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By Cari, on February 10th, 2013 – I had a really good post, and then FireFox ate it 
I was going to say I stole this format from Jess, but I won’t put my weight on the internet (despite, you know, the fact that I did before) so I’ve modified it.
Weekly Loss: 3.0 lbs
Total Loss: 8.8 lbs
I’m a daily weigher/scale peeker. Fluctuations don’t bother me — but what has bothered me with the scale I bought this fall is that it doesn’t fluctuate. Oddly, that makes me not trust it. Bizarre. So I was peeking during the week and the scale wasn’t doing what it was supposed* to. I soon realized that was because a visitor was due.
Despite some poor food choices and thanks to said visitor taking leave, nice loss. I know I won’t get 3.0 lb losses each week – or maybe not any week – but I’ll take it while it lasts and I will re-learn that any loss is a good ones. For the first time since my initial run, I really feel like my brain, heart and stomach are in the right place. Game on.
Speaking of game. I hit the DietBet 4%! It doesn’t “count” until 25 Feb final weigh but there is no excuse not to collect my winnings and be ready for the next month.
*Yes, I know our bodies aren’t optimally tuned machines but I’m silly enough to want my body to do what it does when I eat the same thing day in and day out.
By Cari, on February 7th, 2013 11 days back OP
11 days tracking
10 days ( 8 work days) without m & ms although I badly wanted some when I was still at work at 9p yesterday and I had no Cheerios or snacks.
Yep, this is all day by day.
It’s Week 2 so I don’t have the w1 losses, but I’m not using that as an excuse to say “oh fuck it” as in “I’m not losing so I might as well not try”. Even the day that I fell into the bag of candy, I didn’t let it turn into days… and I tracked it.
I’m also fiddling with calories day by day. When I started Weight Watchers in March 2010 it was pre Points Plus and my point total a few months in, without using weeklies and/or APs, was about 1000 calories. I didn’t realize that at the time, and by the time I did I was set in my eating routine. According to LoseIt, I should be eating about 1300 calories a day. So I’m keeping a close tab on my numbers and seeing what works the best for me.
I just know for sure I’ll keep working it each day.I’m 82% of the way to my DietBet goal. I will do this.
By Cari, on February 4th, 2013 and not BNL’s One Week which is in my head for some inexplicable reason.
I have officially tracked everything for one week. I can’t remember the last time I did that. I’ve tracked about one week with a day or two missing because I didn’t want to face it or some other excuse, but not this time. I really think my head is finally back in the right place to finish this.
and maybe it’s no coincidence that I’m down 6.2 this week. Hello water weight but I’ll take it.
Huge thanks to Britt, Jess and Robby for kicking my ass and lots of advice. <3 you.
And now? I tuck into this salad that is roughly the size of my head.
“Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy. Like Kurosawa, I make mad films, ok I don’t make films, but if I did, they’d have a Samurai”
By Cari, on February 2nd, 2013 As I mentioned, eating out is a stressor for me. Has been since 2010 and honestly, probably always will be.
I didn’t bail on lunch Friday because I needed to get out. I used a strategy that a couple of friends mentioned and I’ve used in the past – pre plan. Well, sort of. I was all set that I wanted salmon which a) I love b) I can’t cook. But when we got the menu the only salmon they had on it was char-grill Salmon, organic beets, potatoes, saffron yogurt. The salmon is fine – the other three, not so much. So it was time to re-think and also keep in mind a price point because I was being treated and I hate over spending when someone else is paying. So I went with the crab cakes. Specifically: Jumbo lump, olive oil cured, blackeyed peas (95% Maryland fresh crab). It came with some deliciously spicy sauce that wasn’t on the menu. It was similar to a remoulade in texture so I used that for my tracking. I will not use not knowing what it is as an excuse not to track. It was good lunch with good friends and despite restaurant portions the soup salt bomb I had for dinner, I was still down .4 this morning. Win.
The aforementioned salt soup bomb? Yeah, that’s because I’m sick with my semi-annual cold. I have no voice and badly wanted the soother that is soup. However it was 9p when I got home and there is no good soup spot between my bus stop and apartment. The only thing I really miss about my old place is the diner on the corner. I could have had delivery but I wanted my soup and to go to bed so Progresso Italian Wedding it was. For canned soup it’s not terrible, but it’s also not as good as homemade soup. But it hit the spot. Didn’t use the cold as an excuse not to go to the gym and had a nice if not high intensity workout. Better than sitting on the couch – which its what I did after finishing errands & setting up my new humidifier. It is the little engine that could and I love it. Couldn’t believe how much drier this apartment is – such is the side effect of actually having working heat.
