4 Healthiness Tips I Completely Ignore

Hello teammates! As I continue to make progress on my journey, I like to keep looking at tips and tricks on various websites. Greatist is my favorite because they actually use scholarly-reviewed journals to write their articles. I also loves me the Health and Fitness boards on Pinterest. Let's be real, for the past 6ish months, I've soaked in basically anything that had any intention of helping me get healthier. When I look forward to my last 25 pounds (yep! I hit the 75lb mark!) I know I'm going to need all the help I can get!

I'm seriously obsessed with these people.

 I try a LOT of different things. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes, I don't listen to the suggestions, and I do okay! It turns out, like I've said before, weight loss is about calories. How many you eat and how many you burn. I gain and lose from eating too much sodium, not drinking enough water and building muscle too, so it's not an exact-exact formula. However, I find that as long as I exercise hard and keep to my calorie limits, everything else is kinda moot in the long run.

The other thing I know about weight loss is that it's an intensely personal journey. Everyone does it in their own way and in their own time. I don't get to tell anybody else how to do it, and nobody gets to tell me how to do it. Even experts, because I sure do like to ignore their advice!

So, without further ado, 4 Healthiness Tips I Completely Ignore and a BONUS!

1. Eat Small Amounts of Dark Chocolate to Curb Sweetness Cravings.
 It seems strange, now that I think about this, that the writers of fitness blogs and articles accept that most people will need to have something sweet on occasion, but insist that it is this one special thing... dark chocolate. I have never liked dark chocolate. As a matter of fact, as a kiddo, I didn't even really like milk chocolate. I chose white chocolate or vanilla of whatever I got a choice for. I'm fairly certain even Tiny-Fatkid-Lizzy turned down chocolate ice cream, which I just straight up don't enjoy.

It makes my teeth hurt just looking at it. Bleck.

But, health gurus (self-proclaimed or otherwise) repeat this tip ad nauseam. Skip milk chocolate they say, it often has cream and other additives that make it more caloric. Plus,  they add, dark chocolate provides antioxidants!  Well, there's just one problem with that, folks. I hate dark chocolate. Eating a small amount of dark chocolate just makes me sad and miss coldstone's cake batter ice cream.

So I straight-up ignore this rule. I do eat chocolate. I eat very small amounts of milk chocolate,on ocassion. Furthermore, I don't see the problem with eating other bite-sized candies, as long as you're able to keep yourself under control, have a beensy amount of whatever candy you want. I have caramel-apple Werthers AND Hershey's kisses in my desk right now! I eat one about every other day and it is AWESOME.

2. Have a Cheat Day
Whoever invented this tip had not studied up on binge-eating and the folks who struggle with it. Sir or Madam, you clearly have no comprehension of the amount of calories I am capable of consuming in a 24 hour period. I understand that for people avoiding certain foods, or people who don't struggle with binge eating, this makes the rest of the week bearable, and only messes with your calories a little bit. For me... well, it could be disastrous.

Let me explain to you the damage I could do with a cheat day. Let's take yesterday for instance. Yesterday, according to my FitBit, I burned 2941 calories-- that's a lot, I ran 1.4 miles and shopped and went on a walk. That means if I wanted to stay the weight that I am today, I could have eaten almost 3000 calories. I do not want to stay this weight, I want to lose weight, so I ate around 1200 calories.

On a bad day in 2010, 2011 or 2012, I could eat upwards of 6000 calories. On a good day, I probably ate around 4000. I struggle with binge eating. If I had a day each week I could eat whatever I wanted, you can bet that I would have several slices of pizza, breadsticks, cheese, probably a burrito, pasta (with more cheese), 4-5 tacos (with yet more cheese) french bread, macaroni and cheese with extra butter--- you get the idea. Then we could get started on dessert! A 6000 calorie day would put me almost 2 full pounds back.

I dare to you guess how many calories this is. Hint: More than I eat in one day.

I lose about 2.5 pounds a week and I work hard to do that. Basically, if I had a cheat day... well, I wouldn't lose any weight at all. So, I am on my "diet" almost all the time. When people ask me why I don't just "calm down," or "relax," or "treat myself," I shove another piece of gum in my mouth and say "I can't be trusted." Because I can't. Others are able to do this-- to enjoy a day where they don't count calories and end up just a few hundred over. That is perfectly awesome, okay and legitimate. As I have said, weight-loss is intensely personal. Having a cheat day each week will never work for me.

