Shello

Oh it was so good. Too hard to pass up.

Wednesday Back to the usual meal plan except someone brought in banana cake. I thought about ignoring but it didn't work. It worked so poorly I had 2 small pieces. Both logged though and finished the day just barely under target. I'm still on track for the week too. I rearranged my high calorie days in Lose It to make Tuesday and Thursday the high days this week to accommodate for eating out. Wednesday is a teaching day and I had mentioned to a student I could stay after since she had questions. It's a free day for fitness since it's so tired to work both jobs but I had my gym bag packed just in case. I didn't make it though. We got free flu shots at work in the morning and I ended up with some vertigo around lunch and early afternoon. Not sure if it's related or not but I didn't feel up to the gym so I made it another rest day. I was however active enough to count it for my daily goals. All goals met except for tidying.

That's right! I'll make sure and have my banana snack today. Hopefully it works preemptively too because we are going out for dinner again tonight.

Tuesday Followed meal plan all during the day. DDG and I had plans to meet his sister for dinner. We had talked previously about how eating out is such a hindrance to goals and thought maybe sharing would be a good idea. We always like the same things and most of the time if we both order a full burger/fries or whatever, we are beyond full. But he was too hungry by the time we got to dinner and wasn't up for sharing. Sure I could have still just eaten half of my crispy chicken sandwich but I didn't. And there were tots but not an egregious amount so I ate all those too. I didn't feel overly full so it worked out. The sodium was a scale killer the next day but already recovering (just in time to eat out again tonight). I did suggest we get a walk in. It wasn't feasible to do our normal walk at the lake since we stayed out for dinner but his sister lives in the town across the river and in the next state. There's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river and joins the two states and we'd never walked it at night before. It was a lovely evening and a mile and half from the parking lot to the bridge, across, a small loop around the park on the other side and back.

All caught up. yay for riding AND hiking!! Great job trying not to let it impact your mood as well. It's definitely tough to do, especially when it brings other bad feelings to the surface.

Monday Nailed eating for the day. I stuck to the meal plan. Just the right amount of chocolate after lunch, no unsanctioned snacks. As a matter of fact I had fewer snacks that even allotted. But I was starving by the time I got home. Dinner was already planned to be a slice of leftover Domino's, texas toast garlic bread and then a salad. We had banana oatmeal choc chip muffins for dessert. Just barely under calorie target. I took the day as a rest day and spent the evening relaxing and watching the Marvelous Mrs Maisel with DDG. Calorie burn was high enough due to an active day working and teaching and existing. All goals met for the day except for tidy daily.

Love this ❤️ I had so many wish I woulda's but didn't realize it in time. Whoa. Love this so much 💗 #parentwinning Adding this to my list! And then how many years until they want to stay out past 11 and you want to go to bed and stop worrying about them?

Weekend Update I was feeling a little discouraged Friday and instead of using that to motivate good behavior I went the other way and gave up just a little. Excessive candy was eaten in the afternoon and then I secretly willed DDG to suggest Domino's so I wouldn't have to. It worked and we had Domino's. No regrets. No fitnessing as I needed a rest day but I was active enough to count towards my daily goal. Saturday I slept in and when I finally woke up and joined DDG on the couch he informed me that we were getting empanadas from the neighbor just in time for lunch. Yumm! It was a little later than my normal fast so once my 15 hours were up I just had some chocolate milk (high protein low sugar) to hold me over. Then we shared a small bowl of fruit with our empanadas. We made a pretty chill day of it but did make it to the gym in the afternoon after which we needed a snack. I prepared a plate of cheese and crackers and a sliced kiwi. Dinner was the last of the stir fry followed by some chocolate. I started logging food on Lose it and Saturday is a designated high calorie budget day. I stayed under that with room to spare. All goals met for the day. Sunday I slept in very late and it was glorious. We had some leftover rice from the night before so I tried my hand at some Tamago Kake Gohan (Japanese breakfast rice) Whoa - it was very good but not as filling as i needed. I fried the leftover rice in butter, then added a little soy sauce. Once the rice was in the bowl I used the same pan and cooked an egg very over easy in some sesame oil. I added it to the rice and then added some sesame seeds. I mixed the egg up with the rice and it was so good. I had to make a piece of peanut butter toast though before we went out for a walk since I was still hungry. Batch dinner was supposed to be roasted turkey with turkey gravy on baked potato with a salad on the side (stole this from @Tanktimus the Encourager) however the only turkey breast I could find was bone in and was frozen when we picked it up from grocery. I also found out from the grocer that they don't expect to have turkeys this Thanksgiving because of the turkey sickness and they had to put down whole farms of turkeys 😪 (sad for turkeys, not for Thanksgiving but I'm not sure that makes any sense since had we been getting turkey for Thanksgiving their outcome is the same 🙁) Anyway, we pivoted for dinner so I ran back out and grabbed some turkey brats (Hey where did this turkey come from then?) and some beef brats and roasted some baby potatoes tossed in mayo, rosemary, and garlic and then roasted in the cat iron skillet. I also made some banana oatmeal muffins with some PB2 and choc chips. My goal was to make us a healthy dessert to replace the chocolates we usually have after dinner. I figure if I can have a muffin that is 4 times the size of the chocolates but equal calories it should be just as satisfying but better for us. It ended up being more calories than expected because the recipe said it should make 24 but it made 15. They were delicious though and still not bad and a good replacement for chocolates. I finished the day under calorie goal and all goals met for the day.

