The Simple Life - Breaking Through my Plateau

 We did a hike at a local park today and here are a few photos.

This morning I weighed 139.  I've finally made it through the 140's.  It took me two months and a whole lot of hard work.  I credit my plateau breakthrough with the "make me skinny" salad that I posted about last weekend.  I'm not eating 2 pounds of vegetables every day.  To that I add my starches; hummus and a lentil/rice/mushroom mix.  Vegetables are so low in calorie density that it creates a calorie deficit and thus, weight loss. 

One of things I've been looking for was a fat free, sugar free topping for my salad.  I do heat my starches and dump them over the salad most of the time, but sometimes I want to eat them separate.  I can use salsa and I have, but that's not my favorite topping.  It's best to use a topping that's made from vegetables so that the whole dish is vegetables.  Well, I found these:

Wickles Spicy Red Sandwich Spread - it's made from roasted bell peppers and chilis and onions.  It's fat and sugar free; the perfect topping.  I also found Chow Chow.  I remember my grandmother making it during my childhood.  It's cabbage based.  It's also fat free and very low in sugar.  I've already tried it and I love it.

I'm thrilled with the loss and to be back to actively loosing weight, but this is a whole new ballgame.  Eating that amount of vegetables every day takes a lot of food prep and time.  Because I'm using fresh greens I am making my salads the night before.  I don't really want to do food prep every night but it is what it is.  If this is what it takes then so be it.  "No matter what".  That's my mantra with diet and exercise.  I will get down into the 120's and I will maintain it, no mater what.  If I have to eat like a rabbit the rest of my life to stay within a healthy weight range then so be it.  There are enough different vegetables and enough different ways to prepare them that I'm confident I can come up with a short list of ways that I enjoy to eat them.  As long as I have a little bit of variety I can do it. 

I have changed up my exercise a bit.  I go really hard on my weight bearing exercises three days a week.  the other two days I still do them but not as hard to give myself a little bit of recovery.  I also decided to stop wearing the weighted vest.  It was causing me lots of shoulder pain.  If I were younger I'd probably push through but at my age I have to think about staying physically fit as long as possible.  So, I've gone back to my walk/jog routine.  I still do 3 miles every morning but without the extra weight.  My shoulder pain has disappeared.  I may alternate days with it because it really intensifies my workout but for now I'm letting my shoulder completely heal.

I'm thrilled with where I am and where I'm headed.  This has been a long year filled with the hardest work I've ever done on my own health.  I'm determined to stay the course.  The holidays are coming.  It's going to be challenging but I won't give up territory that I've won.