another week down

Yesterday's weigh in was 161.5. It was whoosh week and I did my best to eat well throughout the week. It was rough, but okay.

The good news is, I found the chips that MS and I had fallen in love with when we were in Texas at the TSU game. Brand is Food Should Taste Good and I bought the Multigrain ones that are tortilla chips made with flax, sunflower and sesame seeds, quinoa, soy and brown rice. They are soooo yummy!!! The danger is they are almost too yummy. One bag has 6 servings, supposedly. Whoops. :)

On the exercise front. MS and I have completed week 4 of P90X. We were supposed to start week 5 today and MS did, but he encouraged me to take a couple days off to rest my knee since I twinged it nice and good Wednesday night. So I'm doing that, though I really could have used a workout today. But rest is important. And I'll ice today too which hopefully will help. 16 weeks from Fargo!!!!

No more Cap'n Crunch!

Bring back the eggs!! I blame the Cap'n. I weighed unofficially this morning at I was at 164. I'm going to weigh tomorrow to be sure of whatever I am, but i do blame the Cap'n.

No, I can only blame myself. I know better than to live on a diet of cereal alone, and that's basically what last weekend turned into. But I also know that since this is PMS week, that might be a minor factor as well.

we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Back on the wheat

I've had a mini relapse this weekend. And I blame Cap'n Crunch. My weigh in on Friday was 160, though officially 161 on Thursday when MS and I "officially" weighed in. But it's PMS week and so I have been craving carbs in a bad way. PB Cap'n Crunch is my downfall. I shouldn't have started back on the cereal but I did. And because it's PMS week I know my weight is going to go up, so I should be more mindful of not eating so many carbs but I still do. Next week is whoosh week, thank goodness.

In good news - I started running again yesterday. It was great. I ran 3, walked a full one (half on both sides of 3). My plan is to run at lunch from now on and bring my lunch to work. Thursdays are my rest day, so I can still get to Mixed that day.

I'm also still on P90X - week 3. I'm excited that I've been able to keep with this workout. I have to get to week 5 and then I think I'll be okay. I'm feeling more confident in that I can actually keep at this workout and make my goal in May. I started running too so I can keep my cardio up and get my body ready for running.

I'll get there. It's just taking some time.

A few more days

I really don't remember the second week being so tough as it has been this trip. I'm not lounging for bread in mass amounts, but I really wouldn't mind toast with some PB. Or pizza. Or even A breadstick. But I can't yet. I need to wait it out just a little longer.

I did pick up some almond meal tonight. I found a recipe where I can make chicken nuggets with the almond meal instead. It sounded good, so we'll try it this weekend. I also picked up some Quinoa to try. The articles I've read say it's great for you and better than rice. Shockingly I found this at our normal grocer so I thought we could try it. Change is good and it doesn't look too hard to make. I've been finding a lot of recipes calling for it too. So there we go.

I also found a recipe to make your own tortillas. I'm excited about that. I have some experimenting to do this weekend, I think. :)

A rough couple days

After Friday's onslaught at Olive Garden, I perked back up with energy and an attack on work stuff. I got a lot accomplished this weekend and even took a course to become certified in CPR. MS was happy because now I can save his life, though I will admit that I'm REALLY freaked out about the compressions part. I have no qualms with the breath part, but compressions scare me.

Eating has been okay. I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering how long I should stay on Phase I. I sort of started on the 29th, but then MS and I had our last night of pizza and "new year's" on the 30th. So I really did start on Jan 1, so I kind of feel like I should go through Friday with Phase I and start on Saturday, but that scares me because then I have a weekend where I can eat bread again and I have nothing else to do. I'm scared I'll slip back, which makes me kind of want to start Phase II on Wednesday so I can have a few days to be on a routine with the new eating. Hmmm...I don't know. I have a few days to think about it.

