Success Along the Weigh: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Last of All Days

Today is the 10 year anniversary since we lost my Grandpa to pancreatic cancer. I can't believe it's been that long. He was truly one of those people that lived life to the fullest doing the things he loved to do. He loved amusement parks and every year he would take me and eventually me and a friend on a road trip to ride the roller coasters. He'd be the first one running back in line and say "wanna go again?" He had a great sense of humor, did what he wanted when he wanted, traveled to the places he wanted to go (which weren't necessarily exotic but it's where he wanted to be) and loved his hobby of restoring old cars. He would travel around to car shows and show off his latest restoration. My favorite was his 1920's fire engine. He used to be a firefighter so that thing was his pride and joy. I used to dress up as a clown in parades and ride on it with him. He beamed with pride when he drove it around.

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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Dispelling the irritating myth

A few blogs ago I asked you guys what your most irritating weight loss advice/saying was. The one that always makes me laugh is “a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat.” Um NO. It doesn’t. A pound of potato flakes weighs the same as a pound of steel. Period. A pound is a pound is a pound, you dig?

Now, DENSITY, yes…that’s where they differ. A pound (or 5) of fat takes up more space than a pound of muscle. See...

So the next time you might feel that urge to give that piece of advice when someone's scale is stuck, at least say it right. "If you're working on building muscle, your measurements might be changing since muscle takes up less room than fat. If you've measured and nothing has changed, then I got nothing for ya."

Well meaning advice is fine and dandy, just make sure you're giving the right kind! ;-)

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Adjusting to being "normal" fat

The pic above is a bit of a misrepresentation. Add another 47 lbs to the "before" picture. I was just coming out of the few 5x shirts I'd crept into which would've translated to a 34 I think. The pants were 4x but my largest pant purchase were elastic 38 jeans. Honestly those were always too big for me but the gut was cut weird so in order for me to sit without discomfort I had to go up. I think I only had one more size up to go before I was at the biggest size a catalog would offer and I knew that was a bad, bad thing. I think that played a little part in me finally getting my act together. You know, a gal's gotta have clothes, even if horribly unfashionable.

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Monday, March 28, 2011

Onward

If you stopped by for Saturday's weigh in, you saw I was down 4 lbs! I am grateful, big time. I asked for 4 lbs too. I kept saying "please, please let me lose 4 lbs!" I shall beg again this week and see what happens. Oh yeah, I guess I'll keep working the new plan that allowed that to happen...a calorie reduction of anywhere from 200-300 calories depending on what workouts were scheduled. I know when I have a big loss like that not to expect much on the scale the following week so as long as it's not zero, I'll be happy. That loss allowed me to go into 170+ lost! Gotta love that! I was so excited to change my icon here! :-) To celebrate I bought a couple of shirts in 22/24 that are a little more snug than I like to wear them but the Mr assured me they looked better than the 26/28's. I hope so. I don't like it. I think it's time for a body shaper when I wear those to suck in the upper tire a bit.

I've got a cold which doesn't help things but doesn't hinder too much either. I'm not one of those incessant whiners who uses being sick as an excuse not to exercise. I do what I can, as hard as I can knowing I'll do better when I'm feeling 100%. Still irritating though. Pffft!

I started my new BC pills yesterday. Let's hope these magic beans are just the thing to balance my hormones and who knows what else. I wish I had brought this up with my gynie months ago when I first noticed a surge of weirdness. I know that this month will likely be an adjustment month, I just hope it doesn't screw with my weight. The doc said it's "weight neutral" and in reading about my old pills, they were not so I'm not expecting miracles but optimistic. Note how I'm not telling you what it is? LOL I don't want to hear horror stories from people and worry myself unnecessarily. I just want to adjust to it unbiased.

Tonight is hickory naan "pizza." Too bad I won't be able to taste it. Boo! Apparently I made a pretty awesome chicken parmesan panini last night. 10 Grain bread, 4 oz of grilled chicken breast with italian seasoning, 2 tbsp marinara and lite muenster in lieu of parmesan. What I could taste of it was yummy! The Mr was thoroughly pleased.

Hope everyone is ready for a great week!

