FOOD

I have come to understand why healthy people eat what they eat. They have to. There aren't enough calories allotted in the day for that mayo, that hamburger bun, that extra slice of cheese, let alone a delicious cupcake! I have really been working on fueling my body and eating filling things for less calories. Or, if I go out to eat or want dessert, I have to earn it. I HAVE to work out! It's difficult to keep up with, but I have lost 3 pounds so far. Slow, but I will continue to make progress!

Here are some fabulous meals I made recently including calories (as best I could)!

Veggie Burger (100)

Sandwich Thin (100)

Thin Cheddar cheese (45)

Lettuce (1?)

Ketchup, Mustard, Chipotle Tabasco (10)

Orange (60)

Chicken Breast With spice rub (150)

Green Beans (30)

Cilantro-Lime Quinoa (220)

Salad Toppings

Turkey (38)

Cheese (80)

Cucumber (4)

Light Greek Dressing (50)

Shredded Carrots (19)

Red and Yellow Peppers (12)

Lettuce (16)

Dried Cranberries (6)

Walnuts (14)

Cilantro (0)

Sandwich thin (100)

Lettuce (1)

Cucumbers (4)

Turkey (52)

Cheese (80)

Shredded Carrots (19)

Red Peppers (8)

Now it is much easier to fix your own food when the package tells you how many calories and what a serving size is. I am still struggling with eating out. We love to eat out and we can because we have it in our budget and don't have kiddos yet :) Thankfully my husband is willing to share with me so I eat less. Also, I went to Mongolian Grill and instead of getting meat and noodles like usual, I got a few noodles and TONS of veggies! And it was wonderful! I am trying to make eating out enjoyable but still make healthier choices!

And my healthy changes wouldn't be complete without a word on exercise. 

Ugh.

There, that is all. 

No, it really is hard to find the energy and motivation to work really hard and tire yourself out. I am still training for my 5K and finally forced myself to do 2 miles. They were very slow...please don't judge. But I didn't stop even though I whimpered and whined the entire time. My husband trotted backwards to face me and said, "Keep going. Don't look down, look up at the world. Stop whining." He is the only reason I finished because I wanted to die. I really want to be strong and healthy, it just seems impossible at times. I so desire to be able to enjoy running 4 miles. Or to do more than 6 manly pushups. I want it, but feel as though I will never get there....But I am not giving up. You better not either. We're in this together. Even if it's slow, it's better than nothing!

On a final note...The step challenge at work is over. I did it!! Thanks to forcing myself to at least walk every day, and the fact that work gave me 8,000-10,000 steps a shift. I am soo glad to be done with the silly click of the pedometer.

Road Trippin'

I just returned from a week long road trip to Colorado. It was a lot of fun and I took some fun pictures that I wanted to share. This is mostly a recap of the trip, with a few blurbs on eating...since that is why I am blogging.

Matthew and I set out on Friday morning and began the trek across Washington, Idaho and Montana. We bought some healthy snacks and packed two days worth of lunches in our cute new cooler. We bought oranges, almonds, bananas, and saltines for snacks. The first day, we stopped in Ellensburg and ate our homemade sandwiches with some Popchips (healthy but still an indulgence).

We listened to The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis on tape and finished in time to eat dinner in Missoula, Montana. Matthew was craving Chiptole, which is not present in Montana. However, we stumbled upon a place called Taco Sano which was actually very similar! We drove a little further and stayed the night in Bozeman, Montana.

The next day we set out to finish across Montana, down through Wyoming and onward to Denver, Colorado! We ate breakfast at the hotel and yogurt and granola for lunch. Our friends, Haley and Jesse were why we were going on this trip. They were in Montana for a wedding and were leaving Billings when we left Bozeman. We ended up catching up and meeting in Cheyenne, Wyoming for a dinner over burgers. We reached Denver late at night, got settled and prepared for our busy Sunday.

Jesse is the youth pastor at a Chinese Church and he asked us to play on the youth worship team for the service! It was a lot of fun to play new songs and some in Chinese. We all went out to Chipotle for lunch.

Then Haley, who is the children's pastor at an international church, and I went to gather kids for church that evening. After church, we all ate at Jesse's parents house and ate Buffalo! It was such a good meal and fun to feel like family and tell stories.

Monday we went snowshoeing in Loveland, Colorado. There was a slight slope we were treking down and realized a little too late that the way back was entirely uphill. We were so exhausted and our thighs were burning. I wanted to sit down and gasp "Leave me...save yourselves!" but I refrained. We rewarded ourselves with a scrumptious homemade Adobo chicken recipe. I managed to stay under calories, thanks to the 600 burned while snowshoeing!

Tuesday, Jesse had to work so Haley took Matthew and me to the Celestial Tea Factory in Boulder. We got a free tour and unlimited free samples of teas! It was a lot of fun and perfect for a snowy day. We bought some tasty new teas, my favorite of which is Bengal Spice!

We ate at a local Pho place and headed to downtown Denver. We looked at some shops but were so cold in the wind and 18 degree temps that we called it quits and headed home. It was snowing and very cold! My car got very dirty and had icicles on it. It also froze into this awful looking pattern. I will post a picture, but I can't look at it without getting goosebumps all over. It's all those microbiology classes....

