Week 7 Weigh-In: Well Deserved Good News and My Week in Review

This week was pretty awesome! I celebrated my 7 year wedding anniversary to my wonderful husband on the 8th, as well as our 10 years as a couple milestone on the 11th. Last year we spent our anniversary in Ohio being nostalgic and checking out all of the places that we used to hang out and all of our old apartments. Since we were in town this year (and had the baby with us) we decided to do a nostalgic Fort Worth tour. We went to the donut shop with the BEST sausage rolls, drove by our first apartment, ate and shopped and Central Market, and had dinner at Risky's Barbecue on Camp Bowie. All and all it was a pretty great day and we were happy to have the trip down memory lane. The other great thing that happened this week was when I stepped on the scale Saturday morning.

I was shocked! I mean exercise wise I did great. I worked out with Jillian 3 days on the week 2 section of Ripped in 30 and I ran my three days of Couch to 5K. Food tracking wise I was definitely lacking. I had a couple of good days and a couple of days where I didn't track past breakfast. I tried to eat healthy and I have been getting really good at portion control. I was hoping for a 1.5 loss but a 4 pound one was not expected. I got on the scale a few times and even got on later to make sure the calculation was still close. I am so excited to get past this first milestone and even more excited for my body wrap! I have been hunting for deals on Groupon, I'm going to keep my eyes open this week and if I don't find anything I'll just suck it up and pay full price (and there will be pictures, I promise).

That number on the scale was an awesome kick in the pants because I was starting to feel like I wanted to give up. It is so hard to not give into temptations, and get moving when it was so easy to sit idle. The .2 pounds last week was gut wrenching but I forced myself to keep going. I ran for 25 minutes straight this week and starting tomorrow Couch to 5K is forcing me to do 28 minutes and I am ready (the cooler weather isn't hurting either). I want to see what I am made of, to feel what its like to make your body do something less than 3 months ago it couldn't. If anyone reading this is struggling with their own weight loss demons, I am with you! I struggle every day, I have setbacks, I make bad decisions, but I am going to keep going and so can you. I have lost 12 pounds and I have 38 left to go, I am no where near my goal but I am a hell of a lot closer than I was 7 weeks ago.

So what else happened this week?

Greatest sausage roll (kolache) in Fort Worth (around 280 calories and worth every single one)

Yoko Donuts, home of the greatest sausage rolls in Fort Worth (On North Bryant Irvin near the corner of Camp Bowie and Bryant Irvin)

We used to live here (the second floor apartment)

E and Snowflake worked on rolling over

K and I got new library books

It rained (all day, in Texas, in July)

Totally Unsolicited Product Endorsement- The Summer Infant Deluxe Piddle Pad

So ya'll know that I have an almost 11 week old baby, so my house contains a plethora of baby related gadgets and gizmos. Between the two kiddos I have bought and used hundreds of different baby items and have liked some and hated others. I came across the Piddle Pad a few weeks ago and I am so glad I did. I totally wish I would have had one 4 years ago for my daughter. Its a simple idea, a soft absorbent pad that fits in any baby car seat or carrier and protects the lining from accidents or what we refer to around here as "poop-splosions". Anyone who has had to take off the fabric lining of a car seat knows what a pain that is, but if the Piddle Pad gets messy you just throw it in the washer and dryer and use it again. In the three weeks I have owned it, it has had to be washed three times but I have yet to have to have to wash the carrier cover. I know there are other versions of this product but I have only used this specific brand so its the only one I can personally vouch for. If you have a baby, are having a baby, or know someone who is having a baby, I absolutely recommend this product. It's not something a new mom usually thinks about but after trying to undo and wash a car seat cover after an accident you'll wish you had spent the 12ish bucks on this. You can get this brand at BabiesRUs and Amazon and I have included links to both.

