My Guide to Eating Out

Let's be real, may times as a busy mom it's just easier to eat out. Yes pre planning is preferred, and should be what we all do, but honestly that gets exhausting and sometimes it's just not realistic. When I first started working full time I planned meals, I cooked all the time. I was a planning, prepackaging machine. But over time that faded. I was just too tired. I hated cooking. I would come home at 6pm and have two hours till bedtime, with homework, showers, stories, and dinner to fit in. The last thing I wanted to do after being at work all day was cook. So we started eating out… a lot. It got a tad out of hand honestly and I fully intend to reign it back in by finding easier, quicker meals to cook at home.

Eating out doesn't have to be all bad though. Seriously it can be just as healthy as eating at home, and you can still reach your goals. My best advice is make sure you eat at places that provide nutrition information. This is huge.

This is my personal guide to eating out. It may not be a good fit for everyone, but this is how I do it. I stick with places I know serve fresh foods. I tend to avoid fast food places like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Wendy's or pizza places. Just say no. In a pinch however I know how to eat healthy at these places too.

My go to places are Qudoba, Subway, Jimmy Johns, ModMarket, Whole Foods, and Panera.

Qudoba: DO NOT GET A TORTILLA. Seriously it's 350 extra calories of white flour you DO NOT NEED. Stick to brown rice if you want rice. I always skip the beans. Beans just don't agree with me and are extra calories I don't want. I typically skip the sour cream in favor of avocado. I usually always get cheese. I love cheese. Any meat is good. The pork is actually lower in calories than the chicken, but I usually get chicken anyway. My meal is almost always a salad without the dressing, and without the tortilla bowl, with chicken, fajita veggies, cheese, pico, and avocado. It's delicious! Sometimes I will do a naked burrito with brown rice, chicken, cheese, pico and avocado. Their website is super helpful and you can easily customize your meal and see the nutrition content.

Subway: My kids love being able to make their own sandwich and I can easily find something healthy. I trade white bread for wheat and get ham and turkey. I get pepper jack cheese, and load it with veggies. Sometimes I'll get a little bit of light mayo as well. But I try to skip that, and use olive oil and vinegar instead. If I get chips I get the baked ones.

Jimmy Johns: I love them because they also offer nutrition info and the legendary un-which. You can get any of their sandwiches with a lettuce wrap instead of bread. I always get the Beach Club with no bread, and no mayo. It's about 350 calories and it fills me up. Love it!

ModMarket: You pretty much can't go wrong here. All calories are listed on the menu. At lunch I get a half order of whichever salad I am craving, and for dinner I will usually get the roasted chicken, with a side of mashed sweet potatoes and arugala salad. It's amazing.

Whole Foods: they do not list nutrition info per say, but if you stick to the salad bar you are usually ok. I avoid anything with pasta or potatoes and just load up on veggies. I measure out a small container of dressing and go light on the cheese and or nuts.

Panera: Here again the calories are listed on their menu so it's pretty simple to choose. My favorite is their power chicken hummus bowl. They don't always have it so I will get a salad usually. Any will do, they are all pretty low cal.

As far as fast food goes, in a pinch I will get grilled chicken nuggets from Chik-Fil-A, and a cup of fruit or side salad. At McDonalds for breakfast I will get an egg white McMuffin, and for lunch a salad. I avoid Taco Bell altogether. Most places will offer healthier options you just have to have the willpower to make them while smelling fries :)

Sometimes I will go out for breakfast with friends or my husband and I will order simple. Scrambled eggs, bacon and a side of whole wheat something. Or a side of fruit. Keep it simple and you won't have to worry about too many calories.

And that's how I eat out without ruining my diet or packing on the pounds.

A Week of Workouts

I had a request for the workouts that i do at the gym. I figured I would blog it in case there was more interest. I don't want my body to get bored, or get used to the workouts I do, so I try to keep my body guessing.

Sunday: Rest day

Monday: 

Tuesday: 

Wednesday: 

Thursday: 

Friday: 

Today's workout (Friday) is listed as circuit training but more specifically it is Autumns Calabrese's 21 Day Fix Total Body Cardio. I will do this workout at home. On Wednesday you can see I also listed circuit training, I make myself cheat sheets to use at the gm of the 21 day fix workout routines. That day was Dirty 30. 

Saturday is yet to e determined, but I will probably be at the gym running intervals. I found this great new challenging routine on Pinterest.  

