I have seen lasagnas made half with meat and the other half with vegetables. Since it is layered, it is pretty easy to do. Spinach, steamed carrots, broccoli..etc will work well in the veggie half
Hope this helps.
Hajni

Thanks for the advice!! Unfortunately I didn't check this thing again 'til today...so I just ate a SMALL portion of the lasagna. Gosh it was good...I think I must've been Italian in a past life...

But on to today...

I decided this morning that I needed sleep. So instead of working out, I slept 'til 7 a.m. And it was SO nice. My plan is to go and get the workout in this afternoon. However, one co-worker is out sick (and is actually sick), and another is on vacation. It's me and one other person here today. She's "best friends" with the one on vacation, and it's a situation where one is NEVER here when the other is gone. So the one here today called this morning before we opened and started laying the groundwork for going home sick later. She doesn't look sick and hasn't BEEN sick since she's been here. But she's already told me she might have to go home this afternoon.

So that'll leave me here, alone, 'til 5 p.m. Which means a late workout, and even later supper. =( Which stinks.

Oh, and I'm severely short of calories today. Only had coffee for breakfast (bad, I know), and with my usual lunch of Honey Nut Cheerios and 2% milk, and a dinner of Zatarain's with smoked sausage, I'll be at only 800 calories and 28 grams of fat. Which means I need some healthy snack-type alternatives. Hmmm....have to find something....

As of yesterday afternoon, I'm working out, a little at a time, on the elliptical trainer! (insert triumphant music here!) I'm only doing five minutes at a time right now, at a resistance of only three, but good GOSH it's hard. I sweat more in five minutes on that torture device than in 25 on the recumbent bike OR treadmill.

But yesterday afternoon, and then this morning, I did five minutes on the elliptical and 20-25 on the bike, then lifted weights (I'm up to 50 pound reps!). Whoo hoo! Next week I'm going to start working up to more time on the elliptical. Wish me luck!!

Tonight's football night, so dinner has to be very quick and usually means takeout. Which will mean some Golden Chick chicken strips, and some of their super yummy green beans. Not too terribly healthy, but it could be worse, I suppose. By the end of today, I could also end up at Subway, where I'll get a plain, bread and meat ONLY, grilled chicken breast 6 inch sub. Then I'll take it home, sprinkle on some mozzarella cheese and fat free Ranch dressing. yum.

But we'll see. Have to make it through an entire Friday first. Lots to do today, so I'd better get to it.

Have a great weekend, y'all!!!!

Well, for the first time since I began losing weight, the scale moved the wrong direction. It was only a one pound gain, but it's a gain all the same. And that let me know I did BAD over the weekend. I had a feeling I'd eaten too much and done too little. But at least now I know my limits.

I'm still on the elliptical trainer when I go work out. They said to build up slowly to more and more time. So this morning I went early, did seven whole minutes on it and then did 20 on the recumbent bike. In 20 minutes I rode a little more than five miles at a steady resistance level of 6 (which is about halfway). Then I lifted weights.

The weights at 50 pounds are hard to get used to. It's taking me longer to build up to doing more reps. But it's all good.

My motivation seems to have returned today, with that one pound gain. It was like I was taking for granted that it was all coming off so easily, and seeing that I gained weight, however little it was, was the kicker I needed to get energized about all this again.

That one pound could've been anything though...water weight, bloating, etc. Right? I mean, I didn't get a lot of exercise over the weekend, but I wasn't THAT bad with food. Friday night I had four chicken tenders and some green beans, a small roll and some gravy from Golden Chick. Bad, I know, but it was a hurry-up thing before the homecoming football game. Then Saturday, for lunch, I hit Subway for an oven-roasted chicken sandwich, that I put about 1/4 cup of part-skim mozzarella cheese and about 2 tbsp of fat free ranch on. No chips because the baked Lays I got were just gross. Like eating cardboard.

I bet it was dinner. The husband's friend called for us to come over to a cookout. The husband bought a cheap bottle of wine (Boone's Farm Strawberry). He kept fixing the drinks, and after the second one informed me I'd had the whole bottle. I was a little tipsy. I sat a while, then ate a good majority of a grilled pork chop, some potato salad (too much...it was GOOD), a little bit of salad with non-fat free ranch (because that's all they had), and some mac and cheese. Yep. Saturday did it.

