Didn't get out to cycling class yesterday, a combination of lingering illness and bad traffic that would've made me both late and lethargic for class. Hopefully that's the last day I have to miss for the cold, because I was feeling much better today. Took Bug to karate and then went to bodyflow yoga at the gym. There was hardly anybody there because the temperature has dropped to a frigid fifty degrees, so it was just me and two others most of the time. (I did not even wear a coat to classs.)
Yoga was really good tonight, surprisingly good! I exercise because I want the results, not usually because I enjoy the classes, but it actually felt great to be moving my body again, stretching and bending and twisting. I was right there with the teacher the entire time, not exactly perfect on all the poses, not always going deep into the poses, but still doing the work and feeling good. I did my planks with no knees, and got my foot all the way off the mat for tree pose. Small steps, yeah, but it still felt good. It makes me feel like I could actually get pretty good at yoga.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
Today's recipe, beans and rice in a big pot! Easy and cheap, meatless and absolutely chock-full of power foods. One recipe makes a huge amount of very filling food. This is one of my go-to recipes for the beginning of the week; I like to make it on a Sunday night and pack it up into single-serving containers to use as lunches all through the week. If you leave just an inch of room at the top of your container when you pack it, you can add a dollop of plain greek yogurt, a sprinkle of cheese and some extra salsa before you put it in the lunch bag in the morning.
A note about the beans: I started out by using all canned beans because it's really easy. Draining, rinsing, and tossing in beans is about as easy as it gets. But using dried beans is actually super-easy as well, especially if you use your crockpot. Just put in two pounds of dried beans, fill with water so the beans are covered by two inches, and cook on low for six hours or overnight. I don't even bother soaking. If you eat beans a lot, your body gets totally used to the fiber and gas isn't much of an issue. My preferred method is to cook all my beans, one after another, and scoop them into plastic Ziploc baggies to freeze. I have a large crockpot, so when I want to make beans and rice, six baggies of frozen beans go back in the crockpot for a couple hours on warm to reheat perfectly with no scorching.
Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "everything in cans" version)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans black beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1 jar salsa (I like a mild citrusy salsa with no chunks)
2 dry cups brown rice, cooked
Salsa, plain greek yogurt, reduced fat cheese to garnish
Cook brown rice according to package directions, ideally in rice cooker. When rice is nearly ready, drain, rinse and combine all cans of beans in a large dutch oven or small stockpot. Drain tomatoes and add to pot, simmer all over medium heat until warm. Add corn, no need to thaw. Add cooked rice and salsa, stir all very well, let simmer until heated through. Makes 10 servings, 7pts each.
Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "extra-beany" remix)
This recipe assumes you have made and frozen your beans ahead of time like I talked about above. A "bag" is a sandwich-sized Ziploc-style bag, it holds 2-2.5 cups.
2 bags frozen kidney beans
2 bags frozen pinto beans
1 bag frozen black beans
1 bag frozen garbanzo beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn
1 jar salsa (add another half jar if you like more spice)
2 dry cups brown rice
Salsa, plain greek yogurt and reduced fat cheese for garnish
Peel the beans out of their bags and thaw them. If you have a big crockpot, a couple hours on low is the easiest way, otherwise microwave or stovetop. Cook the rice according to package directions, ideally in a rice cooker. When beans are thawed, put them in a stockpot (you WILL need a big pot for this, a dutch oven probably won't cut it.) Drain and add tomatoes, corn and salsa, heat until simmering. Add cooked rice, stir well, cook till heated through. Makes 14 servings, 6pts each
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Here are the results of my most recent bean-and-rice adventure. All those containers on the bottom shelf, including the yogurt container, are beans and rice to be used this week. I like to put about a serving and a half in each of the smaller containers because my husband has very long days at work. It's also nice to toss a few whole-wheat tortillas in with the beans and rice for variety.
A note about the beans: I started out by using all canned beans because it's really easy. Draining, rinsing, and tossing in beans is about as easy as it gets. But using dried beans is actually super-easy as well, especially if you use your crockpot. Just put in two pounds of dried beans, fill with water so the beans are covered by two inches, and cook on low for six hours or overnight. I don't even bother soaking. If you eat beans a lot, your body gets totally used to the fiber and gas isn't much of an issue. My preferred method is to cook all my beans, one after another, and scoop them into plastic Ziploc baggies to freeze. I have a large crockpot, so when I want to make beans and rice, six baggies of frozen beans go back in the crockpot for a couple hours on warm to reheat perfectly with no scorching.
Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "everything in cans" version)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans black beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1 jar salsa (I like a mild citrusy salsa with no chunks)
2 dry cups brown rice, cooked
Salsa, plain greek yogurt, reduced fat cheese to garnish
Cook brown rice according to package directions, ideally in rice cooker. When rice is nearly ready, drain, rinse and combine all cans of beans in a large dutch oven or small stockpot. Drain tomatoes and add to pot, simmer all over medium heat until warm. Add corn, no need to thaw. Add cooked rice and salsa, stir all very well, let simmer until heated through. Makes 10 servings, 7pts each.
Beans and Rice in a Big Pot
(the "extra-beany" remix)
This recipe assumes you have made and frozen your beans ahead of time like I talked about above. A "bag" is a sandwich-sized Ziploc-style bag, it holds 2-2.5 cups.
2 bags frozen kidney beans
2 bags frozen pinto beans
1 bag frozen black beans
1 bag frozen garbanzo beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn
1 jar salsa (add another half jar if you like more spice)
2 dry cups brown rice
Salsa, plain greek yogurt and reduced fat cheese for garnish
Peel the beans out of their bags and thaw them. If you have a big crockpot, a couple hours on low is the easiest way, otherwise microwave or stovetop. Cook the rice according to package directions, ideally in a rice cooker. When beans are thawed, put them in a stockpot (you WILL need a big pot for this, a dutch oven probably won't cut it.) Drain and add tomatoes, corn and salsa, heat until simmering. Add cooked rice, stir well, cook till heated through. Makes 14 servings, 6pts each
Here are the results of my most recent bean-and-rice adventure. All those containers on the bottom shelf, including the yogurt container, are beans and rice to be used this week. I like to put about a serving and a half in each of the smaller containers because my husband has very long days at work. It's also nice to toss a few whole-wheat tortillas in with the beans and rice for variety.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Let Me Hear Your Body Talk
Aside from it being weigh-in day today, I decided that today would be Back To Exercise day. Still got the cold, but it's a little bit better every day, and the worst of the coughing seems to be restricting itself to nighttime. Plus I missed Zumba twice in a row and didn't want to miss again! I figured I could back off on the intensity a little bit if I needed to and it would all be fine.
Sooooo... a good idea in theory, but then I got all stupid about it. See, it was a big important weigh-in day today, so I was careful about not eating after supper last night, or drinking very much at all in the morning before weigh-in. That made for a successful weigh-in, seeing as how I overshot my goal by almost a full pound, but I did not do a good job afterwards of refueling. I had breakfast in my bag, but all I ate was a granola bar and a little water. That was not smart! I also hadn't gotten good rest last night, see aforementioned nighttime coughing jags. I really only got a couple of solid hours, and was staggering around in a more than usually zombielike fashion for awhile this morning. Add that to the fact that I am literally still sick and it was a recipe for disaster.
