A Journey to Thin

Finally Friday!

2012-01-27T18:28:00.001-06:00

Finally Friday!! Actually, this week went very quickly for me—probably because I didn’t have to work until Wednesday.

For breakfast, I ate an egg with oatmeal and strawberries along with a glass of milk for 8 points.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer for 1 point.

There was a beautiful sunrise out my window this morning!

On my first break, I ate a banana for 0 points.

Are there any paid writers out there? Since I recently graduated and life is starting to slow down around here, I’m starting to look for jobs. I’d love to be a freelance writer, but any job to get experience would be great. Any tips? I cannot wait to find a job that I will love!

For lunch, I had FF Beef broth with a sandwich (sandwich thin, FF turkey, FF cheese, a little light Miracle whip and mustard, and a tomato slice), and carrot sticks for 6 points.

I like eating beef broth or chicken broth as soup. It’s actually really tasty and this was only 1 point for 2 cups! But the problem is that it’s full of sodium—I’ll watch for the low sodium kind next time!

For dessert, I had a No Pudge! brownie for 2 points.

On my last break I ate a clementine and 1/2 serving of honey roasted peanuts for 2 points.

I also made a cup of Vanilla Chai tea with 1 Tbs. skim milk for 0 points.

For supper, I had whole wheat spaghetti topped with a homemade spaghetti mixture with lean beef, along with garlic toast made with light margarine, and green beans for 13 points.

I finished it up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for 4 points.

I used 2 weekly points today.

Have a great weekend!

I Didn’t Raid the Cupboards

2012-01-26T18:49:00.001-06:00

Today was one of those days I could have slept until noon. Which for me, hardly ever happens. I think it was the weather. Another gray, foggy and cold day in Iowa. I did get to sleep in a couple of hours though. Today was my day off but I offered to work for one of my friends today who works a later shift.

My plan was to workout in the morning but I was just dragging. I’ve been hoping that the snow would all melt and we’d go back to the unusual 60 degree days we had a couple of weeks ago! No such luck. And wouldn’t you know I didn’t feel like working out in the evening either… I really need to make it a priority to work out first thing in the morning.

I wanted to eat a good, filling breakfast this morning since my lunch would be much later. I made myself an omelet with 2 eggs, 3 egg whites, FF cheese, turkey sausage crumbles, tomato and onion along with a banana and a glass of skim milk for 7 points.

It was delicious! I love breakfast. I could eat breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch and supper!

While working, I sipped on a new coffee I picked up at Trader Joe’s with FF creamer for 1 point.

I was impressed with this coffee—delicious!

So last night I ended up using 17 weekly points. How? You ask. Well, supper was healthy and within my points. But then FIL called and said he was craving a Pepsi. So we stopped at the gas station to pick that up for him and these delicious chocolate donuts enticed us. And I ate two. And I NEVER eat donuts. No matter how good they were…they were NOT worth the 20 points that I calculated off of the nutrition information AFTER I ate them! WOW, a 10 point donut. I really need to get back to the basics and check points BEFORE eating something. But I tracked it. Told myself the rest of my day was very good, and I am moving on.

On my first break, I ate a wrap on a high fiber tortilla with FF cheese and turkey along with a clementine for 4 points.

For lunch, I had the same salad as yesterday for 7 points.

I was really craving something sweet, but didn’t know what to have. I decided on a serving of Lucky Charms for 3 points.

I stopped eating the more “sugary” cereals for breakfast a LONG time ago. But I do enjoy them as a snack (or dessert in this case!) once in a while!

I was WAY excited when the Fed Ex man arrived and delivered my new Kitchen Aid blender than My Blog Spark sent me!!! What a nice surprise!!

On my last break, I really had to practice the self control because I was super hungry. I ate an apple for 0 points.

Today was a VERY slow day at work. It was kind of nice for a change! As always, I was happy to be done!

For supper, I made a beef stir fry over lentils for 7 points.

And I finished it up with a piece of Coconut Mixed Berry Crumble with 1/2 serving of vanilla ice cream for 8 points. I was going to eat a much smaller serving but ended up eating a regular sized portion so it cost me more points. But this recipe is basically just fruit and then the crumble on top. So really not the worst thing I could eat.

I made half of the recipe and it’s SO good!

And hubby brought home some strawberry crème heart Peeps—so I had one of those for 1 point. Tasty!

I used 4 weekly points today. I had some struggles today with wanting to raid the cupboards, so overall, I think I did really well by tracking what I was eating and NOT raiding the cupboards.

Who’s excited that tomorrow is Friday? I am!!

Post Cruise Weigh In Day

2012-01-25T17:33:00.001-06:00

I was literally expecting a 20 lb. gain this morning. At least that’s how my body felt! I was surprised to step on the scale and see only a 5.4 lb. gain in 2 weeks time. I’m ok with that! That I can handle.

I weighed in at 213.9, which also includes gains from before I left, when all of the craziness was going on in life. I am up 12.6 lbs. from my lowest ever which, of course, is depressing, but so it goes. I have my work cut out for me and I am ready to conquer it!

I felt good on the cruise. I felt a lot more comfortable in my own skin, and that was a good feeling. I loved being able to wear cute sundresses. I loved being able to be active. And it made me realize how much I want to lose MORE weight—so I can feel even better and do even more. I didn’t even feel worn out and tired like I used to!

I also had a couple of experiences that made me feel pretty terrible. First, I bought a pair of shorts last summer that were slightly snug. I thought they would fit for the cruise, and leading up to the cruise, they did fit. But when I went to put them on one morning, I couldn’t even get them on. It was such a terrible feeling. Not only that, my pretty silver dress was definitely tighter than it was when I bought it. And that made me feel horrible. I don’t want to experience that any more!

I am FINALLY back to regular posting again! Yippee!! Life should be much more calm now. FIL is in a rehab center and making progress. So life should be a lot less chaotic and stressful.

For breakfast, I ate oatmeal with blueberries, and 1/2 cup of egg beaters along with skim milk for 7 points.

I knew I needed to do SOMETHING for exercise this morning, but just wasn’t feeling it. So I rode the stationary bike for 20 minutes. I rode 4.9 miles and burned 132 calories.

I’ve decided to start the Jeff Galloway 10K training plan over again today since I didn’t follow the plan during vacation. So today is day 1 with cross training.

And it was back to work today. That’s 11 days off of work and I enjoyed every minute of it!

While working, I sipped on Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee that I picked up in Jamaica…in my new Cayman Islands coffee mug. I added FF creamer for 1 point.

On my first break, I ate a banana and a light yogurt for 2 points.

For lunch, I made one of my favorite salads with lettuce, blueberries, strawberries, Feta, Teriyaki chicken wings, and light raspberry vinaigrette for 7 points.

So tasty and delicious! It’s also so colorful and pretty!

I finished it up with a No Pudge! brownie for 2 points.

On my last break, I ate Healthy Pop popcorn with diet Cherry Pepsi for 4 points.

I Loooooove my popcorn!

I have 11 points left for the day. We are going to visit FIL tonight and MIL invited us over for chili, so that will be delicious, I’m sure! I have had a good eating day today, so I should be fine tonight! Sorry, I can’t take pics of supper…so this will be the end of the post tonight!

It’s good to be back!

2012 Carnival Cruise Recap (LOTS of pictures!!)

2012-01-24T13:08:00.001-06:00

We had a fantastic time on our Carnival cruise. It was a (mostly) relaxing trip! We saw some beautiful parts of the world! I’ll share a few pictures of each place we stopped. I took about 400 pictures on this trip but I tried to narrow them down for this post!

The first day was a travel day and we stayed a night in Miami Springs. Here we are at the airport:

The hotel was old and run down but had a beautiful pool. It was actually a little chilly that night so we didn’t swim. But we did enjoy hot cocoa poolside.

The next day was embarkation day in Miami! We cruised on the Carnival Valor.

We had our first dining experience that night. I’ve never eaten at a place where they push your chair in for you and lay the napkin on your lap. We were SO impressed with Carnival on this cruise. The crew is genuinely friendly and so helpful! We loved watching the sun set over the water each evening at dinner.

This seems like a good place to talk about my eating on the cruise. Yeh, not so great. But I enjoyed it. My favorite food on the cruise was the warm chocolate melting cake—which I ate 3 times on the cruise. SO good. I basically ate what I wanted. I may pay for that on the scale. But I’m not going to worry about it. I enjoyed it. It was vacation—and obviously I wouldn’t eat like that the other 99% of the time I’m not on vacation. So it’s all good. We were very active, as you will see in later pictures. We did get in a run on deck—which was my favorite location for a run to date. SO beautiful. I actually forgot to take a picture of the running track though!

The first stop was in Key West, Florida. BEAUTIFUL area!

Our excursion here was a bike tour. SUCH a great experience and a great way to get a little exercise in.

We saw Ernest Hemingway’s home:

Harry S. Truman’s little white house:

Roosters roaming the streets. Did you know they’re on the endangered species list in Key West? lol

And lots, lots more!

We had a couple of fun days at sea. This slide was so much fun!

Awwww I love these 2 pictures:

And we had our elegant night! I picked up the black shawl in the $10 Fun Shop. I’m glad I did because I felt less self conscious in my dress with that!

We purchased a couple of professional photos. Here is the one of us:

And hubby loved this picture for some reason. We also thought this would make the perfect progress picture.

We really did feel elegant that night! It was fun!

Next stop was Grand Cayman.

It was our favorite stop. LOVED it. I picked up this hat in the $10 Fun Shop on board. It matches my swimsuit perfectly.

We did an all inclusive beach getaway in Grand Cayman. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

Crystal clear water. I want to go back there someday!

After the excursion, we had time to explore a little bit. We did some shopping and mailed some postcards to our parents! Which they probably haven’t even received yet!

The next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We didn’t enjoy this stop as much, although it was a good experience for us, no matter how uncomfortable it made us feel. I think it was just a really bad port. There were no shops anywhere. Just a chain link fence and once we went passed it, we were bombarded with people trying to sell us things. They were very pushy. I am pretty good at being polite but firm with people, hubby on the other hand is such a nice guy. I learned this about him in Jamaica. lol. He’s just too sweet. He would stop and have the conversation with these guys EACH time they tried. And then apologize that he couldn’t go on their tours. hehe. I had to take his hand and just pull him along. We ended up just going back to the port and waiting for our excursion, so we didn’t see much of Jamaica.

A banana tree. I’d love to eat one right off of a tree sometime!

It was a beautiful place but you could just see there was poverty there. It made us very thankful to live in the United States.

We learned a few Jamaican phrases like, “Ire man”, which means all good things. “Ya man” and “No Problem, man”. I also learned to love Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, which we heard performed many times! “Don’t worry, about a thing. Every little thing, gonna be alight.” It’s now one of my favorite songs.

Bob Marley

Our excursion in Jamaica was an ATV adventure. It was fun, but not worth what we paid for it. The tour guides were pretty awesome though!

There were a group of 6 of us I think. There was some beautiful scenery!

Each night there was a towel folded in the shape of a different animal along with dinner mints. This was my favorite:

We spent a lot of time just lounging on beach chairs on deck. The weather was PERFECT the entire time. We really got some good luck! It was warm, sunny and there was always a nice breeze, so I don’t think I ever sweated! Gotta love my crazy ocean hair in this photo. hehe I also hate my sunglasses but I ordered them a long time ago with prescription…and I’ve always hated them but wear them anyway. So excuse the ugly sunglasses. lol

We had fun with onboard entertainment. We watched a few shows. Some of the shows, I felt, were a little too risqué, if you will. I could have done without seeing women dance around in thongs. Just sayin’. We played Bingo for fun and Loren won $125!! We watched a professional ice carver. It was remarkable!

And another relaxing day at sea:

There was a Serenity deck on board for those 21 and older. There were hammocks and big round circle chairs. They were always taken! But we did get to lay in them once in a while. We enjoyed a little time in a warm hot tub under the stars one night too.

And then it was time to disembark. Going through customs was easier than I thought it would be. I’m happy they didn’t take my Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee I picked up for a good price!!

We had a couple of hours to before we could check in. We actually were able to check in to our hotel WAY before the time posted because the people before us had checked out. So while we waited, we cruised down to South Beach and saw some fancy places down there. Hubby enjoyed seeing the cars some people drove!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at a place called Lime Fresh…which I hope expands some day! It was delicious and you could eat very healthy!

We had an entire day to spend in Sunny Isles Beach…which was a lot closer to a nude beach than we anticipated. We went for a little walk and found ourselves staring straight at a naked man—with no shame! lol We quickly turned back around!

I booked one of the least expensive beach front hotels I could find for that day. It was laughable really. It was an old, one story motel right next to the Trump hotels…SO funny to look at from the beach.

Why yes, that hut you see to the left IS our hotel. And you can’t even see the top of the Trump hotel to the right. lol. I think our hotel was shorter than the palm trees. hehe. But it worked for us. I would have loved to have stayed at a Trump Suite, which were listed for $1000 a night!

But it was the perfect end to our beach vacation.

I picked up this bag in Key West. So cute!

We enjoyed the beautiful beach all day and a warm, heated pool at night!

We also spent some time looking at the stars on the beach at night. How romantic!

The next morning we had a couple of hours before heading to the airport to fly home. Hubby got so tired of me taking pictures. lol “But we’re on VACATION”, I’d say! And he’s just so darn cute.

The Miami airport was a mess. It was frustrating and I was angry. And then I forgot that I had packed some delicious (and low calorie) salad dressing, I picked up at the Key Lime Pie store in Key West, in Hubby’s carry on. And at that point it was too late. Into the garbage it went. Since you cannot bring liquids on the plane. I said, “What I am I going to do with salad dressing?” But the TSA agent didn’t respond to my question. lol.

And then we had the big plane debacle, which you can read about here. So after a flight from Chicago that was diverted to Omaha, NE for a few hours—we ended up back in Chicago. But did get a distressed rate at a FABULOUS hotel. The nicest I’ve ever stayed in. Funny thing was, we paid less for this hotel than the cheap and disgusting beach front one!!

The most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. I wish I could have packed it into my carry on—but TSA probably would have had a problem with that. And Um, I want a sink like this one at home!!

So we arrived home a day late to a ~~beautiful and sunny~~ gray and icy Iowa day. We went from this:

(I don’t know who the woman in this photo is…but she was in the perfect beach scene with that boat in the background. I also do now know whose feet those are to the right. lol)

To this:

Brrrrr!!! I am also reminded that I should have taken my sunglasses off once in a while and then I wouldn't have that hideous white line across my nose! lol

But a fantastic vacation. Loved every minute of it. Even the diverted plane experience was a new experience for us and will give us stories for the days to come!

We came home with awesome golden tans to show for it!

Can’t wait for our next vacation!! This really made BOTH of us want to see the world. Hubby suggested Australia next!

We will see!!

I hope you enjoyed the condensed version of our 2012 Carnival Cruise!

Home Safe and Sound

2012-01-23T17:05:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone!! It has been quite the journey…but we are finally home safe and sound…one day late!

We flew out of Miami yesterday morning to Chicago. We were supposed to fly from Chicago to Cedar Rapids, IA…we boarded the plane and took off. The pilot tried to land 3 times before diverting to Omaha, NE. We spent a few hours at that airport before being told we were going back to Chicago. All flights to Cedar Rapids were canceled for the rest of the day! So we got a few hours of rest in Chicago and flew out this morning…thankfully we landed in Cedar Rapids this time!! I guess by stopping in Nebraska, we added another location to our vacation. lol

And we arrived to icy roads and lots of snow. So nice of Iowa to welcome us home in such a cold hearted way. We headed home and went back to bed. We’re feeling much more refreshed now!

But we enjoyed our vacation VERY much!! I will be posting about it tomorrow!!

I hope you are all doing well!

Zipfizz Review and Giveaway

2012-01-22T17:00:00.000-06:00

Zipfizz sent me their product to review. I am not a fan of energy drinks, but hubby is—so I agreed to do a review with him in mind.

I hate it when he drinks energy drinks because of how unhealthy they are. They are full of empty calories. He has actually limited his intake of them because of all of the calories.

So when I read about Zipfizz, I was very intrigued because they are only 10 calories each, have no sugar, and are supposed to provide energy for 4 to 6 hours.

The powder comes in cute little tubes:

You just add water and shake it up. But be careful because it really does have fizz! I used the bottle they sent me, shook it up, and the top popped off!

So what are some of the key benefits?

Zipfizz comes in five flavors, including: Grape, Orange Soda, Pink Lemonade, Berry, Citrus, and also the limited edition Creamsicle.

So Zipfizz is obviously a healthier alternative to many sports and energy drinks, but does it taste good?

