Word Cloud

I found a link to make a word cloud about my blog on Diet Coke and Zingers, so I took a look. It's pretty interesting! The words are listed in alphabetical order, and the frequency of their use is indicated by the size of the font. Check mine out!

Want to make your own? Click here, then click custom.

Lazy Day

Today Scott and I are using the rest of our movie gift card to go see Juno, and then we're going to go to Applebee's with the gift card my parents gave us! It's going to be fun. Last week we were celebrating Valentine's Day, but this week it's almost like we're celebrating our anniversary, because as of yesterday we've been together for 2 years (not married, just together). It should be fun. I'm not a big Applebee's fan, but I'm going to have the tortilla chicken melt from their Weight Watcher's menu, and it looks pretty good. Probably won't be as good as my black bean burger from last week, but it'll be good. I've really been craving another one of those, and our Chili's card has like $10 left on it, so maybe I'll go get one next week when I'm off. Yum!

Weigh In Day... Slow and Steady Wins the Race

As I suspected, I lost a pound this week. I was really starting to enjoy losing 2.5 pounds every week, but I know it's not realistic to keep up that rate... It just kinda feels like I didn't work as hard this week and that's why I didn't lose as much, but I know I worked just as hard this week as I have any other week! It's just the way the body works. And don't get me wrong, I'm definitely happy with the loss, it's certainly nothing to complain about. I just need to keep up the hard work so I can continue to see those numbers go down! I did notice today that my BMI is right at 30, so I just need to lose like another half a pound to no longer be "obese," not that I put much stock in standard BMI measurements anyway. It would be interesting to be put in one of those water tanks to see what my percentage of body fat is, but where would I go for that? Maybe one day I'll get the opportunity. Well, I'm off to catch up on my blogs! Later, Loveys!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170
2-24-08: 169

Taste Testing -or- The Art of Losing

I meant to post after I was able to taste my Orzo with Broccoli and Pine Nuts (I wasn't able to taste it when I made it because all of it got divided up and put away), but I never got around to it. But, it actually turned out being pretty good! The only thing that wasn't so good about it was it needed a little more moisture, but pasta tends to dry out once it's been refrigerated. There was something about the taste that kinda made me want to put cinnamon in it, so I might end up doing that next time, just to experiment a little bit. All in all, though, it was pretty good!

I don't think I'm going to end up losing more than a pound this week, the scale was still at 169 this morning, but as long as I don't lose less than a pound, I'll be happy. One day this week I was at 168, but that was short-lived. Oh well, a loss is a loss, and even with a one pound loss I'll still be on track to lose it all by November 23. There's not really any significance to that date, it's just the goal date that SparkPeople gave me, the date by which I should have lost my weight if I lose at least a pound a week. So that's what I'd like to try for. Originally I just wanted to lose it by the end of 2008, but I think a pound a week is a good goal to shoot for, and it gives me even more motivation to stay within my calorie range and get all of my exercise minutes in.

Adventures in Cooking!

So, I actually cooked my dinners for the whole week today! I made orzo pasta with broccoli and pine nuts, out of a Weight Watchers cookbook my birthmother sent me for Valentine's Day. I was a little worried that it would turn out not so great, because I'm not the best in the kitchen, but I think it actually turned out pretty good! It might not look so beautiful in my saucepan, but the real thing actually looked appetizing! And the way I divided it up was I weighed my saucepan before I started, and then when I was finished I weighed it again, subtracted the weight of the empty pan, and that was how much food I had, so I divided that by 5, and portioned it out into 5 tupperware containers that are now sitting in my fridge, waiting to simply be reheated for dinner this week! Scott said it looked pretty good, he just hopes that it doesn't get all gross, but I'm not too worried about it, I don't think there's anything in it that could really get too gross. He just really doesn't like leftovers, so he feels that way about everything. There was definitely a learning curve with this recipe, I already know some things I'll do differently the next time I make this, such as using my black saucepan first, because I started with heating the broth and the water in that pan and cooking the pasta in my silver one, but it turned out by the time I had all the broth incorporated into the pasta, the silver pan wasn't big enough, so I had to transfer it over to the black one. I also know that next time I need to work faster, because if you let it sit too long after each addition of broth is absorbed, the pasta starts to stick to the bottom of the pan. Although, I only noticed it do that in the silver pan, maybe in the black pan it won't stick so badly. Oh, and one big thing I'll need to do differently next time is not have the heat so high to begin with. I was heating up the oil, and then when I added the garlic, the oil was so hot that it splattered everywhere! I did change a couple things in the recipe too, such as I didn't buy a carrot and shred it, I just bought some matchstick carrots and put a serving size (85 grams) into it, and I didn't thaw the broccoli first, I just tossed the frozen broccoli into the mixture, and that seemed to cook it just fine. I will also try to make less of a mess next time, my kitchen looked like a disaster area when I was done!

