Happy Friday! It has been a very long week. Work was tough, workouts were tough, and the diet was tough. Sometimes life can get in the way of the best-laid plans, and this was definitely one of those weeks. My grandmother bought me a chocolate cake for my birthday and apparently thought that a sheet cake was a good size for a person who lives alone and is on a diet. Here is a picture of the amazing cake.

So this cake was really good: chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate buttercream. Usually I don't care for this much chocolate, particularly on a store-bought cake, but this took top prize in awesomeness. Pure chocolate awesomeness. I spent 4 straight days eating on this before taking the rest to my co-workers and ditching the extra frosting.

Besides the cake diet disaster, the rest of the eating plan went pretty good for the rest of the week. Since I live alone, I sometimes have a hard time justifying the expenses of time and money for excellent food. One relatively cheap and easy thing that I like to make is chicken fajitas. Since I am trying to cut erroneous carbs out of the mix, I went with just the "filling," and it lasted me 3 meals (yay!). Here is a picture of the yummyness.

I used chicken tenders and cut them into bitesize pieces. I mixed that with green peppers, red onions, and fresh tomatoes (which my mom got from a friend's garden). I did use a fajita mix that was low sodium and no MSG. It was really good! I love Mexican food--it is my favorite.

One thing that I decided I need to do differently is not drink alcohol anymore while dieting. I know you hear this a lot, but I like to drink and do not want to give it up. But I think it is for the best to keep the bloat and dehydration down and to eliminate the extra sugar processing. I am planning on going out tonight to celebrate my birthday with friends, and this will be the last time that I imbibe for a while. Luckily, I will be celebrating with tequila!

Enjoy your weekend, friends!

Today I celebrate my birthday. It is crazy to think that I am 31 today, but I know what I giving myself this year: the healthiest year of my life! And maybe some chocolate cake. Take the day and enjoy yourself!

Well, it is Sunday, so time to check in with this past week's progress!

The diet went pretty good with a couple glaring exceptions: food day at work on Wednesday and out to dinner with my family on Friday. Other than that, all other meals were within my goals. I did pretty good!

The exercise was great, too. I did my cardio workouts on Monday, Friday, and today, my weights on Tuesday and Thursday, and even added cardio to my Tuesday weight lifting. It was a good week!

My workout today was awesome. I decided to up the ante a bit on cardio and am going to go for 45 minute sessions instead of 30. I started that today by doing 30 minutes on the total body crossramp (approximately 3 miles) and 15 minutes on the stationary bike (around 3 miles) for a total of around 450 calories burned. Definitely an excellent start to the week. I will also be including 10-15 minutes of cardio on my weights days, but will continue to keep Wednesday and Saturday off at this point (I need at least ONE day away from my workplace in a week!).

Have a great week, everyone!

Last night my parents, my brother, and I went out to dinner. We do this pretty often because we all love food! We decided for Chinese buffet which is all the rage in Des Moines. I am not a huge fan of buffets because the food quality usually isn't that great, and I never feel like I am getting my money's worth (I only opt for one or sometimes two plates of food). Since I am trying to be good with my food intake, I limited myself to one crab rangoon (nearly impossible!) and some other goodies. Here is a pic of my plate:

You will notice that I tried to limit my carbs (but who can resist sushi with cream cheese?), but I also went with the chicken and tofu, and a piece of salmon. Although I completely filled myself up on this plate, I grabbed a second plate of only broccoli and chicken, which I later regretted due to eating way too much food. The good news: I was too full to even think about dessert!

How do you survive buffets? Leave a comment!

There are things about weight loss and exercising that no one tells you about; things that you simply have to learn on your own. I encountered three of things today which I have called, the Bad, the Bad, and the Ugly.

