Week 14-  Our 27th Wedding Anniversary

For our anniversary weekend, we decided to go away for a few days.  But before we left, we headed to the stores to buy some new clothes.  It has been a few weeks since our last shopping trip and I have lost another 10 lbs and Andrew had lost 5 lbs.

We were after a few new shirts for Andrew, so we headed to the men’s department first.  He tried on some 3XL shirts and found them to be a little big on him. We were not sure if 2XL would fit him just yet, so the only way to find out is to try one on.  To our great surprise, the 2XL shirts fit him and even had some room.  Seeing him go from a 4XL to a 2XL was an indescribable joy we both had.  It means so much to us. No more shopping in the Big and Tall shops only.  We can now shop at any store for Andrew and find something that fits!

After we found Andrew some new shirts, we headed to the Ladies’ department.  I usually shop in the Women’s Plus department, so that’s where I went.  I had already dropped one pant size so I knew that my days in the Women’s Plus-size were coming to an end.  I just didn’t know when that day would be.

I needed some new jeans and I found this one pair of jeans that I liked in the Plus Size department. But when I tried those on, they were too big.  I had Andrew look for a smaller size, but the size I had was the smallest.  So I had to head to the Ladies’ department.  I got the largest size in that department and those were so baggy on me as well.  I couldn’t believe it.  I had to go even smaller!  WHAT?  I wasn’t expecting to go down that many sizes.  I am so excited to finally be out of the Plus Size department!!

We have been on our health journey for three months by now.  There are some days when we get tired of being in this weight loss stage and finding the motivation each day to keep doing what we are doing can be challenging.  Having the outcome we had with our shopping trip was just the motivational boost we needed to keep doing what we are doing and also to take this weekend seriously as we didn’t want to blow it with making wrong choices when eating out.  The path we are on is working!  Don’t mess it up.

After we finished our shopping, we quickly headed to our destination.  It’s great to be in this stage of life where we have the freedom to go places and our kids are old enough to stay home alone.  We only have one minor who will be turning 17 soon and two adult sons.  They were on their own for the weekend. Everything is going to be fine, right?   Saturday morning I got this message!

WHAT?  This is a message no mom wants to receive, no matter how old your kids are?   He found our first aid kit and I never heard back, so I was assuming they had everything under control!!!! (which they did)

So back to our weekend getaway.

This would be the first time that we would have to eat out for several days.  We didn’t have all the conveniences of home to help prepare our food, so we had to get creative.  The plan we are on makes it so easy to grab our food and go for the day and not worry about anything.  It was our Lean and Green meal, which we usually make for dinner, that we would have to figure out what to do.

I tried to take pictures of all our meals to show you what we did end up choosing to eat.  Some meals did not fall in the Lean and Green category.

Night One

We decided to walk to our restaurant.  It was only .5 miles away from our hotel and the evening had a nice coolish breeze which makes walking in Texas bearable.   We went to a Jewish Sandwich Shop and they didn’t even come close to having anything that is Lean and Green.

I ordered a Chicken Salad on Rye Bread with a side of coleslaw.

Andrew ordered the Chicken Pot Pie

Oh my goodness, did we just BLOW all our hard work in ordering this one meal?  Come on, look at the size of Andrew’s Chicken Pot Pie.  You should have seen our eyes when they put that plate in front of us?   The picture does make it look massive, but the bowl was a very shallow dish. But still, check out the size of that biscuit!

Andrew’s meal also came with a side salad.  We shared that salad and we both said how much we thoroughly enjoyed that salad. I didn’t get a picture of that as we were hungry and devoured that in minutes.

So when it came time to eat our meal, I wasn’t starving.  I only ate one slice of the bread and half of the chicken salad.

Andrew did well.  He did not finish his meal either.  I didn’t get a picture of his afterward, but he left half on his plate.

The temptation was there, right in front of us to EAT IT ALL!!!  Finish that plate!!! It tasted so good, don’t let it go to waste.    It was tough, but we had to keep asking our self “do we need to eat all this food?”, “We are feeling full; We need to stop eating!”

After our dinner, we had to walk back to the hotel.  That made us feel good as we knew that would help us burn off some of those calories.  We decided to walk to Walgreens after dinner before heading back to the hotel.  We tracked our walking and we ended up walking almost 2 miles that evening.  HIGH FIVE for us!!!

Day Two

We decided to go to the Galleria Mall and walk around there.  I haven’t been back to that mall since 1990, so I was soaking in all the changes.

Later that evening, we got ready to go eat dinner and see a play “Around the world in 80 Days” put on by the AD Players.

