Reflections...

I have made a loaded (LOTS of spinach and kale along with my fruit) green smoothie every day this week and have been impressed with how filling it has ended up being. I feel like I must be forgetting to add things to my food diary because I have so many calories left at dinner time. In fact, Wed I had well over 1000 calories so we went to a really good Chinese buffet for dinner. I am sure I went over my calories, but when we got home we did danced so we worked some of them off again ;) I tried to make some really healthy choices (like salmon) and veggies (though they were loaded with butter :P). I knew I was full by the end of my first plate, but when you're paying $14 to eat, I feel obligated to go back more than once.

Yesterday I opted to hit the treadmill for a quick workout in order to make it to a 10 am appointment. I was quite sore from the CardioX of the day before. I did the 4 mph program and was proud of myself because I made it through 3 minutes at the steep incline before I had to lower it during the run part.  Last time I lowered it at each 2 min interval. Once again I had 1000 calories left at dinner. We ended up having pizza but I ate a large salad before I dug into the pizza so I had one less slice than I thought I would.

Today I did not really feel like exercising.My muscles are still sore from my workouts earlier in the week and I was super tired, but I put on CardioX and did it anyway. I know that the areas that bother me the most won't change unless I do CardioX regularly. The program works and I feel good when I do it. I had to laugh at myself because the whole time I'd think, oh I'll just do this segment and then turn it off. Oh wait, I like this one. I'll do it and then I can turn it off - until there was only 10 minutes left and at that point it's to the core exercises which I really need and I might as well finish it.

I need to figure out an exercise routine so that every day I don't have to decide what I will choose for exercise. I think I may be more likely to end up quitting if I do. I am starting to think about how much time is invested in the exercise too which tends to put a damper on my motivation. I would like to do CardioX at least twice a week, but I enjoy the dancing too. Tues and Thurs I don't have as much time in the mornings so it would  make sense to make them treadmill days. So I am thinking maybe this schedule:

Mon - CardioX
Tues - treadmill
Wed - Just Dance
Thurs - treadmill (or walk outside)
Fri- CardioX

Maybe I'll try that next week and see how I like it.

April Challenge: Week 1 Weigh in

173.3

I think I need to get a real scale. And a heart rate monitor.

I am sore in my arms and calves from dancing yesterday. YAY! My core could really use some work which makes me lean toward doing CardioX today, but I am having a hard time talking myself into it....

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Just finished CardioX. I am impressed. It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be even with being sore!  Apparently I have built up some muscles after all :) I even did the yoga better than usual. I can already feel it in my stomach so I know I will be paying for it later today and tomorrow! But yay for following through!

Eating and Just Dancing

Back to the grind.

Today I debated between the treadmill, CardioX, or Just Dance. Just Dance won because I wanted to play all by myself without having to take the boys in to account. We discovered with JD4 that there are 4 different sweet modes. We played 10 minutes of almost all of them, but today I opted for the 45 min of the kickboxing version. I remembered how much I enjoy kickboxing and would really rather have done a full 45 min just of that! Unlike the previous versions of JD, 4 counts calories as opposed to sweat points. At the end of my session it registered only 117 calories burned :/ I think I need to invest in a heart monitor if I am going to continue doing JD for my exercise so I can have a more accurate count.

Despite the low calorie burn, I think I played the day well. We just finished up dinner and this is what my numbers look like:

Pretty awesome! I've hit all my goals and still have carbs and fat to go! What's the difference?

I started my day with a chocolate strawberry, banana, pineapple green smoothie. Totally loaded it up on the kale and spinach and didn't eat anything else until lunch which was yummy leftover beef stirfry. I felt like I was snacking often today, but apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought or maybe I just didn't account for it well enough :P Dinner was a baked sweet potato, green salad and tuna on crackers. I was surprised at how full I felt afterwards too. Now if only I could keep it up!

