Wednesday Weigh-in

Okay! Getting back into the swing of things with blogging is taking a bit longer than I anticipated! Anyway, here I am, back to tell you all about what I did this week to continue forward on my weight loss goal.

Food:

Using the CSA has been great fun, and is definitely getting us into a habit of using more veggies in our everyday cooking. It also doesn’t hurt that I have a strong and strange love of prunes. For most of the week I’m sticking with salads – easy to do, because we get a big bag of spinach every week. And most of the food we’re preparing these days is leaning toward Asian – because a lot of the veggies we’re getting are things like Bok Choy and Mizuna (a Japanese mustard green).

Fitness:

We’ve been doing really well with getting in at least 40 min of exercise a day. On really good days, we manage to get in the 30 day shred and two 20 min Yoga routines. On the decent days, we at least do the Yoga.

We’re in love with a yoga series by Sara Ivanhoe. It’s 5 20 minute workouts and a bonus Yoga with Swiss ball routine. We’ve done four of the six so far (we only have one swiss ball atm and the weights we have are too heavy for the “Power sculpt with weights”) and our favorite has to be the cardio one – it’s made me love bicycle crunches!

Hurdles:

In a word… Bacon. It is evil. Tasty, tasty evil. The recipe we made on Monday, Shrimp with Bacon and Collards (Recipe and a picture on Saturday), called for 4 slices of bacon. And so we made those four… and then the rest of the package. Luckily, all I did was snack on the bits meant to be sprinkled over the dish – and didn’t scarf down the whole broiler pan waiting to be put away – but I did think about it.Bacon.

Today’s Weigh-in: 147.8

Wednesday Weigh-in: Unresolved

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. If I remember correctly, I haven’t done them since I was about 14 and realized I’d never stuck to any of the one’s I’d made for myself… ever.

So I don’t have any profound new year’s resolutions for 2012. Sorry :/

Regardless of that lack of Resolutions, we’ve been doing pretty well so far this year. Even with a birthday weekend to start the whole thing off!

Food:

So, we joined up with a CSA and that’s been pretty awesome (I’ll post this week’s bag on Friday). We get a bag full of groceries each Thursday, which totally feels like a present (even though we paid for it) and then we work the next week’s meals around it.

Last week we ended up with: Kale, Mizuna, Kohlrabi, Broccoli, Carrots, Radishes, Beets, & Green Garlic. (I feel like I’m forgetting something).

It’s very cool, because it means that we’re trying things we hadn’t before and we’re getting fresh, local produce!

Interesting fact: Kohlrabi tastes a lot like turnips; which is awesome for me because turnips are my favorite veggie!

Fitness:

I’ve gotten back into a habit of doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred at least 3 times a week (trying to get in more instances) and we’ve gotten into a routine of ending the day with this super relaxing Yoga. We like the Yoga so much (it’s off Netflix) that we bought one of the instructor’s other videos – got it yesterday, but haven’t had the chance to try it out yet (it’s on the list for tonight!

Hurdles:

It was Earl’s birthday and New Year’s eve weekend before that. Parties, Friends, Booze.

I feel that I did pretty well, under the circumstances, though I know I could have (and probably should have) done better :/.

Today’s Weigh-in: 147.6

Wednesday Weigh in: PROGRESS!!!

Today’s weigh in is brief, with Christmas stuff and tearing apart a novel, I’ve run out of time for other stuff… aside from basic life functions!

This week’s weigh-in: 149.6!

I’m under the 150 mark (just barely) and that is AWESOME.

Wednesday Weigh-in: Seeing Progress

Food:

Because of the lifestyle change we undertook, you may have noticed the large amount of fruits and veggies in my Monday post. Five meals a day, limiting my intake of carbs – mostly sugar related carbs – and paying attention to the nutrients in food, has made me feel so much better. This past Monday was probably the best Monday I’ve had in years. I felt fantastic. I wasn’t super tired, I felt a little sore, but not in pain and that has been awesome – it’s lasted the entire week so far!

Fitness:

We’ve gotten back into Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred, and are actually sticking to it.  Along with that, we’re trying to get down to the gym once a week for an hour (this has been difficult in the mornings, because it is COLD) and then we’re doing Yoga before bed each night, which is super helpful for relaxing.

Hurdles:

Remember my knee and it’s annoying pain? Back when I was in physical therapy for it, the one thing that really stuck with me was that the trainers always told me to work through the pain. So, that’s what I’ve been doing… and guess what? My knee feels amazing! So that’s fantastic.

