Naughty Number Nine - Day 22

Number nine will put you on the spot.
Number nine will tie you up, oh, in a knot.
When you're tryin',
Multiplyin' by nine...
With naughty, nasty, mean old number nine.

Weigh In
-9lbs July 12 to date. No weight change this week. Well at some point I was at -10lb, but on weigh in day I was stuck at -9lb. I'm not complaining.

First of all, I'd like to tell you that I gained muscle this week, but I heard a good lecture at H3 about how implausible that is.

Second of all, I'd like to tell you (BOYS CLOSE YOUR EYES) that I'm having women's issues and I just wasted five minutes googling euphemisms for menstruation. Most pleased to see that my favorite periodical, The Onion, ranks as second result. News and euphemisms. Being on the rag is a good enough excuse for plateauing. I will use this as an excuse until there is a H3 class on why I can't use this as an excuse.

As you can tell my head hurts and I'm feeling a little cranking. I had a busy weekend doing writing business stuff (aka Georgia Romance Writers) without doing any actually writing. That always puts me in a bad mood. Less my PMS gets the better of this blog I will now report the happy stuff!

Nicki Does the Right Thing

1. I carried kashi cereal and a peach with me to GRW in lieu of Chick-fil-A biscuit. I ate the veggie meal, skipped the bread, pasta, and dessert. Brought second peach to be my dessert.
2. Went to an evening museum event with free alcohol. Opted for Diet Coke in lieu of wine. I normally feel like I should eat my weight at the buffet, but instead I ate lots of veggies and a little bit of meat. I'm guessing less than 2 oz of meat. I skipped the baklava, and ya'll know I adore baklava. I did indulge in fig the size of a plum and a yummy chocolate chip cookie.
3. For Sunday dinner, I stripped the fried chicken and ate the non-fried parts.

Friday Exercise Journal
2 mile walk. Very brisk 2 mile walk. 45 minutes worth. Maybe even more than 2 miles.

Friday Food Journal
250 - Flax Plus with Raisin cereal
380 - Roasted veggie sandwich
140 - Baked Lays
030 - Almonds
100 - Strawberries
300 - Macaroni

Saturday Food Journal
250 - Kashi cereal
042 - Peach
200 - Roasted veggies
042 - Peach
200 - Ham sandwich
500 - Assorted treats at the museum. Asparagus, green salad, fig, Parmesan, lamb/beef kabob, chocolate chip cookie

Saturday Exercise Journal
30 minutes strolling through a museum in heels. I'm counting this as exercise.

Sunday Food Journal
250 - Kashi Cereal
042 - Peach (I'm in a peachy mood this week. They have been delicious!)
500 - Tomato, basil, and mozzarella sandwich
200 - Mixed greens with dressing
200 - Chicken
200 - Peach cobbler (My sister made it and I had to try it.)
100 - Remainder of lemonade and apple juice abandoned by my kids. Scavenging again. I'm not really sure how to break this bad habit.

Sunday Exercise Journal
40 minutes stroll.

Weird Weight Loss Tips
What would Sanjay Gupta do? At Christmas, I will have a blog call "My Favorite Things" and remind me to include Gupta among them. He issued a four month to fitness challenge in June. So we are a few months late. Check it out. Always better to be late than the alternative.

Periodically, Gupta is nice to my brother-in-law and interviews him about sports medicine stuff. Check out a video clip of my brother-in-law on CNN. Not a weird weight loss tip, but now you know what my brother-in-law looks like!

Final Weird Weight Loss Tip: And just to be the annoying little sister-in-law that I am, here's a plug for my favorite shoes: Earth Shoes. I did lose some weight when I started wearing them last year, but quite honestly I wear them because they are beneficial for people who do a lot of yoga. They keep my calves and hamstrings stretched out. They are comfy. I don't care what Gupta and my brother-in-law say about them. I love Earth Shoes! I'm going to marry them.

Have a happy week. Good exercising and eating to all.

Thank You Without Food

Today is my daughter's last day of school. Next week she starts kindergarten, but I'd like to thank the teachers at her old school before we go. She's been at this school since birth. I love these teachers like they are my family. The problem is that I only know how to thank people with food. This is the South. We are donut and biscuit people. We are not cottage cheese and fruit platter people.

Let's be real, I'm going to bring the teachers food to show my appreciation. And I hope I make a healthy choice at 7 o'clock in the morning! Until then, I have prepared a collage of photos of my daughter with her teachers throughout the years. Next to the photos I have posted this letter:

Thank you for taking care of me since I was 4 months old! Ms. Saadia and Ms. Dina used to cuddle me when I cried. Ms. Monica and Ms. Sadika would make me laugh. Ms. Rebecca helped me learn to go potty and taught me my letters. Ms. Aida taught me to be a good princess and artist. Ms. Morgan taught me how to learn more than I ever could imagine.

I have been very blessed to have had such wonderful loving teachers. All of the good parts of me are little bits of you and your wisdom. I know you'll take good care of my brother and sister, but I will miss you all the same. It has been a wonderful 5 years - my entire life!

Thank you for loving me and helping me grow.


