Catching Up

So I noticed it had been awhile since I had posted anything new and thought I would say a quick hello. Things have been kind of slow the past couple of weeks which is nice. However, it makes for some boring blog posts.
My husband's company is sending him to Las Vegas for a conference and I'm lucky that I get to go along. Unfortunately, the company won't pay for me but its okay. I'm just glad I get a little vacation. One of my best friends lives out in LA and she's meeting me in Vegas. I'm so incredibly excited about seeing her. Its been almost 3 years since we've seen one another. I have no idea what I'm going to do while Daniel is in meetings but I figure its Vegas, the possibilities are endless. I've never been there before so this is bound to be quite an experience.
My weight loss is going well. I've been going to meetings with my sister-in-law. While I've missed the past couple of meetings due to weather, I've still managed to lose a little. I actually purchased pants a size smaller than I normally buy. I was so excited they fit. They are still a little on the tight side but I can button them, so to me they fit.
I have to say that's about it for me right now. Hope all is well with everyone out there in blogger land.

Snow Day!!!

One year ago this week we had the worst ice storm I had ever experienced. Everything shut down for about a week. My parents were without electricity for about 10 days. We lost it for 3 days. We were able to crash at my husband's brother's house. We were lucky they let us stay with them. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Well, we almost had a repeat this year. Luckily, we have gotten more snow than ice. It started last night as freezing rain and sleet but changed over to snow in the middle of the night. It hasn't let up at all today. It's nice to see the snow as long as I don't have to get out in it. I checked the Weather Channel's website. Here's what the radar shows:



Looks like it's going to be coming down for a while longer. At least I don't have to get out and drive in it.

Show Us Your Life- weight loss tips

I've posted about this in the past but I thought I would mention it again because I think its a great tip. Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting a link party to share weight loss tips and ideas and I thought I would link up and share.


One of my resolutions this year was to really commit to losing weight and to exercise more. This past summer I started going to the local youth center with my sister-in-law to workout. They have the basic equipment that I was interested in using. The best thing about the youth center is that it only costs $26 a year for a membership. There's no way a gym membership is going to fit into my budget this year and this is a great alternative. Most of the gyms around here are at least $30 a month plus you have to sign a contract. Not so with the youth center. You don't have to sign any kind of contract. Its a one time fee to use the center. They have decent equipment and a track that I like to use. The center I go to also offers a variety of fitness classes that you have to pay an extra fee for but its minimal.

So if you are looking for a place to workout but the paying the expensive gym fees is not in your budget check out your local youth center. They are not just for the kids.

400 calorie chicken nuggets and fries

Last night my husband had to work late so I ended up making dinner for just me. I decided I wanted chicken nuggets. I love chicken nuggets. I have always loved chicken nuggets. So I started looking for a recipe that would work for my diet plan. I came across a couple that used cornflakes but I didn't have all the ingredients needed. I found a recipe calculator that will give you an estimate of the nutritional value of your meal. Like I said in my last post, I'm trying to stick to four 400 calorie meals a day. This one was pretty close.

I used the recipe calculator to tell me about how many calories would be in my meal. I entered the following ingredients:

chicken breast, no skin
cornflakes
black pepper
paprika

It came out to be about 150 calories per serving. These turned out really good. I ate them with ketchup of course so that added about 20 calories. So far my total is approximately 170 calories.

Since I was having nuggets I decided to make some oven fries. I used sweet potatoes since they are a better for you than other potatoes. I went back to the recipe calculator to make sure I was staying under 400 calories. Here's what I entered in:

sweet potato, 1 medium baked
olive oil
paprika

I used about 1 tbsp of olive oil to coat the potato wedges with the seasoning. Baked them at 400 for about 30 minutes. Delicious. And best yet they were approximately 240 calories. This was what the calculator spit out for one serving. I didn't eat the entire potato so it was probably less than that but we will go with 240 for now.

So I had nuggets and fries for a total of 410 calories. I'm guessing that it was a little less than this but I'll take it. And it was delicious. I felt full and satisfied afterward. I was curious and I entered a serving of chicken nuggets and medium fry from a local fast food chain. The calculator showed that these were approximately 600 calories per serving. That's a saving of about 200 calories. Wow.

