Clean Eating: Eat at Home 1

So since my weight loss is going good so far and I have been working hard on continuing on losing I decided that I better keep going. And the only way that I will be able to continue is to not eat out all the time. I told Olivia this past week that if we cooked at home all week that I would treat her to eating out on Friday. Well I did exactly what I said I would do. I treated her to McDonald's for dinner! I ate a vegetable soup instead for dinner and it was very good!

My weight loss goal is getting closer and closer as I continue on my journey. Not only will I continue this journey on my own but I will continue to do it by trying to eat clean and eating at home. I have tried several recipes that I normally wouldn't try on my own and they all turned out being awesome! I even made up a few of my own and wow is all I can say! They turned out great!

Tonight's dinner is going to be clean greek chicken and I found the recipe on pinterest of course. We love getting ideas off pinterest and being able to try different recipes off there. This one was really easy to make and I only used 3 chicken breasts instead and will be making quinoa noodles instead of regular noodles for dinner. It's a change and I'm looking forward to that change. I picked up the noodles at Whole Foods when we went a few weeks ago. They looked good and I will have to let you all know how they taste.

Here are what a few of the dinners that we have had the past week look like. Enjoy!

Cinderella's in the House!!!

So here is my costume for the Princess Half Marathon!!! I'm going as Cinderella!!!

Getting Excited...

I have to say that since December is almost over...I'm getting really excited knowing that the race is only 2 months away from Monday! It's hard to believe it will be here before you know it and yes I still need to book my resort and room and all that and I will do that but I am so slack lately on it. I need to crack down on it. We have been trying to figure out if we wanted to fly down and where to stay and all that so we may have figured it out. Jason said he would look more at it when he comes home next week and he has a little more time to really look at it and the prices since he will be the one paying for it all. I have been looking for a used treadmill that I can set up in the garage to run since I have been wanting one. Whenever we move we will take it with us but it will be nice for me to use on the super cold days and I can play my music via my speakers and all that out in the garage. If we had enough room in the bedroom, the treadmill would be coming upstairs in the room with us but right now we don't have enough room.

Speaking of treadmills...I will be posting a different post just asking some advise on one. Since I am looking at a used one instead of a new one I will be asking very specific questions. But until then, I will leave you with a picture of me showing my progress of what I looked like last year compared to just this past week. I feel great too which is very nice to feel after feeling like crud all last year! The picture above is from tonight from when I arm knitted this beautiful infinity scarf for myself. It's not perfect but that is ok with me!

Weight Loss Mini Goal Met..

This past week I have been unable to eat or even workout or run due to an abscessed tooth and oral surgery but I have to say that I have been able to meet one of my weight loss mini goals. A week ago I had issues with my tooth and honestly I thought that I could make it until Monday but holy smoke my tooth was killing me. So after a trip to the doctor, I found out my tooth was abscessed. I haven't been able to eat what I normally eat due to my mouth hurting but that I think has been a good thing because it meant no eating out or anything else. In the past week I have lost a good 10 pounds and I'm still loosing. I had to have oral surgery on Monday to have the tooth removed and have a drain put in but it's been a week. I still have stitches in my mouth so it makes eating a little difficult. I am still swollen some but it's not going to stop me from training for my half marathon.

I will be able to start working out on Monday and I can't wait! I am still trying to decide if I want to join a gym or if I want to just go purchase a treadmill for the house. If you have a treadmill what do you recommend? I want something that will last me several years but isn't super expensive either. I'm also looking at getting a Garmin Forerunner Watch and looking at a few and not sure which one to get. What is one that you would recommend? Have a good Saturday!

My mini goal was to be under 250lbs and that has been met! Next mini goal is to get to 230lbs. :) Halfway there!

I have found a coffee creamer!

So today I was on my way out the door to head to the local Walmart when I started to pick up a soda, Pepsi Next. I then thought about it and decided to put it back and grab a bottle of water. Wow! What a difference that is from just a month ago because I would have continued to go on about my business and not even worry about what I was drinking. Even while on vacation I did have soda but I had water and eventually drank more water than soda. Surprise, Surprise.  Well while shopping for a few things that we needed, I found a coffee creamer a friend told me about. I grabbed it and thought to myself if I don't like it I can always add some sugar or something to it. Well came home and made my cup of coffee and didn't add any sugar to it! Sweet! It's called Coffeemate Italian Sweet Cream and it's sugar free! Even better! I have tried some other coffee creamers out there that have been sugar free and they weren't that good. But this I could use on a daily basis and not put any sugar in my coffee. One more step to becoming healthy I guess.

