Marvelous Monday

Day 29

Breakfast: green tea, 4 egg whites, blueberry yogurt

Mid-afternoon snacks: an orange and a sliced honey crisp apple

Lunch: NONE

Dinner: green tea, side salad with grape tomatoes and fat free French dressing, turkey chili

Dessert: raspberry cheesecake yogurt

Today I was actually able to sleep in (on a school day!)! Hallelujah! It was the first day I was able to take advantage of not having class until 1 PM, because I already had my clinic stuff taken care of. It was soooo nice to get to go back to bed after my 6:30 breakfast and not get up again until Braylen came home from school at about 10:15. Just lovely. And to top it off, school is already cancelled for tomorrow because of this epic storm that just started. Right now I'm slightly confused because it's snowing, but we also have thunder and lightning mixed in there. I've never seen a snow storm like this, so it must be something special. 

The best news of all... Braylen is working tonight. Or was working, I should say. Because of the storm, they're sending him home early. So after 3 hours of work, he is now walking in the door, as I type, to spend the rest of his work night at home, warm and cozied up with his fantastic and extremely happy wife! AND he still gets paid!! Sigh.. I'm loving this winter storm already, even if it does mean I'm trapped at home for a bit (which actually sounds heavenly)!!! Because he has off tomorrow, too, I don't have to worry about either of us going out in the mess... We can just stay here the two of us.. Keeping puppy and kitty warm and spending some extra time together.

Oh, and I'll also be studying for two tests that are coming up, but we won't mention that right now.

I love my life, and that is that.

PS. We weighed in this morning. I've lost 1.8 lbs since last week and Braylen lost 2.6. That puts him at a total of 15.8 lbs lost and me with 18.2 lbs lost. After only 5 weeks, I'm pretty excited!! 

Day 28

Breakfast: one egg w/two egg whites and a white chocolate strawberry yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: half a pear and half a red delicious apple
Lunch: stir fry (chicken, frozen snap pea stir fry veggies, and 1/2 cup brown rice) and an orange
Dinner: green tea, pork tenderloin and cooked cabbage and carrots
Dessert: yogurt

Man, did I outdo myself on cooking today. Both the stir fry and the pork tenderloin were amazing! Husband will be pleased when he eats his later, I'm sure! I'm loving these high carb days on the 2nd cycle! Very excited to start the 3rd cycle next week (hello bread and pasta!!!).

Okay, so the film festival this weekend was AMAZING. I was intending to go over all of the movies we got to view and talk about each of them, but that would take entirely too long. Suffice it to say, I'm definitely going back next year! There were a few flops in there and we did walk out of a couple, but there were also some BIG winners! In fact, watching the live stream of the awards show now.. How exciting!

We're supposed to have lots of snow Tuesday, so keep your fingers crossed for another snow day or two!

Sleep-typing

Day 27

Breakfast: 4 egg whites and a Boston cream pie yogurt
Mid-afternoon snacks: pink lady apple and a kiddie cone from McDonald's
Lunch: salad with carrots and diced tomato w/ catalina dressing
Dinner: "slow cooker chicken paprikas" from Weight Watchers and cooked zucchini and carrots
Dessert: red velvet cake yogurt

Because I am currently about to fall asleep at my laptop, I'll have to update about my day tomorrow. Sorry!!!

Life's Little Pleasures

Day 26

Breakfast: green tea, 4 egg whites, strawberry shortcake yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced golden delicious apple
Lunch: green tea, baked chicken, corn, and great northern beans
Dinner: chicken, cauliflower, and green beans
Dessert: popcorn!!!

Okay, so today wasn't the best dieting day in the world. Ooopsie! We had our weekly drink treat (I had a Diet DP) and then we headed down to Duncan for the festival. Okay... hours of watching movies and I'm not supposed to have popcorn? Especially FREE popcorn? Sorry. I had a small bag and ate every bit of it. And loved it. And I don't feel bad. However I do feel slightly bad for that second Diet DP I had... I have an excuse though, and let me tell you about it.

I was dying of thirst after eating that delicious popcorn, so I went to the vending machine to get a water. I SWEAR that was my intention. There were two drink machines, one with water and one without. I tried to put my dollar in the machine WITH water, but the dollar intake wasn't working. So I put it in the machine WITHOUT water so that I could get change back and use it to get my water. The dang coin return button didn't work!!! And I wasn't about to just waste a dollar... what was I supposed to do? So I got a soda. It happened. I'm not afraid to admit it.

Anyways... Loved Day 1 of the film festival and am VERY excited to go back and see more tomorrow! After we're finished I'll list the movies we got to see.

Extremely tired, seeing as it's nearly 1 AM. Husband had two hours of sleep today, so I think it's time for bed! Goodnight, friends!

Accomplishment

Day 25

Breakfast: green tea, four egg whites with a squirt of ketchup
Mid-afternoon snacks: strawberry shortcake yogurt, a sliced pear
Lunch: green tea, taco salad, a sliced apple
Dinner: turkey tenderloin and stir-fried cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli
Dessert: white chocolate strawberry yogurt

First, let me catch my breath...

Today has been a really long (and really productive) day! When I woke up, I thought "goodness, today is going to be long and awful, just like Tuesday!" [Somebody smack me out of this negativity funk I'm in!] It turned out to be a really great day, actually. I had a good time in my morning classes, a great lunch, and even (drum roll) paid attention in my last two classes!!!! I don't think that's happened since the beginning of last semester! It was really an exciting thing for me. Then, when I got home, I got to eat with Husband (kind of... he had a smoothie and I had dinner) and say goodbye to him (okay, that wasn't so great). After watching a couple shows, I headed over to Tan & Tone and the good-day-ness continued... I had an amazing workout! It felt like the easiest my body has ever gone through the machines. Instead of struggling to make it to the last seconds on each machine, I was actually surprised every time the machine turned off because it came so much easier and quicker than I was expecting! I was so pumped about this that after I got home (and had my yogurt for dessert) I did 30 minutes on Wii Fit for the first time. It was fine.. Definitely something I might try again. Although I'm more interested in getting Just Dance! And to keep the momentum going, after I was finished with that I decided to get my studying out of the way since I won't have much time this weekend. Sigh... So I feel extremely good about what I was able to do today. Even if I am going to bed without my best friend (these night shifts are really getting old... like, ancient), I am going to bed happy.

Because he has this weekend off!!! We're leaving tomorrow after he gets a few hours of sleep to head down to Duncan for the weekend to go to the Trail Dance Film Festival! Braylen's good friend from high school is the creator of this festival and it's my first time going so I'm super excited!! Anyone interested should definitely check out that link and head down for some good times and fun this weekend!

OH, and let me withdraw my sentiments from yesterday's post... The treadmill did not falter under my weight... The motor actually is busted. It did the same thing when Braylen tried it this morning. Woo hoo for me and my girth not breaking heavy machinery!!!

I'm taking my computer with me in hopes of keeping this updated. I'm sure I'll be able to, but if I can't for whatever reason, I'll fill you in on Sunday!

Happy (almost) weekend everyone!!!

Heavy

Day 24

Breakfast: green tea, 2 scrambled eggs mixed with a diced and sauteed baked potato with a squirt of ketchup, and a blueberry yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced red delicious apple
Lunch: green tea, salad, black bean turkey chili, and a sliced golden delicious apple
Dinner: green tea, a hamburger patty, green beans, and a sliced tomato
Dessert: a raspberry cheesecake yogurt

Dinner:

Excuse the paper plate... When the husband's gone and I have to eat alone, I'm not really that interested in dirtying up any dishes.

