Sarah - Week 7

Hello again!

I have a lot to write about, but I think I'm going to do it after the new year. I'm just going to briefly pop in and update you on my loss for the week! I lost a solid 2.4 lbs making my grand total -21.4 lbs!!

We're only a few days away from the holidays (aka the hardest time to diet and when most people gain 10 lbs) being over and we still managed to lose weight! I'm super proud of us.

Picking up Cati's slack

Well, Cati sucks at life...mostly at posting in blogs.

I had a sort-of epiphany yesterday that was a little frustrating. It had nothing to do with only losing 1.8 lbs, I'm proud of that much and I know that I need to be dieting healthily or else I'll gain it all back when I get to my goal or have a ridiculous eating disorder and have to be on intervention. The reason why I'm not seeing much of a significant change in my body is because all I've done so far is lose the weight that I gained in college. I've finally gotten back to where I was before I discovered power hours, monkey boys, and pokey sticks. This is the weight that I think I've been seeing myself as, in my mind's eye, even though I've been grossly more.

With that said, I think that in the next 10 lbs, I'll get that BAM and start noticing the difference. I'm only 6 lbs to my first goal, just being overweight not obese, and 6 lbs to halfway to our main goal, 50 lbs. I'll also be a little over a third of the way to my final goal that I try not to think about too much. I'm getting excited for the new year and the new me that's coming with it!!

PS I'm so jealous of people who have ellipticals with TVs attached to them! Today I ran at my parent's club for a full hour just because I was so engrossed in Wife Swap. Maybe I need to invest in buying some hour long shows and uploading them to my crackberry.

Sarah - Week 6

Well, Cati sucks at posting. I'ma kill her.

This has been a really tough week. I went home on Thursday and it was allll going out to eat and being with people and not watching what I was doing. It was also all about being snowed in so much that I couldn't make it to the gym. However, I have to keep looking at how much I would have gained in that situation if I hadn't been on this diet. I'm nervous because this week is going to be pretty similar including going out to dinner tomorrow, hopefully chinese and a movie on friday, and then a potluck on saturday. I'm definitely going to the club on thursday and saturday, though, which should help things a bit. I have to remind myself that these 3 weeks are the holidays and losing any weight or even staying the same is still a triumph.

With that in mind, let's look at this week's stats. I lost 1.8 lbs making my grand total 19 lbs!!! I'm inching my way to 20, hopefully next week will be the week! I can't believe how far we've gotten in our goal. There are 2 months until THON, 8 weeks of weigh-ins. If I lose 2 lbs a week for those 8 weeks, I'll be around -35 lbs and I'll DEFINITELY want to make it back to SC...because of that and because I freaking love THON...I hope I don't come across toooo self centered, haha.

Happy Holidays!!

Sarah - Week 5

Another great week! I'm down another 3.8 lbs bringing my total to 17.2!! I'm getting closer and gloser to half-way and my first goal. Sometimes I worry that I'm losing too fast but I don't feel like I'm starving myself or not eating enough. I ate out 3 times last week! And we made latkes on saturday. I'm just making better choices, I guess. (Like yummy strawberries and lite cool WHip for dessert) This should be a little bit of a tougher weekend because I'm going home for hannukah and my camp reunion which, I'm sure, is going to have a lot of restaurants included.

Though I'm noticing a difference (mostly in my nice pants for work category...I'm in dire need of a new pair that fits), I don't feel like I've noticed a huge one yet. As I said, last time, I wasn't noticing a huge difference and then one day BAM it hit me. The biggest places that I'm noticing a difference, as gross as this is, is in my back fat and my muffin top. Gross, right? Anyways, I'm glad to see them go and I'm looking forward to waving bye bye to some other trouble areas.

Obesity...and beyond!!

So I just got home from the gym and I'm really happy with my new elliptical work out. I'm doing a 5 minute high intensity/5 minute low intensity workout and it's going really well. 5 minutes is great, because when it's getting really tough during the high intensity there's usually only a few minutes left. Other than that, I'm just plodding along, everything is the same old same old.

When I was walking back to our apartment, I started wondering about an intermediate goal to set between now and the 50 lbs (perhaps this has something to do with being a booty call for someone who was once on the shmashmazing shmace). I've decided to make my foray into the world of just being overweight my next goal, as opposed to right now, when I'm categorized as obese. I used a nifty BMI calculator and futzed around with some weights and figured out that 174 lbs is that next goal. I'm not sure how much I weigh right now, seeming as our weigh in is tomorrow morning, but I'm calculating that as about 10-15 more lbs to go, hopefully on the lesser side of that scale.

