Stand Up Sunday - Week 5

1.      How many pounds did you gain or lose?

I started the week at 158lbs. I ended at 158.8lbs. A total gain of .8 ounces.

2.      How many inches did you gain or lose?

I still haven’t measured myself… so nothing to add here!

3.      Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it?

I bought a FitBit Charge Sunday night and have reached 10,000 steps every day since, so definitely an increase of steps from last week. I hope that the FitBit keeps inspiring me to get out there and get to my goal daily.

I walked a total of 76,376 steps. (I got Sunday's steps from my Samsung app, but the rest were from the FitBit)

4.      What was your biggest challenge this week?

Wings. Have you guys had Buffalo Wild Wings? They are delicious. You can order wings and have them put whatever flavor you want on them. They have a vast array from not spicy to extremely spicy. They have one that tastes like a Christmas Tree. They are amazing. They had MAPLE flavored ones as a special this week. I went to lunch there on Tuesday with my supervisor. On Tuesdays the wings are 69 cents each. $10 for lunch and leftovers! So I had them for lunch 2 days in a row. Each wing is about 90 calories. I still stayed under my calorie goal because of all the walking, but NOT eating them would’ve been better.

5.      What is your favorite healthy snack or meal?

I bought some plums this week. They are not quite ripe yet, but at about 30-40 calories each, they are a good snack. Last summer peaches were super cheap (.49/lb) so I ate peaches ALL the time. Finally I got tired of them, but it was about 3 or 4 months of only peaches (and sometimes pears mixed in).

6.      Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

Try fresh fruit! It’s delicious and most of the time available year round at the supermarket (or is that just here in CA?) and farmer’s markets. Most of the time they are low in calorie (watch out for bananas, avocados, grapefruit, and apples) and delicious!

Step Up Sunday (Week 2)

I think that I will start my posts with whatever random weight/eating thoughts are in my head and then move on to the questions.

So this week saw a lot of me wanting to each just for the sake of eating. I grew up eating no earlier than 7pm, sometimes as late as 9pm. In Argentina dinner time is 9 or 10pm (or even later). My family followed this for the most part.

My husband is an early eater. If he could, he would eat at 5pm. Unfortunately for him I get off work at 5:30 and I typically don’t get to work on dinner right away (even more so now that I tend to take the dog for a walk before I make him dinner).

I think that this is the problem, though. I am eating dinner before 7pm which is causing me to be hungry later in the evening and which also makes me antsy to want to munch on something. I did go ahead and pick up some low-cal snacks (Fiber One Brownies at the moment – 90 calories) so that helped a couple of nights.

Sometimes during day I also just want to chew on something or eat something. It’s hard to deal with these desires and keep on track calorie wise – but I’m trying to concentrate on drinking a lot of water and tea so not only keep my mind occupied but to keep something coming to my lips.

1. How many pounds did you gain or lose?

I started the week at 161lbs. I ended at 161lbs . A total loss/gain of nothing! 

2.  How many inches did you gain or lose?

I sort of feel like my size 10 pants are feeling a bit looser than last week, which I can imagine to not just be my imagination, 2.8lbs was probably water weight, but enough to loosen them up.

3.  Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it?

I walked a total of 47,301 steps.

(3,938 fewer steps than last week).

4. What was your biggest challenge this week?

As I mentioned above, my biggest challenge was not eating for the sake of eating. I had to refocus myself in the evenings to avoid munching. Not having bad snacks in the house helped to diffuse it as well. My other struggle, mentally, was that I weighed myself at 161.2 every single day from Sunday to Friday and it drove me crazy. I started moving the scale around to see if it made a difference (it didn’t).

5. What is your favorite healthy snack or meal?

I’ve been eating Yoplait Low-Fat yogurt as a snack at work daily. I’ve also been sticking to pork chops. Pork chops are tasty and also very lean. I sauté them with Saute Express and some beef broth and it is delicious. I’ll pair it with ¼ cup of couscous and saute a mixture of mushrooms and onions. I do add a bit of sugar to caramelize the onions, but just about a teaspoon or two for a batch that lasts me 3 meals. The whole thing is a total of 300 or so calories. If I add veggies it only increases it by 20-40 calories at most.

6. Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

Going with my health meal for the week, I suggest buy fresh pork chips (I like the ones with bone more) and saute it. Delicious!