Nov 14/13 – Dec 22/13 Challenge

I have given myself a new challenge, a very specific, very short term challenge in the hopes of not only accomplishing something but also getting myself back in the routine of eating properly and exercising daily.  🙂

Here is my challenge to myself:

By December 22/13 drop one pant size.

There you have it! Not that complex or exciting but something I very much want to accomplish.

Why Dec 22/13 you ask? Because I fly back to visit my family that day for my birthday and Christmas and I want to look good lol  Hey, what can I say, I’m vain!

Also, I need to get more on track with what I am eating, and I need to force myself in to a more structured work out plan. I figure with a short term goal like this I can (1) achieve a goal quickly which will make me feel better about myself and (2) get myself nicely settled in to healthy eating and exercising routines which can continue long after Dec 22/13.

I will write updates here often (hopefully almost daily!) and write longer posts about the plan every now and then on my blog.

To track my food I am using the app Lose It!, to track my exercise I am using the app Runtastic. Both are great apps I have used before. 🙂

I will be eating a stricter form of Paleo, I’ll write an actual post about Paleo and the version I am doing one day soon. For now all you need to know is that I am high protein, high healthy fat, super low carb.

Here I go, cross your fingers for me! 🙂

Day One, Nov 14/13:

Today I ate strict paleo (well, my version of paleo anyways lol). I was headachey and tired all day which I don’t feel is a result of what I was eating or how much I was eating, just an unfortunate coincidence that I felt like that the day I started this challenge.

I came in 91 calories under budget today, oops!

My daily calorie budget is 1010

Amount of calories I ate were 1279

I ran, calories burned were 360

Leaves me net calories of 920

Hence my being short 91

It wasn’t intentional, but it was late at night and I wanted sleep more than I wanted to try to find something else to eat. I wasn’t hungry when I went to bed so I wasn’t purposefully depriving myself of food. During the day I felt…unsatisfied a lot of the time. Like I wanted more to eat, or something sweet (would have traded my favourite pair of shoes for a bite of chocolate! lol). I wasn’t feeling hungry, just left with a feeling of wanting…I did not care for this feeling at all! If I hadn’t been following an already decided on meal plan for the day I would have been tempted to graze or nibble on who knows what! Luckily, all I have in the house are Paleo approved foods so even if I had caved in to nibbling it would have ended up being on carrots lol I went for a run on a trail near where I live, used the Runtastic app to track my route and tell me how many calories I burned, love that app! I use the free version and I’m really happy with it.

Day 2, Nov 15/13:

Today went horrible. It was fine until something super upsetting happened at work and on my way home I bought a Chinese Almond Bun and a chocolate bar. You can read what happened here if you want. I did no exercise because I was home late because of what happened at work. The addition of the half a chocolate bar and the bun put me over by 376 calories, basically a meals worth, ugh.

The breakdown for today is:

Daily calorie budget: 1010

Food calories consumed: 1386

Exercise calories burned: 0

Net calories for the day: 1386

Over by 376

I would like to point out though that the adrenaline I had pumping through my body for a good chunk of time this evening may have burned off more calories then normal but I’m not so sure about that…and since I can’t add that to the Lose It! app it doesn’t really matter.

Day 3, Nov 16/13:

Today was super busy at work and I didn’t have a chance to eat my dinner. Before going to work I had my paleo approved breakfast and the plan was to have one small meal at work then my next small meal when I got home. Unfortunately I didn’t get to have any meal while at work so when I got home I mooshed the two small meals together and had one. Then I had a snack about twenty minutes later because (1) I still felt hungry and (2) I was waaaaay under my calories for the day.

My question to ponder though is this, can calories be moved between days? I was way over yesterday but today I am way under, does that mean they kinda even out? I ask this because I have a very fit friend who insists you shouldn’t look at your success/failure with an eating plan on a day to day basis but as an overall for the week kind of thing. Sooooo, does that mean it is ok to be under one day if you were over a different day, cause at the end of the week it all evens out? Something to think about…

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 775

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 775

Under by 235

Day 4, Nov 17/13:

Today I followed my eating plan to perfection but something went wrong somewhere because I didn’t eat all my calories and I’m not exactly sure why not…

I was at work, the morning shift this time which means I got a break at noon for lunch so not only did I eat breakfast at work but also lunch. Both were meals I prepped the night before and took with me. When I got home I made a yummy dinner that I was pleasantly surprised by, plus I had snacks twice that day. I didn’t have my second protein shake of the day because I knew I wasn’t going to be exercising and I knew that would put me over my calories for the day. Maybe I need to find a third food item to use as a small snack?

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 911

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for the day 911

Under by 99 calories

This is a screenshot of my Lose It! app weekly summary. I started on the Thursday which is why the beginning of the week is blank. You can see where I went off the rails on Friday. If it hadn’t been for starting on Thursday there is no way I’d be under my calories for the week.

Day 5, Nov 18/13:

If ever you need reminding why you should never ever eat pizza, let it be this! I am still dealing with what happened last Friday and the result was a session of emotional eating. Never good. I ordered pizza and dessert breadsticks from Panago and ended up so amazingly far over my calories for the day it is ridiculous. Doesn’t help I didn’t exercise either due to being freakin exhausted from a long day on very little sleep.

The pizza (3 slices) cost me 660 calories! The breadsticks were a whopping 570 calories! Oh my freakin gawd! That’s horrible!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1894

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 1894

Over by 883!! 😦

Epic. Fail.