We found a seafood restaurant near the theatre where we enjoyed a nice meal.

Picking out a Lean and Green meal was much easier at this place.

Our meals both came with a salad, so we ate that first.  Again, we were commenting on how great the salad was.  It wasn’t anything special, just your ordinary salad, but we totally enjoyed it.  I think our taste buds are changing!

We both ordered a Crawfish Bisque. Very nice.

That is a cup, but it was a rather large cup.  I was enjoying my bisque, but before I could finish it our main meal came out, so I didn’t finish it all.

For the main entree, I ordered the Athenian Talpia. (This was a Greek restaurant).  It was covered with Spinach and Feta cheese that was cooked in a tomato sauce.  Yum Yum and served with a side of broccoli.

I could not finish my meal.   I was full!!

Andrew ordered a Flounder fillet with a wine seafood dressing baked in foil.  It had a nice flavor as well but he did not eat all the stuffing.

After dinner, we headed to see the play “Around the world in 80 Days”  We had front row seats and were we close to the stage.  I told Andrew that we were in the “spit zone” and boy were we.  The folks that had seats in the dead center were getting sprayed!  I could see spit flying.  It was gross.

Besides that, the play was great!  It was so funny and those actors are extremely talented!  I enjoyed the entire play.

Day 3

For our last dinner before heading home, we decided to go to Red Lobster.  I can not remember when the last time we ate there or if ever.  We had no idea what to expect, but I have heard that they have cheddar biscuits.  I told Andrew that we need to say NO to the biscuits, but our waitress brought some out and put them right in front of us before we could say anything.

AH! The temptation.

We should have asked her to take these away, but we didn’t.

OH NO!!! What should we do???

We decided to split one biscuit between us.

What happened to us saying NO?  Big Fail!

They were so GOOOOOOD.  Oh my goodness.  They are addictive!   We quickly hid the rest of those biscuits so we wouldn’t have another one.  We knew they were there, just behind the menu stand, so fighting that temptation was TOUGH!!!! We did overcome it and did not have any more that evening.

We decided to order their Lobster Bisque.  We love a good seafood bisque!!

Unfortunately, this was not a good one.  Won’t be ordering this again.  Last night was so much better.

For our main meal, we both order their steak.  Andrew had steak and lobster.

This is a pretty good lean and green meal.  The portions are a good size.  Andrew’s steak was a little larger than mine.  The kitchen sent out the wrong steak.  Oh well.  I didn’t get a picture of Andrew’s plate. I ate everything except the mashed potatoes.

Overall, we did extremely well at Red Lobster.

Afterward, that’s where we fell off the wagon.

We decided to go get a milkshake!

YES!  A MILKSHAKE!!

Andrew knew that I was taking pictures for our blog, so he quickly covered up the bottom half of the cup so that it looked like we got a small milkshake.

NOPE, we got a large milkshake.

That shake was very rich and I didn’t enjoy it that much.  I only drank half of it, if even that.

Weigh In

We got back home Monday evening and so we missed our regular weigh-in time.  We were a bit nervous about weighing in this week.  We felt overall, we did pretty well on all our meals.  We walked a lot, so that has to help burn some calories, but did having that milkshake and half a biscuit blow our diet?  Did we gain or lose weight?

Tuesday morning we weighed ourselves and we both lost weight.  Andrew lost 1.8 lbs bringing his total weight loss to 56.8 lbs and I lost 2.2 lbs this week bringing my total weight loss to 38.4 lbs.

Challenges

While on this short getaway, we found it hard to drink the recommended 64 oz. of water each day.  We had to bring our own water to the hotel, so we didn’t even bring enough water with us to last us for four days.

Final Thoughts

As of right now, we are pleased with how we handled our trip.  Our willpower was tested and we had to show restraint at these restaurants.  Though we did have a milkshake and half a biscuit, it didn’t set us back this week.  Will it affect us next week? Who knows.  I’m not going to worry about it.  We are taking one day at a time.

We are back on our regular weight loss routine and we will continue to strive forward to lose the rest of our weight.  Andrew is at his halfway point, and I’m 8 lbs away from my halfway point!

Thanks for following our journey. Sharing our story to the world is not easy and posting our pictures is WAY out of our comfort zone.   We realize the struggle is real for many and we wanted to document what we are doing for two reasons.

One, to help hold us accountable!   We are at the beginning of our journey and we know that we have a long road ahead of us.

Two, we want to encourage others to help take their health back!  It’s never too late! The hardest part about starting this journey is just saying YES to a healthier YOU!!