So I still have no cheats. I'm measuring things pretty religiously, but it's not too hard when you are just on protein and veggies. I was having a hard time finishing breakfast (2 eggs plus veggies-either my egg bake or egg "muffins") so I decided I would switch to having it for snack...still no such finishing. I start to get a little nauseous towards the end. Right now I am on 3 meals and 3 products. Next week we add a serving of fruit and then we have the option of sticking with 3 meals and 3 products or all food or some combination. I still enjoy having my shake with coffee in the AM and PM, but I also see the value of not relying on the product for meals so I'm thinking I will go ahead and purchase the 3 each week for a while and see how it goes. I'll plan on cooking but keep the products as back up. Most likely I will keep having my AM shake with coffee. I also think it won't be super easy to eat 6 times a day with work. That's the other reason I plan to just keep buying product. I would say the hardest part, by far, is getting 2 cups of veggies in at each meal. That is a lot of veggies!!! I lost 2lbs this week so I'm still right on track. Hopefully this week will be the same! I'm at about 1100 calories/day now. I keep planning to step up the exercise more, but I'm not super motivated to do much more than walk. Ugh....I think I'll just focus on food for the next couple of weeks and then start rewarding fitness goals. Exercise is what is going to help me keep the weight off and keep my body looking the way I want it to. As far as weight goes I am now 188lbs start weight 242.6-or something like that)...my first sort of "long term" goal is 164. That gets me just into the "healthy weight" BMI. I also have a size goal of 10. I didn't have difficulty really maintaining a 10 in the past, so I think it is reasonable. Right now I am a baggy size 14. :-) I need to buy a couple more pants for work, but can't decide if I should by the 12 or not. Since my weight loss will likely slow down I will probably fit a 12 for a couple months, but maybe I should just stick to a baggy 14. I'll think about it and look at finances a bit more!
My day looks sort of like this for meals:
6/7am Shake with coffee
9/10am Egg bake of egg muffins
1230pm Cottage cheese with baby carrots
230/3pm Optifast fudge graham bar
5pm Pepper stuffed with lean ground beef and tomatoes seasoned with taco seasoning
7/730pm Shake with decaf coffee
Other meals I have enjoyed: Chicken breast baked with peppers and tomatoes and basalmic vinegar, ground turkey breast baked in foil with peppers and spinach and salmon steamed in my steamer with asparagus and chinese seasoning. Oh and salmon steamed with Spinach with lemon. OH! And tonight I made spaghetti squash and combined it with a sauté of chicken breast, garlic, tomato and spinach with italian seasoning. It was pretty good-I couldn't quite finish but that is a theme and I am happy to toss the leftovers (or put them in the pups bowls.)
I'm enjoying cooking again. I would love to have a slice of pizza so I am thinking about doing one of those cauliflower or zucchini crusts and topping with just sliced tomatoes and cheese. I know it isn't the same, but I think it will still be satisfying. :-) I have my eye on my goals still so I'm not very tempted to veer off plan. I'm also slightly afraid that I am being overly confident about all of this. I just feel like I'm getting my health in a good place and I can't live in fear of making mistakes so I'm just enjoying playing with recipes and eating at my table. :-)
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Transition!!
I've become a slacker blogger. I've been extremely distracted looking for jobs and daydreaming of Southern California. I really want to get back to sunshine and warm beaches!! I have had 2 great interviews and zero offers. I have a call to make for a local job that would be a completely new job for me on Monday before I miss out on that opportunity. I have until Mid-March to get an offer or I'm just going to have to plan to stay put for another year (my lease will be up and I can't afford to pay the month to month rent on my terrible salary (in comparison to all the other nurses I know here.)
Anyway, if you are checking out this page you probably want to know about transition!! Week one I chose to replace my evening soup with salmon and asparagus and chicken and peppers. It was delicious! I'm definitely full after the 3oz of protein and 2c of veggies. I was nervous to take the first bite-I felt like one of my anorexic patients I used to take care of, but got over it. I had to alter and switch to lunch 2 days because I had an inservice at work Tuesday evening and then class on the Wednesday night. This week I am having 2 eggs + 2 cups of spinach that I baked in muffin tins for breakfast and I'm alternating between another chicken, tomato and pepper with basalmic baked meal and a tilapia and asparagus. So far so good. The eggs are sort of too filling. The first day I couldn't finish them. Yesterday I gagged on the last bite and had to spit it out, but today I finished them. I'm still having the metamucil most days, but I imagine I will stop it next week when we add our third meal. Oh! We had a different facilitator this week who is an RD (I think) and she is now the lead educator and in charge of transition. She made us a sample menu and I have so many new ideas for non meat options. I want to try and just have meat for dinner mostly. One thing she suggested is carrots with cinnamon and greek yogurt or cottage cheese. MMMMMM....And we can add a tiny bit of oil-like 1/2-1tsp. That's really plenty anyway.
