Go, go, go Saturday!!

Hey everyone! How's your weekend shaping up so far?

Heading back to last night - we had some home made pizza. We used a whole wheat premade dough from Whole Foods... my side was grilled chicken, green peppers, red onion and tomatoes with part skim mozz cheese. JR's was the same with some added some pepperoni. I had a yummy glass of Shiraz on the side!
Today has been busy from the start! I got up at about 6:30 to be sure and squeeze in my work out before Maddie woke up and before my crazy cleaning adventure today. I have been itching to do my Firm work outs... so I did one of my all time favs! Total Muscle Shaping!This one is about 45 minutes long, which can be very convenient on days that I do not have a lto of time work out! It also has lots of combined movements, keeping the hearat rate up. You have bicep curls while doing leg presses on a 14 inch step, lunges with an overhead press, dips and hammer curls, etc. Today for most of these, I used 10-12 lbs weights, depending on the exercise. You also do some step aerobics using 6 inch step or using the step on an incline.

After, I was crraavvviiingg some yoga! I popped in The Biggest Loser's Weight Loss Yoga DVD. Now I LOVE this DVD for many, many reasons - one because I adore Bob (and LOVE having ANY excuse to post pictures of him doing different yoga poses... haha)...Two because I love the fact that this work out is broken up into three different time segments! You have the 5 minute warm up - then you can choose between doing a 20 minute yoga routine, 15 minute routine or 10 minute routine. Today, I did the warm up and the 10 minute routine. Just what I needed! I burned 444 calories today.

After that, it was seriously breakfast time! I don't know why... but I was desperately craving my oatmeal pancakes!

Today's combo:
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tbsp protein powder
1 tbsp cottage cheese
1/2 smooshed naner
a couple of cut up frozen cherries
1/2 cup egg whites

Allllll of those ingredients to give us this (and I took like six shots of this and NEVER got a clear picture! I'm so sorry!)I topped one pancake with 1/2 tbsp PB Loco's Jungle Banana PB and the top pancake with 1/2 tbsp PB&Co's Dark Chocolate Dreams. I also sliced the rest of the banana up and sandwiched it between then. Perfecto!

The cleaning started after... I had to get my clothes situated in our room. Shamefully I have to say, our room was a mess. And it's about 85% my fault! I still think I'm a kid sometimes and um... my clothes kind of end up on the floor. So then it gets so bad that we can't walk in the room... and yes, I'm saying this in public! Embarrassing but true! Maybe it will help me change things! Probably not, unfortunately! My hubby is shaking his head while he's reading this, I know it! :)

Anyway while going through and hanging up clothes and putting them away in drawers, I also went through my closet to try to reorganize things a bit. I haven't wanted to face the closet for awhile now. Knowing that most of my clothes don't fit me at all because of my weight gain has made it hard to stomach looking at some of my fav shirts or jeans that I can't get into! I divided things into two sections... what I can wear now and what I can't. At least that way, I know exactly where to go to in the closet to get stuff out for the day and won't depress myself by going through all the others! Here's to hoping!

I got rid of some things I don't wear anymore. I've had things in the closet for a few years now saying I'm going to have them altered that haven't been touched. Out they went!

Did anyone tune into the live streaming of the Healthy Living Summit at all today? I thought it was awesome they made that available to us! I had problems with the sound throughout some of it but thought it was pretty fun to listen to and be able to get to know the personalities a bit more of the ladies there. I thought Zesty's part was great info! He mentioned getting your own domain if you plan to blog for awhile... I'm not sure if I'm ready for that - nor can I afford it right now. I do hate that I feel so limited in what I can do with my page right now, though. I want to add extra pages with before and after shots (which by the way, if you are interested you can check some out here), an info page, etc.

They also talked on the importance of photographs, which I agree with. As y'all have seen, I am definitely NOT the best food photographer at all. I am still working on that! The worst part is that as many windows and lights as we have in our house, there is NO light. I fight with that daily! So... need to figure out that angle. Thanks guys for hanging in there with me on the photos!

