Worked Out...

for 45 minutes today at the gym. I shall be joining the one close to home this week. Get ready for a skinnier Maggie bitches!

I have changed.

Days like this I realize how my eating habits have changed. I'm about to go to bed & I've realized that I've only eaten one meal today. This morning I wasn't hungry when we left, so I just had a cup of coffee. Then after the photo shoot I was starving so Justin & I went to Flat Top. I made two bowls of veggie stir fry & some fake chicken. Dinner time rolled around and I wasn't hungry, I was still stuffed. The old Maggie would of ate because "it's breakfast time" or "it's dinner time" even if I wasn't hungry. I'm kinda proud of this. Anyone who is overweight knows what it feels like to never really feel full. You have to learn how to recognize when you're body is fully, especially when you just overeat all the time. Learning to only eat when you're hungry is new to me.

Relapse!

Ugh, I was really sick this weekend which I used as an excuse to eat really crappy food. I didn't exercise either.

I'm finally starting to feel better, but I still ate garbage... then I get really down on myself. I need to go grocery shopping. I need to start exercising. Why don't I just do it?

Thanks Sandi!

fitday.com is awesome... easy to track everything & it's nice to see how much nutritional value I get out of my food.  I don't really eat very much meat, maybe once every 2 weeks or so & mostly in the form of fish, so it was really nice to see that I actually do get a good amount of protein in my diet.  I also noticed how many carbs I eat!  Everything I eat has such a high carb count.  Even though I probably eat more veggies & fruit than the average American, I still feel like I don't eat enough of them!  Here's today's chart, click to make it larger.

For lunch I made a yummy wrap with tofurky slices w/ cheese & jam- gross?  no, tasty.  Then roasted brussel sprouts for dinner w/ a baked potato (w/ a little Agave Nectar on it & cinnamon) and Boca Meat sloppy joes.

Good Day.

1 Banana, 2 WW points
2 Clementines, 1 WW point

1 Low Fat/Calorie frozen lunch- Spinach, 7 WW points

1 mini bag of 100 Calorie popcorn- 3 WW points?

Panera for dinner, you pick two Low Fat black bean soup & Greek Salad- 10 WW points

That brought me to, 23 points & then I finished up with one of those no pudge pumpkin brownies... not bad.

Not Bad.

Bad weekend, but back on track today.

pb&j sandwich for breakfast w/ hunger filler bread, the "better than pb" peanut butter & sugar free jelly

black bean burger for lunch w/ a clementine

coffee w/ splenda

rockin' tuna casserole made with tofu "noodles" for dinner from Hungry Girl
No Pudge brownies w/ pumpkin puree in them

I'm not even weighing myself until the weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I think I ate the least amount of food I've ever eaten on Thanksgiving. I didn't even really plan to. I kind of wanted to give myself a free day, but once you've lost a significant amount of weight & do not eat as much food as you used to, your stomach kind of tells you when to stop. I ate my normal weight watchers bagel w/ weight watchers cream cheese for breakfast & I even got in some cardio this morning. I filled my plate once & didn't even manage to finish the 1 plate... I think Justin even ate less than I did. When it came down to dessert I must of put 3 slices of deliciousness on my plate & ended up only having a few bites of each of them. I do not feel overly full right now, I feel very content. I didn't eat dinner, just thanksgiving lunch. I know I ate WAY more than my points allowed, but it is thanksgiving & if you don't allow yourself a little here and there, you will end up caving on something far worse. I'm proud of myself for exercising this morning, I'm sure that will help my metabolism to break down all the calories I scarfed down & I am also proud that I didn't bring any leftovers home. Trust me, I would of loved to eat a giant plate of stuffing for breakfast.

Tomorrow I am back on track.

Finally!

Back down to 196 again today which makes me feel a lot better. I did cardio for 45 minutes today. I am going to try and stick to cardio, lose fat & then worry about toning after I get down to my goal weight. I did pretty good today- I didn't count points but I'm pretty sure I stuck to around what I get.

