I’ve Been Bad

Yes, I’ve been bad, in more ways that one. I realized that I haven’t updated my blog since January, and I’ve fallen off the wagon in regards to really paying attention to what I eat. So far I’ve maintained my weightloss, although I have no idea how. I also have a new incentive to get back in the habit, my friend Lucy’s wedding is coming up and she has asked me to be her bridesmaid, so I definitely have to look better for the wedding pics!!

So, to kick-off a new phase I’m doing a whole body cleansing, which I’ve heard helps to clear out your body and give you lots of energy, both of which I need. Today is day one.

Weight: 182.7lbs

Results of Cleansing:
Nothing, yet, since this is my first morning.

9:30am:
McCann’s Quick Cooking Oats with 1 tsp of each of the following… dried cranberries, blueberries, cherries and raisins, almonds, walnuts and wheat germ
Mix1 Hi-Antioxidant Fiber Drink in Dark-Berry
GNC UltraMega for Her Vitamins

12:30pm:
Organic Bistro Spiced Chicken Morocco with green beans, carrots and a chickpea-almond pilaf
Rachel’s Relax Vanilla Chai Yogurt

6:45pm
2 cups of fresh pineapple
11oz Vita Coco Coconut Water

8:30pm
Organic Bistro Ginger Chicken with Green Tea Vegetables and Almond Pilaf
1 cup Fage 2% Greek Yogurt
1 Tbs honey

Woohoo!! First Short-Term Goal Achieved

I was quite excited when I weighed in this morning, my first short-term goal of 182.2 lbs has been achieved and passed.

WI: 181.1 lbs

9:40am: Brown Cow Bluberry Nonfat Yogurt, Vita Coco Coconut Water with Peach & Mango, Honest Tea Pearfect White Tea
12:15pm: Organic Bistro Spiced Chicken Morocco While Life Meal and a bottle of sparkling water
3:05pm: 10 baby carrots & cup of herbal tea
6:00pm: 6″ Subway Turkey Breast on Honey Oat, no cheese, with oil &vinegar dressing and veggies, most of a bag of Baked Lays, and a bottle of water
9:00pm: Gym
10:00pm: PowerBar Performance in Chocolate

The Discovery Channel National Body Challenge is starting again and I’m signing up for that to see how their workout and recipes are. And next week my office’s version of The Biggest Loser starts, so I’ve joined that as incentive to keep losing weight.

A New Year

Wow, what a crazy week it has been! I haven’t had time to update my blog, but I’ll work a little bit on it all day to keep things going.

Work has been insane with the end of quarter, lots of budget issues, getting invoices in, etc. Plus the rebranding work, of course, trying to get that through.

NYE was a crazy night of too much alcohol, extremely sexy men and hot women! Susan arranged a Pajama Party and those men (yes, only some of the men didn’t “dress up”) who didn’t wear pajamas were seized and we attempted to strip them to put them into other pajamas. But, I think we were too drunk by the time we attempted that, so we only got a few shirts half off. Way too much alcohol that night left me extremely hungover, enough so that I plan on avoiding any alcohol for a while.

My goal for today: Get in at least a 15 minute workout.

My goal for at least the next 2 weeks, if not longer: No alcohol!!!!

WI: 183.8
I didn’t make my short-term goal by New Year’s Day, due to way too much eating out the week between Christmas and New Years, but I at least maintained that week.

After Christmas

I’m so proud of myself for being careful during the holidays and not only maintaining my weight, but actually losing a little bit. Despite Christmas dinner and going out to eat, I’ve still been careful to keep portions small, but still eat the things I like. It’s been a crazy week, between work, shopping for Christmas and Christmas dinner. Had a few friends over and after dinner we went to the living room and played games. I think I’ve gotten them addicted to Taboo, lol. I haven’t done my 15 Minute workout the past few days, so going to try to get that in at some point today. Only plans for today are meeting friends in San Francisco for dinner, followed by another friend’s birthday, in San Fracisco.

WI: 183.3

Update: Time to leave for SF came more quickly than expected, so while I didn’t get a 15 Minute workout in, I did dance for hours on Saturday night, enough that I was really feeling it in my legs the next morning.