SHOCK! If you can do math, I've basically spelled out to the world what I weight right now and basically what I weighed in the beginning. Oh well, I'm starting to get a lot more comfortable with this diet...we've made it past a big stretch and it's basically second nature now. I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow!!

PS 18 weeks until the blue/white game. If I keep going at a rate of 2 lbs per week, I'll have almost reached my goal weight!!!

Cool pool party

So I have some spare time at work and figured I would stop Sarah from wanting to kill me for never updating the blog.

Last week wasn't great. I was only at -1.4, bringing me to a grand total of -12.0. We've been on this diet for 33 days also, so I'm quite pleased with the results so far. This is my worst showing yet on loss though. I could have very easily gotten discouraged, but really I think it helped me to want to have a great week this week. Which I'm pretty sure I will. I would loveeeee to be able to be at -15 for Christmas, which I'm quite confident I can do.

I'm nervous about this unreal Holiday Party I'm going to on Saturday. Outside of the non-conventional relationship of the hosts, I already know there is going to be massive amounts of food and none of it is going to be good. Not to mention that Saturday morning is usually mine and Sarah's gym morning, which we won't be going to. I'm just really going to need to have a good Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so help even things out. And practice the fine art of portion control. And drink a lot of diet cokes to keep myself busy.

I also had a really good work out on Saturday, with my best showing yet of 500 calories burned on the elliptical. It was a little hard to get through, but I'm glad I started playing around with the settings and levels. I think that's gonna open up some new doors.

I'm also trying to download that 8 minute abs video. If not, I think I'll try to go to the library and rent it? I really want to watch a video on crunches and stuff. I'm not convinced I'm doing them the best and most correct way possible, so I figure a video will help remedy that situation. But I also don't want to buy one, because Lord knows I wouldn't watch it more than just the one or two times.

I think so far I've had a really good week. The latkes were awesome, and I didn't feel like I gorged myself on them. We'll just breeze by the fact that they didn't stay down, but even outside of that, I'm feeling good. I'm looking forward to WiW (That's Weigh-in Wednesday. Similar to WoW? Yes, I believe so.) this week. See you in 43 hours, blog.

Sarah - Week 4

Well hello! We've been pretty bad about updating the blog recently, but we've also been exhausted and working and traveling (as we ususally are). I definitely had a challenging week - mostly made by my ridiculous fear of having two "bad" weeks in a row. I need to realize that I can make good decisions and not starve myself all the time and still lose weight. If I'm too extreme, I'll gain the weight back as soon as I'm done "dieting". On the other hand, I know myself and once I start going downhill and back to my old habits, I won't be able to get back on. I'm already starting to feel this about going to the gym. Thankfully we bought an excersize DVD that's almost as good as running away 500 calories on the elliptical.

That brings me to my total loss this week of 4.2 lbs!! It's a little more than my aim per week, but if I factor in my 1.2 lb loss from last week, I'm safely in my 2-3 lbs a week goal. This loss brings my total loss to 13.4 lbs. Not too shabby for just over a month of dieting. Though I'm starting to feel like my clothes are getting baggier, I haven't physically seen a big difference. I think that once we get to like 25 lbs (hopefully by the beginning of Feb-ish) we'll start to notice a major difference.

I'm hoping to have another great week so that I can guilt-free enjoy Max Brenner (!!!) in Philly next Thursday night. More to come, especially about my Hannukah traditional fried food fest (mostly just tons of latkes, YUM) on Saturday.

Mmm TJs Tasting

Today was glorious. I've been looking at all of the yummy holiday items for what seemed like years at TJs and wasn't allowed to eat any of them. Finally I made it to the best day of all: the Holiday Flyer tasting. I knew that just one tasting could do horrible things for my diet, so I went into it with a game plan.

Usually, I wouldn't eat anything all day so I could like stuff myself with a million goodies at the tasting. Today, I ate a little bit of oatmeal at lunchtime at school (aka 10:30 AM) so that I wouldn't be ready to eat a small horse once I got to TJs. It was probably around 1-2 points worth. When I got to the tasting, I took a small plate, only tried things that I hadn't ever had before (with the exception of ONE parmesan puff because I've been DYING for them for weeks) and only small pieces at that. I also stopped eating something if I didn't like it (like the ratatouille puffs...they tasted like cardboard). I left feeling full like I had just eaten my regular lunch and definitely not stuffed.