Now if I were a smart person who listened to her body, I would've paid attention to all those warning signs, right? But that's one of my big problems, one of my inertia issues. My body and I have been on the outs for years. I have hated my body since junior high, why should I be good to it? I treat it badly, it works poorly, I punish it with more inattention, and on and on. It literally did not occur to me that I was really unprepared to exercise today. And for awhile, it was okay! I went to Zumba, I danced, I twirled, I shook my groove thang, and every so often I stopped to cough or blow my nose or gulp some water. But then right at the end of the workout, during the cooldowns, I found my heart starting to race when I had to stretch my arms above my head, and I started feeling weird and oogy. We all stuck around a few minutes after class for a raffle, and while we were guessing numbers to win a new pair of pants, the lights started getting all flashy and I knew it was time to sit or fall. I sat, possibly the first smart choice I'd made all day.
It took a minute or two for anybody to notice that I hadn't just decided to take an impromptu time-out in the middle of the dance floor, but then my instructor and some of the other ladies were right there and very concerned. My instructor Karina is a sweetheart, and I think I scared the hell out of her when I mumbled about being dizzy. Luckily, one of my fellow Zumbistas is a nurse, and she sort of took over and got me drinking water and eating little bites of a protein bar, and I started feeling better pretty soon. Everyone was really nice to me, and it was embarrassing but also really nice not to be alone when I felt so bad. A bottle of water and ten minutes of sitting and I was well enough to drive home, whereupon I laid down and took a nap, my second good decision of the day.
By the end of the afternoon I felt totally normal again, but it was a good lesson, delivered by my body in no uncertain terms. I can't just make my body fall in line because I think it ought to work all the time. I have to be good to it, I have to take care of it, and I have to listen to it. Given how badly I've treated it and how heavy and out of shape it is, my body has done yeoman's work the past three months in rising to the challenges of working out and slimming down. When it tells me it's hungry or thirsty, I need to listen. When it tells me it's time to stop, I have to stop. There'll always be another chance to dance tomorrow.
Sooooo... a good idea in theory, but then I got all stupid about it. See, it was a big important weigh-in day today, so I was careful about not eating after supper last night, or drinking very much at all in the morning before weigh-in. That made for a successful weigh-in, seeing as how I overshot my goal by almost a full pound, but I did not do a good job afterwards of refueling. I had breakfast in my bag, but all I ate was a granola bar and a little water. That was not smart! I also hadn't gotten good rest last night, see aforementioned nighttime coughing jags. I really only got a couple of solid hours, and was staggering around in a more than usually zombielike fashion for awhile this morning. Add that to the fact that I am literally still sick and it was a recipe for disaster.
Now if I were a smart person who listened to her body, I would've paid attention to all those warning signs, right? But that's one of my big problems, one of my inertia issues. My body and I have been on the outs for years. I have hated my body since junior high, why should I be good to it? I treat it badly, it works poorly, I punish it with more inattention, and on and on. It literally did not occur to me that I was really unprepared to exercise today. And for awhile, it was okay! I went to Zumba, I danced, I twirled, I shook my groove thang, and every so often I stopped to cough or blow my nose or gulp some water. But then right at the end of the workout, during the cooldowns, I found my heart starting to race when I had to stretch my arms above my head, and I started feeling weird and oogy. We all stuck around a few minutes after class for a raffle, and while we were guessing numbers to win a new pair of pants, the lights started getting all flashy and I knew it was time to sit or fall. I sat, possibly the first smart choice I'd made all day.
It took a minute or two for anybody to notice that I hadn't just decided to take an impromptu time-out in the middle of the dance floor, but then my instructor and some of the other ladies were right there and very concerned. My instructor Karina is a sweetheart, and I think I scared the hell out of her when I mumbled about being dizzy. Luckily, one of my fellow Zumbistas is a nurse, and she sort of took over and got me drinking water and eating little bites of a protein bar, and I started feeling better pretty soon. Everyone was really nice to me, and it was embarrassing but also really nice not to be alone when I felt so bad. A bottle of water and ten minutes of sitting and I was well enough to drive home, whereupon I laid down and took a nap, my second good decision of the day.
By the end of the afternoon I felt totally normal again, but it was a good lesson, delivered by my body in no uncertain terms. I can't just make my body fall in line because I think it ought to work all the time. I have to be good to it, I have to take care of it, and I have to listen to it. Given how badly I've treated it and how heavy and out of shape it is, my body has done yeoman's work the past three months in rising to the challenges of working out and slimming down. When it tells me it's hungry or thirsty, I need to listen. When it tells me it's time to stop, I have to stop. There'll always be another chance to dance tomorrow.
Ten Percent, You Must Admit That's Excellent
Huge big milestone day today! I finally made my 10%, as we call it at Weight Watchers. I have officially lost ten percent of my starting weight, in my case 26 pounds. Ten percent is a big deal healthwise, because it's where you start seeing major long-term health benefits when it comes to mortality and morbidity risks. It's an especially big deal to me because that is why I started on Weight Watchers in the first place.
When my doctor told me that I'd had a stroke last year and didn't even know it, I was terrified. I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac on my best days, maybe from all the years when I had no insurance and couldn't go to the doctor, I remember feeling bad last summer, scary bad, and wondering if there was something really wrong with me, but I didn't do anything about it, and eventually it all went away except for a lingering faint numbness on the left side of my face and a left shoulder and arm that seemed to get tired and achy more easily than they used to. I didn't really change anything about my life. Then months passed, and I learned what had happened, and suddenly it felt as though my body were a primed explosive, ready to go off without warning. Every ache was ominous, every bit of fatigue or skipped heartbeat a prelude to my early end. It sounds really melodramatic, but I was scared, down in my guts scared.
I think that the best thing that Weight Watchers has done for me is help me shed that horrible fear by turning it into action. I know what I need to do to save my own life, and I'm doing it, slowly, day by day. The first weeks were strange and miserable, I had little appetite and was afraid to eat anything at all. There are no real nutritionists in Laredo who aren't associated with fake weight-loss clinics, so I couldn't even get a referral, it was all research online and listening intently at my WW meetings. I tried to ask my doctor, but he completely blew me off, which has been his standard practice and why I'm looking for a new one. My poor family subsisted on low-sodium shrimp fried rice I made with brown rice, frozen veggies and shrimp, and on pan-grilled tilapia several times a week. I did lose some weight, but that wasn't the way I wanted to live.
Gradually I learned some stuff and began to loosen up a little. I talked to my parents' naturopath friend who recommended some good vitamins and supplements, as well as a modified Mediterranean-style diet. Lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, cooking with olive oil. My cardiologist ran me through enough tests to show that my heart is not the ticking time-bomb that I feared, put me on some beta blockers and baby aspirin, and told me that weight loss would do the rest. He told me I could exercise, so I joined a gym and started going five days a week. I felt lucky that I wasn't working, so I could concentrate on myself as a full-time project. I have a husband and a four year old son that I love more than anything. If anything happened to me, I never wanted them to feel like I didn't love them enough to do everything I could to stay with them.