Image from BabiesRUs.com

Healthy Blueberry Greek Yogurt "Power" Muffins or Another Recipe My Husband Won't Eat

I pinned this recipe awhile ago and totally forgot about it, then noticed a friend of mine pinned it last night. We all know I'm on a health kick and I am breastfeeding so I'm a big fan of recipes that have healthy carbs as well as protein. The reason my husband won't even try these muffins is that they have Greek yogurt in them. He avoids Greek yogurt like the plague and on principle won't try foods that include it (no sense of adventure). This is a pretty big recipe and calls for a decent amount of ingredients. Recipe is from http://domesticatedacademic.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/power-muffins-blueberryoatmealyogurtpower/ 
Ingredients

• no-stick cooking spray
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup oats–quick or regular oats, plain
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces honey nonfat greek yogurt or 1 1/2 cups (Chobani)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup fresh blueberries  

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350°.
2. Coat muffin tin with cooking spray or liners.
3. Combine flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
4. Combine yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla in a second bowl.
5. Fold yogurt mixture into dry mixture; stir to combine completely.
6. Gently fold in blueberries.
7. Spoon into muffin tins.
8. Bake until top is golden and springs back when you gently touch it, 20-25 minutes

Pictures are all taken with my new Nikon D3200. This camera is seriously amazing and I can't wait to learn how to use it better, but I digress. Here are the ingredients (minus sugar and salt which I forgot to put in the picture).

Dry ingredients (except sugar which I almost forgot to add in)

Batter all mixed together. This stuff is seriously thick and sticky, just be prepared.

Ready to spoon into the muffin tins

The original says you get 12 muffins, I got 14 and the were stacked. If I had made the smaller I probably could have made 16 muffins.

I baked mine for 20 minutes and they didn't seem quite finished so I left them in for another 4 minutes. They were spongy and a light brown on top and I let them cool for a few minutes before tasting them. I will admit I was not overly impressed by their taste. They aren't bad by any means but they aren't what you would expect from a muffin. They aren't very sweet and more spongey than the cakey texture you expect from a muffin. I would probably add some Stevia to the recipe to add a little extra sweetness and maybe sprinkle a little sugar on top while they were baking. MyFitnessPal puts these muffins in at 195 calories a piece if you make 14 muffins with the batter, so they are significantly lower in calories than a typical blueberry muffin. They are packed with healthy ingredients and the recipe can easily added to an altered to make it healthier. They are a good alternative to regular muffins if your trying to cut calories and add in healthier foods to your diet, but they certainly aren't going to replace regular muffins in our house (at least not for my husband). That being said they were preschooler approved and that is saying something.

  

If I Could Get a Wedding Do-Over

I have read multiple articles in the last few weeks about what different bloggers would change about their weddings if they had the chance. It being my husband and I's 7 year wedding anniversary I thought a post about our wedding seemed appropriate. Wedding related pins are HUGE on Pinterest and those of us who got married before Pinterest kind of feel like this:

The hubs and I got married right after we graduated college (like 8 weeks later) and paid for the majority of the affair ourselves. It was smallish and there were things about it I loved (like the man I married) and other things I wish I could have changed. So in the spirit of celebrating 7 years of marital bliss here are 5 things I would have changed about my wedding and 5 things I would do over.

#1 I would have tried on more dresses
I should start off by saying that in the end I really did love my dress and was happy with it, but I felt so rushed in the process that I may have found an even better one if I had taken the time to look more. Getting to see yourself in a wedding dress is an awesome experience and though I don't condone trying on endless dresses just for fun, I wish I could have seen myself in different styles. I have watched enough Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown to feel a bit jealous of girls that have seen themselves in more than three wedding dresses. Like I said ultimately I think my dress was beautiful, classy, and I don't think my daughter will be teasing me about it in 20 years (like my sister and I tease my mom).

I look so happy!

#2 I would have paid for printed invitations
We were trying to do the wedding on the cheap and I figured printing our own invites were one way to save money. I mean I was marrying a software engineer, how hard would printing a 150 invitations be? The answer to that questions was a lot harder than we both expected and way more consternation than was necessary. In the end they came out OK, and fit the theme of the wedding but there was a lot of cursing and unnecessary frustration over a bunch of printed paper.

Not our actual invites but the template we bought and fought with for many days

 #3 I would have gone with a catered event from the beginning
Originally we had put a deposit down on a hall and were going to have one of my bosses from college cater. We realized quickly that we would have spent more renting the equipment he needed to serve the crowd than having the reception at a place that did the catering right there. I spent many hours trying to come up with an alternative and luckily the idea of having our wedding on our college campus popped into my head. We met there, we dated there, it just made sense to make campus a part of our wedding and we were able to get a reasonable price for the whole reception. If I had just sucked it up and looked into catered venues from the beginning I would have saved myself so much stress and a lot of tears (and I'm sure our roommate would have appreciated that too).

