Beach Challenge FINAL WEIGH-IN

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!

I weighed in at 226.0 this morning for a loss of .6 of a lb.

Between the free day on Sunday, the Chinese on Tuesday, not enough "hard" exercise, and eating pre-packaged stuff out of the freezer this week (more sodium), I'm not a bit surprised that my weigh-in is this low.

I missed my 16 lb. goal for this month.

~HOWEVER~

I'M STILL THRILLED!!!!

I lost 15 lbs this month!!!!  Which is the highest amount of weight I've lost in a month since I started blogging last June...even higher than my very first month when I lost 12 lbs.

So overall, this month's losses and this Beach Challenge have been a TOTAL success!!!

Thank you all so very much to everyone who joined in and tackled this challenge with me.  You are ALL winners in my book and I'm proud and blessed to call you friends!!

Leave me your weigh-in on this post, either today or tomorrow, so I can tally up all the winners.  If you hit the 10 lbs. lost mark...you're getting a tacky souvenir!!  Woo Hoo!!

Dwayne and I will be leaving for the beach early tomorrow morning.  I will be sure to do a post tomorrow night listing ALL of the winners, once everyone has had a chance to report their final weight.

I've got a full day ahead of me finishing up packing and wrapping up loose ends, so I'll check in periodically to check and post your weigh-in comments. 

I would say "good luck", but I don't believe in luck.  What you accomplished is all due to your determination, consistency, and effort, and I'm so proud of you all!!!  :)

The Night Before

Well the challenge is coming to a close....it's the night before our final weigh-in.  Altogether, we have 35 participants that signed up for this challenge.....way beyond what I expected!!!

On a side note, I want to give a big, squishy hug to one of my dearest friends, Sheilagh at Sixty by Sixty.  She gave me a beautiful, touching award that she made herself for her one year anniversary of blogging.  Sheilagh and I took a liking to one another quite quickly after "meeting" through blogging, and decided that we were well suited as sisters.  So thank you sis for bestowing this perfectly lovely award on me.  I will cherish it the way I cherish my friendship and sisterhood with you.  :)

I look forward to hearing from all of the challenge participants tomorrow, but will extend the final weigh-in time through Saturday to make sure I get the correct tally on all of the winners!  I don't want to miss anyone when I go souvenir shopping!!  'Nite friends!  :)

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 27

I am absolutely exhausted, so quick post.

My sister and Amy and I traveled up to my sister Brandy's house today to do some hard core cleaning for her.  She's pregnant and due in about a month, so she's getting to where she can't do much around her house and needed some help.

We left at 7:30am this morning, made a couple of stops and got to her house at 9:15am.  We started in on the cleaning immediately and didn't stop until we left at 4:15pm.  We got home at almost 6pm, and I was just too damn tired to cook, so I had tuna salad....for the 2nd time today. 

I took all of my food with me so I could stay in control of my calories and took pics of all of it before I left the house this morning.

Breakfast....Kashi blackberry graham bar

Calories:  110

Seafood salad

Calories:  510

Tuna Salad

Calories:  325

Yogurt.

Calories:  140

Tuna Salad...again.

Calories:  325

Total Calories:  1410

Water Intake:  (4) 32 oz. glasses

Exercise:  Cleaned Brandy's house for 7 hours

My arm is killing me.....I only had maybe 4 hours of sleep last night due to my recurring insomnia that sometimes rears it's ugly head.  I'll be lucky to stay awake until 8pm tonight.  See you all tmrw! 

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 26

This is one of those days when the accountability factor is going to bite me in the a$$.  It's been a bad, bad day.  The only thing I got totally right was the water intake....(5) 32 oz. glasses.  The exercise fell short, and the calorie total is horrendous....I don't even know what the total is, but it's bad.

About the exercise....my sister Amy and I went to the park this morning to get it done.  The plan was to do my normal 4 miles.  I decided to try some jogging again today since my knee wasn't bothering me from yesterday.  Instead of doing it on the 2 mile trail, I decided to do it on the track, so I could see how far I can jog in one little spurt....I knew it was only 20-30 seconds at a time, but I wanted to know the distance.  One loop around the track is 1/4 mile.  It turns out I can only jog 1/2 a loop, or 1/8 of a mile.  So I jogged the first half of a loop, then walked the second half, and I did that repeatedly, switching between walking and jogging, for 2 miles.  Then my lower back started locking up on me and my hips were aching.  I walked the next 4 laps, to complete 3 miles, with no jogging that time.  By the end of 3 miles I was hobbling, and couldn't even walk the 4th mile.  I'm wondering if this has anything to do with not stretching before I tried to jog, or if I'm just too friggin' fat still to even be TRYING to jog.  I don't know, but it was bothersome and put me in a bad mood.