Finally had lunch around 1:00... I knew I needed to use up the rest of the turkey I had and a pear sitting in the fridge. So I "peared" (haha... okay maybe not as cute as I think it is) on a sandwich!

I mixed some light mayo and dijon mustard... put that on the bread with some thin pear slices. Added the turkey, swiss cheese and pressed it in a pan for a few minutes. Presto lunch! I served it with the rest of the pear, some strawberries and a few blue corn chips.
I also had a square of Ghiradelli intense dark chocolate that I found wayyyy at the bottom of one of my (many) purses while cleaning it out. So yummy!

Okay, I am off to get ready for some more errands! Gotta head out to Target and Walgreens...dinner will most likely be pizza (and wine) leftovers.

Thanks everyone for the comments on the dress! I have to say I loved the dress on in person... but when i saw the pictures, I almost cried. I haven't seen pictures of myself since gaining weight. My face is so much fuller and I'm just not as toned as I once was. But I made myself post them anyway... I need to be proud of where I am regardless! It's been a struggle today... putting on a dress tonight and knowing how it used to fit... I am trying to stay positive!

Just curious again on taking photos of food.... anyone have some great advice to pass along to make it more appealing to the eye?

Dress Success!

Sorry I haven't been around this week!!! Between working late and trying to find a dress... it's been quite busy!

I haven't had a ton of "blog-worthy" food to share. Which really, I hate saying! My meals are pretty simple and I think there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not one who can bust out the most creative meal in five minutes at lunch. I'm happy with simple stuff... so why change that because of a blog? I sometimes let myself feel like my food is not worth sharing because of this... but it's MY food and MY blog and if I'm making it my "own", why wouldn't I? I think I put too much pressure on myself to live up to a lot of other blogs out there... I don't need to do that!

I hope that makes sense!

So first of all, thank you ALL for you awesome comments on Lisa! Isn't she incredible? I am so, SO proud of her - obviously! I told her that the most rewarding part of this whole process is for her to see what I knew she had in her all along. It's exciting! She's kicking some booty big time on Level 2 already... she'll be checking in again with us after her next 10 days are up!

As for JR and I - we started Level 3 yesterday... HOLY freaking cow! I can start out doing some of the advanced moves but after a few reps, end up in the beginner moves. Level 2 was hard as heck... but I could at least do the advanced moves! This one is definitely different!

I have to say, after almost a month of doing Jillian - I LOVE the challenge it has been on me. Some of the cardio moves are KILLER and different than I've done before. I think that I will keep the shred and Jillian's new work out dvd's in my weekly rotation somehow - but I REALLY miss my Firm videos. I miss my "heavier" weight lifting! I think after we get back from Florida next weekend, I will be starting a Firm roation for the month... then we'll see where things lead me from there!

Back to the dress... last night, I braved the dressing rooms again! It took all night... and it definitely wasn't easy... but I finally found a dress! What do you think?? Be honest!!!
Five minutes after taking the pics... JR and I changed into work out clothes to take on Jillian for Day 2 of Level 3! Maddie decided she wanted to join us...

Here we are getting ready to work it (and um... please excuse my white legs!)!
By the way, thanks for all the thoughts and prayers for JR's family. Granny is still hanging in there but we're not sure what's coming over the next couple of days.

That's all I've got, folks! Hope you all are having a great week!!!

PS - did you all know it's national apple week?? Must be why apples have been my top snack choice every day so far :)

What is your favorite way to eat apples? I think mine is tied with in oatmeal or with some dark chocolate peanut butter!!!

Have a great night!

the pictureless blog....

Okay, maybe that's kind of a lie... there's at least two pictures at the end :)

How's your weekend going so far?

Yeah, so I didn't take a picture of one single thing I had to eat yesterday or today so far! BAD blogger, Mandy! Breakfast & lunch were repeats of Pumpkin Pancakes and Mellow Mushroom pizza leftovers... and dinner was out at Panera with JR & Maddie, where I had the incredibly yummy Chicken Strawberry Poppyseed salad and a multi grain baguette.I think it said on their menu that this salad is only out for another three weeks... so I am sure I'll be back to have it once more before then! The only other thing I had to eat was a larabar for a snack!