- Weight Watchers Bagel & Weight Watcher Cream Cheese
- Coffee w/ splenda
- About 1 cup of the Rockin' "Chicken" Pot Pie recipe from Hungry Girl
- Sugar Free Pudding cup mixed with 1/2 of a cup of Fat Free Pumpkin Pie Yogurt (I love the sour of yogurt mixed with chocolate)
- VitaRain Water (from Costco, sugar free)
- Clementine
- 1 Pt. String Cheese stick from Weight Watchers
- Subway for dinner
- rest of the puddin' pumpkin pie yogurt mixture from earlier and finishing the VitaRain Water

So, not so bad... plus the 45 minutes of cardio, pretty good day.

WALL.

Hit it... why am I not losing weight? Is my body just comfortable here? I've worked out almost every day for 2 weeks. I've been eating really good. Yesterday I slipped and ate some pierogi's, but seriously that's not bad, especially with all this working out.

Oh well, just keep going... I keep telling myself, just keep going.

Today's intake:

- 1 Weight Watchers bagel w/ Weight Watchers cream cheese.
- Coffee w/ splenda coffee sweetener & fat free half & half.
- sugar snap peas and hummus
- 1 sugar free pudding cup

For dinner I'm making the Hungry Girl Cookbook Kickin' Chicken Pot Pie... although I am using fake chicken, instead of real chicken.

- Boca fake chicken strips
- 3 cups frozen veggies (peas, corn, carrots & green beans in my instance)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 99 percent fat free
- low fat philsbury cresent rolls.

I've heard this recipe is very yummy... I'll probably add some garlic and other seasonings as well, but it sounds like it'll be good.

Bad...

Ate pizza for dinner today at friend's house warming party. Don't feel gross though because I skipped lunch for that very reason.

Back to working out monday.

I tried a pair of 16 regular Levi's on today, they were a little big... not buying new pants until the 14's fit though. Although I can fit into 14's at Old Navy (but they have vanity sizing, makes you feel really awesome when you shop there- I wear a large there).


Not bad, tomorrow I'll be awesome.

Fat Maggie Part 2

So every blog needs some before and "in progress" photos. This weekend we were looking at albums of photographs and came across this gem. It was taken at a wedding that Justin stood up in down in Florida. Those were in fact the largest pair of pants I ever purchased. Size 28 Plus. To compare, I now wear a size 16 Regular (almost 14-hopefully soon, fingers crossed).

Start Weight: 275
Current Weight: 196
Goal Weight: 150



I think I'm going to put that photo on the fridge to remind myself how hard both Justin & I have worked to lose weight. I honestly don't really keep anything bad in the fridge anymore, but at least it will remind me to not eat more than I need to.



Photo above taken of Justin & I at a party last weekend.



The above photo I just took in my living room w/ the photobooth application on my computer.... which explains the poor quality & how hot I look w/ my work out clothes on.



So everyone has little areas of their body that drive them nuts. Mine is the tube of fat around my stomach... you know, the "muffin top". It drives me NUTS! I will feel much better when I lose some of that weight.

So Full.

I haven't exercised in two days. False... I did pilates yesterday. I didn't exercise today & feel guilty about it. Tomorrow morning I'm doing cardio & that's that.

I've ate good though, so that counts for something.

I ate a fat free frozen burrito for breakfast (I have this thing against sweet breakfast usually)
coffee

low fat can of minestrone
sugar free pudding cup

a couple almonds

a little left over pumpkin/black bean casserole (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/10/pumpkin-and-black-bean-casserole.html)
black bean burger w/ fat free cheese

sugar free/fat free ice cream w/ agave nectar, cinnamon & a slice of sugar free banana bread

Not bad really... could of done better, could of done worse. Tomorrow will be a good day.

Week 1 & I am back!

Week one of this "lose weight by February 14th" plan went well. I had a few obstacles I wanted to tackle.

Obstacle #1: Work out every day.

I managed to work out every single day before getting ready. Jillian Michaels kicked my butt really hard, I said a few bad words & sweat, A LOT. I feel really good about it & felt really good all week. I skipped Sunday because I felt like I could give myself one day break... plus I cleaned the apartment all day, which is somewhat of a work out in itself. Now when I put on my yoga pants, my sports bra & my gym shoes... my body psychologically feels ready to kick some butt.

Obstacle #2: Do not eat cake at birthday party on Saturday.