With that said, I am not an ascetic. If T gets dessert, I get to eat a bite. As I said above, I've worked approximately 4 hershey's kisses a week into my food-plan. I eat a ridiculous amount of protein bars, which to me taste like candy. Also, I do have one Cheat Meal every month. Each month I make T take me out to Indian food. I eat Saag and basmati rice and 1/4 of a ... slice? piece? circle? of naan. I almost always gain a little the day after this happens, but I gave up burritos and pizza-- I wanted to keep saag. A day every week would wreck me, a meal every month is just a bump in the road. This works for me.

3. Work Out in the Morning
This doesn't work for me. It just doesn't. Although I have been advised that I am a "morning person," because I drive everybody nuts by being chipper without coffee at 8am, I would like to advise you all that, no, I'm really not. I wake up at the absolute latest moment possible and do the most minimal amount of doing and preparing in the mornings. (Sidenote, I'm not really a night person either! I'm really more of a 4 year old who needs like 10 hours of sleep and gets cranky if she doesn't get it).

Yeah, this is not how I roll.

So the idea of actually waking up to work out-- well, I'd never ever go. I go to yoga on Saturday mornings because it happens after 9 and since my schedule is so consistent, my body wakes me up around 6:30-7 even on the weekends. On Sunday mornings I've gone for a Zombie Run (more on Zombie Runs later) almost every week for the past few weeks. However, In general, I can't make myself workout before work. Not only do I not want to get up that early, I get really stressed out about getting to work on time. I work out at night, and this works great for me!

4. Don't Weigh Yourself Every Day

I love/hate my scale so much.

Man, if I had a quarter for every time I heard this one. I weigh myself every single day that I have access to a scale. For realz. I know, scientifically, I can't put too much stake in the numbers. But I find knowing the number to be incredibly motivational. If I'm down even a little bit, I feel good about myself, and have reason to give a little extra. If I'm up a tick or two, I feel motivated, and make sure I stay dedicated all day. Basically, every morning I have to be honest with myself about how I did the day before, and how I'm going to do today. It's a re-dedication, a check-in and a time of commencement. My day has started when I accept my weight and get in the shower or get dressed. I straight-up refuse to change this practice, because (are you noticing a pattern?) it works for me! I won't go into my whole sociological/therapy thing about rituals and created meaning and blah blah blah, but know that it's really important to me.

Bonus Tip:
I hope you're getting the theme here. I had to figure out how to make healthiness work for me. I had to find a way to convince myself to move more (Hello, FitBit!) I had to find a way to work through my binge-eating (Hello, strictly controlled calories and small indulgences!) I had to find a way to make exercise enjoyable for me (Hello iPad, Yoga Class and the Zombies, Run! app!). That's the only way I was/am successful.

Look, it's me!!!

Let's take the Zombies, Run(!) app as an example. I'm fairly certain I have said (along with tons of other people) "I will run if something chases me." Well, problem solved. Now I'm part of a crazy pseudo radio-show/fitness tracker/online game. When I go out for what I call  a "trek," I'm not aimlessly navigating my neighborhood anymore (not that people can't have fun doing that, I just don't). I've got Zombs at six o'clock at 40 meters and they're closing in fast! If I don't reach the supply shed in time, we won't have fuel to run the generators! Complete with Zombie noises, gunfire, alarms and startled British people, the Zombies, Run(!) app changed the way I felt about running. It made it an adventure and motivates me to push myself. It made it work for me. Plus, if you recall, one of my first posts was about being the heroine of my own life. Well, if saving lives in a zombie apocalypse isn't being heroic... I just don't know where I'ma find dragons to slay!

So my tip-- find what makes it all work for you. Please feel free to ignore it! ;)

I Guess I Run Now

So, updates! This morning I weighed 184 pounds. On Sunday I ran my first mile. I now wear a size 14. What do these things mean?

• I'm no longer obese (now I'm merely 29 pounds overweight, haha!)
• I weigh less than my (male, 6'4") spouse for the first time in our 6-year relationship.
• I have lost 67 pounds, which is, of course 67% of my 100-lb goal!
• I'm approximately 33% done with my goal of running a whole 5k.
• I own bright pink skinny jeans. I intend to wear them.

Though I doubt I'll look like this-- or wear black pumps, but it will be good.

