After telling you that I don't do recipes that require a lot of time, I spent about an hour mincing stuff for those darn Asian Meatballs! When I mention that to Dan, he reminded me that we recently bought a food processor. Oops! He tried a couple last night and likes them, so at least they were worth the work. He also approved of the mayo but we agreed that I should use a little less vinegar next time. Fortunately, this was a pretty small batch so it will be used up quickly.
Today, I'm defrosting a turkey to cook tomorrow. I will also make curry chicken and veggies. It isn't on Dan's menu until Saturday but I don't do my batch cooking on his days off, so I need to get it done. I simply add curry paste and/or curry powder to coconut milk and let it simmer down for a while. Then I add bite-size pieces of chicken and LOTS of veggies (I always add frozen peas and green beans, and sometimes include carrots or potatoes.) Since I love curry, and don't mind eating the same thing over and over, I'll make a HUGE batch. Some will be frozen for Dan's work meals and the rest will stay in the fridge for me to eat the next several days.
Day Two:
Meal One: Egg scramble with onions, homemade sausage, strawberry grape lemon water*
Packed for work:
Tuna Salad (with homemade paleo mayo)
Power greens (romaine lettuce, kale, chard and spinach)
Kombucha vinegar/avocado oil dressing (added dried onions and seasonings to the vinegar/oil blend)
Asian Meatballs
Red bell pepper strips
Canned green beans
Banana
Macadamia nuts
*We typically drink a lot of homemade lemonade but use stevia in it. Since Whole30 doesn't allow sweeteners, we are experimenting with different ways to flavor water. This batch was 3 strawberries, 6 grapes and some water blended together, then added to a 64 oz cup with 1/2 cup lemon juice and enough water and ice to fill the cup. I don't usually measure the lemon juice, I just do a 3 second squeeze of the bottle. I only measured it today to give you a general idea but we are used to drinking that much at a time. I'd probably recommend starting out with less! Especially since this wasn't sweet, even with the fruit.
Tip: do NOT add the lemon juice to the blender! It foams up like crazy.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Whole30 - Day One
I've decided to share our Whole30 journey this time through but first I need to explain why we do it a little differently. Whole30 frowns (heavily) on snacking, even if the snacks are Whole30 foods. But when Dan works, he is gone for 14 hours a day and he only gets ONE meal break. So I absolutely have to pack "snacks" that he can grab and eat while he is working. I pack a main protein (usually needs to be heated, this is what he eats when he actually sits down for a meal), secondary protein (grab and go option), frozen or canned veggie (for his sit down meal), fresh veggies, a fruit and nuts. When he leaves work, he'll let me know if he is hungry and needs me to have something ready for him when he gets home.
As for me, I did Whole30 diligently our first time through (early this year) and while I did benefit from it some, I did not lose a single pound, nor did I sleep better or have more energy. I do have a medical issue (with my adrenals) that affects my ability to lose weight right now. So I've decided that I'll eat Whole30 compliant with Dan when he is home and I'll eat "clean" for the month but I'm not doing a strict Whole30 this time around. My reason for sharing our journey is not to hold us up as a perfect example of Whole30. There is no perfection here, just plenty of reality! Besides sharing some recipes, I want to be able to encourage people that it isn't as hard as it seems and you can adapt things to work for your lifestyle. For example, I do batch cooking so that I'm not spending so much time in the kitchen. Many of the entrees Dan takes to work will be on the menu 3 or 4 times during the month. The first time it is on the menu, I make enough for the month and freeze the rest in individual servings. I also do very, very simple recipes! With my own health issues, I just don't have it in me to spend tons of time chopping, mixing, sauteing, cooking, etc. If it was just me, I'd throw a huge batch of something in the crockpot and eat it until it was gone. But my BabyLove happens to like variety, so batch cooking/freezing simple recipes is our compromise.
I'm glad I did it 100% the first time and I would strongly encourage everyone to give it a shot. Even though I didn't lose weight, it was helpful to learn some foods that I don't tolerate as well. And a short time of disciplined eating is never a bad thing! It is good to periodically be reminded that we do NOT need to indulge every "craving" or desire. With that being said, however, I want to also point out that we have no intention of going paleo long term. I don't believe that eliminating major food groups is the healthiest option in the long run. I also have a tendency to become obsessive with food tracking and planning, which is not how I want to live my life!
