I have been watching that Jaime Oliver’s show and it really has me thinking and rethinking about food. I have been struggling a bit since I stopped counting points. I am more satisfied and I am eating better foods…most of the time but I have allowed more “questionable” food choices.  I gained and I am back in the 190s. I like eating better and “real” food but I have to learn the off switch. I am not giving up! I am actually even more resolved to figure out how to eat healthy real food, eliminate some processed foods (I am not willing at this time to give up my sugar free french vanilla creamer), and lose weight! Believe it or not, menu planning helps me in huge ways. Knowing what is for dinner eases my mind. I owe all my menu planning success to my good friend, Jenna (go check out her menu planners blog roll)

Without further ado, my menu for week of 4.19.2010:

Monday: Sirloin steaks with home-”fried” potatoes and brussel sprouts

Tuesday: Turkey Sloppy Joes and a big salad (I always think about Elaine Benes)

Wednesday: Stuffed Peppers. This is a kid request. She really likes my barley stuffed peppers. I will probably add another big salad as a side dish.

Thursday: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and a Boboli pizza. (One day I will learn to make my own pizza dough)

Friday: Shrimp with Pasta and Veg

Dinners are planned out and I will grill up extra chicken to have with leftover salad and veggies for most lunches. Leftovers will make up the rest.

PEOPLE, I need your help.  Usually I can eat the same food over and over, day in and day out, but I am getting tired of eggs every morning. I love eggs but I need something that is just as filling and lasting as eggs but just as quick since I am getting ready for work. Tell me people, what do you eat for breakfast? How long does it take to make?

++I should mention: I do not like oatmeal and even when I choked it down I never found it filling.

How did I work my goals this week?!

1. Lose 5 pounds per month – I lost 14 pounds over the last 10 weeks. Success!! I have changed my whole outlook on the scale. Fuck it!! The scale is just one piece of the puzzle and I am not living my life according to the scale.  I want to be healthy and strong and that is not any particular number on the scale!

2. Walk 15 miles each week - since starting the Couch to 5K my mileage has decreased! At first, this bothered me! I set a goal and I wanted to keep to it!! On non-”running” days I was walking with Leslie Sansone at least 3 miles. I was so exhausted and my legs were not very happy with me. I have since scaled my mileage back and I am letting my body tell me what it can handle. I did walk with my girlfriends last Saturday and we hit almost 4 miles. I am still getting around 10 miles each week. I am calling this a work in progress! and a success!!

3. Strength train 3x each week, every week -I also completed week 3 of the Bob Green 8, week total Body Makeover dvd that I won from Shrinking Jeans. I actually did 5 Bob Greene workouts this week! I feel so weak when I finish these workouts and I have been so sore! But I feel AMAZING!! Who knew sore could feel so great!?!?!

4. find and prepare one new healthy recipe (or food) - I am not sure I really accomplished this task this week! I did change my eating up a bit. I am sort of following the Body for Life way of eating. This week was a transition into the “clean” way of eating. Last weekend I went to the produce store and came home with a buttload of greens! I swear, I ate some many vegetables this week that I feel green!

What you don’t know about Jen…..

I am a picky eater! I have major issues with texture so certain foods I just would not even try because of the way they looked! I only recently started eating peppers & tomatoes! I hate tapioca and rice pudding, oatmeal bothers me and fried onions make me cringe! I love the smell of fried onions but will not put them in my mouth! I now will eat peppers but they must have some crunch left and I haven’t quite figured out roasted red peppers!

A Reflection on the last 10 weeks:

I have learned so much in the last 10 weeks. I always set out to be better in the new year!! 2010 truly is the year of Jen!! I am kicking ass! I am changing and becoming the strong, healthy, fanfuckingtastic woman I have always wanted to be! I am gaining confidence with each new “thing” that comes my way! I am challenging my mind and body!

Stay tuned!! This challenge may be over but I am just getting started!!

Keep on keepin’ on!!

I have been thinking a lot about food lately.  I hate thinking so much about food! I have spent the last few days (pretty much since my WW meeting on Saturday) thinking about food. I also thought a lot about the entire past year.

I have made a ton of changes. I have learned so much about myself, food, nourishing my body, pushing my body and treasuring my body.

This weekend’s weigh in pissed me off! A  gain was just the straw that broke camel’s back. I love getting up on Saturday mornings and heading to WW meetings. This week I realized it has nothing to do with WW anymore. In the beginning I soaked up as much info as I could get from my meetings. In the middle (when I went back to meetings after the summer online) I needed the accountability. I also needed a refresher course ~ I had gotten complacent.

The end has come!

I am breaking up with WW.

