Dinner Woes

I've been wanting to write about a lot of things lately, and ideas have been swirling through my head throughout the day, but then when I have the time and sit down to write I draw a blank. Ugh.

I've gotten on the stationary bike two nights in a row now and I'm going for #3 tonight. We purchased the bike a few years ago and we use it sporatically. It's not my favorite piece of equipment as I feel like I'm just sitting there and not really doing much, but I love that I can bring my laptop out into the garage and watch a movie while I bike. I just have to watch something that I've either seen before or something mindless because I've noticed that my pace will slow down a lot if I'm trying to follow a storyline.

That combined with really being aware of what I'm putting in my body (not just calories, but grabbing for the whole grains, fruit, veggies, lean meat etc) has really been making a difference on the scale.

My only problem is dinner. Breakfast and lunch I have down, I have a range of choices that I know are good for me and are quick and easy to make, but when it comes to dinner I always feel at a loss. There either isn't anything in the house that I want, everything takes too long, I don't have the right ingredients, or what I'm craving isn't the healthiest.

My husband usually makes dinner (I'm so lucky!) and while he is not as health conscious as I am he generally makes pretty healthy food without even thinking about it. Portions are where we have a problem because he makes big portions and eats a lot. Like last night he made brown rice and his take on chile verde with low fat coconut milk. He got low carb heart healthy tortillas, low fat sour cream, and all natural guacamole to go with it. Delicious! As he piled a burrito high I knew that I couldn't match him bite for bite like I used to when we were dating. I put together a small plate with a little of everything, but no tortilla and I ate it slowly and savored every bite. When he got seconds, I almost got up after him but stopped myself. Was I even hungry still? No. Did I want more? Yes! It was delicious, of course I wanted more! I listened to my body, and even though I didn't love the answer I felt a lot better afterwards as I enjoyed some Rooibos tea and the feeling of being satisfied but not stuffed to the brim.

I'm so close to the 40lbs lost mark, I can smell it!

So Happy!

Our baby is safe and sound, back at home curled under my feet as I type this! We're still fuzzy on the details of where he was and for how long, but it doesn't even matter. Someone 6 long blocks away had him and called animal control sometime last night for them to pick him up. It looks like he got into a bit of a fight, he has marks above and below his right eye, but nothing major and we feel very, very fortunate that he is okay. I have never been so worried nor so relieved in my life!

Crushed Pt. 2

He wasn't there.

We're going to make signs and plaster them all around the neighborhood, and keep checking in with the shelters in the area.

I really, really, really hope we find him soon.

Crushed

I don't know where my dog is.

We left our house for an hour and 15 minutes last night and had the dog in the backyard because it was really hot inside and we thought he'd be more comfortable. We double checked the gate in our driveway, made sure the lock was engaged. When we returned someone had pried open the gate, lock and all, and our baby was gone.

We drove all around the neighborhood, and asked our neighbors, but saw nothing. The animal shelter couldn't help us because it was after hours, so I am counting the minutes until they open in an hour and a half. He has to be there, he just has to. He is such a big part of our life, he is our baby, my first dog, my running partner, my snuggle buddy.

I am trying to stay positive, hoping that someone picked him up and brought him into the shelter last night or this morning. I just want him safe, I want him home with us.

Thoughts on maintaining

I have been really good this past week, with the one exception of movie date night on Saturday where I got out of work too late to eat something beforehand and ended up with a dinner of movie theater popcorn and candy. Ugh, it just sat in my stomach all night. What is it about movie theater popcorn, that smell? Even if I go to the movies with a full stomach once I smell that popcorn my stomach starts grumbling for it. We're been really good lately, making sure to eat a full meal before heading to the movies so that we're not tempted (well, we're tempted, but not being truly hungry helps so that we don't give into the temptation). Good for the belly, good for the wallet too!

As I sit at work today there is a Greek salad calling my name from the fridge that my coworker left for me, but I don't have a fork :( So, so sad. I brought my faithful PB&J so I'll survive and bring it home for dinner.

I am on the cusp of entering a new set of 10s with my weight loss. I was getting a little cranky yesterday because I just want to be done. I want to be at my goal weight and only having to worry about maintaining that. I think I'm just in a lazy little mood which is contributing to that, but I know I won't be done when I'm maintaining. I put on this weight way too quickly (for someone who isn't pregnant at least!) and I don't want to make it to my goal weight and just become a lazy bum who eats non stop again. That's why I'm doing C25K and trying to make exercise and being active part of my everyday life, not just for now for my weight loss, but for the rest of my life. It should be interesting to see what it feels like to actually be at my goal weight, I'm really curious. I'm also curious about how my eating habits will change. I really like the foods that I eat and I don't go throughout the day feeling hungry at all, so I wonder how that'll work with adding calories to maintain instead of lose. More food? Higher calorie food? I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Man, I'm excited to get to that bridge!

On my way to running success

I tried doing C25K with the dog again this morning and it went a lot better! I tried to walk him through the little park by our house but people were playing tennis and he loves tennis balls so we scratched that and just went down random streets near our house.

It wasn't perfect and we're still on week 1 (to be completely honest, I'm a bit scared to move on and start running longer than 60 seconds at a time) but we're doing it! That's all that matters, right?

Exercise fail and success

I don't like being sweaty. Maybe that is one of my exercise barriers, but I hate it. I also get crazy red faced and it doesn't go away for a while.

Doesn't matter though because I've gotta exercise and if I'm not sweating I'm obviously not working hard enough.

I knew I had to exercise today because it's my day off and that means more sitting around the house and general laziness compared to walking around and being pretty active at work.

I tried to walk/run with the dog, but in an attempt to get out of the routine of our neighborhood and walk in an area with more shade we ended up at a really nice park/trail by our house that had one major flaw - gophers. We were only at the park for about 20 minutes because walking a straight line was just not happening and I kept getting a stitch in my side. Exercise fail.

When I say run with the dog I should really put it in parenthesis. I am attempting the Couch to 5K program because I've never run a mile in my life and accomplishing that would be huge for me. Running is also something I will be able to do anywhere, anytime for exercise once I get good at it. I'm still on week one because I haven't been very consistent, but I'm trying and I enjoy it so far.

After dinner I decided to try again, this time on the elliptical. Exercise success! 30 minutes and I got nice and sweaty so I know I accomplished something.

In other news, this morning I weighed in at my pre-vacation weight! I kicked that water weight and week and a half worth of eating whatever I wanted to the curb. I'll remember this for the future though, it doesn't feel great to be setback like that and next vacation I'll try to be more conscious of that. Just because I'm on vacation doesn't make it a buffet free for all, but man it's just so tempting sometimes.