twenty one days later

That title reminds me of that horror film. The one about the plague in London? Anyway, that has nothing to do with my challenge.
Hallelujah, it has been three weeks! I've survived, and (wait for it) have lost about five pounds! Seeing the 120's again on the scale was such a huge deal for me (ask Justin, I literally jumped for joy in the bathroom). How exciting is that?? If you don't remember what challenge I'm talking about it, here it is again.

I'm going to be honest with you and tell you that I did cheat. I had chocolate (only twice), biscuits, Zack's birthday cake, and fast food. Not to mention ice cream twice. But seriously, life happens and sometimes you need Chik-fil-a nuggets or vanilla ice cream at your grandmothers. In addition to this challenge, I tried to stay away from white starches (white rice, potatoes, that type of stuff) (that's excluding the grits from the last post). It wasn't terribly hard. Of course there were times when Justin was having creamy, yummy mashed potatoes and I sat there with just the meat and veggies of the meal, but I survived. And I feel like a better person for it.  The main thing I am proud to say is that I have only had one soft drink in the past month! Just one soda (and it was Coke Zero mixed with whiskey, so maybe it doesn't count as that terrible?). There was a few days where I would have traded my kidney for a coke zero, but then I'd fix some green tea and get over it. Other than that, there were no crazy cravings. I had to make sure that I wasn't terribly tempted at every meal, but making healthy decisions weren't that hard. Most days if I had to go out during lunch, there was a fruit option instead of chips, or at dinner a veggie option instead of a starch. And hopefully now, I won't go crazy and drink Coke Zeros like I use to and keep making the healthy choices. 
The biggest help though was the My Fitness Pal App on my phone. It kept me (almost) accountable, and made sure that I stayed within my calorie goal. I've been using it for about a month and a half, and I feel like it is a huge motivator when it comes to making food choices. Because who wants to pick up a chocolate chip muffin, only to record it and use up 500 calories on that one item? That was the way I thought about it, and it really did help. Plus you can use the website and customize what you want it to track (such as fat, carbs, sugar, sodium), and there are so many foods already logged in to make recording that much easier. And if you exercise, you can record that and it will give you those worked off calories back. And yes, I do consider walking up stairs for work as exercise (oh, the life of an accounting intern).  I have been slacking when it comes to running, but hopefully without traveling for work I will get back in the routine.
Anyway, I just wanted to see out the end of the challenge with y'all, and hopefully sharing my somewhat easy experience will motivate you to try and cut some junk food out. I'm off to drink a Coke Zero (just kidding!). I'll be back soon to tell you about my horrible graduate school experience last week and Justin and mine's mini vacation. Hope everyone had a great weekend :)