Day 17

Here's what passed my lips today:

Breakfast: Half a CK Bagel with Cream Cheese, Coffee

Lunch: Half a Spicy Turkey Sandwich and Half a Cup of White Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Soup is from Costco, but I will be trying out a recipe soon!

Dinner: Not really hungry had an Atkins Shake and a small piece of SF/Gluten Free Pumpkin pie I made for Thanksgiving.

Snacked on Nuts and many cups of Hot tea today because it was pretty chilly.

...BTW Did you all hear about "Arrested Development"? I'm so stoked! I love that show I can't wait until 2013!!  Netflix, all is forgiven...

Black Friday Thrifty Score

 Three posts in one day whaaat! I guess I'm making up for the 5 days I was off and not trying to bury the before pics...I think I mentioned before I didn't do much Black Friday shopping just went to a few stores for a few very specific items. I did manage to make it to one thrift store where I scored these little gems. I love them to bits and I can't wait for Spring so I can live in them. They totally just make me smile...

$7 bucks at Goodwill

The Dreaded Before pics...

   I've held off posting these for awhile, but I feel to be a proper weight loss blog you have to include them at some point or another, right? So I figured I'd post these now and quickly bury them with a bunch of new posts until they disappear. It took me some time to even find pics I could post because:  1) I'm usually taking the pics hence why I'm in so few of them  2) Well obviously being hefty and all I avoid the lens like a plague and  3) I am a girl with a healthy amount of shame so I had to find ones that I looked somewhat decent in as well. Most of these pics I was either a little over or a little under my start weight of 208. Without further ado here are my before photos. Bleh.

    Also joining me are my Dear Husband and our devil child Sweet Boy...

Day 16

  Here's what passed my lips today...

Breakfast: Creme Fraiche Scrambled Eggs with Bacon - Shout out to Randy Marsh! Where my South Park fans at?!

Lunch: Had a bunch of client meetings with my Boss today so we stopped at Panera for lunch. Somehow this was my first time at Panera. I'm not sure how I managed to avoid this place all these years - oh wait - I do know, because most of the stuff is healthy and you can't find anything fried on the menu. Anywho, I had the Half Soup/Salad combo which consisted of Caesar salad sans croutons and a cup of Broccoli Cheddar Soup. Really yummy.

Dinner: Turkey sandwich with my trusty CK bread, lettuce, tomato, spicy mayo and sharp cheese.

Snacked on nuts and an a small apple.

I've noticed some serious appetite suppression the last few days. I have heard that is a side effect of being in ketosis which I currently am in and have been in for the past two weeks. Whatever the cause may be I'll take it! It's nice to be actually full after a meal for once.

Day 11,12,13,14,15! Weigh In...

   It seems like forever since I've blogged. It's kind of like when you've been on vacation from work and your first day back you have to remember how to function again. Not that blogging is work, but it kinda is. I don't always have something interesting to share and I feel like if I write something it should be somewhat interesting. The problem is the bulk of my day is quite mundane, but I imagine for most people that's the case.

  Well I hope everyone enjoyed the Holiday and enjoyed a much needed break. Believe it or not I was totally good this past 5 days. I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to turn my nose up at all the usual faves. I'm glad I did because it probably would have been another five days until I blogged had I cheated - I would have felt so defeated. Many a board game were played and I also made some chain maille jewelry; That seems to be the key for me. Keeping busy.

  I'm not going to do my usual Day of menu today - was super busy all day playing "Oh yeah that's how you do that..." (Been off of work since Last Wednesday)

Did do my weigh in today...drum roll please.....................Down another 5lbs! Finally NO 2 as the first number in my weight. Yay! 12lbs Total! Hopefully this fat train keeps burning coal because I need to hit my mark by March.

Did anyone hit up any of the Cyber Monday or Small Business Saturday deals? I kind of combined both with my purchase today. LocarbU had a 10% off code today so I bought some more Carb Kruncher bread and a few other products I've been wanting to try. Code is "cybermonday" still a few hours left to use it - If your in California, if not shipping for you might kill this deal.

  Oh and Eversave has an Overstock deal for the next 2 days. $20 credit plus free shipping for $10 bucks! You can view the deal Here!

Day 10

   Can I just curl up in a ball and sleep through the entire day tomorrow? It's one thing to pass up some naan or a scone, but an entire Holiday centered around food - pure torture. Especially since I have this intense relationship with mashed potatoes; very love hate. We're currently broken up at the moment but I have a tendency to fall for it's buttery charm. I will try and be strong, but I'm not going to lie I've already begun trying to figure how I can turn this day into a "Planned Cheat Day"...It's pure insanity. I don't even really like turkey and stuffing, but I'm going crazy because I know I can't have it. I wish I could just look at food as purely a fuel source. Life would be so much easier. I spend so much of my day concentrating on food, even more now that I'm dieting. It really is like having an addiction - I suppose I'll be going "cold turkey" this Thanksgiving. Sorry, I had too...

