Have you ever been in the car on your way to daily obligations while drive-crying? I enjoy the drivers of cars who are passing me and acknowledge my wailing insanity with a swift kick to the gas pedal. If anyone had warned me about how stressful this week would be, I would have never believed them. Just when you think things can't get any worse, they inevitably do.
But I know life will get better, because...it just has to.
I've been on the treadmill several times this week and besides yesterday have been doing yoga pretty routinely to try and knock back some additional stress. My favorite time during yoga is when my daughter crawls on my stomach during floor poses and starts to bounce up and down taking the wind out of me. Sometimes she snuggles up right in front of me if I am on my side directly on the yoga mat and tries to mimic what I'm doing. It's a great time rolling around the floor with her and I'm feeling very limber.
It seems like my stress has become similar to those cell phone commercials where the mom is freaking out about her teenage kids and husband not using their roll-over minutes. Except my roll-over stress follows me every week and I wish I could get rid of it like that woman's family does with their roll-over minutes (ie. hiding them in the backyard grill, throwing them away, etc.) Wouldn't that be a treat!
Even with all of the normal stresses of life, I feel confident about my family and my life. This is just a particularly hard week and I will make it through like I always do.
Over 12 hours later: I typed the first portion of this blog roughly 14 hours ago and was interrupted and never made it back to finish until this morning. Baby girl is sleeping longer than she normally does and I think this will be a good time to work on a little exercise.
I made tzatziki yesterday and it came out great! I then couldn't pry myself from the kitchen so I gave my best attempt at gnocchi. It was a total bust because my gnocchi came out very (very) strange. Hubby said they were alright, but maybe I just don't enjoy the dumpling like texture of them to begin with.
Here's how I made my tzatziki:
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
3 tbsp of finely chopped mint
1 tsp sugar substitute
1 cucumber
1 tsp salt
1 clove garlic mashed
To start, peel the cucumber and cut it lengthwise. Spoon out all of the guts and seeds then cut very thin. Place the slices of cucumber into a bowl and sprinkle salt over top and mix salt in, let stand for 15-20 mins. The salt will take out any bitterness of the cucumber and leave the sweeter side. Mix the Greek yogurt, mint, sugar, and garlic into a separate bowl (use as much or as little mint as you want to--I used roughly half of the called for recipe and any more would have been overwhelming to me). Once the cucumber has gotten soft from the salt and time is up, rinse the cucumber thoroughly and drain. Add the cucumber to the mixture and serve cold. Enjoy!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Day 16. My apologies.
I apologize for my fat rant last night. My best friend has screwed my head back on straight by telling me how pathetic my post was yesterday and how depressing she found it that I felt so terrible about my current weight. I suppose we all have our days of morbid hatred for our insecurities.
After my post last night, I went downstairs for a solid hour of yoga, stretching, centering, and some push-ups while watching an episode of 600 Pound Mom. What an interesting show. This woman is enormous and has 3 daughters (as I could tell) that love her very much and the daughters find it incredibly hard to watch their mother get brought into her room from the ambulance delivery back from the hospital visit. This woman has got to be crazy. I cannot believe anyone could get to that size, and I sympathize for her daughters while their mother is on detox from junk food and is suffering from withdrawals by acting out towards her children. Although, I secretly wish someone would glue me to a bed and feed me 700 calories a day of diet food to help me get on track. That seems much easier than driving about 2 hours a day and passing roughly 900 restaurants to get to-and-fro life's happenings.
I've eaten well today, starting with a bowl of cheerios, followed by a little leftover spaghetti (whole wheat), and a bag of pistachios I just couldn't stop eating until I was scraping the bottom of the bag. The saltiness of the pistachios was just what I needed (you know, the burning salt on your lips and inside of your mouth) to get through the rest of my evening.
I will run tomorrow night if my back isn't as sore as it is right now from all of the heavy shoveling I did today. Exhausting! Snow drifts and ice rain are very difficult to get out of one's driveway and I am now looking forward to the day I never return to Michigan in the wintertime.
I have to be up in less than 5 hours, so I am off to bed! There are some new recipes I plan to try this week and can't wait to share their success or failure with you. I plan to make for the very first time; tzatziki, a lentil frittata, and moussaka. Wish me luck!
