Why is there tilapia in my Muller fruitup yogurt?

Eating yogurt for a snack tonight, I looked at the ingredients and nearly spit it out.

Why on earth is there TILAPIA in my yogurt?!

I searched on their site and they do have a FAQ about it:

Why is there tilapia in FrütUp?
We use kosher gelatin from tilapia to maintain the light and airy texture of the fruit mousse.

Seriously, weird.  This is what I get for trying something different (and it wasn't very tasty either!)

up and down, mostly up

So, I have made it to the gym a couple times a week this month, which is good.  It's not having a major impact on my weight yet, but I have to hope that eventually it will.

But my weight is really depressing me these days, especially since I'm coming up on a couple of milestones on my calendar - 10 years since I got married, and 5 years since my lowest weight.

I was curious, so I went through and found my weight over the past 15 years or so, and whipped up a little graph:

The horizontal lines mark every 20 pounds.  First arrow is my wedding.  Approximately 5 years later, I was at my lowest weight (and yes, I gained about 20 pounds in the first two years of wedded bliss).  Second arrow is when I got pregnant.  Third arrow is when I gave birth.  It's a little hard to tell from this graph, but I'm about 5 pounds less now than when I got married.  And I *hate* how I look in my wedding photos.  

So, that's a pretty sobering graph.  

I also got another set of numbers crunched - after a 4 hour food and water (?!) fast on Sunday, I got measured on one of the "in body" body composition machines.  (FYI: 4 hour food fast, no problems - but 4 hours without water was hell and I had a terrible headache all day, even after I rehydrated.)  The results were really miserable.  I tried to convince myself it's just the "before" picture, but damn, it's hard to swallow.

But I did work out after that, doing a full set on the weights circuit plus some kettle bell work, and on Tuesday I did 45 min on a bike (even though my legs were still mad after that kettle bell work!), and yesterday I did an aqua aerobics class (which was great for the stretching actually - plus I did get my heart rate up a few times).  Tomorrow is another aqua class.  Will do the weights again Saturday or Sunday.  And I'm trying to eat healthier, but it's an on-going struggle.  

sore

Sorry for the radio silence yet again.  Amazingly, my weight is staying roughly the same, despite the lack of dieting and exercise.  It's still much higher than it should be, but at least it's not getting worse?

I joined a gym on Friday, mostly for activities for my son, but I'm really hoping that I'll actually get to go work out on my own as well.  Did a water aerobics class and it was great.  I also did a short circuit on a few of the weight machines, so I'm sore today. ;)  It's a good sore though, and one that I haven't had in several years.  I'm going to meet with one of the trainers again on Sunday to get set up on all of the weight machines to do full circuits.

Baby steps, so to speak ;)

Veggie pancakes

I'm not a fan of most vegetables - especially green veggies like broccoli and spinach.  But I am trying to broaden my horizons so my son can try more of these things too.  I've been reading a ton of blogs and am intrigued by many of the things I've found on weelicious.com :)

Last night, I tried her green veggie pancakes recipe, with some modifications (of course!) - and it was great!  Naturally, I forgot to take photos... but I did like this recipe so much that I made two more batches of it immediately.  Here's what I did:

Shannon's Veggie Pancakes
(inspired by weelicious.com's green veggie pancakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup zucchini, broccoli, and/or cauliflower (I used 3/4 broccoli to 1/4 carrots - see note)
• 1/4 cup flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 teaspoon dried basil 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• canola or vegetable oil 

Preparation

1. Place the vegetables in a food processor and pulse to chop fine. (I measured the 1 cup of veggies after this step.)
2. Add the chopped vegetables into a bowl along with the flour, salt, egg, basil, garlic powder and onion powder. Mix to combine. 
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and place 1 tbsp of the batter into the pan for each pancake. 
4. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. (First batch cooked 4-5 minutes each side)

Notes:

• I measured the 1 cup of veggies after pulsing them in the food processor.  I don't know how much it was pre-processed.
• I used a nonstick skillet and only had oil in for the first batch - I would skip this entirely next time given this skillet.
• As a special treat, for the last batch to go in the skillet, I mixed in 2 tablespoons of grated Asiago cheese -- added a wonderful depth to the flavor!
• I used all-purpose flour this time but would definitely try whole wheat next time, maybe even toss in a tablespoon of ground flax in there as well.
• This recipe easily doubles ;)  
• My two-year-old DEVOURED these and kept asking for more!
• I plan to pop the leftovers in the toaster oven for lunch tomorrow :)

Woah! Five months!

Woah, time really, really is flying by these days.  I can't believe I haven't posted in five months! Oops.

So... yeah, nothing much new, honestly.  I'm not losing weight.  Did carb cycling for two weeks a few months ago and lost approximately nothing.  I got frustrated with my bathroom scale in April and kept meaning to replace it and I still haven't - so I went well over a month without weighing in.  This morning, I weighed myself, stepped off the scale and picked up a bottle of shampoo, weighed myself, stepped off the scale and put down the bottle, and weighed myself again... gaining 0.8 pounds.  What the heck!?  I really hate unreliable measurements.  I did similar tests with scales at Costco and Bed Bath and Beyond this past month and all those scales reacted similarly. Very frustrating. :(  I am the type who is definitely motivated by seeing the scale go down, and it's maddening if that scale isn't working reliably.  Any suggestions? ;)

I need to refocus on the weight loss by moving more and eating less.  Moving more is a big problem as I am still dealing with the pelvic separation and hip issues from pregnancy (and my son is two years old now...).  I hurt my back on Mother's Day but thankfully it is mostly recovered by now.  I am pondering joining the YMCA but haven't had the chance to go visit it yet to see their facilities in person.  It's more expensive than 24 Hour Fitness (where I had a membership for 2 years from a Costco deal, but that ended a year ago), but they include child care while you're working out, and have a kids' tumbling class that would potentially be great for my son.  Hopefully I can check it out sometime over the next week.

I'm hoping to hold myself accountable more with this blog - and if you're reading this, feel free to say hi so I know I'm not doing this alone. :)

still hanging in

Still around the same point on the scale - not particularly losing weight though, so that's not pleasant. ;)  I feel like a broken record, saying that "this time, it's going to work!" and then not losing more than a pound or two.  But I really, really do want to lose the weight - just need to get a few things straightened out in my life and then hopefully things will actually fall into place and I can kiss a few pounds goodbye.  Even right now, I'm hungry and craving chocolate and/or something salty - but I'm going to just sip some cold water and hope that the craving passes.  I know, I should get up and exercise instead, but frankly, I'm going to celebrate not giving into the craving as a victory and worry about the exercise when my body feels better. ;)