Here's what passed my lips today:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with Sharp cheddar cheese, coffee

Lunch: Half a CK Bagel Chicken Breast Sandwich

Dinner: Chinese Chicken Salad

Snacked on Carrots, nuts and had some coconut bark.

Enjoy the day with your family and friends...

          

Day 9

Breakfast: Half a CK Bagel with Cream Cheese and Coffee

Lunch: Sweet Tomatoes with the work crew - ate Salad and Minestrone Soup (Picked out the Pasta)

Dinner: Other half of the CK Bagel, made a chicken sandwich. Small Salad

Made some Coconut Bark. Surprisingly good. Here is the base recipe, but if you Google you can find all kinds of variations. I found mine at lowcarbfriends.com.

3Tbsp. Melted Coconut Oil (I used unrefined because it's what I had)
2Tbsp. Cocoa Powder
2-3 packets of Splenda (I used 3 or 4 drops of Liquid Splenda)

Opt: I added chopped nuts

Freeze for 10-15 minutes. Break it up and enjoy! Will need to store leftovers in the Freezer or fridge - So obviously this doesn't really travel well.

I think this recipe is definitely a keeper. I've been burned many a time by low carb recipes that were supposedly good, so I'm very reluctant to try new recipes especially dessert, but this was good.

Thrift Store Scores

 I had no intention of thrifting this past weekend; I really didn't. I had planned on just being completely lazy and not changing out of my pj's all weekend. Until my BF called and wanted me to go with him thrifting to find an ugly Christmas sweater for an upcoming party. How could I pass that invitation up? I took him to Saver's my local Mecca for ugly Christmas sweaters and it didn't disappoint. I wish I had brought my camera with me I probably could have talked him into an impromptu ugly fashion show. I'm glad I went. I did find some cool stuff myself. All of it for well under $20 bucks.

The Polka dot top is actually a dress with really flattering gathering under the bust and at the waist, super cute.

Day 8

   I started out today by picking up the most amazing smelling pastries from my local German bakery. No, I didn't cave into temptation, but it was my Boss's b-day and he's not really a cake guy - so I went with fruit and pastries instead. It was quite torturous for me; we have a small office and the buttery smell wafted in the air for hours. More torture followed with lunch when we yet again had Indian food. They served us the biggest freakin' naans I've ever seen in my life - Frisbee size! I resisted, again. Serenity now....

Breakfast: Half a CK Bagel with Cream Cheese, Iced Coffee (Yay I didn't forget breakfast for once)

Lunch: A sampling of different Indian Foods: Palak Paneer, Tandoori Chicken, Murgh Boti, Channa Masala, Chicken Karahi, Chicken Kofta and salad - lots of yum.

Dinner: Not really hungry polished off the remaining Tod Man my Mom brought me last night. It's basically Fish Paste, Red Curry Paste and Chinese Green Beans fried to your liking - in our case we like it pretty deep fried. (The Red Sauce is Spirachi)

Monday Morning Weigh In

   Drum roll please........I lost 7lbs! Now if anyone is wondering, that is mostly from diet alone. I don't really do any planned exercise. That doesn't mean I sit on my ass all the time: I walk the dogs, play with my son, housework and I jump on the treadmill almost never occasionally. I'm sure I'll incorporate exercise in closer to my goal, but for now I'm just content with focusing on the diet part of it.

Day 6 & 7

   Don't you just love lounging around the house in a big comfy sweater with nothing in particular calling you away from your nice spot on the couch. I had a pretty lazy weekend - Which is fine; we have far too many weekend functions planned through the end of the year. I did manage to get some crafting and thrifting done both of which I will post about possibly tomorrow.

Here is what passed my lips today - Saturday is below in pics (Menu for Saturday is entirely low carb)

Breakfast: French Toast (Using CK), Fruit and Bacon

Lunch: Iced Coffee, Some leftover Sausage and a Small salad.

Dinner: Chinese Chicken Salad (Dressing is homemade)

Oh and my Mom made some homemade Tod Man (Fried Fish Cake) Soooooo good and naturally low carb. My Mom is from Thailand and makes the BEST Thai food.

 

 

 

Day 5

    Well it's Friday and I had originally planned to weigh in and post my results. Unfortunately, I was running late (what's new) and I have this weird rule about not weighing in unless I do it as soon as I wake up.  I suppose it's better this way anyway; I'll be less tempted to stray off plan this weekend if I know I have to weigh in on Monday. Stay tuned...

