Salad

So last week J and I were watching food network, which is something we almost never do, but since there was nothing on, we stopped there. Alton Brown from "Good Eats" was making this grilled romaine thing that looked sooooo good. I decided to make it this week and oh my God it is wonderful. I had one Tuesday night and last night with my dinner. It is fairly easy to make and the flavors go together so well! I am definitely having another tonight. Here it is:



Makes 2 salads

Ingredients:
1 Romaine Heart
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 T olive oil

The ingredients above are not exact (except the lettuce) but it will give you an idea of about how much you will need. You won't use all of it. For the Parmesan cheese, I bought the stuff from Rulli's in the small containers - it tastes so much better than Kraft because it is fresh.

First, place the vinegar in a freezer bag and place in the freezer for about 2 hours, or until frozen. After it is frozen, smash it a little with either a rolling pin, meat tenderizer or something like that to make it into little pieces - almost like a vinegar slushie :) Next, cut the lettuce in half. Be sure to cut the root in half to keep all or most of the pieces together. Place the cheese in a pan or dish that is big enough for the lettuce. Spray or brush the cut side of the lettuce very well with the oil, be sure to get it in the grooves. Press the cut side of the lettuce into the cheese. You will need to make sure you press it really good to get the cheese to stick really well. Top with some black pepper if you like. Heat a non-stick skillet (I used my Pampered chef grill pan and press to get the grill lines) sprayed very generously with Pam over medium-high heat. Once hot, place the lettuce in the skillet, cut side down. Leave on for about 1-2 minutes, until the cheese browns. You will really smell the cheese when it is about done. Carefully remove from skillet and place on a plate. Top with the vinegar shavings and eat immediately.

Side note - I do not recommend putting it on a plate that has any food that you don't want to share in the vinegar taste. As you see in the photo above, I put my sausage on the same plate and by the time I got to eating it, there was a small amount of vinegar soaked into the bun.

Another Milestone

Well, I hit another milestone yesterday - I jogged non-stop for 1 mile. That's right, I jogged at 5 miles per hour for 12 minutes straight! Honestly, I probably could have kept going, but dinner was just about ready and I needed a quick cool down. Oh, and this was after an hour of aerobics/body sculpting. I have never in my life jogged an entire mile- to be perfectly honest, I have probably never jogged a quarter mile (that is one lap around a track). Here is a picture of me after the jog- and no, that is not water on my upper chest.

So I decided to try a "green drink." I have read about them on some other blogs and decided I was going to try them - since I am all into trying new things lately. Basically, it is a smoothie that is made of fruits and veggies and usually has a green leafy vegetable in it, which makes it green. I made one on Saturday that we drank on Sunday - after having to go out and buy a new blender. It was a recipe that Dr. Oz did on Oprah. It had spinach, celery, ginger root, lemon and lime juice, and an apple. It wasn't horrible, but it definitely wasn't tasty either. We did drink the entire pitcher of it and it definitely kept me full for a while. I decided to try something a little different this morning. Last night I threw some different stuff together and this one turned out really good actually - okay so not really good as in a chocolate milkshake, but really good for getting spinach into me! Today's green drink consisted of 1 banana, some chocolate protein shake mix, some fat free vanilla yogurt, a branch (if that is what you want to call it) of kale and a handful of spinach. Here it is:

I am going to try some other vegetables tonight, maybe some zucchini because we have a bunch of it. I also purchased some brussel sprouts over the weekend that I am going to attempt to roast. We will see how those come out - I will let you know. They may end up in my green drink too!

I am going to leave you with some pictures and even a video from Sunday. I went to Pioneer waterland with my hubby and family. Got some cute pictures of the kids.

TGIF!!!

I am so glad it is Friday - and so is my body! I worked out every single day this week and boy do I feel it. Today is my day of rest.

Monday - 10.5 mile bike ride (580 cals)
Tuesday - aerobics (550 cals)
Wednesday - we went to body sculpting rather than aerobics so I also got on the treadmill and jogged for about 15 minutes and walked 5 to get more cardio (680 cals)
Last night - aerobics. (550 cals)

Total calories burned - 2360

Whew, I am tired! I plan to go to aerobics in the a.m. which is an hour and a half. Last time I went I burned 820 calories! If it isn't raining, I would like to attempt a 20 mile ride as well. So, if all goes as planned, I should burn about 3980 calories for the week.

