Break

I took a break from blogging my meals and exercise the past two months.. mostly because I've been bad. After losing and gaining a few points, I'm at a point where I need to exercise and eat well again.

I have some NS meals left which I'll probably finish off. Afterwards, I'll start my protein shakes in the morning, lunches of chicken salads or soups and then a dinner of protein and vegetables. Desserts will be sugarfree jello or yogurt or fruit. When i did this earlier in the year, I felt healthy and lost a few pounds in the process. We'll see what happens. My goal is to get in shape for our Costa Rica trip in April.

Curses Costco Cashews!

I was at Costco on Wednesday and made a genius move of buying a tub of cashews. Everytime I buy them from Costco, Dave and I end up polishing the whole thing in a matter of days. Sure enough, we finished them yesterday. And my tongue is cut up from all the salt from the nuts! BOO HOO!
Except for the lisping, maybe my having my tongue all cut up is a blessing in disguise because it's taking me an extra amount of time and effort to consume anything. Our office is having a Thanksgiving potluck today and I have no desire to eat anything that will require me to chew. LOL.

Breakfast - Rotisserie chicken and broccoli, double espresso with soymilk

Lunch - Office potluck (it was bad)

Dinner - Shabu

Midnight snack - two waffles, hot cocoa (bad)

Friday!

So I weight myself today and I dropped three pounds since Tuesday. It took a while to adjust to eating low-carb again. I experienced some light headedness yesterday while working out. I did 24SET, which was a class that involved step and resistance (hi reps, low weights). It pretty much worked out most of the muscle groups in the body. I am actually sore today from using three pounder hand weights and a 10 lb barbell.
Anyway, today I am going to do a TKB class after work.

Food

Breakfast - Chicken Salad

Lunch - Shabu Shabu

Snack - Soybeans

Dinner - Rotisserie Chicken and Spinach

Dessert - Two jello cups and sugar-free hot cocoa

Okay, so I failed miserably my first week in trying to get back to the low carb routine. I spent the past two days feeling bad about it, but no more. I'm turning a new leaf tomorrow.

Dave and I are also starting NutriSystem in a week and hopefully that will help us regulate our food intake. I was telling him that I need to learn how to eat normal again. The past couple of years it's been feast or famine. No normalcy in our eating. So hopefully this will help with the portion control and balancing our food intake. It takes about a month to begin a good habit, so hopefully NutriSystem will help.

Also, I have to start figuring out a workout plan since it's getting dark sooner. Cardio is so freaking boring! The only thing that is keeping me on track is my goal of losing 10-15 lbs by December 10? (the next time we're in Vegas). YES!

SB Day Uno

We had a perfect weekend in Vegas with our favorite people, it started off a little rocky (Dave and I encountered a sandstorm while driving there) - but we had a great time. And of course, we had four days of nonstop eating. We had all the Vegas favorites - Sushi-Mon, Nine Steakhouse, Jamms, Bamboo Bistro..etc. Another highlight was winning on roulette. Dave put the extra 20 bucks from dinner on 34 and won! We ended up with a 100 bucks each (covering dinner at Nine). The girls also went for a massage at the Red Rock Spa. The massages were a little bit more expensive than most places, but it was worth it. It was the best massage I had in a long time.

But like all good things, it had to come to an end. So today is my first day again trying to do South Beach. This time around, I am going to try to eat more than I did last time - which I'm hoping will help the fatigue.

Weight: 138 (I'm finally admitting to it. I figured putting my weight down would help keep me more accountable.)

Breakfast

Double americano with half and half, two splendas

Two eggs with cheese and a little bit of salsa

Lunch

Chicken and veggie bowl from Fuji Grill

Snack

Sugar-free Jello and a double espresso

(ALMOST had a moment of weakness where I wanted to eat the pumpkin chocolate chip bread I brought to share with my coworkers - but I had sugar-free jello instead..WHEW..I'm starting to feel a tinge of ketosis)

I'm not alone...

I heard last night on E! (my favorite news source) that Oprah blew out her thyroid which attributed to her weight gain and hiatus from the show for a month! Apparently she had hyperthyroidism then hypothyroidism.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/17/earlyshow/health/main3377868.shtml?source=mostpop_story

How is it that people always has advice about fitness and diet? Who died and made these people instant fitness/nutrition experts? The advice I have been getting lately from this one particular person is to eat large quantities of edamame because they are so good for me, they are tasty, easy to make and I should be filling my body with good stuff.

