Weigh in Wednesday

Good morning, friends!

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means...

Week 3 - 252.8 lbs.

Yup, 252.8 -- same as last week.  You know what?  That's okay with me because I ate like crap all weekend long.  I'm just happy I didn't gain any weight because of my crappy eating and lack of exercise. 

I eat really well during the work week.  My breakfast that I've had for the past week and a half (peanut butter on wheat toast, coffee and cream) comes in at 416 calories every day.  Then, my lunch which has either been a Lean Cuisine or yogurt and fruit usually comes in 300-400 calories.  I like to "save" my calories for dinner because that is the meal I like to have the most food.  I drink a ton of water during the work day as well and I'm not so great about hydrating when I'm at home.
 

Lately, I've been struggling with thinking up fresh and new dinners for Sean and I.  Last night, I made stuffed peppers and cauliflower.  While it was tasty, stuffed peppers are not my favorite thing in the world.  If anyone has a good, healthy recipe collection/website, let me know!  Also, I need to harvest some kale at my garden and have no clue what I'm going to do with it.  Make some sort of soup perhaps?  Ideas?  Comment below!

Five Things on Friday.

1.  I had a pretty fantastic morning.  Sleeping in until 7 a.m. will do that to you.  I'll know more in a few weeks if this morning was as great and I thought it was.  Half work days for the win.

2.  There's been a few random rain shower down pours today.  I love it.  It's sunny outside and then the next minute it's slightly gray and pouring.  It really is beautiful weather.

3.  I colored my hair this week.  Instead of blonde, I'm back to dark brown.  It's a change, but it feels good to be "me" again.

4.  Sean has the weekend off of work, so tomorrow we're going to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market with a couple friends.  I'm definitely looking forward to it!

5. Oh!  I did a bunch of gardening last weekend and I need to take pictures.  I'll probably get over there sometime this weekend and if I remember to bring my camera, I'll take some pictures.

I'm sorry this is boring with no pictures this week.  It's been a busy and hectic day thus far.  What are you doing this weekend?  Anything exciting?

Weigh in Wednesday

Happy Wednesday to you!  I'm definitely in a good mood this morning.  Look below!

 

Week 2 - 252.8 lbs

 

Yup, I'm down 4.4 pounds from last Wednesday.  That makes my grand total of 5.4 pounds lost since renewing my lifestyle change. 

 

I still have a long ways to go, obviously, but this is definitely a good start.

 

Have a lovely day!

On Biking.

This post should really be called, "On why my legs hurt yesterday."

 

The past two Sundays when Sean has worked, I've biked to meet him at Freewheel when he gets off work.  Then, we do a 10 mile loop back home.  It's quite enjoyable.  I like biking with him.  He knows I'm slow and is okay with it.  Last weekend I apologized for being so slow the first time we did this loop.  He said it's okay and that he was slow once too.  He said the only way to get faster is to keep biking.  Makes sense.

On Sunday morning, I was gardening for a couple hours which involves a lot of bending over and squatting.  The hamstring on my right leg was so tight yesterday and still is a bit today.  The bike ride after gardening maybe have helped a bit or it might have made it worse.  Either way, my legs were tired yesterday. 

There really isn't a point to this post.  Wait, no there is.  I wanted to post a picture of our 15.63 mile bike route.  I intend on keeping this up and picking him up from work one day a weekend.  The hills are good for working my butt muscles (weird). 

See you tomorrow for Weigh in Wednesday.  Good things are coming via a scale picture.  :)

Five Things on Friday

It's finally Friday, yay!

1.  One of my new favorite products is Origins Clear Improvements active charcoal mask.  Basically, I put it on my face, let it dry and my skin gets all tight and then wash it off.  Apparently the active charcoal in it is supposed to clean junk out of your pores.  I'm not sure how much I believe that, but I've definitely seen an improvement in my skin since I started using it.  I ordered it from Birchbox when I had a 20% code.  My face is naturally slightly reddish in tone and when I use this once or twice a week I notice the redness has gone down.  I've used it 6ish times thus far and clearly not very much has been used.  It's kind of expensive ($23 from Birchbox) but this bottle is definitely going to last me a long time.

