Boo Weight Gain

So I got on the scale Wednesday and gained 2 pounds! I was pretty bummed. I may have indulged ALOT last weekend but for the most part I have thought about every bite going into my mouth and recorded everything and created a deficit. This is the most discouraging part of dieting, when you examine everything you eat and are working towards a goal it is very disappointing to go backwards! I'm just working harder this week towards my goal! 18 pounds by Thanksgiving!

Winner Winner Pasta Dinner

I made a delicious pasta dish for dinner tonight and wanted to pass it along

1-1/2 cups Ronzoni garden delight rotini pasta

1 cup spinach

1/2 cup red pepper

1/2 cup green pepper

1/4 cup onion

1 oz feta cheese (reduced fat)

2 tablespoons fat free sour cream

Pam cooking spray

bit of garlic

~537 calories

optional hot sauce

I sauteed the veggies in the skillet putting onions in first, peppers second and spinach in last (I sprayed pam each time I threw in a new veggie)

by the time I did this the pasta was cooked and I mixed in the sour cream and feta and viola!

Dieting Downfall

I would say my biggest dieting downfall is alcohol, I work full-time, I'm in grad school, I'm counting calories all day! Somethings gotta give! I went out last night and over the course of a very long evening drank two mixed drinks and 2.5 coors lights and then ate pizza, lasagna and hersheys nuggets-no not dinner just late night eating! This is my most unhealthy eating/drinking day since starting my diet. I'm using today to re-hydrate and and get back on track.

Interesting fact about me-I don't get hangovers, I can only think of a handful of times I've ever had one and if you knew me in college this would be shocking. I usually don't "drunk eat" either for all of you thinking perhaps its the insane amount of food before bed soaking up the alcohol. I am a naturally thirsty person, so perhaps that fact that I'm super hydrated could help-I really don't know. I'm not trying to brag-it would actually be a lot easier to stop if I knew I had to pay for it in the morning. So this is about the time when that disclaimer I made yesterday is coming in handy!

Does anyone else not get hangovers?

What are your dieting downfalls and what do you do prevent them?

Workout Summary

Workout Summary:

Ellipitical -3.1 miles in 31 minutes (I think my new soundtrack with Beyonces new single Countdown helped speed me up from last time)

Treadmill 5.2mph running 8 minutes/3.1 walking 22 minutes

I was bored and not trying that hard what can I say?

Weigh in Wednesday went very well, I lost 13 pounds! My original weight-loss goal was 12 pounds so I made a new goal of 18 pounds by T-giving. I've been slacking on the exercise, in the first 5 weeks of my weight loss, but it was a little intentional. I didn't want to dive right in with a new food and exercise program so I started out with the food but now am going to work in a regular workout schedule as well. This is whats been working for me so far but I understand not everyones the same.

I would also like to make a DISCAIMER and say I have no exercise/nutrition education. I see these a lot of health blogs and will make something a little more permanent but in the mean time would just like to state everything you see on this blog is my own personal experience, I'm not a doctor so everything on here should be taken with a grain of salt if you are looking for ideas about your health.

Also on a side note ShopRites have nutritionists on staff (at least the one that opened in my area does) so if you are looking for free nutrition advice from someone who has a license, you may not even have to look any further than your local grocery store.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Shelf product food review

I had no idea what to call this, shelf-food sounds really gross but hey we live in America its whats for dinner, or lunch as I would have it. I mixed in 2 tablespoons Carolina Thai Jasmine rice in 1/2 a package of Shahi Paneer(indian cottage cheese in a tomato and cashew sauce with indian spices) I was not feeling this meal it was very blah and I will not get it again. Also as a dieter seeing whole cashews on the cover and not having them in your meal is unbelievably dissapointing.

About the rice though, I can not say enough good things about this rice, I could live on it. It grows to 3X its size when boiled(maybe more) all I know is I made some for a group of people in a normal sized pot and it was like that episode of I Love Lucy where Ricky and Fred tried to be housewives and cook dinner and they put a pound of rice per person in to boil (I miss TVLand).

Frozen Food Review

I tried the Healthy Choice Four Cheese Tortellini and green beans, it was under the modern classics category of healthy choice-they have so many categories these days but its one of the bigger boxes (12oz) compared to the usual (9-10oz).

I must say the nutritional stats are pretty good other than the sodium!

Theres whole grains, 2 servings of veggies and a lot of vitamins. What I also liked about this is even though it was a bigger entree, the new modern classics do not include the gross desserts that some of the "dinner sized" entrees do. Am I alone here when I say I would way rather have more dinner food than the gross overly sweet fruit concoctions they come up with? If its not chocolate its not worth it right? My rating 8/10- 300 calories, tasty, good amount of food, the amount of veggies was decent and nutritional stats were better than most frozen meals!

Second edition of food for 14 hours

In my one of my last posts I said that I work 8:30-5 and then head to grad school 6-9 so I pack 14 hours worth of food every class night! Why? 1. because I'm counting calories and this makes it a lot easier to keep track 2. because it saves lots of money! I haven't been overly creative so far but I make sure its enough calories spread over the day and its filling nutritious food.

