I looked in the mirror today after getting dressed in my casual Friday outfit of a turtleneck and jeans to discover (gasp!) a waistline. True, at over 280 pounds, it is the sort of waistline I once would have scoffed at as not-a-waistline-at-all but rather a sign of my ever-thickening middle. But today it is a waistline, a definite inward curve of my body below my breasts, followed by an outward curve down towards my hips.
I was so excited I immediately went to B. and said, "Honey, am I crazy or...?" (gesture towards my middle area)
B. nodded. "Yup. Lookin' good. It's working." (It being my healthy eating ways.)
Of course, this is the man who finds me sexy at any weight or curvature, it seems, but I'm taking what compliments I can get right now. Plus I got back on Marcy last night after a brief snow-day-and-laziness induced (4-day) hiatus.
So hooray!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Stress-Eating Chinese Food
WEEK 3
Current Weight: 288.5 pounds
Pounds Lost: 7.5
Pounds Still To Lose For Goal Weight: 108.5
Progress Towards Tulum: 19.74 miles (approx. 3506 miles left to go)
Measurements: Waist (4" above belly button) 39" // Hips 56" // Neck 14"
I hit my first big test since starting this healthy-me plan last night in the form of Chinese Barbecued Pork. My obsession with cooksillustrated.com combined with a love of good Chinese food (sadly lacking in our area) and the Chinese New Year (happy Year of the Ox, everyone) led me to create a large Chinese-based menu for this coming week. So I put B. to work in the kitchen as my sous chef and pot-washer and got down to business. I found healthy recipes for Chinese noodles and five-spice chicken along with garlicky baby bok choy, little dumplings and prawn spring rolls (all at bbcgoodfood.com). And then I decided to try my hand at Chinese barbecued pork. It didn't look that complicated, and it looked really good. The unhealthy factor being fairly high, I compromised by alotting B. and myself 3 oz portions and serving it with brown rice and broccoli. Or such was my plan, at least.
The noodles, chicken, bok choy and dumplings all worked out fine. The snag came when I had to crank up the oven to broil the pork, creating a "lacquer" of marinade/glaze across the top of it. The broil stage was intended for 3-5 minutes. I thought I set a timer, but apparently not so much, and by the time I realized my error, it was 7pm and the pork was a charcoal-like mass of black bits. Normally in situations such as these, when I realize that Sunday is pretty much over, the kitchen is a mess, and dinner isn't something living people should actually consume, I lose it and order a pizza (for both convenience and the stress relief of hot cheese and hot bread and hot grease.) And I lost it a little. I yelled at our oven, I teared up at the hockey pucks of death on the pan, I growled at B. who came in to say helpfully, "Oh, god! They're not ruined are they? But they smelled so good before!" But then I calmed down. B. and I spooned out brown rice and sliced off huge hunks of blackened meat from the hockey pucks to create small chunks of overcooked, fatty, yet-somehow-delicious pork. We took hunks of garlicky baby bok choy and draped them over the resulting mess. We ate about half a pound of meat each instead of 3 oz. and followed the whole thing up with half a cup of Breyer's Double Churn Creamy Vanilla Light Ice Cream (at 100 calories per half cup, it's pure creamy heaven) and a few small chunks of 65% organic dark chocolate. And that was it. I scrapped plans for prawn spring rolls and will use the shrimp and veggies with the leftover rice (originally intended for multiple pork, rice and broccoli meals) to make a light fried rice tonight. Today I went back to eating healthy.
And even though I seriously considered ordering a pizza or eating 2 cups of ice cream instead of 1/2 cup, the notion passed quickly last night - which gives me great hope. I can stress-eat, and it doesn't have to be all bad. I can stress-eat, and it doesn't have to ruin my hard work. I can stress-eat and not blow an entire Week 3 worth of positive choices such as:
Current Weight: 288.5 pounds
Pounds Lost: 7.5
Pounds Still To Lose For Goal Weight: 108.5
Progress Towards Tulum: 19.74 miles (approx. 3506 miles left to go)
Measurements: Waist (4" above belly button) 39" // Hips 56" // Neck 14"
I hit my first big test since starting this healthy-me plan last night in the form of Chinese Barbecued Pork. My obsession with cooksillustrated.com combined with a love of good Chinese food (sadly lacking in our area) and the Chinese New Year (happy Year of the Ox, everyone) led me to create a large Chinese-based menu for this coming week. So I put B. to work in the kitchen as my sous chef and pot-washer and got down to business. I found healthy recipes for Chinese noodles and five-spice chicken along with garlicky baby bok choy, little dumplings and prawn spring rolls (all at bbcgoodfood.com). And then I decided to try my hand at Chinese barbecued pork. It didn't look that complicated, and it looked really good. The unhealthy factor being fairly high, I compromised by alotting B. and myself 3 oz portions and serving it with brown rice and broccoli. Or such was my plan, at least.
The noodles, chicken, bok choy and dumplings all worked out fine. The snag came when I had to crank up the oven to broil the pork, creating a "lacquer" of marinade/glaze across the top of it. The broil stage was intended for 3-5 minutes. I thought I set a timer, but apparently not so much, and by the time I realized my error, it was 7pm and the pork was a charcoal-like mass of black bits. Normally in situations such as these, when I realize that Sunday is pretty much over, the kitchen is a mess, and dinner isn't something living people should actually consume, I lose it and order a pizza (for both convenience and the stress relief of hot cheese and hot bread and hot grease.) And I lost it a little. I yelled at our oven, I teared up at the hockey pucks of death on the pan, I growled at B. who came in to say helpfully, "Oh, god! They're not ruined are they? But they smelled so good before!" But then I calmed down. B. and I spooned out brown rice and sliced off huge hunks of blackened meat from the hockey pucks to create small chunks of overcooked, fatty, yet-somehow-delicious pork. We took hunks of garlicky baby bok choy and draped them over the resulting mess. We ate about half a pound of meat each instead of 3 oz. and followed the whole thing up with half a cup of Breyer's Double Churn Creamy Vanilla Light Ice Cream (at 100 calories per half cup, it's pure creamy heaven) and a few small chunks of 65% organic dark chocolate. And that was it. I scrapped plans for prawn spring rolls and will use the shrimp and veggies with the leftover rice (originally intended for multiple pork, rice and broccoli meals) to make a light fried rice tonight. Today I went back to eating healthy.
And even though I seriously considered ordering a pizza or eating 2 cups of ice cream instead of 1/2 cup, the notion passed quickly last night - which gives me great hope. I can stress-eat, and it doesn't have to be all bad. I can stress-eat, and it doesn't have to ruin my hard work. I can stress-eat and not blow an entire Week 3 worth of positive choices such as:
- Mid-week lunches of low-fat veggie and chicken pot pie (from Real Simple)
- Mid-week dinners of homemade falafel, whole wheat pita and salad
- Twice-daily snacks of homemade hummus with veggies and whole-wheat pita or sun-dried tomato dip (from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook) with veggies
- A weekend of artichokes, salads and cooking healthy food (with the exception of last night's semi-disaster)
- Lots and lots of water drunk - two days I even made it to 8 cups!
- 4 days of Marcy-riding (must be upped during week 4!)
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