A New Commitment

This is what 6 weeks of hard work and learning how to eat healthy food looks like

Twelve Pounds and Ten Inches gone 

I’ve struggled with my weight and body image for a great deal of my life. I’ve always attempted to be active with varying success and have been “donating” to the local Y for 7 years. Dieting has caused me to gain and lose the same 10-15 pounds over and over again (with Medifast & Atkins), because it wasn’t sustainable.  I gained 40 pounds over the past 10 years (not including my pregnancy, which put me into the 60-70 lb range).

Around my birthday, Gina Notes (a friend of my cousin-in-law Meg, that I met at Pat & Meg's wedding) sent me a message asking if I wanted to join a health and fitness Challenge Group. I had been giving some serious thought to my health and weight lately, as I had just lost and regained the same 5 pounds in the last month. I have hypothyroidism and have been on medication for years – the condition makes it harder for me to lose weight, among other things. Diabetes also runs in my family, as does high blood pressure and cholesterol, which have both been steadily creeping up over the years.

I had recently seen some Facebook posts from an old classmate who had recently undergone an amazing transformation with the 80 Day Obsession program. After being inspired by her, I decided to say yes to Gina and commit to my health.

I joined her April challenge group and completed one round of the 21 Day Fix program without straying from the program at all. At the end of those 3 weeks, I had lost 7” and 7 pounds. Since then I have lost an additional 3” and 5 pounds by (mostly) following the Fixate healthy meal plan. It’s not easy. At the end of the 3 weeks, I had a few cheats. And then Memorial Day weekend happened, and I had more cheats.

The truth is that I felt like crap after my cheat days. My body felt wrong and I felt guilty. I have changed my mindset with my cheats. I now consider them a treat instead of a cheat, and I don’t overindulge. If you know me, you know that I love food and eating. I’m now just trying to eat the right kinds of foods now and to find some balance in my diet. 

All of that said, instead of drinking the Kool-Aid, I’m officially drinking the Shake-O. It’s true, I’ve decided to become a Beachbody Coach. I just ordered Beachbody's new 2B Mindset Nutrition program and will be trying that out along with some of their other programs (I'm pretty pumped for their LIIFT4 program - just four days a week AND a cheat day??? I LOVE IT!!).

I still have another 20+ pounds to go to get back to the weight I was ten years ago, but my biggest goal is to just keep eating well and staying active (pushing play as the BB Mantra goes). 

Don't worry, I'm not going to become a crazy Beachbody person who is constantly posting sweaty selfies on Facebook and Instagram. I'm just looking forward to helping others on their journey. I've always thought that I was pretty disciplined and could do anything that I set my mind to. It turned out that I needed a tribe, positive words, encouragement, and the daily accountability of checking in to my challenge group. Even better, the workouts are 30 minutes or less a day. It's not rocket science. Anyone can do it, and I love that there is a program for everyone.

So I'll be starting my own challenge group in the next few weeks. There is an early access to the LIIFT4 program that starts in July that I think I will do. I'm really not looking at this as any major way to earn income - I just want additional accountability for myself and to support people who need it. I think that this will satisfy my long-held desire to inspire others and help them reach their full potential. 

My why: helping others makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and as a a slightly older mom, I want to be able to keep up with my kid for many years to come. 

Happy Friday

Not much new to post about. 

We're still waiting on news about our puppy. We thought that we would be taking him home by now, or in a few weeks. However, it's looking like we won't be taking him home until April, as none of the summer breedings happened. I suppose that might be better for housebreaking. After all, who wants to take the pup outside when it's cold out? Brrr! Anyway, the breeder is evaluating some other stud dogs and will be trying a new stud when one of the females come in to heat.

I'm starting to get a little excited about our trip. Not so much for the trip itself, but for the diving. I can't wait to get some more dives under my belt. We may go to FL with our dive shop in January, if the dates work out. We might also just go down to FL without them if the dates don't work. We can use our travel rewards points for flights and hotel. We could spend money on diving instead of the travel. I've discovered that the points are better used by transferring them to a partner, like Southwest and Marriott. A 4 day trip to Florida might use 80,000 points if we book through the Ultimate Rewards site, but if we transfer them to Marriott and Southwest, the same trip will cost 50,000 points.

So I'm already thinking about taking the Rescue Diver course in a few months. Hopefully I will have already passed my Series 7 with flying colors so that I'll be able to concentrate on my rescue course. Jay is joking that I'll be a Divemaster by the end of next summer. Hey, if they can get us a discount on the training for both of us at once, we might pursue it. 

