Oh the Burger...

Hi everybody!  I'm sooooo happy to share that the weight is STILL going down!  151 on the nose yesterday!  4 lbs to go!!  ALLLLLMOST THERE!!

I started the day with a LOVELY Breakfast Cookie

Lunchie was an Apple with Almond Butter and Chili, with a loverly Larabar for a mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner took a little while to make (BUT IT WAS SOOOOO WORTH IT!), so I snacked on a little bit of Barbara's Shredded Oats.  LOVE this.

So I have to share my dinner recipe. THANK YOU GENA AT CHOOSING RAW!!!!  I gotta tell ya, these are the best veggie burgers that I have EVER made.  Ever.

As you can see, I was copying the recipe LIVE from Gena's site hehehehe.

Here is her recipe, from choosingraw.com :

Gena’s Homemade Sunshine Burgers

1 cup sunflower seeds, ground in a food processor or coffee/spice mill

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 tbsp ground flax seed

2/3 cup chopped carrot

2/3 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped onion (optional) (**I did put this in**)

2 tbsp water

1 tsp Herbamare seasoning (or to taste) (**I used whatever herbs I had in the spice cabinet**)

--------------------------------------------

Here's what I did:

Preheat the oven to 375

In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds, then process everything else.

Mold into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet.

Bake 15 min, then turn over and bake 15 more.

DEVOUR.

 

I put mine on toasted TJ's Sprouted Bread with Tomatoes, Lettuce, and Brown Mustard.  O.M.G people, this is the best veggie burger ever.  Thanks for sharing, Gena!!!

Dessert was a date, that I got on SALE at Kroger!  Can't beat $2.99 for a big old box of dates!!!

Have a lovely evening, all! 

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Good Tuesday morning to you all!  Hope you had a nice weekend and didn't have a case of the Mondays! 

I don't have a whole lot of time, so here are the highlights.  More pictures, less chitter chatter, right?!

Breakfast Sunday-

Barbara's Cereal with Pineapple and Almond Milk.  I don't know why I hadn't been putting this yummy fruit on my cereal earlier!!!!  YUM.

I then went to Trader Joe's,

And picked up some B vitamins since we're getting away from most all animal products now.

They were kind of big, so I took it with a piece of Sprouted Bread and Peanut Butter.

I exercised on our bike with hand weights and burned 200 calories in 30 min!  NOT TOO SHABBY!!

Once lunch time rolled around, I ate a leftover Veggie Burger with Avo, Tomatoes, and Salsa on top...mmmm...  and some Cherries. 

I cleaned the house a bit, did some laundry, and a little bit of work, and snacked on a TJ's Whole Wheat Tortilla with PB and J.

I was really hungry that day- not sure why.  Oh yeah... maybe it's because I'm on a diet....


For dinner, I made Brenton's FAVORITE.  Tempeh Chili.

Oh yes yes- that's yummy stuff right there.  And what better dessert than a big old date?!?!?

Tasted like honey-  the best!!  Weigh in of the day-  151.6  (woot woot!)


Monday rolled around, and I made another Breakfast Cookie Beast!

And of course, my cocktail of pills-

People often ask me what I take everyday, so there it is!  Vitamin D, Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, and B Complex.  They're all about actual size...  pretty big.  Good thing I'm a pill champ!!

I packed up lunch, ready to go to work-  An Orange, Tomatoes and Celery, Hummus, TJ's Tortilla with Peanut Butter, and an Oatie.

I decided to take some time and go eat my lunch at the Airport and watch planes land.
















Too much fun.  I'm obviously ready for vacation LOL.


For dinner, I made Spinach and Pea Pasta.  Yeah, it's pretty fabulous. 

And finished the day off with Pineapple and a Date.

Dates are my new favorite dessert.  SOOO NUMMY!!!


Morning weigh in:  151.4! 

I wasn't going to tell you until tomorrow what today's (Tuesday) weigh in was, but heck- why not?!  151 on the button!  Sloooooowly but suuuuurely, creeping down!  Thank you for all of your kind words and support.  You ROCK!!!  Thanks for keeping me motivated!!!

Holding Steady

First of all, I am happy to say that I am holding steady at 152.8!  That's a good sign, right?


I started the day off on Saturday with a yummy bowl of Oatmeal, topped with Pineapple and Cherries.  If you haven't tried this oatmeal combo yet, you are missing out.  YUM YUM YUM YUM.

I worked out about an hour afterward (burned 200 calories in 28 min!  NICE!), and made myself a MASSIVE salad.