My slip up this week was when we went to a Christmas party… where, as one is wont to do at Christmas parties, I had two sugar cookies and some hard cider. It wasn’t aweful, by any means, but my self control did  wane. I’m interested to see what eles tries to trip me up this holiday season.

Today’s Weigh-in: 152.0!

(I'm not sure what was up with yesterday's drop - but I didn't get any exercise in, so I'm not too supprised that it hopped back up again.)

WW: Consistency and a New Lifestyle

A brief note on consistency:

I weighed myself every morning from Friday until today – sort of as an experiment.  My scale, from Friday until yesterday said: 154.4. Every day. Am I the only one who finds this a little creepy?

New Lifestyle: Changes

Okay so! I’ve decided I’m really going to tackle this, not because I want to be super thin, but because I want to be healthy and feel as good as I can every day. Because of this, I’ve decided to implement some lifestyle changes.

Fitness:

I’m taking a more aggressive stance on work outs. I’m going to do some form of exercise 6 days of the week (something rigorous 3 of those days). On Sunday night I started doing a pyramid work out for my arms and legs. I did not complete either of them (that’s how out of shape this girl is).

Last night, I managed to get all the way through the arm pyramid… but only did 10 chair dips each time. I am in severe need of working on my upper body strength.

Food:

I’ve switched from 3 big meals each day to 5 smaller ones and so far, it’s been really helpful. Earl and I have been doing the layered salad each day this week so far and I’m feeling really good about the simple change.

Another change – that hasn’t been so simple for Earl – is that we didn’t buy any soda this week. We’ve been keeping a pitcher of Water in our fridge (complete with cucumber, lemon slices and mint leaves) and I’m still kind of amazed at how little I miss having the soda. (If I’m totally honest, I miss it mostly for its convenience). I do think that we’re going to bring soda back in next week for Earl. But that’s okay, We’ll just buy a cola of some sort, which I can’t drink anyway.

Monday's Lunch: Spinach, Quinoa, Feta, Cucumber, Salami and Balsamic



Friday's Dinner: Home made Crescent Roll crust, Zuchinni, Spinach, Basil, Mozzarella, Tomato and Bacon pizza



Tuesday's Breakfast: Steelcut Oats, Honey & Almond Milk.

Hurdles:

I don’t know if any of you recall… but Thanksgiving was last week. I managed to keep myself from over eating – mostly because I was severely craving something green that day and the “green bean casserole” looked a bit brown. And, because we didn’t make any of it, there were no left overs!

Another thing that's nice about Thanksgiving is that I got to make a Bailey's Mint Mocha Cheesecake and only eat one slice - mostly because it was all gone before I could get another!



Cheesecake Batter - before Division



About 4 years ago – or so – I tripped off a curb while heading to work and severely busted up my knee (For your information, I had not been drinking – most people go there when I tell them I tripped off a curb – I was in a new pair of heels).  The cartilage behind my kneecap was bruised and the bursa was inflamed. I went to physical therapy for it for 4 months and nothing seemed to get better, so I stopped and worked on it myself – the only thing I didn’t have access to was the electric shock therapy. And it worked out swell. My knee got better and everything was hunky dory. Except, now the pain and swelling is back and that is severely hindering my ability to work out. So that is one of those fun little tid-bits.

Today’s Weigh-in: 153.6

And, as a special treat (okay, you'll probably disagree) I've made up a chart of my progress so far!

Wednesday Weigh-in: Starting over!

Guess what you guys! I got a scale!

That’s right, I finally did it – thanks to Amazon and my free 2-day shipping – otherwise we’d be weightless once again. So, we're kind of starting over, with this new scale. On to the post!

Fitness:

We’ve still been getting settled and what not in the new place, so we haven’t done much working out. We’ve Wii’d  once, but nothing too intense – unless you count scrubbing the hall bathroom that was oddly covered in a fine red powder when we moved in… (I think it’s probably something their cleaning crew uses and someone just forgot to finish the job)

Food:

I think I’ve been doing fairly well, when I eat something that’s not super healthy, I do my best to limit my portion sizes – or eat more steamed peas when I’m still hungry afterwards.

Also, thanks to Lifehacker, I’ve been taking salads for lunch since last Thursday. They’ve got this nifty little “hack” of putting Salad in a jar – layered in such a way that the lettuce (or spinach) won’t wilt!

The secret is in putting the salad dressing at the bottom and then having a layer of something else to keep it from getting in contact with the lettuce portion of the salad.