I wanted to rip my lashes off. Granted she was trying to be helpful, but hello!? Edamame? That's the undiscovered secret to weight loss? OMG, who hasn't had edamame? Anyway, the reason why I'm a little irritated about the conversation is because she's been promoting this tip almost every day for the past five weeks. I finally told her that it wasn't good to eat large quantities of one thing - so she would back off.

But I've had people from before who gave me lame advice about weight loss. My past favorites tips include the bagel diet (substitute a bagels for entire meals) or the Total cereal diet (eating Total cereal three times a day). I was guaranteed to lose weight!

I think my beef about this whole entire thing is that I know the right thing to do. I know the spiel about eating little meals more often, doing a combo of strenght training and cardio and eating less empty carbs. The knowledge is there. The true issue is just being disciplined and being able to actually do it.

Saturday

I am half-heartly doing my resume and cover letter right now. Why does it seem like I'm constantly in this process? Anyway, we had another full day of activities. I didn't have to help out with the garage sale this morning, but Dave and I had lunch with an old friend her fiancee. It was great seeing them. Then we had dinner with his parents at kaitan sushi for dinner and then ce fiore for dinner. I'm so bloated right now my stomach feels tight. BLAH!

Friday

This upcoming weekends is one of those you get tired just thinking about. There's the garage sale tomorrow morning, I have to look for all my writing samples and update my resume/cover letter and I have to finish some writing for work. I'm not complaining, the weekend will go by quick, but I love days where I can just wake up at 9, workout and have nice breakfast with Dave.

Office parties are always the end to my effort in trying to eat right. But, I did okay today! We had a bagel birthday celebration for my coworker and I had one wheat bagel with a little bit of cream cheese. Usually in that situation, I would have a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast and then raid the leftover pile later - but I didn't do that today. Yay for little victories.

For lunch, I went to Whole Foods and got a few pieces of their spicy sesame tofu, which was really good, with some raw kale salad.

Anyway, I have TKB tonight - hopefully followed up by healthy food and good sleep.

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Ugh, guess what we chose to eat for dinner? Islands...But at least I did sprints with Billy yesterday.

The Girls at Nike Run Hit Remix on 9/15

I fell while running today...JK. That should be the opener of all my blog entries since I update so infrequently now.

I am a total stress eater. This morning I had a presentation to do in front of our GI faculty about our Web site. I hate presenting...despite how talkative I may be by nature. So last night I did a very bad thing, I ate four pieces of halloween chocolate at work, three pieces of fried chicken, a couple of cupcakes (that Dave's coworker made for him and other items. At midnight I weighed myself out of curiosity. I was 8 lbs heavier than when I stopped South Beach. HORRIBLE.

Weird thing though, I weighed myself this morning and somehow overnight I lost 5 lbs of water.

So, alas, back to the drawing board. I'm going to try to run today and start up my circuit training again :)


Breakfast
-Soy latte, lowfat mixed berry bran muffin

Lunch
- Chicken caesar salad

Snack
- Cookie and and a vanilla latte

Dinner
- Kaitan sushi and a mango

New day, new week...new diet?

Before I went on the South Beach Diet, I purchased the Abs Diet. Heard tons about it through other people's blogs and from articles.

South Beach worked, I lost 10 lbs in three weeks. However, I didn't feel 100% in the process. The strict period made me lethargic, fuzzy brained and cranky. Also, I noticed that I also tend to gain my weight back pretty quickly after going on a strict diet. Its almost like I don't know how to eat normal anymore. Or maybe its the feeling like, since I lost it so quickly - it doesn't matter if I gain it again. I'll just go back the diet (yo-yo dieting trap).

Anyway, so today I'm going to break open my Abs Diet book to see what it entails. I decided to keep up with my food blog again. I definitely need the accountability :)

Breakfast
- Espresso with cream
- Oatmeal (120 calories, 2 gms fat, 24 carbs, 3 gms fiber

Snack
- Lara Bar 180 calories, 10 gms fat :-( and carbs 23, 4 gms fiber

Lunch
- Chicken vegetable soup

I fell while running today. It was the result of being hyperthyroid again, only getting four hours of sleep last night, being weaker from not consistently working out (weights and cardio) and just being burnt out from dieting.

