Sunday Weigh In #6 of 45 in 2014

Hooray! I was hoping for more loss today, but I'm thrilled to be down another pound. My daily eating is pretty much effortless at 1400, it is SO doable. When I took it down to 1200, it was more of a struggle. I'm going to keep it at 1400 this week and deal with slower loss. I had one cheat meal this week.

Today was 217.4

If I Could What Would I

What activities would I do if I could physically do them?

I love researching (easy) hikes for our family to do on the weekends. In doing so, I run across various other activities and photos which totally inspire me. I find myself saying, "I can't do that". I need to change THAT!

I would love to:
hike ridges
mountain biking sounds like FUN
try a kayak
run again

Sunday Weigh In #5 of 45 in 2014

Well look at that! I spent this week trying to figure out a comfortable calorie limit. I reduced down to 1200 at the beginning of the week, but found myself really struggling for a couple days, not meeting that goal. So I bumped it to 1300 and then 1400. I'll keep it at 1400 through the end of this cycle and see how that goes. I'm really happy to see this week's loss! 

We had a really busy week, Mon appt, Tues took cousin to museum, Thurs birthday partay! and Friday we were extras in a film and here it is Sunday and we're heading for our annual visit to the cherry trees. I feel like for all my intention, I didn't give any attention to my weight loss journey this week. And that thrills me because it means some of these systems I have in place are working-even when I'm not! Looking forward to a homeward week!

I get in ruts where I don't eat my salads and last week was like that. I had one yesterday and it felt like it had been too long! I could feel those allergies trying to sneak back...I had a tickle in my throat on Friday that I haven't had in forever! Well, salads here I come!

Today was 218.4

Sunday Weigh In #4 of 45 in 2014

Phew! I'm down a bit! I think the zero loss/gain from last week took the wind out of my sails. I didn't use it as an excuse (I'm in this for the long haul), but I really lacked excitement and drive. I also noticed I virtually ate zero salads this week, yeeps! See my stats on the Sunday Scale page.

This week's focus will be on eating my salads and walking.

Today was 221.9

Introducing the Daily Egg Scramble Breakfast

Saying goodbye to my morning high fiber cereals just isn't going to be hard to do even though I've been eating them for a long time. I eat them for the fiber and convenience, but I don't particularly love them (at all).

Enter...the high protein, high fiber, wheatless breakfast! For the past two weeks, I've been making my husband a hot breakfast burrito, so it will fit right in with my routine to make my scramble after I'm done with his. If I do my exercise BEFORE he leaves, then when I'm ready to cook the scramble, I'll also be ready to eat it because I like to eat after my walk.

I'm going to be experimenting and tweaking this egg scramble for what I find most nutritious and most tasty.

Today:
1 farm fresh egg + 60g egg whites (from carton)
30g maple flavored Jimmy Dean sausage
15g sharp cheddar
50g cooked lentils
10g raw spinach
3 cherub tomatoes
chopped green onions
chopped red onions
salt & pepper

Calories 320
Fat 17
Carbs 14
Protein 27
Sugars 3
Fiber 5

To increase the fiber, I'm going to add 30g raw chopped organic broccoli and 1T chia seeds (both split in half between breakfast and lunch) which will bump the fiber up to 8ish. I could also toss 1 or 2 walnuts on top for more Omega3 and a bit more fiber.

The Jimmy Dean sausage wasn't interesting. The sage flavor might be, but I think there's other meats I might like better like maybe some Trader Joe's sausage or even just the Costco bacon bits and Costco Fletcher's Black Forest ham.

I'm often having a Quest protein bar which has 15+ grams of protein, so I'm not too sad that my breakfast fiber has dropped under ten.

Sunday Weigh In #3 of 45 in 2014

Um...the SAME as last week?

Today was 222.6

Experimenting with Lentils

I've been experimenting with cutting out wheat since I've been reading this which means dealing with my high fiber breakfast cereal. I love lentils and they are on the high fiber list so why not give them a try. I bought about 12oz in the bulk section. Rinsed them and tossed them in a pot with 32oz box of organic chicken stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Easy! DELICIOUS! I love the texture!

So what kind of serving is enjoyable and reasonable? I started with 100g, but that's too much, I think 50g will be my go-to serving. Why not add them to an egg scramble breakfast?

Product-Nature Sweet Cherub Tomatoes

I tried these at my Mom's last month. These little dandies are SO convenient! We're eating more tomatoes because of it, the paper label opens up and I pour out a few sweet cherry tomatoes. I don't like large cherry tomatoes and these have terrific flavor (don't store in the frig). I call them the "spaceship tomatoes" when we're grocery shopping because the container looks like a spaceship (to me). I love including them in my husband's lunch (he's taking lunch to work these days-miracle!) and tossing them in egg scrambles.