I feel really good about myself...and I got to eat all of the food that I was craving for weeks.

Things I don't have: A best friend anymore.

I suppose that's not really true since I'm actually updating the blog. I have to stop feeling like the blog is my old LiveJournal.

(Also, I just looked at that again, and I accidentally wrote "Thins" not "Things." Freudian slip? A good one.)

So, I never gave my Week 2 update, and here we are at Week 3. Week 2 was good to me, coming in at -5.0; and today was -3.4, bringing me to a grand total of -10.6! I'm really excited about that. I was nervous because of Thanksgiving and all ant not really going to the gym that much, but I guess it turned out okay. The gym is definitely the hardest part for me. I'm really excited for this work out video that Sarah bought today though. I'm gonna do it tomorrow

Sarah's been talking recently about how she's itching for the light bulb to go off that she's losing weight and realizing how much she's changing, which also got me thinking about it. I have a feeling that my light bulb is on a dimmer switch. I'm in the process of uploading pictures on Facebook right now, and I looked at a photo from 2 months ago and I look ridiculous. And that's when I realized that you sort of can tell. Specifically that I don't have a double chin anymore, which I don't know if I knew how bad had gotten.

I don't know if anyone has ever said to me "have you lost weight?" I'm dying for that. Someone I haven't seen in a few months. I'd like to wait to see them maybe until January to really have them say that. But I also realize that I think I'll have to wait longer than I'm hoping because I had gained so much recently that I'll be going back to my "usual weight" by dropping these first pounds.  Not that my usual weight was any good. 

I know it's important to keep lots of short term goals to build to the long term.  I know that I want to lose more than 50 in the end, because that 50 is going to lead me to a less unhealthy life, but still not really where I want to be.  I want to just speed up the next 5 months of my life.  I'm somewhere among anxious, excited, and overwhelmed.

Sarah's goal is a bikini.  My goal is American Eagle jeans.  So random, I recognize.  Not even something that's going to show any of the goods off really. But I think back to a few years ago (when I used to fit in them) and how much I liked them.  And you know how there's always stitching on the pockets?  I always recognize it.  Like, I just want to walk into the store and buy a pair.

In conclusion: Adios, chins; Hola, pants.

Sarah - Week 3

sooo I've lost another 1.2 lbs, bringing my total loss to 9.2

I can't help feeling un-excited in this number, because I've set a goal of 2 lbs per week, but I have to keep reminding myself that most people GAIN unsightly amounts of weight during the holidays and I managed to lose some. I know that next week will be right back in the normal groove of weight loss and exercise and things will be right in the world. I need to still be proud of myself for what I've done.

Speaking of the gym, I've decided to push my days there up to 4 days a week (totally doable) but today just happens to be an off day for the gym AND TJs. This is very very exciting!!! Anyways, off to work!!

Goal Weight

So, I'm posting 2 times in a few hours to pick up our non-posting slack from the past few weeks (caaaattttiiiiii). Over break, my mom and I had a conversation about my losing weight and how much I wanted to lose. As the name of this blog implies, cati and my goal is to lose 50 lbs each. 50 lbs is a HUGE weightloss for us and will be a great accomplishment. I can hardly remember the 6 months to a year that I was actually that weight in high school. For me, it's always been about being grossly overweight. I was thinking back to my high school WW days and talking to my aunt about her struggles with WW and it really got me interested in what my actual (read: WW) goal weight should be. After looking it up, I'm actually a little confused.

For my height, WW says that my goal weight should be between 114 and 153 lbs, with 133 being the target. I physically can't imagine being 133 lbs. I don't think I've weighed that little since about 7th grade. Maybe for my bat mitzvah. I can't even look at that as a finish line because it's seems so much less attainable than just our 50 lb goal. My 50 lbs will bring me right into the high end of the spectrum...

I guess that for now, I'm going to keep my 50 lbs as my goal and then see what happens as I get closer and closer to it. My REAL goal (besides the NJB, obvi) is to be able to wear a bikini this summer. And to look amazing at coll's wedding. But mostly it's a bikini. So I just have to set my sights on the small goals first before I keep worrying about the HUGE one at the end of the road.