What do errands mean? Oh yeah, weekends. Aka Saturdays spend running around so that I can watch football, or soon, baseball on Sundays. The biggest change from my 2010 loss – cannot stomach Subway. The bread literally makes me gag. Have no idea why but I’ve had it once in the last few months and it still happened, so that’s gone. I still haven’t found the perfect lunch, but I did have a good sandwich today that I could almost taste. The biggest challenge for me has been avoiding snacks. The m&ms sit next to my desk at work but they’ve become a personal challenge to avoid. I don’t keep sweets in the house, but sweets are always a temptation while running errands. Today I avoided the siren song of sour patch kids. So good, but so bad since I can’t have only a handful. They are my potato chips. Good eating so far today. Aforementioned sandwich, a brief stop at Fairway’s olive oil bar (tracked!) with a handful of chips and guacamole. Nice cup of cinnamon tea and will likely have a smoothie before bed.
Will be nicely under LoseIt’s weekly budget and on track for DietBet. Life is good
By Cari, on January 31st, 2013 It took a lot of editing and re-editing not to call it “Q1 down the drain”, but I know Robby would brain me if I did that. 
I went off track with #GoTheDist last year when the weather got better. I naturally switched to walking home more which hurt my GTD goal (750 miles on the bike). I was at about 50% for the year (after a kickass 136% start to Q1) when I quit tracking there. But I just looked at my Map My Fitness totals and…. 682.9. 91.05%
I think if I’d realized I was so close I’d have pushed harder to find those miles.
But anyway, this year I flipped it. I made walking my primary goal and the bike secondary (translation: miles don’t count). Through January I’ve walked 16.28 miles an biked 58.89. Let’s see where that decision lands me. Right now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have switched up my main and alternate exercises.
By Cari, on January 30th, 2013 Had “coffee” scheduled with a colleague in the industry tonight and I was anxious. Not about seeing her as she’s good fun, but smart choices at dinner. I know there are healthier options at Starbucks but I can’t stand the taste of “skinny” drinks as I much prefer soy milk. Well coffee turned into “drinks” and I relaxed when I had an idea of their menu. Or so I thought. At least I could get an idea of the choices from Yelp.
Turns out we were both “watching what we’re eating” (aka every other woman in NYC) and we split an appetizer. I should have stayed away from the bread but… I tracked it. And it was good.
Speaking of tracking. I am in love with LoseIt after a few friends recommended it. When I first started this journey in 2009, I was on Weight Watchers. When I got tired of paying for WW meetings I wasn’t going to and an online tool that wasn’t working for me once they switched to Points Plus, I switched to SparkPeople. Spark was ok. It never worked for me in the way WW did but that could have been because I wasn’t working it the way I worked WW. I hated the app and I found the website clunky. Enter LoseIt and I feel like I’m in love. It graphs, provides a calorie budget (I’m also a Mint-aholic) and best of all supports daily WI so I don’t need to also keep my up Excel doc.
I’m not going to make excuses – but one of the main challenges I faced in tracking was trying to track in too many places: the excel spread sheet (weigh ins and factors that might have affected the numbers), SparkPeople for nutrition and MapMyFitness for exercise. Now It’s down to LoseIt and MMF with a check in on DietBet. I think that’s infinitely more manageable. I’m in the honeymoon phase since I even tracked a single dorito – but I have a good feeling.
Now on to two work lunches to round out the week. Wish me luck!
By Cari, on January 29th, 2013  If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up No, blogging isn’t going to be a daily thing. But this is really resonating with me today. I made a promise to my Hivers that I’m not going to have anymore Day 1s. Today is Day 2. Both tracked, including when I fell into the Cheerios. And the can of soup that was completely vile. Loathe to say I’ve lost “weight” as it’s really just water from adventures in a chili dip and russian coffee cake this weekend, but it’s a lower number.
And eating better. Even if it did take me an hour the past two nights to find peanut butter and bananas. Yep, smoothies a go. And something I forgot last night – no candy. I’ve proved to myself I cannot be trusted in moderation so it’s banned. Oh, and I stayed away from the evil m&ms today. Not even one.
A final thought on tracking. There’s no reason to fear it. The scale tracks anyway.
 Your body keeps an accurate journal
By Cari, on January 28th, 2013 that’s the new name of my game. I have maintaining down to a science. This year, I’m going to get the rest of my way to goal. Here are some small and big picture things I’m doing to achieve this accountability:
- Blog. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes. But when I was losing, I was blogging. So we’re going to try it again
- On the writing theme, I’m tracking. I was a master at tracking way back when and it’s time to go back. I don’t see what my road block is here. I face the foods when I see the number on the scale, it’s time to face it in my tracker. I tracked today. Including the m&ms. That’s a start
- Money. I joined Run With Jess‘ DietBet challenge at the instigation of a Hive friend. It cost me $10 but I will lose my 4% and if I do that every month it won’t cost me another cent I don’t think. AND if I hit the 4% goals each month (a big if, I know), I’ll hit goal by July, which gives me plenty of breathing room if I have an off month.