We left the park and stopped by the grocery store.  I needed some celery to make a seafood salad for tomorrow.  Amy hit the salad bar, which by the way is huge and yummy at this store, and stupid me went over where she was to look around.  Big mistake.  I already had a bbq chicken breast that I baked last night and steamed veggies planned for lunch.  Well I saw some pasta salad that I thought I "needed" to eat, so I got about 1 c. worth.  It was good, but kind of dry, so I don't think it was loaded with mayo.  It had a few little pieces of ham and green peas in it, too.  I had to guesstimate the calories, since this was totally off plan.

My sister was driving and I was hungry, so I ate it in the car.  Because this was unplanned, I also didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't take a pic of it.  When I got home, I ate the chicken breast by itself w/o any sides, since I'd already eaten the cup of pasta salad. 

First huge mistake bad decision of the day....not completing 4 miles at the park.

Second bad decision of the day....pasta salad.

On to the 3rd bad decision!!

A little while later, around 2pm, my other sister, Brandy, called and wanted me to meet her for lunch.

Chinese buffet.

My first instinct was to say no, and I did, but then I changed it and said, "Hey, you know what....you asked me last week to go with you and I turned you down.  Sure, I'll go with you today."  Doh!!!!  This was my 3rd unplanned and bad decision of the day.  Why did I do this the last week of the challenge?  Why did I do this on a Tuesday, not knowing if I can flush the sodium by Friday morning?  Because sometimes I'm just a moron, and I make stupid decisions....that's why.  Oh you do not know how bad I didn't want to grab that camera when I was heading out the door.  But I did.  The accountability factor of taking pics for a whole month loses all of it's purpose if I don't actually take the pics.  And to my credit, I will say that the camera has saved me from many, many bad choices this month.  How often, since I started blogging last June, have I lost over 14 lbs in a month?  None.  Never.  Not til this month, when I started taking pics of "nearly" everything...except for a couple of times when I truly forgot. 

So I took the camera....photographed my sins...and now I'm reporting them.  We ate about 2:30p, and I was feeling so guilty I didn't even want to eat dinner tonight.  But I knew that I had to cook for Shane, so I finally drug myself to the kitchen and made something around 7:15pm.  Of course, once I smelled it cooking, I wanted to eat some.  So I very carefully measured out my calories as best I could to keep it as low as possible since the rest of the day was a complete disaster.  I'm trying to teach myself that if you have a major screw up during your day, DO NOT let it ruin the whole day, or the next day, or the rest of the week.  I'm trying to learn that each meal should be compartmentalized, and not let a bad choice snowball into several more bad choices.  This has taken a lot of practice, and I don't have it perfected yet, but I'm working on it.

So....here's my food pics for the day, and the calorie counts that I could figure out.  I don't have a total count for the whole day, due to the Chinese food.

Breakfast was at 8am.  3 egg whites on a low-carb wheat wrap w/ 1 slice of 2% American cheese and some Rotel (tomatoes & green chilies) w/ 1 Tbsp of lite mayo.  This was simple, but yummy.

Calories:  231

I'm ballparking the pasta salad, but don't have a pic.

Calories:  350

This is the bbq sauce I put on my baked chicken.  It is my all-time favorite.  It comes from a restaurant right here in Georgia...there's one in Marietta and one in Canton, and I'm not sure where else.  I was watching a show on PBS one night about the top 10 BBQ restaurants on Georgia and this place made #4 on the list.  They have the best ribs I've ever eaten in my life....so I don't go there very often.  Zero control when it comes to those ribs, lol.  I buy this sauce in my favorite grocery store, Publix.

Calories:  210

My worst choice of the day...Calories:  ???

I found some fantastic chicken sausages in Ingles grocery store, which I don't shop at very often because I love Publix so much....but these were excellent.  I made a big stir fry with these organic spinach and feta chicken sausages, which are 120 cals each (I had one cut up on my plate), and some fresh mushrooms, onions, red and yellow peppers.  I used extra virgin olive oil, instead of just the Pam cooking spray this time.  I'm guessing 50 cals for the oil on my plate....the veggies were maybe 40 cals?  And I used 1/2 c. of Steamfresh brown rice, which is 75 cals.  This meal was excellent....Shane loved it, too.  He asked me to send the leftovers in his lunch tomorrow.

