On weight loss & Chinese food

Well there's no connection (to my knowledge) between weight loss & Chinese food, I just had both over the weekend. :) I lost weight 4 weeks in a row, then a week ago Sunday had a 2.4 lb gain. Eek! Not happy about that, but I wasn't able to exercise this past week till Saturday due to a Fibro flare-up, so even though I was more careful with my food intake last week and did a little exercising on Saturday, I was still expecting a gain yesterday. However I was pleasantly surprised to see I had lost a pound. Yay!

We did great for breakfast (points/calorie-wise) yesterday. I made stuffed french toast & extra lean turkey bacon. Mmm-mmm! Then had a turkey ham sandwich with an ounce of Trader Joe's Baked Organic Nacho Tortilla chips for lunch. For dinner we threw caution to the winds and got Chinese take-out. I have no idea how to even begin to track what I ate though. I didn't measure anything. All I know is I went W-A-Y over what I should have eaten yesterday. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that my dinner alone was equivalent to a whole day or more's worth of calories. (bad Lauren!) To make up for it though, I will be extra vigilant this week with regard to food and will definitely exercise. If I'm going to splurge, I honestly feel better splurging on Sunday, because then I have the whole week to work it off before our next weigh in. (we always weigh in Sunday mornings) It's the splurging on Saturdays that kills my weigh ins.

On the exercise front, to help motivate me to walk more, I ordered a pedometer. I know myself well enough that I know I'll want to try to match or better my distance walked each successive day. Frank is going to make me a chart, and I'll also keep track of it on sparkpeople.com. It should be here in a few days. Yay!

New Supplement

I added CoQ10 to my daily supplements today. I was going to wait an extra week, but I really don't need to. I've taken L-Tyrosine before with no problems, so I just decided to go ahead and add it. I'm a little antsy to see if it will help my energy level and metabolism.

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/health-supplements/coenzyme-q10-benefits.htm

Crockpot Mushroom Chicken - it's what's for dinner!

(lots & lotsa mushrooms!!!)

This is my own recipe. (at least I think it is. I never followed any particular recipe to make this, but it could have been inspired by something I saw someone else do and I don't remember. If so, and you're reading this, please speak up!) Anyway, we love it.

I put *two frozen boneless chicken breasts in the crockpot on low. While that's warming up, I brown two 8 oz. packages of sliced mushrooms with a few slices of onion thrown in, on med-high in a large skillet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. The object is to get the sides of the mushrooms brown without cooking them all the way through. (the thicker the slices, the better) Flip them around as needed to let all sides get brown. (you may need to drain off some liquid - if any builds up, drain it or the mushrooms won't brown, they'll boil or steam)

While that's going, I take two cans of 98% fat free Cream of Mushroom soup, dump them in a bowl, and mix the soup with 1/4 cup skim milk.

When the mushrooms are browned, dump them in the crockpot over the chicken. Dump the Cream of Mushroom soup mix over that. Then add some freshly ground black pepper (a few turns of the pepper mill), mix things around in there a bit to let everything get all over the chicken,  cover and cook on low 6 - 8 hours. I serve it over brown rice. YUM!

*(you can easily add an extra breast or two if you want to - I just cook two because that's all I need)

At the last minute I decided to saute some onion and fresh baby spinach to put on the side. A little bit of lemon juice on top and it was dee-lish!

Resting.

So today was spent much like yesterday. Resting. I'm feeling somewhat better though, so I'm very hopeful for tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually be able to accomplish some things around here. :)

Sadly I wasn't able to walk yesterday after all. I probably could've today if I'd really set my mind to it, but after reading something online about what happens when people with Fibro push themselves during a flare-up, I decided not to. If I just continue to rest tonight (and hopefully get a good night's sleep) tomorrow is soon enough to get back on the exercise horse. I'm actually antsy to walk and do housework. Freaky! ;)

Not a great start to the week

Happy new week to me! (/sarcasm) I woke up with another Fibro flare-up today. I can't even begin to tell you how exhausted I am. I still plan on going downstairs and walking on the treadmill, but I'm not going to push it. I'm just going to shoot for 10 minutes. If I feel better while walking and can handle a bit longer I'll walk a little longer. But I need to keep reminding myself that this isn't a race, that I'm not trying to win a prize or a competition here. Growing healthier will be a lifelong journey for me - not a goal to be reached then I'm all done.

The hard part is going to be motivating myself to put on my sneakers and actually go downstairs. All I feel like doing is falling back into bed. Bleh. Haven't eaten breakfast yet though, so that means I haven't taken my morning vitamins/supplements yet. Perhaps a little while after I do I'll feel a bit better. I hope. (at this point even 'a bit' would be very welcome)

Part of managing Fibro is knowing your limits. I was planning on taking Frank to work tomorrow because I need the car for a Dr.'s appt. I'm getting (bursitis) cortisone shots on both knees - part of my quest to feel better so I can exercise regularly. However, I'd have to stay in the city for most of the day, then go with him to rehearsal tomorrow night (which would be fun!) and I wouldn't be getting home till 11:00-ish at the earliest. *sigh* But I'm going to be smart and reschedule my doctor's appt. That will likely mean I'll have to wait until the end of the month for my appt., but that's ok. I've dealt with the pain this long (and it's actually been a good bit better most days lately) so I can hang in there another few weeks. I just know that if I push myself and go tomorrow anyway, I won't enjoy myself tomorrow night and I'll be practically bedridden for at least a few days afterwards. Not a great trade-off. So I'm off to call my Rheumatologist and reschedule. Then eat breakfast. At lunchtime. Gah!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Yep, I'm starting up this blog up again. With a new name even! It's not going to be all about cooking and food this time though. I'll still include posts about that (with pictures when I remember to take them), but I'm expanding it to include posts about exercise, the struggle of trying to manage my health issues in such a way that I will be able to be more active and exercise consistently, and the emotional component that goes along with all of it.

To that end, I have added L-Tyrosine to the daily supplements I take. I've only been taking it for several days, but I swear I already feel a difference.

Some info on L-Tyrosine (benefits, etc.):

http://www.nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com/benefits-of-l-tyrosine.html

(there are a few more supplements I plan to take, but I'm intoducing them one at a time for two weeks to my daily regimen before adding in a new supplement)

I'm noticing a difference in my overall mood, as well as my mental clarity. I thought I had a bit more energy the last couple of days, but I'm not sure because it could have been merely exilharation over the beautiful weather on a holiday (3 day) weekend. I guess we'll see over the next few days.