I don’t like the taste of regular energy drinks. I don’t like the after taste, especially. With that in mind, maybe I’m not the best person to do this review!

Enter Hubby—who DOES love energy drinks. He thought they tasted great.

I wasn’t a fan of the Creamsicle—something about it reminded me of those cold medicine tablets you drop in water and they fizz.

But I LOVED the Grape flavor. So delicious. I would definitely drink that as an energy drink—especially for only 10 calories and since they only have 2g of carbs and no sugar—they’re 0 points! Now that’s nice!

Where can you buy Zipfizz?

They are located in the health and fitness aisle at the following locations:

Zipfizz has also offered to send two winners the Zipfizz Sampler Pack: a BPA free water bottle with all 5 flavors inside! Which is just what I received.

How can you win? Please leave a separate comment for each entry:

Be a follower of this blog.
Follow Zipfizz on Twitter.
Follow A Journey to Thin on Twitter.
Tweet about the giveaway mentioning @ZipfizzCorp and @AJourneyToThin with a link to this post.
Like Zipfizz on Facebook. And also receive a coupon!
Friend A Journey To Thin on Facebook.
Post about this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this post.
Blog about this giveaway.
Tell me what time of day you need extra energy.

Giveaway will end Sunday January 29th and the winner will be picked via a random number generator. The winner will have 1 week to respond or will forfeit their winning and someone else will be chosen.

The Year of the 10K

2012-01-21T17:00:00.000-06:00

I’ve mentioned it a few times, but I want to make it official.

I want to run a 10K.

And 2012 is the year I am going to start working on it. I’ve implemented Jeff Galloway’s 10K training program.

When I set my sights on a running a 5K, way back when, I followed the Couch to 5K training plan. I spent a LONG, LONG time on this plan. I would repeat weeks over and over again until I felt like I had progressed enough to go on to the next week.

It took determination. I literally could not run for 20 seconds when I first started. And now, I can run for at least 45 minutes. Probably longer.

And that’s what I’m setting out to do!

I may be a slow runner, but I AM A RUNNER!

And even if I have to repeat weeks on this program and it takes me a long time to train for this 10K—it doesn’t matter! I’m going to do it anyways.

2012 will be the year that I conquer a 10K…whether I actually finish a 10K or at least train my body to improve beyond the maximum 3.1 miles that I can run. I’ve never run more than that. But I will!

What fitness goals are you setting for yourself in 2012?

Guest Post by Cassie: New Motivation

2012-01-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

I am pretty sure that most of you read Alissa blog because like me, you find her to be of an inspiration. Her daily (honest) post about how she is feeling, what she ate, exercise routine and struggles are all easily relatable to me. When she asked for guest post I immediately volunteered. I am hoping by posting my story here I can maybe help someone else that is having the same struggles as I am and maybe even in the process of losing my weight I can gain support from my fellow bloggers!

I have always been curvy. I am almost 5'9 so a few curves never bothered me. I was 150ish in high school and OK with my body. I hit college and slowly started creeping up the scale. I hit 200lbs the year I turned 21. It has been a slow and steady increase each year.

2 years ago I decided I had enough. I started Weight Watchers (WW) through my work and started the Couch to 5k. I started losing weight pretty quickly and got down to 220ish (I was 275ish). I was really proud of my self (you can read about some of these trails and accomplishments http://cassie1984.blogspot.com/ - quick story if you aren't familiar with my blog I had to switch my blog address when my Gmail got hacked and I couldn't get back into it so I have my old blog http://cassie1984.blogspot.com/and my current blog http://cassiechole.blogspot.com/ ) I was looking good and feeling better.

Then in August of 2010 my life changed for the better. I met my better half and my future husband. Suddenly my desire to run and eat healthier was over come with the desire for fun date nights and cuddling on the couch. I lost all motivation to take care of myself and let myself enjoy being head over heels.

Now, I don't regret enjoying any moment with Justin and loving him with all my heart. I do, however, regret not eating better and taking time to run and swim.

On January 2, 2012, Justin asked me to be his wife. My heart is full and I couldn't be happier. Except for one little thing. Well a big thing...my weight. I am at a whopping 278. We have sat a date - August 4, 2012. That's pretty close and I have decided to really use this as motivation.
Last night I joined WW online (If you use it let me know so we can be WW buddies!) - Today is my first actual day on the plan and I know I can do this. I know there will be struggles and times I crash. But my eyes are on the prize - I want to look and feel great on our special day.

One thing I have learned on this weight journey is my feelings, goals and struggles aren't unique. There is always someone out there that is going through the same thing I am. I appreciate you reading my guest post and hope that you are feeling great. If you are trying to lose, have lost or just here to read an inspirational story I hope that you are doing it the healthy weigh and enjoying every minute of your story!

I hope you come visit me at http://cassiechole.blogspot.com/ - if you stop by let me know your story!

Guest Post by Amy: Not Just Numbers

2012-01-19T17:00:00.000-06:00

Hello! My name is Amy and I am the author of the blog Triple12. I graduated from college last May at my highest weight ever. Annoyed and slightly ashamed, I decided to lose some weight. Towards the end of December, I started to look at the (very little) progress I had made and decided that I needed a more exact plan. But I didn't just want to become healthier. There were quite a few things I wanted to change. So I created Triple12. I have 12 life goals that I would like to reach in the 12 months of 2012 (12-12-12). Each month, I have one main goal to focus on. Each week, I have a small achievement that I must accomplish. These achievements can be anything from workout 5 times a week to read the actual paper newspaper cover to cover twice in the week, etc. With each week, I not only attempt to create a new good habit, but I continue with the previous achievements. And ideally, as the weeks add up, I create the habits that make my goal possible.

But enough about me. Let's talk about this blog post.

We are a society ruled by numbers.

We focus a lot on the numbers on the scale, count down the days until vacation or the weekend, count how much money we have (or wished we had), spend hours standing in line for everything and anything.

It's a wonder we haven't turned into gigantic numbers.

via

Don't get me wrong. This isn't a completely horrible thing. Without focusing on numbers everyone would be late to work and my blog would not exist (or, at least, it wouldn't have such a wonderfully creative name).

The problem is when certain numbers, like the ones on the scale, start to define us.

I'm not immune to this either. In fact, I've started to realize that I have been weighing myself several times... a day. I've become so obsessed with the number on the scale that I'm hopping on to check to see how much my dinner will cost me. Or how much I weigh right before I go to bed.

It's ridiculous. I know it's ridiculous. So why do I keep doing it?

Because I want to lose weight. And I think I've tricked myself into thinking that one time, if I step on the scale at some other time than first thing in the morning, I will see a dramatic change.

But I won't. And every time I jump on that scale and don't see anything out of the ordinary, I feel bad. Clearly I'm not working out enough. Or maybe I should have skipped that candy bar at lunch. I start to think about all the things I've done wrong.

It makes me feel bad.

And I don't like feeling bad (who does?).

I need to start focusing on other things, or at least, other numbers. For example, I just finished my first spinning class in over 4 years. Not only did a I get a fantastic workout, but I also pushed myself the entire time.

And then there was the time when a coworker came to my desk and said, "Amy, you look great! I can tell you've lost weight."

Or how when I went to Disney World to visit my sister last month, I had no problem walking around for 12 hours a day. Okay, my feet did hurt and I had to relax towards the end of the day, but still. That's a lot more standing and walking than I would have been able to do at my college graduation.
People call these non-scale victories. But I don't understand why we need to differentiate between the two. If I have a week with non-scale victories, but a scale defeat, do they cancel each other out? Is there some checks and balance system? No. There's not. In my mind, there shouldn't be two different types of events that cause mini happy dances. A victory, whether on the scale or not, is a victory and should be applauded.

Those are the things I should be focusing on. Those are the things we should all be focusing on.

Because we are so much more than a number on a scale.

We just need to remember that.

Love times 12,

Guest Post by Cortney: Try New Things

2012-01-18T17:00:00.000-06:00

Hi A Journey to Thin readers! My name is Cortney and I blog at Nerd on the Run. I am SOOOOO excited to be guest posting for Alissa today for at least two reasons. 1. This is my first guest post ever and I thank her for giving me the opportunity. 2. Today is my 28^th birthday!!!! From reading Alissa’s blog we are on the Journey to Thin with her, at least I am, but I wanted to share with you a little about EXERCISE.

If you go to my blog, you can see that I enjoy running and have also been on my own ‘Journey to Thin.’ I started back in 2009 with the idea that I wanted to be healthier and not like this anymore.

I started going to the gym more often than ~~never~~ I had been going. I started on the elliptical machine because I had partially torn an ACL in my right knee in high school and was always afraid that running would hurt it. I worked up enough that I felt comfortable on the elliptical and could go pretty fast for about an hour. I got up the nerve to try out the treadmill. At first, I was very afraid that I was going to be whipped off the thing.

source

I gradually worked my way on the treadmill by increasing time and speed, very gradually. I got up the gumption to sign up for a March 5K race on campus and was bit by the outdoor running bug. I spent most of that summer running around my college town and all of the trails that are in the area.

My first Half Marathon in Akron, OH 9-26-11

While I enjoyed running outside, I wanted to work on other areas of my body and signed up for some classes that the Rec Center offered. I signed up for BOSU Abs Blast (Tues./ Thurs.) and a Sunday BOSU Core class. I learned that I really enjoyed these classes and found that they helped with my running also.

Most recently, I have tried TRX and Gravity Pilates classes. Starting this week, I will be doing my BOSU Abs Blast (Tues./Thurs.) and a new to me class, Tabata Core on Saturday mornings. I’m super excited to try this class and see what Tabata training is all about.

I think my take away message of this post is to work slowly to improve your fitness to try and avoid injuries and always be willing to try something new. I am by no means an expert in the field. These are just what I have learned from my experiences. TRX is very hard for me and I hate doing it when I’m there but I always feel like $1 million when I’m done.

I’d like to thank Alissa for this opportunity to guest post on her blog and wish all of her readers a healthy and happy Journey to Thin!

What classes have you tried? Did you like all of them or learned what you do and don’t like?

Guest Post by Angie: Food, Health and Running

2012-01-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

I am "the sister". Alissa asked me to write a guest post a while ago, probably over a month ago. I am now sitting down to write this, on the day she requested I have it to her.

Take a step back. I am a 31 year old mother of three small children, five and under. Now, I think that makes the above statement seem less lazy. Makes me feel better anyway!

My post is going to be about a number of things. Alissa's blog is about living a healthy and active life. I am all about that. Not to say I don't enjoy being lazy and eating unhealthy foods though!
Life is so much about food. Food is social. Food is comforting. Food is necessary. Food is exciting. So we will have to deal with food, ALL THE TIME. We must learn to control, (most of the time). There will be failures. No one is perfect. No one.

Lets start with food, since that's what track I'm on at the moment. I love food. My sister and I were raised by a mother who knows how to cook. We have always loved to eat. All six of us. I was blessed with a super metabolism I suppose. I could eat whatever, whenever without batting an eye. I never worried about what types of foods I was consuming. Looks good, eat it! I'm not even really sure I can pinpoint the point in my life when I did start thinking more about portions and WHAT'S actually IN that? I can say, when I became pregnant with my first child, I definitely became more aware. I didn't want to A.) eat anything that would be harmful to baby and B.) gain any more weight than was necessary. I did however, use the "eating for two" excuse a number of times when I deemed it ok. :) With each pregnancy I think I became more and more concerned about being healthy.

Since then and even more recently food has come under a closer examination in our house. My husband and I both had physicals. We are both "healthy" looking individuals. Neither one ever having weight issues or previous health conditions. I had my physical and full blood work up first. My results came back picture perfect. I do not say that to brag, just repeating the doctors praises. I was happy to hear so I convinced hubby to do the same. He does not like doctors. He was very hesitant to go but did, none-the-less.

His results came back with entirely different reviews. He had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and needed to drop 20 lbs. ASAP. The weight he was ok with. He knew he was slightly over-weight. The blood pressure and cholesterol where shockers. The cholesterol especially. The doctor wanted him on medications right away. Informed him in the next 10 years, his likelihood of having a stroke or heart attack was 10%. Might not seem that bad, I'm sure there are FAR worse conditions - with which I tried to comfort him with. But, at 35, you don't even want to THINK of a stroke or heart attack! We decided together that we would not be hasty to start medications. This was, much to the doctors dismay.

The day after his doctor appoint of doom, I went to the local library and checked out a number of books on the subject. Through research in those books and the web, we found many herbal supplements which help fight high numbers. Over the next six weeks, we were able to drop his cholesterol significantly through diet and exercise. In speaking to a friend who is a friend of one of the highest esteemed heart surgeons in the country, he stated that exercise has the most influence in lowering cholesterol naturally. I believe that. Hubby has since become a runner. He runs at least 4 days a week from 2-3 miles each run. We have highly altered our eating habits. We have exchanged white flour for wheat. We use less butter and oils. We lower our sugar intake in baked goods, cereals, breads and drinks. We buy low fat cheeses. We eat chicken, turkey and fish. The red meat was hard for hubby to give up. Especially when Culver's sends coupons for their double bacon cheese FAT burgers! Those DO look good.

I am very proud of my husband. He really worked hard to change his habits and add mostly-daily exercise in to his week. He did lose the 20 lbs and brought those numbers down to a much more manageable figure. He has another blood test in a few weeks and we will see if things are the same or possibly better.

I am not against medications. I have never had any issues with taking them. But I do now see, sometimes there are alternatives and they are attainable to the general public. Thanks for research done by doctors and scientists and the books and articles they have written, my husband is healthier. (As am I and our children!)

The other subject I wanted to touch on was running. I am a runner. I love to run. I started running when I was probably thirteen. I have a cousin with which I would spend a week with over summer break. She was older and far more mature than I so I looked up to her. She began running when I was thirteen. I have run ever since!

I ran my first 5K when I was twenty-one. A friend told me about a race in their town, which was local to me. I thought, sure! Why not? I had never participated in sports growing up. I really didn't even know what to expect! But let me tell you. I was hooked from that race on. I have since run that race nearly every year. The only reasons I have not were because I was either pregnant or had just had a baby. :)

I love races. They are so motivational. You have this group of people gathered of all levels of fitness. Everyone is so excited to be there. Its amazing.

Since that first 5K, I have run many other 5K's, a 10K, a half-marathon and two full marathons. I think sometimes of all those in my life that I have inspired to run. It really is inspirational. And all this begins with my mature older cousin who taught me.

I want to pass this passion on to my children. Already my kids love going to races and running (rather sitting in the jogger) with me around our neighborhood. I love that my husband runs now too. We are able to run as a family which, had always been one of my dreams. :) Running is an addiction, but a good one.

I have plans to run my third marathon this year. I ran my first two before having children. I am excited about the idea of running one now with my little cheerleaders on the sideline!

So, the moral of my post is - think before you eat, research before you medicate and get some running shoes man!

Guest Post by Betta: Setting a Healthy Example for Kids and How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy

2012-01-16T17:00:00.000-06:00

Betta is my sister in law and has some great advice to give on healthy living and kids!
I would like to begin by saying how incredibly proud I am of Alissa for how far she has come on this journey to a healthier lifestyle. The changes that she has made in her life are both amazing and inspiring. It has been wonderful to see her transform over the last couple years and I know that through hard work and determination she will reach her goal. Keep up the great work Alissa.

Now I would like to tell you a little about myself. I am a wife and a mommy to 3 wonderful boys: Conner (who is 5), Ethan (2) and baby Christopher (who is 9 months old). Needless to say these 3 little munchkins keep me busy and running all day. I am not an expert on healthy eating but I like to believe that we do live a healthy lifestyle. My kids have certainly taught me a lot over the last few years especially at the dinner table. Before I had kids I always said "MY kids will eat whatever I put in front of them and they will NEVER complain." If you are a parent you understand how silly that expectation is.

As I watched my oldest son struggle day after day at the dinner table I did research, I read just about every article and I worried and stressed at every meal. I have learned to follow a few simple rules when it comes to feeding my family that I would like to share with you.

1. Have regular family meals.
2. Serve a variety of healthy foods and snacks.
3. Be a role model by eating healthy and exercising yourself.
4. Avoid battles over food.
5. Involve kids in the process of making the food.

