Well... I fit most of it in!

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The right-hand column lists daily and weekly goals, reminders, my inspirational quote and my fitness role model (Amy from TBL!) My official WI day is Saturday morning, so I listed my goal weight for that day and left a space for me to log my actual weight.

Look Ma! I complete the first day!

Here it is!

Close up of salad

Salad w/dressing on the side

I roasted tablespoonfuls of mashed butternut squash to dry it out, which brought out the flavor and gave it a nice thick consistency.

I took 1/3 c. stuffing and baked it in the oven (350 degrees for 10-15 minutes) to turn it into croutons.

Add that to 3 c. chopped romaine lettuce, 4 oz turkey, 1 TBS walnuts, 1 oz craisins, 1 small apple (chopped), 10 asparagus stalks, and top with a couple TBS of homemade cranberry vinaigrette. Very filling and FULL of flavor.

The total calories were a little high (around 600), but I was low on calories today and had plenty to spare. This salad packs more than 15g of fiber! You could easily reduce calories without losing flavor by omitting the stuffing (130 calories for 1/3 of a cup) or walnuts (99 calories for 1 TBS--but it's a healthy fat) or craisins (100 calories per oz of sugary goodness).

Cranberry Vinaigrette Dressing

In a saucepan, heat up 2/3 c. fresh cranberries, 1/4 c. sugar and 1/2 c. cider vinegar. Heat, stirring frequently, until the cranberries pop.

Put the warm mixture in a food processor or blender. Add 1 tsp dijon, 1/4 c. orange juice, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper. Start blending. With blender still on, slowly add 3/4 c. vegetable oil until well mixed. The dressing will be a beautiful bright pink opague vinaigrette.

To cut fat, feel free to reduce the oil and add more OJ, but know that you're trading fat for sugar calories. Of course, you could try Ocean Spray's sugar free cranberry juice or Tropicana's reduced sugar OJ.

Bon appetit! I'm off to do a 30 minute hike up and down the stairs in my apartment since it's cold, windy and raining outside. Only I will do the harder, in home, "stairmaster" workout in order to avoid coldness and wetness!

Thanksgiving was a winner in my book. I made an amazing dinner and we ate early (1pm), which kept everyone from overindulging. Since I had been cooking all day (and smelling the food all day), I really wasn't hungry when it came time to eat. I had been satisfied by the delicious smells, so I was equally satisfied eating small portions of everything. I didn't count calories, but I think I stayed within my caloric budget. The best part about it: it was a full-body workout for me. I was doing squats everytime I needed to get something out of or put something in the oven or fridge. The pantry is on the opposite side of my kitchen as my sink, prep area and oven, so I was doing laps around my kitchen. And through it all, I felt great. Plenty of energy. And NO back pain or soreness. Yaaaaay!

E was amazing. Wednesday, he came over in the afternoon with several bouquets of flowers and my favorite--a tall nonfat latte from Starbucks--to thank me for hosting Thanksgiving. He helped me get a few last things ready (bring extra chairs up, put the leaf in the table) and then we ran a couple errands, went to our favorite Thai place for dinner and returned home to watch Top Chef and a couple episodes of Arrested Development. It was such a nice relaxing evening compared to the craziness of Turkey Day.

Of course, his mom and step dad arrived early with too much food that, unbeknownst to me, would need to be heated up in my already chock-full oven. Not long after, his dad and stepmom arrived with the desserts (pumpkin and apple pie) and a lovely lavender hand cream from Crabtree and Evelyn for me. Finally, his cousins arrived with their baby and the card table, so we could fit everyone.

After dinner, E did all the dishes while I packaged leftovers. His family was shocked that he was "so grown up" now and not only helped clean up, but dressed nicely (a change from his normal cargo pants/tee-shirt daywear). Unfortunately, they gushed to me and insisted I deserved all the credit. I could see it was hurtful to E.

He doesn't know this, but seeing his family's awe at how much of a role he had in Thanksgiving dinner helped me understand that he really has changed since we started dating. Unlike them though, I don't believe I deserve the credit. I think it's simply a sign that E is maturing and I happen to be fortunate enough to be the person who gets to experience this with him. And I'm also fortunate enough to be the person that he loves so much that he's willing to do these things.