Another unnecessarily long day. I got to the clinic too early, so I finished my work and basically had to waste time until my class and therapy session started. So, unlike I predicted yesterday, I actually would've had time to do homework today... Still glad I did it yesterday, though! Everything at school went fine. Finally finished with initial testing and writing the initial report, so now we can actually move on with therapy and not have all the pressure. Very excited about next week being (hopefully) ten times easier than this week.

When I got home, Husband had already left for work. I hate that our schedules don't match up easily at all. So I saw him this morning for about an hour and a half and will not get to see him again until tomorrow morning. It's a good thing tomorrow's only a class day so I'll get home in time to at least make him breakfast and see him off to work. Sigh.. I miss him.

After eating, I actually watched some TV, which I hadn't done in a couple of days! It was nice to catch up on the episodes I missed. I wanted to watch Heavy and do my first official walk on the treadmill in our house, so I turned on the episode and stepped on and... The treadmill stopped moving. Apparently, I'm either above the weight limit for the treadmill's weight capacity or it's so old the motor isn't functioning correctly anymore. I'm pretty sure it's because I'm too heavy, but maybe that's because I'm a Negative Nancy on occasion. I guess we'll see when Braylen gets home tomorrow cos I'm going to have him try it, too. Not only was it disappointing to not be able to do the workout that I want to do, but it's extremely frustrating when you try really hard to get somewhere, and the tools that are supposed to get you there can't even function because you're too fat. Excuse the harsh word "FAT", but in this case, that's just what it boils down to, more than likely.

So ready for this to be over, but the sad and exhausting fact is that it will never be over for me.

I think today is the first day I've felt truly defeated by the prospect of actually succeeding. I know that, in time, I'll get there. And that, in time, my treadmill won't grind to a halt as soon as I set foot on it.

I'm just upset, is all.

Thank you!

Day 23

Breakfast: green tea, Greek egg scramble
Mid-afternoon snacks: raspberry cheesecake yogurt and a sliced red delicious apple
Lunch: green tea, lettuce and spinach salad with chopped hard-boiled egg, and a sliced golden delicious apple
Dinner: green tea, turkey patties with a squirt of reduced sugar ketchup and stir-fried vegetables
Dessert: whatever yogurt I grab when I go into the kitchen later

As previously stated, today's school day was extremely long and tedious. I have no idea how I managed to come home and immediately following dinner start and finish all of my homework and reading assignments. Possibly because tomorrow I will have to start and finish my semester treatment plan, attend and take notes in a class, and then actually give therapy off of said-treatment plan. It's going to be quite a day and I won't have the energy afterwards, I'm sure, to do any reading or homework. I'm thankful I had some residual energy to do it today!

A coworker of my dad's who happens to live in Chickasha drove up and delivered the treadmill directly to my living room this evening. I was very excited to find out he was coming today! I wanted to get everything finished so I would have time to walk a little on it, but it's almost 8:30 and my bedtime tonight will be around 9 or 9:30, and that just doesn't provide enough time for a good walk, shower, and cool-down. Looks like it's first walk (in this house, anyway) will have to wait until tomorrow.

I've been getting a lot of supportive words and comments since I've been back in school, with regards to dieting. Just want to send a collective "thank you!" to all of you wonderful friends!! It's sometimes hard for me to gracefully accept the compliment of "having such strong will power." I feel like, although I'm making good efforts now, if I actually had good will power, I wouldn't be in this situation today! That's why it's hard for me to accept those types of comments, but I'm working on it! I definitely appreciate the support and words of encouragement, that's for sure!

Thank you very much!

Am I Breathing?

I am in my last class, currently. (Don't lecture me about being online)

I cannot believe how unfocused I am right now. And I know it's not just me cos about ten girls have agreed with me thus far and I'm pretty sure it's a general consensus at this point. My afternoon professors simply don't understand that we are not functioning this late in the day. That being said, I feel like even the professors are bored with class today.

It doesn't help that I'm pretty sure my stomach is growling loud enough to drown out the lecture. Or that my husband's at home being all alone and I'd much rather be there keeping him company before he leaves for work.

I didn't think this fog would lower over my brain so early in the semester, but I guess I'm just picking up where last semester left off... Lovely!

Oooopsie, I'm complaining.

I wish I could keep typing to keep my mind occupied, but at this moment I have zero substance left in my brain to gush about. On to the next time consumer...

It's apparent that I need to invest in several new computer games to get through the semester.

Like Peas and Carrots

Breakfast: green tea, power cookie, a sliced apple
Mid-afternoon snack: a strawberry yogurt
Lunch: NONE =\
Dinner: green tea, grilled pork chops, cooked peas and carrots
Dessert: red velvet cake yogurt

As you can see, I skipped lunch today. BOOOO. It was not because I wanted to, it's just I was in a hurry to leave for school this morning after breakfast and REALLY didn't feel like waiting to cook chicken or make a salad or any of it. This preparation time thing is really not working for me. Just have to do more the night before than I have been, apparently.

Anyways, today was an excellent day in clinic.. Feel like I got a lot of good stuff accomplished. And my first lecture in my Mon, Wed class went well, so hooray.

I forgot to mention yesterday that my parents are loaning us their treadmill!! I've been missing walking on a treadmill so much, and I'm really looking forward to getting it up here!

Okay, back to today... We did our weigh-in this morning.. I'm down 4.6 pounds this week and Bray lost 3.4!! Really excited about our progress and ready to see so much more!

Our dinner tonight was FANTASTIC. Really, definitely a favorite meal.. To show it's beauty, I photographed it.

Peas and carrots have always been a favorite side dish of mine, but I'd never made it before tonight. They were excellent!! Proud of myself that I didn't ruin it by overcooking them, ha. And the pork chops Husband made were absolutely perfect, no lie. Looking forward to having this again very soon!

Hope you all didn't have too dreadful of a Monday. Have a great week!

Making the Rounds

Breakfast: four egg whites and a blueberry yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a Diet Dr. Pepper (pahahaha.. sorry, Dr. Murano!)
Lunch: green tea, grilled chicken and sauteed veggies
Dinner: grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, and a side salad with cucumbers, carrots, and mushrooms.
Dessert: strawberry shortcake yogurt

Okay, so today wasn't as crazy as I'd anticipated. Probably because I ended up just going to our local Walmart instead of driving all the way to Crest. Just didn't wanna give up my precious beauty sleep. =]

MAN was Walmart more expensive! I didn't realize the prices would be that different. We ended up spending almost $100 more at Walmart than I would've at Crest. Sigh... Guess the drive would've been worth it!

When I got home from Walmart, we ate lunch, packed up the car, and headed down to Lawton. We got to hang out with my parents for an hour or two, then stop by my grandparents' house for 30 minutes or so, and then go see Braylen's mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew for a couple hours, where we had dinner. It was a great day!

I had majorrrrrr cravings on our way home tonight. Many times in the past, when leaving Duncan, we would stop for a late night burger or ice cream run. MAN did I want to do that tonight soooooo bad. I probably would've if Braylen hadn't of told me no (darn him for being the voice of reason!). Sigh... I just want a dang Braums burger! But I'm being dramatic... Had a nice pleasant strawberry shortcake yogurt when I got home so I guess that will suffice... for now.

Back to school tomorrow. YUCK. Praying for a quick week. Scratch that... A quick year. Scratch that... A quick two years.

