At the end of the day...

Hi y’all.  I’m sick and I’m being a big baby so I’m going to make this quick.  I haven’t been eating like I should so I’ve been copping out and not weighing.  I decided that I needed to weigh and face the scale on Saturday.  Miraculously, it wasn’t that bad.  I’m still less than 10 pounds away from my smallest weight.  I need to get my mind right.  I want to lose 10 pounds, right away.  I’m tired of this crap.  I’m taking the fact that I haven’t gained much weight as a sign from my body that it’s willing to work with me.  So, it’s on for the next few weeks.  I’m saying goodbye to carb filled weekends.  It’s time.

I don’t have a recipe this week but I do want to heed a warning.  The battle to find decent salad dressing is ongoing.  I know that yogurt recipes are the new fad.  It’s a lower fat option for things like mayonnaise and sour cream. Sometimes it’s a hit and sometimes it’s a miss.  I’m going to just tell you that the Caesar Parmigiano dressing from Bolthouse Farms is a miss.  This dressing fails to mask the nasty kick that fat free Greek yogurt can have sometimes.  In fact, it had an undertone of rotten milk that made me want puke a little bit.  It’s still sitting in my refrigerator.  It was expensive so I put it back in the fridge for some reason.  I guess I’m cheap.  My guess it will stay in there and stare at me every time I open the door until it’s reached its expired date and I finally throw it away.  Feel free to ignore me and try it anyway but know that you are going against a strong recommendation to stay away. 

My Dad and I attended the 4^th annual Suds of the South Beer Festival in Tuscaloosa this weekend.  A lot of my friends went too.  It’s always a fun time.  It’s something nice that Tuscaloosa does. If you live in a small town, it’s important to appreciate the few events that it hosts.  Unfortunately, the beer was full of calories and so was the pizza we had after.  Luckily, there are no more enticing events coming up to make me stray from my diet.  I am going to see Maroon 5 on Tuesday but I’m going with Jordan and my brother so they will keep me in line.

At the end of the day, I know that I’ve done well and have a lot to be proud of but it’s all for nothing if I don’t get myself into gear.  I need to come to a point where I am once again putting myself first.  I know that if I am dedicated and driven, I can do good things…so, I’m ready to be awesome again.

I hope to have a successful week/weekend so look forward to positive news next week!

Have a wonderful week and HAPPY EASTER! Bye.

“My oh my

You’re getting under my skin

Don’t know why I’m always letting you in…” My Oh My-Tristan Prettyman

Melts in your mouth...

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick’s Day.  As you can see, there was a lot of green going on this weekend.  The pictures of the food are from the delicious dinner my mother made last night in which she made everything green.  She had green butter to go with green bread, green potato salad, broccoli and green pound cake that was served with strawberries.  It was pretty festive…and quite tasty.  Cassandra and I also got in the spirit and got out for a bit.  We broke out the St. Patrick’s day swag and took pictures so I gave you one as an example.  I love a themed holiday.  

I finally finished my 60 day challenge on Friday.  It’s interesting because I whole-heartedly recommend Insanity but some of my final numbers weren’t great and I wouldn’t advise it for everyone.  I did lose a few inches total since I started Insanity which is good but I didn’t lose weight.  To be fair, I haven’t eaten the way I should have for the 60 days so I think that if I was at 100% for calorie intake, I would have lost weight and more inches.  There are also things called “fit tests” on Insanity that you do periodically over the 60 days.  On my final fit test, I did worse in every category but two.  Why do I still recommend it you ask?  Well, like I said, I didn’t match Insanity up with diet perfection so it wouldn’t be fair to blame it for my lack of weight loss.  Also, I think I did every fit test after a night with little sleep.  I think I was also doing some of the moves wrong in the beginning.  I did better in the arms categories which is good to know.  I know that my arms are stronger though they aren’t great.  I also know for a fact that my hips, legs, thighs and calves are leaner and more muscular since I started.  I wouldn’t recommend it for people that are beginners because it’s really tough and takes a toll on your muscles.  I didn’t weigh this weekend but I will on Saturday.  I have to really shape up…I haven’t been nearly as solid as I should be but I’m ready to make a change and put myself first as far as food/drink goes.  Overall, if you’re in good health and decent shape, I would say give Insanity a try.  Since it’s so intense, I want to do it again but not every day.  So, I’ve scheduled my workouts for several months to come that intertwines Insanity videos with running, elliptical, walking and some other things.  I’ve got a couple 5K’s planned so I’ll be training for those too.

