Whole30 - Day 23

Wow. Only 7 days to go. One week remains. We have made it to the home stretch.

As is appropriate (and not all that surprising with my personality), I am starting to second guess myself about what comes next. After 23 days of this lifestyle I believe that this is not a realistic lifestyle change for me to make. 30 days here and there might be OK, but it's just not realistic to continue this way of eating. However, one thing that makes it tempting to continue this way of eating is the fact that you don't need to track your food. That is working for the time being, but if I'm not being 99% strict, I'm afraid the snowball will start rolling and before I know it I'll gain all my weight back and be back to eating crap 80% of the time. I have no desire to be this strict forever. And we can't afford for me (us) to be this strict forever.

This is 2002 when I was pretty much at my smallest.
That dress was a size 10! 

I have been thinking about what program to follow when I'm done with this because I HAVE to follow a program. I've tried the "mostly" eating healthy thing and it doesn't work for me. I'm most successful when I'm tracking my food in some way. I talked it over with Drew and I think what I'm going to do is re-join (yet again) Weight Watchers. This is a program that has always worked for me to lose weight as long as I'm "working" the program. I even came within about 2 pounds of my goal weight when I was doing WW back in 2002 (wow, that was a LONG time ago).

Back in 2012, I posted "Numbers" where I talked about how my numbers (like cholesterol, blood pressure, etc) were so great. I also talked about how my doctor said she thinks a healthy weight range for me would be 145-160. She even said that when I got close to that goal she would write a letter indicating that, which would make 160 a suitable goal for WW. Currently, my goal would have to be 150 or less (based on BMI). Anyway, that doctor has actually left and now I need yet another one. Sigh. I should have gotten an undated note from her in 2012! I have a long way to go to get to 150 so this isn't really an issue right now though.

And this was about as small as I got doing
Sparkpeople in 2011. I still technically
had about 50 pounds to lose. 

Anyway, I was also successful on Sparkpeople, which is a free online site. However, I've been back on Sparkpeople and even Myfitnesspal many times and have yet to be successful again. I think I like the idea from WW that fruits and veggies are free so there are some things you don't really have to track. I also like the "extra" 49 points per week that you can opt to use all at once or a little at a time. Makes me feel better when I have days where I splurge. It's definitely all a mental thing, but weight loss is such a mental game for me (and probably most people).

Anyway, here is what today looked like for us:

Breakfast
Mary and Robbie had their normal sausage and apple slices. Drew had the same scrambler as yesterday and I had a similar breakfast to what my lunch was yesterday. I just had to substitute homemade ranch for the guac.

Lunch
Mary's lunch was the same as it's been the whole time (and frankly the bulk of the school year for the egg salad!). Robbie again had chicken salad on lettuce with veggies and fruit.

Drew worked from home today so he took care of his own lunch. He cooked up a steak to put on a salad. I, on the other hand, quickly realized that I had nothing for me to eat for lunch! I had some egg salad and chicken salad made in the fridge, but that's for the kids lunches the rest of the week. Had I eaten that, I'd have to worry about what to pack them tomorrow and Friday. There was some of Drew's steak leftover, but again, if I ate that I wouldn't have anything to pack in HIS lunch tomorrow. I am realizing how much I don't put myself first when it comes to this stuff. I always make sure I have things on hand for the kids breakfast and lunch and for Drew's breakfast and lunch, but I never think about what I might want! I didn't really feel like going to the store to get anything, but eventually I decided I had to. I went to Giant Eagle and got the salad bar again. It was actually really yummy today....I must have been hungry!

Dinner
Robbie requested that I make chicken wings again since he loved the other ones I made so much. I found a different recipe, just for a change and made them. He loved them, but everyone else said the other ones were much better. I just didn't think these had very much flavor. I also made sweet potato fries, but I did not get the white sweet potatoes this time and I didn't like them as much (neither did the kids - Drew was indifferent).

 Again though, Robbie had 10 wings! I only ate these 4 because, like I said, I didn't really care for them. I figure leave the leftovers for Robbie to eat for lunches over the weekend.

The Lowdown
7 days remain....that's just awesome! I've said it before, but I'm glad we did this. I'm super proud of my kids. They have been absolute rock stars about this. We haven't had nearly as many food meltdowns as I thought we might. Having said that, they're excited about only having 7 days left though!

I think I said enough at the start of this post so that's about all I have to say in the lowdown tonight!