Diary of a Fat Girl - Let's Get Physical

I think I’ve found the solution to weight loss for me. NO NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS! These past few weeks, I’ve really been kicking butt losing weight. Normally about this time, I’m depressed because I’m nowhere near hitting my resolutions. And it’s a relief not to feel the extra pressure from those failing resolutions. So that’s a small suggestion I give you for next year. If it worked for me, maybe it’ll work for you.

So let’s talk some numbers here. I’m down 18.2 lbs. in 10 weeks. (For those math challenged that’s 1.82 lbs. /week average.) Not too shabby!!!! So how am I reaching this you might ask? Basically, myfitnesspal.com. That’s it. I’m tracking my calories and striving to stay under my caloric goals for each day. And if I go over, I go over. Either way, I’m tracking and keeping an eye on what I’m eating. You’d be amazed what you’ll turn down once you realize how much calories/fat is in something. Knowledge is power folks.

But I’m not completely lethargic. I do have a part-time job that requires me to either roller skate or serve food for several hours. I bought a heart rate monitor to wear while and I usually average burning about 1,800 calories each time I work. So that has definitely helped too.

I’ve also had a weight loss competition going on at work to get me motivated in the first place. I’m a very visual person, so when I saw my name on the company bulletin board, I made it a goal to see me hitting my goals. Not only do I see this, but others will too. It was nice getting congrats throughout the 12 week challenge. And I’m happy to announce that I came in 2nd place. (And I’m $95 richer, yahoo!)

So now, what? Well, I’m glad to see that my company is doing another competition starting April 18th. Despite being on a roll, I still don’t think I’m a fully reformed from my old eating habits. So the extra motivation is great to keep me eating healthy. I know for a fact that I still stress eat. When Desmond was sick last month, it was almost pretty much a free for all. But I didn’t let that week and a half dictate the rest of my year. I stopped the naughty behavior and moved on. And as a dear friend pointed out; I didn’t stress eat completely like I would have. I may have gained two pounds but had I been the old/old Michelle, that would have been ten instead. So not all is fail.

Another thing I have going for me….DIRTY GIRL! On June 30th, me and my teammates are running the Dirty Girl 5k. So, this is actually getting me pumped up to exercise. So I have introduced myself to Jillian. I borrowed a friend’s copy of 30 Day Shred and I’m fitting this into a night routine. I gotta say, it’s a butt kicker thus far. I like that it’s only a 20 minute workout. It’s long enough that I feel the pain the next day but short enough that I don’t really have an excuse not to do the video. Do I really want to work out at 8:30 when Desmond is in bed? No not really. But what would I be doing otherwise…watching TV or reading a book. So that’s my new routine for now.

So in a nutshell, things have just lined up for me. I’m in the zone mentally and since I’m already on the ball, I’m gonna keep it rolling. I’m hoping to get to my goal weight of 190 by the time of Dirty Girl; keep your fingers crossed for me.

And since I had so much fun taking silly photos at lunch…here are the photos that didn’t make top shot..

Diary of a Fat Girl - Bien Trucha

Oh….my….goodness!

My husband and I had a much needed date night this past Saturday. Between our three jobs and our handsome little son, it’s hard to go out and just be a couple. Well, the deck was stacked in our favor. Desmond’s grandpa wanted an overnight with the little guy and we had a gift certificate to redeem at Bien Trucha. And let me just state…best damn gift certificate EVER! (Don’t worry Francesca’s, you’re still my #1 Italian place but this place’s atmosphere kicks your ass!)

So where do I begin? Well, I’ll start with our entrance. Bien Trucha is easily overlooked. I can’t recall seeing a sign outside with the name. I think you just have the address to go by. Plus the outside doesn’t let-on to the magic that resides inside. So make sure you have a nifty GPS or some good eye sight to spot the address for this location. Now, let me forewarn you on the wait…cause it’s gonna happen. I can’t deny or affirm if this is the case for lunch, but for dinner, this place is hopping. The very first time my husband and I attempted to go to Bien Trucha, we were told it would be a two hour wait. Well, this fat girl was too hungry to wait that long and we vowed to come back. This past Saturday we arrived at 8:30 and we were told it would be a one hour wait. We happily agreed, this was gonna happen.