After my post last night, I went downstairs for a solid hour of yoga, stretching, centering, and some push-ups while watching an episode of 600 Pound Mom. What an interesting show. This woman is enormous and has 3 daughters (as I could tell) that love her very much and the daughters find it incredibly hard to watch their mother get brought into her room from the ambulance delivery back from the hospital visit. This woman has got to be crazy. I cannot believe anyone could get to that size, and I sympathize for her daughters while their mother is on detox from junk food and is suffering from withdrawals by acting out towards her children. Although, I secretly wish someone would glue me to a bed and feed me 700 calories a day of diet food to help me get on track. That seems much easier than driving about 2 hours a day and passing roughly 900 restaurants to get to-and-fro life's happenings.
I've eaten well today, starting with a bowl of cheerios, followed by a little leftover spaghetti (whole wheat), and a bag of pistachios I just couldn't stop eating until I was scraping the bottom of the bag. The saltiness of the pistachios was just what I needed (you know, the burning salt on your lips and inside of your mouth) to get through the rest of my evening.
I will run tomorrow night if my back isn't as sore as it is right now from all of the heavy shoveling I did today. Exhausting! Snow drifts and ice rain are very difficult to get out of one's driveway and I am now looking forward to the day I never return to Michigan in the wintertime.
I have to be up in less than 5 hours, so I am off to bed! There are some new recipes I plan to try this week and can't wait to share their success or failure with you. I plan to make for the very first time; tzatziki, a lentil frittata, and moussaka. Wish me luck!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Day...Oh, One Thousand!
This week has been terrible. Horrible. Horrendous. Valentine's Day makes me want to shoot myself in the leg. All I have done for exercise this past week is walk through a mall once and I did about 30 minutes of yoga twice before I was forced to quit because Mirabel woke up. I have to say that I didn't eat any sweets or nonsense but I had a little bit of cheese on my Qdoba "burrito for a bear." So, altogether I teeter-tottered on the edge of insanity this week. Oh ya, and bread came creeping back into my life like a dirty little ninja.
There did come a time where I saw a young lady eating an Almond Joy and I about tackled her in the hallway at school for it. Melty, delicious chocolate sounds right up my alley. Then I look on facebook and peruse through all of these gorgeous girls' profiles and see how skinny they are, with definition in their arms, and no curvey-curves and I have this imminent feeling to puke myself skinny. I secretly wish I could run while blogging without seriously damaging myself.
If I could lose a pound for every time I turned down eating a candy bar, cake, or sweet of some sort, I would be very thin by now.
I haven't lost any weight this week and may or may not have gained 12 pounds of pure self-loathing depression. I have this terrible feeling that when I walk into a room people look at me like, "what was that girl thinking? Does she have any idea what size shirt she actually is? Look at that muf-top on the chubby one who just walked through the door!" Even the days I feel exceptionally confident and skinny, a picture will pop up on facebook the next day and I am slouching like a slob or I have a trip-chin deluxe hanging off my face. Gross. Some days I would like to stand naked in front of the mirror and take a sharpie to my flesh of all the places I want to cut off. That would be great. I would enjoy that. I think I'm going to do that at some point in time, keep a copy of it and once I hit my target weight, compare my current nude self to the new nude self. Say that 10 times fast.
This week I will try harder. I have additional pounds to make up for now and feel the pressure immensely. I think I may quit eating altogether and take up sleep walking on the treadmill. Or perhaps this week has been my "eff this" week since I was "motivated marcy" last week. What ever it was, my intentions are honest and I plan to get back on track with the exercise. Even though this week is midterms and my hair is falling out in clumps on my head from stress. I'll make it happen. You'll see.
There did come a time where I saw a young lady eating an Almond Joy and I about tackled her in the hallway at school for it. Melty, delicious chocolate sounds right up my alley. Then I look on facebook and peruse through all of these gorgeous girls' profiles and see how skinny they are, with definition in their arms, and no curvey-curves and I have this imminent feeling to puke myself skinny. I secretly wish I could run while blogging without seriously damaging myself.
If I could lose a pound for every time I turned down eating a candy bar, cake, or sweet of some sort, I would be very thin by now.
I haven't lost any weight this week and may or may not have gained 12 pounds of pure self-loathing depression. I have this terrible feeling that when I walk into a room people look at me like, "what was that girl thinking? Does she have any idea what size shirt she actually is? Look at that muf-top on the chubby one who just walked through the door!" Even the days I feel exceptionally confident and skinny, a picture will pop up on facebook the next day and I am slouching like a slob or I have a trip-chin deluxe hanging off my face. Gross. Some days I would like to stand naked in front of the mirror and take a sharpie to my flesh of all the places I want to cut off. That would be great. I would enjoy that. I think I'm going to do that at some point in time, keep a copy of it and once I hit my target weight, compare my current nude self to the new nude self. Say that 10 times fast.