I consider myself very lucky to be able to stay home with my kids and though we have had to make some sacrifices to make that possible, being able to be present as my kids grow up makes it all worth it. When I was little my mom was also a stay at home mom but living on a farm she was always busy and family meals usually only happened on the weekends; my mom usually ate standing up. Even to this day I remember how I would have loved for my mom to sit down and talk to us. It seems that sometimes mealtime is the only time we have to really enjoy each others company as a family. Even though the busy schedules of today do not always make mealtime together easy to achieve, I do my best to make sure that we all have at least one meal a day together. Family meals do offer a chance to introduce new foods to your kids, but they offer many benefits beyond nutrition as well. My kids are little, so lately at lunch time we have begun to play little games. For example I might ask them what animals live at the farm and what animals live in the jungle and they have a lot of fun coming up with answers. Then, when their Dad comes home and we can all be at the dinner table together we all talk about our day and the kids have fun recounting the many animals they talked about at lunchtime (usually without any kind of context for Dad which makes the conversation interesting! :) These things make us look forward to sitting down together as a family.

For the longest time my kids would only eat chicken nuggets and pasta and would never try anything else. I tried many things and none of them worked and then, finally, I gave up..... yup that's right, I said eat, or don't eat... I can't battle at every meal. Believe it or not, that's when I saw the changes happen. Eventually they get hungry and they will eat what you put in front of them but being consistent is key. I offer different things at every meal and my kids do have to try it, but if they do not like it they do not have to eat it all. Slowly, this has started to expand their food palate which led to something amazing happening just last week. We were busy and I did not have much time to spend in the kitchen so I asked the kids if chicken nuggets were ok. Chicken nuggets have long been the food of choice if I allow them to pick what they eat, but this time they replied with a "NO." You can imagine my surprise.

One of my favorite things to make is soup, mainly, because you can hide many things that little ones don't like on their own in them. I can throw in grains like lentils, barley or brown rice, chicken or turkey and any vegetable at all and my kids will eat without question. Soup is also easy and quick and can easily be prepared ahead of time. We do not keep many snacks in the house and if my kids are hungry in between meals we usually have a yogurt, fruit or vegetables. Also, we do not buy juice much as that is one thing we gave up a long time ago. While it's alright once in a while, it's packed with calories and I found that when my kids drank juice they did not want to eat as much. I would rather they eat something with nutritional value rather than drinking empty calories so I use Milk and water as great alternatives.

Being a role model is one of the easiest ways to encourage healthy living but the seems to be the one thing I struggle with the most. Being a stay at home mom can be a bit frustrating and chocolate is my sweet release. I'm known to hide in the bathroom with a piece of chocolate and the doors locked while flushing the toilet to muffle out any sound. Kids are like little sponges they absorb everything from the people that they are around, so making the right choices yourself can help them choose wisely later in life. I have a terrible sweet tooth and it just feels wrong somehow to have something sweet myself and refuse to let my kids enjoy it too. I love to bake and there is always something sweet on our kitchen counter so it's a constant battle for me to walk by and not have a taste. On some level I think that we should all be able to enjoy life and eat the things we love. My husband and I love food and our life revolves around situations where there is rich, yummy, delicious food and in moderation that is ok, but it is when you overindulge that it becomes a problem. I love that our little family is active. We have jogging strollers and all of us go for runs together and we participate in races not only for ourselves but to show our kids that being healthy and active is important.

It's easy for food to become a source of conflict. Sometimes I find myself bargaining or bribing my kids so they eat the healthy food in front of them. A better strategy is to give kids some control, but to also limit the kind of foods available at home and provide healthy options at meal time and also for snacks. Don't force the kids to clear their plate as that teaches them to ignore signs of fullness and remember, little tummies don't need that much food.
Last but not least get your kids involved in the whole food and meal process. From shopping to preparing and serving, I always find that it is easier to just do it myself but getting the kids involved in the process can teach them about making the right food choices, learn about the things that they are eating, and while often extremely messy, can definitely be a fun activity to do together. When cooking in the kitchen together, select age-appropriate tasks so kids can play a part. The most important reason behind why kids should be involved at mealtime is that it can help prepare them to make good decisions on their own about the foods they want to eat which will serve them well as they grow. No, they wont suddenly want a salad instead of french fries, but the mealtime habits you help create now CAN lead to a lifetime of healthier choices.
I hope that my experience can be a help to others and remember, have fun, get messy and enjoy!

2011 Training Report

2012-01-15T17:00:00.000-06:00

I log most of my workouts on Daily Mile. It’s a great way for me track my workouts and there’s something rewarding about entering in the workout stats after my workout. I encourage you to check out the site! You will love it.

They sent me my year end report for workouts and it was fun to look at it and see how I did.
Here are my stats:

Workouts: 226
Lbs. Burned: 17
Distance: 406 mi.
Per Week: 7 mi.

That’s a lot of workouts! I am sure there are many people out there who performed MUCH better than me, but looking at my stats, I am proud of what I DID accomplish! That means, on average, I worked out most days of the year. And 406 miles is a long way!

The chart also shows how many miles I accomplished each month, which was interesting.

It looks like May was my best month! I also worked out the most during the summer months. I guess when the weather is nice, it’s easier to get out there and be active! Which is probably why I traveled so many miles in May—finally spring time!!

My goal this year is to go farther than last year! I know I can do it!

Be as You Are

2012-01-14T17:00:00.000-06:00

I can’t tell you how many years I have listened to this song and dreamed of sitting on the Caribbean beaches. Many a winter, in my imagination, I felt the sand under my toes, the sun on my face, and the sound of the waves rolling in on the shore.

And finally… I can experience it for REAL.

And just be as I am with my best friend at my side!

Update

2012-01-13T17:33:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to update you all and let you know that FIL is fine. They think it was just anxiety. He has some existing HR issues so they’re just working on getting the right balance of medications. So all seems to be going well!

Today has been a super busy day with work, preparing for our vacation, and now another 2 hour drive to visit FIL—so no regular post today either!

But I do have some guest posts, my posts, and a giveaway scheduled throughout this next week. So stay tuned for those!

Have a great weekend!

Sorry!

2012-01-12T18:46:00.001-06:00

And here's to day 2 of not having my regular posts...what else is new lately? I hope you'll all stick with me here! I had one started today... but then we got news that during the transport of FIL to rehab, his heart rate sky rocketed and they were taking him back to the ER at the hospital. So we are on our way up there right now. Winter storms in IA right now but the roads are drivable. Hoping all will be okay...

Weigh in Day

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-06:00

This week I lost 4.9 lbs. I am happy with that loss!

It would be a lot more exciting if I wasn’t making up for lost time with the weight I gained—but that’s just the way it is and I can’t change what is already done.

I am still 7.2 lbs. above my lowest weight. But 4.9 lbs. is a good loss for a week!

I weighed in at 208.5 for a total lost to date of 79.5 lbs.

Slowly, but surely, I’m getting there!

Another Beautiful Day

2012-01-10T17:31:00.001-06:00

I had the opportunity to sleep in this morning and I tried to but I was wide awake. So instead, I got up early and cleaned our bedroom, did laundry and a few other tasks that needed doing.

For breakfast, I had a scrambled egg with turkey sausage crumbles, 1/2 serving of oatmeal with blueberries and skim milk for 7 points.

And then it was back to doing household chores. I want the house to be clean and looking good!

My friend asked me to work a half day for her today, so I did. While working, I sipped on coffee with Almond Joy creamer for 1 point.

I was pretty happy when I saw that stuff in the stores again! It’s my favorite!

On my break, I ate a banana for 0 points.

I had to eat lunch at my desk because I didn’t get a lunch break. I made a sandwich with FF turkey, FF cheese, turkey, tomato, lettuce and light miracle whip for 5 points.

I also ate some Trader Joe’s BBQ Popped Chips for 3 points.

It’s been so long since I’ve had those—LOVE them!

I finished it up with 2 Cuties clementines for 0 points.

They are just perfect this year. Like candy. Sweet and juicy!

I prepared ahead again and dressed in my workout clothes while working. Right after work, I headed out the door for a run. Another BEAUTIFUL, SUNNY and WARM January day in Iowa—so nice and SO different than normal! It was 54 degrees!

I planned today to be a 20-25 minute run day, but once I got out there I decided I would much rather run my 2 miles outside than on a treadmill. Plus, it’s much harder for me to run 2 miles straight on a treadmill than it is outside. On the 20/25 minute days—I’m ok doing run/walks on the treadmill if I want to. So instead, I ran my 2 miles! I completed the 2 miles in 24:14, which is a pretty good time for me! Overall, I did 2.76 miles in 39 minutes. That’s including a 3 minute warm up walk and a longer cool down walk home. I burned 419 calories.

I hope that’s not my last outdoor run (in Iowa) this winter…but we are looking at snow in the forecast tomorrow. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen!

I drank 2 cups of water when I got home and then I decided to try out ZipFizz, which I’ve been needing to review! I tried the Limited Edition Creamsicle flavor for 0 points.

Stay tuned next week for my review (and giveaway)!

I have all of my posts scheduled for our cruise week—thanks to those of you who wrote guest posts! There will be some good posts next week…as long as Blogger works correctly and my posts actually publish at the right times!

Hubby got home nice and early today—which was nice on this spring time feeling day!

We decided since we were both hungry that we’d eat an early supper. I made Perfect Roasted Potatoes (thank you to Staci for pointing out I never added this to my recipe page! It’s now there.), teriyaki chicken wing wraps made with high fiber tortillas, tomato and a little FF ranch for 7 points.

Delish!

I finished it up with a No Pudge! brownie for 2 points.

Amazingly, I still have 5 points left for the day. I’m not so sure what made today different than most days. I should have eaten more veggies though!

Tomorrow is WI day and I’m pretty sure I’ll at least have a loss! Fingers crossed!

A Good Day

2012-01-09T19:23:00.001-06:00

Another weekend away from home. Besides the cruise, I THINK this will be the last one. Yay! We think they will be moving FIL out of the hospital and into a rehabilitation center this week.

My eating wasn’t the best this weekend. I am still registering a loss for the week so far though, so that’s good!

I am going to follow the regular tracking method for a few days.

For breakfast this morning, I ate 1/3 cup of turkey sausage crumbles with a scrambled egg along with a piece of toast with PB and a sliced banana with a glass of skim milk for 7 points.

I love those Jimmy Dean turkey sausage crumbles. 1/3 cup is only 1 point!

After getting a few things done around the house, I did a quick Pilates workout. My muscles are sore and my lower back and hips are so tight. I did a Pilates Essentials workout for 20 minutes and burned 83 calories. I could feel that the tension in my lower back and hips released a bit—I needed that!

I’m so bad at stretching after a run or working out in general…I should probably start doing that before I hurt myself! Or at least try to get in more Pilates or Yoga.

I got in all of my workouts last week. Yesterday, I was not in the mood to workout. It was my cross training day. So I told myself 10 minutes would be better than nothing. So that’s what I did. I’m used to 5 workouts and 2 rest days a week—so this new 6 day workouts is a little tough for me! I get worn out. But I can do it, even if some of the workouts are a little less intense. Those are important too.

While working, I sipped on coffee with Almond Joy creamer for 1 point.

I was so hungry by my first break. I ate Healthy Pop popcorn for 4 points.

For lunch, I thought I had put teriyaki chicken wings in the oven on timed bake. I was pretty disappointed when I went into the kitchen and opened the beeping oven to find that I never put the chicken in. lol. So into the microwave they went! It didn’t ruin my delicious salad though.

I used the teriyaki chicken wings, lettuce, blueberries, feta, cashews and light raspberry vinaigrette for 9 points.

I have missed those salads! I don’t eat the teriyaki chicken on the SF plan because it’s not free, same with the cashews, feta and the vinaigrette. I might have to do so many days on each plan each week or something.

I finished it up with 2 clementines for 0 points.

On my last break, I ate a light honey walnut yogurt for 2 points.

I got off work a tad bit early, so I made some calls to prepare for the cruise and got a few things taken care of. So much to do!!

For supper, I made Annie’s Mac and Cheese with light hot dogs and green beans for 9 points.

Such a comfort meal. And so good.

I finished it up with a No Pudge! brownie for 2 points. How I have missed those!!

And I am right at my points target! YAY! I feel much more satisfied today.

Nothing planned for the evening except to relax!

A Fancy Dress NSV

2012-01-08T17:52:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I went shopping for a somewhat formal dress to wear for our formal dining night on the cruise. I’ve never worn a formal dress in my life, so I had fun looking for one!

I was even more psyched when the dress that looked best on me was a size 16. I could hardly believe it. Keep in mind that I was wearing about a 24 or 26 when I started this journey.

Unbelievable.

I sort of felt like I was right out of an episode of makeover week on the Biggest Loser. I looked in the mirror and thought…is that really me?

I can’t wait for that night. To get all glammed up in this super pretty size 16 dress and have a fancy schmancy evening with my handsome hubby.

Oh yeah, it’s a $150 dress that was on super duper clearance for only $40! SCORE!

I will post pictures once we get back, of course!

The Why

2012-01-07T17:00:00.000-06:00

I want to welcome any new readers to my blog. There are usually lots of people who make New Years Resolutions to lose weight, and way to go if you’re one of those! But remember that this is about lasting changes—not about losing weight as quick as you can. I have found one thing that has helped me successfully lose weight, despite the ups and downs of weight loss, is finding my WHY. Finding the real reason that you want to lose weight is what will help keep you motivated. And those reasons will change as you start and continue on this journey.
So I wanted to go through my list of my (current) WHYS to help remind myself WHY I want to lose weight and be healthy.

I want to be a Mom someday and the doctors recommended I don’t get pregnant until I do.
I want to lower my blood pressure so that I don’t have a stroke.
I want to be happy. Truly happy. Not depressed and feeling bad about myself.
I want to have self confidence.
I want to live an active lifestyle with my Husband.
I want to be able to be a good role model for our kids someday.
I want to be a runner—and I AM!
I want to run a marathon with my sister.
I want to complete a triathlon.
I want to be able to shop at fashionable stores and wear cute clothes—it’s getting better!!
Someday, I want to be able to help other people that are where I used to be and even where I am today. I don’t want children and teens to have to feel like I did. I want to help make exercise and healthy living fun. I want others to find their inner athlete.
I want to achieve what I am truly capable of. And that takes hard work and dedication. I don’t want to settle for what’s easiest.
I want to be confident enough that I can show the real me and not hide behind shyness.
I want to conquer emotional eating. I want to BE IN CONTROL OF ME.
I want to live a long, healthy life with my husband and our family someday.

What are your WHYS?

Still At It

2012-01-06T19:19:00.001-06:00

Finally Friday! This week has gone quickly—and it was actually a short week for me. And today would be my longest work day of the week—so it was kind of bitter sweet.

For breakfast, I made an egg sandwich with light bread, an egg, FF cheese, and FF ham. I also had a glass of skim milk and a banana.

A good, filling breakfast!

Today was my cross training day. I biked 8.3 miles in 30 minutes and burned 220 calories. This new bike really makes me sweat! I feel like I’m getting a really good workout on it.

I often get asked how I track my calories burned. I use a Polar F6 Heart Rate monitor. I highly recommend a heart rate monitor! I never work out without it.

For anyone interested, this is the training plan I’m following. The link takes you to a 5K and 10K training program by Jeff Galloway. I am following the 10K program. I’m doing the workouts on different days though. Whatever days work for me. So this is what my week 1 looks like:

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	off	run 20-25 min	walk or XT	2 miles	walk or XT	run 20-25 min	walk or XT

That means I have a run tomorrow and cross training on Sunday. And, the good news is, if we get to go on the cruise, I will be able to get my workouts in on the trip. Yay!

Which is another source of concern for me. Hubby and I have already decided that we are going to try to be as active as possible on this cruise to help offset any eating. We have active excursions booked. We plan on working out every single day. Any other tips or suggestions to keep from gaining a ton of weight on vacation, especially a cruise?

Another reminder to those of you who offered to do guest posts—please email me your post by this Saturday!! I’m still looking for guest posters too—so feel free to email me if you’re interested!

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF vanilla creamer.

On my first break, I ate 2 Cuties clementines.

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, FF cheese, a boiled egg and chicken topped with FF dressing.

I finished it up with a FF Archer Farms Caramel Apple yogurt. They have some fun flavors!

I also ate 2 squares of dark chocolate peppermint bark for 3 points.

On my last break, I ate an apple with PB for 3 points.

And I think I should just ban chocolate for a while because I can’t seem to handle myself with it lately. I’m all about eating everything in moderation…but this just isn’t working out right now. Eating the chocolate earlier in the day got me craving it. I ate some chocolate chips for 3 points.

Chocolate is my weakness when I am at my worst.

For supper, I made chili. Chili is one of those things that I never make the same twice. I look in the cupboard to see what I have and just throw things together. I wanted to make one that was totally Simply Filling foods and I succeeded! This one had crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, leftover northern beans and lentils, lean beef, and seasonings. And wouldn’t ya know hubby loved my throw together chili. Kind of funny because I could slave all day in the kitchen, follow a recipe and produce a mediocre meal. I had chili with FF Greek yogurt, FF cheese, (all free), crackers, and PB & J for 5 points.

