Day 631: Back on the Horse Edition

I have been in a whirlwind of emotions dealing with my weight loss for the past few days. A lot of self doubt, a lot frustration, and a lot of thinking “why do I keep having this conversation with myself?” Every time I see an ad or an e-mail that says “Drop 30 pounds in 3 months!” I immediately click on it to find out what theircureis. The thing is that I know the cure: diet and exercise. I’m proof that it works! And I think when I get these negative thoughts in my head, I need to sweat them out of my body. It’s amazing how much clarity you gain from exercising.

So today I was really good with my food. Yesterday, I went on a mini-binge of “healthy” carbtastic snacks in the 3:00-4:00 window. It’s part hunger, part boredom and part lack of discipline. Today, I made sure that didn’t happen! Here we go~

Breakfast: I had the standard peanut butter and toast with banana.4.5 points

Lunch: I was on the run this morning, so I pulled a Lean Cuisine Chicken Enchilada Suiza out of the freezer. I usually get the Smart One version, but I thought I would give the LC version a shot. It took 9 minutes to microwave (which made my co-workers incredibly jealous because it smelled so good) but it was worth the wait. It was pretty impressed! 6 points.
I also had a 40 calorie Dove Chocolate and five M&M’s .5 points.

Pre-Run Meal: Instead of eating junk food after work, I had a salad with a little lunch meat, a cap of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of Parmesan. It was only 5 points and then I had 3 points of almonds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Run: #FFK Tip of the Day: if you are scoping out a run on Google Maps, be sure to look at is from every angle. What goes down must go up… in a very steep fashion.

I decided to go for a 5 mile run since Debby has finally decided to peace out of Tally. It was cool for the first mile, but then it got super humid. My first mile was a solid 9:25, but then I hit a lot of hills on some roads I haven’t been on before. It turned out to be a rough, but exhilarating run. Between the run and the cool down, I burned 950 calories total. The issue is my left hip has been acting up a lot which has made my running a little painful at times. I need to look in to that.

 

 

 

 

Dinner: I came home to delicious tacos and plenty of water. They were epic and around16 points(4 points a taco.) For dessert I had a banana and a large Tervis full of hot green tea. Pretty delicious stuff.

So today, I got to 35 points and with my run and doing pushups, situps and squats during the commercials of Extreme Weight Loss, I am in good shape. I have set a good example for the rest of the week, and it feels great. See ya tomorrow.

Day 629: Sodium is the Devil Edition

So it’s raining… a lot.

So at the beginning of the week, I was pretty good with food and exercise. I was counting my points and running like my feet were on fire, but it seemed like on our trip I was eating nothing but salt the whole time. I hate sodium. I’m going to do what I can to get it out of my diet as much as I can. Even though around the middle of the week I was in good shape, I still gained 2.8 pounds this week, but I think a good portion of it is water weight and such.

With good ol’ Tropical Storm Debby coming our way, I don’t know how the whole running thing is going to work out. So I’ll be getting creative on the workout front. This should be an interesting week, but I’m going to proactive to lose some weight. Time to get out of the 240’s… again.

Well my head is pounding like a drum (you know… the whole weather changing thing) but in lieu of words, here are some pictures of our trips to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S. I’ll be more talkative tomorrow. Enjoy!

Day 624: Tuesday!

Watching my Noles play some baseball. I could care less about the NBA right now. I can only listen to Jeff Van Gundy pine over the Heat so much before I want to take a power drill to my temple.

But I digress.

Day two of counting points was a big success. I felt like I was back in control of my eating. I am still working on my issue of eating out of boredom though. After work, that’s all you want to do so that time between getting off work and dinner is prime boredom eating time. I need to start playing tiddlywinks or something to keep me occupied.

Breakfast: Megan and I went to Bruegger’s Bagels for some breakfast awesomeness. I had the cinnamon sugar bagel it is the most amazing thing in the universe. It was only 6 points so I was off to a good start.

Lunch: I just had a Chicken Suaza SmartOne which was… you know… a SmartOne. 6 points

Snack: When I got home, I was relatively good! I had some delicious cherries and then a 2 point peanut butter one bread sandwich. 

SAWS: Since Florida is awesome, we went to the pool to soak up the sun (not like Sheryl Crow) and to get my swim on. I did some treading using just my arms and then swam a few laps, but it’s not a big pool so laps is a relative term. (Photo credit to Megan.)

 


Dinner: 
Megan made this awesome pizza using the Jiffy pizza-in-a-box that’s only 54¢ at Walmart! She put peppers, elephant garlic we bought from the farmer’s market, tomatoes, fresh basil and turkey pepperoni. It was epic and 10 points for two slices. Fantasticness.

So now, I’m chewing on some gum to stave off the late night hunger. Today, I got to 24 points which is awesome! See ya tomorrow.

Day 623: Dear Conscience

So I am writing this while working on some other stuff so this is going to be brief.

Here we go.

Conscience, whomever you are, you were right. Counting points is important. I always knew it was, but it really is hard at this point in the game. Or maybe I’m just telling myself it’s too hard to give myself excuses. Today was an eye-opener. I super went over my points because I hadn’t realized how far I had went over until it was close to 10 pm. As I was reaching for a snack, I finally tallied it all up and it was bad. I ate 39 points worth of stuff today. The worst part was that I was pretty good yesterday (I mean, not excellent but still pretty good) and I wasn’t hungry throughout the day and it felt like I had eaten less. Snacking is just an issue for me right now. When I get off work, all I want to do is come home, have a bowl of cereal and watch something awesome on Nexflix (such as Workaholics. I love that show. It’s a 21st century adaptation of Office Space except more illicit activities.)

