Monday 27 July 2009

Weigh in

It's getting late, so I thought I'd post the weigh in for today. Hope you are all doing well. What's you numbers?

Monday 20 July 2009

Weigh in

Well I have no idea what I weigh at the moment, just that it's probably less than I did on Saturday morning, having been suffering with what's probably swine flu since Saturday night.
So I'll just head out of here and back to bed (after spraying some disinfectant around) and let you get on with the weigh-in without me.

Sunday 19 July 2009

Decadent Chocolate Cake

I found this recipe in a Suzanne Somers cookbook from the mid-nineties -- Eat Great, Lose Weight. I haven't made it, and I probably won't anytime soon, but I thought one of you ladies may like to give it a try. The picture of it in the book looks soooo yummy and chocolatey but it's definitely a once in awhile treat.

DECADENT CHOCOLATE CAKE
Serves 6-8

Cake:
7 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (no less than 60% cocoa)
11 T unsalted butter
4 large eggs, separated
1/3 C sugar (these days you could prob substitute Splenda)
1/3 C whole wheat pastry

Ganache:
6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
3/4 C heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-inch round cake pan.
For the cake: Melt the chocolate and butter in a double broiler (or in a bowl or smaller saucepan placed over a saucepan of boiling water). Set aside to cool.
Beat the egg yolks until light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until mixture is pale yellow. Fold in the melted chocolate. Sift the flour over the chocolate mixture until it just disappears.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into the chocolate mixture in 2 parts. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and tap on the counter to remove air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (see Note).
For the ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl. Place the cream in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the hot cream to the chocolate and stir until it reaches room temperature, then poor it over the cooled cake and spread with a spatula.

Note For a thicker cake, double the recipe and bake for 35 minutes.

Day 12

FOOD
Breakfast: a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter
Snack: A slice of watermelon
Lunch: 3 slices of lunch meat, 1 slice of mozzarella, celery sticks with hummus, half a cucumber topped with salt and lemon juice
Dinner: 2 chicken breast tenderloins topped with avocado & mango salsa*, broccoli and two small spoonfuls of mashed potatoes (I couldn't help myself!)
Indulgence: handful of cherries & 2 spoonfuls of chocolate cool whip

EXERCISE:
20 laps in the pool -- it started raining and then thundering so I had to get out before I could get more done!
200 leg lifts





*I don't know why but for the past few days I've been craving a fresh mango & avocado salsa. I don't recall even eating those two flavors together, but I thought I'd give it a try. I cut half a mango and half an avocado into small pieces and mixed together in a bowl. I squeezed half a lime over top and added a few leaves of cilantro, roughly cut with my kitchen shears. Then I threw in some chopped tomatoes and bit of finely diced onion. Also grated a clove of garlic into it. Salt to taste. It was quite delicious, if i might say so myself! It was what I used to resist the pull of the potatoes, and it basically worked! I did have two spoonfuls of potatoes, but that's easily 1/3 of what I normally would've eaten, so I'm quite proud of myself!

Saturday 18 July 2009

Days 8 - 11

Whoa! Sorry this post is so long and that I haven't updated the past few days! The computer wasn't available when I was ready to get online and then I was too lazy to type up a post. Here's how I've done, to the best of my recollection:

DAY 8
FOOD:
Brunch: 2 eggs & sliced tomato
Snack: 2 handfuls of cherries
Very Bad Indulgence: 1 pineapple empanada with 1/2 cup of milk (BAD BAD BAD! Sugar AND white pastry! But soooo yummy!)
Dinner: 1 grilled chicken breast, baked beans, squash & zucchini
Late-Night Snack: 1/2 cup garbanzo beans (seriously. I love the texture & taste of them so I just sat and popped them in my mouth as I watched tv and checked email and Facebook! Lol)

EXERCISE:
NONE. I got back from my grandma's house late and then I had some intestinal problems and didn't feel comfortable swimming. Probably the price I had to pay for having the milk & empanada!


