Post-Giving

Happy Monday friends!  My apologies for being a little late to the "Thanksgiving recap" posts...I guess I over-indulged a bit over the holiday (4 pies, 3 boxes of GiGis mini cupcakes and an entire batch of pumpkin cookies with frosting - and I had my share of all of them) and needed a week to recover from food shame. 

I just wanted to share a few pics from our weekend.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and had some time in the midst of food and football for reflection on what it means to be truly thankful.

After spending the past 3 years in Georgia and Texas for the holiday, I was thrilled it was once again my parents who were hosting the festivities in Louisville.  We had about 20 people at our dinner and 17 players for our annual Thursday morning football game.  Last year my aunt got adorable aprons for all the gals and shirts for all the boys (the were going to the Texas vs Texas A&M game), I decided to order everyone gameday shirts this year.  I am happy to report that for the 5th year in a row, my mom was picked last by the team captains.  I am also happy to report that my team (The Wish Boners) won in a last minute touchdown play. 

After football, we all headed back to the house and showered up and hunkered down for some football.  I spent the rest of my morning working on a puzzle with my nephew and stuffing my face with chicken ball (sounds wierd, but its delicious).  We at dinner about 4:00, followed some rushed family photos before the sunset.

The whole crew!

The gals :)

Silly girl shot

Me and Husband

Close up...we like blue, I guess :)

Just my family!

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, and I wanted to cry when I had to get up at 6am on Monday.  Needless to say, the past week has been about begging my body for forgiveness.  After 3.5 weeks on the south beach diet leading up to Thanksgiving, even my 4 mile daily runs throughout the weekend did not make up for all the sweets.  No regrets though...holidays only happen once a year!

Halfway There

I am a week into my 14-day journey on the South Beach Phase 1 diet and I have mixed feelings at this point.  At 3 days in last week, I was pretty stoked to step on the scale and find myself down 1.5 lbs.  Then things got a little weird on both Thursday and Friday when I saw that I had gained weight both days.  Not cool.

Even less cool...when my husband stepped on the scale on Friday and he was down 5 lbs.  Kind of a dick move on his part.  Especially since his version of this diet apparently includes soft drinks.  You can imagine my feelings of wanting to slap the smile off his face after seeing his surprising weight loss.  That combined with the 2 hours I spent sitting on my front porch freezing my ass off on Wednesday night passing out candy to little kids....without alcohol I might add....has left me somewhat unsure of this whole diet thing.

On the one hand, I haven't really seen any weight loss (I'm only looking to shave off about 5 lbs...is that so much to ask??), but I do feel like my body is appreciative of my conscious effort to put good things into it.  In the last week, I haven't felt hungry during the day or at night, and I haven't felt any remorse about anything I've eaten either.  Definitely a plus on both fronts.  I'm also realizing that what I am eating on SBD isn't altogether different than what I eat normally.  Which may explain my lack of tangible results. 

So what do I miss most?  Fruit.  Since sugar is a strict no-no during these 14 days, fruit is off limits because of all the natural sugars in it.  I'm a firm believer that Honeycrisp apples are a gift from the Baby Jesus himself around this time of year and I have not been able to enjoy my normal go-to fall snack the last 7 days.  I miss it.  Something else I miss....an easy breakfast.  Maybe I'm not creative enough, but I am having a hard time finding protein other than eggs to eat in the morning.  And eggs are something I actually have to cook.  And I HATE having to spend the extra time doing that in the morning.  My go to breakfast during the work week has been eggs scrambled with veggies (usually spinach or zucchini) and turkey bacon.  It's a bit harder to eat in my car on my way to work than toast or oatmeal, but I manage.  Sort of.

Other than that, it's pretty easy to stay on track.  I've always brought my lunch to work, and I've always packed healthy, so that's nothing new to me.  I've had to be a little more on top of things as far as meal-planning goes, but that's fine by me.  Planning meals into the second week has been a little tougher since I'm trying not to be repetitive, but it's actually helping me to branch out a little from my normal "go-to" meals.

Just to give you an idea, here is a breakdown of what I made for dinner last week:

Monday: Blackened Salmon w/ Roast veggies (squash, zucchini, sweet onion, bell pepper)
Tuesday: Chicken stuffed with sauteed spinach & goat cheese, side of seasoned green beans
Wednesday: Grilled chicken salad (husband had to work, and salad is my go-to meal when I'm cooking for 1)
Thursday: Taco salad with avocado & pico de gallo (I use ground turkey instead of ground beef and spicy taco seasoning for a kick)
Friday: Turkey sausage & sauerkraut
Saturday: Steaks on the grill and roasted veggies on the side

Truth be told, these are all recipes I've done many times...just with a more conscious effort to keep them as healthy as possible.  I'm no Martha Stewart, but I think I do okay and husband doesn't complain (only compliments from him!)

So, we'll see how the next 7 days turn out.  I have been keeping up with my running in combination with all of this (I really feel repulsive when I don't work out), and I do feel good.  No regrets so far, just a bit of disappointment that I haven't shed more (or any) weight thus far.  Depending on how I feel after day 14, I may keep the diet into effect until Thanksgiving just for good measure...that is if the bucket of leftover Halloween candy in our entry way stops taunting me.  I've not given in yet, but I'm worried some of those M&Ms might accidentally fall into my mouth if I'm not careful.  Moreover I'm worried my husband will wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of candy wrappers in the living room only to find me passed out with an empty Halloween bucket in my hand and a face covered in chocolate and shame.  I think he's legitimately worried about that too.

14 days

Folks, watch out.  As of today, I am officially on the South Beach Phase one diet.  For the next 14 days, I will be cleansing by body of all the junk that is making me feel like a busted can of biscuits every time I get dressed.



The truth is that in the last 4 months, I have somehow managed to gain 5-10 lbs, and I have NO idea how or where it came from.  I feel like I eat pretty healthy, and I work out/run about 6 days a week.  I have even cut out alcohol during the week over the last month or two, and I still can tell my clothes are fitting a little different.  I don't think my eating habits have changed since this summer and I know my workout habits haven't changed so I am not sure what gives. 

Pics of me from this summer...would not be caught dead in public in these outfits right now.

 

And no....I'm NOT pregnant!  I know that's what some of you were thinking.

Anyways, I'm pretty much over feeling disgusting, and I know my husband is over hearing me complain about it when he says he can't tell a difference.  Time to take action....and this is what I'm trying.

No, I have not read the South Beach Diet book.  No, I have not done the diet before, nor have I done the cleanse before.  So why do I think it will work?  Because I googled it and printed out a food list of stuff I can eat.  It seems pretty reasonable, and not altogether different from what I eat now.  Basically it is a no carb, no sugar fast.  I'm cool with that.  I hope. 

So, at the risk of being a heinous, carb-deprived bitch for the next 14 days, I am trying this out.  Please pray for my husband...he'll need it.  Especially with the buckets of Halloween candy I have to give out on Wednesday.  Maybe pray that I don't scream at any small children while they are trick-or-treating too.  And also pray that I don't turn into Penny from Happy Endings by the second week.

So there you have it...if I seem a little irritable on the blog or other social media in the next couple weeks...well, this is probably why.  I'll keep you fellow readers updated on how I'm feeling during the next 14 days and if I see any improvement.  And now I leave you with another funny Penny clip from Happy Endings and something I could totally see myself doing....Thank the little baby Jesus this show is back...