the urban harvest

The box of produce arrived and I'm hooked already. Look at the amount of stuff here? I paid $20 but it would have been $35 which is still a good deal!

I've had a lot of fun planning the fate of each individual bit of goodness you see here. The carrots will be in chili and dipped in hummus, baby bellas will be part of flatbread pizzas, acorn squash will be baked and eaten with dinner tonight, half the onion has already gone into a really delicious and healthy shepherds pie. The rest will be salads and the fruit will be snacks.

I also realized today that Whole Foods is not as expensive as I always thought it was. I had the best turkey sandwich of my life with their bread, deli turkey and some of my lettuce and tomato from the box. Their meat and seafood is higher but everything else is comparable to Publix and it's all organic and twice as delicious. Sorry I always referred to you as whole paycheck foods Mr. Whole Foods. I will be visiting more.

I must be wanting to write about food since it's about to snow here. It doesn't happen often and the grocery stores are already out of milk and bread. Southerners dealing with snow has always made me laugh. I lived in Minnesota until I was 12 but have been in the south ever since. That makes snow a fun event for me and this year, I don't have to risk death to get home from the suburbs due to my boss not wanting us to leave work early. The dogs are driving me nuts. They know something is up.

I got to the gym by 8 and did a hard 40 minutes on the treadmill and some abs. Once again I thought about not going because I had errands to run and work to do etc. but I'm convinced that if I just keep going long enough to make it a habit, it will flow into my day like everything else does. Still trying to find the me/work balance.

Eat more!

That's what yesterday's Spark People page is saying. I really went under my calories yesterday because I never ate lunch. I'm still trying to establish my new routine with working for myself and suddenly it was 5:00.

I'm not going to make a habit of going under (or over!) my calories but sometimes it just doesn't seem logical to me to eat if I'm not hungry. I know all about fueling the metabolism and all that. I'm thinking I'll add some peanut butter or protein powder to my oatmeal and then maybe eat a little larger snack. I know I need it because I can feel it when my food wears off in the pool.

I swam 40 minutes this morning and will continue to do that until I can meet with my coach again next week to establish a lower body weight routine. We've already done upper body and abs but as you can imagine, he's a busy man this week. It was 14 this morning AND I had an 11:00 meeting. I thought about putting it off until the afternoon but that's dangerous so I just did it and it felt great. I was the only one in the pool for a while then had a 10 minute soak in the hot tub as my reward.

Not a very exciting post today but I'm making a point to post and update my calorie count every day even if it's boring! :)

Keep on keepin' on.

frozen

I'm not used to this temperature in Atlanta. It was 18 this morning. Usually we have it a few days a year but not multiple days in a row. I think i've lost my favorite plant and my water bottle was in the car and frozen solid. They are saying single digits next week and I'm dreaming about wearing flip flops.

I almost used it as excuse not to go to the gym this morning. I've only been at this a few weeks and already it's starting. Luckily I've learned not to listen to myself much and went anyway. I tried to think about how good that post gym shower and warm cup of coffee would be and it worked. I just don't want this to be a battle with myself everyday. The fat me is much bigger and tries to beat the skinny me down sometimes but skinny me is strong and getting stronger every day.

I was hoping to do a leg session at the gym but the coach still needs to set me up on a routine and he was so busy so I just did 45 minutes of cardio today on the treadmill. Had I known that I would have been in the pool which is about twice the amount of calories burned. It was fun to listen to music for a change and my butt hurts so it was obviously good. I'm going to have to put on about 10 layers to walk the dogs a little later and burn a few more calories.

I only managed 1458 calories yesterday which is odd since I felt like I ate a lot. It's amazing how when you eat your calories from healthy food you get so much more food. I roasted a $3 chicken last night and am making soup from the rest as I write. Produce box comes today. I never thought I'd be so excited about a bunch of fruits and veggies!

Swimming along

<-------See how seriously I'm taking this??? I bought goggles!





I thought I would try the effects on my computer camera to give myself a very x-treme sports look

I tried out my new goggles this morning. I was terrified to go to the gym thinking it was going to be packed so I waited until about 8:30 and much to my surprise, the pool was mostly empty. I have totally rediscovered my love for swimming and have been told by more than one trainer that it's the best thing I can do (especially at first) to burn through some fat.

