Project Kill The Fatty

Things aren’t exactly riveting over here. When staying on is goal number 1 you go into survival mode. It has gotten me to thinking about the things that I need to work on and improve myself as well though. I got the clear to start lunging in the Fauxssoa rig though and that should help!

As riders we spend countless hours contemplating and obsessing over the care and programs of these incredible animals. I notice if any of my guys weight fluctuates in a small window. When it comes to myself though it has taken some time for me to fully comprehend just how much my choices were impacting my body. I find myself getting winded more quickly, ending up sore after what should be irrelevant, and worst of all frustrated with the body control I have in the saddle… and you know the fact that my breeches don’t fit that well.mgpdf

I am finally committing to change my lifestyle hopefully for the better. Kyle and I have started cooking some and we even invested in a stationary bike at home. I am determined to do more meal planning as well to improve what I consume during the work day.

Unfortunately work has been insane which has limited if I can do both the bike and go to the barn. Fingers crossed when things settle down I will be able to ride the bike 3 days a week and resume riding 5+ days a week. I want to hold myself accountable and a good step towards that is to put my goals in writing.

Personal Health Goals:

  • Cook at home 4x week – trying to find easy dinners to make after the barn if anyone has ideas
  • Meal prep to bring healthy breakfast and lunches to work
  • Ride 5-6 days a week between Houston and Annie
  • Cycle 3x week – maybe I wont want to die for the RK5K next year!

lovefoodIf anyone has tips or tricks that help you stay motivated please share. I’ll get going and then I slip once and it’s downhill from there. I’ve been un happy with my weight for the better part of a year and a half and I’m done. Here’s to at least making steps in the right direction.

 

 

31 comments

  1. Sarah says:

    With meal prep, a few things that really help are making meals that will last a couple of nights. So, instead of cooking enough for 1 dinner, make enough for 2 or 3 dinners (or, alternatively 2 dinners and a lunch if that works better). I find that I can’t get motivated to cook every night, but it doesn’t take extra effort to cook larger quantities on the nights I do cook so we’ll eat the same thing 2 nights in a row. Then cheat with vegetables. A bagged salad is easy. Or, if you’re grilling protein, grill your vegetables too. Or slice tomatoes and eat them raw with salt and pepper. My husband likes carbs so we do include rice a lot, but I’ll make a larger batch and then get several meals out of it.

    I cut out gluten and dairy a year ago (migraine triggers) and that helped me cut out take out and stuff (it makes it crazy hard to eat out without effort, plus I feel broke most of the time). It also helps think about whole foods. So I carry that into lunches for work. I usually take something simple like hard boiled eggs for lunch and fruit. Or hummus. Or goat cheese (the only dairy I can eat) and g.f. crackers. In general, the more carbs I eat, the more I want to eat (I hadn’t been eating many carbs until I discovered Trader Joe’s amazing g.f. breads…). So there’s something to say about limiting bread as much as possible. You really do eat less.

    So, I don’t know if this will help, but…

  2. Kristen says:

    I’ve got a bunch of quick healthy recipes if you want them. They are our usual rotation and most of them are quick prep so we aren’t cooking for an hour after we get home and I get the horses ridden.

    I lost 20 lbs from Jan to May via WW at work and I’ve kept it off. We just made small changes and substitutions. Tracking helps. At least it did with me. Also don’t over estimate your caloric burn from activity. I think most people think they can outrun their fork and they can’t.

  3. L. Williams says:

    When my schedule was insane I would spend an hour or three Sunday prepping meals. My crockpot did most of the heavy lifting and I had one without a timer, so sometimes my meals would get a little over cooked but I’m also not terribly picky. I’m sure if you got a crockpot where you set the time dinner could be perfect everytime.

  4. Amanda says:

    The best way I’ve found to keep me eating healthy has been to track everything I eat. I use an app on my phone called Lose It and I pay attention to overall calories as well as macros. I had an appointment with a nutritionist and got some specific-to-me advice about how much protein I should be eating that is a tough target but one I work hard at.

    I keep healthy snacks (Kind bars, etc.) in my car or my tack trunk so I am not tempted to stop somewhere, or so that I don’t get a sugar crash before or after riding.

