This week's weigh-in

My daughter ended up needed surgery. This was her 4th brain surgery, and hopefully the last one for quite a while.

Christmas dinner was good. I didn't over indulge, and I didn't cook anything too "bad." I ate hospital food with my daughter for two days before that (ordered salad and eggs for the most part), but I didn't get to exercise. My boyfriend flew in from California to help with my daughter until she goes back to school (thank God for him!), and I told him he's going to have to eat what I cook...as in healthy food! I'm sure he'll live haha.

Tonight's menu is a recipe I found on pinterest. Sun Dried Tomato Chicken. I will probably make some brown rice to go with the sauce it's cooked in. I'm also going to make some baked jalapeno poppers. I'll post the recipes soon!

This week I lost .4lbs. It's better than a gain, I'll take it! 6lbs down so far since my "relaunch".

Weekly update

This week I lost 1.8lbs and I'll take it. This week has been hell. 

I lost my aunt earlier this week, and today I sit in the hospital with my daughter. They are trying to decide whether or not her shunt needs to be revised.

Spicy scramble

Spicy Scramble!

 

Eggs have become my best friend for breakfast. They are so quick to make and you can throw just about anything in them and they turn out to be so yummy! For this, I made 4 servings which are perfect for my sleeve. The serving pictured above is two servings. Here's what you need:

• Three eggs (mix in a bowl)
• Red bell pepper, diced
• Green bell pepper, diced
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• Pepper Jack Cheese (I used two thin slices of Sargento cut into pieces)
• One jalapeno, cut into rings
• 1/4c diced green onion
• Cilantro, diced
• Olive Oil
• Salt, Pepper, and Garlic salt to taste

In a pan, I added the olive oil with the bell peppers and jalapeno until they were almost fully cooked. Then I added the spinach and cooked until wilted, added garlic salt. I then stirred in the remaining ingredients until the eggs were cooked how I like them.

I did top mine with avocado as well. The only things not included in the nutrition facts are the avocado and the olive oil.

If you don't want it too spicy, omit or use less jalapeno.

Holiday Party

Saturday was our annual holiday party. I knew it was going to be my cheat day for the next two weeks (I'm giving myself one on Christmas as well). They catered a Mexican buffet. I am proud of myself to sticking just to fajitas, with not tortilla. However--I did have a lot of alcohol that night, but I'd like to think that all of the dancing I did, I worked off a lot of the calories :)

 

Sunday's weigh-in! I've lost 4 lbs!! It hasn't been a week yet since my first re-weigh in, but Sundays will be my weekly weigh-ins. I'm quite happy about this number :) Any loss is good (and I know I will have to keep telling myself that). I didn't put this weight back over night, it is not going to come off over night either.

Oh the temptation!

I survived yesterday (day 1). Today, oh the temptation. BUT, I did not give in.

I planned my meals this morning before work and brought extra food in case I got hungry--no reason to head to the vending machine for junk food.

Then our weekly team meeting came around today...and what did they bring? Bagels, Sandwiches, cupcakes, cookies and chips....oh my! I sat back and did not take a single bite. I thought about grabbing a sandwich, and removing the bread, but I passed. I swear I argued with myself for 30 seconds in my head about it "oh just one..." NO! haha.

Today I had a yummy breakfast, similar to yesterday's. I had one egg, 1/2c spinach, and 1/2c zucchini, with one Jimmy Dean turkey sausage patty. About 170 calories, 11g protein and 3 carbs.

For lunch I brought leftover steak fajitas (without the tortilla), and for snacks, I brought Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt, a tuna-lettuce roll up, and a Cheddar baby-bel. Oh, and 1/4c of this Cape Code Trail Mix I found at Whole Foods (btw...I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon when a half a bag of groceries cost me $50).

I got these awesome portion bags from Walmart! I separated all of the trail mix so I don't eat too much when I want a snack.

For dinner, I made a recipe I came across an awesome person (@thesweatybetty) it's an Atkins Big Mac...I was never a Big Mac person, but this sounded interesting. Came out great!

Ingredients

• 1.5 pound ground beef
• 1 heaping tbsp of chicken bouillon
• 2 tbsp dried onion
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup low carb thousand island dressing
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup dill pickles

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large skillet, brown ground beef. Season with chicken bouillon, dried onion flakes, parsley, onion powder, and garlic powder.
3. In a large bowl, place seasoned ground beef. Add cheddar cheese, thousand island dressing, eggs, sour cream, and dill pickles. Mix together thoroughly.
4. Add ground beef mixture to 8?x11? baking dish and spread to corners. Bake for 30 minutes.

Notes/Nutrition Info:

Serving Size: 1 piece Calories: 401 Fat (g): 34.5 Carbohydrates (g): 2.9 Fiber (g): 0 Protein (g): 19.5

Taking Ownership

After having a mental breakdown a few nights ago, I've decided no more. Yeah...my last few blog posts have said that, but after stepping on the scale today for the first time in months, I have to be real. It's time to get healthy again.

