Gifts/motivation for weight loss

This weekend was a bit more chill for me. I really needed that. It's been go, go, go for the last few weekends. I think I've worked the last 5 or 6 weekends in a row. This weekend was just a Friday night late night shift and an overnight shift Saturday night (7p to 7a). Typically I try to nap before a shift, but my little ol' brain just wouldn't shut down, so Saturday night was looooong with a lot of patients who screamed during labor and delivery. It was a bit intense for my eardrums. When I came back home, all I wanted was peace and quiet and my bed. I slept until 3:30 p.m., hit the gym, went grocery shopping, had Sara over for dinner, and then laid in bed not sleeping (probably since I slept until 3:30 p.m.)

This morning, I weighed in - and yayyyyy!

Yay!

You can see my weigh-ins here. Since recomitting to my weight loss journey, I've lost 19.4 pounds. Now, before I get all crazy and buy myself new shoes (which I promised myself I'd do when I was in the 220s), I want my next weigh-in to remain in the 220s. Since I'm pretty famous for losing and then regaining, I am waiting until I have one more weigh-in under my belt that is in the 220s. Then I'll order my new shoes.

My next big goal will be for the 210's. If I can get there and stay there for two consecutive weeks, I will buy myself two new pair of compression socks. 

Anywho, tomorrow is a fasting day in addition to being a personal trainer day. Usually I don't fast on trainer days, but since I didn't fast today, it was the only day that really made sense. I'm sure I'll be fine. 

Tomorrow I'll take photos of my eats for the day - I promise!

Do you give yourself any gifts/motivation to meet your weight loss goals?

New shoe goal + a weigh-in

Sorry I've been so absent in my posting. I usually like to post after work and over the last week, I've had a lot of evening engagements:

• Last Tuesday - dinner with my friend Adam
• Last Wednesday - visit from my old personal trainer (and friend) Mark
• Last Thursday - visit from Anthony
• Last Friday - Last Saturday - bachelorette party on the west side of the state
• Last Sunday - working an overnight in the ER
• Yesterday - Yoga class at L.A. Fitness

So, you see, I've been a busy Danika. It doesn't help that my ER shifts are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., making my evenings incredibly short. However, I'm glad to be able to spend so much time with friends lately - helps keep me grounded.

In other news, because of weird sleep patterns following my overnight shift in the ER, I delayed my weigh-in until today. It was a good one, finally ;-)

Last week, I weighed in at 242.6, so I lost 5 pounds in a week. I'm not quite sure how, to be honest, but I think it's because I've finally added back in some legit strength training and because I'm doing my workouts first thing in the morning most days and studies have shown that exercise is more effective when done fasting (read: before you eat in the morning). I also think it's because I got my bingeing out of the way the previous week and was pretty consistent with my diet. The last change is working in the ER. Since my shifts don't start until 10 a.m., I usually eat before I go in and then I'm not really hungry until dinner time. And when it is dinner time, I usually just grab a grilled chicken sandwich, some kind of fruit, and maybe a bar (like a kind bar, or something 150 calories or less). 

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a nice long strength training workout in the morning and then fasting during the day since I was off on Monday and didn't fast. I'm also planning on fasting on Thursday - we'll see how fasting on back-to-back days works out for me.

Other than that, I think I have a new goal to work towards for my new shoes: getting back into the 220s. Once I'm 229.9 pounds, I'm going to count that as qualifying to get new shoes. Even though I think losing 6 pounds in two weeks is totally obtainable given this week's weigh-in, I think this will help me to push myself a bit more. I haven't been in the 220s since February 2013, per my weigh-in page. So, it's about time and what better way to celebrate than with new shoes?

What do you use to motivate yourself to accomplish your goals?

Other photos for you:

Breakfast from last week

Yummy dinner sandwich

Mid-week treat

Fasting day breakfast

Typical breakfast

Farmer's market find

With the bachelorette

Falafel + baba ghanoush from

Today's lunch

Messy kitchen because I spent the afternoon baking

Cookies for journal club + brownies for Nasur's birthday package

No shoes for me

So, today started out with a womp, womp. I just missed it with my weigh-in today!

My goal was 240.2 and I missed it by 0.8 pounds. Too bad. No new shoes for me! But, I did lose 5.2 pounds, so I'm happy about that. And I'm going to try again. I'm going to set another goal: 2 weeks - 5 pounds. I'm sure this will be a bit harder because I just lost 5.2 pounds in 2 weeks, but I also know that I can do it. And it's been a bit since I've been in the 230s. And I want those new shoes, damn it. So I'm really going to try to pull it out this time. I'm thinking adding in the strength training will help me this time when I mostly did cardio over the last two weeks.

