Ugh, I say.

My smugness over the squeaky clean pureness of my 2007 personality was shortlived. I am so irritated with myself right now, for a couple of reasons.

My father celebrated his 55th birthday last night and I was tempted home with promises of a very healthy whole wheat pasta dinner and salad and angel food cake for dessert--nothing extraordinarily GI friendly but it was all decent fare and I figured it still was well within the confines of being healthfully virtuous. When I got home, my mother and brother were busy assembling ingredients for tacos. Greasy, dripping, cheese laden, the absolutely Achilles Heel of my culinary life, wonderful wonderful tacos. And cake. With hypnotizing sprinkles that begged me to eat them.

I actually did okay at the dinner. I focused mainly on the vegetables and went easy on the meat and cheese. I exercised, like, a Buddhist-like amount of self-abnegation and avoided the bubbling vat of Ro-Tel in the Crockpot. (By the way, how many of you have had Ro-Tel dip in your lives? I always assumed it was standard party fare but I've spoken to people outside the Midwest and their blank looks of ignorance turn to absolute horror when I describe what it is. Those are people who also have never had Lil' Smokies or biscuits and gravy not from McDonald's and to those people I extend my deepest pity and condolences) I did have a piece of cake, but it was small, and it was a birthday, and I didn't cut off another piece and hide it in a Wal-Mart sack so I could skulk back to my car and cram it in my mouth on the drive home.

But since I got home so late, I ended up staying awake until way after midnight, which meant I was too tired to get up and exercise before work this morning. I am so frustrated by that, because it was totally avoidable. I was just putzing around and talking to friends and purposely ignoring the clock as a means of maintaining the denial that Christmas break was over and I had to go face the throngs of elementary children I teach and then all of a sudden I looked at the clock and even though I set my alarm for 5:00 am, I knew...I KNEW I wasn't going to get up and work out. Dammit, Erin.

So I'm going tonight. I may just have to come to grips with the fact that I'm an evening exerciser and that strapping on the sports bra in the wee hours doesn't make me any more skilled of a weight loser than the other morning gym bunnies. I'm content with working out a schedule that suits me, instead of the other way around. So tonight, gym at 7:30. No excuses.

Even if there is a Beauty and the Geek marathon on.


In other news, food and water for today have been absolutely A+! I also found a new nutrition tracker at The Daily Plate. I have been a fitday.com devotee for many, many years but I get tired spending 30 minutes a day looking up the nutrition information for the food I eat so I can customize foods at Fit Day. The Daily Plate seems to have every food so far, and it also has weight trackers and blogs and forums and all that good stuff for free, so I'm going to keep trying it out. Have a look if you need a good source for portion sizes and calories.

Happy Tuesday! I'm rooting for all of you.