I need to eat

I didn't write yesterday because by the time I got home from a whirlwind day, I had a glass of milk and was falling asleep around 6:30 on the couch. But in adding up all my calories from yesterday, I was really low. It's no wonder I was tired. I had also forgotten to take my vitamins, which I'm sure didn't help.

So I need to reevaluate what I eat a bit. Maybe I can have full-fat caesar dressing on my salad instead of the Fat Free. It's only 100 calories more, 17g of fat more, but has less sodium and carbs! That might be one way I can help.

The good news is I weighed in this morning at 161.5. Of course then I had a great poop about 10 minutes ago so maybe I'm down to 160. hahahaha. But truly, I'm happy. 168 to 164.5 to 161.5 in two weeks. That's good and healthy! I just need to continue the downward trend!

A weird day

So chicken was the choice of protein for breakfast since the dishwasher wasn't done in time last night for me to use the silicone muffin cups for eggs. And P90X today was legs and back and ab ripper. I got the 1st two accomplished but did nothing for abs today. It's okay...at this point I think I need to save some of the calories I've been burning. I'm a little snarky and on edge.

After breakfast at 0715 I didn't eat until 1320 for lunch. Then dinner wasn't til 1900 because I got home late. Probably not an ideal eating day to emulate in the future. Oh well...there's one in every Beach.

A good day

After 90 minutes of YogaX fun, Mike helped me out by scrambling a couple eggs for me for breakfast. Stupidly I hadn't made the egg quiche cups last night so I was scrambling for a breakfast idea (pun intended).

The morning flew by. I drank my Crystal Lite and wasn't hungry at all. For lunch we went to Mixed Go Green (double punch Tuesday!) and had a Caesar salad - with FF dressing and no croutons. It was yummy.

Had some celery and PB this afternoon and then came home to half a piece of chicken. I'm not super hungry today. And the glass of milk with dinner helped fill me up. I'm ready for bed now though. I'm a wee bit tired from the 0415 wake up call, which will return tomorrow again.

So far, I'm glad I'm back on SoBe. I'm feeling good. Let's just hope the pounds disappear while I'm doing this. I'd hate to be giving up all my favorites (cookies, Angel food cake, pizza) for nothing. :)

Not bad today

Today has been better. Mike watched a Dr. Oz thing today on the 11-week challenge which had a food tracker on it. I already track my food, but I signed up anyway to appease him and maybe it will be easier than loading it all into my spreadsheet.

This morning was Shoulders&Arms for P90X. AWESOME workout. I like this one- mostly because I can actually do all the exercises, saving myself from patheticness. But it was just good. I woke at 4 and got up at 4:30 to start. Tomorrow I have to be started NLT 4:30 just to finish yoga - 90 minute program. We may have to fast forward through some of the stuff I don't do there.

It was funny today at lunch when Mike made toast with strawberry rhubarb jam. I had my back to him, sitting at the table eating my salad (joy), and heard him put the bread in the toaster. I said, "Oh sweet bread, you are my nemesis." He busted out laughing, and was sweet enough to eat it while standing at the sink instead of in front of me. By the time I finished and turned around it was gone. :) He's a good egg. I can have whole-wheat/grain toast in another week - next week Wednesday I think would be 14 days, so that'll be a good day. :)

Until then...Chicken!!!

Headache day

This hasn't been a bad day for eats, so far at least. I had egg quiches for breakfast, a string cheese and pistachios for a snack/early lunch. Then I did a turkey, summer sausage, and a couple different cheeses, for a later lunch. But I've had a headache all day and I'm not sure if it's because I had 3 diet dew's yesterday and only 1 1/2 today (caffeine headache?), or because I watched the movie Bride Wars and cried at the end, or because I'm dehydrated, or because I just have a headache.

I don't know. I'm not craving sweets, which is good, but I have toyed with having a fudge pop or maybe even (gasp!) a bowl of PB Cap'n Crunch. I'm trying not to though.

This too shall pass, I guess.

