It's Already Been a Week?

I guess time flies when you're having fun and traveling.  Last week was kind of a blur.  I was in Louisville Mon - Wed, home on Thur and then left for Captiva, FL for Fri - Sun for my cousin Brian's wedding.  What a fun time!  Friday was my brother and Danielle's 10th wedding anniversary and it was great to be able to spend it with them.  They are such an awesome couple, we had a lot of fun, silliness and laughing!  Saturday was Brian and Emily's beautiful wedding.  They got married on the beach in perfect weather.  The party didn't stop until well into Sunday morning :)  Speaking of Sunday and wedding's - it was my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Clark's 40th wedding anniversary!! Happy Anniversary to you both, love you tons.  Still on the Aunt Rhonda topic, HUGE shout out to her as she's lost 25 lbs since I started blogging.  Aunt Rho you are an inspiration to me, great job!

So while I'd like to say that while I was traveling and partying I ate well and watched the alcohol, that would be a complete lie.  The diet this week was an utter fail (remember I promised the good, the bad and the ugly.)  I'm not at all happy with where I am right now in my weight loss.  I started off strong, had a health bump along the way and completely fell off track.  Looking at pictures from this weekend I hate how I look (just putting it all out there).  The picture below is one I actually somewhat like.  I am upset with myself for once again starting something at full speed only to let it fizzle off after a few months.  NOT to say I'm done, the opposite of that, if anything it's kick started me again to get back on track, but I'm ready for that butt kick I asked for at the beginning if any of you saw me faltering.

A Week of Travel

I haven't forgot about the blog, it's been a busy week!  I flew to Louisville, KY yesterday, I come home Wednesday with enough time to empty my suitcase and fill it back up to leave on Friday for my cousins wedding in FL.  It's a crazy week, but I'm making sure to make wise food decisions!

Stick with the Plan!

I had to run over to Dominick's today to get a few cards, I also wanted to pick a little something else up for my lunch.  We're running low on salad stuff at home so my salad today consisted of lettuce, tomatoes and mushrooms.  That's all I had for the rest of the day and I knew that wouldn't tide me over.  The Dominick's by my office is really nice.  They have a big fresh made food section with a salad bar, pizza, sushi, sandwiches made to order, pre-packaged foods, etc.  Normally when I go there I talk myself out of eating healthy and get whatever looks good.  Today I stuck to my plan!  I knew I had the salad at work waiting for me, so I just wanted to get a few things from the salad bar to add on to it.  I made sure I got the smallest container as to not go crazy and I stuck to the side of the salad bar that had the fresh veggies - not the side that had all of the yummy salads (potato salad, couscous, mayo based stuff, etc.)  I put a few things in the container and noticed the freshly grilled chicken breasts so I got one of those to add a bit of protein to keep myself fuller, longer.  Celebrating the little feats of success :)

I'm Building an Arc

Holy cow it's rainy!!  I woke up this morning to get ready for work and saw all of the weather and traffic alerts and texted my team to say stay home!!  No WAY was I going to fight that traffic.  It's been raining all day with storms on and off.  Our neighborhood is flooded.  It took Chris awhile this morning to get the back up generator started up and ready to go in case it's needed.  Luckily (knock on wood) so far so good.

I don't know if it's the weather or what but it's also been a "storm" at work today.  I feel like today is ask Nicole as many questions as possible and give her as many projects as you can day.  Our leadership team is getting ready to present to the board next week, so there is a lot of urgency around getting information.  I'm earning my keep today!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Well last night we went to a Cubs game.  Not any game, a free rooftop game which included all you can eat ballpark food and free drinks.  I tried to be good during the day because I knew I'd be enjoying myself at the game.  I enjoyed myself a little too much and my calories reflect that!  Note to self, don't put yourself in an all you can eat situation when trying to diet!  Needless to say I packed my gym bag for after work tonight to attempt to burn some of those calories off.  On the flip side Chris and I had a great time, minus my the trip I made going UP the concrete stairs.  Another note to self, don't run up concrete stairs even if your favorite player is up to bat and could potentially win the game!  PS - he didn't win the game and now I'm sore and have a nice scrape and bump on my leg :(    Better luck next time :)

