What I'm Thinking Wednesday....

So I've been toying around with the idea of some certain "Wednesday" posts.  I've seen lots out there in the blog world.  "What I Wore Wednesday."  "Wordless Wednesday" "Where I Was Wednesday."  "Pinsperation Wednesday."  I'm sure this is not original to me, but I was thinking of a "Weekly Weigh-In Wednesday" post.  But maybe I'll just do a "Whatever I Feel Like Wednesday" post.  I'll try to mix it up and keep it real for ya, folks!

First off, let's start with the weign-in.  Not up, not down. Exactly the same as last Wednesday.  I'm ok with that, all things considering.  My weekend was a total cheat with friends for our getaway (see my last post).  And then I totally slacked on Sunday too.  Even though I stayed sober (driver) on Saturday, you would have thought I had drank all day based on how I felt Sunday!  Might as well have drank a six-pack or two.  Monday and Tuesday were better, but once again, not the greatest day today.  UGH!  I am SO SICK OF SAYING THAT!  I can do this.  I did 5 weeks straight of nearly perfect eating and exercising.  And I'm going to do it again!  Here's why...

I've got a goal for 5 weeks from now.  In exactly 5 weeks and 2 days, my sister is getting married.  Now, my bridesmaid dress was purchased back in January (?) or so.  It fit then, but considering I've lost about 15 pounds since then, it fits better now!  And my goal is to be down 7 more pounds on the day of the wedding.  A VERY do-able goal, if I do say so myself.  Thank goodness that the material is very stretchy and not too fitted, or it might look ridiculous!  I've just got a few obstacles to overcome in that time frame...

First, the bridal shower/bachellorette party in 2 weeks.  We just finalized all the food choices tonight.  I must practice portion control and not overdo it!  And school starts soon too, which means back to work and a busy schedule.  Which means I need to get meal-planning and organized so as to keep myself on track.  If I don't have a plan for my meals, I will wander to the fridge or pantry and just pick out whatever I darn well feel like! Not good.  And the first week back, when it's just teachers, always means numerous outings for lunch together.  I will stay away from that, so as to watch not just my waistline but also my wallet!  And then there is book club in a few weeks too, which always lends itself to yummy treats...

So in addition to 7 pounds gone, I am also setting a goal to control myself when temptations arise!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Away from it all...

A weekend recap.

My group of best friends from college and all our hubbies had a weekend away.  Away from kids, jobs, home, and for me, diets...

Our BIG weekend away was going back to our little old college town of Vermillion, SD, and re-living the good 'ol days like we were 21 again!  We had a great time. 

The ladies started off with mani/pedis while the guys golfed.  Lunch at my favorite restaurant in Vermillion, followed by an afternoon/evening of bar hopping, bar food, bowling, and monitoring the drunk men!

We had a blast.  Definitely a little getaway to do again!

Updates and Poppyseed Dressing

Started off my day right, with a 30 minute run.  Didn't stop ONCE.  (I know.  I can hardly believe it myself!)  After that I did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD.  Felt great to begin my day that way, and it's helped me to be more productive and organized too!  I love being organized, makes me feel so much better about things!  And I think I forgot to tell you that I ran in a 5K on Saturday.  In the rain of all things!  I had a goal time in mind, but I must have been setting myself up pretty high, because I didn't make it, by a long shot.  I was hoping to run it in 35 minutes.  Took me 39.  Oh well, it felt great doing it!  Running just may be my thing for awhile....

Summer is flying by.  Less than 2 weeks left before I head back to work.  I'm loving being home with the kids, although as the days and weeks wear on, they are trying my patience more and more.  Gee, once they go back to daycare then I just get to deal with other people's children all day long....I'd rather deal with my own!

Here's a few pics of the kiddos getting in some swim time in the backyard, followed by some pizza!

My baby girl turned 3 last week.  Holy cow!  I'm loving each stage she is growing through, and what a little lady she is becoming.  Here she is with a picture of the homemade cake (done by me and my sister!).  She had to have a butterfly theme, so everything was pink and butterflies!  Maybe I'll do a post with some of those pictures soon, so I can show off all of my hard work! 

I felt as if I had been in a rut with my food choices there for awhile.  Nothing sounded good and I was sick of the same old thing.  My mom makes this SUPER yummy salad with a homemade poppyseed dressing that I absolutely CAN'T get enough of, so I decided to treat myself one day.  It's definitely NOT healthy.  But man oh man is it good!!!!  There's something about the combination of the ingredients and dressing that just taste so delicious!

Here's the dish: 

Lettuce Cashew Salad
Romaine Lettuce
Shredded Swiss Cheese
Cashews
Bacon Bits

Poppyseed Dressing
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (add more if you want/like it sweeter - the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup)
about 1 teaspoon mustard (I think I add more?)
1 teaspoon onion salt or powder
1 teaspoon poppyseeds
1 cup canola oil

Combine all ingredients except oil into a blender. Blend on low until mixed. With blender still going, slowly add oil in a steady stream until dressing becomes thick and creamy.

Pour desired amount over salad ingredients and mix just before serving. (Less is more!)
Now, I made this salad for my book club and we gobbled it up!  I saved the dressing that didn't get used and decided to try it on a different salad.  Here's what I came up with:

You are looking at spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, slivered almonds, and the same dressing mentioned above.  TO. DIE. FOR.  This was just as good as the other one!  And the salad ingredients are a bit better for you too!  I've had this two days in a row for lunch now and it is so very yummy.  I just wish I knew the proper calories and serving size.  It's hard to know when you make it homemade.  I suppose I could figure out how many tablespoons are in a cup, since that's how much oil was used in the recipe, and go from there.  (Does anyone REALLY know that off the top of their head?  I'll google it and figure it out).  I've used just a tablespoon of the dressing each time I've used it. 

