Cheating and Radioactive Urine

I was nervous about weigh in tomorrow and couldn't take it anymore.  After all of the poor choices I made over the weekend and on Thanksgiving, I wanted to see where I was at, so I cheated and got on my scale at home and surprisingly down....just a little, but down is down.  I would've been ecstatic to stay the same, but going down after the choices I made is even better and no it's not giving me a false sense of confidence.

I've eaten PERFECTLY since Sunday or Monday and am having another "skinny day".  Mixed up my detox water last night and drank 3 glasses before I walked out the door this morning and another 23 ozs at work in addition to two 35.5 oz cups of regular filtered water at my desk and I have another 20 ozs of detox water in a bottle right next to me while I snarf down my bowl of cabbage detox salad (see recipe a couple weeks ago - cabbage, apples, golden raisins, yogurt, honey, walnuts, and onions)....so that's a total of 162 ozs of water before 2pm!!  Water is a HUUUUUUUGE key to losing weight.  Those that can cut soda and replace it with water, even flavored water (no that doesn't include crystal light and other fake crap drinks), lose considerably more than those that do not consume the correct amount of water each day.

So you've heard in the past that 8 - 8 oz glasses of water a day is ideal.  Well really that's only the case if you are about 96 lbs.  The new "ideal" is half of your body weight in ozs...so a 300 lb person should be consuming 150 ozs of water a day.  A 150 lb person should be consuming 75 ozs of water a day and so on.  Take your weight, divide it by two and that is how many ozs you should consume on a daily basis.  This also means plenty of trips to the bathroom, which is good because you are constantly flushing (no pun intended) your kidneys out.  Kidney stones aren't fun for ANYONE!

This leads me to my next topic....yup, pee!  You can tell if you need to increase your intake of water by the color and smell of your urine.  In a correctly hydrated person your urine should be a very light yellow color and have no odor.  If you can smell your pee or it's any shade darker than a pastel, you are officially dehydrated.  HOWEVER for those of us to decide to purchase the higher quality vitamins your urine is going to be the coolest neon color you've ever seen HA! 

Ok, so maybe I'm weird for thinking the color is funny, but by color you can also distinguish the quality of vitamins an individual is getting.  If you purchase low grade vitamins that have their quality and effectiveness diminished by the very chemical that keeps them in a capsul form...you are not getting as many IUs as the bottle says and the longer they sit on the shelf, the more the chemicals deteriorates the effects of the vitamins.  I choose to purchase mid grade vitamins at GNC.  They aren't as costly and "high grade" as the expensive ones you can only buy online, but they are convenient to purchase, when purchased on the BOGO sale they have every couple months are VERY comparable and sometimes cheaper than brands you can purchase at big box stores, and the capsule doesn't destroy the potency of the vitamins it contains.

P.S. Cold water actually burns calories, because it uses some of your bodies energy to warm up the water, so "yes please" on the ice!

Some things to think about and dang this got long!

So there you have it folks....Happy Hump Day!

Weigh in day for me tomorrow!  Stay tuned.................

Enemy of the day

FREAKING BROWNIES!!!  Oh how I love brownies and there are two tiny little festive cupcake looking brownies left that everyone has been RAVING about and they are of course in my path to the printer.  Can I just say....I am thankful for whomever keeps putting all of these triggers in front me, because clearly it's not anyone being generous....it's a conspiracy of sabotagers testing my willpower....LOL!  Well atleast that's what I keep saying to myself in order to prove to them that I am stronger than the brownies and the whoppers and any other chocolate they want to plop in my path! hehehehe.

Having a skinny today which is good.  Made another batch of cabbage salad last night which I'll be devouring in the next few days along with some detox water in a last ditch effort to get rid of the lbs I may have gained over the weekend.

Wish me luck!  Actually screw that, I don't need luck....this isn't about luck, it's about hard work and dedication :)

That's a whopper!!!

Today's enemy of the day is the massive box of whoppers sitting right in my walking path to the printer.  Not only is it chocolate, but one of my favorites, and my stress levels today is THROUGH THE ROOF!  So goal of the day is to not ingest one single whopper.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

A recap of Thanksgiving.....on my plate was turkey breast with gravy, the dreaded "cookie salad", and some type of glazed carrots.  There were no unsweetened vegetables (except potatoes) to be found, which was a little disappointing, but I did what I could do.  I did opt out of the white potatoes and also the pie, so I was proud of that.  HOWEVER the slip on the cookie salad slightly spiraled in to a tad of indulgence throughout the weekend.  The quantity of food was not at all the problem, but definitely the quality was lacking.  Saturday I was at my dads and we had a taco bar of sorts.  I did well by choosing a healthy size taco salad, but not so well when the platter of cake calls and oreo balls were plopped in front of me.  I think I polished off about 4-5 total of those.  Granted they were small, but only added to the sweet tooth craving I'd been battling since the cookie salad wreacked havoc on Thanksgiving day.  Yesterday the sweet drug of choice Angry Birds shaped graham crackers.  Other than that....I've done great!  Needless to say I'm a little nervous about the Thursday weigh in, not only did I make not so great choices, but I'm sure my sodium consumption was up and my water consumption was down.