New Year's Day

So far, things are going pretty well. I had some eggs for breakfast after P90X. Then MS came home and we had the balsamic chicken from the SoBe book. That turned out really well, though probably should have been cooked just a little longer. Then a few nuts this afternoon and string cheese while we were working in the basement. A few too many diet mt dews, but that's nothing new.

I'm not feeling too bad, but I am looking forward when I can have whole-wheat stuff again. :) And here's hoping I don't have too much of the craving for PB Cap'n Crunch again. :)

OH I forgot to mention. We're weighing in on Friday's now, as is MS's tradition so he added me to the sheet we track it on. Yesterday I forgot to weigh in the AM so I did it at 2pm. Granted I hadn't eaten much by that point, nor completed much, so it wasn't too far off, I'm guessing. But I weighed 164. Monday I had weighed 168, so this made me happy.

But then I weighed this morning and I was 162.4!! Suh-weet! That's with the pizza the other night AND PB Cap'n Crunch. Maybe this is finally working for me. :) Here's hoping it continues going down...I need it!

Foodie is back!

I have a spreadsheet called "Foodie". I use this as a tool to track my food intake throughout the day. I track the calories, fat, sodium, carbs, sugars and fats. I also put when I eat so I can see if there's a trend, and if there are any notes with each one.

They say, and by they I mean all the experts out there, that you should track what you eat. I can't really remember why but I do like the idea. It holds you accountable and keeps you in line with what you should be eating. SoBe doesn't require this, other than to make sure you don't eat more than 75 calories of the sugar-free candy stuff or Jell-o. Of course there's always room for Jell-o. MS has been eating a lot of jello. I'm guessing I will be today too. :)

But Foodie is back! And better than ever. :) Hopefully I will be soon, too. :) hahaha

Note to self

It's better to eat lunch than to eat your snacks for lunch.

This is a huge word to the wise. While I screwed up dinner last night, I don't feel too bad about it. I was really good throughout the whole day and I can be better today (especially since there is NO food in this house worth snacking on).

No really...I had my mini egg quiche's for breakfast again, some celery and PB for snack, but then I worked through lunch because I was on a roll with setting up files. So I had my cucumber slices and pistachios for lunch. This was okay except at 2 when I started to crash. My fun meter was pegged. That made for a rough afternoon, and when I got home and MS was super fun and giddy (re: buzzed since he had been drinking since 2:30) I realized this was our last night together of 2010...so we had pizza and Cap'n Crunch for dinner. :)

So while I screwed up a bit with dinner, I know today will be okay. And my calorie content yesterday wasn't overly horrible, but it wasn't great either. I'll be more diligent today. MS started a chicken recipe from the SoBe book that I never tried, so I can finish that tonight for my New Years Eve dinner.

I will say, that despite the lack in judgment yesterday at lunch, I am feeling better on this eating plan. I like that I'm eating good food again. I do miss pizza, but someday I'll figure out how to make whole-grain crust so I can have pizza again. :) Until then, I'll make it work. Two weeks without bread or pasta...that's doable.

AND P90X starts tomorrow! WOOHOO!

Awesome day!

SoBe Day 1 -
So after the breakfast I had, I snacked on pistachios and Crystal Lite. Sal and I went to lunch at our favorite salad joint. I had some almonds for dessert, a couple sodas throughout the day, more pistachios and string cheese in the afternoon.

What was awesome is that I was able to keep my energy level up but didn't eat a bunch of bad stuff. Supper was chicken on salad with some feta and OG dressing. And a glass of milk.

I'm excited about this eating plan. I know it's only day one and I need to be cautious because my track record hasn't been the best, but it's looking good so far. :)

It's breakfast time in the city...

Ring a ling...hear them ring...soon it will be mess dress day! (yes, I'm singing this out loud...I'm a dork).

Anyway...after last night's switch to South Beach from cleansing, I am feeling SO much better. MS's tummy still hurts, but he ate a LOT of oranges yesterday and skipped the grapes and strawberries I had. I'm guessing he has too much citric acid now. Not good.