Day 6, Nov 19/13:

Today I’m not sure exactly what my calories consumed are. I had my yummy protein shake when I got up but that served as breakfast and lunch. I went out to dinner with a friend and we got sushi, then at the movies we got frozen yogurt from TCBY. I got a small swirl, nothing fancy.

I searched the oh so wonderful internet and found nutritional information for sushi, just not from the restaurant we went to, of course right? Which means while I have an estimate of calories etc consumed that’s all it is, an estimate. sigh. I used to be really good at not eating anything I could not properly and completely account for but seems I left that skill behind. Gonna hafta find it and quick! Especially with the Christmas season fast approaching, nothing like Christmas to bring out the excess goodies!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 908

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 908

Under by 102

I don’t believe the Under by 102. No way that is possible with eating out! However, I don’t have any better data to give you since the nutritional information I have is like I said, an estimate. I figure I am over, again, which sucks. Unless you count the shopping I did today I didn’t get any exercise in either, which was not what I had planned but oh well, the day is well and truly over, not like there is anything I can do about it now. Tomorrow will be better!

Day 7, Nov 20/13:

I swear from the way I’ve been eating you’d think my mission was to gain a pant size by Dec 22/13 not lose one, eesh. I woke up late, well, I woke up on time I just kept hitting the snooze button and cuddling with the cat until I was running late. I didn’t have time to eat before I went out so I made a cup of tea for my travel mug and hightailed it on outta there. Wednesdays are my volunteer day, I am a Big Sister (http://www.bigsisters.bc.ca/en/Home/default.aspx) so that was what I was hightailing it off to. We did some shopping then stopped at a coffee shop to get a drink and bite to eat. I ordered a turkey sandwich, the healthiest thing I could find in the display. I would’ve ordinarily grabbed a vegetarian option figuring it’d be lower in calories but I wanted the protein. I took one side of the bread off and ate it as an open faced sandwich, figured cut some carbs anyway I can ya know? I had a tea for my drink so no worries there. Then later I had a strawberry yogurt and berries from Tim Horton’s. sigh. That was because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go home after dropping my lil sis off and doing some other stuff before Zumba class and I needed something in my tummy to get me through. Hey, it’s better than a donut!…well, not taste wise but you know what I mean. 😉 After Zumba I had my protein shake and then a dinner of salad with veggies on top and a cut up chicken breast. I splurged and had the entire chicken breast instead of half like normal, wOOt! It was ok, not the best salad ever but healthy and that is what matters.

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1048

Exercise calories burned 361

Net calories for today 687

Under by 323

Now sure, you might be saying I’m under by too many, I’m not eating enough blah blah blah but here’s the thing, because of the pizza fiasco on Monday I am over by 458 calories for the week. Four hundred and fifty eight!!! I gotta drop that somehow and if that means eat a bit less everyday well, I think that’s an acceptable way to go. Sort of a “I did the crime so I do the time” except it’s “I overate and now I must pay”…doesn’t rhyme though lol

Day 8, Nov 21/13:

I had the tastiest salad today, Mmm! I put sunflower seeds and dried cranberries on it, among other things of course! Highly enjoyed every bite! I didn’t go exercise-exercise today. I had meant to either go to the gym or to Zumba class but didn’t manage to get to either, oops! So instead I walked to Safeway, I needed milk for my tea (priorities people!) and decided since I’d been so lazy the least I could do was walk to the store instead of drive. It is about a 40 minute walk round trip and if I take certain streets there are quite the hills to contend with. I hate hills, just sayin’. Just cause I hate em doesn’t mean I didn’t make sure to walk em tho! Go me go! lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 869

Exercise calories burned 192

Net calories today 677

Under by 333

Not gonna lie, I went to bed a bit hungry but I didn’t start to feel hungry again until maaaaybe 20 minutes before I was going to bed and no way I was gonna eat then! So I drank some water instead lol

Day 9, Nov 22/13:

Today, hmm, today…instead of spacing out my meals and snacks like I am supposed to I ate a late breakfast that also doubled as lunch and then had a late dinner when I got home from work (around 9:45pm) with a small snack in between. Ooops! I didn’t mean for that to happen but the dinner I was planning involved tuna and avocado for topping and I wanted to slice the avocado right before I ate it and well, tuna smells ick. Not exactly a work friendly meal lol. So I made the decision to hold off on having dinner until I got home. It kinda sucked cause I got hungry part way through work and was oh so close to a kitchen filled with oh so tempting foods. Plus there is a big ol box of Ferrero Rocher that are at the desk and are for anybody who wants one (or three). Food everywhere and I couldn’t eat any of it! It was hard but I was proud I got through the shift without caving and grabbing a cookie or something. Making it through without cheating means the next time I am hungry at work it’ll be easier to get through it because I’ll know I did it once so I can do it again!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 948

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 948

Under by 62

Today is the closest I’ve gotten to my calorie budget without going over this week! There is a bar graph in the Lose It! app that shows you a week at a time how you did each day, if you go over the bar turns red, if you are under or at the line the bar is green. That green bar is soooooo close to the line, eek! I don’t want it to go red! I’m keeping that bar at 62 calories under for today so it stays a puuurdy green. 🙂

Day 10, Nov 23/13:

Today I went to a fundraiser for my dragon boat team, to read a more detailed description of the day click here

I ate at the fundraiser, sigh, I tried to pick healthy things (veggies, sushi etc) but totally jumped into the land of ridiculously high calorie food items when I saw the nanaimo bars lol. I ate two, two!! Ack! I put all the food I ate at the fundraiser into my Lose It! app, a couple items have approximate nutritional information (the sushi and nanaimo bars) but I think I got fairly close. Thankfully I also got to bowl so I burned calories, phew!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1291

