Days 20 - Today

I just realized I haven't blogged in a really long time! A lot of changes have been going on and things have been busy.

Results of my 24-Day Challenge were AMAZING! I lost 15.4 pounds total, and 12.875 inches!! I've learned to love water, and crave it when I don't drink enough. I haven't worked out as much as I hoped and I had some cheats along the way but overall I learned so much and developed many healthy habits. I'd recommend the challenge to everyone!

Here were the goals I set in my very first blog post on Day 1. My current comments are in purple (I'm a professor, after all)!

Short term (During the 24-day Challenge):

1. Successfully follow the program every day. Not a single cheat.  Unrealistic goal. But, the cheats were few and far between.
2. Develop health habits. Eat foods that my body needs, not that my emotions want. Work out on a regular basis. Accomplished! I think this is the most important part of the entire experience!
3. Lose 20 lbs. I know that sounds like a lot but I know people who have done the challenge and lost more than that. I'll be happy with whatever the number ends up being. I'm happy with the 15.4 and I know I'll continue to see the numbers drop on the scale!
4. Lose inches. I honestly don't know enough to set a numerical goal, so let's see what happens. I'm very pleased, though I wish the inches I lost in my chest had been in my tummy or thighs.
5. Begin the journey of letting go of the past and focusing on the future. I'm still working on this. I'm light years ahead of where I was when I set this goal but still have some adjusting to do. I'm on the right track, I believe.
6. Stop saying negative things about myself. Be positive. Well, I haven't stopped but it's a lot less and I'm aware of when I say things. Work in progress.

Long Term:

1. Routinely make healthy food choices out of habit. 4th of July weekend aside, done and done.
2. Share these habits with everyone. Friends, family, strangers of the Internet. I want to live in a healthy world and everyone deserves that. This is a hard thing to do without upsetting people. I have to figure out how to do it tactfully, and if you know me tact isn't always my strongest trait.
3. Exercise 3-5 times a week for life. I used to be a 3-season athlete and I'd love to play on a team of some sort again. Basketball? Softball? Dodgeball? Yes. All of them and more! Going well so far, until I sprained my ankle. I'm going back tomorrow to test it out and see if my ankle is ready. My wonderfully supportive mommy bought me a new ankle brace so that should help tremendously! Hopefully within a year I can join a team.
4. 125-150 pounds. Yeah, it's a lot. I know. But I managed to gain that much so over time, even if it's a lot of time, I should be able to lose it. Over 15 lbs is a good start. Keep encouraging me!!!
5. This is the most important. I want to feel good. For example, I want tying shoes and walking up stairs not to be a struggle. I want to walk across the campus I teach at without a huge feeling of dread, sweat and loss of breath.  I've still got a ways to go before I'm comfortable in my own body again, but I'm on the right track. I ate crap food all weekend and I feel bloated. I never realized that I was feeling this way all the time, but I do not like it. I'm looking forward to going back to eating well tomorrow!

In other news, the house fell through and I've decided to put the house-hunt on hold. I'm going to move into a friend's house, rent 2 rooms and a bathroom from her for less than I'm paying for my 1/1 apartment with crappy neighbors and save up extra for the down payment. I also accepted a new job for the fall so I'll be transitioning there as well. All in all, lots and lots of changes and they're all for the good.  Life is good, and I'm enjoying this journey to finding myself again. Hope all is well in your world!

Day 19

Hi everyone! I want to take a quick second to thank you all for reading and to remind you that if you don't have nice/positive/supportive things to say, I'd appreciate you not saying anything at all. I got some negative/unsupportive feedback today and I don't need that in my life. That being said, let's get back to happy, healthy posts!

Today has been a good day. So far I've had 14 cups of water and it's only 8:30. I'm sure I'll meet my 18 cups today. This morning I had my pills, meal replacement shake and Spark energy drink, as usual. I went to the gym with the intention of doing 9am Aerobics and 10am Zumba. 

I was even there early!!

I've had a lot on my mind the past few days and I try to use my workouts as a healthy outlet for stress, anger, and other emotions. Today, I think I took it too far. During the first 30 minutes of aerobics I was working hard! I added the extra hops, skips, jumps, etc. and was feeling GREAT! Until I rolled my ankle and was unable to finish the workout. If you know me, you know I have weak ankles from years of competitive ice skating, softball and basketball. Between my 2 ankles I've had 6 sprains and a break. I SHOULD have been wearing an ankle brace, but my ankle brace is from high school and is dirty and falling apart. I SHOULD have bought a new one, but I hate the ones with Velcro that they're selling nowadays. So, instead I ended up with only 30 minutes of aerobics and this instantly bruised, swollen ankle.

