I could sleep all day...

Last night, I didn't get to bed until really late. The boyfriend and I got into chatting and time just flew by. I know what I'll be catching up on this weekend.

This morning's weigh in was a nice one. I'm down 1.6 pounds for the week. High fives all around!! And I am at the lowest that I have been since I started this whole mess!!

Yesterday, I went to my beloved Kickbox Jam class. Seriously, guys, I love this class. I sweat so much and get some cardio out of it. Plus, the instructor is a fun guy. I'm really sad that this class is only taught a couple times a week. And I am only able to make it to two days. Sad face from me.

My eating was just ok. I was a Snacky McSnackerson yesterday. But better than I have been. And Praise Jesus, those chocolate chip cookies are gone. I don't have much plans for the weekend, so I will concentrate on the eating.

I just realized that I've lost 5 pounds!! Woo hoo!! It's not a lot but it's something. And it's that much closer to 10 pounds!! I think I deserve a reward.

Thank you Scale Junkie!

Have a great weekend!!

I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me...

Made it to the gym last night. I was fighting with the boyfriend to not go to the gym. But he won (very unusual) and we ended up going. I felt really good afterward. I hate it when he's right!!

Got in 30 minutes on the cross ramp and about half an hour with the weights. I finally got back into squats. They hurt so good, but they make me feel ALIVE!! I love feeling the burn!! But two days of weights and my arms feel like they are going to fall off.

I have a new gym buddy so tonight we are going to try a class. I'm finally taking advantage of what this gym has to offer (and finally getting my money's worth!). It's a hip hop class so we'll see how that goes.

One more thing, I saw this vid and I am utterly amazed at this kid's talent. His performance seriously gave me goosebumps. You've probably seen it already (he's going to be on ELLEN tomorrow) but watch it again...it's amazing!

And....I'm back.

My weekend was SUPERFUN! Super exhausting, but mostly superfun!

The boyfriend and I left Atlanta on Thursday night. We got into New York around 2 o'clock in the afternoon Friday. Yes, people. We drove 18 hours straight. A car ride that was supposed to be only 14-15 hours turned into 18 after making numerous stops and getting lost a couple of times. We slept for a couple of hours when we got in and then headed into the city to visit Times Square.

(Oh yeah, did you hear about that car bomb in Times Square? We were there on that same exact street only 12 hours earlier. My boyfriend was totally freaking out all Sunday and Monday.)

On Saturday, we slept in because of our late night in the city. We then had the yummiest Portuguese chicken ever. We then had to say goodbye to New York and be on our way to Jersey for a concert. We got lost before finally getting to our destination. We were only able to see 4 bands: Angels and Airwaves, Something Corporate, Drake (<3), Paramore. Drake was superawesome but Paramore's set was totally disappointing. And they were the whole entire reason why we drove all that way.

After the concert, there was no way we were going to continue driving so we stopped at a hotel for the night. Got some sleep and headed home on Sunday afternoon. We finally got into Atlanta at 2 o'clock Monday morning.

It feels great to be back. There's nothing like getting a good night's sleep in your OWN bed.

Plus, we got to get home to this:

I didn't eat too much. But my choices weren't the greatest. The only exercise I got in was tons of walking in Times Square (we lost our car) and tons of walking at the concert.

I did get a peek at the scale yesterday morning though. And I was pleasantly surprised to see it was down. Yes!!! I just hope it stays down until my weigh-in on Friday. I'm back to trying to eat better and I'll be heading back to the gym tonight, so I think I should be good.

I hope so, at least.

Tell me all your thoughts on God

As you can tell by now, if I'm not posting that means I'm not doing much.

The last day I worked out was Friday (3o min. HIIT). And I think the last healthy meal I had was Friday night, also. It's been a lazy food filled 3 days.

But I'm over it and moving on.

Plus, the boyfriend says I can't play with the Cricut tonight if I don't workout. And I'm almost done with a project, so I HAVE to get my workout on tonight.

RECIPES
There is no meat allowed in our house on Fridays. I sneak my meat in at work...tee hee. So last Friday I tried out some vegetarian recipes.


You can find the Black Bean Burger recipe here. Seriously, this stuff is good.

And do you want to meet my new boyfriend? You see that salad in the pic. Yup, that's him. You can find that recipe here. That chickpea salad is AWESOME.

Which brings me to a question that I have: how in the heck do you prepare chickpeas? I know you open the can and rinse them out, but are you supposed to peel them before tossing them in the salad or leave the peels on and eat 'em? I peeled the entire can of chickpeas before making the salad and it was very time consuming. So, it really makes me wonder if I'm doing it right.

Sorry for the denseness, guys.

And I feel the way that every child should

Grrr!! I am up 2.8 pounds for the week. I know I didn't make the best food choices so that's where my gain is from. I'm thinking of changing my weigh in day to Friday. That way all the damage that I've done on the weekend doesn't show up so much.

Friday - Ramp It Up
Saturday - off
Sunday - 30 min. elliptical

And that my friends, concludes my first month of consistent exercise!! I have exercised for one month. That feels good to be able to say that. I'm thinking of taking measurements just to see my progress so far. Especially after that gain on the scale, I need some pick-me-up.

This is the longest that I have been working out in a really long time. 6 years to be exact. I am the Queen of the Start and Stop routine. And this is the first time, since 2004, that I have been keeping it up for 4 weeks straight.