Blah, Blah, Blah

Did I just not know what to write or is the title a reflection of my mood? At this point I just don’t know.

Did my weigh-in this morning and down another pound, but that’s probably more reflective of my being a bit sick yesterday. Don’t know what was wrong, just suddenly got extremely nauseous at work around lunchtime, so I came home. The nausea faded until late in the evening, when it came back slightly. But, I wasn’t able to eat much, so hopefully I won’t have a rebound after eating today. Especially considering this weekend was a total bust, diet-wise.

A night of way too many drinks on Friday night, although I didn’t have much dinner, but the calories from drinks add up. Saturday, I only ate 1 major meal, but it was good ol’ Southern comfort food, chicken fried steak, 2 eggs over medium, country potatoes, toast and grits, along with a corn muffin with butter. Then my friend Grace took me to her favorite place for pie and I had a slice of the banana cream she recommended. Went to a friends place to watch a boxing match and avoided the pizza, but did have a nice glass of wine. And then Sunday, went to dim sum with a couple of friends, followed by half of a cheeseburger for lunch (took the other half home) with some potato salad and some cookies and other sweets from a wonderful bakery. Dinner was at a Korean sushi place, where I had some spicy pork with some tuna and salmon sashimi. So, now to recover over the week.

WI: 186.8

So, on to a better week, hopefully. But, how do I stay on track while in Vegas this weekend?

Breakfast: 365 (Whole Foods brand) Nonfat Peach Yogurt
Lunch: Organic Bistro Sockeye Salmon Cakes Whole Life Meal with Ginger-Bean Medley and Confetti Pilaf. I really wanted to like this more than I did, but then again, I got it knowing that I’m not a big fan of salmon, but I’m trying to teach myself to like it. I did like the medley with ginger-scented (couldn’t taste or smell it) edamame, sugar snap peas and green beans, but the pilaf was ‘meh.’ At least this meal had tons of vegetables, as do apparently all of the meals in this line. The lack of non-carb heavy meals in the diet frozen dinners usually annoys me, but is this meal worth the higher calorie count and larger price tag? I’ll try some of the other meals by Organic Bistro to find out. Otherwise I’ll just stick to buying frozen veggies and stirring them into my frozen meals.
Dinner: Amy’s Organics Black Bean Tamale Verde with Rice Whole Meal. Yum! At least for the verde sauce, really tangy and perfect. The tamale was good and moist, but otherwise lacked flavor, other than the verde sauce and the masa. The rice was pretty decent and moist.

Head Space

Hmm, in an odd mood today, don’t know the reason. I’m still feeling pretty positive about getting my health and lifestyle together, but still my emotional state feels a bit odd, but I can’t put my finger on it. My stomach was pretty upset in the middle of the night, so I overslept this morning, so I’m now working from home. Working from home is usually more productive, so that’s a positive, and I always eat better since I don’t have to worry about finding lunch, which I usually forget to take, or even worse I eat whatever food is catered in, which is never really healthy.

Have 3 conference calls today, so it’ll be pretty busy, but I’d rather be busy than have nothing to do. (Well 3 con calls turned into 6, somehow)

WI: 187.8
Breakfast: Brown Cow Apricot Mango Nonfat Yogurt
Morning Snack: Kashi Go Lean Oatmeal with added brown sugar, dried fruit, almonds and walnuts
Lunch: 1c potato salad
Dinner: Subway 6″ turkey sandwich on honey oat bread, no cheese, with lettuce, carrots, pickles and oil & vinegar; baked lays sour cream & onion

Workout: went to workout with Jung at the gym around 8:30, got a good start into getting back in the habit. (actual workout will be it’s own post to more easily follow)

Skin is going nuts, went with my friend Lucy to get Mary Kay facials, even though I knew better! I washed my face as soon as I got home, but my skin is so irritated that it’s itchy, flaky and rough in even more places than before the facial. Even tried the microdermabrasion, and even though I was really gentle, it really scraped up my face. The cheek I used it on was tender for hours afterwards, although when I washed my face when I got home, the skin there was very smooth and I wondered if it would actually be a good thing. Apparently not, when I woke up the next morning the skin that was so smooth the night before had become rougher than the skin that I didn’t use the stuff on and is really dry and slightly irritated now. No way will I ever use that stuff again.

