Is this scale wrong?????

Is this scale wrong??? I recently weighed myself, and I realize that I have gotten off track. Life has gotten in the way of my best intentions to eat healthy, but I am now officially 1 pound away from what I weighed at my heaviest point in life. BOOOOO! An OUNCE of PREVENTION is a HEALTHY weight, so time to turn over a new leaf.

So let's be honest, how much do I weigh? I weighed in at 176 lbs on Mon at the Bastyr Clinic. I was not very pleased. I knew my weight had been "creeping" up since I had gone back to school 2 years ago. All those "quick" stops for food during my SWAMPED schedule with the justification of, "I will only eat this, just this once;" has finally added up. What's worse, is my stress eating! Mid-night study snacks, OMG; then there is stress eating during mid-terms; AND THEEEEEN there is eating EVERYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON during finals; (Whoever told my teachers they could only test me at the middle and the end of the quarter deserves a swift kick in the hoohaa!); oh yes, and let us not forget the "THANK F-ING GOD I MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER QUARTER!!!" celebratory eating AND DRINKING. It is too much... 18 lbs too much **gasp***.

Some of you who know me are going to do the math and realize that by loosing 18 lbs, I will not be at my government suggested target weight for my height, but before you say anything, I LIKE MYSELF at the mid 150's. It is a nice achievable realistic goal for me, and I have ZERO health problems. My blood work is beautiful and I do not look or feel poorly, so please do not post that I need to loose more because I do not agree. O.K. moving on.

So what is my plan? Well, first and foremost BREAKFAST!!!!! Healthy breakfast (for example, scrambled egg whites with a sprinkle of 2% cheese and maybe some summer veges mixed in, or oatmeal with cinnamon and a little brown sugar and fresh fruit). These are easy things that take mere minutes to make with a little preparation.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am notoriously horrible about eating breakfast. I have a terrible habit, like many Americans, of taking coffee to go as I run out the door trying to grab the million things I need to take with me and forgetting half of them do to the lack of focus my starving brain has. Once I arrive at school or work, I spend 2-3 hours trying my best to focus on whatever is being said or happening around me until finally I get a break or get to take lunch. At this point I am famished, grouchy, and have absolutely no focus and no patience left for even my closest friends. Then I run to the nearest food source (yes, even fast food) and buy whatever I can find that is close to practical and somewhat affordable. I also require that my food include some sort of vegetable, although my standard of vegetable can drop to include the rare piece of lettuce on a cheeseburger if I am desperate and exceptionally starving. After grabbing whatever meal I can get my hands on, I eat so fast to kill the hunger pains that I barely taste the food and finally run back to class or work with food sloshing around in my stomach and feeling a bit queasy. As you can see, none of this is a recipe for good health and digestion or healthy weight.

So that's it, that's the beginning of my plan. After, I have successfully implemented breakfast into my life, I will reveal my next step. In the meantime, I am going to try to make breakfast a habit, and yes, of course, cut out the fastfood and quick meals. I will keep you posted. What do they say, "it takes 2 weeks to make a new habit,"...? I will let you know.

I would like to note to anyone reading this, that I do not plan to go on a diet. I am making the life decision to choose to just make better food choices and to eat healthier. I am a healthcare professional with a plethera of knowledge, and do to the fact that I am a student at Bastyr University, I have tons of information and doctors at my disposal, so I feel well equipped to start out on this journey. I recommend to anyone who decides to make any dietary changes to consult with a qualified healthcare provider.