Oh, and I found out today that I'm not having babies for a while. Trying not to think on it too much or I'm afraid depression would set in. Pray for my patience!

Day 20

Breakfast: green tea, "power cookie", a sliced pear
Mid-afternoon snack: part of a red raspberry yogurt (finally found a flavor I don't like)
Lunch: green tea, bowl of chicken-vegetable soup, baked potato w/sour cream and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (ha), and a sliced pear
Dinner: deer steak and grilled carrots, squash, onion, and broccoli
Dessert: blueberry yogurt

Well, today was another absolutely boring, lazy day.. And I completely loved it! I'm caught up on laundry (yay!), got to eat amazing food, and spend some time with Husband before he left for work. Not to mention, actually did the workout DVD like I said I would, as opposed to skipping it like I planned. ha. Altogether it was a pretty great day. I'm glad we're going to be busy, busy, busy tomorrow cos I've almost exhausted all of my DVR choices. Can you believe it? I'm almost out of my favorite recorded shows! Don't know what I'll do with myself! haha. Like I said.. Good thing we'll have plenty to do tomorrow.

Bright and early in the AM (so, around 10 or 11.. ha) Husband and I are headed up to Crest in OKC to do our weekly grocery shopping (can't believe it's already time again!). After we unpack our loot at the house, we need to pack up Luke cos we're going grandparent visiting. We haven't seen our parents in a while so it's time to make the rounds! It's just been kind of hard to break away from the house because of the diet, oddly enough. We can't really eat most places and we'd hate to impose our dietary choices on our parents by having them cook our boring diet food (although it's pretty damn tasty, if I do say so myself) so it's easier just to stay at home. But Bray's mom's in town so there's no avoiding it now... Time to go South! Let you know what adventures we get ourselves into tomorrow...

Day 19

Breakfast: kefir smoothie
Mid-afternoon snack: sliced golden delicious apple
Lunch: green tea, baby carrots and cucumber slices with dip, and a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, Chicken-Vegetable soup
Dessert: Boston cream pie yogurt

Another lazy day so I won't have much to chat about today. I did somehow find motivation to go to Tan & Tone. Hoping to go back again tomorrow and Sunday to make up for the past few days of not going. It dawned on me today while I was driving there that I pass about 5 or 6 fast food places and restaurants that I absolutely love. It's pretty empowering to drive past all the junk that I used to eat to get to an environment that makes me stronger and healthier. I admit I do get cravings every once in a while when I see those places, but I'm happy I've been able to maintain my willpower. I know that this is a blessing from God, because I've never been able to stay this strong and steady ever before on my own. So thankful to be where I am today and happy about the days to come!

That's all for now. Looking forward to tomorrow... a cookie, steak, and potato all in one day!! I may faint!

Ice Day

Breakfast: green tea, 4 scrambled egg whites, orange cream yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: NONE
Lunch: green tea, grilled chicken salad with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, and carrots, and a sliced golden delicious apple
Dinner: green tea, 1/2 cup brown rice, sauteed carrots, onion, and squash, 1/2 cup sauerkraut
Dessert: NONE

Well, school was cancelled today because of the icy roads so I got to stay at home all day with my honey before he went to work. It was pretty fantastic to get an extra day off... This school week was only 2 days long! Altogether, it was a really lazy day (note: me still in my pajamas at 7:15 PM). Luke stayed in with us because once the ice/"snow" melted, the ground was pretty wet. He was a sad pooch, but we didn't give in. Tried to keep him occupied most of the day with love and a bone.

We didn't really kick off cycle 2 with as big of a bang as we could have, because we kind of forgot to cook all of the food. We're so used to having almost nothing for lunch that we made the salad and completely forgot to have the rice. And then we wanted to have turkey patties for dinner and Husband had an accident with my patties, so I just made up for it with the rice for dinner. Sigh, the sacrifices wives make for their husbands...

I guess the positive side of it all (at least for puppy) is that the patties were able to be salvaged enough that he occasionally will get pieces of it in his food as a treat. We do spoil him every once in a while, it's true.

Other than cooking, today was spent mostly catching up on my shows (and I do have quite a number of them). I watched SVU, Jersey Shore, The Next Great Baker, I Used to be Fat, and will watch Grey's Anatomy and another episode of Jersey Shore later tonight, after they're finished recording (so I can skip through commercials). To say I love TV is an understatement. But these days I don't feel quite so bad. I've been able to prioritize and manage my time a lot better lately so that I only watch my shows on DVR when I have everything else completed AND I don't stay up late to watch anything if I need to wake up in the morning. I'm really hoping this discipline will continue as the school year forges on, but we shall see!

Ummm... by the way, still have baby fever. Just thought I'd give you an update. But still waiting, of course.

Woo hoo for having all my homework done before the weekend even started!! Now I can just relax and take care of my husband, puppy, and house!

Have a blessed Friday!

Freckle Face

Breakfast: green tea, a scrambled egg with 2 scrambled egg whites and a squirt of reduced sugar ketchup
Mid-afternoon snack: white chocolate strawberry yogurt and a sliced pear
Lunch: salad with grape tomatoes and a sliced golden delicious apple
Dinner: green tea, turkey chili
Dessert: red velvet cake yogurt

CELEBRATION.. It's day 17!!!!! So excited we've made it through the first cycle! It seems like so long ago that it started and then again it sometimes feels like just yesterday. We are both so excited about what's to come in the next 17 days (and beyond, of course).

A few of the new foods we're looking forward to in this next cycle include:

• Shellfish (which I won't be eating, but Bray will probably eat shrimp)
• BEEEEEEEEEF
• Pork
• BROWN RICEEEEEEE
• Cream of wheat
• Oatmeal
• Beans (black, garbanzo, great northern, kidney, lima, navy, pinto, and soy)
• Peas (green, split, and black-eyed)
• CORNNNNNN
• POTATOESSSSSSS
• Sweet potatoes
• Spaghetti squash

(Can you tell the ones I'm most excited about?)

The 2nd cycle is called Activate. It's supposed to reset your metabolism so that the body stays in fat-burning mode, so says the book. The way it works is you alternate the cycle 1 menu with the 2nd cycle... one day is cycle 1 and the next day is cycle 2 and so on. "In a nutshell, this means alternating low-calorie days with higher-calorie days in order to lose body fat." - Dr. Mike Murano.

I'm very excited! I hope that the weight continues to come off, as the book assures.

Clinic was today, and all went well. In fact, too well. Thinking my kiddo may need to graduate already, he's so brilliant. We'll see what the supervisor thinks about that, though!

Oh, and my class today went well, also. No notes to study tonight cos all he did was ramble. Woo hoo!

I didn't work out again today. My excuse is lame, but it's all I have: I got to school four and a half hours early (at 8:30 AM) so that I would have plenty of time to get ready for clinic before my class at 1 PM. Then after the session I was finishing up my report and talked to a supervisor and a friend. I didn't make it home until past 6 because of rush hour traffic and Husband had dinner waiting on the stove. So, you see, I couldn't leave without risking mental and emotional harm on my poor husband who had spent his whole day alone and missing me... So much so that he cleaned the kitchen AND cooked dinner ON HIS DAY OFF. I couldn't bear (bare?) to leave him to go to Tan & Tone so... I skipped it. Oopsie. Sue me for being too attached to the love of my life.

