(Almost) A Week without Carbs

When I got back from vacation and a month of not tracking my points on Weight Watchers, my husband and I both jumped on the scale to see the damage. Last time I weighed myself in mid-July I was 183. Last Monday morning, I was 190. Yikes. That's a big jump in one month. I wanted to get back on track but knew that my typical pattern of eating well while at work then gorging at night and on weekends wasn't going to work.

I've never tried a no-carb or even low-carb diet before because it really didn't appeal to me, and I didn't think cutting out carbs made that big of a difference. But I needed to do something different, and I really wanted to get as far away from the 190s as quickly as possibly.

I didn't eliminate all carbs, but pretty close. Tuesday, I slipped up and had a few heaping spoonfuls of Bridget's macaroni and cheese, and I had granola on my yogurt on Monday. Otherwise, I was pretty good during the week even when the family and I went out to eat on Thursday. My husband almost ordered corn bread, though, and that would've killed me. Apparently, my telepathy worked, because he ordered potato salad instead, thankfully.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

By Saturday morning, I was down 7.4 lb (!!!), but the real challenge was coming up when I was going to a wedding reception barbecue later that day and having my parents over Sunday.

Saturday

Sunday

At the party Saturday, I basically ate whatever I wanted within reason and managed to rack up an estimated daily allowance's worth of points in just a few hours. Sunday was back to business, but I did sneak one Megastuff Oreo. This morning was the moment of truth, and I weighed in at 183.2 lb, down 6.8 lb in a week. I'll take it! I don't expect to lose that much next week because I know you lose a lot when you first start a new diet, and then it tapers off, but it was a nice jumpstart.

While I had some serious cravings during the week for things like cupcakes, candy, and basically everything, and I even had a dream about eating cookies, I actually didn't go hungry. Being full, or at least satisfied, helped a lot. When I usually do Weight Watchers with all the carbs, I find I'm starving and torture myself with salads at lunch to stay within my daily points. I did have a couple salads this week, and I accidentally skipped lunch altogether on Friday, but I wouldn't say I was starving at all. Who would've thought? Oh yeah, anyone who knows anything about nutrition. Silly me.

I didn't exercise at all last week, but I do plan on getting back into my regular Zumba and yoga this week and see how it goes. I usually gain a little when I start working out again, which I know is a good thing because I'm building muscle, but I just wanted to see the numbers drop to get back on track first.

This weekend, we're headed to Nashville with some friends, and I know lots of wine drinking is going to happen, so hopefully I don't mess this up too bad and reverse everything.