Go ahead, give it a try.  YOU'LL LOVE IT, I just know it!

New!!

New computer! FINALLY! New blog design! FINALLY! Both things I've been wanting for quite some time now! YAY! Hope you like the new look - in time hopefully I'll have a new look myself. If only it were a matter of a short amount of time and a few clicks...ha! I'll be back tomorrow with a new post, some picture updates, and a new recipe or two! YAY! Feels good to be back!

Addiction

I've come to realize that I think I understand addiction. Like a true, serious problem that does your body no good. I once had to do a counseling session in college. It was for some class requirement. We were to attend a few sessions by another student who was practicing to be a counselor. There wasn't much I needed coumseling on. She asked me lots of basic questions about me, my family, stuff like that. Alcohol was a topic of conversation at one point. I suppose, young college girl, it was only assumed that I went out and partied. Which I did do my fair share of. She asked if anyone in my family had issues with alcohol addiction. I responded truthfully with a "yes." Then she said something that I took major offense to. She told me that addiction was hereditary and that based on how much I told her I drink, I could consider myself an alcoholic. I was furious by that. I knew there was no way I was an alcoholic. I don't think I went back for my final session. Looking back, I know I wasn't addicted to alcohol. That was just a time in my life where I was young and dumb. I know I wasn't addicted because I didn't think about it constantly. I didn't crave my next drink. I didn't drink all alone when no one else was around. I didn't have one drink and then not stop until I made myself sick (ok, I might have done that a time or two...but it was because I was dumb, not a drunk.) I didn't look for liqour in odd places like cough medicine. But, looking back, I can honestly say I have an addiction. Just not to alcohol. I've come to realize that I have a serious addiction problem to sugar. No joke. I get a craving and it's all I can think about. I find sugar in odd places like a bag of chocolate chips, my kids' fruit smacks or sugary breakfast cereals. I don't buy hardly any candy or cookies but I can find something to curb my sugar addiction if I have to. And then I cant stop. Once I've had one tiny taste I will eat the entire box. I will have the entire bag of chocolate chips. I will eat the entire loaf of banana bread. I will eat it when no one is watching so I don't get judged. And I cant stop until I have this disgustingly gross feeling in my stomach and am practically sick. It's. A serious addiction. There should be an AA meeting for that. I started this journey and was sugar-free for five weeks straight. I felt awesome and lost about 14 pounds. The last two weeks have not been so great. I've indulged in sugar and sweets more times than I want to admit. A bag of M&Ms. Not a treat sized bag. The large bag that you buy to set out in a candy dish. An entire bag of rolos. Probably 3/4 a loaf of zucchini bread. Countless bags of fruit snacks. Three or four chocolate chip granola bars in one sitting on more than one occassion. My daughter's birthday cake in the form of one GIANT piece. Oh and dont forget the cake batter and spoonfuls of frosting as I was making it. Yuck. It's giving me a headache just thinking about all this. But no more. I'm stopping cold turkey. I've done great today and will continue like this from now on. I'm not sure if there will ever be a time where I can control it and just have sugar in moderation. Hopefully some day bit for now it's mist something that I wont eat. Somehow through all of this I managed to maintain my 14 pound loss. But I'm ready to see the scale move again in a downward direction! Thanks for listening to my crazy disgusting sugar addiction habit. It feels good to be honest!

Losing momentum

I desperately need a computer back. I need to get back to regularly blogging. I feel as if I am losing momentum and losing my support from you, my loyal followers. Letting the blog world know what is going on in my daily life makes me feel like I am being held accountable. And I need that. That computer purchase needs to happen immediately! Just make make that purchase tonight... I've had a busy last week. We spent most of our days preparing for Leahh 's TWO birthday parties. With all that party planning came a lack of meal planning. Which led to poor food choices, mindless snacking on more than one occasion, and a piece of birthday cake...or two. The workouts held strong but my choices in food were less than stellar. I feel as if I am in a rut with meals. I'm running out of ideas and nothing sounds appetizing. Except for sugar and grease and carbs. How gross is that? Yuck. All diet disasters that's for sure. I do feel as if I'm living in reality and know that such is life. I'm gonna have days where I cave in to my cravings. Not every day is going to be perfect. And that's ok. A bad day or two is not going to sabatoge all of my efforts. Because I wont let it. I'm still continuing on this journey and going to try my best, bad days and all. I've stayed pretty steady at a 12 to 14 pound loss the past 2 weeks or so. It fluctuates from day to day. I'm feeling great about that! I'd love it if you would leave me a comment or send me a message and let me know that you are still following. And if you have a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack option to share that is one of your favorites, I'd love to hear that too! Here's to a better day tomorrow and a promise to get a new computer so I can blog more regularly!

week 5 results

Another pound gone and feeng good! I changed up my workout some this week and veered away from the Insanity. This second half is HARD and almost an hour long each. I was feeling DEAD by the end of that hour and most of the time couldn't even finish the hour because it hurt so bad! I'll get back into it. So instead I did a few days of jillian Michael's ripped in 30 and a few days running. I ran a new route this week. The first time I ran it I finished in exactly 30 minutes. I knew I was kind of taking it slow. The next time I ran that same route I finished in 26 minutes! I felt really good about that! I feel like I am starting to figure out more what my body needs. If I go too many days without limited carbs, the weight loss starts to slow up. I've also figured out that my body goes into starvation mode quite quickly. If I eat too few calories even just one day, I hold on to the little calories I've eaten and lose nothing. It's refreshing to realize these things now that I am paying attention! Still no computer but hopefully that will change next week. Then I can get back into more interesting posts! Take care my friends and thanks for reading!