Meal Planning

Meal planning is probably the easiest way to make a diet work. It's easy to sabotage any diet, but meal planning is probably the best way to set yourself up for success!

So today I went to the grocery store with my husband in tow. I must say - I have a great husband. He's very open to eating healthy foods and eating less meat. He's also very open and aware that I need to be supported in this weight loss venture. We had lunch at the grocery store - they have quite the spread of foods available. He wanted Chinese - but asked me first if that would dissuade me from getting the salad I already planned to get. I told him I'd be fine. Today, anyways.

So we went shopping. It was our splurge week - to stock up on items. I don't know that I stocked up on anything, but I bought just about any item I thought I might need for meals this week. It's hard to stock up on fruits and veggies.

So the meals for this week also include a change in lunch plans for my husband and daughter. They will be eating turkey wraps instead of sandwiches. I bought extra salad fixings for me. I also plan on making White Chicken Chili. I'm not sure if we'll have this for a meal, because I like to freeze the leftovers in individual portions for lunches. I'd like a fair amount of lunches!

I'm actually not clear on the dinners. We bought wild caught tuna - and then I have plenty of chicken. I have asparagus I can roast and I made riced cauliflower to make a stir fry.

It's interesting because we used to plan our meals around meat. Now they're planned around veggies. If I could just get my snackign under control - then I'd really start dropping pounds!

My Goals

Okay. It looks like I won't attain my goal of losing 5 pounds in February. I figure my starting weight was 206.3, so I wanted to be at 201.3. Considering I'd need to lose 5.6 pounds in one week - probably not going to happen.

But I still want to attain my goal of losing 5 pounds per month until our Disney trip. Not to mention summer is coming before then! I certainly would like to lose a little weight before then.

So my plan is to keep with the goals, and for March, I will try to lose the 10 pounds. I have almost 6 weeks exactly to reach that goal, and I think that is definitely possible and still very safe. So that would put me at 196.3. I think - if I reach that goal - I will give myself a little reward. Maybe a mani or pedi. I think if I reach a nice round number like 195 I'll go for both!

So this tells me I need to get serious and not putting off things until tomorrow. I keep thinking I can wait until tomorrow to really restrict my diet, but the truth is, I need to do it now. I'm making some healthy choices - but there's usually some point in my day when I just don't care anymore and I give in. I can't allow myself to do that anymore.

So I need to figure out a plan for today. Because right now I'm not thinking healthy thoughts for lunch, because I don't feel like I have many healthy options. And tonight we're probably going to go out to eat. I'm thinking mexican... Probably not the best idea - although I think I could make some healthy choices. Maybe I eat a sensible lunch(which I really am resisting) but then have the mexican dinner. I'm thinking fajitas. I can control that. And I don't care much for chips- so I can avoid that.

And I think I can fit in a video during naps- just not as extensive as I would like. I already showered and don't want to shower again. Okay - enough from me. Do you have a plan for your troublesome weekends?

Weigh In

Recap on the week:

Started a new habit of doing some Wii Fit every night.
Ate a reduced calories healthy egg breakfast every morning.
Eating more fruits and veggies.
Tried a new recipe this week and cooked a veggie a new way, which I liked alot.
Tracked my food 3 times this week.
Only did 1 workout video at home, wanted to do at least 1 more.
Went to the gym only once this week.
Youngest got the flu - which really hampered the extra gym/video time.
TOM- so having a hard time curbing cravings and keeping eating under control.
Did portion out bad cravings mentioned above.

WI: 206.9lbs. Up .3 lbs.

Not too bad. Certainly could have been better in the exercise department, and usually is. Eating could have been a bit better, but overall I'm handling TOM very well and not getting totally derailed.

Floundering

I don't know what is going on. I am tracking my food. I am working out more. I have had a few treats over Valentines day - but I've tracked all of it. (Which is just AMAZING for me.) I've started doing Wii Fit at night - even if it's just the step during our tv shows. I figure it's keeping me from snacking plus I'm moving more. But the scale doesn't seem to be budging. Apparently I just gorged over the weekend and my body won't give it up!