The recipe this week was once again inspired by Pinterest.  I don’t know about you all but I love hummus and I love the Sabra brand.  In moderation, hummus isn’t bad for you at all and makes a great snack.  This recipe is something called a ‘Hummus Melt’ and it was simple and yummy.  All you do is kick on the broiler of your oven, toast some low fat bread, spread a serving of hummus between the two pieces of bread, top it with turkey slices or whatever deli meat you want, and then a low fat or fat free cheese of your choosing and then broil it for a couple minutes.  It’s filling and tastes great.  It’s a really good addition to a salad or works as a snack too.

That’s all I’ve got today. 

Dad and I are going to a beer fest this Saturday so that should be fun!

Have a good week y’all!  Bye!

“Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you’re wrong…” Drops of Jupiter-Train (I got a few friends like these…and I’m so grateful)

Dirty.

Hi y’all.  I won’t waste time with small talk.  I didn’t weigh this week which is the way I planned it.  I will be completely done with my Insanity 60 Day Challenge on Friday.  I’m going to take measurements and weigh on Saturday so I can get the final numbers.  I know that it works but I don’t expect a weight loss.  In fairness to Insanity, it’s my fault I haven’t lost weight.  I haven’t done the healthy eating part as well as I should.  I did better this weekend but it still wasn’t perfect.  I know that I’m stronger and leaner from Insanity though.   I’m going to continue to do Insanity  because it’s a positive challenge for me but I’m going to incorporate other exercise rather than doing it every day.  Insanity is tough on your joints so I don’t think you should continue to do it every day after the 60 day challenge.  I want to also try new things…maybe a dance class or something else.

The recipe this week was inspired by Pinterest.  I made a few adjustments to these from the original inspiration.  They are called Taco Cups.  You all should know that I love an easy recipe and it really doesn’t get more simple than these and they are very tasty.  A lot of people use ground turkey and chicken but if you get the lean varieties of those meats, they tend to dry out.  If you get the ones with higher fat content, they are too high in fat.  I prefer to stick with beef but I just get a really lean selection.  I was able to find 96/4 ground beef and it was pretty low in fat.  All you do is preheat the oven to 375, spray a muffin pan, poke small wonton wrappers in the cups and spray them as well.  After that, brown the meat with taco seasoning.  I put a little salsa and fat free cheese in the bottom of the wonton cup, put some of the browned meat on top and then popped it in the oven.  Be careful, these don’t take long and you can easily burn them.  Once they come out, top them with a little more salsa and fat free cheese.  If you have the available calories left for the day, you could top with some light sour cream.  I was able to have four of these for seven points which isn’t bad and I loved the taste of them.  The wontons crisped on the edges nicely.

Meet Grayson Belle Wyatt, y’all.  My parents got a new Great Dane.  She’s pretty cool.  She made miss Pacey a bit but I’m sure she’ll be an awesome addition to the family.  I’m glad she lives with my parents, though…she’s going to be enormous.

My friend Arianne Crow invited me to participate in the Dirty Girl Mud Run with her.  I obliged and had a blast.  It was held at the Talladega Super Speedway.  Essentially, it’s a 5K with obstacles along your way.  You have to crawl around in the rocks and freezing water, walk through mud and do various climbing exercises.  I ran most of the time and was able to complete every challenge.  It was pretty intense, I got banged up and I was incredibly sore the next day but it was really fun.  I’m glad I did it. That’s all I have today.  Have a good week everyone! Holla!

