work them hips... RUN girlll

I'm melissa. I really like beer, pearl jam, and plaid shirts. I lost ~90 lbs on weight watchers and now I'm just trying to navigate the world of life post-weight-loss and getting my butt outside to run as much as possible. Because there is a positive correlation between miles run and beers I am able to consume. I was diagnosed with IBS and am currently on a gluten and lactose free diet. No beer for me :( Before/After: Highest Weight: 220ish lbs WW Goal Weight: 146 lbs Lowest Weight 130 lbs Current Weight: 138 lbs Ultimate Goal: Healthy. Fit. Awesome.

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First time making chicken piccata. Stupid easy. Crazy delicious. Giada's my girl. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-piccata-recipe2.html#! (This had a fair amount of butter but I still considered it healthy, paired with some nice roasted asparagus. Awesome post workout meal!)

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Cottage cheese pancakes. You MUST try these. Found the recipe on the Whole Foods website and boy am I glad I did! Recipe here: http://pinterest.com/pin/173670129354782528/ I like my flapjacks with a bit of pizzazz so I added a splash of vanilla, a few sprinkles of cinnamon, and topped with fresh strawberries. Delicious, protein-filled breakfast!

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The future hubs picked out a crock pot meal for the meal plan today. PSA: Read the whole recipe before doing that. Always. What kind of crock pot recipe is for 4.5 hours? I work real people hours, cookbook. So it sat on 'warm' for a solid 5 hours and the snap peas turned to mush. Split pea sweet n' sour shrimp anyone?! On the bright side, it was an awful recipe and contained a metric ton of sugar. So I guess we weren't really missing out. The teriyaki chicken and broccoli I whipped up instead was healthy AND delicious.

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Post body pump brealfast: Banana-eggcakes and bacon. #willpumpforbacon

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Post body pump breakfast!

▪ Baked blueberry-banana oatmeal ▪ Half of a huuuuuge orange ▪ 2 slices of bacon

Refueling like a boss.

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Beast mode: engaged

Since I last measured (2 wks ago) I'm down 4lbs and half an inch from my waist.

#stillgotit. #letsgoooo.

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Daily Noms: Monday, January 20

NOMS:

Breakfast

Spaghetti squash crust quiche with mushrooms, onion and chicken sausage

Lunch

Leftover roasted horseradish chicken & spaghetti squash

Side salad with tomatoes, avocado and cucumber

PM Snacks

Apple

Vanilla coconut milk yogurt w/ peanut butter

Dinner

Maple mustard glazed salmon

Roasted brussel sprouts

White rice

Dessert

Glass of cabernet sauvignon 

WORKOUT:

20 minute cardio--treadmill internals

Legs (thigh abductor, thigh adductor, leg press, calf extension, leg extension, dumbbell lunges)

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Meal Planning Like a Boss

2014 is going to be the year of insane, crazy planning. First, there's the obvious.... wedding planning. (249 days to go!) On top of that, I'll be taking on some new responsibilities at work that will require juggling multiple schedules and timelines. Amidst all of these crazy projects, I've decided it's time for me to also get serious about healthy eating and fitness again. Aside from getting wedding-ready, I just really need to get back on track with being healthy and feeling good.

Like wedding planning, I consider myself pretty well-suited for tackling the healthy living challenge because I have a great (and handsome) co-pilot by my side! We've committed to creating a meal plan that we will stick to to ensure we:

are eating fairly healthy

have lunches prepared for the week so we don't buy expensive/unhealthy fast food

spend less money at restaurants

have fun exploring new recipes and cooking together

To get started, we created a spreadsheet to keep all of our plans in one place. I found an awesome template on Google Drive that includes the weekly meal plan template + a corresponding grocery list. I then added to it, creating a 'Recipes' tab and consolidated grocery list so I can consolidate the weekly lists for my shopping trips.

Weekly Meal Plan:

Our meal plan focuses primarily on dinners and lunches so the Breakfast section is mostly ignored. (Breakfasts are usually eggs, cereal, or oatmeal.)

Weekly Shopping List:

We use this template to identify any ingredients for the meals that we don't already have.

When we're ready to go shopping we compile the weekly lists and figure out what to get where. Then I get reaaaally geeky and color coordinate it based on which store we should go to for what.

Recipes:

Since we're making an effort to try new recipes, I need a space that keeps track of them all. A lot of our recipes come from cookbooks that we're finally getting around to using, so jotting down the page # makes it easy to go back and find them. I also try a lot of recipes off of Pinterest, so it's easy to drop the URL into the spreadsheet so I can easily find it. (because sorting through the hundreds of cookie recipes I've pinned could prove challenging.)

We are on our 4th week of the plan so far and it's been awesome! We try to plan at least 2 weeks ahead, which is helpful for grocery shopping and not having to scramble to figure out meals if we lose track. (that used to be a challenge for me when I've tried meal planning in the past... I'd do great for a week and then get really busy/lazy and would stop.)

My next step will be to figure out how to meal plan on a budget. I am pretty certain we're saving money, since we aren't going out as often, but I'm not really clear on how the economics shake out. We've just started keeping track of our grocery bills for the month so we can compare. I also want to start planning meals around what's on sale at the grocery store so we're getting more bang for our buck.

So there you have it. My strange little new hobby that's hopefully going to get me back in shape and feeling great. Food is just the best<3

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A day of good nommin.

-Pumpkin-banana pancakes with walnuts. (More batter for tomorrows breakfast!) -8 servings of turkey chili for lunches this week. -Jammies and beer. -Turkey meatloaf with superfood medley (quinoa, kale, sweet potato, red pepper and carrots)… and prosecco.

