I have decided my favorite snack is any one that involves reduced fat Laughing Cow cheese! I'm enjoying it right now with a tart, green apple - yum! It even makes rice cakes edible!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Lemon Baked Tilapia
By the way - I had a great meal again last night! Lemon baked tilapia - it was totally simple, but really yummy! Fish, lemon, olive oil, bread crumbs - how can you go wrong?! And to top it off, I had a 1/2 a baked sweet potato with it. My first taste of starch in a week...yum...
It's true!
Crazy, but true! I really did lose 10 pounds last week! I bought a new scale yesterday and then tested it out with the old one (the old one, by the way, had a crack in it...the question of whether or not it was broken was really more just me hating to spend money on things like scales).
The two scales are about 6 pounds apart - bummer because the new one is the heavier of the two - but that's not as bad as it could have been. I weighed myself last night and this morning, and they are consistently 6 pounds apart. The good, neigh, great! news is that I really did shed 10 pounds in my first week!!! TEN POUNDS! This week's new challenge has become to manage my expectations for next week's weigh-in. My new mantra is "one pound is progress."
The moral of the story is that this is a great way to kick-start my weight removal. I am excited to have lost that much weight, but am reminding myself that the vast majority of it was probably water weight. Not to mention that going from doing nothing to 5 intense workouts, measuring, planning and journaling your food intake is a big life change. I'm glad my body responded proportionately.
The next time I'm at the grocery store I'm going to pick up two 5 pound bags of flour to remind myself how I don't need to carry that weight around anymore.
XO ~
Nicole (minus 10 pounds)
The two scales are about 6 pounds apart - bummer because the new one is the heavier of the two - but that's not as bad as it could have been. I weighed myself last night and this morning, and they are consistently 6 pounds apart. The good, neigh, great! news is that I really did shed 10 pounds in my first week!!! TEN POUNDS! This week's new challenge has become to manage my expectations for next week's weigh-in. My new mantra is "one pound is progress."
The moral of the story is that this is a great way to kick-start my weight removal. I am excited to have lost that much weight, but am reminding myself that the vast majority of it was probably water weight. Not to mention that going from doing nothing to 5 intense workouts, measuring, planning and journaling your food intake is a big life change. I'm glad my body responded proportionately.
The next time I'm at the grocery store I'm going to pick up two 5 pound bags of flour to remind myself how I don't need to carry that weight around anymore.
XO ~
Nicole (minus 10 pounds)
Monday, September 28, 2009
An Unbelievable Weigh-in!
No, really. I'm not sure I trust this morning's weigh-in. Here's how my morning went:
5:00 a.m. - alarm goes off, I hit snooze.
5:10 a.m. - alarm goes off, I begrudgingly get out of bed.
5:12 a.m. - remember that it's weigh-in day!
5:13 a.m. - strip down to my skivys, and hop on the scale. Look with disbelief at the read-out.
5:13:30 a.m. - step off the scale, step back on. Same read-out.
5:14 a.m. - step off the scale, step back on. Same read-out. . . again.
5:15 a.m. - Conversation with Tyler (which you know he was thrilled about at 5:15 a.m.!)
Me: Ty...hey...wake up.
TC: (Opens his eyes, but says nothing.)
Me: I think three things this morning:
TC: I kind of doubt it. But I'm still proud of you.
Me: Damn. That's what I was afraid of.
So...yeah. I guess I'm not sure where I am after the first week. I am sure I've lost weight; I can feel it in my clothes. I would be shocked if I actually lost 10.5 pounds.
Tonight I will be purchasing a new scale, and tomorrow morning I will be weighing-in again. We'll see where I'm at, and I'll decide how to move forward with gauging my weight loss.
C'est la vie!
XO ~
Nicole
5:00 a.m. - alarm goes off, I hit snooze.
5:10 a.m. - alarm goes off, I begrudgingly get out of bed.
5:12 a.m. - remember that it's weigh-in day!
5:13 a.m. - strip down to my skivys, and hop on the scale. Look with disbelief at the read-out.
5:13:30 a.m. - step off the scale, step back on. Same read-out.
5:14 a.m. - step off the scale, step back on. Same read-out. . . again.
5:15 a.m. - Conversation with Tyler (which you know he was thrilled about at 5:15 a.m.!)
Me: Ty...hey...wake up.
TC: (Opens his eyes, but says nothing.)
Me: I think three things this morning:
- Our scale might be broken.
- I might have kicked ass this week.
- Our scale says I lost 10.5 pounds this week!
TC: I kind of doubt it. But I'm still proud of you.
