Burning Calories

On Sunday, I mentioned that I was going to take a big walk through our new neighborhood. Good news! I did it!

I bought a Fitbit Flex with my Christmas money, and Sunday was the first day I tried it out.

This thing is pretty cool. You plug in your age, height, and weight, and how much weight you want to lose (if any - which I do) and it gives you the option of how intensely you'd like to push yourself to achieve said weight-loss goal. All of this syncs with a free App for your phone where you can plug in your food and water consumption, as well as see your progress! Bonus: it's waterproof and tracks your sleep.

So my friend and I walked through Ryan's and my new neighborhood, and sadly, our lot is still a bunch of trees but it won't be for much longer! However, after walking for awhile, I had only walked about 2.3 miles instead of the 5 that my Fitbit has set for my daily goal. In order to reach that goal, I RAN! Now, if you know me at all, you know I hate to exercise in the first place, but I especially hate running. But I know that it is a good way to burn calories and is good for your heart and lungs and pretty much everything else. I didn't full-on sprint though; I started by walking for ten minutes (this was in our current neighborhood, so I had been sitting in the car for about 15 minutes after the walk through our new neighborhood), then alternating running for 1 minute and walking for 2 minutes 7 times, and then walked the rest of the way back to Ryan's apartment. This is what my Fitbit App looked like when I was finished:

I think I did pretty well! But this is what it looked like before I went to sleep:

And that was after eating steak and some late-night popcorn! Being sore the next day was definitely worth it.

Oh. And as of yesterday...I've lost 3 pounds!

Stay tuned over the weekend to find out how our visit to the Design Center went! (I've got butterflies already - Eek!)

Friday

I went to bed early last night. Early enough to wake up this morning to do 30 minutes of yoga before I had to shower and get ready for work. My stomach had a very different idea. Needless to say, I was not fit to do a single sun salutation, much less go into work. So I laid in bed and drank lots of water in hopes of the nausea passing. I eventually dragged myself out of bed thinking getting some food in my stomach might settle it down a little. This is what I made:



Scrambled egg whites with a pinch of garlic and half a slice of Monterey Jack cheese melted on top, half an avocado with lemon juice, salt & pepper, and 4 cherry tomatoes. Even though I'm not a fan of eggs, the cheese helped, as did having just the whites (kept my stomach stable). I love avocados and tomatoes so that was the easy part.

And did I mention this is on a salad plate? Yay portion control!

Salmon, Quinoa, Yoga

Tonight, I went to Harris Teeter after work and bought some healthy thangs. I found these recipes on Skinny Taste today, and since I was craving salmon and LOVE quinoa, I decide this combo was the dinner for me:

I was able to adjust the recipe for just one piece of salmon. Yay portion control!

Also, I made this, for two portions, so that I have enough for leftovers for my lunch tomorrow:

I didn't have any feta but it was still delicious. I also used red quinoa instead of white, because that's just what I had in the cabinet.

Also, my roommate Sam and I did a yoga strength and stretch workout when I got home, with Miss Tanya Nettles on OnDemand. Fun and a good way to get centered and realign my spine. I plan to do a slightly more intense workout in the morning (if I can wake up in time!).

*No one knows who I am, I am just saying things I like. Pictures are from Skinny Taste.

Resolutions

2014 will be my 26th trip around the sun, which means, I should be in my prime. Instead, I gained way too much weight. I love food! I love to cook and try new recipes, and especially after Ryan and I met, we either went out to dinner and I tried to eat as much as him, or I would try to impress him with my culinary skills. And I used a lot of butter.

SO....I have decided to have a goal to lose 30 pounds by the end of 2014. If I lose more, woohoo! But I feel like 30 is a do-able goal. I intend to do this in a few ways:

• Smaller portions. I received Giada deLaurentiis' Feel Good Food for Christmas this year, and it is full of healthy foods and is her first cookbook with the calories, carbs, etc. listed. Based on this, and knowing that each recipe feeds either 4 or 6 people, I should be able to divide most of the recipes into recipes for 1 or 2 people. Also, I need to learn to measure! Growing up in a Southern home, measurements were never precise, unless we were baking, so I have probably been consuming way too much sodium and calories. Here is one recipe I can't wait to try:                                                   (click on the image to go to the recipe)
• Better foods. I love red meat. In fact, I had half of a steak for dinner last night! But I also know that I shouldn't eat it all the time. I need to treat it like a special occasion food. I also need to learn to like chicken. I know there are lots of delicious healthy ways to prepare it, but honestly, it's a texture thing for me. Publix knows what it's doing with that mojo seasoning but I need to look at the label to see what all is in it before I commit myself to buying a chicken once a week to live off of.                                                                                                                                                                                      I have always loved vegetables. Broccoli is my favorite. But I also love spinach, artichokes, mushrooms, leeks, tomatoes, asparagus, and different lettuces. I'm not a big fan of carrots or peas, but those are full of sugar anyway, right? Ryan LOVES corn so I'll have to figure out a healthy way to incorporate that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Whole grains. I love rice so much that when I was little, my parents called me Rice Rice Baby because I grew up when Vanilla Ice was relevant. I also enjoy pasta because of how easy and versatile it is. However, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that I don't eat it nearly as much as I used to. And even now, I already use whole grain pasta or the kind that's made from veggies. Quinoa is a recent favorite and Giada uses it a lot in her cookbook, so I am looking forward to learning more about its versatility. Switching to brown rice from white rice will be a little harder. It actually went pretty well with my black-eyed peas and collard greens today!
• Exercise. I am actually a pretty athletic person. And I'm a perfectionist. Which means that last year, when I was working with a personal trainer, I was kicking so much butt and lifting so much weight that I tore my meniscus. Ouch. That really set me back. Like so far back that I haven't worked out since September. I've been too afraid of hurting myself again, or worse. Which is why I'm easing back into it. I did a Run or Dye 5k with a friend a few weeks ago, which was great. We walked the whole thing but still made great time. My shin splints came back a little, but it may just be time for new shoes. Because of my knee injury, I am not going to go back to lifting weights and high-endurance exercises yet. I am going to ease back into working out with a mixture of Yoga for Weight Loss and Pilates. I have enough muscles, I need to burn the fat, and Pilates can work up a sweat if you're doing the right exercises. Back in Atlanta, there was a class at the gym I used to go to called Pilates Sculpt that I LOVED, so I hope to find some sort of workout similar to that. So I plan to do that to tone and sculpt and walk for my cardio. 

All my equipment to help me on this weight-loss journey in the new year.

All endorsements are made by me, not Giada (or Publix, Gaiam, Run or Dye, Lotus, or Champion), she does not know who I am. Although she did reply to one of my tweets once! The only photograph by me is of my workout SWAG.