Stefita

Okay, so now it’s been about two weeks and I haven’t lost a pound.  In fact, I’ve gained a pound.  Yet I’ve continued to  eat a vegetable-based diet, and eat in the 1200-1400 calorie range.  What’s going on?  It’s hard to maintain a strict diet when you’re not seeing results.  I’ve missed about 4 days of yoga (before I was going 6 times a week…), and now I feel that it’s getting harder and harder to stick to my diet.  Even though I’ve been slipping a little, it’s still not enough to not be losing (and especially not enough to be gaining).  Is this the said “plateau”?  Bikram yoga is an hour and a half of intense calorie-burning, sweat-inducing balancing acts.  And 1200 calories of mostly vegetables has to about as good as it gets.  So I’m puzzled.  And discouraged.  And being discouraged makes me want to eat pie.  Specifically, the apple pie my mom is baking.

This is what I’ve been eating a LOT lately.  It’s pretty fucking flawless.

Rosemary Roasted Vegetables

Take a bunch of vegetables of your choice. I like:

Whole garlic cloves

squash (cut lengthwise, and then in half)

sweet potatoes (cut into medallions)

carrots (cut into 3-inch pieces)

mushrooms

Onions (cut in half)

I’ve also added asparagus, eggplant, beets and fingerling potatoes in the past.  Basically, put whatever you like in there.

Put all your vegetables in a baking pan (one of those casserole-type dishes that are about 2 inches deep)

Drizzle everything with olive oil.  Add pepper and salt.  And here’s the key: add rosemary.  A few four-inch sprigs is what I generally do.

Then you add a little water, cover it with foil, and bake for an hour and a half, or until everything is soft.

I’m a fire-eater, so I add a TON of Sriracha hot sauce.  Pour over a little brown rice and you’ve got yourself a delicious veggie bowl.

Being the undisciplined person that I am, I haven’t written for 8 days. But hey, I’m trying to change that, so here I am. I’ve never been much of a blogger type, and it still feels a little weird, but I think it’s a good thing to be a part of a community, and it’s hard to be part of a community when you don’t share things about yourself to create a sense of bonding.  Which is why it’s important for me to do this, and the whole reason I joined this site.  On to the Update:

My sister convinced me to sign up for a special introductory-rate package of Bikram Yoga classes, otherwise known as “hot yoga”.  I had no idea what I was getting into, but soon discovered that a bikram class consists of 90 minutes of intense balancing acts and muscle toning in a 100 degree room.  I read somewhere that the average person burns 600 calories in one class.  I don’t know if that applies to me; I’m not even sure what an “average person” is, but hell, it sure felt like I burned at least that much.  Honestly, I don’t know how I survived it.  I sweat off 4 pounds of water weight, and half the time I was falling over and trying not to look embarrassed.  There is a huge mirrored wall, so everyone can see everyone else.  Of course, you’re supposed to be looking only at yourself, but I’m sure it was kind of hard to not notice the only fat girl in the room wobbling about and falling out of position.  But I felt great afterwards.  And strangely enough, I’ve managed to go every day for the past week.  I actually look forward to it in a strange, slightly scared kind of way.  I’ll keep it up as long as the introductory period lasts (30 days), and after that I won’t be able to afford it.  Sad.

I’ve been pretty ascetic with my eating habits.  When you’re eating 1200 calories a day you better be packing as much nutrition into those meals as possible…especially if you’re a vegetarian.  So I finally (after 8 years) got around to researching the kinds of foods that a vegetarian should be eating in order to get the right amount of protein, calcium, etc.  Reading about vegetables and how many phytochemicals, vitamins and nutrients are packed into them is a good way to inspire me to eat them  There’s a great website, The World’s Healthiest Foods, which lists 129 foods that are nutrient-packed and should be integrated daily into a healthy lifestyle.  It’s pretty cool– you can click on the links to information about each of the foods and learn all about how good it is for you.  The url to the list of foods is: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php

I’ve been a vegetarian for quite some time, and reading so much about vegetables made me think about becoming vegan.  So I’ve been trying that for about 5 days now.  The very first day was the most trying; my sister made a cheese and bread platter for family friends that were visiting.  Jesus, that was hard.  I found a great vegan restaurant that serves divine food.  And I’ve really started to crave and truly love vegetables.  So far so good.

So I’ve been doing all these extreme, healthy things, right?  Well, for the last week the scale hasn’t budged.  What’s up with that?  Pisses me off.

That’s it for now.

Alright, so with a family history of diabetes and a case of PCOS (which lowers the metabolism and makes losing weight a lot harder), I am aiming for 1200 calories per day.

I have been a vegetarian for 8 years, but that hasn’t always meant that I mostly eat vegetables.  It’s all too easy to load up on carb and fat laden foods.  But as a part of my new “diet” (really, this is a lifestyle change), I am trying to incorporate vegetables or fruit into every meal, and cutting out the junk and sweets to as little as possible.  Anyway, I find that treats are so much better when they’re well-deserved!

Food Log

Exercise Log

I currently weigh about 200 pounds.  In order to be within range of a healthy BMI, I need to reduce my weight to anywhere from 108-140 pounds.  I’m going for 125 as my goal weight.

Wow, that’s a long way to go.  75 pounds to go.  I can almost not believe that this is a possible feat.  But starting today, I’m going to start believing.  Now, not tomorrow– that’s my new motto.

Food Log

I’ve just completed the first real, disciplined (no cheating!) day of my diet.  I find that if I keep busy, stay out of the kitchen, and drink plenty of fluids between meals, I actually feel pretty satisfied and don’t need to obsess about food.  It took a few days to get into this, with little overindulgences here and there.  My proudest moment was when I went to the movies this evening (I saw a french thriller), and resisted getting popcorn.  It was actually a bit tortuous, hearing people stuffing popcorn into their mouths, the smell of butter… I don’t know why, but I have never been able to resist popcorn at movies.  To satisfy my oral fixation, I bought a large diet soda.  That did the trick.

Food Log