Weigh in Thursday

You got it, first weigh in day! And well I'm not too happy. The first time I did Weight Watchers I lost 9lbs my first week. Needless to say this was not the same this time around. Trying to keep myself motivated and remember that a loss is a loss.. and I'm going in the right direction. It's a long long road ahead of me!

8/7/14 Weigh in - 252.9lbs (1.3lb loss)

So, yeah.. not much. But it's a start!

I've started a Facebook page now as well, as I feel like I want to post more and more, but find myself stopping as I'm worried my FB friends are going to start getting annoyed with my multi-daily posts with snaps of my healthy food and random thoughts! We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping it will as well help me stay motivated!

Chinese Fix..

I love Chinese food. I could eat it every single day. Garlic Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Crab Ragoons.. I love them ALL. Well we all know how unhealthy take-out it! I've been looking up some recipes and experimenting on my own. Tonight I made some pretty tasty Orange Chicken. The original recipe said it was only 4 points+ a recipe, but mine didn't go quite that low. The recipe called for cornstarch, but I was out and subbed flour. If you have cornstarch, use that instead! Makes a much glossier and better textured sauce. I also added zucchini and green onions which seemed to increase the point value, which I'm okay with! I served with brown rice. I also promise to start taking better food pictures.. haha!

Skinny Orange Chicken

Serves 5 - 6 WW Points+ per serving

 

• 1.5lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• 2 cups zucchini, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of orange juice (I use Trop50)
• 2TB honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 4 TB flour (or 3TB cornstarch)
• 1 TB orange zest
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 2 mandarin oranges

    Saute chicken in a non-stick pan, stirring occasionally. Once chicken is browned, add zucchini and place lid on pan to allow to steam. Continue stirring occasionally. Mix rest of ingredients besides onions and oranges in a pot. Place on medium heat and allow to thicken, stirring occasionally. Once sauce is thickened add to the chicken and zucchini. Add onions and oranges. Serve with brown rice. 

 

 

BEFORE..

 So, every great AFTER picture needs a BEFORE right? I suppose it's time to post it...

And that's me! All 255lbs. Looking back at where I was last year, I can't believe I got down to 217lbs! I've gained SO much back! It makes me sick! None of my size 22 jeans fit right anymore.. But I refuse to go back to 24! SO, here is the before. Let me publicly humiliate myself a bit to keep me motivated to GET IT OFF.

I had a lapse yesterday and went to a pizza buffet and went to down. I kind of tracked.. but after I hit 32pts I gave up. I used what was left of my weekly points, and I used the few activity points I earned, and I'm pretty sure I still hate more then that. BUT I went home and worked out. It was a ROUGH workout however.

I had hypertension.. but I don't take my meds. Not for any good reason other then I don't take them! My script ran out last year and at the time I thought I had it under control.. However last May, before Matt went into his last admit, he drove me to the ER because I started having crazy symptoms.. Shaking, backing out, chest pain, ext. My blood pressure was somewhere near 200/180. It was a pretty good scare as the doctors started throwing around the words 'Cardiac Episode'. I got back on my beds for a month or so, but everything went downhill again when Matt got admitted, and well, that road was traveled. I've been feeling pretty good as of lately, until last night. I started with the low intensity cardio and started feeling the tightness in my chest again. I started to take it slower and took a break or two, but then when I started the high intensity I started to feel that back-out shaky feeling again, so I switched to cool down and called it good for the night. I have a doctors appt set for the 22nd to talk to the doctor more about my blood pressure meds, and what plan of exercise would be best for me.

But moving forward - Been craving Chinese like CRAZY today so I made a 'skinny' orange chicken. Its not as skinny as I'd like it to be, as I forgot to buy cornstarch and had to use flour, but at 6pts a serving I'll take it over take-out!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

    And now for something sweet! Well, sort of. I took a recipe from Paula Dean and made some modifications. Paula's recipe was 8 Points+ a serving, and I brought this down to 4! This is also the first time I've ever made, or eaten, zucchini bread. This isn't very sweet, as I lowered the amount of sugar in the recipe, so I'm not sure if there's not enough sugar in the recipe, or if zucchini bread is not usually inherently sweet.. But none-the-less I liked it! I subbed the oil in the recipe for a mashed banana, but could also use 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce, for the same point value. Thinking getting some whole wheat flour to start doing more baking with, and see if that helps to bring down the point values as well!

Chocolate-chip Zucchini Bread

serves 24. 4 WW Points+ each

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 3 beaten eggs
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

 Sift the the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix everything else besides the chocolate chips in a separate bowl. Stir until well combined. Mix wet ingredients into the dry. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Ashley's Zucchini Casserole

     I've recently come into the possession of a LARGE amount of LARGE zucchini.. So starting to try to come up with some healthy things to make! Tonight I literally threw together some random things I had lying around that I thought sounded good and went with it. The results were DELICIOUS! And filling! And its THREE Weight watchers points a serving. THREE!! The whole casserole was 11 but I was full after only eating a quarter of it.