I was looking through the message board on MFP and an April weight loss challenge caught my eye. Many of the goals were to lose 5 pounds.  I got to thinking about this and realized that 5 pounds is totally doable. If I lost 5 pounds every month for the next 3 months, by the end of June I'd be really close to my goal weight!! The question is if I am dedicated enough. I think I really need to pull out the CardioX and use it consistently. I loved the way it made me feel and it works. But it is hard work.

On a side note, my food processor isn't working :( I made some delicious almond butter the other day and was wanting to make more when I discovered it is broken. WAH!

Spring Break

My body says I have done a good job staying active while the boys are out for Spring Break. I didn't even feel up to dancing very much today because my muscles, especially my legs, are sore and tired. We have danced together just about every day this week for at least an hour. It makes me smile when they ask if they can dance :) I was tricky and the other day I told them they have to dance with me before they could play any other Wii game. They decided they had so much fun that they don't even ask to play the other games right now. Score! It is nice to have a game that I like to play too so we can do it together. Matthew plays Star Wars with them, and I dance :) Win-win.

So, here's a run-down of our activities this week and how it counted for exercise:

Mon, eh sick in bed

Tues - Had scripture class in the morning, went to Chickfila for lunch (boys played on playground for 2 hours), then danced for a couple of hours in the afternoon/evening

Wed - Explored a local park. We were supposed to go on one of the trails, but we basically made it from one playground to another via the lake's boathouse and back. There was a nice path around the playground, so I walked in circles for 45 minutes while the boys played. I did 8 laps with lap 4 being a run around (a good explanation for the sore muscles). It was really a great path because it had slopes and everything so I got a good variation of terrain. Planned on dancing when we got home but didn't have the opportunity.

Thurs - Explored the Planetarium and State Museum. Lots of stairs and walking, even if it was walking slowly. There was a 9/11 Memorial on one of the levels. I was surprised at how much emotion it evoked in me as I explained the displays to the boys. Came home and danced.

Fri - Cleaned out the car and spent majority of the afternoon stuck in traffic as we drove a friend to the airport. The boys danced for almost two hours, but I only jumped in the last 30 minutes or so. Like I said, I was tired.

Sat - Headed to a farm to collect eggs and grind feed!! I think there will be a lot of walking on the agenda as well ;) Very excited for this experience! I found out about another farm that has walking trails and allows interaction with their barnyard animals during their open hours. Love that it is closer and FREE! The one we are going to tomorrow is free as well, but it is further away so there is cost in gas. I think we may explore the closer farm on Monday :D

Week 12 Weigh in - End of Contest

Starting weight - 184
Final weight - 171.5

Can't believe it! Well, I can all things considered. I am just surprised it dropped that much between Sunday and today. I look forward to the next 5 weeks (just going to take this one month at a time in case I get any more surprises :P) I am feeling pumped now :)

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ETA:

I think if I can lose another 10 pounds, I could fit back into my shorts comfortably. I finally decided that I am ok with the longer winter because it gives me more time to work on fitting into my summer clothes :D

Final Days

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for this year's Lettuce Eat Cake contest. I would say this has been quite the roller coaster year as my weight has bounced around over the last three months. I weighed  myself on Sunday because I felt like I was actually getting bigger than the week before which I found odd considering some other issues I had going on. Sure enough, my weight had jumped up to 175.9.

I have been dealing with an off and on painful health issue for the last two weeks. Saturday was a good day though and we headed to New York to explore China Town and Little Italy. We spent a good four hours of walking, and I enjoyed all the calories I ate to make up for it :) Sunday was a really painful day and it spilled over on to Monday (yesterday) so I spent most of the day in bed though I did manage to get the boys to clean their rooms and dinner made (even if it was 7:30 pm when it got to the table). I was grateful that I woke up feeling pretty good this morning. I could feel my head starting to hurt but I decided to take an acetaminophen and plow through the day because I had high hopes for a fun day with the boys!! For the most part it worked out well. We had to postpone our trip to the planetarium but we came home and Just Danced together. They gave out before me because they'd played for two hours at the Chickfila playground for two hours, but I managed to dance for an hour. Chickfila ate up a lot of my calories, so the dancing was a must so I can eat something besides salad for dinner :)

While looking in the mirror at Chickfila I noticed that my legs were looking thinner. I know that weight wise there really hasn't been much improvement over the last 12 weeks, but as for overall health, I think I have made a lot of positive strides. I have debated about giving up at the end of the contest, but today, I see value in continuing the journey.