My massive man hand

2. Boots had her 5th birthday yesterday.  Yes, I'm an obsessed cat lady, but I'm only obsessed with my cat.  I made her a kitty cake (Joy the Baker style).  I layered tuna and some dry food.  She loved it. 

Birthday kitty

3. My tomatoes at my garden plot are coming in nicely.  I need to take some photos for the blog.  I also need to stake them up better because they're kind of a mess.  My peas are done and I need to pull them all out.  Sean works on Sunday, so maybe when he's at work I'll go to the garden and work up a storm/sweat.

4. Speaking of gardening, my dad and brother have a growing contest of something every year.  This year, I'm participating and we're growing beets.  My first round of beets did not come up.  At the urging of Travis, I planted a second crop and they're now a couple inches tall.  Maybe when I do some major weeding of the garden on Sunday I'll take pictures of everything.

5. Sean doesn't work tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous - projected high of 76 degrees (!!!).  That will be a lot nicer than the 95 degree days we've been having.  There's stuff going on in our neighborhood this weekend, so maybe we'll walk around and check it out.

Have a lovely weekend!

Weigh in Wednesday - Week 1

Good morning!  I was on the fence about doing Weigh in Wednesday this week, as I mentioned previously, but I was curious and then decided to post it for accountability purposes. 

By the way, I really hate posting pictures of my feet.  You may or may not know I do not like feet.  At all.  I don't especially like my own feet.  I definitely do not like anyone else's feet either.  I think I've given Sean a foot rub like twice, ever and vice versa.  Don't get me wrong, I like a good foot rub, but the thought of other people touching my feet gives me the willies.  Sorry for the side story, but it is going to be an adjustment posting pictures not only of the scale, but of my feet too.  Sorry for the gross-ness.

Back to the point of this post. 

 

Weigh in Wednesday - Week 1: 257.2 lbs

I know it has only been two days so I stepped on the scale not expecting a change at all, really.  But down a pound and I am not complaining.  I've had two perfect eating days calorie wise and I'm really happy about that.

 

For the first time in my life, I think I understand this.  I understand and want this more than I did the last time.  I now understand this post Liz from One Twenty Five posted.  I understand how she talks about her weight, eating, and exercise are the one thing in her life she can control.  I get that and I'm feeling that way too.  I can't control if I get hired (or not) for a job I really want.  I can't control a lot of things, but I can control how I nourish my body and I take comfort in that.  I get it now and I know I didn't understand it before. 

 

I know what you might be thinking.  How can this time around be any different from when you started two years ago?  Really, I can't explain it, but it feels different this time.  Maybe it's the fact that my wedding ring has been feeling tight, especially when my hands are warm since my fingers get more sausage like when it's warm.  Maybe it is the fact I can only really fit into three pairs of my jeans, all of which I've bought in the last six months.  Maybe it's the dream (nightmare) I had about having to get into my wedding dress again for some party and it wouldn't fit at all.  Maybe it's a combination of all of this, but I feel different this time. 

 

Anyway, sorry about this very (unintentional) long post.  It definitely wasn't planned!  Have a lovely Wednesday. 



On starting again...

Remember this post?  I was so inspired then, so inspired then to lose the weight.  And I did lose some of it.  But not all that I wanted.  Then I gained some of it back.  And now I'm almost back to where I started.

I've decided I'm going to do weekly weigh ins.  I first thought of doing it Friday, but if I move it to Wednesday, I'll feel more accountable over the weekend.  I struggle most with eating and logging what I eat at My Fitness Pal on the weekends when I'm not at work and have the structure of breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned out for me.  So Wednesday weigh day it is.