I'm not getting quite as much exercise. I guess I am still getting 30min, but I was getting closer to 40-60 for a while. My last 2 weeks of full fast I only lost 1.5-2lbs per week, but last week (after my first week of food) I lost 4.6! Yeah! So my total as of last weeks was 50lbs! I'm extremely happy with that. I am going to Mexico on March 3-7 and I'm hoping to lose another 5-8lbs. That's really just an arbitrary number, but it sounds good. :-) I typically lose weight on vacation so we will see!! As far as goals I have 26lbs to go before my first long term goal of being in the healthy BMI range. After that I plan to just stay on 1200 calories/day until I'm at a comfortable weight-most likely 150-155. That number keeps me comfortably in the healthy BMI range and I have always been comfortable in clothes at that weight.
Next week we have the option of ordering 2 products/day or 3 products/day so I have some thinking to do! I think I want to continue to have a shake for my coffee in the AM and a shake for evening snack. I may just continue to do 3 shakes until Mexico. For the trip I think I will just order powder packets for my am coffee and a bar for a snack at some point. That will be my first real test I guess!
I was worried a bit about wanting to eat constantly once I started eating again, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm still on about 1000 calories/day so maybe when that calorie amt goes up it will change a little. This week I'm going to try and start jogging again. I know it is key to maintenance and I really need to do more than 30min per day of cardio. I also need to add strength training ASAP-which I have been saying for weeks. I like exercise and feeling strong, but maybe I'm afraid I'll be disappointed in my efforts. It may also have been harder to focus on the meal side of things if I had been working out a lot, who knows. I'm glad I seem to be on track and feel great!!
Anyway, if you are checking out this page you probably want to know about transition!! Week one I chose to replace my evening soup with salmon and asparagus and chicken and peppers. It was delicious! I'm definitely full after the 3oz of protein and 2c of veggies. I was nervous to take the first bite-I felt like one of my anorexic patients I used to take care of, but got over it. I had to alter and switch to lunch 2 days because I had an inservice at work Tuesday evening and then class on the Wednesday night. This week I am having 2 eggs + 2 cups of spinach that I baked in muffin tins for breakfast and I'm alternating between another chicken, tomato and pepper with basalmic baked meal and a tilapia and asparagus. So far so good. The eggs are sort of too filling. The first day I couldn't finish them. Yesterday I gagged on the last bite and had to spit it out, but today I finished them. I'm still having the metamucil most days, but I imagine I will stop it next week when we add our third meal. Oh! We had a different facilitator this week who is an RD (I think) and she is now the lead educator and in charge of transition. She made us a sample menu and I have so many new ideas for non meat options. I want to try and just have meat for dinner mostly. One thing she suggested is carrots with cinnamon and greek yogurt or cottage cheese. MMMMMM....And we can add a tiny bit of oil-like 1/2-1tsp. That's really plenty anyway.
I'm not getting quite as much exercise. I guess I am still getting 30min, but I was getting closer to 40-60 for a while. My last 2 weeks of full fast I only lost 1.5-2lbs per week, but last week (after my first week of food) I lost 4.6! Yeah! So my total as of last weeks was 50lbs! I'm extremely happy with that. I am going to Mexico on March 3-7 and I'm hoping to lose another 5-8lbs. That's really just an arbitrary number, but it sounds good. :-) I typically lose weight on vacation so we will see!! As far as goals I have 26lbs to go before my first long term goal of being in the healthy BMI range. After that I plan to just stay on 1200 calories/day until I'm at a comfortable weight-most likely 150-155. That number keeps me comfortably in the healthy BMI range and I have always been comfortable in clothes at that weight.
Next week we have the option of ordering 2 products/day or 3 products/day so I have some thinking to do! I think I want to continue to have a shake for my coffee in the AM and a shake for evening snack. I may just continue to do 3 shakes until Mexico. For the trip I think I will just order powder packets for my am coffee and a bar for a snack at some point. That will be my first real test I guess!
I was worried a bit about wanting to eat constantly once I started eating again, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm still on about 1000 calories/day so maybe when that calorie amt goes up it will change a little. This week I'm going to try and start jogging again. I know it is key to maintenance and I really need to do more than 30min per day of cardio. I also need to add strength training ASAP-which I have been saying for weeks. I like exercise and feeling strong, but maybe I'm afraid I'll be disappointed in my efforts. It may also have been harder to focus on the meal side of things if I had been working out a lot, who knows. I'm glad I seem to be on track and feel great!!
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