Munky's Journey in Progress (Still at it...)

[Munkers]

Success!

I considered ending my daily weighing yesterday. I was within about half a pound of my pre-camping weight and figured that that was the weight I'd gained. But I decided to do it one more time and had a very pleasant surprise.

I'm down to 152.2! This is officially my lowest weight since I don't even know. I think the last time I weighed this little was probably during high school. I'm super pumped and my goals actually seem attainable.

I've been craving cookies like mad lately. I've been ignoring it, but the craving keeps coming back so I decided to finally do something about it. I have a whole wheat, no butter/no oil recipe for chocolate chip "cookies" (they're almost like a muffin in texture) so I decided to whip up a batch. Definitely a good decision. I'm feeling better now after having one and now I have nice treats for the next few days.

Overall I'm pretty proud of myself lately. I dipped into a hefty junk of my flex points on Monday when I had so much company, but since then I've stuck to just my daily points and apparently it's showing on my scale. I think I'll lay off the scale the next few days and be surprised come Monday.  

[Stars in my Pocket]

I've got a bad habit of weighing myself daily, it's really not good to do. Weighing in every few days is definitely the way to go, especially if you're eating well and staying on track! Congratulations on the new low, by the way, may it be only one of a series of decreasing numbers! <3

Also, that cookie recipe sounds good. *o* Would you mind sharing? You can post it here or in another forum, just let me know if you decide to share~ <3 It's good that you indulged yourself in a sweet but made it notsobad. (: If I ignore cravings I go on a crazy binge, so it's all about working out a compromise for me. 3nodding <3  

[Euthanasia Phase]

Congrats on your weight loss! "New" loss is always fun to see. As for weighing, if you tend to eat the same foods/do the same types of exercise regularly, every few days might be a good idea. However, if you introduce something different into your routine it can help to weigh in more frequently during that time to make sure something isn't inadvertently hindering progress. (Sometimes high fiber foods can sneak extra calories into one's diet unexpectedly...)
And that cookie recipe sounds delicious!  

[Munkers]

I love sharing recipes. biggrin So yeah, if I ever mention something, but don't post a recipe for it, remind me and I'll share.

Out of curiosity, I've actually counted calories and points on the same day to see what kind of a calorie range I'm consuming. Luckily, even if I'm eating a ton of high fiber stuff (like multiple sandwiches on two-for-one point bread or something) I'm still only taking in about 1200 calories which is an okay amount for me to continue the weight loss on.

But on to the fun stuff!

Chocolate Chip Softies (from hungry-girl.com)

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup splenda, granulated
6 tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/4 cup Eggbeaters OR 1 whole egg
2 1/2 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (The same amount of regular sized chips has the same calories/fat, but they don't spread through the batter as evenly.)
2 tbsp. brown sugar, not packed
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (flour, splenda, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt) and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients (apple sauce, pumpkin, egg, vanilla) except the chocolate chips. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. Don't worry about over-stirring. It's kind of impossible with this recipe. Once everything's combined, fold in the chocolate chips.

Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray and portion out the batter to make 8 even circles. These don't spread or rise much so the shape on the cookie sheet will be about what your finished product is. I like to spread mine as thin as possible so I can have really big cookies and feel like I'm eating something bad for me.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cookies feel firm and are slightly browned.

Nutrition per cookie (made with egg beaters): 88 calories, 1.5g fat, 17g carb, 2g fiber, and 3g protein (1 WW point)

Per cookie (with egg): 90 calories, 2g fat, 17g carb, 2g fiber, and 3g protein (2 WW points)


The first time I made these, I wasn't sure about the texture. I was expecting a soft cookie and that's not quite what they are. They remind me more of a muffin top, but they're still great for killing a chocolate or baked good craving.  

[Munkers]

Lessons! Plans! Growling Tummies!

Weighed in this week at 151.8lbs. At first I was disappointed--only a half pound gone? But then I reminded myself that I was only looking at four days worth of effort so really I'm right where I should be.

Yesterday I gave in to my cravings and wanting to just shove a bunch of food into my face. Hubby and I went to Taco Bell where I ordered a crunchwrap and proceeded to eat the whole thing. That was worth 12 of my 22 points and as I had already used five for breakfast, I was left with five more to get me through the night. I stayed within my point range, but then spent the rest of the evening pouting and went to bed hungry.

Lesson learned: Even though my brain hasn't quite figured it out yet, my stomach is happy with much less than it used to be. So I can still order big stuff, but I need to just eat half of it or so and save the rest for a snack or something later on. Cause honestly, I felt fine after only eating half of that thing.

Lately we've been cooking more which is nice. It's nice to control what's goes into our food, but it's also really nice to have a plate filled with a nice entree and sides instead of a sandwich or something processed. One of our local grocery stores has nice deals on the seafood that needs to sell quickly. Last time we shopped, we got a package of four catfish filets for less than $2. Heck yeah.

Now I've got chicken breasts defrosting in the fridge for tomorrow and I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. Whatever I do I think I'll butterfly and/or pound them out so that one (or even half if they're really big) will feel like a ton of food.

