Checking In: Week 9: I Did It!!

I did it!  I met my first mini goal!  10 pounds lost!!

Well, it finally happened!  You know how it is when you get up first thing in the morning, go about doing your morning "stuff" and right before you get dressed for work, you hop on the scale for your weigh in.  Well, for the past week, I have more than hit my 10 pound mark, but weigh in is not until 12:30 p.m.  And in that time between 5:30 in the morning and 12:30, there a lot of life that goes on:  There's the morning coffee, a little something for breakfast...some water...you get the idea.

So if you read my post last week, I had 1.4 pounds to lose to make it to my 10 pound mini-goal.  And come Wednesday morning, I didn't think it was going to happen because my home scale had not moved significantly enough from the week prior.  So it was totally unexpected when I went to my meeting and the leader said, 'Oh, good, you lost again...."  The loss was EXACTLY 1.4 pounds making my grand total loss in 9 weeks to be 10 pounds!  Woot!!

So what did I do differently this week than last?  Want to know?  The answer is NOTHING.  I did nothing different.  I stayed consistent.  I tracked, I stayed within my points and I walked (and walked and walked...and still did my bathroom counter pushups).  (I'm averaging about 70 pushups a day now!!)

My friend Karen and I (the one that's lost 18 pounds in 9 weeks, thank you) have been doing what I call the "Green Light Walk" on our lunch break.  We walk until we hit a red light.  And so we have to turn and follow where the green light takes us. Anytime you stop at a red, you must change direction and go to the green.  I work at 7th and Fig.  This week we ended up taking Hope all the way down to Pico, and then walking all the way around the Convention Center and back to work.  It was a 3.6 mile walk. 

So I'm happy. One mini goal down, and the next mini goal is set.  Losing another 10 is already under way! 

What's working for you?  Let me know how you're doing.  I'd love to hear from you.

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Do you use a pedometer? It's fun to see how far you're going.  Pedometers have come a long way and you don't need anything fancy.  Here's a basic one from Timex, but nowadays, if you carry your phone with you, there are pedometer apps that keep track of your miles and calories burned.  Still, if you don't want to carry your phone with you, the classic pedometer will clip onto your waistband.     

Anush's Sprouted Lentil & Garbanzo Bean Curry with Ginger/Cilantro/Lemon Sauce

I have been having a lot of fun sprouting my own sprouts.  On Friday, I started my first batch of sprouted lentils.  The sprout really quickly, and "GROW" (from 1/4 cup dry to 2 1/4 cups in just 3 days).  So once I had the sprouts, I needed to figure out what to do with them, so I started searching the web.  I found the basic idea behind this recipe at www.thenourishinggourmet.com, and though I did modify the curry recipe, the sauce - which is what makes the recipe - came from the Nourishing Gourmet site.

2 1/4 cups sprouted lentils (sprouted 3 days) - tails are about 1/2 " in length)
1 - 15 oz can garbanzo beans
1 tsp. Olive Oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp. red pepper paste (you can purchase this at the Middle Eastern store)
2 tbsp curry powder
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp allspice
3 large cloves garlic (pressed)

Sauce:
1 bunch cilantro leaves (removed stems)
1 clove garlic
Juice from one medium lemon
salt, to taste
Fresh Ginger, peeled and grated to a heaping 1 Tbsp

I started out sprouting 1/4 cup dry lentils (for 3 days) creating 2 1/4 cups of fresh sprouts.  Rinse and drain sprouts.

In a wok, or deep nonstick pan, add 1 tsp olive oil and saute the chopped onion.  Stirring, cooking about 4 minutes.  Add chopped or pressed garlic.  Add curry powder, allspice and 1 1/2 cups water.  Mix and cook about 2 minutes.  Add the sprouted lentils and one can of drained garbanzo beans.  Cook stirring every few minutes to get the flavors to mix.