Sunday, we ate grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, with some Lipton creamy chicken noodles. Hmmm...Saturday's lunch didn't help either. Usually I'd eat ONLY the grilled cheese, or ONLY the noodles. Not both. Then dinner was swiss chicken casserole (which was SOOOOOOOOOO good in the crock pot.) Chicken breasts, covered with slices of swiss cheese, with cream of mushroom soup and 1/4 cup of milk on top, then with stuffing mix over the top of that. with some green beans and corn.

Yeah, but after the review I see now why I probably gained that pound. I'll have to watch myself this weekend. I've got a weight that starts with a "1" in my sights for the first time in a long time. At least for the first time in a long time when my crappy scale at home wasn't broken and showing a weight that was 15 pounds lower than it should've been.

Can't WAIT to get there.

Wow,

You're doing great! Don't sweat the scale moving the wrong way every now and then, so much affects weight, particularly for Women.

Good work on taming the elliptical beast, they're good. I'm planning on buying one before the snow flies making it hard to walk some mornings.

Good Luck with the journey, you're making nice progress!

David C

Thanks David!!! I'm SO proud of myself for finally getting on the elliptical. I feel SO much better than I did, even as good as I felt before, when I finish working out.

I did 15 minutes on the beast today, and felt like I was going to DIE. But it was a good feeling, if that makes any sense. Then I took a small break, and did 12 minutes on the recumbent bike. By the time I got done with all of that, I was SO weak. I only lifted weights for a few minutes, on my arms, then called it a day. I need to get better on that, definitely. I felt bad for crapping out on the weights, but it just wasn't happening this morning, and I worried I'd end up hurting myself. Maybe it's better safe than sorry...but it'll be better tomorrow!!!

When I left the workout place yesterday morning, I told the attendant I'd be there again Wednesday afternoon. When nobody comes early, she doesn't come early, so that pretty much locked me in to going in the afternoon. Ok. Then the husband informs me that he's getting up when I go to work out. Only problem is that I was hoping on that extra hour of sleep. But the alarms were set and I was up an hour early for absolutely NO reason.

I want to start working out on Wednesday afternoons, so I can use the one and only elliptical trainer they've got. Another guy uses it MWF mornings. I want to work up to doing a GOOD workout on the thing, then start alternating days with the bike. I think that'd put more of a variation into the workout, and I'd get less bored with it.

Last night, dinner was GOOD. We had meat-filled jumbo pasta shells and garlic bread. Forgot to make the veggie. But I had less meat in the shells I ate, than low-fat cottage cheese and things. I think it went ok. Just can't wait to go work out today.

Yesterday ended up better than it started. The elliptical trainer is going to KILL me though. I went and worked out at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, and worked HARD. I did 17 minutes on the elliptical trainer (1.5 miles), then lifted weights for about 20 minutes. It's SO hard to do the weights after the ET. I'm just worn out. I felt like a bug on a windshield when I finally crawled my way home. But a little bit later, once I was up and moving around, cooking dinner, I felt much better.

Going to work out again this afternoon. Doing the ET and weights, again. I need an iPod or something...the machine is in a room by itself, without any TV or music, or people. It'd be much easier if I had something to listen to, other than my labored breathing and rapidly beating heart.

Today breakfast was a 12 ounce cup of coffee with two sugars and two French Vanilla creamer packets (about 1 TBSP each, I think), lunch will be a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk, and dinner is going to be meatloaf, mashed potatoes, blackeyed peas and some other veggie that is yet to be determined.

Calorie-wise I'll be good. My meatloaf recipe (from allrecipes.com, I think) comes with a nutritional guide that shows two slices of meatloaf equal about 370 calories and 12 grams of fat. The mashed potatoes (from meals.com) shows a serving (equal to about one potato) is 250 calories and 11 grams of fat.

So I'm still doing well. And the scale this morning said I'm down another pound!! 206!!! Six more pounds 'til my first mini-goal. I can't wait. People are also starting to notice a difference. I haven't officially gone down a pant size yet, but they're really loose in the front, back and legs. And a little in the waist. Not sure what to do about that. I need to try on a brand new pair of pants in a smaller size, and judge where I'm at. Maybe this weekend.

Tomorrow will be a rough day. I've got to attend a meeting at 6:45 a.m., so no morning workout. And I've got to eat dinner and leave for a football game by 5:45 p.m. So I'll have to leave work early and cram in a workout. Or go at lunch and come back to work sweaty as all get-out.

We'll see what happens....

Well, seems as if that one pound yesterday was not a real pound. I was back to 207 today. I KNEW I should've waited 'til my "official" weigh-in day, Friday, to get on the scale. But that means I've lost no weight this week, which is OK I suppose. Better than gaining.

