Shoutin’ from the Rooftop

I think a very important aspect of permanent weight loss is being honest with yourself. If I am going to be totally honest with myself, I haven’t done a very good job consistently for the last 9 months with my eating. The last nine months have been probably the second hardest time in my life. A lot of unexpected changes that occurred in our life that were heartbreaking and the loss of my Grandfather.

It was almost like I was on a roller-coaster of sorts. Up and down. Down and then up. Tracking points then being too sloppy with tracking points. There is such an emotional aspect to my eating that I am still working on. I am working on approaching eating more for fuel for my body than my drug of choice. Even in the past month with the loss of my Grandfather, I have turned to my drug of choice despite knowing that I was on a slipper slope.

So today, I forced myself to go and weigh in at the center. I am finding that I still need that weekly accountability. The outcome: 7.8 pounds over goal and even more over my own personal goal. But it is the 7.8 pounds that must come off. No more.  I hate even typing that but I know that it could be much worse. Thankfully this past week, I worked hard and lost 2 pounds.

Being honest with myself, I am fighting the feelings of failure but I am going to use that energy to focus on counting the points, getting in the exercise and all the things I know I need to do.

I started today off with a 2 mile run. Still strongly considering the half marathon the first of December in Las Vegas. I really want to do is so I think we are going to try to make sure I can go with Chris and run it. I think it will help me focus on being consistent with my running.

The most important thing I have learned is that I need to quit living in denial and be honest with myself. Honesty.

Tags: goal, honesty

Last week while Chris was on a business trip, I didn’t feel like cooking. I had picked up one of Healthy Choice’s Cafe Steamers at Meijer earlier in the week. I thought it was a perfect time to try it.

I had chosen the General Tso’s Spicy Chicken. Well, I will say that Healthy Choice got the spicy part right. If you do not care for spicy food, you need to steer clear of this meal. It was very light in the chicken. But the flavor is great, the rice is tender and it was filling. I wish I would have had some broccoli to throw in. There was plenty of sauce and I think some steamed broccoli would have added some nice “bulk” and made the meal go farther.

Healthy Choice has made a interesting way to “cook” this meal. There is a bowl that nests inside the outside bowl. In the inside bowl is the chicken, rice, and vegetables (green onion, peas & carrots) and in the bottom bowl is the spicy brown sauce. Once the meal is done cooking, you dump the top bowl down in the bottom bowl of sauce. The veggies weren’t soggy and too soft. Nice!

I will definitely be buying this meal again to use in a “not wanting or have time to cook but need a healthy alternative” situation.

Nutritional value for entire steamer bowl: 320 calories: 3.5 grams fat: 4 grams fiber

Sorry that I went missing last week. My grandpa passed away. I was extremely close to him so it has been a rough week. Add on top of that trying to help my girls deal with their grief and Chris leaving on another business trip. Needless to say, good eating was the last thing on my mind. I am trying to catch up with every day things and then hopefully I can get some things posted. I still have some food reviews that I wanted to share.

Thank you for your understanding.

Well, it has been an interesting week back at home. Monday morning, I had every intention of getting back to running. It was on  my schedule. Well that quickly got changed. As I was walking out of our bedroom I kicked the treadmill with my bare foot. Two toes were the victim. One was pretty bad. For two days I thought it might be broken. The swelling finally went down and I could bend it again. Whew. Thankfully this happened in the summer so I could wear flip flops because my foot wouldn’t fit in to a shoe.

Last night I went for a run. Since it was my first run since we left for vacation, I decided to just go for time. 25 minutes. Wow. It is scary how quickly you can lose endurance. But I am back at it. I am trying to decide if I am going to run in the half marathon in Las Vegas in December. Chris mentioned it last night. Decisions decisions.

I found this great article at www.Health.com I thought it had some good reminders. A lot of the suggestions we already know. But if you are like me, after time I get slack on some of them and forget that I need to be doing them again. So if you have a minute check out 20 Little Ways to Drop Pounds.