Let's get started!
Yesterday, I boiled up a bunch of boneless chicken thighs. Today, I mixed up Buffalo Sauce (1 cup Frank's hot sauce and 6 Tbsp coconut oil) and mixed it with shredded chicken. One serving went into Dan's lunch today and three servings were individually frozen for later in the month. Since I am sending tuna salad tomorrow, I needed to make paleo mayo today. This was my first time doing it with a stick blender. I used this recipe, with avocado oil and used kombucha vinegar in place of white vinegar. The directions for using the stick blender are here. I'm not a mayo person, so I'll let Dan taste it and give input before I make changes to the next batch. But I felt it was too tangy, so probably less lemon juice/vinegar. A lot of other mayo recipes had other spices (paprika, pepper, garlic, etc.) I may add some in next time but since this batch was specifically to go in tuna salad and turkey salad, I didn't worry about it. But if we were doing sandwiches with it, it would probably be nice to add some other flavors. It was super quick and easy to make, and turned out very creamy! The other thing I'll make today is Asian meatballs (a new recipe for me.) You'll see the meatballs show up as secondary protein some days and breakfast Meal One on other days.
Day One
Meal One: egg scramble with red bell peppers and sauteed greens (chard, kale and spinach) and fresh lilikoi (passion fruit - we have access to a massive vine for free, so you'll see it on our menu quite a bit!)
Packed for work:
Buffalo Chicken
Scotch Eggs (boiled egg encased in homemade sausage, then baked at 350 degress for 20 minutes.)
Frozen mixed veggies
Fresh sugar snap peas
Fresh baby carrots and cauliflower mix
Banana
Pistachios
Friday, March 22, 2013
And here we go again...
I've spent a lot of time analyzing what went wrong. Not to place blame - if there is any "blame" to be had, it rests solely on me. But I desperately want to avoid a repeat and, if possible, help others to avoid this "repeat journey" in their own lives. And so I analyze.
One of the conclusions I have come to is that hope is a much bigger factor than most people realize. I discovered this on my weight loss journey and it was the loss of hope that ended that journey. For those who are new to my story, I lost 130 pounds and won an amazing opportunity to do a Ragnar Relay with a team of Biggest Loser alumni. My weight loss had been inspired by The Biggest Loser and some of my favorite alumni were a part of this event. It was literally a dream come true! I did VERY little running before winning this spot and I had just two months to get ready. And I did! I went from running maybe a mile every other week to running several miles, two or three times a day. I ran very slow, mind you, but I ran. I found out just what I was capable of, when I put my mind to something, and it was a wonderful experience. HOWEVER, many of the alumni had regained a good bit of weight and I found that very discouraging. If these people who had some of the best trainers in the world, who had lived their journey in public, who had all the knowledge they could possibly need - if THEY couldn't keep it off, what chance did I have of doing any better? Again, I do not place blame on anyone other than me. After all, I know Ali Vincent and she has kept it off. Tara is another amazing example and she was even in my van, so I spent a lot of time around her. I have no excuse but I did allow my hope to be extinguished and that was a costly mistake. My weight loss stopped then and there.
Another extremely critical factor is sleep. This was also something I discovered during my weight loss journey and when it slipped away, my weight began creeping back on. I have been married almost 8 months now and I still struggle to sleep with someone else in the room (even though I love him dearly!) Add to that the fact that his work schedule rotates between days and night every two weeks, and perhaps you can understand my sleep issues. It is so bad that even being on vacation (and having my own room) for two weeks, I still couldn't sleep through the night. I haven't yet found anything that will give me consistently good sleep. Delta waves, melatonin, heating pad, hot shower... sometimes they help and sometimes they don't. I'm starting a new alkalinity program and hopefully that will help but for now, I'll just have to be disciplined to go to bed super early on the nights that my husband works, so that I can have a LONG period of time to try to get in 7 or 8 hours of sleep. When I first started losing weight, I had to train myself to sleep that long. In fact, some nights it took me 12 hours to get 7 hours of sleep! But I was single and not working a lot back then, so I was able to do it. I'm not sure how to make that happen in my current life but somehow I must.