So Conscience, you were right. Thanks for keeping me honest. Today really opened my eyes to what I should be doing. I know that Weight Watchers works, it has gotten me pretty far. Time to keep at it and lose some weight this week! P.S. let me know who you are Conscience! Let’s talk.

See ya tomorrow.

(Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is the coolest picture I have ever accidentally taken)

Day 622: Finally a Post and a Weigh In!

It feels like I haven’t posted in forever. (Oh yeah, that’s because I haven’t.)

So today was Father’s Day and I have to thank my Dad for everything he has done for me. He has worked hard every day of my life to support me and my family. If I didn’t have a Dad like him, I don’t know where I would be today. Thank you Dad. I love you.

Alright, so this was kind of a weird week. I was pretty good for the majority of the week. Yeah, I wasn’t posting my points online, but I was still was counting to make sure I was on the right track. Then, my “conscience” was nagging at me to post them which was a little weird and threw me off a little. I know my “conscience” meant well, but it still odd. (Look at my last Monday post in the comments to see what I’m talking about.) I know I’m not perfect, but I’m going what I can to keep at it. And I am going to do what I can to count my points to optimize my weight loss awesomeness. I’m going to be even better this week because I’m back in the weight loss saddle again. I lost 1.6 pounds this week! So I am down to 240.8 which is about 5 pounds away from where I was before our trip! I’m getting there! Let the awesomeness continue!

Breakfast: I had a bowl of Special K Strawberry which was not too shabby!

Lunch: After church, Megan and I went to Momo’s for pizza the size of our heads. I had the Big Meaty (or whatever it was called.) Awesomeness.

Dinner:This afternoon, we went over to our friends Jacob and Emily’s house to chill by the pool and have dinner (along with that Andrea person.) We had grilled chicken with Emily’s delicious potatoes along with some squash and corn. Then Megan made her awesome blackberry cobbler! Needless to say that you should be jealous of our cookout. It was awesome.

So that’s about it for the day. This week is going to be good.

Oh yeah, I’m going to run a half marathon in July 2013. Get stoked.

See ya tomorrow.

Day 617: Chip Reed’s Here Edition

Why Hello!

I’ll keep this brief tonight, because I have a big day full of awesomeness ahead tomorrow!

Breakfast: I just had toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. Yumtastic.

Lunch: I had the best leftovers ever for lunch: not fried fried chicken with acre peas! Then I had a rice krispy treat, a serving of almonds and a Special K bar that found deep in the bowels of my lunchbox.

When I got home, I had some cobbler, some lunch meat and a handful of chips. I need to figure out a way to avoid that kind of snack (except the lunchmeat is a really good snack option because it tastes fantastic and it’s super filling!)

 

 

 

 

 

Chip Reed Here:(That’s how he answers his phone because he’s a legend.) One of my good friends from grad school, the legendary Chip Reed, came down from Virginia  for the week. So tonight, we all got together at Alex’s parent’s house for a cookout to catch up and reminisce the good ol’ days of grad school. Alex’s parents made an awesome spread with some delicious fruits and veggies along with Mrs. Swanson’s classic monster cookies! It was a great dinner and I made sure to eat my share of fruits and veggies to fill me up. Awesomeness!

 

So that was it for today. It was a good one. Get ready for an awesome Wordless Wednesday! See ya tomorrow.

Day 616: What A Beastly Monday

(The Kings just won it. What an awesome series and season of hockey.)

Today has been awesome. I feel like I am back to where I was before my vacation. I might not be down to where I was before (since I just wrote about that yesterday) but it feels like I’m back on the right track and it feels awesome. Alright, let’s talk…

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I then had a little Dove Chocolate that said “Happiness looks good on you” late at work. Good stuff.

Lunch: I didn’t bring a lunch (which I will start doing again) so I just walked across campus and had Pollo Tropical, which is quite possibly the best on campus restaurant in the nation (hyperbole aside… and except for the Taco Cabana that’s on campus at the University of Texas.) Anyway, usually this comes with a roll, but I immediately threw it away to stave off any temptation of eating it. What an awesome lunch.

The Rundown of the Run… Down: I didn’t run in the morning… and I immediately regretted it. I ran 5 miles this afternoon when it was cooler (cooler being 90-something with a heat index of 8000 degrees.) I found this new trail that goes from my place right on to campus. Anyway, mile 1-3, I was running 10 minute miles exactly, but the heat and the sweat searing my retinas was really getting to me. I also thing I pseudo-strained my left groin muscle a few weeks ago so around mile 3 or so , my body gets mad at me. It totally worth it though, I ran 5 miles in 53:31 and burned 926 calories. I have already gotten some of my running swagger back which is awesome. Last Monday I ran 4 miles in 48:30 so I’m already shaving time off like a boss. SAWS!!!

Dinner of Awesomeness: For dinner, Megan made her awesome not fried fried chicken with squash and acre peas. It was magical. Then, she made this awesome blackberry cobbler from the Pioneer Woman blog. It was perfect with a scoop of Edy’s Slow Churned.

So that’s it for the day. Here’s to another awesome one tomorrow.

My gift to you: the Alabama Shakes. You’re Welcome