TGIF!!!

I just got back from a great 3 mile run. That's right. I ran 3 miles, no walking! Eeep! That was a big jump from 2 1/4 to 3 miles in less than one week. Go me! Heather and I gab the whole time and it goes by so fast.

So, you're caught up on breakfast from the last post.

Mid-morning snacky was dates w/peanut butter and raspberries. I was out of cheesesticks.

This was so good!

Lunch was fantastic, though. It was a wrap, of course. But it was a ham, swiss and steamed broccoli wrap. Amazing combo!!!

Ta daaaaa!

My afternoon snack was supposed to be yogurt and the rest of the raspberries, but they were moldy. So, I actually had an apple with a teeeeeeny bit of almond butter and some pretzel stix. No pic. So sorry.

Oh, and I also had a minor altercation with a pint of my roommate's ice cream. Thankfully, I was able to wrestle my arm to the floor after only a couple bites. Phew... That was a close one.

The Chicken-Cabbage Surprise will have to be another day, because when Ryan got home he informed me he wouldn't be joining Heather and I on our run, so that meant eating seperately.

So, I went on my run, he had frozen waffles and I had....

Oh Eggs... How I love thee...
(a blend of real and eggbeaters)

and then this

Another good food day and a great run! Yay! Must be all your great support shining through. Thank you! Keep it coming... :)

Speaking of great support, I wanted to direct you all to Jack's blog today. It's a great one. He's a great blogger with a lot of heart and a ton of humor to boot. :)

xoxo
-Mrs. Myers

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Day Two of Operation "Plan to Lose!"

Good morning guys!

Sorry I didn't post last night. Wanted to hang with the hubby a bit before bed.

Yesterday was a good food day. The only real kink was getting stuck in the office longer than expected and eating a trail mix bar out of stress.

Yesterday Breakfast
Oatmeal w/Natural PB and Raspberries (they're going bad at lightspeed)

Mid morning, I had two whole grain fig newtons and some coffee. I also had an unpictured banana, which I'd intended for lunch, but I didn't want my cheese stick, so I saved it.

(Is it me? Or is my camera getting worse?...)

Lunch was a ham and cheese sammie (toasted in the toaster oven). So good. And my cheesestick.

Afternoon, at the office was a trail mix bar.

When I got home I knew I had a while until dinner w/the bookclub, so I had a nectarine with a teeny bit of almond butter. I had intended to have it with yogurt, but it didn't sound good.

California Pizza Kitchen was good, and book club was fun, as always. I took a few shots of everyone else's food.

which made my own cobb salad look a little boring... This is post dismemberment... No avocado and I scraped the bacon to the side.

It was good though. After I got home, I had a watermelon yogurt since I didn't take it for lunch.

And, that's it. It was a good food day for once!!!

On Today's Menu

Breakfast:
Cheerios (1.5 cup) w/a banana and soy milk.

I'm having alot of trouble finishing the soy milk. I wish I could just drink my cereal milk, but its gross to me. Always has been. Silly.

Mid-Morning Snack
6 Dates w/a Cheese stick, few raspberries
(The cheese stick is quite the gentleman.)

Lunch
Ham and Cheese on a Whole Wheat Wrap
a little steame broccoli and cauliflower

Mid-Afternoon
Honey Oikos, raspberries and 1/4 cup pumpkin flax
(I need to get rid of these berries.)

Dinner
Chicken and Cabbage Dish (stay tuned... this is a concoction)

Snacky
Salt and Pepper Popcorn

I think post will come late tonight. I'm meeting my friend for a run at 7, so hubby and I may end up eating dinner after that.

Ok guys. Let's see how I do on Planning Day Two.

Enjoy your day. See you tonight!

xoxo
-Mrs. Myers

An Almost Post and Happy Bday to Meredith!

Hi guys! I'm too tired to really truly post, but I'll give you a taste and I'll update in the morning...

I did well food-wise today. Book club was fun. And, it was our friend Meredith's birthday.

Talk at ya tomorrows. :)

xoxo

-Mrs. Myers

Beating the Set Point Theory

I am up 7 pounds since March and all of my clothes are tighter.

You can call them 7 pounds of wedding bliss, but whatever. Fat is fat.

It's interesting to me that I can workout 45 minutes a day 7 days a week and gain weight steadily. But I know this about myself: I am either losing or I'm gaining. (Yo-yo anyone?) I don't actually ever maintain my weight.

