costco. overnight oats. snacks.

The first thing I need to address: did you know that Costco’s brand of shampoo and conditioner are vegan? Seriously, best day of my life.

And yes, I did go to Costco again this week. I may be slightly obsessed.

The real reason I wanted to write a post (besides my endless want to get better at being regular about updating this blog) is to talk about my What I Ate Wednesday. Because it was really good. I ate a lot of really great stuff and I want to look back at this post as a reminder, a motivator, that eating healthy is awesome and delicious because I still need to remind myself of that when I stray and cave into cravings.

I started out the day with some green tea with lemon and sugar. I used to drink this almost every morning, and for some reason when it gets hot out I gravitate to coffee. The mornings have been kind of cold, but cold enough that tea is wanted.

I also made a really awesome overnight oats jar.

It’s super simple:

• 1/4cup of raw oats
• ~1/8th of a cup of almond milk
• 1 Silk Fruity and Creamy soy vanilla yogurt cup (my new love!)
• strawberries
• raspberries

Throw it all together and put it in the fridge for the night. The oats soak up all the liquids and it has a cake batter type taste to it. I like it much more than I like regular oatmeal.

I had some coffee with Silk creamer while I was at my desk Photoshopping. The guys leave the a/c on a ridiculous temp so when I sit at my desk for a while Photoshopping I get cold.

For our mid-day break, I had some of Trader Joe’s nut mix that I had per-portioned out into small Tupperware cups.

Lunch was my new favorite. I had a mixed greens salad with avocado, grape tomatoes, and raspberry vinaigrette I got at Whole Foods which is probably one of the best dressings I’ve had and it’s only 45 calories a serving. I had a serving of the Earth Balance cheese puffs, an apple, and the only bad thing: Diet Dr Pepper. Please don’t judge, I know. I know.

Second break I had a banana. I met and exceeded my fruit quota for the day.

Dinner was roasted spaghetti squash. Super simple, I just halved the squash and put 1/2 tbsp of Earth Balance garlic and herb spread on both sides, added salt and pepper, and some minced garlic and roasted until soft. I mixed it up with some sauteed mushrooms.

It was a really good day.

wiaw. weigh-ins. updates. blah-dee-blah

Oh hey, poor forgotten blog.

Not that you really expected me to follow through with my posting plan. But I tried, didn’t I. And a post even days late still counts. Considering its my blog, and since I’m not getting paid to do anything specific, I can do as I like.

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So, without further ado my WIAW:

I started off the morning with a good old standby:

• Keurig coffee
• Packet of Truvia
• 1.5 ounces of Silk coffee creamer (vanilla). Yes, I do measure it out

For a snack during the day at work I had some decaf Republic of Tea vanilla almond tea with 2 packets of sugar. I convinced my boss when we needed to replace our old water fountain (water cooler?) that the upgrade with the cold AND hot would be really good. It is good, and I don’t have to wait for the microwave for hot water for tea

For lunch I had Lilly’s brand kalamata hummus with some Crunch Master multi-grain crackers. Both I bought because they were on sale at Rainbow Blossom, and both I actually liked. Not the best of either, but the combo was good and I had it for most of the week because I’m lazy with lunches. I also had a bottle of Hubert’s diet blackberry lemonade. It was really good, and had Stevia as the sweetener so bonus points for that (especially since I didn’t even realize it was diet when I grabbed it, which in hindsight is stupid because look at how big the “diet” is on the bottle).

I then kind of had a splurge. I was at Earth Fare, hungry, and wanted something so I got some of their vegan chicken salad and a mini loaf of bread. I also then picked up the Rice Dream mint chocolate pie. I didn’t end up eating most of the chicken salad/bread because it really wasn’t good, but I did eat the ice cream. I should have just gotten the ice cream, less calories and less money. If you want vegan chicken salad, go to Whole Foods, so much better.

Even with the splurge I was still doing pretty ok on calories and I made a really awesome meal of quinoa with onions, broccoli, mushrooms, and Beyond Meat chicken strips.

