Happy Tuesday! Sorry for being late with my results this week! For last week's results, click here. It has been a wonderful but busy weekend. We took a trip to Chicago where we got to visit with a dear friend, then have a crazy Passover Seder with a bunch of my family. I started off strong, staying focused and on track, but I had a few hiccups during the middle and end of the week. I continued to use the My Fitness Pal app to track calories and worked out everyday except Sunday and Saturday. The weekly challenge was to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Luckily I had no problem with that as I've limited myself to only drinking water and coffee.
Sunday was the first difficult day I've had since beginning the competition because I had a baby shower to attend. What I've been trying to maintain is having a plan and sticking to it. Unfortunately, there are times where the food is out of my control. Since I knew there was a possibility I may have more calories than normal for lunch, I ate an apple with peanut butter and had a cup of coffee as breakfast before heading to the baby shower.
It is so hard to count calories when you aren't sure what exactly the food is and how it is made. I ended up eating a couple chicken taquitos along with some tortilla chips and cheesy rotel dip. I did my best to find those things in My Fitness Pal so that I could have some sort of estimation. After leaving the shower, I went prom dress shopping with my niece, which was nice to get some walking in. Dinner was no better than lunch because I hadn't prepared anything in advance. I ended up eating McDonalds, ugh! I used my calorie counter to make sure the calories were low enough, but that kind of food still feels really gross compared to the fresh quality foods I've been eating lately. Definitely not my best day :(
Monday I got back on track. I started my day off with an apple and peanut butter followed by a cup of coffee. I did 30 minutes of kickboxing during the baby's first nap, then had vegetable soup with a serving of pita crackers on the side. For dinner, I made some of my delicious chicken and onions with steamed broccoli, carrots and cauliflower on the side. I did have a late night snack of string cheese and a fudgesicle, but overall it was a very good day for me!
Tuesday started off strong with an Apple Peanut Butter Green Smoothie. Of course I followed it with a coffee :) Lunch was identical to Monday: vegetable soup with a side of pita chips. I tried out a Pilates video during Olivia's afternoon nap. I liked a lot of the exercises, but in order to do a lot of the moves I need to strengthen my core. Having had two c-sections, I definitely struggle with my ab muscles. I think that I will wait to go back to Pilates until I am in better shape!
Dinner was delicious salmon with a sweet potato on the side. Overall, I had a very low calorie day so I decided to splurge for dessert. Paul is known for making AMAZING milkshakes. We measured everything out so that I could track the calories. It is also kind of incredible to realize how many calories those milkshakes are. It was delicious, but I don't think I will have another one for awhile!
Wednesday was another tough day. Not only was it the 15 year anniversary of the day Paul and I started dating (which means us going out to dinner), but I also had breakfast plans with a friend. I went into it optimistic, but concerned. As much as these things go against my eating plan, I need to be able to work special circumstances like this into my life while staying healthy. For breakfast, I ordered eggs, bacon and hash browns. The meal came with toast but I opted not to even touch it! We did walk around Target after breakfast, so at least I was able to walk some of those calories off.
After I got home, Olivia went down for a nap and I did 30 minutes of kickboxing. That has become my favorite exercise because I feel like it gives me the best workout. By the time I finish, I am sweating and out of breath. It also feels like it works all of my major muscle groups.
Breakfast was so filling that I ended up skipping lunch because I didn't get hungry until mid-afternoon. I ate an apple with peanut butter as an afternoon snack. We decided to go to the Chinese buffet for dinner. I felt like it was a good choice for me because I could control my portion sizes and just eat a little of everything :) I ended the day being below my calorie goal, but it obviously wasn't the healthiest food that I consumed!
Here's a picture of Paul and me 15 years ago :)
Thursday was a perfect day according to my plan! I had my green smoothie for breakfast, followed by kickboxing during Liv's nap. For lunch I ate my Chicken Vegetable soup. Dinner was chicken with onions and a sweet potato on the side. Later that night, I snacked a string cheese and a fudgcicle. If I could do that every single day the pounds would be flying off!
Friday consisted of prepping to go to Chicago for the weekend. Knowing we had plans to go out for deep dish pizza with a close friend upon arrival, I tried to minimize the calories I consumed throughout the day. For breakfast I ate an apple with peanut butter with a coffee on the side. I did 30 minutes of kickboxing, then had vegetable soup for lunch. Before leaving town, I ate a string cheese because I knew we would be having a late dinner.
As a competitor in a Biggest Loser competition, I do not recommend having Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza for dinner. As a human being with taste buds...... YUMMMM! It was so good that I can't even feel bad that I ate it. #SorryNotSorry :) We did walk to the restaurant, so maybe that makes it a little better?
I also want to point out that the friend we were visiting is the creator and leader of this Biggest Loser competition. I am so grateful to her for starting something that has given me such strong motivation to lose weight and get healthier!
Sundown on Friday was also the beginning of Passover. I haven't been eating many of the foods that are prohibited during Passover recently, but it still throws a bit of a wrench into my normal routine.
Saturday was a day that was completely out of my control. I decided to just go with the flow and take it as it came. For breakfast, my beautiful friend made me delicious cheesy eggs with coffee on the side. After breakfast, we left my her downtown apartment and headed to my Oma's apartment. We visited for awhile, then headed to a restaurant for lunch.
The Bagel is a Jewish deli in Chicago that serves Matzoh Ball soup with matzoh balls the size of my fist. Of course, I had to have a bowl :) I had a bread-less corned beef "sandwich" on the side. AKA, a pile of corned beef. It was all amazing! I didn't even attempt to track the calories, which is probably good because it wouldn't have been a low number.
Next we went to my aunt's house for our Passover Seder. My cousin took us on a nice walk to the local park so the kids could play while my aunt finished up the cooking. When we got back, the appetizers were out and all of the guests had arrived. I had a couple chips and a couple mini hot dogs, but skipped over most of the appetizers. It's a good thing I did because there was so much food to come!
There were a few things eaten during the reading of the Haggadah: matzoh, charoset, bitter herbs, etc. Then came dinner. I had brisket, apricot chicken, sweet potato, brussel sprouts and asparagus. Dessert was the kicker though. At this point, I had thrown all of the rules out the window. The collective argument from everyone at the table was that it was a holiday. I happily allowed them to convince me that it was okay to have a small piece of seven layer cake, a chocolate locust, a brownie and a peanut butter ball. Not the best way to lose weight, but boy was it tasty. Especially the peanut butter ball!
All in all, it was a rough week! I had a lot of curve balls thrown at me and I can't say that I reacted as well as I should have. Luckily I have the mindset to just move on after mistakes are made. I brought my scale to Chicago so that I could weigh myself at the same time that I normally do. I was hoping to still have lost weight, but I was really nervous as I stepped on the scale.
Drumroll...........
One. I lost one measly pound. I guess I should be happy that I hadn't gained weight after the excess of the Seder, but it was still pretty disappointing. I'm hoping that I can use the discouraging weight loss to motivate me to do better. Fortunately this week has been much less eventful so far!
I am still sitting in second place in the rankings, but hopefully I can have a big weight loss this week so I can pull into the lead!
My goal for this week is to stick to the plan even when things are different than normal. If that means planning in advance for times where I won't be home to eat my usual foods, then that is what I will have to do.
How do you handle eating healthy during holidays?
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