Noticing a Change....

....in my shopping and eating out habits.  Last night Chris and I went grocery shopping and while we were out went and got something to eat.  I can't say enough about My Fitness Pal and the effect it's had on my choices.  We went to Applebee's and I started looking up food as soon as we got there.  Surprisingly the sirloin steak was the lowest calorie item I looked up.  I got that, some mixed veggies and a plain potato that I planned on eating with ketchup instead of butter/sour cream.  Rusty taught me that trick once.  You put ketchup on fries, fries are a potato in a different form, so save yourself the calories and try it.  Another way I like to eat it is with salsa.  We got the 2 for $24 deal and it came with an appetizer.  I knew I wasn't going to eat the appetizer, but Chris had me look up the calorie content for the pre-selected ones that he could choose from. Spinach and Artichoke dip - 1500 calories!!!!!!  Again surprisingly the cheese sticks were the best thing for the selection and that's what he ordered.  They came and he was nice enough to move them over to his side so I didn't have to see them.  You'll notice on my journal that I did cave and I ate one, but I made sure to count it.  I ended up not eating my potato, I was pretty full after the veggies and steak so I saved it for lunch today.

We went grocery shopping after that.  I used My Fitness Pal again to help me look some of the stuff up and figure out what made most sense to buy.  My biggest revelation - PICKLES ARE 0 CALORIES!!!!!!!!!  Now if you know me, you know I love pickles.  When my grandma would send me care packages while in college, they would have a jar of pickles.  I always seem to have a jar of pickles in my refrigerator.  I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that from a calorie standpoint they weren't that bad, but I don't remember them being 0 calories.  Yes Chris, I know they're loaded with sodium, but I love them and if it helps solve a hunger pain, I'm good with that :) You can bet that a jar made it's way into our cart!

Tonight we're going out to dinner with our friend Kelly (the one who introduced us!)  I'm already looking online to decide what I'm going to have so that I know how many calories to save for dinner!

How to Comment

A few people (mom I'm looking at you!) have said they don't comment because they don't have an account.  After doing some research, I figured out that there was a setting that I could turn off in order to enable anyone to comment.

Now I will dazzle you all with my training skills :)  HA!

If you scroll to the bottom of any post you'll see the comment area (this is an example of yesterday's post).  From here you click on the word "Comments".

The following window will appear.  Type in whatever you want to say and then click on the pull down menu for "Comment As:"  and select "Name/URL"

Then you type in your name (or whatever you want to appear).  You'll see in the example I only put Nicole.  If you want me to know who you are you'll need to be more descriptive than I was :)  You do not have to put anything for URL.  Then click continue.

From here it will bring you back to the comment you left and you'll click on publish.

You are going to have to verify "you are not a robot" (hahaha that cracks me up for some reason) and type in the security words.  If they are too hard to read you can click on the circle arrow (next to the text box) and it will generate a new one for you.  Then you click publish.

That's it!  Then your comment will appear on the blog and look like the below example.  

I hope that helps anyone that's interested in commenting.

I went back to the gym at work again last night.  I sent Chris this picture of my calories burned on my heart rate monitor with the caption "How do ya like me now!"  LOL.

I also realized just how obsessed with pink and sparkly things I was as I got to the gym last night.  I walked in with my pink gym bag (thanks to Aunt Moe and game night!!), and had my pink iPhone cover (I use my phone for music), my pink heart rate monitor and my pink sparkly head band.  Now I just need to save up for some pink workout shoes and I'll be all set :)

One question and then on to the food, what are your favorite post-workout snacks?  Now that I'm working out at work, I still have a 45 minute drive home and I'm usually starving.  I still have some of the fiber plus granola bars, but I think I remember learning from one of my trainers that you need to eat protein right after a workout.  What are you go to post-workout snacks?

Why I Love my Husband and Technology!

I did it, I tackled the fear of working out at work and went yesterday.  It wasn't scary at all.  I left work about 10 minutes before 5 to beat the big rush and was able to get a cardio machine no problem, there were only 3 other people in there when I went down.  I was so excited I texted Chris a picture :)  I decided I was going to do an hour of cardio.  The first 1/2 hour on the elliptical flew by, I love the playlist that I created on my phone so it's easy to jam out.  I decided to switch it up for the second 1/2 hour and got on a treadmill, 14 minutes into it I was tired, bored and wanting to quit.  That's where the loving Chris and technology come in! A quick text to Chris for some motivation and I was back at it.  I love getting a virtual pep talk!

