Oh Puff n' Stuff...BYOC

I want to thank everyone who commented on my post from yesterday. It was quite the interesting day. I ended the day with chili and cupcakes. The chili is a Biggest Loser recipe I found a while ago that my husband and I just love! Very filling and only about 160cals per serving. I add a scoop of unflavored protein powder to it just to kick it up a bit, even though it already has a ton of protein in it anyway. I made the cupcakes for a friend. She is having a candle party on Saturday so I am bringing them to that. I know she will love them. (side note: She and her hubby just found out they were preggo after trying for just over a year. So excited for them)

Overall not to much going on this morning. Another busy day at work, with me stealing a few minutes to post and eat some oatmeal. My restriction is doing great! I still get hungry before I should sometimes but really only when I start drinking water to soon after I eat. I don't know how some people with good restriction can drink with there meals. I physically can't or I will get stuck. It feels like everything trys to get forced down through the opening and it hurts allot. I sit there and I slime and spit allot and be very ladylike in the process. Such a wonderful part of having the band.

I am very sore today. I am going to take it easy this afternoon for my workout. Only a little running. I was thinking to myself just how much of a difference losing 45lbs makes! It's freaking crazy! I know for a fact that I would never be able to do the stuff that I can do now if that weight was still on me. I am so thankful for my band. I love it! I am in love with it...we are getting married! Just don't tell my hubby :)

I really started noticing a difference last week while taking my Vitamin D. I wasnt as tired all the time and I actually was more productive at work. I have been so tired the last couple of days and I know it was because I stopped taking it this week. The last couple of days I have started to feel really sluggish and today very tired. So I will have to start taking it again. It really helps.


BYOC!!!!!

1.Are you a heavy or light sleeper?

I used to be a heavy sleeper but going through boot camp trashed that idea. I hate being a light sleeper it sucks!

2. If you were made into a professor for a day, what topic would you lecture on?
I'm not sure. I think I would focus somewhere in the military realm and help out all the new military wives. Teach them how to act as a wife and just the basics in making your way around base and the terminology. Just because it is such a different life.

3. What’s a skill you’ve always wanted that you don’t currently have?
I wish I could run forever! I wish I could be a in a marathon and win. I could probably some day get to the point to maybe do one but winning is a different story.

4. Have you ever been in a real cat fight?
Once in high school. A chick insulted my family and I was in a bad mood so I slammed her head into the window on the school bus. Never got in trouble for it. I don't know if you consider that a cat fight or not though.

5. Repeat question: Summarize your week in real life and in blog land.
In blog land everyone seems to be getting back on track with diet and excersize and shedding the weight. BOOBs is a huge topic still and people are starting to find room mates for the event. So looking forward to it!
In real life things are busy with work, working out and getting ready for classes to start next month. I have the candle party this weekend and a trainers appt. Hubby is doing great too he lost 2lbs this week! So excited for him! He is also starting his first semester at the same college I will be attending. Lots of stuff going on.



That's all for now my wonderful followers! I hope you all have a great weekend! I will hopefully be on tomorrow if I get a chance. Between the trainer at 1200 and a candle party at 1. I will do my best.
*HUGS!*

Weekend Fun and Faux Reese's Cup

My early valentines surprise was a success. I took hubby to Medieval Times. It was so much fun. The tickets we had bought got oversold so we were upgraded to the front row and given free drinks, program, team banner and DVD. The staff was awesome! Needless to say we got a little snockered. I stepped on the scale this morning and it read 310.4. I know this is from being bloated and starting my weight training hard core this last week. Right now I am focusing on how my pants fit when I take them out of the dryer and put them on. I had the best moment this weekend too. My husband gave me a hug and said "I can reach farther around you" and hugged me harder. I asked him to show me about much bigger I was before and it was quite the loose grip. So I asked him to hug me again, it was a great moment :) Last week the hubby had snuck into the house a tub of cookie dough. He had hide it from me until this weekend. DH has been trying to loose a few pounds along with me. When I found that tub I threw it in the trash. He wasn't to happy about but I made him a snack to compensate. Faux Peanut Butter Cups!! I will give you all the recipe. 1 cup cool whip free 4tbsp PB2 salt to taste 2 packets truvia Low fat or fat free chocolate syrup Cupcake pan foil cupcake liners reconstitute 2tbsp of the PB2 according to package directions. Mix reconstituted PB2 and cool whip together. Add the rest of your PB2 (do not reconstitute before adding), salt and truvia. Combine until mix is smooth. Put your liners into the cupcake pan and distribute PB2 and cool whip mix into 6 cups. After you put your filling into your cups just bang your cupcake pan on the counter a couple of times to make sure the mix is level. Take your chocolate syrup and pour into each liner just enough to cover the top of your mix completely. Put these into the freezer for a couple of hours then enjoy! These things are so yummy! They are only 50-60 calories each depending on how much chocolate syrup you use. Compared to the real thing which is 210 calories a serving. These melt relatively fast so if your going to take them out of the freezer your going to want to eat them right away. Also if you want them sweeter a good substitute for whip cream is marshmallow fluff. a little higher in sugar content but no calories. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do :)

