Hawaiian Chicken

The recipe I used for chicken this week I've actually had for quite a long time.  Many moons ago, when I was quite young in my early 20s, my mom gave me this recipe.  I instantly fell in love.  I've since adapted it to my taste.  I now pass it on to you, dear reader.

Hawaiian Chicken

1 package chicken breasts (the one that has 3 boobs in the package)
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
1 large can crushed pineapple

Throw all the ingredients in the crock pot.  Cook on low for 3-4 hours.  Cut 1/3 off each breast.*  Eat.

*This is how I make 3 boobs into 4 equal-ish portions.  The three 1/3 pieces combined make the 4th serving. 

The recipe calls for green onions, but I can never be bothered to buy and cut up green onions.  The recipe doesn't seem to be lacking.  Also, the recipe does not include the honey in the crock pot.  You're supposed to cook it in the crock pot, then take out the chicken, brush with honey, and bake.  Again, something I just can't be bothered to do.  I like easy stuff.  It also doesn't include pineapple.  But what is Hawaiian without pineapple?

Yum.

A Happy Surprise (No, I'm not pregnant)

I decided since I am back on the wagon, I should go ahead and bring my scale back from the dead and buy it a shiny new battery.  I went to check it, stepped on it just to be sure, and found that it's alive.

Bravely, I let it weigh me.  I was fresh out of the shower, dressed, with slippers on.  Generally I weigh myself as soon as I wake up, after I use the bathroom.  Nekked.  Dry as a bone.  I expected the number to be fairly high, considering my hair was still very wet and I have been avoiding the scale for around two months, but it surprised me.  Despite my damp state, the number that appeared was surprisingly low.  Like, I've probably lost around ten pounds without noticing low.  Maybe even more considering how tight my clothes had gotten which made me even less inclined to fix my scale because I didn't care to see what number I had gotten up to.  So.  That's nice.

On to more news.  I have received my Turbo Jam package, poured over all the reading materials, and maintained the eating plan I started last week.  Today I'll do my first TJ workout.  As for nutrition, I have a list of foods that are good and a list of not so good foods.  The document also includes a few recipe suggestions.  So here is my eating plan for this week:

Breakfast
Greek yogurt with a bit of granola

Lunch
Hawaiian chicken
Honey glazed carrots

Snack
Luna bar

Snack #2 (to be eaten whenevs)
White peach

Dinner
Butter lettuce salad with mandarin oranges and sesame dressing
Baked sweet potato fries (frozen)

Dessert
Frozen honey greek yogurt bites with banana, topped with chocolate (or a fruit & milk Fruttare)


Mmmm.  Sounds like a tasty week to me!  Today I discovered my breakfast yogurt (that I bought yesterday) was spoiled (note to self: always check the expiration dates when grocery shopping), so I'll have my peach for breakfast.  And I shoved some granola in my face.  Tasty!  Want some recipes?  Stay tuned!

(Crap.  I just realized the peach I grabbed wasn't one of the ripe ones.  I think I am doomed for breakfast today.)

When What You're Doing Doesn't Work

Hello!  Huge apologies for my silence.  Life has been fairly hectic around here, so I haven't had much room in my brain for extra thoughts.  I tend to go brain dead once I finally get a moment to sit down.

One of my problems has actually been blogger's block.  Usually I have lots on my mind that I want to talk about!  As I was cleaning the cat box (gross. this is my very least favorite chore ever. could stem from the fact that I've really never been a cat person. hmm.), I was thinking about how many times I've said, and how many times I've heard someone else say, why isn't this working?  Admittedly, I do not have a proven track record in this area.  But, I think there are some logical steps that we don't always think about.  Here are my thoughts:

1. Be honest with yourself.  How closely are you following your plan?  Are you logging or tracking everything you eat?  Are you measuring your food?  A lot of times we underestimate how much we eat and the size of our portions.  You've heard to use a smaller plate for your meals.  That works!  When you put a piece of chicken, some rice, and more veggies than you care to eat on a huge plate, you probably have a lone sad violin playing in your head.  Put all this stuff on a smaller plate and suddenly it looks like you're having a huge meal!  How are you possibly going to finish all this food!  It's awesome.  Try it!  Also, get a kitchen scale that you can put a plate and adjust to zero each time you put food on the plate.  This is the one I have.  I can adjust whether it measures by ounces, fluid ounces, grams, etc.  It taught me that I drink way, way more in a normal glass of wine than the 4 oz. serving you're supposed to have.  When there is about 100 calories in each 4 ounces, that's a lot of calories that I wasn't accounting for.  Don't forget to count your drinks and all those M&Ms you sneak in at work.  You'll find that you don't want to eat those three M&Ms because you don't want to log it.  You want to see that you're being awesome, not sneaky!

