Day 31...February Goals...

Today is the last day of January (can you believe we're already one month down in 2013?!!) & so I decided to revisit my goals for this month.  Here is the list of goals I made at the beginning of the month & how I did with sticking to them:

* I plan to eat more fresh fruits & vegetables. I am REALLY bad at this. I have to say I probably did pretty good on this one.  I'd say that was accomplished.

* Come up with some new recipes for the whole family that DON'T include anything from a box.
I did really good with this one, well until school started.  I tried out several really good recipes that DIDN'T come from a box & all in all I will definitely be incorporating those into our family "menu".  I'd say goal was accomplished.

* Try to incorporate some exercise into my routine. Right now it's pretty cold outside & the prospect of doing anything in this weather isn't really appealing to me, but I do have this dance/aerobic video that I guess I can dust off. The plus side to that is that Alei likes to do that with me, so it'll be good for both of us.
Ok this one did NOT turn out so well.  Although I did do some exercise a few times I did not in any way make this a weekly habit.  Goal definitely not accomplished.

* Incorporate some light weights into my routine every day. I will admit right now, cardio is NOT my favorite form of exercise. I like to swim & I like to ride my bike, but walking/running, ugh not so much. But I also know that weight training is a good thing, so my goal for January is to do SOME form of weight training EVERY day, starting today.
Uh, not even close!!  Goal not accomplished.

* I want to weigh 269 lbs by the end of this month. That will be a 10 lb weight loss & I have really set my sights on a 2 lb a week weight loss, so that should be doable right? We'll see....
Well I got on the scale this morning & even though I was so close, there was no cigar.  And no I'm not beating myself up about this b/c I know I will get there, but to be so close.....Oh well.  Goal not accomplished.

So 2 out of 5 of my goals were accomplished for January and all in all I'm pretty pleased with my progress.  I have good days & bad days, but as long as the good ones outweigh the bad ones that's all I can strive for. 

Tomorrow starts a new month & with a new month comes some new goals.  Here are my goals for February:

• I plan to continue with my fruits and vegetables.  I'd like to try to get in at least 3 servings of fruit & 5 servings of vegetables each day. 
• I want to incorporate exercise into my week.  My goal for February is to exercise 3 times a week.  No time limit, just three times a week for every week in February.
• I'd like to plan some menu's so that I can get a better grip on my eating in the evenings since school has started back. 
• And lastly I'd like to weigh 260 by the end of the month. 

So, what are your monthly goals for February?

Day 28 Do you have a goal?

The end of the month is getting so close!! This morning I was still at 270, come on I just need ONE POUND to make my goal for January!! I know I can do it. 

This morning as I was thinking over my journey thus far I realized something, something pretty great actually.  I was thinking of this very goal & knowing that I only needed to lose 1 more lb & while thinking about it I realized how much I LIKED having a goal.  And not a lofty, pie in the sky "I want to be a size 6 one day" goal, but a real, concrete obtainable goal.  In the past when I have embarked on trying to lose weight I always looked at the big picture.  I was always focusing on the end result, never on the journey that would get me there.  I wanted results & I wanted them fast.  I knew in my mind (somewhere way in the back) that I COULD get to my end point if I put in the hard work & stayed the course, but I was so focused on the finish line that I couldn't see the actual race I needed to run.  I didn't want to log the miles, I just wanted to take a helicoptor to the end. Or better yet I wanted a genie in a bottle to just nod her head & poof me there.  I didn't want to struggle.  I didn't want to actually have to think about what I was doing.  I didn't want to put in any REAL work.  I wanted it to be easy, and thoughtless, but as we all know, it is as far from that as you can get.  Now don't get me wrong, it's not impossible, but it does take actual effort.  It takes some thinking, and some planning.  It takes some investment of your time and yes even some sacrifice.  I mean come on, we all know where thoughtless eating gets us (just go take a look at my before pics which are actually still my current pics) and that's nowhere I want to be! 

So, while I was jumping on the scale to see if I'd reached my "goal" I was happy.  Even though I hadn't reached my goal I was still happy. I was happy just to have a goal, and to know that I was the one who set it & I was the one who had almost reached it and that I still can.  ME, I DID THIS!! And I can continue to do this every day until I get to this goal & the next one & the next one. 

So, if you haven't already set you some small attainable goals I challenge you to do so.  Yes one day I want to be 100 lbs less, but right now I just want to get rid of this ONE STINKING POUND!  And you know what?  I will.  And then a new goal will take its place & on & on I'll go running down that path toward the finish line there in the distant future & hopefully you'll be there cheering me on & we'll celebrate together :)



Weekly Weigh In...

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been on much lately, but last week was my first week back in school full time & also I have been in bed sick since Thursday!  I definitely will do better I promise, I just hate being sick!! 

 

So, on to my weigh in.  As you know from last week I was up some since I had several functions that I went to & just over did it overall that week.  This week I was hoping to not only have lost last weeks gain but a little more, plus my end of the month goal was to weigh 269 lbs & being that it's the 27th already that's really what I was hoping for, but......I did ok :) 

Ok, I'll get on with it, today's weigh in was 270 lbs! :D  No, it wasn't the 269 that I was hoping for, BUT I still have 4 days for that to happen right?  Thankfully though, that does bring my loss for this week to 3 lbs!! Yay! I took off those extra lbs plus one more, so I am very happy about that!!