This is not a decision I made lightly. WW helped me learn about food and tracking and portions. I have learned a lot but I know there is more for me to learn about healthy eating and healthy living.  I get a ton of support and encouragement and accountability from my online weight loss communities. I am currently paying $40 every month for WW meetings and I am starting to feel guilty spending the money on WW when I am not using all the services to the fullest. I have also been feeling guilty about food and that bothers me the most[there is definitely a blog post in this thought]!

I will continue to go WW for the rest of  month. Hey, I paid for them I might as well use them but I am not paying anymore!

With all that in mind, I am starting my weigh-ins at home and I am starting tomorrow morning! I need a “starting” number from my home scale. I will post that number and a bit more information about this change.

HUGE SHOUTOUT to Shrinking Jeans, Mamavation, and my twitter posse [I hope you all know who you are, I admit laziness here: It is late and I am tired]! You all help me so much! It is because of all you that I have the confidence to venture out on my own away from WW.

.

]]> http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/03/02/food-for-thought/feed/ 11 http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/ http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:17:32 +0000 jen http://www.jeninreallife.com/?p=765 WEEKLY WEIGH IN STATS

Current Weight: 196.8 lbs
Previous Weight: 194.4
Weight loss: +2.4 lbs
Weight loss in Feb: +2.2
Starting Weight: 242.6 lbs
Weight loss total: -46.8 lbs

THE WEEK IN REVIEW:

I had such an awesome week!! I completed week 1 of Couch to 5K training program! I slogged in the rain, through puddles and in the snow and through the slush! I have picture proof!! I completed week 1 of Bob Greene’s 8 Week Total Body Makeover.  I am trying to get into a routine of strength training! Bob Greene is helping me get my feet wet! I worked out 6 days this past week! and I LOVED it!! I love to be outside – even though it was not the best situation for being outside! I feel like such a rockstar!! I actually want to keep training and I can’t wait to see how far I can go with this running stuff!

I feel strong!! This week was amazing and I feel strong!!

Wednesday was my birthday and I celebrated with my husband and daughter! I was blessed with gifts to help my journey. An awesome friend sent me a HRM and Big Man and kid ordered me a Wii (although I am sure they will enjoy it as much as I will) and a sports game.

**So all you Wii owners must tell me your picks for the must-have games, especially the active, get-in-shape kinds!

*image courtesy Google images*

Did you think I was just going to ignore the weigh in?

I kind of want to ignore the scale but it is part of the journey.

The scale was not kind to me but it is not the end of the world.  The scale WILL NOT be the voice that says if I had a good week or a bad week. I had a great week! I tracked everything I ate this week: the good, the bad & the ugly. I ate every single point I had coming to me: my daily points, weekly points allowance, and most of my activity points. I had ice cream cake and chinese food on my birthday. Maybe, I ate a bit too much food this week but I was constantly starving!! I don’t know what this all about but I figure it has something to do with changing up my workouts! I stayed within my points range (using allowable extras) but I was hungry a lot!

Also, Saturday morning or also known as Weigh-In day comes around and I wake up with my monthly friend! I knew I was close in time but I had no warning signs. Actually, the more I think about it the more I realize I probably had all the right signs but I missed them because of sore muscles from the new workouts. The sore muscles masked the PMS misery! Chalk another one up to workouts!!

I am not sure if using all my points, new workouts, or TOM is to blame for gain. I am not going to stress it because I had an awesome week. For the week coming up I am going to be moving on to week 2 of the C25K and Bob Greene workouts.  I will continue to track all my food but I will do it on Sparkpeople and WW etools [I will explain why in a later post].

This week I am focusing on planning! Menu planning has helped me so much! Dinners are healthy and I never have that “what are we gonna have for dinner?” moments! Because dinner is so thought out I have leftovers for lunches.  This week I am going to plan my workouts and I am going to plan every day the night before (just like my daughter has to do every night).

My menu plan is posted. Go check it out!!

My workout plan is:

Sunday: REST/clean house

Monday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 1

Tuesday: Bob Greene ~ week 2, day 1 ~ Last chance tworkout ~  Leslie Sansone walking

Wednesday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 2

Thursday: Bob Greene ~ week 2, day 2 ~ planks, pushups ~ Leslie Sansone walking

Friday: Couch to 5K ~ week 2, day 3

Saturday: Bob Greene ~ week 1, day 3 ~ an outside walk with the family, maybe at the bird refuge.

**I want to challenge myself to get up at 6 am with the alarm!! I am a horrible morning person but I really want to get better! This week I have decided that the best way for me to do this is to challenge myself and blog about it!

]]> http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/02/28/i-had-a-great-week-the-scale-just-sucks/feed/ 16 http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/01/17/week-in-review/ http://www.jeninreallife.com/2010/01/17/week-in-review/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:59:25 +0000 jen http://www.jeninreallife.com/?p=617 I am a day late on my Saturday weigh in and I am sorry. I was busy most of the day yesterday and when I wasn’t busy I sort of lazed out big time!