Topped with black beans and avo-  oh sooooo good.  Paired with pineapple and one of Averie's Peanut Butter Protein babies, it was the lunch-o-champions!

After lunch, I ran out and did some errands all over town.  So much for a relaxing Saturday!!  Once returning home, I decided to get a little creative with dinner.  Still having a fridge full of lettuce, and being semi-tired of salads, I created a Quinoa Salad that rocked my face off!!

I cooked the Quinoa according to the package directions, then drained it and tossed in Broccoli, Lettuce, Garlic, and some Brown Mustard.  Stirred it all together and that's what it looked like!  SOOOOO yummy, if you like Mustard.  Brenton wasn't a fan-  he doesn't like Mustard, so the next time I make it, I'll leave the sauce off.

I also had an Orange and an Oatie....





























mmmmmmm Oatie...

By about 8pm, I was hungry again.  This is what working out does to you, I swear!!  So, I had a piece of Sprouted Whole Grain toast with Peanut Butter and an Apple topped with Cinnamon.

I feel like I'm eating a TON!  But, the combo of low calorie foods and exercise will do that to you I guess.  I am happy to say, though, that today (Sunday), I weighed in at.... are you ready for it???....


151.6!  (whoooo hoooooo dance dance dance spinnnnnnn jump jump)

On the up and up!

Hi everybody!  Sorry I have been MIA for the last day or so-  summer has hit me with a BANG!  Running here, running there, doing this, doing that.  PHEW!

So here's an update!  Friday, I weighed in at 152.8!!  (dances)

For breakfast, I had the breakfast cookie-o-champions:

Massive.  I used Gina's recipe, and then added a little more oats and replaced the nut butter with a little bit of chia seeds.  OH and topped it with a ton of cinnamon.  Yum to the max.


Lunch was about the same as the day before, a TJ's Tortilla (whole wheat, of course) topped with Avocado, Lettuce, Salsa, and my dad added a Tomato.


















And a nice juicy Apple with Almond Butter (oops, forgot to take a picture of the AB.... oh well, you know what it looks like HAHA)

All day I was GIDDY because our CSA was going to start!  I went to my sister's house and picked up this week's shipment-  Organic Greens and Organic
Cherries.  FAB!!!

And some of HEAB's Oaties hiding underneath.  My sister won her Oaties from Angela's Shop 4 A Cause a few weeks ago, and she was kind enough to share with her oat-loving sister.  How nice!


I had to try one!















Pure....heaven.....

So, since we had massive amounts of Lettuce and Cherries, I decided to make a Stuffed Potato and have a CUP of Cherries on the side.  MMMMMmmmmm....

For my Stuffed Potato, I baked a Potato and cut it in half, then topped it with a HUGE handful of Lettuce, a chopped Celery stalk, steamed Broccoli, and a dab of Salsa.  This is one of my favorites.  FILLING!!

Are you participating in a CSA this year?  How about going to Farmers Markets?  I'm excited to see what we get next week!!

Have a LOVELY rest of your Sunday!

So Far So Good

Happy Friday to you all!  What a short week it has been (which is fine with me)!!  Any big plans this weekend?  We don't have too much going on-  couple of grad parties, laundry, cleaning...the norm.  OH!!!  My CSA is supposed to start today or tomorrow.  I'm SO excited!  If you don't know what a CSA is, it's "Community Supported Agriculture", where you pay a certain amount and get veggies delivered to your house by a local farmer.  Ours is organic (YAY) and local Ohio produce (also YAY).  The hard part is that you don't really get to pick what you get-  you're delivered whatever is in season and ready each week, so our menus will be getting interesting!  I'm up for the challenge!!  If you're interested, you can check out Local Harvest for information.

So on to yesterday!  I weighed in at 153 and felt pretty good!!  I started the day off with some chocolate oatmeal topped with blueberries.




















MMMMMmmm...

Chocolate Oatmeal

1/2 c Oats, cooked in 1 c of Water
1 Scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass Powder
1 T Chia Seeds
Dash of Vanilla and Cinnamon
1/2 c Frozen Blueberries

Mix it all together!  YUM.


Lunch was a good variety, and completely (unplanned) made with what we happened to have in the house.

Apple with a small handful of Almonds (snack)
Whole Wheat TJ's Tortilla with 1/2 an Avocado, handful of Arugula, and a drizzle of Salsa (YUM)
Celery with Almond Butter (snack)

This kept me going until about 3pm, where I needed to pull out my trusty Larabar

This kept me content until dinner.  God Bless Larabars.