Calories:  285

So yeah....bad day calorie-wise.  I haven't gotten on the scale yet this week...I think I'm too scared.  But I've got 2 days left to make good choices and I'm not throwing in the towel yet.  Granted, I only have to lose 1.6 lbs. this week to reach my 16 lb. goal for the month and get to 225 lbs before I leave for the beach....but it's stupid decisions like the ones I made today that will keep me from reaching my goals...both short-term and long-term.  I realize that...and I'm going to do better. 

I almost said I'll TRY to do better...but then I was reminded of one of my favorite sayings...I think it was Yoda who said "Do...or do not...there IS no try."

Amen, brother.

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 25

WOW!!  I can't believe we're on the 25th day of the challenge already!!  And I'm only 5 days away from my beach trip, and souvenir shopping for all of the winners....I can't wait!!!

Breakfast was at 8:30am.  Due to my arm being in a sling, I'm going the convenience route this week.  I had a Jimmy Dean lite breakfast bagel....whole wheat bagel, lite cheese, egg white and turkey sausage.

Calories:  260

I had lunch at Larry's today at 11:30am, inbetween running errands and paying bills.  I got my usual ham and turkey 8" sub on wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion, lite mayo, spicy mustard and mushrooms.

Calories:  589

At 2:30pm I had some watermelon.

Calories:  125

Dinner was at 6pm.  I broiled 5 oz of cod with Lawry's lemon pepper marinade and some dill.  I also had 1 c. of garlic peas and mushrooms and 1 c. of chicken flavored rice...both Steamfresh microwaved sides.

Calories:  489

I did my normal 4 miles at the park today but instead of just walking I added in some intermittent jogging.  There was a thunderstorm coming so I needed to hurry up and get it done.  I can't jog much due to my knees, but I'm hoping when I drop these last 50+ lbs, it won't be so hard on them.

I will have my 2 c. of decaf this evening....creamer is 30 cals.

Total Calories:  1493

Water Intake:  (5) 32 oz. glasses

Exercise:  Walked/Jogged 4 miles at the park

I hope everyone is really pushing themselves during this last week of the challenge!  I want to see as many of you win as possible!  :)

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 24

Hello friends!!  I hope everyone has had an excellent weekend!

As I stated at my weigh-in, I wasn't able to take pics of my food or post because Dwayne was with me.  He doted over me, cooked for me, took me shopping, and made sure I wore my sling.  He didn't let me lift a single thing.  I'm so used to doing for myself that it was quite strange having someone to take care of me....strange, but nice.  :)

My calories were good, I got my water in, and those were my 2 normal rest days from exercise.  Today (Sunday) I decided to take a "free day" to have a break from counting every calorie.  However, to stay true to my challenge, I still took pics of my food today.

My sister Amy and her son Cyress went to breakfast with me this morning.  We ate around 10am.  I had ham, eggs, grits & a bite of a roll.

After breakfast we did a little shopping, then I came home to clean the house.  I invited my family over for dinner tonight...I made pot roast with potatoes and carrots, rice and gravy, and mom brought her famous buttermilk biscuits....it was fantastic!!

Oh!  I had a peach Chobani yogurt around 3pm.

Before I show you my dinner pics.....I have to tell you a story.  My 5 year old niece, the one I call Ladybug, came in the door for dinner and exclaimed, "I brought some food!!"  She is so precious.  Her mom helped her cook up some stuff to bring to the family dinner, and Ladybug instructed me that the food SHE brought was only for me and her, lol.  She brought it over in her little pots and pans from her play kitchen set.  She made macaroni and cheese, Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs, corn & canned pineapple....just the sweetest thing.  Of course....I had to put some on my plate along with the pot roast...after all, she cooked just for ME!!!  :)  I took pics of the whole dinner table so you could see the little pots of food she brought.

Here's my plate...check out the spaghetti & meatballs, corn & boxed mac'n'chz,  lol...too cute.

I baked a box of walnut brownies for dessert and made a special trip to the store to buy ice cream....something I very rarely buy.  Brownies...I love....ice cream..eh, I can take it or leave it.  But it was nice on top of a warm brownie.

Although it was a free day from counting calories, it was NOT a free day from my water or exercise.  I drank my normal (4) 32 oz. glasses of water and I went with Amy to the park and walked my 4 miles!!

