Yum! Raspberries! Day six.

I forgot to mention my raspberries last night! I got three pounds of raspberries at the store and had some for an evening snack. Delish!

Breakfast:

2 serving steel-cut oats

1 c. raspberries

1 Tbsp honey

Lunch:

1 yellow squash

1 yellow pepper

2 small zucchini

balsamic vinegar

approx. 2 oz. Feta: 140 calories

Snack:

2 slices cinnamon toast

apple butter

1 granola bar: 90 calories

2 sticks of string cheese (2 percent milk): 140 calories

I also did an hour of hot yoga earlier. 

I haven't eaten dinner yet, and since it's 11:45, I don't imagine I will. Looks like I'm under 2000 calories for today as well! 

I think I'm going to start running again tomorrow. Run tomorrow, run Friday, and then Saturday I have my first Meetup with the Ahwatukee walkers! Fun, fun. 

Day five

Breakfast:

2 packets Kroger reduced sugar instant oatmeal

1 ½ servings Cinnamon Life cereal

½ c. nonfat milk

Lunch:

1 homemade quesadilla

Snack:

1 no-bake cookie

Dinner:

4 oz. Veggie pasta

approx. 2 oz. Feta

½ Tbsp. Garlic & herb butter

Snack:

1 serving Starbursts = 160 calories

It's almost 8 and I'm still pretty stuffed. I don't foresee myself eating anything else tonight. It looks like today was probably right around 1800 calories. MUCH better than it has been. I also did about an hour of stretching / yoga at the house earlier.

Side note! I was able to go into both standing bow and the one where you hold your foot and straighten your leg out in front of you... don't know the name of it. Anyway, I was able to go into both of them completely for the first time yesterday! Super excited about that.

Off to hit the grindstone! O-Chem homework is due tonight. Ciao! 

Day four.

I also didn't update last night, as I did what was quite possibly the best thing I've done for myself in a long time.

I went to bed at 8:30. Initially I had intended on taking a one-hour nap, and even set three alarms, but didn't wake up until 1AM, and then decided to sleep until 5:30. I ended up getting up at 6 this morning. Amazing.

So here it is! Yesterday's log. 

Breakfast:

2 packets peach instant oatmeal (Czech, Albert brand. I tossed the box, so I have no clue what the calorie content is.)

Snack:

2 small pieces cherry crumble: ~200 calories

2 iced trente passion teas from Starbucks (unsweetened)

Lunch/Dinner:

6 oz. Veggie pasta

½ Tbsp. Herb butter

2 oz. Feta

Exercise:

50 minutes hot yoga

Snack:

3 no-bake cookies

Still snack overload. I am starting to get a little better, though. I have one cookie left that I'm saving for Kyle (as long as he continues to behave himself), and the fact that I haven't eaten it yet should speak volumes about my growing self-control.

I got up this morning and baked a cherry crumble for Mashanda's birthday with some of the fresh cherries I had in the fridge. She mentioned that she went to the gym on campus this morning and worked out for a little bit, since her birthday goal is to drop 20 lbs. I think I might follow in her footsteps. I have been a student at ASU for three years now (starting #4) and never once used their gym.

Think that's all for now. Have to get started on all this homework!   

Day three update!

I forgot to actually post this last night, so here's yesterday's update!

Breakfast:

Breakfast burrito -

3 eggs: 240 calories

1/8 c. cheese: 55 calories

1 tortilla: 150 calories

1 no-bake cookie

Exercise(ish):

20 minutes stretching

1 hr Ballerobica

Lunch:

gyro

greek salad

Dinner:

1 sandwich (mozz, tomato, salami, basil)

1 banana bar with whipped cream cheese frosting

1 peanut butter cookie

lots of strawberries and raspberries

peas and grape tomatoes

Lessons learned today: I have never seen a tortilla with as high a calorie count as the one from Target. I got a coupon in the mail to get some tortillas free which is why I have them, but I'm definitely never getting those again. (Market Pantry tortillas. Don't buy them.) Along that same vein, I need to start checking nutrition facts when I buy packaged foods like that. I never have with any regularity because I've never needed to. I need to get in the habit of doing so.

As I am starting this (at 8:30AM), I am also in the middle of some stretching. Admittedly it's not rigorous if I can be on the computer at the same time, but butterfly is quite conducive to typing, as are the splits with my computer out in front of me. I gained most of my weight in my belly, my hips, my butt, and my thighs. I'm hoping with some stretching to lengthen the muscles, I'll be able to achieve my first goal and fit in my clothes a little faster than I might be able to otherwise.