“Never had much faith in love or miracles

Never wanna put my heart on the line…” Locked Out of Heaven-Bruno Mars

Choose Change

Hi! So, I know I didn’t post last week but this will be a ridiculously lazy post.  It kind of matches my personality lately.  I have been lazy about a lot of things.  I have been far too loose on my diet and even though I’ve been exercising, I haven’t been giving it my all.  That changes today, though.  I am going to do better.  I’ve decided not to weigh again until I’m completely done with the Insanity challenge.  When that’s over, which crazily will be next Friday, I’ll get my weight and all my measurements so I can see my complete results and so I can see how much work I need to do to reach my small goal.  I know Insanity works because even though the scale isn’t showing it because I’ve been eating too much, people have commented on how much leaner I look.  I have to figure what to do next.  I think I’ll mix Insanity in with running and maybe some dance classes or something.  I may be involved in some sort of mud run obstacle course this Saturday in Birmingham…if I do that, I’ll definitely have pics.

I’ve been on my own nerves lately because I make so many mistakes.  I know that I am the only one that can change the things I don’t like about myself.  There are certain things in life that you can’t control.  There are other things that you can change but you have to make the decision to work your butt off.  I’ve heard a lot of folks say that they believe people can’t change.  I used to think that too but it’s a bit more complicated than that.  People can change but YOU CAN’T CHANGE them.  If I want someone to be better, it doesn’t matter how hard I try to change them or how much I hope that they’ll be different, they won’t be unless they make the choice to do it.  It’s a hard lesson to learn sometimes.  I know that when I was extraordinarily unhealthy, the people closest to me probably wanted to help me change but it’s something I had to do for myself.  I guess I’m saying that because I may stumble, but today is a new day and I’m changing constantly and whatever obstacles I face, I’m determined to defeat them. I owe it to myself to do the best I can in every aspect of my life.

I don’t have a recipe because I suck but I did bake a cake and cookies during my absence from the blog.  The cake was delicious.  The cookies were OK.  There’s a picture of it mixed in below with pictures from different events I’ve experienced the past few weeks (wrestling, Oscar night, and the Pink concert which was amazing). I’ll do better next post, I swear.  Have a good week!

“Ain’t no talkin’ to this man…ain’t no pretty other side…” - Let Him Fly.

Oscar Week!

Happy President’s Day, y’all.  If you are like me, you had to work despite the holiday.  Oh well, I am just grateful to have a job, I guess.  I’m fighting off a bit of a sinus problem today.  It’s been creeping up slowly on me for several days and I’ve got quite a cough today.  I rarely get sick so I shouldn’t complain.  I should never complain because overall, things are usually pretty good but the fact that I shouldn’t complain has never really stopped me.  I’m pretty pooped today but I have a lot to do so I need to just suck it up.  I didn’t weigh on Saturday like normal because I had a four day weekend last week due to the trip to Nashville with my Dad.  I knew I wouldn’t like the results so I thought I’d give myself a break.  I’ll weigh this Saturday to gauge how much extra work I need to do.  I completed the first phase of Insanity last week and began the new one on Saturday.  The second month is even more insane than the last.  The videos are longer and the moves are more intense.  I am pretty sore today so I think that means it’s working.  If I can stick with that and stop eating too much on the weekends, I feel like the weight would come off but I don’t always do what I’m supposed to.

Dad and I had a great time at WWE Monday Night Raw.  I admit that even though I won’t be recording it on my DVR any time soon, it was pretty entertaining.  It’s the male equivalent of a soap opera.  It was fun to get into it with the crowd and I was excited to see the Rock.  Unfortunately, I don’t have my camera cord so I can’t post pictures yet.  I’m hoping to get them on Facebook this week so maybe I can share a couple in the next couple weeks.  I won’t have a blog post next week because I won’t have time.  I’m spending the night in Birmingham Sunday night for the Oscars, so I’ll post again on March 4th with pictures of wrestling, new weight and measurement updates, Oscar reaction, and pictures from the Pink concert I’m going to.  So, I’m slacking next week but I’ll make sure to fill up the next post.