Breakfast: Yeah, didn't have time this morning. Did happen to munch on a handful of green apple slices before I headed off to work though.

Lunch: I caught up at lunch! We go to my favorite Indian place every Friday at work. I filled my plate with Salad, Tandoori Chicken, Aloo Palak (Minus the Aloo) and Paneer Masala - Yum, yum, yum. I turned my nose up to the oh-so-precious naan, defying my natural instinct to gobble up each warm, soft, buttery piece.

Dinner: Chicken from El Pollo Loco and a side salad.

Snacked on a Protein Bar and Sunflower seeds.

I've never mentioned it before, because it kind of goes without saying; I drink a lot of water. Like, a TON.  I try and chug down a glass before every meal. Not so fun at night though - I've half asleep walked into walls many a time...

Here Piggy piggy...

    My Son just recently celebrated his 7th B-day. He decided MONTHS ago that he was going to have a pinata for his b-day. About a month ago he decided that he wanted an "Angry Birds" pinata. I explained to him that it would make more sense to make a pig since that's the point of the game, to knock out the pigs -because pinatas have to make sense, right? This was my first time making a pinata and probably my last. I see why people just buy them; I was picking plaster of Paris out of my hair and nails for days! No...kidding, it wasn't really that bad. I'll spare you the details of the process, but I'll list what I used to make it.

Plaster of Paris 
1 Large Punch Balloon
Green Crepe Paper
Felt  (Light Green and Black)
Tape  (I think I used Duct because I couldn't find the painters)
Newspaper strips
Wire Hangar
Styrofoam Cups (Ears, Eyes, Nose)
Glue (For the felt)
Crown - Found that foam shape at the dollar store

Oh I had also planned to make Angry Birds masks for the kids to wear while they beat the living daylights out of this Pinata, but only managed to get one done in time so I scrapped that idea. If you get time to do that it's really cute and plays into the whole theme really well.

Depending on what you already have at home, you can get this done for well under $10 bucks!

 

(The head looks kind of caved in on the right, it wasn't. Just a weird angle of the photo)

Day 4

   Do you ever just forget to eat? I definitely had planned to eat breakfast this morning; put it all together in my head as I was driving home from my Son's school. I got home, fed the dogs, made myself coffee and started working on my laptop. 9:30am rolls around and I realize I need to pack up and head to the office. I chug down my coffee and go to work. Around noon the hunger shakes creeped in and it was that exact moment that I realize I never did eat breakfast. Of course by then I'm ravenous. I somehow managed to only eat my low carb burger and never once reached for my bosses fries - and they were waffle fries, WAFFLE FRIES!!

Breakfast: Coffee

Lunch: Lettuce wrapped mushroom swiss burger (Yes, it's as messy as you imagine)

Dinner: My breakfast that I had planned. Leftover taco meat with scrambled eggs and cheese wrapped in a low carb tortilla (I use Mission Low Carb Tortillas)

Snacked on Carrots/Hummus, Sunflower seeds and nuts.

Hummus among us

   I picked up this Hummus yesterday – Holy hell it’s good. I really only started eating hummus a year ago, but since then I’ve become a hummus eatin’ fool. One of these days I’ll be brave enough to attempt making my own, but seeing how maybe 50% of everything I make actually comes out edible you can understand my reluctance. I prefer people that actually know what they are doing to make my food. My family does too.

Currently Lusting

Since I wasn't born 6 feet tall...

Day 3

Breakfast: Yogurt and Coffee

Lunch: Soup at Hand Chicken w/mini noodles

Dinner: Taco Salad

Dessert: Jell-O SF Caramel Mousse

Snacked on Green apple slices, carrots/hummus.

                  I love taco salad. I could probably eat this every day...

Yummy, yummy yogurt!

   Greek yogurt is all the rage right now. For good reason – it’s all kinds of good for you.  I was never a real big yogurt eater before, but since low carbing and my limited options I’ve started eating it again. When I first tried Greek yogurt I nearly puked. It tasted like I was eating really thick sour cream – don’t get me wrong I love me some sour cream, just not for breakfast. I tried to like it: added fruits, nuts, peanut butter, syrups all kinds of different things looking for that awesome combination that tasted like store bought yogurt. Not until I found Nature's Hollow SF spreads did I find that perfect culmination of yum. 

Here’s what I do: 

Take 1 heaping ¼ cup of Greek Yogurt (I use Full Fat or 2% Fage whichever I can find) I Tbsp. of SF jam (Usually Strawberry or Mountain Berry) and because I like my yogurt fairly sweet I add 1 drop of EZ-Sweetz (Liquid Splenda) and voila! Yummy sugar free yogurt. From here you can add fruit, nuts, chocolate whatever your little heart desires. 

