Reducto!

Good Friday afternoon y’all! I have worked hard this week because I ate like it was my last weekend on earth during our Orlando trip. I am exhausted but I have done well and hopefully the damage is reversible. I didn’t weigh this week so I could give myself time. I’m weighing next Friday, the third. The goal next week will be to weigh a little less than the last time I weighed. I am hoping to get back to my lowest weight in a couple of weeks so I can start losing again. If I hide my tummy, you can’t really tell that I’m up 4 or 5 pounds but when I’m getting out of the shower and I see the giant mirror in my bathroom, I can tell, and I’m over it.



The recipe this week a recipe from Hungry Girl called Great Garlic Miracle Mashies. I wanted to explore the world of mashed potatoes that included cauliflower. The recipe called for roasted garlic and gave instructions on that. I think you put whole cloves in aluminum foil and then roast them in the oven for at least 40 minutes. I’m sure that would have been delicious but I’m lazy, so I just used minced garlic. Take one medium russet potato and five cups of cauliflower, boiled and softened, half and half (I used fat free milk which is why they were a little too watery), low fat butter spread, salt and pepper and mash it all together. It had good flavor because I loaded it with salt, pepper and garlic and it was pretty filling. I didn’t notice anything weird due to the cauliflower. I think it’d be a good side dish, for sure.



I wanted to show you a new snack today. These are Pepperidge Farm Baked Naturals Cracker Chips, Simply Cheddar MULTI-GRAIN. You can have 26 of these in a serving for a couple weight watchers points. You can have 13-1/2 for one point. They have a nice taste to them and are a good little snack for work. I highly recommend them.

The rest of the pictures are from our weekend at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando. We got to go to the Islands of Adventure which had Seuss Landing (loved it), a superhero land and others. It was a great time. We ate too much and had a fantastic time! I can’t wait to go again one day!

































Have a good weekend, bye!

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss

Discouraged & Excited At The Same Time

Happy Harry Potter Weekend! I will talk more about this later. I weighed this morning and I was highly disappointed. The first time I weighed, it still showed me up 5 pounds from the holidays. I was DEVASTATED and MAD. I worked out, resolved some pending stomach issues and weighed again and I was up about 4. I am also going through the time of month where I retain more water than normal and I’m extra bloated so I am trying to blame at least one pound on that. I have been so good for three weeks so I guess I really did a number on myself over the holidays. I’m especially discouraged because there is really nothing more I can do in the exercise department. I am already working extremely hard. I kicked it up a notch this week and I honestly don’t think I should do more. I don’t want to do too much. I can always do better in the food department but I’ve been pretty dang good. Hopefully, my metabolism will kick in a little help soon. I want to start losing again at some point.



The recipe this week is Chicken with Dijon Herb Sauce. This recipe was inspired by one I saw that used pork chops. I had chicken in the freezer so that’s what I used. The sauce has light butter, spicy mustard, onions and parsley. The recipe suggested that you can use fresh herbs like parsley, tarragon and chives. Basically, you sauté the chicken in the light butter, set it aside, mix all the ingredients for the sauce in the same pan and then add them all together. The sauce had a lot of flavor because of the mustard and the tiny but of light butter. It’d be good for a dinner party. It’s not extremely pretty but it was tasty and a little different spin on chicken.



OMG y’all. I’m heading to Orlando tomorrow so my mom, Oma and I can go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on Sunday. I am BEYOND thrilled to be going. I think it’s going to be a blast. We’ve all read the books and seen the movies and I think it’s safe to say that we qualify as Harry Potter nerds. I can’t wait to go and experience it!



I need to give a shout out to my Canon Powershot camera. I’ve had it for awhile now and it’s time has come. It’s giving me a white screen of death and I can’t get it to work. It was a good camera but I suppose it’s time to move on. Having said that, I didn’t want to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter without a working camera. At some point in my life, I want to invest in a professional camera that you can change the lenses on but I also need a good camera that is small enough so I can put it in a case and carry it everywhere with me. I’ve seen the Kodak EasyShare camera for awhile and I have been wanting it. It’s a good camera for the price, it’s cute and you can upload the pics right to the Facebook or Twitter from the camera. You can also download movies to YouTube from the camera. I am loving it so far. I can’t wait to test it out this weekend!