At WW meeting I stepped on scale, here is what happened:

WW lady: “2 pounds”

Me: “wow, I lost 2 pounds”

WW lady: “no, up 2 pounds”

Me: “wow, I gained 2 pounds, really?”

I decided to chat it up with my leader before the meeting,

Me: “Stephanie (my leader’s name) should I be concerned with being up 2 pounds? I tracked, stayed within my points and worked out. I even worked out this morning and late last night.”

Stephanie: “you tracked?”

Me: “yes”

Stephanie: “Everything?”

Me: “yes”

Stephanie: “Well that is a success! You worked out…that is a success! You are here…that is a success!!”

I have been thinking about this conversation since then…it is all I could think about!

And damn it, I may have gained this week but it was a great week. Ok, to be fair…it started off slow but ended with a bang.  My workouts and weekly goals are recapped here on my Perfect 10, week 2 update. I am so tired of being a slave to the scale. I had a great week and the scale will not dictate whether or not I had a good week. My Perfect 10 update includes my BIG goals but here is where I post my smaller weekly goals:

1. drink 80 oz of water daily I did this 6/7 days

2. take multi vitamin and glucosamine every day I remembered 4/7 days. I MUST get better at taking my vitamins.

3. make time for workouts I totally made time for me and my workouts!! I worked out 5/7 days and on the other 2 I did enough around the house to be “moving”!

On Tuesday I had an absolute meltdown! I can’t even tell you exactly what happened. I said something to Big Man and he gave me some look and I got all snappy. I snapped at him he snapped at me and I burst into tears. I must tell you all that me and the Big Man never fight! NEVER! Our friends think we are weird because as crazy as it sounds we actually like each other…and we don’t believe that fighting is productive ~ definitely stems from how we both grew up and the last relationship we were prior to meeting each other!  Sorry for the ramble here – but I really love the big dummy! Anyway, I cried and cried and it took a little bit to stop. I can’t exactly explain what started it or what “it” was even really about. I was left feeling very tired after the tears ended.

Later that night, I tweeted about my meltdown and I was hit back with many similar stories from my friends. When I talked with my WW girls, I again heard similar stories from this week. Something must be in the air.  I was also tweeted back by @debroby and she told me that at the start of a new fitness regime it was normal to have freakouts!! REALLY?!!? This is normal. huh?!?! @mizfitonline has said this very thing before.

What does this freakout mean? Well, later that night I saw my girls at @shrinkingjeans tweeting Last Chance workouts during Biggest Loser commercials. I do not watch Biggest Loser but I needed to jump into the action. I did a few exercises and lots of tweeting with my friends @shrinkingjeans, @lissjoy, @girlsworld, @fabfattieShan, and @footdr69 !! I needed that time and I did indeed begin to feel better. Wednesday came around and I worked out and felt awesome. I even bumped it up a bit ~ while doing my walking workout I did the middle mile twice!!

I also walked on Thursday.

Friday we ordered Chinese for dinner. I ordered chicken & shrimp with veggies (steamed with sauce on side). I didn’t eat any rice but I did eat a few steamed dumplings.  I drank a ton of water after dinner to try and combat the sodium. I walked on the treadmill for an hour (at 3.0 mph) and worked up quite a sweat.

I woke up at 7:30 (ridiculously early for a Saturday) to get ready for a walk with my girlfriend, Tammey. She was at my house by 8 and we walked for an hour and almost 3 miles. It was cold but we were moving and talking and the time went by quickly.  We haven’t walked together in forever and it was nice…even though it was cold. Ya’ll know how much I hate being cold!! After our walk I had a banana and some water and headed to my WW meeting. I stepped on that scale and gained 2 pounds. ugh! Not what I was hoping to see but a good learning experience. This weigh-in really taught me to not rely on the scale.

After WW meeting, I went home to eat something more substantial than a banana. Then it was off to the Red Cross to give blood. I have not donated since I was in high school…in 1996!! My daughter went with me and snapped some pictures!

**I chose to give blood because it is what I have to give! I am not a rich woman but I have plenty of blood and I am healthy!! If you are healthy, please consider going to the Red Cross to give blood!

**I am going to go back again March 13, 2010! That is the next time I am allowed to go back and I will give blood every 6-8 weeks, it is the least I can do! Who is with me??

One final note: I will not be using my previous Saturday Scale Time anymore. I will instead give a week in review every week after I attend my WW meeting.  I do not want to focus on the scale as the most important tool!! My success will not be determined to a number on a scale!! I will continue to weigh in at my WW meetings because I think I should….what are your thoughts about the scale?

much love!!

