Screw the Scale!

Starting Weight: 192 lbs

Goal Weight: 132 lbs

Last Time’s Weight: 173 lbs

This Time’s Weight: 169 lbs

This Time’s Loss: 4 lbs

Total Loss: 22 lbs

This Week’s Hours of Zumba: 0.0

Last Week’s Hours of Zumba: 1.0

Total Hours of Zumba: 7

I seriously mean that title. The scale is an object of torture and injustice. I am living proof of that. As can be read in last week’s post I lost barely 2 pounds last week. Nutritionist was convinced I ate something because in two weeks I should’ve lost more. Had a hard time convincing him that I really hadn’t ate anything other or more than approved on the diet and that it was my body sabotaging me.

This week I lost 4 lbs. That’s twice as much as I lost in a total of the two weeks before and I did nothing different this week, I’m even going through a visit by aunt Flo again and don’t even feel bloated. Seriously, if someone has the manual to this body of mine…please return it because I’m in desperate need of it!

Back to that scale…So compared to what I still have to lose I am not even half way if I look at the numbers of the scale. However when it comes to my clothes, it’s a whole other matter. I am speeding toward the point in dieting where my clothes are not fitting comfortably i.e. dropping of my ass while still buttoned, but not yet buying other clothes because I am not even at the halfway point of the goal weight.

I kid you not about the pants dropping of my butt…Yesterday I had to run down the stairs in a hurry to bring hubby a much needed item and when I was downstairs I should’ve pulled my pants up because when I accidently hurt my arm on the doorknob and started jumping up and down from the excruciating pain…I gave hubby the wonderful experience of seeing my pants drop right down to the floor and they were fully buttoned and zipped up…Do I need more prove that I am losing weight?

Furthermore I am wearing shirts this week I haven’t worn in years or always worn with either a jacket or another shirt (much wider shirt) over it. There are hardly any lumps on my sides or that hideous pouch in the front. We have a full-length mirror in our hallway, right next to the toilet where I spent a lot of time because of the gallons of water I drink all day, and I can’t stop looking in surprise at my image. I turn front and side and wonder: where are the bulges and lumps…They are too, like my butt, shrinking away and I don’t care that the scale says I’m behind on schedule for my goal weight…The image of my self in the mirror, the falling pants and the fact that I can wear tights shirts for the first time in years without feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable is more of a reward to me that those stupid numbers on a scale.

I know some of my #twitloss buddies have the everlasting battle with the scale too and my post this week hopefully will help let that go and focus on other stuff so it doesn’t become an obsession. I have since this week and it’s a big relief.

Hugs,
Pearl

Nothing to see here....

I am slacking this week and taking the week off from posting. I am pretty much where I was last week and I am blaming it on not eating regularly (I almost forgot entirely yesterday) and lack of sleep. sigh. So instead of me waxing on about stuff... you get a bit of funny.

This diet is...

I swear I am not making excuses. Okay. Maybe just a teeny tiny one. See, I have had repetitive strain in my right wrist since college. It comes and goes, mostly not bothering me; but with all of the writing and blogging I am doing it has flared up again. This time it decided to knot my back up to the point I couldn't even walk without excruciating pain. Fortunately I had already scheduled a doctor's appointment. I went, I got drugs, and physical therapy starts next week. Yay! All will be well soon. The diet will be back on track and chugging away. What? Why would you ask about Chips Ahoy cookies? No I did not eat 5 servings in one sitting. Alright already I did it. I was sooooo bad this weekend.

On the up side of things my doctor has offered a miracle drug to me. I know it is hard to believe.

Doctor: Would you be interested in a drug that would keep your migraines down to one or two per year and suppress your appetite?
Me: Oh so they have made a miracle drug? Where can I get mine?

LOL! Well, we will see once I get to take this stuff. It's called Topomax and was initially an anti seizure drug, it is now also indicated for migraine prevention. One of the common side effects is appetite suppression, so it is being studied by a group as a weight loss drug as well. Lucky for me I may be able to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. So once the arm and back is settled down I will start the migraine drugs and hopefully will experience the wonderful side effect of a suppressed appetite.

