Ah, the end of the week draws near -- my favorite time is Friday night.
You've still got 2 sleeps before work again. LOL My left arm has a nice
bruise going on from yesterday's botched blood draw. And both arms are
a bit tender from being poked and prodded.
Didn't get a walk in as it was raining, and had to get dinner going when
I got home, but later while listening to some favorite tunes, I was
dancing and getting my heart rate up for about 10-15 minutes. It felt
really good. Here's what was on the menu today:
Today's Menu: Special K Forest Berries (110g) topped with
1 medium sliced banana, and 1.25 cup lite soy milk
Leftover Chickpea & Swede stew
Garden Vegetable Chili w/2T Toffutti Cream Cheese stirred through
1c Roasted (not salted) peanuts, in the shell
Totals: 1575 calories (59/17/24)
Those peanuts tasted great! I wanted a snack that would bring my carbs
down below 60%, and they did the trick. I can't have peanut butter in
the house. I love peanut butter and it would definitely become a binge
food. But peanuts -- the kind you have to work for to get them out of
their shells and then skin them before you pop them in your mouth --
well with those you can only eat one or two at a time, whereas the ones
that are already shelled are so easy to eat by the handful. Nope --
this is better. And I haven't had them in a long time, they were good!
Off to catch a show before bedtime -- have a great night all!
I went to give blood today as I do regularly, but for some reason this
time they had a hard time finding a vein. She stabbed me with the
needle and realized she hadn't hit a vein. So she pulled out and said
she'd have to try the other arm, they aren't allowed to poke you twice
in the same arm. No problem. So they switched to the left arm, and
wouldn't you know it they had a hard time finding one in that arm as
well! She finally got it in, but stopped anyway saying it was bruising
and she couldn't continue. She sent me home with bruise cream, poked in
both arms and an appointment to try again in a week. How weird, that's
never happened before! They have occasionally had trouble finding a vein
but they eventually DO find one. I've never been sent home without
donating. :(
Today's walk was about 35 minutes, and here's what I ate today:
Today's Menu:
Special K Forest Berries (60g) topped with
1 medium sliced banana, 30-40 blueberries
and 1 cup lite soy milk
Leftover Jambalaya
Leftover Chickpea & Swede stew
Special K with Chocolatey Flakes (60g) topped with 1c Choc Soy Milk
Totals: 1559 calories (66/21/13)
Hope you're all doing well -- see you again tomorrow. :)
Checking in for Tuesday and doing well -- got in another half hour walk
with some hilly terrain tonight after work, then whipped up some
Chickpea and Swede stew (Swedes are Rutabagas) for dinner quickly before
rushing off to the in-laws for a birthday party. Resisted the yummy
looking cake. :)
Today's Menu: Special K Forest Berries (60g) topped with
1 medium sliced banana, 30-40 blueberries
and 1 cup lite soy milk
Leftover Vegan Lo Mein
Chickpea & Swede stew (recipe below) with 2 slices multi-grain bread
1c Choc Soy Milk
Totals: 1461 calories (67/22/11)
Bit more carbs tonight, partially due to the bread. Tomorrow is the
first day of spring and as it gets nicer I'll probably be making less
stews and such, so I thought I'd give one of my favorites a go again
while it's still chilly enough.
This is a modification of one of Susan V's recipes from the Fat Free Vegan Blog,
and all I change in that recipe is I use Swedes (rutabagas) instead of
turnips because that's all I had once and when I later tried it with
turnips I found I liked the Swedes in it better. Also, I didn't have
the particular spice mix in her recipe, and the first time I made it I'd
found a nice spice blend in the store that was on clearance, so I used
that. I loved it with that mix, but once it was gone I had to make my
own. (The only thing in the first mix that I didn't have handy were
nigella seeds, so I just left those out and didn't notice a
difference.) Lastly, I chop my veggies into bigger chunks than in
Susan's picture -- cuz I love chunky soups and stews.