It was really hard, but I didn't cave and eat cake! I was very proud of myself. Oh how badly did I want to just put my face in that cake, but I didn't. I thought about how hard I spent working out all week & how a piece of cake would only be a few steps back when I had made some great progress. Before dinner there was a bowl of melted cheese dip on the table & tortilla chips... I even skipped out on that. I tried convincing myself to only have "one chip w/ dip" but I knew that once I had a taste of it's warm cheesy goodness, I'd want more. Instead, I took 3 tortilla chips and nibbled them slowly. When it came to dinner, I filled my plate once & that was that. Afterwards Justin & I picked up a cup of coffee as our "dessert". Splenda & half/half (I refuse to give up half/half in my coffee)

That brings me to Obstacle #3: Do NOT relapse on the weekend & get back into the groove on monday.

So we ate pretty good all weekend. I did work out Saturday before heading out to Indiana. I ate a little mini lunch at my parents on Saturday... nothing terrible for me. Sunday we ate a very small lunch in the morning (left over shepherd's pie from the Hungry Girl cookbook) and nothing else until dinner. We went out to dinner with Ben & Alex. This was dangerous, considering when we go out to eat with them, is usually when we cave. All four of us have a ridiculous love for food. We ended up going to mama thai & I got pad see ewe... which is a tasty noodle dish with tofu & broccolli. I'm sure it's not very good for you, but I could of done WAY worse that day. We all wanted dessert afterwards, which made me a little nervous. We decided to stop at Jewel where Ben bought a pumpkin pie, Alex bought a cherry pie and.... Justin & I bought *drum roll*... sugar free banana bread at 2 weight watcher points a piece. We topped it with fat free sugar free ice cream and half a banana. SUCCESS!

Today I'm doing well & I think I'll do some pilates. Come on fat... time to move out... 50 pounds of you.

Getting Back on Track!

I keep saying I'm going to get back on track, but I really mean it. I've started working out daily. It needs to become part of my everyday routine. I've also set a new goal for myself. I'm going to San Francisco in February for a little vacation & to photograph the photographer I work for. In return she's going to photograph me as well... I need to slim down a little more by then. I've only lost about 25 pounds this year... the year before, I lost a lot more because the wedding was my goal date. I had something to work for. Now, what do I have? Nothing. I also received a gift certificate from Anthropologie as a thank you for taking pictures of someone. I refuse to buy an XL. I'm going to use the gift certificate to buy an outfit for my photoshoot in February... and it won't be in an XL.

Today's food items....

- 2 cups of coffee w/ splenda coffee sweetener
- Kashi pumpkin granola bar
- black bean burger w/ 2 pieces low fat bread, mustard and fat free mayo

Gross.

I feel so fat today. I feel giant today. I could eat a lot better than I did today. I think I might join Weight Watchers online.

I seriously ate a brownie for breakfast. It wasn't an actual brownie. It was sugarfree, lowfat, vegan & made with pumpkin. I don't feel that bad about eating it, but still....

For lunch I ate a vegetarian chicken patty with low fat mayo & then I also ate some hummus & pita... finally an apple.
( I am PMSing, so I needed some comfort food, I don't consider this TOO bad)

Then at my parents house I ate a protein bar and a giant cup of coffee.

I feel like I ate way too much today- and I'm going out to dinner with family tonight. I have to be careful.

Yay!

I am back down to 197 today. SO excited. It is the best feeling to see the number 1 staring back up at you.

It is so beautiful out & the weather has put me in the mood for apples. Not exactly the worst thing to be in the mood for. The problem is that I LOVE peanut butter & apples.

Today I ate:

Autumn Wheat cereal w/ light soy milk

2 pieces whole wheat bread
1 Veggie Chick'n Patty
fat free mayo
fat free cheese
apple sauce, about a tablespoon.
1/2 cup carrot soup

I'm going to eat an apple & then for dinner I am making a twist on Shepherds pie. It's basically Boca meat (which is vegetarian meat), frozen veggies & butternut squash puree layered in a casserole dish. I'm going to also put a little tahini sauce in it & probably some flax seed. It's soooooo yummy. The problem is that we want to eat the whole dish of it. It's so yummy.

Back again.