This week I will try harder. I have additional pounds to make up for now and feel the pressure immensely. I think I may quit eating altogether and take up sleep walking on the treadmill. Or perhaps this week has been my "eff this" week since I was "motivated marcy" last week. What ever it was, my intentions are honest and I plan to get back on track with the exercise. Even though this week is midterms and my hair is falling out in clumps on my head from stress. I'll make it happen. You'll see.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Day Eight. Oops.
This week has been incredibly busy. Not that I am using busy-ness as an excuse but when you are up at 5:30 AM and have no time to sleep until after 1 AM that night, it puts a damper on blogging abilities. I also haven't exercised since Tuesday which has in turn made my muscles into jell-o pie over the period of 4 days. Although, I have been eating right and this hasn't been easy when I am outside of the house for over 12 hours at a time. Cheese still hasn't crept into my daily habits again, I haven't even thought about fast-food for a couple of years so that's not too much of a challenge, and I only had one baby-tiny whole-wheat roll with some hummus on Thursday.
I do have to fess up and tell about my evening last night though. Mirabel and I were downstairs watching Despicable Me (like always) and the part came up where Gru made the girls pancakes and it immediately ran through my head, "we have everything we need to make pancakes! Let's do it! Mirabel, do you want pancakes? GREAT! Let's go up stairs!" And without even the slightest hesitation, I jumped online and found an old recipe for homemade pancakes and started whisking away. Note: It is now an hour past bedtime and I am about to load my daughter with sugar so I immediately wondered how I could alter the recipe so the pancakes wouldn't be so terrible for us. Also, as much as I cared about the healthiness of the pancakes, I wanted sugar. Desperately. It had been a week since any significant amount of bread, potato, cheese, candy, or sugary substance, so I, indeed, felt sugar was in order. Yet I talked myself out of most of it.
I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and thought there was too much baking soda in the mix, so I used half of the called for. I didn't want to have all of the cholesterol of eggs, so I used two egg whites instead of one whole egg. I substituted the 3 tablespoons of melted butter for a Smart Balance Light spread and also substituted real sugar for this light fluffy crap I bought a while ago that you actually can't tell the difference with. I would have used whole-wheat flour had there been any in the cupboard but I only had all-purpose so I ran with it. I should also mention that I don't ever buy real syrup, but the sugar-free, maple-flavored stuff from Maple Grove Farms and this has significantly less calories as well as stickiness. 10 pancakes later--Mirabel had eaten two, I had eaten four and we split one more. The left overs went into the freezer and I guiltily put Mirabel to bed with a full yummy-tummy, and proceeded to think about how much weight I would gain from these pancakes.
I'd like to think my brain and mouth conversation went something like this:
Brain- "Don't worry about it, you did really well all week with the exception of no exercise."
Mouth- "Ya. Thanks, but no thanks. If I've done so well, why did I just cram four and a half pancakes into my grill?"
Brain- "Your deserve a reward for your hard work."
Mouth- "Are you trying to tell me that I could eat a carton of ice-cream on Saturday if I ate vegetables all week? If so, what is the benefit, wouldn't I GAIN more down below if I ate food in this manner?"
Brain- "If you feel so guilty about it, why did you do it?"
Mouth- "Woah, woah, woah now...I don't do anything without your say-so."
Brain- "Point taken."
I am going to continue this diet. Actually, during my drive home on Thursday, I decided not to call it a diet but a lifestyle change. I think this will benefit me in the long run since I don't want to return to old habits, but keep off whatever weight I lose...for good.
I have lost some weight to kick off my first week and I feel great about it. I've lost 3 pounds which is a great head-start even considering the hiccup's along the way. It's proof that eating right can change your life, regardless of how much you exercise. Not to downplay exercise, but you can exercise all you want, but if you don't change what's going into your mouth, then you will not succeed at this.
Change what you eat and change your weight.
I do have to fess up and tell about my evening last night though. Mirabel and I were downstairs watching Despicable Me (like always) and the part came up where Gru made the girls pancakes and it immediately ran through my head, "we have everything we need to make pancakes! Let's do it! Mirabel, do you want pancakes? GREAT! Let's go up stairs!" And without even the slightest hesitation, I jumped online and found an old recipe for homemade pancakes and started whisking away. Note: It is now an hour past bedtime and I am about to load my daughter with sugar so I immediately wondered how I could alter the recipe so the pancakes wouldn't be so terrible for us. Also, as much as I cared about the healthiness of the pancakes, I wanted sugar. Desperately. It had been a week since any significant amount of bread, potato, cheese, candy, or sugary substance, so I, indeed, felt sugar was in order. Yet I talked myself out of most of it.