DAY 9
FOOD:
Brunch: 2 fried eggs & 2 slices of bacon
Snack: Carrot sticks with hummus
Snack: 2 slices mozzarella
Dinner: Eggplant Bake & side salad

EXERCISE:
80 laps in the pool (no, that's not a typo -- 80! I did 40 and it felt like I had just gotten in the pool so I kept going!)
200 kicks (in the pool)


DAY 10
FOOD:
Breakfast: 5 bean salad (that was finally the last of it!)
Lunch: 1 1/2 chicken breast tenderloins with spicy zucchini
Indulgence: White Cherry Icee (while watching a movie. I know, I know, not sugar free! But it was a small one and I didn't even finish it all and it was better than eating a tub of popcorn like I wish I could've!)
Dinner: Taco Salad (leftover salad topped with chili I cooked). I went back for seconds and had a half-cup serving of brown rice with two spoonfuls of chili on top. I could've done without seconds, but it was sooo yummy!

EXERCISE:
60 laps in pool
Free weights (2 diff exercises; 5 sets of 12 each)
200 punches (with 2 lb weights)


DAY 11
FOOD:
Brunch: 2 scrambled eggs topped with cheese and salsa, one roma tomato
Snack: 1 handful of cherries & 1 handful of blueberries
Dinner: Taco Salad
Indulgence: 2 pieces of Ferrero Rondnoir (the dark chocolate version of Ferrero Rocher; I got a box for my birthday 2 weeks ago and I still have over half of it left, so I figured I deserved a little reward for not scarfing it all down!)

EXERCISE:
50 laps in the pool
200 kicks (in the pool)
200 leg lifts (in the pool)
250 punches (with 2 lb weights)


I've found some new recipes I want to try and also post. I'll try to do that over the next few days. How is everyone else doing, btw? Nikki & Christy, are y'all still doing phase 1? How's that going for you?

Although I went off track a couple of times I didn't beat myself up over it and there was so much grace to do better at the next meal time. I've also noticed that I'm controlling my portion sizes as well, which is really good for me! I only have one serving during most meals and they're usually even smaller portions than what I was used to eating. I hope I can keep it up!

Thursday 16 July 2009

What I had for dinner

I took Blest's old recipe and spruced it up a bit, and boy was is yummy! I gave it a boring name for now, but maybe later I'll come up with something better. Or does someone out there have any suggestions?

The ingredient measurements are not exact (I just eyeball most of the time) so you may need to adjust where appropriate.

EGGPLANT BAKE

1 large eggplant
1 cup sliced mushrooms
½ cup chopped onions
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
1-2 cups spaghetti or pizza sauce
1 ½ cups grated mozzarella
½-1 cup grated Parmesan
Italian herbs (I used marjoram, thyme, basil & oregano and crushed red pepper for a kick)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thinly coat bottom of 9x13 inch baking pan with olive oil. Slice eggplant into ½ inch rounds. Lay eggplant rounds in baking pan, season with salt, pepper & herbs and drizzle or brush with olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (Optional: I rubbed the rounds on both sides with garlic before laying them in the pan, then minced the garlic and mixed it with olive oil before brushing it onto the eggplant.) Bake eggplant for 15 minutes.

After eggplant is finished baking, remove from oven and top with about ½ cup of spaghetti sauce (enough to spread so it barely covers the eggplant but not necessarily pooling onto the bottom of the pan). Sprinkle with about ½ cup mozzarella. Add mushrooms, onions and bell pepper then top with rest of the spaghetti sauce (in total, I used half a can of sauce, but didn’t measure so not sure exactly how much I put). Top with remainder of mozzarella & Parmesan. Bake 20 minutes or until cheese is melted, slightly starting to brown, and the sauce is bubbling along the edges.

Served with salad, this can easily feed 4 very hungry people! It’s so yummy that my meat and potatoes dad loved it and actually had two servings!

