Tofu, Exercise, and Trying on Pants

Anne Taintor

I had a fill last week and after two days on liquids and two days on soft I only lost two pounds. I know two pounds are two pounds, but I really hoped for a five pound head start. Unfortunately I also had a little hormonal interruption that always bloats me and makes me weigh a little more. I felt like that threw me off too. I'm starting to track my weight in writing.

I decided that even though I still need to weigh myself daily I should really concentrate on my clothes size. I pulled out some pants that I was able to wear a year ago that don't quite close now and I hung them outside my closet.

The thing is this. I was thinking about those pants the other day and how they are a size 14. I haven't worn a size 14 in YEARS, I mean since early college. When I was wearing those pants a year ago I feel like I took it for granted. I didn't think about how they were only a size or size and a half away from my size in high school. That seems crazy considering I hadn't worn that size in so long. It's funny how quickly we forget. Now they don't close. How did I let that happen? So now they are hanging outside of my closet and I'm going to try them on every day as a reminder of where I need to go. Once I'm back in them for a while I can concentrate on getting into a size 12.

I've talked about our new relationship with soy. We are still doing that and I've been eating a lot of Morning Star. When I track my food on livestrong.com I can see the difference in my calorie intake when I eat the soy/tofu products. I still need to learn how to cook tofu. I need to get my friend Jena to give me lessons.

So here's the plan. Work out regularly, eat tofu, drink a lot of water, track my food, weigh daily and try on my pants weekly.

Eating Better with Soy

Design by Anne Taintor

Not really. I'm not really one frozen entree away from a nervous breakdown but this was funny. We decided that we needed to make changes again. We had really strayed away from eating better. Back in September my husband started a vegetarian diet that he held on to until Thanksgiving when he received a free ham at work. After that we fell right back into our bad habits half the time. The other half of the time we tried to work on our diet by eating more soy products, like Morning Star Farms. Now we are trying to get back on that track. This morning I made soy bacon and sausage with eggs. This evening when we went to Target I bought some more soy "chicken" strips and I'm going to experiment with them tomorrow in an enchilada recipe. I'm going to substitute the soy chicken for the turkey.

The taste of these products is really impressive. My kids eat the chicken nuggets and enjoy them just as much as they enjoy those processed chicken Tyson kind. They have never blinked an eye since I changed us over to several Morning Star Farms products. They fully enjoyed the bacon and sausage this morning with their eggs and even asked for more. I even tested the chicken nuggets on my friends' kids the other night and they too ate them without a question or complaint about the taste.

I'm not getting paid by Morning Star Farms to talk about their products. I've tried them and I like them. I'd like to graduate to the point where I learn how to cook tofu myself but until then Morning Star Farms is my helping hand.

The best thing that has happened lately, besides my daughter getting straight As and my son finally getting it that good behavior = rewards, is that my son finally found a vegetable that he likes. Edamame! Hilarious, everything he likes is soy or tofu related. I'm so happy to finally see him eating something green!!

It's time for a fill. I still haven't had one. I don't know why. I know that I canceled that one a couple of months ago because I had too many activities scheduled that week, but I never went back. I asked my lap band buddy (my friend who was banded the same day) why she thinks I'm avoiding a fill. She said that it was probably for the same reason that she hasn't gone. It's that we want to learn, we need to learn, how to do it on our own. We don't want to always live a life of tightness in order to eat less. We also need to learn control and to eat the right foods on our own.

The truth is that we will never eat like we did before. I will never eat a hamburger again. I will never eat anything heavy or too much for lunch. I will never eat bread and rice again. Even at this level of tightness that's a fact. However I know that I can eat more, later in the day, and I do that. There. I said it. I know I need to stop doing that. I know I need to eat less chips and less liquid calories. If I can do that I can keep my weight down. But I still need to go in for a check-up and to have them tighten me up a notch for an extra kick in the butt.

Also, I need to stay committed to the gym. I need to keep going, even now that the kids are out of school. It used to be so convenient because it was down the street from my kids' after school care. Now that they aren't going there I don't drive right by that gym. So we just joined a newer 24 Hr Fitness gym closer to our house, so that should help make it more convenient. I'm committed to keep up the working out.
I continue on my journey of and goal to do what I should and not what I shouldn't. And I thank you for following me on this quest.

Crazy Week & Semi-Vegetarian Lifestyle

Design by Anne Taintor.

I tried this week, I really did... But "life is what happens when you're making other plans." Or as I like to call them, life's detours.

My son was sick last Sunday and on Monday I had to take him to the doctor. That morning I found out that one of the girls he played with the Friday prior had strep throat. I took him in to the doctor Monday afternoon and she confirmed it was strep. All I could do was get him started on antibiotics, but thankfully he wasn't running fever any more. The doctor said that if he wasn't running fever the next day he could go to school. Tuesday was the kids' last day of school before the holiday so I didn't really want him missing more school.

Monday was a challenge! I got a very late start to my day and I had to be at work for a meeting. After dropping of the kids late I was on my way to work when my friend called to tell me that her niece had strep. My husband was out of town for work until Wednesday so I had to figure things out on my own. Thank goodness for my mother-in-law who was able to pick up my son (he only infected others for a couple of hours) and thank goodness for my doctor's office who agreed to see him that same afternoon.

Tuesday I was able to send him off to school, but I faced some of my own personal challenges at work. Between the short week, a husband who was out of town for work, and a sick child I did not do any of the things I said I would. It's interesting. I did not log anything that I ate that week on livestrong.com and I know why I didn't. Since I knew how bad I was eating I didn't even bother logging anything. That's bad too because it's equivalent to running away from the truth. This weekend I did a little better. Which leads me to my second topic. For a couple of months now my husband has been practicing a semi-vegetarian lifestyle. I say semi because he has been eating fish. In addition to fish we have become big fans of Morning Star Farms.

If you've never tried Morning Star Farms you have to! Their products are soooo delicious! They have "chicken" nuggets and "chicken" patties that even a picky 5 year old little boy eats without question. They also make crumbles that look just like beef. I cook up the crumbles in olive oil with a little bit of garlic and then I add tomato sauce. Then I serve it over whole grain pasta. delicious! I still want to try the crumbles in taco sauce and I want to make tacos. They make another product similar to chicken strips that I cook up and I've added Alfredo sauce and I serve that over pasta too. The products are all soy based.

We've also become big fans of tofu at Asian restaurants, one restaurant in particular. We've been eating lunch a lot at Sawadee, a Thai restaurant on Weslayan, near Bellaire. I LOVE their tofu and eggplant in either sweet basil or kaffir lemon. (they call it lemon but according to wikipedia it's lime) Rey loves the tofu and broccoli in garlic sauce.

Long story short about this change in diet is that my husband, who has been sticking to it for two months now, has lost thirty pounds! YES! Thirty pounds from just cutting beef, chicken and pork out of his diet and practicing healthier choices. Amazing, I know.

I know that it's a smart choice, so now I'm trying to follow his lead. I say "trying" because he did take a short break this weekend when he received a delicious honey ham from his boss at work. We are getting back on track tomorrow.

So, tracking food, exercising and cutting beef, chicken and pork out of my diet. I can get all my protein from tofu and fish. I've been eating a lot of sushi too but without all the rice.

A new week, a new month this coming week. Let's try this again.