Typical Daily Meals

Breakfast:

16 oz of skim milk, 1 cup of cheerios, and a banana


Lunch:

1/3 of a large sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon, approx 4 oz of rottisserie chicken (with skin), green beans (w/garlic salt)


Snacks:

Strawberry Greek yogurt, protein bar, cup of cantelope.


For dinner I'm having 6oz steak and broccoli.

Lent

LENT -  period before Easter in Christian calendar: the period of 40 weekdays before Easter observed in some Christian churches as a period of prayer, penance, fasting, and self-denial. This period, starting on Ash Wednesday in Western churches, commemorates the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the wilderness.

 
I've never denied my love for coffee or diet pop.  LOVE THEM BOTH. But coffee...oh my word. Need it every day, sometimes twice, three times a day.
 
Not only do I love the taste, but quite honestly I use it as an appetite suppressor. In the morning I wake up around 6:30 starving so I drink a cup of coffee and that holds me over until I get to work around 8am when I eat my "real" breakfast.  There are afternoons when I'm hungrier than usual, so I sip on a cup of joe and it helps get me through.
 
I've not researched one thing about it, but I don't think me drinking a cup of coffee a day is a big deal, what bothers me the most is the amount of sweetener I use.  Say I have 2 cups of coffee a day, that's 28 packets of Equal I use each week. INSANE. Not only is it un-clean, but it's expensive too!
 
And this doesn't include the diet pop I drink every now and then (Cherry coke zero. LOVE IT)  I actually do think I can go without pop. #1 It's expensive so I don't buy it hardly. #2 I usually only have it when I eat out and again, expensive and I hardly eat out anymore. So I think I'm ok there.
 
I've been knowing for a long time I need to kick my Equal addiction. Though it doesn't have calories, I don't want the health risks associated with it. Again, I'm going to try and eat as clean as I possibly can and give up those things I know I can live w/o. 
 
This morning I was going to go w/o my cup of coffee, but my stomach was GROWLING (I guess I could've ate some fruit though huh?) I made a cup of coffee and added one teaspoon of regular sugar.  I guess my justification is my body recognizes and understands what to do with sugar more than it does with this man-made chemical called Equal.  I'll sacrifice and have the extra 16 calories in the white stuff.
 
Another thing I was afraid of is my reaction to the sugar. Would it make me start craving more sugar? I guess I will see what happens, but it's not like I've completely cut out sugar from my diet anyway. What's one teaspoon? 
 
Man it was such a different taste. I don't think I would even want more than one cup of that stuff but again, it did its job. I was good until my real breakfast time.
 
So that's my sacrifice during Lent.  More of a wordly reason than I spiritual one I suppose.
 
 
 

Food Log and I need answers!

Sunday morning I woke up sick. The crazy thing is since I've started eating semi-clean I RARELY get sick. No colds, no headaches, no allergies. So when I'm feeling the slightest bit of ill, I'm a wuss. I stayed in bed until noon and work up HUNGRY for pancakes (or a nice belgian waffle) I decided on Culver's (fast food basically) Double cheeseburger, large fries, and a mint chocolate chip concrete (shake) Yep. All that.
It was just ok and I rarely (maybe 4x's a year) eat fast food. 

Monday my stomach was not happy. At all. So in order to recover, I decided to eat only fruits & veggies until dinner.

Breakfast : Coffee, banana, orange

Lunch: Salad, peach, apple

Dinner: Salad, (w/ 1 egg) Spaghetti - (96/4 lean ground beef, whole wheat pasta, Ragu (not clean, I know)


Feeling better today.

Breakfast: Coffee, banana, orange

Lunch: Salad, (w/ 1 egg) Spaghetti

Dinner: Probably the same as lunch. No probably..lol. It will be the same as lunch.

Kind of changing up my breakfast. I need to move into making fruits & veggies my primary foods. The other stuff in smaller amounts.  I know I need to add some type of protein. I was doing tuna last week with wheat thins. Maybe I'll try to do tuna w/o the wheat thins. Again, trying to get myself off of the extra processed foods.

Yes, I'm cutting calories too. I'm experimenting here. I have 35 lbs to lose and it's not moving. On one hand I want to lose the 35lbs (1 lb a week @ at at time) and be done with it. But I'm not feeling skinny fat either, so I want to build muscle as well. So I'm not sure the cutting of calories is the best solution either.

In the comments I was asked if I weight train. With weights? No. But in Title boxing we do lots of body weight training i.e core work, push-ups, squats. Is that enough or do I need to actually lift some weights?

