Picking up the Pieces

Well I've began to get my life back together, "picking up the pieces" of a broken me.  I've had some tough times the past 6 months, been heartbreaking and traumatic and painful, and numbing.  Now I'm finally able to get back on track, I've started working out again, I've been to the gym everyday this week, Mon, Tues, wed, Thurs.  I was sure on Monday that i was only going to be able to do max of 10 min on the elliptical and then be to worn out to do anymore....well 10 minutes goes by like a breeze, and i ended up doing 33 minutes and 2 miles, then Tues i did 40 min and 2.4 miles, wed i had a doc appointment and other things going on but still managed to get to the gym and had time to do 30 min and 1.6 miles, Thurs was the best, i was able to do 60 min 3.6 miles, i have never been able to do that much without taking breaks in between i was so proud of myself, and not one single day was i to sore or anything, i felt good, i did water aerobics/swimming after each workout and moved in the pool the entire time tried to be in the pool for 40 min to an hour each day, the day i had the doc appointment i was only able to do 20 min, but still moved my butt off in the pool.  Then after all that working out Monday and Thursday i still had energy to go grocery shopping and parked further away for that extra walk, and on Monday even ran back to my car, me running wow, that was really amazing, I'm going to have to start going to the park with my step son and we can run around the park together and my hubby will be left behind, poor babe he gets all upset when we leave him behind, so we try to slow down for him and then he'll cheat and take shortcuts....he's so bad.  The food is still a little bit of an issue, not eating as bad as i was when i was going through severe depression though so that's good, just eating a few to many high calorie snacks, i really have a weakness for peanut butter and chocolate, I don't eat any chewy or hard candies those hurt me alot, no skittles, lolly pops, star burst, twizzlers everything like that hurts inside my stomach, so i stay away from that stuff which is really good, but unfortunately chocolate goes down without a problem, but i try not to keep it in my house, the problem is i spend a lot of time at my mother in laws and she really loves her candy, so she's got a cookie jar type of thing filled with mini candy bars, i usually try to stay away but when I'm there the entire day they start calling my name, especially the Reece's cups, most of the other stuff i can avoid most of the time, but like i said peanut butter and chocolate are my weakness.
Well I've lost 4 pounds this week so I'm very happy, I can't wait to get into our new house, I'm going to make a healthy menu plan each week and hopefully follow it.  Plus I'll be making more of a routine schedule for my day to day activities including working out.  I have an elliptical at home and wii fit and tons of videos so some days i can work out at home and some days I'll go to the gym and right now is the best going to the gym cause they have an indoor pool which i love, its a bit of a drive about 40 minutes away or so, but its worth it for that indoor pool and plus when i go to the gym i try to "kill 2 or 3 birds with 1 stone" so I'll go to the gym and then go to a grocery store that's only in that area, Aldis for example they have some really good prices but the one around my gym is the closest to us, and also going to the movies or the mall after working out is great too the mall is like across the street from my gym so its perfect, some days i get dropped off at my mother in laws and we do a whole day together which I'm going to start adding the gym into our routine.  I can have my hubby drop me off at the gym and my mother in law can meet me there, and we can workout together or go swimming together, and then we usually have a nice day out where we go to the movies and lunch sometimes with other friends too which is nice, and then we just hang for a while and Tues and wed we have ham radio get together and wed pot luck at church, oh pot luck at church is going to be my cheat day cause they always have such good food, and i bring dessert typically since i live kinda far its hard to bring hot food, so i figure if i see a really neat dessert recipe that i want to try but i don't want to end up with so much at my house for us to eat its perfect to make it for the potluck and then i can only have a small amount and the rest gets eaten up for the  most part, so far I've had enough to save for my stepson for Fridays which he likes.
Well that's all i have for now, I'm going to try to start writing in this blog again on a regular basis.

Weekly Menu Plan Oct 17 to Oct 23

Weekly Menu Plan for October 17-October 23

Monday

Cornbread Surprise, made a big batch of this stuff, going to be freezing 4 of them and keep 2 in the fridge one for dinner tonight and the other for lunch tomorrow.  I made them in small throwaway pans, so perfect amount for 2 people with not a huge amount of leftovers. 

Recipe for Cornbread Surprise (note this recipe is for freezer batch cooking, you can lessen the ingredient if you want a single meal.)

Ingredients:

1 Cup Onion and Pepper Mix (I used a frozen bag)

2 Packages Ground Turkey (usually a little more then a pound per package)

2 TBSP Vegtable oil

1 Can Rotel

1 TBSP minced Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Cumin

Onion Powder

1 Can Diced Tomatoes

1 Can Cream Corn

2 Cans Whole Kernel Corn

2 Cans Ranch Style Beans

1 8 oz Package of Fat Free Cream Cheese

1 Can Chicken Broth

3 Packages Cornbread mix (prepare as directed on box)

3 Cups Shredded Cheese (I used cheddar and a Colby mix)

1 Pack of Taco Seasoning

1.   Saute Onions and peppers with the oil.  Add in garlic.  Add in Ground Turkey and cook till no longer pink.  Then add in the taco seasoning. 

