Mixin' it up

I've discovered a new vice.

The Cooking Channel.  It's pretty much the Food Network (they're sister stations), but new and different shows and personalities.  Well, and Emeril.  Natch.

I totally dig it because it's reminding me that I LOOOOVE food.  :)

Things have gotten kind of boring in the food department 'round here.  We've been healthing (yes, I invented a word.  Revel in it) things up around here a lot lately, so "good" food has kinda been pushed aside.  That's not to say that one can't have good food that's also healthy - it's just more difficult.  We've definitely been taking the easy road and getting sort of lazy with making food.  Chicken and a salad?  Check.  Chicken and steamed veggies with couscous?  Check.  Chicken on the grill with zucchini, squash, and onion?  Check.

Yeah.  See?

Why not something awesome like the Coq au Vin from Eating Well?  Or the fish tacos from Eating Well?  What about the pork medallians with cranberry and fig chutney from BHG?

There are a ton of great recipes out there that are actually great for you.  The pork medallians are only 185 calories (for 3 oz)!!  That's pretty great.  I'm totally down with that.

So, my friends, I'm going to strive to have something interesting for dinner more often.  The roast is good, but using unusual ingredients might just kick it up to the proverbial next level, you know?  Stay tuned!  :)

PS - after I wrote this, my dear hubby finished making dinner - complete with pear and walnut salad.  SCORE!  It's working already!!

Some stuff I wrote recently.

Recently, I was chatting with a bestie about the struggles we’re both going through to try to lose weight.  She and I were commiserating on what a serious pain in the ass it is, and how much it sucks and hurts to have “let ourselves go” as much as we have.  I blame married life.  HA!  I kid.

During the course of our conversation, I wrote the following words.  She appreciated them, so I thought I’d plop them on the ‘ol blog to share with my gynormous audience.

Note:  I’ve doctored them up a smidge because some of it is non-applicable here.  Also, it can get a little angsty at times.  Bear with me.  J

Without further ado:

Dude, you’re preaching to the choir.  I get so mad that I have to struggle to lose two pounds when my sister and brother are both thin and fit, and can easily control their weight.  I despise looking at myself, and have taken up being the photographer rather than being in any pictures because it’s disgusting to me.  So, I know exactly where you’re coming from, trust me.  I mean, without the part about how you used to be so skinny.  I never had that.  I’ve always been fat.
Despite that, though, I realize that I absolutely can’t compare myself to anyone else.  What I’ve got and what everyone else in the world has are different.  It’s just how it is.  I would have loved to have been born a Hilton or a Winchester, but it didn’t work that way.  I would have loved to have hit puberty and shed all my baby fat and magically grown pretty.  It didn’t happen.  The sooner you can stop comparing yourself to everyone else OR to the girl of the past, the better.  You need to accept that you gained a bunch of weight, and that you now have to work to lose it.  If you can’t accept it, you’ll never lose it.  It’ll never get better, and you’ll never be happy.  This is what you have to deal with now.  OVERCOME IT.  You can’t use the excuse that you used to be able to eat whatever you want and still be skinny.  It’s not how things are anymore.  You need to learn to eat clementines instead of jelly beans and carrots instead of chips.  Once you get over how shitty it is to have to eat healthier, it turns out that it’s better – it’s delicious.  I love the way that my little Jimmy John’s lettuce wrap crunches and I don’t miss the bread scraping the roof of my mouth.  Now that I realize that I can’t taste the cheese on my Subway anyway, the 100+ calories that I save seems easy and stupid to waste.  Sure, I love the SHIT out of BBQ pork sandwiches and enchiladas, but I eat them as a treat, and only a small amount.  Even as I dole out advice though, I need to say that I DEFINITELY need to cut down on the pizza.  J  Once a week is way more than enough.  ha.
Like I said, you need to accept that this is your new reality, and work to make it change.  You’ll probably have to keep your eating in check and make sure you work out consistently for the rest of your life.  Big deal.  Someday, when people comment on how fit you look, you can take pride in knowing that you spend time exercising and maintaining yourself, rather than just stuffing your face full of sour cream and onion Lay’s and going for an occasional run.  I adore when someone asks me if I’ve lost weight.  Even A asked me about it when I saw him a couple of weeks ago.  Sure, I’ve only just started the (very slow!) climb up Kilimanjaro, but when I hit the summit, I’ll be able to look back and say “DAMN.”