Tonight we're meeting up with one of the couples that we'll be going to the DR with. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to drag myself out of bed for the Turkey Trot. 

After Jay and I were both forced to get on the scale last week, we are trying to eat a little better and exercise more. I'm trying to cut back on carbs again, but not go totally Atkins. Mostly just less processed food and more exercise. 

I know not to rely on the scale too much though, as I'm back at my heaviest again. However, I don't think that I look like this again:

 

My body is more muscular. Especially my legs (but oddly my cellulite is now more apparent). I'm not saying that I couldn't stand to lose 20 pounds or that I'm comfortable wearing a bathing suit. I just know that I'm healthier than I was at this time last year, and that's good enough for me.

Will have to post some more recent photos. There will be plenty of those in a few weeks after we return from the DR. I will probably resemble a lobster, like my last trip:

Maybe this time I'll drink less Presidente and more vodka & soda. Or perhaps champagne. 

I'll let you know what I decide. 

Summer Bucket List Update

The last week has been busier than usual and I’m quite worn out!

Last Wednesday I took the final exam for my PADI open water diver class. I missed one question on the entire thing and I doubt that I’ll ever hear the end of it from Jay, who of course was the first one done and got a 100%. For the record, both the test and the textbook could benefit from some editing. The test did send me into a case of the giggles and I thought I was going to totally lose it. There were six or so questions on hand signals and underwater communications. One of the illustrations was the signal for share air. The selections were along the lines of “a. I’m hungry!  B. Are you thirsty? C. Share Air.” Other favorite answers from this section were:  Will you be my buddy? <-- Low on air) Wave to friends on the shore/boat. (<--Help!) My finger is cold. (<--OK signal)

Seriously, my finger is cold? If someone selected that answer on their test, I would never want to be paired up with them on a dive!

This is the OK/My finger is cold signal

Although we haven’t completed our check-out dives yet, I feel pretty comfortable marking off “learn how to SCUBA dive” from my Seasonal Bucket List. After all, I've had four open water dives already - I just didn't know all of the skills until I took the class.

Our checkout dives are scheduled for the last weekend in September. Jay is suddenly gung-ho about diving, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll be getting our Advanced Open Water certifications next – likely in October. Apparently DCFD is in the process of assembling a dive team. So I’m sure that Rescue Diver will be on the list after AOW. It’s a slippery slope. Before long, we’ll be selling the house and buying a dive operation in Australia. Remember this lengthy post on experiences and choices? Maybe we’ll buy a liveaboard boat and charter dives in the Whitsundays! 

On to the next…

Running had been going well. I’m still terribly slow, but I’m building up my endurance. Technically I’m at Week 6 Day 3 of Couch to 5k. However, my last run on Saturday was terrible and there’s no way that I’m ready for a 22 minute run.

I’m backing up to Week 6 Day 1. This seems much more reasonable to me.

Since I've been doing Couch 25k, I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been eating. I felt like I'd probably lost weight since I've been good about exercising. Unfortunately, I haven't lost anything. I may have even gained weight. So it's back to faithful tracking with LoseIt. After all, I've gotta look good for my vacation to the Dominican Republic. 

Summerfest was over the weekend and I spent many hours scooping ice cream. 

Then I wandered, watched the fireworks from Harry’s, and had a bit too much to drink at the pub. 

I took a lot of photos there and most of them are blurry.

Lots of photos to come tomorrow on Wordless Wednesday. A summer photo dump!

Another week down

Well I can finally cross something off of my summer bucket list. Sunday I start on week 3 of couch25k. I planned to give it a shot, but not to push it if things started to hurt. The last thing I want is an injury that causes me to not be able to exercise at all.

I also signed up for my first 5k this week, on September 14th. I hope that I can get back into running. The truth is that I have a love/hate relationship with running. If I'm going through something, pissed off, need to think, whatever... I enjoy it. It's a good way to clear your mind.

Although I'm still trying to do a somewhat low-carb diet, it just isn't feasible for running. My body needs something it can easily convert into energy. So while I'm not carbo-loading, I'm trying to incorporate more natural and complex carbs into my diet (fruit, veggies and whole grain cereals like muesli). Now I just try to avoid bread and sweets whenever I can. However, I do have a stash of Sea Salt Soiree squares hidden for emergencies. Or Mondays. Or any day of the week ending in Y.

