At the end of the day...

Hi y’all.  I’m sick and I’m being a big baby so I’m going to make this quick.  I haven’t been eating like I should so I’ve been copping out and not weighing.  I decided that I needed to weigh and face the scale on Saturday.  Miraculously, it wasn’t that bad.  I’m still less than 10 pounds away from my smallest weight.  I need to get my mind right.  I want to lose 10 pounds, right away.  I’m tired of this crap.  I’m taking the fact that I haven’t gained much weight as a sign from my body that it’s willing to work with me.  So, it’s on for the next few weeks.  I’m saying goodbye to carb filled weekends.  It’s time.

I don’t have a recipe this week but I do want to heed a warning.  The battle to find decent salad dressing is ongoing.  I know that yogurt recipes are the new fad.  It’s a lower fat option for things like mayonnaise and sour cream. Sometimes it’s a hit and sometimes it’s a miss.  I’m going to just tell you that the Caesar Parmigiano dressing from Bolthouse Farms is a miss.  This dressing fails to mask the nasty kick that fat free Greek yogurt can have sometimes.  In fact, it had an undertone of rotten milk that made me want puke a little bit.  It’s still sitting in my refrigerator.  It was expensive so I put it back in the fridge for some reason.  I guess I’m cheap.  My guess it will stay in there and stare at me every time I open the door until it’s reached its expired date and I finally throw it away.  Feel free to ignore me and try it anyway but know that you are going against a strong recommendation to stay away. 

My Dad and I attended the 4^th annual Suds of the South Beer Festival in Tuscaloosa this weekend.  A lot of my friends went too.  It’s always a fun time.  It’s something nice that Tuscaloosa does. If you live in a small town, it’s important to appreciate the few events that it hosts.  Unfortunately, the beer was full of calories and so was the pizza we had after.  Luckily, there are no more enticing events coming up to make me stray from my diet.  I am going to see Maroon 5 on Tuesday but I’m going with Jordan and my brother so they will keep me in line.

At the end of the day, I know that I’ve done well and have a lot to be proud of but it’s all for nothing if I don’t get myself into gear.  I need to come to a point where I am once again putting myself first.  I know that if I am dedicated and driven, I can do good things…so, I’m ready to be awesome again.

I hope to have a successful week/weekend so look forward to positive news next week!

Have a wonderful week and HAPPY EASTER! Bye.

“My oh my

You’re getting under my skin

Don’t know why I’m always letting you in…” My Oh My-Tristan Prettyman

Melts in your mouth...

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick’s Day.  As you can see, there was a lot of green going on this weekend.  The pictures of the food are from the delicious dinner my mother made last night in which she made everything green.  She had green butter to go with green bread, green potato salad, broccoli and green pound cake that was served with strawberries.  It was pretty festive…and quite tasty.  Cassandra and I also got in the spirit and got out for a bit.  We broke out the St. Patrick’s day swag and took pictures so I gave you one as an example.  I love a themed holiday.  

I finally finished my 60 day challenge on Friday.  It’s interesting because I whole-heartedly recommend Insanity but some of my final numbers weren’t great and I wouldn’t advise it for everyone.  I did lose a few inches total since I started Insanity which is good but I didn’t lose weight.  To be fair, I haven’t eaten the way I should have for the 60 days so I think that if I was at 100% for calorie intake, I would have lost weight and more inches.  There are also things called “fit tests” on Insanity that you do periodically over the 60 days.  On my final fit test, I did worse in every category but two.  Why do I still recommend it you ask?  Well, like I said, I didn’t match Insanity up with diet perfection so it wouldn’t be fair to blame it for my lack of weight loss.  Also, I think I did every fit test after a night with little sleep.  I think I was also doing some of the moves wrong in the beginning.  I did better in the arms categories which is good to know.  I know that my arms are stronger though they aren’t great.  I also know for a fact that my hips, legs, thighs and calves are leaner and more muscular since I started.  I wouldn’t recommend it for people that are beginners because it’s really tough and takes a toll on your muscles.  I didn’t weigh this weekend but I will on Saturday.  I have to really shape up…I haven’t been nearly as solid as I should be but I’m ready to make a change and put myself first as far as food/drink goes.  Overall, if you’re in good health and decent shape, I would say give Insanity a try.  Since it’s so intense, I want to do it again but not every day.  So, I’ve scheduled my workouts for several months to come that intertwines Insanity videos with running, elliptical, walking and some other things.  I’ve got a couple 5K’s planned so I’ll be training for those too.

The recipe this week was once again inspired by Pinterest.  I don’t know about you all but I love hummus and I love the Sabra brand.  In moderation, hummus isn’t bad for you at all and makes a great snack.  This recipe is something called a ‘Hummus Melt’ and it was simple and yummy.  All you do is kick on the broiler of your oven, toast some low fat bread, spread a serving of hummus between the two pieces of bread, top it with turkey slices or whatever deli meat you want, and then a low fat or fat free cheese of your choosing and then broil it for a couple minutes.  It’s filling and tastes great.  It’s a really good addition to a salad or works as a snack too.

That’s all I’ve got today. 

