Two weeks vacation!

Right now I am in the middle of a two week vacation, and it feels wonderful. :)

I used to get so paranoid about travel because restaurant meals are so caloric.

But this time we booked a hotel with a mini fridge and a microwave in room, so I have been able to eat healthy most meals of the day. :)

We plan to go to little Tokyo today. We'll most likely have sushi for lunch.

I really hope to visit Japan itself someday.

Sudden Intense Craving

Today I was struck by a craving for a McDonald’s Cheeseburger. Instantly my mind vividly imagined the smooth warm bun, the minced onions, pickles, and ketchup in the warm melty plastic cheese. I could smell it, and feel it, and taste it...

This really shocked me because I haven’t had a Mc Donald’s cheeseburger in over 10 years!

This only lasted a few seconds and now I feel really uncomfortable about the experience.

I don’t know what triggered such a lurid memory but its intensity was disturbing....

I'll have to look into that!



I woke up early this morning and did my Yoga DVD!

For breakfast I had and egg white cooked with olive oil on a piece of toast.

I had a mid-morning snack of some light vanilla yogurt.

Lunch was a Lean Cuisine Flatbread sandwich.

Late Afternoon I had another Lean Cuisine Flatbread sandwich (different flavor).

890 calories so far today.

I also took a walk around "the block" after lunch (about a mile).

Mean and Shallow

Sorry I have not posted in a while, but I have been crazy busy trying to get my costumes ready for the Anime Central (ACen) 2009 convention in Rosemont, IL.

I debuted my cosplay of The Diva Plavalaguna from the movie The Fifth Element on Friday, May 8^th 2009 to rave reviews!

Jess as The Diva Plavalaguna - "The stones are in me."

I put about 5 months of work into the costume. (Click here for more details and pictures.)

It took about 2 hours to get into it, with all the blending and painting to get myself the correct shade of blue. I’d like to give a big thanks to Aaron for all his zipping and tucking skills!

I think most people who saw my costume were very impressed by it... but sadly there was tiny group who were unimpressed by the person wearing it.

Behind my back I heard a young guy comment to his friends:

“Wow. That’s a great costume. Too bad she’s fat.”

Then later on the internet I read a comment saying: “she needed Jenny Craig.”

I got hundred of complements on my costume, but these two personal criticisms stick out the most.

I am not sure if I can express what it is like to have lost - and KEPT off - over 100 pounds and still be called fat by strangers....

Seriously, when did people become so rude? Why do they think it is okay to say/post those kinds of things?

I worked so hard for the body I have now, but I guess I didn't meet their "air-brushed playboy model ideal."

Not to be all "we-walked-up-hill-both-ways-to-school-in-the-snow" but there used to be these things called "manners." Where you would open doors for others, and if you didn't have anything nice to say, you wouldn't say anything at all.

It doesn’t “make you cool” to make fun of someone’s appearance -you look shallow, superficial, chauvinistic, ignorant, and petty.

Clean Bill of Health

My doctor could not find any lumps or asymmetry to match the results of the mammogram, so I was given a clean bill of heath. What a relief that was!

This month has been so hard for my weight loss - my breast cancer scare, stress at work, and the one year anniversary of my brother in-law's death have been wearing on my willpower.

Even through all this stress, I have been able to keep my weight stable pretty stable!

I am working hard to keep my weight loss trend going!

A new thing that I am doing is offering rewards to Aaron too. I am basically bribing him to make sure he encourages me to be active.

At the end of the week, we go to the book store and each get something if I am successful!


Today for lunch I went to Einstein Brothers' Bagels.

They have this new "under 400 calorie" menu and I tried their "Ancho Chicken Wedge."

It was really yummy and spicy! A toasted folded whole wheat tortilla, filled with ancho chili marinated chicken breast and grilled peppers and onions with some jalapeño cream cheese.

I really liked it. It was nice and hot and full of flavor!

When I was looking it up on the internet after lunch I came across a blog comment which went like this: "The Ancho Chicken Wedge was tiny!!! I had to eat two of them and I was still hungry. So not worth the money!"

That comment really surprised me.

First off - it wasn't "tiny." How big did she expect 350 calories of chicken and veggies with cream cheese wrapped in a tortilla to be?! It's like those 64 calorie beer commercials. Most people are eating way more calories than they realize.

I thought it was a very satisfying lunch-sized portion. It was about the size 3 stacked CD cases. That should be plenty to fill a human stomach.

Which leads to the next thing that stuck in my craw. That she HAD to eat two of them. As if the Einstein Brothers held a gun to her head and made her get that second Ancho Chicken Wedge!!!

She did not HAVE to eat two. It is not the fault of the Einstein Brothers that she chose their store for her gluttony.

I was satisfied hours later on my lunch... I couldn't imaging scarfing down two and STILL being hungry?!! Wow, and ick... that is one over-stuffed stomach.

