McNugget Road-Bumps

Hello friends, happy Tuesday!

Well, my day started with a dentist appointment, followed up with an endocrinologist appointment, and in between I went to work, and back to work afterwards. So, I had kind a hectic day. Unfortunately, I was not able to pack a lunch, and I was not a good example for what to do in that situation...BUT, I was a great example for what NOT to do! I ended up eating McDonald's for lunch amidst my trips to the doc. I had a 10 piece chicken nuggets and a medium order of fries (diet coke). It was not worth it....it was very much a lunch on the go. I ate in the car from work to the second appointment.

Want to know the up-side? I'm not letting it ruin my day (food wise). Typically when I get off track, even for one meal during the day, I will blow the rest of the day because I feel like it's already ruined. Well NOT today!

When I got home, I went straight to the gym for a 30 minute workout on the elliptical machine at a 2/4, then a 3/5 halfway through. According to my FABULOUS heart monitor watch, I burned 359 calories during my workout! Awesome!

When I got home from my workout, I logged onto www.myfitnesspal.com and tracked all of my food for the day in my food diary, and discovered that with my workout, I could actually eat dinner and not go over my calories for the day! Woo hoo! Now, I had to eat a VERY light dinner. But that's ok. I am really going to try to make it stick and not snack on anything else tongiht. Here's what I had:

1 nectarine
1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese (2% milk)
6 almonds

The protein in the cheese and almonds will hopefully keep me full for the evening. :)

So you want to know how bad my McDonald's was? Here's the breakdown:

10 piece chicken nuggets - 460 calories, 27 carbs, 29 g of fat, 24 g protein*
Medium order of fries - 380 calories, 48 carbs, 19 g of fat, 4 g of protein*

Here's the kicker, and I would have never guessed this:
HONEY (counted as 4 tbsp.) - 255 calories, 69 carbs, 0 fat, 0 protein*

So my lunch, while NOT very satisfying was a whopping 1095 calories, 144 carbs, 48 g of fat, 28 g of protein. WOW! So, here's what I would do next time. If I am on the go, and really need to eat fast food, I will get a child's portion. If I had only eaten 4 nuggets instead of 10 it would have cut my calories drastically. I would probably cut the fries altogether. And bypass the honey.

So, lesson for today - you CAN have a BAD lunch and still stay within your calories for the day if you work out, and have a light dinner. It's all about balancing.

Ok friends, I am going to relax a little now. As always, happy eating and thanks for reading!

-Sommer

*All nutritional values were obtained from My Fitness Pal. Check it out at www.myfitnesspal.com.

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When you fall off the horse....

Hello friends, happy (as happy as a Monday can be) Monday!

Well, as you can tell, I haven't posted in a while. I fell off the horse, yet again. I am SURE I will fall off the horse MANY more times in my life. But, as most of you can understand, leading a healthy lifestyle and maintaining an ideal weight is difficult for some (including me). The key is that every time you fall off, you HAVE to get back on. No use sitting on the ground feeling sorry for yourself. No one is going to get back on the horse for you. You have to do it yourself. :)

Here is my weakness - whenever anything happens in my life that takes my focus off of my eating habits, I get off track. A few weeks ago, I discovered I have an ovarian cyst. Well, hopefully it is gone by now (or at least has shrunk enough that I cannot feel it anymore). I was in quite a bit of pain, and wasn't able to exercise due to that....and that led to eating badly.....and that went from a few days....to a few weeks. And here I am. I need to work on my ability to focus on my eating habits, regardless of what's going on in my life. That's my goal.

So, today, I decided I needed to try something different for my weight loss journey. As you have probably read, or already know because you know me, I have followed Weight Watchers for the last two years. Well, I seemingly have become "immune" to the influence of WW. Although the program is WONDERFUL, and it truly WORKS if you follow, I am just having a hard time staying motivated. I need a change. So, starting today, I am counting calories instead of "points."

