Check it out!

Hey loves !!

I just wanted to make a post on here to remind you about my new blog!

Today I put up a post about my grocery hauls and budget for the week/month. 

I think you will find it interesting!  Please head on over here to check it out.

Also you can follow me on bloglovin here!

I also rehashed our little mountain getaway yesterday on the blog, and you can click here to read more.

I hope you all are having a fantastic week!

NEW BLOG!!!!

Hey loves!!!

I have an exciting announcement!

I have started a new blog.

It's a lifestyle blog about well....my life!

Ha.

Anyways.  Please head on over there and check it out. 

If you REALLY want to make my day ...a comment would be awesome!

Anyways, I am still keeping this blog up and may update it occasionally. 

I love this blog and I don't think I would ever delete it!

However a few tid bits about diet and exercise will be on that too. 

I cant wait to be back tomorrow and share more with you all. 

Head on over there and check it out, it's still in the works but I did put a post up!

Good night loves!

Dance Cardio Gripes...

Hellooo out there?

Did everyone start the weekend early?  There were no comments yesterday LOL!

Haha ok so yesterday morning I had a delicious breakfast sandwich!  It was English muffin, aldis brand of spreadable cheese ( 25 cals! ) and one egg and two slices of trader joes turkey bacon.  It was so good and filling!

 

I don't normally show you guys snacks but I have been loving this combo lately. 

 

 

Five Ritz crackers with only ONE tbsp of apple butter spread over the five of them with a pear sprinkled with cinnamon.  The apple butter is from the Apple Barn in Sevierville, TN.  It is by far my favorite and I don't even really care for it unless I can get it from there!

 

This whole thing clocks in at:

crackers- 80 cals

apple buter- 35 cals

pear- 115 cals

 

Not bad for a snack that really kills the sweet tooth!

 

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day getting our mattress topper cleaned at the laundry mat.  I also went to a local coffee shop and got pumpkin spice flavored coffee (its just coffee, not a latte or anything) and the library. 

 

I went to dance cardio class at 5:30. 

 

Okay. 

Normally I like dance cardio. However, I do not like touching people when I am dancing.

 

Maybe if its like ballroom dancing or something I signed up for that I know Iam going to need a partner for and I am probably not going to break a sweat in.  

 

I do not like group dances where you have to find partners.  It is weird and awkward if you have came by yourself.  Normally we don't do them in class from what I can tell. 

 

Last night, however a song came on and we had to "swing your partner round and round".  It was some Kesha song if I am not mistaken.  Ok, I didn't have a partner so I twirled myself around.

 

It was super weird. 

 

Plus I didn't want a partner because we were like 45 minutes into class and everyone was gross and sweaty including myself.  Y'all there is probably 50 or so people in this class and we barely have room to spread out. 

 

So I did feel awkward but I avoided spreading sweat with others.  So that was a win. 

 

What do you guys think?  I'm sorry I know it might be "fun" for some people but i think it is just gross.  I do not want to dance with people or have to "swing" others around with our sweaty arms.  That's just me. 

 

Ok enough griping :)

 

Anyways, I came home and took a shower because I felt nasty sweaty dirty.  Plus it had been raining all day and I had been running around in that.

 

Luckily dinner was in the crockpot.  Delicious chicken soup!

 

 

Question for the day is, what is your favorite group fitness class?  I really want to try spinning.  Pretty sure you don't need a partner for that.  LOL!

Fall, you are my friend.

I seriously love a good chilly gray fall morning and that is exactly what we had! 

It was in the 50's today and I was loving the first day of fall! 

This morning I woke up super early.  Breakfast was simple.  I had left the kitchen a mess since it was just me last night and I didn't feel like making anything too complicated that involved skillets.  LOL.

I had a toasted English muffin with natural chunky PB.

 

I went and visited with some family today around lunch time but didn't eat there.  I ended up eating leftover chilli (which you have already seen) and some grapes and then I made this delicious greek salad for the salad challenge.  Please make sure you post your salads, even if you just participate one day!  Alexandra, yours looked really good today!  I hadn't even thought to add pasta!

 

 

This one had feta cheese, katamala olives, red onion and cucumbers with a greek dressing I made.  It was very good and filling! 

 

I actually went to dance cardio today, two workouts already this week, that is a good start!

