Almost Time To Play Dress Up!

Happy Halloween Weekend Y’all! Halloween is by far my favorite holiday so I’m super excited. I decided that I wasn’t going to weigh today or next Friday. I want to enjoy the weekend, not stress about my weight. I am going to be eating bad this weekend, Monday, Thursday and Saturday for various reasons and if I don’t weigh again until 11/11/11, I will know how hard I need to work before Thanksgiving. It’s crazy how fast the year has gone. These seasonal functions make it so difficult to lose weight. Technically, I could be doing much better and choose to opt out of the foods I’ve been eating but I work hard during the week so I don’t gain too much and I plan on getting VERY serious the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then after the new year. This time next year, I’d like to be down 25-30 more pounds. Hopefully I can manage that in a year…I think I can with hard work. If I do, I think I’ll be able to come up with a final goal and then I will be in the maintaining stage. Football season has added another notch to my belt and also put a dent in my wallet. I have had such a blast going to the games but with Christmas coming up and the fact that I’m already behind, I think I will have to wait until next year for away games unless I win a football ticket lottery of some sort. Oh well, I still have LSU to look forward to at home on the 5th.



The recipe this week was Cheese, Sausage ‘N Portabella Skillet. I got this recipe from the Hungry Girl and it’s meant to be a substitute for the skillet breakfast dishes at places like Steak ‘N Shake and Cracker Barrel. This recipe is made all in one skillet. You sauté up one meatless or turkey sausage patty (crumbled) with onion and then add mushrooms and frozen, shredded hash browns to the mix. Once all of that is browned up a bit, add egg beaters, garlic and 1 wedge of the Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Cheese (or any flavor, I used the garlic herb). Once it’s all cooked, add salt, pepper and a bit of fat free shredded cheddar. It may not look very pretty but this dish was DELICIOUS! Egg Beaters and hash browns (made in the skillet or baked on a cookie sheet with non-stick spray) are things that are good for you but they are bland. Adding that little bit of sausage with mushrooms and onions really took it to another level of flavor making this a filling, yummy dish. I will definitely make it again, especially since it’s so simple and fast!



Dad and I attended the UT/Bama game last Saturday and other than the first half, it was a good ole butt whipping. Bama has the week off this Saturday which works out perfectly because it’s Halloween and the team will have time to prepare for LSU. There is so much hype and excitement surround that game because it’s the best two teams in the nation, battling it out for the West, the number one spot and a much better chance at the national championship. I get nervous just thinking about it. I’ll have more on that next week.





The before and after this week has me at a church fall festival a few years ago. I was a babysitter…get it? I’m pretty sure any baby, child or small animal would have been in danger had that derriere gone to sit on them. Oh well. The after picture is of me and my brother. I went to Holt High School and this spring, while my brother is graduating, I will be watching, crying and remembering my high school graduation from 10 years ago. I can’t believe how fast he’s grown up. It makes me so emotional to see him all grown up and painting himself at football games…lol.

I want to give a real brief rant. This morning, on the Today Show, they did a piece on women who are eating more and trying to gain weight in hopes that they will weigh enough for their insurance company to pay for them to have weight loss surgery. This INFURIATED me! If you exclude the bit of overeating I’ve done the past couple of weeks, I’ve lost 111 pounds. Yes, it’s taken my 2-1/2 years to get there but I’m better for it. I know what to do and what not to do, how to live, how to be healthy and exercise. If you have a mindset that allows you to believe that you should eat more to gain for free surgery, you aren’t ready to lose weight. You have to change your mind set. Here’s a thought. Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and exercise! Grrrr…it just makes me so mad. Weight loss surgery is reserved for morbidly obese people who have tried every option to lose weight and still can’t. I’ve seen plenty of people that could’ve lost weight the healthy way but opted for the surgery. Again, if you don’t have the mind set, all the initial weight you lose from your surgery will come back.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest…I’m headed to Birmingham this weekend for a Halloween party and then to Chattanooga on Sunday to see my family, should be fun!

I will leave you with a few fun Halloween pictures.

Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

Dress up, have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously…at least for one weekend.

Bye!








