Day 142: What I’ve Done to Fit Back In

I have Finally Done It

In 142 days I am officially 21 pounds lighter and at my goal weight of 115! YESSSSSSS. I’m very excited!! Especially since today is the day of the Atlanta Annual Boutique Sale for which I am leaving work at noon to go peruse (and hopefully purchase) designer clothes at non-designer prices. Just glorious. Wish me luck!

So, what now?

Well now, it’s time to MAINTAIN and tone up which, I fear, is going to be much harder than what I’ve done so far. I think it’s going to involve a lot of new recipes, a lot of new books, a lot of new playlists, mixing it up more with cardio, increasing my strength training and the intensity of my work outs, etc, etc, etc. I have LOTS of ideas and of course will be looking for more, as always. In the meantime, I realized I don’t really have anywhere on this blog that tells people, in so many words and in one place, what I do/have done to lose weight/get in better shape/and fit back in to my clothes (yes, all of my clothes fit now… except for the ones that are too big)! So, here’s an overview, forgive the length but I’m nothing if not thorough. :)

Nutrition
1,200-1,550 calories
163-236 carbs
32-56 fat grams
60-127 protein grams

“High Days” (over 1,550) happen – it’s called alcohol for me! I try to stay under 8 a month. Why 8? It gives me roughly 2 days a week (usually Friday & Saturday) to go over a bit. I try not to go over 2,300 calories.

Cardio
I walk on a treadmill, typically between 4 and 4.2 mph. (roughly 15 minute miles)
I adjust the incline often between 5 and 0 (depends on if I’m listening to music – high incline; or reading a book – low incline).
I try to walk 4-5.5 miles a day, 4-5 days a week. I like to break it up and do 3.5 miles during lunch, then 2 after work.
At this time, I do not run, do stairmill/master, elliptical or anything. I get all of my cardio from walking on a treadmill (not outside; I’m allergic to grass).

Strength Training
I break it up based on how many days I can do a week. Typically, it’s 4 days, so I try to do, for example:
Monday: Chest/Triceps
Tuesday: Legs + abs
Wednesday: Back/Biceps
Thursday: Shoulders + abs
For Chest/Triceps/Back/Biceps – I choose 3 exercises for each, and do 3 sets of 15-20 reps with lighter weight.
For legs – I choose 6 exercises and do 3 sets of each. (i.e. An exercise for calves, inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes, quads and hamstrings).
For abs – I do crunches for ‘a song’ on a ball. Then I choose 4 exercises and do 2 sets of each for ‘2 more songs’ – roughly a 10-minute ab workout.

This doesn’t always work out. Sometimes I just can’t stay at the gym any longer so I’ll move it over or shift it. I have a stronger background in ST than Cardio, so I’m comfortable not sticking with a strict schedule. Once I maintain my goal weight I plan to cut back on cardio a little and do more intense & frequent leg & ab workouts as these are my “problem areas.”

Recipes
I love to eat. I love all kinds of food – Mexican, Chinese, Italian – you name it! So for me, I can’t stop eating these things. But I can find subs for these things so I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself or ‘cutting out’ anything. If I want Chinese, I make my chicken “friend” rice. If I want Italian I make our “healthy” chicken parmesan. I am always scouring the net, cookbooks and your wonderful blogs for recipes that use common ingredients, don’t seem too cumbersome, contain ingredients we typically eat, and are in reasonable calorie/fat/carb/protein ranges. I try a lot of recipes, and share the ones I like!

I’ve just recently started doing meal plans – here’s what we’re going to eat this week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We make the plan on Sunday, go to the store and get ONLY ingredients for these meals (and snacks). Then I prepare as many meals as I can that day. It’s just great to have a plan; to know going into it what you’re going to eat. It’s done, it’s ready, it’s easy (and, according to Austin, it’s cheaper). Do I stray from the plans sometimes? Of course; a craving is a craving! But I try to stick to it and keep it simple. At the end of the day, I want to eat to live not live to eat.

8 Things I need/use/rely on/must have to do what I do

1. iPhone: not only can I clearly make calls, download fun apps, etc., it’s helped me out so much with my working out. I have songs, audio books, Friends/Sex and the City episodes, etc., right there at the push of a button. So a 5-mile walk gets a lot shorter when I can watch an episode then listen to a book, or just listen to music! It’s nice to break it up. It’s also easy to take pictures of what I eat and email to myself, as well as if I eat something random – I just jot it in my iPhone notepad then figure it out later. So, I’m a fan.


2. Scale: I weigh every day. It’s such a personal preference on how often (or if at all) you weigh, but weighing every day works for me (in conjunction with twice-monthly measurements on or around the 1st and 15th of each month). When I measure, I take measurements of bust, chest, smallest part of waist, largest part of waist, hips, thighs and a bicep.


3. Food Scale: I just don’t trust my eye or even measured out packs. I find it so easy when cooking to measure the ingredients and know exactly what I’m eating. Here is the scale I have based on a recommendation by Hungry Girl. When she recommended it, it was on sale for $22, so shop around. I like it because it’s simple, it weighs in grams and ounces, and it’s small – easy to stow so people don’t think you’re dealing drugs.


4. Conversion Magnets: I love having these on the side of the fridge, right next to my scale when I’m cooking. It makes it so easy because sometimes a recipe calls for a ¼ a cup, but the bottle says 1 tbsp per serving. You can easily check out the magnets, do the right conversions and make it work! And if you want to save the $, just type it all out, print it, and post it to the fridge – voila! I got mine at William Sonoma, but they don’t seem to be online. Boo.


5. Spark People: I’m very obsessed with Spark People. I use it to:
   Track my daily weigh ins. (chart above is from Spark People)
   Track what I eat.
   Create ‘food groupings’ of favorite meals to make tracking easier.
   To track my calorie intake, fat grams, carbohydrates and protein.
   To get recipes and great advice in forums and through my ‘spark page’
   More!


6. Hungry Girl: I love receiving her daily motivational emails, sometimes with recipes, sometimes with product reviews – always great, interesting stuff. I love her recipe book and website. Her site/book were two of the first things that got me motivated to get to it!


7. Blog: I (clearly) use this blog to track everything – my workouts, my goals, my plans – everything! Having it all in one place, including links to your fabulous blogs and other resources, makes it a one-stop shop to stay on track.


8. My Peeps: I’m not going to try to pretend I could have done this without my husband’s support. Wow. He makes it so easy because he’s so into it, too, and so very supportive - even if it means going to 3 grocery stores and helping me measure my wine. LOL And, I rely so much on my amazing Mom and Sis, and you. I think a support system is key. And staying away from those who, I’ll just say it, aren’t happy for you for whatever reason is important, too.

P.S. I will post last night’s food tomorrow and yes, despite my crisis I did still make a new recipe, Spiced Yogurt Chicken from Kitchen Parade. It was FABULOUS so I’ll be sure to post it and a pic tomorrow. I hope you all have amazing weekends! Wish us luck house hunting, we have 14 down for tomorrow. I so hope something works out!

P.S.S. Thank you again for all of your support over the 'apartment complex situation.' I wrote you back on the comments section of that post. You guys are awesome and made me feel SO much better, really.