Weight Loss Wednesday- Week 2

One week DOWN! And I didn't do too bad for my first week overall. I keep having to remind myself that healthy changes will not happen overnight and I need to take baby steps. And I'm not referring to my weight, rather the healthy changes in my goals.

Disclaimer:
I did NOT make it to the gym this week. Last Wednesday was Monkey's birthday and I had already known I would not be going. I had planned to go once over the weekend. That didn't happen either. I'm not trying to make excuses, but my household was a MESS from a stomach bug that had descended the week of New Year's. So I took advantage of the warmer weather and the sun. We did some deep cleaning, yard work, and I stripped and sunned all of our cloth diapers. I think that burned more calories than the gym would have. At least that's how I'm rationalizing not going for the moment.

I had planned to go this evening after dinner. But, poor Sassy is having a hard week. I've mentioned that we are working to address what seems like mild ADD with her. We had been cutting back how much pop she had, but that was backfiring and she was getting more when she was outside of the home. We decided to cut out pop completely on Sunday for her. She has basically been detoxing ever since. She has been moody, picking fights, and has had some pretty bad anger issues. I decided that it was more important for me to stay home after dinner to help her smoothly sail through finishing her homework and going to bed early.

But instead of focusing on what I've been doing "wrong," let's focus on what I'm doing right!

I've been meticulous about logging all my meals as I eat throughout the day. I also logged my "exercise" over the weekend. The light housework. The deep cleaning stuff (washing down walls, moving furniture around, scrubbing floors, etc). And the yard work is what really helped on Saturday for my net calories. We gathered up all the remaining leaves, among other things. I am proud to say that I was below my net calorie goal each day. I actually had it recalculate my goal over the weekend and my new goal is actually 1410 calories a day. I know that this really means around 1910 since Monkey is still nursing quite a lot, but My Fitness Pal allows you to include that factor so that the net calories will still be 1410.

Logging all of my food has made me realize something else: I eat too many carbs. Seriously, my carb intake is out of control. It just took seeing it spelled out in the circle graph to realize how badly I need to kick the carbs. So my mini-goal is to push the carbs percentage lower and the protein percentage higher each week.

I have also made sure to track my water intake on My Fitness Pal. It has really helped me make sure I am drinking enough. Before Monkey started solids, I was constantly thirsty from nursing and drank tons of water. I do not think it is a coincidence that my weight gain in the last 6 months (from 155 to 180lbs) just happened to be when Monkey started solids and spaced his nursing sessions out, causing me to not feel as thirsty and decrease my water intake. I almost exclusively drink water anyway, so most days I have been getting between 10-12 cups of water.

I have gone back to carrying a water bottle with me at all times. It comes to work every day with me and I always have it at home. I use a Contigo water bottle. It holds 24oz, has a leak and spill-proof design, is BPA-free, and has a carabiner clip so that it will hook on to my purse, tote bag, etc. Here is a picture:

Something else that I've been working on is an idea I found on Pinterest for easy lunches. You take mason jars and make a salad, putting the ingredients in the jar in "reverse order." So, dressing goes on the bottom, then your veggie toppings, meat or other protein, cheese, and finally your greens on the very top. The greens CANNOT touch the dressing or they will wilt. It will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days usually, meaning you can just grab a jar on your way out the door for work. When it is lunch time, grab it from the fridge, shake it up, and dump it onto a plate or bowl. Or eat it from the jar if you want.

I made Grilled Orange Vinaigrette Chicken Salad Monday night. The only difference is that I did not toss the salad together like you would if you were eating it right then. I prepped all the ingredients and set them out. I cooked the chicken and let it cool completely to room temp.

Then I started layering. First the dressing on the bottom of the jar. Then broccoli, carrots, and cherry tomatoes (my addition to the recipe). Mandarin oranges came next, then the chicken. Then I stuffed the rest of the jar with romaine. The recipe states it makes 6 servings, but I actually made 4 servings in 32oz mason jars. So in 30 minutes, I made 4 salads for me to take to work. Not bad. And they look so APPETIZING!

And each jar is only around 360 calories. The actual recipe states it is 239 calories per serving, but the recipe yields 6 servings. I made 4 servings, so I calculated it as being 1.5 servings per jar, making it 359 calories. And I did not add in the cherry tomatoes. Mostly because I forgot.

I've eaten 1 jar yesterday and today at work and I am amazed at how much food it actually is when I dumped it into a bowl. I seriously thought that I would not be able to finish it. Then I remind myself that I need to finish it so that I am not tempted to have a Snickers from the snack room in the afternoon, so I have finished the salad each day. I plan to take the others on Thursday and Friday. This has gone so well, I plan to make more of these on Sunday night so that Hubby and I can both take lunches every day next week and have a variety to choose from.

And now the moment of trust....my weight.

So I've lost 4lbs in one week. I know that a lot of the weight was water weight, but it is still nice to see some dramatic results during my first week to motivate me to keep it up.

Hopefully I will have more positive changes to discuss next Wednesday. Stay tuned!