JR took Maddie home to get her to bed... and I stayed out and went to TJ Maxx and New York & Company to look for a dress to wear to my brother's wedding in a couple of weeks. Being honest - this was not a great experience :( I've discussed my weight gain recently on the blog... and have really tried not to let it get to me. I have felt like I've been trying hard with my food and with my work outs - not to try to lose all the weight I've gained... but enough to feel comfortable with myself again. I was staying away from the scale...but finally gave in and weighed last week. It had been almost two weeks... surely I had to lose SOMETHING, right??

Wrong.

Not only did I not lose anything - I went up two pounds.

Again, I've tried not letting it get to me... but last night, it all hit hard. I had a mini breakdown in the dressing room. I couldn't believe how many sizes I had to go up.. and how things that would normally look good on me, I couldn't even begin to wear in public.

I feel pretty defeated... I left the stores empty handed and broken-hearted.

I headed home and tried to unwind and relax a bit. I had two big glasses of wine... which hey, after a night like that, I deserved it! It definitely did the trick... I hung out with my honey and had a great rest of the night.

I do have to go find a dress still... I may wait until next weekend. I'm hoping to have a better experience!

As for today, I've been quite spoiled. I got to sleep in till 10 am!!!!! Whew! I haven't done that in a LONG time! It was great... woke up and didn't have much of an appetite. I had one small square of the coffee cake around 11 and about 30 minutes later - I had a turkey club sandwich (Trader Joe's turkey bacon, TJ's sliced turkey, 1 slice low fat swiss, Sabra's hummus, spinach, tomato on Publix Multi grain bread)....

JR and Maddie laid down for a nap, and I had to talk myself into working out. I did of course, Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. I REALLY struggled through it today. I had no energy in the first circuit at ALL. I almost stopped it there and called it day... but made a deal with myself that if I kept going, I would just do what I could... even if that meant all the beginner options or just walking in place. I got a bit of a second wind in the 3rd circuit... and even wanted to do some extra cardio after I was finished. I put on a Firm dvd - Cardio Sculpt Blaster... some step and floor aerobics with light hand weights... I used some portions with a 6 inch step and some with an 8 inch step. I felt much better after I finished... and burned 505 calories.

RIGHT after, I made a smoothie...same as earlier this week... 1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, protein powder, 1/2 tbsp almond butter, 1 frozen banana... good stuff :)

Dinner was easy.... the hubby grilled some steak, I fixed up some salads and some leftover steamed veggies with sweet potatoes.

I'm sure there will be dessert.... JR is trying to talk me into Dairy Queen - SHAME! I'm hoping I don't give in!!! :)

We are just hanging around this weekend... being lazy!! What do you guys have going on?

Hello!

Where to start?? Ah yes... finishing up Wednesday!

I didn't need an afternoon snack... and Maddie was ready for dinner pretty quickly after she woke up around 5... so I thought we'd have an early dinner and some kind of dessert later. I decided to make a bbq chicken salad. I basically threw together some leftover chicken with my new Annie's smokey maple bbq sauce (LOVE it!), kidney & pinto beans, corn, tomato, red onion, carrots, spinach and some mixed greens, topped it all off with some cheddar cheese... had some blue corn chips and hummus on the side!


And then I got busy in the kitchen... I pre-made our favorite lasagna for JR's parents so that all they had to do was pop it in the oven for an hour. This is a seriously good lasagna, folks! It's quite a bit of work... but SO worth it in the end!! Then I the chocolate coffee cake (which oddly enough has no coffee in it whatsoever) but that wasn't ready in time to head to their place. I have to say I'm happy it stayed here... haha kind of ;) As busy as I was, I never got hungry again... so no dessert or any other snacks last night!

I got to bed around midnight... and woke up again around 3 am... never got back to sleep again until 4:30.. I HATE that! I woke up at 8 to start the day. I stayed home one last day with Maddie so JR's parents could get things situated with hospice for his grandmother.

