Wedding Weight-Loss: Avoiding Temptation

When it comes to my diet, two of the biggest tests of my willpower are the free goodies at work and going out for drinks with friends. 

In my office, we have a huge kitchen stocked with everything you could ever imagine, and it’s so hard to stay away. Look at the snack wall — and this is only half of the food we have here!

snack wall at blogger work

To keep myself from snacking all day, I've been drinking ice water throughout the day — I keep a big cup on my desk filled with ice water at all times. This helps fill me up, and it also helps me get through these humid days!

Tuesday was one of my best friend's birthdays, so a few of us decided to go out for drinks later in the week. I recently discovered Smirnoff Sorbet Light vodka — it only has 78 calories per serving, compared to about 100 in regular flavored vodkas. I added some fresh raspberries and club soda; it was so good.

light vodka cocktail

Here, a look back at my week:

Monday, July 8

Waking up this morning after being off for 4½ days was dreadful. I need to kick myself back into gear after the weekend I had. On Saturday, Rene and I worked out with Bonne Marcus again. It was torture! We did so many bicep curls and tricep extensions that I literally thought my arms were going to fall off. Bonne also introduced something called gliders, which were done on what looked like a Frisbee. You put one foot halfway on the device, then glide your other leg out to the side and to the back while bending and squatting with the leg on the device. It was so hard, and after doing almost 50 of them all together, I walked out of Bonne’s thinking my legs were gonna fall off, too. My legs and arms immediately hurt as soon as I walked out the front door.

The good news is that Rene made it through the whole workout for the first time! He also lost 2 pounds, and I’m so proud of him! Unfortunately, I gained back one pound after my great success last week. I’m sure it had something to do with the mass amounts of food I consumed on Wednesday and Thursday, so it’s just more motivation to do well this week. My goal is to lose another ten pounds before my engagement party on August 16.  

Last night, I went to visit my five-month-old nephew; he is the absolute love of my life (besides Rene, of course). How freaking cute is he?!

blogger nephew baby fourth of july

This morning, I had an iced coffee with skim milk and Splenda with two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. I had a cup of pineapple for a mid-morning snack, and I made a delicious shrimp stir-fry for lunch. The stir-fry consists of sautéed shrimp, red peppers, mushrooms and zucchini with a little bit of olive oil, garlic powder, and salt and pepper over a half cup of brown rice. It will definitely keep me full until dinner later, which is thin chicken breasts stuffed with fat-free mozzarella cheese and zucchini with a baked potato and sugar snap peas on the side. Rene made dinner, and it was amazing! Rene and I also will go for a walk/jog later after dinner to get our cardio in for the day.

Tuesday, July 9

For breakfast, I had a bowl of Fiber One cereal with skim milk, plus some grapes for my mid-morning snack. For lunch, I ate leftovers from last night.

Before dinner tonight, we did Bonne’s workout routine together in our kitchen/living room. It was tough, but we made it through. Our arms were still sore from the torturous arm exercises we did with her on Saturday, but it felt good to work out the muscles again. My favorite exercise from this routine is doing crunches on the bosu ball (which looks like a stability ball cut in half on a hard surface). I really feel it in my abs when doing side and regular crunches. Burn, baby, burn!

For dinner tonight, I made broiled tilapia over spinach with asparagus, so yummy! It was a great day with eating and working out!

tilapia dinner

Wednesday, July 10

I was tired and cranky this morning when I woke up — probably because I was up late catching up on The Bachelorette on my DVR. I can’t get enough of that sappy show, and I was lucky I got Rene to watch some of it with me! He says he hates it, but I swear he secretly loves it.

This morning for breakfast, I had two hard-boiled eggs, an iced coffee, and some grapes as a mid-morning snack. For lunch, I made a veggie burger on whole wheat thin sandwich bread and a side of sugar snap peas and watermelon. 

When I get home tonight, I need to start packing. Rene and I are going to North Carolina on Friday morning for the weekend for his dad’s 80th birthday! I’m so excited to get on a plane and get away for the weekend.

I’m hoping dinner will be ready for me when I get home. Tonight, we are having whole wheat spaghetti with a light sauce and ground turkey, a meal from Bonne’s meal plan.

Thursday, July 11

I can’t wait to get out of work today! My friends and I are going out for drinks, and I'm excited about my new raspberry cocktail. I finished packing for my trip, so I can just enjoy myself tonight. 

I knew I wasn’t going to be able to work out tonight, so I did some ab and arm exercises this morning before I left for work. I did regular and side crunches on the bosu ball and did bicep curls and tricep extensions. At least it’s something, right?! I weighed myself this morning and I was down two pounds. since last Saturday, so I hope I can keep up the good work while I’m away for the weekend. It’s going to be hard not meeting with Bonne, but I know I can do it!

I’ll let you how my trip and my weight loss went on Monday. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

—Jennifer Crow