Follow me on
MyFitnessPal -Quelyn01
Instagram- Afterthesleeve

Today is a new day.

Breakfast:

-Starbucks K-cup Vanilla Coffee, Great Value Vanilla Creamer, splenda
-2 Eggs scrambled with zuchinni

So much has happened...

I cannot believe it has been nearly a year since I've written in my blog. I'm so sorry!

This past year has been incredibly hard on me, mentally. Let me start with my weight first. My lowest weight is 220lbs, right now I'm sitting at 224lbs. I haven't lost weight in probably 7 months.

I'm currently going through a divorce and it's been very stressful, even though I see it as a blessing in disguise. I'm happier than I've ever been--but this change has been an overwhelming experience.

I've been pretty down and out about my weight lately. I am back into such bad habits of eating out all of the time and just eating CRAP all together, mixed with NO exercise...I know, it's a recipe for disaster. UGH.

Today I am restarting my diet. I was going to attempt to do the liquid diet phase to jump start my weight loss again but I know I would not survive haha.

I'm going to start doing meal prep each week as well. AND I'M GOING TO BLOG MY JOURNEY MORE!

Here are some recent pictures:

Attempting to Zumba

Trying to keep motivated and not bored, I gave in and purchased Zumba for the Wii from Amazon. Let me tell you, I have NO RHYTHM. But it gets me moving, and working up a sweat. Right now I'm doing the beginner sessions at 20 minutes each.

I finally took a recent photo of myself as well. This is at 60lbs down, where I currently am.

Low Carb Crepe with Strawberries & Cream

This was a nice sweet treat, but didn't give all the carbs! I used one my crepes leftover from the other day, one Laughing Cow Wedge of Cheese, Strawberries & Cream flavor, and one cut up strawberry! Heated in the pan to melt the cheese!

Recipe for Crepes is as follows:

4 Eggs
1/2 cup Reduced Fat Ricotta Cheese
2 Packets of Splenda
Pinch of Salt
Small serving of butter for the pan

Pour small amounts of batter in the pan so it's the size you want, and in about 1-2 minutes, turn on the other side for an additional 1-2 minutes.

Apples & Yogurt

Gala apples are so good! I also love this yogurt too! Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt! Only 80 calories in the yogurt, 12g protein, and only 8 carbs!

Turkey Meatball Squares

 

Skip the pasta and just eat the meat! Instead of making meatballs, I made them into squares (well, I guess they are actually rectangles...). 

What you need:

1 package of lean ground turkey (I believe it's 1.25lbs)

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg

Garlic Salt

Italian Seasoning

Parmesan Cheese

1 Cup Mozzarella Cheese

1 Cup Spaghetti Sauce

Beat the egg in a large mixing bowl with a fork. Add the turkey, bread crumbs, garlic salt, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning (to your taste preference), combine with your hands.

Using either a pan like the one pictured below, or a muffin pan, spray it with non stick cooking spray. Put your meat in each hole, but do not overfill.

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Once the time is up, put a spoonful sauce and sprinkle of mozzarella cheese on each "meatball." Cook for an additional 15 minutes or until turkey is fully cooked.

Let's try this again.

There's no better time to start over on your fitness/health goals than the first of the year, so here we go...

I'm doing the #30daywin challenge on instagram (follow me @quelyn01), basically working every day for the next 30 days. I'm also tracking everything again.

I've cleaned out my cupboards from most of the Christmas candy and goodies....

I am also going to post more recipes :)

Chicken, tomato, artichoke hearts

I found a recipe on Pinterest, but tweaked it a little bit.

The original recipe called for 6 roma tomatoes, but I only used one, and then canned tomatoes :)

What you need:

2 Large chicken breasts, cut to make 4 portions
1 can petite diced tomatoes with garlic
1 diced roma tomato
2 diced garlic cloves
1/2 can of canned artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind, and I saved the other half in the freezer for next time)
3 or 4 fresh basil leaves
Mozzarella Cheese
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 375.

In a small pan, spray with non stick spray. Mix tomatoes, garlic, and artichoke hearts, mix with a small amount of olive oil and top with salt and pepper. Place half of the mixture in the pan.

Place the uncooked chicken on top of the mixture in the pan, add salt and pepper on chicken. Top with the other half of the mixture. Cook for 30 minutes.

Place mozzarella cheese (I did not measure, I used enough to cover the pan) over the pan, and top with the basil leaves. Cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the juices run clear and the cheese starts to brown.

Bad Habits.

As you may have noticed, I have not posted a blog in quite some time. I have been struggling, pretty bad. I have been between 237lbs-240lbs for 6 weeks. At first I thought it was just a stall...and that stall would not go away, and I have been going back to bad habits.

