February 19, 2014

Greetings from Mars

Wow, thanks for all the great insight yesterday about whether to count or not to count in maintenance--I'm glad I asked! In my mind, it seemed like all the people I know who are maintaining their weight do it effortlessly, and don't have to count calories/points anymore. After reading the comments on yesterday's post, I realize that a lot of people still count and even struggle in maintenance. I love NOT counting, because it's so freeing, but I feel so much more in control when I do keep a food log and track my calories/points. So today, I counted calories and logged my food for the first time since early December.

It was really difficult going back to the measuring and writing things down today. I definitely made healthier food choices! I was kind of hungry in the afternoon, which is when I've been snacking way too much lately, and it was hard not to just say "one more day" of not counting. But I felt much better at dinnertime, because I was actually hungry for dinner, instead of already feeling kind of full and then eating dinner anyway.


I went to visit Mark today. He got a VERY unique card! He's gotten quite a few unique cards since his diagnosis, but this one just blew my mind. It was handmade out of brown paper lunch bags, which were glued together into a book in a way that made each page into a "pocket". And inside of each pocket was a card (or two or three). It was obvious that someone spent a LOT of time working on it, and I just thought it was the coolest thing. It was from a group at a marketing agency called MARS.


The pictures don't even really do it justice. I was just in awe at how much time someone spent on it. Even the individual cards that were inside of the pages were so cute and unique! Mark really enjoyed it, especially when I explained that it was from MARS ;)


The snow has been melting all day today! It's been in the high-30's and even low-40's, which truly feels like summer, after the winter we've had here in Michigan. My kids were complaining that they were too hot in their coats today, so when we went out to visit Mark and to Sam's Club, we all went jacket-less. It was wonderful!

When we were at Sam's Club, we walked by some flooring for sale, and Noah came up with an analogy that made me burst out laughing...

Noah: "Mama, we need to get REAL hardwood floors."
Me: "Noah, it would be nice to have hardwood floors, but we don't NEED them. There's nothing wrong with the floors we have."
Noah: "Our floors are like using fondant on a cake! You shouldn't put fake frosting on a cake, and putting fake wood on our floors is just as bad."


Bahaha, I even wrote down his exact sentence immediately afterward, so I wouldn't forget. He's been watching Cake Boss quite a bit lately, so maybe that's where he came up with that analogy ;)

The whole way home from Sam's Club, I just kept marveling at how the snow was melting. There was water everywhere, so this is going to be pretty messy as the snow melts. As I was typing this, I noticed water leaking from the ceiling in my bedroom--yay. When all the snow builds up on the roof, and then starts to melt, it can pool and form a leak. Awesome. I will be SO happy when all this snow is gone. I might even be able to run my long run outside on Friday :)

The kids wanted to play in the snow when we got home, and the snow in the yard is still pretty deep. I went out to take their picture, and stepped in up to my thighs! The kids made a snowman, complete with a giant carrot nose and potatoes for eyes.


The snow was way too wet and heavy to work with. I had to help them get the eyes and nose on the snowman, because the snow was more like slush. But it's nice that the boys were out there playing in it! I'm not even going to look at the forecast beyond today, because if this is supposed to freeze over, I don't want to know ;)

7 comments:

  1. i've been loving the past 2 days of 30-40 temps!!! however, we are supposed to get slammed with a blizzard tonight/tomorrow morning... 4-10 inches expected! YUCK!

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  2. I commented yesterday (OK, this morning, so you probably didn't see it til today), but on your thoughts today re: not tracking being freeing. I have to remind myself that regaining the extra weight is NOT freeing. Being in control and comfortable with that control is much more liberating for me. Just that sometimes it's really hard to remember that.

    Oh, and btw, thank you for writing. We need these stories told.

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  3. Katie--those first two paragraphs describe my life as of late EXACTLY! I'm not even hungry at supper, because I've snacked so much all afternoon. It is my WORST time. I have got to figure out something to get my mind off food in the afternoon somehow and right now. I'm afraid to get on the scale. I've even been having some heartburn at night, which I haven't had since I started losing weight, so I know I'm eating too much and the wrong stuff. I haven't tracked in a year or more, and I hate to think about doing it again, but maybe that's what it takes to stop this upward trend.

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  4. FWIW, I am a "normal" weight and always have been, and while I don't count calories exactly, I keep a general estimate in my mind. Now that I'm in my 30s, this keeps me from letting the weight creep up a pound at a time. Five years from now, I don't want to be carrying an extra 20 lbs and wonder how I got there. I want to be healthy as I age. So I don't know what you think "normal" is, but I think "normal" is being aware of what you eat.

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  5. I'm with you. Head in the sand because I don't want to know that we've got crappier weather coming our way!

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  6. My favorite quote about weight maintenance is:

    "Being overweight is hard, losing weight is hard, maintaining a healthy weight is hard. Pick your hard."



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  7. Our weather here is bipolar this year. 70s today and yesterday, but a week ago, we had a snow/ice storm. Its been this way all season ranging from below freezing to spring like weather within days of each other. I'm ready for some consistency myself.

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