Calorie Warrior

Fighting Weight One Calorie At a Time

Month: March 2014

It’s a Girl!

My blog isn’t just about weigh loss but about my journey and things that impact my life. Its all related some way to how you eat and whats going on.

I’ve mentioned on here that Amy and I are expecting our first baby in August and were both super excited. Not knowing the gender of our baby was kind of weird. You know your having a kid but have no idea what its going to be? The both of us had to find out so we could decorate the room and pick out some names.

Did I care if it was a boy or girl? No way, all I want is a healthy baby. From the start I really didn’t have a preference because there are so many great things about having either a son or a daughter.

Having a son of course means a little me that I can help grow up into a man. I can hang out with the little guy and do all the guy things together with.

Having a girl means I can get to be a complete sucker. I knew my daughter would be a daddy’s girl and she would be my little princess. I just have to key my eye on the boys she brings home!

Check out my little girl!

Baby PhotoIt just keeps getting more and more exciting as we go along. Amy and I keep watching this little girl grow in every sonogram. Pretty soon this little things going to be running all over our house!

After we found out Amy insisted that we do a gender reveal party even though I cried about having people over for desserts while I’m trying to eat good. We had lots of fun and enjoyed seeing all the people that care about our kid. Only a few more months and everyone gets to meet her!

Check out Amy and I with our cake

It's a Girl!

We also had lots of family come over that haven’t seen me in a few months. Everyone’s comments on how much weight I lost and how great I looked really felt good. I especially noticed in these pictures that I was looking kinda skinny!

Monday Weigh-In Week #9

Another week past and another Monday morning weigh in. Of course the weekend did me in even though I feel like I was an angel. Nothing too unhealthy or calorie loaded but I’m sure I hit the sodium hard.

Start of Week #9 Official Weight – 246.5

Its slow but its going! Another pound lost in one week. I really cant wait to start hitting those 230’s!

This week is an exciting week for Amy and I. We find out tomorrow what kind of baby were having. That’s right! Shes 20 weeks along. Neither of us care if its a boy or girl. All we want is a healthy baby.

Saturday we leave for our Florida vacation and as much as I’m looking forward to that my diet isn’t. Cant e a saint all the time.

Here Comes Another Weekend

The most exciting day of the week!

Friday

Here comes another weekend and all though I’m excited I get nervous. I do so good all week long and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday come along and usually trash out the progress I made during the week.

I did great this week as far as eating. I hit another all time low Thursday morning at 243.5. I was supposed to go to families for dinner and it got canceled so I rewarded myself to a meatball parm hero from a nearby pizza place. Don’t worry, I made sure that I budgeted plenty of calories for this.

Last night I made a whole bunch of impulse buys on AMAZON which I usually never do. We needed new guts for the inside of our toilet and all the local stores needed to special order it so I figured I’d just get it online. While I was browsing I remembered a few things I think I want from time to time but always think I’ll never use them. I thought maybe if I just bought them I’d get around to using it.

Hopefully having this blog will give me the push to try some of this stuff out and maybe even post more reviews. Majority of what I got is diet and fitness related so lets share some of these purchases.

Peanut butter & Jelly Quest BarsI see all my friends on Facebook raving about how great these are. They are kind of pricey but I figured I’d give them a shot and the’ll come in handy as a sack on the run or meal replacement when I’m busy.

P90X Workout DVDsNow this is a commitment if any but if I can get myself to actually do the program I’m sure to benefit from the results. Probably the biggest impulse by but hopefully I put it to use.

Perfect Pushup EliteI suck at push-ups and a friend posted these on Facebook and said there awesome. Figured they weren’t that expensive so I’d grab them while buying other fitness related crap.

Resistance BandsThis was the last thing I grabbed because I figured I’d need them with P90X. There are a few sets but these looked to be the highest quality.

Polar Ft7 Men’s Heart Rate MonitorThis was the least impulsive buy. My Fitbit is great but if I plan to switch to other means of exercising other than walking/jogging I still want to know how many calories I’m burning. I’m curious how an hour of weight training compares to the treadmill.

