usual, but on a good note I didn’t overeat which of course means I snacked instead of having a meal. But we also had a few days of hard exercise in the form of gardening.

We have a lot of clay and slate in our soil here and digging holes for the bushes and plans, plus cleaning up, raking, weeding, laying bark and whew you have a group of tired people! It was a lot of fun though. And the yard looks SO much better all the way around. We do need to mow and water but that will happen tomorrow or Thursday.

My friend Tishia Lee left a great comment:

The key when we slip up (and it will happen from time to time – we are only human) is exactly what you did, got right back on the plan!

This is so true! The most important part of her comment was getting right back on plan. Sometimes it can feel easier to throw your hands up in the air, give up and go for the junk food. Easier to grab the bag of popcorn or chocolate and say why not, I’ve already messed it all up.

That is just not true. Whatever you did wrong, it is recoverable. Having a moment where you give in to having your favorite snack (or salty food like me) isn’t that bad. Start over, start again and keep on track.

These are the moments when having inspirational quotes around you would be great. Find a couple that work for you and tape them to your mirror and your fridge.

I slipped up yesterday. After my check in, not gaining or losing, and feeling great I came home and had a ham sandwich and a pickle for lunch. Talk about salty!

Of course the worst part – I had the same thing for dinner!

That’s the second time I’ve eaten a bunch of salty foods in one day since starting on LA Weight Loss. I wonder if it’s because the plan is low sodium (even though my regular eating usually isn’t that salty anyway) and once in a while my body just needs the salt? I did drink a few extra glasses of water and today feel a lot better.

I woke up and have stuck to the plan all day. I’m feeling good still and am happy to be back on plan.

Whew, that’s a mouthful!

I also had a LA check in today which is great because I go by their scale since they are keeping track in my file. Since last week I am down 4.6lbs!

Yep, today was no gain but also no loss. Hey, I’m not complaining! Last week’s huge loss was awesome for me and I am still feeling great and staying on track. I’ve been sort of trying variations of foods finally. And I opened the cookbook I bought last week and I am so very happy to have purchased it! There are a lot of recipes that sound good and are not a lot of odd sounding ingredients.  Plus since it is a LA cookbook, it tells me how many servings of whatever it is (ie 1 veggie, 2 fruit, etc.).

I joined myfooddiary.com back in March and for the first month or so I was very diligent about keeping track of everything I ate or drank. It’s great to do that and see that if I kept eating the same way I would lose anywhere from 1 to 2 lbs a week, just what I am aiming for. For the past few weeks though I haven’t been as diligent and now I’m looking for a free place to keep track online. I would like to be able to keep track of the food I’m eating as well as my weight so I can see the loss over time. Then again I could start an excel workbook to help keep track of my weight, so really I just need a food website.

I joined sparkpeople.com and am working on setting up my own site. I’m going to stay subscribed to myfooddiary until I get used to the spark website but so far it looks good!

I love peanut butter cups. Who cares that the chocolate is fake and full of wax and other things that is in American chocolate (a friend sent me lots of treast when she and her hubby were stationed in England – yummy!!) – peanut butter cups are SO good!

It started when I was pregnant with my second baby, my son. I had never craved anything with my daughter, but with him I *had* to have peanut butter cups. My craving was so bad I carried around a bag of peanut butter minis. I only had to have one or maybe two and then the craving was gone, but it was a good thing I carried around that many because when I wanted one I had to have it right then.

Right now there is a four pack of regular sized peanut butter cups in the fridge. I passed them up for a cup of low sodium V8 juice.

I feel good passing them up – but I admit I also feel good because I know if I had one, I would only have one. How is that for a change in diet and eating better!

[tags]tempting foods, peanut butter cups[/tags]

Since I’ve lost 11lbs now, it’s time for a mini goal. I’ve been going up and down in weight for the past three weeks or so, and I think my goal will be to stay at 10lbs lost for two weeks. Hopefully I will lose an additional few pounds in the next couple of weeks, but since there are always fluctuations staying at 10lbs lost will feel great.

I think my treat will be a haircut. I’ve been talking about this for days and months I’m sure. My hair has always been in a short hairstyle for the past ten years or so, with a break when I was pregnant with my first child. Of course after spending 41 weeks pregnant and growing my hair out, the day before I had her I cut it all off. I’ve been having good hair days and bad hair days though lately the bad hair days are winning. I have the business card of the hairstylist I am going to go to and have been casually searching for a hairstyle I’d like to have. I really love one style that Natalie Portman had a few years ago – she had very cute styles when her hair was growing out after being shaved off.

I’m excited! I’m glad to have lost weight again, I feel happy and energized and ready to keep losing. I still need to add exercise, but am eating right. A new haircut will just add to my feeling great.

I checked in today with the center – typically you are supposed to check in three times a week, but I do not obsess over the scale, plus it is about a half hour away and with gas prices the way they are…, so I only go once a week. Occasionally I will check in twice a week.

I knew I had lost weight because I stepping on my scale last night. But imagine the shock when I find I’ve lost 4.6 pounds! In two days! That is seriously amazing. I know some of it was water weight and so I hoped to lose 2 pounds. I’m very happy and this brings my total weight loss back up to 11lbs.

I’ve said it before, but I’ve never really struggled with my weight until the past year or two. I may have gained a pants size after having a baby but wasn’t worried, heck I got back into that same pants size after my second baby! But going up another size a few years later…not cool. Not fun and definitely not a good thing for my closet.

I’m also on day one for take off and so far so good. I’ve had some veggies, take off juice and a la lite bar (I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding the la bars, I’ll have to talk about that later). I’m saving my protein for lunch and dinner and look forward to whatever activity I do today. It’s storming here, a storm is just off the coast and it’s brought rain and win inward to us. So my activity will have to be indoors, maybe it’s time I jump back on that elliptical!