Exercise calories burned 329

Net calories today 962

Under by 48

I don’t know that I believe I burned 329 calories bowling but that’s what the app says I burned for the amount of time I was bowling…I’m probably over my calories even after taking in to account the calories burned from bowling but these are the numbers the Lose It! app gave me and who am I to argue with technology? lol

Day 11, Nov 24/13:

WooHoo! End of the week! Today I worked the evening shift (normally I work the day shift on Sundays) and got a little food bonus out of it. Now don’t freak out! I took my half a chicken breast and 2.5 ounces of mixed veggie to have for dinner but there was a party at work and they made a bit of extra just in case and the chef convinced me I should take a plate of food from the kitchen instead of eat my dinner. I agreed with his logic (for the most part) so I took the offered meal. I had an Alberta beef steak tenderloin, veggies and a small bit of three cheese potato gratin (which lemme tell ya, I would soooooo ask for that for my birthday dinner except my dad doesn’t eat cooked cheese, sigh). Anyways! It was protein (more protein than my chicken), small amount of vegg and well sure, I shouldn’t have eaten the potato but it was there and I figured it was such a tiny piece it wouldn’t kill me…hopefully… 😉

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 939

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 939

Under by 71

Since I had to estimate the nutritional information, even though I think I got fairly close to the right numbers, I left myself under by the 71 calories juuuuuust in case. Also, I am still trying to compensate for last Monday, I decided it was better to stay a bit under then nibble on something and put myself over.

This is my Lose It! app screenshot for week 2 of my challenge. You can see where I messed up with the pizza and breadsticks on Monday, sigh. I spent the rest of the week working to make up for that. I ended up 57 calories under for the week which I am happy with. 🙂 I didn’t think I’d be under for the week because of what happened Monday so yay me! All those days of being under my calories were worth it! I’m hoping for next week to have no red bars on my bar graph, *crosses fingers* here’s hoping!

Day 12, Nov 25/13:

Ah Mondays. For most that is the beginning of the work week, for myself it is the end. Mondays are my Fridays so I love em! 🙂 I ate really well today, I maaaaay have slightly indulged in a little bit of chocolate but it totally fit in to my allowed calories for the day so I don’t feel bad about it at all. Mmm, raspberry chocolate truffle, heaven! I bought them prior to starting this challenge and have some left over (they are individually wrapped). I had calories left over and wanted a snack but all my “eating plan approved” snacks had been eaten already lol Almonds? Check. Yogurt? Check. Oh well, actually, I hadn’t had cottage cheese but eating that would have put me over my calories for the day. Yes I am aware it is weird it was fewer calories to eat the truffle than the cottage cheese lol. What can I say, it’s a weird world!

Daily calorie budge 1010

Food calories consumed 991

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 991

Under by 19

Yes yes, I know I need to step up my game when it comes to exercising but here is the thing with Mondays. If ever I am going to screw up anything, it will be on a Monday. I am always sleep deprived (I’m up super early and don’t sleep well so I usually am running on about 3 hour sleep if I’m lucky), I am up at 5:20am which makes me automatically cranky, Mondays are always super busy at work and I’ve found that after work I have approx 2 hours max to get anything done that needs to be done before I collapse or are functioning but at sub-par level due to exhaustion. I had planned on going to Zumba after work but the timing of the class is just so annoying. It’s just that little bit too late from when I get off work that I can’t go directly there, I have to go home first which means I end up sitting and that means I usually end up napping. ugh. I had what I thought was a great plan! Purposefully have a nap then go to the later class, voila! Problem solved! Buuuuuut no, no the problem wasn’t solved cause this is me and let’s get real, my problems don’t get solved that quickly lol My 20 minute nap turned in to a 2+ hour nap which meant I slept through dun-dun-dunnnn Both Classes! OMG!! Who does that?!?! Me. I do that. Arg! *rolls eyes*

Day 13, Nov 26/13:

It could have been worse. Not the best way to start talking about the day is it? lol I had a healthy breakfast, did the baked avocado and egg dish again, Mmm! I love that combo! I was meeting friends right around dinner time at a pub before going to a movie and I kept debating before I left the house. (1) Eat at home so I’m not hungry. (2) Order something healthy at the pub and don’t seem like a freak who can’t enjoy a social situation. Oh the choices! Thing is, even if I eat at home I’ll still feel hungry cause my meals and snacks always leave me feeling unsatisfied filling wise so logic (my logic anyways) says eat at the pub otherwise I’ll be eating at home and most likely caving and eating something while out so double whammy calorie wise where as if I just eat out maybe it won’t be so bad. Even while I knew that plan could super easily backfire I decided to follow it. I actually found a great salad on the menu, mixed greens, balsamic vinaigrette on the side, goat cheese on top and I got them to add a grilled chicken breast. It was tasty and healthy! Go fig! lol I will admit I ate half of a nacho chip with one tiny piece of a jalapeno on it but how the hell do you calculate calories for that?? I have made an executive decision to not count it lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1044

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 1044

Over by 34

You may be wondering how I managed to go over? Hmm, yeah, so here’s the thing, after the movie was over I was cold so on the way to my car I stopped at a Starbucks. Bad. Move. I don’t drink coffee so I decided to try something I’d been told was good, a pumpkin spice latte only without the coffee. So basically steamed milk with the pumpkin flavouring. I got it made with soy, no whipped cream, no sprinkles. Seriously who needs whipped cream and sprinkles on their drinks all the time? Ugh. Anyways, while standing in line I was staring at the display case and when I ordered the words “I’ll also get a chocolate chip cookie” came out of my mouth. It’s like I want to fail or something. 😦 I ate it. It wasn’t good. It was too big. It was too sweet. It made my stomach feel sick, and sore, and disgusting. It was NOT worth it! Stupid stupid waste of my calories! I’m so mad. If it had been super tasty I don’t think I’d be so mad at myself but using all those calories for something that wasn’t even that good (and yet, I didn’t stop eating it did I? No, no I didn’t *groans*) I’ll say it again. Stuuuuupid! The drink, fyi, also not good. Too sweet. I didn’t count it in my food log because I only took 4 small sips and then threw it out because to me it was undrinkable. Good thing too since when I got home I discovered that freakin cookie is over 400 calories! Never. Again.

