Labor of Love

I had a lovely Labor Day cookout with my roommate and family! And I have food pics!! I didn't take any people pics though....mom and I had both been cleaning house today among other things, and although we managed to shower, we didn't put our make-up on, so no people pics this time. However, I'm planning on trying to get some progress pics taken of me sometime this week. I'm not sure you can tell much difference in 30 lbs. I can feel a difference in my clothes, but I swear, everytime I get undressed and look in the mirror before I shower, all I see is fat. So I'll post some and we'll see.

Mom helped me do the grilling and everything turned out so good....very tasty. My Dad is the true judge of whether or not I did a good job. He'll come right out and tell you what he thinks if you ask him. If something's too salty, or overdone, or just doesn't suit his tastes, he'll tell you. You can always count on him for honesty, so after dinner, I asked him how he liked everything....and he said everything was real good! Woo hoo! The one pic that I screwed up majorly was my fruit platter that I made for dessert. I totally forgot to take the pics til after everyone was almost done eating!! I am so disappointed because it was so pretty before we dug into it. The outside was ringed with pineapple, then watermelon, then strawberries and grapes in the middle. Bummer.

One more thing! I've had to go to the park since I moved and no longer have access to the treadmill at the fitness center from my apt complex. Since I started driving over there last week, I've only done the 2 mile trail. For some reason, I haven't pushed myself to start the trail over, walk to the 2.5 mile marker, and double back to the beginning to complete the 3 miles. Today I did it!! I finally walked 3 miles, which is what I had worked up to before I moved from the apt. Only walking 2 miles again was going backwards in my progress, so it was time to step it up. And boy did I feel it!! Just goes to show you not to slack off on the exercise. If you drop back on what you're doing, or don't do it for a while, it is so hard and friggin' painful to get back in the groove. But I did it, and I'm proud. :)

I'm going to try to insert the pics now. If I can't figure it out...Pam is standing by on email for me, lol. Such a great friend. :) I enjoyed the holiday with my family and roommate Shane, as I hope all of you did, too!

Veggie Kabobs:

Grilled Salmon & Shrimp Skewers:

Baby Scallops:














Platter of Fresh Sliced Tomatoes:















Tuscan Bread with Roasted Garlic:














Lemon Pesto Butter:















Fruit Platter:













My dinner was 468 calories, and I still had 300 left over!! I know I'm supposed to be consistent with the calories and not all over the map, but I was so stuffed after dinner, I just couldn't fit anymore in. So total calories for today is 1200, and the excercise was a 3 mile walk at the park with my sister Amy. It's been a great day! Pam helped me line the pictures up, and she tried to tell me how to do it myself, so I'm going to give it another shot on tomorrow night's post with putting up pics of my baby Scarlette, and maybe some of Dwayne and I if I can find some.

Quote For The Day:

"Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades." -Mme. Du Deffand

Wow! Guess What I Did?!

As I said in my last post, I reached my next 15 lb. lost mini-goal and it was time for another reward. When I reached my first 15 lb. marker, I didn't have to buy myself anything because Dwayne gave me $100 to buy a few new pieces of clothing for dropping a size. It was a lovely surprise! Well, when he got here Friday evening, he handed me ANOTHER $100 for reaching this current goal...I was shocked! It was awesome the first time, but I never even thought he would do it again. I'm guessing he wants to be a part of the reward process because he's proud of all of my hard work.

So it looked like I wasn't going to be buying myself anything again this time...until I realized something last night. When I started my travels this time on the road to permanent weight loss, I started in June of this year and was 272 lbs. I set an arbitrary ending goal of 180 lbs. I stated early on that I have no desire to be stick thin, and actually prefer the look and feel of a curvier body. I am 5'10 in heighth and do remember a time many years ago when I weighed 200 lbs. and could tuck in my shirts w/o any embarassment. So I'm figuring 180 is good for now. If I get there, and want to drop lower, then that's cool. But I'm going to consider reaching the 180 lb. mark my true success for what I started out to do.

