Day At The Lake/New Recipe!

My sister Brandy went to the hospital to have her baby today....Jeremiah has arrived and I hear he's healthy.  I took my niece and nephew, Carla and Cyress, along with my sister Amy, out to lunch today and then to the lake for some fun in the sun.  I let Carla choose where we were having lunch, and she chose her favorite...Chinese!  Yes, I took a pic.  I also let my sister take a pic of me in a bathing suit...with no make-up.  Can you believe it????  I still can't believe it...but I'm going to post it.  I have no idea why, lol.

Breakfast was a Kashi bar.

Calories:  110

Lunch at the Chinese buffet.

Calories:  ???

Pics from the rest of the day, and new recipe at the bottom!

My mom gave me a new recipe book a few weeks ago and I finally made something out of it.  It was FANTASTIC!!!!  Spinach-stuffed chicken breasts...here's my pics!!

(3) 6 oz. boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to 1/2" thickness, 1/2 c. lite sour cream, 1/2 c. 2% shredded colby-jack cheese, a little spoon of minced garlic & 9 oz. bag of fresh spinach (wilted in microwave on high for 2 mins).

Wrap each pc. of chicken with 2 strips of lower sodium bacon (2 pieces of bacon is 70 cals).

Bake uncovered at 375 for 40 mins, then on broil for addt'l. 10 mins.

Here's the calorie breakdown:

First, the filling is supposed to be for 4 chkn brsts, but the pkg I bought only had 3 in it.

Filling:

9 oz. bag of spinach:  60

1/2 c. lite sour cream:  320

1/2 c. 2% shredded colby-jack chz:  160

1 small spoon of minced garlic

Filling total:  540

Divided by 3:  180 per pc. of chicken

Calories for one serving:

6 oz. chkn brst:  180

2 pcs. lower sodium bacon:  70

1/3 filling:  180

Total Cals for one svg:  430

I paired mine w/ about 1 1/2 c. of yellow squash, zucchini & onions.

Calories:  457

I'm excited about trying some more recipes out of this book very soon!

Be back tomorrow!  :)

C25K...Maybe

Thanks for all of the comments from last night. You really know how to make a girl feel less crazy. Today was a little better where the bingeing feelings are concerned, but it totally sucked on the exercise front. I ate 1600 calories today. It's 100 over my limit, but after having 5 perfect days, I'm okay with going over a little. However, I didn't walk at the park today. This is the 2nd rest day this week, which means I'll be out hitting it hard tomorrow morning. Last chance workout before weigh day!

I forgot to post the pic of a new recipe yesterday. I made Chicken Pesto Pizza that I found in the Cooking Light magazine. I invited my mom, my sister Amy and my nephew Cyress over for lunch, and Mom brought a salad with her. The recipe called for red grapes, but that sounded gross to me for pizza, so I replaced them with black olives. It was very good, but if I wanted to be lax with my calories, I'd add more cheese. It only calls for 1/2 cup of 2% mozzarella, and that's just not enough for a pizza this big, so it was a little on the dry side. Here's the pics:

My family came over for lunch again today and I made another recipe from Pam's food blog, "Lobster and Fishsticks". It's called Spicy Creamy Zucchini Soup and my mom is in love with it. I made this for her last week, and she told me that I must make it at least once a week and have her over for lunch, lol. It really is an excellent recipe. I added chicken to mine. I just boiled it in the pot with the squash, removed it to puree the soup, then added it back in before serving. Here's the pic:

Dinner tonight was good old-fashioned chicken and dumplings. Ok, not really all that old-fashioned. My Aunt Shirley makes the BEST chicken and dumplings in the whole entire world, and she takes the time to make her own dough, roll it out 1/8" thick, cut it into thin little strips, and then cook them. I did not go to all this trouble, although one day I plan on it. I used reduced fat Bisquick, lol. The only problem was, I was scared to make too much dough, because I love this comfort food dish, and I thought I might eat too many dumplings. So I made very little, then I dropped only 1/2 a spoonful of dough in at a time, instead of a full spoonful. By the time I thickened the soup with some cornstarch and fat free half-n-half and stirred it a few times, the dumplings basically disintegrated, lol. (The chunks you see in the bowl are chicken...not dumplings). However, it was still very tasty...Shane LOVED it. He's taking some for lunch tomorrow. Here's the pic:

Only one more day before weigh-in. I hope I get a good number this week. My one focus this week was being stringent enough with the calories and working hard enough at the park to at least get off the 6 lbs I gained last week. And I do realize that most of that gain was due to the sodium I ate the night before I weighed in, so I feel pretty confident that I'll at least have those 6 lbs gone by Friday morning, since I think at least half of it was water weight.