I’m excited because its all really great stuff. Getting myself to use any of it is another story but if I do we’ll see if anythings worth of being added to my Weight Loss Weapons page. Also keep an eye out for reviews of these as I love to share my honest opinions of products I use.

Have a great weekend everyone and keep your fingers crossed that I don’t end up at an all you can eat buffet and get rolled out in a wheel barrow!

 

Healthy Chinese Food Options

Chinese FoodSome nights you just don’t want to cook and for me tonight was that night. Chinese food is always a go-to for me as a healthy take out option. Chinese take out is a quick and tasty way to get out of cooking for yourself. Most people don’t think Chinese food can be good when your on a diet or even just generally healthy. The trick is to know your Healthy Chinese Food Options.

Unfold your menu and take a good look at your options. If you know how the food is cooked or have an idea of the ingredients you will have a pretty guide idea of the calories or macros. It should be pretty self explanatory by looking at the menu but here are some ideas of what not to order and why.

What Not To Eat

You can pretty much eliminate 90% of the menu because most of the stuff, all though delicious isn’t cooked in a way that would be helpful to anyone’s diet. That’s right, most Chinese food is fried!

The other problem with most Chinese dishes is that its cooked with loads of sodium and cornstarch. Even if its loaded with veggies the sauces could be killer when trying to watch your calories.

Here is a short list of what to stay away form;

  • Fried Dumplings
  • Egg Rolls
  • Shrimp Toast
  • Fried Rice
  • Lo Mein
  • Sweet & Sour (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
  • General Tso’s (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
  • Sesame (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
  • Lemon (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
  • Orange (chicken, pork, shrimp, etc)
  • Anything in sauce

Most of the dishes mentioned above are fried and loaded with calories, carbs, sodium and anything else you might want to watch out for. Unfortunately some of my favorites are listed above.

Your probably thinking, “what the hell can I eat”?

Don’t worry, I promise that there are some low calorie and healthy options at your favorite Chinese take out joint. Here are some things you could consider but you should be careful if your on a strict calorie counting diet.

Steamed Dumplings – This is one of my top picks for a Chinese food appetizer. Steamed and not fried helps to keep out the oil.  Each meat filled dumpling is about 40-80 calories based on the size and actual ingredients. Try to hold the dipping sauce loaded with sodium.

Soup – Most places have many soup options like wanton, hot & sour, vegetable, etc. The soups will have loads of sodium but a “lower” calorie option, especially if you can substitute bok choy for the noodles.

Egg Foo Young – Be careful with this because every place has their own style of making it. For the most part its a Chinese omelet with meat and onions. Hold the brown sauce and hopefully it hasn’t been simmered in oil.

The Healthiest Chinese Food Options

Most people either don’t notice this part of the menu or they just try not to imagine how gross “diet Chinese food” is. Majority of take-out menus have a small corner towards the end labeled “diet menu”. I’ve seen it written lots of ways but there usually the same no matter if it says health menu, weight watchers or diet specialties its your best bet. All this means is your getting steamed food with sauces on the side.

Diet Chinese Food

There is absolutely nothing wrong with steamed Chinese food. You can get a lean meat with a large serving of crispy steamed vegetables that’s sure to be filling. Each 1 cup serving has only 200-300 calories without sauce.

Your best options

  • Steamed Chicken & Snow Peas
  • Steamed Chicken & Broccoli
  • Steamed Chicken & String Beans
  • Steamed Chicken & Mixed Chinese Vegetables

If your not in the mood for chicken most places have a variation of chicken, shrimp or pork for any of the options listed above.

Tell me this doesn’t look satisfying!

Steamed Chinese Food

Pro Tip #1: Spicy Mustard has virtually no calories and if you want to add some extra flavor and a kick it will go a long way!

Pro Tip #2: Make sure to ask for the sauce on the side because they might just mix it in. Just because the sauce is on the diet menu doesn’t mean its different than all the other sauces. Its best to not get the sauce at all.