And then I had a serving of ice cream for 4 points.

What a day. I’m just not happy with my eating today AT ALL. I pretty much lost it when I ate the peppermint bark. Thankfully, the chocolate is pretty much out of the house now. Just chocolate chips left that are supposed to be for baking only.

The good news is that I’m still within my points and I’ve been doing really well at working out so I have AP’s too. But tonight, I feel terrible. Bleh! I hate feeling like this! I just need to remember this next time I want to eat junk.

I have my run planned for tomorrow morning. That will make me feel better! I may have to switch to regular tracking tomorrow since I won’t be eating at home all weekend. I’m just aiming for a loss this week. Any loss at all would be good. But I better get it together a little more if I want that to happen!

But on a better note… I love this song.

Good Life

Spring Time in January

2012-01-05T18:23:00.001-06:00

Last night, I had a bit of an emotional break down. Poor hubby has to deal with me. Apparently, this birth control pill is now messing with my hormones. Because I only act that crazy and hysterical when my hormones are out of whack. When can life just settle down again? More good news on my FIL, he is eating and was moved out of ICU today.

I slept in this morning until 8 AM. I am glad that I could do that because I really needed it.

For breakfast, I had oatmeal with milled flax and a sliced banana along with an egg and skim milk.

Since my friend worked for me yesterday, I worked a couple of hours for her today on my day off. While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer.

I could handle only working 2 hours a day.

I planned ahead and dressed in my workout clothes before working. So once I was done working, I headed right outside for a run. OUTSIDE! On JANUARY 5th! I can hardly believe it myself. It was 50 degrees when I left and 54 degrees when I got home. I started out with my gloves, head band and long sleeves.

I ended up leaving my gloves at home and taking off my head band mid run. I also had my sleeves rolled up. It was that warm! It felt absolutely amazing. The sun was shining and it was just what I needed.

I ran 2.5 miles straight and walked to warm up and cool down for a total of 3.22 miles in 45:29. I burned 616 calories. Now that’s what I’m talking about! My goal today was to get my 2 mile run out of the way for the week, which was on the Jeff Galloway 10K plan. So the 2.5 miles was just me being an over achiever and the fact that it just felt so good. I would have loved to have run all day but my body was telling me to call it quits at about 2.5 miles…which is a much longer distance than I have run since Thanksgiving Day, I think.

When I got home, I ate my lunch. I made a salad with lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, FF cheese, tuna and light Miracle Whip.

I finished it up with a Lite Lemon yogurt.

I really like that Lemon yogurt. It’s kind of surprising to me.

And then I headed to Target to grab a few things that we needed and get a few groceries. Look what on sale!!

On my way home, I stopped at Starbucks and got a coffee with SF syrup and skim.

It was so nice just to drive today. I even had the sunroof open.

I wanted something that spoke of summer for supper. So we had grilled FF hotdogs on light bread (I always like my hot dogs with PB, onions and ketchup) along with potato salad and green beans for 7 points.

My goal today was no chocolate. And I met that goal. So I did have my one dessert of the day of blueberry cobbler and some ice cream for 10 points.

More points than I needed to use. But every day is getting a little better than the last. And it was delicious.

I actually switched my tracking over to the regular points tracking method just to see how I did today…and I still had 1 point left!! Looks like I am actually listening to my body and getting in the right amount of food. That’s so good to know! I thought after eating the hot dogs and cobbler that I screwed things up, but nope—I’m actually right on track!

We are going to have a night at home tonight! YAY!!!

An Epic Weight Gain and Moving On…Over and Over Again…

2012-01-04T15:41:00.001-06:00

As expected, I had a big gain this week. But even bigger than I thought I would have. I gained 6.5 lbs. this week, in addition to the weight I had gained over the past few weeks. So I am now up 12.1 lbs. from my lowest weight. Wow…A few weeks of craziness almost destroyed all of the work I did for the entire year. Isn’t that just insane? But I do know that this weight will come off very quickly as I start eating healthier and get back into my healthy living. It also doesn’t help that I apparently am going to have TOM more like TOE2W, every 2 weeks!? What the WHAT?! After not having it for years and now on this new pill I’m going to have it every 2 weeks? I won’t be staying on this pill for long if that’s the case!

This year, the scale is not the best indicator of my success over the past year. I know my clothing size has shrunk considerably, my fitness level has improved significantly, and overall, I have a healthier mindset.

While my eating choices weren’t all the best choices while spending so much time at the hospital and away from home lately, Hubby and I did take a moment to think about all of the things we did right. We ALWAYS took the stairs. The room is basically on the third level. We worked out at the hotel once. I walked back and forth from the hotel a few times. I tried to make healthy choices at the cafeteria and most of the time I did. I never ate fried food. It was the evenings that really screwed things up for me when everything just culminated and my stress levels got too high. So there were things that I did right.

I am looking at today as the first day. This is my starting point. Forget the weight regained. I can’t change what has been done but I can try to learn from it so it doesn’t happen again…although hopefully I don’t have many experiences like this one again. It’s moving on. Starting today.

For breakfast, I had 1/2 serving of oatmeal topped with milled flax, an egg, skim milk and a banana.

I got to try out my new bike today!

I absolutely LOVE it. It even reads my Polar HR monitor and brings that information up on the screen. It’s very comfortable. My old bike made my lower back hurt so bad but this one doesn’t at all. It’s actually not that old of a bike! My cousin has lost a TON of weight and he lost it on this bike. But now he’s a runner so he decided to get rid of it. It’s probably only a year old. I biked 7.9 miles in 30 minutes and burned 212 calories. Today was my cross train day for the Jeff Galloway 10K training plan.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF vanilla creamer.

I was stomach rumbling hungry by my break. I ate FF popcorn.

Popcorn is one of the most satisfying snacks to me.

For lunch, I had a salad with lettuce, tomato, a boiled egg, FF ham, mushrooms, FF cheese, and FF French.

I thought I could control myself and eat 2 squares of Peppermint Bark with Dark chocolate for 3 points.

And then I had what I could probably classify as a chocolate binge. I ate probably 10 dark chocolate kisses. 6 points.

Yeh didn’t need to do that. I’m going to blame it on TOE2W.

Must. Stay. Away. From. Chocolate.

Old habits die hard I guess.

Counting it and moving on. It felt good just to count the points and I felt less guilty about it. I didn’t feel like, “well, I’ve already screwed up today…I might as well just keep eating whatever I want!” Instead, I just kept on going. It begins with the next choice.

On my last break, I ate an orange.

My co-worker switched some hours around with me so I could get off work early today so hubby and I could make the 2 hour trip up to the hospital a little earlier. Thank you!!

I am going to pack sandwiches for our supper. A nice, healthy supper so we don’t have to eat out and spend more money!

As of this afternoon, my MIL said that he was doing well, in a good mood and had started therapy. Good signs!!! Fingers crossed it continues! I’m not sure if I should start getting excited about the cruise or not!?

HOPEFUL!

Some Normalcy

2012-01-03T18:20:00.001-06:00

Today is day 13 that my FIL has been in the hospital. Hubby and I have been up there the majority of the time, largely due to the holidays making it possible to have time off. But now it’s going to be much more difficult for us to make the 2 hour drive up to the hospital every day. We will get up there as much as we can and definitely spend our weekends up there. We want to be there but we have reality to face and bills need to be paid.

As far as his status, he is still on a ventilator and they planned on putting in a trach. but saw some improvement and they are still trying to wean him off the ventilator instead for now. But the trach. is not out of the picture all together and they may put it in in a few days. But he has been running a temperature and they will not take him off breathing support while he runs a temperature. It is so frustrating for him because he’s not as sedated now and he can’t talk but wants to tell us things so badly. Hubby and I work with him and after a lot of questions and patience we can sometimes figure out what he wants or what questions he has. He is too weak to lift his hand to point to letters on a dry erase board or to write. It’s tough to see. Good to see some signs of improvement though. We’ll hope things start heading in the right direction. It will be a very, very long road ahead.

Today was my day off and I wanted to spend it at home. It’s so good to be home. I stepped on the scale and have gained almost 10 lbs. from my lowest weight. Too much emotional eating. This week was really tough for a variety of reasons. There is so much sadness in a hospital. It has been stressful to say the least.

But I do have to say that I am hopeful. I am never going to gain all of my weight back. End of story. It will come off and I will get to a healthy weight. This experience has taught hubby and me just how important it is to be healthy. Hopefully there will be some normalcy very soon.

So I am taking today to try to just have a normal day. I’ve missed it so much!

I got to sleep in a lot later than hubby this morning. He had to go back to work. It felt good to sleep in our own bed!

I am going to follow the Simply Filling plan because that’s what I really want to do. Hopefully this will work out with all that is going on. I will try my best!

For breakfast, I had 1/2 serving of oatmeal with blueberries and milled flax along with an egg.

As you can imagine, we are pretty low on groceries! I missed my glass of milk this morning.

I drank a cup of coffee with FF vanilla creamer and chatted on the phone with my sister. So nice to have a normal conversation! I also got to talk to my Mom for a while later in the afternoon.

I spent the morning getting things done around the house. I had lots of laundry to do.

For lunch, I ate a sandwich made with light bread, FF lunch meat, FF cheese, lettuce, tomato and light Miracle Whip.

I also made a soup with leftover FF chicken broth, northern beans and chicken.

It was a very cold day today, so the soup tasted extra delicious. Can you believe we haven’t had a single snow fall yet this winter? It’s absolutely crazy! This past week it was 60 degrees outside! I’m loving it.

I finished up my lunch with an orange.

My body felt so much better after drinking lots of water and eating healthy foods again.

I spent some time looking into what charges we would incur in the event that we need to cancel our upcoming cruise. I contacted Carnival and Expedia and spoke with reps there so they could document that I checked into it. Thankfully, we purchased insurance and will be reimbursed 100% for our cruise! WHEW! Also, our hotels and rental car will be 100% reimbursement if canceled before the check in dates. We would only be charged $300 total to reschedule our flights and $98 for the insurance. A lot cheaper than if we hadn’t purchased the insurance. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will be drastic improvements in the next few days and that we won’t have to cancel this trip we’ve been looking forward to for months. But we wouldn’t feel right leaving if he’s still in ICU…

I did a little shopping online for the cruise. I got each of us some extra swimwear and a few other things. It should be here next week! Hopefully it all fits, if not, I should be able to return it in store at Old Navy.

In the afternoon, I ate an AE Dairy YoLite yogurt.

I was really battling those sweets cravings but I need to realize that there are healthier options than chocolate!

I am disappointed that my HBBC didn’t work out so well. I hate setting a goal for myself and failing miserably. It seems like everything happened in the past couple of months. I was sick, too many holidays and celebrations, and now the FIL ICU stuff going on. But exercise is so important, and while I may have tripped up. It’s time to keep on going. I did get in an elliptical workout this past weekend at the hotel. It was my first time on an elliptical and I LOVED IT! I also bought a new recumbent bike from my cousin, a real nice Schwinn one, that has been sitting in the garage since before Christmas when they delivered it…hopefully I can bring it inside tonight! I am also tentatively setting a plan for this year. It will be a multi-part plan. The first step of the plan is to follow Jeff Galloway’s 10K training program. He suggests walk/runs. So that’s what I will do!

I started my first day today. I ran/walked 1.5 miles in 20:18. The workout was supposed to be a 20-25 minute run. I included my warm up and cool down in that. I wanted to go longer but I was hurting today. Maybe next time! It was still a great workout and I burned 260 calories. Pretty good! It felt amazing too. I ran at 6 mph. for the most part, a couple 5.5 mph parts. So a nice pace for me!

After that, I ate a boiled egg for a snack.

For supper, I made a chicken and veggie stir fry over lentils along with baked squash. I also had a glass of skim milk.

Delish! And I finished it up with Bunny Tracks ice cream for 4 points.

Overall, I’d call this a good day! It was SO nice to have some normalcy! We are staying home tonight but will go back up to the hospital tomorrow, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for a regular post. Tomorrow is WI day though.

I hope all is well with all of you!

***UPDATE*** After writing this post, I got news that they removed the ventilator!! Hopefully there are no more complications and he can progress from here!

Happy New Year and Update

2012-01-01T11:25:00.001-06:00

Wishing you all a happy new year!

We are still at the hospital. They will be putting in a trach. Because they cannot wean him off the ventilator. It will be a long road. Hope things turn around soon.

Hospital Food and an Update

2011-12-29T10:09:00.001-06:00

I don’t have the time to do my normal food posts, but when I find a chance, I’m going to try to write about what I’ve been thinking about instead. It takes a lot less time to do that. Hopefully hubby’s Dad will start improving very soon! As of last night, he was about the same but had some pockets of fluid in the surgical area along with a temperature. He’s still on the ventilator. We are just waiting, waiting, and waiting—wondering when this will improve. Thank you for your continued thoughts.

In the past week, we have eaten a lot of hospital food. I find myself shocked when I visit the cafeteria in the hospital. While there are healthy options available, you really have to look for them. I would say there are more unhealthy options available than healthy ones. In a HOSPITAL, nonetheless. A place that should be top of the line when it comes to health and wellbeing.

For example, one day they served deep fried chicken wings. They serve pizza everyday. Lots, and lots of sweets. Pies, cheesecake, an ice cream sundae bar, candy, pudding parfaits made with candy and cakes, brownies, cookies, you name it. They have deep fried foods available everyday, like fried mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and even french fries. For breakfast options, they have sausage gravy over buttermilk biscuits, bacon, greasy sausage patties, donuts and plenty of pastries.

This doesn’t seem quite right to me. I’m sure there are plenty of people in that hospital being treated for obesity related diseases and here they are serving up the food that gets people to that place. It’s quite scary.

But there are plenty of healthy options. And I don’t know what kinds of foods hospital cafeterias served twenty years ago, but I’d like to hope they are improving and the healthy options available are a result of that. But I don’t know that. They have a salad bar with plenty of healthy options. You can make yourself a sandwich on a sandwich thin or bread along with some veggies. There are cheese sticks, low fat milk, and fruit cups in the coolers. They have boiled eggs and plain oatmeal on some days. Otherwise, they have those packs of oatmeal that are loaded with sugar. They have a yogurt bar that you can add, what looks like, frozen fruit to or granola. They also offer Well-Being meals that are less than 500 calories. I ate one of those last night and it really did seem like it was healthy. It was served with steamed veggies.

But honestly, the hospital cafeteria is just like walking in to any other restaurant these days. Healthy choices are available just about anywhere. It’s like walking in to McDonald’s (which by the way is also in the hospital—along with a Starbucks). You can either buy a salad and drink water or unsweetened iced tea, or you can buy a greasy burger, fries and a Coke. You just have to make the choice. Healthy options are available but those other options can be too tempting sometimes. But I have to say, I expect more out of our health systems. They should be models for healthy eating and well being.

I try my best to eat something that is healthy. I’ve eaten a grilled chicken sandwich, plain oatmeal and a boiled egg, soup and salad, and whole wheat pasta. I always try to pair my meal with at least a side salad. But the sweets are very tempting to me and I have to admit I have indulged in more than one throughout this past week.

It’s been a bit of a balancing act. I’m kind of seeing this as what it will be like when I reach goal. What habits have I formed? What knowledge have I gained that influences my eating decisions? I am happy to say that I would never buy fried chicken or a burger and fries. I am making better choices, even if I am still tempted by those sweets!

Weigh in Day

2011-12-28T15:33:00.001-06:00

This week, my weight basically stayed the same. Well, I lost .1, but that’s literally nothing at all. So I guess I can be happy that I haven’t gained with all of this craziness.

I try to make good choices when I am eating meals. I’ve eaten a lot of salads. But not everything I’ve eaten has been on plan. There has been a little stress eating, a little boredom eating when sitting at the hospital and just waiting. We have literally not eaten a lunch or supper at home for a week. We did get a few breakfasts at home though. Today has been the first day for me to eat lunch at home in a week.

But it’s just been a little crazy so I guess losing weight isn’t my top priority right now. Staying healthy and eating the right foods is. I’m still very conscious of that, although not perfect. Chocolate and I have become a little too friendly! But overall, I think I’m doing ok right now eating wise.

Healthy eating seems so trivial yet so important right now. Things like this will really scare you.

Things are not improving. We are worried. He is still on the ventilator and his BP and HR have been all over the place. We wish we could be up there all the time but we have jobs and we need the money—so we do what we can to get off work early and make the 2 hour drive to the hospital. Friends and family have been so supportive, so we know Hubby’s Mom usually has someone there with her…but know she needs to rest, too.

