Tag Archives: meal planning

Not enough!

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Today I ate toast with almond butter and an apple for breakfast.  Another piece of toast with almond butter for lunch.  And an apple with two cheese sticks for dinner!

NOT ENOUGH!!!

I caught up with an old friend from high school and ate breakfast on my way to her house.  I meant to only stay a couple of hours but we got to talking and before I knew it, it was 2pm!  She graciously gave Preston lunch while she fed her own kids but I knew I needed to do my own food, and I wasn’t all that hungry.  When we got home I lacked any motivation to put together a proper meal, so toast it was.  Then I had to work 6 to 9 tonight and was trying to get ready and head out the door and just forgot about dinner!  So I grabbed the fastest and easiest thing I could – another apple and two cheese sticks.  I knew if I didn’t eat before I went that I would be STARVING when I got home and would then be more likely to eat something I shouldn’t.  I probably didn’t even drink enough water for today so all around a weird day.  I will probably be ravenous when I wake up in the morning, but I’m ok with that.  I promise not to let tomorrow slip by without eating enough.

I’m hoping that I can get a bike ride in tomorrow if the weather is decent.  I haven’t been on my bike in a month!!  I really want to do another 10 miler or see if I could even push it a little further.  I’d love to do a ride to the zoo and back – round trip its about 14 miles I think.  We’ll see.  I’ll update more tomorrow!!  Hope you all ate enough today!!

Diet Dessert?!?

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Today was quite the day!  An afternoon at the pool (preston is SO close to being able to swim) and then a trip to the gym – burned 810 calories :)  Now I’m fed, showered, Pres is in bed, and I’m watching TV, life is good!  I was actually thinking today I am starting to really transition into the “i actually like exercising” part of this journey.  My body is responding well to being pushed some but not so hard I’m having any pain or anything.  I did two bike rides over the weekend.  First was with my sister, Meredith, she was in town for a brief visit.  We biked 7.64 miles on Saturday.  On Sunday I went riding with my dad for about 6.2 miles.  Both rides felt good and are getting me closer to my June goal of 10 miles!

So after weighing in yesterday and being excited about the loss and doing my 6 mile ride I decided that dessert for lunch was totally AOK!  I had been eyeing these mini graham cracker pie crusts I bought FOREVER ago.  So I busted them out and was thinking something chocolate peanut buttery.  I was going to use PB2 to make the peanut butter part but I thought since I could use the calories I’d use a TBSP of Skippy.  Then I took half a cup of Jello Chocolate Pudding to top it off!

Look at that!!  And it was DE-LI-CIOUS!  The pie crust was 110 calories, peanut butter was 95 calories and half the cup of pudding was 30.  So that’s 235 calories for a delicious little treat.  I paired it with almonds and called it lunch because the day was kind of weird in terms of timing of eating and like I said I wanted dessert for lunch :)  I was thinking adding a little marshmallow fluff or something would make for a fun s’more type dessert. Here’s another picture so you can see how big this thing is…

So its not super huge but with real peanut butter and some chocolate goodness it was pretty savory.  So that’s my Monday.  How was your weekend?  How was the start to your week?  Any good desserts this weekend??

I’m on a roll!!

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Happy weigh in this morning!!!!  3.8lbs this week!!!  For a total of 17.6lbs in 5 weeks :)  This makes for a very happy Megan.  I had a feeling the loss this week would be decent due to last weeks low loss.  But it is nice to see that I’m just cruising right along.  I am hoping to lose 6 more pounds by my birthday on the 28th, hopefully that will be a no brainer.

I have started really going through the parts of my closet that have sat quietly waiting for my return for years :)  Haven’t gotten to the boxes of clothes that don’t fit yet, but its fun and exciting to pull out clothes from before Preston was born and actually fit into some of it!  The best part is I am finding a few work clothes to tide me over for now.  I don’t care if my clothes are baggy when I’m hanging around the house or running errands with Preston but I don’t want to wear baggy pants to work.  So that is all very promising.  Excited to get down to an 18 – haven’t worn that size in 5 years probably.  :)    :)    :)

This week I did a much better job of getting myself all the way to 1200 calories and then some.  I made sure to have a larger breakfast and snack some as well.  I intentionally burned calories/worked out 6 days this week, which felt really good!  I am surprised how well my body is accepting of the way I’m pushing it – in fact I think my body is really happy about it.  I was talking to a friend the other day about starting a C25k program but wasn’t sure if I’m ready to do that.  I’d still like to drop a little bit more weight before I start that so that I’m not putting so much strain on my body, my knee is finally not experiencing much pain at all going up and down stairs or anything so I don’t want to screw that up by straining it.  Maybe after I’ve lost a total of 25lbs I’ll revisit the running thing.  My only true running goal is to be able to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.  I ran a turkey trot/thanksgiving morning race with my family two years in a row and I wanted to make it an annual tradition and then I stopped running and gained weight and drifted from that but every year I think about it and wish I was in shape to do it.  So this year I’m definitely planning to Turkey Trot – but I’m completely confident at this rate that I”ll be prepared to run a 5k by the end of November, so I might sign up for a 5k for September or something to work for.

