Good Day

I just got done with a great work out - my muscles are already sore, so I know I've done some good!  I also rode the bike this morning as usual for my hour +.  And I've eaten well and have had lots of ice water today! And now I'm blogging - hitting all of my should-do's today!

For breakfast I made an omelet out of egg beaters, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and some ham.  I believe the whole thing was about 50-60 calories and it was so good!  Then for lunch I made a chicken salad using avocado as the base (rather than mayo) and added in some grapes and ate it on lettuce leaves for a nice crunch!  The avocado makes it higher in calories but it has the good fat in it and it was very satisfying!

For dinner I'm making crock pot jambalaya with mostly chicken and shrimp, but also some turkey sausage.  It has fat free chicken broth and canned tomatoes as the base.  It smells good, but we've never had it before so I'm not sure if it will be good or not.  I may make some Hungry Girl shrimp and grits as well, but maybe not.  I'll see what I feel like when I get there.

I think I may be losing inches again as some of my new pants are starting to fall down.  Unfortunately it isn't my waist that is losing, but I'll take inches lost wherever they come from!  My thighs are really dropping - at least from how my pants feel.  I haven't measured in a while.

I think I'll try and get back on schedule again in August.  The kids go back to school on 8-6-12 (early this year!) so I can get back on my normal schedule again.  Hopefully with that, I'll be able to start dropping the weight again!  I'm looking forward to that!

I'm still hanging around the 191 - 192 mark.  Sigh.  I guess it's just a number and I shouldn't fixate on it - especially given the summer treats I've been indulging in.

I really want to focus on my waist.  Everywhere else is losing inches (even my boobs, I'm sorry to say) but not my waist!  It's become my trouble spot.  In the past (i.e. younger years) my waist was always my best feature - small and shapely and muscled.  Now it's just big and dumpy.  So, I think that will be my focus.  Which means I have to get back to planking again.  Ugh.  That really hurts!

Anyway, I feel kind of bad ass today and just wanted to pass on my good vibes to everyone else!  Hope you guys are on a roll and that today has been a great day!  If not, there is always a new day tomorrow!

Where Did the Week Go??

It was last Friday since I posted - how did that happen??

I seem to be holding steady on the weight but it does feel good to be back in my routine again.  I finally started back up the bowflex and I am soooo sore this week!  But it's a good sore.  It means I'm doing something!

I've done pretty well this week, though for some reason I'm starving today.  We went to Sam's Club today and stocked up on meats and things, so I will be able to be creative in my lower calorie menus for a bit.  It's exciting to have a full freezer to work with!

Tonight we are having steaks, which is not a bad choice if I can hold myself to a lower calorie portion.  The problem is, it's so darn good it is very hard to do that.  But I will make lots of nice sides to go along with it - zucchini from the garden, a salad and sliced potatoes baked in the oven so they are a nice low calorie treat!

I'm so glad to have added in my weight lifting again.  It makes me feel so much better!  Just dropping the weight isn't enough.  I need the strength training to get the kickin' body I want back.  And right now I'm still charged and fired up to the point I actually believe I can do it!  Nice feeling!

Hubby is starting to look very nice himself!  He's been doing the bowflex all along and never stopped doing it, so he's doing really well.  He's lost a lot of weight and just looks really nice!  A girl at our daughter's college even commented on how good he looked the other day!  It's so nice to get positive feedback after working so hard!

I'm tired, but feel proud of myself this week.  Even though I can't seem to get past this 191 marker.  I seem to drop and then hold at a certain weight for a while and then finally hit that tipping point again (see my earlier post on tipping points).

What was good about your week?  I feel like I'm finally back on track and it feels so good!  I'd like to hear about your week and what went well for you!

Hope your weekend is wonderful!  Keep it up and hang in there!

Weekend Worries

It's the weekend again ... I always have issues on the weekends!

First, let me report I am down to 191.0 - woohoo! 