Something I'm finding out about trying to lose a major amount of weight a second time is that it is so much harder than the first time! On one hand, I know I can do it, since I've done it before. But since I also regained the weight, there is the fear that all this hard work will be for nothing yet again. So it is extremely tough to buckle down and do the work. But I must.
UPDATE: In Sept (2013) we discovered that I had adrenal issues, cause primarily by stress and lack of sleep, that made it nearly impossible to lose the weight. In fact, that was the biggest cause behind the weight gain in the first place. So now, my major goal is not a number on the scale but to get healthy again, sleep well and recapture that hope!
One of the conclusions I have come to is that hope is a much bigger factor than most people realize. I discovered this on my weight loss journey and it was the loss of hope that ended that journey. For those who are new to my story, I lost 130 pounds and won an amazing opportunity to do a Ragnar Relay with a team of Biggest Loser alumni. My weight loss had been inspired by The Biggest Loser and some of my favorite alumni were a part of this event. It was literally a dream come true! I did VERY little running before winning this spot and I had just two months to get ready. And I did! I went from running maybe a mile every other week to running several miles, two or three times a day. I ran very slow, mind you, but I ran. I found out just what I was capable of, when I put my mind to something, and it was a wonderful experience. HOWEVER, many of the alumni had regained a good bit of weight and I found that very discouraging. If these people who had some of the best trainers in the world, who had lived their journey in public, who had all the knowledge they could possibly need - if THEY couldn't keep it off, what chance did I have of doing any better? Again, I do not place blame on anyone other than me. After all, I know Ali Vincent and she has kept it off. Tara is another amazing example and she was even in my van, so I spent a lot of time around her. I have no excuse but I did allow my hope to be extinguished and that was a costly mistake. My weight loss stopped then and there.
Another extremely critical factor is sleep. This was also something I discovered during my weight loss journey and when it slipped away, my weight began creeping back on. I have been married almost 8 months now and I still struggle to sleep with someone else in the room (even though I love him dearly!) Add to that the fact that his work schedule rotates between days and night every two weeks, and perhaps you can understand my sleep issues. It is so bad that even being on vacation (and having my own room) for two weeks, I still couldn't sleep through the night. I haven't yet found anything that will give me consistently good sleep. Delta waves, melatonin, heating pad, hot shower... sometimes they help and sometimes they don't. I'm starting a new alkalinity program and hopefully that will help but for now, I'll just have to be disciplined to go to bed super early on the nights that my husband works, so that I can have a LONG period of time to try to get in 7 or 8 hours of sleep. When I first started losing weight, I had to train myself to sleep that long. In fact, some nights it took me 12 hours to get 7 hours of sleep! But I was single and not working a lot back then, so I was able to do it. I'm not sure how to make that happen in my current life but somehow I must.
Something I'm finding out about trying to lose a major amount of weight a second time is that it is so much harder than the first time! On one hand, I know I can do it, since I've done it before. But since I also regained the weight, there is the fear that all this hard work will be for nothing yet again. So it is extremely tough to buckle down and do the work. But I must.
UPDATE: In Sept (2013) we discovered that I had adrenal issues, cause primarily by stress and lack of sleep, that made it nearly impossible to lose the weight. In fact, that was the biggest cause behind the weight gain in the first place. So now, my major goal is not a number on the scale but to get healthy again, sleep well and recapture that hope!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Emotions vs Logic
This last month has been really, really tough. I've been struggling with a lot of food issues that I thought were behind me. Well, struggling and losing the battle, to be perfectly honest. I've gained back about 7 lbs and while that isn't a lot, it is a step in the wrong direction. Seventeen steps, actually, since I should have been losing during this time. But every time I've hit a stumbling block during this journey, I remind myself that there is something to learn from it that I'll be able to pass on to others some day. Every challenge makes me stronger. Every battle, won or lost, provides new insight. My insight this time? Even though I am a very logical person, I am ruled by emotions when it comes to body/weight/food issues. I know I've gained 7 lbs and I know what 7 lbs looks like. But for some reason, when someone took a picture of me at the beach last weekend, I expected it to look like my 'before' pictures. I was literally shocked to look at the picture and see a 'normal' size person. My mind had gone back to 290+ lbs, even if my body didn't come close to that. And, in case you are wondering, yes I do have mirrors in my house. But what I saw reflected in those mirrors was a bloated, depressed, frustrated person. There is no logic to it, but our mind has so much power over how we view things. Fortunately, we can choose to take our thoughts captive. I had a conversation with a dear friend once about how to do that. She joked that it would be nice to have a thought catcher to wear on top of her head. So I made her one! 
