Black Bean Soup

I found this recipe after my sweetie and I decided to go vegetarian twice a week to cut out some unnecessary fat and cholesterol. I made this Tuesday night and it was so yummy and so easy that I had to pass it on.

3 cans of black beans- low sodium
2 cans of Rotel- one spicy
1 can of corn
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chopped carrot
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 Tbls Canola Oil

Just throw the veggies into a pot with the oil and cook until tender. Add in the cans of stuff and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

This was a really good recipe. Sweetie and I both gave it five stars. A nutritionist probably would too because it is loaded with good for the heart fiber and protein. Plus, it is very low in fat and calories.

By the way...I updated my numbers today (from Monday). I get kind of lazy about posting those each week...

Better up the Vitamins and Minerals!

As I said a few posts ago, I've had to keep a journal of things I've eaten for my nutrition class and we have some awesome software to plug that information into. I have found, for the most part, I eat well. But I am lacking in some vitamins and minerals. I'm headed to the Walgreen's to them up and start focusing on getting more of what my body needs.

I am also posting a link to Tuft's University Heath & Nutrition newsletter. This is a reputable source to get health and nutrition related information. I am ordering a trial issue. If I like it, I might just subscribe!

Well, how about that?

I lost two pounds since last Monday!! My organs must have squeezed out some excess water! Or maybe those lipid cells squeezed out some excess fat! Whatever.

The Yoga Cat

My cat loves to do yoga with me. Dave captured these pics during our workout this morning.

"Sun Breaths"- He's still learning how to sit up and do these, so he just does it on his side on the floor.

This is a "Kidney Squeeze" position.

Here, Orf is doing "Downward Dog".

Now he is just showing off!

My new little companion

I just started a five-week human nutrition class (for credits towards my degree). It was a coincidence that this class started at the beginning of my weight loss adventure. Part of textbook package we received was a computer program called Diet Analysis Plus. This software is ridiculously addictive!!

We are required to track everything we eat and drink for three days (I did Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). I had a lot of fun entering my items into the system. It would search and then pop up suggestions of what it thought you meant. I had to create a few items because they weren't in the database, but it was no big deal. Very user friendly. I learned so much about the food I normally eat. NO WONDER I'M FAT!! I have stopped two very regular food habits.

1. My two-cup in the a.m. coffees. With cream and sugar it packed in nearly 400 calories right out of the gate! Not good. Not good at all.

2. My "Breakfast Thursday" tradition with the girls at work. We always have a Sausage McMuffin from McDonald's. I might as well just get an English muffin and smear a half-pound of animal fat on it.

This system prints out a 20+ page report about everything you ate over a three day period (calories, fat, vitamins, minerals, ect).

I actually plugged in the foods I ate yesterday before deciding if we could go to Dairy Queen last night. I had 1,000 calories to spare. I went online and printed off the nutritional data from the DQ website. The most "diet friendly" Blizzard is the small Banana Split Blizzard with 440 calories. So that's what I had. It was really yummy! Even with the ice cream, I had about 500 calories "left over" at the end of the day. Pretty cool.

One thing I do know- I'm going to keep using this software. I think it really helped me understand a few things about what I am used to eating. I totally recommend it to anyone, even people not on a diet.

Check it out at Amazon.com

Does water make organs heavier?

Okay now the bike works, but the seat is sooo hard that my little sit bones feel bruised. I went to the Walmart last night and bought a gel seat, which will undoubtedly help, but no bike for a few days until my bum has a chance to heal up. Maybe with the new seat and the repairs we have made I'll be able to start exercising soon...

Please note, I did get 50 minutes of exercise between Sunday night and last night.

I posted my stats from yesterday. As you can see, I have again lost inches (4 inches in fact). But, my weight hasn't budged. This is really unexpected. I lost 8 pounds right off the bat. I attributed this to lost water weight and I expected to gain most of it back. I haven't gained any, but I haven't lost any either. I have lost several inches though. WTF? I wonder if because I'm drinking water instead of Diet Coke if my organs are just heavier now? I'm not bloated- the measuring tape would tell me if I was. Very strange occurrence.

