Elf Fail, Overeaters Anonymous, Hypnosis for Weight Loss

I apologize for my absence, it's been an extremely busy week!

First of all, as my first week as an Elf for Health, I've totally failed, except for Monday.

Tuesday - Send a handwritten note to a friend.

I did intend to do this, but I don't have any stamps left and Walgreens didn't have any more cards with the postage already included on the envelope.  Elf fail.

Wednesday - Try a new workout.

I did not mean to try a new workout, but since I'm healed enough to go back to Zumba, I meant to make it to the gym.  However, I had a very difficult day at work and by the time I got home I was super exhausted and had a headache.  Elf fail.

Today - Get up 15 minutes early to meditate.
Eff that.  I have a hard enough time waking up.  Let's just say I meditated in my sleep this morning.  Elf fail.

So, obviously I haven't been great with my daily challenges.  However!  Monday night I had a lovely chat with a friend and we've decided to join together in our weight loss efforts.  Tuesday we went to an Overeaters Anonymous (yes, it's a real thing) meeting to check it out and see what it's all about.  Will blog more on that next week.  

We also discussed a recent Groupon for weight loss hypnosis.  I recently read an article written by one of my favorite bloggers, so my interest was doubly piqued.  We found a class being held this Saturday so we are going!  I've never been hypnotized so I'm interested to see what's going to happen.  Or, maybe they will focus more on self-hypnosis.  I really have no idea what to expect!

~Also~ we are going to meet with a dietitian on Monday evening.  I've wondered if I need to meet with a dietician, so I'm pretty pumped that we're going to meet with her.

Despite being a Bad Elf, there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to right now!

Elf for Health: Meatless Monday

The Elf for Health challenge starts today!  Today's challenge is Meatless Monday.  To be honest, I'm kind of struggling with this day.  I just haven't figured out what to do for dinner yet.  I thought I had something picked out from the store last night, but I can't seem to remember what I picked up.  Otherwise, here is the rest of the day:

Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ raisins
Lunch - Cheese tortillini
Snack - Pita bread w/ hummus (omg yum!)

I'm already enjoying being an Elf!  (Even though Hubs insists that I'm a hobbit, not an elf.)

Post Thanksgiving Weigh In

Well, I gained.  But I only gained .2 lbs, so considering it was Thanksgiving this week, that's not too bad.  I am quite happy that I didn't extend the holiday thinking by more than one day.  I also didn't over indulge on Thanksgiving, so I feel good about that.  I think I can almost get back to Zumba but every time I think my knee is good enough, it start to protest again.  I judge this mostly by my ability to use stairs.  I've been trying to use stair rails as crutches to get up and down stairs faster without putting too much strain on my knee.  When it starts protesting I pop some ibuprofen and stop trying to use my knee.  So, we'll see.  My friend that has been going to Zumba with me on Sunday nights is back in town, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be ready to shake it by tomorrow. 

Despite knowing that I shouldn't be too upset over a .2 lb gain, today I am feeling rather blue.  Something triggered some negative self thinking so I'm stuck feeling unpretty right now.  I am hoping that my next Gwynnie Bee package is in today's mail so I have a pretty new outfit to wear to work tomorrow.

I think part of the reason I'm feeling bleh about the gain is, again, it reinforces that I have no idea why I'm not losing weight.  I eat about 1450-1550 calories per day and burn between 2100-2300 on a normal day.  I finally scheduled my annual physical so that will be something I'll ask about. 

On the bright side, Elf for Health kicks off on Monday!  The first daily challenge is Meatless Monday, so I'll have to find something vegetarian to munch on.  Maybe I'll take this opportunity to pick up some veggie burgers, I used to have them for lunch all the time!  Yummmmm.  Tomorrow I get to find out who my first Elf buddy is!

Any vegetarian ideas for me?  Has anyone tried making tofu?

Post Thanksgiving Thoughts & First Gwynnie Bee Outfit

Hello everyone!  I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I had a good time without too much over indulging.  I didn't walk away from the day feeling sick from eating too much food.  Today I've been taking it easy, I had a heavy breakfast so I balanced it with a very light lunch.  I am hopeful that I will either pull in a small loss, or stay about the same.  I haven't been back to the gym since injuring my knee but hope to be back soon.  At this point I'm highly doubtful that I'll make my DietBet goal.  I have 12 days left to lose 4.3 lbs, and unless I can get back to the gym, I don't think I'm going to make it.  I'm really disappointed that I haven't been able to work out.  I was getting myself into a good routine.  I'm super proud of Hubs though, he's been going regularly so he can build up some nice abs for me.

