Monday Weigh in Day

I'm back to it and a day late.  Forgive me.

The weekend was good, I ate, drank and smoked way too much. I gotta knock that shit off.

After eating 2 tubs of Edys in 3 days.. yes friends, I said 2....  along with pizza, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, potato chips and other craptacular food selections,  I stepped on the scale to reflect yet another 2 lb gain...  
 

 I AM A ROCKSTAR!   Can ya tell???

Seeing that number made me want to vomit.  Seriously.

So - I kept my eating in check yesterday, hit the gym (without my Polar F6... sniffle sniffle) and managed to burn around 600 calories within an hour.   I'm sure it was more, but I'm going to estimate low until I can replace it.  

My NET ended up around 850 calories for the day.   Yesterday was the first day in 3 weeks that I ate under 2000 calories.

THEN.... I woke up this morning and hit the gym AGAIN!   I could only get 40 minutes of cardio in, but I got it in none the less. 

Sidenote:  There have been a few of my followers that have questioned me regarding my eating and lack of gym-ing...    Lemme just say, I am by no means perfect.  I've been overweight my entire life, and was morbidly obese for 5 years.   I'm going to fall off.  I'm going to slip up.  I'm going to have those days where I say "Fuck It!".  I cannot promise you that I'm going to lose weight each and every week and be perfect at it, nor do I proclaim to be this weight loss guru.   But - I can promise you that I'm going to be honest about  my journey and experiences.  I'm not going to sugar coat this.  I'm going to tell you the good things, the bad things, and the down right horrific things.  This is called "Eating for Real",  REAL being the emphasis here.  Real life, real people... real shit gets in the way sometimes.  If you don't like the honesty, you can stop following me now. 

Thanks for reading friends...  until next time.



For my Banded Babes

I don't use SparkPeople, but once upon a time I signed up for it so I continue to get their articles.  Most of them are just the same ol same ol mumbo jumbo nutrition crap, but this one was pretty good.    I thought of my banded friends!

Stop and Chew Your Food


Also - I wanted to share with you all what I found at the grocery store this week.

I LOVE the sandwich thins, but being a banded gal, I cant really tolerate too much bread-y type things...  So when I saw these I was excited!!!   1 mini thin is only 50 calories!!  I like mine toasted, topped with chicken salad, or tuna salad and little sprinkle of cheese.  YUM!

Happy Friday kids!   Have a great day!

Please bow your heads...

...while we have a moment of silence to morn the loss of a 4 year old Polar F6 Heart Rate Monitor...  sniffle....

Yep.  It's official.  The damn thing crapped out on me for real.   I'm devasted.   Okay, not really devasted, but as you all know I rely on that thing!! I HAVE to know what I'm burning.  I just have to.  I'm anal about it.  So - looks like I'll be working out and just estimating my calorie burn for awhile until I can replace it.  The good news is, is that I know my body pretty well to estimate pretty close to what I typicall burn. 

Okay enough boo-hooing...  

Our Anniversary was yesterday and I love any excuse to get all prettied up...

We had a great time last night at dinner.   I indulged and ate it all.   It took me awhile, but I didnt care.  There was NO WAY I was wasting the delicious food in front of me.

6 oz filet, medium rare, grilled asparagus and squash and mashed yukon gold potatoes

I took my friend Lis' advice and had the bottle of chardonnay..    Okay, maybe not the whole bottle, but 3 glasses.   

Then of course you cant have an anniversary celebration without dessert...

warm apple pie a la mode, complete with real vanilla bean ice cream. 

No worries, we split it.



I wanted to share today's lunch with you.  I brought chicken salad to put on these awesome little mini pita's I bought, and just wasn't feelin it.  Since I WAS feeling pizza, I ran to the store and picked up the necessary items:  Hormel Turkey Pepperoni, Kraft Pizza Blend Shredded Cheese and Ragu Pizza Sauce.

• 1 mini pita, split and toasted
• 1/4 cup pizza sauce
• around 1/4 cup shredded pizza cheese
• 8 pepperonis

266.5 calories, 31 carbs, 14.65 grams of protein.  OMG YUM!!!  It totally cured the pizza craving and it filled me up!

