Weigh-In Tuesday... with a tale of three whoops-es.

It's a "whoops" weigh-in today for a couple of reasons. 

Whoops #1: yesterday was the fourth of July.  I ate healthfully and well all day, until we went to our party.  It was kind of a perfect storm for me.

• I was missing my family. My programming says "eat, eat, eat when you're lonely."
• I was surrounded by delicious food.   My programming says "eat, eat, eat when there's food in front of you."
• It was a holiday AND a party.  My programming says "eat, eat, eat at parties and on holidays."  
• I was getting anxious about my surgery (which was finally scheduled, and then recently moved forward to TOMORROW.)  And my programming says "eat, eat, eat, when you're emotional."
• And I forgot to eat dinner before going to the party.  For me, the healthy meal beforehand is the biggest preventative for bad party eating.

So, yeah, I ate at the party.  Not terribly, I just ate about 600 calories more than I usually do.  (Which takes me to the perfectly-acceptable-for-maintenance 2000 total.)  I enjoyed the food I ate, so I'm not upset or regretful about the party eating - I'm just being open about the challenges I face when my behavioral issues rear their ugly heads.

Whoops #2:  after the lovely party that I enjoyed thoroughly, I started to get even more anxious about my surgery. And I couldn't fall asleep.  And after being up so late, I found myself... feeling hungry again.  I fall asleep early so late-night eating isn't usually a problem for me.   In this situation, if I was struggling with making a healthier choice, I should have woken up one of the very supportive resources who were sleeping upstairs.  Tom and Rena have been and continue to be great companions on my journey to good health and balance, and I am sure that neither of them would have been upset to wake up and help me talk through it.  But, I didn't.  I ate an ounce of turkey and a Laughing Cow wedge, and drank a couple ounces of milk.  Not the least healthy choices, but not anything my body actually needed.  And eating late at night affects the scale in the morning more than eating that same food earlier in the day.

Whoops #3: before I could weigh in today, I ate breakfast.  I didn't do this to consciously sabotage my weigh-in this morning... but I wouldn't put it past my subconscious mind.  I always weigh in the exact same way each Tuesday: after restroom, before breakfast.  It's the easiest way to get a clear picture of my actual progress week to week (not affected by whatever I have or haven't passed, what I have or haven't eaten.)  Now that window for today has slipped, by so whatever I weigh, it's going to be heavier than what it should be.

Regardless of all of this information, the bottom line here is that I have or need no excuses for my weigh-in today; it is what it is, and I take responsibility for it.  I'm currently up by 2 pounds from last week. 

It'll be a weird weigh-in next week, too.  Surgery tomorrow, followed by no exercise for a week.  I'm going to work with Tom and Richard to lower my calorie count a little to help accommodate for the lack of exercise, but I don't want to stress about it.  I want to be kind to my body and take care of myself, physically and emotionally.  And if I do that, I don't need to worry about numbers - good health will follow, and that is what matters most.

Thanks to my three closest blogger pals, this will actually be my last post for the week.  Alexa, David and Kenlie will be visiting Finishing the Hat with guest posts for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday respectively.  I'm so excited for you to hear more from them, and hopefully for you to check out their lovely blogs too.  And I'm grateful to have all three of them in my life.  I hope you will show them some love while they're visiting!

I'm going to go and have a mindful day, gathering some zen and taking care of me.  And while I'm gone this week... please, take care of you, too.  I'll be back soon!