This week was definitely interesting.  The election caused some major feelings of helplessness, which tends to be my big trigger for eating.  As soon as things get out of control, I shovel some stuff into my mouth and I’ve magically got control of it all.  Solid logic.

I felt the wave of nom noms coming on, so I stocked up on apples and plums and veggies so I could emotionally eat things that were a little more healthy for my body.  The problem wasn’t completely dealt with, but I did make one baby step towards not doing the wrong thing.

One pretty awesome thing that happened this week though was that on Saturday my best friend came over in the morning to help me record a video for our Kickstarter.  I was really nervous and I wanted desperately not to look stupid on camera.  I mean, this could potentially be seen by one trillion people–all I wanted was to look passably attractive and sound like someone who has as many degrees as I do.

Nick sent me some screenshots of from throughout the video.  Some of them look questionable, like this one:

And some of them look really nice.  Like this one:

This second picture made me feel really pretty, even though I’m also making a stupid face.  I think it captures my personality really well, and I can see that I’m having a lot of fun.  Photo win.

Beyond this, here’s a quick recap of my week.

Food

Of course I forgot to take photos of the deliciously healthy meals because I was too busy shoveling them into my face while they were still lava hot.  One photo-less recipe I can offer you is this:

Healthy Parmesan Chicken and WTF Veggies

You’ll need:
As many chicken breasts as you want to eat
Bread crumbs
Two eggs
Low-fat string cheese (I used Weight Watchers brand)
Tomato sauce
All the veggies you want to eat (I used one sweet potato, one head of broccoli)
Garlic
Butter

First, chop up all the veggies and the garlic.  Put the veggies in a pan with half the garlic, and cook until toasty.  Then add a tiny bit of butter and continue cooking.

While the veggies are doing their thing, you’ll need to set up a little station.  In one bowl, put about two cups of breadcrumbs in, and in a separate bowl, beat two eggs well.  Next, wash and cut your chicken breast to preference.  Dunk the chicken breast into the eggs and then right into the bread crumbs.  Put them on a baking sheet.

When all of your breasts are covered and ready, stick them in the oven.  I put them in for about 20 minutes at 375.  Honestly, I have no idea about the science of food in ovens, so I just make it up and pray.  This gave me crispy brown cooked breasts, so I’d give it the thumbs up.

When they’re done, take them out and use a spoon to spread tomato sauce around the tops of each one, and sprinkle some garlic on top–I heaped it on, but use the amount that you like to eat.  Next, break up your string cheese and lay your cheese layers on top of the tomato sauce and garlic.  Stick these birds back in the oven for another 5 – 10 minutes.

If you time everything right, your veggies and chicken should be done at the same time.  I threw some breadcrumbs into the veggie mix to give it a little texture, but this is optional.

Serve up together and enjoy!  I managed to recognize when I was full and saved a whole breast for lunch the next day–food win!

Exercise

NaNoWriMo has made getting to the gym really hard, and the one day I was set to go, I had a CPR class.  Sunday night I was ready to lift some weights–I even got as far as changing clothes and getting through my warm-up.  A comment someone had said to me earlier in the day finally caught up to me though, and when I saw someone using the machine I needed to use, I lost all steam and decided I needed to go home.  I’m going to try again this week to do this particular work-out, but that’s going to be a bit hard.  I’m feeling pretty deflated and quite honestly, ashamed and angry.

Even though I’m having a hard time regaining the drive and enthusiasm I had Sunday morning, I’m hoping that in the space it takes for me to write this and for it to be published, some magic will happen and I’ll be ready for this new week.

I’m wishing you tolerance, love, and safety this week.

Starting weight: 210.2 lbs

Current weight: 199.8 lbs

Total loss: -10.4 lbs