Prayers for Boston

My heart is heavy for all of those involved in yesterday's tragic events.  I saw this picture a few times on Facebook yesterday and it helped me to not go to a super dark place.  If you watched any of the coverage of the explosions you see that while people were scared, a lot of people ran towards the explosion and started helping others.  Events like this always scare me, but at the same time make me really thankful for what I have and for where I live.  Yesterday people didn't care who others were, where they lived, what they looked like, what religious or political views they had...they just banded together and helped.

  

Speaking of watching the coverage last night I was doing it while at the gym, talk about motivation to keep going.  I kept thinking that all of those people there trained for a 26 mile race, I could certainly do a few more minutes on the bike!  When I got home I made an old standby, salmon, peas and quinoa.  As you know from the last few weeks, I've been obsessed with Bolthouse Farm salad dressing.  I found one the other day called Tropical Mango.  I don't normally like sweet salad dressings on salads, but thought it would be really good with fish....it was!  I made the salmon on the foreman grill and then when it was done drizzled some of the dressing on top, it was a hit!

Sunny Sunday!!

It was SO nice out yesterday!  I could really get used to this kind of weather again.  When Chris and I woke up and started moving around, I decided I wanted to try and make an egg white fritata.  I sauteed some mushrooms and asparagus and then eventually added a few big handfuls of kale since they'd wilt down.  After those were all ready to go I added the egg whites and waited for them to cook, once they were just about done I added a few slices of the 45 calorie pepper jack cheese slices I talked about a few weeks ago.  I tried to make it pretty coming out of the pan, it didn't work.  So it was more of a scramble than a fritata :)  Chris and I both liked it though so that's all that mattered.

We stayed at our friend Kelly's for the weekend and she has a few walking trails/loops within a few blocks of her house so since the weather was so nice we laced up our gym shoes and headed out for a walk.  According to the app on my phone we walked 2.63 miles.  We walked two of the trails, one was around a lake and that was 0.6 miles and one was around some tall grass/nature area by some homes and that was 0.7 miles.

We bought a juicer over the weekend.  I originally bought one for Chris for Christmas, I think it lasted 20 minutes before it broke.  So much for all of the research I did for a good one.  We saw the the "Bullet" brand was on clearance at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I love my Bullet for shakes/smoothies, so we figured we'd give this a shot.  It worked pretty well.  We made an orange/apple/pineapple/kale/carrot juice.  It turned out pretty sweet, so I know next time we can hide some more veggies in there and it will still be good.  We made sure to peel the fruit that needed to be peeled first :)  We're going to get more adventurous with our juice, I've been looking online for various combo ideas so if you have any that you like send them my way.  

Going to Try Something

As I've mentioned before Spinach and I don't get along.  I like it, but it doesn't like me.  I really want to be able to eat it because I know how good it is for you, I see it in eggs, protein shakes, hidden in recipes, but I can't do it.  So we were at Whole Foods yesterday and I picked up some Kale.  I know I can eat Kale and that it has similar nutrients to Spinach so I'm going to try that.  I'll let you know how it works out.

YUM!

Last night when I got home from work Chris was making pasta salad for dinner.  I asked him not to put any mayo on mine.  He used whole wheat spiral noodles, banana peppers, black olives and salmon.  I used the dijon mustard recipe that I found online a few weeks ago and put that on top of mine, it was great!  Highly recommended for salads and really anything else.

Recipe
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp lemon juice
Dash of garlic powder
1/2 tbsp (or to taste) red wine vinegar (or vinegar of your choice)

I Was Bad.............

I knew Chris and I were going out to dinner last night so I tried to be good during the day, I was successful with that, I was NOT successful at dinner.  I made a bad food choice and I regretted it as soon as we left.  I had wings, fries and beer.  I felt like crap when we left the restaurant, I had a headache, I was supper full, was very sluggish and was almost immediately tired.  The after effects were not worth the food choices.  I hopefully learned my lesson.  