I haven't been keeping good track of my weight lately and obviously have missed weeks here and there. I'm up about 5 pounds from my pre-vacation weight, but I'll lose those 5 pounds eventually. Progress not perfection.

Jay and I took our second scuba class this week. We learned how to put the gear together and did some underwater skills. Mostly, we learned the ones that we already knew how to do from our trips with Cooly Dive and Poseidon. It's a lot easier mastering skills in a pool on your knees than when you're miles out to sea with an intense drill sergeant divemaster making you nervous! Not to mention possible large pelagic fish underneath the water waiting to have a nibble. Oh, and the somewhat rough seas we were diving in. Doing our certification dives in the quarry will be a piece of cake!

It really has me scratching my head over the girl in this photo:

This was on our dive to Cook Island to hang out with the sea turtles. This girl was supposed to be doing her first two open water certification dives. She had no clue what she was doing! The instructor had to ask her to set up her gear and then show her how to put it all together. Pretty much everyone in our class assembled their gear correctly the first time (after watching the instructor assemble his once). 

So I would hope that by the time we're ready for our check-out dives that we'll know how to assemble our equipment!

So here are a few things from my 101 list that I could do without much effort... I may even try to swim 1000 yards before book club. Which will be at Clay Bakers, where I am planning to make Jay a new mug. So yeah. I could totally knock out two things today!

• Complete the Couch 25K program
• Sign up for a 5K race - then do it
• Swim 1000 yards
• PADI Open Water SCUBA diver certification
• Send Aunt Nancy thank you gift
• Send Chris and Sally thank you gift
• Find a cool glass bottle to display my Whitehaven Beach sand
• Spread some of Dad at Martinak State Park
• Buy a brick for the FACES building
• Eat a rooster that wakes me up too early
• Make Jay a new mug
• Send Renee and Joanne souvenirs from vacation
• Make lemonade from scratch
• Spend an entire afternoon reading in the hammock

Make that I could knock out THREE things. I just bought a brick for the FACES building in memory of my dad.

My girlfriend JT is spending the night tonight. Maybe I can drag her to some antique stores to find a cool glass bottle for my Whitehaven Beach sand. And maybe one to throw my seashells in too?

Back on the Wagon

Lately I've been slacking off BIGTIME on the diet and exercise. And although I was pretty active while in OZ and Kiwiland, I gained five pounds back during vacation. Probably because of all the sweets and drinking. It was quite excessive, I must say.

So I bought a FitBit to help motivate me. I've been wanting one for a long time, but I finally decided to pull the trigger... especially since this is the third or fourth incarnation. I figure that they probably have all of the kinks worked out by now.



I've had it for all of a day and I'm in love already. It makes me want to do more. It syncs with LoseIt and a ton of other things. I'm planning to start the Couch to 5k app this weekend, so I've downloaded yet another app - Endomondo. That will interface with my FitBit as well. So pretty much everything is connected.

I'm still not sure if I'm sold on picking running back up, although I have to admit that it was great for weight loss. We'll see, I guess. My main goal is just to become more active, whether that be through walking, running, swimming, SCUBA, climbing or whatever. The rock wall is something I definitely want to get into.

Updates on the chickypoos (Lucky is alive and thriving), my vacation 202 list and some other stuff are coming soon. Jay and I also start our SCUBA course in a few weeks, which we're doing through Sea Colony Aquasports. Pretty excited about that, plus SCUBA is supposed to burn a ton of calories.

More to come soon, I promise.

25 Things in a Year - June update

I'll have a post soon about some of the incredible things that I saw and did on my trip. I pushed my personal limits and was rewarded for doing it. Who knows, maybe my next step is skydiving??

I'll be doing a complete update on my journey soon... probably with a few details left out to protect the guilty. ;)

At the beginning of the year, this was my list. Some of these things were to be done around our trip down under, so I have a quick update on where things stand:

1.             Be more positive
Being on vacation for so long has both helped and hurt this goal. I desperately needed a vacation after not having time off for over a year, but now that I’ve been to Australia, all I can think about is how I can move there permanently.

2.             Lose ~13% of body weight (or eat healthier and exercise at least 3x a week)
I was at 8% before vacation, but I put 5 pounds back on during vacation… mostly due to drinking excessively and eating sweets! Now I’m back to a reasonable diet and exercise plan… although it’s taking me a while to get back to the working out portion. I’m still having some problems with jetlag.