It's been a little over three months since I joined Weight Watchers, and things are different now. My cholesterol is down, and my liver enzymes are improving. My energy is up, my acid reflux is all but gone. I drink more water than I ever have in my life. But it's not just me. Bug comes with me to my meeting every week, and we talk about healthy foods and why we eat or do not eat certain foods. I've stopped taking him to McDonalds just to kill time by letting him eat Chicken Nuggets and play on the playland (this was not a popular decision!) But he loves fruit and some vegetables, and he's stopped fighting the idea that he only gets one serving of juice per day, because too much is not healthy. His meals are healthy now because my meals are healthy, and that makes me happy. If there is any gift I can give him, I want him to never have the screwed-up relationship with food and with his body that I have always had. He can do so much better!
In any case, 26 pounds is just the tip of the iceberg. My next "official" goal is another 10%, which means 10% of my current body weight, or a goal of 213 pounds. It's a pretty good goal. My personal, unofficial goal is 15% of my starting body weight, or another 13 pounds down, for 224 pounds. The holidays are coming, which will make things harder, but I intend to keep going. I lost 26 pounds in three months, I can lose another 13 by January 1. Ambitious! My final-final goal is still almost too far away to talk about, my proper BMI weight of 155 pounds. I haven't weighed that much since puberty, so it's hard to contemplate it at all, but anything is possible!
When my doctor told me that I'd had a stroke last year and didn't even know it, I was terrified. I'm a little bit of a hypochondriac on my best days, maybe from all the years when I had no insurance and couldn't go to the doctor, I remember feeling bad last summer, scary bad, and wondering if there was something really wrong with me, but I didn't do anything about it, and eventually it all went away except for a lingering faint numbness on the left side of my face and a left shoulder and arm that seemed to get tired and achy more easily than they used to. I didn't really change anything about my life. Then months passed, and I learned what had happened, and suddenly it felt as though my body were a primed explosive, ready to go off without warning. Every ache was ominous, every bit of fatigue or skipped heartbeat a prelude to my early end. It sounds really melodramatic, but I was scared, down in my guts scared.
I think that the best thing that Weight Watchers has done for me is help me shed that horrible fear by turning it into action. I know what I need to do to save my own life, and I'm doing it, slowly, day by day. The first weeks were strange and miserable, I had little appetite and was afraid to eat anything at all. There are no real nutritionists in Laredo who aren't associated with fake weight-loss clinics, so I couldn't even get a referral, it was all research online and listening intently at my WW meetings. I tried to ask my doctor, but he completely blew me off, which has been his standard practice and why I'm looking for a new one. My poor family subsisted on low-sodium shrimp fried rice I made with brown rice, frozen veggies and shrimp, and on pan-grilled tilapia several times a week. I did lose some weight, but that wasn't the way I wanted to live.
Gradually I learned some stuff and began to loosen up a little. I talked to my parents' naturopath friend who recommended some good vitamins and supplements, as well as a modified Mediterranean-style diet. Lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, cooking with olive oil. My cardiologist ran me through enough tests to show that my heart is not the ticking time-bomb that I feared, put me on some beta blockers and baby aspirin, and told me that weight loss would do the rest. He told me I could exercise, so I joined a gym and started going five days a week. I felt lucky that I wasn't working, so I could concentrate on myself as a full-time project. I have a husband and a four year old son that I love more than anything. If anything happened to me, I never wanted them to feel like I didn't love them enough to do everything I could to stay with them.
It's been a little over three months since I joined Weight Watchers, and things are different now. My cholesterol is down, and my liver enzymes are improving. My energy is up, my acid reflux is all but gone. I drink more water than I ever have in my life. But it's not just me. Bug comes with me to my meeting every week, and we talk about healthy foods and why we eat or do not eat certain foods. I've stopped taking him to McDonalds just to kill time by letting him eat Chicken Nuggets and play on the playland (this was not a popular decision!) But he loves fruit and some vegetables, and he's stopped fighting the idea that he only gets one serving of juice per day, because too much is not healthy. His meals are healthy now because my meals are healthy, and that makes me happy. If there is any gift I can give him, I want him to never have the screwed-up relationship with food and with his body that I have always had. He can do so much better!
In any case, 26 pounds is just the tip of the iceberg. My next "official" goal is another 10%, which means 10% of my current body weight, or a goal of 213 pounds. It's a pretty good goal. My personal, unofficial goal is 15% of my starting body weight, or another 13 pounds down, for 224 pounds. The holidays are coming, which will make things harder, but I intend to keep going. I lost 26 pounds in three months, I can lose another 13 by January 1. Ambitious! My final-final goal is still almost too far away to talk about, my proper BMI weight of 155 pounds. I haven't weighed that much since puberty, so it's hard to contemplate it at all, but anything is possible!
Friday, November 14, 2014
The Cold That Would Not Die
So it's Friday again, and I'm very happy about that, except that it marks the fact that this cold has been ruling my life for two full weeks instead of just one. I was feeling better on Tuesday but worse again on Wednesday and pretty samey on Thursday, so I'm not super optimistic about today either. I went to the gym last night but it doesn't really count because all I did was sit in the jacuzzi and breathe steam in for thirty minutes, then baked myself dry in the sauna. I mean, it felt great, even though it was 50 degrees and I was in the outdoor jacuzzi, and for awhile it did clear my sinuses and make me feel better, but it's not exactly the exercise I usually look for at the gym.
On the other hand, I weighed myself this morning and things look good for me to have a loss when I weigh-in officially tomorrow. Not being able to taste anything hasn't put me off food entirely, but it's definitely curbed the snacking impulses. Not only does it seem pointless, it seems a positive waste of snack food, eating it when I can barely enjoy it. Now that the temperature's dropped, I've been making lots of hot tea, drinking that along with the endless glasses of water. If I don't get better this weekend, I've promised that I will go to a doctor of some sort early next week. If I'm going to fly in eight days, I had better not feel like this or I will literally explode something in my head at altitude.
On the other hand, I weighed myself this morning and things look good for me to have a loss when I weigh-in officially tomorrow. Not being able to taste anything hasn't put me off food entirely, but it's definitely curbed the snacking impulses. Not only does it seem pointless, it seems a positive waste of snack food, eating it when I can barely enjoy it. Now that the temperature's dropped, I've been making lots of hot tea, drinking that along with the endless glasses of water. If I don't get better this weekend, I've promised that I will go to a doctor of some sort early next week. If I'm going to fly in eight days, I had better not feel like this or I will literally explode something in my head at altitude.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Back to the Gym
I finally made it back to the gym tonight, for the first time since last Monday. I still don't feel totally good, but I also don't feel totally wrecked like I have been, and I really needed to get back. My beta blocker pills help control my slightly-irregular heartbeat, but not as much as regular exercise does. I am definitely feeling the effects of a week of inactivity! I also got some new exercise t-shirts from TeeFury and one of them is Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I was excited to start wearing it. Hey, I'll take my inspiration where I can get it!
Tonight was yoga class, this time with my regular instructor Ana Maria. She is a total sweetheart, and really encouraging and helpful to a yoga noob like myself. There were also about twelve people there tonight, some of them also new at yoga, so it was pretty much 1000% better than my last yoga class. After the lesson, I asked her and we worked through the side plank pose where I hurt my arm two weeks ago, and she suggested that I just not lift my hip off the ground till I've gotten my arm stronger. That makes sense to me, I think the reason I hurt it in the first place is because it's just too much weight to be putting on my shoulder. There are poses you can do at 125 pounds that are very different at 240 pounds. So tonight was sloppy poses and not concentrating at all on the breath work (no point when I can't inhale through my nose at all!), but it was still exercise, and a step back into my good routine.