I was craving the pumpkin pancakes I had yesterday... sorry for the repeat! I didn't take a new picture... since I had on yesterdays post!

Snack was part of the coffee cake I mentioned earlier... guys, I'm not kidding.. this is SO good!!!!!!! Maddie loves it so much she has had 3 pieces today! This child is picky... so you know it's good when she is STILL asking for more! Knowing the awesome ingredients in this recipe, I was happy she was asking for more :)

I actually cut it into 20 little pieces... in an 8X8 pan! I had this small square and half of another after lunch that I shared with Maddie. Sorry it's SO blurry... I took about six different shots and it would NOT focus!

For lunch, I toasted up a flat out wrap filled with ground turkey w/ mexican seasoning, green peppers, tomato, cheddar cheese, hummus and onions... a side of pinto beans and corn and my last nectarine. Good stuff :)

Maddie and I then popped in the video of JR and I getting married! She had not seen this yet and it was fun talking to her about everyone in the video. We had a blast when it got to the reception part of the video... we did the (dreaded) chicken dance and the hokey pokey... haha...

Maddie then wanted to serenade the puppies... she got out her drum and made up a song for each of the dogs :)
After that, it was nap time for maddie and shredding time for mommy! Day 4, Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred. I was really craving some extra upper body work after... so I pulled out The Firm's Jiggle Free Arms and did some heavy lifting along with some step aerobics. I burned 488 calories between the two vidoes.

After I finished, I made a very chocolately protein shake for my post workout snackage! This had 1 cup unsweetned chocolate almond milk, 1 tbsp dark chocolate cocoa powder, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 tbsp almond butter, protein powder and some ice... again, sorry for the blurry picture!
We met some friends out for dinner tonight and Maddie requested Mellow Mushroom... we don't usually go there so close together as we did the past week... but I'll never argue if someone suggests it! I don't have any pictures... but tonight, JR and I got our own small 10 inch pizzas...Mine had grilled chicken, spinach, fresh basil and roma tomatoes. I had maybe 1 1/2 slices (there are 4)... but before that, I had some appetizers... one bruchetta and two small pieces of whole wheat garlic bread... plus about 3/4 of the salad that came with Maddie's pizza that she didn't eat. So yeah, I had plenty before the pizza even arrived! I was proud I didn't make myself stuff down the other 1/2 of that slice! I feel satisfied... not stuffed! NEVER happens with mellow mushroom!

I came home and soaked my muscles in a warm bath... My upper body is already seriously sore from my work out today! Although I have liked doing the Shred... I miss my heavier lifting! Things I would normally use 15 lbs for, I couldn't use more than 10-12 lbs today. So I am going to try working this in more for the next two weeks along with shredding!

I honestly could work my upper body every day of the week if it was safe :) I LOVE upper body work! Especially working my biceps :) I think hammer curls are my favorite bicep exercise!

What about you?? What is your favorite exercise for the upper body? Or do you have a favorite upper body routine or video?

Night all!

Weekend Wrap up! :)

How was everyone's weekend? Before I recap our Sunday... I'll finish up our Saturday :)

I did my last day of Level 1 of Jillian's 30 Day shred yesterday. I had planned on doing some heavy upper body work after... but as I was getting my stuff out, I saw this kit that The Firm put out last year that I got for Christmas. I haven't used it yet and thought while I had some extra time, I should give it a try. It only uses a resistance band and a weighted jump rope. The jump rope has 2 lbs weights on the handles. You can either use the DVD as a whole or they break it up into 4 segments that are 10 minutes each.
I'm not sure that I loved this work out. The "equipment" seemed a little cheap. I will say that the cardio portion is TOUGH. It's mainly jump rope... you do two minutes of jump roping - basic jumping, then adding in things like high knees, jumping on one foot, etc.. then you take a break and do plyometric moves... which is HARD after doing two minutes of straight weighted jump roping! Then I did the lower body portion, which uses the resistance band... I'm actually really feeling that today!!! The upper body and abs portion are just okay. I'd pull this out for a very quick cardio boost and lower body add on... but not sure I'd use the upper body/ab parts! All in all, I burned 450 calories...