Besides, I parked far away in the student lot today to allow for more walking (and cos the lot was almost full when I got there and there weren't any close open spots, ha) and took the stairs twice today (which, if you've taken the stairs at the College of Allied Health, you know those stairs are ridiculous). Not that it completes my 17 minutes of exercise I'm supposed to have per day, but I feel slightly less guilty. 

As a random side note... I've not yet gotten compliments about weight loss, because I have not lost enough weight to be noticeable (even though Husband swears he notices changes). However, over the past two days of being back at school I've gotten numerous comments about my hair. One professor went so far as to say "Your hair looks nice. You colored it, didn't you? It definitely is different!" Several others asked if I've gotten a hair cut. I'm not sure what the hub-bub is about.. All I've done is straighten it, which is not the first time, but I'll take any amount of self-esteem boosters I can get! 

I think the best compliment I got though was from my child in therapy.

After looking me over for a moment, he lovingly said, "You have lots of freckles on your face!"

(and he produced the /k/ in freckles, by the way)

I love children.

Beef, it's [soon to be] what's for dinner!

Breakfast: green tea, 4 scrambled egg whites
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced golden delicious apple
Lunch: veggies and yogurt dip, a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, grilled chicken and veggies
Dessert: haven't decided on a yogurt yet

Well, tomorrow is our last day on the first cycle. I cannot express how excited I am to expand our food choices in the next 17 days! I'll explain a little more about the additions once the time comes, but let me just say one thing... BEEF!!!

So first day back at school went seamlessly. I got up on time, got everything ready at a leisurely pace, and made it to school in time to pick up my computer BEFORE my first class. I was so excited. So I'm back on my very own computer and it feels great! Let's just say... I'm a PC! Husband's Mac was a little bit confusing for me!

But back to what I was saying... School went well. My classes all seem like they're going to be great, and I even like the new professor we have this semester. I still don't have everything prepared for clinic tomorrow, but I have all day there tomorrow to fret about it so I'll be just fine.

Altogether just feel very optimistic about this semester! It's a good feeling.

And going to school and sticking with the diet was successful today, as well. Although, I will say, my stomach was growling during each and every class and I had to go to the bathroom FOUR times (when I normally don't need to go at all or once at the most). Guess I hadn't realized how much drinking this much water had affected me until I left the house, ha.

Not working out today. I plan on shifting my workout days to Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday and/or Sunday. Those are my more relaxed days and the ones that will be easiest for me to stick to. Instead of working out Tuesdays and Thursdays, I plan on studying and looking over my notes and readings for class. I really want to try to stay on top of it this semester so I don't keep putting it off until right before tests like I always have done. That really came back to bite me in the end of last semester... Grad school is NOT the same as undergrad (and a far cry from high school, no doubt).

So I'm going to go study now. Wish me luck that I can keep it up!



Also, thank heaven for husbands that will cook dinner for tired wives!
Couldn't do any of this without him!

Semester Eve

Breakfast: green tea, 4 egg whites and a squirt of reduced sugar ketchup, strawberries and banana yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced green delicious apple
Lunch: green tea, salad with carrots, cucumber, spinach leaves, and grape tomatoes, and a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, 2 turkey patties, sauteed veggies (carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli)
Dessert: red velvet cake yogurt

Okay, so tomorrow is the first day back at school and I have major butterflies. I'm not really ready for clinic. I know there's not much I need to do to get ready, which is why I've put it off this long, but doing so makes me feel really uneasy. Fortunately I have tomorrow and most of Wednesday to finish up. Tomorrow is just the first day back at class. I won't have my computer until after the first class (unless IT is open at 8 instead of 9, when I think they'll open), so hopefully there won't be too much I need to take notes on. Ready to get back in the swing of things, but as I said before.. Anxious about keeping up with the diet and cleaning and such.

Speaking of the diet, today was weigh-in day. It was pretty bittersweet because I only lost 1.6 lbs from last week. I didn't mess up on the diet, so the only explanation I have is that I must have done too much muscle toning, at this point. I thought about cutting back on Tan & Tone, cos I want to lose weight fast... But in the long run, I know this kind of steady workout routine will give me the best results, overall. Anyways, definitely didn't do as well in the Biggest Winner competition this week. Tried not to feel too down about it today. Just gotta keep trying and keep doing what we're doing.

So much to do in the morning, I think I'm going to go to bed by, like, 9 tonight. I need to get ready (makeup and straighten hair, especially), pack up my lunch, take care of my breakfast and Husband's dinner, and get out the door by 7:15 AM. I started packing lunch tonight. I'm trying out a new dip for veggies tomorrow and I hope it isn't horrible!

Pray with me that this first week back goes smoothly!

Productivity Review

Breakfast: green tea, Greek egg scramble, strawberry shortcake yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: NONE
Lunch: green tea, leftover chicken-vegetable soup
Dinner: green tea, turkey chili
Dessert: haven't picked a flavor of yogurt yet

Today felt like a very long day. After lunch I drove 30 minutes up to Crest Fresh Market south of OKC and bought groceries for the upcoming week. I ended up spending almost $200, which was more than intended. Spending $100 or more anytime I go to the store gives me very bad anxiety (not kidding in the least) so I was kind of grouchy by the time I got home (sorry Husband!). However, the blow was a little softer because last night, when cleaning, I came across a Christmas card that still had a $100 bill in it. Woo hoo! So that took care of more than half the expenses. Now I just need to find another $100 for next week!

Christmas break is coming to a slamming halt, and I need to review the list of things I wanted to accomplish over the break. Seeing as I don't actually have school tomorrow (thank heaven for MLK, Jr.), I could review the list tomorrow, but I'll do it today instead! Cos I said so...

1. Work on the scrapbook I started for Braylen and I last year. Well, that didn't happen. I will say we (cos Bray helped!) put together an outline of the pages we need to work on. And I bought more scrap book paper and a straight-edge cutter. Kept meaning to go back for the picture tape I forgot, and it just never happened. However, now that I have the paper, I do feel more motivated! The diet just took over the remainder of the break for me.
2. Religiously keep up with the housework. I am pretty darn proud of myself for actually sticking to this one (for the most part). I won't say there's not a speck of dust in my house and I won't say everything has always been in its place 100% of the time, but I've kept up with it much better than I had before! AND I only asked for help with the dishes two times (yes, I kept count).
3. Speaking of religion, I'd like to find a church home for us.  Sadly, this did not happen. The only excuse that I have is that (because I'm on break) I never know what day of the stinkin' week it is!
4. Work double-time on puppy training with Luke. We do work on his commands often, but I wouldn't say we've taught him many new ones. I don't feel guilty, however, because I feel like I've gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my pooch this break and do a lot more things with him that I've been wanting to (daily walks, a trip to the dog park, going into Pet Smart, etc.). He's a spoiled pooch, I gotta say.
5. [If finances allow for it,] I'd like to work on house decor a little bit. Umm, finances definitely didn't allow for it. Sorry, house!
6. FINALLY order the prints from our wedding. Geez, this didn't happen either!
7. Watch movies with my honey as often as possible.  I will say.. Even if it was a challenge at times to get him to focus with me on a movie, we did watch a lot over the break. Success!
8. Spend as much time as I can with my parents, parents-in-law, and friends. Although it's never enough time, of course, I did get to see many family members and friends over the break. There were even a few spontaneous visits here and there, which are always nice!
9. Continue to write on my blog to document what I can accomplish over the break. Check!
10. Plan for and start buying the foods I'll need to start my diet in January. Bought and eaten!