So here's Susan's recipe and here's my spice mix:I
just mixed together a tablespoon each of cumin seeds, fennel seeds,
mustard seeds, and fenugreek seeds. If you have them, you can also add
nigella seeds. I use the same 2t amount of this mix in the recipe in
place of the berberé seasoning she uses. This stuff is yum, so try my
version or hers. :)
OK so I'm back, checking in with my stats for today. Here's what was on the menu:
Special K Forest Berries (60g) topped with
1 medium sliced banana, 30-40 blueberries
and 1 cup lite soy milk
Leftover Vegan Lo Mein
Leftover Jambalaya and
1c Choc Soy Milk
Totals: 1309 calories (58/24/17)
Also got in half an hour walk with some nice inclines. I'll work up to
longer, right now I'm really feeling it because I haven't gone in
awhile, but today's my fourth day in a row and it feels good, so I want
to do more. I might have walked longer if I'd gotten out of work when I
planned -- I had shut the computer down but got a call on my way out the
door that needed to be dealt with so I still got out 20 minutes later.
:( Maybe tomorrow.
Since focusing on past failures is clearly not an option, I'm focused on
making healthier choices. I've resumed daily walking with hubby and the
dogs, now that winter has started to ease a bit. Weekends are easy, and
we've just got time now to squeeze them in after work as well, when I
get out of work on time and when it's not raining. If that doesn't
happen, then I'll do DVD workout. No excuses. Some form of activity
every day, and back to tracking meals again. It's a start.
Rather than posting ahead of time what my entire week will be, I'll pop
on and do it daily, not only because sometimes things get swapped around
after the menu was posted, but mostly because it'll keep me
accountable, even if just to myself. So that's the immediate goal --
good or bad, I'll be here every day this week letting you know how it's
going. I'm always here, reading and gathering inspiration from my
fellow bloggers, but now it's time to start inspiring myself.
That's it. I'm officially heavier now than when I began this journey. I
have been as high as 296 pounds before I moved to Australia, and was
about 278 when I moved here. In those first 3 years here I managed to
get down to 250. Then just under 200 -- wasn't that divine! That was
using Jenny Craig, and since I plateaued and quit that program, I soon
went back to 250 again.
So this blog has basically been about my
efforts to get my weight moving in the right direction again, and I've
gone up and down and up and down for the last few years now. It's SO
frustrating!
Those of you who've been with me for a while will
know that for about a year I was really going strong -- eating right,
measuring and counting everything, and also working out and walking
HEAPS. Still -- the dreaded plateau hit and it all stopped before going
back up again. It always does. No matter how hard I try, no matter
what method I use, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. But fight
it I must anyway. Because what I've proven recently is that if I quit
fighting, I will very quickly regain weight. I'm nearly 260 pounds
again and I'm SO afraid of going back up.
I'm sick of the fight,
sick of trying, and sick of failing. It's SO easy to just give up, but I
really don't want to do that. So here I go ... trying to find the
motivation to keep fighting. Is it worth it? Even if I never lose any
more weight, and all it does is stop me from gaining again? Probably.
OK yes, it's worth it. So why can't I seem to get back on track?
At
least when I was walking and eating right for a year, even though the
weight stalled, I kept going because I had it in me -- I was motivated
and I really wanted to do it. Lately I don't. I'm not sure how to get
that fire back inside me, but I really need to do it. Because
continuing to move upward is just not an option.
Wow. Has it really been over a month since I've posted? I could give the usual excuses -- life's busy, so much going on, blah blah blah. The truth is I didn't want to post because I've been completely off track for the last few weeks and I didn't want to own up to it. How's that for mature? I kept hoping I'd get it together and have something worthwhile to report, but sadly that's not been the case. Today's wakeup call was seeing 115kg on the scale. Now I know part of that is due to my TOM being near, but still …
I don't know the reason for this slip, really. I think part of it is the frustration of not seeing the results I'd hoped. Part of it is worrying about family members a world away that I wish I could be there to help through some difficult times. But really, it doesn't matter why -- everyone slips from time to time, and generally I get a handle on it and get right back on track. Not this time. I've spent the last 3 weeks doing virtually nothing and eating pretty much whatever I felt like. It's been cold, and hubby and I sit around the TV at night watching shows and movies and munching on chips and chocolates. No worries for him, he doesn't gain weight. Me, on the other hand …
So obviously I'm here to own up to it and do whatever I need to in order to get back on track. I had set a goal of eating healthy and exercising for the rest of the year no matter whether I saw results or not, and then I let that goal slip from my grasp. It's not too late.