Weekends are for meal prep. And booze.

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If you live near an Aldi... go now. Buy pumpkin salsa. Put it in your crock pot with chicken breast & onions. Live happily ever after.

Served up with roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes.

I love seasonal dishes!

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Big breffast, yummy breffast. With xtra ketchup plz.

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Amazing fall dinner via our local farmer's market: -Spinach and potato pie (sold by an Italian bakery) -Roasted kousa squash -Butternut squash

So delicious; so filling. I couldn't make it through the last of the pie or butternut squash.

Yummy leftovers in my future ♥

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Weight loss aftermath: skinny from the side, pudgy in front.

Still feeling good after a crisp autumn morning run!

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Update: I survived dress shopping!

This isn't the one I bought, but it's pretty good proof that corsets are a brides best friend.

Forget worries about being chubby... I felt like a skinny minnie in these!

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Dress Hunting Drama

Hi friends. All I've been posting of late is pictures of my noms (which I'm totally not sorry about, because noms make the world go round). BUT! But, there's so much more going on 'round these parts. For starters, I have an engagement party this weekend thrown by my future in-laws, and the following day, I'm going for my very first dress shopping appointment(s).

So, so, so excited and so, so, so terrified at the same time. For anyone that's ever been overweight, trying on clothes can conjure up painful memories. Especially if it's trying on clothes for a specific purchase--the pressure to find the 'perfect' fit can be harrowing when it's hard enough just to find something that fits PERIOD.

Although I'm rounding out 2-years of being around my goal weight, there's still a lot of insecurity surrounding growing up overweight. 1.) You just don't outgrow the mental anguish of being a fat kid.  and 2.) Being a 'former fat kid' is a challenge in and of itself. Of course, the accomplishment of losing a significant amount of weight and becoming healthy is AMAZING, but I've found myself landing in a strange sort of middle area. I'm not skinny... I'm not fat... I'm not even 'chubby'. I'm a strange sort of in-between that happens to the once-overweight crowd upon losing weight.

I have a slim frame with some bony, angular parts, and other super-squishy-fleshy parts. For the most part, I like the way my body fits in clothes and am proud of my new figure. But my birthday suit still makes me cringe big time. The truth is to have a "normal" body that has a skin-suit that fits my frame, I'd need a tummy tuck. I'm stretched, and sagged and...squishy. It limits the types of clothes I can wear, and makes me self conscious in a lot of things--but it's all stuff I can usually work around. For every cut of clothing that does not flatter my flabby middle, there's at least one or two others I can wear instead. No biggie.

How-ever. I am so incredibly. anxious. about wedding gown shopping. Dresses are one of the clothing items that are hardest to fit to my new body, and I have extreme fear that even after all of my hard work, I will be a flabby, saggy, awkward bride. My fear is strictly paranoid thinking, as I've never tried on a gown even remotely similar to a wedding dress--but I'm still so, so nervous. I'm nervous that I will look big, and all of my efforts to become a 'skinny adult', a beautiful bride, a healthy mom and an all-around successful person will fall short. 

When I began my weight loss journey in my senior year of college, I had an eye-opening experience of realizing I was on this strange precipice of adulthood. Not turning-eighteen-adulthood. But REAL, getting a job, building a foundation for the future, aging adulthood. I started going grey when I was sixteen. A simple, but significant sign that the resilience of youth and the human body is a fleeting treasure. I realized that at only 21 years old, I had so much life ahead of me, and yet--was running short of opportunities to seize my future and be the best version of myself. I knew that with age went the nimbleness of health and energy, and came to the realization that if I was to change my life, and to leave obesity behind me, I had to act fast.

I have always had an understanding in my mind that 'someday' I would lose the weight. I never pictured myself as an obese parent, limited by my own physical challenges. Terrified and inspired to not be an older version of my depressed, self-loathing teenage self, I made a commitment to change. And each day moving forward, I found a compounding sense of pride and purpose. I was renewed in my vow to become my own positive force of change, and I soon went from believing in that power to BEING that power.

And now, more than two years later, here I sit. Proud, and empowered. Yet still scared and uncertain. In this one seemingly small act of a much greater and emotionally significant process of wedding planning, I am paralyzed by the worry that I will not be good enough. That in this one, ultimate moment of becoming a bride, and, crossing that bridge into womanhood, I still fear that I am not what I hope to be. And while there are many factors that contribute to my sense of being at this point in time, the concern over the superficial... of beauty... and of 'good enoughs', I find myself feeling challenged in a surprising and existential way.

Because though I have conquered many battles, this road of life brings many more. And in these moments of vulnerability, it is challenging to think not of my flaws, but of my accomplishments and my determination to move forward in creating the best version of myself. Every day is a work in progress.

And I bought a really high-quality girdle yesterday. So there's that. 

Wish me luck!

{M}

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Chicken teriyaki meatballs: redux!

I froze half of this recipe from last week and thawed them for a super quick weeknight meal. They kept wonderfully!

Paired with roasted cabbage (a first for me… SO GOOD!) & Trader Joe’s jasmine rice.

Easy easy easy! (And TASTY)

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Future-hubby is home! Made some delicious breakfast burritos for the occasion.

In the mix: -Scrambled eggs with salsa -Sauteed peppers and onions -Bacon -Chopped jalepenos -Flatbreads for rolling up!

Oh uh, and a whole lot of hot sauce poured on each and every bite. Bteakfast is the best.