My friend, Lauren (the one I mentioned in the getting to know each other thread), confirmed her flight details so she'll be here early next month. I'm excited about her coming because, well, she's coming! But I'm also excited because she's trying to lose some weight as well and it'll be really awesome to have a housemate who's trying to make the same diet choices as me.  

[Stars in my Pocket]

Thank you so much for the recipe! I can't wait to try it out! whee

I'm glad you're happy about your friend coming, too! More support is always nice!  

[Munkers]

Discouraged

Yesterday the hubs and I went out to see my dad. I made a pan full of blondies to take out there and we had pizza for dinner. I knew we'd be indulging so I was pretty conservative with my eating before we went, but a huge slice of heavy-on-the-meat pizza and two blondies was still a pretty heavy toll. I also had a glass of wine (but only one!) which added to the total.

Against my better judgment, I weighed myself this morning. I knew I was going to be heavier and the scale confirmed +1 pounds. *sigh* I'm not sure if it was all the sodium in the pizza or the alcohol that did it. I'm almost tempted to experiment a little and really stick to my diet, but throw a glass of wine in there somewhere just to see what will happen to my weight.

Today was much more on track and relatively low carb overall. I had a burger at lunch, but dinner was a veggie and cheese omelet, turkey bacon, and fruit. Part of me is hoping that'll be enough to convince my body to shed some of that rebound weight.

On a whim I logged into the SparkPeople account which I haven't touched in, literally, about a year. It got to be really tedious for me to log food and look at calorie goals when I was counting WW points and not actual calories. Before my last major "off the wagon" period, I had made it down to 158 and then yo-yo'd around a bit. Being reminded of how low I gotten before left me feeling pretty crappy about my current progress. A year later and I'm just over six pounds thinner. I'm down a couple of pants sizes, but not much of a change in the weight department.

Seeing that just has me feeling like I keep making progress but then wind up backsliding and having to muddle through the same pounds all over again. It's like I just can't keep up persistent results and it drives me insane. Instead of losing four to five pounds a month, I'm only losing three due to the inevitable stalled week due to traveling, family, my period, or some combination thereof. I really, really hate it.

To try to ward off the feelings of hopelessness I went and made myself a weight loss ticker that started at my high weight and ended at my current goal weight. Seeing myself about two-thirds of the way across that ticker helped put things back in perspective, but some days it's still really hard to look at the big picture of over forty pounds lost.  

[Lainauriel]

Hi.... i know how you feel. I gained 2kg now during exams and i am really angry at myself, but i keep looking at the big picter, i am still 11kg lighter than when i started! And i can loose that once im back on track... hold on, its worth it!  

[Euthanasia Phase]

You can do it! In the grand scheme of things, gaining one pound (which is likely mostly water weight) isn't going to hurt things as long as you get back on track and don't dwell on it too much. Eating with groups can be really difficult, because most of the time everyone else isn't counting calories or points and some restaurants don't provide nutrition facts. Also, and hopefully this isn't the case for you, sometimes I get really self-conscious eating a salad while everyone else is eating pizza, so it's kind of frustrating.
Have you heard of Dottie's Weight Loss Zone?
Dottie's WLZ
It provides points values for many chain restaurant items as well as broad points values for general types of food (Chinese, etc.).
Finally, congrats on your loss, even a small loss is good - and congrats on decreasing your pants size!  

[Munkers]

Sometimes I feel like I'm putting a damper on the festivities if I go out to eat with people and go the healthy route. I went out with my siblings one time to a restaurant that's pretty famous for it's fried chicken and I ordered their smoked chicken instead. No one cared or really noticed, but it was kind of one of those grit your teeth and go for it situations beforehand.

And thank you for reminding me about Dottie's. I've been on the forums, but I haven't really utilized the restaurant guides.

I guess I just need to sort of give myself "permission" to yo-yo a little and not turn out big numbers each week. I've always told others that it's not a failure until you actually give up and I suppose I need to start working on believing the same thing.  

[Munkers]

Back on the Treadmill

I had planned to run yesterday, but never got around to it. Got into my running clothes and everything, but just couldn't drag my butt out the door. Today I beat the laziness and walked my butt down to the apartment complex's "gym." (It's really just one room with a weight station and three cardio machines.)

I got there and started warming up by walking on the treadmill. As I walked, I started prepping my iPod only to discover it was dead. Lame. Oh so lame. I almost left to go back and charge it or something, but decided to suck it up and run without it. And so I did.

It's been... longer than I care to admit since my last run. I had previously worked my way up to the brink of week 4 on the Couch to 5k program, but with so much time off I knew my cardiovascular conditioning was going to have suffered. Still, I picked it up with the week 3 routine.

When I was on the program before, I always aimed for thirty minutes instead of twenty and tried to cover at least two miles. I would do a short interval followed by a longer one and then repeat the pattern. Two short/long repetitions satisfied the program and then, depending on how I was feeling, I would do a third short/long a few more shorts to get in my mileage. If I was struggling I'd just do shorts.