I have to admit.  Even though the free day was a nice break from obsessing over calorie counts, I don't feel too hot physically.  I normally eat 5 smaller meals a day....today I had 2 bigger meals, a yogurt for snack, and a dessert, which I NEVER eat.  And even after a 4 mile walk....things still haven't settled in my stomach.  When we got done at the park, I told my sister that my stomach felt like it was full of rocks.  It's funny what you get used to.  I think I prefer smaller, lighter, lower calorie meals now....I KNOW!!  WEIRD, huh?  lol

I'll also go ahead and tell you that I am terrified of my vacation coming up where eating is concerned.  Sodium and bloating is such an issue for me.  I do so much better when I stay out of the restaurants.  We're going to be gone from next Saturday morning through the following Sunday afternoon.  That's 9 days...and although we'll have a small kitchenette in our condo, I know how things always go once we get there.  We've never been to Panama City Beach together, but Dwayne and I have stayed in a condo at Hilton Head a couple of times.

  We go to Publix the first day we get there to get some groceries for the condo.  Dwayne and I have always eaten differently, but now that I'm so far into this healthier eating lifestyle, we eat WAY different.  He still doesn't eat any veggies....it's meat, carbs and junk food.  I will admit that he's better than he USED to be, after watching my eating habits change....for instance, he'll actually eat a chicken burger now as opposed to beef, and he drinks lots of water....way more than Coke.  But he also still loves his snacks.  Chips, cookies, cupcakes, BROWNIES!!!  So our shopping trip is going to be interesting.  I've already enlisted Pam's help for some alternative ideas on what I can eat while he's throwing back the crap food. 

But....while we always start out with good intentions of eating mostly at the condo....it ususally doesn't take long for that plan to go down the drain, lol.  We'll be out souvenir shopping and happen upon the BEST-LOOKING seafood restaurants, and just HAVE to try it, because how often do you come to the beach???  And seafood IS our favorite food.  It happens every damn time. 

So yeah....I'm nervous.  I'm scared.  I'm downright frightened that I'm doing all this work this month to go from 241 lbs down to 225 lbs...to say goodbye to 230 forever...only to end up with 7-9 days of restaurant eating.  I'm scared I'll be well over 230 lbs by the time I get back and get home to my scale.  I'm trying to stay calm about this...stay rational....not ruin the vacation with my calorie obsession....but still try to keep us eating in the condo as often as possible....and there's no reason why I can't still drink my normal gallon of water a day.  So hopefully that will keep some of the sodium flushed.

And did I mention there would be alcohol?  It's my understanding that our condo has it's very own beachside, outdoor Tiki Bar (eyeroll).  I used to love going to the Tiki Hut at the Holiday Inn at Hilton Head.  It was one of our favorite hang-outs.  Sitting at the bar, right on the ocean, watching the waves roll in with the ocean breeze blowing through your hair and the island music playing in the background.  So very relaxing.  But...long gone are the days when we'd spend a few days on the beach together and I didn't give a flip about what I was eating or drinking.  Everything has changed for me.  Dwayne told me he didn't want to hear the word "calorie" come out of my mouth that entire week.  I pointed out that the condo has a fabulous fitness center....he said "too bad...you're not using it...you'll get your exercise when go for walks on the beach together every day".  It's a sweet thought, but the words "calorie burn" aren't in his vocabulary, lol. 

Ahhhhh....I don't know.  I'm just going to do my best the rest of this week to get that last 1.6 lbs off and reach my goal of 225.  Then I'll deal with the beach trip as best as I can.  I really need to get out of this worry mode and get into a fun mode....I'm looking forward to this trip and I don't want to ruin it for me OR Dwayne.  I need to CHILL OUT.  :)

 

Beach Challenge Week Three Weigh-In

I weigh 226.6 this morning for a loss of 2 lbs this week!  The goal I set for myself on this challenge is to get to 225 lbs.  I've got 1.6 more lbs to go to meet my goal!  Only ONE WEEK left in the challenge and your last chance at winning a souvenir.  I know you can do it...I'm rooting for every single one of you!!! 

I won't be posting pics of my food tonight and Saturday night....I will be with Dwayne and he'll be watching me like a hawk due to my injured arm....so I can't let him see me taking pics of my food or typing out posts.  I'll be back Sunday night to post that day's food pics.  Have a super fantastic weekend everyone!!!  :)

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 21

Well I can honestly say that this is the first weigh-in I'm not looking forward to, lol. 

My mid-week weigh-in was less than 1/2 a lb...so I'm not expecting much.  Here comes the TMI part....I'm still spotting, so I guess that means there might still be some bloating.  Who knows.

What I do know is that I had a fantastic week with food and exercise and I'm proud of that.  Posting pics of everything I eat has been a huge help in the accountability department, and that's exactly what I was looking for.

