Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Weigh-In #2

Guess who lost 4 more pounds! I did!!! Actually, I think it was closer to 2.5 pounds. My scale at home read 2.5 and the scale at Harvard Vanguard read 4. Either way, I'll take it. Either way, I kept the weight-loss going for a second week. Based on the program I'm doing, it's more normal to lose 2 pounds per week than 4 anyway. Either way, I'm good with it. I need to do my body measurements tomorrow, I'm just too beat to do it tonight.

I've been holding steady at just under 1200 calories a day and managed to burn a little over 2500 calories in physical activity last week. Not bad for a girl who doesn't have much time to go to the gym. One of the things that we do is set goals for the upcoming week. Both food goals and physical activity goals. My physical activity goals for next week are to use the stairs at least once per day just to get to my office and to use the bathroom on a different floor all week to force me to use the stairs a little extra. Wish me luck!

 1/30/13

whole grain cereal, peaches, and raspberries

 cheese ravioli and yellow squash
 apple snack
 blood orange

the orange was actual before the apple

For dinner, I had mixed vegetables and the vegetable stew entree. It was during class, so I did not take a photo.






  Now, this is interesting. A chocolate shake with a Tbsp of cocoa and a Tbsp of sugar-free cherry jello. I think I used too much cherry jello. It was too sweet with a little tang.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I look forward

Week two almost over, my next weigh-in is tomorrow...I'm looking forward to it. Why? Because I know this weightloss program is working! I could fit into an old pair of pants today! I celebrated by staying on track and eating my entrees, vegetables, fruits and shakes. I celebrated by avoiding cookies and cakes and brownies and all the sweet treats that I like. And it felt good! Armed with the knowledge that my pants fit, I look forward to tomorrow's weigh-in. I look forward to continuing to feel good. And I look forward to continuing on a path that works towards a goal.

School is gearing up, work is about to get crazy, the cats are finally (somewhat) getting along, and all seems right in the world. For tonight, though, it was was a long day of work and school. It's time for bed.

 1/27/13

Sabrina thinks she eats meal replacement shakes
 beef and bean enchiladas and carrots
salad, 5 bean casserole and peas













 1/28/13

chocolate shake...probably with instant coffee mixed in
 whole grain cereal with peaches and raspberries
 beef stroganoff with carrots
 vegetable stew with beef and broccoli
 Such a treat!! I was craving Indian food, so I mixed mango and cardamom in my shake












 1/29/13

after a chocolate shake for breakfast, I had whole grain cereal and peaches for second breakfast
 stew and veggies!
 mushroom risotto with broccoli - all my classmates thought this looked and smelled good, not like diet food at all
a blood orange (actually an after lunch snack)

and of course, I had a chocolate shake when I got home

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Positive Reinforcement

I could tell you that today was better than yesterday, but so would have cleaning the litterbox with my toothbrush. Regardless, today was better than yesterday. In, fact, today was a good day! I think I achieved a good balance between physical activity and homework. I went to boxing class (I haven't been in about 5 months!), finished most of my readings for class, AND got further exercise by walking on the treadmill while reading. A good day indeed.

Not that you had any doubts, but I stayed on track with my eating, I'm estimating 1173 calories eating and 1305 calories burned through physical activity. Not bad. Tomorrow, I'm going to a personal training session.

Did I mention? I met a new trainer at my gym. I was telling her about trying to balance exercise with school and starting a weightloss program. I told her how I'm confident that it will work and that it made me feel better just to try something to work towards a solution! She was impressed with my attitude and offered me a free training session. How cool is that? Sure, she's trying to sell personal training, but I'll take it. I think I most enjoyed receiving acknowledgement that taking positive steps towards a goal is a really good thing. We all need positive reinforcement when making changes. It helps us to keep going when working towards a goal gets difficult.

In fact, it was almost as good as all of the encouragement that I receive daily from my friends and family! I'm very lucky that you all are following my journey and being so supportive. So, thank you, and please, keep it up. It really does help.

 1/26/13

vanilla and banana shake for breakfast

I had an apple on my way home from the gym
 plain vanilla shake after the gym
 5 bean casserole entree and 1 cup broccoli
pasta fagiole entree with 2 cups broccoli

I'm going to have a chocolate shake later tonight to meet the meal replacement requirements for the day

Friday, January 25, 2013

Make the world go away

I don't want to write. I don't want to read. I just want to crawl into bed and make today go away. Fridays usually suck at my job and today was right up there. And nothing went wrong. It was just busy and I couldn't eat at my normal times. I got behind on my meal replacement shakes and had to have 2 tonight when I got home. I know, oh poor me. Well, yeah. I get cranky when I get hungry. I have to remember to keep extra fruit with me. I had an apple, and I ate it, but then I left so late and just hungrier and crankier and yuckier. I thought about getting something 'off the plan' but resisted. Luckily. I just don't want to feel like that again. And I still don't feel great, so I'm gonna post some pics and get to bed.

