can you say sabotage???

Well, this week was rough.

After such a sublime vacation, it was hard getting myself back into the "real world". And on top of that, work was a bear. This is probably one of the worst issues I've ever had the "privilege" of working on. It's like, everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. The only comforting part about it is that none of it was anything I did or was caused by me being on vacation. I was afraid everything would have fallen apart while I was on vacation and then I'd have a huge mess to clean up when I got back. Well, I had a huge mess to clean up, but it didn't have anything to do with me being on vacation. It's almost like everyone else went on vacation with me. But hey, that's job security, right??

We had to delay shipping the magazine to the printer by 2 days. I've never had to do that before. That's how behind everything is. But I'm taking it one step at a time and getting done what I can and it'll all work out. It always does, you know?

On the "diet" front, I had an official gain this week at WW. Up 6/10ths of a pound. I'm not to upset about it, though, because I can tell you exactly what happened...

First of all, I have to say that I was totally blown away that I could go on vacation and weigh in—in the middle of vacation—and lose 1.2 pounds. Quite a testament to my mom's home cooking. And I mean that in the best way. She's learned how to cook good old fashioned home cooking the light way. (She's on WW too.) Go mom!

Then by the time I got back from vacation on Sunday, I had only gained a pound. That didn't take long to get off. Then I lost another pound by Wednesday. Woo hoo! Right?? Well... Thursday, we came home for lunch and there was a FedEx envelope on the door step. Opened it to find a gift card from a client of hubby's. He'd done some pro bono work for this guy recently and his thanks was to send hubby a $200 gift card to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of it or been there, but it's a horribly expensive steak house. The $200 gift card was just enough to cover 2 meals with drinks and dessert.

Well, neither of us had ever been there (hmm, wonder why? $$) and so we decided to go that night—Thursday night. I knew it was the worst time to do it because WI was only a day away, but we were so excited to go there we couldn't wait.

So we went... and ate! And ate, and ate and ate. Oh, man! Their food is ooooooooohhhhhhh so scrumptious! I had Onion Au Gratin soup to start with. Then a 7 oz Filet Mignon with grilled shrimp. Our two sides (it was the huge kind where you share your sides) were mashed potatoes and Ziti Au Gratin and oh my gosh was that pasta out of this world! The cheese was extremely rich and flavorful and it was baked with caramelized onions and topped with some sort of yummy breading. Then of course we had dessert. We split a Chocolate Molten Cake, which was not on the menu, but it was a devils food cake with a warm center of chocolate ganache and topped with a hard scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and then caramel sauce drizzled on top. It was huge and definitely made for 3 people—but we at it all!

Needless to say, I gained 3 POUNDS from that one meal. And it was Friday morning—the day before weigh in! I was screwed! There was no way I could lose 2 pounds to break even with last week's weigh in. But I tried. I had a very light lunch and for dinner a grilled chicken breast and fruit. And lots of water all day.

I managed to get 1.4 pounds off before Saturday morning, which put me at a gain of 6/10ths of a pound since my last weigh in.

So I totally sabotaged myself. But I enjoyed every minute of that meal.

The only thing I didn't like was about an hour after the meal was over. I was sitting with hubby on the couch moaning with a horrible stomach ache. I had eaten WAY too much and was in so much pain. I had to take some Pepto Bismol to get it to stop aching! I was miserable.

But it's all behind me, now and I'm ready to get back out there and start losing again. I'm falling a bit behind on my 18 Pounds in 18 Weeks challenge. :( There are 11 weeks left and I have 11.8 pounds to go. I'm not doing horrible, but I do need to make sure I lose at least a whole pound each week and one of the weeks in there I need to lose 2 pounds. I'm up for the challenge, though.

I am going to lose that 100 pounds by Thanksgiving!! I am!!

I'm going to start biking Monday morning back to my regular routine (bike on Mon, Tues & Fri and walk on Tues and Thurs). Can't wait!

I've been so out of touch with you guys over the past few weeks, but I finally had some time to visit you today. Everyone seems to be doing okay. MaryFran, don't give up hope, gains come just as weird as losses do sometimes. Keep going, though. Donna, looks like you had a blast camping last weekend! Have you finished The Shack yet? Am dying to hear what you think about it. (carashow at gmail dot com). Karyn, I love the new library! Man, I wish I had that many books. What a collection! If you guys want some great ideas for food, you should check out My Bento Box's blog. I love the way she shows pictures and recipes of everything. She hasn't updated in the last couple of weeks, but hang in there, she does that from time to time. She'll be back. Although SpunkySuzie has stopped her push up challenge, looks like she's gotten alot of good walks in lately. Check out the beautiful pictures she took last week. Katschi has a great food blog as well, though she hasn't updated the past couple of weeks. And she had a gain the last time she posted. I hope we haven't lost her.

I want to update your 18 Week Challenge weights, so please leave me your loses for last week (or this week).

I can't wait to go back up to WV. I almost have hubby talked into coming with me this time. The leaves start to turn about the 2nd or 3rd week in October. Would be the perfect time for us to get away. And it would be great for hubby and my mom to get to know each other a little better. We'll see how it goes.


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Challenge Update! - Week Seven (updates in bold below)
"18 Pounds in 18 Weeks"

Bento Box Diet (sat WI) - gained 3 pounds las week
Katschi (tues WI) - lost 1.2 pounds last week
MaryFran (tues WI) - gained 5 pounds last week (I hated to type that in here, I'm so sorry, MaryFran)
Karyn (mon WI) - lost 4.4 pounds last week
Donna (mon WI) - lost .4 pounds last week
Spunkysuzi (sun WI) - gained 2.4 pounds last week
Cathy (fri WI) - Lost 6/10ths of a pound! Way to go!
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