Two in a half weeks! First slip up :(

So. I'm kind of bummed out friends...


On my phone I mark a 'goal' for each Wednesday of what I would like to weigh on that day and this weeks goal looks like its not going to be met. This past Saturday was my best friends bachelorette party, and we went to a Thai restaurant where I ordered Pad Thai...bad idea. 


The next morning I was up 4 lbs! So I did two pure protein days in a row...and lost nothing. Actually I even gained .4 ugh! 


I'm never cheating again, it's not worth it, and if my friends cant understand me eating differently than they aren't truly my friends (and they are, so they'll understand). This weekend is the wedding..and I am out of my 'comfort zone' with food for four days in Illinois! AH! But as they say 'Insanity is performing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.' So I'm gonna learn from what I did wrong on Saturday to make it through these days. I'm not afraid of failure, because that was never an option. 


Maybe God is teaching me a lesson and showing me that I should never cheat, and maybe by his grace I will drop the 4+ lbs by tomorrow (aka my main weigh-in)...




Dear God, Message received and fully understood. Love, Brittainy :)

Pizza? And lose weight?? WHAT!?

YUP! It's crazy I know. I am down 15 pounds in two weeks. I'm all about it. I had a slip up yesterday-so I'll see if it affected me a lot at tomorrows weigh in. Fingers crossed that it didnt! We'll see.

Anywho, check out this yummy healthy pizza we made! Woot! It was just as good-if not better-than reg fatting pizza! I think it was better because it didn't have any gross oil and fat drippings all over it..and it tasted so fresh! YUM!

Gosh...I love my life.

How prepared are you? Featuring:: Yummy Comfort Foods!

So what I have been talking about for pretty much two weeks now is the Dukan Diet...


Ugh. That word 'Diet' just doesnt work for me because its more of a lifestyle change ya know? Its the new me! 13 days, 13 lbs gone. CRAZY!!! :) so happy! 


But I know why this is working this time. Because I want it. I am ready to commit to it. In the past I would get sooo into the idea of losing weight that I would feel defeated when a day went by the the scale didn't move. Or worse-it went up. But now, I understand myself, I have grown so much as a person (even if I'm only 24!) And I am prepared. 


I did the research and I know that I can do this, and stick with it! I am ready for the rest of my life. :)


SOOO here's some of the best moments of yummy comfort foods from this past week! I'll tag which ones are for PP days (Pure Protein) and PV (Protein Veggies) SOO yum!


First...

PV DAY: Yummy Lasagna! With a nice slice of Oat Bran Garlic Bread! 

PV DAY: Beef Burrito! (Had this tonight...stuffed!) 

PP DAY: Fat Free Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast Wrapped with Turkey Bacon! 

PV DAY: Lean Pork chop on grill, cabbage, Broccoli and Cauliflower 'mashed potatoes', and oat bran toast.

Such good foods for my first week of Cruise! If anyone is interested in a recipe you can always email me at brittainycherry@hotmail.com and I'll gladly share it with you! :)


Off to do some circuit training workout :) Until next time!


-BCherry 

Hey friends!!! So I am 11 days into the Dukan Diet and have lost 12 lbs! UNREAL! I'm so excited and happy about how easy it has all been! It helps that I'm doing this with my momma and sister- each of who have also lost 12 lbs!

I'm seriously hoping for 20 lbs lost for the month-and I kind of think I can do it! Only 8 more lbs in a little less than 3 weeks :)

We are working our butts off! Walking/running 30 mins a day/7 days a week and circuit training for 30mins/five days a week.

It feels great! I feel great! And never really hungry...it's awesome :)

Until next time..

-BCherry

Turkey Burger with OatBran Bun :)

Who said you can't have a bun during Dukan Diet's Attack Phase?! 

Lets just have a moment and sigh in the excellence of Oat Bran! The things you can do with 1.5tablespoons of this stuff! And its SOOO good for you! I have used it so far as a crepe (filled it with a fat free yogurt,cinnamon,fat free cream cheese mix), hamburger buns, cookies, and pancakes! SO YUM!

So what you are seeing is a turkey burger with a dip made of mustard, hot sauce, FF cream cheese, FF yogurt, and season salt, pepper, and garlic. soo good! Sorry the picture is so blah-I had to use my camera phone. I can't WAIT until protein-veggie days to add tomato and lettuce and spinach and such!

The bun was just the Dukan Diet pancake recipe. We seasoned it up for a 'savory' feel with garlic powder and pepper. Easily enough :) Also, we used a little cooking spray (NO OIL! And Honestly, people use much too much oil to cook with, it's surprising to see how little is actually needed!)

I am in love with this new lifestyle and I'm learning and exploring all these healthy choices with my eyes filled with excitement! I feel like such a nerd because I'm so into it :) Being a foodie has never been so great!

Until next time friends :) 

-BCherry 

Stuffed Chicken Recipe-yummmm!

Heres the Stuffed Chicken I made for Lunch today! I also had it for din-din last night...yummy!

Stuffed Chicken Recipe (244 calories)

What you need::
1 Chicken Breast
2 oz of Fat-Free Cream Cheese
Italian Seasonings
Pepper
Season Salt
Garlic Powder

Step One:
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Take the cream cheese and mix in a teaspoon of Pepper, Italian, and Garlic. Mix it well and set to the side. (Taste it to see if you need more cream cheese or seasoning, I actually added more Italian for more flavor)

Step Two:
Take the chicken breast and cut a slit in the middle (Make sure not to cut all the way through!) and rub the breast with all of the seasonings. For some extra yum rub the inside of the chicken breast with the seasonings.

