oh hello - it's been awhile

Original Weight 320lbs
Lowest Weight 210
Current Weight 228 (frowny face)

Wow, I haven't blogged here since February. And in February I was talking about how I wasn't doing well.  AND I'm still not doing well. My lowest was around 215 (I did get to 210 for a minute) and now I am back up to 228...No Bueno.

I have a ton of excuses -- working nights (boy that does a number on your metabolism!), going to school, helping my husband with the social media part of his business, taking kids to their sports  events and practices -- ugh. But really they are all excuses. And I need to get over myself

Today I started a running program from Runner's World it's a lot like C25K but easier to do. I did about 8.5 minutes of running (okay, jogging) and 45 minutes of walking. I picked the hottest day of the year, during the hottest part of the day and thought I was.going.to.die. As a matter of fact I'm currently lying on the couch, computer on the floor, typing with one finger, trying not to smell myself -- it's not a pretty sight.

But I started.

Healthier Version of Shepherd's Pie

For the month of February we have decided to do a no spend month -- where we try not to spend any extra money on non essential items -- I'm blogging about it here on my other blog -- I thought though I'd include this lower calorie healthier version of shepherd's pie because it's relevant for both my blogs and I just got to cut and paste and feel all accomplished that I updated both blogs in one day (insert smiley face)

Jason's been in the mood for some comfort food and he specifically asked for Shepherd's pie. But Shepherd's pie isn't really on the super healthy side of things and so I tried to come up with a healthier yet yummy version....and I did. And now I'm going to share it with you.

 Potato topping was a combo of cauliflower and potatoes, instead of whipping cream, butter, cheese, whatever, I used fat free greek yogurt

 Lots of sauteed vegetables

 Combination of lean beef and turkey

 and I used vegetable broth to deglaze the pan and tomato sauce and worcestershire sauce for flavoring (and some pepper and parsley)

 One for us, one to give a way and one for the freezer

  And dinner was a hit for everyone...even hubby, who didn't look very convinced when I was putting it all together.

The Recipe:

3 pounds 93%/ lean ground beef

1 pound 93% lean ground turkey

1 cup of chopped up carrots

1 cup of chopped up celery

2 cups chopped up mushrooms (Isaac didn't even know they were in there)

1-2 tablespoons of garlic

1 package of frozen peas

1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce

1 15 oz can of tomato sauce

2 cups of vegetable broth

3 pounds of potatoes

1 head of cauliflower

1 cup of fat free Fage greek yogurt

pepper and parsley to taste (I didn't add salt because of the worcestershire sauce and vegetable broth)

boil potatoes w/ skin and steam cauliflower, whip with yogurt and set aside.

while boiling and steaming, saute vegetables

set aside

brown mean

mix with vegetables

deglaze pan with vegetable broth and pour into meat mixture

add peas, tomato sauce, pepper & worcestershire sauce

Divide evenly between 3 8x8 pans and top with potato mixture

sprinkle pepper and parsley on top

freeze two and bake one at 350, covered for 45 minutes and uncovered for 5 minutes.

ENJOY

each 8x8 serves 10

calories 162, fat 4.5, carbohydrates 15, protein 15, sodium 247, fiber 2g

Wednesday Weigh In

Original Weight: 320
Last Week's Weight: 220 (ugh)
Lowest Weight: 207
Today's Weight: 216

Total down: 104 (sort of yay)
Down from last week: 4 (yay)
Up from lowest: 9 (not so yay)

I'm slowly getting back to the basics. Choosing high protein items, trying not to snack/graze between meals. Each day I'm doing better at this. Not completely on target, but getting closer than I was.

AND today is day 4 sans sugar.

AND my family is still intact.

On Monday I went snowmobiling with the family. It's the first time I've gone since I've lost weight and it was a much different than before --

 I wasn't terrified of getting all the way up there only to find out they didn't have a suit big enough for me.

I wasn't terrified that they had a weight limit and I would get up there only to find out I couldn't ride.