 

 

That brings my total weight loss since I started this weight loss journey on December 18, 2012 to 13 lbs!! Woohoo!  I can't wait to lose 7 more so I can post some "after" pictures, of course I'm sure they won't look very different, but still 20 lbs is 20 lbs!!

Some things I needed to work on this week were getting in my water and exercising.  I don't think that I did any exercising this week at all, and my water intake was pretty poor. As a matter of fact, I don't think I drank ANY water these last two days.  It's hard for me to drink water when I'm sick.  I usually just drink diet gingerale.  But, hopefully these antibiotics will kick in soon & I'll start to feel better asap & can get back with my water regime. 

So,  how did everyone else do this week??  Hopefully you all did great, I can't wait to see how everyone else did, and I promise I'll get back to blogging more frequently!

 

Oh yeah & I am posting this to Java Mama's Biggest Loser Challenge

 



Previous weight 273
Current weight 270
- 3  lb
Total weight loss to date
-13 lbs

Day 21...Dinner ideas?

Ok so being back in school has really thrown me for a loop. 



While I was out of school it was so easy to make great, healthy lunches & dinners, but now that I'm back in school full time I can see this is going to take a little more preparation.  Not so much for the lunches, but definitely for the dinners.  Getting home from being in school all day long is leaving me too tired to devote much energy into making a healthy dinner.  On top of the fact that I have 6 Chapters to read, math calculations to do etc.  Definitely going to have to make a menu & enlist the help of my trusty crock pot.  Also, I'm thinking maybe I could at least cook all the meat for the week on Sunday.

Like say brown the ground beef that I might use, go ahead & cook any chicken breasts that I may use & then just put them in the fridge & pull them out as I need them during the week. Something's gonna have to give, I can't keep eating out & not being able to track my calories fully. 

Any good ideas??

Weekly Weigh in...stupid scale!!

Ok, so we know I was having anxiety about my weigh in today right?  Well, I was so happy to report that I had NOT gained any weight.  When I got on the scale this morning it said 271.6.  I usually don't record the .somethings (although I think I'm going to start now).  When I got off the scale I thought "Awesome! No gained weight!!", which is what I was at LEAST hoping for.  Then I went back a little later to weigh again, just to make sure.  I stepped on the scale this time & it read 271.4.  Ok, whatever, I'll take that.  I decided that I'd take a picture of it to post on my blog so I went & got my cell phone & went back to snap the picture & holy hell if the stupid thing didn't say 273!!  Seriously?  I think my scale is messing with me!! I mean I was literally gone from the scale for like 1 minute!! And yes I know I didn't gain two lbs in that minute, but for some reason my scale has now decided I weigh 273 lbs!  Grrrrr!!

With that said, I suppose my weight is 273 this week, which means a 2 lb gain.  Of course, I'm not surprised or anything, especially after the last 2 days, but still, I wish I could have stuck with that first number!!  I guess if I hadn't of gotten on the scale 5,000 more times after I first weighed I could have stuck with that number.  I suppose that's what I get. 

Anyhoo.  Today is back to the regularly scheduled program of tracking my calories.  I don't have any dinners planned for the near future & I'm going to bring my lunches to school, so this week should be good. 

Lastly, I thought I'd share with you how I track my water consumption. I know most people use those fancy water bottles that have the ounces on the side.  Something like this:

 

But not me.  This is what I track my water consumption in:

 

 

A 32 ounce pickle jar :) 

 

Alright, well a new week is upon us, and I will continue to do what I do & hope that next week shows not only the loss of the stupid 2 lbs, but even more.  I'd like to have at least a -4 lb week this week.  That's my goal for next weigh in, I'd like to be down to 269.  269 is actually my January goal, but it's getting close to the end of January anyway, so here's hoping to -4 lbs on next week's weigh in. 

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend, looking forward to seeing everyone else's losses on the Biggest Loser challenge.  :)

 

Previous weight 271
Current weight 273
+ 2 lb
Total weight loss to date
-10 lbs

Day 19...Nervous

Tomorrow is my weigh in & I'm so nervous!!



These last three days have been sort of like free for alls.  Well, mainly just the last two.  Although I did track my calories.  I made sure that even if I didn't stick to the 1700 & under amount I was still determined to at least track what I ate, and let me tell you, yesterday was a doozie!! I tracked everything I ate & honestly I didn't "feel" like it was that much.  I mean to me it was only 3 meals, which is normal right?  How bad could it be?? Oh it could be bad, and what's worse is that I used to do that every day AND MORE!!  And just in honor of full disclosure let me tell you what that consisted of:


Breakfast:

1/4 cup of Oatmeal

75 Calories

Lunch:

Jimmy John's Italian Night Club
Jimmy John's Sea Salt & Vinegar chips

1248 Calories (Can you believe that!!!!!!!!)

Dinner:

Roast Beef
Butternut Squash Casserole
Broccoli & Cheese Casserole
Loaded Mashed Potatoe's
Coconut Creme Pie
Jack & Coke

1197 Calories

Snacks:

2 Cheddar Peppers from Sonic
1/2 container of Ranch dippping sauce
KFC Original Recipe Chicken Wing

377 Calories

So tomorrow's the day.   Can't say that I'm feeling too confident about it.  I'd be ok with not losing anything, but what I'm really afraid of is a gain.  Of course I know it won't be a permanent gain, mostly just bloating, but still....Oh well all I can do is face the music & move on. 

