Update on eating healthy

Soooo.................I wanted to do an update on some foods I ate last week that has helped me to stay on track with eating 1300 cals per day! I logged in all my info into MFP app, and it calculates how many cals I need to eat to lose 2 lbs per week, so 1300 is the magic number for me!

I did great all week, cheated one day and ate about 1900, but the next day I was under by 400, so I think it nearly equaled out! I went to the gym twice last week, played a softball game, and walked the neighborhood. I thought for sure I would lose another 2 lbs this past week, but guess what???????? I didn't lose a single solitary ounce! I lost 8 lbs last week, so I guess my body wasn't ready to let go of anymore weight!

This past week was the Fair week, I typically will grab fair food........but not this time, wasn't going to let that ruin the great week I just had! Sometimes I eat great all week long, to only ruin it over the weekend, would lose 2 lbs Mon-fri, then weigh again on Monday, only to gain those two pounds back, viscious cycle for sure, I hope I'm not the only one that has done that over and over again!

Some of my items I love to eat are the cinnamon and raisin bagel thins, with fat free raspberry cream cheese spread, it's great and is very filling and only 150 calories, I typically pair that with apples, or grapes, for my mid-morning break along with a 12 minute walk, I'd guess we are walking a 1/4 to half mile on our breaks....keep in mind dress clothes, and sandals, so it's by no means a fast walk, just moving some!
My other breakfast go to is a tablespoon of peanut butter on 5 ritz crackers with 5 tops, so 10 crackers total, that puts my total cals around 255, still not horrible! I use to call that my cheat meal, but doesn't have to be if I measure out the peanut butter.

Breakfast is my hardest meal, because I'm a vegetarian. But I have a few "go to" items that I like!

2 of my other favorites are these:

They look very similiar the first photo is a taco salad! I used 11 chips for 140 cals, 1/4 cup of black beans, I'm guessing around 70 calories and sour cream that was 40 calories, for a total of 250 cals, I'm totally aware the salsa has a few cals in it, but not enough to count for me! I also had cayenne pepper to mine, because the hotter the better! :-)

The second photo is a grilled cheese sandwich, with a ton of lettuce, tomato, and onion! That was 2 pieces of 35 bread and 2 pieces of cheese for a grand total of 190 calories, very filling, I also added ketchup and mustard to it, once it was made sandwich style it was just too big to grab and eat!

It's hard to document everything you ate and eat so healthy to not see the scale drop, however when I lost the prior 30 lbs, that was typical for me, I wouldn't lose a pound for 4 straight days, then on the 5th day, I'd drop 2-3 pounds, it's kind of odd to me how that works, but I will take it, so that's what I'm hoping happens on Monday when I weigh in!

This week was great! Today I had my EMT refresher course and since I'm not in my own environment and I can't control lunches and breaks I thought I would do terrible, but I didn't! Thanks to Ali Ray and J for buying my lunch at the good Ol' Mcdees, I ate the Southwest Salad! It was yummy and a nice break away to have adult conversation! On a side note, I felt like an idiot in class................it's so hard to remember all of that medical jive when you don't do it everyday! I remembered all my skills, but textbook was different, the instructor wanted us to take a test on all the bones in the body and label the skeleton, I didn't review a thing because I didn't know we were testing on anything, I only missed 4 which isn't bad I didn't think, but i'm the oldest in the class, with a bunch of younger students! I don't like this getting old stuff! ha!

I hope I can report back in on Monday with great news from the scale!

WEIGHTLOSS

The lovely topic, I deal with daily :)

So after eating bad for Father's Day, my bday, and vacation and feeling like poo, I decided I have had enough! It was time to get back to my heathly eating habits, not to mention that I gained 23 lbs since Fall, ridiculous for sure!

I was using the excuse of the holidays and my dad being sick, I was out of a routine, and it just wasn't working for me, I'd try to do good, but after sitting in the ER with him for 6+ hours, I'd grab a snickers from the vending machine, or whatever!

On Sunday I went to the grocery to prepare for the week ahead, I did great, I took lots of roasted veggies for snacks, lots of cut up fruits, and had a great week!

THE RESULTS..........................I lost 8 lbs as of Friday! Friday was also another hard day, it was Relay for Life, the place is loaded full of food booths, I did grab a bean burrito on the way there because they are good, and filling, usually one does the trick! Once I got to Relay I had 2 brownies, and got a small fry on the way home, that dinner cost me about 900 calories! I did exercise alot that day, so I had Friday as my cheat day.

Today I've done great, so great that I had 400 cals left once I finished logging my food into MFP, (my fitness pal app) It said I ate too few cals today but for some reason I'm stuffed. After it said that I ate a handful of strawberries and blueberries and now I'm miserable! being under 400 cals today, just balances out yesterday!

I found a great BEFORE picture I thought I'd post, the first picture I was at my heaviest!