2. Give it time.  This is something I'm really bad at.  Changing your lifestyle and seeing the results takes time.  Yeah, I know it sucks.  But weight often piles on as a result of instant gratification, and you have to realize that weight loss doesn't really care how badly you want instant gratification.  It's going to do whatever it damn well pleases and you're just going to have to accept it.  Or keep eating that ice cream because you have to have it, and keep gaining weight.  I was watching the recent episode of The Biggest Loser where one of the contestants didn't lose any weight that week despite following a strict diet and working his butt off in the gym.  The trainers were flabbergasted.  If you've read my blog for a while, you know I've been through this too.  Sometimes your body doesn't cooperate in the time frame you want to give it.  Your body forces you to follow it's own time frame.  You just need to keep at your plan and let it work.

3. Plan.  One of the most convenient diets I was on was Nutrisystem.  The only groceries I had to get were my veggies and my dairy stuff.  Otherwise the food was grab, heat and eat.  However that can't be every day life for the rest of your life.  I like to plan things.  When I plan out my food, I am much more successful.  Hubs and I don't eat together 80% of the time, so I sit down on Thursday or Friday every week and plan what I will eat for the next week.  I like to make my grocery list according to what two or three meals I plan on cooking that week.  Then I can decide what meal sounds good first, and I'll eat that for four meals or however many servings it lasts.  I can eat the same breakfast almost every day so I pick what I want and go with that.  I like to have a variety of snacks, sides, and/or veggies.  So I'll put about three things on my list that I can rotate based on whatever sounds best to me in that moment.  I'm really good about sticking to a plan once I've made one.  However when I have to fly by the seat of my pants, that's when I give in to whatever sounds best at the time, even if it isn't the best choice.  In my humble opinion, this could be the best piece of advice I put on my blog.  Plan, plan, plan!

4. Change your plan!  My biggest success has come from the plan that completely blew my mind when I was given it.  For so long I've thought "I need to eat 1200-1400 calories to lose weight.  Eat low fat/non fat stuff.  Don't eat anything that tastes remotely yummy because it has too many calories.  You will probably feel starving for a while until your stomach shrinks to your new diet.  Don't eat less than 1200 calories because your body will go into starvation mode."  Now I'm following a plan that really doesn't follow any of those old beliefs I had.  I'm much happier than I've ever been on any diet before.  And I'm never starving!  It's miraculous!

5. Don't deprive yourself.  I don't think you can be successful if you say "Losing weight means I can never again have (((delicious food you love here)))"  What I DO think is that once you change the way you eat, you will naturally desire less of whatever crappy foods you ate before.  Over the summer I occasionally ate Taco Bell.  Out of the fast food options around my work, Taco Bell was one of the tastiest options to me.  The other day I thought about Taco Bell and it sounded revolting to me.  Taco Bell?  Gross!  I can feel my arteries clog up at the sound of it.  As you know, recently I made my favorite type of cake because I had a craving.  I licked the bowl, but then having a piece of cake once it was all frosted and ready to eat didn't seem appetizing to me.  This is a new feeling for me, and I 100% know it's because I've changed the way I eat overall, and now that amount of sugar just isn't appealing to me.  I NEVER imagined my sugar cravings would almost entirely fall off a cliff simply by changing the way I eat.  It's incredible.  I still eat sugar, but in moderation.  Which is exactly what I've been told, read, heard, is healthy!

Ultimately, I think the biggest thing is to find what works best for you.  Personally, I think I've finally found a lifestyle that does work for me, and I'm excited to see the changes that result!

The Past Year: 2012

 
This morning my friend and I were discussing the fact that we've been friends for just over a year now.  This prompted me to reflect on my progress, or lack thereof, over the last year.  A year ago in November, I was on the Nutrisystem plan.  A year ago I was 199 pounds.  I remember this because I blogged about it on the Nutrisystem website.  Presently I am almost 10 pounds heavier than I was a year ago.  I've been counting calories or on some other plan for almost the entire time.  What is wrong with this picture?  Have I not made any changes significant enough to lose any amount of weight simply by default?  Then I check out one of the blogs that I follow, of Bailey from Onederland or Bust!, and see the progress she's made since January.  It's not about the number she's lost, it's looking at her history and seeing a loss most weeks of the year.  Whereas mine has ever so slowly crept upward.  I think now that I have a new food plan in place, I'm on the right track.  My body already feels significantly better, even with the holiday season when I haven't exactly been the most consistent with it.

Now, I have had moments through the year when I've given up hope entirely.  I binged until I could binge no more.  These moments probably contributed to my ever increasing weight.  I've tried so hard to get out of the mindset that I just don't care.  I think I'm finally there.  I do care.  I finally notice the negative effect that junk food has on my body, and now that my body is functioning properly for the first time in years, I'm not so inclined to go back to where I was.  Looking forward to the next year, I plan to focus on my new food plan and really commit to it.  I plan on starting a new work out regimen.  These two goals are plenty enough to focus on and will also, by default, get me to where I want to be.  Maybe next year at this time I'll be remembering this moment and will be pleased with my own progress.

What goals do you plan on focusing on for the next year?

