Holidays, Hang-Ups, and Working Out

Big news from the past few weeks is:

I've been working out!!!

Not every day, and I'm sure not as much as I should be, but at least it's something! Once or twice a week I go with my friend and work-out buddy Rozemary to the little gym in her apartment complex, and we do 20 minutes of cardio, a couple of weight machines, and then hit the pool and soak in the hot tub. It's been great and I wish we could find time in our busy schedules to do it more often!

When I'm not doing that, I've managed to motivate myself to do a work-out video, for the first time in my life. I've never really liked work-out videos much. (Can you say total snooze-fest?) But over the Christmas break I saw some Biggest Loser work-out videos on sale for $8 at Best Buy, and figured if anybody could motivate me to do a work-out video from home, it would be Bob! And seriously? It's a dang good work-out!

I like the one I got, Biggest Loser Boot Camp, because it actually has three levels of work-outs that you can move through as you get stronger.

I'm still on the Level 1 work-out, and it keeps my heart-rate up the whole time and thoroughly exhausts me by the end. It's pretty cool how it feels like Bob is talking to me through the TV, and I really like the work-out he does. He combines upper and lower body work-outs through most of the program, and I use my 5-pound weights that I bought about a year ago and NEVER used until now. (Isn't that embarrassing? At least I'm using them now!)

I definitely recommend this DVD for anyone who has trouble staying motivated but wants to work out from home. All you need is a small amount of floor space and some weights. I really want the Biggest Loser Wii game now too!

It's good that I've added some working out into my weight loss program now, because boy do I need it! I've discovered two things now that I'm back to the weight I was before I got pregnant:

#1- My weight loss is slowing down, most definitely. And that's partly because I'm having a harder time staying motivated and sticking to my diet as closely. Now that I fit into my old clothes again and am back to the decent weight I was at before, it's REALLY hard to stay very strict so I can lose more!

and #2- It's SO MUCH easier to give into the cravings now. The foods I love just call my name, and I can't resist them as much as I used to when I was above my pre-pregnancy weight.

My main craving lately: Tillamook Cheddar cheese. Heaven in a slice. Not kidding.

String cheese has just really not been cutting it lately. Instead of string cheese, I'll sometimes cut two small slices of Tillamook cheddar, and just savor it with my lunch or dinner. It's SO good!

For this past Valentine's week. . . it's been bye-bye diet, completely thrown out the window. I made SO many yummy treats, and it's just been a mad eating frenzy of brownies, heart-shaped sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookie bars, and my box of See's chocolates. Yes, I've been very, very bad. And this next week is not looking to get a whole lot better, since my birthday is this Saturday. A girl's got to indulge for her birthday, right?

I vow that March will be a much better month. Thank goodness for all these holidays, to completely ruin our diets. :)

Nutrisystem added a few new items to their menu, and by FAR my fave is the new double chocolate caramel bar. It's a lunch option, and I really like it!

I get really tired of eating soups every day for lunch, so it's great to find a bar that I actually like. I only ordered three and ate them already, so I'll look forward to ordering a whole bunch in my next shipment. That's the only new menu item that stands out much to me. Trail mix bar = gross.

So for the past few weeks, (really since I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight) I've been losing one pound per week. I expected this, and am at least still happy to see the number dropping. I am currently at 153, which is three pounds below my weight when I got pregnant. Only 8 pounds away from my goal weight. . . it sounds so awesome! I'm really doing this!!!

New Year, New Goal!

So do you want to know what the antithesis of "diet" is? A long vacation. Especially to a place where you have multiple favorite restaurants and you dream about the food you'll eat there long before you're actually there.

Yikes.

I spent three weeks with my family down in San Diego. I had a marvelous time with family and friends, and didn't think too much about calories or fat content. Hey, it's December AND vacation, right? I did take a few Nutrisystem meals down there with me, with the best intentions of eating them every once in awhile. I mostly only ate the breakfasts that I took with me. . . but at least it's something! I did hold back more than usual on Christmas treats. I ate lots of Christmas candy (my sweet tooth is VERY happy in December!), but I didn't make some of my favorite Christmas treats that I usually make (chocolate mint brownies and pretzel rods dipped in caramel and chocolate) because I knew I'd want to eat them ALL if I made them. So I did use a small amount of restraint.