Can you believe there's only 1 week left in the challenge???  I would say it's time to buckle down, but I've been buckled down for 3 weeks now!  lol

This week is your last chance to get those 10 lbs off and win a tacky souvenir, so let's kick it into high gear!

Breakfast was at 8am....a baked pork chop and 3 egg whites scrambled w/ onion, bell pepper & mushrooms.

Calories:  307

At 11am I had a tuna salad sandwich....1 can solid white albacore tuna, 1 boiled egg, 2 Tbsp lite mayo & a little diced onion & dill pickle.  Mom came over for a visit and I had her open the can of tuna for me....I can't even operate a stupid can opener right now, lol.

Calories:  425

At 2pm I had a Chobani strawberry yogurt.  I am really loving these things...they're fantastic!

Calories:  140

At 5pm I finished off the veggies I had in the frig.  I thought this was going to be the end of my food for the day, til I realized that the veggie plate only brought me up to 1001 calories....so I kept eating, lol.

Calories:  129

Next I had a sandiwch with 2 whole eggs scrambled, 1 Tbsp of mayo, 3 oz. of Boar's Head low sodium ham on a whole wheat sandwich thin.

Calories:  370

I went to the park and walked 4 miles....when I got home I had a sugar-free Jell-O pudding.

Calories:  60

I'll be making my decaf shortly...creamer will be 30 cals.

Total Calories:  1461

Water Intake:  (6) 32 oz. glasses

Exercise:  Walked 4 miles at the park

I'll be back tomorrow morning with my weigh-in.  Don't forget to stop by tomorrow morning and leave me yours!!  :)

Beach Challenge Food Pics Day 20

Breakfast was at 8am...egg white scramble.

Calories:  251

I had to meet my cousin Jennifer for lunch today and she chose an old historic house that has been turned into a restaurant.  It's called The Foster House.  This is one of those old Southern houses that has a fireplace in nearly every room...I took some pics!

The menu was challenging to say the least.  It was full of a lot of country fare, such as Southern fried chicken livers and Mamie's fried chicken....then there were a few burgers....I did find a Caesar salad with grilled shrimp or chicken, but I figured the romaine was pre-tossed in the Caesar dressing and there'd be no possible way to count the calories for that.  Besides, I didn't want a full-fat dressing.  They had a couple of other salads that all had the same basic ingredients....lettuce, a couple of tomato wedges, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and the biggest croutons I've ever seen in my life...they must have been homemade.

I finally opted for the veggie plate.  Here were my list of choices:

french fries

fried sweet potato chips

fried okra

cole slaw (full of mayo)

mashed potatoes

macaroni 'n' cheese

green beans

 turnip greens

side salad

Can we say limited choices for healthy eating???

I chose the 4-veggie plate, and got the green beans, turnip greens, mashed potatoes and a side salad w/ lite raspberry vinaigrette on the side.

The mashed potatoes ended up being a good choice because there was no salt in them, or any of the other veggies for that matter, and there was no butter or cream in them...they were completely bland, so I very easily left half of them on my plate.  I picked the mixed spring greens & a couple of tomato chunks out of my salad and dipped them in my dressing.  Jennifer noted that I left all the cheddar cheese and bacon bits in the bottom of the bowl, lol.  I also only used about 1/2 of the dressing.

So, I ended up with 1/2 c. of mashed potatoes, 1 c. green beans, 1 c. turnip greens, a little lettuce & tomato and a little raspberry vinaigrette.

Calories:  233

Needless to say I was still hungry when I finished, lol.  I had to run errands for a couple of hours afterwards and stopped by a Larry's Subs around 2:30p for a REAL lunch.

I got my usual ham and turkey sub w/ lettuce, tomato, onion, lite mayo, spicy mustard & mushrooms.

Calories:  589

Dinner was salsa chicken at 6:30pm.  5 oz. chicken breast w/ Rotel, mushrooms, olives & 1/4 c. of shredded cheese along with 2 c. of steamed broccoli.

Calories:  315

For dessert I had a 60 calorie cup of sugar-free chocolate pudding that I forgot to take a pic of.

I'll have my 2 c. of decaf later...creamer is 30 cals.

Total Calories:  1478

Water Intake:  (4) 32 oz. glasses

Exercise:  2 mile walk at park with Scarlette

I've decided that if my arm isn't better after the weekend then I'll go to the doctor.  I'm taking Advil and keeping it in a sling for now.  It already feels a bit better after doing absolutely nothing with it today.  'Nite friends!  :)