Weekly Weigh-in #15 and #16

Oh hey, I was supposed to post my weekly weigh-in last week, then I didn't. -ish got really crazy at work and has stayed crazy. Ah, the joys of an acquisition. I've done a decent job of getting my workouts in and my food has been fine. Almost 2 pounds in two weeks. As long as the scale keeps going down, I'm happy. I'm starting to feel like I have a bigger loss coming up, like a 2 pounder or something, Maybe this will be the week?

Workouts - (Last Week)
Saturday - Body Pump
Sunday - Run and Body Flow
Monday- Last minute work dinner
Tuesday - CAB meeting at NC State
Wednesday - OMG I was tired and got my nails done instead
Thursday - Body Pump
Friday - Body Combat

I'll be honest, I don't remember exactly what I did the week before. I did workout 3 times, I did some Body Pump, I ran, did some Combat classes, the regular stuff. I did notice this week that I had made some gains in the lower ab department. Not like I could see them, because that's probably never gonna happen, but I was able to do a lot of lower ab exercises that I couldn't before. It's actually a really good thing, that's the area that needs the most work because my lower ab and core is what needs to be stronger to help with my back. Basically if I can strengthen my lower abs and core, it keeps my pelvis, sciatic joint and hips from getting out of alignment which is the cause of my back injuries. Yay for progress!

My weekly recap from Apple Watch. I burned 4735 "extra" calories which should have been more than a .8 pound loss. It'll happen though.

What I'm eating this week

Twice a week at work we have catered lunch and I never eat it. Sometimes if I know there's going to be salad, I plan my Jenny meal accordingly because I really like having extra veggies on my turkey burger or cheese burger. This day we had a giant salad from Zoe's Kitchen and I snagged some lettuce, cucumbers, green peppers and a few olives. It was Insta-worthy.

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Week 14 Picture

Week 7 vs Week 15 pictures

 I was pretty pleased with this comparison. That's exactly 2 months between the pictures. June to August. There's only a 10-ish difference between the 2 pictures. It's crazy how just 10 pounds can make such a big difference. I know I have muscle under all of the fat, now to get them to come out!

Obligatory gym selfie.

I think this picture is pretty crazy, it's me and Kev 8 years ago on a cruise. This is me never working out and being pretty sedentary. It shows how a good workout regimen can really help your body composition. Can someone make sure I never cut my hair in that style again? Mkay, thanks. 

That's all for me! I'll keep chugging along and hopefully have another loss this Saturday.

Enjoy your week!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh In #13

Meh, another slow week. It can definitely be frustrating when you don't even see a pound loss in 2 weeks. I looked over the week to see if I could figure out what was going on and if there was anything I could change.

1. I didn't sleep well this week. Especially on Saturday morning, I was super tired. For some reason I woke up several times each night last week to pee. Damn pee. I'm going to restrict my after 9pm beverage intake and see if that helps me stay asleep.

2. I ate most of my "limited free foods" this week. I know I "can" but I found myself falling into the habit of eating a hard candy there or a 25 calorie meringue there. It's within plan, and really only at extra 300-ish calories in a week, which is negligible. It's more the behavior. I don't "need" a candy treat. I'm not hungry. 

On Saturday night I definitely indulged and I'll see if it affects my weigh in this upcoming week. At least I have 6 days to work it off.

Workouts
Saturday - Body Pump
Sunday - Run 2.2 miles, Body Flow
Monday- Body Combat
Tuesday - Rest - Kev and I went to dinner and played Pokemon
Wednesday - Body Combat
Thursday - Early Star Trek showing with Kev
Friday - Ladies Night

What I'm eating this week

This is what my Sunday morning breakfast looks like every week. Kev leaves for work, I go to Brueggers, get my coffee, come home and make my JC breakfast scramble. Usually scramble would imply that everything is mixed together, which it is, unless you like your potatoes separated, which I do. So I pick them out and cook them in the pan. Then I pit them on opposite ends of the plate because food can't touch.

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I got a pretty decent side by side picture last week. I pulled out that polka dot shirt that I hadn't worm in a while. 

Timehop also gave me a picture from last year which was super helpful.  I'll be honest, the only reason why I downloaded Timehop was to get pictures from the past for my comparison shots.

I can see a little more definition in my waist from last year to this, which is nice. I also see that despite washing, that same crease is there. WTF? I've never noticed that before. 

Cheats

Last week there were a few cheats. I had a hot dog for lunch on Saturday, an amazing dinner at Buku Saturday night, Subway on Sunday and dinner out on Tuesday. Like I mentioned earlier, I also had probably too many bites of things and candies, that were within my guidelines, probably weren't necessary.

