Ooooohhhh boy.

Loving my FitNut family this month!

Start: 170

First weigh in: 167.5

Second weigh in: 166

It's still a good 10lbs over where I'm comfortable, but I'm at least going in the right direction finally. 

I have been using my Garmin inside for activities like my cardio and circuit classes, having dance parties with my littles and playing Wii Zumba (411 calories burnt today, whoop whoop!).  Tomorrow, with the temperatures supposedly hitting mid 50's, I am looking forward to getting outside for a run! 

Goals for this week: 

1. MORE VEGGIES! 
2. More consistent eating - I've found that on days I work out, I'm at less than a net of 1200 calories by bedtime. Which leads me to eat crap to "make up" my calories - NOT what I need to be doing! One of my teammates just suggested dividing my daily caloric allowance to give me a meal "goal". I think this is a great idea! I am going to try to actually stick to this!   
3. Working out 3 times at the gym/outside, 2 times at home.  Just need to get the miles in, especially since we're having a little challenge to see who can log the most miles this week!

So to accomplish #1, I am going to make sure I have salad prepared so I have NO excuses not to serve it with every meal. I have to maximize my intake, especially since we've gotten some AMAZING co-op deliveries lately! 

#2 will be more difficult. If I divide my daily calories (1720) by 4, I get 430 calories per meal. 430 calories for BREAKFAST!??  That will be a huge challenge!! I am definitely going to be challenged by this one.  Then will be attemping 2-215 calorie snacks.  This is my BIGGEST goal for the week. 

#3 should be pretty easy. My daughter is off school on Monday and has a half day on Friday but I should be able to get my workouts in for sure!

So while I'm not thrilled, I'm still at it!! 

Adios, 2013! Bring on 2014!

So thankful for this past year. It's been wonderful!

After my "no cares" December, I weighed in on Jan 1 at 170 (ouch). I haven't been this heavy since November 2011.  I decided it was time to get serious. I resigned from my job 12/19, I have had a wonderful break with my kiddos, but now ? It's time to get serious.

I joined a FitNut challenge again.  Very excited to be back amongst people who are like-minded and ready to change their lives. Even after just 3 days of watching my calories, keeping tabs on my macros and drinking enough water, I sneaked a look at the scale and I'm down 2 lbs already. Now if I can just keep my momentum!

I got a Garmin Forerunner 110 for Christmas. I am ITCHING to get out and run or at least head to the gym and see it in use!   Looking forward to my 500+ calorie burning workouts.

Here's my goal shirt - Next Christmas, I'll be wearing this Believe shirt all over town - and rocking it.  Because you know what? I KNOW I can do it, I DO believe in myself.  Healthy me, here I come. 

So back to clean eating, about 80% of the time. I am going to be working out a responsible number of times - I'm going to try not to let myself get to the obsessive point I reached last January.  I am definitely trying to get back to the 150s and to near 20% body fat.

And I'm ready to be a better me!  Here I go. Back to 150 for me!

A month off.

I am taking a month off. I'm not tracking food meticulously, I'm not working out daily.  I am still trying to get a balanced meal plan, but I'm not tracking calories really closely at all. 

January - it's on.  

But December - is about survival! 

So watch for January. Because I have been inspired. Balance, care and mental health are all high on my list for 2014. Here we go. 

Have you ever taken time "off" from the constant battle with your weight? How long did you take? Did it help in the long run? 

**I'm not arguing that what I'm doing is the healthiest, but it's what I need to make it through right now, mentally.**

Update: Freezer Meals

I haven't COOKED A MEAL in over a week. It's glorious! 

Of course last week was Thanksgiving and we were out of town.   

But Monday before Thanksgiving we had the BBQ chicken. We put the chicken (shredded thanks to cooking so long!) on top of baked potatoes with a little sour cream - delish! 

We spent Sunday getting out all of our Christmas things so I knew we needed a good crock pot meal so we didn't have to focus on dinner.  We had the Curry chicken with basmati rice and homemade naan (frozen last time we had tikka masala).  

• Consensus was that it was good. I felt it was lacking a little flavor - maybe a spicy kick? Or salt. I tried adding more salt but it didn't hit the flavor note I was missing. Next time will add a touch of cayenne and maybe only one can of coconut milk instead of two. 

Monday night we had the Beef Pepperoncini sandwiches with fries and salad. 