I was so proud of myself. It may not seem like much but I love that I can still eat things that I like and still feel good about it. Hopefully it will pay off.

New Diet Plan and Meal Planning

I've never been very consistent with my meal planning. I love having a list when I go to the grocery store and having my weeks meals planned out. I just don't do it that often. I'm trying to get into the habit of it this year. One reason is to simply be more organized and save a little money. The big reason though is due to my New Year's Resolution to lose weight. I've started a new diet plan.
I heard about this book on an episode of "The Doctors."
I'm not following it exactly but I'm using it as my inspiration for my meal planning. The idea behind it is eating 4 400 calorie meals that contain a lot of monounsaturated fatty acids or MUFAs. These are found in things like olives and olive oils, nuts, dark chocolate and avocados.

Now it says on the cover that you can lose 15 pounds in 32 days without doing any crunches. Not that I'm doubting what they say but I personally believe that exercise is just as important as eating the right foods. I'm not expecting these kinds of results but I hope to be successful.

I'm not only using the Flat Belly Diet as inspiration. I have found several recipes from the Weight Watchers cookbooks as well as the Prevention website. Really, its all about watching your calorie intake. I'm going to do my best to stick to the four 400 calorie meal plan. As long as I keep it under this I can eat pretty much anything I want.
I hope to start attending a weekly meeting with my wonderful sister-in-law. The program is called TOPS and I'm hoping that it will help keep me motivated and hold me accountable. Here's to the new me. Can't wait to post some of my results.

Is it really already the start of a new year!?

I can't believe that 2010 is almost here. I have to say that I'm ready for the new year though. I'm looking forward to what 2010 has in store for me and my family.

Things have really not gone to plan for me this past year. I know that what we think we have planned for ourselves is not always what God has planned for us. I've really been feeling down the past couple of days and yesterday my poor husband had to come home to me lying on the couch with tears in my eyes. I was feeling pretty disappointed in myself. He is absolutely amazing. He has been so great and supportive through all of my career changes. I really don't know what I would do without him.

There's a lot of things I'm looking forward to changing during 2010. I've never been great at making resolutions and keeping them but this year I'm really going to try hard to follow through. So here's my list:

1. Get healthier- Workout more and diet. I hate the word diet but I'm looking forward to eating healthier.

2. Attend church every Sunday and pray more.

3. Get rid of some of our debt. I'm looking forward to paying off our credit cards and some of our student loans.

4. Find a full-time job that I'm happy with. I've been working a couple of part-time jobs this year while I work on fulfilling some requirements. I've changed my mind of what career path I want to follow about 3 times this year. It's time I just make a decision and work to achieve what needs to be done. ( hope that makes sense.)

5. This one goes along with #3 and 4. Get our family back to where we were financially before I left my job at the beginning of 2009. Once we get back to where we were and we are able to save a little more we can finally start thinking about children. This is probably the part that I beat myself up over the most. I feel like I have thrown our family so off track when I quit my job.

So that's it. It seems like a lot but I feel confident that I will be able to accomplish them. So here's to 2010. Can't wait to see what you have in store for me.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Today is Christmas and it's been a wonderful day. My family exchanges gifts on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas day. We have always done it this way. It really works out now that I'm married. We are able to fit everyone in and still have some time just to ourselves on Christmas. So last night we started with the In-laws. It was great. I am so blessed to have such wonderful in-laws. After having an amazing dinner with my husband's side of the family, we headed over to my side of the family. Things are always a little crazy with them but I still love them. We have a good time visiting and exchanging gifts and playing games. It's always incredibly loud but I'm used to it. I'm not sure if the husband is yet but he fits in pretty good.

It started snowing/sleeting about 6pm so we had to change our plans a little. We were really hoping to attend our church's 10pm Candlelight service but the roads were getting a little treacherous and we opted to drive home rather than chance it. I was so looking forward to this service. Its a wonderful time of worship and singing. I hope to make it a family tradition.

Daniel and I don't have children yet but we talked a lot last night about how we would do Christmas when we do have kids. We are completely on the same page with how we plan on raising children. We just hope that we are able to teach our future children about the true meaning of Christmas and the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.

I hope everyone out there has had an amazing Christmas.

Happy New Year!