Keeping Up Fridays

Weight Loss Results- 0.00- 197.0

Could. Have. Been. Worse. I had a jelly bean meltdown at babysitting on Wednesday. I'll share, because looking back it's kind of funny.

So Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights I help out with this church group in their Kids church. It's normally 2-5 kids, including the pastor's daughter, who is a little devil. She can be so mean when shes cranky and tired, and then so sweet like she was on Wednesday night. We were making easter baskets out of coffee filters, and I let them cut the edges "all by themselves" with kid safe scissors.

I was helping the other little girl there, and look down for 10 seconds. BIG MISTAKE. The girl cut a large chunk of hair off, and was just standing there, holding it in her hand. I freaked out, (not yelling more like Oh My God your mom is going to kill me) and she started crying because her mom was going to be mad. I had to calm her down, so I gave her some candy, and we talked about why you DON'T do that. But the entire 2nd hour I was there, I was freaking out, and just popping jelly beans and skittles.

The dad ended up coming in the relieve me, and wasn't mad at all. Apparently she does stuff like this all the time, and when I think about it, I'm pretty sure all my sisters and I cut our hair at some point in childhood haha.But seriously, stuff like that only happens to me :)

Anyways, between that and work being stressful (note-its really awkward working after you give your two weeks! Especially if they are having trouble replacing you), I have indulged in ice cream a lot. And beer last night (only one full one, the 2nd Matt and I split). But I've been mindful of my servings and everything, I need to find a way to manage my stress Without eating. Gah.

On a super positive note, I have managed to get in 20 minutes of strength every day this week except Wednesday. And the only reason it didn't happen Wednesday is because my neck hurt from Tuesday, and I didn't want to mess with that. I also made it to the gym 2X this week, burning 600 and 400 calories respectively. Not where I used to be at, but definitely on the right path. My goal for next week is 2X at the gym(maybe 3 if it's too cold on Sunday to hike), Get there Tuesday and Thursday night again. And Maybe walk on my break next week if it's going to be nice (Its supposed to be) And keep up with the strength training. It's amazing how good it feels, and how empowered I feel afterwards. I did it this morning, and it just made my entire day that much better :-)

Happy Weekend!

I've Never Been So Happy

For a rest day than I am today. For realz. I did some upper body strength and overall cardio yesterday, and my hip didn't hurt afterwards (success!) but today my arms are killing me! I guess that's what taking a week off does :-/

I'm also freaking exhausted, and was ready for bed around 10am this morning. blech.

Weekend went well. Date night on Friday turned into order food and go to some local bars because we did not plan on the restaurant being busy the Friday before V-day (silly), but it was still nice :-) We're opting to go this Friday instead, and earlier this time. I'm not a big Valentines person, so the day we celebrate doesn't matter to me, I'm just looking for a fancy date out. We could celebrate in April for all I care :-)

 Did not get my workout in on Saturday, instead I opted to go see the Vow with my friends (which I liked a lot more than I thought I would, and which also made me entirely depressed, like what a sad effing movie). I'm okay with my choice, my hip was hurting me, and I was in the mood for a lazy day, especially since I had blisters all over my feet from walking on Friday night, that counts for something, right? I also tracked all movie snacks, which is a total win.

Sunday I babysat, and hit the gym, as much as I didn't want to AT ALL. I procrastinated instead by following around my dog and taking pictures. And I spent some quality time with my mom/sister. Another bonus of going home and procrastinating? I found out my sister made a large amount of minestrone soup, and my mom was dying to get rid of it. The fabulous daughter I am, I took it off her hands :-) It was really thick, so I added some broth and slow cooked it with spinach for a bit when I got home. The results were amazing! I'm so excited for my lunches this week.

Here's my menu. Any breakfast Suggestions? I'm thinking about trying the microwave egg cups that hungry girl does, or I may check out pinterest for ideas. I need on the go options!

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	workout
Monday	yogurt/special k	minestrone soup	italian sausages	yoga/rest day
Tuesday	yogurt/special k	minestrone soup	steak and cheeses	gym-cardio
Wednesday	yogurt/special k	minestrone soup	shepherds pie	AM workout
Thursday	unsure	minestrone soup	chicken tikka masala	AM workout
Friday	unsure	minestrone soup	Fox And Hound Take 2	off
Saturday	egg, turkey bacon, toast	n/a, snacks	noodles?	video
Sunday	egg, toast	pre /post gym snack	home	gym- cardio, weights

I'm also incredibly ambitious this week and plan on getting up early 2 days to workout. Hopefully I follow through. I'm so excited for our menu though, I have a lot of good dinners to look forward to!

