What I eat

I write a lot about my exercise, but haven't mentioned food yet. I've had a lot of emails lately asking about my favorite foods to eat while losing weight. I decided to make a blog out of it in case anyone else is interested. I realize some of you might think this is the most boring thing ever, I'm sorry!

Breakfast:
Every morning I have the exact. same. breakfast. So far, this hasn't gotten old and I love it! I have 1/2 cup of quick whole grain oatmeal (yes, I realize there are better oatmeal choices out there, but I have about 3 minutes in the morning to eat) and 1 cup of Chobani greek yogurt (favorite flavors are apple cinnamon, mango, pineapple, peach and strawberry). For weeks I couldn't get past the consistency of greek yogurt (almost like sour cream) but now I'm pretty much addicted.





Lunch/Dinner:
I grouped these together because normally my lunches are leftover dinners. For the most part, I avoid as much canned food as possible. I buy a LOT of frozen veggies and chicken (my freezer is always packed full). One of my easy "go to" quick meals is a little homemade stir fry: rice, grilled chicken and veggies. It's filling and delicious! I satisfy cravings for certain foods by making a healthier version of them: spaghetti with whole grain pasta and light sauce, or pizza with turkey pepperoni, light sauce, cheese on a flat-out flatbread crust. I pretty much try to take any meal I want, make it healthy and control my portions. I do a lot of cooking on Sundays using the crockpot (chili, chicken noodle soup, beef stew) and will portion out my servings and then take them to work for lunch or freeze them.

Snacks:
My go to snacks are almonds, pistachios, string cheese, fruit, veggies with light dip, fiber one brownies/90-cal bars and my favorite thing ever: Dove dark chocolate mini's with almonds. BONUS: the uplifting messages I get from unwrapping them (this was one from last week):

Drinks:
Water, water and more water! I drink 75 ozs a day. The last time I had a soda was in October and I don't miss it at all. I don't recommend everyone give up other drinks and only drink water, but water is VERY important to losing weight. I know when summer gets here, I will have some unsweetend iced tea (mmmm). And I also indulge in the occasional alcoholic beverage, but it's rare.

Fast Food:
There are only 2 "fast" food restaurants I will eat at: Subway and Chipotle. I REFUSE to give up my Chipotle. I have had it once a week since starting to lose weight. I just make smarter choices: no tortilla, sour cream or cheese. The chicken bowl I normally get is 480 calories. Both Subway and Chipotle can pack on a lot of sodium so the days that I have it, I watch my sodium intake from the other foods I eat. Too much sodium immediately makes my weight jump 3-7 lbs for a few days... so annoying.

Overall, if I want something, I eat it. I just control how much and make sure it's (semi) healthy. I refuse to cut any food out of my life that I can't live without. There are still days where I don't feel satisfied, but they're fewer and fewer as I figure this out.

Plastic fork stabbing

The last thing I wanted to do after a long day at work today was go for my scheduled 3.5 mile run. However, I promised myself as long as I wasn't really sick or in pain, I was going to commit to every run. I did it! My average pace wasn't too bad either: 14:11. I thought that might have been my best, but then I looked back and saw a 13:44 time I had forgotten about. I walked a good chunk of today's run because my OTHER shin was sore. About halfway thru it was feeling better and I figured I had ran the pain out, but it's hurting a little now. Bring on the ice!

After running, I picked up Braylon from daycare and promised him since it was nice out (50 degrees today!) he could ride his new bike. We went about a mile around the neighborhood. I ran with him, but he made a lot of stops. He loves his new bike and shark helmet!

Today at work, I was standing by the microwave heating up my lunch with a plastic fork in my mouth... the fork somehow fell out of my mouth and I reached up to grab it and ended up stabbing it into my lip. It bled a lot and I now have 4 small holes in my lip. My coworkers that saw it laughed until they had tears on their face (after making sure I was ok). This is a perfect example of how klutzy I can be! I took a photo of my lip, but it I couldn't get a shot that didn't involve looking straight up my nose. So I'm not posting it. You're welcome.