With all of this said, I got to thinking last night about my very highest weight several years back. It was 340 lbs. I remember thinking after I crossed over the 300 lb. threshold that I had reached a point of no return. A 300 lb. girl? There was no turning back, I remember thinking. Once you let yourself go that far, well there's just no hope left in sight. Or so I thought.

Thank God I was wrong about that. I reached a point where something "clicked" and I decided that I COULD take the weight off, and I was going to, come Hell or high water. And that's just what I set out to do. I lost 83 lbs. in 7 months (and no, I didn't do it the right way). I went from 340 lbs. to 257 lbs. and I was sailing down the scale. I was on fire! And then I met Dwayne, lol. The weight loss stopped. All of a sudden my attention that was dead set on the weight loss had been fully diverted and squarely placed on my blue-eyed guy. What a mistake that was, lol. I love my fella to pieces, but I should have NEVER, EVER taken my eyes off the goal.

I slowly gained back 33 of those lbs. over the next 4 years or so. Thank goodness I didn't gain it all back and plus some, like I read about so many others that do. I remember when I finally got around to noticing that I was sitting at 290 lbs., almost at the 300 marker again, I said "WHOA NELLY!!" This is NOT happening again. I refuse to see 300 lbs. ever again. The problem was, I didn't really make the right mental changes to get it off. I didn't have the "click" that I had before. I prayed for it, over and over, but it just didn't happen. It's like I wanted to lose the weight, but couldn't find the willpower and desire to put forth the same effort I did before.

I very, very slowly dropped 20 lbs. over the course of a year, and then kept jumping between 266 and 272 lbs. Fluctuating week after week, up/down up/down...and that's when I finally decided to see what this blogging stuff was all about. My best friend Pam whose blog is Journey To The Healthier Side Of Life, and listed on my blogroll, had been blogging for quite some time, and I decided to give it a shot. Thank God I did. Blogland is where I found my inspiration. So many inspiring people out there, doing what I yearned to do for myself. And alas, From Fat to Fab was born. My starting weight was 272 lbs.

My realization came last night though from remembering that I once was 340 lbs. I am now 241.8 as of my last weigh-in. Is everyone doing their subtraction??? I've lost dang near 100 lbs. from my highest point!!!! Holy cow!!! That's amazing!!!! Well, I couldn't let that pass me by without buying myself a reward....one that came from me and not Dwayne. I don't know why....Dwayne's gift of cash for clothing is deeply appreciated and I'm very touched...but there's just something about buying a little something for you...from you.

I went to a bookstore with my Mom today and found the perfect little gift. I collect cookbooks and found one called Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. It's full of healthy, low-fat recipes for your crockpot/slow cooker and they list all of the nutritional value for each recipe!!! I love to find recipes that already have the calories figured out, and now I have a whole book full of them!! Perfect!! And it only cost me $15.95 to boot. Yay!

I am extremely pleased with my little purchase. My pocketbook didn't suffer too badly, and my new cookbook signifies a tremendous amount of hard work and effort to get to a healthier me. What better gift to give yourself than something that will further the good that you're working so hard to accomplish? Books last forever. I want my weight loss to last forever. I can continue to use this book during maintenance. It's just an excellent choice all the way around and I'm glad I made it. :)

Tomorrow is Labor Day, and rather than have to face someone else's cookout with the trepidation that always seems to creep up on me with holiday eating, I decided to take the reigns and have my own cookout! This was my evil plan so I can control ALL the food that is available....very cool. Labor Day marks the "end of summer", and summer is synonymous with seafood to me when it comes to food, so Mom's coming over to help me grill some salmon, shrimp, baby scallops and veggie kabobs. It's going to be fantastic!! My roommate Shane will be here, along with my parents, one of my sisters, Amy, and 2 of my nieces and nephews, Carla and Cyress. It's going to be a lovely time filled with food choices that I can feel good about. I'm really looking forward to it!

