Baked Sweet Potato with Curried Yogurt Dressing

Here's another recepe I'm going to try, probably tomorrow. I LOVE LOVE LOVE baked sweet potatoes!

Preheat oven to 350. Cut 2 medium sweet potatoes in half and bake on a sheet for 40 min. (ok seriously, 6-7 min. in a microwave and they are done, don't bother baking).  Combine 1/2 cup plain, low-fat yogurt with 1 T curry powder and 2 or 3 drops hot sauce.  Top each potato half with 1/4 cup of the dressing and enjoy.

New Chicken Salad, super yummy!

I just made this for lunch today. It was a big salad and because I added extra mandarin oranges, it was 392 calories. Still reasonable for a lunch item though.  Here's the recepe:

Serving size: 2

Shred 6 oz cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast into a bowl.  Add 1 red bell pepper (seeded and sliced thin), 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup shredded red cabbage, 2 T chopped almonds and 1/2 cup canned mandarin oranges (I put a whole can in), drained.  Drizzle with 1 T toasted seseme oil, 1 T low-sodium soy sauce and 1 T rice vinigar.  Toss to coat.

It said 325 calories but I never go off what a recepe says, I calculate my own because usually it's WAY off.

Enjoy!

I'm back!

First off let me say I'm ashamed I fell off the band wagon. Seriously, I'm very sorry for not updating posts and being accountable. I got in a HUGE slump, I'm talking from like January and on. I have gained 13 pounds back!!!!! OUCH.  *sigh* So here goes, I'm starting out at 232.  :( SO sad to say this because I got down to 219. Oh well, life goes on. Something clicked in me again and I'm on fire! Today I had a blast measuring my food out, cooking for myself, etc. Go figure, on Mother's Day. 

I bought a very nice Pilate's machine this weekend at a garage sale for $40! It's one that is over $800 new and this is just like new. I had my first workout tonight. It was really fun and I could really feel it working on all my muscle groups. Friday I started Crossfit again too.  For those of you who don't know what Crossfit is, go to their site for more info.. the easiest way to discribe it to you is an extremely intense workout that could include anything from pullups (Kipling ones which is with a band) to pushups to wall squats throwing a medicine ball up high to rope climbing to  very heavy weight lifting done properly. It's amazing, it's never the same, all your workouts are planned for you so you show up, do it, and get one on one support. It's my favorite workout type of ALL time. It's SO intense that the max workout they allow is 20 minutes! I will be doing Crossfit at least 3 if not 4 times a week, swimming laps, and doing the pilates machine. I will also be counting my calories. Today my calories are at a little less than 1300 so I still need to make sure to eat a little bit more. I don't want to go over 1500. If I stick to it AND workout, I'm sure to be losing those 13 pounds quickly.

Honestly, my goal was to get to 165 pounds by my 36th birthday which is August 5th. That goal is now so far out of reach and unrealistic that I'm shooting for under 200. That's still 33 pounds in three months! Help me do it! Ask me how I'm doing, not just in passing. I need the accountability so dig dig dig lol.

Thanks for not giving up on me! I sure did, but I'm back and I'm going to finish this and maintain.

Rebecca

Another recepe I use a lot

I think I posted about "Flat Out" tortillas and La Tortilla Factory tortillas. But I'll do it again. I buy the flat out at Walmart and the La Tortilla at Hyvee or Bakers because I Walmart quit selling it.

One of my favorite very quick things to make for lunch is one of those tortillas (they are 80 and 90 calories each) is taking half of a Wholy Guacamole package (these are far less calories than a regular avacado and tons more to use), one wedge of Laughing Cow cheese (any flavor). Mix those together to make a paste. Spread it on the tortilla. Use 2 oz of sandwhich meat (60 calories) or more if you want, I like sprouts so I use those too, tomatoes, and thinly sliced cucumbers. Very low calorie lunch and super filling!

This week's weigh in...

Ug. I gained 2 pounds. I know for a fact it was muscle gain because I have been working out (finally!), but it's hard to see a gain nevertheless.  Hopefully next week, with the way I've been working out, my body will re-adjust.

