Surviving The Week

Sunday marks the end of my "week" for Weight Watchers and I'm proud to say that I stayed within my plan all week, even when I was feeling stressed. Tonight, we met a friend for Japanese, so I finished up the week with a healthy dinner of miso soup, grilled mushrooms and Hibachi chicken.

I was going to post earlier about how I've gone for the past four days without eating any chocolate (which believe me, is miraculous for me), but I ended that tonight when I took a bite of Jon's chocolate lava cake. But I did take JUST a bite -- and then journaled it. And I was satisfied with just that one taste. I didn't feel as if I had to go an order a slice of lava cake all for myself.

What's interesting is that I haven't been craving sweets as much as I used to. Cookies and chocolate have always been my trigger foods, but I haven't wanted them the way I used to. When we went to the movies last weekend, for example, Jon and I got M&Ms to shares, but he ate most of them and I only had a few -- and I didn't care. Meanwhile, we had leftover low-fat frozen yogurt in the house, but I didn't touch it until Tuesday, and then I only had about three bites and put it away. After that, I didn't touch any chocolate until today.

Instead, I've been craving fruit as my go-to sweet. I really love grapes because they're good for you and you can munch them and feel as if you're eating candy, but you're not. I also really like berries and bananas. Berries are SO GOOD when you add them to low-fat yogurt or even if you just freeze them. And they're much healthier than cake!

I've also been having a lot of chicken and cauliflower. The Spanish place across the street from us makes great roasted chicken that's falling off the bone. Whenever I order it, I remove the skin and just have the plain, white breast meat, but because it's been roasting for so long, it's tender and delicious. I don't even have sauce with it -- I just have the plain, roasted meat. As for the cauliflower, I was happy to discover that a cup of aloo gobi (an Indian dish featuring cauliflower and potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce) is worth very few WW points. So I've been having that for dinner whenever I crave Indian food. I'm not much of a cook and we often eat out with friends; I'm just trying to find healthy, low-point alternatives. As I've said before, I don't really want to give up any foods because I like eating. And that's okay. But I am making a point to eat low-fat options and to watch my portions. I'm actually measuring out the servings to make sure I stay within my alloted points.

As for exercise, it was a pretty busy week with all they had me doing in PT, but I was told to rest my leg this weekend, so I am. I did walk a little tonight and I was feeling some pain in my ankle, so right now, I'm keeping it elevated and iced. I do feel like I'm getting better with distances, though. I managed to walk from the restaurant to the next block and only had to stop once. My friend who ate with us is TINY and said that she also had back problems after she broke her foot, so it's apparently not just my weight that's affecting me.

Still, I'm prepared to really crack down this next week. I'm planning to return to the office next Monday and am very nervous about the commute. It's a block to the bus stop, which I can deal with, but then it's about a 10-minute walk to my job, which is all uphill. I know that I need to push myself, but at PT, they've been warning me not to push myself to the point of injury. I usually love living in the city, but it's times like this where I wish I lived in the suburbs and could just drive to work. Then I could just park nearby and would only have to worry about getting to the office. Now I have to navigate the streets of Manhattan, which usually isn't a big deal, but I'm not sure that I'm ready for this. I figure that I will take car service to work, but it's easier to just take the bus home. That means walking about seven blocks with my walker and then somehow getting onto the bus -- and then getting off the bus without falling and breaking my leg again. Yikes.

I suppose I can ask for more time to work at home, but it's been four months since I've been out and I don't want to push my luck. So all I can really do is lose more weight so it's easier for me to walk and continue with my PT ... and then, I guess, see what happens when I try to commute. I'm mentally ready to return to the real world, but unfortunately, my body isn't quite as ready to catch up.