Aloha Friday #1

Welcome to my first Aloha Friday post. What's Aloha Friday you ask? Well... In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is a day to celebrate the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend... basically a day to just chill. So with that being said (well, written), on Fridays I plan to chill and take it easy on posting by simply posing one question for you to answer. After you answer the question, ask one on your blog, and then link up to Kailani's blog. So, here goes nothing...

My head hurts just thinking about my busy day tomorrow:
6:00 AM Workout??
7:00 AM Weigh-in
7:45 AM Take boys to the convention center to perform with the dance crew
8:30 AM-10:30 AM (not really sure of duration of time at the convention center) Fun Run Fly Crew Performance

Fast forward

4:30 PM Drop son off at friends party
5:00 PM Meet Mom at her house and leave for birthday party at Grand Lux Cafe
5:30 PM-8:15 PM Arrive at party, PARTY, then leave to pick up son
9:00 PM Pick up son from party
9:15 PM Arrive home and collapse

At some point during the chunk of time sandwiched between the performance and dropping my son off to his friend's party, I need to go to the grocery store for my weekly menu food purchases. Saying all that to say, I doubt time will permit a Saturday post. And I really want to catch up on some of favorite blogs. So my friends, my question to you:

How often do you post on your blog?
and
How often do you read the blogs of others?

Glows and Grows

One afternoon while picking up my son, I sat in my vehicle mean muggin (mean muggin a.k.a. the evil eye) another parent for halting the flow of traffic in order retrieve her small child, who somehow unbuckled his seat belt and jumped over the seat into the back of the minivan. As I watched the parent wrangle her child, my mind began to wander and SHAZAAM...an idea hit me like a thunderbolt.

Since our WW leader, Karen, constantly reminds WW members to learn from our experiences, I decided to do just that! Each Saturday after my weigh-in, I plan to evaluate my lifestyle change hits and misses. My weekly evaluation aptly titled GLOWS and GROWS, will examine strategies attempted to help me successfully reach my goal weight (this year).

GLOWS: I confess. I still inconsistently track my daily food points. In the past I tracked my points in my head and never wrote anything on paper. I refer to this lackadaisical method as Wing-It-Tracking a.k.a. Keep-It-Up-And-You-Ain't-Gonna-Lose-Weight Method. My usual pattern consisted of routine tracking starting on Saturdays, and by Wednesday or Thursday any traces of tracking became non-evident. At our last WW meeting, Karen stated several times, "Those that fail to track eat 30% more food." To help me get on the right track (get it...never mind), I received this little toy(which I picked out) for Christmas: BAM!!

So, did I track everyday using my iTouch? YES I DID...EVERYDAY! My iTouch made tracking convenient and accessible. And of course the information I entered automatically synced to the eTools online program.

I used the calculator to determine points values and create new foods to be stored as my favorites.

I even tracked my activity. And what I appreciate the most about the WW App...the price $0!

GLOW: The Couch to 5K(C25K) App.
Last summer I started the C25K training program, but I must admit I never finished the program and I never ran my first 5K. On my first go-round with C25K training, I downloaded Suz's podcast to my other older generation iPod.This time, I downloaded this bad boy (bad boy: a term used to mean anything...in this case, my new app.)

What I like about this app...I can listen to my own music rather than the music provided by the podcast creator.

Needless to say...I LOVE MY iTOUCH!

GLOW: Back Up Meals
I decided to plan one freezer meal (e.g. soup or chili) each week. The freezer meals serve as back-up for times of laziness , on-the-go moments, crazy scheduling, etc. Last week I cooked Turkey Taco Soup...

and this week I made chili. A few times I arrived home exhausted after work and popped a bowl of chili in the microwave instead of cooking or running through the drive-thru.

...added some homemade chips, chives and cheese!

