Love - Hate Relationship with the holidays


I love the holiday season.  So much joy and love and happiness. I am a sucker for Christmas music too.  Last year, the holidays almost gave me a full on nervous breakdown since I was deep into my weight loss journey and so close to my goal.

This year, I've been trying to enjoy it more but you really don't quite grasp how many sweets there are for the taking, how much wine and other yummy alcoholic beverages are to be had and how many party appetizers end up in your stomach, until you are watching everything you eat.  Even though I've relaxed just a tiny bit, I still have to force myself to stop sometimes.  I've been trying to stick to logging in My Fitness Pal everyday (though, it's becoming more challenging now that I'm just maintaining) but I'm getting better and when I log days I skipped, I'm still within my limits which means I can manage my calories without the app now, it's really rewired my brain and taught me so much about how many calories are in different things.

The good news is I went shopping during this festive month and my pant size is the same. The scale is staying the same. Overall, I think I'm managing it alright.  I do however need to do a better job of getting to the gym. I need to really get motivated again on the exercise front. My eating habits have remained good and steady but, my exercise levels dropped off when it got cold. I just want to hibernate.  I'm thinking it's time to start up Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred again since it's 20 minutes a day and totally indoors.


With Christmas around the corner and having a little bit more free time, I hope to blog a little bit more often. I've been slacking on updating and sharing some great recipes I've tried. I will do better!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The ups and downs

I debated whether to blog about this but, I read a quotation the other day that really stuck with me and is a big reason behind why I'm writing this today.  It said: "The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we  compare our behind the scenes with everyone else's highlight reel" With the internet and social media it's very easy to just see everyone's highlight reel, see what they want you to see and really get down about yourself.  So in an effort to be completely transparent and honest about what I'm doing, I will share the good and the bad.  So, here I go.  As I mentioned earlier this week, I really enjoyed our vacation. A lot.  I ate so much fabulous food and was lucky enough to not gain any weight. This week however has been so difficult.  I'm back to my low fat, lower carb, high protein, literally watching every single thing I eat lifestyle.  I know I always refer to it as a lifestyle change and I've felt that way the whole
Read more

30 Day Shred

I'm getting bored with my workout routine lately. Go to the gym, hop on the treadmill or elliptical and then do either chest, back or leg weight lifting.  Throw in a little core on days I'm at the gym longer.  It's becoming really routine.  So, with that I am going to add the 30 Day Shred into the mix. I'm also tired of the exercise I'm doing slowing down my weight loss (I know I know, it's the healthier thing to do and I haven't stopped exercising!) This shred is supposed to boost weight loss. I figure it's worth a shot. A few friends of mine have decided to start the 30 day shred. After some contemplating about whether or not I had enough room in my apartment to actually do the workout I've decided to try it! I got my hands on Levels 1, 2 and 3 and I'm ready. I need to remember to take my measurements too because apparently those that didn't lose a ton of weight ended up losing quite a few inches. From what I've read, you spend 10 d
Read more

Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna Rolls

Image
Lasagna rolls! Surprisingly low calorie and very delicious.  I have two photos above. One of when they were freshly rolled before they went in the freezer and the picture below it when they came out of the oven.  I don't like my lasagna too saucy so feel free to add more but here is the recipe: 5 lasagna noodles, cooked (I used Catelli Smart) 1/4 of a package of frozen spinach, thawed and completely drained 1 Cup Ricotta Cheese 1 egg salt and pepper to taste Mozzarella and Red Sauce to desired amount. Cook the lasagna noodles. While the noodles are cooking, make your filling.  Mix ricotta, spinach and egg, salt and pepper together.  Drain noodles and lay out flat, make sure they are dry. Divide the filling among the 5 noodles.  Then roll.  At this point, I took them and put them in an airtight container and froze them.  To cook them, I took them out of the freezer, put sauce on them and put them in the oven in a pyrex dish for 35 minutes at 375*F.  Then I took them
Read more