Weigh-In: Week 4

Current Weight: 233lbs

Weekly Loss:  -2lbs    Current Loss:  -8lbs

Doing good, feeling good, looking good!

Slow and steady wins the race, so I'm happy being down 2 more pounds!  

So far, I've walked 33 miles this month!  I'll definitely reach my goal of 40 miles for April!

I also hope to be out of the 230's by May, so we shall see how that goes.  

I feel great!  I have energy, I physically feel great, and I mentally feel awesome!

The secret to what's working for me this time around?  TIME!

The harsh reality of life is that there is no easy fix for losing weight and being healthy.

Pills won't last in the long run, neither will anything that involves extreme fitness or diet.

Those aren't really healthy, either!

What does work?  Taking the time to do what you know you need to do.

I spend AT LEAST 2 hours a day, 

if not more, on my health.

It might be an hour of yoga, 45 minutes walking, time cooking and prepping meals, scheduling exercising, developing recipes, grocery shopping, etc.

Yes, the time might seem like a lot, but it's our lives we are talking about. 

If your life isn't worth the time, what is?  Money?  No.  Making other people happy?  No.

Family?  Family is important.  Get them to be a part of your journey!  
If they can't/won't, realize that in order for you all to enjoy your times together, 
you need to be healthy!

One of the greatest parts of this week was seeing how supportive my husband and friends are with my efforts.  My husband and I both work a lot, and that means we don't have much time to spend together.  This week, we were going to go out to dinner on Friday since we were both free.  I felt bad, but I asked Chris if we could do dinner at 8:15 so I could go for a walk and go to a yoga class.  Without any problems, he said yes, of course!  He knows that in order for me to be successful, it's going to take time.  He's even getting back into cycling, too!  Yesterday morning he went for a ride while I went for my walk.

My friends are also awesome!  We went to dinner at a friend's house on Saturday night.

She kept me in mind and had plenty of healthy options for me to enjoy!  How sweet!

(Note: I was responsible for dessert.  I brought fancy cupcakes.  We had a cupcake tasting.  

It was amazing!  And not healthy.  Amazing nonetheless.  I fail lol.)  

Stuffed Artichokes

I have to confess, I've never eaten an actual artichoke until last month.  I've had marinated artichoke hearts, but that's about it.  Artichokes are fun to eat, but they are certainly not a quick meal.  It takes a long time to eat, but I enjoy that aspect.  Just don't expect to wolf down your artichoke...  Remove one leave at a time, starting from the outside in.  Use your teeth to scrape off the tender part from the inside of the leaf, leaving the very fibrous leaf behind.  

I've had to do some work with this recipe.  Earlier versions resulted in very dry stuffing.  This version gives a moister result, but it is a little harder to stuff in between the leaves.  The end result is worth it, though!

Ingredients
2 artichokes
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated romano cheese
1 egg white
2 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
1/4 crushed tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
1/4 cup white wine
vegetable broth (can use chicken, too)

Preheat oven to 350.  Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut the bottoms and tops of the artichokes by about a 1/2 inch.  With kitchen shears, trim ends of the remaining leaves.

Untrimmed leaves have pointy ends, you don't want those!

Safe edges all around!

Fill a pot with about 2 inches of water, add in artichokes upside down and bring to a boil for about 15 minutes, covered.

Meanwhile, sauté chopped garlic in a small amount of olive oil until softened and just starting to brown.  In a bowl, combine garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese, egg white and tomatoes.  Mix well to combine.  It will be clumpy.

Remove artichokes from pot and allow to cool until you can comfortable handle them.  Gently spread apart the leaves without breaking them off.  Remove the innermost, smallest leaves and the hairy choke and discard.  It's easiest to do this with a small spoon, but take care not to remove the actual heart- that's the best part!!!

Artichoke innards- pretty to look at, not so pretty to pick out of your mouth!

Stuff the artichokes with the breadcrumb mixture, try to get in between as many of the leaves as you can, with the majority going in the center where the small leaves used to be.  Place in a baking dish.  Fill baking dish about an inch high with wine and stock.