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Saturday, March 26, 2011

It's About @&^*ing Time!- Weigh In

4 lbs down this week!! That's on an Aunt Flo week too! I cut my calories this week from my usual 2000-2100 to 1800-2000 depending on the day and what workouts were scheduled. I honestly didn't feel the cut so I don't know what superfluous food I was eating to make sure I was getting enough calories but I don't miss it so that's always a plus. I know this means next week's scale trip will likely be 1 or none and I'm okay with that since that's how it goes for both of us after a big loss. I also know this isn't necessarily the end of my plateau, I just have to keep my fingers crossed this is what my body needed to get back into gear and only the next few weeks will tell so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Even better, I can change my icon because I've officially lost over 170 lbs!

Thanks for hanging in with me guys!

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Friday, March 25, 2011

If I Hear That One More Time!!!

In this delightful weight loss journey, there are many ways to get to the end goal. Of course everyone thinks their way is THE way to lose weight and like to dole out advice to those who are stuck or not having much success despite their best efforts. We all hear the unsolicited advice from well-intentioned (most of the time) people.

So what is the advice that irritates you the most? The line or lines that you're told that grate on your last nerve and make you want to scream...DUH!

Mine are many but I'd say my biggest one is "you didn't put it on overnight, you're not going to lose it overnight" or its equivalent..."it's not a race."

What is yours?

Happy Friday all!

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Thursday, March 24, 2011

Recipe I Want to Try...

I was hoping that I would get The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone off of my wishlist for Christmas. I don't really want to spend my own money on recipe oriented books anymore so I put them on my wishlist. (I've been disappointed by them too much then feel like "ARG! I wasted my money!") I know Alicia was going around promoting her book when it came out and she was giving recipes so I thought I'd hunt around to see which ones she gave out. I came across this one and thought it would be fun to try sometime and thought you guys might want to give it a go if you're looking to incorporate some vegan stuff here and there. If someone makes it before I do or has already made it, let me know if you liked it!

Alicia Silverstone's Crispy Peanut Butter Treats with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients
1 box brown rice crisps cereal
1 3/4 cups brown rice syrup
Fine sea salt
3/4 cup peanut butter or almond butter (preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
1/2 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips

Pour rice cereal into a large bowl. Heat the syrup with a pinch of salt in a saucepan over low heat. When the rice syrup liquefies, add the peanut butter and stir until well combined. Pour over the rice cereal. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Once thoroughly mixed and cooled to room temperature, stir in the chocolate chips. Make sure the mixture is cool, or you will end up with melted chocolate instead of chocolate chips in your treats.

Turn the mixture out into an 8x8” or 9x13” baking dish. Wet your wooden spoon lightly and press the mixture evenly into the pan. Let cool for 1 hour -- if you can -- before cutting into squares or bars.

Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray Show

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Mac and Cheese

I saw on some Trader Joe's board that a lot of people liked the reduced guilt mac and cheese. I saw my store started carrying these so thought we'd split it and give it a try. A few minutes in the microwave and it's ready to go. While I appreciate the effort to reduce my guilt, I'll take the guilt please. It was okay. It tasted like diet mac and cheese. Plus despite stirring, it clumped up in the microwave. I don't think it's awful, it's certainly passable if you want to fit it in to your meal planning and are pressed for time. But you could probably make a better, healthier version at home with whole wheat elbow macaroni, 1 oz of sharp cheddar and skim milk. Besides, with the streak they've been on the past 2 trips, if I got hooked on this, they'd probably discontinue it! Pffft!

Nutritional info: Cals: 270 Fat 6g Sat Fat 4g Chol 20g Sodium 540mg Carbs 40g Fiber 1g Protein 15g

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Workin' the plan

Morning thought: Why does Fergie have to spell in every song? Curious.

Welp, I posted my blog at SP. I'm tired of the crap. They might boot me off the site and at this point, yes it would suck but it needed to be said when morale is driving people away. (Three people have already told me they're leaving) If people don't like it, oh well, I'm not out for a popularity contest like SOME people there.

So yesterday was day 1 of the reduction of calories. By lunchtime I definitely felt the absence of the peanut butter on my nana because that held me all morning. So that won't be all the time but this morning I'm having my TJ's Blueberry oatmeal (you know, the one I LOVE that Trader Joe's decided to DISCONTINUE this week!?!? Seriously, this is 5th thing in 2 visits we've gotten discontinued on us. We're not going to have a reason to make an extra trip there if they keep doing this so knock it off JOE!!)...where was I? Oh yeah, oatmeal...so I'm adding my chia seeds to that today which should help hold me over. Who knew those little green afro pottery sprouts could do so much for you including keep you fuller longer? But I've planned out my meals through Thursday and it seems I don't really have to try to cut back so I'm hoping this isn't a painful process at all. If I get that horrific mid-morning gut drop then I'll just have my cut veggies to tide me over. That was the plan yesterday but I forgot. Oops. But for right now, I feel good about the plan. I'm hoping that this was the direction I was supposed to go. I mean why does the body have to be so complicated to figure out? Why can't you get all the number crunching in and it spits out a sheet of paper telling you what you need to change in order to keep losing weight. But then again, what orifice would the sheet come from? Never mind.

