Pardon the Interruption

There is really nothing more boring that talking about weight loss (or lack thereof) because it is a meaningless goal (for me anyway) but just for today I will track what I eat in Sparkpeople. I will not let that overtake my life but it is just so curious to me that I've been doing so much exercise and activity these last 3 months and have not lost an ounce. And my eating habits are the same. Would I weight 250 pounds now if I hadn't been doing all that stuff?

Anyway, I biked 14 miles this morning. My sunglasses dropped an arm at some point during the ride, so on the way home I was riding with them on like they were opera glasses, with the remaining arm wedged between my bandanna and my helmet.

I'm not going to start listing what I'm eating because, again, boring, but I can tell you it will consciously involve more vegetables.

That is all. Have a nice day.

Fightin Fire With Fire

Ok, so my earlier attempts at a high calorie day failed. But I knew there had to be a way (duh, or I wouldn't be trying to lose weight in the first place) so I decided what better way to sneak in calories than with heavy cream and wine!

I had my usual boring breakfast and lunch, and then for dinner I made the yummy shrimp and tagliatelle leeks, zukes, and mushrooms. I added a little butter, parm and heavy cream at the end to make a sauce and ooh, yummy. I still weighed the cheese and measured the cream but I'm almost up to 2000 cals for the day.

I won't tell you the number of fat grams I ate today because I think it might be illegal. But I'm attempting to shock my body into weight loss so I'll do whatever it takes. I'm also going to shock it by continuing to go to zumba since I'm pretty sure that will scare any weight right off.

I feel like Baby whenever I'm at zumba.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go work on my pachanga moves.

Still Not Hungry but Will Be For Pizza Night II

It's been 5 hours since I've eaten lunch, and I'm still not hungry. This is quite amazing, since usually I am hungry around 3 or 4, and then again when I get home from work. But I came home, read my mail (the paper kind), walked the dog and soon I will be going to The Boy's house for the leftover pizza, and some arugula salad. Sadly, there is no nutrition information on the Upper Crust website, but I have between 750 - 1000 calories left for the day, and there is not that much pizza left, so I think I'll be fine. For comparison, I looked at Pizza Hut's Thin and Crispy Pizza, and a slice has between 200 - 230 calories, which is perfectly reasonable.

I'm going to do my 50 bicycle crunches before I go. I can feel that my lower stomach is losing fat and getting toned. I think that is usually where it comes off of first.

And from tracking on Sparkpeople I can see that Sunday and today, when I didn't feel hungry, I had enough protein (between 60 and 152 grams) but yesterday, I fell below that and was hungry. I should remember this and plan accordingly.

Lunch Post

My breakfast kept me full for 5 hours! So, now I'm eating lunch. I waited until I was hungry intead of just getting up and eating because it was 12 p.m.

I'm having a trader joe's chili lime chicken burger over argula, 1/2 cup of whole wheat couscous, and 1/2 cup of curried chickpeas. Sparkpeople says it is about 400 calories. And once I have my chocolate piece, it will be 536 calories total. It probably could have used some more veggies - sauteed zucchini maybe, or some eggplant.

It's pouring rain, which makes me very glad I did my walking this morning.

It took me a 1/2 hour to eat my lunch. That is a nice slow pace. And it was so tasty, too!

Breakfast

I still have not decided on my workout, but I had to post about breakfast because it was SO GOOD!! I knew I wanted eggs, and didn't want a tortilla, but I wanted something else in my eggs. And there was the 1/2 a zucchini from Fajita Night. So I had 2 eggs, 1/2 tablespoon of butter, 2 mushrooms and 1/2 a zucchini. I chopped the veggies up very small and cooked those first, and then scrambled the eggs with them. A little salt and pepper and oh my goodness they were so good.  Total calories: 225.   

Pasta Night (then Pizza Night)

All my spicy meals have caught up with my belly and it said "Something plain, please!" That meant pasta. As I've said before, I always cook too much pasta, but tonight I did not. I had 2 little angel hair pasta nests, with some marinara sauce and Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs. It was yummy, and just what I needed. And Sparkpeople says my calories have been right in line today, even with my super yummy treat.

I highly recommend the Meatless Meatballs from Trader Joe's. The serving size is 6 pieces, and they have 140 calories and 4 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of fat. They are very tasty, too. They would probably make a good meatball sub.

ETA:

Then the boy called. His girl is in town, leaving tomorrow and they were going for pizza at Upper Crust. So I went with them of course, and had a slice of bbq chicken pizza. Then we went for ice cream at Nona's, but I didn't have any. It is very easy for me to turn down ice cream, since I have the most delicous ice cream in the world once a week at my dad's. And because I had not eaten a large amount of pasta, the thin crust pizza (with not very much cheese) was a welcome addition to the day, instead of something I ate even though it made me sick. (I won't say what I used to do in the past if this occasion had arisen, but it involves unhealthy habits and not goodness.)

Now it's raining and I have to walk the dog.

Early Lunch

I'm eating lunch at 11 a.m. because I am hungry. And I guess it's not really early, it's the perfect time - the time that I am hungry for lunch.