Oh, and tonight's dinner! I saw on the weather that we could be dipping into the high thirties for a low this week thanks to the Arctic Chill rolling in, which would not be good for my plants. So I went out and I harvested all the best of my basil plants, then made whole wheat fusili with pesto sauce for dinner. Bug is a pesto-eating machine, he devoured two bowlfuls before karate class and didn't even complain that it wasn't his usual karate-day Lunchable! I don't really use a recipe for my pesto, it's all eyeballed, but it was a yogurt container full of basil leaves, and about a quarter-cup each of olive oil, walnuts (pine nuts are way too expensive!) and reduced-fat parmesan cheese, with a little garlic salt. I couldn't taste much of it, but I am assured it was very yummy.
Tonight was yoga class, this time with my regular instructor Ana Maria. She is a total sweetheart, and really encouraging and helpful to a yoga noob like myself. There were also about twelve people there tonight, some of them also new at yoga, so it was pretty much 1000% better than my last yoga class. After the lesson, I asked her and we worked through the side plank pose where I hurt my arm two weeks ago, and she suggested that I just not lift my hip off the ground till I've gotten my arm stronger. That makes sense to me, I think the reason I hurt it in the first place is because it's just too much weight to be putting on my shoulder. There are poses you can do at 125 pounds that are very different at 240 pounds. So tonight was sloppy poses and not concentrating at all on the breath work (no point when I can't inhale through my nose at all!), but it was still exercise, and a step back into my good routine.
Oh, and tonight's dinner! I saw on the weather that we could be dipping into the high thirties for a low this week thanks to the Arctic Chill rolling in, which would not be good for my plants. So I went out and I harvested all the best of my basil plants, then made whole wheat fusili with pesto sauce for dinner. Bug is a pesto-eating machine, he devoured two bowlfuls before karate class and didn't even complain that it wasn't his usual karate-day Lunchable! I don't really use a recipe for my pesto, it's all eyeballed, but it was a yogurt container full of basil leaves, and about a quarter-cup each of olive oil, walnuts (pine nuts are way too expensive!) and reduced-fat parmesan cheese, with a little garlic salt. I couldn't taste much of it, but I am assured it was very yummy.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Beans and Rice and Dinner Out
It took almost two days, but I cooked a whole bunch of pinto, black, garbanzo and kidney beans up, all in my crockpot. Everything turned out very well, except that I tried cooking black beans and garbanzos together, which wound up turning the garbanzos an interesting shade of black. Still tasted fine, though! Most of this beany bonanza went into bags in the freezer for later, but I kept out enough to make a big pot of beans and rice for the week ahead. I won't have to worry about lunches for days, yay!
Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, which means food traditions around here. Cake, breakfast in bed, and birthday dinner out. Since today was Sunday, we had birthday dinner a day early and went out to Red Lobster. I did my best to strike a balance between eating well and eating healthy, and I think I did all right for myself. I ate one cheese biscuit and two coconut shrimp from our six-shrimp appetizer before the meal started. I also got a salad, which I got with ceasar dressing on the side. I like Red Lobster's Ceasar dressing a lot, but only in near-homeopathic quantities. Where they will soak the leaves in dressing, I like to just dip the very edge of the leaf in and get the flavor. For my meal, I had the snow crab legs with just a tiny bit, maybe a third of the little dish, of drawn butter, rice pilaf, and mini-potatoes. It was very tasty! I also had one bite of the birthday boy's key lime pie, and felt very satisfied.
After supper, I had to go out to the grocery store for birthday meal supplies and food for the week ahead. Remember how last week I adhered to a strict budget? That did not happen so much this week. It was pretty much scuttled right off the bat by having to buy the cake and bacon and orange juice, but then I also found a present for my sister for Christmas that was a good price, but still not within the whole strict budgeting thing. In the end, I bought more stuff than I probably needed, but tried to keep my head about the whole business. I should have enough now that we will not need to shop except for odds and ends, bread and milk type stuff until we leave for our Thanksgiving trip. Spent 130 dollars, including holiday purchases, so it could be worse.
Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, which means food traditions around here. Cake, breakfast in bed, and birthday dinner out. Since today was Sunday, we had birthday dinner a day early and went out to Red Lobster. I did my best to strike a balance between eating well and eating healthy, and I think I did all right for myself. I ate one cheese biscuit and two coconut shrimp from our six-shrimp appetizer before the meal started. I also got a salad, which I got with ceasar dressing on the side. I like Red Lobster's Ceasar dressing a lot, but only in near-homeopathic quantities. Where they will soak the leaves in dressing, I like to just dip the very edge of the leaf in and get the flavor. For my meal, I had the snow crab legs with just a tiny bit, maybe a third of the little dish, of drawn butter, rice pilaf, and mini-potatoes. It was very tasty! I also had one bite of the birthday boy's key lime pie, and felt very satisfied.
After supper, I had to go out to the grocery store for birthday meal supplies and food for the week ahead. Remember how last week I adhered to a strict budget? That did not happen so much this week. It was pretty much scuttled right off the bat by having to buy the cake and bacon and orange juice, but then I also found a present for my sister for Christmas that was a good price, but still not within the whole strict budgeting thing. In the end, I bought more stuff than I probably needed, but tried to keep my head about the whole business. I should have enough now that we will not need to shop except for odds and ends, bread and milk type stuff until we leave for our Thanksgiving trip. Spent 130 dollars, including holiday purchases, so it could be worse.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Healthier Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
Since I'm not going to the gym this morning, I may as well take the time and write up a few recipes I've been using lately. I like to use recipes that I know will have at least some leftovers, because then I don't have to worry about what my husband is going to take to work for lunch!
This recipe is one I developed when I realized I had an entire case of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes from Amazon in the pantry from before I started Weight Watchers. I didn't want to get rid of the whole case, seeing as how money is pretty tight, but making the hyper-processed white flour noodle meal wasn't an option either. So I took the cheese packets, ditched the noodles, and went to town with healthy ingredients. The result is a dish that is high in sodium, but otherwise, I think, pretty doggone healthy for mac and cheese.and much more worthy of the name "dinner." I might serve a fruit side dish with this, but nothing else. I'm sure you could also use bulk powdered cheese, but you would have to experiment with quantity.
Healthier Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
Ingredients
2 Macaroni and Cheese Cheese Packets
1 box whole wheat rotini noodles
1 lb ground turkey
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced onion
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 cup frozen chopped broccoli (corn or spinach also work)
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt
Boil water in a large pot, a little more than you'd normally use for a box of noodles. When boiling, drop in noodles and cook five minutes, then add all vegetables and cook till noodles are soft.
While noodles are cooking, in a separate pan cook turkey with garlic and onion until completely cooked and chopped into small pieces.
Drain noodle and vegetable mix, return to pan. Add turkey mix to pan, stir. Add cheese powder and milk, stir until noodles are evenly coated. Add slightly more milk if necessary. Stir in yogurt till everything is creamy and evenly mixed.
Makes four big helpings, 12pts per serving.
This recipe is one I developed when I realized I had an entire case of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxes from Amazon in the pantry from before I started Weight Watchers. I didn't want to get rid of the whole case, seeing as how money is pretty tight, but making the hyper-processed white flour noodle meal wasn't an option either. So I took the cheese packets, ditched the noodles, and went to town with healthy ingredients. The result is a dish that is high in sodium, but otherwise, I think, pretty doggone healthy for mac and cheese.and much more worthy of the name "dinner." I might serve a fruit side dish with this, but nothing else. I'm sure you could also use bulk powdered cheese, but you would have to experiment with quantity.