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Monday, March 21, 2011

Where's yo head at?

Who sang that song? Hang on lemme check...Basement Jaxx. Never heard of 'em. Anyhoo...

If anyone checked in Saturday, you saw I am on week 3 of no weight loss. The Mr lost 3 lbs (a major rarity for either of us these days) and I'm happy for him. But I ask, how is it fair that he hasn't tracked the past 2 weeks and lost 4 lbs while I track vigilantly and lose 0? *shaking head* Oh I know "men lose faster / better / more efficient than women" but we've both been stuck in the same place for a while but he's pulling out of his slump while I'm still stuck in the muck. It only makes me want smack him a little. But seriously, I am happy for him even if it didn't seem that way. I sobbed uncontrollably for about 30 minutes. I mean I literally had no control over the tears rolling down my cheeks which is irritating when you're trying to put on makeup. It soured my attitude for a good portion of the day. I decided to put the final nail in the coffin by going to my favorite plus size store to confirm I'm still solidly in a 26 and not a 24 like I hoped. (Remembering I started at a 36 and owned 1 pair of 38's that never really fit but I still wore them a few times) One pair laughed at me, one pair screamed "give up" and the other said "uh yeah, I'm not even going over your hamhock calves so give it up sister!" Oddly it didn't do anything to my already pissy attitude, I just wanted to see how far I am from the next size down and they all sang in unison..."far." I am tired of tweaking, tired of number tracking, tired of the whole thing. I ate a lot more on our high cal day (or it felt that way, it was nowhere near some of our worst) because I just didn't care. I was so full that I was full into yesterday morning and didn't eat breakfast. Haven't done that for a long time and I hate that feeling. Lots of sodium which by mid-day made my rings impossible to move.

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Weigh in

Week three of goose egg. PLEASE GOD let this new pill be my answer. I start taking it NEXT Sunday and I know it'll take at least a month to get used to it and by then I'll be on vacation where I'll be eating pseudo crappy, have one week to get the water weight off and hope nothing extra hangs on, if so add another week to hopefully get that off and that'll take us into Memorial Day weekend! Hope I like this weight.

I am full of sunshine eh? Anyhoo...

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Friday, March 18, 2011

Attitude and milestone

So last night I was talking to the Mr. (okay, crying to the Mr.) about how exhausting being a pessimist is. There is a friend of mine who is always positive, inspiring to others and I never hear her complain (at least not about anything that she doesn't instantly turn around into a positive somehow which while inspiring is frustrating to someone with my personality.) The Mr. immediately said "you don't know her story. Maybe something happened to her that she feels like she HAS to be that way or maybe like many people she's pretending to be that happy but isn't." I started laughing through my tears and said "that was pretty profound!" It's true. I don't know her story and she may not have always been that positive but I'll tell you, I'm downright jealous of people who *seem* to have that natural tendency toward the positive. Some would say it's a choice, just choose to react differently.

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Irish Colcannon and Thyme Leaf Soup

Happy St. Patty's Day! Top o' the mornin' to yer lucky charms and all that jazz. I can't vouch for this soup but I was looking for healthy Irish recipes to share and this one looked good so I thought I'd pass it along. I assume that you can leave out the salt since it's only 1/2 a teaspoon (which is HALF of what your sodium intake should be for the day) and reduce the sodium. Add a bay leaf or other herb or spice to replace that flavor.

2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 1/2 cups diced peeled baking potato (about 14 ounces)
1 cup diced onion (about 4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
3 tablespoons water
8 cups thinly sliced savoy cabbage (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add potato, onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover and cook 6 minutes. Add broth and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Cook 10 minutes or until potato is tender. Combine 3 tablespoons water and remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a large Dutch oven; bring to a simmer. Add cabbage and thyme. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Place half of potato mixture in blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl. Repeat procedure with remaining potato mixture. Add potato mixture to cabbage mixture; cook over medium-low heat until thoroughly heated.