BUT, it is date night tonight which will be alcohol and Mexican food!  The good news is we don't have anything major planned for this weekend, so I don't foresee any pitfalls looming for me this weekend, which is a good thing.  And I have menus planned out, so that should help!

I STILL haven't gotten back into my weight lifting.  I have got to do it.  But it won't be today as we are going to see a movie and then go to the bookstore.  Wait - there's a pitfall!  Movies!  I'm sure we'll end up with popcorn and frozen cokes!  Ack!  Then again, according to a news report earlier this year, popcorn is good for you!! See here.  (Of course theater popcorn isn't the greatest choice, but I'll take what I can get!)

At any rate, I seem to be plugging along.  Attitude is good, and I'm blogging and tracking my food and using my iPad apps. 

So, I'll try to make decent choices tonight at the Mexican place and will certainly enjoy the time with hubby!  And I'll just take it one day at a time!

Protein Day

I'm feeling the need for protein today.  I am down to 191.8 today!  (I think my lowest was 191.6 from looking back at my graphs, so I'm just about where I was!  Hooray!)  But I had a hard time riding the bike this morning.  I could only make it for about 52 minutes.  I usually do 65-70 minutes but it was a struggle to make it to 52!  Even reading an excellent book (Patricia Brigg's latest).

So, I figured my body was telling me it's time for some protein today. I have noticed I feel so low and sluggish if I don't get enough protein.  Especially when I work out harder than usual.  I want to start lifting weights again today at some point, so I've got to give my muscles something to use as fuel without draining me!

So I had a milk drink this morning for breakfast - it has a decent amount of protein and is only 150 calories.  Now for lunch, I've made a chicken salad and am having a scoop of fat free cottage cheese.  Hopefully this will give me back the energy I just didn't have this morning!

I have to tell you about this chicken salad.  I had read that you could use avocado as the base rather than the mayo that we normally use.  I happened to find a really soft avocado yesterday while shopping, so I grabbed a can of 98% fat free canned chicken.  I used the avocado and tossed in some grapes and some blueberries (from our garden!!) and mixed it all up.  I must say it is tasty!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it is good!  And full of the "good" fats we need!  I had about a 1/3 of a cup and I'm pretty satisfied for now! 

I'm also freezing some grapes for a handy snack - that was my daughter's tip and it is a good one!  In the hot, sticky summer, frozen grapes are just the nicest treat! 

I wonder if I'll drop another pound tomorrow now that I'm back to where I've been hovering for the past few weeks.  I sure hope so!

I'm making fried rice tonight and will try and do it with little oil by using chicken broth instead.  We shall see how that goes!  My hubby should be home for his trip (he had to leave right after we got back from vacation) tonight in time for dinner!  I'm going to boil some golden egg zucchini from my dad's garden and make an Asian salad (from a kit) to go with it.  It should be a nice dinner without too many calories!

And I'm drinking ice water a lot today. 

So, today = protein + ice water + fun, low cal food + exercise!

I must say, I like that math!

Water Weight

Well, I'm down to 192.8.  Woohoo!

Which makes me wonder about what "water weight" is.  I know that on my vacation I ate and drank a lot but it seems so strange that I'm dropping a pound a day since I got back and on schedule.  It's got to be what I've always said was "water weight."

So I looked it up.  According to Wikipedia, water weight (or water retention) is the abnormal accumulation of fluid in body tissues or capillaries.  And when we eat excessive salty foods, our body retains more water, this increasing our weight until the water is released.

The good news is that this means most of my weight gain must also have been water weight rather than fat weight gain.  Which is exciting!  Because I was so afraid that I had done substantial damage to my "diet" by eating and drinking with abandon while on vacation.  Instead, it seems that my increase in the yummy salty stuff I ate just caused my body to hold onto water, and when I stopped eating that way and got back to my normal diet (ha!  I would never have thought of my lower calorie food as "normal" in the past!  I've come a long way, baby!) it dropped right back off again.

However, I don't know if another day of water weight loss will occur, so I may actually have gained back 1 lb of fat weight.  But, wow, if I only gained a pound after my seminar and then vacation, I'm super proud of myself! 