That's the run-down team. What I really want to talk about today is running. I posted on Facebook and twitter about my run, but I didn't tell a lot of people that I had started running. Probably because I honestly didn't think, even 67 pounds later, that I'd be able to do it. In middle school and high school, I was 100% that stubborn girl walking the mile. Very much like my dislike for tag-- I had no desire to be measured at doing something I knew I wasn't good at. 

Do I even need to caption this?!

When I was younger, that was how I rolled. Now, I believe I could do pretty much anything I have the time, funds and patience to practice for about 10,000 hours (right dad? :) )

Also, I'm straight-up a suck-up and an over-achiever, so when I saw this gorgeous running medal apparatus with a Shakespeare quote ("Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.") I was a little bit lost to the cause-- I wanted a MEDAL! I knew I needed to make a running goal if I wanted to do 5ks (or 10ks! or half marathons!) Specifically, I needed a SMART goal.

Not that I expect to get medals. Maybe a parade, but not medals.

When I say SMART I don't mean "ingenious," or "brilliant." I mean Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Time-based goals-- S.M.A.R.T. When I decided I wanted to actually RUN a 5k, I had to sit down and figure my life out.

I love tables that explain things!

How much can I run right now? That answer, a few weeks ago, was half of a mile. I could run half of one mile without feeling like I might die. I decided I would start there. I decided that I didn't want running to take over my exercise life, and I'm already doing an hour of yoga twice a week. I figured more than 5 days of "specialized" training was getting kind of unnecessary. So, I decided I would run 3 days a week. I picked Sunday, Tuesday and Friday since I do yoga on Wednesdays and Saturdays and Monday is rest day (AKA laundry day). Someday I will plan something special for our friend Thursday.

I swear I will come up with something good for you, Thursday.

Anyway, once I decided I needed to start at .5 mile, and 3 days a week. I set up a schedule. I use google docs pretty obsessively, so I added a page to my already-somewhat-OCD Healthiness Spreadsheet. I decided that I would run each 10th of a mile twice, then increase one 10th. So, for those of you who are curious, my running schedule  looks like this:

Bright green means "I DID IT!" also it means go.

It's very specific. It's extremely measurable, since I do all of this on a treadmill. I increase very very very slowly (slower even than couch to 5k programs). It's also relevant to my interests at the moment and beautifully time-based. SMART goals for the win! :)

It's odd, I've never thought of myself as a runner. But then I realized that I didn't have to be a runner, I just have to run. 

Running isn't some kind of bizarre secret club that only thin people in tiny shorts can attend. It's exercise just like any other. I'm not saying it's super-duper fun, but I do understand the draw. No matter how arbitrary 3.2 miles seems, it's a goal. It's something to work toward being able to do that isn't just fitting in jeans the next size down. It's something positive to focus on rather than "getting healthy," which has always felt kind of vague and unquantifiable. 

For fun, since I am taking screencaps of my somewhat OCD healthiness spreadsheet, here's my current weight chart with all of my data points since I started. 

Data! Super-fun!

That's my update and the story of how I started running. Thank you all for reading and for all of your support!

Some Hard-Won Knowledge

Hello, team-mates! Welcome to another dashing adventure! This has been a milestone week for me. I hit the 50lb mark and dipped under 200 pounds. I've been at 199 for a few days now, which is A-OK with me! When I posted my 50lb picture, as has been the pattern, folks came out in droves to congratulate me on my success-- one of the hardest things for me is to take credit for my accomplishments. It was very hard to just say "thanks!" instead of "Yeah, only 49 pounds to go!" And to be honest, I'm pretty sure a lot of people did not get thanked for their compliment. So, sorry about that team. And thank you.

See, it's fancy because that's how much I love you all.

Now that I've had some success, folks have started asking me for advice. I don't really have advice... losing weight/getting healthy is a wildly personal journey. Everyone has to do it on their own time, in their own way. There are some things that science agrees on, but that's for another post. But, since people have asked, I thought about what my best advice really is... so take what I have to say with a grain of salt because I'm not a nutritionist, a dietician, a personal trainer, a therapist (anymore) or anything like that. I'm just me, and this is what I think is important.

Yeah, so consult your doctor before beginning any kind of weight-loss... you know...

