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Yes, I know. I did not keep my promise. I feel very badly about that. I promised I would not miss a day of blogging and then I go and miss an entire week. So I will incorporate my explanation into my blog of the day, which is that no matter how busy and stressful your life gets, get back on track when it calms back down (and it always calms down eventually).
My life took a HUGE turn for the worse last week when I became so busy at work that the ONLY thing I had time for was work. And yes, it did suck. And yes, I felt guilty about abandoning the things that were important to me: exercising, blogging, and taking care of my family. I felt like crap, but the work had to get done. I was working 12-14 hours a day, every day, and even on the weekend. I felt like I was neglecting everything! I didn't go food shopping... so I didn't get to try new recipes .... and my family ran out of some food items they needed! I was relegated to eating the same thing every damn day because it was the only thing I had to eat. I was too tired at the end of the day to even stop into the supermarket on the way home. I was stressed to the max, mentally exhausted, and simply praying to make it to the end of the week with all my work done.
Here's the problem. The work had to get done. There was no excuses for not getting it done. I was expected to get it done and any sacrifice that I had to make along the way was what was expected of me. So I did it.
I didn't get to go to the gym... not even one day last week. I was so tightly wound every single day that I know my body was a wreck. Stress is just not good for you. Period. Among other things, its almost impossible to lose weight when you are a walking time bomb. The one thing I am proud of is that I kept eating clean. I ate MORE than I was supposed to of that food, but I ate clean gosh darn it! I did not turn to chocolate, cookies, chips, meat... nothing. And given my mental state last week, I say that is a HUGE win and I am giving myself a gold star. Yes, I was drinking three cups of cappuccino each day. But I drank them with coconut milk! And yes, I did eat at 11 pm (sometimes because I didn't get home until 9 pm!), but I ate my homemade granola with almond milk!
So, bad news. I did not exercise for one week. Good news. I ate clean. Bad news. I ate more than I should have. Good news. I got all my work done. Bad news. I put my body through a lot of stress which in no way was good for it. Good news. I stepped on the scale this morning and I did not gain any weight. Bad news. I stepped on the scale this morning and I did not lose any weight. Good news.... I will not let any of this deter me. I consider this to be a blip on the radar and not a fall from grace.
After all, this is life, right? I mean, life is not always fairy dust and sunshine. Life is tough. Life throws challenges our way. And it is our job to deal with them and move on to get back to where our happiness lies.
If this is going to be a lifelong change, then I have to be flexible enough to understand that I won't always be perfect, but that is simply NOT an excuse to give up on changing.
More tomorrow... I promise. :D
CRAP! I can't believe I forgot to blog yesterday. And I promised myself I would NOT forget. I just can't believe how busy I have been at work. Its the summer. Usually things are not as busy during the summer months. But for some unknown reason, my work load has doubled! I am sitting at my desk at 7 am and not leaving until 7 pm. And during the hours I am there, I have so much to do, am under so much stress, and using so much brain power that my brain is BEGGING for fuel.
Which leads me to the topic of this blog. Did you know that the ONLY fuel your brain cells use is glucose? Yep. Glucose. Sugars which come from carbs. The preferable type of carbs come from starches, grains, fruit, vegetables and legumes. The NOT so preferable ones come from refined carbs... processed foods... candy, cakes, etc.
So NEVER cut out ALL carbs. That is VERY VERY BAD for your brain. I am not medical professional, but ... it seems to me that if you cut out all carbs you will become dumber. LOL... ok... maybe an overly simplistic way of looking at it, but you get the point.
I have found that when I am asking my brain to shift into overdrive, I really do require more food. My body doesn't need the food. Heck, I am sitting on my ass! But my brain really does need it. When I need to be ON for 12 hours, with almost no down time, and when I need to be hyper-focused, and have all my neurons firing at once... well, that is when I need that extra glucose kick. If I don't have it, I do not work as effectively. I can't concentrate. I am not focused. I don't solve problems as well. And in my line of work, which requires a LOT of technical writing and analytics, the results are just not as good.