The rest of today was pretty good. It was a busy day and it was also a fast day, so I started the day out with a hefty breakfast and then waited until dinner out at a Korean restaurant with my coworkers to eat again. 

I hmmed and hawed through the day as to whether or not I wanted to go, but then almost everyone was going to go and I didn't want to be the odd resident out. So, I went and enjoyed myself and was definitely glad I went. The only downside was that the restaurant was a bit far from home, so I didn't get home until 8:30ish. So, I hurriedly washed my face and brushed my teeth and now I'm blogging and I don't have a lot of photos - sorry! I didn't snap any pictures of the food at dinnerbecause there was so much of it - it was family style and I would've felt a bit creepy. But, there was a lot of meat and veggies. We also had to eat with chopsticks, so it slowed me down a bit ;-)

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a cardio day given that I have personal training on Wednesday and don't want to be too sore for it. I'm also still a bit sore from the strength training I did on Friday.

Anyone have a favorite ethnic food? That was my first time trying Korean food and it was pretty delicious!

Achievement!

Entries this week are going to have to be short and sweet - I've got a big exam next Monday and I really don't want to fail. That being said, I'm sure most people don't have a goal to achieve failure. Anywho, I digress.

Today was a weigh-in and I have good news (finally!) for you and well, me.

Last week, I was at 226.4. So, for those of you are mathematically challenged, that's a 7.2 pound loss in a week! Woot, woot. Now if I could just keep losing 7 pounds a week. But, I doubt that. Last week was the first week that I really pushed myself to commit to a more rigorous gym schedule. I'm running a 5k three days a week and doing strength training on the days in-between. Next week's weigh-in goal is a 5 pound loss - shooting for 214.2.

Here are some photos from yesterday and today. Hope you're all having a good end to your Mondays. I know my Monday was fantastic - logged 12 hours at school. Boooooo...

Sunday morning breakfast: whole wheat pancakes!

Look what I found in my cupboard - it was fate!

Proof that I don't always suck at flipping pancakes

Bailey's attention is piqued while I make pancakes

This is his artsy look

Breakfast of champions

Post-workout protein

Lean cuisine for lunch

Another attempt at stir fry - I really need to find a marinade/recipe I like 

Small plate for dinner since my stomach was still be funky

Breakfast today

Ran to the kitchen when I got home to prep everything for tomorrow

So, last week, the scale read this:

This week, it reads this:

Woot. That's 5.4 pounds gone! And hopefully off for good this time. I'm struggling with keeping off this weight, so I've really gotta commit to myself.


Anyway, because I forgot to set an alarm this morning/last night, I didn't make it to the gym. I was really disappointed, but I couldn't even sneak in a little bit of exercise because I woke up at 6:56 a.m. and I was supposed to be at work at 7:30. But, I allowed myself enough time to eat breakfast!

But there wasn't enough time to make scrambled egg whites. So, it was just a bagel with some turkey. But it was still delicious! And, I grabbed a banana on the way out. Unfortunately, it wasn't as ripe as I usually like it.

Work this morning was pretty much spent catching up on sending out samples and organizing everything. So, basically it was extremely tedious and boring. Glad I got a degree to package up oil and send it out...Ughs.


But, lunch was a nice break. I had my leftovers from last night.

And, I had another lemon yogurt. These things are awesome. They're a perfect replacement for dessert.

During the afternoon at work, I finished up a few small tasks and then got bored, which in turn, made me frustrated. I'm sick of being bored or doing stupid things that don't use anything I spent so much time and energy learning in college. And I'm getting restless because I was really hoping to be in medical school at this point. So, I posted a status about not looking forward to going back to work and an old TA mentioned that she may have some job info for me. I sure hope so!


After work, I headed home for a bit and then went to the gym to do some training with Mark. Mark quizzed me on what I had eaten for the day and was disappointed when I said I had a bagel. I know that he wants me to limit carbs to burn off my fat, but I really enjoy my bagel thins in the morning! However, I did forget to mention that it's a bagel thin and not just a normal bagel. So, maybe he wouldn't be so disappointed if I told him that.


Anyway, after the gym, I went to the secretary of state to finally renew my registration, which expired in September...Yeah, that was expensive. Boo on you, state of Michigan. But, I'm all set until September of 2012. So, that's nice.


When I got home, I cooked up some chicken (as in I heated it up because it was already made...) and steamed some veggies for dinner.

The chicken looks burnt, but I promise you - it wasn't! In fact, it was still cold despite the fact that I followed the directions. So I ended up having to microwave it.


I spent the rest of my night watching The Voice on hulu after hearing it was awesome. I also gchatted it up with a few friends. They served as a great pick-me-up after a bummer of a day. But alas, I must go to bed now so I can set two alarms and not miss my morning workout tomorrow.