With that said, here's your advice:

Today's theme is: Don't Give Up and Don't Hate Yourself. This is hard, teammates. It's seriously, really really hard and it's got some high stakes. If you're struggling with your weight like I currently am-- you know how hard it is daily to not be able to do the things others can do. I promise you, you can change your life if you're ready. Here's the deal. The science is easy. It's a three step process. 1. Eat less. 2. Move More. 3. Get some help. That's (unfortunately) the easy part. The hard part is not giving up when you mess up.

Will you mess up?

Sumtiems u rs a kitteh

Absolutely. I do all the time. I miscount my calories. I fall prey to "fat talk" (which, BTW, science says is super-bad news). I eat more than I should. I eat less than I should. I get lazy at the gym. I push myself too hard at the gym. I try to skip rest day. Some days I forget to eat any "real" food and literally subsist off of protein bars, kashi cereal and lean cuisines! Talk about gross!

Not that I have anything against protein bars or this particular brand, but I really gotta eat real food.

Let me say this with big bold letters: Progress and Perfection are NOT THE SAME THING.

Guess what? Even though once a month I eat a huuuge plate of chicken saag, I've still lost 52 pounds. Even though every Monday I refuse to go to the gym, I still lost 52 pounds. Even though I eat pudding cups, truffles, and LOTS of bites of Tarver's desserts, I still lost 52 pounds. Why? Because even if I slip up, I get back up on the weight-loss... wagon? horse? cupcake?

Because No Excuses means what it means. Messing up is definitely not a reason to give up.

Think of it this way, parents in my audience. Inevitably, at some point, you will make a bad parenting decision (if you have a child, you probably already have). Now, as long as that parenting decision wasn't like, launching your kiddo unprotected into space, you're going to have other parenting days ahead of you. Can you imagine giving up on parenting every time you messed up? If you snapped at Timmy in the morning, just calling it a day and treating him poorly until bedtime? Just accepting that you're an "Awful Parent" and giving up on learning new parenting techniques? Would you ever let someone else raise your little punkin' for you just because you snapped at Timmy for tossing his cherrios?

Space?! Really?! All because you didn't buy the fancy organic baby food?! 

Similar in romantic relationships. If I disappoint T one day (which I inevitably do and will continue to do despite my best efforts, since I'm a human), I don't immediately give up on being kind to him and nurturing our relationship or leave him altogether. I can't "over martyr" myself by throwing in the towel and saying that I'm an awful wife and nothing can change that. I have to accept that these moments are a part of our larger relationship and try to limit them as best I can. Because I want to be a good wife (in my own very modern, I-will-bake-but-can-we-please-hire-someone-else-to-clean way) and one slip up does not make me a bad one.

This is exactly what doesn't happen in our house.

Open your ears in this moment, team. This is probably the most difficult lesson I have ever learned in my life so far: Weight loss and healthiness is about your relationship with yourself. 

On those days when I don't push myself as hard as I should at the gym, when I eat a bunch of chips at a restaurant with my friends, when I have a cocktail and have no clue how many calories it has... that's okay. If I eat a donut for breakfast, I don't throw the whole day out, because that's ridiculous. I love myself. I forgive myself. Messing up and feeding my body something unhealthy does not mean I am a terrible fat kid who is unredeemable. It means I'm people. The fact that I feel bad about it shows that I do care what I do with my body. So when I start getting cranky with myself and feeling like I'll never get there-- I remember that I'm not perfect.

I will have a relationship with my body for as long as I am alive. So I'd better figure out how to get along with it.

Ellen is so damn wise.

Your body, like my body, just wants you to treat it like you'd treat your kids, your spouse, your pets and anything else you love. Feed it, hug it, take it on walks. Get it a hobby. I don't know! You already (hopefully) dress it up and take it out on the town, so get down to loving it and caring for it.

New Rule: Treat yourself at least as nicely as you would this pet rock

I only wish that it was as easy as that all sounds, don't you?

<3L

Why I Don't Regret My Fat Wedding Pictures

Good morning, blogfriends! I'm jumping right in here today, because I feel like this is really important. Before I forget, all of our wedding photography was done by the amazing Yvonne Denault of Yvonne Denault Photography (yvonnedenault.com, seriously check it out. I mean, read my blog first but then check it out).

I had a thought about this last night at our friends' wedding. I thought about it at the last wedding we went to as well.

My thought was this: I probably weighed about my starting weight or more when T and I married in 2011, and very honestly, it showed in the pictures.