So this week I know that I will be consuming more calories than usual because I just need to get through this overwhelming work load and make it to the weekend. But all my carbs will be GOOD carbs. NO refined carbs. NO processed foods. Still on the whole foods vegan plan, but just eating a bit more. I know this will not translate well into a weight loss because of the extra calories, but I will have to worry about that next week.
And sorry about missing yesterday's blog!
I put on my suit pants this morning and lo and behold, they are getting to that point where they are ALMOST (but not quite) too big. The legs are too baggy. The waist is slipping down and actually making my pants too long. Hmm... how can I solve this. Yes... wear higher heels. :-) This is the point in my weight loss journey where I start to see the fruits of my labor, and its a GOOD feeling.
The problem? I seem to be the only one noticing. Weight Loss Problems #224: I am so proud of how far I've come, yet I don't look much different to the outside world. This goes hand in hand with that saying that it takes 4 weeks for you to notice differences, 8 weeks for your friends and family to notice, and 12 weeks for others to notice. I am now in the beginning of my third month. Nine weeks to be exact. My family has started to notice my weight loss (God bless them), but not one person outside of my family has yet to say those magical words to me ... "Have you lose weight?" So, let's see if the saying is true. By the end of this month, I should hear at least ONE person say that to me.
Back to my clothes. I have now lost one entire size. I started wearing jeans one size smaller. I put on a pair of shorts this weekend which were one size smaller. My tee-shirts are getting longer... a CLEAR sign that I am losing weight. Unfortunately, a lot of that is coming off my chest. Which kind of sucks because that is the one area where I do not care about weight loss. But, on the bright side, I dug out two bras from the back of my drawer that were smaller and they fit!
I did mention that I am an expert dieter and that I have lost and gained weight a bazillion times, right? So yeah, I have clothes in a multitude of sizes. No problem there.
I AM taking progress pictures. I took one when I started which is absolutely AWFUL. Its me with a pair of pants that won't even zip up and are skin tight in the legs. Hell no I am not showing that picture to any of you yet ("yet" being the key word). This past weekend, I took another picture in those same pants. They zipped up! And I got them buttoned too! However, I would not dare sit down for fear they would burst at the seams. I will keep taking pictures in these same pants, and then I will post a whole series of them to show my progress. Eventually, I will switch to an even smaller pair (probably a pair of pants that won't even go past my knees right now).
The point is that there are changes. They are just so small right now.
One. Day. At. A. Time.
Yep. 'Tis true. If you want to eat less, then make a list of things you want to accomplish in a day, wake up, and start plowing through the list. You will almost never finish the list, but you will have eaten far less and accomplished a lot.
In keeping with this theory, I decided that today I was going to groom all three of my giant furry babies who are STILL blowing out their undercoats. I trimmed all of their excess fur on their hindquarters (which I routinely do for the summer and which has the bonus of eliminating matted fur), I cut out any knots I found, and then I brushed them ... and brushed them.... and brushed them....
I think I could have brushed them all day and fur would still be coming out, but I stopped when they started to look like the beautiful babies I know them to be.
Then came the fun stuff. I took them outside one by one and hosed them down, lathered them up, scrubbed them from head to tail, and hosed them down again.
I know have three clean, knot-free, trimmed dogs. And they are all sleeping peacefully.
What does this have to do with my fitness and weight loss blog. I have had very little to eat today! And I was active!
So, onto another topic. Although I am trying very hard to cut out non-nutritional foods... I will admit that there are two things I am unable to give up. Sweet-N-Low and Espresso. Nope. I just can't. I figure that I can keep these two things as long as I am good in all other regards. I have one cappuccino a day. Ordinarily I go to Starbucks and order my Tall Capp with Soy milk. But yesterday I found THIS....
Espresso with Almond Milk! I am overcome with happiness. I think I actually squealed in delight when I saw it (at Whole Foods, of course). As you can see, its 80 calories for one cup of deliciousness. Either heat it up or pour it over ice. This will now go on my weekly shopping list. It will most certainly save me money.
And the moral of the story is .... If you absolutely can not give something up, then just find a way to make it work in your meal plan. I refuse to deprive myself of everything I love.