2.   Now throw in all the canned goods and the cream cheese, heat to boiling and then simmer for about 15 minutes. 

3.   Prepare the Cornbread mix.  Preheat oven to temp on cornbread box. 

4.   Add meat mixture to your baking pan and then top with shredded cheese and then top with the prepared cornbread mix, and bake in the oven for the time on the cornbread box.

Tuesday

Leftovers, we have some leftover chicken I will take off the bone from Sunday, and some leftover macaroni salad, some shredded cheese, some leftover tamales from Saturday, and some flatbread, and I’m sure we’ll also have some leftover cornbread surprise, so we can use up all those leftovers today so they don’t go to waste, I’m sure it’ll be plenty for lunch for tomorrow too.

Wednesday

Homemade freezer lasagna.  Taken out of the freezer Monday to defrost. 

Thursday

Leftover Lasagna.

Friday

Today is my hubbys birthday, promised him I’d make him a strawberry cake, but I’m going to only keep out a small amount the rest is getting baked into cupcakes and frozen right away otherwise it’ll get eaten right away.  Note: we were suppose to have bean burgers tonight for his birthday, but him and Brandon got home early and I had just finished putting on my makeup so I ran to the bedroom and told them not to come in and I got all dressed up nice, and told them since ya’ll are here early we’re going out somewhere nice instead of eating bean burgers.  So we went to a nice Japanese restaurant in mesquite, we shared a couple of sushi rolls and chicken and beef teriyaki.  Then we went to BJ’s and shared an alcoholic drink and a dessert.

Saturday

Today we have a couple of events to go to, Brandon has a running school thing we have to go alllll the way to plano for, which is a 3 hour commute to and from our house, and then after that we have a meeting with these people we won a vegas trip with at the fair, and its in the same area as brandons school thing, but we’ll be gone pretty much most of the day so I’m sure we’ll eat out for at least lunch today.  Note: My hubby got a couple of gift cards from work for Macaroni grill, that could be worth 5 dollars up to 500 dollars, we ended up having 5 on one and 50 on the other, so we splurged and had a really nice lunch, and none of us had eaten at a macaroni grill before, it was really good.  Then for dinner we drove past this little pizza place on the way to the vacation thing so we decided to go back there after for dinner.  We got a thin crust full of meat.

Sunday

Going to celebrate Michaels birthday today at his parents’ house, so we’ll be eating lunch there.  We had taco’s, tostadas, and cheesecake.  For dinner we came home and had the bean burgers we were suppose to have had on Friday. 

