Go Fish!

I know I should eat fish twice a week, but I really don't like it that much.  So tonight I made sort of a one dish meal that turned out pretty darn tasty!

Brown rice (I use minute rice, and made 4 servings, I'm not sure exactly how much it was cooked, but my guess is 3 cups)

4 Tilapia fillets

2 cloves garlic, diced

Olive oil

1 bunch fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

about 1/3 each red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (put them in a pan on medium high heat and stir a bit until you smell them)

Parmesan cheese

Put a little olive oil in a pan, and heat.  Add tilapia and sprinkle with some lemon pepper.  Add garlic to pan.  When fish is cooked, chop it with a spatula into bite sized pieces (much easier after it's done).  Meanwhile, cook the rice.  Mix together all  ingredients but the cheese, add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat until spinach is wilted and it's heated through.  Put in bowl, top with cheese, and enjoy!!!

By the way, I'm feeling pretty awesome about myself.  A lady that helps at my school sometimes (I'm not even sure of her name, but we say hi in passing) saw me in the office this morning and exclaimed "you look great!!!!"  I had a meeting at the district office after school, and the ladies there made me stand up to show them how good I'm looking.  Plus I wore my skinny jeans today, which normally give me a nice little fat roll over the top, and I have to take them off as soon as I get home.  But I'm still wearing them 12 hours later and they're as comfy as leggings (and no fat roll)  :)

If only my hair didn't look so stupid, I'd be feeling so sexy my head might explode!!!

This is a great mantra for anyone trying to reach any goal...

I'm in the 150's!

Lost 2 pounds, so I'm at 159.8.... I'm out of the 160's!!!! I know it's barely below the 160 mark, but I don't really care :)

Now I just need to keep pushing forward, no going back!  I've lost 13 pounds, or 8% of my weight so far.  That's kinda cool.

It was also kinda cool when I weighed in today and told them my team name.  A bunch of people turned when they heard it, because they know that we are number 1 and that they need to step up to beat us.

Before I get too cocky, I should weight for the week's results for all the teams :) 

Is Cheating Even Worth It?

It's been awhile!

Our team has been #1 for several weeks in a row now, and we've been in the paper.  The editor asked for a comment about what we are doing that works, and after Kim spent 5 hours and we all gave well thought out input, she didn't quote a word of it.  She probably just wanted to steal our secrets for herself :P  I finally saw our team before photo, I did a pretty good job of making myself look like a blimp.  We are going to need to find sexy outfits for our after photo.

While I haven't lost as much as my teammates, I have consistently lost since starting the challenge. I didn't go to last week's weigh in.  I kinda spaced it out.   I'm thinking I should be down a couple pounds when I weigh in tomorrow.  I got an awful haircut yesterday, but that knocked me down a pound.  I'm noticing a flatter tummy, thinner arms, my pants are saggy, and my boobs are smaller.  I've gone from a 36 to a 34, which translates to a smaller back and an inch smaller in the bust (I was a bra fit expert at Fashion Bug when I was in college).  I found some Victoria's Secret bras that I had "grown out" of, and they fit again.  So see, I really am bringing sexy back!!!

I've stopped doing P90X.  It's way above my fitness level and it was making me miserable.  I might pick and choose what videos I want to do, like the Kempo or even Plyometrics.  My in laws lent us their Nordic Track, so I'm going to try to do that every day.

I've cheated a couple times on food.  The best was when we went to the movies in Vail on Friday, and we had baked goat cheese with figs and pistachios, and then I had a garlic shrimp ravioli in vodka sauce.  It tasted like heaven in my mouth.  One thing we've noticed, though, is that when we cheat our bodies feel like crap for at least a day after.  We were both so bloated and gassy that we had to ride with the windows down.  I guess we aren't used to all that fat and carbs and processed yumminess anymore.  Which I guess is good, because now I don't really want to cheat because then I don't feel good.

I've discovered a few new favorites also.  Strawberries were on sale, so we bought a bunch of them.  I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I melted a handful of dark chocolate chips, dipped the strawberries in, and we had some delicious chocolate covered strawberries.  I've also discovered that one wedge of laughing cow garlic and herb cheese on a serving of reduced fat wheat thins is yummy and satisfying.  Also a serving of blue tortilla chips with a couple tablespoons of salsa is good.  Dr. Oz said that blue chips make your body act like the body of a skinny person.  Not sure what that means, but the chips aren't bad for you and I'll take it.  Tonight for dinner I made a quinoa turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes with skim milk, low fat sour cream, and a bunch of spices.  It was surprisingly delicious! Instead of the topping in the recipe, I mixed a teaspoon of brown sugar with 3 teaspoons of ketchup and like 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard, and put it on top for the last 10 minutes (it's a Paula Deen recipe that I tweaked a bit to lessen the sugar, and it's too delicious to give up).  And of course instead of the onion I used a shallot, and we don't have hot sauce so I used Heinz 57 steak sauce.  Something I learned, is that uncooked quinoa is as staticy as the beans in a bean bag chair, and would make a huge mess if spilled (luckily I didn't).  Also it floats.  But it was super easy to cook, and I'm excited to use it in future recipes!

Tips and Tricks

We made the paper! Not uncommon living in a small town, but still... The editor of the paper emailed us asking us to share what we are doing to be successful.  That's kinda cool, but isn't this a competition?  of course it's not like we have a secret either. So I guess we'll be in the paper next week too!

