Love your tape measurer

So I’m now really happy I took those measurements on the 5th. A relatively short time later and I’m down inches all over! Two and a half inches here, an inch and a half there… Yes! The scale shows a creep in the right direction, but the measurements tell the tale. Point in fact, I now fit comfortably in yet another pair of pants that were un-buttonable last month! This is really exciting.

I have finally gotten back to the enjoyment level with the exercise, enough so that last Sunday I woke up and instead of wanting to make a big breakfast I wanted to use the cool, quiet morning to do some pilates. This was after a Saturday that featured a return to DDR and the previously hated Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD.

I can’t wait to know what I am feeling like and fitting into a month from now. Currently I’m feeling great – it’s nice to actually enjoy getting dressed in the morning, and to want to make an effort to look nice. I also feel stronger and like I’m sleeping sounder. My appetite is better and I get full from sane portions. In fact, I’m doubly glad I’m logging food because I’ve caught myself a couple times coming in with too few calories and made sure to add in another healthy snack. Don’t want to tank my metabolism by under eating!

Also, I am in love with my new food scale! No more guesstimating for some things. I actually wound up eating more pork tenderloin as a result of finding the piece I liked was only 4 ounces, and not the 6 I was thinking it might be. Whee!

Feeling Good

Yesterday was a weigh in day at the gym and I was happy to find myself down a bit more! Before you shake your head, I’m not putting too much emphasis on the scale, especially since my goal isn’t just to reach some arbitrary number an then coast. I’m going for a practical and “happy” weight range, an improved endurance level, a pleasantly toned body and an overall healthier lifestyle. As we all know, fat weighs less than muscle, so those scales can be misleading. To make it easier to keep track of my progress, I did the dreaded body measurements about a week ago, so that in a month I can re-measure and see where I lost inches.

In the land of the gym, we discovered that the sound system has an aux hook up and that the manager has cables he is happy to share, which means there has been a big improvement, music-wise as we can just hook up our iPods. There is a stack of overplayed and sometimes downright awful CDs that hang out in the gym, which usually results in the management having audio from one of the many sports shows that are on the TVs playing over the system. Have you ever tried to have a really intense, awesome, sweaty workout to the low drone of sports TV? It sucks! Give me some music with a good beat and I’m going to work twice as hard on the elliptical, I’ll tell ‘ya. Anyone have good workout music suggestions?

Menu

• Tandoori Chicken w/Dehli Saag and Brown Jasmine Rice
• Tuna Fish Sammichs w/Salads
• Grilled Swordfish w/Roasted Asparagus & Basmati Wild Rice Medley
• Buffalo Chili w/homemade Cornbread
• Breakfast for Dinner

Dear diary, I love the gym again.

Today I got a different sort of comment when stopping by to grab an unsweetened iced tea after my workout — instead of being asked if I were “expecting” I was told, “no offense, but you’re looking in shape!” Erm, I’m not really sure how that was supposed to offend me… unless he was implying (and obviously was based on the previous question about a baby bump) that I had let things go in the way of fitness *cough* Whatever! I am getting back in shape, so I’ll take it!

The gym has been an absolute delight. We’ve been doing our usual mix of free weights routines, with abs during our “rest” between sets, but we’ve now vowed to end each session with a big cardio finish in the form of the elliptical machine. I find myself surprised at my improving endurance and the sheer amount of sweat I’m producing. Back when I was playing DDR on the regular it took awhile, even in the summer, before there was any sweat. The elliptical and arc machines are devistating in the best possible way, though! I used to cringe at the thought of more than ten minutes on one of those things, but we’re now ending each session with 20 minutes of awesome sweat producing action and my body is already thanking me for it. There is no such thing as taking it easy on there, either – we alternate our resistance and make sure to keep the pace up, up, up!

Meanwhile, I’m still dedicated to logging my food intake and it is a life saver. My appetite / stomach capacity are back to where they were before I began being a bit gluttonous and lazy, lol. It’s crazy how quickly your stomach reverts when you’re only allowing yourself proper portions and spacing your food out correctly. It’s nice being hungry (rather than “starving”) before a meal and then feeling comfortably full (rather than stuffed) after one. I dig it!

Menu

• Super lean homemade hamburgers w/Salads
• Grilled chicken w/homemade BBQ sauce, roasted asparagus and homemade whole wheat poppy seed rolls
• Vegetarian Paneer & Spicy Mixed Greens w/Samosa mashed potato pancakes
• Cajun Catfish w/homemade cornbread and green beans

An Overdue Menu

The entire household has been logging daily food intake, lately, which makes it even easier to behave at dinner time! Lose It should really have a non-app version, because it works much nicer than some of the sites I’ve used in the past. Once you’ve entered most of your “custom” foods, or put some recipes in there, logging is as easy as a few swipes of the finger. Even better, I have regular exercise to log into the contraption as well! Return to the Gym, summer style. I still lack the motivation to make myself work out on the weekend, but maybe this coming weekend I can get a pilates session in. I find myself missing our weekly pilates class. I at least have managed multiple walks on the weekends. *cough* That sort of counts.