Jen

Thank you for reading my blog and being awesome FRIENDS!! Thank you for allowing me to be ME and to learn what the hell it means to be Jen!

Last week: 195.4 {actually this was from 2 weeks ago}

This week: 198

Change this week: +2.6

You may have noticed that Saturday Scale Time did not happen last week! You can thank the wonderful snow storm! I found at today, that I was not the only one who did not make it to WW last week!! In fact, WW canceled the meeting and closed the building!

I must admit that going to my WW meeting was not the first thing on my mind when I climbed out of bed this morning! I had one hell of a belly and head ache!!! I truly think I had a sugar hangover. I love Christmas and part of my traditions include certain foods. We have made somethings healthier but I truly believe in enjoying certain things certain ways and I do not feel guilty about that!

Every year on Christmas we go to my mom’s house for our non-Italian take on the Feast of Seven Fishes! OMG! Calamari and shrimp and crab (jumbo Lump) and Ahi and Alaskan Salmon and Scallops and more crab (Kind Crab Claws)! Last year, we turned it into Seven Fishes Tapas! The appetizers are so yummy and plentiful that we are so full that dinner is almost a waste! This year we only had appetizers and it was perfect!!

Christmas is MY holiday. I do not go crazy with decorations or anything like that! When I was a kid I hated any holiday!! My parents were divorced and the schlepping from one family to the next and all that anxiety in between ruined most of the experience for me. When Q was a baby and I left her sperm donor and came home to my family, the holidays were almost as bad as when I was a kid. I schlepped me and my kid all over the place and I hated it!! When I met Big Man he changed everything about holidays! We were a new family and he helped me make traditions to enjoy the holiday. Our first Christmas together was 6 years ago but our first Christmas living all together was the next year. That Christmas, 5 years ago, changed everything for me! We did not leave our house but invited everyone to “pop” in anytime during the day. I prepared buffet-style, easy picky foods and casseroles so everyone could eat but I didn’t have to spend all day cooking. I have gotten much better at cooking and my meals have evolved but this is how we spend every Christmas now!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!

The food has gotten healthier! But the tradition is there!

This year, I made chocolate chip cookies at 9:30pm on Christmas Eve. I know I have a problem with cookies!! ESPECIALLY, fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies!! I cannot control myself! I had a ton of cookies (enough to gain 2.6 lbs)!! A TON OF cookies I ate yesterday! And they were so yummy!!

And then…

I woke up with a belly ache and a head ache!! I swear I had a chocolate chip hangover!!

But…

I went to my WW meeting anyway! and I gained 2.6 pounds! Phew!! I thought I was gonna gain about 7 pounds.

and this is where I confess…

I have not been tracking and I have not really been working out! I have been a slacker! But, I went to my WW meeting anyway!!

It may sound crazy, but I think those cookies were good for me! I think waking up feeling lousy was good for me!! I know going to my WW meeting was good for me!!

I am feeling very reflective!! I am also feeling very much in need of some change! Earlier I tweeted it out about taking some time away from blogging and I was hit back with the sweetest and most supportive tweets:

1. PatBarone

   *@bwJen What a great time of year to retreat, play and plan next year! I did a mini retreat for myself Dec.23 to plan next year! about 1 hour ago from web

2. LowFatKat

   @bwJen Heck no! Your blog, your journey. You should take all the time you need! We read bc we like you, not bc you owe us content! about 1 hour ago from UberTwitter in reply to bwJen

3. chivetalker

   @bwJen morning, friend! Hope you had a lovely Christmas! Taking a break is necessary sometimes to refocus. about 1 hour ago from web in reply to bwJen

4. ComplicatedMama

   @bwJen absolutely not.. I did the same a few weeks ago, sometimes a break is good. about 1 hour ago from web in reply to bwJen

5. brimil

   @bwJen absolutely not! that sounds like a good idea actually about 1 hour ago from web in reply to bwJen

6. Fitarella

   @bwJen NOT AT ALL! take time for yourself and figure out what YOU need about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck in reply to bwJen

7. debroby

   @bwJen NO. Actually perfect time to do so. Many fewer readers/less activity this week than any other all year. about 1 hour ago from web in reply to bwJen

I will be taking a little trip to the Poconos tomorrow! Me, the Big Man and the karate kid will hit the road sometime before noon and it shouldn’t take up longer than 3 hours to get to our cabin.  We will be home Wednesday night! I cannot wait for 3 nights in a cabin in the mountains with my favorite peeps! I need to get away from everything and (with permission from my tweethearts) I am also going to step back from blogging this week. I need time for reflection and refocus and change!

Stay tuned!! I will be back very very soon!! [There will be a Mindful Menu plan posted tomorrow]