Throw back Thursday

My throwback Thursday picture is one of baby O right after she was born. Does it count as a 'throw back' if the picture is only from 10 months ago? I can't believe I have a ten month old, much less that she will be ONE in just two months! I decided to do an Alice in Wonderland tea party theme for her first birthday. I am very excited about it, and I am working on plans for decorations and food.

I have had a pretty good week as far as dieting and exercise are concerned. I have been doing the 30 day challenge (of no cheating with food or booze) with my friend Jessie for a week now. I have stuck with my calories every day. I had a tough time over the weekend. I successfully stepped AWAY from the fried pork chops and key lime pie...instead of running away WITH the fried pork chops and key lime pie. I think it is the little victories that are the most important! I have been going to the gym regularly for couch to 5k and Zumba class. Zumba is a lot of fun, despite my inability to move in the right direction. Am I supposed to use my left or her left? Is her left my right? I haven't knocked anyone down yet, which is a plus. RunninRob has also started to help me lift weights for some strength training and muscle building! My hard work paid off yesterday morning...when I saw 168.4 on the scale! WOOHOO! Good bye 170s! I am so pumped to be in the 160s. I am hoping for another 1 pound loss by next Wednesday.

I have been bringing a little vegetable salad for lunch every day. I alternate zucchini and tomato with cucumber and tomato. With a little balsamic vinaigrette added, it is very tasty. We have been eating grilled meat and veggies for dinner every night. Maybe I can turn hubby C into a healthy chef one of these days!
I am sure you noticed that I finally learned how to move and size my pictures...go me! I hope everyone is having a great week!

Another day, another weigh in...

At my weigh in this morning, I was 170.2. So, one pound back down from last Wednesday. It has been a week since I last went to the gym. I have decided to join two challenges to help further motivate me to lose weight. I am going to do a 30 day challenge with my friend Jessie. The goal for this challenge is no cheating on good and no booze for 30 days. I am going to stick with my 1500 calorie a day plan. I am also joining a biggest loser contest at the gym. It's five bucks to enter, and the winner gets 6 months free at the gym. The final weigh in is March 31, so I have about 60 days to kick butt and lose it! (The weight, not the contest!)
Sticking with diet and exercise is such a struggle for me. Does anyone else have a hard time with it? I love to eat! I also find myself reaching for food when I am stressed...or sad...or celebrating. I have literally said to hubby C, "Cook me something fat, I had a bad day." And, bless his heart, he never fails to cook something yummy. I may enjoy eating junk, but I don't enjoy how I feel after. I don't like how I feel at the store when I have to ask the sales lady for a bigger size. I don't like being out of breath when I go check the mail. I don't like feeling ginormous in all the pictures I take. I don't like constantly pulling my shirt down to cover my jelly rolls. Eating bad may help me feel better in the moment, but it isn't helping me feel better in all the other moments. So, for these reasons and more I will lose it. I hope everyone is having a happy hump day. Get out and move it to lose it!

Big Girl Weekend

     I had one heck of a weekend that involved an awesome girl's night Friday at the cabin. Everyone made their favorite snacks, and I grubbed all night long. I chose to bring a cheese ball and white chocolate covered Oreo 'truffles.' There were also pinwheels, vegetables and dip, cupcakes, a hot cheese dip, and seven layer dip. The food was definitely 100% not diet food and definitely 100% delicious! We used this night as our Christmas gift exchange. RunninRob had the great idea for each person to bring their favorite things, so by the end of the exchange I got to come home with a bag full of goodies (see picture below). For my favorite thing, I made everyone a jar of fridge pickles and gave out a new lip balm. I love pickles, and these are super easy to make.
     Since I have been in a food (and drink) coma since Saturday morning, I have been eating everything in sight AND been an epic failure in the workout department. I am going to be repeating week 4 of couch to 5k this week, since I didn't ever get around to even starting it. I am a little scared to weigh in the morning, but maybe seeing that number will be the kick in the hiney that I need to get back in gear.