• The kids thought it was a little spicy, but when you had the meat with cheese and the bread I put it on, the spice was cut for sure. Note: buy the chopped pepperoncinis or cut the stems off beforehand. :-)  I didn't think that through and I wound up burning my fingers trying to pull the stems off right before I served the sandwiches!

Tuesday we had the taco meat (ground beef, taco seasoning - homemade - and a can of rinsed black beans). We added water to the crock pot and let it cook.  About 20 minutes before I served it, I added half a bag of frozen corn to the meat. 

• The kids had seconds AND THIRDS!  I added ground beef that I had frozen before to my meal bag. Next time I will be sure to use unfrozen meat and flatten it out. It cooked the entire day in a lump. Easily remedied by using my potato masher, but the flavor may have been more consistent if it had cooked "crumbled" all day. 

Wednesday we tried the Mongolian Beef.  I sautéed green beans and broccoli with the drippings from the crock pot (mixed with a slurry of 1Tbsp of corn starch with 2 Tbsp of cold water). I served with brown rice. I put everything together in a bowl. 

• Husband and I would have eaten seconds - if I hadn't run out of meat!! I will DEFINITELY double the size of the roast I use next time in each package!  There are NO leftovers of meat from this meal, but we have extra brown rice and veggies.  The kids thought it was "ok" but I don't think it was their favorite of the foods we've tried. For me and hubby, it may be our favorite meal that we've tried so far!

All in all, this has been an EXCELLENT experience. 

What makes it better - ??   

CROCK POT LINERS! 

I've had barely any dishes to do post-dinner and it's been LOVELY. 

I think tomorrow night we will try either the wine/herb chicken or the rosemary honey chicken!  If the rosemary honey chicken is awesome, I may get a beef tenderloin to try with that flavor profile too. 

AFA my fitness - nonexistent now. I lost a total of 4lbs in November. Not too shabby but it's not where I'd hoped to be by December 1st. 

But that will change.

I resigned from my job last week. My last day is December 19th. I am looking forward to being home with my babies again, helping out at my KINDERGARTENER'S school, homeschooling my little guy until he's old enough for official preschool....   It was a hard decision but something that my husband and I agree is best for our family. 

So come January - the fitness/health will be kicking into high gear again. I am looking forward to being healthy about it. There is no doubt, looking back, that I was being unhealthy last Jan/Feb. I was working out 10+ hours a week, being ridiculous with my choices and becoming borderline obsessed with it. I am hopeful that I can keep an awesome balance for me and my little guy. 

So I'm taking December and having fun, enjoying my family and my last few weeks working.  But January - with the rest of the "new years resolution" crowd - I'll be kicking ass and taking names!

Freezer "OAMC" Meals

There's a lot of buzz around freezer meals lately. Or maybe it's not lately and I'm just late to the game. 

Oh well, whatever it is, I had a friend who posted about doing this last month and it REALLY inspired me.  We've been eating VERY poorly since I started working. I simply have NO inspiration and by the time I figure it out, whatever I've decided won't be ready for another hour or two.  And we have two small-ish kids with early bedtimes (for mommy's sanity!) 

When I read her plan and how she went about prepping her meals, I thought "hey, I can do that. And if I do it NOW, it will take me through the Christmas holiday!"   So I started looking through Pinterest and lots of blog posts finding some good and diverse menu plans.  I knew from the start that I wanted "dump" meals - I didn't want to spend a ton of time pre-cooking things and I wanted the prep on the day I cook to be minimal to nothing. 

I will say, almost everything in my meals is clean! I honestly didn't check the Worcestershire sauce or the A-1. 

I found the following meals: 

Mongolian Beef x2

Pepper Steak x2

Mexican Spiced Pork Loin x2

Coconut Chicken Curry x2

Honey Rosemary Chicken x2

Beef Pepperoncini Sandwiches* x2

Herb Wine "Dump" Chicken x2

BBQ Chicken (using SkinnyTaste BBQ Sauce!) x4

Tacos (my own creation) x3

Pizza Dough (following this recipe and process for cooking, but freezing after first rise) x3

I started the day with shopping. Costco and Walmart.  Here's my shopping list: 

Costco

5 lbs beef chuck roast

4.5 lbs beef roast (to chop into stew meat) 

2-5lb bags of onions

2-10lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

shredded mozzarella cheese

gallon sized bags (although we didn't need these!)

