The first week of my six-week burst went fairly well. I stuck to my healthy eating goals pretty well. I stayed away from the junk food and practiced good portion control. I exercised five out of the seven days, taking one night off because I got home late, and one night because I had bruised my foot pretty and it needed a break. I even tried that spinning class.

Unfortunately, it didn’t have the desired effect – I didn’t lose a single pound. At this point, I’m hoping the burst will have a cumulative effect. I do tend to gap down in weight, so hopefully I’ll drop a couple of pounds three weeks in or something. Although, I know I won’t get to work out Thursday or Friday this week, and I probably won’t get to work out Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Thursday is my birthday, and while I could “give myself the gift of fitness” or some such corny thing and actually go to the gym after work, I think I’d prefer to give myself the gift of Indian food for dinner and snuggling by the fire with my husband instead. Friday night I promised to go to a Pampered Chef party that my mom’s friend is having, and I know there’s no way I’ll get to work out that night. And then next week I have work-related dinners two nights. Theoretically if those end early enough, I might get to work out. We’ll see.

You know what is not good? Annie’s whole wheat deluxe creamy macaroni and cheese. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is awful. I have always been an eager supporter of Annie’s products. I like their philosophies. I like that they are headquartered in Wakefield, MA, which is my mom’s hometown. I like their salad dressings. I even usually like their macaroni and cheese. However, I most certainly do not like their whole wheat deluxe creamy macaroni and cheese. It is particularly not good when you are sitting down to dinner at 9:40 at night. At 9:20, I said to John, “I’d really like to have soup, but if I make that, I won’t get to eat until 10, and I’m really hungry. I think I’ll try this new whole wheat macaroni and cheese I bought.” And then I tried it, and it was inedible, which left me back where I started, except by then I was even hungrier, and also slightly bitter.

I tried my first spinning class tonight. Everyone kept telling me it would be the perfect exercise to help me break through a plateau and take my fitness to a higher level. Plus, Becky has been after me to try a class with her. I wasn’t sure about it. Part of me was worried it would be too hard and I’d pass out and fall off the bike, or throw up or something equally humiliating. But it really wasn’t that bad. Don’t get me wrong – it was hard – good hard! My first clue about what I was really in for was when I got there and Becky said “You made it! I’m so glad. Hey, I brought you a towel and a water bottle because I forgot to tell you that you’d need them.” Forgot, or conveniently neglected to mention it so I wouldn’t freak out ahead of time? Probably a smart move on her part, since I was already anxious.

Day two of my six week burst was a bit of more of a success than day one. I managed to both eat healthy and make it to the gym, which I’m sure will be the key to pulling this off right. Ok, I admit that I may have swung by the candy corner at work, but I didn’t actually eat any of the candy. I just considered eating it. Hey, my job is related to the stock market, so today was a busy day for me. Considering candy doesn’t seem like all that much of a fault.

But I made it through the day, and then put in 30 minutes on the elliptical and 35 minutes on the treadmill. It was tough going on the treadmill because the room was really crowded and way too hot, but I stuck with it.

Day one of my six week burst was only partially successful.

I had my official weigh-in. I'm starting at 142 pounds.

I was able to stick to my goal of eating healthily all day. There were no cups of hot chocolate, and no unauthorized snacking. I ate my healthy lunch that I brought from home, and had my apple and string cheese with whole wheat crackers at my usually scheduled snacking times.

But then I got stuck at work late, and I had to run errands, and by the time I got home I was so hungry there was no way I could work out before dinner. And since I didn’t get home until after 8:30, I was too tired to work out after dinner. Stupid Oscars keeping me up late and tiring me out.

The Diet Channel had us on a hiatus for a little while there so they could do something technical and upgradey. I don’t know exactly what. And then when they let us bloggers back in, it coincided with an insanely busy week for me, so I’m even farther behind everyone else.

But I’m back now, and raring to go. In fact, the timing is particularly good, because my weight loss has slowed to a rate that is best described as glacial, and I needed something to give me a push. It’s not that I’ve gone back to eating junk food or I’m not working out. I’ve been exercising faithfully. In fact, just last Friday I ran six miles for the first time. I’m steadily getting stronger and fitter and even thinner looking. But the scale is not budging. This may be because it is hard to always be vigilant and perfect. I may not be going out of my way to eat junk food, but I have had pizza when they got it in at work, and I may have scarfed down a girl scout cookie or two lately. Always carefully portion controlled but perhaps I have not been as strict as I could be.

The scale and I are on speaking terms again.  My friend Jules reminded me that you usually weigh a little bit more right before you get your period, and she was right.  As of yesterday I’ve broken through my plateau and I’m back on track.

Whew! What a relief. 

Right now I’m in a fight with my scale.  It says I haven’t lost any weight since right around Thanksgiving. I say even with all the Christmas cookies I consumed, that should be impossible.  Particularly since I never stopped working out and I’ve been very good since the start of the New Year.

Jerky scale.  It may have the power right now, but I will win in the long run.  Sooner or later, it will have to move!  And in the right direction, too!

I’ve been having a series of meetings at my office this week.  Yesterday we got breakfast and lunch in from Balducci’s, and everything they sent was delicious.  I had a little tiny pastry with strawberry jam for breakfast, and a tasty veggie/whole wheat pita sandwich for lunch, along with fresh fruit, potato salad and some fancy cheese and crackers.

Today, on the other hand, they forgot to send breakfast, so someone from my office had to run out to Panera to grab bagels and cream cheese.  And she had to place a last minute order from Chicken Out for lunch.  Guess who doesn’t really feature any vegetarian options?  That would be Chicken Out.  They have chicken Caesar wraps, and barbeque chicken wraps, and Asian chicken wraps, and something that I think was turkey, but they definitely don’t have veggie wraps.  I know this because I wasted a bunch of time doing the awkward “poke the wrap without touching it while trying not to hold up the line” maneuver.  I had mashed potatoes and a quarter of a chocolate chip cookie for lunch, which is not exactly healthy. 

Instead of talking about me, let’s talk about my husband for just a minute.   

He has, perhaps motivated by the success I’ve had over the past nine months, has decided to join me on the getting fit/losing weight wagon.  It’s interesting to see him just starting out on the same path I took – figuring out what he can and can’t eat, working hard to change his habits and even harder to resist temptation.  So far, he’s made it a week without his beloved soda.  He’s been riding our exercise bike a few more minutes each day, and today he added in push-ups and sit-ups.  He’s pretty determined so far.  He’s even overcome a broken belt on our elderly and somewhat busted up exercycle (duct tape really can fix anything) and kept on going.