Here is the recipe I used, in case anyone is intrigued! As I said before, this came from the Weight Watchers Mix It Match It cookbook.

Orzo with Broccoli and Pine Nuts
33 Minutes to Prepare and Cook (not sure how accurate this is, I didn't time myself, but according to the cookbook it's 8 minutes preparation and 25 minutes cooking)

Ingredients:
2 (14-ounce) cans reduced-sodium vegetable broth
2 cups water
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 shredded carrot
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 cups orzo
1 (16-ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and patted dry
1/4 cup fat-free half-and-half
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Directions:
1. Bring the broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat and keep at a simmer.

2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the orzo and cook, stirring, until it is lightly toasted, about 2 minutes.

3. Add 1/2 cup of the broth mixture and stir until it is absorbed. Continue to add the broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until it is absorbed before adding more. Cook until the orzo is tender but slightly firm, adding the broccoli with the last addition of broth. Remove from the heat and stir in the half-and-half, Parmesan, and pine nuts.

Number of Servings: 5 (the cookbook says 6, but I split it into 5 servings so I can have this for dinner every night after work)

Here is the nutritional information, with the specific brands of ingredients I used:

Servings Per Recipe: 5
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 420.5
Total Fat: 6.0 g
Cholesterol: 3.0 mg
Sodium: 498.9 mg
Total Carbs: 75.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.7 g
Protein: 14.8

So if you count points, that comes out to about 8 points per serving (if you do 5), but the cookbook said 6 points per serving, for 6 servings. When I was building the recipe on SparkPeople, I input the information for the exact brands I used, so the information I came out with is accurate for the actual batch I made. You don't have to do what I did, but I'm always obsessed with the nutritional information being accurate, so that's just me!

Weigh In Day... 20 Pounds Lighter!

I have officially lost 20 pounds! Even thought I still have twice that amount to lose, I'm still a lot healthier than I was when I started. I've lost 10.5% of my starting weight, and people always talk about how losing even just 10% is so good for you, so I'm pretty happy :) I keep expecting my weight loss to slow down since I've been using SparkPeople's guidelines, but so far it's been keeping up pretty well! And I think I might up my workouts again this week, I've been going at the same pace for about 2 weeks now, and I just might be ready to step it up a little. My mind is ready to start running, but I really don't think my body is, and I don't want to hurt myself. So I'll keep pacing myself until I get to that point. Shouldn't be too much longer. Anyway, gotta get back to work now! Oh, and I took pictures today, I'll update my progress pics later!

UPDATE 2/17/08 9:30 PM: I updated my progress pics, and I'm FINALLY starting to see a difference!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5
2-17-08: 170

Stress

I've been really stressed the past couple days, but I realized today that even with the stress, I haven't had the desire to eat more. This morning I was telling my mom about how I was all stressed out, sitting here at work, and I thought to myself, "I can't wait to get home and get on the treadmill." And then I thought, "Woah. I can't believe I just thought that." I've never been a person who's ever actually wanted to work out, so looking forward to it is definitely a big step for me. Go me!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day all! Scott and I didn't think we'd actually be able to do anything fun for Valentine's, but it turns out we can, because my parents gave us a gift certificate to see a movie and go to dinner, and his parents gave us another gift certificate to go to dinner! So we're going to go probably next Tuesday when we're off. So I will be facing my very first eating out challenge since I've (re)started this whole losing weight mess. I think I already know what I'll have, though. We have a card for Chili's, and I've been craving a black bean burger, so that's what I'll have there, and we have a card for Applebee's, so I'll just have something on their Weight Watcher's menu, probably the grilled chili-lime chicken salad if they have it at our locations yet (the website says it's new, so I don't know). If not, I'll probably have the cajun lime tilapia. I think I'll do pretty good, though, either way. Anyone else have any fun plans for tonight?

Weigh In Day... Jump for Joy!

I can't believe I lost 2.5 lbs this week! I was eating more than I used to, because I've been following SparkPeople's guidelines, so I figured I'd only lose about a pound, since that's what I've got my settings set at on their system, but I guess my body decided it wanted to move a little faster than that! I'm so happy! I feel confident that I'll be able to stick with this and actually get all this weight off that I've been carrying around for so long, and that's going to feel just so good. I can't "weight" (hahaha)!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175
2-10-08: 172.5

Ramblings from Work

I think I might have a pretty good loss this week, and I'm feeling pretty good! I expected to lose only about a pound this week, but if my daily weigh in's are any indication, I might actually be down about 2.5 lbs this week! That would be freaking exciting.