I have done really well with eating:

Monday - 1389 calories
Tuesday - 1221 calories
Wednesday - 1389 calories
Thursday - 1247 calories

Total calories consumed - 5246

Now, here's the problem I am having. 3500 calories = 1 pound. My BMR is 1800. That means that netting 1800 calories per day results in a maintain. Anything below should result in a loss. So for the first 4 days of the week I would need to net 7200 calories to maintain. I netted 2886 (5246-2360). So, I came out 4314 less than my maintain area. That would be a loss of 1.233 pounds - right? WRONG!!!!! The.scale.isn't.moving. Actually, it did move on Tuesday - it went up! I was at 182.4-ish on Monday - Tuesday it went up a pound and hasn't moved since. WHAT.THE.HELL? I just don't get it! It is so frustrating to work so hard and be so careful about everything I eat and see nothing - nothing at all. I just want to break through to the 170's. I remember this happened to me at the 192 mark - it seemed like I was there forever and just couldn't reach those 180's. I was really hoping to be down to 175 by vacation on the 23rd but I am not seeing that happening since it is only two weeks away.

Well that is my whining for the day. Hopefully my next post will bring better news!

That's a size WHAT???

I know, I know, it has been forever since I have blogged. No reason for it really, just busy at work and I don't have the extra time I used to. I have a few minutes before I have to get started on something so I thought I would update. Last weekend I actually got my *ss out of bed and went to aerobics on Saturday, even though I didn't go to bed until almost 2 on Friday night. It was really fun and I burned 820 calories!!! Then, J and I went on a 10 mile bike ride. I know it isn't the Tour de France but it is a lot for me. Originally, I had planned on going on the WOW ride - which would be a 20 mile ride (J is doing 60 miles this year!!!). Anyway, I am not able to go this year, but I still want to get up to at lease 20 miles so I am on my way.

On Sunday we went to the village - a local thrift shop - to try to find some pants for me because none of mine fit anymore. A good thing in a way. I told J before we went that I wanted to get one pair of size 12's just so I would have them at home and could try them on periodically so I would know when I could move down. Well, guess what - here they are:

Yes - they fit - right now. I couldn't believe it!!! I haven't worn a size 12 since 2000!

So, that is my good news for the week - well that and the new weight posted on the right.

It's been a while

Not sure what my deal is lately but I just haven't been blogging - maybe it's because I am so incredibly swamped at work right now since Sandy is off on sick leave. That's my excuse I guess. To be honest, I make time to read all new blogs from my list of fellow "weight" losers I just for some reason haven't blogged myself. I have been doing fine, until the Columbus trip. After that weekend of eating crap, I still lost weight - I am giving credit to the aerobics classes that I had done prior to leaving. Then, last week, I ate better (during the week) but I only went to class one day last week and did no other workouts. No excuse other than being lazy. This past weekend was a train wreck with pizza (only two slices) and wine (two glasses) on Friday and then God only knows what on Saturday at our wine tasting. I drank over a bottle of wine and ate tons of cheese, dip, chips and chocolate. Sunday wasn't too much better. I gained almost 3 pounds over the course of last week. I am happy to report that I have lost almost all of it already this week so I am sure it will come off fast. Went to aerobics last night, burned almost 500 calories which isn't bad since we were just learning the routines. I don't think I like the new routines as much as last session, but that could be just because I don't really know them yet. I feel like I just finally got the other ones down pat and could focus on intensifying them and now I have new ones to learn. Oh well. We (Mom Fellows) and I are going again tonight and tomorrow night. I hope to go on Saturday as well, which will give me 4 days of working out. I also am going for a bike ride on Saturday and hopefully some swimming - yeah, Saturday will knock me on my butt!

update

I promise I will do an update post soon. J and I went to Columbus over the weekend and had a blast. I have pictures to share, just need to sit down and do it! I will let you know though, we ate like crap while there and did no workouts, however, my weight is going down as you can see on my ticker, which makes me nervous that the weekend just hasn't caught up with me yet. I am afraid that one of these mornings I am going to step on the scale and it will say 190. I guess we will have to weight (haha) and see!

Weigh In

I had a good weekend. I probably ate a few too many calories but I definitely kept it reasonable and I don't think I went over my "maintain" calories. No exercising :( I am not sure why it is so much easier to do it during the week but it is. Saturday morning I was all prepared to go to aerobics and was actually in the car driving there when my stomach decided that it didn't want to go and made me turn around and head home. It was all downhill from there. I will go to aerobics Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week and do 30 day shred on Tuesday and Saturday. We are going to Columbus this weekend and maybe I will even get up and hit the hotel gym on Sunday morning while Jason is sleeping. I am going to try to find a hotel with a pool so we can get some exercise in that way too. We are also going to pack as much of our food as we can, especially breakfasts. Now onto the important stuff: my weigh in

Last Monday's weight: 188.6
According to my calculations based on my calorie deficit for the week I should have lost .842 pounds
Weight this morning: 187

That's a loss of 1.6 pounds and I will take it! It's not a ton of weight but anything is good!

It was brought to my attention that my last post did not include the recipe I promised. I apologize, I completely forgot to post it. I have edited that post and the recipe now resides at the bottom for your viewing pleasure.