3.             Start a few plants from seed for the garden
Some of my plants reseeded themselves! I shouldn’t have even attempted any garden plans this year, since I was gone when I should have been planting.

4.             Come up with a new budget and stick to it
I’ve done a pretty good job of this. We also stuck to our Australia budget, apart from upgrading our flights at the end of the trip, which put us over budget.

5.             Get rid of the red couch and chair that I freaking HATE
Still not yet. Then again, if there is any chance that we are moving to Australia, I’ll live with the stupid couch.

6.             Purchase new furniture and decorate downstairs
See number 5. If I can make my dream a reality, decorating isn’t very high on my priorities list.

7.             Put together a time capsule for our house
I have it, but it's sitting downstairs on my kitchen counter. Still.

8.             Blog at least twice a week
I may catch up eventually. This shouldn’t count for any time that I’m on vacation, so I get a pass.

9.             Get organized - important documents, books, seasonal items, etc.
I’ll get there.

10.          Be in good enough shape to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (aka Mount Doom) in New Zealand
I definitely could have done it, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t good for that hike while we were there. When (yes, WHEN, not if) we go back, hopefully it will be during summer or early spring so that we don’t have to contend with snow. It IS the “ALPINE” crossing after all.

11.          Raise a small flock of chickens for meat (at least six)
Hmm. We’ll see about this. I think that Mouse might be a candidate for the soup pot soon. He’s terrorizing some of our new chickens and he’s attacked me a few too many times. Last time he even left a mark on my leg.

12.          Sell some eggs, otherwise we'll be overrun when the new chickens start laying
I will definitely need to do this. Guess I should order a big supply of egg cartons.

13.          Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, even though I'm scared of being eaten by a shark
Completed! Not to mention my fear of deep water, which apparently I am getting over. Actually, I went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef AND saw a 4~5 foot white tipped reef shark! We also saw carpet sharks (which Jay tried to pet) during our first dive at Cook Island when we were in Coolangatta. Scuba diving was such an unexpected joy for me, and I am planning to get my open water certification in time for #25.

14.          Snuggle a koala
Possibly one of the most amazing things in my entire life. Her name was Tiger Lily and she was the sweetest thing ever.

15.          Install the heat pump downstairs
It is delightfully cool in our entire house, I am happy to report.

16.          Make room in the budget for a cleaning service
Still working on this one. I’m pretty sure we’re going to do it though. When we got back from vacation, we saw what a mess our house ends up being without us there for 3 weeks. Apparently two cats is enough to destroy a house in no time at all.

17.          Get the crawl space insulated
We’ll see how we make out with having the second heat pump.

18.          Have photos done and send Christmas cards out this year
I need to meet up with Laura Dye to get these pictures done. Although we have so many great ones from our trip, I might have to photoshop Santa Hats on our heads.

19.          Fence in yard
We have the rear privacy fence up. Love the look of it and would like to do the entire yard like this… we’ll see though.

20.          Hatch out some silkie and black/red star mixes
We did and they have turned out to be pretty funky looking! Unfortunately I’m pretty sure that two of them are going to be roosters. So we might be eating a few more chicken dinners.

21.          Say no and not feel guilty afterwards
Doing this more often and I would say that I've been quite successful. The more often I do it, the less guilty I feel. Being on this trip made me remember that I have an awesome husband that I want to spend time with, so I’m trying very hard to not book up all of our weekends months in advance so that we can do more on our own as a couple.

22.          Have an awesome time at the Mardi Gras Ball
I did have an awesome time, although I must say that I was quite happy and relieved when it was all over. I was even happy to clean up the next day!

23.          Can tomatoes from our garden
I will can some tomatoes if we actually get some this year! I might cheat and buy an already potted porch type plant.

24.          Print "before" collages to frame and hang in the house
I’ll do it one of these days. Now my big job is to download all of the photos from vacation… there are HEAPS of photos.

25.          Use at least one week of our time share
We’re booking using our friend Leslie’s Shareholder status, which gets us a discounted daily rate and a sweet villa. I’m still waiting to hear back from some of the people that I’ve invited. Now that I’ve had quite the adventurous trip down under, I’m worried that our lounge-around-in-the-sun-eat-and-drink vacation might be a little boring, so I’m planning to do horseback riding, a diving trip and some whitewater rafting while we’re there.