One of you asked what happened, and I might explain at a later date but don’t really want to be posting everything all over the internet, if you know what I mean!

But thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Update on FIL

2011-12-27T09:36:00.001-06:00

Life has been pretty crazy since last Thursday. We initially thought that the situation with hubby’s Dad was not serious so we left for my hometown, which is 4 hours away. We ended up making the trip back to Iowa on Friday. Hubby’s Dad had major surgery and had many problems. They have temporarily sewn him back up. They have been unable to wean him off of the ventilator since then. So far he is stable and sedated so he is resting and hopefully healing inside. His body cannot handle being off the ventilator yet. But that is the next step. There is a lot of fluid on his lungs yet. My Mother in law is worried, as anyone would be, but she is holding up well. The hospital is a couple of hours from where we live. We slept on the floor at the hospital Friday night but got a hotel room for Saturday night. We came back home to check on things Sunday night and slept at home, but went back up to spend Monday there. Hubby had to work today. I am just resting and getting things done at home. We will go back up tonight and back home again. We are glad for the family who has been supportive. We are keeping positive all will turn out well! Just wanted to update you all on what’s going on.

A Quick Update

2011-12-24T16:30:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to let you all know that hubby's Dad had major surgery yesterday and the past few days have been a whirlwind as will the next days. He is stable so that's good in that respect. Just wanted to let you all know as I will not be blogging for a few days.

Hope you have a happy and healthy holiday to you and yours!

Michelle Obama has a big butt…!? WHAT?!

2011-12-22T06:49:00.001-06:00

I don’t care what side of the political spectrum you’re on…but saying Michelle Obama has a big butt is out of line. According to this article from the Huffington Post, Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner was quoted saying, “She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself."

WHAT? Did I miss something!? THIS woman has a big butt?!

I don’t think so. Michelle Obama is gorgeous. I’d be very happy with her figure! I would LOVE to have her arms—you can tell she works hard for them. She is curvy and beautiful.

What really outrages me is Rush Limbaugh’s comment, “The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice...I'm trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you."

This is the biggest misconception with health and fitness. Health and fitness are not measured by how ‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue ready’ you are. It has to do with a healthy diet and consistent exercise. Just because a girl looks good in a swimsuit does not mean she is healthy. Why am I not surprised that men are making these statements? Women are expected to meet these impossible standards imposed upon them! Women come in all shapes and sizes. Being obese is another matter because it poses serious health risks. Michelle Obama is thin and trim. She should not have to be attacked on that level.

I commend Michelle Obama for what she has done to make America healthier and get kids more active. Growing a garden at the White House is a good example for all of us. America has serious issues with obesity and her work to combat it is commendable.

Michelle Obama, don’t listen to them! You are beautiful! Oh and by the way, how did you get those arms?!

(photo source)

Being Honest about WI and Guest Posts Needed

2011-12-21T18:55:00.001-06:00

My WI did not go well today. I gained 3.3 lbs.—added on to what I gained last week. I am up about 5.7 lbs. from my lowest weight. It’s no surprise to me. I saw it coming. Please understand that it’s very hard for me to come on here and admit that I have gained weight AGAIN, so please be kind with your judgments. I didn’t even want to post today. I tend to be hard enough on myself, I’m just putting it out here so I know I am being honest with myself and with you. Losing weight can be a winning battle and also a struggle sometimes. Just being real.

I am blaming it 60% on myself and 40% on TOM. Oh and can I also blame it on there being too many celebrations and delicious foods around? I normally keep sweet treats out of the house, but I’ve had to make things for social events, so here they are…and so I eat. I’ll be happy when the holidays are over. Normally our holidays are pretty low key, but it seems like it’s been one event after another this year. And today was the work Christmas party… a potluck was involved. But I made up for it by eating a healthy and delicious salad for supper.

Hubby and I have a plan to compete from after the holidays until the cruise. He wants to get rid of a few pounds too. It should be great motivation to not only get the weight I’ve gained off…but to get to ONEDERLAND! Which I will get to eventually…guaranteed.

I also had a great talk with my sister this afternoon and I told her how I felt. She reassured me that even thin people struggle during the holidays. She suggested to enjoy the foods but up my exercise and really put in the time and work in that area right now to try to make up for enjoying some of those foods I only get once a year. That made me feel better. So I’m going to try to work out over the weekend more than usual.

Are you struggling this holiday season? What is your game plan?

Also, I am looking for people to write guest posts during our time away! If you’re interested, please shoot me an email at AJourney2Thin@gmail.com. I have quite a few days that I need covered, so please don’t be shy! I will, of course, link back to your blog also!

Hosted a Christmas Dinner

2011-12-20T20:13:00.001-06:00

Today was my day off, but I decided I’d get up at 5 AM with hubby so I could get a lot done today. Crazy? Maybe.

For breakfast, I had oatmeal with milled flax and blueberries along with skim milk.

I spent some time trying to figure out what to buy for a couple of gifts I need to get…but I spent way too much time trying to find something and didn’t have any luck. I have been so busy with school, I kind of put off buying gifts until now!! And I’m really pressed for time now. While searching, I drank coffee with FF creamer.

And then I got to work. I had laundry and dishes to do. And then I got started on getting everything together for the holiday dinner that that we decided to host tonight, kind of at the last minute! Not a big deal because it was just hubby’s parents…but I still wanted everything to turn out well.

I baked peanut butter kiss cookies. I also got the dough made and in the fridge to chill for cut out cookies.

I may have eaten one…why is it so hard to control oneself when cooking? I should have chewed some gum!

And then I started the prep for supper. I was pretty tired out by this point, so I sat down for a few minutes to make a list of all of the things I needed to accomplish. I am all about lists and organizational tools, so I am LOVING my new iPad. I found this really cool app for making a to do list.

I also love it for cooking. Most of the time, I get recipes online and I don’t feel like wasting paper by printing them out, so I always have my laptop in the kitchen and it just takes up too much space. The iPad is PERFECT. I have an app for allrecipes.com, where I get a lot of my recipes, and I can just prop my iPad up and get to cooking! So handy!

I had the inner battle of should I or shouldn’t I work out today. And I won. I worked out. I did a run/walk for 30:33 and completed 2 miles. I am proud of myself. It’s so hard for me to run the entire time on the treadmill, but I find if I break it up into runs and walks, it really helps. I need to get over feeling guilty for not running the entire time. I can work on speed this way, so it’s actually a good thing! I burned 274 calories. Do any of you workout each day to achieve a certain calorie burn? How do you figure out how many calories you want to burn? I’ve been thinking about getting a Body Bug type device, to see if that would help motivate me to see the numbers of what I’m consuming vs. what I’m burning. Do any of you use something like that? Does it help motivate you?

For lunch, I ate a protein packed salad with lettuce, tomato, FF cheese, a boiled egg, chicken, and Canadian bacon. I topped it with FF ranch and FF Western dressing. So good!

After lunch, I made my cutout cookies. This was the first time in my life to make these as an adult and by myself! They’re a bit of a mess and apparently, I made neon pink Christmas cookies. lol. But they taste good.

That’s a lot of work though! I was tired out by the time I was done with that! But I had a lot left to do…

I feel like I spent all day preparing for supper tonight…and I pretty much did!

I made recipes that I saw on the Biggest Loser Thanksgiving special. It turned out delicious! I was able to sneak my pictures when everyone else was in the living room!

We had Herb-Orange turkey with roasted pear gravy.

I also made mashed beans with cauliflower and leeks—SO good! It was really funny because hubby’s parents are the “meat and potatoes” part and they had no clue these weren’t mashed potatoes until hubby said something!

And Spinach salad with pomegranate—this was supposed to have pears but I forgot! It was still beautiful though. I also made the vinaigrette that goes with this and OMW…so good.

And for dessert, we had the cookies that I worked so hard to make along with decaf coffee.

Supper was very healthy. All made with filling foods. Simply amazing! The cookies were the worst part about today, otherwise I think I did well!

A Better Day

2011-12-19T18:31:00.001-06:00

I hope that you had a good weekend! Mine started out on Friday night when my parents arrived and my sister came, with her youngest, as a surprise! I was really surprised to see her. Thanks so much to all of you for coming! We enjoyed dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. Saturday, I graduated. YAY!! Finally done! After that, Loren and I, my family, and hubby’s parents went out to eat at Hu Hot—it’s possible to eat really healthy there, BTW! For the rest of the day, hubby and I took it easy and relaxed. Sunday was the usual church meetings and planning for the week. It was a good weekend!

I am super excited because Hubby surprised me with an iPad for my graduation present. I have been researching iPads, Kindles, and Nooks and had decided to get a Kindle Fire, mainly because of the cost, but what I really wanted was an iPad! I was SOOO excited, which you can probably see in this picture! lol

What are your favorite Apps, for you iPad users?

The scale did not show me any love this morning, but that was totally expected. And wouldn’t you know that I had to have an unwelcome visitor in my life this morning also…which never helps my weight, if you know what I mean! And I am NOT happy. I NEVER got it on my old BC. Not only that, but I have acne like no other since switching BC pills. GRRR!

Moving on, I continued to struggle with eating the right foods and not continuing to allow myself to indulge. Didn’t go so well! But it’s something for me to work on. I want to learn to master the art of learning that it’s ok to indulge in celebrations, but getting right back to healthy eating afterwards. I always want to continue to indulge AFTER the celebrations.

So today, I’m back to SFT for the day. I know I won’t be able to do it all week, but I know that doing SFT will help me on the days when I am able to.

For breakfast, I ate an egg, 1 slice of Canadian bacon, 1/2 serving of oatmeal with blueberries, and a glass of skim milk.

I did the Wii Fit for 30 minutes. I just did random aerobic activities. It’s not a huge calorie burn, but I can feel it in my muscles and I broke a sweat. It was fun! I burned 160 calories—so it’s something anyways! It seems about an average calorie burn for an aerobic activity for me.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF vanilla creamer.

On my first break, I ate a banana and 2 clementines.

For lunch, I ate a salad with tuna, tomatoes and FF cheese.

I also ate an apple with PB for 3 points.

No snacks for the rest of the day.

For supper, I made baked chicken, lentils with apple cider vinegar, and green beans.

For dessert, I had FF lemon chiffon yogurt.

Overall, a pretty good day! Lots better than the past few, that’s for sure!

Celebrations and Food

2011-12-18T17:00:00.000-06:00

It has been a busy week! With finals, hubby’s birthday, holiday parties, and graduation—we’ve had a lot going on. It has been fun!

I gave myself permission to relax my eating a bit during all of the celebrations. I mean, who wants to be worrying about food instead of just enjoying the moments? I don’t feel like I did terribly, but I definitely wasn’t eating like I’m trying to lose weight either!

And then the inevitable thoughts of failure started to strike. “Ugh, I really blew it this time” or “I sure fell off the wagon” or “Well, I’ve eaten this terribly, I might as well have some cookies.” On and on. You know the drill.

But then I stopped myself.

I’ve been following this healthier lifestyle for about three years now. THREE YEARS! That’s an accomplishment. And granting myself permission to eat with my family and enjoy the moments, celebrate the things worth celebrating, is not failing. It is part of having a healthy relationship with food. Food is such a huge part of our social lives. It’s cultural and there are countless traditions involving food. Was the food the most important part of these celebrations? Absolutely not. But we all enjoyed a few delicious meals together, talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company.

So I had the revelation, but then came the next part. Not every day is a celebration. So it’s about getting back on track and not continuing to eat like I’m celebrating the next day or the next meal. And I’m struggling a bit with that. But I don’t like how I feel when I eat like I'm celebrating all of the time. My body is telling me, “Eat some vegetables!”, “Drink that water!”, “WORK OUT!”.

My body knows what it wants and needs. Now I just need to listen to it!

It has a struggle for me to come to terms with the fact that there will be no “falling off the wagon”. It’s not going to be a part of my vocabulary anymore. Enjoying food is not falling off the wagon. It is part of a healthy life. Some days I will be celebrating life’s achievements and deliciously rich foods might be a part of that. But those types of celebrations are few and far between. And they should be enjoyed and treasured. But more often, I will be celebrating health and life…EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Every day is a celebration of another day to live. And I’m going to live most days like I am celebrating good health and happiness by eating fresh and nutritious foods, drinking lots of water and working out. And then I'll be around to see those big, life celebrations and be there to celebrate them with my loved ones.

In the long run, life’s celebrations will be just little blips on the healthy living journey. What matters most is all of the days in between. It cannot be all or nothing. That never works. Finding the balance will ensure a happy and healthy lifestyle—guilt free.

Graduated!!

2011-12-17T19:40:00.001-06:00

I graduated today with my B.A. in English. I am SO excited to be done and to start the next chapter of my (our) life!

Holiday Décor and Last Final DONE!

2011-12-15T16:42:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to share a picture of hubby from his birthday last night. He was surprised with all of the decorating I did and I know it made him feel special. Mission accomplished!

So handsome! And why didn’t I think to close my messy cupboard in the background. Doh! lol

And now for a little honesty. Hubby got home very late last night. But I wanted to wait for him to eat supper because it was his birthday after all. I did really well at first. I had a couple of healthy, simply filling snacks like a clementine and FF lunch meat. And then I just got so hungry I started raiding the cupboards. The good news is that we don’t keep too many “snack” foods in the house. But I did find myself eating out of a Pirate’s Booty bag… And then I felt terrible. So I decided to change my tracking over to the counting points method and realized that I was doing better than I thought for the day. So I changed it to tracking for yesterday and plan to do the same today. I feel out of control. My weight is forever climbing. It’s not the Simply Filling plan that’s not working—it’s ME. And right now, I need a little more leeway in what I’m eating, especially with life’s celebrations as of late and those to come this week! I need to do something I’m comfortable with and I’ve been tracking points for years. I plan on doing Simply Filling again when my life calms down again, probably after Saturday! But this is how the new WW plan works, you can switch plans everyday if you want to. So I’m still on track! And I talked to the supportive people on the SFT message board on Facebook, and they all agreed that sometimes life requires you to count points instead, and that’s perfectly ok. Thanks to everyone on that board for being SO helpful!

I just don’t know why losing weight has to be such a struggle. Why is it so hard for me to just control myself?! I get so frustrated with myself sometimes.

And after eating supper so late last night, I wasn’t very hungry this morning. So I ate toast with PB and a sliced banana and a glass of 1% milk (I meant to buy skim yesterday and realized when I got home I bought 1% out of habit)—6 points.

And then it was time to get to studying. I had my only traditional test today, the rest were papers and essays to be done at home.

While studying, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer for 1 point.

I spent a couple of hours studying and creating study guides for myself. One thing about having an actual test is that it’s easy to get very anxious about it. I was stressing!

I ate a snack of 2 clementines and 1/2 serving of cinnamon almonds for 2 points.

I have to admit, it’s kind of nice to be able to eat almonds without using weekly points.

My pictures are a lot more fun when I have a tablecloth…lol.

It’s always nice to sell my books back at the end of the semester. Yay! Nice to have a little extra cash.

I was literally stomach growing hungry and I wasn’t about to be embarrassed about my stomach growling loudly in a silent room during my final. lol. So I picked up a cheese stick in the union for 2 points. It worked! No stomach growling.

My final went just fine. I feel like I at least got an A or a B. I was so excited when I was finally done!! That's it! NO MORE FINALS!!

I had to run a few errands. I picked up a McDonald’s SF FF Vanilla Cappuccino for 2 points. Thanks to my employer for the gift card for Christmas!

I picked up Subway for lunch. I haven’t had Subway in a long time. DELISH! Instead of chips, I was enticed by broccoli cheese soup. 12 points. It was a cold and windy day today and it hit the spot!

And then it was time to clean the house! My Mom, and possibly my Dad, are coming tomorrow night! YAY!! So excited.

The house is nice and festive!

I got these very cool “smart candles” at Younkers. I love candles, but in the past few years I just can’t burn them or I am coughing like crazy. But these are flameless and they flicker and everything. Very cool!

In the background, you can see the poem I made for hubby for our anniversary. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it on here. But I made a poem in the shape of a “K”, for our last name, and thought about our first 5 years together and there are a million words and phrases that describe our first give years, the things we did, etc. He really liked it!

My best friend in elementary school gave this to me in 6th grade—and I still have it!

Tonight, I am getting together with work friends for a little holiday party. I have 7 daily points and numerous weekly points left. It just so happens to be in the same town where my Grandpa is living in assisted living. So I’m going to stop by and see him. I bought him burnt peanuts, his favorite candy!

And I’m pretty excited because now I can just unwind and relax. Finals are over and graduation is coming up!! Oh, and I emailed the Grad School organizer to get some info…so we’ll see where I go after this!