Let me know! I need some answers :-) Right now I can see myself being skinny-fat. People keep telling me I don't need to lose 35 lbs, but I'm looking at myself naked and the flab is too much. I know my body shape. I'm a pear. I will have hips, my butt is big, and thighs to match. But I need it to be toned.

Surgery is looking like an option as well. I like my size, I just don't like the flab.

89 Simple Swaps That Could Change Your Life

From Spark I learned that you cannot do a complete overhaul on your lifestyle. Well, maybe you can, but you will get so overwhelmed by all of the changes, you will probably quit. Instead, try baby steps. Decide on changing healthy habits one at a time.

This is a really good article on simple swaps that will lead you into better health.


http://www.greatist.com/health/89-simple-swaps-that-could-change-your-life/#

Tired.....

And for me this is not about running. I’m tired of the journey right now. I’m half-assing it and it’s simply because I’m tired of obsessing, tired of starting over, tired of the fact that 5 years later I’m STILL not at goal weight. I’m hoping this will pass soon. But I’m not done. So I will keep going….

I decided that I was doing my best (work-out wise) when I was doing the 1k challenge. So I'm going to start that again. Taking Friday - Sunday off is no good. I also add another streak.  I will ask myself daily "Would you say you ate well (portion control, freggies, conscience eating).  I  need to get back on track. Today is day #2.

As far as running goes. I need to START. I am only going to run 1 mile. That's it. I put too much pressure on myself to do more when I can't even get out the door.

So again, I will keep going.

Fat Girl Ways

GET THEE BEHIND ME! My Gawd.... 

I worked from home yesterday so no Title boxing.  Well, I could have went. Heck there is one right around the corner but I don't like it and the one I love is 25 minutes from my house. EXCUSE #1.  So I didn't work out yesterday and I have no excuse for that. So there is no #2.

My eating was actually good though. I had the same turkey sausage breakfast as if I was going to work. For lunch I had rotisserie chicken, baked fries, and broccoli. Let's back up and talk about these fries.

I LOVE FRIES. I mean love them to pieces. I don't ever fry them at home. The problem is portion control.  One serving of fries is 3 oz (120 calories) Have you ever weighed 3 oz of fries. Its about the amount you would get in elementary school, served to you on a lunch plate. Not a lot at all. The fat girl in me cooked 2 servings. Now...that's better. O_o

I did a little experiment. I only put half (one serving) on my plate. Well all be damn. It was actually enough.  Oh but ya know I'm not wasting food so I did end up eating the other serving. But I still learned my lesson. Stop fixing 2 servings. One is enough. Ok. Got it.

So all was well with eating..until....dinner. J. Alexanders. YUMMY!  Since I wasn't buying I ordered a whole bunch of food. LOL.

I had the chicken pasta soup (which was filling in itself) Ribeye and loaded mashed potatoes (I know that had to be 6 servings of potatoes, I ate half of my food) and chocolate cake and ice cream (ate less than half and gave it away).

I ate myself into an oblivion. The food was super rich. I could barely move. Now why would I eat that much? *shrug* I don't know.

So yeah. These fat girl ways are so old. I'm over it. But I can't lie, that food was AMAZING :-)

I'm cooking tonight!

And yes, that's a big deal. I don't know if it's so much I CAN'T cook. I used to cook all the time when I had someone to cook for. But cooking solo doesn't bring me much pleasure so I usually stick to basic meals. Baked chicken breast, a starch, a veggie. Meal complete.  Keep it simple.

Even though I'm overweight, I'm really not in love with food.  Probably because my palette hasn't been expanded. But I'm getting older and I need to eat outside my box more.

The basic meal works for me right now, but I want to be able to cook delicious healthy meals for my family when the time comes to do so.  So why not start creating them now??? I need to put some recipes in my repertoire!

So tonight I'm making Asian Glazed Chicken.  Doesn't this look yummy?



http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/07/asian-glazed-drumsticks.html

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 2 drumsticks  Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 5 pts


Calories: 213 • Fat: 4.7 g  Protein: 27.5 g  Carb: 12.7 g  Fiber: 0.4 g


• 8 medium chicken drumsticks, skin removed


• olive oil spray (I used my Misto )


• 1 cup water


• 1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (more or less to taste)


• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar


• 1/2 cup soy sauce


• 4 tsp agave nectar (or sugar)


• 3 cloves garlic, crushed


• 1 tsp ginger, grated


• 2 tbsp chives or scallions, chopped


• 1 tsp sesame seeds






In a heavy large saucepan, brown chicken on high for 3-4 minutes with a little spray oil. Add water, balsamic, soy sauce, agave, garlic, ginger, hot sauce and cook on high until liquid comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes. Remove cover and bring heat to high, allowing sauce to reduce down, about 8-10 minutes, until it becomes a thick glaze, turning chicken occasionally. (Keep an eye on glaze, you don't want it to burn when it start becoming thick) Transfer chicken to a platter and pour glaze on top. Top with chives and sesame seeds and serve


 
I really don't eat dark meat at all UNLESS it's baked and picked off the bone (silly, I know) So I bought a rotisserie chicken yesterday and will cut it up into pieces and then put the glaze on top of that.
 
