Why I Want to Lose the Last Few Pounds

Top Ten Reasons

To kick it into high gear and make it to 100 pounds lost

1. It is a life goal of mine.
2. I feel better physically and mentally when I am eating well.
3. Self confidence is one of the best feelings in the world.
4. I want to wear a size 14 (and maybe even a 12!) some day in my adult life.
5. Summer weather will come some day.
6. I don't want to get diabetes.
7. I'm going to Europe in five weeks!
8. It will help me run my triathlon.
9. I've got a big, exciting reward planned for when I make it to 100 pounds! 
10. My blog readers would be so proud.

This Week's Tastiness

This week I made two recipes. One was recommended by able-bodied girl in one of her recent blogs and can be found online at the Year of Slow Cooking. It is called Chile Verde, and it involves chuck roast, tomatillos and diced tomatoes.  I was interested to try it because of the tomatillos.  Tomatillos are from the tomato family, but are smaller and green.  I had seen them in the produce section back when I was regularly searching for new fruits and vegetables to try for your reading pleasure, and thought they looked interesting. Plus, I love the green salsa at Moe's, and I think tomatillos are what makes that so tasty.

It cooked all day in the slow cooker today and it was DELISH! I'm not the best at describing flavors, but this had a sweet, almost tangy taste. I highly recommend it.  I served it with crushed tortilla chips on top.

These are tomatillos.

My second recipe was Chicken and Broccoli Casserole.  Despite it  receiving rave reviews on Sparkrecipes.com, I was not sure it would be good.  I've made a similar casserole before that I did not love.  I swapped the recommended Cream of Mushroom soup for Cream of Chicken, basically because Cream of Mushroom is gross.  I also thought about reducing the cheese to make it lower in calories and fat, but I'm glad I didn't.  It was super cheesy.

Enjoy!

Spin

I've already had an exciting day and it's not even noon yet.  Let me tell you why. I went to my very first Spin class.

Spin, for those of you who do not know, is one hour of heart-rate-jumping cycling set to loud and awesome music.  I loved it.

Let me back up. I was very nervous about trying it.  In fact, I've thought about trying it before, but I've never had the guts. I've heard a lot of horror stories.  I've heard it is incredibly intense. I've heard that the regular spinners are really mean to newcomers and make fun of you if you can't keep up.  I've heard that the seats hurt your butt like nothing else could.  I've heard that you walk funny afterwards.

But a couple of weeks ago, when I was in my rut, I was thinking about taking some of the exercise classes at the local gym to change up my routine and get me out of my funk. I had a one week free pass that a neighbor had given me.

Last week I happened to mention to my friend Alyssa that I had this pass and was thinking about taking some classes. She is a member of the same gym, so she got excited about the prospect of a workout buddy and encouraged me to come. So today I picked her up bright and early, and we headed to the gym.

It was really intimidating to walk in the dark room they have set-up for spin.  I had planned to find a bike in the back, in case I couldn't hang and had to leave early, but a bunch of people had already claimed bikes and I wound up in the center, middle, right in front of the instructor.  My bike seat was too high, and I couldn't figure out how to lower it. Slightly embarrassed, I had to ask the girl next to me.

Then the instructor, a well-muscled, lean and good-looking man asked if there were any newcomers.  Let me tell you something I've learned. If you are a newcomer to an exercise class, you should definitely let the instructor know.  If you don't, they don't explain everything as thoroughly and you end up confused for half the class. So, as intimidating as it was, I raised my hand high and waved at him.  He seemed surprised to have a newcomer, "You've never done spin before, ever?" he said.  "Never, ever," I responded. "Okay, feel free to leave early, if you can't make it the whole hour," he said.

He was just trying to be nice, but I took it as a challenge.  I wanted to make it the full hour, so I took it easy on the hills the first few songs.  But the longer I was in there, the more I got caught up in it.  The moves (going up hill, going downhill, sprinting, standing up, sitting down) are all choreographed to the music.  All the song selections were great, too, and sometimes I caught myself bopping along to the beat as I pedaled.

I made it the whole hour. I could see that the instructor kept checking on me (I was RIGHT in front of him, after all), but I kept up the pace pretty well. The last song, he encouraged us to go all out, and I did, man. I was dripping sweat by the time I was through.

It was a great workout. I torched some serious calories, and it was a lot more fun than I expected.  And I spent so much time standing and pedaling during the class, that my butt doesn't hurt too bad after all.   How's that for a happy ending to my Spin story?

Saying Goodbye to Diet Pepsi??

Lately, I've been feeling a pull to give up diet sodas. You know how much I love Diet Pepsi; I wrote a whole post about it.  

