Shrinking Sisters

Tunes for Tuesday: On Our Way, by The Royal Concept

This is one of those SoundHound songs, where I'm at a store or coffee shop and go "What is that?" and grab my phone to ID it. Super high energy, good for a HIIT workout:

I feel totally locked in

Driving home from the grocery store last night, I thought to myself “I am totally locked in.”

I was sipping on a bottle of Propel that I just purchased, and thinking about all the good decisions I made this weekend.

I took advantage of the fantastic weather and walked outside four times last week, logging nearly 12 miles. I did a little “functional fitness” Sunday afternoon and my husband and I washed our cars in the driveway, old-school with buckets and hoses.

Locked in.

Fridays are our night to dine out, and we went to Chipotle. I got the burrito bowl with chicken but unlike most weeks, I left off the guacamole because I had guacamole at lunch (those 100-calorie packs of Wholly Guacamole are staples in our house). I also left off the cheese and sour cream, but I usually do that.

Locked in.

I’ve been getting in my food and tracking before 9 p.m. and making a big mug of decaf green tea every night. I admit – I really want to eat, but that’s not my plan.

Locked in.

(Well, except last night when MS Word completely ATE the first draft of this blog post and I completely ATE a bag of Popcorners. Totally rage ate.)

But right back on the horse (and hitting “save”).

OK, here’s where this blog post gets complicated.

I had seen some online discussions of “healthy living” bloggers who were anything but healthy looking. They were shockingly thin, yet still restricting their eating and overexercising.

That’s when I thought to myself “If I could harness just a tiny fraction of their obsessive dedication …”

Is that wrong? Unhealthy? I’m conflicted.

I have a lifelong tendency to stray from my given plan, no matter how well I’m doing at the time. It’s just how I’m wired. I marvel at people’s sticktoitiveness.

But those driven, skinny women … how do they do it?

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to be skinny. Hell, my goal weight right now is 199, which is far from skinny, although on me it’s a size 12. Besides, I don’t believe it is genetically possible for this size 12 shoe-wearin’ Eastern European chick to be skinny.

Because as locked in as I am right now, it could unlock just as quickly. (See Popcorners demolition.)

I've gotta be honest -- I'm envious of their dedication, as misguided as it is.

After Friday’s weigh-in, I’m lower than I’ve been in months. I’m riding a wave of motivation, but there are gobs of seaweed heading toward me, threatening to knock me off my Surfboard of Success.

Learning how to stay on this surfboard while dodging the seaweed (or Popcorners, or what have you) is my biggest challenge.

So I dug out my Endorphin Warrior bracelet I bought last year and snapped it on. 

... because I am.

Friday weigh-ins for the win

When I told the Weight Shrink that I was changing my weigh-in day from Mondays to Fridays, she pooh-pooed it as me making another excuse for bad results on the scale.

But I know my body and I had a feeling that Mondays were a bad idea, given all the "celebratory sodium" over the weekend.

So today, after I got back from my walk (my fourth one this week, adding up to 11.7 miles), I stepped on the scale and reached that number you see above you. That number is significant because in the past, when I'd ramp up my exercise, my hunger would also ramp up, and also my weight.

This week was different -- I battled my demons in the late-night kitchen and took off that weight that bounced back up on Monday, so that I'm lower than I was a couple Mondays ago.

(I know, it's hard to compare weights when I keep changing the weigh-in day, so we'll just go with what you see up there on my Withings chart. I'll be posting that every Friday now.)

Gotta admit, not eating after 9 p.m. is HARD most nights. I'm often really and truly stomach-growling hungry, but I'm eating around 1,500 calories a day so I'm not starving myself or anything. It's just that my physiology has gotten accustomed to the 10 p.m. or so "feeding time at the zoo" and the Pavlovian reflexes are kicking in.

And they stink.

But hey! I like the Friday weigh-ins. The number has me supercharged to continue the good work over the weekend so I don't undo this.