There are 26 weeks until June 1st. 20 weeks until the blue/white game. Average healthy weight loss is 2 lbs per week. If we stick to everything (which I KNOW that we can) then we can hane already met our 50 lb goal by then. Just thinking about that can get us through it.

Post-Thanksgiving...post?

So thanksgiving break was awesome (in the having fun, ridiculous sense) and not good but not horrible in the eating/dieting sense. My biggest problem the whole weekend was restraining myself when it came to eating while I'm inebriated. At least when I wasn't drunk, I stuck to healthier options then I normally would. On Wednesday night, I got a bag of white cheddar popcorn and had a few of the thin, pringle shaped TJs chocolates for a sweet kick. On Saturday night I had some thanksgiving leftovers, focusing mainly on the bangin green beans and asparagus. So, in the same spirit of my MSU trip, in a weekend/break where I would have probably gained weight I did a good job eating a ton less than I normally would. I even went to my parents' gym on Thanksgiving morning to combat some of the food I knew I would be ingesting.

I'm just going to have to be really good today and tomorrow to make up for the weekend. I would LOOOOVE to hit the 10 lb mark, but that's saying a lot for the next few days. Mostly, I have to make sure to drag my sorry ass to the gym today and tomorrow. Tomorrow will be no sweat, because I don't have much time between school and TJs, juuuust enough to go to the gym and then make it to work on time. Today is the real issue bc I'm still exhausted and catching up on sleep and I'll probably nap before the gym instead of the better, more motivating time slot of just when I get home.

Sarah - Week 2

Well after a crazy weekend, I still managed to pull through!!

-2.6 lbs, making my total -8!!

I know that you're the only one who reads this besides me, Cati, so I just wanted to say how thankful I am that you're my best friends and that you're doing this with me. I am SO PROUD of you and know that you're doing such an amazing job with this diet. I don't even know half or a quarter of how it feels to go through everything that you have in the past 2 years, but I know you're strong and I just wanted you to remember that. I looooove you and thanks for being my



Happy Thanksgiving!! I'm about to take part in my first one as a DIVORCE KID (dun dun dunnnnn)

I <3 Christmas

I'm just skipping over Thanksgiving completely, haha. I'm excited to go home tomorrow! I know that I eat worse crap at home then I do here, so I called my dad to make sure he hid all the boxes of pasta and to find out if he had my new lunch staples: Lean Cuisine. He likes different flavors than me, so I suppose I'll be going to the grocery at some point. Even though I'm not really gonna be home that much, I don't want to just throw away all the effort I put in and eat whatever's there.

I think I'm less nervous for actual Thanksgiving then I am for all the other things I have planned this weekend. I'm sure there is going to be various forms of inebriation, at that usually ends in snacking for me. I just have to remember to keep it under control.

Yesterday, I tried on a pair of jeans that I couldn't fit into before the Ohio State game. They fit. I was pumped. :)

...so I cheated

I checked the scale this morning. I had had a less-than-stellar weekend (however, it was a HUGE improvement to what I would have normally eaten in the same situation) and I really needed to know what I was up against for the real weigh in on wednesday morning. I was so nervous that I had packed on a bajillion calories and that I would be super discouraged and back to my original weight. This was not the case!! Whatever I did, I guess I didn't make too many horrible choices...or maybe I had done well enough on Wednesday and Thursday to make up for some beer-drankin East Lansing craziness, but I'm proud of myself. Usually a weekend getaway would be a free-for-all but I tried to stick with healthier choices and not too much drunk eating.

Seriously, ask Micki about when I realized I shouldn't be eating Taco Bell.

I tried to stick to rice cakes and fruit snacks on the road and I only slipped up on the ride home (damn you, sour cream and onion pringles!) I think that I would have done even better if I didn't feel bad for leaving food on my plate when I'm full or getting the smaller size portion even when I feel starving. I need to realize that it doesn't take as long to fill me up as it used to and order accordingly.

So, all in all, it was a great weekend. Though I'm not happy with my actions, I think that I did pretty well for having this HUGE test only the second weekend of this diet. On to the next test, Thanksgiving.

Week 1 -- Cati

-2.2. This was just the kick that I needed to make me stop being nervous about not getting anywhere. I'm really pleased. Also, YAY SARAH!

I made a lot of good food decisions today. I never used to eat breakfast, and today I had a yogurt. I read an article about how it's good to eat something within the first hour of waking up to get your metabolism going. It was a great because I wound up eating the small breakfast and packing a sandwich for lunch (Thanks for the turkey, Sar!), and then was full until dinner. That meant no snacking! Great success. I think I'm gonna keep up this whole breakfast thing. Even if it's something small. Maybe I'll graduate to cereal.

