Olive Garden Yumminess

Today, my friends took me out for a birthday dinner (YUM!) at the Olive Garden (YUM!)!!! I had already eaten all exchanges except for 2 starches and 1 1/2 vegetables. Being realistic that I was at THE OLIVE GARDEN for my BIRTHDAY DINNER, I decided to break the diet plan, but (I feel) in a great way! I had 2 glasses of diet coke, 1 breadstick, 1 bowl of pasta e fagioli, 2 bowls of salad. This gives me 3 starches, 1 1/2 vegetables and at least 3 fats. All in all, not too bad. I think I cheated well. Oh! And I *did* have an Andes Mint at the end. It *was* my birthday after all!

POUNDS LOST > YEARS LIVED

Yes, it's true! I have lost 29 pounds (4 this week) and have lived for 28 years. YESSSSS! I am excited to hopefully break the 30 mark (something that will never be said about my age) next Monday. However, this weekend is...the Chrysalis Team Retreat! It will be tough...I am thinking of packing my own food. Unsure of the fridge space though...

Ok. Stats:

Calories Burned: 523 (Treadmill)/542 (HR Monitor)
Total Miles: 2.70
Total Time: 56:14 (including cool down)
Ending Heart Rate: 126

I also want to say that I had great energy today! I think it may be my new crazy-amounts-of-protein diet. I do not think that this high-protein diet is going to be something I could do for a long time. But for a short time I think I can do it and it seems to be working well for me. So I will keep trying it. The problem is that where I have to have 14 servings of protein, I only get 7 servings of fat. Basically this means I need to eat lean proteins all the time. Currently I have 2 eggs around 7:30 am, 3 oz of chicken at 10 am, 3 oz of tuna at 12, 3 oz of chicken at 3 pm and 3 oz of chicken at 5 pm. It's a lotta chicken... But I am not discounting this plan...yet. ;)

I did it...It was tough, but I did it.

Last night I had my Emmaus peeps over for a shindig!


It was, as always, a super fun night of lots of super fun. Where the victory comes in for me was with the snacks. There were chips and salsa and chips and dip and chips and soda (oh! the soda) and homemade cranberry muffins and Papa Johns Pizza (THREE varieties!) and, and, and...Lisa made this ridiculous good looking AND ridiculously good smelling pepperoni, goopy, yumminess to be smeared on BAGEL BITS! Oh. My. WOW. And I didn't eat ANY OF IT! I stuck to my meal plan 100%. VICTORY!!!!

I "Dish"ed.

The workout today was good. I did not want to be there, but I did it. So good.

My stats:

Calories Burned: 549 (Treadmill)/550 (HR Monitor)
Total Miles: 2.77
Total Time: 58:08 (including cool down)
Ending Heart Rate: Forget to take it...

Then I went to Let's Dish and prepared 4 meals: Fajita Steak with Chile-Lime Dressing, Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Salsa, Pork Tenderloins with Chile Apricot Glaze, and Roasted Herb Pork Chops. I cannot wait to see how they taste! I will keep you posted... But the night was super fun!

Me and Nellie "dish"-ing:

Oh! And...

I gained two pounds this week. Not bad considering I exercised never and ate always.

Back on the wagon...

Rough!

Man, working out after a week and a half off is ROUGH! But do-able. Definitely do-able.

AND IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! AND I WENT TO THE GYM! Yay me. I am proud of me.

The stats (I took it easy):

Calories Burned: 561 (Treadmill)/548 (HR Monitor)
Total Miles: 3.02
Total Time: 61:32 (including cool down)
Ending Heart Rate: 125

Where'd you go? I missed you so...

Hello!

I am back. Sorry you had no warning I would be gone. I was on a super-secret surprise mission for my wonderful, smart, beautiful, funny, adorable, kind, smokin' hot, lawyerly, fantastic sister, Meghan:



It was Meghan's 30th birthday, so we all flew out to California to surprise her! Surprise was an overwhelming success and the trip was great! But I could not blog about it before hand because she is an avid blog-reader and Erin's-weight-loss-goals supporter!

Having said all I that, I:

Exercised NEVER.
Ate EVERYTHING (to include: bagel egg sandwiches, pasta, more pasta, tiramisu, more pasta, chocolate cake, amazing cinnamon donut bites, mentos, soda, deep dish Chicago-style pizza that must have contained enough calories for the DAY -- 2 pieces, soda, more pasta and more soda...to name a few).

I am hoping that by next Monday's weigh-in (yes, I am going away AGAIN and will not be at TEAM on Monday) I will have maintained or maybe lost a pound or two. Not looking for anything crazy... Although I do plan to hit the gym tomorrow and then get back into it for realz Wednesday.