First Weigh In & Grocery Shopping

So I bought a scale today. I was anxious all day at work, and even on the drive home once I'd purchased it. Like I said, I haven't weighed myself in over a year. If I remember correctly, the last time I weighted myself was summer '09, when I was going to the gym regularly and had lost 20-30 lbs. I think I was in the 270's then. I knew I'd gained weight since, but I had no idea how much. My clothes still fit (when you're this size, you can gain or lose 30 lbs and chances are your clothes are still going to fit- it's a blessing and a curse) but I could feel the extra weight on my body and I started noticing it when I looked in the mirror, too. Anyway, I was expecting the worst when I stepped on the scale today, but to my surprise I was at 295.4. I'm not exactly proud of myself- that number is still horrifying- but I am just glad to be in the 200s. I weighed myself 3 times just to make sure. I tend to lose weight quickly at first when I change my eating habits, and so I wouldn't be surprised if I shed 10-15 pounds in the last couple of weeks. Regardless, I'm going to consider 295 my starting point, with a goal of 160. That's a 135 pound loss.

Interestingly, I came across this blog today, run by a girl who lost exactly 135 pounds herself. I thought that was a cool coincidence. I became all kinds of inspired after reading a few of her posts. Her way of eating is very similar to mine- everything in moderation. Her food looks amazing.

Anyway, I had a light breakfast and lunch today. Oatmeal with a bit of maple syrup for breakfast and leftover whole grain vegetable spaghetti for lunch. The pasta wasn't that great so I didn't eat much of it. I have been adding hummus to my pasta sauce lately which makes it creamy and adds an interesting flavor.. but it wasn't enough to save this batch.

On to dinner. Typically, I would spend a Friday night eating a gigantic take out meal (tons of bread, salad, pasta, potatoes) followed by an exorbitant dessert (pint of ice cream or an entire carrot cake bar, for example). It's embarrassing to write these things but I think it's important to put it out in the open. I never want to be like that again.  I remember how horrible I felt after eating that much food . It was delicious, yes, but it never seemed worth it in the end. Tonight my plan was to meet a friend for a late Indian food dinner- I thought it would be a great chance to test my portion control at a restaurant- but she canceled. Since I wasn't going out to dinner I wasn't going to gorge myself on takeout, I decided to go to the grocery store and test out my new budget, which I'll talk about in a minute. I came home and made one of my old favorites: a grilled tofu and muenster cheese sandwich.

I used my favorite fresh bread, which comes in extremely big/long slices, so I only made a half sandwich which is probably comparable in size to a normal sandwich. I used to eat two huge sandwiches (4x what you see in the picture) at one meal. Luckily, this is enough to fill me up now, along with a big side of arugula. I am LOVING arugula!

I dressed it with a tablespoon or so of caesar dressing by Simply Dressed.

I really like this line of salad dressings. No high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, or artificial flavors. I have the balsamic too.


Anyway, my dinner was awesome. I made the sandwich the same way I normally do, but really took it easy on butter and had the deli slice the muenster cheese thinner than I would normally get. I will probably have this again for lunch tomorrow, since there is a bunch of leftover tofu and the rest of my arugula is starting to wilt.


On to the budget: My goal is to spend $100 a week on all food and household supplies. That includes my going-out-to-eat food and things like paper towels, trash bags, etc. I did a little online research yesterday and realized that $100 a week for one person is extremely high. Honestly, I used to eat out almost every meal and probably spent more like $150-$175 a week just going out to eat (not including the groceries I would sometimes buy and waste, or any household products). Compared to that outrageous number, $100 doesn't seem so bad. I estimate I will spend $20 of that eating out at one nice restaurant once a week, and $15 a week goes to my dog's food and treats. So that leaves me with $65 a week in actual groceries. I could probably cut that back even more, and maybe I will in the future, but for now it's barely enough. I would rather spend a little more on groceries and get fresh, good foods that I actually like, than skimp and have to buy a lot of frozen and packaged stuff. Some of my favorite foods that aren't exactly on the cheap side: dates, greek yogurt, jarred sun dried tomatoes, cashew butter, quality cheese, etc. I also pay extra for cage free eggs and organic milk or soy milk. I will feel really great if I can stick to this $100.

I'm about to pass out. This is my weigh in photo for this week. I am going to take a photo wearing the same thing every Friday, to track my progress. This is very hard for me. I hate pictures of myself as it is, but this is even more humiliating because I am forced to see every roll and flab dead-on. I never realize how fat I really am until I see it in a photo. Oh well. It's extra motivation. All I can do is live better. A year from now I will look back at this photo with pride at how far I've come.