Lunch (served in my little green bowl) is: arugula, whole wheat cous cous (the Grain of the Week), a spicy chicken sausage from Trader Joe's and a scant 1/2 cup of the curry, which was all that was left. I must make more. A blob of plain yogurt would have been a good addition. And a wee square of chocolate would have made the perfect dessert. According to Sparkpeople my lunch is about 425 calories.

Breakfast (oatmeal with flax seed, butter and molasses) was 274. There should have been some sort of snack between breakfast and lunch, which all good Hobbits know.

Fajita Night

Fajitas are one of my favorite things to eat. It is how I get in lots of veggies, and I love salsa and they are always filling. Tonight I used my small new cutting board, which helped control the amount I could chop (and therefore eat), I also set 2 tortillas out and made sure the food I was making would fit in only 2 tortillas, and I wouldn't be tempted to go back for more.

It was about 8 oz. of shrimp, 2 large mushrooms, half a zucchini, a small piece of onion and maybe a 1/2 cup frozen peppers. And roasted tomato and chipotle salsa.

After putting the foods into Sparkpeople, I found that I had room for sour cream, which added the perfect creaminess.





I've cleaned the kitchen, prepped the coffee, put the oat meal and flax seed in a bowl for the morning, packed my lunch and now I'm having tea. One more walk with the dog in a few minutes, then she'll be quarantined in the kitchen overnight and I will head upstairs for my 50 bicycle crunches before bed.

The day is ending much better than it began, and hopefully that will continue into tomorrow.

Feeling the Spark

This is my Sparkpeople log for the day. I won't post it everyday, but I was amazed by how much food I could eat and still remain within my goal, not to the point of over-fullness, but to the point of having every thing I wanted. I've even planned out tomorrow's breakfast and lunch, too.

(Ok, so the whole thing doesn't show up. The total calories is 1581, with a goal range of 1490 - 1840 for the day. And I'm not sure what the "approx. 60 pieces" means next to the chocolate. I had a small chunk, had it been broken into 60 pieces they would have been more like slivers.)

Breakfast:

Egg, fresh, 2 large 149 1 10 12 Tortialla, W.F. Whole Wheat, 1 serving 130 23 3 4

Lunch:

Semisweet chocolate, 0.7 oz (approx 60 pcs) 95 13 6 1 Chili Lime Chicken Burger, TJ's, 1 serving 110 4 3 15 Arugula, 0.5 cup 3 0 0 0 Tortialla, W.F. Whole Wheat, 1 serving 130 23 3 4

Dinner:

Tortialla, W.F. Whole Wheat, 2 serving 260 46 6 8 Shrimp, 8 oz 180 0 1 38 Olive Oil, 1 1tsp 40 0 5 0 Zucchini, 1 cup, sliced 29 7 0 1 Mushrooms, fresh, 2 medium 8 1 0 1 Sour Cream, 2 tbsp 51 1 5 1 Semisweet chocolate, 1 oz (approx 60 pcs) 136 18 9 1

Snack:

Orange Juice, 1 cup 110 25 1 2 Radishes, 1 large (1" to 1-1/4" dia) 1 0 0 0 Lamb Chop, 4 oz 150 0 6 23

Click To Add/Edit Extra Meals

CALORIES

CARBS

FAT

PROTEIN

1,581

163

57

112

1490 - 1840

196 - 283

39 - 68

60 - 152

Sleepy Sunday

Sometimes the way to fix a day that just keeps going wronger and wronger is to just take to bed. So I did. After walking the dog again, and cordoning her in one room just in case, I went to Whole Foods and actually stuck to my entire list: zucchini, tortillas, wonton wrappers, oatmeal, broccoli, and eggplant. Then I came home and put the dog back outside, and lay in bed for a while, and napped for a hour. I was very confused when I woke up and thought it was morning, but was glad when I realized it was only 3:30.

I was lulled to sleep by podcasts of Jillian, the trainer from Biggest Loser. Did you know that the people on the Biggest Loser worked out for 10 hours a day?? That is insane. If they weren't losing enough they would put on a 40 pound weighted vest to burn more calories. No wonder the girl who won lost an average of 16 pounds a week. But the podcasts are interesting because she really encourages people to eat whole foods, not processed things, and to not cut their calories too low (unless you are trying to win a reality show....)

I tracked my food on Sparkpeople today and the eggs, tortilla, lamb chop, piece of chocolate, Trader Joe's chili lime chicken burger, other tortilla, arugula, and OJ has added up to 876 calories. Sparkpeople allots me between 1490 and 1840 per day, and I set my cardio goal at 45 minutes per day or burning 325 calories per day, or 2280 per week. I usually do more than 45 minutes per day on the weekdays, and extra on the weekends, but I put in the lower number to give me flexibility. My hour of walking burns 423 calories and I can easily do that every day. Then my other exercise, longer walks, etc. will just be a bonus.

I don't know what is for dinner yet. Every time I have a meal, I can't think about the next one. Everything just sounds gross. So when I get a little hungrier I'll figure something out. My Sparkpeople tracker says I haven't had much fiber today, so maybe something with beans, ooh, or the eggplant. I love eggplant with its spiciness. Maybe eggplant and white beans with pasta? Any ideas?