I ate bad & didn't feel like facing the truth. I ignored this little blog for a few days, but mostly I was ignoring a bad eating habit. The truth is, I eat terrible once a month. Once a month, when I am PMSing I eat bad but not TERRIBLE. A year ago I would of eaten TERRIBLE, but now I've learned how to let myself cheat every once in a while.

This month, on labor day, I went to a steak house with family. I felt like splurging & ordered the blue cheese steak sandwich. Holy crap is that bad for you. Turns out, I could only eat a quarter of it. My stomach just won't eat food that rich anymore, let alone beef. Honestly, I think I eat meat MAYBE once a week. Justin & I tend to eat more vegetarian, and don't seek out "not eating meat", it's just how we eat. So, I ate my quarter of the sandwich and took the rest of it home in a little styrofoam box. The next morning I woke up and threw the box in the garbage. Why eat leftovers just for the sake of eating them? Not going to happen.

Since that day I've slowly got back on track. Justin & I have been VERY busy and we haven't had time to make it to the grocery store. I've been eating low fat bean burritos for lunch for about a week now.

I went to the popcorn fest. on Saturday. I didn't eat a single thing. In fact, I bought dried veggies, dried cinnamon apples & fresh peanut butter from a booth (to bring home). That's it. After that, we went to Panera where I ate a cup of the low fat black bean soup & 1/2 a greek salad.

With time I realize that I am making smarter decisions when it comes to food. I still love food with a passion, I just love myself more.

What I ate today:

Instant Grits w/ cinnamon
Coffee w/ fat free creamer & Splenda

Low Fat bean burrito w/ salsa & black beans
Dried cinnamon apples

Hazelnut coffee from Panera w/ half and half (my little splurge every once in a while) and Splenda

Then, since I had a bridal consultation at Panera in the evening, I brought dinner home for Justin & I.

Low Fat Veggie soup & 1/2 Greek salad.
1/4 cup frozen yogurt w/ tsp. of peanut butter.


*I could live with eating only peanut butter for the rest of my life. Good protein if you don't eat much meat & fantastic fats. Yummers.

yum yum yum.

Today I made a recipe from Clean Eating Magazine for dinner: Salmon Corn Chowder & cornbread.

The Salmon Corn Chowder is only 210 calories, 4.5 grams of fat & has 3 grams of fiber in a 1 1/2 cup serving. I ate a small bowl full, but didn't go back for seconds. I was super full! Justin & I both were, which is rare. The cornbread consists of mostly corn meal & whole wheat flower. It came out to be 80 calories, 0.5 grams of fat & 3 grams of fiber for a 2 inch square. I had two servings of cornbread with my soup.

That is 4 points for my soup & 2 points for 2 servings of cornbread. That's only 6 points for dinner! Well, add another point for the grapes. That's not bad at all!!! Let me say it again, I highly recommend Clean Eating Magazine.


What I ate today:

Oatmeal w/ raisins
coffee w/ fat free creamer (all day basically)

Cashew Ginger Carrot Soup
Turkey & fat free cheddar on whole wheat bread

1 cheese stick

Salmon Corn Chowder
2 squares corn bread
a handful of grapes

1 cup of Cappuccino Chip Frozen Yogurt

The Joys of Costco!

Oh Costco, how I love thee.

I bought low fat bean burritos, 12 cans of black beans, Larabars, Naked Juice, Grapes... etc.

Today went well. All day I ate well under my points, but then Justin & I decided to splurge on a little gelato. We did so fantastic all week. I decided I'll eat the gelato & work out because of it. I have a wedding tomorrow which means I will be working my tush off... all those gelato calories will be melting right off. Nobody understands how hard us photographers work. We stand all day long, run around, do squats, hold very VERY heavy camera equipment all day long, our necks are killer by noon. We also don't get to eat all day. I am lucky if I get an energy bar on the day of a wedding. When I wake up the next morning I am so sore I can barely walk. It's a major workout. Only fellow photographers could possibly understand. One time my husband helped me at a fundraiser event & said to me, "I don't understand how you can do this all day. It's a lot of work". I guess you can say it's a labor of love.


Today I ate:

Grits & raisans
Coffee w/ splenda

garden burger & a cup of chili

low fat bean burrito & a couple baked chips w/ salsa.

gelato baby! yum :-) Ok, so I went over on my points for gelato. I'll make sure I'm strict all weekend.