So, in honor of these renewed Get Fit Friday posts, here's a little song for y'all:

Gettin' saucy with Subway: A giveaway!

Pulled chicken in barbecue sauce and you don't even have to pull out the grill! Subway has a new limited-edition sammie on its Fresh Fit menu: The Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sandwich. It’s also one of their $6 footlong specials, which makes a great meal for two at 380 calories for a 6-incher.

We tried out the new sub recently and it was saucy without being squishy, with a nice ratio of chicken to sauce. Usually I'm an "everything but the kitchen sink" Subway orderer, but I wanted to really check out the flavor of the sub so I kept things simple and ordered it with lettuce, red onion, tomatoes and pickles (pickles and barbecue sauce are a match made in heaven). 

Would you like to have a Smokehouse BBQ Chicken Sandwich of your very own? How about a few of them? 

I'm giving away a $25 Subway gift card and here's how you can win it:

• Tell me in the comments what you love most about your favorite Subway sandwich. I'll go first: I love the fact that I can control exactly what goes into my sub and also that Subway has removed all the high fructose corn syrup from its breads -- yay!

This is a limited-issue sammich so time is of the essence. I'll choose a winner on WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 at 8 p.m. ET. You'll need to get back to me quickly so Subway can get you your gift card. 

Disclosure: Subway provided me with a gift card plus one for the winner of this giveaway. All opinions are my own and are not edited or approved by Subway. 

Wordless Wednesday: Growing wild on my walk

Took my phone with me on one of my walks Monday to document the beautiful things that grow along the way. Believe it or not three of these plants are "lawn weeds." The flowering vine in the upper left corner was growing wild on a chain-link fence. Once again, it's stuff I never find walking on a treadmill.

Tunes for Tuesday: Light em Up, by Fall Out Boy

Don't think there's an "official" video out yet for the song, so I found this one that just happens to feature the Miami Heat (go Heat!). I think the song would be great to kick off a running mix.

Monday is a terrible day to weigh!

So I'm changing my weigh-in day to Friday but I'll still report on it every Monday. I'm tired of being the "weekend bloat monster" and feeling like a high-school wrestler trying to "make weight" every Monday morning with a weekend full of safe but salty foods in my system.

And this weekend was particularly salty. We had Indian food Friday night, went out for an early Mother's Day dinner at an Italian restaurant Saturday night, and last night we invited everyone over for a hot-dog party. And while everything fit into my Weight Watchers Points allowance and I made some great choices (shrimp masala, grilled chicken cacciatore with no pasta, uncured turkey hot dogs), it was a salty, salty weekend.

Boo, salt!

Since I said I was going to report on the good, bad and ugly of the scale, it's up 2 pounds from last week but I know it's ALL sodium, based on the fact that my jeans still fit me exactly the same way.

That's why I'm moving the official weigh-ins to Friday. We only go out to dinner once a week but even though the food can be super healthy and within my calories/Points, it's still loaded with sodium. By weighing in on Friday mornings, any weekend salt fiestas will have the week to resolve themselves by Friday.

And since I'm being transparent and all, lemme share with you a piece of Photoshop nonsense from last week:

I was attempting to smooth out a shirt wrinkle that looked like a roll of fat so I fired up the ol' Photoshop liquify tool. Turns out, unless you're a retouching genius, Photoshopping a body against vertical stripes is a dead giveaway that you're messing with the photo, as you can tell by the closeup on the right.

Confession is good for the soul.

My 9 p.m. eating curfew has been going well, but there were a couple times I didn't finish my dinner and raced to down the leftovers at 8:59. No means no, lady!

As for the rest of my eating, my game plan this week is to eat even cleaner than I have before. This morning, for example, I sliced a cup of fresh strawberries and topped them with 6 ounces of plain nonfat Greek yogurt, a tablespoon each of honey and chopped walnuts. And it was fabulous. The only thing processed was the yogurt (sorry, I'm not making my own anytime soon). Real food mixed with other real food is simply great.

Onward and downward.