 

And boy did she work us tonight, man.  I was a sweaty mess!

 

I came home and had chilli for dinner. 

 

Seriously not tired of the chilli yet. 

 

I also went to a friends 31 party and got a cute cosmetic bag that I am going to use as my Bible study bag!  You can put your Bible in there and any books or notebooks or pens.  I think it will be super cute, I will show yall a pic when it comes in. 

 

I hope you guys had a great day!  Have you done anything to celebrate fall yet?  What is the weather like where you are?

 

P.S. I CANT WAIT FOR HOODIES!!!!!!!!

A Great Kickoff to Fall

Hey guys!

I hope you all had a marvelous Monday! Mine started off good and then I saw an old friend while I was out browsing and we ended up spending probably an hour together, shopping and chatting.  So that kinda threw my day off but it was nice!

Anyways, breakfast was very good!  I had some milk I needed to use up (normally I make oatmeal with water) so I cooked the quick oats from aldis on the stove top with milk and then added a few dashes of cinnamon, a tsp of brown sugar and tsp of honey and cut up half of a banana on top.  Very good!

 

My lunch was really weird because I ended up eating 2/3 of a bag of Target popcorn in the store while I was chatting and then I wasn't really hungry but I had to do the salad challenge! LOL. 

 

So I made a goat cheese, walnut, cranberry salad, trying to re-create the one I ate at the wedding and it was delicious!

 

 

At 4:30 I had my shake and shape class and it was super fun!  We even got to do "Thriller".  It was a great kick off to fall!  And an even better one was the taco chilli I had in the crockpot when I got home!  Only bad part was I could not figure out how many servings it made until I was ready to put it up.  I ate 4 cups YALL! That is bad but that is what happens when you don't eat protein at lunch and then workout LOL.  I should have stopped myself but it tasted SO good.  I really need to listen to myself when I know I don't need anymore.  I had a side of corn chips with it and some cheese on top. 

I hope you guys had a great day!  Have you made chilli?  What is your favorite kind??

Weekend Recap: Weddings, Cheeseburger Soup & Salad Challenge

Hey guys!

Well it is Sunday night and I thought I would do a little weekend recap for you!

As you saw last, we went out for Asian food Friday night.  Well Saturday morning I got up and planned to go to the gym. 
FAIL. 

I woke up at like 5:30 and stayed up that morning, thinking the whole time the morning class was at 9:30.  WRONG-O!!! At 9:10 I decided to double check and sure enough, I was late for the class. It started at 9. Fantastic.  I decided to stay home and clean, which I needed to do anyway. 

I did the floors and cleaned kitchen and office and bathrooms and whatnot.  Apparently I forgot to take a picture of breakfast but it was an English muffin with egg and cheese. 

Lunch was Hubby's leftover General Tso's chicken with some rice.  It was not very much at all so I had a side salad with some onion tomato cheese and cut up ham and the Dijon dressing I can make. 

Later on we left for my friends wedding.  It was very beautiful. 

We had a cheese and fruit and cracker spread.  It was really good, many different fancy cheeses. 

I did not take a pic of the dinner but it was roasted potatoes, green beans and cabbage, roasted veggies, different rolls ( I had a mini crossiant and cheese biscuit with a smidge of butter) and you got two small slices of roast beef and a small chicken breast with mushroom gravy.  I put a little bit of gravy on top of the roast beef.  I had a very small piece of cake.  It was delicious!  She had a layer of pumpkin spice cake too, how cool!  Pretty sure mine was lemon and I tried a bite or two of Hubby's which was almond I am thinking.  Oh they also had a really good goat cheese, walnut, apple and cranberry salad.  It was super yummy but very small lol. 

Me and the beautiful bride!  I seriously can tell and HATE how much weight I have gained.  UGH!

Today we went to church and I had only a few sips of coffee.

No breakfast! 

After church we went out for Mexian.  Clearly our favorite food.  Clearly a problem! 

Anyways I didn't do great but not too bad.  I got the enchilada suizas with no red sauce.  They are kinda like chicken fijitas with cheese on top and I barely ate any of those beans. 

This is one of like the LAST Mexican restaurants that gives you free cheese dip so I did have some of that with some chips.  Ugh.  Well didn't have breakfast so it wasn't too bad. 

