30-Day Challenge: Days 16 - 19

Oh gosh, I'm so behind :| Ok, to summarise, I've been slacking a little the past few days. We had a couple of celebrations and to be honest I just wasn't in the mood to be stressing about calorie counts.  So the following amounts have been roughly estimated rather than religiously calculated.

Day 16 was just below 1,000 so not fabulous, but given that we went out for dinner it was ok.
Day 17 was A's graduation. More on this later; in intake terms it was pretty darn good for a day of celebrating! I was so busy rushing around in the morning I ate about 1 tbsp fat-free yogurt for breakfast, then nothing until dinner, which was 5 or 6 baby octopi (almost too cute to eat!) and a big bunch of steamed green veg. Add to that a couple glasses of champagne, a handful of strawberries, a couple sips of some kind of milky flavoured coffee, and half a chocolate chip cookie during the course of the evening and I'm pretty sure I stayed below 1,000, though I don't know by how much.
Day 18 I'd put between 1,300 and 1,600. Realistically it was probably closer to 1,600 though I'm pretty sure I didn't go over that (touch wood!)
Day 19 (yesterday) was Father's Day and my parents and brother came to our house for lunch. We cooked shish kebabs and rice-stuffed red peppers on the fire pit, and my mom brought her broccoli salad (so far, so healthy) but she also brought a cheesecake. I didn't really have dinner, but A and I sat in bed watching 'How I met my mother' (we've just discovered this show, so are still on Season 1, but totally hooked already!) and eating (air-popped) popcorn.

All in all, it was pretty mediocre, intake-wise. I got in one run and a couple walks, and most of graduation day was spent on our feet, so, again, neither good nor bad exercise-wise, either.

A's graduation on Friday was a lot of fun! He looked super-hot in his new suit, and the tailor did an excellent job lining my dress. I think we made quite a handsome pair if I do say so myself ;) I felt confident enough not to have to wear ugly slimming panties, which is always useful for things like, oh, breathing.

A unfortunately didn't win the award he'd been nominated for, but he did have two people from that firm express an interest in his work (which is more useful in some ways). So he has one interview on Friday, and another in the pipeline. Wish him luck!

We had a big argument on the way home from his graduation. I don't know if it was the release of so many months (or years, for him) of pressure, or general cumulative tiredness, or apprehension about this new stage in our lives, or what. But it was pretty horrible, and spilled over into Saturday. So we spent the rest of the weekend relaxing together and remembering the things we love about one another. It ended up being one of the best weekends I've had in a while :)

Ok, to the last few days' worth of questions:

When did you first decide to lost weight?
Wow... I have no idea. My mom has always trimmed the fat off our meat before cooking it, with a pair of scissors. I remember once being about 6 years old, evidently not understanding much about human anatomy, looking down at my little round tummy, and trying to do the same. For years I had two little scars about an inch above and below my belly button. But I first started thinking about diet and exercise when I was about 14. Actually, my close friendship with A and some of our mutual friends at that age probably helped stave off my developing an eating disorder any earlier than I did - I wanted to be "one of the guys", not some sullen girl pushing a salad leaf around my plate while they hung out over a bowl of nachos!


Do you have an eating disorder?
No. My BMI is currently 20.1, so at the low end of 'normal', and I don't fulfil any of the diagnostic criteria for either anorexia or bulimia. (For those who are curious, these are available here.) I also don't think I'm consistent enough in my weight obsession to qualify for an EDNOS, as I'm able to eat what others perceive as a normal amount of food without punishing myself, particularly when it benefits a relationship.  A couple of years ago I did fulfil the diagnostic criteria for anorexia. Disappointingly, the sense of achievement that came from reaching this "holy grail" lasted about three days before I set myself a new, thinner, target. This cycle went on for about a year, and one of the things that eventually pulled me out of it (I know, this isn't part of the question...) was reading a journal article which listed the potential effects of anorexia on pregnancy, even years after recovery, including an increased risk of premature birth or miscarriage, higher rates of "cot-deaths", higher rates of postnatal depression, decreased neural tube development in the foetus, and a host of things I can no longer call to mind. In fact, all post-ED pregnancies are automatically classed as high-risk, in the UK at least. Sometimes I'm tempted to fall back into that cycle of intensely hard work and briefly exhilarating rewards, then I think of my as-yet-unborn children and turn away.


What food is your weakness?
Regular readers, take a guess :) Ice cream, obviously!


When is the last time you ate fast food?
It depends what counts as 'fast food' - is it any restaurant food? In that case, those baby octopi on Friday. Or is it anything unhealthy? In that case, that slice of cheesecake on Sunday. Or is it specifically pizza or McDonalds etc.? In that case... I'm not sure. I think we ordered in a pizza a few weeks ago. For the most part I don't have a problem with occasional small portions of 'junk' food. If you want a slice of pizza once in a while, no harm done. If you binge nightly on a KFC bargain bucket, everyone loses, from the poor battery-farmed chickens to your arteries.

Well, I hope you all are happy and healthy and losing weight in a sensible way (all together now, "yes Mom...") I'm going to get my nose back to the grindstone for this last week-and-a-half of the challenge. At Saturday's weigh-in was another pound down, bringing my total loss to 4 1/2 pounds. Not exactly what I'd hoped for at the start of the challenge, but it's something. And hey, I'm having a blast along the way :)