I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and thought there was too much baking soda in the mix, so I used half of the called for. I didn't want to have all of the cholesterol of eggs, so I used two egg whites instead of one whole egg. I substituted the 3 tablespoons of melted butter for a Smart Balance Light spread and also substituted real sugar for this light fluffy crap I bought a while ago that you actually can't tell the difference with. I would have used whole-wheat flour had there been any in the cupboard but I only had all-purpose so I ran with it. I should also mention that I don't ever buy real syrup, but the sugar-free, maple-flavored stuff from Maple Grove Farms and this has significantly less calories as well as stickiness. 10 pancakes later--Mirabel had eaten two, I had eaten four and we split one more. The left overs went into the freezer and I guiltily put Mirabel to bed with a full yummy-tummy, and proceeded to think about how much weight I would gain from these pancakes.
I'd like to think my brain and mouth conversation went something like this:
Brain- "Don't worry about it, you did really well all week with the exception of no exercise."
Mouth- "Ya. Thanks, but no thanks. If I've done so well, why did I just cram four and a half pancakes into my grill?"
Brain- "Your deserve a reward for your hard work."
Mouth- "Are you trying to tell me that I could eat a carton of ice-cream on Saturday if I ate vegetables all week? If so, what is the benefit, wouldn't I GAIN more down below if I ate food in this manner?"
Brain- "If you feel so guilty about it, why did you do it?"
Mouth- "Woah, woah, woah now...I don't do anything without your say-so."
Brain- "Point taken."
I am going to continue this diet. Actually, during my drive home on Thursday, I decided not to call it a diet but a lifestyle change. I think this will benefit me in the long run since I don't want to return to old habits, but keep off whatever weight I lose...for good.
I have lost some weight to kick off my first week and I feel great about it. I've lost 3 pounds which is a great head-start even considering the hiccup's along the way. It's proof that eating right can change your life, regardless of how much you exercise. Not to downplay exercise, but you can exercise all you want, but if you don't change what's going into your mouth, then you will not succeed at this.
Change what you eat and change your weight.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Day Three. How time flies when you're having fun...
I think the skirt paid off. I wore it like a champ today to an interview and felt like a million bucks. The interview went really well, although the job doesn't pay near what I need to make to drive that far and be able to pay daycare. Yet, I feel hot in my little business pencil skirt and I'm starting to feel like I can do this.
Although, I had a slip-up with carbohydrates today. After my interview, I had an hour to burn before heading to class so I slipped into my favorite sushi bar and ordered a cucumber roll and an avocado roll. Once I had scarfed down the two rolls, I ordered some vegetable fried rice. Yikes. I get home so late on Monday nights and have to be up at the butt-crack of dawn (which technically means WAAAY before the sun comes up) for one of my two incredibly long days at school so exercising when I get home might be wicked difficult. Though, I cannot say now whether I will attempt it or not. I think I'll probably toss and turn about it until I actually get my booty on the treadmill and make it happen.
I've purchased this really delicious type of granola before and couldn't remember the name of it so I surveyed the aisles at Meijer last night until I found it, and it just so happened they now have 80 (or close to) flavors! I bought the flax seed yummy-goodness from Naked-Granola..maybe it's Bare-Naked Granola (who knows?!). I had some this morning with a little bit of vanilla yogurt and my regular ginormous mug of tea. It was a very good breakfast and to my surprise, rather filling. I didn't even start feeling those dreaded hunger pangs until I hit GR and could hear sushi calling my name. I must tell you that I rejected the waitresses Werther's candy more than once and left the restaurant with a smile of accomplishment that I didn't stash it in my purse for an unnamed sugar emergency. I knew the moment I popped that candy into my mouth it would be a downhill slope for more sweets so I simply (and by simply, I mean painfully) rejected that buttery-sweet-sugary-piece-o-heaven.
If anyone reading this has any suggestions on food, exercise, weight-loss tricks, etc. please share because I am willing to try new things. Especially when the result is sexiness.
I have to bolt to class now, so wish me luck and patience!
Although, I had a slip-up with carbohydrates today. After my interview, I had an hour to burn before heading to class so I slipped into my favorite sushi bar and ordered a cucumber roll and an avocado roll. Once I had scarfed down the two rolls, I ordered some vegetable fried rice. Yikes. I get home so late on Monday nights and have to be up at the butt-crack of dawn (which technically means WAAAY before the sun comes up) for one of my two incredibly long days at school so exercising when I get home might be wicked difficult. Though, I cannot say now whether I will attempt it or not. I think I'll probably toss and turn about it until I actually get my booty on the treadmill and make it happen.
