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