Back to School Prep

Tomorrow I officially start working for the 2014-2015 school year. Although I did not lose all the weight I wanted to this summer (lost between 10-11 and wanted to lose 20), I have worked through some things and got some good habits going again. I don't want to ruin it with the back to work stress, so I already meal planned and prepared all my food. 

I also started to pull out some of my dress clothes from storage too. I was hoping to be down a size by now, but at least my clothes fit better. I need to remember I could barely zip my pants up in June and now I don't feel like I am going to bust the seams out of them. Truthfully, I should have been wearing a bigger size at the end of last year but refused to buy any since it was almost summer break. 

Since I didn't get to blogging what I've been eating, here are some pics of some yummy and healthy meals:

Pizza on a 100% whole wheat crust with turkey pepperoni

Turkey Burger

Here is the food I prepared for my first week back to work:

Still eating the 100% whole wheat, high fiber, low sugar pancakes, turkey bacon, and fruit for breakfast.

Snack

Another snack

Campfire chicken packets (took out of the foil for storage)

I know this doesn't look appetizing, but it makes lunches easier for the week. These are almond butter and strawberry jam sandwiches.

Here is to keeping up the good habits while getting in the groove of being back at work.

I'm Back...

To put it simply- I've missed blogging. I also have missed the success that I had when I was blogging. Even though things can get crazy between working full time and graduate school, I really would like to take some "me time" to blog again. 

Since New Years (and even before) I've been cycling between being successful for a few weeks/month and then completely falling off the wagon for a few weeks/month. This leads to losing and gaining the same few pounds over and over. It would be crazy to think about how much I would have lost by now if I kept going down in weight instead of see-sawing back and forth. 

I've also been thinking about how I told myself I was going to be at a healthy weight and in shape by the time I was thirty. I've been thirty since the end of November, but I'm only eight pounds away from my heaviest weight. Not exactly a great feeling. Thirty is a big deal birthday and it starts hitting you that you are not as young anymore. I think that my thirties will be awesome since there should hopefully be some big milestones such as having children, getting a master's degree, and possibly being a counselor. I don't want to forgo those things or be uncomfortable doing them because of my weight and lack of being in shape.

I've found the motivation to start working on weight loss again. I lost six pounds in January just by eating right. Then I proceeded to gain four of them back in February and up to now in March. I want to change many things right now, but I know if I do too much I will want to give up. Here are some goals for the rest of March:

• No more fast food (unless in a total bind, but I shouldn't be)
• No more pop (I was drinking diet, but still not good for you)
• Try my hardest to meal plan, cook for the week, and eat everything that I made
• Try to move a little bit everyday (even if it is just a short walk or cleaning)

I did meal plan this weekend and food prepped for the week. Here is what I'm eating this week:

Breakfast:

I'll also have a vitamin and a fruit strip with this.

Snack:

Snack:

Lunch:

Whole wheat spaghetti with ground turkey in the sauce.

Snack:

Dinner:

Turkey burgers - sweet potato fries will be the side

Snack:

If you add some chocolate chips, honey, and peanut butter, it kind of makes the yogurt taste like a cookie.

Something new I'm trying to drink instead of pop:

I added one lime, one cucumber, and some mint leaves. It tastes really good.

Joining a Gym and a Bet

I'm preparing to once again get back on the weight loss/healthy living wagon. It really isn't getting back on the wagon, but it is a way of life that I need to get used to and keep living to see the results that I want.

One step in the right direction was joining the gym at the hubby's place of employment. It is under $17 a month with no contract. My first day there I did the fitness testing. They took my weight, measurements, blood pressure, and had me do some cardio, stretching, and core exercises. Since I wasn't in a rush, I went ahead and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes and did the elliptical for 10 minutes. I was sweaty and out of breath which is a good thing when it comes to workouts. ;) I will be going in next Thursday for my personalized fitness plan and some nutrition advice. My plan right now is to workout directly after work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday (the days I don't have class).

The second thing I did was make a grocery list with foods I need to eat to stay on plan this week and only bought those foods when grocery shopping. Hopefully I'll get some time to post my weekly meal plan tomorrow.