And tomorrow is Monday... sigh.
I can't believe its almost midnight and I haven't posted yet. In my defense, I was gone most of the day. So I am going to keep this short and sweet. My vegan chocolate almond cake, made with beets and avocado, was a HIT! It was so good. I highly recommend this cake. This is what it looked like.
It was so chocolaty. It was perfect. I didn't tell anyone it was vegan or what was in it until AFTER they ate it. And you know what? They didn't even realize it was anything except a regular cake. Another great thing is that the cake is so dense that you can eat a very small piece and be satisfied. In fact, the recommended serving size is 1/12th of the cake, for about 423 calories per serving, but I found that you could easily cut this cake into 24 slices and be very happy with your slice at just over 200 calories. There was left over cake, and I froze it! In closing, I was VERY SATISFIED with this recipe and would absolutely make it again.
So, as promised, I went down to the boardwalk today and did three miles. Now, that does not really seem like all that much, but it was HOT! AND, I was carrying five pound weights in each hand and pumping my arms as I walked so that I was doing some arm exercises as well. I then came home and weeded the garden! I count that as exercise as well. And I went to Whole Foods to do my food shopping and then I came home and did a lot of my food prep for several meals because it saves me time during the week.
Today I cooked these gorgeous golden beets. And to make them even prettier, I cooked them in the same pan as some red beets (which I need for my vegan chocolate cake that I am bringing to my 4th of July party tomorrow), and the red bled into the golden beets and gave them a nice color on the edges. See for yourself!
They are so pretty. And so sweet. These golden beets really are much sweeter than red beets. Even with absolutely nothing on them... no salt... no dressing ... nothing... they are delicious. So now I have a whole container of them to use this week in my meals.
And I also made some veggie burgers for the week, and for tomorrow since I am bringing my own burger (veggie) to the party. I had one tonight on a whole grain bun with some of my cauliflower (potato) salad. I know I keep saying this, but... honestly, eating whole plant based foods is really good.
This was my dinner tonight.
But, I actually took the top part of the bun off and just ate the bottom because I realized that I do not really need all that bread, even if it is made of all good stuff. And that was my umpteenth glass of iced water today. I think I must have drank about a gallon of water today.
So all in all... a GREAT day.
Sun .... (check)
Exercise .... (check)
Healthy eating ... (check)
Productivity .... (check)
Now on to Independence Day!
Ok, ok, I admit I have a problem. I am addicted to Pinterest! I love that site. It is a really amazing weight loss tool. It has recipes. It has motivational posters. It has workout ideas. It has EVERYTHING! Every day I pin more and more stuff to my Fitness and Weight Loss page. I just love it.
Here is my pin of the day. I love this idea. Its a great visual of your weight loss, PLUS, right next to it is a list of the Rewards you are going to give yourself for each goal hit. GENIUS.
The only problem is that there is not enough room from the ceiling to the floor for my chart. I don't know why I find this funny, but I do. LOL. Maybe I will make two charts. It can be like wallpaper for my room. But the fun part will be thinking of great rewards I can give myself. I am thinking... new shoes... a rock wall climbing class... a cruise (ok, this is a big one so that will have to be a reward for some huge milestone). Anyway, you get the idea.
And because I love to ramble, I will now ramble about this holiday weekend. The Fourth of July. I know I said I was going to make that Salted Caramel Banana Pudding (see old post), but I tried it and it did not wow me. It was ok. But it was not Fourth of July Worthy. So instead.... I am going to make... THIS!
THIS beauty is called BEETROOT AND AVOCADO CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE GLAZE AND TOASTED ALMOND GOLD DUST. Yup. Totally and completely vegan. And although it has 423 calories per slice (serves 12), it is far less calories than a regular fudge chocolate cake. I will let you know how it turns out. Here is the link... http://bunnykitchen.com/2013/06/01/possibly-the-worlds-healthiest-chocolate-cake-beetroot-and-avocado-chocolate-cake-with-chocolate-glaze-and-toasted-almond-gold-dust/ .
So until tomorrow... eat clean... work hard ... have fun... love lots .... and enjoy life.
