February Summary

I can’t believe February is over and I only made one entry. Although I don’t have anything new to report. I’ve only last 8 pounds so far and I’m kind of frustrated at that. I feel like I’ve reached another plateau. I did try a few new things to try & jump my metabolism. Most of them haven’t worked.

The first thing I tried was not drinking my diet shakes. Instead, I’ve been taking small amounts of food to the office, practicing smaller rations. Not sure if it’s working but it is slightly cheaper than the shakes.

Second, I gave up soda for Lent. Well, I didn’t do it for the religious purposes. But I wanted to see if I could do it. At first, it was horrible. I got terrible headaches for at least two weeks. The cravings are incredible strong and for a couple of days, I just want nothing else but Diet Pepsi. It’s been 17 days since but I think I’m over the worse of it. The headaches are gone but the cravings are still there.

Third, I stop taking all the vitamins & supplements. I normally take a Weight Control 1-a-day vitamin, Green Tea complex vitamin and B6 for the weight. Then there’s the Vitamin E and Othro-Flex for my body. And Vitamin A and Fish Oil capsules for my borderline hypoglycemic. I didn’t notice anything different by not taking the vitamins. But it probably doesn’t hurt when I do take them.

I’ve also been adding more tennis to my life. I’ve been playing in a league at the YMCA Downtown. So far, I’m playing on two Saturdays a month and I rank #3 in the 3.0 Division. Last Saturday, I was asked to join a USTA 3.5 league. I was so honored – no one has ever asked me to join a real USTA league. And I was touched they thought I was good enough to play. Because let’s face it, I haven’t played in a real league since Chicago. As much as I would love to, I just can’t commit the time. The USTA league matches can last all day. From the descriptions from the other players, it sounded like my high school tennis tournaments. And those things killed your weekends.

No updates on Dress Hunt 2013. I’ve gone to handful of stores w/ no such luck. My husband wants to go to Macy’s & Bloomingdales this weekend so I thought I would tag along to see if there’s anything for me. Besides, I do have a $50 gift card to Bloomingdales. Although I did buy a new swimsuit that I’m pretty stoked about. I just have to make a minor adjustment and it will be the perfect swimsuit. Too bad I didn’t have anyone to go to the beach with.

On a happier note: this morning when I got ready for work, I noticed my figure looked slightly different in the mirror. For the last 6 months (maybe longer), I’ve been complaining about this weird chunk of what I’m assuming is a combination of fat, muscle and tissue, gathering just below my right hip. The other weird thing about this chunk is that I don’t have one on my left side. I used to be able to grab a handful of it & shake the crap out it. But today, when I looked in the mirror, I noticed it’s almost gone. There’s still a lump there but more like a slope off my right hip. I can no longer grab it, shake it & curse its existence. My upper right thigh almost matches my left thigh. The diet is working! I’m slimming down. In another month or two, it will be completely gone! Hooray! After that’s gone, I’ll turn my attention towards my mid-section.

January's summary

As of January 31st, I'm down 8 pounds! Woohoo! It was extremely hard and I had to constantly remind myself that I'm dieting. It actually sucks when you really want to eat but that nagging voice in my head yells "Put the fork down!".

As of today, I think I gained a pound of two thanks to the Super Bowl. I drank way too many Mojitos, ate too many Tequila Lime chicken wings and definitely one too many helpings of chips & that gooey, hot, melty cheese dip. (Is melty even a word?)

But as I woke up this morning, I was hit with realization that I have 41 days to get in shape for a friend's wedding. I'm determined to find and wear a bright colorful dress. (God, I hate dress shopping). Maybe something sleeveless and something more revealing than my usual style. It's going to be a nightmare but I'm determined to do it! The small dress selection is my closest contains 3 black dresses (two of them I haven't worn since college), 1 sundress I haven't worn in 2 years, maybe 3 years, and another sundress that made a rare appearance at our Easter brunch last year. (But I think I'm going to wear that dress again when we go the race track in a few weeks).

One thing I did discovered this weekend is that I love the new A&W Ten. Its this new soft drink from A&W and several others that is only 10 calories per 8oz serving. (The 16oz bottles have 20 calories - learned that one after the 2nd bottle).