Oh and I thought this was really cool. It was an ad in our local paper:

Thanks, FTC!

Happy 30th Birthday to Hubby!!

2011-12-14T17:29:00.001-06:00

I lost a little weight today, but I still had a gain of 2.4 lbs. this week. Not a good week!! Well actually, I should say the weekend wasn’t so great! The rest of it wasn’t that bad. And this week is full of celebrations too. I’ll try to focus on eating those power foods and saving my weekly points for the celebrations.

For breakfast, I had an egg sandwich on a light english muffin along with a banana.

I missed my usual glass of milk, but we were out!

Today was hubby’s 30th birthday. He opened a few of his gifts. I think he liked them all! I got him his very own pair of Zippearz ear buds…since he’s always stealing mine.

I didn’t feel like working on my finals…but I was so close to finishing a paper that is actually due tomorrow and I wanted to get it done today and turn it in early to get it off of my mind. So I brewed a cup of coffee and added FF creamer to get me through the work.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to finish up my paper and it was a big relief when I was done!

It was unusually warm today—with a high of 50 degrees! So I took advantage of it and went outside for a walk. I walked 1.67 miles in 30 minutes and burned 178 calories. It was very foggy today though! I took this picture on my phone on my walk and I love how it turned out. I love the way trees look against the sky when they don’t have any leaves. I don’t know why? lol It’s pretty.

For lunch, I ate a grilled cheese sandwich made with whole wheat bread, FF cheese and a few sprays of butter spray. of course I had to dip it in ketchup.

I also had a side salad with lettuce, chicken and tomatoes topped with FF Western dressing.

I finished it up with FF yogurt topped with milled flax seed.

I am really loving yogurt with milled flax seed. It gives it this delicious flavor.

And then it was off to run a few errands and drop off finals at school. The day went super quick for some reason.

I picked up a Skim milk to drink because I was really hungry.

I ate a square of Godiva Dark chocolate with raspberry for 1 point. I was shocked to see it was so low in points!

Hubby is going to be late again tonight. I did some decorating and am trying to make it special for his 30th birthday. He actually requested a healthy meal that we call Broccoli Slaw. It’s all power foods, so I should be good to go.

But I did pick up some cupcakes from the fabulous cupcakery to celebrate. Yummy!

Happy 30th birthday to my hubby!!

1 Hour Workout and My Eats

2011-12-13T19:37:00.001-06:00

Oof, my weight was still up about 4 lbs. this morning! Why is it that it takes SO long to lose weight, but you can have a weekend of less than stellar eating and it comes back on over night? It will come off eventually, I know…but tomorrow is WI day and I really don’t want to have a gain that big! Onward and forward though…

For breakfast this morning, I was craving oatmeal. So I had a serving of oatmeal with milled flax and a sliced banana along with a glass of skim milk.

And as usual, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and took care of household tasks before getting started on my finals work.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer.

A few hours later, I ate 2 clementines.

I was really hungry about 4 hours after breakfast, which is probably understandable. I guess I’m getting used to eating more protein for breakfast and my body missed it today. So I decided to just eat my “lunch” at 9:30 since I was genuinely hungry.

I ate 2 eggs/2 egg whites with mushrooms, tomatoes and lentils, which I topped with peach salsa, along with shredded potatoes.

It was delish!

I waited about an hour and still felt sort of hungry. I don’t know what was up with me today! Hungry, hungry, hungry! So I ate an apple with some PB for 3 points.

That seemed to satisfy and fill me up!

A while later, I sipped on Tisamo Cacao tea. You can read about this tea here.

I spent a good 7 hours working on one of my finals. I got the research out of the way and started writing the paper. I was about 1/3 done with the paper, but once I start writing, it really just flows out from there. But I was tired of working on it, so I took a break.

I was hungry again. Imagine that. But it was also a good 4 hours after I ate lunch... Hmmm 4 hours seems to be consistent here! I ate a 1/2 chicken salad sandwich.

I also had carrots.

I was trying to eat “real” foods today. Even though I was hungry, I decided I’d be better off eating the real thing than trying to eat snack foods. Mini meals vs. snacks.

I was feeling tired, and I had a lot to accomplish, so I decided to drink some more coffee with FF creamer.

And I got more work done on my paper…I now only have about 3 pages left to write! I spent a good 9 hours working on my paper today…

And then I decided to work out. I did 1/2 of a Tae Bo Cardio workout for 30 minutes and burned 171 calories.

After that, I hopped on the treadmill for a walk/run. I walked .25 and ran .25 for 2 miles in 30:17. I burned 314 calories.

That’s a total of 485 calories. Not too bad! I’m hoping I have more time and energy, now that I will be done with school, to work out and to get in longer workouts. It will depend on my schedule at work though as far as how long the workouts are. I’ll keep doing what I can though. But I know I had success when I was doubling my workouts earlier this year, even if they’re broken up into multiple sessions.

Hubby got home later than usual, so we had a late supper. I made fish tacos and also ended up having a few tortilla chips with guacamole. A few too many points that I probably shouldn’t have eaten…

So there ya have it! I’m glad tomorrow is the start of my new week. I feel that I ate really healthy foods today, for the most part! I just feel a little lost since I know I was already over my points from this past weekend.

Congrats to Sommer for winning the Cookies for Kids' Cancer spatula.

Tisano Chocolate Tea

2011-12-13T17:22:00.001-06:00

Yes, you read that right…chocolate tea. It’s real. You’re not dreaming.

I was sent a sample of Tisano chocolate tea to try out. I recently heard of the cacao tea and have been wanting to try it out but wasn’t sure where to find it. So I was pretty excited when I was sent a sample!

You can buy this loose leaf tea in tins. It’s $14.95 (plus shipping) for 4 oz. You can see these in the photo above. Here is the loose leaf tea that I got:

I had never experienced loose leaf tea before. So before I could drink the tea, I had to get one of these things:

It only cost me a couple of bucks, and as someone who loves tea, I will get use out of it.

It comes apart like this:

And you put your loose leaf tea in it:

I used 2 tsp. of the tea for the amount of tea that fits into my usual tea mug.

I was SO impressed with the flavor of this tea. It reminded me of hot chocolate, but obviously with a lot fewer calories! It had that “quality” chocolate taste. Like dark chocolate. Delicious and smooth. I really liked this! I bet it would be even more delicious with a little milk added in.

Some interesting facts about Tisano Chocolate tea:

Tisano's innovative patent pending process uses proprietary methods to select the delicate fibrous shell around the cacao bean, which carries many of the same antioxidant agents as the cacao bean plus the added benefit of magnesium and potassium as well as a high dose of Vitamin D, which the cacao bean does not have.
Containing over 300 compounds including tannins, catechins, polyphenols and other antioxidant agents and Theobromine (a naturally occurring stimulant), Tisano's Chocolate Tea is a healthy alternative to coffee and tea.

And what can it do for you"?

Boosts energy & stamina: Theobromine which is found in cocoa and chocolate provides a mild, long lasting boost with a mood improving effect to help you maintain energy, stamina, and vitality.
Immune system support: Antioxidants are free radical scavengers that help defend healthy cells, protect the body and support overall wellness.
Promotes a healthy heart: A daily dose of antioxidants has been shown to ward off free radicals that have been shown to contribute to various forms of cardiovascular disease.
Antidepressant: Theobromine naturally raises serotonin levels and increases feelings of well-being.
Fat and Calorie Free: A chocoholics dream come true, Tisano is a naturally fat and calorie free way to satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving.

And all of that with that delicious dark chocolate flavor. You have GOT to try this tea!!

Not Perfect

2011-12-12T18:32:00.001-06:00

It’s that time of year. Too many celebrations. I didn’t plan well enough this past week and ended up eating too much this weekend. I don’t feel like I OVER ate…just ate the wrong things and didn’t have the points left for them. I felt miserable last night and SO ready to get back on track.

For breakfast, I made an egg sandwich on a light English muffin along with skim milk and a banana.

I got hubby’s birthday presents wrapped, my present for the grab and steal exchange at work wrapped, and did some things around the house.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer. Hubby’s uncle is a coffee connoisseur. He gave us a couple of bags of coffee beans and I think it’s some of the best coffee I’ve ever had!

I was hungry on my first break, so I ate 1/2 cup of plain oatmeal.

For lunch, I ate a baked potato topped with FF cheese and broccoli.

I also had 2 Cuties Clementines. Perfect pocket fruit.

I finally found these for an affordable price—and they don’t disappoint! SO GOOD!

And then I had a bit of an affair with Russell Stover chocolates…Yeh…Hubby and I each received a box of these from his relatives for his birthday and my graduation…They are too good. And I will have to have hubby hide them…

I got off of work a little early today—which is always nice! I got more stuff done around the house and then sat down to work on my Finals. I finished one of my finals. YAY!! I REALLY LOVED getting that extra time off of work today.

For supper, I had chicken, lentils with apple cider vinegar, and FF cottage cheese.

I also had a side salad with lettuce, tomato, feta and FF Western for 1 point.

I found that FF dressings ARE a Simply Filling food. There seems to be some foods that are power foods and other foods you don’t have to count because they’re filling foods. It’s confusing.

I finished it all up with a Lite Blueberry Cheesecake yogurt. I added milled flax seed for a little extra flavor.

Well, today wasn’t perfect, but it was better than yesterday and that counts for something.

Winner Announced!

2011-12-11T12:27:00.001-06:00

Congratulations to Audrey for winning the Nasoya giveaway!

You have one week to respond and claim your prize or you forfeit the prize and I will choose someone else. Please email me your mailing information and I will forward it on to Nasoya!

Don’t forget to read about the Cookies For Kids’ Cancer Charity and enter to win a spatula!

@Cookies4Kids Charity for Pediatric Cancer Giveaway

2011-12-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

Today, I wanted to help spread the word about Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Cookies was founded by two OXO employees, Gretchen and Larry Witt, who were inspired by their son Liam’s battle with pediatric cancer. They were shocked to learn that the main reason over 25% of kids diagnosed with cancer do not survive is because of a lack of effective therapies. And the reason for the lack of effective therapies was simple: lack of funding.

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer was born to fill this void and to provide inspiration and support for individuals, communities, and businesses to help fight pediatric cancer through the concept of local bake sales. OXOnians showed their support by baking cookies and holding bake sales. Through these efforts, they raised over $150,000 to support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. This year, OXO will donate up to $100,000 to support research for new and improved therapies.

So what’s the picture of the spatula about? The purchase of every Limited Edition Cookie Spatula helps OXO support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer as 50% of the profits benefit pediatric cancer awareness, up to $100,000. To purchase, visit your nearest Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon.com, or check out the store locator to find a local retailer.

You can visit www.oxogoodcookies.com to send Virtual Cookies to help spread the word and find out how to host a Bake Sale or fundraising event for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. Until December 31st, OXO will match all proceeds from registered bake sales, up to $100,000.

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer

You can win a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer spatula, as shown above. How can you win? Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Send a virtual cookie. This is very easy and is done on Facebook for free. For every virtual cookie sent, OXO donates money.
Buy Cookies for Kids’ Cancer cookies to make a donation.
Make a donation.
Buy a spatula for yourself or a friend.
Follow Cookies for Kids’ Cancer on Twitter and tweet about the charity.
Like Cookies for Kids’ Cancer on Facebook and spread the word about the charity on Facebook.

Giveaway ends Monday December 12th and the winner will be chosen via a random number generator. Please leave a valid email address in the comments for me contact you. If the winner does not respond in 1 week, they forfeit the winning and a new winner will be chosen.
I was sent a free Cookie for Kids’ Cancer spatula for myself and one to send to the winner of this giveaway.

Last Day of Class

2011-12-08T18:09:00.001-06:00

Last night, I ended my post by saying I was planning on eating some Healthy Pop popcorn. Well guess what? I listened to my body and realized I wasn’t in the least bit hungry, but wanted something a little sweet. So instead, I had a little bit of SF Jell-O and that was it. No popcorn for me. That’s what I love about SF, I don’t feel the need to “use up” points because I’ll lose them if I don’t use them. I just eat when I’m hungry and don’t eat when I’m not. Who would have thought it would be so simple? Yet it’s so new to me, and probably would be to many of us who struggle with eating issues. But I call that a NSV.

For breakfast this morning, I ate a full serving of oatmeal with a sliced banana, a chicken sausage link, and a glass of skim milk.

I’m starting to look forward to a little bit of protein with my breakfast in the morning. I’ve found that as long as I eat the protein with something like oatmeal or toast, I’m good. I don’t wake up and think, “I can’t wait to eat eggs and bacon for breakfast”, but I do think, “Yum, an egg/sausage sounds good with a side of oatmeal.” For some reason, I have always craved carbs for breakfast. Maybe because I’ve always eaten cereal my entire life? But this is a small change that I am seeing big results from.

I had all of my homework completed, so it was time to continue working on my final projects. I have a 10 page research paper, a test (along with an essay I need to prepare for), and 4 essays that will equal about 10 pages worth. I was able to get some research done yesterday, so now it’s time to start reading everything. I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me! While doing that, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer.

After working for a while, I hopped on the treadmill for a workout. I ran 1 mile in 10:47 and walked the rest of 1.5 miles in 20:47 total. I burned 277 calories.

I watched the BL marathon last night. I am SO impressed by what they can do after such a short time. It was very inspiring to me to see them finish, even the old ones! I was a little annoyed at the ones who had serious joint problems that didn’t want to quit. Injuring yourself is not worth finishing, in my opinion. But I was glad to see the Dr. pull some people this year. Good idea. I liked how they showed how hard a marathon is. Some years, they make it look so easy! So that was my inspiration as I ran today. That and imagining running a marathon with my sister (who has run two) someday…are you game, Angie?

Oh, and I totally rocked out to this song on repeat the ENTIRE time! It’s very motivating and I love the words. After losing this weight and improving my fitness level significantly—I really do “get a feeling that I never, never had before!” or “Giving up is not an option.” Looks like Flo Rida is a runner, too!

Flo Rida

For my brunch, I ate 2 eggs cooked with FF cheese and FF turkey.

I also had light Apricot Mango yogurt with 1 Tbs. milled flax.

I took a few minutes to read some blogs. I’m really excited to almost be done with school and I can spend more time reading blogs and concentrate on improving mine. Yay! What would you like to see more of on my blog?

Today was my very last day of class. I got two papers back and got A’s on them—so that made me feel good! There wasn’t enough time for very many people to make presentations in my third class, so I got out of that one! Yay!

Before my second class, I ate an orange.

And a package of Somersaults snacks, dutch cocoa, for 2 points.

I was so hungry after class and feeling headachey, so I ran through McDonald’s and got a FF cappuccino.

It was delish and satisfying.

I wasn’t in the mood to cook tonight, but I looked though the cupboards and thought I was making a meal with mostly Power Foods but I was wrong. I’m living and learning I guess!

For example, I ate a salad with lettuce, carrots, tomato, 1 Tbs. Feta, and FF Ranch. I thought I saw FF salad dressing on the power foods list, but I was wrong, so this was 3 points.

I also thought canned tomato soup was on the list, but it’s on an old list for filling foods that I happened to come across and that’s why I was confused. So I made this delicious sauce using canned tomato soup, still low in points though! I also added lean beef and served this over whole wheat pasta. I also had a slice of wheat bread with a few sprays of spray butter and garlic powder. 1 point.

So overall, not so bad—but 4 points more for supper than I thought I was using.

So I planned on having a satisfying dessert tonight. I picked up a mini piece of cheesecake at the store and I savored every single bite. So good. 8 points.

I’m ok using planned points, like the cheesecake, But it’s always annoying when you use points you don’t mean to. I ended up eating 14 of my 49 weekly points tonight. Tomorrow, I will try to eat 100% power foods again. Like I said, didn’t mean to eat the 4 points—so that’s a little disappointing to me. But what can ya do! At least I’m satisfied. I also didn’t get in very many fruits/veggies today. One of those days I guess. But I did earn some Activity Points, so that helps!

Weigh in Day

2011-12-07T18:23:00.001-06:00

This morning I weighed 201.3 for a loss of 1.4 lbs. this week! I was really hoping to have a huge loss and make it to Onederland, but 1.4 is a good loss for me! That’s 86.7 lbs. down. That’s good for my first week on Simply Filling. I’m hoping this continues to work and I can lose weight consistently again!

Today was also my first weigh in of the month, which I track here, at the tab under my header. I lost 3.1 lbs. this month! I’m happy with that.

I have been amazed at all of the people who are posting about how the Points Plus program wasn’t really working for them. They are saying the same things that I have found over the past year—they’d have a big loss followed by small gains. That was my entire year on Points Plus.