Wordless Wednesday - A BIG break in the plateau, right before vacation! :)

More Words Wednesday - The Healthier Me Edition

Okay, so just a few words.

The weight loss plateau has been a huge PITA. I've been so focused on the numbers on the scale that I've neglected to see the changes in my body.

Top right: Wedding - July 2012  Top left: Niagara Falls - August 2011

Bottom left: February 2013 (two weeks after start of diet) Bottom right - June 2012

Total weight loss: 12 pounds and holding...  8 pounds until I'm no longer considered "overweight"

Please be kind... I have no make-up on!

Left photo: April 1st.  Right photo:  May 1st. More tan and slightly leaner, yet I weigh the same.

But here's the thing. Last night at the pub, two of my friends joked about how big my biceps were. I'd just finished an 800 yard swimming exercise of death that my friend Sherye had given me. Haven't drowned yet.

I'm not sure if it's the swimming or the post hole digging over the weekend, but yes, my arms are looking more strong.

Please pardon the goofy facial expressions

I will keep tracking my weight, but I will instead focus more on how my clothes are fitting, eating healthy, and continuing to exercise regularly.

I'm not going to be as strict with tracking my food and exercise while we're on vacation. I think that I'll keep a handwritten journal of exercise, but besides that I don't think I'll be tracking too much. I'm planning to be active while we're there so as long as I don't gain, I should be okay.

Only ten nine days until we leave for vacation. I'm saying nine, since we'll be in NJ next Friday for a wedding. Initially I was annoyed that we are missing another day in Australia, but it will be nice to hang out with some fun people the day before we leave. It will be the perfect kickoff to 21 days of R&R&A (rest, relaxation and a healthy dose of adventure too!). I need them and goshdarnit, I deserve them.

Wordful Wednesday – The Dreaded Plateau

So I’ve been rather depressed about my weight loss lately. Or rather, the lack thereof.

It’s been frustrating. I’ve been tracking food religiously, eating under my daily calories, and exercising pretty much every other day.

Using the Lose It app, I should be losing about 1 lb per week.

 No, I haven’t measured my food. Maybe I should. But still, I think that I’ve been doing a great job.

  

That said, with my recent health scare, I haven’t really been doing Atkins. It’s too high in saturated fat and I was eating a lot of sodium on the diet. However, I haven’t abandoned the Atkins principals. I’ve been watching my carbs and have been staying away from refined sugars and that sort of thing. I’m still trying to eat more salads, veggies and lean meat. Over the past 4 weeks, I have averaged between 30 and 50 net grams of carbs per day (fiber is subtracted from carbs for net carbs).

Why the lack of weight loss? As of last week, I had actually GAINED two pounds back from my low weight at the end of March. I think that since I stopped being as restrictive with my carbs (<20 g per day) that I lost the diuretic effect of Atkins. 

Not having the diuretic effect is fine with me, if it means that I’m really losing fat. Next week I’m expecting to see the scale continue its downward climb. I’m at 11 pounds of weight lost over 9 weeks. That’s still pretty good in my book, so I’ll just keep at it.

Steroids are nasty

So I’m pretty sure that my high blood pressure was caused by a combination of pain and the methylprednisolone that I was put on to relieve the pain from my swollen tonsils. This stuff is evil.

I took my last dose of the stuff last Thursday and my blood pressure has been slowly coming back down. But by Friday it had not decreased enough for my concerned coworkers and I had significantly different BP readings from my left and right arms, which apparently is a bad sign. So they gave me an EKG.

Nothing like having to lift up your boob for your coworker to stick electrodes under. The EKG was abnormal, but not heart attack kind of abnormal. My doctor friend who reviewed it said that it was probably nothing and could be connected to the steroids, but that I definitely needed to see my PCP about the high blood pressure. At the doctor yesterday, they took another abnormal EKG and numerous blood pressure readings. By the time I had finally calmed down, it was down to 128/88. Much better than my previous readings of 140/110 and 158/108. Goes to show you how much pain and stress can affect those things. 

My primary care physician agreed that it was most likely nothing, but she is sending me to a cardiologist for an evaluation and stress test just in case. On my 33^rd birthday, I get to go see Dr. Okun. 

This is not how I envisioned spending part of my birthday, but oh well. Jay is probably happy because it means that I’m bailing on book club and now we get to go to dinner instead. And since we’ll be on “the other side of the bridge,” we will have plenty of great restaurant options in Annapolis and Baltimore. I’m sure that everything will be okay, but it will be nice to have him with me at my appointment.

