Eating My Way to Weight Loss

What if you lost weight by eating? Wouldn’t that be great?

Guess what? You do.
It has finally clicked in my brain that weight loss and healthy living is about putting good things in your body, as opposed to denying yourself.
Weight loss is about refusing to settle.
Tell yourself that you will NOT settle for the half hardened donught or lemon square at the office.
You will NOT settle for being exhausted, ridden with a food baby and unable to move.
You will NOT settle on missing out on life due to exhaustion and lack of self esteem.
You will NOT settle for a sub par life—and that includes your exercise life, sex life, mental life, family life, etc.
You will NOT settle on living with the emotional weight that obesity brings.

Healthy living is about rejoicing in the bounty before you.
It should look like a fresh, ripe strawberry, not a double down from KFC.
Imagine that you are what you eat. Do you want to be deep fried, brown and crispy or bountiful, lush and ripe?
I know my choice.

Good vs. Getting Better

What I am Good At:
Planning my meals
Packing my lunch
Drinking my Water
Getting Exercise
Finding Support-- specifically my blog world
Getting my Veggies


What I am Getting Better On:
Portion Control-- mainly measuring
Eating Veggies as main meal
Eating at Night
Not going over points... This is a very hard debate. If I go over every day but stay within my activity + extra allowance, is it bad? I can't decide. Certainly, I'll lose more if I just stay within what I have, eliminating "extra" from my vocab.
Listening to my body (you're full, you're not hungry, etc)

“I go for mine, I got to shine….”

I got everything I wanted done yesterday, and then some.
I spent 10 hours on campus—8.5 working, and 2 hours in class. Then I came home, cleaned my house, made lasagna and a bread appetizer and went for a walk with the beast. I came home, had two beers and watched some of the draft with Art, then did one of my assignments for class. Yes, I did an assignment AFTER having two beers. I think it helped me think critically.
Then I read an entire chapter in one of the many books I am reading, Getting Stoned with Cannibals (an amazing travel diary that blows my mind). I went to bed around 9:30.
It was a great day.
Today I plan to work in the eliptical at lunch, a rough draft of a paper throughout the day and perhaps another work out at home.
Tomorrow I have a big night out with my bestie, so I hope to also get some exercise in to combat the caloric intake that is bound to happen.
I also plan to drink outrageous amounts of water while drinking with her, so that I am refreshed and alive the next day.
It is also time for grocery shopping, so stay tuned for menu Monday which may very well be posted earlier than Monday.
I feel like I have a new lease on life. And it feels fine.
I’m going for mine. I got to shine.

Breakfast

I weighed in at the doctor yesterday and I am proud to say that I am down ten pounds from three months ago.
I visit the doctor every three months, so these will serve as mini-check ins. By next time (end of July) I would like to be around 230-235.

In other news, it is apparent that if I don't make a giant mess of eggs for the week on the weekend, I won't have a proper breakfast unless I settle for oatmeal.

I have yet to find a way to make oatmeal fancy and still within the 2-3 point range. I may invest in some blueberry mix this weekend as a test.

Last night I went out to dinner with the fam. We went to the pub which is an England themed restaurant.

I had two rum and diet cokes. 2 pts per=6
A salad with balsamic dressing. 2 pts
a serving of potato chips (they cover these bad boys with cheese and bbq sauce and bacon!)6 pts
half a french dip (the other half went to Art for lunch, which shows will power on my part!)7
1 tbs mayo 3
and a glass of champagne 2

I saved many of my points from the day to make this night a success and snuck in two activity points even though I missed my lunch workout.

How do you survive a night out? What is worth the points and what isn't?

Calories per Day

Good Morning World!

Hungry girl posted this amazing link that calculates what your calorie intake should be daily.

Since I am not officially paying in to the ol' WW, I have felt lost on how many points I should be using. I realize now that I have been hitting around the right number, but have allowed myself a little too much extra room with the sneaking suspicion I might be under anyway.

Well, that suspicion certainly was sneaking-- and entirely inaccurate. I am ready to rock 27 points a day, and no more, to make this work (the added benefit of it being my lucky number is nice too).

I expect I will be seeing some drastic and exciting results. Five hundred less calories a day along with my exercise for the week should really kick my weight loss in to gear.

I will keep you posted.

Elliptical

It is day two of the elliptical (note that it is not day two of exercise, but of the elliptical). I have less fear of the gym now when I walk past the huge windows and see all the committed, non-obese people sweatin' one out (great image huh?). And I don’t let little things stop me. Like, I know I have homework and I could do it over lunch but doing it at home and saving my lunch for workout is so rewarding.
And so what if I forgot socks? I’ll just rock it sockless.

Little things will always be there, smiling from the corner, tempting me to just give up. But I refuse. Because when I get to that point where the sweat is dripping off my face and my heart rate is strong at 170, I know I am doing good things.
And I know I am worth the work.

I also tried something new today. I rocked the elliptical in reverse. I could only do it for two minutes, and at a resistance of 1 instead of 7, but I did it nonetheless and I plan to do it again. Soon.

This is fast becoming one of my favorite work outs.
What's your favorite work out?
What do you do when you're short on time?
What do you do when you really want to challenge yourself?
How do you motivate yourself?

