I am sick of 168

I have no idea where my breakfast picture went.  I know that my battery was about to die on my DSLR, so I thought I used my iPhone, but I guess I didn’t.  Over the weekend I made a batch of my Pillsbury Grand breakfast biscuits.  I followed my recipe to the T, except I think the only thing I didn’t do was press down the biscuit in the muffin tin, so they kind of exploded!  I had two biscuits and some cantaloupe on the side.

I was doing some “back to school” cleaning at my office yesterday.  I don’t know why, but this time of year I feel like it’s a clean slate, even though I haven’t been to school in 27 years.  Something about fall gives me a sense of a clean slate.  I found in the top drawer of my desk my old WW books.

When I started this blog nearly 6 years ago I was 168 pounds.  Check out my beginning weight in January of 2011 – 168.8.  In three months I got down to 166.2.  I have been as high as 176 in those six years, and as low as 156.  Guess what is missing from this picture??  How about consistency.  I had that consistency last June through December.  I lost it when I started a second job and it was just so easy to going back to doing what I always did, which has kept me at or around 168 for six years. 

I know know that I am in the latter part of my 40s that I have to work even harder to get this weight off.  Being consistent in my food and exercise choices are the only way I know to get me to where I want and need to be.  I have to be healthy for both me and Tony, so as my sister and I like to say “I am back on!”

I’ve been looking for a new gym bag for a while, but I am cheap and didn’t want to fork over $30+ bucks to get one, so for the last few weeks I’ve been carrying my stuff to and from the gym in a Jewel bag.  #classy.  I finally found one that I love!  It’s a Land’s End, it’s in near new condition.  The best part is that it kind of opens up like a doctor bag so I can see everything.  Price tag?  $4!!

I found a 30 day squat challenge and decided to start my lunch workout with that.  I had every intention of running yesterday, but my blood sugar was only 150, so I did the squats, then did sprints for 2.25 miles.  I would walk at 4 mph for 4 minutes, then sprint at 6.5 mph for 1 minute and repeated.

I had leftover shrimp cocktail from when my Mom came over on Sunday, so I knew I was going to have a tasting plate of food.  Shrimp, some cheese and crackers, celery, carrots, lime Chobani with some blueberries tossed in and some grapes.

I love, love the lime Chobani – especially paired with the super sweet blueberries.  However, it does have 16 grams of sugar, so I opted not to eat the grapes, that would have been just way too many carbs for me at lunch.

Tony still didn’t have much of an appetite for dinner, so it was Biz food! I love pork chops.  But lately Tony doesn’t really like pork chops or red meat really.  But when I was shopping with my Mom on Sunday I saw these gorgeous pork chops – two in a package for $3.75 and I thought if nothing else, I’d put them in a freezer for when Tony wasn’t up for dinner.  Turns out that was last night.

I ended up grilling the pork chop on our indoor grill pan – just seasoned with salt and pepper.  For my side I took 1/2 a cup of the leftover orzo asparagus salad, and tossed it with 2 cups of chopped romaine lettuce.  But it needed a dressing of some sort, and all I had in the fridge was ranch and blue cheese.  Not what I was looking for.  I then remembered I saw on Courtney’s blog (check it out – she’s got some amazeball summer recipes!) had her SIL guest post a Brussels sprout salad that had a great dressing.  While I have yet to try this salad (me no likey Brussels sprouts) I made the dressing and used 2 teaspoons of it to toss my “salad” in.

I topped my chops with a tablespoon of the hatch chile chimichurri sauce and this was a delicious dinner.  The pork was slightly pink on the inside and so juicy.  #ilovepork

So about an hour and a half after dinner, I got my Insanity pants on.  Day 1 is Plyo Cardio.  I am actually quite happy that I was able to do about 90% of the workout, but I am not going to lie – I am more out of shape than I thought and I was huffing and puffing at the end.  We also had the windows closed and it was warm last night, so it was like doing Bikram Insanity.

The sweaty selfies are back – aren’t you all so excited! Hee hee.   It felt good.  Afterwards Tony and I watched the Chicago team win their game in the Little Game World Series – who go on tonight to play.  It’s down to single eliminations now.  We love watching the Little League series every year.  And guess what?  I had no wine, not even while cooking!  Go me.

I have to give a shout out to blog reader Jennifer who sent me the cutest card ever and an Einstein bagel gift card asking me to have a coffee and bagel on her – love it!  Can you see that the book is titled “It’s 5:00 somewhere!”  Actually my great Aunt would love this card.  At 5:00 every day she has her glass of bourbon, raises her glass and says “Brand New Party!”  She’s 84 years old too!  Thanks Jennifer – you can read about her Ironman race here – I can’t even imagine walking a marathon with huge blisters – way to push through Jennifer!

So that’s my Motto – consistency, not perfection.  I need two favors from you today.  One – go over and give this blogger huge virtual hugs.  She has been trying to cook more, not rely on her husband to cook and avoid eating out.  When her husband was out of town she only ate out ONCE in 16 days and lost more than 12 pounds.  I was so proud of her.  I know how it is being by yourself, no one is looking so you can eat shit and who would know but you?  Well, her husband came back, and over the weekend all the old habits came back then some and she basically gained all the weight back.  Sadly, this isn’t the first time this has happened, and you guys all know it’s happened in your lives at one point or another.  But here’s what is awesome – she didn’t hide.  Sometimes she’d leave the blog world for a whole month after something like that, but you know what?  She’s dusting off her shoes and getting back on – yesterday is in the past, you can’t change it, so she’s moving on.   Go give her a pep talk if you have time today – I would appreciate it!   She actually inspired me to get my Insanity pants on last night, so thank you!

And of course, vote for my Pan Seared Pork recipe – last 4 days to vote – thank you!

My gym bag is packed, and just need to get my food together – make it a great day!