Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Ultimate Blog Swap from Stephanie’s Mommy Brain

 

Ultimate Blog Swap: 3 Simple Steps to Weight Loss


Raise your hand if you made New Year’s resolutions back in January. {holding my hand up} Now wave your hand around if one of those resolutions was to lose weight. {waving my hand in the air}
If you’re like me, by summer those resolutions are just a vague memory. But they don’t have to be this year. Summer is actually the best time to lose weight - an active lifestyle is easy, eating fresh fruits and veggies is natural, and swimsuits provide an extra incentive to stick with the diet/exercise program!
I learned the trick of summer weight loss last year when I lost 15 pounds. 15 pounds may not sound like much, but when you are barely 5 feet tall, 15 pounds really show up on your body!

Weight Gain Causes
My 30 pound weight gain started nearly 9 years ago when I became pregnant with my first child. An addiction to junk food, no concept of serving sizes, an allergy to exercise and a pregnancy license to eat what and when I wanted all added up to a little extra “baby weight.” It was a lifestyle I continued as I carried 3 more pregnancies in a little over 5 years.
Weight Loss Motivation

By the beginning of summer 2010 my “fat” clothes had become so tight I needed to buy larger clothes. I felt embarrassed by my appearance. Sluggish and exhausted all the time I seldom wanted to play with my children. The joke that chasing 4 children around all day was exercise just wasn’t funny any more.
One day my family and I headed to a local playground. My husband and older children walked ahead of me and our toddler. At one point my hubby turned around and took a picture of us. At the time I thought we looked pretty cute strolling along hand-in-hand. Then I downloaded the picture when we returned home. Defeated and ashamed of how I looked, I swore the picture would never see the light of day!
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I also swore that I would weigh 15 pounds less by Christmas.

Changes for Weight Loss
That month I began making changes to my lifestyle. First, I stopped drinking soft drinks, juice and sweet tea. That last one was especially hard! As a southerner summer is synonymous with iced sweet tea. Unfortunately it also contains lots of nutrition-less calories. Thankfully drinking only water became easier as the summer progressed.
Next I started exercising. Please understand, I am not athletic. My sports career began and ended is a traumatic season of T ball in 1st grade. After that I avoided anything that required running, jumping or eye-hand coordination. But I put the memory of T ball aside and began using a workout DVD 3 to 4 times a week.
Finally, I changed what and how much I ate. I used a diet plan that restricted the number of servings in each food group. I also weighed and measured food so that I ate an accurate serving. Measuring cereal really opened my eyes to how little I understood servings sizes. I usually just filled my bowl full with cereal, measuring showed me that I was eating at least 3 servings for breakfast. That is a whole lot of extra calories!
Weight Loss Success

By drinking water, exercising, and dieting I lost 15 pounds and 3 pants sizes. Fitting into my “skinny” clothes felt great! I also felt energetic, strong and attractive. I love that feeling! So this summer I am again dieting, exercising and losing weight.

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I have set a goal to lose 10 pounds by mid-June. So far, I’m on target with 4 pounds gone and inching my way into a smaller pants size. I’m looking forward to once again reaching December 31 and knowing that I kept my New Year’s resolution - that I lost weight in 2011.
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Stephanie is a home school mom of 4 (ages 2-8). She spends her days teaching her two oldest sons the 3Rs, reading Princess books to her daughter, and rescuing inchworms from her 2 year old son.  While her household sleeps, Stephanie blogs about the ups and downs of motherhood at Stephanie’s Mommy Brain.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Good Times with Good Friends

 

This week has been great. I am on my last few days at work! I move next weekend! It came by so fast. It is crunch time and I am getting excited. I took a couple of days off next week to pack for the move. We will be getting our Penske truck the end of next week and will start loading it up. I am excited about the road trip. I will get to see the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and maybe a stop in Vegas. We will see!


A few days ago I went with the hubs and my bestie Tinia to see Bridesmaids. It is like a woman’s version of The Hangover. I was laughing so much….it is definitely a great funny movie!

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For breakfast I had a bagel thin with lowfat cream cheese and an egg.

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Tonight I made some real homemade Mexican food. We made homemade corn tortillas, mole, rice, and refried beans.