I hate Girl Scout Cookie Season. I very much wish I could eat a whole sleeve of thin mints right now. Do you know what's worse than walking out of the grocery store and having a sweet, little girl ask you to buy cookies? Walking out of the grocery store and having THREE sweet, little girls ask you to buy cookies in unison. I felt like the meanest person ever when I said "no thanks" and kept walking! I can tell u FOR SURE that if someone offers me a thin mint, I will eat it. I just don't need a whole sleeve at my disposal.

80 lbs gone!

I'm sorry I haven't posted all week, but I definitely plan on posting more from now on. Life has been pretty busy. Working full time, being a single mom, keeping my house clean and training for my half marathon wears me out by the end of the night!

I was feeling pretty discouraged all week because the scale wasn't budging. I'm a little neurotic about weighing myself constantly... twice a day, sometimes more! My official weigh in is on Sunday afternoon, so my goal this week is to avoid the scale until next Sunday. Anyways, I was pretty surprised when I jumped on today and saw this number! Please don't look at my fat feet or bad pedicure:

Today I weighed in at 269 for a total loss of 80 lbs! I haven't seen this weight since the beginning of high school! I'm very pleased. Lately it seems like I lose a lot one week and a little the next. At least I'm moving in the right direction in the grand scheme of things! Now I have 20 lbs left until I hit my 100 lb goal! I was joking with a friend that I should have a party for it and serve only veggies. We could put "BYOV" on the invitation (Bring Your Own Veggies). haha

I've been running a bit slower lately (14:30 min/miles) but haven't missed a single workout or run in my training program. Today I had a little pain in my OTHER shin, so I slowed myself down, but ended up finishing my 4 miles in just under 1 hr. I'm very ok with this pace, but if I don't pick it up soon, I'm not going to meet my under 40 min goal for my 5K in 2 weeks. Speaking of this 5K, it's for St. Patrick's Day and ends at a pub. Amy and I went shopping for cute accessories to wear during the race: 

They were only 99 cents so I'm ok with losing them. We also bought cute knee socks and face art for our cheeks. I will definitely post pics after the race.

I did another mini shopping spree at goodwill. The shirts are in the laundry right now, but I was thinking it might be fun to have a blog fashion show of what I bought one day this week.

My runs this week are increasing (3.5 miles during the week and 5 miles on Sunday). Wish me luck! Have a great Monday!

A fun-filled weekend!

This weekend has been nonstop, but lots of fun! Yesterday I got an AMAZING massage, did 40 minutes on the elliptical and then spent the day shopping with some friends, Lindsay and Amy. We shopped for hours (but didn't buy anything)! Afterwards, we went to Bonefish Grill because I had a giftcard and wanted to cross Goal #15 off my list. I got the Mahi Mahi with mango salsa and 2 sides: garbanzo beans and seasoned veggies. I love how colorful my plate was:

After splitting a brownie with ice cream dinner, we went back to Amy's house and played euchre and I drank 3 glasses of wine. I don't drink a lot so I woke up this morning feeling... AWFUL! I had a 4 mile run scheduled at 9am with Lindsay and Amy. They've both done 1/2 marathons before and are a lot faster than me. I had about 3 tenths of a mile left when they were done, but they stayed and encouraged me to run that last bit faster. (And by encourage I mean actually push the button on the treadmill to make me go faster.) My pace was 14:38, which is my best ever on a treadmill!

I went clothes shopping a little this weekend too. Although I went to a lot of different stores, I simply cannot justify spending a lot of money on clothes when I don't intend to wear something for long. I consider this my "temporary size" so today I went to Goodwill and bought 6 new tops for $14. WooHoo!

I'm a little disappointed in this week's weigh in. I only lost 1 lb. I weighed myself yesterday (I'm obsessed with doing it everyday) and was actually down 2 lbs, so surely last night played a role in the scale this morning (forgot to mention the cheese, crackers and pretzals I ate while drinkng that wine). 
 
I'm doing a Biggest Loser Challenge on SparkPeople and this week we had to take our measurements (I've tracked them monthly since starting). I thought I'd share them here. This is the total number of inches I've lost since starting in Sep 2011:

Upper Arm: -3
Bust: -8.5 (goodbye boobs)
Waist: -11
Hips: -9.5
Thighs: -6

Braylon should be home any minute and I cannot wait to kiss his lil face off! I'm off tomorrow for President's Day so we get to spend the whole day together!