I kind of cheated this week and I didn’t provide a full recipe.  I’m from the South and I adore okra, fried up in a cast iron skillet with bacon grease.  My mother is an okra frying champion and I also love the way my grandmother makes it.  It’s crispy and salty and just plain delicious.  It’s also terrible for you.  I don’t think I realized the you could have okra if it wasn’t fried until a couple years ago.  The problem is that okra can be slimy and nobody wants that so it’s kind of tricky to prepare it in a healthy way and make it taste good.  You can prepare it in a skillet with non-stick cooking spray but I find it easier to bake it.  I bought it frozen, put it on a cookie sheet sprayed with Olive Oil flavored spray, tossed the frozen okra on the sheet, sprayed it with the non-stick spray, put a little salt, pepper and garlic powder and popped it in the oven.  Since it’s from frozen, it takes time.  However, since it’s in the oven, you can fold laundry, catch an episode of Modern Family or something else while you wait.  After about 15-20 minutes, I tossed it with the spray again and added more salt.  I put it in for a bit longer and then when it’s fully cooked, I turn the broiler on.  I burned the first batch I made so make sure to watch it closely.  I think no more than 2-3 minutes is enough.  No, it’s not the bacon-fat ridden taste of fried heaven you are used to but if you make it right, it’s crispy and has good flavor.  It’s worth a shot at least.  I liked it. 

It’s OSCAR week and Jordan and I are totally ready.  We have seen the movies in the major categories and I’ve seen a few in the minor categories.  I hope to catch at least a couple more of those this week.  The last one we saw was Amour.  I pretty much hate this movie. It is nominated for Best Picture, Director (Michael Haneke), Actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and Original Screenplay (Michael Haneke).  I think the nomination for actress is well deserved but that’s it.  It was in French which wasn’t the problem at all but I thought it was worth mentioning.  The movie had two sides, painstakingly boring and tragically sad.  Seriously, it had one of the most disturbingly sad scenes I’ve ever seen.  When it wasn’t sad, it was so slow.  There were long drawn out moments of scenery and unnecessarily long moments of silence.  I had to pry my eyes open to stay awake.  I also saw Prometheus which isn’t nominated in a major category, just visual effects. I didn’t really care for it, either.  The visual effects were great (good make up and a gruesome alien baby birth scene) but it’s good thing that’s all it was nominated for because the dialogue was predictable and a good portion of the movie was spent watching the head of a decapitated robot talking.  It wasn’t my favorite.

So, I guess I could tell you my favorites and then my predictions…if you want to know…if not, feel free to skip ahead.  My opinions on who will win have changed a bit since the nominations first came out…and they may change again.

Actor-  Favorite-Bradley Cooper Prediction- Daniel Day-Lewis

Actress- Favorite-Jennifer Lawrence Prediction-Jennifer Lawrence

Supporting Actor- Favorite-Robert De Niro and Christoph Waltz Prediction- Christoph Waltz

Supporting Actress- Favorite- Sally Field Prediction- Anne Hathaway

Directing- David O. Russell-Silver Linings Playbook Prediction- Steven Spielberg- Lincoln

Adapted Screenplay- Favorite- Argo and Silver Linings Playbook Prediction- Argo

Original Screenplay- Favorite-Django Unchained Prediction- Zero Dark Thirty

Best Picture (I’ll give you an order of my favorites)… 1.) Silver Linings Playbook 2) Argo 3) Django Unchained 4) Lincoln 5) Zero Dark Thirty 6) Les Miserables 7) Life of Pi 8) Beasts of the Southern Wild 9) Amour

Prediction for Best Picture- Argo

That’s all.

I will post in a couple weeks!

Bye!

