Last week was my birthday week and I was very excited. I was
turning 50! I always thought 50 was old. When did I get old? AARP here I come! To
help me celebrate, several friends and family were planning on taking me out to
eat. One friend even threw me a party! Why do celebrations always have to involve food? Normally, I am up for putting on the
feed bag and stuffing my face. I guess that explains how I got to Weight
Watchers, huh? This should be interesting.
Pizza, Chinese/sushi buffet, party, Mexican. How was I going
to eat, I mean get through this week and stay on track with Weight Watchers? I
decided I was not going to worry about my weight this week, but how? How could
not worry about it, eat what I wanted, but not totally sabotage my weight loss efforts? I was going to have to dig
deep for this one! Real deep. Time to
pull everything I had learned from Weight Watchers. I could do this. It was just
going to take some strategizing and major willpower. I was going to enjoy myself,
but use what I learned about portion control and good choices.
Counting points really wasn’t an option during my birthday
week because of the variety of foods, so I was going to have to use other
techniques.
·
Eat
something lower in calories before I went out. That way I wouldn’t scarf down
everything in sight. I’ve done that
before. It was not a pretty sight.
·
Drink some water. This would fill my stomach
to keep me from pigging out.
·
Making smarter food choices. Healthier choices, healthier me. J
·
Use
portion control This would be a good idea too.
The question
is, could I actually stick to all of this?
And so it began. The first birthday meal came - Pizza. The
friend I was going out with is also on Weight Watchers, so we decided together
to go with their seafood pizza. We justified the seafood pizza by saying it was
healthier than a greasy meat pizza. So what if it had Alfredo sauce on it. That
didn’t count. Right? We also ordered a seafood salad with a light dressing. We
both love seafood, so this worked well for both of us. It was delicious. One
day down.
Second, Chinese/sushi buffet. This was not as easy as the
pizza because it was all very good and so many choices. I decided to have what
I wanted, and limit the portions. To celebrate my birthday, they brought out
three little pieces of cake with a candle and sang happy birthday to me. I
couldn’t leave the bite sized pieces of cake there. That would have been rude! J
Then we decided we wanted
ice cream. Again, I went for it. Vanilla, honey, ginger flavored. I only got one dip and took my time eating it.
It was well worth it. Second day down.
The third outing was Chili’s. I looked at the menu online
ahead of time and decide to have their fish and shrimp tacos. They were very
good. I had some chips and salsa too. Water to drink. Oh, the sacrifices I make
for Weight Watchers. Sigh…
And finally, The Dinner Party! I went over early to help with
food prep and set up. While we were out getting last minute things for the
party, we got small tuna subs for lunch to tide us over til dinner time. We
didn’t even get chips!
Since I knew about the party ahead of time, my friend and I
planned the menu together, and it ended up being mostly gluten free, which was
going to help keep the carbs down, too. A few of the items were single
servings, so that helped with portion control.
The Menu
Appetizers: glazed bacon, grilled asparagus, cheeses & crackers
1st course: baked shrimp
2nd course: Caprese salad
Main course: peach & Riesling glazed ham, sesame ginger chicken & pineapple kabobs, fresh green beans, potato salad, and cornbread
Appetizers: glazed bacon, grilled asparagus, cheeses & crackers
1st course: baked shrimp
2nd course: Caprese salad
Main course: peach & Riesling glazed ham, sesame ginger chicken & pineapple kabobs, fresh green beans, potato salad, and cornbread
Dessert: Irish
Cream Chocolate Mousse. They called it Jim’s Grave Dirt, (gummy) worms and a
song included! Thanks, guys! LOL
Drinks: Pam’s Sangria, Malbec wine, sweet
tea and water.
Yeah,
my friend likes to really bring it! Everything was amazing. I can still taste the mousse!
The next week came.
The day of reckoning had was upon me.
Weigh in
Day!
I stepped
on the scale. Moments later…. 3.8 pounds down!
What?
I had to ask again to be sure. It
was true. I was down 3.8 pounds after my birthday week! How did that happen? Apparently the smarter choices when possible,
portion control, and going to the gym in between all worked. Yes!
So, there
it was. My birthday week was over. I was able to eat what I wanted, with a
little sacrificing. I was able to navigate my way through some weight loss
obstacles and I lost more than I thought I would. Happy birthday to me!
I hope that
this will be encouraging to others on their weight loss journeys. There will be
challenges along the way, but with some planning, you can get through it.