What absolutely killed me was the eating out! I'm only down in San Diego twice a year, so there is no way on this earth I'm going to be able to resist eating at my favorite places! I had some of this:
(Actually, I only ate there once! Surprising!)

My biggest weakness when I'm in Southern California is most definitely MEXICAN FOOD! I crave it like mad! It's just so delicious down there! I had two heavenly meals at the Old Town Mexican Cafe, my very favorite.

Yep, cheese fries are another weakness. And boy, were they GOOD!

I may have only had lunch at In 'n Out once, but I don't even know how many lunches I ate at Rubio's. Rubio's is the BEST place to eat lunch. I just can't get enough of their grilled chicken nachos! I guess it's a good thing they don't have any Rubio's in Seattle, because I could never resist it!

And I had a couple of these. . .
(My favorite dessert, the Molten Lava Cake from Chili's! Also can't get that anywhere in Seattle. It makes me want to cry, it's so good).

So. . . I didn't exactly meet my goal of maintaining my weight over the holidays. And now you know why.

The good news is, I weighed myself this morning (I've been back for two days now), and I'm at 159. So really a weight gain of 3 pounds is better than I thought it would be! Now I am back on track with my strict Nutrisystem diet and hoping to be at 145 by the end of March. 14 pounds to go! It should be easier to stay motivated right now than it was in the fall, since the rest of the world is joining me in new year weight loss goals. :)

Goodbye Baby Weight!

Sometimes I forget that I have this blog! I realize that I haven't updated it in forever! But that's okay, because I have some exciting news to share. . .

In just over two months, I lost 20 POUNDS!!! I am SO thrilled! As of last week, I'm down to 156 pounds, putting me exactly at what I was before I got pregnant. Hallelujah!!! And I fit back into my jeans again!!! Seriously. . . it feels great!

I had a couple weeks that I did pretty bad on, and I thought I wouldn't lose any weight those weeks. There was the week of the pumpkin bars. . . dang, those things were so good! I made pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting for my friend's baby shower, brought home all the leftovers, and ATE all the leftovers. I just couldn't keep away! But I still lost one pound that week!

And then Halloween was another week I thought my diet was wrecked. I ate Witches brew, homemade cornbread with honey, Halloween Oreos, and of course plenty of candy. To my surprise, I still lost TWO pounds on Halloween week!

My conclusion:
I think my body really WANTED to lose the baby weight and get back to what I was before. I really am thrilled with how fast the baby weight came off with the Nutrisystem diet! I thought it would take longer! I had one cheat meal per week (sometimes two, depending on the week), and I didn't go to the gym to work out. Craziness! But in a good way, of course!

Thanksgiving week is another story. Oh gosh, I've been BAD. Too much deliciousness!!! I haven't weighed myself yet, but I am 100 percent sure I didn't lose weight this week. My goal was just to stay the same, and not gain!

Now that it's December, I'm going easier on myself. If I set up a weight goal for the month, I'm sure I'll just be disappointed. We're going to Whistler this weekend, and of course I'll be eating in restaurants for that whole time. (SO excited for Whistler!!!) Then on the 12'th we're flying down to San Diego and spending the rest of the month with my family there for Christmas. I plan on taking some Nutrisystem meals with me, but of course I'll be eating out multiple times per week (those San Diego restaurants are just too darn irresistible), and having some Christmas baked goodies. So my realistic goal for December is just to maintain my weight that I'm at right now. I don't want to take any backward steps! But I hope to stay right where I'm at. And then in January I'll go FULL force towards losing those last 10 pounds I want to lose to get to my goal weight. I fully expect the last 10 pounds to be extremely tough to lose, since my body really likes being at the weight I'm at now. But I will go for it, and hopefully lose the last 10 pounds by March!!!

So if you're reading this, celebrate with me!!! I lost 20 pounds, I fit back into my jeans again, and boy does it feel awesome!!!

My New Shipment Came!

Sorry, I left you all hanging about whether or not I lost that one pound and got down to a 10-pound weight loss in four weeks. I'm sure my five readers are very anxious to know. :)

Well. . .

I actually lost a pound and a half that week!!! I was thrilled! (Yes, my scale does it by the half-pound). So that put me at 165.5, and a 10 and a half pound weight loss after four weeks! Pretty AWESOME!!!