GLOW: I purchased this water jug from the dollar store. I previously owned a 17 oz. cup which I refilled about 4 or 5 times a day. Well, at some point refilling the bottle became a chore, resulting in me not meeting my daily water requirements. My solution to my new lazy habit of not filling my water bottle....BUY A BIGGER WATER BOTTLE!

GROWS...Okay, so I need to work on these things.

My Mom gave me the P90X Extreme Home Fitness Program. Ummm...the word extreme fails to do the P90X justice. On day 1, Arms and Shoulders (which consisted of completing 2,431,675 push-ups), I spent a majority of my workout time face down sniffing carpet fresh. At one point I just stopped and cried! After day 2, I decided to dropkick the P90X box under the bed and move on with my life. But then my Mom gave me a pep-talk and I agreed to continue torturing myself.

On the Plyometrics DVD, one of the P90X "graduates" completed the entire workout with a prosthetic leg. I said to myself, "Self. If this dude with the prosthetic leg can rock this plyometric workout, then I need to shut it and MOVE!" Curious about torturing your self? Check out the P90X video or mosey on over to YouTube

Believe me when I say, you have NOT heard the last about this P90X!

GROW: "Fried" Chicken
This fried chicken dinner, so not a winner. For the first time I made the famous cornflake fried chicken. I think my first mistake was purchasing generic cereal rather than Kellogg's. For the most part my "fried" chicken tasted like chicken covered in cereal...gross. But we ate it...all of it!

Thank You...Gracias...Danke... Merci...Grazie

When I returned home from work yesterday, I called the maintenance personnel to remove my door from the frame. Why you ask? My BIG HEAD failed to fit through the doorway as a result of ALL the love fellow blog buddies and MY SITStahs showed Me So Hongry.

I want to THANK EVERYONE for the out pour of motivational and supportive comments in response to my SITS Featured Blogger post. Let me tell you a little something about Me So Hongry. Comments serve as fuel to keep me motivated, especially when the going gets tough and I want to get going ( to the nearest pizza buffet). I want you to know, I plan to respond to each and every person who left a comment yesterday, but it may take a while. I figured if I start responding to around 20 peeps a day, I may finish around...let's see...March (lol).

I even read the comments left by the SITStahs checking in on the SITS website. I discovered that many LOVED and found my blog title humorous. And for that reason, my blog name shall remain the same until the end of time. Well for that reason, plus the fact that I purchased the domain name www.mesohongry.com. And to think, I came up with title while drive down the freeway singing (To the tune of 2 Live Crew's Me So Horny) " Ah...me so hongry...ah...ah...me so hongry. Ah...me so hongry...me eat for long time."

I especially want to THANK everyone for congratulating me on achieving a loss of 45 pounds. Believe me when I say, I am truly touched that you find me inspirational, as well as motivational. Funny thing, I sit here thanking perfect strangers, but yet I struggle with accepting compliments from familiar faces: family, friends, co-workers, fellow WW members, etc. Why is that?

I work hard on my blog and my body, but yet I devalue myself by failing to acknowledge compliments. So from this point forward, I plan to accept and embrace weight loss recognition from family and friends with grace. So with that being said, I need practice with the whole "accepting recognition graciously thing," so let's get the complimets-a-rolling!

Me. . . Brown-Bag-It? Ummm. . . no ma'am.

In keeping with my planning goal, I already packed my breakfast, lunch and snacks for tomorrow. So what does a jazzy chick like me pack her lunch in you ask? Well it just so happens, that today I graduated from carrying my Bento "laptop lunch box"(pictured below) to...

my new chic, JAZZY lunch TOTE. Check it out BAM!!!

My mom gave it to me for Christmas after I complained about my small Bento lunchbox. So bloggers, what's inside Me So Hongry's jazzy lunch tote?

MONDAY
Breakfast:
Black Bean Omelet

Lunch:Cheesy Chicken & Pasta w/ Broccoli- 3 oz of grilled chicken breast, a bunch of broccoli, 1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta, 28 oz cheese, and a little turkey broth (made from the carcass of my recycled Christmas turkey) to keep the dish juicy for reheating.

