Food is Fuel...not an event

I'm teaching myself that Food is Fuel and not an event.  I didn't realize I was doing this once I started counting calories and eating healthier...I was still holding on to some of my "oh my gosh food is so awesome" mentalities.

For example, and let me know if you ever think these things, or am I weird?

I like to "set my stage" for eating my meals so everything is perfect before I start eating. Like, if I'm going to eat and watch TV...I make sure I have my TV show all picked out and lined up on the TV, I make sure that my beverage is already out, I use the potty and then I bring out my food, turn on the tv, then I finally settle in.  If I'm channel surfing, I don't actually start eating until I've picked the show!

I don't like eating "courses as they come out" I want to set everything out on my plate, see it and pick the order that I eat it then. (unless its a fancy restaurant or something, that's okay, but not at home!)

I won't multitask when I eat, TV is different, but I don't read email, answer my phone, read Twitter (unless I'm at a restaurant waiting for food or something). I just eat the food.

I still look forward to food at a restaurant most of the time..I get all excited to go have mexican, or go have noodles, or the dessert at a restaurant...I obviously enjoy the people I'm going to see but I want to focus on that part, and let the food just be something that is fueling me..its a bonus that its not typical stuff from home, so I have variety, but I shouldnt' get so worked up about it.

Is this making sense? I'm going to read a book about emotional attachment to food, Ann is going to lend it to me, I can't remember the title, but when I'm reading it I'll talk about it here.

I also wanted to tell you guys about what I had for breakfast, I've never mixed stuff into my oatmeal before, well milk and syrup maybe but that's about it. 

This was GOOOD:

I brought my packet of Better Oat's OatFit Maple and Brown Sugar to prepare at work (the packet is a measuring cup for your water!).  Then after preparing it I put on some banana slices and a single serving packet of  Barney Butter Almond Butter.    I mixed it all up, so good!

Have a wonderful day!
<3 Merbear

One Step, One Breath Priorfatgirl Summer Event

This weekend I joined some familiar faces, made some new friends and learned lots of new ways to think about the mental and physical aspects of my healthiness journey. Jen, of Priorfatgirl hosted this awesome and fun event!

We all met at The Beat Coffeehouse at 8am on Saturday morning, uffdah early, good thing they have wonderful coffee!

The first speaker was Mary Sailors of Fit this, girl! She's a Personal Trainer, Bootcamp Instructor and a Kettlebell instructor and super nice and easy to follow.  She gave us a presentation about how to focus on your goal, what to think about mentally, physically, food wise, and environment wise. She showed us exercises that anyone can do at home with a band, too!

Mary Sailor, Fit This, Girl!

Lets Squat!

Kris @krisgetshealthy.com and Ann @twelve-in-twelve.com

Ann working on resistance band moves

Jen @priorfatgirl.com
pulling those bands!

Yay Jen!

Kris and Ann listening attentively to instructions

Kris's turn!

Work it Kris!

Jen talked about how much relationships can change, can be lost, and new ones can be built as we change our minds and our bodies to become healthier. Our lives, our environment, the people we want around us, the people that can accept our new lifestyle may change who we surround ourselves with and who chooses to stick with us.  She said that 80% of marriages where one spouse loses a significant amount of weight end in divorce...so its important to compromise and to keep lines of communication open!

Jen





Doing her thing






















After meeting a the coffeehouse, we ventured to our 2nd half of the day, which was a cooking class on Healthy Comfort Foods by KitchenWerks.

We learned how to make:

Spaghetti sauce served on romaine or wilted broccoli slaw
(as pasta substitutes)



Topping off the mac 'n cheese with breadcrumbs



mmm organic, gluten free and appropriate portioned
mac 'n cheese

Coconut chicken strips, they are coated in
a flax crumb topping and baked on a sheet
with coconut oil, SOO GOOD!

