It’s rare that I get upset. Most of the time I am a go with the flow kinda person – much more concerned if you are happy than myself – I’ve always been like that.
But yesterday when I stepped on the scale and saw .4 gain I lost it. On average I had 1400 calories a day the past week – only had THREE glasses of wine all week (on Saturday night), worked my ass off at the gym by working out harder than I probably have in a year, and had nothing to show for it.
Or so I thought. I think a lot of you have gotten comments from me over the last couple years telling you:
The scale doesn’t automatically show your efforts on the day of weigh in.
You have to look at the big picture . . . when I lost 70 pounds in 1999, there were weeks at a plateau, but I stuck with it.
I also want to thank Tony, Hannah, Helen, Robin Sue, Shelley, Rich, Tracy and Jenn for your email cheerleading yesterday and for all the wonderful comments. And especially to Tony for being supportive and picking me up when I felt like just picking up a box of wine and a large pizza for one on my way home from work. š
So I am sticking with it. Giving up is not an option. I still have a goal of being 150 by January 1, and I am going to try my hardest to get there. Thanks for sticking with me!
So the beginning of my day did not start out well – I started reading the emails from other Zero Scale challengers losing big numbers, and while I was jumping up and down for them, I found myself getting jealous and envious that it wasn’t happening to me. Then I got to work and realized I left my camera at home. Then I reached to get my lunch bag, only to find that half my soup now covered my food contents for the day and I spent my first 10 minutes at work washing everything off.
My blackberry also wasn’t charged, so I have no pics of my food yesterday. Breakfast was an egg white scramble with roast beef and broccoli, a bacon and cranberry biscuit, and a cup of sliced apples. 440 calories, 26 fat, 13 carbs, 4 fiber and 34 protein, or 11 WW points.
Lunch was courtesy of this blog: Some Kitchen Stories. I did adapt it, like I do, but this one is a real winner! My changes are in blue below: I stole her photo too – I just wanted you to see how gorgeous and delicious this soup was so you will make it!
Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger Shrimp
Thank you, Bon Appetit
Makes: 5 cups or 8 first course servings (each cup: 174 calories, 7.3 fat, 22 carbs, 3.7 fiber and 6.9 protein, or 5 WW points)
Ingredients
For Shrimp
1 lb of large shrimp, deveined and peeled with tail remaining (I only cooked 5 shrimp since it was just for my lunch)
1 TBsp of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated (reduced this to 1 tsp. for 5 shrimp)
1/4 tsp of salt (pinch of salt)
1 TBsp of vegetable oil (1 teaspoon)
For Soup
2/3 Cup of shallot, chopped (nope!)
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
3 whole star anise (didn’t have so I left out)
2 TBsp of unsalted butter
1 and 3/4 lb of butternut squash, peeled and seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (5 cups)
4 Cups of chicken stock
2 Cups of water (reduced to 1 cup because I prefer a thicker soup)
- I also added 1 canned chipotle pepper to counteract the sweetness of the sweetness of the soup
Prepare
1. Toss shrimp with grated ginger and toss. Let marinate in fridge for 30 minutes but NO longer or shrimp will start to cook because they are weird like that.
While shrimp are marinating, we prepare the soup that will impress people. Yay.
2. In a 3-quart, heavy saucepan over moderate heat, cook shallot, garlic and anise.
3. Stir until shallot is softened. Cook about five minutes.
4. Add squash, stock and water and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes or so (until squash is very tender).
5. Remove star anise. Coo to them, precious little babies. Thank them for their service. (I love this line from her blog post!)
6. Puree soup in 2 batches in a blender OR use one of those hand immersion blenders which are AWESOME and which I clearly just used for the first time.
7. Transfer to cleaned pan and keep warm, covered.
8. Sprinkle our shimp with the salt.
9. Heat vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking.
10. Saute shrimp in batches until just cooked through, about a 1.5 minutes on each side.
Bring soup to a simmer, season with salt and pepper. Mound shrimp in each bowl.
Note: On Weight Watchers? This insanely delicious soup is 5 points per 1 cup serving and 5 shrimp is 2 points.
I had to actually look up how to peel a butternut squash – I didn’t realize how easy the skin was to peel!
It’s velvety, and I like the extra kick of the chipotle pepper to balance the sweet and savory. Lunch comes in at 7 Points. Later in the afternoon I had an ounce of almonds for 4 points.
Tony and I love watching America’s Test Kitchens. We have it saved on the DVR and pretty often we both look at each other and think “we have to make that!”
They had an episode where they made grilled tuna steaks with a red wine vinegar and mustard vinaigrette. They key is the vinaigrette – brushed right before grilling (we grilled indoors on our cast iron grill pan) then I served my tuna steak on a bed of greens with a bit more vinagrette.
I have to tell you, when I first met Tony I was the pickiest eater. Hannah and I lived on spaghetti, tacos and pizza most of the time. When he first made me ahi tuna steaks and I saw the very very pink middle, I made him go back and cook it until it was grey all the way through. The horrors!
Now I love it. This was okay tuna, bought individually wrapped and frozen at Sam’s Club. Each steak was about 4.5 ounces raw. You’ll see that this makes a lot of vinaigrette, but between the two of us, only used about .5 ounce each. So I am making this recipe 12, half ounce servings at 128 calories, 13 at, 1.8 carbs, .2 fiber and .1 protein, or 4 WW points.