At the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center where we met

#4 I would have postponed our honeymoon a day
We had people coming in from all over and barely had a chance to see and talk to everyone at the wedding. We rushed from the wedding to a hotel near the airport and then had to be up a 6am to make our 8:30am flight to Vegas. We were tired (but fortunately not hung over) and missed out on hanging out with our friends who were in town. I would have waited to leave for Vegas on Monday and spent Sunday sleeping in, having breakfast with some out of town guests, spending the afternoon with friends, and leisurely getting ready for our flight the next day. We literally got back from our honeymoon, got in a U-Haul and moved to Fort Worth. Having one extra day with family and friends would have been a nice send off and a lot less stressful way to start off a honeymoon (one that was awesome BTW, even if it started with a 4 hour unscheduled delay in Cincinnati).

#5 I would have listened to the priest and prevented a robbery
Most people have things that go wrong at their wedding. The preacher says the wrong name, a flower girl goes rouge, but no not us, we had a full fledged robbery. Our priest (also my husbands great uncle) told us at the rehearsal to make sure and lock up all of our valuables in our cars as some very low life individuals had been known to rob the prep room during weddings while everyone was distracted. We didn't heed that advice and all of the bridesmaids, me, and my mom left our stuff down there instead of moving it to the trunks of our cars. I was blessed that my stuff was in a suitcase and must have appeared like too much trouble to mess with. My friends lost credit cards, jewelry, wallets, cell phones, and of course the infamous makeup bag, shoes, and cigarettes that were taken from my mom (she would probably like me to note that the cigarettes were my Dad's not hers). My bridesmaids spent half of my reception calling banks and turning off credit cards and cell phones. It's a slightly funny story now, but it did put a huge damper on the evening, and even seven years later I am annoyed at a-holes who would rob people during a wedding in a church.

Now for the stuff I would do over again!

#1 The bridesmaids dresses and the color scheme
I love the color red and used it in my wedding quite a bit. I have since fallen in love with other wedding combinations but at the time I think using red was pretty awesome. The bridesmaid dresses were cute, a light organza material, and could be (and were) worn at other functions. I think if your going to spend over 100 dollars on a dress it should be something you could wear somewhere else and not be embarrassed to be seen in it.

picture from David's Bridal

#2 Having the reception at Kent State
Like I mentioned earlier my husband and I met at Kent State and campus is a huge part of our love story. Having some of our wedding pictures taken there and having the reception there just makes it campus even more special for us. We were young college graduates and celebrating our marriage where we spent the majority of our relationship just felt right.

#3 The Cake
I attended two separate wedding fairs (one with Joe and one without) and tasting the cake samples was by far the best part. I loved the flavor of the cakes from Linda's Kitchen (great bakery if you live anywhere near Tallmadge, Ohio http://www.lindaskitcheninc.com/) and after Joe tried it we knew that's where we were going to get our cake from. I gave them the pictures of what I wanted and they nailed it. The cake was delicious and we were happy to eat our top tier on our one year anniversary. For our 6 year anniversary last year I ordered a small replica cake and we ate it at a BBQ at our friends house (it was just as good as the one 6 years prior).

#4 Vegas Baby!
Joe and I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my family and had an amazing time. When we talked about where to go for the honeymoon, Vegas was at the very top of our list. We stayed at the MGM and had an awesome 4 days. It was Vegas in July so it was HOT and we were jet lagged for the first day and a half but it was still the best vacation we have taken together. We haven't been back but we keep saying that we'll go back for our 10 year anniversary and I really hope we do.

 

 #5 The Man

I know this seems obvious since we are still married after 7 years but it is the absolute truth. The last 7 years have been crazy and amazing and I wouldn't change a thing about the ride. We left everything we knew and loved and moved to a city that I had never even been to before we arrived in our U-Haul. We learned the city, learned each other, and slowly put our roots down. We fight, we bicker, we disagree, he leaves cabinet doors open, and I leave hairbrushes all over the house. We have moved 4 times in 7 years, I have changed jobs 5 times, had two beautiful children, and found a wonderful network of friends that have become a surrogate family to us. Nothing is perfect but perfect is boring and I wouldn't trade a minute of what we have for anything else. I am blessed and in the end a wedding is one great day that starts off what is hopefully thousands of great days. I would love to have the money to throw some elaborate Pinterest worthy party but I wouldn't want to give up the budget bash I planned 7 years ago (robbery aside) or the man I planned it with. I love you baby! Here's to at least 63 more wonderful anniversary's.

