Tracking

One of the keys to success with Weight Watchers is tracking. Whether you do it on paper or use their mobile app, it’s something you need to do in order to succeed in this program.

Despite knowing this, I continuously do a bad job at tracking. I track my morning water and my breakfast and then I stop caring. That’s in regards to food though. If you took a look at my FitPoints tracker, I keep up with that as much as I can.

But exercise isn’t the only part of this equation.

When I started out on this journey last year and actually lost weight, I tracked like crazy. I need to start doing that again.

Just now, I went through and tracked most of my food for the day. I say most not all because I’m not sure yet what I’m going to serve with the tilapia tonight…

Besides tracking, a big problem of mine is portions. I do pretty good during the day.

Yesterday, for example, I had a protein smoothie for breakfast after I got home from the gym. For lunch, I ate half of a Subway salad that I put oil and vinegar on instead of ranch and southwest sauce. There were also cool ranch doritos present, but I only ate half a small bag.

And there was pie. It was Pi Day yesterday after all and I only had a small piece and I was celebrating the day with friends…I made a peanut butter pie with an Oreo crust.

Minus the pie, I did good during the day.

But yesterday evening, I made this breakfast casserole that I really like for something different. And I ate way too much of it. And then I ate some more as I was putting it away before bed.

Ya don’t see me unable to control myself around a salad!

I really need to work on controlling myself around all sorts of food. Yes, that casserole was fantabulous, but I didn’t need that big of a piece and I didn’t need seconds. I wasn’t still hungry.

The concept of hungry was actually the topic of discussion in the last WW meeting I was in. Internal hunger (actual, stomach growling hunger) vs external hunger (oh boy does that look good hunger).

I don’t have control over my external hunger and something need to change.

Pushing Yourself

There are many things in life that you need to push yourself to do that can turn into pushing yourself past your limits. Weight loss is one of these things.

I really tried to push myself with how I exercised this week. Since I’m already up with my husband anyways, I went to the gym before work 3 days this and used my two 15 minute breaks to walk on the pedway maybe 4 days this week.

One of those days, a friend of mine that I work with was also walking on her break. She was also doing lunges.

I don’t think I’ve ever done lunges before so I thought it’d be a great idea to try them with her. She does four sets of uphill lunges for a stretch on the pedway. I did about on and a half sets with her on Tuesday and it took until Friday for my thighs to start feeling normal again.

My thighs didn’t just ache…the process of getting up and sitting down was painful; taking the stairs, especially going down them hurt; walking hurt so that I felt like I was super slow and kind of hobbly.

But my friend encouraged me to keep walking to try to stretch out those muscles. And walking helped and now I’m better.

And I’m going to try lunges in the pedway again.

But this time I’m not going to push myself past what I think I can do. I’m going to try doing one set or even just half a set, depending on when my body starts screaming at me, and then work my way up from there.

I also downloaded an app that I’m going to start playing with this week.

It’s called 30 Day Fit Challenges Workout and it has several different exercises organized in 30 day increments. As the name implies. It has beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

I’ve tried 30 day squat challenges before, but I think having this app will make it easier to actually follow through with them for the full 30 days.

What have you done to push yourself lately?

Morning Water

I think that it’s widely known that water is very good for you.

I’m also pretty sure that I’ve mentioned the fact that I cut sodas from my diet? Instead of soda, I drink lots of water, my morning coffee, coffee or tea in the afternoon, and sometimes dairy or nut milks.

Now that I think of it, I should probably do more to get more calcium in my system…

Anyways, after I read about something on Pinterest, I did some more research (lots of Googling) and decided to give it a go.

After I do my sideways walk to the bathroom, I head to the kitchen and make my current morning drink. I measure out a cup of warm water and add a spoonful of raw honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and some lemon juice. I do this before I eat anything and before I even have my needed coffee.

I know this doesn’t sound very exciting, but there seem to be many health benefits to it so I figure it’s worth a try. And I haven’t been doing it for even a full week yet, so I can’t report any results.

Here are a few things that this beverage can do for you from this article on Mind Body Green:

1. Immune system boost
2. Weight loss help
3. Reduces risk of heart disease
4. Helps your digestive system
5. Gives you energy
6. Improves your skin

Read the whole article for more details and so some research of your own before you decide I’m crazy for trying this. And I’ll report back if I notice any differences.

Avocado

This fruit is something that I had to acquire a taste for. I went from hating it to finding it acceptable in some forms, to seeking it out in some forms, to just straight up liking it.

Over the weekend, I bought a couple of avocados and I’ve already used one to make my own guacamole. It was so good that I ate the whole bowl in two sittings.