Healthier Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
Ingredients
2 Macaroni and Cheese Cheese Packets
1 box whole wheat rotini noodles
1 lb ground turkey
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced onion
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 cup frozen chopped broccoli (corn or spinach also work)
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt
Boil water in a large pot, a little more than you'd normally use for a box of noodles. When boiling, drop in noodles and cook five minutes, then add all vegetables and cook till noodles are soft.
While noodles are cooking, in a separate pan cook turkey with garlic and onion until completely cooked and chopped into small pieces.
Drain noodle and vegetable mix, return to pan. Add turkey mix to pan, stir. Add cheese powder and milk, stir until noodles are evenly coated. Add slightly more milk if necessary. Stir in yogurt till everything is creamy and evenly mixed.
Makes four big helpings, 12pts per serving.
Weigh-in Day
Not much to talk about the past few days, this cold has been kicking my butt and I haven't even gone to exercise. After the coughing started, even breathing too hard could set me off, so cardio exercise seemed like a bad plan. I've done a little bit of mild strength work in the bathroom at home, mostly just air squats and arm lifts to make myself feel better for being lazy. I am hoping that this will be my last sick day off, though. Sundays are my usual day of rest, and by Monday I'm hoping to be ready to go back to the gym. I need to get my heart beating hard again, four days with no exercise has made me notice a few skipped heartbeats again. The beta blocker helps keep my heart in line, but not as much as the regular exercise!
I did make it to Weight Watchers this morning, barely. I gave in and took some NyQuil last night, which rendered me unconscious until almost 9:30 this morning. Restful, but I had to run for my 10am meeting! Man, NyQuil is weird stuff, it gives me strange, heavy, ponderous dreams. I don't really remember my dreams, but I remember how slow they were, trickling through my brain. Anyway, made it to the meeting, got the math error on my sheet corrected, and weighed in. Startlingly, I lost 3.4 pounds! I guess even without exercise, my diet of mostly whole-wheat couscous and gallons of water and tea was enough to peel off some weight.
I'm excited now because I'm just 2.4 pounds from my 10% goal of 26 pounds lost. Already I've lost the equivalent weight of three gallons of milk, weight I no longer have to carry around everywhere I go. No wonder I feel better! I have to be careful this week because weight lost during sickness tends to creep back on, but getting exercise again will help. I've gotta get my weight-loss house in order before the holidays really kick in, because it'll be so much more difficult then. (Gotta get my actual house in order too, but that's a different blog!)
Last night I tried a new recipe for tilapia, but it didn't turn out. I baked the fish in a Pyrex dish on top of a bed of sliced lemons and limes. Lemon and lime slices are great when I cook fish in the pan, but apparently baking them makes the fish unacceptably bitter. Or so says the husband, I couldn't testify to it because I currently have no sense of taste to speak of. Which is good, since I can eat the leftovers now and not care! Today I'm cooking dried pintos in the crockpot, will report back on how they turn out.
I did make it to Weight Watchers this morning, barely. I gave in and took some NyQuil last night, which rendered me unconscious until almost 9:30 this morning. Restful, but I had to run for my 10am meeting! Man, NyQuil is weird stuff, it gives me strange, heavy, ponderous dreams. I don't really remember my dreams, but I remember how slow they were, trickling through my brain. Anyway, made it to the meeting, got the math error on my sheet corrected, and weighed in. Startlingly, I lost 3.4 pounds! I guess even without exercise, my diet of mostly whole-wheat couscous and gallons of water and tea was enough to peel off some weight.
I'm excited now because I'm just 2.4 pounds from my 10% goal of 26 pounds lost. Already I've lost the equivalent weight of three gallons of milk, weight I no longer have to carry around everywhere I go. No wonder I feel better! I have to be careful this week because weight lost during sickness tends to creep back on, but getting exercise again will help. I've gotta get my weight-loss house in order before the holidays really kick in, because it'll be so much more difficult then. (Gotta get my actual house in order too, but that's a different blog!)
Last night I tried a new recipe for tilapia, but it didn't turn out. I baked the fish in a Pyrex dish on top of a bed of sliced lemons and limes. Lemon and lime slices are great when I cook fish in the pan, but apparently baking them makes the fish unacceptably bitter. Or so says the husband, I couldn't testify to it because I currently have no sense of taste to speak of. Which is good, since I can eat the leftovers now and not care! Today I'm cooking dried pintos in the crockpot, will report back on how they turn out.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Sickness and Shopping
Tuesday is typically my yoga day, but illness continues its march through the house. My cough is worse than yesterday, but nothing compared to the Bug's, who coughed himself into vomiting last night and ran a fever that allowed for almost no sleep. He and I both stayed home today, drinking smoothies, juice and water and sleeping a lot of the day. His fever has been down most of the day, so I'm hoping he can go back to school tomorrow.
So no yoga for me, but we did get out to vote and then I went off to the grocery store. Money is tight this month since we've paid a ton of money for Thanksgiving plane tickets, so I put myself on a budget, just like old times. Back before my husband got his current job, we had basically no money and I shopped on a budget of $150 a month for everything we needed, including most of our non-grocery items. Since we moved here, that budget has gone way up, and since I started this diet, it has skyrocketed. Healthy food is really expensive! On my last shopping trip I spent 200 dollars for a cartful of groceries, really way way too much. So for this trip, I set myself a budget of $50 and kept track in my head as I went along. When the count reached $50, I had to stop. Whatever I got, we'll eat on for this week.
It's nice to know I haven't lost my knack for mental math, I managed to get out of the store at just under $49 on the receipt. It is not nice to realize how much less distance $50 goes when you're trying to eat well. Back in the day, I looked at the prices only, not the labels. Ramen noodles and white bread cost a lot less than whole grain noodles and bread, and a tube of low-fat ground turkey costs as much as four packs of hot dogs. Back in the day, I would only shop in the produce section at all when we had a WIC check to spend, tonight I spent more than 12 dollars before I even left the produce section. And that was even after I put back the grapes I wanted because I couldn't justify spending more than four dollars on a bag of grapes!
Some things I was able to economize on. I bought dried beans instead of my usual cans, and I'll be trying to cook those up in the crockpot this week. A half-gallon of milk should be enough for us, the guys have it with cereal in the morning and Bug gets it at school, we don't need more. I found a cheaper brand of diced tomatoes to try out. And even though the turkey is crazy expensive, I know I can cook it up with the textured vegetable protein I have at home to make it go twice as far. The way we eat it, in casseroles and tacos and goulash-style meals, we won't even notice.
Some things I bought, we probably could've done without. I bought a pack of imitation crab meat that was $2.50, somewhat against my better judgement. It could've gone further somewhere else (I did not manage to buy any cheese this week at all!), but it's my favorite workout snack, and if I don't get the protein, I graze on anything in sight. So it's sort of a toss-up. And my favorite creamy soup was on sale, also for about $2.50. Which is not cheap, for soup, but when I mix it with rice, it can be lunch for me for up to four days. And rice is always cheap and easy! There were also the four store-brand Lunchables that are dinner for Bug and I on karate-yoga days. A better, more organized Mom would figure out how to get a real meal on those days, but I am not that mom! At least they are only a dollar each.
