Thursday, March 24, 2011

Better late than never!

I know, I know, where have I been?  I'll tell you - I've been busy, and then lazy :)  It's been almost two weeks since my last post, and for that I apologize.  I will tell you that it's not because I've fallen off the wagon or anything.  Trust me, I would tell you if I had :)  Anyway, I am happy to report that I am now down 9 pounds since March 2nd!  Well, that's as of my weigh in on Sunday, and I'll take it!  I still haven't started exercising, but we did play outside a bit last weekend when it was warm, and we also went to the zoo on Saturday and did a good amount of walking.  I still haven't had any pop (it's been just over 2 weeks) and it's actually been a little harder than I thought it was going to be.  I had a couple of days over the last week where I REALLY wanted one, but I stuck to it and those cravings have since moved on, for now.

So I've made a couple of permanent changes to my diet so far.  I've started eating the Bagel Thins for breakfast, with a small amount of organic peanut butter on them for flavor.  I usually have either a yogurt or some fresh fruit with it, along with my coffee staple :)  I've been bringing my lunch to work almost everyday for the last two weeks, both as a way to have healthier choices and to save some money.  But I have added a Lipton Green Tea with Honey at lunch, but the calorie count is less than a soda, so it's still a better option than what I used to have.

I've also been trying to eat dinner earlier.  In the past I would make Myles something to eat, and then after he went to bed, Ray and I would then have our dinner.  So that meant the earliest we would usually eat would be 8PM.  That's not working AT ALL.  So I've been making dinner earlier, and Myles and I eat together if Ray isn't home, but if he is we all eat together.  I've found that if I make dinner before I'm starving that I actually eat so much less (I know, a total DUH moment).  So hopefully I can keep this up :)

I don't really have much else right now, here's the list of what I ate today (since I know it's what you're all waiting for :))

Breakfast:  Whole Wheat Bagel Thin with peanut butter, Coffee flavored yogurt (my favorite) and a med WCM.

Lunch:  Hot dogs with baked beans and a cup of chicken Santa Fe soup, green tea to drink

Snack:  Helping of my babysitters tater tot casserole (where has that been all my life!?!)

Dinner:  Baked ranch chicken, mashed cheesy potatoes and a steamed veggie

Dessert:  Amish friendship bread with butter

Have a great evening!!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I a such a slacker :)

Sorry it's been so long friends!!

I've been meaning to post all week, but then something comes up and next thing you know, it's 9:30 PM and I'm asleep on the couch.  Myles has been fighting some sort of sickness all week, so I've been spending a lot of time cuddling and watching movies in the evenings.  But fear not fair reader, I have still been working hard to achieve my goals!  I weighed myself Wednesday morning (1 week after my initial weigh in) and I lost 2.5 pounds!!!  WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm very encouraged about this, considering I haven't even started exercising yet. 

So my goal this week is to do at least one OnDemand workout - I have been told there's yoga and all kinds of short sessions free on my TV!  I tried yoga once, and was amazed at the fact that after the workout, I actually had MORE energy.  What a concept!  So with that, I'm hoping that I can get up early one morning and do a 30 minute yoga session to boost my energy for the day!  Once I do that, I'm going to add one workout per week, so that eventually I am doing at least 30 minutes each day.  And then once the weather warms up, I know that I will be outside as many days a week as Myles can wrangle, playing soccer, baseball, etc..

So here's my food for yesterday - I ate dinner out with my mom before going to the Red Wings game, we had a blast!

Breakfast:  Ham, mushroom and red pepper burrito, med. WCM and water.

Lunch:  Grilled turkey Reuben, bowl of vegetable beef soup, water

Snack: 1 thin mint cookie (yes, I really only ate just one!!)

Dinner: Caesar salad, roasted veggie pizza, and sauteed scallops with linguine (We ate at Small Plates, a tapas restaurant in Detroit, these were all small servings that we shared)

Late night snack:  Vitamin water

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

It's Tuesday, and yep, I'm Fat

Happy Mardi Gras to all!

I first have to brag (just a wee bit) - I made it through "Fat Tuesday" without consuming a single paczki!!  It wasn't easy, since they were all over the cafeteria at work, but I prevailed.  Today is also the last day of pop for me, so to celebrate I am having a large McDonald's Coke with dinner.  I will say I am also proud of myself for not going overboard today and drinking pop at every turn, this is my one and only :)

Today's Eats:

Breakfast - Large WCM (I ordered a medium, and she accidentally made me a large, who am I to complain?), and one Everything Bagel Thin with a little butter (**For the record, the Bagel Thins are AWESOME!)