The Unknown.

Today I did something that I've NEVER done before. I bought work out clothes. :-)

I'm not saying that I've never worked out. Of course I work out. I've never bought official work out clothes. I usually just put on my sexy pajama pants from 8th grade with kitty cats all over them. All of my pajamas are from 8th grade about about 4 sizes too big. I can pull all of them clear above my head. It's a hot look.

The point is, I want to start walking in the morning. I live in one of the most beautiful little towns... (excuse me, village. Oak Park is a village. Did you know that?) It is perfect for taking walks. We have lots of beautiful old houses (Frank Lloyd Wright's home & studio are in Oak Park). Eventually my goal is to jog, but I'll start slowly with walking.

So today at Old Navy I noticed that all of their work out clothing is on sale. I realized that instead of buying a cute sweater, I should probably invest my money into something that will have a positive outcome. So I bought a pair of yoga pants, walking pants, a cute zip up jacket & a orange/gray striped long sleeve shirt.

Another thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is how much I miss yoga. I haven't done yoga in SO long. I took some classes at Columbia & then I practiced it on my own afterwards. I still do it every now & then, but not on a regular basis. Oak Park has a zillion yoga studios. There's one right next door to my favorite coffee shop. I think this autumn I might swing in for a class and see if I like it.

If nothing else, it will be nice to meditate with a group again. I miss what it feels like to be in a room of many "OM's". The way you can feel the vibrations straight to your core. I love meditating and have been doing it for some time now. I had an amazing connection with one of my teachers at Columbia and after class was over we remained fantastic friends. She's an older woman with beautiful curly gray hair & a lifetime of amazing stories to tell. She invited me over for tea one afternoon, taught me to meditate & I haven't looked back. It is honestly the most amazing experience & I encourage everyone to try to meditate. It teaches you how to clear your mind & live in the now. Something we all need to learn to do more often.

What I ate today:

Fiber One cereal w/ light soy milk

Coffee, basically all day w/ splenda.

Lean Cuisine (only 4 points)
Sugar free rice pudding cup

Ate a couple almonds as a snack

Dinner at Panera: Half Asian Chicken Salad & Black Bean Soup ( ONLY 10 WW POINTS!- for reals.)

I think I ate under my points for today. That's crazy.

One more for today!

I wanted to write a list of the food I ate today. Justin & I both attribute our weight loss to a giant list of things & one of those things is writing down what you eat every single day. It's easy to ignore the times you've cheated, if you don't have to confess them, even to yourself. So here's my list of food for today.

-Fiber One Cereal w/ light soy milk
-2 cups of coffee w/ Splenda coffee flavors & light soy milk

-Stuffed Cabbage Lean Cuisine
-1 tsp of "Better than peanut butter": THE BEST PEANUT BUTTER EVER! low in calories, fat & sodium! It's a miracle.

-1 buttered popcorn rice cake as a snack.

-1 turkey sandwhich w/ fat free cheddar, light mayo, mustard on whole wheat bread.
- Justin & I split a plate of fresh home grown tomato & green pepper slices.
-1 serving of the Trader Joes marinated fava beans (YUM!!!)
-1 sugar free rice pudding cup

Now, I'm finishing off the evening with a glass of red wine. Ravenswood Cab.

Not bad.

Photographs.

Every week Robin takes a test photo of me at the wedding. I have a small collection of them now. I'll have to dig through and find the photos from when I weighed a lot more. Here are two recent ones. I still have a hard time realizing that that's me in those photos. My silhouette is a lot more slender than it used to be. Having these photos makes me want to keep going.

I've never been the person who hates having their photo taken. I know what I look like. I know that every single day everyone sees what I look like. I think that people who hate having photos taken of themselves are just denying the flaws they see in themselves, that they refuse to work on.




Me at the Palmer House, getting ready to shoot a ceremony.



Me (center) at the River East Art Center, pretending to be the Bride & Groom. Chrissy is pretending to be the drunk guests holding sparklers above their heads. It makes for a pretty shot. But it sure it rather dangerous.

That's it.