Another motivating experience this week: the scale is finally nudging down! After two weeks of weighing in at 240--up from my all-time low of 232--the scale read 239.4 today. Of course, it's too late to log into this week's WI on the Holiday Challenge and it doesn't fall on my formal WI day, but I do hope/expect it's a sign that I am doing the right thing and my body is finally starting to recognize it.

Tonight's dinner: I thought I had a dinner date with some of my students tonight, but I mixed up weeks. Yay! I really didn't want to eat out so close to Thanksgiving. So, tonight, I'm having turkey leftover salad--romaine lettuce, butternut squash, apple, pear, walnuts, craisins, asparagus and cranberry vinaigrette dressing. I'm even going to turn some of my stuffing into croutons by toasting it for a few minutes.

The cranberry vinaigrette was the highlight of the Thanksgiving Dinner. I've never seen so many people eat salad, just to try the dressing! The best part is that when you make it, you emulsify it in the food processor, so you don't have to worry about the dressing separating and looking ugly later or the oil separating and hardening in the fridge. I'll post the recipe and pics tonight or tomorrow morning. Dessert: SF Jell-O and Cool Whip.

Tuesday, I will again put the leftovers to use by making a turkey shephard's pie. Haven't decided yet how I'm going to do this, but I'm thinking of layering turkey with leftover squash and mashed potatoes. And serve it with some kind of green veggie on the side.

As for workouts, tonight, I will walk 30 minutes and get in 15 minutes of arm weights. I'm not technically medically cleared to do the arm weights, but my back has been in really good shape and I believe that if I start slow and with light weights and pay close attention to my form, I can do so with no ill effects. If I start hurting I'll stop. If I hurt tomorrow, I'll wait until I gain medical clearance. But I also know that soreness from being unaccustomed to the physical activity is very different than the pain associated with my back injury.  Tuesday, I'll either do two 30-minute walks or one 1-hour walk.

I've already gotten in 6 glasses of water with another 16 oz on my desk as I type. I should be able to fit in a total of 10-12 glasses by the end of the day.

Tonight, I'm making my Holiday Challenge calendar, inspired by the friendly competition we have going on the 100lbs to Lose group. It will be a monthly-style calendar that will feature:

• my goal weights each week with a space to log actual WI results
• space to log workouts
• stickers that allow me to place a star on every day where I met each of my goals.
• and each week will start with a blank box where I'll log my goals/challenges for the week.

Oh. My. Goodness. My boss cancelled my morning meeting--great! I thought I could use the time to get a report done that's due Monday and my budget proposal due Tuesday.

Except then he called to say that his other meeting--which was the reason for cancelling our meeting--was cancelled which meant that our original meeting was back on.

FOUR and a half hours later, I'm just getting back to my office. We all agreed to take a brief lunch break before reconnecting to finish the meeting. Holy crow! It's all about budget stuff and new staffing plans we need to make--all of which have kinda come to a head today, as we've needed to come up with some solutions to new problems that came up. The sad part is... I'm afraid we'll have to have the same conversation this summer if the economy continues to decline and our governor makes more cuts to higher education. Hopefully, that will not be the case, but it's still too early to tell.

As you can imagine, even though I had my morning snack prior to the meeting, I was starved when we adjourned for lunch--it was nearly 2 hrs past my normal lunch time. I did okay, but probably ate about 250 calories more than I planned (a 600 cal lunch instead of 350). I'm not doing so well with this 1500 calorie a day plan. I don't know how some of you folks do super restricted 800 calorie a day diets. I had been considering skipping my morning snacks, but it's a good thing I didn't today or lunch would have been much more disasterous.

I also made sure to get a brisk 20 minute walk in after lunch/before the second part of the meeting. And I still plan on walking 60 minutes today.

I am SO looking forward to spending two hours watching TBL, in my jammies tonight! And then retiring to a bed with freshly washed linens (I got up early to do laundry and get some Thanksgiving day prep done.)