Meanwhile, A Menu:

• Punjabi Chhole w/Steamed Cauliflower
• Breakfast for Dinner (the properly portioned version)
• Grilled Salmon w/ Wild Rice and Roasted Asparagus
• Peanuty Tofu w/Israeli Cous Cous and Zucchini

Menu

• Kielbasa, kraut, and fingerling potatoes
• Savoy cabbage soup and steak
• Chicken with artichoke hearts, capers, and angel hair, rocket salad
• Mushroom pork chop rice bake with salad
• Roasted chicken with fennel, curried spinach salad, couscous

Menu

After trying so many new recipes lately I found myself a bit burned out on menu planning this week. Since we still need meals, I asked my husband to make the selections this week. I chimed in a bit, but for the most part this menu is his:

• Pork roast with root veggies and new potatoes
• Kielbasa, sauerkraut, and fingerling potatoes
• Savoy cabbage soup and steak
• Sloppy Joe’s, sweet potato fries, and a salad
• Baked nestled eggs and pork roll

Tracking & Rocking

Lose It continues to be highly entertaining and educating. I like being able to easily reuse custom foods, build recipes, and review the week to see how I’m progressing / behaving. I’ve been making better choices about what I’m eating and the portions of said food, for sure. I’m sort of jealous of my mom’s food scale at this point, as it tends to help with accurate portion control, so I might have to use “health” as an excuse to buy one.

Daily plate / Livestrong can be sluggish and temperamental lately, and I’m forever left wondering if foods / exercises are accurate. Jenn and I investigated earlier in the week and found all sorts if dubious items available to log as exercise. I’m pretty sure that if you have to track calories burned putting on makeup, you’re in trouble. Not just that, but some of the calories they claim are burned are really, really generous. I’m pretty sure 20 minutes of moderate use of an elliptical machine doesn’t burn 500+ calories. Sort of unbelievable. Still, just the act of trying to keep track of what you’re eating in a day can be highly useful, even if the calories might be a bit off. It still results in one thinking about the nutritional information for what they consume.

Menu

• Broiled teriyaki salmon w. Basmati rice medley & steamed broccoli
• Lite Keilbasa & saurkraut sandwiches
• Punjabi Chickpeas with steamed cauliflower
• Veggie burgers with marinated bean salad

Suddenly Summer Menu

Wowza! It went from early spring to 90 degrees in seconds flat. I wasn’t prepared. I can’t justify AC in April, so we’ve just made do. Thank goddess for fans! Here’s our menu for the week:

• stuffed peppers
• chicken asparagus rice bake
• pork chops, israeli couscous, and watercress salad
• steak, roasted mushrooms, and potatoes
• ham steak, dirty broccoli, and egg noodles

Walking

I didn’t make it to the gym – or my last Pilates class until September *cry – at all this week. I had Monday off, spent the next two days dealing with car issues, and then neglected to wash/bring to work my gym clothes. But, I did a lot of walking. Last Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I made walks to pick up lunch and dinner, walks to the drug store, walks just for fun. My husband joined me on a number of these as well.  Walking from my front door to the grocery store is about a mile round trip. From home to the drug store or post office is about 3/4 of a mile. Not an insane distance either way, but nice nonetheless. We’ve been taking 30-45 minute walks a few nights a week as well, but today we spent 2 hours walking. I definitely got some sun!

Lose It = Win

So Lose It is already proving quite useful. After one day of logging what I eat I’m realizing how high my caloric intake has to have been over the past couple months. I’m already reevaluating everything I eat, weighing the pros / cons of using the calories for this or that. I dedicated about eight minutes of the morning entering custom foods into the app in anticipation of using them. This morning I found out that I’d be better off eating an egg cooked in spray olive oil on a piece of toast than eating my 2 banana waffles. I wound up with less calories, less fat, more fiber and more protein, all while getting to eat something definitely more appealing than a toasted frozen waffle. Obviously I can’t do that every morning or my cholesterol would be an issue, but it was still enlightening.

Lunch has also benefited from the logging. I made enough tuna salad this morning for today AND tomorrow’s lunch and realized that I can put 1/2 a serving of Vegenaise in there and not have it drastically impact the fat / calories, but dramatically enhance the taste. Even cooler, I am willing to bet today and tomorrow’s lunch combined cost less $$ that buying one sandwich at work. I don’t even want to contemplate the difference calorie wise between a work tuna sandwich and a home one. *shudders*

You can’t convince yourself that sneaking a cookie here and drinking “just one” soda there doesn’t add up when you witness the dramatic decrease in the calories available for the rest of your day. Sneaking snacks in the afternoon? Uh uh, I want to save those for dinner. I’ll snack on this apple, thanks.

Meanwhile, today I was able to make it to the gym for 25 minutes of elliptical action. Getting to log it was fun! Last night was successful pushups and squats. Despite my thighs being all achey from earlier in the week, I still managed to do 40 squats on my final set. Score! Tonight, crunches~!