“And it would be a fine proposition, 

If I was a stupid girl…” Girl at Home-Taylor Swift

Shrimptastic

Hey y’all.  I know I’m not the first or the millionth person to say this today but I seriously think the day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday.  I am not a fan of professional football but I am fan of Super Bowl food.  I know this is supposed to be about weight loss but you certainly couldn’t tell I was on a diet last night.  My mother really out did herself.  When I got to dinner, it was like a festival of bacon.  She made cheeseburger sliders with bacon, potato skins, pigs in a blanket, wings, ribs.  Seriously guys, I know everyone thinks their mom is the best cook in the world but you are totally wrong, unless my mom is your mom.  It was worth every gluttonous calorie.  By the description of food I had, it’s not hard to know why I had no weight loss this weekend when I weighed.  I hadn’t gained which I consider a success.  I’ve been kind of loose on the weekends and it must come to an end.  I am not going to post next week because…well…I’m almost embarrassed to say…my Dad and I are travelling to Nashville on Monday to go to Bridgestone Arena…to see WWE Monday Night Raw.  I’m not what one would call a wrestling fan but my Dad is so that’s what I got him for Christmas.  I admitted that to not only tell you’ll there won’t be a post next Monday but also so I could say that I know my diet won’t be great on that Monday and Tuesday.  Even though the weight loss momentum I had has been put on a temporary pause,  I’m doing my best otherwise and hopefully the hiccup won’t last long.  On a positive note, I have now lost a total of 3.25” after beginning Insanity.  I have 8.2 pounds I need to lose to reach my first goal of 2013.  Persevere y’all.  You can do it.

This week I am sharing a baked version of Popcorn Shrimp from the Hungry Girl. The Hungry Girl loves to use Fiber One cereal for her fake frying.  Let me just say, I was skeptical because Fiber One cereal looks like rabbit poop and tastes like dirt. No disrespect to the folks at Fiber One…they are doing great things for the fiber needing community.  I decided to give it a fair shot.  Normally, if I have to get a kitchen appliance out and plug it in to make the recipe, I avoid it because I’m lazy.  The popcorn shrimp required a finely ground Fiber One cereal to act as the breading.  Rather than making only one serving’s worth, I made a large batch so if I want to make other recipes with it, I can just grab it from the fridge.  I think it has a pretty good shelf life…let’s be honest, there’s probably not a lot of fresh ingredients in the cereal to go bad.  I used Egg Beaters to coat the shrimp and then shook them in a baggie with the cereal.  I added salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili powder to the Fiber One to give it some flavor.  The shrimp was crispy and had great flavor.  It took me more than five minutes so I probably won’t make it much  but it was quite good.  I made it with some sautéed veggies. It’s not pretty but I enjoyed it.

As the Oscars loom closer, Jordan and I are trying to wrap up our adventure.  We have actually had an easier time this year than ever before.  We’ve had to go to Atlanta, Huntsville and Chattanooga before to see all the movies before the show but we managed to stay between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham this year.  A big shout out to the Edge theatre near his house because they listen to requests for movies and they are great about having ones that are hard to find.  We were able to see the Master yesterday which wasn’t nominated for Best Picture but did have acting nominees.  Joaquin Phoenix is nominated for Actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Supporting Actor and Amy Adams for Supporting Actress.  This movie had potential. It had several good moments.  I guess agree with the acting nominations and I definitely agree with the fact that it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.  It was about an alcoholic, ex-sailor who encounters a non-religious evangelist of sorts in Philip Seymour Hoffman and they set on a journey to fix people by connecting them to their spirit…awaken them.  It was too long and at the end, I don’t have any idea what I’m supposed to take away from it.  

My mother said that Moonrise Kingdom was the dumbest movie she’d ever seen.  At first I resisted that statement thinking surely I could think of a dumber one but after filtering out movies that were intentionally dumb but in a funny way, I really couldn’t disagree with her.  Maybe in some pretentious land of coolness this movie has an epic-ness that I just don’t understand but overall, I have no idea what this movie was supposed to accomplish.  The cast was amazing…Bruce Willis, Ed Norton, Bill Murray and others but man, was it weird.  It’s only nominated for Original Screenplay (Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola) so I’m not sure if the pool for that was small this year or what.  I guess if I had to say something positive about it, it would be that it is, in fact, original.  It’s about two misfit kids falling in love and “getting married” and taking a trip in the woods…or something.  I pretty much hated it.