But it's delicious! It tastes like fountain root beer and for some reason, I like fountain root beer better than canned/bottled root beer. (Which reminds me of this place in Chicago called White Hen that used to have amazing fountain root beer. Can't remember the brand but I do remember making "root beer runs". Wow - I'm weird). And it definitely tastes better than diet root beer. Which is usually what I drink when I want root beer. But not anymore! Diet drinks always have that strange after taste. Like a slap to your taste buds - "yea, this is horrible stuff but I want it and I don't want to feel guilty about having it". I love this stuff and I hope it sticks around for awhile. I think I can manage 20 calories of delicious root beer taste. Plus, 7-Eleven has a buy-one, get-one-free deal going on for all their flavors. I haven't tried the other "Ten" flavors but I might try the 7Up and Sunkist.

I did try another gluten free recipe over the weekend. It used garbanzo bean flour for a chocolate cake mixture. I made these mini bundt cakes for a party but there weren't that good. They were bland so I added a little frosting on top. When that didn't work, I drizzled white chocolate over them. I still think they were bland but people ate them at the party and when I took the leftovers to work. I did make an orange flavored mini bundt cake - full of gluten. Those did go faster than the gluten-free cakes. Oh well - bake & learn.

Summary of Week 4

Doing the daily log is not working so much. So I think resorting to weekly summaries are more my style.

Week 4 was probably my worst week so far. It was my husband's birthday which meant a 2-layer German Chocolate cake in the fridge. Which also meant cake after dinner and the one-time I had cake for breakfast. (Which is something I still enjoy from my youth). I was also lazy because it rained most of the latter part of the week. So no afternoon walks. And it was that cold rain that makes me just want to lay on the couch and read. I also gave in and had a grilled cheese for lunch last Thursday just because it was "that kind of weather".

But I'm determined to get back on track. I got on the scale this morning and saw that I have not gained nor loss anything since Week 3. So it's time to get serious about it. And as I write this, I realize I'm hungry. I swear it's a never-ending battle.

Week 3

Week 3 is starting out good. I'm down 6lbs since the New Year. It's mostly due to how I approach food. Smaller portions and easy on the carbs. For example, I've been eating ice cream out of smaller bowls. (The bowls we usually use for dipping sauces). I've also been more conscious about adding more protein and less carbs. Yogurt at lunch instead of Wheat Thins. I've also been drinking more water.

But there are some days it's extremely hard. I had a horrible chocolate craving a few days back. In the midst of it, I somehow pinned my husband to the ground and demanded that he go to 7-Eleven (across the street) and get me chocolate. It was not pretty and definitely not my finest moment. Or it was depending on how you look at it.

Also the headaches are still coming. Not as frequently as they were before. I think I have a handle on them. But they are painful suckers.

Last week, I also tried my hand at an alternative way to make chocolate mousse. Four ingredients - avocados, vanilla, agave nectar and unsweetened cocoa. I don't like avocados so it was the first thing I tasted and after that, I couldn't eat any more. My co-workers loved it. Especially the gluten-free, dairy-free folks. But I couldn't get over the avocado aftertaste. Oh well, it was worth a shot. There's another recipe I want to try that's similar - Lavender Lemon cookies.

The Second Week

I ended the first week on a high - down 3 lbs. It's a start. But the second week is proving to be more difficult. I'm suffering from more headaches even when I eat something. I'm having a hard time forcing myself to drink water. And I want to snack more at work. My husband says it's my body getting used to the change in diet and I just have to deal with it.

Last night, we went to the Olive Garden. I know, I know - the worst place one could ever go to when dieting. The unlimited bread sticks and a menu completely full of pasta. But part of this project is to make better decisions when it comes to food. So, what better place than the Olive Garden.

I started the night looking over the drink selections. They had two delicious martinis on special - Caramel Brulee and Toasted Marshmallow. I wanted the Toasted Marshmallow because it had Kahlua and Bailey's. But it was 490 calories! I went with the Caramel Brulee, 290 calories, and I have to say it was not a bad choice. It was better than I thought.

