Almost Officially Summer - New Plan

I've got 18 days until the official first day of summer, even though everyone knows summer really starts on Memorial Day weekend. I had my first get-together in my new place (!!), complete with cookout and lounging by the pool. We had a great time, although I'm mad at myself for not taking any pictures. During May I started and stopped tracking calories and working out approximately three times, and only lost 1.4 pounds. I just can't get past my whole three day hangup - you know, when the first day you're all excited to be back on track, you count your calories, you go to the gym, you're totally in control. Day two is similar, although you might not go to the gym because you did so well yesterday. Day three you are the angriest person anyone has ever seen, you end up going over your calories sometime that night because you just can't make it without ice cream, or you don't want to miss the happy hour and they had chips and queso, come on!

Oh, I'm sorry, did you want some?

I got really frustrated this past week because during the cookout I ate a lot. I woke up that Monday morning weighing only 3 pounds less than what I weighed on January 1st of this year, basically wiping out any progress I had made. I took Memorial Day and decided I need to have some sort of plan to get me kick-started again. For some reason the eating normal food but just less isn't working for me right now. I looked at Medi-fast, since a woman at work is doing it and has lost quite a bit of weight, but it's pretty expensive and when I talked to my mom she said it tastes horrible. It also makes it difficult to go out to eat at lunch because you have very limited flex choices. I actually picked out a whole Medifast plan and put it in my Amazon shopping cart, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on it.

I looked at Nutrisystem too, since they keep running all these commercials and Costco had a deal on the one month plan for $200. That's really not too bad - although you still have to buy food for the weekend, and supplement their frozen meals with some fruits and veggies, it averages out to a little over $7 per day. But again I have the same problem - how do you deal with going out for a work lunch or dinner when the plan has no flexibility for substituting normal meals? Plus - you can get Lean Cuisines for $2 each - isn't that basically the same thing?

So I talked to mom. She mentioned that she likes the Carnation instant breakfast drinks - you just mix them with milk - and maybe I could try that instead of Medifast with similar results. I went to the store the next morning before work (I know, I was really into this) and picked out the vanilla regular mix and a sugar free chocolate mix with some skim milk. I also got some protein bars, some string cheese, turkey pepperoni, and sugar free Jello pudding for snacks. I've been having a shake for breakfast every morning - sometimes with some instant coffee or chai concentrate mixed in - and low carb everything else with snacks during the day. I've put EVERYTHING I eat into my calorie tracker on Sparkpeople since Tuesday morning. And you know what? I've lost 6 pounds since Monday morning. A lot of it is probably water weight, but still. AND I made it past the first three days!!

I'm headed to Chicago in five weeks or so and it would be so great if I can lose ten more pounds by then. I reworked my goal page (AGAIN) but I WILL stick with this plan and I WILL get results, and it's going to be fabulous.

WOW. Things Happened.

1. Alicia and Kara came to visit. We watched a LOT of vampires on TV and ate a LOT of queso. We also went to Billy Bob's and it was magical as usual.

And we are beautiful, as usual.

2. I bought a HOUSE. Crazy, right? Technically a townhome, but I closed on April 13th and I am loving it. I finally got out of the horrible apartment with the horrible upstairs neighbors and I have gas in my kitchen again. I have been busy upgrading and painting but it's starting to come together. Mom and dad came to visit and help out - I don't know what I would've done without them.

3. I finished the Warrior Dash 5K. I did it with some people from work and it was so much fun! It's a 5K with obstacles like crawling through the mud, jumping over fire, swimming through a creek, climbing walls, sliding down a REALLY tall fireman's pole, hurdles, and a giant wall to scale up and back down. It was great to finish, and we were in the top twenty percent for our 10:30 group. There is a similar 5K in September called Jailbreak that I am considering signing up for if it works for my schedule.

Total badasses.

Ericsson group!!

4. I ... did not lose any weight at all. But I didn't really gain any either. But in planning trips for this summer I realized I'm not where I want to be, so I'm recommitting. Yes, again. Stay tuned...

Greek Salad

Mmm shrimp.

I <3 Work

It's AWESOME!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pear, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Salad

So. Good. Paired with a fat free cranberry basalmic dressing. Yum!

January Catch-Up

So I didn't post too much last month because I've been running around like a crazy person. I am strongly considering purchasing my first home when my lease is up at the end of June (yay!) so I've been looking at houses and getting my finances together.

I did meet my weight loss goal for January - woohoo! - so I lost 8.4 pounds over January. Of course, that was basically getting me back to where I was pre-Boston and holidays, but I'll take it. Since then I've been not so good (lots of takeout) but I'm back on track hopefully all the way through to St. Patrick's Day! I've got about a month and I'd really like to lose 8+ pounds, which is definitely doable. Of course to meet my February goal I have to lose about 7 pounds in the next two weeks, which is maybe not so doable, but we'll see. Maybe I'm carrying a lot of water weight? Ha, wishful thinking! 

I'm going to post a few of the recipes that are getting me back on track, and I need to start training for the Warrior Dash 5K in April. As of now, I still can't run and still have no upper body strength, so that is not going so well overall. I'm thinking about signing up for the Run On! 5K training class. It's every Tuesday and Thursday and it's $100 - and I would have to miss 2 of the classes since I'm going to have company through the week before St. Patrick's Day...if I could just force myself to finish Couch to 5K I'd be fine, but there's not a place to run safely outside near my apartment and I HATE running on the treadmill at the gym - I feel like some sort of ogre crashing through the forest. It's so loud and the whole machine shakes, and I just hate it, okay?! 

I'm going to try to be better about updating in the future, since I love love love my new phone hopefully that will make it easier. Wish me luck!