I decided I’d like to set up a few mini goals for myself each month just to keep myself pushing.  So here’s a short list.

  • Do a 10 mile bike ride
  • Lose 15lbs this month (June 6 to July 6)
  • Get 5 work outs in each week
  • Start running

Its not much, but it’ll push me to work this month.  Like always the food is the most important part.  I promised myself I’d do a good food plan last week and I didn’t, so this week I HAVE TO DO IT!!  I really need to throw some variety in there and have bigger variations in my day to day calorie intakes to keep my body guessing and working hard.  I’m thinking maybe 2-1600 calorie days this week and one 1400 calorie day and the others closer to 1200 to see what kind of reaction my body has to that.  Hope you had a good week and met whatever goals you set out for yourself!

One Month Down!!

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I kind of forgot yesterday to mention that I am officially one month and 14lbs down!  Woohoo!  I feel so good and optimistic about losing this time around :)  I need to do an update on my pictures (yes I know I’ve posted none of them, I’m still feeling a bit shy) but I redid my measurements and was completely shocked at the changes!  So let me share:

  • Waist: -3.0 inches
  • Hip: -3.0 inches
  • Ribs: -1.0 inches
  • Chest: -3.0 inches
  • Upper arm: -0.5 inches
  • Thigh: -1.0 inches

Whoa.  That is so encouraging!!

This past month I think I did a number of things really well.  One thing is my earlier bedtime.  Getting more sleep at night has definitely helped me stay the course – the days I’m not rested have been the rougher ones for sure!  Eating as much fiber as I can has helped me feel full longer and has helped with cravings as well.  Additionally the 96+oz. of water that I’m drinking every day help me get by between meals/snacks without feeling hungry.  I really didn’t think I would exercise as much as I did this month because I thought it would feel like too much, but I’ve really only done what I want to do and just pushed a little to head to the gym if I’m not in the mood.  But it definitely always helps me feel better.

When I started last month I was able to do about 35 minutes on the elliptical comfortably and 40-45 was pushing it.  I am now regularly doing 60 minutes on the elliptical and at a higher resistance and feel really good through the majority of the workout.  I exercised 19 of the past 30 days.  At the beginning of the month I was a tight size 22 pant and am now a barely tight/just right size 20 (that was unexpected).  This month we went from Pres being in school and taking gymnastics class to summertime and ballet class :)  The transition time is always interesting.  I have posted 4 new meals that I have repeatedly enjoyed this month.  My average pounds lost per week is 3.5.  All in all a pretty respectable and exciting first month.

Hump Day

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Sorry about my lack of participation yesterday – I really hit a mood and wasn’t sure how to pull myself together enough to not sound all complainy.  Anyway – today is a better day!  Preston had his first ballet class today (highlight of the day)!!

I asked him a few weeks ago if he could do any sport he wanted this summer, I listed several, what would he choose.  And ballet was his number one!  So I signed him up and today in a class with about 12 little girls he got his ballet on.  It was really cute and he came out of the classroom doing some sort of ballet type move and told me he loved it and wants to do it again!  After ballet we headed over to return our WAY overdue books/movies at the library.  During the school year it was so much easier to remember when books were due and plan our trips to the library – gotta adjust to a new schedule.  So we finally got them back and I let him play for an hour.  He loves playing at the library and its the only place he actually regulates the volume of his voice so I’m all for it :)

This afternoon I have an elliptical date with a friend at the gym and then I have work this evening.  Not a bad Wednesday at all.  Although as I sit here typing I’m realizing that I didn’t stick the dinner I had planned on in the crock pot earlier today and now its a bit too late so I’ll have to get creative and come up with something else… story of my life!  Haha.

I’ve noticed that my energy in general has been down this week and part of last week.  I think one thing is that I haven’t been eating as many vegetables (have I mentioned this before??).  Several months ago I dabbled with eating vegan and I read a lot about it and such and somewhere along the way I read about how we derive so much energy from plants because they derive their energy from the sun – so its kind of like the closest link to deriving energy from the sun.  Ever since I read that I have definitely seen a correlation between my plant intake and my energy level!!  And I like to think about the sun fueling me from the inside out :)  So this week I’m trying desperately to do more veggies!!  Maybe this is just a blah week for me – everyone is entitled to having one of those every now and then.  The good fabulous news is even though I don’t feel so great about myself, my life etc I haven’t really had any urges to indulge in off limits food or even binge on acceptable food.

