Spaghetti with Veggies - Simple and Delicious!

This one was simple.
While the water is boiling for the pasta I started to sautee the following:
1 red onion, chopped
4 bunches spinach, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
minced garlic, i used about 4 tablespoons, I love garlic
4 mushrooms
olive oil
sesame seeds
chili oil
black pepper

I sauteed those enough so that the veggies are still a bit crunchy...I like them that way.   Then I took them off the heat.

Then the pasta cooks and you top the pasta with the veggies an a little more olive oil.  I also diced up fresh tomatoes for on top.

Easy peasy! Very light and yummy.

A little bit of vegan in my life

I am not a PETA freak.  I would like to just start by stating that fact.  Yes, I love animals immensely and that does have something to do with this choice.  However, the main reason for going vegan is that I think it is healthier; I think it is MUCH healthier. When I lived in NY I was a vegetarian for quite some time.  I loved it! I felt healthy, I looked great, and it was pretty damn easy there.  I mean, in upstate NY there are farms everywhere.  Yes, there are Starbucks on every corner too but farms, farmers markets, organic this, fresh that, and even a ton of amazing wineries (not that wineries have anything to do with it).  So, it was super easy.

Here in Texas, you would think it would be easy.  Alas, it is much more difficult.  Farmers markets are few and far between.  EVERYONE eats meat, it seems, and they are proud of their steaks. 

Even with Texas telling me no, I say YES and here we go.  It has been SO much easier than I thought it would be.  It is super delicious and makes me feel infinitely better.

I did not realize how much better I felt until last week when I stopped it.  We had a party last week and had so much crap an then left overs so we ate really bad all week.  I mean, REALLY bad.  I did not, luckily, gain all the weight back but I did feel worse than if I had.

Here I am back on it and loving every minute of it.  There are certain things I miss; I miss cheese the most.  But, not enough to eat it.

The most wonderful and amazing part of this is that Chris is loving it.  Not just liking it; he is LOVING it.  Almost every meal I have made ends with him declaring, "This is my favorite one yet!".  For someone who has always said he hates vegetables, that is a victory.

Excuses

So this morning the scale said I was down 5 pounds. Whoohoo, go me! I've had three good days, and hopefully today will be another one. I've been updating my calorie count website religiously, even with dinner (which I don't usually do). I hope it keeps going down (I know that's up to me, though).

So here's the list of my excuses that keep me from exercising/eating right:

1) My foot hurts.
Explanation: I somehow hurt it this past July in Colorado. Been to the doctor, had x-rays taken, they can't find anything. If I walk too much on it, it hurts, to the point where I can't really walk on it.
Why it's stupid: Walk through the pain! It hurts on and off, but usually off when I go to the doctor. Maybe this will make it so that it's actually hurting when I go! But seriously, have to exercise the foot, otherwise it's always going to be like this. Then, in 20 years when I weigh 500 pounds, I won't have to worry about my foot hurting, because I will be in a scooter, so there will never be any weight on it.
What I should say instead: Soaking it in hot water when it is aching generally makes the ache go away. Try that instead, ya whiny baby!

2) I ran out of time.
Explanation: This is usually said in regards to breakfast, right before I stop at Whataburger and get two bacon, egg, and cheese taquitos, an orange, and a coffee. Yummy, but that's almost 1000 calories right there, just for breakfast.
Why it's stupid: 1000 calories. For breakfast. As opposed to the normal 300-400 that I eat.
What I should say/do instead: Get up earlier so that I'm not running later with the kids? Go back home after dropping them off and eat breakfast then? Take my oatmeal in a microwaveable container and have it at work? Have some stuff on hand that I can grab and go (granola, yogurt, fruit, etc). If I have time to make coffee, I have time to assemble a breakfast that I can eat when I get to work. If I don't have time to make coffee and I stop at 7-Eleven to get some, well, they sell fruit, too. Or cereal. Something. Occasionally, Whataburger is okay for breakfast, even at 1000 calories for a meal. But it needs to be a very active day, or truly only once in a while. Not every Friday.

3) I don't have the time to exercise.
Explanation: So that means I can't do the Couch-to-5K program, or go to the gym for step classes, or go swimming. I can't get up early to do some yoga at home, because I like to sleep. I can't exercise after the kids go to sleep because that would mean walking around the neighborhood - in the dark - and leaving them home alone.
Why it's stupid: Free gym access at school. Free exercise classes. Walking around before I come to work. No classes at all during the day.
What I should do instead: I can take an hour or two to go the gym during the day, including bringing shower stuff so I can take a shower after. I can even go at 400, so I don't have to worry about having wet hair for the rest of the day. I can walk around for 30 minutes to an hour before coming into work and getting started, or walk for a break or after lunch. I have some ygoa tapes at home, as well as some others. I also have YouTube on my TV, so I can do it that way. Dogs are bothering me as I'm trying to do this? Stick them outside. Find a step for cheap. Find a treadmill for cheap. Try setting an "easy" routine and sticking to it (so many sit ups, so many pushups, etc, etc).