Ashley – your suggestion of going by the way my pants fit is an awesome one! I have a pair of skinny jeans that I purchased just a little too small, so they have never been quite as flattering as I've wanted them to be. That will be my new goal. I might step on a scale between now and then, but I certainly won't be buying one. I know that once those pants fit comfortably, I will have achieved my last goal. Then I won't be constantly worrying about the numbers on the scale! Thanks for that awesome tip.

Still no sign of the elusive tape measure. Perhaps next weekend I'll have a little more time to unpack and organize. I'm sure it's somewhere in one of the bags in the bedroom. It just might take a little more looking than I initially anticipated.

I also used a BMR calculator Saturday night. If I am 140 lbs. (which I seriously doubt), I need to consume about 1540 calories per day in order to lose 1 lb. per week. For 150 lb. me, I believe that number was 1610. I said I exercise moderately – 3 to 5 days per week, which is an underestimate, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

One of the ladies at the new church I went to last night made a TON of food – hence the all-over-the-place dinner. And I went out to lunch with my Couchsurfer. Pretty sure the entire day was a fail as far as calories go.

Starting to see the whole lack of self-control thing? Ugh.  

Day two!

Breakfast:

1 ½ servings raisin bran cereal

½ c. skim milk

Exercise:

50 minutes hot yoga

Breakfast, continued:

1 medium red grapefruit

Snack:

5 no-bake cookies

Dinner: 3 small stuffed tomatoes (meatless)

--

I didn't do a calorie count today because most of my meals/snacks were homemade and I don't have any clue what that calorie content would look like. 

Again, I'm a sucker for snacks. I made no-bake cookies because I was expecting my couchsurfer today, and then mowed down plenty. I didn't eat lunch, though, so I figure that makes up for part of it. I also put on some dance music while I was doing housework today, which burned a lot of extra calories, I'm sure. (The result of the dance music, obviously. :P )

I am taking another Ballerobica class in the morning, and that should use up the last of my Living Social classes deal. Bummer. I've looked into getting more in a package deal already, because those classes are awesome. (Studio BFF in Tempe. It's ballet aerobics. So much fun, and a crazy workout.) 

My hot yoga classes expire on the 9th, so I need to find something else to do after that, too. I joined a Meetup group today for women walkers in Ahwatukee, and signed up for their next jaunt - next Saturday morning at 5:45. Good thing I'm dedicated! 

I'm going to the store tomorrow to get a bunch of corn so I can have grilled corn and corn salad all week. Veggie overload, here I come!  

End of day one!

Still looking for that tape measure. Until then, here are my stats for the day.

Breakfast:

2 servings of steel cut oats = 320 calories

1Tbsp honey = 60 calories

½ c. blueberries

2 slices cinnamon toast

apple butter

Snack:

3 servings black pepper Triscuits (18 crackers) = 360 calories

1 serving (¼ c.) Skittles = 160 calories

1 strawberry yogurt granola bar = 409 calories

Lunch:

4 oz. Vegetable pasta = 380 calories

½ Tbsp garlic & herb butter = 45 calories

~1 oz. feta cheese = 70 calories

Snack:

~4 oz. Blueberries

I haven't eaten dinner yet, but it will be a small bowl of leftover chicken and rice.

Wow. Just looking at this, I obviously need to cut down on the snack calories. That's over 900 calories in snack food, which is way too much. With the numbers I have up there, that's 1800 calories plus the fruit, toast, apple butter, and dinner that I haven't eaten yet, which probably puts me close to a 2500 calorie day. Yikes.

I did an hour of Ballerobica earlier (a ballet aerobics class. Super fun), and the instructor said the class burns anywhere from 250 to 500 calories, but 350 calories is generally average. I also walked for about half an hour earlier. Total low ball, but I'm going to say that was another 50 calories burned because I like round numbers. That puts me at a net 2100 calorie day. I'm going to aim for another 100 calories burned before bed tonight.

I also drank pretty close to a half-gallon of water today. That's a lot less than I should be drinking, but still not bad. I also froze my water bottle overnight, so I had ice cold water for a few hours today, which I've been told burns a considerable number of calories.