I am sitting here just realizing that the reason I may be feeling so blah is that I’m going on two weeks of full time mommy duty.  My only “off” time is when he’s asleep.  There’s not even any tag team with anyone, just me and I really do look forward to the every other weekend that I get to myself when Pres goes to visit his dad.  I think whats getting under my skin the most is that I’m not so sure he is going this weekend and all I want is a break!  I just gave Pres a lecture about wanting Five MInutes Peace from him – do you know that book?  It was a fun one from when I was a kid that I bought for Preston when he was little and we enjoy reading it.  Its nice because it also helps him get that mommies sometimes need a few minutes to themselves.  Even though I know its ok for me to want some time to myself it makes me feel like a bad mom when I plop him in front of the TV so I can catch up on my blogs or read a book for half an hour.  I know I’m not – I know a lot of moms can relate to this feeling – but its hard not to feel it in the moment (or at least when admitting it to  other people).  My only justification that my illogical emotional side will accept is that he hasn’t taken an afternoon (or any) nap since he was a little over 2 and a half.  Maybe closer to 3.  But man I used to live for those naps when I could either be super productive or super lazy.  It was nice.  So I guess this time is our down time and I need to be ok with it.

Alright enough rambling from me.  Hope you’re all having a good week and enjoying or managing the transition from spring/school year to summer/schools out!

…You are not the Biggest Loser

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This morning I opened up my email and found this waiting for me…

Just a couple of weeks/months ago I signed up at NBC.com to get info on when they were casting for the next season.  Looks like its coming up at the end of this month.  And the Chicago location is barely a stones throw away from my house!  But as soon as I opened this email a wide smirk passed across my face.  I don’t need this information.  I’m doing this on my own.

After watching season after season of this show (the show started around the time I was losing weight – 2005/6) I began to dream about being a contestant.  I am fully aware that the way they do things is a bit controversial but I wanted the results.  I held myself back from auditioning for the past three years because I’m a single mom and couldn’t fathom being away from Preston and/or figuring out the childcare situation.  I always wonder how contestants are able to just take a leave of absence from life and most have a spouse taking care of their children and jobs that allow them to do something like this – or at least I assume.  I however don’t know anyone that would be able or willing to sign up for up to 4 months of 24/7 childcare of Pres and I only get paid when I work and if I stopped working I’d have to rebuild my caseload and so it just hasn’t ever felt totally right for me.

This year I thought: If I don’t lose the weight really soon I continue to run the risk of shortening my life and if I die how would all those logistics get figured out with someone having to raise my son etc.  I decided that this year I would audition so that maybe if I were picked I could get out of the danger zone and live a long life for Preston.  I thought if its in God’s divine plan for me to lose the weight and do it by being on the show I’ll get a spot and somehow I’ll figure out the childcare/no income thing.  I mean I somehow managed to get through graduate school with a toddler!

And now here I am, one month into making some drastic changes for my life and feeling good about where I am ALL ON MY OWN (well sans show at least).  Receiving that email reminded me that the plans we make for ourselves are not often the way the plans play out.  It motivated me to keep on trucking.  The people who wait in line and audition for the show are not where I am.  They are where I felt I was when I signed up to receive the email.  I feel blessed and excited that I can delete that email and not worry about logistics of child care, just logistics of feeding myself the right fuel and getting my workouts in.  It reminds me I’ve come a long way mentally in the weeks/months since I signed up for that email, and that will help me keep on, keeping on.  :)

Have you ever considered auditioning for Biggest Loser?  Have you ever actually auditioned and gone through that process – I’m always curious about the behind the scenes stuff.

Weigh In

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I only lost 0.8lbs this week.  I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed when I weighed in, but at the same time I just knew I wasn’t going to have much of a loss this week.  Paired with my big loss last week, and I just didn’t feel so great about this week.  But after the initial let down I was fine with it.  For one, I knew it wasn’t going to be a big loss and since that was confirmed now I know that weeks like this past one don’t yield such big numbers.  Also, it means that hopefully next week will be a good week.