For breakfast this morning, I ate an egg, 1 chicken sausage link, 1/2 cup oatmeal, a banana and a glass of FF milk.

Someone made a point on the WW message boards that these points aren’t FREE, they’re power foods to be eaten until satisfaction. I think that’s an important thing to remember. So far, I have been eating until satisfaction and not just because I can. I think it’s more like intuitive eating. So, if something I’m eating equals 0 points, I’m not going to post the points values—only if it costs me something.

I had plans to run this morning, but I woke up with a headache and wasn’t really feeling my best. So I declared it a rest day.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer.

On my first break, I wasn’t hungry. That’s what a good, filling breakfast will do for ya! So I listened to my body and didn’t eat anything.

For lunch, I ate a salad with lettuce, tomato, FF cheese, chicken, peach salsa and FF sour cream.

I finished it up with an orange.

I am still struggling with wanting something sweet after lunch. I’m trying to choose fruit as a better option.

On my last break, I was getting hungry. I ate FF turkey with FF cheese, heated in the microwave.

I also ate canned pineapple, unsweetened.

I also made a chai latte with skim milk, to sip on for the afternoon.

It was a struggle not to use any points this afternoon. I was wanting an apple and peanut butter, but decided that a little more protein might help fill me up better. I am trying to save as many weekly points as I can for this weekend because I have to attend a potluck and I’m not so sure how that will go and what will be served. I need to bring a dish, any ideas?

For supper, I had a lean turkey burger on a light wheat bun with light miracle whip, ketchup, FF cheese, lettuce and tomato, along with onions and mushrooms cooked in a little low sodium soy sauce, and a baked potato with FF sour cream.

Such a deliciously healthy meal.

I ate my yogurt for dessert. Tonight I had Pineapple Upside Down Cake—SO good. I loved this one.

I love to see my tracker all filled up with the little green triangles for Power Foods. Funny thing is, today I have 49 weekly points again and I COULD use them, but I am satisfied and filled so I really don’t feel the need to use them. That’s something new for me! I struggled in the afternoon, but came up with a snack that I didn’t have to use them. Tonight, I will be eating my Healthy Pop popcorn. I don’t think I’ll need to use any weekly points today at all! I think it’s probably best to save them for weekends anyways when we are dining out or when I want to eat something TRULY satisfying to me—like a cupcake from this amazing cupcakery in my area. THAT would be worth it.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is my very last day of class! Would you believe I have a presentation? My very last day of college classes, in my very last class, I have a presentation—the thing I hate the most! The one thing that I have spent hours dreading and stressing out over for the past 6 years it has taken me to finish school. Yep! lol I’m hoping it will be no big deal and over quickly. Fingers crossed! I’ll try to stay positive instead of dreading it…

Another Day on Plan

2011-12-06T17:18:00.001-06:00

For breakfast this morning, I ate a bowl of oatmeal with a sliced banana, a chicken sausage and FF milk for 0 points.

I am counting the chicken sausage for free because Jennie-O turkey sausage is free and the chicken sausage has better nutritional information than that does.

While doing homework, I sipped on my usual coffee with FF creamer for 0 points.

The workout of choice today was the stationary bike. I had a lot of reading to do for school and that was one way I could get it done! Hubby fixed my bike a while back so it’s working fine again! Yay! I biked 9 miles in 34 minutes and burned 159 calories. Not a huge burn, but it’s 159 more calories than I would have burned sitting in my chair reading! This way I could multi-task!

For my brunch, I ate an egg sandwich made with whole wheat bread, an egg, FF cheese, and FF turkey for 0 points.

LOVE that I can eat something so delicious and filling and not worry about the points.

I also ate a Light FF Yoplait Harvest Peach yogurt. I found out yesterday that these are free. YAY! I asked on a very helpful FB Simply Filling page and I was told that if it is FF and has no added sugar, it’s free. The sugar I am seeing in it is natural from the milk. Whoohoo!

School was kind of a wasted day for me today—but that’s ok! We had professor evaluations in two classes and those took up a lot of time. We finished watching a movie in my second class. And in my third class, I left early because I had all of my work done.

Before my second class, I ate almonds for 3 points. I thought 14 almonds were 2 points but when I put it into my tracker it’s 3. I guess I’ll stick with my 10 almonds for 2 points!

I also ate an orange for 0 points.

I was so happy that hubby got home right before I did. I was STARVING. He was hungry too, so we decided to eat an early supper. I made baked tilapia topped with peach salsa, baked scallops (cooked with a butter and garlic), shrimp salad with tomato, avocado and onion, and lentils for 2 points.

It was a tasty and delicious supper. Hubby approved—if you’re married, you probably know that when the hubby approves, it makes you feel 100 times better than when he doesn’t. I hate it when I spend forever cooking something and his response is, “Did you follow the recipe?” lol. Know what I’m saying?

This was the first time I have ever cooked scallops. I will DEFINTELY be buying these more often. Very simple and VERY tasty! I have recently discovered that I LOVE seafood! I am have been experimenting and trying new things and have loved everything. Can’t wait for the cruise coming up and all of the seafood there! One good thing about loving seafood is you can usually eat for very low calorie, depending on how it’s prepared, of course. I don’t like most fried food anymore and when I cook at home, I control the butter usage.

I finished supper up with FF/SF orange Jell-O for 0 points.

I have been trying to switch up my desserts a bit with lower calorie items. BUT, I will still be eating ice cream once in a while.

I feel like today was another healthy day!

I have been eating Healthy Pop popcorn every single night since I started this Simply Filling program. I just love popcorn. It makes me feel satisfied and full. I’m going to get an air popper one of these days. I showed hubby the kind I want and told him that it’ll work for a Christmas gift if he needs any ideas. lol

We are going to call it early tonight. Relax a bit and then try to go to bed at 8:00. I know, like old people. Neither of us slept well last night. I love feeling refreshed in the morning after a good night’s sleep. So that’s the plan!

I’m Proud of Today

2011-12-05T19:44:00.001-06:00

I had a nice weekend at home, but I spent the most of it working on homework. I’ll be happy when I’m done with that!

For breakfast this morning, I had an egg on whole wheat toast with FF cheese, a glass of Skim milk, and a banana for 0 SF points.

As I posted yesterday, I am really loving the Simply Filling plan so far. I have high hopes that this is going to work for me! It has taken a little getting used to as I learn what foods will cost me points, etc. So I used a few more points than I wanted to the first couple of days and am left with very few now. But yesterday was a success for sure! And I still have some Weekly points left to get me through Tuesday.

My work schedule changed today for the winter months so I now have an extra half hour in the morning! PERFECT! Just what I needed to fit in some exercise. And my cough has been less persistent the last couple of days, so I was ready to go again. FINALLY!

I wanted to do something a little lighter on my first day back to exercise, so I decided to walk. But shortly after hitting the treadmill, I decided to experiment with the incline. So I ended up walking most of the 30 minutes at a incline and raised it periodically as I was walking. What a FANTASTIC WORKOUT!! I loved it. My HR was significantly higher than if I just walked on a normal surface, I could feel my legs working harder, and I was covered in sweat. I will definitely be doing this again! I walked 1.5 miles and burned 263 calories.

I am back at the HBBC challenge, my second week didn’t go so well, but I did earn a point for getting in 7 servings of fruits/veggies one day. You can watch my progress by clicking on the button under my header for the HBBC.

While working, I sipped on coffee with FF creamer for 0 points.

On my first break, I ate carrots for 0 points.

For lunch, I ate a taco salad made with lettuce, tomato, avocado, FF cheese, lean ground beef, FF sour cream and peach salsa for 1 point.

I finished it up with an orange for 0 points.

On my last break, I made Chai tea and added some FF milk for 0 points.

I love how I feel like I have more options with what I’m eating. I’m eating when I’m hungry vs. trying to balance my points and eat enough, etc. I still feel like I’m eating enough…I think it’s a mind game. lol But it seems to be working! FINGERS CROSSED!

I am also starting to use the WW message boards a little more frequently. I found a board for people following SF plan and I’ve found them really helpful. So far no one has been viscous, as I have experienced in the past!

I ended up getting off of work about 3 hours early—which was FABULOUS because I had a ton of homework to get done. I worked on one project for over two hours! I’ve already put about 7 hours in this project prior to this—ridiculous. This should be my final…unfortunately it’s not!

For supper, I ate a chicken stir fry with pineapple, broccoli, onions and garlic over lentils and drizzled with apple cider vinegar along with FF cottage cheese for 0 points. I also had a glass of Ocean Spray cran-lemonade, which is like Crystal Light.

I think I bought the wrong yogurt for SF. I thought it said FF yogurt was free, but I see that it says FF yogurt, plain or light, artificially sweetened. I don’t see sugar in the ingredients of this, but there are 10g of sugar? So I’ll count the points for it. 3 points.

I didn’t want to use those 3 points—so if that yogurt is actually free—somebody tell me and I’ll feel better!

So what do you think about my eats today? I feel like I had a really healthy day and I’m proud of how I did! That’s always a good way to end the day!

Weekend on Simply Filling

2011-12-04T18:52:00.001-06:00

So far I am loving the Simply Filling plan! I feel like I am paying attention to my hunger signals and eating when I'm hungry versus trying to use up points. It has been such a relief not having to be so obsessive about counting points. I'm making healthier choices because of it. Not only that, but I find myself chosing different foods and we all know it helps to switch things up. I hope my weight loss will be just as impressive! I have lost weight both days since following this plan... so I am keeping my hopes up. I reealllllly hope this works! I'm afraid to get too excited based on how I've done in the past but I have not heard one negative review of the core plan. :) Staying positive... what's the worst that could happen? Gain a few lbs... been there. Done that. Keeping my fingers crossed!! Anyone else that switched plans... how's it going for you so far?

Nasoya Tofu Products Review and Giveaway

2011-12-03T19:15:00.001-06:00

I’ve cooked tofu in the past, but we don’t eat it regularly. The reason we don’t eat it regularly is because I don’t really know how to cook it. Last time I cooked tofu, it turned into a runny mess. So I was intrigued when Nasoya contacted me and told me about Nasoya Tofu U. Nasoya Tofu U is a fabulous website with recipes, videos on how to prepare tofu, and much more! Not to mention, there’s an App for it!

I learned a lot about how to prepare tofu by watching the videos on their site.

I chose a recipe and decided to give it a try! I made Baked Tofu Nuggets. I used the super firm cubed tofu, so that took some of the preparation out of the picture.

It looks like this:

Tofu is a Power Food on the new Simply Filling plan for WW. So this turned out to be a very low point meal!

I used the handy App on my Smart Phone in the kitchen as I prepared the meal—SO handy!

And this is what they looked like when they were finished:

It looks like a bowl of croutons, huh? lol But they actually turned out! No soggy mess for me this time since I learned how to prepare the tofu correctly. The most important step is draining and soaking the juice out of the tofu.

The result? I’m going to be honest, I didn’t really like the taste of these. They tasted to fiber-y to me because of the wheat germ. Next time, I would add more seasonings. I had to laugh because hubby LOVED these. He actually said, “I LOVE TOFU!” while we were eating. Not what I expected out of him. And I happened to drop a couple on the floor by accident and that cat loved it too…so maybe it was just me.

The second product I tried were the Nasoya Won Ton wraps. Now these I LOVED. I cooked a recipe for Mexi-Licious Pot Stickers, out of the Hungry Girl cook book that my Mom sent me yesterday and they turned out FABULOUS!

They would be the perfect little appetizer, although we ate them as a meal.

After we were done eating these, hubby asked me if I cooked the whole box. These were so good he thought there was no way I made them! He thought they were out of a box! HA! I guess that’s a good thing! hehe

Nasoya also sent me an adorable t-shirt!

The Front:

The Back:

You have a chance to win this t-shirt along with coupons for free Nasoya products too!

How can you win? Please leave a separate comment for each entry:

Take the Tofu U Pledge. You will receive emails with coupons and recipes after taking the pledge! Go here and click the red button towards the bottom of the page.
Like Nasoya on Facebook.
Follow Nasoya on Twitter.
Visit the recipe section and tell me what recipe you’d most like to try.
Be a follower of this blog.
Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post and mentioned @Nasoya and @AJourneyToThin

The giveaway will end at 5 Central on December 10th and the winner will be chosen via a random number generator. Nasoya will ship the prizes directly to the winner. Good luck!

Trying Simply Filling

2011-12-02T20:00:00.001-06:00

Finally Friday!! I have never been so anxious for the weekend!

For breakfast this morning, I had a piece of toast with PB and sliced bananas, a hard boiled egg, and a glass of milk for 8 points. (4 points on Simply Filling…read on for more info!)

While working, I drank coffee with half and half for 1 point.

Look what I got in the mail today from my Mom!!

What a fun surprise! I can’t wait to cook out of this book. I have been wanting this for some time. Thanks, Mom!

On my first break, I ate an apple with PB for 3 points.

For lunch, I had a tuna sandwich with tomato for 6 points. (0 SF)

I also had leftover homemade chicken noodle soup, that I had in the freezer, for 3 points.

And I finished it up with blackberries for 0 points.

So the new WW changes seem pretty straightforward to me. All I can see that is different, as far as the standard Points Plus program, is that you can change the amount of points you eat each day and how many weekly points you are allowed. This seems to make it a little complicated and will take a lot of work on my own to figure out how many points I should be eating to still lose weight.

But I am interested in the Simply Filling (SF) tracking method and actually switched my tracking mode to that method. You really have no choice but to start your week over starting today if you want to track online, which is what I always do. On Simply Filling, you can basically eat any of the foods with the green triangle next to them for free. Think mostly natural foods. I think that might go well with my plan to try to eat more natural foods on one hand, but on the other hand it might not because a lot of the free foods (that aren’t fruits/veggies/meats, etc.) are fat-free which have a lot of added chemicals, I believe. But, seriously, at this point—I’d be ok eating some of those foods until I lose my weight and then focus on being healthier in that respect. Foods like granola bars and 100 calorie packs would cost you points, and I don’t eat those very much anyways. I just need to get this weight off!! It would switch things up for me, maybe give me some new motivation. It seems so much less complicated to me. The good news is, you can change your tracking plan whenever you want. I’m just so tired of struggling and not getting anywhere. I’m getting really discouraged and I know that a lot of it is my own fault, but I can’t help but notice that I stopped losing weight regularly right after WW changed to Points Plus…

I used more weekly points today because I didn’t sign in until this afternoon to see what the changes were. But that’s ok—I just have to get to Wednesday and start a full week. So that’s why I have both point methods listed (if they are different) for my meals up until after lunch. Just remember that some of the meals are less points on SF, but I also only get 49 points per week—only weekly points basically. I have to admit I’m a little scared—but what I’m doing is obviously not working! And I really want to stick with WW. I am just starting to feel overwhelmed with what I’ve been doing.

Is anyone else going to try the simply filling technique? I never tried it on the old plans.

But I love the new look of the website. It’s definitely easier to find what you’re looking for! It feels a lot more “app” like, which I am totally into. I love my smart phone. Plus, they’re coming out with a new barcode scanner app soon. You can scan the UPC and it will tell you how many points. I have an app like that, but it’s not through WW.

I’m sorry that I’ve been so inconsistent in my plans lately. I’m just trying to figure out a resolution. I am taking bits and pieces of all that I’m learning and applying it. So it’s not all in vain. I’m not giving up the natural/unprocessed thing, I am more conscious of it…but if eating FF yogurt will help me get this weight off faster—so be it…for now. Eventually I do want to get away from those types of foods. And I do think the simply filling plan will help me eat more natural foods—for the most part! Your thoughts?

Please keep in mind that my eating isn’t perfect today because we really needed to get groceries!! So I was eating what was left in the house. Do you ever try to clean up what’s in the house before getting more groceries?

On my last break, I ate carrots for 0 points.

About that time the internet went down. Thankfully, my boss just let me call it quits for the day so I didn’t have to drive in to the office. Whew!

For supper, I had chicken that I cooked in the crock pot with onions and healthy request cream of mushroom soup along with instant mashed potatoes I found in the cupboard (who knows how long those have been up there!) and green beans for 2 points.

I finished it up with a serving of ice cream for 4 points.

After supper, hubby and I headed to the grocery store to FINALLY get some groceries. I stocked up on all kinds of fruits and veggies and foods to help me with the Simply Filling plan.

Today, I used 17 of my 49 weekly points. I will definitely have to work on eating more of the filling foods because I can’t use that many points on a daily basis! But I think that will be pretty easy to do. I wasn’t really planning on starting this until over half way through the day. So it’s fine for Day 1!