I am using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ to do this! This website is awesome! You can track your daily food, exercise, etc. all online with the assistance of an extensive food database giving you nutritional values! You can put it your weight, height, age, goals and it will tell you how many calories you should consume per day, and how much exercise you should do per week to obtain your goals. And the best part is, it's FREE!

I am feeling very motivated with this new method of watching what I eat. And here's what I've had today:

Breakfast:

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel with 1 tbsp cream cheese

Lunch:

Weight Watchers Smart One

Snack:

Nectarine
6 almonds
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar

Dinner:

4 oz. chicken breast (boneless, skinless - baked) over a large salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, 6 croutons and 3 tbsp fat free italian dressing (Wishbone brand)

After dinner:

Weight watchers Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bar

Currently I am still under 1200 calories for the day (which is my goal). I also worked out today after work with my Polar Heart Monitor Watch. This thing is AWESOME! I put on the watch when I walked out the door, and started my exercise tracking then. In 28 minutes (20 min on the elliptical machine and 8 minutes walk to/from the gym) I burned 296 calories. And I know it's accurate! Very cool!!!

So, my lesson for today (LOL) is that you are NEVER done with your journey. It is never too late. You can ALWAYS start over. So what if you've gained 15 lbs, get back on the horse and lose it again. You can do it. And no one but you is going to do it. It's YOUR journey, so start today!

Until next time, happy eating and thanks for reading!!

-Sommer

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Weigh in and Eclipse!

Hello Friends! Happy Thursday!

So, I am disappointed because my weigh in yesterday didn't go as well as I would have liked. In fact, it barely went anywhere. I only lost 0.3 lb. :( After staying within my points EVERY day and working so hard to come up with new healthy foods to incorporate into my diet, I am really down that I didn't lose at least a pound. If you've ever attempted to lose weight, you know that a weight loss week is what keeps you pumped to stay on track the next week. When you don't lose weight, it makes you feel like you're working hard for nothing. However, I know that tons of things can affect weight loss, and that it will all even out when the time is right. So, I fully plan to stay on track this week as well, and hopefully my loss this week will be bigger. If not, that's ok, I'll be happy with a pound.

I am going to try to start incorporating exercise this week as well, and I'll get to use my new heart monitor watch! I have already started programming the settings, but this thing is not easy to figure out. I need to spend a little more time getting familiar with it. But I am so excited to start using it!

As far as food, I've been sticking to my 1 point english muffins for breakfast (with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray"), a Weight Watchers Smart One for lunch, afternoon snack of fruit and Jell-O sugar free pudding, and 100 calorie popcorn if I need it. I am a creature of habit. I find something that works, and I stick to it. I'll probably be burned out on Smart Ones here pretty soon, and start doing something different. But for now it works. For dinner last night I had candy and peanut butter crackers! I know! Awful! But I only went over my points by 3 (of which I'll use my 35 extra points). I had to find SOMETHING quick, fast and that I could stick in my purse, because last night was the Eclipse premier!!!

That's right, I, a 28 year old grown woman stood in line for an hour and a half prior to this movie to see it on opening night! I can't even remember the last time I stood in ANY kind of a line for a movie. And before the movie started, I was starting to remember why! It was so packed! Luckily, because we got there at 6:00 pm (and the movie started at 7:30 pm) we weren't too far back in the line and got a really good seat. You better believe there were people of all ages (mainly women) to see this movie. It's probably been a year since I read Eclipse, so I don't remember all of the little details, but the movie was AWESOME! I think I would see it again. And I'll definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD to add to my collection. In my opinion, it was better than the first two movies - I think this was my favorite book too. I am super excited to see what Breaking Dawn is like. I've heard it's being split into two movies.....can't wait!

So, are you Team Edward???


OR Team Jacob????

They are both HOT in my opinion! And when I read the book I was really torn because they are both such good characters!

Anyway, that's it for today. I'll be back soon to tell you how I'm doing. I am going to dip into my 35 extra points this week....I think I deserve a little treat. Not sure what though.....

Thanks for reading and until next time, Happy Eating!!

-Sommer

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