Day 133-141 Good Days, Busy Days & Weigh In!

I know I haven't posted in awhile but I have been pretty darn busy! My renovation project has been taking up a lot of my time. We have packed up all loose items in the entrance room and living room. Packed up the kitchen completely and started taking down the cabinets and next I am packing up the dining room! So busy days! 

I've had a fairly good week. Went over a little on my calories a few days and that is based on trying to stay under 1300 per day. 5 of my 8 days I was above 1300 but below 1600. But all in all, I did pretty good considering all that is going on. I weighed in this morning and am down to 238.8. That is down 1 pound from my last weigh in. It's not my usual 1.8 pounds but I will take it and am glad to see me continuing to go in the right direction! 

This week I will be on for 5 days then off for 2 days for Easter. I am going to make a real effort to stick to my calorie goal so I can have another loss before Easter! Time to hustle and keep focus! 

Haven't Been In The 230's Since....

 ....July of 2019! Just a few months shy of 2 years!! Wow! It makes the fact that I am back there now even better! But I want to do more. Last I checked I was in the 220's briefly during mid 2017 but really haven't been in the 220's or less consistently since December of 2016! Those were tough years back then and I'm not surprised I struggled a lot from then until now. I've been up and down in the 240's & 250's, sometimes hitting the 230's off and on since 2016. 

Looking back and seeing where I was makes me really want to try and get back to those lower numbers! So I am more determined then ever to get back to the 220's before my summer really begins and I go to 5 days on and 2 days off! If I could get to the 210's before then I would be over the moon!

I just need to keep my eye on the prize and work hard to get there! Maybe by the end of 2021 I can be under 200 pounds again. Wouldn't that be nice!?  I got to keep telling myself....

Nice Weather, Summer & Summer Vacations!

Whenever the weather starts to get nicer we are out and about a lot. We also plan for 3 vacations during the summer months. I tend to gain the most weight during the summer! We eat out a lot and snacks seem to be a big part of us being out and about!

If my April vacation plans go well I will utilize the same plan for my 3 summer vacations! One day off and one day on through the trip and also tracking my off day calories. The real challenge is figuring out how to deal with us going out a lot when we are not traveling! Car rides equal pit stops which also equals snacking! So this is my plan for dealing with the nicer months: 

1) For snacks choose Diet Coke or other no calorie drinks rather then food when we are out and about on my on days.

2) Through mid June I will stick with my 8 days on and 1 day off to continue to lose weight. 

3) Once summer vacation starts, about mid June, change my eating plan to Tuesday & Saturday off each week and the rest of the week on. That will equal 2 days off each week and 5 days on. My goal is to maintain my weight throughout the summer months. 

4) Come September, go back to 1 day off and 8 days on. The goal will be to start losing weight again. 

Because I have always gained weight during the summer months, I decided the best goal for me is to maintain my weight during the summer. If I lose, that is great, but what is most important to me is that I don't gain over the summer. I am really hoping this plan will be effective in helping me do that! 

I am looking forward to the nice weather though! Bring it on!!

My House Renovations

We are very excited to be renovating our kitchen, dining room, living room and entrance room! But with that comes stress! I am hopeful that it will be all good stress and won't effect my eating habits. Or at least, I will do my best not to allow it to do so. I am giving myself permission right now to allow myself an extra diet coke or two when needed to get through these times. I find if I do that it keeps me away from eating what I shouldn't. I had a stressful day at work a couple of days ago and used this tactic and it worked like a charm! I do make sure I drink PLENTY of water, so no worries there! So far I have been doing lots of pre-planning and getting stuff ordered in plenty of time. So I am hopeful the stress level will stay low. I will share our progress of the renovation here on my blog! We hope to have actual construction started by mid April!

I am doing a Mexican/Southwest Theme. I am Latino myself. My dad is from El Salvador, so this just feels right for me. Here is a sneak peak of the cabinetry, tiles and flooring we picked out.

These cabinets we purchased are natural hickory. I love them! They should arrive next week!

Here is the flooring that just arrived yesterday! It is called Guadalupe! 

57 Boxes!!

My kids helping haul the flooring into our storage unit behind our house. They had fun and made a game of it. LOL

Here are the tiles for half the counter tops and the backsplash for my kitchen. In the solid color tile picture I purchased all the colors but the white tiles. 

We are taking 2 walls out. The ones between the kitchen and dining room and the kitchen and living room to create a much more open space. The kitchen is moving to the dining room and the dining room to the kitchen. We plan to repaint and put in new flooring in the living room, dining room and kitchen. The entrance room will get new flooring. We are also updating the bathroom in the current kitchen to match the flooring and cabinetry in the kitchen and dining room! We are super excited and can't wait until it's all done!! 

My Plan For April School Break

We have multiple things going on the week of April 17-25 which is when our kids have school vacation. First we are going on a quick trip to just get away and relax like we did in February. We will leave the night of April 17th which is Saturday and return home Wednesday morning. Then off to my Scrapbook Retreat Thursday I put on twice a year. That runs until Sunday.  

Here is the plan:

1) Between Easter & School Break I will be 11 days on instead of 8. This will be challenging, but if I want to keep losing I need to do this!

2) Saturday, Monday, Thursday & Saturday will be my off days during school break. Since I am technically working on Wednesday, I thought I could keep that an on day to help me maintain during this vacation week. 

3) Track my calories on my off days so I don't go over 3200 calories a day! 

