Long time no post ... sorry.

I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping up on this blog for the last couple of months, or keeping up with taking care of my body. I haven't had a single day off in a long time (working 7 days per week and up to 12 hours per day for over 6 weeks now) and everything just sort of broke down.

I stopped logging my foods on loseit, and then I started again briefly, and then I stopped again. I have been getting exercise, but not purposefully exercising. My weight is, unfortunately, back up where it started at the beginning of the year.

I was inspired recently to restart my pedometer tracking since I am having trouble setting aside specific time to exercise. It took me a bit to find the thing, and it was out of battery juice, so I've gotten replacement batteries that I need to put in there. I'm going to start that tomorrow, and try to set a modest goal of increasing my weekly steps 5% each week. Several years ago I did a program where I was supposed to increase my steps 10% each week and I just couldn't keep up with the pace. I have a feeling that with everything going on right now, I had better just pick something manageable so I don't have another "failure" on my hands.

So...I've had a setback, but this isn't the end of things. I'm going to keep pushing forward.

My mom (although she lied to the whole family about it) had lap-band surgery about 10 months ago, and has lost about 65 pounds. She'll say something like, "All I had to eat today was a handful of almonds," and actually be genuinely proud of that. I think it's unhealthy... sick even. She keeps finding ways to bring up her weight loss in conversation with me.

I'll be posting more often now, to try and get myself back on track.

The assumptions of others (2011 Week 35 Update)

I lost 0.2 pounds last week.
I was 238 calories under budget.
I didn't log my food and exercise one day.
Exercise included walking (mostly at work) and gardening.
My diet was 9.5% protein.

Recently at work, there was a fundraiser for the alzheimers association. Two of my coworkers made homemade salsa and chips, sold for $5 per container, and all the staff and residents could buy them and the proceeds went to the nonprofit.

The residents where I work are older and forgetful, and one woman came to the desk, very angry, wanting to know where her salsa and chips were. She hadn't ordered any, but she was sure that she had. The woman who is in charge of the event made her a special batch just to keep her happy -- she brought the salsa that day, and the chips a few days later. We called her and told her the chips were ready for her to pick up, and she didn't pick them up...and still didn't pick them up.

I came into work yesterday, and the bag was open and much depleted. "Where did Pat's chips go?!" I asked, and my coworker explained to me that Pat said she didn't want them anymore, and she and our other office worker had been snacking on and off through the day.

Later, our manager came out to give me my lunch break before she went home, and when I got back from my meal, she looks at me kind of condescendingly, and says..."I notice these chips are open...have you been eating Pat's chips?!"

It kind of hurt my feelings that she would think I had just been tearing into someone else's food because it was there and handy. I explained the situation, and kind of made a joke out of it, and she laughed...but it hit me the wrong way.

Up a little again...(2011 Week 34 Update)

Up 1.4 pounds last week. :-(
Under 498 calories
Only 1600 exercise (walking, cleaning)
12 % protein

I haven't been extremely focused on fitness and weight loss recently but I am still tracking everything, every day. Sometimes the numbers going up and down seem so arbitrary. And I know that if that's the case I need to find OTHER measurements or successes to focus on. And loseit is helping with that---hey, I met my calorie goal last week, that's good. But whine, whine I wish my numbers were getting smaller faster.

My new job has started to feel a lot more manageable, and my class this fall is going well. I really need to start working more gym and exercise time back into my schedule. I think I'll work on that tonight.