A little less motivated :-(

I'm not sure why, but I felt a little less motivated to stay on my eating plan today. I didn't give in - maybe it's cuz it's at that three week mark and I often find that's the time I 'fall off' when I am starting on a new goal. They say it takes three weeks to make a habit, but for me it is always longer. I am also finding that I am not liking so many bagels/bread/pitas, etc, in my diet without the accompanying fruit - I just love my fruit and would rather have that than so much bread. So, I am going to eat more fruit, less bread, and customize my eating plan a little more. I really liked the eating plan on weight watcher's and so I might incorporate more of that plan into this plan. I do like some of the special meals they suggest on sparkpeople.com and so I will continue to use the program, but will just adjust it to suit my eating habits a bit more - taking care, of course, to keep within the guidelines set by the site. I even get to eat a double cheeseburger with Colin tomorrow night at McDonald's on our date night. I factored that in to tomorrow's meal plan and it works as long as I just have the cheeseburger and milk and nothing else. Today's menu was: breakfast - oatmeal, snack - yogurt, lunch - egg salad on a bagel, snack - pineapple, half a bagel with jam, supper - spaghetti topped with chicken, tomatoes, green pepper and cheese. It was quite a lovely supper and I think I will make that choice again.

Delicious meal tonight :-)

I seem to have gotten a little away from what this blog is for (well partly what it's for) and that is to keep a record of what I am eating each day. So, today I will tell you what I had today. Breakfast - cheerios with raspberries in milk, lunch - red bean salad over rice with peas, snack - half a bagel with cream cheese and scoops with salsa, supper - chicken with spaghetti, peas and carrots. When I served up this meal, I thought it looked like it was too much and yet it was within my calories, etc. It was too much (yes, I ate it all anyway) and I knew afterwards that I should have taken half of it and eaten it for lunch tomorrow. I do that when I go to restaurants with friends - I order a meal and ask for a takeaway container and put half in right away (or sometimes just put half aside and put it in a container later). That is what I should have done today and in the future I will to do that. I am learning a lot as I am on this journey and one of the things I am learning is that sometimes I have to do something once before I learn a better way to do it (like tonight). I also made sure to get in my ten minutes of cardio tonight - Mike and I walked to the grocery store at Krystal's to pick up some things that were on sale. I find that by keeping my goals in my thoughts, I can often find a way to reach my goals. Even like entering this blog tonight - I made sure to stay downstairs to write it rather than taking my laptop up to my room and laying down in bed to enter it. I have found that once I get into bed, I am quite tired and therefore have found myself not entering a blog each night. Also I am finding that sometimes at school I am forgetting to either fill my water bottle in the morning, or refill it at lunch time. I think that I am going to go to Walmart this week and buy another bottle and keep two at school. I will fill both in the morning and leave them on my desk - that way they are a constant reminder to drink and I don't have to worry about running out of time to refill one or forgetting to do it until I am back with the kids and have no time to run out and fill it. I weigh in tomorrow to find out how much I have lost in total this month and to find out if I have won the Tim Horton's card for this month (whoever loses the most weight in the month between myself and Jessica at school gets a Timmy's card from the other). I have yet to win it so it would be nice if it was my turn this month. :-)

Learning along the way

Tonight we had a yummy dinner - it was with potatoes (my favourite vegetable :-) It was cooked in the microwave and topped with kidney beans, salsa, green peppers and cheese. We weren't sure how many potatoes to cook since ours were small compared to the serving that was suggested in our menu plan. So we made two small ones for me and two large ones for Mike. The meal was so delicious that, even though both of us thought that it was too much for us to eat, we finished the lot. I learned two things from this meal: 1) I have a hard time not finishing my plate - I hate the idea of wasting food - so I need to figure amounts out (serving size) so that I can eat all of the meal and not feel overly full like I did tonight, and 2) we figured that we should have had three potatoes between us instead of four: I could have taken one of the large potatoes instead of two small ones and Mike could have taken one large and one small potato instead of two large ones. This journey is really interesting - and exciting, too - Mike even mentioned tonight that even he is excited about this plan - I think he really enjoys the fact that he is always full, but is losing weight. He also mentioned tonight that he actually enjoyed the meal tonight even though it was meatless. He grew up in a meat and potatoes family and when I started cooking less meat meals he was not very happy (but, he put up with it). I am glad that he is liking these meals as it's way better for us to eat less meat and more beans, etc.

