Time to Regroup

Well, as you may have guessed, I will not be completing the full 28 days of the Fast Metabolism Diet. It got too hard to follow all the precise guidelines and food restrictions. And if I'm being completely honest, for most of the weekend I ate complete junk. BUT let's focus on the positives about last week:

• Compared to a few weeks ago, I ate much more food that I'd cooked myself, instead of buying breakfast on the way to work, lunch at work, etc.
• I worked out SIX TIMES! Have I ever worked out that much in one week? Maybe once a few years ago? Anyway. Insane, y'all.
• I accomplished a lot even though my week was super busy. I wasn't home much to cook/clean, and I didn't get as much sleep last week as I needed, but I still mostly stuck to my meal plan and got all my workouts in.

Yesterday I sat down and made a rough meal plan for this week. I picked recipes I know that I'll like, and didn't base anything on a particular diet. A few of the groceries I picked up:

Bananas are back on the scene! They weren't allowed on the FMD :(

I made the first recipe last night. Potato Enchiladas from The Starch Solution:

I ate one for breakfast this morning. They may not be attractive, but they're pretty tasty!

Tonight, I was back in the kitchen to try a couple more recipes. I started with lots of chopping (fyi, I think I'm the slowest chopper in the world):

I made a coconut Thai stirfry based on a recipe from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry.

This was delicious! I had it over basmati rice (I was planning to use brown rice but I didn't have enough). I'm very excited about all the leftovers.

Next, I quickly whipped up some turkey sausage with brown rice pasta, which I first made two weeks ago when prepping for the Fast Metabolism Diet.

I'm feeling pretty happy about all the meals in my fridge/freezer, just ready to be eaten! In other news, my kitchen looks like a disaster zone and I bought some new clothes yesterday so I can put off doing laundry for a couple more days (also because there was a 40% off sale). But as long as my eating is under control, it's okay if I'm not totally together. Right??

I'm off to bed soon - meeting the trainer bright and early tomorrow! Good night!

Crazy Day

I had every intention of blogging last night to update you all on how my Ease Into Summer Challenge is going, but my day took a crazy turn. Hearing about the Eaton Centre shootings was unsettling enough, and then my mom and I were in a small car accident. Fortunately, we're both totally fine.

When trying to merge onto the highway, my Mom had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of us (which had suddenly slowed down), and we were hit by the car behind us. After exchanging info with the other driver (in the pouring rain), we were able to drive home. Unfortunately, my Mom's brand new car (the first new car she's ever owned) is quite damaged... Anyway, these things happen, and it could have been a lot worse!

I think I've been doing well with the challenge so far. On Friday, I was volunteering at a high school math-a-thon to help the Grade 9 Applied Math students prepare for the EQAO standardized test happening on Monday. It was a lot of fun, and involved a pizza lunch. However, right as we were diving into our pizza, the fire alarm went off and we were all outside in the pouring rain for quite awhile. Since everyone was soaked, they actually ended up dismissing all the kids early! So Friday was rather crazy, as well.

On Saturday, I started my day with some delicious oatmeal, a la Kath Eats Real Food.

I cooked it with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, a banana, some cinnamon, and vanilla extract. I sprinkled some ground flaxseed on top. This is rapidly becoming my new favourite breakfast!

I can't remember what I had for lunch--I think I had a few snacks instead. I went to the gym, even though I was STILL sore from the workout I'd done on Wednesday. After the gym, I made myself a green smoothie. We were out of spinach, so I used arugula.

Note to self: In future, do NOT use arugula in a green smoothie. It will taste like arugula.

 For dinner, I made some black bean burgers. So simple and delicious!

Everyone was a fan! I put mine on yeast-free spelt bread with avocado, tomato, and arugula (I later remembered that Joshi doesn't allow tomato. Oops!).

Delicious!

Unfortunately, I went a tiny bit off-track when I got home after the car accident. I was really hungry (and shaken up), and in the mood for eggs. Eggs are allowed on the detox, but I had them with whole-wheat bread, as I had eaten the last of my yeast-free bread... A minor transgression, in my opinion.

This morning, I got myself to the grocery store.

 Lots of goodies, including bananas, black beans, and brown rice sushi for lunch!

I wanted to mention, also, that I was so thrilled by the comments on my last couple of posts. Thank you, everyone! I'm so happy to be back to blogging. :)

Turn it around

I have been successfully tracking since Sunday! This is big news.

Today had the potential to be a disastrous day. My first few meals consisted of mainly bread, butter, and cheese (grilled cheese, breakfast sandwich with cheese, bagel with butter and cheese). I was feeling a bit icky (I wonder why?!), but I somehow managed to get my butt out the door to the gym around 7 pm.

I ended up having a great 45-minute workout! Also, I have tracked everything, and now I'm snacking on an orange and heating up a leftover enchilada for a late dinner.

I was honestly thisclose to picking up McDonald's and a pint of ice cream instead of going to the gym, and I'm so proud that I didn't. I was able to turn this day around! Booyah!

