Bullet Post

Being a copycat and doing a bullet point blog...

• I tried Shirataki noodles...not bad. Hungry Girl is always raving about them so I thought I'd try them. I made a stir fry with steak, broccoli, and onions and added the noodles for a few minutes at the end of cooking. The texture was a bit slippery but good with stir fry. They are VERY filling and I think they might get stuck if my band was tighter.
  
• I was able to put on and button and zip a pair of old SIZE 16 jeans. They gave me major muffin top and I won't wear them in public yet but they ZIPPED. I am pretty sure that high school was the last time I saw that size.
  
• A friend told me that I look great and I'm now, "Curvy, not round." I love that!
• I start back to school on Monday. I'm taking 2 classes on top of working full time and I'm dreading missing 2 days of the gym per week to go to school. I don't know how I am going to fit everything in and I'm a little nervous.
• Five weeks from today I will be in Chicago with the BOOBS! I couldn't be more excited and I am so grateful to all of the planners for all of the work they are obviously doing to make this thing a success.
• I wish I could go to Orlando this weekend to meet up with Grace and Stephanie and the other band bloggers who will be there. If I didn't have school on Monday I SO would!!!

That's about it. Have a great weekend everyone!

BOOBS!!!

Oh my goodness...I found the BOOBS (Band Of Outrageous Babes) theme song!!!



Do you like BOOBS a lot?
(Yes, I like BOOBS a lot.)
BOOBS a lot, BOOBS a lot.
(You gotta like BOOBS a lot.)
Really like BOOBS a lot.
(You gotta like BOOBS a lot.)
BOOBS a lot, BOOBS a lot.
(You gotta like BOOBS a lot.)

Hahahahahaha!

Baked Cinnamon Apples

I had a craving for baked apples today, so I made some tonight and they couldn't be easier. This might be common knowledge, but it really hit the spot so I thought I'd share.

2 large apples
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (or apple pie spice)

Peel, core, and chop apples into about 1 inch chunks.

Bake, covered, at 350 for 40 minutes.

Stir and eat.

This makes about 4 bandster portions. My birds enjoyed it too - so much that they barely let me get a bite, so I'll have some more tomorrow. I baked them while I was baking some pork chops, so I didn't even have to turn the oven on especially for them. I'm looking for ways to eat more fruit (I eat plenty of veggies but not much fruit) so I'll surely make them more often. I plan to have leftovers in the morning mixed with some Greek yogurt and Kashi honey almond flax cereal. Yummy.

How I Track

This is for Meli who asked, "i have no idea what i should be counting. calorie and proteins? everything? i don't know. :/ also how do you know how much calories are in a meal when you eat out? also, what about meat? how do you count the calories in that? or is that a stupid question?"

No way, my friend, these are not stupid questions! Not everyone takes a nutrition class in college. You've got to learn some time.

The simple answer to how I track is...I don't. Most of the time, as long as the scale is moving, I don't track. I let my beautiful band do its job.

(As a side note, I don't think I've ever told all of you that I call my band "Zuul" as in the gatekeeper from Ghostbusters. Silly, huh?)

Every once in awhile though, I audit myself and keep track of everything for a day or two to make sure I'm on track. As for Meli's specific questions...

"i have no idea what i should be counting. calorie and proteins?"

I don't track my protein because I did for awhile and I eat plenty of protein. I had a 5 oz. lean burger for dinner (no bun). I had chicken salad for breakfast and Thai chicken curry for lunch. Protein isn't an issue for me. I try to eat as healthy as possible and I have a pretty balanced diet of mostly meat, veggies, and whole grains so I only track calories. This might be different for other people though.

"how do you know how much calories are in a meal when you eat out?"

You can't always tell perfectly how many calories you're eating in restaurants, especially in really good restaurants or ethnic places. You can only estimate. It's really hard to know exactly how much butter or oil they're using, but you can always ask for what you want. Eating at home most of the time is a better bet, but if you're eating out, you can do your best. A lot of chain restaurants post their nutritional info online. One of my favorites is Peiwei because they have VERY detailed info on their website. I order the dish I do because I know that even if I eat the ENTIRE thing, it's 320 calories, and it's delicious. I get the Thai Dynamite shrimp, stock velveted (which means they cook it in veggie stock instead of oil) with extra steamed veggies. If I eat half of the brown rice, I know that's another 100 calories or so. Many, many restaurants are doing this now, and I LOVE it. I'm more likely to eat somewhere that posts nutritional info. Otherwise, I just do my best.

"also, what about meat? how do you count the calories in that?"

