A few of my favorite things...

Hi everyone. Apologies for a blogging break. Things are good. I had a terrible weekend. I was up very late on Thursday night due to a small "emergency" and I was playing catch up on sleep. Needless to say I missed my favorite, Saturday workout, and although I did workout later in the day, it just isn't as good. I am a totally different person when I work out in the mornings. It just is such a great starter to my day, that when I miss my morning workout, yikes, I am unpleasant. Mostly because I'm upset with myself for sleeping in and missing my workout. Anyway, I redeemed myself and had a great workout Monday.

Tuesday was a great day because even though Boyd had a meeting in the morning, and I wasn't able to go to the gym, I did a workout video and then went and ran a mile outside (yep a whole mile this time!) and I burned just as many calories as I did at the gym. It was good to do that to know that even when I can't get to the gym, I can still push myself and get in a good workout.

So my jeans that I bought when I was about 2 months pregnant are now getting too big, and although I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans, they are still a little too tight to wear all day. So I put on one of my cute belts that I haven't worn in a really long time, and it looks great! Nothing hangin over, haha. So that was pretty exciting! I'm hoping by next week my pre-pregnancy jeans will be "wearable."

As I was watching The Biggest Loser last night (and doing jumping jacks during commercials to burn the extra calories I needed to meet my goal) they had a little part on how many calories, fat and sodium were in different fast food items. It's frightening. Especially since Boyd and I lived on fast food practically our entire marriage. Now you may think that that's how I was raised, but on the contrary, we hardly ever ate out growing up. I guess it was just easier especially since I was in school, and Boyd was working, and it's such a social thing for us. But since January 1, the only eating out we've done is Subway once or twice a month and Cafe Rio (salads) once or twice a month. I don't think we've ever gone this long without Taco Bell or Domino's. I think we're really on the right track this time. Cooking at home is getting easier and easier and actually pretty fun. I like discovering new things to make.

In addition to that, there are a few things that are my "saving graces" they help me stay on track. I thought I'd share them with you...

My bodybugg. Unfortunately, I have the bigger version (I want this new smaller one), but it still does the same thing. It is AWESOME. Just last night, I checked it at 11:30pm, and I still had 130 calories to burn (before 11:59) in order to meet my goal. So I did jumping jacks during the commercials during The Biggest Loser. Without my BodyBugg I wouldn't have done the extra work because I would have thought that because I worked out, I did enough...but not so. I love my bodybugg!

So even though I'm doing better at cooking at home, there does come times where I don't have everything I need to cook, or time is short, so we need something quick. Subway is the answer! I love that I can have a full sandwich and I know exactly how many calories are in it. Subway is great.

If it weren't for Skinny Cows, I wouldn't be eating good still. Is it included in the "perfect meal plan"? no. But it's a dang good alternative to eating desserts. For 140 calories, you can have a big, yummy ice cream sandwich. ONE cookie has more than 200 calories in it, that's just one small cookie, but I can just have one of these and stay within my calorie budget, but still feel satisfied. I love them!

Weigh of Life digital scale. This scale is AMAZING. If you are not measuring your food, I guarantee you, you're eating more than you think. When you really start measuring out your food (not in measuring cups, but on a scale), you really start to see how small portions really are, and how many calories are really in what you're eating. This scale comes with a little booklet with hundreds of common foods in it. So you put your food on the scale, punch in the code for the food you are eating, and it tells you the EXACT nutritional info for the amount of food you're eating. For foods that aren't in the book, you can just measure how many grams are in your food, then look it up on calorie-count.com. You HAVE to measure your food if you want to really count calories. A digital scale makes it easy too. If I'm having oatmeal in the morning, I make my oatmeal, then but the bowl on the scale before I turn it on, then turn it on and it starts at zero. Add what I want, turn off, turn on, zero again. It's great. Love love love this scale!!

George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grill. This grill is awesome. Pound out a chicken breast, put on some Grill Mates seasonings, throw on the Foreman, voila, yummy chicken in about 5 minutes to eat plain, or put in a salad . I also cook turkey burgers on it. It's fab. If you don't have one of these, you should. You can also make grilled sandwiches in it, one of Boyd's faves.

BodyCombat. I know I've said this before, but I LOVE this class. It is so fun, I feel like I'm not only burning tons of calories, but I feel strong and powerful while I'm doing it too. Plus I honestly feel like I'm learning a little bit of self defense at the same time. GREAT class.

So my sister-in-law introduced me to this trick. I don't drink diet soda, but I love soda. Dilemma. So I've started to drink seltzer waters (I like the lemon or lime flavored ones best) and it really gives me my "soda" craving without any sugar or aspartame. I love the carbonation, it just satisfies me enough. Now if you're used to drinking coke or even diet coke, this stuff is pretty nasty. But if you go straight from water to seltzer, it's pretty yum-o. I love it, it helps me a lot.

Presto PopLite Air Popper. I love popcorn. Popping it airpopped is the best way to do it (healthiest). So I'll have this for a night time snack, and I put just a teeny bit of butter on it (not even a tablespoon) and then shake some salt on there, and have a Perrier to drink, soooo good! I feel like it's cheating, but it's not. You can have a lot of popcorn for a little bit of calories. I even pop it and put it in a ziplock before I go to a movie, then bring my own Perrier, and I don't even feel tempted to go to the snack bar (not to mention I save about $10!). Airpoppers are the best! And no mess to clean up either. LOVE IT.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my favorite things, maybe you'll try them and like them too! I really think that with any diet routine, you have to have some tricks to get you through. It's all about preparation!!!

Love

Sarah