After lunch we went to dairy queen and I got a cherry dipped kids cone.  Perfect size!

About an hour ago I ate some Campbell's cheeseburger soup and corn chips.  How good does that sound??? YUM. 

 

I portioned out a cup and gave the rest to Hubby. 

 

Ok, so a reader of mine (hey Alexandra!) suggested a salad challenge and I am in for it!  I want to do a salad everyday for lunch.  You can have soup or chilli with it if you want, but make sure it is a big part of your lunch.  I am going to take pics of mine and try and post them on my facebook page so if you have not liked the page yet, make sure you do! 

 

I want you guys to post your salads on the page as well!  This will be fun and give us all good ideas and keep us on the healthy eating track.  Even if you go out for lunch maybe you could order a salad (a healthy way) and show it to us for an idea!

 

If you are unable to post pics just share in the comments what you topped yours with!  I am excited to try new toppings and dressings. 

 

Well I will see you all tomorrow, pray I am NOT getting a cold, feeling a little froggy in my throat :(

 

I have big plans to do my classes at the gym tomorrow too.  What was the most fantastic thing you ate this weekend?

 

My favorite was probably the wedding cake.  Cake always takes the cake!  haha. 

Rewards & Delicious Asian Food

Someone please tell me why I have been awake since like 5:30 am??  I would love to know.

Ugh anyways. I have had like 5 or so hours of sleep but I wanted to stay up because I hate sleeping in and I have tons to do today. 

I plan to make it to the gym at 9:30 for a dance cardio class and then I have to come home and CLEAN because I was slack yesterday.  Well, if you count shopping as working then I was very productive :)

Anyways so I told you guys I was going to show you what I got as my reward!  I got the eyeshadows on sale and picked out a lipstick too. 

 

These eyeshadows are GORGEOUS!  Right now they are buy one get one 50% off I think.  Everything here cost about $23.00 and some change. 

 

Let me know if you have questions, but I know the lipstick was Maybelline Totally Toffee and it is perfect for the fall.  I will warn you it is not very hydrating like a lip butter it is pretty much a regular lipstick which was fine.

 

I took a pic of me with the makeup on to show yall and it took about 10 ridiculous selfies to get this halfway decent picture that I am not even happy with but here it is LOL

 

 

I feel like I look totally weird and not like myself in this pic! But I was getting ready to go out to eat with the hubs so I wanted to show yall the lipstick and I am also wearing the eyeshadow.  ANYWAYS that is enough about makeup lol. 

Lets talk about this cutie. 

Little rotten rascal thought she could jump on my bed while I was taking selfies.

Anyways lets get on to the food, shall we?  I feel like I did pretty good yesterday! 

Breakfast was two leftover pancakes and some grapes. 

For lunch I was running errands and picked up some Jimmy Johns.  Freaky Fast!

I had the turkey tom and reduced fat potato chips with a diet coke.

While I was running around I popped into Party City to check it out and I found what I am going to be for trick or treating.

Bahaha JK I do love me some Miss Kay though!

Ok so me and hubs decided we were going to Red Bowl which is an Asian restaurant. 

I looked online before even though I pretty much know what is a low calorie option. 

I got the Won Ton Soup as an appetizer and forgot it comes with those dang chips on the side.  I had a few of those, unplanned but made hubby eat most of them lol. 

The soup was delicious and didn't even need the chips! Next time I will probably tell them to leave them off. 

For dinner I got a Bento box because I love the portion control that is built in.  You don't get a platter with a huge serving of food.  I got the beef and broccoli (great low cal choice) with steamed white rice and a spring roll.  It also came with sushi which I gave to the hubby because they wont let you sub it for anything without charging you a ridiculous amount. 

He got general tso's chicken and I had I think like 2 pieces of it, maybe three.  Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (minus the chips and pieces of general tso's chicken).  I think next time I want to try the steamed veggie dumplings which I have heard to be low cal as well.  What do you guys order at the Chinese restaurant?  Any low cal favorites?? 

We have a wedding to go to tonight for one of my oldest and dearest girlfriends and I am so excited!  It is at a beautiful venue in our downtown.  Stay tuned tomorrow for pics!!  Have a lovely weekend!

First goal....MET!

Happy Friday!!!

