15 lbs Lost!

Trust me, there have been a few moments where I've wanted to give up and go back to my old way of living/eating.

One such case in point happened when my hubby sat next to me the other night scarfing down pizza. Pizza is a weakness of mine, for sure. I probably could have tackled him for a slice, but I maintained my composure (and it helped that he left the room when he saw the tortured look on my face).

So, I have stuck to my plan and made it through the holidays and the first month of the new year.

I can only tell the difference in my face, so far. Can you see a difference?

I've learned a lot in the past couple months:

1. Grapefruit does taste good without sugar. :)
2. It is very rewarding at the end of the day to see that my choices have been healthful.
3. It is good to have a plan for those times when I don't want to spend a ton of time cooking. I have a few really enjoyable meals that are quick and easy. They are my go-to meals when I don't feel like pretending like I am a master chef.
4. Add lemon to your water. Seriously, it somehow makes the water taste a million times better!
5. There is a whole world of recipes out there for people who want to eat healthy.

Keeping #5 in mind, remember my goal of eating two meals a day from the Hungry Girl Cookbook? Yeah, that didn't play out quite like I expected. But, I have added three things into my eat-healthy-or-die repertoire:

1. Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges. The Hungry Girl cookbook had this cheese in practically every recipe that I saw in the book. So, I decided to give it a try. It is delicious! Just add one wedge to your omelet and voila! Yum scrumdiddlyumptious.

2. One recipe from the Hungry Girl Cookbook that I will never have to live without, again.... Pizza-fied Grilled Cheese! Goodbye, pizza cravings! :D

3. Hungry Girl can be viewed on YouTube! How awesome is that?

Hungry Girl 300 Under 300

I decided to check this book out from the library today. It is awesome! I have already tried out one recipe and plan to try out several more over the next couple weeks (that I have the book in my possession), before I have to take it back. :( This has been on my book wishlist for a while, but the hubby and I are trying to spend less and save more.

(The library is a great resource for cookbooks, as well as nutritional info! I totally recommend using it!)

I will try to make 2 meals a day from this book over the next two weeks, and when I am done with my experience I will document it here on my blog.

I know it may sound strange that I am THIS excited over a book, but I am way excited. :)

Hope you are having a great Tuesday!

10 lbs Down!

It has taken me almost a month, with our vacation smooshed in the middle, but I've finally made it to 10 lbs lost. I am very excited!

The Changes I've Made:

• Currently I am eating only fruits, veggies, whole grains, and occasionally eggs (or egg substitute). For the most part, eating this way isn't difficult for me. I love fruits and vegetables, and feel that I can be very creative in my meal choices. 

•  I am also drinking only water or tea, everyday. I have discovered that I need to be drinking more water, so 64 oz. is my target water intake each day. So far, I've only drank 64 oz. of water one day this week, but I am trying to get better about it.

• Additionally, I have been consistently logging my food each day on the caloriecount.about.com website. 

• Finally, I used picnik.com to create the motivational desktop background above, from photos I found on tumblr and pinterest. Of course it says stay "stroong", as I couldn't figure out how to fix it not to say that. It is very motivational for me, though, when I see it each day. Also motivational to me is reading blogs by others who have forged the way in this journey and been successful. Here is one such blog:

http://www.jensjourney.com/

 

 

 

There are still things that I need to change and hope to change:

• Drink more water.
• Get to bed earlier, as well as get more sleep.
• Workout and find a fitness regime that works best for me.

Amanda's Easy Taco Salad

Ingredients (Makes 1 serving)

For the salad-

2 cups, shredded Lettuce, Looseleaf

1 cup chopped raw- Vine Tomatoes

1 avocado

4 medium (4-1/8" long)  Onions, Spring Or Scallions

For the dressing-

2 tbsp  Red Wine Vinegar, Organic

1 tbsp  Vegetable Oil, Canola

1 tsp  Old El Paso Seasoning Mix Taco

Directions

1. Wash and cut veggies.

2. Mix together wine vinegar, veggie oil, and taco seasoning in a separate bowl to make your dressing.

3. Mix together veggies and dressing.

Enjoy!

caloriecount.about.com

 This recipe is lower in sugar (YAY!), but it is higher in fat. The good thing is that the fat comes from the avocado, which is very healthy for you. If you want your salad to have less fat, use less avocado and substitute for more lettuce, which is low in calories and fat. However, running the analysis on caloriecount.about.com, my fat intake for the day is spot on. So, I'm not worried! :)

*Above images are taken by Amanda Creek Photography and should not be copied without permission.*

Calorie Count- Weight Loss Tool Review

This is a tool I recently stumbled upon that helps me to track my food and calorie intake. I am trying really hard each day to track all my calories, because I know that it will lead me to success in weight loss. Many people do not like to measure what they eat, nor do they like to log food all day, but it really has shown me results so far. I decided to find something that would make the logging easy and fun. Thus this review of caloriecount.about.com.

The thing I like about Calorie Count is that I can leave the dashboard open and log my food and activity all day. If I am not near my computer, I can jot down what I ate and log it later.

I also really like the nutritional analysis on Calorie Count, because it tells you where you are lacking in nutrition and where you have had too much (say sugar, for instance). I have actually found that with my recent change in diet that I am eating less calories each day than I want. Which this, too, can be counterproductive to weightloss. I am aiming for 1200 calories each day, and when you eat healthy that can be a LOT of food. Yet, each day I find that I have been averaging around 1,000 calories. This isn't good, as some people might think. So, I really like Calorie Count for the fact that it keeps me on track and holds me accountable for eat what I need to eat, not any more or any less.