Me: Damn. That's what I was afraid of.
So...yeah. I guess I'm not sure where I am after the first week. I am sure I've lost weight; I can feel it in my clothes. I would be shocked if I actually lost 10.5 pounds.
Tonight I will be purchasing a new scale, and tomorrow morning I will be weighing-in again. We'll see where I'm at, and I'll decide how to move forward with gauging my weight loss.
C'est la vie!
XO ~
Nicole
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Day 7 of 84
Day 7! One week (almost) over! Whoo hoo! I just sat down to update this while I enjoy today's lunch of spinach salad (spinach, 2 oz. chicken, 1/2 cup tomato, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1/3 cup feta, 3 olives, topped with 1 tsp. olive oil and 2 tsp lemon juice), which is quite yummy.
So...a few things of note in the last couple days:
Day 5, meal 5 - awesome! A pleasant surprise for me and Tyler both. That night we had roasted halibut steaks, baked with lemon juice, olive oil, chicken broth and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes weren't necessary, but added nice color. The fish was great, and even Tyler thought so, which totally surprised me. His favorite part of the meal was the 1/2 cup of black beans we had on the side; he says it's his new favorite thing. The downside of this meal was that we didn't eat until 10:15 at night. Yeah...not so great. But we got home late, and we were hungry, so we went for it.
Day 6, workout - way to go, me! I woke up at 7:30 yesterday morning and wasn't feeling totally into the workout. Then I got to the living room (where I workout) and realized I had forgotten to throw my workout clothes in the dryer the night before, the living room needed to be rearranged, etc., etc. before I could work out. But I did it! And it kicked my butt! Afterward I cleaned the living room, including vacuuming, which all counts as activity for the day. Go me!
Yesterday was also a really hectic day, but I planned well, and pulled it off for the most part. I had a late breakfast (goat cheese omelet), so I didn't have a morning snack. I went straight for the turkey burger lunch, and made a smoothie to take with me for my afternoon snack. (Funny side note: I was at the church all afternoon, so to keep the smoothie cold, I put it in the fridge with the wine for Mass. That made me giggle!)
Dinner last night: I did good, all things considered. Not awesome, but good. This was my first venture to a restaurant for a friend's birthday. I looked up the menu beforehand since I hadn't been to the place before. I decided on either the grilled chicken or mandarin chicken salad. When I got there, I ordered a Diet Coke, which is a no-no. I had two glasses, and Tyler immediately noticed the influx of caffeine on my system for the first time in a week by the speed of my conversation when I got home! I also had 1 shot that was bought by the table next to us.
I ordered the mandarin chicken salad, and it was delicious! It had grilled chicken, almonds, mandarin oranges and mixed greens with a honey-orange sauce. I intended to get a low-cal dressing instead of the honey-orange sauce, but they were out of their only one (low-cal vinaigrette), so I went with the sauce. It was really yummy, and tasted totally decadent after the week prior.
The thing I'm most proud of is that I have filled out my meal and workout plan for this next week. I have also made a grocery list for the week to hopefully alleviate the nightly trips to the store. I'm a little nervous for two things this week: first, my weigh-in tomorrow morning. I hope to be down 2 pounds, but you just can't ever tell until you get on the scale. I am proud of myself for fighting the urge to get on there throughout the week. The second thing I'm nervous for is that I made my meal plan for the week. With the exception of a few meals, I am sticking to suggested meals from the two plans. I just hope I'm balancing everything okay.
A couple challenges I'm anxious about this week, but planning for:
XO ~
Coley
So...a few things of note in the last couple days:
Day 5, meal 5 - awesome! A pleasant surprise for me and Tyler both. That night we had roasted halibut steaks, baked with lemon juice, olive oil, chicken broth and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes weren't necessary, but added nice color. The fish was great, and even Tyler thought so, which totally surprised me. His favorite part of the meal was the 1/2 cup of black beans we had on the side; he says it's his new favorite thing. The downside of this meal was that we didn't eat until 10:15 at night. Yeah...not so great. But we got home late, and we were hungry, so we went for it.
Day 6, workout - way to go, me! I woke up at 7:30 yesterday morning and wasn't feeling totally into the workout. Then I got to the living room (where I workout) and realized I had forgotten to throw my workout clothes in the dryer the night before, the living room needed to be rearranged, etc., etc. before I could work out. But I did it! And it kicked my butt! Afterward I cleaned the living room, including vacuuming, which all counts as activity for the day. Go me!
