At the end of last week I started weaning myself of soda. It’s been an overall easy experience except for the painful headaches that wake me up in the middle of the night and the horrible insomnia I had at the beginning of week. You’d think getting rid of caffeine would help me sleep but for the first few nights I was wide awake until all hours of the night. The last few days have been awesome though. I start getting sleepy and by 11 at the latest I’m falling into bed and right to sleep. I’ve gone from drinking atleast a 2 liter of diet soda a day to one 12 oz. in the middle of the day. I don’t have one on my way to work anymore. I deal with being fuzzy and wake up normally instead of the artificial alertness. A few weeks ago for E’s birthday we went out with friends to this great restaurant called the Casbah and over the course of our 2 hr. dinner I had 6 sodas. SIX. WTF!?

There’s no soda in the house anymore. It’s either Crystal Light or water. 

E and I both have issues with food but they’re very different. I do better when I’m losing weight myself not part of a gym or a program and E needs the structure. She also realized she needed more help. We decided to attend an OA meeting to see if this was the thing that would help her. 

I woke up on Saturday and my whole body felt so weird. I was horribly bloated and my ring hurt my finger so bad that I almost had to take it off. I had a teeth hurting migraine and didn’t want to go to the meeting but E needed to go so I got up. Before we went we stopped at Publix so I could jump on the scale. I got on and almost cried. It said 215. In the space of a week I’d gained 5 lbs. Though I ate alot of food at the baby shower we had at work on Friday and tore up some Dim Sum on Thursday I had walked atleast 3 miles everyday of the week and kept my eating in good shape up until Thursday. 

Usually I would have grabbed whatever food was closest to me at the register and shoved it in my mouth. I didn’t this time. I got a diet caffeine free coke and a 170 cal. rice krispie treat so I could take my meds. 

When we got to the meeting I felt really good that I’d kept it under control. 

Sunday I went back to Publix and the scale said 213.5 which makes ALOT more sense especially because that’s where I was before I got sick. Plus I realized that the whole week I had been eating frozen dinners chock full of sodium which I hadn’t been doing for awhile after E got home.

I haven’t really checked my weight this week and I promised E I wouldn’t until Saturday. I’ve been walking and eating between 1200-1400 a day so I should be good. We’re going to the Running of the Brides in either Atlanta or South Florida in March so I want to lose 6 lbs. a month to put me at 180 or so when we go. That’s a good weight I’d feel comfortable at. I’d like to lose 20 more after that but if I can lose 10 to be at 170 I’d be happy.

It's been a month of craziness. Things at home have been good. It's so nice to have E back after a summer without her. Wedding plans are starting to seriously roll and I'm freaking out because this is the time of year that FLIES by because almost every weekend from now until the end of the year we will be running around doing something with someone. 

HOW am I supposed to plan a wedding and lose weight in all of that!?

Catch a horrible sickness helps. :D

I got horribly, horribly sick last week. I mean losing 3 lbs. in 2 days because I didn't eat for almost the whole week. By Friday I had to go to the doctor who almost put me in the hospital but gave me a shot and meds instead and sent me home.

I'm feeling SO much better but MY GOD it was worse than my gallbladder surgery.

I'm down to 210. We're going to D.C. Oct 10-12 for the National Equality March and to visit friends. I want to lose ATLEAST 8 lbs. before then. That'll put me at 36 lbs. since I was there last year. 

It's starting to cool down here so I'm finding it easier to ramp up the walking. Plus I had two different people come up to me yesterday and say something about how they see me walking all the time and how much weight have a lost? They can really tell. I was really proud of myself because after one woman said something about my weight loss there was part of me that wanted to bust out the old, "Oh thanks but I have SO much further to go!" I bit that back and instead told her thank you so much and told her how she'd made my day. I was on a freaking HIGH after that. I was so happy.