Weigh in #4

I lost another 2 pounds!!!!

Total weight loss: 5.5 pounds

Weight Loss Remaining: 44.5 pounds

I have decided that for every 5 pounds i loose, I am going to reward myself. I have been stocking up on a few rewards in preparation for all of my weight loss! So far I have the $25 gift card from DSW i got at the White Elephant, a free pedicure coupon, and an hour long massage i bought from Groupon. I don't want to use any of these yet for various reasons, so I need to come up with an idea for a reward! Maybe I will buy myself a new shirt for Florida (we are going on Friday!)

Christmas post coming up next...

Santacon!

Merry Christmas Eve! In honor of the holiday, I figured I would FINALLY explain my first cheat day/weekend... Santacon!

Santacon is a Santa themed pub crawl, where people dress as Santas, Mrs. Claus, and other holiday themed characters, and bar hop the day away. It happens in cities all over the world! So on Saturday, Dec 18th, Walter, myself, and some friends headed to Morristown to join in the fun! Here are a few photos of the madness:

In other news, last weekend Molly also got groomed for Christmas and New Years! After she was done we picked out her very own tacky Christmas sweater for the occasion:

She is too much!

Rainbow Cookies

I guess I have been really busy this Christmas season, and it is affecting how often I am posting! Hopefully it will get a little less hectic soon J Ok, so let’s pick up from where we left off.

Monday’s lunch - Progresso can of split pea soup, 2 saltines, and a slice of whole wheat bread.

Snack – handful of trail mix

Dinner – Walter’s work Christmas party! I had one large plate, and filled it with half salad, grilled peppers and mushrooms, and caprese salad. The other half was filled with 3-4 mussels, penne vodka and pasta with alfredo sauce. I skipped the bread basket (yay!) but had half a slice of amazing chocolate cake and a bite of Walter’s tiramisu (boo). I also felt like I drank an entire bottle of red wine myself! I am not the best at small talk, so I sipped on my wine glass most of the night. The second it got low, a waiter came over and filled it up to the brim it seemed like!

Tuesday I woke up nauseous (surprise surprise) because of the odd combo of foods and wine I had (I think it was the alfredo pasta and wine personally).

Breakfast – oatmeal plain (one splenda) and a Clementine. Someone left a bag of them in the kitchen at work for people to take. Score!

Snack – A RAINBOW COOKIE!

Lunch – I went to shoprite and got vegetable noodle soup from their soup bar. It LOOKED like it would be like chicken noodle without the chicken, but no such luck. Too many weird veggies. I ate it anyway and had a ton of pretzel goldfish on the side!

Snack 2 – ANOTHER RAINBOW COOKIE!!! If there is any dessert I would cheat on my diet for (other than choc. Cake), it would be rainbow cookies. They are my all time FAVORITE!!!

Dinner – Soup and Salad. Walter’s sister Christina arrived for the holidays, and she loves to cook. She whipped up an awesome soup filled fresh veggies, lentils, and small pasta straight from her recent trip to Italy! I will try and remember to snap a pic later. I had a small cup of soup, and a huge salad filled with mixed greens, chicken, craisins and feta. I made another one for lunch today!

Dessert  – A Clementine. I was busy working on my homemade gift for Christmas (a painting), and worked up an appetite.

I have said it before and I will say it again… Molly is NOT a morning person. As Walter and I were getting ready she kept sleeping…

And when she caught me snapping a picture of her she protested!

Today was bagel day at work! We get them once a month for birthdays, so I couldn’t skip. Especially when I discovered WHEAT EVERYTHING bagels in the mix! If you ask me, it is the perfect bagel.

I am learning more and more during this dieting thing that preparation is KEY to success. Knowing it was bagel day, I packed 2 triangles of Laughing Cow light Garlic & Herb cheeses. I think they taste SO good, and I used it instead of cream cheese.

 I ended up taking out all of the insides of the bagel, putting a dab of green olive cream cheese (because how could I now) on part, and used one of the triangles on the rest.

 I saved the other triangle and ¼ of my bagel for lunch!

Have a great day!

Weigh In #3

This morning was Weigh In #3 and I lost another 1.5 pounds!!! And here I thought I wouldn’t lose anything this week J

Total weight loss: 3.5 pounds

Weight Loss Remaining: 46.5 pounds

Saturday and Sunday wasn’t very good eating for me. I had my first CHEAT DAY/weekend.

Saturday:

Breakfast – skipped (this NEVER happens)

Snack – a cookie

Lunch – Italian sub

Dinner – about half of a BLT and fries, and LOTS and LOTS of beer. I will explain that in a future post.

Sunday:

Breakfast – coffee

Lunch – a huge cheeseburger and some cheese fries (best hangover cure if you ask me)

Dinner – Italian Wedding soup with parmesan cheese

Monday :

Breakfast – Oatmeal with craisins and walnuts (I used the last of my walnuts today F!!!)

