Monday, March 22, 2010

110 Pounds has MOVED!

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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Weight Loss Plateaus

I got a great question from a reader:
"i was looking at your weight loss log & i seems that you never really plateaued or temporarily stopped losing weight. congrats on your weight loss by the way! ive made a huge plateau right now and i think im going back to calorie counting to get off the final 20 pounds - any feedback on how to stayed on the weight loss train without getting off periodically?"

Oh yes.....I plateaued A LOT during my weight loss journey. If you look at the dates in my Log, you can probably see that I didn't always "weigh in" each week. In reality, I weighed in once a week EVERY week for the two years I was losing weight. However, if the scale didn't budge, or I gained weight that week, I didn't log it, I just wrote down whatever it said the following week. The reason behind this was that for me, I didn't want to get discouraged by seeing my log go up and down, up and down. So I just recorded losses.


In a previous post, I said my friend Rachel (above) started Weight Watchers. She's weighing and measuring every Saturday and logging it online. I think that's fantastic. It shows her progress on a graph too. So if she happens to plateau or gain a few during her time at WW, the graph will show that.

There was a time when I plateaued for MONTHS. It was really frustrating. After seeing so much progress each week, to be at a standstill for weeks (sometimes months) of hard work, it was discouraging. Keep at it! Don't get discouraged.


The above picture was taken at my 27th birthday (I think) when I weighed about 175.

The advice was I was given by my personal trainer to get over my plateau was pretty simple: DO WEIGHTS! A weight training program is the FASTEST way to lose weight when you get stuck. And it's important to mix things up!

Heading Home

Sunday we woke up fairly early and went out to breakfast. Again, I forgot to take a picture! I got 2 fried eggs, an English Muffin, and 2 strips of bacon. Instead of the hash browns, I asked to substitute fruit instead.


Breakfast was really big so we skipped lunch (even though we had planned on getting lunch at Dick's!--next time!) and left Seattle behind us.

When we got home, Michael hopped on his bike trainer to do his workout and I headed to the pool. It felt really nice to stretch my legs after yesterday's hike.


After swimming I decided to walk to the grocery store to get a few things. 45 minutes later, I had burned another 200 calories! Dinner tonight was leftover bratwursts.

Game Night And Snacks

We were all pretty pooped from the day of hiking and wine tasting. We picked up food from the store and headed back to the house to play games and have snacks. Rachel recently joined Weight Watchers, and since I'm on my own program, we got some healthy snacks.
Baby carrots, sliced cucumber, sliced orange peppers, reduced fat Wheat Thins, hard salami cubed small, and hummus. Very tasty snack!
I love hummus! We played games and relaxed and then Michael made turkey burgers for everyone!

Turkey burgers are much lower in calories and I think they taste better than ground beef. Michael calculated the turkey burger patties to be about 170 calories each (plus the toppings, etc).


I used mustard on the sandwich thins and a mixture of lettuce and sprouts, a tomato and some cheese. Delicious!

Very filling dinner!

Saturday Sushi & Wine Tasting

After the hike, we went to a sushi place in Bellevue that Rachel really liked.

We were ALL starving after the hike and with driving time, we didn't actually eat lunch until about 2pm. Michael and I got the Spicy Tuna Roll, Philly Roll and a Bay Roll.
It was very delicious! And the perfect amount of food for two people. After lunch, we headed to Woodinville, WA to do some wine tasting. I had grown up in Seattle but never went to Chateau Ste. Michelle before. They happen to make one of my favorite wines, so I was pretty excited to go there.

The grounds were absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, EVERYONE seemed to have the same idea we did and the place was packed! We could barely get a spot at the counter for the tasting, but eventually we did. I did the White Wine Tasting for $5 and got to sample some very yummy Rieslings!
 Michael, Rachel and her hubby Jeep all did the Red Wine Tasting for $10.

The Chateau Ste. Michelle dry Riesling is one of my favorites. I bought a bottle of their special limited release bottle to take home.

The grounds of the winery were really beautiful and tons of people were there having picnics. Next time I want to do that!

The fun thing about wine tasting is being able to sample a lot of different kinds of wine that you wouldn't normally try. And --small samples equal less calories than entire glass!

After Chateau Ste. Michelle we went to another winery down the street for another tasting. I bought a bottle of red from that Brian Carter Cellars. Then we decided to head home.

Hiking Rattlesnake Ridge

We stayed with some friends in Seattle this weekend. Saturday had fantastic weather! Michael made omelets for breakfast for everyone (I forgot to take a picture). Basically he made two omelets and each couple split them. Lots of veggies, some cheese, topped with sour cream and chopped tomato and a side of bacon. Delicious! My best friend Rachel drove us to Rattlesnake Ridge where the three of us hiked to the top! Here is a picture from the bottom before we started:

 The picture to the right is of us before we got to the trail.

It was a gorgeous day and everyone else came out to play too. The trail was packed. There was also Search & Rescue Teams in training along the way. That was interesting to see.


So the hike was apparently only 2 miles up but let me tell you, it was pretty steep! We stopped a long the way to rest and to enjoy the view.

I felt really good about the hike. I never felt like I was going to die. I definitely got my heart pounding but I was barely out of breath.

Here is a picture of Rachel and I at the top! The view was absolutely amazing! It was very scary as well--so I didn't want to get any closer to the edge!

I wish I could remember what the mountain range was behind us! Like I said earlier, there were sooo many people out hiking that it was QUITE the party at the top!


And here is the other side of the top:

We sat down to rest. Rachel shared some of her homemade trail mix (yum). Michael and I brought our protein bars (Luna for me, Atkins for him) but the breakfast had been pretty filling and neither of us felt like we needed the protein bars.

Here is a picture of my resting at the top:

We headed down and made it to the bottom much quicker and with no stops. 2 hours of hiking burned 826 calories for me! Now lunch time!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Friday's Food

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs (3 eggs, 3 egg whites split between two people) and 2 turkey sausage links each, topped with a little cheese, sour cream and salsa. This is a pretty standard breakfast for us. Calories: about 300.

Morning snack: Banana, slightly bruised. I'm trying to eat it slowly because it's going to be a long time until lunch today! I'm also having a Crystal Light (100 + 5 calories).

Afternoon Snack: Trader Joe's Greek Yogurt (I think 110 calories) and the Light Pom Super Tea.

Lunch: The last Smart Ones frozen dinner I have at work. My goal next week is to make some easy and healthy lunches I can bring. I'm pretty sick of the Lean Cuisines lately.

Dinner: A slice of pizza. Dinner is going to be on the go tonight since we are heading out for the weekend!


Today during lunch I went for a walk in the Pearl District. It was so beautiful outside! I definitely did not need my jacket and I even wished I was wearing shorts! I am sooo excited for nice weather to be here! Here are a few pictures from my walk:


























If you aren't familiar with downtown Portland, "The Pearl District" is yuppy-ville downtown. Hipsters, Yuppies, Rich People Who Live In Lofts. But it's also got some cool upscale stores and restaurants too. I walked by Cupcake Jones and couldn't resist drooling through the window.


Mmmmm....cupcakes. Someday I will try one from there!