I also think I need to get on to a more routine. I'd really like to start going to the gym in the morning before work. It's not that I don't have time, it's just that I don't like to wake up, hahaha. I'm going to try going to bed a little earlier tonight so I'll get up and go to the gym in the morning.

I feel like Nike. I know I can do all these things. I just have to do it. I should change the banner on my phone.

First week weigh in - Sarah

OMGGGG -5.4 lbs!

I'm hungry.

Sarah is lapping me with updating the blog. Sorry, yo.

I guess I'm feeling good about this weekend. I'm sorta not convinced really that my Wednesday morning is going to be that different. Like, I know that if nothing else, I burned an extra 1000 calories at the gym, and that will help. And I know that my portions have been smaller and less calories. But I also sort of think I've been snacking more. And I know I've slipped once or twice and made not good choices. I'm nervous about it. I'm still very invested in losing weight, but I'm just concerned I have a sort of skewed view on it.

I found this website hungrygirl.com today. It's really good. She's got a bunch of yummy looking recipes, and a cookbook I want which is 200 recipes under 200 calories. She was very realistic, and is very flat out about telling you she's tried fad diets and that's where some of her ideas come from, which I don't love. For Pete's sake, this woman gave up carbs for an entire year. But a lot of the stuff looked like sorta easy, comfort food-y style. Sometimes you're just not really into a big fancy gourmet style meal.

Also, our scale broke again. I'm annoyed about it. It's brand new!

I'm not making excuses, but...

This article is about how kids who have chronic ear infections are twice as likely to be obese later in life. Apparently a taste nerve gets damaged by the infections and somehow makes fatty foods taste better than normal. SO. WEIRD. Anyways, I'm the QUEEN of ear infections. So much so that I still get them at least once a year, something that is almost unheard of in people older than elementray school age. Oh well...

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20080917/Note1.asp

phew, we made it.

So, we made it through a full week of dieting!! I'm so proud of us. I think I did a great job this weekend, too, given the circumstances. I went out to dinner both nights so I had a lot of salad for lunch both days. I know that alcohol is the worst factor and the most calories that I'll consume through this whole experience but i'm just crossing my fingers that I can do it without cutting out alcohol (and my livelyhood). Is that a word? More importantly, does that make me an alcoholic?? Haha. We're trying to stick with rum and diet cokes, as I said before, and that worked other than shots (we need to look something up about that) and a beer that some drunk got bought me. I've also done a really good job so far resisting temptation a bajillion times at TJs .

I'm getting soooo nervous about the weigh in on wednesday morning. Even though I know that I've done a great job this past week I don't know what the weekend did to everything. I'm nervous that I won't have lost anything and that I'll be super discouraged. I'm sure that tomorrow and tuesday I'm going to be super restrictive (but still healthy) because of nerves. After the first week, I think I'll know more of what to expect and not freak out so much...but for now...tons of freakage.

That's about it, it was an amazing weekend and I definitely miss everyone from Penn State so much. It was so nice to see everyone and it's going to be awesome to see everyone else this coming weekend!! I'm so proud of what I did this weekend, I KNOW that I can do it again in Michigan.

OMGZ it's the weekend.

So, here goes our first weekend of dieting and I'm sure it's going to be a test. I'm going out to dinner at PS7 in DC (review later? Perhaps) and then a few friends are coming to visit from college. YAY!! However, if you know anything about Penn State, you know that this is going to be a pretty heavy drinking weekend. I'm going to attempt to stick with rum and diets with copious amounts of limes and try not to spend my entire day's points and my entire week's paycheck.

My biggest trait that is going to hinder my dieting is my love of good food and going out to eat with friends. However, in parusing the menu of PS7, I realized that the better the restaurant is, the healthier it tends to be. For example, what you're getting at a nice restaurant in DC is going to be a milllllion times healthier than, say, oliva garden, and will have a ton more healthier options. Can I use this as an excuse to eat out at better restaurants when I choose to go out? I think so!

I'm an avid reader of blogs, most of which tend to be much snarkier than I could ever dream, and one of my top favorites is seriouseats.com. They have tons of weekly segments, one of which is their main editor (obviously a giant foodie) who has been on a diet for almost two years. I used to breeze past his posts, but today when I noticed his post on pizza while on a diet, I realized how good of a tool they would be.