I tried running afterwards, but all I could feel was the pounding from the swelling in my knee. I was pissed because one day missed means one less day I have in burning more calories...which means me falling short of losing five pounds before my procedure next Friday. I took an Advil 10 mins ago hoping that the pain would subside and I will be able to some circuit training (barbell at 2.5 lbs per side).

There is so much pressure to be thin for health and especially for vanity. I was hoping that after South Beach, I would be 110. It hasn't been an easy road. I feel like I've barely eaten anything in the last month and yet I am still fat!

I know I shouldn't give up from this set back. I won't. But I want to vent for the sake of venting. I really don't think anyone who has my condition or my weight/food issues can really understand why this thing is so fucking frustrating. Unfortunately, I am one of those who has to go to extremes with dieting and exercise to see one ounce of difference.

Anyway, okay, back to getting motivated to do weights with my bum knee.

Fuck.

I ran for the first time in a week! It was more jogging and walking than running, but at least I was able to keep moving for more than 30 mins. Maybe I'll try sprinting and walking the 5 miles this Saturday. We'll see.
Anyway, today I'm planning on doing TKB at 6:30. I took a class on Saturday and it kicked my ass! And, afterwards weights. Must do weights!

Food

Breakfast - cheese and cashews, espresso cream

Snack - cashews

Lunch - SB frozen entree

Snack - Jello

Dinner - Sushi

Another weekend has flown by. On Saturday I did pretty well with sticking to the SB plan and I waivered a bit on Sunday. I actually got some good cardio in, I did a TKB class on Saturday which kicked my ass and 50 mins of stairs and elliptical on Sunday. Today I start the new program for weights and planning to do some cardio afterwards.

I decided to day that my strict period is officially over because want to preserve the same excitement or "special-ness" of the strict 14-day period. I am going to stick to a similar SB plan for the next week. Overall, I've lost 10 lbs in the SB diet. I was hoping to lose more, but I'll be glad if I drop five lbs by low carbing it for the next few weeks.

Anyway, this Saturday is Nike Run Hit Remix. D and I went to go exchange my event shirt. I couldn't belive how tight the medium fit. So I ended up getting a large. On the label it says large is sizes 10-12. Yikes! And I thought I was losing weight.

Food

Breakfast - Two pieces of cheese and almonds, espresso and cream

Lunch - chicken breast, salad with sunflower seeds, celery and oil/vinegar and braggs amino.

Snack - cheese, almonds

Dinner - cashews, steak, kalbi, salad with ranch

Dessert - fudge bar

SB Day 16

I've been lazy in posting lately. However, I've been good with SB. Yesterday, I had the usual nuts and cheese for breakfast, frozen SB entree for lunch and chicken and veggies (and a glass of wine) at Houstons for dinner. Even though I had a energy bar on Tuesday and a glass of wine yesterday, I've dropped a pound. We'll see what happens these next two weeks. I scheduled my appointment on Sept 21 for my thyroid procedure. That's my short time goal date to wrap up this first phase of SB.

Food

Breakfast - almonds, cheese and coffee

Snack - sugar free jello and almonds

Lunch - chicken caesar salad

Snack - espresso and cream and cheesestick

Dinner - chicken and gyro salad

Dessert - sugar free jello

Holiday from SB

This past weekend I completely strayed away from following South Beach, but resolved to continue doing phase one for another two weeks beginning today. I lost about 8-10 lbs from the first two weeks and figured I can hopefully lose another 10 before I get my thyroid procedure done the end of September. I decided too that because of the diet, I won't be able to fully train for Run Hit Remix. At least jogging and walking will allow me to fully enjoy the acts.

Anyway, I've been boosting my cardio the past two days. Doing 45 mins of the stair mill and elliptical on Saturday and 50+ mins of the same thing yesterday. I'm hoping to begin the weight program again today.

Highlights of what I ate this past weekend

Saturday - high tea consisting of scones, sandwiches and petit fours; mochi and mango pinkberry (yum!), dinner at cheesecake factory, ce fiore frozen yogurt with strawberries, mango and mochi

Sunday - dim sum and kaitan sushi

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Today's Eats

Breakfast - light babybel cheese, almonds, double espresso and cream

Day 11

I weighed myself yesterday and I was two pounds lighter than the say before. Overall, I think I've lost 8 -10 lbs. I'm starting to notice my skirts and pants getting looser.