First, the Bad. As you know, I eat an apple each day before I work out. This is not only because fresh fruit is good you and apples are high in fiber, but it is one of only a couple carbohydrates that I eat in a day. It gives me a good energy boost right before my cardio workouts. Well, today I only got about 3 bites of apple. After starting in, I looked down and noticed a huge reddish brown spot. I showed my co-worker who agreed that I should just keep eating. Curiosity got the best of me, though, and I continued to prod the spot until it turned into a hole. A hollow tube in my apple. Clearly a worm had taken up residence in this apple at some point and I was about to consume the leftovers. Yuck. I threw it out.

This brings me to the other Bad. Since I threw out my apple, and my banana was also bad (it was the last one of the bunch), I haven't had anything to eat since lunch, only having consumed probably 250 or 300 calories today. I get to do my cardio workout tonight on an empty stomach. This is the Bad.

Finally, the Ugly. One thing that I can clearly say is that your body starts to get used to a certain standard of food when you improve your diet. I had been doing really good until Wednesday this week when my workplace had a state fair-themed "food on a stick" food day. I was good and brought my eggs and salad, but was easily distracted by bacon-wrapped shrimp, cupcakes, and other yummy treats. I didn't really overindulge, but I definitely had some junk food. What came next is what I like to call the Ugly: acne. Once your body gets used the improved diet, any time you consume the bad stuff again (processed, sugar, salt, etc.), your body can react to it. For me, I woke up yesterday with zits starting all over my forehead and chin. I never get zits. Ugh. I feel like I am 14.

Luckily, this is Friday and I am still going for my cardio tonight. Have a great weekend!

So now that you know a little about my motivation, I need to tell you how I plan on getting there. 50 pounds is a lot of weight to lose, but is definitely doable within a year. I plan on dropping the weight through diet and exercise changes only. There will be no "fad"diets or 10-week extreme workout challenges. I can't afford any of that on my one income! I plan on consuming around 1000-1200 calories per day and working out 5 times per week. Here is the plan in more detail:

Food

Food changes are going to be the toughest for me, hands down. I have problems with portion control, cravings, and an insatiable sweet tooth. When I am "dieting," I tend to binge on bad foods at the first sign of a craving. My food plan will consist of very structured eating during the week at my desk job and a little more flexibility on the weekends. I also plan on incorporating as many fresh fruits and vegetables as I can and trying to eliminate as many processed foods, sugars, and simple carbohydrates from my diet. I have already pretty much eliminated fruit juice and soda completely (only an occasional soda--maybe once every couple of weeks) which is definite step in the right direction. Here is a typical weekday menu:

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs
Lunch: Spinach salad with protein (fish or chicken) or leftovers consisting of vegetable and protein
Afternoon Snacks: 1 banana about 2 1/2 hours after lunch and 1 apple about 1 1/2 hours later
Dinner: Vegetables with protein or a green smoothie
Late Night Snack: Light yogurt

Of course there will be modifications (especially since I will need more carbs on cardio days and more protein on lifting days), but this is a basic meal plan. I will update the blog as necessary with any changes to the meal plan.

Exercise

Did I mention that I hate exercise? I don't like sweat, I don't get the "runner's high," and definitely dislike running. A LOT. I am lucky enough to work for an employer that has free gym facilities on campus, so I am able to access cardio and strength tranining equipment at any time. The time of day that works best for me is right after work. I am NOT a morning person, so getting up early to do something that I hate is out of the question. Once I am home for the evening, I don't like going out again, so stopping by after work before I go home works best.

My plan at this point is to work out 5 times per week. I plan on taking Wednesdays and Saturdays off, focusing on cardio workouts on Sunday, Monday, and Friday, and strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. So far I have been able to keep to this schedule with only a couple minor changes, and plan on making up missed workouts. I also have a stability ball at home and like to do yoga stretches and mat work at home. I am also lucky that I have a co-worker that likes to lift weights, too, so we plan on lifting together on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So that's the plan! If you know of any fat blasters that can help me out, please share them in the comments!