Okay, so I didn't meet all my goals... But these were for fun!
Thank goodness no grades are given! 


Weigh-in is tomorrow!!!!! I'm not going to try to contain my excitement anymore. I just want to know where I stand! I'm anxious I won't have lost as much this week because I've been kicking up the intensity and quantity of my workouts, but even if I didn't, I know it will pay off in the end! Wish me luck!

Day 13

I apologize for the past two days of updates being so hurried and short. Not having my own computer is rough! Husband has been sharing his but, of course, I try to wait until he's finished which is usually like two minutes before we go to bed. ha. By the time that comes around, I'm so beat I just punch out what I ate and forget about all the other things that happened during the day.

Tonight, however, Husband's back at work so I have the computer all to myself.

Ahh, sweet freedom!

Today was pretty productive, I must say. I altogether skipped breakfast because I wanted to sleep in. It was absolutely wonderful! Even though I've been on break, since we started the diet I've been getting up in the morning every day when he gets home. Getting up at 6:30 AM when you're on a school break is pretty bogus, thus my decision to sleep in today.

By the time I got up, it was already about time to start cooking lunch! Since I was making soup, I had about an hour of cook time so I watched TV (duh, still on my break, ya know!). I called my new client's momma to let her know what time our first session would be and introduce myself. Then I went to Tan & Tone early today because they close at 4 on Saturdays (ridiculous). When I came home, Bray was still taking his jog around the block (so proud of him) so I took advantage of the alone time to straighten up the house a little bit. Feels good to have a somewhat clean house again!

Tomorrow I plan on making our weekly grocery run, but this time I'm going to go to Crest. I want to see what the overall price difference will end up being.. See if it's worth it to make the drive every week. Excited to restock, cos the fridge is lookin' pretty empty!

I forgot to mention yesterday that we splurged again and got a diet cherry limeade from Sonic. Looks like that's become a weekly tradition as a treat to ourselves. They're so yummy!

Kind of anxious to start school next week. I hope that keeping up with school, homework, clinic, cooking, and trying to keep up with Luke and the house won't be as difficult as it sounds. I really need to stay on top of studying this semester to make up for my laziness last 8 weeks. I basically need to just cancel our Dish Network if I want to get anything done, but I'm going to have to learn how to focus and manage my time better instead. Especially because I might cause my husband to divorce me if I get rid of his football and cartoon connection.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to tell you!!! Last night, MY HUSBAND did my workout DVD with me. Now, if you know my husband, well... you're probably chuckling to yourself right now.

And I don't think there's much more I can say about that, without causing divorce #2.

Breakfast: NONE
Mid-afternoon snack: a raspberry cheesecake yogurt
Lunch: Chicken-Vegetable soup, a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, grilled turkey breast and sauteed vegetables (green, yellow, and red bell peppers and an onion sauteed in stir-fry sauce)
Dessert: haven't decided what flavor of yogurt I'm having yet

Gonna go do my second workout of the day!

Community Dog

I forgot to mention yesterday, in my state of bewilderment, that my dog officially belongs to the neighborhood. This is the second time in less than a week that our neighbors have taken advantage of my puppy's loving, obedient, adorable personality. And this time it was a DIFFERENT neighbor... Not even from the same house!!

I was standing on our kitchen's balcony yesterday in a fit of anger, taking a moment to breathe, and watched as a preteen neighbor who lives behind us called my dog, BY NAME, to the fence. She proceeded to have him follow the "sit" command several times and apologized that "Isaac isn't here to pet him this time."

Okay, now I know what you're thinking... Who cares if our neighbors love our dog? This should be a good thing! Ummm WRONG. First of all... Our neighbors should not know our dog's name if we don't know theirs. I know he wears a name tag and everything, but you shouldn't be getting near a strange dog, kid! Second of all... GET AWAY FROM MY DOG.

Oops, that was mean.

I'm overprotective, I know. It's just a kid, after all. However, it makes me feel completely disconnected from my dog, for some strange reason, that he knows people we don't. How many more strangers has he made friends with his charming and klutzy personality? I can't blame him.. He loves the attention. I just... AHHHH..

We need to build our privacy fence NOW.

Day 12

Breakfast: green tea, 1 scrambled egg with 4 egg whites and a squirt of reduced sugar ketchup, black forest cake yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: two sliced pears
Lunch: green tea, leftover baked BBQ chicken and sauteed vegetables
Dinner: green tea, turkey chili
Dessert: raspberry patch yogurt

Well, today was a roller coaster. I won't get into the dirty details, but let's just say I'm ready for a good sleep tonight. Despite having a not-so-good day, I stuck with the diet, and even did both of my workouts today (I really needed to burn off some steam).

The turkey chili was amazing. Especially since it was already made for me when I returned home. Food is always better when someone else cooks (and cleans). I'll post the recipe another time. For now, I think it's best if I conk out.




Here's to hoping for a better tomorrow.

Day 11: Addendum

So I kind of left a TON of stuff out of my post yesterday, because of two reasons:

1. I reeeeeeealllllly had to pee. Oooopsie, sorry.
2. Husband was in bed yelling at me for still having all the lights on and not getting off the computer.

You see, I had quite a bit of pressure on me last night, and I just didn't have the time to update on the rest of my day (outside of dieting). So I shall do it now, k?

It was Husband's first of two days off, so we got to spend the whole day together, which was just lovely. After the aforementioned failed lunch and going to A&E for our real lunch, we went to get our hair cut. Yes, we get our hair cut by the same person and we always do it together. It's bonding time, okay? Now we both look like fabulous celebrities, of course. It's wonderful.

Anyways, back story... About, oh, 6 or 7 months ago, Husband's grandma gave us two huge boxes of books to take to Nash Library and donate, since USAO (formerly OCW, when she graduated) is her Alma Mater. These boxes have been sitting in our bedroom since she gave them to us so long ago... Until yesterday! After we got our hair cuts, we took them over to the library. Finally, they're out of my room! And I can fill that space with my own junk. ha. Oh, and we also had another errand to run over at the admissions building. FUN.

We then went home and lounged for a majority of the rest of the day. Actually... ALL of the rest of the day. We watched "Old Yeller"... I had never seen it before, but I thought it was great! Tonight, I think we will watch our other Netflix movie that came in... "The Other Sister". One of my favorites that Husband's never seen. Hope he likes it, but it probably won't be as good to him as it is to me. ha.

Okay, I think I've got you all caught up on yesterday's happenings. Not that it matters, I just felt like I was omitting so much last night!

I'll be updating again tonight about today's goings-on, so talk to you soon!

Day 11

Breakfast: green tea, Greek egg scramble, strawberries and banana yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced pear
Lunch: Will explain in the post
Dinner: green tea, baked BBQ chicken and sauteed vegetables
Dessert: red raspberry yogurt

Okay, so about lunch... I tried to make the balsamic artichoke that they have a recipe for in the book, and it didn't exactly go as planned. I mean, let me rephrase. I cooked it exactly how it said to.. And we tried it.. And it was awful. We didn't have enough time to make something ourselves, so we decided to venture out into the unknown to find lunch. (Our first time eating out since we started the diet) We went to one of our favorite restaurants, A&E, and ordered grilled chicken and steamed broccoli. The server was a little confused about how we wanted it cooked, so the cook came out to talk to us. He explained everything to us, answered our questions, and then had them cook us an amazing lunch. It was excellent! So excited that it went well (and that we were able to resist temptation, cos man do they have some good food!).

