Week 7 Results... What goes down, came back up? Crap!

Well I hate to say it but i"m back up to 224. I'm not discouraged however because this still means I'm down 14 lbs from where I began! But I know I need to really be diligent and stick with the plan!

I have to share with you, now that it's staying in the mid 80s here (temperature wise) in Clarksville I have dubbed it "Summer" :) So in honor of Summer starting early  here I fixed one of my all time favorite summer meals... Lean burger on a wheat bun topped with a slice of pineapple and barbecue sauce. Side of corn on the cob and fruit, and a smirnoff to wash it down - YUM!!

Here are the weekly pics I promised to post...

Also, I want to take a quick moment to encourage everyone to shop locally! My husband and I went to the local farmers market this morning and made out with a full grocery sack for a little over $20... $21 to be exact!! Look at all the goodies we got... Farm grown, local owned, no added "stuff" or enhancement or whatever they put in it... just natural good food and low in cost!!

1 qt summer squash & yellow zucchini = $2

2 tomatoes = $2

1 lb broccoli = $2.50

1 lb ground beef = $4

1 qt snap peas = $1.50

1 dozen eggs = $3

wildflower honey = 6

Grand Total Spent = $21

Until next time, let's hope the weather stays beautiful so we're all encouraged to go out and enjoy it! Tonight I think we're going to check out "Jazz on the Lawn" at a local vineyard! Sounds fun!

Week 6 Results - NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

Well followers - it has been a rough week and I am horrible at daily blogging. To start this week off, on Monday I had to take our kitten, Karma, to the vet and have her put down. As I previously posted, she was positive for FIP (review previous blog post) so we knew it was only a matter of time before it would over power her little self. She was only 9 months old, but the 2.5 months we share with her were great! I'm sad that she is gone, but accepting of it because I know she's not going to suffer and has moved on to a better place. She still appears in our daily lives - possessing our remaining kitten now and then... and making the water dish bubble when no one is around haha. We love and miss Karma. This is a picture my husband took of her about 30 minutes prior to her being put to sleep.

Karma

August 2010-May 9, 2011

In other happier news I lost the most weight this last week and half that I have EVER lost at one time in my life and I'm so proud!! My current weight is..............

222 BABY!!! WAHOOO!!!!!!!! That is 8lbs less than the last time I weighed in!! Okay, I realize it's been a week and a half but I'm stoked at the weightloss progress of last week! I guess Weight Watchers is a good idea for me... that means after 6 weeks I have lost 16lbs!!! WHOOOOO!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am so I hope you can read it in this blog!

Scariest part is I haven't really been exercising, just counting every bite that enters my mouth :)

Time to update the pics...

  

Week 1                                    Week 6

  

So a couple differences I can see in these pictures most obviously is - OMG... I'm going to have a neck/jawline again :) And my stomach is behind my boobs! Woot!

This is wonderful motivation to keep trudging along :D Until next time - stay focused!!

One last thing before I go, a message from our kitten, Ninja...

Ninja says "Happy Friday the 13th!" 

:P

Change - AGAIN

When it comes to weight loss, having a support group is a HUGE help with staying on track and those days when you just feel like binging.

We have decided to stop doing Atkins and switch to Weight Watchers Online.

I realize we only did Atkins for less than a week (and yeah, I was loving the results so far!) BUT it was not a good meal plan to follow for my husband and his work schedule. The lack of carbohydrates and intense physical training he goes through with the Army lead to a very weak and almost disoriented husband. Yesterday he was very out of it. We felt that it was because he wasn't getting enough protein OR carbohydrates so we talked about different possible approaches and decided that Weight Watchers Online would be our next endeavor.

So last night we hoped online via our respective computers, enrolled, explored and even listed the foods we'd eaten that day.

Why Weight Watchers?

 I've done Weight Watchers before and it really works - IF you're honest and track every bite of food. I'm excited do be going through Weight Watchers online because of the portability. We already made sure that it is compatible with both of our phones - so when we're out to eat, or he's off to work, we can still tally our PlusPoints!! Woot!

Another benefit of Weight Watchers is that my husband will be able to record all his daily PT (physical training) and determine if he's eating enough to compensate for his workout and yet still lose healthy weight.

So I'm looking forward to this - just as I have been with everything else.

I was getting results with Atkins, but it is too complicated and tempting to fix a carb incorporated dish for my husband and a non-carb dish for myself and still be able to eat together. I will take what I've learned from Atkins and combine it with Weight Watchers.

Wish us luck!! I'm off to make Cheesy Breakfast Quesadilas :)

May the Fourth Be With You, Cont.

Well here's a recap of the rest of my day. Lunch was HUGE, like I truly was stuffed afterwards...

4 c mixed greens, 5 cherry tomatoes, 2 T chopped onion, 2 T grated parmesan cheese and 2 T italian dressing

Dinner tonight was different - let's just say I relearned my veggie preferances :) We had a pork chop with mashed 1/2 c mashed cauliflower and 1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese. The salad was 2 c mixed salad greens, 1/2 c raw green beans, 6 radishes and 2 T vinaigrette.

What did I learn from dinner? Pork chops are very flavor ful - YUM! Mashed cauliflower and cheddar cheese is AMAZING! Radishes are bitter and I think I could go the rest of my life without eating another ever again. And lastly, next time I'm cooking the green beans, because raw = not so yummy!

But I'm filled to the brim!

I just got done packing food for my husband to take to work tomorrow as he has a VERY long day ahead of him. Tomorrow looks yummy already!!

I guess I should also report that I've already noticed a difference in my energy level - and I'm not freaking out about being hungry all the time!