I mean it all, by the way.  Every word.  We all need to stop comparing ourselves to other people and focus on our own strengths and greatness, and look at the things about ourselves that we love.  I’ll start.  I really love my knees.  I know that they’re cute under that extra fluff, and I look forward to meeting them again, and having them meet the world.  J  AFTER I’ve gotten them a little bonzed, that is.  ha!  I love my toes.  I think they’re cute.  Even those weird little toes.  I love my muscle-y legs.  They’re getting so nice again!  I also dig my face in general.  It’s already shed some of its chunk, and I’m recalling how it’s rather pretty when it’s slimmer.

PS - I tried on a bunch of pairs of pants (that I own!) last night, and found that many of the ones that have lived in my closet for YEARS actually fit!  Happy day!!!!  I have a pair of wide-legged, white pants that I’m waiting for Memorial Day to break out.  1) because you shouldn’t wear white before Memorial Day! and 2) because the gut-region is still slightly smaller than I want.  I’m hoping that a few more pounds down over the next few weeks will help with that.  I can’t wait!  I’m envisioning a new pair of navy blue espadrilles and my gray-and-white stripped Paris top to go with it.  Seriously.  It’s kind of sick how I can’t wait.

A Letter to Me.

Dear me.

Hey.  How’s it going?  I love that scarf you’ve got on today.  Glad that you finally decided to join that trend.  Hope it doesn’t die out, now that you’ve joined in!

Now that the formalities are done, I’d like to talk to you about your attitude.  I would also like to talk to you about your clothes.

Let’s start with clothes, since they’re easier.  Honestly, you should consider getting new ones.  YES, you’ve gotten rid of all the stuff that you had that you never wore or that was too big or that you won’t ever wear once you’re able to squeeze into them again.  Brava.  HOWEVER, you need to reconsider a lot of the things you’re currently wearing.  Example:  the pants you wore to work yesterday.  If you need to pull them up every four steps, it’s probably time to get a new pair.  God didn’t give you an ass.  Just deal with the fact that your pants will probably forever be too small in the waist and baggy everywhere below.  If the pants are too baggy in the waist, let’s just think about how the “everywhere below” looks.  Not awesome, friend.  Not awesome at all.  Let's work on that, okay?  You need to accept that you’ll just have to use “poofy” shirts until you have no gut anymore.

Now, on to your attitude.  This one is a little trickier.  I know you realize that you need to be absolutely conscious of every item you put into your mouth.  But saying “meh” as often as you to needs to stop.  You can’t “meh” working out.  You can’t “meh” pizza for the second time this week.  You can’t “meh” Reese’s Eggs (damn you, eggs…).

You should applaud yourself for the strides you’re taking and have taken.

However, you shouldn’t use the happiness you’ve got now, and the success you’ve seen thus far to make an excuse to slack.  You need to use that as motivation to keep going strong.  You need to keep being proud of yourself, and keep moving forward.  You know darn well how long it’s taken to get you even this far.  One pants size isn’t enough.  One isn’t where you wanted to stop.  You want to be much smaller.  You want to keep going.  You need to take this opportunity to be totally pumped, and use your elation as motivation.  You always said that seeing actual results is what gets you going.  Well, here you go!  Here are your results.  Be proud of them, and keep going.  Do you note the theme?  KEEP UP YOUR GOOD WORK.  Let’s see more results, girl!

Heart you!
xoxo Moi

PS – go shopping tonight.  Get some new pants, chief.

Whoopsie. Here's my gratitude!

Soooooo…

I might have forgotten to be grateful yesterday.  My bad.  In my defense, I think I posted a couple of other posts.  Or was that Sunday??  I can’t remember all the time.  I’m fairly certain I’m sleep-deprived lately – I’ve been having really weird dreams that wake me up, and I have a hard time getting back to sleep.  Maybe I should pay attention to what I’m eating before bed on those nights!