I couldn't find Sriracha hot sauce. I wonder if I can use Louisiana instead or just nix it all together. Will that mess up my recipe?   I'll check to see if Wal-Mart sells it in the store (they do online).  If not...guess I'll wing it.
 
This was not an inexpensive meal.  The sesame seeds and balsamic vinegar were 4 bucks a piece. I'm going to need to find some more recipes that use those items so I can get a return on my investment. I'm just sayin.....
 
Brown rice and steamed broccoli served on the side. 
 
Wish me luck!

EDIT 1/12/11
So I didn't go looking for the right hot sauce so I used Louisiana brand.  Also, my balsamic vinegar was "white wine". And who knew 3 cloves of garlic wasn't the same as 3 whole garlics (thankfully I googled that before making the recipe)

Verdict: It was just ok.  I'm sure it was due to user error.  I couldn't find my tablespoon so I used 1/2 teaspoon and doubled. I'm sure that's not a big deal though.

The sauce didn't glaze and stayed liquid-y. I re-read the comments under the blog and it said not enough sugar (which causes it to glaze) and/or I didn't boil it long enough so that the sauce can simmer down. Something like that.

Not sure if I'm a fan of all that soy sauce. It's a strange taste. but since I have all the ingredients, I'll definitely try this one again.

What I'm eating

Back to tracking and calorie counting! I don't have a lot of variety in my meals so here is a typical day for me. I'll post what I'm eating every once in a while though.  I have GOT to learn how to make some tasty, healthy meals this year.

Here's what's on the menu today:

So how'd you do it? - Eating Clean/Calorie Counting

Let's back up a bit and I'll list the things I've tried:

~Slim Fast
~Metabolife
~Cereal diet
~Phentermine (Adipex)'
~Weight Watchers (well not a real attempt, I signed up online for 2 months)
~Lean Cuisines, Smart ones, Healthy Choices etc.
~SouthBeach Diet
~Low Carb
~Eating what I want and trying to work it off with 2-a-day workouts

I think that exhausts my list.  All of the aboves...FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

Ok, well not total fails. With Southbeach I did lose 25lbs or so and never gained it back and I didn't give WW a whole hearted attempt (my sister is doing very well on WW)

Some of these other ones. CRAZINESS, in my opinion.  I've heard many people say it and this is SO TRUE. Whatever you do to lose the weight is what you will be doing in order to keep it off. Because as soon as you stop doing them, the weight comes back. HELLO. I'm a witness!

How realistic is it to drink a Slim Fast shake for breakfast and lunch for the rest of my life? Not realistic at all. Oh and don't get me started on the Phentermine.  I was up at 2am vacuuming my entire house because I couldn't sleep and had all this energy.

My last attempt at tackling my weight had me in the gym ALL day and night.  I was of the mindset I would eat what I wanted as long as I burned it all off! Ummm, that worked for a while, but life got in the way of my marathon workout sessions.

It's hard for me to discuss weight loss with many people. When they start talking about injecting hormones, eating cabbage all day, and swalling pills my mind starts wandering and I try hard to bite my tongue about why those things don't work in the long term. But aye..who am I? I've been there, done that.

I yo-yo'd so much because I never figured out what really worked. Like I said before, I would get down to 210, then back up to 240, back to 205, back up to 225. It was insane that I never got under 200 lbs. I thought it was really something wrong with me and my body wasn't able to do it. (Yeah, I know I'm insane)

This past holiday season (2010) I'd had enough. I was 240ish lbs again and completely uncomfortable..AGAIN. I thought I had it all together when I got down from 311 lbs to 210 and here I was, miserable.  AGAIN!

As much Sparking as I'd done, I knew my nutrition sucked. I knew I had been trying to win the war without all the necessary artillery, if you will.

During my time off from work during the holidays,  I started really taking a look at "A black Girls Guide to Weight Loss" blog.  I wanted to deny what she {Erika} was saying about counting calories and eating clean, but the Holy Spirit would not allow me to take in all this information and ignore it.  I was moved to admitting my addiction to processed, fatty, sugary food and coming to the realization that I needed to eat clean.

What is eating clean?