Here's the link to his posts:
http://www.seriouseats.com/tags/Ed%20Levine's%20Serious%20Diet

Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for us this weekend!
GO! STATE! BEAT! HOOSIERS!!!

I was mad crabby before...

But something about the gym makes it better. I'm glad about that. I'm feeling much better than I was before. Sarah can attest that I was a raging bitch.

I like to go to the gym and set a goal for myself. Like today I said "Okay, 30 minutes or 400 calories, which ever comes second." It makes things interesting, like a game. Because obv I wanna be getting out of there. So I try to make it in less time. Mix things up, you know.

I did my workout on the fancier elliptical today. I liked it, I felt like it gave me a better work out. There were also some mad creepers at the gym, so I waited to do my crunches at home. I sorta liked that more, too. It was just more comfortable.

I made a bad mistake of running late and not really bringing anything for lunch today, so I was ridiculous when I got home. And now it's also 8:15 and I haven't dinner. It's fine.

Speaking of dinner, I'm going to go make some. We went to the grocery yesterday, so now I have tons of yummy food to eat, and I can't decide! Gym again tomorrow morning... Gotta try and get ahead of the weekend before it gets ahead of me.

TTFN!

Yo, Miss F.

Sorry for not posting yesterday, having an actual afternoon/night off does weird things to a girl. Also known as, the second I did everything I needed to, I wasn't getting up off the couch. Yesterday was the big first weigh-in and it was nothing special...I'm just excited/nervous for next week!! I had a pretty uneventful day otherwise; I went to school (in the pouring rain) and then came back (in the pouring rain) and went to the gym (in the pouring rain) and then vegged out for the rest of the night. The one cool thing about my day is that one of my students told me that I looked "slimmin" from last year. I'm pretty sure that means that I look better than I did last year, even though up until this week, I would have told you I looked worse or possibly equal. It's awesome to already have someone complimenting me on what feels like some of the hardest work of my life.

Today shouldn't be that bad, it's a crazy day at school where I don't have any planning periods, I just teach straight through. At least we're allowed to wear college sweatshirts today! I can be nice and cozy and hopefully actually warm for a change. I would wear jeans as well, but then even more people would confuse me with being a student. Ah, the perils of being 23 and teaching at a high school. After school I'm going to run home and switch my life over to TJs mode quickly and then schlep over there for a short and breezy 5 hour shift. I love that 14 hour days are my "short-ish" days that I'm excited for after my favorite type of day - "law and order day," where I come home from school, nap, and watch some version of the best show on tv. But not criminal intent.

Have a great day! Hopefully I won't die of no-break exhaustion!

Each day gets a little easier.

Phew. So today was way easier than yesterday. It was my first weight loss day subbing and everything went really well besides me forgetting my breakfast. However, I made up for it and ate my breakfast bar in between lunch and dinner...exactly where breakfast should be?

Tomorrow is OUR OFFICIAL START DATE!! The scale is up and running and we're all set to go. We're going to officially make wednesdays our weigh in days. I'm actually excited for NEXT wednesday more than anything (except, of course, a fun Penn State reunion weekend!!) I'm feeling really good about everything though I know that the weekends are going to be the real challenges and we've yet to conquer one. THe next few are going to be the toughest to get through but I once we do that, I know we're in it for the long run.

Sorry that this is the stupidest, least funny, most annoying post ever, but that's what 15 hours of work do to a girl. Doing my sit ups and then going to bed. On tap for tomorrow: School, gym, nap, yummy fish dinner, GLEE!! I basically can't wait for 2:30.

Lots of links.

Or... Two.

If there's one thing that I'm really pumped about this whole thing, beyond the weight loss, it's being able to stretch my cooking skills. I know that I like some sort of weird combinations of food sometimes (cold pasta and ranch dressing, anyone?), but I also know that I can have some good ideas. Case in point: I made my own croutons today to throw into my tomato soup. They were awesome. Cut up some going stale multigrain baguette, little cooking spray to make the seasoning stick, garlic powder, oregano and black pepper and popped it in the oven. I'm Emeril -- BAM. Really perked it all up. Great success.

