Shoes to Lose

Happy Friday! How have you been doing on your exercise goals this week? I have to admit that I've really been slacking. I only made it 3 of the five weekdays. :( I'll be leaving straight from work tonight and heading to my family reunion in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Utah. I really excited to see members of my family that I haven't seen since last year. The reunion is always a great time. It does however, come with its temptations. Temptation #1: My mom's potato salad. Normally, I would not be tempted AT ALL by potato salad but what my mom makes is truly heaven sent. It is definitely one of my favorite foods. Too bad that it is swimming in miracle whip and sugar. I have decided that I will eat a small portion of it. I only get it a few times a year and its what family reunions taste like. Other than the potato salad I plan to stick with fruits and vegetables for my sides and just a hamburger patty if that is on the menu. Temptaion #2: Dinner in its entirety. ...

Sometimes I have a hard time keeping myself motivated. Its hard to to make lasting changes and occasionally it just doesn't seem worth it and it feels extra hard. I look in the mirror and don't see any changes. The end goal seems so far away! The one thing I've found that will constantly remind me why I'm doing this, isn't trying on a new smaller size in the store. In fact, it is the opposite. I love to try on my old clothes. Its a great visual reminder of how far I've come and why there is no way that I'll stop now. A year ago, this week, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in a wedding for a pair of close friends. Usually, a girl can get away with an unflattering dress by saying it isn't her style, the color didn't suite her, and it wasn't her fault because the bride picked it out. I don't have any of these excuses. I helped to pick out this dress. I even thought I should buy a 24 and work to lose some weight but I took the easy way out a...

I'm not dead! This I can assure you. Things have just been a little bit crazy around these parts and I'm a slacker at updating you all. Weigh in on Saturday went well. I'm down 2.2 lbs. It isn't quite where I need to be to get under 200 by the end of the month, but I'll take it!..especially since it means a new pair of shoes. More on that to come. This weekend was pretty eventful. Friday night Matthew and I headed over to our local nickelcade where we proceeded to clean house! The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, cleaning, watching fireworks from the roof of Matt's grandma's house, and attending a pool party. Here is the newest addition to my shoe wardrobe: Only mine are black, not pewter. And the best part is, I only paid $29.00 for these little babies because they are from last season. (Although this season's were on the shelf and they looked exactly the same, except for the $60 price tag) However, there are a few problems with these shoes: A) ...

Tonight Matt and I decided to make homemade pizza for dinner. I am counting this as a new recipe for the week since this is something we rarely make and this time we tried it with a different crust. We found a pizza crust mix at the store that was so low calorie I wasn't going to mess with it. We also used a store-bought pizza sauce. I know that some of you are saying that this barely counts as cooking, but give me a break. :) Small steps. We topped the pizza with some tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil (picked up from the farmer's market), and then sprinkled the top with a bit of gruyere. So delicious! We definitely will be making this again. Everything else on the food front has been good. I recently discovered there is a salad bar in a grocery store located just up the street from my work. I've been heading up there almost daily for my salad fix. When it looks like this can you blame me? How have your weeks been going so far? Do you have a favorite salad combo I s...

This week has started off really well. Eating has been on track both days and I'm really enjoying our farmer's market finds. I have eaten a panini with the pesto that we bought twice this week...and its only Monday! Ill definitely be heading back there soon to pick some more up. It feels so nice to have everything just seem to fall into place. I love when this journey comes easy to me. I feel so reassured that I can do this. That I'll be able to not only reach my goals, but to also be able to sustain them once I get there. Healthy food can be delicious and I'm always reminded of this when I make more of an effort to cook. So....I've decided to set a new challenge for myself. I am going to try to make a new recipe once a week. I know that to stay on this healthy path, I'm going to need an arsenal of healthy, amazing recipes. I'll be sure to place pictures and recipes. Lately I haven't posted many goals because I always think I'll regret telling you if...