This time around, I made it through one full repetition, but the long interval was killing me. Right as I had started running, my glutes made their unhappiness known and they were even more pissed off at the longer duration. I didn't think I could get through another long one so I stuck to the shorts and made it to 22 minutes before my ankle started griefing me. My mileage was somewhere around 1.5 miles.

Overall I think I'm happy with what I'm still able to do. I'm kind of really curious to see what my next run feels like and how far I'll be able to get.

Tomorrow is my weekly weigh-in and I'm putting a stop to this daily weight madness. The constant weigh-ins are just undermining my progress and my ability to stay positive. From now on, I'm doing my weekly weigh-in and allowing myself one repeat if my weekly reading seems off. If I can't let myself off the hook for water weight and other factors I can't really control, then I just won't allow myself to have the information in the first place.  

[Tandahda]

I do like weighing myself once or twice a week. It means that I'm not obsessing every day, but I'm still keeping myself on track if I go nuts for a day or two.

<3  

[Munkers]

Second Run

Kind of proud of myself today. The husband and I spent most of the day running errands as it was his day off and we didn't get home til after about 9pm. I realized that I was supposed to run today if I was going to stay on track (every other day). So I did. Tossed on my running clothes, told him I was headed for the gym, and filled up my water bottle. He even came with to ride the stationary bike!

My glutes were still kind of angry with me when I started off, but decided to cooperate a bit more as I kept at it. It was hot as heck in the gym though. I don't know if the A/C is broken or if it just doesn't cool as much at night (to save power, I guess), but I was dying and knew the heat was going to affect my performance. But despite being so uncomfortable, I still made it through two full short/long repetitions plus an additional short interval for a total distance of 1.75 miles in 26 minutes. I'm very pleased with my progress and this actually counts for completion of 1 out of 3 workouts for week 3. Two more and I can move on.

Due to the oppressive heat, I ditched my t-shirt and ran in my running tank after the first interval which was a first for me. Normally I'm wearing a sports bra, a fitted running tank with shelf bra, and then a t-shirt on over everything. (I'm "endowed" and need a lot of support when I run, hence the layering.) In the past I've been self-conscious about not having a shirt over my tank because of how fitted it is, but I got to take a good look at myself during my run. (I don't really have much choice. The treadmill faces a mirrored wall so I have nothing to look at but myself and the treadmill display.) I have pretty awesome collarbones now and my shoulders don't look to bad either. So while I'm still not too happy about the tummy, I've definitely got the upper half to rock a halter.

In non-running news, I weighed in yesterday at 151.8 again. Slighty irksome so I used my do-over today. 151.4lbs. I can live with that. Not the pound a week I aim for, but it's progress and it's better than the numbers heading the other way.

I also ate all of my meals outside the house today and managed to stay spot-on with my daily points even with my pizza dinner (lots of veggies and no cheese, but it was still huge) AND gelato dessert. Guess I had a pretty good day today. biggrin  

[Stars in my Pocket]

Congratulations on your run!
I'm terrible at running, so I walk. I can walk at a steady 4mph now (15 minute / mile) for about an hour, and I totally applaud you for getting that far in the C25k program. I couldn't do it. >__<

And please keep in mind that as you lose weight you won't be able to always get the steady loss that I'm sure you did when you started out. Your body is constantly adapting, so it's actually good that you're more efficient (in terms of survival) now than you were. (: A pain in the butt for weight loss, but at least you can outrun a bear while expending less calories!

Keep at the program! You can do it!  

[Munkers]

Still at it

Since today is Father's Day and I'm going to be spending most of the day out of the house and probably eating a bit more heavily than usual, I decided to weigh in a day early.

150.6 pounds!

If this keeps up, I'll be out of the 150's come next week's weigh-in which means one more point off of my daily allowance. Strangely, I'm excited about dropping down to 21 points.

I was supposed to run on Thursday, but got lazy about it so I went on Friday instead. Made it to 30 minutes and covered two miles. (Two full repetitions, plus two short intervals) Feeling very good about that one. Tonight will be my final week three run. I'm looking forward to it, but I have to admit that I peeked at week four and I'm kind of nervous. It seems like a big jump up and I'm worried about whether or not I can handle it.

The husband and I ran errands yesterday and, out of sheer desperation for food, landed at Chili's for dinner. Definitely apprehensive about eating there, but I wasn't going to make him wait til we got home and he seemed excited about treating me so I wasn't going to spoil that. They have a new guacamole on the menu and I let myself splurge on part of it and some tortilla chips. I was good with my ordering though and got the Margarita Grilled Chicken with beans and rice. Soooo good. Ate most of my chicken and about half of my sides and brought the rest home for dinner. My leftovers are making an awesome breakfast/lunch as I type this.

I'm not 100% that I stuck to my points yesterday as I couldn't find exact nutritionals on the guac. (New menu item.) I estimated as best I could from other restaurant guacamoles and then didn't eat my final two points for the day so I'm going to say I'm more or less safe. I also pulled off the tortilla strip garnish from my chicken because I just didn't want it, but still counted them in with my total calories/points because I couldn't find values on them.