New personal best!

Today I ran 3 miles with a personal best pace of 13:44. I'm thrilled! Total time was 41:16 which brings me even closer to my goal of finishing a 5K in under 40 minutes. I know I have a loooong way to go, but these small victories really keep me going!

Thank you for everyone on your shin splint advice. I have been doing the stretches, toe taps and extra cross training and it seems to be helping. I really appreciate all the help!

I've been really nervous lately about continuing to lose weight while training for this half. It seems like everything I read is about how hard it is to lose and train at the same time. I really wanted to hit my 100 lbs lost mark in the next 2-3 months (25 lbs to go). I'm going to research it a little more and see what I can find. I feel like for someone my size it would be a little easier to lose than for someone of a normal weight, but what do I know?

Did you guys know I'm a magician? Yep, I made most of my hips disappear:

I realized I was wearing the same shirt (different pants) as one of my full body pics I had taken a month and half into losing weight. So I snapped another to compare. I'm 328 in the before pic and 274 in the after pic. So this is only a difference of 54 lbs, not the whole 75.

Braylon will be going to his Dad's this weekend and I have big shopping plans with my girls! I've spent the last 2 mornings really stressed out because most of my clothes hang off of me. The ones that fit, have been worn in the last week or so. I'm also going to go to the gym with my friends and get a massage. Should be a good weekend, even though I will miss my lil man like CRAZY!

First run of HM Training!

I LOVE RUNNING...once I'm done. I spent the entire 8 hrs at work dreading today's run. I hadn't ran in over a week and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish. To make matters worse, when I packed my gym bag this morning, I forgot my ear warmers and an appropriate running coat so I was forced to run at the gym... on a treadmill... which I loathe. I've always heard it's easier to run on a treadmill, but my times are never as good as they are outside. I did 3 miles and my average pace was 15:07 (I was down to 13:49). Regardless, I did my 3 miles and feel great now! I know it'll take some time to get my pace back to where it was and I'm ok with that. Tomorrow is 2 miles of cross training and I think I'm going to choose cross training just to be on the safe side for my shins. I don't generally do well running 2 days in a row yet.

Doesn't this 5K look like so much fun? http://thecolorrun.com/  I'm really all about fun runs like this. Has anyone heard of it or done it? I'd like to take a weekend out of town and do one this summer.

I got a new platform bed and spent FOUR hours putting it together last night. I did my 30-day shred DVD, but I'm pretty sure I burnt more calories putting the bed together. There were so many screws that were really hard to get into the wood. I was huffing and puffing and today my hands are so sore--ha ha!

And finally... look what my lil Valentine gave me today! I love that he is writing letters and I think the "N" is my favorite part about this:

Goal #17: Be the weight my driver's license says I am

This week I lost 5 lbs and I'm not really sure how. I rested a lot because of shin splints and then when I started to feel better, Braylon came down with strep throat. He's better and I haven't gotten it yet either. *fingers crossed*

I'm VERY proud to say that I accomplished one of my 30 goals today. I weigh less than my driver's license says I weigh! A nice, BIG lie off my shoulders! WooHoo! Here's the proof... sorry about the black outs...

I'd like to never show this photo to anyone ever, but I can see a huge difference. It was taken on Sep 1, 2011, somewhere around 349 lbs. I almost want to "lose" my license so I can get a new photo. Ugh.

Also, today I am officially down 75 lbs! I still have a long way to go, but only 25 left on my 100 lb goal! I have been doing Jillian Michael's circuit training DVDs while resting my shins and love them! I normally do her Last Chance Workout DVD on my off days from running and I think I can contribute a significant amount of weight loss to circuit training.

I got a little bored being inside with a sick lil boy for 3 days so I decided to do some early spring cleaning. I cleaned and organized all closets, cabinets, shoes, toys and clothes. I took 6 garbage bags full of clothes and toys (3 of those were clothes that are now too big for me) to Goodwill. I hate clutter and feel so much better about everything being organized.

