My First Week of Trying in a While

My first week of actually trying to eat well and workout in a long while went pretty well overall. Earlier this week I got lunch with my retired teacher friend Chris and we exchanged our Christmas presents. I ate pretty well with getting a grilled chicken breast dieter's plate, but I did have a couple of rolls. It is hard to go a meal without carbs!

My healthy meal that I tainted with dinner rolls.

My present from Chris

The rest of the week I've been eating food that I've cooked myself. I cooked a week's worth of food and finished it all up on Saturday. For those of you who know me, I'm not much for cooking. I don't particularly enjoy it, so I usually don't try too hard. I was actually making dinner and some of those pumpkin muffins all at the same time. It made me at least look like I knew how to cook, although it was pretty simple.

Cooking up a storm

This kit was pretty good. It has lower sodium seasoning and 100% whole wheat tortillas.

The tacos were yummy. I had fat free refried beans, taco meat, cheese, taco sauce, and onions on mine.

Baked up the easiest snack to help with a sweet tooth. It is just a box of cake mix with a can of pumpkin.

Turkey burger on whole wheat bread with sweet potato waffle fries. I love sweet potato fries!

I had 1/3 cup egg whites and a piece of 40 calorie cheese on a 100% whole wheat bagel thin with either yogurt or fruit bites for breakfast all this week.

I had this for lunch on Saturday since I ran out of turkey burgers.

Snacking has been a huge part of why I gained so much weight back. This week I worked on transitioning myself off of the sugary, junk food snacks and more towards what I should be eating. I think that once I get this part under control, I will lose the weight quicker. Anyway, for snacks I've been having anything from a doughnut or cinnamon roll to carrots or apples with string cheese.

Red velvet doughnut with cream cheese frosting. Evil!

This was my meal and snack plan for last week.

As for exercise, I went to the gym and did my first workout with a trainer to show me how to do everything. From now on I get to pull out my card and do the exercises on my own (and ask one of the workers there if I have a question). My workout started with five minutes on the treadmill and five minutes on the stair climber along with some stretches to warm-up. Then I used a bunch of different machines to work my legs, arms, shoulders, and back. For the abs, I did some bicycle crunches, crunches on a ball, and three planks. The planks were the one thing I really struggled with. After that I stuck around and did 20 minutes on the treadmill. I felt pretty good when I left the gym, but I woke up the next day feeling sore all over. The second day after the workout my arms and legs were better, but my abs hurt really badly. It hurt to bend, sit up straight, sneeze, cough, and laugh!

Me getting ready for my first workout. Who knew that I'd feel like my face looks the next day and the day after that?

I also went on two long walks around my neighborhood. I prefer to be outside instead of inside on a treadmill. It has been warm and pretty much snow free for winter so far, so I thought I would try to get outside while I can. I have asthma and the cold air bothers me. I wore a scarf one time and that helped me to breathe a little easier. One walk I took a dog with me and the other one I just listed to music while I walked up and down every street in my little section of town.

I used to be pretty good about blogging every day when I'm eating on track and showing pictures of everything I ate. Since I will be working and going back to school, I won't have the time to do that again. I will try to post my meal plan once a week along with a post about what I actually ate with pictures. It will take a little bit of time to figure out what I will be able to do, but my goal is to be more regular with my posts.

Time to get Back on Track

I know that the posts are getting far and few between lately. I have been wanting to write, but I've been really busy with work again or worried about my family. I've spent two weeks not completely on track. My meals are usually pretty healthy, but my snacks are not always. My snacks are killing me, and I'll probably see a weight gain this week again. My workouts have been mostly consistent, but I have skipped a couple of days.

My goal is to again focus on what I need to do to continue my weight loss journey and take the time to do it. It is tough, at this time with everything going on. I have two more late Tuesdays, and my after school choir will be done. This leaves me with late Wednesdays for the piano lesson I teach. I try to get things done while I'm waiting for my student, so I don't have to come in on weekends. Sometimes I'm pretty beat down by the end of the day though. I have been keeping my iPod and armband in my school bag, so I could always walk while I'm waiting and get my workout in at school if I feel like it.

I also haven't really taken the time in weeks to do just something for even a few minutes to have fun. About the only things I've done for fun is read a couple of articles in Rolling Stone magazine and find a few bargains on clothes while out doing my weekly shopping. My winter coat is too big, so I found one on clearance for $20 that is one of those three-in-one jackets. I can unzip the lighter one from the inside and use it this spring, so I thought it made it worth the money.

I also found two pairs of size 17 juniors lightweight cords that I can use for work for around $5 a piece.

I found a cute Garfield shirt as well that I just had to get. It is slightly tight, so it can be some motivation.

I think I need to go listen to some cheesy motivational songs like Richard Marx's "Ain't Nothing You Can Do About It" and maybe make a play list on my iPod for days weeks like I've been having. It would definitely bring some slight enjoyment to my life for a few minutes at least.