Oops

I pulled a classic pre-band Shannon move last night.I was in the kitchen making dinner. I was chopping and measuring and sauteing and being all good with my food. (low cal mushroom and bacon quiche yum!) On the counter was a bag of my new favorite sesame sticks. I can have about a half a cup for under 200 cals so I love them. Well the whole time I was cooking away and being pleased with myself I ate half the bag of sesame sticks! I hadn't even realised I had done it until I was picking up and the quiche was in the oven. So needless to say my whole day of perfectly planed caloric tracking was blown. Why? Because then I had a piece of the quiche when it came out of the oven. I had to give myself a pat on the back for that one. It makes me see just how hard it is to reprogram your thinking process whether it be consciously or unconsciously. Training yourself to eat the right way is so hard! Today I am allotting for those pain in the butt sesame sticks because we are going to see a movie tonight. I cut down the calories in my morning protein shake from almost 500cals to under 300cals. lunch is about the same I am having a double helping of my low cal mushroom and bacon quiche (238cals) and I had a chobani strawberry yogurt for my morning snack attack. Btw I am so in love with chobani now! This one was the first one I have ever had and wow, love it. So this leaves me with a whooping 540cals for dinner :) which of course is going to partly be my theater snack of sesame sticks! O live and learn :)

I haven't gotten on the scale at all this week. Unlike some people who step on the scale everyday to see just how bad they are doing, when I don't like what I see I totally avoid the scale. At least now if I am having a bad scale relationship I don't eat whatever I want and avoid at the same time. So we will see how it goes. I have to weight in tomorrow unfortunately. I am in a weight loss challenge and I have to document on Saturdays. So at least once a week you will get a weight in.

2nd Fill and Recipe

Allot of you know I had my first fill on the 7th of Jan. and that I am not feeling any restriction. So I called my surgeons office to see when I could go for another and I was scheduled for the 20th of Jan. I'm hoping that less then 2 weeks between fills wont affect anything adversely. I know I said yesterday I would hold out for a week,but things change. I am kinda glad my doc is aggressive with the fills because my insurance approval is only through July. I am hoping not to have to go in to many times for fills or un-fills. I'm hoping another fill will get me relatively close to my "sweet spot". I am a big fan of the biggest loser show. They stress low calorie high protein diets, especially if you are working out. We have tried a couple of there recipes and we loved 'Doc's Chili'. In season 2 this was a big favorite. So I though I would share their recipe with you :) 3c chopped yellow onion ( I used 1 yellow and 1 red) 1 1/4 lbs 99% lean ground turkey or lean turkey sausage 3c diced tomatoes (i used canned which is ok) 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans 1 can (15 ounces) black beans 1 cup fat-free, low sodium chicken broth 2tbsp chopped garlic 2tbsp chili powder 1tbsp oregano 1tbsp cumin 1 tsp mustard powder 1/2c sliced black olives (i am not an olive fan so I left these out) 1/2c chopped scallions I chopped and cooked the onion to just translucent and then added the turkey to the onions to give it more flavor. I added everything else together in a pot and let it start to bubble away. When turkey is fully cooked add the turkey and onion mix to the rest of your ingredients. Let it simmer away for about 20mins. We added a mild chili packet to the chili at the end for a little more flavor. This only adds about 10cals per serving to the chili. This makes 12, 1cup servings Per serving: 150cals (add 10cals if you used the chili packet), 16g protein, 17g carbs, 3g sugar,2g fat (0 saturated), 20mg cholesterol. 150mg sodium (this will be higher if you add the seasoning packet)

Home from work again.