The second picture I had lost about 25 lbs! These pictures are 4 years apart!

I would like to lose around 50 lbs total from my heaviest! We shall see, I will keep you all posted!

I'm hoping to share some great recipes and ofcourse do a Recap of Relay this week!

Happy Father's Day

Today has been great, fun, sweet, sad, teary, and happy all in the same day! Shew-wee what a roller coaster of emotions today!

I didn't want to dwell on not having my dad today, I wanted to reflect on the great memories we made together, and there are so many, from nicknames, to wrestling, to running every night together, to our meal times, fishing trips, camping trips, wedding fun, vacations, and etc.

I also didn't want it to be a super sad day, because I have a wonderful husband who is a great dad to our boys! He loves them, plays with them, and is a role model for them!
We celebrated last night with a cookout, here was our menu: ribs, brats, corn on the cob, baked beans, beer cheese, salad, rolls, chips/dip, and strawberry shortcakes, we were miserably full!

Today I went to the cemetery with my mom, and boys, we put some Father's Day balloons on dad's grave, we are awaiting his stone to get here, it's going to be so beautiful, can't wait until it gets here! :)

Here is one of my favorite pics of my hubs and my dad, I just love it!

They are posed the same, smiling the same! This was at dad's bday last year, crazy how in one year things can change, he died 363 days from the day this pic was taken!

We also celebrated with Papaw (my FIL) last night, they came for our cookout! Here is a pic of Papaw!

I hope all 3 of these men know how much they are role models to our children, and how they are watching their every move, and how they are looking for love from them all!

My boys still talk about Poc everyday and it makes me smile, they love him, and miss him, and look up in the clouds to find him, I honestly thought my youngest would soon forget him, but not a chance!

I found some old home videos on VHS from 1994, and 1995, and I can't wait to have them put on a DVD, tomorrow I'm dropping them off and can't wait to get them back! Will be a fun popcorn/movie night!

Brandon.......you are the best father and we love you! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!



My Birthday

I had an awesome Birthday! Thanks to all my friends and family!

I went to work and found a gift card left by my secret sister for me, and Crane gave me a "friends" tumbler, family gave me money, and friends bought me lunch! And one of my besties (you know the one, that was in the big blue sea) showed up today with Margaritas and we grilled out! Such a fun time, even in the rain!

Thanks to the ones that could meet up and have lunch on Friday, you girls mean the world to me! We went to Pizza Inn, and it might be our favorite place to eat! :) It was nice to get out of the office for a bit!

Another big present was our new LR furniture was delivered, set up and ready when I got home! And ofcourse I told the hubs no presents since I had my shopping spree at Bed, Bath, and beyond!

Here are my presents from my friends:

Yes, that is our old couch in my kitchen, we were going to deliver it to the new owner and we have just had too much rain to do so! We didn't want to move it twice, so it's there for now, and the kiddos think it's their new jungle gym! SHEESH! :)
And you might notice the Margarita is half gone, Ali Ray and I might have drink half of that tonight, ha ha ha!
Good times for sure!

And speaking of couches, here is our new LR furniture:

I love it, it's nice, the loveseat is a rocker/recliner on each end! They are super plush, these bad boys took 7 weeks to come in, glad they are here now!

Oh and totally can't forget EE's team won their first game tonight! That was a great Bday present, I know Poc was sooooo proud of our boy tonight, he caught one in the air, then threw out the runner for a double play, he roped two line drives down the third base line, and went 2-3 at bat! That boy loves him so baseball, and so does his momma! It's in our blood, no doubt about it! :) He hit the other time at bat, and it went right out in front of home plate, I think it stunned him, he hesitated to run, he normally hits very long balls, so I think it kind of shocked him, if he had taken off running, he would have been safe, he was out by a hair!

He plays 3 nights next week, and we are stoked, and it's already time to sign up for fall ball, I'm riding the fence on coaching! I really don't want to, but I help so much (because I want to) that I feel like I might as well coach, we shall see how it goes!

I think that sums up a fantastic Bday week! I'm so blessed with all my friends and family!

Missing one of my besties.............

One of my besties is on her Honeymoon, and while I'm thrilled for her, I'm sad for me! I miss her, I've picked up my phone no less then 10 times to call her and chat or tell her something important, only to remember she is in the big blue sea until Sat!

I have other besties too, all of my girlfriends are so important to me! I have some I talk to daily, some I walk with on breaks at work and some we eat lunch together everyday, and some I talk to only weekly.

You don't realize how much you love them until you can't talk to them, I realize a vacation is just a week and things will be back to normal on Sat, but I do miss her!

Something to think about, I once was asked..............think of the person you talk to the most? I immediatley thought of my best friend, I wasn't married at the time, then the next response was, do you talk to God as much as you do that person? Wow that was an eye opener, again I was young, not married, and while I was thankful for all the wonderful things in my life, I didn't thank God for them daily like I do now!

