Day 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 - Thanksgiving, Zumba, Restaurants. . .bad and good choices

Its been a few days since my last post. . .holidays and life has gotten in the way of my blogging, but I have some interesting high (and low) points to share. . .

• Lost 1.6 at my weigh in last Wednesday. . .brings my total to almost 5 pounds!  Yay me. . .but what happened to those days of losing sooooooooooooo much those first few weeks of WW?
• Best piece of advice I got at my WW meeting was that I need to look at my food issues as a way of life. .not just something that is a moment in time until I get to my goal weight.  The context of this was when I was discussing going out to dinner and how I feel "unsatisfied" when I go out and get something "boring" I can make at home - i want to get something more exciting. . . and sometimes those more exciting items are not the best point choices, even when I think they are.  I come home and look up my points and realize that the points were super high on something i thought was reasonable.  Someone in the meeting told me that I would be better off accepting that this is just a way of life for me and in order to be within my points and on plan I need to plan and think ahead about food to the best of my ability.
• I applied this advice teh rest of the week when going out and it worked. . .I planned ahead as to my meals and had meals that i was happy with and stayed on program.
• I tried Zumba on Saturday morning at 8am. . .I don't think I have exercised in years. . .really, not an exaggeration.  I moaned & groaned about it being so early, but in truth. ..don't tell anyone. . .more than even enjoying Zumba, I loved how exercising made me feel.  I felt empowered to make great choices for the rest of the day. I even enjoyed the feeling of working out so much that I did my Wii Fit today for about 30 minutes.
• We went out to dinner tonight at an Italian Restaurant. . normally I love the bread with the pesto olive oil and I always choose some type of creamy pasta sauce.  Or I go for a the veal Parmesan that comes with a side of pasta and sauce and I have no problem eating the entire dinner.  But tonight, I looked at the menu before going and figured out all my point options.  I chose whole wheat penne pasta with garlic shrimp scampi for a total of 10 points. .and it was delicious!!!  I stayed away from the bread - without much mental back & forths over having it or not.
• On Wednesday night I went out to a Chinese restaurant and thought I made pretty good choices, only to come home and find out how bad my choices were.  For about 10 minutes  when I got home I was tempted to ransack the kitchen and gorge on junk food on the premise that I messed up and let's just start over tomorrow.  But I didn't.  I didn't because when I realized that even though my points were high and I managed to eat 25 points in that one meal (total consumed was 50 points for that day - 21 went into the Weekly Points Allowance), I was still within my Weekly Points Allowance and on program.  I made a bad choice at dinner out of being clueless and not thinking through my choices before I went. . .had I binged on food later that would have been an intentional bad choice out of stupidity.  I didn't want to lose all the good I had done so far and I was happy when I realized that I was still within my weekly points.  No way did I want to beat myself up by trying to make myself eel better by eating junk food.  I am majorly patting myself on the back for realizing this and getting this - perhaps for the first time ever.  
• I went to a movie on Saturday night and brought my own air-popped popcorn. . .yay me!!  Saved money and healthier choice. . .
• Discovered my new fave breakfast that is 5 points and very filling - Morningstar Vegetarian Sausage Patty with Maple Flavor (2 points) on a Thomas English Muffin (3 points) - so delish and satisfying!!
• Picked up some frozen Mango slices at Trader Joes - so yummy! Zero points and like a mango Popsicle!

 Now, I will share that I am a little, no a lot, hesitant about Weigh in on Wednesday.  While I have not gone over my Weekly Points Allowance and I don't plan on it before then, I just feel because I ate more of my weekly points allowance this week than the previous 2 weeks that I will pay for it.. .time will tell.