Meal Plan Week 15

Today I want to share my fitbit workout calendar with you.

Look at that! I have been rocking my workouts the last 2 weeks. And I want you to know that I almost ruined it today. I slept in, like til 10:30 (I went to bed at 11...). I didn't want to get out of my warm bed with the snuggly puppy. I told myself, "Go get breakfast, then get dressed, and you'll have the energy for your T25." I drank my Shakeology while watching Sunday's Kardashians. Then I proceeded to waste the next 45 minutes procrastinating. Facebook, Daily Mail, updates on Baltimore, Instagram, Pinterest... I had zero motivation to get up and get moving. The struggle was real folks. But I did it. And I rocked it. I felt strong the whole workout and even did an exercise without using Tanya (the low impact modifier). When I finished I honestly felt so much better than when I started.

Penny weeds the pool deck while I do my workouts!

Part of the journey is teaching my body to do and enjoy exercise. Learning that eating well and exercise truly does make my body feel good. Everyday is a new chance to build new habits and learn to listen to my body. Trust me, I want to be sitting on the couch binge watching TV right now. But the sun is shining, I'm dressed and ready for the day, and I've got things to do! Here's what we're eating to give this body the energy it needs to get through the next 3 workouts.

Monday:

Cajun Chicken Pasta

*Made this last night. I wish I hadn't bothered with making the sauce. It was a disaster.*

Tuesday:

Zesty Garlic Lemon Tilapia with Roasted Asparagus and Rice

Wednesday:

Cheddar Ranch Chicken Burgers with Baked Fries and a Salad

Thursday:

Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas

Friday:

Mock Lasagna with Salad

*Words cannot describe how good this dish is. I crave it! Most made recipe off Pinterest*

Meal Plan Week 14

Let this be motivation for you. The scale does not define you. It does not define your hard work. It does not measure the worth of your effort. It is just a number in a box. Don't let the scale put you in a box.

I KILLED IT last week with my workouts. I got a workout in every single day, except for Saturday. I made it to the gym M-W-F-Su, and rocked a T25 workout on T-Th. I even got a little yard work done on Saturday, so I wasn't a complete couch potato. I'm noticing my endurance increasing with my elliptical and bike routines. I'm lifting heavier and for more reps, and adding in new free weight strength exercises.

I knew I was going to have 2 meals out this week, so I tried to pinch my calories where I could. I made a couple dietary mistakes, but I recognized them and talked about them with E so I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

I lost no weight.

It's craft beer week here in Pittsburgh. The coolest part of that is all the collaboration brews. How cool is it that brewers around the city get together to brew unique, small brewed collaboration beers? These beers are only available during craft beer week, and when they're gone, they're gone. Finding these beers often involves a scavenger hunt around the city. This year there were 8 different collabs, and they were all on tap at my neighborhood craft beer and pizza place! Now now, don't worry your pretty little head. I did not drink 8 beers (whew! maybe that's why the scale isn't moving!). I thought I was going to have to drink 8 beers to taste all of the collabs, but thank goodness for flights! Caliente, the craft beer pizza place, offered 4 4oz pours of the beers. So in trying all 8, I only consumed 16oz of beer (I split the flights with my husband).

It's all about choices people. Last year I fo sho would have been drinking 8 beers. Because I needed them after working in the ICU, lol! But really, every little choice that you make helps you get one step closer to being a healthier you. Eat an apple instead of that cookie, swap popcorn for potato chips, take the stairs instead of the elevator.

The scale hasn't moved in a week. It's not the end of the world. I am smarter. I am stronger. I am healthier. Focus on the positive improvements that you're making to your life, and I promise that you will see progress. Good luck with focusing on your goals this week!

Here's what we have on the dinner menu this week. I'm recycling some stuff that didn't get eaten last week.

Monday:

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Tuesday:

Southwest Stuffed Peppers and Mexican Rice

Wednesday:
Ranch Pork Chop Shake 'n Bake

Thursday:

Teryaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce and Jasmin Rice

Friday:

Cajun Chicken Pasta

Meal Plan Week 13

Happy Monday lovelies! Life has been busy here in the McCarty household. E has been working 60 hours per week. I have been refocusing my energies back to getting healthy. I said one of my goals for 2015 was to use this blog as accountability, and I'm sorry readers that I fell off the wagon the last couple weeks. I've been struggling with motivation and progress. The past 3 weeks have been a standstill. No weightloss, poor exercise commitment, and poor housewife commitment (haha). It's hard to not see progress and keep committed. One of my problems has been staying on track during the week, but when the weekend comes I feel like it's ok to splurge. Or if I've been to the gym, it's ok to eat those extra 200 calories. I've also been drinking more and more diet soda.

