Reality check -- the before pics

I should have done these 12.79 pounds ago when I was 261! Yesterday I had hubby take some photos of the front and side view. You know, once you see pictures the reality check really hits you. I mean, I see myself in the mirror every day of course, but to a certain degree you only see what you want to see, or maybe you 'tune out' certain parts you don't want to focus on. I don't know -- I don't FEEL like I'm this big. But here is the photographic evidence of what I look like at 248 pounds (I'm just under 5'4").  I'll update with new pics every couple of months or so.



For now, I'm off to make the shopping list for the coming week's meals. As I said, I want to have quick easy things I can just microwave so I don't have to do too much cooking post surgery. I'll post again with today's menu once I figure out what it is. LOL

Saturday Stats - It was a great week!

OK so the results are in -- today's weigh-in was 112.6kg (248.24 lb) for a loss of 1.2kg (2.65 lb).  Not bad at all!  That's a total loss since 28th August of 5.8kg (12.79 lb), which I'm very happy with.

Today was a bit of a strange day -- hubby and I generally eat out for lunch every Saturday, usually at Subway but occasionally at the Thai place down the road.  Today was Thai, and restaurant foods can be tricky to calculate calories on.  I used various stats I found online and averaged them to get the nutritional stats of the standard dinner entree, and I estimate the lunch portion to be about 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the evening portion.  To be on the safe side, I assume it's 3/4.  Then we had a party to go to tonight where they were ordering out pizza.  I stayed for a few hours, but before the pizza came I decided to head home.  My allergies had been acting up all day and I can't take any meds because of my upcoming shoulder surgery on Tuesday, so I decided rather than trying to figure out what to cook when I got home, I'd just stop at Subway.  I even let myself have chips, so today's stats are much higher than usual, but it doesn't matter -- my averages for the week are still very good.  Oh, and we did walk the dogs this morning for 50 minutes as well.

Today's Menu:
Lunch portion of Thai Tofu & Veggie Satay with Rice
Foot long veggie patty sub at Subway
Single serve bag of potato chips

Totals:  2105 calories (60/13/27)

Tomorrow I'll be working out menu options for the coming week, as I always do on Sunday.  I'll probably make a few easy soups and stews, or a pan of vegan lasagna so I'll have plenty of leftovers to reheat through the week -- less cooking once my arm is in a sling.  Wish me luck.

Friday stats and my peanut craving! LOL

I did pretty well today -- until this evening when I had planned to have only half a cup of peanuts in the shell, but I ended up having a whole cup because -- well because I was just hungry! LOL  I haven't really been getting hungry on this plan, but when I do I let myself have some extra calories.  It balances out OK in the weekly averages, so I'm not too worried about it.

Today's Menu:

60g Light'n'Tasty Berry Cereal with 1 banana and 1c lite soy milk
Mexican beans & rice leftovers with 2 tortillas and 2T Toffutti
9 Vegan Chicken-style nuggets with BBQ sauce and half a cup of green beans
1 cup roasted peanuts in the shell

Totals:  1859 calories (55/30/15)

Also got in a 30 minute walk with the dogs, and we went up a different path today that has a very steep end to it.  I was huffing and puffing, but I made it!  Looking forward to tomorrow's weigh-in but not expecting heaps given my TOM started off the week.  Fingers crossed!

Thursday Stats

Just a quick check-in today -- it's late and I'm tired.  Hubby and I walked today for about 40 minutes with the dogs.

Today's Menu:

Special K Choc Flakes (60g) with 1c choc soy milk
1 medium banana
1 foot long veggie delight sub from Subway
Dbl Pizza Rolls (just one vegan sausage, but spread across 2 tortillas with pizza sauce and veggies on top -- added some of my spinach/rocket/kale salad mix as well)

Totals:  1612 calories (59/23/18)

Goodnight all!

Ah, hump day ...

Still chilly tonight -- wasn't too bad during the day though.  In fact, I was so cold at my desk today I went outside to warm up during my lunch break!  Come on warm weather, I'm tired of being cold.

Today's menu:

Special K Choc Flakes (60g) with 1c choc soy milk,
1 medium sliced banana and 33 blueberries
Pizza Roll (no Toffutti) and
1/2 bag Pitango organic Tomato Thyme soup
Mexican beans and rice in a bowl*

Totals:  1385 calories (63/24/13)

* Mexican beans and rice in a bowl was just something quick I threw together -- had a can of refried beans, a can of chili beans, a jar of salsa, and 2 cups of cooked brown rice.  Added about half a cup of sliced Kalamata olives.  Divided into 4 portions, and served up one portion with diced tomatoes and a handful of my spinach/rocket/kale salad mix.  Stirred it all up.  Basically like bean and rice burritos but no tortillas, just served in a bowl.  It wasn't quite as thick as burrito filling either, maybe less salsa next time.  That's all, keeping it a lower calorie day today.

Also got in a 50 minute walk on the trail with several good inclines.