I was sure that my child would fit behind me on the snowmobile.

It was good to feel these things (none of these things ever happened, I was just afraid it would have happened).

Here are some pictures -- let's just say, no one looks good in these snow suits.

suiting up --

 joy (sarcasm) -- and in case you didn't know what size suit I was in, it's right there, x-tra large, short

 It was a beautiful day in Colorado on Monday, sunny and crisp

 Jake tried out driving in the meadow a bit

 Post mobiling popcorn

Jake, sigh, on his phone....well at least we got him engaged and laughing when we went out to eat afterwards.

Okay, done playing on my blog and reading yours for a bit, I have to get down to it and write a paper. Tell me again why I thought going back to school was a good idea? And if I EVER decide to get my PhD, please feel free to do an intervention.

snicker

So feeling a bit better. I'm not usually such a debbie-downer, but I think this time around was a pre-cold mini-depression.  I also found out that my A1C (diabetic marker) was borderline at 5.9 (which equates to an average of 135 blood sugars)and my serum vitamin D was low -- all three contributing to being logy. Of course -- my cold symptoms do go away when I sleep so I'm kicking around the idea that I may be allergic to being awake.

I spent all day yesterday NOT eating sugar. This was really really hard. I didn't do so well with other refined carbs (Broncos vs Pats -- the fact I wasn't stress eating chocolate is a major accomplishment -- husband's family from Boston, we currently live and I grew up in Denver -- do the math). So although not stellar, better than I've been doing and I'm taking it one day at a time.

Today we're spending time as a family - much to the dismay of the 14 year old who made an impassioned argument about the importance of peer relationships over a three day weekend. We're going snowmobiling (seriously, the 14 year old would rather hang out texting his friends who are inches away than go snowmobiling? I have failed as a mother). The good news is it's really hard to eat while maneuvering a snowmobile with an 11 year old clinging to your back yelling, "Faster mom, keep up with dad"

well dad has a freakin' death wish, so no, I won't be keeping up with dad.

sorry kiddo.

so today I should be able to keep my food in check and get some physical activity.

If we live, I will post pictures later

Have a great day all.

ugh!

struggling...

I've gained even more weight. Was dismayed to see the scale creep (ok really freaking JUMP) up to 220...I'd been making steady progress down and whoosh.

My body betrays me in this one area.

My mind betrays me as well -- grazing, unthinkingly popping food into my mouth, not being continually present with my food choices.

It gets me down.

(frowny face)

I wonder if it's my wonky schedule.
Working nights is not good for our bodies
for our souls

my off time is spent carting kids around, trying to be the mom I need to be for them, being supportive, making sure they feel loved, making sure their bodies and souls are being fed -- in appropriate and loving holistic ways. Trying to be a loving wife (sex? what's that, who has time and when we do, our schedules are different)

my off time is spent trying to keep the house clean (total fail there, but not feeling horribly bad about that - there are more important things in life - am I right?  no one's died of some incurable bacterial infection -- yet). But I do like the order that comes with a clean organized house.

my off time is spent furthering my education so I can ultimately reach my goal of teaching nursing.  I know the night shift thing is temporary and a means to an end to reach my goal of teaching as is taking this time to make school work within my hectic schedule.

Even though I am doing this all for a particular goal, it still is so hard at times.

I'm completely overwhelmed.

so, ugh.

Man Loses Weight at McDonald's -- I am conflicted

So years ago I watched the documentary Super Size Me, where a physically fit guy, who I believe was actually a vegetarian, ate at McDonald's for a month, and if the people there offered to super size the meal he would do it. He gained a lot of weight, developed a non-alcoholic fatty-liver and felt miserable.

This makes sense, because McDonald's, although I admit is freakin' delicious in a guilt-ridden-I-know-this-isn't-real-food-saucy-two-patties-with-three-buns-and-sugar-coated-french-fry kinda way, is HORRIBLE for you.

