Let Them Eat Cake!

Oh, I love cake.  I love ice cream.  I love frozen custard.  I love donuts.  Yep, love it all!  It's tasty and delicious and yummy and just some of the best tasting stuff I can think of.


But, it is not going to help me to reach my goal of a healthy weight and the active lifestyle that I enjoy - so it will have to wait.

Someday, not to far from now, I will be able to incorporate these things back into my life as once-in-a-while special treats.  That day is not today.  And it was not yesterday.


Speaking of yesterday...  While sitting at lunch yesterday, my colleague Ben came up to me and said, "You have to go to the office.  There's pistachio cake."  I looked at him - probably as if he's lost his ever-loving mind - and said, "No, I'm not going to have cake."  His response: "It's Temptation Tuesday!"


Apparently, some of my colleagues are playing the game in this Biggest Loser contest.


I did not go to the office and I did not eat cake.


Today, while chatting with some colleagues, I looked away for a second, turned my head back and saw a box of bakery-fresh ho-ho-like delights in front of me.  Directly in front of me.  


I didn't eat the ho-ho-like delights, either.


Tonight when I got home, I was greeted with the newest issue of Milwaukee Magazine in my mailbox.  Haven't seen it, yet?  There is a triple scoop cake cone on the cover...of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry frozen custard...from Kopp's - on the cover!


Oh my!


Well, world...you can throw all the temptations at me you'd like.  I walked past the peanut squares my dad had sitting on the counter last weekend.  I didn't eat the cake yesterday.  I didn't eat the ho-ho-like delights today.  And, I didn't drive to Kopps...or Leon's (it's much closer - and I think, better!) tonight to indulge in some of Milwaukee's best commodity - frozen custard.  That's right.  I'm on a path and I'm not stopping.  Not until I reach my end point.


You kids can all enjoy these tasty and delightful treats.  I'll see you there later.  Save me some ice water and fresh veggies.  


Thanks!
Jenny

Does Grad School NEED to Equal Weight Gain?

Originally Published April 28, 2012


First, I want to say that I have lost weight this semester.  Thank you, Medifast! 

Shortly after my first official attempt at losing weight, I started graduate school.  This was in the spring of 2001 and it was also just my second semester teaching.  For the first three months of the "diet" I was successful, had started spinning, lost just over 20 pounds and was feeling great!  Then, I started classes.  And gaining the weight back.  And adding more on.  By the end, I weighed more than I started before I started that "diet."

I am back in graduate school again - new degree & new weight-loss plan.  While my slip from round 1 of Medifast had nothing to do with grad school, the timing was a little too much for me to ignore.  So, I grabbed the bull by the horns and am now happily back on Medifast and down 12 pounds from where I was 12 days ago.  This morning I finished up my class for the semester.

As I was filling out my course evaluation, someone got up to get a donut from the "treat" table - we all signed up for a day so that there'd be some food in class every week.  Some days it was bagels and donuts and juice and cookies.  Some days it was a deli tray with veggies, sausage and cheese.  Some days there was fruit and vegetables.  But, we all know - most days it was bagels, donuts, juice, cookies, kringle and all sorts of sugar-laced tasty treats.  And the juice.  Juice boxes, juice pouches, fancy combo juices...you get the picture.

I sat at my table today with my bottle of iced green tea (which I made last night while strengthening my resolve against the treat table) and kindly ignored the table of bagels and donuts and cookies.  I had a bar in my bag if I decided I needed to eat something.  I was prepared.

I declared victory over the treat table this morning.  I had my coffee & MF cappucino this morning and my trusty Camelbak of green tea in class.  I planned, I prepared, I prevailed!

The past few weeks have been full of stress.  HOW would I finish my final project in time for the presentation?  HOW would I get my paper done before today?  HOW will I pay tuition for the next three semesters?  WHY am I putting myself through this?

I've found answers to all of these questions.  I've been logical and mature and made decisions that will allow me to continue to be successful.  

I didn't find the time in the bottom of a pint of Ben & Jerry's.  My paper was not hidden beneath a pile of Buffalo wings.  Tuition money is easier to scrape together if I'm not stopping at Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts or the local frozen custard stand.  And, just as I am doing Medifast so that I can live a better and more fulfilling life that includes the things and people I love, I am in graduate school again so that I can live a better and more fulfilling life that includes the things and people I love.

Graduate school does NOT need to equal weight gain.  Stress does NOT need to equal weight gain.  Life does NOT need to equal weight gain.

We have the tools right in front of us to get everything we want out of our lives.  We just need to make that decision for ourselves and go after it like our lives depend upon it...because it does.

Go get 'em, tigers!