Outside. Yes, I know I need to shave.

Inside.

I iced my ankle for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off for 2 hours and took 2 Aleve to lessen the swelling. It's for sure sprained, bruised and swollen but it's not as bad as it could have been. You'll be happy to know that I ordered an ankle brace this evening. My mom was insistent and I allllllways listen to my mother. :)

I was REALLY bummer that I'll be out of the gym for a while, but my friend Mel suggested arms and/or swimming. Tomorrow morning I'm going to check out the pool at the Y to see what I can do! I'm excited that I have options! By the way, Melanie also blogs about her health journey here: http://tinierpants.blogspot.com and her amazing design work here: http://creativetinypants.wordpress.com. Check them out!

For lunch I had tacos again. They were really tasty as always. In case you haven't read my blog before, I use whole wheat mini tortillas (50 calories each) with lean ground turkey I cooked with veggies. I use 2 tbsp light sour cream, 2 tbsp salsa and 2 pinches of fat free shredded cheese. They're always tasty. Never fails.

Between icing my ankle and being upset about everything else going on I took a 3 hour nap. It was glorious. For dinner I decided to cook. I had some veggies in the fridge that needed to be used before they went bad, so I decided to make mashed cauliflower (instead of potatoes), homemade french fries, and turkey burgers. I also cut up the rest of my veggies to make a salad for eating this weekend.  This was my first attempt at mashed cauliflower ever. 

Steamed.

I cut up a whole head of cauliflower, steamed it, strained it, then mashed it. I added black pepper, garlic powder and a pinch of kosher salt. I also added 1 tbsp light country crock, which I won't add normally but I'm trying to use up what I have in the house. From now on I'll buy I can't believe it's not butter. I also make homemade fries for the first time.

Rinsed, sliced potatoes.

EVOO, pepper, garlic powder.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, flip for another 5-10 mins.

Let me assure you they were delicious!! I love that I'm eating healthy and enjoying it. I also threw some turkey burgers on the George Foreman grill. I seasoned them with the same seasonings previously mentioned.

Already measured into 4oz burgers, super easy and healthy!

Look at all that fat dripping off! Love it!

While everything was cooking I cut up lettuce and tomatoes for topping my burger. I realized my lettuce was about to go bad so I ended up cutting up extra pieces for the other burgers and then chopped the rest with some tomatoes and cucumber for a salad to eat this weekend.

So much green goodness!

I absolutely loved the meal I ended up with! Everything was SO tasty and I'm happy to have added to my list of things I've learned how to cook. Here's what dinner looked like:

I'm really proud of myself for eating as well as I have the past few days. I've had a lot of BIG, sad stuff going on and the old me would dive into pizza, ice cream and anything else I craved. While I can't say I wouldn't love to jump into a pizza, I can say that I've chosen not to and I'm happy with my decisions. Life goes on and I want it to be a healthy life in all ways! Until next time...

Day 18

Today was an interesting day and I'm exhausted so it's a quick post. I woke up, did the morning MNS, meal replacement shake and Spark energy drink. I went to an awesome step class and worked my but off. I also happily got on the scale this morning, as you can read about at the end of my last post.

Food-wise I did pretty well. For lunch I had a turkey wrap at Jason's Deli with fruit as my side. For dinner we ate at Cheddar's and I had some more Idaho nachos and I ordered the lunch size portion of salmon. I had it grilled without any herbs/oils/etc and chose steamed broccoli and green beans as my sides. I also had a skinny margarita because I had a hell of a day. Between yesterday and today I'm ready for this week to be over. I had 14 glasses of water today which is decent but I really want to kick it back up to 18 a day. Best part of the day today? I learned I can have a no good, very bad, horrible day and still exercise and eat healthy. That, my friends, is a success!

Day 17

Wednesday was another rough day. I started out by waking up too late for the 9am workout class. I didn't work out on Tuesday so I told myself I'd go to the 4:30 class instead. That didn't end up panning out since I didn't get home until almost 10pm.

