Clear Liquid Diet = No Fun!

So all day yesterday I was on a clear liquid diet. No this isn't some kind of fad new diet. It was doctored ordered for a procedure I had this morning. Luckily everything looks good from the procedure and I'm back to eating regular foods. Yay!

Yesterday my diet consisted of apple juice, chicken broth, beef broth, orange jello, and lots of G2 Orange Gatorade. I think it will be a long time before I go near Orange Gatorade. I wasn't allowed anything red or purple. When I'm limited to things like jello and popsicles I want cherry or strawberry. No go on that though.

Of course at home yesterday I'm drooling over any commercial on tv that has food in it. I was hungry most of the day but it wasn't as bad as I thought about it would be. When the hunger got bad I would have some chicken broth. Even though it was only 30 calories it seemed enough to take the edge off. Thinking back on yesterday seeing that I can get by on very little calories makes it seem like eating a healthy diet day to day should be a piece of cake. Not that I would voluntary do a clear liquid diet again!

Change is Coming

With the new year comes New Years resolutions. I have never been been big on New Years resolutions. I am not really sure why but I have never really set a serious New Years resolution. This year is no different. My goal to lose weight and get healthier is still the same, nothing magically changed because it was January 1, 2011. Over the holidays though I did realize I need to step it up and make some changes. It really has hit me how close my wedding is. I'll be a Mrs. in 4 months 2 weeks and 2 days (not that I'm counting)!

Of course I want to be smaller and look amazing in my dress when I walk down the aisle. Also if I can not get the motivation together to lose weight for my wedding then when will I be able to?  So I need to change something to get real results. I am sick of the numbers on the scale yo-yoing every week. I am still contemplating what changes I need exactly. So far this is what I'm thinking.

1. I am sticking with the Weight Watchers plan and still logging all my food and exercise.

2. I will start going to Weight Watchers meetings again. I just need to figure out what day and time will work best for me.

3. I am going to take a month off from recording my weigh-ins on the blog. I don't want to keep saying on here that I am going to lose weight and then it not happening, or at least not happening consistently enough.  I feel like I need the next 4 weeks to prove it to myself that I can do this. I want to do it for myself and not because people are going to be able to see my weigh-ins. After a month though I will share my progress. Also right now I'm going into my craziest time at work. With work, wedding planning, working out, and Duke basketball season in full swing (seriously I love going to the games but it's time consuming) I do not want to commit to posting on any particular day of the week consistently.

4. I will work out a total of at least 5 days a week getting an hour of cardio in. I will work out a 6th day but that workout can be 30 minutes if needed (when I need to do lunch time workouts).

Slow Cooker Sunday (well Monday in this case)

I used my last day off from work today to come up with a game plan on how to take my weight loss to the next level. One thing I knew I needed to improve on were my lunches during the week. I found myself in a pattern of  bringing sandwiches to work and not being very full. In return I would snack too much in the afternoon.  I then would try to bring a Lean Cuisine in and have a small salad with it. Those would work but they are so full of sodium and preservatives that I don't want that to be a regular habit. Lean Cuisines are great to have on hand for last minute meals and backups.

I was looking through the Recipe Finder on WeightWatchers.com when I came up with the idea to make a chili or stew today to take for my lunches this week.  I searched my Fix it and Forget it Lightly cookbook and found a recipe for a low fat beef stew.  It was super easy to make. All the work that was involved was browning the beef and cutting up carrots, onions, and potatoes.  I put all of that in my crock pot with low sodium fat free beef broth, Mrs. Dash, and a little bit of salt.  An added bonus was getting to smell it deliciousness for 6 hours today while it cooked.

I have some packed up for my lunch tomorrow and of course had to do a taste test. It was pretty good! It's also really hearty so I know it will be filling. I have decided for the winter I will make a different recipe every Sunday from my Fix it and Forget it Lightly to take for lunches.

Blogging Break

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'm taking a little blog break and will be back in 2011. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years!