Cheese ball

2 packages of cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

5 green onions

1 jar dried beef

1/2 tbsp worchestire sauce

Soften cream cheese (I microwave it for 20 seconds). Chop onions and beef. Add to cream cheese. Add 1 cup of chopped pecans and worchestire sauce. Mix well and form into ball. Put remaining 1/2 cup pecans on outside of cheese ball. Refrigerate. Serve with crackers or wheat thins.

Oreo 'Truffles'

2 packages cream cheese

1 package Oreo cookies

white almond bark

Grind up the Oreos in a blender until it resembles sand. Add to softened cream cheese. Mix well. Put in fridge about 30 minutes to firm up. Roll into balls, dip in white almond bark. Refrigerate until set.

Fridge Pickles

10 cucumbers

3 green bell peppers

2 large yellow onions

4 cups white vinegar

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp celery salt

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 tbsp chopped garlic

Thinly slice vegetables and place in large bowl. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in small saucepan. Bring to boil, cook 1 minute. Pour over vegetables. Let cool. Cover and chill in the fridge for a few days. This makes a lot of pickles, so you can definitely cut this recipe in half. You can also up the red pepper if you want more spicy pickles!

Wednesday weigh day. Womp womp.

Surprise, surprise...I gained this week (171.2 as of Wednesday morning). Turns out I can't have a cheat meal everyday (and skip the gym most days) and still lose weight. I only finished two days of c25k, and I did zumba at home one time this week. I have been pretty lazy about work out time. On the food front, I ate out Friday and Saturday night AND ate bad hubby C food a few times. One night he made buffalo wings with ranch dressing, french fries, and macaroni and cheese. I think he secretly hates vegetables.
I am going to do better this week! I plan to limit myself to one cheat meal for the whole dang week. I am having a girl's night Friday night with a group of my best buddies. We are staying overnight at a cabin. This will be my first night away from baby O. I am nervous and excited. Because everyone is bringing their favorite sweet and favorite salty snacks, this is going to be my cheat meal night. As far as working out, I need to finish week 3 of c25k and all of week 4 by next Wednesday. That means at least 4 days of running my bootay off. I am hoping to see the 160s by next week...but for real this time!
Here's to making better choices this week...

Snow day Tuesday!

It snowed and iced again this morning. I can't believe it snowed twice, because it hardly ever snows here. I may not make it to the gym tonight because I am afraid to drive in any sort of bad weather. I will definitely try to do some wii Zumba since I won't be at the gym for the real thing. Sorry runninrob!! I ended up making my shrimp pasta today for lunch. I put a picture of the ingredients and the finished product below. Don't be jealous of my fine china, you can buy your very own plastic bowl at the dollar store. I use about half a box of mini bow tie pasta, two bags of mixed frozen veggies, a bottle of fat free Italian dressing, frozen shrimp, and some capers. All mixed together and it adds up to around 135 calories a cup. I think it is pretty tasty and filling. The husband loves it so much he never eats it. Just kidding, he hates anything with any type of vinegar...pickles and Italian dressing included. He won't even touch them because he hates the smell so much. Oh well, guess that means more for me! I hope everyone has a great Tuesday and is safe in any bad weather. Weigh in tomorrow...hoping I didn't gain this week!

