Challenging the Plan

You plan. You plan your meals and your workouts and you try to make your body predictable. Anticipate that little up and down you'll have during the week. Plan your splurge day. Plan dessert. And most days, your plan works out well. You might sneak a couple pieces of candy that you choose to leave off of your tracker. It won't kill you. Tomorrow's a new day.

But then there's times when your plan goes completely out the window. This was my week.

It's still a challenge for those of us that seem to have it all together. Coming down off of that bought of strep throat has been a challenge. I've finished my antibiotics but still have a little cough. I had zero, I mean absolutely no, energy this week. Not a great thing when you're trying to get pumped for a new workout. And then there's this school thing I'm doing. My brain has had to work harder than it's worked in a long time. Which is great! Don't get me wrong... I'm just not used to being so tired.

Monday I came home and did my first Chalean Extreme workout before getting into school work. It was great. I have a hard time focusing when weight lifting, so having someone telling me exactly what to do helps me focus. It's not that I don't know how to do a deadlift... but I'll start thinking about something else while I'm doing it, lose focus, and it's as if I'm not doing it at all, losing count of my reps and not paying attention to the muscle I should be working. Squats have become super easy for me with my strong legs... but squats with 24 pounds were a challenge. And I needed it. I was sore for two days after and I couldn't have been happier.

Tuesday should have been cardio day. I was exhausted. I have a busy mind anyway, constantly thinking and talking to myself and moving, so add school work into it and it gives me another subject to constantly think about and worry and think... so my day at work trying to focus on the task at hand and fight my own brain into submission was tiring. I got home and thought if I laid down for a half hour, I'd get up and do my workout. I put the DVD in... it said it was 45 minutes... I turned it off. I couldn't do 45 minutes of cardio.

But I think that was because I was still technically sick. It was really okay that I didn't do it because I needed to get well and pushing too hard would be a painful setback. I have a race in 3 weeks and I should really get better. On Tuesday, I ended up doing my school work and then making myself go to bed at 8:50.

Wednesday I went to dance class and found myself coughing a lot. Thursday I did the second lifting workout which yielded sore triceps, back, and hamstrings. Deliciously sore. 

Which is great except when you spend the evening cheering on the Bruins at TD Garden and it hurts to curl your beer to drink it (and the next three too, which were all worth every calorie). And you try to sleep but your arms won't let you lay a certain way. I just felt like everything was out to make me tired.

This morning broke the cycle. I woke up at 6 on my own. I laid there... and thought, You could run right now... nothing's stopping you. And rather than make an excuse I got up, put my hair up, strapped on the sports bra and went for it. I haven't ran for two weeks because of the strep throat, so I gave myself two miles. I got the first mile done in 8:49 which reminds me that my muscles are fine. My endurance is just a little off because I can still feel a twinge in my lungs. The second mile was a little over 10 minutes, but that's collectively under 20 minutes and that makes me feel good. Getting out there before the cars woke up made it easier. Just moving forward and enjoying the music.

My biggest thought as my chest started to hurt was, “They don't make sports bras small enough...”

I haven't talked about food yet. My solid eating foundation got me through this week. Not going to lie, last Sunday I went to Domino's for a medium pineapple and jalapeno pizza with a side of cinnamon sticks. Working all day on school work brought back those boredom hunger pains. I found myself snacking more when I was working on papers and reading. The difference now is I drink a seltzer water with it instead of a coke. And my portions are measured and under control.

Teaching yourself to eat can really help get you through the times when you can't exercise or you really are too busy or too tired. Don't use exercise to eat. Let it be the extra push that helps you burn fat and transform you.

It's funny what happens when you break away from your plan and try something new. A couple weeks ago I had altered my calories on MFP to “lose .5 lbs a week.” I get to eat 1390 now. Not that I wasn't eating that before, but now I get to eat it without working out for it. And I lost weight. I'm super close to seeing that 129 on the scale that I'm looking for :) I don't know what I'm going to do when I get there. It was never part of the plan. Just a happy accident.

 This week in food, I spent most of my time enjoy different ways of eating the things I've been eating all along. Yesterday, I bought bread for the first time in FOREVER at the grocery so that I could eat my veggie burger on a bun. I had some chili still in the fridge, so I topped my veggie burger with chili (which was also vegetarian). I could only eat half of it, which was sort of funny because you put a big ol' cow burger in my hands and I devour it pretty quickly. To quote my friend that went to TGI Friday's with me: “Did you taste it?”

Instead of going to my favorite cafe for breakfast this morning, I decided to make my own pancakes and save on the carbs and calories. Finally tried putting chocolate chips in my banana pancakes. For those of you who forgot how to make these or haven't made them before, all you need is:

 2 eggs

1 banana, sliced

1 serving of mini chocolate chips

½ Tbsp powdered sugar

Blend the eggs and banana together until smooth. Use this as your pancake batter. The only difference with these pancakes is they don't act like pancakes on the griddle, so you need to watch them. A good hot griddle can really help. Pour the batter out and then plop some chocolate chips on top. Sprinkle the whole lot with powdered sugar. A plate full of 6 pancakes costs you only 315 calories and you get 14 grams of protein. To give you some perspective, 4 chocolate chip pancakes at IHOP are 720 calories, twice the fat (at 24g) and almost 15 TIMES THE SODIUM... there's over 2000 mg of sodium in those IHOP pancakes. You don't have to sacrifice the thing you want for a good decision.

I had some more quinoa with salmon and baby bella mushrooms. I finished off the baby bellas Friday night with my handsome gentleman. I made a stir fry with potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms to go with our pork tenderloin. I really love cooking for him. He always shows appreciation.

I'm hoping the week ahead will be a little easier than last week. Probably won't be, since I got two days off this week, so I had most of the afternoon Friday to work on school stuff.

Going to go change my clothes and lift some weights now.

