On our way to the show.

On Monday I did something I never thought I’d do: Went to a professional wrestling event … and loved every minute of it.

When I was younger, my grandma watched wrestling. I didn’t understand it — and probably poked a little fun at her. Even in the face of criticism, she maintained she watched “for the stories.”

Then I met the Boyfriend, who’s been a fan for years. Eventually, he got me hooked. Now, I look forward to “the stories” myself.

So when I learned, via a Make A Wish press release emailed to me at work, that “Monday Night Raw” was going to be in Phoenix, I knew I had to go. We didn’t make it to Wrestlemania when it was in Phoenix a couple of years ago, so I was bound and determined to get there this time.

Monday afternoon, the Boyfriend and I headed to Phoenix. We stopped at Carl’s Jr. before the event, and I had my usual: the Low-Carb $6 Burger. (Sorry I didn’t think to snap a picture of it.)

US Airways Center ... home (for the night) of WWE's Monday Night Raw.

Then, guided by GPS, I drove us downtown, to US Airways Center. We took advantage of $5 parking about a block from the venue.

Even though we’d just eaten, the Boyfriend had to get popcorn. When we stopped at the concession stand, I decided to grab a drink, too.

Yeah. That wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made. $5.50 was a bit pricey for a bottle of Diet Dr Pepper.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Since our seats were in the nosebleed section, we had to climb several flights of stairs to get to them. We climbed so many stairs that the Boyfriend complained he thought he’d have a heart attack.

Sure. The out-of-shape, still-overweight blonde bests the tennis pro for cardiovascular endurance? I don’t think so. He was just trying to make me feel good.

We might have been up high, but had a clear view of the action.

At least we had a fantastic view. Our seats were on the aisle, and we had a crystal clear view of the ring.

The family in front of us was adorable, too. One of the kids held up a “Boo this man” sign every time one of the show’s bad guys made an appearance.

The guys beside us kept booing John Cena, though. I like John Cena. He’s the reason I knew about the show in Phoenix. (The press release from Make A Wish was touting his appearance at some hospital or something.)

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of my favorite wrestlers. My iPhone’s camera didn’t zoom close enough without the image turning grainy. (What? A flaw in my beloved iPhone? Say it isn’t so!)

Suffice it to say, Beth Phoenix, who was in the “Superstars” pre-Raw match, looked amazing. I remarked to the Boyfriend that I wished I had her body. She’s tall (her nickname is “the Glamazon,” after all) and … not skinny. She’s not overweight either, but she looks solid and muscular — not like a stiff wind will blow her away.

Huh. I just read on her WWE page that she’s 5’7″. I’d never have guessed. She seems a lot taller than that, towering over the other Divas like she does. (Then again, the other Divas’ profiles I checked said they were 5’5″.)

Live and learn, I guess. It’s certainly a testament to the power of illusion.

Here's where all the superstars made their entrances.

The show was great. My only complaint was that we couldn’t hear the ring announcers. Not that I missed hearing Michael Cole’s drivel, but I’d assumed watching live would be like watching on TV — at least when it came to hearing the commentary.

All in all, it was a lot of fun — and fun to share a first with the Boyfriend. He said he’d never been to a live wrestling event before. (He was as surprised by the lack of sound from the announcers as I was. We could see Jerry “The King” Lawler, but didn’t hear a word he said.)

Time to get back to serious tracking (instead of keeping a running total in my head) and doing a bit more meal planning (instead of flying by the seat of my pants). And, of course, downing copious amounts of water.

At least it’s not a huge gain — and I’m not going to let it bring me down. I’m gonna put on my fantastic new “skinnier” jeans and rock today like I did Thursday.

Yes, I am! The big, bad scale isn’t going to make me feel bad about myself today.

Thought-provoking, slightly twisted stuff, that — and they’re still the only group I’ve noticed using the word “debauchery” in a lyric.

Depeche Mode came to mind when I started crafting this post, because they have a song titled “Sometimes.” It starts off:

Sometimes
Only sometimes
I question everything

Thursday wasn’t one of those days. It was, in fact, an awesome day, even though I spent the bulk of it at work. (It’d be nice to be independently wealthy.) What made it awesome?

Feeling fine (and slimmer) in a cute outfit from Old Navy.

Sometimes all it takes is a cute new sweater on deep discount and a pair of full-price jeans to make you feel like a million bucks.

