Days 6, 7, and 8...Some highs and lows

Sigh. This whole process is quite the process. Forgive my absence for a few days. I know I'm supposed to be here updating every day as part of my experiment, but I took a bit of a stumble, if you will.

Sunday I slept in after going out the night before for celebrations. If you'll recall, I was pleased with how well I had done for only having two cocktails. Fast forward to my friend calling and wanting to meet up for lunch and a few drinks. Lunch and a few drinks quickly got out of hand. We had lunch and a beverage at Opal Divine's, before heading across the street to Dogwood, where I believe I had another three beverages. At this point, we went to my friend's bar The Love Goat, where it was Free Champagne Sunday. I had too many beverages to count in the next several hours as we all hung out. We were out long enough that it became dinner time and we got cheeseburgers for dinner from Dirty Martin's next door.

So to recap, I broke several of my diet guidelines. I ate gluten. I did not have a salad for either meal. And while I didn't mention anything about alcohol when I set all of this up, I definitely drank far too much in one day. Or one week really.

Monday I was feeling rather dehydrated (imagine that), so I drank as much water as possible and had salads for both lunch and dinner. I did not get my walk in either Sunday or Monday.

So those are the lows. Pretty low, I know.But today was a new day and I was not going to throw in the towel.

This morning I weighed in to see how I did in Week 1 and the result was pretty good: I was 284.2. Which means I lost 4.8 pounds! I'm trying not to dwell on how that number could have been higher if I had not let myself get so far off-track. I prefer to use it as motivation to stay on track for this next week so I have another decent number next Tuesday. I went to the gym today for what I would call a great/killer workout. I did a warm up, got in two tense weight circuits (I had planned to do three, but my muscles were screaming), did some additional lunges and squats, abs, and stretching. I also got in my walk.

Breakfast: Greek yogurt with honey (All out of fruit this morning)
Lunch: Veggie burrito bowl from Chipotle
Dinner: HEB small Rotisserie Chicken Chef-Prepared garden salad. Greens with a scoop of chicken salad, cucumber, shredded carrots, and ranch dressing. I picked off the tomatoes, obvs.
Dessert: Small cup (actual term) of Ben & Jerry's Raspberry FroYo I've been digging lately

So those are the highs. Looking forward to yoga tomorrow!

Day 5

For anyone who has ever been on a diet, I'm sure you've noticed that you get into a pretty solid routine during the workweek, then things get a bit derailed on the weekends, no? (I'm not currently working, so I don't exactly count the past four days the "workweek".) Working within my established guidelines, today went pretty smoothly! Success!

Breakfast: Honey-flavored Greek yogurt with strawberries

Lunch: Jason's Deli Nutty Mixed up Salad -- Mixed greens, grilled chicken, apples, grapes, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, feta, and balsalmic vinaigrette. Also, a cup of broccoli cheese soup on the side.

Snack: Ben & Jerry's Frozen Greek Raspberry Yogurt with Fudge Chunks

Dinner: Mr. Pink taco from Torchy's* with a side of Mexican Street Corn

Drinks: Two vodka sevens**

*Let me tell you about Torchy's. It is my favorite place to eat in Austin, period. And they sell tacos out of a trailer. But not ordinary tacos. Freaking amazing, gourmet tacos. Like the Mr. Pink, for example. It has guajillo-marinated, seared Ahi tuna, cabbage fresca, queso fresco, and a chipotle ranch sauce, all on a warm corn tortilla (gluten free!). It is just amazing. 

 *I know I'm supposed to not be drinking sodas during this 12 weeks, but vodka sevens are pretty much the only thing I drink when I go out. And tonight we were celebrating a close friend's graduation from the UT Master's program. So two sodas for me, slap on the wrist, carrying on with my program now.

Day 4

I am so sore today. All of the squats and lunges yesterday killed me. And the yoga today didn't help much.

Yoga passes itself off as this very soothing, calm, zen activity, but holy hell is it intense. I took a class specifically for beginners, and I was drenched in sweat ten minutes in. While my body doesn't quite bend the way it was supposed to, I like to think I did pretty well for my first attempt. I'm actually looking forward to going back on Monday.

Today's food looks like this:

Breakfast: Lemon-flavored Greek yogurt with strawberries

Lunch:Madam Mam's Tom Kha with chicken (this restaurant is my absolute fave Thai food in Austin!)

Snack: Peanut butter chocolate chip LaraBar

Dinner: Central Market Mediterranean Salad -- Romaine, grilled salmon, cucumber, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives, hummus, pepperoncinis, feta, and oregano dressing

Dessert: Ben & Jerry's Frozen Raspberry Greek yogurt with fudge chunks

Cheers to the weekend! I plan on getting my walks in during afternoon hours to try to get a bit of tan on this body!

Day 3

Today was my first day back at the gym since around the beginning of February. I didn't even overdo it, and I am in pain. I definitely need to set aside ten minutes at the end of gym days to stretch everything really, really well. I'm hoping a hot shower will soothe everything.