Okay, I'm having a mommy moment. You have no idea how much these teachers mean to me and my family. It is a big leap of faith to trust people with your offspring. You want to thank your teachers by giving them the world, you want to feed them. I hope the letter and fruit platter will be enough.

Thursday Exercise Journal
Sweaty 30. Also known as the 30 minute intense boot camp. Jumping jacks, sprints, all of the drama.
6 flights of stairs. Busy day folks. And boot camp + Jari Love the night before = tired.

Thursday Food Journal
050 - Grapefruit
050 - Cottage Cheese
100 - Honeydew
200 - Ham sandwich
100 - Banana
150 - Almonds
070 - Peanuts
130 - Yogurt and blueberries
120 - 4 Graham crackers
410 - Pad Thai Ethnic Gourmet
100 - 1/2 of snickerdoodle and milk (I'm babysitting 6 kids and warm cookies with milk was our pre-bedtime snack. I know, I know. I'm showing my love with food again, but 6 kids! Guys, at 7pm on a school night you do what you can to survive.)

Weird Weight Loss Tip
Taste something. If you want something, have it, but just a taste. Like the 1/2 of the smallest snickerdoodle ever made that I ate tonight. It was yummy, and I didn't eat the whole thing. The taste of it did help stop the craving. Have a successful weekend. More writing for me. Happy eating and exercising until Monday!

Nighty Night

Cat who likes to sleep on my yoga mat also likes to take cat naps with babies

Wednesday Food Journal
100 - Banana
050 - Plain Yogurt
060 - Half Caf (half decaf coffee with skim milk)
340 - Lean Cuisine
100 - Steamed veggies
070 - Peanuts
100 - Plain yogurt and blueberries
203 - Ham sandwich (light oat bread, laughing cow cheese, 1 slice of ham, spinach, tomatoes, yumminess)
200 - Haagen Daz Dulce de Leche Ice Cream (1/4 cup and it was rather filling, but way too sweet. They need to make the same thing, but instead of caramel use peanut butter!)

Wednesday Exercise Journal
10 minute Mini-boot camp (sprints, squats, jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups)
30 minute walk
1 hr Jari Love Get Ripped 1,000

Weird Weight Loss Tip
Sleep. 8 hours burns about 500 calories depending on your weight. In lieu of extra words, I'm getting some extra Z's. More writing tomorrow, happy eating and exercising!

Zumba and a Few Challenges

Me on the computer so obviously not working on my book, but rather looking at google.
Tuesday Food Journal
070 - 1/2 cup Cottage Cheese
050 - 1/2 Grapefruit
100 - Banana
094 - Brie
330 - Pesto Veggie Sandwich (Best - and most rare - thing in the cafeteria at work)
100 - Strawberries
070 - Peanuts
290 - Tuna sandwich (Made with Tabasco and plain yogurt instead of mayo. If I were good like Starving Foodie I'd have a recipe, but I never use a recipe...)
170 - Grilled cheese
235 - Peanut Butter and Jelly (I needed the extra calories for Zumba. See below)


Tuesday Exercise Journal
30 minute walk
18 flights of stairs
1 hour Zumba (with my neighbor who was kind enough to invite me to class)
1 hour yoga (with Steve Ross on Oxygen)

A special thank you to my neighbor for taking me to Zumba. My neighbor is Colombian so I was a little intimidated by her awesome Latin-ness, but the instructor (who was from Belize) did not laugh at me nearly as hysterically as the kickboxing instructor last week. Nothing like a class where the instructions are "arriba," abajo," "shake it," and "grind." It was like a night club without boys.

A few challenges have been thrown my way this week:

• I going to try to fit into my senior formal dress from college. Yes, I still have the dress. It is super cute. Unfortunately, my college senior formal was, ahem, a few years and dress sizes ago.
  
• Write a chapter of my novel for every pound I lose. I've got a chapter to write this week. Some of my writing buddies are going to take the challenge with me. I hope to be skinny and prolific by year end.
• Go to Zumba every Tuesday for the next four weeks. Struggle part is the time of the class (7pm) and you do remember that I have a job and I have 3 small kids. Oldest is just starting kindergarten and a new school year. This is a very big challenge. Miss hearing me make excuses and complain? Go back to Nicki's Reason's Why Not.
  

Weird Weight Loss Tip
Exercise in another language. Some how I wasn't nearly as irritated at an instructor shouting dance moves at me in Spanish as I would have been if they were shouting at me in English.

Recycled weight loss tip redux. Don't just dance a party or wedding. Find an organized dance class or dance exercise class. Salsa your way to fitness. Dancing, not the food, folks. Happy eating and exercising!

When the Poop Hits the Fan

Scat Cat! My cat insists on interrupting my yoga nightly. She doesn't even like me, but she loves me when I yoga. This is the only animal whose scat I'm allowed to view.

I was watching educational television with my kids this weekend and the topic was animal scat. I had never heard that term before. Scat means poop! I case you haven't noticed, bowel movements are a subject of great hilarity for both young and old. You haven't lived if you haven't read the "poopie list". I look forward to a future "old fart" birthday. It just goes to show that pooping is funny and important.


