Week 31 - Out with July and in with August
Scrambled eggs
Sausage links
Biscuit with grape jelly
Chocolate almond ice cream (1.5 cups approximately)
Cottage cheese
Sunflower seeds
Raisins
Two slices of Pizza Hut Super Supreme pizza
The little one and I went to the state capital on Friday and stayed overnight so he could attend an event hosted by the state conservation department. We had hotel breakfast (which was not the best I’ve ever had, but it did the job. The event we attended required us to do some walking, which was nice after having a bad night of sleep. The little one had a great time at the event and eventually caught a minnow and a crawdad. He was very excited! After we finished the event, we stopped by the best ice cream place in the state and the little one had some ice cream that my Dad (his Papaw) loved. He said he may have to have it every Christmas like Papaw did. I love that he wants to keep a little bit of Dad with him. They didn’t have long together, but it’s wonderful that he’s trying to keep Dad’s memory alive.
After the delicious ice cream, we headed home. I finished one of the books I’ve been reading then headed to the gym for a workout. I did notice while out of town that my butt didn’t seem as saggy as it did before I started to eat better and work out. Something that’s been bothering me is that I’m still not pleased with what I see in the mirror when I look at myself, however, when I compare where I am now to where I was at the end of June, I’m so proud of myself. Slowly, day by day, I’ll get there.
July 28 -
Carrots
Salad (lettuce mix with carrots and cabbage, green peppers, bacon pieces, red peppers, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, grape tomatoes)
Chicken fajita bowl (chicken, basmati rice, sauteed peppers and onions)
Tomato
Thin Mints (¾ serving)
Andes Mints (½ serving)
Today I was WAY under on calories according to MyFitnessPal, but the chicken fajita bowl is not something that is available to the app or website so I have to kind of guess the amounts of the things I had in the bowl. With that being said, I may have been closer to the calorie goal. I had hoped to have an ice cream sundae, but it ended up being a bust so I had to scramble to get some calories. I wasn’t terribly hungry but I REALLY wanted some sweets. So, it was nice to have the sweets at the end of the day. I took today as an active rest day so there were no “extra” calories to “burn through” which was good at the end of the day.
July 29 -
Taco Bell Crunchwrap
Taco Bell Crunchy Taco
½ chicken fajita quesadilla (with lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole)
Spanish rice (about ½ cup or so)
Today was apparently some kind of mexican food kind of day. LOL! I did not eat breakfast and I was also doing some other stuff so my breakfast/lunch was pretty late in the morning. I went out to eat with my sister. When we got to the restaurant, I didn’t eat a single chip when they were put on the table! When the food was delivered, I automatically cut the fajita in half and I told myself it was to be saved for later. I ate all of the lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole that came with the quesadilla, but did not eat all the rice. I think I had about half of the rice on my plate. When I was done with the food I decided to eat, I realized that I was full. Talk about a positive change! I took the leftovers home and look forward to having them for lunch tomorrow.
July 30 -
Apple
½ chicken fajita quesadilla (with lettuce, sour cream, and guacamole)
Spanish rice (about ½ cup or so)
Carrots
Cottage cheese
Tomatoes
Brown sugar soy glazed mahi mahi
Basmati rice
Peas
Thin Mints (¾ of a serving)
My workout today at the gym was FANTASTIC! I jogged a little on the treadmill, upped my average speed (even without the jogging), and I upped the sets on all of the weights I used. Some of those weights were also upped. Yippee!!!! The youngest has asked for a specific meal repeatedly, so tonight I made that for him while I made my own food. The basmati rice was from the chicken fajita bowl, which paired nicely with the mahi mahi.
I finally replaced the battery in my kitchen scales, so I can now weigh some of the foods that are hard to gauge (I’m looking at you baby carrots). Most of the food I eat has measurements in cups, teaspoons or tablespoons so it’s been pretty easy to put the serving in MyFitnessPal. But those dang baby carrots have been tripping me up. LOL! I also double checked the weight on the mahi mahi.
July 31 -
Fuji apple
Peanut butter toast
Cottage cheese
Sunflower seeds (½ serving)
Raisins (½ serving)
2 Fried eggs
Toast
French bread pizza (pepperoni, red onion, red peppers, cheese) - I ended up using 2 servings of the bread, but everything else was about one serving or less.
