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!!