Had a meeting at the crack of stinkin' dawn this morning. They have breakfast there, but it's hospital food and mostly gross. So I ate a small biscuit with one little tiny tublet of butter and some grape jelly. Not sure how many calories are in there. Oh, and I drank a very small glass of orange juice. I assume the butter was about 1 TBSP, so I'm putting in 60 calories and 7 grams of fat. For the jelly I'm figuring the 1 TBSP amount of 50 calories, no fat. On the biscuit, I'm doing "worst case scenario" with high fat, commercially prepared, so it's about 150 calories and 5 grams of fat. The orange juice was probably less than a cup, but I'll figure in 1 cup at about 110 calories and 1 gram of fat.

So after my cereal and 2% milk for lunch, I'll be up to 660 calories and 21 grams of fat.

Dinner before I leave for the football game, and after my workout, will be two leftover slices of meatloaf (about 370 calories, 12 g. fat) and some leftover mashed potatoes (maybe, if they taste ok), 250 cal. and 11 g. fat. My total for today will be approximately 1,280 calories and 44 grams of fat. Low, maybe, but it allows for some snack room. Healthy of course.

Since I had my early meeting I didn't get to work out this morning. So I'm leaving work at 3 p.m. today to go do that, then leave for the game, where I'll be walking back and forth on the sidelines of a football field to give me a little, tiny bit more exercise.

Yesterday's workout went well. I've found the elliptical trainer is much easier when I don't get to look at the time. The screen on the machine has a "scan" option where you can either alternate through your resistance level, total number of miles on the machine or time remaining, in addition to your distance during the workout; or you can set it on just one. I put it on the resistance level and total miles for the workout, or total miles for the workout and overall. It seemed to go much faster yesterday, and I was sweating like a madwoman. Then I lifted weights, again. I was going to do 10 minutes or so on the bike, but it was occupied. I think I may try for 20 minutes on the elliptical today, then 10 or so on the bike (depending on time) and my weights. It'll all depend on whether I get out of here today when I want to, or not.

As for the weekend, we'll see. Weekends are notoriously bad for me. I'll have to be very conscious of what I'm eating, and try my hardest to get some exercise, some way. Even if it's a mile or two at the track. Saturday should be no problem...I have to be up early to take pictures at the annual little league soccer parade. Afterward I can go to the track, get a couple of miles in and then go home before the hubby's awake, probably. Maybe the same Sunday. I'm an early riser, usually. Depends on what debauchery he's got in mind Saturday night. I know THIS weekend won't involve barbecue and an entire bottle of wine, though....

Tried to update yesterday, but this thing wouldn't let me...

The weekend was ok. Did a lot better on the eating, and managed not to gain any weight, as far as I know. No "official" weigh-in until Friday, but things are looking good so far. Saturday morning I had to get up early to go take pictures, and then went to the track and walked two miles.

Have I mentioned that I HATE the track and treadmills with a PASSION!?? It's just boring. Redundant, repetitive motions and severe lack of scenery. Blah. But I did it anyway. And then went to work out Monday afternoon and someone was on the elliptical trainer, so I did 15 minutes on the treadmill and 20 on the recumbent bike. Good workout, but blah. Oh, and weights. I'm making zero progress with the 50 pound weights. Still lifting the same amount. Maybe if I did those first one day, before I worked myself into a sweaty mess on the machines, it'd go better.

Today started off very well. The lady who runs the little gym I go to was there right at 6 a.m., so I got an early start. Did 17 minutes on the elliptical at a resistance level of 5, and managed about 1.4 miles. Then I lifted weights, but only three different ways, then did another 10 minutes on the elliptical at a resistance of 3, which was about .8 miles. Good workout overall...my heart rate was up and I felt like I'd worked out.

Dinner tonight is a little iffy. It's my husband's turn to cook, so he wants to do hamburger patties, shells and cheese, peas and broccoli. By all my estimates, here's how my day will go:

Breakfast:
Quaker breakfast cookie = 180 cal., 6 g. fat

Lunch:
Honey Nut Cheerios/2% milk = 290 cal., 8 g. fat

Dinner:
HB patty (about 1 cup of meat) = 400 cal., 26 g. fat
Peas (1/2 cup) = 70 cal., 1 g. fat
Shells/cheese (1 cup) = 360 cal., 12 g. fat

So my total for today, without any afternoon snack, will be 1,300 calories and 53 grams of fat. I'm thinking I may cut the size of the patty to about 1/2 cup of meat, which would make the daily total without a snack 1,100 calories and 40 grams of fat. Then stick in a banana or an apple. Or two.