I thought I'd post some foods that I've discovered that are delicious.  I actually crave these things now, and my cravings for cookies and chips are, albeit slowly, diminishing.

Kashi Cereal: I have it every morning for breakfast, and one serving has 10 grams of protein, a bunch of fiber, and whole grains and it keeps me full for at least 3 hours.  The regular Kashi is gross.  The crunch is good, but a bit too crunchy.  What I'm addicted to is the Go Lean Crisp.  My favorite is the berry blast flavor, with dried strawberries and whatever else in it.  There is also a Cinnamon flavor that tastes just like Cinnamon Toast crunch.

Salsa: There are so many flavors!!! And the generic brands are more delicious that the more expensive name brands.  In 2 Tbs., which is more than enough, there is about 10 calories, which is nothing! There are tons of different flavors too.  Right now I have a spicy, smokey, fire roasted chipotle habanero and a sweet peach mango in my fridge.  It's good in wraps, fish tacos, on chicken, you could even dip veggies or crackers in it.  And everyone loves saying, "salsa."

Dark Chocolate: Let's face it, sometimes a girl needs chocolate.  When a craving hits, I'll have about a Tbs. of dark chocolate chips.  It's the purest form, with the least added oils and sugars, and it's full of antioxidants.  Plus it has helped me ween myself off of sugar.  I've gone from having this everyday to maybe once a week now.

Yoplait Light Yogurt:  I have it everyday for snack.  It also helps curb a late night sweet tooth.

Other things I love: hummus, golden raisins, Puffins Cereal, garlic, cilantro, Mrs. Dash, red pepper flakes, rosemary, thyme, lemon, lime, avocado, olive oil, minute brown rice, lemon pepper, dried mixed berries, green chilis, olives, ummmmmmmmmm sugar free pudding, Prego Veggie Smart pasta sauce, and my food processor.

Also, if I want to snack at night I'll go take my shower or brush my teeth or do something else to distract myself, and it usually works.  It's a lot like quitting smoking, you have to distract yourself until you get past the craving.

I try to use fresh ingredients that are as close to their natural state as possible.  Of course that makes it all more expensive.

Finally, other than my morning coffee, all I drink is water.  Everything else bloats me way up.  Even sugar free drinks, like Crystal Light.  Once in a while I'll have a little bit of a 0 calorie flavored water, but only about 8oz.

I saw this on Pinterest, and it kinda makes me regret my delicious Doritos treat I had last week.

We're #1!!!!!!

For reals, click here if you don't believe me.

I guess the word on the street is that my team is starving ourselves and that's how we are so far ahead of everybody.  That must be easier to believe than we have been working hard and eating healthy food and aren't cheating (much).  I guess in this town if you're number 1, you MUST be cheating (fellow teachers know what I'm talking about).  Oh well, haters can hate, and we'll keep bringing sexy back (my husband just asked why I'm dancing.  Apparently I was shaking my head with attitude as I wrote that hahaha!!)

I lost 3 pounds last week.  Since I had a cheese steak sub and brownie for dinner Friday night and didn't really work out at all last week, I can only really attribute the weight loss to getting my period on Monday, staying home writhing in pain and not eating anything but a small bowl of cereal and about 10 Advil, and then pooping a lot.  But hey, I still lost!!!! After weigh in we went to subway, and I got a turkey sub with lots of veggies on REAL BREAD and then I had a bag of NACHO CHEESE DORITOS and it was the most amazing thing I've ever had, at least in the past month :)

I didn't get home until after 7 last night so we didn't work out.  Today we started a new cycle of P90X (every 30 days you do something new, apparently it confuses your muscles and that's good).  Tonight's workout was Core Synergistics.  I'm not sure what the hell it is, but the workout video people were spinning around like they had Lazy Susan under their butts, rolling around like I don't know what, and squirming on the floor like worms on concrete.  "WTF?!???" Came out of my mouth more than once.  I have no balance and pretty much flopped around like a fish for an hour.  I'm not sure that this P90X thing is going to last much longer.  It would be a great workout if I could do the moves, but I feel like I'm flopping around and then watching the video for 5 minutes waiting to flop around for the next move.  I would burn more calories by doing something less intense for 30 minutes straight than watching people workout for an hour and doing a few push ups and squats in between. My in laws offered us their Nordic Track.  Chris said no, but I'm thinking we need to say yes!

Anyways, dinner tonight was spaghetti with whole wheat pasta, Prego Veggie Smart sauce, ground turkey, and frozen spinach.  We are out of cheese so I peeled a low fat string cheese and put that on top.  I wanted a little crunch so I put some Melba Rounds in the food processor until they were crumbs and sprinkled that on top.  It looked weird, but it was delicious! Tomorrow for lunch we are going to put the left over sauce into pitas and have like an Italian meatball sub.

This week I'm going to really focus on working out, even though P90X sucks and kicks my ass.  I would love to weigh one fifty something next week.

Being first isn't what this is all about, be it sure is an awesome incentive.  So is seeing results.  I really wanted a snack last night, but thought about how nice it is not to have a big gut anymore and that was enough to curb my appetite.  My students know about the challenge (a lot of their parents are in it), and today when I told them we are in first place they were all pumped up and supportive and said they are rooting for us, so I said please don't bring anymore cupcakes.

I'm not doing this to loose weight, and then quit when it's over.  This is a whole new lifestyle, and it's going to take a while to build new habits.  Just need to take it one day at a time :)

Here's some motivation