The Invisible War is not in a major category but I thought it was worth mentioning.  It’s nominated for best Documentary and it brings to light the horrors of sexual assault that women sometimes face in the military.  This movie is well done and highlights the problems that women soldiers face.  It also calls for action in the way the military handles these situations.  It’s sad but eye-opening and at the very least, food for thought.  It’s the only documentary I’ve seen so far so I can’t speak to the quality of the others.

That’s it.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Hopefully I won’t get hit over the head with a folding chair next week.

Talk with you soon.

Bye.

“You’re a lovely creation, I’d like to think that I am too.” Love On The Rocks-Sara Bareilles

Snack Attack

Greetings y’all.  It’s Monday again. In fact, it’s the last Monday in January.  I have got to stop wishing time away because it seems like just yesterday it was New Year’s Day.  The immediate New Year’s Resolution I had is going well, though.  I lost 2 more pounds last week.  I have lost 7 of the 15.2 goal with 8.2 left to go.    Since I started Insanity, I’ve also lost a total of 2.75 inches so things are going well.  I ate too much between Saturday evening and Sunday night but hopefully I’ll work it off this week.  I could have done better but it’s really the first time since the beginning of the year that I’ve slipped.  The point is that dusted myself off and I’m right back on.  We all fail in something every day. You just have to get back on track.  Besides, if you were faced with something called pizza dip and then chicken stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, you’d cheat too.

Other than binge eating, my biggest problem in the diet game is completely mental.  I have to convince myself that I’m not hungry.  I do this by making sure that I never go more than a couple hours without eating.  In order to do this and not balloon up, you have to have snacks that are healthy and filling.  This first image is of cucumbers and hummus.  I love bread and hummus together but the bread is loaded with carbs and the hummus can be a bit fattening so having both isn’t something that’s recommended.  So, we must make sacrifices and I find this snack to be a good compromise.  I found these individual servings of hummus which are great because the risk of eating too much is diminished.  I used a cucumber instead of bread because you can have as much as you want for zero points and they are pretty filling.  I also had ham on the side which is of course optional but I needed some protein.  I’ve had this several times and I’m not tired of it yet so that’s good.

This picture is very simple but something not to forget.  Salsa is something that you can have unlimited amounts of so I eat it a lot.  I also discovered recently that guacamole and low fat sour cream aren’t too bad in points either so I created a little snack fiesta with Baked Tostitos Scoops.  I mix all three together and it’s quite tasty.  You have to be careful with the guacamole and sour cream though and only have a couple tablespoons of each.  My problem is I want to eat the whole container.  Just make sure if anything has fat in it, you only eat the recommended serving.

So, as many of you know, I’m addicted to Pinterest.  The next series of images will tell a tragic but quite funny story of a cookie project gone horribly wrong.  The first picture is how the cookies I attempted are supposed to look.  The pictures after that are several attempts that I made to mimic the image.  I got Cassandra to make one and hers at least had good shape.  You take sugar cookie dough, shape it like a heart and leave a hole in the middle.  After that, you put Jolly Ranchers in the middle to create a stained-glass effect.  The cookie kept creeping over the candy.  I kept making them bigger and bigger thinking that would help…but it made it worse.  The last picture was the closest I got but I gave up because after over 2 hours of trial and error, I was over it.  I should’ve known a project to celebrate Valentine’s day would turn sour.

 That’s all I’ve got today.

 Hopefully my weigh in Saturday won’t be too harsh after my weekend indulgence.

Wish me luck.

Have a great week.

Bye.

“It’s getting late

To give you up.” Toxic-Britney Spears