I'll be sure to let you know.  :)

Another Biggest Loser Blog Hop...

Today I am linking up to another blog hop.  Hey, you can never have too much support right??  I'm linking up to My Pink Scribbles for their Biggest Loser get healthy challenge.  I don't think there are any real rules, it's just a place to go & share with other people who are trying to get healthy. 

 

 

For the first week I guess we're just introducing ourselves & telling what we're "doing" as far as getting healthy is concerened so here goes:

 



Exercise:

 

Currently my daughter & I have been doing this 20 minute work out we found online called HASfit 20 minute low impact aerobic work out.  It's pretty generic, but perfect for my untoned, untrained, out of shape body :)  I'm trying to do this at least every other day.

 

Diet:

 

I am couting calories.  I'm a big believer in calories in/calories out.  If you eat less than your body needs you will lose.  Right now I'm sticking to 1700 calories a day or less.  Of course I subtract any exercise from my total calories & make sure that my net is always 1700 or less.  I am trying to eat healthier as well, with as many of my calories coming from fresh, homemade foods & less processed, pre-packaged foods.

 

Goals:

 

My immediate goal is to lose 20 lbs.  That's when I get a dinner/movie date reward.  My short term goal is to lose 50 lbs. I told hubs that once I lost 50 lbs that we were going to sign up for dance classes.  Fun!! And my long term goal is to lose 100 lbs this year.  I am aiming for 2 lbs a week & so far I am on track.  Today actually equals 1 month that I have made this change & so far I've lost 12 lbs. :)

 

If you're interested in linking up just hop on over to My Pink Scribbles & join in. 

 

Hope to see you there!!



Day 18 Cheat day?

Ok so today is shot.  Although my food log has been all over the place the last two days I still managed to come in under my alloted 1700 calories from what I could tell.  But today, forget about it (said in my best New York accent)! Breakfast was pretty good with 1/2 a bowl of oatmeal, but for lunch we ate at Jimmy John's & I had their delicious Club sandwich coming in at a whopping 926 calories!! On top of that I ate the whole bag of chips, 300 calories alone. 



As if that weren't bad enough, tonight I'm going to an awards dinner with my sister & it's a buffet style dinner, so I have no clue what the selections will be.  Am I going to make good choices?  I may, it depends on what they're serving.  But I'm not too terribly worried b/c I've been good all the rest of this week & tomorrow is a new day.  All I can hope for at Sunday's weigh in is to not have a gain.  But if I do then I do, I know it will only be temporary.  This is a journey for me.  I'm learning lessons as I go and making choices day by day.  So, if today wasn't that hot, that doesn't mean that I have to continue down this treacherous path tomorrow too.  Today is one day out of the rest of my life & today's bad decisions don't have to affect my future forever.  Every meal is a chance to turn it all around. 

So, if you've been putting off this whole "weight loss" thing, then just remember, every new meal is a new chance to make that change!!

I'll be sure to take some pictures tonight of the dinner. 

Hope everyone has a great Friday night!!

Day 17 Back to school...

Today was my first day back to school and wouldn't you know it, we had a potluck breakfast.  So I was a little worried about it but I actually did really well (or so I thought!).  I avoided the donuts, chocolate chip cookies, coffee cakes and muffins.  That was until I found these sweet little pieces of pure heaven!!!!

 

 

 

They're called "mini" orange muffins & I was thinking, how bad could they be?  Even though when you picked them up you could FEEL how dense they were, AND the fact that they were made by The Pioneer Woman (who never reveals the calories in her recipes!) So I quickly did the calculations and figured they were probably about 50 calories a piece and then proceeded to pop four of these little suckers in my mouth.  I am NOT lying when I say you could hear angels singing!!  YUMMMM!!  I went ahead & did a "quick add" on MFP for 200 calories & decided that I'd look the recipe when I got home to figure out how many calories they really had. Welllllll let's just say my calculations were FREAKING MAJORLY  a teensy bit off.  After I added in the TWO sticks of butter, 1 CUP of white sugar AND brown sugar, plus the other stuff, these little pieces of deliciousness came in at a whopping 109 calories a piece!! And did I mention they were MINI muffins??!!  Whew, well luckily I decided to do a little bit of aerobics tonight so my total calories for today came in at a total of 1542 (net of 1338).  I mean seriously, I could have eaten them all.  And I was sooo close to escaping all the goodies until I had those!  Even so, I'd say I did pretty good :)  And since my calories were all over the place yesterday & today I'll spare you my food log.  But, I still came in under as far as I can tell. 

 

Tomorrow is my 2nd day of school, but luckily I get out at 12:15 so it shouldn't be very hard to keep my calories under control.  I'm also going to try & do that aerobic routine at least 2 more times before my weigh in on Sunday. 

