The first observation I've made about the “everybody elses” out there is the moment they know you're trying to lose weight they say, “well, you're not supposed to have THAT...” and make other generalizations that frankly aren't helping anyone. For your information, I've lost 50+ pounds and I still eat chocolate every freaking day. So, don't step too close to me if you're going to tell me that I can't have it. I might not have had my chocolate yet that day and you might not make it through those words... haha. No seriously. I go for candy runs to the downstairs of my office building every day. Ask anyone.
Another thing that the “everybody elses” like to do is say, “oh, don't worry, you can have that just this once...” I know I'm bad about this. When I'm up against a friend who is also trying to watch what they eat, maybe at a different stage than I am, I tend to try to unknowingly bully them into going out to eat or calling out for pizza. Just because I'm at a good place in my weight loss and just because I understand what my body can handle at this particular time does NOT mean I know what's best for someone else. If I'm suggesting to my friend who has only been on their weight loss journey for a couple weeks that we should get pizza, I could be completely sabotaging their progress.
Speaking of sabotaging progress... I'm going to be completely honest with you about what I ate this past weekend. You'll understand why my post didn't make it up here until Wednesday...
I was doing great all week. I ate my normal things. I went to the gym... and then Friday night I drank a bunch of booze. And then I did what I like to do after a night of having a bunch of booze, I had Wendy's for lunch. And I didn't go to the gym. AND THEN I went over to a friend's house and had pizza. And I went to a kid's birthday party and had
pizza. And a cupcake. And then I went back to my friend's house and had some pizza. I ate 5 pieces of pizza over the course of one Saturday. That's on top of the Wendy's I ate. Yea. I'm an excellent ROLE MODEL.
If that wasn't enough... the chocolate cake I was planning to share with someone special on Friday night... you know, the big piece of chocolate cake that we couldn't eat because of all the booze? Yea. That I ate myself. All by myself. And a bag of popcorn. Yea, that was Saturday.
Sunday was definitely an improvement, but I had already shook myself up and plunged myself into bad habits. And they feel so good when you indulge them...
So my Monday weigh in? I was up 3 pounds. THREE POUNDS!!! HOLY CRAP! Of course, this is what I'm referring to when I say “fake weight.” Pizza is loaded with sodium. And I was a very bad girl and I haven't logged it... I didn't put it into MyFitnessPal because I was so disgusted with myself. I had been in the 150's for three weeks... and I weighed 161 when I stepped on the scale Monday morning... and I was pissed. BUT the good thing is I'm 1 pound away from getting that pesky “fake weight” back off. I buckled down... I went back to my normal routine and my normal eating habits and my normal water consumption... and I think everything's going to be okay.
But the point is this: how much could I really enjoy my life if instead of letting lose and having a great time with my friends I just stayed by myself and constantly watched w
hat I ate? I don't think that'd be too fun at all. So it's not all about us... not all about me... not all about you. It's about adapting and bouncing back from what “everybody else” gives to our life. The positive and the 3 pounds.
One positive change that somebody else has recently made in my life really became apparent to me tonight. I had to cut my workout short because about 27 minutes in I was RAVENOUS!!! I could have eaten anything. I just bottomed out. I could barely move. Usually I don't have a snack before my workout if I go after work (don't lecture me, I know I should eat something... I just don't have anything to eat with me!) so feeling this way was very different. And I noticed, though I've been hungry I have not felt that sudden burst of hunger in a really long time.
I am going to give credit for that to someone pretty new in my life that eats! And eats when they want to! I used to find myself getting “hangry” (you won't like me when I'm HANGRY!) when around others because I couldn't eat the portions that were served at meals so while everyone else around me was full from the gigantic breakfast they inhaled, I, who ate modestly, got hungry about 3 hours later. I've found someone who EATS THREE HOURS LATER! It's really helped me! So feeling that hangry feeling (I wasn't actually angry...) was something I hadn't felt. When I'm hangry, I shovel food in... so it's been great to break away from that and enjoy many small eating moments. I think that's why it's recently been so easy to lose weight.
Positive also is the fact that my coworker who I have been cooking lunch for along with myself for the past few weeks... we haven't actually gone out to lunch in a long time. This is good! We're eating hearty, healthy meals for lunch that don't come in a Smart Ones box... and we're saving money by not going out which always leads to overeating.
This week I made us a Spinach, Rotini, Tomato and Mozzarella Salad... verbatim Cooking Light recipe that I'd been wanting to try. It was excellent! And it made 4 servings so we each got to have it twice.
Tonight I made Shrimp and Artichokes with Wild Rice, a Cooking Light recipe I altered, since these recipes where they utilize the awesomeness that is the Uncle Ben's Ready Rice are 4 servings that couldn't feed ANYONE. So I lowered a few of the ingredients and I make them 2 servings, since the Ready Rice is 2 servings per package anyway.
So here's how that went down:
1 pkg Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Ready Rice
8.5 oz can of quartered
artichoke hearts
12 shrimp, de-veined and all that nasty stuff
2 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese
½ cup Light Ragu Parmesan Alfredo
1 Tbsp fat free milk
Cook the shrimp for 2 minutes. Set aside. Drain and rinse your can of artichokes (rinsing canned anything removes some of the sodium). Chop up the artichokes if you'd like them in smaller pieces. Throw the artichokes in the same pan where you cooked the shrimp over medium-high heat.
Prepare the sauce in a microwave
safe measuring cup. Add the Alfredo and the Milk to the measuring cup and microwave for a minute on medium power, just to warm through.
Cook the Ready Rice in the microwave according to package directions. Add the rice, shrimp and sauce to the pan and mix with the artichokes. Stir until integrated and warm. Top with shredded parm.
This looked SO GOOD. I can't wait to eat it tomorrow.
And just for the record, everything that I've posted here where I haven't eaten it right away, therefore am not sure whether or not it actually tastes good? Yea. It's all been awesome. Just had to throw that out there.
So the week is almost over. I promise I'll track my weight on Monday. No matter if it's still up or not. I hate setting a bad example, but I hadn't had a gain in a long time and I just didn't know how to handle it. I'm a baby.
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