“It may be my family's redneck nature
Rubbin' off, bringin' out unlady-like behavior
It sure ain't Christian to judge a stranger
But I don't like her
She may be a stranger who spends all winter
Bringin' the homeless blankets and dinner
A regular Nobel Peace Prize winner
But I really hate her
I'll think of a reason later

Inside her head may lay all the answers
For curin' diseases from baldness to cancer
Salt of the earth and a real good dancer
But I really hate her
I'll think of a reason later.” I’ll Think of a Reason Later-Lee Ann Womack

Seeing Orange

Hello All! It is Tennessee weekend and getting very close to Halloween so I’m in a perpetual state of excitement. I am not in a perpetual state of weight loss, however, as I am stuck. I stayed about the same this week (about 1 pound from my lowest) which I’m fine with considering that I had nachos not once, but twice last weekend. I expect that I won’t really lose much until all of this Halloween business is over with. I guess that’s OK as long as I’m not gaining.



The recipe this week is a take on a grape salad recipe that I love. I could a ton of grape salad with yogurt and brown sugar…yum. This salad is similar. It’s called “Autumn Apple Grape Medley.” It has apples, grapes, low fat cream cheese, a bit of brown sugar, non-fat Greek yogurt and it also called for walnuts. I didn’t have any walnuts so I used panko crumbs for a crunch. Sound gross? It was. In my attempt to add crunch with one of the ingredients in my house, I realized not everything can be substituted with just anything you want. Despite all of that, the salad was quite tasty and hearty so it was filling. I also added lemon juice to the fruit which is a good idea, especially if it’s going to be out awhile, it keeps the fruit from browning.







I know these pictures are gross but I’m a bit dramatic and decided to share my current blister experience. I apparently need new shoes because the ones I have which are the Reebok version of the kind that are supposed to shape your butt keep giving me blisters. I think they work but I can’t be bleeding and in pain every time I run. I was running outside on Wednesday and I could feel the shoe rubbing a blister. I was like, dang, every time I wear these I get a blister in a new place. I could feel my skin busting open but when I got home, I figured it would be just a small little mark, but instead, what I saw was that first picture. I took a couple more. It is by the far, the biggest and most painful blister I’ve ever had. It made it difficult to exercise the past couple of days but I have a bit of a manic obsession with exercise…especially right now…when I’m eating too much and trying to maintain. So, despite my devastation, I think I might need to be in the market for a new pair of shoes.



My mom was able to score us free tickets to the 3 Doors Down concert in Tuscaloosa last week. We had fun and this is a picture of us at the event. My brother was there too and someone gave him their front row tickets so he got to get super close. I know he had a blast!





Last week, my friend Arianne and I traveled to Oxford to watch Bama completely DOMINATE Ole Miss. We had a nice time though…their fans are fun and it’s always fun when you are winning!





I think I have used this after picture before but I chose it again since they are both me standing to the side. Since it’s Halloween season, I will be posting pictures of Halloween costumes I wore in the past. I think I like my current profile a bit better. Talk about scary.



This week is TENNESSEE WEEK! I wanted to remind any of those out there that had forgotten of the last time Tennessee played at our stadium…just sayin’. Should be a fun time!

Have a good weekend and Roll Tide, y’all!


“Play some back-home, come-on music
That comes from the heart
Play something with lots of feelin'
'Cause that's where music has to start…” Mountain Music-Alabama (I have no idea why, but this song has been in my head all morning.)

TON

Greetings y’all! What a week it has been! I have been crazy busy again. Between teaching school and work, which is very hectic right now, I have been overwhelmed a few times in the past few days. I will definitely be trying to relax on Sunday and by relax I mean grade papers…which isn’t relaxing, but at least I can do it from my couch. I weighed this morning and even though I wasn’t perfect last weekend, I was better and I got all but .2 pounds off from my Florida weekend. I was pleased with that. I am at a good place, I just need to do well during the week the next few weeks to try and maintain. I don’t anticipate losing any until after Halloween because I am travelling to Ole Miss this weekend for football, Tennessee weekend is the next week and then Halloween is after that and I celebrate Halloween by dressing and partying up AT LEAST twice, so, I don’t see me losing any weight.





Speaking of not losing weight, I made my mom her belated birthday dinner last week and even though it’s not a diet recipe, I decided to share. Luckily, my mom helped a great deal so I could get it all done. We made bacon cheddar slider burgers, smashed restaurant style potatoes complete with bacon and cheese and for dessert I made chocolate cobbler. The burgers and potatoes were both recipes from the Pioneer Lady. Look her up if you haven’t heard from her. She’s got an awesome blog and is now on the Food Network. She isn’t exactly a healthy cook so don’t look at the site unless you are planning on breaking your diet but she’s got some pretty awesome stuff. The Chocolate Cobbler recipe is from Paula Deen so you know it was bad AND delicious. It was loaded with butter and cocoa, toffee bits and pecans. YUM! YUM! Happy birthday again mom, hope you enjoyed it! I will have a more figure friendly recipe to share next week.