For breakfast I had my MNS, Meal replacement shake and Spark energy drink. I had forgotten to carry up my new case of water so I had to use tap water and measure it out. I'm not a fan. I know it's wasteful but I really love the ease and convenience of bottled water.

I ended up going to Lamar to take care of some loose paperwork and ended up staying until almost 5 to do work things and get a surprise ready for a party one of my friends is having for the 5th of July. Sadly, while I was at work I finally got a response from the sellers of the house I had under contract. Yes, I just said "had." Due to the sellers being unwilling to make foundation repairs (along with some other minor repairs), I decided to terminate the contract. It sucks and I'm not really excited about getting back to the house hunt. I am, however, motivated to get out of my crappy apartment so hopefully in a few days I'll feel re-energized and be back on the hunt.

Just call me Sherlock Katz.

In all the mess of the day I forgot to eat lunch. I know that's not good for your body, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time in history I've forgotten to eat a meal. I usually have my meals planned in my head (or at least options) at least 1 or 2 meals ahead. The fact that food wasn't on my mind has to be a victory in some way.

Marjan took me to dinner to cheer me up. We decided to split a Crispy Chicken Salad, with RANCH dressing. Mmmm, I missed Ranch. I have to say, though, my Walden Farms dressing makes me just as happy on a day to day basis.

I had one pinch of the croissant, too,
while we're being honest.

We also decided to split Idaho Nachos.

So amazingly yummy.

Now, clearly I "cheated" on my diet last night, but I'm not upset about it. Not only did we leave at least a third of each dish, but when we used to meet we'd both order our own salad, and we'd split a spinach dip appetizer and Idaho nachos or cheese fries. As she pointed out to me, we're both eating so much healthier than we used to, even when it's a cheat night. I should have taken a picture of the after to show you guys but we didn't think of it until we were walking out of the restaurant.

I also had my first alcohol since I started my journey. Don't judge me. The house stuff took a toll on me and my 100 calorie Skinny Margarita was worth every calorie!

no salt = no extra sodium intake

The best part of yesterday? While I was driving up to Lamar the ring I usually wear on my pinkie finger fell off when I went to grab my phone. So, now I get to wear it on my ring finger!  (How do you spell pinkie? Spell check didn't like "pinky" and I hate the "ie".) Also, the ring I wear on my other hand on the ring finger got moved to my middle finger as well! I like to think of it as flipping the bird to the weight I've lost. :)

The best part of day 18? I woke up this morning and had lost 1.6 lbs since yesterday morning, making my total 12 pounds! So, even with my cheat meal I'm still losing weight!  Don't worry, I'll post a full day 18 post but I couldn't wait to share the good news. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and I hope to see you back here for my next post!

Day 16

Today was an excellent day all around!! I started the day with my vitamins and drinks. I will say that both of my shaker cups were dirty in the dish washer so I decided I'd just stir my meal replacement shake into a cup. Big mistake. By not measuring the water and/or mixing it enough I created a clumpy, and then too watered down drink. I managed to get it all down, but it was not good this morning. My dishwasher was immediately run and both cups are clean and ready to be used tomorrow and Thursday mornings! While we're talking about them, does anybody have suggestions for good shaker cups? I like one of mine better than the other and I want to buy a few more. Please share your input by commenting on the blog or emailing me directly!

I went to the 9am Step class at the YMCA this morning and had a much more successful workout today! This was such a huge relief to me after yesterday's fiasco. I still got cramps in my calves a bit but I was able to push through it today and only had to stop once to stretch. I'm still not sure what's causing this. I've been told I need potassium and I've been told I'm dehydrated. Considering I've drank more water in the past 16 days than I think I have in the rest of my life I doubt dehydration is the culprit. Either way, I got in a good workout this morning and I'm very happy about it! 

This is basically what I see during a step class.
Lots of feet and calves and steps.

For lunch I cooked up some more taco meat (lean ground turkey and veggies).

Green & Red Bell Pepper, Mushrooms & Red Onions
I thought the colors were pretty!

Add browned, drained meat. Mix together.
(Seasoned with garlic powder, black pepper, and cumin). 

I went to my most recent "go to" and had 2 mini tacos for lunch. I think I'm not going to buy more sour cream because I always think I'm using so little until I post the pics. I swear this was only 1 tbsp per taco. I used whole wheat fiesta mini tortillas, salsa, and fat free cheese.

Lunch.