Kitchen Escapades - Pizza

So after a great first day back on 1500 calories, I've managed to go over every day since :/ Tonight we had a movie night so I spent the day in the kitchen preparing for a homemade pizza party for dinner - besides baking bread for the week. Standing in the kitchen for hours and kneading dough should count as some exercise, right? I did Just Dance this morning for about 30 minutes and only burned 178 calories. Fun, but not the most bang for my buck. But I digress....

Twice now I have used this pizza dough recipe. The first time I made it, I thought I overworked the dough and stuck it in the fridge for later. I was really skeptical about it, but once I took it out of the fridge and started working with it, I discovered it was actually a really good dough and a great one to work with once it warmed back up. Pretty forgiving. I used it to make the Pioneer Woman's easy calzones which turned out really yummy (except Aaron didn't like them. He prefers regular pizza.) Though I used white sugar the first time I made the dough, this time I used honey. Calorie wise, sugar was the better way to go (for future reference).

I got 14 large calzones out of the dough. As far as actual pizza dough, it could make two large pizzas or be divided up into smaller ones. We decided to each make our own pizzas, so we ended up with 4 smaller dough balls and two medium sized (put in the freezer for another time). Aaron wanted to use the cookie cutters today, so he made a bunch of little pizzas shaped like Christmas cookies while Jared created the Millenium Falcon. I had a regular round thin crusted Hawaiian BBQ pizza with cilantro, and Matthew had a thick crusted face. It was great fun.

The best part came AFTER the pizza though - dessert. To go along with the pizza theme, I decided it would be nice to do a fruit pizza. I knew the basic concept, but googled for some recipes to nail down the concept and decided on this one for the cream cheese topping because I had all the ingredients. The cookie part seemed simple enough too but I opted to go with a ChocolateCoveredKatie grain free sugar cookie recipe instead. Per a commentor's suggestion from the allrecipes recipe, I used our frozen fruit and added some cream of tartar to thicken the juice as it thawed. Oh. My. Goodness!! It was SO delicous!!!! All 446 calories of it :P (Is it any wonder how I ended up 469 calories over tonight?!)

Here is the ingredient list for CCK's cookie:

• 1 cup finely-ground almond meal (also known as almond flour.) (75g)
• a little over 1/8 tsp salt (1/8 plus 1/16 tsp)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, or stevia to taste (For substitutions, see nutrition link below.) (30g)
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil (15g)
• For maple syrup version: up to 2 level teaspoons milk of choice or extra oil, as needed (5-10g). For stevia version: 1 tbsp milk of choice, added with the liquid ingredients. (15g)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• optional: pure almond extract

What I did:

- Ground up 1 cup of almonds in the food processor, then measured out 1 cup of the meal. Followed the rest of the ingredient list subbing honey for the maple syrup, added 1 tsp of almond extract, and then misread the milk part and added 2 TABLESPOONS!! oops!!! Way too wet at that point, so I added in the rest of the almond meal, about 1/4 cup of white flour, then added an extra 1/8 tsp of salt and baking soda - essentially doubling the recipe for the dry ingredients. It was still sticky, but it was much closer to what I thought the consistency should be at that point so I followed through on the rest of the instructions and it worked!! It was the best dessert I've eaten in a long time!!

