Weigh-in Tuesday, plus a surprise at IHOP!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  And it is a happy Tuesday indeed.  Today I'm down 3 more pounds, for a total of 37 pounds, which is over 10 percent of my starting body weight!

10 percent may sound like kind of a small number.  But considering that in order to hit "normal" weight (not obese/overweight) I have to lose 50% of my starting weight... that means I'm actually 1/5 of the way there.

I tried to look up what 36 pounds (my 10%) looks like, but I got bupkis in that department.  In the process, I did manage to stumble upon the grossest weight-loss motivation tool I've ever seen.  I am sparing you all the photos of My Pet Fat (an anatomical model of what an ounce, 1 pound or 5 pounds of fat looks like) because I'm hoping some of you have eaten breakfast today and I don't want to deprive you of your nutrition (or ruin your keyboards).

Calories this week were good across the board... though, actually, I was below my calorie goal a few days this week, and I'd rather stay as close to it as possible.  I don't have any desire to freak out my metabolism.  That red line is 1500 (and my typical aim is 1400.)  Funny to see that my appetite has a pattern.  More, less, less, more, less, less, more...

One very exciting (but slow-moving) figure is my BMI.  Since I started January 11, I'm down 6 full BMI points.  Every day I approach a more normal weight.  There's a long way to go (4/5 of the way to go, really.)  But I've already come so far.

I'm actually a little surprised that my number was as low as it was today.   I was expecting a slow week because last night I ate a late-late dinner.  A very reasonable one, but a late one.  As I've gotten used to the process of weighing in, I've seen exactly how late eating affects a morning scale!

But I didn't mind the late dinner.  I was out celebrating Peter Haskell's posthumous win of Best Director at the LA Weekly theater awards last night.  It was such a thrill to be there with his family (his daughter Audra is a dear friend of mine, and I loved Peter so much.)  His show won all three of the awards it was nominated for - so well-deserved for a career waged passionately in the arts.

After the ceremony we headed out to the nearest open restaurant... the International House of Pancakes, where I hadn't been in many years.  We were excited to discover that IHOP has displayed all calorie counts on their menus.  So many of the dishes make up about 100% of my daily allotted calories, but fortunately they have clearly labeled "Simple & Fit" items which are really quite reasonable.  I had the S&F roasted veggie egg-substitute omelet with a side of fruit for 320 calories, which was surprisingly delicious.  Audra chose an S&F entree too, chicken with balsamic and mushrooms - I can't vouch for it but it definitely looked tasty.

No photos of our food, but my omelet actually did look similar to IHOP's food stylist's.

I really appreciate the effort that some restaurants are putting into offering healthy options.  And I think that more of them should do so.  Come on, restaurateurs.  If IHOP can do it, you can, too.