New Ideas to Go with the New Year

It has been a pretty difficult first year of 2013. I have had shoulder pain quickly followed by a sciatic nerve flair up. After a trip to the chiropractor and then getting a much needed massage, I was finally feeling better on Sunday and decided to return to the gym. Once I was finally feeling better my hemorrhoids decided that they were being left out. Even though I woke up feeling like crap this morning, I worked through it and went to work out with my personal trainer. Once I was done working out, I felt much better and had a great day getting tons of things done. I love the endorphins that I get from working out.

On the other side though, I realized that my original goal of walking 20 miles for the month of January was rather on the low side. Instead of meeting my goal during the third week of the month and feeling like I can slack off for the rest of the month, I've decided to increase my goal to 30 miles. In three work out sessions I have already walked 6 miles and it is only 1 week into the new year.

I also found a cute idea on Pinterest earlier this week. It is a "tip" jar. The idea is that every time you work out you tip yourself a dollar. Once the jar is full or you reach a certain point then you are supposed to take the money out and use it to do something fun like buy a new outfit, get a massage or even a pedicure and manicure. I decided to start my own "workout tip" jar and am using the new piggy bank that I got for Christmas from my lovely in-laws. It is a Mr. Potatohead piggy bank. So far I have $3 in the bank and I plan to keep filling it until it is full. Then I will use it for a new outfit for my new much skinnier body.

This is my "workout tip" jar.

New Year, NOT a New Resolution

It has been at least a month since I last wrote anything here, but I'm still chugging along on my weight loss journey. My time has been busy with grad school, teaching, grading papers, writing essays, and dealing with the holidays. December was an extremely busy month, but very rewarding.

I would love to give an update on my weight loss, but I've not stepped on a scale in two weeks due to the holidays, being out of town, and Weight Watchers being closed on my meeting days. I know that I can go on another day, but I'm very attached to my leader. I will step back on the scale on Tuesday, January 8th. I'm a little nervous about it, but I know that I will be fine.

I promised myself that I would not be making an New Year's resolutions this year as they appear to never last past the first month. I started on this weight loss and get healthy journey last summer and I'm continuing on with it in the new year. Nothing has changed because we are now in the year 2013.

I'm still on track to lose 60 pounds before summer. I really really really (yes, I know that was a lot of reallys) want to aim for trying to be healthy enough to return to the doctor and have him give me the green light on trying to get pregnant again. I've wanted this for so long and now that I will be 36 (in two weeks), I'm more motivated than ever.

To help me on this journey, I think that I need to start setting some fun and exciting exercise goals to keep me more motivated to work out in between my weekly sessions with my awesome personal trainer...HI BROOKE!!! For this month, I'm making the goal of walking 20 miles in my workout sessions. It does not matter if I'm on the treadmill, the elliptical, or just hiking around the neighborhood or a park, I will chart my mileage and reach my goal by the end of the month and then I will try a different challenge next month to give me more motivation.

Mileage so far: 1.5 miles (check back next week for my new, hopefully higher update)

Fat Pants

This morning when I woke up and started getting ready for work I made the decision to put on my "fat" work pants. I knew that I wanted to be extra comfy considering the 90 minute drive I had to endure to go to a training conference. While at the conference, I excused myself to go to the restroom and while there I discovered that my "fat" pants had a hole in them that was quite visible if my shirt was not pulled down all the way. Thankfully it was not in an embarrassing location like my butt. I quickly covered it up and went about my day, but I never forgot about it.

I then go to thinking about the idea of why I still had my "fat" pants. I made myself a promise when I started down this journey of weight loss that this time I was not going to save my bigger sized clothes. I didn't want to give myself any options or excused to begin gaining weight again. A part of me thinks that by holding on to them I will one day need them when I hopefully get pregnant, but another part of me thinks that by keeping them I am sabotaging myself. The later part won in the end. When I start getting ready for bed tonight, instead of throwing my "fat" pants in the laundry pile and then in the eventually to be patched/fixed pile, I'm throwing them in the trash.

This is a huge step for me, but I'm not looking back this time.

Week 14: Healthy Food Choices

Another pound down, but the work is never done. This week I didn't focus on working out as much because I was just purely exhausted. With this being my off week for graduate school, it was a good time for me to get caught up on my sleep as well as my grading...which means that my workouts kind of suffered because of my choices.

I also focused on making better food choices this week. In fact, I made one of my favorite recipes tonight and thought it would be a great one to share with everyone. It is very simple, yet easy to build on if you are in need of eating more points. Since I still get 45 points per day, I ate this as a 13 point dinner, but this can easily be stripped down to a simple 6 points for anyone who needs to eat less.  I was introduced to Shakshuka a year ago from a good friend of mine. I would go over to her house for game day and this is what she would serve us for breakfast. I fell in love with the dish and asked her for the recipe. It is a rather simple Middle Eastern recipe. There are many variations on the recipe, but this is what I use and like the most.

Shakshuka (this is 6 points per serving)
1 medium onion sliced
4-5 tomatoes sliced
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of olive oil
4 eggs
salt
pepper

1. Heat oil in skillet and layer onions, still in the sliced rings, on the bottom of the pan. Let saute for several minutes until translucent. DO NOT STIR.
2. Add garlic to top of onions and continue to cook until the onions are a good color.
3. Add the sliced tomatoes to the top of the onions in several layers, DO NOT STIR. Put the lid on and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
4. When time is up remove lid and stir tomatoes and onions together making it like a sauce.
5. Crack the eggs one by one and place them evenly over the mixture. Place the lid on top and cook for about 7 minutes. When time is up check to make sure there is no liquid parts to the egg. If needed replace the lid and cook for another minute or two. Divide in half and serve with optional items.