Next week is my shoulder surgery (unless they cancel me again) so who knows what's going to happen to my schedule after that.  Hopefully I'll still be up to my walks.  I'm really more worried how I'm going to sleep!  I sleep on my left side most of the time, and this is my left shoulder so ... may have to find a new sleeping position for a while.  That's going to suck.  I've tried sleeping on the other side, just to try to get used to it, but I hate it and always end up back on my left side.  Maybe I'll just sleep on my back for a while.  We'll have to see.

Anyway, that's it for today -- see you tomorrow.

Tuesday Stats -- and my favorite pizza roll!

Today it rained non-stop -- so unfortunately we didn't get a walk in.  If it continues tomorrow I'll have to squeeze in time for an indoor workout.  A bit higher calories today than normal, but I like to mix it up a bit -- kind of like the Wendi plan but without the WW points system.  So as I'm trying to stay around 1600 calories, one day I might have 1400, then a day or two I have 1600, then maybe one day where I hit 1900, then back down to 1500, etc.  Mix it up during the week as long as there are only one or two high days.  Anyway, it worked out well today as I had a couple of things that needed to get eaten or tossed, so I made it a slightly higher calorie day today.

Today's Menu:
Special K Choc Flakes (60g) with 1c lite soy milk,
  1 medium sliced banana and 33 blueberries
Gnocchi with veggies, pasta sauce, home made
  vegan sausages and a spinach/rocket/kale salad mix
Pizza Roll with Toffutti globs on top and 1/2 bag
  Pitango organic Tomato Thyme soup
1c Chocolate Soy Milk

Totals:  1769 calories (57/25/18)

That Pitango soup is SO good!  I wish more of their varieties were vegan, it has such great flavor.  The pizza roll is basically just a tortilla spread with pizza sauce, one sliced vegan sausage, red pepper (capsicum) and onion, and black olives, baked and folded up like a burrito.

That's all for today -- I'll check in again tomorrow.

Monday, Monday ...

Oh Monday, my least favorite day. LOL  Such a strange time of year, cuz it's actually lovely out during the day now, but still cold inside our office -- I want to bring a blanket to bundle up in during the day.  And cold at night -- I sit in my warm sweats and slippers to watch TV.  But the nice weather is coming, I just need to hang in there. And before long I'll be complaining how hot it is. LOL

Today's Menu:

60g Light'n'Tasty Berry Cereal with 1c lite soy milk
topped with 1 medium sliced banana and 33 blueberries
Gnocchi w/veggies, pasta sauce & home made Italian sausages
Falafel Kebab (home made) with lite hummus, tomatoes and
a salad mix of spinach, kale and rocket (arugula) and a
bit of barbeque sauce, rolled up and toasted

Totals:  1547 calories (64/17/19)

Our walk today was 30 minutes.  I go in for shoulder surgery next Tuesday, so it'll be interesting to see how things go after that, but we'll worry about that when it comes. For now, I'm on track and feeling great.

Sunday, lovely Sunday / Meatball Subs

It was a really nice day today (yesterday, too) though still a bit chilly at night to remind us winter's not long gone.  We've been out walking (55 min) the trails and inclines, and some walking about the furniture stores as well on the hunt for a new kitchen table.  Didn't find anything suitable, they were all big dining room tables and we just haven't the room.  The few that were small enough either resembled the card tables dragged out at holiday dinners for the kids table, or they were unbelievably expensive.  So we didn't buy anything today.

We hadn't done the shopping yet I was trying to figure out what to have for lunch.  All I could find was a bag of falafel's, some Toffuti and pizza sauce in the fridge, and a bit of bread.  I'd never used falafel to stand in as meatballs before, but some mini meat-ball subs sounded great.  They were, too!  :)

Today's Menu:
112.5g Falafels, 1/2 cup pizza sauce, 2 slices multigrain bread, 2T Toffutti.

Divide the Toffutti between the bread slices. Heat the falafels, then the pizza sauce. Roll each falafel in the pizza sauce, then divide evenly on one side of each slice of bread.  Top with any remaining pizza sauce and roll up into mini subs.  There were about 7 falafels, so I got 3-1/2 on each slice of bread.

Averages for the past week

Oops -- forgot to give my average daily stats for this past week, which were:
1653 calories, 61% carb, 19% protein and 20% fat.  Right on track. :)

Saturday results -- and today's menu

As expected, it wasn't as dramatic a loss as last week -- but also as expected, my TOM arrived today so I'm actually impressed to see a loss at all.  After a day or two I should see another drop.

Today's weight was 113.8 kg (250.89 lb) for a loss of 0.8kg (1.76 pounds)

I had a larger appetite today and just to mix it up I'd planned to allow more calories today, so I'm not concerned about the totals -- but I really should have avoided the cookies, that's too much fat.  Ah well.  It'll balance out in the end.

Today's menu:

Footlong veggie patty sub w/40g Grain Waves and 1.5 cookies
90g Light'n'Tasty Berry Cereal with 1c lite soy milk
1 slice raisin toast, dry

Totals:  1963 calories (59/13/28)

Today's walk was more challenging, as I need to start increasing the intensity.  So it was 50 minutes long and I took a trail with several really good inclines. I actually had to stop at one point and catch my breath for about 30 seconds before going on at one point, but I did it. This is a trail I walked daily last year when I was walking regularly, so I want to keep at it to build my endurance.