Spray tops with olive oil and cover pan tightly with foil.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes.  Serve with a nice salad.  Enjoy!

Mushroom, Onion, Spinach and Couscous Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I've been hearing about stuffed poblano peppers for years, but I've never found them in the grocery store…until now!

I wanted to keep the recipe healthy and vegetarian, and the results were fantastic!  

  Ingredients

4 poblano peppers

2 portobello mushroom caps, diced

1 white onion, diced

3 cups baby spinach leaves

2 cups cooked couscous

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp grated romano cheese, separated

Salt

Pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Hold each pepper with a long set of tongs and char over a flame.  You want the skin to get blistered and black, you won't taste a burnt flavor, I promise!  

Once they are charred on all sides, put right into a plastic bag and seal.  This will allow steam to loosen up the skins.

While the peppers are in the bag, heat the olive oil in a large pan over high heat.  Saute onions and mushrooms until they are soft and just beginning to brown, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the baby spinach.  Turn heat to medium and continue to cook until the spinach has wilted.   Add the couscous and cheese, stir to combine.  

Remove from heat.

Take peppers out of bag and carefully remove the skin.  It should be easy to peel it off.

Cut a "T" shape in each pepper and remove the seeds.

Stuff  each pepper with couscous mixture, and place in baking dish.  Sprinkle all with remaining 1 tbsp cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until couscous just begins to brown.

So delicious!!!!!

My Game Plan

I've decided not to join Weight Watchers this time around.  While the program worked for me, I don't want to spend the money and dread the meetings.  I loved going to my meetings for a very long time, and then eventually some new people joined who, quite frankly, annoyed me.  Think what you will, I speak the truth!

What I did learn the most from WW is that I need to track what I eat.  I'm going to use myfitnesspal in order to keep track of what I eat as well as my exercise.  There is also a social part of myfitnesspal, so if you want to give it a try, my username is Gogasa.  I'm not quite sure about the social part of it since I've never used it, but it can't hurt!  Feel free to add me as a friend on there!  The reason I chose myfitnesspal is that has a free app as well as a website.  A few other apps only exist as apps.  I like being able to access my information on my phone as well as on my computer.  

While I am focusing on my calories, I am also trying to eat the least amount of processed foods as possible.  I'm not talking about buying only organic foods or anything like that.  I (luckily) enjoy cooking, so I try to keep my shopping to at least 75% produce and fresh proteins (fish, poultry, etc.).  This step alone keeps my food intake much healthier.  I find that on days where I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner from scratch, I end up way below my recommended daily calorie intake.

I am a "normal" human being, though, so I do have convenience foods stocked up in my house for times when I don't want to cook or when I just don't have the time.  I also have my share of artificial sweeteners and the like, because sometimes you just need the fake stuff.  

I'm also getting my butt to the gym at least 3 times a week, usually more than that!  Right now, I'm limiting myself to the elliptical.  I'm doing the Dirty Girl 5K Mudrun (woohoo!) this weekend, and I don't want to be unable to complete it if my body is too sore from starting a new routine!  After that, I'll start weight training and going back to yoga as well.

I've also gone to another doctor to see if there's anything that can be done to make my knee "normal" again.  It's never been the same since I tore my ACL and meniscus, and it really limits me.  It doesn't hurt, but it gets tired, achy and swells up very easily.  I pretty much wear sneakers all of the time since any other shoe just makes it worse.  

So far, so good.  I will be posting more pictures, recipes and weekly weigh-ins as I go along.  Thanks everyone for your support, it means more than you know!

Quinoa

I've had a love/hate relationship with quinoa.  I would make it, it would be just okay, and then the bag would just sit there forever because I didn't really want to eat it.  Until I found some delicious recipes!

For those of you unfamiliar with quinoa, it's a seed and although it looks and cooks like a grain, it's actually a member of the same family as spinach, swiss chard, and beets!  It has a higher protein count than other "grains."  Quinoa is a good source of calcium, fiber, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.  It's also gluten-free!