I still don't own a digital camera, but Shane does, so if I can remember, I'm going to get him to show me how to use it, and load the pics from it onto my computer, and then how to access them, and will probably get Pam (my blog guru) to show me how to post them on here. I'm severely challenged when it comes to these types of things, so we'll see. I love the blogs, like Amy H.'s at No To The Deuce, that always post food pics and recipes. I'd like to start adding some of my own pics.

I have a few pics of my puppy Scarlette saved on my computer from the last time Dwayne and I went to Hilton Head, SC for a weekend getaway. It was overcast, so the pics aren't bright and sunny, but if I can get Pam to help me tomorrow, then I'll try to put some up of my baby to show you.

I hope everyone has a fun, happy and safe holiday, surrounded by close family and friends, and filled with good eating choices! We can do this!! Doesn't it feel great to know you're finally on the right road to a happier, healthier you?? I think so, too!!

Quote For The Day:

"Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings." -Ralph Bluen

Detox Day

I had a fantastic weekend, but boy was it a bad one for eating. Way too much sodium. I haven't posted my calories and food because I didn't know what the nutrition stats were for everything I ate. Friday night, which I turned into Free Day, I had that Chinese food...no clue what that was. I'm sure it was through the roof in the carb and sodium departments though. Saturday I had about 500 calories before I went to Dwayne's mom's house for the cookout, saving 1,050 for that. I ate 2 pork spareribs, 2 spoons of potato salad, 1 spoon of coleslaw, 1 ear of corn, 2 small yeast rolls, 1 triangle of watermelon and a small piece of cake made with Splenda. I might have still been okay if it weren't for the fact that I got hungry again about 8pm. Mom told me about Kroger having crab legs on sale for $3.99/lb and Saturday was the last day of the sale! Have I mentioned that I'm a seafood FREAK? I ran myself over to Kroger, bought a pound and a half of crab legs which was 4 clusters, and the dog and I were in seafood Heaven. And yes, I dipped them in butter. REAL hot drawn butter. Is there any other way to properly eat crab legs? I think not. :)

As far as exercise goes, I went hiking for 2 hours with Dwayne on Friday, but I didn't do a dang thing on Saturday. Way too sore. I couldn't even lift my free weights to do any arm exercises. I enjoyed the holiday weekend, but I am truly glad that it's over! Time to get back on track, and it was slow going today, for sure. It took me ALL DAY LONG to talk myself into getting on that treadmill today, but I finally did it. I walked a mile in 15:50. I KNEW not to go more than 1 day w/o exercising. It is easy for me to fall out of the habit. So easy. I'm glad I made it down there. That in itself makes today a win! I did great with my calories too. My limit this week is 1550, but I purposely came in under. I got on the scale this morning and I did some damage over the wknd. I needed to jumpstart the next 5 days before time to weigh in. Maybe I'll break even by Friday...please God.

Goal Stats:

Calories 1550
Carbs 250
Fat 60
Protein 136

Today's Stats:

Calories 1046
Carbs 123
Fat 16
Protein 105

Here's my food intake for the day:

2 pcs. of homemade turkey sausage (4 oz.)
2 c. of coffee w/ sugar-free creamer

Big salad (romanine, spinach, broc slaw, onions, tomatoes, cukes, bell peppers, lite Italian)
1/2 of a blueberry banana muffin

Big turkey burger (7 oz.) on sourdough w/ toms, onions, lettuce, lite mayo, ketchup
6 baby dill pickles

1 c. watermelon
1 frozen strawberry smoothie (1 c. strawbry, 1 c. 1% milk, 3 tbsp fat free lite van yogurt, ice)
(The smoothie wasn't sweet enough so I threw in 1 Stevia packet)
Lots of water....NO TEA, NO COKE......only water :)

Quote For The Day:

"There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent, or hinder, or control a firm resolve of a determined soul." -Anonymous

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.