Oh Monday, You're Not So Bad

Hola, lovers. Happy Monday. For as much as I hate Mondays, today doesn't seem so bad. It's gorgeous, sunny and almost 50 degrees this morning. And I don't have a FOOD HANGOVER. For those of you who aren't me or Allison, that's the gross feeling you have after eating too much on a Sunday. For as long as Jon and I have been together, Sundays have been kind of a lazy, pig out kind of day. There will be no more of that. My cheat meal of the week was Saturday night when Jon and I celebrated our very low key Valentine's Day. We ordered fresh rolls from this Thai place near my office, and Chinese food from this deliciously cheap hole in the wall place right down the street. For dessert, we had these all natural chocolate chip cookies. Not the greatest tasting cookies I've ever had, but it kept me from pigging out on them, so it was fine. We watched a movie and caught up on some TV shows from the past week. Also, we watched the final 2 episodes of Lost. We started watching it back in August, I think and we finally finished the series. As of last night, Jon was still reading stuff online trying to figure everything out.

Friday after work I went to the gym. Friday evenings are pretty empty, so I was able to get a treadmill. I tried running a little bit, then I upped the incline and walked for 45 minutes. I was pouring sweat, so it must have been a good workout. I came home, and had a Smart Ones pizza and a salad for dinner. Allison came over and took some before pictures of me. We did ones of me in my black workout pants and a sports bra, and also in this super cute bathing suit I bought on clearance at target last month. The bathing suit is a large, and I've been afraid to even try it on. It wasn't horrible though, and I'm excited to see how it looks in 4 weeks when we take pics again. After the pictures, me, Jess and Allison went to see No Strings Attached with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Kind of cute actually.

Saturday morning Allison and I went to Zumba at Modern Formations. I really really enjoyed the class. I miss Zumba. My gym has classes a few times a week, but they never really work out well with my schedule. After that, Jon and I did some shopping - we bought a new KING SIZE MATTRESS!! and went on our weekly trip to Lowes & Target. Aaah, domesticity.

Sunday was my test. I woke up around 8 and took Murray out, then fell back asleep until 11 or so. I was very hungry by the time I woke up. I really struggled with what I wanted to eat. I knew I wasn't working out yesterday, so I didn't want to eat anything too heavy. I opted for 2 slices of veggie bacon, 2 pieces of veggie sausage, and a lite English muffin with peanut butter. Delish. For dinner, my brother and I went to my mom and Greg's house and had a lovely salad bar style dinner. So good. I have to admit though that I was feeling kind of hungry by the time I got home. I don't know if I was genuinely hungry, or just felt that I should eat more since I had eaten pretty light the whole day. Regardless, I avoided temptation and didn't snack on anything last night.Yay!

Something that's been really helping me with eating and working out is telling myself how good I'll feel after about not overeating at this meal, or not skipping the gym. It works too, because I really do feel good about myself afterward. As much as I want whatever it is at the moment, If I remind myself how proud of myself I'll be if I resist temptation, it seems to really help.

Speaking of temptation:

If you can't tell, those little gems are gourmet chocolate covered strawberries sent to the office by our architect for Valentine's Day. Constant temptations in this office. It's a good thing though. I'll never be in a controlled environment. There will always be temptations, and bad things out there for me to eat. I'm focused on a bigger goal: getting healthy and being skinnier than I was even in high school. 

Last week I was reading this one girl's weight loss blog. She talked about "the stack," which is the stack of size 14 pants she's kept and moved with her place after place in hopes of fitting into them one day. I have a stack too! I've been holding onto these size 14 jeans from Express that I've had since high school. I actually didn't like them in high school because they were a little too big. Now look at how they fit (don't mind the mess):

There was a point when I was 21 or so when I could wear them for awhile, but it didn't last and I remember them not being too comfortable. I. Will. Fit. In. These. Soon. The rest of the stack consists of a really beat up old pair from the Gap (that I imagine one day being loose enough to be my do-work-around-the-house pair), a pair of size 16 Converse brand skinny jeans from Target that I got on clearance (I can't even get them over my calves comfortably) and another size 14 jeans that have fit me for at least a little bit in the past couple of years.

They'll fit soon, I know it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo