Tooting My Horn (Again!)

I didn't know what else to call this post, so I thought this title fits since I am so gosh darn proud of myself right now.

In honor of "Administrative Professionals Week," my office hosted lunch for all of the support staff which includes yours truly. They ordered in Italian entrees from Valentino's and then designated others to bring side items, desserts, etc.

Surprisingly, there were some healthy options, which isn't always the case.

This is what I ate:

1 piece of pepperoni pizza (a small corner piece...Val's cuts their circular pizzas into square pieces)
3 baby carrots
1 raddish
2 pieces of celery
4 large strawberries
Lots of fresh blueberries....about 1/2 cup

Now here's a list of stuff I passed up: sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake w/whip cream & cherry topping, cheesecake, cream cheese fruit pizza, pecan pie, chocolate cupcakes, lasagna, mostacolli, macaroni salad and french bread!

Other than the piece of pizza, everything I ate was 0 point items! Okay, technically the blueberries are .5 according to the tracker but I'm counting them as 0 since I've never tracked 1/2 points. Unfortunately, Val's doesn't list their NI online, so I'm going to count it as 6 since that's what most places are, even though it was definitely not the size of a full slice. It was serioulsy only 4 bites, not including the crust. I was going to skip the crust, but theirs is really good so I went for it.

So you see, I'm tooting my horn because I could've been soooo bad today but I wasn't. Go me! (toot-toot...)

A Must-Share Recipe

Before church this morning, the husband and I watched a cooking show on the Food Network. And no, it wasn't Paula Dean and her pound of fried butter! lol.... It was Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller and it was an episode of "light and satisfying" meals. One in particular looked really good, so we made it for dinner tonight and we will DEFINITELY make it again! It was delicious, quick, easy, and best of all...point friendly!

Grilled Shrimp with Citrus Dipping Sauce & Rice












Rice:
1 cup instant brown rice
1/2 cup fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup orange juice (Tropicana light n healthy)
1/2 cup red onion, chopped

Shrimp:
2 tsp EVOO
1 pound large shrimp, raw, peeled and deveined
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sauce:
1 cup orange juice (Tropicana light n healthy)
1 lime, sqeezed for juice
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves

Garnish:
1 orange, sliced

Preheat a grill pan or griddle over medium-high heat.

Start cooking the rice by combining orange juice, broth, rice, and onions and cook according to the directions.

While rice is cooking, whisk together orange juice, lime juice, ginger, cornstarch, and garlic in a small saucepan. Set pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer 2 minutes, until mixture thickens. Transfer sauce to individual dipping ramikins and sprinkle with cilantro.

Toss shrimp in EVOO and season both sides of shrimp with salt and black pepper. Place shrimp on hot grill pan and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until bright pink and cooked through. Sprinkle shrimp with cilantro.

Take orange slices and grill briefly, just until grill marks show.

Plate rice, shrimp and orange slices. =)

I'm No Longer Obese!!!

I never thought I'd be so excited to just be overweight! lol.... But I am THRILLED! I had an awesome loss of 3.2 this week (thanks, Aunt Flo, for packing up and going away...) for a total of 47.2 pounds! That makes my BMI 29.7 which gets me out of the obese category. =)

The mini-goal I've been working towards is to lose 50 pounds before our vacation to Chicago. I only have 2.8 to go and we leave 5 weeks from tomorrow. Unless I hit a plateau (knock on wood), I should be able to have a new charm on my keychain before we get on that plane! One other thing....my butt will fit much better in the seat than it did last summer!

I want to say thank you to Karen and C for sending me skinny vibes earlier this week because they definitely did the trick! ; )

An updated progress chart is below.

I Feel Like Rocky Balboa

Strange title, I know. But seriously. On my morning break today, a really fast song came on my iPod as I was heading up my 4th set of stairs (explanation...in the building where I work, I consider a "set" of stairs to be up to the 3rd floor which is a total of 82 stairs, and then back down).

I got all pumped up and decided to run up the stairs! (Hence, the Rocky reference.) Now, I've done this before but I usually run the stairs and walk on the landings in between the flights. Today I kept running around the landings! It was FUN! I felt like a little kid actually....lol. And a bit like that one "Friends" episode...you know, the one where Phoebe runs like a crazy woman. I'm not a runner and have no form whatsoever....I'm sure I looked a bit silly, but who cares!

By the time I got back down I was pretty out of breath, but it felt good! I don't think I could've ran another one right after it, but maybe I will strive to run one set during each break & lunch session. If I did, that would be running 3 out of the 16 sets I do each day, which would be awesome! =)

Buh-Bye Scale!

When I first started WW, I would weigh myself at home a few mornings during the week, just to see how I was doing between weigh-ins at my WW meeting on Saturday mornings. At some point I tried to kick the habit and asked my husband to hide the scale from me....and then I proceeded to play "hide-and-seek" until I found it! (I always was good at that game and it wasn't hidden very well! lol...)

From that day on, I've gotten progressively worse about weighing in too frequently. Knowing that I have trouble dealing with the fluctuations during the 7-day period between "official" weigh-ins at WW, I am now admitting this to all of my fellow bloggers, "My name is Marcie and I'm a daily weigher." Yes, DAILY. I have it bad.