You know those days where everything seems to go just right and you feel refreshed and renewed and ready to tackle the journey again? Well....yesterday was that day for me. It still seems like a dream it was such a perfect day. Matthew and I woke up on our own Saturday morning, had our weekly weigh in (Down 1.8 lbs) and then headed down to our community gym to get our workout out of the way. After a sweaty gym session we came back home and got ready for the day. We drove north to the Downtown Salt Lake City Farmer's Market. I've never been but had heard it was really great. What an understatement! The rows of fresh produce and flowers were gorgeous. The scents of kettlecorn, flowers, and fresh herbs were intoxicating. (Although the smells from some of the hippies walking around wasn't!) There were samples everywhere. We tried honey butter, goat cheese, fresh made pesto, Jam, artisan breads.....it was endless! What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning. We left with a...

The halfway results for the biggest loser competition are in! That's right! Yours truly, and her dear, sweet, husband, are in the lead but being followed very closely by Matt's brother and sister-in-law. This is clearly a two dog race and the boys have really stepped up to make it a tough one. Matthew lost nearly 40 lbs in the last 5 weeks! Now don't freak out on me. He hasn't been doing anything unhealthy. He eats less and moves way more. Sometimes he even keeps me in the gym longer than I'd like. The email informing me of the half-way results, however, was bittersweet. It ended with this paragraph: I'm fairly certain that this was just short of accusing us of cheating! The competition doesn't have many rules. No surgery, no prescription weight loss medication, No HGC, and meal replacement drinks can only replace one meal a day. I'm not sure whether I should be offended because my character in in question, or flattered that we worked hard enough to make...

My driver's license was issued nearly a year and a half ago, and my weight on it is no longer a big FAT lie! Woot! Do you think DMV workers have a really skewed perception of weight?

I'm pretty sure I could do without my sense of smell. This diet thing would be a whole lot easier if I didn't have to smell all the delicious food that always seems to be around. Example #1: Today is the hub's birthday and so a few days ago I allowed him some time in Cabellas. You would think that Cabellas would be a safe place to go, even if you're hungry. Wrong! They have these amazing Cinnamon glazed almonds that you can smell throughout the entire store. It is really hard to ignore the smell of something as good as glazed almonds, when there is nothing else of interest in the store. Luckily, I made it out without giving in. (Although my attitude was probably a little less than pleasant for a few moments following) Phew. Example #2: I'm not sure I told you this already, but at my work, every Thursday's lunch is catered. Usually this doesn't bother me too much since my office is way down the hall from the kitchen and occasionally they bring in really yummy...

So I've been trying not to make this blog a little too product-review-y but sometimes when you find something you love, you've just got to share it. I really like peanut butter. Like really, really like it. Only problem is, when you only eat about 1200 calories a day, 190 calories just doesn't seem worth it. I know it is healthy fat but seriously, I'm not spending 1/6 th of my calories on 2 tablespoons of the stuff. Enter PB2. This is peanut butter powder and 2 tablespoons of the stuff is only 45 calories. It is made by roasting the peanuts and then smashing most of the oil out of them and grinding them into a powder. I love that there are only three ingredients in each jar. Peanuts, sugar (1 gram per serving, I can live with that) and salt. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this tastes just like peanut butter. It doesn't. But, when mixed with a banana or when you dip apple slices into it, the difference won't be so noticeable . I've been ...

Do you ever find yourself trash talking your food? I do. I have a bag of Swedish fish sitting on my desk. I LOVE Swedish fish. They pretty much rock my world and I'm certain I could polish off a 5 lb bag of them in just a few days if I wasn't watching it. My company has a kitchen that is fully stocked with goodies all the time and I saw these little puppies a few months ago. Growing up with brothers and sisters, I knew that if I didn't take one right then, I wouldn't get one. So I snuck it off to my desk for when I could work it into my calories one day. That day has never come. When I think of all the other treats that I could have for 200 calories (Red Mango, anyone?) they just don't seem to measure up. I know what you're thinking. "You don't have to eat the whole bag. You could just have a few." Well..that would be an excellent idea if I could just have a few. However, I know that within minutes of opening the bag, it would be gone. There have...