Total Gym Brain Fart

This weekend I was at the gym to attend my usual Zumba class.  However, the usual Zumba instructor wasn't there and the sub was a spastic gerbil.  So, I decided to swim instead.  I changed out of my barely sweaty gym clothes into my bathing suit, attached my key to my strap per my usual procedure, then went into the gloriously warm and wonderful pool.  I swam in my pathetic attempt to keep myself afloat (I'm a very new swimmer, within the last year or so, and still deathly afraid of water) until I was tired.  On my way back to the locker room I was focused on covering my new bright red hair, which I forgot that I had colored that morning, and was trying desperately to cover my pinky orange drippyness with their pristine and tiny white towels.  Suddenly I discovered that my key was missing.  Good thing I bring my googles (which I never use because I'm scared of my face in the water!)  I get myself back into the pool and proceed to look for my key on the pool floor.  There are two other half-swimmers watching me.  I go back and forth.  Back and forth.  Nada.  I retrace my steps in the locker room.  Check my locker just in case I actually forgot to lock it.  Still nothing.  I finally resign to needing to ask an employee for assistance, still in my wet bathing suit and towel, one turban wrapped around my pink leaking hair, and spikey non-shaved legs exposed to raw air.  No employee to be seen.  Usually they are often lurking in the locker rooms.  Today, no such luck.  None to be found.  I ponder asking a stranger to get someone for me.  Then I decide to waste time in the steam room.  Too anxious to relax, so I wander around the locker room some more, trying to look casual.  I decide to rinse the chlorine from my hair and bathing suit to waste more time.  Shower.  Dry off in the sauna.  Look for employee.  STILL, none to be found.  Clueless as to what to do with myself now, I walk back to my locker and look forlornly at it, willing it to just open please to spare me the embarrassment of asking someone to open it for me while standing wet and half naked.  Suddenly I see myself in the mirror from the side.  I notice something weird on my back.

What. The. Dude.

Found my key.  It had traveled my strap and settled it's merry self on the opposite side I had left it.

Wow.  Now entirely glad I didn't find an employee to ask, suffer the embarrassment of asking, only to find my key stuck to me.  Awesome.  Genius.  Welcome to my life.

On a happy note, I lost 2.2 lbs!  Well look at that!  Dietitian knows her stuff. :)

Split Personality Diet Thoughts

I'm super excited and feeling encouraged this week because I started my new dietitian recommended food plan.  WOOHOO!  I feel great.  I love all my food.  I've been eating some really yummy home cooked stuff.  It also feels great not to have processed food and I know my sugar consumption has probably fallen off a cliff.  I'm excited to see what this week's weigh in has in store on Saturday.

At the same time, I feel discouraged.  I'm scared and nervous because I've done this so many times before.  Start a new plan, feel motivated, then not see results.  This time my motivation has stuck with me longer than it has in the past, so I'm pretty happy with myself for that.  I just haven't seen any results.  Zero results in the past three or so months really sucks.  So that makes me feel down.


Also, I believe some of you are stalking me.  Let me know who you are!  Comment on posts or sign up for emails to let me know you're reading!  You can also "like" me on facebook at www.facebook.com/struggleswithafatass :)

Overeaters Anonymous

Yes, it is a real thing.  The first time I heard about it was several years ago when a friend was struggling with some weight issues (aren't we all?) and googled it.  I've also googled it myself on various occasions, and had other friends talk about it and google it too.  We're all a bunch of googlers.  One of my dear friends approached me about going to a meeting recently.  I had heard about the group before, and even poked around on their website, so what better time to try it out than with a girlfriend?

We were both shaking in our boots on our way into the meeting.  After the meeting we were emotional wrecks and sought comfort in none other but burgers and fries.

The first meeting we went to was a traditional style OA meeting.  We sat around a large table and took turns introducing ourselves, followed by our disease of choice.  (Actually I didn't know there was more than one until I went to the HOW meeting.)  We listened to members take turns reading the program guidelines, 12 steps to recovery, and a speaker reading from one of OA's books.  It was interesting to say the least.  My biggest struggle with OA is that even though they are not affiliated with any religion, you are still required to believe in a higher power and give up control to that higher power.  They do reference God and pray during the meeting.  I've struggled for the last several years with detaching myself from Christianity, so this is a very difficult barrier for me to pass.  Ultimately, I decided it is not one I would be able to pass.  At the end of the meeting they told us that there was another format of meeting, the OA HOW meetings.  HOW meetings are much more structured, but that's about all they said about them.

So, my friend and I attended a HOW meeting to see what the difference was.  It was huge!  Probably also in part to the group itself, but I left the meeting feeling like without a few of the very big requirements, I could keep going back.

The HOW meeting was, as the previous group had told us, very structured.  You are required to call your sponsor daily and go over your food plan for the day.  If you have any swaps in your food you need to call your sponsor.  If your sponsor doesn't answer, you have to call two more people.  This group follows the Big Blue Book of AA very closely.  OA in general is based off of AA's 12 step plan, but the HOW group read directly from the Blue Book.  OA believes that replacing the word "alcohol" with the word "food" makes the 12 step plan an excellent way to recover from overeating.  Many of the members mentioned the weight they've been relieved of by following this plan.  This group was extremely inspiring.  Not just because of the weight loss, but because of their support for each other and their enthusiasm.  They're also super welcoming of new people.  It really was a great experience. 

All in all, I felt like this was a really great organization for the right people.  But I'm going to stick with the plan given to me by the dietitian I met with last week. :)