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I didn’t do a weigh-in this week. I know I gained and I just couldn’t face the scale. My portions and calories were out of control. I really have no excuse except letting my urges get the best of me. I’m trying my best to recover and turn it around. So far today I’ve been pretty awesome, and really re-learning and re-teaching my body to be ok with being hungry when I don’t need to eat, and not falling for every craving. It’s a battle, but I’ll get there. There was one glimmer of change for the better during the week when I went for a walk as soon as I got home from work. I threw the purse in the trunk and just took off. That was the moment I knew, that even though I wasn’t exactly there, there was hope left.

weigh-in #44. grocery haul.

So, today was my weigh-in. It wasn’t pretty. I knew it was going to be horrible, I have been eating horrendously. I have a habit of being perfect, and on point with calories and food decisions up until dinner and blow it all on high calorie binges. This showed in the scale with around a 4 pound gain.

Yep.

I’m not happy about it, I’m not excited. I am ashamed and saddened by it. But, life goes on and this is just a bump in the journey. I’m taking it one day at a time trying to turn it around, and I think that’s all I can do. I’ve also been doing things that I know motivate me. The one thing I can not let myself do is blame myself, to the point I worsen the damage. This is not the end of the world, it’s a gentle nudge to tell me to try harder.

I went to Whole Foods to stock up on things for the fridge. I haven’t really done a proper shop since I’ve come back (I was out of peanut butter and I didn’t even know it) and this was a good start with lots of things that are not only healthy, but have helped keep me in check in the past. I figured a good old grocery haul in image form would be fun, and lighten up the mood in this post.

• Califia Farms unsweetened almond milk
• Califia Farms vanilla almond milk <~ These were still on sale! So excited
• Tofutti sour cream
• Earth Balance

• Bulk popcorn kernels
• 365 ketchup
• 365 crunchy peanut butter
• Mediterranean leek and onion crackers
• Oasis roasted red pepper hummus
• Field Roast meatloaf
• Bulk nutritional yeast

• Grape tomatoes
• Snap/sugar peas
• Baby carrots
• Gala apples
• Cauliflower

I have a lot of pantry items to use and still have some kale and mushrooms from a previous trip, but this I know will help me start getting into a better routine and prepare better meals, along with healthier snacks.

Also, the splurge of the day goes to:

Isn’t she pretty? I loooove glass water bottles (not the price…) and I couldn’t resist because of the size (a whole 22 ounces) and the top. I have a smaller one of the Life Factory bottles with just the screw on top. I love it. It’s durable, the glass is so much easier to clean (and doesn’t start to do that weird scratching/cloudiness that bugs me) and I use it at work all the time. My only problem was the top. I need a water bottle that is a covered top (for safety reasons in the shop), but sometimes I don’t have two free hands so the top was always a nuisance. I think this is going to be the winner in all of my issues with the added bonus of a strap and more ounces. One of the things I’m pushing towards is drinking my water. Now I can leave this one at work, and take my old one home.

Scale Problems

I’m a little worried about weigh-in tomorrow. Not because I think I gained (seriously, there is no way that I gained, I’ve been great with calories) but because of scale issues.

Today, I decided to move my scale from my bathroom, where it was residing, to the kitchen. It was just going to be easier, and allowed more space in my bathroom. So, when I put my scale in the kitchen I wanted to try to calibrate it so I stepped on it and it said my weight was 336.8, which is what my weight was two weeks ago. I found this extremely odd, since I’ve been really good about calories. The scale was essentially telling me that eating less than 1900 calories a day will maintain a 336 lb body. Not at all in the possibility, but I did need to get off and back on to calibrate. I got back on and it started freaking out and just randomly going up and down from 240 to 330, never stopping on a number. I got off, figured I just needed to leave it be until later.

Then after a while of asking myself if I need a new scale, I remembered an event that happened last week: As I was pushing my scale back to an out of the way spot I got on and it said the exact same thing: 336.8, even though not 20 minutes before it had read 335.8. I shrugged it off as a flux, or more clothing that I had added, and moved on.

