Ice Cream

A friend of mine took notice today of my weight loss.   He said "you're melting away like an ice cream cone" which I thought was a funny thing because I wanted to talk about ice cream tonight.

Ice Cream has got to be my most favorite treat in the whole entire world.  I could eat it every day, morning, noon and night. In fact I have been known in the past to have ice cream for breakfast. As a kid it was a big treat to have ice cream for dinner. I remember Dad taking us out to the movies and stopping at friendlys beforehand and saying we could have ice cream for dinner.  I've done this with my own children. 

There are so many varieties and brands, it's never ending.  The only flavor I won't touch is vanilla, though French vanilla is good.  We have Ben & Jerry's, Godiva, Haagen Das, Friendly's. You can have it plain or with candy. You can have it in a bowl, in a cone or with toppings like peanut butter, whip cream and cherries.

One of my favorite things to do when the kids have a sleepover is to have a midnight make your own sundae bar. 

I can sit here and rate the varieties and brands and tell you that Gray's Ice Cream in Tiverton is raved about by many locals but I hated it. Somerset Creamery is the best for homemade hard serve. I can tell you you that Handels Ice Cream in Virginia totally rocked.  I will vote Friendly's the winner over Newport Creamery. When on vacation I'm always on the search for a Dairy Queen Blizzard.  Peppermint Stick ice cream is the traditional treat when all Christmas Shopping is done, I've been doing that for more years than I can remember.  Pistachio and Mint chocolate chip need to be green. I've had "natural" flavors and when they are white and not green well it's just not the same.  I could write for hours about ice cream.

That all being said, I haven't had the wonderful creamy delicious concoction of my dreams since well before the holidays.  I haven't been tempted either.  However....driving down Rt 6 the other day I saw it...the sign in front of Somerset Creamery (only the best ice cream on the planet) telling me that opening day was March 23rd.  This is sure to be followed by Eskimo King (who has delicious soft serve ice cream in over 250 flavors).  It's the thing to do in the summer...get in the car and take the kids for ice cream.

In the past I've always gone to Somerset Creamery for lunch on the first day that they opened for the season.  This year I won't. I must break tradition.  I'm not saying that I will go the whole summer without ice cream. I will have a bit.  But I realize that it just takes too long to burn off those extra calories and I have to weigh it out...indulge in the sweet treat or spend more time exercising?

I will plan my ice cream eating very carefully. Perhaps I'll try a frozen yogurt instead. Perhaps I'll order a kids size.  I definately will not be indulging in any sundaes or bannana splits like my grandma used to take me out for.  I remember when I was a kid eating two bananna splits in one sitting. 

There are also plenty of other treats in the frozen section of the grocery store that should be able to keep me happy.  There are popsicles and fudgicles that are low in calories. 

Bring it on, I won the girl scout cookie challenge, I will conquer the ice cream as well.

Now, I want to know how many of you will be having ice cream after reading this. :)

Old me vs. New me

I was away in Boston for three days for a dance competition.  Had a fun, wild and crazy weekend.  My cousin made an interesting statement....she said to me "If this was a  year ago we would have eaten our way through Boston".  She's right except that in reality it really would have been only a few short months ago. 

The temptations were all around....Godiva Chocolate, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Cheesecake Factory.  The girls danced  until 10pm at night and didn't get to have their dinner until then. The old Lisa would have eaten dinner at 5 and again at 10 with the girls.

The new Lisa at 3 meals a day, when I needed a snack, got good for you snacks like cheese and fruit and crackers and nuts.  I shared meals with my cousin. We did go to Godiva to get our montlhy free piece of chocolate but that's all we had.  Prior to this journey I would have gotten my free piece and then some.  We went to Cheesecake factory for lunch, ate as healthy as possible and we shared a piece of cheesecake. 

I exercised, in the pool, in the gym, outside walking....that would have never happened before either. 

I went shopping, and I went up and down stairs, the old Lisa would have skipped certain stores because she was too lazy to have to walk up and down the stairs.

These are all huge accomplishements and I have to say I like this new girl.  I'm very proud of her.  So many changes in such a short time. 