I did work related tasks this afternoon, some of which were surprisingly exciting. More to come on that later. Afterwards I met up with Marjan again and ran errands. We ate Jason's Deli for dinner. I decided to take a chance and I had the Zucchini Grillini with fruit as my side. I normally am a meat person and sandwiches are a favorite of mine, so venturing into the non-meat sandwich world was new to me. It was good, but not as good as what I usually get at Jason's. I also decided to use some of the fruit dip, which in hindsight probably wasn't the best idea. Jason's describes the sandwich as: "Grilled zucchini, muenster, organic spinach, red onions, roma tomatoes, kalamata olives, roasted red pepper hummus, toasted on 9-grain artisan bread. I ordered it without the olives.

A vegetarian option! I actually chose a vegetarian option!

Overall, today was a good day. I drank 16 cups of water, ate well and exercised! I'm hoping this means I'm back on track like I was the first 7-10 days of the challenge. I'm also hoping this will show on the scale again soon because I'm starting to get frustrated. I know I'm losing inches too, I can feel it, but I want to see the numbers drop on the scale faster than they are. "Talk" to you tomorrow!

Day 15

Monday was a MUCH better day for food. I started my morning with a Spark and a Meal Replacement shake.

Breakfast of champions!!

Then I went to 9am Zumba and it kicked my ass. Here's a picture I took before class started to prove I actually go workout. :)

Zumba!

This was by far the worst workout I've had that I can remember. I'm not sure if it was missing 2 days, the bad food the day before, or what the deal was but my calves kept cramping. After stopping about 4 times to stretch because I was hurting so bad I got frustrated. I walked out on the class, which is something I've never had to do, but I felt the tears coming and refused to do that in the room with everyone around. I went to the locker room to stretch and have my little cry and then I went back. I have to say that everyone is super supportive. A lady named Angie that is always at the classes stopped to check on me and of course Shelley did too. I'm not sure if I needed to get some tears out or what but I was able to finish the workout once I got back. It was by far my worst workout but I'm proud that I stuck it out until the end. This quote was in my head the whole time.

I dream of being on The Biggest Loser. I hate that
I'd have to make a video submission to get on the show. 

For lunch I enjoyed the last of the whole wheat spaghetti. I cut up extra mushrooms and tomatoes and added the last of the taco meat. 

I wonder who came up with the
spaghetti monster? Why is (s)he called that?

For dinner I ate at McAlister's Deli with Marjan. I ordered from their 2 for under 500 calories menu. I had half a Turkey Melt and half a Southwest Cobb salad, with no dressing. Dinner was delish and I was so stuffed by the end of the meal!

I removed the chips and guar from my plate! Go me!

Somehow I only managed to get 13 cups of water in, but the good news is there's always tomorrow to do better!

Day 14

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again." - My Bubbie. Or, as the Internet and research would show, William Edward Hickson. Either way, it's encouraging to me.

Sunday was not a good day for my healthy lifestyle/diet at all. Everything from Friday evening/Saturday caught up with me and I made bad decisions. I did have my morning drinks, but by lunch all bets were off!

For lunch Justin and I had Sonic. We were out running errands and I made a bad choice. Errr, choices. Once we at the drive-in I decided if I was cheating I was going to make it "worth it." I had a Sonic cheeseburger with mayo and ketchup, no onions AND an order of cheddar peppers with ranch.

My biggest screw up thus far.

I'm not going to lie. It was DELICIOUS. Then, as if lunch hadn't been bad enough, I had take out Chinese food for dinner. I know, it's humiliating, depressing, and astonishing how I could throw away so much hard work for one day of unhealthy food. I paid for it, though. By 7pm on Sunday my body was clearly letting me know it was not happy with me. I'll spare you the details, and just say it was not fun. I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon.

Bahaha! I couldn't resist! I'm just kidding!!

Instead of getting caught up in the guilt , I've tried to take some lessons from the experience.

1. I now know I can survive a bad food day. 
2. I can have a bad day and go back to the diet/healthy eating the next day. Bad days will be an exception not a norm. 
3. Just because it looks good on the menu or in my head doesn't mean it's actually all that good in reality.
4. A bad day doesn't mean I'll instantly gain back all my weight. I will, however, pay for it in how I feel and that makes it not "worth it."

A reminder I could have used on Sunday.
Hopefully it will help you TODAY!