Traveling

I decided to come and hang out with my parents for a week. I think this is the longest period of time that I have spent in my hometown since moving away about 18 years ago, and I know the longest period of time that I have been out of town without Kip since we got married. I have gone away without him for the weekend and he has taken a business trip or two without me, but I think they were all shorter than a week. I am helping Mom with some projects around the house. We are making some real progress.

Traveling of course brings along it's own challenges when one is trying to eat healthy and especially when trying to lose weight. I made a meal plan before leaving and brough some food with me that I was afraid that I might have trouble finding. I had brought some organic fruits to bring too but forgot them. At least Kip will have lots of fruit to snack on this week! I was happy to find an Earth Fare store in Chattanooga which allowed me to buy the rest of the foods that I needed for my meal plan. My Mom and I are popcorn fanatics so I was happy to be able to find some organic popping corn for our snacks this week. Shopping at Earth Fare was great, I would love it if that could be my regular grocery store. At least I know that I can shop closer to Mom and Dad's and don't have to bring so much with me each time.

One of the challenges of being here though is that my parents eat out a lot. Like most of their meals. I have gone out for some meals with them at places where I know I can get a healthier meal but avoided the fast food breakfasts and lunches by sticking with my meal plan. I have managed to get in some exercise since I can work out at the Y here using their AWAY program. I have stuck to my meal plan pretty well too and haven't visited every single one of my favorite resturants here in my home town.

In the last post I mentioned the challenge I had joined to burn off 4500 calories in exercise last week. I am happy, and a little shocked, to say that I met that challenge and even exceeded it a little. Here are my totals:

Monday-770

Tuesday-803

Wednesday-1,148

Thursday-237

Friday-1,240

Saturday-177

Sunday-395

Total-4,770

So I made it. I have been trying to get a walk in before leaving for work every day and going to the Y 4-5 days a week after work. Thursdays are kind of a rest day since I work late on that day and only do the morning walk. Sundays we have been going bowling a lot but since I am out of town I didn't have that calorie burn. I will be doing this challenge again. I love the idea of having a specific calorie range to burn. I weighed in on Saturday instead of Monday this week so that I could get it recorded on the scale I have been weighing on. My total for last week was 1.2 lbs and I am very happy with that.

When I got to my parents my Mom had bought me some shorts at a yard sale. They fit! Most all of my shorts are starting to get pretty baggy so I was happy to get some that actually fit and I don't have to wear a belt. I hate hate hate wearing a belt!

Insanity??

I use an app on my iPhone called Lose It! that allows me to log all my food and exercise on the go. I love this app because I am a bit of a tech nerd and love little electronic gadgets of any kind. I have tried logging my food plenty of times but forget more often than not. I am never without my phone so I have no excuse to not log my food. Since I log more often I have become very aware of the calories I consume. A few months ago I discovered their website and the forums. I have made several friends on there and the encouragement is awesome! One of the forums had a topic challenging the participants to burn 4500 calories in exercise this week. This is where the insanity comes in, I decided to join that challenge!

I have been setting goals for myself in regard to how many times a week I will exercise and the duration of the exercise sessions. I never thought to challenge myself by calories burned. I am more than a little competitive so I knew I would kill myself to meet that 4500 calories. That challenge has made me get up and walk for a least a half hour before going to work every day. That challenge made me go for an extra 10-15 minutes on the elliptical machine this week. That challenge made me decide that after finishing my 45 minuted on the elliptical to get on the stationary bike for 15 minutes. I am on track to meet this goal and am actually starting to enjoy my workouts a little. Here are my totals so far this week (M-SU):

Monday: 770 calories

Tuesday: 803 calories

Wednesday: 1,148 calories

Thursday: 237 calories (Thurs are a rest day, I only do the morning walk)

Who would have thought I would be here enjoying exercising?

We have Carrots!

I was so happy when I got to the site to pick up my CSA share this week. We have carrots! I have always loved carrots and didn't realize that I would be getting some already. This week we also got garlic scapes, garlic, swiss chard, parsley, spearmint, green onions radishes, and lettuce. Yummy!

