Change Is Good

So why doesn't the scale change for me?

Two weeks my weight has stayed the same. I suppose it could have been worse. I know what the problem is most likely. Lack of exercise. Due to a back injury almost five months ago I now have chronic back pain. Lately it's been very painful. I do everything I'm supposed to do: stretches, anti-inflammatory meds, heat, ice, you name it, it doesn't work for me.

I had an appointment and the doctor finally wants to do an MRI. I'll be glad to get some answers about my pain.

In the meantime, I've tightened up my food and increased my water intake to offset my lack of exercise. We'll see what happens on Monday when I weigh in.

It's Amazing What a Little Willpower Can Do!

I've been mostly good all week. Unofficially between Monday and Friday, I was down a pound. Officially, I won't know anything until Monday or Tuesday. I feel great (aside from my chronic back pain).

Today, I maintained a vegetarian diet. Unfortunately it did include some chocolate. Not a lot. Just a few single bit chocolates that I bought for Valentine's Day. C'mon, a girl's gotta have chocolate for VDay!!!!! I made a little deal with myself. Each time I want a piece of chocolate, I eat something healthy first! I can be a piece of fruit, a cup of applesauce, a fiber bar, etc. This worked for me all day!

Breakfast was a handful of grapes out the door to karate (my son's, not mine). It wasn't the best breakfast in the world but it held me over until I got home. Lunch was a delicious salad. OMG! I LOVE salad!!!! Today's variety consisted of spinach, broccoli, caramelized pecans, olives and honey mustard dressing. I've also consumed a fiber bar and a banana. I think I've made my quota for fruits and veggies for the day. Dinner for me was a delicious Target brand pizza. The crust was just crisp enough. It was topped with spinach, tomatoes and goat cheese. I added some sliced olives. A third of the pie was 370 calories. A little high in fat but since I've eaten mostly veggies today and no meat I figured it would be ok!

I need to really work on the whole working out thing. I did some Wii Fit this morning but I'm really lacking motivation to keep it up. My back pain has been almost daily so I have been really limited on days that I feel like I can do it. I'm hoping a trip to the ortho doc this week will help!

I used to really love working out. I loved how it may me feel. How it made me look. How it helped me lose weight! Now, I dread it because after about 7 minutes my back is tied up like a pretzel. I hope I can get back to it soon!

Success! (sort of)

Well, even after spending the weekend (almost) at the rink and eating out, the chocolates that I bought myself (which I am rationing out and should last until July), and the traditional Valentine's Eve pizza dinner, I still managed to lose 1.5 pounds!

So, to celebrate, Jack and I enjoyed a Mardi Gras style lunch. It involved fried oysters with a horseradish cream sauce, Andouille and white bean soup, a BBQ duck sandwich WITH fries (my first taste of duck) and a sweet potato cheesecake (we shared that). No dinner will be cooked at my house tonight and for the next two days I will consume only fiber bars and salads. Maybe...

Truly though, fiber is a key ingredient. As is baby spinach! I eat it in everything! Pasta, soups, salads, you name it I toss in a handful! And lots of water!

I'm PMS-ing right now (hence the chocolate impulse purchase) so I'm trying to workout extra this week and up my water drinking. I'm hoping to see bigger results on Tuesday!

Tip of the Week

Don't let an occasional glass of wine sabotage your diet. You can have your wine and drink it too!

A "serving" of wine (red or white) is 4 ounces. A typical wine glass is 6 ounces or more. Sip your vino in a champagne flute. A champagne flute filled to the tippy top is only 6 ounces but I've never seen anyone drinking from a flute that full.

Of course too much of a good thing is NEVER a good thing so moderation is key.

Have a great week!

Some of My Favorite Things

There are so many products, foods, exercise equipment, etc out there it's enough to really make a difficult task (losing weight) that much harder! So here is a list of some of my favorite things in this category.

Favorite Exercises
I seriously <3 my Wii Fit: I sweat and with the WiiFit Plus I never get bored. I have many different (and fun) exercises and activities at my disposal. I also have a few other "games" (if that's what you can call them) for it like Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum 2009 (which I love) and My Fitness Coach (which I just like)
(**Note: I am not a spokesperson for Nintendo Game Systems or any company that makes games for that system)

I also like Fitness and Shape Magazines. While I don't necessarily care for the exercise pages too much since they feature already skinny models doing the exercises, I do LOVE the recommendations for equipment and recipes.