But this morning I had a couple of the mini egg quiche's. One was too small, so I had two and they were SO yummy. I used eggs, green peppers and onions from our garden, Mexican cheese. In the end I added tomato too which was a great choice. Using silicone muffin cups (heart shaped since that's all I could find, but it shows I love me) I baked them last night, froze them and nuked them this morning. This was great! I am alert right now and ready for the day! Suh-weet! Today will be a productive day.

C-2

Well today sucked. Normally I like the fruit day but by 1:30 I was fruited out. UGH! It sucked. Normally this is supposed to flush your system but it is NOT working for us. :( So I called MS at 4:30 and said, "We're done. We're having chicken and salad tonight." He was VERY excited about that. And believe me, I have never tasted a salad that was so delicious. :)

So tomorrow I'll start South Beach, though it'll be possibly slightly modified if MS makes me a smoothie for breakfast with the leftover fruit we have. But it'll be good to have real food. Today was a struggle to keep going. I had no motivation today, but I think having eggs and pistachios will help.

I made mini-egg quiche's tonight and they smell sooo yummy! I can freeze them and reheat them for breakfast so I'm going to take a few to work for breakfast and snacks. They'll be perfect! :) It will work. We're on our way to our goal.

C-1

Today has been interesting. MS and I started our cleanse today - a preview before SB starts on Saturday. I'm hungry but not annoyingly so. I have drank water, Crystal Lite Peach Tea, Apple Juice and more water. I've done well with not eating, other than two spoonfuls of brown sugar. I know...I know...those were bad, but I was making a pie for the neighbors (they cleaned off the roads over the weekend which was awesome!) and the urge (habit) hit.

BUT I did cut up fruit for tomorrow, celery and cucumbers for Wednesday, and divided up pistachios (60 - two SB Servings) into containers for next week.

MS is struggling. He wants food, and since he's hungry, he's hanging out the garage doing tasks so he's not thinking about food. I'm thinking maybe we'll shorten this week and end sooner so it's not quite as painful. We'll see how tonight and tomorrow go. He keeps telling himself the outcome is the key to remember, not one day of fasting. That's a good reminder. I need to remember that one too.

And so it begins again

What is this, the 8th attempt or something like that? It's crazy, but once again, I need to do something. This has been a very rough year...stressful, lacking in the exercise/running realm, and overeating because I could. The bad thing has been that MS has been having the same problem. He sent me a spreadsheet today with his weekly weigh-ins from the last three years and he has steadily gotten heavier. I know I have too. His fear is turning into his Uncle John (a very heavy man who died of a heart attack last year) and my fear is turning into Grandma Dot (an overweight woman who had a tv-tray full of medications and never exercised...oh and with the flabby arms).

SO....once again, I am going to attempt South Beach. NO, I'm not going to attempt it, I'm going to do it. Sal is going on Ideal Protein diet, which sounds good in theory but it totally cuts out milk until you reach your goal weight. I can't handle that. I need my calcium...this is not a time in my life to not be drinking milk. And I'm not a fan of supplements - I'd rather have as much of the real thing anyway.

Tomorrow I'm going to do the Jay Cleanse. It's a 5-day plan. I did this before my first South Beach round back in 2005 (when I lost 20ish pounds). Day one - water and apple juice. Day two - add in fresh fruit. Day three - add in fresh vegetables, also known as Olive Garden day. Day four - add in oatmeal. Day five - add in lean mean, preferably fish.

By Friday I should be down a few pounds and feeling a little cleaner in my world. Which will make starting South Beach on Saturday all the easier. I'll have to give up the oatmeal and fruit, but at least I'll have most of my body reset. Then I'll do the 14 days of Phase I, then move to Phase II (though I'll probably do K's phase one and a half).