Yesterday after my post, our best friend Lisa joined us and we headed off to the mall. We grabbed a quick Subway sandwich and baked chips for lunch. Miss Maddie begged to ride the carousel...haha... this is the best shot!!
I did have 1 1/2 pretzel cinnamon stix from Auntie Anne's... yum :) Then went off to the Nike Outlet and picked up my new shoes that I am SO, SO excited about! Of course, had to have some pink on them :) How cute are they?!?!?!
Maddie decided she wanted to try them out, too... haha... I could have told her she had them on the wrong feet... but it was too funny!

I snacked on an apple and some trail mix last night before we had our leftover pizza from date night for dinner! Seriously too good :)

As for today, We had a leisurely day... Okay, I had a lazy day... JR did yard work, vacuumed out our cars... and then Maddie and I helped him wash our cars...
I kind of sat around, caught up on some blogs and did a bunch of nothing! I did plan out some meals for the week... I don't have "set" plans but at least have some options, which is a huge leap for me!

We got up and headed straight out to grab the Sunday paper and some Starbucks... I came home and really wasn't very hungry... I didn't have any cravings, so pulled this out for breakfast...
I ended up not wanting the banana... so just had a small amount of PB on the half blueberry bagel and my latte!

I went through our freezer to see what we have for upcoming meals this week... and realized we had quite a few different loaves of bread taking up all of our space! I thought I should have a sandwich for lunch to start using some of it up... I pulled out a couple of slices of this (sorry it's a bit blurry)...I had this with some turkey, Sabra's classic hummus (OBESSED with Sabra's hummus!), lettuce, tomato, Whole Foods honey mustard, Havarti Cheese... a few Sun Chips and some fruit on the side... Good lunch!

I am now 0ff to do Day 1 of Level 2 on the 30 day shred... lord help me get through it! I'm exhausted and wanting to take a nap more than anything else!

Anyone have anything exciting going on this week?

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Thank you!!! Long post... please hang in there with me!

Hello!

Thank you all for your awesome responses on my last post. I was a little ashamed to say anything and almost decided not to... but I absolutely want this blog to show the true struggles of weight loss/maintenance and thought not only could it be helpful for me... but maybe it will help someone else who's struggling, too!

It's weird to say... but growing up overweight, I some how knew that I would lose the weight, exercise... and be the healthy person that was waiting inside! I hoped to be a great example for my family and that they would be proud of me for doing this for myself.

But as a teenager, my main goal was to be "skinny"!! High school wasn't so great for me - I was teased constantly! All I wanted to do was to be pretty and "skinny" so they'd leave me alone! and that would be "it", ya know? All of my problems would be solved and life would be peachy-keen!

WRONG!

There are so many aspects to weight loss and then weight maintenance! I had no idea of the emotional impact that would come along with it. There was transitioning from the big girl to the skinny girl, the loose skin that came with major weight loss that will never firm up and be there unless I have surgery, thinking if I had a cookie or something I was really craving I was being "bad" and therefore, ended up eating everything in sight after, etc, etc... I'm not gonna lie, it was/is a tough road! I have learned A LOT over the past ten years of my journey and in a way, I'm thankful for every step I had to take. It's an every day commitment...

Here's a couple of pics of me... close to my heaviest point...right after high school
All of that to say, I know there are set backs and this probably won't be the last! I'm not perfect - I never will be and life shouldn't have to be that way!

I got an email from one of my favorite bloggers that was awesome and totally made my morning! In it she said this, "Hating yourself is not productive; doing something about it is"... That was the main thing I learned from my "journey". The harder I am on myself - the worse shape I'm in... it's emotionally and physically draining! I struggle with this the most... and sometimes feel SO lost on how to change it. What do you do to turn the negative tapes off? I try to... and then they creep RIGHT back in!

