Chocolate teepees and my so-called secrets of weight loss (hint, it’s all in my head)

Last weekend I drove down to my sister Shawn’s house to celebrate my birthday. I knew she was planning a special day with a custom cake, but had no idea what it would be.  (I was assuming something of the spaceship or superhero variety; a giant bug would’ve been a tasty treat too.)  This is what I got, a decadent chocolate mousse cake with a confectionary teepee on top.  Loved it, couldn’t have been happier.  Thanks again Shawn!

I confess that after dinner, when we were all enjoying a slice, I felt like someone coming out of a coma.  This was the first cake I’d tasted in 5 months, and it awoke the “sleeping fat Doug” inside me.  “CAKE!  GOOD!  WANT PIZZA NOW!  AND HOT DOGS!  PANCAKES!  I WANT EGGROLLS AND WHAT ELSE HAVE I BEEN MISSING OUT ON!!”

It took a couple days (and a frozen pizza, 2 bottles of pop and a couple chili dogs) to nip that in the bud, but I managed to put that hungry man back in the nappy part of my brain—I’m even holding out hope I can still report a minus number on tomorrow morning’s weigh-in.  That’s been my big secret, y’know…

FORGET THE BIG PICTURE.  JUST TRY TO WEIGH LESS THAN LAST WEEK’S NUMBER.

It’s what I’ve been doing since I began weighing myself weekly back in June (and posting it here since August), and yes, there were a few weeks when I didn’t lose more than 1-2 ounces but so what?  I always got my minus number.   

But then last night I sent a brief email to my sister a friend, saying I was worried I messed up once too often this week & probably wrecked my record of consecutive losses.  I knew I was opening the gates so to speak, because she’s struggling to find her own “weight loss mindset” & responded with a fairly lengthy letter that pretty much left me at a loss for words.  Unlike me, it helps her to talk about it, relate to it, vent her frustrations, get inspired, speculate on how much I’ll lose by Christmas, attach motivational articles—whew.   All I know is, it has just the opposite effect on me.  The more I read, the more I wanted to say to hell with it all, let’s just eat.

My advice would be, enough with the words.  Just keep a weekly chart, drink lots of water and go to bed hungry.  All you have to do is beat last week’s number.

As for myself, I’m keeping my fingers crossed about tomorrow.  I want to keep that record going—oh, and this wedge of chocolate mousse cake I have tucked away in the freezer, I want that too.  Hey, with victory comes reward!