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Day 6 & 7

DAY 6
FOOD:
Brunch: 5 bean salad (again, in a hurry and I need to finish it up!)
Snack: DanActive Yogurt drink with flaxseed, small Fuji apple
Snack: 2 sliced roma tomatoes drizzled w/ olive oil, red wine vinegar, and dried basil; 2 slices of mozzarella
Dinner: 1 Imam Baildi (stuffed eggplant; found the recipe through Kalyn's Kitchen. I only made 1 eggplant so my two halves were very full even though I cut everything! It was yummy!)
Indulgence: serving of sugar-free Rocky Road Ice Cream

EXERCISE:
NONE! Took a day off

DAY 7
FOOD:
Brunch: 1 stuffed eggplant; small serving of 5 bean salad (it's almost all gone!)
Snack: carrot sticks and hummus
Dinner: ??? ---> I'm heading out to stay the night at my grandma's so no idea what's on the menu for tonight

EXERCISE:
Free weights (3 different ones; 6 sets of 12 or 15, depending on the exercise plus 100 punches w/ the weights)
60 laps in the pool

Sunday 12 July 2009

Hey Everyone

I am loving the attention this blog has been getting recently. Welcome back Debbie, and a big hello to everyone else too. Sorry I haven't been around much. Life is busy, and I don't seem to be getting online as much as I used to. Which is probably just as well, as my lovely husband shouldn't have to spend his evenings talking to my back as I sit at the computer!

I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant now. I finally got around to registering with a new doctor (as I've moved, having got married. Yes, that was 3 months ago, but I'm slow about a lot of things. I'm also still writing wedding gift thank you letters, but that's another story).

Anyway, as part of registering with the new doctors surgery, I was weighed and measured by the nurse. I was last weighed when I had my booking in appointment with the midwife, which was in the first few weeks, I think around week 8 of my pregnancy. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I've put on 9kg in that time. Which is about 20lb. It's certainly more than I'd have liked, but I'm trying not to panic about it. I'm trying to eat healthily and not use the pregnancy as too much of an excuse to eat junk, but I am aware that what with cravings and other people's encouragement that I'm "eating for two" that I haven't done amazingly.

I'm trying to up the exercise, but that's also been a struggle. I have a week and a half left of school until we break up for the summer holidays, and I'm hoping to be more consistent with exercise once that happens.

Anyway, since it's almost Monday, this can count as a weigh-in post for this week too! Tell me your numbers please :)

Day 4 & 5

DAY 4:
FOOD:
Breakfast: 1 slice of Florentine Frittata (my own invention; I'll post the recipe and pics tomorrow); 2 slices of bacon (I made the bacon before I decided to make the frittata more Mediterranean than Southwestern)
Snack: Shark bites (was actually large chunks of kingfish, not shark!) with dijon mustard sauce, cucumbers, fresh salsa and a few blue corn chips (all this was actually appetizers at my friends' house for lunch and I started eating the chips before I remembered I couldn't. Oops!)
Lunch: Filet of Ling fish and serving of wild rice (it's a carb, but at least a SB friendly carb!)
Dinner: Grilled chicken salad and I was bad and had a few chips and queso

EXERCISE:
None since I was out all day! Yikes! And I ate a lot, too! Double yikes!

My friends had me over for lunch and I was pleasantly surprised to see that almost all the food was SB friendly. My friend has had gallbladder probs so has had to drastically change her diet, hence all the fish and fresh foods. Also we met up with other people for dinner and a movie at one of those places where you could sit and order dinner while watching the movie. It was a fancy one, too! Although I had blown the diet and was tempted to get one of the pizzas or burgers, I DIDN'T! I didn't even get the fried chicken tender salad like I was tempted to. Nor did I take any of the people up on their constant and generous offers for alcoholic beverages. So even though I went off plan a bit and ate a lot, it could've been worse!


