Days 5, 6, 7, and 8 (I’m the worst)

I’m back! Unfortunately I don’t have a computer at home so weekends are my designated off hours from this project, and then yesterday was just too crazy at work to even think about posting. But I’m here now to give you a little update on the last few days. 

I think I mentioned briefly that I’ve been losing weight, but I do have an official number for you now: 5lbs. It’s not much, but for me it’s huge because I NEVER lose weight. Even if I eat what I think is healthy and work out, the scale never budges. I’m crediting it to eating in designated hours, and the low-carb food. I’m actually enjoying most of the food still, which is awesome. Eventually I’ll try swapping out some recipes for others (I’ll probably still try to use an old cookbook just for kicks though) but for now I’m happy sticking with the old standards.

So this weekend I went to the fair! I LOVE the Northwest Washington Fair, but I haven’t been in years because I’m usually at work and in a show while it’s going on. Which I am this time too, but I was able to squeeze it in this time. And I’m so glad I did! I still took pics of what I ate that day to keep me accountable – and honestly I didn’t do too bad. Sylvia would have been disappointed in me, but compared to how I’d usually binge at something like this, I think I did pretty darn well. 

My friends (Brendan and Natasha) picked me up in the morning and we went to The Birch Door for breakfast. Best breakfast food in town if you ask me. I ordered from the “lighter fare” portion of the menu, and was still very satisfied. I had a raspberry mimosa (which knocked me flat on my ass – took me two glasses of water and a coffee before I downgraded to tipsy…whoops! Now I see why Sylvia says not to drink on her diet. I’m sure she was thinking more of the weight you can put on drinking, but this is another good reason to watch it.) and a pancake breakfast – two small pancakes, a dollop of scrambled eggs, and 2 slices of bacon. DELICIOUS. I didn’t feel stuffed, and I didn’t feel deprived. 

After that we headed up to the fairgrounds. Once we were in, we immediately looked at Every. Single. Animal. They. Had. I love looking at the livestock at the fair- I pet as many as I can get away with, and talk to the rest of them. I’ve included some pics below of some of the best chickens and goats. I also saw pigs, cows, sheep, llamas, alpacas, horses, and even cats, but didn’t take that many photos. Too busy enjoying myself.

Next we went on some rides. I usually hate them, but since my friends sprung for an unlimited-ride wristband for me, I had to do a few! The first one made me sick, so I took a break for a while – we went on the kiddy rides in the meantime to give me a chance to recover, and grabbed some food. I had a ridiculously huge corndog (pictured below), and a lemonade. Honestly, my stomach had already started complaining about the rich food, so I stopped there. (Full disclosure: I had a Reeses Blizzard and Pretzel Sticks on the drive home). 

We rode a few more rides (Ferris Wheel, Carousel etc…the greatest hits), and rolled out right at 10pm. It was a really great day, and while I wasn’t on my diet, I honestly ate less than I thought I would, so I’m going to call it a win.

Sunday (and Monday, for good measure) I went right back on the reducing plan (See photo of virtuous rye crisp breakfast below). Two days in a row might have been a bit much as I was a little faint by the end of the day on Monday, but I didn’t actually feel overly hungry. I’m actually learning a lot from this plan and I thought I’d share some of my insights with you:

1. Portion sizes are generally smaller than I think they are. Especially when my dinners have 4-5 components, it’s important to remember the size of each item should be smaller since there are so many.
2. Eating at night makes sleeping harder. I’ve found I go to sleep a lot easier when I’m not spending all my energy trying to digest. This is something our grandparents all obviously knew, since most people didn’t eat after dinner very often until relatively recently.
3. Tea without sugar is actually pretty darn good. It just takes some getting used to. I think I’ll pass on trying to drink black coffee though. Just not enough of a masochist to do that.
4. Carbs are overrated. I haven’t craved bread much in the last week – I have a slice some mornings with egg, and occasionally I have a passing craving for crackers, but for the most part, I’m doing just fine without them. Going out to eat occasionally is plenty for me.
5. Jello is VERY hard for me to portion out properly. Good thing it’s not really all that caloric, because I could EASILY eat a whole pan if I let myself. Why is it so good? It’s just gelatin and flavoring??? Witchcraft. I’m convinced. 

That brings us to today! We had a Mocha Chocolate Cake brought to the office to celebrate August birthdays – I’m not a HUGE chocolate cake person, but I took a small slice home on my lunch to have later if I feel like it. There’s a big chance I won’t even eat it since chocolate isn’t really my thing. But knowing it’s in the fridge at home keeps me from obsessing about it. 

I also planned really poorly and didn’t make my dinner ahead of time – I have a chiropractor appointment and then rehearsal tonight so I won’t be home. But after some quick menu searching, I’ve decided to get myself some Tom Kha soup from a local Thai restaurant. Veggies, coconut milk, and fried tofu…mmmmm. And pretty darn healthy, so I don’t feel too bad about missing my usual meal. Maybe this really is all there is to it? You just…find something you enjoy eating that is also healthy and then you don’t feel deprived of the more unhealthy things? Weird. It seems like it should be more complicated than that. 

I know I didn’t go into great depth on the book today, and I’m sorry for that. Rehearsal is really gearing up (we have to be off book this week and I might actually die – I have SO MANY LINES) and we open in three weeks. But I promise I haven’t forgotten about this blog and I’ll be back soon (hopefully tomorrow!) with more crazy Sylvia goodness!