This week, my advice is to Treat Yo Self. I don’t know if any of you watch Parks & Recreation but they had an episode not too long ago where Donna and Tom had a day (that I think they said they do once a month) where they treat themselves. They feel like they deserve to treat themselves if they’ve worked hard. I think this is a good message. Have you been strict on your diet for a month? Treat Yo Self! Have you gone 2 weeks without spending money dining out? Treat Yo Self. Even though I haven’t lost all of my holiday weight yet, I’ve been working really, REALLY hard so I’m going to have a fun weekend and treat myself to yummy food and treats while I’m at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’ll be good again when I get back so it may be a couple weeks before I weigh again but I deserve it. I topped off my workout week last night with an hour and a half in the gym and between running, walking, biking and time on the elliptical, I put in 5 miles and also did some muscle work. In fact, with my new routine, I am doing 16 miles a week plus weights and crunches. I have been bouncing back and forth on machines. It’s a lot of work and I’m tired…so I will have some Butter Beer…and I can’t WAIT!

I didn’t sleep well last night. I think I’m going to have to start giving up caffeine again. I had awful nightmares so I’m really tired today. I hate to give up McAlister’s tea and Diet Coke with caffeine but I can’t handle all these nightmares and sleepless nights. Sometimes I feel like I have to give up everything I enjoy, lol, but I know it’s good for the long term.

I am packing tonight and can’t wait!

Have a great weekend and if you don’t mind…think about my family as we are all travelling over the next few days. Pray that we all have safe trips! I will have pictures to share next week!

Bye!

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." Albus Dumbledore

Roll Tide Y'all!

I made it through another good week. Next Friday will be my first weigh in of 2012 so I’m hoping I won’t be disappointed. The best I am hoping for is that I am within one or two pounds from my lowest weight. I had A LOT of food over the holidays so I don’t want to expect too much. I have been a good girl so if I can make it through this weekend, the week shouldn’t be too bad. I am extremely intrigued to see how much I weigh. I know that I feel better so that’s nice and I can definitely tell my clothes are starting to fit a little more like they did before Thanksgiving. We shall see.



The recipe this week is one from skinnytaste.com. It’s Skinny Potato Gratin. You spray a casserole dish so the potatoes won’t stick, slice up some Yukon Gold potatoes very thinly, layer them with some fat free milk, reduced fat cheddar cheese, and garlic powder. It called for fresh herbs like bay leaves, thyme and nutmeg but since I despise nutmeg in my savory food and I’m all out of fresh herbs, I went with garlic, my favorite. You top it off with a bit more cheese and bake it. Y’all, this was DELICIOUS. It’s a potato dish so it’s filling, it’s cheesy so you feel like you are getting a treat and it would be a great accessory to and lean meat of your choice. I HIGHLY recommend it.





Today, I want to encourage you to stick to your resolutions, especially if one of them was to get healthy and exercise. The first picture is what a gym looks like at the beginning of the year. The second picture is what a gym starts to look like around February or March. If you are an avid exerciser which I have been for a couple of years, it kind of irks you when the machines are all filled up in January and somebody you know won’t be there in a few weeks is on your favorite treadmill. Yes, it’s possible to have a favorite treadmill, even if they are all the same. I’ve been there. I’ve vowed to work out as a new year’s resolution and then it fizzled quickly. Like all new year’s resolutions, the ones that people make about health tend to lose momentum very quickly. I personally think people put too much stock in their resolutions and place the bar a bit too high. When your goals aren’t realistic, you usually don’t accomplish them. So, instead of resolving to work out every day for an hour a day beginning in January, you should set smaller goals that can be achieved in shorter periods of time. For instance, if you say, I will walk 5 minutes a day at least 5 days a week until February, that is certainly a goal you can accomplish. It may not seem like much but when the only exercise you are getting involves walking from the parking lot to your office or lifting the remote up and down, 5 minutes of walking can make a big difference. After you accomplish that goal, set a different one for the next month that is a LITTLE bit more challenging. Remember, you are looking for life changes, not instant gratification, though I know we all wished weight loss worked as fast as checking our emails on our phones. Life just doesn’t work that way. I hope I can stick to my own preaching here and exercise the way I have planned and challenge myself on occasion.

I was lucky enough to get another class to teach at Alabama this semester. It was a little last minute but I’m grateful and excited for the opportunity. My first class was yesterday and of course, I already love my students. I hope the semester goes smoothly. The experience and if I’m being honest, the extra cash are both things that I am blessed to have.