I so deserve a pat on the back. =)

Faded pictures on the wall, it's like they talking to me

Wow, I am on a roll. 3 good days in a row!

I ate all of my planned meals. I did eat 3 cookies that weren't planned, but hey, I've been doing so good. I deserved a treat.

Ramp It Up was my workout. One more week on Ramp It Up and then it's on to Burn It Up. Oy vey, I am not looking forward to that.

NSV's
1. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday to pick up some groceries. I hadn't eaten lunch yet. In the check out line, the Reese's PB eggs were calling out to me. So were the million other treats that are stocked in the end lanes. I contemplated buying one for a bit, but didn't give in. I kept on snapping my gum, paid for my purchases and was on my way. That's a big deal for me because I'm a sucker for anything chocolate. I'm a sucker for anything CANDY!
2. There is this blouse that I scored on my day of awesomeness at Old Navy about a month ago. Well, I hadn't worn it because it was a bit snug in the tummy area and the buttons looked like they were going to pop off. Guess what I'm wearing today? Yes! The same blouse that didn't fit me a month ago, fits me nicely now! Woo hoo!! All that working out is paying off!

Monday, Monday it was all I hoped it would be

Happy Monday to everyone!

I have been in such a great mood lately. And I think I know why. It's because I got to wake up one more day to my awesome little family. And because I've got food to eat, a roof over my head and a job to go to. I am so, so grateful for all of my little blessings.

I took a rest day on Friday. That's allowed. I continued on Saturday and Sunday with HIIT on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes.

I'm pretty proud of myself. It has been a long time since I have had one week of consistent exercise. I think the longest I've ever gone was 2 or 3 weeks. I'm really trying to break that record. I'm 33.333333...% done.

I didn't get to weigh in this morning. I was running late and totally forgot to. I have been peeking at my weight this week and it doesn't look really hot. But my little pal is in town so that could be why I'm not happy with what I was seeing. I guess I'll just skip this week and weigh-in next Monday.

No more bread and butter, no more toast and jam

Another good day has gone. My eating was waaaay better. Not 100 percent perfect, but much better. One day at a time I always tell myself.

I did get my HIIT on the elliptical machine. And I did the intervals properly. In regards to timing, I did use the 2:1 ratio. 2.5 minutes of warm-up, 5 minutes high speed, 2.5 minutes slow down, 5 minutes high speed, etc., etc. for 30 minutes. Let me tell you, this is a MUCH better workout. I feel like I'm dying those 5 minutes but after a bit of a recovery I'm ready for the next 5 minutes and ready to feel like dying again. It's great!

I finally got some cooking in this weekend. And all three meals that I put together were a success.

The first meal I cooked was lunch on Saturday. I decided to go with Pasta Fagioli from the awesomeness that is Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes (Oh gawd, I just saw these little suckers. They look so good!! I'm going to have to try these soon.).

Doh! I remembered to take a pic when I was almost done with it.

I'm not really one for soups but this looked good so I decided to try it. It was super easy to make and it came out super yummy. I paired it with a turkey and swiss panini and it made for a nice lunch. My household was pretty happy with it.

The next thing I made was lunch on Sunday. Now I don't know if this is really considered light food. After all, one chicken leg is about 200 calories (that sounds good to me calorie wise, but might seem a little high for some). The reason that I'm mentioning it is because the marinade is excellent and I'm sure it would go great on some chicken breasts. So I present to you Colombian Style Roasted Chicken Legs (courtesy of My Colombian Recipes).

These are next day. I wish I would have gotten a pic when they were right out of the oven. They looked heavenly!

Ingredients
(Serves 4 to 6)

12 chicken drumsticks, skin on
Cooking spray
5 scallions, chopped
3 cloves garlic
½ cup chopped white onion
¼ cup fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Directions

1. In a food processor, place the scallions, garlic, onion, cilantro, thyme, vinegar, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Process to a paste.

2. Place the chicken in a zip –bag and add the marinade. Move around to cover evenly. Refrigerate the chicken overnight.

3. Cover a baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and heat the broiler to high.

4. Place the chicken legs on the baking sheet. Broil for about 10 minutes and turn the legs one time and cook for 12 to 15 minutes more or until the chicken is cooked and the skin is browned. Let it rest for 5 minutes and transfer to a serving plate.

I didn't use thyme and I used parsley instead of cilantro, but these chicken legs still came out Oh-so-good!

*The other meal was Waffles with Strawberry sauce but they were in no way waist-friendly, so I won't talk about them anymore. They sure were good though!

Last Post of 2009

The last day of 2009 is finally here. Finally? Yeah right. This year went by so fast that I don't even remember what happened.

I'll tell you what happened. I started this blog and since May I've lost a total of 0.4 pounds. I went back through the blog and my lowest reported weight was 256.8. Well, I'm now 256.4. So I can't say the year was a total waste, right?

Of course it wasn't a total waste. I came across a lot of awesome bloggers and their blogs. Lots of them were/are inspirational and informative. Plus, I'm a nosey person and I love reading about other people's lives. =D

I'll do my resolution post next year (I love saying that!). I want this to be a short and sweet.

Happy New Year to all! Be safe and be "merry".

Until next year!

Weekend Check-In

Ok, I've been really bad with eating (surprise, surprise) and the exercise, but I promise I will be back tomorrow (Sunday) and TRY to get back my mojo (eating right and working out mojo that is).

I'll share a bit of awesomeness that I got to experience Friday night! Enjoy!