Day 14, Nov 27/13:

It’s not my fault! Now don’t go thinking I mean I went over, I didn’t! 😛 It is that I was 256 calories under for the day and I really didn’t mean for that to happen. I meant to be closer to my calorie budget of 1010 but, well, oops? lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1116

Exercise calories burned 361

Net calories for today 754

Under by 256

I went to Zumba then had errands I had to do. I opted to go directly from Zumba to the stores instead of go home, shower, eat then go cause I know myself and once I was home I wouldn’t have gone out again lol. As I was finally driving home I was super hungry and couldn’t imagine waiting all the time it would take to cook some chicken, or put together a salad with freshly cooked fish on top, or really, waiting for anything at all. Soooooo, I stopped for sushi. Mmm sushi! I got take out and ordered spicy agedashi tofu, yam roll and a philly roll. I ate the tofu, which was absolutely delicious, and the yam roll which was ok but only had two pieces of the philly roll cause uh yeah, it so didn’t taste  right. One thing anyone with half a brain knows is if sushi of all things doesn’t taste right don’t eat it! Because of not eating the philly roll I didn’t use as many calories for dinner as anticipated and since I had exercised I had extra calories I could eat. I did have a snack but not enough to make up all those calories…so again, I say oops!

Day 15, Nov 28/13:

Today went well. I had Zumba again this evening with a different instructor. She incorporated some shadow boxing and some more obvious exercise-exercise moves instead of it being all dance. I liked the change. 🙂 I think it’s good to shake it up by getting different instructors styles. Other than Zumba and errands and stuff around the apartment I haven’t done all that much today so no real reason to mess up, which, yay! I didn’t!…didn’t mess up I mean, maybe I didn’t word that well enough to make it clear? lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1181

Exercise calories burned 361

Net calories for today 820

Under by 191

I didn’t intend to be so far under, shrug, I don’t really know why I was. I ate when I was hungry, had two snacks…I guess the combined exercise and super simple meals did it. Ah well, I don’t feel hungry and I think that is the important part, right? Right! 🙂

Day 16, Nov 29/13:

I haven’t actually eaten all the food I put in my food log yet but I want to get this written so I put in some snacks I am about to have and you’ll just hafta trust me that I’ll eat it lol 😛 Today was a fairly standard day food wise. I had a lot of calories left when I got home from work and didn’t feel like making an actual meal so I grazed. I grazed on carrots and hummus, a banana, nibbly things like that. It was kind of an odd combo but it worked. I really wanted to eat something I could put the salsa on but didn’t have anything it would work with, I’m going to have to find other ways to eat salsa besides combining it with tuna…

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 979

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 979

I realized today that I’ve been doing this for 16 days, 16 days!! I don’t know why but that seems like a long time…I have a long time left though. It’s a definite record ,16 days without peanut butter, man oh man do I miss that! lol There have been definite times when I’ve been eating an actual meal and I realized that before this challenge instead of eating a meal I’d be eating a spoonful of peanut butter and be perfectly happy with that…I guess since I’m eating actual food now this way is healthier but I sure do miss the simplicity of a spoonful of peanut butter, not to mention the taste lol 😛

Day 17, Nov 30/13:

Today I was running later than expected when getting ready for work and yet, I somehow managed to cook some chicken to take to work, get my work snack together and even prep some food for tomorrow! Booyah! This prepping thing is getting a bit easier! 🙂

I’m eating mandarin oranges like they are going out of style lol two a day on average! I don’t even feel bad about being an orange glutton because they taste so good and aren’t that bad for me. Mmm fruit! Because I was running late I only ate one meal before work, I don’t work until 3pm so most people would have most likely eaten oh I dunno, two? lol After work I had a lot of calories left for the day but wasn’t really feelin having another meal, it was 9:30pm and I had to be up the next day at 5:20am, that scenario makes me picky about what I will eat lol I decided to have snacky stuff, like hummus and baby carrots, cottage cheese with sunflower seeds, a mandarin orange lol, stuff that is light. 🙂

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 969

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories for today 969

Under by 41

That’s not so much, I mean, under by 41 calories is practically nothing, shrug, so yay! for being under and no guilt for under eating cause I was barely under lol Yes, that is how my mind works! 😛

Day 18, Dec 1/13:

Ahhh Sunday, the end of my week! Well, not my work week but my Lose It! app week lol I took a super yummy salad to work for lunch today, Mmm! Usually I take a half a chicken breast and 2.5 ounces of mixed vegg for my meals at work but this one girl keeps teasing me that thats all I eat ever so I thought I’d prove her wrong 😛 Even though the food at work was delish (as always) I was getting a lot of compliments on my salad! lol It has mixed greens, shredded carrots, cucumber, baby tomatoes, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, sliced chicken and light ranch dressing. Mmm! All ingredients are of course measured out but I figure you don’t really care about the measurements lol The chef at work said I could use the salad stuff at work so I don’t bring it (the lettuce and vegg) which I was uber thankful for but I explained I weigh everything I put in the salad and it might be too hard to do that at work, also too time consuming! Least I know if I forget my food one day I’ll be able to raid the fridge at work! 🙂

