One Holiday Down, One To Go!

Well, Thanksgiving is behind me, but Christmas is still ahead, as are all the treats that will likely be EVERYWHERE until then!!

I decided that this week was as good as any to switch to "winter clothes" for weighing in. I have been wearing summer capri pants and a t-shirt to weigh in all along, but finally decided it was just too flipping cold to do that anymore. I put on a pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt and figured I'll get the one or one 1/2 lbs back in the spring.

The results? Since last Saturday, down 1 lb. Definitely my worst week so far, but not terrible considering. They said it's really a 2 to 2 1/2 lb week because of the clothes, which is true, but officially it's one on the week, for a total of 45 lbs. Hey, at least I hit another 5-lb milestone, right? :-)

They were actually VERY encouraging at the center, saying that was FABULOUS for the week that included Thanksgiving. One of the employees was UP 4 1/2 lbs since Tuesday. D'oh!! That made me feel pretty good about the week. :-)

For Thanksgiving, I ate more proteins than allowed on plan, but they were all on-plan foods, so that's probably why I held steady. I also made a few recipes that all had cottage cheese in them, so there's that sodium monster too; I could be retaining some water again because of that.

I did make some FABULOUS SlimGenics Holiday Cookies that I actually really loved. My little one did too; he asked for them for breakfast this morning! Ha! NO SUGAR and NO FLOUR!! They are very high in protein and tasted mostly like a frosted spritz. I was STUNNED that they were as good as they are. Everyone enjoyed them, including me!!

What yesterday really taught me was that it IS possible to eat healthy food that tastes good; it doesn't HAVE to be full of fat and starch, etc. Of course, it might not taste AS good as the fully loaded stuff, but it didn't really taste like "diet food" or anything either. I truly enjoyed the food I ate yesterday.

And if I can feed my 2-yr old cookies that don't have sugar in them, well, all the better. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their day and realized just how much we all have to give thanks to God for!

So Glad I Didn't Cheat!!

I made it through! I still would love to have a cheeseburger (duh!), but the severe cravings have passed and I was rewarded this morning for pushing through without cheating AT ALL. Not one bite of something off plan! 

Weighed in this morning and was down an additional 2 lbs since Wednesday, putting my weekly total at 3.75 lbs! Yay! Total lost through 3 months = 44 lbs! Average weight loss through the first 3 months = 3.67 lbs/week! O_O!!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could have lost 44 lbs in 3 months. Yes, the cravings sucked and I struggled, but it is SO WORTH IT in the end.

I WILL be able to have a cheeseburger again, and if I just keep being strict on this diet, it will be sooner than originally planned for sure!! 

Now, if only I could do something about this FREEZING COLD WEATHER!! ;-)

At least cold weather helps keep your metabolism going because your body needs to generate more heat. :-)

Would Somebody Give Me a Cheeseburger Already!?

Well, as if you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I'm struggling a little today. I'm having some wicked cravings and am starving!!

As much as I'm a pizza person, all I can picture is sinking my teeth into a nice, juicy Culver's Cheeseburger!! ACK!! CRAVINGS ARE OUT OF CONTROL!!!

I'm pretty sure this is all related to the suckiness that is being a woman, a.k.a. PMS, because I'm having some definite water retention today too.

Ok, so please excuse me as I go eat my crappy little unsatisfying Lean Cuisine meal for lunch! Boo!! ;-)

Oh, and I weighed in yesterday and am down 1.75 lbs for the week, 42 total.

Repeat to self: "Stick to it! The stricter I am, the faster the weight will come off. The faster the weight comes off, the sooner I'll be done!!"

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

How To Tell My Comfort Level With a Recipe

This morning I tackled the Apple Pancakes recipe out of the SlimGenics cookbook. About half-way through, as this cooking dummy struggled with the seemingly simple task of peeling and grating half an apple, I realized that I was making one of the biggest messes my kitchen had ever seen!

By the time I was pouring the batter into the pan to cook said pancakes, the kitchen looked like I had spent an entire day slaving over a meal for 12, not apple pancakes for breakfast, for one!!

