Non- Scale Victories, Getting Back on the Wagon, Running, & Hot Chocolate

I weigh in weekly at Weight Watchers. This week I gained. I usually have a pattern loosing several pounds in a week then gaining a few of them back the next week. I think it has to do with rewarding myself for loosing. Unfortunately I tend to reward myself with food, so its a vicious cycle. My goal for the next two weeks is to loose consecutively 2 weeks in a row.

Theres a pattern and a term in all of these weight loss blogs and instagram accounts I follow. Its called a Non-Scale victory. A non scale victory is exactly what it sounds like. Its a victory that has nothing to do with pounds or points or what you weigh. My Non Scale Victory or NSV this week is runnning. Actually my NSV this week is actually getting up to run. It was 12 degrees this morning when I woke up. So I put on all my layers and headed to run with my group. It's only week two but I am LOVING my running group. I dont really know anyone in the group & I havent really talked to anyone (yet, its only week two). But I am loving the sense of community so much. Someone commented on my FB page that I was insane for running when it was this cold & that I could just run in the gym. I could run in the gym but I HATE the treadmill with a passion. I have treadmill ADD. Today I ran (outside) for 55 minutes or 4.87 Miles. There's no way I could run the treadmill for 55 minutes Id get entirely too bored. So yes, Im insane, and yes it was cold...but I loved every minute of it...& you warm up when you start to run. I heard a saying that turned into a funny joke today while running. What do you listen too while running in the cold? Coldplay hahahahha..(ok I thought it was funny). My NSV for today was running the longest ive ever ran. I think ive done 4 miles on the greenway before, but I dont think ive ever gone past 4! Today I ran 4.87 miles!! for 55 whole minutes!! I didnt die and I made it through the whole run!

My usual Saturday morning breakfast after a run is an egg white omlet. This is what I put in my omeltte:

Egg Whites -->Measured out to 1/4 cup

Spinach-->Several Handfulls

Mushrooms-->From the produce section, not the canned kind

Shredded Cheese-->1/4 cup--> I measure this out too bc if not I will go cheese crazy...

I also add whatever else I have in the fridge. For example this week I added some cubed ham I had leftover. 

I usually have a Kind bar on my way to my Saturday Morning run (Im addicted to the Kind healthy grains peanut butter bars).

This weekend I also added hot chocolate to my Saturday breakfast routine. I know what youre thinking, Hot Chocolate! Thats not healthy! But wait!! Dont give up hope! Im not doing any specific diet (other than WW), but I do like the Paleo diet, Whole30, and clean eating.  A few years ago I walked the Country Music Half Marathon (The current race im training to run). After every training run I would drink chocolate milk (Just regular chocolate milk). I really like Chocolate milk & it has some good benefits after a workout, but most brands have yucky nasty High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. So I wanted to add chocolate milk back into my routine, but dont want to deviate from eating healthy & I have a feeling that regular chocolate milk would not aid in my weightloss journey. So all of this to say, I made this really amazing hot chocloate today. I googled clean eating hot chocolate & paleo hot chocolate, but unfortunately a lot of them called for complicated ingredients I didnt have (like raw coconut sugar..ya that's not exactly lying around in the pantry). Have no fear, I found a recipe that doesnt call for strange ingredients & I also happened to have a bottle of Agave (sugar replacement) thats hardly even been touched. I was so excited to find a decent fairly healthy hot chocolate recipe. I also bought chocolate soy milk this week at the store with the intention of drinking a glass after my run today. So after my google search I found this recipe on another blog: 

http://stephcupoftea.blogspot.com/2008/10/hot-chocolate-with-agave-nectar.html

The only modifications I made to this recipe is that I used the chocolate soy milk I already had in the fridge. It was really good! I loved the cinnamon in it! 

Its been a tough week as far as eating and staying on track. I learned I really have to work at being strong & staying on track, Bingeing on the leftrover Christmas chocolate at work isnt doing me any good. I had every intention of staying on track Friday night at Chilli's by ordering off of their lighter menu...but my intentions were squashed when I decided to eat an order of chips and queso This week im going to try harder to stay on track! Every time I want to eat that chocolate at work im going to remember how much it stinks to stand on the scale at my weekly WW weigh in and see the number go up! Out of sight out of mind really is the truth. If I keep the cookies and candy out of sight then I will have less of a chance to binge on them!

To wrap up this (really long) blog post my goal for this week is to get back on track! Sub goals:

 1) Get back on track with my workouts. 

--> I fell off the workout wagon this week because it was cold & I got lazy! None of that this week! 

2) Stay away from the junk at work! This is just self control

 --> I dont have to eat every cookie, candy, and junk food that comes my way at work! I have to be strong and stay away from it this week!

THIS WEEK I WILL NOT GO OFF THE RAILS! I WILL STAY ON TRACK! <-- my mantra for the week

Long term goal:

There are about 30 days until my big cruise! (Woot woot!) & Im planning on giving myself a little vacation from "being good"  on the cruise, So that means that for the next 30 days I need to stay on track!

Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! Cya next time!

The Mug I put my hot chocolate in! Mad props to my BFF http://heyheythirdgradeblogspot.com/ for getting this for me!