I cannot believe it has been a whole week since my last post! It has been a long week full of friends, family, fun and food. Yes, I said food. But, the important story is in how I managed.
FOOD AND TRAVEL
We started our journey with a trip to Charlotte for a baby shower for two wonderful friends: M and A. I have to say that the shower was lovely and the hostess even more so. Brian and I made sure we ate before we went, but were pleased at the spread of foods that we could eat! There was a wonderful roast beef, different cheeses, fruits, home made chicken salad finger sandwiches on wheat. Although we had already eaten lunch, we were able to nibble and snack on these items without blowing our budget. We saved that for our cheat meal!
My last post was about whether to cheat or not to cheat. And, as stated, I believe in one meal cheats, not whole day or weekend cheats. It is very easy to lose control when you allow the cheat to go to far, and quite honestly, you may make yourself sick.
On our last night in Charlotte (Monday night), we had dinner with M & A. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant. We planned to eat Vietnamese, but they were closed on Mondays. We opted for a local Mexican restaurant. I was able to keep on track by ordering soft tacos on corn tortillas (much better for you than flour, and of course not fried). These tacos each had about 2 tbs of meat, 1/2 tbs of cheese and cilantro. I ordered a side of guacamole (good fat) and limited myself to ten corn chips with salsa. And, I allowed myself about 1/2 cup of refried beans. The whole meal was right at 450 calories. And, it was tasty!
After M & A returned us to our hotel, Brian and I decided to take a walk downtown. It was a beautiful night and we walked a couple of blocks. We stopped at Ruth's Chris stake house and decided to have dessert. I chose a lovely glass of Bordeaux made especially for the restaurant and cheesecake. I ate half the cheesecake and finished my glass of wine. This was my cheat meal, my indulgence. It was lovely and when I was done, I put my fork down and walked away.
We returned to Atlanta on Tuesday, visited Brian's Dad and my Cousin Joan (who happens to also be my step-mother-in-law...2nd marriages all around) on Wednesday. We had a wonderful visit and Joan prepared a wonderful low carb jambalaya/gumbo/low country soup...by any other name it was DELICIOUS! The soup had a tomato base and included shrimp, sausage, chicken, tomato, okra, and onion. All the good things about a nice Creole dish without much of the sodium (chicken stock was replaced by tomato base), fat (lean cuts of meat where used and sausage was cooked, drained and blotted before adding to soup) and carbohydrates (we compeltely eliminated rice). It was delicious, low cal, low fat and low carb!
Thursday we headed to Brian's Mama's house. This is always fun for me as I love my in-laws. We had several delicious meals at my Mother-in-Law's house and a fun time shopping with her as well. And, I have to say I really appreciated her effort to help us stay on track!
Sunday brought us a drive to Valdosta, GA to meet my parents and retrieve my lovely 14 year old daughter. And...another cheat meal. There is a country buffet in Valdosta that has the BEST southern food. It is a standard meeting point for us to exchange the grandbaby and to visit. I was very proud of myself as I focused my plate on vegetables and then limited myself to 1/4-1/2 cup of each one. And, foods that were favorites, like Mac n Cheese, I only had 2 tbs on my plate. I limited myself to 1 drum stick and 4 fried shrimp and allowed about 1/2 cup of banana pudding. I know I blew my calories out here, but I tried to keep them to as many healthy-ish options as possible.
On the subject of food, I have learned several things this week:
1) It is very difficult to eat out. Most restaurants do not have nutritional menus.
2) When you do find a nutritional menu, be watchful of the sodium.
3) If there is no nutritional menu, stick with fish and a vege. You can ask them not to add butter, etc to the vegetable so as to limit your unnecessary sodium, calorie, fat intake.
EXERCISE AND TRAVEL
I would be remiss if I did not address the exercise challenges while traveling. Overall, we really did not have any challenges. We were able to workout in the hotel room, but also discovered we would have had room in the fitness center as well. The only thing we would have done differently was to have the right AV cable to hook the computer to the TV. It is challenging to use the computer due to volume and screen size.
When at the Mama-in-Law's, we didn't have problems. Brian just moved the table out of the way and exercised. We may have had problems if I had been working out with him.
My biggest challenge was I believe I have injured myself. I started with a severe calf cramp on Sunday. The cramp was so severe I could not put any weight on my leg. I continued to try to work through the workout by stretching. I ended up in a hot bath rubbing my leg until it felt better. I made it through about 45 minutes of a 60 minute workout. On Monday, I made it through as it was an upper body workout, but on Tuesday I had to quit 25 minutes in. I did go to the doctor on Thursday as I again could not workout due to pain.
The doctor did check me for blood clots and did blood work. The good news is that my Potassium was good and I do not have blood clots. The bad news is that I am still having issues with walking long distances. I am going back on Tuesday as it has been a week and I am not any better.
I will workout this week and do P90X on the days that the workouts are focused on upper body and will have to adjust to focus only on upper body so that I am not hurting my leg. I will add in an ab workout as well on the opposite days (most likely from the Shakeology workouts).
This is a speed bump in my journey and will NOT derail me!
INCHES VS LBs
Many of us can get very focused on the scale and the amount of weight we are losing. And, yes, I have stated a number that I would like to see on the scale. As with any lifestyle change relating to diet and exercise, it is reasonable to expect to see results on the scale.
HOWEVER, we need to make sure the scale is not our only focus! Many times as you start working out or exercising, you begin to build muscle. Muscle may weigh the same amount as fat but takes up less room. I have not made a real effort to get on the scale. I can say that at the doctor's office I weighed 3lbs less that I did when I was there three weeks ago.
More importantly, I did a quick measure. I did not measure everywhere, but I did measure my waist and my "widest point". I define my widest point as the area around the hip where my belly is the largest. And, I have lost over an inch in the last two weeks, and that is with limited workouts over the last week.
I am more excited by the inches than by the number. I can feel a difference in my body and I can feel a difference in how my clothes fit.
I am on my way to a more fit, fabulous and flirty me!
Good blog. I sure see a lot of cheats in there though..... Hope this week there will be no cheats. I just need a much more restricted diet. For me, if I eat a carb, it makes me want more carbs. It was hard for me to decide to do induction on Atkins, BUT I'm so happy I did! I think you would like it too.
ReplyDeleteCarbs are not my challenge nor my craving. And, with the additional exercising, carbs are an important part of a balanced meal. BUT, they have to be the right kind of carbs. Grains are an important source of fiber. Sugar based carbs, sweets, fried potatos and other BAD CARBS are not my weekness (with the exception of M&Ms which I refuse to keep in my house).
ReplyDeleteI believe in cheat meals, one per week. And, even then I have only had two in the last two weeks. With the cheat meals I have only eaten aproximately 2000 calories on the cheat day, only 200 more than a normal day. I believe in getting my craving satisfied with minimum impact.
And, once satisfied, walking away from the table.
I prefer this to eating "replacement" foods that still taste like the foods I used to eat. I'm afraid that if I eat too many replacement foods that I will fall off the wagon and go for the real thing. Kind of like drinking alcohol free beer, what's the point?
So, actually, I have not had but one cheat meal per week. I have satisfied my craving and minimized the impact. So, not too bad and still have lost 2 inches in my waste and hip.
So, it is workin for me! :)