Lunch - Cup of Summer Garden Minestrone Soup, Egg Salad on a Whole Wheat Bagel Thin, Blueberries

Snack - Watermelon

Dinner - Baked Salmon with dill and lemon, Garlic Butter rice and steamed broccoli and maybe some bread with garlic butter (I'm really hungry right now)

Dessert - Last night I had a bottle of water for dessert (BORING) so tonight I might have a blueberry mini muffin (or two)

Monday, March 7, 2011

Monday's Musings....

Another week has begun - hopefully it will go as quickly as last week did!  Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, and I am bound and determined to avoid the dreaded paczki.  They call my name everywhere, at the grocery store, at work (at least the order forms do) and even on Facebook.  But I will not give in, I will not surrender!  Another thing I've decided to do this week is give up pop for Lent.  Now, I'm not a religious person per se, but I figure if I can give up pop for 40 days straight, why go back?  It's not like I drink it all the time or anything, but it's just empty calories in the food road of life. 

So I've added a couple of yummy new products to my pantry in the ongoing effort to have healthier choices, and I wanted to share some of them with you. 

1. Kashi Cocoa Beach Granola - with almonds, coconut and cocoa-infused clusters.  I know it's probably not the best granola choice out there, but if you are a sugar addict like myself, it's a better option than Cocoa Puffs, right?  I had this for breakfast yesterday morning and it.was.good!  A 1/2 cup serving contains 7g of fiber and 6g of protein!  It does have 230 calories per serving, but you people need to work with me here.  I ate probably 3/4 of a cup with 2% milk, and didn't feel hungry again until lunch 4 hours later.  Not bad if you ask me (which you didn't, but you are reading my blog, so you're going to have to deal)

2.  Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce - LOVE IT!  I found this at Costco a couple weeks ago (2 jars for under $5) and they were giving samples and it was delish!  It's gluten free (for any of you that need to know that) and I can pronounce every ingredient on the jar (which is rare) and it taste uber good!  We have had it with both cheese tortellini and cheese ravioli and it was a big hit!  I'm going to try to figure out how to make a veggie lasagna with it, I'll keep you posted.

3.  Thomas' Bagel Thins (Everything and Whole Wheat) - I read about these over the weekend, an alternative to sandwich bread, so when I saw they were on sale today I picked some up.  They are only 110 calories per bagel, and the bread I usually buy (white bread btw) was 120 calories PER SLICE.  In-sanity.  Myles has already had one at dinner, and he ate the whole thing!  I'm going to have one tomorrow for lunch with some egg salad that I made tonight, I'll let you know tomorrow how it worked out.

On to today's food journal:

Breakfast - Large WCM, cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter (and a smidge of butter)

Lunch - Leftover Korean BBQ with rice, cup of orange and grapefruit segments (with a little sugar) and a Mountain Dew to drink

Dinner - Chicken Cordon Bleu, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Woo Hoo!

Good Morning Readers!

So I know it hasn't officially been a week since I started, but since I am going to do my weigh-ins on Sundays, I got on the scale this morning to see where I am at.  I actually expected the number to have risen a little, or at least stayed the same because I haven't started exercising and I got a little crazy Friday night and at a bunch of stuff.  Granted some of it was blueberries, so they aren't actually bad for me, but it took me about an hour of snacking to stop and think "Maybe I'm actually thirsty?", so I grabbed a bottle of Vitamin Water and sure enough, once that was gone so were my munchies.  Add it to the list of things I need to work on, learning the difference between hunger and thirst.  This usually isn't an issue during the week since I drink water like I'm sitting in a desert, but on the weekends I totally fall off the water wagon, so I started working on that yesterday. 

So anyway, I got on the scale this morning, and low and behold my weight is down to 186.0!!  I lost 1.6 pounds since Wednesday!!  For not exercising (yet) and only making some portion and food adjustments, I am pretty pleased with that!  I will do another weigh in on Wednesday to get a full week shot, and then start every Sunday from then on.  Right now I'm going to go have a bowl of granola with a side of blueberries for breakfast, hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Today's Eats

Here's what I've had (or am going to have) to eat today:

Breakfast: Everything bagel with butter (forgot the peanut butter at home), medium WCM, water.

Lunch: Chicken and rice quesadilla with some re fried beans and sour cream, serving of orange and grapefruit segments (I did put a little sugar on the grapefruit, but it was just a tiny bit, maybe a half teaspoon) and water to drink.

Dinner: Beef stroganoff with milk to drink.

Dessert:  Don't know, might not have anything, might eat some left over Ben and Jerry's - we'll see how I feel about it later :)

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Water.....and more water.

Happy Wednesday Friends!

