Engaged in Weight Loss

What all Happened this Week

Alright! Week 1 is over and as of Sunday night (weigh-in night) I am at 238 lbs, which is about 4 lbs less than last week's 242. It seems like this Atkins stuff is really working! Which is excellent news because not only am I losing weight for the Disney Half-Marathon and 5K in February, I'll also be losing weight in order to look fabulous when I get married. That's right! Scott proposed to me on Saturday. I know not everyone wants to hear the whole sappy story of what happened, but if you do, just scroll down to the very bottom of this post and read. I will take this opportunity, however, to tell everyone that the wedding itself will probably be at least a year from now since we have some loose ends with school and job hunting to figure out. I will keep y'all posted, though, but probably not on this blog.

So what does engagement do to my diet? I'll tell you. It makes me want to GORGE myself. Icing covered sugar cookies never looked so good...and neither did hamburger cookies for that matter! The proposal happened (yes, happened, because it kind of hit me like a softball...wait) as we were about to enter our bible-study leaders' house to watch the Alabama game, and trying to think ahead, we brought avacados and pork skins for me to munch on during the game. The good news is, I was so busy with phone calls and text messages during most of the game that I didn't even have much of a chance to chow down. So it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Also....I FINISHED MY PAPER!!! So now that's out of the way, I can move on some and possibly get more into working out while studying for my orals until I hear back from my professors about this draft. It's possible I may need to brush up on this one since it's a brand new draft, but we'll just have to see! In the mean time, I've got tons to do!


Diet

Trying to keep your net carb in-take below 20 grams is hard work. It's mostly changing your mind-set. Every other diet I've been on has been low-fat and low-calories, but most of those foods are high in carbs! Interesting to think about. It's also hard to change! I tried getting the olive oil mayonnaise, but it turns out, it has 2 carbs whereas regular mayonnaise has 0. So you see how this kind of thing goes. Here are the things I've been living off of this past week.

Breakfast - Protein shake (atkins milkshake with a scoop of protein powder--tastes like chocolate milk!)

Sometimes I eat a half of a cheddarwurst sausage with half a cup of cottage cheese. Though good and filling, it takes up a good bit of my carbs for the day.

Lunch - Egg salad with pork skins, or hot dogs, or summer sausage and cheese squares, or publix chicken salad, and bacon with babybel GOUDA cheese!

Snack - babybel Gouda cheese or pork skins

Dinner - Guacamole, egg salad, pork skins, occasional frozen veggies, rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken, and I invented this cheesy sausage casserole, but I haven't perfected it, so I won't tell you how I did it yet.

LOTS of pork skins for substituting chips or bread. I've been eating so much, I went a bought this big boy:



EXERCISE

Still not any for right now. However, since I've moved in I've toured the fitness center which is nice and includes several new and semi-new pieces of equipment. Mainly a couple of ellypticals! Woohoo! Also an awesome pool that is suspiciously empty a lot of the time (I'm sure it's because it's getting cooler outside) and tennis courts that are kind of covered which is great so I don't have to worry about people seeing my hams jiggle while I play.

So now that the paper is complete (!!) I will have more time to go work out and this will possibly make me feel better about stepping up to Phase 2, but I'll need to read more about it before I actually cross into it.

Now, the engagement story...

Scott has gone to this bible study for several years and since we started dating, I've been going with him when I've been in town. It's lead by this couple, Angie and Ernie, who are so much fun and the people who come are absolutely great to be with. Ernie is a big Alabama fan, and has his whole downstairs man-cave set up with a big screen tv and theater seating. It is fabulous! Scott and I planned to go over for a little bit to watch the game on Saturday. On the way, Scott mentioned how much Angie and Ernie meant to him, especially when he first started going during a hard time in his life. I thought it was sweet to hear him talk about how much he loved and respected them, but I was so much more concerned about how rough I looked with my hair up and skin peeling. Looking back, I feel like a vain jerk, but at least I can say he loves me even when I look like crap! :-)

So we get to the house and he make sure I walk up the stairs to the back deck in front of him, nothing out of the ordinary because he is always a gentleman. We get to the top of the stairs, but before going inside he stopped me and said "You know how I was talking about how much Angie and Ernie meant to me in the car. Well, that's why I wanted to do this here." At that point the adrenaline struck, and I don't remember exactly what he said next, but he asked the only thing a guy could ask a girl when he's on one knee and slipping a ring on her finger. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes so there it is.

My favorite part of the story is what happened afterward. Ernie is a big gun enthusiast and I'm an interested learner. He also has a couple of older rifles which are especially interesting to me. I had seen one, but not the other. Not long after visiting with everyone who was there (some knew and some didn't) Ernie took me aside to show me their Japanese WWII rifle Angie's father acquired while fighting in WWII. So the second thing I held in my engaged hand besides Scott's hand was a Japanese WWII rifle. It was actually a great way to calm the nerves!

Also, not sure if everyone watched the game (once again I didn't see much because I was making phone calls until my phone died), but we almost lost the game, which apparently would've doomed our marriage, but since Bama pulled through, we have to get engaged every Saturday during the season. :-p

Ok, so there's the sappy story. Crazy! Still getting used to wearing something on that finger!

More about the diet and exercise next week!