Disappointing Week Does Not Mean I Shouldn't Post

I continue to hit the gym every day like clock work and eat healthy each day. I haven't deviated from my plan. On Thursday I had weigh in and lost only 1 pound. The disappointment was immense. I'd have rather gone to Dunkin Donuts and bought a dozen doughnuts rather than go to the gym but off I went. I pushed myself harder feeling like I'd already hit a plateau, unfortunately all that did was hurt my back and my left calf.

The next day saw me with a stomach bug and feeling like death warmed over. Today I'm feeling better and have been able to eat so only two days of not being at the gym. Although I'm really sad I missed two days, I'm realizing I have to listen to my body.

I did do a little research on the week 2 curse as it's called. I have no idea if it is real or not but there are a lot of people out there who seem to have gone through it so I'm hoping I'll see something this next week. Also, I've decided to weigh in each day. The anticipation of waiting a week doesn't help me. I know I'll have a loss from being sick but I'm taking it!

I haven't made any recipes really. I've made pretty plain food as I've been busy in other areas of life but I did buy a spaghetti squash so am anxious to try it. I've never had any. I also bought Chocolate PB2 to add to my protein shakes. I miss peanut butter! I will let you know how that tastes also!

275

Consistency Is The Key

Day # 10

I have yet to not go work out. I have not had a day where I even thought about not going. I actually look forward to going and am loving it. The same goes for my eating habits. I enjoy eating healthier. I haven't really craved anything unhealthy which is amazing since I ate horrible before all this. 

Having said that above, I had a baby shower today at Pizza Hut. It was my first time veering from my new healthy lifestyle. I skipped breakfast mostly because I was busy getting ready after my work out but for lunch I did have 2 slices of pizza, one breadstick and two bone out chicken wings. I did skip on the cake though as I figured I'd eaten bad enough. After I got home I've really not cared to have dinner so I just had a greek yogurt. I've stayed around my 1,000 calorie mark even though I ate out of my norm without feeling hungry and starving myself. I'm not a huge yogurt fan but tried Dannon Light and Fit Greek Salted Caramel Yogurt and found I really enjoyed it. The texture was thicker almost like pudding and that felt nicer than normal yogurt. 

My other new food venture was the Nasoya Zero Pasta Spaghetti. I had it with my normal pasta sauce and it really cured my craving for spaghetti without all the carbs. I could make it healthier by finding a different sauce but used what I had on hand. Did I want some bread slathered in butter to sop up the extra sauce? Oh you bet your sweet butt!!! I refrained though. 

I am a huge emotional eater and tonight has tested my will power. Our house is home to 4 wonderful dogs (3 miniature Dachshunds and a Shepherd/Lab mix) and 1 cat. About a month ago I was contacted about a little girl doxie who needed help. I took her in and on to the vet. She was malnourished, her little ribs were showing and her skin was wrinkled on her there was so much extra. She's food aggressive with our other boys so needed to be fed in the bathroom with the door shut. Her skin was terrible! No fur as she'd scratched it constantly and had open, oozing sores. I got her to the vet and medicine and healed her up, gave her lots of love and unfortunately got attached. I knew ultimately we couldn't keep her. She just wasn't fitting in with our boys and we had to worry about fights. She hadn't been treated nicely by another dog in her last home I think so needed to be in an only dog home. Tonight I found that home for her. She is going to be spoiled rotten and well loved and as much as I know it's the right choice, it was still so hard and I cried buckets. I will call tomorrow to see how she's doing. I'm sure she's going to do fine.

Besides the baby shower and re-homing little Tink, I also worked on some geek jewelry by drilling some D20s with my new dremel I got for Christmas. I only broke 3 drill bits and almost beaned one of my dogs with a flying die spinning across the room when the bit broke and it broke free from the vice. I gave up at that point for everyone's safety!

Weigh In Jitters

Today was my first weigh in. I have worked really hard this week and given up a fair bit. Today is my 8th day with no soda, pasta or bread. I've worked out every day, not missing one, even though this morning it was only -2F !!! Well let me tell you... IT PAID OFF! I lost 10 pounds last week! I know some will say that's too much in a week but I know a lot of it is water weight from taking prednisone for so long but I'm going to take it I tell ya and be proud! I don't expect the same next week by any means, I'm just happy I saw results.