Oh, and we also had some fruit when we got home. We each sliced up an apple, poured a packet of Truvia on it, sprinkled it with cinnamon, and zapped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. It was delicious! Thanks for the suggestion, Robin!!

I almost went to bed just now without posting, oooooopsie. Better late than never, right?

Hibernation

Breakfast: green tea, Greek egg scramble
Mid-afternoon snacks: apple turnover yogurt, a sliced fuji apple
Lunch: green tea, salad with cucumbers, grape tomatoes, carrots, and spinach leaves, a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, chicken stir fry with orange and yellow bell peppers, squash, and an onion
Dessert: strawberry yogurt

Pretty sure, because it's been so cold, I've gone into hibernation mode. Let me explain.. Husband gets home from work at about 6:20 AM and I've been getting up with him to make his dinner and to have my breakfast. We normally watch an episode of SVU with our meal and then go to bed. I'll sleep until about 10 or so, and of course he sleeps until much later since he just got off working 12 hours. Today, however, I guess I decided to be a bear. I woke up, as usual, around 10:30. Watched a bit of TV and ate lunch around 11:45. Then went right back to bed. I think I slept until about 1 something. Got up, watched more TV (I'm still on break people... Don't judge me) and went to bed AGAIN at about 3 something. We finally both got up at about 4:30. I made his breakfast and our dinner as he got ready and left. After I ate, I went to Tan & Tone, came home and did my workout DVD, showered, and now here I am! I probably won't be able to go to bed until really late tonight because I slept so much, but hey (!) it's still Christmas break.. I need to take advantage of napping and sleeping in while I can, right?

On a much more serious note... When looking out the back window this evening, I saw our neighbor directly behind us feeding Luke something over our fence. Now, this may not be a big deal to some, but I was completely caught off guard and felt pretty agitated. I'm sure he was just giving him scraps or something and he was smiling and talking with Luke, so I know he meant no harm... But we don't feed Luke scraps!! EVER! Ever, ever, ever! And I can't imagine feeling it'd be okay to feed someone else's dog without asking for permission. To add to that... I've never even MET those neighbors! So it's not like they know us and thought it would be okay... I've never even seen that guy until today! Ughhhh... Sorry for venting, it just really upset me. I brought Luke in immediately after the guy went back inside.

Moral of the story is: We need to build our privacy fence NOW. Cold weather, go away.

Now, I need your opinion. Am I crazy?

Okay, that wasn't the full question. HA

Today while cutting up bell peppers for the stir fry, I came across a pepper "bulb" (I don't know what else to call it?) inside. This is not the first time. I always just cut it out and throw it away.

Am I crazy that it makes me feel slightly bad for killing a baby pepper? ABORTING an unplanted and unutilized source of food?!

I'm probably thinking about it too much, huh?

Okay, goodnight!

Adventure to the Outside World

Breakfast: green tea, Greek Egg Scramble (4 egg whites, half a chopped onion, half a chopped tomato, 2 tbs. feta cheese), raspberry cheesecake yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced pear
Lunch: green tea, nicoise salad (bed of green lettuce, 1 cup cooked&chilled green beans, 2 chopped scallions, sprinkled with tuna), a sliced fuji apple
Dinner: green tea, leftover taco salad
Dessert: orange creme yogurt

Food today was great! The Greek egg scramble is my new favorite... absolutely delicious! The nicoise salad was alright, may try it again.

I actually ventured out of the house today (GASP) because I needed to turn my computer over to the IT department at school and get a suspected trojan removed. A friend from school went with me so we could both look at our new client files for clinic. I'm excited to work with my kiddo.. I hear he's such a good kid and really easy to work with. Hope we can have some fun!

Getting out of the house really broke up the monotony of what has been my day-to-day for the past 8 days. My mind wasn't solely focused on food and cooking and doing the dishes and it was really nice to get a break from that. It made each meal a lot less of an event, that's for sure, because I had something else to focus on. Maybe going back to school won't be so strenuous after all...?

On our way back from the city we stopped at Crest Fresh Market. I'm in love. My new favorite place to buy groceries! Just thought I'd share that tidbit with you.

I am very saddened that I will be updating from a foreign computer (aka Husband's Mac) for the next few days. Hopefully my computer will be up and running again very soon. Not only am I more comfortable using it, but I need it for school.. Which starts in.. 7 days!!! AHHHH. Sigh... It's going to be a very long semester. Hang in there with me!

Suuuuuuuuuper sore today so I'm just going to do the workout video and call it a day. Don't think I wanna drive out to Tan & Tone and stress out the muscles that are already so mad at me today. We'll go again tomorrow!

(Did I just say "we" in reference to my muscles and I? That's strange...)

Day 8

Well, we made it through our first week, long enough to do our second weigh-in... 

Me:

     Last week: 290.0

     This week: 279.8

Husband:

     Last week: 211.0

     This week: 199.8

WOO HOO for us!! I'm so excited that it's actually working!! I never thought I could lose so much in such a short amount of time! And Husband losing so much also is icing on the cake! Except for that he's definitely going to reach his goal before me, and we're struggling to figure out how to resolve him going back to normal eating while I'm still dieting full time. BUT, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, focusing on one day at a time! 

I rejoined my old "gym" today and now have a year membership at Tan & Tone. It was nice to slip back into a familiar way of exercising, cos these workout DVDs are so wacky to me. I think I'll still do them, in addition to Tan & Tone, just to get even more work done. I'm feeling extra motivated, now that I'm seeing results!

Still working on forgiving my puppy for devouring that slice of chicken. Maybe one day he'll be in my good book again.

Just kidding... Kind of.

Sigh, Husband is back at work. Wah, wah, wah... Wish it wasn't the case, but we need the $$$. I'm so proud of him for going back to school. I know I've said it before, but I just think he's somethin' special. He's working so hard already.. I can feel an A comin' on!

Speaking of.. I got a letter from OU today saying I made the Dean's Honor Roll. Didn't think I did well enough for that, so that was pretty good news. 

Oh, oops, forgot to post foodage today...

Breakfast: green tea, lemon water, 1 scrambled egg w/2 egg whites and a small squirt of sugar-free ketchup (don't judge me... I've liked it since I was a kid)

Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced apple

Lunch: green tea, leftover taco salad, a sliced pear

Dinner: green tea, grilled turkey burgers and vegetables (today was squash, onion, and cabbage)

Dessert: strawberry shortcake yogurt

Have some new recipes to try to tomorrow... Looking forward to shaking things up a bit!

The Breast Bandit

Woo hoo! We survived our first week!! Can't say it's always been easy, but it sure as heck wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Having nothing but healthy food in the house and having a menu to work off of has really helped to keep us on track!

Breakfast: green tea, lemon water, 1 scrambled egg with 2 egg whites, white chocolate strawberry yogurt

Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced pear

Lunch: green tea, taco salad, a sliced pear

Dinner: green tea, stir fry chicken with vegetables

Dessert: Boston Cream Pie yogurt

After lunch today we went to the grocery store (aka Walmart) to stock up for the next ten days. Of course, we'll have to go back several times to restock on the things we have often (so far we've been having to go back to the store for apples, pears, yogurt, and various vegetables), but we got quite a bit of stuff to hold us over for now.