Now I just have to stop eating from boredom....

Ooops, I did it again.

You know, I don't really have much to say this week. Not because I don't have much to say, but because I'm tired. I waited too late to do this post. I would love to talk about Bodypump, which I did for the first time. I did it on Saturday and my legs are just now starting to feel normal again. And did I mention that I did it with MINIMAL weight? 4lbs? Something like that. But damn, those squats and lunges and that down for three, up for one shit.....my legs are hateful. Sunday, seriously, my legs were on strike. I went swimming and it was fun being in a nice heated pool, but once I got out, they were angry again. Monday, still angry. Today, they seem to have forgiven me. I can't WAIT to try it again. LOL. It was fun. Hard, definitely, but fun. All the best things are. (hee)

Food was so-so this week. Some days I did really well, and some days.....less well. But, you know what I've noticed? Even when I don't do as well as I should, I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be. Just awareness keeps me somewhat on the straight and narrow. If I go over calorie counts, it's by 200 calories and not 500 or 800......or more! I call that a good day.

So, the stats:

I lost 2.1 lbs this week for a grand total of........20lbs! Now, I'm at a conference so who knows what will happen by next Tuesday. But for today, I'm rocking more back of the closet jeans and having a squee.

Happy Tuesday, everybody!

Day 57: Never Surrender

In my mind this morning, I had it that I was going to talk about how I'm an almost forty-year-old woman (yes, it's not for a couple more years yet, but it's killing me – in my mind I'm still 22) with two kids and how could I still expect to have the same body I had when I was twenty and in the Army. I was forming the words in my head. Then, I came to work and jumped on the scale.

And . . .

I lost two pounds! Can you believe that crap!

I feel energized. I'm dancing in my chair as we speak. Granted, I have my headphones on and I'm acting like I'm typing a transcription for work when I'm actually typing this blog post and listening to Janet Jackson "All For You," but that's another story.

It's not like I gorged out all week and don't know how I lost the weight. Actually, watching what I eat hasn't been that big of a transition for me. Okay, yes I did go to Wendy's last week and order their Frosty Float. And if we're being totally honest, I ordered it again this afternoon, their very good. And, I did make brownies last night, but they were low-fat brownies if that counts.

Now that I got my weekly confession out the way . . .. The biggest transition for me is working out and staying motivated to do so. Last night I set my alarm clock for 4:30AM so that I'd have time to work out before I had to get ready to work out before I had to get ready for work, and this morning it went off at 4:30AM, funny how those things work out like that. Somehow, (and I have NO IDEA how this keeps happening) the snooze button keeps getting hit. Then the next thing I know, the baby is in his room making noises, I get up and bring him into bed with us and get him settled and the next thing I know, it's 6:45AM and I'm jumping out the bed like a mad woman and rushing around so I'm not late for work.

Yeah, that's a typical morning in my household. So obviously I'm going to have to make a change.



With work, I don't get home until 6:00 PM, by the time I cook dinner, harass the kids, and finally get them down, I'm exhausted and ready for bed.



It would be nice if I had a gym here at work, that way I could go to lunch a little bit earlier work out and then take a quick shower and . . .



Umm, wait, there is a small a weight room at my job. Isn't that convenient!

I have no clue how to work the weights, but there's a treadmill, an elliptical. I could use those. Also, since the state of Michigan is finally coming to recognize that it's spring outside and not winter, I can get up early on the weekends and run around my neighborhood.



So that's my plan.

