Tortilla Tuesday

This is probably not going to become a long term thing, but welcome to the inaugural addition of Tortilla Tuesday.  There are a few things I've found (this these chicken nuggets), that are easy, healthy things to eat.  One of those things, are high fiber, low carb tortillas by Ole.  Each one has 73 calories and 12g of fiber, enough said (Erin lovingly refers to them as my poop tortillas, but trust me, they taste great). 

I use them for lots of things, most often for chicken enchiladas, yum!  It's an easy way for me to curb carb cravings without feeling guilty since most of the carbs are fiber.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find them outside of Pensacola, so I have to import them when I visit.  It also means that I have only myself to eat them, and once a package is opened, they need to be eaten.  Hence, Tortilla Tuesday, a forum I will use to post different ways to use the tortillas (because they shouldn't get boring).

Tonight's edition: Pizza Quesadillas, an idea that I got from Pinterest, of course.

I often have used the tortillas as a base for pizza, but never thought of folding it to make it easier to eat (duh).  It made it so much easier!

My pizza quesadillas (2 of them, yum, it was like eating 2 big pieces of pizza), were a total of about 330 calories (the calorie equivalent of 1 typical piece of pizza). 

I used a little bit of canned pasta sauce (like Ragu) as the base.  The toppings were mushrooms, onions, and turkey pepperoni.  Sprinkle on a bit of fat free mozzarella (1/2 cup total) and some oregano, fold in half, and pop in the oven (350 degrees) for about 10 mins.

 It was delish, and super satisfying!  Not only knocked out a carb craving, but a pizza craving as well!

I had my second personal training session today, and I loved it!  My last one is Friday, and despite all of my complaining over the weekend because I was sore, I do think I'll miss it.  Sad. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Eat All the Things!

I promised Mollye that I would blog about brunch yesterday, so here it is!  Pensacola does brunch well, and despite my desire to lose weight, apparently my desire to eat all the things, such as a jumbo chocolate chip pancake, won out.  I had dreamt about pancakes, there was nothing I could do (and apparently Bobby dreamt about the amazing cinnamon roll french toast that he "split" with Mollye, oh the life of a low carb diet!)

Behold breakfast!

This is about half of the food on our table.  There were 9 of us, but one is actually 9 (or maybe 8), and one is 9 months, so I feel like they don't count (although Cole ate most of his omelet, it was impressive).  

As you can tell, this was not a good weekend for me food wise.  I can only hope to kick my butt enough in the gym this week to work it off.  Sakief tried to talk me out of eating all the things, but also knows better than to fight with me when I want food, haha, good man.

We had an incredible weekend, and I can't wait for him to be here in a few weeks!  I have lots of fun activities planned, but the best part is just getting to spend time together (cue the sappy music). 

I did manage to drag my overeating butt to the gym today, despite the fact that I'm still incredibly sore from Friday's personal training work out.  Ow.  What I learned from Friday is that I'm not anywhere close to being in shape.  And my body is paying for it dearly.  I go again tomorrow, pray for me, haha.

Falling Off

Let's skip the pleasantries.  I lost two pounds this week!  I'm hoping this means that I'm falling off the plateau that I had apparently unable to find the edge to for the past few weeks.  I'll reserve final judgment on that until next week's weigh in. 

Even though it's a few days late, I did also manage to make it into a new decade.  And I'd love to never go back.

This is going to be a short post, as I woke up late and need to eat some breakfast and get my lazy butt out the door for heart rate monitor fitting and personal training, woo hoo!

Stats:
Total weight loss: 56.5 lbs
Weight to go: 43.5 lbs
Work outs this week: 2 (sigh)

Weight to go before 6/13: 3.5 lbs

Salsa Chicken

I was going to wait to blog again until tomorrow, but I'm bored, relaxed, and not ready to fall asleep yet.

First of all, let me share my newest Pinterest recipe (that I'm absolutely IN LOVE with and so excited that I tried!).  It's a crock pot recipe which automatically makes it AWESOME, and super duper easy.  May I introduce, Salsa Chicken! 