Last week I received by first Gwynnie Bee package!  I most definitely want to continue my membership after my 30 day trial is up.  They just added a bunch of new items, and I can see how I will be able to go through the seasons easily wearing one new outfit a week.  This is what I wore this week:

It was so comfortable and I love that I get the feeling of wearing new clothes without having bought new clothes.  By the way, I totally heart the damask print.  Even without the belt it was slimming with perfectly placed swoopy parts of the pattern.  Love!  Next I'm receiving one of Gwynnie Bee's brand new outfits, a sweater type faux wrap dress.  What I'm not sure about is whether I need to wear tights because I really don't want to wear tights, but yesterday afternoon, Winter came.  Gross.  I was planning on wearing nude heels with the sweater dress so I wanted a nude leg.  

Any thoughts on winter time dress wearing?


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

Elf for Health - Holiday Challenge

On The Lean Green Bean blog, a holiday challenge is about to start!

Elf for Health

Elf for Health will feature daily challenges starting the day after Thanksgiving, and go on until the first week of January.  All participants receive an Elf to cheer you on!  In exchange, you are also that person's Elf.  Elves are switched out every two weeks, or three times during the challenge.  Elves are asked to email your Elf buddy a minimum of twice per week.  Elves can also do extra stuff and try to win prizes for Best Elf!  Prizes for Best Elf go out at the end of each round.  There is also one grand prize winner at the end for participation and being an all around awesome Elf.  There are also prizes for daily challenge winners!  That's a lot of potential prizes!  To top of all off and help us all be extra motivated, they've put together a Facebook group just for the Elf for Health challenge!  You can also follow by Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Check out the daily challenges here!  I've already signed up ... will you join me?

Friend Makin' Monday: Thanksgiving Edition

Another week of Friend Makin' Monday, make new friends, find new blogs to love, and learn more about me!  This week's questions are Thanksgiving related!

If you haven't participated in FMM, here's what to do:  Copy these questions into a new post on your blog, then come back here and comment with your link.  Make new friends!

Thanksgiving Edition

1. Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?  If so, please share them.  Since my husband and I got married last year, we are still working out our traditions.  We've only developed traditions for Christmas so far!

2. List at least three dishes that are on your family’s table every year. Besides the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls..... cherry pie, sweet potato casserole, and green beans with mushrooms.

3. Do you prefer pumpkin pie or pecan pie?  I LOVE pumpkin!

4. Will you watch football on Thanksgiving Day?  My husband does.  I'll spend that time curled up with Pug and my sister in law under a fuzzy blanket.

5. Do you plan to exercise Thursday?  No........ but I plan to swim tonight, and hopefully get in a work out on Wednesday depending on my knee.

6. Do you prefer ham or turkey?  Turkey all the way!!!!!!

7. Will you shop on Black Friday?  If so, where will you go first?  I try to avoid Black Friday.  I much prefer Cyber Monday!  I'm all about online shopping.

8. Do you take a nap on Thanksgiving?  Not always, but that doesn't mean I don't want to. :)

9. Share one dish that probably won’t be on anyone else’s table.  I don't think we're having anything special this year!

10. What are you thankful for today?  I'm thankful for my little family, and my ever increasingly awesome friends.

Your turn!  Answer these questions on your blog, then post your link below!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Not Losing and Confused

21 days.  21 days is how long I've been counting calories religiously.  In 21 days my weight has barely fluctuated.  What gives?  I checked my history on Calorie Count to make sure I haven't been fooling myself into thinking I've been doing well when I really haven't been.

The green bars are my deficits, the red is when I went over.  The purple line indicates the calories I burned that day, the blue line indicates calories consumed. (The empty green bar on the right is today, and all the check marks across the top are today's numbers so far.)

Okay.... so two days out of 21 have I gone over.  Why am I not losing?  When I had counted calories previously, and didn't lose, I thought maybe I was still eating too many calories and that I don't burn what Calorie Count believes is average.  Hence, my Bugg.  In using my BodyBugg I discovered that I burn around 2100-2300 calories on a day that I don't exercise.  On Calorie Count, I actually had to change my activity level from Sedentary because the daily burned calories didn't match what I actually burned.  On days that I work out, I add the activity to Calorie Count and make sure that my calories burned for that day equal to roughly what my Bugg says that I've burned.  So, this chart should be pretty accurate.  My therapist and NP friend have encouraged me to make my appointment for my physical, so maybe I do need to make that appointment so I can bring this up.  This honestly doesn't make sense to me, and it's frustrating.  What am I missing?