I've cleaned it up a lot this week, here's hoping the scale reflects it!

Weekly Weigh-in #10

Another week, another weigh-in! Down another -.6, which isn't terrible considering last week's big loss. I'm averaging 1.5 pounds a week, which is OK with me. It was a bit of an odd week. Kev was out of town, but I was really tired all week. Cleo slept in the room with me and she's not always the quietest of animals. I'm guessing that's why I didn't get the greatest of sleeps.

So, when I started back on Jenny 10 weeks ago, I posted that I wanted to get back to my original JC goal of 160. Well, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I wanted more. The last time i was just tired of everything, mainly because it took me something like 2 months to lose the last 5 pounds. Since it was such a big accomplishment, I stopped. For a while the next year I went back to try and lose 10 more, but I wasn't committed. But I still wanted to get to 150. For a while I've had a number in my head of what I want the final goal to be. I told my JC consultant on Saturday what I wanted but I wasn't sure. She said we were going for it. That's the new number and we're going to hit it. 

147. 

Let's go.

Workouts

Saturday - I had a hair appointment in the morning and I just didn't go afterwards.

Sunday - Ran 30 min on the treadmill then Body Pump

Monday - Chiropractor

Tuesday - Ran 50ish minutes

Wednesday - nada

Thursday - Body Pump

Friday - Went to the gym and I just wasn't feeling it. So I left. You just have those days every now and then.

What I'm Eating This Week

There's a Kroger right next door to the Jenny Center and most mornings I head over there afterwards. it's really convenient and they have pretty good prices on produce. A pound of cherries was $2.99 the last 2 weeks and grapes $1.49lb. :) Well, I've passed this popcorn a few times and I finally bought some. Kev and I both LOVE it. LOVE. 3 cups is 130 calories which is in line for my Jenny snack.

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I don't see a huge difference between this week and last and I'm still not quite happy with most of my old pants. Last Spring, I know I was able to wear certain pants and right now they button uncomfortably which makes me super salty. That tells me I gained more than 15 pounds in the last year, which is insane. There's no reason for me to gain 15 pounds in a year. I attribute some of that to stress, some to being injured for several months and having to go to PT. The rest is just from eating too much. I've never gained that much weight that quickly. 

Cheats

I ate out 3 times last week, which is more than usual, but I don't think it was too too bad.

Saturday - Veggie sub from subway with no dressing

Sunday - Brunch, I had a Salmon Salad with no dressing. I counted it as lunch then ate my breakfast muffin in the afternoon

Monday - Kev and I went out before he left and we went to the 42nd Street Oyster bar. We had bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer, (OMG) then I had crab legs with a little bit of butter, steamed veggies as a side and 2 hush puppies. It was super tasty. Thankfully I had the rest of the week to work it off.

That was my week! Here's to another good one!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND

Thursday Confessions?

I was all set to make this a Wednesday Confessions post, then people wanted things from me and I had to take on a project I hadn't anticipated. So pretend that Thursday Confessions are a thing.

Tuesday I needed to come home in the morning and pick up some fans. We were doing some training and the room got super hot. We were going to send the interns to WalMart to get a fan, but I have several at home, so I headed home to get some.

There are several deer in my neighborhood. It's a nice place, plenty of stuff to eat and no one to kill them. It's just a matter of time before someone hits them. Well, I did coming back to get a fan.

I was only going 20ish miles an hour when I saw the deer cross the road, I slowed way down and he ran back across the road to the side where he started. By then I was going 5ish miles an hour, I got parallel with the deer and HE RAN IN FRONT OF ME. He bounced off my bumper, fell down, got back up and ran away. I pulled over to the side of the road and there was zero damage to my car. I didn't think there would be, I didn't hear that horrible crunch. There was a tuft of hair on the bumper and that was it. I swear the deer had a death wish.

When I told my brother, he said he saw a deer in the same place running  back and forth across the road. I learned that deer are assholes who just want to fuck with your car.


Confession #2, I'm considering going back to the evil empire.

A few months ago, ATT Uverse came to my neighborhood and brought high speed internet. HUZZAH! I as finally able to get rid of our last TWC internet service. It was beautiful and I got such satisfaction from it. Yay.

Then it slowly started to be less awesome. Connectivity issues, the internet dropping, the outside box went down, the fiber to the house stopped working, the inside modem has been replaced 3 times.