    My current favorite snack for at my desk in the afternoon is these: https://www.sargento.com/our-cheese/balanced-breaks

  5. Nicku says:

    Good for you! It’s a lifelong journey and the mission of #goalbreeches! Taking as good of care of ourselves as we do our horses! I’m down 35 from baby 2 using the same system I did with losing baby 1 weight. You’ve got all the tools! Going dairy gluten and soy free (albeit for baby) has helped tons too! You got this! Be patient with yourself and ruthless with sticking to whatever nutrition plan choose, you got goals!!!

  6. Lisa says:

    The crock pot is your friend for nights when you will ride! Also, an easy-ish thing I’ve done is watched the amount of added sugar in things. I found Kind Dark Chocolate & Sea Salt granola bars are tasty and have low sugar + high protein – great for a snack. Simple stuff like that is great, along with the meal planning!

  7. Katie says:

    Have you tried services like Blue Apron? Takes a lot of guesswork out of cooking when you’re in a time crunch. I also like appliances that I can set and forget. My all time fav is something called an instant pot-it’s a pressure cooker that is a million times better than my slow cooker IMO. I also try to meal prep only a couple times a week, and make enough food to last me at least a lunch and possibly another dinner. i think too it’s important to realize one slip isn’t going to mess you up. It’s part of living your life! Just allow it and then make a commitment to get back on track. If you can, start lifting weights. Stationary bikes/cardio is good for your heart but what is really going to help you drop fat and remake your body composition is heavy lifting! Good luck-I’ve struggled with my weight my entire life. It’s not a fun battle!

  8. KC says:

    I despise cooking, so I only do it one day a week and I cook for the entire week. I get the Quaker Oats pre-made overnight oats to eat for breakfast because the only thing you had to do is add milk the night before, then in the AM I eat that, a protein shake and a banana.

    Lunches are typically burgers (85% lean, no bun), asparagus, red potatoes and a salad. I pre-cook everything on Sunday and divide into containers, then grab and go each morning on my way out the door.

    Dinner was my worst enemy. I leave work and go to the barn, then go get kids, then go to the gym for crossfit, then finally get home between 7:30-8. I typically have 2 dinners that I now pre-make on Sundays for the week. Taco salad (with 90% lean beef, tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce and some cheese),or a roast in the slow cooker over noodles or rice, along with vegetables. Again, those all get divided into containers and then when we get home, I microwave and it’s ready in less than 5 minutes.

    Good luck! It’s never easy to make huge changes. My only piece of advice would be not to try to change too much at one time- it’s never that sustainable in the end.

  9. Sarah says:

    I have a few recipes I can share. I joined a program at the rec center here in town that’s free for 3 months and we have scheduled workouts and a nutrition class. I’m down over 20lbs since June. I think the most useful thing for me has been that the workouts go from cardio to lifting to cardio to legs, etc. So you get exercise everywhere. That plus cutting sugar has helped me a ton. I can’t live without bread though (or tacos…lol) so we buy the extreme wellness torillas that are low cal high protein and use ground turkey. Feeling like I’m not robbing myself of food I like helps me a lot. 🙂

  10. Stampy and the Brain says:

    I love reading these comments of all the different ways people make it work to eat healthier!
    My advice would be to focus on the food first before the workouts. The food has the biggest impact on your weight and you can’t cancel out bad food with a couple workouts per week. I’ve been lucky to ride once a week lately (ugh I need a pony!) and otherwise I’ve been fairly unmotivated (lack of pony depression!) and have maintained my weight fine. I average one bike ride, a run or two, and some dog walks per week outside of barn chores.
    As you know I count calories using myfitnesspal and combine it with a fitbit to adjust for calories burned (although fitbit is a bit generous on the calories for me). I also watch my protein and sugar to make sure I’m getting enough of the first and not too much of the second. Protein keeps me full and decreasing sugar helped fuel my weight loss and is a key for maintaining.
    Personally I prefer quick easy dinner meals during the work week (although I prep for lunch ahead) so I am big on the green giant frozen veggies and frozen veggies and noodle mixes. I just have to deal with my protein then although often we add extra veggies to the ones with noodles. We also have come to love the evol frozen meals for two, especially the teriyaki chicken. They don’t put tons of filler in the foods (I know what everything on the ingredient list is!) and they are tasty. Usually we then add extra veggies of some kind on the side. Otherwise we do lots of breakfast for dinner using eggs and veggies or eggs sandwiches, usually paired with some turkey sausage. It doesn’t have to be hard.
    I definitely found in the beginning that a lot of the things I thought of as healthy weren’t or the version I was buying and eating wasn’t. You can also often find lower calorie or higher protein versions of what you like that are just as good. For example bread – I get the 35 calories per slice wheat and love it more than what I was eating before that was over 100 per slice. Pancakes I get Kodiak cakes mix versus the other stuff you add water to and shake up. You can eat many of the things you love still. I eat cookies and ice cream almost every night – 4 oatmeal chips ahoy thins and a 1/2 cup of halo top though (210 calories total), not the 6 Kroger 190 calories each chocolate chip cookies I used to.
    You can do it! Let me know if you need ideas!