 

Anyhoo, time to go teach my baby girl how to play chess (again) & I probably should grab a couple more glasses of water, I only got in 6 today.  Oh! And I'll also leave you with a picture of my cute new lunch box!!

 

Isn't that cute!! It also came with 2 containers inside :)



 

 

Hope you have a great weekend planned!!

 

Blessings,

Day 16 Are you really committed?

Today someone said something that really got me to thinking.  How committed am I?  Over the years I'll admit I have started a new "diet" about 1,469,543 times (give or take a few).  And I've probably failed at said diet 1,469,543 times.  So what's different about now?  How committed am I now?  I have to say I'm pretty sure this time I'm ALL IN.  I don't know where this sudden committment to changing my life has come from, but I'm glad it's here.  Today I heard someone say that they were going to "take a week off", and I wondered, how do you take a week off of living healthy?  How do you take a week off of counting your calories & watching what you eat?  If you're truly committed, you don't.  At least I don't see myself doing that.  To me, allowing myself "a week off" is like saying that this isn't a real change.  That this is just a temporary fix, to a very big problem.  But the truth is, this isn't something I'm doing for now, this is it.  This is my new way of life, period.  This isn't a diet, it isn't a fad, it's a new me.  A me that cares how much I'm eating and how many calories I'm consuming on a daily basis. And don't get me wrong, I'm not judging that person, we're all on our own journey.  But when I saw that I thought "How many 'breaks' have I taken over the years?"  And how many of those "breaks" turned out to be more like totally giving up & never returning again?  That "week off" turned into 2 weeks, then 3 and before you know it I was up another 20 lbs.  Not this time!! I don't care WHAT happens in my life, this is it.  THIS is the new me.  The old me is dead & gone.  Gone is the bingeing on a million calories.  Gone is the 2 Route 44 sweet tea's a day.  Gone is the excuses of "I'll just have ONE more (which turns into the whole pack)".  I can't go back.  At this point I can ONLY go forward.



I know where going back leads & I don't want to live there anymore. 

So, while I hope that this person truly does come back after their "week off", I have to wonder, how much of a change is that if you can take a week off from it??

What about you?  Do you think taking a week off is ok?  Maybe I'm just being too strict.

Day 15 Struggling...

Do you ever just have one of those days where you just want to eat everything!!!!!!  Well today has totally been one of those days.  Acutally when I think about it, yesterday was one too.  Fortunately yesterday I was able to control myself.  I only ate 1525 calories & I even managed to get in some exercise, and just to prove it here's a scary sweaty picture of me & my baby girl after we had done 20 minutes of a low impact aerobics workout we found on youtube.  :)

 

 

 

According to MFP (My Fitness Pal) that activity burned 204 calories, therefore my net calories were 1321.  I love seeing the difference that exercise can make.  And I'll be honest, I love knowing that I have the extra calories there IF I want them.  Of course, last night I didn't but whew, tonight may be a different story! Right now it's only 5:21 pm & I only have 503 calories left!! Of course if I do that workout again then I'll have 707 calories left.  I have to admit, I feel like I'm getting a little obssessed with counting these calories, in a good way, not in a crazy way.  I love the feeling I get from knowing that I am in control of how many calories I am putting into my body.  Even when I WANT to go crazy (like today) I still measured & tracked my calories.  I don't know what is up with today, I guess it's probably the weather.  It's NASTY out today, it's rainy & cold & I guess I just feel like bundling up & eating everything in sight!!  But, so far I've restrained myself.  I'm supposed to make pork chops & rice for dinner, but just one serving of that has 413 calories so I'm thinking maybe I'll just stick with pork chops & veggies.  I have a great recipe I'm going to try called buffalo cauliflower bites, & they're very low in calories so I'm excited about that.  I'll make sure to take a pic & post it on here tomorrow.  But for now I'll leave you with my food log from yesterday. 


Breakfast:

Liquid Egg Whites
Piece of turkey

Calories 75

Lunch:

2 Tostadas

Calories 255

Dinner:

Cabbage Casserole over rice (recipe from Katie)

Calories 485

Snacks:

SF Cherry Jello
Flour tortilla w/light mayo & turkey breast
80/20 Hamburger patty w/ketchup
Banana with 1 T. peanut butter (SO delish btw)
2 Ritz crackers

Calories 710

8 glasses of water
20 minutes of aerobic exercise -204 calories

Total calories 1525 minus aerobics 1321

Ok, well I hope you guys are having a better day than I am!!!


Blessings,

Day 14 New followers!!

Well hey there!! I am so excited to have new followers!! I hope that we can encourage each other along this journey, share recipes & basically just cheer each other on as we acheive our goals for 2013!

So I have to tell you about my dinner last night, it was so DELICIOUS!!  I took a recipe from Skinnytaste & tweaked it a bit.  Here is the original recipe

 

 

And here is my version

 

 

 

 

 

Total calories for the dinner came to 422, which was pretty darn good considering how yummy it was!  I'll post the recipe on my recipe page. 