No gym tonight.  And dinner was Taco Bell... I had errands to run.  I'm going to make it my personal mission to go at 5:00 am tomorrow.  I cant go after work tomorrow because we'll be at the Cardinals game, so 5am it is.   I need to go tomorrow, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to make 5 days this week.

Thanks for reading!!

Motivation in the form of pictures

On August 23, 2008  I wore this dress and married my wonderful hubbs. That's right kids, it's my wedding anniversary today!   I just wanted to share the difference with you all.

On my wedding day I was 330 lbs.  The tag on this dress says 22, and that was accurate for my upper body only.  My lower body was a tight size 26.

Today I sit at 217 lbs, upper body is a size 12/14 lower body is a size 18.    

This is definitely a reason for me to celebrate this evening in addition to celebrating my anniversary with my husband.  No worries, I only plan on having one glass of wine.

Have a great day and as always, thanks for reading!

Monday Weigh in Day

I want to first say thank you to Banded Bella.   Thanks for calling me out last week on my blog.  I'm excellent at motivating others, sometimes I need that same push, and she did it for me.  Thanks girl!!  

With that said... I'm a professional at maintaining my weight.  Seriously. I have no doubt in my mind that once I reach goal, maintenance will be a breeze!

I'm up another 2 lbs this week.   I keep fluctuating between 214-217.   Ugh.   

There's really no excuse for it.  I've been skipping the gym and haven't been on Livestrong.com tracking my food.    I've been crazy busy for part of July and all of August planning parties, finalizing those plans, then actually attending the parties.  3 surprise parties in a week, and goddamn I'm exhausted!  The parties were surprise successes, they were so much fun, and I couldn't be more relieved that they're actually over. LOL

But - each time we fall off, we have to get back on and keep it moving.   I have to go back to what works for me.  We also have to keep our bodies moving to keep our scales moving (in the right direction of course), and remember to change it up to consistently see results.  This is what works for me, and tonight, back to Gold's Gym I go!!

What worked for me was planning.  I used to sit here every Monday and give you a plan.   Well - it's Monday.  :)

I tried the protein shakes in the morning and it wasn't working.  I'm convinced I'm the only person that tried "2 shakes a day and a meal" and I gained. LOL   

Breakfast - Oatmeal

Lunch -  This week's lunch is 1 CUP of Turkey Chili.  I made a crockpot full of it yesterday.

Snack - 3 oz chicken salad in a toasted mini pita pocket (no more protein bars... again, didn't work for me)

Dinner - I never planned my dinners, just grabbed what was available.  Tonight however, I'm having grilled salmon because I took it out of the freezer this morning.  I'll pair that with some form of a veggie I'm sure.

In addition to this "meal plan" of mine, I just drank 25 oz of water in the car on the way in, and I'm going to drink 3 of these bad boys today.... 2 at work and 1 at the gym for a total of 126.4 oz of water today.  I'll be peeing all day, I'm sure.

33.8oz x 3 = 101.4 oz

Gym tonight will be brutal I'm sure. 30 minutes cardio, 10 minutes abs/push ups, and 30 minutes upper body strength training.  I went last week sometime.  I cant even tell you what day because it was so long ago, I don't remember.   Fail.

On a side note...  my sister in law had a Thirty One party, and I got a super fun new gym bag... not that it should be any form of motivation, but it kinda is in a small way. 

With that I'm leaving you...  Have a Happy Monday all!!   Stay on track today and as always, thanks for reading!

Slackass, Party of 1

Thank you Kerry Dill-Genova for coining the phrase "Slackass" because that's EXACTLY what I've been lately, and it's time to bring myself outta the "lack of motivation" funk that I've slipped into.

Yesterday's weight was up .6 ounces.   Not even a full pound.  At least I'm maintaining.  It could be worse, but I dont like to maintain dammit, at 214 lbs I should be LOSING the weight.

Usually this is where I'd go into my weekly plan.  Actually, that's what I do on Monday's and as you can tell, I'm living up to my "Slackass" status with blogging also.  I'm a rockstar.  Be jealous.