So I am home sick again today, my headache and body aches just don't want to seem to go away. My animals are so cute. They must sense that I'm not feeling well because they haven't left my side. My 2 cats will lay on top of me or snug up against me and my doxin lays between my legs the whole time. I love those furry little love bugs! Since I'm not feeling great I decided it was a crock pot day. I took some frozen shrimp, onion, mushroom, garlic and a packet of mild taco seasoning with a little water and put it in there. Now all hubby has to do is make himself some rice and there's dinner. I will not be having rice of course. Even though I'm not feeling the greatest I am still going to go get my fill tomorrow. I see no need on putting it off. I am still eating ok so I'm not to worried about it. UPDATE ALERT! I start at Columbia College on March 22nd (i think that's the date). I am just taking my general studies right now. Since it's all accelerated courses I can take 2 classes at a time and be considered a full time student. So bring on the GI Bill please! Also I wanted to apologize for not keeping up with everyone over the last week or so. things have been a little hectic around here. I am doing my catching up today though :) p.s. This is what I am seting as my goal to do, It's called the Warrior Dash. It's a run with obstacles. So when I get into my "good shape" status this is what I have to look forward to! go the website out, it looks amazing!

Edamame, How Wonderful You Are!

I don't know about all of you out there but, I was told to eat 3 meals a day with no grazing. I get up at around 5am and usually don't make it back to bed until about 10pm. That is a long day with only 1000 - 1200cals a day. I have to factor in a snack somewhere. My go to lately has been edamame. For those of you who don't know edamame it is the wonderful soybean (before it hardens). This wonderful little source of protein and green goodness is in my mind make the perfect snack. The closet way I can describe it's flavor would be a cross between a pea and a peanut, but more meaty and savory then it sounds. A 1/2cup is 8g of protein! Only 100cals and 2g of fat! For any of you that have problems with low Iron, like I do, these little beauties have about 10% of your daily recommended intake. I get my edamame in the freezer section. I don't know how your market will sell them but I buy about a pound at a time. this lasts me about 5, 1/2cup servings. To make these puppies you bring a pot of water to a boil then dump the whole bag in still frozen. bring it back up to a boil and cook for 5mins. I add a touch of salt on the pods so when I eat the little joyous beans later I get the salt. Some stores sell them already shelled. I don't prefer them cooked out of the pod, they seem to get tough and rubbery. Edemame goes great in salads to replace meat as a protein, and they go great as a side dish to a piece of chicken or fish. The flavor really stands on it's own. What is your go to snack?

Smart Meal

Yesterday I had my follow up appointment with my surgeon. It went well except for their scale is a couple of pounds high. Since they had me at a higher weight then what my usual scale says I had to weigh myself this morning and I am still at 327lbs for now. I have been back to work now for a week. So I was working 5 days after my surgery. I am at a desk right now but it's still pay. I have been having a pain on my left side lower on the rib cage, the doc said it's the muscle trying to heal to the bone again! He said that they put so much air in you when they are poking around inside you that there is a possibility the muscle will separate from the bone a bit. This is what he thinks is happened with me so I am stuck at the desk another week to give it time to heal better. That's kind of a weird thought, knowing that you were blown up like a balloon so much that your muscles were pulled off your bones. Since there scale scared me last night saying I was up 5lbs I came up with a yummy little dinner that was only 199 calories per serving! 1 cup egg beaters 2 cups uncooked mushrooms (baby protabelo) 4 tbsp mild chunky salsa 6 pieces of turkey lunch meat (the kind I use is 90cal for 6 slices) 1 small shallot 1 tsp minced garlic 2 slices fat free cheese salt and pepper to taste Cut your mushrooms and shallot into slices and in a pan saute' mushroom, shallot and garlic till soft. Add in your salsa in at this point. Once thoroughly combined set mix aside. Cut your turkey into bite size pieces, put them into a pan just till they are warmed through. Then set them aside. Take a 1/2 cup of your egg beaters and pour into a hot pan (make sure your pan is well sprayed with cooking spray) After your egg starts to bubble put half your mushroom salsa mix on one side and half of your turkey on the other side. Carefully fold egg in half. (this is the part i always mess up) Use 1 slice of cheese and rip it in half and lay over top of eggs and cover for about 30 seconds to get nice and melty. Obviously this make 2 servings at 199cals each. Enjoy!