I then pictured myself making hamburger stroganoff or cheese tetrazzini from scratch and thought, man, those are much more complex recipes, but I clean up as I go and by the time the dish is in the oven, etc. the kitchen is spotless.

It's because I am comfortable with those recipes and have made them a thousand times! 

So if you're ever over for dinner and I'm making a huge mess while making dinner, you're likely a guinea pig for a new recipe! ;-)

40 Pounds!! 40 Pounds!!!

I woke up this morning to a few inches of snow on the ground and it really coming down. We are under a winter storm warning with the threat of as many as 11 inches of snow today. Ick.

I could see by looking outside that the roads were a mess. But, they looked slushy more than slippery.

So, I had a decision to make. Journey out into the storm to do my 3rd and final weigh-in for the week, or let the week stand at 1 lb and a total of 39?

Of course, being as close as I was to 40, I had to go!! So I got ready and figured the earlier I went, the better. Less people on the road and less snow than there will be later.

I ice-skated my way to the SlimGenics center (almost literally; we still have desert freeway tires on the rear-wheel drive Expedition, so it was a very dicey drive), but it was SO WORTH IT!

Not the best week, as I only lost 2.25 lbs (which would be great on any other diet!!), but I don't care about that, because that puts me at 40.25 lbs total in 11 weeks! YAY!!

So, now I'm home safe and sound with the knowledge that I've lost 40 lbs in a very short period of time. It sucks outside, but I'm glad I went. ;-)

Sodium-Fest 2010!

Apparently sodium is my kryptonite.

This week has been fairly interesting. I knew I only had to lose 2 lbs this week to hit my 40 lb milestone. That should be easy, right? I mean, I'm averaging close to 4 lbs a week; I got this!

So I weigh in on Tuesday and I'm UP .25 lbs! What?! I've been doing great; staying on plan and trying new recipes from their cookbook. Of course, this wasn't a huge surprise or anything, as the scale at home had been either staying flat or showing small gains; creeping back up .2 lbs at a time. 

Can I just stop right here and say there is nothing LESS motivating than a lack of results? I mean, if I'm not going to lose weight or even gain weight, I can eat pizza and do that, right!? That being said, I have stuck to it and have not eaten any food off-plan. But I WANTED to, you know?

Ok, back to the SlimGenics Center and my sitting there saying WHY!? They look over my food journal and immediately notice that I've been eating cottage every day for almost a week. I previously hadn't really eaten it at all, as I'm a much bigger fan of the greek yogurt or eggs for breakfast, but lots of the recipes that looked good to me include cottage cheese as your protein. 

Apparently, cottage cheese is full of sodium and it appears that I've been retaining water. It's not listed as such on the plan, but they said that I really shouldn't eat cottage cheese two days in a row and never on the same day as beef, the other big sodium culprit. Oops. I'd been eating it every day for many, many days.

And of course, I had brought a Lean Cuisine 4-Cheese Pizza to work with me for lunch that day, which had over 600mg of sodium AND I was planning on grilling steak for dinner that night to enjoy the nice weather. Ok, so Tuesday turned into Sodium-Fest 2010. I got on the scale Wednesday morning and wasn't the least bit surprised to be up another .6 lbs.

Another digression here: so how does water retention work? I mean, if I'm still technically eating few enough calories to lose weight, but retaining water, why don't I still see a small loss? Does the lost fat just make room for water and I retain more and more water as I lose weight?! This concept seems silly to me, but the fact remains that I have been staying the same or gaining for like 4 days... Hmm...

Ok, so I resolve to eat as little sodium as possible starting Wednesday and see how the rest of the week goes. I got on the scale Thursday morning and was down 1.25 lbs from the day before. Clearly shedding some water weight. I weigh in at the center and I'm also down 1.25 lbs from Tuesday's weigh-in, putting me at 39 lbs total!! Only 1 more lb to go by Saturday to make it an even 40!!

