25 Days Until Gown: BOOM Baby!!

MWAH HAHAHAHAHAHA!!  Oh, silly scale.  I have bested you yet again.

Alright, I am sure that everyone knows that this weigh-in was Wine-Assisted. How else do you explain a nearly 2 pound drop overnight.?   What can I say?  I had just finished my last class EVER as a law student and I was ready to do some celebrating (some very well-earned, three-years-in-the-making celebrating).

So let's catch everyone up since the last time I posted (not including yesterday's "I'll call you when I get there to let you know I'm not dead" post).

I believe last time I posted was the morning after the Moot Court Banquet (a Diet Abandonment Event) and I was weighing in at a Wine-Assisted 125.0   Well, since then I was staying hydrated, studying, sticking to the diet (with the exception of a couple ridiculously cheesy slices of pizza on Saturday) and was able to get down to 125.4 with fluids.  Then that brings me to today's weigh in.  123.6.  Heh.  I haven't seen that number on the scale since about August 2009.  Not too shabby with or without a Wine-Assist.  (and it's a good pound and a half less than my last Wine-Assisted weigh-in, so it's progress).

What else is new?  I have a gown!!  Or at least the beginning stages of one.  I went to my seamstress to try on what she's done so far and was really pleased.  The thing makes me look SO skinny! I want to post a picture but I don't want to spoil the fun!  (I don't know if anyone is paying attention, but the only more closely guarded secret than Kate Middleton's wedding dress is my wedding dress). No really. It's super mega secret. At 3.5 weeks out, even I don't know what the final product is going to look like.  Top that, Waity Katie.

But what I do know: the thing is slimming.

Anyway, I am off to study some more, do the 30 Day Shred (it's gotten a lot easier...I feel a bit silly for demonizing it so much before), and then celebrate some pretty awesome things at my favorite sushi joint.  Can't top that!

29, 28, 27, 26 Days Until Gown: FINAL EXAMS

It's exam time ya'll.

Chunky Bride (sorry! it still sticks!) has been soooooo busy studying and making sure that I still graduate from law school that I haven't had a chance to write.

Tomorrow I will do a legitimate blog post, but I wanted to do this one quickly so no one worries that I've died.

For today, I will rely on my brother and his girlfriend's old standby and mention that I am weighing in at 125.4 without any semblance of a hangover.

Oh! And in other news, I've been actually doing the 30 Day Shred.  I am seeing the beginnings of "abs" on my ridiculous torso.

More tomorrow!

30 Days Until Gown: It's FRIDAY

Okay.  So unless you've been living under a rock for the last few weeks there is this song called "Friday" by Rebecca Black that's been taking the Internet by storm.  I highly suggest listening to it as I explain yesterday's shortcomings because no matter how much I epically failed at my diet yesterday, it's still no match for the epic fail that is this music video. 

Exercise:  None...No, wait! I did clean up the house pretty thoroughly so at least I wasn't just sitting around studying.  That counts right? Right?

Calories Consumed: 1731.  Yikes. That's considerably higher than 1200. To be fair, a lot of those were from edamame, artichokes, and low-fat turkey burger patties.  But to also be honest, a lot of them were from the most delicious sauvignon blanc I've had in a really long time. 

Weight: 125.0!!!!!!!!!  

Yet again! We learn that cheating has its moments of triumph. This weight-loss machine is currently running on the fumes of dehydration, but I don't care! (Until tomorrow anyway!) 

So I am just going to go ahead and pretend that this is completely legitimate and brag about it. 

-13.0 since beginning the blog; -15.0 since the Oscars; -0.4 since yesterday

Remember back in the beginning of the blog when I said that I had lost a couple sticks of butter?  I enjoyed that visualization because it made me feel like I was really doing something! Well, try this on for size.  15 pounds is the equivalent of the largest size bag of cat food that they sell at my local Petco. 

That's a lot of kibble. 

But today is Saturday and the Shred awaits so I must go! Wish me luck! 

31 Days Until Gown: A Gripe

Well last night was the Moot Court banquet.  A pre-determined, Diet Abandonment (DA) event.

How'd I do?

Exercise: Danced my bootie off!
Calories: No idea, and it would completely defeat the purpose of DA to try to ascertain the calories consumed.
Weight: 125.4 (although I am sure that the wine is helping me out here) (-0.2 (or potentially -0.8) since yesterday's Sorting Scale incident; -12.6 since starting the blog; -14.6 since the Oscars).

I actually did not get a chance to eat a whole lot at the banquet--which was sort of a bummer given that it was a DA event.  I had to help with giving out the awards right after the buffet was opened and I was too busy mingling to really get a chance to eat the tray-passed hors d'oeuvres, but the stuff I did eat was pretty decadent (bacon-wrapped fried shrimp comes to mind....)

I am so not looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in.

In fact, here's some photographic proof of today's weigh in.  I include this only because I anticipate that I will be bummed out tomorrow and this might serve as a nice little reminder of the good-ole-days.

Sigh....I'll enjoy it while it lasts. 

Oh!  I have a gripe!  Yes, a gripe. All this talk about upwards fluctuations reminds me that I am a little irked at myfitnesspal.  One of my all time favorite features on the fitness pal is the graph that charts my weight loss.  It's an excellent tool for days where my weight fluctuates upwards because the visual of the chart reminds me that in the big-picture I am still losing weight.  See chart: 

Well.  That tool has one major shortcoming.  It only tracks, like, 30 days worth of weigh ins---which is really annoying when that hacks off like 8 pounds worth of work. Do you see the top of that chart which appears to be hovering around 132 or something?!  Well, that particular weigh-in up there came on the heels of an ENTIRE MARDI GRAS without so much as a sip of beer or a tasty parade-route snack.  