Breaking Records and Getting Results

The biggest lesson I've learned about weight loss in the last 5 years is there are stages. Everyone has to change their lifestyle gradually and embrace each part before they can move on to the next part. Detoxification of your habits, if you will. Here's how I see those stages:

1. Embracing Portion Control: The first stage of weight loss has really nothing to do with WHAT you eat, but how much of it you eat. It's where you learn what a human sized plate of food is and you are slowly taking out junk food. You notice that you can eat more healthy food and satisfy your hunger, but you only do that every once in a while. You will have more instances of overeating in this stage which either convinces you to quit or teaches you a lesson. You also drink a ton of water during this stage.

2. Minimum Movement: Once you have portion control down and have dropped a few pounds, then you start moving. It could be walking or an aerobics class. You do it to keep up the losses you've obtained from the first stage. Many times you reward your good behavior with bad food: “I walked 3 miles today, let's go to Dairy Queen!” But it's something you have to go through. At least now when you do eat the wrong things, the principles of portion control are there. You may order a large, but you may not finish it. You may try a kid's meal at a fast food restaurant.

3. Knowledge of your Body: You're moving regularly (I'm not ready to call it exercising) and you only have one helping at dinner, now you're starting to learn that some things won't be tolerated anymore, not by your calorie count, but by your digestive system. Since you're eating more healthy foods and less solid fats, you sneak that donut during the morning meeting at work and find that you end up with stomach cramps. I think this is a pivetal stage. This is when your body punishes you for changing your mind. It wants to be healthy and is enjoying the good treatment. You may not mind the pain of overindulging on junk food, but for most of us, this is where we really start to not go back.

3a. The Plateau: I call this a subsection of stage 3, but really this is a subsection of every stage. The dreaded plateau. These are the times when your knowledge of your body is shaken and when moving turns to exercise. You're tired of the scale standing still so you change walking to running on the treadmill or moving to the elliptical. You might even start some light weight lifting. Anything to get that number to go down again, the way you were accustomed. You may also learn in this stage that your “trigger foods” are probably unnecessary and you may try to give them up completely. You'll go through this stage a few times. I had a plateau for every 20 pounds. That's at least 4 plateaus. It's a normal process.

4. Nutrition: Once you've lost enough weight and you've gotten many of the things that you used to eat out of your system, you get to the point where overeating and eating the things that make your stomach turn just aren't worth it anymore. You'll have more little produce baggies in your cart than cardboard boxes and you don't miss processed sugar because you have enough natural sweetness to enjoy until your heart's content. It's not that you never have a cupcake, but you've learned that this is a treat and not a meal. You feel better.

5. Fitness: You put your good diet to good use. The Nutrition stage and the Fitness stage are interchangable. They work together. You work out harder, not just 45 minutes on the treadmill, but you really push yourself and you sweat and you eat well not because you know you should, but because you worked out so hard you don't want to hurt it with bad food. You seek out new challenges and you try to make it all interesting.

6. Maintenance: The final stage, once you've reached your ideal weight, you have to try to keep it there. It's the easiest hard thing in the world. Nutrition and Fitness work together to make your body work like it should. You eat very few processed foods and you sometimes forget how it started. It's hard for you to remember how you ever ate what you used to. It's hard for you to watch other people going through steps 1 and 2. You want to smack that Special K chip out of their hand, but it's the start of their journey.

I'm somewhere between steps 5 and 6. Technically I haven't turned my calorie count onto “Maintenance” mode because I secretly would like to see 129. The thing I'm forgetting is that many of you are still caught in steps 1 and 2. You're going to eat the bad stuff. You've got to get it out of your system. I don't buy bread anymore, but judging from the gigantic aisle at the grocery, some people still do.

I think the main reason I started today's post like this is to remind myself that there are stages. Remind myself that it took me 5 years to get here. I've been below my goal weight since September and my fitness stage has really taken me to new and more awesome places.

On Thursday night I did my last workout in Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I didn't have the same visual changes that I had when I was finished with Ripped in 30, but my abilities have increased. For reference, today is the 30^th day, however I am a runner so I couldn't spend all of my time inside doing a DVD when there was sunshine and pavement outside. I did each Level a total of 6 times.

As a Ripped in 30 graduate, Level 1 was nearly a cake walk the first workout. I added weights to my cardio just because it was so much easier. Of course, that made it harder. I stopped doing any of the modifications (except abs...) and I did all of my push up moves and plank moves on my toes. Level 2 was tough because of the number of reps. I'd increased my weights for a challenge, but adding weight and doing 1 minute worth of reps makes for a difficult go. Level 3, just like the 3^rd Week of Ripped in 30, that's where I noticed a real change. Traveling Push-Ups and Walking Planks are FANTASIC. I moan and groan the whole time, but the more I did it, the more I could do.

Here's some comparison pictures:

Before 30 Day Shred

After 30 Day Shred

Before 30 Day Shred

After 30 Day Shred

I feel like the biggest changes this time as far as my physical form have been my arms and my shoulders. My legs are pretty boss too, but it's hard to take pictures of your own legs...

I've lost ½ inch in my hips, my waist is the same, though I feel like I have a little more definition in my obliques. According to the little caliper I have, I'm now 19% body fat and in the “lean” category. I started 30 Day Shred at 132.9 lbs and I'm 131.9 as of this morning, so one pound gone. That means I only have 25 lbs of fat, right? I won't pretend to be good at math.

What about changes you can't see? I do all of my push-ups on my toes now. I can do 12 push-ups before “failure.” I can run an under 9 minute mile, which leads me to my next topic of the St. Patrick's Day 5k I ran yesterday. I was smashing personal records left and right.

I wish I could run a 5k every weekend. It's so much fun. I love being in the big group of people. I love hearing the thundering of footsteps and the breathing of the other runners and virtually no other sound. I train with music, but I don't wear headphones during races mainly for safety and because music tends to change my pace and can sometimes make me run slower. The core work in 30 Day Shred has really made me feel stronger and running has become much easier now that I have a stronger core (I don't stay it's strong... but I'm getting there). I finished this 5k with a net time of 27:47. They were calling out split times, so if my focused brain remembers correctly, my first mile was 8:15 or so and I reached mile 2 in 17:10. I didn't just run the first two miles in less than 20 minutes, I smoked those first two miles. Now I understand how those girls in Cross Country can finish those races so fast.