Tonight I am going to a Christmas Party for Walter’s work at an Italian restaurant…so I will be eating salad for lunch today.

Have a great day!

Christmas Gift Wrapping!

The other night, Molly and I got busy wrapping Christmas gifts:

And then I opened my first Christmas gift! (well, Molly tried to open it first):

 It was a batch of homemade cookies from my coworker!

 And chocolate covered oreos!

 Molly got herself wrapped in the bow...

 And after I tried tying it around her, she had enough!

 But then she gave in.

 She's so cutie!

 After a long night of wrapping, I had this guy. It was SO GOOD!

Yesterday's Food:

Breakfast - oatmeal w/craisins and walnuts

Snack - handful of trail mix

Lunch - pizza (yikes!)

Dinner - Christmas Party!

Last night Walter and I went to a Christmas party over at a friends house. Sadly I didn't take any pics, but it was a ton of fun! I ate way too many chips though! I had 2 cherry vodka and diet cokes, many chips and onion dip, some chips and buffalo chicken dip, and a dinner plate of salad, baked ziti, and lasagna. I brought the salad:

It was a mixed greens salad with smoked gouda, walnuts, and craisins. So good! We also did two white elephants - one new and one regift. I ended up with a DSW gift card and a neck massager. Not bad!

Today is going to be an eventful day. It will officially be my first CHEAT DAY, (even though yesterday's eating was awful), and SANTACON! More on that to come...

Salad

Today for lunch, i went to the salad bar at Shop Rite and got this beauty:

 After I cut it up and added dressing, it looked like this:

And it was soooooooo good! It had chicken, olives, onion, roasted and regular peppers, and feta cheese.

For a snack i had hot chocolate. After work, I had to run to an art supply store to get some items for my homemade christmas gift. I walked around that store for almost an hour and LOVED every second of it!

 After I got home, I made dinner:

Its some spinach and a quesadilla with spinach, roasted peppers, goat cheese, and chicken. Awesome. I then came upstairs and wrapped gifts and did Christmas cards. I am tired, and heading to bed!

Christmas Party Time!

Yesterday was a very busy day! I started off with my now usual breakfast of oatmeal with craisins and walnuts. During lunch, I ran errands, and then picked up Wendy’s to eat at my desk. I got their “you pick two” deal with half a Baja salad (with chili) and a baked potato. Since the salad has chili, it didn’t need dressing, so I used the dressing on my potato! For a snack I had a handful of trail mix during my afternoon meetings.

After work, we had our work Christmas party! I really wanted to be sure I didn’t overeat, or eat unhealthy food, and I think I ended up UNDER eating (mark it on the calendar haha). I had 2 drinks, and I picked something super sweet so I didn’t drink too much (I had a 45 minute drive home!) I had 2 Bacardi peach drinks, one with sprite, and one with DIET sprite! I knew I should have asked for diet from the start! For food, I got a small plate (like a dessert plate size) and filled half with salad, and the other half with penne vodka, a small piece of garlic bread, and a small slice of turkey. I also ate a stuffed mushroom and a steak skewer. And that’s it. No dessert (there was a lot), no other apps, no cheese and crackers, nothing! When I got home I was starving though, so I put myself to bed.

This morning I broke out my new water bottle!

I keep hearing good things about Contigo, and my old water bottle needed to be retired a looooong time ago. So far I really like this water bottle! It has oz. measurements on the bottle, so you can keep track of how much you’ve drank (I am at 36 for the day so far!) You have to push this button in the back to open the mouth so you can drink, which prevents leaking. It just keeps spitting water in my face lol. I think I just need to get used to using it.

Right now I have a work call from 11-1, so I grabbed a snack from the vending machine to hold me over until lunch: 

I was pleased to see that 3 slots in the vending machine had pretzels – there is usually nothing healthy in there. I picked these Honey Wheat Braids. That’s it for me for now – going to listen to the rest of this call, and try to find something healthy for lunch at 1, since I forgot to bring something today. Have a great day!

SABOTAGE!!!

I woke up to this lovely weather this morning… 

which allowed me to wear these…

But seriously, feels like 6?!? Its times like these that make me want to move back to Florida immediately! I put Molly’s sweater on her and she posed for me J

So I had my second weigh in yesterday and I am down another pound!