So, as for this "plan" I referred to...there really isn't one! I don't think that being completely restrictive on myself is going to help things along. That usually ends up backfiring and making it worse. I'm trying to be really simple with my food...not worrying about making elaborate meals, just stuff that's easy to put together... whatever sounds good at the time! I am trying to cut back on sugar, though. When my eating was out of control... I was having two desserts a day... cookies in the afternoon, big bowls of ice cream at night. Not small, portioned desserts... and all I was craving was sugar and starches... so for me, if I really want something, I'll have it... but other than that, trying to stay away from it is the best choice for me right now! I usually have desserts on the weekend... so i have that to look forward to :)

On the work out front, I have decided to finally use Jillian's 30 Day Shred as it is intended. I have used it here and there and threw in whatever level sounded good... and when I took my 2 week work out hiatus, I thought a good challenge would get me started again. My husband has not had a great work out schedule since March... AND I knew this would be a great opportunity for our best friend, Lisa - who has lost 50 pounds and is doing AMAZING... to start a new challenge of her own! In fact, she will be doing some guest blogging on her Shred experience! :)

Here's gorgeous Lisa...
Here is Lisa, our friend Liz and me (Mandy)

Along with Shredding, I will be adding in some extra strength training - I love lifting heavier weight way too much to stop for 30 days... and also some extra cardio!

Today was a rest day... will be up tomorrow for Day 5 of Level 1 and some Upper Body work!

Sorry for this monster post! I hope it made SOME sense!

Last thing... Megan is having a great Chobani yogurt giveaway! I'd love to win this myself... so don't go check it out... haha :)

Just for laughs... I will leave you with a picture of our "first born child"... Pepe Le Pew... he has this thing with laying in my flip flops... I finally caught a couple of pictures of it :)


Okay... I'm out of here for the night! Thank you to anyone who could stick through all of that :)

Make Up Monday... and a confession....

Happy Monday everyone :) I hope it was a good start to the week for ya!

Make Up Monday will be short and sweet :)

First... here are a few fun pics that my sister, Brittney sent me! She's great with playing with bright colors!! I so wish I could do that!

Thanks Britt! :)

I thought instead of posting my mug all over the page , I thought I would share with you one of my can't-live-without products!

My favorite mascara - L'Oreal Voluminous!

I have tried many expensive and inexpensive mascaras and ALWAYS go back to this! In my opinion, mascara is one of those things you can save your money on when buying make up. I think there are some that really stand up and even pass the quality of the high end make up lines!

Why this mascara ROCKS:

• It's cheap! It's around $7... I can usually find coupons for any L'Oreal eye products, too... and if you watch Walgreens or CVS, they have lots of buy one, get one free sales. When I find this, I buy one, get one for free and use my coupon... and usually end up only paying $3 for two tubes! Bonus!
• The volume and thickening is amazing! I only need a couple coats... makes my lashes feel so luscious!
• I put it on in the morning and no need to worry about touching it up throughout the day! It has great staying power!

I absolutely recommend this mascara!!

One great tip that every lady should follow before you put on your mascara is to curl your lashes! It will make your eyes look ten times bigger!

What about you? What is your favorite mascara? Please share! :)

Confession time....

I have mentioned before in the past few posts that my eating hasn't been so great as of lately. I don't know what has kicked me off my normal healthy routine! I am not going to go into how badly my eating has been... but will say that it's consisted mainly of sweets (big cookies, ice cream) at least twice a day, and not a ton of veggies or fruits at all... lots of junk food that I don't normally eat or want! And lots of it!

That being said... I was already up about 7 pounds from my "happy weight" that I had been at for over a year... and now just from the past two weeks, I'm up 13 pounds.

I even had to go out and buy new jeans and a couple of new shirts! I don't have the money to be doing that right now!

Ugh...

I wasn't having an issue with my workouts... until Brittney came.. .then our schedule was CRAZY! We were out of town and I was up much later every night than I normally am and it threw me way out of whack. I didn't work out for about two weeks! I finally started up again on Saturday... thank goodness!

