Make Your Own TV Dinner (or Lunch)

I can't tell you the number of times I've had a conversation with someone about eating healthy and changing food habits.  When talking about work lunches, an almost equal number of responses of Lean Cuisine, or some other variety of frozen meals.
I get it.  They are easy, affordable, don't take up a ton of room in the fridge / freeze, and it is made by Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice or whatever so it has to be good for me, right?
An example of a Lean Cuisine meal:
Chicken & Veggies
Calories: 240
Fat: 5g
Cholesterol: 30 mg
Sodium: 648 mg
Fiber: 3.6 g
Protein: 20 g
I know some of the nutritional data is missing, but I pulled this from the Lose It database.

Last year, when I moved in with the most awesome roommate (I know you are tired of hear about her, but really!!!!), she introduced, to me, something that will change the way I cook for the rest of my life.  She would have these cooking parties, usually at 3:00 AM, waking me up as I hear the sounds of pots and pans clanging in the middle of the night, but the next morning, I would wake up to anywhere from 3 - 6 huge meals, individually portioned and packaged, some in the fridge, some in the freezer.  And we wouldn't have to do much cooking until our 'homemade TV dinners' ran out!!!!
I would do this, and could easily go 3 weeks without needing to cook a lunch or dinner!!!  
I will say that only having the 2 of us living in the apartment and having a general agreement on most things made this much easier.  If I were to try this now, living back at home with anywhere from 2 - 4 other people in the house, there would be a massacre over space in the fridge and freezer, and probably a free for all on my food and I would be doing it all over again tomorrow...  

But still, I have adapted and now make some seriously killer 'TV dinner (lunches)'.
I found these nice divided containers at the local grocery store.  Maybe $4 for 2.  I recommend you buy enough to last a full work week.  The containers I bought have a 1/2 section, a 1 cup section, and a generally large space.
The food chosen has a lot to do with the food I like to eat and my own calorie budget of over 2500 calories.  Someone with a smaller budget of 1500 - 2000 calories, would need to make some adjustments.
Let me tell you, hitting 2500 calories in a day is not an easy thing to do without hitting up the nearest fast food joint.  And that 240 calorie Lean Cuisine listed above....  Doesn't do squat towards hitting my budget!!!!  Also, check out the sodium level.  Over 600 mg for only 240 calories!!!!  That is 2.7 mg of sodium per calorie!  The average sodium budget is 2300 mg.  With just these 240 calories, I have used almost 1/3 of my days sodium!
I always start my lunch with some fruit.  Fresh if I can, but honestly, canned is cheaper and last longer... (Ugh!  The pros and cons of canned food!)  1 serving of fruit is 1/2 cup.  Why stop there?  I fill the 1 cup section with fruit.  2 servings of fruit, right off the top!  :-)
After fruit is veggies right?  I generally switch it up between various frozen veggie varieties.  Someday, I may precook fresh veggies, but honestly, just about anything I use is going to be better than TV dinner veggies.  Again, 1/2 cup is a serving, so lets make it a full cup.  It goes into the large space.
Next we need protein and lots of it!  I aim for 20% of my diet to be protein and that takes a lot of protein!  4 oz of chicken.  I find the freezer section to be my friend again.  There are several options of precooked chicken, whole, sliced, or diced.  After I finish up the current bag of frozen chicken I have, I will be switching to fresh chicken, precooked using my own recipe so I can change the flavor from week to week.
I don't think that is enough protein for me though and I am an egg-aholic, so I scramble up 2 eggs and add it to the large section as well.
This week, in an effort to add more calories, because I was still too far from my 2500 budget, I added a little bit (1/2 cup) of instant rice.  In the future, this may change to brown rice, but I haven't gotten along with brown rice up to this point, so I am not sure we will be friends in the future....
I also love dairy, especially cheese.  If I could eat cheese every day, all day, I would!  Love cheese!  So I add a mozzarella cheese stick to the top of the large section. 
And because I have behaved up to this point and ate my yummy and healthy lunch, I add just 1/2 cup of pita chips to satisfy any salt or crunchy craving I may be experiencing.
My TV dinner (lunch):
Calories: 788
Fat: 27 g   (31%)
Cholesterol: 489.4 mg
Carbs:  83.8 g  (42.8%)
Sodium: 1011 mg
Fiber: 3.4 g
Protein: 41.2 g  (26.2%)

I could still use to add some more calories into this.  I think ideally, about 1000 calories would be very solid.  The cholesterol is higher than the Lean Cuisine, but cholesterol is not something I am overly concerned with.  Sodium is only 1.28 mg / calorie.  Over 50% reduction from Lean Cuisine!  I included the percentages so that we can see that protein is 26.2% of the meal.  That is very healthy for my chosen lifestyle of at least 20% protein.
Obviously this is not the perfect meal for everyone, but it takes me 30 minutes to prep my meals for the week and I get to eat like this, instead of the offerings from the fast food joint across the street?  I am certainly very happy with this.
Hopefully you will give it a try.  Please let me know what you use.  I may just borrow your idea and use it in my lunches next week.  :-)