So, a small suggestion; Bien Trucha does have a bar you can spend your wait and you’ll see later that I do LOVE their drinks so that’s not a bad idea, but if the weather is nice, take a stroll. Bien Trucha is right in the downtown Geneva area. We walked two blocks down to a bar called Stockholm’s and had some beer while we waited. (I liked this place but it is not your only option, just keep walking to find somewhere else.) I had my cell phone out because Bien Trucha sends a text right to your phone when your table is ready. And if you’re as lucky as us, we got a call saying a table for two opened up 20 minutes after we arrived. So we didn’t even have to wait the hour, sa-weet!

Now, for the inside of this place…it’s small but I think that gives you an intimate feel to place. Your neighbor’s tables aren’t far from you. (In fact, since I’m wide I had to move the table a bit to sit on the far side…but hey, it worked.) Being close to your neighbors also gives you a good view of their food. (Which I fully expect you to oh and ah over, like we did). The in-laws forewarn the lightening is dim in the place, and I agree, it is, but not in a bad way. I suppose being young still has it advantages. I had no problem reading the menu. (But that could be I eyeballed the thing for a few hours before I went. It’s online. Yes, go check it out. Link is below.) But I think the lighting gave the place a romantic feel. One of my favorite parts of the place is the music. I love good Latin music. And this place had it in spades. It was so energetic. I was consistently doing a cha-cha-salsa wiggle in my seat. It completed the atmosphere of the place, and it also gave you some privacy. You may have a good view of your neighbors food but I can’t recall being able to hear their conversation. It was like the music was just loud enough to block them out and force you to focus on your date and food. Overall, I say the place is trendy. Not a place to go slumming and definitely a good place for a date. Do it!

So how was my food? Here is a run down of what my husband and I shared:

Guacamole del Dia

Fresh avocados, lime, cilantro, fresh fruit of the day (which was pineapple) and chef’s inspiration

Bien Trucha (Tacos)

Grilled skirt-steak, home-made chorizo, chihuahua, roasted tomatillo-serrano salsa

Pastor (Tacos)

Ancho-guajillo marinated pork, cilantro, onion, pineapple, morita salsa

Pica-Pica (Brochetas)

Bacon wrapped shrimp, onion, pineapple, chipotle-lime glaze

Esquites (Side)

Grilled corn, epazote-butter, lemon-aioli, queso cotija chile piquin

Arroz Poblano (Side)

White rice, poblano cubes, sour cream, chihuahua cheese

Corn Cake (Dessert)

Fresona (Drink)

fresh muddled strawberries, lime, sugar, orange liquor, sauza blanco

Pepino (Drink)

fresh muddled cucumber, lime, orange liquor, herradura blanco, tajin

Ahuacatl (Drink)

avocado, agave nectar, lime, sauza blanco, orange liquor, mezcal mist

Mojito (Drink)

fresh muddled mint, lime, sugar, rum, splash of soda

Is your mouth watering? Cause mine is from remembering my meal. It wasn’t until after we placed our food order I thought “where the heck are they going to put our food, our table is so small?” Ahhhhh but that only comes with my lack of experience here, they are masters at dinner service. Our food was brought out in what felt like courses. We had our sides out the whole time but we were presented with one main course at a time. We started with our Bien Trucha tacos and once those were done and removed, they brought out our Pastor tacos. I loved this for many reasons. One, and most importantly, your food is always hot. Two, it promotes a good date. Tacos come in sets of 4, so it’s easy sharing and easy conversing. (Cause you are going to want to talk about the food you just greedily ate.) Three, your table is clear of clutter. So that’s how it works if you order tons of food like me and my husband.

But how was the food? Well, I’m sure you can see I’m writing a positive review here and it stays that way. We got everything as is. No modifications despite some of my food aversions. (Like pineapple, or shrimp, I like neither.) But after hearing so many good things about Bien Trucha we wanted to experience the food as it was suppose to be prepared. And it was AWESOME! I mean it.

I’d love to go into detail on each food but that would make this already longer blog, much much longer. So here are my highlights. My biggest surprise of the night, Pica-Pica brochetas. I don’t do shrimp. But the husband wanted to get them and I agreed because I like to challenge my palette. Well, these things were knock your socks off good. If every shrimp I ventured to try were like these, I’d be completely converted to eating them full time. They didn’t have that unappealing shrimp texture I’m used to and pair that with the yummy bacon and the right amount of char from the grill and these things were just off the hook. (Off the hook? Yikes, I need better ways to say things were amazing.)