Cream Cheese Frosting: (I halved the recipe)

4 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blueberry Muffin and Lemon Cake for One

Blueberry Muffin for One and Lemon Cake
courtesy of chocolatecoveredkatie.com

As I've been trolling the CCK blog, I decided to make her cupcakes/muffins for breakfast. The boys both chose the lemon flavor and I went with the blueberry. She gives directions for baking them in the oven, but I was in a hurry and used the microwave instead. I cooked them each for one minute. Because mine used frozen blueberries I ended up adding an extra 10-15 seconds (don't remember). From my previous experience with minute muffins, if you put them in too long they turn hard. Apparently the longer these set out while the boys picked at them, the harder they got.

Aaron liked his and Jared said it tasted funny. I used olive oil in theirs and it was easily recognizable by my buds so I told them that's what it was. Jared did say it tasted lemony though. Mine wasn't bad. I subbed regular butter for the oil hoping for a better flavor. It worked, but when I inputted it in MFP I was shocked to see that 1 TB was 100 calories!!! YIKES! This seemingly innocent muffin turned into a 236 calorie breakfast besides the milk to drink it down. I played around just now with some of the oil options and olive oil would have been 120 calories so I definitely got the better deal with the butter. My best bet would have subbed half of it with applesauce (which is how I made Matthew's but it didn't rise as much).

The recipe is easy enough that I will have to play around with it a bit and see what I can do to slim it down more and further 'healthify' it. In the meantime, here's the link to all of her single serving muffin/cupcakes.

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As a side note, today I am feeling the 4 mph program I did yesterday. My legs haven't felt this sore for weeks when I quit running as much and mostly walked for long stretches of time for my exercise. It is nice to feel like I worked out yesterday not just be tired. Today I plan to do Chicken Fat to get some calisthenics in and see if we can't begin to get this core back in shape now that I have no physical limitations.

Food intake update

Maybe I'll survive the calorie change after all :) We even ate out for dinner! Although you'll notice I didn't make the iron :/

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin

Quinoa Blueberry Muffin
courtesy of Hillbillyhousewife.com

Quinoa Muffins

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook the quinoa in a cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is tender. You will end up with 2 cups of cooked quinoa. Set it aside to cool.

In the meantime combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the quinoa and stir until you have it worked into the flour mixture.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a cup or small bowl, then pour them into the flour / quinoa mixture. Stir it just until everything is combined.

Spray a regular sized 12 cup muffin pan with nonstick spray. Scoop the batter into the tins. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 25 minutes.

Quinoa Muffin Variations

Here are a couple of “

add-on” ideas for these rather plain quinoa muffins. Incorporate those ingredients with the quinoa into the flour mixture, then proceed as mentioned above.

• 1/2 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup of chopped dried dates
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots and 1/4 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup of chopped apple pieces and a good dash of cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of apple finely chopped apple or raisins and 1/4 cup chopped walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup mashed banana and 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup fresh, frozen or dried blueberries

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LOVE these! They make such a great quick snack. I used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour so they were pretty dense and didn't raise much. I made them twice and both times I ended up with 22 muffins. Here is the nutritional info for mine:

Calories: 107

Carbs: 16

Fat: 3

Protein: 3

Fiber: 1

Iron: 4

Cheesy Quinoa Mac N Cheese

Quinoa Mac n Cheese
courtesy of http://aroundthetableri.blogspot.com

Serving Size: 8

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Veggies of your choice (optional)
• good pinch of salt
• a few grinds of seasoning salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup soy milk or non-fat milk
• 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, more for sprinkling
• Optional- Crushed Red Pepper, Panko Bread crumbs for topping
• Toppings (optional)- salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, scallions

I went through a quinoa phase in February and this is one of the recipes I tried. Since most of my experience with mac n cheese is the boxed kind, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. This certainly got mixed reviews. Matthew and Aaron could leave it, but Jared really liked it as did I though as leftovers it took me a few days to be willing to eat it again. I have realized I really don't care for the texture of quinoa except in breads. It has a distinctive flavor too that I am not all too fond of. Since I added garlic to the water the quinoa was cooked in, it absorbed that flavor and really added a nice touch to the overall dish. 

