2-11-16

I got a compliment yesterday in a co-worker who I haven't seen in about a week and half asking if I have lost weight I was able to tell him about 5 pounds not quiet back to where I was when I started with the company but doing better than I was at the beginning of the year. He said it was noticeable and good job.  This made my day, now to build on that feeling and continue to improve!


I missed blogging yesterday but yesterdays smoothie was a Blackberry and pear smoothie it was delicious except for the blackberry seeds.  My blender isn't good enough to pulverize them, if I keep up with the smoothie in the morning I will invest in a better blender either a vitamix or the Aldi knock off https://www.aldi.us/en/grocery-home/home-goods/ambiano/professional-blender/  I fell off the wagon yesterday and ate WAY to much, there was left over pizza at work so I ate a piece and 2 pieces of bread, at home I ate a sandwich at 10 pm and stayed up until 11 pm.  I feel it was partly because I didn't blog my goals for the day.  I also was back on electronics most of the night, now a good portion of that was looking for items for a project my wife wants me to complete and then writing a menu and grocery list for the next week and a half.  However I did play games instead of cuddle with my son and watch the movie he wanted to watch. Dinner last night was breakfast, we did pancakes, eggs, and sausage.  I should have stopped when my first plate was gone and not eaten my kids left over plus another pancake.  I am up in weight up to 242.9 so up 1.2 pounds since Monday. I don't like it and I need to fix it.


Today I am striving to do better, I got up late due to sleeping in and missed my shower.  I did make a smoothie but made it to thick and had left my bottle at work so I was unable to bring any with me for lunch. The smoothie I made this morning was blueberry, strawberry, pear.  It was good but thick, I did spinach and protein in it again.  I only added 10 ounces of water probably should have done closer to 14. Lunch today is some left over pot roast, just the beef and carrots no potatoes, and a large ceaser salad. Dinner tonight will be meatloaf, mashed and veggies, I will hold myself to 2 slices of meatloaf, 1/4 cup of potatoes and as many veggies as I can fit on my plate. I need to drink more water today I think I only got in about 45 ounces yesterday I strive for closer to 80.  Snack today is a cheese stick and apple.


I am going to watch my screen time tonight and hang out with the family.  my phone will go away when it isn't between 5-6 when I am cooking and only come out again after the kids are in bed for a few minutes before I myself go to bed. I can get back on the wagon and drive it to the finish line if I just have some will power and self control, two things that I have notoriously lacked in the last 10 years.


-Nick

Tuesday 2-9-2016

Today started out well weighed in at 241.6 down 1.1lbs from yesterday.  I still ate to many sweets yesterday I ate a sandwich at 8 pm again, and had a brownie at work due to a potluck leaving them out, munched on to much candy at my moms and then again at home dinner was very good last night I chose to do noodles instead of rice and put a very small amount under my peppers and sausage.  Will power sucks on snacking!


Smoothie of the day was:
Orange            1/2
Banana            1/2
Apple              1/2
Spinach
water
protein powder


Left me enough to have 15 ounces of it with my lunch, drank about 30 ounces for breakfast.  It is working well I am not hungry until lunch time when I do the smoothie in the morning.  I need to start kicking back on my cravings and not eating unless I am actually hungry.  Lunch today will be a left over chicken ceaser wrap my wife brought home from work when she decided she couldn't finish it, and the rest of my morning smoothie.  Dinner is going to be tacos, I will be going for a taco salad with no chips or tortillas and lots of lettuce.   I am drinking water consistently through out the day and brought an apple and some cashews to snack on if I get hungry before my lunch.  I have a work meeting from 11-12 I normally eat between 11-1130 so that will be interesting.  I also signed up to serve root beer floats for a congratulations event for our production staff for getting perfect scores on our performance testing for period 1. I need to stop myself from eating the root beer floats myself. 


Putting my electronics up except while cooking and after 8pm during wind down time for the little bug(my son) worked well.  Now to keep that up going forward.  I will try to get out to the gym tonight as well and if nothing else just do some cardio and squats nothing real major but get the body back into the mentality of the gym. I will work more on tonning right now than I will on muscle building I don't want to bulk up until I get down to my target weight of 215-220, I am hoping to hit that goal by june.  I have 21.6 pounds to go in 4 months, I think that's a very attainable goal if I stick with it.


