175.2 Good News, Bad News

The bad news first: I only lost .6 lbs this week.  :(

Now for the good news: no shin splints today!  I felt completely fine after my 1.7 mile run and only had some slight soreness after my additional .6 mile run.  We're getting places!

Tonight Jack and I are going to a mussel festival at Schafly brewery tonight.  I'm excited!  I love mussels.

Yesterday I did not workout.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
apple
nonfat greek yogurt
8 oz. pom juice
chicken breast with apricot sauce
medium portion of vegetable tian
large lemon bar (1/12 9x13 pan)
3 glasses of red wine

? Tomato Sauce From Scratch

I had all good intentions of going to workout today (it would've been a Muscle Works day), but I ended up just not having time.  Jack and I had a couple friends over for dinner; they brought the main dish (chicken breast with apricot sauce) and I made the side dish (this amazing cheesy vegetable thing) and dessert (these sweet and tangy lemon bars--not at all low cal).  It took a while to prep and cook and I didn't make it to the class.

Yesterday I undertook the weighty (heh--no pun intended) task of making spaghetti and meatballs with sauce from scratch.  Roma tomatoes are perfect for this sort of thing, and since we had some ripe ones from our garden, I thought why not?  I followed this recipe but ended up messing up a lot and changing/adding things.  Basically my big mistake was using the number of tomatoes the recipe called for, because I think it meant large tomatoes, not roma.  If I did this again, I think I would use about 40 roma tomatoes (4 times the number the recipe calls for).  Which would be a ridiculous amount of work since the hardest/most time consuming part was peeling, deseeding, and slicing the tomatoes.  Also the sauce I made did not have as much flavor as I intended; this is because I removed all the solid/chunky parts about halfway though the cooking time.  Next time I would leave them in but puree the whole thing.  I added 4 jalapenos for spice, and the sauce had absolutely no kick at all.  Here's my photo tutorial:


The tomatoes I used:

After boiling them, just peel the tomatoes like you would a hardboiled egg:

Onions, carrots, garlic, and jalapenos sauteeing in butter and olive oil:

Then I added the diced tomatoes, along with sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and basil from our garden:

I let it simmer for half an hour and this is the lovely slop that resulted:

Took out the chunks with a slotted spoon.  Clearly not much to work with!

Added a 6-oz. can of tomato paste and about a cup of water.  Much better!

After simmering for another half hour, added meatballs (frozen from the store):

The finished product, with fresh angel hair pasta (this was Jack's portion; mine was smaller!):

It wasn't bad, but like I said, it didn't have much flavor.  I'd like to try it again some time when I have nothing else to do and definitely someone to help me!

Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.7 miles alternating between 6.5 and 6.7 mph, walked another .6 miles, and ran another .6 miles starting at 6.5 mph and gradually increasing my speed to 6.7 mph.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
nonfat greek yogurt
leftover bratwurst with hot sauce
ginger ale (6.8 oz. bottle)
medium portion of spaghetti and meatballs
salad with provel cheese
1 glass red wine
1 Andes mint

176.0 Back in the Running Groove

Hurray, I seem to be out of that bad running funk I was in for a few days!  Today I wore a different pair of shoes that have an extra support insert in them.  That seemed to have helped, since I felt pretty ok after my 1.7 mile run and was able to run a half mile more.  After that extra half mile, though, I had terrible shin splints.  I probably just need to get a new pair of running shoes, but money is a bit tight right now.

Last night Jack and I made "chicken with 40 cloves of garlic," a traditional French dish and one of my favorites.  There is a lot of preparation involved (30 mins. of brining the chicken and 45 mins of roasting garlic before cooking the chicken) but if you plan ahead it's not so bad.  I had a whole chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) with the skin on (it was so crispy, I couldn't resist!) and the sauce was pretty fattening; so, I was afraid I wouldn't lose much weight today, if any.  But look at me, I lost 1.4 lbs!