From what I could tell, she loved it. And so did my brother. He was eating one of her brownies when she called me. + Funny how that works out. We just started season 3 of MMM last night. We're still watching seasons I had seen before but there's a lot I had forgotten. So far I am really liking how they handle different things. I paid for the yearly upgrade plan. It was cheap and I liked the bonuses. I am being a little obsessive over the logging but I think that's usually how it is when it's a new app. I need to find ways to back off so I don't get burnt out like usual.

Welcome back to your challenge. Nice updates to the goals. What language are you learning on DL?

Starting Weight 271.2 9/11: 269.7 (down 1.5) 9/18: 270.4 (up 0.7) or 268.6 (down 1.1) 9/25: 269.3 (down 1.1) Again my Sunday weigh in was lower than my Monday official weigh in. I was in target Sunday so I expected it to drop a little bit more before this morning's weigh in. But I am down just over a pound from last Monday's weigh in so at least that's consistent. I am struggling a bit with expectations and feeling like it's not enough. But I just move on because it's just 1 pound at a time. I also started tracking on the Lose It app. I have given up on tracking but @Snarkyfishguts has been giving it some positive reviews so I figured I'd give it a try. It's a good intermediary between the busy MFP and the not enough info from Noom. I also like how they look at your calorie budget from a weekly perspective. I am feeling a little obsessive about tracking. I get caught up about whether that was 1 and thee quarter cups cups or 1 and two thirds but I tend to eat the same things over and over. Once I get my stuff saved I think it will be easier to back off a little. This week's struggles - 2 dinners out with family and concession stand dinner at a game Friday. DDG and I are planning to try and just order one thing and share it so we'll see how that goes. Dinner plans all fall on the best nights for workouts so I'm not sure I'll be able to get 4 workouts in. I'm not sure I'll be able to get 3 in.

This week's weigh in will be just that much better! Sounds like a rough week. But those dinner/lunch options seem like good choices. Wishing you all the luck this week. I feel this. Even when we are doing well there's this sense of waiting for the other show to drop. But all you can do is keep working on working you're working on. It'll work until it doesn't but you'll keep making smart choices and your body will catch up.

Congrats on a great week. I've been looking forward to sending Peach her first college care package. It arrived today and I'm excited for her to get home from work tonight to open it. I've seen the first 2 seasons of OMITB. I do enjoy it and it's easy to get hooked. It's a little ... silly? so we took a break before jumping into the 3rd season. I did get DDG to agree to try The Marvelous Mrs Maizel. I've seen the first couple seasons but it's been awhile so we're starting from the beginning. I just downloaded the Lose It app. I'm curious about. I had given up on logging because I got so tired of it. But I could use a little more accountability or something.

How did I miss the whole week? batch dinner this week was stir fry. I cooked a bunch of chicken, steamed some carrots and broccoli, and made a batch of steamed rice and some cauliflower rice and then made fresh stir fried shredded cabbage each night and just added ingredients as I went. I made some stir fry sauce and stored it in mason jars so all I had to was give it a shake and pour over my chicken and veggies. I didn't love it the first night so I started adding some orange marmalade to the stir fry and some extra soy sauce before adding the stir fry sauce. Other than that it's been kind of a mess of a week. Wednesday was food day at work. I made homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls, from scratch. Probably the best best yeast dough I've ever attempted. I ate like a dickhead though. Naturally I broke my fast early to have a cinnamon roll and then I ate until I hated myself for lunch and then went back again when I started to hate myself less. That night I just made a salad for dinner. Thursday was supposed to be better but I broke my fast early to have a cinnamon roll. Then I planned to have lunch from the cafeteria instead of my usual. Pretzel crusted chicken breast with a gouda sauce and wild rice pilaf. It was all very good but the portion size was more than I am used to for lunch and I didn't really notice in time to stop. And I probably wouldn't have stopped anyway. Dinner was the usual stir fry but I kept my portion a little smaller than DDGs share. The scale is totally reflecting my bad choices overall. We did go out for a walk Tuesday night. We didn't quite get our 3 miles in because I had bread dough to make. Wednesday I packed a gym bag in case I was up for the gym. It's usually a lot after a day of work and then teaching but after food day it seemed like the thing to do. I went to a different location (only 3 minutes from class) to check it out. I thought maybe I'd just walk the track to get the lay of the land. Turns out that location doesn't have a walking track so I went ahead and got my whole workout in even though it was in a strange and new place.

