It's been quite a day! I woke up a lot earlier than I planned (around 5:00am) all thanks to my eldest and her alarm clock. The early time prevented me from falling back asleep, so I played on my tablet for an hour or so. The sun having risen, I rose out of the bed, washed up and prepared breakfast for the girls. I had to go into the office today and run payroll. Usually,  I would take care of it on Monday, but the Chief is going out of town and I offered to get it done on Saturday (since I knew he was coming in to take care of a few loose ends before his trip). I brought my girls in as well.

Securely tucked away in the conference room with my tablet and laptop to watch movies, I set to work. It was very quiet in the duty crew room. The guys alerted me to having a pretty late night, so I think they were just beat overall. I got everything done within an hour and a half, then took the girls

to swim lessons. Lessons over, I took them home and they set about making their lunch (turning down my offer to Carl's Jr. Big Burgers on sale for 1.29). I bought one, minus the ketchup and mayo only to come home and find they left off the onions too. What?! No, matter, I grabbed some of my kosher pickles and got to it.

For the next couple of hours, the eldest and I watched Cat People together. It's a bit on the sensual side, but she handled it okay. I wanted her to see the actual story, which is somewhat unique compared to today's super-slashers. It's quiet and draws you into the setting and mood, creating a wonderful atmosphere. I truly miss stories like that. Anyway, once the movie ended, hubby came home. He was trying to figure out where we should go for dinner. Although my choices are limited, I let him know that I could find something anywhere. We settled on Sizzler, mainly because I could make my salad the way I wanted to.

One of the main dishes offered is there chicken fajita skillet. I gave all my sides to hubby, then picked out the green peppers. All that was left were the sauteed onions, chicken and a whole lot of grease. I can imagine what the scale will say tomorrow. One thing to mention is that, after days of nothing and wondering if I would ever have a void again, I had a major movement. Good bless that Super Cleanse! Will that cancel out the grease-party my chicken was having? That dish in most of it's entirety will be a great edition during P3, but the oil content, peppers, and sour cream (on the side) were big no-nos for P2. I can only hope that the oil just moves on out without latching on (here's to hoping).  Hubby provide me with a spinach, tomatoes and vinegar salad to go with my chicken.

We sauntered on over to the mall (in the same parking lot) to walk off some of the food.  There is a family owned chocolate shop on the bottom level. You may remember me mentioning them in previous rounds. I hadn't planned on having any until P3 or P4, but hubby bought me a 1/2 pound box of handmade, sugarless chocolate. I had a sample, mystery piece while I waited for the clerk to package the box. My plan is to keep the box safely tucked away until P3 or P4 (no sense creating any more damage today). The listing tomorrow says Russell Stover for lack of the confectionery's listing in MyFitnessPal. I hope their description is close enough.

Before I wrap up for the night, there's something I need to document very clearly here. I spent several hours scouring through old posts and researching others who lead a low-carb life and I've made additional discoveries about myself. I hit on a couple of things in past rounds; too much salt is detrimental and my cravings can really get the better or me (when my carb count is too high). It

seems that my protein and fat can be incredibly high; 1600 calories, 60 grams of protein and as much as 101 fat grams.  If my carbs go above 25 grams, that's when things tend to spiral out of control, i.e. a gain appears. The same thing is true when my salt tips over 2,000mg. Amazing! If this is true for round 6's P3, I may be able to prevent any correction days. I'm remaining hopeful and keeping all of this in mind for stabilization and maintenance. I will also see about getting some Ketone Sticks since the visual cues should help me as well. Positive thoughts!

I had a .8lb loss, putting me at 184.6lbs this morning. I'm surmising that the .8lbs will be back tomorrow. I'll weather the gain and move forward with more loses. Tomorrow's a skip day, so I'll have to push through:

Saturday August 10, 2013

Breakfast	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Private Selection - Colombian decaffeinated coffee, 1 tablespoon	0	0	0	0	0	0
Milk - Whole, 3.25% milkfat, 1 tbsp	9	1	0	0	6	1
	9	1	0	0	6	1
Lunch
Carl's Jr - Big Hamburger - Lettuce Wrap W/Mustard & Pickles Only, 1 Hamburger	200	1	17	17	240	0
Kroger's - Kroger Kosher Dill Baby Pickles, 3 pickle	15	3	0	0	660	0
	215	4	17	17	900	0
Dinner
Spinach - Raw, 0.5 cup	3	1	0	0	12	0
Ariston - Balsamic Vinegar, 1 Tbsp (15ml)	10	3	0	0	4	3
Generic - Baby Plum Tomatoes 100 g, 100 g	18	3	0	1	5	3
Cucumber - Peeled, Sliced, 1/8 cup	2	0	0	0	0	0
Onion - Sauteed Chopped Onion, 0.5 cup	88	2	6	0	0	0
Tyson - Fully Cooked Fajita Chicken Strips, 3 oz	110	1	4	17	540	1
	231	10	10	18	561	7
Snacks
Russel Stover Candies - Sugar Free Strawberry Cream Chocolate, 1 pieces	57	9	4	1	27	0
	57	9	4	1	27	0
Totals	512	24	31	36	1,494	8
Your Daily Goal	1,370	188	46	51	2,500	27
Remaining	858	164	15	15	1,006	19
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar

