Rain, Rain GO AWAY

Today it was raining (surprise, surprise, thank you, state of Washington!) AGAIN. I really wanted to go running but rain+the fact that there is a supposed armed robber running around near my neighborhood made me feel that I should probably stay inside. I feel so bad that my ChloeBear has gotten like zero exercise for like 5 days now!

I kind of cringed today when I thought of the 30 day shred, especially since Comcast seems to only have level 2 on ONDemand right now, and I literally huff and puff through that thing. I had read some other bloggers who had tried the Leslie Sansone "Walk Away the Pounds" dvds and I heard good things. Plus it was free on Comcast so I tried it.

Let me just tell you all...I LOVED it! I didn't feel like I was going to keel over and die through the whole thing like with Jillian, but I did feel like I was getting a really good workout. I even hand small handweights for the first ten minutes, but then got rid of them after the first mile cause it was pretty challenging! I will definitely do this again, no doubt about it!

I had an extra 40 minutes before I had to head to work today with nothing to do, so I just went to the grocery store and walked around. Am I the only one that ever does this? I was just checking out the millions of low fat/ low calorie foods they have out there now. So many cool little ideas people have thought of!

My one frustration for the week is the fact that I can't find VitaTops anywhere! They're website said that they should be available at Safeway, but I've looked at two different stores and I can't find them! No one around here has even heard of them! I also tried wal mart and albertsons...no luck! :(

An Award!

Woohoo! I got an award today. I am really happy that the awesome Sheridan at Real Me Breaking Free gave me this wonderful award, it definitely made my day! She is really an amazing mom and weight loss blogger. So inspirational! Check her out, you won't be disappointed!

The rules are to list 7 random things about yourself. I love these kind of little activities! Here is what I could come up with:

1. I got married to my high school sweetheart when I was 19 (7/7/07). Although he can be a big buttface sometimes (what man isn't?), I love him to death and have never regretted marrying young.

2. I just purchased my first home in April. I love it! It's been so much fun painting and decorating. Plus my hubby is a carpenter so he is always of thinking of new projects to keep him busy!

3. I have just discovered the board game "Settlers of Catan" and play it with my husband and our best "couple" friends like 3 times a week. Seriously, we are like addicted. It's so fun!

4. I am a really big travel buff. Kellen and I went on a month long dream vacation/backpacking trip in June 2008 to Europe...it was a condition that he had to agree to for me to marry him! He followed through with his promise. And NO, i didn't lose weight, too much Italian Gelato!

5. My husband is one of 14. Yes, you read that right. His youngest brother is 2. That is one reason why him and I have decided to wait a couple more years to have kids (among other factors).

6. I am an only child! But don't worry- i made up for the lack of siblings by marrying into kellen's family! They all treat me like their real sister.

7. I love Jesus. A whole lot. I don't really show it as much as I like, and I have chosen not to write about my faith on my blog yet, but His love has played a HUGE role in my life. Maybe someday soon I will write a blog on God+weight loss.

There ya have it! Now 7 blogs that I award! This is hard because there are so many, but these ones come to mind right away when I think beautiful bloggerettes!

1. Julia at JewliaGoulia. OK, this girl just freaking rocks my socks off. She is SOOO honest it might make you blush, but reading her blog is definitely like taking a nice big breath of fresh air.

2. Paula at PaulaWannaCracker. Another really honest weight loss bloggerette, I love reading about both her accomplishment and blunders. Plus I wish I could just try some of the food she makes, it sounds delicious!

3. Tiff at Project365 She is SO inspiring...I read her posts and I'm like man this girl knows her stuff...but heres the kicker...she just started! If it's this good now, I can only imagine what she's gunna be writing in a couple of months!

4. Lucy** at WitheringWaist. Lucy is one of my most supporting followers. She always makes me smile with her nice comments! Plus I also love seeing all her delicious food pics!

5. Kassandra at Not Your Typical, Average, Ordinary College Girl I've gotta add Kassandra in here because although I just recently started following her blog, she is a MAJOR inspiration. She is young and hip and has lost like 165 pounds. WOAH!

6. Alexis at My Wicked, Wicked Ways. Another young, hip chicka that is just starting out her weight loss journey. I've really enjoyed reading her posts the last couple of weeks, plus she posts a ton of really cool photos that I love checking out.

7. Ok, I can't get away without telling you about Laura at Life Happens. She is so sweet and although her blog is not necessarily "weight loss" she talks about pretty much everything in life (including it!). You should totally check her out!

I am loving blogging and all the amazing support around here. You guys rock!!

Facing the Muffintop!

So I wrote yesterday that I didn't think I would have a huge loss today. It is true...in a sense. I was 16 pounds down this morning. 1 pound down for this week...and you know what?! That's ok! I'm happy for that pound. I think I might just be a happy to see one pound a week for a long time. That would put me at my goal of 40 pounds down at the end of July, and that's ok for me (I would still have time to show off my new hot bod in a bikini! ).

More exciting that the one pound this morning was the fact that all my regular pants were dirty. Because of this, I had to go scrounging through my drawers and I came across a pair of jeans I bought back in the summer. When I put them on back then, they literally HURT to wear them. haha. I was hoping they would "strech" out to my normal size, but no such luck. So I put them on today and YAY! they fit like a glove.