And for a long time, even though I love my husband more than rainbows, penguins and unicorns combined, I didn't like looking at most of the pictures, because I couldn't shake the feeling that I looked like a giant cream puff (or more accurately, that I'd consumed a lot of cream puffs).

Yep. Mmm, delicious accuracy.

When I first started losing weight, I even talked about renewing our vows for the sole purpose of buying and wearing a new wedding dress, even though I assembled my wedding outfit with probably more care, thought and attention than many people take to choosing a career or buying a house.

Even though one of my best friends hand-made my bolero. Even though I got my petticoat shipped from New Zealand. Even though I had my shoes hand-sparkled. Even though quite literally a team of people worked their asses off to make me look gorgeous.

Even though none of that should have mattered, because I married the love of my life.

As I saw the numbers dropping, I started thinking about having a vow renewal and re-doing the whole shebang. Looking like the brides in the magazines. Having a strapless gown and an updo (which I wouldn't wear at our wedding-- feeling like my neck did not need any further attention than it already attracted).

I was pretty sure I'd look like this the 2nd time around.

But I don't look like whoever that lady is. Because I'm (spoiler alert!) not a wedding dress model (GASP!)

As I've gussied up for wedding season this summer, I realized, I have been straight up wrong. And seriously shallow and ridiculous. Our wedding wasn't perfect despite my weight. It was perfect because of our love. Weddings aren't about all of that nonsense. Weddings are about this look:

Granted, this is a picture of us looking at Adam Mills, so really, who wouldn't look like this? 

And my wedding pictures aren't ruined because I happened to have a lot of fat on my body. They're beautiful because I was the happiest person in the world that day. The pictures would have looked EXACTLY the same, whether I had long sleeves, short sleeves or no sleeves. They're perfect because Tarver's the best. Because we worked really hard to make our day unique and exciting. Because we love each other times a billion. 

I've started with this little linguistic change... do you like it? :)

My wedding pictures aren't ruined, they're accurate. Having lots of fat didn't mean I couldn't smile. It didn't mean I couldn't dance until I probably got heatstroke. It didn't mean I couldn't flit around and talk to the 140 people who were kind enough to come out and witness our union. It didn't mean we all couldn't sing Don't Stop Believing  at midnight, all together.

It turns out, how much I weighed that day didn't matter at all. The only person it mattered to was me. And it doesn't anymore. I love my wedding pictures, I love my husband, and I love you folks.

Now, does this mean we'll never have a vow renewal? No way, man. We had way too much fun the first time not to try to recreate the magic. But the point won't be how I look in a dress. It'll be bringing everybody together and celebrating love. Because for all of the aesthetic excellence that constitutes modern weddings, they are, at their core, about a community coming together to celebrate love. 

And that definitely happened. :) So, again a big thank you to everyone who made that day magical, and everyone who makes every day magical. Especially to my husband, who was the person who cared the absolute least how I looked in my dress.

This man gets an A+ every day.

 PS: This morning I weighed in at 201.5--- that means sometime next week I will most likely hit the 50 pound mark. Wowsies!

An Unintended Consequence: Joy.

Well helloooooo out there, friends! I know I am terrible about blogging. As I've mentioned before. I could blog every day, but it seems boring... "I ate golean cereal again!" "I was on the treadmill for 30 minutes and on the crosstrainer for 30 minutes! I did wall-push-ups!" Except I'd write that every single day and everybody would get bored.

So, of course, today I have something specific to say, which is this: I NEVER thought that I would ever even get to this point, team. I mean, T. Swift style, never ever ever.

Never, ever, everrr!

But yesterday Me and T and my bestie and his bestie did a 5k. People do 5ks all the time. We didn't even run the whole time, but I experienced something completely bizarre-- Joy. With my friends, out in the sunshine, getting splashed with color and just moving around made me so happy.

I have no doubt in my mind that 4 months ago, I  might have enjoyed the color part of it-- but I wouldn't have been able to run with my friends, not even a little bit. I might have even gotten cranky about it. Not so.
I am not in good enough shape yet that I can run a 5k (I just very recently succeeded in running 1/2 a mile without stopping and it nearly killed me, so do with that what you will) but we did run, and dance, and skip and chase each other like little kids and I had a blast.