Pizza made on Joseph's Lavash or Arnold's Sandwich Thins
We used the homemade sauce or olive oil as the base



Jen putting together what she claims was the "best" pizza















I had such a wonderful time catching up, networking, learning new things, tasting new things (you betcha I'm going to serve pasta sauce on wilted broccoli slaw now!)  Plus a healthier recipe for mac 'n cheese and chicken strips, yum nom nom nom!

Made me feel healthy and accomplished all weekend.

P.S.
On Sunday I also ran outside for another 25 minutes w/ a 5 min warmup, yay me!

Whoa baby hormones and some running of course! :)

Can I just start with I ran OUTSIDE for 2.45 miles, I could have done the treadmill easily, but now that I'm on week 7 of  Couch to 5K , its 25 minutes of running and its just gonna be longer and longer intervals of running, so there aren't intervals to keep me *entertained and engaged* and its easy to time 25 minutes, etc...so I figured I better start getting used to being outside if I'm actually going to be doing 5Ks OUTSIDE this fall :)

Heehee, I'm really proud of myself for keeping my cravings in check with my calorie counts, but I definitely had to do some food swaps today. I didn't fuel myself as healthily (is that a word?) as I should have but at least I'm not overeating.

Popcorn and a couple small pieces of dark chocolate replaced my Chobani today, hehe..oh well, I'm satisfied and I guess I'll have salad for dinner :)  

I lifted weights today and rocked out 5mph for 20 minutes on hill intervals on the treadmill this morning, too RAWR!!

What I Love Wednesday

Big bay window in my
new home

Leftover Chipotle Burrito Bol because
I only eat 1/2 at a time, YUM!

black cherry and pomegranate Chobani!

Pretty Pedicures



Pistachios!




I like turtles



Grocery Shopping

This weekend I moved in with my boyfriend, whoa that was lots of work and we still have boxes around, but they are slowly being emptied and organized.

On Sunday we started thinking about the week ahead and filling up on groceries.  Ryan asked me about *sides* for dinners.  I said we had plenty of brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta and potatoes, but he felt that was getting a little boring and repetitive...how about some asparagus? I was floored! "Ryan, we already have romaine and spinach salad, are you saying you want asparagus as a side with that?", Ryan says, "I like asparagus that would be great!"

Whoa baby! This started a conversation of him sharing more healthy meals with me and basically putting in a couple requests for our grocery list but leaving the rest of to me! Oh wow, am I a happy camper! No longer having to stare at packages of dried buttered noodles or longing for some frozen mashed potatoes, whoo dog!

Check out some snapshots of our grocery trip (we didn't really need any protein this time, after combining refrigerator/freezers we have plenty of chicken b00bs, steaks,pork chops, and ground beef for now)

Asparagus, Sandwich Thins, Chobani!

bananas, peaches, romaine salad, raspberries!



Better Oats and Chobani!!



oranges, milk, cucumber!

Lean Cuisine Thai Spring Rolls
as a last minute time saver when needed

Kashi TLCs and Smart Ones Mini Cheeseburgers
not a regularly eaten food, but great for cheeseburger cravings!

Do you guys like any of my choices?  What should I add?  Oh and, umm, what's the best way to make asparagus? I don't want them to get mooshy in the microwave, should I broil them? We LOVE the flavor of grilled asparagus!

What did you shop for this weekend?

Calorie Tracking

First off, thanks Kris for the great suggestions and motivation yesterday. I will hit up Sports Authority for a hand held water bottle for sure.

I think I want a Polar HRM cause they work with the machines at LA Fitness and lots of friends love and recommend them.

I'm still going to shop for some pocketed running pants somewhere

Now...CALORIE TRACKING!

I know it works because I have witnessed my friend Corryn exercise and track her bootie off to the tune of 20 lbs (congrats girl!) in person and over on Still Chasing Skies. Her blog is insightful and not all about weight loss, but I want to give her credit for her awesomeness :)

I also know it works because when I log everything I eat all week I lose about 1 1/2 a week, sometimes a bit more if I exercise a lot.