And of course a salad. I eat some form of a salad daily.

THE BEST ORANGE...EVER! This orange came straight from the tree, no trucks, no grocery store...from the tree to ME!

TUESDAY
Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros- 1 corn tortilla (on the bottom), 2 egg whites, scallions, 14 oz cheese, and an undisclosed amount of Arriba salsa. I put salsa on EVERYTHING!!

Lunch: Taco Turkey Soup-black beans, corn, recycled Christmas Turkey, spicy diced tomatoes, no salt added tomato sauce, taco seasoning (season to taste), scallions and 14 0z cheese. I made the stock from boiling the carcass of my Christmas turkey.

I made my own chips. Cut two corn tortillas into triangles, spray the tortillas on each side, sprinkle with a little sea salt and bake. These chips are not an exact science, so you may need to stand by the oven and peer inside frequently. If you walk away, you may BURN your chips.

Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing


Off Topic...HELP!!
Please tell me your 3 favorite post.

Off to a Good Start: Goal Setting

So a friend of mine texted me this morning looking for some weight loss help. I gave her a little a starter advice, and she suggested that I write a post about our conversation. So here goes:

I basically told her to start small by setting a couple of realistic, manageable goals. AND, it just so happens, last Saturday's WW meeting discussed goal setting. The leader suggested that goals should be:

• Positive: Phrase your goal in positive terms (e.g. Each week I will plan my meals.).
  
  
• Specific: Make your goals straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen. Specifics help us to focus our efforts and clearly define what we are going to do.
  
  
• Within your control: You must be able to complete the goal without assistance from anyone.
  
  
• Good fit with your life: Whatever you plan to change must be something you can maintain for the rest of your life (e.g. eating breakfast, cooking more and eating out less).

When setting your goals, think about the benefits. For me the benefits include:

• motivation
• direction
• measure for evaluation

Just as important, make sure you reflect on the pitfalls of goal setting:

• high exceptions
• unrealistic expectations
• overwhelming yourself: Set small 5 pound goals instead of worrying about the BIG number.

So...what's your goal? Get a picture in your mind. What do you want to accomplish? Okay, now write it down.

Well, like everyone else, I set a few goals for myself:

• Complete a 5K (Double booking myself ruined last year's attempt.)
• Track my food intake...If I write it, I bite it (So far so good)!
• Drink the daily required amount of water (and then some) EVERY DAY!
  
  
  
  
• PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN and then plan some more! This week, I created a menu. With my menu in mind, I wrote my grocery list and only purchased foods on the list. To save money, I also based my menu on foods already stored in my pantry, freezer and fridge. I created this Turkey Taco Soup, pictured below with food on hand. In addition, I froze a few bowls of the soup to be used later as back-up meals in times of laziness.

Also on the menu, this black bean omelet for breakfast in the morning.

As far as my long term goals:

I picked this card up at one of the Saturday meetings, drove home, and stuck it on my fridge.

My ultimate long term goal is to be a Weight Watchers leader. I hope to one day share my weight loss trials and tribulations with others struggling to lose weight like myself.

Lessons Learned?

This healthy eating/weight loss thing reminds of relationships.

In relationships, when people get bored...they stray.

I think my recent attempts to stray from my newly acquired healthy lifestyle changes result from the lack of excitement with my recent boring meals. Lately, I seem to eat the same fruits, vegetable, and meals over and over and over again. The reason for the redundant, unimaginative food choices, a lack of planning.

Our WW meeting leader always says members must learn from their experiences. So, from my experiences I learned, if you FAIL to PLAN, you PLAN to FAIL! When I choose to wing it, I usually find myself standing in front of the fridge, freezer door wide opened with a container of Cool Whip stuck to my face as I lick the remaining contents from the deep recesses of the Cool Whip container.

