QotW: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao-tzu

Quote of the Week: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao-tzu

So, I've been working kinda hard on "me." The last few weeks. I've been making non-numerical goals every week and trying my best to be healthier, and be less focused on the numbers. This past week I went down 5.3 pounds! :)

So, I figured in celebration I would try to share some of my motivation with you guys.

I have a big whiteboard in my room, on which I've written many things to keep myself motivated. I have it in a place that I can't help but glance at when I'm in my room, entering or exiting. I have a two lists, one which includes my high weight, current weight, and goal weight, and the other which includes my change for the week and my goal of the week. That's all great for keeping me focused and reminding myself that I never want to go backwards. But, my favourite part of my board is my "quote of the week!"

I know it sounds silly, and kind of pre-school-ish to give myself a quote every week to aspire to, but it helps me. Monday is my weigh-in day, so on Sunday night is when I re-do my board - writing a new goal for the week (fyi: this week's goal is to do four work-outs, despite my hectic schedule, because last week was less busy and I blew my goal of "go on the elliptical one time" right out of the water by going on it four times and doing a kickboxing workout with my fiance!), and then I look up and pick a quote of the week.

This week I was just feeling it with this quote my Lao-tzu.So, I figured I'd share. (And I'll continue trying to share my quote every week, but I make no promises since this is about ME first and foremost, and I have a lot of stuff on my plate like unpacking from my recent move, catching up on work for my two bosses, and completing my thesis this semester....oh, and classes too of course.)

If your journey beings with the next step, where are you taking yourself?

(Feel free to respond in your head, or in the comments. I love feedback! :] )

I probably never finish anything...

I've come to the conclusion that I never seem to finish anything I start on this blog. and That's not okay. I know a lot of us do that. We start something with tons of motivation and then we just...stop. So, instead of another challenge or competition or anything I'm just going to focus on me, and give you guys random tips and stuff on the way. Maybe I'll start another challenge eventually, or maybe not. Who knows? Does anyone actually care? lol

MyzzLyzz

day 28 and a half (a quick note)

Due to the fact that I am a student and that takes priority over everything, I will be putting this on hold for about two weeks while I deal with finals and the rest of the end-of-the-semester stuff. Thanks for understanding!

-MyzzLyzz

Day #28: buffet adventure

So, today was one the first days all week that both me AND Bret had off at the same time. So we wanted to spend the day together. In the midst of our errands Bret decides he wants Hibachi (which I'm not a huge fan of), so whatever fine, I agree and we go to this new place in town that we'd never been to, and long story short it ends up being a buffet (which I HATE the most!!! I always overeat to "get my money's worth" and feel sick and blah blah blah you get the point). So, I tried my best...It was hard to keep track of (I wrote everything down) and hard to guesstimate sizes and measures and picking random brands of MFP to use...I tried to err on the side of caution, so it's more likely OVERestimated, but still, I don't think I did too bad. I tried to fill up on fruit and salad, and only have a few pieces of the foods I usually overindulge in, and at the end I treated myself to a tiny portion of ice cream.

Breakfast: 280

Lifeway - Lowfat Kefir Peach, 2 cup - 280

Lunch: 836

Lettuce - Iceberg (includes crisphead types), raw, 1.5 cup shredded - 15
Tomato - Cherry Tomato, 4 tomato - 6
Imitation Crab-Leg Style, 5 pieces (78g) - 133
Chinese - Crab Rangoon, 1 piece - 70
 Cheese Pizza - Buffet, 1/12 pie - 127
Cucumber - Peeled, raw, 10 slice - 8
Cooked, boiled, drained, without salt, 1 mushroom - 3
Shredded Carrot - Shredded, 0.25 cup raw - 12
Orange - Medium 2-3/8" Dia 96g, 1 whole peeled - 45
Generic - Cut Fresh Honeydew Melon, 3 slices - 112
Cantaloupe cute fresh, 3 slices - 30
Mint Chocolate Chip Premium Icecream, 0.25 Cup (70.9g) - 70
Strawberry Ice Cream, 0.25 cup - 70
Chocolate Ice Cream, 0.25 cup- 70
Butter Pecan Ice Cream, 0.25 cup - 65

Dinner: 834

Famiglia - Plain Pizza Slice, 1/6 of a pie - 250
(then, later)
Red Robin - Side Salad - No Croutons & No Dressing (From Rr Website), 1 Salad - 76
Red Robin - Clam Digger's Clam Chowder Bowl (Soup Only, No Bread), 1 bowl (356 grams) - 508

Snacks/Drinks: 110

Tea - 0
Water - 0
1 serving of pretzels, (Utz Sourdough Specials large pretzels) - 110

Exercise: 

None. :(

TOTAL: 2060

(I guess I did okay, considering my limit is 2020 and I only went over a little bit. I really need to go workout tomorrow!!!)