Yesterday for my workout I walked .6 miles, ran 1.7 miles at 6.5 mph, then walked .4 more miles.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
hardboiled egg
leftover fish taco
tomato, sliced, with salt
handful raspberries
8 oz. pom juice
chicken thigh and drumstick
large portion cole slaw
cookie
large glass white wine

177.4 When It Gets Tough...Keep Going!

Running has been slightly difficult for me of late.  I either feel extremely tired, my legs feel like lead, or I have terrible shin splints afterwards.  I've really been taking steps backwards in terms of goal of getting back to running 3 miles a day.  This morning I wondered whether my feelings of low energy may be from not feeding myself enough for breakfast.  I usually have only either a hardboiled egg or cereal for breakfast, and today I had both.  I think it helped, as I was able to run my usual distance (actually a little more) and the shin splints weren't as bad.  They were still bad enough, however, that I didn't feel up to running another half mile afterwards.

When I first started running today, it felt like I was wearing lead shoes.  I just didn't have that bounce in my step that I was feeling a couple weeks ago.  I told myself I'd probably only be able to run half a mile at a time, just like yesterday.  But half a mile rolled around and I felt a little better, so I thought I'd go until .8.  When I got to .8, I was already feeling pretty good so I extended my goal to a mile.  When I got to a mile I decided I could do my regular distance!  And once I was close enough to that I decided to stretch it a little further this time to 1.7 miles.  This was still not a big step forward since I was running at 6.5 mph the whole time, but it just goes to show that when working out seems tough at times, just keep going and eventually it gets easier!  Just don't give up.

I lost .8 lbs yesterday.  It would be nice if I could lose at least 3 more lbs by the end of this week, so that I still have some net weight loss for this week.

Yesterday for my workout I went to the muscle works class, walked half a mile, ran half a mile, walked another half mile, ran another half mile, and walked another half mile.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
small glass of orange juice
half an avocado
5 raw broccoli floret with a small amount of dip
salad with leftover tuna steak and light italian dressing
small glass of strawberry milk
nonfat greek yogurt
dinner at Chevy's: chips and salsa, 1 fish taco, a few bites of rice and beans, and tomalito

178.2 Gained 2.4 Lbs This Weekend

Wow.  Look at that, I gained back almost all the weight I lost last week over the weekend.  This weekend we stayed at Jack's family's farm, which is really not a good place to be for someone trying to lose weight.  I always end up eating a ton of junk food and drinking a lot because 1. there's not much else to do there, and 2. everyone always brings lots of junk/snack foods.  So I ended up eating a bunch of chips, cookies, M&Ms, etc.  And don't forget the beer!  Next time we go there, I'm going to try to talk Jack into going just for one day and night to try to avoid this happening again.

Despite my negativity, I had a good time over the weekend.  We relaxed on the lake, played cards and other games, and rode around on 4-wheelers looking at deer.  Allow me to outline the past few days:

Friday I walked half a mile, ran 1.6 miles alternating between 6.6 and 6.8 mph, then walked another .6 miles.  Here's what I ate:

hardboiled egg
1 carrot with sour cream dip
1 serving (1 cup) yogurt smoothie
apple
2 thin slices salami
1 slice cheese
2 handfuls chocolate covered nuts
dinner at a BBQ restaurant: small plate of "hog 'n tater salad" (fried potatoes and bacon with sauce, not really a salad at all), 3 BBQ ribs, few bites of fried fish, few bites of mashed potatoes and gravy, few bites of baked beans, and a few fries
2 oreos
handful peanut M&Ms
7 Bud Lights

Saturday I swam in the lake.  Here's what I ate:

2 small sausage patties
biscuit with jam
4 strawberries and 5 cherries
hot dog with bun and mustard
4 deviled eggs (2 whole eggs)
chips
cookie
2 frozen chocolate vodka drinks (low cal)
strip steak
1/2 twice baked potato
roasted veggies
small slice of chocolate cake
6 Bud Lights
vodka tea drink

Yesterday Jack and I swam at the pool.  Here's what I ate:

2 small sausage patties
1 slice bacon
1 piece of toast
handful blueberries
1 cup yogurt smoothie
glass of strawberry milk
chips
bratwurst with bun, sauerkraut, and mustard
corn on the cob with butter and salt
cookie

175.8 Lost 2.8 Lbs This Week

Hurray!  I met my goal of being 176 or under by today.  I only have a net weight loss of 1 lb for the month so far, but if I lose at least 2lbs a week for the next two weeks I can still have a 5 or 6 lb loss for the month.

