I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

And BOY do I have a lot to talk about! But first, the important stuff: my first weigh-in in about a month:


Starting Weight: 290.3
Last Weigh-in: 285.2
This Week: 283.5
Net Loss: -1.7
Loss-to-Date: -6.8

Holy moly, I was NOT expecting that!! Let's put it this way: I had posted a gain in my last weigh-in, and since then had all but completely fallen off the healthy wagon. Between Derek being out of town for work and me eating out of loneliness, to preparing for the wedding and eating from stress and not wanting to grocery shop/cook, to being on my honeymoon and eating because I felt entitled to because I was on my honeymoon... I didn't think I stood a chance of seeing a number that I'd be okay with, much less a loss! I do, however, have a couple theories as to why this happened, and I'll wrap it up in a summary of the wedding/honeymoon. 

First, my wedding was AMAZING. I took the week before the wedding off work because I was sure that I was going to have SOMUCHTODO but Derek and I ended up finishing the majority of it by midweek, leaving just a few loose ends to take us into the weekend. Since I was at home, my plan was to only eat out if I was already out running errands but what actually happened is that most days I just FORGOT to eat until like 2:00 (or later) and didn't want to ruin dinner so I'd just eat a small-ish snack. Definitely not healthy and I don't recommend it at all, but I'd venture to guess that despite eating out for dinner all week, my calorie intake was on the low end. (Though having my hands in the leftover candy from the welcome bags didn't help that number at all, I'm sure!). The Friday before, I had a very small lunch from Wendy's while my girls and I got our nails done.  Oh, and I forgot to mention -- Derek and I had put a temporary moratorium on our no-soda rule, so I had started drinking soda again... which, again, would've made weight loss seem unlikely. Anyway, between lunch (albeit small) from Wendy's and a buffet-style Italian rehearsal dinner, I knew I wasn't doing myself any favors. 

The day of the wedding, I had a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast (provided by one of my lovely bridesmaids who went to Panera for all of us that morning!), and we ordered Jimmy John's for lunch. JJ's, if you're unfamiliar, is a delicious sub shop, that uses delicious bread, but only has white sub rolls (no wheat). I rarely (if ever) eat sandwiches on white bread anymore, so that was weird (but delicious!). Getting ready came together well, and the wedding went off without a hitch, but when it came time to eat dinner during our reception, I had absolutely zero interest. First of all, I picked our chicken dish, and it didn't taste as good as I remembered it during our tasting session... but moreso than that -- I just got MARRIED! How am I supposed to feel like eating!!??! I took about two bites, pawned half of the rest off on Derek (who begrudgingly obliged after cleaning his own plate), and went back to dancing and mingling and chatting with my favoritest people in the world. I didn't even eat a whole slice of our incredibly yummy wedding cake -- which is saying a lot because they sliced it VERY small. (Sorry, if you are reading this and were there! I had no idea they would cut it so small!) At the end of the night we went upstairs to our suite and were greeted by a bottle of (not-so-great) champagne and a plate of quite possibly the most delicious chocolate-covered strawberries I've ever had in my life. Seriously, I don't know what the hell they did to them (although I think part of it was that they used dark chocolate instead of milk) but it was like sugary delicious crack. But again, the excitement of the evening overruled everything else and even sugary crack couldn't keep my attention. 

The next morning, after a quick breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, we gathered our stuff and after a couple of pit stops at the nearest Best Buy and our apartment, we were on our way to Baltimore for our first cruise. Derek and I had already decided that we didn't really want to be burdened with counting every Point+/calorie, or just in general stressing over what we were eating while we were on our honeymoon, in part because we had absolutely no idea what to expect our options to be. This turned out to be a wise decision because breakfast and lunch were served buffet-style, which meant not only was it readily available in whatever quantity we wanted it, but it was buffet-style food -- large quantities of...well... crap. Some of it was pretty okay but we stuck with a couple of standbys -- the "Grill" section that had hamburgers, french fries, chicken tenders, etc., and the pizza counter and ice cream machines that were open and available 24/7. Dinners in the ship's dining room/restaurant were much better. There were a few dinners that I didn't particularly care for, but still managed to not go to bed hungry (of course -- hunger is impossible on a cruise ship, I've learned). Somehow, though, throughout the whole trip, I managed to learn the art of realizing when I was no longer hungry and not eating anymore once I got that signal. It worked out pretty well, I think. Between the cruddy cafeteria food and learning to say "no", I think this contributed to why I ended up seeing a loss. 