On the other note I am baking my grandma a 2 layer cake for her 95th birthday which just happens to be today and making homemade buttercream frosting to go on it. Yum. So unhealthy but I figured it's an honor to be eating cake with my grandma who is 95 years old! I will cherish these memories forever! Ok, not going to cry today over it but I am sure I will later.  We are having a small family get together and so it's pizza and salad night with homemade birthday cake. Can't turn that down today. Tomorrow is a new day!

Almost time for Color Me Rad!

It's almost time for the Color me Rad race which will happen on Sept. 6th this year I'm going down to Wilmington the Friday before so that I can get ready for the race. I can't wait and it will be so much fun! I have been looking forward for this race. What new race or races have you signed up for lately or have you ran?

I am looking forward to running this race and might not be fast at all but it's a start. I will be sure to do my inhalers before the race and i will bring them along with me. I hope that this is the start of my addiction to running and losing weight. I have lost 50lbs now and i want to lose another 70lbs and I have to say that after 3 years of not being able to wear a pair of Jean shorts; today I can officially wear them!

My weight loss journey has just begun and I am looking forward to seeing how much I can lose in the next year and keeping the weight off.

It's Official!!!!! I'm Registered!!!!

Registration is now OPEN for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend and who is in? I know that I am! It's official! I'm now registered for the Princess Half Marathon on February 22, 2015 and I can't wait to run it! I have many friends who are running it and some of them I have never met except online but that's the fun about social media is that you can get to do this and meet people! Who would have thunk that I would be open to running a half marathon with having asthma and all that? But I am going to look into getting a better control on my asthma now that I am going to be running and I need to learn to breath while running a lot better. I need to still go pick up my shoes from the running store but we haven't had the time to go up to Durham to get. Between school and mini vacations and getting ready to move it's been difficult to get up there. Oh well, I need to get up there soon and get them! Way before we move or go on vacation so that I can start really cracking down on training!

While I registered I also went ahead and got a Commemorative Pin for the Half Marathon which is a just like a pin that you would trade but this is something that I would not trade. I plan on keeping it!

I'm beyond excited about this opportunity and I'm so happy that I have made this decision to start running and start training and start losing weight. One of the things that I have been wanting to do is to have a baby and in order for us to have a baby is to lose the weight for me to have surgery and so this is a big deal for me to do this. I plan on signing up for a 10k in the Outer Banks in November to get a better corral placement. :) We shall see if I do! :)

Who else is signing up? Better hurry up since they are filling up fast!

Almost Healed...But it's almost time to sign up!!!

My back is almost back to normal! Yay! That's a relief too! But did you know that it's almost time to sign up for the Princess Half Marathon?!!! Yep! The sign up date is coming up very quickly and I am getting more and more excited about it! I can't contain my excitement!

I have in the past kind of let my excitement get in the way of how I let my performance get the best of me but this year I have decided to start up early and run no matter what. I have been reading other blogs and reading about the Princess Half Marathon and saying how it is very Walker Friendly so that makes me feel a lot better. I have however entered to try to win a spot to go to the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco on October 19, 2014 but if I don't get into that then I will sign up for a half marathon in Myrtle Beach and run/walk that. I mean who wouldn't want to run/walk at the beach? I know I would! And then I am going to sign up for a 10K at the Outer Banks in November to hopefully get a better corral for the PHM. I don't want to be in the last corral because I want to be able to stop and take pictures so with that said the training needs to start happening soon. I feel like with this move coming on it will never happen but it has to. Even if it means while at Disney World in September, me having to train there I will! I mean what a better place to train at than the very place I will be running at in February! Talk about motivation there!!!

While we are at Disney I am going to be checking out BLT and even the Yacht Club because well I can. I want to really stay at Bay Lake Tower in February because it has access to the Monorail and well who doesn't want access to the monorail instead of a bus at 4am? This chick that's who!

Weight wise I am down another couple of pounds which makes me very happy and I can tell my clothes are fitting nicely now. I have even started to find clothes that haven't been able to fit in years fitting. So that is a nice plus to this weight loss. We are heading to the lake for a few days with the family to go camping so if I do happen to post anything I will try to post something that is relaxing looking!