Dinner was another HUGE salad like the night before, REQUESTED BY BRENTON.  What?!?!!  He wants to eat salad?!??!?!  I was just as surprised as anyone!!

Yum.  This salad was loaded with Arugula, Spinach, Avocado, Celery, and Tomatoes, topped with my home-made Mustard Dressing.  I did a little bit of work and then made my own version of Averie's No Bake Peanut Butter (High Protein) Cookies.

In a bowl I mixed together:

1/2 c Peanut Butter
1/2 scoop of Protein Powder
1 T Cocoa Powder
1 t Vanilla Extract

Once mixed, I plopped little dollops onto a plate, and put them in the freezer to harden.

I could have rolled them, but you know, you do what you gotta do.  Once hard, I ate one with an orange.

(YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM!!!)  I can't believe how GOOD these little beauties are!!!

So I did a little more work and then did 20 min on the bike, complete with hills and all.  I was totally huffing and puffing.


I finished the day with another protein ball (YUM) and an apple topped with Apple Pie Spice.

I feel like I ate a LOT, but I hit right at my BMR of 1520.  Exercise burned 170 calories, leaving me at a deficit of 322 for the day.  Not too bad!


Have a lovely day everybody!  (oh... I weighed in at 152.8 this morning (dance dance dance dance))

The Diet.... Day 1

Happy almost Friday to you all!!!  If you haven't already done so, I'm now on Facebook and would LOVE for you to be my friend!  Click over there (and down a little bit) to follow -------->

I want to thank you for your kind comments so far!  The last post was a lot of ramblings, which I hope will get me where I want to be, and inspire you to come along, too!  Sorry for the delay in update- I was going to post last night, but then there were tornados and power outages that set me back a little bit (GEEZ!).   

Soooooo..... yesterday, I weighed in at 154.2.  We all have to start somewhere, right?


Breakfast was a Breakfast Cookie (THANK YOU GINA!) that I added some Chia Seeds to.  It seriously tasted as good as it looks.  I'll be adding chia for the rest of my Breakfast Cookie days!!

Lunch was all packed up and ready to go-  an Apple, some Almonds, and a huge jar of Rice/Lentil salad, leftover from the night before.

Rice/Lentil Salad (serves 1):

1/4 c of Lentils (dry)

1/2 c of Quick Cook Brown Rice (dry)

1/2 c Frozen Peas

1/2 c Frozen Spinach

2 T Organic Soy Sauce

In a pan, boil water and cook lentils for 10 min.

Add the rice and cook 5 more minutes.

Remove from heat, and stir in frozen peas and spinach.  Let sit a couple of minutes to thaw the veggies.

Strain the water from the mixture and stir in soy sauce.

HOLY YUM, BATMAN.  I love this quick meal!

....needless to say, though, I was STAR-VING by the time I got home.  Must... bring.... snack...

Dinner was a BIG SALAD with Arugula, Spinach, Tomatoes, Celery, and Avocado.  I also made up a dressing to pour on top!  I also chopped up a mango that I forgot to take a picture of.  Doggone it!

Mustard Dressing

2 T Brown Mustard (I used Trader Joe's)

1 T White Vinegar

1 T Water

Mix, pour.  YUM.

After doing a few errands, before the storms (EEK) came, I did Jillian's 30 Day Shred level 1.  I finished just in time because on my final stretch I heard this 'thump thump thump thump' (that's Brenton running down the stairs) "Aaron just called, let's go down in the basement.  The storm is coming quickly and it's pretty strong".  Oh good...  So I grabbed two huge glasses of water, a Larabar (that I didn't end up eating), my purse, computer, and phone, and headed downstairs.  Sure enough, the tornado sirens started going off.  As soon as I sat down on the basement floor, the lights went out.  For 3 hours.  Joy.  After about an hour, the sirens stopped and we went back upstairs.  I fixed myself a piece of bread with a little bit of peanut butter and had a few bites of the BEST cereal in the world- Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls.  But my brain wasn't working to take a picture since I couldn't really see what I was doing to begin with. 

All in all, I ate 1420 calories; 100 calories less than my BMR (whoo!), and exercised off at least 157 calories according to my HRM.  This left me with a deficit of 409 calories for the day, factoring in that my Active Metabolic Rate is 1672.  Not bad!

Oh.... and I weighed in this morning and was 153 on the nose!

Happy almost Friday everybody!

