Day 71: Almost There

So, here is the weekly update on how the diet is going.  I lost 1.9 pounds this week, which is pretty good considering that I was forced by my daughter to go to Noodles & Company (NOT my favorite place to go when I am not on a diet, a place I HATE to go when I am on a diet) and because I completely faltered earlier this week (which I will discuss in a moment).  I have to say, the days of big losses (four pounds, five pounds) seem to be gone, so I have to be happy with one or two pound losses. 

To be honest, I have been very happy that after ten weeks, I have never gained any weight during any week of the diet.  The least I lost was when I was on vacation at Thanksgiving and lost 0.5 pounds.  I don't think that is bad for a major holiday and vacation wrapped into one.  (Secretly, I believe I actually lost more than that, but due to the fact that I wasn't using my usual scale, I can't prove it.)  At this point, I am 0.9 pounds away from my goal of losing 24 pounds in 12 weeks, and I still have two weeks to go.  The goal is to work extra hard for 13 days (that is it, only 13 days!) to see just how low I can go.

Anyway, I did have one major fall-out this week.  Have you ever seen that movie Chocolat?  IF YOU HAVEN'T, STOP READING NOW, AS I WILL BE GIVING AWAY A GREAT PART OF THE MOVIE.  INSTEAD, LOG INTO NETFLIX OR GO TO BLOCKBUSTER, RENT THE MOVIE, WATCH IT, AND THEN READ ON.  Alfred Molina (whom I really like as an actor, by the way) plays this ultra conservative Catholic named Paul who is the leader of a small French village and who prides himself on his (and his community's) strict adherence to protocol and rules.  Right when Lent begins, a woman and her daughter move into the town and set up a chocolate shop.  (Seriously, if the chocolate in this movie tastes half as good as it looks, I would give up the diet today and move to this little French country village, only to die happy in about three years from diabetes and morbid obesity.  I have convinced myself that all of the chocolate in the movie has been digitally enhanced to look better than it is, so do not fear that I will be catching a flight to Provence any time soon.)

There is this amazing scene near the end of the movie when Paul, who is some kind of Count, has a complete breakdown over the stress of refusing to eat anything but water and bread during Lent (he's pretty  much given everything up for Lent), breaks into the Chocolate store, and devours every bit of chocolate he can find.  In what must be a sugar-enduced stuper, he falls asleep in the front window of the shop and is awoken by his self-proclaimed mortal enemy (who has little to no animosity towards him), the chocolate shop owner.  The movie really is great, and if you haven't seen it, you really should.

Well folks, I am not proud to say it, but I had a Count Paul moment on Thursday.  We had this package of Andes mints (you know, those think rectangular chocolate mints), which for some reason I just love.  I opened them up to put a few in this little advent calendar thing we have for the kids.  I decided that I had been pretty good and deserved one.  Twelve Andes mints later, Emily walked in on me and stopped the carnage.  It was a shameful sight my friends, but I think it got a chocolate craving out of my system.  I just wonder how much more weight I would have lost if I hadn't eaten all those chocolate mints . . . .