Of course, I was rushed yesterday morning (Thursday) and ended up grabbing quick snacks and another Lean Cuisine meal for lunch. I didn't want to do that, because one of the snacks I grabbed and the meal contained over 1,000 mg of sodium between them, but it was that or nothing in order to get to work on time. 

This morning I was actually down another .2 lbs from yesterday, but I really think it would have been more if I had laid off the sodium-laced food again. They said it sometimes takes 2-3 days for your body to shed all the water weight, so I screwed it up yesterday.

So now I am off work until Tuesday, giving me plenty of time to plan each meal and make sure I steer clear of kryptonite, I mean sodium. ;-)

Cooking Vernacular!?

So in keeping with my post from yesterday, this morning I decided to try the French Toast recipe and the Maple Syrup recipe from my SlimGenics cookbook.

The french toast was simple; it's really not that different from your standard recipe, as bread, milk and eggs are all on plan anyway. I could have used basically any recipe, if you ask me.

But the maple syrup is something that I will need their recipe for, as there is no syrup on the market that is on plan, to my knowledge.

Here's where I get frustrated. I don't know if their recipes are just different, or if I just don't know the native cooking language. I've made plenty of recipes from a simple "Better Homes and Garden" cookbook before and they've all turned out very good. But I do know those cookbooks are probably more geared for the beginner, so maybe things are spelled out more clearly (and thoroughly) than in other cookbooks. I don't know.

So help me out here. The syrup recipe: melt butter, add stuff, blah, blah. Then:

"Reduce mixture down into a syrup."

What the heck does that mean? My best guess is that I keep it over heat until it reaches the desired consistency by way of evaporation, etc., but I have NO CLUE what it means to "reduce mixture down".

Am I the world's biggest cooking dummy? :-(

I'm too Picky and Uncreative!

My week this week was all out of whack. I normally weigh in at the SlimGenics Center on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This week was Monday, Thursday and Saturday. I felt off kilter all week (not because I didn't get to weigh in when I normally do, but because of the schedule upheaval that caused the odd weigh-ins).

That being said, I also had a frustrating week. I knew I would hit my 35 lb milestone, since I only needed to lose the .25 lbs to do it. And I did, I hit it on my Monday weigh-in. But, then my Thursday weigh-in showed me UP .75 lbs from Monday (although I was wearing a fleece top and jeans after wearing capris and a light shirt on Monday).

Still, that wasn't my major source of frustration. What has been tough for me is that I just am flat-out getting sick of eating the same foods day in and day out. Is it worth it? Of course. But does it lead to instant frustration when I don't see extreme results on the scale? Yep. 

The problem is I'm very picky and also have no creativity when it comes to cooking. So, when it says a 6 oz chicken breast is a protein portion, I literally grill up and eat a 6 oz chicken breast.

It's all getting very old and I want to not have to think so hard about what I'm going to eat next and figure out how I can eat something that sounds remotely appealing without tons of planning. I don't even need to eat terrible-for-me foods, but there are mornings that I just want to grab a bowl of cereal, because it's easy, and not have to cook up some eggs or whatever. Food prep is just not my thing. I like convenience.

So, I have this SlimGenics cookbook and I have to resolve to use it. I need to pray that God would give me some skills in this area, supernaturally, because I absolutely must keep going on this journey, but I really need some help here.

I can hardly complain about my progress, this I know. I'm losing weight at a pace most people would be thrilled with. I do know this. But a long, cold winter is staring me in the face and I'm all about warm, soft comfort food when it's cold. And soup is not my thing either. I want pizza, cheese enchiladas, pasta with white sauce, etc. Eating literally and straight-forward from my list of approved foods does not make good comfort food. So... I'm going to spend some time today going through the cookbook and pray that I find some recipes that I actually want to try!

Oh, and for the week? I weighed in this morning and I lost 3.25 lbs this week, putting my 10-week total at 38 lbs. Maintaining a 3.8 lb/week average this far in is really incredible. And as thankful as I am for that, that doesn't mean I want to eat food that doesn't appeal to me on a regular basis. 

Please pray that I can find some ways to get creative and stay on plan!