Tomorrow I am officially starting my half marathon training--today is 12 weeks until race day. I added a link of my training program that I plan to cross off as I go.

Pause!

I love, love, love my new Garmin! I had a great couple of runs with it the last few days. I did some sprints to help work on my speed and was running at an 8:14 minute pace, according to the Garmin. However, that didn't turn out so well. I now have shin splints. I've had them before and they don't seem too bad this time. I'm hoping a couple days without a high impact workout will fix this (bring on the elliptical and bike). They're getting plenty of ice and TLC. I need to stick to running at a more comfortable pace for me. My "official" half marathon training doesn't start until next Monday (that will be 12 weeks out from race day) so I should be ready to run by then.

I'm going to take a couple days off from my 30-day shred until the shins are better. Funny story: The other night I was doing the DVD and at the end the bicycle crunches were causing my legs to burn. I put them down for a second and Braylon yelled "Mommy don't give up! Pick up your legs!" I didn't know I had a live-in personal trainer.

Today I started working on goal #28: Take lunch to work for 1 month without buying it. My coworkers are upset that I started this during FebruANY because we like Subway and I'm the one who goes on lunch runs most of the time. I can do without the sodium, though. Tonight I made a huge batch of white bean chicken chili and froze half of it for quick lunches. I plan on doing this a few more times this week.

Can't wait to resume running. If anyone has some shin splint experience and tips, I'd be happy to hear them. :)

Birthday Party

Today I had Braylon's 4th Birthday party at his favorite place in the whole world: EnterTRAINment Junction (a.k.a. the "train place"). He's very into trains and asked if he could live there. He had a blast and I cannot believe my baby is 4! 

 All the kids got conductor hats and train rides. Don't they look cute?

 
I allowed myself to have 1 slice of pizza and 1 (delicious) piece of cake at the party. I refuse to do anything I cannot stick to forever. If I want something really bad, I try to wait and see if the craving goes away before allowing myself to have it. This normally works because most of my cravings are for sweets after a lunch or dinner. A lot of the time it just seems like I need to give my brain time to realize my body is actually satisfied with the meal. However, if this doesn't work, I reason with myself and have a smaller portion than what I want. A few weeks ago, one of my friends saw me stressing about food and said "food is fuel." Sounds so simple right? That phrase has helped me avoid so many bad choices! It's not unusual for me to feel at war with my brain, but we're working this out.

I ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305 the other day. and will be taking on it's first run tomorrow! I'm finding half marathon training very interesting. I have gone from running 6 miles a week to 13 miles a week! The last few runs have been all intervals runs so that I can improve my speed and it's working. Last month my pace was 15:20/mile and now it's down to 13:49/mile.

I had a nice little surprise on the scale... I lost 3 lbs this week, making my total weight loss amount 70 lbs! I cannot believe I have just 30 lbs left until I meet my big 100 lb goal!!

My very first blog!

I'm so excited to start this blog and share my experiences I go through as I shrink! I was hesitant about starting a blog and unsure if anyone would read it. Then stumbled upon SlimKatie's blog  (if you haven't read it, you should--she's amazing!) and she inspired me so much that I decided to email her my story. She asked me to write a guest post and you can read that here. The overwhelming response and support I received from her readers inspired me so much that I decided to start my own blog.

4 months ago, I started a list of 100 things I'd like to accomplish before I turned 30. I re-evaluated it the last few days and had only checked 2 items off the list. So I thought it would be appropriate to shorten it to 30 goals and accomplish them in the next 7 months. Some of the goals are silly and some are challenging. Either way, it should be fun and I will be sure to blog about the interesting experiences I will have crossing things off my list.

Right now I am training for a half marathon on May 6. I don't have a time goal, I just want to finish within the 16:00 min/mile pace they have set. I am slow, but I am determined! Three of my best friends are running it with me.

Tonight I'm starting the Jilian Michael's 30-day shred. Apparently just doing the half marathon training doesn't make me crazy enough. Hopefully I can stick to this every night on top of running. Has anyone completed the 30-day shred before?