Breakfast Fail

I got the brilliant idea to make a carrot cake protein shake this morning... huge huge fail. Omg, it was so gross, I can't even describe it. I'm sure it would have been better if I'd juiced the carrots instead of just blanching and then blending them, because the gritty texture was the worst thing. But the flavor was not very good either, even when I basically drowned it in cinnamon. Ick. I like carrot cake, but this did not work at all! At least it was healthy.

It made so much, and I hate wasting things, so I am going to attempt to use some of what's left in oatmeal tomorrow. Hopefully when cooked more and blended with stuff that is supposed to be clumpy/whatever, it will be ok. I just can't believe that was so terrible. I even searched for recipes and saw that other people have made similar things, and they liked it. Oh well, never know till you try.

Whew. So, now that I am getting over that gross breakfast, I can report that after half a week staying the same (seems like my body does that every single week), I have dropped one more pound. Down 15.2! Over 8% lost. I think I'm currently in 4th place in the competition, but not everyone posted their results, and 2 of the people who didn't were within 2 spots of me last week, so it's possible I am still 6th. But, the important part is, I am closing the gap to the 2 leaders (it helped that they both had a lousy week when I had a good one!). As of Tuesday, I was less than 2% away from the leader, so if I can just keep better progress than them, maybe I will catch up. It was starting to feel impossible that anyone would have a chance of catching up. We are only halfway through, anything can happen. And if not, I am still really striving for my 150 goal by March 27th. I can do this!

Last night I ate more than I should have. I was feeling compulsive eating urges coming on, and it was so so hard to resist. I think it was because we had pasta for dinner. I've been cutting way way back on high carb meals like that, and it's like it just triggered something in me. I had dessert like I almost always do (a low fat frozen yogurt bar), but then added extra peanut butter mixed with cool whip on top, and then had a handful of honey roasted peanuts I should not have eaten. Oh, and a bite of dried mango. And I still wanted more so bad. I don't know how I managed to lose a pound. All I can say is maybe my body really needed to eat more in order to lose, and it wasn't completely emotional craziness? Whatever, I am going to try hard not to repeat that, just because I didn't like feeling out of control, and back to my old ways, AT ALL.

My working out has been great, I can now do 10 regular push ups in a row instead of knee ones. I did 3 sets of 10 spread out yesterday, and some random chair dips and crunches. That was all in addition to my real workout, so it felt good to do. Today I am doing 30DS level 1 for the last time before I move up to level 2. I am going to try to do most of it with 8lb weights this time (started with all 5lbs and last time I was switching between 8 and 5). I also got a few more Jillian videos including the yoga one to try out, because I definitely want to vary my activity as much as possible.

P.S. I'm only 20 lbs from just about the lowest weight I've been. That doesn't sound so bad when I've already lost 15! What if I could make that in just 10 weeks?? It would be so amazing. I know I probably won't, but even if it takes 20 weeks, I want to get there and beyond!

Mondays are my new favorite

Why does it seem like I always have the lowest weight on Monday? Then it usually goes up again on Tuesday, but whatever. I will take today's weight of 164.2, which is 2.8lbs less than last Monday! Yay! I think last week was inflated some due to my time of the month, but anyways, I am still super happy with this week, even if it goes up tomorrow for my official challenge weigh in. I am hoping to move up a couple spots in the competition, but if not, I still killed it this week.

My eating was practically perfect (what I consider perfect/not cheating, which includes some wiggle room!), especially considering a girl's night on Friday which involved everyone bringing food. But I stuck to my plan very well, and had no alcohol or dessert (even the lighter dessert that was brought) either. No restaurant meals for the weekend, which was great. Sunday we didn't have a super bowl party to go to for once, so it wasn't hard to resist eating junk. I actually was having some emotional issues last night and did not feel like eating, so I just had a bit of grilled chicken, zucchini, and acorn squash for dinner, which is much less than I usually do. Weird, because emotional times usually lead me to want to eat, but I really did not want to at all this time.

I did a kayak trip with yoga on the beach session on Saturday and wow, that was so much more of a workout than I expected. I haven't kayaked in forever, and when I did, it was usually a river with more of a current to help you along. This bay trip seemed like a lot more work. My upper back/shoulders are still sore. The yoga was faster paced and more challenging than I expected too, but it felt great to get in totally different types of exercise this weekend. I took Sunday for a much needed rest day, as I don't really feel like I've had a complete rest day in weeks.

I am excited to be less than 5 lbs from the lowest weight I got to last year and it's only a week into February. I still think I have a shot at hitting 150 or just under by the end of my weight loss competition, and that would be so so awesome. I am ready to continue trying my best! I don't want to quit this time until I have seen 140 - my ultimate goal that always seems just out of reach. I have to make it happen!!

