Progress

Just thought I'd update about the status of my healthy eating/exercise plan. I know you really care and you're just dying to know, ha. But really, its just so I can keep track. Here's my weight chart, I use SparkPeople.com. I look at this a lot because when my weight spikes up a little once in a while, I can remind myself that it's all a downward trend. All those peaks that happen about once a week are my lower body lifting days. Interesting, right? You retain a lot of water and your muscles fill up with blood to try to recover.

My original goal was to be at 115 lbs by the time I went to Italy, but then I raised the stakes and changed it to 115 by my birthday. Right now I'm 116.4, but my birthday is on Saturday so I don't think I'm going to be at 115 on the dot by then. It's looking good for vacation though.

I know it's not always good to be fixated on a weight number goal. But I'm motivated by concrete goals, and seeing that exact, measurable statistic every day really keeps me going. It's just what works for me, it may not be what works for you.

So I'm only about a pound away from my goal weight. I'm not planning on officially lowering my goal again, but inevitably I will have that next 5 pound interval in my head. I'm not planning on changing my daily calorie goals or my workout routines just for the sake of maintaining weight. I'm interested in seeing where my weight "settles" without changing my routines.

I feel great, but it's kind of sad to me how easy it is to get used to your changed body and start finding flaws again. If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would lose almost 20 pounds, I would be ecstatic. Now I'm already used to my new weight and picking on myself for new things. Guess it's the plight of being a girl, never satisfied with yourself! Oh well, I'm enjoying my new clothing sizes and my lack of a muffin top, so there's some positivity for you!

PS. In posting these complaints/progress, I am NOT fishing for compliments, seriously. This is more for my "records" and to relate to others who are trying to get healthier.

PPS. It should also be noted that I housed half a bag of Moose Munch while writing this post. #Winning

Over three months of significantly less pizza and booze.

Look, I made something!

I'm kind of notorious in my family as being a hot mess in the kitchen. And I'm really not sure why. I've never expressed great joy in cooking but I've also never caught the stove on fire or cooked something totally inedible. I think it's because my younger sister is very into cooking, so I just got pegged as the one who's not. Oh, comparisons are so great. 

Since I've started losing weight and trying to get a grip on my eating habits, it's become very clear that I need to start cooking and eating home more often. Before January (when I started "the diet") we would eat out maybe four nights a week or more. Multiple times on the weekend. As I've made an effort to buckle down and cook at home, I've realized that I kind of like cooking. I still have the slightly feminist view that I shouldn't be expected or obligated to cook every night. But if I'm doing it on my own terms, I enjoy it.

When I'm cooking, I rarely follow a recipe to the T. I substitute ingredients that I don't have or like better, I try to sneak in extra vegetables or flax seed to up the nutritional value. So the other day I decided to try the ultimate test and create a recipe from start to finish. I'd throw in some ingredients, taste, throw in a few more, taste, try something else. And what I ended up with was the perfect tasting and nutritionally packed soup! 

I entered the recipe into CalorieCount.com in order to find out the nutritional breakdown of the recipe. It earned a "Grade A" for nutritional value. Check out all that protein!

Emily's Chicken and Chickpea Soup

This tastes like homemade chicken noodle soup with less guilt.  I've taken out the noodles and added fiber and protein rich garbanzo beans (chickpeas). You won't miss the noodles! This soup is packed with so much chicken and vegetables that it is almost like a stew.  I use a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store because it saves time and has a great blend of white and dark meats.

Ingredients (makes ten servings):
6 cups chicken stock
1 Chicken bullion cube
1 cup celery
1 cup carrots
1/2 onion
1 rotisserie chicken
1 can garbanzo beans
5 oz plain Greek yogurt
juice from 1/2 a lemon
6 cups fresh baby spinach
3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
1 tsp ground thyme

Directions:
1. Dice the carrots, celery, onion, and chop the spinach. Mince the garlic cloves.



2. Add the chicken stock and extra bullion cube to a large pot and begin heating at a medium-high heat.



3.  Add the vegetables, garlic, and can of garbanzo beans to the broth.



4. While the vegetables are cooking, chop up the chicken.  Remove all the skin and fat and separate meat from the bones.  Chop or shred the chicken to the size you prefer. Add it to the soup.