Nutritional Information for 1 1/3 cup serving
Calories: 130 (28% from fat)
Fat: 4.1g (sat 2.5g, mono 1.1g, poly 0.3g)
Protein: 4.2g
Carbohydrate: 21g
Fiber: 4.5g
Cholesterol: 10mg
Iron: 0.9mg
Sodium: 442mg
Calcium: 48mg

Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Mmm...carbs

I love homemade fries. It's one of those things that makes you feel "normal" and like you're not on a plan. You almost feel naughty but no need, these babies are only as many calories as the potato. Mine are super easy because well, I'm lazy. So here's my little tutorial along with pics (with music for those at work!) for those who need the visuals.

Take 2 potatoes (or 1 potato per person) and wash them well. Put them in a microwave safe dish and get a corn cob holder. Poke each potato with the corn cob holder 3 times. These are the perfect length to poke through and vent the potatoes properly so they don't explode in the microwave. For two 7 oz potatoes, microwave for 6 minutes. (Adjust as needed) When they are done, cut each potato in half to let them vent for a minute. Flip the potato half cut side down on a paper towel or cutting board and cut the half in half and then that half in half so you have a total of 4 fry wedges per half. Give them a spray with cooking spray or olive oil spray (you're gonna add calories with that option). Season with your favorite salt free seasoning. I like to use Mrs Dash's Fiesta Lime or Spicy Chipotle. Put them cut side down on a hot skillet with a little cooking spray. After about 3-4 minutes, flip them over to cook the other side. Enjoy!

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Not in a good place

Last night was the first time in a long time I was ready to say screw it and stress eat by choice. I suggested all kinds of things like deep dish pizza, burgers, cupcakes and I don't even remember what else because it was just spewing out of my face at a rapid fire pace. Those things are not on the menu during the week especially when I just had stuff like that 2 days prior on high cal day but for the first time in a long time I felt "entitled" because my hormones are on a hellish swing right now (PLEASE let these new BC pills work because I hate feeling like this!). I could tell the hubby's resolve was getting weak and I knew it would be my fault. We compromised on a small chocolate cone from DQ for 220 calories which was well within our calorie limits for the day. Is this a victory? Maybe. Some would say that's what fit, healthy people do.

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Dear Body

I don't know exactly what it is you're thinking. I'm nowhere near goal weight and not interested in maintenance right now especially after having worked my ample ass off all week. 5800 calories burned and for what? For you to throw me another effin' goose egg. I was actually excited about this morning's weigh in because I painted for 3 days, was so sore in places I didn't know still existed and burned so much doing it since I basically did everything except the trim from ceiling to doors to walls. So I guess I get to cut calories now despite the fact I double the amount I'm supposed to restrict every day. I have never been so close to quitting in 3 years. I know that's what you want. I know you want me to go back to my 100% complete sedentary ways because that seems to be what you're indicating by holding on to this weight and I want to fight but I'm beginning to think your will is stronger than mine. I'm not in the mood for pep talks, I'm not down with the pitiful stares from the hubby, I just want weight to come OFF. I don't do kickboxing, Turbo Fire, strength training and other forms of aerobics for kicks. I have a goal for you and you're getting in my way. You're draining my resolve and I don't know why we can't work together here. My initial instinct is to tell you I'm not giving up and it's in fact YOU who will need to bow down to MY resolve but I fear it's hanging on by a thread. Interesting that I decide to start a blog when my journey could be desperately close to the white flag.
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

My doc is the best

I have to say while most people loathe going to the gynie for their yearly, I don't mind mine. My doc is the best. She makes chit chat whislt feeling ya up and she truly wants to help you with any issues you have. This is why she is booked almost a year in advance. She knew I was losing weight and I told her the past 8 months or so I've noticed every other Aunt Flo visit has about a 2 week period of mood swings and flow changes. She chose a new pill for me based on the amount of estrogen my body is likely making now compared to what it was when I was prescribed the pill (which incidentally is when I was getting toward my higher weight and told her about imbalances I was having then.) She also made sure it was weight neutral so it wouldn't undo the work I've done. So I'll give those a go and just another thing that you don't really think about weight loss having an effect on.