 

 

And since I don't have any words of inspiration today I'll just leave you with my food log from yesterday.  I was super hungry/snacky last night, but then I realized that I hadn't had ANY water all day long & so before I went overboard I quickly downed 6 glasses before bed.  Luckily I go to bed very late so I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to pee :)

 

Anyhoo, this is what I ate yesterday:

 

Breakfast:

 

3 T. liquid egg whites

1 slice turkey breast

1/2 cup 1% milk

 

Total calories 105

 

Lunch:

 

Homemade pizza

 

Total calories 385

 

Dinner:

 

Shrimp & rice

 

Total calories 392

 

Snacks:

 

Imitation crab meat

Noosa blueberry yogurt

1 c. Golden puff cereal

1 c. 1% milk

1 Cutie

1 cucumber, peeled

 

6 cups of water

 

Total calories 1508

 

 

How about you?  Have you noticed that lack of drinking water has an effect on your feelings of hunger?  

Biggest Loser Challenge!!!





While I was perusing Katie J's blog I came across the Biggest Loser Challenge.  Apparantely it's a challenge from now until March.  Uh, COUNT ME IN!! I love community & I love a challenge so today I am linking up with The Java Mama for their biggest loser challenge. Here's the deets:

THE PLAN:

• Every Monday starting January 7th-March 25th come back here and link up your post for the Biggest Loser Challenge.
• If you want to post pictures or specifics about your body/weight you can. If you don't feel comfortable doing that then just put *starting #* and after that you can put (- pounds from starting weight)
• I'm going to post a motivation picture. We all have that ONE picture that we look back on and are like "dang I remember those days". This coming Monday I'll post my motivation picture and you can too if you would like.
• Share your plan, goals, and recipes.
• Read other participates blogs, comment, support, be real, honest, and show love.
• On the last day of the contest I'll announce a winner!!! (Working on a finale prize- details to come soon! I hope it's something super fabulous)

How fun is that??!!  It's so good to be on board with other people who are doing what I'm doing, losing weight & getting healthy!!  Check it out if you're interested.

Blessings,

Day 13 Weekly Weigh In

So today is the day & I am SOOO excited by what I saw when I stepped on the scale this morning.  I was down FIVE pounds!!!!!!!!!!  Five pounds in one week!! I am SOO stoked! 

 

 

 

My goal by the end of January was to weigh 269 & today's -5 lbs brought me to 271 so I'm preeeety sure that I will meet my goal for January, how exciting is that!!  I said if I got down to 269 by the end of January that that would be 10 lbs for the month & it looks like I may even go over that!!  Woohoo!

 

Ok, I'm calm now. 

 

So, on the way to church this morning I had several thoughts going through my mind.  One of the things I was thinking about was all the times that people (myself included) say "Oh I've tried EVERYTHING & nothing works, I just can't get this weight off."  But those of us that are bigger know the truth, we know that that is just a bunch of well, crap basically.  Yes, you may have tried everything, but the key here is HOW LONG did you try it for?  I mean if you're big then yeah, you probably HAVE tried every diet in the world, I know I have.  Heck, I even had weight loss surgery & still ended up back at 283 lbs!!  But the harsh reality is that NOTHING will work if you don't work it.  There is no magic pill, surgery, or diet, there's no magic at all, there's just HARD WORK, determination, and perseverance.  And believe me I'm am JUST as guilty as everyone else.  You won't believe how many times I've jumped on the "I've tried everything & nothing seems to work" bandwagon.  The whole time though, I knew the truth.  The truth was, I DIDN'T STICK TO IT!  Yeah, I may have done it for a day or two, but as soon as I didn't see the results on the scale then I was done.  My thinking was "Ugh, I've tortured myself for TWO WHOLE DAYS and this dang scale hasn't moved a pound, this doesn't work" and so I gave up, and here I am again, wearing a size 24/26 & wondering why I was such a quitter!!  I mean I have to say that this time has been SO GREAT!!  I have not been hungry one time (I mean I get hungry, but then I eat).  I have not been deprived, and I am so amazed at the fact that the weight is coming off.  Isn't that crazy?  I mean we've heard for years, calories in/calories out.  If you burn more calories than you consume you WILL lose weight.  But to actually see it working so well is just so mind blowing, and exciting, and the thing about this is that I KNOW that I can do this now.  I know that I can stick to it.  I KNOW that I CAN lose this weight!!!  I don't know why I all of a sudden got this bug up my butt to get started on this weight loss journey, but I sure am glad I did.  :)

 

Ok, so here is a picture of my lunch today.  It's a homemade pizza:

 



Ha! I started eating it before I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of it!! :)  Here's the breakdown as far as I could figure:

2 pieced of Mama Mary's crust (2/6 of the pizza) - 240 calories
1/4 of one 80/20 hamburger patty - 73 calories
1/8 c. of pizza sauce - 15 calories
1/4 c. Mozarella cheese - 40 calories
A tablespoon or so of sliced mushroomos - 4 calories (almost not worth counting)
2 1/2 black olives - 13 calories
And some sliced onions that I didn't count

Total calories 385 for my lunch.  I have decided from now on that I'm not going to count little things like onions or mushrooms if they're used sparingly.  I mean the caloric value is so low that I don't think 1 T. of onions is going to make that much of a difference.  Of course that's just me, you can do it however you want.  This pizza was very good.

Ok, well that's my weekly weigh in.  How is everyone else doing?  I hope you're doing great & now I am off to take my Sunday nap!!  Hope everyone has a great week planned!



