Biggest Loser Style

I don't know if it's my good influence, so much, or the fact that none of our suits fit anymore, but my office has decided to follow my lead and get healthy! The co-workers have dubbed our little experiment LFC, short for Lawyers' Fat Club. Each of the four of us is going to try a different method of weight loss. I am going to continue with clean eating and try Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred (the workout is still up for change as I have not yet purchased the 30 day Shred dvd). Amber may try the Biggest Loser diet. We're going to go to Barnes and Noble and look tomorrow to make a decision. Chris says his plan is to eat healthy foods and healthy portion sizes. I am not sure what Lee Ann's plan is, but if I had to bet, I'd say she is going to eat Lean Cuisines. She walks in the morning already, so she is ahead of the game exercise wise. I will keep you all posted on whose plan is the most effective. (Hope it's mine!)

Have any of you tried Biggest Loser style office challenges before? I hope it gives me us all a little motivation. We could all use a pick me up.

Waiting for the Food Network to Call

Yesterday, I spent the day with my little man. We decorated the house for Christmas. I am not finished because it takes approximately 1,000,043 hours to spread out the branches and make the tree look presentable. My hands and arms are cut all to hell but my tree looks good so I guess it's worth it. During the day, I decided to make some quinoa. I purchased it upon Tosca Reno's suggestion but had not yet mustered the courage to cook it. I cooked quinoa and some black beans and added some spicy flavor and had that with baked spicy chicken for both lunch and dinner. I am a culinary genius. It was delicious. I heart quinoa.

As the day went on, I realized that I needed some booze to fuel my Christmas spirit. I packed C-money up and we went to Hobby Lobby to get new ribbon for my Christmas tree and then headed over to Grape and Grain for a little vino. Yes. I took my 4 month old son into a liquor store. Don't judge me. It was a Christmas decorating emergency. I briefly considered wearing sunglasses into the store to shield myself from the shame.

Today, I need to get up and finish my decorating the house for Christmas and head over to Whole Foods for my grocery shopping for the week but what I really want to do is crawl back in bed. I am sleepy! I get to eat some new and exciting things this week (i.e. not sweet potatoes). I am most looking forward to brown rice, nonfat plain yogurt topped with granola and fresh berries, and whole grain muffins and wraps. I guess I need to plan out my meals for the week so I don't get carried away and waste a ton of money. I am pretty excited about the Paradise Island Bean Burgers we will be having one night this week. Yum!

Blogs of note...I was recently turned on to the Skinny Runner blog (thanks Morgan Beene) and although I am not a runner, at ALL, I am obsessed with it! Maybe I will be inspired to put on some jogging shoes and give running another chance. Check her out at skinnyrunner.com. What blogs do you love to read?

Thanksgiving

Well...I made it through Thanksgiving! I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the damage that Thanksgiving might do to the ole diet, but I weighed myself Thanksgiving morning and again this morning and...no weight gain! Not even one little ounce. I say that is a victory. I started out my Thanksgiving morning like every other (oatmeal and egg whites) and even had a midmorning snack of turkey and an apple. We ate lunch at Billy's mother's house and dinner at my aunt's house. I saved my splurge for dinner so at Billy's mom's house, I had a bit of turkey, a small spoonful of his mother's most delicious green bean casserole (it's my very favorite and it is not like your average green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup. It's made of cream cheese and fatty yumminess).

At dinner, I ate horribly but I kept my portions small. I feel gluttonous telling you what all I consumed but I am going to put it out there because that is what this blog is about. I had stuffing, cheesy hashbrown casserole, 2 deviled eggs (2! dammit Holly!), corn casserole and mac and cheese. I also had a tiny bit of dessert but it really was just a bite of two of my faves so it wasn't too bad. The ridiculous carb and cheese overload definitely made me feel lethargic and yuck, but it tasted delicious and it was Thanksgiving, so I make no apologies for the splurge. I got right back on the diet bandwagon this morning and had oatmeal and egg whites and I even packed my chicken, spinach and sweet potato and my snacks as we went up to Greenfield, Tennessee to decorate my grandfather's house for Christmas.

I love my grandfather's house but I think it looks especially beautiful at Christmas. He has an ancient Christmas tree that we have to put in each branch to assemble it, but it's enormous (like 12 feet tall) so we continue to use that same one year after year. It is obviously not pre-lit, as it is from the 60's, and we usually just drape lights around it and call it a day and it looks fine. This year, I decided to go all out and wrap the lights in and out of each branch. It looked amazing. Do you have any idea how many lights that takes? About 8,000,000. That's how many. It also took about 260 hours. It looks great, though. I will post pictures later. Maybe.

Well, I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! The New Year will be here before you know it, so maybe some of you will be inspired and try a little clean eating, too! I am excited that I made it through the first two weeks (oatmeal and sweet potato hell) and I have to tell you, I don't hate oatmeal anymore. I have gotten used to it and actually sort of like it now. Now I can eat other clean foods like yogurt with granola and fresh fruit, nut butters, peas and beans, brown rice, Ezekial breads and wraps and whole grain pasta. YUMMO.

Conquering Mexico!

