Day 229

For shame! I have been the absolute worst at blogging lately. As if you couldn't tell that already. Wow, I knew it was going to be hard to stay in a routine, but I hadn't thought it would be this hard! I think working at the daycare throws me off...my schedule is different everyday and it's hard to be consistent about things. But that's no excuse! I absolutely cannot let this blog fall by the wayside!

The trouble often is that when I work full days at the daycare, I come home totally obliterated...not sure if it's the heat, or the kids, or getting up early, but I come home and am ready to just chill. Got to get myself revved up! Especially to exercise. I've been doing some dancing to get moving, but haven't gotten organized to do any solid 30 minute workouts. This week has been a good one so far, though. I've only been working three hours in the afternoons, which has given me some time in the mornings to focus on other things.

For example, I've finally gotten some recipes organized for dinners, and actually cooked on Monday! I made Super Veggie Beef Burgers from Sarah's Cucina Bella and low-fat baked onion rings from Skinny Taste and both were delicious! I made them for my Dad and me (I actually got to cook for two for once!) and he approved heartily. Everything was so flipping good! It was a great summer meal. It could have used something green, of course, but it was a fun treat. Take a look:

I took the picture on my phone, so it's not the best quality, but I was too lazy to rummage through my messy room for my good camera. :) Doesn't that look tasty, though? The bean sprouts just made it. Love bean sprouts. And the sandwich thins were way better than big old buns. SO yummy. I never want a real hamburger again!

So tonight red snapper is on the menu. That's right, fish! Lindsey's coming over for dinner so I thought I'd whip up something special. I think we're going to have asparagus and cauliflower mashies with it. Sounds delish, don't it?

Love you all! Thanks Aunt Jane for getting me back over here for a post! You're so awesome! I promise to post about the fish tonight or first thing tomorrow!

Day 179

Oops, I just realized I never posted on Thursday! I even had pictures! Oh well, guess I'll just include it today. I improvised a very delicious burger "salad" Thursday night (the leftovers from which I had tonight!) with lean ground beef, spring mix, tomatoes, avocado, pan-fried shallots, and goat cheese. Yum!!

Isn't it loverly? So nice I had it twice! I'm telling you, I do NOT miss buns when I can eat burgers like this. So very, very tasty!

Also, I weighed in on Friday, and Wednesday's weight turned out not to be a fluke...I'm at 205!! That puts me 35 lbs down, half way to my first goal!! An exciting landmark, so I had to take pictures to document my progress. Here are the results: 

click for larger

Crazy how there's not much difference between 240 and 220, but 15 pounds more and you can really tell a difference! So exciting to see that! When I first looked at these, my initial thought was, "Oh my gosh, I look like a person again!" I know, I know...I've been a person the whole time, lol. But for once I don't hate the way I look. Of course, it always helps to stand next to a couple of chubbier gals. :) 

My most wonderful and awesome Mom took me shopping this weekend, and I'm officially down a pant and shirt size as well...the pants in the above picture are size 16 (down from 18! yay!) and the shirt is a large. SO nice not to see an X on the tag!!

This Friday will mark my six month point. I can't believe I've been at this for a full six months. Amazing! You guys have helped me so much...don't know what I'd do without y'all!

Here's the calorie count for the day: 

Breakfast

Puffins w/ skim milk — 228

Coffee w/ fat-free creamer — 60

Lunch

Gala apple w/ peanut butter — 275

Dinner

Burger salad again! — 387

Snacks

Sugar-free pudding — 60

Total: 1,010

I'm getting better about eating enough calories. Still need to eat better lunches though! And more green things. Always more green things.

Day 159

So wow, total blogging FAIL this past week. I feel like a lot of my entries have been prefaced in a similar fashion lately. Ah well, what can you do? School gets in the way. Last week I had this massive video project to do for my Writing for the Web class. Of course, I didn't get nearly as much done over Spring Break as I could have, so I was stuck staying up every night last week until 12:30 or 1 to get it done. I guess I should be grateful I didn't have to pull any all-nighters! But I finished it in the end. Sadly, I did so at the expense of keeping up with the blog. But we're going to try and make up for lost time this week!

Anyways, things have been going very well since I last posted. I spent the weekend in Asheville with Ginny and we were uncharacteristically healthy the whole time. No candy or junk food in sight. It's really great that we can encourage and support each other in our getting-healthy endeavors, rather than sabotage each other by going straight for the junk as soon as we get together. We did, however, discover a wild turkey in Ginny's backyard, which was a surprisingly good flyer despite its gigantic size.

Despite my crazy busy week, I did make the time to do a little cooking. I made two really delicious things, the first being Susie Bee's Alternative to Plain Burgers, which turned out incredible. I found this amazing Masala Tandoori naan at Trader Joe's which was my carbohydrate splurge for the week, and used it in place of a bun. With that juicy burger and the simple yet delicious sauce, this burger was full of WIN. See for yourself:

I mean, yum, right?

I also made a Chevre Souffle from French Kitchen in America, which I ate for breakfast one morning. More amazing deliciousness! It was nice to have something besides cereal, and the creamy goat cheese and spices made this such a tasty meal. I definitely recommend it.

I also made Kalyn's Greek Meatballs, but accidentally overcooked them so they weren't pretty enough for a picture. I'm definitely going to have to try them again sometime, because they were full of promise! All the spices were great...I just got all wrapped up in my project and didn't keep a proper eye on them. Oh well.

I almost forgot! Weigh-in on Friday went great...down another 1.2 pounds! I took my walk today, which felt great. I'm probably going to be stuck with indoor exercise the rest of the week, since it's supposed to rain pretty much straight through until Friday, so I'm glad I was able to get out today!

Things at school should be relatively calm this week, so hopefully I'll be able to do more cooking. I haven't been to the grocery yet, and I'm trying to be pretty conservative with my money for the rest of the month, but hopefully I can come up with some interesting and tasty recipes to try!

Love you SO much, all of my wonderful cheerleaders! Y'all is da bomb!