So far, I’ve done Low Fat Ranch dressing, Zucchini, and Romaine; Cranberry balsamic vinaigrette, Zucchini, and Spinach; and today, I’m adding some cooked and cooled brown rice to the last one. 

This was our dinner last night

Hurdles:

Well, obviously, it’s been easier to go with the easy stuff as we’re moving and it’s been difficult to get a workout in with everything else we’ve got going on. Next week’s hurdles are sure to include Thanksgiving.

Today’s Weigh in:  154.2*

*As this is a new scale, I’m not even bothering to go back and look at what I weighed the last time the old scale worked.

Hopefully The Last Weightless Wednesday

So… I really do plan on getting a scale before next Wednesday. You can check behind my back, I promise my fingers aren’t crossed.  But for the moment, I’m going to guess I’ve lost some weight based on a few things:

• The stress of moving,
• The physicality of moving,
• That lovely little pooch at my tummy seems smaller as I look at it in the mirror,
• My work slacks are fitting looser,

And

• The fact that multiple people have asked if I’ve lost weight.

This week I’ve eaten fairly okay. I had a spinach and feta salad… with a bacon vinaigrette. Tacos (I skipped the cheese and sour cream, opting for lettuce as my only garnish). With the apartment in utter disarray, we did end up having some of the pizzas and a hamburger helper two nights, but, I did make sure that I paid attention to my portions.

Because of the move, we haven’t done much of any working out, which is lame, but I’m not beating myself up over it.  Normalcy is my #1 priority right now.

Another Weightless Wednesday

So, this week, I’ve basically been banking on portion control and stress to help with the weight loss.

The stress portion will be explained tomorrow – sorry, I gotta keep you hanging on some things!

So, as you saw yesterday, I had my tea party. Not the most calorie friendly thing, but I managed to do my best and eat the things that were the least fattening (aka, more salad and less trifle). And that night, we and a few other friends walked downtown – ignore the fact that it was to go to the pub. (I was drinking gin, so I’d call that a small win.)

Other than that… It’s mostly been an exercise in not scarfing down the remains of the trifle and leftover cookies.

I’m going to get a scale this weekend, I swear! So I should be done with this weightlessness and what not.

Weightless

So... you'll notice that this is the second week in which I haven't put up my weight and there's a simple reason for that.

Our scale is broken, and I've been a total knob about getting a new one. :( Maybe this weekend?

Baby steps?

I’m really busy today, so this is going to be quick and dirty.

This week was an interesting one. Friday I was at work from 8am to 10pm and that threw me all out of wack. Because of that, I haven’t gotten up to do any morning work outs! We took the dog on a long walk through Deck Park this weekend and she absolutely loved it. Which is awesome! And for the most part we’ve been eating healthy enough (Friday’s dinner was provided by the company, so my choice was to bring my own or eat Pizza and I’m on salary, so after 5pm Friday night pizza and some sodas was all I was getting paid! But I did manage to lose a smidge of weight. And that’s what matters in the end, right?

Today’s Weigh-in: 153.5

A few pictures of Lu to send you on your way...

A Week After the Sickness

Food:

So, if you noticed yesterday… we bought a tower of pizzas this weekend.

And any of you who read this blog throughout the week, were probably wondering…. How is that supposed to help you lose weight? And you know what! I totally had the same thought process.  Here’s how: Moderation. Our freezer is going to have pizza in it for a while.

Earl and I treated ourselves to breakfast on Saturday and of course, we went to our favorite restaurant: Centurion. Which, I’ll be the first to admit – is not a place to go if you want low fat/low calorie food… but OMG is it worth every single calorie and every ounce of fat. Anywho, I got the Spanish Skillet (Eggs over a bed of potatoes, mancheago cheese, chorizo and caramelized onions) and earl got an Andouille sausage, Mushroom and Aged Cheddar omelet. And they were awesome.



My skillet in the foreground, Earl's omelet in the back ground along with his arms and fork...



Aside from that I’ve been doing my very best to keep to a 1260 calorie diet during the week (and not go too much over that on the weekend – though I can’t guess how many calories my breakfast had) And for the most part, I’m doing well.

Fitness:

I started back with regular workouts on Monday morning… but it was tough, I gotta tell you. However, Monday night I added Tae Bo into my list of exercises to pull from. Luckily, our TV has internet on it, so I hopped on to Youtube and brought up a workout I’ve used a dozen times in the past. This time I didn’t have to worry about my screen saver coming on… or watch it on a 15” widescreen.