I'm not going to go into a big ol plan for the week, and the ONLY goal I'm going to set is to pull myself out of this lazytown slump I'm in.

Feel free to call/text/Facebook/Blog stalk my ass and tell me to get it together and stay out of the cookies and chips!

Have a great day friends!

Monday Weigh In Day... and still feeling "off"

Life.

It gets in the damn way sometimes doesn't it??   At least for the past few weeks, my day to day life has gotten in the way.  It seems to have taken over my willpower and my drive to achieve my goals.  It sucks, but it is what it is.  It's REAL life.  Even when I have the time to go to the gym, lately I havent wanted to.  I sit at home and think about things.  My mind sometimes races at night thinking of all the things I have to do the next day, or things I didn't get done that day, etc.   So I'll wake up tired, but get to work with every intention of hitting the gym after work.   Then - 2:30 rolls around and I'm tired.   The afternoon slug hits me, usually with the afternoon snack monster, they're a combo deal... those bitches!   I think they're friends with the weekend fat girl too... 

Anyway - Last Monday, I made 4 goals for myself.  I stuck to 1 of the 4.

I got at least 80 grams of protein in each day.   That's it.

I didn't make it to the gym 5 days, but I did go 4, for 240 minutes.   So it's not a complete fail.

4 of the 7 days I stuck to 1400 calories.  The other 3 were a ridiculous mess.

And because of the food choices I made, my carbs were way over 120 those 3 days.

Suck it up and move on right?? 

Today's a new day, that begins a new week.  I'm now down to 3 1/2 weeks to meet my goal of 199 lbs by September 1st.

And today's weight was....

Exactly the same as last week.  

The only goal I'm setting for myself this week is keep my head out of my ass.   Have you ever tried to run 3 miles with your head lodged up there??  It's hard!  :)  

Mid Week Check In

Happy Thursday to ya'll!!!

It's mid week for me, I'm doing quite well if I do say so myself!   I've gone to the gym both Monday and Tuesday, yesterday I was unable to go so we'll call it my rest day.  Today I'll be going after work to work on my arms/back/shoulders and of course some cardio.  You can't go to the gym and NOT do cardioright??

I'm hoping to lose a total of 3 lbs this week, 2 of the 4 I gained at the Lake and an additional 1 pound to take me down to 210.  As long as the Weekend Fat Bitch doesn't make an appearance on Friday night, I'm all good.   Someone else needs to entertain her for awhile.   Fingers crossed!

My last mid-week check in I talked about a recipe that I was going to make for the following week.   It was Barramundi with almond pesto.  I made it and my friends, it was amazing!   Light, flaky butter fish, and the pesto was excellent!

The recipe originally called for a different kind of fish but barramundi is by far my favorite!  It's very versatille.

I'm not so much wanting to cook tonight, I really like easy breezy things, so tonight's dinner will be these Morningstar Italian Sausage Links.   The plan is to have "sausage and fried potatoes", potatoes of course meaning ONE baby yukon gold, pan fried with 1 tbsp of EVOO.   

1 link = 120 calories, 7 carbs, 10 grams of protein

Thanks for reading!

Interesting NSV for me!!!

Anyone who knows me know's that I'm obsessed with the show, "The Biggest Loser".  I love it... always have and have watched it religiously since Season 1.

In the past I'd watch the show while shoveling mass quantities of something into my pie hole,  usually ice cream or a bag of chips or something else that got me the fabulous 330 lb morbidly obese figure that I had.  Anyway - I'd just sit there thinking "I could totally do that".  

I haven't thought that in awhile and then this came across my Facebook today...Biggest Loser Casting Call - St Louis

I clicked it... read it... and realized, HOLY SHIT...  I don't even meet the criteria for Biggest Loser anymore!!  HOORAY!!!    I don't have 85 lbs or more to lose any longer.   At most, maybe 50 lbs but no way 85.   I know it may be insignificant to some, but this is a big deal to me.

Just wanted to share!  As always, thanks for reading!