It hasn't been easy by any means. I was taught to swim really well when I was young so I know the basic strokes etc. but I still felt like a moron amongst the Michael Phelps types. After a few trips though, I've realized that absolutely no one cares what I'm doing! Really! It's very liberating. I've worked my way up to 40 minutes now which is when I feel my breakfast wear off. I had to rush home and have a hard boiled egg which probably means I need to add a little protein to my breakfast which is currently steel cut oats with some raisins and dried fruit. Now I'm sitting down to work and every muscle in my body feels tired but great.

My weigh in day will be Fridays from now on and with absolutely no peeking in between. All it does is frustrate me so I'm simply not going to do it. I'm continuing to focus on what's good for me like eating well and exercising and not the numbers. If I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, the weight will come off as a very pleasant side effect. Have a great week everyone!

For those of you who asked in the last post, Groupon is a group coupon deal based on the city you live in that is sent to your inbox every day. Usually it's for a restaurant gift certificate or services for half off or more. If enough people buy it then then deal is on. I used it for the first time on the produce since that's about the only thing I can justify spending money on but some of the deals really are amazing

Fun stuff for the week ahead

I know I'm a little late to the party on the co-op produce delivery thing but I'm expecting my first box this week and I'm so excited! It's like my own personal version of Iron Chef where you have to figure out what to make out of all the ingredients!

I wouldn't usually spend the money on this being unemployed but there was a Groupon (another awesome invention) for a small box which is normally $35 for only $19. I know I'll be hooked on this and really, $35 for a week of local and organic fruits and vegetables isn't a bad deal. I'll keep you posted on what I make out of all of this!

My husband has been on vacation this past week and I'm a little bummed he's going back to work tomorrow. I suppose that's a good sign that I really love my husband after being with him for 10 days straight. We've had such a good time but it's time for both of us to focus a little more and drink a little less. He's going back to the gym tomorrow. I've made a point not to rub it in his face that I've been back for 2 weeks :)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Commitment

Today was one of those days where I didn't feel like doing anything but I've made this commitment and I'm going to do this every day. That's the best thing about a blog. I feel accountable to it and it got me up off my ass during Color Splash on HGTV :)

So here it is. I said I was going to post my before pics. I don't even wear a tank top to the gym but I'm putting it on here. I think I've lost my mind.



















I'm not saying anything else except there is a lot of work to be done and I'm very excited about the challenge...oh and check out my new shoes and wall color instead of the fat :)

547,500

The number above represents my new plan. What's a new year without a new plan right?

Actually I've been at it for the last 2 weeks. I'm proud of myself for all the days I made it to the gym over the holidays. I was so sore on Christmas Eve I was in tears by bedtime but I've already made some progress endurance wise. Damn scale hasn't moved at all but like I always say, there has to be diet and exercise involved for me to do anything other than maintain.

I haven't been going nuts with the eating (mostly) but not keeping track and drinking way to much champagne has me weighing in at 252.8 today. We painted our bedroom this past week and I felt every single pound of myself weighing me down. The next day I tried to do Target, Ross, Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Publix and came home having to ice down my knee. I've never had these aches and pains before. As my mom was asking me what happened to my knee (which she stills swears happened from being on a ladder for 2 days) I said to her that I'm just too fat to go to 5 stores.

Now, about the plan. The goal is to eat and track 1500 calories per day for all of 2010 which equals 547,500 calories. I'm interested to see exactly how close I can get to that exact number. I've been inspired (again) by Sean who has been at this for way more than a year now. He says if he can do it anybody can. I'm finally accepting that challenge.

Sure there are going to be ups and downs and yes, it's a lofty goal but I'm going to focus on what next year at this time could be like. I'm not putting a weight loss number down because I'm interested to see just what happens naturally from tracking my food every single day and exercising 6 days a week. Could it be over 100 pounds? How close can I get to the 547,500 calories?

See you all tomorrow! There will be pictures. It will not be pretty.