I use websites like fitday.com or calorieking.com to calculate the calories in generic food items. I searched Google for "calories in flank steak" to get an approximation of what I ate and got this. There are a lot of online calorie counters. As long as you know about how much you ate, you can calculate calories. And you need to know how to eyeball a 3-4 ounce portion of protein, so I highly recommend you get a food scale to use for awhile, at least until you can eyeball it pretty successfully.

Hope this helps!

Day on My Plate - 8/11/10

Someone told me that seeing stuff like this is helpful for the newly banded or soon to be banded to see how we really eat. In a perfect world, every entry would say eggs for breakfast, chicken and veggies for lunch, fish and veggies for dinner. But this is real life, and this is how I really eat. I'll keep doing these if they're helping someone - not every day, but sometimes. My food choices are not perfect, but until it stops working for me, I'll keep doing it. :-)

Breakfast:
2 cups coffee with skim milk & Splenda (100)
1/4 cup tarragon chicken salad with almonds (190)
13 Wheat Thins fiber crackers (130)

Snack:
South Beach Diet chocolate berry protein bar (140)

Lunch @ Pei Wei with my awesome co-worker Jason:
Thai Dynamite shrimp, stock velveted, with broccoli, carrots, green onions, and brown rice. Ate all the shrimp, most of the veg, and some of the rice. (500)

Snack:
Handful of sugar free Jelly Belly jellybeans (80)

Dinner:
4 oz. flank steak (marinated in juice from 1 orange and a splash of soy sauce and grilled over charcoal) (320)
1/2 cup green summer squash, spritzed with canola oil and salt and pepper and grilled (25)


TOTAL CALORIES: 1485

Milestones

I reached two major milestones today.

First - I have now lost 50 pounds. Well, 50.6 to be exact. I am thrilled about this. 50 pounds is a huge amount of weight, of course. I lost 50 pounds on Weight Watchers before I crashed and burned and gained most of it back. I struggled for every pound. I felt like 50 pounds was the end of something. I was done. I couldn't do it anymore.

This time it feels like 50 pounds is just the beginning.

Here is the other milestone: I am the smallest I have ever been as an adult. I got down to 239 pounds on Weight Watchers. I got down to 232 pounds on Jenny Craig. The coolest part is that I met my husband at 232 pounds. Today, at 230.4, this is the smallest that he has ever seen me.

I am so grateful for my band. I have hope. I don't feel deprived and I feel like I can do this for a long time.

I started out wearing size 26 jeans. I was miserable when I had to walk more than a few blocks. I regularly walk/run 3 miles at a time now.

To compare, here are some pictures.

This is from last summer. My best friend and I went on vacation. We were at Dollywood that day and I barely fit in the rollercoasters. I can't believe I am sharing this picture with you. I felt disgusting. This is mere weeks before I went for my first lap band informational session. Look at this - I was literally twice the size of Jen, if not more.




This one is from April, a little less than 2 months after I had my band installed. I had just come from a job interview. I had lost about 25 pounds at that point.



My co-worker took this picture of me today. I'm wearing my new size 18 jeans. I have a long way to go, but I feel like I am on my way.

Onederland! (Sort Of)

Look! I went to Old Navy tonight with my knitting buddy and she talked me into trying some jeans on because the ones I was wearing were falling off. This is what I got:



Can you see what those say? If not, here you go:


I have not bought an article of clothing that starts with a "1" in probably 15 years. So exciting!

Day on My Plate - 8/3/10

I've been bouncing up and down the same couple of pounds for the last week and while I know this is normal for me, and that I'll bounce before I settle into a lower weight, it's particularly frustrating right now because I'm about to hit a few major milestones! I'm going to track for a few days and see if I can get a handle on things. I was hungry all day yesterday and I tried to keep my snacking healthy, but my stomach was just growling. I think that I'm not focusing heavily enough on protein and that needs to become the priority.

Breakfast:

Coffee w/ milk & Splenda - 50
1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch (honey almond flax) - 200
1/2 cup milk - 50
1/2 cup frozen strawberries - 25

Breakfast total: 325

Snack (planned):

1 packet Chicken Soup w/ Noodles - 60
Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt - 80

Snack total: 140

Lunch:

6" Turkey sub on honey oat (bread scooped out) with lettuce, onion, pickles - 280
Avocado - 100
Sweet Onion sauce - 20
American cheese - 40

Lunch total: 440

Snack (unplanned):

Granola Thin - 80

Snack total: 80

Dinner:

4 oz. filet mignon - 200
Green beans w/almonds - 50

Dinner total: 230

Snack (planned):

1/2 cup pickled veggies (carrots and cauliflower) - 10

Snack total: 10

DAILY TOTAL: 1245