Even if I don't shop to a tight budget like this every week, I think it was a valuable exercise. I looked at the prices of things I buy in a way I haven't done in a long time. I've been shopping without regard to price lately, and then been shocked every time at the register. That has to stop. Even with eating healthy, I need to take responsibility for how much I spend on groceries or our budget is never going to stabilize. Coming up this week: how do I cook and stretch and serve the food I bought tonight?
So no yoga for me, but we did get out to vote and then I went off to the grocery store. Money is tight this month since we've paid a ton of money for Thanksgiving plane tickets, so I put myself on a budget, just like old times. Back before my husband got his current job, we had basically no money and I shopped on a budget of $150 a month for everything we needed, including most of our non-grocery items. Since we moved here, that budget has gone way up, and since I started this diet, it has skyrocketed. Healthy food is really expensive! On my last shopping trip I spent 200 dollars for a cartful of groceries, really way way too much. So for this trip, I set myself a budget of $50 and kept track in my head as I went along. When the count reached $50, I had to stop. Whatever I got, we'll eat on for this week.
It's nice to know I haven't lost my knack for mental math, I managed to get out of the store at just under $49 on the receipt. It is not nice to realize how much less distance $50 goes when you're trying to eat well. Back in the day, I looked at the prices only, not the labels. Ramen noodles and white bread cost a lot less than whole grain noodles and bread, and a tube of low-fat ground turkey costs as much as four packs of hot dogs. Back in the day, I would only shop in the produce section at all when we had a WIC check to spend, tonight I spent more than 12 dollars before I even left the produce section. And that was even after I put back the grapes I wanted because I couldn't justify spending more than four dollars on a bag of grapes!
Some things I was able to economize on. I bought dried beans instead of my usual cans, and I'll be trying to cook those up in the crockpot this week. A half-gallon of milk should be enough for us, the guys have it with cereal in the morning and Bug gets it at school, we don't need more. I found a cheaper brand of diced tomatoes to try out. And even though the turkey is crazy expensive, I know I can cook it up with the textured vegetable protein I have at home to make it go twice as far. The way we eat it, in casseroles and tacos and goulash-style meals, we won't even notice.
Some things I bought, we probably could've done without. I bought a pack of imitation crab meat that was $2.50, somewhat against my better judgement. It could've gone further somewhere else (I did not manage to buy any cheese this week at all!), but it's my favorite workout snack, and if I don't get the protein, I graze on anything in sight. So it's sort of a toss-up. And my favorite creamy soup was on sale, also for about $2.50. Which is not cheap, for soup, but when I mix it with rice, it can be lunch for me for up to four days. And rice is always cheap and easy! There were also the four store-brand Lunchables that are dinner for Bug and I on karate-yoga days. A better, more organized Mom would figure out how to get a real meal on those days, but I am not that mom! At least they are only a dollar each.
Even if I don't shop to a tight budget like this every week, I think it was a valuable exercise. I looked at the prices of things I buy in a way I haven't done in a long time. I've been shopping without regard to price lately, and then been shocked every time at the register. That has to stop. Even with eating healthy, I need to take responsibility for how much I spend on groceries or our budget is never going to stabilize. Coming up this week: how do I cook and stretch and serve the food I bought tonight?
Monday, November 3, 2014
Cycling With a Cold
The cold that has been working its way through my family for the past couple weeks finally descended upon me last night with a scratchy throat that signaled impending doom. I took some zinc lozenges and did a nasal irrigation but all in vain, because this morning my voice was gone and the cold was definitely here. It hasn't been too bad so far, knock on wood. I've just been desperate for liquids all day long. I've had two mini-pots of tea and lost count of how many times I've refilled my cup of water. I've been drinking citrus water lately, putting half a lemon, half a lime and half an orange into my cup and pouring water over them. They last all day and make the water a lot more palatable, but today I just can't stop drinking! I like to think of it as washing the germs through my body and out.
After a little bit of internet research, I decided not to skip the gym this evening. Apparently moderate exercise is good for your immune system, and as long as the cold symptoms don't go below your neck, you're good to go on exercise. Monday nights used to be Zumba for me, but it's the busiest night and I hated it. I find that being in a classroom with too many people makes me feel awkward and self-conscious. It makes me dance small, which is not good for getting a good workout, and it makes me feel huge, which is not good for getting those nifty post-exercise endorphins. I tried it for a few weeks, but it just wasn't working out.
Now I do cycling on Monday nights, and aside from the persistent butt pain, it's a lot better. Carlos teaches the Monday night class, and he is extremely loud but really nice and encouraging. Tonight's class involved a lot of sitting on the bike seat, which is not my favorite pose, and a lot of leaning over the handlebars while sitting, which is absolutely my least favorite pose. As an, (ahem) "bigger-busted woman," I find that there is substantially less clearance between the bottom of my top and the top of my legs than there is for my classsmates, and trying to bike while stretched out flat is a little bit like giving yourself a double-barreled mammogram at 65 revolutions per minute. On the other hand, besides going through two bottles of water instead of one, my cold didn't cause any problems at all!
Dinner tonight was good too, though I forgot to take a picture. I picked up a couple of ultra-thin whole wheat pizza crusts at HEB last week, and tonight I used one to make a chicken-bacon-artichoke pizza. I spread the pizza with pizza sauce (sometimes I use fat free ranch dressing for variety), then added chopped-up grilled boneless skinless chicken breast that I made up yesterday. Half a breast is plenty for pizza topping. Added a bunch of chopped up canned artichoke hearts, sprinkled on turkey bacon bits, and covered it with a cup of reduced fat parmesan cheese. 12 minutes in the oven, and it was done! Both my guys love this pizza.
After a little bit of internet research, I decided not to skip the gym this evening. Apparently moderate exercise is good for your immune system, and as long as the cold symptoms don't go below your neck, you're good to go on exercise. Monday nights used to be Zumba for me, but it's the busiest night and I hated it. I find that being in a classroom with too many people makes me feel awkward and self-conscious. It makes me dance small, which is not good for getting a good workout, and it makes me feel huge, which is not good for getting those nifty post-exercise endorphins. I tried it for a few weeks, but it just wasn't working out.
Now I do cycling on Monday nights, and aside from the persistent butt pain, it's a lot better. Carlos teaches the Monday night class, and he is extremely loud but really nice and encouraging. Tonight's class involved a lot of sitting on the bike seat, which is not my favorite pose, and a lot of leaning over the handlebars while sitting, which is absolutely my least favorite pose. As an, (ahem) "bigger-busted woman," I find that there is substantially less clearance between the bottom of my top and the top of my legs than there is for my classsmates, and trying to bike while stretched out flat is a little bit like giving yourself a double-barreled mammogram at 65 revolutions per minute. On the other hand, besides going through two bottles of water instead of one, my cold didn't cause any problems at all!
Dinner tonight was good too, though I forgot to take a picture. I picked up a couple of ultra-thin whole wheat pizza crusts at HEB last week, and tonight I used one to make a chicken-bacon-artichoke pizza. I spread the pizza with pizza sauce (sometimes I use fat free ranch dressing for variety), then added chopped-up grilled boneless skinless chicken breast that I made up yesterday. Half a breast is plenty for pizza topping. Added a bunch of chopped up canned artichoke hearts, sprinkled on turkey bacon bits, and covered it with a cup of reduced fat parmesan cheese. 12 minutes in the oven, and it was done! Both my guys love this pizza.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Healthy Creamy Pumpkin Soup
The heat's finally breaking and Halloween is over, so that makes it the perfect time for pumpkin soup! Here's a recipe I modified for our dinner tonight, to general acclaim. If I can get husband and son to both like a soup, I know it's good!