The third thing that I just did a few minutes ago was join a DietBet on a new-to-me blog called Run with Jess. I put in $10 (as did all the other participants) to the pot and all of our goals is to lose 4% of our body weight in 28 days. All of the participants who meet this goal get to split the pot. Since I need to work on saving money, my goal is to get at least my $10 back.






Catching Up on Exciting News + Day Three

Today is day three of trying to get back on track. I think I did pretty well, but it wasn't exactly as planned since I did have an Egg McMuffin and a couple of rice crispy treats from my stash (for a reward for students) at work. Everything else was on my plan for this week.

I also got another 15 minute workout completed tonight with Your Shape and the Kinect. Yesterday I did a personal training session called "Nice and Easy" which is what you need when you haven't worked out for months. There were a lot of squats and lunges involved which left my legs slightly sore today. Today I did two easier kickboxing classes and a zen class which was a little over 15 minutes. My plan is another 15 minutes tomorrow and to increase to 20 minutes next week.

I missed out on blogging about some exciting stuff in my life between Black Friday and the beginning of December, so I thought I would sum up all that stuff in this post...

The King Size Bed Disaster

My hubby and I found a sale on a king size mattress at Sears on Black Friday and bought it. I rearranged all the furniture between the three bedrooms to make space for this bed. Then Sears totally sucked on actually getting it here. They scheduled when no one was home, delayed the delivery, and then wanted to deliver just the frame and box spring. We cancelled our order by this point. The mattress disaster story is still continued to this day, because we ordered another king size mattress for about the same price from a local mattress store. They were supposed to deliver it on Monday, but we ordered the last one left at the warehouse and it was damaged. They are supposed to deliver a non-damaged on on Saturday between 9:00-1:00, so it better happen! We've been sleeping on a full size bed since we got married. Now it is the two of us and three mini dachshunds in the bed and it is a little crowded.

My Birthday

I also had my 29th birthday on the 29th of November which means I finally had my golden birthday. It is strange to think that I am getting close to 30 years old, but at least I have this year of 29 and holding, right? I had most of my fun the week before during Thanksgiving break. My husband was out of town on a business trip and that night was one of the many nights the king sized bed was supposed to be delivered and it wasn't. There were some good things too such as playing Sing Party for an hour (my present from my hubby) and eating Red Lobster and Turtles (my present from my secret birthday pal at work was a gift card and the box of chocolates).

My aunt that I go to the concerts with sent me a flute Christmas ornament for my birthday.

Notice the hint to the big 3-0 that is coming next year!

Musical wrapping paper!

The ornament on my tree

I've also gotten several cards, a few bucks, and a gift card to Kohl's from my father-in-law.

I have loved Garfield since I was a little kid.

Christmas is Coming

My hubby and I decorated the house for Christmas on the evening of Black Friday after eating a great home cooked meal that he made.

We got the tree up and most of the decorations are in the great room. I put a couple of decorations out in my hubby's room as well. I do have a couple of lighted decorations for the front window and yard, but I don't know if I'm gonna get to them this year or not.

Some decor for my hubby's bookcases

And Christmas cheer for the kitchen

The dining room table

Great room

A Charlie Brown Christmas tree on my old timey record player

Even though I don't have a mantel on my fireplace, the stockings are hung with care. The big green one is one that my grandma (on my mom's side) made for me as a little kid. I do have a picture with it then, so I'll have to find it and put it on here sometime.

The tree

Usually by now I would have my Christmas cards ready to mail and my gifts wrapped. I do have the cards and gifts, but they definitely aren't ready yet. I hope to have some time this weekend to work on that.

Grad School is Real Now

I finally got the official acceptance letter for graduate school from the Purdue Graduate School (my program already accepted me the Tuesday before Thanksgiving). I signed up for my background check and my advisor is signing me up for my two classes this semester- Ethics in Mental Health Counseling and Intro to Measurement and Evaluation. Now I need to get registered for the online portfolio system and get some books!

A hand written note from a college friend of mine to congradulate me on getting into grad school. She just got her master's degree, so she knows what I'm getting into.

