Goodbye Weekend : (

This weekend was so fun and I'm incredibly sad to see it go.  Friday night I went out with my best girls and we saw The Help.  Oh my goodness, so good.  I laughed so hard at one point I almost fell of my chair and at another point I cried and ruined my mascara.  I had such a good time with my girls.  Then on Saturday night we had a dinner at another set of friend's house, and Sunday we had lunch with more friends, and dinner with my parents.  We are so blessed (and so busy!). 
Folks I'm going to tell you the truth on here.  My eating the past few days has be lousy at it's best.  Way to much processed, fat, grossness.  I felt it big time today when I did my Week 2, Couch to 5k program.  I did 1.93 miles in 30 minutes.  Down .04 miles from the last time I did it.  Bugger.  I wasn't able to go as fast on the running sections and it sucked.

After I did my run I got on the bike and did 3 miles in just under 17 minutes.

Today was the start of the school year for my boys!  I can't believe I have two in school.  Last year we homeschooled, but this year they're both in a public school.  My house is so quiet.  It's just so weird.

To celebrate their first day of school I made cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs (you know trying to balance the carbs and protein!).  Yep, I had some.  Big mistake.  Sugar gives me headaches and I got a doozy.  Sometimes I just make the dumbest mistakes.  For lunch I had some Work With What You've Got Hummus, Sweet Chili Rice Chips, and Carrots.  I had way to much hummus and chips.  

I finally got a hold of myself at dinner time and decided I needed to change my eating pattern for the day.  I made Creamy Dreamy Roasted Chickpeas which have been a big hit in my family in the past, but this time I roasted some asparagus while the chickpeas were cooking and chopped it up and added it to the mix.  I really liked it (and my kids devoured it, always a plus).

Look at all that beautiful asparagus (thank you Sprouts for having it on sale!).

I served it with brown rice and it was delish!

*I'm thinking about doing the detox again.  I feel like I need to refocus on my eating and the detox really seemed to help with that last time.  Anyway, just thinking about it, but I might do it.

Weekly Weigh in... and Work with What You've got Hummus

Okay, let's just start with the depressing news. I had my weekly weigh in today and it was disappointing. 186.8 lbs. Yep, I was up 4 pounds. That sucks. I knew I'd be up, but I wasn't expecting it to be that much. I had a really inconsistent week, but I'm ready to move on.
Yesterday I wrote that I had learned things from this last week and that is really true. I learned that I definitely need a plan for my food and my workouts. When I don't have plan things just seem to fall apart. I don't have the food I need in the house and I don't make time to get to the gym (honestly, this past week I couldn't have worked out much because of my horrendous sunburn). So, my new goal is to plan a week of meals at a time and get everything I need. I'm also going to start planning out my workouts. For so long my workouts have been sporadic because I never knew when I'd have a car to get to the gym (my hubs and I share a car) or it was really hard to workout at home with the kids running around. Now that school is starting (on Monday) I'll have the car everyday so that I can take the kids to school and pick them up. So, I'll always be able to make it to the gym. And if one of the kids at home gets sick I can still workout when they take a nap. I'm feeling much more confident in my ability to hit the gym.
Today I saw this on Pinterest and it really started my thinking

Source: soon2befit.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

I've had a rough week, but I'm not going to let it define my journey to lose weight and get healthy. I've fallen, but I'm pulling myself back up and getting right back in the game. 



I woke up really hungry this morning.  I made two eggs with a little bit of greek nonfat yogurt thrown in and two pieces of whole wheat toast with simply fruit blackberry jelly.  It was yummy, but honestly not filling.  I don't know why I was so hungry.  Definitely wished I had made my steel cut oats and saved the eggs for something else.

At lunch time I was starving.  I cooked up two veggie patties (they were only 90 cals each so not bad) and had them over spinach and arugula topped with goat cheese.  I had a side of cherries.  I also had some great new chips and my "work with what you've got" hummus.  Those are Doritos that you spy.  They're the new to me Rice Works Chips in Sweet Chili.  Oh my goodness they were so good!  The main ingredient is brown rice so that's pretty fantastic.  I was really wanting some hummus to go with them and I've got a pretty good hummus recipe.  I went to make it and discovered that I didn't have any tahini.  I was super bummed, but decided to see if I could come up with something on my own.  I looked around and saw that I had some Sesame Garlic Sass Dressing and I thought, "hey tahini is made from sesame seeds so maybe this will work!"  So here is my Work With What You've Got Hummus Recipe:  I used a can of chickpeas (drained), about 2 tablespoons liquid from chickpeas, about 3 tablespoons Sass Dressing, about a tablespoon olive oil, juice from a lemon, a minced garlic clove, and some salt.  It was a little thick after I put it through the food processor, so I added a little a little water until I got the consistency that I wanted.  Ummm yeah, I think I might like this hummus more than the other one that I make.  It was sooooo good with the chips.  If you have access to the Sass Dressing then definitely give it a try.