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 974

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 974

Under by 36

Again, a day where I was under but only by a little bit. I had a surprising amount of energy at the end of my work day, usually on Sundays I am barely function by the time I get home because I am running on 3 hours or less of sleep and my body is all “I hate you, you will now pass out while watching tv! bwahahaha!” Last night I managed to get about 5 hours sleep and those extra couple hours really helped! While I was getting dinner ready I also cooked for Monday, my breakfast for Monday as well as part of my lunch. I’d love to claim this is because I am super organized but it is actually because I am lazy. I was certain the energy levels would desert me quickly and no way is hell did I want to be in the kitchen a second time that evening cooking, ugh. Might as well get it all done at once!

Here is the screenshot from the Lose It! app for Week 3 of this weight loss challenge. You can see where I went over a little bit on Tuesday, sigh. I’m still irritated I ended up with another red bar on my bar graph. Grr! It’s like I want to fail or something?! That was the night of Starbucks, ugh, so nothing eaten was even remotely worth the red bar. Lesson learned? I sure hope so! I really want next week to be the week of No Red Bars!

I ended up under by 540 calories for the week which yeah ok, sounds like a lot but I don’t think it really is…I averaged 64.4g Protein per day and 103.2 grams Carbs per day. I need to up my protein and keep the carbs about the same or better yet down to an average of 100 grams carbs per day. I also need to up my exercise cause I am sucking royally at that!

Day 19, Dec 2/13:

Today was another anomaly, almost 5 hours sleep instead of my usual 3, awesome! Work was fine food wise, I was hungrier then normal today and if I hadn’t been on this eating plan I totally would have snacked my way through the day. I kept wanting to grab a croissant or muffin or cranberry toast or sandwich or or or lol let’s just say there were a lot of food options! I’m kinda proud I didn’t mess up and eat something I shouldn’t have. Stupid I guess to be proud of not eating unhealthy food, lots of people do that all the time but for me, passing the toast and croissants up was haaaaard. I love carbs and I really love cranberry toast and croissants, *big epic food sigh* It’s my own fault though, and I know it, if I hadn’t let myself go I could have an occasional piece of cranberry toast or croissant without it having a detrimental affect but now I have to get myself back under control, tighten the reins so to speak and maybe one day I’ll be able to loosen them once every now and then without going nuts and over eating…

Today I went to Zumba after work, see? Energy! It was a great class! It was Zumba Toning so throughout the class we use free weights which gave a great arm and shoulder workout. 🙂 I had originally thought I would go to the gym afterwards to do some weight work (I had forgotten it was a Zumba Toning class) but afterwards I decided not to since I’d just be working the same muscle groups and we all know over working muscles is a dumb thing to do lol. You are supposed to give your muscles 7 days to rest if you are doing weight work so they can recover properly, even if you are using a shake to help repair the muscle.

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1112

Exercise calories burned 361

Net calories 751

Under by 259

I am a little peckish and am contemplating a snack, so of course if I do eat something else I will update this. I just can’t think of what to eat though, all my go-to healthy snacks have either been eaten once today or have run out, eek! Looks like I’m going to have to go grocery shopping again *rolls eyes*…or perhaps expand my list of allowed snacks? Something to ponder…

Day 20, Dec 3/13:

I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 20 days already…it seems like I just started but that seems like such a big number lol

Today I screwed up something fierce! In the total opposite direction I normally screw up though lol I under ate a ridiculous amount! Oops! It really was an accident. I ran out of time to make dinner before going out which resulted in my missing out on most of my calories for the day. To read a full description of what happened click Here, and try not to judge me toooooo much k? After all, we’re all friends here!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 506

Exercise calories burned 361

Net calories today 144

Under by 866

See? Horribly under! Ack! What sucks even more is I am hungry now, like ridiculously hungry, but it is 3am and I haaaave to go to sleep so I can’t eat right now. sigh. My stomach is not impressed, neither I’m sure is my pathetic excuse for a metabolism.

EDIT! I forgot I had a grande soy chai latte from starbucks when out which increased my consumed food calories to 736 and gave me a net calories of 374 meaning I was actually under by 636. Still a horribly large number but not as large as before I remembered the latte! lol

Day 21. Dec 4/13:

Today wasn’t much better then yesterday, well, it was and it wasn’t. I ate more calories today then yesterday (would’ve been hard not to! lol) but my food wasn’t spaced out well, my food choices weren’t great and all the nutritional information is estimated, ack! My breakfast and lunch were a Protein Bistro Box from Starbucks. There is nutritional information on the box but I didn’t eat all the items so I couldn’t use the nutritional label. I googled and attempted to get the nutritional information for just the foods I ate but I don’t know how right the information I found is. sigh. Then for dinner I was at a Japanese Restaurant and ordered Chicken Mizutaki, the info on it said it was healthy and the list of ingredients sure sounds healthy! A clear broth with noodles, cabbage, one shitaki mushroom, one slice of carrot, chicken and tofu. Thing is, there was no flavour to any of it! Most bland meal ever, ugh. Because it was so bland I kept eating more than I had intended because it just wasn’t satisfying me, double sigh. I shouldn’t have eaten the noodles but it was the most filling part of the dish and I was oh-so-hungry! Sooooo, not great…also, no exercise today, though that was planned. I wanted to give my knee a rest and since I knew I’d be super busy today I planned for the rest to be today. I was still walking around an stuff today but nothing I would count as “exercise”

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 908

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 908

I have added two mandarin oranges to my food log for today even though I haven’t eaten them because I am about to eat them. I am feeling quite hungry still and don’t want to be too far under my calories for today considering what happened yesterday!

