Weight Loss Update {Healthy Living}

Hi everyone! It’s been awhile since I updated my blog, and it’s been purposeful for the most part.

This month has been crazy, but I’ve so missed writing to you all. Today I’m here to give an update on my 8-week weight loss journey.

Since January 1, 2013 (8-weeks ago), I’ve lost 13.2 pounds. That equates to about 1.65 pounds per week, which is pretty darn fantastic. In my ideal world, I would have lost 10 pounds a week and be DONE, but alas, that is now how weight loss works.

Picture: Taken 2/1/13, my first day of Turbo Fire.

I’ve been counting calories on My Fitness Pal, which is by far my most favorite and FREE way to lose weight. Feel free to friend me on there, I don’t bite.

It blows my mind that My Fitness Pal is so amazing and costs me zero money. The first 4 weeks of my weight loss, I lost about 10.2 pounds with Turbo Jam doing the advanced rotation. In February, I switched to Turbo Fire and have only lost 3 pounds. Turbo Fire is essentially Turbo Jam on crack. I’ll do more in-depth reviews of both in an upcoming post.

I never thought I’d be able to do Turbo Fire, and it’s quickly become my most favorite workout of all time. It’s so fast-paced and you never do anything for a super long time, so it moves by so quickly. Yet my weight loss has totally slowed down since I switched programs. I’d like to say I’ve kept measurements, but alas, I have not. I suck at taking measurements because I half-way suck it in, or I don’t know if I should measure between rolls or above rolls.

Complicated, I tell ya.

I did take before and after pics, and I don’t see a huge difference yet. Hmph.

As soon as I am done with this blog post, I am going to take measurements just for my sanity. My pants feel a little looser every week. It’s funny because before I started on my weight loss journey (for the 1.8 billionth time), I was like squeezing into my pants. Like, shimmying them over the hips, laying down, sucking it in, doing squats to make those suckers fit. Now, straight out of the dryer, they fit loose. Progress!

However, I am fairly certain my weight loss may go faster if I totally gave everything I had with my eating habits, but I told myself I wouldn’t force myself to be a saint knowing very well that it wouldn’t be something I could do forever. I still eat out. I still drink. I still eat sugar and carbs. But I do eat less of those things I love. I cut my restaurant portions in half. I have switched from margaritas with salt over to beer with lime. A donut is a once-every-2-weeks treat rather than a 2-3 times a week occurrence. Moderation is the name of my game. I also don’t eat 1200 calories a day…I eat closer to 1700-2000. I know if I cut out all those things, I probably would have lost more weight by now. But I’d also be very grumpy and ready to cave at any second.

So, 13.2 pounds down, about another 85-90 pounds to go. This is going to take awhile, and maybe that is the most discouraging part on any given day. The fact that although 8 weeks have passed, I probably have another 60, 70 or 80 weeks until I reach my goal. But if I stop now, eventually that time will pass, and then I’d have to start over again.

I’m not going to let that happen. I look forward to week-9 because it brings me my 28th birthday next Friday, March 8. One of my 30 before 30 goals is to finally be at a healthy weight. I think I’m going to get there this time.

Hope you’ll stick along with me on these pages for the ride.

The next few posts will be about some awesome fitness headbands (see photo below), a cool desk I made, and maybe I’ll finally finish the damn master bedroom makeover and take photos.

Progress.

Picture: Taken 2/20/13, after 20 days of Turbo Fire.

Diet To Go Review {Health & Weight Loss}

It’s funny how many people tweeted, wrote or Facebooked me to ask, “What are those meals you’ve been eating?”

Well, I was sent 4 days of food from DietToGo.com to review and give my honest opinion about. I finished the meals about a week and a half ago, but I am just now getting some time to write about my experience. Work is CRAZY INSANE. Everytime I think it’s going to settle down a bit, it so doesn’t.

So, I didn’t want to do the review rushed/halfway when I knew I wanted to point out some things.

I didn’t take pictures of all my meals because I get hungry and forget, but I did luckily get pictures of my favorite meals. That is one thing I will honestly say—the majority of the meals were TASTY. There were a few that I hated purely because it’s just not stuff I would normally, ever eat. Those dishes were a quinoa salad thing and a greek breakfast burrito. I tried to eat those and just could not. But if you like those foods, you might enjoy those dishes.

Here’s one of my favorite meals…it’s a reuben sandwich. I left off the salad thing that went on it to make it a reuben, so this was like a tasty grilled sandwich to me. The bread was like french toast and the cheese was plentiful and really gooey and yummy. Two thumbs up! It came with a fruit salad on the side that was super sweet and tasty.

While I thought the dinners and lunches were good overall, I thought where Diet To Go would prove really valuable for me personally is breakfast. Somehow that is the meal I have trouble with. I either eat something bland and am hungry, or I splurge and blow my whole day. The Diet To Go breakfasts were all A+ in my book (minus the greek breakfast burrito).

I tried 2 different kinds of muffins, and they were good. Now, the texture is different than a bakery muffin, but I sort of expected that because these are WAY lower in calories. The muffins were dense, in a good way, so they took me awhile to eat and digest. I was full with just the muffin. I want to know what magical stuff is in there, because I wasn’t expecting to be that satiated with a muffin. The muffin breakfast pack also came with juice (which I gave to the hubby) and yogurt. Simple, but tasty.

I thought the muffins were as good as it gets, but wait…the waffles. OH MY GOSH THE WAFFLES!

Sooooo good.

I stuck the breakfast pack in my purse on my way to work:

Then I dug in once I got to my desk:

So. Darn. Good. Delicious. Chewy. Filling. Sigh. I want more waffles. I could eat them everyday. The portion was uber generous.

Now I know a lot of you may be asking yourself if I think it’s a good value. Well, I got 4 days for free, and honestly… I liked it. It was nice to be heading out in the morning and just grab a breakfast. For lunch it was easy to just pick what I wanted to eat. It’s easy, and when I figured out the cost, it’s a bit better of a value than eating out at a restaurant…

And then there’s the sodium issue. Yes, there is a lot of sodium. There’s no way to prance around that issue. The way I look at it is that McDonald’s may be cheaper, and have just as much sodium, and maybe a Subway sub has less calories but more sodium. It is a concern though, and one I know so many people have. I feel you. I looked at the sodium and just drank more water, but yes, I was concerned.

Yeah. I don’t know what more to say about the sodium. There’s so many aspects to losing weight, and it’s hard to be perfect on all of them. My focus is calories in vs. calories out, try to make healthy choices, and exercise often.

You should do what’s best for you. Do I think that Diet To Go can help people lose weight? Absolutely. It takes the guess work out of it, it’s all there for you. Do I think it’s expensive? Yes and no. I think the meals are well thought out and coordinated, pretty filling, and it’s a tool to help keep calories under control, and if you want to lose weight, this might be a good way of doing it.

The food is tasty, and I wish they had a breakfast only plan.

Or if they just want to send me muffins, I’m down with that, too. And waffles, please.

I know many of you were waiting for my review, and I hope that I covered all my bases, but if you want to ask me a question, leave it in the comments and I’ll reply there. Or you can also email me privately at monicawantsit@gmail.com