It's true confessions, time. I had several more pieces of sugar-free chocolate, yesterday. I honestly thought they wouldn't effect me. Now, why on earth did I think that?! Of course they did! A whole one pound gain of effect all over the place. Yikes! So, I was better today (even though I did eat out). I've also got a whole crop of canker going on and I have to wonder if my acid level from the chocolate is doing me in. Not good...not good at all!

I had none of that today and tried to drink water like a good girl. Biding my time through these awful sores is going to be tough, but I've done it before. I just want the scale to start heading in the other direction again. It may be foolish to think that some of this is salt and TOM playing games, but it would be nice to have that as a partial truth. At least then I wouldn't feel so bad. Feeling bad is probably just what I need to get it together. So, Enchantress? Get it together!

Food Item	Servings	Cals	Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Carbs	Sugars	Fiber	Protein
Burger King WHOPPER - Low Carb	1.00	280	20g	75mg	290mg	3g	2g	2g	22g
Burger King Side Salad	2.00	40	0g	10mg	0mg	8g	1g	3g	1g
Chicken Breast	1.00	130	1g	68mg	77mg	0g	0g	0g	27g
Canned Tomatoes, Diced	1.00	25	0g	0mg	350mg	4g	3g	1g	2g
Coffee	1.00	2	0g	0mg	5mg	0g	0g	0g	0g
Milk, Ff Lactose Free	0.25	20	0g	1mg	33mg	3g	3g	0g	2g
Totals		Cals	Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Carbs	Sugars	Fiber	Protein
		497	21g	154mg	755mg	18g	9g	6g	55g

Oh, and I opted not to do the "spoil myself" thing today. I went with hubby and the kids into town instead. Since I can't do my pedicure, he's offered to take them off my hands later when I can do the treatment with the lotion and be okay. Hopefully, by then, I will have made the goal to do both the pedi and mani.

That's why I'm not logging like a fiend anymore. Halloween sort of screwed up everything (although I'm not making love to the chocolate like I was before). I'm still working out, despite everything, and have started doing my firm videos again. Ego more than anything has kept me working out. Not sure if it's helping, with all the damage I'm doing. I will be back! Can't say when, but I will!

Back to the grind and back to trying to get this weight off (and the however many pounds I've put on in the past two weeks). Anyway, the candy alone that's in this house was a sin among sins. I will be taking it to work, less my family use it as a way of preserving ourselves for the winter. I'm off to a decent start. If I can get in an additional workout each day for the next two weeks, I think I can accomplish much:

Breakfast - Fiber one cereal raisin clusters and celesital seasonings white pear

After the doctor's visit, prescription filling and dental visit, I came home ready to workout. A little strange for me, since I'm not usually excited about working out in the evening, but since I'd missed it in the morning, I thought I'd better get to it. The babe wanted to participate with me, so when I grabbed my weights, she grabbed hers. We rolled out the mat and started the tape. She did pretty well for someone who has never seen the routine before. By the second round of aerobics (this is a 45 minute aerobic and weight training video pictured here), she was sweating too, and made sure to comment about it.

By the last ten minutes, she was pretty much done while I pounded through the difficult, non-stop abdominal routine. Ouch! As I watched myself reflected in the stereo glass, I'm really not happy with the state my arms are in. Oh, I understand that it's a slow process. The fat loss coupled with the toning will do the trick, but until then, my arms are looking flabby and unattractive. It's no wonder my blouses don't fit well in the arms. Not cute.

Today, I have a lunch date with a friend and I need to investigate what the better choices are, in terms of what to eat there. I do have a couple of staples I like that I don't think are too fattening, but then, you think they're not until you research and find out the "light" sauce they use has 45 fat grams.

TOM is on the way and I feel the water weight being held hostage in my body. I'm not expecting miracles with tomorrow's number but, I do hope the gain (if any) I show is only a couple of pounds (all water). I've been sucking down the salt like you wouldn't believe! For Lent, I'm giving up all forms of chocolate (including the dark pieces I have occasionally as a treat). I'll have to find a new treat until Easter, I guess. Already I've almost slipped twice and without even realizing it! I've given up chocolate before, but this time (with it's strange, seductive hold on me), I have a feeling it will be much more difficult.