Okay, so there is nothing magical about this baseball cap. But it is a fun reminder that it is a CHOICE we make, each and every time we are faced with negative thoughts: will we listen to them or will we take them captive and speak the truth to ourselves? Personally, I'm ready for some truth, thank you very much.
Okay, so there is nothing magical about this baseball cap. But it is a fun reminder that it is a CHOICE we make, each and every time we are faced with negative thoughts: will we listen to them or will we take them captive and speak the truth to ourselves? Personally, I'm ready for some truth, thank you very much.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Weight Loss Myths
I won't pretend to understand what guys think, so I'm only speaking for the girls here. But I would be willing to bet that MOST overweight girls assume they will be beautiful if they could just lose the extra weight. Now, we may not say it out loud, or even think it directly. We just function with that assumption. If we really thought about it, we would realize that there are a LOT of skinny girls who are NOT drop-dead gorgeous. So what happens when we delete the fat and find out that our features are not going to make us America's next top model? I know - here I go with the 'discouraging' news again. I promise my goal is not to discourage you! Rather, I want you to think through WHY you are doing this journey. Be honest with yourself. The truth is, short of an extensive amount of surgery, which I can NOT afford, I will never have a bikini body. So if that is my motivation, I'm in trouble. It is my personal theory that misplaced motivation is key to why so many people struggle to keep the weight off after they lose it. If I went through all this work to look like a model but then I don't look like a model, where is my motivation to work hard to keep it off? But if my motivation is to be healthy, or to be able to hike or swim or bike or run (or whatever I enjoy) then I am in a much better place because I CAN do all those things now. And I look a lot better doing them now than I did at 290 lbs ;)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Emotions other than 'happy' are OK!
There is so much nobody tells you before you embark on a huge weight loss journey. I guess it could all be so overwhelming in the beginning, so perhaps it is for the best. But it makes for some crazy emotional roller coasters along the way. There are some things that people who haven't lost over 100 lbs just won't understand. Like how I could be discouraged looking in a mirror after losing 125 lbs. I think the assumption is that I will (or should) be constantly happy because I've come so far. I love my journey! I've made photo books about how far I've come and I proudly show them to anyone who stands still near me long enough.* So yes, I appreciate how far I have come. But there is a cost. For example:
1. I do NOT recognize the face that stares back at me from the mirror. This can be extremely unsettling, especially early in the morning or when I catch a quick glimpse as I pass a mirror or window. Change, even good change, is stressful. The familiar is comfortable, even when it isn't the best. I don't miss the fat. But I certainly miss knowing who is looking back at me and sometimes I feel very lost inside this new person.
2. Needing a whole new wardrobe every few months, when you can not afford one, is not fun. It is frustrating to be trying to get dressed in the morning and finding out that something that fit the last time you wore it is too big today. Yes, it is great I'm losing weight. We've already established that. But is it too much to ask my clothes to shrink sizes with me? Yeah, I guess it is. But man, that would be nice! When I was packing for the Ragnar, I had to try on every piece of clothing before I packed it to make sure it still fit. And no longer being able to wear clothes that I LOVE is a bummer, too. I have an emotional attachment to some of this stuff, especially my goal outfits that I've worked so hard to get into.
3. You don't get to choose where the fat abandons first. Perhaps I am just weird, but I am not shrinking symmetrically, which leaves my body looking pretty funny. Most days I have a sense of humor about this but some days I just want to cry. It is a good thing that joining a nudist colony is not one of my goals.
4. Fat puffs out wrinkles. While I am feeling younger, I am looking older! No, I don't want to go back to feeling old and looking young. But some days I definitely mourn the loss of my youthful looks.