Yesterday was also a really hectic day, but I planned well, and pulled it off for the most part. I had a late breakfast (goat cheese omelet), so I didn't have a morning snack. I went straight for the turkey burger lunch, and made a smoothie to take with me for my afternoon snack. (Funny side note: I was at the church all afternoon, so to keep the smoothie cold, I put it in the fridge with the wine for Mass. That made me giggle!)
Dinner last night: I did good, all things considered. Not awesome, but good. This was my first venture to a restaurant for a friend's birthday. I looked up the menu beforehand since I hadn't been to the place before. I decided on either the grilled chicken or mandarin chicken salad. When I got there, I ordered a Diet Coke, which is a no-no. I had two glasses, and Tyler immediately noticed the influx of caffeine on my system for the first time in a week by the speed of my conversation when I got home! I also had 1 shot that was bought by the table next to us.
I ordered the mandarin chicken salad, and it was delicious! It had grilled chicken, almonds, mandarin oranges and mixed greens with a honey-orange sauce. I intended to get a low-cal dressing instead of the honey-orange sauce, but they were out of their only one (low-cal vinaigrette), so I went with the sauce. It was really yummy, and tasted totally decadent after the week prior.
The thing I'm most proud of is that I have filled out my meal and workout plan for this next week. I have also made a grocery list for the week to hopefully alleviate the nightly trips to the store. I'm a little nervous for two things this week: first, my weigh-in tomorrow morning. I hope to be down 2 pounds, but you just can't ever tell until you get on the scale. I am proud of myself for fighting the urge to get on there throughout the week. The second thing I'm nervous for is that I made my meal plan for the week. With the exception of a few meals, I am sticking to suggested meals from the two plans. I just hope I'm balancing everything okay.
A couple challenges I'm anxious about this week, but planning for:
- I'm having lunch with a friend on Wednesday. But, I went on line and looked at the menu of the restaurant we're going to, picked out a meal, and put it in the weekly meal plan just like I would anything else. Now, we are going to Noodles & Company, so the goal is to keep Wednesday low-stress, or I could find myself with a heaping bowl of mac n' cheese and parmesean crusted chicken! No, no...I won't. I have a plan!
- Next weekend is our big Reunion Weekend at work. This means super long days, and usually throwing down whatever food is left at the end of the events. I've planned for it though, and have even looked at my work assignments to see where I'll be on campus to see how often I'll be able to get to food, refrigerators, etc. I can do it, I just have to plan carefully.
XO ~
Coley
Friday, September 25, 2009
Day 5 of 84
Greetings again! I have been a little MIA, but I'm finding a lot of time goes into planning executing this process, so I have set aside the blogging to make time to do things like talk to my husband. ;) It's very nice to have the first week all spelled out for me, but I feel like all I do is make food and eat food, especially since I'm eating every 2 - 3 hours. My plan to curb a little of this time is to cook a few chicken breasts (or something) at a time and live off them for a few days. While I appreciate the variety, I don't know that I have time for it. But I digress... Here's a recap of the past couple days:
Day 3 - my day of rest from working out. I had planned to take a walk that evening to still fit in some activity, but it didn't happen. I got home from work at 8, and still had to make and eat dinner and prep all my meals for the next day. But that's okay because I still got up bright and early the next morning to workout, and I'm on track for my 5 or 6 workouts this week.
What food did I eat day 3? Hmmm...well, let me just check my handy food journal!
Meal 1 was a protein shake, peanut butter smoothie. This was good, but I'm not sure how I feel about drinking peanut butter. I think that's a mental block though, so I'll keep with it.
Meal 2 was two corn crisps and 1 1/2 ounces of reduced-fat cheese. Okay, so technically the plan was just 1 crisp and 1 ounce of cheese, but the crisps are super thing, and the cheese packets come in 3/4 oz. pre-packaging, so...oops! But it's back on today's list o' meals, and I only brought 1 corn crisp with me, so improvement. I did still bring 2 cheese packages, but man, I love those little cheeses! I'll do my best to just stick to a third of the second package though.
Meal 3 - tuna salad on a bed of romaine and a tomato with 2 melba toasts. This was great! Just 6 ounces of water-packed tuna with 1 tablespoon of light mayo - no dressing or anything, but it didn't need it! I will confess to adding a little salt and pepper on the tomato though...this isn't a no-no, but it's not in the recipe. I took the liberty of saying it was okay.
Meal 4 - 2 celery sticks and 2 tablespoons all-natural peanut butter. Yummy, as always. I really dig the all-natural PB - it's literally just mashed peanuts, no extra oils or anything. Very thick and delicious!