Finding it hard to remember to blog lately

I made this goal to blog daily when I began this new 'get healthy' program - and I was successful for the first couple of weeks - lately, I haven't either been remembering to enter it or I have been way too tired. I want to really put forth a greater effort to write here because I think it's important to. I feel I am getting the hang of finding ways to keep within my allottment of calories, carbs, fat and protein. The hardest part seems to be keeping my fat up and my carb down. What can I day? I'm a carbs girl! :-) I have learned to play around with the things I eat if my meals add up to more than they should. For instance, at breakfast, they tend to give me more than I can comfortably eat - so, I will take some of that breakfast portion and have it for a snack a couple of hours after breakfast. That way I am still getting in my calories, etc, and don't have to worry about having two snacks listed for the day. The one thing that bothers me, though, is that I don't know if I am getting in enough fruit. I love fruit and feel it's important to get a few servings a day. It is often listed at breakfast and for one snack, but not so much during the rest of the day. I like to have at least three a day, so I am trying to fit an extra one in without going over my calories, etc. One thing that shocked me is how many calories and carbs there are in a banana - they suggest to eat half a banana, but who eats half a banana - they would go yucky :-) So, when they suggest a banana, I have a whole one and just cut down somewhere else. I have become much more aware of the calories, etc. in foods - even to the point where I was checking that info on my friend's lunch food the other day. :-) It's good to be aware, but at the same time, I need to make sure that I don't go crazy over all this stuff. Moderation in all things is a good saying to go by. Having said that, I am hoping that when I get on the scales this morning, that I am down five pounds so that I can buy a chocolate bar when I walk up to the store this morning. :-)

How fast time goes!

I can't believe how long it's been since I did a blog and I had planned on doing one every day. Some of the days I was too tired and on Monday I was sick, so that's my excuse. :-) I am pleased to report that I have lost another pound - for a total of four pounds lost so far. :-) I am finding that I can keep up with the menu plan and quite enjoy working out what to eat and recording it. I won't go back and tell you what I have eaten for the past five days. But for today: breakfast - bagel and cream cheese, lunch - egg salad in a pita, green peppers with french dressing, supper - sweet and sour meatballs over rice. Mike and I bought some raspberry sorbet earlier this week and it's a lovely low cal treat - we just have half a cup and it's just enough to satisfy a sweet tooth. I don't think I would want to get used to having some every night, but it's nice once in a while. The exercise hasn't gone according to plan this week. Monday, after yoga, I threw up so there went the strength training. Yesterday, Mike and I did do our ten minute walk. Tonight, however, the weather was not co-operating and so we didn't get in our walk or our strength training (we were both too tired to do it once we got home from Krystal's). We are planning on taking our ten minute walk tomorrow night and hopefully will get back on track starting on Friday.

Only a little hungry

Today I still felt a little hungry, but not as hungry as yesterday. I had a similar meal plan to yesterday, but it seemed to go a little better. I did add an extra fruit today (two pineapple rings) and perhaps that was just enough to make it so it wasn't as bad as yesterday. And I saved my yogurt for after our walk tonight - that helps a bit since it's nice to have something after exercising. Normally, I think it would work better to take our walk before dinner, but I stayed at school late tonight and so by the time I got home, it was 6pm and by the time we got finished with making dinner and eating it, it was 7:30pm. I got my 2 litres of water in today - I found that by carrying it around with me in the classroom rather than keeping it on my desk, it was visible to me and so I drank more. I am rarely at my desk during the day, so bringing it to where I usually am in the classroom made it easier for me to get my water down. Mike and I had a good walk today - 2.2 miles - but now I feel too tired and too strained to do my strength workout. So, I am going to have to do it tomorrow - which is okay since I won't be doing my next workout until Monday so I will still have two days in between my workouts. It's hard on Fridays to get up the energy to do so much exercising, but finding 30 minutes on a Saturday should be workable. Menu today: breakfast - waffles, maple syrup, milk, orange juice, strawberries, lunch - turkey and tomato on a bagel with mustard, pretzels, snacks - pretzels, pineapple, yogurt, supper - pork tenderloin, rice, mixed vegetables. We added half a tablespoon of soy sauce to the rice to make it more tasty since I'm not fussed on plain rice, but I think we needed to add the full tablespoon, so next time, we'll do that and see how it tastes. I decided today that I am going to give myself a treat when I lose five pounds - I think that will help me to keep on track when I am feeling a little hungry. They say that you shouldn't treat yourself to food, but I am going to anyway. :-) I am going to allow myself to have a chocolate bar at that first goal. When I get to ten pounds loss, I am going to get my nails done. I will have to think about what I will do at fifteen pounds.

still hungry today

I really don't like the hungry feeling I am getting - it's been three days now. I wonder if I am eating less calories than I was when I was eating like Weight Watchers. I will give it a little while longer since my body will take some time to get used to this amount of food. I do like eating healthy - I think it's good for the body and the mind. :-) I haven't been eating as much fruit as I would like - for instance, today I only had strawberries for breakfast and in my yogurt and an apple for one of my snacks. I would like to fit in more fruit in the day. I really like fruit and I am sure that I can fit it in somewhere. I didn't get my ten minutes of cardio in today (one of my goals is to do at least ten minutes of cardio a day), but I won't beat myself up about it. It's hard to fit in on Thursdays as I have homework club and then go straight up to Terri-Ann's for my date night with Colin. Perhaps I could walk at lunch time since it's only for ten minutes - hey, that's a good idea. :-) Today's menu: breakfast - 2 pancakes, strawberries, maple syrup, milk, lunch - turkey on a bagel with tomatoes, snacks - strawberry yogurt, jam on crackers, supper - ham, rice with tomatoes and kidney beans, corn, milk.