Then this teacher in Ohio decided to debunk this. His premise is that McDonald's (or any other fast food place) doesn't make us fat, but rather our choices make us fat. He did this as an experiment with his students. He and his students figured out how to eat at McDonald's for 2000 kcals a day and keep close to the recommended amount of nutrients (carbs, fats, & proteins -- although I fail to see how he would have gotten the recommended amounts of all minerals and vitamins given the limitation of what is offered). He lost 37 pounds in three months and lowered his cholesterol. He also added 45 minutes of walking a day (which is probably the more important behavioral change). The thing is, he would have lost weight had he limited his kcals to 2000 eating from ANYWHERE and exercised as he was quite a bit over weight and probably had better results, at least healthier results - as health isn't JUST about weight and cholesterol levels. My question is - could he maintain this and/or lose more weight if he continued this? What health concerns, if any, would appear if this was his daily regimen for the rest of the year?

I agree with his premise that we are about our choices (well I agree choices combined with genetics).  But what I hope is that people don't 'run' with this and decide McDonald's is a healthy way to eat.  There is no variety of fruits and vegetables -- yes they offer choices with fruits and vegetables, but you really need a VARIETY. Their lean meat choices are limited to grilled chicken. I do think, and have always thought, that once or twice a month, fast food places like this are okay to partake -- but not daily and CERTAINLY not three times a day.

My kids love fast food -- and why wouldn't they? It's so salty and sweet, it speaks to our very core of our neanderthal brain (salt and sweet kept us alive -- thank you dear ancestors). It is so difficult to temper their wishes with healthy choices and this experiment once the teen ears in my house heard it made for an interesting conversation that involved whining. (THIS they pay attention to, but not say ANYTHING ELSE NEWSWORTHY).

Our conclusion-edict-because-I'm-the-parent-that's-why finish to our conversation was that we will continue to only go to fast food during baseball/basketball/swim/karate tournament type days when we're running around like crazy and even then only a couple times a month. We'll pepper this with Subway/Chipotle/Teriyaki Joe/Garbanzo type places -- which are still fast but have healthier choices.

For instance today, I took Jake to the Orthodontist (one more visit and the braces are off...whoot) and he was going to miss lunch at school so I took him to lunch. He wanted Taco Bell (um, not only no, but hell no) and so I gave him the choice between Subway or Chipotle, he chose the latter.

I had, black beans, chicken, fajita veggies, the fresh tomato salsa, and a little cheese. Jake had a cheese and chicken quesadilla.

My choice totaled:
430 cals, 16g fat, 28g carbs, 48g of protein and 12g of fiber (I only ate half, so half this for me)
Jake's choice totaled:
(not as healthy + he finished my other half -- he's a 6'1" 14 year old boy, what he can eat astounds me especially because he's a stick -- ugh!)
580 kcals, 24g fat, 45g carbs, 2g fiber, 47g protein

If we had gone to McDonald's (oops, should have picked Taco Bell -- where he wanted to go) he would have had the Big Mac and fries
surprisingly the big mac had less calories and more fiber than the quesadilla, but higher in fat and lower in protein
550 kcals, 29g fat, 3 g fiber, 25g protein and 46g of carbs BUT then he would have gotten the fries too which would have added 500 kcals, 25g of fat, 63 carbs, 6g of protein and 6g of fiber -- that's over 1k in calories for one meal.

wow.

McDonald's nutritional info found here
Chipotle's nutritional info found here

What do I eat when we are out and about? Well let me tell you.

McDonald's
Grilled chicken sandwich, extra tomato, no mayo and I only eat half the chicken and 1/4 of the bun
I'll order the kids sliced apples with it
Wendy's
small chili, no cheese
Starbucks
feta, egg white, spinach wrap and eat half
Chipotle
no rice bowl with chicken, fajita veggies, black beans and cheese (eat half)
Teriyaki Joes
chicken, veggies, no rice and teriyaki sauce children's bowl
Subway
grilled chicken salad, eat half
Garbanzo's
falafel and hummus

We are a product of our choices (and our genetics) and it's important to feed our bodies the nutrients we need. AND we're busy people and sometimes fast food is something we need to do to get through the day.  I think it's good that this teacher brought to light there can be healthy choices.  I myself have been making those healthy choices.  However, it scares me that his excessive point-making will start a new McDonald's lose weight craze and he's going to be the new Jared (of Subway success).