Protein Pesto Pasta Recipe

-1 serving Ronzoni Smart Pasta -170 cal

-1 cup canellini beans-160 cal

-4.75 cups spinach cooked down - 33 cals

-1.5 cups broccoli -38 broccoli

-1 serving pesto mix-15 cal

-2 TBS FF Sour Cream -25

TOTAL - 441 calories

I packed chobani FF strawberry yogurt and carrots for snacks during the day and a Turkey sandwich for dinner.

Weight Update!

okay so I've currently lost -9 pounds so far, I have weigh in Wednesdays so hopefully I'll be in the double digits this week! Its been a little discouraging because my clothes haven't been fitting that much different, but I think my work pants were getting too tight anyways so financially its okay for now...You need to lose 10% of your body weight before its noticeable to other people (so I've heard) so I just need to keep on trucking, I've noticed my hands seem thinner but thats about it.

But another one of my accomplishments (and yes this is an accomplishment) is I have not eaten Halloween candy at all so far! I'm trying to wait until Halloween and I'm sure there will be pieces around for the next couple days so I'm going to allow myself 3 days of 1 piece of delicious candy.

I'm not sure what to do about the next 2 months-meaning T-giving and ESPECIALLY Christmas!

Does anyone have any weightloss, holiday maintaining tips?

Planning a whole day worth of food - Grad School Edition

I work full time and go to grad school at night, this leads to a very important dilemma...what am I going to eat while being away from my house for a solid 14 hours? Here's a look at my end result, pasta salad w/ FF mozz cheese, tomatoes, peppers and cucumber and balsamic vinegarette. A Turkey and cheese sandwich, grapes and pretzels....I think I need another snack.....I'm freezing the grapes so I'm a little worried I'll forget them tomorrow :(

just a quick look at my pasta salad makings, I made extra pasta for another meal and cut up extra veggies for a salad... I'll be gone for my weekend class saturday from 9 to 5 so planning my dinner is essential b/c I'll go out to lunch with classmates

this is ronzoni smart taste pasta so the calories are a little higher than normal pasta but it has a lot more fiber and vitamins than regular pasta.

Workout - 5K training Edition

Just got back from Sunday's gym workout, I'm running a 5K Thanksgiving morning so my workouts have duel purpose: weight loss/learning how to run for 3.1 miles without dying.

Elliptical-3.1 miles (personal trainer mode) in 32:02 minutes

When I am on the elliptical I alternate 3 minutes with hands on the moving bars and 3 minutes off

Treadmill-1 mile in 13:30 minutes

1 minute @ 3.8/40 seconds @ 5.3

The method I'm following along to is Couch to 5K but I have to modify it a bit since I don't have 9 weeks

Stretching- 2 minutes on metal arch following along all the pictures

Weights- 10 on each leg-lunge with arm curl-5lb weights

10 on each side- weights shoulder to straight arm above head-10lb weights

10 both at once-arm curls-10 lb weights

30 seconds- arms straight behind as far as I can pulsing-5 lb weights (felt self conscious and stopped sooner than I should have)

left gym, will try to remember to do sit ups while watching TV

I am one of those people that HATES running but am trying to run a 5K with dignity since I don't have a lot of choice in the matter (marathon running sister doesn't understand how a person would have trouble running 3 miles, its easier to give in) please give any tips to a novice and unenthusiastic runner.

Indian food the Calorie Counting way

I love indian food a lot! The problem with indian food is I never really know how many calories are in it when I go out to eat. Since I want to eat it more than once in a blue moon packaged indian food is my answer! Kohinoor is a great indian food brand, I've only been able to find it at Christmas Tree Shop and England so whichever is closer for you I guess (if its England I am super jealous!)

My recipe is
1/2 Spicy Paneer Masala package
1/2 Valley Fresh Steamers Broccoli Florets
1/4 cup of Jasmine rice

all together this is 389 calories and 42% of my sodium for the day
(I cooked half a cup of rice and put the rest of the broc and masala in a bowl and I have another meal ready)

Soup Love/Sodium War

So as I've said in my first post I am on a diet/changing the way I interact with food. One of the foods I eat A LOT is soup, soup is filling, low in calories and has veggies. In my current diet I'm working very hard to eat healthy foods while cutting calories but sodium is really killing me. My first thought was not to care but monitoring my sodium I'm usually at 150% of my daily value every day, if you have any information on sodium please comment!

All Hail the Cow!

I love this stuff, I've tried the Garlic and Herb(favorite), Chipotle Fresco (2nd favorite), Blue Cheese (not a fan) and have just bought French Onion for the first time. Whats your favorite?

Don't Worry I'm back!

After a super long hiatus (over a year I can't believe it!) I am finally blogging again. I am excited, especially because I need some accountability in my current "diet" I know some people hate this word but I can't say "lifestyle change" without cringing. My current weight loss is 8 pounds! Which is a lot for 3 weeks but we'll see how this plays out. My goal was 12 pounds by Thanksgiving but thats only 4 more pounds in seven weeks so I think I'm going to pass it! I would love to hear any weightloss tips healthy not crazy (please don't tell me you shoot up cow hormones or something equally weird) but post away!