It has been few days since I wrote the last post, obviously my initial idea of writing a post daily is not working. To quickly sum up these past few days, I am kicking ass in the food category and just doing ok in the workouts departments.
So as I was saying, it's been over a week and a half since I started this challenge. I manage to eat less than before, just by trying to listen to my body and stop eating when I am full. I don't have any sweet cravings, mainly because I snack on almonds (well besides this past Sunday when I baked some brownies and I barely stop myself from licking the bowl :)) I read somewhere that almonds are pretty good at satisfying sugar cravings and it seams to work! I try to incorporate salad as a meal of the day either lunch or dinner. I try to eat protein with every meal each day.
Yesterday's meal consisted of special k cereal (the original one, plain - no sugar coated) with skim milk, banana and almonds plus a coffee for breakfast, a grilled chicken wrap for lunch and a big salad for dinner.
My chicken wrap was delicious. I grilled the chicken breast first with some grilled seasoning on both sides. Meanwhile, I warmed up under the broiler (on low) a whole grain tortilla, than I smeared a little bit of jalapeno hummus on it. I added the chicken, a little shredded cheese, avocado and roasted red peppers that I patted dry.
I than folded in the edges and rolled it up. It was super yummy. I was going to add some lettuce but I was in a hurry to feed the kids too, so I skipped it. Another idea for all you hummus haters out there, switch it with sour cream or even mayo if you prefer. You can use shrimp, turkey or even just veggies and maybe even some salsa. Either way it was a very easy breezy healthy an fulfilling lunch.
For dinner, I made my salad with chickpeas, boiled egg, roasted peppers, black olives, avocado, red onions, a bit of lettuce, parsley, salt, pepper, canola oil and fresh lemon juice. It was out of this world good.
In between meals I had an apple, few pretzels and almonds. I drank around 1.5L of water. Overall I feel lighter, I have a lot more energy and I am happy!
Now let's tackle my fitness workouts or better said - lack of. Well these past few days I had a lot on my plate because of a stomach virus that took over half of the family. First, my older little dude got it. Poor baby was so sick over the weekend, it broke my heart to see him in pain like that. Than his dad got it, so I had to take care of him too. Between this and taking the kids to the doctor and a million of other little things that I needed to do, I had to push my workouts to the back burner. Luckily and thanks God neither me or the baby got it (so far).
Regardless, I find it hard to work out when I am alone with the kids. There are so many other things needed to get done when the baby naps such as cooking and dishes and laundry and giving attention to my older son (and facebook and pinterest ;)) just to name a few! I am active though, I do cardio on the wii each day but not happy about not doing individual workouts such as my most needed ABS!!! So, I have to work on this.
For the past couple days I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so I kept my workouts to a minimum. I was pretty active though, I still got a chance to sneak in some Wii Fit games, but nothing too hard.
Today it was a great day, I am back to my own self! I am happy and very energetic. I managed to change my diet a little bit, I cut back the carbs and boosted up my veggies intake. I eat salad once a day, sometimes twice. I try to vary my salad ingredients just keep things interesting. I love salad in general and I could probably have it twice a day every day, if only someone would prep it for me :) Everytime I chop the lettuce and I hear that crunch, I remember how lucky we are nowadays to have all these fresh foods available all seasons. Growing up in Romania, we didn't have fresh veggies available during the winter and I still remember the excitement in my sister's voice year by year, saying she couldn't wait for the spring to come to get some lettuce and make a "green" salad!
Going back to my diet, if I have couple slices of toast with lunch I try not to have rice or pasta for dinner, just veggies and protein. I snack on low fat cheese, almonds and fruits. I bought a whole pack of baby carrots and I am planning to make some healthy dips next week. One would be homemade hummus (without the tahini) and ricotta cheese, scallions and dill dip. I will do my best to post the recipes and pictures.
The other day we were at the mall and we ended up eating lunch at Chili's. I was feeling kind of weak and super hungry, so I needed more than a salad. I ordered their chicken fajita sandwich platter and figured I will just have the sandwich and leave the fries. It looked and smelled amazing!!! It had grilled chicken, avocado, cheese (don't remember what kind) and sauteed onions and peppers. Omigod, it was so "scrumptious" - my son's favorite adjective!!! I ate half of it, snacked on few fries and I was full. I asked for a box and took the rest home and had it for lunch yesterday. Now, if this was me last week, I would've gulped down the whole sandwich in a few bites, because it really was that delicious. I am so proud that I actually stopped myself when I felt full and didn't shove it in my mouth just because I thought is good.