By the way, what ever happened to Jared?

Vegan Lasagna

So I made Vegan Lasagna last night....

and...

Just NO

no

That's all.

Vegan Latkes

So I explained before we are having family visit who are Vegan and I'm more of a psuedo-paleo kinda gal.  So for dinner a couple nights ago I made Latkes - Vegan style for my guests and I put a big dollop of plain greek yogurt to give me that protein punch.  They were pretty darn good. I shall share the recipe -- I'm not even going to try and figure out the calories -- suffice it to say, this would be one of those comfort food meals.

4 russet potatoes, 4 small red potatoes, shredded
1 yellow onion chopped finely
salt and pepper
1.5 cups of potato starch
5 big matzoh crackers crushed

for the binder (because Vegans don't do anything with or from a face so I didn't use eggs)
6 tbs vegetable oil
6 tbs baking powder
6 tbs of warm water

Mix everything together
Make patties, thin

deep fry in vegetable oil until golden brown

place on paper towels or brown paper grocery bags.
Makes about thirty small latkes.

And they were freakin' yummy.

Yesterday we spent the day in Denver; it was unseasonably warm so it was a great day to do it -- you can see how on my other blog Zimmerhouse

Have a great day

Haven't broken a resolution yet

It's the morning of January 2nd and I'm happy to say I have not yet broken a resolution -- whoot. I'm all about celebrating the little things.

Of course, I slept most of yesterday since I worked New Year's night and got a total of 3 hours of sleep the 24 hours previous and was really really tired -- slept 'til 4 which was awesome.

To help me kick start the year I think I'm going to join in the weight loss boot camp at shrinking jeans. Come join me (along with some other bloggers and a big thanks to Linda for sharing!)

I was looking at my progress for the last year and while it wasn't what I wanted, it was still down.

• I started 2013 in the 230's and I'm 15+ pounds down from that -- this is not a bad thing
• I can shop in the regular stores - I even bought jeans, JEANS at Old Navy and they fit, not even snugly
• I don't feel people stare at me in horror
• I am okay with the way I look, I don't love the way I look, but I don't look at myself in horror
• I finally - four years after nursing school - have a job in a hospital (that whole we need nurses thing isn't really the case in the Denver area and it is really difficult to find hospital nursing jobs -- I've been working as a nurse but that hospital experience is necessary for my goals, so glad I finally got it and I'm loving it)
• Not only am I on the floor, I'm working nights and staying awake through the shift and have enough energy to care for my patients even in the 12th hour of my night shift
• I am back in school to get my teaching certification so I can teach nursing (one of my nursing goals -- my other is to eventually go into Hospice)

2013 has been good!
2014 will be good as well!

A cousin from DC is coming to visit today, she'll be here until Sunday.  She and her son are Vegan.  Gah! I'm more a relaxed version of Paleo.

HMMMMM.

I've got a lot of vegany snacks and I'll have my high protein snacks, but for dinners I'm planning:
Latkes (I'll enjoy mine with plain greek yogurt)
Vegan Lasagna -- it's made with a cashew cheese and soy cheese - so plenty of protein
Tofu Stir Fry

It was kind of fun looking for Vegan-high protein meals.  I've been kicking around the idea of going Vegan a couple days a week -- mostly to help Jason with his cholesterol issues - studies show a Vegan plan helps tremendously with high lipids.  But there's no way EVAH he'll go Vegan completely -- but a couple days a week would be a good compromise.

I'm scheduled to work tonight, but I asked to get called off if they don't have enough patients -- snow is pretty melted and it'll be 51 today - so no ice issues to cause accidents. The New Year's Revelers are back at work and not being stupid any more. So pray the skiers don't hit any trees, no car accidents and people aren't riding their horses and falling off so that I don't have to go in and I can visit with my out of town vegan family.