DAY 5:
FOOD:
Breakfast: 5 bean salad (I was in a rush and still have A LOT of that stuff left!)
Lunch: One portabella pizzetta with salad (I can't tell you how YUMMY those portabella pizzettas are!)
Indulgence: Cherries and 2 spoons of Chocolate Cool Whip
Dinner: 3 grilled chicken tenderloins, spinach and spicy zucchini (I still can't believe I got it in my head to COOK spinach! I usually only eat it raw in salads. But while I looked at the chicken cooking I thought, "Hmm...I wonder what it would be like if I tossed a few hand fulls of spinach in there..." And it was delish!)

EXERCISE:
60 laps in the pool
I was running all over town from 11 to 5 so I was exhausted by the time I got home and had a bit of a stress headache that was on the verge of a migraine. But I managed to subdue it enough to get some swimming in tonight, especially since I didn't get any exercise yesterday. And I ate well all day, so I'm feeling good about my day!

Saturday 11 July 2009

The joy of being thin

So I do remember being thin. I was there about a year and a half ago. I was 160 lbs. I am on the taller side, so that was pretty good. I have a large build, so I will never be very light. I could have lost another 10-15 lbs, but I was feeling pretty good where I was. Healthy, energetic, feeling and looking comfortable. Then...I slowly but surely gained it all back. All 30 lbs. Its so frustrating. I look at pictures now and get soooo mad at how gross I look and feel. I can't put into words how upsetting it is to me to be feeling this way again. I don't know why food is so hard to give to God. Some sin is so easy to hand over, but food??? No way. I am really working on that. See even though I started SB again yesterday, I am still way sinning over food. I think way too much about it. Its on my mind. What can I have? What can't I have? What should I eat next? AAHHH! SO that is what I have to work on the most. Trusting God to help me with my over eating! Gosh, if I gave him all the time I give thinking about what I am going to eat, I would be one godly woman. Gotta work on that. Thanks for listening.
Yesterday I was good about what I ate and today we are going to some friends house for dinner. I plan to do very well there too! I have to. I really like how great I felt when I was under control.

Friday 10 July 2009

Day 3

I stuck with it today, although I do feel like I overate. Let's see . . .

FOOD:
Brunch: 5 Bean Salad (I was sick of eggs. On only the 3rd day. Not a good sign . . . ), a few raw celery sticks & baby carrots
Snack #1: Fuji Apple
Snack #2: DanActive Light Yogurt drink with some ground flaxseed I added in
Snack #3 while cooking dinner: 2 slices of mozzarella and 6 small slices of pepperoni (since I ate the pepperoni while cooking, I didn't add it to my portabella mushroom!)
Dinner: One Portabella Pizzetta with salad on the side. I did add a spoonful of the Italian sausage mixture I made for my parents and I'm proud to say I didn't even eat one piece of the spiral pasta I made to go with it! That was tough! Oh, to the portabella mixture I added some garlic powder (a about 3/4 teaspoon) and a few dashes of crushed red pepper. It was YUM-MO! But the mixture, IMO, does not make enough for the 12 mushrooms as it suggests. I figured I'd mix it all up and then freeze it to use later. Turns out I prob won't need to freeze it, just buy about four more mushrooms in the next week or so. And just the one serving of mushroom was very filling, especially since I had the salad to go with it.
Indulgence: serving of cherries & 2 spoonfuls of Chocolate Cool-Whip

EXERCISE:
250 leg lifts (not in the pool this time)
4 sets (of 15) free weight exercises (don't know what they're called)
5 min on the stair stepper (it nearly killed me but I only stopped twice! (do i get more sympathy if i tell you we keep the stair stepper outside (which is why it was squeaky) so i'm using it in 100 degree weather???))
70 laps in the pool

I never write down what I drink, but I mostly drink water with fresh lemon juice. I probably have one glass of tea or Splenda-sweetened coke a day. I haven't even been drinking much coffee these days! ::GASP::

I'll be out all day tomorrow. I'm going to my friend Becca's house for a late birthday lunch with her and her mom. They're grilling fish but I don't know what else to go along with it. Then later in the afternoon we're meeting some of Becca's friends for a movie and dinner. No idea where they'll choose to go for dinner and I hope I'm able to resist the movie theater popcorn!