I'd really like to find one to run in April, but with two races in May I'm not sure I will. With every race I feel more and more like a runner. I met some nice people afterward who were kind enough to take my picture and we chatted about running and it feels so good that even though I've only got a year of it under my belt, I'm accepted as if I've been able to do it forever. The beer afterward was awesome.

Progress is awesome, but I know you're really here for the food. I tried a couple variations on my morning oatmeal this week that were DELICIOUS. First was honey and banana. The honey melts and you can taste it in every bite. Was inspired by the Chobani Flips with the banana and honey mix in. Also had “peanut butter and jelly” oatmeal with some strawberry. That was pretty good and it was just because I was out of bananas. I eat a banana and a Tbsp of peanut butter every day pretty much.

I took some pictures of some of the other foods I ate this week just because they looked so delicious. 

I also started working on cleaning out my closet and my drawers of all of the clothes that don't fit anymore.  I went to Old Navy yesterday with a coupon and got three new pair of shorts (among other things).  I bought size 4 where last year at this time, I was in a size 10 pair of the same shorts there.  Here's what I look like in those shorts now:

I also played fashion show with some of the clothes I wasn't sure I could wear.  Of course I have two pair of size 8 jeans that fit perfectly.  It's funny how different sizes can be.  I think maybe Old Navy just wants me to feel good about myself because I'm in size 4 and extra small tops there.  

 

So what's my next challenge? So glad you asked. I'm taking a trip “back home” to Kentucky over Easter weekend, so I don't want to start another program until I get back. Going to do some Jillian ab workouts, some yoga and some running until I get back and then start ChaLEAN Extreme. Next Sunday I'm going to do the fitness test you're supposed to do beforehand to see your progress. I'll post the results here so that I'll have a place to keep the data to see how far I come in 90 days. This'll be my first 90 day program. I'll also be working my way up to 12k running for my race at the end of May.

NEARLY forgot to mention... in the spirit of last week's post of getting what you want... I purchased my ticket to go to Jillian Michaels' motivational talk in Lowell, Massachusetts on May 1st.  I bought the VIP tickets, where you get to go to a 30 minute Q&A with Jillian afterward.  I'm going to take my Ripped in 30 DVD in hopes that I can have a signed copy :)  I'm so stoked.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Drink a bunch of beer. That's my main source of carbs ;)

Advice Requires 1% of your DV of Sodium

This has been quite the interesting week. Since President Obama is footing the bill for my BCP nowadays, I've gone back to the generic which gave me a bit of a change when it came to dealing with PMS. Usually I get a nice 1-2 pound weight loss (the only one I get) when I start the placebo pills, but this week, not so much. I felt seriously huge most of the week and couldn't physically shove enough chocolate down my gullet. Blah. But that's over now and yesterday I had a super healthy day. It helped that I didn't leave the house.

So this morning I got a pleasant surprise. 132.9. I hadn't even seen anything in the 133's yet! I'm sure I'll see that tomorrow. That's an official 84 pounds down. Have to admit, it's starting to lose its specialness. I've maintained a weight below my goal for 5 months now and I want to be honest and say that I'm really scared of true maintenance. There's a sick desire in me to see 129 lbs. Now, don't forget, I'm only 5 foot 4, so today I have a BMI of 22.8. Being 129 pounds is only a BMI of 22.1 (I won't go into how BMI is a flawed measure because it doesn't take body fat into account and all that jazz, but for the sake of combating “don't lose too much weight, Katie” I'm going with it). That's perfectly normal. It's so strange for me to even be considering the fact that I could ever be “under” weight. I don't think it's possible, really.

I shoved a cupcake in my mouth on Valentine's Day while screaming, “I eat 1200 calories a day... don't judge me!” :P

For exercise this week I spent most of it alternating between Abs and Yoga before starting 30 Day Shred yesterday. The Ab workout I chose was Jillian's Killer Abs which is a really interesting DVD. If you've never done a Jillian workout and you're looking for one, DO NOT pick this one first. She's really nice... really really nice. And it doesn't motivate me. I like when she screams for me not to stop because usually, she starts screaming about the time that I start wanting to slow down. BUT that said, I really enjoy that workout. Burn about 150 calories doing mostly ab exercises (there's a few cardio intervals too).

I'm two workouts in to 30 Day Shred and after graduating from Ripped in 30, I find myself doing the “bad ass” version of 30 Day Shred. My first workout was kind of... *gulp*... EASY. It's because the cardio portions are all enjoyable moves. Jumping Jacks. Butt Kicks. Punches. Jump Ropes. Nothing too hard to handle. My second time through, I did my butt kicks holding a 7 lb weight to try to make it harder. I did jumping jacks at double time. I do the hard versions of the ab workouts. I'm pretty freaking psyched that I can do it... and that I feel I have to.

I had an idea for today's blog post that revolved around my monthly magazine fix. I threw out a question/answer scenario on Facebook and got an interesting question that sort of melds together with my original idea. So today we're going to talk about advice. Advice and how you usually have to take all of it with a grain of salt.

Thank you, Internet, for enlightening me as to the origin of the phrase “with a grain of salt.” Turns out the Latin word for salt is the same as the word for wit. “Cum grano salis” then could mean “with a grain of wit.” You have to have your wits about you when it comes to advice. You know what's right for you. And you do know what's right... you just might not follow it every day. You know fast food is bad for you. You have eyes. You can read nutrition facts and see that when one meal is over 2000 calories that's probably not going to help you lose weight, considering you do eat two other meals during the day. It's hard when things are written down. It's hard when people are telling you that Item X is the right thing for you to consume and then you're finding that it's making you unsuccessful.

The question posed to me was, “it takes 30 days to set a habit, but how do you make it past day 2?”

That's a question that I could talk about forever but I could never really answer. Because the second day into forming a new lifestyle, that's entirely up to you. I can give advice and tips and share my own experiences as to how it works, but it boils down to your ability to change. Your desire to change. And if you wake up Day 2 and consume 4000 calories and feel miserable and blow off exercising. And then you wake up Day 3 and do the same... you're not ready. Either you're not ready to change or you're changing too much too fast. And that really is okay. Just don't be discouraged by the results you're not getting by the work you're not doing.