Meal 5 - Turkey taco salad! This might be the winner so far! The only cheating I did was that it calls for 1/4 of an avacado, and I had 1/2. I realize this is fat, but it's good fat, and what the heck am I going to do with 3/4 of an avacado!? Those things are like $2/piece - I'm not throwing it away! The other half is my snack for this evening. And the salad itself was great - lettuce, tomatoes, baked corn chips, cucumbers, low-fat cheese, ground turkey with taco seasoning and ketcup. Yep...ketchup. I about did water instead because the idea of ketchup in my taco salad grossed me out a little, but I tried it and it was good. It added a little of the moisture that you would otherwise get from...in my case...sour cream.
I didn't do meal 6. I'm finding the 5th meal is really satisfying and I don't usually need the 6th one. Today will be the exception to that, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Brief pause...time for my a.m. snack...be right back...
And, I'm back! 1 ounce of almonds in hand.
Day 4 - I think this was the "if we don't give her some fat, she's going to quit on us day," and they might have been right! But yesterday's food was really good! Here's a rundown:
Meal 1 - "Devilish Eggs", 1/2 apple, 1 corn crisp. Again, I substitued the corn crisp for the rice cake that looks like some hippy baked it in his kitchen and threw it in a baggie to be sold at supermarkets, but other than that, I stuck right to it. Oops - I lied. I added a touch of horseradish to the eggs for kick. But other than that, I was really good!
The Devilish Eggs were regular deviled eggs, but instead of mashing up all the yolks, I hard-boiled 3 eggs, cut them up, and only mashed one yolk. The third egg, I mashed the whites in the yolk, added the horseradish and a tablespoon of light mayo. A dash of paprika, and voila! Devilish Eggs! You do throw away 2 perfectly decent yolks, but I am personally okay with that.
Meal 2 - strawberry smoothie/protein shake. So, I lied. This sort of sucked. But it wasn't horrible, and it was very filling, so... not so bad. Good enough to fill the need for protein and some calcium, and quick.
Meal 3 - Terragon chicken salad and whole wheat pita - in the words of Rachel Ray - YUM-O! This salad was great! Cut up 3 ounces of baked chicken breast, mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons light mayo, 5 grapes cut in half, 1/4 cup chopped celery and 1 tsp. terragon. Put this on a bed of romaine and tomato, and you have a great meal!
Meal 4 - 100 calorie yogurt and 3/4 cup high-fiber cereal. I only ate a 1/2 cup of the cereal because I was full after that.
Meal 5 - Lemon chicken, 1 cup steamed asparagus and a mixed green salad with 1 T low-cal vinaigrette. Again - yum! But this was an adventure. The Chambers family does not saute meat. We grill. Or we bake. We do not saute. But I did, and I filled the apartment with smoke, and made a horrible mess of the kitchen. I will say it made for some yummy meat! This is where they really kicked in the fat - I got to saute it in olive oil, which is one of my favorite flavors ever. And the lemon was real lemon (no lemon pepper here, folks!) and you added some capers in for salt, which were good as well.
Today's food looks pretty good - a second dose of the low-fat cottage cheese, berries and walnut mixture for breakfast, the afore mentioned almonds for a morning snack. We repeat Monday's chef salad for lunch, and the corn crisp/cheese snack this afternoon. I'm throwing my last couple meals out of order - usually I'd eat a bigger 5th meal, and then do a small 6th meal, but I am singing in a wedding this evening, which really cuts into that plan. So instead, I'm going to grab a 5th meal/snack before that (the 1/2 an avacado) and have my bigger meal later. The "big" meal is roasted halibut, which looks promising.
Yesterday's workout and today's were great! I really do enjoy The Firm programs. On the 4 DVDs you get with the basic package, there are a total of 8 workouts (and one instructional "don't fall off the wave video"). So far, I've only repeated one workout - score for variety! - and they're all somewhere between 20 to 40 minutes. Plus, they totally kick my butt, and if I'm going to go to the work of working out, I better get some results!
I'm not sure if it's the workout or the food (I'm guessing it's a combo of both), but I feel terrific! I have been sleeping like a baby (I haven't woken up once this week, which is unheard of!), my wedding ring comes on and off with no pulling (no seriously...my hands gain and lose weight like nobody's business), and I woke up at 4:57 this morning, 3 minutes before my alarm, feeling ready to go for the day! In fact, before arriving at work at 8:40 this morning, I had worked out, washed the dishes and cleaned up the stove from last night, ironed today's clothes, got the frozen fish out of the packaging and into the fridge for tonight, organized the music for the 2 weddings I'm singing in this weekend, put a load of laundry in the dryer and started another load in the washer! And I ate breakfast and got ready for work in there - not bad!