Thursday 9 July 2009

Days 1 & 2

I think SB Phase 1 is always the hardest for me, so I'll (hopefully) be posting my daily stats these first two weeks. We'll see what happens after that. I'm just writing what I'm eating, not counting calories since I was born with a math block and I'm not mentally capable of it!


DAY 1
FOOD:
Brunch: 3 eggs Polish style (fried with a bit of sour cream added towards the end and topped with chives; my Polish friend Justyna introduced me to them and they're quite yummy!)
Snack: DanActive Light Strawberry yogurt drink
Dinner: bowl of my homemade Charro Beans; small serving of ground beef topped with a pinch of cheddar
Indulgence: One scoop of sugar-free chocolate ice cream topped with 2 spoons of chocolate Cool-Whip

EXERCISE: NONE, since I had a migraine all day!


DAY 2
FOOD:
Brunch: Kalyn's Feta Cheese & Avocado Mini-Frittata for Two It was yummy! Since I was making it for myself I actually used 3 eggs (since I woke up late and it served as both breakfast AND lunch) and half an avocado. I also didn't have spike seasoning so I threw a lot of random seasonings in.
Snack: Celery sticks & Hummus (a recipe from All-Recipes; I added a dash of cumin, a little less tahini, and no parsley since apparently weevils like dried parsley. Yuck!)
Indulgence: 6 cherries (yeah, I know -- no fruit on phase 1, but I'm not being extremely strict with that one)
Very late lunch/snack: 1 cup of 5 been salad (my invention; I can post the recipe if anyone is interested)
Dinner: Hamburger patty topped with a slice of mozzarella & grilled onions and mushrooms; sliced tomato & cucumbers on the side.

EXERCISE:
Roughly 5 min on squeaky stair stepper (I told myself 5 min to start since yesterday's migraine stayed with me 'til halfway through today. Turns out I'm so outta shape I couldn't even do 5 min straight! I had to stop every so often. Sad sad sad!)
Roughly 25 min swimming laps (I did 70 total. Don't be too impressed, it's one of those modern peanut shaped pools, not the huge Olympic-sized pool!)
200 leg lifts (I kinda cheated and did them in the pool)

Hello? Anyone out there?

Anyone who remembers me, at least???

My apologies for completely disappearing from the blogosphere, especially this site! Life just got busy and then I got lazy and wasn't even bothering with keeping track of my weight. Well, I'm hoping to change all that now!

A brief update of where I've been: I spent 6 months working/volunteering at The Nightshelter, a ministry of The King's Arms Church in Bedford, UK. It was something I had been hoping to do for years and was very happy to finally make it over! Unfortunately, when I tried to go back for my second 6 month stint I was turned away at the border. Unbeknownst to me the Brit's changed their entry clearance guidelines for charity workers, so I was not allowed into the country since I didn't have the proper visa and my previous visa had expired. I was devastated and didn't have the means to reapply and buy a new plane ticket, so I've been home and working on my next step. It's still up in the air, but hopefully things will come together soon!

So I've been wallowing at home, not doing much of anything for over two months now. And because money is beyond tight, I've used it as an excuse to eat an obscene amount of JUNK. Not a good combination. So yesterday I started phase 1 of South Beach. I'm just going slow and steady and setting small goals for myself.

I don't expect a dramatic weightloss since it's so very difficult for me to lose weight. I know some of it is physical/hormonal problems but with no insurance I'm not going to the doctor to get checked out anytime soon (and even if I did go I probably couldn't afford the meds nor really want to take them!). So I'm working on changing my lifestyle -- exercising regularly, making healthy food choices and taking whatever vitamins and supplements my body needs. I always tend to do one or two of those things but NEVER all three at the same time.

I need some accountablitiy to do this, so I plan to start blogging here again. I figure if I check in everyday and let y'all know what I eat and if I've exercised then that will give me the kick in the bum that I need! So, I hope that's ok with all of you!

Monday 6 July 2009

what's your number? (again)

Apparently we've had that title before. Anyway, it's Monday, weigh in!