Week 17--Treat Your Holiday Calories Like Your Credit Card

[This article was first published as Treat Holiday Calories Like Your Credit Card on Technorati.]

Not only did I manage to wear my "skinny" jeans again this week proving to the naysayers that it wasn't all some fluke, I also managed to shed another pound this week.

And that, my dears, was no small feat since during my ornament exchange with two of my BFFs, I left with not just some cute ornaments but a wide array of chocolate. And not just any chocolate, no siree, Missy, but my favorite chocolate from Hotel Chocolate. If I could check into the Hotel Chocolate, I don't know that I would ever come back out again.


Now my other BFF, Jennifer, fancies herself a Godiva girl. She has one of those frequent buyer cards. The Godiva people always ask me if I want to join and get my own card, so I can get my free piece of chocolate for those times my friend opts not to share with me.

Really? If I signed up, I might as well just roll a cot into their store. I don't think I would ever leave. 

It's that self-control thing I constantly wrestle with.

I also learned this week that I am not alone in my stinkin' thinkin' about chocolate. You see, anytime I have Hotel Chocolate in my pantry, I start trying to ration it out, but then I rationalize that I'm going to eat it all anyway so does it really matter if I divide up the calories throughout the week or just inhale all gazillion calories at one time and get it over with. Hmmmmm?

I learned  my yoga pal, Becky, thinks the same way (and I thought I was alone).
But sadly, apparently it does matter. According to Judith J. Wurtman, we need to approach the holidays, "Like putting charges on your credit card, you can decide that you are able to 'afford' the calories at the party, feast or open house, or you can choose to stop eating because you have already consumed more than your caloric limit. But don't fool yourself that if you decide not to notice how much you are eating and drinking, your scale won't notice either."

I'm pretty sure eating all that chocolate at once puts me over my measly caloric limit just like I'm fairly certain shopping at Neiman Marcus or Barneys will max out my credit card.
Another website provided a bit more hope for those in the gorging camp. Although most health folks claim we gain anywhere between three and seven pounds over the holidays, one site says it's more like one pound. One. As in Uno. Kind of like the one pound I lost.

But I'm thinking they don't have a pantry with a wide assortment of Hotel Chocolate or a Godiva frequent buyer card or my yoga pal's big bag of M&Ms.

I think the pound I lost would be found along with quite a few of his friends.

Week 16–Taking a Breather in Skinny Jeans

[This article was first published as Week 16–Taking a Breather in Skinny Jeans on Technorati.]

Bet some of you thought I abandoned this weight loss challenge with the holidays here.

No siree, Missy. I'm here for the long haul.

I did step on the scale and noticed no weight loss. I was prepared for that little bit of disappointment, though, because I wasn't exactly good this week. Still, I wasn't horribly bad either. Stuff like chocolate, a smidge of pie and some other assorted things sort of put me on Santa's bad dieter list.

I did have a monumental break-through. I (like most women) have "fat" clothes, "regular" clothes and "clothes I'll wear when I lose weight" or "skinny" clothes. In fact, tucked away in the back of the bottom drawer of my dresser was a shopping bag with a pair of blue jeans I purchased in March of 2009.  The bag still contained the receipt and the blue jeans still had the tags on them.

Those blue jeans never fit me. I bought them at an outlet store without trying them on because I purchased the same pair there a few months before and loved them. Silly me, I assumed they would fit exactly the same, but apparently there's quite a variation in sizing. I couldn't even zip up this pair, but since I couldn't return them, every few months when I was feeling hopeful,  I would open up the bag, take them out and try them on.

It became my regular shot of disappointment. I should have just tacked a wide load sign on my backside. 

But lately I've noticed my clothes are fitting rather looser, so I peaked into that bag again, took the blue jeans out and tried them on.

This time I zipped them up.

And, more importantly, I could even breathe.