Now that the weather is thinking about cooling down – it’s supposed to be back in the nineties for the next week before dropping down again – We’ll take the dog on longer walks again and I’m super excited for November… when we’re going to hike the Peralta trail – it’s a 5 mile hike through Peralta Canyon. We’ve done it once before and I won’t lie – my legs felt like Jelly afterward. But I’m super excited to do it again. And our in the building friends are planning on joining us this time! So yes – they’ll undoubtedly put us to shame.



A picture from the last time we hiked it... This is me, being irrationally afraid of an Agave Cactus.



Hurdles:

Being sick really did a number on me. I’ve still got a tickle of a cough, but everything else seems to be good and gone  - the runny nose, the mild fever, and most importantly, the fatigue. As I said up above, that meant I didn’t work out at all until Monday – and that’s no bueno.

Today’s Weigh-in:154(6.5lbs lost)
So! I didn't manage to work my way up, which is awesome! Have you had any struggles this week?

The Upside of Sickness

I don’t have a lot to tell you this week. I’ve been sick. Stayed home from work on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday… and most of those days I did nothing but lay on the couch and ate nothing but chicken broth.

As a result… I lost 3 pounds. (though, let’s face it, this is in no way a recommended weight loss strategy – I still feel like crap.)

Also, you’ll notice, this is not Wednesday – when the weigh-in post’s usually appear – and that is because I woke up yesterday, finally able to drag myself back to work… and totally thought it was Monday! YAY FOR FUZZY SICK BRAIN!!!

Next week I’ll have a better update for you… I promise. Unless, of course, this thing decides to linger.

Today’s Weigh-in: 154

I May Have Hit A Plateau

… I may choose to blame that on Katie and Jesse being here… (Just because I can ;P)

Food:

Last Thursday and Friday, our guests were still here. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and then we went to the Diamond backs game Friday (which involved Fatburger, nachos and a titch of alcohol). And that was the end of our “whatever week. 

Now we’re back to actually paying attention to what we eat and so I expect mild improvement again next week.

Fitness:

We walked home from the baseball game on Friday… but that’s really all the exercise we did last week.

This week we’ve been back at the Wii, but I’m going to be ridiculously happy when it’s cool enough to get outside and do some stuff again. Dear Winter, get here faster please. Thanks, Amy. 

Hurdles:

Obviously I’m going to mention my scapegoats Katie and Jesse again. It’s really difficult to stay on a plan when there are people you want to show your favorite restaurants etc., especially when there’s Duck Pizza involved.

Also, I think I might be getting sick. My throat’s all scratchy and I’m feeling really fatigued. That’s a problem because most of our workout time comes in waking up early – because Baseball is still taking up most of our nights.

Today’s Weigh-in: 157

This is the sort of breakfast I’m hoping will help me with getting back down again.

Anyone else hitting a bump in their weight loss?

The Week I Expected to Gain Weight

Food:

I’ve been a bad bad girl. From Thursday through Saturday at about 8pm I was good. Normal food, paying attention to what I was eating – we went out for food and got some awesome hummus, garlic dip, feta and the like at the Pita Jungle… and then it all went down hill.

We popped in to Centurion (our favorite restaurant) with twelvedaysold and Mr. Bray, shared a pizza had our fill of wine and shared a white truffle pizza… and then this:

Blueberry spiced apple pound cake Wrapped in Puff Pastry with Passion Fruit Glaze

Sunday we were good about breakfast, but on the way north to the Grand Canyon we stopped at McDonalds – because it’s quick and we were on a time crunch people! I did opt for a Grilled Chicken sandwich with no fries – but I have a feeling the Pineapple Mango Smoothie made up for any calories I skipped with those fries. That night we went to our favorite Chinese place – can anyone say “ALL CARBS”? But oh how I’ve missed their tea… *sigh*

Monday we weren’t too bad about it. We had a game night and tacos I had a taco with a Beef and Chorizo mix and then a TVP* burrito (and sadly, yes, I did opt for some sour cream and cheese with my burro.

Last night was probably the worst (as far as calories go) we went back to Centurion (did I mention I love that place) and we ate way too much. I’ll show you the scrumptiousness of it all tomorrow… but let’s just say I got home and felt food drunk (the bottle of wine that I drank most of certainly didn’t help).

Fitness:

I have not worked out in any real form since Saturday morning. Earl and I did Yoga before picking up twelvedaysold and Mr. Bray at the airport. We did a small amount of hiking around at the Grand Canyon – but nothing that I think was worthy of being called “working out”

Hurdles:

Having friends in town! Let me start by saying I don’t blame them. I’m completely in control of what I eat and the fact that I’ve stayed up too late al this week to even consider clawing my way out of bed before 6:50am to work out.