But man, sometimes its so annoying, and not because I want to make a crappy choice and "get away with it" or because I want to eat more, but just because some things just seem to take forever to enter in, whether its a hand written log, or online, or on my phone. 

Does anyone else get this frustration?  Mostly the stuff that gets annoying are things like add as I go salads at the salad bar, stir fries, homemade tacos.....I get so frustrated that I just want to eat Lean Cuisines every day cause they are easy, but they are not as healthy as homemade stuff so that's not good!

Today I had a little salad from the salad bar:

spinach leaves
grape tomatoes
a scoop of egg crumbles, mostly whites
a sprinkle of bleu cheese crumbles
a few walnut halves
a small spoonful of sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

I mean this is healthy, right?  But gah, I don't have measuring things at the salad bar at work! I can't always make my lunch at home, my work has healthy options so I don't feel I have to...but boo tracking this sucks. Separate entries for each one, trying to figure out a good measurement.

This makes me think I always have to pack lunches at home so I can measure as I go, <whine> do I haaaaave tooooo? </whine>

I think this is also why I don't track on vacation, not because I'm eating crap or trying to hide or be off plan, its just that I'm on vacation I don't want to work....or be starting at my phone during a family meal at a restaraunt or running to a computer.

I think I might fit into the majority on this, I *do* track 99% of the time...that 1% being the few times a year I'm on vacation.

Am I being a baby about this?

What works and doesn't work for vacation

I have another vacation starting tomorrow, its 5 days, with my family and friends in Washington state.

On my trip a couple weeks ago to Cleveland, I was visiting my boyfriend's family for the first time, visiting Cleveland for the first time, and attending a wedding.  So a bit of uncomfortableness that could have led to eating, a wedding which usually leads to eating, and touring a city that can lead to "try this speciality and drink this specialty!"  Well guess what, I had some extra food at the family potlucks, I tried a corned beef sandwich at a special deli, I even tried local beer...and well, I had fun, didn't feel stressed out, put on about 2 lbs and lost it within 1 1/2 weeks of coming back from my trip. 

No harm, no foul? That's what I'd say!

How is Washington going to be different?

1 - I am the tour guide for my boyfriend, I can pick where we go and also what do you eat in Washington SUSHI AND SEAFOOD! I'll be in tasty, healthy heaven!

2 - I love everything in Washington, but I also grew up there and have visited every year since we moved away, there is nothing there that I feel the need to stuff in my face, gorge on, drown in, etc

3 - Unlike Minnesota the weather is BEAUTIFUL there right now, yeah it might rain, but so what, rain there is awesome...but its not all day everyday, so I can run outside and be able to breathe fresh oceany air I'm so excited!

4- My family is staying in a vacation home with a full kitchen, we will be grocery shopping for ourselves when we get there, so I don't even have to pack a bunch of safe foods, my family is a bunch of healthy eaters! YAY! (hehe, my boyfriend may OD on being offered veggies, Hahahahaha!)

5 - No stressful feelings about this vacation cuz there are no new people, my parents rented and put together everything, I just had to get my own rental car and schedule visiting some of MY friends, YAY!

So....this trip should ROCK. It is a vacation I may indulge in a couple local brews on my "treat" day, but I think this is gonna be awesome!

I may check in with some photos while I'm gone and some reports of my eating and exercise!

Coming up Next Week:
I want to buy a HRM, I'd really like one that'll do GPS...think about the ones you like and be ready to talk me through a purchase! (Oh I also have  Polar discount that I got from Jen - A Priorfatgirl so I will most likely be buying from them

I also won a prize from Kris@KrisGetsHealthy and it has lots of cool stuffs in it! I'll tell ya'all about that next week, too!

Hot Fun Food Run

Hello from the hottest/highest dewpoint in the world for the last for days! Minnesota! Can you believe it?

