Portion Control to the Max!

   

The other day Sean and I were talking about why were weren't losing any weight, even though we eat pretty health and live pretty active lifestyles. (It seems like we are always on the go..)

     Sean said that his biggest problems was portion control. After he said that, I thought he might be on to something. Knowing HOW much you are eating is just as important as to WHAT you are eating!! (I always forget this...)

      My biggest problem (just so all of my loyal readers are up to date..) is that I don't eat enough. I talked with my recruiter early next week and we talked about what I am eating on a day to day basis. He told me that he wants to see me try to eat at least 6 times a day. (including 3-100 calorie snacks). I am regularly suppose to eat every 2-3 hours during my day. 

          So after I talked with my recruiter, I was on my way to walmart to get snack baggies, pretzels, wheat thins, and prepackaged 100 calorie snacks. 50 bucks later, I came out with everything I needed to make my own snack packs to take with me when I am at work, or on the go during that 2-3 hour window. At work, I just run to the back, eat it really quick when I get a chance and get back up on the floor. I haven't really ran into much of a problem when I couldn't grab my snackage at work before heading back, which is great. 

       My recruiter told me that for the first few days, I was going to feel like I was eating so much food. I was going to be extremely full, but after those few days. I was going to be starving for the next food that was going into my body. I would get to the point that at about 2 hours, I was extremely hungry already. This is my metabolism kicking in and working better than it did before. 

      Well, he was right. I'm pretty much always starving right now, except right after my meals.. Then I am extremely full. 

All of this sparked my creativity side of thinking and I started thinking about how I could so easily prepackage a lot of my foods.


So I started off with the wheat thins and the pretzels. 

      I pre-proportioned my wheat thins, pretzels, almonds, banana chips, raisins, marshmallows, and (bought for an extra extra treat) dark chocolate covered raisins.. they are all packaged in approximately 100 calorie proportions.
   This is great for when I am on the go at work, and doing other errands. It saves me from having to count everything out and worry about over eating. It also keeps me from eating straight out of the boxes/bags, which I have been known to do once or twice.
       I did end up buy pre-packaged cookie 100 calorie snacks for my sweet tooth cravings. I have an awful sweet tooth around 9:30-10 at night. I just want a something sweet and a lot of it. Well I got these cookies specifically for that time period. Although, I don't think I will be buying them again because I have found that I can replace the cookies with marshmallows or raisins and my cravings are just as satisfied because with those snacks I get a lot more of them than just 6 tiny little cookies. 

Then I moved on to my oatmeal that I eat every morning...

    Since I was told that I need to eat more.. I have been aiming for a breakfast consisting of anywhere between 300 and 450 calories. I try to aim pretty close to 380 for most mornings. Since then I have been trying to eat oatmeal for breakfast. It is low in calories, but high enough for me to get what I need without having to eat a TON! I have found that stirring in the brown sugar after it is cooked helps make a little bit go a lot farther. I only use about a tablespoon of brown sugar total (about 35 calories). My mornings can get really hectic. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have to be to work by 7am. For those who know me, they know I am NOT a morning person (still trying to figure out why I joined the military for that reason...lol) All of my portions are already measured out, so I can just dump the bag into a bowl and add a cup of water. Perfect for mornings..
    For those with kids, this is perfect for them to get going in the morning. Oatmeal is known to keep a person fuller longer, but it is also great for cold winter mornings. Having it portioned out makes it extremely easy for kids to make their own in the morning. When bagging them, you can add brown sugar for convenience, but I prefer not to, just because I am calorie counting.

Then to my frozen vegetables...

     This was probably the most helpful thing out of all of them. I pre-proportioned out my frozen veggies so I don't have to worry about that when I am making them as sides for lunch/supper. I LOVE veggies. These are proportioned out according to serving size on the bags. Most of these bags contain anywhere from 30-70 calories, which makes them great sides to go along with a chicken breast, pork chop, or even a burger. I am really excited about these because I think it will help us eat more of our veggies and think of them more as a convenience and not a hassle to deal with.

So... My organization...

I bought 4 or 5 of these cute little baskets for our freezer and cabinets to hold the baggies. I got the baskets at Family Dollar for $1.50 a piece, which was crazy cheaper than walmart's prices for like items.  I also bought my Aunt Lisa's cabinet from her to hold ALL of our snackage. This way it is all in one place and we don't go looking through the other food in order to find snacks. This has been working out great!!

I started out writing on EVER SINGLE BAGGIE.. but that ended quickly. Instead I have two post-it notes with the amount in each baggie. It made everything go by so much quicker when it came down to bagging it.

     So.. This has been a huge success for me and I am every excited about the entire thing. I have everything ready for when I need to eat and when I am on the go.

