Week 5

Week 5 – January 30 – February 5, 2012

1.     Shop once this week to keep my pantry stocked with healthy foods

2.     Stay between 3 and 6 on the hunger continuum and register my hunger and satiety level in my journal

3.     Maintain my food journal

4.     Drink 8 glasses of water a day

5.     ride my bike for 20 minutes at least 5 days a week and increase the resistance and note my rides in my journal.

6.     Squeeze some exercise into my daily routine.

7.     clean 1 drawer/cabinet/closet a week

8.     create and maintain an efficient laundry system.

9.     Eat 3 meals and 1 or 2 small snacks each day

10. Add stretching to my workout routine

11. Take a multivitamin each day – I am actually taking a multivitamin, a fish oil pill and a Llysine pill. (this is for cold sores so that I hopefully won’t get them too often)

12. be aware of my posture. Walk tall and with confidence!

13. Limit alcohol to one night a week and limit number of drinks to 2. Unless it is a margarita from Chavolos then the limit is 1.

14.  When going out to eat or at friends, chose food that is not fried and don’t graze around the food table.

Here are this weeks new steps-

15.  Replace bad fats with good fats.

16. Add one fun element this week. (going dancing, playing basketball, etc.) This can take the place of one of my bike rides.

17.  discover the benefits of yoga (once a week)

18.  clear the clutter from a mail pile, front door, etc and maintain a system to keep it clear.

3 ingredient pulled pork and Asian Slaw

For my new recipe last week I decided to try a recipe I found online for pulled pork that required only 3 ingredients. Pork loin, root beer and BBQ sauce. It was super easy and pretty tasty when it was done.By the way, its all done in the crock pot.  Click here for the original website for this recipe.
I used one pork loin about 2lbs and one 20oz bottle of root beer. I put the pork loin in the crock pot and poured the entire bottle of root beer over it. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. The original recipe said only 6 hours but mine was not easy to shred after 6 but perfect for a couple hours longer. Once it is shredded you can pour the BBQ sauce over the whole thing but I didn't do this. I prefer to measure out the sauce as I eat it. My portions are 3 oz of pork and 1-2 tablespoons of sauce. (One serving of sauce is 2 tablespoons.)
The second thing I made was Asian slaw with wasabi dressing. Click here for the original recipe. The slaw was not as good as I would have liked. I will have to try again with a little tweaking. I used premade slaw mix instead of making my own. For this recipe I used half the bag and added some red, yellow and orange bell peppers and some green onions. I topped it with Chinese noodles that  I had instead of sesame seeds and peanuts. I also halved the dressing amounts. It still made a lot of sauce. When it was all done I couldn't taste the wasabi and the sesame oil was too strong. I think if I make this again I will cut the oil even more and add more wasabi. If you try this recipe I would love to hear how it was and if you made any changes.

 Maybe next I should work on my food presentation for photos. LOL

Craft room

For a couple weeks now instead of focusing of cleaning out a drawer or closet each week I decided to clean my spare room. It really was a dumping ground of all the crap I either didn't want to throw away or didn't want to put away. It was easier to just put it on the desk and close the door. My sister and I went to Hobby Lobby and Target and I found tons of organizing boxes and bins and some fun accessories to decorate with. Target had a lot of stuff in the $1.00 aisle so that was a major score. For the "before" pictures you will have to scroll down several weeks and they are posted there. Here are my "after" pictures. I do want to paint something on one wall but not sure yet what that will be.

Do you like my little Christmas tree? I got it at Hobby Lobby for $1.60 on sale. Matched my color scheme perfectly. lol!

I love it! I can actually get in there and scan my photos or do some scrapbooking. Everything finally has a place and I know where to find it all.

Week 4 – January 23 – January 29, 2012- RECAP

I know when I started this journey I knew that slow and steady will get me where I want to be and allow me to maintain that loss. Knowing that doesn’t stop me though from wanting the weight to fall off fast. It is a program in my head that I don’t need. This week I almost lost 1 lb, .9 to be exact. I need to remember that I am doing great and my body is doing what it needs to do.

While I ride my bike I watch my recorded episodes of The Revolution. Yesterday the trainer Harley said something that really got me thinking. He said that when you are working for a weight loss goal don’t just focus on the end number or the end goal. Enjoy the journey. Each week or step you take toward your goal is one small goal to be proud of and rejoice in that. For me I asked myself these questions. Am I exercising more than I was last month? Am I making better food choices and writing it down in my food journal? Am I drinking all my water? Am I taking my vitamins? Yes! That’s the answer to all my questions. I am doing so much more and so much better than I was last month. I am proud of myself for sticking with this. I take each day, each moment at a time. If I eat something bad I just get back on track at the next meal. My past actions were to just give up the whole day and use that as an excuse to eat crap all day. No more. These small goals mean so much to me and I am forming a habit that will stick with me.

On Monday I started getting up 30 minutes earlier than usual so that I can get my workout in before work. When I would wait to do it in the evenings sometimes life got in the way and I wouldn’t do it. Now I have no excuse and it’s done in the morning. I am really enjoying working out in the morning too. It makes me feel great and my attitude is better because of it. It makes me excited for spring and summer when I can go out for a walk when the world is just waking up. It’s such a great time of day. I’ve discovered that I am definitely a morning person.

It has been 4 weeks since I started my journey. I measured and weighed myself on the first so that I would be able to track my inches lost as well. Here is how I have done these past four weeks.

January weight lost- 6.4 lbs

Inches lost- 6 total!! I lost 1 off my chest, ½ off each arm, 1 off my waist, 2 off my hips (yay!) and ½ off each thigh.

I am so happy with my progress so far!! Thinking of spring and shopping for new clothes really has me excited and keeps me going!!