Right now I'm ankle deep in my monthly magazine fix. I subscribe to Cooking Light, Weight Watchers, Eating Well and Whole Living. I pick up Runner's World and Women's Health off the shelf at the grocery. I love magazines. I love the pictures of food (food porn) and I love the recipes. I like reading all the different types of advice they give and sometimes I'll get enlightened to new products or something cool to try out. But it's interesting to see their advertisements. What the magazine is saying in the articles vs. what they're saying to you in the ads.

Weight Watchers has the weirdest combination of ads. The articles as well as conversations in Weight Watchers meetings (remember, I participated in Weight Watchers 3 times. It worked for me to a point, but I couldn't get to goal on their program) preach the fact that you can “have what you want” on the Weight Watchers program. This drives me insane.

Sure. It's a points system, just like counting calories is essentially a “points” system where I'm eating 1200 “points” per day. If I had 1200 calories in cupcakes and that's all that I ate today, chances are I would lose weight because mathematically, calories in and calories out, that would work. What members forget is that you CAN NOT “have what you want.” You can have what you want after you have met all of your nutritional needs for the day. It's stated in the handbook... but everyone overlooks that awful part (myself included)

Those extra points you have or the “weekly” points, those are only supposed to be used after you've had your daily amounts of proteins, vegetables, fruits, low fat dairy, etc. I feel that allowing you those extra points is what sets you up for failure. You're essentially getting a free pass to “cheat.” At least if you're going to eat a dessert or something you don't normally eat, don't view it as “I can have it.” It's “I want it, and that's that” and then just suffer the caloric consequences. You're not going to spontaneously combust because you ate too many calories. But you need to remember that you went over yesterday so you don't do it tomorrow.

The ads in WW magazine are for snacks. Talk at the meetings are about low calorie, processed, boxed snacks. There are also ads for plus sized clothing and diabetes medication. Weight Watchers knows the people that are reading the magazine. There are THREE ads for THREE different insulin injections. Don't get me wrong, plenty of people are successful on Weight Watchers, but it's because they're following the program correctly. I seriously doubt Jennifer Hudson eats Nutri-Grain bars and drinks Crystal Light. Those things don't make for a healthy lifestyle. Eating your points in food with a longer shelf life than you isn't helping.

That makes me wonder then what part of the advice you're supposed to take seriously. They're trying to sell you something. And that's one reason why I could never be a “lifestyle coach” because I'm not into selling anyone anything. I like trying all different things. I don't want to endorse anything. There's tons of things that I like and that I would recommend, but you shouldn't base your diet around it. So Weight Watchers has the program they are selling and they have the food they are selling. Even in the WW meetings they tell you to limit the number of frozen dinners (Smart Ones) you eat because they're full of sodium. Sodium retains water in your body and that magic number you're watching on the scale isn't going to go down as quickly.

Back to the question... how do you get past Day 2 of creating a new habit? Learn to tell yourself what to do. There's advertisements and bloggers and magazines and meetings and all of these other people telling you what to do. Learn to discipline yourself. It's okay to deny yourself processed foods. It's okay to deny yourself soda and candy. You will not die without it, though it might feel like it but that's because it's tasty and we're all addicted. Be disciplined enough to create a plan and stick with it.

Here's some examples of how I “discipline myself” with my fitness plan. I've got my glass white board from IKEA that I'm keeping track of my 30 Day Shred workouts on. Every time I complete one, I'll mark it off. This gives me an instant visual of my progress. I've also got a separate calendar where I'm looking at the longer term, which days I'll workout and which days will be a rest day. I pick my rest days based on the fact that I have stuff to do and it would work best for me to rest on those days. By making a calendar and keeping track of my workouts, I'm making an appointment with myself to work on fitness. I'm telling myself that it is a priority and that I will make time for it.

You're bombarded with advice doing workout videos too. To paraphrase Jillian in Level 1 of 30 Day Shred, we are told to change our lives by “just taking the stairs” and those are words that lead to a world of lethargy. You have the ability to work out and push yourself. We chose to listen to the advice that is easy. It's easy to take the stairs and then go home and sit on the couch the rest of the night. It's easy to eat “what you want” just less of it.

I discipline myself with the stuff I eat starting at what I bring home from the grocery. I don't bring home anything I shouldn't eat. I can get what I shouldn't eat at a restaurant. Then they can keep the rest of the ingredients and I can have just my share. If I bring home something I shouldn't have, one of two things happens. Either it sits there, unopened, because I know when I open it I'm going to just suck it down... or I open it and I suck it down. “Bad” things don't last too long at Katie's house.

There's no end to this conversation. It takes willpower. Nothing comes easy and really, do you want it to? At the end of the day, when you go to bed well nourished, coming off the high of getting in a good workout, knowing that you took charge of your life and took charge of your health, wouldn't it make it cheap if it was easy? Be proud of today and let that influence your tomorrow.

In food... this week I did eat healthy as I usually do. I just ate a bunch of candy. My uterus required candy and I gave in and ate the candy. Big deal. It's over now and I'm past it.

Those Skinny Strawberry and Chocolate Chip muffins that I made last week were FABULOUS and I ate them for my Second Breakfasts split open, reheated in the microwave, and then I spread 1 Tbsp of peanut butter split across the four pieces. I've always been afraid of all things PB&J but if this is what PB&J tastes like, sign me up! Except eating fruit rather than jelly is probably better...

I tried a little bit of a lower calorie alternative to my normal peanut butter and banana oatmeal. I crushed up 10 almonds and stirred that into my oatmeal and then put in my banana. It was really tasty! Not as decadent as the peanut butter being that it's all gooey and delicious, but this was a fun, new what to eat it. Always looking for new ways...

 

And then there were salads. And toward the end of the week when I ran out of my salmon and pulled pork, I started throwing cottage cheese into my salad and it was so delicious. 

 I ate my weight in strawberries this week, since for Valentine's Day dinner, I made chocolate covered strawberries. These are actually pretty low in calories for having chocolate. It's about 70 calories for a serving of the melting chocolate and then strawberries are about 15 calories a piece, give or take.