I want to let everyone know that The Biggest Loser Challenge Wii game is awesome! I thought it was "just a game" type of thing but it's not! Tonight I worked out to it for 38 minutes, with Bob, and I burned 207 calories. It may not be completely accurate on the calorie burn but I was sweating and my legs got quite the burn.  You can taylor workouts to specific body places, length of workout, fat burning, etc. It's really cool and this was just my first one! You can also choose Bob, Jillian, or both.  I recommend it.  I bought it at Best Buy for $39.99.

Bring on the weight loss! 1/10/11

Okay, I apologize that it's been almost an entire month since I posted anything.  I took a break from serious weight loss for Christmas and as of January 1st am back into it. This week I've been super serious, strict, and I'm doing awesome with food AND exersize!  I don't expect a big number on Weds. for weight loss though. The reason? Muscle gain.  I recently purchased the WII Fit Plus game. Some of the games on there are just for fun, but some are pretty good exersize!  Take Hulla Hooping for instance. I am sore still from the game three days ago. I played three different sessions if it, 3-5 minutes each.  My sides are especially sore, where I didn't think I could lose fat no less. Also if you do any of the jogging, strengthening, etc. you can not only work up a good sweat but bring your heart rate up too.  So I did an hour of that all three days ago, yesterday I did both the Yoga and Strengthening (all the poses for both) and today I did over an hour of snow shoveling outside. Man that is HARD work! Then we sledded down our very steep, long backyard hill so walking up many times. I am beat.

I'm looking forward to not only posting what this week's loss may be, but especially next weeks!

Thanks for "tuning" in.

Me

Week 10 weight loss!

Three pounds GONE!  Yay. Okay and to be honest it's probably more like 4-5 and here's why. TMI coming up so DONT READ if you don't want to hear it!  Constipation. Ug. This is part of weight loss. I can eat tons of veggies, fruits, etc. but it still messes with my body. And that stuff is heavy! I told you it was tmi lol.  It never fails, AFTER I weigh myself and eat breakfast I'm able to go. But that's okay... it will count towards next weeks weigh in.  I gave up on counting my inches because I've lost so many more than I even kept track of. It's too hard to figure it out because my body keeps changing rapidly so it's hard to measure. Just know when I started I was in a size 24 pant, now I'm in 16/18.  Yay!  I can't wait till I get to the skinny type 16's because I have a ton of those. Someone a few years ago who shops at H & M, Gap, Express, etc. gave me lots of her 12-16 size clothes. But they run really small so I have to wait.

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca

This weeks weigh in

Well I have to admit it, ever since Thanksgiving I've been having a really hard time not cheating! Even those two weeks I lost 4 pounds each I cheated. That made it almost worse, because of losing that much a week and still cheating, I told myself wow I can cheat and still lose! Um, not okay.  Anyway, no weight loss this week. Totally my fault, same with last week.  So I got my "UMPH" back yesterday and did not cheat! In fact, I ate probably too little calories for breast feeding. I didn't even make it to 1800 which is the least I'm supposed to eat. I did 1768 calories. I couldn't eat any more without feeling stuffed.  So I had to start over mentally yesterday and now I'm back on board. Sorry guys, I feel like I let me and you down! Next week's weigh in I'm gonna kill it though!

Forgot to add, I always peek at the scale the day after my weigh in because it never fails, I lost TWO pounds... it just shows it after my weigh in grrrr... so hey, I can't log it on my weight loss tracker, but I'm now 226!!!!

Weight Loss Results so far (inches lost too)

At this weeks weigh in (Wedsnessdays) I lost only four ounces. Considering how much I snacked over Thanksgiving, even though it was mostly veggies, I'm okay with anything that's not a gain!  To date, I have lost 15 pounds 4 ounces.

Inches lost:

2 1/4" off my waist
1" off my upper arm
1 1/2 off my upper leg
4" off my hips!!!!
Total inches lost: 8 3/4" in 2 months and 15.4 pounds.

I'm happy with these results so far... and I haven't even begun to exersize!

Rebecca

Another 4 pounds gone!!

I couldn't be happier this morning.  I am now 228! I started at 243 on October 5th.  I will post my inches lost tonight after Travis helps me measure, but those are amazing too.  Thank you all for your support and your little comments, both in person and on Facebook. They are truly what help me keep going!!