It's been a constant hate battle with my self confidence. I have been avoiding mirrors and tight clothes at all cost because I'm so mad at myself! I've kept off over 100 pounds for almost 10 years now... and at my "happy weight" for quite some time after having Maddie (and in better shape than I was BEFORE having Maddie) and that weight seemed to come naturally and I had no issues feeling satisfied with food! But now that I've gained so much weight and so quickly... I am ashamed to let family, friends, co-workers see me! Most people who know me as "the weight loss girl"... the girl they come to for some advice when trying to lose weight... I feel like such a failure right now!

I'm trying to take a step back... and look at things in the long run - I haven't gained back all of my weight - just 13 pounds. Yes, it's a good amount... but not 100 pounds!

I need to stop yelling at myself! The guilt does NOT help!

I can either choose to continue to eat this way and make things worse... or I can keep my eats simple for now to help me "detox" a bit and get back on track...

This is all about my health... not JUST losing weight!

Now, I don't have a HUGE plan to change things...but wanted to be open and talk about all of this here... since I wanted to be honest and share what's REALLY going on with me!

I will talk more tomorrow about my small "plan"... it's nothing outrageous or a crazy, intelligent plan... but what I think will work for me!

I'm sorry for all of that... but thank you to whoever listened!!

The batteries in our camera are dead.... and we are out of batteries! I keep forgetting to snap pics of my food today because I'm not used to using my cell phone for it!!

So for breakfast, just imagine a whole wheat bagel, with cheese, eggs and a slice of turkey bacon...

For a snack, a banana/pb sandwich... half with PB&Co's Might Maple PB and the other with PB&Co's Bee's Knee's PB :)

Lunch was leftovers of my pizza from Saturday night... and a big side salad with four small strawberries, onion, tomato, carrots, and a sprinkle of feta cheese... I got some pics with my cell phone of this...

Afternoon snack was a big ol juicy braeburn apple... YUMMM... and a small serving of Trader Joe's Trail Mix... good stuff!

For dinner, I just threw together a bunch of things that needed to be used up.... I sauteed some onions, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and asparagus.... threw them in with some quinoa and some leftover chicken sprinkled with some parmesan cheese... simple but yummy!This morning, JR and I got up and did our Day 3 of Level 1 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred... then we added on 20 extra minutes of cardio... I burned a total of 446 calories!

Now I am off to do some more work... and then going to bed. I have a horrible headache!!

How did your Monday shape up? I hope it went by quickly!

On the go, go, go...

Hey everyone!

Why is it that every weekend seems to fly by faster than the last? I can't believe July is almost over! It's going to be Christmas before ya know it! Maybe that's why Maddie has been asking about Santa almost every day this week?!?

To finish off our Saturday night, JR and I played a game of Rumy. It's one of our favorites to play together... although, I have to say, I hate losing to him! haha! I had to give in and go to bed around 12:30...I'm such an old lady! But no fear... one more round and I'm sure I'll kick his tail end! We were both feeling snacky when we started our game...so we had this while watching our season 10 DVD of Friends (who else misses new Friends episodes?!?!?!) and playing cards...
That's mine with the added M&M's and almonds! So good!

Maddie woke me up bright and early at 7:00 this morning (while daddy got to sleep till 10am!!)... did a few things around the house, caught up on some blogs...when I finally felt hungry ...I wanted... chocolate :) Chocolate for breakfast? Hey, I'm PMS-ing - it's allowed!! Okay, so really... it looks like mud... but I promise it was yummy!I first microwaved 1/2 cup oat bran, unsweetened Almond milk, water, 2 tbsp liquid egg whites - for some added protein, 1/2 tsp vanilla and agave nectar... then stirred in some dark chocolate cocoa powder... added some chopped cherries, banana and dark chocolate chips! With some almond butter on the side...

Once JR decided to get out of bed we headed to get the Sunday paper and make a Starbucks stop... I grabbed a grande skinny cinnamon dolce latte...