The rest of Valentine's Day dinner was so tasty. I made filet mignon with shrimp, asparagus and rice. I didn't eat any rice, I mainly made it so that my handsome gentleman had enough to eat. I did way too much internet research to cook those steaks because I wanted them to come out tasty. How I ended up cooking them was I marinaded them for a day with olive oil and soy sauce. I pan seared them 4 minutes on each side in my all-stainless steel skillet, then threw the skillet in the oven on 450 for about 7-8 minutes. I transferred them to a plate and covered it with foil while I got the rest of the food finished and plated. They were so good. Rare and delicious. Couldn't have been happier. He seemed to enjoy it too ;)

I can't remember if I mentioned the Fiber One stuff that I tried last week. I did pick up a box of the Fiber One Chocolate 80 Calorie Cereal because I was so into chocolate last week. It's not terrible. It's not delicious, but it's chocolatey and full of fiber, so go for it. It does turn the milk into a delicious chocolate milk, so that's fun. Fiber One Protein Bars, I had the Caramel Nut and it felt a little like eating a Snickers. It was pretty good. At least you get some fiber eating the chocolate.

I also tried Shredded Mini-Wheats in Cinnamon Roll flavor. They're MINI!!! It's super cute! And they were tasty and not much different in stats as the normal shredded mini wheats, which I love.

Lastly to report this week is I got it into my brain to play around in Crane Pose last night. I felt myself tipping too far forward, so to save my glasses-wearing-face, I slammed my knees down. I laid on the floor for a while, doing that Peter Griffin “hissing” sound over and over. It hurt. And now I have two super awesome knots on my knees. They're not too bruised yet, but my knees stay bruised for the most part because they're so bony, so anything I do on the knees (stay mature, people) gives me pretty, purple splotches.

I have tomorrow off for President's Day, so maybe there'll be a run in my future (it's been super cold, super windy, and oh yea, 17 inches of snow WHAT?). Haven't ran in 2 weeks...

You Got Me Running

The miles I travel, I feel them in the pads of my left toes first. Three miles into today's run, my hat barely keeping the misty rain off of my glasses, I took to the steeper part of Lake Ave losing a bit of my momentum. I had updated my running playlist to not only make more minutes of music available (yes, I run with headphones in... but I wore a red headlight in the fog... I get my safety elsewhere) because with restarting Bridge to 10k, my runs will be nearly an hour or more from now on. On comes Katy Perry's “Part of Me” and though I wouldn't call this the most influential song of the times, tears started streaming down my face. I'm still so overwhelmed by what I can do. What I have overcome. The strength I have for so many things. What I let go of when I didn't care for myself and the growing relationship I have with the person I am now.

I wonder what the world would be like if everyone could feel this feeling. The freedom and pride. Probably people would be a lot less stressed and angry. Confident. Friendly. That's why I want to share it.

I remind myself that I keep this blog for a couple reasons. The first is to keep me honest. The idea of getting here on Sunday mornings to tell you, “Yea... I completely failed at everything this week” isn't my ideal, so the result is I don't fail. I'm accountable to something, even if no one reads it (but I know you do, so thank you!). The second reason is hoping that it helps someone. Maybe if I can get it across that it gets easier, more people won't be afraid to set goals to get there.

I get to take this to another level soon. My boss is letting me start a Healthy Living Support Group at work and I've been so excited ever since I sent out the first meeting invitation. Wednesday we meet for the first time to discuss short term goals. Folks are going to weigh in if they're interested in that. I don't want it to be all about weight loss because honestly, when you take on healthier living, that's sort of when weight loss becomes something you no longer have to work for.

I ate so well this week because last weekend the handsome gentleman and I ate complete crap for two days and my poor belly couldn't handle it. It sort of went into Monday when my bowling league finished up in a tournament. We got 9^th place so we didn't go on to the second round so, you know, after you lose track of how many pitchers of beer you've shared and you decide against your better judgment to order fried dough. I wouldn't recommend anyone with eating habits like mine to eat fried dough. Ever. All the Tums in the world don't help you sleep.

But Tuesday night I hit the grocery store and was such a good little girl as I put fruits and vegetables into my cart, nearly staying under my $40 weekly budget. Tried a couple new things this week that I would like to share. First... Chobani Bites. I've had Chobani Champions which are their “for kids” yogurt line. These are essentially the same concept I guess, but just for grown ups. I got the Coffee with Chocolate Chunk yogurt and I'm very pleased. It tasted a lot like the Stoneyfield coffee frozen yogurt that I have in the freezer. 9 grams of protein. 100 calories. 1 gram of fat. No artificial sweetener that I can tell. I'm really proud of Chobani for that.  I seriously want to try the other flavors.

Another thing I tried was those Lean Cuisine “Salad Additions.” I had seen the commercials and you know, can't resist corporate marketing so... but I was pleasantly surprised. Not the greatest option in the sense that it's frozen food and yay preservatives and sodium, but it was pretty good. These have all of your “salad swag” and you supply the lettuce. I actually weighed out one serving of lettuce and wow, 2 cups of lettuce is really not that much. 2 cups of green leafy vegetables is one serving, where ½ cup of other vegetables is “one serving” if you're looking to actually squeeze in 8-9 servings of vegetables in your day (I'm definitely not there yet, but I'm trying). The chicken wasn't gross, it had good dressing (I didn't use all of it) and the other stuff just made it taste good. I liked it. Wouldn't get it too often probably, but it's something worth giving a try.

In an attempt to get more vegetables in my day, I've tried mixing some veggies in with my scrambled eggs. I had eggs with green beans and eggs with peas this week. Both were fine and tasty.

Also got to enjoy some variations on oatmeal this week. Had some peanut butter and banana oatmeal for second breakfast earlier this week and this weekend when handsome gentleman and I found ourselves at a local cafe for breakfast, I enjoyed some banana and brown sugar oats with an english muffin with peanut butter. I'm drooling right now. Slurp.

In the world of my physical fitness I'm trying my best to step it up a notch. For all intents and purposes, I'm at my goal weight and I can relax a little there. But I want to tone it up. I've got two piece bathing suit dreams here. So for the umpteenth time, I'm starting Ripped in 30. Every freaking time I try to do this thing the whole way through, I get sick. One might could say I'm setting myself up for sniffles.