She wanted to know all about my plan now, caloric intake, etc. As she's readying "the contraption" I was telling her how we do kickboxing, HIIT training, strength and low impact aerobics too. I told her my calorie range and how much I burn during my workouts according to my heart rate monitor. She stopped and looked at me and said "that is a lot of information to work with" I told her we had a need to know and even had a bod pod test done so we could see if we were headed in the right direction and she said "THAT is why you're going to keep the weight off. You're taking this seriously." I said "I don't know what's making me take it seriously now of all times, I wish I would've taken it this serious when I was younger." She said "it doesn't matter why you didn't do it then, you're doing it now and that needs to be celebrated." "I suppose so but I'm having to kick and fight for every pound." "How much weight have you lost?" "166 lbs." "That's no small feat and you need to be proud of that because I'm proud of you" and she hugged me. I will remember that. It won't make the pace of the loss these days any less frustrating or defeating at times but she's right. Like she pointed out, "you lost a normal sized man!" I said "now I just have to lose a skinny, tall chick and I'll be good to go!" She laughed and said "you've carried that couple around long enough."

Did I mention she's the best?

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Skoopz Natural Sweetener- Food Review

I'm a sample girl. I am all over it baby. I have saved from buying full sized versions of things many times over by going to money saving websites that specialize in coupons and samples. This is another saver for me. I'm always looking for all natural, zero calorie sweetener alternatives when possible because I drink 2 glasses of decaf tea per day with a few Sweet and Low's. I've tried Stevia, Sun Crystals, Purevia and Splenda and none of them are near sweet enough for me. See I grew up on sweet tea and something that delivers a wimpy punch isn't gonna cut it. I got my sample in the mail. Skoopz is made from Erythritol, Maltitol, Maltodextrin, Xylitol and Stevia. All ingredients that diabetics should be able to use but should check with their docs first before using. The other night my hubby added some of the Skoopz to my dinner tea and I took a drink, winced and said "did you add anything to this!??!" and he said he put 3 packets in. Okay, if I need 3 packets to taste like nothing has been added to my tea, that's a big fail for my personal tastes. I tasted a packet straight up and had to wash my mouth out. I've never tasted anything so bitter which was quite the surprise given they tout there is no aftertaste. This might be fine for some people but it is certainly nothing I'll be purchasing. (And honestly, I wouldn't be jazzed about buying something that spells their product with a "k" and "z" like they're trying to put some hip spin on it.) I wouldn't tell you not to buy it but if you can get a sample of it first to see if you like it, I'd go that route first.

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Monday, March 7, 2011

Alternative Workouts

How do I feel this fine Monday morn? Like a big dog mistook me for his chew toy, shook me for a good 2 hours in play, dropped me, wee’d on me and left me in the toy pile. Our alternate workout last night? Painting the bedroom. Oh. My. Lord. Now I remember being sore when we painted the living room but I wasn’t in as good of shape then. But apparently I am using muscles I rarely use doing this because I am just completely exhausted. We painted for about 8 hours (not straight) and I decided to strap on the heart rate monitor about 30 minutes in. I burned 2160 calories! Yeah, way more than the traditional workout we had planned. If it didn’t burn that much, I was going to take a break so we could go down and do our strength but given the way my arms feel today I did WAY more strength than even Ilaria Montagnani could force upon me! Even the front of my ankles hurt from tippy toeing to reach up at the ceiling stuff. So the next time you’re doing something out of the ordinary that you aren’t sure is a calorie burner, strap on your heart rate monitor and you might just be surprised!
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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Mentally Done- Weigh In

Down 1 lb. I know, a pound is a pound...blah, blah, blah. I was so friggin' perfect this week it wasn't funny. My sodium has never been as on point as it was this week. I woke up feeling "loose" (read: not bloated, not that I had loose um...never mind.) But there were lots of changes this week. An official rest day mid-week instead of two in a row on Friday-Saturday, 3 strength training sessions instead of 2 so I realize my body is going to have to adapt over the next month. Oh yeah and I am NOT discounting the NSV (non-scale victory) of the shorts/jeans fitting. It's just so mentally draining. I mean it'd be different if I had 20 lbs to go but I don't, I have 108 lbs to go to my first weight loss goal of 220 lbs (I can see you all doing the addition in your heads) and 158 lbs to go until I'm in what's considered a "healthy" weight range instead of overweight, obese, etc. I get crap like a pound here, nothing there. At this rate, it would take me oh like 3 more years IF my body cooperated. I've already been doing this 3 years. So, I'll give it this month to let the extra strength workouts even out and let my bod get used to the "new norm" and then we'll have to look into cutting back on our only sanity, high cal days. If the hubby thinks I'm a bitch now, wait until you take away or greatly reduce my access to my weekly sweet. I can feel the hissing starting already! :-)

