Healthy Fast Food?

I have to tell you my new favorite drink since while the past month I seriously fell off the wagon by starting to drink sodas again. I have been trying to wean myself from drinking soda again, but I did still drink water but of course you know my water struggles but I have been doing way better than before. Anyhow the new favorite drink is the Aqua Frescas Hibiscus drink for 8oz it is 100 calories and in my book for something that taste great to me at those calories is so worth it. Now I have to admit I get a little out of control with the amount I drink sometimes I do drink 16oz at a sitting. I have been working on only drinking some at dinner and now I am trying to work on just drinking 8oz when I take it out the fridge. I can’t even explain why I love that drink so much. LOL. I have also bought myself some wild berry zinger tea from celestial tea; I can’t master it with no sugar. I have been bad and I put a teaspoon of sugar in it and what I really need to do is put half a pack of the truvia in it instead.

I also was introduced a few months back with a place here in my area called MyFit Foods. Now mind you I have had the menu on my desk for a while but ventured to the location the other day. I bought a few items and I have to say it is expensive if you tried to eat there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They basically have food in a fridge that is already cooked, portioned and calorie counted for you all you have to do is heat it up. This is I guess a healthy version of fast food. The food ranges from $6-$9 I believe I think the large sizes range a bit more not sure. I will have to get back to you on that.  They do sizes, small (recommended for women), medium (recommended for men), large (recommended for the very active person). The highly active people burn more calories so need more calories to fuel their body.

I bought three things on Sunday (6/17) to have for dinner this week and it was like $22 (one of the items I got half price because it was best eaten by 6/18). I mean in the grand scheme of things if you ate out for dinner or even lunch for 3 days in a row it probably would have been more than $22 but as a single mom this is not a feasible option for me to help with my weight loss journey to do all the time. I will have it as a saving grace though so when I don’t have the right kind of lunch or that dinner will won’t be a good option like McDonald’s because I got off late and not in the mood to cook and do homework. I can run there and get a meal for lunch or dinner. I rather spend my $6 or $7 there than eating the processed hamburger and fries at my job cafeteria (which that meat isn’t even real meat).  The meal I had last night was called better beef; it was 2 slices of beef tenderloin, broccoli and bean sprouts for 240 calories. I have to say it did taste good, the meat could be more seasoned and all that jazz but it wasn’t cardboard tasting.

My daughter is gone to her dad’s for six weeks and I wonder if I can get myself down another 5-8lbs before her return. Well first I have already screwed up on Monday I had such a terrible headache when I got off my brain malfunctioned and I stopped at McDonalds and got chocolate chip cookies. The headache did not cease so of course I did NO workout what so ever. I did actually go to MFP and tracked what I ate for the day and overall it wasn’t too terrible minus the damn cookies!!

Encourage Yourself!!

I know I have been gone a very long time. I really needed to come back to this. So I hope I don’t take to much of your time providing an update on what has been going on.  As you know I was terrified about my Birthday coming, my trip to Vegas and my uncle coming into town and gaining all my weight back. It took a while to lose such a small amount I was going to be heart broken to gain it all back again. Well as expected I did gain weight the good news is that I didn’t gain all of it back!! I am happy about that. All those events finished on June 3^rd, so that would mean that I would have gotten back on the saddle on June 4^th. Well I haven’t, yes I know that is terrible but first let me give you some numbers. The day I got on the scale was June 3rd I weighed 289.4, then last week (6/10)  I weighed in again at 288.4. I was happy about that because I tell you when I did no exercise and my eating was not really good at all. This week TOM is here so we know that means a gain on the scale because of bloating etc; I am pleased to say that my scale did not make any changes there was no gain nor was there any loss and I am ok with that. So on 6/17 that’s right my weight remained at 288.4.

