5 Lost and 5 Gained

Weigh in- 145.

Did another great jump-rope workout today. The only problem with the at-work workout is that you get pretty sweaty. Luckily I thought ahead and brought an extra shirt, just in case. So I'll be changing before I leave the office.

I'm kind of upset that just one or two days of eating poorly can swing you back to your original weight after so much work. I'm hoping that this time it will take less time to get to 140, and that I can break that mark. I knew this was going to be a difficult time of year. At least I lost 5 pounds before I gained 5 back. I could have just gained 5 and been at 150! I have 6 days before the New Year. I really want to get down to 140 again. I think I can do it in a healthy way if I work out a little every day and don't eat like crap this weekend.

Let me tell you why I gained so much back yesterday. Nate and I made this incredible cheese dip with ground pork and some ground sausage. We put velveeta cheese in it, and chopped up onions, peppers, garlic and scallions. It's not great for you, but on top of that it's so delicious that I can't stop eating it. So I had sooo much dip yesterday. That was my lunch. Then I made lobster and brussel sprouts for dinner. My special brussel sprouts with parmesian cheese. I have been crocheting in between meals though, and that keeps my hands busy. Plus, it's too big of a pain in the butt to eat chips or cookies and then go wash your hands off after every bite so you don't get crumbs on the yarn.

Plans for this weekend.

Food: I need to go home tonight and plan the lunches. I'm not sure what we have in the fridge, but I certainly don't have any money after Christmas to buy any extra groceries. I might still have tofu. Uh oh. I think I was supposed to eat that a few days ago. It's probably bad.

Exercise: Tomorrow- tennis, maybe another walk on the beach, Sunday- aerobic house cleaning.

Great Quick Workout and Check-in

So I have said many times that I would jumprope for my workout and truthfully today is the first day I actually did it on my own. Ananda and I did one minute intervals after playing tennis last week, but today I did 2 minute intervals. I found a great timer online http://timberfrog.com/countdown/ It lets you set the timer for whatever you want and plays an annoying alarm when time's done. So I set it for 2 min, jumped rope, set it again, did situps, set it again, jumped rope and then did as many pushups as I could do. For an 8 minute workout, it was pretty exhausting. The second round of jumping rope was hard. I'm going to try to do another round in an hour.

So for my check in, unfortunately the scale read 145 again this morning, even though Ananda and I did an hour long walk last night. On Monday the transmission on my car died and I ended up drinking a lot of beer and then snacking on a lot of Christmas cookies that Nate's mom sent. I ate a lot of cookies. It sucks that one day can backtrack you that far. I had a really bad day yesterday, I got an estimate for the transmission (1800-2800) and then some work my dentist did on my front tooth fell off. Luckily it's not too visible because the dentist's office is closed for the holiday! I decided not to drink and get all depressed though. Instead Ananda and I went for a walk and then Nate and I watched the movie step-brothers which I thought was pretty darn funny. I felt much better afterwards. A hell of a lot better than I would have if I had drank instead of taking care of myself. I am going to do my best these next couple of days. Gizmo gets neutered on Friday which means he has to stay at the vet's office over night. With the holidays and all of the depressing news I need to make sure that I take care of myself or I have the tendency to get really depressed. I'm glad that I can look forward to Myia coming out and it will be nice when my car is fixed!

For the holidays- remember to appreciate all of the little things.

My husband, my puppies, nice weather here in Hawaii, good health, loving family, great friends.

Blogging Instead of Eating

I don't need that candy or cookies! I don't need them. Man, I want them though. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid!

Difficult Week Coming

I woke up this morning and weighed 142. That's fine, I tried really hard not to get back up to 145. I did okay this weekend. Played tennis with Ananda Saturday morning and did a strength training workout at home. I tried to keep filling my glass with water and tea so I wouldn't be tempted to drink wine or beer. I did have some wine, but only a small glass.