Has anyone read the book "Good In Bed" by Jennifer Weiner? Well, I just started it yesterday, but so far it's really good! It's about an overweight woman who's ex-boyfriend writes a magazine article about "Loving a Larger Woman," and how she reacts to it and deals with it. I can really relate to the main character, and I'm pretty sure most overweight women can relate to her. I read some reviews about the book before I started it and most said the first few chapters were slow, but I've really been enjoying it! It's already made me laugh out loud! I'm only just beginning chapter 4, but I'd definitely say I recommend it so far.

It has been so slow at work lately! They've been sending people on long lunches and sending people home early, and I haven't worked 40 hours a week since I can't remember when. Probably since training, or shortly thereafter. I'm thinking I might need to reduce my hours to part time and get another part time job, and then when school starts I can just quit one of the jobs. I need to do something though, so we can pay our bills! Debt is not fun!

My First Injury?

My hip is killing me, and I don't know what I did! And it's not really like muscle pain, it feels more like the joint. I just wonder if I did something while stretching, or if it's because I've been walking faster, or if I just slept on it funny, I don't know. If it doesn't feel better by Tuesday I might go to the doctor though, just to make sure everything is ok. I took some Aleve this morning, but it hasn't helped. Well, maybe a little, because it doesn't hurt as bad as it did first thing this morning, but it's still not great. It's really only comfortable if I turn my hip out and stretch it. Anyone have anything like this before, any suggestions?

UPDATE 2/9/08 12:18 PM: Well, my hip doesn't hurt at all today. Don't know what I did, but it must not have been too serious because there's no sign of injury today. Yay!

Inspirational Quote

Exercise?

Does housework count as exercise? Haha, I just broke a sweat cleaning, that's gotta count for something, right? Then I did some organizing, and some laundry, so I don't have to do my cardio tonight, right? Haha, just kidding.

I'm Such a Cry Baby!

I caught the last couple episodes of the very first season of the Biggest Loser on the Style Channel today, and I swear, every time someone is happy, every time someone is sad, every time some is slightly emotional, I cry! It's aweful! Watching this over again is really inspiring though, I'm glad this was on today and that I happened to be flipping through channels, which I never do! I wish they would have a marathon of all the seasons, so I could relive it all, and see the seasons I never watched while they were on. I feel so inspired right now, I want to just go hop on that treadmill and get going! This plus my discovery of SparkPeople have really helped me to find the motivation I've been looking for, and I'm so glad! Now I know I can do this, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes!

Weigh In Day... Damage Control Success!

Even with only being "on plan" 2 days this week, I still managed to lose a pound! And this coming week I'm going to work really hard, so maybe it won't take me very long to get myself back to where I would have been if I hadn't gained at all! I'm excited. I used the SparkPeople guidlines both yesterday and Friday, and it seems to be working out. I think I'll give it a couple of weeks before I really take a look at how it's working though. Ok, that's all I have time for, gotta run to work now!

11-25-07: 190
12-2-07: 185.5
12-9-07: 182
12-16-07: 180
12-23-07: 179.5
12-30-07: 178.5
1-6-08: 174
1-13-08: 176.5
1-20-08: 173.5
1-27-08: 176
2-3-08: 175

Determination

I stayed home sick from work today, so I've decided to use my time to come up with a revamped system to get healthy. I'm going to start using SparkPeople to track my nutrients and to make sure I'm getting enough of each food category, and I'm just going to spend a lot of time today just exploring the website and getting to know it better. I need to start focusing more on my nutrition, and not just points. I might even stop using points and just count nutrients using their system. Wish me luck getting back in the groove!

UPDATE 2/1/08 7:03 PM: What I've learned from SparkPeople so far: I don't eat enough calories and I eat waaay too much sodium. Oh, and I also need more iron.

In a Slump.

Alright guys, I have been in a horrible slump for the past couple weeks now, and I just can't seem to get my act together. I don't know what's wrong with me! I don't really feel like it's "emotional" eating, because I don't feel like anything is stressing me out to that point, but maybe it's subconcious? And I haven't exercised since.... I don't know, some time last week. I've got to kick my butt back in gear, but how? How do I get my motivation back? I got my new scale that I won from Roni's contest yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to play around with it yet, so I plan on doing that tonight. Maybe my new toy will bring back some motivation? I don't know, maybe if I absolutely force myself to stay on track and I actually see a loss, it'll bring back my motivation. Something, anything! Does anybody have any suggestions to help me get back on the horse?

P.S. I've been "bad" all week, and I weigh in in 2 days. I guess this means I'm on major Damage Control alert!

P.P.S. I've been thinking about going vegetarian. Does anyone have any opinions/suggestions they'd like to share?