At home Day 11, At least I got a workout in today.

Comments/Thoughts:
Well as mentioned earlier planning my next trip is on my mind quite a bit this week and today especially.  I have some time to decide so no worries.  Today was a pretty good day all in all, I still am not able to push myself too hard.  I did a fast walk today on the treadmill which burned a decent bit of calories.  I weighed in this morning and lost another pound.  It keeps on going down so that is a good thing.

Statistics:
I walked 12,163 steps and 5.8 miles and burned 4,140 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6


Watch Calories Burned: N/A

The treadmill claims I burned over 600 calories in 55 minutes walking at 3mph at a 2.5 incline.


Exercise:
Today I took it easy and still burned my minimum 500 calories.  I walked on the treadmill, but forgot to wear the heart monitor strap.  I had to take the "word" of the treadmill and it read 600 calories.  I was told that the minimum I wanted to shoot for was 500.  I am looking forward either tomorrow or the next day of taking the intensity up again.  I want to be back on kettlebells by Monday.


Food:

Breakfast was egg beaters, turkey sausage on an english muffin yet again.  Lunch was leftover turkey chinese lettuce wraps, and the soup I was was Muir Glen Organic Chicken Tortilla.  The soup was amazing and it was two 1cup servings for 130 calories, which was perfect for Jen and I.  I put some avocado in it and did not add any other seasoning and loved it.  For dinner Jen had a cornbread request and since my son loved it so much I went ahead and made it.  I did some pictures of ingredients and what it takes to cook it.  It is very easy and if I get permission I will post the recipe.  We had leftover chili with it and I made the kids some fruit, cheese, and veggies with organic fish sticks.  They ate very well.  I need to get them used to some new foods.  I feel a little guilty because after dinner I had a huge urge to binge on peanut butter and I ended up having a bag of pop chips and about 4 or 5 chocolate covered strawberries.  Much better than a jar of peanut butter or running out for fast food, but still a slight let down.  All told it cost me 350 calories or so, but even with that I am still at around 1600 for the day.


This is the fat free krusteaz corn bread mix that is the base.  Just get it and add in the fixings you want in your cornbread.  Add those calories up though!  It is great and only takes about 20 minutes.  The bread is sweet and kids love it too.



Slideshow/Pictures:

At home day 10, Another day of rest that I do not want...

Comments/Thoughts:
Well today was great in the sense that the kids were occupied until 12:30 and 3pm respectively, so I was able to go and do some research at Starbucks.  I spent a decent bit of time reading blogs and looking for health resources online, as well as pricing plane tickets for my possible April trip back to the resort.  I really want to go back, but paying for it out of savings is not sitting right with me right now.  I still think I am going to do it, I may get some birthday money to throw in on it.  It is tough to pass up an opportunity where both kids can be watched and it is easier on my wife when I go.

The downside of my day is that I did not go to the gym today to rest myself.  I have had a mild reoccurring injury and my wife tells me the only way to get rid of it is to relax and not do anything too strenuous.  I think I am just going to try to get to the gym and just walk on the treadmill.  I am really upset about my lack of kettlebell training.  I went and bought some mats for the floor to protect them if I drop my new weight, and I still am unable to use them.  Very frustrating!  I did go on a walk around the neighborhood with the wife, dog and kids today so that is something at least.  I am going to see a movie tonight, so it will be a Coke Zero night, yay!

Statistics:
*Will add fitbit tomorrow, 8793 steps premovie*


Watch Calories Burned: N/A

Exercise:
Just a simple walk around the neighborhood. =/

Food:
For breakfast I had some oatmeal at Starbucks with some Truvia to sweeten it.  Good, and I avoided the nuts, berries and brown sugar toppings.  Lunch was a Turkey club sandwich and a bowl of roasted red pepper soup.  Dinner was turkey chinese stir fry lettuce wraps and Miso soup.  I just threw together turkey, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, peppers, water chestnuts, and some chinese flavorings + liquid aminos.  It turned out great and my wife liked it as well.

