Real food and Not so real food!

Long day!  Very exhausted but overall pretty happy with the day.  Egg beater muffins, Taco Bell chicken Cantina Bowl (with nachos and guac), and quinoa salad and grilled chicken.  The only unplanned addition was the nachos with my lunch, but I knew when I ordered them that I would have to less quinoa salad with my dinner.  Dinner rolled around and I was still completely satisfied with my scaled back portion.  Lunch may have been fast food, but dinner was all real!   Yum.

Worked a long day and headed to the gymnastics to coach open gym..  Got my sweat on running around with the girls and spotting some new skills.. Then my mom met me at the Y and we headed down to the trail for a nice 4 mile walk along the river.   

Left the house before 8 and finally returned around 9:30.  Proud of how in control of the day I was because usually days like this end up as diet disasters!

I started to think today of some other weight loss related topics that I would like to discuss on here eventually, but for now I am going to roll right over and pass out because I am exhausted!  Up bright and early tomorrow for Boot Camp and two hours of volleyball!

Feels so Good to be Sore!

Even though I was disappointed with my morning workout yesterday, my arms ended up being very sore today!  Today's workout was volleyball and with only four people tonight I was dripping with sweat by the end of the game.  

Eating was right on plan today, with the only additions being one bite of a Seroogy's chocolate bar and a banana.  Both were necessary :)

Last night I spent some time pre-making meals for today since it was a very long day with zero time to cook..

Here was breakfast: Egg Beater Muffins with veggie sausage, bell peppers, spinach, and the smallest sprinkle of cheese.  {& coffee!}

Lunch was a big huge spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and grilled chicken & mango Greek yogurt

Dinner was a big bowl of homemade quinoa salad ..  I didn't really have a recipe but just through together a quinoa grain mix from Trader Joes, some tomatoes, spinach, black beans, bell peppers, corn, and avocado.  I mixed that all together and added a little olive oil, lemon juice, and taco seasoning.  It was SO tasty and filling, and I felt great putting so much good stuff into my body.  

Felt great again today - definitely in control and motivated.  I turned down an offer for an ice cream run at work this afternoon, and I made sure my gymnasts ate all of the delicious looking chocolate brownie cookies that I brought for the last night of practice tonight.  Those little morsels were so tempting but I just continue to remind myself that certain things need to be sacrificed if I'm setting out to lose a significant amount of weight.  While I can still enjoy my favorite treats in moderation, I need to emphasize MODERATION and not consume every cookie or scoop of ice cream that passes in front of me.  

Tomorrow is another long day, but I'm ready!  I think forcing myself to workout after working at 12 hour day is going to be the biggest challenge - but I'm hoping that my mom will meet me at the gym after work as my accountability buddy.

My scale looked great this morning and that is helpful in keeping my motivation level high going into the weekend!!

Another Successful Day!

Well.  Day 2 of blogging and I have already experienced the nasty feeling of typing out an entire post and having it accidentally get deleted before saving!  Agh!

Anyways -- Today was a great day, but it also provided me with a quick reminder that I can preplan my meals and workouts like a crazy woman, but life will still happen and things will change.

I had initially planned on taking a Cardio Sculpt class at the Y this morning, but when I got to the gym I found out that the class had been cancelled due to a health fair for the elders that was going on!  I was really bummed because I had been really looking forward to the class.  I eventually convinced myself to head upstairs to the workout room, but I tried both the treadmill and the elliptical and just couldn't get myself to kick butt on either.  I just wasn't mentally prepared for another hour on the machines after doing that not only 12 hours earlier.  I ended up just hitting the weight room and did an arms circuit and some ab work.  I was a little disappointed in myself when I left the gym, but I made it up to myself with a nice 3 mile walk outside with my mom this evening.  Talk about gorgeous outside tonight!

As for my meals for the day, I was able to stick right to my plan.  Breakfast was just a banana on the way to the gym, and I ate my leftover shrimp stir fry as an early lunch.  I had some more watermelon as an afternoon snack.. standing at the cutting board again..  As for dinner, Ryan and I brought our new 'Little Brother' for dinner at Culver's, and I ate a delicious grilled chicken salad while the boys had burgers and fries.  I did have some ice cream after dinner (chocolate with Reese's peanut butter cups), but I felt great about this because it was the smallest serving available, pre-planned into my daily caloric intake, and off-set somewhat by my workout.  Fabulous!

Overall today was great.  Like I said I was a little frustrated with myself at the gym, but after all is said and done it was a good reminder that plans can change and I'll need to figure out how to handle that!

Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day and I basically won't be home from 8am-9pm, so I spent some time this evening planing and preparing all of my meals for tomorrow.  Awesome.  Feeling in control of tomorrow already!

(Could have really used this reminder at the gym today!)

First Day of My Journey!

I haven't quite figures out how I want to focus this blog, but I think to start I'll go with a summary if how each day goes, what I eat, and some details about my workouts..  Within the next few days if like to get some 'before' pictures up with some stats, measurements, and goals..   Hopefully this weekend!

As for today, I felt totally prepared and confident going into the first day of my weight loss journey!  I stuck to my food plan and pushed myself through my workout, even when that little voice in my head was telling me it would be okay to quit early.

Food for the day::

Breakfast: egg beaters, 2 veggie sausage links, a sprinkle of reduced fat cheese, black bean and corn salsa, and coffee & creamer

Lunch: tuna and spinach wrap, 1/2 c cottage cheese, a delicious mango, and a diet cherry coke

Dinner: shrimp stir fry made with fresh broccoli, squash, zucchini, and bell peppers with 1/4 c brown rice and some juicy watermelon (not pictured because it was eaten while standing in the kitchen waiting for the stir fry to finish!)

Snacks: a banana before coaching since I knew I wouldn't be eating dinner until late tonight!

I did have two small chocolate chip cookies after lunch, but I'm counting this as a success for the day because I looked into my calorie counter to determine if I should have them or not, and because I had two, enjoyed them, and stopped at two!!  [HUGE success for me!!]

Success #2 for the day was striking to my workout plan and sticking around after practice to sweat! --  Workout was 30 minutes on the treadmill walking/running and 30 minutes on the elliptical!   

I'm already a little sore from the workout and my left shin feels a little off so I've got my leg up icing my shin with a bag of frozen edamame ;P

Tomorrow is all planned out and I'm looking forward to another day!  I feel really great about the strong start and felt really proud about having control over not binging on cookies at work!

And so it Begins

Tomorrow is the big day!
Tomorrow I set out to lose 50 pounds.
[one pound at a time!]

Meals for tomorrow are all planned out and tracked through MyFitnessPal, and my workouts are planned out for the rest of the week!

Three Things

It's time to make a change.  A big change.  Standing in my room this morning, attempting to find something to wear, I came to realize three things.

One- None of my clothes fit.
Two- I am the heaviest I have ever been.
Three- I am not happy.

I feel as though I have the tools and the knowledge to make big changes, and this blog will be a diary of the journey I am going to embark upon.   This blog will help to keep me accountable. This blog will give me an outlet to document all of the struggles and successes I am going to experience as I set out to lose 50 pounds.  This blog will be the story of how I get fit and get back to feeling like myself.

Stay tuned...  (and be patient as I figure out this whole blogging thing!)