As pictured it includes pita bread (4 points), hummus (2 points), and fat free feta cheese (1 point). This is very yummy and healthy. Other variations include adding green peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, and hot sauce. Another option could include adding two more eggs and making this dish for three people instead of two. That would lower the point value to 5 points.

Mini Goal: lost 3 out of 8 pounds
Total Weight Loss: 18.2 pounds

Week 13: Busting Through the Plateau

This past week has been awesome. I weighted in on Tuesday and finally felt amazing because I had lost two pounds. I felt on top of the world and that was mainly because not only did I lose two pounds, but I also broke through the plateau that has been plaguing me for the past six weeks. I am officially done with plateau city and ready to move on.

What worked: I would have to say that not sitting on my butt anymore was the biggest contributing factor to my weight loss. It was the first week that I worked out three times in almost two months. Then this week, I worked out five more times. I think that I'm on a roll and ready to lose more weight.This was also the first week that I went well over my goal of 40 activity points per week. I think having a new workout partner definitely helps, especially since we are at the gym together about four days a week.

What else worked: New running shoes. What more could a girl recommitted to exercising need, but a new pair of workout shoes. They are light, comfortable, and black, white and grey with purple accents. They are great to put on and run around in and even better when at the gym on the treadmill or working out doing lots of stairs and squats with my lovely personal trainer.

What worked the most: My cousin, who is about six or seven years younger than I am, announced that she is pregnant and expecting in June. I am so very thrilled for her and her wonderful husband of almost two years and think that it is a great thing for them. On the flip side though, since I am the oldest great-grandchild, I wanted to be first, but alas my medical problems have stopped or halted that from happening anytime soon. This encouraged me to get the weight off quicker so that a bundle of joy of my own will happen sooner rather than later.

I weigh-in in two days and for the first time in a long time, I'm actually excited about it.

Total Lost: 17 pounds
Mini Goal: 8 pounds between end of September and Thanksgiving - down 2 pounds so far

Week 12: To Much Going On

Since I moved my blog here and have stopped being paid for it, I feel less motivated to write about my weight loss journey. In fact, my husband had to remind me that it had been over a week since I have written about what is going on in my life. Since I finished my grading, wrote my essay for graduate school, and have packed my bags for work tomorrow, I realize that I have enough time to sit and organize my thoughts.

For two weeks now I have maintained my weight and this disturbs me. I have not had a plateau that has lasted this long yet, in fact I have been playing with the same two pounds for the past six weeks. This is very unlike me and I need to get back on track. Part of the problem is the fact that I am only really working out once a week with my personal trainer. My life has gotten too hectic trying to balance everything to the point that the first thing I stopped doing was taking time out to take a long walk or go to the gym. This has recently changed. My next door neighbor joined Total Woman, the same gym I have a membership too, and asked me to work out with her. We have worked out twice this weekend and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed having a work out partner and it is great being able to share my knowledge about exercise with someone else. Because of this increase in activity, I have earned 34 activity points this week, which is just 6 shy of my weekly goal that I have never hit.

The other interference has been an over abundance of social activities. There was a bachelorette party, a wedding, and a trip to Disneyland all within the past two weeks all while working, keeping up on grading, and trying to stay on track with graduate school. I think my life is very busy, but thankfully I have a couple of calm weeks before me. I need this calm time to hopefully be able to refocus and get back on track.

Wish me luck on the scale this week. I will let you know how I do on Tuesday.

Coming soon - How to Eat Healthy at Disneyland.

Week 11: New Beginnings

As you have already noticed, I have moved my weight loss blog to a different site. The site that I was working for has lost its funding, but I still wanted to be able to write about my experiences and share them with others. I know that I have a great number of followers and supporters and I am very thankful for that. This just means that I had to find a new place to write, so here we are.

This week I had to learn how to deal with a special event while being on a "diet", but I didn't necessarily do a great job. The event was a friends bachelorette party that lasted most of the day. We started as a group of 12 loud girls at Medieval Times in Buena Park, CA. Our knight was the black and white knight and he was super cute. While there we feasted on bread, tomato bisque, half a chicken, ribs, potato wedges, and a mini apple pie. I ate most of it and didn't look back. Once the show was over and several of our voices were almost lost due to too much screaming, we moved on to a tavern for happy hour drinks. At the tavern I ordered a Midori sour, which was the first sip of alcohol that I have had in months. Then we went back to a friend's house for more alcohol and lots of treats which included a lot of sugar filled and fattening foods. It was a great night, but one that I paid for when it came time for the scale.  The good news though is that I didn't gain anything, but the bad news is that I didn't lose any weight either.

Here we are almost a week later and I'm ready to encounter the next half of the special event, the wedding. Tomorrow, two of my friends tie the knot and I have to navigate the food while still trying to enjoy the event. Since I, like so many other people associate most social events with food, it is rather difficult for me to avoid it. I preordered the filet mignon, which is usually on the healthier side when it comes to cuts of beef, so that will not be the problem. My problem occurs when the lovely couple cuts their wedding cake and they begin to pass the lovely slices of cake around the room. Cake is one of my trigger foods, but there is only one way I can avoid a wedding cake. If it has a fondant frosting then I am safe, but if it is a creamy delicious frosting then I am screwed. The good thing is that dancing will happen, even if my husband feels that he doesn't have to participate. The dancing will help to even out the single slice of cake. Wish me luck.

The great thing about having a new blog of my own is that I can write whenever I want to rather than just once a week. Hopefully this means that I will share my thoughts, pictures, and recipes about weight loss more often. Have a great weekend.