Not Quite What I thought

So 4 weeks down and 5 lbs.  Yes!  I find it hard to believe it has been 4 week since I’ve changed my eating and movement lifestyle.  That time went fast, almost too fast. Blueberry didn't believe me yesterday when I told her it had been 4 weeks.  I had to get the calendar out to prove it.

Last week I hid my scale. It had been sitting unharmed for years in my bathroom right next to the sink.  Dusty old thing.  Then in January I dusted it off and thought it would help motivate me throughout the week. I mean who doesn’t like weighing themselves first thing in the morning, after pee’ing and with no clothing on? It’s the best you weigh all day.  I was only stepping on the little devil on Friday mornings just to give me an idea on how the weigh in would be on Saturday AM.  That little action would often set a tone with me, good or bad, for the day.  Finally last week I decided I didn’t need that.  I would know in my heart if I was doing well or not. 

Turns out last week I did well.

I had inadvertantly been sabotaging myself for a couple of weeks. See, I like a lot of viddles on my salads.  I had carefully checked all the calorie count and decided I wasn't using full servings and so it wouldn't be that big of a deal. And by the individual salad it really wouldn't, but when I was making these "little" salads twice a day all week, those calories add up.

Last week, I took the salads out of the food rotation altogether and focused on just veggies with my meals.  Between that and upping my work outs by 5 more minutes I lost 2.6 lbs. WOOT! (Of course after the weekend I had I may have added some of that back on – sheesh).

The Niece came to stay with me Saturday to spend some quality time with her favorite aunt.  I was 4 weeks behind on some photo assignments and thought since it was sunny and warm out that Sparky, The Niece, Puck and I should head to the beach. So we piled into Sparky, put the top down and off we went. 

These “assignments” from this photography class is really just inspiration lists. Nothing that was "due" per se.  The instructor calls them Treasure Hunts and it’s basically a list of a dozen items to consider photographing. The idea being to get you out of your comfort zone and to try to photograph things you might not normally think to photograph.  The Niece was the  official list holder.  As we walked along Alki she was rattling off items and we’d point and say, “OOOO something fuzzy.”  I’d run over and snap a photo of it.  

 Or she’d yell, “Girl with a funny hat.”

Or “Your feet in the sand”

And then she figured she had to take matters in her own hands and solve the “a heart in your path” item and built this heart with stones.  At which time I said, “You have a heart of stone.” And she just rolled her eyes like any young person would at a bad joke from you aunt.

Finally we had shot just about all we could wandering the beach.  I hadn't had lunch yet and it was WAY past my feeding time, so we headed up to a local place and had some Mexican food.  A dark, scary looking little shack that had pretty darn good food. On the way The Niece says, "A brightly colored popsicle - sort of - its cold at least" and she was pointing at this little gem. 

I asked the mom if I could take the little girls photo before I started shooting and while I was shooting this little girl stood staring off in the other direction, intently paying attention on something.  She never once looked my way and I snapped about a dozen shots of her. 

Sunday The Niece and I were up and out to breakfast at one of my favorite local places, Couzins. 

The Niece ordered chocolate chip pancakes and when this plate of sugar was delivered, she just looked down at it and said, "Well, I'd better dig in."  She was going to be on some kind of sugar high after that meal.  Thankfully she'd be in her car on her way home by the time that high came on and I wouldn't have to deal with the high then crash that would follow.  She headed out after breakfast and headed home.  It was great to spend time with her and just hang with a young lady who has her life mostly figured out.  But I have faith she'll get there and will make the right choices for her and her goals.

Yesterday afternoon was, in case you didn't know, the Superbowl.  I was rooting for the Patriots for no other reason than Drew Bledsoe played for them and he was the quarterback during my stint at WSU.  That and I'm not a Giants fan...Blueberry and the Pantry Goat came over and we sat and yammered on during the game and was silent during the commercials.  Which...were...horrible this year. Man, all that money for a TV ad and that's the best they could come up with? We decided the Doritos commercials were funny as was the VW commercial. Otherwise we figured it was a waste of time. In fact, we only really got interested in the game during the last 4 minutes.  That was when the Pantry Goat says, "So how do they get points?"