The Skinny on Me

Day eleven: What are your family’s roommates eating habits like?

I don’t live at home, but for the purpose of this exercise, I’ll use my roommate. My roommate, D, like me, is also trying to lose weight. Though she only really needs/wants to lose 5-10 pounds, so it’s not as extreme as my own weight-loss efforts. 

We both cook healthy meals; we both try to eat things like 100 calorie kettle popcorn in place of whatever yummy morsel our sweet tooth is edging us for. We both eat smaller meals, more little snacks, throughout the day, rather than three basic meals. 

The only main differences are she is lactose intolerant, and I’m trying my darnedest to not eat processed carbs. 

Day twelve: What are your friend’s eating habits like?

Well, most of us are trying to be healthy. We all have our ideal shapes and sizes and none of us are at them. Although, most of my friends aren’t as overweight as I am. 

One of them is trying to boost her future housewife skills, cooking meals that may or may not be low fat, low cal or low carb, but delicious nonetheless. One of them is learning to cut out dairy and trying to eat less meat. One of them is trying to gain weight/muscle (my one skinny little guy friend). 

Luckily, none of my friends are the eat, eat, eat kind or the sweets, sweets, sweets kind. 

Day nine: What is your favourite food, healthy or unhealthy.

Geez, way to ask the super tough questions (i’m not kidding). Um. My favorite food… um… 

I guess I have a lot of favorites (probably the reason why I’m chubs in the first place). 

For a while, it was ice cream. I used to LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE ice cream, as in crave it after each and every meal. Thankfully, I’ve fallen out of love with the sweet snack, though I still do crave it occasionally. 

So… what food(s) do I love:

• Ahi Tuna … seared to perfection
• Anything peanut butter
• Cheese… a good brie is to-die-for fantabulous

I think that’s it… or at least all I care to admit. Although, cupcakes might be on that list too (though they are more of a must-have item when my BFF and I are together, otherwise I’m fine without). 

Day ten: Do you eat breakfast? What do you usually have?

Yes, I eat breakfast. I am one of those people who can’t survive when I’m hungry. After a while, I go from simply being hungry to the low-blood-sugar queen of horrendous. So yes, I eat breakfast. 

Recently, I’ve become a Chobani girl. I love Chobani. I kid you not, on more than one occasion I buy 10-15+ things of Chobani when they go on sale. Yeah, I’m that girl. My favorite flavor? Raspberry. 

Today, for example, I had strawberry chobani and one turkey sausage patty. When I was working, I would typically shoot for a hard-boiled egg right before I left for work (or as soon as I got there) and then save my Chobani for a mid-morning snack (I waited until at least 10am before opening it). That usually held me over until lunch (which I typically ate around 1). 

Week Two!

If you broke your unhealthy habit for one week, congratulations! Why not try two weeks? Well, that would be a good plan, except I never decided on which unhealthy habit I should drop. Instead, I crammed slice after slice of apple butter covered toast down my throat. Hey, here’s a thought: maybe, I should drop my unhealthy habit of sabotaging my diets for the week. Ey? 

Ok, ok, being serious… This week, I plan to … I have no freaking idea…

• Stick to my two-drink limit (which would be great, except I really haven’t been drinking much lately anyways)
• Stop sabotaging my diets (let’s keep it realistic ppl)
• Eat out only once (do-able and advisable considering I have no money, but what counts as “eating out”? I just grabbed a jamba juice (using $5 for $10 deal I had already purchased… does that mean I’m done for the week?) 

Weekly challenge: Get organised! This week try to plan tomorrow’s meal the night before. This one is easy! As I mentioned, one of my new year’s resolutions is trying out at least 52 new recipes. This week’s recipe is going to be Brisket Tacos (or some moderation of it). Delicious, right?