We ate dinner at home and had a delicious taco soup and cookies! We then traveled through the snow to our respective dates...boys to Guitar Center and the girls to Bubble Tea! We played our speed games and enjoyed our girl time. I don't know what the boys were doing...but they didn't spend money or do anything else dangerous ;)

I was getting a little discouraged that I was going waay over my calorie budget as indicated by evil red numbers and bars on my iphone app. Matthew encouraged me and said, "It's vacation, do your best and we can get back on track when we get home." He was right. I was here to enjoy myself, my friends and my time away from work. Sometimes that involves food. I was still careful but did not obsess over it for the rest of the trip.

Wednesday morning we packed up and toured the nearby neighborhood. Little ramblers were being bought, torn down and having HUGE million dollar homes built in their place. This has been going on for years and years, so there are now more mansions than ramblers, but the ramblers still exist! We then met Jesse for lunch and ate Colorado Style Pizza. Colorado style? Big crust you pour honey on! Yes, I am serious and it was lovely. We then sadly said our good-byes and headed towards Salt Lake City, Utah.

We went through the passes of Colorado and much enjoyed the scenery. We didn't plan lunches as well as we did in the beginning of the trip. Oops. We crossed into Utah and headed to a hotel just outside of Salt Lake City. In the morning we drove through the city and then off to Nevada. We came across the salt flats. Water would evaporate and leave miles of salt. We stopped and took cool pictures.

We crossed into Nevada and listened to The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. The trip across Nevada was pretty dry and long, so we welcomed the site of civilization when we hit Reno. We turned south and soon were at our destination of Minden, Nevada. We ate dinner with the Johnsons and got a quick tour of Minden. It was great to see and catch up with them as they have been so influential in both our lives. We stayed in a nearby hotel and headed home!

We drove through California and happened to stop for lunch at the ORIGINAL Black Bear Diner. We shared a yummy summer harvest salad with fresh and dry fruit. We also shared a tri-tip dip which was also super wonderful. We then drove through Oregon and ate granola bars for dinner. We reached home at 11 at night and collapsed into our bed.

It was a wonderful trip. We got to see beautiful scenery from 9 different states and catch up with our amazing friends. I went over on my calories, but at least I am aware of how much I am consuming when I am NOT trying to be conscious of my eating. It was interesting to see how much every food "costs" and how quickly it adds up. Now we return to our normal lives and I am back to eating healthy and getting fit!

Coming Alive

We finally did it...my husband and I got smart phones. It was a long time coming and it has opened up a whole new world to us! A GPS so we don't get lost, we can text and send pictures, we can Google things and most importantly, be healthier. I found two apps that I am soo excited about. One is the Nike Run app and the other is the Lose It! app.

The Nike Run app tracks your run route, speed, weather conditions, how you felt after the run, etc. Cool way to know how far you have run without knowing the route!

                  

           

The other is the Lose It! app. This has changed my life. You put in your current weight, your goal weight and how quickly you want to lose it. It tracks the calories allotted in your day to achieve this goal. You plug in everything you eat and it calculates all the calories and nutrition facts for you. It even scans bar codes for the exact food you are eating! You can also put in your exercise and how many calories that burned. This then increases your caloric allotment for the day. Basically...I was eating too much. It is really hard to stick to 1200-1300 calories! Either that or I need to exercise a lot more. Or both. Which, I think I knew this...but this app made me REALLY KNOW this and be confronted with it. It was a little discouraging at first, especially when I found out 1/4 cup of cheese is 110 calories...and 1/4 cup was really limiting myself from a usual helping. Ay ya yai! But this is a good thing. It is really helping me get real and make healthy choices that will last a lifetime.

Oh, I also made some kale chips! Just rinse and dry kale, sprinkle with olive oil and seasonings of choice and cook for 20 minutes in a 300 degree oven. Mine were a little salty, but they were pretty good! Try it!

I have been doing my weekly weight and measurements. It appears that I have lost 2 pounds...but I think the scale can fluctuate due to barometric pressure changes or how my hair is sitting. But, I'll take it! My measurements haven't really changed, but that will probably happen with more exercise.

Speaking of exercise...I am soo out of shape. I did this OLD Tae Bo tape I have which uses cardio and exercise bands. It was hard stuff.

I had to fast forward through some parts because I was so tired. This lady's face described how I felt for most of the workout.

So I decided to "take it easy" the next day and try my new Pilates tape. Easy!? EASY!!!??? I can hardly move now and I yelled at the lady once by saying, "No way! Are you kidding? I am NOT doing that. And stop making it look so easy!" and then collapsed to the mat while she smiled on.

But I am not giving up completely. Each day I get a little stronger, gain a little more endurance. The better I eat, the better I will feel, the lighter I will get, the more energy I will have. I know this...I just need to get the ball rolling first to gain momentum.

And lastly, I did something for myself. It is my 3 week vacation from work. Hallelujah! So I did what anyone would do with so much freedom. I painted my nails and I got a new haircut. I have had the same haircut for 13 years and I felt tired and boring. So I drove to Mt. Vernon and told amazing Chelsea to cut it however she saw fit. Eeek! Such power, and such great results. I feel healthy, fresh, vibrant and fun! It is an extra boost of confidence that will help me continue down this hard but oh so worth it path of healthiness. I challenge you to do or change something that will boost your confidence and help inspire you to be healthier as well!