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My hubs and friends Alexis and Taylor…

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Their cutsie baby Taylor Jr….or the IV

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It was delish and easy to make. Well of to pack…..ciao!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Easy Mexican Night

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. This weekend was great. Yesterday we had our going away dinner at Wintzell’s and had a great time with friends.

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Today we went to the Beau Rivage for for brunch. I did not take pictures but I will say that I had lots of crab legs, mini red velvet cake, and a bunch of other stuff. I think I got my money’s worth.

 

For a late supper I decided to make an easy 20 min. dinner. Chicken tacos with homemade Mexican rice.  The trick for it being so fast is that I do not make the chicken but buy a rotisserie one.

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Print Guacamole Recipe

Print Mexican Rice Recipe

 


Hope you enjoy the recipes! Off to get ready for work tomorrow.

Ciao!

Teresa

Last Day Getting My Hair Done in Mobile

 

*This post is a couple of days late because the blogger servers were down.

Hey everyone! Hope your week is going good! Mine has been ok. I feel like I have been lacking a bit in the brain department but I attribute it to my being super duper sick last week. But besides that, my week has been awesome! Yesterday I went to eat with my great friends Taylor and Alexis and their cute baby Taylor III. He is such a cutie. We had a fantastic dinner at Via Emilia which looks like a little house and is family owned. I would recommend it to anyone who is in this city. I got the 8oz. Filet Masala with portabella mushrooms and sautéed onions. It also came with some delicious mashed potatoes.

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Today I went with my friend Jessica who does a fantastic job on my hair and of course she got pissed that I have not been treating my hair good since I have been swimming a few times a week(including today). She said she could still smell chlorine even though it had been dyed and all. That is some pretty intense stuff. So, as soon as I finished with her I got one of these:

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There was a girl there that was selling jewelry at the place and I got some jewelry:

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Park Lane Jewelry (source)

Right now they have a special if you buy one item, you get 2 items for 12 bucks and one for free! I got a great deal and these pics don’t do justice.

Well off to relax! ciao!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Back on the Bandwagon

Hey everyone! Well today I took the day off from work to study for my finals today. I really needed this considering that I took SATs and an exam for my work these past few days. I did pretty good this past weekend with my eats. I have lost a lil over 2 lbs since I got back on the bandwagon and started tracking my cals again. I never have tracked calories for a long period of time, so I am doing it so I can get my portion distortion down. Once I do that, I think that I will be able to eat intuitively. I weighted in at 150.8 a lil over a week ago. This morning when I weighed my self I am at 148! Yay! My goal/ happy weight is between 125-130. I hope to reach this in a few months. I am a little bit nervous about doing a road trip when we move. I know that it is hard to eat on the road since there are not that many “healthy” food choices when eating on the go. I will definitely be blogging while on the road to let you get a glimpse of my travel/eats.


Yesterday was my cutsie nephew’s 2nd birthday. He is actually a lil natural at blowing out candles. Here is a video of him:
Andrew’s 2nd Birthday

Hungry Runner Girl is having a giveaway for some New Balance Shoes! Head over to her website and enter!


I have been swimming a few times a week for cross training and because I suck at it. I have gotten much better and am working on it. I want to complete a triathlon eventually. Well, since I have blond highlights, I have got the case of the “green” hair. I went to Sally Beauty Supply and got this shampoo and conditioner:

It actually worked! I recommend!


I ran 3.52 miles earlier and it kicked my butt! Humidity and heat were high. I will never go around 3pm again. Since, we are getting ready to move, we have a bunch of boxes around the treadmill so I had no choice. I told Brian that I would rather run a half marathon right now with January weather than run those 3.5 miles in the heat!


So I think I did ok on my final. I am so glad to be done! Right before I bought one of these:

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I got the Island Impact and an energy booster. I think it helps my memory because last time I got one before a test I scored a 98! So, I decided to get one for the final. Plus, I had a card from buying some in the past, so it was  free!!


When I got home, I was a little snacky so I decided to get a bowl of Egg Drop Soup. It hit the spot!

 

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Well I am off to watch Nurse Jackie and relax with the hubs. C-ya!

 

Teresa