Dad and I are going to a beer fest this Saturday so that should be fun!

Have a good week y’all!  Bye!

“Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you’re wrong…” Drops of Jupiter-Train (I got a few friends like these…and I’m so grateful)

Dirty.

Hi y’all.  I won’t waste time with small talk.  I didn’t weigh this week which is the way I planned it.  I will be completely done with my Insanity 60 Day Challenge on Friday.  I’m going to take measurements and weigh on Saturday so I can get the final numbers.  I know that it works but I don’t expect a weight loss.  In fairness to Insanity, it’s my fault I haven’t lost weight.  I haven’t done the healthy eating part as well as I should.  I did better this weekend but it still wasn’t perfect.  I know that I’m stronger and leaner from Insanity though.   I’m going to continue to do Insanity  because it’s a positive challenge for me but I’m going to incorporate other exercise rather than doing it every day.  Insanity is tough on your joints so I don’t think you should continue to do it every day after the 60 day challenge.  I want to also try new things…maybe a dance class or something else.

The recipe this week was inspired by Pinterest.  I made a few adjustments to these from the original inspiration.  They are called Taco Cups.  You all should know that I love an easy recipe and it really doesn’t get more simple than these and they are very tasty.  A lot of people use ground turkey and chicken but if you get the lean varieties of those meats, they tend to dry out.  If you get the ones with higher fat content, they are too high in fat.  I prefer to stick with beef but I just get a really lean selection.  I was able to find 96/4 ground beef and it was pretty low in fat.  All you do is preheat the oven to 375, spray a muffin pan, poke small wonton wrappers in the cups and spray them as well.  After that, brown the meat with taco seasoning.  I put a little salsa and fat free cheese in the bottom of the wonton cup, put some of the browned meat on top and then popped it in the oven.  Be careful, these don’t take long and you can easily burn them.  Once they come out, top them with a little more salsa and fat free cheese.  If you have the available calories left for the day, you could top with some light sour cream.  I was able to have four of these for seven points which isn’t bad and I loved the taste of them.  The wontons crisped on the edges nicely.

Meet Grayson Belle Wyatt, y’all.  My parents got a new Great Dane.  She’s pretty cool.  She made miss Pacey a bit but I’m sure she’ll be an awesome addition to the family.  I’m glad she lives with my parents, though…she’s going to be enormous.

My friend Arianne Crow invited me to participate in the Dirty Girl Mud Run with her.  I obliged and had a blast.  It was held at the Talladega Super Speedway.  Essentially, it’s a 5K with obstacles along your way.  You have to crawl around in the rocks and freezing water, walk through mud and do various climbing exercises.  I ran most of the time and was able to complete every challenge.  It was pretty intense, I got banged up and I was incredibly sore the next day but it was really fun.  I’m glad I did it. That’s all I have today.  Have a good week everyone! Holla!

“Never had much faith in love or miracles

Never wanna put my heart on the line…” Locked Out of Heaven-Bruno Mars

Choose Change

Hi! So, I know I didn’t post last week but this will be a ridiculously lazy post.  It kind of matches my personality lately.  I have been lazy about a lot of things.  I have been far too loose on my diet and even though I’ve been exercising, I haven’t been giving it my all.  That changes today, though.  I am going to do better.  I’ve decided not to weigh again until I’m completely done with the Insanity challenge.  When that’s over, which crazily will be next Friday, I’ll get my weight and all my measurements so I can see my complete results and so I can see how much work I need to do to reach my small goal.  I know Insanity works because even though the scale isn’t showing it because I’ve been eating too much, people have commented on how much leaner I look.  I have to figure what to do next.  I think I’ll mix Insanity in with running and maybe some dance classes or something.  I may be involved in some sort of mud run obstacle course this Saturday in Birmingham…if I do that, I’ll definitely have pics.

I’ve been on my own nerves lately because I make so many mistakes.  I know that I am the only one that can change the things I don’t like about myself.  There are certain things in life that you can’t control.  There are other things that you can change but you have to make the decision to work your butt off.  I’ve heard a lot of folks say that they believe people can’t change.  I used to think that too but it’s a bit more complicated than that.  People can change but YOU CAN’T CHANGE them.  If I want someone to be better, it doesn’t matter how hard I try to change them or how much I hope that they’ll be different, they won’t be unless they make the choice to do it.  It’s a hard lesson to learn sometimes.  I know that when I was extraordinarily unhealthy, the people closest to me probably wanted to help me change but it’s something I had to do for myself.  I guess I’m saying that because I may stumble, but today is a new day and I’m changing constantly and whatever obstacles I face, I’m determined to defeat them. I owe it to myself to do the best I can in every aspect of my life.

I don’t have a recipe because I suck but I did bake a cake and cookies during my absence from the blog.  The cake was delicious.  The cookies were OK.  There’s a picture of it mixed in below with pictures from different events I’ve experienced the past few weeks (wrestling, Oscar night, and the Pink concert which was amazing). I’ll do better next post, I swear.  Have a good week!

“Ain’t no talkin’ to this man…ain’t no pretty other side…” - Let Him Fly.