Good Morning, Friends! This week has been very productive. My mom and I have really been sticking to our morning walks. We even got up at 6:00 this morning (yes, on a Saturday) to get a walk in before I came in to work. My legs are SO SORE from all the walking uphill we've been doing, but it has been well worth it! I've lost 3 pounds in the last week. I've been focusing a lot more on my food now that we're getting settled into the new place. I cooked some amazing herb and parmesan crusted tilapia the other night. I went over to my parents house and cooked enough for all of us. The next night I made penne with asparagus, tomatoes and peas. I need to get back into the habit of photographing my food. Not having a working laptop has made it a little difficult, but hopefully that will be remedied soon. Next week, my mom and I are going to work on incorporating more weight training into our routine. We gave ourselves a week to get used to walking and waking up early. Now that our bodies have adjusted, we're going to start going to the gym after work 3 or 4 times a week. We both have a deadline given to us by our doctor, so we have a time limit and a goal to reach! I think with this much activity, we will get there quickly!

I'm looking forward to getting off work at noon today and going home to spend the rest of my weekend relaxing. It's been an exhausting couple of weeks and I am looking forward to some time alone to unwind a little.

Hello Everyone! My laptop is still messed up, so I'm blogging really quickly from work. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks! Joel and I just moved last week and that was EXHAUSTING but we love our new place! We're living out on my parent's property in the country. Our kitchen isn't quite set up, and all we have is a microwave at the moment, so we have been living off sandwiches and relying on my parent's home cooking (which I am NOT complaining about). My mom and I have been getting up super early in the morning to walk together. Walking for an hour uphill and downhill is a lot harder than I expected it to be. My legs are sore from climbing those hills, but its so good to have a partner. I know I HAVE to get up and go walk because she'll be waiting for me at 5:30. It also makes the walk much more enjoyable and go by faster because I have someone to talk to.

I can't wait to have our kitchen set up so I can start cooking for myself again! I've missed cooking and its much harder to keep track of eating healthy when you are relying on someone else for meals. We'll be fully settled in soon and things will go back to normal. Hopefully I'll get my laptop fixed soon too so I can start blogging every night again!

Hi Guys...Sorry for the lack of blogs lately. My laptop has a virus that I cannot figure out how to get rid of. I've done every scan and tried every trick I know. I've gotten my computer back to being able to function, but I cannot sign on to Blogger to post blogs. It's been very frustrating! That poor laptop has been hanging on for a long time. It's about time to get a new one. Unfortunately, until I do, I can only blog from work, and I don't have much time to do that here. I'll try to keep things updated as best I can...it's hard staying on track when I know I won't be posting my food on the blog!

I will say that I again lost weight last week (Yay!) It wasn't a lot, but its still a loss. I have lost weight every week since I started Weight Watchers, and while I'm going a little slower than I'd like, I can still see the progress and thats incredibly encouraging! A lot of my pants are really baggy and I'm fitting in to clothes that had gotten a little too tight to wear! I also love the Weight Tracker on Weight Watchers...It's a graph that keeps track of my weight so I can see the line going down every week. Being such a visual person, that keeps me really motivated.

I had some bloodwork done at the doctor a couple weeks ago, and he has given me some goals to work toward. I have a Vitamin D deficiency and my C Reactive Protein is really high. Basically, that means I have a high risk of stroke or heart attack (scary). So, he has me taking tons of Vitamin D (2 pills, 3 times a day) and he wants me to lose 30 pounds by my next appointment, which will be at the end of July. It's hard to remember to take all the pills, but I'm getting into the habit of it. I respect my doctor a lot, and don't want to let him down, so knowing that he has set goals for me is just one more thing motivating me.

So, I'll try to keep updating as much as I can! It'll be a little more difficult now that I have to do it at work, but this blog really keeps me on track. I hope everyone has a great week!

Stress

Stress is my biggest down fall when it comes to achieving my goals. I don't handle stress well, and my first instinct when I get upset about something is to eat. I am a text book "Emotional Eater."