By bad habits, I mean eating fast food (a small breakfast burrito from McDonald's or a wrap with dressing), coffee every day (not just black coffee with a simple creamer and no calorie sweetener, I mean a large 711 vanilla coffee from the machine, eating wayyyy too many carbs, not enough protein, and not tracking. I even had my first alcoholic drink--a shot of rum.

I feel like I do not have the motivation. I know it's still early in my "honeymoon phase," but I am STUCK.

When I saw my doctor the week after Thanksgiving, he said my weight was okay as long as I am still loosing (even thought I'd only lost 12lbs since the last time I saw him two months prior, and was stuck at that weight for weeks)--but I go back and see him in 6 more weeks, and I'm afraid I will still be the same weight!!!!

I really need to write out a menu for the next week, and start tracking again, but I am lazy, and unmotivated.

My foot is still messed up, I have a spur. I have not been exercising.

ARRRGGGGHHHH!

Still the same.

I feel myself still struggling. I feel like I'm failing. I haven't been exercising, I'm so afraid of messing my foot up more (I finally see the doctor about my foot next Thursday), and I don't want to injure it before we take a "mini-vacation" in four days to Vegas.

This will be the first time I will be away from home, having to eat all my meals outside of the home. I'm so scared I will trail off (further than I am right now).

I'm thinking of doing my pre-op diet for a week when we get back. I need to clear out my kitchen of all the sweets and high carb snacks, not to mention I need to drink more liquids.

I guess I can't really be mad at anyone but myself right now. I haven't been making the best choices.

I did it!

I finally got below 240lbs! I weighed in at 238.8 this morning!

I was so afraid I would have gained weight because I ate too much Halloween candy...guess all the walking paid off!

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN :)

I was a devil...in a red dress. Yup, wore a bright red dress......AND high heels! (They came off after about an hr and a half lol)

Pumpkin Pancakes, low carb!

These were so good! I was only able to eat one of these.

The recipe makes about 6 pancakes, medium-large in size. Based on the brands of products I used, one pancake has 100 calories, 3.3carbs, and 11g of protein!

What you need:

-1/2 cup pumpkin
-1/2 cup ricotta cheese
-4 eggs
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 tsp aluminim free baking powder
1/2 cup (or one scoop) of vanilla protein powder.

In a mixing bowl, beat the 4 eggs with a hand mixer to make them fluffy. Add all of the other ingredients, and mix with the mixer.

Scoop the mixture into a pan and cook like a "regular" pancake.

I dusted mine with a small amount of powdered sugar and a small amount of lite maple syrup, this is not included in the nutrition facts. (...neither is the sausage on the side!)

**Tip**
When I normally make pancakes out of the box mixture, I don't have to spray my pan with non-stick spray, with these I did. They were sticking when I went to turn them so if you lightly spray your pan in between each pancake they will not stick as much.

What's YOUR number?

My number is 240. What is this number? The number I cannot get under!

It seems like we all have a certain weight where we hit a wall and it's hard to get any lower. Since I have weighed more than 240lbs, I have always struggled getting under that number. And now, we meet again.

My weight is still bouncing between 241-244lbs. All I want to see on the scale is two-hundred-thirty-anything. I don't care if it's 239.9, I'll take it!

I'm getting so frustrated that it will not get below this, it's where I always struggle. I WILL GET UNDER 240, I'm just getting impatient.

I had my husband hide our scale. It has been two days now. I'm going crazy not getting on it, but I'm going to wait until Saturday morning to weigh myself.

My dinner! Yum! Grilled chicken dish!

This came out really good, and was so easy to make!

What you need:

• 4 Chicken breasts, about 4oz each (Or 2 large ones cut in half lengthwise)
• 1 Red bell pepper
• 1 bag of fresh spinach
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Spices (I like salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, & Garlic Salt)
• Olive oil

 What you do:

Preheat oven to 375 for a later step.

Using a grill pan, heat it with olive oil. Lay the chicken on the pan, and sprinkle with the seasonings.Cook on both sides until it's the color brown you like (don't worry about under cooking, it's going to go in the oven).

While the chicken is cooking, in a separate pan, put a small amount of olive oil in a pan, and fill your bag of fresh spinach in pan. Cook until wilted down and set aside in a bowl.

Cut the bell pepper into strips. Cook in same pan spinach was in, until it's burnt on some edges of it, to give it a roasted texture. Cook until soft.

Using a Pyrex or similar dish, spray with non stick spray. Lay the chicken out in the pan. Cook for about 20 minutes or until it's no longer pink. If you fully cooked your chicken on the grill, you can skip cooking additional time in the oven.

Once chicken is fully cooked, top each breast with about 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese, spinach, and strips of red pepper. Top with a small amount of garlic salt. Put back in oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. You can also turn the oven up to a higher degree to melt the cheese faster.

Enjoy!