Survived the weekend

So, I'm going to admit that I'm HORRIBLE about keeping track of food/calories on weekends!

The lack of structure totally throws me off, and I end up not adhering to any plan and just kind of wing it.

Luckily, I did okay with food choices, and I don't think that I went over 2,000 calories either day.

Saturday, I just mainly had alot of protien and veggies, and one skinny cow ice cream cup (150cal)

Sunday, I did the same--lots of protien and veggies.

I did have one Berger cookie on Sunday (140 cal). And that is hard to do because they are freaking AWESOME! One of the best things to come from Baltimore, along with Old Bay!

I did walk on Saturday, but less so Sunday, unless you count one trip around the Bed Bath Beyond with the ELB as exercise. And I don't think it qualified, even with the added trip around Walgreens.

This morning, I got to work and walked in the HUMID MUGGY air for 20 minutes.  I was sweating like a MOFO.

Today, I'm doing good so far. I had my shake at 7am on the way to work, and I packed Unjury chicken protien dip and a cucumber for lunch. I also have an Asiago bagel from Panera (birthday breakfast for a coworker) that I didn't eat, and which I might have part of with lunch today. I was thinking of making an open face cucumber sandwich with it.

Happy Monday!

Day three...phone post

Went over by 90 calories on Friday, but otherwise did pretty good. And i even walked in the pouring rain with my umbrella before work for 20 minutes. Better than nothing!

The killer for yesterday was soup/salad/bread sticks lunch at olive garden. If i had done one serving of each it would have been good, but i had two bowls of soup, two servings of salad, and two bread sticks for a whopping 920 calories!

Today has been ok. Took a three mike walk with the ELB, I've only eaten dinner leftovers of turkey taco casserole (turkey burger, mushrooms, onions, tomato sauce, rotel chills and tomatos, garlic, and 1/2 pack of taco seasoning, and one can of Cannellini beans rinsed). I ate with with a dollop of Fage Greek 0% yogurt and some LF shredded cheese. I'm working on my water, and reading a book.

I have bbq turkey meatloaf in the oven along with some cauliflower roasting. Its been a good day!

Day three of B2B

I know that you guys must be sick of reading what I eat every day, but I'm really just trying to hold myself accountable to me (and you!).

I'm taking responsiblity for my actions and by doing so, I can grow and learn.

We are getting hit by tropical storm Andrea, so it's crazy rainy today. I did try to walk this morning--but only got 15 minutes in with my umbrella.

Day three I did good with sticking under 2,000 for the day.

7am--Unjury shake made with Silk              180 cal
9am--1/2 ham/swiss sandwich                    100 cal
11:30--Panera broccoli cheddar soup            200 cal
            1/2 chicken sesame salad               240 cal
             baguette                                     180 cal
3:30--beef stick                                          60 cal
          Sargento cheese stick                        80 cal
4:30--1/2 ham/swiss sandwich                    100 cal
7pm-- JennieO turkey burger                       280 cal
           Kale/onions/mushrooms                       free
           McCormick brown gravy                      50 cal
9pm--Fiber One brownie                                90 cal
9:30--two ham/swiss rollups                        150 cal

total calories for day:                                       1710

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can stick with plan this weekend. As long as the ELB is around, I'm pretty good at sticking to plan. It's when I'm alone that I tend to boredom eat.

I was going to make a pot of soup this weekend--the chicken tortilla that I made before. But I read on sugar iz crack that you can make a chicken enchilada type dip thing using cheese, canned chicken, and chilis--and I have all that at home--so was thinking of experimenting with making that into a soup.  Should be a fun experiment. I assume I can make it the same way that I made my knock off broccoli cheese soup with a roux, but we will see!

If it turns out good and (sorta) healthy, I'll post the recipe.

Have a good weekend!

Second verse...(not) same as the first

Day two of getting back to basics went MUCH better. For one, even though I did have an office lunch out, I made good choices. Under the original meal plan that I had, vegetables are considered 'free', so there are no calories counted towards the daily totals.

7am--Unjury shake (made with Silk)         180cal
9am--ham/swiss sandwich                       200cal
11:30--collard greens                              free
          macaroni and cheese (6oz)            315cal (est)
         4 bakedchicken drummies (4oz)       184cal (est)
3pm--dark chocolate cranberries (1oz)       150cal
7:30--JennieO turkey burger                     280cal
          onions/peppers/mushrooms            free
          McCormick brown gravy                  50cal
8:30--3 mini brownies with salted caramel  250cal
Total calories for day:         1609

I would say that is MUCH better than day one! Is it perfect? Well, in the mindset that I plan on abiding by until my next fill on June 21, I did great. I stayed under 2000 calories, which was my goal.  Am I still eating too much? Yes. But I did better than Tuesday, and today I'll do better than yesterday. And every day I will work on improving until I can get to around 1,000 and get my porition sizes under control.