Motivation! ... (note: I do not own, nor did I create this photo. I honestly don't remember where it came from, I just had it saved on my computer. If you are the owner of this photo please comment or email me to have it removed or to get credit. Thanks for your understanding, I don't want to infringe on any copyright or ownership or whatever!)

This sums up my general feeling about today. :)

Day #27: busy day

Very busy day, so I didn't eat much til the afternoon, which was bad, but whatever...

Breakfast: 280

Lifeway - Lowfat Kefir Peach, 2 cup - 280

Lunch: 140

Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs, 2 egg - 140

Dinner: 695

Ronzoni - Smart Taste Penne Rigate, 3 oz. - 255
Francesco Rinaldi - Marinara Pasta Sauce, 1/2 cup - 80
Maggio - Part Skim Ricotta Cheese, 1 c (62g) - 360

Snacks/Drinks: 440

Tea - 0
Water - 0
1 mozzarella cheese stick - 80

Giant - Fruit on the Bottom Lowfat Yogurt - Blueberry, 1 Container - 150
Green Giant - Whole Kernal Sweet Corn, 1 container (1 4/5 cups ea.) - 210

Exercise: 1378

treadmill intervals incline - 30 min - 350 
Elliptical Trainer - 65 min - 1028

TOTAL: 1,555 - 1378 = 177 :0

POLL RESULTS: "What is your favorite no-calorie beverage?"

What is your favorite no-calorie beverage?

water	2 (100%)
diet soda	0 (0%)
seltzer water (natural favors)	0 (0%)
sparkling water (ones sweetened with artificial sweeteners)	0 (0%)
flavored water (ones sweetened with artificial sweeteners)	0 (0%)
other	0 (0%)

Votes: 2

Only two votes...but oh well, those who voted are really smart! Water is the best option on the list. Diet soda makes you gain weight (see my articles on it here and here) , and carbonated drinks (even seltzer water without anything artificial) can cause bloat and stomach stretching (which none of us want). It's okay to enjoy seltzer in moderation or once and a while, but plain good ol' water is really the best option. Yay for you voters being smart! :)

(note: I do not own, nor did I create these photos. I honestly don't remember where they came from, I just had them saved on my computer. If you are the owner of these photos please comment or email me to have it removed or to get credit. Thanks for your understanding, I don't want to infringe on any copyright or ownership or whatever!)

Day #26: went out drinking and had bar food, but managed to stay under calorie count..woohoo!

I anticipated that I would go out drinking with my friends...and I did my best to do good, but eh whatever. I got under my calories limit luckily! Hopefully three hours of playing darts burned some calories. rotfl.

Breakfast: 280

Lifeway - Lowfat Kefir Peach, 2 cup -280

Lunch: 192

Kirkland - Greek Yogurt Plain Nonfat, 1 cup - 140

Well-Pict - Sliced Strawberries, Frozen, Unsweetened, 70 g (1 cup) - 52

(Both above ingredients were blended into a smoothie)

Dinner: 372

Home Prepared - Plain Mashed Potatoes (Skim Milk), 2 cup - 172

Gravy - Chicken, Homemade, 1/2 cup - 80

Homemade - Oven Baked/Roasted Skinless Turkey Breast- Meat Only, 4 oz- 120

Snacks/Drinks: 1049

Tea - 0
Water - 0
1 mozzarella cheese stick - 80

Chex Mix - Traditional - 60% Less Fast Than Regular Chips, 1 pouch 49g -210
Jack Daniels - One Shot, 2 shot / 44mL / 1.5 fl oz - 194
Mozzarella Sticks, 3 pieces - 264
Heinz - Tomato Ketchup, 4 Tbsp (17g) - 80
Hennessey - Cognac, 1 oz - 69
Washington Apple Shot, 1 oz - 52
Dole - 100% Pineapple Juice-1 Can, 1 can (6oz) - 100 (Had this when i got home to settle my tummy before bed)

Exercise: 

None. 

TOTAL: 1893

Day #25: little food misstep, but then I fixed it in the gym

So....I ate more than I should have today. I actually had a nice, healthy dinner prepared but Bret brought home chinese food. I told him to only get it for himself, but he got it for me too. So, I packed away the healthy dinner as to not let the chinese go to waste. I ended up only having a few pieces of chicken, but I ate the whole side dish (it was a combo tray) of pork fried rice (well, except the pork chunks which I fished out and gave to bret since I usually only get plain rice since I'm not a big fan of pork).