My variation: added 2 oz of cream cheese to enhance the creaminess as suggested by a commenter on the original blog post and bread crumbs for the topping.

Week 11 Weigh in

Weigh in - 174.6

Well, all things considering, not a bad gain. I've adjusted my goals again and only have 1490 calories compared to the 1700 I had before. This is definitely going to take some forethought and effort :P

Back in Action

After not exercising since the 11th and then spending most of the week/end in bed, I finally got back on board yesterday. I felt pretty good and decided with only 2 weeks left of the contest and all the binge-ing I did to feed my emotions, I couldn't delay getting back on the treadmill. I am hoping that I'll be ready to start CardioX again next week. Thurs when I was being productive I tackled some sore spots in our room that will make it easier to exercise in there again.

It was probably a mistake to make all those 'healthy' desserts because they were still full of sugar. It got me back in the habit of eating sweets so now I am needing a fix but trying to abstain. I may have to let a chocolate smoothie satisfy my craving.

Feeling it

Yesterday I felt good. Surprisingly good. I realized I was being lifted up by the prayers being offered on my behalf. Thank you. Today I feel like I have the potential to feel just as good, but going to bed so late is more of a hindrance than anything else. I feel sluggish and tired.

I decided to look at my Loose Screws posts and interestingly, the talk I gave in January was pretty close to the top of the recent posts. I reviewed what I said, and realized the irony of the timing and the topic: exercising faith in the face of obstacles and challenges. At the time I reflected on my recent experiences with the move, but as I face this new challenge, I realize this talk was a gift for now as well. The message is the same - Forget yourself and go to work. Get out and serve others. "I lift thee, and thee lift me and we both ascend together."

There was a big change up in the visiting teaching routes and with the newness, I was excited to serve my new sisters. Last week I called everyone though only one answered the phone. My companion was sick with the flu so I had made chicken soup for her, but soon discovered my new sister was also sick. She happily accepted my offer to bring some soup over. I have not checked on her since though every day this week the thought has nagged at me to call my sisters again. I have been so into myself that I have neglected my stewardship. I waste hours as I constantly check facebook and my email hoping for interaction from others when it is *ME* who needs to do the reaching out.

So, I guess it is time to just do it.

Dessert Mania

I stumbled upon the blog Chocolate Covered Katie recently and today in my productive mode, have set out to try her recipes. I just whipped up some Brownie Batter Dip, One Minute Chocolate Cake (for one though I shared it with Aaron), and the Deep Dish Cookie Pie is in the oven. She incorporates some surprise ingredients to fit her vegan life style so it is fun to find them so tasty!! I look forward to presenting the to the family tonight to see what they think. By the time Jared gets home I may have so many desserts I'll need a girl's night to have a place to share them and purge my house of the sweets!

Week 10 Weigh in

Weigh in - 173.7

I might have a chance at this contest after all! I am curious how far I will get down at the end of this journey.

I got some bad news yesterday and normally stress makes me want to eat, but surprisingly I actually feel a loss of appetite. We had pizza for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook and though the idea of eating the pizza was not appealing, I didn't have any problem getting the pizza down. Once I get started I can keep going. And going. But, I have no inertia for starting so maybe that's a good thing?

I had some blood work done recently and it turns out I am borderline anemic as I was afraid of. The doctor suggested venison as a really good source of iron. Interesting. I am going to start taking some B 50 supplements too. Every once in awhile I get in a kick where I take them, and they do usually help me feel better. I think I could use all the help I can get right now :)

And apparently I can eat peanut butter again because I have been hungry for pb&j sandwiches and they've not made me sick.