When we came back we watched some SVU, then eventually I went to make dinner. After the chicken was defrosted for the stir fry, I set it on the cutting board so I could cut it into strips. Nature called, so I left it there for a minute to go take care of business. I quickly realized I'd made a mistake when I heard the jing-jing-jangling of Luke's dog tags headed toward the kitchen. I hurried out of the bathroom, but it was too late. An entire chicken breast, gone, in under 5 seconds. I've never seen a creature eat something so quickly. After Husband thoroughly disciplined him, we got out another breast to thaw, but I'm still upset with our pooch. He's never gotten anything off the counter before, and that chicken was expensive! Needless to say, he's going without dinner tonight, although I think a huge chicken breast hardly counts as "going without dinner". But it makes me feel better, so I'll be silly and neglect my perfectly innocent puppy.

Both meals today were excellent, if I do say so myself. Husband was happy also. Definitely will repeat those recipes at a later date!

We watched E.T. during dinner, because it is one of our Netflix movies and I've never seen it before. I'm glad I can say I've seen it, but I don't think I'll ever watch it again. Verrrrrrryyyyy Ssssslllllowwwww. But oh well.

I'm so proud of Husband. He's studied for probably a total of two hours already today and he's back at it again now... After only one day of class! Sigh... Robin and I taught him well. =]

Probably gonna start another episode of SVU and call it a night... Happy Monday tomorrow! (We weigh in every Monday, so we're kind of anxious to see how it goes... Wish us luck!)

Dog Park

Breakfast: green tea, lemon water, 1 scrambled egg with 2 scrambled egg whites, red velvet cake yogurt
no snack today.. I was napping =]
Lunch: green tea, Chicken-Vegetable soup, a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, Chicken-Vegetable soup, side salad
Dessert: Boston Creme Pie yogurt


So today we went to the dog park for the first time!!! It was really exciting, but the fun started even before that! It's not very often that we have a day I'm so bored I decide "hey, let's drive all the way to OKC just to please my dog!" but today was Luke's lucky day because it got to that point.

We started our venture going to the asian supermarket to appease my mother and grandmother by buying them Mi Goreng (basically Ramen, only with much better seasonings). Afterwards, we headed up May Ave to I-240 and went to.... dum dum dum... PETSMART!!! AHHHH. It was Luke Puppy's first time, and he was extremely well-behaved! He pulled on the leash quite a bit at times, but for the most part, he was excellent. He didn't jump up on anybody (not even the kids!) and he only barked once and that was because he wanted to say hi to a dog and we wouldn't let him go over there. We were so impressed! We both thought he would go crazy!

Wish the picture wasn't blurry, but he was a very good boy. He was amazed by all of the toys!! It was kind of a bad day to go because it was puppy adoption day and I'd say they had at least 20 puppies to adopt. They were kind of yippy of course, and Luke Puppy was kind of confused. ha. Oh well! We made it in and out in one place... And got him a cute new collar!

Then we headed over to OKC Paw Park in Lake Hefner Park. I'd bookmarked their website five months ago and we just haven't ever made it up. I was really happy that the opportunity presented itself today because he had a blast!

The dog he's sniffing was the first pooch we came to, before we even entered the gate. He was snapping at several other dogs, as well as Luke, so he was not my favorite. Rude! But the two golden retrievers also pictured were absolutely beautiful.

 They had a secluded piece of Lake Hefner dedicated to the dog park, so of course Luke had to jump in! It would have been fine, but, being the brilliant dog owners we are, we forgot to bring a towel! So glad we have a seat cover or my back seat would have been ruined!

See how dirty it is? ha. 

He was passed out and snoring before we even made it back to the highway.

As soon as we got home, he got a puppy bath and now smells phenomenal and looks shiny and smooth once again! 

Well, time to watch some Law & Order: SVU and wind down from all the excitement!

Oh, I forgot to mention, Braylen and I treated ourselves with a low-cal, diet cherry limeade from Sonic. Ooooopsie, negative water. Oh well!

Looking forward to Day 7 tomorrow! TACO SALAD, yummmm.

Day 5

Breakfast: green tea, lemon water, 2 hard-boiled eggs, strawberry shortcake yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a sliced pear
Lunch: green tea, Chicken-Vegetable soup, a sliced pear
Dinner: green tea, salad with spinach leaves and grape tomatoes
Dessert: a blueberry yogurt

Been in a pretty blah mood all day. Starting with when I exploded my hard boiled eggs I was cooking by leaving them in a pot of boiling water and forgetting about them. House was stinky. Husband had to make his own breakfast (cos I was done with eggs at that point). All downhill from there.

Hoping to start out fresh tomorrow. Probably going to make another pot of soup tonight because it was so stinkin' good.

Looking forward to this weekend.. Husband has off Friday and Saturday.

Day 4

Breakfast: green tea, lemon water, two hard boiled eggs, and a strawberry yogurt
Mid-afternoon snack: a handful of red grapes
Lunch: green tea, salad with carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and a sliced apple
Dinner: green tea, grilled chicken and vegetables marinated in fat free italian dressing and Tabasco sauce
Dessert: a cinnamon roll yogurt

I was not impressed with the yogurt. Dinner was great. My grilling skills are improving.

Husband's class starts tomorrow. I'm excited to see how he likes it. I hope that working full time night shifts and juggling a class won't be too challenging.

After he left for work today I ate dinner. An hour or so later I worked out with the 17 Day Diet DVD (for the second day in a row). It seemed harder and easier today, all at once. It seemed shorter, but my legs are more sore today than they were yesterday. Ah well!

Then I immediately showered off the sweat. It was definitely needed. Afterwards I soaked my feet and watched Grey's Anatomy and Jersey Shore.

I'm going to cook chicken and vegetable soup tonight so it can sit and be good and marinated for tomorrow's lunches. Bray's getting tired of just salad so we thought we'd mix it up. Plus the example menu had it on there for yesterday and I've been putting it off so I better do it now! I already grilled the chicken today so now I just have to cut everything up and throw it in a pot.

Hoping I'll have more interesting things to say tomorrow. My car is fiiiiiiinally ready to be picked up (after being at the dealership for, what is it, 7 or 8 weeks now?) so I'm going down to Lawton to get it. I've enjoyed having the nice car they loaned me (2010 Hyundai Sonata) but it stresses me out driving it, so I'm ready to just get mine back!!

Better get my butt back in the kitchen.




Oops, just read over what I wrote and sorry it's so ramble-y. I have no excuse.

It's just a number?

Okay, this post is going to probably sound like I am feeling defeated, but I’ll try to bring it back to the positive, so bear with me (bare* with me? I don’t know).

We weighed ourselves the other day, as I already posted, and I was at 290.0 as of Monday. Before that day I hadn’t been on a scale (except at the doctors office) in years, and when I did get measured at the dr.’s, I don’t remember looking at the weight, because I didn’t want to know. Needless to say, 290 really crept up on me.

Which is stupid to say, like I had no involvement in its appearance. Or that I had no idea eating the way I was and not exercising wouldn’t bring me to this point. But, still the same, I wasn’t expecting that amount.

I think I may have some mild case of body dismorphic disorder… Except I think I have it in reverse. Let me explain. Since about my junior year of high school I’ve tried to dress myself better. This is sometimes hard because not everything trendy fits, but I do my best to find clothes that flatter me, for the most part. When I would look in the mirror, I felt pretty good about myself because I felt I presented myself well with what I had to work with. I thought I looked pretty good. I would see other girls that are also overweight and think to myself that I was doing pretty well. I couldn’t be as overweight as them.

