Day one of Shan vs. Diet Coke

I want to try and stop, or at least cut back. Right now, I drink about 2 cans with my lunch and at least 2 cans when I get home. That's a lot. So, in my first attempt, I didn't pack any soda in my lunch today. It is 8am and I am already dreading my 12pm lunch time with no soda. I don't know how I will survive, but I will try.

Anyway, I watched a semi-interesting documentary last night. Fat, Sick, and nearly dead. A few of my friends have come on board with this "juicing" trend and I wanted to educate myself before I formed too harsh of an opinion on it. First, I definitely think it is unhealthy to only juice for a couple months. And second, I am still not sure I believe that consuming the juice would be the same as consuming all of the vegetables. I guess it was an interesting theory, and maybe worth looking into more as maybe one meal replacement, but as for the entire diet, that just seems like a recipe for disaster. But honestly, I would much rather eat a huge platter of veggies than one glass of really nasty green juice. 

Its really weird to me that I am the one telling them that they have to change their lifestyles and actually believe it. I tried to explain to them that juicing is not the solution, they need to seriously change their habits. Thinking "its only for ten days" is not a healthy way to think, and if after that ten days you go back to how you were, it was all for nothing. I feel like since this has been a hard journey for me, I have knowledge that I didn't have before. I HAVE changed my life, I HAVE changed my thinking on "diets," and when I talk about this journey for me it is something I 100% believe. This is not about going on a diet and exercising, it is about willpower, sacrifice, and breaking habits.

Well, that's my rant for today. I cant wait for the weekend!

Dinners in the Shan household

I like having pictures on my blog so I figured I would share some pictures of our meals. Pictures are fun.

Day one- home made calzones. I just used a jiffy box of instant pizza crust, some sauce, cheese and any toppings we wanted. Not necessarily low in calories, but not too high, much much better than pizzeria calzones, and also you can put whatever you want in it and make it really filling. I only ate about half of mine. And not to mention it only took about 5 minutes to throw together, so that is always a plus.

Day two- Lasagna soup. Its almost like spaghettios with lasagna noodles and cheese. And healthier. Basically just tomato sauce, chicken broth, lasagna noodles, and seasonings. I got the recipe from pinterest. Oh how I love pinterest. We didn't use any meat in ours, and you could probably lower the calories even more by using a lighter pasta, the lasagna noodles we used were pretty high in calories compared to other noodles.
http://thedeenbros.com/index.php/recipes/recipe_detail/bobbys_lighter_tastes_like_lasagna_soup/

One of our favorites- PF Changs copy cat lettuce wraps. So so good. And filling. And flavorful. And easy. http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/recipes/articles/2011/08/08/20110808lettuce-wraps-crispy-rice-stick-noodles.html
 We used chicken breasts and cut them up really fine, since ground chicken creeps me out. Its really good, healthy, and fun to assemble. :)

And my masterpiece of the week, quinoa burgers with my zucchini casserole. I am new to quinoa, and whoa... how have I lived without it for all the time!? Amazing. All you need is quinoa, egg (I only used the egg white), grated carrots & onion, and seasonings. Mush it up into a patty and cook it in a pan with a teeny butter to get a nice crisp on it. Crazy low calorie and one of the best things I have ever eaten. Here is the real recipe for you recipe followers.
http://eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/love-my-quinoa-burger/

Don't you guys love how funny my pictures look compared to the professional pictures on the websites? Total fail on all of them. Oh well, I don't really care how it looks as long as its good. And, since I have lost 17lbs it looks like something is working, even though its not pretty. I still need to lose three pounds before Halloween to make my first goal. I CAN DO IT!!


I will leave you guys with a picture from our weekend. We drank a little (sorry diet) and got on a supreme scream type ride. About ten times. It was so much fun. And scary. We went on so many times, but somehow Matt was scared to go on again. So I went alone. 180 feet in the air. All by myself. I must have lost my mind. Matt made me put on my glasses so I would get the full effect of how high we were, excuse my looking like a nerd.