I've never run around with impunity-- literally not even when I was a little kid. I didn't play tag on the playground-- I knew I would lose, and ever since I was little, it just seemed silly to play a game I knew I would lose. So teensy Liz never liked exercise. Somehow adult-Liz has learned what child-Liz could never quite grasp-- which is sometimes you do things for the pure joy of doing them. (To be fair, teensy-Liz loved swimming with a wild abandon and devoured chapter books, so it's not as though I was sitting there being cold and calculating my whole childhood, I just didn't generally run or move my body for the joy of being able to do so.)

Anyway. It was awesome. We're already hoping they come back next year, but we've already decided we'll be running the whole thing, like a whole crowd of bosses :)

 I've lost 46.5 pounds as of today, the end of my 4th month of this exciting journey. I'm really excited to hit the 50lb mark, but more excited to start hitting milestones I've never seen before, like:

• Weighing Less than My (6'4", Male) Spouse 
• Not Being Obese Anymore, Ever
• I Can Run a Mile and I'm Not Even Dead!
• I Couldn't Even Wear These Pants in High School

I'm sure you all agree these are admirable goals.

How Twitter Finally Became Useful to Me

Hello friends! This is a teensy little post to let you know that if you have a desire to follow my healthiness process in a highly intense way, I started tweeting! By started tweeting, I mean, I've had Twitter for 100 years, but I finally have interesting things to say! Of course, much like the blog, you don't have to read the tweets, but I think they're fun. :) @LizGetsHealthy is my twitter. Yay!

A Lengthy Food-Related Exposition

Hello sweet readers! Welcome! I realize I don't post much anymore and there's a good reason for that: I'm boring. I've lost 35.5 pounds by doing the same thing, day after day after day. My struggles are the same, day after day after day. So I find that I come to my computer to write an entry, and realize-- I have very little to tell you, sweet internets, that you don't know already. However, someone did ask me the other day what I eat. Thusly-- I have a topic for an entry! Warning: This is an incredibly detailed breakdown of the food I eat-- it may be highly boring, but I have tried to make it fun.

Meeps, I didn't even know I had imaginary friends!

So let's start with breakfast, shall we?

Breakfast, Champions!
You may not know it, dear interwebz, but underneath my work-going, master's-degree-having, exercise-doing shell, I am terribly, terribly lazy. When I say this I mean that I require somewhere between like 8-10 hours of sleep a night to feel happy. Others figure life out with less sleep, I understand, with the help of coffee. As, in my opinion, coffee tastes like dirt, I do not drink it.

This is an accurate depiction of me being forced to drink coffee if I had stubble for some reason.

Furthermore, I am approximately 5 years old, and giving me coffee inevitably makes me shake violently and become hyperverbal. I am already kind of a chatterbox, so caffeinating me is really, really a terrible idea.

For the record, I am the double espresso owl.

Anyway. Breakfast. So, my lack of desire to consume caffeine in the mornings means I must sleep my full billion hours a night in order to fulfill my role as the office sunshine-bringer. This means that as I wish to arrive at work at 8AM, Monday through Friday... I wake up at approximately 7AM. For those of you keeping score, this does not leave long for breakfast, with all other morning-y things included.

Breakfast options for me are as follows (~300 Calories):
1. Greek yogurt + Fruit
2. Protein bar + Fruit
3. Breakfast Drink + Soymilk (Recently switched from almond milk after realizing it only had 1g of protein).

That's it. That's pretty much all I ever ever have for breakfast. Even on the weekends I rarely do anything fancier. Weekends I might do a bowl of cereal or think about making oatmeal or eggs. But fancy breakfasts lend themselves to company and my husband and brother are rarely awake at 8AM on Saturdays to have breakfast when I am hungry.

This would be the loneliest, fanciest breakfast ever at my house.

It may seem that I have teensy little breakfasts, but soon after breakfast is morning snack,

Morning Snack Means ( <200 Calories):
1. 24 Almonds.
2. Greek yogurt (if I didn't have one for breakfast).
3. Banana + 1Tbsp peanut butter.

I am so incredibly boring in this, team. I have morning snack at around 10:30, pretty much rain or shine. My morning snack is almost always at work, of course, and so lots of time I just have to nom some almonds while I'm trying to respond to some emails while my class is on break. Right now I don't have a class so I get to take the time to eat yogurt or a peanut butter banana, yay!