Wish me luck!

So the "weight gain" from last week wasn't so much a gain. By the end of the week I was back down to 206.8 on my scale, which was where I was the week before. And where I still am now. I'm not stressing TOO much right now...the "official" weight for the week will be Friday, so there are still a couple of days. But I just don't understand.

In the approximately 15 weeks I've been working out, I've been consistently losing a pound or two a week, until last week. I've dropped 14 pounds, until last week. Then all of a sudden...nothing. And I'm doing nothing different, as far as food goes. I'm eating smaller portions and trying to eat healthier. I'm working out and lifting weights five days a week.

The only difference in the past two weeks has been my using the elliptical trainer, rather than recumbent bike. Now I'd always heard the ET was great for burning calories and working out your entire body. And when I get off the thing, I FEEL like I've worked out. I'm sweating and my arms and legs are tired. After a recovery period, I've got energy to burn because it just feels so GOOD. But the machine's telling me that, in 17 minutes the other day, I burned only 47 calories. Then in another 10 minutes after I lifted weights, I burned only about 20 extra. In 25 minutes on the recumbent bike, I burned 160 today.

The lady at the little gym I go to said maybe the ET is causing me to build a little muscle in places the weights haven't been addressing, and that building of muscle is offsetting weight loss for now.

What do y'all think? I'm considering going back to the bike every day, and maybe even adding more time on it, rather than splitting it up with the ET. Or should I just stick with it and see what happens?

Well, I decided to stick with the Elliptical Trainer, and today did 2.1 miles in 25 minutes. Whoo hoo for me!!!!!!!

Also asked a question yesterday in another forum, and got some answers (Thanks, Ms.GhettoBooty and everyone) about why I was probably not losing weight. Seems as if my increased calorie burning sessions weren't offset by enough calories, so my body was probably in "starvation mode." So I'm going to try to throw in some healthy and protein-packed snacks throughout the day to keep things going.

It's a mental block I've got to get through....two really. First, I was raised to eat three times a day, only...snacks were BAAAAAAD. Now I'm having to learn that healthy snacks are good, and will keep my metabolism running throughout the day. Second, dinner was always my family's BIG meal. If we ate next to nothing the rest of the day, we'd have a big dinner. Usually not homemade, but big all the same. I'm having to try to overcome that notion, as well, to understand that perhaps a smaller and more portion controlled dinner isn't such a bad thing. In fact, that one may be easy to overcome. Earlier in the week (when I wasn't eating enough) I had enough calories left at dinner to do a full cup of shells and cheese. I didn't realize how big that serving was. And as for the hamburger patty that same night, I'd planned on a patty containing about one cup of meat. Yeah...HUGE. So I cut that in half.

It's crazy how the smaller portions, which I thought would have NEVER filled me up before, seem so huge now. That's a good thing, I suppose.

So here's the schedule for today...so far.

Breakfast:
Quaker Oats breakfast cookie - 180 cal., 6 g. fat
SoBe Life Water (throughout morning) - 120 cal., 0 fat (LOTS of vitamins)

Lunch:
2 pieces of toast with 1 tbsp butter - 190 cal., 7 g. fat

Snack:
Apple - (about) 100 cal., 0 fat

Dinner:
Pork chop (about 4 oz, grilled) - 150 cal., 5 g. fat
Ranch potatoes (so good)
Blackeyed peas - 1/2 cup - 110 cal., .5 g. fat
Green Beans - 1/2 cup - 22 cal., 0 fat

I joined FitDay yesterday, too, so I'll be keeping up with meals on there from now on. Gosh I'd better get to work!!!!!

Hey girly,

heck.. I didn't even know you had a diary. haha There are just so many that I can't keep up with. Anyways... as for yesterday.. hey if I can be of help, then you betcha bottom I'll try. Oh.. and you're welcome.

I was looking over today's menu and I have a couple suggestions, if you're interested:

breakfast- No offense, girl... but that's straight up "junk food." Those "breakfast" cookies are nothing but.. ummm cookies. Also, I know Sobe's supposedly good for you due to all the vitamins, but you can get that from taking a multivitamin without all that extra sugar. Plain and simple:

Breakfast Cookie= 15 grams of sugar
Sobe Life Water (20oz)= 24 grams of sugar
Total g sugar for breakfast alone= 39g

Break it down a bit more... 4g of sugar= 1 tsp of sugar---> ~10 tsp of sugar in your breakfast today!! (I'm a calculations nerd)

For breakfast, if time permits that is, try eating fruit with oatmeal... or even an omelette with veggies, toast, milk.. etc

What is your calorie allotment now? Okay.. sorry if I'm being a pain in the ass, but hey.... you'll definitely see the scale start moving, girly.