Favorite Foods
This is a very sensitive subject for me since A.) I LOVE food and 2.) I HATE diet food!!!! However there are several commercial "diet" foods that I always try to keep on hand. Fiber One Caramel Delight cereal is one of my favorite breakfast foods. I also love Jimmy Dean D-lights Turkey Sausage muffin sandwiches. I've tried generic brands of the same thing but they really don't measure up.

For snacks, I LOVE fiber bars of any flavor. The Target equivalent of the Fiber One bars are super delicious!

Fruit, fruit, fruit! I have a strange allergy to some fruits. Whenever I eat fresh fruits I have a reaction that equates to hives but inside my mouth, ears and throat. While not life-threatening it IS quite annoying. So I avoid fresh fruits at all cost. PLEASE do NOT avoid fresh fruits! I would advise you to eat fresh fruits and I prefer locally grown produce over imported! I usually only eat strawberries in June because I can readily get them a few blocks from my house. And since it's one of the few fruits that are grown locally that I'm not allergic to I eat them by the bushel! Last summer my step-daughter and I polished off a whole quart in ten minutes standing at the counter. They weren't even washed because they were so fresh. Picked that morning. We brushed off the dirt and ate them. That's the best way to have fruit!

So to avoid having an annoying allergic reaction while still getting in my fruits I usually eat canned fruit packed in juice or cooked fruit like apple and other fruit sauces. I try to have at least three fruit servings a day...on a good day...

Other Products
Some of the most important fitness equipment we use/need isn't even all that visible in most cases. C'mon ladies, we all know what that is...the sports bra. Yes, the good ol' over the shoulder boulder holder. We've all been there. Running on a treadmill or down the street and by the time you got home you had two black eyes. Either that or you had to move them out of the way to tie your gym shoes! My favorite sports bra EVER is from Target (yes, I shop there regularly; no, I don't work for them either). It's the C9 by Champion Seamless sports bra racerback style. It gives my DD's enough support for low impact exercise but it it's very comfortable with it's thin straps. For more high impact exercises (which I avoid at all costs) I recommend the Icon by Marika Magical Uplifting sports bra, also available at Target. It has wider straps and padded cups.

Some people would say that you have to spend a lot of money to get quality equipment. I'm not so certain. Did you know that a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds? So one of those 20 ounce water bottles filled with water weighs roughly 1.3 pounds. Cheap weights and something that most of us have on hand already. However, if you want "real" hand weights there are a variety of styles and materials available including one that claims to be ergonomically designed for a woman. Like we hold 2 pound dumbells different than a man...whatever. By the way, they DO cost more than the non-gender specific ones.

Well, that's my list for now. I'll keep posting when I think of more. Have a great day!

Damn You, Sodium!!!!!!!

Oh, sodium, why do I love you? You make me bloated. You make me thirsty. But yet, I can't get enough of you.

I would take salty snacks over chocolate almost any day of the week. (Note: I said "almost". There are still certain days that I would tear off my left arm for a piece of chocolate.) This weekend was no exception.

I did so well on Saturday. I even had some vegetables. Squash. Yum! My favorite copy of a side dish from the food store prepared food section. I should post that recipe.

Sunday. That was my downfall. Not only did I have some of the saltiest pizza on earth I also consumed chips, tortilla chips and the cheesey queso mentioned in my previous post. I chased it all down with a quart of water but it wasn't enough. I officially weighed in today and was officially a pound heavier. Ugh!

I'll be back on track tomorrow and work out extra long.

I need to ban salty foods from my house. Seriously.

What is it About a Snow Storm?

It's a dieter's worst nightmare. The Perfect Storm of food. A Big Snow Storm and a Big Football Game in the same weekend. Not sure what it is about a snow storm that makes people want to hunker down and consume massive quanitites of calorie laden carbs.

