Oh yeah, has anyone been watching The Biggest Loser? I don’t generally like reality shows but this one sucked me in. I guess because I’m trying to lose weight. Duh. That was hard to figure out. Anyway, last week people were extremely upset because they lost only 3 pounds. This week one woman was very upset because she only lost 5 pounds. One guy lost 17 pounds! I mean, I know they have a lot of weight to lose. I know they are working out like fiends. I know they are eating healthily. But how can it be safe (or possible!?!) to lose 17 pounds in one week?? Unless you weigh 600 lbs, it just doesn’t seem safe. Anyway, I wish I could tell these people that if they tried that garbage on Weight Watchers Online, they’d get yelled at by the um little smiley face. You get yelled at if you lose more than two pounds in a week for more than a couple of weeks. Ooh, would those reality show people be in trouuubbblllle!

So I come into work today and a woman who works on my floor was talking to me about how she and her family are getting out of here tonight. Makes me a little nervous, I’m not going to lie, even though I am playing the optimist to George. All we can do is pay close attention to where this thing is going.

So while we were at Wal-Mart last night buying gallons of water and cans of ravioli, I found some blueberry muffins by Weight Watchers. They have sugar in them, and they look pretty tasty. They’d better be, for what they cost me. Also we went to Whole Foods so I could stock up on my beloved frozen cherry bars. Now that I have two boxes (okay, one box now) in my freezer, I really hope the power doesn’t go out. Would hate to lose those luscious, fruity, delicious frozen treats.

Ohmygosh, my weekend was so much fun and I ate so much rich food. I think I forgot how to do Weight Watchers. I am dreading stepping on the scale tomorrow morning (but sorta interested to see the damage done.)

But later, when I get my pictures uploaded, I’ll write a full report.

Wish I led a more interesting life, but alas. Here’s how I know I don’t: I’m very excited by what I bought at Sam’s last night. And I promise it’s not exciting. Laughing Cow cheese wedges. 1 point each. But only one is 1 point. In the way that only Weight Watchers math can be, two wedges are three points. Hmmph. But on an English muffin (2 points), should be a nice snack with mix of carbs and protein and fat. Hmmm. On second thought, do these faux cheese wedges have protein? Must do research. Anyway, they’re tasty, so who cares. One point!

Also got 2 pounds of strawberries. Yum. And they’re very very tasty. (Also got some frozen fish. Not quite as exciting.)

Before Sam’s, we went to eat at Pho Tau Bay, the best Vietnamese restaurant. It’s cheap and delicious. I wish I could tell you what I order, but I order by number. CM10 and B9 I highly recommend. And the beef stew. Yes, Vietnamese beef stew. Not like American beef stew. Gorgeous. But I had the CM10 last night, which is chargrilled pork on a bed of broken rice (I love this rice. They crush it before they cook it, so it’s all these little pieces of rice. I’m big on texture, see.) and that sauce that comes with Vietnamese food. The clear sauce with some shredded carrots floating in it. What is that heavenly broth? And a few sliced cucumbers. Simple but so friggin’ good. Oh yeah, and these steamed egg cakes. Yeah, try to figure out the points for that! And I ate all of it. Along with a spring roll. (Fresh, not fried.)

My other favorite Vietnamese dish is chargrilled shrimp thingies (some kind of ground up shrimp bits all smooshed together and grilled, don’t ask, but very yummy) and some cut up (fried) spring rolls on a bed of vermicelli noodles and lots of green stuff (mint, thai basil, i think, limes, sprouts, stuff like that) and that magical sauce. Very good. Dang, I should write menus, eh?

Tomorrow is weigh in. Hope I lose.

Last night my lovely boyfriend took me out to eat at the Crescent City Brewhouse, which was the locale of our first date. And our first anniversary dinner. And several dinners between. I really like it there. Good beer (not that I’m picky) and good food. Even though it’s on Decatur Street, which is tourist central, it doesn’t feel chain-y, even though I have a suspicion it is. But I won’t tell George that, he may never take me again. So we’ll pretend it’s a local restaurant with home-brewed beer and live jazz (which I could care less about but George likes) and that way I’ll continue to go. For free.

I was good and had a half dozen raw oysters (for ONE POINT. ONE POINT!) and a salad that was pretty low-pointy, I think. Only used a bit of dressing. Yay me. Beer was 24 oz, and deeelicious. (Weiss beer with a lemon. Ooh, now I’m a beer connosseiur and I can’t spell that word.)

Right now I’m listening to work people place their order for lunch. (Not me. I’m going to have my low-fat cheese filled pita and popcorn.) But they are ordering cheeseburgers and barbecue sandwiches with baked potatoes (“with everything on it…oh yeah, throw on the cheese, why not?”) and potato chips and cole slaw and everything I can’t eat. Need I mention even though I’m having a dull lunch that won’t smell as delectable as theirs, they’re on Weight Watchers too, so I do feel somewhat superior. (Wonder why I’m losing weight and they’re not?) Ah well, I still love the people I work with. But they actually wonder why they aren’t losing weight…hmmm…

And at the same time, I’m wildly jealous. Will I ever be able to nonchalantly order a pulled-pork sandwich with a loaded baked potato again? I guess not. I guess that’s a good thing. As long as I don’t order it without considering (and disregarding) the consequences, I must be doing okay.

