Sneak Peek News

So, every week, I take a "sneak peek" at my weight to see if I am on track and whether or not I need to up the pace any before the official weigh in on Saturday mornings. I weighed 162.8 pounds this morning! That is a total of 12.6 pounds. Over 10!! Now, this is not officially my weight in the contest as we weigh in on Saturdays but I had to share it somewhere!! Woohoo!!

So, I am a bit behind on posting my daily food journals. They are below and they are good. So far, at the end of week 7 I have lost 9.4 pounds! I plan to be over 10 pounds lost by the end of week 8!

I did not gain or lose anything at the end of week 7. Friday and Saturday were my worst days. I went over more than 1000 calories both those days. Probably my worst 2 days since I started this journey. I did alot of walking at the outlet mall Saturday morning, though. Does that count as exercise? :) Friday night was girls' night out. Sometimes, you just need to blow off some steam! I think the important thing is that I let that be my only time. I worked out 4 out of 7 days and really kept up with my water drinking.



Week 6 I lost 3 pounds!! I started trying to keep track of how many calories remained at the end of the day vs. how many I went over. I will not always do that and be that persnickety but I have wondered why I am not staying consistent on how much I lose and thought it might be helpful to see how I was doing, in that respect. Having my Polar Fitness watch, is really helping me see what exercises really work for me and which ones only do minimal work.


Week 5 taught me on Monday to have a snack BEFORE I go to a girlfriend's house if I know she will have snacks. The humongous blueberry muffin, and biscotti were calling me when my tummy was growling for a morning snack. It set me over for the day! I also noticed that that one bad decision led to a couple more that day. YUCK! My Wednesday night was a splurge, too. You will notice in week 6 and 7, I have totally moved on from Tacos to a chicken salad that I mix hot sauce and low fat ranch together over and it is quite good. I have also traded my Shiner beer (around 146 calories) in for a the Michelob Ultra Lime Cactus (at 95 calories) and drink fewer of them than I used to. 3 or 4 beers is now down to usually 1 and sometimes 2. I have had to start asking myself if it is really worth it. What is my committment? Once I ask myself that, it is easier to say no and pick a better alternative.


Keeping this journal, is keeping me accountable. I also keep it electronically on www.livestrong.com . It has been incredibly beneficial for me in staying on track. Not sure I will need to do it forever this way, but for now, it is great!

Food...not the enemy!

Below is an update of a few recipes I have tried in the last few days. Experimenting with old recipes and subbing out different ingredients to lower sugar, fat, and calorie counts is a big thing for our family right now. Portion control is another. This has been fun.

This is my first meal on the portion plates we just bought from http://www.slimware.com/ . They are very helpful in helping you to remember how big each portion of your meal should be. We ate Roasted Chicken, plain mashed sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a green salad with a pesto balsamic vinaigrette. All for 327 calories! Awesome.

This was a whole wheat pizza I made. The crust is quite good. The toppings included grilled chicken, artichokes, black olives, roasted red peppers, red onion, yellow bell pepper, mozzarella cheese. The sauce was Wishbone Fat Free Italian dressing! Each slice was around 250 calories.

This was my first try at a healthy version of pizza. Pizza is a big staple on Friday nights at our house and instead of just giving it up I really want to try out a few healthier options.

Making things new ways is teaching me alot about how good "healthy" can be. It is turning out to be quite a bit of fun experimenting with new foods and ingredients. No Fear!!

Week 4 was a great success! I lost 2.6 pounds for a total loss of 6.6 pounds! Woohoo! I treated myself to a new workout outfit (not food)...where do long legged girls buy yoga pants or any other pants to work out in for that matter?

This was an amazing tossed Turkey Pepperoni salad I made one day for lunch. It came out to 373 calories. It was very good and satisfying. I mixed greens, artichokes, black olives, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, carrots, and the pepperoni. I chose a Light Ranch that was only 80 calories for 2 tablespoons. I really like all of my salad to have dressing so I made it in a tupperware bowl, placed the lid on and shook the veggies to be sure they were all coated with the dressing!

This was a wonderful fish dinner I made for only 339 calories. Tilapia marinated with garlic, lime, and jalapeno. Baked and topped with fresh tomatoes, cilantro, and bell pepper. Paired with asparagus and brown rice.

