Day 112

To begin with, I have to say - today was an extra delicious day at Campbell's house. But more on that in a minute.

I missed my walk today, even though it was a pretty day outside. I had lady pains, and I just couldn't get the energy together. So, logically, I spent two hours cleaning and organizing my room instead. Lol! I don't know where I got the energy to do that...I didn't take my pills today and I didn't have a paper to avoid either! Weird. But I figure I burned about the same calories as I would have walking, even though it wasn't really aerobic activity. I scrubbed down the bathroom, did laundry, changed the sheets, dusted, vacuumed, wiped down surfaces, organized bookshelves, and even spot cleaned my bedspread! But I will definitely be back out to do my walk tomorrow. I've done two 30 minute walks so far this week, so I still have two more to go!

Anyways, back to the delicious thing. I had a Greek salad for dinner:

I was inspired by this Greek salad, but had to edit out the ingredients I don't like, namely onions and cucumbers, along with the stuff I didn't have. The salad I ended up with is a mixture of spring greens, banana peppers, Lindsay natural olives (I know you're supposed to have kalamata, but I like these better!), artichoke hearts, and goat cheese.

As directed by the recipe, I let the peppers, olives, and artichoke hearts marinate in an olive oil/lemon juice/salt/pepper/McCormick's Mediterranean spice mix concoction. DELISH! I enjoyed it far more than restaurant Greek salads, which always have the iceburg lettuce with the crunchy white parts (as most of you know I cannot abide the crunchy white parts!). Yuck. The spring mix was a great substitute!

Oh, but the deliciousness does not end there. For dessert, I made (or rather, improvised on) Susie Bee's Blueberry Banana Smoothie...

Dang, you guys, I can't even communicate how scrumdiddlyumptious this smoothie was! It was really more like ice cream. As usual, I did not have all the ingredients (forgot to buy coconut milk and flax seeds at the grocery), but it still turned out amazing. I used frozen blueberries as well as a frozen banana, and the texture was just like Smoothie King! All I added to the fruit was one egg white and a splash of skim milk. It was PERFECT. Y'all have to try this! I made it in my food processor, as I don't own a blender, and it turned out great. YUM.

A side note: Seems like I'm using a lot of CAPS in this post.

Anyways. Weigh-in tomorrow! Hope it's good news!

By the way, y'all are awesome.

Day 102

So, in continuing this dialogue of success, I had to drop in for an early post to announce that I lost another 2.4 pounds! That's right, folks...I got to see the number 15 on the scale today! I actually reweighed myself three times to make sure it was accurate, because the last time I weighed in (I think it last Friday or Saturday morning) I was still at 218.

Now, to be fair, I weighed in at noon instead of first thing in the morning, so I'm not going to panic if it's a little higher on Friday morning. But it just felt so good to see the scale go down, I had to do a little trumpeting!

It's especially encouraging considering the fact that I've been struggling a little lately.

Here are some more cool news:

1. I've lost an inch from my neck, two inches from my waist, and four inches from my hips!! I hadn't thought to measure until now, and I'm SO glad I did! I haven't really felt the difference in my clothes yet, but to see actual inches coming off, well, that was really cool.

2. On my walk today, as well as the past few walks I've taken, I've noticed that it's taken me around two minutes less to make my four laps around the neighborhood. When it started, four laps took me an even 30 minutes...lately it's only taken 28. I take this as a sign that I'm getting in better shape, and therefore walking faster! It looks like I might have to add a fifth lap soon. :)

I've thought of another important reason for me to keep this up: simply to prove to myself that I can see something like this through. For most of my life, I've been kind of notorious for getting really gung-ho about something, then dropping it like a bad habit (except a lot of times, it's a good habit!). Sometimes this happens because I found something else I'm more interested in, and other times it's because whatever it was got too hard. So really, this is also a test of my ability to stick with something that challenges me. I know that passing that test will boost my confidence far more than smaller waist ever could.

Thanks to everyone who left such sweet comments on my last post! It means so so so so much!!

Day Eight-One

So it turns out, all the panic over snow yesterday was somewhat justified! We got a whopping 8 inches of snow in Athens last night, more snow than I think I've ever seen in Georgia! And I've lived here my whole life. So not only was school cancelled today, but tomorrow too. I'm not sure when the snow will melt to the point where the roads will be safe again...it's supposed to be pretty cold all week. I would rejoice in the extended vacay, but I have a feeling I'll start getting pretty bored sitting around here all week. Hopefully everything will be up and running by Wednesday! Here's a picture from last night:

Dang! That's a legit blizzard!

Though it wasn't a long one, Karlee and I took a walk around the neighborhood in the snow. We only made it around one lap, but the snow made walking a bigger challenge than usual! We were pretty cold by the time we got back in, but it was nice to get out in it. If only we had a sled! Here's a snowman one of our neighbors made:

We intended to make our own, but by the time we got out, the sleet had created a hard layer of ice on top of the snow, making it pretty hard to work with. So we just admired the neighbors' efforts. :)

Eating wasn't exceptionally good or bad today. I'm realizing that it's going to be harder than I thought to curb the not-so-great habits I descended into over the holidays (namely, eating without keeping track), so I'm going to have to get strict and start keeping a close eye on what I'm munching on. Especially today, being trapped inside and thus in extra danger of bored-fueled munchie feeling, I had a hard time putting a cap on it. It didn't help that I hadn't taken my ADD pills. I didn't go over my calories, but I didn't make my best choices either. So that's something to work on.

Tomorrow I plan to trudge down to the gym and get some real exercise. Or maybe do another dvd workout! We'll see how it goes.

Today's food:

Breakfast

Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Crunch - 270

Lunch

Low-carb bread w/ reduced fat peanut butter - 200

Dinner

Goat cheese omelette - 180

Veggie sausage - 160

Snacks

1 tbsp reduced fat peanut butter - 100

Sugar free pudding - 60

Smart balance popcorn - 100

Whole grain cheerios - 200

Total: 1270

No fruits or veggies! For shame! I didn't really get any at the grocery as Kroger was out of almost everything. So as soon as I can get out of the house I'm going to head back to get some fresh fruits and veggies. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, for both eating and exercise!