Progress Saturday...A day late

We weighed in yesterday as usual, but time flew by the rest of the day so I didn't post the results.

Will weighed in at 314 lbs.  He lost 3 pounds this week, and he's lost a total of 35 pounds since we changed our lives 6 weeks ago.

I weighed in at 175 lbs.  After no change last week, I was very happy to see the 2 pound decrease!  I've lost a total of 14 pounds since we started.  I'm started to see and feel differences in my body, and it feels so good.  My clothes fit so much better, and I can look in the mirror without feeling total disgust most of the time.

This week has been full of portion control and exercise.  This week will be more of the same, and hopefully I can step it up at the gym more this week.

Eat clean, exercise dirty!

Little technology...Big difference

Monday night when we were leaving the gym I purchased an early birthday present for myself, a Fitbit. I love new gadgets, but this one has made a bigger difference than I could've imagined.

 

It measures the number of steps you've taken:

 the number of flights of stairs you've climbed:

 

the number of miles you've walked:

and the amount of calories you've burned:

 It also shows you how active you've been in the past 3 hours by the number of petals on a flower (up to 12 petals...I need to walk more!):

It's so small and can clip on your pants, bra, shirt, or even just placed into your pocket. 

It also records your sleep patterns at night.  It uploads wirelessly to a personalized webpage for you and calculates how many calories you can consume based on calories you've burned to lose your goal weight each week.  You can input your caloric and water intake on the webpage as well.    It has pretty graphs that show your activity level throughout the day and your sleep patterns at night, including how many times you woke up.  There's also an iPhone app that shows all of the things the webpage does, and I do love new apps! 

It came with a comfortable wrist band to use at night for sleeping and a clip that can be used for thicker materials than the Fitbit can clip on to (like my comfy pj pants that tie at the top).  It also came with a USB charger which rarely has to be used since it holds a charge for at least 3 full days and reportedly up to a week.  I've used it a day and a half and still have almost a full charge so I believe that it could easily last a full week.

 

Yesterday was my first day to wear it all day and night, and it's so addicting!!  I'm constantly looking at it to see how many steps I've taken and calories I've burned.  I check the webpage more than I check Facebook.  It's satisfying to see my calorie deficit throughout the day.  Times when I would otherwise be sitting around, I find myself walking around instead to see how high I can get my activity level.

Since I work in an office all day and have few opportunities to be active, this is a great motivator to get off the couch at night!  I highly recommend a Fitbit for absolutely anyone.  If you're needing motivation, this will definitely help!

Eat Clean, Exercise Dirty!

Officially...Obsessed

Two days of gyming it and I'm loving it!  Tonight's workout was harder, but that just made it even more rewarding.  I'm already obsessed with eating clean, and I sense a new obsession in going to the gym.

This is going to work.  I'm going to be healthy and fit for the first time in my life.  I can really feel it this time.  I'm not saying there won't be hard days, but nothing is stopping me now.  I AM DOING THIS!

I did take a break from obsessing today to book our trip to Texas for Christmas WOOOO HOOO!  I'm so excited!  My grandparents were ecstatic when I called them to tell them.  Two full weeks to spend with my family!

Eat Clean, Exercise Dirty!

Motivation...Feeling Pumped

After breakfast this morning, I renewed my 24 Hour Fitness membership, and after lunch we're hitting the gym for some weight training!

I'm excited!  Here's some motivation if anyone needs it:

Saturday...Progress Day

Will and I always weigh on Saturdays after we get our grocery shopping for the week done.  

This week's weigh in results:

Will down 4 pounds (now 317 lbs)

Me no change from last week (177 lbs) - BUT I didn't gain weight.

I'll admit I ate too much a few times this week.

My goals this week:

Control portion sizes

Start going to the gym 5 days a week starting tomorrow

I'll be posting picture updates every 4 weeks.  Here are the pictures of us today.

Yes, Will is sticking his tongue out.  He's so silly :)

Pizza....Yes, We Eat Pizza!!

This meal deserves it's own post because it's my favorite so far.  It all started with this:

This is Leafy (named by Will), our new basil plant that Will's mom gave us.  She had a lot of leaves so we decided to make Pesto!  Then we had to do something with the pesto, and I wasn't really feeling pasta that night so we decided to make pizza instead.

We found a clean pizza crust at Whole Foods and topped it with our pesto, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, mushrooms on my side, and olives on his side.  Here's the finished result:

Next time we'll use about half of the olive oil that we used in the pesto this time, but it was so good!  I highly recommend!

Clean Meals...Pleasant Surprise

When we began eating clean I was worried the food would taste bland and we'd be stuck eating dry chicken and brown rice all the time.  We found a lot of great recipes, and everything we've made so far has been flavorful and moist and delicious except one for pancakes.  I've found several other pancake recipes that I'm going to try that I think will be better though.

Here are some of the meals that I took pictures of in the past month.

This is Cilantro Lime Shrimp found here, Quinoa with Asian Flavors found here but made with Tamari (low sodium) instead of soy sauce, and mixed veggies.