I think these plans will help me succeed and have better results after a vacation week. It took me a month to drop any weight after my February vacation and I don't want to see me do that again. Clearly some changes need to be made to my plan. I would like to see me maintain at my first weigh in usually 9 days after I return from vacation. I think this sounds like a great plan! 

My Easter Plan

 Another holiday approaches! Holidays are meant to give us time with family and time to relax and enjoy life and what it has to offer. I seem to get through the holidays better without restrictions! Plus, let's face it, they are a lot more enjoyable that way. Like Christmas and New Year I will allow myself two off days for Easter. Easter Sunday & the Monday following. Then I will get back on track the following Tuesday! Hopefully I can maintain, but even better end up with at least a small loss! Here's "hopping" I do well! ;) 

Upcoming Challenges & Goals

 Goals ~ 

Weigh In The 220's - My next goal is to get in the 220's before our first summer vacation toward the end of June. 

Challenges ~ 

I have multiple challenges I will face to hit my goal in the next 90 days. Challenges that I need to come up with a plan for now! I also need to start thinking about summer again now that it's just around the corner! Here are some challenges I need to start thinking about! 

1) Easter Weekend 

2) Kids Break - Vacation/Scrapbook Retreat

3) Renovation Stress

4) Not allowing the nicer weather to sabotage my plan!

5) Coming Up With A Summer Plan

I will do a post for each of these challenges to get my thought process together and come up with a plan! Stay tuned!

Weigh In Day - Down 3.2lbs & In The 230's!!

 I'm very excited to report I am down 3.2lbs from my last weigh in! Woohoo!! So that is a total of 32.4 pounds lost since I started this new plan in November! I was down to 241.2 before my February vacation so it feels really good to finally fall below that! Best news is, I am in the 230's! Yay!!

I want to keep up this momentum until Easter Weekend! I don't want to end up back in the 240's!  So after my off day today I want to do my best to stay focused over the next 8 days! 

Day 130-132 Good End To My Week

Today (Day 132) is my off day. I look forward to enjoying some favorite foods! I did well to finish up my 8 days before today! I stayed on track and was determined to finish strong! See my next post to find out how I did with my weigh in this morning! Know on wood all goes well! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Not sure what I am doing today! Maybe I will fry up some corn beef hash with eggs for dinner tonight! Yum!! 

120 Days On The Plan!

 I know it's passed 120 days on this new plan but I wanted to just do a check in to see where I am at after 4 months of working hard! I was at 272.2 and on my 120th day I was at 243.00. That is 29.2 pounds lost AND includes Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day & our week long vacation! I would call that a win!! 

Day 114-129 - A Rocky Road

It's been awhile since I last posted. My last eight days before my last weigh in did not go exceptionally well. I was invited to a friends house about mid week and indulged way more then I should have. Plus, I just wasn't focused like I normally am. It was not my best 8 days on my plan.

I was beginning to go back to bad habits. That little voice in my head just wasn't reminding me that I could wait until my off day and that it was important for me to stick to the plan and stay on track. So between lack of motivation, a few missteps and lack of focus I had my next weigh in on March 11th with no gain or loss.

I do blame some of the emotional aspects of that time on my period. I just didn't feel like myself.  Since my weigh in on March 11th I have done better and am hopeful for some type of loss when I weigh in next on Saturday! Now to keep on it and get some results!!

Weigh In Day!

 I weighed in this morning at 243 lbs. So I am up 1.8lbs from my official weigh in at the start of my vacation. Maintaining didn't happen like I wanted, instead I ended up with a stinkin' gain! But I am not going to get discouraged. I will stick to the plan for my next round of 8 days and work on getting a loss at my next weigh in, which will be Thursday March 11th! 

I think it is time for me to rethink how I will deal with vacations going forward. I don't want it to take a month after going away to get back to my weight before I left. Maybe the key is tracking what I eat on my off days so I don't end up with way too many calories then I should! I will take some time to ponder this and come up with a better plan for the next time we go away. I do have to consider that this trip was a week long and most of my vacations are smaller then that. I also have to see where my weight ends up after my next "on" period. I will be back at some point with my new plan of action. 

 

Day 113 - Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joe's

My last day before my weigh in went well. Stayed right on track and had delicious Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joe's last night for dinner! So good! Here is the recipe if you are interested. They are about 300 calories each if you use 1/2 cup of the Philly Cheese Steak mix on each sandwhich! It will make 9 servings when using that amount. My whole family really enjoyed it! Even my son who is not a big veggie fan. He said he really couldn't taste the veggies! I win all around! I will definitely make them again!  

Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joe's

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small yellow onion diced
• 1 small green bell pepper diced
• 8 ounces brown mushrooms minced
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1  tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1  cup beef broth
• 8  ounces Provolone Cheese slices chopped or cheddar if you prefer
• 8 hamburger buns

Instructions

1. Melt butter in large skillet. 
2. Add the onions, bell peppers and mushrooms. Cook until tender. 
3. Add beef and brown until no longer pink. 

4. In a small cup mix the beef broth and cornstarch together. 

5. Add the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt, black pepper, beef broth/cornstarch mixture into the pan with the beef and vegetables.

6. Cook until the mixture is only slightly liquid (about 75% of the mixture is above liquid), About 3-5 minutes. 

7. Turn off the heat, add in the provolone cheese or cheddar. What ever you like! 
8. Serve on hamburger bun or roll of your choice.