It's Business, It's Business Time!!!!!!

Week 9 Weight Loss = 4 pounds
% Weight Loss for Week 9 = 1.46%
Total Weight Loss = 17 pounds
Total % Weight Loss = 6.20%

That's right!  I did get down to business this last week to bust out another 4 pound weight loss week.  It wasn't an option not to.  My overall short term goal is to be down a total of 20 pounds by my birthday next Tuesday, and I knew I couldn't have a poor weight loss week again to reach that goal.  So I watched my calories even more this last week than I have for the past two weeks.  AND I have finally figured out how to eat out with friends and still stay in my calorie range for the most part.  I ate out on Thursday night, Friday night, and twice on Saturday.  I just tried to choose healthier options.  So I thought I would list what I chose at each restaurant to show some options when eating out. 

Thursday night - Pei Wei Restaurant
            - Chicken Lettuce Wraps (YUM!) - 500 calories
            - Edamame - 156 calories
            - 1 crab cream cheese wonton - 50 calories
            - Total Calories for Dinner = 706
Friday night - Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shop
            - Beach Club Sandwich on Wheat (no cheese) - 730 calories
            - Total Calories for Dinner = 730 calories
Saturday night - Chipotle
            - Chicken Burrito (no cheese) These things are humongous! - 480 calories
            - Total Calories for Dinner = 480 calories

Overall these are pretty good numbers for total intake @ dinner time.  The one way I best kept in my calorie range while eating out was just to get the main dish.  A lot of portions at restaurants are huge these days and can easily fill you up.  So if you can, avoiding the side items can save you some calories while still enjoying eating out with friends and not going hungry.  But you definitely have to assess that per restaurant. 

I also tried to choose things w/ vegetables since they are lower in calories and have lots of fiber to help fill me up.  Also I tried to make sure I got some protein in my meal too.  I am not the biggest fan of most protein foods, so sometimes I slack on protein in my diet.  But I do know I am not as hungry when I include protein in my diet. 

Looking back now as the dietitian at my meals, there are some adjustments that I could have made to my selections to help save calories too without giving up the flavor of the foods.  Here are some ways that I could have made my selections even better when I was eating out. 

Sharing an entree:  At Pei Wei I could have shared the Lettuce Wraps with Joy which would have cut their calorie amount in half.  Sharing an entree with a friend is always an easy way to conserve calories.  Plus it conserves money because you can split the cost.  Also sharing an entree can help you from overeating, especially if you are one of those people with the "clean your plate" mentality.

Be more aware of the condiments:  At both Jimmy John's and Chipotle my meals were sabotaged by condiments.  My Beach Club sandwich at Jimmy John's had mayonnaise and avocado slices on it.  I definitely could choose to not have one added the next time I get one to help save calories.  At Chipotle I added the sour cream to my burrito, which was unnecessary.  The burrito was flavored very well and I could have easily saved a 100 calories (more or less) if I would have left off the sour cream.  High fat condiments such as mayonnaise, butter, guacamole, etc can definitely add unnecessary calories to foods.  Most of the time it is best to try to add flavor to foods other ways (like spices) than adding the fat, sorry to disappoint you Paula Dean and Julie Childs (I know you both LOVE butter way too much!). 

Another thing that helped my weight loss was my hard core workout with Angie on Saturday.  STORY TIME!  Saturday morning Angie and I decided to head up one of the canyons in the mountains surrounding SLC and explore and hike for exercise.  We weren't planning to be gone TOO long but we did want to get in a worthwhile workout.  After being confused about which canyon we were in, we ended up just stopping at the first trail head we saw off the side of the road.  We stopped at the Ride Pine Lake trail head because there were a lot of people parked there, so we figured it must be a good hike. 

We started up the mountain and did awesome for the first hour (to the point that we even did a small sprint of trail running).  Then nature caught up to me.  I didn't think our hike would be very long or strenuous and I don't like to eat before working out, so I didn't eat breakfast.  After hiking at a steady quick pace for an hour and then starting to climb over rocks and at a higher % grade up the mountain for about a 1/2 hour, I lost ALL MY ENERGY!  It was not very fun.  I typically don't whine a lot during workouts but I started whining and having to stop frequently.  All energy was vacant from my body and Angie could tell.  So she came to my rescue!  She stopped a couple of boy scouts that were heading down the mountain to get an estimate of how much further it would be to the top (we were determined to make it to that lake, especially Angie who ate breakfast).  After they told us it was at least another mile and about an hour, Angie then bravely asked if they had any type of snack that they could spare us since "we" didn't eat breakfast.  She didn't even call me out in front of the boy scouts, nice friend.  Of course the boy scouts had a ton of food left over after their camp out and they were so nice to share it with us.  They didn't even take my $5.00 that I offered.  So I was saved by Angie, boy scouts, and some homemade trail mix that some young 12 year old's mother made for a camping trip. 

After eating a little trail mix and resting a few minutes and along the way, we made it to the top in 2 hours total.  (Not going to lie, that last hour was one of the worst I've experienced in a while.)  The 4 hour hike and 6 miles was totally worth it!  I would definitely recommended Red Pine Lake as a must do hike in Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Just make sure you eat a good breakfast before you go so you don't deplete all your energy stores half way up the mountain.  You don't want to be saved by a boy scout, do you? 

SO, now all I have is 3 pounds to get to my 20 pound goal by my birthday next week.  I can totally do it.  And actually I am hoping for even more.  Just going to stick to the basics again.  A healthy diet within my calorie goal range or below and lots and lots of physical activity.  Should be fun and totally worth it again!  Till next time!  Keep up all of your hard work!