5. I've always struggled with being insecure. But I always had the fat to blame if people didn't like me. They weren't rejecting me, they were rejecting the fat girl. Now I have nothing to hid behind, nothing to blame. As wonderful as the Ragnar experience was, it has brought to light how EXTREMELY insecure I've become and it is much worse than I thought. Being chosen as a contest winner was a huge boost to my confidence, but I came home from the race fretting that perhaps they didn't like me once they actually met me. Does it matter if they liked me or not? Nope. I'm not likely to see many of them ever again. The ones I will see again (Sione, Filipe and SunShine) do seem to like me (or fake it really well!) And yet I stupidly worry about what the others think of me.
I don't tell you any of this to discourage you. Trust me, getting healthy is the most amazing journey you can embark on! But go into it knowing that losing weight doesn't solve all your problems and may just reveal problems you didn't know you had. Kind-of like what they say about winning the lottery (although I'd love the chance to prove them wrong on that one!) I went into a several week depression just because I felt guilty that I wasn't super excited all the time. The mirror thing REALLY messed with me for awhile. I strongly believe that knowing some of what was coming would have been helpful, as I am a big fan of being prepared. The emotions would still have been there, but at least I wouldn't have felt like a freak for struggling with them.
* True story: The baggage check lady in San Diego actually came out to give me a hug after looking through my book. I was having to repack all my bags, so I figured the book would entertain/distract her while I tried to take too much stuff home with me. It worked and I managed to get an extra 20 lbs of stuff home for free!
1. I do NOT recognize the face that stares back at me from the mirror. This can be extremely unsettling, especially early in the morning or when I catch a quick glimpse as I pass a mirror or window. Change, even good change, is stressful. The familiar is comfortable, even when it isn't the best. I don't miss the fat. But I certainly miss knowing who is looking back at me and sometimes I feel very lost inside this new person.
2. Needing a whole new wardrobe every few months, when you can not afford one, is not fun. It is frustrating to be trying to get dressed in the morning and finding out that something that fit the last time you wore it is too big today. Yes, it is great I'm losing weight. We've already established that. But is it too much to ask my clothes to shrink sizes with me? Yeah, I guess it is. But man, that would be nice! When I was packing for the Ragnar, I had to try on every piece of clothing before I packed it to make sure it still fit. And no longer being able to wear clothes that I LOVE is a bummer, too. I have an emotional attachment to some of this stuff, especially my goal outfits that I've worked so hard to get into.
3. You don't get to choose where the fat abandons first. Perhaps I am just weird, but I am not shrinking symmetrically, which leaves my body looking pretty funny. Most days I have a sense of humor about this but some days I just want to cry. It is a good thing that joining a nudist colony is not one of my goals.
4. Fat puffs out wrinkles. While I am feeling younger, I am looking older! No, I don't want to go back to feeling old and looking young. But some days I definitely mourn the loss of my youthful looks.
5. I've always struggled with being insecure. But I always had the fat to blame if people didn't like me. They weren't rejecting me, they were rejecting the fat girl. Now I have nothing to hid behind, nothing to blame. As wonderful as the Ragnar experience was, it has brought to light how EXTREMELY insecure I've become and it is much worse than I thought. Being chosen as a contest winner was a huge boost to my confidence, but I came home from the race fretting that perhaps they didn't like me once they actually met me. Does it matter if they liked me or not? Nope. I'm not likely to see many of them ever again. The ones I will see again (Sione, Filipe and SunShine) do seem to like me (or fake it really well!) And yet I stupidly worry about what the others think of me.
I don't tell you any of this to discourage you. Trust me, getting healthy is the most amazing journey you can embark on! But go into it knowing that losing weight doesn't solve all your problems and may just reveal problems you didn't know you had. Kind-of like what they say about winning the lottery (although I'd love the chance to prove them wrong on that one!) I went into a several week depression just because I felt guilty that I wasn't super excited all the time. The mirror thing REALLY messed with me for awhile. I strongly believe that knowing some of what was coming would have been helpful, as I am a big fan of being prepared. The emotions would still have been there, but at least I wouldn't have felt like a freak for struggling with them.
* True story: The baggage check lady in San Diego actually came out to give me a hug after looking through my book. I was having to repack all my bags, so I figured the book would entertain/distract her while I tried to take too much stuff home with me. It worked and I managed to get an extra 20 lbs of stuff home for free!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Newspaper Article
Here is the article about me that ran in the Honolulu Star Advertiser right before the Ragnar.
'Biggest Loser' TV show inspired big weight loss
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