I went and did my labs this morning. I'll know in a day or two how they turned out. I also downloaded the C25K thingie to my MP3 player. Now, I just have to work up the nerve to get started on it. I thought about it and I know exactly what has been holding me back from doing this. I've been proud of myself for improving my time with the jogging....but I feel sure that compared to this program, it's probably a drop in the bucket. I think I'm afraid that it will be too hard for me to accomplish....like maybe I'm still too fat and out of shape to start working towards a 5k...and if I am, I'm going to feel like I failed. I know I need to get started on it....just trying to work up the courage.

Gotta' run and load the dishwasher and finish up some laundry. Thanks again for all the support and encouragement you continuously give. You are all just a fantastic group of people and I'm thankful that you've become such an integral part of my travels along the road to freedom. :)

Quote For the Day:

"Just go out there and do what you've got to do." -Martina Navratilova

Porkin' Out

I bet when you read the title you thought, "Oh no! Tammy fell off the wagon AGAIN!!!" Ha ha ha...FOOLED YA'!!

I'm proud to say that I'm doing just fine, and feeling WAY better than yesterday. The reason for the title is because I made 2 pork dishes today...one for today's lunch, and one for tomorrow's dinner. And I have pics...although they're not that great. I'm not a good food picture taker. Sorry.

I found a new recipe in my Cooking Light magazine for Pork and Potato Hash. I've been craving pork for a while now...it's one of my MOST favorite meats. I am a total carnivore. So I was going to make it for dinner, decided I couldn't wait that long, and made it for lunch! Here's the pic:

I made the Butternut Squash Soup recipe that I found on Pam's food blog, Lobster and Fishsticks, listed on my bloglist. I've made several of her recipes now, and they never disappoint!! She's so talented in taking old, familiar comfort foods and "healthifying" them. I added a dash of cinammon to mine after I dished it up. Here's the pic:

After making my pork and potato hash today, I had part of a pork tenderloin left, so I threw it in the crockpot with a cup of diced potatoes and half a head of cabbage for tomorrow night's dinner. I went ahead and put some in a bowl to take a pic of it, and then threw it back in the pot and put in the fridge. Here's the pic:

I've got some good news to report on the exercise today. Last week I told you that I started trying to add some intermittent jogging into my walks. It normally takes me 1 hr 15 mins to walk 4 miles. When I started the jogging a week ago, I discovered that I can only do it for 10-20 seconds at a time and then have to fall back to walking. So I try to catch my breath and then do another jogging spurt as quick as I can. I end up with a bunch of short jogging spurts. The first time I tried the walking/jogging last week, my time was 1 hr 3 min, so I shaved 12 mins off my regular walking time and was very happy about that. Today, I did it in 55 minutes!!! That just thrills my heart. This, my friends, means I'm making progress with the jogging!! Woo Hoo!!

Who would have ever thought that Fat Tammy, who could barely walk a mile when she first started 4 months ago, is now starting to jog??!! I got news for ya'. Fat Tammy is standing at death's door. Her days are numbered. Girlfriend ain't lookin' too good.

Today was really stellar on the calorie front...until Shane came home. I could have beat him. He called me and asked what was for dinner, and I told him I saved some pork and potato hash for him...something I knew he would like. So a little while later he walks in the door with a triple Whopper from Burger King. Are you effing kidding me??? WTF??? He said he decided he'd take the hash for lunch tomorrow and was feeling like a Whopper. A TRIPLE WHOPPER.

I've mentioned in the past that my all-time fave fast food is Krystal's. What I don't think I've mentioned yet is that the Burger King Whopper is my 2nd favorite. I've never been a McNasty's kinda girl. I also mentioned just last week that I think I'm over the fast food thing. That's probably still true as far as me out driving around...I still don't have the desire to whip into those places like I used to. However, when the Triple Whopper is sitting right under my nose on the kitchen counter....not so much. I asked him if I could have a bite and he said yes. I had one bite. Heaven. lol I swear....it still tastes good to me and that just sucks. I told him I hated him with every fat cell in my body and he just laughed. Not so funny to me....but you know what...life is always going to be full of temptations.