Day 22, Dec 5/13:

Today kinda sucked. I was having a “girl day” and spent most of the day sitting in the living room with a heating pad on my tummy feeling like crap. I had noooooo appetite for the longest time, in fact, I had the total opposite of an appetite…by that I mean I was certain I was going to be sick to my stomach before I’d even eaten anything, ugh. I eventually ate but only got vaguely near my calories for the day because I purposefully chose high calorie foods to nibble on lol It may be slightly against the spirit of the meal plan but I figured it was better to be close to my calories for the day then nowhere near, right?

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 777

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 777

Under by 233

How weird of a number is that?? I love it! lol

I had intended to spend today running at the gym and then cleaning the apartment but neither happened. Sucky but oh well, life happens! I’m a little bummed the cleaning didn’t happen, not because I like cleaning but because I like to get the place tidied before I start my days on shift but again, oh well!

Day 23, Dec 6/13:

Oh Friday, how you try to thwart me!

I worked today and after work got together with friends from work for a farewell party. One of our chefs is going back to Switzerland so of course we had to see him off in style! lol 🙂 I took a filling and yummy salad to work plus a snack. The plan was eat dinner at a mildly normal time, then have a quick snack near the end of my shift (at 9pm) before meeting everyone at the pub. Welllllll it didn’t quite work out that way, of course right? lol 😉 It was slammed at work so I had no time to eat which means when the over night person showed up I finished up some paperwork while finally eating my salad. By that time I was so hungry! I decided against eating the snack I’d brought because the salad and a snack at one time would’ve been too much food at once, even if I was hungry. Tummies are only so big ya know? I was glad I made that decision because I was comfortably filled but not feeling stuffed and no one likes going out when they feel stuffed, way to make a girl feel unpretty! lol I didn’t drink at the pub cause (1) I was driving and (2) I didn’t want the calories from a drink, not worth it, shrug. When I got home I had a weight watchers hot chocolate and some cookies to bring my calories eaten up to a more presentable number. I feel kinda stressed if I am way under my calories for the day because I am writing them down here, hence the cookies. If I wasn’t confessing to you dear readers about how many calories I eat a day I probably wouldn’t of had the cookies cause, well, who cares that I am way under right? But to save people from worrying about the amounts I am eating I make sure to eat more so I don’t have to confess (again) to drastically under eating.

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 764

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 764

Under by 247

After the cookies and hot chocolate, which fyi best snack ever!, it was too late at night to eat/drink more even if I had wanted to, which I didn’t. I was really wishing the gym was open though cause I would have happily gone for a run but it was, hmm, it was late, I don’t remember the exact time but definitely late so sadly, no gym time. Instead I did some random cleaning around the apartment to burn off some energy.

Day 24, Dec 7/13:

Cookies and hot chocolate again! wOOt! 🙂

I had the same thing happen today, it was too busy during my shift to get to eat dinner so I figured I’d eat my dinner after my shift was over but I realized right before I left work I had forgotten to prep my food for work for Sunday. I made a last minute decision to keep the chicken and veg I had brought to work at work (in a fridge obviously 😛 ) and eat it for lunch Sunday. Why? Because then it meant I wouldn’t have to cook any chicken or fish when I got home from work tonight. Yes, I am just that lazy! lol I still had to hard boil some eggs and cook some turkey bacon and I just didn’t feel like adding baking chicken to that list. I put together a salad though and will take that to work, I’ll put the chicken and veg on top of the salad and it will be awesome! 🙂 Mmm!

A happy side effect of this decision was a looooot of left over calories for the day, again, *rolls eyes* I had a cup of cottage cheese with sunflower seeds mixed in when I got home and discovered a full cup of cottage cheese is just a tad too much cottage cheese. I usually eat a half cup at a time and it’s perfect, the full cup was kinda ick by the last couple spoonfuls. Not that it didn’t taste good just that I was not wanting it anymore. Won’t be making that mistake again anytime soon!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 833

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 833

Under by 177

Least I’m a little closer to my daily calorie budget today than yesterday! 🙂 I’m excited to be so close to the end of my week and not have any red bars on my bar graph, long as I don’t screw up tomorrow I’ll finally have a good week! *crosses fingers*

Day 25, Dec 8/13:

I’d say today was a good day. 🙂 I still have calories left over and I’m thinking I’m going to use some of them to eat an orange…actually, I for sure am, lemme go add that to my food tracker…k, done! I haven’t eaten them yet but I will! I’ve eaten more calories today then I have the last three days or so but since all of the food was healthy food (sadly no hot chocolate or cookies today, boo!) I don’t feel bad about it. Sad I didn’t get a hot chocolate lol but no guilt!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 937

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 937

Under by 73

Look at that! Only under by 73, preeeeetty good!…don’t ya think?

I made it to the end of the Lose It! week without getting any red bars on my bar graph! Yay! 😀

Here is my weekly summary from the Lose It! app. Week 4. I was under my calories for the week by 1578, that means I was under by more then a days worth of food! How is that even possible?! I didn’t ever feel hungry, well, ok, sure I felt hungry right before I ate but I mean felt hungry as in I was denying myself. I had the Tuesday which was an epic fail and I already confessed to you about which is really where the calories were lost, the other low days are nowhere near as damaging to my numbers. I know being low by such a big number makes it look like I am trying to starve myself or something but I’m not, it was an accident, shrug.