In layman's terms, eating clean is eating only whole foods. Foods with little to no ingredients and in their rawest form.  Fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, complex carbs, dairy products. No processed foods (foods processed in a manufacturing plant and passed off as edible. Sorry. Soapbox)

Here are a couple of links about it (that explain it more eloquently than I can)

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/clean-eating-boot-camp/welcome-to-clean-eating-boot-camp/

http://eatcleandiet.com/what_is_the_eat-clean_diet.aspx

Along with eating clean, I count calories. Though I believe eating whole foods is important, I still can over-eat these foods as well (but not nearly as much as junky processed foods) You can still have too much of a good thing.

Sparkpeople gives me a calorie range based on my weight, goal weight, and the amount of calories I burn with exercise.  This tool has been fundamental in my weight loss (and weight maintenance).  Counting calories is like managing a budget.  When you begin counting you see how many calories your favorite foods have. Like a budget, you start to think about whether the calories of those items are "worth it" or if you can "fit it in".

If I'm feeling really hungry, I eat tons of vegetables for volume using very few of my allowed calories.  You'd be surprised how calories add up!  Every bite, every drink, everything you put in your mouth has a calorie value.  Make them worth it!

Here is a link on calorie counting:

http://blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com/tools-for-weight-loss/understanding-calorie-counting-what-is-it-calorie-counting-defined/

Erika has an awesome series on the importance of calorie counting for weight loss.

So in answer to how I did it (in a way that I can maintain for the rest of my life) my answer is eating clean, and calorie counting. Maybe one day I will get to the point where I can intuitively eat, but until then, I will be logging all my foods.

In the beginning....

And I promise to try and keep this short and sweet.

I was born on an unseasonably cold first day of spring Too far back? *shrugs* Sorry.

I've been overweight my entire life. I don't know anything different and actually any weight smaller than my current weight is pretty much uncharted territory. Of course being overweight, I hardly stepped on a scale but there are a few times I remember being forced to.

Summer before middle school - 190ish

8th grade physical - 213

Freshman gym class - 220

Summer before college - 210ish (and this was after losing 40 lbs in my attempt to be normal before school started)

After college - 311 (Freshmen 15?...How about 100?)

2006 - over 300 lbs

At 27 years old I weighed over 300 lbs and it was depressing, so I decided to finally do something about it.



Current
















How did I do it? My process changed so much, so I'll just tell you what I'm doing now and the ONLY way that works! Eating Clean (non-processed food), Calorie Counting, and Exercise.

Yes, that's it! I use the Sparkpeople app on my phone to count calories. This app is INCREDIBLE and I highly suggest it and the best part is it is FREE. All you have to do is register for a page (I'm ACCT1908, look me up!) and go from there.

For exercise, I take boxing classes about 4 days a week, and I also play Dance Central on Xbox Kinect.

As my fitness level changes, I'm always trying to find ways to challenge myself and the thing that keeps coming up is RUNNING! Oh how I want to be a runner.

This year I have participated in several 5ks, yet still haven't fell in love. But that won't stop me. I have decided that I want to train to run a half-marathon (13.1 miles)

A lofty goal for a non-runner... person that only runs on race days...a person that dreads running...a person that will need to squeeze in time to train. YES ME! I will run a half-marathon. Soon.

So follow me as I train for that, and try to kick these last 25-40 lbs (I don't know how much really)in the *bleep*

Tracking...Eating Clean...30 days later....

God is good and I prayed for strength in this aspect of my life. He's all over this one.


I cannot EVEN belive I have tracked my food this long. I've been on Sparks for 3 years now and always start on a Monday...quit on the weekend.

I was very consistent with tracking my workouts. That positive...can't knock a good workout. But my food? NO WAY!

I truly believed I could lose this weight w/o changing the way I ate. Yes I read the articles about the importance of nutrition. But I was 100lbs down and NEVER tracked so I (knew) I could do it. WRONG.

2011 - KEEP IT SIMPLE

This is the theme for me this year. No more tricks, no more gimmicks. That crap just doesn't work.


Tricks and gimmicks? For me it was not eating right, but working out 90minutes a day in cardio. Yes, it helps me lose ...only for a while. But what then happens is I get burned out.

This is my 3rd year on SP and still over 200lbs! I have yet to make it to Onederland. Something has got to change.
I've resisted changing my eating habits as long as I could and its not working.

For the past month I have been tracking my calories and being completely (I think) honest about what I'm consuming. I'm averaging 1,750 calories a day.

And I swear this is the BEST eating I've EVER done. That's scary huh???

My goals this year:

Track daily

Weekly calories average: 1,500

Exercise: 150 cardio minutes, ST 2x's a week

Run a 5k (seriously)



Thats it! There's the plan.

SN: No more fast food, 90% clean eating (some things I can't control)