My lack of planning not only results in food boredom, but also in 2 of my enemies rearing their ugly head:

1. Enemy #1: OVER EATING-Unplanned eating means walking into the kitchen and just standing there wondering what I want to eat. The longer I stand there, the hungrier I get, and the hungrier I get the more likely I will eat the first thing I see, GOOD or BAD. 9 times out of 1o I choose the BAD.
   
   
2. Enemy #2: UNPLANNED EATING- When I PLAN, I usually prepare my meals and snacks ahead of time and I then divvy my "culinary masterpieces" into containers so I can grab and go. So, that means I already know what's on the menu AND I can track and log my meals in advance in order to keep track of my daily points allowance.
   
   When I choose not to plan, I tend to follow the "Seefood Diet", any food I SEE I eat. If I see a bag of chips or cookies, it's on!

As I enter into 2010, PLANNING must remain as one of the weapons I use in this weight loss tug-o-war. In addition, to keep things exciting I PLAN to try at least 3 new recipes weekly. The other day, I tried this Mexican Stacked Pizza:

As usual I used my Xpress Redi Set Go. I love this thing!

I placed one corn tortilla in the RSG. I then mashed 1/2 cup of black beans and spread the beans on the tortilla.

Next I placed another corn tortilla on top of the black beans. I topped the tortilla with 2.5 oz of ground turkey and 14 oz of 2% Mexican cheese. Cook for 5 minutes...

Top with lettuce and tomatoes and...

BAM!...Mexican Stuffed Pizza!! Olé!!!

Well my friends, I must go and shed my pajama cocoon and venture out (and back before the loonies hit the streets) into the world with my boys to celebrate this new year knocking at our door. Happy New Years Eve!!! And here's to bringing SEXY BACK in 2010!!!

Christmas Calamity

I decided to blog to keep my mind off food. Well folks, this Christmas provided joy as well as a few mishaps and hi-jinks:

For starters I waited until the last minute to mosey on over to Wal-Mart to buy groceries for my Christmas dinner. WHY on earth did I do that? While scurrying around the store, I was asked by Wal-Mart personnel to take my purchases to the front for checkout. If I worked at Wal-Mart, I would detest people like me that wait until the last minute AND shop after the store's POSTED closing hours. On behalf of all inconsiderate shoppers, I apologize to all retail personnel I ever kept from leaving at the end of their scheduled shift. My bad.

After waiting in the horrendous check out lines at Wal-Mart, I returned home and sat down to wrap my boy's gifts. Well, as I started gathering my purchases and wrapping supplies I soon discovered...NO WRAPPING PAPER! I forgot I used the paper my mom gave me to wrap gifts for our Pre-Christmas celebration at her house the day before. Check out my montage of Christmas at MiMi's.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

During the midst of the wrapping paper fiasco, my "friend" arrived and he generously agreed to run me to Walgreen's and back. But before we left, he felt compelled to discover the source of my vacuum's earlier malfunction. I confessed that the vacuum sounded like a rocket about to liftoff. Like all men (who THINK they can fix EVERYTHING), he dilly-dallyed for about 15 minutes, and concluded the vacuum SUCKummbed due to natural causes...RIP DD (short for Dirt Devil).

So...after the long Wal-Mart lines, the wrapping paper adventure AND dealing with my vacuum's untimely demise, I decided to make US some cocktails...BIG MISTAKE! I poured myself 1 shot of Hypnotic and my little "happy hour" turned into something more like happy minutes. The Hypnotic hypnotized me right to sleep.

I originally planned for us to enjoy cocktails, snacks and a movie. You know the saying about the best laid plans. Instead of enjoying the movie and snacks, I woke up apologizing for drooling on my friend while sleeping (Lol). Needless to say he called it a night, and my presents still sat unwrapped. Long story short, I woke up the next morning, wrapped the kid's gifts and placed them under the tree.