Slideshow/Pictures:
Added pictures of my meals:

At home day 8, New week, valentines day, eating out and life in general...

Comments/Thoughts:
It was once again special event kind of day, a "Hallmark" holiday of sorts... valentines day!  So we went to my son's school with my daughter and ran some events and played with all the kids.  At the end of the day I had a babysitter scheduled and so we went out for a nice dinner at O'Charley's.  I did not really stray, but I did have red meat which was a first in a long time.  It was really a great day, and we ended it by shopping for a new coat for me which I needed since I have lost so much weight.  I love clothes shopping now.

So good news for my blog today, I was told that my name and a link to my blog I would be added to the front page at http://blog.biggestloserresort.com and I am hoping I get some new readers.  I find that this blog and knowing that people are reading it helps me feel accountable.  I plan to do a post soon about things to know before you go to the resort.  There are many little things that can help out there.

Statistics:
I walked 14,438 steps and 7.2 miles and burned 4,516 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: 900 calories burned

Exercise:
Today was a good workout day, I did a double treading class on the treadmill at the gym.  My shirt was a big wet mass, which is a good thing after a hard workout.  My definition of double treading is 5 minutes at an uncomfortable pace (this week it is incline 15 and speed 2.7, 3.2 for the last minute) then a 5 minute rest, then I add on another 5 at the uncomfortable pace, and 5 at a slow past to recover, then I do the 4, 3, 2 and 1 intervals all twice.  I burn through about 750 calories on the machine and by the time I am at home I am over 900 calories from carry over.

Food:

I had a 200 calorie lara bar for breakfast and a small glass of skim milk.  For lunch I had the great meal you see to the right of your screen.  I made fat free cornbread and turkey chili from the great recipe book I purchased at the Biggest Loser Resort.  I love the cornbread, and I found out that the kids do as well.  Jen loved this meal, and I think it is a definite go to.  For dinner I had an 8oz filet, asparagus without butter and chicken tortilla soup.  My calories for the day did not exceed 1600 so it was still counted a good day.  I also had a chocolate covered strawberry with my wife for valentines day.

Slideshow/Pictures:

At home Day 3, hump day and still going...

Thoughts/Comments:
It was a decent day except for the fact that my foot is a bit hurt.  There is a crack in the bottom of my foot that is quite painful, and amusing that I am home and not walking 6-12 miles a day and now my foot gets hurt.  Very annoying, but I am sure I can get past it.  I still managed a good workout today.

It was nice to have the kids in school and at parents morning out.  I was able to go to Starbucks and catch up on some reading after the gym and that is always nice.  I love going there and people watching and missed it quite a bit while I was at the resort.  I have switched drinks from coffee with cream and splenda to green tea and less splenda.  I think less calories and less caffeine will help me out.  It worked at the resort so no reason to rock the boat too much.  I also have not been drink diet cokes/coke zero except on my less healthy day of the week, and perhaps when I go to the movies.  I have been drinking plain water and crystal lite pure fit in my water as well.

Statistics:
I walked 7,045 steps and 3.3 miles and burned 3,443 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6


Watch calories burned: 615 during workout session


Exercise:
At the gym today I did a treading class, and then afterwards a did a Sam style dynamic stretch session.  For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about it is a session that first starts out warming muscles by using them (think lunges, squats, kicks etc etc) and then goes back through and stretches the warm muscles with typical stretch poses.  It is both a good stretch and workout.  I can get it mostly done in 30 minutes and it is 45 minutes at the resort.  My total calories burned was 615, and I did not get to my kettlebells since I woke up late and was beat after the kids went to bed.  Perhaps less Starbucks and more swinging is in order?

My foot is bothering me pretty bad and I may have to take it easy on the treadmill for a day or so to heal.  It is an open cut/sore on the foot and it hurts bad.