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Friday, March 4, 2011

Inching along

Okay, so 2 months ago I tried on these old school shorts and jeans. You know the REAL size whatever they are? Oh, you haven't heard of vanity sizing? Vanity sizing is this fun little trick the clothing stores started up about 5-10 years ago depending on the store where they resized all of their clothes to go DOWN a size on the tag to make women feel better about their size. Yep. I distinctly remember when catalogs like Roaman's and Lane Bryant touted their "new sizing." I was on to their game and I remembered specifically which clothes I kept that fell into the real sizing and the new sizing. I'm at the size where I can fit into some of the old school clothes and get a true idea of how much I've really lost.

We're redecorating the bedroom so I've been cleaning the closet and decided to torture myself by trying on some clothes that I tried on 2 months ago and was at least 2-3" from fitting. Now I've lost 2" in 2 months but NOWHERE near my gut or butt...it's more like 1/4" here, 1/4" there. I tried on what I would consider my short term goal shorts in a size 26 that I wore in 2001...I was actually able to fit!!! I decided to press my luck and try on the pair of 26 jeans that my mom got me one Christmas that were already a size too small and I never got to wear. They fit too!! Now don't get me wrong, sitting down in these shorts or jeans would send the button flying off faster than a bullet and someone would likely die if they were in front of me but I don't care about that. (I mean I care if people die but you know what I mean) The point is after not having lost any significant inches in the gut area and being down 9 lbs since I tried them on last, somehow 2-3" has disappeared from the right spots that were not my measuring points. Oh yeah and I tried on the 2 pairs of old school 30's that I was barely able to button 2 months ago (kind of like how the 26's are now) and they were really baggy and will need to be donated. This weight loss thing is a real kick. You can feel stuck and in a plateau-ish place yet somehow progress is still being made even if all of the regular tools like the scale and measuring tape are giving you the raspberry. I have stopped trying to figure out how all of this works but as long as results, whether scale or not, continue to roll in when my self confidence is beginning to dip, then I'm okay with that. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll post weigh in tomorrow.

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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-chia...seeds

"What the heck are chia seeds?" is the common phrase we're hearing frequently these days. More than just something to make a Garfield chia pet grow a fabulous green afro, these seeds are becoming the newest health craze. Well we all know about health crazes, short lived or there's gotta be some catch right? Well, let's go over the benefits of chia seeds.

You've probably heard of flax seeds, they're fine but honestly, I hate the taste I get when I bite into them. It tastes like little pops of natural gas to me. Yum... not. Flax seeds are not well digested and need to be ground for the maximum benefit to be received when you eat them. Chia seeds don't. You get the maximum benefits regardless of the form and they slow digestion to keep you fuller longer.

What are the benefits?

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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Sale at the Zazzle shop

Zazzle is having a sale on their T-shirts through March 7th 11:59pm PST. Just enter the code 4SHENANIGANS at checkout in the "Zazzle Coupons/Gift Certificates" box and get $4 off of a qualifying tee. (Screen prints excluded)

To go to the Success Along the Weigh Zazzle store, click here.

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End of month wrap up/ The March plan

Well, I wouldn't say I'd call February a resounding success but I suppose if I end the month lighter than I started it, I should probably be grateful. I guess having busted my hump for the last 2 weeks of the month and seeing basically no results left me with mixed feelings. I was a little pissed off that I worked out double the amount and only saw a pound's loss in that time for my efforts, yet I'm relieved that I didn't see some massive loss that said "yep, welcome to your new life if you want any kind of weight loss from now on, sassafras!" So I will take the four pounds lost.

March will consist of mixing up rest days. I don't think it's conducive to have 2 rest days in a row especially given how beat up my body feels by the end of the week. So if you look on this month's workout schedule page, you'll see that rest days will be rotated between Tues-Thurs throughout the month. We will make sure that on rest days we decrease our calories by 150-200 calories to slightly offset not working out that day. We've also added a third strength session; nothing massive or all Hans and Franz-like but enough to get in a little bit of a pump with Chalene and her bands. I will NOT give up and will NOT let this slow down rule me. I'm sick of it. It really sucked when you could basically count on a 2 lb loss most weeks the first year to now getting 1 lb or nothing and 2 lbs is considered a celebration. I still have about 130 lbs to go so this pace just isn't acceptable. I'm hoping the new tweaks will do some good. Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

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