Shopping For Groceries

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by. I know it's been forever since I posted something worth reading on here. A month is forever in blog land. February was a pretty crap month for me. Two weeks was spent trapped in the house from a blizzard and the university gym being closed due to cold weather, and the other two weeks were spent in a crippling depression spell! Yay! Of course, exercising at home could have helped, but I failed to take action and have gained back four pounds! 566! Let's stay on the positive side. At least it's not 580 pounds.

We finally went shopping for groceries for the month. I figured it would make a good blog post that would lead into meal planning and maybe future recipe posts.

A little about my diet first: The diet plan I'm using to create my meal plan is based off of the Abs Diet promoted by Men's Health magazine, with a little bit of planning from reshapethenation.com thrown in. With the Abs Diet, you focus on getting a lot of good clean foods into three meals and three snacks throughout the day. The advantage to this is that if you focus on getting the core foods they recommend into your diet, the calories and nutrition take care of themselves with very little monitoring. The disadvantage for me is that while I love the whole grain breads, cereals, lean meats and dairy products Abs Diet lets me eat, I don't eat as many vegetables as I should because I still have a love/hate thing with them.  This is where Reshape the Nation comes in. They recommend five meals, and have designated hi carb/lo carb days. On low carb days, you eat LOTS of vegetables. The diet uses a carb cycling plan that is meant to keep the metabolism going and you losing weight. They make it super easy by giving you a full meal plan and a grocery list, but to be honest, I think the recipes they recommend suck. I hate cottage cheese and hard boiled eggs. Gross. Mrs. Dash is NOT going to make any of that better. However, I do like planning my meals based on their carb cycling plan. I'll talk about my meal plan in another post.

Let's go shopping!



I took care of veggies and whole grains, mostly, and mom took a cart for lean meats, fish and other things we need for the house. It's almost Lent which means that the family will be eating fish or some vegetarian meal at least once a week. I have to make sure that I eat things like the frozen wild caught salmon, and NOT the pre-fried Gorton's fillets we have lurking in the freezer. But before I got to all that, I had to look for cat litter.

After a pointless lap around Walmart Supercenter

The cat litter was on the opposite side of where I thought it was. I did an entire lap for no reason. More exercise? Sure, but I also learned that I need new shoes, and I should have worn synthetic socks.

If only feet could scream...

For regular people, shopping probably doesn't cause physical pain. It does for me! I put the cat litter in the cart, and went back for my groceries. Some of these pictures were  taken in parts of the store where I didn't get the products. For example, the broccoli in the shoe section.

Two pounds of fresh broccoli. I'm going to blanch this! Another blog entry? Sure!

As a young boy, I hated vegetables with an undying passion. In particular, broccoli and spinach. The smell of cooked vegetables used to make me physically ill. Now, I don't hate them so much. But, I still feel like I'm learning how to actually LOVE vegetables the way I like a good pizza or hamburger. It's just not the first thing I think of when I go to get something to eat. This broccoli will make a nice side to whatever I choose to pair it with. Delicious insoluble fiber. Now, I'm not saying broccoli and spinach are boring. I just need more things to do with them. Other than smoothies and the rare salad, I hardly eat spinach and it mostly goes to waste. I guess this is a spinach recipe request.


I took a lot of photos of nutritional info. I'll probably post a great majority, if not all of them on my Facebook fan page.

Organic, nonfat Greek Yogurt

I'm not sure where I heard, or read it, but somebody I came across was having some confusion about what kind of yogurt to buy. My first recommendation is greek yogurt. It's magic in smoothies, tasty with a bit of sugar free jam, or mixed into your oatmeal with a few blueberries. But, if you think plain nonfat organic greek yogurt (freeplorgrecogurt? Nah, still a mouthful) tastes like a mouthful of cold phlegm, then by all means, buy regular yogurt. To me, the important thing to look for are the magic words: CONTAINS LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES. If it says, "Made with live cultures", then the good bacteria that is beneficial to you has been heat treated until dead. I learned that from Alton Brown of Good Eats on the Food Network.

Back to the shopping adventure: One of the things I found was ground flax seed being sold in the supplements section of the pharmacy for $8.00! Being almost a total noob to flax seed, I almost got it too! But luckily, I found this bag in one of the aisles for around $4.00! They were also selling Coconut oil for $10 and in the cooking oil section I found it for around $5.

 

On the left: $8. On the right, $4 for the same amount!