And to cheer up your Monday, Adventures with Toby:

Toby the Hunter

Oh hai Marie, um this is awkward, I figured since Mom turned your room into a storage arena, I could set up camp too...

Striking a pose, one paw 




2 pm naptime, time for me to go home. I think showing me all his things all day tired him out :-)

 

I really need my computer back

It's starting to affect my posting! Sorry for the delay, here is my schedule:

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	workout
Friday	egg/toast	pulled pork sandwich	holiday party	AM video
Saturday	n/a	pizza	pizza	off
Sunday	omelet/toast		chicken pot pie	video
Monday	english muffin with peanut butter	leftover pot pie	pork tenderloin, roasted pot, snap peas	off
Tuesday	Egg/hashbrown casserole	?	boston market	gym
Wednesday	Egg/hashbrown casserole	unknown	buffalo chicken mac and cheese	am yoga
Thursday	Egg/hashbrown casserole	leftover mac and cheese	chicken pot pie soup	gym

Pretty basic, we managed to stock up on stuff we were low on, and buy ingredients for Christmas Eve dinner as well (we do apps at Matt's parents house), and still be under budget thanks to a low grocery week last week! I'm a firm believer that going in with a list really does save you a ton of money. That is one part of moving out I was afraid about, but on average to buy food for work, I was spending around 100 bucks a month on just lunch and dinners! I'm not able to get all 3 meals for a little bit over that (Our joint food budget is around 60 a week, so 120 per person each month)

It's been a busy few weeks, and I don't see it calming down until after christmas, and maybe even after new years! Last week work was insane, and combined with finishing up christmas shopping (all I have left is gift cards!) and having a million things to do after work each night, I may have thrown a mini fit on Saturday while picking stuff up, complete with crying over a messy kitchen :-) I'm better now, we spent some time cleaning up, and went to IKEA to buy storage things, so we have more places to put stuff, which is an awesome feeling! My goal for the next week is to get my pictures framed (they are being shipped as we speak!), and get the shelves built so we can finally get rid of the boxes of decorations lying around my apartment.

I had every intention of going to the gym yesterday, but made the mistake of eating string cheese, which upset my stomach. I'm thinking it may have gone bad. Or I need to take my prevacid when I wake up :-) Either way I didn't work out, which stinks. But I'll still get in 4 days (Friday, Sunday, todays workout, tomorrows workout) which is okay.Instead I made the most amazing pork. I'll sneak ya the recipe (ok ok it's not my recipe. But I found it, so that counts right?)
Spicy Asian Pork Tenderloin (adapted from myrecipes.com)
Ingredients:

• 1/4 C hoisin Sauce
• 2 tbsp chili sauce
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 lb pork tenderloin
• salt pepper, paprika,
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
•  1/8 c korean bbq sauce

Super easy right? It was amazing. Sweet and spicy at the same time. I marinated the pork (which I sliced into medallions) and put them in a frying pan with some peppers and onions. They came out so juicy, and crispy, I was really happy :-) I paired it with snap peas tossed in olive oil, salt pepper and parmesean, and some white rice. I felt so accomplished, which made up a little bit for not going to the gym :-)
While I haven't been excellent about my workouts this week (although I haven't been bad either) I do feel pretty good about my eating. I had my friend's holiday party on Friday, and caught myself eating too much, and took a step back, which is huge for me.I also stuck to my wine, which cut down a bunch of calories as well :-)

This was followed by a second NSV on Saturday night. Matt and I went out for a date night to this beer bar/ pizza place called Penguin Pizza. We had a groupon, and I'm so glad we did it finally, because the place was awesome! It was really cute inside, and the pizza (we got the steak and cheese) was awesome. Thin and crispy, and the toppings didn't over power it, which I loved. I hate pizza with too much topping on it, takes away from the pizza itself :-) I only had 2 slices, and a few really good beers. A great night, and a NSV for me! I did eat a third slice when I got home, but in my mind, it's better than eating 3 out and a 4th at home, or something else when I got home (I was pretty drunk, damn those belgian beers!)