Sometimes you realize you can be mean to your characters without the world coming to an end — and it feels good. (Trust me, this is a big discovery for me.)

Sometimes your choices make sense … and make you feel like you’re doing everything right.

Sometimes you get a much-needed chance to take a deep breath and slow down.

Sometimes you just know you’re loved.

And sometimes, everything really does fall into place. I’ll take more days like that, please.

That’s true in both blogging (sorry for letting y’all down these past few days) and weight loss. One splurge won’t make or break your diet if you eat consistently 95% of the time.

That’s something I forgot for a while. But it’s coming back to me. Making one healthier choice at a time, one after the other, will get me to my goal.

Enough philosophizing Let’s get to the update:

I had a heck of a weekend — and I mean that in the best possible way. I spent it living life, laughing lots and eating low-carb. I wasn’t even tempted by the Boyfriend’s vat o’ popcorn at the show Monday night. (More on the show later, when I have my computer fired up. Right now, I’m blogging by iPhone. Not conducive to a longer post with multiple pictures.)

Promise I won’t be a stranger the rest of the week.

Not me. The right kind of pancakes fit right into your low-carb eating plan.

Pancakes on Atkins? Yes, you can!

These particular pancakes, Almond Protein Pancakes from an Atkins.com recipe, are quick to fix and taste great.

And filling? Two good-sized pancakes were almost too much for me to finish.

This was my second attempt at making this recipe, and they turned out even better this time around. Even though I followed the same recipe, the batter turned out more fluid — more like real pancake batter.

Top ‘em with a little butter and some sugar-free syrup and you’ll hardly know they’re low in carbs.

I’m glad someone comes up with delicious, low-carb replacements for old favorites.

Enjoy!

I never thought losing weight could be easy. God knows, it never had been before.

I can’t remember exactly when my weight became a problem, but I do know I’ve been at least a little chunky since sixth grade.

Oh, I had thinner moments. There was my freshman year of high school, when I spent the majority of my time shut in my bedroom to avoid the acid tongue of the uncle who was staying with us. Apparently I didn’t eat very much at the time, because I passed out in English class — and when I went to the doctor, he told me I wasn’t eating enough.

Then there was the end of my junior year. When my mom went on the NutriSystem diet, I followed it with her. Puffed wheat or rice cereal with skim milk and a glass of grapefruit juice for lunch, chicken breast and half a baked potato for lunch/dinner — and those powdered drink/broth/gelatin mixes to supplement meals. My weight got to an all-time low — for me — of 198.

Not bad, but still about 40 pounds overweight, if you believe those pesky height-weight charts. At 5 feet, 10 inches, they say I should be between 150 and 160.

Then I went to college. No “freshman 15″ for me — no siree. Mine was more like the “freshman 30.”

If you really believe in the low-carb lifestyle, which I now do, it’s no wonder I gained weight in college. There were late-night Taco Bell runs … triple orders of Papa John’s breadsticks (a group of us had to go together to order enough for them to deliver) … platefuls of biscuits and gravy from the campus dining hall every Saturday and Sunday. Oh, let’s not forget lunches from the student union: taco salads, the baked potato bar or bacon cheeseburgers with a side of fries, consumed most weekdays.

My eating habits didn’t improve after college. In my first apartment, mac & cheese, Hamburger Helper and ramen noodles were diet staples. I also ate more than my fair share of pizza and fast-food burgers and fries.

Oops — can’t forget cookies, chocolate and other desserts.

I’m not going to deny it: I love food. In general, the worse it is for me, the better it tastes.

I’ve never been much of a fan of exercise, either. I was in the marching band in high school and, for a while in college, I used the fitness center pretty regularly. But for the most part, I’ve been sedentary.

Overall, it was a real recipe for disaster. Eventually, my weight climbed to more than 300 pounds. Don’t ask me how much more, because I avoided the scale in those days. I think my highest recorded weight at the doctor’s office was 306.

I fooled myself into believing that, at my height, I carried the weight well … and, to an extent, that’s true. Had I been shorter, I’d have been much, much worse off.

But it was still bad enough. My blood pressure was high, and I got to a point that I fell asleep on the couch every afternoon, exhausted from doing … well, pretty much nothing.

I knew I needed to lose weight. I probably told myself that at least once a day. I just hadn’t found a diet I could commit to — or maybe I just hadn’t gotten the kick in the butt I needed to make me commit.

I liked eating more than I liked the idea of being thin.