I've started my day with a walk (25 minutes), and was joined this morning by someone in another department who has seen me walking since November and decided that it's time for her to start making changes. So, inspiring others has already started!

Now THAT is motivation!

Houston, we have a problem

Okay, I've never actually been to Houston--but I do have a SERIOUS problem.

I tracked my food yesterday the way that I used to track my food. I wrote it all down, I tracked my calories, and I found out that I am eating WAY to much.

In the efforts of full disclosure, I have put down my total calories for yesterday. Please note that I do not eat out at Chilis for lunch every day--it just so happened that I did yesterday--which makes this a prime example of how detrimental even one lunch out a week can be.  (Also note that I did get over 100g of protien for the day.)

7am: veggie lasagna (homemade)                   180cal
8am: ham/swiss sandwich                              200cal
9am: greek yogurt covered pretzels                 200cal
11am: chips/salsa   (half order)                      455cal
     1/8 chicken/bacon/cheese quesadilla           218cal
      1/2 molten lava cake with ice cream           580cal
3pm: greek yogurt covered pretzels                  200cal
6pm: 5/8 chicken/bacon/cheese quesadilla       1087cal
10pm: Unjury shake made with Silk                  180cal
Total calories consumed:     3,300

That is a HUGE GLARING IN YOUR FACE PROBLEM. Well, technically, its in MY face--and that's the problem.

I didn't realize how much/often I was eating every day. And this probably has alot EVERYTHING to do with why I am not losing more weight. The worst part is, I didn't get any walking in yesterday. So, I had nothing to even off set a paltry few calories in my favor.

So, today I am determined to do better. I started off the day right. I had protein for breakfast and the yogurt pretzels are gone (so, okay, I actually finished them all yesterday--small victory?). I walked for 25 minutes before work this morning--and the ELB and I will walk another hour tonight when I get home.

I am writing everything down. I am starting this with a renewed sense of WANT. This is what I WANT and this is what I will GET--it all depends on me.

I WANT to be successfull.
I WANT to be healthy.
I WANT to be at a somewhat normal weight.
I WANT to fit comfortably in chairs.
I WANT to wear cute clothes.
I WANT to be a beautiful bride when the day comes.
I WANT to be able to carry and have a healthy baby.
I WANT to live a long happy life with the ELB and with our future family.
I WANT to make my dad proud (even though he doesn't know that I had the surgery).
I WANT to be the best possible person I can be.

I WANT to inspire others to take the steps they need to take in their own lives.

Back to basics

This morning, I decided that I'm going to try an experiment.

I'm going to go back to basics, and I'm going to start doing the food plan that I was on during the six month preop class phase. I was relatively successfull at that, losing 38lbs in about four months.  All I did was increase my activity level (check!), and count calories.

I know that I should be trying to stay around 1,000 calories a day with my band--but something isn't working on that end. I'm probably eating too much (I've been a slacker with tracking my cal/protien intake), and for some reason, I have this idea in my head that if I can eat it, then I need it. Which is totally WRONG! Even though I've been maintaining and not gaining, I really want to be LOSING.

So, back to basics. I'm even going to start off at the same calorie level the nutritionist had me on previously (2,000/day) and I'll begin to wean myself down to where I should be over the next few weeks. As long as I stay UNDER that number every day, that is really the goal.  And I'll start chipping away at that 2,000 until I get it under 1200. And hopefully along the way, I will see some weight start coming off.

Fingers crossed that this can help me get myself back into the mindset that I need to be in going forward. When I was in my class phase, it was so easy to say "NO" to things like candy and chocolate because I knew that they would detract from my daily calories. Lately, I've been saying "yes, please!" to these things. 

I know that the Lap Band is just a tool to help me with my weight loss--it's not going to do it for me. I need to do this for me.

My first step starts today.

Its getting Hot Hot Hot!

So, the weather here in Baltimore has been cray cray this past week. Yesterday saw it hit 97 degrees!

The ELB and i got up early (7:30) and headed out to get our errands done before it got unbearable. We were able to stop for breakfast ( yes, i had a bacon egg cheese biscuit), we got to sams club, kohls, and giant and we were home by 10:30. Luckily we have an add on to my dads business membership so  we get to take advantage of the early business hours. #awesome!

So by the time most people were getting up we were home, groceries unpacked, and going back to bed for a nap. Since i slept away most of the afternoon, the biscuit wasn't as detrimental as it could have been because i didn't eat all day.

On another note, the other night i was trying to find a creative use for all the kale stems. I read that you can use them to make pesto, but since i didn't have any pine nuts i decided to try something else. Since i love oven roasted veggies, i tried roasting them. In concept a great idea, in execution, not so much. They smelled great and tasted good, but were very difficult to eat. Extremely tough and chewey and probably not band friendly-they caused a slight stick. No wonder you pull them out and don't use them!

Today i made veggie noodleless lasagna and baked some salted caramel brownie bites for the ELB.
I feel bad because i haven't exercised all weekend. 

Will definitely need to work on that this week!