HOWEVER I am ridiculously proud of Jordan, who has had some amazing accomplishments of his own lately!

Today I've done well and have a healthy dinner planned and there's nothing like falling off a horse and having the courage and strength to say "Oh no you don't!" and getting back on said horse.  So here I am, overload of stress and all, ditching Whoppers and doing my best to love the life and challenges I've been handed.  I normally don't get too preachy here, but "God only gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers" has gotten me through a lot.  I know I can handle this and I know I will succeed and I will reach my goals.  The cookie salad and the other indulgences are only slight drawbacks of the big picture.  One day, one hour, one minute, one second, one meal at a time....

Hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for each and every one of you!

Early Weigh In Day

Biggest Loser Challenge Weigh In Day!!  It wasn't as much as I would've liked but down is down I say.  I lost exactly one whole pound.  I'm not making excuses, but I do know the REASON for not losing more.  First things first, after my photography session last Saturday I went out to lunch with a great friend to a restaurant I LOVE, The Bulldog, in Nordeast.  And the thing about The Bulldog, is they have AMAZING burgers, so I indulged in a "Rooster Burger" which is complete with big soft bun and spicy cheese, sweet pickles, Sriacha sauce, and all kind of other yummy goodness.  As if the burger wasn't enough I also got tatertots instead of chips with sriacha seasoning and wasabi mayo.  It was AMAZING and I was OVER STUFFED, but the sodium and calorie content in that meal was way way waaaaay more than I should've had in one day, let alone one meal.  But there it is, out there in the open air and believe it's a rarity that I get to dine out and this is partially the reason I avoid it.  The second reason I believe I wasn't down more was because this weekend I made an egg bake that contained all kinds of yummy low carb goodness (eggs, ground turkey, peppers, onions, garlic, and chorizo) HOWEVER the sodium content in the chorizo is a little high too, so I'm guessing that probably adds to the lack of loss.

Oh well!  I'm not NOT proud of my choices, but I fully expected a low loss week because of them, but again a loss is a loss and I will take it.  It puts me one step closer to being confident in a bathing suit, being back to horseback riding, going on a cruise, getting more tattoos, and being proud of how I did on future mud runs and 5Ks, so I can not be disappointed about that.

My plans for the holidays are to strictly avoid anything high sodium as I'm overly sensitive to that and to avoid as many sweets as humanly possible.  I'll include a picture of my Thanksgiving day plate for all to see on Friday.  Stay tuned!

Drum roll please......

I was having a "skinny day" today and was anxious to weigh in.  I always hold off on breakfast and water or any type of intake of any kind on Thursday mornings until I'm off the scale.  I stripped off my sweater and my fairly heavy dressy shirt I was wearing and my boots and climbed on the scale expecting 2-3 lbs down....oh no!  6.4!!!  Holy shit!  Apparently whatever I'm doing is working!  My stress is up which means my cortisol probably is too, which typically is NOT good for the scale, but given my schedule has not been as open for boredom and there isn't much time for a sit down meal, I've been grabbing a little handful or nuts or snarfing down a bowl of cabbage salad from the fridge all week.  And honestly, that's what dinners should be....light.

I weighed in at 258.6 this morning.  The highest I've been since my divorce was 292 I believe and that was just in March....so I've lost 33.4 lbs in 7 months.  That's not super fast, but it's sustainable and I'm still on the downward swing, so I'm happy!  I can not wait to be back to wearing all my belt and cute sassy shirts and the jeans I have folded and stacked in the back of my closet and I'm confident I will get there.  My determination is through the roof, I have an amazing support system and the dreaded Halloween candy binge is over for the year!  Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't too dangerous for my waistline.  It's the damn chocolate.

Speaking of....one of my arc enemy "The Oreo" showed up in the office the other day and was hiding amongst the office supplies with his friends "The Cinnamon Roll" and "The Pretzel Crisp", stalking me on my way to the printer, but I gave them the ol stink eye and proceeded on my way.  I suspect, it was trap put in place by on of the other Biggest Loser challengers, but that could just be my imagination running wild.

Anyway, on with the week and here's to a happy healthy weekend for all!!!