I've purchased this really delicious type of granola before and couldn't remember the name of it so I surveyed the aisles at Meijer last night until I found it, and it just so happened they now have 80 (or close to) flavors! I bought the flax seed yummy-goodness from Naked-Granola..maybe it's Bare-Naked Granola (who knows?!). I had some this morning with a little bit of vanilla yogurt and my regular ginormous mug of tea. It was a very good breakfast and to my surprise, rather filling. I didn't even start feeling those dreaded hunger pangs until I hit GR and could hear sushi calling my name. I must tell you that I rejected the waitresses Werther's candy more than once and left the restaurant with a smile of accomplishment that I didn't stash it in my purse for an unnamed sugar emergency. I knew the moment I popped that candy into my mouth it would be a downhill slope for more sweets so I simply (and by simply, I mean painfully) rejected that buttery-sweet-sugary-piece-o-heaven.
If anyone reading this has any suggestions on food, exercise, weight-loss tricks, etc. please share because I am willing to try new things. Especially when the result is sexiness.
I have to bolt to class now, so wish me luck and patience!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Day Two. It's not too bad yet...
Day two is almost complete. I've had a really rough day though I haven't found myself especially hungry which is good, I suppose. My day has been incredibly busy with a needy youngin' hanging on my pant legs with a THOUSAND errands to run so eating was not my number one priority. I actually made a huge boo-boo and didn't eat anything but a glass of tea (which technically isn't eating) until roughly 50 minutes ago when I completed my homemade vegetarian chili. Trust me, it was de-lish and I ate an enormous bowl. Side note, I didn't eat it with crackers or cheese thank-you-very-much. I know somebody is going to think this is stupid--but that was a challenge and a half to do!
I'm waiting for food to settle before I hop on the treadmill and I'd like to share with you my current playlist;
"Dad, it won't start!"
"Is it plugged in?"
"oh.."
"Siah, stop speeding it up and slowing it down so much!"
"Sorry..."
"That's fine, just don't do it."
"kay..."
"JOSIAH SLOW DOWN! Knock it OFF!" and so on... It's like music to my ears.
Uh, I bought a skirt today. Why? I don't know. When anyone feels as uncomfortable as I do in their flubber, they certainly shouldn't be buying skirts. Shoes and jewelry is what should have happened, stick to the unchangeables.
Do you want to know how to make my chili? Probably not, but here goes:
In a large pan sautee a couple of (I use 2) yellow onions, with about 4 stalks of celery and wash (thoroughly please) one half of a bushel of kale and chop up some carrots and toss them in there too. After the veggies start to get soft, add a cup of water and let it boil until the water starts to look like a broth, not like a glass of water.
I use canned stuff because I obviously have zero time to individually make beans and flash steam and peel tomatoes.
Here's what I get besides the fresh ingredients I mentioned above:
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can of light red kidney beans
1 can of butter beans or northern beans
1 large can of flash steamed whole tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 small can of diced tomatoes
1 can of vegetarian vegetable broth
I actually physically get into the can of whole tomatoes and rip them apart with my fingers over the pan with the sauteed veggies in it and break them up to the right size (if you use a knife with these puppies, you are sure to end up with some on your face). Then I plop the can of diced into the pan and I drain the beans before adding them into the pot because the thought of bean water absolutely disgusts me. Yet canned beans don't. Can you solve this anomaly? I add tons of chili powder to my chili because I love the flavor and chili never seems to be spicy enough. (Unless my mother-in-law makes it because she uses whole chili peppers in the broth and then takes them out before consumption).
I don't actually add the can of veg broth to the chili until all of my ingredients are in there and I'm ready to reduce it for at least an hour. Mix it up, leave it uncovered and let it boil lightly for an hour...or a day (seems to be the best after this), and you will have some de-lish and healthy chili. Sometimes I even throw some Boca meatless ground beef into a saucepan and add it in too but I ate Boca yesterday and I don't want to over-do the protein substitutes.
I told my sister Melissa today that I was concerned about losing all of this weight by May 14th and the fact that I have started a blog about it because I now feel incredibly responsible to actually make this weight-loss happen. Especially since I have two followers. Who knows what they'll say if I'm still chubby in 14 weeks?! They'll never believe anything I tell them anymore, and will think everything I say is a lie (tear). So I'm feeling incredibly regretful yet thankful I've started this source of accountability. Saying that, I did a make up run last night by putting 20 more minutes of running in and 20 minutes in of walking in case I need a make-up day from exhaustion somewhere down the line. That should work, right? Unlikely.