My plan for the next few days is to plan ahead and make sure I stick to the plan! I'm not drinking until the weekend, since it'll be a drink heavy one (with Christmas and everything). I also made an egg hashbrown cassarole to last me the rest of the week. It's very similar to the egg hashbrown muffins emilybites makes, except I put it in a pan instead of cupcake form :-) It was a delicious breakfast, and really light in calories too! My goal is to stay away from treats this week, as hard as that may be. Gotta start sometime, right?

Happy Tuesday!

You Know What's Kind of Ridiculous?

The fact that I busted my butt at the gym for over a year consistently. At least 2-3 times a week, more likely 4X a week, doing videos, strength training with free weights and the nautilus machines, working at running programs, whatever. I felt good about myself, and loved (egotistical moment alert) looking at myself in the mirror, just because it constantly reminded me of how far I had come.

This summer, I didn't go to the gym very often. Maybe once a week. I spent a lot of my time hiking, running/walking outside, and especially in the last 2 weeks just being too busy to go to the gym. It happens, I'm ok with it. Part of this weight loss journey is living my life and not missing out on events and opportunities. I was still active, I still felt ok with my progress, and still went to the gym 1-2 times a week. I just found other things that I loved even more.

Ok so It took me probably 3-4 months before I started enjoying my time at the gym, and didn't feel like death every day. I started wanting to stay longer, and do more, and could seriously feel my endurance increasing every week.

So it's been about 2 weeks since I've worked out consistently thanks to sore muscles last week, and lots of moving the week before. I went to the gym last night, and honestly? It was the hardest I can remember it being.

I struggled to do 30 lunges, where 2-3 weeks ago I could do 45-50 no problem
I was starving the entire time, which may be because I didn't eat enough real food yesterday, and loaded up too much on sugar.
Either way, my time on the eliptical was miserable. My Heart rate was holding steady at 165-180, which isn't normal for me (when working out it normally stays within 150-169) and I was constantly out of breath. What happened to me?

Hopefully it's just a fluke. Hopefully I just didn't eat enough, so I hadn't fueled enough which made it 10 times harder to work out. At least I went, right? And I burnt 850 calories, so that was good. It gave me leeway to eat a big dinner and still have calories left over from my workout. It's just amazing that it can take months to get on track, but in as little as a week or two, your endurance levels can suffer so much!

I am forbidding myself any type of sweet or candy until Friday. If I have a loss this week, I'll let myself splurge a bit :-)  But I've had enough this week to last me, I've indulged, now it's time to stay on track. I've tracked breakfast, lunch and a snack already.

Totals	803	121	29	34	46	1,584
Your Daily Goal	1,500	206	50	56	32	2,500
Remaining	697	85	21	22	-14	916
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sugar	Sodium

I'm over my sugar limit (all the fruit) but everything else I'm in good shape for, I think!

I am going out with two of my friends from London tonight. There will be tons of talking, and I'm driving so I plan on milking that excuse :-) I will have two good beers though, and leave room for chips and salsa. We are going to a mexican bar after all :-) I am going to attempt that video again after work, I figure it's a good way to burn calories, and get a fast  workout in :-)

So Much For Switching It Up

Because in order to have done that, I would have actually had to work out.

In my defense, I was so sore last week from that video. I don't know why I let myself do this. I'll do great for so long, and then have a week or two (or three... or a month) where I get lazy about going to the gym. In this case it was because I was doing a lot of stuff outside/helping people move/etc so I can't beat myself up that much. But the results are the same. I finally do something (in this case a video) and can't walk straight for 3 days. I think I need to get into yoga.

Anyways. Last week was also crazy busy workwise, which really hinders me wanting to go to the gym. All it makes me want to do is sit in front of the TV and watch shows. Which is what I did :-)

To recap:
Friday- no loss at weigh in. To be expected, I was still sore/ hadn't worked out much/ ate a decent amount the night before. Ah well
-After work I headed up to Worcester to my friends apartment for a girls night. She works for a college out there and had to check on a program they were running. which was a magician. And we ended up staying, because he was really funny.  We went back to her place, had drinks, relaxed, and went to bed. It was a nice night and well needed :-)
Saturday- We ended up going to Cracker Barrell for breakfast (@1...), which was amazing.  LOVE Cracker Barrell. I went a bit crazy BUT I only ate 2 slices of french toast, instead of the 4 put in front of me. So go me? I also ate the 2 eggs, 2 sausages and plate of hash browns, but that is besides the point ladies and gentleman. Baby steps.

