How I Started the Day Struggling and Ended It Smiling

This morning I got on the scale, as I’ve been doing every morning, and it was up, AGAIN. Not way up, but up enough that I got frustrated, upset, angry, and disappointed. In life. With my weight. In myself. Because I know better. And I deserve more.

Here’s the deal. The other day I went to a cooking class with a group of friends and had a great time. But I also had wine and food that wasn’t part of the Lean & Green plan. And I gave myself a pass because it “doesn’t happen very often” and “I don’t want to be a hermit” and “I’m going to do Zumba the next day and burn over 1000 calories, so I’ll make up for it.” I even blogged something along those lines.

But obviously my body went into “shock” and it didn’t matter how much I worked out this week. I’m up on the scale, so that one night of fun and frivolity set me back a week. Ugh. And then I know what’s going to happen, I’m going to get so frustrated and upset that I’m going to go WAY off the plan, and then it will send me into some sort of tailspin.

Not this time. Not to me. Not when I’m this close.

So this morning when I was upset, LC reminded me that I really needed to make the choice to stick with Medifast completely, without deviation, for this short amount of time. And she’s right. I mean, c’mon, I’m not going to be on this plan forever: it’s a means to an end. So as such, I should treat it that way and stick to it totally. No exceptions. No tastes. No excuses. I can do it. This is the perfect time of year, since I’m not that big into St. Patty’s Day or Easter. (And there’s always next year). My friends will understand that I need to meet them for a walk or for coffee rather than for wine and a meal. They support my weight loss. They know my immediate goal is to qualify for the lap band surgery. End of story.

So after the pep talk, I realized that instead of wallowing in it, I needed to DO something. Bella Does Life, after all. LC and I hit the farmers market and then Trader Joe’s. And then I did what any good Italian girl who likes to eat does – I cooked! And I cooked. And I COOKED. I made my Lean & Green meals for the entire week, plus some. Since I’m going to be taking them for lunch to work, I wanted to get them all ready ahead of time so I could just grab and go. Plus, I really didn’t want to have to deal with food on an empty stomach later in the week.

Here’s my menu for the week:

Monday: Italian Salmon Salad
Tuesday: Chicken “Club” Salad
Wednesday: Italian Tuna Salad
Thursday: Mediterranean Lentil Salad
Friday: Asian-Inspired Chicken Salad

I feel so organized now that I made all those meals and they’re all ready to go for the week. I know it’s going to help keep me on track. You guys know how much I love a stocked fridge, right, well just imagine how happy it makes me to see all this good-for-me food just waiting for me. I’d definitely say this is a NSV:

And for dinner tonight I made Langostino tails (frozen, from Trader Joe’s) with Zucchini “pasta.” The langostino were expensive, but it’s Oscar night, and they’re so low cal, I couldn’t resist.

Today reminded me that no matter how upsetting something is, there’s always a way around it or out of it. I showed myself that I really want this badly enough not to allow myself to fail. So I won’t.

I love this rinoculous that I picked up at the farmers market today. It’s a great reminder of my goals and how much I believe that I can accomplish them.

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