Confessions

Good day, everyone!  I wanted to share with you my journey to health- where it has been and where it is going.




It all started back in elementary school. Boy, that's sad. I remember waaaay back in first grade, we started learning about healthy snacks. We were taught that any snack that had 5g of fat or less was a good choice. For whatever reason, one day we were all sitting in our 'tables' (group of 4 kids together), talking about how much we weighed. I was the only girl, with 3 boys. One of the boys was tall, one was short, and one was really skinny. It turned out that I weighed more than each of the 3 boys. Being the only girl at the table (mind you, I was only 6 years old thinking these thoughts!... stupid hormones in the meat and milk), I wanted to begin to diet to lose weight.  This is where it all began.



In my family, it was just myself and my sister and of course, I was the... larger... of the two of us. Granted, I was never ''BIG'', but I wasn't small, either. Vacation pictures were the worst- us in our little bathing suits, her legs stretching from here to high heavens, and then there's my sausage-legged self... ugh.  To this day, she has the build of a dancer, I have the build of a German log thrower.



Throughout middle school and high school I 'dieted' (what I thought was dieting?), but by the time I was a senior in high school, I had ballooned up to my highest weight ever- 168 lbs. I was eating fast food every day at lunch time because we could go out and I didn't know any better (as most high school kids do, right?). Boy, if I had known then what I know now... 



When college started, I had a really hard time adjusting. Call it 'home sickness', 'separation anxiety', 'PTSD', whatever you want. I was LITERALLY sick with a cold the ENTIRE first semester (I'm not kidding...), and would only eat canned pears for breakfast and a small salad for lunch and dinner because that's all I could gag down. Needless to say, I lost a lot of weight. 30 lbs to be exact. That was a dark 3 months. Lots of crying. Lots of acne. Lots of OTC cold medicine.



The following semester I began to make friends and settle in some. Over the next 3 years, I gradually gained weight back, and by the time I graduated, I was back up to my heaviest weight of 168 (again...sigh). I had to lose weight, however, because I was engaged to be married and needed to fit into my wedding dress!! Enter crash diet #1. Eating a piece of 'cake' for breakfast, protein bar and fruit for snack, 'cake' for lunch, protein bar and fruit for snack, and 'sensible' dinner. ...o...m...g.  It did work; I went down to 160 or so, but then shot right back up within a couple of years again.



Then I got the scare from the doctor.



I went in for a physical after the wedding because of a doctor switch. They did blood work and it all looked good, except for my sugar level. I was borderline Diabetic. The doctor told me that I had to lose about 30 lbs. before I even THOUGHT about having a baby or I would get Diabetes. WHAT?!?!



Now, I am a very competitive person, and decided that enough was enough. Enter diet #2- Weight Watchers. I competed in a 'Biggest Loser' competition at my work and paid $10 to try to win $100 if I lost the most % of body fat out of everyone that competed. I did the Weight Watchers thing of counting points, fat is the devil, sugar free is king, chemicals chemicals chemicals, and the weight started to come off. I looked GRAY and yucky, but doggone it, that scale was going down! Unfortunately, I didn't win the competition- I lost to 'Paul from Finance' by %0.2. SERIOUSLY?! I was sooooooo close. I made it down to 145 lbs. (which was really 148 lbs.- the last 3 were all water), and felt (and looked) weak and crappy.  Not glowing like I look now-  I looked sick, like something was wrong with me.



Thank goodness for my sister and brother-in-law. They helped me see the light that chemicals were bad, whole food was good, and fat (plant based) is NOT the devil! Enter diet #3- Whole Foods. (sigh of relief)



Brenton and I have been veggies for almost a year now, and I have been able to maintain a weight of 152-154 without any work, for almost 3 years. I would LOVE to be in the 140's again, though. 148 is my ideal weight. According to the BMI calculator, 154 lbs. at 5' 6" is the high end of the normal weight, so ideally I would want to be in the 140's somewhere. I can do it, I can do it. Will you help motivate me?



It's all a mathematical equation. 3500 calories is a pound. If I want to lose a pound a week, I need to have a 500 calorie deficit per day. My BMR, before my regular daily activity, is 1520, and after activity it's 1670. I'm aiming to eat at 1520 and have my deficit be made by my activity (150) and exercise (380).  Calorie King and my heart rate monitor will be my best friends over the next few weeks!!



A pound a week... can I do it??  We'll see.  I haven't tried to lose weight since being veggie, so we'll see how this goes!!!  I'll keep you in the loop, and hopefully this will help those that want to do the same.