I took some time to refocus myself and realize that even though I haven't lost weight in the past 3 weeks, I also haven't gained any. While the scale hasn't moved, I've noticed progress at the gym and with my workouts. I started this journey barely able to complete the low impact version of T25 cardio. I've been doing the workout now for about a month, probably at least once a week. I can now get through the entire workout without feeling like I'm going to puke and without taking a rest. That's huge progress! Another struggle was maintaining my endurance on the elliptical. This past Sunday I totally rocked my workout. 45 minutes non-stop on the elliptical while maintaining an average speed of 3.6 (w/e that unit of measurement actually is). That's huge progress from only being able to maintain that speed for about 10 minutes or so. Let's remind ourselves that the mirror and scale are not the only indicators of progress.

Are you struggling like me? Just remember to take things one day at a time. Progress and change do not happen overnight, but all of your hard work will pay off!

I've got a couple of events this week, so I really need to kill it with my workouts and really try and focus on my nutrition. My goal this week is to eat an apple if I'm craving a sweet snack, and a 100 calorie pack of popcorn if I'm craving salty. Here's what else we're eating this week.

Monday:

Brother's Birthday Dinner

*this little cutie is celebrating his 23rd birthday today*

Tuesday:

Tacos! with Fresh Guac, Salsa, Chips, and Chipotle Chicken Soup

Wednesday:

Ranch Chicken and a Garden Salad

Thursday:

Cartel 10th Chroma Anniversary Concert day!

Friday:

Southwest Stuffed Peppers and Mexican Rice

Saturday:

Teryaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce and Jasmin Rice

Menu Plan Week 5

Happy Monday Internet lovelies! How was your weekend? Mine was nice and relaxing. We got a little shopping done on Saturday and Sunday we went to a puppy playtime and tried out a new pizza place. Penny loves running around and wrestling with all the other doggies!

We've been on this cleaner whole food eating plan for a little over a month and we are loving it! I've lost a total of 7lbs since we started. I haven't been too strict either. We eat out on the weekend if we want, or have a cheat day. I walk a couple days a week, or shovel snow, and try to do a T25. I feel like I have more energy and am more clear mentally. I'm more regular, if you know what I mean and I've even noticed my skin hasn't been so dry. It hasn't been too hard either. The most difficult part has been staying committed to cooking at home. It's easy after a busy day to say "Eh, let's just go out." But having a gameplan, and having the ingredients on hand helps me stay on track. Here's what we've got going on this week:

Monday:

Spinach, Mushroom, and Onion Quiche and Sauteed Garlic Spinach

Tuesday:

Tuna Cakes with Chipotle Mayo and Green Beans

Wednesday:

Fish Tacos and Chipotle Corn Chowder

Thursday:

Dinner out at Texas De Brazil

Friday:

Valentine Dinner out at Melting Pot

Have a great week everyone, and I'll check back in on Weigh In Wednesday!

Weigh in Wednesday, Posted Thursday?

Checking in for my Weigh In Wednesday...on Thursday. Sorry, I got caught up yesterday and wasn't able to get on the computer to blog. More importantly though, I'm down 1.4lbs. Another 2lbs and I'll be back to where I started losing weight over a year ago.

After the debacle at the beginning of the week (Super Bowl Couch Fest) I wasn't sure that I was going to have made any progress. I was pretty nervous to step up on the scale. Discouraging thoughts were running through my head, like I'm always going to be fat. I'm too lazy to do this. Etc. I'm still trying to get into the right mindset. I really wasn't even happy after I saw that I lost this week. I thought "ugh...just another pound." But today I was thinking, if I lose a pound per week all year long, I can lose a total of 52lbs this year. That totally doesn't suck. I went into my freezer and pulled out a pound of chicken and told myself, "this is the weight that is no longer on your body. This is just a pound." Again, that totally doesn't suck.