This week is going to be a challenge. Because it's Christmas week, there are not kickboxing classes. I need to come up with my own workout ideas. Hopefully Ananda will be able to do something this evening, if not I will be headed to the tennis wall on my own. I need to keep my scheduled workout days, I know this from past experience.
The other reason this week is going to be a challenge is that the kids are out of school. That means I have a lot of paper/desk work to do, which means I will be thinking more about food. It won't be too bad if the staff doesn't bring too much snack foods, then I will still just eat what I pack. The there's Christmas Eve and Christmas which traditionally for me always focus around food. I'm going to have to work extra hard this year to make sure that I fill the day with something other than snacking. Hopefully I'll have the energy to do my annual pre-dawn run on Christmas morning. Waking up at 4am on Christmas has so far been a habit I have been unable to break, so last year I went for a run. It was awesome to be out that early on Christmas morning. Then Nate can sleep in.
This week I would like to see the scale dip below 140. I think I can get it to do that. It will mean that I have truly changed my set point.

This week: Tonight- tennis, tomorrow- jump rope at school/work, Wednesday- off, Thursday- morning run/walk, Friday-jump rope, Saturday- tennis in the morning.

Food goal for this week: I started to read the Best Life Diet book. I do like the idea of not eating 2 hours before bed. I am going to work on that goal this week and continue to drink tea, which by the way, has been very helpful.

So Far, So Good

Played some tennis with Ananda this morning, ate eggs and a half of a bagel for breakfast. For lunch Nate asked for some pasta with a butter sauce, so I made some for him and put less butter sauce on mine and added some tofu that I fried. Yum. Not extremely healthy, but better than my normal Saturday lunch. Dinner is chicken with mixed frozen veggies. The challenge for today is the beer that Bobby will most likely have at his place when we stop by there later. Maybe I need to bring a drink for myself....

Met my goal!

This week I did really well. I have to give myself a pat on the back. I had a 3-day training at the beginning of the week, but luckily the DOE no longer budgets for lunch at our trainings. Trainings used to mean buffet style lunch. We had to either go buy lunch down the road or bring, so I decided to bring my lunch. There was only a few other people who brought, so we got to talking and one of my co-workers was talking about getting healthier so I suggested we walk for lunch the following day. Nate and I also planned out our dinners.
I had kickboxing on Monday, and it was one of the most exhausting workouts I've ever done. Literally pouring sweat off of my forehead. I didn't exercise Tuesday and Wednesday, but then I had an incredibly exhausting kickboxing workout on Thursday again. We were doing pushups and situps, kicking, punching and then in between we were rotating onto this pilates type machine that you lay on and do pushups or pullups. On Tuesday I weighed 142 and this morning I weighed 140. I'm motivated to plan for the weekend so I don't backslide. I really need to do some kind of workout over the weekend, a run or speed walk or something. Unfortunately, there is no kickboxing classes next week due to the holidays, so I'm going to have to make sure I plan in exercise. After that Myia will be here and hopefully she will motivate me to get off my ass a few extra times and I will break the 140 mark.
I think one of the things that really helped me this last week was the one extra workout I did on Sunday. Before then I was just kind of maintaining- working out hard, but eating too much. I went for a run on Sunday and did some pushups at my turnaround point. I think it helped keep my metabolism up and I was able to lose just a little. So my goal for this weekend is to get in that extra workout again.

When I get home I need to plan out the meals for the weekend. I think it would be smart to stop at a store on the way home and get lunch meat or something.
Workouts- Tomorrow tennis, Sunday- hiking or running.

Fighting to conquer Sunday

My struggles with the weekend continue. I didn't do so bad yesterday earlier in the day. I had one egg, mixed in some salsa and had half of a bagel with it. For lunch I followed my plan- tuna melt with healthier modifications. Then we headed out to the dog park and on the way home we hit the grocery store. And we bought chips. Damn it. If they're not in the house I can't eat them. But in the house they were. Bobby was on his way over to get the rest of his stuff, (he was supposed to move out on the 1st) and I had to talk to him about charging him rent since it is now the 14th of December. So I had a glass of wine and while I was drinking wine I started making brownies. Because we have brownie mix. I also had 3 beers. At least I stopped with the drinking, had a glass of iced tea with dinner. And dinner was good- I made roast pork with a salad on the side. I gave Nate most of the leftover rice, but I had to have a bite. Then Nate served out some cheesecake ice cream. Wow, to write all of that down makes me feel awful. Half a bag of chips, 3 beers, 2 glasses of wine, 2 brownies and a huge bowl of cheesecake (Ben and Jerry's) ice cream.
This morning it was sunny out by 9am, and since Ananda didn't wake up to play tennis, I went for a run. It felt really good. I ran pretty fast down past Kailua Beach, then I did some half-pushups on a bench and some tricep dips on same bench. I walked and jogged back since my knee was twinging a little. Then when I got back I practiced some punches and kicks since I'm trying not to be a big loser in kickboxing class. I actually made a good choice for lunch, and now I'm bored.
This is the point where I usually start eating something terribly bad for me. I am not going to do that today. I'm going to have to do something so I'm not bored anymore.