Then, I really thought about it. There was no way I could have only lost 1 lb last week. I was kind of upset when I had seen that weigh-in, and thought it was some of the bad choices I made during the week, but in all honesty even with those bad choices I was still under in calories (which is already like 500 calories under maintain). I didn’t go over massive amounts, or ate normal even though I had an ice cream sandwich or cake, I allotted those calories, and took them from other meals and making those meals less calorie dense. So I started freaking out about my scale being ruined and having no money to buy a new one (not the end of the world, but it is extremely helpful in keeping weightloss in check and so essential for this process) and then I remembered the Wii Fit. It was always off about a pound, but it would do in a pinch.

So I hooked it up, got it working and stepped on the board. It read me as 302 lbs.

What. The. Hell.

Frustrated, and knowing there is no way that can be right (I don’t fit nicely into clothing that I wore at that size) I went back onto my scale and it read as 321 lbs. It didn’t do the freak out, it held on to that poundage. I have no clue what’s going on, who is wrong or what, but hopefully tomorrow it’ll be a little clearer when I step on the scale in the morning. Hopefully it’ll at least be somewhat ok. But for now, I’m on the hunt for a new scale. I won’t be able to purchase it for a couple of weeks, but here’s hoping things turn out.

Oh, technology.

Grocery Shopping Dilemma

So, I’ve been using the time off I’ve had since my contract ended last week to clean the house, get rid of some of the crap I am holding onto for no reason, look for another job, and work on getting my place looking less like a college dorm and more like an actual grownup space…well, as much as I can in a studio apartment.

Saturday I headed over to a Target on the other side of Bardstown, which was in a shopping center with a Wal-Mart and Lowes, mainly to look at there bedding but to also see the commute time since I have just applied there. I ended up heading over to Wal-Mart after Target because I have been in there before, and although I hate all Wal-Marts this is one of the better ones (of the super stores, the Neighborhood Markets are a different story). Even in the middle of the day on a weekend, they weren’t too crazy. I went there soley because I know that they have Cabot cheese.

Cabot cheese is delicious. It’s one of my favorite cheeses in the world, and it’s the one thing I’ve missed not living in Florida. You could find them everywhere in Florida! And on sale. In Kentucky, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart and Costco are the only two places that sell them. And it is ridiculously over priced at Whole Foods. The main reason I went for this cheese, is because even though right now in my vegetarian diet I’m not being strict about rennetless cheeses (mainly in restaurants, but sometimes in a money pinch I’ll buy whatever), I made a pact with myself to always buy when I could, and Cabot does not contain any animal rennet in it, thus making it the best cheese in existence. I walked around a little more while I was there and found the Morningstar Farms turkey burgers. When I ate meat, I prefered a turkey burger over regular and have been dying to try it, but none of the Whole Food/Krogers/Fresh Markets had them. This Wal-Mart not only had them, they had some of their other new products, and quite a bit of vegetarian selection.

Thus my predicament, Wal-Mart continuously has products that I regularly get, at discounted prices and products that no one else has. This isn’t the first time they have been the only place to have a certain product. They also carry the brand of tzatziki I like the best (with the best ingredients, and no added crap), they carry Sabra hummus for at least a dollar less than any other store, and a great bag of mixed frozen fruits that I use in my smoothies .

I really try not to shop at Wal-Mart, because I don’t like the atmosphere of the store, nor do I like (most of) the people who shop there, or the hassle of being in that crowded of a place. Wal-Mart is known to not be the best (ethically) place in existance, and it’s hard for me to be ok with supporting them through my money, but it still doesn’t change the fact that they carry these things that not only are leading to helping me with a better lifestyle, but also with my limited budget helping me not have to spend as much. It’s a hard moral dilemma, and there are always other sides. Even though I may not want to support them, my money does go towards the salaries of everyone who works there, and they deserve to have a job that gives them money just as much as I do. People with limited budgets deserve to have a place like Wal-Mart where they can buy more for their money when they have limited means.

Will I be shopping there more regularly now? For now, yes. But I intend only to purchase the things I know that I can’t buy at other places. One thing is for sure, Wal-Mart does listen to the customers and provide the products that they want, and that’s something.