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!

What Else Can I Take Off?

So I go into SlimGenics today for my final weigh-in of the week. I step on the scale and the results? I'm down 4 lbs for the week for a total of 34.75 lbs!

My consultant for the day starts laughing and says "only .25 lbs to 35! Go pee or something!" 

We all start laughing and wonder what I could take off that would drop me .25 lbs. Socks? Rings? Both?

In the end, I was happy with the 4 lbs for the week and know that I'll hit the 35 lb milestone next week! :-)

My average thus far in the game is 3.86/lbs a week, which is beyond anything I could have hoped for in this journey.

I will definitely be taking it easy tomorrow for our Thanksgiving celebration and will just eat some turkey (not off plan at all) and a little mashed potatoes. Will probably skip the pie. ;-)

Early Thanksgiving Dilemma

I know it's early for most everyone to be thinking about Thanksgiving, but the reason it's early for me is the same reason it's a dilemma.

My Grandma, Aunt & Uncle snowbird in Laughlin, NV for the winter and they're leaving very soon. Therefore, our family is celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

Now, I had decided that I was going to not worry about SlimGenics and dieting for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it's coming up so soon after the NY "trip of eating" and only a couple weeks after doing the plateau-breaker. As a result, this week I am seeing a really good loss so far (just went and weighed in over lunch and I'm down 2.5 lbs from last Friday until today - total loss of 33.25 lbs). 

Since the weight loss seems to ebb and flow, I'm hesitant to interrupt a period of really good weight loss. I'm much more willing to eat off plan when I'm not seeing a lot of loss.

I guess we'll see how the week shaped up when I do my weigh-in on Friday and re-evaluate at that time.

I've REALLY Missed My Ring!

So today marks a very important milestone reached for me. I am wearing my wedding ring!!

I haven't worn it in over 2 years, as I had to stop wearing it while I was pregnant and I haven't been able to get my weight down enough since he was born for it to fit again, but today it's ON!!

I've been trying to get it on for a couple weeks and knew I was getting close. It's tight, there's no question, but I don't care! Tight on my finger is better than in the safe.

Going down sizes in clothes is obviously fabulous, but this is really huge for me. I have been extremely bothered by not being able to wear it, so this is just a happy day for me!! :-)

Oh, and as long as I'm updating, I was down another pound over the weekend when I weighed in yesterday and my total loss is now 31.75 lbs. :-)

Great News for a Not-So-Great Week

Well, I weighed in this morning and I didn't have very high hopes, because according to my scale at home, I am only down .2 lbs since Monday. UGH. I had such great hopes for this week and hitting my 30-lb milestone after being down 29.25 lbs on Monday.

So I went in, kinda feeling defeated before I even stepped on the scale, because I doubted I would be down any more since my 29.75 lbs on Wednesday. I get on the scale and... drum roll... I'm down another whole pound since Wednesday! WHAT!?

While this is good news indeed, I'm still a little confused as to why they are showing the loss and I am not.

So I lost 2.75 lbs for the week, which is not great for the week after a Plateau-Breaker, but still a good loss! My total loss is now 30.75 lbs! Woohoo! That puts me at an average of 3.8 lbs/week for the first 8 weeks. That's pretty insane. Thank you SlimGenics and thank you God!

I seriously don't understand why my scale doesn't show more than .2 lbs since Monday and theirs shows 1.5 lbs, though. I guess we'll wait and see how it looks over the weekend when I go back in for my Monday weigh-in.

At least I'll be on the "progress board" for another week, but this time in the 30# category! Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone.

SO CLOSE!

So I am again frustrated, mostly because I have no patience whatsoever!!

I was very happy Monday after having a nice loss over the weekend and weighing in at SlimGenics 29.25 lbs down. Of course, I convinced myself that I would hit 30 lbs by my weigh-in today, because 1/2 lb a day has been the minimum loss I've been seeing. And of course, I did the plateau-breaker last week that was supposed to kick my weight loss into high gear again this week.

Apparently I got cocky. Forgot to recognize continually that this success is NOT something I'm obtaining on my own, and that I have to keep giving it to God. He is why I have been so successful so far; there is no way I could have lost 28 lbs in 7 weeks on my own; it's because I keep praying and giving it to Him that I've come this far.

Soooo... I get on the scale Tuesday morning.... and I'm UP .2 lbs!! Now, .2 lbs isn't very much and it does happen from time to time. Did I mention I have no patience?

Ok, no biggie. It and more will be gone today! I get on the scale this morning and the .2 lbs are gone, BUT NOTHING MORE!! WHAT?! How can I weigh the same thing on Wednesday morning as Monday morning when I'm supposed to be shedding weight like crazy because of last week's plateau-breaker?

So I went to weigh in and at least I was down another 1/2 lb with them (probably had lighter clothes!!), bringing me to 29.75 lbs! SO CLOSE.

They are convinced that I'll hit my 30 lb milestone on Friday, but I'm going to be doing some extra praying and handing my health over to God (again and again and again!!).