So I just wanted to drop in while I watch Top Chef and report on all the food I ate today.  Today was a very odd day.  All day long, no matter how many yummy, healthy foods I put into my mouth, I was never satisfied.  I actually felt hungry all freaking day long!!  Here's my list:

Breakfast - 1 med WCM (white chocolate mocha) and a wheat bagel with some butter and some peanut butter (for the record, I went and bought a jar of peanut butter to take to work and am going to try to remove the butter from my bagels and replace it with peanut butter from now on)


Lunch - chicken breast with white wine mushroom sauce, grilled asparagus and sauteed mixed veggies, water to drink.  An hour after I was done eating, I was still hungry, so I had some blueberries and when that didn't work, I got two hard boiled eggs, and when THAT didn't work, I kept drinking water, and more water, and STILL more water.  I drank just over 4 glasses that are 20 ounces +, so I am more than fully hydrated at this point.

Snack - Hummus and pita chips

Dinner - Cheese Ravioli with Butternut Squash sauce, salad with catalina dressing (just a bit, nowhere near as much as I used to) and for dessert a cupcake and a glass of milk.  It wasn't until after the cupcake that I finally felt full for the first time today.

Here's what I think - I think my body has figured out that I mean business this time and is trying to stage some sort of protest.  Tough noogies, I'm going to fight this battle till the end, and in the end - I will be victorious!!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

And so it begins......

Happy March Everyone!  I have to say, I had an amazing birthday yesterday!  Actually, my whole birthday weekend was pretty incredible.  We went to a friend's for game night on Saturday, which almost always ends up being snack and chat night, but oh well!  I was introduced to a new friend that is going to help me on this journey, but I'll get into that a little bit later.  On Sunday we met my family for a birthday dinner.  I was going to stop on the way and pick up my new scale, but wasn't feeling that great so I took a nap instead.  It was a wise decision because I felt a lot better afterwards.  Dinner was fun and I got to snuggle my nephew for a bit. 

Yesterday, on my big day, I walked into work and found that my boss had decorated my cube for my birthday - it was so much fun!  She (and her little helpers) had tape pictures from the latest teen magazines all over.  And I do mean ALL over!  They were even in my desk drawers, it was hysterical!  So I spent my day at work, kinda agonizing about the fact that I had already failed at one of my new goals.  I really wanted to start yesterday morning with my first weigh-in, but it was not meant to be.  Oh well, life goes on - I'm sure this isn't the last time I'm going to miss a deadline.  But I went out and got my scale today, so we're all good.  Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate and while I ate what I wanted, I was still trying to make somewhat better choices.  I got a seafood pasta, but only ate about half of it and then had the rest boxed up.  They offered me free dessert since it was my birthday, and I opted to get the sorbet over the ice cream.  It was delicious, but I shared it instead of eating it all myself.  (Plus, they gave me a HUGE bowl, eating it all would've put me into a sugar coma).  All in all it was a wonderful day and not a bad start to year 34.

Now, on to the good stuff.  I stopped on my way home today and picked up a brand new digital scale.  I plan to weigh myself once a week and report back on my progress.  I weighed myself before I sat down to write this, and it says that I currently weigh in at 290 pounds.  So I have at least 100 pounds to lose, but 115 would be my ultimate goal.  And, even though I am not a religious person, I'm giving up pop for Lent.  I think that if I give it up for those 40 days, then I should be able to give it up forever.  I also am going to try to post everyday and let you know what I've had to eat and how much I have exercised, so I can then look back at the week and see where my hits and misses were.  I'll list my food for today at the bottom of this post.

So, I wanted to tell you about the exciting thing that I was shown on Saturday at game night.  My friends had my play "Just Dance 2" on the Wii and let me tell you - that is one freaking insane cardio workout!  I danced to one song and I was out of breath and breaking a sweat.  Now, I know most of this is because I am so grossly out of shape, but if I dance for 30 minutes a day (or every other day) then that's more cardio than I'm getting now, right?  I'm so excited to try it at home.  When I stopped at Target today to get my scale, I tried to get the game, but they were sold out.  So my wonderful husband stopped at the Target that's on his way home and as we speak, my new game is making it's way to my living room!  I might even have the energy to dance later tonight!  If not, I will plan on having a dance party with Myles tomorrow after we get home.  He loves to play along, even though he mostly just jumps around in a circle :)

Now, on to today's food:

Breakfast:
Medium White Chocolate Mocha, Skim milk, no whipped cream
Egg Bagel, toasted with butter

Snack:
Blueberry muffin

Lunch:
Steak quesadilla with rice, sour cream and guacamole

Up to this point, all I've had to drink is water

Snack:
Large Iced Green Tea/Lemonade, sweetened

Tonight we are having Tombstone pizza for dinner.  I am going to enjoy a bottle of pop and then for dessert I might have a cupcake with a glass of milk. 

Thanks for all your encouragement and kind words, I really look forward to seeing where this journey takes me!!