So, I encountered my first sort of troublesome situation this evening. I recently started my new job as a nanny. Normally it's my responsibility to make dinner, but my "boss" was home early today from work and made enchiladas. I certainly wasn't expecting her to offer me one, (I mean, it's her dinner. She doesn't need to be feeding me and paying me.) but then she plunks down this plate in front of me. I panicked a little. I certainly didn't want to seem rude and decline it, especially since it's only been a week since I started and I want her to like me. To quote The Simpsons, "you don't win friends with salad." I knew what was in Lily's: chicken, salsa and a little cheese. Not horrible. I take a bite. It's about a million times as much cheese and sour cream and corn and black bean salsa (both one point veggies). UGH. But it's so damn good. So I make a decision right away to trim the sides off with the outer tortilla. Because that's just empty carbs and I'm trying to make good decisions. But that's as far as I went. I just decided to make this my dinner and stick to a snack later rather than make my own dinner. It was a sticky situation, I think it was also a good lesson in how to be flexible and recognize that not every day is gonna be perfect.

I also just did a little calculations, and discovered it's possible to get my favorite things in my burrito at Chipotle for only 17 points. I'm certainly not saying this is going to be my new diet. But it's nice to know that it's not 100% out of the question on a special occasion.

I'm stealing this girl's recipe because Lord knows the rice is the best part.

I stumbled across this girl's blog. It's a little outdated, but she's pretty funny and got some good stuff, so I'm using this as a bookmark for myself.

Also, I think we need to play around with the layout and colors of this. Like I should have a color and Sarah should have a color. Let's get this baby going!

I disagree.

Today was easier for me. Likely because I wasn't faced with the samples at TJ's. And because I was running after a child all day, rather than looking at food.

In regards to the scale, I'm super annoyed it's not working because in the grand scheme of things... it's new. Since July. And even though it's not official weigh in day, I'd still like to know.

The gym was regular to me today. It's not that I hate going to the gym, it's that a I hate being hot and sweaty. And obviously that happens. But I felt like I did a good job while I was there. Listened to a mix of Glee and Jay-Z, which turned out to be a really great workout "mix." My gym plan for tomorrow depends on Sarah, I suppose. If she's here, then we'll probably go together. If not, then I may go for a walk, since I think it's supposed to be nice again.

I had this great Steamfresh rice in a bag and vegetables in a bag situation. I'm so glad those guys went on sale. The chicken rice was awesome, and the corn, asparagus and carrot mix was also great. The asparagus made it. I feel similarly to asparagus does to peas. Lucky for me... Zero Point Veggie!

Still feeling great. :)

I hate making titles, so be prepared for some bad ones.

So today was definitely harder than the day before. I just keep telling myself that it was hard in the beginning last time, too (that's what she said?) and that it got easier and easier as the days went by. I know that the final outcome is SO worth the hunger pains in the beginning.

I got myself some stuff to make a healthy slaw that's hardly any points/calories. I'm going to make a dijon vinaigrette with dijon mustard and white balsamic vinegar and combine it with TJ's broccoli slaw and a few dried cranberries. I'm way excited to try it out. We also think that we got the stuff to fix the scale so we can weigh in tomorrow for a "starting" weight and then I think we're going to wait until next thursday...or maybe we should just make tuesday our weigh in days? Any thoughts, Cati??

Anyways, sorry for a short post! We also went to the gym today and did 30 mins of cardio and our regular sit ups. I'm hoping to go wednesday when I don't have to work at TJs but if I don't work at school tomorrow, I may just go again. OR if I don't have to work and it's as nice as it was today, I could go to the DC TJs and refill my wine collection. Oh, the possibilities.

First is the worst, Second is the best

Third is the one with the hairy chest?

I'd like to think of myself as technologically savvy, more than the average Internet user. But I don't know a damn thing about blogs. I used to really hate them, but I think this is going to be a good choice. I mean where else can to be completely honest but anonymously on the Internet? And that's the plan. Besides losing weight, that is.

When I was in middle school, my grandmother asked me one day what my usual lunch consisted of. I told her, generally speaking, it was french fries. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. From then on, nearly every time we would visit, she would ask me what I was eating. Since then, I would say that my eating habits have changed, some for the better, some for the worse. I stopped eating french fries every day, but I'm still certainly not making good choices.

Like Sarah, things changed for me when I got to college. I certainly wasn't a skinny minny before that, but learning that a shot of vodka has 100 calories certainly didn't deter me from taking (too) many. There was certainly some fluctuation in my weight throughout college, but it was always a span of about 15 pounds, and that's still 20 more than I had graduated high school with.