Tomorrow at noon I take a beginners' yoga class. I have done yoga before, but it was short-lived. The class is 45 minutes long, but my sister goes to this studio and she says they are really good about allowing everyone to go at their own pace. So if there's something I'm struggling with or if I'm getting too tired, I am free to take a breather or adjust as necessary.

Today's food is eerily similar to Tuesday's. I lacked the imagination or energy to venture too far for anything, so I switched things up and had my salad for lunch as opposed to dinner.

Breakfast: 2% Greek yogurt with strawberries, banana, and honey

Lunch: Tino's combination chicken/gyro salad -- romaine, grilled chicken, gyro, cucumbers, Kalamata olives, feta, and Greek dressing.

Dinner: Chipotle veggie burrito bowl -- Brown rice, black beans, grilled fajita veggies, corn salsa, green salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce.

It has been far too long since I've had a gyro. It was magical. And this is the first time in history that I've had a vegetarian anything at Chipotle. But I didn't even miss the steak that I usually get. Victory :)

Day 2

First, a quick update on our kitchen situation. Our cabinets will be done tomorrow, but the counter tops and sink won't be finished until Monday. Which means several more days of no kitchen usage. Grr. The eating out continues.

BUT I'm fairly pleased with how I did today considering!

Breakfast: 2% Greek yogurt with strawberries, banana and honey

Lunch: Tom Kha soup from my neighborhood Thai restaurant. If you've never had Tom Kha, find some and eat it as quickly as possible! It is a magical combination of coconut milk, Thai chiles, lemongrass, mushrooms, and some form of protein (I got shrimp today, but I've had it with chicken and my sister gets hers with tofu). I added a side of rice to it and it made a light yet filling lunch.

Snack: Grande iced no-whip mocha latte from Starbucks

Dinner: Dinner Salad from The Dogwood. Mine had green leaf lettuce, grilled chicken, cucumbers, and avocado ranch dressing. (...and two John Dalys. Sweet tea vodka and lemonade over ice...)

Observations: I'm greatly looking forward to making my salads at home soon, mostly because restaurant salads typically come standard with tomatoes and raw onions, neither of which I eat. When I ask for those to be omitted, it leaves me with a pretty bare-bones salad. Also, that's way too much sugar for a few beverages. 

I just finished my 30 minute walk for the day, and it's about time for a shower and some reading before bed!

The beginning of the journey

Greetings! I am Jess, a 27 year-old laid-back chick living in Austin, TX. I'm also what doctors consider morbidly obese. I've been overweight just about all of my life. I played sports from the time I was 5 until 20, and managed to keep my weight from spiraling out of control. But it has steadily been climbing for the past seven years. 


I've reached the point where I'm tired of it, and I'm ready to be healthy. I don't want to do anything extreme, though. No eliminating carbs, no working out for seven hours every day, no drastic surgeries. I'm going to live a normal, healthy life.


My plan for a normal, healthy life means tweaking some not-so-healthy behaviors and habits I've formed over the years. I'm going to have to adjust the way I eat, and increase my daily exercise. Here's a breakdown of the plan.


 Diet

• No gluten. I discovered about 18 months ago that I am gluten-intolerant and went off of gluten. I felt so much better! Then after about 6 months, I started eating it here and there, and now I eat it all the time. For the next 12 weeks, I'm gluten free.
• At least one meal every day will be a salad for the next 12 weeks. That is 85 salads. Not boring, tasteless salads, but delicious, gourmet, high-quality salads. Think grilled meats or seafood, roasted veggies like beets, creamy goat cheese or feta, homemade vinaigrette, etc.
• Breakfast will be fruit and yogurt every day, to eliminate the guesswork in the morning. Plus, fruit and yogurt is a nice refreshing start to a hot Texas summer day. I'm a fan of the Greek yogurt myself. I'm going to try to stick to the unflavored varieties, just to limit the amount of added sugars.
• No sodas. Lots and lots of water every day.

Exercise

• 30 minutes of walking/jogging every day. I'm starting the Couch to 5K program, which will be three days of jogging 30 minutes per week, and will walk 30 minutes on the other four days. My goal is to run 3 miles in 30 minutes by the end of the 12 weeks.
• One hour of weight training twice weekly at my gym.
• Two, one-hour yoga classes in a studio every week.

That's it!  No crazy restrictive diets. No excessive exercising. Outside of those food guidelines, I can have whatever I want IN MODERATION. And outside of the exercise guidelines, I'm free to do whatever I please. 

I'll post daily menus of what I'm eating, as well as recipes if I happen to create something especially tasty. I'll also weigh-in every week to check my progress on this plan. That being said...

Day 1*
Starting weight: 289 (sigh)

Lunch: Chipotle Burrito Bowl (Brown rice, black beans, steak, corn salsa, green salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce)
Dinner: Tino's Greek Cafe Chicken Feta Salad (Romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, cucumbers, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, creamy Greek dressing)
Dessert: Chocolate nonfat frozen yogurt with strawberries and blackberries 


*Excuse my starting this by eating out for every meal. Our counter tops are being replaced and we've been without a sink or counters for a few days. There is no way to cook in our kitchen! Here's to doing the best I can under the circumstances!