I am an emotional eater and I am trying so hard to change. If I am upset or happy I reach for something to munch on. If I am stressed or bored I reach for a snack. That's called emotional eating and I am trying to quit it! I read an article on this topic in the Prevention magazine and I learnt that emotional hunger is felt above your neck whereas the real hunger is below the neck. So, everytime you feel hungry or in the mood for something sweet or salty, you should stop and think if your stomach is really the one asking for food. For me it's easy to establish that, when I am in the mood for a snack or something yummy, I usually feel my mouth watering or mytaste buds dancing only at the thought of a piece of chocolate ;)
Tomorrow we are attending the baptism of our dear friends' baby girl. I will be so happy to see them, my gorgeous godson and his beautiful sister, that I am afraid I am gonna eat the priest too! I am only kidding, not sure what kind of food or drinks will be served, but I am planning to enjoy it as much as I can and maybe cut back on few other things before and after the event.
Good night!
I am happy to update you guys that I lost around 2 lbs already. Ha...I certainly got your attention right?
Well this is what I did: ate no sweets or anything else that contains sugar, drank no frizzy drinks, drank 2L of plain water, had dinner around 6, 6:30 and some workout which I will go into greater detail a bit later.
My meals looked pretty similar these two days.
Yesterday, Tue, January 10:
Breakfast: 1/2 cup Original Special K cereal with 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/2 cup blueberries plus a cup of black coffee sweetened with agave nectar ( I have been using this in my coffee for over a year now and I absolutely love it!)
Lunch: salad made with: half a can of tuna packed in oil (more flavorful than the one in water, just skipped the oil in salad), lettuce, tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers, black olives, one hard boiled egg, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar.
Dinner: shrimp fried rice and kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage).
Snacks in between meals: one banana, one pear, two clementines, 10 almonds
Beverage of the day: filtered tap water, delicious and refreshing ;)
One trick that I tried last night was to put my food in a rice bowl and use chopsticks to eat with. Between trying to feed the baby his dinner with one hand and using chopsticks with the other, I was full before I reached half of the bowl. The reason behind using chopsticks is to eat slow and chew properly so your stomach gets a chance to slowly start feeling up. By eating slow you also swallow less air with each bite, so you supposedly feel less gassy or bloated as well.
I didn't feel hungry at all and did not have any craving for sweets. I had a lot of energy throughout the day and I got a lot of stuff done around the house too! Oh the beauty of house chores!
Workout:
Does going up and down the stairs a gazillion times to do laundry or use the bathroom count as cardio? It should. Well besides that, I did manage to squeeze in a 5 min each, broken rib-punched in the bread basket-gasping for my albuterol inhaler cardio, abs and butt workout videos. The videos are amazing. I am totally out of shape and when I feel like I don't need to scream to get through a last few crunches and I can stay in a plank for more than 3 seconds, I will than advance to the 7.5 mins and the 10 mins version of the videos.
Today, Wed, Jan 11:
I woke up broken, hurting in my abdominal region which made me happy, because to me that's saying : IT WORKED!
My breakfast was similar with yesterday's, the special k, yogurt, blueberries and coffee.
Lunch: similar salad: lettuce, the other half of the tuna can from yesterday, chickpeas, red onion, boiled egg, a bit of oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. DELICIOUS!!! Even the baby liked some of the stuff in it ;)
Since the salad was huge I saved half for dinner.
Dinner: two slices of toast with jalapeno hummus and taramosalata plus the other half of salad. Hmmm for those of you that don't know what taramosalata is : a fish roe spread, a Greek appetizer. In Romania we call it icre.
Snacks : banana, raw almonds, one cheese stick (low fat mozzarella)
Drinks: Water (1.8 L) and a big mug of peppermint tea.