Pro Tip #3: If it comes with rice, get brown rice. Brown rice is lower in calories, carbs and has more fiber than the white stuff.

If you can control yourself I’ve just given you some great information for the next time you want to order up Chinese. Remember to stay away from fried and most steamed items are your friend. The next time your no in the mood to cook just get a movie on Netflix and have some Healthy Chinese delivered to your door!

Monday Weigh-In Week #8

Another weekend to sabotage my progress. Maybe if I switch my weigh-in dates to Thursday mornings Id be happier with the results. Its all basically relative because the goal is to weigh less all the time.

Start of Week #8 Official Weight – 247.5

Weeks Summary

That’s not terrible and its nothing great but I was more than 0.5lb down from the week before. The other good part is that I’m getting under that 250 mark and hope I don’t see that come around again.

I failed at my 3 week diet challenge but it doesn’t mean I’m a total failure. Starting today I’m going to kick it up again and do my best to eat clean and healthy. The gym has really been hard to get back to but I did Friday. It was torture and I forgot how much it sucks running on that treadmill. I did a full hour but couldn’t run the whole first mile in the beginning and most of the hour was spent fast walking.

I have two more weeks to try and drop as much as possible before the next vacation. This ones going to be a killer because were going to Orlando for a few days and Amy loves her treats like pancakes and ice cream. Hopefully all the walking around will help fight off some of those extra calories I take in.

I’ve been thinking a lot about switching my fitness to more weigh training. I wont burn the same amount of calories but maybe I can do it more consistently and not be so bored at the gym. Of course these are just thoughts but I really have to get off my ass and get back to the gym.

Treadmill Stats past week

In case your curious what that tough day back at the gym looked like after taking off for a while here are the stats. You can compare them to one of my other treadmill posts when I was really into it HERE.

2 Mile Time

2 Mile Time

 

3 Mile Time

3 Mile Time

 

Total Workout

Total Workout – 60 Minutes +cool down

3 Week Diet Fail

Its really sad to follow up my post of a 3 Week Diet Challenge with my 3 week diet failure! I was able to less for less then 5 days before I completely fell off track. The worst part is my weight seemed to be dropping like crazy mid-week and I’m sure I did some damage.

Full Failure

It happened Friday night…. A friend took us out to a really classy Steak house. I was peer pressured into getting some drinks with my friend but the 32oz Rib Eye was my fault. That and all the sides we got ala cart for the table to share. This doesn’t include the Sushi appetizer or the fact that they accidentally split Amy’s salad in half. It was really good food but totally not worth it as a cheat. I would have rather cheated with some Wendy’s and a milk shake. The only thing somewhat helpful was I went back to the gym the first time since California and burned about 800 calories on the treadmill. Still not a huge help.

This meal was grotesque and the total calories I logged on MFP were over 3,000!

MORE THAN I EAT IN ALMOST TWO DAYS!!!!

It continues Saturday

Saturday afternoon we joined some friends for the St. Patrick’s Day parade in a small nearby town. It started with a pretzel I split with Amy. After that we went to our friends house where they bought a bunch of pizza for everyone and I couldn’t help but eat three slices. This was our afternoon.

At night we went to a friends birthday party in a bar. Amy and i didn’t have dinner so we split a Sliders appetizers which wasn’t so bad but I followed it up with about 6 or 7 beers and a shot of cafe patron.

Sunday Funday!

Sunday wasn’t a total loss because I had a big bowl of strawberry’s for breakfast. Lunch time came around and we decided on the diner. I knew this was my last big meal of the day and decided on french fries and a cheese-steak sandwich.

Activity

Not only did I eat like shit this weekend but activity was at an all time low. We laid around on the couch, napped and watched TV. Amy says were taking it in before the baby comes but watching my Fitbit was getting me seriously depressed.

I’m sure my Monday weigh-ins going to suck!

All I can do is get back on track =(

 

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