You can find Nature's Hollow Jam at Sprout Markets or online at netrition.com

EZ Sweetz you can find on Amazon.com

                                          Easy Peasy Breakfast....  

Day 2

Still feeling a bit under the weather; not very hungry. Here's what passed my lips today:

Breakfast: Chorizo chicken sausage and eggs again.

Lunch: Campbell's Soup at Hand Creamy Chicken Soup

Dinner: "French Bread" Pizza - Consists of  1 Half of a Carb Krunchers Hot dog bun, Mexican Cheese (All I had), Pepperoni and Tomato Sauce (Forget the brand but it comes in a can - I freeze little 1 Carb cubes in ice trays and pull them out when I need them)

My Pizza...

I snacked on Carrots/Hummus and True North Pecan/Almond/Peanut clusters. I really need to go grocery shopping as my menus are lacking proper greenery. To be honest I'm not a huge vegetable fan, but I understand and appreciate their importance.

PinterWHAT?

I recently discovered Pinterest – I know, a little late to the game – welcome to my life! I was discovering all kinds of new interesting recipes and crafts it was great…I click to join, need an invite. Okay, gotta be one of the cool kids to join. I wait patiently, a few days to get my official invite – oh joy! I start imagining all the wonderful images I will begin to pin, comments I will post then BAM! STOP! DO NOT PASS GO! you need to have a FB or Twitter to join. 

     Holy hell, SERIOUSLY! Now, I know I brought this on myself being one of the only if not THEE ONLY 29 year old living in the Silicon Valley with neither. I have my reasons. I had a stalker in High School - No joke. I’ve been fairly private ever since. Yes, starting a blog sharing my inner most thoughts isn’t exactly living in a shack out in the middle of the woods, but a girls gotta have something. I’ve started a blog at least half a dozen times before quickly deleting it; so the fact that this blog has been live for 3 days and counting is HUGE for me…but I digress…WTF Pinterest show some love for us anti-social people. If you’re reading this – which you’re probably not but whatever – rethink your policy. I’ve googled things, it’s not pretty for you. Many people in my position. Show us some love, Pinterest. Show us some love...

Day 1

Bumpy start to day 1; Woke up with ringing in my ear, wtf? Been slightly dizzy ever since.

Here's what my menu for the day looked like:

Breakfast: 1 Chorizo Chicken Sausage and two eggs.

Lunch: Not really hungry had an Atkins Chocolate Shake.

Dinner: Grilled cheese w/peppered turkey

I snacked on salami and not much else. I drank water and Diet Pepsi all day.

I should probably tell you all what diet I am doing. I'm not necessarily following any specific diet per se, but I am watching my carbs. I'm trying not to have more than 40 carbs per day. The reason I do low carb is because I don't have time/desire to count calories. With low carb I know I can have a big steak or fish and not worry too much about how many calories I consumed. Now, I know my limits and that doesn't mean I can slam a pound of bacon with no reprocussions either.

I shop a lot online from various different low carb/health food stores. One product I can NOT live without is Carb Krunchers bread. I buy their bagels/bread/buns and use it to make sandwiches, pizza, bread crumbs basically anything you would use regular bread for. The bread has tons of fiber so I feed it to my son too and he can't tell the difference - especially once butter has been slathered all over it and it's grilled.

I do recommend eating it toasted, right out of the bag your going to be like wtf? Once it's warmed it's an awesome replacement.

30 or BUST

Knock knock. Who's there? It's 30 and I'm right around the corner.

I've promised myself that I will be healthier aka "Thinner" by the time I turn 30 (in March). For the past decade I've been hovering around 200lbs - currently at about 210, ugh. My childhood and teen years I was a rail. People would always comment on how skinny I was; give my mother nasty looks for "not feeding me". It all started when I met my "Husband" (We're not married but we've been together 11 years and have a son together so for blogging sake I'll refer to him as my Husband) We were pretty young, I was 19 he was 25 and we were broke living out of a garage in a house full of skaters. I think we ate pasta and butter every day for weeks, occasionally we had sauce and on a good day we had garlic bread to go with it. Though we were broke, we were happy and life was good. Obviously one cannot live on pasta and butter and keep a girlish figure - I was no exception. Years went on a few of them tumultuous, Our son came along and dieting and exercise took time that I just couldn't figure out how to factor in. Plus, come on unhealthy food is so freakin' good. I really just love food. Now I just need to learn to love the right foods.

So there it is. I'm putting it all out there for everybody (or nobody) to see. I'm hoping this blog will keep me accountable when nothing else has. Maybe I'll be brave enough to post a picture, maybe.