Single Digit Pant Size

Last week was a tough week for me.  Had some self confidence issues, some perception issues, some guy issues.  Not sure that this week will be any better, but a couple of conversations with friends and a blog by my roommate from last year have the blog wheels spinning in my head.
Quick, or not so quick, recap:
November 2011 - I was facing size 20 pants and refused to make that purchase, so I bought a Wii and Wii Fit, discovered I weighed 225 lbs, my highest weight ever!!!!
April 2012 - Joined Lose It, discovered I weighed 215 lbs.  Decided on a goal weight of 150 lbs
After joining Lose It, I dived head first into the forums, read everything I could.  If I was going to make a concentrated effort to lose weight, then I was going to do it with all the ammunition I could find!  
Fall 2012 - I hit 200 lbs and everyone kept telling me that I looked so good and I didn't need to lose anymore weight, but I was still so far from my goal!  And still looked so fat!  I started doing more research and got into body fat percentages.  I don't know what percentage I first picked (should have been somewhere in the high 20's), but the weight that corresponded to it was 165 lbs.  I felt that changing my goal was ok to keep me still looking feminine, without draining myself mentally trying to hit a number that was never going to be possible!
December 2012 - I hit my low weight of 194.9 lbs, 25 lbs lost!  Amazing!!!!!  I, also, bought my first pair of size 14 pants in ages!!!!
January 2013 - I joined the gym and promptly picked up 5 lbs and kept gaining weight!
February 2013 - I lost 2% body fat!
March 2013 - I lost a total of 6"!
April 2013 - I lost 1% body fat!
May 2013 - I lost 1% body fat!
June 2013 - I lost 1% body fat!  I now weigh 210.3 lbs!!!
I am less than 5 lbs from when I started Lose It and with an average of 3 lbs gain a month, I will reach my start LI weight by the end of the summer and it is very likely that I will exceed my high weight by the end of the year!
I am never going to be able to hit 150, 165, or any other weight, because as I continue with my training, I am continuing to build muscle and that old adage is true: muscle really does weigh more than fat!
I am gaining inches in all the right places (arms and legs) and losing inches in all the right places (waist and hips).
After abandoning my weight goals earlier this year, I started thinking about what other goals I could come up with besides just my 18% bf goal.  I decided I wanted to fit into single digit pants!  My trainer said, 'You might not lose anymore weight, but we can definitely trim size!'  I was excited!!!
Last week, she asked me how many sizes I had lost since joining the gym.  She couldn't believe that I said none!!!!  We started talking about my progress (which has been amazing!) and all of a sudden it dawned on me....  All of my power is in my legs and we keep emphasising my leg work and I have gained inches in my legs and the pants in my 'not quite yet' bag won't fit over my legs...
Guess what???  My bodybuilding efforts, my increased inches in my thighs, currently at 21", will never fit into anything smaller than a 14 - 16!!!!
So yet again, I am searching for a new goal...  A new way to define my end game...  Today I don't know what that will be...  But remember...  Just because you can't hit that number on the scale, does not mean that you are not winning this fight!!!  There are lots of ways to measure success.  You just need to find the one that works for you!