Day eight: Name 5 things you like about your body (you can do it) and the one body part you’d like to change the most. Ugh…

1. My height — I’m not too tall, not too short. At 5’6.5”, I can still where heels or I can go in flats. 
2. My boobs — They are big (but not too big); they are fabulous. 
3. My waist — Flub aside, I have quite the hourglass waistline
4. My lips — Full, plump, perfect
5. My eyes

Wow, that was harder than I thought it might be. Now, for the easy part… What don’t I like about my body (only one thing). Well, I don’t like my permanent muffin top. No joke! Around my hips, my bone juts in a bit before my thighs. It leaves me with an awkward looking cut around my muffin top area.. it does not go away. :-(

As it turns out, I’m not so good about this daily blogging thing. Granted, this week has been one giant transition for me as this was my first week of no longer working the 8-5 scene (or any scene for that matter). To make it a point to stick to a somewhat normal schedule, I do my best to go to bed by 12ish and wake up around 8ish. I am trying (and failing) to keep working out. I am also trying (and failing) to not spend my days glued to the couch. 

As it also turns out, I am not so good at coming up with things to do when I literally have nothing to do. 

But today (and yesterday) are different. Yesterday, I ran. It was crappy and definitely proved a point (that I need to get off my lazy ass and go outside more often). I also started reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. And today, well today, I’m here. I’m on tumblr, and I’m blogging. 

Day five: Is there any specific event you want to lose the weight for?

A specific event? My life in general. Yes, there will be times in the future that I am using as goals to help me along my weightloss adventure. For example, I plan to run a half-marathon April 1 (assuming I can afford it), and I plan to weigh in the 150s then. Then, in May, I’ll be hitting up both the Kentucky Derby and Vegas. As expected, I hope to be looking fierce for both drinking extravaganzas. 

But ultimately, this weight loss journey is different. It isn’t fueled by my desire to simply look skinny for Vegas. It’s fueled by my desire to finally take charge and be happy about myself. I don’t have a deadline for hitting any certain weights. I just have the determination to get there, sooner rather than later. 

Day six: Have you ever been overweight or underweight?

I’ve always been overweight. There was a time at the beginning of high school, when I lost a lot of weight and walked around in size 6 jeans. At that point, I was within a normal BMI, but I was by no means healthy. I was still, what some like to call, “skinny fat”. I was skinny, but I still had the flub to love around the middle. I was still eating shitty-ass things like Poptarts and Pizza all the time. 

Day seven: Do your friends and family know you are trying to lose weight?

My friends, yes. My family, kinda. My dad and stepmom know, only because I was adamant to sticking to my weight-loss strategy over the holidays. We didn’t do a dessert, because I didn’t want it in the house. We made rice stuffing instead of bread stuffing, because I wasn’t eating processed carbs. 

My other family members don’t know, especially my mom. We have a rocky relationship to say the least. Over Thanksgiving, we were always on edge with each other. She was calling me fat, I was in my typical bitchy, mom-and-i-don’t-get-along-so-i’m-not-gonna-try-to-fix-it mood. I’m not telling her, because I don’t want this to be about her. I don’t want her to make the assumption that this was all started because she kept calling me fat. I don’t want to give her any reason to gloat. This isn’t her success, it’s mine. 

Day three: Do you count calories? What is your daily calorie goal/allowance?

Yes, between 1200-1300 a day. According to my Daily Plate (Livestrong) app, I should be eating about 1190 a day to lose 2lbs a week. I think that’s stupidly low, so as long as I shoot for between 1200-1300 I’m cool. 

Day four: Do you work out? How many times a week?

Yes, well I inconsistently workout. I try for three times a week, but lately it’s been more like once or maybe twice a week. No one is perfect. BUT… I will be running today AND doing the ab workout from P90x. Apparently, I will feel like death tomorrow. Yippee! 

Week One!

Challenge: Pick one unhealthy food or habit you have (eg. Artificial sweetener, chocolate, eating after 8pm, skipping breakfast) and aim to go 7 days without eating/doing it.

Day One: How tall are you, what do you currently weigh, and what do you hope to weigh after the 60 days? (Be realistic).

I am 5’6.5”  and currently weigh 169.1 lbs. When I started trying to eat healthier and work out more (around the end of October), I weighed in at 176. Although, I didn’t really get on board with the whole lifestyle change until December. 

Ideally, I would like to try to lose about 5 lbs a month. By the end of this challenge, I would like to weigh in around 160.  

Day Two: What is your MAIN reason for wanting to lose weight? (Be honest.) 

I’ve spent nearly 23 years being unhappy about my weight. I’d like to spend the next 60 not having to worry about it. 

** To coordinate with the days of the month, I having it start yesterday.