 1/24/13

OK, I'm basically just not going to photograph those darned shakes all the time. They're not interesting.

After my shake yesterday, I had some peaches
 1 cup carrots for an afternoon snack
 vegetable stew with beef and 1 cup of corn
lasagna in meat sauce with brussel sprouts













 1/25/13

I had a shake for breakfast, but missed my oat meal...

At lunch, I ate the honey dew I brought to go with breakfast.

Turkey chili with beans (good flavor, meat had bad texture) and 1 cup corn.
 apple for a snack
1 1/2 cups mixed veggies and beef strips with potatoes and veggies

before dinner I had a vanilla shake with a banana and then a chocolate shake after dinner to make sure that I got all 3 in.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

First Weigh-In Results

I love positive results that come quickly!!!!!! Today was my first weigh-in...

I LOST 4 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!

How freakin' awesome is that!??!! Just 5 days and I lost 4 pounds!!! I love action plans that are successful!! And how I am I defining success? That's simple. Weight loss of course.

Tonight was my first class for this program. No big surprises...we had to put our 'numbers' up on the board. Not our weight, but our weight loss, how many shakes/cereals, entrees, vegetables, and fruits we ate, whether we aid anything else and if we met our challenge goals for the week. Guess who's numbers looked perfect? MINE! Here's hoping for perfect next week too.

Today was my first opportunity to buy new food. I took care to avoid chicken dishes. It seems that noone really likes the chicken dishes. It's always good not to be alone. I bought several of the bean casseroles and vegetable stew with beef. Basically, I stuck to the vegetarian and beef dishes for next week.

As for today, I estimate that I ate 1171 calories. Unfortunately, I didn't get any real physical activity. Just a little bit of walking, about 10 minutes. It was cold and I had school tonight. Really cold. No school tomorrow though!

 1/23/13

Mocha cinnamon shake
 oatmeal and peaches
 cheese ravioli and fiesta blend veggies

The ravioli was surprisingly good!
mixed veggies with pasta and chicken parmesean

Yet again, a chicken dish disappoints. However, I ate this one during my class break and had to eat so fast that I can't say I actually tasted it. I'll try this one again because of that. In addition, the chicken was less yucky.

I did have a salad before this that I couldn't photograph because class had started.

And, I added a shake when I got home with some orange jello for flavor.


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Web 3.0?

Another good day on the weight loss plan! In addition, my class was cancelled tonight so I got an extra work-out in this week! One hour of running while reading about Web 3.0. You heard right. Web 3.0. I was baffled at first too. At the very least, having an understanding of Web 2.0, I had a clue of what I was in for. Regardless, it's my first project for IT Management this term.

And you didn't tune in to hear about the possible web advances on the horizon...so I'll just get to some statistics and the food. I estimate that I ate 1192 calories today and burned 810 calories through physical activity.

Tomorrow is my first weekly class and check in. I'll do a weigh in tomorrow morning and see where I'm at!

 1/22/13

vanilla and mango shake for breakfast

I had some whole grain cereal with peaches when I got to work. It was good, I'll probably have it again tomorrow.
 Salad and the 5 Bean Casserole--surprisingly delicious!! At first, I thought it looked like dog food, but then it had a tinge of sweetness, like baked beans. As I said, delicious!

There were baby carrots and an apple for a snack before the gym, buy you know what those look like.

Cauliflower and Vegetable Stew with Beef, another delicious entree!

After dinner, I had my final shake. Chocolate with a teaspoon of sugar free chocolate pudding powder to make it extra chocolatey!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Fantastic day!

Wondering what this gonna look like? Just look below...


What a fantastic day!! Maybe I'm just feeling fantastic after a great workout, enormous dinner, delicious dessert, and posts on my FB that make my insides melt? Continuing that positive note, I also finished my homework AND started pulling research for a couple of projects! Granted, it's been a long weekend with MLK Day and the Inauguration, but it's been a great weekend. This is a good feeling to go into the upcoming week with. Especially since the upcoming week is not going to be an easy one.

OK, so my estimates for today...1223 calories eaten and 880 calories burned through physical activity.

I did a little grocery shopping today. It felt good to only buy veggies really. I got me some salad veggies and an assortment of frozen veggies and fruits. Before going to bed tonight, I'll make an eating plan for tomorrow...one that includes peaches in my hot cereal and maybe a mango shake in the morning. It's kinda cool, I'm starting to get a little creative with the shakes. I didn't think they'd get boring this quickly, but they kinda are. As long as it's sugar free, I can add a teaspoon of pudding or jello mix, or some diet soda instead of water. I'm thinking of buying some diet orange soda to make a chocolate shake and adding a teaspoon of chocolate pudding...

And, as the icing on the cake, the food was pretty good today!

 1/21/13

So, I was halfway through my apple when I realized that I did not take a photograph of the chocolate shake and banana I had for breakfast.








Beef stroganoff and cauliflower.