Speed     Incline      Duration

4mph        5%            5 min

6mph        2%            3min

7mph        2%            1min

3mph        10%          1min

Repeat 3 or 4 times 

I loved this one because it really worked my gluteus, and my hamstrings.

I get bored pretty easily with the same routine. I like things for a short period of time then find I need something new to stay motivated. I switch it up between floor routines and machines.

One Day at a Time

Today I am feeling accomplished for sticking to my goal yesterday. I stayed at 1900 calories. I worked out. I feel good. Sticking to weight loss goals is all about taking it one day at a time and being proud of even the smallest steps.  One day can be a mountain to some and an ant hill for others. Accept where you are and be excited when you make improvements! That's the only way to stay strong and stick it out.

When your goals seem too easy make them harder. Challenge yourself and shout your accomplishments from the roof tops.

What did you do better today than yesterday? What have you accomplished in the past hour? The past week? The past year. It is the perfect time to reflect on how far you have or have not come, and to really analyze where you are at. Set short and long term goals for 2015. If you stumble it's ok, get back up and keep going.

Think of the time that has passed since last new years when you set goals and resolutions. Have you accomplished them? If so, Yay!! If not, why? What happened? Imagine where you would be today if you had really stuck to your goal.  Where could you be in a week, in a month, by next New Years?

I am committed to making changes. I am committed to being the best me I can be in 2015, and to transforming my body. I want to be healthy. I want to be able to just jump off the couch and run a 5k . I want to be in that kind of shape. I am pretty healthy and fit but I want to be even better, even stronger.

Happy New Year to all my readers and make 2015 your best year ever!!

And... It's still hard

At one point I contemplated changing the name of this blog, but I'm glad I didn't. I put on 4 lbs over the holidays (6 if we look at the scale today) and I am getting myself ready to get rid of it. And guess what? It's hard. It's still hard. Even after almost two years of keeping the weight off, even after losing the first 30lbs, it is still hard and I am kicking the bricks because I wish it wasn't!

I want it to be easy. I want to be happy about it. I know once I get going and once I start to see results I will be happy, but at the moment I'm bitter. My biggest issue since I lost that weight has been continuing to lose. Fall 2013 I hit a plateau, and I literally haven't budged since. I have sort of tried new things, but everything I have done has only served to maintain my current weight. Right before Thanksgiving I somehow dropped down to 166, which was odd because I kinda stopped working out. Then the holidays happened and I really let it slide. I continued to work our but ate terribly. Now here I am on a chilly Tuesday morning at 172.2 grrrr.

It sucks because I was eating pretty well prior to the holidays, I was working out 4-5 times a week and I was MAINTAINING That was a challenge already. saying no to yummy treats was already hard, now I am heavier and in order to lose I actually have to push myself even harder! It sucks so bad.

I started doing more research because I always feel like I am floundering. I can't figure out cardio, or weights, carbs or no crabs, am I eating too much? Too little? It's so confusing. Why was I openly maintaining before? Clearly I was eating too much, not burning enough right? My most recent research seems to indicate that my first goal has to be fat loss. I have got to get rid of the excess fluff before I can start to tone and see the results I want. So that means cutting calories. All the calculators keep telling me the same thing. To lose 15lbs in 60 days I will need to eat 1556 calories a day. That's it?? Holy smokes. I have been eating close to 2200 a day for months. Now I have to cut back. To be fair I have had days were I was closer to 1600-1800 but still... I'm a hungry girl! Looks like it's veggies, veggies, veggies for me.  

So my goal is to move forward armed with this knowledge and just freaking commit. Just do it. not for a week, but for as long as it takes. Just commit to an idea and give it at least a month to work. I am the queen of starting something and giving up a week or two in deciding it's not working. I don't know that I truly give anything enough time. Why? Because it's hard! I remember when I first started March 2013. It was hard. I was upset I was moody and angry, and I struggled, and it was HARD. That's how the blog got its name. Weight loss is not easy. I am just having such a hard time committing to going back to that place. I have been so comfortable where I am. Mostly content. Wanting a better body, but also telling myself that required to much work.

So here's to losing it the hard way in 2015. I have to be 100% honest I am not feeling it. I am just not there for some reason. Maybe it's the cold, the snow, working full time and begin mommy. I don't know. But I know I am having a head time feeling committed. Hoping to find my motivation.