Right after I got the text from him, "Ain't no Mountain High Enough" came on and between the two I was pumped up again!  The gym did get a little busy towards the end of my workout, but I was ok with it.  So ok that I packed another bag and will be going there again tonight.  I burned 666 calories last night (I use a heart rate monitor when I work out so I know my calories, zones, etc.) Chris told me to jump around for another second or two so it didn't end on 666 :)

I got home, made a wrap and some butternut squash and then it was time to watch The Biggest Loser.  I kept my promise to myself and pulled out my weights and did arm exercises throughout the show.  Needless to say, I was pretty motivated yesterday and proud of myself (minus the moment of wanting to quit).

Tackling My Fear..............

..............of working out at the gym at my office.  Chris has finally convinced me not to worry about who I'm working out around and to go workout at the free gym in my office building.  I don't know that he knows that he finally helped me make that decision, but he did :)  I was getting ready for work this morning and he saw me packing a workout bag and I think that surprised him!  I know it surprised me.  I have this weird thing that I don't want to workout with the people who I work with.  I know it's silly, but I really don't want my co-workers seeing me in my workout clothes, sweating up a storm and looking at me while I jiggle all over the place.  I'm going to try and (in the words of Tim Gunn) "make it work!"  I have too many excuses not to work out either in the morning before I leave for work or at night when I get home from work, so I figure if I go straight downstairs to the gym right after work that there are no excuses.  Plus traffic sucks for me all the time, so hopefully after the workout traffic will have died down a bit.

As I mentioned yesterday I have the best friends!  Yesterday's Superbowl food was awesome!  Eve did a great job putting out a healthy yet yummy spread (all mentioned on yesterday's blog)!  She looks great too.  She's lost a lot of weight and I'm so proud of her.

I Have the Best Friends!

Today Chris and I are going to my friend Eve's to watch the Superbowl.  Eve know's I'm trying to watch what I eat, so she planned the menu around that!  I seriously have the best friends ever!  We're having veggies and hummus, edemame, Weight Watchers lettuce wraps, etc.  I love the supportive group of people that I have helping me along the way, it means so much to me.

Fun Saturday!

Today I met my friend Rebecca in Oak Brook and we did some shopping, got pedicures and had dinner.  We went to The Cheesecake Factory.  I was a little annoying ordering dinner.  She wanted to split an appetizer, I asked which one and looked it up.  There are four corn cakes in the appetizer and the whole thing was 1500 calories!!  I said no thank you :)  Then I looked through My Fitness Pal at all of their salads, some of them like TGI Friday's a few weeks ago had 1500+ calories.  I was able to find the herb salmon salad for 500 calories and it was very tasty!  Thank God for My Fitness Pal!

I Left a Party.............Because of Food?

Yesterday was our sales kick off at a bar in the city.  Everything was going great, we had the presentation, I found the light beer on the menu (it was at a brewery and they only have a limited amount of their own beers), I was having fun with my co-workers and then it happened!!  THE FOOD CAME OUT!!  Popcorn covered in bacon and parmesan cheese, soft pretzels as big as my head with cheese dipping sauce, truffle french fries and lots of pizza (one of the pizza's was called "loaded potato").  I tried to avoid it for a little while then as more and more people were walking around with plates, I noticed that I was talking myself into "just one piece of pizza" or "just a bite of the pretzel".  At that point I hightailed it out of there!  I didn't take one bite of food.  I was among the first to leave but I didn't care.  I used my drive back to the suburbs as an excuse.  I know one day I will be able to be at a party and not have to worry about over doing it, but I just am not at that point yet.

The night turned out much better anyway!  My dad was staying out in the suburbs last night so Chris and I met him at one of our favorite sushi places and had dinner with him.  Sushi is much better than pizza and bacon covered popcorn :)  My dad and I split the sushi and sashimi platter for two - all very fresh fish and not to much rice.  It also came with miso soup (which is surprisingly low in calories) and salad.  We didn't finish it all so bonus I have lunch for today!