Anyway, after about an hour of shopping, I took a picture of what I had. Spinach, broccoli, celery, frozen mixed berries, frozen pineapple, frozen green peas, a BIG box of oatmeal, generic grape-nuts, all natural peanut butter, sugar free blackberry jam, nonfat organic greek yogurt, whole wheat pasta, whole grain sandwich bread, flax seed, coconut oil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and stuff from cosmetics that mom threw into my cart. Also kitty litter.

Commercial sized Oatmeal. If you follow me on twitter, you know how much I love oatmeal.

This is by no means all of the groceries. But, if I can't make healthy meal choices out of this, I seriously need to reevaluate my commitment to losing weight. Now it's in my hands. If only the bad things could stay out of the cart too.

*Sigh*

I have no intention of throwing my mother under the bus by accusing her of keeping me fat by buying things like these honeybuns and chocolate cupcakes. She may have put these in the cart, but I choose to eat them. It would however be easier to make better choices if the bad choices were not as existent. Another battle for another time, I guess. Besides, not everything mom got was unhealthy. She did get lean meats and salmon and other things we needed.  She told me to get whatever I needed. She found these:

LOOK HOW CUTE THE PACKAGING IS!

These are for kids. Something to throw in their lunchbox as a healthy treat. No added sugar, just squeezable applesauce. I figured this might work as a good pre or post workout snack. Thanks mom!
 
After several hours of grocery shopping, my everything hurt. Once your feet begin to hurt, everything follows. In my case, it's my knees, sciatic nerve, mid back, arms, etc. Yeah, I got my workout without even trying.

AHHH!!!!!

Even though I was sore from shopping for groceries for a house of six, I was happy that I got to get a few of the things I need to keep me on the right dietary track. I also loved grocery shopping with my mother and spending time with her. I'm going to lose the four pounds I gained back. I'm going to get to my personal weight loss goals. I'll spend time planning and preparing my meals for the week, and hopefully March will be a much better month for me.

Depressed

I've had a hard time writing lately. Mainly because what I'm about to talk about, I don't want to admit. There's also this unnecessary pressure I feel to not put out the negative energy I'm probably going to with this post. However, I have to remember that ultimately this blog is for me, not you. I have to be honest with myself or else I'm going to keep making the progress I deserve.
 
Since the winter storm hit in Oklahoma several weeks ago, I've not been working out, keeping track of my diet or doing what's ultimately necessary to get the results I want. At first, it came from the challenge of being at home and making excuses for myself on why I couldn't exercise or eat right for one reason or another. While there was plenty of processed sweets and canned meats in the pantry to blame, ultimately I'm the person who chose to put them in my mouth. As the week progressed, I knew I had been making the wrong choices, but I continued on in this fashion. When the storm's effect had finally lifted to the point where I could go to the gym again, another two weeks, I had found that my motivation to go had suddenly dried up. At first, I thought it would be kindled by seeing my friend, LaRhonda at her big reveal. I got to talk to Chris Powell, host of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, after the taping.

I told Chris all my plans. What was going right and wrong. I told him that lately I had been struggling. He told me that the habits I was trying to develop needed to be developed slowly. That I was trying to do too much too soon. I told him that all I wanted to do was develop three habits: 1 Go to bed at 10, 2.Be ready to go to the gym by 7 AM. 3.Go to the gym 2 hours daily. Chris told me that since I was struggling with developing these habits, I should focus on one goal at a time. He said good habits have to be built up like any muscle. I hadn't really thought of it that way. I guess I felt like three habits were just fine to start with, but maybe I was trying to swing a 75 pound dumbbell around without even knowing it.
Still in a funk the next day. Didn't work out. Still ate the wrong things.
I looked in the mirror and I had to ask myself what was wrong. At the time, I didn't have an answer, and then it finally creeped up on me after a nice long nap. I must be depressed. I had gotten back to staying in my room and sleeping all day. I was lethargic and angry/sad all the time. I was having a lot of negative thoughts and feelings. Honestly, I probably didn't notice it because it had been my natural state for so long that it felt familiar. Then, last night, I got to talk to another hero of mine. Scott Smith, Chief Motivating Officer at Motivationtomove.com

Scott Smith, for those who don't know, has the number one fitness podcast in the world. He had a very matter of fact moment with me during a live call in session he was having. I had told him about my current situation. I was depressed, I hadn't been eating right or exercising, etc. Scott basically told me that reaching my goal of getting under 500 by June was not reachable. He told me this to relieve me of the pressure I was putting on myself. Frankly, I think he's wrong. Maybe accepting that I can't reach 60 pounds in the next few months would take the pressure off, but it still wouldn't make him right. I know what the problem is. I know that I haven't been taking my diet all that seriously. I graze and eat late at night. I eat processed, sodium filled pre-fried foods. I choose not to work out on days when I'd just be on the treadmill. Then I weigh myself and I'm happy with a three pound loss. I have not been bringing my A game. But Scott did tell me something which did strike a chord. He told me that I wasn't doing this for my brother's wedding. I was doing this to save my own life. I know that. I've always known that. It's just that it's hard to face. THAT is the kind of pressure I don't want to deal with. I have to focus on the small goal ahead of me.