- #GoTheDist. I gave up on tracking this a chunk of the way through last year although I continued to track my workouts in MapMyFitness. But the challenge is a great motivator and it gets me to the gym when I don’t want to go.
- Smoothies. Yep, back to smoothies for dinner. They help with the salt retention and they give me my chocolate fix when I otherwise eat things I have no business eating when I get home.
- I’m not giving up soda. Not yet, at least. I was the queen of fake lemonade last time and while I’m contemplating getting a soda stream, I’m not ready to make the switch off soda. I’m afraid I won’t drink enough until it’s warmer. But it’s diet soda so that’s a partial win.
Other Notes:
- S is for Spark. as in the Spark to get to goal. As in SparkPeople. If I do what I did with Weight Watchers online, I can make it work with Spark. There is no difference in the foods I’m eating.
- I’m going to get my knees to the point where I can do more than one squat, or I’m going to quit putting off knee surgery and get it done.
So let’s see where this lands. That’s not everything, but it’s a start.
By Cari, on August 16th, 2012 I’m moving. No, I don’t know where. Hopefully still within Manhattan. Possibly Riverdale or NJ. I need some space and, ideally, cheaper rent. In the name of not doing this all the week I’m moving, I’ve committed to packing or purging a little each day. To make this saner, I’ve established some rules and I’m writing this out in the name of accountability.
Clothes:
- Stained: gone. No questions or wiggle room here. I own enough PJs and don’t wear stained clothes in public
- Too big: gone, with possible exception of potential gym clothes. I’ve lost too much weight to want or need fat clothes.
- Unworn this season – depends on why. If in one of the two categories above, gone. If not, maybe a reason to hang onto. Note: this only applies to work/dress clothes. Unworn play clothes are going as I have more than enough.
Books:
- Cheap paperbacks – gone. Can easily get form library or for Kindle. [Yes, just got a new toy. I'm already in love]
- Favorites – other than the three I can name by heart (Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters
 , Bill Bryson’s Neither Here nor There and Brad Newsham’s Take Me With You ) they can go. They can be replaced by Kindle/library copies in odd event I *need* a reread
- Sentimental favorites or ones I have yet to read that aren’t easily available via Kindle – I’ll keep
- Unread non-recent magazines – gone, unless collectable i.e. Giants’ SB winning, Yankees’ WS winning SIs
Furniture and Housewares:
- Held together by duct tape – gone. Held together by gorilla glue – maybe, if I need a coffee table temporarily
- Plasticware and paper goods – will keep enough to get me through initial move and toss rest. I have most of this from my housewarming. It needs a new home.
- Chipped/broken – hopefully gone.
Not comprehensive, but it’s a start. Any suggestions?
By Cari, on July 21st, 2012 that was never meant to be as long, but felt much longer on my feet.
I headed downtown to go to the New Museum’s Block Party with the plan of spending some time there and then walking home along the river. But do my wanders ever turn out as planned? I went from the Block Party (fun – good music, lots of stuff for kids) to the Museum to see new Ghosts in the Machine exhibit that I didn’t really get to see during my flyby visit on Tuesday.
I really don’t know the Lower East Side well at all despite recent forays and decided to have a wander on a gorgeous, sunny day. Didn’t have my camera, but had my phone and @travellingcari has a few thousand photos or so. This one, to me, sums it up though. The Lower East Side (and neighboring Chinatown and Little Italy) is a mix of old and new. From Bowery Mission to the New Museum, from the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral to the Whole Foods on Houston/Chrystie … it’s a fun land of contrasts.
Highlights today included**:
- original St. Patrick’s: very cool but hard to get a good shot since there’s so much traffic and congestion aroun dther
- Bowery Savings Bank: ditto the above and even more so as it’s in the thick of Chinatown on Grand St.
- 240 Centre Street aka the Police Building. Catches my eye every time – especially as you look down toward Centre. Definitely fits in better with City Hall and its neighboring buildings than its current surrounds, however it’s also a nice homage to European origins of Little Italy
- Germania Bank Building aka 190 Bowery. It looks abandoned but its roots are amazing and it’s now a single family home!!
- Bialystoker Synagogue aka Bialystoker the Beautiful aka I got cursed at in yiddish for my tats. Still an amazing building.
By the time I finished traipsing on the LES and across to the river, I didn’t check off much mileage on my Manhattan loop. Only from Corlear’s Hook Park to E. 10th, but it was a gorgeous day
**and now I blame Tim for putting Hart Island on my NYC bucket list.
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