Day 1: 155 pounds

Day 8: 150.5 pounds
Day 15: 151 pounds
Day 22: 148 pounds
Day 29: 150 pounds
Day 43: 150 pounds
Day 50: 150 pounds
Day 57: 148 pounds

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Efforts…meet Sabotage

Starting Weight: 192 lbs

Goal Weight: 132 lbs

Last Time’s Weight: 175 lbs

This Time’s Weight: 173 lbs

This Time’s Loss: 2 lbs

Total Loss: 19 lbs

This Week’s Hours of Zumba: 1.0

Last Week’s Hours of Zumba: 1.5

Total Hours of Zumba: 7

As you can see in the stats above, again “only” a 2 lbs loss in 2 weeks. Last time it was 3 lbs so the numbers are going down and I didn’t even have the pleasure of binging on the birthday cakes and food I mentioned in last week’s blogpost. This really, really pissed me off first because I am sticking rigorously to my 0-calories diet and still not losing the amounts I am supposed to lose for a month now. And when I did give in and ate that half of a wrap (see my posts of a few weeks back) I lost 8 lbs…. 8!!! This is sabotage. My body is really trying to sabotage me into making me fail another diet. Normally when the numbers don’t show what I want them to, it demotivates me and I quit…thinking: “What’s the use anyway?” But I am NOT having it now. I am sticking to this! I am not going to let my body sabotage this because I want it too badly. I want to get to that healthy weight and get to the point where I can switch the o-calories for a healthy and appropriate eating pattern so I can stay on that healthy weight.

This blog, your posts (even if I don’t always have the time to comment, I read the ALL), knowing that you are all a tweet away if needed, it all plays a big part in my resolve not to let my body (and mind) sabotage this attempt once again!

Hugs,
Pearl

Let's talk rewards....

First, my weekly stats are blah. I am up about 0.4 lbs this week... but I am also pretty sure I am about to start a certain monthly tradition so I am going with that as the cause. I did get to body pump, tho I missed my cardio. I will do better next week! My plan:

Body Pump: Tuesday & Friday
Cardio: Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday

I need to meal plan still, but thats my goal for tomorrow afternoon.

As I stick to this I have been thinking of rewards.... I mean we all need something to motivate us right? Some people are blessed with some magical internal drive that kicks their ass every day, I am not one of those people. If I had my choice, I would lounge around in my gigantic bed with nothing but my laptop and iphone, all day, every day. Oh and there would be sexy men with almost shaved heads, skull tattoos, and lickable hips serving me grapes and strawberries every day.

Since I can't do that... I need external motivation. My first step in that was getting my nose pierced and dying my hair any color I want.... I say motivation but really its about embracing what I want and agreeing I am good enough to have it. My long term reward for myself? A full back tattoo. I have a dolphin on my lower hip and a sun/moon hybrid thing on my upper shoulder, but I want something HUGE. I want to change the colors of my sun moon to be a bit darker and then a trailing tree of life/ethereal scene with fairies to represent my girls. I haven't fully imagined yet - all in black and gray and maybe a few jewel tones. It will be awesome (and expensive!) but I can't have it til I know I have gotten myself where I want to be, in life. So, I have pics saved to my hard drive to inspire me:



So, what rewards do you have planned for yourself?

Another Secret...

It's Wednesday! Oh you know that...hhhmmmm. Let's try another secret then...FatSecret! This is a website (new to me if not actually new LOL!) that I found because of my totally disastrous weekend. What? Oh yes. I managed to not stress eat, mostly cause I was flipping out. I bricked my Blackberry Storm. It was a useless, overpriced paperweight for 24 hours this weekend.

I was trying to fix my memory leak problem when I wiped the entire OS off the phone (following instructions mind you). That was when I realized I had no copy to hand of the current (or any) OS for it. Nothing. I use an aircard at home for internet access and it was giving me fits trying to download the OS from the web. So, I had to go to the office download the OS and then finally on Sunday I got it up and running again. The sheer terror of those 24 hours was...okay I might be overstating things a bit, but I was not a happy tech geek.

Once it was fixed, I started adding back some of my lost apps which took me to Blackberry's App World. That is where I discovered FatSecret. They have an app! I was like hhhmmm...what's this? I looked and immediately had to have it. Just look:

Well. After getting all excited, making DH roll his eyes at my spectacular display of geek-ness, I went to their actual website. It's a nice looking site so I signed up and now my phone app and my site are synchronized. Oh yeah...it makes the tech geek in me all warm and fuzzy. So here are some screen shots of the site:


Well, It has a great list of foods already in the database, and adding stuff is easy too! I also love that it has a great list of chain restaurant's menus, so as I sat in Chili's last night and decided what to eat I could record it right there in my food journal and it already had everything I needed! If you want to give it a try click here for the website and here for all of the mobile apps/plug-ins. They even have plug-ins for Google, Facebook, and Firefox. Love these guys!