Proud!

Hey folks!

So, despite the fact that I was up 1.2 lbs at my meeting today, I'm feeling really good for the following reasons:

• I worked out four times last week (much more than I had been in prior weeks)
• I ate well and tracked for 5 days out of 7, and partially tracked the other 2
• I went to Swiss Chalet for dinner tonight, and actually ordered something reasonably healthy (i.e. not french fries)! And not only that, I stopped eating before I was uncomfortably full. I actually left food on my plate. I bet I could count on one hand the number of times in my life I've done this before at a restaurant. And now I feel good, not overstuffed. :)

I think part of the reason I was up this morning is that I indulged a bit last night... mainly in some (er, quite a few) potato chips. I'm confident this week's hard work will show up on the scale next Saturday. In the mean time, I'll keep on trucking... and tracking!

Weigh-In & Back on Track!

Guess what, guys!

This girl has been TRACKING! :D

It all started on Saturday.

I haven't been mentioning my weigh-ins lately... I'm sure you can guess why! But let's come clean. On Saturday, I weighed in at 191.6 lbs, exactly 10 lbs higher than my lowest weight. On May 1, when I got my 10%, I was 181.6. I know I can drop these new 10 pounds really quickly, because I put them on quickly while eating total garbage.

Saturday's meeting topic was falling in love with your tracker! How fitting! I picked up a paper tracker to use this week (I have a 3-month tracker right now, but it has so many empty pages, it depresses me). I told Ashley, my leader, that I would give it to her next week as a little extra incentive.

Off to a good start:

I also rekindled my love affair with my Weight Watchers food scale (I swear, one of these days I'll devote a post to how wonderful it is). And have I mentioned how much I love Silver Hills Little Big Bread? These two slices (they must have been small end-slices) worked out to be 1 point total!

I've been keeping my meals pretty simple. Some PC Blue Menu Encrusted Wild Keta Salmon and a salad with tons o' avocado:

Homemade hummus, Mary's crackers, and tomato soup:

On Sunday, I even managed to sneak in a green smoothie! I'm sure my body was thanking me.

As for exercise? On Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed before 8 am for my first run in many weeks. I managed to go for about 25 minutes. I'm quite happy with that. I'm also planning to hit up BodyStep tomorrow morning.

It's good to be back! 100 pounds lost, here I come!

Weigh-In!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

So I had my wonderful Weight Watchers meeting today, with the wonderful Ashley. (Um, is it obvious how much I love my meetings?) Today's meeting was especially great - 2 members got their 10%'s, 2 members got to goal, and 2 members got LIFETIME! WOW! If that's not inspiring, I don't know what is!

I was a bit nervous about my weigh-in... I had trouble resisting food several times this week... and for some reason, decided it was a good idea to buy White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter a few days ago.

But I was down 1.8!! That means I've lost weight two weeks in a row! It has been forever since that's happened. Can I make it three??

True, I haven't lost the 4.2 I was up two weeks ago, but I don't even care. What's the rush, am I right?

What I accomplished last week:

• 3 "real" workouts and some extra walking. (I did the 30 Day Shred Level 3 twice, and I did the "Bring the Heat" Cardio workout from my Booty Camp dvd once.)
• Despite a few bouts of emotional eating, I kept persisting and did not throw my entire week down the toilet.

Goals for this week:

• at least 3 workouts.
• measuring and tracking my food accurately!
• drinking 4 water bottles' worth of water every day!

What are your goals for next week?

Quick Check-In

I wanted to write a quick post, mostly for myself to remember how proud I am at this moment.

Remember how easy everything was on Sunday? Oh my, how things can change. ;)

Somehow, on Monday, I ate 29 over my daily points (of 25). Eep! Luckily, I had the weekly points to account for it. I don't even know how it happened! Just some Doritos here, some toast there, and BAM. 29 points in the hole.

So, fine. No big deal. I'll just watch it for the rest of the week, right?

Well. I keep chocolates in my desk at work for days that I want to bribe my students. A very dumb place for them, because I open my drawer to get something out, and I see them. Today was not a high-willpower kind of day (I got very little sleep last night and I've got a few things on my mind - excuses, excuses!), so I ate 9 plain chocolates, and 3 peanut butter ones!

So why am I proud? Well, I kept track while I ate them, and counted up all the points when I got home. I was on the verge (and may have started) going nuts eating everything in my cupboard, but somehow I convinced myself to do the 30 Day Shred Level 3. (Because it's only 20 minutes, I usually can't excuse my way out of it).

So now I'm feeling shredded by Jillian, and no longer on the verge of a crazy binge. Working out made me crave some healthy food, rather than junk, and I am still feeling really good about this week.

It just goes to show that I can avoid going completely over the top after one (or two) small bouts of uncontrollable eating! The damage done was not that bad, and my week is NOT shot to hell!

Tonight I am trying my first recipe from Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry: Mexican lasagna. I will let you know how it goes!