We got the beat!

Good news and not so good news. Today I got the beat so I can officially tell you (as many of you have suggested) I am pregnant with my first child. This is why I increased calories and have been feeling so fatty and gained a few pounds. That is the good news. Oh yeah and just to creep you out - here is my first ultrasound pic. I think it is creepy to show people my uterus.

The not so good news is no more weight loss. Only gaining now! But minimal gains. So cheers!

My weight loss is like house flipping

I was thinking about it today and weight loss can be a lot like house flipping. You get this dilapidated property that has not been well cared for and try to turn it into something others would want (mainly you).

When you first get started you feel like you have no idea what you are doing, some may even tell you that you are in over your head. As the project goes on, you learn from your mistakes. You may start with a time line (I want to lose 100 pounds in a year) and a budget (so many calories per day, so much time spent exercising). And then life gets in the way.

It puts you over budget and throws your timeline out of whack. But you have to keep going because you cannot afford to carry that extra mortgage payment one more month.

In the end, all the upgrades are worth it. Jaws drop and people cannot believe what you have done with the property. It even gets them interested in flipping. And now they want to draw on all of your experience (and who can blame them, you have obviously learned a lot).

All I can say, is that for me, in the end, the net profit was WAY more than I expected it to be. The lost numbers, the clothing size, the ability to complete tough workouts, the sense of accomplishment and pride - it has been amazing. I hope you all feel this way or get to a point where you feel this way because it is worth the hard work and sacrifice and soon just becomes your way of life.

Okay, no recipe today as I have oodles of leftovers which I am fine with. It is a crappy rainy day and I still need to go to the gym and the store. I chose the gym first. We will see where the store falls. I will be posting again tomorrow or Tuesday so stay tuned....

Weigh-In

This week has not been the best. Food and exercise were not the problem. Crappy things in life were. Funny how everything seemed to happen in one day. It was Wednesday. One of those days you just want to forget ever happened but something pissed me off so much so that it lingers in my brain. In the grand scheme of life it is small but right now I am majorly annoyed.

There is a bright spot in my week. My weigh-in today was 179. Which is down 2.2 pounds from last week. So hooray for that! Overall my weight is still up but I will just have to live with it for now. One more week until spring break. I plan on sleeping in EVERYDAY and working out and hanging with some buds. Exciting, I know, but it sounds heavenly right now.

Not much else to say at the moment. I am sure I will post again before the weekend is through. I wish you lots of scale-love this week!

Why do I even start with a recipe?

I found a recipe in Cooking Light magazine. I wanted to try it but decided I would make some of my changes. In the end, it was WAY different than the original recipe. Here are the ingredients I used.

8 oz chicken breast

8 oz elbow macaroni

2 Tablespoons of flour

2 Tablespoons of light butter

3 cups of skim milk

2/3 cup reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)

1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shredded multi-cheese blend (like 4 Mexican blend)

3/4 shredded Colby jack cheese

cooking spray

1/2 bag of frozen peas

head of broccoli

I had some leftover grilled chicken breast (already cooked) and some smoked chicken and pork (thanks to my husband). I chopped that up and threw it in a pan with the chopped up broccoli and 1/2 bag of frozen peas. I also cooked the macaroni according to the box directions. When it was all cooked and hot I mixed it up in a big bowl.

Meanwhile, I made the sauce. I started with the butter and flour. I cooked it in a sauce pan for 2 minutes. In a bowl I mixed the cream of mushroom soup and milk. I slowly added the milk mixture to the pan and brought it to a boil for about 3 minutes to thicken it. I removed from the heat for 4 minutes. Then stirred in the garlic powder, salt, dill and the 1 1/2 cup of multi-cheese blend. It turned into like a white cream/cheese sauce.

I poured it over the meat, veggie and macaroni mixture. I put the mixture in a 8 inch square baking dish (after I sprayed it with PAM). I topped it with 3/4 Colby jack cheese. I put in under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

It yields 4 humongous servings. I am guessing it is about 600-650 calories each. I was not too specific in my measurements and I deviated from the recipe quite a bit. But it is still pretty healthy and very hearty.

Verdicts

Me: Yum, yum. I liked it alot. It was like a creamy casserole. Normally I do not like that sort of thing but this one was good. I kind of want to call it "crap in a pan." But good crap.

Hubby: "This is even better than the last one. If we owned a restaurant this would be on the menu." Cleaned his plate.