Lastly - Cost
I paid $4.95 for lunch and I didn't think I was being "ripped off" but I guess if you drop $10 to eat it twice and still feel hungry -- I can see where a person would feel ripped off! But just because you want to eat more than enough for two people does not mean the food was over priced.

I guess the moral of today's post is:
Learning to be satisfied with proper sized portions saves you 50% on lunch!

"Suspicious Mass"

I am waiting to find out if a mass in my breast is cancerous.

I am hoping for a "false positive." I just wish I knew if I had it or not! Not knowing is nightmarish.

I see my doctor again on Friday, but that doesn't mean I will find out anything. She might order more tests, and I will just continue to not know...

Anyway!

I got up early today and ran for 32 minutes on the elliptical trainer.

Breakfast was a serving of cream of wheat with a packet of cocoa powder. I thought about just using sugar from the shaker... but that would have been a disaster. I know how many calories are in the packet. I wasn't sure how many calories would be in the sugar I would "sprinkle" on.
270 total calories for breakfast.

Lunch will be a Amy's Kitchen Frozen meal - cheese tamale (360) or palak paneer (270).
I also have some vanilla Activia yogurt in my mini fridge for later this afternoon. (110)

Happy news, my car is done at the shop and we can pick it up!! Some jerk hit/scratched it up really bad in the parking lot. I never realized how much I love my car until I had to use the loaner....

I also got my braces adjusted today. I felt like she was trying to defuse a bomb attached to my teeth - with all the wire snipping and twisting. My next adjustment isn't until June.

It was snowing/raining when I woke up today. The weather is very wet cold and depressing, but the grass is getting green again and some flowers are already up!

Springtime in Wisconsin is always like this: Snow on Tuesday, in the 80's by Friday.


I am going to be tweaking the code again slightly, and putting up version 2.0 of the calorie calculator application.

Same Site, New Name

"Jessica's Weight Loss Blog" will now be known as "Less Jess - Over 100 lbs lost!"

In the past auto-links to my site couldn't cope with the apostrophe and it looked like this:


"Jessica's Weight Loss Blog"

How ugly!


"Less Jess" matches my site's address, and the "Over 100 lbs lost!" should draw in new readers.


This morning I got up early and did some circuit training.

I went through my MP3s and created a playlist of "pumping tunes." I picked peppy songs that were between 2-3 minute. When the song changed, I changed to a new exercise. I either ran on my elliptical trainer, lifted free weights, or did some type of sit-up for my circuits.

(I used the same song for my warm-up and cool-down.)

Warm-up
Run, Arms, Abs
Run, Arms, Abs
Run, Arms, Abs
Run, Arms, Abs
Run, Arms, Abs
Run, Arms, Abs
Cool down
Stretch out

It took about an hour and felt great!

Breakfast today was a mashed avocado, with a tablespoon of tomatillo salsa verde, and 2 oz of shredded Wisconsin cheddar cheese.

This is not my normal breakfast, but my avocado was prefectly ripe today! Yum!

The “Out-to-Get-Me’s”

I used to think Cadbury mini eggs must have crack-cocaine in their shells because they were so addicting, but now I know the drug in them that had me hooked was sugar.

Sugar really is a drug. What it does to the body is just as extreme as any other drug (rots teeth, diabetes, obesity and all of it’s complications... ) but sugar is in nearly everything we eat! From the cereals that starts our day to our pasta sauce at dinner, there is sugar in nearly everything.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1999 data the average American ate 158 pounds of sugar each year.

Sometimes it’s hiding under a pseudonym: beet sugar, brown sugar, cane-juice, cane sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice or fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, refiner’s syrup, sucrose.... Just waiting to wreak havoc on your insulin levels.

I have fought a sugar addiction for years. Dessert wasn’t a once and a while treat for me - it was a daily requirement. I still struggle with my weakness for sugar to this day.

So far this week I have successfully avoid a big basket of Easter candy, the entire 50% off Easter Candy aisle, and homemade chocolate chip cookies someone brought into work. It was really tough. I don’t think people who have never struggled with sweets can understand what an achievement that is.

I used to feel like “The whole world’s out to get me!” but no one ever forced food into my mouth and made me chew at gunpoint. I was the one who ultimately put it in my mouth and ate it. I take responsibility for that now.

I used to use the “Out-to-Get-Me’s” to hide my own failure by placing the blame on someone else. We all know that nobody is perfect, it is just so hard to admit when you are the one that isn’t perfect!!!

When trying to lose weight you will have days when you will just plain fail. It is not cool, but is a hard truth some dieters can never recover from.

They see that one mistake as a complete failure, and since they have “failed” at weight loss, might as well keep eating.

This is not the mind-set that will lead to success!!

What if we applied this logic to learning how to walk? Would you just give up on a little baby who tries to take her first steps and falls down? (Bah! She’ll never walk!)

Of course not!!!

Learning to be healthy is like learning to walk, and there will be stumbles along the way, but eventually you will learn how to live a healthy life and stick with it!

My motto is: If at first you don’t succeed - do something easier.