I am still working out on a regular basis. Last week I lost another 1.8 lbs. That seems to be a very popular number for me, I have had several weeks with that as my total. I have been working out on average 5-6 days each week. This week I joined an online exercise challenge and the challenge is to burn off 4500 calories in exercise. Yikes! That is way above what I have been doing but I decided to give it a try. Yesterday was pretty good, I burned 770 between walking, the elliptical machine and the weight machines.

Shrimp Mix

I made this for dinner one night and Kip ended up working late so he didn't have any that night. It wasn't until "leftover night" that he tried it. He told me later that it did not look appealing at all but he was willing to try some. He was surprised with how delicious it was. It was a throw together meal made up of ingredients that I had on hand. He has been a pretty good sport with all the food changed that have been going on here, he has even eaten lima beans and brussel sprouts. I have to admire his willingness to try all the new foods but especially the foods that he had previously decided he didn't like.

Shrimp Mix

1/2 onion, sliced

1 tbs. olive oil

4 oz. sliced mushrooms

2-3 cups fresh spinach

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts

small bag of frozen corn, partially defrosted

1 bag frozen shrimp, defrosted, tails removed

1/3 cup mayo

1 tsp. dried dill

whole wheat pasta

Saute onions in olive oil about 5 minutes, add mushrooms and spinach and continue to saute until tender and spinach cooks down some. In the meantime, combine may and dill in a small bowl, set aside. Add artichokes and corn to the veggie mixture and cook until corn is heated though, add shrimp and cook until shrimp is warm. Remove from heat and stir in mayo/dill mixture. Serve with whole wheat pasta.

I did it

I joined the Y.

I have been talking about it for several weeks. I finally did it. I have a treadmill here at home and have been having success on my own but I wanted to be able to have some more variety and to have the option to be able to work out with weights or strength machines. It feel a little weird, thinking of joining a gym at my size and fitness level. It seems like a lot of effort to change clothes, drive there, park, get out, walk in and then to only be able to exercise for 15-20 minutes. I know that time will increase as will my endurance and stamina. I knew losing this weight would not be a quick thing. I am happy to be able to see progress in way other than the number that stares back at me on the scale. I know that I am eating healthier and 85-90% of my food choices are foods that contribute to a healthier me. Most of my clothes are baggy and so far I can wear almost all the clothes that were too tight or unwearable last year. I feel more energetic. I am continuing my journey to becoming a healthier person.

I Scream, You Scream....

We all scream for ICE CREAM!! Well I certainly do anyway. I love ice cream and frozen fruit bars. Love, love love them, more than almost any other foods. Especially as the weather gets warmer I find myself wanting them several times a day. Since I am making most everything else, I decided to give my own a try. I can control the ingredients and hopefully lower the calorie count. Even is the calories are the same, I know exactly what all went into them. Here are a couple of different ones I have made. I love this set most of all in part because of the cool design , but I really like that the base is bigger and easier to hold on to. If you know where I could find one of these, let me know because I would love to have another set. Any way, the one on the right is just watermelon juice with some watermelon chunks and the one on the left is a Chocolate/Peanut Butter/ Banana pop.

Last weekend we were in the mall which is a pretty rare occurrence for us. If we go to this particular mall I have to go and lust after all the things in the Williams-Sonoma store. I only enjoy shopping in three types of stores; book stores, craft stores and kitchen stores. So we are walking around and I am mentally finding homes in my kitchen for all these tools when I saw a Zoku frozen pop maker. This thing makes frozen pops in as few as 7 minutes! I think I am in love! It is like my ice cream maker, it has a base that can be kept in the freezer and then you can just pull it out and make pops in just minutes. Check out their website, their pops are so pretty. I keep telling myself that I really don't need another kitchen thing, but that one is pretty awesome and I think one needs to live at my house where it would gets lots of love and attention.

Frozen Chocolate/Peanut Butter/ Banana Treat

(makes 3-4, depending on the size of your tray)

1 Banana

2 tbs. peanut butter

2 tbs. chocolate syrup

1/4 cup chocolate almond milk

Puree all ingredients and pour into molds and freeze.