I do plan on eating some Healthy Pop popcorn tonight. The FF stuff is FREE!! Yay! I have to admit that it’s one of the reasons I decided to give this plan a try. lol

This weekend I plan on relaxing at home and working on homework. Looking forward to being at home and sleeping in tomorrow!!

Have a great weekend!

One of Those Weeks

2011-12-01T18:13:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe it’s December 1st already! Where has the year gone?

I got to sleep in a little this morning. I just can’t seem to get enough sleep lately! It might be because I’m still not feeling 100% well. My body probably needs the rest.

For breakfast this morning, I had toast with PB and a sliced banana, a hard boiled egg, and milk for 7 points.

I also had 3 slices of turkey bacon for 1 point.

I spent my morning working on homework. It’s hard to believe in a few weeks I will be done with homework indefinitely!

On my way to school, I drank coffee with half and half for 1 point. Nothing tastes better than a hot cup of coffee on a cold day.

Before my second class, I ate 1/2 serving of almonds for 2 points. I always weigh foods like this instead of counting them out, so that might be why my counts are different and someone pointed out I’m only eating about 10 (in this case 11) almonds vs. the package serving size of 14 almonds. Weird! I guess I could eat a few more.

We watched a movie in class, and I ate 1/2 serving of animal crackers for 2 points.

I did a little shopping for hubby’s birthday after school. I’m not really sure what to get him, so I just get him a bunch of small things. I hope he’ll like what I get him!

I was SO hungry after school. To stop myself from eating, I drank a diet A&W for 0 points.

Although when I was cooking supper, I ate a leftover garlic bread piece for 3 points. Good thing they’re tiny!

And then I got a package from UPS from Somersaults snacks and I had to try them out. They’re made out of sunflower seeds. I tried the Sante Fe Salsa flavor—SO good. 2 points.

For supper, I made Sahi topped with a mixture of feta, milled flax seed and olive oil, along with zucchini, yellow squash and onions, and brown rice for 8 points.

I also had a serving of Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream for 4 points.

I have 2 points left for the day. I did not get in my fruits and veggies today for some reason. My eating has just been off lately. Ugh. Hopefully, tomorrow night we can get groceries and get stocked up with delicious and healthy foods again. Ever have those days/weeks where it’s just harder to eat healthier? It’s been one of those weeks for me! But I’m just going to keep truckin’ on!

Tomorrow is the day when WW makes changes. I am excited to see what they are!

I have a new header!

2011-11-30T17:20:00.001-06:00

This morning I weighed in at 202.7. I gained .7 lbs. this week and I am so happy that’s all I gained after some very terrible eating days last week and sinking back in to old habits. I felt terrible. I do not want to go back there again!! I am glad to be starting fresh today. There’s something about weighing in, facing that scale and realizing that I can move forward now. I have such a hard time doing that midweek and can’t seem to start fresh until I get that weigh in over. Now I am READY!

For breakfast this morning, I had a piece of toast with egg beaters on top, a banana and a glass of milk for 7 points. You can hardly see that toast under there! I was trying to use up the egg beaters because they expired yesterday. lol

Weight Watchers has announced there will be changes to the plan starting on Friday…I’m interested to see what they are. Has anyone heard anything other than the vague info. they’ve posted?

While working, I sipped on coffee with creamer for 1 point.

On my first break, I ate 1/2 serving of almonds for 2 points.

For lunch, I ate roasted potatoes with a tomato and turkey bacon sandwich for 10 points.

We are really low on groceries and are trying to make it through the week on what we have. I did buy bread and bananas, but that’s it. I look forward to having more groceries in the house this weekend!

On my last break, I ate an apple for 0 points.

Last night didn’t work out to meet my Dad, so we’re going to meet him tonight instead. I have 12 points left for the day. I definitely need to get some veggies in!

We are half way through the week!!

By the way, how do you like my new header!?

Just a Regular Tuesday

2011-11-29T16:52:00.001-06:00

I am so ready for the weekend! I need a few days to relax after Thanksgiving weekend! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed every minute of it though.

This morning I got up at 5 AM with hubby and was so tired and didn’t feel very well so I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I think I could have slept all day. But I had to write a paper, so I couldn’t sleep too long!

After my paper was done, I ate a filling breakfast of an egg, chicken sausage, oatmeal with cinnamon, a glass of milk and a banana for 8 points.

Staying at home in my PJs, napping and reading a book sounded like what I needed today, but unfortunately with only 4 class periods left of class before finals, I really needed to go to class. Not to mention, I had to turn in two papers today!

On my way to class, I sipped on coffee with creamer for 1 point.

Before my second class, I ate a Peanut Butter Cookie Larabar for 6 points.

Wow, those are so high in points…but all healthy ingredients I guess…

Classes went fine today. I got a paper back and got an A- on it. I have gotten an A- on both assignments so far in that class…it makes me nervous because if I would get a B on the final then I’d get a B for the class! I like to be safe within the A range!

On my way home, I ate a banana for 0 points. Yes, I already had a banana today, but I stopped at the store to get these and they looked so good and I was starving!

Tonight, my Dad is in the area for work, so we might be going out for supper with him. Hopefully it works out!

I am looking forward to starting fresh tomorrow after weigh in. The last few days have been a disaster for me eating wise. Today has gone well and I still have 17 points left, so that’s a good place to be.

The Benefits of Vitamin E for Skin

2011-11-28T10:43:00.001-06:00

It’s that time of year for dry skin and lips. The air is frigid, cold and dry and it’s hard to keep your skin moisturized. This time of year, I am constantly applying lip moisturizer and rubbing lotion on my hands. The moisturizing lotion that I use has vitamin E in it and it always feels like I’m giving my skin a cool drink—it’s refreshing.

Did you know that vitamin E is an antioxidant that can help protect and repair your skin?

Vitamin E is not something that your body produces, but is something that you can get through eating the right foods or supplementation. You can get vitamin E in foods like sweet potatoes, avocados, and nuts, to name a few.

You can also use vitamin E as a topical treatment. As mentioned before, you can find it in many moisturizing lotions. Vitamin E is also available as an oil or in capsules that can be cut and applied to the skin. Vitamin E can also be used to soften and hydrate your cuticles as explained in this great video:

Vitamin E

Whatever you do, make sure to keep your skin protected during the winter months. No one likes dry and cracked skin! It’s painful and can be prevented with the proper care. You can buy vitamin E from http://www.hollandandbarrett.com or at your local drug store.

This post is in association with Holland and Barrett.

Thankful Healthy Blogger 5k 2011: Results and Winner Announced!

2011-11-27T18:07:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much to all of you who participated in this 2nd annual Thankful Healthy Blogger 5k! This year, I counted 53 participants and numerous dogs! I wanted to double last year’s participants and we did it!! It has been so much fun getting all of your emails and photos. Enjoy taking a look at everyone who participated this year!

We also had numerous entries into the giveaway, whether it was getting extra people to participate with you, Tweeting, or mentioning it on Facebook. Thank you to all who helped spread the word and helped make this Thanksgiving a more active one!

THE WINNER OF THE GIVEAWAY IS…

SARAH @ Ripley Eats

I have the participants listed in order of the time that they finished the race. Congrats to Sarah from Montana for finishing first in 22:28! Enjoy!

Sarah (22:28)-“My name is Sarah and I am from Montana. I ran a 5K today before turkey dinner on my family's cattle ranch in central Montana. The wind was blowing, so I ran on a gravel road with the wind at my back most of the way. As you can see from the picture, my running partner is my toy Australian shepherd, Molly. It was a warm day and I was happy with my time, I finished in 22.28. Thanks for the motivation to make myself push hard today on my run.”

~K~ (22:51)- “I ran an organized Turkey Trot 5k today with my sister and my niece. My finish time was 22:51 -- my personal best for this (hilly) course, so I'm happy!”

Kim (24:55)- “We actually ran a 3.7 mile race (well, the
boys ran 5.2 miles) and I calculated my 5k time to be 24:55.
I won my age group and the kids took 2nd in theirs! What a great morning.”

Angie (26:30)- “It was a little windy, but fun nonetheless! Listening to Flo Rida kept me going!” (Angie is in the white shirt)

Erin (26:44)- “I ran the Turkey Waddle here in San Tan Valley, AZ and it was an amazing day for a race!! I did it in 26:44 and LOVED it!!”

Darlene (27:58)- You can read all about her race here.

Jess (29:19) “I ran 3.2 miles at Thanksgiving sunset.”

Kiri (29:36):

Kittee (30:25)- “I started my Thanksgiving day with the Thankful Virtual 5K. I ended up running 4.3 because I was feeling so good. I was also able to run outside which was a huge bonus. It has been too cold here to even think about running outside. This was fun, all other family members had good intentions but decided to stay in bed or stay home drinking coffee. I ventured out alone.”

Derek (30:30)- This is Angie’s hubby, “Yay, Hubby, on his first 5k!!” We didn’t get pictures of the individuals, so that’s why I’m posting this picture a couple of times. Derek is #24.

Alicia (30:35)- “Here is a pic of my boyfriend and I after our 5k. My sister ran with us too, but I forgot to snap a picture when we were all together :/ Oh Well! We did the Turkey Trot in our hometown, and a record crowd of 3,000+ people showed up! Great event (and we got neon yellow race shirts!).”

Courtney (31:52)- “I ran a Turkey Trot with my husband this AM.”

Jillan (32:20) had a blast running her 5k, “In my town, it's an unofficial shindig hosted by the local bagel company. We ran 3.1 miles around the Indiana University campus (unofficial watch time of 32:20) and finished with free bagels and coffee. I got my husband to join, and then convinced five more friends to join too!”

Karla (33:00)- “You inspired me to run my first 5 k ever. I did it in 33 minutes!!! my first 5 k at 52 wow how cool is that!!”

Rebecca (33:12)- “I was able to enjoy a run outside and bask in the wonderful weather. It made me remember why I run. Why I continue to run. If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said never, but now, 115 pounds lighter and a runner, heck yeah, sign me up. So thanks again. Oh and it was a great time too...33.12...one of my better runs!!” What a beautiful photo!

Suz (34:42)- “No PR's set for me but this is the first 5K I've done with my dogs. My two labs and my dad's dog ran with me in the pasture this morning for our 5K.”

Morgan (36:00)- “I ran the Run to Feed the Hungry 10k, and my 5k time was something around 36 minutes. I ran it with my friend Brandi, and in the picture I am the brunette. We had a great time running, even though it rained the whole run! The tutus I made for the occasion made it much more fun - there were so many compliments that it kept me going. This was the first time I have run a solid 6 miles without walking at all - it was a great feeling!”

Alissa (39:15)- Here I am completely and utterly exhausted! I’m holding up two fingers because this is the 2nd annual race.

Hubby (39:15)- He was such a great motivator for me on this race. He can run much faster than this, but stayed with me to cheer me on. He just told me to put one foot in front of the other. Thanks, Hubby!

Kristina (41:00)- “Here I am (106) after our Turkey Trot 5k run at 9am this morning, for a family friend/officer who was killed June 2010 by an intoxicated driver.”

Yasmine (41:21)- It looks much warmer where she is!

Lyndsay (43:02)- “Working in retail, I've been going nonstop since right after dinner ended on Thursday. I actually forgot to take a picture to start with on Thursday (my brain has been all over the place this week), but I did finish in 43:02. With my bum ankle, I sped walked most of the 5K, but jogged when I felt I could handle it. Can't wait to do it again next year!!”

***WINNER***Sarah (44:28)- “The pup and I ran our 5k this morning before our houseguests woke up for Thanksgiving festivities! We did 3.27 miles in 44:28. Not the best ever but at least we did it!! I'm sending a photo of an exhausted Ripley and my beloved shoes. :)”

Kim (46:00)- “I had a great time getting out today and walking. My cousin came along and walked it with me. We walked it in 46 minutes.”

Traci (46:10)- “Last year, I did this race in 53:37 -- this year, my time was 46:10. I ran more in this race than I have any so far this year & I conquered three HILLS! I felt more in control of my breathing and stronger than ever.”

Ashlee (50:59)- “I feel great after doing the 5k. I usually do 3.6 mph at a 6.5% incline for an hour or so, but today I bumped it up to 3.7 and 7%. After the first half mile I felt good and decided to increase my speed to 3.8 mph. To push myself even more I did 3.9 mph for the last 6/10 mile. :) I am not sure if this is a PR compared to 5ks I have done in competition, but I know this is the best I have done on the treadmill. 3.2 miles in 50.59 min…then I got back on and did a cool down at 3.3 mph until I got to 4 miles.”

Lori (51:00)- Lori walked her 5K this year. She was our winner last year!

Cyn (51:39)- “Just wanted to send ya the photo of my 14 year old son, peyton, and i who walked a 5k this morning. we walked it in 51:39 minutes -- forgot to take a pic of that. it was a great bonding experience.”

Susan (52:16) finished walked her 5K on the treadmill in the morning.

Wendy (60 minutes)- “I did it in 2 steps, because my kids wanted to walk with me. I did 1.61 on elliptical, then 1.73 walking!!”

Wendy also completed her first official 5K on Saturday and I wanted to share one of her pictures because it’s so cute!

Julie (1 hour 2 minutes)- “I walked 4 miles with my sister at a local race.”

Sommer (1 hour 15 minutes): I’m glad to see she’s sporting her Zippearz ear buds she won!

Carrie (1 hour 4 minutes 8 seconds)- “My name is Carrie and I just started my weight loss/healthy me journey in mid-October. I found your blog via someone else's blog and saw the 5k idea. I had been wanting something to hold me accountable to exercising on Thursday and it was perfect. We were out of town so I mapped a 5k route near our campground before I left home and at 6:30 that morning my mom dropped my husband and I off at the starting point. I can't yet run but we moved as fast as we could and did it with only one short stop for my husband to tie his shoe. I finished in 64:08. So that is my first ever personal record and I look forward to breaking it soon!”

Kim- completed a 20 mile bike ride:

Giveaway Winners Announced

2011-11-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

The winner of Grandma Dee’s Granola is…
CHRISTINE
(Please email me your shipping info and I will forward it on to Grandma Dee’s)

The winner of the My Memories Suite Software is…
Lyndsay @Thinspiration
(Please shoot me over an email so I know I have your correct email address and I will get your download code emailed back to you)
If you are interested in purchasing this software, you can get $10 off by enter this code at checkout: STMMMS29153

The winners of the Shutterfly giveaway are…
Sea2008
and…
Suz and Allan
(Please shoot me over an email and I will send you your download codes!)

Congratulations to all of the winners! I have a few more giveaways coming up that I am excited to share with you!
Don’t forget that if you participated in the Thankful Healthy Blogger 5k—You have until tonight to email me your picture to be entered into the giveaway!
(You can email me at AJourney2Thin@Gmail.com)

Winners have 1 week to respond with their information or they forfeit their prize. If you do not have a valid contact, I cannot contact you to let you know that you have won.

A Journey to Thin

Finally Friday!

I Didn’t Raid the Cupboards

Post Cruise Weigh In Day

2012 Carnival Cruise Recap (LOTS of pictures!!)

Home Safe and Sound

Zipfizz Review and Giveaway

The Year of the 10K

Guest Post by Cassie: New Motivation

Guest Post by Amy: Not Just Numbers

Guest Post by Cortney: Try New Things

Guest Post by Angie: Food, Health and Running

Guest Post by Betta: Setting a Healthy Example for Kids and How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy

2011 Training Report

Be as You Are

Update

Sorry!

Weigh in Day

Another Beautiful Day

A Good Day

A Fancy Dress NSV

The Why

Still At It

Spring Time in January

An Epic Weight Gain and Moving On…Over and Over Again…

Some Normalcy

Happy New Year and Update

Hospital Food and an Update

Weigh in Day

Update on FIL

A Quick Update

Michelle Obama has a big butt…!? WHAT?!

Being Honest about WI and Guest Posts Needed

Hosted a Christmas Dinner

A Better Day

Celebrations and Food

Graduated!!

Holiday Décor and Last Final DONE!

Happy 30th Birthday to Hubby!!

1 Hour Workout and My Eats

Tisano Chocolate Tea

Not Perfect

Winner Announced!

@Cookies4Kids Charity for Pediatric Cancer *Giveaway*

Last Day of Class

Weigh in Day

Another Day on Plan

I’m Proud of Today

Weekend on Simply Filling

Nasoya Tofu Products Review and Giveaway

Trying Simply Filling

One of Those Weeks

I have a new header!

Just a Regular Tuesday

The Benefits of Vitamin E for Skin

Thankful Healthy Blogger 5k 2011: Results and Winner Announced!

Giveaway Winners Announced

@Cookies4Kids Charity for Pediatric Cancer Giveaway