Talking about one of my best friends reminded me of that, and I thought it was a great thing to ponder, so I threw it in. I know it's a little off subject!

I also realize I said I would post about all my new finds, I seriously felt like a little girl at Christmas, my MIL went with me an B-man shopping, I found a beautiful clock to match our LR perfect (thanks Nini for buying it for us) I also found a matching wall hanging, and 2 awesome frames, I will do a post about them and where we put them! It was such a fun day!

Ali Ray, I hope your having a wonderful time on your Honeymoon! I miss you bunches~! This is my girl!

B-man's room makeover

When we first bought our new home, the only room that had to be painted immediately was B-man's room, it was teal color, kind of girly, I really like the other paint choices, the living room is sage, dinning room is a creamy color on top and a rust color on the bottom, kitchen is the same cream color, our master BR is a mocha-it's too dark for me, but has to stay for now, and EE BR is a cream color, his BR is the only room that has a semi-glossy finish, all other rooms are flat, i'm a semi-glossy girl, they just clean up better!

It will be awhile before we decide to paint anything else, although the DR is next on my list! It has a chair rail in the middle and the rust on the bottom has just got to go! I want to keep the creamy color on top and paint light grey/dark grey stripes on the bottom! I think that will look good and modernize it some, the house is only 4 years old, and we love it!

Now back to Brady's room, keep in mind he is in preschool so he is still just a wee-tot, I asked him what color he wanted us to paint his room, he didn't hesitate one minute, and blurted out ORANGE! I'm not a fan of colorful rooms, I just feel my boys would get tired of it very quickly and neither me nor my hubs are painters! ha!

So I keep asking him what color, and he was stuck on orange and I knew there would be no way I would paint the entire room orange, so we did an accent wall orange and all others white, snow white! I know your thinking snow white, in a toddler's room? Ha, I just think it looks crisp and clean, and it's semi gloss so I can wipe it down, we have extra paint if anything major happens!

Here is a picture of where you can see the teal, the white and the orange!

The picture doesn't look teal, but it was a soft teal I suppose, we just thought it was too "girly" for him! So the room is now finished 10 weeks later, that is so sad for sure, his twin bed has been in our master all of this time! Life is busy, and we just haven't made his room priority, but we did this weekend and now it's finished! It's exciting!
Now he is requested a big UT on the orange wall in white, he is a major TN fan, as is his dad! so we are going to be ordering one, I know I can do one on the cricut, but only as big as 12 inches and I'm thinking it atleast needs to be 18 inches or bigger!
At one point he said he wanted orange and red room, we just laughed and said "you wish"

I can't wait to do a home tour on here one day soon, our new LR furniture should be here by the end of the month! I had no idea it took 6+ weeks once you buy it to come in, who knew?

One thing that i'm finding I don't have is enough wall hangings, this house is double the space of the other house, and being a photographer I have a ton of pics, but not the right pics for the right walls and etc!

I'm headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond tomorrow for 2 new pieces for the LR that I found, both are super nice, one is a clock and one is a wall hanging, might look for something to go in the LR/mud room, and possibly the downstairs bath!

I'm also going to be purchasing extra toothbrushes to go in the downstairs bathroom, sometimes the kids come downstairs before brushing their teeth and don't want to go back upstairs, it almost seems I need to stock that bathroom with an extra set of all our personals, such as deodrant, hair gel and hair spray! we shall see!

I will be sure to post a picture of his completed room tomorrow, and my finds at BB&B!

We still have a storage bldg full of our stuff, some lil boy is going to be so happy to have all of his toys back in his room! He has been so patient with us! The pool and trampoline as well as the playhouse out in the backyard have kept the boys busy!

A healthy week

On Sunday I mentioned that I had a fridge full of produce. It is midweek and I wanted to report I'm doing great. Dieting for me isn't about having to eat high calorie food. It's about being prepared with low calorie snacks.
This week has been a success. I've taken oranges, apples, and canteloupe everyday. It helps curb any temptation from the office!
A huge thanks to my hubs for cutting up mango and strawberries for us to finish the week on!

Fridays are my "cheat" days I don't go crazy but I don't count cals and I still exercise I just don't journal everything I eat that day.

I'm waiting until Friday to weigh. Normally Crane and I weigh daily. I know that sounds insane to some but it totally keeps me on track. Good or bad.

I went to the gym last night and twice today. So hopefully I'm burning a lot more cals then I'm eating.

I've never touched on how many calories I'm eating. I try to eat around 1500 cals per day. Even on weekends. Now that being said I don't count fruit or veggies. I know they have cals but I'm losing weight this way so I figure what I'm doing is working.

I initially lost 30 lbs. I'm sad to say I had gained 15 lbs back. Boo
Now  on the rt track. I'm hoping to be down about 4 lbs this week.

I will keep everyone posted!