Overall, I am loving trying new things and after a few weeks, I do not really worry about not eating burgers and pizza every week. Not that I never will again, it is just that they are not the main source of my food. I am loving the results I see and realize that exercise is a necessity to making things happen in my weight loss. After a while, that's not even a hard part anymore. I look forward to doing it and being sore the next day. I have more energy, and generally just feel better. I know it is due to cutting out things in my life and doing good things for my body!

Keep moving forward...or down!

I wanted these at the bottom of this blog post but cannot figure out how to make it load them there or move them down once they are put here! So, below my food is the actual beginning of this post.

This is a spinach salad I had with bacon, strawberries and carrots. I chose the Kraft Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing which is only 35 calories for 2 tbsp.!! It was a great salad. Very tasty.


This is a Chicken Tortilla Chili from Pampered Chef I made that is only 220 calories a serving! I added a light cheese and tortilla strips for a total count of 365 calories. That was my whole meal. Because I snack healthy between meals this really did fill me up along with the liter of water I drank. The water, as you can see from my journal has become a staple in my diet! A great way to feel awesome!

So, good news!! I lost 0.8 pounds last week for a total of 3.8 pounds!! I was very excited to just go down and not up. It is girly time right now so I expected a small loss or no loss at all. I am glad the trend is consistent, at least. Below, are my journal entries for week 3. Monday, I was travelling and tried to be nice and let the kids have dessert but ended up sharing with them. Bleh! Sunday, I did go to a superbowl party and ate a bit much but did not gorge myself, like I used to do. I kept it simple, other than my drink choices. The Bud Lime was good, though. AND less calories than Shiner! Anywho, it was a pretty good week, all in all. I think, for the most part, my biggest strugglw is getting everyone else in the competition to want it as much as I do. To realize what you have to literally give up and let go of that ruins an eating healthy habit. It is hard feeling like the only truly serious one.

My next challenge comes with working out at home with my children around. I find it is hard to really focus, at times, because they want to be doing things in that short 45 minutes I need to really work out. We also are having Wii trouble. I think it is about to poop out on me. That will be bad! That is 99% of my workout fun. AND Rush will do that with me and dance around and have fun and keep me from having to be sure he and Rory are not doing anything they shouldn't be. This is VERY frustrating for me. I need to develop patience and come to grips with the reality of it, though. Something is better than nothing and I am doing something, in the end, I suppose.

In an effort to CHANGE how we eat, I am trying recipe after recipe of new things. Substituting unhealthy for healthy. These are the sugar free chocolate chip cookies I made tonight. They are actually the same amount of calories but they are half the fat and cholesterol as I used the crisco flavored butter. I input the recipe on my calorie tracker site and it is really half the fat. I am going to try whole wheat flour next time. These were actually still pretty tasty. They did not flatten out like regular ones but instead stayed in balls but they did cook all the way through! These are only 90 calories a piece!

This is my bunless cheeseburger I had tonight for only 308 calories. It was quite good and I really did actually enjoy it. There is a patty with pepper jack cheese under that! Topped with shredded lettuce, tomato slices, pickles, red bell pepper slices and drizzled with mustard! Yum!

Food is a passion of mine so, I promise, not to share anything on here that does not actually satisfy me in some way. Only the "good" stuff. ;)

In the interest of full disclosure, AND accountability I uploaded my first 2 weeks of food diary entries to my blog page. Feel free to read thru and see how I, too, can be quite weak. The first week was, obviously, the hardest. Week 2 was good until I went home on the weekend and those comfort foods began to call. My abbreviations are not hard. L = liters (as in 3L is 3 liters of H2O that day, LC = lean cuisine, "a" with a line on top is before, "s" with a line on top is without, and "c" with a line on top is with. The numbers in the margins are calories consumed. You will also note my words of encouragement on some days to not let it get me down and quit. This, my husband, and the fabulous women I am competing with are what motivate me.

Week 2 we decided to have a challenge and it was to drink more water. No one really drinks alot of calorie laden things so we decided it was best to cut out other things by drinking more water. I keep this tight by having water with my meals now and really gulping it down to help fill my tummy. I actually do stay fuller between meals and I FEEL better, amazingly enough!

I even highlighted the days I went over my calorie limit. I go by the calorie limit laid out for my height and weight on www.livestrong.com in order to safely lose 2 pounds / week.

Ok, that is it for journal entries. I will upload this week when it is over. I will also post my weigh in at that time!! Wish me luck!