Billy wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant tonight so I agreed, since he did not sign up for this crazy diet with me and I am sure that he is DONE eating baked sweet potatoes. Plus, I have to learn how to eat out eventually, right? I stayed strong, despite having to watch Billy eat a cheesy delicious burrito. I did not eat chips or cheese dip, which is basically the only reason to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I had grilled chicken fajitas with bell peppers and onions and a side of guacamole salad. I put a bit of salsa on some of the fajita meat as well and it was delicious. Who needs cheese dip anyway?

Public Service Announcement

This is not a dietary post. It is a public service announcement. I think that we need to have a little lesson on the use of the apostrophe. (' for those of you who do not know what an apostrophe is). The apostrophe is quite possibly the most over used and abused punctuation mark in the universe. The apostrophe SHOULD be used for the following purposes:

1. To show ownership or possession of something.

Examples: Carter's blanket.

The Holt's table.

The team's trophy.

Three girls' purses.

Note: Apostrophes are not necessary when using words that naturally imply possession. For example, hers, not her's.

2. In contractions such as these:

Are not = Aren't

Is not = Isn't

She is = She's

APOSTROPHES ARE NOT NEEDED WHEN AN 'S' IS ADDED TO A WORD TO MAKE THE WORD PLURAL!!!

Example:

Incorrect: The Holt's are coming to dinner.

Correct: The Holts are coming to dinner.

or a trickier one...

Incorrect: The Harris' are coming to dinner.

Correct: The Harrises are coming to dinner.

Also Correct: Belle is the Harrises' dog.

One more grammar tip for the day: alot is not a word. The correct way to say you have a lot of something is with two words...a and lot.

To Motivate the Non-Believers

I waited the entire week to post any stats, so here goes. Since I have started the clean eating I have lost (drumroll please) 6 pounds! Yay! I know that this is just because I have started something new and shocked my body with my nutritional intake, but still, it's exciting and motivating, no?

I think that this is also starting to help me in other areas of my life, as well. Yes, I am aware that I have only been doing it for a week, but I swear, I was less preoccupied with hatred for my job and my clients, etc. last week and I was so excited about preparing my meals for the week ahead of time, that I was in a surprisingly good mood on the way to my mediation today. This case has been going on for years. YEARS, people! Guess what? They SETTLED!!! I am convinced it is because of the residual effect of my obsession with my new diet. I have been so preoccupied with it that I have seriously worried so much less about my evil work life!

I won't continue to post my meals this week, as they are the same (oatmeal, egg whites, chicken, broccoli and sweet potatoes) pretty much every day until the end of this week. I did, however try something a little new with my sweet potatoes, because I could not stomach the thought of another baked sweet potato. I baked a few yesterday and today, I peeled the skin off, chopped one up, added some liquid smoke flavor and chipotle spice and then mixed them with a mixer like you would mashed potatoes. It was good! I just needed a little variety and it hit the spot. I don't like my sweet potatoes sweet, anyway, so smoky and spicy was the way to go for me.

I got a few suggestions on workout dvds so thanks to everyone for the input! I will be sure to keep everyone posted on my progress once I start my workout plan, too!

Well, I made it through the weekend! I am pretty proud of that. The weekend is much tougher than the weekday, because there is no routine. I spent the morning cooking for the week and let me tell you, it gave me such a feeling of accomplishment! I have a really early mediation tomorrow morning (well, it's not THAT early, but it is WAY out in Collierville and I have to be there on time, unlike my regular workday) and I already have my lunch and snacks packed for tomorrow and dinner cooked for tomorrow night! I am hopeful we will settle this case before my midmorning snack :) I highly doubt that will happen but I am going to think positive thoughts. I may have a bit of a struggle keeping to my plan tomorrow with this mediation but I have packed for the day and all I can do is be prepared and remember what I have learned.

So as some of you may have noticed, I have yet to mention exercise in this blog. I am sure you are thinking..."if she is trying to lose weight and get healthy, why doesn't she start working out?" I am not going to make any excuses for myself but I am going to say this: this diet is hardcore at first and requires a great deal of preparation, planning and cooking. I knew that if I was going to stick to it, I needed to establish my eating habits before making any other monumental changes. I felt that if I dove into too many things all at once, I would quickly burn out and I really did not want that to happen. That said, I am getting comfortable with the diet and feel that after a week or two more of the eat clean experiment, I will be ready to add some exercise to my routine.

I was once a committed gym member. In fact, during my first and second year of law school, I worked out every morning before class. Then again after graduation and once I had found a job, I worked out every morning before work. This was a huge commitment on my part as I had to get to the gym at 5 in the morning. My bff Laura even came with me. She was a good sport. Looking back, I do not understand why I did not alter my eating habits at that time. I literally got up at 4:45 every morning and dragged my fat ass to the gym and basically didn't lose any weight because I still ate like crap. When I got pregnant, I fell off of the workout wagon again. I could kick myself for stopping, because while I was not losing any weight, I was getting in much better shape and was much stronger. Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20.

Now, I have a 4 month old. I am not using him as an excuse not to work out, but it does complicate things. I cannot go in the morning because my husband leaves for work too early and there would be no one to watch the baby. After work, I have to rush to the babysitter's house to get Carter and then rush home to cook dinner. I think I need to start with something that I can do at my house in the morning or evenings. Does anyone have a suggestion? I have heard P90X and Insanity work wonders, but I am a little intimidated. What do you think?