Personal Goals for tomorrow: Go to the gym with Jung again and get in a lower body workout plus cardio; work on my knitting for Christmas; unpack another box

A pic from my birthday…

Birthday boy and girl

Hello world!

What can I say? I actually like the automated title from WordPress, so I think I’ll keep it.Well, since it is the beginning of my blog, we will start with the beginning… Of today, that is.

*****

Skin & Makeup

Well, as I mentioned in my “About” section, I have recently been diagnosed with eczema, well I’ve started getting my first “flare up” on my face in the last two weeks and today I woke up with my eyes half swollen shut from the flare up getting so much worse in the last day and a half, so I went to the doctor’s office and she decided to give me a steroid shot, in an effort to get this to heal more quickly, so hopefully the worst of this will be gone in the next two days. One thing I’ve read about is keeping track of what I’m eating and what products I use on my skin and anywhere near my face, so I will be using this blog to log all of that, both as a record of that, but also to show what kinds of makeup the makeup junkie in me is using day in and day out.

Today is easy, since I wasn’t able to use much of anything

• Murad Energizing Pomegranate Moisturizer SPF 15
• Neosporin LT Lip Treatment

*****

Health, Fitness & Diet

Since I went to the Dr, I had to get on the scale (don’t you hate that) and the result… 187lbs. Luckily, I learned last time I was there that the Dr’s scale is a few pounds more than the scale at Weight Watchers, so I haven’t regained too much, hopefully.

Today’s Diet

• Breakfast
  • Stonyfield Farm Lowfat Yogurt Blueberry, 6 oz -0 points
  • Regular Coffee, 1 cup (8 fl oz) – 0 points
  • Tea, brewed, 8 fl oz – 0 points
  • Sucralose (like Splenda), 1 tsp – 0 points
  • Silk Vanilla Soymilk Plus Fiber, 0.25 cup – 0.5 Points
  • Nature Made Multi For Her with Calcium & Iron, 1 serving – vitamin
• Lunch
  • Lean Cuisine Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza, 1 serving – 7 points
  • Weight Watchers Sweet and Salty 2 Point Bar, 1 serving – 2 points
• Dinner
  • Grilled Chicken Capri, 1 serving – 11 points
  • Vitalicious VitaBrownie, 1 serving – 1 point

Reflections on today’s meal: Breakfast could have used some fruit added to it, or added as a morning snack, preferably with some healthy fats, such as almonds. Lunch could have definitely used some fruits and/or vegetables. Dinner, while delicious, again could have used some fruits and/or vegetables and the VitaBrownie, while ok, was not the best brownie I’ve ever had, but did satisfy my sweets craving for only 1 point. Overall, while an ok day, only going 0.5 points over my daily target, was seriously lacking in fruits and vegetables. Notes for tomorrow’s meals: Take in mixed fruits and veggies, pick up some almonds for when I need some fats and proteins to add to a snack.

*****

The book scene

• Current Read: Radical Cure by Olivia Gates from the Silhouette Bombshell series
• Synopsis: Working in war zones while treating the sick and wounded, Dr. Calista St. James is used to being under siege. But now, her team has been deliberately infected with a seemingly incurable and mysterious agent that simulates both chemcial and biological afflictions — and all signs point to it being an inside job.
  Before Calista can expose the traitor, or the truth, she has to travel worlds away with her former mentor, maybe lover and definitely uncertain quantity black-ops agent Damian De Luna — a man she loves, trusts with her life but doesn’t trust to ever tell her the truth — to find the cure.
  Radical steps are needed to stop this deadly outbreak, but can Calista stop the breakdown of everything she’s dedicated her life to building and fighting for?
• Review: This is a medical suspense novel, second in a series. While the base storyline is interesting, the author doesn’t segue well between scenes, which can be very jarring and tends to ruin the overall read.

www.PaperbackSwap.com Books Sent or Received Today:

• Received: The Dark One by Ronda Thompson, Book 2 in the Wild Wulfs of London series