Along the inside of the indoor track at my gym, there are pillars. When I walk along the track, and I start to get fatigued, I tell myself that I only need to make it back around to the pillar I started. As long as I keep my eye on it. Picture myself finishing strong, I always make it. If I'm distracted and start thinking about how much pain I'm in. How my legs fall asleep when I'm walking because of poor circulation. I fail. I can't think about my own death. I need to just focus on my pillar. Sam's wedding. I can make it. If not 60 pounds, then 40. My first ten percent.

I'm still depressed, but I think the only person who can do anything about it right now is me. I'm going to take my St. John's Wart and Fish oil. I'm going to weigh myself at the gym, and I'm going to start over. I've had an unusual week where I got to talk to several of my heroes. I celebrated my parent's 32nd anniversary. I've been filled with anxiety and guilt for a lot of that time. I'm choosing to focus on my future and how bright it can be. What I can't control, I have to surrender. But now is the time to pick myself off the floor and start moving again. It would just be nice to feel like I'm not doing it all by myself for once.

My 'Biggest Loser' challenge

My favorite challenges on Biggest Loser are when they take something away from the contestants that they're used to. It really tests the mettle of the players because they no longer have something they've relied on steadily to lose weight. One example is when they locked up their kitchen and they had to order out for every meal. During BL10, one week they didn't have access to the ranch or their regular trainers. That ended in disaster for most of them.

The reason I like these challenges is because they're applicable to real life. Sometimes, you're traveling, and you don't have access to your usual foods. You have to eat out for most, if not every one of your meals for a brief period. That means you have to really pay attention to what you're ordering. Sometimes, like for me, you can't get to your regular workout spot, and you have to self motivate and find new ways of getting your sweat on.

After this Wednesday, The UCO Wellness Center will be closed from Dec 23 to Jan 2. I won't have access to my beloved workout place, and I will have to do all of my exercise in and around my home. Needless to say, I'm very nervous about what the scale will say come Friday January 8th. I have decided that my game plan is to focus my attention on getting my diet as perfect as possible this week. I will lift weights for the three days I do have the gym, and then do cardio workouts and interval training during the days they're closed. Once I get back to the gym starting next year, I will increase my interval walk around the track from 15 to 30 minutes for the next month.

I've been frustrated that I haven't been pulling THE DOUBLE DIGITS, but deep down, I know I'm not going to start seeing those numbers until I start committing to the Cardio interval training. Lord help me, because there's probably nothing I hate more than walking on a treadmill or around the track. I know I need to change my perspective on those activities. I need to be thankful that I can walk at all. I workout at a place where they train athletes with missing limbs. I'm so blessed I don't have that obstacle in front of me. I'm just fat. I should be grateful for the ability to use both of my legs to propel myself forward. Walking is a blessing, not a burden.

I've got tomorrow's meal planned out. I'm as prepared as I can be for now. Wish me luck.

Last Night Kinda Stunk

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog. Sometimes life just gets in the way. This past week I have been exercising regularly, and I'm very proud of myself. I've fallen off the wagon a couple times during my diet this week. I realize I've failed to complete the homework I set up for myself in a previous post. I've always been bad with homework.

And now I just remembered that my mother reads this.

ANYWAY!

Last night I really had to push myself out the door to go to the gym. I think I was feeling a mixture of guilt and discomfort from the three chili dogs I'd eaten last night. Chili dogs which I could have said no to, but didn't. I mean, the first two were bad on their own, with the chili and the cheese and side of potato chips, but that third one was almost the nail in the coffin, so to speak. I seriously did not want to go exercising after that. And when I did go, boy was it a struggle. I did okay on some of the weight lifting, but I really felt like I was dragging the entire time. And my time around the track was just terrible. My measly fifteen minute interval felt like thirty. This past monday, I felt like I was flying through the track. Last night, I was so exhausted, I almost felt like crying afterward. It really goes to show how much food can affect you.

MY CHILDHOOD ROLE MODELS ARE LIARS!

I'm trying to stay positive. This is the first time in a long time that I've exercised regularly for three weeks and tried to stick to a meal plan. I should feel good about just showing up at the gym last night and getting back on the diet wagon as soon as my next meal came. I'm going to fall once in a while, but I have to remember I'm strong enough to pick myself up.