-Nick

Todays smoothie was
Kale                                     2c
Black Berries                      10
Banana                                1/2
Apple (granny smith)          1/2
Water                                  1c
Protein powder                   4 scoops


Conclusion from todays smoothie, I need to get better protein powder, the one I have is vanilla and you could definitely tell it was there.  I could also use a better blender but I want to make sure I am going to stick with this for the long haul before investing that kind of money.  The kale took a while to blend up and this is where pre freezing it would come in handy.  I drank 30 oz. of smoothie this morning and brought another 20 with me for lunch along with the makings of a ceaser salad.  I did not have chicken so I couldn't add that to my salad.  Tonight when I get home I am going to put my electronics away except for an hour between 5-6 when I am making dinner, this is the next step in having a better me I need to interact with my family more and less with my electronics.


I brought 2 snacks for work today one for right around 10 am and one for 3 pm, I plan to eat lunch about 1130.  I have an apple and a palm full of almonds for 10 am, and a cheese stick and a palm full of almonds for 3pm.  I need to find other healthy options, leaning towards carrots/sugar snap peas with hummus, and maybe some hard salami and brick cheese. Will continue to vary the fruit, with watermelon, oranges, bananas, pretty much whatever I have extra after making my smoothie bags in every few weeks.


Dinner tonight will be Sausage and peppers over rice, I will be doing little to no rice and loading up on the peppers and onions.  My recipe is as follows:


6, 4 oz mild or sweet Italian sausage,
1 Tbs butter
1 yellow onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2 Tbs garlic
1/4 C white wine
1tsp basil
1tsp oregano


Brown the sausage on all 4 sides in a skillet, remove from skillet, add butter and onions sautee for 2-3 minutes.  Add peppers, wine, garlic, basil, oregano, and sausage back in. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes to let vegetables get soft and the sausage to get hot.  Server over noodles or rice (I choose Brown Rice)


Now to actually do what I said I will do!


-Nick

It is Monday February 8th 2016, I have been going for a few weeks now on making a better me.  I was disappointed with myself on January 1st when I had gained 10 pounds between thanksgiving and new years.  I was proud of myself and doing well last year as I had lost 40 pounds total before thanksgiving I ended the year at 30 total.  My goal was 45 which I didn't hit.  I have set a goal of getting down to 220 pounds by the end of 2016, I started January first at 247.2.  That gives me a 27.2 lb goal this year.  Weight is not the only goal I am going to be trying to accomplish this year, I also want to transform myself into a better a person, father, husband, an all around better Nick.  I have started in the hygiene department, I started showering every day other than when I felt like it. I started shaving every other day (I hate shaving with a passion and can't bring myself to do it every day).  This will mostly be about my weight loss journey and a small amount about my own emotional state and how I am making the attempts to be a better a father and husband. I need to get my own emotional state in check prior to moving on to being better for others.


I am still working on making changes to my daily routine, starting with waking up with a smile and trying to be positive this will be a huge a change.  I start my day with a shower, shave, and then make lunch for myself, get my wife's daily snack ready and make my sons lunch for preschool.  While I am getting lunches ready, I am blending my morning green smoothie this may be the number one way I am setting myself up for a diet. My smoothie consists of a green leafy vegetable (Kale, Spinach, Romain, or beat leaves) fruit, protein powder and water.  I have been making my fruit packs up ahead of time and try to blend up my greens and freeze them in ice cubes, I need to get some 1 oz to go dressing containers to freeze the greens in.  


List of my last 4 days of smoothies

Thursday 2-4-16
Kale	1c
Spinach	1c
Granny smith apple	1ea
Strawberries (frozen)	7ea
Water	1/2c
protein powder	2 scoops
Taste was good, I was a little disapointed in my blender as the greens weren't juiced well still a little chewy. Definitely had the hint of apple with the slight bitterness of the greens I did miss the strawberries will either change those out or up the amount.  Definitely will do again but should cut everything in half It made 2, 20 oz servings.  was relatively cheap as well, the apple was 0.79, I used probably a fifth of the kale and spinach I bought so 0.60, strawberries were 0.50, total for 1.89. Friday 2-5-16 Spinach Still making to much and may need to make the night before so it is more liquid, all of them tested very good.  Freezing the spinach was a good trick and it saved a ton of time. I need to buy some 1 oz take out cups. All of these were quiet cheap and by monday I had lost 3.5 lbs, now I need to cut down the sweets and extra snacking, I ate a peanut butter sandwich at 9 pm on Sunday night due to no will power, I didn't really need it.  Sunday's dinner was a pot roast I had 4 small pieces of potatoes and a lot of carrots and meat.  Saturday dinner was  Chicken, mozzorella, and peperoni, fresh green beans and potatoes, I ate a 1/4 cup of potatoes a lightly breaded chicken, and a healthy portion of steamed green beans. Friday was Stroganoff I probably ate to much and need to watch my evening portion size.  apple  orange banana Protein water Saturday 2-6-16 Spinach Orange Strawberry Apple Water protein Sunday 2-7-16 Spinach Strawberry Banana  Protein water