Guess who's back...back again.

First things first, a nice throwback Thursday picture of me and my big sistah. It was 1994. I was in fourth grade (age 9), and a member of the jump rope team. We were a pretty big deal. We jumped for the old folks at the nursing home. I am pretty sure I was doing the duck face YEARS before it was cool. I bet you are probably also jealous of my sweet girl mullet. I rocked this hair cut from about age 4 to fifth grade--when my mom stopped cutting my hair and got me a 'perm.'  She took me to a beauty salon and transformed my hair from sweet girl mullet to an even more awesome afro. Another picture for another day...Thanks mom.

Next up is a picture of my sweet little Valentine! We didn't do much for Valentine's Day this year. We baked cookies for hubby C's grandma and hung out with Baby O all day. We are eating some Subway for dinner, which I am pumped about. I love Subway, but I hate the way Subway smells. Hubby C braved the stinky Subway for me. He is a great husband (most of the time!).

It has been a week and a half since my last post. I have missed two weigh-in Wednesday. The first one showed a little progress...another pound down. After this weigh in, I went a little crazy with eating out and not exercising.

If anyone has wondered where I have been, I have been eating. Everything in sight. The scale yesterday was not too kind to me...I gained a pound back! Boo! This was after me 'cleaning up' my eating on Monday and Tuesday. I am going to lose that dang pound again this week. I have been eating much better. I only had one of those double chocolate chunk cookies. I made hubby C leave them at his grandma's house. I don't do well with temptation. I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day. Happy Thursday!

The time two foxes laughed at me...

The weather was beautiful this weekend! Sunny and in the mid 60s...it seemed like perfect running outside weather, so I decided to give it a try. The hills and uneven road made for a harder run, but it was much more interesting than the treadmill at the gym. My view there includes the lovely wall of muscle milk... We live out in the wilderness. I have to drive for ten minutes on an old dirt road to get to the highway. We have turkeys and bears and deer (oh my!) all around us. Near the end of my run, I scared two foxes out of the woods. They ran like crazy to get away from me (I guess they thought I was going to eat them). Then after a few seconds, one looked back and saw me breathing hard. He must have told the other one because they stopped running to stare at me. I am pretty sure they were laughing at me trying to make it up the big hill. They saw they could definitely out run me and trotted back in the woods.




My outside run was my only exercise this weekend. I have been avoiding the gym. I cheated on my 30 day challenge. I ate out on Friday night with our friends. I ate a burger AND I had an almond joy martini. It was pretty tasty!

I also made the hubs go to the new cupcake and ice cream place. Baby O drove us...
I have been thinking I want them to do Baby O's first birthday cake. Once we got there, I had banana foster ice cream (vanilla with caramel, cinnamon, banana, and almonds mushed up in it). Wow. It was beyond amazing. Sorry, but I ate it too fast to take a picture. After this weekend of good food, I am back to no cheating today! I have a date with RunninRob at the gym this afternoon for running, zumba, and weights!

This thing said I ran a 7 minute mile pace....I didn't.

One last picture of sweet baby O....Happy Monday!

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!