However, in my opinion, the biggest contributor to my "success" while on the ship was not a welcome contributor by any means. On Tuesday (note: the beginning of our trip), as we were eating lunch -- a hamburger and fries for me -- I realized it felt like there was something stuck between my back two molars on my left side. Upon further investigation with my tongue, I realized that my tooth had chipped! I rushed Derek back up to the room so I could check it out and sure enough, I pulled a piece of my own damn tooth out of my mouth! The tooth that chipped had been a little chipped prior and I hadn't had any problems, so despite freaking out that my tooth broke, I was hoping that it wouldn't cause any real issues. It didn't take long, though, to realize this would not be the case this time, as the remainder of my tooth was now sharp and though the tooth itself didn't hurt, it was rubbing against my tongue anytime I did, well, anything, and created a sore the size of a pencil eraser that was excruciating and made just about everything cry-worthy. Despite being on my honeymoon and being ridiculously happy to be married to the man I love, this really put a damper on my week, as not only was eating akin to torture, but so was everything else: spitting out toothpaste after brushing my teeth, kissing Derek, drinking anything (with or without a straw), talking... you name it. At one point I had a complete breakdown when Derek and I went to get a mid-afternoon snack and Derek had finished three slices of pizza and I was still struggling with one. I spent the rest of the week carefully chewing and swallowing on only one side of my mouth (not an easy feat, if you must know), and picking soft food that didn't need to be chewed or manipulated much. After that Tuesday afternoon, food lost most of its allure and my meal size went from average/slightly above average to "Is that really all you're going to eat?" Not. Fun. However, this probably made some difference when it came to seeing the number on the scale go down. 

Thankfully, on Tuesday after we got back (after a full week of dealing with the torture), I found a dentist (no, I didn't already have one. Shhh!) and made appointments for both Derek and I for this coming weekend, April 6th. The woman I spoke to suggested that we stop by in advance to pick up the new patient paperwork (since they're actually located in the apartment building I live in -- there are medical suites on the ground floor), and since I had mentioned my poor broken tooth and my even poorer sore tongue, she said that they could smooth it down for me so I didn't have to suffer until our actual appointment! Woohoo! So, on Wednesday after work, Derek and I stopped by to get all the forms, and literally about a minute later, my tooth's jagged edge had been smoothed down! It was easier to eat almost right away, and a few days later the sore on my tongue had healed and now it's almost like nothing happened! 

Anyway, we got home last Sunday and have pretty much eaten out all week. We didn't have time (or desire) to go grocery shopping and had little to nothing in the house. This... this in and of itself makes me go WTF to a 1.7 pound loss, but thankfully the useful skill of being done with my food before I feel like I need to be rolled away from the table like Violet in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory has helped a bit. 

This Saturday (as in two days ago), after our weigh-ins, we went grocery shopping for the first time in probably a month. We planned out our dinners for the week and are officially back on the wagon. I'm officially off of soda again, but much more confident about it this time than last time because I know that I can do it and I know how much better I feel when I do (though I'm not looking forward to potential withdrawal headaches). We packed lunches today and will continue to do so throughout the week. And, now that the weather is getting nicer, we're looking forward to getting outside and getting our butts moving (although for the foreseeable future it looks like our butts will just be moving from our apartment to the laundry room and back. Oy.). 

Stay tuned! :)