Spring Cleaning.... DONE!!

During the past year we have been gradually setting aside the clothes that no longer fit us. We have now lost well over 150 pounds between us, and the result have become very noticeable in our closet space. John had been storing all the "big man" clothes in the guest room, and I kept rearranging my closet space until it became obvious the "big gal" clothes far out numbered anything else.

Today we gathered up all the clothes and took them over to a donation site for a local charity. It feels good to give to the less fortunate and gain about 75% more closet space at the same time. As soon as we get to our ideal weight, we can so on a shopping spree to re-fill our closets. It feels even better to be getting thin and healthy
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Random musings late on a Saturday night

I bit the bullet and finally committed to daily exercise of some type at least 3 days a week. In the past 2 weeks I've averaged 5-6 mile bike rides. I rode 4 days last week and 5 days this week. I even talked John into riding with me today.

Last weekend we did a little Geocaching on our way home from grandson's birthday party. Found 2 out of the 4 we went after. Today we went back to one of the caches we found on our first Geocaching adventure to replace a foreign coin we lost by accident (a coin fell out of the cache when we opened the container and disappeared in a pile of rocks.) Rule number one about Geocaching: Take what you want, but replace it with something of equal or greater value.

I must say, I'm becoming a pretty creative cook throughout this process. Last night we had chicken and veggies with a marinara sauce over penne pasta and a salad on the side. Tonight it was grilled pork brisket and grilled zucchini with herb roasted onion and potato wedges.... Total calories: 393, including the cup of 1% milk. Tomorrow night... Scallops in a white wine sauce over whole wheat linguini. If I had the money, I'd open a restaurant for folks wanting to eat really great food and still stay on a healthy nutrition plan.

We are planning our next trip to Costa Rica the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we'll be returning on December 6th. We can't wait for our Tico family to see how much weight we've lost since our April trip.
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Our Unique Wedding Anniversary Gift

We decided to give ourselves a unique wedding anniversary gift this year and take up geocaching as a way to get out and get more exercise. So, yesterday we bought a GPSr and we went out on our hunt this afternoon.

We found 3 out of the 4 caches we went after. Not too bad for a couple of newbies. There are only 886,668 more for us to find.

You can get info about geocaching at this link Geocaching

We still plan to go out and share a romantic meal at our favorite French Bistro later this week and then we can go geocaching next weekend to work off the extra calories.

This is going to a great way to burn calories and stay fit. We can do this biking, hiking and walking together anywhere in the world.
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I hate to exercise....

I have always hated to exercise, but there is no denying it does burn calories. John has started to wear a pedometer and according the steps taken, he is walking more than a mile a day at work.

I've started walking about 1.5 miles, or more, 3 or 4 mornings a week. It is so hot here in Houston, I have to walk before 9 AM or the heat will do me in before I can circle the block

I also managed to drag my bike out of the garage and talked a girlfriend into riding with me. I rode about 6 miles yesterday, but my riding buddy called early this morning to say she was too sore to ride today. She will try to ride with me tomorrow. I really don't want to ride by myself. Let's face it, I'm not a kid anymore and accidents happen. I'd rather be with someone, just in case.

Even though I hate exercise, I've come to terms with it and I'm committed to keep it up. Hopefully, my efforts will start to show up on the scale soon. It sure will be nice when summer is over and we get some nice cool weather for a change. It will make the walking and the biking a lot more enjoyable.

We took our measurements last week. John has lost a total of 22 inches overall and I've lost a total of 24 inches!!

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Small Plates

I grew up in a family of 7, my parents, 4 siblings and myself. Informal meals were always served on a long counter with 4 bar stools on either side. The counter was actually a half wall between the kitchen and dining room. Food was always served "family style" with lots of dishes and platters placed in the middle of the counter. We would pass the dishes around so everyone could load up their plate for the first serving followed by seconds and sometimes even thirds. This is how I developed my early relationship with food.

When I married and had children of my own, I kept the same habits and found myself serving food to my family the same way I learned as a child. Once the boys got a little older, we all started loading our plates up in the kitchen so we could eat in front of the TV. I know, I know.... this was a terrible thing to do, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Now that we are older and wiser, we have developed new methods to help us stay focused on our new relationship with food. I have retired all the 12" inch dinner plates and started using the 9" inch salad plates to serve all our main entrees. I now plate all food in the kitchen and carry the plate to the dining room table. Serving dishes and platters are left in the kitchen with the pots and pans, so there is no going back for a second helping. The only exception to this rule is when we have company.

I find it really is true... "We eat with our eyes first." So, presentation has a lot to do with meal satisfaction. Here is the photo from last night's home cooked dinner. We split an 8 ounce Ahi Tuna steak, seared rare on the panini grill, dipped in toasted sesame seeds and a sugar-free teryaki sauce. This was served over a bed of stir-fried garlic spinach with key lime juice and a side of brown & wild rice. We also had a small cucumber, onion and grape tomato salad tossed in a creamy Greek yogurt & cider vinegar dressing. It wasn't a lot of food, but it was delicious and more that satisfying. Total number of calories: 397
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SparkPeople & "Me and My Shadow"

A couple of months ago the morning news show, Good Morning America, ran a segment on weight loss. They interviewed a female doctor that has recently lost over 100 pounds. She had been overweight for years and felt it was important for her to loose the weight and set a healthy example for her patients. She said she owed a lot of her success to the motivation and tools she found on the web site SparkPeople. After the show, I looked up SparkPeople on the web and after reading some of the success stories I decided to sign up as a member. I have have been a yo-yo dieter most of my life, but the tools for tracking nutrition and exercise have made it so easy to stay on top of our daily goals. Now that I have mastered a balanced diet and portion control for the first time in my life, I use the SparkPeople tools to track our food intake and browse the recipes members have contributed to find new and interesting meals.