5.  Add the juice of half a lemon to the soup.
6.  Add the yogurt to the soup.
7. Stir well and let the soup simmer for twenty minutes or longer.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 serving (265.9 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories 164 Calories from Fat 23

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 2.6g 4%

Saturated Fat 0.5g 2%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 39mg 13%

Sodium 394mg 16%

Total Carbohydrates 13.0g 4%

Dietary Fiber 3.5g 14%

Sugars 3.8g

Protein 22.0g

Vitamin A 72% • Vitamin C 14% Calcium 7% • Iron 12%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Breakdown

Daily Values (265.9g)

Legend:

Fat

Protein

Carbs

Alcohol

Other

It also freezes well, so if you don't have a big family, just freeze half for later. Enjoy!

*If you're not currently dieting or trying to lose weight, this will probably be boring to you. Apologies in advance, this rant is mainly a way to kick my own butt into gear!


For the first month or so of dieting, i was all "OMG this is so easy, why doesn't everyone do it?" and then in month #2, karma stepped in to kick my ass. Yeah, it's not easy. The eating healthy part is pretty easy, the exercising part is easy, but the actual losing weight? It's hard.

You see, I've stalled. I feel like I'm still doing everything right, but I'm just not seeing the number on the scale go down as quickly as it was before. This makes sense I guess. But what you should know about me, is that I'm an incredibly impatient person. If things are working out without a hitch, I go full speed ahead. But the moment I can't achieve my goal right now, I start to slip.

So this explains why I got totally frustrated about the lack of weight loss, started eating way under my recommended calorie intake, and then binged all weekend because I felt so deprived. Not good. It involved eating a ton of pizza on Thursday night, snacking on a platter of fried food at bowling last night, an ice cream cone and other not-so-good things throughout Thurs and Friday.

Today, I'm feeling like crap. I'm SO bloated from all the excess salt, I'm sleepy and I can't poop. It's time to get back on track and break through this plateau in a healthy way. So instead of pouting about it and placating myself with calories (like I've been doing all weekend), I think I need to get ahold of myself and start over. So starting now (no, not tomorrow or Monday), I'm going to try to do a week of completely clean eating. Lots of fruits and veggies, low carb, high protein meals. No white flour or sugar (whew, the sugar thing is going to be hards, goodbye french vanilla Coffeemate). Four bottles of water per day (my bottle is 24 oz) and at least four days of cardio. Three days of weight training. And no depriving myself if I'm hungry. If I start to feel carb-starved and tired, I'll eat some brown rice or other healthy carb. I'm going to eat 6 small meals a day to try to get my metabolism back on track.

And here's the biggie. I'm not going to weigh myself again until Thursday morning. That will give my body some time to get rid of all that retained water, it will give my sore, sore muscles time to become un-inflamed (is that a word?) Because when I weigh myself after a day of hard weight-training, I'm always disappointed by the extra water weight. And I usually do my two hard weigh training days on Thursday and Sunday.

Sorry if this post was irrelevant to you. I just really needed to give myself a mental pep talk. For all of the internet to see ha.

Update on my butt and boobs

I thought the title might get some additional hits from pervs?

I'm updating on the status of my ass, the progress of my pooch, the betterment of my boobs.
Well remember how the last time I posted about weight, I was a little leery about making it to my midpoint weight goal by the end of the month? (January 31st was my goal date ). Well the next day, I weighed myself and I was at my goal number, on the dot. I swear I was beaming. I thought maybe it was a fluke, but sure enough it stuck, and by the end of this week I was another .6 pounds down. I feel pretty fantastic about that.

As I keep losing weight, I realize that I might need to go below my initial goal weight. I know that sounds like I'm a crazy person, so I should explain. I talked to my mom about this and she's a pretty straight shooter. Even though I'm an average height, 5'5", I have a very small build. Like narrow shoulders and just small-boned. So my weight in pounds looks more on me than it would on someone with a more substantial build. I bet if someone were to guess my weight, they would think that I weigh a lot more than I do. I have fat on my stomach that I want to get rid of and some love handle issues.