First Month Done, Many More to Go

Well, it's February 3rd, which means exactly one month has passed since my weight loss challenge started. I am down 11.8 lbs. Not bad, obviously, but still a little disappointing considering 7 of that was the first week. I was really hoping for 2lbs a week since the first week, but haven't been making that. Oh well. I am only 7 lbs from my lowest weight last year and it is barely February, so I am confident I will see much better this year. So far, it's not looking so good that I'll make the top 3 of this competition (only in 6th place right now, out of like 29), but we are only 1/3 of the way done, so who knows what will happen. I am just going to try my best, without depriving myself too much.

I am doing amazing at working out, and very good with eating too, but have been finding too many peanuts to snack on lately. I am working at being better with that. But I know I'll never get perfect at this, and that's ok. It's all about moderation, because I need to learn that so I can live this way for good.

Until next time, plateau!

Finally. Holy crap, that was tough to get through all the waiting I have done to see the scale move lately. It was stuck on the same number foreeeeeever, even though I was eating well and working out just about daily. Saturday morning it was finally nice to me, and even more so today, so I am excited. I am down over 11 lbs now, in less than 4 weeks, so I will take it. Probably still no where close to catching up to the leaders in the competition, but I am close to catching up to my own 2lb per week loss average goal (excluding week 1), so that is great. 2 lbs to get back to last summer's 165 weight and 7 lbs to last year's lowest weight. And onward from there!!

I had a great weekend, though it did involve a little splurging in the form of rum (mostly in diet coke, plus a little of my friend's light cranberry + soco). I had a few drinks, but watched my eating like a hawk (no cheat/restaurant meals this week!) and came out of the weekend with a victory.

What kind of crap..

Seriously, either my body or my scale are against me this week. I don't get it AT ALL. I have been doing everything right, as good as last week, for sure, and I have been hovering at least 1/2 pound higher than I was last Tuesday ever since. So so frustrating! I've been trying to switch up things a little to confuse my body against plateauing, but apparently, it is not working. It really sucks to work so hard and get negative progress. I am going to hate having to admit that tomorrow in our official challenge weigh in. Maybe I'll get lucky and the scale will finally give me a pound off??

I took a rest day from exercising yesterday. It was really the first complete rest day I've taken since starting 3 weeks ago, and I thought maybe my body needed that to drop some water weight from my muscles being sore or whatever. But it did nothing but make me feel like a slacker.

Oh well. All I can do is hang in there. I know I am eating healthy and getting stronger, hopefully it will start coming off again very soon.

Well. Well well well.

It is a good thing that I am above the scale. Maybe only slightly, but still above. After telling me the exact same reading 3 days in a row, today said 1.4 lbs higher. Ok, I know there are fluctuations occasionally, and one day last week I saw a slight increase only to go back down the next day, which was no big deal. But what gets me was today was the first day I woke up feeling lighter and thinner, and I was so sure I had broken through that 3 day reading and would see a pound lost. So sure. I would have bet money on it. Well, dead wrong I was. That pretty much sucks. Normally I would say, oh, I just worked out so hard, my muscles must be building or retaining water or whatever. But yesterday was a slow 4 mile walk day, the same walk we've been doing for years, so definitely nothing muscle challenging.

But I definitely did not eat 4,000 or so calories, let alone that many over what I should have to maintain. So I will just have to try harder and wait it out. Most people would just tell me not to weigh every day, but if I hadn't, I would have assumed I was doing great based on how I felt and would have felt even worse if a whole week had resulted in nothing or in a gain. So, oh well, I am a slave to the scale for the next 9.5 weeks anyways.

I am going to continue with my planned eats for today except possibly skipping a high carb side at dinner that I might have otherwise had, drink tons of water in case I just had too much salt or something, and work my butt off. Mostly because tomorrow night we are splurging at a restaurant to use up a groupon I got a while back that is almost expiring. I will try to at least take half my meal home for later, but I still want to be very good today and earlier tomorrow to try to make up for it. I really want to see -2lbs (from yesterday's weight, not today's!) on Tuesday.

2 weeks down, 10 to go

We had our 3rd weigh in for the competition today (including starting weigh in). I am down 9 lbs in 2 weeks! Pretty good.. I am going to work hard not to slip down to only 1lb a week loss, which is what my body tends to like to do. I really want 2lbs a week until the end of the competition. That would put me just under 150 lbs, or my wedding weight, which would be awesome, and only 10lbs from normal BMI.

My workouts have been kick-ass, and eating much healthier still, but not trying to be perfect. We grilled steak last night and it was awesome! Served with a light salad and baked sweet potato with spray ICBINB, splenda and cinnamon, so not too terrible of a meal overall, and worth it. Made us not miss eating out so much. I love that grill.

Keeping up the motivation to go full steam ahead will be challenging, especially with valentine's day and our 3rd wedding anniversary looming in the next 2 months, but I plan to be strong and get through it with only one actual cheat meal here and there (and working out harder those days).

Here's to getting healthy!!