All of that said, I’m not really sure what is going on with my diet right now. I’ve been committed to recording everything I eat with LoseIt, and have remained under my target calories for the past 8 weeks. However, somehow I’ve gained 2 pounds in the last week, while as long as I stick to my plan, I should be losing a pound a week. I think it is probably all water retention from the steroids and that this time of the month isn’t great for me. So I’m trying to be patient. I'm still exercising every other day, if not every day. I've been walking, doing the elliptical, and swimming. Over the weekend I did the stationary cycle and used the rowing machine. So my body seriously needs to get its act together.

Since I’m not sure how the diet is affecting me health-wise, I am trying to keep my saturated fats and sodium low. I caved a bit in the carbs department, but I haven’t completely caved to the point of eating pizza, French bread and French fries. But I did have a rough day last Friday. I had two tater tots, a big slice of delicious pineapple, part of a chocolate dipped banana from Edible Arrangements  and several fried green beans. And too many cocktails at Harry’s. I’m now trying to keep around/under 40-60 net grams of carbs a day and under or around 20 grams of saturated fat a day. My current struggle is with nuts. I am shoveling fistfuls of almonds and walnuts into my mouth. I convince myself that since almonds and walnuts are heart healthy that eating a pound in one sitting is perfectly acceptable.

Okay, I may be exaggerating with eating an entire pound of nuts, but I haven't exactly been counting them out.

In other news, we are running out of time to figure out who is taking care of our critters while we’re away. 

Mind you, this is when we LAND in Brisbane. We are down to 31 days before our flight leaves.

Normally I’d be fine with asking our friends to take care of the chickens, but three weeks is a lot to ask of someone. Plus this vacation is going to require cleaning litter boxes, and I don’t want to ask that of my friends. When you’re spending over ten grand on a vacation, another few hundred bucks for a pet/house sitter shouldn’t be an issue. However, Jay still won’t make a decision on whether he is going to ask a slightly odd guy he knows from the Masons. So I think he just wants me to take care of it. I sent out a message to our book club to ask for recommendations… some of the women have college age kids who might want to earn a few easy bucks. Fingers crossed.

My aunt Nancy has been sending these photos almost daily. I can almost smell the salt in the air.

This picture was taken FROM A McDONALD'S! Seriously, how beautiful is this place that even the McDonald's has this kind of view?

Wordless Wednesday - not missing those 11 pounds

Another fabulous day

Today, Jay and I are consumer-debt free. Jay is also an official home-owner. I figured that he deserved it after all of his hard work on "my" house.

Tonight we are booking our flights to Australia and New Zealand. We depart for our trip in just 51 days! The itinerary has changed somewhat, as we begin making actual inquiries and plans.

My aunt and uncle will be picking us up in Brisbane and taking us to her home in Surfer's Paradise. We'll stay with her for two days, then the four of us will go down to Coolangatta and stay at the Sebel for three days in a lovely 2 BR apartment. There is a place called Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where we can cuddle koalas on the way to Coolangatta, so there is no need to visit the place in Brisbane when we arrive jet-lagged. Another thing that we're planning to do in Coolangatta is try out diving . I'd rather realize that I hate diving early in our trip rather than dive for my first time at the Great Barrier Reef, have a panic attack and then be eaten by sharks. We'll then travel back to Surfer's with Nancy & Darryl for our final night. The next morning (Sunday May 19th), we'll be at the airport early for our flight to Airlie Beach and our Whitsunday Cruise.

So that is the trip update!

I've thought a lot over the past year (especially with having a blog) that I would like to get back into photography. It kinda runs in the family. My dad was an excellent photographer, my cousin is an incredible photographer... my mom is an avid photographer,  so hey, it's in my blood. I was into photography in my youth and even won a few prizes entering my photos in the county fair. Back then we shot with film, of course. A month ago I asked my photographer friend Laura for advice on  buying an inexpensive but decent DSLR. After considering her advice, I've decided to go with a refurbished Nikon D80 from B&H photo with a 18-55mm zoom lens.  My new toy should arrive before the weekend! So hopefully my next posts will have some REAL photos in them.

On to the diet... I am down a total of 9 pounds. I think that I'm actually down 10, but the scale wasn't as friendly to me today.