Update: I am holding strong at 195...not much exercising last week due to my right arm being all jacked up with repetitive strain injury again. I have a Dr.s appointment Friday so will hopefully get moving again soon.

I was also very bad last week...I had cake. But look at it...it was so cute! It was made by Christopher Garren.

"I said to the man are you trying to tempt me?"

I actually heard this song on the way to work this morning so I'm taking that as a sign! It talks about food. We have a go!




Greetings! This week was....um....well....it wasn't bad. I had a huge piece of choclate cake, but I ate half of it Saturday and the other half on Sunday. As good as having none at all? Not hardly. But it was good. I looked for a picture to show you, but came up empty. No food porn this week.



I went looking for a dress for the RT Faery Ball and bought a heart rate monitor instead. Please, don't ask me how that happened. I have no idea! They were even in different stores. All I know is that I went looking for a dress, didn't find any I liked, and suddenly I was somewhere else, spending money on something completely different. I LOVE it, though. It also does calories burned (after you enter a bunch of info into the thing) so it should be at least as accurate as gym machines. I'm hoping more so.


Last, but not least, I changed my ticker! I discovered my doctor's report from January and realized I had "mis-remembered" my start weight. Ha! Add that (or subtract that) from the fact that I lost 2lbs this week, and there is a huge jump. YAY ME! Next week won't be quite as much fun, I'm sure. And the week AFTER RT will be a low score that we surely all agree doesn't need to be reported. Right? For now, I'm just going to stare happily at that 17.9 and grin at the old skirt I'm wearing today that fits again.

Happy Tuesday!

Day 50: Hitting a Wall

Usually, I post my progress at the end of a post. Today I'm doing it at the beginning. Last Monday, I weighed myself in at 150.7 pounds. This morning I weighed in at 150.2. Sigh. I feel like I've hit a wall that I can't climb over and it's frustrating.


I suppose I should be happy that I haven't blown up. This weekend my local RWA Chapter had our annual Retreat. I love our Retreat. It's so different from the frenetic writing conferences where you're running around from workshop to workshop. For under $200.00 you get to come and hear a nationally known author give a couple workshops, room, food, and great company in a relaxed setting. I wore jeans all weekend. I highly recommend it, even if you're not a writer. We have people come who say it's cheaper coming to us even with buying airfare than going to their own local conference.

Anyhoo. For Retreat, the members always bring goodies to share. By goodies, I mean usually chocolate. I brought Cracker Candy, which I redubbed Crack Candy that I got from Angela James's blog. http://whippedout.com/2009/12/09/easy-christmas-cookie-cracker-candy/ It was a big hit, everyone loved it. There was a lot of food and I ate more than I usually did, but I forced myself not to gorge out. I think I had a lot of restraint. I guess my restraint worked, because I seriously thought I'd be bigger than what I actually was. As, I didn't work out all weekend despite packing clothes to go run. I just couldn't get up and motivate myself to do it. Plus Friday and Saturday night, I stayed up late hanging out chit chatting with everyone. I also have a bad cold, so I wasn't in the mood to get up and run in the morning.

So, I'm thinking I just too darn lazy and motivation is my problem.

How can I stay motivated to figure out how to break past the wall and not only get under 150 pounds, but stay there? I'm wondering if I should switch up my work-out program.

What do you think?

Too Late, Bad Blogger and temptations...

This week no weight update as I weigh bi-weekly so that's next week.
Also I am writing this blog post way (!!!) too late because Friday was such a busy day, in fact this whole weekend is crazy with 2 birthdays and guests today for a dinner party, I forgot to write my weekly #twitloss post. So sorry for that and I hope I can make it up with this quickie post just before the guests arrive.