      So, I bet my faithful readers are wondering how much this has helped me lose... *Drum roll please* I am sitting at a solid- Non fluctuating. 150. Which is great. I have drill next weekend and I am hoping to be down to 145-147 by then. I would really like to be close. I have accepted that I will not make my goal of losing the weight by graduation because that gives me 30 days to lose almost 20 pounds (crazy unrealistic. So my new goal is to be at 140 or high 130's by graduation. Then down to my goal weight before I leave for AIT on May 30. I am really hoping to be able to do this, but the next few weeks are absolutely crazy when it comes to my schedule.

My Love-Hate Relationship with the Kitchen

    With Sean starting school and me looking at a part time job, I have to find something for breakfast! Last night while Sean was at work I got the crazy idea that I could cook. HA!
      I decided to try to make applesauce, tortillas, and granola bars. HaHa!!

Here is the applesauce recipe that I attempted.

Here is the granola bars recipe I tried.

And here is the tortillas that I killed.



Well let's just say that nothing really turned out how I thought it was going to/ how the recipe called for.

The tortillas were awful. They tasted like pure flour. Instead of using regular flour, I tried using whole wheat flour. It is better for you, but it turned out dry and awful.

The granola bars turned out harder than I thought they were going to be. I didn't have the right sized pan so I was going to try to make them into cookie sized granola cookies. 

Fail. They tasted like burnt honey. I wish they would have worked out, but many I will try again with a different recipe. 

I think the applesauce was the one I was hoping would work out the most. It looked soo good, but it was mushy and gross. I was really disappointed.







So, my relationship with the kitchen is not very strong right now. I go thru these random fails, where everything I make doesn't work out. I have since retried working in the kitchen and have made some pretty good stuff. I wish I would have been successful with the granola bars because those would make really good snacks, but that's okay. Maybe next time.

Weight Loss results week 2&3&4

I've spent so much time working out this week, I have been at the gym almost every day. I bought 7 new workout videos this week from a website that I am really excited about.

But its still not enough. I am really bloated, but I am still sitting at 152. UGH! I definitely thought this was going to be easier when I started this. I AM going to work out hard!
I have been to Zumba at the YMCA two times. I have been to Cori's Cardio.

I have been to the gym every day minus 2 or 3 since I started this. I have been there and worked out for 30+ every single time. I have varied my workouts from Zumba, bike, walking, running, swimming, step aerobics,

My foods have been decently healthy other than a few days that I have been out with family (Easter, Trip to Minnesota, a few days at work.)

I am so beyond frustrated. I haven't even lost inches since I was taped at drill. Nothing. I don't get it. I am stressed and frustrated and I don't know what to do anymore.

Tonight, I texted my recruiter to find out what he thought. I told him that I have been eating healthy, working out and I have lost give or take 2-3 lbs depending on the time of the day at most.

Oh, best yet. If I was a male, weight at exactly the same (height and weight) my body fat would be at 15 percent, but because I am a female, my body fat is at 34% DOUBLE STANDARD! ugh!

So there is my update, I am frustrated to heck and I don't know what I am going to do for drill in 18 days..

Just for Giggles on April Fools! (:

This has been such a crazy and stressful month. Josh and Kady recently moved out and so I have spent a lot of time cleaning, reorganizing, and re-budgeting our lives. (No enough time to spend relaxing. This month I have also been working out like crazy and trying to get taxes, FASFA, enrollment, school stuff, scholarships and ALL of that done for Sean and I.
    Sean started college today!! Woo! I'm super proud of him, but it has been a long process of running around trying to get everything that we need to done.
    My great aunt Nellie passed away Saturday night, so now I am trying to figure out when/how we are going to head up to Minnesota for the funeral.
    Things at work have been crazy and they still are. I'm slightly unsure of what is going on with all of that right now.
     AND. I have only posted a blog 6 times this month.. That stinks.. I feel like I do so much more for the blog, because I could spend days writing one post since I have been known to start and stop things.

   So there is all of this month. Woooah. I'm glad March is finally over with. Not that April is going to be much better.
 

So to get on with this... APRIL FOOLS DAY is a day full of laughs and fun. Sometimes I just need to remember to sit back and laugh. (Stress is probably why I am not losing any weight.... Blah.)

So some of my favorite laughs include the pinterest humor category. Maxine is one of my favorites.  I love cute talking animals and my mom is pretty much my best friend when it comes to laughing and being silly sometimes (especially in Zumba)

Sorry mom  (: I Love YOU! (:




Sometimes I just need to remember to laugh. So here is everyone's laugh for the day. Studies show that the more you laugh the healthier and longer you live.

In one leadership class I took, the instructor told us to keep a diary of the things that make us laugh every day so we can look back on it and think of all the little things in life that make us smile. Well, there was no pinterest then, but the little things in life are sometimes the best.