  11. Genny says:

    What impacts me the most is snacking – and accountability. I love to cook, and we eat pretty healthy when we are home. So when I’m at work I go a little off the rails. Now I just plan to snack by having filling/easy snacks around, and only having one “snacktime” a day. Then I’m not as tempted to go rogue. I also work out a lot, and enjoy it. But like most people said above-it doesn’t cancel out a iffy diet. My goal is to lost another 9 lbs this fall, and it’s rough! Especially when work gets busy!! Best of luck!

    P.S. I have heard awesome things about Halo top – really want to try!

  12. Tracy says:

    My best advice is to know what works for you. I HATE dieting and as soon as I tell myself I can’t have something, that’s all I want. I’d rather workout more than restrict my diet.

  13. Nicole says:

    Another possibility is to invest in a sous vide immersion circulator and vacuum sealer. I love cooking and I love good food, so it’s not hard for me to make time to cook. But I also abhor overcooked proteins (I just won’t eat dry chicken breasts), and do appreciate time savings.

    With a sous vide, you could easily pop a bunch of chicken breasts in a vacuum bag, cook them all to the perfect temp (food safe at 140 if you do it for more than an hour, I can send you links if you want!), and then put them in the fridge. Throughout the week it would be easy to grab a breast to top salads or heat one up for dinner and pair it with some steamed or sauteed (or roasted) veggies. You could do it with thighs, or fish even (though fish usually cooks pretty fast so the need for sous vide is limited).

    I also like to have prepped salads ready to go so that when I do need a quick lunch, it’s right there. I chop up all my mix ins (bell peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, beans, avocado, pickles, etc.) and throw those in one container, keep chopped lettuce in a ziploc bag, and then have a grain of some kind in a separate container in the fridge. I can throw it all together in one tupperware when I leave in the morning, or when I get home from riding. (Add sliced chicken breast from above for protein.)

  14. Kate says:

    Easy dinners are a lifesaver for me!

    I like to broil salmon- drizzle some olive oil, add some sea salt and pepper, and some lemon slices if you’re feeling sassy and broil for 10 minutes. I eat a lot of bagged salad mixes topped with salmon or add some heated frozen vegetables. Crockpot buffalo chicken (either with broccoli on the side or in a wrap with lettuce + tomatoes) and crockpot chili are my other mainstays- the chili freezes well, so it’s easy to serve half and freeze the rest for a later date.

    I do need to hop on the fitness train though, and start running again.

  15. JessicaM says:

    MyFitness Pal App on my phone has been great for me. I can customize my daily calorie goal and adjust with exercise. It has taught me a lot about how important portion control is, yet allows you to have whatever you want.

    Good luck with your goals. It’s an exhausting but rewarding process!

  16. Nadia says:

    What’s worked best for me is counting calories. I use an app called My Fitness Pal and was seriously obsessed with logging EVERYTHING I consumed. I lost almost 30#! Now, I don’t use it as rigorously, but when I want to diet I start logging again, even for a week or so…
    It really made a huge difference for me to see what every glass of wine I consumed was doing to my caloric intake…

  17. Austen says:

    I make a big pot of soup or a big lentil/vegetable/protein scramble once a week and eat off it all week. I never have time to really cook during the week, so it’s necessary. Especially since I can’t afford to eat out either (especially not in dc where the time and money will eat your soul!). It’s either soup or starve. Haha!

  18. Boss Mare Eventing says:

    I have no advice because I have 0 will power, but I will say best of luck and the most important thing is to eat real food, to help you lose weight. I will add avoid meat as much as possible too, but I know that upsets people. I hope you can get to where you are happy with your body. I think it’s a life long struggle for us women.

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