As said, two birthdays this weekend, one on Friday (friend) and one yesterday (nephew and godson). The friends birthday wasn't all that bad in the dieting department. I had no troubles sticking to my non-eating. My godson's birthday however was a whole different story. My sister-in-law is a cake baker. She bakes the most delicious and wonderful looking cakes. A bit like the ones in the pictures of this post and I tell you it was HELL being around those cakes and not being able to eat them. Furthermore they (sis in law and her sisters, mother, aunts etc.) had made delicious Cape Verdian food and one thing is sure: I was happy when we left the birthday location and went home because the need to succumb to the cake and food was very, very big. I do hope the scale will reward me for this on Thursday because if not, I will not be a happy cookie this week. The sacrifices I make for the new and improved Pearl are endless and torturous! This morning I was helping hubby prepare the dinner for our guests tonight and the smell of food is killing me. But I am trying to stay strong and stick to the broth, water and curds...Only 3,5 months to go...

Happy Sunday to all and hope you are all doing fine!

Hugs,
Pearl

Get your squat on.

Yeah, I don't have anything super funny or inspiring today. Good news? I am down 1 pound this week. That seems about typical with my body... big loss one week, tiny the next. I got to body pump and zumba this week, even if I didn't really track my eating.

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Anyway, instead of rambling on for you today, I will share with you some of my own personal torture. The squat track for Body Pump 73. This is only about a minute of it, imagine another 4 of this torture? Oy. There is usually quite a bit of yelling, hooting, hollering and swearing in our class. I will be dragging my sorry ass there again tonight, it may be painful but it also empowers you and makes your arms feel rock hard (once they stoop hurting). What empowers you?

My New Secret Weapon....

Image via Wikipedia

I am happy to say that last week was good. The weekend, well...we won't talk about the gooey goodness of the Brie cheeseburger I ate this weekend. It was divine. But food is still the topic of the day. In specific I am talking about my new secret weapon for eating breakfast and keeping with the Twitloss program.

I am calling it a breakfast bake. I love this because I can make it Sunday night and then leave it in the fridge for the week (three days so far it has been good). I would liken it to an egg scramble or omelet, except you throw it all in a casserole dish and then bake it.

First I want to explain why this is my secret weapon. I have struggled since the 2nd week to actually get my lazy body out of bed to fix breakfast. Too often I rely on my diet shakes to replace breakfast. And, well the bottom line is that they aren't filling. Nutritionally they are good, but they don't satisfy my hunger. Not having the hungry beast within satisfied IS VERY DANGEROUS! It leads to ugly scenes not unlike Godzilla crushing Tokyo under his reptilian fury. So, having an easy-peasy way to get a filling and healthy breakfast is amazing!

What? You want to know what is in this miraculous, world saving, hunger ending dish? Behold! I will tell you. :D

Dara's Easy-Peasy Breakfast Bake

Baking/casserole dish (I used a quiche dish cause it is shallow)
Egg substitute (obviously use go for the real thing if that's what you want)
Tomatoes
Onion
Cheese
Pam cooking spray

(Obviously, like an omelet you can put any ingredients in here you want so go crazy! Make it wild and wonderful!)

First, heat the oven to 375 and spray the baking dish with the Pam. Then pour in the eggs (beat them if you are using real ones.) Next, toss in your chopped up ingredients, then sprinkle just a bit of cheese. (You could skip this since we are about to add more. But I luv cheese!) Season to taste and mix it all together. Make sure the eggs cover most of the ingredients.

Place that bad boy in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until it looks almost done. (You know...make sure the eggs are cooked.) Then pull it out and sprinkle (or smother) it with cheese. Put it back in the oven to melt the cheese for the final gooey goodness.

Lastly I let it cool then covered it to place in the fridge for the week. Each morning I scoop some out put it in a container and take it to work where I nuke it for about a minute then eat. It seems to reheat really well and has yet to disappoint. Click here to download the recipe.

So go forth and enjoy! This makes breakfast super easy all week and of course you can tailor it to your favorite flavors. I want to know, if you are going to try this what ingredients do you think you will use?