Today our heat index is 110 and the temp is 95, both are higher than the Amazon rainforest...yup, lovely.


I spent most of my weekend indoors packing up my apartment or just staying cool in AC..except for Saturday evening, whoo even after 5pm it was hotty boombalotty!


I was going to try and do my run on Friday, but I was still sore in the calfs and hips from getting my butt kicked in a leg workout on Thursday morning, Plus, I fell asleep after dinner for a few hours and slept a full night after that. Yup exhausted, probably from staying up super late on Thursday night seeing Harry Potter!


Saturday was my busy day this weekend! Lots of errands in prep for two parties I was attending!


I first popped over to Muddy Paws Cheesecake and picked up a "hand selected slices" cheesecake made up of Nutella, Raspberry Swirl, Chocolate Decadence and Key Lime for my friends. I also picked up a "toffee sampler" cheesecake to be delivered to the birthday party I was going to! Oh man, it was so hard not to eat them in the car!!


Then it was vet time, Shorty was great, only disliked the thermometer in the "bum" but Isis hissed, batted and growled, she didn't hurt anyone, but we did a very quick exam so she wouldn't stress out. Poor girl, she hates being anywhere but home.


Got my nails done, aaah its nice to have a little bit of a mini vacation at an inexpensive nail salon while they soak your feet and you get to sit in a massage chair, its the little things people!


Finally, I popped on a sundress and headed over to Tiger Sushi 2 in uptown for a birthday party, yes it was still 90 degrees outside, but we were on a covered patio so we enjoyed the hot temp and the breeze, but no beating down sun.  It was nice to enjoy sushi and cool drinks in the warm weather.


I had a custom roll here it is!

Does that look yummy? I love sushi, its my favorite food. When I have a craving for a specialty type of roll I will only get one because they always have some extra caloric treats in there like tempura, spicy sauce and probably extra rice.  I'll then round my meal out with some edamame or seaweed salad.

If I'm feeling like I need more than "one" at a sushi restaurant, I will get a combo of sashimi (which is just fish), some nigiri (which is fish on rice), and some basic maki (fish, rice, wrapped in seaweed).  My favorites are yellowtail and super white tuna!

After fun times at the sushi restaurant, my boyfriend and I headed to a suburb in the NW corner of the cities to gather with old friends. There was beer (I only had one!), ribs that were smoked all day, a freshly made kale salad (so good! I've never had one before!), and lots of catching up.  Once the sun started to set, the temp outside was *only* in the low 80s so it was a lot more tolerable, so we actually sat on the patio until us girls decided to go inside and get away from the mosquitoes, the boys were roughing it, haha. 

On Sunday I did my first 20 minute, non-stop run on the treadmill! It was week 5 day 3 of C25K and I did it! I ran a little bit slow with an average of about 4.1 mph total (4.3 mph running, but also a 5 minute cool down and warm up during the 30 minutes).  I'm so happy!! I've never ever run more than 8 minutes all in a row so this is such an awesome milestone for
me!

Yay 20 minutes!

Thanks for reading my weekend wrap up, I hope you all had awesome weekends, too!

How to define successes and setbacks

I go on vacation for 5 days, I wipe out my 3 lb loss and put on an extra pound by the end of that vacation - setback?

During my vacation I log my food, try to make smart choices, limit my alcohol, and I ran on the treadmill, getting up earlier than anyone else, TWICE - success?

3 days after I get back from vacation, I'm back to one lb down, but not my pre-vacation weight - sucess? setback?

Now, I was thinking my vacation was a "fail" because I gained weight, didn't even maintain....but look what I did on vacation, I limited my intake of crap, I drank way less than everyone else, and I exercised!! Sounds like a success to me, even if it wasn't a scale success, yes?

In the past vacation would have been a free for all, and I probably would have come home feeling even more bloated and my clothes probably would feel tight by the end of the trip.  I'm working off my vacation and trying to plan for my next trip next week for how I will keep on track.