Baked BBQ Chicken 9 WW Points Only Dinner

Tonight's dinner was only 9 points on Weight Watchers new points value and I have to say it was quite filling too. I used my Tupperware Ultra Pro Pan to bake my chicken in and used my Chicken 'n' Ribs bbq sauce on them. The chicken was only worth 2 points and the bbq sauce was 1 point. I also cooked 3 small ears of corn on the cob and made a small salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. This was a total of 9 points total for dinner and I thought that wasn't too bad at all considering my dinner last night was worth like 15 points.

Above is a picture of the baked chicken that I made tonight for dinner.

Feeling A Little Better

So lately I have been trying really hard to continue to lose the weight. One thing that I have been trying to do is still cook at home on a daily basis. It's been hard because I'm so used to going out to eat and not having to cook but after the doctor told me that I have high cholesterol I have to change something. Eating fast food isn't going to work anymore no matter what I say. I'm not a teen anymore nor am I in my early 20's either! I have to change my living and eating habits or else I'm not going to be around for my child anymore or my husband.

So one thing that I have been wanting is a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. Actually I have wanted one for years but never cooked or baked enough to justify to get one. Instead I would just spend that money that I could have saved for one on fast food. It was a quick fix then but won't be now. Jason surprised me with my very own Kitchenaid stand mixer on Wednesday after he came home from work and so I was so surprised! So I decided to go ahead and make a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. I know bad for me but they were oh so good and fluffy. Never have I ever made them and they were fluffy! I didn't eat much of them because I wasn't craving them so it made me feel good about not having to devour them that very instant. My weight has finally started to really come off lately and I'm not sure if its because I know I have to eat healthier or not but it's leaving and never coming back!

I hopped on the scale last Monday and it said I weighed 277lbs. Not what I was thinking but it's better than the 297 that I was at in June. Better than I thought I would be at. So that is 20lbs gone! I feel better and my clothes are starting to fit better or look a lot looser on me. I hopped on the scale this morning and I am at 272.4. Getting better! I'd like to be at 250 by the new year so then I have another 40 lbs to lose in order for me to have the surgery to have another baby. I was hoping we would get a treadmill this Christmas but we decided to get a new love seat for the living room. We only have one couch that is old and very uncomfortable so we chose that instead. So I have lost so far since starting this weight loss journey for good is 24.6lbs! That's awesome and makes me feel so good about myself and the way I look. Many people might not notice the change or difference but for me I can tell the difference in my face and neck. I don't look like I have rolls in my neck anymore or a double chin. This is also my weight for a week before getting my monthly cycle and normally I gain weight. Instead I am losing it which makes me feel so much better about my weight loss journey. I might actually weigh less than the scale says just because I'm a little bloated since next week I am going to start. So we shall see the first or 2nd week in December if that is true!

My next step after losing almost 30lbs is to start being able to walk or jog. I want to start to run but my first step is to walk a good 3 miles without having to catch my breath. What are some of your goals you have set for yourself?

I'd love to be able to run in the Princess Half Marathon in February 2015 if I'm not pregnant and haven't just given birth!

Weight Needs to Go!

So today I got out most of my summer clothes to see if I had any shorts that I could wear. Nope! Nothing except for workout ones. Not what I was looking for! So I'm now on a bigger mission to lose this weight and start running and working out more! I need to lose enough weight before we leave for Disney in 58 days! I'm on a mission and I'm not going to stop until I get there. So that means no more eating fast food a lot and if we do go get fast food I will get a grilled chicken or a salad instead. No more drinking a ton of soda like I have been and eating at home more often. Today we went to the store and I picked up a bunch of fresh fruits, lean meats and wheat bread to help us. Plus I got light margarine and light mayo. I think that will be a good start. I was planning on going for a walk/run today but the track was being used by two different sports today. So it looks like tomorrow I will have to get it in. Plus the pollen count today is high so that's also stopping me. Times like this I wish we had a treadmill so that I could still get my run in even though the pollen count is high. Hopefully this summer we can get one or at least it would be nice to get one for the house.

I got my new shoes today and I wore them to the school to pick Olivia up and then we went to the store after that. For once my feet don't hurt so bad to where I have to stop walking for a few minutes. It's amazing what a pair of fitted running shoes can do for you!