Dinner selection was a little tricky. So many good things on the menu. But I went w/ the 510-calorie Lobster Cannelloni. But I did horribly on the bread sticks - 4 at 150 calories a piece. Then, we stopped at Dairy Queen and I got a mini sized Blizzard. The bread sticks & the Blizzard put me over by 500 calories. Which is not bad considering I just ate at Olive Garden.

And here's what I learned last night - quality, not quantity (the Lobster Cannelloni was small but very filling and delicious); you can still have alcoholic beverages as long as you have ones w/o out cream; a smaller size does not mean it taste different from a larger size (mini sized Blizzards are just as good as a regular sized Blizzards).

Thursday - Day 3

Nothing too exciting today....

Breakfast - 2 pieces of white toast, crunchy peanut butter and Simply Orange Juice. About 233 calories.

Early morning snack - 1/4 cup of oatmeal with raisins & brown sugar. (I had to try the work's oatmeal as it's a popular item. Not sure why - it's like unflavored mush).

Lunch - lettuce with diced chicken, cheese, a spoonful of black beans and 1 hard boiled egg.

Lunch hour walk around 1pm. Burned roughly 260 calories.

Snack - pumpkin pie flavored yogurt and one Hershey's nugget.

Dinner - grilled chicken breast w/ cheese, hamburger bun, Diet Pepsi and a Fiber One Cookie Bar.

After dinner exercise - 30 minutes of stretching.

Came in under around 300 calories according to Lose It. Not a bad day.

Wednesday - Day 2

This morning started out good. A small bowl of Special K Chocolate and Skim Milk. I think that's about 180 calories. While getting ready for work, I realized I had 3, maybe 4, cans of weight loss shakes at work. Great! Short week and enough to get me through till the weekend. Then, I'll stop at Target over the weekend & pick up two more cases of their version of Slim Fast. (Target's version is $2.00 cheaper than the actual Slim Fast. Same ingredients and tastes just like the real thing).

Got to work earlier than usually thanks to the light traffic. Logged into my emails - very little due to the holidays. Sweet - it's going to be good day. Went to the kitchen to get water & check on my shakes. Opened the fridge and it was full like I've never seen it before. Fruit trays, veggie trays, packs of sodas, a case of yogurt and energy drinks. But no diet shakes. WTF? My lunch for today and the rest of the week are gone! I asked around and two people saw them last Friday before the holiday break. But all the extra food showed up over the weekend. (The senior staff is trying to wrap up a deal with Comcast so they literally spent last week at the office. I'm told that the deal will take another 2 weeks for it to concluded). My eye-witnesses suspected that they might have been tossed to make room for all the groceries. But when I asked some of the senior staff members about it, none of them admitted to tossing anything. They said they just moved things around to make room. Plus, they all knew that I drink the weight loss shakes. So, what happened to a box with 3 cans of diet shakes? Great - good feelings gone. No lunch for today and I don't think I can get to Target till Friday after work. Damnit. I think there's some left over chicken at home. Maybe I'll bring that for tomorrow. But this sucks. I'm trying to be good and stay on the wagon. But then someone comes along and fucks w/ the axle. **grumble, grumble**

Anyhow, I felt so much better after my lunch hour walk (burned over 345 calories). I was bummed that I would be scrounging around the office for food. But I was over it. On my way back from my walk, I stop at the little cafe in my building & picked up some salad fixings for dinner tonight. As I was leaving, I found a $20 bill on the floor. I almost went back to get some real lunch but then realized all that was there was junk food & carbs. Then, I realized I needed gas more.

Back in the office, a massive headache was brewing. I get them when I haven't eaten or my blood sugar level is low. (Did I mention that I'm a borderline hypoglycemic?). In the back of the work fridge, I found one of my pumpkin pie flavored yogurts. Five days past the expiration date but it tasted just fine. Calories: 90. Then, I found a bag of Cheddar Sun Chips in my drawer that I stashed just before the holidays. Score! Calories: 210. A three hundred calorie lunch isn't ideal but its better than starving.

One thing I did discovered today is that Diet Coke w/ Splenda is gross. I swiped a can from the overstocked work fridge. Wasn't worth it - yuck. Diet Coke is bearable but this stuff is really awful.