Back on Track Day Two

Well, today is day one of being fully back on track after months of trying a little bit and giving up and repeating that pattern over and over. I really do need to regain healthy habits and get some balance back into my life before starting grad school. So today was one step in that direction.

I ate mostly on plan today as I wrote about yesterday, but there are two changes. For breakfast I had an Egg McMuffin instead of the frozen Special K breakfast sandwich. I also had a Kit Kat bar along with my apples for my afternoon snack. Not perfect but way better than a few days ago.

I also finally managed to set up my Kinect to the xbox 360. I played Your Shape Fitness Evolved for about 15 minutes. I usually try to work out for at least 30 minutes, but I am terribly out of shape from not working out for so long. I figure that I'll be working up to 30 minutes 5 times a week.

It is hard to believe, but just one day of being so "on plan" made me feel pretty good. Now just to get through Thursday and Friday. I will still try to be healthy on weekends, but I usually allow myself a little more freedom.

Off to do a couple of chores and play Paper Mario Sticker Star on the 3DS. I'll try to pop in again tomorrow with another update.

It's Been a While

It's been a while (as I'm writing this the Staind song is playing in my head) and there is lots to blog about. As far as life goes many things are really good and are keeping me busy. I've been officially accepted into grad school, my hubby and I are in the process of getting a king size bed, I've rearranged all the bedrooms to accommodate for this bed, I turned 29, the Christmas decorations are up, and I'm tyring to plan ahead and keep ahead at work. These things could probably all have their own post, but I will worry about catching up later.

The thing that I have been avoiding the most in the midst of all of the above is anything to do with being healthier, eating healthier, working out, or blogging. I've come to a point where most of my healthier habits have gone out the window and I'm just doing whatever. I kind of had an "a-ha" moment last night and am ready to get back on the horse again (for the millionth time). Right now I plan on just focusing on the basics, so no big challenges or goals. Once I'm back in the groove of things that may change.

I would like to focus on making healthier food choices, portion control, and drinking more water. I will work myself back to the Six Week Body Makeover or Weight Watchers, but for right now I just need to do something simple that won't overwhelm me. My meals are usually okay, but I've been doing horrible on snacking again. I've been eating candy bars and cinnamon rolls recently. When I was really following my plan, these things would make me sick if I ate them. I want to get back to that point. I'm usually a big water drinker, but lately I've been drinking more diet pop and less water. Also, when I do eat a healthy meal, I sometimes just plain eat too much.

As for exercising, I will set up the Kinect for the 360 tonight and do that or the Wii Fit for a little bit. I'll try doing a little bit of either one of those a day until I get my fitness level back up. I also need to start doing my stretches for my neck/shoulders again due to pain in my wrists. My hubby's place of employment has a small gym in it, so I would like to do C25K again (and not stop 2 jogs short of finishing) and complete it. I have asthma, so wogging in the cold won't work for me.

Another thing that needs some attention is the mental/motivational side of this. I need to work on positive self-talk and finding what really motivates me again. There's a book that I've probably mentioned before for emotional eaters called Life is Hard, Food is Easy by Linda Spangle. I've read through most of it twice and did some of the exercises, but never finished it. I would like to work on finishing that as well.

Here is the food plan for the rest of this week:

Breakfast:

I haven't tried these yet,but I hope that they are good!

Snack:

Snack:

Lunch:

I will have two of these plus some veggies and applesauce. It is an English Muffin pizza made with a whole wheat English muffin, reduced fat cheese, pizza sauce, onions, and turkey pepperoni. Bake them for ten minutes at 375 degrees. Yum!

 

Snack:

Dinner:

I'm going have these in whole wheat tortillas instead of corn hard shells.

Snack:

The trick with these is portion control. I'm hoping for one or two at night as a treat.