Another shocking highlight…the sides. How many times have you gone to your favorite Mexican Restaurant and just love their taco/burritos but the sides are always just alright? These sides are not just alright. I can not stress enough that the grilled corn (Esquites) is 100% required of you, if you go to Bien Trucha. Seriously, this is corn is out of this world. My husband nearly had a spoon fight over the last bites. Who knew corn could be so flavorful. And though I’m stressing the corn, we did LOVE our rice too. It may say white rice and it may look pretty plain but it packs a punch. (No, not heat kinda punch, just a flavor punch.) So I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend ordering both of these when you go. You won’t be disappointed.

And I recommend eating everything as is on the menu. These people know what they are doing when they are pairing up their foods. For example, the pastor tacos we had were topped with a thin strip of pineapple. I’m not a fan of pineapple but I took a bite and thought, man that’s good. It was like they paired the sweetness of the pineapple to counter act the heat of the sauce. I say, give it a try, you just might like it. And if you don’t, pick it off afterwards. Nothing on this menu appeared couldn’t be modified with the use of your own fingers. So be brave and try it first por favor.

My last favorite things and I’ll pair them together just to wrap this up, were the drinks and dessert. My husband drinks were better than mine. I went safe with a mojita and Fresona (strawberry) drink. They were good and strong but when you’re on a food adventure like we were, it paid to go the off beaten path. His cucumber and avocado based drinks were so refreshing. It was cleansing your taste buds before the next course was brought. I highly recommend them on taste and for the fact they were something completely new to me. And a quick word about the corn cake…get it!

The only bad thing about Bien Trucha…the food was so good and we literally finished every bit that we were so stuffed we went into a food coma and had to end our date night out. Ok, so that’s really not a negative. But I was sad to go when the experience was over. I will be going again and I can’t wait to try a whole new assortment of food.

For more information, like address, menu and prices check out Bien Trucha’s website:

http://www.bientrucha.com/

Diary of a Fat Girl - MyFitnessPal

AHHHHHH…take a whiff of the fresh air that a new year brings. Why is it we wait until the beginning of a new year to find that motivation to lose weight? Ok, not all of us wait. But if you are like me, even when I start a new diet in the middle of the year, I’ll wait till Monday. Like Monday is the new fresh start. Why is that?

Regardless of the psychology behind our decisions, I’ve finally gotten back on the ball. It could have been the start of the New Year or perhaps it was the weight loss competition at work that I entered but either way, it resulted in me making many dietary changes. (I’m just glad I found it somewhere.)

I have successfully started counting my calories on myfitnesspal.com. I just LOVE this site. For me, it has just the right amount of motivators to keep me interested. So what are those? First, logging in my calories is easy from my PC or Kindle, so basically anywhere that I go I can log in my food diary. Their database of foods is insane and if for some reason you can’t find a food, you can enter it. It has a recipe function where you can create your own meals and divide it into countable portions. You can save anything you eat under specific meal names making it very fast to track food you eat often. Now, to the part that really tickles my pickle. At the end of each day when I hit “Submit your food entry for the day” it’ll give me a message like “At this pace you’ll be 209 in 5 weeks.” It shows me a number that I want in amount of time that seems so near. It’s a daily motivator to keep it up. Now, for the really geeky part of me….it has graphs. There’s nothing I like more than seeing a little line graph chart showing my weight loss plummeting down or a bar graph showing the ups and downs of my calorie intakes. I’m not kidding. I love charts of all shapes and sizes. Weird? The last thing I love; after entering my weight and goals it tells me what my caloric intake should be to reach those goals. So, incase your curious, I put in that I’d like to lose 2 lbs per week and at my current weight it estimated 1380 calories per day. So that’s what I’m doing. Time will tell how accurate this thing will be.

So a mini wrap up of my first week counting calories on myfitnesspal…I lost 6.4 pounds! That’s huge! I think my best weight watchers week was 5.9 the first week. I don’t expect to see this kind of drop each week, but it sure doesn’t hurt to see it. And if any of you are on myfitnesspal, friend me, I’m under havenroo. I’d love to see your food diary and get meal ideas for the future. And with the positive attitude I’ve got going now and the desire I have to find new and interesting foods, I expect their to be some recipe blogs to come.

Happy Eating!

P.S. As a couponer I forgot another big part…myfitnesspal is $ Free.99!