A break and renewal

I'm still here and doing OK.  The neck thing got much better, I actually went all weekend with very little numbness in my hand,...and then it came back.  So it looks like I will have an MRI in the near future to see the state of the discs in my neck.  Fortunately, my neck feels fine, it's just pinching a nerve and making my hand numb.  I have no doubt, since I am under the care of a chiropractor and not a doctor in a medical institution, we will try the non-invasive treatment of more frequent chiropractor visits to see if he can get the disc to settle down.  I don't foresee needing surgery and I sure hope I'm right about that. 
I am still doing my dancing and Zumba in the mornings and that is going good.  I always start my morning sweaty and smiley. 
Last weekend I started letting myself get distracted from my plan.  I stopped tracking, I had no energy, I felt like I was either coming down with something or having a hormonal drought or thyroid issue.  Whatever it was, it was coupled with a horrible, irritable mood.  I still managed to workout Saturday, but didn't on Sunday and had moments of eating when I was not hungry.  I felt like I was "taking care of myself" by eating more, high-fat foods and I was craving sweets like nobody's business.  I found some sliced banana's I'd frozen and that helped, but I also had some sugary granola bars.  My mood tanked and it didn't lift back up until today. 
Here are two things I learned from it: I ran out of St. John's Wort about a week and a half ago. I wasn't sure it was really making a difference so I got off it and boy did my mood suffer.  I will get back on that.  It's hard to have a positive outlook about tracking calories when you are just plain grouchy all day. 
The other thing, and this has been an issue for some time, I have a nasty habit of skipping my afternoon snack.  Usually I don't get hungry until 4PM, and I leave work at 5 most days, so I'll convince myself I'd rather continue my habit of eating right after I get home (or within a half hour) than to eat a snack and then wait to eat when I get home.  It leads to me feeling justified in eating more calories (usually in the form of chips) at dinner because I'm so over-hungry.  It's not a good pattern and I am working on it. 
I did weigh-in on the 15th and I lost another 2 pounds, for a total of 7 pounds lost since January 1.  My goal was only to lose 1 pound a week, so I'm doing pretty good!  I really don't care how fast I get to a healthy weight as long as I get there. 
So that's my truncated recap of how things are going.  I'm back to tracking and caring today.  I want the scale to show another 2 pound loss when I weigh in on March 1 so I'm focusing on that goal.