Steady As She Goes

My weigh-in this morning was the same as last week's weigh-in: 165. Given how horribly I ate this weekend and Monday night (Chik-fil-A and Mexican fajitas -- including half a basket of chips -- and like 4 "servings" of Whoppers candy), I'm actually sort of relieved that I didn't gain.

And in Signs of Progress, I bought some new pants this weekend - size S. Holy cow! To be fair, they're from Target, and I've found Target clothes to run a bit on the large side, and these may be a little loose even for Target, so I'm still in M pretty much everywhere else. Whatever the vicissitudes of my actual weight, I guess the targeted toning I've been doing at the gym is finally starting to pay off!

I won't have a weigh-in next week, because I'll be out of town. But we'll be staying with extremely health-conscious relatives and doing the tourist thing with the kids in tow, so I hope I won't be falling off the wagon too badly. Maybe if I'm lucky, it'll even burn off a little Easter candy!

Jump

Weighed in this morning at 165, down 2.2 from last week, for a total of 108. After going to a fancy restaurant and eating way too much, and then going to the movies and having popcorn. With butter. I'm beginning to wonder if some of the trouble I'm having is because I need to eat more, occasionally, to keep myself from going into metabolic shutdown. I haven't been as constantly freezing cold this week, either (though that could as easily be due to the fact that it's finally starting to warm up outside).

So now I'm trying to decide if I really do need to eat a little more -- or if this is one of those statistical blips that, if I pay attention to it, will get me into trouble.

Well, if things go according to pattern, I'll be back up to 166 or so next week. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I'm only about 20 pounds (ish) from being done with this phase of things. And that feels pretty awesome.

Recipe For Success

Back down to 167.2 this morning, which loses most of last week's gain. (It was 166 yesterday morning, and 165.6 the day before that. Stupid Wednesday gain.) I really don't have much to say about it, one way or the other.

But I'd been meaning to document a couple of recent recipe discoveries, so I might as well do that.

Cauliflower Soup
8 oz of chopped onion
1 tsp butter
1 head of cauliflower, cut into chunks
1 16-oz can of diced potatoes, drained (or 12 oz of diced fresh potato)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth or stock2 cups of water (or more as needed)
1/2 tsp caraway seed
salt and pepper to taste

Coat the bottom of a large stock pot with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Add the butter and the onion, sprinkle with salt to help the onion sweat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to caramelize. Add the potatoes, cauliflower, spices, broth, and water, bring to a boil, and simmer until the vegetables are tender and soft, about 15 minutes. Use a stick blender to puree the vegetables to the desired consistency.

Weirdly, this tastes much more strongly of potato than it does of cauliflower. It's an extremely versatile soup, and just about any favorite spice combination would do nicely. My daughter and I both love this soup.

If you split it into 6 servings of about 2 cups each, it's about 1.5 points per serving.

Stuffed Zucchini
3 pounds fresh zucchini (6-8 small or 4 large)
8 oz lean ground beef (7% fat or less)
1/4 c. egg substitute
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Split the zucchini in half lengthwise. Trim the stem ends if necessary, leaving as much flesh as possible. Using a melon baller or grapefruit spoon, carefully scoop a trough out of the center of each half, saving the innards. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and arrange the hollowed zucchini halves on it. Chop the reserved zucchini innards finely and put in a mixing bowl along with the ground beef, egg substitute, 1 Tbsp. of the cheese, 1 Tbsp of the bread crumbs, and the spices. Stir until well-mixed, then divide the beef mixture into the zucchini halves. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs and cheese over the tops, and bake at 350 for about half an hour, until the zucchini is soft and the beef cooked through.

Divided into 4 servings, this is 3 points per serving. And they are BIG servings. If you're using smaller zucchini and a couple of filling side-dishes, this could easily split to 6-8 servings. Half a pound of hamburger doesn't seem like all that much, but once you've mixed it in with the zucchini innards, it stretches surprisingly well -- and my son, who hates zucchini, ate the filling without noticing a thing.

Elephino

What do you call a cross between an elephant and a rhinoceros? Elephino!

Hell if I know. Yeah. One of those weeks. I gained back what I lost last week -- 1.6 up, back to 168.6.

I have no idea. I spent all week bouncing up and down, weight-wise. Every day, practically, I stepped on the scale to a new result.

I'd blame it on the pizza and cake Saturday, except that just yesterday I was at 167.2, and while bad eating sometimes takes a day or so to show up on the scale, I'm pretty sure it does not wait for four days.

I went a little over my minimum on Monday, but only by two points, so that shouldn't have hit me this hard. And I was a point under minimum yesterday, so you'd think they'd have averaged out.

It's been three weeks since my last gain, which means this probably isn't monthly water weight (though my cycle's so screwy, it's always an option, I suppose).

Apparently, the whole two-steps-forward-one-step-back thing is just how it's going to be for me, for now. Does that mean I'm closing in on my body's preferred "final" weight? I'd hoped to get down to about 145, but at my current rate, that'll take another whole year. But I certainly feel like I'm closing in on a point where I don't know if I'll be able to trim too many more calories, certainly not on a long-term basis.

I'm definitely noticing some results from the strength training I've been doing for the last couple of months. Even with the slowed weight loss, my clothes are getting looser. (My size M knits are actually loose enough that I'm tempted to try on a pair of Smalls, next time I'm in Target. Just for kicks.) So maybe it's partly a gaining-muscle/losing-fat thing?

On the plus side, I feel a little disappointed, but not particularly discouraged by the gain. I seem to have finally internalized the whole "but the overall trend is still in the right direction" thing. So maybe I do this down-down-up dance for a while longer, and just focus on making my body stronger. Maybe once I've built up my muscles a little more, I'll start burning calories again. Or maybe I just settle out at around 160? It could be worse. I think I look pretty good where I am now -- and the stuff I don't like is mostly saggy skin, which losing weight won't fix, anyway.

It's a weird place to be, on this journey, but I'm weirdly at peace with it.

Elephino.

I'll Take It

Pretty much immediately after last week's weigh-in, my weight popped up to 170.4, and it sat there all week. It was 170.4 yesterday morning when I checked, and I sighed and tried to reconcile myself to a nearly 2-pound gain with no real reason attached.

So this morning, I stepped on the scale and saw... 167.

Which is a 1.6 pound loss (106 pounds grand total, 6 pounds away from my next -- and possibly final -- 10% goal.)

I don't understand it, but I'll take it.