Dun, dun, dun...

I cheated today. Not in a bad way..I just went over my daily calorie limit by about 250 calories. And I didn't exercise. But I'm not discouraged, I'll just call it a cheat day and go on about my business.

I'm glad I'm done with school for the summer...you have no idea. Wednesday will be my boys' last day, then we will be on our way to doing all kinds of fun things. First thing big on my list is to go to the Brooks & Dunn and Jason Aldean concert on the 28th of this month...heading back to Tulsa for that so I can spend time with the family and maybe even head to Rocklahoma the following Saturday and Sunday. So excited!

I'm hoping all these tornadoes and storms we've been having will stop being so regular, as in, every day or every other day..because I hope to not spend my summer riding out storms. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Anyways...I'm going to bed! :)

free time=better eating

Now that school's out, I'm really enjoying having more time to experiment in the kitchen...healthily. I think it's safe to say I've always been a pretty good cook, but I'm used to cooking the normal "down home" stuff. Which is great, but more often than not those things contain a lot of bad stuff. Not only that, but when I'm eating healthy stuff, my taste buds aren't quite so indulgent so I can stick to strict portions and not have urges to go back for more. I like that!

The other night I was thinking of something interesting to try, and I stumbled upon Bobby Flay's recipe for tuna burgers. I like tuna...I can eat it out of a bowl with some mayo, mustard and relish, but that gets old sometimes. I changed his recipe up a little, to suit my tastes, and they tasted pretty good.

 It was a nice variation on boring old canned tuna. That being said, http://www.foodnetwork.com/ has become a friend of mine.

Tonight I just finished up a delicious plate of what I'll call "smoked sausage stir fry". I worried it would be a little plain, as I didn't follow a recipe, and it was very simple. But it was yummy! I just cut up 3 bell peppers...yellow, red and green, along with some smoked sausage and onions. I tossed them all in a skillet with some olive oil and sprinkled some McCormick GrillMates Garlic & Onion Medley. Delicious. Even my 5 and 7 year olds liked it.

I'm still doing very good on my calorie counting...I'm fairly impressed with myself. It really helps to put the day's meals in the night before, that way I don't have to mess with it during the day unless I add something or take something out. I think I'm really getting a hang of all this! :)

Calorie Counting for Dummies?

Hmm. So I've dabbled in calorie counting before, but never really stuck with it. I've never been one to check every package of everything I was eating or drinking. So time consuming! And then, when I was previously counting them, I was using FitDay. That site is helpful and has a lot of foods and beverages in its database, but I found that a lot of the time I was having to manually put things in. Well, between working and kids and whatever else I had going on, I wouldn't last at it for more than a couple weeks.

I recently stumbled onto a new site called http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and I must say I LOVE IT! I have not had to type in one thing manually, it's like it has everything under the sun, even things from restaurants. There are lots of neat little calculators and info there too. I'm quite pleased with the site.

That being said, as I type these things in, I am really amazed at the whole calorie counting thing. I think I have always been the type to just try to diet by not eating as much.Well, where will that really get you? Discouraged is where! Pissed off, even, at the fact that you have stopped snacking or binging only to find that you haven't lost a thing. But why?? Perhaps its because you had a cheeseburger for lunch that day that wiped out your caloric intake for the entire day. Yep...been there, done that..didn't realize it and it sucked.
When you put yourself on a daily limit, and you actually track your calories after every meal, you realize that sometimes "how much" you eat is completely irrelevant. It's what you're eating.

I can only imagine how many people have fallen off the wagon from calorie counting. If you weren't exercising, just watching how much you ate, I can see how awful it would be to learn that at 1 p.m. you'd already totalled for the day and if you ate anything else or drank anything with calories, you'd better get to walking or jogging, or starve for the rest of the day.

So this is a learning process..but a good one. Sometimes you just never realize how much junk is in the things we like to eat. I am going to stick with this calorie counting thing, but my main idea with it is to change some of the things I'm eating, and the things that I refuse to give up..well, that's where the joy of portion control comes in.

So, calorie calculator, I look forward to becoming best friends. :)

MIA!

I've been missing in action! I had to get things together for finals week..which has not quite ended. I had 3 finals last week and I have one Monday, then I'm done. It's been stressful and tiring, and I'm glad it's pretty much over.
I am sooo ready for SUMMER!
Float trips, hanging out with family and friends, concerts, lots of time with my kiddos, and camping!

And...I plan to use the summer to get the majority of my weight loss done...I will have no excuses because I will have nothing to do! That excites me even more.

I'm going recipe hunting today though, for summer-ish recipes that are yummy and healthy. :)

Argghhh...

This dvd is the devil! If I don't die, I'll be updating super soon. :)

I loooove Skinny Cow stuff. Does anyone not? It doesn't taste like it's any better for you than the other stuff. In fact they're so good that my kids and I fight over who gets the last mini fudge pop. I bought them their own popsicles but no, they want the ones with the cow.