Cheater!

Yes, I'm cheating by using a commercial song, but I couldn't think of a song about food this week. And, cheating seems to be the overall theme of my week so it all works.



The food: So, my daily calorie count is between 1200-1500. For five of the last seven days, I was OVER calorie count. Oh yeah, you read that right. FIVE of the last seven days. Over. Between 200 and 400 calories over. That isn't horrible. I mean, it isn't like I went to Johnny Rockets again or anything.....but still over. I went to The Flying Cupcake not once, but twice! (and it was damn good BOTH times.) This is my new favorite place which is a little inconvenient to the whole twitloss thing. I need cupcake rehab.

So, I think I'm back on the calorie wagon for the week. It's the first day of the week, of course, so it's easy to say that. We'll see how much progress I've made by next Tuesday. I may need cupcake intervention.......



The workout: If anything saved me this week, it was the workouts. My schedule is for 30 minutes/day, 5 days/week. 150 minutes. Last week, I did 314 minutes. When I think of how all that exercise pretty much went just to keep me from expanding, it makes me sad. I could have been down probably quite a bit if I wouldn't have been stuffing my face with cupcakes and various other high calorie items. But, I did it and I can't undo it now. If I stay on track with the food and keep up the exercise, I'll be good to go!


The stats: I was fully expecting to have gained this week. I pretty much stayed the same. The scale thinks I lost .1lb, but that could have been anything from the way I was standing to me shifting my weight to have a scrunchy in my hair. Who knows. I wrote it down, of course. Every little bit counts! Happy Tuesday!

Day 43: Back In the Saddle Again

I feel great. It's very weird. This morning, I'm doing what I hate most in the day job (transcribing interviews), yet I'm sitting at my desk, chair swinging back and forth, with my headphones on jamming as if I'm listening to the radio. What's up with that? LOL. Also, when I got to work this morning I had to go upstairs for something. I actually jogged up the stairs!. That is so not me. Since the DH annoyed the heck out of me this morning, the only reason I can think of why I'm in such a good mood is because I actually got up and got back into my daily routine. It feels good!

This morning, I woke up and worked out with Tony Horton's Ten Minute Trainer. Looking at my log, I haven't done that since March 16th. Can you believe it? I'm such a freaking slacker. But, I think that's all behind me now. It felt good while I was doing it. While I working out, I was thinking, 'hey this isn't so bad.' I'm annoyed now that I allowed myself to drift away from it.

I also started guzzling water again. I've been slacking off on that as well. While I'm at it, I want to thank you guys. Even though I've been slowly descending into slackerhood, I've still kept up with the #twitloss thread on twitter. And, seeing those tweets even when I wasn't doing what I thought I should be doing, it still inspired me to not descend futher into the abyss. So for that, I thank you guys very much.

My goal is to first, go grocery shopping and buy a boatload of fruits and vegetables and to keep up the work I started this morning. This weekend, I'm going to be gone for a writing retreat and we gals usually stay up until 0 dark hundred chatting and goofing around. I doubt if I'll do 10 Minute Trainer Saturday or Sunday, but the weather is supposed to be decent enough to where I can drag my lazy butt out of bed and go on a run for those two mornings this weekend.

Oh and I still need to replace my scale. I've been coming in using the one at work, but to be honest it's nice to not have a scale in the house to obsess over every morning.

I'm so honored to be taking this journey with you guys! Thank you for all your support!

Day 1: 155 pounds
Day 8: 150.5 pounds
Day 15: 151 pounds
Day 22: 148 pounds
Day 29: 150 pounds
Day 43: 150 pounds

UP and DOWN

Starting Weight: 192 lbs

Goal Weight: 132 lbs

Last Time’s Weight: 178 lbs

This Time’s Weight: 175 lbs

This Time’s Loss: 3 lbs

Total Loss: 17 lbs

This Week’s Hours of Zumba: 1.5

Last Week’s Hours of Zumba: 2.0

Total Hours of Zumba: 6

So last week there was no post for me because I was sick. This week I had my weigh-in yesterday morning and I “only” lost 3 lbs. It may seem cruel to say ONLY 3 lbs but considering the fact that I am on a 0-calories diet you’d expect more than 3 lbs every two weeks. Unfortunately the fact that I was born as a woman once again coupled up with my water retaining powers and decided that once a month I don’t see the result of the sacrifices I am making to lose weight. However every lbs is one so I shouldn’t sound so ungrateful. I know some of you are having a much harder time...

