156.6 and Insanity Fit Test

My boss was asking me about a salad I made a couple years ago for one of our bbq Friday’s.  She said she remembered it had a grain in it and romaine lettuce.  I couldn’t remember what the hell she was talking about, so I looked back on my blog, and sure enough, I made an Israeli couscous salad – I completely forgot about it!

It was then that I saw that two years ago today, I weighed 156.6.

It got me thinking.  I’ve always considered myself an emotional eater.  But guess what was going on while I lost 16.8 pounds?  Tony was diagnosed with colon cancer and was recovery from surgery that whole time.   Now if that isn’t stress, I don’t know what is, but somehow I didn’t let the food take over.

Fast forward two years and I am 13.4 pounds heavier.  Tony is healthy, I am healthy, our kids our healthy.  It just proves that if you take it one day at a time, you can see results. 

So my first goal is to get back to 156 pounds.  I don’t really care how long it takes me to get there, but that’s the goal.  It would be nice if I got down to that weight by September 10 – my next diabetes doctor appointment.  Even he mentioned my weight gain at our last meeting!

So let’s get to the good stuff!  June 1 I did the Insanity Fit Test.  It’s meant to be repeated every two weeks to measure progress.  I could already tell I’ve gotten stronger, as there were some exercises I could barely do in the beginning, and now I am completing between 80-85% of all the moves.

I improved every exercise!  The power jumps are still really hard for me.  My muffin top sometimes get in the way when I jump up!  If you don’t know what a power jump is, here it is – its bad ass!  And thank you random youtube person for demonstrating for us!

Even though it was 25 minutes, it still made me sweat buckets!  Well, that and the fact that it was 89 degrees outside and we didn’t have the air on might have contributed to that too.

We had the girls June birthday celebrations at our office yesterday.  Two of the male attorneys have birthdays towards the end of the month, and why not celebrate twice?!

I had an assortment of goodies – I passed on the apple fritters and long johns, although I did take a big smell of them.  What is it about a fresh donut that is so awesome?  Oh, I know, all the sugar!

It was nice out so I decided to swim outside again.  This time I went a bit later so the bigger camp kids were there and taking up the deep end.  An older woman was swimming in the lap lane, and I asked her if she mind sharing the lane with me.  She said no problem.

Not sure she actually understood what “sharing” a swim lane was because I’d be swimming down my side of the lane, when all of a sudden in the middle of the lane she would do handstands and other synchronized swimming moves!  I ended up letting her have the last 1/4 of the lane, and did my laps with the remaining 3/4 of the lane.  I have to say that it’s so refreshing and I have so much more energy when I get back to work!

Although my blood sugar started to drop almost as soon as I got out of the pool.  Luckily I had some glucose tabs on me so I could get dressed and I ended up buying and eating a protein bar in the car on the way back to work.  When I got back to my desk my blood sugar was up to 73 AFTER the protein bar!

Lunch tasted like ass.  I made a taco soup on the fly with some leftover ground beef, rotel tomatoes, corn tortillas and spicy refried beans.  I thought the chunks of tomatoes would be okay, but I ended up not liking this soup at all.  On the side was half a cheese quesadilla.  This crappy picture says it all.

Since Tony isn’t a fan of red sauce much anymore, I decided to make a sausage pasta dish using fat free evaporated milk.  This was actually pretty quick to come together, and I actually had the sausage cooking and the water boiling for the pasta while I did my Fit Test.  I got home at 5:45 and by 6:30 and I had already completed the Fit Test and dinner was ready! #winning

Italian Sausage Pasta with Spinach

• 4 servings, 470 calories, 21 fat, 42 carbs, 2 fiber and 24 protein

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces of Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup evaporated skim milk
• 3 cups cooked pasta of choice
• chopped baby spinach (left this out for Tony)
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, add the sausage and cook, breaking up the pieces, until browned.  Add the butter, garlic and flour and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly add the evaporated milk, stirring constantly.  Once the sauce is thick enough, add in the cooked pasta, baby spinach, Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Sadly, even though I had mild Italian sausage, it was a tad spicy for Tony.  Me?  I added crushed red pepper to mine!

I ended up having two giant cups of hot tea last night, but at 9:30 I was starving, so I had a banana and 1.5 ounces of almonds.

Stats for the Day:

• 40 minute lunch time swim
• 25 minute Fit Test
• 1657 calories, 69 fat, 199 carbs, 20 fiber and 69 protein
• 49% of calories from carbs, 38% from fat and 13% from protein
• no alcohol

I am going to Chicago tonight!  My cousin Karen is in town for a conference and I am meeting my Mom, sister and cousin at The Little Goat.   I watched Stephanie Izard win Top Chef several years ago, and while I’ve always wanted to go to her first restaurant Girl and the Goat, the Little Goat is a more affordable option!

Time to get this show on the road – make it a great day!