4) It's expensive to buy healthy food and we don't always have the money to do so.
Explanation: When you have to buy dog food, cat food, diapers, and laundry detergent in one week, this cuts sharply into the grocery store budget. Getting food for the week takes priority over buying healthy soup for lunch or stuff to make an interesting (re: lots of stuff on it that will fill me up) salad. Hamburger helper and spaghetti for dinner for the week sometimes just has to happen.
Why it's stupid: Well, this one isn't quite so stupid, because I don't necessarily have total control over this. You gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet and make sure that everyone is fed satisfactorily, healthy or not.
What I should do instead: Watch portion control. Yeah, hamburger helper may not be the greatest thing for me, calorie and fat content wise, but if you have no choice... Be willing to buy cheaper stuff at the store (generic versus name brand). Make enough chicken, etc, for leftovers the next day and take that to work. Get up and move more, so that even if I am taking in more calories, hopefully I'm using them more/better. Eat slower, drink more water before, during and after meals. I already know that I eat too much, one of my main problems, so maybe that would help with letting my brain catch up to my stomach with being finished. Cut out nonessentials from the grocery budget (no more Diet Dr. Pepper for Becky).

I have more excuses, but I can't think of them right now. When I can. I will try to update the list.

5 pounds down. Let's keep going!

I've been a bad, bad girl...

Yes I have but not in the way you might think.  Yes, I have gained some weight back since doing this (my last post was SEPTEMBER 2011!! Ugh!), but not much.  I was 258 and now am 262 - not too bad considering that it is January.  That means I made it through the holidays gaining 4 pounds.  Granted, i have lost a couple of pounds within the past two weeks or so, but not many.  MAYBE 4, if that.  The "bad girl" is how I have been losing it.  No, I have not gone anorexic or bulimic, and I feel fine so it is not that bad no matter what anyone tells me.  Basically, I am eating once a day.  Becky will say how horrible this is but i really REALLY like it.  If I get really hungry during the day, I will eat.  Like today, I was staving this morning so I ate and then I ate dinner.  But most days, I can go until dinner without wanting anything at all.  Then when dinner comes, I don't eat a crap-ton like I used to.  Although, I eat what I want.  This is one way I know of to snap my body back into wanting smaller meals.  I was doing this when Chris and I started dating and I looked GREAT (to me anyway).  So, I did this for a while and then when I started eating more meals a day, they were much smaller.  that is my intent.  This is not a long term plan - just s short term "snap my stomach back into the smaller size so I can eat less" mode.
So, Becky, no lecture about how I need to eat at least 1200 calories (I probably get about that each day with my dinner anyway).  
This year I have so much to work towards! I have my bonus sister's wedding in June, where I am a part of the wedding so I want to look beautiful.  I have New Orleans, as usual, where i want to look boobilicious, and then there is the fabulous Halloween in October where I want to look HOT as HELL.
I only have 21 weeks until the wedding.  That is exactly 3 pounds a week to get me to 199.  I WANT THAT.
I need t set that in my mind and make it happen.  Easy, right?

Achievements!

I've had two decent days in a row. Accomplishments? Well, tonight we had pancakes. I had one serving of three pancakes and that's it, rather than having two servings of three. It's a step in the right direction. I didn't snack when I came home from work before I got the kids. I didn't snack too much last night, although I had a little more than I intended (a popsicle, when I had already gone over my calories for the day).

I have a website that I use to count calories. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I'm a fan. It's free, which is nice. I've been using this website off and on since 2007. They have discussion boards, etc, that you can use for support in losing weight. There was one that I was a member of for a while, called the 200 club. It was for those of us who were, unfortunately, over 200 pounds. For a while, it was a really great group of ladies who were all very supportive and active in posting, giving diet tips and stuff. I ran out of time to visit it every day, though, and there were enough active posters on there that that was the only way I stayed up to date with it. I wonder if any of those ladies met their goal weight. There was one lady, Ellen, who was in her late 50s, early 60s, and was losing 80+ pounds for the second time. She was inspiring, because she just made it look so easy! In the time that I was on there, she lost 45 pounds. In the time that I was on there, I think I sat at about 15 or 20 lost. So, yeah, inspiring, but also frustrating. What was she doing that I wasn't?