Step Three:
Fill the chicken with the cream cheese. You can add toothpicks if needed to keep together (wasn't needed for me) Toss in a pan and place in the oven (No oil or anything needed, make sure its a non-stick pan. If not, add a LITTLE cooking spray). Cooking time differs for each oven, but mine took about 30-35 minutes. 

Enjoy!

-BCherry

First Day of Attack Phase-Completed. :)

Sooo yesterday was my first day on the Dukan Diet and it went great!

During the first few days of the diet you are put into the 'Attack Phase' where you just eat protein. It's all based on your current weight and your goal weight for how long you would be in this phase. For me, I have four more days of this to go! *counting today!*

I'm surprised at how easy it is working for me, and I am getting enough calories which is nice. *I use www.loseit.com to track my calorie intake.*

So since this program is pretty new in the US (people are really jumping on it since around March) I guess I am considered a tester of the plan. I think that's kind of cool to be one of the first...

Check out their site at http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/ and find out your 'true weight' it's a great tool! If you plan on starting this my only tip is this--RESEARCH! Find out if it is something you TRULY think you can do.

I'll be posting a recipe later today with pictures for A Stuffed Chicken Breast that I will be having for lunch. It will be fun to start cooking more because I am such a dork and foodie. So finding healthy foods that taste amazing is my goal! My favorite so far is the many ways you can use the oat bran! Cookies, Pancakes, muffins! All with like 5 ingredients or less! and SOOO yum!

Until Next Time.
-BCherry

Oops...

So...I lied. I told myself I would never use a diet in the last post but that was before I came across the Dukan Diet. I just started today and I am in love with it already.

The Dukan Diet was first found in France and is slowly coming over to the USA. (It is said that the new Princess Catherine used it to get ready for her big fairytale wedding!)

So I guess it pretty much means you rid yourself of carbs and fats. CRAZY RIGHT? Well, it's a lot easier than you would think, and there are some really yummy recipes out there! It's important that you keep things fresh and new with the foods you are eating...

Of course people probably think that its a scam and a waste of time, but--how do you truly know unless you try?

We'll see how this goes. I'll give it at least three months. Here's to trying new things! I'll post my results for the first week next Friday.


Until then :)

It's a new day!

How do you define yourself? How do others define you? Is there something inside you that you know is dying to come out?

Well...I am in the process of losing weight. <--can I express how much it actually took out of me to write those words?

For the longest time I felt as if they meant that I failed somewhere down the line. That I wasn't strong enough to never gain the weight. That I wasn't wise in my life choices.

In high school I was always a shy gal. I dont know why, but I was, and I was a bigger girl too. It never really bothered me until one day I was walking up the stairs to class and someone behind me said, "Holy Hippo." Um-Hi, I hate you.

Then I stopped and said to myself, "Who's to say that I can't start right now and change my life?" So, I did.

I went to college. I got rid of the shy thing and became a theatre major. And instead of the freshman 15, I lost over 60 lbs in my college life. By what you ask? Um, walking to class? Who knows really, I'm not a genius at this stuff, but it happened. Although I was madly in love with pilates. ANYWAY!

And then I graduated from college. And then I ended a relationship-and got into great shape! I was single and loving summer, working out each day, acting in shows and I was just happy! Yet, I graduated with a theatre degree, and if yall didn't already know-finding a theatre job wasn't the easiest thing.

Then out of nowhere I was offered a theatre job at a high school. I ran their Performing Arts Center and directed all of the students shows. I loved that part...but...hated working for a school district. I never wanted to be a teacher. I never wanted to deal with other teachers or answer to a principal. I never wanted to sit through those five hour teacher meetings where I felt like they talked about nothing.(OMG boringgggggg). But they gave me my own office and an assistant who was just like me and we just clicked! It sounded so great! I was just out of college and had my own office and assistant!? This rocked! Right?

Then the stress started. Along with that came the stress eating. I hated my job. College life was over. And I couldn't stand it. Yet, I had to stay at the job for a year and there was no getting out of it. A year of bad eating habits, of crying in my office with my assistant as we talked about how much we didn't like our job. A year of BLAH!

Then the year ended, and surprisingly I chose not to work there-or at any school-ever again. But the weird thing was, the extra weight decided to stick around. Stupid weight.

So I started my journey to losing the weight. One thing I'm not willing to do is diet. I mean seriously--within the word is DIE. And I don't care what anyone says, celery isn't good. So this is the place where I will make great strives to my goal weight, and not worry about the results as long as the journey is worth it. It's a lifestyle change. If I was able to change my life after I graduated high school then I know that I can do it now.

There will be bad food days, and there will be good food days.

For example:

Today's Lunch:
Instead of making a bad choice with lunch, I decided on a salad from a restaurant. I avoided the croutons because-lets be honest, it's a waste of calories. It's not like they actually make the salad taste better. I was doing great! Until I got home, opened the salad, and saw that they toss about a cup of cheese on it.

Fail. Time to work-out.

Keep Moving Forward I Guess :)

-BCherry