I cannot begin to thank you all for your sweet comments on yesterdays post!

Thank you all so much I am going to answer comments right after this!

Well, this morning I woke up pleasantly surprised to be at my GOAL exactly for this Friday's weigh in!!!! Yippie!!!!

So I will be purchasing my reward this weekend and will show it to you guys. 

I have been debating on what to do as far as posting.  Do any of you read blogs on the weekend?  I really feel like I could post my pics on Saturday and Sunday too to help hold me accountable at least until Thanksgiving.  I feel like I always tend to excuse myself on the weekends but I shouldn't!  Let me know what you think!

Ok so yesterday hubby was home for the morning so I made us Bisquick Heart healthy pancakes with a few trader joes semi sweet chocolate chips mixed in.  I had about four and put sugar free syrup on top!  I need to get more.  Once you are used to it, its really a calorie bargain for syrup!

I also had two pieces of Trader Joes Turkey Bacon for 30 calories a slice. 

It has a different texture.  It almost reminds me of Canadian bacon but its still really good! 

For lunch I made myself a big salad with spinach and leftover shredded lettuce and topped it with honey ham and turkey lunch meat as well as onion and tomato and cheese.  I made a Honey Dijon vinegarette dressing that I found on A Pinch of Healthy.  Love her blog!

The dressing is SO good and makes a perfect one serving for a salad.  I used red wine vinegar because I didn't have any apple cider vinegar on hand but it was delicious. 

Someone commented yesterday that they did a salad challenge on facebook and I think that is a great idea! I am going to think about that!  I do love salads and something like that would really make you get creative!  I always find myself getting in ruts!

Well for dinner I went to a Mexican restaurant with the book club girls and I got a diet coke, chicken fijitas with corn tortillas, rice beans and salad.  I did not eat any of the tortillas, just are my veggies and chicken but I did allow myself the chips.  Wish I hadn't ate more than I planned but I enjoyed myself and stayed away from the bread (tortillas) so it is an improvement!  I had planned to eat only half the meal and take home the rest but I was apparently very hungry.  I also forgot to snap a pic!!!! I am so so sorry.  I totally would have too because I am not the least embarrassed about it in front of them LOL.  Anyways.  I hope you are all having a great day and I am going to try to post tomorrow too, so come back for more!

Accountability Food and Goals

Well well well. 

First of all can I please beg for your comments? I really REALLY could use some motivation and support right now.

The time has come for me to ashamedly announce that I have gained back a lot of weight. 

This didn't happen over night. This has been going on all summer since the beginning of June when I decided to throw it all out the window and make bad choices.  Granted I have went through a bit of life changes since then but I have to get it under control.  NO MORE EXCUSES. 

We all have excuses and we all excuse ourselves when we slip up.  Myself in particular is who I am referring to and it has to stop.  I am only hurting myself.  I am my own worst enemy!

Well yesterday I just came shy of a breakdown and decided something had to be done.  I went through my whole planner marking off weight loss goals with small sticky notes and creating a list of rewards for every 5 lb mark.  I can do this and I will do this.  My first BIG goal is to get to Thanksgiving.  The next one is my birthday at which I want to be 150 lbs.  At Thanksgiving I want to be 165. 

I have decided to commit to taking pictures of Breakfast Lunch and Dinner to give you all some ideas as well as hold myself accountable.  I am tracking calories on myfitnesspal which you can check if you are curious as to what else I am eating.  I also plan on going to the gym and doing my dance cardio classes a LOT. 
So without further ado here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast was coffee grapes (ate most of them with lunch though) and an egg and cheese on English muffin.

Lunch was a turkey and ham wrap (spinach wrap-90 cals) with a bit of low fat mayo mustard lettuce tomato and onion with chicken noodle soup. 

Dinner could have came straight from an Asian restaurant I am telling yall.  But it didn't.  It was Trader Joes Orange Chicken with brown rice and Asian green beans and onions.  I steamed the green beans added them to a pan I cooked the chicken in (it had oil already) threw in some cut up onion and added probably a fourth a cup or more of chilli sauce (it was too much).  But they were so good.  I really wanted broccoli at first but I used what I had which was frozen green beans. 

Yesterday was pretty nice and overcast for most the day and I burned a delicious fall candle.  I was pretty lazy and didn't go to the gym but I plan on going tomorrow for the 9:30am class.  I hope you all have a great day!