Anyways, this website has started something new called Calorie Camp. You log your food for the day and set yourself goals (mine are currently to log my food every day, to get at least 30 min of physical activity at least 4 times a week, and to drink at least 64 oz of water a day. Sound familiar?). You can also get other achievements. One that I saw was to walk/run at least 30 miles in a month. Apparently, as you hit all these goals and achievements and everything, you rack up points. Then, when you hit certain levels, you can cash in those points for real things, like a $25 gift certificate to a certain shoe store (that's the only one I can remember off the top of my head). That's pretty cool, but it's also pretty cool - and addicting - to see the points rack up. This is how I got sucked in to Zoo World on FB for a little bit last year - the addiction of accumulating stuff!

So, I don't know, maybe this will help. It certainly can't hurt. It's rough trying to log my calories completely every day, but only when I'm at home; what can I say, I'm lazy. Plus, sometimes it's just time-consuming. Like today, I had a spinach salad with chicken, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and a hard boiled egg with Fat Free Asian Toasted Sesame dressing from Kraft (yummy, yummy!). I had to log each thing, with estimated amounts. Sometimes, it gives the amounts in ounces or grams or "recommended serving". This is not always the most helpful. I try to estimate as I go, but I'm probably off. I take the ending calorie count with a grain of salt each day. Like today, my goal is 1600 per day, and I'm coming in at 1649. That's awesome for me. Makes me think that I'm doing something wrong, as in, forgot to log something.

Who knows, maybe I've just had two good days. And that's where it all starts, right? Having more good days than bad days.

New Goals

Okay, I have no idea if anyone is even still following this, but what the hell. I actually lost some weight last year when we were keeping up with this semi-regularly. I think I was down 14 pounds, which isn't much, but hey, it's something, right! Well, since then, I've gained it all back, plus a little bit. I'm heading dangerously close to an all-time high... and that includes when I was pregnant with the boy. That's depressing. In the interest of full disclosure, the scale read 268 this morning. My high weight is 274, and that's when I was pregnant. This currently is my non-pregnant high weight.

In reading back through some of this, Lisa and I have the same problem (and we keep going over the same ground). We have no motivation. The motivation sparks briefly, and then flies away quickly. It's just so much easier to keep doing what we are doing. Yeah, okay, we'll try to snack a little less, maybe put down the brownie and pick up a carrot or something, but other then that... It's easier to complain. And whine, and moan. And buy new clothes when our old ones don't fit. And look at plus-size fashions and wonder why all the designers want us to look like circus tents.

At the new year, well, it was time for a new resolution. Lose weight. Again. Same one as always. I joined a weight loss challenge that, unfortunately, didn't really go anywhere. I decided to do my own personal week-long challenges, and surprisingly, have had some success with it.

First week: drink at least 64 oz. of water a day. Check.
Second week: In addition week one's challenge, try to walk at least 30 min, at least three times a week. (I noticed that when I was losing weight before, I was actually walking a whole bunch. Time to get back to that.)
Third week: In addition to the first two, try to have 3-5 servings of veggies a day. (This one is a bit harder, I'm still working on it.)

I have a time frame on losing just a little bit, though, and it doesn't have anything to do with a weight-loss challenge. Before hot weather gets here, I need to lose at least 20 pounds. Otherwise, none of my capris will fit, and I'll have to spend money to buy some more. In a bigger size. Very depressing. They were already getting a little tight at the end of last summer, and I've put on a little bit more weight since then. I don't want to go up a size. I want to buy new clothes because they are all too big.

I still want a used treadmill for my house, and now I want to add to that a step board so that I can do step classes at home, rather than trying to work it into my schedule at school. I'm trying to set myself little goals so that I'm not overwhelmed and give up so fast. Besides the mini-challenges, I think that my next one is to get up early at least two days out of the week and do some yoga in the morning.

So, I'm trying. The spark is not quite out, although some days it burns brighter than others.

Here veggie, veggie, veggie... come here girl...

Last night I wanted a quesadilla. So, I had one. bUT I decided I should sneak in some veggies.  I mean, they are just sitting in my fridge getting lonely anyway.  Before, they knew what hit 'em, I had cheese, tomatoes, and broccoli in there.  Man, was it yummy! Plus, afterwards I felt pretty good about it. Hell yeah, it had a ton of cheese in it (I can't change who I am) but it had more veggies than it would have had and that, my friends, is what I call a step.