I call and they insist on walking me through all of the BS troubleshooting. Reboot the modem, restart the computer, push the reset button, reboot the modem again. 30 minutes later grudgingly agree to send out a technician. 

In my great frustration I called Time Warner Cable to price their internet. I can get twice as much internet as I have now for $15 more than I pay now. But I sell my soul to the devil. It's something I said I'd never do but when you're tired of my 600 pound life stopping every 5 minutes, you make some tough choices. 

3. I dislike Minions. I don't think they're cute or funny. There, I said it. I tried, I really did. I even tried to watch the Minions movie on the flight back from Paris. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. 

4. I ate chili for the first time ever yesterday. Really, the first time ever. I don't really like beans, well, I said I didn't like beans but I do now. Beans are delicious. I did have Jenny Craig turkey chili so I'm sure there are better, more tasty chili. Apparently I like beans now. I eat beans.

I'd post a picture of my lunch but the internet sucks and I can't upload the pictures from my phone to Dropbox. 

5. This is really strange, but I mentioned before that I have an issue with soy and some things make my stomach hurt, a lot. Like anything fried or chocolate. I started having the problem when I went off Jenny Craig the first time. But JC food never bothered me. 

I asked the gastroenterologist why Jenny food didn't bother me and he said "It's not like Jenny Craig has magic fairy dust in there". I told him that apparently it did and he needed to figure out what was up. He didn't sigh...

Since coming back to JC, I've had 0 and I do mean 0 stomach aches. I've eaten gluten and soy and chocolate. Seriously, wtf? A month ago I ate 3 peanut M&Ms and had pain. Chocolate lava cake? Nada. Chocolate Smores bar? Chocolate Cheesecake? BROWNIE??? Nothing! I mean it's totally cool that I can eat this chocolate, but completely confusing.  Dumb.

So dumb.

Linking Up!

Five Thing Friday!

 OMG, I'm so ready for the weekend. Don't get me wrong, it's going to be insane for the next 3 days. Well, wait, the next 7 days. We have events Saturday and Sunday, then next week at work is going to be insane. Let's just say, there will be rainbow sweatbands involved. Draw your own conclusions.

How about I stay true to a 5 thing Friday and talk about 5 thing's I've been digging. 

1. Favorite phrase.

I'm impatient, and I'm annoyed and I think that after 3 weeks of work that all my clothes should fit again. But I know that won't happen, I need to be patient and trust the process. It works. I know it works. But there's a tiny voice inside me that says "what if it doesn't work" what will you do then? But it does work and will work. It worked before and will work again.

2. Fav new find

Sweet heaven, HAVE YOU TRIED THIS??? The entire pint is only 240 calories and IT TASTES LIKE ICE CREAM. Not like that Arctic Zero BS, but real, delicious ice cream. They have it at the Kroger and Whole Foods near me and it's sooooo good. Kev is super happy with the Chocolate and it fits in his low carb diet. Personally, I despise chocolate ice cream. It's gross. give me vanilla any day.

3. Favorite Brunch I make.

That's right, this weekend is the annual choir brunch and I'll be making bunch for 30ish people Sunday. I'm going to try my luck again and make cinnamon rolls. After my success on Christmas morning, I'm going to press my luck and try it again. Wish me luck with the yeast.

4. Favorite part of training.

TOYS! I've said it before, but training is like the mob. Even if you get out, you never really get out. OMG, you were a trainer for 4 years, can you train something? Sure. I can train some sales something. I'm a firm believer that you need something to play with when you're in a class. It helps you think better and the participants figdet less. My interns bought Chinese finger traps, squishy balls and Silly Putty. People fricking love the Silly Putty. 

5. Favorite Running Music?

HAMILTON! I am 120% on the Hamilton bandwagon. It's sooooo good. I've been listening to it at work in the background, but I out it on for my run Saturday and it was perfect! Everything I wanted it to be. Just download it and listen to it. ALL THE TIME.

That's all for me! Wish me luck at my weigh in tomorrow!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

First Weigh-in and a Weekend Re-Cap

Well, Saturday was my first official weigh-in and if you follow me on Instagram, you know I lost 2.5 pounds. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely excited to see a loss, but it was a little anti-climactic. Here's why. 

1. Remember last week when I said I regained 42.5 pounds? Yea, I didn't. I regained 45 pounds. I don't know what happened and the number I thought I saw was different than it really was. Maybe I blacked put momentarily or something. Anyways, when I got on the scale I saw what I "thought" was my starting weight and I assumed I didn't lose anything. Thankfully I did and 2.5 is better than nothing but eh, it's what I already thought I weighed.

