(Roughly) 1 Month In

I started this weight loss journey again on January 15th 2014. Though it is only the 12th I suspect I will be too busy on Saturday to write so I will go ahead and check in today.

Hows it going?

Ok.

Food?

Cooking slightly more than I was before. The blog is most definitely helping in that respect. I want to show people new recipes...If I'm going to do that I'm going to have to cook new things. So yeah that's am improvement. I still have some serious road blocks. I want convenience foods to east especially at breakfast. And doubly so on the days I work which was only 3 days a week all of January but starting this week I will be getting 4 days of work each week...for the foreseeable future.

So what am I eating? I have reintroduced myself to oatmeal on my days off...which I do really love. I wish i could easily obtain coconut yogurt as I like Swiss Breakfast even more than oatmeal but I can't eat dairy. My sister found a pin about making your own yogurt...mayhaps I will look into trying that out with coconut milk, which I can get all day long. On my days I work I eat Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.  I like these, they are at least reasonable as far as nutrition and you really cant find argument with their convenience.  Occasionally I will eat a banana on the way to work, or on my days off for that matter.

Lunch is often whatever I can scavenge around work or the house. If i'm at work I'm normally eating a bowl of soup or some noodles with cream soup instead of sauce. Occasionally I will take the time or effort to make a wrap sandwich. Rarely will I eat fries, even though they are available all day - every day I am at work. If I'm home, I will likely eat some convenience protein - frozen meatballs, frozen chicken nuggets - and I will pair that with salsa or frozen vegetables (warmed up of course) and most of the time I will make a starch like a slice of frozen garlic bread or a bundle of noodles.

Unless I have cooked for the blog that day that is what dinner will look like on my days off too. On the days I work I often will eat a dollar menu item from a fast food location on my way home. But Since starting the diet I have not once stopped at Dunkin Donuts on my way home, so that's good right?! My financial situation (only working 3 days a week really bites into your wallet) has prevented me from getting take out except for 2 or 3 times all year. Again that's pretty good, right? I'd like to say I'm not tempted to eat the unhealthy take out Chinese food, but I check my bank balance nearly every day (at least mentally) to check and see if I can buy it.

Liquid calories...

So yeah...I drink Red Bull. But I only have 1 a day. This is not only due to financial concerns, but I am being a responsible person here. I feel like Red Bull is maybe not the best thing to drink. I really should drink more water. It would be easy for me to drink water at work...especially since soon they will be swapping the soda contract at work from Pepsi to Coke. As long as they don't get Mello Yello on the fountain at work I will have no problem switching to water. I can put the MiO back into my purse and I will swap to water...I'm promising myself to make that change this coming month. Also I want to get into drinking more tea. Research has said lots of great things about tea (yeah the link goes to Teavana but the sources cited on the link are to honest to goodness research). I don't care for the tannin taste but I could learn to like it.

Exercise?

Back in December - before I rededicated myself to losing weight - I went to the gym only a single time. I have been averaging 2 times a week this past month. Not bad...Not good... But not bad. I like seeing improvement. And i can see improvement in the coming month as well.

Blogging...

Massive improvement in the blogging front. It had been literally Years since I had written anything. and now I have 5 (counting this one) posts in the last month. I would like to blog at least a brief food journal check-in every day. And I would like to have more articles and more recipes. I want to really become active on this blog. That would be awesome.

Results So far...

Weight 199  from a starting weight of 206 So a total loss of 7 pounds in 4 weeks!

Inches...I only measured my waist anf hips when i started this...Though I feel like I should measure more things and track them here starting this month. But at any rate my Starting waist was 44.5 and is now 42.0 and my Hips were 49.5 and are now 49.0. So I have lost inches.

Dress Size...No change yet. But my size 16s which is what I was wearing at the start of this are getting pretty lose. Probably only a few pounds away from size 14.

Goals.

In the coming month (by March 15th) I will lose an additional 5 pounds, and be wearing a size 14. I will also be able to sustain 30 minutes on the Arc trainer. And I would like to break the 12 minute mile on the elliptical trainer. (I can't seem to get the photo to post facing the right side up...what ever. This is from Feb4 Just over 13 minutes for my mile on the elliptical trainer.)


Plan.

I will eat more protein at breakfast. I will try out and hopefully find an better alternative to the breakfast biscuits for my work morning breakfasts. I will go to work out 3 days every week. I will log my food every day at JM.com and I will also log them here every night.I will write no less than 1 article every week and 1 recipe every week.