Lunchtime (~350 Calories)
1. A frozen something + Carrots.
2. Leftovers + Carrots.
3. Vegetarian corn dogs + Carrots.

Yes, I may well turn in to this rabbit. I will still eat carrots.

Yes, I always eat carrots with my lunch. I have been assured that though carrots have a high glycemic index, I can still eat a snack-ton of them! Hooray! Lunchtime means I usually have some sort of healthy choice or lean cuisine meal, or if I am a genius and have leftovers (like this week I have homemade chili!) then I eat those. The last like 4 Saturdays I've had 1 or 2 vegetarian corn dogs, because they are delicious. They are probably not particularly good for me, but... sometimes I get to eat them anyway. :)

So much sodium, so little pig butt. They are DELICIOUS.

Around 3 PM, I start getting a little cranky, at least on weekdays. This means that afternoon snack, though it should be something smart, like morning snack, is almost always something sweeter to keep me happy until I can head home and make dinner.

Afternoon Snack (<150 Calories)
1. Rice Cake + Fruit
2. String cheese + Fruit
3. (If I am particularly "hangry") protein bar.

Afternoon snack puts me between 800-1000 calories for the day, most of the time. I eat dinner almost immediately upon arriving at home a little after 5. Dinner is somewhat more varied as I usually share it with the other members of my household.

No, not you Seamus, dinner is for humans.

Dinner Items (~400 Calories)
1. A Frittata (2 Eggs + Mushrooms + Broccoli + shredded carrots + 2 tbsp salsa) + Veggies
2. Tacos (2.5 oz Ground turkey + 1 or 2 tortillas + .5 oz cheese + 2 tbsp Salsa + tomato) + Veggies
3. What I Call Pizza Nowadays (1 English muffin + 1/4 Cup pizza sauce + 1 oz mozzarella) + Veggies
4. Pasta (28g whole wheat pasta + 1/2 cup marinara sauce + 2.5 oz chicken + mushrooms) + Veggies
5. Stir Friday (1/3 Cup Quinoa + 2.5 oz beef or chicken + mushrooms + cauliflower) + Veggies
6. Cereal Option One (Crispix + Berries + 1/2 Cup soymilk)
7. Cereal Option Two (Kashi Golean + 1/2 Cup soymilk)

Veggies are usually carrots, but can be Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, salad, etc. A few posts back I showed a pretty accurate picture of what pasta dinner looked like before I cut my pasta serving in half. Lately I eat a really lot of frittatas, because they are easy, a delicious way to eat a lot of very random vegetables and eggs are good protein. Hooray! Basically I can put whatever vegetables I have in the fridge in a frittata. Here is a picture of a frittata, for your reference:

Mine are only slightly less fancy. I highly suggest making these. They are delicious and easy.

And, for those of you keeping score, yes, sometimes I do have a few extra calories and I eat when I get home from the gym

Night Time Snack (Varies Greatly)
1. Cereal Option One (see above)
2. Cereal Option Two (see above)
3. Greek yogurt
4. Banana + 1 Tbsp peanut butter.
5. Breakfast Drink + 1 Cup soymilk.

Self-explanatory, right? I get back from the gym and I'm a hungrypants. One of my goals in all of this is not to live a life of denial. As I'm nearing my 100th day of this process, it's especially important for me to be conscious of making this a sustainable situation. This means I flat out refuse to go to bed hungry. It makes me unhappy and anything that makes me unhappy is not sustainable. Not eating ice cream? Doable. Going to bed hungry? No snacking way, team.

Snacks is my replacement swear word so I don't sound like a pirate.

Speaking of Snacks, I have one last category!

Desserts/Indulgent Snacks
1. Frozen Yogurt Ice Cream Sandwich (80ish Calories, and so wonderous).
2. GOOD truffles (I buy these from the candy store in the mall. No processed nonsense for me, if I'm only eating one or two a week, yo).
3. 1 Pudding cup (I suggest the oreo kind, full sugar).
4. 16 Wheat thins and 1 Tbsp garden vegetable cream cheese.

On occasion, I believe I get to have something indulgent. I'm not afraid to do this, because it's part of normal eating. I believe in normal eating. Like I said, sustainability. Team, what do you eat to keep you happy and in a normal eating range? What's your most indulgent food choice? What is your healthiest? I really want to know before all of this gets boring :)

If you made it to the bottom of this post, you have some darn good perseverance skills. Yay you!