I'm debating whether I should go to the next step down in Atkins - the OWL stage. In OWL, you gradually increase your net carb intake to 25 grams of net carbs the first week. The next week, you increase the net carbs to 30, and so on until you find the right amount without gaining weight.

I'm 22 pounds from my ultimate goal weight, but only 11 pounds from no longer being considered overweight.

I'm happy to report that I've been consistent about exercise as well. I've been to the gym or exercised every other day for at least the past two weeks. My exercise buddy has an injured knee and can't do the regular machines or classes, so tomorrow we are going to attempt to swim laps at the Y. And hoping to not look like complete fools. The doggie paddle is my best stroke, so I might be in trouble!

Oh and I almost forgot - we will have new babies coming next week! My boss is hatching out some of our eggs, so we will have silkie and gold/black star crosses hatching around Friday. Should be some interesting looking chicks. Those are on top of the 15 chicks that I ordered back in November. It sure seemed like a good idea at the time! I'm thinking of giving away or selling 5 or 6 of them, plus a few of my girls that are already laying. A few people I've talked to were interested in trying out chickens. I told them that they could borrow some of mine and if they discovered it wasn't for them that they could give them back.

That's it for now. Fingers crossed for some decent photos to appear next week!

Wordless Wednesdays - The Weight Loss Edition

I haven’t had a slice of bread in three weeks

It’s probably the longest I’ve gone without having bread, rice, or pasta in my life. What I wouldn’t give for a fresh crusty piece of French bread slathered in mashed potatoes and angel hair pasta. Mmmm.

In reality, Atkins is not that bad. The first week was the worst for sure… I felt so bad on the fifth day that I had a PA at work check my blood sugar because I thought I was dying. Turned out that I just needed some delicious salty chicken broth. Your electrolytes can get all out of whack on Atkins, especially during that first week.

There have been some other discoveries, like when I realized that this delicious Caffe Breve that I’m drinking is full of carbs. Crap. I looked at a carton of half & half and assumed that they don’t put that much in the drink. Well… yeah. This drink has at least 16 grams of carbs in it. Crap. Crap. Crap. I decided to search the interwebs about the amount of carbs in a Caffe Breve and it was bad news. So no more lattes, breves or anything. From now on, I’m sticking to brewed coffee with heavy cream and sugar free sweetener.

The other discovery I’ve made is that the Atkins bars and shakes have made me stall. I bought them probably a week or week & a half into the diet when I thought I was going to die. I needed something crunchy and sweet, and they fit the bill. Depending on my cravings, I’ve been eating anywhere from 1 and 3 of those Atkins shakes/bars/treats. Well, the last week hasn’t been good. I drank too many sprite zero & vodkas at a party over the weekend and have probably not been counting carbs as well as I should. This weekend will be another challenge – a one year old’s birthday party and a fun night out with my girlfriends in Baltimore. I think that I’ll choose a drink like vodka and club soda so that I can pace myself better. Those Bacardi & diet cokes and sprite zero & vodkas just go down entirely too smoothly.

My results? The first two weeks were great! The first week I lost 4 lbs and the second week I lost 3 lbs. Week 3 = 0 pounds. In all fairness, I haven’t been great about going to the gym. I’ve only been going about once a week. Starting today, I’m going to be more disciplined. No more Atkins shakes/bars/treats or fancy coffee drinks. Gym no less than three times a week. No alcohol other than vodka & club soda – and those sparingly.

So last weekend I faced a dilemma… what to make for a party. I googled “low carb appetizers” and came up with a bunch of different recipes for stuffed mushrooms. Most of them called for mayo mixed with cheese and artichokes. YUCK. Straight mayo? No thanks, I’ll make my own concoction.

I ended up making shrimp cocktail and my own version of artichoke dip stuffed mushrooms. Both were gone in fifteen minutes… so I’d say that people liked them!

Here is the recipe… it was incredibly simple!

Artichoke Dip Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

 8 oz softened cream cheese

1 cup Italian blend cheese – parmesan, romano & asiago

14 oz. can of artichoke hearts

2 lbs baby bella mushrooms, cleaned & stems removed

This made about 40 stuffed mushrooms with 1/4 cup of dip leftover.

Drain and finely chop artichoke hearts. I removed a few of the outer leaves if they were too fibrous.

Mix cream cheese, artichokes & cheese.

Stuff mixture into mushroom caps.

Bake on foil-lined tray at 425 for 25-30 minutes, until tops begin to brown.

Enjoy!