Melissa asked me, "why are you doing this? You are so thin already...You look great, blah, blah, blah..."
Before I could smack her in the face I replied with, "seriously, thank you, but seriously, I have 30 pounds to lose. Like, yesterday."
By the way, Josiah just came up stairs and said, "what are you doing? You're writing a blog?..You've written all of that? Why? Are you seriously trying to lose weight? Who's Real Girl? Read it to me."
So I read it to him.
"Do you want me to read the part about how I make my chili?"
"Nah..."
and I skipped that part like you probably did.
He said the beginning sounded boring and I should have put something in here about snowmobiling and sledding today to interest my readers. He also said the whole premise (he didn't say "premise" because he's nine years old) of this blog (weight-loss) sounds snoozy.
So, in the words of my step-son, have a warm and "snoozy" night.
I'm waiting for food to settle before I hop on the treadmill and I'd like to share with you my current playlist;
"Dad, it won't start!"
"Is it plugged in?"
"oh.."
"Siah, stop speeding it up and slowing it down so much!"
"Sorry..."
"That's fine, just don't do it."
"kay..."
"JOSIAH SLOW DOWN! Knock it OFF!" and so on... It's like music to my ears.
Uh, I bought a skirt today. Why? I don't know. When anyone feels as uncomfortable as I do in their flubber, they certainly shouldn't be buying skirts. Shoes and jewelry is what should have happened, stick to the unchangeables.
Do you want to know how to make my chili? Probably not, but here goes:
In a large pan sautee a couple of (I use 2) yellow onions, with about 4 stalks of celery and wash (thoroughly please) one half of a bushel of kale and chop up some carrots and toss them in there too. After the veggies start to get soft, add a cup of water and let it boil until the water starts to look like a broth, not like a glass of water.
I use canned stuff because I obviously have zero time to individually make beans and flash steam and peel tomatoes.
Here's what I get besides the fresh ingredients I mentioned above:
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can of light red kidney beans
1 can of butter beans or northern beans
1 large can of flash steamed whole tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 small can of diced tomatoes
1 can of vegetarian vegetable broth
I actually physically get into the can of whole tomatoes and rip them apart with my fingers over the pan with the sauteed veggies in it and break them up to the right size (if you use a knife with these puppies, you are sure to end up with some on your face). Then I plop the can of diced into the pan and I drain the beans before adding them into the pot because the thought of bean water absolutely disgusts me. Yet canned beans don't. Can you solve this anomaly? I add tons of chili powder to my chili because I love the flavor and chili never seems to be spicy enough. (Unless my mother-in-law makes it because she uses whole chili peppers in the broth and then takes them out before consumption).
I don't actually add the can of veg broth to the chili until all of my ingredients are in there and I'm ready to reduce it for at least an hour. Mix it up, leave it uncovered and let it boil lightly for an hour...or a day (seems to be the best after this), and you will have some de-lish and healthy chili. Sometimes I even throw some Boca meatless ground beef into a saucepan and add it in too but I ate Boca yesterday and I don't want to over-do the protein substitutes.
I told my sister Melissa today that I was concerned about losing all of this weight by May 14th and the fact that I have started a blog about it because I now feel incredibly responsible to actually make this weight-loss happen. Especially since I have two followers. Who knows what they'll say if I'm still chubby in 14 weeks?! They'll never believe anything I tell them anymore, and will think everything I say is a lie (tear). So I'm feeling incredibly regretful yet thankful I've started this source of accountability. Saying that, I did a make up run last night by putting 20 more minutes of running in and 20 minutes in of walking in case I need a make-up day from exhaustion somewhere down the line. That should work, right? Unlikely.
Melissa asked me, "why are you doing this? You are so thin already...You look great, blah, blah, blah..."
Before I could smack her in the face I replied with, "seriously, thank you, but seriously, I have 30 pounds to lose. Like, yesterday."
By the way, Josiah just came up stairs and said, "what are you doing? You're writing a blog?..You've written all of that? Why? Are you seriously trying to lose weight? Who's Real Girl? Read it to me."
So I read it to him.
"Do you want me to read the part about how I make my chili?"
"Nah..."
and I skipped that part like you probably did.
He said the beginning sounded boring and I should have put something in here about snowmobiling and sledding today to interest my readers. He also said the whole premise (he didn't say "premise" because he's nine years old) of this blog (weight-loss) sounds snoozy.