Previous Weight 276
Current Weight 271
-5 pounds lost
-12 lbs lost total

Day 12 Bicycling, new recipe!

Tommorrow is my official weigh in & I can't wait!! As I said before, although I only "technically" count my weight on Sunday, I can't help but get on the scale daily & I have to say I am pretty pleased with what I'm seeing!!  I'm amazed that if you just feed your body less calories it will fall in line & start to lose weight....what a novel concept!! ;)

Still haven't really incorporated daily exercise.  But I have decided that cycling is going to be my exercise of choice.  As I said before, I really don't like running/walking, but I love riding my bike.  And to make it official I have decided that I'm going to start training for my first century (100 mile bike trip).  Actually it's more of a Century & a half.  It's in Tennessee & it's called "Bike to Jack & Back" & it's a ride for MS. 



While I would LOVE to do it this year, I just don't know if that will happen, what with school & all.  But, I did get a confirmation from hubby that when I did decide to do it, whether it be this year or next, that he would do it with me!! Yay!! I love doing stuff like that together.  Of course since we're newby riders we definitely need to get some more info on the bikes/rides/training etc. 

Finally, here is what we had for dinner tonight

 

 

 

This is my version of Katie's "Chicken and Noodles"  and I have to admit, it is DELICIOUS!! And SO super easy to make (which makes it even better in my book!!).  This is definitely going to become a staple around here!  I tweeked it a tiny bit.  Instead of egg noodles I used fettucine, just b/c it's what I had on hand.  Also, I used a 16 oz. bag of veggies instead of a 10 oz bag & I added a little seasoning salt.  I also found that although her recipe says it serves six 1 1/3 cup servings, I found that mine only made five 1 1/4 cup servings.  But still, SOOO Yuuuummmmmyyyyy!!! 

 

And now for yesterday's food log:

 

Breakfast:

 

1 Egg omelet (1 egg, 1/2 Roma tomato, 1 piece 97% FF cooked ham, about a T. of chopped onion)

1 English muffin

1 T. Light Mayo

 

Calories 283

 

Lunch:

 

English Muffin Pizza (see recipe in recipe section)

Small salad w/just lettuce & onions & some light ranch & taco sauce

 

Calories 274

 

Dinner:

 

Tuna Salad

 

Calories 460

 

Snacks:

 

1/2 of a 20 oz. French Vanilla Cappucino

1 1/2 KFC chocolate chip cookies (seriously they are my weakness, they are SO good!!)

1 SF Cherry Jello

1 Cutie

 

6 cups of water

 

Total calories 1491

 

What about you guys? Have you tried any new recipes lately??

Day 11

Today is Friday, hard to believe how fast this week has flown by.  Next week I start back to school and I just want to say, up front, that I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up my daily posts once I start back to school.  I promise I will TRY, because this blog is really good for keeping my accountable, but from everything I've heard, this is going to be my hardest semester.  So, my two dear readers, please don't lose faith, I will post as much as I can.  :) 

On to the good stuff.  Guess who has been eating BELOW 1500 calories?? Yep, me! You may be wondering why this is such a big deal, and I will tell you.  See, when I started this process I knew that I could eat up to 1800 calories & still lose my goal of 2 lbs per week.  At first I was eating as close to 1800 calories as possible, just because I knew I could, but lately I just haven't felt the need to continue to eat, JUST BECAUSE I had the calories left over.  Therefore for the last 2 days I have eaten UNDER 1500 calories!! Now for someone who has been eating oh, around 3,000 calories a day for YEARS now, I have to say, that's a big deal! Just the other day I was showing the hubster Katie's blog & I was telling him how she was only eating something like 1200 or so calories & he was like "Why don't you do that?" & I'm sure at that time I looked at him like he'd grown an extra head & said "Are you kidding?  I'd be starving to death if I only ate 1200 or so calories."  Well guess who only ate 1225 calories 2 days ago???  Yep, me again!! You guys are great guessers, lol.  Then yesterday I only ate 1334 calories, and I wasn't even trying to stay low.  It's just that I got to the end of the day & I was like "Hm, I have calories left, I could have a bowl of cereal", my favorite nighttime snack,  but then I was just like "Not really hungry, don't feel the need", so I didn't!!  I am so darn excited!! 

Now, in addition to that, there is one other thing that I am totally excited about.  I don't feel deprived! Not in the least, not even a teensy, tiny bit, and believe me, I have been totally delving into my brain to see if I feel like I am. What I came up with is that I don't feel deprived because I haven't told myself that I "can't" have something.  There is NOTHING that is off limits to me.  This is a lifestyle change, not a diet, therefore I CAN eat anything I want to eat. How cool is that?  But on this journey so far I've also learned that I don't HAVE to eat certain things.  Take for instance today.  I had to go & get my badge for the hospital & I was dragging butt, so we stopped at the gas station & I got one of those yummy French Vanilla cappucinos.  Well, I figured they had quite a few calories in them & so guess what I did?  I drank half and THREW THE OTHER HALF AWAY!  I decided that I didn't want the almost 400 calories & so I just decided not to finish it.  Now, to skinny people this makes PERFECT sense, but to those of us who struggle with our weight, this is a big deal, don't you think??!  I am totally stoked about it!!