As the title states: sometimes you go up…sometimes you go down. And I’ll have to get used to the fact that 1 weighing per month will have less wonderful results than the other. The past week was also hard in the not eating department: I really almost caved when I was feeling sick…if it wasn’t for my wonderful hubby who took good care of me and kept me motivated and held me back when I was ready to ransack the cupboards looking for something to eat, I would have. So I am dedicating this week’s weight loss to him.

On a different and more positive note...the loss of 17 lbs is apparently starting to show because today I was told that even my boobs look smaller....I don't know how much of that is true or more of a "in the eye of the beholder" thing, but I am noticing my clothes are getting looser...so loose that my tracksuit pants fell of my hiney this evening as I was running up the stairs to rush to the toilet (the water drinking is still making me run to the toilet every 30 minutes...).

And that's what I want you to keep in mind: Even if the scale doesn't show the lower figures, watch your clothes because sometimes even if the scale doesn't indicate it, you are loosing fat and that's much more important than some numbers on that electronic device that is the bane of our existence.

Hugs,
Pearl

Get on the smoothie train...

I have that train song stuck in my head, the one that goes "Come on, ride the train, hey, ride it, woo woo". No particular reason, but it's the reason for the smoothie train title.

I like smoothies.... convenient and easy, not to mention a yummy way to sneak in the green stuff I don't like to eat. Especially when you have a personal blender like this one (Tribest Personal Blender)... no extra dishes, its easy peasy. While I try to plan things around vegetables lately... I am sure I still lack in getting enough green stuff. It has just never been habit to eat it and I don't partiularly like the taste. My solution to this problem is Amazing Grass - its a bunch of my favorite *eyeroll* greens made into a powder. I have it in capsule form too, but I hate swallowing pills so I avoid those. Anyway, the only way I can manage to take this stuff and not hate it is through smoothies.

My problem is that I always make the same smoothie - frozen berries, banana, orange juice, a bit of yogurt, my amazing grass, and then maybe some vanilla hemp protein powder if I need it. So I need new smoothie ideas.... I am a little berry-ed out ;)

Oh, the best part of this whole post?? I had a good week this week. I got to the gym 3 times (2 cardio, 1 body pump class) and will be hitting it later tonight as well. It seems like something kicked into gear cause I am down 5 lbs for the week... rock on til next time!

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Weekly Update...Nothing New to Report

Well, I don't really have anything to report. I gained back the 2lbs I lost and I am desperately trying not to stress eat. Here is kind of how I am feeling:


Yeah....that says it all. Talk to you next week.

I'm Late, I'm Late

I'm a day late and a dollar short. I've been in North Carolina for the last several days visiting my sister-in-law and her family. They have a gorgeous house on the lake and we had a ball. My brother-in-law is in the Special Forces. Have you ever seen that show The Unit. Well, that's what he does.

Since my sister-in-law and her husband are super fit they don't have a scale so I have no idea what I weigh. I have been exercising. I've gone on long walks around their neighborhood (the weather has be fabulous and makes me hate MI even more) and went on a run.

I'll keep posted on my progress next week. I'll be back to work tomorrow but I feel that I've really turned a corner and I'm ready to go gangbusters and get where I want to be.

I hope  you're having a great holiday. I am!

Pour some SUGAR on me.....

Honestly, trust me to go looking for baseball pics and find the ONE that has to do with food! This is the tailgate party outside US Cellular Field yesterday on White Sox Opening Day.