Hello from Charleston!

Well technically, I am about 20 minutes outside Charleston lol. 

I am at Mom and Dad's with the little brother.  Hubby is still home working but should be joining us later this week along with more friends and family!

So Monday night Dad came into town and picked me up and drove me down here.  We got home pretty late and it took forever for me to fall asleep.  Tuesday morning it was just me and mom at home so we sat out on the deck in the lovely weather (sunshine, cool breeze, low humidity) after she made me a delicious breakfast.  Cheesy eggs and toast.  Lots of coffee was had. 

I lounged on her second story porch and did my Bible study/quiet time.  It was glorious. 

 

I could get used to this!!!!

 

Ok so then we got ready and went and grabbed lunch at like 2:30.  Chick fila baby.  I got the cobb salad with grilled nuggets on top and used about half a pack of the salad dressing.

 

 It was so nice having some alone time with Mom, I really miss her!

 

 

 

After that Dad picked us up and we went to the airport to pick up the San Diego beach bummin little brother! 

 

 

I got a dunkin donuts coffee at the airport but it wasn't that great.

 

 

This was pretty great though! 

 

After that we went and got Godfathers pizza and brought it home but Jonathan promptly conked out on the couch.  Bad bad jet lag.  Plus a three hour time difference.  Plus he had been awake since the day before at 5 pm his time.  And it was then about 6pm our time. So he napped for about 3 hrs and me and mom went on a walk around the neighborhood then to publix for a few groceries and a redbox. 

 

We also had some of Moms sugar free éclair for desert.  It is SO GOOD.

 

 

Jonathan is so funny.  He woke up this morning and opened my door to my room then shut it.  I woke up and was like "what?" No answer.  I thought maybe it was Mom but she wouldn't be that loud.  Little later I wake up and go in the bathroom and I hear Jonathan running up the stairs and I can hear him telling mom I have been asleep long enough and he is going to wake me up.  LOL.  I was like IM IN THE BATHROOM! haha. 

 

Now this kid is making me run. 

 

 

Then I am making him got to the pool! 

 

Have a lovely day my friends!

 

My Foods for Thought

Hey lovies!

It is a beautiful Friday morning in North Carolina and I wanted to come on today and share a little bit about what I ate yesterday.  I told you guys I am still struggling but I wanted to say that my meals yesterday for the most part were good, just the M & M's were not LOL.  I had them after lunch and last night. Which they are almost gone and I am not going to buy more until later in the fall for trick or treaters! That is the plan. 

Ok So here goes:

Breakfast: orange juice (trop 50) coffee (with half n half/splenda) bagel with blueberry cream cheese and banana. 
Lunch: Turkey on whole wheat flatbread with aldis brand of spreadable cheese, mustard and lots of veggies.  Apple on the side. 
Snack: Before dance cardio I had a yogurt with blueberries.  I wouldn't recommend this yogurt though it was not the best.  I LOVE putting blueberries on yogurt right now though!

 

Dinner: A Healthy Choice Chicken parm meal that I dressed up with cheese and little fried onions.  I also had some oven roasted squash that I put a little cheese and onions on too.

 

 

 

While watching the Odd Life of Timothy Greene (cried my eyes out, sweet movie-highly recommend-free-library!) I ate popcorn.

So if I hadn't ate candy I think the day would have been pretty good, especially since I did dance cardio.  Ok so todays plan is I have to go pick up Jacob's check and go to the bank and I need to pick up a few household items at Walmart.  I hate shopping at walmart it is such a necessary evil.  Anyways I am hanging in there and trying guys!  I had coffee, OJ and cereal this morning with almond milk so we are off to a good start.  Love yall!

I Blame it on Date Night

So yesterday was well....interesting. LOL. 

I totally fell off the schedule bandwagon but that is OK! Life happens. 

Yesterday I went ended up going to Verizon and getting that done and then I went to the gym for Dance Cardio class.  I could not decided what I wanted to treat myself to for lunch.  I was still trying to be healthy.  I saw that the Asian restaurant at the mall had a deal for sha cha chicken and rice for 5.00.  You also get an egg or spring roll ( I got spring roll) with it.  I also had white rice.  So that really wasn't too bad.  But then I went to the library and then the coffee shop and got a blue berry crumble iced coffee.  Not to bad either.  The coffee is flavored and it smells just like blue berries!