But then, after dinner, Bret dragged me to the gym, where I kicked my butt. So, I think I helped, if not reversed, all the calories I had when I ended up overeating.

Breakfast: 280

Lifeway - Lowfat Kefir Peach, 2 cup - 280

Lunch: 740

Land O' Lakes - White American Cheese, 4 slice - 320
Pepperidge Farm - Whole Grain Bread - 15 Grain Hearty Texture, 2 slice (43g/1.5oz.) - 200
Progresso - Vegetable Classics Hearty Tomato Soup, 1 container (2 cups ea.) - 220

Dinner: 850

Generic- Take-Out - Sesame Chicken, 1.65 oz. - 137

Pork Fried Rice - General Chinese Food, 1.5 cup - 503
Generic - Pork Spring Roll, 1 serving - 210

Snacks/Drinks: 810

Tea - 0
Water - 0
1 mozzarella cheese stick - 80

1 serving of pretzels, (Utz Sourdough Specials large pretzels) - 110

Giant - Fruit on the Bottom Lowfat Yogurt - Blueberry, 2 Container - 300
Land O' Lakes - White American Cheese, 5 slice - 400

Exercise: -1649

60 minutes on elliptical = 949

treadmill intervals* for 60 minutes = 700

*I named this one myself. Basically, what I do is start at 1.0 incline  and 3.0 mph speed and crank it up 1 level every 5 minutes for about 40 minutes (Until it gets to be about at level 10), and then The last 20 minutes I crank it up every 2.5 minutes until it reached 15 (which is the max on the treadmill at the gym) and then I just walk at 15 until an hour is up. This calorie count is from the machine (I know, its not always reliable, but MFP doesn't have anything like this in their database).  I remain at 3.0 mph speed the whole time.

TOTAL: 2,680 (Yikes!!!) - 1649 (from exercise) = 1031

Motivation! ... (note: I do not own, nor did I create this photo. I honestly don't remember where it came from, I just had it saved on my computer. If you are the owner of this photo please comment or email me to have it removed or to get credit. Thanks for your understanding, I don't want to infringe on any copyright or ownership or whatever!)

Day #24: good things come to those who work

So last week was hectic, probably for everyone, which is why I didn't get a chance to update. But it's a new day, a new week, and time to get back to work! :)

Breakfast: 192

Kirkland - Greek Yogurt Plain Nonfat, 1 cup - 140

Well-Pict - Sliced Strawberries, Frozen, Unsweetened, 70 g (1 cup) - 52

(Both above ingredients were blended into a smoothie)

Lunch: 680

General Mills - Progresso Soup - Traditional - New England Clam Chowder, 1 container (2 cup (240 g) ea.) - 360
Crystal Farms - Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs, 2 egg - 140
Pepperidge Farm - Whole Grain Bread - 15 Grain Hearty Texture, 1 slice (43g/1.5oz.) - 100
Land O' Lakes - White American Cheese, 1 slice - 80

Dinner: 372

Home Prepared - Plain Mashed Potatoes (Skim Milk), 2 cup - 172
Gravy - Chicken, Homemade, 1/2 cup - 80
Homemade - Oven Baked/Roasted Skinless Turkey Breast- Meat Only, 4 oz- 120

Snacks/Drinks: 160

Tea - 0
Water - 0
2 mozzarella cheese stick - 160

Exercise: 

None. 

TOTAL: 1,404

Monday's Motivation! (As posted on facebook)... (note: I do not own, nor did I create this photo. I honestly don't remember where it came from, I just had it saved on my computer. If you are the owner of this photo please comment or email me to have it removed or to get credit. Thanks for your understanding, I don't want to infringe on any copyright or ownership or whatever!)

Weigh-In For the Week Of November 26th

Starting Weight: 241

Previous Weight: 232.5 pounds.
Current Weight: 232.5 pounds
Mini-goal #1: 229

Mini-goal #2: 220

Mini-goal #3: 210

Big goal #1: 200

Mini-goal #1: 190

Mini-goal #2: 185

Big goal #2: 180

Mini-goal #1: 170

Mini-goal #2: 175

Mini-goal #3: 160

Mini-goal #4: 155

Ultimate goal: 150

Pounds Lost So Far: 8.5

So, no change this past week...probably from going home and being so busy, but today is a new day, and this week is a new week. I guess on the bright side, I didn't gain anything. Time to get back to work!!!