I hate My weight being stalled

Uggg, well I'm in a stall right now, apparently its normal, and i happen to be right at that point when most people have stalls, so yea, its not fun, especially since i was hoping to be 250 by my birthday which is November 23, doesn't look like that will happen, and now its that time of the month so I'm all bloated and the scale is not my friend during my time of the month.  I've been working out almost every day, doing the elliptical, and this past weekend my husband, stepson, and I went walking at the park, i actually ran some, it was an amazing feeling to be able to run, of course didn't get that far, but went way father then i thought i would have been able to go, it was really something.  I set a goal for myself this month to go 45 miles on my elliptical, i don't think I'm going to make it though, because there were a few days i had to take breaks because i overdid it, increased the resistance and that made me really sore, so yea I'm just going to keep the resistance low, and try for more time or going faster, I don't have pains that way, luckily though it seems Tylenol helps with the aches and pains, before surgery when i weighed 366 Tylenol didn't do anything for me, and now it works really well. 
Food issues are still there even after surgery, even after having a really small stomach, you still get cravings, you still want to eat bad things, and for some there lucky and the bad things give them problems and that keeps them away, but for me, i don't know I just seem to not have that many problems with food, I've only thrown up twice since surgery, neither was fun, I don't remember what i ate the first time, but i do remember it felt like it was stuck and it was really dry and i felt like i was choking and having to pull it out of my throat, it was awful.  The second time I puked was a bout of dumping syndrome, the only time I've had dumping syndrome so far, and let me tell you this, it is no fun at all, oh my god it was so painful, i overdid it with sweets that day, i tried one of those new ice cream bars, uggg i can't think of the name but there like just a chocolate covered ice cream bar, but its pretty big, and i was stupid and ate one, and well i suffered big time, i went to bed and after a while my entire body started hurting and i started getting really bad cramps and went to the bathroom and sat there for a while and um well this may be a little graphic but yea i had explosive diareah, and then after that i decided to wait a little while before laying back down so i got on the computer for  a few and took a few sips tiny sips of something to drink and oh my gosh, that sent pain throughout and i had to rush to the bathroom and starting puking my guts up like 4-5 times, it was awful, not fun at all, that was a very bad experience but other then that i haven't really had any problems with any foods, at least nothing to severe, if i eat a little to much i get pain, the pain level depends on how many bites to much, or if i drank right after, now sometimes i do drink after cause certain foods just leave a yucky feeling in my mouth so i try to just take a small sip, but if i take to big of  a drink right after eating then that will hurt.  I seem to gurgle with salads, a lot of people in my support group complain about chicken, i have no problems with chicken, but then again when i make chicken i always boil it or cook it in the oven in a pan full of water so like boiling it in the oven, and then i usually use chicken in casseroles or something so its got soft ingredients to go down well, i guess they mostly complain saying its to dry so it feels stuck, so maybe i don't have that problem with chicken cause my chicken is usually not dry, hmmm, I did have a problem with steak in the beginning, it made me a bit nauseated, probably didn't chew it enough or something but steak is kinda hard to chew down to apple sauce texture, so we just don't have steak that often or i cook it in a way that it will come out nice and tender to chew easily, i also try to get the leaner looking cuts, and as for ground meat i typically only use ground turkey, so red meat we eat maybe once a week or so, we usually have ground turkey and chicken breast, only use boneless skinless chicken breasts.  Bread and tortillas go down ok if i don't have to much, otherwise it does cause some discomfort or pain if i have to much, i get a 45 calorie bread, and keep it in the freezer cause 1 loaf will usually last a few weeks, we try not to have bread that often, and as for tortillas i found this whole wheat carb balance tortillas that's 80 calories, which is the best flour tortillas I've found most are over 100 calories, also found these flat breads that are like 2 circles connected those are about 90 calories so if you only eat 1 of the halves its only about 45 cal and its actually pretty good, can use it as a pizza crust or to make a grilled sand which or whatever, another good bread is lavash bread, a huge piece of this stuff is only 50 calories, i usually cut it into 4 servings so its only about 15 calories per piece, and it can be used as a base for a pizza, or a sand which, or a taco, or a wrap, and it taste really good too.  Some other good products are Walden farms products which are all 0 calories, some of them don't taste that great, and some of them are really good, just don't expect it to taste exactly like its full calorie ed counterpart, that's the problem a lot of people seem to expect it to taste exactly the same and just throw it out cause its not like the full caloried version, well of course its not, its a 0 calorie alternative.  I think the chocolate sauce tastes good, it taste better then the sugar free calorieed versions of chocolate sauce, and the syrup taste good, its not as thick as regular syrup but still gives you the flavor you need without the calories.  Oh and if your going to test taste the stuff, please don't just try it on a spoon or anything cause yea it doesn't taste that great by itself, add it to what you would eat it on to give it a taste test, oh the peanut spread does not taste like peanut butter but you can always mix some of it up with a little regular peanut butter for less calories and still have the peanut butter flavor.  Torani Sugar free Syrups are great too, they're 0 calories and you can add them to drinks, or shakes or puddings or yogurt or whatever, you can bake with them to give things flavor without all the added calories. I took the Walden farms pancake syrup and mixed some with one of the flavored torani syrups and heated it in the microwave and it was a really good addition on top of a low calorie french toast (made with 1 slice 45 cal bread and 1 egg and a tsp of butter or Pam spray) or a cottage cheese pancake.  Talking about french toast i remember making these as after school snacks when i was a kid, never did them low cal and certainly didn't only eat 1, I'd use regular white bread and lots of butter, and eat about 5-6 of them loaded with pancake syrup, my main after school meals were either french toast, a box of macaroni (because if i opened it i had to eat the entire box or i got yelled at for wasting food) or an entire can of ranch style beans or a can of tuna, or eggs, or a combination of the above.  All throughout elementary, junior high and high school i did not get breakfast or lunch, i ate after school the above mentioned foods and then i ate at dinner time. My stomach would rumble all day at school it was so embarrassing, people would look around to try to figure out who was making the noises.  When i got to college i went on a diet, I stopped drinking sodas, cut out sweets, and only ate once a day instead of after school and dinner time, and i lost 80 pounds in like 3 months, I can't wait till i get back down to my lowest weight, it was 250, when i was 18 years old, can't wait to go even lower then that, but right now my goal is 250 and I'm about 21 pounds or so away, oh and yea i know eating only once a day wasn't the healthiest diet but living with my parents and having no money of my own there really wasn't any other alternative, they never really kept stocked groceries in the house...i remember so many times either living off of sandwich's or rice and beans or hamburger helper.