4 chicken breasts (frozen or thawed)
1 cup salsa
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (light and low sodium if you can)
1 packet taco seasoning (or Goya like I used, yum)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt

Put chicken breasts in crock pot.  Mix salsa and soup together and pour over chicken.  Add spices.  Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours (I did low for 8, the whole work day thing).  Shred chicken with a fork, add Greek yogurt and stir together.

I served mine over broccoli since I needed/wanted more green veggies with my meals, but I think I could come up with something better.  The broccoli didn't match the flavor of the chicken well, but the chicken was incredible anyway.  Creamy and low fat, yum!

I managed to still not have my first personal training session yesterday, this time it was my fault.  I talked myself into going to Blues of the Green with Adam, Erin, Maiya, Jamie, Tommy, etc last night.  I PROMISE that tomorrow I am going, and I will like it!

It's going to be a long day for working out tomorrow too.  Before personal training begins I'm scheduled to get my heart rate monitor all set up, which means running on a treadmill with a crazy mask on to measure my respiratory rate, etc.  The idea is that I will learn what my target heart rates will be to get the most effective work out.  I'm excited.  Sort of.

Despite my failure to make it to personal training yesterday, today was all about pampering.  As part of my new member perks at the gym I got major discounts on a facial and massage.  I had both today, and it was heaven.  I honestly don't think I've been more relaxed, ever.  Here's to hoping that I sleep well tonight, I've been having some serious insomnia issues for the past few weeks and would love to sleep through the night for once. 

Stay tuned for my weigh in tomorrow.  I'm feeling skinny, so I'm hoping for a good number :)

Weekend Wrap Up

Unfortunately, even with eating nothing but veggies on Friday, I still didn't hit my new decade goal on Saturday when I stepped on the scale.  Which is fine.  I'm ever hopeful that this week will be the magical weigh in :)

So how did I handle my consumption this weekend?  Eh.  I would say I was mediocre.  I managed not to go too crazy at the wedding food wise, and ended up skipping cake altogether (seems to be my MO recently, and I LOVE cake!), but I drank entirely too much.  As evidenced by my nasty hangover yesterday.  I'll spare everyone the gory details, but I probably had enough output to balance the input.

I've been really needing to pump myself up recently, and have been feeling like I've hit a plateau.  Well, I've definitely hit one.  Or it's just not been a great few weeks because of the breaks in my schedule.  I realized today that I've only lost 2 lbs in the last 3 weeks.  Couple that with the fact that I didn't meet my last mini goal and I'm a little bummed.  Thankfully I have an incredible boyfriend who doesn't mind listening to me gripe, and keeps my spirits high (along with some other really awesome friends). 

I have also noticed, that while the weight isn't coming off, that my body is still changing (in a good way).  Everything seems to be tightening up and slimming down, especially my thighs.  I'm hoping this is due to the spinning (probably the elliptical too, but mostly the spinning).  I really love that class, and may start going to more than just the Sunday morning one. 

This weekend was all around really lovely.  Beth and Kelly make an absolutely beautiful couple, and I was so honored to share in their joy.  It was also a good weekend with my parents, who spoiled the crap out of me, and didn't even make fun of me (too much) for how hungover I was yesterday.  I definitely deserved it though. 

I almost forgot!  Friday when I met with my personal trainer, it was not what I expected.  It turned out to just be a consultation to figure out a plan for me.  Wednesday will FINALLY be my first personal training work out, and I'm somewhat dreading it based on what he had to tell me.  I was pleased when I went for my work out tonight though because not only did he say hi and that he was glad to see me working out on my own (duh), but that he had seen me Saturday and just didn't have time to say hi.  I really appreciate that he was paying attention, especially with how big the gym is (I think someone told me there are 14,000 members!!  Can that be right?)