I had decided I wasn't going to be one of those "panic shoppers" who runs out to the food store for milk, bread and eggs. I *did* need some fat free French vanilla creamer though. I wouldn't survive my weekend without coffee and French vanilla weekend, snow storm or not.

The food stores were WAY too crowded. I decided Target would be me best bet. I went into the store laughing about how I would get what I needed and get out in minutes flat! The parking lot was a little full but no doubt most of these folks were fighting each other over the last bag of bagels down the bread aisle.

I went right to the dairy aisle, not a very daring adventure since they were already sold out of milk, to get my coveted creamer. Then I strolled up and down the aisles. I thought about the Big Football Game on Sunday and decided I need something to serve my son and husband since we would undoubtedly be snowed in for at least a week judging by the scramble for the last bread crumb in Target. So I glanced down the chip aisle.

What do you know, I NEEDED these parmesan garlic kettle cooked chips AND the scooping tortilla chips to have with the salsa/queso that miraculously appeared in my cart. Then I ventured down the frozen food aisle since my wonderful 6 year old son would never allow salsa queso to pass his lips. I needed something the little guy would like.

Imagine my surprise when the taquitos and chicken fingers ended up in my cart. Couple that with the frozen pizza I already had at home and this was dangerous territory for me.

At checkout I did notice one small miracle. A box of turkey sausage and egg white reduced fat english muffin sandwiches were about to make the trip home with me. Yay!!!!

Luckily, here I sit having consumed only three cups of coffee and a few potato chips...and it's six o'clock at night! Only six hours to go!
There's a hockey game in the morning so that should help!

Here Goes...

Ok. So I decided that in order to keep myself motivated and possibly help others, I'd start blogging about my life, my weight and (hopefully) my losses!

A little background: I am a 38 year old nurse who is very happily married most of the time. We have a total of three kids; two teenage girls and our son is in kindergarten. We live in a nice quiet neighborhood and have become accustomed to a certain lifestyle that affords us the opportunity to enjoy our lives. Which includes enjoying gourmet meals!

I currently weigh 218 pounds. Wow. I can't believe I just put that out there on the internet for everyone to see. It's not the heaviest I've been but it's the first time I truly acknowledged my weight.

Weight is a problem for me. It never was when I was a kid. I was always the skinny one. My sister was always overweight even as a small child. I, on the other hand, looked like a skeleton when I was a teenager. Looking back at pictures of me I think to myself, "girl, you look sick!" Then I got pregnant when I was 19 years old. I wasn't very educated. I didn't seek out information. I thought pregnancy gave me a license to eat. I consumed whatever I wanted because "I was eating for two." As a result, I gained 50 pounds with my first child. I never lost it. In fact I gained more when I was in nursing school and at my first nursing job. Then I met my wonderful husband! We got pregnant, got married (in that order) and lived a happy, happy life. Fat and happy. I hadn't gained a lot of weight with my seond child but shortly after he was born I reached my heaviest weight. 237 pounds. Ugh!

I had an epiphany. I was getting older. After 35 it's harder to lose weight and keep it off. I was determined to lose it. I started making small changes. I switched from whites to browns and ate more fruits and veggies. I joined a gym after I lost 20 pounds. Then I joined Weight Watchers shortly after that. In the span of about 6 months, I had lost 65 pounds! I felt great! I looked great!

We had a great summer that year! A summer that included a lot of fun on our boat with our friends. It also included a lot of food. Good food. A drinks...a lot of drinks... After a few months I stopped counting. Stopped keeping track of what I ate and drank and before I knew it, by the next summer, I had gained back half of what I had lost!

Flash Forward to the Present: I'm staring down the barrel at 40 years old and I have a family history of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Both my parents. I don't like to take pills so I really want to try to head this off for as long as I can. I know it's going to get me eventually but for every year, every month I don't have to take medications, it's better for me!

So here I am. To impart my "wisdom" to others and keep myself motivated to keep losing. I'm hoping that I can also learn to temper my healthier eating and exercise with my love of gourmet food! Is that possible? I have no idea but maybe we'll find out here!

PLAN:
**Definitely post a picture of myself (after a haircut and color, of course!)
**Start really keeping track of my eating habits which includes eating out regularly and not always the gourmet kind of eating out
**Keep track of my exercise and post tips