Since there's no official 12-step program for my habit, I did the only thing I could think of. I asked my husband to hide the scale (yes, once again) somewhere in our basement where I won't be able to find it. Keep in mind that our basement isn't finished so besides never going down there, there are too many boxes to look through!

So I'm stopping. Cold turkey. Take that you stupid scale! (...flipping off my scale....) I CAN DO THIS!

Every Loss Counts

I had the smallest loss this week that I've had since I started, but the .6 pounds makes my total 44.0 pounds. I'm fine with the small loss because I know I had a good week and stayed on the plan. No real regrets.

I exercised every day during my breaks and lunch, but admittedly, not as hard as I had been. Yesterday was the only day all week where I did 16 sets of stairs and 4 laps, which is what my daily routine had been the past few weeks. Most days I only did 4 sets and then walked the remaining time. So instead of getting in 40 minutes of stairs and 20 minutes walking each day; this week was more like 10 minutes of stairs and 50 minutes of walking. Plus, with the weather this past week, I think we only walked the dog 2 or 3 nights after work.

My goal for the next week is to exercise harder while at work and see if I can lose at least 1 pound so I get another sticker for reaching 45 pounds. If you're reading this, please send some skinny vibes my way! =)

An updated progress chart is below.

A Stranger in the Hallway

While walking during my break today, a lady stopped me in the hallway to tell me she has noticed me losing weight and that I look really nice! She asked me if I was following a program and I told her that I do WW and that I've lost 43 pounds so far. Her eyes got big and then she said "you're doing amazing and it shows!" Talk about a warm fuzzy!

I have no idea who she was, other than she works in the building. I've seen her before, but I don't know in which office she works. What I do know is that she made my day and lifted my spirit! I needed that today because for the first time, I don't think I'm going to have a loss this week. But you know what?? That's okay. I've gotten several nice comments this week, I have stayed on plan, and I have nothing to be ashamed of. It happens. Life goes on.

5 Months Ago Today...

...I walked into my first WW meeting. To be honest, I didn't know how well this whole weight loss thing would go. After all, I had tried losing weight a couple of times on my own since meeting my now husband and it was a complete flop. I had this "I don't eat that bad" mentality. Heck, I even went to the doctor to have my thyroid checked thinking that surely something was wrong with it and that's why I hadn't been able to lose weight! (It was completely normal, by the way.) That tells you how clueless I was.

After that meeting, I sat down with the leader and she explained the program to me. Then she wanted to know a little about me. I told her I'd gained 70 pounds since April 2003, and 33 of those were just since our wedding in December 2006. I also told her about how painful it was to get out of bed because of my feet (plantar fasciitis) and that I felt like I was 70-years old in the morning. Another reason I told her I was joining was because I was tired of buying new clothes every season because I had outgrown the stuff I had bought the previous year(s). Even my winter coat was too small! That was the final straw....I joined WW a couple of weeks after that depressed me.

Since joining WW, I've lost 43.4 pounds. If you had told me on November 10, 2007, that I would lose this much by today's date, I wouldn't have believed you.

Not to toot my own horn, but (toot-toot!) I'm very proud of myself. It hasn't been easy, but it hasn't really been that hard either. I find that I eat basically the same stuff for my meals at home, but smaller portions. When we go to restaurants, I opt for entrees and sides that aren't fried or battered. I only eat till I'm satisfied....not till I'm stuffed and uncomfortable. I exercise regularly now. By the time I leave work each day, I've gotten in 60 minutes of stairs & walking. We take the dog for a 1.7 mile walk each evening after work which adds another 30 minutes. Once it gets nicer, we're going to increase it to 2 miles or more. I want to start riding my bike (which I've had for 9 months or so and have never ridden). I'm looking forward to going to Chicago next month and not having my feet hurt after a day of walking. I could go on and on, but this post is already pretty long!

So anyway, here's to 5 months! (picture me toasting...!) And here's to more success down the road!

Even with a pulled "butt muscle"

Yes, I seemed to have pulled a muscle in the middle of my right cheek...but I still lost 1.4 pounds last week. =) Just think what it would've been had I been able to climb stairs Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! I still walked at breaks and lunch and the dog after work, but I had to skip the stairs because it was too uncomfortable. I'll try them tomorrow and see how it goes.

Two people at my WW meeting called me the 's' word....SKINNY! lol.... Okay, so I know I'm not skinny yet but I am 43.4 pounds skinnier than I was 5 months ago. =) The comments made me feel very, very good.

Last week we made something new for dinner....chicken & veggie/fruit kabobs. We put the chicken on their own skewers, as well as the potatoes. Then we combined green peppers, red peppers, tomatoes, red onions and fresh pineapple chunks together on a few skewers. Below is a picture of them on the grill. They turned out really good and we will definitely have them again!

I've added a weight loss ticker on the right side of my blog. It shows my starting BMI, current BMI and goal BMI. It also shows how much weight I've lost and how much more I have to go.

That's all for now. Below is an updated progress chart.