I don't know, I guess I've just been seeing a lot lately about the evils of diet soda and how it helps you hold on to pounds, even though it does not have calories.  I'm not really sure how that works, except I know it is supposed to make you crave sweets.  I know that when I eat certain foods, like Moe's, BoJangles, and popcorn, I have to have a diet drink to go with it or I feel incomplete.  Also know that when I have one, I always want to have another, and once I start drinking diet pepsi, it's hard to switch back to water.

Even though I've been drinking it for years, caffeine still affects me. I start my day with one every day, just like some people do coffee, to get me started.  I feel incomplete without it.  If I drink it too close to bedtime, it keeps me awake.  

Also, I am hopelessly addicted, so the idea of giving it up means a few days in pain. It will feel like my brain is being ripped into thousands of pieces for at least two days.

I don't think I can go to a strictly water-only drinking regimen, and I don't drink any form of tea, so I guess that leaves just a little bit of Crystal Lite now and again?  I can't think of any other low-cal drink.  Suggestions?

Honestly, it sounds horrible to even think about giving it up. I love the pop and fizz sound that comes when I crack open a can. I love the crisp taste, especially when it comes from a fountain. However, as I'm trying very hard to close in on my goal, I could use any kind of extra help I can get. 

But then sometimes I think, I'm already "giving up" a lot to lose weight, cutting down on my eating out and eating chocolate.  Why should I have to give up one more thing, especially when it has ZERO calories?

As you can see, I'm of two minds about this. I'd love to know what you think. You can vote in the comments section below.  Have you ever been addicted to caffeine?

Time for a Clementine

Life has been a tad stressful lately. Work has been bustling, crazy busy. It's  the kind of week where I have a million things to do, and they all have to be done at the same time.  Yesterday, I never took the time to stop and heat up my lunch (though I did eat all of my snacks). In other words, my current location is stress-city.

However, today in the midst of the stress and busyness, I was feeling hungry. Actual hunger, not just "hmm, I'm kind of bored, wouldn't it be nice to eat something tasty," which is what is usually happening when I say I'm hungry.  I was going to keep plowing through what I needed to do, thinking I would catch a few minutes to grab a bite later, but I stopped and thought, "No. I'm going to take the time to have a clementine."

I liked that rhyme so much that I stopped, peeled and ate two clementines and then decided it sounded like a good blog post.

After all, what does it take to peel a clementine or two?  30 seconds or a minute, tops?  That 30 seconds gave me not just a no-longer-hungry-belly, but some nutrition, some vitamin C, and some breathing room to evaluate what I was working on at that moment and to reevaluate whether or not I needed to be doing it or something more pressing instead.

Luckily, I'm not stressed very often and even when I am, it is not dire stress, not life and death stress. In fact, I feel like I read about stress in magazines and in random online articles more often than I actually feel it.  What about you? Do you get stressed? What stresses you?  How do you deal with it?  May I suggest you take some time for a clementine?  (I think this could be come a new catchphrase. I really do.)

Oatmeal

Do any of you eat oatmeal?  Every thing I read these days seems to say that it is great for you and great for keeping you full all morning.  Also, my friend Stefanie recommended it when she visited me in November.

Anyway, I'm asking because I would like to be an oatmeal eater, but the instant kind I've bought is just gross. Probably it's not the healthiest option either, although I tried to buy the healthiest of the instant kind.   Am I buying the wrong thing or should I just stay away from the instant altogether?  I'm thinking most people add tasty stuff to their oatmeal like fruit or nuts, and this must make it taste better.

I really want to be an oatmeal lover, and would like your help. If you have any tips or thoughts to share on oatmeal or oatmeal toppings, please comment below.  If the comment box intimidates you, please email or facebook me!

My Net

This week I read on another blog a post titled "The Net."  It was a beautiful and moving post about the author's circle of friends and how this group of women have supported each other through tough times. From the post:

"The Net," she called us. Because we caught her when she fell.

As years have passed, we've all taken our turns jumping in. We promise to catch each other, and we do our best. Sometimes we screw up. Sometimes we fall apart. New friends join forces, old friends strengthen theirs. But, in the end...we are there.


The whole post is beautifully written and augmented by stunning photography. It made me want to write about my own net. 


Although it may come as a surprise to blog readers who are used to be me being open and honest with my struggles, I have never been very good at sharing personal information.  I can talk to you all day long about the latest Modern Family episode or the Oscar race or The Hunger Games books, but when it comes to intimate personal conversation, I'm a little quieter. And  I'm much better at asking you questions than answering yours for me.  


But it's something I've been trying to work on, and it has gotten better over the years. And because of that, my net has gotten a little bigger and a little stronger.  Lately, with the struggles of my weight loss and the unknowns surrounding the birth of my niece Natalie, I've felt pretty secure in my net and for that I am grateful.
I don't have the words right now to say exactly what these people have done for me and continue to do for me, so instead, I'll leave you with a collage.

Do you have a net? What does your net do for you?