Tonight we had meet the teacher night at the boys' school.  They were so excited.  I don't really know anything about the teachers that they got, but they were very friendly and I'm looking forward to a great year.  It was late when we were done at the school so we headed to Taco Cabana for dinner.  I got the Chicken Street Tacos.  The nutritional info for these tacos isn't listed on the website, but the nutritional info for the regular chicken tacos is.  It was 210 calories.  I'm guessing it's about the same or maybe a little less because the street tacos are made with small corn tortillas and the regular tacos are made with big flour tortillas.  They only have chicken, lettuce, and tomato on them.  It was a pretty decent dinner.

Today was a little crazy because I was getting all the boys' school supplies together to take for tonight and I had mounds of laundry to catch up on.  So, I didn't get a workout in , but I've got one planned for tomorrow!

I'm really ready for the weekend.  I'm going to a girl's night tomorrow night and we're going to see The Help.  I'm super excited.  The book was fantastic and I've heard the movie is just as good.

Do you have anything fun planned for this weekend?

Back to the Gym! Finally! And a New Recipe!

Ahhhh...I finally made it back to the gym after almost a week of suffering from one of the worsts sunburns I've ever had. But I'll get to more about that in a minute.

Today started off pretty well. I had my steel cut oats with Raw Fiber, Ground Flaxseed, Non Fat Vanilla Yogurt, Unsweetened Vanilla Organic Almond Milk, and a big bunch of blueberries.  I am out of fresh blueberries, so I just tossed in some frozen ones.  Fantastic!

After breakfast I headed out with the kids to run errands.  We went to Sprouts and Costco.  About half way through Costco I started getting really really sleepy (not like me for it just to hit me in the middle of the store), my head started hurting really badly, and I started feeling like I'd be sick if I didn't get something to eat.  I've had migraine issues for a long time, but they've never come on like this so I don't know what it was.  We finished our shopping and headed to an all natural organic local burger place next to Costco.  I got a burger (seriously one the best burgers in town in my opinion), some sweet potato fries, and a large unsweetened green tea.  I ate about half the fries and the rest were eaten by one of my kids.  It wasn't the most healthy lunch, but it was the healthiest of what was around.
I got home still feeling the terrible headache and took some meds.  About 30 minutes later I was feeling much better so we headed to the gym.  I was soooooo glad to be back at the gym.  First I got on the treadmill to work on my Couch to 5k program.  I did the week 2 program again since I didn't really get to much of it last week.

I went a little faster this time and I went a little further (not a lot further .02 miles to be exact), but it's still further than I've ever gone before.  I'm almost at the 2 mile point!  I can't wait to hit that.  Hopefully next time.  There were two times when I had to walk an extra 30 seconds and at one point I kind of felt like I might puke, but it was worth it.  I am so glad I did it.
After the run I wasn't ready to go so I hopped on the bike.  I did a little over 4 miles in a little over 22 minutes.  By the end I was really feeling it in my legs (thanks to my run), so I went ahead and stopped instead of going the full 30 minutes.

After my workout I was really hungry so I grabbed a Lemon Zest Luna Bar.  Yummy and just what I needed.

We ran a few more errands (getting the boys ready to go back to school) and then came home and made dinner.  At Sprouts today they had Eggplants on sale for 99 cents a piece!  I was so sad that I was buying eggplant instead of pulling it out of my garden (my garden is in state of disaster thanks to the horrible drought we're having...I'm going to try again in the Fall), but at 99 cents I couldn't resist.  I decided to make Grilled Eggplant Parmesan.  Now, I've never actually had this dish, so I just kind of made up the recipe and what I thought should be in it.  It was a success!  Everyone loved it.  It was so easy and I can see this being made a lot in our home.  Here's my super easy recipe.  Enjoy!

Get your self an eggplant!

Slice it up, brush it with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Throw it on the grill and wait 5 minutes.

Turn it over and wait 5 more minutes

Take it off the grill and put it on a baking sheet and top with some awesome tomato sauce

Top it with cheese and put it under a broiler to it's all melty and good.  Take it out and enjoy!

I had mine with a side salad topped with Calamata Feta Sass salad dressing.  It was sooooo yummy.  I love when I'm able to pick something up randomly at the store and come home and make something really good from it.  It does a lot for my wife/mommy ego : )

Grilled Eggplant Parmesan
1 Eggplant (there are two in the picture, but I only ended up using one)
Tomato Sauce (I used Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce....my favorite)
Shredded Parmesan Cheese
Shredded Low Fat Mozzarella Cheese
Olive Oil (enough to brush the eggplant slices)
Salt and Pepper to taste

First get an Eggplant.  Slice it into discs about 1/2 an inch thick.  Brush each piece with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Turn your grill onto medium (my thermometer on the grill read 300 degrees).  Grill each side of the eggplant for about 5 minutes per side.  Remove from grill and set on a baking sheet.  Top with about a tablespoon of Tomato Sauce.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese.  Place in the oven under the broiler until cheese is melted (it took about 4 minutes).  Remove from oven and enjoy!

On a side note, tomorrow is weigh in day and I'm dreading it.  After the past week of no exercise and awful eating I know it's going to be bad.  The only good part is that it's been a great learning experience for me.  I'll post more about that tomorrow.

