M.I.A.

Sometimes I think I suck as a friend. HA! Not because I don't care about my ladies (and guys) but because I'm so busy with my own life, sometimes I find it hard to squeeze in a social life. I think it's imperative to "lovingly force it" sometimes. So I decided to invite some fab friends over tonight for dinner and games. I MISS EM! And I get to cook for people, which I LOVE... LOVE... LOVE doing!

But FIRST! Let's recap my day. I stepped on the scale first thing this morning and immediately began to frown. NOT a good way to start your day. %$@#*(!!!!!

I gained 0.8 pounds. I blame the following. I realize that blaming things is only making excuses but I don't CARE! I need to make this list to appease my fragile and delicate state.

• Thanksgiving feasting. Wasn't BAD but I wasn't super careful either.
• My water bottle hates me again. I hardly had any water last week. I FAIL!
• We skipped a day at the gym due to Thanksgiving.
• I'm bloated and retaining water. Ladies, you all know why!

I KNOW all of these things were a factor and I plan to nip this in the bud RIGHT NOW! Below is a list of my mini goals for this week.

• Drink water you fool! Aim for a gallon!
• Up the cardio to 40 min. at each workout!
• Use the elliptical (new to my workouts) for most of the cardio!
• Try NEW moves when weight training!

There, that should do it! Hopefully my update to the thinner and more healthy me will be a bit more uplifting next Friday. This week is what it is and I will not dwell on it any more. Moving on!

For breakfast I went back to my old friend, oatmeal. It's been too long again my beloved. Perhaps the lack of you in my diet as of late is another factor in my weight gain this week. You keep me full and happy for yours. You sexy bowl of hearty goodness you!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 2 tbs cracked wheat
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 tbs unsweetened cocoa
• dash salt
• sash cinnamon
• splenda to taste
• 20 grams dried cherries

YUMMY IN MY TUMMY!!!! Mmmmmm!

After breakfast I dove head first into turbulent work waters and spent the next few hours swimming. It was a busy day! I didn't even look at the clock until almost 12:30. LUNCHTIME! I had green beans with cherry tomatoes and spray butter and a toasted english muffin with some roast beef. Nothing fancy I know but I'm not a fancy kind of girl. Simple things titillate my taste buds!


ON our break today I did something NAUGHTY! I went to Macy's. Gosh I love that store. I have Nick's Christmas Party to go to on Saturday and though it is cassual, I just HAD to have something new to wear. Ladies, I'm sure you know what I am talking about! HA! So I got a lovely shirt on CLEARANCE, cute little bracelet and a necklace. These new items will make their photo debut tomorrow.... Now I feel complete and ready for the party! Ahhhhh.

For my afternoon snack I had a Chocolate Peanut Butter NuGo bar. Tasty stuff. I've had this one before and I like it! So did todays calendar kitty. LOOK! SO CUTE!!


After work Ann and I shopped at the speed of LIGHT. We ran through Aldi and Acme within an hour and managed to get all of our grocery shopping done. I flew home, put everything away and started on dinner. I was making mashed potatoes and stuffed peppers for everyone. Here is what I did with the peppers.

Filling....

• For me (Morning Star Farms Rounds)
• For everyone else, ground beef, cooked
• Arborio Rice, cooked
• yellow onions, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• black beans
• cayenne
• red pepper flakes
• cumin
• garlic powder
• salt & pepper to taste

I cooked all of these things together and set the mixtures aside. I cored and hollowed out 6 peppers and put them in my LARGEST saucepan with about an inch of water and covered them for about 10-15 minutes. This softens the peppers up a bit and helps them cook faster in the oven.

It was at about this time that everyone showed up. OH I'VE MISSED THEM ALL SO MUCH.. INSANE CRAZY PEOPLE!! ;)

When the peppers were done I lined them up in my casserole dish, filled them with the meat mixtures and smothered them in tomato sauce. I baked them at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

While I was doing all of this, Nick was working on boiling 4 mega sized potatoes for some mashed goodness. The potatoes were actually done at about the same time that the peppers went into the oven. Perfection. I drained them, tossed in some Oikos Greek yogurt, spray butter, salt, pepper, dried chives and garlic powder. Nick mashed the heck out of them and dinner was SERVED! The peppers were done and everyone was starving!!


I forgot to take a picture of the mashed potatoes. APOLOGIES! Basically, it looked white, creamy and delicious. HA!

We all dined on the good stuff and sipped on delicious coffee's (we drank two whole pots) and played Catan for a good solid two hours. I don't know why I love this stupid game so much. I think I've only ever won it ONE time! And yes, sometimes I do get all huffy and pissed while playing it!! I can get crazy competitive when it comes to playing certain games! I admit this. ;)

Zac is INSANE!


The gaming and hanging out stopped at about 12:00 and I was exhausted. Oddly enough the insane amount of coffee was not enough to keep me awake. As soon as everyone left I uploaded these pictures, finished this blog and now I'm taking my but to bed.

Goodnight everyone! ;)

Sneaky Songs!