One of my issues is that my body is used to eating a very small amount of calories. This "gain" has happened because I allowed myself to begin eating like a "normal woman." Ie: I've been eating 1500-1800 calories a day. To my body, this is tons. After many years of terrible low-calorie eating, my body thinks it only needs around 1200-1400 tops. Anything over that makes me gain weight.

A conundrum, yes?...

What I'm actually referring to is Set Point Theory. Basically, this means your body becomes accustomed to what your doing/eating and you have to make a drastic change to pull your body out of that set point.

Or, atleast that's what I've always thought.

But, I'd like to approach this Set Point Enigma from another angle. Something Miz recently talked about on her blog, and something I really agree with is another rather simple concept: Consistency.

I don't need any schooling to tell you that consistency is the key to lasting weight loss. You will see countless bootcamps, purges, detox diets, lose-15-pounds-in-15-days miracle weight loss plans, but the truth is these things are teaching us only how to lose weight in a vacuum. Instant gratification, without sharpening the tools that help you learn to live after the diet or detox. It's the American way (gee, wonder why americans are obese?...) I sincerely believe the only tried and true method of weight loss plan can be summed up in two simple words: BE CONSISTENT.

Simple, impossible, achievable. All at the same time. Be consistent.

Consistency is something I have trouble achieving in my food routine, mostly because my food (and exercise) tends to be reflective of my life. Since my wedding, I've had a major shift in my career and I'm going back to school to boot. So, how do you find consistency in a life that is so chaotic?

It's simple. You force it, you fake it and eventually it becomes habit. I believe in this, and I know it works.

If you fail to plan, plan to fail.

One of the most important parts of living a consistent lifestyle is planning ahead. Not everyone needs to do this. But I need to, and if whatever you're doing isn't working, maybe you need to, too.

Planning my food a day in advance was one of the key aspects of my 200 pound weightloss and every small weightloss I've achieved since then. So why did I quit? Honestly? Because I hate doing it. I love being able to get inspired by a blog I read or an idea I have while driving to the office... But, the reality for me is that sticking to a plan keeps me in line. It's like my mind switches out of food mode because I've taken the creativity of that moment out of it. If I know that at 10am, I'm having a cheesestick and an apple, there's no need to stare at the fridge trying to figure out what to eat and eating half of it while I'm making whatever it is. I already know.

So, that said, I'm toying with the idea of posting my food plan on here one day in advance. It might help me out to be accountable like that. It's worth a try. I need to get rid of these 7 pounds (I can't afford new clothes anyway!!!).

My idea is meet this set point theory head on with a consistent practice of health and wellness. Workout as I've done, pushing it a little more, and push consistency in my eating, even as I'm eating at 1500 calories instead of insanely low like I've had to do to lose weight in the past. I sincerely believe consistency will win out. What do you think?

On Tomorrow's Menu

Breakfast
Oatmeal w/1 spoon of Natural Jif and Rasberries

Mid-Morning Snack
2 Whole Grain Fig Newtons and Cheesestick

Lunch
Ham and Swiss on Nature's Own Bread
Light n Fit Yogurt-Watermelon (You NEED to try this flavor.)

Mid-Afternoon
Honey Oikos, 1/4 cup Pumpkin Flax and a Nectarine
(Big snack because dinner isn't until 7:30)

Dinner (Bookclub at CPK)
1/2 CPK Cobb Salad (They list this at 574 calories, but I don't like avocado and I'll use oil/vinegar, not the ranch or blue cheese, so I think it'll be significantly less than 574.)

+Popsicles, which I never count in calories.

Ok. Feels good to do that.

I bet you guys are dying for pictures to break up all these WORDS.

Breakfast was... not good. Toast, egg and a really yucky maple Morningstar sausage patty. GROSS! I like the regular sausage, but the maple tastes like... bread or something. It was weird.

Leftover Lunchie. Always good the next day.

And, I'm afraid that's all the food pictures I have. Today was binge-y, plus extremely busy. Luckily I had help..........

Yep... can't tell you how much it helps the old work concentration to have cars driving over your paperwork... and your arms... and over the back of the chair you're sitting in and under it... and occasionally random little cars driving (or crashing, sound effects included) into your laptop.........

;) All this and I'm not even a parent yet! Good practice, I 'spose.

After all that work, I didn't have the energy to cook, so we went to Souplantation for dinner. So, that's all the pics. I'll do better tomorrow guys!!!

Goodnight boys and girls! :)

Much love,
Mrs Myers

==========TALK BACK========

Do you plan your food in advance? How do you stay consistent with your healthy eating habits?