Ok, so I know that people are often just trying to be nice when they comment on your weight loss and I appreciate it most of the time. However, there are some people that need to learn the etiquette of discussing weight loss. There was a girl I ran into last week who honestly, I don’t know. I remember her face a bit and maybe I’ve met her once but we certainly aren’t friends. She looked at me, without a smile, and goes, “Oh, you’ve lost like a TON of weight.” Uh, maybe I’m being too literal but a ton is technically 2,000 pounds. If I answer yes to this question, I am essentially admitting that at one time, I weighed well over a ton. I mean, I get it, it’s an expression and I GUESS she was trying to be complimentary but it didn’t come off that way…it just seemed rude. Oh well, I just politely said thanks and moved on which is the right response but it still rubbed me the wrong way.



I am off to Oxford tomorrow to watch the Tide play Ole Miss. I am going with my friend Arianne and we might meet some other people up there so it should be a good time. Alabama is favored by a lot in this game so I just hope the players (unlike me) aren’t thinking ahead to LSU because that game isn’t until 11/5 and we have to get through two more games before we get there. I’m sure it will be fine and a fun experience that I will share next week.





I think I was shocked by a play while watching a football game a few years ago in that first picture but I should have been more astonished by the size of those ham hock arms. My arms aren’t exactly sculpted now but they are a bit smaller than that. Jeez. Stay motivated y’all! The holidays are upon us and it helps me to look at that picture…I just need to struggle through to get past January and I’ll be good.

Have a lovely weekend! Roll Tide!

Bye!

“Well maybe I'm just lucky
But maybe that's OK…” Love I’ve Found In You-Lady Antebellum

Chomp!

Hey y’all! Another week has gone by. I can’t believe it’s already a week into October. It’s funny because I spend a lot of time wishing my days away and then I get surprised when the year is almost over. I had a great week last week which is good because I took a pretty significant blow on the scale this morning. I was up 2 pounds. I’m not surprised because my diet Friday-Sunday last weekend included but was not limited to Denny’s, Taco Bell, Cracker Barrel, barbecue, a hot dog, dessert and many other things so I guess I deserve it…but 2 pounds seems like a lot. Oh well, I had a decent week…I was good as always but I wasn’t as strict as I could’ve been so between my efforts this upcoming weekend to not go overboard and a hopefully good week next week, I am going to try my best to get those 2 pounds out of here. Football season is so hard for me. It involves all of my favorite foods and drinks and it’s difficult to resist. If I can just get through the football and holiday season, I will be good.







When I was a kid, my Dad would make pancakes and he would make them in the shape of our initials. I thought I would be nostalgic and try this myself so I made some healthy whole wheat pancakes and tried the shapes…I think they turned out OK. You can make these pancakes with wheat flour, fat free milk, cinnamon, a little sugar and use reduced calorie syrup. If you spray your pan, you won’t need butter and they will flip right over. I had more than one serving but I think you can have 2 or 3 pancakes for very few calories. It’s a great recipe for a weekend morning when you want something hearty in your belly. They were easy and fun to make!







Dad and I traveled to Gainesville, Florida last weekend and had an absolute blast. I will say the drive to and from the game was pretty miserable as we must have passed through every small town in existence in Alabama and Georgia. We decided to take advantage of one of the many cotton fields we saw and take a picture. There were also a ton of peanut fields and other produce and livestock. The day of the game was awesome. It was beautiful weather, fun company, and of course, Alabama beat the pants off of Florida. It wasn’t very intimidating after the first few minutes of the game. We had heard a lot of horror stories about Florida fans but we didn’t have any problems. Everyone seemed to be friendly and we had a lot of fun.





This was my Dad and I a few years ago and then us again at the game last weekend. That makes me feel a bit better about my 2 pound gain. I’m thinking of doing a little work-out schedule rearranging again and as I said earlier, I’m going to make sure and reel it in next week…I am working so hard…I just let my cravings get the best of me sometimes. I hope you all have a splendid weekend! Alabama plays Vandy this weekend for their homecoming so, Roll Tide! Bye!

“Well I was sittin’ in the tub just a countin’ my toes
When the radiator broke and the water froze
Got stuck in the ice without any clothes
Naked as the eyes of a clown
I was crying ice cubes hoping that I'd croak
When the sun came through the window and the ice all broke
I said son of a gun man that’s just a joke
And that's the way that the world goes 'round

That's the way that the world goes 'round
One minute you’re up and the next you’re down
It's a half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown
That's the way that the world goes 'round.” That’s The Way That The World Goes ‘Round-Miranda Lambert