Well, it's happened. And it happened SO FAST that I didn't even catch it till after I realized it was already going on! I started listening to Christmas music in my car!! Which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't sing it like a maniac with a little wicked smile on my face. Gesturing the hands all violently and bobbing my head all hap-happily-like. HA! Christmas music is such feel good music in my opinion. I can't listen to it without getting all cozy inside. This really is the best time of year!


Breakfast today was another simple "quick grab in the morning" situation. I had am AppleBerry VitaTop and I was going to have this granny smith apple. However, I got so distracted with work that I only had the VitaTop. What can you do?


Lunch today was SO YUM! I had a salad with the following.

• Spinach
• dried cherries
• cherry tomatoes
• black beans
• toasted english muffin "croutons"
• spray butter

I don't know what it is with salads lately but I can't get enough of them. LOVED IT!

After lunch I worked for a bit longer and then Ann and I managed to get out on a break for a bit. We were on a MAD MISSION today. We ran to the bank, grocery store and a "SECRET PLACE FOR MAMA'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT" (shhhhh) and still got back within an hour. I have NO IDEA how we did this. Do you believe in magic? La La La La La Laaaaa......

HA! I LOVE GOB!!!! I MISS Arested Development so much!! ;)

The afternoon snack was the TYPICAL yogurt mess. Am I boring you yet? Well I don't care because it's DELICIOUS! I had it with a 4oz container of plain Oikos, POM Arils and a chocolate brownie Clif Kidz Bar. It was good but not as good as they are with the VitaTops.


After work we were off to the gym. The people (animals) on the highways today were a particular breed of crazy. Sometimes I think the time we save by avoiding the back roads isn't worth the stress. C'est La Vie.

Anyways, here is our workout.

Seated Shoulder Press
Weight of machine x 20
+10lb x 15
+20lb x 12
+30lb x 6
Behind Neck Shoulder Press
20lb x 20
30lb x 15
40lb x 12
Front Dumbbell raise
5lb x 25
7.5lb x 20
10lb x 15
Side Dumbbell raise
5lb x 20
7.5lb x 20
10lb x 15
Barbell Curls
25lb x 20
30lb x 15
Elliptical
21 min, 220 calories
Treadmill
10 min, 3.2 speed, .52 miles

I decided to keep dinner simple tonight. I had a ripe avocado just screaming to be eaten so I felt obliged to consume its deliciousness. A sandwich sounded like the best, fastest and easiest solution. I spread a wedge of light laughing cow cheese on two slices of rye bread and added roast beef. I sprayed both slices with spray butter and toasted the sandwich in a skillet till golden. I then added half of the avocado and also made a small side salad with spinach and the other half of the avocado. OH SO GOOD!


For a bit of a treat later I made my new obsession again. Pumpkin pudding.

• 1 can pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1 box sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 packets splenda
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• dash ginger
• 1 tsp vanilla

I mixed this up till smooth and well blended. SO EASY!! Then I crumbled a 100 calorie pack of graham crackers and layered in the following order. Graham crumbles, pumpkin mix, graham crumbles, more pudding mix and topped it with fat free whip. TA-DAAAA!


This is my new favorite treat!

Now It's time for The Office. Gotta go........ :)

Swooooosh!!

Hello my lovelies. Todays post unfortunately is going to be a quick one. I'm getting a later start than usual and I'm already feeling a bit tired. Don't weep though! I'll still cover all the basics. Just with more sassy, incredible, cheetah like speed!!!!

SWOOOOOSH!

Breakfast was very simple today. I was rushing around this morning and grabbed a gala apple and a cherry dark chocolate Kashi granola bar.


YUM!

Work was busy today and my morning just flew by. It was lunchtime in the blink of an eye. I enjoyed a roast beef, spinach and pumpernickel sandwich with a side of milk, pickled vegetables. Eating these veggies made me think of my Papa. He LOVES this stuff. There is always a HUGE variety on hand at their house. But of course he prefers the hot over the mild...


On our break today I FINISHED NICK for Christmas. YEAH! I was thinking of how to wrap him up and then it came to me. AHHHHH, I had a moment of brilliance. I immediately went to look at some options for my gift idea and picked up the perfect one. AHHHH!

For my afternoon treat today, yep, you guessed it, I had another yogurt mess. Oikos, POM arils and a cranberry VitaTop. And YES, I still enjoyed the heck out of it. The cranberry flavor was tasty but a bit dry. This one gets an 8 out of 10.


After work it was off to the gym.

Barbell Curls
20lb x 20
25lb x 18
30lb x 15
35lb x 10
Dumbbell Curls
7.5lb x 15
10lb x 15
12.5lb x 10
Hammer Curls
7.5lb x 15
10lb x 15
12.5lb x 10
Cable Tricep pushdown
60lb x 25
70lb x 20
80lb x 18
90lb x 15
Cable Tricep overhead pull
50lb x 20
50lb x 20
Elliptical
20 min., 201 calories

It wasn't a very long workout but we got a late start (I got stuck at work) so we called it a night.

Dinner was tasty. I had a baked sweet potato with spray butter, salt, pepper and cinnamon. I also steamed some veggies and had leftover turkey (courtesy of Nicks' mom) drizzled with cran-apple butter. Good stuff!