There is also a community forum for members were we can post stories, words of encouragement, etc. Today there was an interesting story from one of the members that echos my goals for the future.

I asked Trudy, another SparkPeople member, if I could share her post on our blog and she has graciously agreed. Here it is...

"Me and My Shadow...

How does that song go?

I was walking the other day and looked down at the sidewalk and saw this stranger walking with me. I stared at the image and for a brief moment I asked "Who the heck is that?" "This person doesn't have all those lumps and bumps of ugly fat on her that I do"... A brief moment, then tears came to my eyes as it hit me. This was ME.

I weighed myself yesterday. The scales said 141.6...I realized that I had now lost 70 pounds! Then I put on my gift to myself- a pair of size 8 Kymaro jeans I was saving for this moment. Never in my life have I worn a size 8. They look good, yes, I can honestly tell you that. Oh, the journey is not over, far from it with another six pounds to go in order to reach my goal and then toning up my body. All in good time, but for now I reflect on some of the things I have learned on this my journey of a million steps.

I have learned that the prison of shame and guilt that I had built was my own creation and that I had the power to tear it down, or to build it up. It is all up to ME.

I had to learn to take personal responsibility for every bite of food that I put into my mouth, and that I had to eat healthy to BE healthy.

I had to learn that you either do IT (diet/exercise), or you don't -- there's no middle ground and that life is full of choices and I choose to be happier and healthier with mine.

I learned that I could acknowledge myself in ways other than eating. I no longer have to be an "emotional eater" to do that.

I learned to admit to myself that I was fat and unhealthy because I chose to overeat and I chose foods that were unhealthy and fattening.

I learned I just needed to find a diet plan that worked for ME. For me this is the idiot proof diet plan. Eating the right combination of foods, eating small portions knowing I will eat again in two hours, and eating healthy food was and is my key to success.

I learned that I am not a failure even though I may have "failed" when I dieted in the past.

I have learned that "temptations" along my journey are merely a test to my commitment. And, if I give myself the "gift" of an occasional temptation it makes the journey go much better.

I have learned that losing weight is not the end result but the beginning of a new chapter -- complete with new challenges, commitments and dreams!

I have learned that the journey will NEVER be over for me, that this is just the beginning of another journey to a happier and healthier life full of mountains and valleys, but with the help of all my SparkFriends I will accept the hills and valleys and travel with them...with the knowledge that I CAN continue, and I CAN do this, with their help and support."

Thanks to Trudy for sharing...
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In my last post I mentioned John and I have lost 85 pounds between us. We have changed our eating habits and discovered we can eat just about everything if we limit the quantity and adjust some of the preparation methods. It's not rocket science, but in the past, neither one of us paid much attention to what we put in our mouths. We really enjoy eating, so it became paramount that we find a way to lose weight while satisfying our hunger with tasty foods.

Now that we have been committed to this since February, it has truly become a way of life and I don't think we could ever go back to our bad eating habits again. The price is just too high!

We have adjusted our calorie intake to an average between 1200 and 1500 calories per day. We eat 6 times a day, so we are never hungry. Since this calorie intake is so much less than what a normal body requires, we can't help but drop the pounds. I did a little research to back this up and here are the calorie requirements recommended by the "experts" at our goal weight:

Daily Calorie Requirement for MEN
Height: 5' 10"
Lifestyle: Lightly Actively
Desired Weight: 160
Calorie Requirement: 2000

Daily Calorie Requirement for WOMEN
Height: 5' 3"
Lifestyle: Lightly Actively
Desired Weight: 135
Calorie Requirement: 1600

I am now preparing meals that average 300-350 calories each. We supplement the meals with 3 snacks a day that average 100 calories each. The snacks are eaten mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening.

We started this journey by joining the Jenny Craig Weight Loss program. In the beginning, we got all our meals and snacks from them and then gradually I started adding in meals I had prepared. Now, I prepare all of the meals and most of the snacks. We still go to our local Jenny Craig center every Saturday to weigh in and keep ourselves on track.

There is a link to our family cookbook at the top of this page. I am going to start sharing all of my low calorie recipes with anyone looking for a healthy, well balanced meal. I will add the letters "*WP*" to the title of each low-cal recipe. I also plan to go back and edit each of recipes I have already posted to add in the nutritional information.

Below the blog postings you will find a ticker tracking tool we are using to mark our progress toward reaching our weight loss goal. At the rate we are going, we expect to be showing off a new wardrobe next year.

Next, I will tell you about all the new recipes I have come up with that make it easy to stick to this lifestyle....
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