But so far so good. I've done Week 1 so many times now that I can actually increase the weights, so I'm doing circuit 1 and 2 using 7.5 pound weights and then circuit 3 I take it back to 5 pounds (just can't do those reverse flyes in chair pose with 7.5 pound dumbbells). I've got a calendar that I'm scribbling in my workouts and my rest days. This past week looked a little like this:

Monday: Ripped in 30 (R30) Week 1, Day 1. Bowling.

Tuesday: R30, Week 1, Day 2

Wednesday: Bridge to 10k (B210K) Week 1, Day 1. Tap Class.

Thursday: R30, Week 1, Day 3

Friday: REST

Saturday: B210K, Week 1, Day 2

Sunday: B210K, Week 1, Day 3

I'm also trying to keep a better record of my fitness.  I follow Runner's World on Facebook and at the end of 2012 they asked how many miles everyone logged... and I didn't know.  But I wanted to know!  So in my little calendar I found I can log my miles and keep notes on every day (note, I got this for $7, it looks like it's gone up since.  Glad I scored it when I did).  I'm keeping notes on the non-running workouts here as well.  

So as you can see, I'm not doing Ripped in 30 to the specifications of Jillian who says to do it 5-6 days a week. But I am going to do each week 5-6 times. So tomorrow, that will be R30, Week 1, Day 4. It's going to take me 2 weeks to do each “week” since I'm incorporating my running into it, but I think that'll be fine. And I'll always make sure to have that all important rest day. This coming week, that's going to be Tuesday, which is my 28^th birthday!

I have a lot more to talk about this week about fitness over food. I just ate well. Ate tasty vegetables, didn't do much hardcore cooking. I got myself a heart rate monitor which I wore on Thursday's workout and today's run. For Ripped in 30, I was overestimating my calories burned, but I remained “in zone” for longer. For my run, Bridge to 10k doesn't know anything about your run other than your weight and your times. So where B210K thought I burned 525 calories today on my 4.73 mile run, my heart rate monitor said 597, even though I was only “in zone” for 13 minutes of the 54 that I was out. It knows when the road is at an incline because my heart rate increases.

Here are the maps of my three runs this week. I really like when I get to run so far that you can't tell the road names on the map. These are in order according to the workouts listed above. That means today was the one that I ventured over to the other side of the river. That's sort of been a dream of mine, to run on both sides. Achieving dreams pretty much kicks ass.

The weather for these three runs was harsh. This weekend has been misty and foggy, as you can see from this picture. Wednesday, though my boss is awesome and let me take a short lunch to start my workout earlier, it was still dark and cold. The sidewalks are melting and freezing and melting, so there's times when you find a deep puddle or an ice patch and I slow down and get through it rather than keeping my pace. I'm hoping that that means that when this stuff melts off, I'm going to make much better times.

I told myself I had to get through typing up and posting this blog post before I could take a nap... a nap I seriously could use. Then I'm off to the grocery where I'm planning to try this nifty thing called Chia Seeds... I'm thinking that's the same stuff that you spread on a Chia Pet.

If you have Netflix and watch the instant queue (I stream it on my PS3) I highly recommend a movie that's on there called “Hungry for Change.” Learned a few new things and got justification for some things that I've noticed along my journey. I always take things with a grain of salt but this was very informative. It also gave me some ideas for books to read.

Nap. On it. I think I earned it.

Batches of Cookies & Skinny Jeans

 Well, I did it. On Sunday, while at the local outlets, I slipped into Ann Taylor Loft and while hidden behind the thick dressing room curtain... I slipped a pair of skinny jeans over my hips. Figured since I've been constantly pulling up my size 8 jeans, and since I tried on a pair of 6 bootcut and they fit well, I should try the size 6 skinny jeans. Of course these are “curvy” as I do still have quite the hips.

Size 6 were enormous.

Tried on the 4.

I could fit both hands down the front and there were these unsightly bags on my tush.

And then there were 2s.

And wow. I own a pair of size 2 jeans. Don't go too crazy saying, “OH MY GOD KATIE I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!” It's seriously a fluke. And if you want to feel good about yourself rush on our to the Loft and pick yourself up some curvy skinny jeans. I almost think the size 6 bootcuts are a little baggy in the lower belly... but generally I like some wiggle room in my jeans. I'm finding that with this tighter, smaller body I'm finding many more reasons to wear things that are a little more snug.

But gaining this pair of jeans makes me feel so good during a time that I've not been able to exercise much. I've finally gotten over this cold, but it snowed recently and for some reason the idea of running on untreated sidewalks doesn't really sound like fun to me, so I'm resorting to all indoor stuff. I feel chubby and out of shape after 2 weeks of laying around and I know it isn't the case. It's just a good motivator to have a pair of pants that leaves so little to the imagination. I can't screw this up.

What do I do next? Oh, I make cookies!

Of course, just like last year, these aren't for me, so I can't mow them down. And where last year I made my old, faithful recipes, I wanted to try something different this year. I made all of my Christmas-time cookies off of Pinterest. So these recipes I'm about to share are not my own and I'll link you to the original blog that they come from, but the pictures I post and my experiences are all mine.

First I made Triple Layer Fudgy Mint Oreo Brownies. I go back and forth on mint & chocolate. I hate Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies (maybe it's because I don't care for dark chocolate?). I like Andes Mints and York Peppermint Patties. And I like these brownies. Fabulous. The original blogger made their frosting and brownies from scratch, but we all know that my attention span can't handle homemade, so here's how I made them:

One 7-oz jar marshmallow fluff

1/8 tsp mint extract

green food coloring

1 batch of brownies, from mix

12 & 18 cool mint Oreos

¾ c white chocolate chips, melted

1 container vanilla store-bought frosting

Preheat the oven according to the brownie box. In a medium bowl, stir together the marshmallow fluff, mint extract and 4 drops of food coloring.