For a bit of a snack later I had a Kashi cookie and a cup of double spice, chai, black tea with sugar free hazelnut creamer. I was freezing and the tea warmed me right up.


Th th th that's all folks!

A Year full of Yay.

December is upon us already. I seriously can NOT believe it. This year whizzed by faster than a paranoid streaker.

I must admit though, even with its ups and downs, this has been a fantastic year. Which in all honesty I have not been able to say in a long loooong loooooooooong time. And for that, I'm incredibly thankful! I know it's not quite the end of the year yet but I feel like sharing some of those wonderful things with you now anyways.

• I remained employed during these tough times. YAY!
• Nick and I had our 1st Anniversary in June! :)
• My little old car is still putting along with no problems.
• I'm back to living a healthy lifestyle, working out and eating right.
• I discovered the magical wonder of Food Blog Land and fell in LOVE. AWE YEAH!
• Oliver (AKA crazy cat) and Nick are getting along better, most of the time. HA!
• I'm feeling good and looking better week by week. YEAH, I just gave myself some props, so what? Don't hate on me! :)
• I realized how much I enjoy cooking good, healthy and clean food.
• I've rediscovered my love of photography. Maybe one day I can take classes and get better!
• I'm FINALLY redoing my tattoo. Which is still a work in progress but only for a few more weeks. PAINFUL YAY!
• Nothing serious broke in my house this year. The FEW things that did, Mr. Handy Nick was able to fix. HE EVEN FIXED THE DISHWASHER PEOPLE!
• The folks have both started exercising. This makes me very happy!
• I have been financially "not in a scary place" this year.
• I've been healthy. I haven't even had a cold!
• No cavities. HA HA HA!!

Okay, I may be stretching it a bit here, BUT, it's been a great year overall. Everyone I care about is healthy, happy, employed, being loved and living life with joy. What more can a person ask for?

How about oatmeal? YEP! That's what my body was asking (screaming) for this morning!! "FEED ME OATS you devil woman! IT'S BEEN TOO LONG!" I had to obey these angry little voices inside. They were scaring me!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup water
• dash salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice
• 1 banana, sliced
• 2 tbs sugar free peach preserves

Tasty-tasty! And it made my angry little voice inside my head disappear for hours, which was nice. It started screaming again by about 12:30 though. "FEED ME.... FEED ME...." So I hurried up and heated up my lunch. Which consisted of an egg white scramble that I cooked up last night.

• 5 egg whites
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 3 cherry tomatoes, chopped
• handful of broccoli, chopped
• sea salt & pepper to taste

I also had some Trader Joe's Peach Salsa on the side and a toasted English muffin sprayed with my beloved spray butter.


On our break today Ann and I ran to Target. In the 10 years that I have worked at my current job, I'm honestly NOT sure if we have EVER went a solid week without visiting Target. Scary right? Half the time we don't even know what we want. It just sounds good so we find ourselves driving there. That red bullseye has us hypnotized I tell you. THEY'VE GOT US GOOD! I picked up some Christmas treats and toys for my Fur Baby (Oliver cat) and something for my Papa. YEP, that's right Papa, I got you something else. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT! HA!

My afternoon snack once again ROCKED MY WORLD today! It was another yogurt mess with Oikos yogurt....


POM arils....


And a blueberry VitaTop.


This one also gets a 10 out of 10. I don't know what those folks over at VitaLicious are doing but they are doing it right. I am addicted to these things. ALL OF THEM ARE SO GOOD... EVERY SINGLE FLAVOR! I SWEAR!

My yogurt mess was delicious! I devoured this bowl like an animal!


Before we knew it 5:00 rolled around and we were off to the gym. Here is my workout.

Horizontal Chest Press

Weight of Machine x 15

+10lb x 14

+20lb x 10

Seated Chest Press

30lb x 25

40lb x 16

50lb x 12

Inclined Chest Press

20lb x 14.5

30lb x 8

20lb x 12

Modular Chest Press

30lb x 20

40lb x 18

50lb x 10

Eliptical Machine

15 min, 134 calories

Bike (random, uphill setting, level 5)

15 min, 5.4 miles, 100 calories

My shaky little legs were on FIRE by the time we left. WHEW! It felt good though. I did 15 minutes on the eliptical! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? My right leg hung in there just fine! I WAS SO HAPPY....AND SHOCKED!

Nick wasn't home tonight. He was visiting his mom for dinner. I took full advantage and took a nice long bubble bath, lit some candles, made a nice warm cup of coffee (yes, coffee at night because I'm crazy) and turned on So You Think You Can Dance. I was in HEAVEN!

I was also hungry so I made myself a nice salad for dinner. I LOVED IT!

• romaine leaves
• green onions
• black beans
• cherry tomatoes
• avocado
• Morning Star Farms mushroom burger
• red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper to taste
• spray butter

Yes, I ate every single last little bite. I may OR may not have talked to myself about how good it was between bites. YUM!

I'm still sipping on coffee. It's 11:00 at night. I'm SO going to regret this!! :)