Red Wine Vinegar and Mustard Vianaigrette (courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen)
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 tablespoon chopped dried rosemary (or 2 tablespoons fresh)
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- pinch of salt
- cracked pepper
Mix the vinegar, mustard, honey, rosemary salt and pepper together. Slowly add the olive oil and using a whisk, beat until emulsified.
I never got my workout in yesterday, so plan on moving my Monday and Wednesday around. Today is row, leg curls, torso rotations and 20 minutes of hard cardio. š
Stats for Monday:
- 1159 calories, 63 fat, 54 carbs (I had three pieces of fruit, but since fruit is zero its not calculated in this total), 14 fiber and 95 protein
- 19% calories from carbs
- 49% calories from fat
- 32% calories from protein
- 30 WW points
- average blood sugar 108
- no exercise
I am dusting myself off – today is a new day! Who’s with me?
Your easy to cheerlead for sweetie. You are so positive and committed I get to say YAY! just about every time I visit with you.
Just keep doing what you’re doing and you will be fine. The 150 is on the horizon, but more importantly your diabetes is well maintained. BRAVO!
oh girl, i feel your pain. i was feeling really frustrated yesterday, i’ve only lost one or two pounds since i started my program a month ago, but then i did measurements and found that i’d lost quite a few inches. with all that weight training you’re doing, i wouldn’t be surprised if your body was doing the same thing. keep up all that hard work, it’ll pay off š
LOVE the soup.
You will be okay! Hang in there! It sucks but it’s just a bump in the road š
The scale is weird!!!! You will have a better result soon!!! Glad you took your own advice! š
I would have said yes to pizza and wine by now……..you are so full of will power! š You rock!!
Believe me, I was tempted! š
I’m sorry you are discouraged. You are doing so great though!!
What a simple way to peel a squash!!!
I’m sorry. I know how bad that makes you feel. Last week I gained 4.4 lbs in two days. How does someone do that?!? I know the reasons, but it still stung really bad.
How was your sodium intake? Have you taken your measurements lately?
Hang in there! I think you are doing awesome.
I think I need to put sodium back on my radar, but I do drink a lot of water. I took my measurements at the beginning of the challenge, and probably will go by how my clothes feel (which is fine!) My size 12’s are feeling good, so that’s something!
Don’t get discouraged! Think about how far you have come and use that as more motivation. Have you changed up your workouts lately? Sometimes that is the best way to break a plateau? š
As for that soup – it looks so delicious! I am drooling! And the same goes for the tuna salad! Think about all of the whole, wonderful, fresh, colorful and fabulous foods you feed your body every and pat yourself on the back!
Sorry to hear you were upset Biz!! I agree with other commentators, your body is adapting to an entirely different way of eating and processing food. I think there will definitely be a little adjustment period. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have some rapid weight loss after this plateau! It’s just going to take some time!
Taking our own advice is always the hardest. I’m proud of you for sticking with it – you’ll be happy you did!!
Way to pick yourself up! You’re entirely right in that you probably shouldn’t look at the scale every day, and remember that it fluctuates drastically, based on what you’ve eaten (or haven’t eaten!), or whether you’ve worked out or not.
The work will pay off, whether in pounds or inches. š Just don’t give up!
Congratulations, Biz – you have officially done the hardest part of any diet, and that is to come back today after everything you went through yesterday. You were at the point where most people say “to hell with this” and throw in the towel, and yet you didn’t! Way to go – honestly, it’s all downhill from here. And I mean downhill in a good way, lol! You’ve got this. š
Ha -thanks Shelley! š
Sometimes losing weight feels like being on a stationary bike. You works so hard, but not getting anywhere. But that’s not true. Your cardiovascular health is improving and possibly some fat is being swapped out for muscle. A scale is useless for giving you that kind of insight. š Use it as a gauge, but take what it tells you with a grain of salt (or maybe not…you might retain water!) ;-P
*hugs*
Biz, despite what the scale says, you are doing great. Keep fighting the good fight!
Go Biz!! I don’t understand how it showed a gain, but you are right – you just have to keep going. I feel like I’ve been trying to lose 10 pounds for the last year and a half and haven’t gotten anywhere. But I will keep trying!! Thank you for the post. Ignore the scale a bit, keep doing what you’re doing – you’re working hard and it will pay off!
The scale really doesn’t mean anything. I go up and down by 3 lbs sometimes depending on how much water I drank in one day. Keep up your good work! You are an inspiration. And your food looks great too š
Way to pick yourself up Biz! You know this is the hardest part!
I will cheer lead for you Biz! You can do it. Weight loss just isn’t linear, as much as we would like it to be so.
I will be your cheerleader any day my friend! I am glad you realize that one day on the scale is just a snapshot of that moment and does not reflect everything you did. I’m really glad you are keeping on keeping on!
In the great minds think alike category, I made a butternut squash pumpkin “bisque”using a very similar method on Sunday. I have been having a cup of it either at lunch or dinner – great way to get some added veggies too. YUM!!
Have a good day š Ignore the scale for a few days – just let your body adapt to your new routine š