Prepare the brownie mix and stir in 12 hand-crumbled Oreo cookies. This is always interesting because the frosting sort of makes them squishy. Do the best you can. I had a super helper through all of this and she was a pretty good crumbler. Once your cookies are mixed in, spread the batter into a prepared pan.

Drop ½ cup of the marshmallow mint mixture onto the batter and swirl it through the mix. Bake this for 23 to 30 minutes. Take notice of how your oven does and what the box of mix says. Cool completely.

While cooling, combine frosting, the reserved mint marshmallow mixture and the melted white chocolate chips. Stir in 4 more drops of green food coloring. Spread this mixture over the cooled brownies.

Sprinkle with 18 hand-crumbled Oreo cookies and slightly press into the frosting layer. Allow top layer to fully set before slicing.

Mine were pretty hard to separate... but wow were they tasty. I wrapped each one separately in plastic wrap to put them into goodie bags for my coworkers. I've had one person report back that they're good. Hopefully that'll be the consensus.

Next up I made two very easy cookie recipes, a Nutella Cookie and a Rolo Cookie.

For the Rolo Cookie, all you need is 1 package of Devil's Food Cake mix, 1 pkg of Rolos, 2 eggs and 1/3 c vegetable oil.

My Oreo-crumbling happy helper opened up the Rolo wrappers for me while I mixed together the cake mix, the eggs and the oil. You take a small bit of this batter in your hand and form it around the Rolo. It's hard not to get too much, you really don't need much. Once you have them wrapped, place them on a prepared cookie sheet (parchment paper is my preparation of choice) and bake for 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees.

They won't change too much. It just cooks the outside and melts the inside. Be careful of the hot, molten caramel when you bit into a fresh one.

The Nutella cookies were even easier. I bought store brand Hazelnut Spread because I'm cheap. All you need is a cup of that, a cup of flour and one egg. The original recipe calls for sugar, but you can leave that out.  Mix ingredients together well, roll it in little balls, schmoooosh the balls with the bottom of a glass and bake for 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees.

The last cookie recipe I'll share have gone over rather well... to me they're not terribly sweet but they have a fabulous texture. I halved the batch of frosting, so I'll share my calculations with you. These are Root Beer Float Cookies.

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp root beer concentrate (or extract, it's found in the store with the extracts)

4 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Frosting Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar

6 tbsp butter, super soft (you can also use shortening or lard, whatever you're into)

¼ cup milk

1 tsp root beer concentrate

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well as you add each. Beat in buttermilk and root beer extract. In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients. Whisk together then gradually incorporate into the wet mixture.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned (I baked mine for 9-10 minutes). Remove to wire racks to cool.

To make frosting, whip butter and extract together. Gradually alternate adding powdered sugar and milk. If you want a different consistency, try adding a bit more of either of these ingredients. Frost the cooled cookies. Let the frosting set before you put them in a container.

I've had a number of these root beer cookies. They're soft and have a great texture. I actually had 3 of them today alone. Definitely recommend these.

I don't know how I survived or how I ate new things before the invention of Pinterest.

I have another batch of cookies I want to make before Christmas. Looking forward to having the time off from work to spend with some people I love. Can't see everyone I love this year, but should be a good holiday. Hopefully I'll get in some quality workout time in.

Make all of these cookies with caution. I don't want to be responsible for someone's caloric kamikaze.

Advice and How to Overcome My Sinus Headache

I haven't found much to write about the last few weeks because I haven't exactly cooked or done anything interesting. Going through that lull where I just try to eat the food in the fridge and the pantry, very low key, very few left overs.

Of course that leads to a lot of eating out (or at least wanting to go out to eat only to try to satisfy that urge with canned chili or bacon and eggs).

I've been having about a 4 lb struggle here recently, gaining it and losing it. But 4 pounds is nothing against 80 pounds so I've got no qualms unless my pants start to get tight. Right now, after a weekend of detox and good behavior (despite a slight cold) I'm just a pound shy of back to normal. Let's talk about the last week or so.

Now that I'm healthier, fitter, thinner... sickness comes in a confusing mist. It creeps in slowly. And then when I finally figure out that I'm sick it's not the same. I'm not completely out of commission. Just confused and uncomfortable and stuffy. Slight sinus pressure. I think I'd rather be out of commission because at least then there'd be a good reason why I'm fatigued and lazy. When I have the feeling that I'm able to do more, I'm more prone to trick myself into exercising. Instead I force myself to relax and I feel like I'm wasting valuable calorie burning time.

Last weekend I had two days that I could have ran. I ran 2 miles during lunch last Thursday and then Saturday was snowy and rainy and gross, so I decided that I'd put it off until Sunday (spent Saturday doing marathon Christmas shopping instead). Sunday I got up, went to the grocery, and the wet cold in the air dragged me down and I couldn't bring myself to go outside in it. Then the dark... I came up with so many excuses and missed an entire weekend of running for the first time in a long while.

Bowling on Monday nights, so I couldn't run after work. Had a nice evening Tuesday night making dinner with my handsome gentleman, who is back home sans venison. Wednesday night I didn't go to dance class because I literally had no clothes to wear to work the next day (I also fell asleep before 9). That's the day I ordered pizza. Domino's new Pan Pizza is delicious. So was the entire order of Cinna Stix that I ate. It took me 3 sittings to finish a medium pizza, so I didn't give myself too much grief about that. But Thursday morning I had a touch of a sore throat.

By the end of the day Thursday I'd attended a luncheon for work that had this delightful cheesecake-like cake with powered sugar... of which I had a piece. I had three rolls because I never get rolls. Friday I had to run an errand for work, now ¾ of a full blown sore throat, so I got a big cinnamon roll at Panera. Luckily the rest of the day I behaved myself.

But today I got in a 2 mile run. Didn't want to do too much because it'd been over a week since I'd ran last. Last night I tried something new, an app for my phone called Sworkit. Recommended by a Friend as well as something I'd seen on Pinterest... it's pretty fun. You pick how many minutes you want to do a circuit workout and then you pick the part of your body you want to work. God knows why I picked upper body since that's my weakest part (maybe... my core isn't terribly strong either...) but I went back and forth between push ups, diamond push ups, wall push ups, jumping jacks, triceps dips, laying triceps lifts, overhead presses... you get the idea. 30 seconds per exercise and you get a 30 second break every few exercises. It was fun! Only did it for 15 minutes, since I technically was sick. But I burned 95 calories for the 15 minutes and that helped me stay within my 1220 for the day. Looking forward to trying it again and seeing what all else it has to throw at me.