So, in the words of my step-son, have a warm and "snoozy" night.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Day One. Breaking Ground.
What in the world have I gotten myself into? I've always been a little pudgy with thick cheeks and huge boobs to boot. Right. That's what I'm tired of. Not the boobs, but the pudge. Please spare me pudge, and get out of my life!
I suppose I walk with a certain confidence and in high school I wouldn't have cared less if I weighed 300 pounds because I exuded confidence (well, at least I think I did). My situation leading up to now has been a rough one and quite frankly I'm exhausted with being at my current weight. STAND STILL. My goal is to add a routine of healthy eating (healthier than ever) and exercise every single day and try not to complain too terribly much. I would love to say I have a bunch of people to do this with but that's not true. Unless I started picking people from facebook demanding their contribution to help keep me on track, I'm on my own here (with the exception of you, Jaziya). It's all about self-motivation here, and that's what I intend to do.
For starters, the smallest I have ever been was when I was 3 1/2 months pregnant at 135 pounds. Up to that point I had started running every day (I've NEVER been a runner, so this was no easy feat), and once my fiance (now husband) and I found out we were going to have a baby, the dreaded doctor's appointments started coming. As I found myself in appointment after appointment, I realized I wasn't gaining any weight. Mainly because my lovely mid-wife kept saying, "you need to gain weight Stacee, seriously. Running is good for you but you need to increase or decrease something to feed this baby." I freaked. I said to myself I was going to take the next 7 months off from running and take up Klondike bars so my baby would feel good. And I did almost exactly that, plus or minus potato chips and chocolate chip cookies.
My little lady is quickly approaching 16 months and I've done little to rid myself of what I like to call the "all-over-effect" my weight gain has had on me. My main motivation came when I went into the bedroom looking for a pair of desperately needed black pants. I found an old, but well conserved pair in the bottom of my drawer and pulled them over my calves, to my thighs, and whammy--two inches between loop and button. Never mind the disgusting V of the zipper saying, "hey fat-ass! Thanks for finding us too little, too late." Too fat, too soon, rather. In all, besides bawling my eyes out at my wedding photos where I look like a cow, I've made a decision to make a difference in my life. Not only for me, but for my family. To prove to myself that I can do this I am going to need posters of Brittney Spears (obviously, when her body was rockin') and Jennifer Aniston (because duh, she's totally hot) and place these posters all over my home to say to myself, "that's what I'm working for...hot body hot body hot body (my new mantra)."
I'm giving myself until May 14, 2011 to go from my current weight of 163 pounds to 130 pounds (or less). That's 14 weeks to lose 33 pounds and here's the kicker...KEEP IT OFF! If my calculations are correct, that's 2.36 pounds a week. I didn't want to set an unrealistic goal and feel this is an attainable goal, but I suppose we will find out!
Why May 14 you ask? Not only is today exactly 14 weeks until May 14, the day following I will be going to Boston for a volunteer opportunity with Choice Hotels where it's possible to meet prospective employers in my field of study. My career is very important and getting in shape will help me obtain the goals I am working so hard for and through this journey I will prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to! Including finding the perfect job after graduation even with a slump economy.
I will blog everyday (hopefully) what I've eaten or plan to eat so you can follow along if you want to. I will track my weight loss and update you on any injuries, as I have a feeling my emotions will get the best of me here. I'll post pictures of food I'm making and come up with some really good ideas for vegetarian recipes. Oh ya, did I mention I'm a vegetarian and the fact that I've decided to take a hiatus from cheese and bread? PS. I love cheese :-( and bread for that matter.
Out of this, I plan to find balance, and (obviously) a hot body. As long as I feel good about my progress, I will be satisfied, regardless of what the scale tells me.
Today's ground breaking day went like this:
Breakfast: Smoothie with frozen strawberries (unsweetened), vanilla yogurt, soy milk and ice. Followed with a gigantic mug of Earl Grey black tea with a tablespoon of organic hazelnut creamer.
Lunch: Sauteed onions with Boca meatless ground beef with a hint of salt and pepper. Washed three romaine leaves and wrapped the Boca as lettuce wraps. Yum! I used no dressing or condiments, as I think these things will be the death of me.
4:30PM Walked for 5 minutes, ran 26, and cooled down walking for 10. Also, used the Ab Lounge and did 100 side-swingy's (I suppose that's the technical term).
Dinner: Made tomato basil soup (ate all of it) and ate two polenta cakes I made earlier in the day.