I don't plan on changing or giving up. I know if I'm diligent - the scale will move. Weigh-in day isn't until Friday - and it's TOM time. I just really want to hit my goal of 5 pounds this month. I'm nowhere near it and I don't have much time left, but I thought I'd drop a few pounds!

Calories at a glance:
Breakfast(spinach and eggs) 200 calories
Brunch with friends: 400 calories(I'm just guessing. I had a slice of friendship bread and a scoop of my apple crisp plus a small section of brownie..)

I think for lunch, I'll just eat an apple and I plan on getting a workout video in. I did my Turbo Jam video for the first time in a while on Monday. It was alot harder than it used to be! I wanted to quit many times, but I just rested for a second and then got back to it! I want to incorporate Turbo Jam into my workout routine. When I had first gotten the videos - I did them alot and I could definitely see definition and change in my body. I haven't seen any change in a while - so I want to try it again. I'm tired of just wanting change - I want to make it happen.

Weigh In Day

Well - I was NERVOUS!!! It has not been a very good week, starting with the superbowl, leftover snacks and cake and the munchies. I made it to the gym several times, but not last night like I had hoped. But I still checked the scale this morning. 206.7lbs. 1 pound higher than last week.

I was pretty relieved it wasn't worse! I've been pretty bloated this week too. So I was assuming some extra water weight on top of everything else.

So, mentally I think I'm in the right place. Since I didn't have a horrible set back, I think I can make a big difference this week if I do better with my diet. Which should be much easier this week. No parties or unnecessary snacks lying around. I already have plans to go to the gym tomorrow. I think this will be a better week!

Deadline

So - I remembered my one goal that I want to continually strive for each month. To lose 5 pounds a month until Disney. I put a low reachable number - even though I could lose closer to 10 if I was really diligent. Let's be realistic, I'm not very diligent.

So I realize mid-February is almost here and I think I've gained weight - and not lost it. So all the more to STOP EATING!!!

This was very timely - I had a horrible eating day yesterday I really don't want to talk about it. Just know that it was BAD. But, in light of the goal - I am trying to make today a much better day. I had my MOPS meeting today(Mother of PreSchoolers) - and there is always a wonderful buffet of food. It's easy to get a very generous plate of egg and potato casseroles, chips and dips, maybe some raw veggies and then cover the plate with cookies, brownies and donuts. I always eat too well at Mops - if ya know what I mean!

So today I was going to eat only raw fruit and veggies and maybe 1 small sample of a casserole and maybe one small dessert. I did pretty well. I did eat mostly fruit and veggies- but due to the craziness of the morning, I actually had my son with me - so I grabbed him crackers and donut holes and pasta salad. He ate my cookie and some pasta salad. I ate most of the crackers and the two donut holes. But overall - MUCH better than any normal week. There were lots of good casseroles I would have scarfted down.

My only dilemma is... what do I do now? I really am still hungry, but I probably had more calories in a morning than I normally would. My plan is to make a potato soup for dinner, so that shouldn't be horrible for calories. I also plan on going to the gym tonight, since I couldn't go this morning. So I think I have a decent day planned. I'm just happy I didn't let Mops derail me like I usually do.

((((Big sigh of relief!))))

Diet changes

So, I've adjusted my diet a bit. I've not totally made over how I eat - I'm not *strong* enough to do that all at once. But - I'm trying to reduce the amount of carbs I'm eating in the morning. Normally I'd have a high fiber cereal but if that wasn't enough- I'd have a piece of toast. Then maybe a fruit flat.

So now I'm eating two eggs with veggies and a touch of shredded cheese. And if that's not enough - or I'm starving before I have a chance to actually eat it - I'll eat a banana or part of an apple.

This is mostly working out for me. Some days I feel plenty full - other days I'm still hungry. I often have to remind myself after the eggs to eat the fruit - because my instinct tells me - a piece of toast would go great with eggs. So I'm doing pretty good. I'm hoping these small changes will help on the scale. It's less calories - although maybe not as much as I thought. I don't measure the oil I'm using - and apparently 1 TBS of olive oil is 120 calories!!! Yikes! So I will be more careful from now on.