06/04/2012: Accounting 101

I declared a week and a half ago that Husby and I would cease eating out immediately.  I updated last week with last weekend's outcome.  And so here I am to update for the past week's outcome.


We have "eaten out" twice.  Yep.  Two times.


Time #2 - Husby's parents came down to visit us yesterday and they took us out to lunch.  They live much further inland than we do, we actually live on a bay and the majority of "fresh gulf coast seafood" that makes it into Texas comes in through our bay.  Since it seems like it's probably fresher where we live than where they live, they wanted seafood and so seafood we did.  I could have chosen much better than I did, but given that it was my only true eating out for the week, it truly was a treat and I actually felt I could let it be just that.


Speaking of treats, Sarah made a comment on my first update blog for this exercise that "I personally had to stop thinking about food as "treats." For me, it was all or nothing. I had to look at it as nourishment."  That's an interesting idea and after reading that, I had to mull it over.  I played with that and twisted and turned and finagled the idea to see what I really thought of it.  And I can't do that.  A treat is a treat, to me.  I know I can find nutritional value in a bowl of ice cream.  Calcium, for example.  But if I start finding nutritional value in ice cream and soda (a somewhat hydrating beverage), then it develops the potential for allowing my brain to say "I need more calcium today so I'd better have more ice cream".  Ice cream is a treat, to me.  Yes, it is a source of calcium.  But no, it is not ok to have it every day.  It is a treat.  It is something to eat sparingly and it's consumption, to me, should imply a calorie deficit elsewhere.  Meaning, I have to earn it, in a sense.  Whether that deficit was created by me working out or whether it developed from eating less rice with dinner.


Going back to my old method of "calorie banking" and not "calorie counting", at the end of the week, for me, Monday through Sunday, I should have consumed no more than 8400 calories.  Whether I did that as 1200 a day every day or 1000 a day for four days, 1500 a day for two, and 1400 for one day of my week doesn't really matter.  I know, for me, that if I eat more than 8400 calories in a week that I am not losing and I'm probably actually gaining.  But how I do in a day matters less than how I do in a week.  I can have a treat or two in a week.  But I cannot have a treat a day.  And I have to understand that the foods that aren't part of my main nutrition, protein, veggies, and complex carbs, those are treats, and I need to eat them sparingly - and they are something I can look forward to.


It was an interesting "thing" to think about.


Anywho.  So I'm sure you noticed I mentioned time #2 and haven't yet mentioned time #1.  I didn't forget and I did that on purpose.


Time #1 was Wednesday night.  We went to see our PCP Wednesday afternoon for Husby's news.  The appt was at 3:40.  We weren't seen until 5:30.  We spent 45 minutes talking to the doc about the news.  And once we left there, it was a race to get the boys before we were "late" and therefore paying the late fee which is 5% of their tuition for every five minutes we are late.  That would get expensive FAST!


That's not why we "ate out".  No matter what, we had to get the boys first.  And we didn't "eat out". I went home with the boys and Husby went to pick up "his" comfort food - which is an appetizer from Saltgrass Steakhouse.  We knew "we" were after comfort food and given the news and therefore the circumstances "we" decided it was ok.  It's one thing to pursue comfort food and NOT realize that's what you're after.  But, to us, wanting comfort food and KNOWING that, it "can" be ok.  And while it was eating out and therefore it was the expense as well as the whole "not as healthy as a home-cooked meal" thing, it wasn't bad.  We split that appetizer and finished off with a plain salad for dinner.  That coulda been a helluva lot worse!


So there's my update for the week.  We did alright.  We ate at home for every other meal last week.  Planned ahead and took our lunches.  Drank our smoothies for breakfast and had homemade waffles for breakfast over the weekend.


We have no Doc appts this week so presumably that means no bad news for us.  We have all our meals planned for this week as well as leftovers.


And it feels good.  No, the scale isn't moving yet.  I am still drinking way too damned much soda right now.  But I am moving that in the right direction by drinking more and more water each day.  I've already gone from 3-4 sodas a day to 1-2.  Last week, two days, I actually had none.


So that's what I know.  Progress.


Not much other news to report.  "We" should get a call from the doc this week about Husby's initial visit with an endocrinologist.  And "we" are guessing we'll know more when that happens.    I still have to talk about what I wanted to talk about last week before I got into what I needed to talk about.  And I'm back to thinking I need to talk about it - moreso because I want to articulate it and see what else comes out.  I've alluded to endometriosis sucks.  And I think one of the things that sucks about what Husby has coming is that it means I get to "deal" with my crap that much longer.  To do anything to help me shuts down baby-making and we aren't done with that. But not having any end in sight, suddenly, hurts as much as the physical pain I always am dealing with now.  Yes, you see?  A whole 'nother blog is developing so I'll save this for tomorrow.


I hope y'all have a great week!  I plan to.  But we'll see how it goes...