Important quinoa cooking information- before you cook with quinoa, make sure to rinse it thoroughly in a fine mesh strainer.  This will remove any residual saponins (part of the natural seed coating that can cause a bitter taste).  In my early quinoa days, I don't think I rinsed the seeds, and that might be part of the reason why I never really developed a love for quinoa.

I have yet to develop my own quinoa recipes, but here are 2 that are sure to win you over!

Skinny Taste Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

This salad is my new summer obsession!!!

It's light and refreshing.  I used regular tomatoes instead of cherry since that's what I had in the house.  Also, NEVER use pre crumbled Feta, or any cheese for that matter.  It looses so much of it's flavor.  It's not hard to buy a block of feta and chop it up yourself, and it will taste a million times better!  A generous cup of this salad only has 145 calories!

Skinny Taste Quinoa and Spinach Patties

These made for a very different breakfast!  I will say that these were heavier than I expected them to be, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It means that one fills you up, no need to eat another!  I served mine over baby spinach with a poached egg on top.  

I also sprinkled parmesan cheese on top for a little salty flavor.  

Each patty has 188 calories.

What are your favorite ways to enjoy quinoa?

Today is day #1, for the 3rd time!

I have been off my routine, as you can probably tell by my lack of posting.  I haven't been completely off, but I haven't been exercising as much as I usually do and I've only been tracking my food half of the time.  I'm sure that tonight when I weigh in I will be back over 190.  It is what it is.  My brain hasn't been in the game lately, and I'm not sure why.  


Today, it's all going to change.  I'm back in the mind-frame of putting myself first, and taking the time and steps necessary to continue on this journey.  I'm not going to let any more time go by wasted.  So far- all food tracked, meals prepared ahead of time, gym scheduled into my day even though it's going to be later than I like, it's still going to happen because it's important.  


Here's a great video shared by Mike B., a fellow WW member (who recently became a lifetime member- congrats!!!).  Simple message, important point!  Take the time to watch it, it's worth it!  And so are you!!!

Let's Get Physical

If you've been going to the gym for a while and have been sticking to the same routine, I suggest shaking things up a bit!  Not only is it better for your body, but it will keep you from getting bored and dreading doing the same thing for the millionth time!

I'm a creature of habit.  I would go to work, and then go to the gym after.  40 minutes on the elliptical while watching something on Netflix, then at least 20 minutes of weight machines, mainly arms and abs.  BORING!!!!!!

I've made it a goal to try more of the classes offered at my gym, and I'm so glad I did!  There's a great class called Basic Training that is an all over barbell workout.  It works your whole body in 45 minutes and it's a lot of fun!  I'm doing that on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings.  Wednesday nights there's a Punch-Kick Weight Camp that's a dumbell workout with kickboxing intervals.  This also gets my whole body working while adding in the cardio element.  It's awesome!  I also plan on going back to that great yoga class on Monday nights and Saturday mornings.

So, just in classes, that's 5 days of different workouts.  On the other days and before yoga, I'm either going to rest or go to my elliptical followed by some kettle bell exercises instead of the machines(never used a kettle bell?  You should check them out!).  

I hope that this will kickstart my body into losing weight again.  If you've been shy about trying classes at your gym, give one a chance.  I think you'll find that it's worth the risk of walking in for that first time!

Body Fat

I have never measured my body fat.  Ever.  I care about how much I weigh, but I'm more concerned with being healthy and building muscle while losing fat.

This Saturday, my gym had a table set up to do calculations, so I figured why not.  They have a hand-held device that you put your height, weight, age and sex into.  Then you hold on to metal sensors, and viola, body fat percentage comes on up.  Now, it's not 100% accurate by any means, and the man helping me out says you should really do it before you eat, drink or exercise (all of those things I had already done by that point in time).  I figure some idea is better than no idea at all. 

I came up at 35%, which is a little bit high, but I'm sure it's much less than what it was a year ago.  Most of the sources I have been able to find tell me that the healthy range for someone my age and height is between 21% and 33%, so I'm not too far away from that!  They keep the measuring tool at the gym, so I'm going to measure my percentage once a month to keep track of things.  I would like to get down to the lower end of the range, maybe around 25%.  We shall see!