Later on I got home and hubby woke up so we decided to go to eat Mexican because he actually had the night off and it was dollar taco night!  So we went.  Ended up eating pretty bad. UGH.  Then we went shopping and first stopped at Target.  We needed a desk chair badly.  We had been using an old kitchen chair and it was about to fall apart.  So we found one but it was put in the wrong place and more expensive than we thought so we put it back.  I did get a rug for the bedroom though.  I will take a pic later and let yall see.  It was like 25 bucks.  Hubby got some seat covers for his work truck.  We ended up going to see a late movie, Ninja Turtles!  It was really good.  I got the kids popcorn meal.  (paid for that with awful acid reflux this morning). 

We then went to walmart to look for a chair.  We found a cute chair there!

 

Our old chair is in the background hahah. 

 

I love it!! It was only about 40 bucks, even cheaper and prettier than the one I was going to get at Target!

 

I also got some cute curtains for the office that I had been eying for a while!  I will have to take another pic when I put them up!

 

 

I think they will look super good in here.  We have one huge window and the room is painted grey and the desk is black, light wood and grey.  Anyways after that I came home and ate a bunch of m & ms! UGH. And I stayed up until like 2am.  Talk about NOT going to bed on time. 

Thus, we slept in this morning and I have still not eaten lunch and I think its like 2pm.  I have lots to do but I wanted to check in with yall!  I will try to put all the house stuff up and take pics.  I am thinking of taking food pics again soon too because I am having such a hard time with staying on track.  Sorry to keep reporting failures!! Anyways.  I am still trying.  Hope yall have a wonderful day!

Im a Princess Y'all

Well it's official. 

I am finally a Princess!!

I got my CROWN! hahaha.  A very expensive crown that I never wanted! LOL

I went two weeks ago for the temp to be put on and today they put the permanent one on!

I was not thrilled about the appointment this morning, I really wanted to get it over with but, now its over and hopefully it will stay in for a good long time. 

Anyways it is 11:30 and I have a gym class at 12:10 so I need to get ready in a few minutes.  My day was off kilter yesterday.  I did manage to get the floors clean but I did not go to the library.  I did not go to the gym but I did go to book club.  I still have some errands to do today but I am glad the floors are done and I can somewhat relax outside of doing my daily chores.  Ok so I went to one towns library on the way home from the dentist but I am still planning to go to the one near my house after the gym. 

Eating has been going OK.  Last night I had a weird dinner and a cake pop at starbucks then I ate about half a small bag of chex mix last night.  UGH.  What is wrong with me. Anyways moving on today!  I will check back in tomorrow, bye!

A Healthy Summer Dinner

Hey loves! Yesterday went very well and I feel like I got a lot accomplished and even went to bed at a good time!  Having these routines written down really helped I feel like.  My eating was GREAT yesterday.  After dinner I had nothing else to eat.  No sweets, no popcorn, nothing.  I weighed in 8 ounces less this morning LOL!

Anyways our dinner was super delicious.  We did the chicken kabobs on the grill with couscous and some delicious roasted zucchini. 

 

Everything was SO YUM!  Anyways I just wanted to check in with y'all.  Jacob is sleeping in again this morning from getting in from work at 5am so I cannot make the bed or anything and I am trying to be quiet.  The plan for today is to finish this blog post and then drink 2 bottles of water.  I want to also balance the check book and check on some dates to put on the calendar.  Hopefully after lunch (probably eat around 12) I will get to head into downtown to go to the library and probably pick up an iced coffee from a super cute little coffee house we have as a treat :) Not a unhealthy treat, still sugar free with half and half! LOL.  I seriously cant wait for crisp fall mornings and their Charlie Brown coffee, its amazing! Somehow they make it with hazelnut and pumpkin spice flavored coffee.  It is SO GOOD.  AH, I love fall. 

After the library I need to come home and dust, then sweep and mop the floors.  That is my big chore today along with the normal daily chores.  At 5pm I have Shake N Shape at the gym for an hour and then at 6:30 is Book Club.  We are almost done with Women Living Well by Courtney Joseph.  It is a great book and I highly recommend!