Redirecting

This journey has come just in time....had a little teen drama tonight and the old Lisa would have started snacking.  This new girl....well she just went downstairs and got on the eliptical machine (I really should give that thing a name...hmm will have to think about that) did my workout, focused all my anger into the workout.  Ahhhh, now I feel better!~

Experiment

Decided to have a little fun today. Went to Stop & Shop with Lauren and Sasha.  Wanted to actually feel how much weight I've lost, so I was loaded up with 5 bags of sugar (5lbs each)  and 2  one pound boxes of lard - this made up the weight of 27 pounds.  The girls made me do a lap around Stop & Shop and let me tell you carrying around 27 pounds was heavy.  Now 27 pounds ago the weight on myself was distributed differently but it was amazing to feel how much weight that really is.  As I walking through the store, my breathing was heavy, and it was very hard to carry around that weight. So there will be no more whining from myself about how I can't see what I've lost.....because....I've actually felt what it feels like to carry around that weight.   Click on the link below to see  our crazy, funny video from today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm48rbW5Xbk

Small Goals

Setting small goals seems to be working for me.  Makes it all seem so much more bearable.  The thing I've been doing is rewarding myself with some movie time.  I've got 7 pounds to go to make it to the 35 pound mark. So, when I reach that point it will be movie time.

I don't believe that I have told anyone how much weight I want to lose....it's a pretty big number...it's kind of scary to write it...but here goes....my ultimate goal is 100 pounds.  That's about a whole person.  Once I reach the 100 pounds I'll re-evaluate to see if I want to lose anymore.  I will have to see. It will depend on what I see in the dreaded mirror.  If I like what I see or not.  If I don't like what I see, I will determine what the next goal will be.

But getting back to small goals....being down 27 pounds means i'm 1/4 of the way there.

It's hard not to get caught up in the numbers.  For now that is the most tangible thing I have. 

It's harder for me to see the results than the rest of you.  But I see the numbers going down so that's a great thing.

Though I can no longer say that I don't see any results because I no longer need to unbutton my jeans to take them on and off.  I can just slide them up and down and that's a result I can see. 

However, I need to keep an eye on that jean situation....don't want to be walking down the street one day and have them just fall off. Well, that would be awesome but not in public. 

So 35 pounds here I come................

Wow!

Wow! That's about all I can say....This blog entry is for my friends that I've seen this weekend.  Just a great big THANK YOU!  Let me explain......

Friday night our friends Ken and Janice came over and we hadn't seen them since Christmas time. It was the first time they've seen the "new" Lisa.  The love and support they gave me were priceless.

Tonight I had a party and saw a few people that I hadn't seen in awhile and being told that I looked "fabulous" well, what can I say, that just put me over the moon.  Thanks Crystal!  When Crystal left the party she told me to keep blogging that I was inspiring her.

I don't even know what to say.  The very thought that I can inspire someone, well, there is just no words for that. It's not often that I'm speechless.  I've been told a few times this week by various people that I was inspiring them and that is just way more than I ever hoped for.  It's the icing on the cake.

I still have a very long way to go and a lot of hard work to do but I want you ALL to know that every kind word that is said to me INSPIRES ME to keep going. 

Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for being my cheerleaders.

As I told my friends tonight....I was watching the Fat Chef show last night and at the end of the show the chefs lost about 50 pounds (still had more to go) but there was a party, they were surrounded by their family and friends. I thought that was pretty cool.  So I think that when I get to my goal, we shall have a big ol party!  After all, I may be doing all the dieting and exercising but i'm not in this alone.  Each and every one of you that are a part of my life (whether I see you daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or only online) are a big part of what I'm doing. You may not know it but the little things you do and say mean so much.

You guys all have a special place in my heart and I hope you know how much your support means to me.

I am lucky and blessed to have you in my life.

Excited

It was not my intention to blog about every pound lost (I was going to check in every 5-10 or so once I reached the first goal) but how can I not post about my excitement. 

I went out last night after work, went to dinner, had a salad and some coconut shrimp.  Got up this morning to get on the scale (keep in mind I always get nervous getting on the scale after going out to eat, even when I know I didn't eat that much or that bad)  I totally expected to have the same number I had yesterday. 

Imagine my surprise when the scale told me I lost ANOTHER pound!   I was absolutely thrilled.  That makes 27 total.   I'm so close to 30 (remember how I like even numbers). 

The more the numbers go down, the more I believe in myself.  I am so glad I started this journey, it's already been an adventure.  I can't wait to see where it goes from here.