That brings me to something that Sean wrote in one of his posts not too long ago. It was a real eye-opener for me. He said that he no longer calls any food a temptation....because to call it a temptation is to give it power. When you call everything a "choice" instead, you take away the power that the food has over you. Total epiphany for me. Just brilliant. I just wish Shane would keep his crappy "choices" out of the house! lol

So, total calories for the day are 1500 + one bite of a Whopper. I drank tons of water, just as I always do. And I walked/jogged 4 miles at the park. I wrapped my toes in band-aids before I left, and with my new shoes, I didn't have a lot of pain today. It was so refreshing. However, my joints were giving me hell just like they usually do, so again, I didn't make it to the 5 mile marker. I'm starting to think that goal was a little too lofty for this week.

One more thing before I sign off. I mentioned last week that Shane's girlfriend, Billie, has started her own weight loss blog. She took inspiration from me and started her own and I'm so proud of her. She's listed on my blogroll as "Let the Skinny ME Out!". I found out last night that her daughter Kandice has now started her own weight loss blog!! She's also on my blogroll and it's called "No More Chunky Dunking...". Seems like this healthy lifestyle change is really starting to catch on!!! I think that's just fantastic...I'm glad that these lovely ladies really want to change their health for the better. I hope you'll stop by and give them a high-five for getting started down the Road to Freedom. :)

Quote For the Day:

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, til it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." -Harriett Beecher Stowe

Complaziness

I've got good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first? The good news, of course!

My mom and I got over the argument and everything's back to normal now. She didn't feel like it was that big of a deal in the first place, so that made me feel even better. Things are always a bigger deal to me than anyone else because I'm so emotional.

Dwayne called me today from work on his lunch break and we talked about 45 minutes. He's not pulling away this time! I can't tell you what a relief that is. He's looking forward to a good weekend with me and Scarlette and will be here tomorrow evening after work, just like normal.

The bad news is, I got on the scale tonight to see what kind of damage the retarded eating from last Fri, Sat and Sun was going to cost me. My official weigh-in is tomorrow morning, but today it said 240 lbs. I was 233 lbs last Friday. That's a 7 lb. gain, but I will say that I've been known to lose up to 5 lbs overnight after all the bodily functions have been taken care of. Even if that happened, I'm still up a couple of pounds. Now here's the REALLY bad news. I had way too much sodium today. Didn't go crazy on the volume or calories, but what I did eat was just too damn salty. As if a 2-3 lb gain weren't enough already, I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was doing today.

I got to thinking about how retarded that is. Normally, the day before my weigh-in is the strictest day of the week for me. I watch everything like a hawk. Not today. I wasn't stressing over it like I normally do. I don't want to say I didn't care, but it's almost like that. Hmmmmmm. Time for some reflection here. What the hell is going on with me?

I've decided I've become complacent with the weight loss. I think because I'm 4 months into it, the new has worn off, the calorie counting is getting tedious, and some days I just feel like "winging it". Some people call it complacent. For me, I'm going to call it laziness. Thus the title of this post...a combination of the two...complaziness.

Bottom line is, I don't like it and I don't want to stay this way. So that means I need to find a way to nuke the boredom, even if it's just a small change or two. My one main goal for this coming week is to work on the consistency. I noticed that nearly every month, I have 2 pretty big losses, and 2 gains. And it's entirely my fault. It's because I suck in the consistency department. That bugs me. I would really like to see a loss, no matter how big or small, but an actual LOSS 2-3 weeks in a row. That is my next goal.

I'm also going to try some new recipes this week. At least 3 new ones, and to hold me accountable to that, I'm going to take pics of them and post them on my blog, no matter how they turn out. I've got a few different healthy eating recipe magazines and books now so there's no reason not to take a little time to sit down and prepare for my coming week. I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow with the $85 that Shane gave me, so I'm going to pick out my recipes, and make my list.

I'm thinking about something else. I'm thinking that I may have also screwed myself this week by cutting back on the exercise. Last week I walked nearly 6 miles every day, but I was really hurting. This week I cut it back to 4 miles a day...and I think I'm suffering from it. So next week it's back up to 6 miles, with making sure I have one rest day in the middle...probably Monday.

So that's it for tonight. I'm going to really HATE posting my weigh-in tomorrow morning. This one feels like the worst one yet. But...it's like Abby said on the Biggest Loser show this week..."this is a marathon...not a sprint". My biggest concern is trying to stay on course, and when things aren't going right, stay after it...figure it out...change things up...whatever I have to do to get to that goal. I really love that I'm learning so much along the way. This has never happened any previous time I lost weight. I'm really doing it the right way this time....working out the kinks as I go. I'm doing something that I'll be able to maintain for life and that just thrills me!

I'm off to find some recipes.....I'll be back in the morning with my head hung in shame and 'fessing up.

Quote For the Day:

"The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something." -Carl Sandburg