I did really well last week. The meal planning really helped me stay on track, and even on days when we veered from the planned menu, I still kept things very healthy. I also worked out a few times last week, and I kept track of everything in my new planner. When the weekend hit, it was kind of a different story. I'm incredibly stressed out over things at work and a few other things. My problem is that I don't just stress...I obsess. I can't stop thinking about whatever is bothering me until it is resolved...even if that takes weeks. The weekend didn't go so well. I didn't cook much and I just munched on anything I could get my hands on. I had the intention of going to the park for a long walk/jog on Saturday, but I was overwhelmed by my stress so all I did was lay in bed all weekend.

Yesterday, I did better during the day. I ate pretty healthy meals, but as the day went on, and things got more and more stressful at work, all I wanted was a bag of Lay's Sour Cream and Onion chips. Not the baked ones. The real ones. I get these random cravings and I can't stop thinking about them until I indulge. I ignored my craving all day, and made dinner for Joel and I when I got home. I made whole wheat pasta with ground turkey and tomato sauce because it was something easy and I didn't have it in me to make anything complicated. I also made a loaf of fresh bread in my bread maker with the intention of having one piece with dinner and then bringing some to work today to have with my lunch. Well, that didn't happen. Joel and I ate the ENTIRE loaf of bread. We just kept going back and getting another piece and another piece. I had no control. I kept thinking I should really stop eating, but I just wanted one more piece of bread, and before I knew it, the whole loaf was gone.

I don't know what it is about stress, but it's like I can't control myself when I'm stressed out. I become overwhelmed by every little thing. Even cooking dinner, something I normally love to do, becomes a huge chore. I have to figure out a way to deal with my stress that doesn't include eating. Emotional eating is a huge reason why I've become so overweight, but it's an incredibly difficult cycle to break. When I'm happy, I am completely focused and determined, but once anything remotely stressful happens, I lose it. I need to figure out how to break this cycle.

Weigh In Day!

Man, yesterday was great! It was weigh-in day for me, and I lost again! At this point, I've lost a total of 13 pounds! I am so excited! The weight is pretty much just falling off me, and until now, the only thing I've really changed is my eating. I've worked out here and there, but I haven't been very consistent, so to lose that much weight just by changing my eating is incredible! I can't wait to see what happens now that I'm going to be working out more. :)

For breakfast, I fixed myself a scrambled egg with some turkey bacon, half a bagel with light cream cheese (I'm out of bagel thins, so I ate half of a regular bagel), and some strawberries.

For lunch, I had some pasta with vegetables in a cheese sauce. It was something I got out of the frozen section out of desperation...it was okay, and pretty filling, but not something I'd have as a meal again. There weren't nearly as many vegetables as I expected.

My boss brought these GIGANTIC strawberries to work. It only took one to get my fruit fix. These things must be on steroids...I've never seen strawberries this big.I had some trail mix too.

After work, I went for my first appointment with my new trainer! I met him the day before at the gym, and I liked him immediately. He's actually worked with clients that were on The Biggest Loser, so he's really tough. I honestly thought I was going to collapse and throw up during that work out. I don't think I've ever worked out that hard in my life. The first thing he had me do was get on the treadmill with the incline as high as it would go. He said "we're walking up Mount Everest." And any time I would try to use the handle bars he'd say "No handles...there are no handles on Mount Everest." It was rough. Then we did sprints, and a bunch of really hard leg exercises. After one round I thought I was going to pass out...but we did it two more times, then did more sprints. It was rough, but SO great! I love hard workouts like that. I'm really sore today, and I love that feeling! I'm going to train with him in the gym once a week, and he's getting me set up on his online program which will have workout plans and meal plans for me to use on my own. I can't wait to get started on his program!

After I got home (and rested for a while) I made Veggie Stir Fry for dinner. It was great! I used a recipe from my Ellie Krieger cookbood as a guideline, but pretty much did my own thing. I used two bags of stir fry veggies and added some fresh bell pepper, asparagus, and garlic to the mix. This stuff was awesome, and there was enough left over to bring for lunch today!

After dinner, I went to bed and slept like a baby. I woke up this morning full of energy! While I was getting ready for work, I decided to try on a shirt that had gotten a little too tight to wear, and it fits again! It's actually a little baggy now! My pants are really baggy on me too, which is awesome!

It's the most rewarding thing to put on clothes that used to be too tight and now they're almost too big. I can't wait to try on some other stuff in my closet that I grew out of but have been holding on to!