It's the Holiday Season...

I have not been able to get this song out of my head recently. At least people haven't been dressed up in gold costumes in my head.  I love this time of the year. Christmas is my favorite holiday! This week has been full of celebrating too.  Starting Tuesday I was suppose to have 5 holiday parties in a 6 day period. 

Tuesday started with my work department's holiday lunch at PF Changs. I thought this would be no problem I love their steamed shrimp dumplings and egg drop soup and it's very doable with Weight Watchers.  What I didn't know is that everything had been ordered for us ahead of time. They brought out tons of food for us. Appetizers and tons of entrees.  Luckily shrimp dumplings was one of the appetizers so I tried to get full on those.  When the entrees came I just had a little bit of a few of them.  I figured portion control was the way to go.

Yesterday was suppose to be my bigger work party but it was canceled because of the snow/ icy weather.  Work wasn't canceled though just the fun part of the day. Oh well the party has been postponed for January 5.  Too bad that is one of my department's busiest day of the year because of a deadline.

Tonight is Matt's unofficial work party which means one of his friends is just using it as an excuse to throw a  party, but not just any kind of party it's an Ugly Christmas Sweater party.  I have a sweater with a sparkly poinsetta on it just waiting to be worn tonight.

Tomorrow will my sister's in law's holiday open house.  My sister's mother in law is a good cook so I know there will be something good to eat there.  The best part is her recipes are usually healthy. Double win!  Sunday closes out the holiday parties with my Grandfather's side of the family "Smith family Christmas".  This party will be full of finger foods, relatives I don't see often, and a pretty vicious came of Pollyanna!

My plan to combat against 4 parties in 6 days is portion control, making good choices, and lots of exercise.  I also will make sure to eat something healthy before most of them so I'm not showing up starving. 

Happy Holidays!

Belated Weekly Weigh-In

Date	Change	Total	Total From Beginning	Work Outs in Week
11/24/2010	-2	-17.4	-35.4	3
12/1/2010	1.2	-16.2	-34.2	0
12/8/2010	-0.6	-16.8	-34.8	3
12/15/2010	-1.1	-17.9	-35.9	5

This week has been kind of nutty so my apologies on this post being late.  Also because this week continues to be nutty so this is going to be a short and sweet post.  I lost 1.1 lbs this week. I'm happy with it. Basically anything that is a 1 lb loss or more a week is good for me.

I also ramped my workouts up again and worked out 5 times this week. My workouts were 4 runs and 1 Zumba class. This week is full of Holiday parties, but more on that in another post.

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In

Date	Change	Total	Total From Beginning	Work Outs in Week
11/17/2010	0	-15.4	-33.4	3
11/24/2010	-2	-17.4	-35.4	3
12/1/2010	1.2	-16.2	-34.2	0
12/8/2010	-0.6	-16.8	-34.8	3

Another week past and a small lose to show for it.  After working out last Wednesday at lunch and writing about it here I realized I spoke too soon.  That night was probably the worst for my coughing fits. I think the running kicked my asthma into high gear.  I laid low for a few days after that and now I'm feeling a lot better! Still coughing at night but not nearly as bad. 

My workouts this week were 1 run, 1 workout on the Arc trainer at the gym, and then another lunch workout but on the elliptical this time.  I have so far really liked the few times I have worked out at lunch. I don't have to get up earlier than normal and then I love the feeling of knowing my workout for the day as already been completed.

My work has a conference center/ hotel for students when they come to residencies here and the staff have access to the gym there.  It's nice because it's right here at work. They have a locker room with showers and everything too. Why didn't I think of this sooner? I will use this as a way to get in my workouts when I have something to do right after work.  Like today I am going to the Duke basketball game tonight so I'll get my workout in during lunch.

Last night Matt and I put up our Christmas tree. I love Christmas time! It was so nice to eat dinner with the tree lights on in the background.  Now I need to wrap some presents to put under it!