What a busy day yesterday was! I woke up eary and got my breakfast and started Todd's coffee. By the time he woke up the coffee was ready and I was raring to go. I got two loads of line out on the line by 7:30 or so and I was out digging in the dirt. I dug up some more beds (I had gone outside on Tuesday evening and dug up a few beds), seeded a few areas, I planted strawberry roots, I mulched the flower beds (this involves shovelling the mulch from the pile to the wheelbarrow and then again onto the beds), I planted some flowers, I raked and picked the sod out of the new beds that I had dug and Todd had tilled. I was just a busy beaver. I did stop working outside long enough to make lunch for us! But all in all, I worked non-stop for hours on end! When it came time to exercise, I just couldn't do it!

No matter though.....I was down to 199 pounds this morning. (the last few days I've been hovering above 200....I'm a little worried about tomorrow though)

Today I got up stiff as a board. And sore!!! Am I ever sore! I didn't let it deter me. I got on the exercise bike and rode away. I then made a cake (cupcakes actually) for a co-worker...we are celebrating his birthday tomorrow. (he likes plain cake...so I'm doing yellow cake with chocolate icing...nothing fancy...no decorations..nada. Well, I do have some candles to put on it). Soooo my problem? Cake batter. I had some! I am very proud to say that I immediately went to the computer and adjusted my food for the day. I took out some extra things I had thrown in for fun...and swapped out some higher calorie items for some lower calorie items. Stuff like that. ANd in that way, I brought my calorie count back to where I want it to be!

I was emailing back and forth with a friend this morning and we were talking about the pride that one feels when eating correctly. It's a sense of pride and accomplishment to know that one ate correctly and actually conquered the pull of food! This is nothing new. But then I started to think about the fact that this sense of accomplishment is just phenominal and I walk on air and feel so good about myself...and it lasts for a while. This is in comparison to that high or good feeling that I get from eating food. I freely admit that I eat some foods simply because that first bite or two is just soooo good and that it gives me a rush...a high. What high lasts the longest? What high makes me feel the best? Well most definitely the high and satisfaction that I get from making wise choices and being on top of this addiction. The high that the pride infuses in my body is much stronger and more lasting than any food high!

The problem???? Remembering that the high of my pride is a stronger more powerful high than anything that food can give!

Moist, rich and creamy cake...ohh so good

I walked up to that box containing the cake. I was bold as brass. I looked into the box that held the cut cake. Ohhh the cake looked moist. THe icing just begged to be eaten. The little hearts that adorned the outside of the cake just begged to be tested by my taste buds. I leaned down and breathed in the heavenly aroma of that cake. In inhaled deeply, taking the scent in and savoring it. I watched my co-workers as their faces showed the rapture as they ate this unexpected treat.

And I stood there and calmly ate my fresh pinepple chunks that I had packed for my lunch. I know this sounds weird, but I instinctively knew that I had to look that cake 'in the eye' and I had to smell that cake and I had to come up close and personal to that cake...and I had to win.

There is a sense of pride...empowerment if you will in what I accomplished today.

ON the same note...my husband and I went out on the canal and walked for an hour this afternoon. At least 3 or 4 times while we were hiking he asked me if we were going to stop at Nutters (our local ice cream shop) on the way home. What do you think I answered??????
Nope, we did not stop.