Deja Vu

Here we are again, it's Friday, this morning I stepped on the scale and it read 143. Awesome, but again, the weekend is looming. Nate and I already have dinner planned and it's a solid healthy dinner.
So, tomorrow. 1 egg with Salsa for breakfast (or half a bagel)
Instant oatmeal for snack at 10
Lunch- tuna fish on half a bagel (with mustard instead of mayo)
snack- chips and salsa
Dinner- planned out on fridge, I don't remember what it was

Sunday- 1 egg with Salsa for breakfast (or half a bagel) for breakfast
snack- instant grits
Lunch- Peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwich
snack- frozen veggies
Dinner- again, already planned on the fridge.

Alcohol- limit two two glasses/bottles per night with glass of water in between.

Exercise- tennis in the morning if it's not raining. Perhaps a run?

Goal- to weigh 143 or less on Monday

Make Substitutions

Along the lines of substituting healthier food into your diet rather than starving yourself, I found this really great article on Web MD called "Thin Foods." It talks about healthy foods that actually have the tendency to help people lose weight. None of them are "magic" foods, you need to supplement eating these foods with exercise and continue to work on portion control. Some of the tips I knew about already- like eating eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. I have 2 eggs for breakfast every morning. When I told my doctor this a while ago, she took my blood levels because she was worried about cholesterol, but my levels were more than fine. Two eggs fills me up for a long time in the morning. I usually have to remind myself to eat my first snack at 10am because I'm not feeling hungry yet. Another idea is to throw in some salsa or something spicy in the eggs (I want to start trying that this week). One of the tips was to eat more spicy food. I did not know that caffeine is NOT the ingredient in green tea that helps you lose weight. Apparently it's the antioxidants called catechins. I always thought the antioxidants were just a bonus. There is a lot more great food ideas on there, but this week I am going to add just two to my diet and try to make them a part of my healthy living. Later I would like to start adding beans to my diet, buying different kinds of nuts (pecans, walnuts) and possibly experimenting with tofu.

This week:
Eggs for breakfast, but add salsa.
Green tea after my dinner in the evening.

Tonight- kickboxing, tomorrow- I might take the day off, Saturday morning- tennis.

website: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/15-foods-to-help-you-lose

Feeling Stronger, Weighing the Same

Went to kickboxing class again last night. Before I went to the class I watched a youtube video for some inspiration. This is pretty crazy, the guy moves so fast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8YYZGvKM-8
The class was fun, I always feel bad for whoever partners up with me. They have to show me how to hold the pads so no one gets hurt. I'm getting better pretty fast, but it's a little frustrating knowing that you might be holding up the other person's workout. Luckily it's not all sparring, a lot of it is also individual technique work or situps, pushups etc, so they still get a crazy workout for the most part. I think I need to actually practice the moves outside of class in front of the mirror, but it's not the same when you're not punching a bag or a pad.

Feeling very sore today, but weighing in at 145. I seem to need maybe one more thing during the week exercise wise. And less ice cream, but come on, what's more realistic.

Plan for the week- Today- Jump rope or Tennis, Wednesday- off, Thursday- Kickboxing class, Friday- off (maybe jump rope if I'm not too sore), Saturday- Tennis and/or Hike

Goal- 144. I just need that one pound to go!

Oh Saturday!

Saturday, why would you do this to me? You tempt me with your time to sleep in and your alcohol and abundant meals of high fat deliciousness.