Cantaloupe
And with this, my month of focusing on my eating will be ending. It has been very informative, and honestly, I don’t see myself stopping just because it’s the end of the month. I feel better and I believe I look better. About a year ago, I tried a challenge where I didn’t eat fast food for a month. Well, I had fast food this month, but I was far more cognizant of what I was eating. If I knew I was going to a fast food restaurant, I looked up their healthier menu options before going. Let’s have a quick conversation about how McDonald’s is not filling. Not that I eat there much, but when I went with Robert one day during this month I could have a cheeseburger and some apples, that was it. I was still hungry when we were done. Now, at home, I can have a cheeseburger, some fries (or mac and cheese) and some veggies and be full for hours. It really opens your eyes at the terrible quality of food provided at fast food restaurants. Sit down restaurants seem to have more filling food, plus there’s the option to take part of it home. And let’s be real, being able to save half of it for another day really helps the cost not seem so terrible. This week I had a meal at a local Mexican restaurant and the total for the food before a tip was in the $13 ballpark. Since I took half of it home, that translates to about $7.50 per meal, which seems far more cost effective than $13 for one meal.
Seeing the physical transformation of my body through eating better and exercising is something I am choosing to continue past the month of July. I am a happier person when I take care of myself and I’m now at a point in raising my kids that I don’t feel terrible taking a little time for myself. I can say that typing out my meals for the blog will not be missed, though I will still track and monitor them through MyFitnessPal as it helps me with portion sizes. I will be sad when the summer months are over and friends that have gardens are no longer able to share food along with weekly food assistance through the local YMCA ending, but I feel like there are so many positives going on right now that I can keep the momentum going and continue to nourish my body in a better way than I have in the past few years while building strength. As I age, I know my muscles will not remain strong so I really need to put in the work now to help myself later in life.
Overall, I learned a lot about myself this month in terms of my eating habits. I have spent many years giving excuses as to why I cannot lose the weight that I’ve managed to pack on through life's trials and tribulations. While life will not be perfect, I do look forward to improving the aspects of my life that benefit from a healthier diet and more exercise. I highly doubt I’ll turn into one of those gym rats that spends hours on end at the gym (I swear there’s a guy at the gym that practically lives there. No matter what time I go there, he’s there.) However, I look forward to my hour of time spent on myself, music, and muscles. I’m extremely thankful that I did not fall ill at all during this month, as I do not wish to derail any progress I’ve made. I hope to continue the healthy habits I started this month and stave off any major illnesses. While I’m at it, I need to schedule a physical to have my blood work done and just general health checked out. I’m hoping that in a year’s time, when I go back for another physical, things will look really good.
I realized during this journey that my mother lived to be around 64. Her health was terrible and she did not take care of herself at all. I swear, if I could have put her on My 600-lb Life, I would have, just so she could see how terrible she was to herself and those around her. My Dad lived to be 78, but even his health wasn’t great. He had a slew of issues that required him to be medicated for as long as I can remember, one of those issues being pain due to some job related physical trauma. But just looking at their life spans, I realize that if I live to be their age, I have 22-36 years left with my kids and any families they may have. I do not wish to live those years unhappy with myself, weak, and constantly on medication. I want to be able to travel, walk around parks, ride my bike, and be this happier version of myself. My mother was miserable and honestly, she made my Dad miserable, though he’d never admit it. After she passed away, his attitude became far more joyous, because her negativity wasn’t there to drain him. I don’t want to be a drain on those I love and care for, so I need to stay dedicated to taking care of myself.
August 1 -
This month I am going to focus on writing. When I created this monthly focus list, I had no idea that July would be so life changing for me. I’m not totally sure how I’m going to top July, nor do I expect to top it. However, I am dedicated to work on my task each month.
While writing is a very broad category, I would like to say that I do not wish to become a writer. I have learned through various life struggles that writing helps me process my emotions and for some reason (emotions), I tend to write when I’m in a poor mental state. Well, if you’ve gotten this far in my posts, you probably know that I’m not at my worst right now so writing may be a touch difficult. LOL!
I do not wish to write extremely long passages and share them on this portion of my blog, because that would really dwindle down the small number of readers I already have, so I believe that I’ll be swapping between two different categories/processes for writing. I will work on journaling, which will be handwritten, and finding photos online to create short stories. This way I won’t be in my feelings all the time, but I can also stretch my creative thinking a bit. I’ll link the blog to this one, eventually, but first I have to start writing. LOL!
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