While I was upstairs doing some cleaning, JR and Maddie did some cleaning of their own... going through ALL of her stuffed animals trying to figure out what she still plays with and what we can put up till the next little one comes along! Where's Maddie? HaHa...

Between oatmeal and the latte, I did not want any food until almost 1:30... I was craving a grilled sandwich! I used some Trader Joe's turkey, havarti cheese, lettuce, tomato, smart balance mayo with 1 tsp smart balance light butter to grill it... individual bag of sun chips on the side! YUM! This is really the first time I've had the havarti cheese... I really like it!
Also got some baking action going on today!...I made these Berry Rich Muffins... I needed to use up our buttermilk and also had way more blackberries and blueberries than I think we could have eaten before they went bad... so this was perfect. Excuse JR's fingers in the picture... he's trying to grab one before they've even cooled! ;)

Once we got Maddie down for her nap, we got our work out on! JR worked out with me today! We did Level 1 of Jillian's 3o Day Shred... I used mainly 5 & 8 lbs throughout the work out... and then did some extra lower body work after we finished. I burned 361 calories....after that, I had 1/4 of one of the muffins and probably about a tablespoon of my new Trader Joe's trail mix for a snack... then got dinner ready!

Dinner was easy tonight... I just marinated some lean pork in a teriyaki marinade, some roasted rosemary red potatoes and steamed up an asian veggie medley...
I have been a busy bee all day! I got meals planned out for the week, which was a chore! I felt so disorganized! I haven't planned meals in quite some time and did not know where to start! How do you make out your meal plans???

I then clipped all the coupons I wanted from the newspaper... I was using them faithfully for awhile... and noticed a big difference when I stopped! Do any of you use coupons?

Now I'm heading off to bed... getting up early for some more Level 1 Jillian and some cardio action! Night all! :)

Feeling Icky....

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a great start to the week!

Thank you for your awesome comments on yesterday's Make Up Monday post! I am definitely going to keep this going... and would love for anyone to send me their favorite looks or product reviews to feature!! :)

I'm at home today... I'm not feeling very well! So I am here just updating my food for Monday... then heading off to rest!

I started out with a different breakfast... for me anyway! I saw it in a Fitness magazine and it used waffles... and since I am trying to work through my Kashi waffles, I thought I'd give it a shot!

This had 1 whole egg and 1 egg white, 2 tbsp natural shredded cheese, 1 slice ham sandwiched in between two Kashi waffles. A banana on the side (which I did add 1 tsp almond butter to before leaving... what's breakfast without some AB or PB?!?)

Check out my fancy plate ;) I have to eat on my way to work... that's about as stylish as it gets in the mornings for me!

I had a whole different lunch planned for work yesterday... but had to nix it pretty quickly! The air conditioning wasn't workout at our office... the thermostat was reading over 90! We had to pull out lamps to put on our desks and turn off the overhead lights, close blinds and blast fans to keep cool. I had brought soup for lunch - obviously not going to happen! The only thing I wanted was a salad... so I ran off to Panera to grab their Strawberry Poppyseed salad with Chicken... Yum!

Work was insanely busy, as usual.... I didn't get to snack until I was on my way to get Maddie... I ripped out my apple and went to town...couldn't wait to snap a pic first!

Knowing I had to work out when I get home and it would be really late when we would eat dinner, I had a small second snack. Maddie and I split this bar on the way home....


My work out was a new Firm video... Get Chisl'd. I really like this one... it's mainly a strength training video... but also adds in some power moves in between. Things like squat thrusts, cross country skis, lunge jumps... really gets the heart rate up and going! My only complaint is that the reps are short... I feel like there should be another set of each move... but for the time frame, it was good... I burnt 330 calories...

I didn't get started on dinner until almost 7:30... we had a huge avocado that HAD to be used or thrown out... so i attempted making guacamole. It was okay but I think I added a little too much lime juice! I grilled some tilapia and peppers.... added some lettuce and sour cream... and some more blue corn chips...
Now, I'm going to go lay down again... Hoping to feel better before Brittney arrives tomorrow!