Off the Wagon

It isn’t about the fall.
It is all about the climb back up.
I ate horribly this weekend. I can’t really say why. Perhaps it was because I am stressed about this job opportunity, or school, or something but to be honest I can’t say why I did it.
And I’m not going to dwell on it. I fell off the wagon and had a food hangover and remembered why eating that way feels more like dying than living. Seriously, it stripped me of my energy entirely and I was exhausted and didn’t want to move or be jolly or live.
It wasn’t worth it. I’d rather have something worth eating—something natural, whole wheat, tasty, fresh and delicious. Something that resembles fuel rather than padding.
I did walk the beast yesterday for close to an hour and it was really satisfying. It was a bit cool out but once we got moving it felt great. I listened to the ipod and that was generally enjoyable and Prime didn’t try to jump out in front of any cars or anything. Overall, it was a success and I plan to do it again very soon. I drove the path to the park this AM and found it is 1.7 miles to the park. So that means it is 3.4 miles there and back. If I do 1.6 to two miles while at the park (they have this awesome path), then we will have rocked five miles! Prime is pretty tired after a mile or two, so we may need to build up to this. You know, for his sake 

I can’t wait to tell you how I got back on the wagon and how good it felt. Until then, I send my encouragement out to you as you work on your path.

Flexitarianism

Flexitarianism is a semi-vegetarian diet focusing on vegetarian food with occasional meat consumption. A self-described flexitarian seeks to decrease meat consumption without eliminating it entirely from his or her diet. There are no guidelines for how much or how little meat one must eat before being classified a flexitarian.
I am really glad you don’t know me well. If you knew me well you wouldn’t believe that I was considering adopting this lifestyle.
You see, I love cheeseburgers. And I have loved cheeseburgers my entire life. I especially like them drowning in mayonnaise and ketchup. I like them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack. I like two or three at a time. I really enjoy them.
Lately, I have been a bit taken back by meat in general. I haven’t wanted to cook it, or order it or eat it. I still will sometimes of course, but generally I notice that the best part of my meals isn’t the meat—it’s the carbs, the veggies, the spices.
Take my favorite lunch for instance: turkey taco, brown rice, black beans and sour cream. I switched it up by browning some soy bits (sounds gross right?) with my favorite taco seasoning and not only did it shave off points, it tastes just as good. It might taste better, even. At the very least it is lighter and can be gobbled down right before work out without major pause.
There is a second issue with flexitarianism. I have a beast in the house. He loves meat. I vow not to sacrifice his meat experience just because I have chosen a different path. So tonight when we gobble down pasta, I will add some meat to his. And I will make him meaty lunches.
This is not to say we won’t slip in some grilled cheese, spaghetti, boca burgers and lasagna sometimes to minimize cost and promote health.
It has been an interesting journey so far. Never would I consider taking on the goal of minimizing meat intake but here I am, doing just that.
Have you ever minimized your meat intake?
How have your tast preferences changed during your journey?
What meat-free food do you love?

Finding Balance

This week could be a horribly stressful week-- if I let it.

I haven't waited on a phone call from a man like this since I was single (close to four years ago).
Of course every minute that the company doesn't call is a chance for me to second guess the extreme confidence I have.
And I could be partaking in emotional eating, fighting with hubs, being self destructive by drinking each night because "I'm just so stressed"-- but I'm not.
And I am better for it.
Despite having a To-Do list eighteen pages long, I have managed to get exercise in both days this week and plan to do so today at lunch as well.
The fact is, I can take whatever the world throws at me AND find time to be good to myself. In fact, the logic that underlies that statement is that if I don't find time to be good to myself, I won't be able to handle what the world throws at me.

Readers: How do you handle stress?
What benefits do you notice from exercise aside from weight loss?
What do you do to take time for yourself?

What's That?

What is that, you ask?
That is a piece of homemade, straight from Mama's recipe from 1965 apple pie. It is seven weight watcher points. It wants my body.
Well, at least it wants my digestive system.
I refuse to eat it.
It will sleep under its tin foil blanket until hubs comes along like a foraging bear and eats it.
What is that, you ask?
Temptation.
And I'm not going to let it win.

I Have a Follower!

I realized today as I looked back at past blogs that I have a follower. Not only do I have my very first follower, but she actually took the time to write a comment about how she to dislikes evil.... cough....unpleasant people and really loves Mcd's ice cream cones. Rock on.

I follow her as well. I am very picky about who I follow. However, after I saw her amazing transformation and read some of her awesome blogs, I knew she was worthy of my dashboard.

So here is a shout out to my P90x friend who has the kind of thighs and muscular tone I someday hope to have.

Cheers! May there be many more.

Too Much

Why is it so hard to find just that right amount?
Tonight I made turkey stroganoff, compliments of @eatmovewrite, and it was delish (if a little runny because I added too much water…whoops!).
And I had too much of it. I am coming down from all-too-full feeling as I type, but I can’t help but ask myself how I got there. Why do I keep putting food down my gullet when I have had enough?
And in all fairness, I only had a cup of noodles and 2/3 or ¾ a cup of turkey, mushroom, onion, sour cream blend. And in all fairness, “enough” is changing drastically. Still, I think I could have done better—I could have been better to myself by listening a little more closely.
To fight the full, I took el beastie for a walk. It was a joyous occasion. “The world is new again!” He seemed to scream as he dashed around, lifting his leg, sniffing.
We didn’t walk a full thirty minutes, but I got over twenty minutes which by all reports says I gained something from the experience. Then we came home and played in the backyard. It was awesome. I hope to really build up this “play time” as it can be a high intensity work out—and I could use it! I’m going to need to find some crappy shoes though so I don’t constantly have to steer clear of poop bombs.