Weigh in & update

Weigh in - 175.5

It was an increase but not really surprising considering I have eaten over my calories just about every day and exercised very little though it has been a productive week in my book. My cravings have been out the roof as well and admittedly I have caved quite a bit (thus the over my calorie allotment). My neighbor asked how the exercising was going and said he could tell a difference last week. By the way, I do NOT like to be complimented by any guy but my husband or other family members. I know that makes me an annomali but it really does bother me. Anyway... In our conversation I realized that there may very well be a correlation between my lack of exercise and my craving increase. huh. So, I am on the treadmill plucking off the calories this morning :)

Though I have blown my calories, my vitamin goals have been no where near the level they should - especially my iron I find worrisome. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to meet that goal is with a bowl of good cereal in the morning because it knocks about 3/4 off my requirement. The problem is that it usually requires a lot of my calorie - especially carb - rations. I have been eating a wheat crunch cereal, but yesterday I took advantage of a General Mills cereal sale and bought a box of Total. I am not convinced it is really any healthier, but they have fortified it with everything that I knocked a 100 pts off both my calcium and iron levels and it required fewer calories than the wheat cereal to do it. I am happy to have a bit higher ration today as a result. I need to get back into my smoothies too so I can have my veggie intake as well.

I have more I want to write, but I also want to do something else this morning and it is already after 10 am. At this point I have walked over 35 min, 1.80 miles, and burned 250 calories.

I Choose Faith

I had an experience this week that left me disappointed, worried, and downright depressed about a possibility. Wednesday I opened the Ensign to the First Presidency message and immediately felt the Spirit as I read the title "Peace, Be Still" and knew that those words were meant for me.  Here is the final quote from the article:

"Through tears and trials, through fears and sorrows, through the heartache and loneliness of losing loved ones, there is assurance that life is everlasting. Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so. His words in holy writ are sufficient: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). I testify to this truth."

It was enough. I knew that the Lord has a plan and not to worry. It will be ok. From that moment, I did feel peace and light-hearted again. I felt like smiling and being happy again. I am thankful for that.

Week 8 Weigh in

175 - woohoo! The Wii says I am no longer obese, just overweight. Yay!!

Had a doctor's appt Tues and she said that my calorie levels were right on target and definitely approved of protein shakes, so another yay.

I am actually getting kind of tired (and lazy) about tracking my food - which means my iron, protein and calcium targets have taken a hit. I did not feel like a smoothie yesterday, but I made one anyway. It actually ended up tasting SO yummy I am glad I did it. My favorite milkshake is chocolate with pineapples and bananas so that is the kind of smoothie I made. I threw some strawberries in too and boy was it good!! I finished it off this morning for breakfast. Yum!!

Week 7 Weigh in and other news

My days were off last week so I ended up weighing in on Thurs. Miraculously, I was down to 176.1! This is the first weight loss I've seen in like 4 weeks. I did such a bad job of eating while I was home and there definitely wasn't any exercise so, wow! I did try to get back on the wagon as we returned to routines after the break so perhaps nothing had a chance to stick around. I also am not feeling so bloated these days so that probably helps too.

This morning is a gorgeous one. I love that the sun is starting to rise early again and the song birds greet me through the window. This weekend it was ducks and it is not fun to listen to them quack "mama" over and over again :P It is supposed to get up to the 50s today. Beautiful! This morning the boys and I raced to the bus stop, the two year old neighbor boy and I raced to his car, then I jogged to the mailbox... I was tempted to actually take the dog out for a walk but instead I went to the treadmill and did the 4 mph program. I have had it set on a good incline, but it is too much to run at that steepness, so I ended up lowering it for the second set of 4 mph and slowing down to a walk at 3.5 then bumping it back up for the last 4 mph set. I decided it was better for me to not push myself too much. I stayed on after the program was done and walked another 15 minutes or so while I researched some stuff on the computer.

We were blessed to have been sent Just Dance 1 & 2 so I spent some time with the boys the last several days dancing. Love it!! I found one song that I really enjoy and could do over and over again. I was actually a little sore yesterday morning and I think the dancing is the culprit.