Now a bunch of Weird Weight Loss Tips about poop.

• Sorry guys, but you are going to have to look at your poop. Color, size, frequency, consistency.
• Talk to your doctor about your poop. I get it. You don't want to talk to me about your poop, but you should talk to your spouse, friend, co-worker, and especially your doctor about your poop.
• Take care of your poop. Drink water, consume healthy oils (avacado, olive oil), eat fiber. But don't overdo it. Excessively cleansing can hurt your bowels as much as neglecting them.
  

Poop resources
If you don't want to talk about poop now, the American Cancer Society will get you to talk about it later. Exercising and eating healthy can reduce your chances of many cancers including colon cancer. Get checked or remind someone you love to get checked.

See a video of Dr. Oz explaining poop in less than a minute. I never saw the famous Oprah poop episode, but I did hear about it from my mother. Mothers love to talk about bowel movements and cleansing. Jamaicans call it "wash out". Wash out means you'll drink some tea and spend the rest of the day in the bathroom. As a kid and an avid reader, this day was not nearly as traumatic as it sounds. Good excuse to lounge with a good book.

Sort of related, but mostly not. Starving Foodie blogged about beans! And corn. Come guys, it is funny.

All this talk about bowels is my final weird weight loss tip of the day. Talking about poop is an appetite suppressant. Also cleaning a cat box is an appetite suppressant. Pretty sure you don't feel like eating that quarter pound Angus burger now. On that note . . .

Monday Food Journal
070 - Plain Yogurt
100 - Banana
000 - In honor of today's blog psyllium husk in my yogurt!
600 - Chicken Fajita Salad
260 - Flax Plus with raisin cereal
120 - 1 cup milk
105 - 1/2 Pop tart (I was scavenging after the kids. Bad habit, I know.)
075 - Frosted flakes (see excuse above)

Monday Exercise Journal
30 minute of yoga
18 flights of stairs
30 minutes in park with kids
1 hour yoga

I have tons of pictures I'd like to post, but really none for today's topic. Scat Cat on Yoga Mat will have to do. Happy eating and exercising.

Better Late . . .

Friday Food Journal
450 - Chick-Fil-A Chicken Biscuit
240 - Palak Paneer (Yummy Indian Ethnic Gourmet)
080 - Steamed Veggies
100 - Grapefruit
150 - Super Green 96 Protein Drink
175 - Grilled Cheese
165 - Fish Sticks
200 - Cookies

Friday Exercise Journal
30 minute walk
12 flights of stairs

Saturday Food Journal
300 - Egg white omlet
045 - 1/2 toast
050 - Fruit
185 - Grilled cheese
160 - Chips
070 - Hot dog
200 - Burger (slider with no bun)
050 - Cole Slaw
050 - Watermelon
180 - Veggie Sausage
100 - 2 reduced fat Oreo cookies! Only 2!!!
075 - Blueberries and strawberries
075 - Whipped Cream

Saturday Exercise Journal
30 minutes walk/run
1 hour at park with kids

Sunday Food Journal
300 - Egg white omlet
045 - 1/2 toast
175 - 1/2 biscuit
235 - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
060 - 1/2 cup milk
100 - 1/2 cup cereal
135 - Laughing cow cheese and salsa
300 - 1/2 Turkey sandwich
200 - Spaghetti with fat free cheese. Note to self: Cheese needs fat.
150 - 1/2 cupcake no frosting

Sunday Exercise Journal
I did none. Nada. Nothing. Hung with the kids and cleaned the house all day. Not sure how to quantify cleaning, grocery shopping, and a day completely away from technology. No phones, no computer. Let us just say it was a happy day. Don't feel guilty about not working out!

Weigh-In (Weight loss July 12 to date)
-9 lbs. For the record my weight fluctuated about 6lbs during the course of the week. But as of weigh-in, the scale showed 9 lbs. I'm taking it. I may be up a pound next week. We'll see...

Weird Weight Loss Tip
Don't worry about weight loss every day of the week. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Happy eating and happy exercising!

Just the Facts Ma'am

Thursday Exercise Journal
50 minute walk
24 flights of stairs

Thursday Food Journal
060 - Coffee
150 - Super Green 96 Protein Shake (I love green stuff, it is good. There is also blueberry if you are a wuss)
170 - Tandoori chicken (Ethic Gourmet)
100 - Steamed veggies
030 - 1 square Dove Dark Chocolate
300 - All natural organic pumpkin cream cheese muffin

I'm going to sleep. Busy day at work and home tomorrow. And I've got my real writing to do. None of this imaginary stuff. Send me what encouragement you can.

Weird Weight Loss Tip. Self Delusions.
Am I the only one noticing that you are taking weird weight loss tips from someone who needs to lose weight? Convince yourself that you are your own body subject matter expert and follow your gut, your instincts on what you need to do to become personally successful. Weight loss, writing, photography, bringing sexy back. No matter.

Not so weird weight loss tip. Sleep. Nighty, night. I'll miss you until Monday! Happy eating and exercising.