Want the recipe? Well…I didn’t use exact measurements…

I’ve taken to eyeballing spices, which I should probably stop doing if I plan on sharing it with you.

If you’re alright with winging a recipe, you’ll need one ripe avocado, salt, pepper, garlic powder, a fork, a sharp knife, and a bowl. And also this video that teaches you how to get into the flesh of the avocado.

Cutting into an avocado for the first time can be fairly daunting, but it really isn’t that difficult. Use a sharp knife to cut it in half length wise, you’ll be able to tell when you hit the seed. Then, twist the avocado to separate the two halves. In the video, there’s a nifty to way to remove the seed and make pretty avocado slices. I just scarped it out with my fork into the prep bowl, including the half with the seed.

Once you have your avocado flesh in your bowl, mash it up with your fork. Then, add your seasonings. I suggest you start out with a little, maybe a teaspoon of each? After you’ve stirred those spices in, taste it and see if you need more spices.

If you want a more precise recipe, here’s classic Mexican guacamole from Avocados of Mexico.

Give the avocado another try, or a first try. And tell me how you prepare it!

Something else that I’ve made with avocados in the past–it been a while so I’ll have to make it again before I can share how I make it–is egg salad. Avocado is a great replacement for the mayo that typically goes in egg salad.

(I like my egg salad best when it’s fresh and warm and I put it on tortillas instead of bread).

Here’s a recipe that I might use next week minus the onions.

I want to make some more guacamole this week too and I might even give avocado toast another try as I mentioned before.

It’s Just a Number

Remember when I said that I’ve been sick? I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon when I suddenly felt worse than I had pretty much the whole time.

The nurse took my vitals before I saw the doctor and started with having me step on the scale. I jokingly told her I didn’t want to, but I was being serious. It said 180 and I had to control my inward downward spiral.

I actually work in a building that holds an amazing group of doctors. So outwardly freaking out wasn’t really in the cards for me.

It’s just a number.

And usually I weigh in on Saturday mornings before I eat.

And I haven’t been exercising because I haven’t felt good and because of the new tattoo.

But wow did that number hurt…

I know that my worth isn’t measured by a set of numbers or the places that my flesh collects. But I don’t like what I see in the mirror.

My goal isn’t to be skinny, and that isn’t saying anything bad about skinny people, I simply don’t think I have the body for it. I just want to be healthy so I can stick around for a while. I want to be able to fit in some of my old clothes and get to my desk on the third floor without gasping for air at the top of the stairs.

I want this for me and it’s not about the number.

I do have a goal number–140 pounds. But that’s just a way to measure healthiness based on the body mass index scale.

So let’s do this. I had my granola bar with coffee for breakfast, I’m bringing leftover butter chicken for lunch, I’m going to make blackened tilapia for dinner, and I already have my foods tracked for the day. And I’m going to try not to snack. Snacks are my weakness.

 

Breakfast

The most important meal of the day?

I think it is for some people, but whether or not you eat breakfast all depends on how you feel about it.

For me, it sets the tone of the whole day as far as food goes. Right now, I’m eating a Nature Valley granola bar (they really have improved their crunch, by the way) with my coffee. By starting out the day with something small and relatively healthy, I’m more likely to make better choices throughout the day.

But breakfast is also dangerous for me because I adore breakfasty foods. They’re my favorite. I could eat some variety of “traditional” breakfast food three meals a day and be happy.

I am honestly enjoying my granola bar, but part of me would rather have some bacon with eggs fried in the bacon grease…

Or a fried egg over rice…

Or an egg fried in a piece of bread…

Or a stack of pancakes with tons of butter and syrup…

Or…or…or…

Breakfast is a tasty tasty danger zone for me! So I find good, healthy to semi-healthy breakfast options to start my day out right. But there are days that I splurge, particularly on the weekends.

I go through phases with these and my current favorites are the afore mentioned granola bar and smoothies.

The inspiration for these smoothies comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction. She taught me that the key to a deliciously creamy smoothie is frozen banana slices and that you can pack a ton of protein into a simple breakfast drink.

I’ll have more on my new smoothie obsession another day, back to healthy breakfast basics…

Sometimes, I’ll just eat a Greek yogurt or a couple of hard-boiled eggs.

I also really like taking those two hard boiled eggs, mashing them up with some mayo, mustard, and salt and pepper, and eating them on a tortilla. Warm egg salad makes me happy.

I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it, but egg salad can also be made with an avocado in place of the mayo.

There’s also this magical thing known as avocado toast. It’s apparently a thing. I tried it once and didn’t really care for it, but I think I’ll give it another try and will report back with results.

Sometimes I even get on a frozen breakfast kick, but I’ve really been trying to stay away from frozen, prepared foods.

What are your go-to healthy breakfasts?