I WANT CREDIT FOR TIME SERVED, DAMNIT!  So I am going to write a letter to the fitnesspal people asking them to please correct this defect because it is quite discouraging.   In fact, I am going to suggest they change their name to "myfitnessacquaintance" because no "pal" of mine would ever disregard 8 pounds worth of dieting and exercise during the most decadent time of the year. 

Hmph. 

32 days until gown: The Sorting Scale

So I finalllly did the Shred. It wasn't horrible, but my arms have definitely felt better. I will say that that workout hurt enough that I simply will NOT tolerate an upwards fluctuation on the scale today. Which brings me to....

The Sorting Scale.

The Sorting Scale is the name I've adopted for my goofy scale on days when it seems to bounce back and forth between two weights before finally settling on one. For readers who aren't total geeks, this concept is a play on the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter that uses a combination of factors (not least of all including the preference of the hat-wearer)to place the hat-wearer in one of the houses at Hogwarts. I could go on, but I won't.

Anyway, this morning I had a bit of a Sorting Scale situation. The Scale seemed to be torn between whether I should be 126.2 or 125.6.

There's an obvious choice here, people! But nevertheless it settled on 126.2. After I did the Shred. With my muscles burning. Well I stared at it's choice. Blinked a couple times. I double checked. Affirmed.

And that's when I decided: over my. dead. body.

So I waited an hour, took off my jewelry, forced myself to pee (there must be some far-off corner of the human bladder that I didn't know about to make that happen), and spit in the sink like 10 times.

Tried again.

Weight:125.6

IT COUNTS

Will attach photographic proof when I get to a real computer.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF:

33 Days to the Gown: Walking on Sunshine

I have nothing but good things to report today!

Calories Consumed: 1183 (including 56 grams of protein and only 18 grams of fat)

Exercise: 60 minutes; walking 3.0 mph; whilst carrying the amount of weight I've lost so far in a bag.

Weight: A completely hydrated and legitimate 125.8 (-0.6 since yesterday; -12.2 since beginning blog; -14.2 since the Oscars)

Oh, what the heck, let's throw in a Scale Shot to mark the occasion:

And I have an interview!!  Yay!  It's with a great law firm downtown in New Orleans and I am super excited and nervous at the same time.  I don't want to get my hopes up to much, but this is definitely a good thing so I am going to just be happy for now.  This Bride is now accepting all good vibes, thoughts, prayers, and major credit cards.

In wedding news, my shoes (revised from before) arrived in the mail.  They are literally the most comfortable dress shoes--heck, most comfortable shoes in general (aside from Lucy and Ricky, of course)--that I've ever tried on in my life.  Ever.  I am so glad I made the switch.

OUT. 

I am guessing I would have looked back and cringed one day.  And after about 30 minutes of standing would have been cringing that day too. 

IN.  

Classier, I think.  And more comfortable.  And more "seersucker wedding gownish"

What else is new?  Well, not a whole lot!

Tonight one of my friends and bridesmaids is coming over to force me to do the Shred.  I am not looking forward to doing it, but I am glad to have company---misery always loves company--and someone to force me not to stop after minute 8. 

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow--assuming, of course, I can actually use the muscles in my hands to type. 

I'm out! 

EDIT: I accidentally put 135.8 earlier, but I have corrected it to 125.8.  If I woke up weighing 135.8 I would not be walking on sunshine, I'd be walking off the nearest tall building after wondering how I gained nearly 8 pounds overnight. 

34 Days Until Gown: Diet Abandonment

Calories consumed: 1166 (including far too much pickled cauliflower for my blood pressure's own good)
Weight: 126.4 (-1.2 since yesterday's catastrophe, -11.6 since beginning the blog, -13.6 since the Oscars,  and I am quite confident that I am as hydrated as I can be)

Okay, given today's decent weigh-in, I feel like I might have overreacted a bit to yesterday's set back.  I ought to know better than to think that you can gain a pound and a half from going roughly 400 calories over the limit in one weekend because I know that a pound of body fat is equivalent to about 3500 calories--incidentally, I don't like to use the blog to preach weight loss tips (at least not the scientific kind) because I am by no means an expert, but thermodynamically that's just the truth. If nothing else, I probably should have saved my "Oh Fortuna" clip for when something worse happens.  Oh, well.

Today's topic: Diet Abandonment (or "DA").

You might be wondering: what is DA?

Well, similarly to "cheating," DA involves deviating from the BBR in its strictest form.  Indeed, both cheating and DA involve consuming more calories than the BBR permits.  However a major distinction between cheating and DA is that DA typically involves planned-ahead, unavoidable splurginess.  Cheating, on the other hand, is a momentary loss of willpower in the face of--usually unanticipated--temptation.  For example, attending a "wedding cake tasting" is a case of DA; it's unavoidable and expected that you will eat cake at the event.  The only issue up for debate is how much cake you will eat.  By contrast, when attending a run-of-the-mill BBQ if you succumb to the chocolatey goodness of a platter of cupcakes, this is a case of "cheating."

It's a subtle distinction.  Some might even say it's a pointless distinction.  So why make it?  Well, as the big day gets closer and closer I am beginning to realize that there might be events that call for some high calorie indulgence (the Rehearsal Dinner comes to mind...so does this week's Moot Court Banquet for that matter).  I don't want to consider enjoying those events "cheating." I just don't.   It doesn't seem fair to consider enjoying truly special occasions "cheating."  So I have invented the DA concept to allow me to face situations that are bound to call for calorie excesses without feeling like I am some sort of a failure.

That being said....with all this DA coming up, I really, really, really need to start the Shred.

*whimpers....*