Don't let your troubles weigh you down!

 

Short and sweet tonight, THIS is what I need to put on repeat in my head over and over at the moment! John and I did AWESOME with our "diet" last week when all the food was prepped. WELL life got busy and let's just say it's been anything BUT healthy in the past few days. I also had my appointment with the Rheumatologist who thinks I most definitely have an autoimmune inflammatory disease, not yet showing up on testing, but very much positive clinically. I'm being started on Plaquenil, which is actually an old anti-malaria drug..this is in addition to the million other pills/supplements/vitamins I take on a daily basis. It's taken twice a day, which if you add up all my other pills I THINK takes me to a total of 15 pills per day. I'm really good at taking a lot at once now LOL..I can swallow a big old handful, including a multivitamin and fish oil. (not sure if that's something to be really proud of :-0 ) Anyways, I've been really down the last few days about all this, being 33 years old and on more pills than most of my 80 something year old patients! I need to get over it and move on with things. I'm bringing myself down which in turn is making me hit my old ways and turn to food...JUNK food to be exact. We all have problems, I'm sure many of you reading this have just as much crap in your life, if not more. Everyone's problems are REAL to them and I need to keep that in mind and knock off the pity party. It's time to move on...drop the weight for REAL and of my troubles...it's just not worth it!

 

Don't let worry weigh you down. It's amazing what stress can do to someone's body. It effects us not just emotionally but physically as well, in very real ways. We need to learn to focus on the here and now. What's in the past is the past...and the future hasn't happened yet...so why worry about it!

Focus on the now!  :-) 



Change is the only constant!

I always like to try and get a blog post up when I'm at my parents house to keep up with things. As I've said many times before I like to look back at these and see what I was doing/thinking/feeling. It still amazes me reading some of my earlier posts to see how far I've come. I feel like 2013 is going to be a great year! So far, so good! I was able to get off about 13 pounds that I gained after surgery and during the holidays AND THEN SOME! yaaay! As I was getting ready to go to my parents house for Easter dinner today, I realized that I'm very happy that yard sale season is upon us. A lot of my jeans are now too BIG for me.

Tomorrow starts another exciting plan. Even more exciting, is that John actually said he's on board and wants to do it with me. He's willing to give me "control" of his diet and exercise plan for at least a few weeks. I took a few hours this weekend to come up with my plan of action. Making a meal plan gets even more complicated with John due to his Type I diabetes (the kind you're born with and are put on insulin immediately when diagnosed). He was diagnosed at age 10. I have us eating the same thing for breakfast/lunch and snacks each day and then our dinners. I meal prepped for about 9 hours...9...HOURS yesterday!! I'm really hoping that I find a few things along the way to help me make that go a little smoother. I had to figure out all the carbs for each meal so John knows exactly how much insulin to take. If I was making something that was thrown together (like tuna salad made with Greek yogurt which is our lunches over a salad) I had to enter each item and make a recipe on Myfitnesspal in order to get a correct carb count. I feel exhausted, yet accomplished and happy knowing that everything is pretty much a go for the whole week. With John's new job it makes things a lot easier too. If he's working late, supper's already done and he can eat separate when he gets home.

Our fitness plan involves a lot of HIIT (high intensity interval training) about 10 minutes of HIIT, then a 10 minute warm down, followed by weight training. HIIT and weights are done 4 times a week, a shorter run once a week and long runs once a week, with one day rest. We'll see how it goes! Trying to do a plan that is feasible to do without a complete set of weights. Still in search of a weight bench with free weights. For now training will be done with the complete gym, dumbbells, a bun/thigh isolator and sandbags. Where there's a will there's a way.

Spartan is only 4 months away! It will be here before we know it. VERY excited to be doing the race with John. I can't wait to see how this plan transforms us. We did all of our "before" measurements/weights and will be taking pictures. I always say that doing this keeps you going, keeps you accountable and motivated.

I'm hoping to continue in the right direction and completely transform my body, more so than it already has! (and John too) haha.

Recipes and new happenings.