I have found over the past few weeks I haven’t been stressing over losing the weight. I will say I am not doing the right thing by not exercising and I have to stop making excuses because in order to get this weight off I will have to make some sacrifices that I wasn’t going to do, but seems like it will be a must. The sacrifices I am speaking of are a little bit of sleep.  I am in school and I am in my last two classes to get my Associates in Business (yay) so after my full time job training people, then my 30 or up to an hour commute (traffic is a beast some days) to come home, I have to head to the books and get homework done.  Then when I am done with that I am wiped out and I can’t even think about exercising, I just want to crawl into bed and then the routine starts all over again.  I am going to have to either workout as soon as I get home or workout as soon as I am done eating my dinner. I have to get at least 30 minutes in; I have to say my mom for the past two weeks has asked me every other day when are we going walking. Her joints and foot have been feeling a bit better so now she wants to walk because she needs to shed pounds as well and it also will help build her endurance up after all the chemo she had been through in the past.  Now in Texas when I get home the sun may not be out but it is still hot and what is worse is that humid hot weather!!

I have no reason to do something, I LOVE Zumba and I have neglected doing what I enjoy to focus on work and school. I am still working on trying to get that balance in my life. Today at work there was a work blog that spoke of Life/Work balance and it mentioned 6 items that needed to be in a rhythm and balanced. Those six items were: Family, Friends, Faith, Community, Self and work. I have to say my entire adult life has been about work but the sad part is I am no executive who because their entire life has been about working that has climbed the corporate ladder. I am a single mother trying to make ends meet and provide a home for her daughter so school was put on hold till now. I learned my lesson that the loyalty the company had to me wasn’t really what I thought. Now don’t get me wrong my job is great and the company I wonderful too but I have to put myself in a position that allows me not to stuck with no upward movement. I want to move upward, get those pay raises, better work schedules and all the things that come with upward movement.  I am now learning to not make work a priority any longer and I am trying to ask for guidance to learn to put myself before others for a change. I always find it funny one someone says I am mean because I am not conforming to what they want and I will speak up when I don’t like something but that doesn’t make me mean.  I am compassionate and I truly care for others even people I really don’t know; I have a big heart and sometimes can be sucker depending on the situation when it comes to me directly.  Ok let me stop being side tracked and get back to the issue at hand which is this weight loss journey. A WLS is so hard and can be super frustrating especially when you know that the journey is a lifestyle change but when you see the “skinny” girl eating cake or ice cream and maintain her weight and if you even sniff the ice cream or cake its like you gained 5lbs!! But I am not giving up. I am relaxing to it because when I get stressed over it nothing happens. I have come to terms I will not be like the other women that drop 80 or more pounds like in 6 months or a bit more. I applaud their ability to do it, but I am ok with being the slow tortoise because I will still make it to the finish line. That is the key that you make it to the finish line what ever that finish line maybe. Don’t give up on yourself we are so worth it and remember the reason you are doing this no matter the reason.

I wanted to give up doing this blog thing because I was like no one reads it but I had to remember I did it for myself because it was an interest I had. That was the key to stick to something I wanted to do for me regardless if no one reads it or not.  I still have not shared my blog with my best friend which again I decided to wait to I get back to the 10lbs lost and I am seriously thinking I stick to the other goal of the 2^nd round of 10lbs lost before I share this blog with her.

Remember to encourage yourself even if no one else does!! There is a song my Sheri Jones -Moffet that is called Encourage yourself. This is a part of the song that speaks volumes to me in my WLS and so many other things as well:

Got pat your own self on the back- yea

Sometimes you have to speak the word over yourself, the pressure is all around, but GOD is present help. The enemy created walls, but remember giants, they do fall; speak over yourself, encourage yourself in the Lord.

Sometimes you gotta look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself I can make it; You gotta remember that life and death are in the power of your own tongue. Even if nobody tells you that you can run on, you tell yourself. You gotta remember I am more than I conqueror, I am encouraged.   

No one else has to tell me to run on! I will run on by myself and I will look to GOD for strength to help me take every step in this journey.