Pouch test review...

Day 1 - not too bad. Day 2 - the crevices of my belly burned from lack of substance. Day 3 - heaven. Day 4, Day 5 - more heavenly. After it was all said and done, I lost about 1 lb. After the weekend, I was back up 3 lbs. WTF?! We went out to a fish fry Friday night and that was probably my worst meal of the weekend...a little butterfly shrimp, baked potato. Saturday hardly anything at all except for 2 squares of pizza at the wonderful Cassano's. There must be a lb. of salt in each square because I always gain weight if we go there. Sunday, pretty much nothing until dinner when I made chicken piccata and fingerling potatoes. But all in all, no more than 5-6 oz per meal. It's really disheartening when you go through the pouch test to try and shake things up and nothing happens.

I know, I know. Pizza, shrimp. Not the most healthy things to choose. Knowing my personality, I'm trying to allow myself a few things here and there so I don't feel deprived, because that's the kiss of death for me. So the weekends are a little indulgent, but during the week I keep my diet pretty strict. I don't eat alot of red meat anymore. Mostly chicken (pan seared then baked) and baked fish. Protein shakes, cottage cheese, yogurt with Kashi cereal, etc. Elliptical for 30 minutes about 5x/week with 20-25 minutes on the strength machines. A heck of alot more than I used to do when I dieted, but for some reason, nothing's happening for the past month. I'm just asking for 15-18 more lbs. Please.

I'm trying to keep positive, that I feel better, look better, my knees don't hurt hardly at all anymore. More energy, no more back problems, sleep better, happier, and one heck of alot healthier. But like all - I want more. I guess I have to decide whether or not I want to put an absolute 100% into it, deprive myself of everything not "band appropriate" and take the risk that it may backfire on me psychologically.

I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing for now, give it another month and see what happens. In the meantime, I posted a couple of pics to remind me just how far I've come. The one picture is from 2007 - after I lost 136 lbs and gained the majority of it back. And the other pic is from a couple of weeks ago. A little deflated -