For some reason, running felt pretty difficult for me both yesterday and today.  Yesterday I planned on running my 1.6 miles, but found myself having to stop at 1.3.  I didn't feel too bad about that though because I still went to the muscle works class afterwards.  Today I ran 1.6 miles but had really bad shin splints afterwards, so that I couldn't run another half mile like usual.  I don't know what's going on with me!  Back when I used to run a lot, I never felt pain from it.  I didn't even know what a shin splint was! I really regret ever stopping my workout routine.  Oh well, starting again now is better than nothing.

Yesterday I walked .4 miles, ran 1.3 miles, walked another .4 miles, then went to the muscle works class.  Here's what I ate:

1 cup yogurt smoothie
salad with leftover tuna steak chunks and caesar dressing
apple
leftover burger with bun, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup
a few sesame sticks
glass of chocolate milk
a few bites of roasted chicken
4 frozen jelly straws (about 22 calories a piece)

177.0 Spicy Pickles and Pickled Eggs

Today I set out to make some spicy pickled eggs.  Jack made some a couple months ago using cayenne powder and they turned out great, so I thought I would try some using the tabasco chili peppers from our garden.  I filled up two jars with 20 peeled hardboiled eggs (more on that later) then filled them with boiling pickling juice which contained (note: we don't use canning/sanitization techniques because we just stick the jars in our fridge.  If we ever get really good at this and make larger batches that have to be stored at room temp, we will have to start canning):

10 cups cider vinegar
3 T pickling spice which we got at a local spice shop
about 10 red tabasco peppers, chopped, with seeds

Realizing that 10 cups of pickling juice was way too much, I decided to make some pickles too, which I had been meaning to do anyway.  There were 2 cucumbers in our fridge, so I sliced one lengthwise and one widthwise, filling 2 more jars.  Then I just added the same boiling liquid to the jars.  Later I realized that you need a slightly different recipe for the juice for pickles than what is used for eggs.  I looked at a bunch of recipes and they all included either sugar or salt, or both.  So these probably won't turn out very good but they might be ok.

About peeling the eggs:  I made a big mistake and boiled eggs that were very fresh, making them near impossible to peel (as a result, many of the eggs have sort of a pocked appearance).  I won't be making this mistake again!  However, during the process of peeling them I did learn the hard way a few good tips and tricks:

1. Crack and roll the egg around lightly and evenly.  If you roll too hard, you might break the surface of the actual egg.
2. Put the egg under cold running water for a second
3. Start peeling at the small end of the egg.  For some reason I found that the shell comes off easier and in larger chunks when starting from this end.
4. There is a very thin membrane under the shell.  Be sure to peel this with the shell (just makes it easier).
5. Once the shell is off, place the egg under cold running water again to rinse off any remaining shell pieces.

The best tip, however, is probably just to make sure you boil eggs that are almost at, or even past, the expiration date.

Last night Jack and I went to see Beach House and Wild Nothing at the Pageant.  It was a pretty good show, but drinks were pretty expensive and there were some really annoying people in front of us.  When we got home, I ate some chips, but this time because I was actually hungry!

Yesterday for my workout I walked for half a mile, ran 1.6 miles alternating between 6.5 mph and 6.7 mph, walked another half mile, then ran another half mile at 6.7 mph.  Here's what I ate:

cereal
2 banana peppers
apple
1 serving (1 cup) yogurt smoothie
1/2 mocha frappuccino
2 sushi rolls
small bowl of miso soup
small cucumber salad
5 Bud Lights
chips