Weigh-in and... is that some progress!?!

You know the drill... first the dirt:

Starting Weight: 290.3
Last Weigh-in: 284.4
This Week: 281.0
Net Loss: -3.4
Loss-to-Date: -9.3

When I saw that number this morning, I almost shit myself. I lost all of the gain from last week, PLUS some. 

Honestly, I can't say I was expecting it. I've gotten to the point where I don't hope for much -- it's easier to keep myself from being disappointed that way. I did make some better choices this week, though, so I didn't think a loss was completely out of the picture. And I guess in the back of my mind I was kind of hoping for something as drastic as this. 

My biggest success this week has been drastically cutting back (but not out completely) the amount of carbs I consume. It hasn't been easy, let me tell you! Aside from bread and potatoes and pasta and rice and all of those things being incredibly tasty, well, I just grew up on the notion that a meal consists of a meat, a carb, and a veggie. Sometimes, all three are combined (yes, my mom was queen of the casserole!), but either way, that's the way to a well-rounded diet. If I don't have something starchy with my meal I feel like I'm missing something... and not in the "Ohhh, bread, I miss you" sense, but the "Wait... something's not here" sense. But I have been doing a lot of reading lately and it appears as though going low/no-carb is pretty successful for women with PCOS. Our bodies just don't break them down correctly, or something. So I figured I'd give it a try, namely starting with complex carbs like bread/rice/potatoes and not focusing so much on simple carbs like fruit. I love me some fruit -- you can't take that away from me! 

Bob Harper's Skinny Rules wants you to eliminate carbs after dinner. This is a really tough challenge for Derek and I because our meals usually consist of, as I said, some sort of meat, a heaping serving of veggies, and a significant serving of some sort of starch... lately it's been either steamed rice or roasted potatoes. (I know. White carbs. Shoot me.)

I decided, though, that I wanted to focus on just overall reducing the carbs I was consuming throughout the day instead of trying to eliminate them from a meal altogether. So, all this week, my breakfasts have been complex carb-free (which is much easier for me).. most of this week, they've consisted of a banana and some peanut butter. I saw my coworker doing this a couple weeks ago -- peeling a banana and then using a spoon/knife to spread a little peanut butter on each bite. GENIUS. And delicious. I had some single-serving cups of reduced-fat peanut butter that had been forgotten about, so this worked perfectly, because I couldn't go overboard with the PB. Yum.

Lunches were... well... they were okay. Monday for dinner we "slipped" and ordered out. Derek has been wanting me to try Afghan food/kebab for a long time, and I finally relented. I ordered a combo that had beef and chicken, and came with rice, spinach, and bread. And since I anticipated not liking it very much (I'm really, REALLY picky), I ordered a side house salad. I figured you couldn't mess that up. The spinach, for me, was inedible. It was really mushy and slimy and whatever seasonings were used were overpowering everything. The rice was okay but also had seasonings I wasn't crazy about, so I mostly stayed away from it. The chicken was tasty but dry -- and this is something I'm SUPER picky about so I was expecting this (I rarely eat chicken simply because 95% of the time, it's too dry for my tastes. I really should just be a vegetarian. Meat is weird.). The beef -- kubideh, if you're familiar -- was ground beef seasoned and shaped into a roll of sorts. It was pretty tasty and this was what I ate the most of, although I still didn't eat it all. The salad was good and the bread was delicious. So my carb-heavy meal ended up being not-so-carb heavy and actually kind of small. Overall, I'd say that it wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it again. Sorry, Derek. :-\

Anyway, for Tuesday's dinner, we made our dinner that we were supposed to make for our "Meatless Monday". It was a "burrito" of sorts, filled with black beans, corn, salsa, and a little bit of reduced-fat shredded cheese. I called them "burritos" but they were made with Mission Carb Balance soft-taco sized tortillas, so they were actually pretty small. And they were delicious. And there were leftovers for lunch on Wednesday. 

The rest of the week was pretty unspectacular but I tried my best to keep the carbs down. With the exception of last night's dinner (turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread), I opted for lower-carb tortillas instead of actual bread, and did my best to regulate how much starch I was consuming overall. I think this is where I can attribute my success this week. 

On a side note, a new restaurant has opened right across the street from my office called Sweet Leaf, and I am SO happy they're there because there's finally a place nearby to get a good salad or sandwich that doesn't charge outlandish prices and is actually tasty. They have "pre-fab" salads or you can create your own, same with sandwiches, so the possibilities are endless. The salads so far have been tasty but they're pretty lettuce-heavy which makes me feel like I'm not getting my money's worth. But I've gotten sandwiches from them a couple times (on a wrap instead of bread) and they're actually pretty tasty. I'm still trying to stick to the concept of making dinner and taking leftovers for lunch, but when that doesn't work out, I'm glad this place is a good backup plan. Yay. 

So, I didn't really intend for this post to be "What Sarah Ate This Week", but there you have it. This week I'm going to keep trying to cut back/out my carb intake, and then try to up my protein intake (since I'm not much of a meat eater, as I've mentioned). I kind of feel like an idiot because all along I've refused to do any major diet change other than cutting out the obvious unhealthy foods... I've subscribed to the "everything in moderation" rule, and of course Weight Watchers has always instilled in its members that you can eat whatever as long as you account for it. This worked for me in the past and I've been too stubborn to realize that maybe it wasn't working anymore and that with the PCOS, other things really do need to be considered. Maybe this will help me get on the right path for good.

I was crunching some numbers and looking at my goals. If you recall from my Very First Post, my first short-term goal was to get to 250 by my 30th birthday. At the time, it would require me to lose about a pound a week and I was really excited because that really sounded doable. Well, with all the setbacks I've had, I've now got 16 weeks to lose 31 pounds... so, just about 2 pounds per week. Slightly less doable, but if I can keep up what I did this week, it's possible. At this point I'd settle with just getting close. 

On another note, and I'll try to wrap it up here... I'm really eager for there to be noticeable, visible changes. I've lost nearly 10 pounds now and I don't feel different, my clothes don't fit differently, and I don't see a difference in how I look. I feel like once there's a noticeable difference, I'll feel more like I'm actually doing some good for myself. Right now still kinda feels like I'm faking it. Wish me luck!