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!!

My Morning Routine!

Hey loves! 

Well I must say I did actually create my routines this weekend to start implementing today!  I created the following:

-Morning Routine
-Evening Routine
-Everyday Chore List
-Daily Goals
-Weekly Cleaning Routine
-Meal Plan for the week
-Gym Routine for the week
-Decided what night will be my cheat meal (dinner) and what will be my desert splurge

Ok so today I wanted to go over my Morning Routine with you guys.  Now this will be different for everyone because we all lead different lives.  I am just sharing to maybe give ya'll a glimpse into my life right now and maybe it will encourage you to create your own if this is something you struggle with like I do!

Morning Routine (subject to change on a daily basis! lol)

-Get up on time!
-Use the Bathroom
-Weigh Myself
-Make Bed
-Feed pets
-Coffee/Orange Juice & Vitamins
-Quiet Time (reading Bible/Bible Study/Prayer Journal)
-Eat Breakfast while watching the Rachel Ray Show :)
-Work on our business stuff & balance all checkbooks
-Blog
-Start Daily Chores

And that should conclude the morning!  Now let me show you how this morning has went so far!  I already had to alter my routine because I had to workout this morning while Jacob sleeps instead of this afternoon.  Plus, I am not striving for perfection.  This is a reminder of what I need to do and I hope to learn to automatically do these things and not become distracted like I USUALLY AM.  Ok so here goes!

Alarm set for 7:01 AM
Got up at like 7:15 after hitting snooze at least once.
Used bathroom
Weighed (186.6 in case you were wondering)
Recorded weight
Fed cat
Made coffee in keurig (I will usually make a pot of coffee if me and Jacob are up at the same time)
Poured glass of OJ (about 8 oz) and took vitamin (the trop 50)
Had my quiet time while drinking OJ and Coffee
Ate breakfast around 8 am got on facebook a bit
Out the door by 8:25 to go to the gym for my 8:30 Dance Cardio Class
It was a bit heavy on the squats and latin dancing but I did get to hear a Dirty Dancing Remix #baby
9:30 left class and went by Verizon which was closed.
Came home and WOULD have taken a shower except Jacob is sleeping and I realized my hair comb and stuff are in the bedroom/master bath.
Fed the dog
Balanced business and personal checkbook
Blogging! 
I also need to clean this desk and file receipts for the business.

Now, not every day is like today.  Most days I probably wont have to sneak around the house and try to be quiet but here lately hubs has had some CRAY hours.  So anyways he needs to sleep until at least 11:30. 

Speaking of 11:30 that was about the time I made it to bed last night, so I am getting better!  I really hope to go to bed at like 10:30 or 11:00 tonight.  Not perfection, but progress people. 

I plan on having lunch in about an hour and a half.  I already drank one whole water bottle at the gym.  I want to drink two water bottles between breakfast and lunch everyday. 

I am planning to do a Morning Routine with pictures if ya'll are interested.  I want to share my other routines too.

Tonight I am planning to make chicken kabobs, couscous and roasted zucchini for dinner! I plan to take a pic of that and show ya'll tomorrow too.  I hope you are all having a great day!! What are your dinner plans tonight?

A Routine for a New Way of Life

Hey guys! I guess its time for an update on my part....sorry about disappearing for a while, I am trying to get in the hang of this stay at home with no job thing! LOL.  Like, its hard.  Its not.  However I have not felt like blogging lately.  I have went from a strict "get up early go to bed by like 11pm" schedule for three and a half years and last night I stayed up until 3am.  I have adapted my schedule to my husbands and it is just NOT good for me.  Even if he has to work late sometimes I need to be on a regular schedule so I can get stuff done!

Also I have gained a ridiculous amount of weight back. 

Yep, scale is higher than it has been in like two years. 

I have got to get a routine going. 

Ok so I have decided on a little food plan that I am going to try.  NOW, things may get switched up because I am probably going to be at my parents the last week of August in SC but I still hope to keep this up. 

I have found what one of my problems is, and that my friends, is variety.  I have too many choices and options.  I need to think of food as fuel and not as my happy times of the day.  I need to eat a little lower in cholesterol and pretty much develop an eating system that will take me through decades in life.