Weekend Update

It is Sunday afternoon, which means it is back to work for me tomorrow morning. I have had a very relaxing weekend. On Thursday, I was able to go to the gym after work. I completed the first day of week 3, c25k. I did the whole three minutes..twice! I was the only one on the treadmills when I got there (there are 6 at my gym). Then this very tall man came in and started working out by jumping on one treadmill, sprinting for about 30 seconds, then jumping off and onto the next treadmill. He repeated this over and over, switching out treadmills until he had been on all of them (except mine). He totally glared at me when he had to skip my treadmill. I guess because he usually runs on them all. Is this a new work out that I don't know of? It was like some weird exercise version of Goldilocks with a giant man (seriously, he had to be like 7 feet tall). Because he was sprinting, he was very LOUD. That is saying something coming from me, because I am pretty sure I sound like a herd of dying elephants when I am on the treadmill. I was very freaked out and distracted by this whole thing. Lord knows I don't need no distractions on the treadmill! (We all know how uncoordinated I am!) I wonder if I was on candid camera.
I was at home Friday, so I decided to switch it up and do some Wii Zumba. I love doing Zumba at home because I can really get down. When I am at the gym, I usually go the wrong way and accidentally whack people with my arms and legs. RunninRob wants me to do a couple Zumba classes at the gym this week, and I guess I can go try to make everyone jealous of my dancing ability and maybe knock some people down. I went to the gym again today with my other friend Jessie. All of my friends are itty bitty and fit. I always feel like the big girl in our pictures. There were no shenanigans with the treadmill this time.
I did not do my best on the food front this weekend. I ate Mexican food Friday night AND Chinese food on Saturday night. Eating out is a double whammy for me because we are broke and because I never choose healthy options. I got a three cheese enchilada with sour cream sauce and ate my weight in chips and salsa while at Tamolly's. Yummmmo. I am going to make a shrimp and veggie pasta salad to take for lunch this week. I put a ton of veggies and very little pasta in it, to reduce the amount of calories. I will put some pictures up soon!
Happy Sunday to everyone!

Wednesday weigh day

I weighed in yesterday morning. As I stepped on the scale, I had my fingers crossed for a one pound loss. When my scale settled on 170.0, I nearly did a back flip. Except I can't do back flips and would have ended up like that girl on the Bachelor Monday who tried and just kind of fell over. I am pretty pumped about a four pound loss for the week! Since last Wednesday, I was able to complete the three days of C25k training. I stayed under my 1500 calorie limit on all but one day. The husband decided to make french fries and burgers on Monday night. I couldn't resist those salty, greasy, yummy fries. They were tasty, but I did have a stomach ache after.
My goal for this week is to lose one pound. I haven't seen 160 anything since summer time. I hope go to the gym 4 times this week. I think I will need at least one extra day with the C25K program. (THREE minutes straight of jogging?!?) I also plan to stick to 1400-1500 calories per day--which means saying NO to anything C makes. Seriously, the man can cook.
My buddy, RunninRob, and I are thinking about signing up for a 5k at the end of February. (Fa....a long, long way to run) At this point, I can't imagine running a full 3.1 miles, but I am going to get there! Until next time.....Happy Thursday!

Funday Sunday

One of my goals for the new year is to cook at least one new recipe each week. This week, after browsing food network, I chose a recipe for pork chops with apples and garlic smashed potatoes. I put two pictures below, one of the food network picture and one of how mine turned out (mine is the one with green beans). The husband, C, said that he thought it was pretty good. I think he may have been trying to avoid hurting my feelings. I liked it well enough, but I probably won't make it again. It was very sweet. Maybe if I could choose something else to add at the end instead of the apple cider... The garlic smashed potatoes were very tasty! I will be making them again. This was the first time I have ever used fingerling potatoes. C said he thought they looked like something in baby O's diaper (pre-smashing!). He also says this any time I eat guacamole.
On another note, I finished week two of couch to 5k today. I felt so proud that I ran all the 90 second intervals, even though I felt like I would pass out. I am starting week three tomorrow after work. I am nervous about jogging for three minutes straight. Hopefully I will continue to avoid any major accidents on the treadmill!
Happy Sunday!

Weighin Wednesday

I had to weigh in this morning. After two weeks of Christmas candy and food, I expected the worst! I ended up being at 174.2. So, I managed to maintain my original starting weight. I am glad, because I definitely over indulged. I love finger foods and candy. I graze all day, every day. I am finally able to get back to the gym after work today. It is time for c25k week 2, day 1. I haven't been able to go to the gym very consistently because of Christmas traveling and snow! It snowed a full 6 inches on Christmas Day. A true Christmas miracle for us here in south Arkansas. Below are a couple pictures from the snow days. We were lucky that our power was only out for two days. Some people had no power for a whole week! I am back to 1500 calories starting today. I hope to lose a pound by next Wednesdays weigh in.