Say Hey.........

Two years ago today was one of the happiest days of my life, Chris asked me to marry him!  In some ways it feels like it was yesterday and in others it feels like we've already been married for years (in a good way!)  We've had an amazing few years and I cannot wait to see what the rest of our lives bring.  We have a lot of hopes and aspirations and I am so excited to work on those together and make them come true.  When I walked in the door of grandma's house two years ago to find a ring waiting for me, I was so excited at the thought of marrying my best friend, finding out what the future held for us and to start planning our lives together.  Two years later I continue to have that same excitement!  He's still my best friend, our relationship has strengthened in so many ways and I love that we have each other to walk through life together with no matter what comes our way.  I love you Chris!

The below lyrics are from two songs that have special meaning to us and pretty much sum up how I feel about him :)

Now I'm not a highly metaphysical man, but I know when the stars are aligned you can, bump into a person in the middle of the road, look in to their eyes, and you suddenly know.......It seems like everywhere I go, the more I see, the less I know, but I know one thing that I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!

Forever can never be long enough for me, to feel like I've had long enough with you.....Promise me you'll always be, happy by my side, I promise to sing to you, when all the music dies.....and marry me, today and everyday.

This is a picture from about 3 minutes after we got engaged...and both stopped crying :)

Go Bulls!

I hate working out, I'm sure one day I'll like it, I just don't right now.  I like the feeling I get after working out, but I don't like the part leading up to going.  I try to talk myself out of it.  I texted Chris about it.  Our texting cracks me up sometimes:

I did end up going and I was happy I did.  I was still pretty sore from the workout the day before, so I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and my muscles were burning so I called it a night.

When I got home I made some Tilapia in the oven with garlic and onion powder and italian seasoning sprinkled on top. We had left over quinoa and broccoli from the night before.  We went grocery shopping after dinner and loaded up on some good stuff.

Tonight we're going to the Bulls game.  The President of my company gave me his season tickets for tonight, fun, free date night!  :)  

Not So Bad

I did it, I made it back to the gym!  Yes I know it was only once so far, but I like celebrating all milestones - big or small.  I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 min on the treadmill.  I wore my heart rate monitor and I burned 626 calories :)  Not bad for my first time back in awhile.  I will tell you though, my body feels it today!  I was playing around with the incline on the treadmill.  I was playing a game in my head.  When I got tired and had to hold on to the rails I would raise the incline.  I figured if I was holding on, I needed to increase something, so incline it was.  I did something similar on the elliptical.  I did the "weight loss" program  and the machine I was on had both moving and non-moving arms.  For the program I did, it was 4 minutes on a lower level and 4 minutes on a higher level and that went back and forth for the entire 30 minutes.  So for the lower level I kept my arms still and on the higher level I used the moving arms.  I liked the variety because it kept me from getting bored and I feel like I got a better workout.

When I got home, I wanted to make sure I had a healthy dinner.  I didn't want to cancel out the workout I just did by eating junk.  I made us salmon with a spice rub on the George Foreman grill, broccoli and quinoa.    When I was on the 17 Day Diet they recommended drinking green tea with every meal.  I was fairly successful on that diet, so I've decided to incorporate things from that into my lifestyle, so I'm adding green tea here and there (hence the ND cup!)

Another New Favorite

Last week I talked about salad dressing.  While I was at Whole Foods on Monday, I came across the Bolthouse Farms salad dressing.  It's yogurt based, so it has less calories and fat than a normal dressing.  It's also gluten free and the ingredients are all things I can pronounce: buttermilk, water, soybean oil, yogurt, reduced acid pineapple juice concentrate, distilled vinegar, tomato paste, onion, jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, natural flavor, salt, egg yolk, xanthan gum, and spice.  I purchased the Salsa Ranch and the Raspberry Merlot (yeah you know the promise of wine lured me in there!)  I used the Salsa Ranch on my salad yesterday and I loved it.  It was creamy like a ranch, but the salsa gave it a nice kick.  I made sure to measure out my 2 TBSP so I didn't over do it.  I haven't opened the Raspberry Merlot yet, but am looking forward to it.  I'll let you know how that one goes.  