Inspirational Quote of the Day:

·         "Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." -Napoleon Hill

(which I stole from Women's Health Facebook page)

NOOOOOO - VEMBER!

Here's my list of "no"s for this month....

NO bread
NO rice
NO pasta
NO desserts with added sugar
NO baked goods
NO crackers, pretzels, or other starchy snacks
NO candy
NO white potatoes
NO food an hour before bed
NO scale between weekly weigh ins

NO EXCUSES!

These are pretty much things that I do on a regular basis, but some of them I've been slacking on.

What are you saying NO! to?  Please share with me, I'd love to hear what others are doing!

In other news, the weekend went splendidly.  I did great as far as eating is concerned and spent 5 hours SERIOUSLY scrubbing and vacuuming the apartment next door and this morning I'm feeling THAT in my triceps which is amazing to feel again and potentially addicting (which is a good thing).  I've gotta get workouts/exercise/movement in anywhere that I can and if that means cleaning like a mad woman or dancing to 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed....then so be it!  I will find a way to burn calories without a gym membership or hours or extra time!!

Have an amazing week all!  Stay honest with yourself and HEALTHY!

Biggest Loser Week 1 down

Today was weigh in day and despite Halloween and all the chocolate and the PIZZA I consumed yesterday I'm still down 3.4 lbs!!  I can not even BEGIN to tell you how thrilled (and surprised) I am!!  I told Jordan this morning that I thought sure I was up because I was feeling like a stuffed sausage.  When Paula was writing 3.4 down, I thought sure that was how much I gained, but nope!  I'm off to a solid start! 

My head is VERY much in the game now and my house has been purged of all temptations AND I'll be getting some more exercise in tonight cleaning the neighbors apartment hauling garbage up and down the massive flight of stairs to and from the apartments.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Greek yogurt mixed with pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice
Snack: Carrots and Hummus
Lunch: The last of the mexican black bean soup
Snack: Apple and PB
Dinner: Grilled fish and steamed vegetables

HOWEVER, I am mixing up a "Detox Cabbage Apple Salad" tonight to have for lunch tomorrow and next week.  Also going to whipping up a Fried Rice type recipe using Quinoa instead of rice.  Should be DELICIOUS!

Biggest Loser Challenge AGAIN!

Today is the start of yet another Biggest Loser Weight Loss Challenge at work!  Needless to say the candy I devoured after last night's Trick or Treat session, plumped me a little bit for the first weigh in.  Halloween is over and while we still have Thanksgiving and Christmas ahead of us, those holidays tend to be easier for me to stay on track than candy surrounded holidays and I have plenty healthy recipes up my sleeve to keep me eating healthy and still enjoying my holidays.  One thing that may affect me and that I ALWAYS struggle with is emotional eating.  I have a fair amount of stress going on in life right now and I have to learn other ways to relieve that stress rather than eating mountains of chocolate.

The image above is what I sent in today's email for the inspirational quote of the day.  I very strongly believe in this one (and many others).  I've heard comments from so many people both inside and outside of my office that they've tried everything and have more or less given up and resolved they were meant to be overweight and unhealthy.  That is not what ANYONE was meant to be!!  NO ONE!!!  ANYONE can take the first step on this journey and I am here to support and encourage anyone brave enough to take that first step, but I can not do it for you.  I can motivate and inspire until I am blue in the face, but if you don't want the result bad enough, you aren't going to put in the work to achieve it.

Speaking of....I am so proud of everyone taking part in the Biggest Loser Challenge as well as someone NOT in my office, but a huge important part of my life that is starting his own journey.  We are all going to start 2013 off on the right foot.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast: Pork Tenderloin and fresh raspberries

Snack: Carrots and Spicy Hummus

Lunch: My mom's homemade cheesy veggie soup

Snack: Apple and PB

Dinner: To Be Determined (probably some Mexican black bean soup)

I've been VERY in to soups lately.  Making all different variations, figuring out what combinations I like best, etc.  I normally try to stay away from the creamier soups, but have debated experimenting with some healthy variations of cream soups as well.  The one thing to watch out for with soup.....SODIUM!  It can be a killer and can result in not only high blood pressure for some, but water weight retention and once you are retaining it's a pain to get rid of and doesn't look real pretty on the scale either.  I try to include frozen of fresh veggies and beans in my soup and stay away from canned ANYTHING except the broth itself, but that's easy to find in 99% fat free and low sodium varieties.  Not to mention you can season your soups with so many other wonderful spices, salt is just not needed.

Anyway, here's to starting an eating healthy regimen on a Thursday and not waiting until Sunday or Monday or next month or week or after the holidays.  Wanna get healthy?  There's no better time than the present!