Lessons learned today: I need to keep something sweet around that is healthy. I had a craving for something sweet earlier – hence the Skittles. They not only didn't hit the spot, but were a lot of wasted calories. I also need to not snack so much, or find healthier snacks. Rather than the Triscuits, I could have cut up one of the bell peppers I have in the fridge and brought that to school to munch on. That probably would have saved me close to 300 calories. Also, the granola bars from the Czech Republic need to go. I didn't look at the nutrition facts until this evening, making this list, and I'm appalled. None of the flavors I have are under 400 calories. Gross.

I finished off my blueberries today, so I'm all out of fruit. (I have lemons and bell peppers, but those aren't really “reach in and munch down” material.) I will definitely be doing some grocery shopping tomorrow, and will be doing so with this goal in mind. I'm going to try meal planning so I actually buy with purpose (and because corn is 6/$1 at Albertsons. I love corn, so I will probably get lots of it and then do grilled corn, corn salads, etc.) and because that might cut down on the “I don't know what I'm going to eat for dinner so I'll just stand here in front of the pantry hoping that something will jump out at me, and continue standing here until I decide on something that's not terribly healthy” phenomenon that seems to happen in this house.

Definitely glad I tracked my calories for the day. I was really surprised when I saw that number up there, and will be a lot more aware of what I consume from now on.  

Yay! Day one.

Ah, here we go again. Kicking off a new blog.

I had the idea for the name of this blog a few days ago, after walking into the ASU bookstore and seeing their ridiculous new slogan - “Fear the Fork” plastered across the front of a t-shirt in multiple colors. Immediately, the image of an obese woman sitting down at the dinner table popped into my head.

I originally dismissed the idea of starting a new blog. I already have two – one that I update almost daily, and the other that I update when I have something I need to get out, or need to ask a select group of friends for advice. So instead of starting this, I decided to change all my “workout” tags to “fear the fork” tags on my public blog.

Then this morning, I realized I wanted to do more with it. So here I am! Logging my breakfast for the first time. I know this is going to seem like a lot of food. I leave for school around 10AM and don't get out of class until 3. I only have one short break between classes, and I usually bring something like a granola bar and maybe some fruit – definitely not anything big enough to count as a real lunch. So I eat a larger breakfast to help tide me over. (That, and I got used to eating a LOT of food on vacation.)

Breakfast this morning:

2 servings of steel-cut oats with approx. 1Tbsp honey and probably ½c. blueberries

2 slices cinnamon toast with apple butter.

It's also 8:30 in the morning and I'm working on finishing off my first water bottle of the day.

I did not end up doing any organized exercise yesterday. I did a lot of walking across campus, then some stretching at home combined with a little house work. Today, I am signed up for a Ballerobica class. I am going to try to get some sort of additional exercise at home – either some yoga or going for a run in the little gym here.

As soon as I can find my measuring tape, I will be posting measurements here to accompany my daily food and exercise logs. I don't have a scale (the battery corroded in the flood back in April) and I think I'm pretty glad. I might cry if I stepped on a scale right now.

My first goal is to fit back in my clothes.

My second goal is to be 125 lbs.

My ultimate goal is to be under 120, and to be able to run a mile without stopping. (For an asthmatic, that's a difficult task!)

I also want to complete a half-marathon some time in the next two years so if this goes well and I decide to continue it, I may switch the focus in the future to training. I think it goes without saying that I'm nowhere near ready to start training now.

A little background on me: I am recovered from a compulsive exercise / eating disorder but have a very unhealthy relationship with my body (and with food), and very low self-esteem. Because of my past, I gain weight very easily. I went from sub-120 in February to 130 in May, probably up to 135 in June (I haven't logged anything since June 2^nd), and then just got back from a month-long vacation to Europe (Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland) where I would guess I gained about 10 lbs. Most of my pants I can't pull over my butt (thankfully that's all muscle from doing so much walking!) but the ones I can pull on don't fit. Some barely button. Some button but are extremely unflattering. You get the picture. I am no longer the size two I was before vacation, and that needs to change! You can probably imagine how humiliating it is to get home from a month's vacation and only be able to wear skirts and dresses. I have one pair of shorts I have been able to wear – the ones I took on my trip with me. I'm pretty disappointed in myself.

So there you have it! A little bit about me, why I'm trying to lose weight, some of my goals, and how I plan to accomplish them! Welcome on board! I look forward to having people hold me accountable. :)