I'm a little afraid that I will cheat with it. My Jillian videos I tend to push hard because she's yelling and motivating and yea, I find myself apologizing to her out loud when I have to stop for a second and catch my breath. I finally got to try her Killer Buns and Thighs workout and holy crap. I also decided to try Level 2 of Yoga Meltdown and I almost like it better. Except for “Crow.” I fell on my face for that one. That hurts when you wear glasses.

I think I'm finally back to normal. Except for this splitting sinus headache.

Have a few things coming up soon that should be enjoyable. Baby shower tomorrow (mental note to stay away from the cake no matter how much it titillates me). Office “holiday” party on Friday (mental note to stay away from cookies and various other awesome things. Sounds like my gentleman will be accompanying me, so I'll just feed them to him and steal a bite). Christmas comes soon and with that a couple days out of the office so hopefully that'll be some good time to work out. Have a 5k on New Year's day that I'm pretty psyched about.

As an aside: I also haven't posted in a while because I had this grandiose idea of doing a post all about reintroduction. But then I realized that I'd have to go back and reread my first post; read my introduction. And I just couldn't do it. I've grown past it. I get embarrassed when I fess up that I've lost 80 pounds. I am proud of myself, don't get me wrong... but when I'm home in my sweats and sports bra, rocking out planks in my living room and the skin from my stomach hangs in the middle of my abdomen, the rest of me firm but that bit of me hanging, scarred with stretch marks; that's enough of a reminder. I don't need to read about it.

So I guess what I can say is, if you've never read my blog before, I'm a 27 (nearly 28! almost my bday!) woman living on her own in New Hampshire. For a little over a year now I've been chatting here about my weight loss, life changes, and food that I enjoy eating in order to stay on track with my healthy lifestyle. I've lost 80 pounds since 2008. I'm in the most liberating and interesting relationship of my life. I like to run. I like to dance. I'd never participated in a team sport until this year. Before 2012 I'd never run a mile, let alone three of them. I'd never eaten avocado. Never ridden on a motorcycle.

And now this life I live daily, though it's hard... I love every moment of it. So many things could improve. But there's so much that I like just the way they are.

I give advice sometimes. And now that I'm an old pro at this eating healthy, exercising thing... I think about what I want to tell people. So many just aren't ready. It's gradual. It's hard to let go of the things you think you want or need. But if you're looking to get started or you need some new motivation, here's some tips I try to fill my own head with.

1. Your journey starts at the grocery store. Look at the nutrition facts. If you can't have ONE serving of this item at a time, don't buy it. Example: the store I go to most keeps their protein/nutritional needs in the bread aisle (bastards). They've stopped carrying my whey protein in the big containers so I was contemplating trying a new kind... also eying the protein bars to see if anything looked interesting. Saw some Balance Mini Bars that looked good (only 100 calories) but I couldn't justify the sugar. Anyway, along with the bread in this aisle, there's donuts. I LOVE powdered sugar donuts. Love them with a big glass of milk. I'm sure a serving of those is 1 donut. And it's not that I couldn't eat just one... but because I live alone, if I eat one and then the box sits open a couple days, they're going to go bad. So is it worth buying them to throw them all away? Or is it worth buying them to risk eating them all, justified by the fact that they're going to go stale so I should just eat them all now. Don't bring things into your home. If you're prepared with good food, you're going to eat good food.

2. Don't accept excuses. There's an excuse I hear a lot that I can't exactly sympathize with but I think excuses can be abolished with a positive attitude no matter what they are. That excuse is that you have to have junk food in the house because you have kids. Now, I don't have kids... but what kinds of favors are you doing for your kids and for yourself by having junk food in the house? Honestly, you're giving those kids a future like my past and present. They're going to learn to eat the wrong things and then they're going to have to find a way to overcome it. Other excuses tend to revolve around other people. Someone's partner or spouse doesn't like vegetables. Your significant other can't live without junk in the house so you have to live with it. But there are ways to overcome it. My boyfriend's fit and eats well, but he's got a cabinet full of no-no food. I just don't go in there. If your husband can't live without Oreo cookies and that's your trigger food, he can take them to work and leave them there. Do what you need to do to be strong. The eating is the hard part. When you can lose weight and overcome habits... the exercise is easy.

3. Don't be afraid to not clean your plate. ESPECIALLY at restaurants. If you need to put half the plate in a box before you start eating, do it. Do what you need to do to be strong. To be successful. Because no one is going to notice but you. And once these things become habits and they become second nature you'll wonder why you didn't do it in the first place.

4. Stop drinking soda. I haven't had a soda since September 20^th. I know because I track my food like a crazy person and I flipped through all of my records to find the last time I had it. And the last time I had a Coke, it was one of those tiny little 90 calorie Cokes. And back to excuses, don't use diet soda as an excuse to have it. Ever watch Mythbusters? When they tried to figure out why the Mentos did the reaction with the diet soda, they split up the ingredients inside the soda to see which ingredients had the reaction. You don't need to drink chemicals. Now, black coffee... drink up if you need the caffeine. Water's good for you. Drink it.

5. Write it down. If you have a Smartphone try My Fitness Pal. If you don't, write it down on paper. Then you'll know what you've eaten, you'll know what you have left to eat.

I could go on. But I know that advice falls on deaf ears. You don't know how much strength it takes for me not to go crazy lady in the grocery when I see the things people put in their carts. This morning an obese woman was walking past me and she had a frozen red velvet cake in her cart and I just want to shake her and say, “you're worth so much more than that!” But that's the kind of behavior that gets you kicked out of stores.

The last piece of advice is do what you have to do to find that part of yourself that knows you're worth the work and you're worth the trouble. It's the hardest thing you'll ever do. How awesome will it feel to survive the hardest thing you'll ever do? After that, you can do anything.