I rely heavily on the numbers on the scale. It's not that there's really an ideal number that I think is "skinny", its just that I'm more successful if I have a concrete goal in mind. If I see the number on the scale go down a little each day, I feel like I'm making progress. This is why I have been avoiding weight training. I know how important weight training is for fat loss and for generally looking better. Muscle mass burns calories more efficiently. However, because I rely so heavily on the weight numbers going down, I worry that I will get discouraged if the muscle mass causes the scale numbers to stall. But I realized I was being stupid and decided to go ahead and start lifting. I'll have to rely more on the fit of my clothes and how I look in the mirror to be a judge of where I'm at with my goals.

Guys, I'm so happy I did this. I feel so much better about myself. I've always wanted to feel like a "healthy person", someone who eats good nutritious foods and has an active lifestyle. I think I'm getting there. My love for junk food will never die, but as I become more conscious of my health, the junk food is holding less value.

Now, with all that said, the thing that keeps me sane is that I allow myself to cheat every once in a while (on weekends, usually). On Friday, I went out to dinner with my best friend, to celebrate her birthday. We both have an obsession with crab legs. They have built a new casino in my city and we had heard great things about their buffet, which has a seafood night on Fridays. So we went and it did not disappoint. I'm usually against buffets, the gross me out, but this one was super clean, the food was out on clean white platters, not those stainless steel cafeteria-style warming trays. The best part, by far, was the dessert section. Gourmet cupcakes, tiny little carmel apple mouse martinis, creme brulee, baklava, plus a million other things. I had a bite of each and was satisfied.

Are any of you doing this, trying to lose some weight, or eat healthier, change your body or your lifestyle? I'd love to read your blog! I'm constantly trying to find blogs about people in the same boat, for motivation. Just comment with a link to your last post about it. Thanks!

This is why you're fat.

I just read a post on one of the blogs I follow and the post was entitled "Stop being fat." You can check it out here  . All I have to say is "hell yes".  She lost 50 pounds in one year just by not being dumb. She also didn't work out. Losing weight is one of the easiest things you can do. You're probably gasping right now, oh no she didn't. Let me explain myself. It's not EASY by any means, but it's obvious. A five year old could tell you how to lose weight. By the time we learn how to tie our shoes, we know that vegetables=healthy, cake=not. Seriously, you KNOW what you need to do. Eat things that are good for you. Don't eat things that are not. Stop eating when you're not hungry any more. The end.

I'm not saying that I've mastered this by any means. I have the willpower of . . . someone with no willpower. But if I gain five pounds, I know WHY.  It's most likely because I got drunk, ate an entire pizza, and then nursed my hangover the next day with McDonalds. Like five weeks in a row. (Okay, more like 8 years in a row) I'm doing my best to stop doing that. (So far so good.)

You don't need a magic pill, special prepackaged nutrition bars, protein powders, points, etc. You just need to be smart and eat what humans are supposed to eat.

With that said, here are some amazeballs pictures from thisiswhyyourefat.com

Most of this stuff looks horrific to me:



donut pizza with a side of PBR

A philly cheese steak wrapped inside a slice of pizza (Frank would be all over this one)

Burger, pANcake, and suSHI rolls: cheeseburger sushi deepfried in pancake batter, with burger meat, deli style american cheese, red onion, and chipotle mayo.























Grease Lightning: A layer of seasoned curly fries topped with chicken nuggets, chicken fried steak, fish sticks, pizza rolls, and a slice of corndog then smothered in melted mozzarella cheese topped with a mixture of chili, bacon, and sliced hot dogs topped with a sprinkling of cheddar.


Now we'll move on to the next category entitled "Sadly, this looks delicious" also known as "I'd hit it"

CChocolate covered bacon, sounds like something you should indulge in once in your life. 
In my defense, it says 25% less sugar.

Do you have any guilty pleasure gross food combinations?

Weekly Weight Goal = OWNED

Yay! It's only Wednesday and I've met my weight goal for this week! (My goal is to lose one pound per week for 10 weeks, and then maintain). I was 129.8 on Sunday and now I'm 128.8. If I could lose another pound by the end of this week, that would be awesome sauce. Of course, I know that right now it's probably just water weight that I'm losing from a week of crappy/salty eating, but I'll take it.