I stopped by my parent's house on the way home from work. They are having zucchini pizzas for dinner and invited me. Low-carb, free dinner? Yes, please. I hope we can watch some Sherlock, too.

So here is where I start. I love food. I hate working out. This combination is really only good for one thing: getting fat. Over the past decade, I have good experience in gaining a lot of weight, and I did it really quickly. The majority of my weight gain happened in my mid-20s when I got my first full-time office job. I ballooned about 40 pounds that first year, and it kept going up each year after that. A sedentary work environment plus access to quick restaurants and food days do not bode well for those of us who love food and hate working out. This is really where my story begins.

Most of us don't realize how quickly or how much weight we gain. I certainly didn't think that I would go from curvy sorority girl to obese within just a couple of years. But now in my 30s, I can't wait around anymore to get healthy. In 2012, I started the year with Nutri-System. I was determined to lose all my weight, so I purchased 3 months worth of food. I lost about 20 pounds really quickly and decided that I needed to get into the gym. Ugh, working out. I dropped a bunch of money on a gym membership and signed up for personal training twice a week. And I went for it.

Purchasing the personal training sessions was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and, in retrospect, well worth the money. My trainer, Morgan, was awesome to work with. She taught me how to use the equipment, feel comfortable at the gym, and most importantly, how to prevent myself from getting injured! I gained a lot of muscle and burned more fat. My total weight loss for 2012 was 45 pounds.

By about November of 2012, though, I hit a motivation plateau. I was sick of working out so hard and not seeing much difference on the scale. I could only afford those first 3 months of Nutri-System, so after that, I was trying to diet on my own, but I was over it. By December, I had pretty much stopped dieting and was only making my personal training sessions without doing any extra on my own. By the end of the year, my personal training sessions were up, and I didn't renew my gym membership.

Fast forward to July 2013. The beginning of 2013 was tough for me medically. I slipped on the ice and broke my wrist in February, so working out was pretty much out of the question, even if I felt like (which was never). I also battled 3 bouts of pneumonia (which luckily I figured out was acutally a previously undiagnosed immune deficiency). By July, I knew that my health was in decline, and I didn't want to keep getting sick for the rest of my life. I needed to make a change.

My main motivation in all of this really is my health. When you have a doctor tell you that there is something wrong with your body that cannot be treated, it is a scary wake-up call. The only way for me to try to prevent illness is to take care of myself. I decided right then and there that I needed to make some big lifestyle changes in order to prevent future serious illness. But I have always had a motivation problem. And frankly, the health motivation would probably run out quickly. So I had an idea; I needed a shorter term goal with a big payout.

As a self-proclaimed nerd, I enjoy watching a lot of BBC television shows, films based on comic books, and fantasy novels. I have wanted to go to San Diego Comic Con for years. Fortunately, right at the time that I decided to make all these lifestyle changes, SDCC 2013 was going on. As in years past, I was reading tweets and watching updates, thinking, "Someday I will get there!" But what if I didn't? My goal was then easily hatched.

My goal is to lose 50 pounds before San Diego Comic Con in July 2014. I want to be healthier. I want to look good. I want to feel comfortable walking around San Diego. I want to cosplay if I feel like it. For me, it is a great short-term goal to get me motivated for my ultimate goal: to live healthier.

I created this blog for two reasons. The first is to help me journal my progress and thoughts. This is NOT going to be easy (remember, I love food and hate working out). I will need to vent. I will need to share my triumphs. I need this for myself.

The second reason is for the reader. Anyone who wants to join me on this journey. Maybe you are struggling with weight loss, or need some inspiration. Maybe you want to go to SDCC 2014, too! For whatever reason you are here, I hope that you find my journal enlightening, maybe slightly entertaining, and hopefully to make you feel like you are not alone with the huge challenge that is weight loss.

So join me, we can do this! Let's geek out!

This is my brand new blog regarding my weight loss goal of dropping 50 pounds by San Diego Comic Con 2014.