Alright...time to return for part B of the neverending staff meeting. Sigh.

• multigrain rolls
• salad w/apple, pear, cranberry and walnuts w/a homemade low fat cranberry vinaigrette dressing
• turkey & gravy--of course!
• mashed potatoes (only because the crowd loves 'em--I could care less)
• herb bread stuffing
• butternut squash
• green bean casserole (lightened up version)
• roasted asparagus with pecans and parmesan

"Happiness is a direction, not a place." ~Sydney J. Harris

Well, I was off on my prediction that I'd maintain my weight this week. I'm actually up two pounds. Despite the initial annoyance, sadness and frustration, I'm really feeling okay about it. I'm convinced that all of the walking this week has resulted in more muscle mass, which is why I weigh more. That's a good thing. Why am I convinced? Because for years I've only been able to wear wide-legged, bootcut or flared pants due to the fact that I am so disproportionately bottom heavy that regular straight leg pants won't fit my legs--especially my calves. Today, I'm wearing straight leg pants. In a size 18. They fit perfectly. Also, last night I tried on party dresses, in a size 16 REGULAR. The 18s were so big and I couldn't find any plus-sized party dresses. The 16s were a little snug, but they all zippered up just fine and looked pretty good.

SoF can't have all the fun with his "Funny Story of the Post" feature. I've got a funny story of my own to share:

Last night, I attended the most awesome program ever. My student staff did a spoof of "Dancing with the Stars," called "Dancing with the RAs" with RAs taking the place of folks like Lance Bass and Cloris Leachman and partnering up with residents. It's a great opportunity to showcase some of the talent we have in our area and build stronger relationships between residents student staff (who are sometimes solely seen as authority figures). And it's TONS of fun. This is the second year we've had the event and each year it's been one of our most successful programs with an audience of 100 or more students.

Well... one of my RA/resident pairs danced to the "I've had the time of my life" song from Dirty Dancing. I texted one of my staff members--the one who is just loud enough and certainly outgoing enough to do it--the following directive: "Yell 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner" when they're done dancing."

Except I had his number wrong. I mistook a 7 for a 2.

In return, about 15-20 minutes later, I get the following text back:

"You don't know what your talking about and if anybody put her in a corder it was you prink And now I have my answer So go fuck yourself"

Hmmm... apparently, somehow I've become an optimistic person who has faith that people would never be that nasty (I thought the receiver of my text was just trying to mess around with me), so I was tempted to text back: "LOL. Dialed the wrong number. Sorry for bothering you."

I was also tempted to recommend that he remember that "your" is possessive and "you're" is a contraction. Oh, yeah, dude... punctuation would be nice too. A comma or a period every now and then would really do wonders for that message.

Instead, I ignored it.

Half an hour later, I get a call from some strange woman demanding I give her back her iPhone. She insists that her friend got a really nasty text message from me except it appeared to come from her iPhone. She demanded to know what number I texted, what number I was calling from, what I texted, what my name is and whether I knew a guy named Scott.

Technically, I know a few guys named Scott, but I'm fairly certain none of them was her psychotic, temper-flaring Scott, so I said no. And I told her my name was Gina. Total lie. 

Finally, once I was ready to hang up on her, and once she was satisfied with the info, she said "This guy kinda likes me and gets a little jealous, especially since I don't like him back."

I recommeded that she and Scott talk it out and gave her my humble opinion that Scott didn't sound like a very reasonable guy. I told her I'd avoid him. He also seemed a little dim if he mistook a cell phone with a 607 area code for one with a 201 area code.

More than an hour later, I get a call from a restricted number. I assumed E was calling me from the hospital where he works. Instead, it was "Scott." He starts shouting at me, accusing me of having the girl's phone and trying to cause trouble. He says, "Why are you texting me really inappropriate, threatening messages?"

