Love From A Grocery Haul

So, hubby and I were discussing cravings and we came to the conclusion that it is better to have "go-between foods" than to try to force ourselves to only eat the spectacularly healthy foods all the time.  Let's face it, the spectacularly healthy meals are not always the tastiest, and sometimes it just gets old, and usually if we try to force ourselves to quit enjoyable foods cold-turkey, we end up going good for a while and then binging at the Chinese Buffet or I-HOP.  A "go-between food" is a food that tastes like a junk/unhealthy/spectacularly tasty food but is a better-for-you version.  For example: when hubby wants waffles or cheesecake or ice cream, for some reason a brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart does the trick for him.  At only 210 calories, that pop tart is not exactly a superfood, but it is by no means a waffle, a cheesecake, or ice cream.  I reluctantly agreed with him and then realized the source of my hesitation - gee, that sounds like forgiving myself for being human!  Letting myself indulge when I'm supposed to be on a diet?  For shame!

I know what you're thinking.  You ARE human!  Food is supposed to be enjoyed!  It's a fantastic idea to find healthier versions of the foods you love!  And I agree.  Now.  But I didn't used to.  That's why I'm wearing Love this week.  Go-between foods are love foods!  I get to eat something I really enjoy and my diet doesn't have to suffer, because my "diet" is just calories in, calories out, and as long as I keep track of all my calories I'm fine, and I have not failed.  I'm okay with that concept now.

So I went to the store and got me some love: whole wheat bagels and reduced-fat cream cheese (strawberry and garden vegetable), turkey bacon, lean pockets, reduced fat Parmesan cheese, sugar-free all-natural fruit popsicles, and one of those steam-it-in-the-microwave veggie and sauce packets.  Yummy foods that are healthy versions of the spectacularly unhealthy crap I used to eat.  I can enjoy my food when I want a treat and still be in control of my calorie intake.  That's love!

I'm counting this as a Non-Scale Victory: I am now in a place where I can forgive myself for having a treat!  I no longer overwhelm a perfectly reasonable idea with the unreasonable urge to demand perfection!  No more hating on myself for ever enjoying a meal!  YAY!

Good luck to you all,
JadeAmber

Thursday!

Non-Scale Victory: Tuesday I did the stairs at Shakespeare 6 times.  Before I could only do it 3 times.  Yay!

Calories So Far This Week:
Sunday: 1,280
Monday: 1,925
(burned 350)
Tuesday: 2,000
(burned 175)
Wednesday: 1,475
Thursday: 1,480
(burned 300)

Not bad, eh?  According to WebMD, my basal metabolic rate is...oh I don't remember exactly, but it was over 2,500.  So yeah, not bad!

I'm not sure what else to say.  Just thought it was important to write something down.  So I did!

Good luck to you all,
JadeAmber

My Up-And-Down Day

Today started with waking up late.  Usually that makes me want to just say "screw it, whatever, I already messed up."  I came close to that, but I pulled back from the edge.  (yay, me!)  I ate about 1/3 cup applesauce and then did 3 sets of 10, with 8-lb dumbbells, the following: curls, military press, tricep extensions, shoulder lifts, lat pulls, oblique dips, flys, tricep kickbacks, bench press, military bench press, and sit ups.  That's right, son!  I am awesome.

Then I ate a plate of spaghetti with sauce and light ranch and breaded chicken (breaded with flaxseed, thank you very much, and baked, not fried!). 

Then I did bad.  I had three Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  And they were delicious.

Then I did good!  I felt stupid for having the doughnuts and decided I was going to use the sugar high, so I went for a jog around my sister’s house and…I totally jogged a whole mile!  It was totally wootacious!  And also, it hurt!

Then I had a big, delicious bowl of ziti with alfredo sauce and homemade turkey meatballs (yummy!) with a glass of some kind of flavored water stuff (think Walmart’s answer to Crystal Light…I don’t know, it’s what my sister had) which was tasty too.

Then I had one of those kiddie juice things where you stick the straw in, and then I really started to suck at life...Wendy's, jr. cheeseburger, jr. bacon cheeseburger, jr. frosty, then I came home and ate a big plate of spaghetti and breaded chicken.

So today was part Non-Scale victory, part I suck at life.  *sigh*...gonna try again tomorrow.

Good luck to you all,
JadeAmber

Yay, me!

Non-Scale Victory: I jogged farther than ever before today!  It was 3/4 of a mile.  And it was awesome!  I recently had an "ah-ha!" moment on proper breathing during a jog and wow, it made a lot of difference!  Now I just have to remember that and not eat crap today, thereby making it meaningless.  But I feel good right now! 

I'm going to post what I did for a workout every day this week.  The 3/4 mile was part of 4 miles I did today (that's going around Shakespeare Park twice).  Maybe I'll post what I ate every day too...yeah, right now that sounds like a good idea. 

Good luck to you all,
JadeAmber

Shakespeare and Morimoto

I've been watching Iron Chef and it's so interesting to see all the wierd ingredients and cooking methods, but what I am overwhelmingly impressed with is the fact that most of the things they use are, like, real food.  I'm sure you know what I mean.  For someone who's used to McDonald's and Hamburger Helper, this all looks amazing.  There's no way in hell I could do most of what they do, but there's plenty of ways (in and out of hell, haha) that I could obtain most of the things they use, because they're fruits and vegetables and stuff.  It gives me a new appreciation for real food.  It really makes me want to cook!

I finally worked out for the first time this week.  There's a park here, called Shakespeare Park, which is something like 2.3 or 2.4 miles long (I'm not really sure) but anyway, 6 weeks ago the fastest I could do it was 43 minutes.  I got it down to 39 minutes about 3 weeks ago, and today...37!  Yay, improvement!  So that's my Non-Scale Victory for today. 

Prayer and focus and this week's episode of Biggest Loser and Iron Chef have all combined to help me get most of the way out of my self-pity hole that is Week Two.  However...that time of the month is upon me.  Which means that all bets are off for this week's weigh in.  It's a little...I dunno...frustrating? wierd? disappointing? to start to do so much better and then have this guarantee that this weigh in will be bad.  Oh well.  Such is that time of the month.  But you know what I'm NOT gonna do?  Give up!  That's right folks, I'm here to stay.  Good weigh in, bad weigh in, fails, victories, whatever, I'm just gonna keep going.  And Christmas is going to bow to me!

Good luck to you all!
-JadeAmber