Now, this part might be crazy, but I swear my clothes are already fitting better. I think it's not that I've lost that much weight, or any for that matter, but I think it's that I feel stronger from the workouts, and thus, I'm holding myself better. Posture is a wonderful thing!
I'm feeling good with 4 1/2 days down. That's not a lot of out of 84, but it's better than I was a week ago!
XO ~
Nicole
**If you're missing the pictures, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting to take them, and they take forever to load. I'll try to get pictures of the really delicious looking meals though - you should have seen last night's!
Day 3 - my day of rest from working out. I had planned to take a walk that evening to still fit in some activity, but it didn't happen. I got home from work at 8, and still had to make and eat dinner and prep all my meals for the next day. But that's okay because I still got up bright and early the next morning to workout, and I'm on track for my 5 or 6 workouts this week.
What food did I eat day 3? Hmmm...well, let me just check my handy food journal!
Meal 1 was a protein shake, peanut butter smoothie. This was good, but I'm not sure how I feel about drinking peanut butter. I think that's a mental block though, so I'll keep with it.
Meal 2 was two corn crisps and 1 1/2 ounces of reduced-fat cheese. Okay, so technically the plan was just 1 crisp and 1 ounce of cheese, but the crisps are super thing, and the cheese packets come in 3/4 oz. pre-packaging, so...oops! But it's back on today's list o' meals, and I only brought 1 corn crisp with me, so improvement. I did still bring 2 cheese packages, but man, I love those little cheeses! I'll do my best to just stick to a third of the second package though.
Meal 3 - tuna salad on a bed of romaine and a tomato with 2 melba toasts. This was great! Just 6 ounces of water-packed tuna with 1 tablespoon of light mayo - no dressing or anything, but it didn't need it! I will confess to adding a little salt and pepper on the tomato though...this isn't a no-no, but it's not in the recipe. I took the liberty of saying it was okay.
Meal 4 - 2 celery sticks and 2 tablespoons all-natural peanut butter. Yummy, as always. I really dig the all-natural PB - it's literally just mashed peanuts, no extra oils or anything. Very thick and delicious!
Meal 5 - Turkey taco salad! This might be the winner so far! The only cheating I did was that it calls for 1/4 of an avacado, and I had 1/2. I realize this is fat, but it's good fat, and what the heck am I going to do with 3/4 of an avacado!? Those things are like $2/piece - I'm not throwing it away! The other half is my snack for this evening. And the salad itself was great - lettuce, tomatoes, baked corn chips, cucumbers, low-fat cheese, ground turkey with taco seasoning and ketcup. Yep...ketchup. I about did water instead because the idea of ketchup in my taco salad grossed me out a little, but I tried it and it was good. It added a little of the moisture that you would otherwise get from...in my case...sour cream.
I didn't do meal 6. I'm finding the 5th meal is really satisfying and I don't usually need the 6th one. Today will be the exception to that, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Brief pause...time for my a.m. snack...be right back...
And, I'm back! 1 ounce of almonds in hand.
Day 4 - I think this was the "if we don't give her some fat, she's going to quit on us day," and they might have been right! But yesterday's food was really good! Here's a rundown:
Meal 1 - "Devilish Eggs", 1/2 apple, 1 corn crisp. Again, I substitued the corn crisp for the rice cake that looks like some hippy baked it in his kitchen and threw it in a baggie to be sold at supermarkets, but other than that, I stuck right to it. Oops - I lied. I added a touch of horseradish to the eggs for kick. But other than that, I was really good!
The Devilish Eggs were regular deviled eggs, but instead of mashing up all the yolks, I hard-boiled 3 eggs, cut them up, and only mashed one yolk. The third egg, I mashed the whites in the yolk, added the horseradish and a tablespoon of light mayo. A dash of paprika, and voila! Devilish Eggs! You do throw away 2 perfectly decent yolks, but I am personally okay with that.
Meal 2 - strawberry smoothie/protein shake. So, I lied. This sort of sucked. But it wasn't horrible, and it was very filling, so... not so bad. Good enough to fill the need for protein and some calcium, and quick.
Meal 3 - Terragon chicken salad and whole wheat pita - in the words of Rachel Ray - YUM-O! This salad was great! Cut up 3 ounces of baked chicken breast, mix in 1 1/2 tablespoons light mayo, 5 grapes cut in half, 1/4 cup chopped celery and 1 tsp. terragon. Put this on a bed of romaine and tomato, and you have a great meal!