2. The first time I did Jenny, my first weigh-in was -6 pounds. Now, I know that the last time my initial weight was in the afternoon and I did 10 days before the next weigh-in. I was going to see a bigger loss. Still, I wanted to see something closer to 6, like 4ish

3. I know I would have had a better weigh-in and been close to 4 had my uterus not betrayed me. That's right, I woke up to a special friend. I was so stinking mad. I was apparently really bloated because I must have peed 80 times over the next 2 days. Thanks.

I got home from my weigh-in and it was time for breakfast. I went with the french toast, which was one of my weekend favs. I heated up some frozen Trader Joe's berries for my fruit portion and it was lovely. 

After breakfast, I was off to Body Pump. I haven't been to Pump much recently because I was healing my hip. Also, I've been going to spin class more frequently and pump fell by the wayside. Now when I go, I lower my weights from where I was, but I still have soreness the next day. I really should add it back in once a week.

I really like that a 10am Saturday class exists at the gym closest to my house. What I don't like are the people who attend. There is an older gentleman who is often at the weekend classes. I know he's a regular but he's so fricking obnoxious. He's constantly shouting or egging on one of his friends or just being annoying. Everyone rolls their eyes when he starts but it's a gym class and no one will ever say anything to him. He's the reason why I stopped going to the class several months ago and ran on Saturday mornings instead. Ugh. I might have to go back to running.

After a lot of glaring and RBF, I got home, showered and then my brother and I headed off to a flea market / antique show. We weren't impressed and both agreed that these weren't antiques, but instead things that we had in our house growing up and if we really wanted them, we'd get them from mom.

I had this phone and sold it for $2 at a garage sale in the 90s. They wanted $28 for it. No.

After that I did some house things and then Kev and I headed to dinner. We went to Nana Steak in Durham and it was pretty good. we split the prime rib and had vegetables. Well, I had about 4oz and Kev ate the rest. You can definitely eat out on Jenny Craig and still lose weight. I was just a little nervous that it was so soon and I want a big loss this week. But we still had a lovely time.

On our way home, we stopped at Pier One and got some lamps. A few months ago I received an email from Influenster that someone signed up using my affiliate link, I was entered into a drawing and won a $100 gift card to Pier One! NICE. I've been holding onto it for a while and I finally remembered to cash it in.

It's a bad picture, but they're really cool.

Sunday morning I woke up and made some coffee, ate a breakfast scramble and watched a Twister Sister documentary. It was surprisingly good.

Then I ran to the mall to get a new pair of flip flops and I came across a really cute shirt. The large fit well and was perfect. The med, not so much but I got the smaller size knowing that I'm going to be able to happily wear it in a few weeks. Goal shirt!

Made my lunch and a off to Body Flow. Really, I got a new yoga mat last week at TJ Maxx for $9 and I was excited to try it out.

There's a lady who goes to this class who wears baggy shirts and no bra. I unfortunately know this because some poses force you to bend over and look a certain way. Then you see things you don't need to see. 

Dinner, then off to the store to get more fruit for the week

Chicken fettuccine Alfredo with zoodles and broccoli.

Now I'm finishing up this post and eating some Ranch Snaps. They're new to me and apparently a "lentil crisp". Not bad.

How was your weekend?

Linking up with BLoved Boston!

Five Thing Friday

Look at this, I said I was going to blog this week and I did. Small wins folks, small wins.

Might as well take it old school and do a "Five Thing Friday". Heads up, I;m super tired because there was a storm last night and the dog and cats really wanted to come into the bedroom. Between all of their fussing, Lara didn't get much sleep. :(

1. A few weeks ago, my office expanded and we took over the the space on the other side of the hallway. Now the office is in a big 'U' and my team moved onto the other side of the office. They really like it, we have the new desks, I have a shinny new office, it's all good, except for the temperature. 

It is so damn cold on our side, BUT my office is like 10 degrees warmer than everyone else. If I;m OK, they're freezing. I'm hot and they're comfortable. The other day it was crazy cold and I had to send them this. 

I found some old, pre-rebrand gloves in the Marketing closet. I'm saving them for the next time they complain about the cold.