As far as last week goes, I waited and waited for my new shipment to arrive. Last Friday, it finally came! And it's been a million times better having food that I actually like to eat. Such a difference! I did have more than one cheat meal while I was waiting for my food to arrive, so I wasn't too sure how good week 5's weight loss would be. I weighed in yesterday, and my scale said 163.5. Two more pounds! So that puts me at 12.5 pounds lost in 5 weeks!!!

So far, so good!!! Here's what I'm actually looking forward to eating right now:

*NutriCinnamon Squares cereal for breakfast. It's so good! I am not even a cereal person, but I love it and I want it every morning.

*My very favorite Nutrisystem dinner that I found in this shipment (I know I ordered some for my first shipment, but didn't get any until this month). . .
Flatbread Pizza!!! It's yummy! I bake it in the toaster oven until it puffs up and the cheese is really melty, and it beats out their Thick Crust Pizza and their Sourdough Pizza. I do look forward to eating one of these for dinner most nights. I'm not saying it's Pizza Hut or anything, but for diet food it's pretty dang AWESOME!

*A bowl of sliced strawberries with dinner every night. Strawberries seriously are nature's candy.

*The Chocolate Mint Crunch Nutrisystem dessert bar. It tastes like a real candy bar, and I love mint chocolate stuff!

As far as lunches go, there's nothing I'm totally loving. Their soups are definitely fine, and I have three varieties that I switch between. But I wish there was a lunch option that I love, like I love the breakfast, dinner, and dessert options. Bummer!

Highlight of the week- (other than discovering the flatbread pizza and losing two more pounds) was that I FINALLY got all the food out of the boxes, cleaned out my pantry, and re-organized everything to make room in the pantry for my Nutrisystem food. This was a huge challenge, since my pantry is most definitely not big enough! But I took an entire evening and filled up five huge trashbags full of expired food and trash. No wonder it took me five weeks of Nutrisystem dieting before I finally got around to doing this! But it's so nice now to have all my food organized in the pantry and not have to go digging around in the box for it. And all the foods I didn't like from my first shipment? It went into food storage!

It's just so encouraging that I've lost 12 and a half pounds so far! This is hard, but it WORKS!!!

Almost To 10!

So guess what? Even though I thought I didn't lose any weight last week, I did lose 2 pounds! I was really happy about that! That put me down to 167, and made for a total of 9 pounds in 3 weeks. Not too shabby!!!

This week will be a different story, I'm sure, since I'm currently waiting for my next shipment of Nutrisystem food to arrive and really scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as meals I already have from them. All that's left are the meals I hated and refuse to eat again! I've still been doing just fine on the breakfasts and lunches, but dinners haven't been great this week. I mean, they have been GREAT, but not great for the diet. :) As soon as my new shipment arrives (hopefully soon!), then I will get right back on track and be just as strict again.

So for this week. . . I really want to lose just ONE pound! Just one measly little pound! That way, I will have lost 10 pounds in 4 weeks and I'll be 1/3 of the way to my goal weight!

Please, scale. . . One pound? Check back on Thursday, when I will reveal the scale's great mysteries once again. . .

Plugging Along

Gosh, I have been such a slacker lately when it comes to posting on this blog! I definitely need to post more often! I'll do the big news first. . . So almost a week ago, after two weeks of being on the Nutrisystem diet, my scale said I weigh 169. So that's 2 and a half pounds lost the second week, for a total of 7 pounds in two weeks! Not too shabby! I was pretty happy with progress like that!!!

More random things I'm learning about myself on this diet:

*I have learned that I can be around foods I love and resist eating them! It's difficult, but I can survive it. I even passed the McDonalds test. Kirsten got a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and fries, and my friend and her daughter had McDonald's and everyone was eating it but me. And I didn't eat a single fry! It was sooooooo hard though, and as soon as I smelled that bag of deliciousness after I got it in the car I just wanted to rip that bag open and devour everything in it! McDonalds isn't my favorite food in the world or anything, but I do love those fries and dang, did they smell good!

*I pretty much live for my one cheat meal that I give myself per week. I look forward to it, think about it, dream about it, and plan out exactly what it is I want to eat so that I won't go overboard but still get to enjoy it. And it's working good for me so far!