I’m pretty sure I know where I went wrong last week.  For starters I didn’t eat enough calories!!!  This is becoming a common theme and I think it relates very closely to the way I was limiting calories at the end of my last significant weight loss.  Its definitely not the same, it just relates.  I am good at eating really minimal calories and less good at being flexible and allowing wiggle room.  But counting calories has really helped me see this so I think this has been a fabulous learning experience.  Once I notice I am not going to hit 1200 calories I tend to eat enough to get me caught up.  Leading me to the next problem – I eat too few calories all day and then at dinner I eat more because that is when I realize I won’t have enough for the day.

So this week I’m going to plan it all out again.  Down to the calories to make sure I’m getting enough during the day.  The thing is since I’m not eating huge meals anymore, my stomach has gone back to regular size and so the meals I am eating keep me full and I sort of forget about eating until I get hungry and then its too late.  So I have to get ahead of this pattern and just plan out the times in which I’ll eat, and what.  I’m thinking that including more snacks will do the trick.

So my total loss is not at 13.8lbs down and I’m totally ok with it.  I like this journey; it even surprises me that its been a month already.  I definitely feel like my body is changing and my clothes are fitting better every single day :)  And that makes me feel fabulous.  As well as the energy and lack of severe pain in my knees :)  All in all the month has been good.

Since I’m upping the snacks this week I’d love some ideas about good 100-200 calorie snacks.  Hope your weekends were fabulous!!

Lunchtime Special

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Lunch has always been one of the harder meals for me to come up with when I’m trying to lose weight.  Breakfast is easy.  Dinner is usually a bit easier for me to decide on, but lunch can be a bit tricky.  I typically don’t want to eat breakfast food or dinner food for lunch.  I usually just want a sandwich and chips or something equally as easy to prep.  I’ve been doing a lot of wraps and quesadilla-esque meals lately.  So this one just came out of the desire to eat something more than a turkey and cheese sandwich but something still as satisfying if not more so.

Meet: The Crunchy Turkey & Cheese Wrap

I used reduced fat mayo on the surface of the whole wheat tortilla because I can’t imagine anything without a little moisture to it.  I have also used hummus and that is equally as tasty, just didn’t have any today.  On top of that I measured a single serving of low sodium deli turkey and one slice of swiss cheese.  Initially I thought I would just leave it at that, but then realized that it needed a bit more fluff and a crunch to make it even better and adding veggies are an easy way to get them in as well.  I added some sprouts (mmmmmm) and then took a cucumber (skin peeled off) and used my peeler to make thin strips of cucumber (a mandolin would also do the job but I don’t own one).  They are perfect in size and create the most perfect and refreshing crunch for lunch in the hotter months.  I paired the wrap with some PIRATES BOOTY – aged white cheddar.

I have been thinking that next time I will do an all veggie wrap.  I might include cucumber, sprouts, red pepper, carrot, not sure what else, maybe a little bit of onion.  I am not into mushrooms or tomatoes so those are out, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.  With a veggie wrap I would definitely go for the hummus.  What do you like to put on your wrap?  What is your favorite food that you use to add bulk to meals?

—–

I’m currently dealing with some sort of allergic reaction on my face.  So not fun!  I tried using a new lotion on my face – trying to find something light for the summer – and two days later my face became puffy and a bit bumpy all over.  My skin is notoriously dry and sensitive.  I’m even allergic to Proactiv and the lotion I used was hypoallergenic!!  I think part of the problem this time was that I put it on just after working out.  I typically wait until I stop sweating to shower, otherwise I just end up sweating after my shower and then I feel like the shower was a waste of time.  Anyway the other day I decided not to wait because I had other things to do and put the lotion on right out of the shower.  My guess is that my pores were really open due to the hour long sweat session at the gym.  So here I sit with a puffy face, my eyes look like they’re being swallowed up by my face!  Hopefully the swelling will go down soon, the daytime Benadryl is making me pretty sleepy too!!!  Allergies in general seem to be really horrible right now for everyone due to the mild winter we had.  Any of you having your own allergy battles this week??

 

Sunday Funday!

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Weeeeeeeee!!!!   I lost 4.8lbs this week!!!!!!!  I am totally ecstatic.  This brings me to a total of exactly 13lbs lost in 3 weeks!  I am really starting to feel a change in my body and at some point the changes will be noticeable to other people and that is really exciting to me!  I’m also looking forward to busting out my clothes from smaller sizes.  I currently have one pair of work pants – I ironically busted the button on one pair the week before I started exercising and eating better – the work pants I’m left with are cut a bit larger than the ones I broke and they are hanging on for dear life around my waist.    It feels really good to see those things happening.