HONEST MOMENT: I realized we didn't hide the bag of milk chocolate chips... so I had a handful today while I was craving chocolate. Gonna have to do some thinking/research so that doesn't happen again. Otherwise I've stuck to the meal plan like white on rice :D

QUESTION: What can I do to make radishes more edible and not so bitter? Please comment below...

May the Fourth Be With You

Well, you may notice that I have updated my blog a little bit - I'm slowly figuring out how to "Pimp my Blog" hahahaa. So now there's a slideshow of the weekly profile view pictures, my current playlist of motivational "kick-ass and take names" music and the visitor count. Any other suggestions for pimping out my blog? Comment below!

This morning for breakfast I have to admit - I think I fell in love with a new breakfast food :D

Ground beef, 1/4 c green onions, 1/2 c. red peppers topped with 1/4 c mozzarella cheese = YUM!!

The best part is, I feel very energized and full. BUT in a few minutes I'll have a snack (1 hard-boiled egg and 1 celery stalk) and wait a little bit to eat lunch. I'm digging the Atkin's menu so far and hope it continues to go well :D

May the fourth be with me as I work towards a healthier lifestyle :) and with you and whatever goals you've made for yourself!

Week 4 - END OF MY FIRST MONTH - RESULTS :)

So after my morning post I went to the fridge and got crackin'! I decided to go ahead and wash/dry the lettuce as well as pre-portion for the salads we'll be eating for lunch this week.

Here is a picture of mixed salad greens pre-portioned in to 4 cups each. Now all I'll have to do is add the toppings as called for :)

Speaking of lunch - today the salad called for 4 c. mixed salad greens, 1 T. onions, 5 black olives and vinaigrette dresing. I'll be honest, I didn't enjoy the added flavor the onions brought. I thought I wouldn't have enjoyed the black olives - but the onions were nasty! I muscled through it though :)

Tonight for dinner we each had a serving of chicken (the size of a deck of cards) - so we ended up splitting 1 chicken breast. Then the salad was 2 c. romaine lettuce, 1/2 c. sliced cucumbers and 5 cherry tomatoes. We also had 6 spears of asparagus :) Yum! Dinner was tasty! We pretty much turned it into a nice looking chicken salad by cutting up the chicken and mixing it into the greens.

The moment I've been waiting for - let me show you the comparison picture. These pictures compare Day 1 to the end of my 4th week (so one month). My total weight loss was 8 lbs. I can tell that I've lost weight in my waist line. It's nice to see in my profile picture the tire around my middle slowly starting to disappear! Can't wait to see what happens this next month :)

Day 1                                     Week 4

PS - I didn't add the cat, she just needed her time in the spotlight. So world of blogging - meet 10 month old Karma :)

End of Month 1 - Starting Atkins

Well, today marks the first month of my journey to a healthier self. I'm proud that I have continued to lose steadily - I would rather lose slow and steadily, than fast and gain it all back. I will post pictures tonight when my photographer (aka husband) is home from work but my current weight is 230lbs!! So I realize you may think "Oh, she only lost .4lbs last week" and yeah, I admit, at first glance I wish it was a higher number so I could have reached my 10lb goal - BUT it's still a loss not a gain so I'm very happy! This brings my weightloss total after 1 month of monitored eating and portion control to.......................................

-8 pounds

Wohoo!! I'm proud of myself!!

Now, looking at the upcoming week I am trying something different. My husband has decided to get in on this weightloss thing too. When he was deployed he didn't eat very often and was very active, and super skinny. Now that he's home, and not in as stressful an environment, he's gained a few pounds back (nothing darastic) but he wants to lose them before it gets out of control.

 We also are making changes to our eating habits because one day when we're blessed enough to have children, we want them to make healthy decisions from day one and not struggle with their weight. 

So what are we doing? We're going to try out Atkins. I did Atkins when I graduated high school and lost around 25 lbs in the first few months. But then I went off to college, and stopped caring about what I put in my body. SO... Atkins... yay! We read the chapters up through Phase 1: Induction. Then we revamped our shopping list and let me tell you 90% of our list was green - LOTS and LOTS of vegetables. We purchased some things I know I've never tried before. We also bought some cheeses and lean meat. No bread. No pasta. No carbs. >insert crying here< 

I love carbs, partially because they are a comfort food - but mainly because they don't take any thought or time to prepare. 

When we got home from the grocery store last night we decided to get rid of all the "bad" "non atkins approved" food. It wasn't a lot (mainly because we had been needing to re-stock anyway) but when we finished, it looked VERY different. Our pasta rack... is empty and has been replaced with a couple of cans of olives. Our refridgerator is cram packed with romaine, red leaf lettuce, bell peppers, onions, green beans, celery, etc etc etc. It looks great!!!

Alright, the Beer, and Coke is honestly only in there for when my husband's battle buddies come over and play video games - they typically have been or Jack & Coke. Otherwise, there it sits :)

Well, I started today, but unfortunately my husband will have to wait a day to try breakfast/snack/lunch/snack because they unexpectedly went to the range today when we were anticipating him being able to come home and have breakfast/pack his lunch. Hmm. May need to start doing this the night before...  Anyway,

Breakfast this morning went something like this:

1 serving of sausage, 2 scrambled eggs and 1 cup of Almond Milk.

Let me just say, I hope Almond Milk is an acquired taste because this morning it was NASTY! I kept telling myself "it's real milk. it's real milk. it's real milk." when in reality it's real nasty :) I'll try it again later in the week, but it was hard to keep from gagging on it. Guess I'll be living on water ;)

I will continue to post pics of snacks and meals today. Tonight I'll be sure to post a new updated pic to compare to day 1 :-)