The day has been spent, mostly, packing. I lapsed during the week and didn't keep up the "box a night" pace, so today was an attempt to catch up. Started with the china, inventorying as I went, then moved on to other serving pieces, glasses, and miscellany. There's always more miscellany...

Result: six boxes packed today, all "book boxes", which seem a good size for this sort of stuff. What's left in the kitchen is mostly either things I'll keep out for the duration, and a few items for these last two weekends while I still have a stove and an oven. Tomorrow I'll tackle the utility room as I do my laundry, because on Sunday I head back to Denver. I did take a break today to run some errands and go to Weight Watchers, where it was revealed that I've managed to lose the 2 or so pounds I put on during the last Denver trip 3 weeks ago. I've resolved to do better during this trip: don't add the extra point or two at breakfast and lunch, and stay out of the chocolate!

After the utility room is emptied, I need to pack the fragile items from the little desk that might encounter some construction activity, pack the various pictures that have been removed from the walls, and move the piano and the music bookcase away from the wall that is losing a door. Then spend some time covering things for additional dust protection--I'm thinking I'll cover the upholstery of the dining chairs, the piano, and the closest bookcases. Carpet remnants are going on the hardwood floors in the hall and the dining area/temporary kitchen once I buy some carpet padding.

Somewhere in here I've got to find time to work on my taxes...

An "essentially flat" weigh-in, showing a gain of 0.2 pounds over the 2 weeks (WW was closed on Easter Sunday, and we were excused from the weekly weigh-in as a result). Not so good, as I had been good in Denver, gotten back to my exercise classes this week, and been pretty good in the food arena. However, I'd better get stricter--go back to measuring a few things, and quit edging into the FlexPoints. Actually, as I'm getting close to the break point where the daily point allotment changes, I'm going to go ahead and try to use the lower point total from now on.

On the positive reinforcement side, I bought new jeans this week, in a size 12. It's been a looong time since I last fit into a size 12!

I've been doing well with the diet this week. Monday meals were mostly out (Subway for lunch, a Japanese rice bowl spot for dinner), then I hit another grocery store and found the 1-point bagels I'm familiar with, and decided I'd make my lunches for the rest of the week. Dinner last night was a second trip to the rice bowl spot, for shrimp this time.

But tonight was my treat night: several of us went to 240 Union, a lovely little restaurant on the edge of the Denver Federal Center (which is where I'm working this week, so it's close to our hotel as well). A meal at 240 Union generally costs my entire per diem, if not more--but it's worth it. Tonight I got a grilled pork chop with a pistachio crust, balanced on a scallion risotto, with a pinot noir plum sauce. I also ordered a side of asparagus, baby carrots, and thin green beans. It was all absolutely lovely. I polished off the pork chop, but managed to put the fork down while there was still a good bit of risotto on the plate. One of my companions ordered the vanilla bean creme brulee (creme brulee is a real weakness of mine) and let everyone share: I had one spoonful and quit. I do believe I've stayed within my base number of points for the day! (Pats self on head...)

It helps tremendously to tell everyone about your diet early and often during a week like this. No one urged me to eat more creme brulee once I said I was done. People have been good about not pushing food and keeping the pass-around snacks in the room to things like pretzels and carrots, not cookies and chocolate. And I hadn't seen any of these people since I began WW, so there are lots of comments on my looks. Good reinforcement.

No change at all in the weight. The week was challenging--I seem to have edged back up in appetite (it's continuing this week, too), so even though I try to go for good snacks, I'm just consuming more calories. This was topped off with the trip to the funeral, and dinner out when we returned at Shoney's (there aren't many choices in Moultrie, Ga., and the nice restaurant we tried first had a smoker at the bar who was close enough to bother the 2 asthmatic gymnasts). Feeling like I'd had a hard day, I consumed Fried Food.

I hope this week will be better, as the week following will include a 5-day business trip to Denver. Lots more challenges to a diet, there.

Lots of catching up to do in the journal...

I expected another week of not-so-good results, given the weekend at the con (even though I tried to stick with the diet, and did keep my food journal the whole time). I went in on Tuesday after work, 8 days from my last weigh-in...and I was down 1.8 pounds, for a total loss of 20.6. Evening out for the week before, I guess, and not much affected by any sins committed at the con.

This Tuesday meeting had yet another leader (the one I attended on Monday had been a different leader from my usual one). I was at first taken aback by her style, but by the end of the meeting had decided I like it better than leader for the Sunday meeting. Somewhat brusque, but she ran a very efficient meeting, kept things on topic, had what was obviously a regular (and useful) review of last week's topic, and seemed to know more of the people who were there than my regular leader manages. I may call and see when her meetings are, and switch to one if the times will work out.

Just back from the weekly weigh-in, and I was down 2.2 pounds for a total loss of 19 even. Which also means that I've passed their first big milestone--I'm down more than 10% from my starting weight. WW gives you a little keychain to commemorate this. I'm going to celebrate with another little closet clean-out. The pair of pants I'm wearing are history--with no elastic in the waist to help adjust sizes, they have spent the day slipping toward my hips. (No, not all the way, but enough to be annoying...)

But first I'm off the the Atlanta Symphony youth concert with my brother's family. It's Dr. Seuss-related, somehow.

Well...despite switching to the lighter-weight clothes, I was only down 0.8 pound, for a total loss of 15.4. If the clothing difference was the .5 I measured last week, that's a real loss of 0.3 pounds for the week.

OK, it was still a loss, and I'll take it. This may be a true plateau (though a lot earlier than I expected one), so I'm going to try and be more stringent this coming week and see if I can shake loose. Resolved: try to not use any FlexPoints, try to not use exercise points. The "official" recommendation would probably be to try the new WW Quick Start program, which gives you a rigid 20 points a day, and a choice of either a high-carb or a high-protein set of meals for 2 weeks. I'm saving that for another time.

The end of the week was tougher than it has been, with no triggering incident that I can come up with. I wanted to snack in the afternoon, and I had a few cravings for old bad habits. I gave in a couple of times (logging what I ate, and subsequently having to use more FlexPoints than my norm), which I sure contributed to the tiny loss. Hopefully these old cravings will go away again.

Missed my regular Sunday meeting because I was at GaFilk, so I bolted from my review session at work to go to a noon meeting today. From one sort of measurement to another, I guess. Results on the second: down 1.2 pounds, for a total of 14.4. Despite the weekend of fast food and other irregular eating at GaFilk.

Telling everyone around me that I am on Weight Watchers (or any diet) really does help me. While I don't really think that anyone I saw at GaFilk, mostly people I see once a year, would shake a finger at me if I was "bad", I still behave myself better for having announced that I'm dieting. May this sort of mental maneuver continue to work for me after the early dieting enthusiasm wears off...

(Got behind--backdating is a useful thing...)

Sunday's weigh-in showed me as down 1.4 pounds, for a total of 9.8. And I also hit one of the break points for weight ranges in the Points system. Result: instead of a daily target of 24 points, it's now 22. This has been surprisingly painful, or perhaps it's the new target combined with the fridge full of leftovers from Christmas week. I've got to watch it, as I've already noted a tendency to omit the fruit I've been eating (and I don't eat enough anyway) to save the points.

Week 3 at Weight Watchers: down 1.2 pounds, for a total of 5.6. This is a much more reasonable pace--averaging 1 to 2 is what I'd like to do. As I'm still getting the basics of the diet down, I expect the loss will be erratic for a while yet. And that's not considering the upcoming week of Hanukkah and Christmas eating.