Anyhoo, enough about the lessons I am learning, I thought I'd share my lunch with you. I came home & made a English muffin pizza, and this is what it looked like:



This is the english muffin w/mushrooms & pizza sauce
 

I added 1 piece of ham, torn in half & 1 piece of Velveeta Blanco Queso cheese, torn in half
 

Then I put it in the oven on 350 for about 15 minutes & voila!

Here's the actual ingredients & nutritional breakdown:

1 English muffin
1 1/2 T. pizza sauce
1 slice 97% ff cooked ham (torn in half)
1 slice Velveeta Blanco Queso cheese (just b/c it was all I had, I normally would have used mozarella)
Sliced mushrooms from a can (as many as you like)
A few slices of onion on each side (I didn't get a picture of that, but you can see them peeking out from under the ham in the finished product)

After I put on the mushrooms I sprinkled it with a bit of Italian seasoning & a tiny bit of garlic salt.  Added the ham & cheese & baked it on 350 for about 15 minutes.  It was DELISH!!  Seriously. 

Total calories 219 :) 

I also had a tiny salad with that as well. Total lunch w/the salad was only 274 calories.  Pretty good if I do say so myself!!

And lastly, just because I am so excited about it.  Here is my badge from the hospital I will be doing my clinicals at this semester!! :)





Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!! I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, probably not too much, but I am definitely going to try to get in some bike rides.  This weather we're having is fantastic.  I'm not in the part of the US that's getting snow, we're getting 70 degree weather! Very uncharacteristic, but I'll take it!

Day 10, Almond Joy Oatmeal!

Good day mates! Don't ask why I said that...just being my dorky self. 

Anyhoo, so I've recently been obsessivly stalking reading Katie's blog over at Runs for Cookies and I ran across her post regaling her love for oatmeal.  Now, mind you she doesn't love just your plain, run of the meal type of oatmeal, she's all into sprucing it up.  She has many great recipes over on her recipe page here if you want to check them out.  Well, her recipe page got my brain juices flowing & this morning I decided to come up with an oatmeal concoction of my own!  I give you "Almond Joy Oatmal".  This was probably the easiest thing I have come up with so far, well besides the Mexi Omelet I made yesterday for breakfast, YUM! And unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of it, but just picture a bowl of oatmeal & there you go :)  So, here's the "recipe", if you can call it that.

1/2 cup dry oats
1 tsp. Baker's chocolate (that's what I had on hand but I'm sure any chocolate would do)
1 T. sweetened coconut flakes (about 8 g.)
1 1/2 packs Equal (I use the generic brand)
Total calories

Just make the oatmeal according to the directions, add the other stuff when it's done & voila!  It's not that sweet b/c I don't really like the taste of the artificial sweetner, but if you wanted to add more sweetner I'm sure you could make it sweeter.  Now the hardest part of this whole thing was figuring out how much coconut flakes to use.  Unfortunately I have a scale to weigh my food, but it's just a really basic one so I couldn't figure out the real grams of the coconut flakes, but I had ground them up a bit so I compared the consistency to cocoa powder & went with that. 

Yesterday was an interesting day.  My calories logged in at only 1221, the lowest I've had since I started & I was seriously considering a snack when I ran across one of Katie's blog posts where she said she ate less calories that day since she didn't exercise & so I thought.  Well, I don't need a snack.  I didn't exercise today & therefore I didn't create a deficit of calories & so, no snack for me.  Of course it wasn't a punishment or anything like that.  I just reasoned that I didn't need the extra calories, it's not like I was hungry or anything & so I didn't have a nightly snack.  Usually I see that I have extra calories & so I just go for it, but thanks to Katie, I just let it go.  And you know what?  I survived.  I totally lived through NOT having a nightly snack, yay me! 

Lastly, I hate that I don't have any pictures to post today, so instead of my pics I am going to leave you with a great pic of Tiffany. It's very inspiring to read what she says about these pictures & dang if she doesn't look great!  Love her!!!!!!

She had already started losing weight in this picture.

This is her after losing 119 freaking lbs!! She is gorgeous don't you think??!!

So how did you guys do yesterday?  Any good recipes you want to share??

Day 9 Getting nervous & exercising

So, I may or may not have mentioned before that I am a full time, BSN nursing student.  It's actually one of my motivating factors for wanting to lose this weight.  But, today I was thinking about the fact that school starts in 8 days & it got me a little nervous.  When I started this journey I was on break from school.  Therefore I haven't really left my house in the almost month that I've been watching my calories (Ok I've left my house, I mean I'm not a hermit, but you know what I mean, I haven't had to be away from home for meals).  I don't know about you, but this makes counting calories so much easier.  I am able to make fresh lunches and get all of my water in.  But, knowing that school is about to start has me a bit nervous. My plan is to obviously take a page from Tiffany & bring my lunches/snacks with me when I go back to school, but I have to admit, being in a group is one of my triggers.  I'm that girl that wants to go out to eat along with whatever else we're doing.  Example:  We have a study group, I want to meet at the deli to study so that we can grab something to eat.  We're going to the movies - Well of course we need to meet up early to grab some dinner first, and then still indulge in some popcorn & a cherry coke.  You want to go for a healthy hike?  Wouldn't adding a picnic to that make it even better?  You get the picture right?  I'm that girl.  I'm the fat girl who wants to add eating to EVERYTHING. So, of course going back to school with ALL the millions of eating places right at my disposal is a bit of a trigger for me.  On top of the fact that my nursing bestie never brings his lunch, so we usually end up going to the student union to get something to eat.  Now, I know you're thinking "Well, just take your food with you to the student union building" & I will.  BUT, I'm also that girl that doesn't like to be left out.  And when I see other people buying lunch then I want to buy lunch too.  I guess that sounds stupid huh?  Anyhoo, I know I'm borrowing trouble before it gets here (I'm horrible at that), and I know that the only way to get through this semester without totally blowing my new healthy way of eating is to be prepared, so I guess I need to do that.  I guess planning is going to become my new best friend.  I am going to seriously have to plan out not only my lunches, but also our dinners, on top of full time nursing school.  Ok, starting to get a little stressed, going to stop obsessing now. 