So weight this morning was 168. OMG that hurts to even type. Goal is 140ish. I'm not going to get too caught up on the specific numbers. I've seen my friend Bridget fight just to lose one or two pounds to "make her goal" but the next week go back to her weight about 2 pounds more...but she feels great and looks awesome. The final goal will be to maintain the 140ish realm of weight and not fly back up the scale like I did this year.

With the goal for weight I have two running goals: Fargo Marathon and TCM again. For TCM I want to break 5 hours.

THEN when MS and I have made our goals, our reward will be to go to Hawaii. I'm really excited about that. I loved Hawaii last January and I really want to go back when I can just enjoy it instead of working most of the trip. MS's friend sent us a calendar with pictures of the islands, so we're going to hang that in our gym as motivation. :)

On the exercise side, MS got me kettleballs for Christmas, so I'm going to check those out this week. Then he wants to either start up P90X again and complete the 90-days (last year we got through 4 weeks), or do a modified workout that he has designed. We haven't decided yet. We'll see. But we are going to work out together so we can keep each other motivated. I need that. And I need some structure. We're talking about getting a bike so we can do some spinning too.

So 168-140...that's almost 30 pounds. I can't believe I've gained so much...granted I wasn't 140 last year. I was 150 during TCM in 2009...so 18 pounds in just over a year. Not good.

BUT I know I can do it. I've lost 20 on South Beach before and the only reason I gained it back was because I hit holiday season. We're starting now and I gave most of my baking stuff to YOB for him and his kids. MS and I needed to get it out of the house. I'm eating the last of the popcorn tonight, and we're not buying any more.

So here we go...I'll be back to post so I'm accountable again. You can do it, Moe!!

Uffda

It's interesting how food can effect (or is it affect - I always get those wrong) a person.

I have not been eating well this week at all. It's bad. Sunday I traveled all day and barely ate. Monday, I had a piece of pizza and trail mix and chewy granola bars all day. Tuesday, I ate at BK (they have a tendergrill chicken sandwich that's on whole grain ciabatta bread) and then nothing. I didn't eat dinner at all.

So today I tried to be a bit better. I'm still not doing great, but I finally had a lunch (chicken salad with 2 pickle spears and tomatoes and 2 HB eggs) and Mary and I went out for dinner...

Dinner, however, was Italian - chicken and pasta and tomatoes and garlic and bread. OMG...bread! That was soooo yummy. And we both had a mini shot of their dessert, which put her over the top. I did only eat half of my pasta, so I have some for tomorrow. But the bread...mmmmm...

I think I'm gaining back the weight I lost. I have to get up and run in the morning. I haven't been doing that because it's so damn humid and my bed is so damn comfortable. But it's going to be detrimental if I don't. My fitness test is on the 3rd. That's coming up way too soon...but not only that, I have the half on the 12th and the marathon in 6 weeks! Hello!

Phase II

Yesterday was Mike's family reunion/picnic and try as I might, I couldn't help myself. I had to have a little bit of watermelon and zucchini bread. I didn't have the white bread bun though. And I staved off of the potato salad and pies. I did have a few chips too.

But you know, other than my hummus and crackers later, that was really the only meal I had yesterday, so all in all it wasn't bad. I did have a twizzler or two. They really taste different than the SF Red Vines. It's odd how different.

Today I traveled to Denver, to Atlanta and now I'm in Montgomery. A full day on planes and I haven't been eating well. I had a couple granola bars that Bridget had given me, a lot of trail mix and an egg mcmuffin. I'm staying in a really nice room, but there's no shop or vending anywhere nearby, other than the mini bar which is crap food so I'm doing my level best to stay away from it (there's popcorn!!!).

I might go for a walk and see if there's anything with in a decent distance, but I might have to talk a classmate into taking me someplace tomorrow so I can get some food. Or this will be a tough week.

Of course, if the latter is what happens, I'll lose a lot of weight b/c I won't be eating, just drinking a lot of water. :)