Cha - cha - changes

This past week I gained a little weight. That's ok. I've gone from the 200.2 to 200.8. No biggie. This week I'll skip the cheeseburger. Or not. Who I am kidding? That was an amazing cheeseburger. :)

I saw Dave yesterday. We discussed my lack of weight loss, and how much my body has changed. I'm not sure how I'm not losing when I can see these huge changes in my body - overall, I have lost 17 pounds of fat. I can see where I'm much skinnier and not as flabby. While I've noticed and Jason has noticed, Dave has noticed too! So hopefully other people eventually start to notice.

My wedding dress came in and I picked it up yesterday. I left it at my parents house because, well, I'd probably be sitting around in it! My dress fitting is May 1 so I still have some time before it's

Since I've been traveling for a few weeks, our grocery budget and eating budget have been cut drastically! This Sunday and last Sunday we've purchased good meat from "the counter" and cooked it. Last week I got Jason a filet wrapped in bacon and I had some sort of steak. Tonight we had chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. We've also had baked potatoes and veggies. Tonight's meal was so-so. The ham & cheese tasted too processed. I could have made something better and less salty. We do enjoy these "date meals" though and will probably do them more often. Having a decent Steak & Potato in is much better than going out.

This week - travel 4-5 days, meals out of town again. I need to make sure I get enough sleep each night so I have enough energy to work out each night. My goal is to do 2 cardio workouts and 2 AB workouts. I'm packed, the yoga mat is packed, I'm ready to knock it out! :)

Have Yoga Mat, Will Travel

This past week I spent 3 nights in a hotel in Champaign, IL. My boss attended UofI and everytime I/we go, he tells us all the cool college hangouts we should go. Ya know, the places that were cool 18 years ago when he was there. We always skip those places.

The last trip (it's nicknamed AGRO work), Eric and I ate a lot of junk food snacks and fast food. This time we vowed to spend a little more money and eat better. The first night we ate at Red Lobster. I had the grilled shrimp and a lot of broccoli. The second night I was craving a cheeseburger and we went to Ruby Tuesdays. I had an amazing bad-for-your-arteries cheeseburger and broccoli. Wednesday night we ate at Panera. I had a bread bowl of broccoli cheddar. Each day for breakfast I ate very little, egg and meat, no carbs, and lunch was a JayRobb Bar. (The fudge brownie ones are amazing.) I snacked on almonds and a few pieces of candy. My coworker, Julie, packed Eric and I a small bag of candy mix. A few mini-snickers and milky ways, some butterscotches and rootbeer barrels. The Rootbeer barrels are our favorite. We arm wrestled for the last one. I kicked him in the shin and won. (Just kidding..)

I know when I ate the cheeseburger and bread bowl that those items weren't the best choices for me. At home I can go into those restaurants and make good food choices, I really struggle when I am out of town. I am very vulnerable because of the conditions: the cold weather, the hotel - not sleeping, and stress. I'm also trying to manage a lot right now. Which is why even though we were back by noon Thursday, I worked until 5:45pm and was in the field at an IDOT project today. I managed to log an 53 hour week. I still have a few more things to complete.

My sanity is the fact that I took my yoga mat with me. Each night I got in some knee-slaps, planks, and side planks. I also did squats and pushups. And stretched. Really stretched. Those little things at least helped me convince myself I was doing something good for my body. Saturday (tomorrow) I have PT with Dave at 9:30am.

I leave Monday again for Week 2 of AGRO. We're staying Champaign again and I do expect 4 full days of work and possibly going into Friday. The 3rd week of the AGRO tour is up north. It'll be more driving then anything.

I am eager to return from this trip. Jason and I are going to do JayRobb's 3-day fruit flush and I'm going to continue with JayRobb's Diet. Jason has promised me he'll follow Jay Robb's healthy ways and eat what I eat. It would be nice to eliminate processed food from our diets. I'm curious too to see what Jason's bloodwork shows. He's headed to the doctor for a physical and bloodwork in a couple days. He hasn't been, let's say, ever... So hopefully his bloodwork is normal and we don't have to worry about his cholesterol or anything. I did jump on the scale this morning, I was up a few pounds. So I need to concentrate on the food choices and choose more wisely these next few weeks. I don't need to pack on all the pounds I lost, I need to continue to lose more. :)

Cholesterol WIN

So yesterday was Valentine's Day, and to take care of my own heart, I went to have my cholesterol test. (Ok, it was just a coincidence, and not wanting to test right after the valentine's day meal.)

Results are in and I am winning!! My triglycerides have fallen from 302 (Aug 2010) to 225 (Aug 2011) to 173 (Feb 2012). The doctor would like to see that below 150 and says we don't have test for a year and I don't have to go on medication! My HDLs are fairly stable around 40, and my LDL is stable around 110. I've seen some higher LDL numbers back in 2004 and 2005.

Frozen Mint Lemonade

My girl WWSTELLA posted this amazing recipe in her blog.

You’ll need:
The juice of 2 limes/lemons (whichever you prefer)
A few springs of mint leaves
1 & 1/2 cups of ice cold water
A few cubes of ice
A blender
A few packets of Splenda/equal or any other sweetener you’d like
Optional: a shot of vodka
Also optional: 2 frozen strawberries

Blend! Enjoy. :) Super yummy, 0 WW points.

Half-assed

Am sitting in East St. Louis and just finished Hall-Assed. A book by pastaqueen blogger. It was enjoyable and I related to her weight-loss quips and jokes and struggle. Been there, done that, many times. She lost half of her original weight (372 pounds). She did it without surgery, just by changing her lifestyle for good. While I can't lose half my weight, I do want to get to the point where my BMI is normal, my cholesterol numbers are good, and I'm comfortable and able to maintain the weight.

The Jay Robb diet should be available later this month and I will encourage all of my friends, family, and random strangers to purchase this book. Can't lie though, I've given up on the Veggie Cocktail. I've tried it twice. It has too much pulp and my gag reflex is way to strong. I lost weight last week without it, so I'm going to eat the ingredients for now and not drink it.

The entire diet is a lifestyle change. I don't count calories or points or carbs. I simply choose the items I am told to choose.(4 fats, 2 proteins, 2 veggies, and a carb if I want.) And I eat until I am still hungry. It's weird to stop eating when I'm still hungry.

Today for lunch I only ate 2/3 of the large (4 cups total) salad I brought with me. It had fat - avocado and salad dressing, protein - grilled chicken, and a ton of veggies. My fruits were the cucumber and tomato. It's been 3 hours and I still feel "ok". I think I'm about 20 minutes from being hungry. I have to really pay attention to the hunger signals. I probably haven't done this part of "dieting" before. I know the reason I'm fat is because I overate, all day long.

I've also noticed that since giving up sugar. carbs, dairy, and caffeine; that I do feel amazing! I am not having the afternoon "food coma" from a sugar or carb crash. And I think that for the rest of my life, or at least 20 meals out of 21, I can skip sugar and carbs.

150 Days

So 75 days into thie journey. I've gained a couple pounds, lost a couple pounds.

This week was exhausting. Work was very busy, the IDOT projects all hit at once.

The new Jay Robb Diet is going well.

I'll post more later.. just trying to do too much right now.