top of the muffin to you! (part 1)

so...as anyone who has read this blog knows, i have a constant stream of baked goods paraded in front of me by my brother, which i really think is the single biggest factor contributing to me not being able to get and/or stay skinny. (more hard evidence on that later)..anyway, i've decided to fight back. kind of.

i am a bakedgoodsaholic. but i am discovering that to a certain extent, it doesn't really make a difference what kind of baked goods. for now anyway, i seem to feel ok about eating a muffin while watching my brother eat his weight in chocolate chip cookies.

so, last weekend, i made 3 batches of healthy, high fiber, low point muffins. i individually wrapped each muffin and put them all in the freezer.

so far, it has worked brilliantly. a) because the muffins are in the freezer, they are out of sight/out of mind. b) i have baked good available when faced with cookie envy...baked goods that only take 35 seconds to heat up in the microwave. c) each muffin is all wrapped up so it's "special"---but it also installs a trip switch--i.e., do you really want to unwrap and heat up another muffin?

anyway, they have been in the freezer for a week and i'm happy to say that they're not even a 1/3 of the way gone. not even close. i think i've eaten about 10 small ones over the last week. most of the time if i bake something it's gone in about 3 days.

plus, i got my baking fix. i love baking. too bad i'm not one of those naturally skinny people, otherwise i'd open a pastry shop tomorrow.


RECIPE #1: Apple Cinnamon Muffins (1 pt)
via Hungry Girl

Take the Fiber One Muffin mix (IGNORE box directions), add 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1 cup water, and 1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or egg whites). Mix until just blended. Pour the mixture into 18 of the muffin cups, and bake as directed (refer to the box). The recipe makes 18 muffins instead of 12, and each one has just 95 calories & 2g fat and still has close to 4g fiber. (1 point!) (and they're YUMMY!)

more recipes to follow...

Alert!!!!

Thesis writing is over...until I get comments back from my advisors, then committee. One of my advisors is really really picky, so I'm a bit nervous about that.

But the alert is that I just spent 30 minutes rummaging through my closet trying to find something that fit me and looked decent. And no, I don't need to go shopping. I need to lose weight. I weighed in at 143. That is 3 pounds higher than my comfortable 140lb set point. And, 13-15 pounds higher than goal.

I can bike to the train again, which is 30 mintues of exercise, 5 days a week. Add in weekend exercise of more biking, walking, and kayaking, and I should be a-ok. But I need to get my eating back in check. I'm going to start counting again before I gain more weight! I know we aren't supposed to set goals dates for weight loss goals, but I'd really like to shed 5 pounds or so in the next 6 weeks (yeah, I probably won't make it) and another 5 pounds by July...

mini-update

i'm still just a little bit in denial about the *exact* numbers on the scale...but last week the scale read 4.5 lbs higher than it did today...more evidence that numbers make very little sense for me...(-4.5 lbs in one week?) but the jeans are feeling looser too, so that is a good sign. the scale was the wake-up call that i needed though to kick start the motivation.

i have gotten my act together and stopped the cookie insanity. it also helps that the bro was gone last week and will be gone this week too...so i feel more in control without the constant stream of goodies coming through the house.

i'm still just kicking myself for letting things get so out of hand in the first place. but oh well, that is life.

i will post more later ...pics and some great new recipes i've tried!

Rub a Dub Dub...

...i feel like a tub.

i seriously don't know what my problem has been. i just can't seem to get it together in the eating department lately. and by lately, i mean since...umm...december. there have been multiple 'chocolate incidents' as of late...cookies, m&ms, skinny cows, dessert at restaurants etc. etc. plus, i just haven't been counting, or caring. at all.

exercise, yea, i do it. but it doesn't really matter when i'm eating anything and everything all day every day.

seriously. time to get a grip.

so. this week is "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, WOMAN!" week.

i will weigh in on friday. (eek)

and i will post pics of me in my pre-mylifebecameinsaneandimdoingwaytoomanythingsandneversleep jeans circa May 2005. those are the new goal. (double eek. no, better make that a triple eek)

and i will food journal. because as much as i hate it, it does work.

and i will stop all of the cookie/chocolate/sugar madness. i mean really. this blog is called 'skinnify', not 'tubbify'...

The sweet finish

Does being in a constant state of stress and anxiety burn increase one's resting metabolism? I sure hope so. Until this week, I was doing alright. I was walking a little bit and eating well (except for those candy bits...more on that later). But this week, I'm been a raving lunatic when it comes to portions. Over 5 days my breakfast and lunch portions practically doubled. But I was seriously HUNGRY. Blood sugar levels crashing, can't walk, can't think CRAZY HUNGRY. I'm not sure what the cause was... It could be the stress, my freezing work environment (62 degress - come on!), or my change in BC methods (sorry if that's too much info, but hormones might be playing a role here). We'll see how I do with portions this week - at least I haven't lost sight of how much I should be eating...

Over the past few months, I've fallen into a bad pattern of needing a sweet finish to meals (and snacks). At home, that means dark chocolate and at work that means a dip into the admin's bottomless candy bowl or a fist full of whatever free refined carb, sugary, transfatty evil is lurking from meetings. There was also the 5-10 (who's counting? not me!) tragic incidents with cupcakes that I made for my husband's birthday. I made two kinds of frosting, so naturally, I had to eat twice as many cupcakes. They say that successful dieters decrease the variet of food they keep at home - they might be on to something. (Did you know that toast takes good with frosting on it? It does, not that's I'd know first hand...really...) I've tried finishing eating with coffee or tea or small bits of chocolate, but it's just not taking. I suppose the problem is will power, but I need to get this fixed. fast. ideas?

Thesis writing has begun. Which poses a new problem for getting skinny. When I open that "thesis" folder, I want to start eating, mindlessly. Needless to say, I've just ordered a massive amounts of popcorn to get me through these next few weeks... Apologies for not commenting on your blogs for a while - I probably won't get around to commenting again until, um, June. But, my good old google reader keeps me fully updated and you all are so GOOD. and motivational! OK, back to work for me...