Back on Track Tuesday

Today was a long Tuesday. I was tired all day, but it seemed like a lot of other people were tired today too. Maybe it was just the weather. When I woke up, this is what it looked like outside.

Then this is what it looked like on the way home from work.

As you might have noticed, I haven't been posting much of what I've been eating lately. My meals have been mostly on track, but my snacks have been horrible. Today I decided to try really hard to get myself back on track, as much as I don't feel like it. The food and exercise I do will be back on my posts this week.

Food for the Day:

Breakfast:

Snack:

Snack:

Lunch:

Snack:

Dinner:

Snack:

Workout: stretches and Wii Fit

Eleven Random Things

The inspiration for this post is from one of my favorite blogs written by Krista. Before reading her post, I have had a bunch of random things on my mind and was wondering how I would work it into a post. Now I have the answer.

• If you have seen my goals page, then you have seen that I wanted to do a mini shopping spree for new clothes when I reach halfway to my goal weight. Well, I’ve already begun buying size 12 pants on sale/clearance and a few tops. I probably won’t need to buy much when I get there now. I think that I have a brown and black pair of dress pants, a tan and brown pair of lightweight corduroys, and four pairs of jeans. I don’t have these pant sizes stored away, because I was working at Wal-Mart the last time I was a 12. Those Wally World duds are long gone.

• I hit up the K-Mart in Portage to get most of those pants I was talking about in #1. It is going out of business and they have everything at least 30% off. I also got my reward for when I reach 180 which is Queen Singstar.

• The snacking monster has returned this week. I’ve been eating good meals, but too much junk and high calorie foods for snacks. I really need to refocus next week and watch the snacking again.

• I already have flowers pushing up around my yard. They actually have been for a week or two now. I was kind of worried that winter might hit and they would die, but it doesn’t seem like we are going to get a “real winter” this year.

• I used to be really good at playing the Pennywhistle. It is similar to a recorder, but it is made out of metal. I did all the ornamentations that made the songs sound like authentic Irish, Scottish, or English music. I should probably get it out and practice up for St. Patrick’s Day. I could bring it in and show it to my students.

• This is the outfit I wore to work on Friday. I got a lot of compliments, especially on how great these jeans look on me!

• I know this might be hard to believe, but I used to not like dachshunds. I’ve come to realize that I love the personalities of longhairs. Shorthairs really do have a different personality that I don’t like as much.

• I’m going to spend quite a few hours this President’s Day weekend getting things ready for upcoming concerts and work.

• I had a student in choir come up to me and try to convince me to bring my 3DS to school! I said that I want to keep it safe at home. We then talked about games for the 3DS and she found out that I liked Mario games. She told me I was a cool teacher for liking Mario. I told her that Mario games started to come out when I was a kid.

• Although I state the Beatles as my all time favorite band, I do have two others that I put at the top of my list with them. They are the Grateful Dead and Nirvana. As far as rock tastes go, they are pretty far apart in style. The Beatles were the original boy band and started the whole British Invasion. The Grateful Dead was the best jam band ever. Nirvana was totally ahead of their time and anti-establishment. Of course, there are many, many others I love, but there are my top of the top.

• I will have to decide soon what I’m going to do when I start going back to school to get a masters or Ph.D. My hubby is almost done, so I should hopefully be able to start soon. Going the music route would be the easiest, but I still am thinking about psychology. If I go with music, I’ll get a pay raise if I stay where I am at and maybe be able to teach at a college or university some day. I’d love to teach at St. Joe if I ever had the chance. I also think about psychology a lot. I had a better GPA in psych than music! That would be a lot of work though and I do plan on having a family at some point in the next few years.

Shopping and Subway

I started off the morning with sleeping in until 7:00 (yes, that is late for me). I also went shopping. I had three coupons for 25% off at Fashion Bug which I used on two pairs of slightly small dress pants and a leather jacket.

I also needed a corner shelf to put my Kinect for my xBox 360 on so I could use it in my office. It is a small room, so I figure if I put it in the corner and stand on the opposite side of the room I should be okay.

I also finished cleaning the great room today. I also worked on a few decorating projects I have going on in there. I won't have time to finish them for a while, so no pictures yet. :)

I think I also figured out why my weight has been so slow on coming off this week. I've been eating Subway cookies for my "junk food" snack. Most of the cookies have at least 200 calories per cookie. I guess I should have bothered to look that up first! So the plan is for my junk food snack to be around 200 calories or less. That means find something else or have just ONE cookie.

My goals for this week are the same ones I've been working on: workout for 30 minutes a day (Wii Fit, Kinect, DVD, etc.), cook a healthy breakfast, take my vitamins, do my stretches, and one 200 calorie or less junk food snack for the day. I'll post how I did on them this coming weekend.

Food for the Day:

Snack:

Breakfast:

Snack: a Dove candy bar

Lunch:

Snack:

Dinner:

Exercise: some cleaning/decorating