Food:
For breakfast I had a egg and turkey sausage english muffin, lunch was a turkey burger and veggies with leftover mushroom soup, and dinner was chicken bbq pizzas from the resort cookbook with chocolate covered strawberries as a dessert.  Have you noticed a theme for desserts?  I still think the resort should offer them as an option every night.

Slideshow/Pictures:

Changes

Well first the good news, I am down to 329.8. Yes I don't round! I am just glad to see that the scale is moving in the right way. First off I need to amend what I ate yesterday.

Yesterday for breakfast I had:
Starbucks Iced Vente Coffee with Cream
5 Turkey Sausages
2 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

Lunch:
Alfredo Chicken
3 egg Omelet w/ 1 Andouille Sausage and some cheese,
onions and green peppers

Dinner:
Self made Fajitas
Beef, Chicken, Green Peppers, Onion with seasonings:
Garlic Powder, Cumin, Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder
2 Tbsp Guacamole
2 oz Cheese
1 Tbsp Salsa

Snack:
5 pieces sugar free candy

Ok so now the low down. I really enjoyed the Fajitas, but I had a horrible headache yesterday. I am not sure if it is from Low Carb flu, lack of caffeine, or no diet soda/aspartame. Whatever it is I had it until I had my Starbucks this morning! I am going to gradually give up the starbucks once I see how my weightloss goes over the next week. If I think it is stalling me then I will actually give it the boot.

I really believe that the sugar free candies knocked me out of ketosis! That is annoying. No more weaknesses there.

Even with just 6 pounds down my belt is much much loser today. I think that is my favorite part of losing weight is seeing it in my clothes. Overall I would say being able to buy nice clothes is a huge motivator. Not as much as being healthy for the family but up there with being able to ride on an airplane comfortably.

So far today the meals look like:

Breakfast -
Starbuck Vente Iced Coffe w/ Cream
2 sausage patties


I am not sure what lunch will be, but I will post either later today or tomorrow about it. If you are interested in how I prepared the fajjitas I will list it below:

What you will need:
Meat of Choice in strips ( I used ribeye, sirloin and chicken 2lb total weight)
1 Onion Sliced(I used yellow)
1-2 Green Peppers Sliced
1.5 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
.5 Tbsp Chili Powder (Mexene is what I used)
Salt and Pepper to taste (I used them fairly liberally)
Cast Iron Skillet (or other dense, well conducting cooking skillet)
4 Tbsp Oil (Regular Olive Oil not Extra Virgin)

The Technique:

First I set the Cast Iron Skillet on the stove at medium high heat and added 2 Tbsp of oil.

Once the oil begin to smoke I added my beef to give it a nice quick browning. It stayed
in for about 2-3 minutes until each side was nice and brown and fairly crisp. Then I
removed it to a plate.

Next I added the chicken to the empty skillet and seasoned it with some of all 5 of the spices
above (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin.)

I let the chicken brown and then move it towards the outer edges of the pan forming a large
well in the center of the skillet,

I add the remain 2 Tbsp of oil to the well and drop in the onions, as you do this again season the onions with all 5 seasonings.

After letting the onions reduce down I add the green peppers (season again)into them in the well and stir them together with the onions in the center of the skillet.

Give this about 2-3 minutes and add the beef back into the skillet and finish off your seasoning.

Once you add the beef you will keep this on until you start to notice the vegetables are getting flimsy, stir it every couple of minutes and it should take another 6-7 minutes before you serve.

---

So I am not the best at writing recipes yet, maybe I should do it in a video so I can better explain how I add spices. I try to layer them into each component in this recipe. The same spices repeated, but not to exceed a certain amount. You can alway add seasoning at the end so do not add too much to each individual ingredient. Taste as you cook and you will know when things are done. My reason for taking the beef off and adding it back was simply to keep it from getting too overcooked. The beef juices actually do well for the chicken as well. Quite a bit of liquid is released from the meat and vegetables, this should mostly boil off in the end. The Fajitas should not be soupy.

Anyway, first attempt at a recipe I will refine it more with time.

-D


First