Lessons learned:

• No last minute grocery shopping
• Keep extra gift wrap on hand
• Wrap gifts before cocktail hour

And MY Belly Shook Like a Bowl of Jelly. . .

First things first...to my surprise, my weigh in results yielded a 1 pound loss. I walked through the doors of WW this afternoon with the mindset that I failed last week and I expected to see a gain. You see, sometime last week during winter break, I decided to somewhat step back and take a small break from this whole weight loss battle.

For those of you struggling, do you ever feel exhausted from constantly thinking about weight loss 24/7? I know I do. The stress of not meeting a personal goal, losing 50 pounds by the end of 2009, began taking a toll on my motivation and started to make me feel like a failure. So, last week around my 4th buffalo chicken bite and 2nd pot sticker at T.G.I. Friday's I decided to just chill and relax. At Friday's I wanted to enjoy myself and not think about weighing in, working out, food point values, tracking, etc.

Constantly thinking about those things when hanging out, partying, or just chilling with friends SUCKS the fun right out of any festivity. I took the "chill approach" on quite a few outings last week, which explains my surprise of this week's weigh in results. But now as I write this post and think about last week, I still made the occasional good choice, such as spliting a burrito at Chipotle with my Mom.

Even though I occasionally chilled I still worked out by running 3 miles 4 days last week. And working out also proved challenging as well. One day I sat in my car at the park just looking out the window. I somehow hoped the results of jogging 3 miles would somehow cosmically transfer to my body while silently sitting in my vehicle. As I feared the approaching sunset, I finally decided to leave the comfy confines of my car to complete my workout.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! Sometimes I just feel like screaming.

SO WHAT NOW?
After attending today's meeting, I understand that I must commit to working harder when dealing with emotional eating. Part of my plan to combat mindless eating includes asking myself the following questions:

1. Why am I standing in the pantry with my hand submerged in a bag of marshmallows? Am I really hungry?
2. What am I feeling? Boredom? Anger? Frustration?
3. What is my mind saying? "It's only one." "You can walk an extra mile. " "You weigh in on Saturday...there's still time."

Equally important, I realized (yet again) that my mind generates and maintains the psychological uproar in my head surrounding my perpetual battle with losing weight. The battle exist right here in my head, BUT I also realized that each one of my little victories (listed below) helps to win part of the battle:

• wearing clothes in a smaller size
• receiving compliments about my appearance
  
• discovering new foods, like jicama
• introducing others to WW
• attending more than 16 meetings
• moving more
• finding a substitution for stress eating...blogging (sometimes I still choose the food)
• trying new recipes
• using my food scale
• making better choices
• knowing the points values of fast food
  

So in short, I recognize the fact that I MUST CELEBRATE EVERY SUCCESS! And yes, even the little victories make a BIG difference!

"Recognize and celebrate what you want to see more of!"

I originally planned to write some holiday related posts, but I wanted to work through my mini crisis by managing my feelings through writing. Well, I am off like a dirty shirt...my stomach is growling! Stay tuned for some light and more humorous holiday posts.

The Rubber Band (Wo)Man!

Week after week I contemplate changing my weigh in day from Saturday morning to a weeknight. But week after week I choose to keep my standing date with the scale on Saturday morning for two reasons:

1. A Saturday weigh-in keeps me honest on Friday nights (not ALL Friday nights, but most). On Friday nights I try to avoid salty foods and cocktails loaded with sugar. So that means I spend more Fridays at home than at Don Pico's eating chips and salsa while drinking the best Margaritas in town. And yes, this blows!! A little known fact about me...salty food makes me puffy. The salt makes my fingers look like a pack of Ballpark Frank hot dogs.
   
   A Saturday weigh-in also means I miss out on a lot of outings with friends on Friday nights. If I feel like my willpower may waver, then I choose to just stay home rather than torture myself with food and drinks that jeopardize positive weigh in results. So friends, nothing personal...I just want to reach my weight loss goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle (but keep the invites coming!). That's me enjoying a Friday night out with coworkers.
   