 This is Baked Fried Chicken found here that we modified (use oat flour and a mixture of garlic powder, chili powder, dry mustard, ginger, and nutmeg to replace the Season All) and Roasted Vegetables with rosemary and olive oil.

Apple-Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats that I eat for breakfast every morning.  Here's the recipe.  It's so much tastier than what it looks like.

Chocolate Protein Bars found here.

I'll be sharing a lot more recipes later.  These are just the ones I have pictures of right now.

July 16...Day One of the Rest of Our Lives

We took these pictures before work Monday, July 16.  I'll be posting our progress every Saturday starting tomorrow.

 My handsome fiancé.

 Me before I was fully awake.

Clean Eating...Our First Month

As if Will (my fiancé) and I haven't had enough changing in our lives, we also decided to change our diet significantly.  We have both been overweight for a long time now.  I've been unhappy with my weight and the way I looked and felt for as long as I can remember.  I've tried working out, Weight Watchers, a low calorie diet, and even awful things like the cabbage soup diet (don't try it!!!).  I always got the same results: lost weight only to gain it back plus a lot extra.  I always started out really motivated and slowly (sometimes quickly...ahem, cabbage soup) lost steam because I was hungry or felt like crap or couldn't stop craving non-diet foods.

I knew for us to be successful we needed to find the perfect fit for us.  We talked long and hard about what we didn't want: to be hungry all the time or be forced to eat food that tasted bad.  I had pretty much given up hope of finding such a miracle diet when I found a picture on Pinterest leading me to heandsheeatclean.com.  I spent hours reading their blog (if you haven't read it go do it...after you finish reading this, of course).  It's a husband and wife following a "clean eating" lifestyle.  As I read, I kept thinking it was too good to be true so I purchased the book they suggested that started it all for them: Tosca Reno's "Just the Rules: Tosca's Guide to Eating Right."  It was cheap and only took about an hour to read.  After I read it I felt disgusted with all the crap I had been eating.

So eating clean was my new project, and all that was left to do was convince Will to join me.  He wasn't thrilled about it at first, but after he read the book, he was on board.  A few weeks later on July 16, we began our new lifestyle (don't call it a diet or Will might snap at you that it's a lifestyle like he has to his family).  Our starting weights were 349 lbs (Will) and 189 lbs (me).

If you've never heard of eating clean you're probably beyond confused and curious about what exactly I'm talking about.  So what is eating clean?  It sounds so restrictive when I list out the parameters of the lifestyle, but it's surprisingly not.  We eat no preservatives, sugar, white flour, or white potatoes.  We eat sea salt instead of table salt.  We eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and every meal consists of a lean protein and a complex carbohydrate.  We eat as much organic foods as we can find and try to eat only meat that has been grass fed and hormone free.  We eat 5-6 meals a day (every 2-3 hours).

We've gotten into a comfortable routine that works for us.  We cook dinner every night, making enough for leftovers for lunch the next day.  We cook several things on the weekends for the whole week such as steel cut oats for breakfast, hard boiled eggs (only for the egg whites), and protein bars for quick meal options.  We've found lots of recipes that taste fantastic and don't require a degree in culinary arts or several hours to prepare.

We weigh every Saturday to track our progress but not get scale-obsessive.  So far Will has lost 28 pounds and I've lost 12 pounds.  The first week we lost a lot, but we think it was mostly water weight due to a significant cut in sodium intake and increase in water consumption.  Even more important than the amount we've lost is the way we feel.  I've never felt this good in my life.  I used to be tired all the time and could take a nap any time of the day but not sleep at night.  Now, I sleep at night.  I wake up feeling rested and don't get tired until it's approaching my bed time, and I have energy!  I was shocked to find out how awful bad foods can make me feel.

This is our new life.  Our ultimate goal is to be healthy for the children we hope to have someday, and I'll be sharing all the food and exercise it takes to get there.

Happy (clean) eating everyone!

Me In a Nutshell

My name is Lisa.  I met my fiancé online 4 years ago.  He's from California, and I'm from Texas.  We were close friends for over a year until we finally decided to meet.  We did the long distance thing for 2 1/2 years, and as much fun as that was, we decided that I'd move to California after I graduated from UTA (University of Texas at Arlington...Go Mavs!).  So as soon as the cap and gown came off, we packed up a truck, put my car on a trailer, and hit the road.  Now we're living in California together enjoying the beautiful weather.  No more Texas summers for me!!  He is my best friend, and surviving the distance for so long created a very strong foundation for our life together.

We've had a fun little journey in the last few months since my move.  We stayed in his tiny little studio apartment the first month I was here until his lease was up.  Then we moved to our cute little 1 bedroom apartment that I'm so in love with!  After much unpacking and moving stuff around, I finally have everything the way I want it and love relaxing in our first little home together in our free time.  I also started working for an attorney temporarily while his legal assistant had surgery and recovers.  It's not what I ultimately want to do, but it's a great networking opportunity and I've made several friends there.  I hope it leads me to something great.

Until it does though, we're kind of in limbo with several things, including planning our wedding.  I obviously have lots of ideas of what I want, but until we know what kind of budget we can set, there's no real planning yet.

So this is me.  I hope you all find my journey through life as interesting as it is living it.