Tonight I had a taco salad...honestly, things like that are not hard for me at all, I'd much rather have my taco stuff on lettuce than in a shell. I reloaded on SmartWater today...I'm really getting into drinking water like I'm supposed to. Yay, me!

I kind of pulled an all nighter last night with the load of homework and studying I had to do...but I feel good about the tests I took, my research paper came our pretty well, and now I'm just exhausted. I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night and I have heard that 4 is the worst number of hours to get. Actually, an ex boyfriend told me that. He read somewhere that even 3 hours is better than 4..there is something about that 4th hour...it's probably the hour where you hit your REM stage, and if you wake up during that, you are completely unsatisfied sleep-wise.
Luckily I have no classes tomorrow until night-time...so I can sleep in an hour later and spend my day cleaning, getting a good workout in and studying for my biology test.

I also have decided to delete all of my online "dating profiles". Not that I had hundreds of them but I have a few, and I just have no desire to date anyone right now. I really just want to focus on me...getting my weight under control, getting thru school, and hanging with my little boys. I don't have time or energy for any distractions like guys. Because they've only caused trouble for me so far, lol.

Well, Jillian is calling my name, willing me to come partake in some 30 DS....so here I go. :)

These are soo yummy. I bought some today. I got the flavor to the left, which is berry blend or mixed fruit, and I also got a pineapple, mango and strawberry flavor. You just throw it in the blender and add some milk...presto! I actually added a little fresh squeezed orange juice to it...made it better in my opinion.

Been pretty good today, had a cup of Special K for breakfast with some skim milk, a BLT for lunch, and my smoothie. And lots of SmartWater...I love that stuff.

I don't have any dinner plans, but I'm thinking of just having a WW meal...my kids want hotdogs, so I suppose they'll have their thing and I'll have mine.
I did the toning tables today after I tanned...there's nothing better than being on a machine that makes you do sit-ups! I always have loved doing them but eventually it just got a little difficult...So I'm really liking the tables. They have some that work your butt too, but I steer clear of those..I have no butt anyways, sadly.

I'm thinking giving Jillian another go tonight, after watching Biggest Loser of course. Talk about motivation to work out! Tuesdays are pretty good workout nights for me, lol.

I won't be able to spend as much time on it as I'd like though... I have a research paper to finish and a test to study for. I love it when my teachers concoct a conspiracy theory and make all this stuff due on the same day. Gotta love it! :)

I'll leave with my newly created mini goal...which is to drop 10 pounds by May 1. Fingers crossed!

Hello, world!

This is not my first blog, but it is my first weight loss blog. I have been an overweight person since I was a little kid. After I had my kids it really went downhill. Then throw a divorce on top of that...i yi yi.

I've never really been a yo-yo dieter...more like a person who gets really inspired and makes big plans and lasts about a week before eating fried chicken or procrastinating exercise. The only thing I can say I actually spent money on and stuck with was phentermine...yes it did work, and it worked fast. But, side effects were a bit scary, it got kind of expensive, and if you dared to stop taking them you'd better be prepared to gain a large portion of your weight back. So...bummer.

Anyway, I've gotten really tired of making promises to myself, making goals I never reached, etc., only to fail because...well, I basically failed because I got lazy.
But lately I've been toying with it all over and over, thinking long and hard about it all...and a lot of things have been helping me come to the conclusion that I really will do it this time.

1. I've watched Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and Oprah dumping buckets of animal fat on tables to show people the amount of excess fat they were carrying around. Gross. But effective.

2. I'm 26. 4 years away from 30. I'm not getting any younger, and I don't want to have all these health problems that come with being overweight. I can't do that to my kids...I'm all they have, and I need to make sure I'm healthy enough to be around as long as possible.

3. I swear I'm a skinny person trapped in a fat person's body. Sometimes I think I feel the skinny me knocking on my insides saying, "hellooooo? Let me out, fat ass!" She's so hateful.

4. When I graduate college, I don't wanna be the overweight girl huffing and puffing around a hospital..always out of breath and junk. That would suck.

So there you have it, my first blog post...yayyy!

Do I have a plan? Not today. I'm meeting with a nutritionist tomorrow to assess the eating portion (no pun intended).
Exercise...well I've been working out for a couple weeks now on toning tables and a horrible monster called the Treadclimber. I swear it's the devil and we may need to perform an exorcism.
And I have Wii Fit Plus which I love, and my kids are very entertained by watching themselves throw hula hoops to me and to see my mii jogging along with a little puppy.

Also, I invested in Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. Level 1 kicked my butt...she turned my calves into rubber and we haven't been on speaking terms since. I should probably pull her out though...I don't want to be the kind of person that holds grudges. (I forgive you, Jillian.)

That being said, I'm off for a good night's sleep.

Until next time!
xoxo