Getting Back to Basics

I've decided to give myself a fresh start this week and get back to the basics that worked for me last summer to lose weight (and halfway quickly too). I've been re-reading the Six Week Body Makeover book with a focus on the eating plan. I am also measuring my food again until I get used to the portion sizes again. Here is my generic menu for this week:

Breakfast

• 2-3 egg whites
• 1/2 cup oatmeal (with some kind of flavoring such as stevia, cocoa, or Cinnamon)
• banana

Morning Snack

• 5 slices of lunchmeat
• 1 cup (or more) salad with extra veggies
• light or low-fat dressing

Lunch

• 2 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of veggies

Afternoon Snack

• 2 oz. canned chicken (low salt, packed in water)
• 1 cup (or more) salad with extra veggies
• light or low-fat dressing

Dinner

• 2 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1 small or medium potato with salsa on top
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of veggies

Evening snack

• 1/2 cup of mixed berries with stevia

I've also decided to up my walking for cardio into doing Couch to 5 K Training (C25K). I've only done week one, day one since it is the beginning of the week. I don't necessarily plan to run a 5K, but wanted to do something extra with a goal in mind since I'm not working and have extra time to workout. The two days I don't walk/jog, I would like to do some strength training. Here is the workout schedule this week:

Monday- C25K
Tuesday- strength training
Wednesday- C25K
Thursday-strength training
Friday- C25K
Weekends- I'm leaving them open to either resting or an activity of my choice.

Here are the stats for today's walk/jog. I'm not going by distance right now to train, but will be going by time. I don't have any fancy equipment, I just used my pedometer from the walking challenge at work.

• 3,464 aerobic steps
• 1.46 miles
• 28 minutes of aerobic activity

Playlist for this week's C25K training:

• Clocks by Coldplay as my 5 minute walking warm-up
• Got to Get You Into My Life by The Beatles
• Can't Get Enough of You Baby by Smash Mouth
• Birthday by the Beatles
• Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker
• Eight Days a Week by The Beatles
• Easy Livin' by Uriah Heep
• Celebrity Skin by Hole
• Hold Me Tight by The Beatles

I don't have a fancy phone for the C25K app, so I decided to make playlists on my iPod to help with the timing. The eight songs after my warm-up song are around 2:30 minutes long. This means that I run for the first minute of each song and then walk the rest of the song. Repeat this pattern with each song and I have over 20 minutes of walking/jogging.

Take Out the Papers and the Trash...

If you don't know those songs lyrics, it is from "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters. It fits for my day today, because I've been doing errands and chores almost all day. If you have never heard the song, or maybe you like it and would like to hear it, here is a link to a YouTube video with the song.

As for the whole weight loss thing... Today I weighed in at 189 which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've been off track since the end of the school year in May. Then I went on vacation right away (there will be more posts about that to come). I was back for two days (which I used to get ready for a garage sale) and then left for a mini vacation with my Aunt Susie to see Roger Waters perform The Wall at Wrigley Field (There will be a separate post for that too!). I was finally back home for good this Saturday evening. Sunday I spent grocery shopping and running errands. I finally feel that now I can regain my focus on losing weight, eating right, and working out.

Sunday night I spent some time rereading my Six Week Body Makeover eating plan. I know it pretty well, but thought that since I've been off track so long it would do me good. I also need to work on an exercise plan. Until I get one written up, my focus is to keep busy and moving. I will also focus on healthier meals and finish eating whatever snacks I have in the house before working on better snacks.

I cooked my healthier version of pizza today for lunches this week.

It has turkey pepperoni, green peppers and red onions as toppings. Yummy!

As for all the chores I did today, here are some pictures to recapture my productiveness today:

Paid the bills

My cleaned out fridge

Take out the trash

Did some laundry with the help of the sun

Got some new mousse to try to recreate the wavy look I had when I got my hair cut

Picked up Boo from my father-in-law's house to dog sit during the day today

I also picked up her playmate Peter (the black and tan one)

I wrapped my Father's Day presents (there are two for my dad because one is a birthday present)

I went through made a list and organized my presents box. I like to buy things on sale or if I see something that looks like someone and save them for a holiday. It makes it so much easier and I save a ton of money.

What the presents box looked like after I organized it

I also organized my closet in my Kami room in the basement

I cleared off all my husband's stuff from the dining table and put it away