Meal 4 - 100 calorie yogurt and 3/4 cup high-fiber cereal. I only ate a 1/2 cup of the cereal because I was full after that.
Meal 5 - Lemon chicken, 1 cup steamed asparagus and a mixed green salad with 1 T low-cal vinaigrette. Again - yum! But this was an adventure. The Chambers family does not saute meat. We grill. Or we bake. We do not saute. But I did, and I filled the apartment with smoke, and made a horrible mess of the kitchen. I will say it made for some yummy meat! This is where they really kicked in the fat - I got to saute it in olive oil, which is one of my favorite flavors ever. And the lemon was real lemon (no lemon pepper here, folks!) and you added some capers in for salt, which were good as well.
Today's food looks pretty good - a second dose of the low-fat cottage cheese, berries and walnut mixture for breakfast, the afore mentioned almonds for a morning snack. We repeat Monday's chef salad for lunch, and the corn crisp/cheese snack this afternoon. I'm throwing my last couple meals out of order - usually I'd eat a bigger 5th meal, and then do a small 6th meal, but I am singing in a wedding this evening, which really cuts into that plan. So instead, I'm going to grab a 5th meal/snack before that (the 1/2 an avacado) and have my bigger meal later. The "big" meal is roasted halibut, which looks promising.
Yesterday's workout and today's were great! I really do enjoy The Firm programs. On the 4 DVDs you get with the basic package, there are a total of 8 workouts (and one instructional "don't fall off the wave video"). So far, I've only repeated one workout - score for variety! - and they're all somewhere between 20 to 40 minutes. Plus, they totally kick my butt, and if I'm going to go to the work of working out, I better get some results!
I'm not sure if it's the workout or the food (I'm guessing it's a combo of both), but I feel terrific! I have been sleeping like a baby (I haven't woken up once this week, which is unheard of!), my wedding ring comes on and off with no pulling (no seriously...my hands gain and lose weight like nobody's business), and I woke up at 4:57 this morning, 3 minutes before my alarm, feeling ready to go for the day! In fact, before arriving at work at 8:40 this morning, I had worked out, washed the dishes and cleaned up the stove from last night, ironed today's clothes, got the frozen fish out of the packaging and into the fridge for tonight, organized the music for the 2 weddings I'm singing in this weekend, put a load of laundry in the dryer and started another load in the washer! And I ate breakfast and got ready for work in there - not bad!
Now, this part might be crazy, but I swear my clothes are already fitting better. I think it's not that I've lost that much weight, or any for that matter, but I think it's that I feel stronger from the workouts, and thus, I'm holding myself better. Posture is a wonderful thing!
I'm feeling good with 4 1/2 days down. That's not a lot of out of 84, but it's better than I was a week ago!
XO ~
Nicole
**If you're missing the pictures, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting to take them, and they take forever to load. I'll try to get pictures of the really delicious looking meals though - you should have seen last night's!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Day 2 of 84: The Plan
So far, so good! The second workout went well - Rock it Off! Express - although I was pretty sure I was going to fall on my butt a few times. I am remembering as I do The Firm that you have to have at least a little coordination to do their programs . . . or a minor in dance might be helpful! Either way, I made it through, and it was fun. I can definitely feel it working, which is my favorite part of their workouts - the instant gratification of sore muscles.
Tomorrow I get a day of rest from the workouts, but depending on what time I get to bed tonight, I may get up and do some Wii yoga. At least something to get my mind awake for the day.
Speaking of getting to bed early - as I was heading to bed last night, I commented to Tyler that the way I think the way the BFL (Body-for-Life) plan actually works is that you spend your whole night planning what you're going to eat for the next day, and then prepping it so it's all ready to go in the morning, and you're just too tired to eat after 8 p.m.. Either way - I'm good with it!
And speaking of Tyler, he's pretty sure that the BFL people and grocery stores are in cahoots. I will be making my third trip in as many days to Hy Vee this evening. Although in their defense, the only reason I had to go last night is because the bag boy left my goat cheese out of the bag the night before and I needed it for this morning. Which brings me to . . .
Today's eating plan! Here goes:
Meal 1: Goat cheese omelet (1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes and 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese) with a side of mixed berries.
Meal 2: low-fat mozzerella string cheese and carrot sticks (The Firm calls for sliced bell pepper instead of carrots, but bell peppers make me sick.)
Meal 3: Greek Salad (2 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1/4 cup feta cheese, 2 ounces baked chicken and 3 olives) dressed in 1 teaspoon olive oil and 2 teaspoons lemon juice, served with a 1/2 of a 6" whole-wheat pita.