Fast forward 4 years to August 2008 when my grandmother passed away. Then 8 months later I lost my mom. And I self-medicated my depression with Spicy Nacho Doritos. I was eating my feelings in the absolute worst possible way. And I didn't care. And all those bags turned into an extra 25 pounds I've put on. I knew that when a pair of jeans that has usually fit poorly because they were too big began to fit poorly because they were too small, I was in serious trouble.

And so here I am now. And my goal now is to be one of those people who say "I look better than I did in high school!" Because Lord knows I didn't look good then. And when I reach this goal, I'll be lower than my weight back then. I've never really committed to a diet. I've done that whole going to the gym thing, and tried to watch what I eat, but rarely do those things happen at the same time, and never have they happened with the support and companionship of someone else.

On Day One today, I resisted every urge I had to walk over to the Demo Table at work and snack. And I had a salad for lunch. And a "salad" for dinner. It was more of a mishmash of veggies that I like, with some tuna thrown in for good measure and protein. Not bad for a first day. I'm proud right now. I know that this isn't going to be perfect, and I know that those Doritos and shots of vodka are going to come back to haunt me, but I'm okay with that. If you can make enough good choices to override the small missteps, that's what really counts.

To sum it all up, I'm pumped. I feel really good about this. Great success.

First girl, first day

Ugh. I hate Ohio State. I think I've also realized that I'm at my eating worst when I'm drinking. This is definitely going to be a rough challenge...thank god football season is almost over, then my life will calm down a bit. Also, I still need to figure out how to get Cati to be able to post on this thing...I'm not the best when it comes to technology.

Today is officially the first day of the diet. We're going to weigh ourselves (once we get a new battery for our scale, ha) and when we post, our starting weight is going to be 0. Every pound that we lose is going to be -1, -2, etc. hopefully getting all the way to -50. We're going to weigh ourselves and post our losses every Thursday even though we're starting on a Sunday. I'm not expecting much from this half week, but I think any improvement will help us get motivated for the coming weeks. We need to start now so that we can be good through the holidays which are swiftly approaching (woooo)

Though I still haven't thought of what my big reward is at the end of this battle but I do have a bunch of dates to look forward to that are motivating me though. I'll be posting a countdown to them as the weeks go by. For now, there are only a few, but I'm sure I'll be adding more.

5 year High School Reunion - 2 weeks

Bowl Game and Spring Break Trip (hopefully)

Blue/White Game - 26 weeks

Colleen's Wedding - 40 weeks

That's all for now! Hopefully Cati will be able to post later today

First girl, first post.

Okay, so here goes nothing.

I really wanted to call this "2 girls, 1 blog" but lord knows that title was taken when 2 girls, 1 cup was the hottest internet meme this side of keyboard cat. Here's the deal. We're two roommates who each want to lose 50 lbs for our own reasons. I'll let Cati introduce herself later. For me it's not about looks, I've looked like this for the past few years, ever since I started college. It's about self esteem. I definitely haven't felt this badly about myself in years, possibly ever. I have no confidence in my quest for finding my number one goal - a nice jewish husband (isn't that the number one goal of all jews in their mid 20s?) More selfish reasons aside, I'm ready to get healthy and happy and match my new more urban lifestyle.

We want to change our eating, drinking, and exercise habits...and hopefully with eachother's support we can get to our final goal.

Eating and Drinking

We want, not only to eat less calories, but also eat foods that are better for us. We don't want to starve ourselves and we don't want to give up all of our favorite foods (Chipotle, anyone?) I think this will be the hardest part for me because of my love of good food. And food in general. And good beers. We also work at Trader Joe's where we're constantly surrounded by free and yummy food. And my brother is an amazing cook who just moved close to us and just started working at a yum restaurant in the city.

In other words, OY. We have a lot up against us.

Exercise

As long as we stay on track I think this will be the easier step for us. My goal is to be able to run a 5K by the spring or summer. We also want to take part in the MS walk in DC in April.

Our starting exercise regiment is this:

Sit-ups 6 days a week (i'm starting at 200 a day, hoping to move up as we go along)

30 minutes of cardio or 60 minutes of walking 2 days a week (to increase to 3 and 4 as we get used to this)

So that's about it for the plan. More about my reasons and goals to come! I don't want to give it all away on the first post! I have faith that we can do this as long as we keep each other motivated and in check even though I know how much of a long and hard road it's going to be.

That's all for now

GO! STATE! BEAT! BUCKEYES!!!