Well, unless you don’t care a single thing about football or you live under a rock, you know that the Alabama Crimson Tide totally DOMINATED LSU to win the national championship game on Monday night. It felt AMAZING. I will miss the seniors that are leaving but I look forward to the future. Alabama has a great recruiting class and hopefully, we will continue to excel. I miss football season already but I’m happy for the break. It does NOTHING for my figure. I wish so bad that I had been able to go to New Orleans to see the game but I’ve been to a national championship game which is more than a lot of people can say so I will get over it. It looked like a blast and watching Alabama win felt awesome. ROLL TIDE. If you’d like little tidbits about football throughout the off season, don’t forget to check out bamahammer.com, the site that I write for. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook.

Just as another FYI, I had a poem published online. You can view that here if you’d like: http://whistlingfire.com/2012/01/05/mantis/.

So far 2012 has been great and even though I complain a lot, I am moving forward in my life and I am very blessed to have the ability to travel and write and teach…all things that I love. I work hard though and I think you have to have a combination of both hard work and mostly good luck.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Bye!

“We are the champions, my friends
and we’ll keep on fighting, til the end.
We are the champions, we are the champions!
No time for losers, ‘cause we are the champions!” We are the Champions-Queen

RTOTA

Happy 2012 Y’all!!!!! I hope things are fabulous so far. My weighing moratorium is still going fine. I am excited to weigh on the 20th because since Jaunary 2nd, I’ve been flawless. I’m nervous about the upcoming weekend because this will be my first strict weekend in awhile but I’m motivated. I am feeling better already and even though I’ve had a couple diet rage related outbursts this week, it really could have been much worse. On the 20th, I will know for sure how much weight I need to lose to catch up. I made several resolutions. The weight loss related one is realistic. I would like to weigh 16.2 pounds less than my lowest weight by next NYE. I think that is totally possible. I didn’t want to set my standards too high. I’m off to a good start I think.



Now that college football season is almost completely over, I am going to miss some of my favorite tailgating foods. I love all food in relation to barbecue. I’ve made a low fat barbecue nachos before but I wanted to make a lower fat version of the barbecue quesadilla that I’ve had both at Dreamland and Jim N Nicks. They are delicious at both places but loaded with fat. This is a much smaller portion using the whole grain, flax seed flat bread that I’ve mentioned before, the barbecue that I get premade that has 100 calories per serving and a bit of low fat cheese. I just spread a single serving of the cheese and barbecue on the flat bread, closed it up and put it on the sandwich press. I thought it was quite tasty and actually a nice substitute for the kind you can get at barbecue joints in the south.







My camera is on the fritz and I’m pretty devastated about it. The screen will only show a white light and nothing else so I can’t see what I’m taking and I can’t review the pictures that I do take. Having said that, I only took a few pictures from NYE. I am NOT crazy about these pictures…especially my yellow side teeth in the one with Jordan and the heinous underarm boobs I tried to tuck in all night BUT it’s not all bad and I loved my dress. I also took a picture of the shoes I wore. My mother will HATE these but they made me feel tall and fancy. Heels are horrible for you to wear. They are uncomfortable and do a number on your knees, feet and back but they make me stand up straight and I swear knock a couple inches off around the waist so I wear them sometimes. I didn’t fall once wearing these so I think I will try them again sometime.

As a quick weight loss thought for the day, I wanted to let everyone know that for me, losing weight hasn’t just helped my figure and my health. It has catapulted my entire life. Because I have lost weight, it has given me energy and confidence. More than likely, if you set goals and lose weight, it will also give you more energy and confidence. For me, this energy and confidence (sorry for saying that 3 times) has spilled over into other areas of my life. I write more (for the bamahammer.com site and also on other projects), I try new things, I set new goals and I am trying to light a fire in order to reach my career goals. I am not sure that anything I do now on a daily basis would be possible if I hadn’t lost weight. So, though I’m not sure the “trickle down effect” has basis in some areas, I definitely think it holds merit when it comes to losing weight. If you have things in life you want to accomplish, start with getting healthy and it may lead you to achieve other goals.





On Monday, January 9, 2012, Alabama will face off again against LSU for the National Championship. I wasn’t fortunate enough this time to get tickets to the game and I really can’t afford just to head down to New Orleans to support Alabama but rest assured, my Dad and I will be fiercely supporting the team from home. I am nervous but excited. I think Alabama can win and I REALLY hope that they do…so…unless you are an avid hater of the Alabama football program or an LSU fan, maybe you could think good thoughts and send good karma for an Alabama win.


Have a great weekend y’all!

Bye!


“Roll Tide.” Every Alabama Fan