Meal 4: 20 almonds
Meal 5: Marinated flank steak (balsamic vinegar and olive oil marinade) with steamed spinach and a tomato/onion salad, 1/2 of a 6" whole-wheat pita.
Meal 6: 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese, sliced tomato (or berries...not sure yet...this 6th meal doesn't exist in The Firm plan, and it's optional in BFL, so I'm sort of planning for that one, but knowing it might not happen.)
Along with the meals, I'm supposed to drink 11 - 12, 8 oz. glasses of water each day. This is not really a problem for me - I'm a water drinker anyway. But I haven't been drinking as much lately, so I'm making more and more trips to the bathroom. I'm just thinking of them as extra movement in my day. =)
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This is part 2 of this post - it's now 8:50 p.m., that was about 9:30 a.m. Today went well - my biggest realization the past 2 days is that I am desperately hungry after work! Days where I have anything after work before I can eat dinner (piano lessons, meetings), I am going to have to plan on a little later dinner and a second "snack" . . . or something. Anyway - here is today's progress and tomorrow's plan:
Meal 1: Goat cheese omelet and mixed berries - yum! I had a 1/2 cup less berries than they advised, but I wasn't hungry after the omelet and half the berries, so I didn't eat them.
Meal 2: I switched the plan up a bit and ate the almonds this morning instead of in the afternoon. They were almond-licious. Here's a pic of both of today's snacks because, let's face it, pictures of a bag of almonds, string cheese and carrot sticks aren't that exciting.
Meal 3: Greek salad - this was delish! Unfortunately I was in a meeting while I was having lunch, so I didn't get a picture. That's okay though - just trust me that it was scrumptious!
Meal 4: This is where the afore mentioned string cheese and carrot sticks come in.
Meal 5: Technically, I had a glass of skim milk to tide me over between work, piano lessons and dinner. Since this counts as a "Smart Protein", I am counting it as a meal.
Meal 6: Okay - speaking of delish! This was the planned meal 5 (steak, spinach, tomatoes, pita). Tyler just came home and commented that whatever it was I made for dinner smelled really good. He usually only says that about brownies. He's right - it smells (and tasted) great, and I'm thrilled that it's on the meal plan again Saturday night! Maybe they just threw in that bland chicken last night to throw us off. . . here's hoping!
Okay - tomorrow's plan:
Workout: Day o' rest! And I was going to get up and do yoga, but forget that - I'm sleeping in! However, I still want to do something active, so instead Tyler and I are going to do an after-dinner walk tomorrow. We usually walk from our apartment (83rd & Western-ish) to 90th & Western - about 14 blocks, or just over a mile. The intensity level will be lower than the other workouts, but that's okay.
Meal 1: Smoothie (1 c. vanilla soy milk, 1 T all-natural peanut butter, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and ice). This will be my first experience with the soy milk and protein powder. We'll see how it goes.
Meal 2: 1 corn cake (similar to a rice cake) with 1 ounce of reduced-fat cheese. I'm actually looking forward to this. A little salt, a little crunch, and I LOVE the laughing cow reduced-fat cheese, which conveniently comes pre-packaged in 1 oz. wrappers! The corn cake was supposed to be a rice cake, but the rice cakes at Hy-Vee looked . . . gross. Like some hippy had just thrown them in a bag and sent them off. I'm not so sure that's not the case. But either way, I love to support corn farmers, so this is a better option anyway!
Meal 3: Tuna Salad on a bd of romaine lettuce and tomatoes with 2 melba toasts.
Meal 4: 2 celery sticks with 2 T all-natural peanut butter
Meal 5: Turkey Taco Salad - I get chips with this! Baked tortilla chips - I don't even care that they're baked!
Meal 6: 1/2 apple and 1/2 cup grapes
Till tomorrow . . .
XO ~
Nicole
Tomorrow I get a day of rest from the workouts, but depending on what time I get to bed tonight, I may get up and do some Wii yoga. At least something to get my mind awake for the day.
Speaking of getting to bed early - as I was heading to bed last night, I commented to Tyler that the way I think the way the BFL (Body-for-Life) plan actually works is that you spend your whole night planning what you're going to eat for the next day, and then prepping it so it's all ready to go in the morning, and you're just too tired to eat after 8 p.m.. Either way - I'm good with it!
And speaking of Tyler, he's pretty sure that the BFL people and grocery stores are in cahoots. I will be making my third trip in as many days to Hy Vee this evening. Although in their defense, the only reason I had to go last night is because the bag boy left my goat cheese out of the bag the night before and I needed it for this morning. Which brings me to . . .