Healthy Creamy Pumpkin Soup
(heavily modified from this recipe by Mayo Clinic)
Ingredients:
1 medium pie pumpkin (or 1 15oz can puree)
1 small onion
4oz (1/2 package) fat free cream cheese
1 tbsp reduced fat margarine
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 chicken boullion cubes (2 cups broth may be subbed for cubes and 2 cups water)
2 1/4 cups water, divided
Roast one pie pumpkin and scoop out two cups of pulp (or use one can of puree if you really must). To roast your pumpkin, cut off the stem, cut the pumpkin in half around the widest part, and scoop out the seeds and guts. Place both halves face-down on a cookie sheet with a little water covering the bottom, then put in the oven at 350 for 40-45 minutes. When done, the skin will be dark brownish-orange and a knife will slide in very easily. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before scooping.
Chop the onion and sautee in a saucepan or deep sautee pan with margarine until golden brown and soft. Add 1/4 cup water and stir, then add pumpkin. Stir until smooth, then add remaining water and boullion cubes.
Add nutmeg and cayenne. Simmer on medium heat until boullion cubes are dissolved and everything is hot, then blend in a blender or food processor with cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
Makes three filling servings, 3pts each.
Healthy Creamy Pumpkin Soup
(heavily modified from this recipe by Mayo Clinic)
Ingredients:
1 medium pie pumpkin (or 1 15oz can puree)
1 small onion
4oz (1/2 package) fat free cream cheese
1 tbsp reduced fat margarine
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 chicken boullion cubes (2 cups broth may be subbed for cubes and 2 cups water)
2 1/4 cups water, divided
Roast one pie pumpkin and scoop out two cups of pulp (or use one can of puree if you really must). To roast your pumpkin, cut off the stem, cut the pumpkin in half around the widest part, and scoop out the seeds and guts. Place both halves face-down on a cookie sheet with a little water covering the bottom, then put in the oven at 350 for 40-45 minutes. When done, the skin will be dark brownish-orange and a knife will slide in very easily. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before scooping.
Chop the onion and sautee in a saucepan or deep sautee pan with margarine until golden brown and soft. Add 1/4 cup water and stir, then add pumpkin. Stir until smooth, then add remaining water and boullion cubes.
Add nutmeg and cayenne. Simmer on medium heat until boullion cubes are dissolved and everything is hot, then blend in a blender or food processor with cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
Makes three filling servings, 3pts each.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Zumba, Yoga and the Halloween Hangover
Today is Saturday, which means Bug and I go Weight Watchers first thing, then off to the gym for Zumba before home for lunch. I never, ever, ever eat before Weight Watchers, so we pack along some snacks to eat after lest I faint from hunger and get danced on. Today was dry roasted cashews with sea salt, bananas, and a bottle of water. Meeting was excellent, I lost three pounds over the past two weeks. (Didn't go last week because of weird sudden bloating, I knew I hadn't actually gained, but the scale was really pissing me off.) I know I need to go faithfully to meetings, but sometimes if my mood is low enough, going in and seeing a bad result will set me back more than it helps.
We talked about Halloween some, since it was yesterday and all (and wasn't it fun to try and do Halloween night with a weigh-in looming!) I felt pretty happy, I did eat a few pieces of candy and the Sweet and Spicy caramel corn I made to take to my friend's house, but I didn't eat nearly as much as I would've last year. We also walked a fair piece while trick-or-treating with Bug, and I wasn't even tired afterwards. Progress!
Zumba with Karina was actually really fun today, which is not always the case. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have the inherent dance reflexes to understand what I'm supposed to be doing in the class, not to mention that the music is typically turned up to jet-engine volume. The funny thing is, I tend to have really good classes right after really bad classes, and my second yoga class last week was just awful.
Ana Maria was gone, so there was a substitute, and instead of Bodyflow we did Vinyasa. Which is not terrible, I'd done it once before and it was very difficult but meditative and kind of nice. Except instead of turning on the yoga lights, she left the regular bright florescents up, and instead of eight or ten students, some of whom are good and some who are like me, there were two other students who looked and performed like they could be doing instructional videos for yoga. So I was fumbling horribly through the class, and then it ran late and there was no rest or meditation at the end, and I was so frustrated and humiliated I wanted to cry. But the one thing I can say is that I have never ditched a class in the middle, no matter how bad it was or how bad at it I was, and I stuck this one out too, and it's a small thing to be proud of.
Anyway, Zumba this morning was a welcome relief after that disaster, and I was able to go full out for at least the first fifteen minutes. I count it as full-out when I'm right there with everybody else, lifting my arms all the way, doing all the steps and trying to get them perfect, and the energy is really there. I always have to back off eventually because I get tired and I'm not supposed to get my heart rate much about 155, but I was really feeling good this morning. Some lady came in halfway through the class and tried to start a new back row behind me even though there was plenty of room on the other side of the workout room. That was annoying, since I come early to stake out my precious back corner spot, but hey, it's her own fault that she gets to stare at my big butt working it for the entire class session.
Afterwards I went forward and talked to Karina, the leader, for the first time and asked for some alternatives to the jumping moves. I believe I have already mentioned my inertia problems, one of which is that it takes a lot to get 243 pounds in the air, and it's not something best done lightly! She's super nice, showed me some alternative step moves and asked my name, so now she is the only teacher who knows my name. No nametags or sign up sheets for these classes, you just go to whatever you want, whenever. I'm sure they all recognize me by sight, though, since I weigh at least fifty pounds more than pretty much anybody in any of my classes. That just means I get more exercise, right?
We talked about Halloween some, since it was yesterday and all (and wasn't it fun to try and do Halloween night with a weigh-in looming!) I felt pretty happy, I did eat a few pieces of candy and the Sweet and Spicy caramel corn I made to take to my friend's house, but I didn't eat nearly as much as I would've last year. We also walked a fair piece while trick-or-treating with Bug, and I wasn't even tired afterwards. Progress!
Zumba with Karina was actually really fun today, which is not always the case. Sometimes I feel like I just don't have the inherent dance reflexes to understand what I'm supposed to be doing in the class, not to mention that the music is typically turned up to jet-engine volume. The funny thing is, I tend to have really good classes right after really bad classes, and my second yoga class last week was just awful.
Ana Maria was gone, so there was a substitute, and instead of Bodyflow we did Vinyasa. Which is not terrible, I'd done it once before and it was very difficult but meditative and kind of nice. Except instead of turning on the yoga lights, she left the regular bright florescents up, and instead of eight or ten students, some of whom are good and some who are like me, there were two other students who looked and performed like they could be doing instructional videos for yoga. So I was fumbling horribly through the class, and then it ran late and there was no rest or meditation at the end, and I was so frustrated and humiliated I wanted to cry. But the one thing I can say is that I have never ditched a class in the middle, no matter how bad it was or how bad at it I was, and I stuck this one out too, and it's a small thing to be proud of.