2. Back in the day, my Jenny weigh in was Saturday morning. I'd do my thing all week, hold on Friday night, weigh in the morning and if I was going to have a treat, it was Saturday. Then I had the entire week to be on track. Since my weigh-in week starts on Saturday, so does my work-out tracking (is that even a thing?)
Here's how this week looked
Saturday - Thought really hard about going to the gym. Really, really hard, but we went to the farmer's market instead and I was a little bummed about my weigh-in
Sunday - Went to the Southern Women's Show instead of yoga.
Monday - Boot Camp
Tuesday - Spin
Weds - Planned to go to boot camp but they hungry hit me and I knew I didn't have enough fuel to workout.
Thurs - So flipping tired. I had planned to go to spin though.
Friday - Kev and I have to get some photos taken

Just 2 workouts this week. Not awesome but better than nothing.

3. My brother lives with us now and while he's looking for a job, he's been taking artistic pictures of my animals.

With the light through the trees, she's like the second coming of dog.

I'm pretty sure Luger has a stash of mouse and bird carcasses under the deck 

This is Godiva, I am her person. She talks and says my name and it's creepy AF.

Still waiting for Kev to give the green light for me to get a baby goat. He keeps saying no, something about baby goats not being baby goats forever. Whatever.

You live in the Raleigh Durham area and have pets? My brother can take some super awesome pictures for you. 

4. I've been making  my team taste test things I find. It started with the 3 new peanut M&M flavors. Chili Nut, Honey Nut and Coco Nut. Then we did popcorn and yesterday we started on Oreos. So far the Reeses ones are a hit and the 'filled cupcakes' taste like unicorn tears. Sounds delish. I have partaken of 0. Because weigh-in.

5. Saturday I found the biggest Honey crisp apple I've ever seen in my life. This bad boy weighed 1.5lbs and at $4.99 a pound, that folks, is a $7.50 apple. 

I got this shirt at the last Kappa Delta training academy I went to. One of our platforms is building confidence in women. The shirt says "All I need is coffee and confidence". #GoConfidently

Have a great weekend and wish me luck tomorrow! Fingers crossed I see a decent loss!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

Jenny Craig Food Hacks

So, I was contemplating what I should blog about today, back in the day, Wednesday was some sort of fashion, (I think) but remember, this is now a weight loss and exercise blog... sure, it's still me though. Oh, before I go on, Jenny Craig has no idea that I'm on their plan, I'm just another person eating some food. Mkay...

So, like I said, I ordered 3 days of Jenny food online then I went to my center and got a week's worth. I even tried to follow the "Week One" planned menu, hey, at least I'll get to try something that I hadn't before. 

For those folks who aren't familiar, on Jenny Craig you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and 1 snack on them, then you supplement 2 milk servings, 1 1/2 fruit servings and all the vegetables your colon can handle.

Replace the words with, "I ate too much Broccoli. I ate all the broccoli. We're out of broccoli, so much broccoli." and you have me Monday night. Kev loves my songs. 

So, on to some of my Jenny hacks!

1. TOAST EVERYTHING. Really, if it can be toasted or cooked in the oven, do it! I'm thinking about bringing a toaster oven to work and putting it in my office. Well, I'm exaggerating, but now I want one. 

The Turkey Burger is one of my favs and when it was in my surprise box, it was a hella surprise. 

Veggies for DAYS!

2. Embrace your inner OCD. No offense to people who are truly stricken with the disease, but I have a slight twinge of it and it comes out full force when it comes to some things, like not having your food touch. In this stunning plate, I picked the potatoes out of the rest of the meal and cooked them in a pan.

Note the peas in the picture, but not on my plate. F peas. I hate them.

3. Put the food on a plate. Plate food is more like real food. I'll be honest though, this sunshine sandwich is one of my favorites and I'd eat it off a hobo's sock if that was my only option.

Plate food.

 4. Make a big ass pile of veggies. Embrace the volumizing and add all the free veggies you can handle.

We got $2 green beans from the farmer's market. So many...

 5. Save something special for the weekend. I love the breakfast scramble on Sunday morning. Mainly because I like to pick put the potatoes, cook them in a pan with some seasoned salt and pepper and eat them separate from the eggs.

This is mainly because I need a pan, and I can't make it like this at work.

6. Embrace condiments! Know which condiments are free foods, like mustard, and flee from things like mayo, but you should anyways because mayo is gross.

But let me tell you the story of the fish and chips. When I did Jenny the first time, I loved the Fish and Chips and I especially loved the little packet of malt vinegar in there. I was seriously looking forward to this ALL DAY and you know what, the stopped putting in the mail vinegar! AND I didn't have any in the house. Thusly, I had all the sads.

So much broccoli...

So there are some JC hacks a la me.  How everyone is having a great week!

Have you tried the coconut LaCroix? Delicious or tastes like suntan lotion? Discuss.