Only 30 more days to go, just like this one!

I kept my eating in check today, ate 1320 calories today,  burned 677 calories at Gold's during an awesome gym session....  and I stuck to my goals for the month.  Today.   Now - I just have to have 30 more days just like this one.  LOL

A friend of mine asked today what I buy at Trader Joes.  This question comes up alot so if I've addressed it before, I apologize.  I constantly have new followers so sometimes the questions are repetitive.  Forgive me.

This was last night's dinner.....

$5.99 a bag in the frozen foods section.   You bake it at 400 degrees for 30ish minutes (I like mine crispy).  For the last 5 minutes add the sauce packets. (there are 2 included)   The taste is a sweet and spicy, but VERY mild.   I paired it with Uncle Bens Rice Pilaf (for the hubbs)  I don't eat rice.   

Stats:   1 cup = 190 calories, 16 carbs and 14 grams of protein.  The sauce is 20 calories per 2 tbsp.


This was tonight's dinner... and one of my FAVORITE Trader Joe's Items.

This is also found in the frozen food section.   $6.49 and you get almost 4 full chicken breasts.  It was enough for me and Dmitri.   You bake this at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.  

Stats:  1/2 package = 320 calories, 9 carbs and 32 grams of protein.  I paired this with these veggies I found at our NEW Super Target!  

Roasted red potatoes, sugar snap peas and red peppers in a garlic butter sauce.   $2.29, microwave for 10 minutes. Yes.  10 minutes!  It was the family size bag.  I had to look twice, but it was right. LOL

Stats:  1/2 cup prepared = 70 calories, 14 carbs 2 grams protein.

While I was at our NEW Super Target, I decided to pick these up for some afternoon snacks at work...

I've been wanting to try all of these items so I'm excited.  If you've tried them, I'd love a review. 

As always, thanks for reading!

Monday Weigh In Day and Falling Off

Ohhh what a week. 

I usually begin my Monday posts with the previous weeks stats regarding calories in vs calories out and what I accomplished at the gym, however this past week I traded my Puma's for my drinking shoes.  I did something 4 of the 7 days this past week that involved food and/or booze which included 2 Cardinal's games, dinner with a girl friend and a concert.   I went to the gym ONE day last week, and that day was Saturday. I ran 2 miles which was the hardest 2 miles I've ran in a long time.  I couldnt even finish my 3rd.  Then followed that with 35 minutes of arms/back/shoulders.  I burned 650 calories in an hour and it was a tough work out.  I dont like that feeling.  I love feeling strong and refreshed after a work out, but seeing as though I took almost 2 weeks off from the gym, I felt light headed and gross afterwards. 

Last week I weighed 215 which was up 4 lbs from the previous week due to my Girls Weekend at the Lake.   This week I'm down to 2 lbs to 213.   Good news is that all 4 lbs was not "real weight", bad news is that 2 of those 4 lbs is actual weight.   ::sigh::

So... that brings me to the realization that I need to re-analyze some things.   This has happened in the past.. fluctuations and what not, so I already know what I need to do to get it together.

I've mentioned in a previous blog about my friend Kerry's "40 by 40" challenge.   Her 40th birthday is in November and the goal is to lose 40 by that.   Well - since the challenge began I think I've lost 5 lbs.   I keep going up and down.  I think my issue is that the goal (November) is so far away that I keep telling myself I have more time.   I can't do that anymore.  I can't look at the big picture.  I know that I have to make smaller goals for myself.  In addition to the "40 by 40" challenge, I'm challenging myself to lose 14 lbs, to bring me to 199 by September 1.    I had to re-evaluate some things, and while I believe in Moderation NOT Deprivation, sometimes my "moderation" gets the best of me, and one "snack" turns to two, then two to three, then before you know it I'm not making dinner and instead ordering pizza.

You get the point..

That brings me to this weeks goals for myself...

• 5 days at the gym, OR 300 minutes
• NO MORE than 1400 calories each day
• 80+ grams of protein each day
• Less than 120 grams of carbs each day

As always, thanks for reading and have a good week friends!!