I’m well aware that I won’t be able to keep up a near 5lb weight loss every week but it feels good to have a few here and there.  I exercised 4 times this past week.  I used the elliptical twice, both times for one hour.  One day I doubled up and did the elliptical in the morning and rode my bike for 20 minutes in the evening.  Another day I just rode my bike for about half an hour.  And yesterday I cut the grass and cleaned all day long so I count that as my calories burns for that day.  I tried to focus on just enjoying the activity and not feeling forced to do anything.  WIth the weather being nice I’m not wanting to be at the gym every time I need to exercise and I love getting on my bike and riding around the neighborhood.

As far as food goes I stayed pretty close to 1200 calories a day.  Last Sunday I am sure I went way over that as I shared last Monday I decided to join the family dinner instead of eat my own stuff.  There were two days I fell a little bit short of 1200 calories, which I really don’t like to do it just happened and hopefully next week I can have 7 days of 1200 calories consumed each day.  My main goals with food are to get 35g of Fiber every day, always include fruit and/or vegetable with every meal, and try to use them as snacks as well, try to get as much protein as I can, keep the sodium as low as I can by purchasing Low Sodium products and not adding salt to most things.  My breakfast was typical two servings of Fiber One cereal with a bit of Truvia and Fat Free Milk with some fruit like an apple or cantaloupe.  I’m on a cantaloupe kick right now.  Mmmm.  For lunch this week I had some leftover White Chili and I also made some wraps with a large Whole Wheat Tortilla, plain Hummus, Swiss Cheese, Black Beans, and thin sliced Cucumber.  MMMMMMM.  So good!!  Dinner this week I also had some of the leftover White Chili, I had the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad from Panera twice, and my sweet potato and asparagus dinner one night.  I snacked on Apples and String Cheese, Almonds, and had Jello Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding a couple of times as well.

I always try to drink 96oz of water a day and some days were better than others.  I would say 4 days I got all 96oz and the rest it was closer to 72oz.  Sleep is another big factor in weight loss and this week was kind of a crap shoot.  The week started off horribly.  Preston was sick – really just suffering from horrible allergies – so I was up several times in the night with him coughing, puking, crying, the whole bit.  It was not fun.  We got him on some allergy meds to stop the cough and deal with some other things like a baby ear infection and then sleep returned to normal.  Starting Wednesday I probably got 8-9 hours a night the rest of the week.  I have to say getting enough sleep helps TREMENDOUSLY with not having cravings or feeling unsatisfied.  Yay sleep!

Today I’m planning to go for a short bike ride this morning, head to Mass, then hang out with my Aunt all afternoon :) Tomorrow I have a workout date with a friend to start the week off right!

How did your week go?  Did you have any two-a-day workouts this week?  Did you discover any new recipes or meals that you didn’t think would be a great as they turned out to be?

Crockpot White Chili

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I LOVE using a crock pot.  I am all about eating yummy food that is easy to prepare.  If it takes me an hour to just get the meal in the oven or prepared it will probably rarely be made again.  Crock pot cooking is so quick and simple and can create some pretty tasty fare.

I have been using a vegan chili recipe for the past few months but red beans aren’t my favorite and I was getting tired of it, so I decided to look around for a white chili recipe.  I stumbled upon several different variations of white chili and created one of my own that turned out seriously yummy.  If I add or tweak this recipe I will be sure to update this post with changes.

So here’s what you’ll need:

  1. 3 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth – I used Imagine Organic Free Range Chicken Broth Low Sodium, it was the lowest sodium I could find.
  2. 1 Chicken Breast – I threw a frozen one in the crock pot in the am for a couple of hours with some broth to cook it through so that I could shred it, then added it to the mix with everything later.  You could even make the shredded chicken ahead of time and freeze it and then just throw it in with all the other ingredients.
  3. 2 cans Cannellini White Kidney Beans – drained and rinsed off (you can dump the can with liquid if you want it to be super easy, but the syrupy liquid in the can creeps me out)
  4. 1 can No Salt Added Whole Kernel Corn – drained – you can use frozen if you prefer, I just find it ends up being mushier than canned corn in crock pot recipes.
  5. 4oz. can of Mild Diced Green Chilies
  6. 1/2 White Onion chopped
  7. 2-3 Cloves of Garlic minced
  8. 1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
  9. 1 1/2 tsp Cumin
  10. Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop and mince the onion and garlic and dump everything else into the pot and set on high for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours.  I chose not to add any salt to keep the sodium down and it tasted ok to me but if you like your salt I’d definitely add some.  I added a little shredded mozzarella, you could also top with some tortilla strips for a little more crunch.

This recipe makes 6 – 1 cup sized servings.  Here is the nutritional breakdown based off of the ingredients I used (not including the cheese on top)

So pair that with something green, a side salad, or broccoli or something and you have yourself a really tasty and fulfilling meal.  Enjoy!