Workout: Lots of cardio on the wii, 800 steps on the board in 10 mins while caring 20lbs of sleeping baby in my ergo. I was planning to do some arms and legs workouts last night, but was hit by a horrible pain in my lower right side and thigh...so I had to take a rest instead and watch my currently favorite show, Burn Notice. I love the show and all I can say is that it helps with my motivation as well, because the main actress looks unbelievably hot and her body is to go bananas for! Her name is Gabrielle Anwar, google her! The guys are pretty hot too so a little eye candy for me before bedtime won't hurt ;)
Good night!!!
As a new year present (or punishment) I signed myself up for our hometown's Wellness Challenge 2012. Now that's a first. And it would be nice for me to start saying that yes, as a new year resolution it was time to put myself first for once and you'd all be invited to my pity party, but that's not the case. I basically signed myself up, because I needed something to keep me in check and hold me accountable. There, I said it.
I need to lose about 20 lbs to reach my pre-pregnancy size , but I lack motivation to get up and start moving. See, I gained 50 lbs with on my second pregnancy and I lost 30 in the first 6 months...not bad at all. It was easy to do it though and it didn't take much work on my part. I guess breastfeeding does help a bit too. I feel like the last 20 lbs are the worst though.
The kick off of this program was last night. It lasts 18 weeks, they have by-weekly weigh ins and different monthly challenges. The gala ceremony will be May 14, marking the end of this challenge. They will add up all the pounds lost per challenge, the man and woman with most % body fat lost as well as the people with most pounds lost will be crowned the winners. There were a lot of people there last night and what shocked me was that most of them looked pretty good, some overweight, but mostly everyone was in it for the wellness of it and not necessarily the weight loss.
My official first weigh in is 168.9lbs (around 76.8kg). I will have to go for future weigh ins every two weeks. I had a chance to meet a bunch of great people representing all kinds of businesses around town that sponsor this program. I got a calendar with all the events that are offered, different workout opportunities, dance, challenges, seminars...they all look amazing! I unfortunately will not be able to participate in most of the things offered during the week but will try work things out during the weekends. I will go into more details about this later on.
My plan is simple. I want to change my diet and start working out again. To keep things in check I will try to write down at the end of the day what I ate and what kind of exercise I put in.
I am not going to follow any kind of specific diet, my goal is to improve my eating habits and not just to lose weight. Our eating habits as a family are pretty healthy in general. I ,on the other hand, love sweets ( I think I have a sugar addiction and they are offering a seminar on this subject that I plan to attend ;) ) If the food is good I usually like seconds. I can't stop myself when I am full and I usually end up bloated and feeling like crap, but heck it was a lovely dinner!
So this is what I am planning to do:
-eat every few hours, don't skip any meals.
-eat a healthy breakfast within 45 min of waking up
-drink 2 L of water
-no sugary things (the only sweet I am using is organic agave nectar in my coffee in the morning), if I should feel like killing someone for a piece of desert I am going to snack on a piece of dark chocolate.
-We cook pretty healthy around here so I guess the only change I need is to use a rice bowl (size is fairly small) for all the pasta or rice dishes that we usually make for dinner and no seconds allowed.
-No eating dinner past 6:30 pm. If I should get hungry for a snack later on, I will have either a piece of fruit or a cup of hot tea.
-Have healthy snacks around such as raw almonds and lots of fresh fruits, frozen fruit for smoothies etc.
-I would also like to mention that these are general rules and if we attend any special event or I crave something in particular I will allow myself to taste a bit of this and that. Everything has to be in moderation!
Workout plan:
-daily cardio (6 days a week) either running or other aerobics exercises provided by my WiiFit Plus
-abs, legs, arms and butt exercises alternating 2 of each every other day.
Since I haven't worked out in so long I will start small. Plus, since I have a baby and an almost 5 year old my days are all about taking care of them, so my workouts will have to happen during nap times and probably broken up in pieces squeezing in 10 mins here and there. I want to keep it short and fun so that I wake up eager and happy to play (work out) again. I also have to mention that I do have a little assistant my wellness challenge buddy, he's my very precious almost 5 year old little man. He reminds me every day how lucky I am and how fun it is to wake up and play with him on the wii.
I hope I didn't miss anything and I will be back tonight with another post about how my first day was.
For dinner, I made my salad with chickpeas, boiled egg, roasted peppers, black olives, avocado, red onions, a bit of lettuce, parsley, salt, pepper, canola oil and fresh lemon juice. It was out of this world good.