I am sick of counting points.  I am sick of counting calories.  I have no job and I still cannot even bring myself to track all my food. LAZY.  Or burnt out, either way I need a new system.  And that my friends is what I am going to do. My plan is to eat the same breakfast and then give myself maybe two options for lunch and then a healthy dinner.  Maybe one night of the week splurge on a not so healthy dinner and one desert.  Or part of one desert.  My workout plan is to keep going to my classes at the gym, which I love. 

 

I also love these two cutie pies and I want to be healthy and on a good routine for them.  If mama aint happy aint nobody happy! haha. 

 

I have messed around and tried different things for about a month and these are the habits that have stuck:

 

Monday-grocery shop, clean

Tuesday-library, do something fun, clean more

Wednesday-no routine really

Thursday-same here, maybe clean more

Friday-Always feels like I need to go shopping and eat out.

Saturday-still feels like I need to eat out.

Sunday-Church, eat out, be lazy, help hubs with his invoices. 

 

I started out for sure cleaning on a few days but that fell by the wayside.  I need to write a schedule and post it and go by it.  That is my goal for this weekend.  Create a schedule and quit thinking of the weekends as eat out days.  I do not plan to eat out today but I probably will after church tomorrow. I also like getting ideas from people but I want to quit comparing myself and thinking that if someone does something I have to do it too.  I want to create something that works for me and my lifestyle. 

 

Do you have a weekly routine?  Do you work inside the home or do you leave for work? I am going to try to post my Monday schedule on Monday to hold myself accountable!  

The BEST Monday

As promised I am back with a full report of the day!

Well it ended up being one of the BEST Mondays ever since I didn't have to go to work ha!  Although honestly I got more of a lunch break at work!  Boy was I busy today.

I got up before 7 with hubby and made him and egg and cheese sandwich and we had some coffee and then he left. Its almost 11:30 and he wont be home until probably 5 or 6 am! He has been gone literally all day.  But then I got ready and went and signed up at the gym and I was so HAPPY because the joining fee had been marked down 50% off!  I was so glad we didn't sign up Thursday because they did it on Friday, I waited until today and it paid off! Woot!

Ok so I went to a really great dance cardio class that was from like 8:30-9:25 and boy am I sore right now LOL.  After that I came home and ate me some breakfast.  Before I left to go to the gym I had a banana from this bunch:

 

And then when I got home I had an egg, plus egg white and some toast with spray butter.  I didn't feel like it held me over long though.

 

 

It rained most of the morning after I got back from the gym so I laid low and worked on my coupons which took quite a while.  I got a list together for CVS and BI-LO.  I was pretty happy with my savings! 

 

I got some graduation/birthday cards sent out as well as some bills and looked at my planner and to do list.  I decided it was time for lunch around 1:00 something and made some tuna salad over lettuce and ate about 5 ritz crackers.  I have been counting points today!

 

 

I also shreaded up some cheese for the top.  It was really good.  I love being able to make lunches at home!  Well the rain let up a little bit and I scampered out to cvs and the grocery store to score my deals.  I feel like for me, I did really good. lol. 

 

I came home and ate some grapes because I was hungry from shopping!  It was almost 4pm so I decided to blog and then start cleaning.

 

 

I cleaned Jacobs bathroom, my bathroom (as well as mopped my bathroom floors) and I also cleaned my bedroom and closet.  I was tired.  I called my mom and chatted with her before I made dinner. 

 

I was starving so I had a tomato!

 

 

For dinner I made weight watcher Salisbury steak and it was so easy and good! 

 

 

I had scalloped potatoes and green beans with garlic on the side as well. 

 

After dinner I went to see my grandma.  Please say a prayer for her, she has to have a heart procedure done tomorrow! But I chatted with her and my aunt till about 9:30 and then came home and had me a toaster strudel for desert...5pp. 

 

It had Danish filling, so good! 

 

I did great with my eating today (much better than I have done in like 2 months!) and I know I got a great workout in this morning.  I have done some laundry and more dishes of course and wrote out my to do list for tomorrow.  OH I also found a dern book that I need to return to the library it is SO overdue.  Shows what happens when you clean out your closet.  You FIND stuff. 

Anyways I hope yall had a great day, I am going to try a new class tomorrow night I think called Shake n Shape or something.  What is your favorite fitness class?  What is your favorite weight watcher recipe?