I had an average of 103.3 grams of carbs a day, 54.2 grams of protein and 28.7 grams of fat…not the breakdown I was hoping for. I still need to work on increasing my protein but I am happy with the carbs average, that is right around where I want it to be. 🙂

Day 26, Dec 9/13:

It feels like today I have been surrounded by food, by lots and lots of food, everywhere! Ack! Now sure, if you live in a First World Country you technically are surrounded by food. You can’t walk a block without passing multiple places that sell food, if you watch tv food commercials are all over the place, not to mention billboards, food at work, food in your own home. Food! Some days you notice it more than others and today was definitely one of those days. It wasn’t that I was hungry, it was just that everything looked soooooooo good! Every commercial, every billboard, every restaurant, the food in the kitchen at work, even the food I have around my place. It is apparently a day where all I want to do is eat, even when not hungry. Not cool.

Brace yourself for the next bit…are you seated?…no hot drinks in your hand?…I…didn’t…overeat! Crazy awesome right?! 😀 I tracked all my food like I’ve been doing, and low and behold I am a bit under my calories for the day. It’s a December miracle! lol I am keeping myself below my calories for the day by a bit because I had a tiny piece of birthday cake at work today, every month we have a birthday party for everyone whose birthday is that month, my birthday is this month so that cake was destined to be tasted by me. I figure, one slice a year won’t kill me. 🙂 It was super yummy and I savoured every bite! Mmm!

But yeah, today has been kinda hard. I saw an ad that McDonald’s is now selling poutine, I saw a DQ ad for a totally yummy looking $5 lunch meal, I saw lemon tarts at work (lemon is my fave!), I saw a lot of tempting foods today and except for that slice of bday cake I ignored the siren call of all of them. wOOt!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 957

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 957

Under by 54

So not under by a whole lot but enough of a buffer if I got the calories for the cake wrong.  🙂

Day 27, Dec 10/13:

Today was a day of awesomeness! Not food wise lol but life wise! 😀 To read what happened today that was EPIC click here. Before I went to the meeting that resulted in life changing news I didn’t have time to eat, sadness, but I figured it’d be ok, the meeting should only take an hour and then I could get something on the way home. Well, yeah, no. The meeting took a bit over two hours, I had to do some grocery shopping afterwards and it was a bit after 3pm so I was oh-so-hungry! As in feeling starved and unable to make healthy food choices, ugh. I bought a personal sized pie from the bakery section of the grocery store as a congratulations-to-me treat and was trying to figure out what to have for an actual meal. There was NO way I was going to be able to handle waiting 40 minutes after getting home for a piece of chicken to be cooked so I decided to buy something ready made. I normally would get Subway but it was cold and I wanted something warm to eat, which also ruled out sushi. I ended up going to a place called C-Lovers which is a fish and chip shop. I know! Horrible! I don’t know why I did it except I was sooooo hungry and all I could think was “buy something now!!” so that’s what I bought. *hangs head in shame* I wasn’t able to eat it all, who would be? It was a huge amount of food! Tasteeeeee, but so not in the meal plan lol I couldn’t find nutritional information for the restaurant, lame, so I googled nutritional info for battered cod, and french fries which means my numbers are estimates but are the best I can do. I also um, hmm, I don’t wanna admit this, ate half the personal sized pie *blushes in embarrassment*  I ate the pie waaaaay later than the fish n chips if that helps you to judge me less lol

I obviously went over my calories for the day what with eating the fish, some of the chips and half the pie buuuut I don’t care! I mean, I do, but I don’t cause I’m still so happy about what happened earlier that that’s all I am thinking about lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1062

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 1062

Over by 52

I’ll make it up tomorrow, honest! 🙂

Day 28, Dec 11/13:

I ate oatmeal today – the horrors! I’m not supposed to eat oatmeal on this meal plan so it is an actual boo-boo but it was either oatmeal or a protein bistro box from starbucks and we all know what a disaster that was last Wednesday lol I was at a German Christmas Market today and managed to resist all but the apple cider, who could possibly resist apple cider?? I managed to stay under my calories for today, told ya I’d make up the going over that happened yesterday! lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 975

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 975

Under by 35

I’m actually quite hungry right now because while I stayed under my calories I didn’t make the smartest food choices so I ate some higher calorie food items that weren’t all that filling which means they weren’t really worth the calories but oh well, what’s done is done.

I did a lot of walking today but didn’t track it in any way so I don’t know if I actually did enough walking to have it count towards exercise which is why I kept my Exercise Calories Burned at zero. If I don’t/can’t track it then I don’t count it, it’d be too easy to cheat and say I burned more calories then I really did ya know?

Day 29, Dec 12/13:

I was busy doing things around the apartment today and missed my Zumba class. Plus the weather sucked and I really wasn’t wanting to go out in the rain to get to the gym lol I know! Lame reasons! But there they are…I couldn’t not exercise though so I popped in the Insanity workouts and chose the pure cardio workout. omg! Why?Why?Why? That one is, wait, I was gonna say that one is killer but they are all killer lol I’m glad I did it though so guess that means it was worth it? lol

I went to a friends for dinner, we were all bringing take out, instead of buying something I cooked some tilapia and made a salad and took it with me. It is still kind of take out since I took it out of the house and ate it somewhere else 😉 I also had a sliver of chocolate orange cake when at my friends, it was birthday cake and didn’t ya know? There are no calories in birthday cake! Honest! lol I had quite possibly the smallest piece possible and according to my food tracker I’d eaten well all week (so far) so I don’t really feel all that bad about having such a tiny piece of cake. I have to find a balance between eating healthy so I keep losing weight but not completely cutting myself off from enjoying various social situations. Right? Or maybe I am making that up so I can justify eating the random little slice of cake? hmm…something to ponder!