I'm thinking that my most recent vacation, while it had a weight gain, it had a lot of learning opportunities and I was pretty successful. I learned that I can be my own advocate, I can ask for what I want and I don't have to do what everyone else is doing.  My friends and my family support me, and voila, so does my new found "family" that I met in Cleveland (aka my boyfriend's family).

I also learned that its not *THAT* bad to relax a little on vacation, yeah I put on a few lbs, but I'm taking them back off and it could have been worse if I didn't exercise, and that exercise made me feel good! I wish my vacation wasn't so close to the beginning of my commitment to myself, but life happens, I just have to learn to roll with it and keep moving forward.

I think going down the line, if I learn something, use that knowledge in the future and be an advocate for myself, I will always be successful!

Okay and lets end this post with my adorable little buddies that I've had in my life for about 10 years now and what I'm going to be doing every night for the next 3 weeks, packing!



Isis giving you the "huggy purry" eyes



Shorty, looking for trouble

Tomorrow I want to talk more about Couch to 5k!

Let's Talk Weight Loss Plans!

I've been doing Weight Watchers on and off for years, back when I was 22 years old (over 10 years ago), I did it for the first time...I lost 45 lbs, my goal weight was supposed to be 132 lbs..I was at 135..and stuck, I was unhappy because I was always hungry and people said I was too skinny. But I was unhappy because I couldn't get to my WW goal! What? Yeah..well, obviously I couldn't stick to it.  I didn't exercise back then either..okay some walks...but I just ate my points for the day full of fat free, high fiber stuff and moved on, boring and not maintainable!

Flash forward 5 years from that...I did WW again..but I also was learning to do lots of cardio! The WW foods I ate didn't change, but I was at least getting more fit because I had a personal trainer and I worked my tuckus off at the gym...I looked better, but still, it wasn't maintainable, the food wasn't a good balance for me and I had to work out WAY to much and life got hectic.

Boom...here we are...I'm 34 years old, at my pretty much highest weight ever, and guess what, even though WW has changed, its not something that I can stick to, probably cause its easy for me to bend the rules and if I can't get to a computer its easy for me to throw a weekend or a vacation out the window. I forget to log one day and its out the window for the week sometimes. Or, I log and I go over my points and I give up...also, its just online, nobody else is really in my court...nope not working for me.

So as I discussed a little yesterday, I'm now counting calories using My Fitness Pal I even have the little "how much weight have I lost" tracker at the bottom of my blog. I started it at zero because I want to track from the beginning of this blog :) This program also has a very easy to use android app for my phone, which pretty much works everywhere (other than WW which was hard on my phone).

I worked out a level of calories (1300-1400), and a workout plan 2x a week weights, 3x a week minimum cardio with my personal trainer.  She also helps me choose the right foods to make up those calories, I am wiping out as many processed foods from my life as possible.

Wanna see what I did yesterday?

Exercise:
30 minutes of legs/core using free weights and body weights

Food:
Breakfast:
1 cup skim milk - 86
Thomas Bagel Thin - 110
1 TBS Creamy peanut butter - 95
2 cups of coffee - ? 0?
Viactiv soft chew - 20
Banana 00 105

Snack:
1/2 cup blueberries - 41

Lunch:
5oz can of chunk light tuna in water - 80
1/2 a cucumber sliced - 10
4 dill pickle spears & juice - 0
(mixed the juice in with the tuna and the cucumber slices)

Snack:
Chobani Black Cherry 0% Greek Yogurt - 140

Dinner:
6 ozs of rotisserie chicken breast, no skin - 162
Medium sweet potato, no skin - 194
5 g of parmesan cheese - 20
1/2 cup of edamame - 120

Snack:
1/2 cup 2% Cottage Cheese -  100
4 medium sliced strawberries - 15

Total calories: 1297


What do you guys do? What do you eat? What do you think of my plan?