The original recipe did not have any veggies in it. I have to sneak them into hubby's food. Most people have to do this for their children. I have to do it for my 37 year-old husband. Okay, I have procrastinated long enough (like ALL DAY), I need to work on some report cards. Hope you all had a great weekend!

I know you've never met me....

I know you have never met me but if you cannot tell, I like to be entertained. All the time. Perhaps that is why I got fat, entertaining myself with food. There is not much I will not do to make myself giggle. Including trying to dress up like the peeps I saw at BodyJam last weekend.

This picture was taken yesterday before my 5:30am workout. I look super retarded because I am laughing while striking a BodyJam move.

Don't worry, no one had a seizure while looking at me but we did laugh pretty hard. Especially because I proceeded to workout in this get-up. It was a little warm. Imagine a room of tired people all wearing gray and black clothing....and then there was me. I even sported a side-pony. There are holes in the back of the shirt and I wore a lace cami underneath to show off the holes.

All I have to say is that exercise is so much more fun when everyone is enjoying it. So go ahead....entertain yourself. Or others. They will appreciate it. Exercise can be fun(ny)

Fatty, fatty 2X4

Friday weigh-in. Big gain. I am up 4 pounds. I added in some calories to my diet. Guess I am still adjusting. I am not too ashamed. They are healthy calories. Although I do feel roly-poly. I am still exercising everyday. Maybe this is my "motivation" to stay on track (or pay closer attention to the track).

In related news, I made my first ever banana bread this week (thanks to a recipe from Best Bud). It is yummy (not low calorie)! My mom used to make it all the time. When I pulled it out of the oven, I was transported back to childhood. I guess this means in some way I am becoming my mother. Soon I will be buying all kinds of crappy workout equipment from infomercials. Hide the VISA cards!

Well I am off to body attack. Need to burn off a super delicious turkey burger I ate last night (I did not make it so I am sure it had fatty goodness to make it taste better). Hope you all have a super day!

I have not been this sore since fat camp!

I am not all that sore but I may take the day off from working out. A rare occasion for me.

Remember this summer when I made my own version of fat camp (well, if you are new to my blog I am sure you don't)? I was working out 3 or 4 hours a day. Well yesterday was a bit like that.

The classes I love to take at the gym (body attack, bodypump, etc) were created by a dude called Les Mills. He has many classes. They are awesome. Well, yesterday the Les Mills company held its quarterly event. This is where all the trainers get to preview all the new releases. I think there are 8 different programs. This is the first time the public was invited to come. So I signed up (for a small fee of $100 - good lord) and went with the trainers from my gym. It was held at the convention center. Why? Because there were supposed to be about 650 people there.

There were a lot of people but way less than 650. All those people were exercising in one room. And the room? It was set up like a night club. We were pretty much in the dark and there were some colored lights flashing around and smoke machines. A very interesting way to exercise. Imagine hundreds of people exercising, in the dark, all day. It was fun, but a long day.

The last class was hilarious. It was called bodyjam and it is the hip-hop dance class. It did not start til 6 at night so there were not many people left by then. In fact most of the people I went with left right after that class started. This class was awesome for the people watching. People dressed like break dancers from the 80s. And not just the instructors. And they wore glow sticks. There were also confetti cannons. Cheesy and funny. I am a poor excuse for a hip-hop dancer. Oh well, I had fun.

Body Attack (my fav) had a poster that I really liked. It said "Smiling is optional, finishing is not." This is how I feel about exercise.

This morning is pancakes and recovery.

I also must apologize. My last post was #200 for me and I asked you a lame question. Maybe I can think of something better to make it up to you. Just not today. Sorry. If you can think of something I should write about, let me know. By the way, I have been trying your suggestions. So far the winner is something called Crystal Clear. I found it at Kroger and it is carbonated, flavored water. No caffeine, no aspartame, no calories.

No weigh-in this week. I feel bloaty and fat and I think a weigh-in will make me shut down a bit so I am giving myself a break from the scale (also a rare occasion).

I want to leave you with a quote. I know, quotes can be lame but when I read this, it stuck with me. I am reading The Jean Nidetch Story (she is the creator of Weight Watchers). "Those who are successful with the program are the ones who tell themselves that they are not going to let anything stand in their way. People who say they can't succeed spend the rest of their lives proving it."

I think of this in terms of general weight loss, not the weight watchers program. But isn't true?