In just a few days I'm heading back to PCola for the second time since making my big move, and I absolutely can't wait.  It will have been 5 weeks since I've seen Sakief, which is entirely too long.  This weekend is going to be incredible, I can already tell :)

And finally, I think I need to set some new goals:

1) New decade by THIS WEEK'S WEIGH IN!  (AHHHHHH!)
2) Continue working out 3-4 times/week (wee!)
3) Run a mile without stopping before 7/25 (one month... I should probably start C25k again!)
4) 60 lbs of total weight loss by 6/13 (I have got to get off this damn plateau!)

Oh, and check me out... I was definitely feeling hot this weekend ;)

Will Power, Schmill Power

As I mentioned last week, I was worried about weighing in both this week (and still will be worried) next week.  I have days and days of potential diet downfalls (and lack of time to exercise).

I'm happy to announce that my will power (aka guilt power) has kept me pretty in check so far.  Wednesday, which is typically a work out day, I attended Beth's bachelorette party (obstacle numero uno).  I had a blast despite the fact that I had to be a responsible adult and leave early (and I sober tripped at the end of the night and had to be caught by the bouncers before I face planted, awesome).  Because I knew I had to drive home, I kept my alcohol consumption to a minimum, keeping those additional calories to a minimum as well.  I did eat two pieces of Roppolo's pizza (the BEST street pizza ever), mostly because I was STARVING since we didn't eat until about 10pm.  But I boogied the night away, trying to make up for the fact that I didn't have time to get my work out in (and those two pieces of pizza...).

Last night was obstacle number two, Salt Lick.  For those of you not familiar with Salt Lick, it's one of the most amazing BBQ places in the entire world (for reals).  It's been featured on several foodie shows, including Man vs. Food (Adam didn't have a food challenge here, but you might as well).  To summarize Salt Lick, it's basically all you can eat ribs, sausage and brisket, plus potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, bread, pickles and onions.  And then you can't forget the blackberry or peach (or half and half) cobbler a la mode.  I definitely indulged, but kept my indulgence to a minimum.  It was definitely a blessing in disguise that I didn't exactly feel well all day, so I wasn't particularly interested in making myself even more uncomfortable (fail, I was still uncomfortably full, and I have no desire to eat this morning).  

The last of the big obstacles will be the actual wedding tomorrow night, and then of course brunch the next day (assuming that I'm interested in eating).  Fingers crossed that I won't overdo it!

As far as exercise goes, I'm doing my best to keep it up.  I got work outs in 3 days this week (Friday, Sunday and Monday).  I mentioned last week that I was scheduled for my first personal training session, but that was rescheduled for this afternoon.  Hopefully he doesn't cancel on me again!  I also plan to work out tomorrow since the wedding doesn't start until 7:30pm. 

And lastly, but not leastly (I realize that isn't a word), how much, if any, did I lose this week?  And did I make my goal of a new decade before the wedding? Thankfully I am down to a new lowest weight (2.5 lbs since last Friday), but I just missed a new decade.  Depending on how today goes, I may check my weight tomorrow, to see if I may have actually met the goal.

Today's stats:
Weight lost: 54.5 lbs
To go: 45.4 lbs

Texas is Good For My Health

After the last weigh in, I was still feeling confident, especially since I was able to justify it to myself (whether or not my justifications actually make sense).  But for some reason, even after a pep talk from Cassie, I started feeling low. 

My weigh in following my first week of really working out showed a loss of 4.5lbs, and then I'm gaining?  It almost made me want to give up exercising... if it's not helping it's hurting, right?

Clearly I'm wrong about that.  Exercise, whether I'm losing weight or not, is good for me.  And despite the fact that I didn't think that the number on the scale is moving downward fast enough, I can definitely see a change in how my body looks since I started working out.  They have a long way to go still, but my thighs are definitely slimming out, and it feels different (in a good way) when I put my hands on my hips.  There is less fluff :)

This morning, considering how bad I was feeling, I decided to see exactly how much weight I have lost since moving to Texas. 

11 lbs!

So what exactly am I getting sad about?  Nothing apparently.

And thankfully that was enough to turn my frown upside down.  That and crafts.  I love crafts.  See my Pinterest later :)