I didn't get home till around 4, I ran to the store and picked up M, and some groceries. I made a frozen pizza and salad for dinner, and just relaxed a little bit before I babysit all night long. And caught up on mah shows: House Hunters, My First Place (I'm a sucker for Real Estate shows),Ugly Betty (they play reruns!), and watched the pilot for the Zoey Dechannel one that is coming out. It was cute, pilot's are never great so I have hopes that it will be funny :-)

Sunday-Slept in, went to Target, grabbed Lunch at Boston Market, where I made some bad choices. Like 800 calories worth. But the stuffing there is so worth it, isn't it? I figure I didn't have breakfast, so it sort of evens out, right? The rest of the day (when I planned to work out) was spent watching movies in bed. Buh. I did take a walk with M and tobes. But I wish I had done something activity wise :-/

Thankfully though dinner was low cal, so that made up for it :-) We attempted the Taco Cupcakes from emilybites.com. They came out awesome!

Doesn't do it justice!

And they were so delicious, I had them for lunch yesterday as well, which was seriously the highlight of my day haha.

I have had a serious sweet tooth this week. Last night I craved Ice Cream, today I had a donut with breakfast and reese cups with lunch.  I have 20 calories left for the day and it's not even dinner time! I am going to the gym, so I will be ok. I dunno what's up with these cravings but they need to quit it!

I'm done though, I think I satiated the beast :-P I went shopping on my lunch break and bought:
-A tote of apples (gala, aka the best)
-Green Grapes
-Bananas
-baby carrots (which go nicely with my low fat ranch dressing)
-pretzels (not the honey mustard flavored ones. I learned my lesson, they are way too addictive to have 10 feet away from me)
-popcorn
-ingredients to make bagel thin pizzas! These will be my lunch for the unforseen future. One thing I never get sick of is pizza, so hopefully this will stick!

I am also making a workout schedule, and I'm going to stick to it damnnit!My plan:
T-Strength-35 minutes cardio
W-Cardio Max (hopefully the next day won't be quite as miserable this time
Th-Eliptical/running combo (hopefully just 10 minutes eliptical and 30 minutes running, but well see) and abs
F- off- red sox game!


If I can get three full days in this week, I'll be happy!

July!

First of all, thank you so much for the positive comments on my last few posts :-) I love reading them, and knowing I'm not just talking to myself :-P

To clarify (because I don't think I got this across in my last post), I've always been using points outside of my dailies. Since the begining. It's always been a struggle for me to figure out how much, or to not feel some type of  guilt when I go over for no reason (outside of special events and nights out), and that was more what I meant by using my weeklies effectively. I got over this fear of if I eat/drink close to all my weeklies I will gain, and am happy I did!

Can you believe it's already July? I cannot stand how fast the past 6 months have gone by. It's been a pretty good year so far though:

• M got a job, and a decent one where he is pretty happy at that :-)
• I hit the One hundreds for the first time in recent memory
• I ran 2 5Ks! (ok so walk/ran, and both had their issues, but I can say I did them!)
• I had my gall bladder removed, which 6 months later I can honestly say my quality of life is 10 times better than last year!

Not too shabby, huh? I normally post my Financial Results on the first, but my mint.com account got messed up a bit, and wouldn't acknowledge half the transactions in my bank account (including my paychecks...) so I just decided to call June a wash. As of the 25 I wasn't doing too great anyways, with my vaca and my friends visiting. I was over by quite a bit. New month!

Personal Challenge Goals (June)
June Goals
-Make Tracking A Priority With the exception of my vacation, I tracked everything. Even when I didn't wanna ;-)
-Earn 150 APs by July 4 @ 118, APs were not my priority this month, but I did ok all the same :-/
-Hit 200 199.2!
-Focus on Hunger Signals over wants, and portion control! definietly did better with this, and making better use of my WPs!
-Run a 5K Check! Not well, but check!

And for next month...
-Continue to track 100%
-Earn 130 APs
-Aim to get activity in 5X a week (1-2 lighter workouts)
-Hit 195 (lofty goal)
-Aim to try 2 new foods. Whether it's a meal, a new snack, etc. I need to branch out!