I've made hardly any progress in the last year. I'm sure it has to do with the stress of moving out & paying bills. It also has to do with the fact that I work from home & it takes a lot of effort for me to get up & get things done. It's not like I eat terrible. I still eat good. I cheat a lot more often & haven't been counting points lately. Lets just say I've figured out how to maintain my current weight. Which I guess is good, but I'm not happy with my current weight.


I now weigh 197. Before I started this weight loss shenanigans, I weighed 275.

My goal would be to weight 150. I think I can obtain that.

All I need to do is start blogging again, keep track of my points & stop going out to eat! It's not that hard. I did it before. I know I can do it.

Picture Post!

I am shrinking & Archie is getting larger. I wish my rate was as fast as his. He is only 7 months old and already weighs 10 pounds.

Ready, Set, GO!

I am ready to tackle these last 50 pounds. So, lets do it.

YEAH!

Lost three pounds, finally broke the barrier I had been struggling with for a long time.  Go me!

What do I have to thank for that?

Jillian Michaels work out videos...

Not only do her videos keep my heart rate up, they don't bore me & they make me feel good for doing them.  She also says inspiring things like "remember why you're doing this".  I like her.

If you don't want to buy them & have Netflix, all you have to do is watch them instantly on your computer.

Thank God...

I'm finally back to being down a grand total of 80 pounds.  I can't fall off the wagon again.  My new goal is in sight!  175 pounds by the end of summer.

My new love, Special K cereal.  

SUCESS!

I've been VERY strict this week & dropped 7 pounds already. I feel like it was a lot of excess water weight & food sitting there.

GO ME!

Fell off the wagon.

So I lost about 20 pounds since October & just realized (when I stepped on the scale), that I gained it all back.  Awesome!  So, it's time to get back on track.  Justin & I have been going through some difficult things & you tend to go for comfort foods when you're feeling down.  Now that it's finally starting to get nice out & the farmers market will be open soon, hopefully we'll be excited about eating healthy again.  

I started weight watchers back up again because it worked the best at helping me remain focused on a goal.  I've really noticed how many unhealthy things I've eaten lately because of it.  When I go to sleep at night, my stomach growls because I'm used to eating much more during the day.  I ate a tuna melt sandwich for lunch yesterday & as a result of that, had to eat 100 calorie popcorn for dinner.  

We also are kind of poor right now because of taxes, so it'll be interesting to go grocery shopping on a very limited budget.

Milestone.

I've officially lost 76 pounds.  I've hit a pretty big milestone for me.  My weight is 199.  I can't remember the last time I saw the number 1, instead of the number 2.

It's been a long time.

I haven't updated this in forever!  I've been pretty busy though.  In October I got married, went on a honeymoon, moved to a different state & have been working on my career.  Then, the holidays happened.  So, now it's time to focus on my health again (although that isn't much of an excuse).  

To date I've lost 67 pounds.  Not bad, but not fantastic.  I haven't lost much more since the wedding.  The seasons influence my decision on what to eat.  In the summer, I'm totally cool with eating a fresh crisp salad, but in the winter I can't help wanting a hearty soup every once in a while.  It's my downfall.

I went through our kitchen today, gathered all of our food & calculated the amount of weight watcher points for each item.  I was surprised to see that we didn't have a single thing that was bad for you.  We have a small pack of truffles that were given to us for Christmas, but I have a feeling they're going to be thrown away soon.  Since living on our own & buying our own groceries, Justin & I have found that we are generally attracted to food items that are meatless.  Slowly our diet has become mostly vegetarian.  The only time we eat meat is if we eat over at someone else's place.  I have a feeling that in the near future we will convert to a strictly vegetarian diet.  Now that we only eat meat once every few weeks, we notice that we don't like the way that meat feels when it's being digested.  We'll see what happens.

I need to start writing down what I eat again.  I'm going to start back up today.

Trader Joes Chocolate Yogurt (3 points)

Trader Joes Low Fat Vanilla Granola (1.5 points)

1 Trader Joes Whole Wheat Tortilla (2 points)

1 cucumber &  3 grape tomatoes (0 points)

1 TBSP. Whole Foods Red Pepper Hummus (2 points)

1 Pumpkin Chocolate No Pudge Brownie (2 points)

Total Points today: 10.5 points

* Best Christmas present:  a new scale!