This week caught me slacking off. I'm not sure if it was the weather (it was nice) or if my natural laziness just kicked in, but I didn't do all that I was supposed to do. I didn't post my stats to my page. I didn't workout five days. I DID stay in my calorie range for all seven days, so I'm counting that as a win. (1200-1550 calories as per SparkPeople.)



The workouts: If you learn nothing else from today's blog, learn this: Always make SURE you pack pants in your gym bag!!! That is really the highlight of my post this week. Pants. Don't leave home without 'em. If it happened once, I would say, it could happen to anyone. Who doesn't leave the house without pants from time to time? But, it happened Thursday AND Monday. Thursday, I ended up buying a pair of sweatpants. They sell everything except crack cocaine at the gym. Yesterday, I said forget it and treadmilled in jeans. It wasn't fun, but it was cheaper than either going home in a thunderstorm or buying another pair of sweats. I made a list and checked it twice before leaving the house this morning. Pants? CHECK!


Speaking of no pants, this is as good a place as any for your obligatory "food" referenced, music video of the week. "Food" in quotes because you KNOW this song isn't about food, right?




*ahem* moving on......



The Food:

It is becoming much easier to stay inside the lines when it comes to counting calories. When I first started back to SparkPeople (this is not my first time at the rodeo) I could barely stay inside of 1800 calories. In fact, more often than not, I didn't stay under 1800. They were mostly 1900, 2000.....when I bothered to finish tracking at all. Sometimes I would conk out around lunch and that would be that. Now, tracking is easy. The food scale helped, no doubt. But, what helped more than that is actually tracking. I'm lucky in that I work alllllllll day at my computer so I really have no excuses. I'm sitting RIGHT there, after all. But, honestly, it's so much easier to do when you have a streak going. You don't want TODAY to be the day you break the streak, right? And once I see what I'm eating, I have no excuse. If I'm heading towards 1000 calories at lunch......maybe I need to slow down. Or dinner needs to be re-adjusted.

That's not to say I won't go over my cals. I so totally will. Wanna go out for martinis? I am so there. Dinner? Yep. Movies with food? Sign me up. But I'm counting it. I'll have to make up for it some other time. More cardio later in the week? Maybe. But, if 1 lb is 3500 calories, there is no reason to stress out over a day off the rails.


The stats: well....looks like we are a .8 on the week. Not what I wanted, but about what I could expect being lax on the workouts. Happy Tuesday!

Pearl is Sick Today...

so she can't come to the blog right now. Just leave her a message and she'll get back to you real soon.

Let's start again shall we....

I had a post I was working on earlier but I wasn't paying attention to my battery level and the laptop ran out of juice, thereby losing most of my stuff.... it had been a long day so I swore at it (like all good ladies do) and walked away. So now that I have a few minutes, lets try again....

Really, the let's try again applies both to this post and to my twitloss efforts. This endeavor has been much harder than I expected, and I am no wuss. Well maybe sometimes.... but this month has been an emotional roller coaster for me in all things of my life. I have a bad habit of becoming overwhelmed and then just turning my back on this because I know that whatever I do won't be perfect...so why do it at all? Its the OCD/perfectionist part of my personality and one of my biggest personal challenges. Ironically this same same quality manifests itself positively in my school and work, its one of the reasons I am carrying a 4.0 grade point average even with all the other stuff going on. Yet, somehow when I apply this to my home life - I stumble and fail and say forget it. Maybe its because I know that school/work wise I have more confidence? I don't know but I probably need to explore this to get to the bottom of why I continuous self sabotage myself. I'm only 31, I have time.

So now that you have made it through my ramble, or maybe you just skipped over it... the good news. I'm down about 1.2 lbs this week. Not too bad since I forgot to weigh in until this afternoon. I need to take measurements and start keeping track seriously.

This weekend will be interesting - I am heading off to Los Angeles for some fun at IKEA... food storage containers and kitchen utensils. Its like a dream vacation, or at least it would be if there were sexy naked men helping me shop. But it means I will be on the road for about 2 days without my kitchen. *gulp* Good luck to all of you this weekend! I know some of you have big Easter food shindigs... may the force be with you ;)