I've gotten back into my normal routine and am starting to feel better. My energy levels are up, no more stomach issues, and I feel clearer mentally. This has been a rough week so far, hopefully there'll be more progress next week as well. In the meantime, Penny and I are going out to play in the snow!

Menu Plan Week 4

After the Super Bowl this past Sunday do you feel let down at all? I'm not talking about the game (but seriously though who throws the ball on the 1 yard line at the end of the freaking Super Bowl?), I'm talking about how I actually feel. I ate a bunch of processed foods on Sunday. Doughnuts for breakfast, Little Caesars for lunch, leftover pizza, homemade stromboli, and beer for dinner. I spent all day Monday in a funk. I was tired, my stomach hurt, and I felt like I couldn't focus. I didn't work out, or do anything at all really. According to my FitBit I took a measly 1,645 steps. I'm really marveling in the fact that changing your diet can really affect how your body feels. A month of eating good, whole, homemade foods has really changed me, which is crazy to me. I've had little to no cravings for processed foods. This is coming from a girl that craved, and indulged that craving, chips and McDonald's at least once a week. After 1 day of completely breaking my diet, I feel like I need to run out right now and grab a McChicken and stop for a bag of Cheetos on the way home. Time to get back on track. Don't let one bad day throw away all your hard work.

Here's my gameplan for this week. I already made some ranch pork chops for dinner yesterday. Today I'm going to use some leftover dough from the stromboli to make homemade pizzas. We're going to do a classic pepperoni and then a white pizza. Here's what's on deck for the rest of the week.

Monday:

Ranch Pork Chops with Green Beans and Rice

Tuesday:

Homemade Pepperoni and White Pizza

Wednesday:

Balsamic Glazed Tuna Steaks with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots

Thursday:

Mock Lasagna

Friday:

Chipotle Corn Chowder

Good luck getting back on track everyone. Looking forward to Weigh In Wednesday! Penny says "It's time to get off the couch, take me for a walk!"

Goals for 2015

We're 1 week into the new year, and I'm proud to say that I've been sticking to my goals. What are my goals you ask?

1. Get at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity per day
2. Eat 3 meals per day
3. Drink Shakeology for at least 1 meal per day
4. Cook a healthy dinner at least 4 nights per week
5. Track my activity, food, water, and sleep with my fitbit everyday

These are measurable, challenging, but attainable goals. I would ideally love to lose 50lbs, but I don't want to box myself into a corner. I am going to stick to my exercise and food goals and hopefully weight loss will follow. In addition to these hard fast goals, I have some that I'm not ready to put in a quantifiable structure. Such as,

1. Eat more fruits and veggies
- I had a lot of success with Weight Watchers because I could eat as many fruits and veggies as I wanted. But I'm going to be honest here, I don't like fresh fruit. I've never been a fruit eater. I don't think fresh juicy strawberries are delicious. Watermelon is not refreshing. But I love juice! So to increase my fruit and veg intake, I'm going to try and sneak them in. For example, I plan on drinking a fruit and veg smoothie after dinner as a dessert. I've stretched my ground beef with carrots, onions, and celery (more on this later).

2. Eat whole foods
- Over the past year I've been cutting out processed foods. Does that mean I'm never going to eat a prepackaged meal ever again? No, that's unrealistic. But I'm going to try my best to cook things from scratch. Not only is it more economical, it's healthier. Example? I'm going to make my own whole wheat bread. I'm also planning on making my own yogurt!

3. Blog more
- Putting my meal plans out there for the world to see keeps me accountable. I need accountability. I want to not be embarrassed about what I eat and my weight anymore. So my plan is to blog my meal plan for the week on Monday, and then post a recipe and how the week went on Friday.

4. Practice Frugality
- I've gotten into a bad habit of buying things to buy things. My goal is to only buy something that I truly need, will improve my quality of life, or something that after a week I've decided I cannot live without. A vlogger I follow on YouTube (LaVitaDiMeg) is frequently recommending things, such as a beautiful floral and gold tumbler from Starbucks. I wanted this tumbler so bad, because it was pretty. But I decided that I didn't need it because I already have 3 tumblers that I use on a regular basis. I was still thinking about it weeks later, so I looked into purchasing one, but they were completely sold out everywhere. Turns out I didn't need it, I just wanted it. And I'm not upset that I didn't get to buy one.

Do you have any new year's resolutions that you are going to follow this year? Let's work together on keeping each other accountable!