2. The second reason why I choose to keep my weigh in day the same, the Saturday meeting always provides the support I need after a disastrous week...like THIS PAST WEEK! I relapsed, more like collapsed thanks to two holiday parties this week. I saw a pizza box and lost my mind. Pizza for me is equivalent to someone waving a red cloak in front of a bull.
   

This week's meeting topic, The Snowball Effect, helped me to put my indiscretions behind me, forgive myself, and move forward. The leader gave everyone a rubber as an ANCHOR reminding members that quitting is NOT an option, so we need to bounce back like the rubber band.

An ANCHOR, one of Weight Watcher's tools for living, serves as a process for creating cues and triggers to remind yourself of your weight goal and the inner resources you have to achieve your goal. When this weight loss endeavor gets tough, that's when ANCHORING come into play. People use anchoring every day. For example, when you hear a song that makes you smile because you associate it with a certain memory, that's an anchor to that memory.

I myself use several anchors:

When you lose 10% of your starting weight, WW reward members with this gold key ring. After losing 25 lbs, I received the silver ring, and after I lose 50 lbs (7 lbs away from this goal), I will receive my 50 lbs ring to add to my key ring.

I also use Hungry, the star of the WW commercials as an anchor. Hungry lives on my fridge and his bro resides in the pantry. Sometimes Hungry keeps me honest. Other times, I roll my eyes at Hungry and threaten him to try and pry the bag of Hot Fries from my hands.

During times of trouble and distress he knows it's best to just sit by the soup and keep his mouth shut!

My favorite and most treasured anchor, my butterfly ring. When I first began my weight loss endeavor years ago, I told myself I no longer wanted to be the big fat fuzzy caterpillar...I want to be the butterfly. As I alter my lifestyle I spin my chrysalis. Soon I will break free from my chrysalis of fat and emerge as the beautiful butterfly!


O, my weigh in results...
Despite my week of food calamity, I managed to stay the same -/+ 0...talk about second chances. Folks, this week I WILL bounce back like my rubber band...TWANG (the sound of my rubber band bouncing back...lol)!

Let it Snow. . . Let it Snow. . . Let it SNOW!

The city is abuzz with talk of the impending snow. My BB Weather Eye App, in addition to several weather forecasters predict some "snow-like" activity in various parts of Houston.

Why the excitement? Well, as I previously mentioned, we rarely see snow in these here parts. AND if the weather proves too challenging for commuters, perhaps the school districts will cancel school resulting in a 4 day weekend for ME and my coworkers! One can only hope...lol.

So, I forced myself to workout today. As per my goal, that makes 3 out of 5 workouts completed this week, and since my "week" ends on Saturday, I must confess I failed to meet my workout goal. Tomorrow's workout will make 4, and 4 out of 5 ain't bad. How bout some good news (well good news for me)? A new management team took over our complex and they started making changes already. And one of those changes...A NEW TREADMILL in the "gym."

Yesterday, I shared my Frosties with you guys, and unfortunately Frosty will not make an appearance at this year's Polar Express event. Basically, my Frosties refuse to adhere to my butt giving a whole new meaning to the term assed out.

Definition of Assed out: To be out of luck

So, my ill fitting PJs got me to thinking:

"Trina (my internal dialogue with myself), did your butt really fill up these pajamas last year or did I buy the pajamas a little bit too big? Then I answered myself, which is not a good thing. YEP, my butt was really and truly that BIG...big enough to fill up the seat in my Frosty PJs."

When I look in the mirror, my weight loss seems surreal, but "wearing" old clothing, such as my Frosties and other baggy previously owned garments helps me grasp the reality of my successful weight loss efforts. Does that make sense? I just need to work on my brain and my eyes accepting the reflection in the mirror.