These weekly weigh ins I've decided I'm going to do something different from last time.  I'm actually going to post a picture of the scale from my weigh in.  I've gone back and forth about this so many times.  But, you know what?  It's just a number.  A number that doesn't (shouldn't) define me.  A number that defines me too much in my head.  To overcome this fear of other people knowing exactly how much I weigh and letting that number define me, I'm going to post it.  And it's terrifying. 

This time around, again, I am asking for your support. 

I haven't decided on a goal weight specifically yet.  I think I will know when I get there.  I'm going to be experimenting with some new lower calorie/carb recipes that hopefully I can blog about over on Jacques (yes I know I haven't posted there in months). 

Anyway, below this morning's picture of my starting weight.  I haven't decided if I'm going to do a weigh in this week since Wednesday is only two days away...

Starting weight - 258.2

My daily calorie limit on My Fitness Pal is 1,610.  My breakfast this morning consisted of a fried egg, lemon chobani, and coffee with a splash of cream - 274 calories total.  Lunch is a Lean Cuisine and grapes.  I touched on it last Friday, but dinner is going to be all about portion control.  Also, making healthier dinners is better for not only me, but Sean as well.  This time around, I'm not going to restrict any foods since I feel that is setting me up for failure.  I'm going to go about this from a portion control aspect. 

Come along with me on my journey or just watch from the sidelines.

Five things on Friday.

I'm changing the name of my Friday posts.  They've morphed from five favorite things to just five things going on right now in general.  Hence, the change.


1. Check out this video.  Hilarious.

2. Yesterday, I had an unexpected vacation day and made a ton of banana bread a.k.a. five batches.  Part of our carpet in our apartment had to be cleaned because of a water leak from the apartment above us, so I was at home making sure the cat didn't escape.  The freezer was full of bananas that needed to be made into banana bread, so I baked up a storm.

3. I'm making it a goal to bike to places as much as possible this summer.  So far this week, I've biked 16 miles.  There will probably be another trip to the garden this weekend for sure (3.5 miles roundtrip) and then a trip to the gym (7 miles roundtrip).  Maybe I can convince Sean we should go on a Sunday biking adventure, who knows.

4. I finally found lemon Chobani at Cub Foods yesterday.  Lemon is my favorite Chobani flavor and I haven't been able to find it in months.  Cub had a coupon for 88 cent cups of Chobani so I stocked up on lemon and blood orange flavors.  My breakfast this morning was delightful.

5. I'm jumping back on the weight loss bandwagon and I'm trying to keep my meal portions in check.  This is the biggest thing I struggle with.  I'm happy to have found my favorite yogurt flavors yesterday and that will make breakfasts a lot easier.  For work, I've stocked up on some Lean Cuisines.  I know, they're full of sodium that doesn't help weight loss, yada yada yada.  But.  They're great for portion control and they're easy to throw in my bag in the morning right before heading out the door.  I've gained back some of the weight I lost pre-wedding and I'm struggling with body image right now.  Check back next week for more weight loss and lifestyle change updates. 

I think that wraps up this week!  I hope you have a great weekend!

How is it Wednesday afternoon and we're swinging into the middle of July ALREADY? 

The days are supposed to slow down a bit in the summer and that is definitely not happening for me.

Friday Favorites.

It's Friday, already?!  I think because of yesterday's holiday today really came quick.

1. Sean and I went on a bike ride yesterday.  It was lovely, but hot.

2. My shoulders got a little sunburned because of said bike ride.  The sun really made me tired though and I slept really great last night.

3. This is so funny to me.

via QuickMeme

4. Also, this is funny because I love Pride and Prejudice so much.  Not to be confused with my Mr. Collins of course.

via Period Drama Love!

5. I think I'm going to stay home all weekend.  There is a festival going on in my neighborhood and it's insanely busy.  Driving the car anywhere is a no-go because they block off the road to get to our parking lot.  Annoying.  I love where we live, really I do, but when it's nice and there's things going on in the park it gets a little crazy.  And then I don't like living where we do.  Win some and lose some I guess...

Happy weekend to you!