That being said, it’s difficult to stick to a routine when there are other people around (on a time limit) who you want to see the best of the city’s food and can spend hours talking to (hence the “crap it’s 11pm already?” moments).

Today’s Weigh-in: 156

I’m super happy that I managed to not gain weight so far. It may all show up next Wednesday, after they leave and can’t be held accountable. ;)

*If you’ve never had morning star brand TVP, I’d suggest you make your way to your local Safeway – it’s about the same price as ground beef (when the beef isn’t on sale) and I think it tastes better. It doesn’t taste like ground beef… but I love it.

Wednesday Weigh-in: One step at a time

This was a good week.  I have nothing profound to say about it… so I guess we’ll just get on with it.

Food:

Using WebMd’s Food and Fitness Tracker I’ve been paying attention to my caloric intake. And this time it’s not a passive thing. Instead of putting in what I ate all day, I’ve started inputting what I plan to eat all day and adjusting what I actually eat based on where the calories lie. I’ve been eating a lot more leafy greens – something my stomach’s still a little annoyed by – and trying to get in the proper servings of fruit. Also, we didn’t buy any soda this week (if you noticed) and so I’ve cut that sodium intake out of my diet for the moment.

Fitness:

I’ve gotten a bit better on this aspect. Though my workout routine consists of Yoga and Wii Sports – aka, not very high impact – It’s better than nothing. And on Saturday, I spent seven hours helping friends move (It was not constant exertion, but it was rather strenuous). So woo for that.

Hurdles:

Waking up is hard to do. Honestly, the thing that gets me up most mornings is not the alarm, it’s Earl taking the dog out. So, if Earl doesn’t want to get up when he needs to so that we can do the morning workout… I don’t get up either. It’s something we’re working on.

Today’s Weigh-in: 156

Wednesday Weigh-in: The First week

This week could have gone better, it could have gone worse.

I started using WebMD’s Food and Fitness tracker. I’ve used other things like this in the past, but the thing I like about this one is its pretty basic. Others that I’ve used have been way too convoluted and that just gets me focused on the wrong sort of things. One thing that’s nice about this one is that it emails me to remind me to track what I eat and to weigh in on Wednesdays.

Food:
I’ve been paying more attention to the number of calories and carbohydrates I’m getting each day now, staying below a target goal and planning out just how much and what I can eat each day to stay on target. We’ve cut down on things like this:

And started getting more of this:



A Salad of Green Leaf Lettuce, Tomato, Carrot, Hard Boiled Egg, and a smidge of Mozz.




Herb crusted Tilapia, Rice Pilaf and Green Peas



Fitness: This is the harder part for me. #1) What I have planned for a work out regimen requires getting up a smidge early and I am not a morning person. #2) Things get in the way of what I’ve got planned for the evening.

I know that I should work harder at sticking to the schedule and once I get started and into the swing of it, I’ll be better at it. It’s just that initial push to get me going that’s kind of lacking. I've gotten back into taking the 4 flights of stairs when take the dog out - even in this heat. Last night I did some Wii Boxing. And this morning we another hour of Wii sports. It's not much, but it's better than naught.

Hurdles:
This -

We know people who own a restauraunt and their Espresso Mousse is my weak spot. And it doesn't help that they know this and so I also end up with this...

So, there you go.

Today’s Weigh-in: 157*

*I'm a little worried my scale might be broken... what with that 3lb difference from last week - and the espresso cup.

A Weighty Subject

So. Here’s the deal:

For my high school years, I weighed an average of 115. And I’ve always been very constant in my weight. After high school – no longer having Aerobics with Katie and Britney, I slowly made my way up and settled at about 120. Through  my first marriage’s trials and subsequent divorce I inched my way up to 140 and then dropped back to 130. And then… my hormones whet all out of whack.

Along with a period that lasted a full 7 weeks… I gained 30pounds… in SEVEN weeks.

And now I’m resting at 160, still completely buoyant at this weight. I haven’t gone up, but I’m certainly not going down.  And because of this (and the fact that summer is nearly over) I’m going to start working really hard to get back down to my target weight (somewhere between 120 and 130).

From now on, Wednesday is going to be my day of accountability. I’m going to post my honest weight from that morning and tell you what I’m doing to get it down.

Your help and support will be greatly appreciated as I work my way through this!

Today's Weigh-in: 160.5