Food

Breakfast - double espresso, babybel cheese, almonds

Snack - mozzarella stick

Lunch - shabu shabu

SB Day 10

Not much to report. Still tired. Still on the SB diet. I may extend this 14 day strict period another week. There were a few days where I could have been better with the ketosis. Then I eat fruit again. Ah, how I miss fruit!

Eats

Breakfast - lowfat babybel cheese. two shots espresso and a little cream with splenda

Snack - almonds

Lunch - grilled chicken salad with sunflower seeds, mushrooms and balsamic dressing

Snack - light babybel cheese. almonds.

Dinner - charo chicken, guacomole and corn tortillas (horrible!)

Snack - cashews and low carb fudge bar

Workout - lower body weights

SB Day 9

Feeling much better today. I'm hoping to get some running in tonight to train for Run Hit Remix. I'm kinda hitting a slump in my diet. Not sure if it was the discouragement from weighing myself last night or whether the ketosis pain has finally worn out. Even though ketosis was unbearable at times, I felt like I was actively contributing to my weight loss.
Anyway, I am going to keep focused on finishing this diet strong. Focusing on short term goals like working out today and challenging myself to eat super clean will help (no eating past 9 and no cashews tonight).

Food

Breakfast - soy latte, cheese stick, almonds

Lunch - moo goo gai pan

Snack - starbucks double espresso light

Dinner - steak and salad

Dessert - low carb fudge bar

SB Day 8

Tired as hell! I think I'm still worn out from the weekend. Today was the first day where someone (other than Dave) has told me that I lost some weight. I weighed myself yesterday and I've lost five pounds since last Wednesday. Yay! Now, if I can just lose 10-15 more I'd be happier.

Food

Breakfast - cashews, lowfat cheese stick, soy latte

Snack - Almonds

Lunch - chicken salad, balasamic vinaigrette

Snack - almonds, lowfat cheddar stick and starbucks double espresso light

Dinner - chicken and gyro greek salad

Dessert - tall soy latte

No exercise today. I'm still feeling a little ill.

SB Day 7

The SB diet has been a detox/cleansing experience. I've had deal with the results of years of yo-yo dieting and my struggle with food. Even though the results have been A LOT SLOWER than how it was few years ago, being on this program has been good. I know in the end it will help me build a better attitude about food and respecting my physical being.

My friend and I have decided on the following goals. She is planning to get into her pre-baby clothing and I am going to try to drop at least 15lbs - which will in fact put me in a health BMI range. Right now mine is still 26 percent which is still considered overweight. Today, I may swing by to go get a scale so I can finally measure my progress. I kinda stayed away from getting a scale because I didn't want to become discouraged.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reaching my short term goal and healthier eating habits.

Food

Breakfast - cashews, nonfat latte

Lunch - salmon salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Snack - Starbucks double espresso light

Dinner - Shabu

Snack - Too many cashews

SB Days 5 & 6

Goodness. I should have been better at posting what I did or ate this weekend. This is what I remember.

Saturday

Exercise - 25 mins on stair mill

Breakfast - Two eggs

Snack - Cheese stick

Lunch - Two eggs

Dinner - Steak? Salad?


Sunday

Exercise - 2 miles running, 2 miles walking

Breakfast - Two Eggs

Snack - Ricotta cream

Lunch - Almond meal crusted chicken with spinach

Dinner - Prime rib, chicken and a piece of cake

South Beach Day 3

I finally took the plunge! I am in my third day of doing the South Beach Diet. Already I am amazed that I have stuck to the diet this far. The last time I tried South Beach, I gave up during the second day when I started to feel the effects of ketosis. This time I decided to "man" it out.
The first day was extremely challenging. Going low carb after four days of no holds bar on food was a shock to the body. I was really incoherent and irritable - I felt so bad for everyone around me. However, yesterday was better. I experienced brief periods of clarity and calm energy. Tomorrow I'm going to try to wake up early to go do some cardio. I have the Run Hit Remix in a couple of week which I need to prep for.

Food

Breakfast - handful of almonds, soy latte two splenda

Snack - Cheese, celery

Lunch - Broth, Chicken stir-fry

Dinner - Tilapia, Broccoli