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. :)