2014 - whoot and where the H-E double toothpicks did 2013 go

Wow, I haven't been on here since October -- very very bad blogger. I have to say, I have not done well. It's been quite an adjustment working nights and trying to figure out my food with this new crazy work schedule. And of course there's the whole holiday season thing and it's a much different animal one and a half years from surgery than six months from surgery and that animal was a chunky-monkey-chocolate-loving-cheeto-chompin' critter who couldn't keep her digits out of the cookie jar.

I'm not going to lament over the damage I've done.
The damage is a total of 9 pounds from my absolute lowest and 6 pounds up from where I've been hovering.

I've done worse.

And all in all I'm still happy with the success I've accomplished with weight loss.

And I looked pretty good during various holiday celebrations

see

 This was at my husband's company Christmas party. I wore a sweater dress -- I never thought I'd be able to do the whole sweater dress thing so it was nice to be able to. I wore it with black tights and boots -- yay boots. Had to buy the wide calf ones, but still felt really good to be wearing a pretty trendy hip outfit and look halfway decent. It had been a year since I've seen a lot of his co-workers  and I got some nice compliments. For which I was embarrassed but enjoyed.

 Our at home Christmas eve party -- I was super tired, I worked five shifts in a row right before this party and then stayed up getting ready for this one. If you want to you can read about it on my family blog here

So this is what happens when you're married to someone with a wicked sense of humor who had a little too much egg-nog. I had no idea what he was doing (I too imbibed in spiked egg nog -- see nine pounds up above). What a rascal -- what can I say, I love him and since we're not going into politics, I'm good with posting this embarrassing picture on the internet (seriously, it's still 'cleaner' than a lot of selfies I've seen going around :D) -- we can safely assume, my husband is happy with the way I've been looking lately (snicker).

So what is 2014 to bring?
My ultimate goal -- is to get through it alive. I'll be in school until July -- I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I'm going back for a post-master's educational certificate. That with working nights, playing chauffeur and managing the household (not to mention a date night or two) I think getting through 2014 alive is an appropriate goal....

As for weight loss goals. I'd really like to get to my goal weight of 180 (36 pounds). To do that I need to go back to the basics.
1. Eat every 3-4 hours -- this one is difficult to do while working because I get in at 7pm and am so busy, I don't even sit down to chart until midnight, which is when I usually grab something to eat. Then I'm back up and running around and all of the sudden it's 730 am and time to go home.

how to help this one -- 1. eat snack on way to work. 2. be okay with a 5 hour lag of time and don't make it an excuse to graze on the ridiculously amount of candy that's lying around the unit. 3. use a protein drink as 'creamer' for my coffee. 4. Bring easy to eat protein snack to eat around 3-4 am.

2. Drink more water -- I've been totally sucking at this (see above). Keep water bottle on my WOW (that wheel around computer gizmo). Drink a glass of water right before I jump into bed.

3.RECORD MY FOOD (nuf' said)

4. Blog more. This probably doesn't sound like something people would put on a list of things to do to be successful in weight loss, but sharing my feelings seems to help. I attribute a lot of my success at the beginning of this journey to blogging. This also means, reading all of your blogs. Truly all of you are such inspirations.

5. STEP AWAY FROM THE REFINED CRAPOLA -- I'm not going to go all gluten-free, no sugar, never 'treat' myself to comfort food again. BUT I can make it a goal to refrain from doing that every five seconds.  Having something 'off-plan' three or four times a week is doable.

6. exercise -- ugh. I gotta do it. We all gotta do it. I feel better when I do do it. Why oh why do I not
just do it!

These are my goals. I think they're pretty realistic

So - stats:
at the beginning of 2014 I am at:
216
highest 320
lowest (since the surgery) 207
goal 180

Kay -- I'm gonna go catch up on all your blogs and see what your plans are for the new year!