This is not a solitary journey…

The biggest reason I think many women fail when they attempt to lose weight and keep it off, is that they are only changing their lifestyle. As moms and wives we are not the only people in our homes. If we are only trying to make ourselves healthier and we are still buying and preparing unhealthy foods for our families we are destined to fail. And not only that we are setting a terrible example. We are basically showing our children that healthy eating and working out is a "diet," a temporary exclusionary process, not a lifestyle that everyone should follow.

I remember growing up watching my mother diet, and workout on and off. Starting and quitting over and over. I can't even imagine how hard to was with 7 children. I know she did her very best with what she was given and I absolutely don't blame her in any way for my issues. But in order to help prevent my daughter from growing up with terrible eating habits I want to implement the changes I have made to our whole family, because the truth is this isn't just about weight loss.

This isn't just about me losing that 10 extra lbs, this is about instilling healthy habits in my children now so they won't have to struggle like I did. My children are on top of it too, one day I was making lunch and we were discussing food my son asked why I don't just pack a sandwich for lunch instead of salad. I told him it was because bread wasn't very good for me, and he said "but mom you feed us bread!" It was that 'duh' moment, why on earth am I feeding my children things that I won't eat? Why am I setting them up for failure? If I let them eat these things that I have sworn off they will grow up assuming those foods are ok, and when they get older and they embark on this same journey and have to cut those foods out it will be so hard. Why would I do that to my children?

I look at my daughter and I pray that she will not have to struggle like I did. I was overweight in middle school and high school, and most of my adult life and it was so hard and frustrating and I hated it. I don't want her to hate her body, or feel bad about herself, or feel the need to go on a diet as a teenager, or worse develop an eating disorder like I did. I want her to grow up with these healthy habits as if they are just facts of life. This is just how we eat, being active is just what we do. It's not some special thing we break out when we start to feel fat, it's our life. She may still struggle, but that struggle will be much less if I set the correct foundation.

I have spent the last year losing weight and making this happen with the support of my husband sort of… he was super supportive verbally, and he would eat anything I cooked no complaints, but the downfall was that he was more than willing to go get donuts, brownies, order pizza, get burgers etc. This made it kind of difficult to really make this  lifestyle. Now that he is totally on board and wants to change his body it has been so much easier. We encourage each other, we don't cave, we motivate each other and we keep each other accountable. He has lost 13lbs in a month. He feels great, he feels happy and energized. It is so great!

The key is that we are doing this together, this is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change. We have decided together this is what we want for us and our family. It's not just about weight loss, it is about being happy and healthy and setting a good solid foundation for our children.

If you are embarking on this journey you cannot make it a solitary journey. Commit to changing your family. Talk to your spouse. Make the decision to change together for yourselves, and for your kids.

Hiking

Coyote Chase- Fun Run

Coyote Chase- Fun Run

Hiking 

Hiking

Hiking

Whole Wheat Protein Waffles

It is a challenge in my house to get my daughter to eat healthy food. Breakfast is the worst. She has recently been eating whole wheat Ego's with peanut butter, which is better than frosted flakes in my opinion, but still not the nutrition she really needs. So I researched a way to make protein waffles. I headed to Whole Foods and picked up some organic protein powder.

Because this is something I am feeding to my kids I was very careful to buy an organic protein power and not your basic muscle powder form the supplement store. *Please do your own research on what is safe and recommended for children. What I am ok feeding my children, may not be what you are ok feeding yours, and I am NOT and expert on nutrition.* 

I looked up a good recipe online and found this one from Blissfully Domestic  

My husband and I tried them out this morning, delicious! 272 calories per waffle (makes 4 large Belgian style waffles) with 19 grams of protein per waffle. I didn't separate the eggs like she said I just mixed them in whole. I also used almond milk instead of skim because that's all we had in the house. They were delicious and filling! Best part? I can make more and freeze them and have them ready to go every morning. 

Losing Inches!!

My body is changing! The scale is barely moving but the inches are leaving! Last weigh in:

07/23/14

Weight 167

Waist: 36"

Hips: 40.5"

Bust: 40.5"

Arm: 12"

Thigh: 22"

Calf: 15.5"

Today: 

Weight 165.8

Waist: 34"

Hips: 40"

Bust: 38.5"

It's working! I have mixed up my workouts and cut bread, rice, and pasta from diet almost completely. Keep it up! Keep going! It will work!