Anyway, Zumba this morning was a welcome relief after that disaster, and I was able to go full out for at least the first fifteen minutes. I count it as full-out when I'm right there with everybody else, lifting my arms all the way, doing all the steps and trying to get them perfect, and the energy is really there. I always have to back off eventually because I get tired and I'm not supposed to get my heart rate much about 155, but I was really feeling good this morning. Some lady came in halfway through the class and tried to start a new back row behind me even though there was plenty of room on the other side of the workout room. That was annoying, since I come early to stake out my precious back corner spot, but hey, it's her own fault that she gets to stare at my big butt working it for the entire class session.
Afterwards I went forward and talked to Karina, the leader, for the first time and asked for some alternatives to the jumping moves. I believe I have already mentioned my inertia problems, one of which is that it takes a lot to get 243 pounds in the air, and it's not something best done lightly! She's super nice, showed me some alternative step moves and asked my name, so now she is the only teacher who knows my name. No nametags or sign up sheets for these classes, you just go to whatever you want, whenever. I'm sure they all recognize me by sight, though, since I weigh at least fifty pounds more than pretty much anybody in any of my classes. That just means I get more exercise, right?
September-October Gym Days
When I bought my gym membership, I paid for the entire year in one shot, both because it was a better deal and because it almost gave me the heart attack I'm trying so hard to avoid. I really don't like wasting money when I can help it, and the idea that I was spending so much money lit a fire under me to make sure I used my investment. So I'm amortizing that big lump sum by days I go to the gym, telling myself how much each visit is costing based on how many I've already made. I used the ballpark figure of $600 for easy math (it was a bit more, including daycare for Bug and taxes, but eh), and divided it by the total number of visits. So my first visit, if that was the only one I ever made, would've cost me $600 dollars.
September 2014 Gym Time: (Joined September 13)
Total Visits: 12
Total Classes: 9
September 2014 Gym Time: (Joined September 13)
Total Visits: 12
Total Classes: 9
- 4 Personal Training
- 1 Bodypump
- 3 Zumba
- 1 Bodyflow
Total Daycare Days: 6
Cost per Visit: $50
October 2014 Gym Time:
Total Visits: 20
Total Classes: 20 (I like classes!)
- 6 Zumba
- 6 Bodyflow
- 2 Vinyasa Yoga
- 3 Bodycombat
- 3 Cycling
Total Daycare Days: 17
Cost Per Visit: $18.75
So far the daycare has already paid for itself several times over, especially since Bug loves it so much I can use going to the gym with me as a small bribe for good behavior. After the personal training sessions I have not worked out much on my own, but I've been taking up to five classes per week. Gold's Gym includes all classes free with membership, which I think is a huge plus. I've also been taking some advantage of the jacuzzi and sauna when the exercise makes my muscles want to kill me. So far, definitely a good investment! My goal for the year is to average at least 12 visits per month, for an eventual cost per visit of $4.17. I worked ahead in October, since I know I'm going to be traveling for the holidays.
Starting Statistics
Since I'm putting this all out on the internet, it is tempting for me to be cagey about my weight and measurements as I go along. It's not something I'm proud of, after all! But I'm proud of the weight I'm losing, and the fact that I'm fat is hardly a secret. May as well put it all out there!
All About Me:
Age: 32
Height 5'6
Starting Weight: 263.6 lbs
Current Weight: 243.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 20.4 lbs
Measurements (done with my super-scientific "wrap a string around yourself at the widest points and measure the string" method)
Neck: 17.5"
Upper Arm: 16"
Bust: 51"
Waist: 48"
Hips: 54"
Thigh: 30"
Calf: 16"
And that is after 33 visits to the gym! So even though I didn't take beginning measurements, it's a decent measuring stick for the rest of the journey.
And finally, pictures!
All About Me:
Age: 32
Height 5'6
Starting Weight: 263.6 lbs
Current Weight: 243.4 lbs
Total Weight Lost: 20.4 lbs
Measurements (done with my super-scientific "wrap a string around yourself at the widest points and measure the string" method)
Neck: 17.5"
Upper Arm: 16"
Bust: 51"
Waist: 48"
Hips: 54"
Thigh: 30"
Calf: 16"
And that is after 33 visits to the gym! So even though I didn't take beginning measurements, it's a decent measuring stick for the rest of the journey.
And finally, pictures!
This is Where it Starts
Everything has to start somewhere, right? Here's where my Me 2.0 blog starts. I was in my Weight Watchers meeting today and we talked about You 2.0, all the differences that come along with losing weight and changing your lifestyle. A lot of it has nothing to do with numbers on a scale. It's about confidence, not just in how you look, but in your ability to change, to stick with something difficult, to see things through. Sticking with things is not my forte, I have a tendency to give up when the going gets tough. That's not an option anymore, not if I want to live and be healthy. I've been changing my life for the past three months now, so I'm not where I was, but I'm really not where I want to be yet, either. Call it Me 1.1.
One of the big things I did when I decided to get in shape was join the local Gold's Gym. I'm taking classes there four or five times a week: Zumba, Bodycombat, Bodyflow Yoga, and cycling. A huge concept in exercise classes is resistance, how much weight you're pushing against when you exercise. Cycling or weightlifting or just moving your body, resistance matters. I exercise with a lot more resistance to start with because I weight so much right now. Every step I take is loaded with resistance, and sometimes that makes it very hard and discouraging.
Inertia is resistance too, and I've got a ton of that. Not just in exercise (though I think about inertia a lot when I do Zumba and the leader is performing moves that can only be done when one has no breast or butt to speak of!) I'm talking inertia in my life, the fact that it's so much easier to not change when I've done things the same way for so long. I spend too much time sitting in a chair, and too many nights fooling with my computer instead of sleeping. I don't go outside enough, and I don't experiment with new healthy foods as much as I could. But just as I'm reducing my physical inertia an inch at a time by exercise, I'm going to work the mental inertia off as well, in small steps.
That's what this blog is for. The thing about small steps is that they don't amount to much unless you can look back and see your footprints. I want to note down every small step, so that eventually I can look back when I feel frustrated and fat and slow, and remind myself that I'm not the me I used to be. So here goes!
One of the big things I did when I decided to get in shape was join the local Gold's Gym. I'm taking classes there four or five times a week: Zumba, Bodycombat, Bodyflow Yoga, and cycling. A huge concept in exercise classes is resistance, how much weight you're pushing against when you exercise. Cycling or weightlifting or just moving your body, resistance matters. I exercise with a lot more resistance to start with because I weight so much right now. Every step I take is loaded with resistance, and sometimes that makes it very hard and discouraging.
Inertia is resistance too, and I've got a ton of that. Not just in exercise (though I think about inertia a lot when I do Zumba and the leader is performing moves that can only be done when one has no breast or butt to speak of!) I'm talking inertia in my life, the fact that it's so much easier to not change when I've done things the same way for so long. I spend too much time sitting in a chair, and too many nights fooling with my computer instead of sleeping. I don't go outside enough, and I don't experiment with new healthy foods as much as I could. But just as I'm reducing my physical inertia an inch at a time by exercise, I'm going to work the mental inertia off as well, in small steps.
That's what this blog is for. The thing about small steps is that they don't amount to much unless you can look back and see your footprints. I want to note down every small step, so that eventually I can look back when I feel frustrated and fat and slow, and remind myself that I'm not the me I used to be. So here goes!
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