Wanna know how I'm doing it? Here are some things that are helping me:

• Writing down everything I eat (so I can't disregard that cookie, etc)
• Taking pictures of meals - I only do this occasionally, but it helps
• Measuring. It's really easy to misjudge measurements and food portions. For example, a serving size of my cereal is 3/4 a cup, but its easy to put 1 cup or more in the bowl without realizing
• Smaller plates and bowls - a half cup of cottage cheese in a big bowl looks like nothing, but it feels like a perfectly satisfying amount if you eat it from a cute ramekin. Same goes with plate size, I'm trying to eat off of 8" salad plates
• Weigh myself EVERY day. I'm better with short term goals because I'm so impatient. Its much easier for me to take things one day at a time. If I weigh myself every day, I also can't trick myself into believing that I can take the day off, because I see the results. 
• Eating IN. This is a huge one. We got rid of all the junk food in our house and stocked it up with healthy options. Its better that I don't have the choice between french fries and an apple (like at Wendy's) because I have no will power. I'm also not being bombarded with delicious crave-inducing french fry aromas.
• Taking note of what's on Oprah. Because I cannot survive for 45 minutes on the treadmill without something good on tv. If Oprah sucks that day, Keeping Up with the Kardashians (shh, don't tell anyone) will suffice.  My gym has an individual television on EVERY piece of cardio equipment, which is AMAZING.
• Keeping stress in check. I'm an emotional eater and a stress eater, and everything stresses me out (just ask my husband). That's a bad combination. I'm doing my best to do the things that I know will ease stress, like getting my work done on time, keeping the house clean, going to bed at a decent time and waking up early before 9:00. 
• Inspiration. This means staring at pictures of hot healthy women, visualizing the beach, reading your blog posts about healthy eating, etc. 
• Keeping it reasonable. My husband, Frank, does things to the extreme, like 24 hour cleanses, super-intense workouts, super-strict dieting. This works for some people, but not for me. If I starve myself, go too hard at the gym, I just burn out, get overwhelmed, cry it out and then eat a pizza. Instead, I'm trying to stay under a certain daily calorie count, get in at least four good workouts per week and generally eat healthy foods. 

Here's lunch: 

Tuna salad, hummus and celery, blueberries, creepy dark weird cell phone pic

Sorry, I don't want this blog to become all about food, dieting, etc. Craft post coming soon!

My Food Journal

I'm using Sparkpeople.com to record my daily food and exercise. Anyone else on here? Anyway, today was pretty decent, eating-wise. The thing is, according to this, I only ate around 800 calories, which is ridiculous. I should be getting like 1400, maybe 1200 at the least. But I don't feel like I restricted my food very much, and I was never hungry throughout the day. So is this okay? I also worked out on the treadmill for 40 minutes (walk for 5, run for 5, repeat). I need to stop being lazy and start adding weight training. 

BREAKFAST:

Hard Boiled Egg, 2 large 155 1 11 13 Regular Coffee, 1 cup (8 fl oz) 2 0 0 0 Coffeemate Creamer French Vanilla, 1 tbsp 35 5 2 0

BREAKFAST TOTALS: 192 6 12 13

LUNCH:

Kraft Mayo Light Mayonnaise (Mayo), 1.5 tbsp 75 2 7 0 Tuna, Canned in Water, 3 oz 99 0 1 22 Egg white, 1 serving 17 0 0 5

LUNCH TOTALS: 191 2 8 27

DINNER:

Sour Cream, reduced fat, 2 tbsp 41 1 4 1 Salsa, 2 tbsp 9 2 0 0 Romaine Lettuce (salad), 2 cup, shredded 16 3 0 2 Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average, 0.5 cup cherry tomatoes 16 3 0 1 Perdue, Lean Ground Turkey, 5 oz 200 0 10 30

DINNER TOTALS: 281 9 14 34

SNACK:

Musselman's Home Style Natural Unsweetened Apple Sauce, 0.5 cup 50 13 0 0 Snack Factory Pretzel Chip, 5 serving 50 0 0 0 Blueberries, fresh, 0.5 cup 41 10 0 1

SNACK TOTALS: 141 23 0 1

CLICK TO ADD/EDIT EXTRA MEALS

			CALORIES	CARBS	FAT	PROTEIN
			805	41	34	74
			1,340 - 1,690	179 - 258	35 - 62	60 - 139
			535 - 885	138 - 217	1 - 28	0 - 65