My birthday is coming up in a week and a half. I'll be 47! That's right, three years 'til 50. How long am I going to wait to reclaim my health? How long am I going to put off getting active and healthy? I'll be spending my birthday in the hospital, unfortunately, having shoulder surgery. I actually contacted a personal trainer recently saying that I needed to make a real commitment to getting in shape, even if it meant spending money on sessions with a personal trainer, but when I mentioned my surgery, recover time and physical therapy, he suggested I wait until that's over to begin a real routine. However, he also said I didn't have to wait to be active -- I could still get out and go walking and do other activities in the mean time. He's right. There's really no excuse not to. I feel sluggish, and I remember a year ago when I was out walking every single day how much better I felt. I want that feeling back again.
So here's to admitting I've faltered and doing whatever I need to do to get back on track. I've still been reading all of your blogs, so I'm taking inspiration from all of you and I hope to be posting positive news again real soon. And I will post no matter what, not only when I've had a good week, so I remain accountable, if only to myself.
As
promised, here is the menu plan for the following week. Just click to
view it larger. Daily average for nutritional stats is: 1503 calories,
66% carb, 19% protein and 15% fat.
By the way, the breakfast ingredients are all in the oatmeal - I put one
cup rolled oats in a bowl, slice a banana on top, sprinkle generously
with cinnamon, put half a cup of partially thawed blueberries over the
top (you can just nuke them a few seconds) and then pour the apple juice
over the whole thing. Stick it in the microwave for 2 minutes. Stir,
and enjoy. :)
More proof that vacations and weight loss don't mix.
At least not for me. When I'm on vacation it's SO much harder to eat
right and exercise. You'd think it would be the opposite, but I've
talked about this before -- when I'm at work I'm busy all day, and I
don't think about eating. People often comment because I sometimes don't
eat lunch until 2 or even 3pm -- I'm just not hungry earlier, or if I
am, I'm too busy to notice.
But get me on vacation where I've got nothing to do -- especially when
it's winter and I'm cold -- I get hungry. I am not too busy to think
about eating, and I stray off plan. Plus there's that voice in the back
of my head saying "you're on vacation, it's OK to have blah blah blah,
you deserve it" -- and I know I shouldn't listen, but sometimes I do.
So this week I'm up .4 kilo (.88 lb) and I'm not happy about it.
So I'm actually happy to be going back to work Monday. I do enjoy having
time off of work, but I'll be so glad to be back in a structured
routine again. And I really want to focus on the commitment I made to
myself to eat right and exercise for the rest of this year -- it's
really important to me, and I don't want to lose track of that, no
matter what. So this past week was a glitch, a bump in the road -- but
definitely NOT one that will make me lose sight of my goal. I'll post
the coming week's menu tomorrow once I've worked it out.
I wasn't going to make these until tomorrow but I decided to swap days
around on my menu -- hubby wanted to try the Samosas, so we made them
tonight.
I adapted this from a recipe in the McDougall
Quick & Easy Cookbook — his Samosa recipe called for 15 sheets
of Amber Farms Spinach Pasta Wraps, which are not available in
Australia, so I used wholegrain tortillas instead. We don’t have
oil-free frozen hash browns in Australia either, so I used frozen diced
potatoes instead. The result was they were slightly ‘mashed’ when we
ate the wraps. So next time I will try without pre-cooking the
potatoes. I also increased the spices just a bit from the original
recipe and added lemon juice. Lastly, the fat in this recipe comes from
the whole grain tortillas — as usual, there are no ‘fat free’ tortillas
available in Australia, so if you have them where you live, definitely
use those instead.
Anna
SAMOSAS
3 cups frozen chopped hash brown potatoes
(no oil added) or cubed potatoes 3/4 cup frozen peas 1 onion,
chopped 1/2 cup minced green pepper (capsicum) 1/3 cup water 1
teaspoon minced fresh garlic 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger-root 2
teaspoons curry powder 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander 2 teaspoons
soy sauce 2 teaspoons lemon juice 6 whole grain tortillas
Preheat
oven to 350F (180C).
Place potatoes in a saucepan with water to
cover. Cover, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes
(if using potatoes diced rather small you may wish to skip this step).
Add the peas and cook for 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and drain.
Meanwhile
place the onion, water, garlic and ginger-root in another pan. Cook,
stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the curry powder, coriander,
soy sauce and lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute more and remove from heat.
Combine the potato mixture with the onion mixture and mix well.
Lay
out the tortillas and divide the filling evenly. Tuck the sides in and
roll each tortilla up to enclose the filling. Lay them in a baking
dish and bake for 25 minutes.
Makes 6 burrito size wraps, each
having 203 calories, 3.47g fat (1.45g sat fat), 35g carbs, 7g fiber,
6.63g protein.
