Alas, today hasn't been much calmer, so it's going to have to be a quick one.

No, I'm not out of the 250s yet.

The number: 252.0.

So, I lost just less than a pound. Not exactly what I had hoped for.

And the big challenge this week, my final week before my self-imposed Thanksgiving deadline to be out of the 250s, is that I'm taking a road trip up to Seattle to support Real Salt Lake at the MLS Cup. That means 14 hours of driving on Saturday, another 14 on Monday and a whole day in between in the rainy city with some of the best seafood I'll get my desert-dwelling hands on.

But I'm serious about dropping this weight this week, so I'm going to behave myself on this trip. Nothing fried. Nothing creamy. I'm going to stick to my points, even on the road. I know how to make good decisions at the drive-through, it's now just a matter of making them.

I'm hopefuly my Thanksgiving Day weigh-in will yield good results.

Onward and Downward!

First, I bought a Banana Keeper, a plastic arm that allows me to hang my bananas up instead of laying them on the counter. It's kept my bananas fresher for way longer, and actually given me the time to eat all five of the fruits I buy in a bunch.

The other two are actual foods.

First, I just want to say the food makers at Yoplait are geniuses. For 100 calories and no fat, or 2 little points, I can get the flavor (all the way down to the graham-cracker crust) of Key Lime Pie or Lemon Cream Pie. Their pie-flavored yogurts are just phenomenal, and totally get me past the thought of skipping a traditional dessert that would blow my points total for the day.

The other snack that gets me past my chocolate cravings is Jell-O's Mousse Temptations. For 60 calories and 3 grams of fat (or 1 itty-bitty point) I get to have the velvety, fluffy richness of mousse. I'm trying not to drool as I type about it.

It's those three things, coupled with my trusty Shredded Wheat Honey Nut, that caused me to do the happy dance in the shower this morning after I weighed myself.

The number: 252.8.

Woo hoo! That's another two pounds gone, and I'm so close to being out of the 250s that I can visualize the 24os number pop up on the scale. I'm so excited for next week's weigh-in already!

Onward and Downward!

The number: 254.6.

Not quite half a pound.

I was disappointed, but realized such a result was likely as I'm fighting back from this pneumonia, which totally has zapped my lung capacity. I've had to seriously reduce the amount of stairs I'm taking lest I dissolve into a 15-minute fit of hacking coughs.

But this week, I'm tracking every point and working hard to get these pounds to disappear. I want to be out of the 250s before I visit my extended family members for Thanksgiving. It's a goal I know I can make, and I really want to have the feeling of excitement when I pull out the scale for my weekly weigh-in instead of one of fear.

So here's to an awesome week ahead of me!

Onward and Downward!

I was hit hard with a sinus infection, which then morphed into pneumonia. It was a week and a bit of gasping for air, rubbing my nose raw with tissue and watching the hours slip away in a confused delirium.

Today is the first time I've been sitting upright and seemingly human in more than a week. I sequestered myself to my parents' house for the entire week and weekend, and have just been fighting for breath and doing my best to avoid any exposure to swine flu in a compromised state.

I did get on the scale on Thursday, and it hadn't budged. It likely was a combination of drinking entirely too much orange juice and basically just being a slug in a recliner for 10 days.

The good news is that Halloween candy provided very little temptation as I couldn't (and, really, still can't) taste much. That, combined with the fact that my throat felt like it was on fire, really kept a lot of stuff out of my mouth.

I'm sorry for not publishing on the blog last week, but I really couldn't string two words together verbally let alone on a computer screen.

I'll be sure to publish this week's weigh-in on Thursday. Right now, I'm just grateful that I can take a breath without wheezing and the coughing for 20 minutes.

Onward and Downward!

However, that doesn't mean I haven't been following my plan or weighing in when I'm supposed to.

I think, though, that my body has hit that momentary slow-down that always seems to follow a couple weeks of big losses.

The number this week: 255.0.

So, only 1.8 pounds in two weeks. But I'll take it. It's weight that's gone from this body, and it marks one of the rare times that I lost weight while traveling and dealing with high-stress situations.

During the several days I spent with my aunt and uncle, I got to be more active than usual, running a 5K on an elevated track, swimming for 90 minutes and learning new respect for old-school farmers as we three spent a couple hours digging up potatoes and pulling up tomato and other vegetable plants in preparation for winter.

We did, though, have a fabulous meal at a fancy French restaurant in Moscow, Idaho called West of Paris. The restaurant boasts a Lyons-trained chef and a delectable menu. We worked hard and ate small amounts of food all day in order to prepare for the calorie overload that waited for us. I'm sure it didn't help the weigh-in, but I did my best to prepare for such a rich meal. The good news is the portions were far from overwhelming, so it wasn't too difficult to make sure I didn't completely gorge myself.

I throughly enjoyed my time away, got through the tougher stuff this week, and I'm excited to be back on a lower-drama diet this week. I'm hopeful I can keep my body losing weight, and maybe kick it up just a notch.

Onward and Downward!

It's been one of those weeks where I had a couple of days in a row where I felt like I could have eaten three times my body weight and still been hungry.

But while it's been a tough week, it's also been a victorious one.

I didn't eat any more than the points given to me each day, and I made very healthy choices. I fought the urge to drive through Arctic Circle and get a super-huge caramel shake. I made active efforts to bring home fat-free hotdogs on a night when my family had an outdoor wiener roast and bought high-fiber pasta instead of joining in on the weekly spaghetti-fest my parents seem to have.

I did break down once, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I could have allowed it to be. Fruit just wasn't sating my sugar craving, so I bought a box of the 100-calorie snack packs of Hostess chocolate cupcakes. Each package is worth 1 point, and I ate two. But I still stayed within my point allowance for the day. I know it likely wasn't the healthies thing to consume, but sometimes, you just need the taste of processed junk food. Or at least I do.

But my self-control totally paid off.

The number: 256.8.

That's 2.4 pounds, and the lowest I've been in a very long time. And it was a great feeling getting on the scale this morning not with fear and worry, but excitement to see a smaller number. That's a sensation I haven't had in quite a while.

Yes, the last two days were a constant battle, but my high-fiber Shredded Wheat Honey N' Nut cereal seems to be holding just fine this morning.

And the important thing is that I battled through the cravings and found ways to get around binge eating a bunch of terrible food.

Now, I'm totally excited to get on the scale next week!

Onward and Downward!