Well folks, there’s something I’ve realized as the Domestic Weight Wars challenge has continued on… I am too cocky for my own good sometimes.  Did I make a mistake in challenging my Hubby?  No way!  Did I make a mistake in making the challenge stakes pretty high?  Heck no!  So where did I make the critical, crucial, game-changing error?  <sigh> 

In insisting that we NOT use percentages!!  UGH!!!

My cockiness led me to believe that I could wipe the floor with my Hubby in this challenge by the mere pound to pound weight loss comparison!  When drawing up the details of this challenge, I felt no need to use the percentages, after all, I was going to win no matter what!  And that, my friends, was my fatal flaw and a lesson I am going to spend the whole month of July learning. 

The fact of the matter is that I am winning in percentages and losing in pounds.

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Well, what can I say?  I am going to claim temporary insanity.  At least I would but I don’t want to be insulting to anyone who is doing the Upday Downday Diet.  I still believe this is an effective diet and that there are plenty of people who have made it a success.  But for me and where I was coming from, it was crazy.  I just haven’t been right since getting back from Disneyworld.  Maybe it was all those darn churros!! 

I’ve not been patient with my weight loss or motivated to do much.  I am most definitely a hardcore creature of habit.  Does any watch the Big Bang Theory?  Okay, that is seriously one of my favorite shows now.  It’s right up there with The Office and Survivor (my top two all time favs).  So if you are familiar with the Big Bang Theory… I can simply illustrate my point about being a creature of habit by describing myself as Sheldon.  I’m grinning right now because some people are probably cringing at the thought.  But it’s true, right down to eating cereal on the same spot on the couch every morning, watching the same show every morning while I eat it, and not wanting to really talk to anyone until I’m done.  Yep, my hubby totally agrees that Sheldon and I are one.

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Something occurred to me recently that I just have to call an epiphany in my weight loss efforts.  And really, an epiphany about my relationship with food.  So here are the gory details…

It was an Upday in my diet and I had eaten pretty well so far.  We had some ground chicken in the fridge that was going to go bad if we didn’t eat it so hubby thought he would make some chicken tacos.  Yum!  Well, he used this fancy trick that I taught him (that I learned from my dad) to make these delicious “fried” taco shells.  (Pretty funny actually because he fried my whole wheat taco shells!) 

So anyway, these taco shells absolutely stole the show!  My plan had been to just have one but as a matter of fact, I could not get enough of these tacos.  After eating one, I started working on my second one, eating it as if it was the last taco I was ever going to eat… savoring every bite… enjoying the flavor… the smell… already starting to think about eating a third one… then thinking that I had better eat as much as I can while it lasted… And that was when it occurred to me:

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I’m baaaaack!  And boy did I learn A LOT while I was gone.  Here’s a run-down of all my Disneyworld epiphanies (in no particular order)!

1.  I love spray-able sunscreen.  It is the best stuff ever and I will never ever squeeze another bottle of sunscreen again!

2.  I was able to walk forever and not get tired.  We went to at least one park everyday and I had no trouble with the constant movement, in fact I enjoyed it.  Very cool!

3.  I need to find better strategies for eating healthy on vacation.  Around the 2nd day I started making some minor bad food choices.  By the time we left, I was making MAJORLY bad food choices.  I’m not gonna freak out over it, just going to get back on the horse and keep going from where I left off.  Although I really find it interesting just how easy it was for me to say “screw it” and eat bad.  It doesn’t seem like it should be that easy.

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Am I in the middle of a HUGE lesson in patience?  That’s what this feels like.  I feel like for some reason, I am stuck at 156 pounds and come hell or high water, that number in it’s 10 variations (156.0, 156.1, 156.2, etc.) are plaguing me to no end. 

So yeah.  Today is my weigh-in day and rather than wait until Tuesday to weigh-in, curiosity got me and weighed I in yesterday.  To my major dismay, I went from 156.0 last week to 156.8 this week.  Wow.  W-O-W.  W-O-W!!!

Pardon the tone of this post, please.  I am feeling very frustrated and angry at this point.  I’ve been stuck at 156 for what is now the beginning of three months.  And that is despite my going from running 3 minutes straight to 36 minutes straight.  And despite that I have added working out my arms with 5 lb. weights and started yoga for abs.  And that is especially despite my absolute healthiest week of eating, ever, in my entire life… this past week. 

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It seems as though life is a series of ‘firsts‘.  And as if best friends, my firsts have always been paired with fear and anxiety.  In the past, every new experience that awaited me was greeted with white knuckles and peeking out of fearful eyes.  In the case of motherhood, everything about raising a daughter has been a first. 

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Every month in Real Simple magazine there is an article written by Gail Blanke, a Life Coach by profession.  When I first started reading her column I thought the idea of a “life coach” was silly.  Questions like “Do you really want someone telling you what to do with your life?”  “How is that any different from a Therapist?”  And, “Do people actually PAY her to do this ‘life coaching’?”  So maybe I was a little critical.  Usually when I am the most critical of something, it’s also when I am the most wrong.  So I began reading her articles.  I mean, I had to see what exactly this ‘life coach’ had to say! 

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