And as long as you continue to live healthy, eventually you will be healthy!

Cheers,

Jess

March Recap.

I lost a total 3.50 pounds in March! (6.50 down so far in 2009.)

I've really got back in the groove. I hope to keep this trend going this April.

My husband wrote me version of the Calorie Calculator for my Blackberry Curve!


The following is an extra geeky paragraph you can skip:
He used Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) which provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on mobile and other embedded devices—mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), TV set-top boxes, and printers. Java ME includes flexible user interfaces, robust security, built-in network protocols, and support for networked and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically. Applications based on Java ME are portable across many devices, yet leverage each device's native capabilities. Very cool!



Soon as it is ready I'll post a link. :)


My new goal is to workout a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 times a week and if I can do it I will get the next volume of the manga Loveless!

Yea!!! I love this kind of manga/anime! *droolz* The chance to read the next volume is very motivating!! I can't wait to read what happens next!

A "Game Day" That Was Not a Calorie Train Wreck!

I have updated the code on all of my pages now.

Things are still a bit buggy in IE, Opera, and Safari. I apologize for that and will be working hard to get my code to play nice with those browsers. Resizing the browser fixes the bug in IE... or having a wheel on your mouse to scroll.

I do want to note: Everything seems to work fine in Firefox!

Firefox rocks!


So besides driving myself crazy tweaking the code here, we had some friends over to play games today! Most game days turn into a calorie train wreck!

We always order a pizza, subs or Chinese. I try to order healthy items, but by the time the food actually arrives I end up eating way too much.

This doesn't count the "snack" foods we often have out for guests!!!


Gaming days never go smoothly for weight loss but today was different!


Here is my calorie breakdown for today:

Breakfast
I had an egg white "Toad in the Hole."


"Toad in the Hole"
1 tbsp butter (100 Calories)
1 egg white (70 Calories)
1 slice of bread (100 Calories - pre-cut)

In a small frying pan, melt the butter.
Use a glass or cookie cutter to remove a round hole from the center from a slice of bread. (I did not eat my center.)

Place the bread into the frying pan, and crack an egg into the hole. (I did not eat the egg yolk either.)
Cook over a low heat so the egg gets white and firm. Once the egg white is firm enough, carefully flip the bread to toast the other side and finish cooking the egg.

Very Yummy.


For lunch I had a Amy's Kitchen Bean and Cheese Burrito for 300 and a tablespoon of Salsa for 20 more.


So I was around 550 to 600 calories.


After lunch is when I nearly lost control....

It started with 32 chocolate chips.

There are sixteen Ghirardelli Chocolate Chocolate Chips in a 70 calorie serving. So I counted out two servings for 140 calories.

Then I think, "You know what goes great with chocolate? PEANUT BUTTER!"

So I get out a bowl and put a lump of organic creamy peanut butter into it. The peanut butter is really hard because it has to be kept in the fridge, so I put it all in the microwave. This melted the chocolate all together.

I then think - "Natural peanut butter needs some sweetening."

So now I pour way too much powdered sugar to the bowl. It takes on a crumbly consistency, so I figure it need some butter to smooth things out.

I add about a tablespoon of butter to the bowl and start mixing... then I start adding things up in my head.

32 chips, 140
Butter, 100
Peanut Butter, 210
Powdered Sugar... 300+?

I easily defeated the voice in my head that said, "You have to eat this or it will be wasted!!!" and dumped the whole thing in to the garbage!

I then counted 16 chips into a mini cupcake wrapper and enjoyed them slowly!!

Those 70 calories were all the sweeter knowing I had saved myself from such a calorie disaster!!!

Calorie total: 670

Then the Gamers came over....


Whenever we game we also order food... and you know how delivery food is. (Pizza, Chinese, Subs...)

They ordered Pizza, well this pizza to be specific:

Chicken Cordon Bleu

We start with our Honey Mustard sauce and House Blend Cheese,
then we add Boar's Head Sweet Slice Ham, sliced fried Chicken Tenders
and slices of melted Wisconsin Swiss Cheese. A unique treat!

http://glassnickelpizza.com/

But two of the guys didn't like Honey Mustard, so they substituted Alfredo sauce, and got the honey mustard on the side.

I decided to skip the pizza and ordered 3 ricotta and spinach stuffed jumbo shells. I esimated the calories in my pasta, with garlic bread to be about 900 calories.

Even with all this temptation, I was able to keep my calorie total to around 1600.

I stop a binge before it happened, and also avoided the pizza from the pizza place. :) Yea!

New Style Wins

The new look took 71% of the vote, so looks like I will be busy converting my pages! Please bare with me as I tweak the code to work in all browsers.

I apologies in advance if your browsing is disrupted while I am making updates!
Everything should be updated before April.

Now on to the weight loss front!

I am down a pound so far this month.

I had lost almost 3, but but then my "Diva Days" puffed me up again! The Puffies should go away soon and everything should be back to normal by Monday! :)