Days #141 - #145: I'm SMOOTH (IE)!

Heyyyy!

Wow- what a crazy weekend! Here in PA we had some sort of major terrential downpour on Saturday, which was unfortunate being that the community service day that I had been working on coordinating for months was on Saturday...yea- I was pushed to my limits of flexibility- which I'm sure most of you can guess due to my perfectionistic anal retentive planning tendencies, didn't make for the most enjoyable of days lol! Ahhh oh well, such is life.

Well I am officially back into the swing of things- Sunday's weigh in had me 3lbs down and I'm hoping for at least 3lbs more off by the end of the week- I need to hit 50lbs lost and soon...as of this morning I've lost 45lbs and while I know that 45lbs is good- I just keep feeling like it's not where I should be right now- oh well- I'm not going to allow my frusterations with how slowly things have gone lately, I'm going to focus on the amount of time I have left in the year to reach my goal- 7 months to be exact :) 55 lbs in 7 months- I can do that!

I'm excited to share that I'm trying something new!

Since beginning this journey in November I have been following the same pattern of food preparation- I make a large amount of food on Monday evening after work and then divide it up into 4 equal portions so that I can bring healthy, semi-fresh lol food to work everyday. You see, I have to leave the house everyday at 6:15am and I have absolutely no time to spare to whip up some delicious salad, and so far it's worked pretty well- it's been tedious, repetative, and a bit annoying to eat the same thing every day but as I've been saying quite a lot recently... "You do what ya gotta do" and so that's what I've been doing.

But lately it's just been too much for me- I've been leaving the house at 6:20am and not getting back till 10:30pm so I've been trying to get creative with what has become a more than tedious task in this lunch making. The answer to all of my problems?

What is it? A GNC Total Lean Meal Replacement Shake

Now I don't know about you, but because my approach to healthy living from the beginning has been based upon the principle of eating good natural foods in smart proportions, I've kind of had an upturned nose at my coworkers as they all seemed to buy into these shakes recently...thinking that because they were using anything powdered that it wasn't natural and that it was automatically "fadish" and sure to fail. And then after my coworker made me a small glass of one and it tasted phenomenal, I decided to take a little walk over to the GNC store where I spoke with the store manager and expressed my concerns about drinking something like this and how it could effect my long-term weight loss and whether it was his good salesmanship, the truth, or the fact that he was a McGregor look alike, I walked out of the store with 2 tubs! lol

After giving it some more thought I realized that my prejudiced against all things that were not "whole foods" was really a bit misguided and misinformed, I realized that this very well could be the answer to my not having time to prepare my lunches! And for the past 2 days I have joined the rest of my coworkers in going into the lunch room at 12:30, gathering our fruit and blenders, and smoothie-ing it up!

Most of my coworkers are doing what the GNC lean plan suggests and replacing 2 meals a day with the smoothies, but that is just not realistic for me; my goal is long term weight loss and there's no way that I'll be replacing 2 meals a day with smoothies forever. So right now, my plan is to do 1 smoothie a day (for either breakfast or lunch)- not b/c I have been unhappy with my weight loss results, but because of the time factor.

Now the possibilities for smoothie types are obviously endless, but here's my current favorite recipe for deliciousness (including calorie counts):

Tiffany's Amaaaazing Smoothie (16oz):

-1 cup ice (0 cals)

- GNC Total Lean Shake Powder Vanilla Bean flavored 1.5 scoops (135 cals)

- Tropicana 50% less cals/sugar orange juice (12oz) (75 cals)

- Mixed frozen fruit (70 cals)

- 1 whole banana (100 cals)

Total: 380 cals!

And I wish I could send you each a little sample of how freaking delicious it is but alas, that won't be happening :)

I can't even say how convenient this has been for me thus far- I just bring a bag of mixed fruit, carton of OJ, and a bunch of banas to work, keep my tub of powder mix here, and badda bing- lunch is served!

Has anyone else tried these shakes or experienced similar frusterations/difficulties with preparing lunches?

Have a fantastic Tuesday ya'll! I'll be thinking of you when I'm enjoying my smoothie lunch today ; )