Yesterday my friend Molly’s husband, Chris (yes she is married to a Chris too. but a different one. lol) sent Molly & me a link for a workout. It is an At-Home Workout. I did this workout yesterday in addition to my run. Wow. It is a good workout to do at home. I enjoyed the dancing. It was a great stress reliever. I thought the “Hamstring Curl” was going to kill me. Wow. It was brutal. I am feeling all of the work this morning.

Still writing everything down. It is amazing how little food we really need. Ha. Hope you have a great day. Off to get ready for an eye doctor appointment.

Tags: exercise

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am home from vacation. What a great time. We enjoyed spending the time together as a family. It was great to recharge even thought we were on the go constantly. I had planned on going for a run while we were gone but there really wasn’t any time. The first morning, I woke up early enough that I could have gone for a run but my running stuff was still packed again. That day I set everything out and had it ready. I made a deal with myself that if I woke up again before 6:30 that I would slip out of the room and go run. Never happened. I guess I needed the sleep. Not going to stress over the lack of running. I will get back at it.

I just read the comments on the posts while I was gone. I will start replying to those.

I have an article that I will get posted this week along with a food review or two.

I am starting fresh tomorrow. I didn’t stress about my eating while we were gone. I am only up two pounds which was encouraging. I know all of that walking we did help offset the increased consumption. But tomorrow is a new day, Vacation eating is over. I am a few pounds over my comfort level. I have a brand new three month journal set out. Tracking points and writing everything down in on the schedule for tomorrow. I went to the grocery because there wasn’t a thing in the house after being gone so long. Filled up the refrigerator with tons of veggies and fruit.  And we got a new grill yesterday. Our grill died the beginning of spring. It was 10 years old. So I can’t wait to start grilling again. Yeah.

I think that is all for now. Headed out with the family for some swimming. Hope the rest of your weekend is a good one.

Tags: tracking

After enjoying Yoplait’s Cinnamon Bun yogurt, I decided to try out their Cherry Cobbler yogurt. Now, I love fresh Bing cherries but am not a huge fan of cherry pie or cherry cobbler. I like it but it isn’t my dessert of choice.

Again, Yoplait surprised me. What a nice treat. I added in some cereal to make a parfait. It was thick, filling and had a great flavor.

I will be buying this again! Yoplait. Keep it up. We need more flavors in your Light Thick  & Creamy 100 calorie yogurt line-up.

NI for entire container: 100 calories/ 0 grams fat/ 0 grams fiber

Tags: snack, yogurt

I was excited to try Glaceau’s Vitaminwater10. I had heard great things about it. I am not the best at remembering to take my vitamins. So I thought it would be great to be able to drink them in my water.

Glaceau recently released the low calorie version of their popular Vitaminwater. I picked out the “Energy” - tropical citrus flavor. I hate to say but I wasn’t gulping it down. It didn’t have much taste. I guess I prefer to have a stronger flavor if I can going to drink something. I won’t be buying this again.  It kind of tasted like a watered-down Gatorade. I am not a huge Gatorade drinker. Well, actually I never drink Gatorade.

Nutritional information per 8 ounce serving: 10 calories/ 0 grams fat/ 0 grams fiber. 2.5 servings per bottle

Tags: drink

Some of you might remember my despair in my LiveActive peanut butter bars going MIA. I have been searching for a new bar for a quick breakfast when I am short on time and need a good choice.

I was happy to see that Quaker came out with Simple Harvest “All Natural” Trail Mix multi-grain chewy granola bar. I bought mine at Meijer. They have oat, wheat & barley in them. There is a great mix of granola and dried fruit and just a touch of chocolate. They are naturally sweetened.

They have a great taste and aren’t too sweet.

NI for one bar: 150 calories/ 5 grams fat/ 2 grams fiber.

Tags: bar