Challenge 100 Counter Push-Ups in 100 Days?

I did 10 counter push-ups again today. I started to wonder...if I add one counter push-up everyday...would I really be able to do 100 counter push-ups in a row after 100 days? And would that give me enough strength to actually to a real push-up or even a knee push-up?

If I do these every single day, and if I started with 10 today...90 days from now is...June 4th.

I'm going to try it!

Cycle Two Exercise Routine

I like this routine for Cycle Two:
10 minute Health Bounce
5 minute Warm Up
15-30 minute Walk (treadmill, or pool if nice outside) 1/2 mile to 1 mile
5 minute Cool Down Stretches
Rotiss (work up from 10 count)
Counter Push-Ups (I can do 10)

I was looking for more to do, but I'm going to stick with this for Cycle Two.

Today's Exercise

This is what I did today:
10 minute health bounce on the trampoline/rebounder: I do this pretty much everyday. I get prepared for my day, put on my shoes and get on the trampoline. Great way to start!

5 minute warm-up: I love doing this! Here's the free YouTube video I watch for the warm-up.

Walk: Inside or outside? Inside means the treadmill, 30 minutes and I'm experimenting with incline intervals. I made a fun playlist for my iPod and like that way more than watching a movie. Though, I seem to need SOMETHING to watch, the wall is so boring! If it is an outside kind of day, I can drive to the neighborhood and walk the sidewalks or I can just do laps around the pool, which has been surprisingly doable even though repetitive!

Cool down: Since I've upped the intensity on my walks, I need a cool down and I really like this. I can do most all the stretches.

Rotisserie workout: This is fun! Such a challenge just getting on the floor! I am doing my "Rotiss" workout just doing a 10 count. 45 seconds on each side will be a MAJOR hurdle! This workout was mentioned on MyFitnessPal (MFP) and I'm pretty excited that I can do it.

Counter push-ups: I'm still experimenting with how these fit into my routine.

I want to do an arm workout...resistance bands, barbell, body weight? I also think I could do Fitness Blender's 40 minute low impact beginner workout.

This week I'm looking into what I can do to add some weight training, though that might need to wait until Cycle 3. I'm shocked at what I'm able to do and how much I am LOVING MOVING MORE!

Exercise Breakthrough

I often feel like my process is taking SO LONG. I did take A LONG TIME not being serious in 2013 and not realizing what it was really going to take to engage in weight loss. But there's another part and that is actually educating myself...about nutrition, about exercise and which exercise to DO. That just takes time...reading and watching and evaluating and trying different stuff.

I feel like I've had a breakthrough with regards to exercise. I pretty much know what I need to do with eating and I'm constantly fine tuning. Apart from a daily walk, I haven't known precisely what to do for a building strength routine.

I've been very concerned not to push myself but pushing is exactly what has been NEEDED. I've been able to push my exercise to a point of exhilaration...which means I keep WANTING to do it. I'm finding balance in doing more AND increasing my intensity. I'm finding SO MUCH JOY in moving and stretching and pushing myself!

Friday was so gorgeous, sunny and mild! I did my walking and warm-up workout OUTSIDE! It felt tremendous! I put the warm-up workout on my iPod and was really surprised that I could go through the circuit just from the audio (without watching the YouTube video).

The treadmill has helped me increase my walking pace and I really pushed myself doing laps around my
"pool".

That was Friday...today is Monday and I've had a couple AMAZING treadmill walks! I keep pushing myself and I'm doing 2.6 with a few inclines thrown in for 30 minutes PLUS moving my arms all around and listening to music instead of watching a movie. I feel ELECTRIC (and tired)! This is a HUGE improvement over last week, just doing 30 minutes on the flat at 2.3 or 2.5. I'm SO happy to be back to walking every day!

Sunday Weigh In #2 of 45 in 2014

I've decided to move the scale to the hardwood floor, it was giving me all sorts of numbers on the tile. It settled on this for three weighs. I'm inspired!

Today was 222.6

Cycle Two Begins

Cycle One was awesome to get me focused! Here are my areas of focus for Cycle Two:

Water: no focus for this cycle
No Sugar: further reducing by deleting dessert nights for me
Calories: concentrate on 1600 per day for this cycle
Sleep: tracking times this cycle
Get Strong: finding a few things to do to get strong
Half Dinner: no focus for this cycle
Daily Salad: no focus for this cycle
Fiber: no focus for this cycle
Daily Walk: no focus for this cycle

I do my processing for each Cycle on the Cycle Goals page, then I put the summary here.