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!