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1030

Exercise calories burned 307

Net calories 723

Under by 287

I had to guesstimate the calories for the cake, which sucks, sigh, so when I got home I decided to not eat anything else juuuuust in case I estimated too low. I wanted to leave a buffer ya know?

Day 30, Dec 13/13:

Friday the 13th! wOOt! 😀

Nothing too special food wise today. I chose to postpone dinner until I got home from work because dinner involved tuna (which nobody likes to smell lol) and avocado (which is always best when freshly cut). In fact I’m fairly certain this is one of my more boring food days, everything I ate was in my food plan, everything I ate was the right portion size, shrug, it was just…a day? Huh, maybe that’s what more and more of my days will be like food wise? Nothing all that special, and following my eating plan will just be the norm instead of an impressive feat?

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 849

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories today 849

Under by 161

I wanna say I will have a snack before going to bed but it is 1:39am and I am off to bed soon which means no more food for me! I don’t follow that rule about no eating for 3 hours before sleeping, I mean hello? you’re about to be unconscious for how many hours? Your body freaks out cause it thinks it is being starved so the closer to going to bed you have a small snack the better buuuuut I have tummy issues (acid reflux etc) and the closer to bed time that I eat the worse I feel in the morning, ugh. Not cool. I will however have a nice big glass of water, I haven’t been hydrating as well as I should be and lack of water during the day always catches up to me right before I go to bed and I end up chugging a glass of water lol Good thing I have a strong bladder! lol 😛

Day 31, Dec 14/13:

Today was a day of snacks. I had a normal breakfast but the rest of my food for the day was nibbly type things. Carrots and hummus. Cottage cheese with sunflower seeds mixed in. Stuff like that. I’m worried about the buffet I am going to tomorrow so I am purposefully keeping my calories low today, kind of like a buffer lol

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 854

Exercise calories 0

Net calories today 854

Under by 156

I’m not under by some huge amount, shrug, but enough to hopefully give me a bit of a buffer for tomorrow lol

Day 32, Dec 15/13:

Alrighty so todays numbers are guesses, sigh. I hate guessing but whatcha gonna do? It was a buffet, not like I could get the nutritional information for the food lol It was the big Christmas Brunch Buffet at work and that means massive quantities of yummy yummy food! I tried to choose healthy foods and in small quantities but like I said, it is all guessing…well, except for breakfast lol I made sure to eat a normal breakfast and have a healthy snack prior to the buffet so I wasn’t going to the tables laden with food feeling super hungry. Thought it might help me have some self control and it sure did help! 🙂

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1023

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 1023

Over by 12

Ack! I am over! I had a feeling I would be even though I tried not to be. I kept dinner simple and small but any meal I thought of would have put me over. I was exhausted from a long day on little sleep so I opted for the easiest meal to make, eggs. Doesn’t get any easier then eggs! lol

As my Lose It! App weekly summary shows I was under by 629 calories for the week. I’m not sure how accurate that is considering I had to guess my calories for Dec 15 (the sunday). My staying below my calories for three days definitely helped though, gave me that buffer I was wanting to help compensate for the days I went over. Yay for a buffer! lol

Day 33, Dec 16/13:

Today was, sigh, not good. It started off well! I took my healthy food to work, ate on schedule, did everything I was supposed to buuuuuuut I saw some pumpkin pie that had been cut in to small bite sized pieces and I ate three of them. Three! Arg! Then, to make matters worse I was super exhausted after work, had a nap and when I woke up I was an idiot and heated up the pizza I had frozen from the last time I ordered delivery from Panago. Lame move, laaaaame! Thanks to those oh so wonderful choices I ended up going over. 😦

Daily calorie budget 1010

Food calories consumed 1157

Exercise calories burned 0

Net calories 1157

Over by 147

I’m mad with myself with getting so tired and not having healthy food ready for cooking. I’d been doing better with having prepped food ready so when I was tired or running late or whatever I could still manage to not resort to unhealthy food options but I dropped the ball and this is the result.

~

I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!

I totally dropped the ball with keeping this challenge updated right towards the end, eek! Forgive me?

I did lose weight by the end date of Dec 22/13 unfortunately I lost the weight in my upper abdominal area, not my thighs/hips/butt so the jeans didn’t fit any better at the end then they did when I started. Sadness.

I’m pissed the weight didn’t come off the areas of my body I wanted it too but that is not something I can control. Well, I can’t completely control that. I suppose I could have tailored my workouts more towards my lower body but I thought working out in general and controlling my eating would be ok. Oh how wrong I was *rolls eyes*

Soooooo I officially declare this challenge a failure. Which sucks and I don’t want to but since the challenge wasn’t about losing weight in general but fitting in to those jeans that were hanging on my wall and they don’t fit any better then when I started way back on Nov 14/13 the obvious labeling of the challenge is F.A.I.L. 😦

I’ve never failed at one of my challenges, not the short term ones anyways. When I start a challenge I follow through and reach what I aim for but not this time. I don’t care for the sensation of not reaching my goal so I will be working even harder and more importantly smarter to reach the next one!