Yesterday I added a protein shake to what I'm doing. I had it in place of my breakfast today. Adding frozen fruit to it has been a nice way to get something sweet into my day without having something bad for me.

I was able to do 3 miles on the treadmill again today and 40 laps in the pool. I wanted to do 50 again but had an appointment so cut my time short. At least with it being so chilly there wasn't anyone else around until the time I was leaving.

Here's to the next 10 pounds lost :)

276

Push It!!!

I left you for a couple of days but that doesn't mean I wasn't still working out! I've kept to my schedule and even increased what I'm doing a little where I can. Yesterday I pushed it up to 3 miles on the treadmill and 40 laps in the pool. Now today my butt muscles were crying out in pain so I only did 2 miles walking but upped my laps to 50 to try to make up for the lost mile.

After talking to a few people, we've come to the conclusion I'm not eating enough calories nor enough protein and fiber. I'm adding a protein shake to my day to help that and working on some better recipes. Two nights ago I had a delicious one and you could easily add more vegetables to it and get everything in the one meal, it's called Chicken Cabbage Stir Fry Recipe!!!! I really enjoyed this one and suggest you try it. Tonight I'm having Shrimp and "Noodles" which is actually shrimp and bean sprouts and my veggies of course. It looks good so I can't wait to try it, it's listed as Under 150 calories on this blog I found here is the Recipe!!!!

In my local store today I found a new product that I bought to try. They are by Nasoya and part of their Pasta Zero line. I bought the Shirataki Spaghetti in hopes that when I got home there would be a recipe on the company website and sure enough there are loads. I'm going to make one of these three, I haven't decided just yet which. I've eaten a lot of stir fry so we'll see about a marinara Nasoya Shiritaki Spaghetti. If these are nice then it means I don't have to give up pasta! I'm in no way affiliated with the company, this is merely something I found at the store and am excited to try.

Tomorrow morning is weigh in. I'm pretty excited but at the same time a little nervous. I've worked very hard the last week and want to see some progress so I don't get discouraged. I know I'll stick with it, I just want to see something good!

Preparation is the Key

I thoroughly enjoyed my gym time this morning. I had the entire place to myself for the entire 2 hours. I did my two miles on the treadmill but had to push myself. When I first got on my legs were protesting immensely but as I got going they knew I wasn't stopping and gave in to my whims. I'm glad no one was there today as I tend to lip sync to the music I'm listening to and well maybe dance a little while I'm walking. If someone else is around I just lip sync but today was all out. It was the same getting in the pool. When I started my laps my arms were telling me we were only doing 20 today but I told them that I was in charge and we were indeed doing 30! The hot tub situation has been sorted. Normally it's only emptied on Mondays unless it's messy so it should only be once a week that I cannot enjoy it. Today was a day I could and it felt soooooo good. I'm sure I look funny since I try to have both feet and both hands on a jet as well as my back. It's like getting a foot massage so how can I not???

Once home, I decided I needed to get some things made up ahead of time. I will get sick of it all if I'm cooking all day every day. Plus, I have other things to get done and work on my jewelry business. After breakfast I put the Weight Watchers 0 point soup in the crockpot, I pulled a tilapia fillet out of the freezer and some scallops for dinner tonight and I already have prepped the oven roasted cauliflower dish for the oven for dinner Recipe!!!. I'm going to try couscous tonight as I've never had it and really want to replace pasta and rice with something. Day 4 of no bread, pasta or soda.

I've gone through my Pinterest boards and gotten some meal ideas that are all inclusive in that I'm not making 2 different dishes or whatever. Also, I'm going to package up portions to freeze and pull out with the left overs rather than eat them over the course of the next few days. I want to keep things fresh and fun.

Just Keep Swimming

Another day down. I'm having no trouble getting up at 6:45am and getting to the gym. I want to be there first so that I can use the machines I want without feeling like I'm holding someone else up. Once again music is the key to having it not be monotonous. When I got on the treadmill today my body seemed to be resisting a bit, I'm sure it's sore and wondering what I'm doing. I had to turn the speed down a touch because my legs were crying out. I was a little disappointed by it as I wanted to go 2.5 miles today but knew that wasn't happening. When I got to 1.5 miles I put the speed up to 3.2 which was pushing it from the previous days. I just had to feel like I was doing more. Well.... I happened to look at the incline for some reason and noticed that it didn't reset or I hit a button and that I had done the whole workout on a 1% incline where as the other days it was 0%. So that made me feel like I had definitely done more! I decided to add another machine and did some bicycling for 10 minutes. I know it's not a lot but after the 2 miles on the treadmill my legs were a little tired. Next, into the pool. I pushed myself to do 30 laps today. I can really feel it in my arms and my lower back which is good.