Ashley's Zucchini Casserole

Serves 4. 3 WW Points+ per serving

• 1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 4oz cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, shredded
• 1/3 cup shredded cheese
• seasoning salt

       


 Layer zucchini at the bottom of a small casserole dish. Sprinkle with seasoning salt. top with a third of the tomatoes, a third of the chicken, and a third of the cheese. Add second layer of zucchini and repeat the process. Top with the last layer of zucchini, tomatoes, chicken and cheese. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Back in the swing of things

Alrighty, so we're going to do this again! As I said in my last entry.. Life has done yet another 360 to me again. I feel like I'm starting to get into the groove of what may be my new 'normal'. Still adjusting to the loss of Matthew.. But having Javion back home (he spent some time away with family to give me time to grieve) has helped tremendously. I've quit my second job and started spending more quality time with him.

As of June 21st (my 27th birthday) I've been participating in the #100HappyDays challenge.. Which has been just that - A CHALLENGE. But I knew it was something I needed to do, especially at this point in my life. The last 6 weeks have been rough, still grieving, dealing the the stress of trying to settle things after his death, and dealing with a grieving Mother-in-law who seems to think I'm the enemy.. Yet I've been able to find at least one small thing each day that makes me happy.

Also, as of last Thursday I've officially started Weight Watchers again. Last weekend I didn't do so well and I really started on Monday of this week. We just finished a 'Burst Your Thirst' challenge at work to get us drinking more water - and I've used that to kick off my health transformation. I started the Advocare 10-day cleanse as well on Monday. I haven't set up and SET goals yet, other then I want to get into ONEderland.. (199lbs and under).

Thursday's weight in wasn't so great compared to initial 'baseline' on 7/24, BUT there were a few factors involved.. 1) I've been weighing myself in the kitchen, and the floor in there is VERY uneven. You can gain/lose 5lbs just by moving the scale over a few feet. I've moved it now into the bathroom where we've refloored, and its very even. 2) I had JUST started my period and was very very bloated and 3) I had a sodium-filled day before hand and was sure there was quite a bit of water retention there.

But moving on - So far so good! I find myself not using all my points and eating healthy! And get this ... Yesterday I actually worked out.. Like did a workout video, for the first time in at least 5 years. Honestly I cannot remember the last time I worked out. I know I was in Utah.. But even then I can't really remember. I have The Biggest Loser 2 workout DVD which lets you choose your workout.. it wasn't too bad besides all the lunges that my poor thighs could just not handle! But I did it!

Okay, well, to shorten up this entry I think I'll leave it there. I'm going to start posting some recipes that I've been experimenting with the 'skinny' them.. and I'll be posting my weigh-in Thursdays again as well. Hoping that blogging more will help me stay accountable, since I don't have Matt here to keep an eye on me!

Starting over.. again

Well.. Here we are. I lost weight. I got married. I let it go.

We had a rough year.. to say the least. Matthew was hospitalized a week after the wedding.. then every few months after that. From November thru April Matthew had 4 collapsed lungs needing 5 chest tubes. Matthew was admitted to Ames on Mothers Day for what we thought would be a routine visit.. When things went drastically wrong. 3 days in Ames Matthew went into acute respiratory distress. Matthew basically started to suffocate right before my eyes. We rushed him to ICU and he was put onto a ventilator. 48 hours on the ventilator in Ames and they life flighted him to Iowa City. With a miracle we got him off the ventilator.. But they kept telling us we were not out of the woods yet. Matthew had so much recovery to make. He was down to 111lbs and weaker then he'd ever been. He was oxygen dependent and constantly fought to catch his breath. His body was riddled with infections that that antibiotics could no longer fight. On Saturday June 7th they put in another chest tube as he had yet another collapsed lung. Matthew woke up early June 8th going back into acute respiratory distress. They informed me before even putting him on the ventilator, that they would most likely not be able to get him off successfully. I came in to the room to say goodbye to my husband while he was still conscious.. but he was so air hungry and distressed, I'm not even sure he knew I was there. They put him back on the ventilator and as a family we prayed. We spoke with the doctors, as we had been doing all month, about trying to get him on the list for lung transplant. Matthew was too underweight, too weak, and too riddled with infections for the transplant team to even consider giving him a set of new lungs. Towards the end of the day the doctors told us that transplant would not be an option, and now even the ventilator was having trouble keeping Matthew alive. We knew at that point that Matthew had fought enough. Matthew was removed from the ventilator at 6:00pm Sunday June 8th and peacefully faded away, surrounded by his loved ones.

My husband's funeral was June 14th, just a day before what would have been our first wedding anniversary.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this blog anymore. I want to be happy... but I dont know how to get there from here. I have been pushing forward with everything, and luckily I have some pretty amazing support groups to keep me going. My Mother-in-Law has been extremely helpful with getting all of the things settled after Matthew's death, and has even taken my son to the farm to spend a month out there with her.. to allow me some time alone to grieve.

I can't explain what it feels like to have something ripped away from you too soon. We knew that our time was short, but we never expected this. Not this soon.

I really should have a direction with this post, but I don't. Saturday is my 27th birthday and I'm planning on starting the #100happydays challenge. I feel like I need to step back and find things that make me happy in all of this. I know it will be hard..