the pure interest

I have the specifics written down for myself, but overall I will definitely say it was a successful little crash diet to get myself moving again. If I can stay healthy, motivated and conservative with my meals I hope to keep up the trend.

Overall weight loss: 6 lbs

Overall inches lost: 7 inches

(Now before you flip, that means all around, so some of the waist, belly, chest, thighs, etc) I did NOT lose 7 inches around only my waist
Thanks for following along if you did, or if you didn’t. Should resume regular less frequent posting and photos next week

I never posted this because I’ve been so insanely busy, and truthfully I didn’t/couldn’t follow this last day hardly at all because of time and money. We have no fresh foods left from the diet, (no eggs, no fruit, no turkey, no veggies, no nothin!) I’d already spent upwards of $70 on the specific items, and at the end of the month it just couldn’t be done anymore. Money/frugality had to come first at this point. I did ok except I had an oatmeal cream pie. ughghg.

Day 10 Meals

Breakfast: Eggwhite, broccoli and feta omelet

Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter

Lunch: Turkey Burger with… um. no bun, and veggies

Snack: Plain yogurt with kiwi and flaxseeds

Dinner: Broiled chicken with onion, swiss and tomato sauce on whole wheat pita (chicken parm pita?)

Results to come next post.

This just made my day. Any time I see people rescuing animals or other people it breaks and mends my heart all at once. Look at those poor kitties - they just don’t know what to do

Today I am tired, a little embarrassed (for reasons I wont disclose here), feeling kind of sickish, and overwhelmed by the workload - hardly any of which I can pass on to anyone else. It would be ok but everyone is on the same schedule and want things NOW rather than a week from now or two weeks.

I’ll tell you what, I’m really starting to look forward to Myrtle Beach.

Fitness wise, I’m going to be fighting temptation all day as my boss brought in a huge and beautiful strawberry pie, one of my big weaknesses. But then the payoff happened as I was drinking my protein smoothie when a coworker said “you need to tell me how you are losing weight, you are looking very thin today.” So, keeping that in mind, I’m going to keep doing this for today and tomorrow, then gradually start bringing some of my favorite foods I’ve been denying back into my diet again!

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: Cottage Cheese and Raspberries (doing yesterday’s tomato omelet)

Snack: Mango Yogurt Protein Smoothie (had a banana/peanut butter instead)

Lunch: Chicken Curry -Broiled chicken breast with long-grain brown rice, veggies (cauliflower, garlic, tomato paste, curry)

Ok seriously no one has time to cook like that on their lunch break. gah!!

Snack: Celery with Peanut Butter

Dinner: Hawaiian Chicken Kebabs — this is sort of what I made with turkey last week… too bad no pineapple left and our grocery budget is TOTALLY GONE for June. NO more food allowed to be bought so I’ll have to make do with what I need.  (chicken, onion, yellow pepper, pineapple,  cherry tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil)

Today was day 8, and I didn’t have a chance to post, so I’ll just give it in past tense. I did ok with my eating, although I fudged what I ate for dinner - I just didn’t want any more meat, and I had to stop at my parents to take care of the cats, and all I could think about was the grape nuts and fresh strawberries they had - so that’s what I ate. Not too bad, very healthy, just not what was recommended. I also had the morning snack for my afternoon snack so had no protein smoothy which was sort of a bummer.

Today’s Meals

Breakfast: Egg White and Tomato Omelet (although I actually had multigrain waffle with cottage cheese and fruit)

Snack: 20 almonds (had later with some dried cranberries)

Lunch: Salmon and arugula/romaine salad with light italian (Instead Meghan and I went to Marketplace grill and I had an amazing salad with grilled chicken, light italian, and some parmasan cheese & croutons - I know - i’m bad)

Snack: Strawberry protein smoothie

Dinner: Baked or Broiled Chicken Breast with, frozen peas and carrots (ooooor grape nuts with fresh strawberries and a bit of sugar)

Workout: Cardio Party (I did Cardio Party Remix - 30 min + some weights)

So… how am I? I am really stressed at the agency - things are kind of crazy for me. It’s a good problem, but we keep getting new projects!!! I barely have time to quote them all and get it together, plus work on existing projects that are dragging on.

Physically, I was down another pound and a half this morning which was great. Today, the lower back is a bit achy, but I’m planning on asking for a massage from the hubby. There was so much to do when I got home, so that was a bit overwhelming, and it’s done now (dishes, laundry, cat feedings, litter, etc., blech).

Today I spent the ENTIRE morning at Panera. from 9-10:30 at 12th street for a client meeting and from 10:45-1:15 pm at the Peach street location for a meeting with the girls. It was really weird but kind of fun. I like Panera - I wish I could spend time there more often. Except eating choices? Well almost all are high-calorie. For breakfast I did an egg souffle, spinach and artichoke- 490 calories, but at least I had protein from the eggs. I drank a lot of water and had nothing else till lunch when I made a wheat bread, grilled chicken, fat-free ranch, avacado, light cheddar cheese and tomato sandwich. It was AWESOME. (fyi)

Today’s Meals:

Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito, tortilla, pinto/black beans, salsa

Snack: Strawberry Protein Smoothie

Lunch: Chicken Salad (I was pretty close on this except I did have bread)

Snack: Cottage Cheese & Tomatoes (mmm…. um…. I really only like the cottage cheese with sweet stuff)

Dinner: Pork Chop and Apple (this sounds really small, lean, and weird)

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Last night was a hard night… Brian and I were both very stressed and emotional due to family issues, priorities and finances, but you know what? We got through it and in the end ended up hugging in the middle of the living room floor laughing. I had a long talk about it with my friends today too, and it felt good to be able to open with them and just talk it all out. It’s amazing how you have people, and we all have lives, and everyone’s is so full of these complicated little messes, victories, triumphs, sadnesses, fears . . . etc. and sometimes just getting them out in the open is the most valuable thing you can do for each other, and tell that person “i understand, i get you, and i’m praying for you.” And when your friends problems are bigger and more major, it helps you get perspective too.

relationships are cool.