On to the topic of exercising. Something cool I saw on Katie's blog today really clicked with me.  She was posting about losing weight & I guess she has lost weight a couple of times but she posted a picture of her at the same weight two different times.  Both times she weighed 153 lbs (I can't find the stupid post, but when I do I'll link to it) but the first time she weighed that much she did it w/o exercising & at that time she wore a size 14.  The 2nd time she weighed that much she was running & she wore a size 4/6.  Now, that really hit home with me.  I mean I know I've said I'm a calories in/calories out girl & I just really didn't think that exercising would make that much of a difference.  I know plenty of people that have lost weight just w/counting calories alone, BUT to see how much of a difference there was in her at the same weight w/exercising REALLY opened my eyes to the fact that I NEED to be exercising.  I mean what's the point of losing 100 lbs if I'm still not going to be at my best?  Sooo, I guess I'm going to sit down & really plot out my work out routine.  As I stated above, I start back to school full time in 8 days, so it's going to have to be something that I can incorporate into my schedule.  Fortunately my school has an AWESOME gym (I mean, so I hear, I haven't actually been in there) which I have full access too.  So, maybe I can somehow incorporate that into my workout plan.  Whatever it is, I'll let you know once I figure it out, but I know now, that working out is not an optional thing.  I want to be the best 178 lb person I can be!! 

What about you?  What kind of exercise do you do?

What I ate today:

Breakfast:
English muffin
1 Egg, with a small amt of onion & tomato
Taco sauce
Calories 210

Lunch:
Veggie Chik Patty w/bun
1 T Light Mayo
Calories 295

Dinner:
Black beans & rice w/turkey smoked sausage
2/3 cup corn
Calories 390

Snacks:
Coffee w/cream 70 calories (next time I'm going to buy a lighter version for creamer)
1 Cutie
1/2 c. Baby carrots w/1/2 T. Ranch
Kiwi
1 T. Heath Bits o' brickle
Calories 326

Total calories for today 1221

Day 8, football & Cougar Town...

Yesterday was another great day. I had a total of 1623 calories, which was 177 less than my max amount. Very happy about that, especially when I was able to include this into my day (or rather, very late night)

Medium caramel mocha coffee

Since you probably already know (or maybe you're not a sport's fan, so you don't know) my team won the National Championship AGAIN last night! Woowoo!!  Back to back baby #15, Roll Tide!!!

 

 

So, being from Alabama & living only an hour or so away from my hometown of Huntsville, my hubby decided that he just HAD to have the championship hat LAST NIGHT, which led to an impromptu road trip at oh about 9:45 last night.  My bargain was that if I road with him that he had to buy me a coffee.  That of course led to me scouring McDonald's website to see just what coffee I could fit into the calories that I had left.  And since I had quite a few, I could have gotten several different choices, but I settled on this one, knowing that I would have to drive the hour back from getting the hat & would need the caffeine, & also that I didn't want to go too crazy.  I have to say, it was quite yummy.  And I even had enough calories left over to get the whole milk version :)  Yay me.  I'm not really big into fat free stuff.  I go by the whole calories in/calories out thing, so if I have enough calories left to indulge in the whole milk version, then by gosh that's what I'm getting.

 

All in all it was a good day.  I wasn't hungry & I even got in all of my water, which I have now started tracking as well.  Now if I can just incorporate some exercise!  Do you think hours of playing this on my phone counts??

 

 

 

I'm addicted to it! 

 

And lastly, even though I know this isn't about weight loss, tonight is the premiere Episode of Cougar Town on its new channel!!!!!

 

 

 

 





 

 

Woohoo!! I LOVES me some Jewels & gang.  That show is so fun & upbeat.  I love happy stuff.  Happy movies are my favorite movies, they put me in such a good mood & I love this show for the same reason.  Plus, I mean how hot is 48 year old Courtney Cox!! I mean seriously, THAT is how I wnat to look when I'm 48, and dangit I plan on it!! 



Hope everyone is having a fantabulous week!!


***Update***

I decided to actually get some exercise instead of just SAYING that I needed to.  So I went for a bike ride & this was the result:

 

 

I ended up burning 216 calories, which isn't that many, but it's better than zero right?!  That's just one step in the right direction people.  :)