I hate not having a pc handy to me anymore. I really miss writing these blog posts. I share them, but look at  them like a journal to see my progress, my highs, and my lows. The end of 2012 was really rough. After my shoulder surgery I lost a little motivation. I got "cocky" and started eating what I wanted thinking that I wasn't going to gain any weight back. The holidays came and went and after many cookies I found myself back up to 182 lbs again. I had gained back about 13 lbs from my lowest weight. I hate to focus on weight so much when there is SO much more to think about than weight, but I'm a woman...it's what we do. That "little" number on the scale seems to define us somedays. I try not to stress over it too much, but at the same time, you have to keep some account or you'll end up in the situation like I did and gain a lot back. When it comes back on slowly you don't think about it too much until you realize you're struggling to get a pair of pants on that fit very nicely only a few weeks ago! I knew it was time to do something about it. My shoulder is still giving me some trouble, but time for the "no excuses" approach. I downloaded myfitnesspal on my phone and decided to give it a try. I've really focused on eating "clean" or mostly clean in the past, lots of whole foods and the carbs I eat are all complex. I never really focused on calories. It put me on a 1200 calorie diet. TWELVE HUNDRED CALORIES!! What the heck am I going to live on lettuce? I flipped out a little when it gave me this number, but decided that maybe that's what I needed to do. I've plateaued with my weight for about a year, staying right around losing about 60 pounds. I know that I have much more muscle mass than in the past, due to the fact that I'm wearing clothing in a size I wore previously at about 15 lbs lighter than what I am now! (I find THAT extremely cool....again...don't focus so much on the number on the scale!) The diet really has NOT BEEN BAD! I have 300 calories for each meal and then 300 calories for snacks. If I exercise, it takes into acccount the calories I burn and it all gets added back into my allowance for the day. Some days I find myself training to eat, but that's ok if it gets my butt in gear! I'm now down about 10 lbs since starting a few weeks ago and almost back to my lowest recent weight. I'm PRAYING that I can keep losing and don't plateau again! You HAVE to keep track of inches when you are losing weight as well, and I am also doing that again. I've had to get a LITTLE creative with my meals and have really learned a lot about calories/fat/protein/carbs. I've done lots and lots of research in the past with nutrition, and also work in a doctor's office where I'm constantly talking nutrition to patients. I LOVE it! It fascinates me. There is SO much to learn about how your body uses food for fuel and what each little component does for you....or doesn't do for you! I also have a huge passion and love for cooking and took some time this weekend to prep some chili's to have on hand. I'm usually a "dumper" when I cook, a little of this, a little of that, not measuring anything as I go. I have found now that I need to keep track of every....little....thing....I eat, I HAD to measure everything out as I went and wrote it down. I can then load it into myfitnesspal in "create a recipe" and it calculates everything out for you! How freaking cool is that?!! I have 3 original recipes that I came up with that I'll share on here for you to try. They are all around 300 calories each and VERY filling at 1 cup serving sizes. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that food is fuel. You really don't need it for any other reason. Not to make you feel better, not for something to do when you're bored, not because you're having a get together with friends. It is to sustain us...nothing less, nothing more. The healthier the food, the better the fuel.



Some people "diet" thinking that the less they eat, the better and end up starving themselves. WRONG thing to do. Without enough calories your body goes into starvation mode and ends up holding onto fat which is counterproductive for weight loss. You NEED food, it's all about choosing the right ones! I hope these recipes are helpful and that some of you might try them. They are filled with beans for fiber which is very filling and 2 of them have chicken in them, a lean protein to also help you stay full longer. 

 

Here they are.

Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

1 medium sized sweet potato cut into inch size chunks

1 TBSP EVOO

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp chili powder

Coat potatoes and bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until soft, then set to side.

1 TBSP EVOO

1 cup green onion chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed by hand then chopped

1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

1- 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

1-15.25 oz can of black beans

½ cup diced tomatoes

¼ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp oregano

¼ tsp crushed bay leaves

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp chili powder

¼ tsp curry powder

¼ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

 

Saute onion and garlic in evoo. Add remaining ingredients and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add sweet potatoes.

 

Makes about 4-5 servings

Serving size 1 Cup- Calories- 287

Total fat 7.9gm

Total carbs- 44.5gm Dietary fiber-12.7gm

Protein 10.8 gm

White Chicken Chili

1 TBSP EVOO

1 cup chopped white onion

6 garlic cloves crushed

1 Swanson flavor boost packet in chicken flavor mixed with 1 cup water

2 cans northern beans (1 can gets pureed with water/flavor packet)

1 can pinto beans

½ tsp parsley

½ tsp oregano

¾ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp sea salt

1 tsp chopped jalapeño pepper

1 tsp chicken boullian

3 cups water

4 cups shredded chicken

Saute garlic and onion in evoo. Mix flavor packet with water. In a blender blend 1 can of the Northern beans with flavor packet/water. Add to pot. Mix in other ingredients and let simmer for about 10 minutes.     ** for more "kick" add more jalapeno pepper**

Makes about 9 servings

Serving size 1 cup- 368 calories

Total fat- 6.1gm

Total carbs-34.4gm  Dietary fiber-7.7gm

Protein-35.6gm

 

annnnnnd...my favorite, because it has "bacon" in it!!

3 Bean Bacon Chicken chili

1 TBSP EVOO

2 cups onion chopped

2 cups tri colored peppers chopped

7 garlic cloves crushed

2 cans 15.25oz black beans (drained)

1 can 15.25 oz pinto beans (drained)

1 can 15.25 oz dark red kidney beans (drained)

1- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 cups diced tomatoes (about 1 ½ cans)

2 tsp taco seasoning

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

¼ tsp paprika

¾ tsp sea salt

½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp garlic powder

3 cups shredded chicken

10 pieces crispy turkey bacon crumbled

Saute onion, peppers, garlic in EVOO.  Add the rest of ingredients and let simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. **To add more “kick” add in crushed red pepper flakes, more chili powder, jalapeno pepper, hot sauce, etc.

Makes about 11 servings

Serving size 1 cup- Calories- 309

Total fat 6.0gm

Total carbs- 37.0gm  Dietary fiber- 10.3gm

Protein 25.3gm