And, I did notice that even eating all the "wrong" stuff, I couldn't eat nearly as much as I used to. I ordered an 8 oz prime rib (and yes, I ate it all), but in the past, I would have ordered at least 12 oz and eaten all of it, too!  And for my appetizer, I enjoyed the tuna much more than the fried mushrooms or the fried onion I used to want more of.  So even though I didn't intentionally eat "right,"  my body seems to have made better choices for me. 

I'm sure that a lot of my weight gain that was fat rather than water had to do with the amount of alcohol I drank.  I have discovered a new favorite drink - the Sriracha.  It is basically a dirty martini with sriracha chili sauce in it.  Boy, is it fantastic!  But lots of empty calories.  So I am going to try and cut back on my alcohol intake and only drink when I go out on date nights and such.  That should help cut back on calories a LOT.  I used to plan in the drink calories on days that I thought I might want a glass of wine (like on evenings after a long day in court), but if I cut it out completely, that's going to save me some calories as well.

I'm hoping I drop another pound today to get back to the weight I was before my last two weeks of really bad choices.  Then I'll feel like I'm at a starting point again and can really focus on LOSING weight.

I'm feeling pretty excited.  I think it helped to have the two weeks off from thinking about my food intake all the time.  I was getting a bit lackadaisical about the whole journey and that was a bad place for my mind (and body) to be.  Now I'm all fired up again.

I've even gone back and re-read a lot of stuff I was using in the beginning - the 52 weight loss missions (so well written and inspiring!) and my other iPad apps that I was using and kind of dwindled away from.  And it's working.  I feel rejuvenated! 

I sure hope this determination and fire stay with me for a while!  Reading back on my blog I see where I've had ups and downs before.  It's nice to be back on an "up" for a change!

Feeling Good

I feel pretty good about things today.  I'm down to 193.8 this morning - down a pound from yesterday.  I'm sure a lot of it is water weight but I hope I will stabilize back at 191 again and then I can put in some serious effort at losing weight again.

I'm feeling that frumpy feeling again.  I really need to go and get a nice suit to wear.  The ones I have now just kind of hang on me funny.  It would be nice to feel a little more professional.  Maybe in the next week or so I'll get out and do that.  That should boost my spirits!  I like buying new clothes!

I foresee problems with dinner tonight.  I still have not had a chance to do a grocery list or menu and I have court today, so that means I will likely end up ordering something out or picking something up.  Hopefully I will be able to control myself.  I feel a little more in control today.

Of course, it doesn't hurt when I am so busy I don't have time to even think about food.  Amazing how much easier it is to lose weight when you aren't fixated on food all the time.

Must get back to work.  I just wanted to report the pound down from yesterday!

Back in the Saddle

I can hear that Aerosmith song playing in my head - I think it's stuck there now ...

I had a fun vacation visiting with family.  I am weighing 194.8 this morning.  I know a lot of that is water weight which will come off, so I'll see what I weigh in a few days and go from there.

I rode the bike this morning for 71 minutes (was at the climax of the book and didn't want to stop reading, so rode for an extra 10 minutes or so - yay books!).  I will get back to my bowflex this week but it may not be until Wednesday as I have two slam full days of work to get through, plus all the stuff that's piled up while I was gone.

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth taking a vacation!  But, I know it is!

I've got to plan the menus for the week and do some grocery shopping.  That may not be until Wednesday either, which could cause bad choices in the next few days.  But, it is what it is.  I have to put work first right now. 

Still, I feel good about this week. 

I made a nice omelet for breakfast - 1 egg, a bit of chopped ham, 1/2 slice of cheese and a chopped tomato from the garden.  It feels like a lot of food and it's satisfying and low calorie.  I will aim to drink a lot of water today.  I need to flush out all the fatty foods and alcohol I've had over the last week!

I am tentatively optimistic about the week!  As Grace commented - I hope July is better than June was - for all of us on our journeys! 

So now that I'm back in the saddle, I'll be working hard to stay here!