Why is "healthy" tracked by WEIGHT?

Short answer:  Because weight is something tangible that a hop onto a small platform can tell us almost instantaneously.

Moreover, I've really been thinking about my want, need, desire to get healthy.  Here are some things I have been thinking:

-I want to be HEALTHY, not skinny.  Skinny implies (to me) that you look a certain way, fit into a certain mold.  Even with this current, morbidly obese body, I can tell you that even if when I reach a "size", it won't look the way other people's do.  Seriously, top heavy & stomach heavy!

-I can't make large goals (like 'lose 100 lbs').  Sure, that may be something I want to do, but if I claim 100 as my goal, I will fail before I start because that task seems insurmountable.

-I want to fit into some pants and shirts that I have been holding onto (hello, orange shirt from college fitness center opening 5 years ago!)

-I'm glad I joined sparkpeople.com  I like tracking things.  (This said until the novelty wears off)


I've been reading a ton of weight loss blogs and running blogs lately and I'm totally inspired.  Real people, real struggles, real triumphs.  I'm not so keen on the running part (aka Faster in Water THAN ON LAND) but they inspire me just the same.

My weekend trip out of town was fabulous.  That city that I love so much welcomed me home with my first stop at the bar!  LOL  $2 drink specials, can't beat that!  I had 4.  Which included more pop than I've had in a while!

The next morning, I went to this amazing indoor, open, food market.  I got blueberries and apples, and some popcorn too (um, it's cheese popcorn and carmel corn mixed...favorite!).  Then on to the birthday party!  My old "NannyFam", as I call them, was doing it up big, Star Wars style!  Here's a backside pick of the cake:

Yep, R2D2.  There were more knobs on the front and a flashing light!  So impressive!  However, I did not eat any.  No, I was not a "dieting saint".  I just gave up chocolate for Lent and this was a chocolate cake.  I don't really like chocolate cake anyway!

After the party, I went out with some friends.  This place was fairly fancy schmancy for my taste and the service sucked.  I ordered a long island, and eventually a "French 75" which contained gin, champagne, pure care sugar.  Yeah it was terrible.  And $8 in a champagne flute.  RIP OFF!

I also had their "pomme frites", yeah I called them french fries when ordering because I can!  :)  My friends each got a pizza.  One was mushroom and leeks, the other was prosciutto and sunny side up eggs.  Delicious, but I was burping up eggs for 2 days!

The next day, I woke up with a hangover and cried at watched Extreme Home Makeover.  Then I went to see the nanny fam again.  The new baby (whom I never nannied for, but I was there when she found out she was pregnant!) cried whenever I looked at him.  Geesh!

During this time, I let a sandwich, fries, and some ranch sit out in my car, for like 4 hours.   Can we say mild case of food poisoning?  Yeah, I'm an idiot, and no, it's not the first time!  I then drove a couple of hours and met another friend in another city and we went out to eat.  I had some onion rings and pop (I was so sleepy and had another 3 hrs to drive home!).  But I packed my sandwich to go.   By this time, my stomach knew that something was peculiar.

On the way home, my stomach felt gross and for some reason, I kept burping.  I RARELY burp!  I just chalked it up to having pop.  I get home and go to sleep, and hour later wake up with gas...like HUGE BELCHES!  I would wake up every 15 mins and just let a belch rip!  SwimSis has the flu and went to the ER, I thought SwimTot was passed out, but very soon I heard "I throwed!" (aka she vomited).

Being temp of the year, I got up and went to work the next day because there were MANY contracts to be processed that were urgent.  My tummy issues weren't painful, but just consisted of burps and, uh liquid BMs.  (Sorry!)  I told myself I could leave when the contracts were done, but I ended up feeling better and the contracts didn't get finished until today.

Today was good at work, and I was able eat more! (Compared to the 5 crackers and a sandwich I had yesterday).  Daylight savings is awesome and I went on a walk after work!  1 mile around the neighborhood, 20 mins, so nice!  Here is a pic of me beforehand!

Ready to rock this walk!

 I had all of 650 calories before dinner (because of food poisoning yesterday).  I was starving!  I admit I need to work on portion control, but I schooled this dinner!  Here it is:

Mt. Food

That right there is romaine, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, chicken from the grill!, cottage cheese and ranch.  With a side of macaroni.  I seriously smashed it.  I added a dessert to my food tracker (current weakness --> pretzels with icing.  blame: no chocolate for Lent), but I sat here long enough to feel super full and I'm good without it.

Movement for the day: 15 flights down
20 minute walk