At any rate.  Here’s the weekly List de Gratefulness.  It’s Spanglish.

·    My favorite little niecey Kendall.  Here’s a pic of her chubby little baby legs (side note:  how stinkin' cute are those leggings?!!?).  She was getting hosed off after decorating her pretty little head with frosting from her first birthday party.  Those legs are carrying her across rooms now, by the way.  *Sniffle*

·    SUNSHINE.  Man, does it feel good!  We’ve had a dreary week up here in the Northwoods, so it feels DANG nice to have some sunshine.  Even if serious wind comes with it.  I’ll take what I get.  Even the pets were basking in the glory.  I didn’t hear any noise for a couple of minutes this morning, so I peeked out into the living room to see who was dead – and all four of them were just hanging in the sun beams like real animals.  It was adorable.  And no.  I DIDN’T remember to take a pic.  Fool!

·    Just barely over four weeks until my bestie Jess is in the contiguous for good!  Or, at least, until she’s got her PhD all done.  Ha!  Only a 5-hour-ish drive from me.  WOO!  I think I’ve said it before, but that’s far better than two plane rides and a chicken bus!!

·    On that note, just over 6 weeks until my other girl Jenn is back!  She’s just around for six (??) weeks, then back to teaching in ‘Nam, but we’ve got a couple of weekends (and a WEEK!!!  SQUEAL!) planned out already.  She’d better bring me some sweet knock-offs.  I need an awesome summer purse, friend.  Think hobo.  Perhaps a long cross-body.  In a fun color or pattern.  GO.  I kid!  Sort of.

·    Exclamation points.  They’ve served me well in this post.  I should consider cutting down on the coffee.

·    President Obama.  I KNOW.  Politics.  Ish.  But, a job that was a long time coming was done.  I’d chant “USA! USA!” but I’m cautious at this point still.  Optimistically cautious, but I don’t want to start any snark offs on a topic that’s completely irrelevant to my blog.  J  So, zip your face if you’re going to get politically-charged.

·    Kohl’s.  They have some serious deals.  Got the super cute shirt I’m wearing today for $4.80.  Holla!  I love a good deal, baby.

That pretty much sums it up for me, folks.  Now, get out there and enjoy the day!

My Fitness Pal! (finally...)

Okay, I promised a full post about Myfitnesspal.com.

So, without further ado, here it is!

Things I love about it.  Let me count the ways.

1. That it's linked up to the app on my phone.  I know I mentioned that in my Grateful post of yore, but seriously.  It's awesome.  It keeps me from having any kind of excuse for not being fastidious about tracking everything I eat and all my activities.  And guess what?  It WORKS!
2. I can find pretty much anything on the food list.  And if I can’t, I can add it myself!  Super convenient.  It’s nice for when you know the calories of something someone else entered (example:  my pulled pork sandwich from lunch) is incorrect.
3. The ability to pop in my recipes and get the calories.  It’s fantastic for things like hotdishes.  Way better than doing it all in my head, anyway!  J  You just add in all the ingredients you used, and then add in the number of servings, and voila!  Calories out.
4. There are chats and blogs and all kinds of different tools to help you connect with other people who are gettin’ their fit on too.  It’s kind of Facebook-y in that you have a news feed, and can add “friends” to your page.  You can also add one of those little ticker thingies that all the preggos use to show their baby’s progress.  Except, you know, for your weight loss.  You can even upload your own pics and such.

I know that there are more great things about the website than what I have above, but this is what I’ve got for right now.  Here are some screen shots!  Sorry that they're kinda fuzzy...

This would be a shot of what it looks like when you start entering your own recipe into the system.  To add more ingredients, you just click "add ingredient" and it takes you to a similar screen to the one right below.

This shot is what it looks like when you enter in a food to search for it.  You'll note the list for "hamburger" goes on and on!  Sometimes, more specific = better.

And last but not least, a shot of searching for an exercise.  The thing I like about it is that you can adjust the actual calories burned if it's not quite matching up with your numbers.  I've learned that I burn more calories (based on my chunk) than what they have listed - so I can just simply make the correction to the actual calories on the right, and when I add the exercise, the program saves it as I've entered it.  Sweet.