This is where nice "Gina" went away. My response:

Listen, Scott, I'm sorry I dialed ONE digit in a 7-digit phone number incorrectly and accidentally texted you instead of my friend, but I hardly think that a quote from Dirty Dancing--a romance movie, mind you--is threatening. Your response back was incredibly inappropriate and, when combined with this phone call, is harassing. You and your friend need to work out whatever issues you have between the two of you and leave me out of it. I'm about to hang up on you. Understand that if you or your friend call me back, I'm calling the cops and I will have you arrested.

There may have also been an f-bomb tossed in there and a reference that my boyfriend is a cop and was sitting right next to me. Okay... so that was a lie. E's not a cop. And he wasn't there--he was at work.

I hope I sounded intimidating enough. Regardless, they haven't called or texted me since.

Why? Because:

• stress increases cortisol levels which impede weight loss
• stress eaters or emotional eaters, like myself, are likely to overeat during peiods of stress
• and it's just not worth it.

 

• 1 lb chicken tenderloin (I used chicken breast, pounded and sliced into strips)
• 1.5 TBS flour
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (I also added 1/4 tsp. onion powder)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 TBS light butter, stick (I was oblivious to the "stick" rule and used LOL light butter from a tub)
• 1.5 TBS Hot Sauce, preferably a thicker one like Frank's (more or less to taste)

Since I thought it was a fluke, I didn't mention it, but now I can't avoid the reality. It seems my weight has gone from 238 UP to 240-something since Friday when I officially weighed in. Darnit. I thought it was partially due to TOM, but that's pretty much gone and the weight's still there. I've done everything I can think of right: eat 5 cups of veggies daily, get 30+ grams of fiber daily, limit sodium, drink 64-80oz of water daily, walk daily (14 miles in the past 3 days, with 1 long walk and up to 2 mini walks daily!), balance my protein and carbs, limit carbs in the late afternoon/evening, blah, blah, blah. Crapola. I haven't been in the 240s in so long that I had to look at my weight tracker to refresh my memory (May 11, 2008). Serious suckage! 

Now that I've ranted, I have to put it behind me or it will definitely derail any efforts I've made to shrink and be a healthier woman. Fortunately, I haven't found myself ready to shove my face into the pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia FroYo just yet. (Yummy stuff, btw. Cures my sweet tooth with just 140 calories.)

It IS possible that:

This is definitely a reminder from a higher power that patience is a virtue. It will eventually pay off. So, time to focus on the NSVs:

• I still fit into the same clothes I was wearing during my brief visit to 232 lbs.
• I am walking A LOT and feeling good about it.
• I've met my nutrition goals (water, protein, fiber, fat, carbs, veggies) EVERY day so far this week.
• I'm making smart decisions in regards to food, health and fitness.
• I have met each of the challenges Gwynn posed for Week One of our Holiday Challenge in the Losing 100 lbs group (journal emotions, journal food and get moving). In fact, I received a new badge on TDP for logging my food more than 7 consecutive days (typically I don't go online on the weekends and therefore don't log my food, even though I am attentive to what I eat).
• I've tried new healthy foods (oat bran, steel cut oats and I'm making a LF chicken "wings" recipe tonight).
• I'm almost done reading "Half-Assed." (Great book--read it!)
• My skin is better than it's been in YEARS.
• My back is continuing to strengthen thanks to my body's power to heal itself and the work I'm doing to help it get there.
• I've prepared my body, brain and spirit to get out of my very warm, cozy bed in order to get into my very cold, frigid car to drive to the mall and walk every morning by 7am. (In fact, today some of thye grannies recognized me and waved hi.) As I have NEVER been one for morning workouts, this is perhaps my greatest accomplishment in quite awhile.   

The week's NOT a failure, despite what the (unofficial) number on the scale says!

Something to look forward to: my official WI isn't until FRIDAY anyway. I've got 2 more days to work on it.

But, what I want to know... is how does Amy C from the Biggest Loser do it. She's a superstar when it comes to weight loss (and I like her personality, work ethic and game ethics so much that I had to friend her on Facebook ). Maybe if I want to get better results and truly bust through this plateau (that feels like a landslide), I should apply for TBL... ?

• veggie sticks and cottage cheese
• an organic Fuji apple from Whole Foods with TJ's organic creamy peanut butter (yummmmmm)