So Saturday did not go as well as planned. I have to say the planning of lunch on Friday was a huge success, I got home from work, made dinner and mixed some tuna fish for the next day. Saturday morning Ananda didn't wake up in time for tennis, so I gave myself a pass instead of sticking to my plan. Then I had some sausage with my eggs. Not too horrible, but again, not sticking to the plan. Then lunch was perfect because I had planned ahead. I had a half of a bagel with tuna fish and cheddar cheese melt. I used mustard instead of mayonnaise. After lunch however, things went horribly wrong. Our neighbors had planned on a Thanksgiving dinner get together since our first attempt got rained out. So I made my foldovers and brussel sprouts and pigged out with my neighbors at the barbecue area. I also had a beer and several glasses of wine.
Sunday I felt slightly nauseous and out of it, which translated into eating more than normal at breakfast. I had chili and chips for lunch, and then for dinner we had crab legs that we had in our freezer and rice and asparagus. Not too bad of a dinner except for the butter we dipped the crab in. And I had another glass of wine. Oh, and a huge bowl of Ben and Jerry's ice cream with chocolate sauce. Oops.
Today started out much better. I weighed in at just a smidgeon under 145. Damn weekends. I ate my usual two eggs, had a banana for a snack, half of a ham sandwich with mustard for lunch, and I just ate a healthy version of the instant oatmeal. Great filling snack actually. Tonight the plan for dinner is steak, leftover brussel sprouts from Saturday, and potatoes. After that I have kickboxing.

The Weekend

I'm writing now at the end of my workday before I go home because this is the time of the week that I start to backslide. I weighed in at 143 this morning Woohoo! which is great and two pounds down from where I started (145). However, I can't celebrate too early. The weekend is when I struggle the most. Usually it starts with wine or a few beers on Friday night because, well, it's Friday night and that's what you do right? Then Saturday mornings I usually get up early and eat a good breakfast before I play tennis with Ananda, but then after that... Well, it gets ugly. For some reason weekend lunches are huge. And fatty. Or greasy. And delicious. This is what I am going to avoid this weekend. I want the scale to read 143 or less on Monday. Usually I will get to 143 and then Monday we're back to 145. This has happened for several weeks in a row now.
My plan to conquer the weekend weight gain:

Tonight- A glass of wine is acceptable, it is Friday after all. However, I'm going to combat it with my water bottle. I used to have a rule that I had to pound a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink. Surprisingly, or I guess not really surprisingly when you think about it, I drink very little alcohol because I'm full. And I feel so much better in the morning.

Lunch tomorrow- tuna fish. Maybe if I plan it out now, I will not be thinking about all of the wonderful other things I could be eating. In fact, I am going to wip up the tuna fish with mustard tonight so it's ready for me tomorrow.

In fact I should plan out my whole day's worth of food when I go home tonight. I should decide what my snack will be around 10, what my lunch will be, snack again and dinner. If I plan it while I'm not hungry maybe I will be better off. I'll post this weekend if this is succesful or not.

Exercise- hopefully Ananda will be up to tennis tomorrow, I know she's been really busy. If not, I'll hit the wall later along with 20 pushups on the court and one round of jump roping.

Sunday- I'll plan my food tomorrow night or tonight if I am up to it. I will either hike with Nate or take the dogs on a long walk.

I need to plan ahead and get over this plateau, it's driving me nuts and I don't want to give up. Kickboxing has really helped, but today I'm sore so it makes me want to just lay down. Having the dogs helps too because I go home and immediately take them for a walk instead of sitting in front of the tv. Okay, I will check in later. Here's to seeing 143 or lower on the scale Monday morning!

Brussel Sprouts Recipe

Not 100% sure how healthy this recipe is, I'm sure I could look it up, but it's a great way to eat Brussel Sprouts, which for some reason, my husband decided we needed to have. Okay.

What you need:
Couple tablespoons of olive oil.
Brussel Sprouts- halved or quartered (Can use frozen sprouts, they just come out as a softer end product, which is frankly also quite tasty.)
Parmesian cheese- 1/4 cup, or to your taste
Balsamic Vinegar- 1 to 2 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Cut brussel sprouts into halves or quarters. (Halves for smaller sprouts, big sprouts you can quarter.)

2. Add some olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat.

3. Add brussel sprouts and cover the pan. I try to get the flat sides to touch the bottom so I get a crispy touch to it, but if you're in a hurry you can just toss them in. Also, be careful when adding them to hot oil, they tend to have a lot of water in them and you will get a lot of oil spraying if it's too hot.