The unfortunate thing that I'm going to talk to them about tomorrow morning is, they drain the hot tub every night it seems. It doesn't get filed until 7:30-8am so when I'm done at 9am it's still cold. I really want to use it to soothe my joints after the workouts so it is actually very important to me. I'll see what they can do. I've noticed another gentlemen come in both mornings when I'm on the treadmill to use the hot tub and turn around and leave because it's not hot, so I'm not the only one.

I've ate good again today. It was a little hard to make a lovely beef stroganoff for everyone else and know that I won't be abe to eat it. It smells SO good but I didn't touch it. I was going to have a baked potato with a topping on it but unfortunately my potato bag caught fire in my microwave!!! Obviously a sign I was not to eat that. My calorie intake is 1274 for the day. I don't believe I'll be hungry for an after dinner snack so that's what I'll end on. Day 3 of no soda. I've craved it a tiny bit but haven't given in to the thought. I've only had iced tea or water. Fitbit urges you to walk 10,000 steps a day, today was the first day I did it! I'm just a touch over but don't see myself moving much more this evening :)

I've also begun a purge of my house. I feel the need to hold on to things even if I have no use for them based on some sort of "value" in my head. I've filled a white garbage bag and a box to take to the Goodwill. That's another big feat for me. I'm tired of the clutter, it adds to the depression. Making a change all the way around!

I Can Do This

Day two:

Up at 6:45am to get ready to go to the gym. I stopped to feed the dog and log into Facebook so didn't get to the gym til 7:30am. Tomorrow the dogs can wait. I want to be out of the house and there as early as possible. I try to be consiencious of others and at about the last 10 minutes of the treadmill an older couple came in and I could tell the man was planning on being on it. They only have one of each machine. Music made a HUGE difference. I was able to do 2 miles today (1/2 mile more than yesterday) and I amped up the speed to 3mph up from 2.6mph from yesterday. I did 20 laps which equates to about 300 yards and did some water exercises that I had found online. I also need to take a bottle of water. I haven't the last two days and between the work out and the humidity I'm needing it.

One of the things I'm noticing about my dedication is the fact that I'm measuring ingredients and portions. I have never done that before. Just fudged the numbers. I've tracked everything on my Fitbit page and been honest about it all, not that I've had anything to want to hide :)

I bought a huge bag of kale today with the intention of making kale chips. I've never had them but the bag was 1/2 off and if they are crap I only paid $1.50. Surprisingly, they were awesome! Recipe!!! I will be making them again. For dinner I had a chicken breast with a cheesy squash casserole. Recipe!!

I can do this!!!!!!!!!

New Year - New Life

I did it, I got started. First step taken!

I got a later start in the day to the gym because of the holiday and them not being open to fill out my membership but regardless I went. I knew with the holiday there was a chance of lots of people being at the pool, mostly children. I promptly went to the treadmill and did 1.5 miles. I was gunning for 2 miles but I had no music and needed to get used to the humidity from the heated pool. Then came the hard part! Putting on a bathing suit in front of people BLEH! I did it though as I am so committed to this. I swam laps for a half hour. I started freestyle but erm I am not 14 and on the swim team any more. Breast stroke it is then. I only sat in the hot tub for 5 minutes after the pool though because with the time frame it was almost 11:30 and I was starving so came home and made a big salad.

While I was waiting for the gym to open I put the 0 Calorie Weight Watchers Soup in the slow cooker. So simple and SO incredibly delicious!

Tomorrow (and each day) is to be to the gym by 7:30 at the latest and get started. Once I get home I can have breakfast and prepare some things since having things ready is my weak link. I've tracked all my food on my Fitbit page and was even proud of myself for measuring my dressing. I've never in my life done that. I want to do things right.

My plan is to only weigh in once a week so I'm not fretting about fluctuation so Wednesday is the day I'll post about that.

Here is the soup recipe which can be altered and added to in so many ways.

http://www.food.com/recipe/ww-0-point-weight-watchers-cabbage-soup-128956