Finally got that exercise bike fixed...

I bought an exercise bike (a very nice one, I might add) off of Craigslist a few weeks ago. Much to my boyfriend's frustration, it has sat, basically untouched in our living room of our tiny apartment. My problem with this lovely exercise bike was that it was soooo hard to pedal. I even made it one of my goals to ride the thing for an entire 7 minutes. But I couldn't even do that once.

I was thinking about this last week and I deicded that no manufaturer would make a bike that hard to pedal on level one. Maybe something isn't connected right inside and that's why it won't get any eaiser than "3 feet of wet concrete", I thought. Last night, I decided to take the thing apart (my sweetie couldn't help but jump in) and try to figure it out.

Bingo! The tension wouldn't release from a level 10 (to give you some perspective- 13 is the max). We did some creative manuvoring with some match sticks and needle nose pliers. It is now the perfect level of tension (nevermind the fact that I can't increase the tension with the flick of switch anymore-oops). I'm thrilled!

I exercised on my bike for 20 minutes last night and then I got up early this morning and did it for 15 minutes. I plan to work out for 25 minutes tonight. I want to work up to at least one hour a day. Exercising will really help me loose weight more quickly.

Dietary Supplements Part 2

As I noted a few weeks ago, I have decided to use some dietary supplements to help me lose weight. I wanted to use them for two reasons- boost energy, suppress appetite.

I used SlimQuick's Cleanse program first for seven days (June 26 to July 4). I really LOVED this product. I really did start to feel "cleaner" by the end of the week. I'm not sure if it boosted my metabolism or anything, but it definitely gave me a boost of energy and it my colon felt squeaky clean!

I have been using SlimQuick's Rapid Release caplets since Monday. I really love these suckers! 1. My appetite is nearly gone all day long. 2. My energy almost feels endless. For example, Monday night, I did our regular grocery shopping in half an hour vs the normal hour it takes. There is no horrible crash at the end of the day. I could use these forever!

A++ for SlimQuick.

The numbers are in from Monday

What a busy a week I've had so far! I thought I'd better catch up with myself.

1. I updated my stats on the top of the far right column. As you can see- zero poundage lost, but inches! That's just as good. I've noticed that my regular ol' M-F slacks are starting to fit more losely around my waist. Much better!

2. My skin is starting to have this adorable natural glow! I think it's from all the H20 I've been consuming (well...and I've been using some perscription anti-aging, acne fighting meds from my doc for about two months now). But it's really starting to look pretty!

3. I'm not going to make goals anymore. That's really not working for me. I feel guilty when I don't do what I said. And then I feel angry for feeling guilty. Down with the goals! I'm just going to enjoy my weightloss adventure as it happens.

4. Next week, I start a nutrition class at school. I've already been working on my homework- I'm going to learn so much! I'll be sure to share any interesting tid-bits I pick up.

Oops the week already over...

The second week of my weight loss journey has been pretty pathetic. For some reason, I just feel so incredibly lazy! I haven't tried any kind of exercise and yesterday for lunch I had a Double Cheeseburger from McDonald's. We also had Taco Buenos (twice) and The Boulevard Grill for dinner this week. Shit.

On a brighter note, I had Lean Cuisine for lunch and starved all day at work on Mon, Tues, Weds, and Thurs. I also had very limited pop intake (at most, two pops a day- down from 10).

So, I just need to shake it off and get back on the horse next week. Nobody said this thing was going to be easy!

The worst part about eating healthy is that I'm hungry two hours after I eat. It is like veggies and fruits just flush right through without "stickin' to my ribs". While I'm at work, I have a healthy, low-cal breakfast, a healthy, low-cal lunch, and a healthy snack. But by Five o'Clock, I AM STARVING! My tummy is growling and I can hardly concentrate on the traffic on the drive home because I'm thinking about food. I know being hungry isn't a bad thing, but then I just end up stuffing myself at dinner. And I want to out to eat because I don't want to wait for the food to be cooked. And then I pig out and feel guilty and mad at myself.