4. Set your timer to three minutes and don't touch! Let them sit, they will get crispy on one side and when they sit long enough the unstick themselves from the bottom of the pan.

5. Take the top off and stir, or do what I like to do, and leave the top on and shake them up. Then leave them for another minute or two. I've found this last round is not as important as the first. I have done less time and had a little less done sprouts or I've left them on for a lot longer and gotten softer sprouts. This part is up to your taste.

6. Sprinkle the parmesian cheese on. This is from a recipe I found online. I also like to add smoked Gouda cheese.

7. My husband thought the original recipe was bland so he suggested adding balsamic vinegar. I thought that it sounded gross, but he has a really good feel for what spices or flavors to add to something. I threw on some vinegar the second time around and Voila! Delicious!

8. Salt and pepper to taste.

Keep in mind that the measurements are just a guesstimate. I tend to throw things together and hope they will work. I always taste throughout the process and my measurements often change depending on how I feel and the freshness of the products I'm using.

Making Better Choices

I'm at that point when I try to start losing weight where I make some changes and don't see any weight loss immediately. I think it has to be the most frustrating thing. Usually this is the point where I quit making weight loss a priority and start sliding back into my unhealthy eating habits. I'm glad that Myia, Arin and her friends are blogging right now too, because it reminds me to keep going. I'm not the only one out there who struggles or has a hard time. If I keep it up and continue to make more changes, my pants will fit better and I can go down another size. That is my long term goal. I was so close last time I lost weight to getting down to what I believe is my ideal weight and size, but I got comfortable, paddling season was over, and here I am gaining weight. I vow never to get back up to 175 again. In fact, I vow never to get to 145 again, once I get these last 10-15 off soon.
Now that Bobby is moving out, I'm hoping there's enough space to jump rope in that bedroom. That is a quick exercise that truly kicks your ass in a few minutes. And there is a lot of different moves you can do once you get back into it. I think between that and kickboxing I can do it. I need to build up the endurance and muscles. In a week or two I should be dropping weight much faster. The kickboxing instructor is not joke, you get scolded all the time. But he shows you how to do things right. I feel like Karate Kid when I'm in there. He makes you feel like you want to do it right. I do way more pushups and situps in there than I would do on my own. I go until my arms are like jelly. It's great and man do I work up a crazy sweat. I have to figure out what to do with my hair. It's too short for a pony tail, but head bands tend to fly off the back of my head. Not very tough. I usually wear bandannas to work out, but I just feel like it wouldn't be welcome in there. Any other ideas out there for short hair?
As for dinner I actually made some good choices last night. I ate some of the white rice, but only a very small portion, so I could have the taste ot it. I drank a glass of ice tea with dinner. I have gotten into making large jugs of hot tea and letting it cool, then having some with ice in a glass. Nate doesn't like sweetener, so I just add some to my own glass, he goes without. We've been buying tea from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, they have some really tasty teas. The regular old Lipton Apple flavored tea was really tasty as a tea and so was the peach flavored tea I made. I try to all of my homely stuff at the same time. I boil the water for tea and start dinner cooking while I was dishes. I can usually get a sinkful done while I'm waiting for things to boil or sit in the oven. If I multi-task right I can do dinner, dishes and make tea in an hour and a half max. Sometimes I can even throw a load of wash in there while I'm at it. Once dinner's on the table, I'm usually worthless and don't get off the couch except to walk my doggies.

Working Out, But Eating Trash

So I went to Kickboxing class last night. That's right, I paid my good money to have the right to punch and kick for an hour. It is a very fun class. Last night there was a lot of jumping rope, pushups and some kind of pushup-kick out-roll around move that made me feel very tough. We do a lot of situps and actually got to kick the punching bags. Makes you feel very tough at the time and very sore the next day. However, it's not enough. I really need to evaluate my dinner time intake. I have been able to get a handle on my workday snacking. I pack my lunch, including snacks, and have been eating very well actually through the workday. However, the weekends and dinner time are really screwing me up. For instance, at this moment, I am drinking a beer. I am making a commitment that it is my last for tonight, but man, just one beer is such a waste of precious calories. I could have had a bowl of ice cream instead! So now I guess I have to avoid the ice cream later as well. So this week my goal needs to be watching my dinner/evening time calorie intake. I can certainly do without the beer and the ice cream.