Week 1 of Diet - Lost 8 pounds!

I am proud to say that this past week I began a new diet and exercise routine and after 7 days I have have lost ....drum roll please....EIGHT POUNDS! I am VERY excited about this accomplishment and I know that this is just the beginning of my weight loss journey. 

Losing weight is probably the hardest challenge of my life and I've battled it pretty much since I graduated from college.

Friends, I need help with my weight loss journey.  Encouragement and support from my circle of friends and online community mean so much to me.  Sometimes I feel like giving up - and it is very helpful to have people pushing me to keep going. 

**LOCAL FRIENDS*** - any time you are going for a walk or a jog, let me know and I'd love to join you!  I used to meet up with friends to go eat at a restaurant.  Now, I'd much more prefer to do something active and your motivation and support means so much to me.  I have many wonderful friends in my life, but could use some more friends to push me to meet my weight loss goals.  I want to give a big shout out to my friend Alicia who is helping me train for a 5k and 10k race - she truly pushes me in a wonderful way and encourages me to keep going when I'm ready to quit. 

I am determined that this time I'm going to lose the weight and keep it off.  No more yo-yo-ing.  When Brad and I got married in 2004, I lost 35 pounds before our wedding.  Unfortunately I gained all of the weight back during the stresses of law school and then the bar exam (aka summer of hell).  Then after Sam was born in 2009, I was determined to lose the baby weight (which I did)..and then lost another 30 pounds after that!  Here's a picture of me in the summer of 2010 at my lowest weight

Here's one of my favorite pictures of me at the very beginning of my pregnancy with Noah at a pretty healthy weight. 

I had hoped to only gain a minimal amount of weight during my pregnancy with Noah and I did very well exercising and eating healthy during my first 2 trimesters.  However, being put on bedrest for the entire 3rd trimester meant that I wasn't allowed to exercise.  I was home all day long and began to eat badly.  I gained more weight than I wanted and now I am paying the consequences.

HOWEVER - I am back on track and just completed week 1 of my new diet.  I'm doing the South Beach Diet and the first 2 weeks are considered "Phase 1" that allows you to eat lean proteins, low-fat dairy, and tons of veggies - but no fruit or starches.  It's pretty tough, but I've found that the SB Phase 1 is the fastest way for me to lose weight.  I've tried Weight Watchers and find that WW works better for me to maintain at a certain weight - but SB gives me more of the instant gratification of losing weight immediately.  If I'm going to eat crazy healthy and exercise - I want to see the results NOW!

So, I'm super proud to announce that after week 1, I have lost EIGHT pounds!  I feel like I'm on the Biggest Loser!  In fact, part of my exercise routine includes using an exercise video from the Bigest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels.  Her "30 Day Shred" video is awesome and totally kicks my butt!

I've also drastically changed my diet.  Brad has eaten more green leafy vegetables this past week than he has in the past year! :)

Here are some of my favorite new dishes, mostly from the South Beach Diet. If you click on them, it will take you to the link for the recipes.

Baked kale chips are surprisingly good! I was very hesitant about trying this one, but I've been pleasantly surprised!  Brad even eats them (this is quite a feat considering that Brad considers ketchup, a slice of tomato, and a slice of lettuce on his burger to be 3 separate servings of vegetables!).  I changed the recipe slightly and used PAM spray rather than regular olive oil to cut more calories.

Chicken Curry with Eggplant & Spinach was absolutely amazing! This is one of my new favorite dishes - dieting or not!  I used red curry paste instead of green curry and cooked the whole thing longer than it called for.  It was FANTASTIC! I realized that for years, I've cooked curry dishes in the entirely wrong way - this recipe truly taught me to cook curry correctly.  I simmered it for much longer than the recipe calls for (because I had to put the boys to bed in the middle of my cooking extravaganza but I think it actually thickened up the sauce with the extra cooking time).  I also doubled the amount of curry paste because I like spicy food.

Grilled Sesame Salmon was pretty decent, the sauce was thicker than I expected but I would try it again.  Not sure this is my favorite salmon recipe though, I'm still looking for good bold fish recipes.

Ribollita Vegetable Soup has been my main staple this week, I've eaten it about 1x/day.  A wonderful friend made ribollita soup for me after Noah was born and I LOVED it!  I used her recipe but found this recipe from Iron Chef Mario Batali which is pretty similar.  However, the vegetables I used were slightly different - I used zuchini, yellow summer squash, onions, tomatoes, and white navy beans.  This is a great meal to re-heat for meals throughout the week, especially lunch when I get sick of salads.

I will share more of my favorite South Beach Diet recipes and creations as I continue with my weight loss journey.  If any of you have favorite healthy recipes that are chock full of veggies, please share! Thanks in advance for your support and encouragement!