Weight Loss – Remained Steady

Total Weight Loss – 20 pounds

Mood – Much Improved!

New Goal – Find the ambition to exercise more

July was a busy month and I can’t believe that it’s almost over! My weight fluctuated back and forth by a few pounds, but overall I’ve managed to remain around the same weight. A lot of the time just being able to maintain a new weight is the hardest part about losing it. Especially when you realize that you’re taking shortcuts and “being bad”.

Yes, I’ve been “being bad”. Yesterday I recognized that I’ve fallen into an old pattern in regards to breakfast. I know that Jamie is going to read this and will be a bit upset about what I’m about to admit, but the good news is that I’m owning up to it and will work to change it. Due to my work load I’ve been trying to get into work earlier, which means that I’ve cut out 1/2 hour to 45 minutes of time that I have at home to get ready for work. That means that I don’t have time to make eggs or anything else. I simply pour myself a bowl of granola or gluten-free cereal and scarf it down. Jamie, I am taking a ruler to my knuckles right now as I type OWIEhrohwro…. see…

With that fresh realization on my mind I have set some goals for myself in August:

1. Lay off the cereal/granola/carbohydrates for breakfast. Even if it means that I have to prep something the night before and just toss it in the microwave in the morning.

2. SERIOUSLY… look into exercise programs! I am considering joining the Y, but I have to determine if I will actually stick with it.

3. Spend more time doing stress-relief activities. This will probably end up conflicting with #2 as I don’t consider exercise stress-reducing. In fact, it tends to induce stress because I have to actively work in the time to exercise, which stresses me out because then I’m decreasing the amount of time that I can spend sewing, playing piano, reading, or blogging.

So those are the goals that I’m going to work on in August. If I can only really do one of those then I will be happy. I love the fact that I’ve lost so much weight by changing my diet, but I know that I can be healthier and in better shape if I just give it a little more effort. The biggest problem for me will be overcoming my DNA which predisposes me to avoid most forms of physical activity that is considered to be “good for you”.

I did manage to have a break-through of sorts this past month. If you know me then you know how much I LOVE my sweet tea even though I’m a Yankee. When I go out to eat with my friends I usually order unsweet tea and then add stevia to it in order to make it sweet. Well, this past month I bought some unsweet tea at the store, which I could just brew my own but that would require me to think ahead and actually do it. I was busy and just wanted something to drink so I drank it without sweetening it. I wrinkled my nose the first few times, but now I’ve grown used to it and have begun drinking it like that all the time at home. YIKES! Can you believe that I just admitted that?! I am drinking UNSWEET TEA! *faints*

This coming weekend I will be experimenting a little more with stevia. My garden has supplied me with three nice-sized zucchinis and I’ve been itching to make zucchini relish. My parents made it when I was younger and I prefer it to your regular dill relish. I have gathered up all of the ingredients and will attempt to can some on Saturday. The recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar (YIKES!) and I balk at putting that much into my relish. I know that stevia can have kind of an off-putting taste if used in the wrong amounts, but I’m going to attempt to use it in my relish this weekend. I bought a baking mix that is part stevia and part cane sugar. My thought is that if I can at least cut down on the amount of regular sugar being used then that’s better than using full-strength sugar, right? The baking mix that I bought says that you use 1/2 cup of the mix for every 1 cup of full sugar. Again, I’m not sure how it will work out, but I’m going to give it a shot. I will post on my blog how things go.

The other good thing is that just recently my stress has been reduced BIG TIME at work. My incompetent boss was let go, so the tension has been greatly reduced in my department. We still have the same work load, but now we don’t have to worry about an incompetent moron messing up our quotes or having to fix something that he messed up. This should help my overall well-being a lot.

I guess that’s it for now. Wish me luck with my August goals!