I brought my workout clothes to work today.  I plan on going to the gym after work.  I'm a little apprehensive about it.  The last time I was went to the gym here was the day my issues started.  I went to change to go to the gym and that's when I realized that something was wrong so it kind of brings back not so great memories, on the flip side though, the reason I'm going to the gym is to get in shape to get pregnant so they balance each other out.

I'm in Love!!

No this isn't a mushy post about how much I love Chris (which of course I do honey!!) but I am in love with a new product I found!!  All weekend we were on a wild goose chase for a coffee creamer that I saw on a blog (shocker!)  It's the creamer that Jillian Michaels from The Biggest Loser uses.  The brand is called So Delicious, and let me tell you it really is!!  Over the weekend I drug Chris along to Walmart, Trader Joe's, Dominick's and The Vitamin Shoppe (well that one was really Chris wanting to go, but I looked for it there too).  Although Dominick's said they carried it, when we took the 20 minute drive to the closest one, they did not.  

So yesterday I called Whole Food and they have it!!  I stopped there yesterday on my way home from work and picked up the So Delicious Coconut Milk Coffee Creamer - French Vanilla.  When I got home Chris tried it and couldn't believe how good it was.  Here's the info.  It's dairy free, made from coconut milk, only 20 calories/tablespoon, no added preservatives or sugar substitutes.  I put 2 tablespoons (yes I measured) in my coffee this morning and it added just the right amount of flavor and creaminess.  Mind you I used my big travel mug, so if I were having a regular sized cup I'd probably just need 1 tbsp.  They also have a Hazelnut flavor and a regular.  The regular is only 10 calories.  I like this better than the almond milk I've been using because it's creamier and has more flavor, a little goes a long way.  Now as I said before, I went on the So Delicious website and they "said" my local stores carry it, but they didn't, so if you're looking to buy some, I'd recommend calling ahead :) 

No More...

...I've decided to give up blogging, trying to lose weight, caring about what I eat, etc.  I'm going back to using excuses and not being motivated.  I'm done.  April Fools :)  Sorry I'm too much of my Grandpa Barry not to let April Fools Day go by without one little joke!  Growing up, my grandpa was one of the biggest practical jokers I knew.  I remember one April Fools Day that he pulled me to the side and told me he wanted to play a joke on Rusty.  He had hard boiled an egg and we were going to have a competition as to who could crack the egg and peel it the fastest.  We had to start out by cracking the egg on our head and then peel it, the winner got money.  Notice I said he hard boiled "AN" egg.  He gave Rusty a raw egg.  So on the count of three we were to smash them on our head and peel, 1.......2.......3, SPLAT raw egg dripping all over Rusty's head, gross but hysterical.  My grandpa played jokes on my parents, aunts/uncles, his co-workers, my cousins, etc.  I'm almost positive he was never gutsy enough to play one on my grandma :)

Speaking of April 1st, I'd like to wish my Uncle Tim and Aunt Jeanne a Happy Anniversary!!  They have an amazing marriage/relationship, one that I hope Chris and I can model ours after.  I know my aunt reads the blog daily so I wanted to give her a little shout out!

Also Happy (belated) Easter to everyone.  We had a great time at my Aunt Moe's yesterday.  There were two egg hunts (one for the "little" kids - my nephews, and one for the "big" kids - anyone 40 and under).  Chris was the big winner, spending extra time to find the $10 egg.  It was a day spent with great family, great food, great conversation and lots of laughs.

I know I said this last week, so I hope I'm not jinxing myself today, but I'm 99% confident that I'm going to be working out again this week.  I'm feeling good, no more complications and I really am ready to get back to the gym!