What's been going on

Okay, for any loyal followers of this blog (few if any), I'm sorry that I have taken a hiatus from posting. Part of the problem is that I have experienced a short blogger's burnout spell, and both my money-saving blog and my family blog have suffered. It hasn't helped that April has been a crazy-busy month with my wedding anniversary, my son's birthday, my husband's college finals, a weekend visiting the in-laws, a visit from my father, and a weekend visit from Great-Grandma included in the mix.

As an update on my weight loss, I am ashamed to admit that I fell off the wagon for about a week and a half. It started with a weekend trip to my in-laws. I was nervous to start with, because I would not be in charge of what food options there would be. The first dinner of the weekend, the whole family went out to eat at a favorite Chinese restaurant in which the food is served family-style. By family-style, I mean that each person orders one large entree, then all the entrees are placed in the middle of the table for everybody to share, family-style. So, it was impossible for me to order just a salad to enjoy for myself. Not only that, but the food was all divinely delicious, not to mention saturated in high-sodium soy sauce. I was hit from all sides, and my self-control went out the window. After dinner, my conscience-stricken husband and myself went for a 2-mile jog (right after starting, it started pouring, then hailing), which helped a little, but not much. Our Sunday dinner before we drove home was another sinfully delicious dinner, with turkey, potatoes, and all the strappings that go with it. Strike 2. Add that to the fact that I was away from my gym for the whole weekend, and it was Strike 3, I'm out.

Immediately upon returning home, my husband and I celebrated our 6-year wedding anniversary by eating out at a favorite Japanese restaurant. This time, we made more wise menu decisions, but still....

To make everything worse, I was only able to make it to the gym once last week. I normally go early in the morning, but there were some scheduling conflicts that prevented that last week. When this happens, I would usually go later in the day, and take my kids to the gym's daycare. However, with confirmed cases of swine flu in 2 of my neighboring counties, I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

So, I tightened my menu plan up this week, and returned to the gym earlier this week. I was vastly relieved to discover that over the 1.5 week break that I took, I still lost 1.2 lbs (bringing me officially over my halfway point), but I'm determined to do better!