Choose your hard

Today was way better than the past few have been.  I had steel cut oats with flax, raw fiber, blueberries, nonfat vanilla yogurt, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  Yum.
Then I took the boys to the pool with some friends.  So fun!  Today I put on sunscreen, so no sunburn.  Yea!!  Our sweet friend made us lunch.  Peanut Butter and Jelly on Whole Wheat, fruit, and yogurt.  Perfect.
I came home and was super hungry.  I really wanted to eat the left over baked potato.  I mean I really wanted to, but I didn't.  I thought about it and was able to talk myself out of it and only had a handful of cereal instead.  That held me over until dinner.  We had some friends over (they brought ribs and chicken!).  It was a great dinner.  BBQ chicken and ribs, salad, baked beans, and potato salad.  Yummy.  I didn't over do it and I'm feeling good about my choices.
I didn't get in a workout today.  Busy at the pool enjoying these last few days of summer and then getting ready to have people over.  I should be able to make it to the gym tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.  It's been way to long.
I saw this on Pinterest and loved it.

Source: fuckyeahfitspo.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

It's so right.  Losing weight is super hard, so is maintaining, but you know what?  Staying fat is hard to.  It's hard on your body, it's hard on your emotions, it's hard on the people around you.  I choose to lose weight.  I choose that hard.  It's the hard that's worth it.

Big Goof

In order to lighten my mood after my last post I decided to take some big goofy pics of my self and post them for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

I always tell my boys not to stick out their tongues, but I find it quite amusing when I do it myself.

 Be careful...you're face might stick like that!

 Oh my word...I'm such a dork!

 Big Cheese!

 Big Smooch!

 And...Goodnight : )

By the way...I have a plan worked out for tomorrow and thanks to the plan and my pictures I'm in much better spirits.

Rough Few Days

I am a stress eater. Like, uncontrollable eater during stressful times. I can't seem to get a handle on it. It sucks.
The past few days have been super stressful. So, I've been super eating. Add to that not being able to go to the gym thanks to my mega sunburn (I can't wear a sports bra thank you very much). Exercise is a stress reliever for me so I don't have that reliever. Then I'm eating too much and realize that I need to be exercising more and I can't so that makes more stress. It's just a vicious cycle.

Source: frenchbydesign.blogspot.com via snygg on Pinterest

I need a new plan. I think I should be able to get back to the gym on Wednesday, so that will help. Tonight I need to sit down and make out a meal plan. Having a plan always helps with my eating.
Of course a day spent at the spa would be a nice stress reliever too. Yeah, that's not gonna happen anytime soon, but I can dream right.
What about you? How do you handle stress? Any secret tips you want to share?

I'm an Idiot....and weigh in day...

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I will get to all that in a minute, but first let' start with my weigh in. Drum roll please....182.6 pounds. That's down 1.4 pounds from last week (if you're keeping track...I know I am : ) I'm a happy woman.

Okay, so yesterday was not good.  I was so sore from my lifting workout on Tuesday that I couldn't even walk up the stairs.  It's Thursday and I'm still sore.  The New Rules of Lifting is a hard core workout people.  I didn't do any exercise yesterday because I could barely move.

For breakfast I had steel cut oats, a scoop of Raw Fiber, Ground flax seed, nonfat vanilla oatmeal, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and blueberries.  A big bunch of blueberries.  Yum.

For lunch yesterday I had my beloved salad with over easy egg, spinach, arugula, goat cheese, and sunflower kernels tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Another yum.

After lunch I went about my day and then started making dinner. That's when things started to go wrong.  I started feeling awful.  My stomach hurt, my head hurt, I was dizzy.  It was just bad.  So, I went to bed.  At 7:30.  I never go to bed before 11.  It was bad.  Bad I tell you.

I woke up this morning feeling a little better, but my stomach still hurt.  So, I skipped breakfast.  I took the boys to the pool with some friends and this is where I become the idiot of the day.
We got to the pool and I got everyone all ready.  Smeared sunscreen all over the boys, put floaties on the little ones and was ready to go.  Then I don't know what I was thinking, but I completely ignored putting sunscreen on myself.  After 3 hours at the pool with no sunscreen on I am cooked.  Seriously, I'm in pain.  I'm red, I'm hot and I'm just a mess.  I can't even take my hair out of my ponytail because it hurts my back.  Here I am in all my red glory.  Tonight is going to be miserable trying to sleep.

After the pool I came home and had tortilla crusted tilapia on quinoa with black bean salsa, extra cilantro, and goat cheese.  It was super yummy.

Late this afternoon the effects of the sunburn really started to set in and I am not feeling well at all.  I couldn't eat dinner.  So, all I've had today is lunch.  Not a great day as far as my eating goes.  And I didn't get in a workout because I'm still so sore and I couldn't wear a sports bra right now even if I wanted to.  My shoulders hurt so bad.  I'm fairly certain I won't be able to exercise tomorrow either.  I'm hoping by Saturday my shoulders will be able to handle some clothing and I can make it back to the gym.