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Hubby in the Kitchen: Turkey Strogonoff and Randomness

Did I spell strogonoff right?!?

I can't spell... Ok, so tonight was another Hubby in the Kitchen. Note: It's adorable something awful to me that Ryan actually refers to it as Hubby in the Kitchen. I'll update you briefly on the rest of today, so I can get to the good part.

Breakfast:

Today was busy. I was supposed to go to the office and leave at 1. 4pm rolled around and I was just leaving. Sigh... Thankfully I took a little food. Not enough, considering I eat pretty much every 2 hours like clockwork.

Snacky: Vanilla Oikos and about a 1/4 cup Pumpkin Flax

For lunch, I brought the rest of my california roll from yesterday. I had 6 pieces. I ate 5. I didn't want the last one, but I was still hungry. I ate a nature valley trail mix granola bar. These things are addictive, so good to me. They're not bad for you, really, just not good. Anyway, I didn't get to picture any of these things. I worked really hard today.

So hard, that around 2:30, I began to have stabbing pains behind my eyes from looking at powerpoint all day (I am creating a major presentation for a multi-million dollar client, so lots of stupid animation, little squiggles and fade ins and outs - ugh!). When 4pm rolled around, I bolted. I couldn't take anymore today.

Thankfully, I walked in the house and remembered it was a Hubby in the Kitchen night. So, I promptly fainted on the bed and covered my head with a pillow. That lasted all of 15 minutes until Hubby came home and came to find me.

Hubby in the Kitchen: Turkey Strogonoff

We kinda forgot to take pictures until the end, so basically before this pic, he browned the turkey and threw in a packet of Beef Strogonoff seasoning (does not have beef in it, I've checked) and boiled the noodles.

Then combined them:

Then, he added in a container of plain Oikos.

He served this with a side of steamed zucchini. YUM!

Then, we descended into randomness.

Random beer shot.

Him doing random poetry. His words were flowing so fast, it messed up the camera.

Me trying to do poetry with the camera.

Him getting back at me and me not being amused.

After all this, I decided to go for a walk since I didn't want to hit the gym. My walk turned into a run. And, afterwards, this was my reward:

And now, I need to go do some abs, pushups, and weighted squats.

Peace out homies.

xoxo

-Mrs Myers

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Oh!!! I almost forgot! The XBOX BURRITO worked!!! Can you believe it? The boys are playing it right now! Ha! Who knew?

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Sushi, Mac n Cheese and an XBox Burrito

Buenos Nachos ;)

The man and I just got back from the gym a bit ago. I realize I rarely ever tell you guys about my workouts. Quite frankly, exercise is not nearly so interesting to me as food. Still.

We did a long workout, and I managed to pound out 2.25 miles on the treadmill without stopping. That's the farthest I've run at one time EVER! (Pauses for applause.) It was cool. When I finished that little feat, I walked until the treadmill read 30 minutes, and then I hopped on the upright bike for another 15 on the hills program. Then, I worked out my deltoids, triceps, biceps and some abs. Fun fun.

Before I tell you about dinner, I'm going to back up for a quick minute to tell you about the rest of the day.

This morning, I slept in. Unfortunately that left me getting ready at break-neck speed. I had maybe 4 minutes to eat my breakfast of two pieces of toast with natural peanut butter. That's a small breakfast for me, especially since the bread is only 60 cals per slice, but I had NO time. So, I threw a few things in my bag and hit the door.

That little sammie might look unassuming, but it was fantabulous!!!! It was ham and swiss, and I threw it in the toaster oven at the office for like 5 minutes. Oh my wordpress, it was amazing. I think this was mostly because I hadn't had a plain o' ham n cheese in forever.

Thankfully I took that stuff, because like always, I didn't get home until late. It was 2pm and I was starving. I had a beautiful second lunch.

Do you love that or what? Wait. Wait. Here it is from another angle.

I was so in love with these colors as I ate this. A really juice nectarine and three pieces of a brown rice california roll. YUM!

Later, I had some whole grain fig newtons. Love em.

Dinner after the gym has to be quick. I know we just had fish, but fish was the ticket again tonight. Tilapia, whole wheat mac n cheese and peas. Simple and good. I had an embarrassingly large portion of everything.