All caught up and following. And I'm sufficiently motivated to open up my Duolingo that I haven't touched in several years... but then the question is which language(s)... French, Spanish, or Italian. Yes, all 3 is the correct answer.

Great progress for last week! Congrats on being able to get out to the course!

Weekend Update Saturday was a lovely day. I had taken some turkey breakfast sausage out of the freezer for breakfast skillet but we hadn't picked up groceries yet. We decided to make sausage, egg, and cheese mcmuffins and we paired it with a small bowl of fruit to share. We ate late enough that we didn't really worry about lunch. We ran a bunch of errands and snacked appropriately at home rather than getting something out. DDG did ask what my plans were for dinner. I was banking on empanadas from the neighbor but we didn't get any messages from them so DDG suggested we try out a new pizza place. I rarely say no to pizza but it was less than ideal as I'm trying to lose 1 pound a week for the PVP. DDG hardly ever suggests any ideas and just goes along with my ideas so I didn't have the heart to say no. And when I looked at photos of the place online beforehand there was a pic of the most amazing cheese fries (mozzarella!) I've ever seen. We shared the fries and then ordered a small chicago style pizza. I managed to only eat 2 slices and save one for the next day. No fitnessing but we were quite busy with errands and I surveyed the small garden in the back so I could prep it for a butterfly garden I was planning to put in. One of our errands was to pick up the plants. Sunday was a great day but exhausting. I pulled all the weeds from the garden and then DDG helped me plant all the new ones. I was able to salvage a well established Shasta Daisy plant and few not so well established Black Eyed Susans. I had a thriving milkweed too but I replanted it to the back so I'm not sure it will stay thriving. I spent several hours working on the garden and I was beat afterwards and my shoulder was bugging me. We took a break on the couch and watched a movie. The whole time I was dreading cooking dinner. I planned stir fry for this week's batch meal so I had to cook a couple batches of chicken, steam all the veggies, make the sauce, cook the rice, and I just didn't have the energy. DDG must have been reading my mind because after the movie he asked me if I was sure I had the energy to cook and asked if maybe we should just throw a couple Totino's in the oven. I was thinking the same solution so I jumped on it. He did all the work and we had a lovely easy dinner.

DDG and I were talking and evidently we had pizza for dinner 5 nights last week! Some were planned - shared a thin crust pizza at the movie theater and two nights of dinner at the game meant 2 slices of Godfather's pizza. But then DDG suggested we go out and try a new pizza place ( He never asks for anything and I didn't have the heart to say no) and then Sunday I was too tired to batch cook so we had Totino's. None of them were overboard but I'm sure that had an impact. This week will be better.

Starting Weight 271.2 9/11: 269.7 (down 1.5) 9/18: 270.4 (up 0.7) Well heck. I weighed in Sunday just for funsies and I was down to 268.6. I did not gain 1.8 since yesterday! But maybe Sunday's weigh in was the anomaly. We had just gone out for pizza Saturday night. I did pretty well on portions for the pizza but the cheese fries! I was super pleased with the unexpected results Sunday morning but now I'm not sure which weigh in is more accurate. The calculated average on my spreadsheet says 269.1. Time will tell.

I've been working on shifting my mindset in a similar way. I just need to aim for 1 stinking pound at a time, not the whole thing.

Agreed. That's impressive. Nice workout!

I'm so happy you're so happy at work! I just mentioned this to DDG and now this is going in the menu rotation. Thanks for the idea.

Enjoy your holiday! There's plenty of time to figure out the freezer later. It's not going anywhere.

It was a triple chocolate bundt cake and worth every bite. A lot of times I guage treats by whether the calories are worth it. Like store bought cookies; they often look good and I"ll get the urge, but they are rarely worth it. I'd love to put together my own home gym too. I'm waiting for the next house. I suppose I could make it work in this one now that kids are mostly gone but then I'd have to move it all. You are killing it! May your momentum last as long as possible!

Friday Work shouldn't have been busy but it was. I was unusually hungry but by the time it distracted me the cafeteria had already closed breakfast so that took away the temptation. I fasted until lunch and had the usual. I was still snacky afterwards but I wasn't really hungry. I was somehow still bored even though I was busy. Read that as I just didn't want to be at work anymore I avoided snacking for a long time but the day went very slowly. I was headed down to the vending area for some baked chips to snack on but then I noticed my apple in the fridge. That seemed like a smart choice. We had a soccer game to go to in the evening. I wasn't sure if I was going to be up for it or not after my workout but I was trying to keep my food within reason in case dinner was concession stand food. I did make it to the gym. I was tired and sluggish at work and just wanted to go home. I had to work a little late just so I could go straight to the gym but I really didn't want to. This was my last free training session. I've been pleased so I signed up to meet twice a month starting in 2 weeks. I felt energized after the workout and went ahead and went to the game. Dinner was 2 slices of pizza.