Total bust. Cheated, ate fried chinese sesame chicken, ate cake, went about 600 calories over. Haven’t worked out. Going to go back and try to do Day 7 again tomorrow… so now I’m doing this till Thursday!!

Sundays are my hardest day.

we’ll see if I messed up too much by slacking today!

I’ll tell you what, being accountable on the internet is pretty exhausting. it’s hard to believe I’m already on day 6 of this. Only 5 more days to go (counting today). Yesterday went really well until a big picnic we had with some friends at Aaron & Kelly’s - again, thanks guys. It was so much fun! But, I basically threw rules out the window and ate normally last night. Sometimes I think it was worth it, other times I regret it because I was fighting waves of nausea all night due to eating more in quantity and more fat then my body has had in a week. I think I DON’T regret it way more though - everything was soooo good. And truthfully we had a lot of fruit and veggies - the main splurges were a hot dog, a little too much ranchy cornbread salad, a cupcake, a piece of cheesecake and a bit of cookie cake. (do you see where my main weaknesses lie?)

The picnic was great with little kids running around all over the place!! I’ll tell you what, kids are way funnier then adults, and they don’t even mean to be. They just… are. From Candace screaming with laughter when Brian peaked out from behind a corner, to watching she and Eli enjoy a classic game of “ring a round the rosie” (little do they know where that originated), Logan calling his mom and dad old, and Camden actually ENJOYING playing with Connick! 

Ok, the fact that all of those names are represented on the internet, INCLUDING THE DOG, freaked me out a little bit.

Back to business. Weigh-In today. 4.2 lbs less then Monday. Water retention, bloating, etc. aside, that is good news. I’m seriously impressed with myself. This morning I’m feeling a little bit off, sort of queasy (maybe as a result of overeating last night?) But excited to workout for the first time since Tuesday!! The busy-ness eliminated that possibility for three days!! Ok enough…

Day 6 Menu:

Breakfast: Feta, Black Olive, and Tomato mainly egg white Omelet (for me just eggs, tomatoes and feta)

Snack: Fruit & Cheese

Lunch: Turkey and Hummus Pita (I don’t even own hummus)

Snack: Peanut Butter & Banana Protein Smoothie

Dinner: Grilled Ahi Tuna Salad (no on tuna, probably use shredded chicken instead)

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Have a great Saturday everyone! the plans for me today are workout, clean, shoot a wedding, some web work, and do a lot of yardwork.

I took these two photos at my parent’s house in their garden on Father’s Day. I hope to one day have the freedom to plan such a volume of plants in my yard, although I don’t think I’ll go QUITE AS crazy as they do, I mean, it’s wild back there. They have a ton of daisies that spread like wild fire.

Yesterday’s update is that I ate OK, but did have to bake cornbread for a dish I’m making for a picnic, and it smelled so incredible….I ended up burning it, so I just HAD to try a piece to make sure it was ok. The inside was, but not the outside, but I’ll tell you, after eating hardly any bread or fat all week, it tasted amazing. So that put me about 250 cals over, but I’m not too worried. Again I had no time to workout, but I’m trying not to beat myself up. Going straight from work to lunch to the doctor to work to freelance to box moving to eating dinner on the way to praise band and then to praise band then to the grocery store then beginning to prepare picnic feast for tonight basically left NO time for a workout. Sometimes the expectations in this workout plan are totally ridiculous, if YOU HAVE A LIFE. And I don’t even have KIDS YET!!

One thing I’ve been really noticing while looking at my food eating totals is that my fat intake has been seriously cut in half, and I think that is really making a difference. I mean, I know “eating low - fat” is so 10 years ago, but it is so important. I can feel it in my body - I fit into my jeans that were “just too tight” two weeks ago. That is a progress people.

I don’t have all the information for today’s meals with me. So far today I switched breakfast and morning snack because of ease of preparation, and I just could not stomach what I was supposed to eat for breakfast with how I felt this morning.

Day 5 Meals:

Breakfast: Turkey and Egg White Scrambled Eggs (added a little fat - free shredded cheddar and pepper, saving for morning snack)

Morning Snack: Blueberry Yogurt Smoothie (ate 1/2 for breakfast - it  was HUGE!!… did have to add a splenda packet and some chocolate slimfast shake for flavor)

Lunch: Chicken Pita (broiled skinless chicken breast, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, fat free ranch, whole wheat pita) My rushed version?? piece of wheat bread, 2 oz shredded chicken, fat free ranch and a few pieces of lettuce shoved down in about 3 minutes.

Snack: Peanut Butter Toast (I did celery & peanut butter instead)

Dinner: Steak, Brussel Sprouts & Salad with Italian dressing (nope, going to a picnic!)

Huge, amazing, fragrant peonies in my parents yard. Does anything smell as amazing as these flowers?

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!