Today's eating plan! Here goes:
Meal 1: Goat cheese omelet (1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes and 1 ounce of crumbled goat cheese) with a side of mixed berries.
Meal 2: low-fat mozzerella string cheese and carrot sticks (The Firm calls for sliced bell pepper instead of carrots, but bell peppers make me sick.)
Meal 3: Greek Salad (2 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes, 1/2 cup cucumber, 1/4 cup feta cheese, 2 ounces baked chicken and 3 olives) dressed in 1 teaspoon olive oil and 2 teaspoons lemon juice, served with a 1/2 of a 6" whole-wheat pita.
Meal 4: 20 almonds
Meal 5: Marinated flank steak (balsamic vinegar and olive oil marinade) with steamed spinach and a tomato/onion salad, 1/2 of a 6" whole-wheat pita.
Meal 6: 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese, sliced tomato (or berries...not sure yet...this 6th meal doesn't exist in The Firm plan, and it's optional in BFL, so I'm sort of planning for that one, but knowing it might not happen.)
Along with the meals, I'm supposed to drink 11 - 12, 8 oz. glasses of water each day. This is not really a problem for me - I'm a water drinker anyway. But I haven't been drinking as much lately, so I'm making more and more trips to the bathroom. I'm just thinking of them as extra movement in my day. =)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is part 2 of this post - it's now 8:50 p.m., that was about 9:30 a.m. Today went well - my biggest realization the past 2 days is that I am desperately hungry after work! Days where I have anything after work before I can eat dinner (piano lessons, meetings), I am going to have to plan on a little later dinner and a second "snack" . . . or something. Anyway - here is today's progress and tomorrow's plan:
Meal 1: Goat cheese omelet and mixed berries - yum! I had a 1/2 cup less berries than they advised, but I wasn't hungry after the omelet and half the berries, so I didn't eat them.
Meal 2: I switched the plan up a bit and ate the almonds this morning instead of in the afternoon. They were almond-licious. Here's a pic of both of today's snacks because, let's face it, pictures of a bag of almonds, string cheese and carrot sticks aren't that exciting.
Meal 3: Greek salad - this was delish! Unfortunately I was in a meeting while I was having lunch, so I didn't get a picture. That's okay though - just trust me that it was scrumptious!
Meal 4: This is where the afore mentioned string cheese and carrot sticks come in.
Meal 5: Technically, I had a glass of skim milk to tide me over between work, piano lessons and dinner. Since this counts as a "Smart Protein", I am counting it as a meal.
Meal 6: Okay - speaking of delish! This was the planned meal 5 (steak, spinach, tomatoes, pita). Tyler just came home and commented that whatever it was I made for dinner smelled really good. He usually only says that about brownies. He's right - it smells (and tasted) great, and I'm thrilled that it's on the meal plan again Saturday night! Maybe they just threw in that bland chicken last night to throw us off. . . here's hoping!
Okay - tomorrow's plan:
Workout: Day o' rest! And I was going to get up and do yoga, but forget that - I'm sleeping in! However, I still want to do something active, so instead Tyler and I are going to do an after-dinner walk tomorrow. We usually walk from our apartment (83rd & Western-ish) to 90th & Western - about 14 blocks, or just over a mile. The intensity level will be lower than the other workouts, but that's okay.
Meal 1: Smoothie (1 c. vanilla soy milk, 1 T all-natural peanut butter, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract and ice). This will be my first experience with the soy milk and protein powder. We'll see how it goes.
Meal 2: 1 corn cake (similar to a rice cake) with 1 ounce of reduced-fat cheese. I'm actually looking forward to this. A little salt, a little crunch, and I LOVE the laughing cow reduced-fat cheese, which conveniently comes pre-packaged in 1 oz. wrappers! The corn cake was supposed to be a rice cake, but the rice cakes at Hy-Vee looked . . . gross. Like some hippy had just thrown them in a bag and sent them off. I'm not so sure that's not the case. But either way, I love to support corn farmers, so this is a better option anyway!
Meal 3: Tuna Salad on a bd of romaine lettuce and tomatoes with 2 melba toasts.
Meal 4: 2 celery sticks with 2 T all-natural peanut butter
Meal 5: Turkey Taco Salad - I get chips with this! Baked tortilla chips - I don't even care that they're baked!
Meal 6: 1/2 apple and 1/2 cup grapes
Till tomorrow . . .
XO ~
Nicole
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