*I really don't mind this diet at all for breakfasts, and lunches aren't so bad either. Dinners are tough though. Especially with this crisp fall weather we're having, I am constantly in the mood to cook one of my favorite family dinners and eat a normal dinner the way I used to! Just about everything sounds good! I'm dying to make Cheeseburger Pie, Chicken Enchiladas, or homemade Macaroni and Cheese. When it's "soup and grilled cheese" weather and Stephen and Kirsten get to eat that for dinner, I mope a little bit about eating just my soup, because I crave a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. I thought I'd crave desserts and sweets a lot on this diet, but I'm surprised to see that I mostly crave cheesy, hearty, real foods the most.

*I need to start exercising, especially if I want this weight loss to move faster. I did buy the EA Sports Personal Trainer game for the Wii, and I have grand intentions to start using it very soon.

*This diet really does keep you feeling full and satisfied almost all the time. I'm almost never hungry.

More stuff I'm learning about the Nutrisystem food:

*Now that I'm getting towards the end of my first shipment of food (my next one ships out in about a week), it's getting harder because I've eaten most of the foods I actually like already and am getting left with the things I just don't want to eat. Ugggggh! For this new shipment, it's going to be LOTS better because I ordered a bunch of the same things, and I already know I like them. Can't wait for that new shipment!

*The most terrible, awful, horrible Nutrisystem foods I've had on this diet are by FAR some of the desserts, believe it or not! The chocolatey, sugary desserts aren't bad, but they package lots of snacky things as desserts, like chips, pretzels, etc. Oh, they are FOUL!!! I hated the Nacho Crisps with a passion, and the Honey Mustard Pretzels were even worse! I can't figure out what makes them so awful. Maybe it's the soy protein they add to them? Nasty! Stephen tasted some and he agrees with me!

*Breakfasts: I really don't like the oatmeal. It's just way too gluey. The pancake mix is decent. My next breakfast shipment will contain lots of cereal packets, since those are the breakfast items I actually like. I'm getting a whole bunch of my favorite one, the NutriCinnamon Squares. And the only breakfast bar I'm re-ordering is the Cinnamon Bun bar.

*Lunches: I wish they had more variety in their lunch choices, other than just lots of soups. I'm re-ordering quite a few of the Chicken and vegetable noodle soups, some Ham and Bean soup, and absolutely none of the pastas. The only lunch bar that I want more of is the Chocolate Graham bar. And I only eat that when I'm on-the-go.

*Dinners: My next order consists of 12 Thick Crust Pizzas, 8 Flat Bread Pizzas, 7 Sourdough Pizzas, 5 Hearty Beef Stews, and 3 Chicken with Dumplings.
Yep. . . that's it.
Those are the things I actually like from their dinner menu! Everything else is too soupy, watery, and just grosses me out, especially after eating soup for lunch. I'd much rather eat the same exact thing for dinner every night than a whole variety of stuff that isn't so good. Anybody with me on that?

*Desserts: I'm actually pretty excited to receive 24 Mint Crunch Bars with my next order. It's thin, like a regular candy bar, and seriously yummy! I'm also ordering a few more of the regular Crunch bars, chocolate chip cookies, and hot cocoa. And that's it! I tried pretty much everything and don't like most of it. Even the brownie and the chocolate cake aren't very good. So I'm ordering what I like!

*As far as other grocery items, these are the things I find myself constantly buying and eating:

-A whole bunch of these (I slice them up and eat them in bowls with my lunch or dinner). Sometimes I have apple slices or grapes, to mix it up a little.

-Bartlett Pears. Holy yummyness! Pears are tricky, because you have to cut them open at the exact right time for them to be good. Cut them too soon and they're kinda crunchy. Wait too long and they're brown and mushy. But if you get it just right, they are delicious! I ate two perfect pears last week and thought I was in heaven!

-Yoplait Light. I eat one every single morning!

-String cheese! I get a little tired of it, but it's still good!

Confession:
If I don't lose any weight this week (I weigh in tomorrow), I won't be surprised. Last Saturday was a completely awesome day. . . we took the kids to the Issaquah Salmon Festival during the day (where there was booth after booth of fair food!), and went on an amazing date that night to see Wicked and eat at El Gaucho with my husband. Needless to say, my diet pretty much flew out the window that day. At the fair I ate some really yummy fresh-cut fries (this was probably the worst of all the things I ate that day). And then at El Gaucho. . . WOW, that restaurant is to die for! I had a delicious filet steak, the best side dish of macaroni and cheese I've ever tasted, and shared a really small chocolate ganache dessert with Stephen.

