April's Butterfly

Editor's note: I gave you some misinformation in last night's post. Sean emailed me today and straightened me out. I read so much of his blog yesterday, starting from the beginning, that I got some things mixed up. He did not allow himself an extra 1,000 calories for a cookout. Not even for his birthday. He only allowed himself the extra calories on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nothing else. After doing the math yesterday, I think I'm still going to leave this as an option for me because I don't think it will be harmful. Sean also pointed out that everyone's lifestyle is different and I have to do what works for me. As I've explained before, I have a lot of family and a lot of friends, and all along we've got something going on. I don't want to change that for the sake of a few extra calories spread out over a week's time. So I'm going to try it out and see how I feel about it. If I need to do some more adjusting later, then of course I will. I'm learning as I go. :)

This is going to be a shorter post than normal because I am just flat wore out. The day started at 7:30am...had breakfast, hit the treadmill, loaded my car with stuff for the move, took it to the new house and unloaded, drove Mom's truck back and loaded it, hauled it back to the new house and unloaded it. Got back home and ate some soup I made in the crockpot w/ chicken breasts, lots of veggies and brown rice. Only 86 calories a cup! Got a shower, cleaned the kitchen, and now I am soooo ready for bed. Too tired to list my nutrition stats and food intake, but I landed at 1500 calories and it was a struggle to hit those. I had to make myself eat enough to reach that amount. I assure you, that's the first time I've ever uttered those words in my entire fat life.

I noticed a couple of weird things today. When I headed out to the new house, I had planned on stopping by the Publix for a turkey sub from their deli, so when I was headed in the general direction, I wondered why I felt bothered about stopping by there before I went to unload some stuff. It was because I wasn't hungry. I didn't feel like eating so I told myself I'd just grab it later after I unloaded the stuff in the car and ran a couple of errands.

Wait....whoa...hold up! Stop the music! Did Tammy just pass up a chance to eat? Did I just catch myself preferring to do hot, sweaty, hard labor and running errands before I filled up my tummy with yummy (but healthy) food?........

Who are you and what have you done with Fat Tammy?!?!

Hold up there, pard'ner. There's not roooom enough in this body for the BOTH of us. My name's Skinny Tammy and I'm the new sheriff in town. Now step aside.....I'm takin' over.

Groovy. :)

The other weirdo thing I noticed today was daydreaming about what dinner was going to taste like. I had chopped up all those veggies on Friday night and I had lots of stuff to choose from. I decided on onions, mushrooms, baby asparagus, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots and red cabbage. Mmmmmm. My mouth started salivating. I was craving those fresh veggies and couldn't wait to get my work done today so I could get home and enjoy them.

WHAT?!?! Craving veggies??? Who craves veggies? Certainly not ME! Cravings are reserved for hot, greasy curly fries, sackfuls of Krystals, fudgy walnut brownies.....not VEGETABLES!!!

:)

I noticed today that little by little, I'm morphing into a new person. One with a new outlook on food, fresh ideas on healthy recipes, and with my eyes on a goal of having this weight gone for good by next April that nothing or nobody will be able to deter me from. I'm changing right before my very own eyes. I'm turning from a big, fat caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. I'm morphing from something round and squishy into something exquisite. Beauty that will no doubt be seen from the inside as well as the outside. I hope you'll continue to watch me through this metamorphisis as I prepare for the month of April. Watch me break out of my cocoon, spread my wings, and FLY!!!

Quote For The Day:

"Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of concentration and perserverance." -C. W. Wendte

Killer Kravings

Usually when I have a craving the only way to satisfy it is to give in to it. The longest I've gone trying to avoid one is about two weeks. Then I give in, have what I want, and it goes away. I might not want that same thing again for another 6 months, but when it hits, it does NOT go away until I've eaten it. Since I've started counting calories this has become a SERIOUS problem. I now can no longer just go get what I want, so I'm trying to find ways to satisfy them by other means.

I had a major craving for grilled shrimp and scallops from Red Lobster a couple of weeks ago. I dealt with it for about a week, gnawing at me every single day. I finally decided to just make my own at home. I went to Publix and found the shrimp AND the scallops on sale, lucky me, and took them home and sauteed them in a little olive oil and some garlic and adobo. They were fantastic and my craving was gone.

My next craving was the Mojo wings from Publix. Love those things. I found out from a Publix deli associate the other day that they're no longer making that flavor, that Publix was discontinuing their Mojo marinade. I went over to the marinade aisle and sure enough, they were yellow tagged at $1.49 per bottle. I bought 3 bottles.....time to make my own Mojo wings at home! I made them today, baked in the oven for a while, poured the liquid off of them, then added some more marinade and broiled them. I checked online and chicken wings, with the skin and bone, are 21 calories each. I had 7 of them for lunch today, a total of 150 calories, and the craving was satisfied. Awesome!

Here's my newest problem. I can't think of a way to make something that comes anywhere CLOSE to the taste of a Krystal. Tips anyone? lol.