My favorite picture (he happens to be looking at me coming down the aisle :)

Week 6 Weigh-in- The One Where I Kind of Fell Off the Wagon

This week was ROUGH, at least when it came to sticking to all of my weight loss goals. Sunday I was sick with a sinus infection and my throat was still pretty sore. Monday I did get to run in the evening but I still wasn't feeling very good. I wanted to make sure I was ready for the 5K on Thursday and I didn't want to not run and end up killing myself that morning. I had a few days where I didn't track what I ate, and to top it off there was banana bread in my house (total trigger food) during the beginning of the week. I struggle with watching my calories and still eating enough to feed E (almost exclusivly breastfeed for 10 weeks, woot woot). I don't want my supply to tank but I don't want to eat more calories than I need either, so it's a day to day battle between me and my body.

On a positive note, the 5K went well. I was running this one for me, I wanted to know I could finish it, that even 10 weeks after having a baby I could run again.

 Got my number and "free" T-shirt

 My alarm on Thursday morning (I did not snooze)

 My Old Navy patriotic T-shirt I turned into a running tank (instructions can be found at http://dollarssenseandmore.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/diy-tank-top-fashion-on-a-budget/)

 Sunrise over the Trinity River and downtown Fort Worth

 Milling around waiting for the race to start

 Selfie waiting to get going

 My true run time ended up being 34 minutes 50 seconds but I forgot to turning off my running app until I got to the hospitality tent. 

Sweaty, tired, and proud

Back last summer my average 5K time was between 29 and 32 minutes so finishing in less than 35 minutes after training for 6 weeks is pretty impressive. I stopped to walk twice, once around the 22 minute mark for about 2 minutes and again around 30 minutes for maybe about a minute. I couldn't have asked for better running weather in Texas in July, there was a breeze and it was around 73 degrees (yeah for unexpected cold fronts). I ran by myself and the husband stayed home with the kids so I was kinda lonely. I didn't have anyone to run with or to meet me at the finish line which was a bummer. I don't think I'll run another race solo again, I'll find someone to drag with me to at least wait for me at the end (if I can't get them to run with me). I can't wait for the Oktoberfest 5K at the end of September and in between I'll just keep running and see if I can improve my time.

Now for the nitty gritty, I stepped on the scale this morning and this is what I saw.

That makes only a .2 pound loss for the whole week. With everything that happened this week (4th of July BBQ and a trip to the movie theater included) I should have been happy with the face that it wasn't a gain but I was still disappointed. I started last weekend with all intentions of breaking into the 172's and I was let down. I know this is a process and I want to be healthy about it, but it is super frustrating to work hard all week and see almost no difference on the scale. But I decided this morning that I was just going to reboot this week and get back on the proverbial wagon. I ran my Couch to 5K this morning and have tracked everything I've eating so far today. I'll let you know how this week goes and should be updating on our summer bucket list tomorrow evening!

Our Summer "Bucket" List

I was inspired a few weeks ago when I came across a summer bucket list of fun things to do with the kids this summer. I know that with the new baby in the house K has been frustrated that we don't go out as much and I can tell she feels cooped up. We don't have a swing set in the yard yet and with the Texas heat playing outside during the summer is rare and usually only happens in the morning or late evening. I liked the list I found (from http://thedailydigi.com/summer-bucket-lists/) but some of the things on it I wasn't a fan of so I decided to make my own list (still borrowing heavily from the original)

 

I printed off the list and every time we complete an activity I have K highlight it some we know we have accomplished it. We have been off to a slow start but now that July is here I plan on getting to more of them as quickly as possible. I will admit that a lot of these are also Pinterest ideas so they may count for double duty, both as fun things to do and pins to blog about. I also plan on putting together a photo book of all of the things we did this summer. I am hoping this becomes a tradition, and as the kids get older we'll help decide what does on the list. Here are a few pictures of what we have done so far.

#12. Make Beaded Necklaces

She enjoyed doing these but didn't have much patience to fill up an entire necklace for me (which she said she wanted to do). I made her the necklace she's wearing and we made the bracelet she's wearing together as a present for her dad.

# 16 Bake a cake

As you may have read about in my Pinterest inspired Father's Day post (http://pinterestingsummer2012.blogspot.com/2013/06/fathers-day-pinterest-style.html) K and I baked her Dad a cake we lovingly name Ugly Cake. It's just a regular boxed yellow cake made in a bundt pan that I let K be in charge of decorating. She is a fan of sprinkles and had a blast decorating. We plan on making this a Father's Day tradition and I look forward to seeing what E will be able to bring to the process next year.