I maintained this week at WI, but honestly? I wasn't expecting a loss. I stayed within my points, but for the first time this month I earned over 30 APs, and indulged in chocolate  a few too many times ;-) It happens, and could have been a lot worse. I'm back on track!

I'm excited to have a long weekend, work has been busy the past few weeks, so I am looking forward to having a few days off to relax, and enjoy myself.

I also have (drumroll please) a plan!
-Friday- work as usual. Grab delicious pizza at Emmas with M, limit myself to 3 tops (pizza is on the small side, so 3 will be a reasonable amount of points). Go to cambridge brewing, enjoy a few beers to unwind, and then head home at a reasonable hour. Early night.
-Saturday- Gym, healthy lunch, and movie. Then babysitting all night. A great way to not go out and spend money/waste points ;-)
Sunday- Head up to Gloucester for the day with M. Spend morning at the beach with girls, bring beach snacks! Walk along beach for APs with M, and then indulge in a night out at the Cape Ann Brewing Co.
-Monday- Maybe beach if it's not nice on Sunday, then Hiking with M and the sisters. Followed by a mini cookout with the family :-)

I'm excited for the weekend, and especially excited because I have a plan to combat the indulging with healthy being. Woo Hoo!

+2.2

I jumped on the scale Friday morning. I was up 2.2 from last week. Which I obviously expected. But I won't lie, I wished that I would miraculously be under last week, just because life wanted to reward me for my vacation victories and enjoying myself (now, wouldn't it be awesome if life rewarded you for just enjoying yourself?)

Ah well. Moving on. I know what I could have done better (a lot!). I also know that I had a blast, and needed the break (see previous post). I can't get hung up on the scale, it was only one week, right?

The past weekend my friends A and D came up from Jersey to visit my other friend A and I! The four of us (plus a bunch of others who couldn't make it this weekend) were in London together, and a good time happens whenever they come to visit, this time was no different. Lots of fun, lots of laughing, and lots of me missing our time together in London. Love those girls and love when they come visit! The only downer was I ended up having to babysit saturday night, and my friend A ended up having to go home to see her family, so I felt awful leaving them by themselves. Thankfully M (who really earned his brownie points with me this weekend) came through and met up with them for me, and bar hopped with them. I have never been so thankful to have such a kick-ass boyfriend as I was on Saturday. I was so stressed out with everything (we went to the bruins parade, so some of them had been drinking since noon, and were in rough shape by 6 when I left) and just knowing that my friends were having a great time and not left stranded in the city helped enormously. But enough of that gush :-)




How cute are they? this is them on the busride up friday!

 
All in all, a good weekend.  I did have a plan this weekend though. Did I stick with it perfectly? nope. But I finished the week out tracking everything and making decent choices. I only drank one night (Saturday night I had to babysit, so I missed the bar hopping part and didn't get to meet up with them until close to 1am), and then limited my drinks considerably. I did snack a lot, but I tracked it to the best of my abilities, and can say that I'm still in a pretty good place this week. Now for a weekend after a gain, I definetly could have done better. I did walk a ton (all around boston, I felt it both mornings) but I didn't get to the elusive gym. And I was a bit lax with my WW choices (ginger chicken udon actually turned out to be a relatively healthy choice, as did the turkey burger I had for lunch Saturday), but I didn't just throw caution to the wind and go crazy either.

I also have my first not crazy week in about a month coming up this week. I actually have time to relax, and really focus on my weight loss journey.  And I fully plan on taking advantage of it. Here is my plan (in addition to healthy eating and minimal snacking):
M- gym- 35-40 minutes eliptical, strength training
T- running outside (probably at the beach so just 2 miles)
W- gym- running inside, strength
Thursday- day off

Where I haven't (confessional) worked out consistently in a few weeks, I figure three days on and then a day off are a great start. I have worked out, don't get me wrong. But it's been varied, and not nearly as intense as what I was doing a few weeks back. I'm getting back into it, break time is over! I miss how I felt when I worked out regularly. I slept better, I felt thinner (which was all mental but still), and I was less tempted all the time. I am determined to get below 200, and closer to my goal. And now that life is calming down after graduations, vacations and friend visits, I have the opportunity to focus on myself once again. Life will always get in the way, and it's ok to not be as intense with my system sometimes. I don't want to get to the point where I feel like I have to give up everything just to work out and be healthy. There has to be that balance between the fun and the work. It's my enternal struggle :-)