Around 5pm, I started to have another headache and I was grateful that my co-worker had a stash of Nature Valley granola bars in her desk. So there was another 190 calories. The worst part about this is that I was not even hungry. I really had to force myself to eat the granola. This low-blood-sugar stuff is a bitch but at least the headache went away 20 minutes later.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Dinner was a tilipia fillet w/ a salad and 4 Andes mints for dessert. And one glass of Simply Lemonade. Just under 670 calories. Then it was 30 minutes of stretching (which always feels good) and 20 minutes of crunches. It doesn't sound like a lot but it's something I'm building up to.

According to my Lose It app, I was 490 calories under my limit today which includes the exercises. Which feels good given yesterday's indulgence. Day 2 seemed easy. Hopefully Day 3 will be just as easy.

Movie Theaters & Happy Hour specials

I started out yesterday really good. My husband made me 2 eggs and I added one tortilla and some cheese. Plus a glass of Simply Orange Juice. All for a total of 450 calories according to the Lose It app on my IPad.

But then we went to a movie. A really good movie called Django Unchained. It's almost 3 hours long and we went at 1pm. I knew I would want at snack so I checked out the concessions online. I decided on a box of Nestle's Buncha Crunch and a diet soda. Calories: 420. But then I had some of my husband's popcorn. So add another 150 calories. Calories: 570

Not bad but not good either. At this point, I'm up to 1020 calories and I'm only allowed 1558 calories per day.

As we were leaving the theater, I asked my husband if fish was ok for dinner. (As I'm trying to balance out the day). He said it was ok but I could tell he wasn't thrilled about having fish for dinner. We walked by a Mexican restaurant w/ Happy Hour specials near my car. Being half Mexican myself, I said I would have preferred the Mexican happy hour. Well, that was enough for him. And before I knew it, we were ordering margaritas & appetizers. We toasted the New Year, watched a little football and my calorie limit went right out the window.

I now have a love/hate thing for Happy Hour specials. Oh well, try again tomorrow.

I am a food lover

I am a food lover. I see food and I want to try it. If I like it, I might have two or three helpings. Especially if they are in the dessert category. If I don't like it, at least I can say I tried it.

Food is a huge part of our lives. It nourishes us, sustains us and give us strength to continue our day. But food has many other meanings. We eat when we are happy. We eat when we are sad. We eat unknowingly and sometimes, unwillingly. We eat when we are with family and friends. We eat with strangers. We eat in our homes, in our cars and at our desks. I once knew a guy that would eat & shower at the same time to save time in the morning.

The internet says Americans eat & drink, on an average, 75 minutes every day. We spend less time eating than just about anyone else on the planet. But we’re also among the most overweight. However, the more slender French, spends 2+ hours a day eating. To me, this is an interesting piece of what I call "useless knowledge". Obviously Americans are more rushed than our European counterparts. We also don't take the time to enjoy food and those around us when dining. It also says to me that we don't exercise enough.

I'm guilty of all that. Grabbing a quick bite at my desk. Eating in my car while on the freeway. And definitely guilty of putting off the exercise till 'tomorrow'. I'm also guilty of large portions & too many 2nd helpings. And if we are to be honest, I'm guilty of not eating enough vegetables & fruits.

But it's hard as an American, as a married women - who has more hobbies than she can count - to be a better eater and still enjoy food. I'm always running off somewhere and eating healthier is expensive. It's especially hard since I don't like most fruits and vegetables. Also, I have this thing about self-discipline. When it comes to food, I have no restraint. I love all the things that are 'bad' for you. But I do want to change - I just have to find some way to be held accountable and to stop making excuses.

The biggest problem I have with eating healthier and better is that I want to enjoy food. I've always associated eating healthier as food with no flavor. I don't want to sacrifice flavor & be miserable at the same time. Especially when I know there are such delicious foods out there.

As part of my "Healthy in 2013" campaign, I have started this food diary as a way to control my eating habits. My goal for the diary is to write daily about the challenges of what I ate and/or didn't eat, the struggles to be a healthier, thinner version of me (I'll warn you now - there will be some complaining), my exercises and, I hope, the rewards of my efforts (no matter how small they may be).