These jeans are a size 14. At this point I am pretty sure 15 pounds ago I was in complete denial that I needed to have been wearing a size 16 pants. I must have had a serious muffin top...sick!!

Anyway I am happy to report I am an official size 14! Oh...and even more motivation is that my grandma (a very generous woman!) has said if I get to a size 10 she is going to take me on a shopping spree. WOOHOO!

Week in Review

This weekend I didn't excercise at all. I'm really finding it hard to find the time on the weekends to excercise. It always seems like I am spending most of my time with Kellen/friends/family and it is pretty much gogogo. This weekend was no different, and it definitely bums me out because I have a slight fear that the scale may not tip in my favor tommorow morning. Oh well, i will press on.

I tried a lot of new recipes/foods this week and am pretty happy to report some winners. First of all, I was inspired by another blogger to try a hummus veggie burger. So yummy! Hummus is a really easy food to make and I usually make a bunch for the week and pre-portion it into 2 tablespoon amounts (I got some handy baby tupperware from the dollar store for this!). I have also been eating it with carrots, which is super tasty and a great way to get a serving of veggies in!

I also tried a Green Giant "Broccoli and Cheese Sauce" tray this week. It was also super yummy. I have to admit to sort of a dieters dumb mistake though: I saw the front said "only 60 calories!" so i got super excited. I forgot to take into account the tiny letters that said "per serving" underneath. Oh well, the whole tray is still 120 calories and really delicous!

One other thing that I picked up this week is some good dark chocolate. I am defintely an advocate of NOT depriving oneself of anything when choosing to eat healthy. For me, if I say I am not going to eat something, I end up binging on it a couple days later because I feel deprived. Instead, I am choosing lower calories options for whatever it is I am craving, and also making sure my portions are in control!

So in order to curb my chocolate craving this week, I picked up some Hersheys dark cocoa chocolate. These individually wrapped chocolate squares are really good and you can eat three a day for 140 calories. They defintely curbed my chocolate craving!

I did go to my cousins house last night which was fun, the only thing is, my cousin is kind of a "party animal" and is always kind of pushing drinks that she has invented into my, and her other guests, hands. You can't really get away from drinking there. So I'm hoping that didn't set me back too bad. I have to admit that wasting my calories on alcohol is quite frustrating...i would much rather have something chocolate-ey or crunchy and salty!

Goin' Bananas!

This will be a short post today since I am at my grandparents house visiting.

Yesterday I finally got over my fear and hesitation and completed c25k 6.3. It was 25 minutes of straight running. It was hard but... I did it!! It has definately become more of a mental thing than anything else. I know that my body is in shape and ready for it!

Tonight my grandma let me make dessert from my HG book, no splenda complaints were heard! :) I made banana cream pie. It was supposed to be crustless, but we used a crust. I figured that it wouldn't add TOO many calories! Anyway, it was SO good! I got a lot of compliments.

No workout today which was a little disapointing. My grandparents have wiifit so I thought maybe I would be able to try it out, but grandpa was intent on watching football all day. Haha. Oh well.

Well, I really appreciate all my wonderful followers. You guys are all so encouraging. I seriously don't think I could do this without you!!

I'm annoyed!

Ok guys, just a warning... This is a serious ranting post.

I am so done with people making rude comments about healthy eating. It started with comments from my husband. Everytime I would pull out a product that he isn't used too (think something like egg whites in a carton for an example). He just will continue to say things like "ew" whenever I cook with that product. He'd gotten a lot better lately, but that is just a start to my annoyance.

Then comes the judging from friends and family. I brought squash to thanksgiving, and both my cousin and uncle made a comment along the lines of "ew, healthy food...." when we were done with our meal, my uncle so lovingly pointed out that everyone had squash leftover on their plate. How sweet, huh?

Last night was a bit of a final straw. I had just gotten in the mail my HG "200 under 200" book. I called my (skinny) friend and told her about it, and asked her if she would want to cook one of the recipes with me. She seemed excited and we decided to do it at her house. When I got there, I started reading the ingredients- which included splenda. She then said "oh no not splenda!! Can't we use sugar??!" NO! We can't use sugar! That changes the calories ompletley! Don't you get that this is "200 under 200" for a reason!!

Grr. Well anyway, we made the brownies (with splenda) and then her husband comes in and starts ranting about splenda too!! Then when the brownies are done, I warn them: "ok guys, remember, these are low fat and aren't going to taste exactly like normal brownies!" but NO I have to still get ugly faces and "it tastes weird" comments. Well, grrrrrr... It tastes pretty darn good for 130 calories to me!!!

I am just so done with people being judgmental of healthier, lower calorie choices. Needless to say, I am going to be cooking the rest of those recipes by myself. Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh

A waiting game...

I realized today that all I'm waiting on now is time to pass. I feel confident in my food choices (for the most part) and I really enjoyrunning/being in shape.

So really, I'm in a limbo state. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Sparkpeople says I will be at my goal on April 11th. I'm giving myself a bit more time and just wanting to be there by June. Summer in wa doesn't start until then and I'd love to make my debut in a bikini... Lol!

this is really the only time in my life that I'm not really trying to "live in the now." I mean, I am with my choices, but I am all about June in my mind! Can't wait!