There are many other reasons why I like Calorie Count, and some things that I'm sure I haven't discovered yet. I do feel that it is easy to use, it has many options (such as adding your own recipes), and it is motivational (check out the calorie camp!).

What weight loss tools do you all use on the internet?

Well, our vacation was fun. I, however, lost interest in eating anything remotely healthy. Funny how that happens on vacation. I am happy that I can say that there wasn't a weight gain on the scale, so I must have done something right. I did try to scale back on the portions, and take home whatever was left of my food at restaurants.

Now, I am starting anew, once again. I'm not going to let anything get me down! Motivation is key and right now I have a lot of it.

I wanted to share what I had for dinner, because it was AWESOME. :)

Amanda's Fresh and Yummy Salad

Ingredients (Makes 1 serving)

170 grams  Green Leaf Lettuce

 1  Full Circle Raisins Organic California Box

 10 4/5 grams  Almonds

 1 cup chopped raw  On The Vine Tomatoes

 4 tbsp chopped  Chives

 3 tbsp  Raspberry and White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Directions

1.       Mix together

2.       Add a Dash of Nature's Seasoning

3.       Enjoy!

Use http://caloriecount.about.com to get nutritional info for your own recipes!

The downside of the recipe is that it contains a lot of sugar. (I'm trying to do better with that, but I LOVE sweet things!) At least it is natural sugar. :)

Hmm...What's for Dinner

I typically have a very difficult time deciding what to eat.

It's really bad, just ask my husband.

I can be known to skip a meal simply because I'm not in the "mood" for anything. However, I am realizing that I really don't need to eat according to my moods or according to my cravings. I must eat to get my body through the day. It's like the fuel we put in our cars, it's what makes the cars run. Of course we need to put the right fuel into our cars, and in the same respect into our bodies. The car doesn't think "hmm...what fuel should I put in today". No, we put in the fuel that is recommended to make the car run most efficiently. Thus, is why I am on this new healthy-eating kick. I am trying to gain a different/healthy perspective on eating.  I sure have a lot to learn and will still ponder occasionally what's for dinner, yet I am excited about all the resources out there that provide yummy recipes to try!

Recently, I stumbled upon a lovely website with all kinds of fabulous recipes (all low calorie!). So, I decided to try the recipe for Meatball and Spaghetti Soup from Skinny Taste.

Of course, mine doesn't look as fabulous as it does on the website...but it was so GOOD! I highly recommend. :)

I altered the recipe slightly by using wheat pasta and a little more spaghetti sauce.

Next time I am pondering what's for dinner, I am going straight to my bookmarks/pins and looking up something new and exciting. It's fun to try new recipes and it feels good to know that I found a healthy alternative to my good ol' fashioned pack-on-the-pounds recipes.

It Takes Work & Lots of It!

I am currently reading a book called Made To Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. (I very highly recommend it!)

 

Anyway, in the third chapter, Lysa describes her feelings after seeing the garden of a neighbor. She writes: "I saw this man's flowers and wished for my own-without a clue about all the work that had gone into producing them. I want(ed) the flowers but not the work."

Wow. It's amazing how much this story describes my weight loss journey to a "T". I can truly look back over the years and see myself sitting there wishing to be skinny. It happened many nights while watching the Biggest Loser (and eating some sweet snack-that-should-not-be-eaten) that I would sit there and wish I could lose weight like "them". All the while thinking to myself, "If I could only go on the Biggest Loser" or "Man, wish I could lose weight that fast". 

Reading Made To Crave at the laundry mat.

The thing is, I've never really tried. In the past when I have lost weight, it's always been easy and due to circumstance. When I moved to Russia and was forced to eat whatever foods I could find, then walk up and down five flights of stairs to my apartment everyday, and walk everywhere else, for that matter; that is when I was able to lose a lot of weight by doing nothing. Then when I returned to the States and gained all the weight back, I have wondered what was wrong that I couldn't lose weight anymore.

The reason all along was that I didn't want to put the work in, but I definitely wanted to see the results. I have realized that there is no wishing the weight away. It's going to take a lot of work. And, it's not going to happen overnight. It took a long time to get where I am right now, and it will take a while to get it off.

Walking with the hubby to get Subway. (Total walking distance - 1 mile)

I am going to work hard from now. I'm committed.

It felt good to get the walk in last night. The air is cold, but I hardly noticed!

Week 1- Six pounds down!

 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" -Mark Twain

 This quote is one of the reasons that I have decided to do this. It inspires and motivates me that now is the time. I can do this! The next 20 years of my life aren't going to be like the first 29. Of course I wouldn't trade those years for anything because they are a part of me, but I want to live more fully than I have been.

Last week was my first week on this new journey. I just got up one day and decided, this is it. I think with my birthday (and turning 29), it wasn't a very difficult decision.

My 29th Birthday. Hanging out with my Hubby.

Now I am SIX pounds down!

In all honesty, those were the easiest six pounds I have ever lost. I am motivated right now, but fear if/when I lose that motivation. Which, is in big part why I've decided to start blogging. This will hold me accountable each day to keep on track.

 This is going to be a good year! :)