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Sunday, January 6, 2013

My Favorite Foods

It's been over 7 months since surgery and I've learned so much about food. How to cook it, what I like, what's easy, what staples to have, etc. I definitely have built the confidence I needed to know I can live perfectly happy making my own dishes and loving it. This list includes a number of recipes, staples, and more that I find myself returning to again and again. Hope you enjoy!

Protein Shakes
I still do a protein shake just about every morning. Nutritionally, I still swear by Isopure powder (I prefer creamy vanilla). However, sometimes I want different flavors so I reach for Syntrax Nectar in Kiwi Strawberry or Chocolate Truffle. Lately, I've been doing ready to drink shakes. My go-to items are Muscle Milk Light Chocolate, EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control, or Oh Yeah!

Breakfast
When I first get up, I drink a shake and take my vitamins. But around 10 AM or so I'll eat "breakfast". I'm a fan of Fage Yogurt. If I'm home, I'll eat plain and add Torani sugar-free raspberry syrup because the calorie and sugar content are WAY better than the flavored ones. But if I eat flavored, flavored Fage is freaking awesome (I like honey!) because the "flavoring" comes in a little side container and you can just eat a little of it and save yourself some calories and sugar. Lately, I''m totally addicted to ricotta pancakes from theworldaccordingtoeggface.com and spread it with a little bit of almond butter or PB2 mixed with water.

Meals
Sunday is pretty much cooking day. I make up a bunch of stuff for the week. My favorite recipes typically involve Mexican food and can be found on my Solid Foods page. As far as prepared items and staples, here's a few faves:
  • Salmon burgers
  • Baby back pork ribs in a crock pot (seriously - dry rub them and throw them in on low for 6 hours with NO LIQUID. Amazing)
  • Chicken Meatballs
  • Whole wheat tortillas or flatbread (do your homework in the store and compare carb, calorie, and protein grams by gram of tortilla and pick the best)
  • Turkey pepperoni minis
  • Buffalo wing sauce (I like Frank's or Archer Farms from Target)
  • Chickenless Crispy Tenders (I toss in wing sauce - they're seriously yummy and the perfect sleeve size)
Snacks
There are plenty of snacks that I've tried that could be considered healthy in moderation, but if I stray from protein-based snacks I really can't control myself. Nuts and any sort of carb-based stuff (Pop Chips, Kay's Naturals, etc.) just has a hold on me that I don't like so I try to stay away. So I pretty much keep it simple; cheese, hummus, beef jerky, or yogurt.

33 week update

Holy crap. 33 weeks. It has absolutely FLOWN by and I couldn't be happier. Let me get right down to business. You can check out the video to hear more about my weight loss to date.

Surgery day: 250.4

One month 226.1 (24.3 lbs month/24.3 lbs total)
Two month: 211.8 (14.3 lbs month/38.6 lbs total)
Three month: 201.3 (10.5 lbs month/49.1 total)
Four month: 189.5 (11.8 lbs month/60.9 total)
Five month: 178.9 (10.6 lbs month/71.5 total)
Six month: 168.9 (10 lbs month/81.5 total)
Seven month: 160.3 (8.6 month/90.1 total)
Eight month: 160.3 (0 month/90.1 total)
Week 33: 158

1 week weight loss: 2.3 lbs
Total weight loss: 92.4 lbs

Apparently I'm at week 33, not 34 - forgive my video reference to week 34, lol. I didn't talk about it in the video, but about my calorie intake...I stopped tracking back a couple of months ago. Recently, I've started periodically tracking a couple times a week. I've been taking in about 1500 calories a day and maintaining with regular exercise, but as you see above, the weight loss has pretty much stopped this month. I can tell from my history that 900-1000 calories will be my sweet spot for kicking the weight loss back in gear. So, that's my target for now. Enjoy the video! Jo