#36. Make Popsicles 

Technically we made fudgesicles, not popsicles, but these were better anyway. I used the recipe I made last summer (http://pinterestingsummer2012.blogspot.com/2012/06/challenge-20-nutella-fudge-popsicles-or.html) and they were another big hit. K was also a big fan of licking the Nutella off of the spoon. I love this recipe but I still haven't got the hang of getting the Popsicle to come out in one piece. I used my sister's suggestion and ran warm water over the mold, but still only successfully got two of the six pops to come out. We scooped out the rest and it was delicious. I plan on making this recipe again but just putting it in a bowl and eating it like ice cream.

#22 Make Smores

I decided to make indoor s'mores from a pin, which involve putting the graham cracker and marshmallow in the oven on low broil for a new minutes then slapping on a Hershey Kiss and bam you have s'more. I wasn't on my A game and forgot to get more pictures and slightly burnt them. Kathryn still ate her's (it's still a s'more) but I plan on doing it again while paying attention and getting better pictures.

 #33 Choose a chapter book for a read-a-loud

Picture from http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrensImages/isbn/large/7/9780062082947.jpg

I was excited to try this one (I am a librarian) and see how K would handle a chapter book read-a-loud. She loves Fancy Nancy so I figured reading a book about a character she already knows might keep her interest. She was excited about getting to listen to a big kid book and she would start out really well but her attention would quickly wain. There are some illustrations but not like a picture book and I could tell her mind would wander during the longer chapters. She liked it overall and we had fun guessing who dun it, but I may wait a little while longer for chapter books, or stick to short chapter-ish books like Henry and Mudge. I would recommend the book itself though, it's cute, teaches good vocabulary, and has a good overall message. Any girl who has grown up with Fancy Nancy should like the older, more mature, Nancy Drew want-to-be version Jane O'Conner is presenting in this book.

I'll keep everyone up to date as we get through our 2013 Summer Bucket List. What's on your bucket list this summer? Did everything go as planned? Feel free to take my list and add an subtract to it. It's your summer, make it a memorable one.

Week 5 Weigh In and My Week in Review

Well Week 5 has ended and I was highly anticipating what the scale would be telling me. I did a good job tracking all of my calories but I had a few meals out of the house this week, which always makes it more difficult to stay on track. Friday night was especially difficult because I went to Chuy's (a great Tex-Mex restaurant/bar) and the endless baskets of tortilla chips were hard to resist. I don't think I went nuts but I certainty had more than a sensible serving. I worked out with Jillian 3 days this week and completed week 5 of Couch to 5K. On the last day of this week, I was forced to run for 20 solid minutes, which I was DREADING even though only a year ago I could run for over 40 minutes (a lot has changed in the past 12 months). I wanted to get out of the house by 7 to get my run in before it got hot (There was a high of 104 yesterday) but because of the late night on Friday I didn't get started until almost 9.

Good news is I actually ran the whole 20 minutes and didn't pass out. Bad news is I probably exacerbated the sinus issues and sore throat I had been suffering with because by 5 pm yesterday I was running a fever and my throat was on fire and by 7:30 I was sitting at CareNow waiting to see the Dr. A sinusitis diagnosis and a some antibiotics and I am feeling better, not 100%, but way better than even 12 hours ago. But before all the sickness crap, this is what the scale read yesterday morning.

That made a 1.6 pound weight loss for the week! I'm not sure what will happen this week with the medicine (and the 4th of July) but I am really for to try and get down into the 172's so I can go get that body wrap. I am still planning on running the 5K Thursday morning as long as I am feeling better, but I'm not sure what my workout schedule will look like this week (I'm obviously taking today off to rest).

Here are some other things that happened this week:

Look at that boy plank

The newest member of our family. Joe got his man toy Ford Explorer (and I'm an idiot for not noticing it had a third row of seats, even after I test drove it)

Me and K before going to see the Kids Who Care production of Peter Pan. She loved it, but it ran a little late for her (there were LOTS of tears because she was upset when it was over).

E is master of the Bumbo

K decided to dress up as Green Lantern for school on Thursday, just because. Her father couldn't be more proud

I will post after the 5K and let everyone know how it went and I should have a post soon about my Summer "Bucket" List.