Mom’s coming in tonight to take us out to eat. Hmmm. Don’t think I’ll be throwing caution to the wind, tonight.

Nice Memorial Day weekend. Jam-packed full of relaxing goodness.

Crawfish boil on Saturday…massive crawfish. Delish.

Relaxation on Saturday night.

Anne came in on Sunday (we were supposed to go running at 6:15 Sunday morning, but I didn’t get her message that we weren’t going to until after I took my shower. So I went back to sleep.) We went to IHOP (I had three plain pancakes, she had 3 pancakes dripping with butter and syrup and a three-egg omelette with cheese and bacon. I gotta run another marathon so I can eat like that!) and then Target and the grocery store. Then hung out at home until she had to get ready to go to a wedding. No trip to Baton Rouge, after all.

I babysat for a friend’s 8 month old baby on Sunday night. Made a cool $35, but would’ve done it for free. Claire is an adorable baby, and I think that even after changing her messy diaper. She was absolutely mesmerized by George. She was a little fussy at one point until George came into the room, and she quieted down and just stared at him. It was really cute, actually. George is not a baby-person.

Monday I went shopping for some new pants with my babysitting proceeds. Smaller size, I think. Definitely fit better than the pants I have been wearing.

Went to see “Supersize Me” with George. Very interesting. Funny. Glad I can’t eat McDonald’s anyway on Weight Watchers. This definitely helped.

Relaxed for rest of day. Nice weekend. Ran this morning with Polly. I think I will have maintained this week. As of this morning I weighed the same as I did last week. Hmm.

Mmmm. Dinner last night was gooooood. Very good. Let’s see. There were four of us there, all from work – Erin, Shelley, me, and a Business Development Manager (fancy word for sales rep, basically) named David who bought us the dinner. Jacque-Imos is a fantastically magically delicious restaurant. Louisiana cooking, but yummier. It’s somewhat casual, and there is always at least a 2 hour wait for a table (unless you have a party of five or more and get reservations in advance like we did, even though one of our party didn’t show – oops!) at the very crowded bar.

When we drove up to the restaurant last night, a lot of the on-street parking was blocked off for filming of that Kate Hudson movie (Skeleton Key) that was being filmed in my neighborhood last week. They moved to another side of the city this week, and even though it was pouring rain and there was no parking nearby, there were still billions of people waiting for tables.

Fortunately, we sat right down and were entertained by Ivan, a seven year old from the next table who has clearly eaten at Jacque-Imos many more times than I have. He kept us entertained (and then annoyed) as he peered over our shoulders and chattered on about the “cream brulee and chocolate brownie with drizzle of caramel…really very delicious…” The kid has a future in food service, I tell ya.

So anyway, enough of that, the meal…

We started with four appetizers to share – the scrumdiddlyumptious alligator sausage and shrimp cheesecake, the fried green tomatoes topped with jumbo shrimp, the fried oysters, and the stuffed shrimp. mmmmwah! delicious, especially my favorite, the cheesecake. (oh god. the cheesecake.)

Then we had their delectable butter-soaked corn muffins. And then the spinach salad with an asian dressing, topped with two fried oysters. And then, my favorite entree (I really should branch out, but every time I order something different, I wish I had ordered this, even though, don’t get me wrong, everything there is outstanding), the roasted acorn squash filled with mixed seafood in a curry cream sauce. That would be oysters, mussels, fish, and shrimp. Ohhhh. Sooo good. With sides of corn maquechoux (whatever that is. Stewed corn, maybe? It’s fine.) and mashed potatoes. And then dessert, which David and Shelley weren’t going to order, but Erin and I insisted…white chocolate bread pudding in a raspberry sauce, and creme brulee (thanks Ivan for the recommendation.)

Yum, yum, yum. Points? Oh, a billion. Tomorrow is the start of my new Weight Watchers week, thank god.

Oh, and then the most exciting part. We went back out to the bar area to wait for our fifth dinner companion, who was running very late. And who was having a drink and a smoke in the bar but the very lovely Kate Hudson? Yay! Finally! A celebrity sighting! Only a few feet away! Very exciting. And her husband, the Black Crowe guy was there, but I didn’t see him. And their baby, but I didn’t see him either. Exciting! Exciting! Exciting! I’m such a dork!

This morning was less exciting. Was almost to work when George called. The alarm at the house had gone off and I had to turn around and fix it. Blech. My fault for not properly locking the door. Oops.

My profundity for the day…

What is weight?

Is it what I weigh when I wake up in the morning?

Is it what I weigh at noon?

Is it what I weigh on my scale at home?

Is it what I weigh on the Weight Watchers scale?

Is it what I weigh on the scale at work?

