Bird Flight

I vowed not to skip my weekly Friday Fitness and Weight Loss updates, but I obviously did these past few weeks. I wasn’t on any pre-planned vacation. I was just feeling particularly unwell. I’m not going to beat myself up for this. It’s not nice to beat oneself up for neglecting things when unwell. Also, I’d rather pat myself on the back for posting this today instead of completely abandoning my updates. I do have good results, despite some indulgences. Find them below:

Weeks 19 to 21 weight change: – 2.6 lbs ( – 1.18 kg)

Total weight loss to date (over 21 weeks):  – 8.0 lbs ( – 3.63 kg)

Week’s exercise (above & beyond):  I had some good energy days and some bad energy days these last few weeks. I am yet to regularly do official “exercise” in the sense of working out, walking, or dancing. That is something I’ve really struggled to start, but I have shed many beads of sweat some of these days. I was cleaning up a storm and doing oodles of errands. I look forward to the cooler days of autumn. It has been hot as hell outside lately!

My appetite’s been a bit strange lately. For part of the day, I’m not at all hungry, but then in the afternoons I sort of make up for that. I’m pleased that I’ve been tracking most of what I eat, even when I exceed my daily calorie, carb, fat, and other goals. I’ve only exceeded 2,000 calories in a day maybe five times during this period. My goal is to stay under 1,200 calories, or a little more if I do a lot of exercise. Really, 1,200 calories a day is a goal for pretty quick weight loss. Many reading my updates know that quick weight loss was only happening my first few weeks of this journey (and a couple others), but continued weight loss of any amount is welcome. Steps back are inevitable for most dieters, but the key is to get back on track.

My most indulgent days of the last few weeks were kind of special ones. Out of the blue, I became obsessed with the idea of recreating the top of my wedding cake. Maybe I was a little elevated in mood that week. I’ve been married over 20 years, and just felt like I never had a big enough piece of that cake. It took me two days to make, with a total of about five hours of hands on labor, plus shopping and clean up. The cake required making homemade marizipan as a top “frosting”, a special vanilla pastry cream, three layers of cake, a frosting used as a “glue” for the marzipan, the rolling out and placement of the marizipan (which took me three tries), and coloring and sculpting marizipan decorations, which included a pink ribbon and a pink marizipan rose with green marizipan leaves. I felt triumph at my accomplishment and then crashed and burned because of the effort. I did have a few large pieces with my husband, but was smart enough to freeze the rest for next year. It was not a diet-friendly recipe, so I won’t post it here.

Interim goals:  I need to keep tracking my meals and making good meal choices. If I make any “desserts” in the upcoming days, they need to be diet-friendly.

Recipe share

It’s nice to make something new or that you haven’t made for a very long time. The other day I decided to make homemade chicken fajitas. My husband loves fajitas, and they are a diet-friendly choice, depending on the toppings. I made enough for hubby to enjoy them two nights in a row. I had one fajita for each of three meals. They hit the spot. The recipe I used was Flavorful Chicken Fajitas from TasteofHome.com. They were quick and easy to make. I used the smallest size flour tortillas and less oil than the recipe called for. Honestly, I can usually get away with reducing pan fats by up to half.

To read about the weight loss plan and tools I chose for this effort, click My Fitness and Weight Loss Plan Described. You can also read my very first post introducing this effort at Long haul healthy weight and fitness efforts – creation of a Friday post series.