Back on track!

Ok, so after being on a approx. 1000 calorie diet, I weighed myself this morning and I am back at 176.5 lbs. So after some deviation, I have managed to get back on track. YAY

I realized the reason I stopped losing weight was because I cut my calories back TOO MUCH. I was down to 700-800 day, which is of course unhealthy (but that's besides the point) and also made my body think I am in starvation mode and thus it had to conserve every bit of energy I consumed. Remember when I first started my Roca Labs and I lost 4.5 lbs within a couple days? Thinking back, I was on a approx. 1000 calorie diet. My breakfast was the formula and coffee, lunches was a box of lean cuisine (about 2-300 calories) and I ate a 'normal' dinner. By normal I mean I ate whatever I would normally eat, I just stopped when I filled up. I think about 1000-1200 (maybe 1200 when we go out or on a weekend) is perfect for me. I am much more satisfied, fuller and the weight is now starting to come off again.

So here are my meals yesterday:

Breakfast: Roca Labs and coffee
Lunch: Strawberry kiwi kale smoothie; quarter of a Costco blueberry muffin (I allotted myself half of it! But I was stuffed!)
Snack: handful of all natural local yellow corn tortilla chips
Dinner: Olive Garden (fiancé's idea, BTW they're doing their buy one take one deal for $12.99) - one bowl of Zuppa Tuscana soup; half of my spaghetti and meat sauce; no breaksticks

Total: about 1141 calories. I didn't exercise at all because work was busy during lunch and I had to take our puppy to obedience class right after work...then to dinner...then I was ready to crawl into my comfy bed

I looked some Roca Labs users online and Youtube and everyone was consuming more calories than I. There is a girl on Youtube that was on 1500 calories plus a workout program and she was losing weight consistently. I think my plan to be about 1000-1200 plus walking weather permitting should be the perfect balance. I've also found some workout videos on Youtube in case weather is consistently bad too.

Today: 2 Hydroxycut; 1 Raspberry Ketone; half Roca Labs with lemonade flavor; tuna and egg salad for lunch; walking; second half of Roca Labs with lemonade flavor; leftover Olive Garden soup, 2 baked pieces of tilapia and 1 cup of Brussels sprouts for dinner.

PROTEIN - my late night Pinterest-ing has landed me the conclusion that my 1000-1200 calorie diet needs to consist of more protein and less carbs. The body has to use more energy to digest protein and therefore burns more calories. Carbs are easy to process and often contain more fat than lean proteins. I will stop by the store and grab a thing of Whey protein to mix into my smoothies whenever I make them, and also concentrate on eating more proteins than carbs. Proteins also fill you up for longer periods of time, whereas carbs give you instant energy and instant gratification (trust me....I love my pasta and rice and etc.) It'll be hard, but I'm not cutting carbs out by any means, just trying to design my meals with protein in mind. Plus my protein powder in smoothies that I plan to drink anyway.