It's so hard to believe that just one day of splurging like that can kill your diet, but I'm guessing it probably can. I've been really good on all the other days! But that day probably killed me, according to the scale. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

The Day of Reckoning

This morning marked one week since I started my diet with Nutrisystem. I survived one week, don't I deserve some kind of medal for that? I did go to the mall and treat myself to some shopping, but that's a whole different story. . .
One week meant I could weigh myself! I didn't really have any specific expectations. Mostly I was just really curious, and knew I would be disappointed if I had only lost one pound or two. After one week of dieting (including the delicious burger I had on cheat night), my scale now said. . .

171.5
I lost 4 and a half pounds in one week!
Thank goodness this is actually working! It's horrible and I mostly hate it, but it's working and I'm losing weight! So I felt good about it today!!!
Hooray!!!

Here's how my meals have been going lately. . .

Breakfasts-
*I thought I hated all the breakfast bars, but today I tried one that wasn't too bad. . . the Cinnamon Bun bar. It's a smaller bar than most of them, which gave me hope because I thought it might taste better. I'd much rather eat a smaller thing that tastes better than a bigger thing that tastes worse! I'm not saying it was the best thing ever, but it had a decent flavor and I think I would order some more of those for next time.

Lunches-
*Gosh, I don't think I could ever survive Nutrisystem in the summertime! Other than bars, it seems like ALL the lunches are hot, soupy items and you just don't feel like eating those when it's warm outside! Soups are great when it's cool, but yesterday and today we had temperatures here in the 80's and nothing hot for lunch sounded good! What I really wanted was a nice sandwich. . . but let's not talk about how badly I want a turkey, bacon, and avocado club sandwich on some really yummy bread. Mmmm. . . .
Anyway, yesterday (the hottest day!) I tried the cheesy tortellini and just couldn't finish it. Too hot and much too gluey for a hot day! Today I had the fudge graham bar, and I actually thought it was a pretty good bar. I'll have to order some more of those! I wouldn't want it by itself, but with a string cheese and some fruit it made kind of a nice lunch!

Dinners-
*Note to self: Do not order hot, soupy dinners to be following the hot, soupy lunches. Too much watery, soupy stuff and it makes me just not want to eat dinner at all!

*The chicken and dumplings meal was pretty good. Too watery, but after leaving most of the sauce on the plate I liked the actual pieces of chicken, dumplings, and veggies.

*Two nights ago I had the grilled hamburger patty. It said I could put it on a small whole-grain roll, but we didn't have any. I put shredded low-fat cheese over the top of it and dipped it in ketchup instead. It was nice to have a non-watery entree, but the patty had a very strange taste to it. Very strange!

*I have been having really bad luck with the macaroni and cheese. It says to add very hot but NOT boiling water to it and let it sit for 8-10 minutes. The first time I tried it, I had to throw it away because the noodles were all completely crunchy. GROSS! So I tried it again tonight and used water that actually was boiling. It still didn't cook all the noodles!!! Some were cooked fine, but a lot of them were crunchy and it was just nasty. I stirred one ounce of the low-fat cheddar into the sauce, which made it thicker and less watery. So that helped, but next time I have got to get those noodles to all cook! I don't know why it's so hard to do!

Extra stuff:
*Thanks to a suggestion from a Facebook friend, I tried Vanilla Coke Zero. I don't love it and won't be drinking it every day or anything, but I did like it better than any Diet sodas. If I'm going to be eating something that I don't like, I think it will be good to have it on the side to get rid of the flavor better than water does. But I much prefer ice water! I'll mostly be drinking big glasses of ice water.

*My favorite fruit to have with meals or as a snack is definitely sliced strawberries. Love them! They taste delicious right now especially! I was pretty much switching off between strawberries and grapes, so tonight I went grocery shopping and bought pears, plums, and apples as well so I can have more variety. I still think nothing beats strawberries! Unless it was boysenberries or tangerines, but both of those are pretty much impossible to find in Washington. (Sniff).


I have high hopes to keep it up this week and lose some more pounds! I'm on my way to my goal and it feels good!