In a food processor, process one bunch of cilantro, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon or more of fresh grated ginger, salt (to taste) and the juice of one medium lemon.  If you like spicy food, I added about 6 fat slices of jalapeno slices.  Process the whole thing.  It's going to be very pungeant, tart, tangy, garlicky...but a perfect combo to the creamy lentil/garbanzo texture.  Serve on top of your bowl of curry.  You may want to make extra of this sauce because i

One serving - 1 2/3 cup = 7 points plus (I know it seems like a lot of points, but it's very satisfying.).
Makes 3 servings

Serve with a salad.
Please let me know how your recipe turns out.  I'd love to know if you liked it as much as I did.
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I found this interesting:  There are so many different types of garlic presses.  You don't need anything fancy, but you do need something good and sturdy.  I have one I picked up at IKEA....uh, not too good...but then again, it was only $3.  I'd be more inclined to get the one of these on the left...the one on the righ looks a little nut crackery, and the ones in the middle?  too hard to clean.  Click if you're interested in seeing more.

Week 6: There's No Comparison!

Ta-Da, another .8 pounds down
Week 6 total lost: 7 pounds

There's something that needs addressing - WITH MYSELF - about this whole thing about weight loss, getting healthy.  And that "something" has to do with comparisons.  When I first started this journey 6 weeks ago, you heard me.  I was all gung ho about embracing every ounce, and sticking with it and blah, blah, blah.   I'm not throwing in the towel by any means.  I'm still in it for the long haul - BUT - would it be so hard if the scale dropped a whole pound instead of ounces?  Really?  This week's weigh in brought me .8 (that's 8/10th's) of a pound closer to my goal.  Okay that ALMOST a whole pound, but not quite.  Still, it's a movement in the right direction, and I am grateful, don't get me wrong.  But still......

Okay, here's the big picture.  The truth of the matter is that doing this with friends is great (i.e. great to have a buddy to share the journey with), but on the other hand, I'm constantly comparing my loss with hers.  She started a week after me and has already lost 13 pounds!  I am at 7 pounds in 6 weeks.  She is not exercising nor active.  I, on the other hand, have been doing my ActiveLink challenge since I got it and always pushing myself to reach 100% of my activity goal.  We both track.  We both drink our water.  So how come the scale is moving for her and not as much for me???  (Can you hear me whining?)

This goes back to something I taught my daughter when she was but a baby birdy in the nest.  "LIFE IS NOT FAIR!"  That's it in a nutshell.  But stepping back to the bigger picture in hand is the reality.  Why should we compare ourselves to one another?  Not just in weight loss but in everything?  God has created us uniquely.  Different bodies, different metabolisms, different strengths and weaknesses.  When I think of it this way, it seems silly to compare.  I am who I am.  And I am good as I am...I just want to be better.

When it comes to my friend, the reality is that she is younger than me (faster metabolism).  She is a totally different build than I am...she's a head taller than me and a muscular build.  I've had endless surgeries (cancer(3x thank you) gallbladder, salpingo-oophorectomy (look that one up) and have had more things removed from my body than have been left in (or so it feels sometimes).  So OF COURSE my body is going to react differently than hers, right?  

I have to say that another thing that's  helped me put this in perspective is the WW site and my eTools.  Because I've been tracking my intake and my weight, it produces progress reports for me.  And when you look at the big picture, I have been averaging a 1.2 pounds loss per week.  So all those 10ths are adding up.  And 7 pounds in 6 weeks is pretty good.

So I am plugging right along!  It's lunchtime and I have already hit 50% of my activity level for the day.  I am walking home from the bus stop this afternoon with Farmer's Market groceries in tow...that ought to give me a few extra calories burnt.  And this weekend, I'm hoping to do either a hike, or digging up the garden.  We'll see.

I hope you are all having a great week.  I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what's working for you, and what isn't.

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Check this out right here.  It's called a Weight Watchers Body Analysis Scale.  I have never seen it, nor is this something they weigh you on at a WW meeting, but it looks like it measures all sorts of things from your weight, body mass, fat, bone, etc.  Who knew?  I'd want to know that info...but I don't think I'd want to know if every time I hopped on the scale.  I'm already obsessed with the numbers as it is  : )