Self Confidence

I have no problem telling you that I have an extreme lack of self confidence.  I can talk a good game and hide it sometimes, but I know deep down inside I am fat, ugly and way too damn tall for a girl...
Yes, as I have gotten older, I realize that I'm not really fat, just a big girl, and certainly getting smaller as the days go by, but I will never have a 28" waist again and will definitely never see 100 lbs again.  I'm not really sure that I would want to go back to being that small.  Finding clothes that fit was next to impossible!!!  I spent most of junior high wearing mens pants because woman's pants either fit at the waist, or they fit the legs...  Never both!
I know I am not really ugly, just not classically beautiful and I certainly can dress myself up to look passable.  I have a great hair stylist now that has definitely taken my hair from drab to fab.  Also, not cutting my own hair and coloring out of a box, might have something to do with the increase in attractiveness of my hair.  My face, my teeth, my body, well...  I am doing what I can, but I am not on any Vogue waiting lists for the next cover model.
In regards to being too tall...  I used to love it...  Getting told that if I kept going I would make a fabulous basketball player...  being able to reach the top shelf...  wearing heels and hitting 6' tall...  It was really awesome being freakishly tall as a kid...  But I never did get tall enough to make a decent ball player and my talent level is somewhat lacking...  hitting 6' tall doesn't seem as important now that most everyone I know is under 6' and I don't like feeling like a giant...
All in all...  I just add up to a mess...
And then men come into the picture...
Since moving to the South, doors get held open more often, and friendly smiles abound much more than in the cold North.  Not trying to tear NYS down, just stating simple facts that life really does have a different speed down here...  If you break down on the side of the road, multiple people will stop to see if you are ok, instead of just driving past...  Random people will wave as you drive down a back country road...  I really have fallen in love with the South and don't know that I could ever move back to New York.
But guys...  From the dirty construction worker looking at me like I am naked to the older gentleman that gets a spring in his step because he got to hold open the door for a pretty young thing, I just don't feel like I deserve their attention!  And then you find that guy, that just takes your breath away...  He is so gorgeous, and built like you can't even believe!  And he stops and smiles at you and asks if you are having a good day...  And all you want to do is melt because you can't believe that he is looking at you...
And then...  He leaves and you wonder why he even saw you...  You know you are nothing special...  And he was off the charts hot...
These are the moments that are happening more often to me...
It doesn't matter that I lost 30 lbs of fat.  It doesn't matter that I am starting to allow myself to dress more like a woman.  It doesn't matter this or that or any other thing in the world...  What matters is that when I look in the mirror, I still see the flabby arms, the muffin top, the side boob...  All of it just continues to point to, why me?
Earlier this week, I wore this grey sleeveless shirt I have.  I don't know the material of the shirt...  Maybe polyester on the sides with a cotton stripe going up the middle in the front and the back.  Because of the different material types, the middle always stretches to accommodate my curves.  When I first bought this shirt, over 3 years ago, I actually never wore it because I didn't like how fat it made me look.  Today, I wear it with pride, because the curves that the shirt shows, are the curves that a woman is supposed to have.  This same day, I also wore my black pinstripe dress pants, size 14, recently bought in December.  They are the smallest pair of pants that I am currently wearing and I just feel awesome wearing them.  Overall, the look I presented, was a well put together business professional, and I felt good.  When the guys looked my way that day, I was like, yes, sir!  This is me!!!  At the end of my day, I ended up on a date with a guy from the gym, who just made me feel amazing because he thought I looked amazing!!!
My confidence issues will probably never go away completely...  But if those days, like the one earlier this week, keep happening...  I might actually start to own this body that I am building and on that day...  I hope I have the presence of mind to say, 'Yes, ma'am!  This is me!!!!'

A Long Recovery

I don't know how I let the entire month of June pass without a post, but here I am..  Thank you to everyone who checked in on me in the last month...  Sorry I wasn't here for you...
Once again...  Still going, still fighting and still trying to win this battle!
Remember that tire that I loved flipping so much?  I discovered it has a rather nasty side...  Or at least my sciatic nerve discovered it...  2 months later, I am still working on recovery...  Last week I did start working back towards a normal routine, but my hip is still very weak and some of my stretches still hit a painful spot.  My cardio has been reduced with strict instructions to keep my heart rate below 130, which if you remember my race, know how difficult that has been.
I am doing a traditional 4 day split with each day focused on specific areas of my body.  I am, so, not used to this at all.  My training, from the first dumbbell I picked up, has been focusing on compound movements.  Each day I have 4 exercises, 15 reps of each, 4 - 6 sets.  So far, the only day I have been able to hit 6 sets is legs and that is because that is where all my power is!!!  Yesterday was a chest day.  I was lucky to hit 10 reps, 4 sets!!!  And today...  Ouch!
That seems to be my favorite word lately...  Ouch!  From my inner thighs, glutes, entire ab area, to pecs...  Ouch!
But I am one of those strange people that refuses to give up and actually loves the pain.  Although is it really pain?  Or is it progress in your body?  Muscle being torn down and rebuilt, bigger, stronger?
I will take a full week of muscle soreness and longer over the 2 month plus recovery from the injury sustained from the tire.  Believe me when I tell you there is a difference and it is a difference each of us need to identify and learn when to quit and when to keep going.
Even when I could barely walk, I was still at the gym, still working on recovery for my hip and strengthening my upper body!  I changed my plan, but refused to quit.  And today, I am back working my hip, albeit at a much lower weight...
With muscle soreness, I can work through it, or stretch it out and still work without fear of injury.
Another battle that we each have to face is how easy it can be for us to slip back into old ways.  I had a very fun Fourth of July weekend including 2 Airbrush Gypsy shows, a girls day out, a Despicable Me 2 drive in theater party, and going to see fireworks at the lake.  A great weekend free of most any worries and stress!  But I didn't have a lot of time to do housekeeping chores, like laundry...  So when I got to the gym yesterday, I discovered I didn't have any socks in my car.  I started shooting myself because I remember pulling a pair of socks out of my gym bag that morning and putting them in the dirty clothes.  Why, oh why, did I have to pick yesterday morning to be the day to clean out my bag...  Man I am so stupid....  Oh well...  I guess I'll just go home and do laundry so I can come back tomorrow...  NO!  You are going to go to the store and buy socks for the 4th time this year and come back to the gym for your workout!!!!!
It is so easy to come up with an excuse not to walk through the door...  AND I was parked in front of the gym!!!  Less than 100' from the door and I was ready to just go home...
Remember, no matter the battle, that the war is key...  We can do this!  We will do this!  And together...  we can do anything we want!  Just keep going, keep fighting, and keep trying!!!