And I really did eat it all. I must have worked up an appetite at the gym. :)

Other than maybe a popsicle, that's it for tonight. Hubby is currently laying on the living room floor worrying over his XBox360, who is sick right now and won't work for him. The roommate told him there's a supposed fix on Youtube where you use a towel to wrap your beloved game console up for five minutes and it somehow fixes the whole problem. So, yep, you guessed it. He's sitting there with an XBox burrito. lol. If I thought he wouldn't throw something at me, I'd sneak a picture for you. But... I have to admit, if my laptop stopped working and someone said I could fix it by wrapping a towel around it, you better believe I'd do it, so... ya... All jokes aside, has anyone heard if this actually works? It supposedly fixes a malfunction inherent to all XBox 360s. Dunno. I can't even turn that thing on. What do I know?

Ok ok ok, I'm done. xoxoxoxoxo!

P.S. Tomorrow is Hubby in the Kitchen. Stay tuned!

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Home Sweet Sunday Night

Today was fun. We didn't exactly do anything special. Home stuff. It was just one of those good days.

It started off quite well with a yummy PB&J oatmeal (w/Pumpkin Flax). Awesome!

We spent alot of the day cleaning and doing laundry while watching National Geographic channel. lol. The only time I left was to go to the gym and to hit up the store.

Some of the goods (the rest were on the counter).

Snacky:

Dinner was a big yum. Chicken breast stuffed with avocado and cheddar. I'd love to take credit, but I bought them already stuffed from the meat department at Vons. Still, I baked 'em all by myself. That counts for something :)!!!

So, that pretty much wraps up this Sunday night. Unfortunately, tomorrow is Mondy, but before we know it, it'll be the weekend again. So it goes. :)

xoxo

Food, Food and a Trip to OB

Greetings. I'm hiding from Bible people right now. Ya know, the ones that knock on your door and want to convert you to their religion? I was in the kitchen (where they couldn't see me) when they knocked. The voice calling through my screen was WAY too friendly so I hid until they went away. Then, I heard them telling the story of Baby Jesus to my neighbors, and I quickly shut my door and closed the blinds. Yay!

[This blog is not taking a religious stance. I hide from salespersons too, I swear.]

Anywho, I need to catch you up on Friday and today!

Yesterday's lunch was another one of my concoctions.

Leftover Caesar Salad, a chicken tender and kidney beans

Don't knock it till you try it.

And, I also had a dannon light n fit watermelon yogurt for dessert. Wowsa was this good. It's new. I give it 5 thumbs up. Two from me. Two from Ryan and One from our roommate.

Peas Please. Dinner was a spectacular 20 minute meal. I made one of those whole grain Rice-a-ronis and threw in some frozen peas, steamed some fresh snap peas and made tilapia. YUM!

A couple hours after supper, we went for a 3.5 mile jog. We sprinted the last bit through the parking lot where our car was parked and used the speed bumps as hurdles. I'm sure we looked like fools, but it was good exercise. (And fun). :)

Later, we shared salt and pepper popcorn while watching the Dog Whisperer.

Oh, and that's the dog whisperer and his dog helper Daddy. We love him and we love Daddy too. We decided if Daddy were human, he'd be a black man. He walks in to work with the other dogs, and he swaggers, "I'm cool... I'm cool... Woah, man... Be cool man... Settle down. Damn, can somebody get this jumpy dog off me? You're messing up my hair, man. Be cool..." Te he.

This morning's breakie was oatmeal with 1 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter (Skippy Natural) and about a 1/4 cup of the Pumpkin Flax cereal. It was perfect. Didn't make me sick at all and SO filling.

Lunch was quick. Another leftoves wrap. I know it's boring, but I love em. This time kidney beans (I'm the only one that eats them really, so they go a long way), and last night's leftovers.

After lunch, I said, "Let's go to Olde Town." He said, "Let's go to Pointe Loma." (I know you guys are thinking the same thing I did if you know the place... what the heck is in Pointe Loma?!?)

This is where we ended up.

Ocean Beach

OB is like... well... like no where I've been. It's like a miniature surfer's town. The streets smell like incense (on a good day) and there's tons of cheapie little shops and food joints. Everyone is wearing a bikini or surf shorts. Different.

More pics.

After these pics, Ryan bought me a cute dress. No full-length pic, though, and I'm shiny. Maybe I'll wear it soon and model for you. He has such good taste. When we shop it's like having two of me in one store because he knows my size and has good style. He'll walk over to me with stuff in his hand for me to try on. lol.

When we came home, we crashed for a two hour nap and just woke up 15 mins ago and headed straight for the fridge for rasberry popsicles. lol.

Te he. We're silly.

Latas guys!!!