My perspective is drastically changing. It has been for several weeks now, but I’ll use today as an example. Maybe some of you have been watching this new show on MTV called “I Used to be Fat”.  In today’s episode, an 18-year old girl lost 90 lbs in 89 days. She went from 250 to 160. That is amazing! But what shocked me the most was in the beginning of the show, before they gave her initial weight, I kept thinking “I’ve gotta weigh less than her.” Overall, she looks bigger than I am. And then when she weighed in at 250, I felt, I admit, somewhat defeated. Well, defeated, embarrassed, shocked, and disappointed that I would hope for someone to be more overweight than myself.

I suppose it was a good thing that I saw myself skinnier than I actually was, but it really makes me wonder what others see when they look at me. Are they surprised by my weighing 290 lbs or were they expecting it? Is Husband disappointed when he found out the number? How many overweight people look at me and think “man, I’m glad I’m not that heavy!”

None of these questions really need answers. No answer, good or bad, would help or satisfy me in the long run. I have to make these changes myself, regardless of outside opinions. I think I’ve just put up blinders on myself about my weight for so long, that once I’m opening my eyes, it’s kind of scary to know it’s gotten this far.

I pray that God can bring me to a healthy weight. Whether it be the 145 I proposed earlier or some other number.. I just want to feel good about myself like I never have before. I know no one is every truly satisfied with their body, but I wish weight wasn’t at the top of my list of changes.

One day, I hope I can look in the mirror and really see me for who I am.

Day 3

Another successful day of dieting. Before I get into that, I have to tell you that our dog is having sympathy body changes. Since the first cycle of this diet helps to cleanse your body and get rid of excess water, Husband and I have been making frequent trips to the bathroom (TMI?). Well, for the past three days, since we started the diet, our dog has gone to the door to be taken out more than ten times a day (when he used to only "ask" to go out maybe 4 or 5 times) and peed inside two times yesterday (after having not had an accident in at least 4 months). Nothing has changed in the amount or times we feed him and give him water, he is just peeing and pooping more than he ever has before. He senses something is different... ha.

Anyways, Husband is back on night shifts again (boo, hiss) so our eating schedules will be completely wonky. I eat breakfast at about 9 or 9:30 AM and he eats at about 5 PM. Lunch for me is at noon, and he'll probably eat at around midnight. I ate dinner when he left for work at about 6 PM, and he'll eat when he gets home from work at about 7 AM the next day. See what I mean about the wonky? It's certainly not ideal, but I'm hoping we can make it work! So since our schedules are different, we'll often be eating different things (except for dinner, which I make for both of us). From now on, I'll only document what I eat, just to make things a little simpler.

And after all, it's all about me anyways, right?

Breakfast: lemon water, green tea, strawberry shortcake yogurt (are you kidding me with these amazing flavors?)
Mid-afternoon snack: sliced pear
Lunch: green tea, salad with cucumbers and tomatoes (olive oil/vinegar dressing), and a sliced pear (we just bought the pears and they sounded reallllllly good today)
Dinner: green tea, two grilled turkey patties (marinated in fat free chicken broth) and steamed mixed vegetables (cauliflower, sugar snaps, and carrots)
Dessert: strawberries and banana yogurt

All in all, it was a pretty great day. The past two days with Husband have been really nice, since he's been off work and we've gotten to spend them together. We've loved getting to cook together and then have dinner at the table. Not that we never did that before, it's just something we really love doing and haven't done in a while. I love spending time with him so much, and I'm really going to miss those times together in the upcoming semesters while he works nights full time so he can go to school in the daytime. He's superman, and I am continuously amazed by him. =]

Oops! Enough about that.

Oh, I forgot to say... The turkey patties today were great, but I was disappointed with the veggies. The two previous days we'd been marinating them all day and then grilling them. To go from that much flavor to just steamed was pretty blah. Next time, I'll probably not steam them and I'll saute them instead or something.

Also, I'm getting more and more used to the green tea. I wouldn't drink it voluntarily, by any means, but if I gulp it all down before each meal, it's really not so bad. Yay!

Bass Pro Shop

It is now Day 2 of the 17 Day Diet and (although my stomach is in a constant grumble in between meals) I am feeling extremely confident. And now to recap what we've experienced so far:

We woke up yesterday morning and had our breakfast: a glass of lukewarm lemon water, a cup of green tea, and a yogurt. The water and green tea are going to take quite some time to get used to, I'm afraid. I've never been a tea drinker and although green tea is somewhat more preferable than regular tea, I'm still not a fan at all. But, with each meal it gets easier.

Oh, I got off track.

For lunch we each had a large salad with carrots, cucumbers, onion, and slices of red pepper. The dressing was one tbs. olive oil, two tbs. balsamic vinegar and a splash of water. Oh, and another cup of green tea to drink. =\

Dinner was, by far, the best meal of the day. Husband cooked our chicken breast and vegetables over the grill after having marinated all day. It was ridiculously good. We had a good friend over and even she agreed it was great! I'm looking forward to today's dinner, but first I'll share what we had for breakfast and lunch.

Almost forgot, we had a kefir smoothie as an after-dinner dessert. I'm not a big smoothie fan, but it was okay.

Breakfast for each of us today was two egg whites with a dash of salsa, lemon water, and green tea. Then lunch was another salad and an apple for each of us. Now, for the best part... We've been marinating our chicken and vegetables in a different marinade today so he can grill again. I'm excited to see how it turns out!!

Along with dieting, we're also supposed to do 17 minutes of exercise a day. Luke Puppy's been lappin' it up because we use our exercise time to take him on puppy walks.

I'll be sad when Husband goes back to work tomorrow and we have to reconfigure our mealtimes and puppy walk times. I'm just glad we have time to adjust before I go back to school.

Oh! Another thing we did yesterday was buy a scale and weighed ourselves (yikes!). It's been a LONG time since I had weighed in, and since I'd gained so much since we got married the number was a pretty large shock to me... I now weigh 290 pounds. Geeeeeez! But I have no shame because I know that this is the largest I have ever been and will ever be. Considering my goal weight is around 145, I have more than 100 lbs to lose! Fortunately, I'm confident in myself that the time to make the change is now! And with Husband's support and encouragement, it's going to be that much easier.

We also joined a group on FB that his cousin Carli started called the Biggest Winner. We weigh in every Monday and at the end of 8 weeks whoever lost the most fat percentage wins a $20 gift card from every person in the group to the clothing store of the winner's choice. Pretty excited to see how Husband and I pan out!

*Side Note: I asked him what clothing store he would choose if he won and he said "Bass Pro Shop." Ummm...

Anyways, all is good so far. Ready to see how the rest of this first cycle goes!!

Happy New Year!

Well, my year is starting off with excitement. Braylen got called in for work today, so we had to cancel our plans to celebrate late Christmas with his family.

(Side note: He went to work today and did absolutely nothing... For 10 hours)

So I decided, when we found this out yesterday, that I would finally do the deep cleaning that I've needed to do for a while now. Finally finished out all of the laundry (I mean all of it... Towels, bedding, and table cloths also). Also washed the dishes, counters, window sill, washer/dryer, and refrigerator. I cleaned out our refrigerator's excess food a day early because most of it was old and expired anyways.

So this is what our refrigerator looks like at the moment. I'm now ready to fill it up with fresh foods and produce. Hoping that none of it will go to waste!

Oh, and Husband and I decided that we will officially celebrate the new year and his days off of work tomorrow by consuming the rest of our alcohol (since there's no alcohol allowed on this diet) so forgive me if I don't make any posts tomorrow night. =]