Sooooo...go out and make your own account (it's free, after all!) and we can be friends!  Rather than put my username out there for the world, ask if you want to hook up on the 'net, and we can find each other.

Pssst - if you want more information, just check out the site!  Screen shots grabbed from myfitnesspal.com.

More goals!

SO.  There comes a time in a weight loss journey when one must re-assess one's goals.  For me that time is now.  As I'm sure the title gave away.  Subtlety is not my forte.

The last time I wrote about my goals, I mentioned things like wanting to wear my favorite skirt again, and to be able to squeeze into a backseat full of other people without feeling like a tank.

While those are great goals, I think it's also important to think about other, more specific goals.  Like having a goal to post all of my food intake actually on the day that I eat it, rather than trying to think it all up a couple of days later.  You tend to forget things like Twizzlers on the way to the grocery store (DAMN!).  Here's an updated list of my little goals.

To be fit enough to snowboard again (original list re-visit)

To look at myself in pictures and not be disappointed (re-visit)

To make sure that I'm down my goal of 3500 - 7000 calories a week.  3500 calories = 1 lb of fat.  Gross.

To spend fewer than 2 hours a day sitting on my duffer after work.  I've got lists in the works of things I can do to keep myself occupied - ranging from dusting literally every surface in the house to yard work to meandering around Target (my wallet and my husband both say "NO" to that one.  Ha!).

To post on this little blog at least three times a week.  What's the point of even having the thing if I can't be consistent, right?  This applies to many different aspects of this whole weight loss thing, of course.  :)

To get to the point where I get through the whole evil Jillian DVD at the "beginner" level and get to the next level.  And then get to the more advanced levels.  And then start the second DVD...  Okay, gotta pump the breaks!  I want to be able to get through it more easily within the next two weeks.  I figure I can do the DVD at least 3 times a week (any more, and I think I might not get the benefit out of it as my muscles get used to it) for the next two weeks, and get to a point where I don't do it at the uber-beginner level anymore, and can do the exercises as-is.  I’ve already started doing some of the moves (like the rolling side planks – where you move from doing the plank on one side to switching to the other side at a Jillian Michaels pace) at higher than an “I’ve never worked out before” level, but there are some moves that I still need to get rocking.  I think I can do this within two weeks.

I’ve also considered doing something a little radical, and posting my intake and exercise information daily.  I think that’ll be really, really, REALLY boring though, so I hesitate.  Thoughts?

Suck it.

BMI, you can kiss my butt.

I mean, seriously.  I’m patting myself on the back for what I’ve accomplished so far.  For plenty of people, what I weigh now would send them into panics.  But for me, I’m down to a new 10.  That’s something for me to celebrate.  I’m proud of myself.  This is no small feat.  Knowing that I should probably know all my numbers, I think, “let’s check out what my BMI would look like at the goal that I’m thinking I want to see.”

And then a small part of me dies.  I punch in 150lbs which, for the record, I think could be possibly even skinnier than I think I would be comfortable – I’ve NEVER been that thin in my “I’m done growing” life!  IT’S STILL CONSIDERED OVERWEIGHT.  You have GOT to be kidding me.  I’m not a small-boned, petite lady.  I am muscled and have bigger bones.  Seriously – you should feel my thighs.  Gymnasts have flabbier thighs (possibly a *slight* over-exaggeration…).  If I was a dainty girl, yes.  I could see 150 for a 5’5” woman being overweight still.  But not me, friends.  That’s just not my body type.

I know that I should take things like the BMI with a grain of salt.  But it’s really hard to when I’m proud of myself, and then I see that stupid calculator.  When I went to a doctor a good 3 years ago about losing some weight (ouch…good to see I’ve been successful…), he told me that the medical community generally frowns on using the BMI alone for calculating healthy weight.  He said that the Fed was working out a new kind of calculator that took into account your body type and muscle mass.  I’ve been waiting for that little calculator to surface.  I’m bummed it hasn’t yet, because I could use another calculator to be able to track my weight loss and as another incentive to keep on losing.

So, until they come out with something that’s more accurate, I’ll just be using that scale and measuring tape to track my progress.

Stupid BMI calculator.