The trouble will be this evening when I get those late night urges for chocolate. I plan to stay away from the dreaded brownies but we'll see how long that lasts. Hopefully forever.
I suppose that's my new word. Hopeful. Yup, I'll take that and run with it.
I suppose I walk with a certain confidence and in high school I wouldn't have cared less if I weighed 300 pounds because I exuded confidence (well, at least I think I did). My situation leading up to now has been a rough one and quite frankly I'm exhausted with being at my current weight. STAND STILL. My goal is to add a routine of healthy eating (healthier than ever) and exercise every single day and try not to complain too terribly much. I would love to say I have a bunch of people to do this with but that's not true. Unless I started picking people from facebook demanding their contribution to help keep me on track, I'm on my own here (with the exception of you, Jaziya). It's all about self-motivation here, and that's what I intend to do.
For starters, the smallest I have ever been was when I was 3 1/2 months pregnant at 135 pounds. Up to that point I had started running every day (I've NEVER been a runner, so this was no easy feat), and once my fiance (now husband) and I found out we were going to have a baby, the dreaded doctor's appointments started coming. As I found myself in appointment after appointment, I realized I wasn't gaining any weight. Mainly because my lovely mid-wife kept saying, "you need to gain weight Stacee, seriously. Running is good for you but you need to increase or decrease something to feed this baby." I freaked. I said to myself I was going to take the next 7 months off from running and take up Klondike bars so my baby would feel good. And I did almost exactly that, plus or minus potato chips and chocolate chip cookies.
My little lady is quickly approaching 16 months and I've done little to rid myself of what I like to call the "all-over-effect" my weight gain has had on me. My main motivation came when I went into the bedroom looking for a pair of desperately needed black pants. I found an old, but well conserved pair in the bottom of my drawer and pulled them over my calves, to my thighs, and whammy--two inches between loop and button. Never mind the disgusting V of the zipper saying, "hey fat-ass! Thanks for finding us too little, too late." Too fat, too soon, rather. In all, besides bawling my eyes out at my wedding photos where I look like a cow, I've made a decision to make a difference in my life. Not only for me, but for my family. To prove to myself that I can do this I am going to need posters of Brittney Spears (obviously, when her body was rockin') and Jennifer Aniston (because duh, she's totally hot) and place these posters all over my home to say to myself, "that's what I'm working for...hot body hot body hot body (my new mantra)."
I'm giving myself until May 14, 2011 to go from my current weight of 163 pounds to 130 pounds (or less). That's 14 weeks to lose 33 pounds and here's the kicker...KEEP IT OFF! If my calculations are correct, that's 2.36 pounds a week. I didn't want to set an unrealistic goal and feel this is an attainable goal, but I suppose we will find out!
Why May 14 you ask? Not only is today exactly 14 weeks until May 14, the day following I will be going to Boston for a volunteer opportunity with Choice Hotels where it's possible to meet prospective employers in my field of study. My career is very important and getting in shape will help me obtain the goals I am working so hard for and through this journey I will prove to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to! Including finding the perfect job after graduation even with a slump economy.
I will blog everyday (hopefully) what I've eaten or plan to eat so you can follow along if you want to. I will track my weight loss and update you on any injuries, as I have a feeling my emotions will get the best of me here. I'll post pictures of food I'm making and come up with some really good ideas for vegetarian recipes. Oh ya, did I mention I'm a vegetarian and the fact that I've decided to take a hiatus from cheese and bread? PS. I love cheese :-( and bread for that matter.
Out of this, I plan to find balance, and (obviously) a hot body. As long as I feel good about my progress, I will be satisfied, regardless of what the scale tells me.
Today's ground breaking day went like this:
Breakfast: Smoothie with frozen strawberries (unsweetened), vanilla yogurt, soy milk and ice. Followed with a gigantic mug of Earl Grey black tea with a tablespoon of organic hazelnut creamer.
Lunch: Sauteed onions with Boca meatless ground beef with a hint of salt and pepper. Washed three romaine leaves and wrapped the Boca as lettuce wraps. Yum! I used no dressing or condiments, as I think these things will be the death of me.
4:30PM Walked for 5 minutes, ran 26, and cooled down walking for 10. Also, used the Ab Lounge and did 100 side-swingy's (I suppose that's the technical term).
Dinner: Made tomato basil soup (ate all of it) and ate two polenta cakes I made earlier in the day.
The trouble will be this evening when I get those late night urges for chocolate. I plan to stay away from the dreaded brownies but we'll see how long that lasts. Hopefully forever.
I suppose that's my new word. Hopeful. Yup, I'll take that and run with it.
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