To be continued …

What is it, you ask?

Well, weight loss is a billion-dollar industry. You have Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, L.A. Weight Loss … and probably dozens more. In the fitness arena, there’s Curves, Bally’s, 24-Hour Fitness, Crunch, Anytime Fitness and countless other gyms.

Don’t forget the thousands of books and magazines dedicates to helping us be our best — read fit, healthy and happy — selves.

So how many of these programs, gyms and magazines set us up to fail. After all, if everyone followed their advice and lost the weight and got fit, there’d be no reason for us to keep going back to them, would there?

Maybe that’s why they continue to tout a low-fat, high-carb eating plan that just isn’t sustainable for many of us. The weight-loss giants want us to keep failing so they can stay in business.

OK, probably not. It’s more likely they all have the best of intentions and truly believe in what they sell.

But the idea is intriguing, you have to admit.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who wonders about this.

My bangs are still long, but shorter than they were. Knew I wouldn't be able to get to the salon for at least a week, so I took scissors into my own hands.

Friday was a great day for myriad reasons. Here’s the rundown:

1. It was payday. That’s always reason to smile.
2. Tired of waiting to find time to get a haircut, I took scissors into my own hands. I used a bang-trimming method I read about in one of the health/beauty magazines:  gathering the bangs, twisting them into one lock and whacking off the end. (I don’t think they look half bad, but I did purposely leave them long enough that a stylist can fix them if necessary.)
3. I got tickets for the Boyfriend and I to go to the Monday Night Raw Supershow tour in Phoenix on Monday. Yes, I’m a WWE fan. (The Boyfriend got me hooked.) It’ll be fun to see a live show.
4. I treated myself to lunch at Picazzo’s — a shrimp-topped Caesar salad. My favorite. Mmmm.
5. My blog got more than 30 hits today. That might seem like small potatoes to some people, but to me, it’s a big deal. Huge, even.
6. I logged 6,607 steps on the pedometer. (Again, it doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve been in the 4,000 to 5,000 range all week.)
7. I started reading a great new novella over lunch: Eloisa James’ “Winning the Wallflower.” And when I got home, a surprise waited for me: A Silhouette Special Edition called “The Daddy Dance,” by Mindy Klasky. (I must have won a blog giveaway I don’t remember entering.)
8. I have a NARWA meeting in the morning. Camaraderie and inspiration are sure to follow.
9. I started my day with a great breakfast: Low-carb pancakes.
10. I got to use words like “myriad” and “camaraderie” in a blog post. Guess that fancy college education does come in handy once in a while!

Broccoli Crunch Salad, right before assembly.

Mmm … broccoli?

If you’re George Bush, not so much. (I hope I’m not the only one who remembers Bush the elder bashing broccoli. If so, I’m really dating myself, aren’t I?)

I’ve always liked what my brother liked to call little green trees — at least since I learned, by watching Food Network, that broccoli should still be bright green after it’s cooked. My mom, bless her heart, cooked it in the pressure cooker until it took on a sickly yellow-green hue.

Normally, I prefer it cooked. But there’s one recipe I love that features raw broccoli: Yep. You’ve heard me rave about it before: Broccoli Crunch Salad.

I found the original recipe on a low-carb recipe website (but have no idea which one, or if I could find it again. It’s in a big blue binder full of low-carb recipes my roommate and I collected from various online sources when we did Atkins starting in 2003).

I stopped eating it when I started WW, but I shouldn’t have. It can easily be adapted to be lower in fat by using light mayo and low-fat cheese. Don’t skimp on the real bacon though. That (in my opinion) is what makes this salad sing.

Broccoli Crunch Salad is both super versatile and super delicious. It’s also pretty simple to make, especially if you use a food processor to chop the broccoli.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

• 1 head of broccoli, chopped
• 1/2 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 T sugar substitute
• 2 T cider vinegar

Mix first three ingredients. Mix last three ingredients. Then combine and mix well.

P.S. I’ve blogged this recipe before, but wanted to have it in its own post so I could hook it up with the Healthy Living Blogs recipe link-up featuring broccoli and cauliflower.

The good news? Cue Queen: I’m down another pound.

That makes 32 pounds lost since I started Atkins in May. Some might say that’s a snail’s pace — it’s certainly slower than the last time I did Atkins. (I think I’ve mentioned losing about 100 pounds in my first 52 weeks.)

Slow and steady wins the race, right?