Worcestershire sauce

Walmart

Turkey pepperoni (to freeze for the pizzas)

Whole wheat flour

Fresh rosemary

Green peppers

Soy sauce

Hoisen sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Liquid smoke flavoring

Fresh ginger

1 lemon

2 jars pepperoncini

I had planned to shop today and prep all the food tomorrow. However, I came home and was too anxious looking at everything just sitting there to leave it be! (And my fridge was WAY too full!)   So I started prepping right away, around 3pm. 

After a brief run to the grocery store one last time (Helpful Hint: Don't just say "yes, I have balsamic vinegar in the pantry" - Actually MEASURE that you have enough. I was 1/3 cup shy for the recipe!!) I got to work. First thing I did was make up my own Italian seasoning and taco seasoning mixes. Then I started my pizza dough, knowing it would need to rise before I could package it away.  While my pizza crust was rising, I got to work on my BBQ sauce. I've made this recipe a few times, so I know I like the blend of spices & flavors so I made it exactly as written. 

Once this was done, I labeled all of my bags. I made sure to put today's date, the name of the recipe (sounds obvious, but it wouldn't shock me if I saw a bag mislabeled and could never find the recipe I used ever again!), any additional ingredients to be added at the time of cooking and the actual cooking directions! 

While that simmered and my pizza rose, I started chopping. I PURPOSEFULLY picked recipes that were fairly easy this time around (you know, the first time I've done this!)  Most of them were a sauce or spice mix and meat.  I chose very few veggies. Thankfully, my work schedule gets me home by 3pm everyday, so throwing together sides isn't usually an issue.  I have no problem making veggies and a starch once I'm home.  

My chopping prep consisted of  onions, 1 finger of ginger, 4 green peppers, slicing 1 lemon and some fresh rosemary. I even used pre-minced garlic to make it easier on myself. 

Around this time, my pizza dough finished it's first rise. I pulled it out, separated it into 4 servings and covered three to put away in the freezer. One became dinner tonight!

I put all of my chopped goods in the bags and moved on to the actual recipe ingredients. Sauces, spices, vinegars and sweeteners, if necessary. I did this one recipe at a time until I came to the end. 

Mexican Spiced Pork, Herb Wine Chicken

The last step I did was to add all of the meat. I started with the beef that I had to portion and chop into "stew meat" pieces. I weighed it out and added it to the separate bags - for Mongolian beef and Pepper Steak.   Then I pulled out the bags of chicken. We had an open bag in the chicken in the freezer so I started with that one.  Added frozen chicken breasts to each of the required bags. It took the remainder of the partial bag and a full 10lb bag. 

I didn't have a formal recipe for my bbq chicken or my taco meat. For my bbq chicken, I just made up the BBQ sauce then threw in 4-5 chicken breasts and froze. 

For the tacos, I took already frozen ground beef and added 2Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning and a can of rinsed black beans. I plan to add a cup of water to the crockpot and probably a bag of frozen corn just before serving.

Obviously I can't speak to whether or not these recipes are TASTY, as we haven't tried them! But I will be sure to update with reviews as we begin eating them!

Curry Chicken, Honey Rosemary Chicken

 Four and a half hours, 2 3 trips to the store - 24 meals ready to go into my crockpot!! Yay for no cooking or meal planning between now and Christmas!! 

BBQ Chicken

Mongolian Beef, Pepperoncini Beef, Pepper Steak

November Weigh In #1

Last Friday - 164
Last Sunday - 165
Today (Friday weigh in #1) - 161!!  YAY!


Laying off the Halloween candy was KEY for me today. Laying off the candy at work - also a big deal.  I've been under my calories and trying to eat more veggies and protein for sure.

Hoping to see the 150's next week!!

Floating right along....

I feel like just when I get into the swing of things, something changes! I was doing well running then the stupid sun stopped rising!!! 

I'm still around! I'm getting more serious about my journey this month. It's my last month as a FitNut and I just want to do my team proud. Plus, I would love to get back down into the 150's. I'm at a high I haven't been at in a long time and let's face it, I'm not comfortable. 

So I'm adapting. Instead of running, I'm doing cardio at home by using the Wii!  I do Zumba Fitness and Just Dance (burns a SURPRISING amount of calories!). I've been doing the Biggest Loser game too, but I'm learning that I have to do the advanced levels in order to feel like it's worth my time. 

I had the worst time with Halloween candy last week! But I'm three days clean now :) 

I'm going to be looking back at the blog to figure out what the heck I used to snack on!!!  I'm having the WORST cravings tonight and I would love to be able to combat them!