The beef entrees are definitely better than the chicken! The texture is like actual meat. Nothing weird. And the taste was good. Since this is one of the higher calorie meals, I'll probably only eat this on gym days.

I wasn't going to photograph it...but THIS is a chocolate and spinach shake. It's a disturbingly army green color, I'm not sure it comes out so well in the photo though. I'm thinking that the spinach might work well in a vanilla shake with some mint extract? You know, match the color to the flavor?








Beef and bean enchiladas and fiesta blend veggies

The 'tortilla' was mushy-ish, but had enough to it to not be offensive and the sauce had a nice spice. Next time, I may toss a little salsa on it.

Knowing that my workout this evening was going to be pretty intense, I saved a veggie portion for dinner and that's 2 cups of veggies instead of one.




My creamsicle shake!! Vanilla shake with a teaspoon of sugar free orange jello added for flavor








Sunday, January 20, 2013

New Day, New Lesson

So far, so good. Today was the first day that I was tempted to go off the new food plan. Not because I want to go off or don't like the food, or even had a craving...because I didn't plan well and I got hungry.

Note to self: never leave home without some food item that's "on the list!" And the sad part is, is that I brought food with me. I just didn't plan well today. I had extra food at lunch and not enough at dinner resulting in an extra shake when I got home tonight. Not the end of the world, I know.

It's funny, in some ways it's easier to eat on strict plan on a work day, in some ways it's harder. Easier because I don't feel the same urges to snack at work as I do at home. Harder because there's more logistics planning involved. I think I like eating on work days better though. I'm only three days in, but I miss the experience of cooking and eating. What can I say? I love to eat! I think I miss that most. This weightloss program is about maximum nutrition at low calorie counts. That's primary. They definitely build in variety and make sure that there's enough sweet to curb cravings. I'm very grateful for those shakes, especially tonight when I came home hungry.

 1/20/13

vanilla shake with banana










 I forgot to take a photo of the actual cereal. The cereal is pretty darned good!











This was the beef with potatoes and veggies. I was pleasantly surprised by this on! The beef was actually like beef! The veggies were mushy though and I'm glad I added a cup of corn and a cup of broccoli.
 vanilla shake with berries mixed in
 So, this one is the savory chicken with long grain rice and mushrooms. Good flavor, but that damned chicken texture is a killer!
 I'm so grateful that I can have diet soda! And there's my carrot snack while watching a movie at a friend's house.
And a chocolate shake when I got home tonight! It staves off the hunger and gives me a sweet treat.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Food snob

OK, so I'm at the end of Day 2 of my weightloss plan...and it was a freakin' chore to eat everything I was supposed to eat! Seriously, that's a good thing!! I'm still not in love with the entrees though. I tried the mushroom risotto tonight. So far, that one is the best. The others have all had a tomato sauce as the base...it's pretty clear that they all started with the same tomato sauce. I think the pasta fagioli and the mushroom risotto are keepers so far. I have not enjoyed anything with meat in it. It's like reconstituted chicken. I'm hoping that the beef entrees are better. At least there's no fish...Even the mushroom had some weirdly textured thing in it. You know, like the texture of the meet in Beefaroni? Kinda reminds me of the soy protein in a can that we used to make sloppy joes out of. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing right with it either.

If left to my own devices, I don't think I would normally eat this food. Again, it's not really bad, it's just that I'm a better cook. Maybe I'm a food snob? Nah! No food snob would willing admit to knowing what the texture of the meat in Beefaroni is like! I think I'm most displeased with the ingredients list. Too many things with too many syllables that would never be staples in my kitchen. Let's just say that I'm exceedingly glad that I opted for the plan that adds fruits and vegetables!

So, in spite of not being in love with the food, I did meet all eating goals today! I also made it to the gym. As part of this program, we're supposed to burn 2000 calories per week through physical activity. Walking counts. Ok...here's the weird part. At the intro session, the woman sitting next to me indicated that she didn't do ANY physical activity. I'm not sure how that's possible, but OK. Me? I ran 6 miles on the elliptical and then walked another 3 on the treadmill...a grand total of 2 hours and 15 minutes when you consider the cool down and the little extra to listen to a song. Anyway, based on the calorie calculator they gave us, I burned 1110 calories today. I estimate that I ate 1198 calories. Not bad!!

 1/19/13

OK, I did have a chocolate shake with a banana mixed in this morning too. I must have forgotten to photograph it.

apple and coffee
 OK, see, this is what I'm talking about. Would you believe that that is supposed to be a BBQ chicken breast????

Again, it's not bad tasting, but the texture! I opted for this one because it was the highest calorie item I bought and I knew I was going to the gym. I think I'm going to save lower calorie items for non-gym days.
 vanilla shake...I think I like it better than the chocolate! Both are good and my blender is getting quite a workout!

This was my post-gym 'meal'. I think I drank it down in about 2 seconds flat!
 mushroom risotto and broccoli

So far, this one's the best! Good flavor, lots of pepper for a bit of a zing!
After dinner desert shake
carrot snack