Total weight loss: 2 pounds

Weight Loss Remaining: 48 pounds

I think I could have lost more, but some things I ate (bacon, pizza, CHIPOTLE) hindered my weight loss this week. At least I am loosing, but I need to kick it up a notch! This leads me to my next topic…SABOTAGE…

Yesterday morning, I woke up, felt great, weighed myself and was down a pound (and that was BEFORE I peed, so it was probably between 1 and 2), put my work pants on, and they felt looser! I think it’s because I have been cutting down on sodium, and haven’t had any soda, I am less bloated. So I go to work feeling great, and then I sabotage myself. I went out to lunch with some coworkers to the Asian fusion place we usually go to, and instead of ordering my usual (semi-healthy) sushi lunch, I went all out and got pork fried rice and sesame chicken. Could I have BEEN any unhealthier? And after I ate it, I felt bloated, tired, and like crap. And since I felt that way, I went ahead and got Boston Market for dinner, which I also haven’t had in months. And after I ate that, I felt bloated, tired, and like crap. I am trying to make healthier changes but I still seem to be making the same mistakes. I would LOVE to know why I do this to myself, because I obviously hate being the weight that I am currently. Furthermore, I have been telling myself I needed to eat super healthy Monday and Tuesday, because the rest of the week is filled with Christmas parties and events. Now the chance of me loosing weight this week is slim to none. All I can do is treat today like a brand new day, and make sure I (now even more so) make healthy choices at every meal. Even at the parties! (easier said than done!)

For breakfast I had a green tea and oatmeal with half a banana and a few craisins, and for lunch I made a roast beef and cheddar cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, and a huge ass pickle. I guess it’s a start.

Monday

It's been a few days since I've last posted... I have been very busy, but i know that is no excuse! Here is what I have been up to...

• Friday I worked until 8pm. Enough said.
• Walter's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were in town for the weekend... as well as Molly's best friend Barkley
• Walter and I got (almost) all of our Christmas shopping done on Saturday!
• Sunday was spent working on homemade Christmas gifts, and completing Xmas shopping online.

In Walter's family, we do a Secret Santa, and this year, we have a second person for a homemade. I never did my homemade from last year (yes, I am THAT much of a slacker), so I got last years done, and now I have this years to do. They are both paintings. I will post pictures of them after Christmas so I don't ruin any surprises!

That being said, let me recap my food since Friday...

FRIDAY:

Breakfast - Yogurt with granola

Snack - Vitamuffin

Lunch - Chipolte burrito bowl. I ran errands during lunch, and it was the only place i could go to get me back to work in time. That's what I get for being unprepared!
Snack during my marathon project that lasted until 8pm on a Friday night - About 5 rolls of smarties and Halloween pretzels!

 Dinner - A small salad with spinach, chicken, roasted peppers, cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette

SATURDAY:
Breakfast - a huge bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich that i only finished 3/4 of. This made Walter very happy since he got to eat my leftovers!
Lunch - a slice of mushroom pizza, a garlic knot, and a bite of Walters 2 slices (sausage and white)
Snack - 10 baked scoops and hummus
Dinner - homemade pizza (by Walter's dad). he made me chicken artichoke with green olives on whole wheat crust since i love that pizza at Sun Tavern, I had 2 slices, and 3 little squares (they are like 2x2in) of pepper and onion pizza. So good!

SUNDAY:
Breakfast - 4 silver dollar pancakes and 3 1/2(!) pieces of bacon, and a coffee
Lunch - a roast beef sandwich, and a spinach salad
Snack - 1/2 a monster half sour pickle
Dinner - a small serving of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and edamame. Then an hour later i had hummus and wheat thins.

MONDAY:
Breakfast -  Oatmeal with craisins, walnuts, and banana

Snack - 2 bites of banana

Lunch - Chinese food. I'll get to that later.

Dinner - Boston Market. I'll also get to that later.

Happy Monday!

Oatmeal...the Saga Continues

Every day this week I have had oatmeal for breakfast, and every day it seems to be a new experience. That's a good thing, because I am not getting bored with it. Earlier this week, I compared my weight control maple and brown sugar (on the left) with the plain stuff (on the right). And I was very surprised...

 

The weight control only has 20 more calories, 0.5 more grams of fat, 3 more carbs, and 2 more grams of protein (!). But quickly i noticed where the plain oatmeal has the edge. It has 0 sodium and sugars compared to the 290 sodium and 1 sugars of the "good" oatmeal. Now does the 2 splendas I add to the plain oatmeal make it a more even match? :)


On Wednesday I made oatmeal and t came out like cereal. It was very mushy and watery. Kind of gross. I added craisins (a BIG fan), and bananas (not so much) to the oatmeal. 

And today... well it came out hard as a rock.

OK, it wasn' a ROCK, I still enjoyed it, but as you can see i was able to hold it sideways AND upside down without it budging! I added craisins and walnuts and it was very good! I think tomorrow I am going to strive for a happy medium between the two. :)

So for breakfast I had the oatmeal above and a coffee. 

Snack - whole wheat pretzels

Lunch - Salad with grilled chicken, roasted peppers, olives, prosciutto, mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette. So good!

Snack - coffee and soy crisps

I think dinner will be a salad with quinoa and other goodies, but since it's FREEZING out, who knows.

In other news, Molly is going to get to see her best friend tomorrow morning and ALL weekend! Barkley is coming to town!