-Sheryl

You're not being a pain, at ALL. I need all the help I can get!!

Yeah, this morning while I was on the elliptical, sweating my brains out, I was thinking about how my sudden weight loss stoppage directly coincided with eating too little, and then eating those dang "breakfast cookies." So I stopped eating those...

And I never even really considered the sugar content in the SoBe...I was just looking for water with a flavor for a change. But what you're saying DOES make sense. Usually during a day I'll drink a 1.5 liter bottle of water, or one whole one and part of a second. I'm also very addicted to sweet tea, but I'm slowly cutting back on the amount of sugar I use per gallon of tea I make at home.

But gosh...10 tsp of sugar! I didn't even realize...

I usually have a time crunch in the mornings, with breakfast. I'm the editor of a weekly paper in my little town, and I go in to work usually around 7:15 or 7:30 every morning and have things at night. So if I'm working out, I've got to be there at 6 a.m. Doesn't leave a lot of time....I'd gotten where I was drinking those Carnation breakfast shakes, with 1 cup of 2% milk, and that's what I had this morning. But between the Carnation and the milk, I see that it's about 30 g. sugar. Not really any better than the cookie, although the vitamin and mineral total is much higher.

I'll try for some oatmeal and fruit, starting ASAP. I think I'll have time for some of that without a lot of difficulty.

I also need to get some snack variations, with more protein. I'm absorbing what you're saying...and it'll get done!!

Well, when you commented before on my question, I looked back at my little journal I've been keeping. When I started I was steadily averaging in the mid-1,400s to 1,500 calories during the day, but then I for some reason started cutting out the snacks, the bananas and apples, and dropped to an average of 1,200 to 1,300. The lower totals were at about the same time I started on the elliptical trainer.

And you're not a pain at ALL. Got on the scale for my "official" weigh-in this morning, and still have not lost a pound. So it seems as if I do need help, definitely!!!

Thanks, Sheryl!!

Decided to kick the workouts up a notch, just because. The scale is stuck at 206 and I'm not liking it one little bit. I can SMELL the 100s, but I can't TASTE them yet and it sucks. I bet they taste gooooood.....

Anyway, went to work out this morning. Did 25 minutes on the recumbent bike (145 watts, an average of 14 mph), then lifted weights at a slower pace, with more reps on the ones I did. Then when the guy who was on the elliptical got off, I did 17 minutes on it and completed 1.5 miles.

Work today will consist of sitting here, uploading photos and typing stuff. I've also got to go take pictures at a pep rally, and then spend about 3 hours walking/standing on the sidelines at a football game taking pictures and dodging flying players. Wish me luck.

So today is exercise packed. I think it's the food that's killing me. Thanks to some ultra-helpful comments, I'm realizing my food choices, while ok on the surface, actually suck a lot. So I'll be working on that.

I've still got to get around the idea that I can eat the majority of my calories at night. I need to pace myself more during the day.....

Oh, and there's a garage sale in town this weekend that's got some exercise equipment for sale. Maybe it's something good, and cheap, I can buy and take home for use on weekends. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

Edit:

Here's the menu I've planned up to dinner....
Breakfast:
Carnation Instant Breakfast shake w/2% milk = 250 cal, 6 g. fat
Lunch:
2 eggs, scrambled w/Kraft fat free cheddar cheese = 245 cal., 15 g. fat
1 pc. toast w/1 tbsp. butter = 120 cal., 6 g. fat
Snack:
1 small apple = 74 cal, 0 fat
2 tbsp peanut butter = 190 cal., 16 g. fat

Total up to dinner: 879 cal., 28 g. fat

Dinner:
Two Mission Carb-friendly tortillas = 160 cal, 4 g. fat
Rice, 1/2 cup, plain = 200 cal., 0 fat
Rotel (mild, 1/2 cup) = 20 cal, 0 fat
Fat free cheddar cheese (1/2 cup) = 90 cal., 0 fat
Canned pinto beans (1/2 cup) = 100 cal., 0 fat

Totals after dinner:
1,449 cal., 32 g. fat

That's about where I was, calorie-wise, when I stopped losing weight because I cut too much. So I'll try this range for a while...

Any comments/suggestions?