296.8

I'm trying not to be discouraged about gaining .8 pounds. I'm sure I'm just bloated or something. It could even be a difference in the clothes I was wearing. It still stings a little. I know I messed up a few times over the week (sigh ... Billy Barou, I still love you), but I still felt like we were successful overall.

We've kept up our streak of cooking dinner every night. We're up to almost 2 weeks straight! Again, as I've mentioned before, this is REALLY good for us! I acknowledge that has been a positive change. The only times we ate fast food were when we ate healthy options from Chick-fil-a (the chargrilled chicken and fruit salad ... so good and only 7 points for the salad, crunchy, yummy granola, and fat free honey mustard dressing).

We also went to the gym and worked out 4 times. That was 4 times more than we've been in the last, hmmm, oh, I'd say at least 6 or 7 months.

So we're doing OK! I can shed that extra weight in no time if I stick to the plan this week.

One of my goals this go 'round is to be more forgiving of myself. Not forgiving to the point of making excuses to do anything I want, but forgiving enough that I can make a mistake and move on. If I gave in to temptation and ate snacks at community group, I'm going to acknowledge where I could have planned ahead and try to learn from it.

In the past, I've let my mistakes pile up on me and turn into excuses to make more mistakes, which just ultimately resulted in me giving up on the diet completely. I don't want to do that this time.

As I was walking to my car after work today, I had an idea that I might pursue. I think I'm going to make a weight loss box. It will contain things such as pictures and lists of reasons I want to lose weight. When I'm feeling discouraged and want to quit the diet, I'm going to pull out my box and remind myself why I'm dieting in the first place.

If I go through with my plan for the box, I'll post some photos and whatnot that will give you a glimpse inside the box (Doesn't that sound thrilling? I don't mean that sarcastically ... I love it when people offer me glimpses inside boxes!).