Because these numbers are not necessarily the same. Don’t tell me I gained 5 lbs since 7:45 this morning. If I pretend all of the scales are correct, then I lost 4 lbs this week but then gained, as I said, 5 lbs today.

I’m going to go by my home scale from now on, since there are fewer variables. I’m wearing the same thing (a t-shirt), I haven’t eaten anything, I haven’t drunk anything, and I’ve peed. At work, I may have drunk (how do you conjugate this verb? I have drank? Have drunk? Whatever.) some water, I may be wearing heavier clothes, who knows.

Now that I’m going by my home scale, I get fewer points since I dropped below a certain weight. (Even though it’s only on the home scale.) I figure fewer points may help me, but we’ll see how next week turns out.

I really think I maintained this week, neither losing nor gaining, which I am fine with. I went under points (!!!) a couple of days but didn’t exercise much, which I think is the key for me. Next week, I’ll be better about exercising. I may ride my bike to work tomorrow, just for fun. Wonder how many activity points that’d be?

Well, the love-fest continues. I love Weight Watchers online! I feel like I can’t cheat as easily with online, because I put in the foods I eat, and it calculates the points for me. So I can’t pretend that the half of a cheese croissant I ate this morning was 2 points, when I know it was really 3.5. (Well, I hope the WW thing was right – I’m going to trust it.) The true test will come the week after next when I weigh myself for the second time after using the online WW instead of meetings. (My scale at home shows that I weigh about 3-4 lbs less than the one at the meetings, but that could be because I weigh myself at home when I first wake up. I think that will help because my weigh-in will be more consistent, instead of being at noon as it is now, with too many variables making a difference.)

Today I joined Weight Watchers online, as our meetings at work are going to end next week. Am very excited about fun online stuff like point tracking and figuring out how many points recipes have. Yay! I thought this would be better for me because a) it’s cheaper and b) now I can track at home, because I was using a spreadsheet at work to track points before; therefore I never tracked the points I ate at home.

It’s hard to say which season I like the best in south Louisiana, but right now I think it might be spring. It is never summer, a time of swarming termites, mosquito bites, massive roaches braving the daylight, and suffocating heat and humidity. It’s sometimes fall, but it gets dark so early. On the other hand, the heat is finally letting up, the evenings occasionally get crisp, and Indian food is again an option for a dinner out. Everyone looks forward to winter in New Orleans, at least until winter actually arrives. Winter is nice because of the snuggling and the cozy sweaters, but when your apartment doesn’t necessarily have a heater, the cold can be evil. Even in south Louisiana.

But yesterday, spring became my favorite season, while Polly and I were running around the neighborhood in perfectly glorious weather (unseasonably cool, actually, but who’s counting?) with a cloudless blue sky at 6:30 in the evening and darkness still a way off. I could really smell the sweet olive, one of my favorite smells in the world. (After “bakery” smell, naturally.) It’s just so bittersweet, knowing that summer is just around the corner, and not in a good way.

My sense of smell is so much better now. I figure this is my first spring in probably 12 years that I have been really and truly smoke-free. It may surprise, shock, and disgust some, but I have pretty much continued to smoke off and on since I started running. (Well, actually, since I was seventeen and at boarding school and my friend Gretchen convinced me to try a Camel Light on the hill on the side of the dorm. Yeah, she quit smoking years ago.

But I haven’t been a pack-a-day smoker since the summer of 2001, when I quit for the first time. For about nine months, I was a very light smoker. It was my first time “quitting”. But back then, I thought that cheating was okay. The reason I quit was to train for the London Marathon, and for the most part I did okay. And then ask me how I celebrated the end of the marathon – at the pub that evening, of course I hit my friend Michael up for a cigarette.

Then it was pretty much downhill from there. I never smoked quite as much after April 2002 as I did before I “quit”, but I still smoked. I could go a week without smoking, but I rarely did. I did smoke a pack a day on occasion, but not regularly. I trained for the Marine Corps Marathon while smoking. (Not literally.) But I’d abstain the night before a long run and then buy cigarettes on the way home from the run. Pathetic. I never really felt like a real runner while training for that marathon because of all the smoking. Sigh.

But then Kristina told me in January that she was going to quit smoking, and I thought to myself, I can do this. And I did. Well, with the assistance of the nicotine patch. I don’t have that much willpower! And Kristina did too. And she was a much heavier smoker than I was. And so did Anne (who is training for a marathon now, and I worry she will end up like me, celebrating the end of the race with a cigarette. But I hope not.) The three of us spent our six months in London smoking packs and packs of cigarettes, and it’s always been one of those things we do together. So I guess it’s only fitting that we quit smoking together.

So it’s now been 73 days without a single cigarette. And that’s the way it’s going to stay. No cheating – not a single solitary cigarette. Not a puff, not a drag, nothing. It’s the only way to do it, I know that now. And I have to say, joining Weight Watchers was probably the best thing I could have done to help me keep my mind off smoking. It was hard enough to figure out what I could and couldn’t eat that smoking just completely flew out of my mind.

So yay to Kristina and Annie and myself for the past 73 days! And yay to smelling the sweet olive!