I'm so tired, so I'm going to keep it short tonight. Food wise, it was a great day! Joel didn't have to get up early, so I only had to fix breakfast for myself.

I bought these waffles to try. This brand had a lot of different flavors, but I decided to try the regular ones first. They are so good!

I topped them with a sliced banana and some Pure Maple Syrup (why didn't anyone tell me how good that stuff was?) It's naturally really sweet and tastes a lot different than the syrup I'm so used to. And a little goes a long way so I didn't have to drown the waffles in syrup to get the flavor!


For lunch at work I made another salad. I couldn't decide what I wanted this morning, so I took a few different things with me. I was still kind of craving a salad, so I made one with romaine, turkey lunch meat cut into slices, a hard boiled egg, shredded broccoli and some ranch dressing. I was really surprised at how full I was when I finished.

For dinner, I tried something I would normally NEVER make: Fish! I made herb and parmesan crusted tilapia. I am not a huge fish person. In fact, I HATE most fish. I can't stand the smell or the flavor, but I've had tilapia a couple times and it was okay. I know I need to get more seafood into my diet, so I decided to try this recipe out and it was actually really good! I was pleasantly surprised.

It's pretty much just Panko bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Dip the filets in an egg wash, then dip them in the bread crumbs and spray them with some cooking spray. Then heat a skillet on medium heat, spray some cooking spray in it, and cook the fish until browned and cooked through. It took hardly any time, and even for someone like me who has NEVER cooked fish before, it was pretty fool proof. The broccoli went really well with the fish (that was Joel's idea).

So that's all for today really. Maybe I'll have some more energy to post in the morning. But now I've got to clean up the kitchen and veg out!

These long, exhausting days at work just won't quit. When I got home last night I was so tired. I didn't want to do a thing. But I still made dinner! I stuck to my meal plan all day yesterday!

For breakfast, we had Vanilla Spice Oatmeal from my Ellie Krieger cookbook. Every recipe I have tried from that cookbook has been AMAZING! I have so many more to try. That was definitely a good purchase. The Oatmeal was really good. Joel and Christian liked it too. I'm always excited to find good Oatmeal recipes because I normally hate it, but it's such a healthy breakfast option.

For lunch I tried something I learned from N Her Shoes and prepacked a salad. I forgot to snap a picture because I was so hungry but it had romaine lettuce, shredded broccoli and carrots (broccoli slaw mixture...you can find this in the salad section at the grocery store), a hard boiled egg, a little shredded cheese, and some cut up chicken that I had left over from dinner the night before. I have Light Ranch at the office, so all I had to do was pour some on and enjoy! It's an easy option for lunch, and I need to incorporate more salads into my life, so I'll be taking that for lunch more often.

When I got home, Joel and I sat and talked about our days for a while. I'm loving this new routine we have. When I come home we sit in the living room for at least 30 minutes to an hour to discuss how our day went before I get up and start working on dinner or turn the tv on. We always have something going on, so it's nice to have that little bit of quiet time every day.

For dinner, I tried out a new recipe. Lemon Chicken with Asparagus. It was awesome! Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables, so I love using it any way I can.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (boneless and skinless)
olive oil
salt & pepper
herbes de provence (the recipe called for poultry seasoning, but I didn't have any, so I used this instead)
4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup chicken stock

To make:

Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, and herbes de provence.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet, then add the chicken breast. Cook until browned on both sides.
Add the garlic and red bell pepper and stir. Cover and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the asparagus and cover. Cook for another 2 minutes to let the asparagus steam. Then add the lemon zest and chicken stock. Cover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and asparagus is tender.

I served it over couscous (Joel and I don't know how we lived without couscous for so long.) It was delicious! The chicken was moist and the red bell pepper and asparagus tasted wonderful together, and it was super easy to make.

My mom got us signed up at the gym yesterday. She brought me my keycard and a business card for the trainer so I can set up my initial appointment. I'm going to call him today and see if I can get in sometime this week after work. I can still go before I meet with him and use the equipment though, so I'm taking my workout stuff with me today and I still stop at the gym on my way home! I'm looking forward to seeing the place.

Well, I've gotta finish getting ready for work and eat breakfast before I go! Have a great day, everyone!