Meandering Monday
Good Monday morning to you! Since my last Thursday Ramblings update, we’ve made little movement in our wedding plans. That was swapped out for an even bigger stressful situation: I found out recently that I am losing my job. During what I thought would be one of our normal, weekly conference calls, my manager informed me that the company is moving my position out-of-state and that everyone across the country who works in my position is losing his or her job. Of course, the option was given to move with the position, but Josh is in school and our wedding plans are firmly in place, so a move isn’t feasible at this time.
Of course, I took the news very hard – I love my job! But I spent that day (and every day since) polishing my resume, combing the Internet for job postings, and applying for positions left and right. Luckily, I have a fantastic network of family, friends, and former co-workers. With their referrals, I have been to several interviews and have a few more scheduled. I’m trying my best to stay optimistic. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for my life. I don’t know what that plan is right now, but I have to believe a better position is out there waiting for me.
Meanwhile, I’m extremely lucky to have an amazing part-time job. All of my co-workers there have been extremely supportive. They’re continuously asking about the job search, setting me up with interviews, and allowing me to pick up as many extra hours as I can.
So with 159 days left until the wedding, the only decision we’ve made recently involved changes to the tuxedos. Josh has rented many tuxes in the past, but this was his first experience picking one out. We went in blind and weren’t too sure of all our options, so we walked out with a somewhat pricey tuxedo for the men in our wedding party. After spending a few weeks thinking about it, we went back to Men’s Warehouse and swapped out the Calvin Klein tux (I don’t think either of us realized it was a Calvin Klein tux) for another one that looks exactly the same but is less expensive. Score!
We’re coming up on the 5-month mark in our wedding countdown and even though we still have decisions to make, all of my focus is on finding a new job. Wish me luck!
Fearless Friday
Losing weight takes a lot. It takes a lot of determination. Lots of inspiration. Lots of encouragement from those around you. It takes being kept accountable.
Several weeks ago, I made the above statements in a previous Fearless Friday post. Although there are countless ways to lose weight, I found my success with Weight Watchers. Their program allows you two different paths: weekly meetings or Weight Watchers Online. I chose the latter, but many people prefer the meetings because they need the motivation and accountability that comes with the group setting.
I needed those things, too. So how did I get them without the meetings? I created my own support systems.
Tuesday was and still is my weigh-in day, so every Tuesday after stepping on the scale, I immediately notified a small group of people about the results. Text messages would be sent to my fiance Josh, his sister Molly, and my person Adam. Facebook messages would be sent to my three best friends, Lindsey, Chelsen, and Randi, and to my mom. These seven people took a sincere interest in my journey. When I had a good number on the scale, they celebrated with me. If I had a gain, they encouraged me to stick with it.
A couple of months after starting Weight Watchers, I noticed a handful of my Facebook friends were also trying to lose weight with WW. It made sense to me that we should all come together and be there for each other. Thus, WW on FB was born! At first there were only eight members, but then we discovered we knew others who were on their own journeys. So friends were added. And friends of friends. Family of friends of friends. We are now 172 members strong, men and women from across the United States – and even members in Canada! We share our weekly weigh-in results, recipes, new products we’ve discovered, exercise tips, advice, etc. Sometimes members fall off the wagon, but they know we’re always there to encourage them when they’re ready to pick back up.
If you feel that you’re ready to start losing weight, or begin a new career, or try something else different in your life, let those closest to you know. Tell them you’ll need their encouragement, accountability, and motivation to keep you challenged and on the path to success. There is absolutely no reason why you should go it alone – and I have a feeling you’ll be more successful with a team of family and friends supporting you.
Thursday Ramblings
It’s hard to believe, but Josh and I are now less than six months away from our wedding! The countdown is officially on – 177 days to go!
After lots of worrying on my part, I finally received the two bridesmaids dresses from Ann Taylor to replace the two that didn’t fit my girls. I was even able to order an extra size for one girl just in case her second dress was the wrong size. Luckily, that one was a perfect fit and we didn’t need the back-up dress after all!
Now we’ve been on the hunt for shoes that will go with their dresses. The color of the dresses is “ground pepper” so I’d like to find a nice, black heel to pair with them. I am a firm believer in matching shoes for the bridesmaids, especially when the dresses are short enough to show the shoes.
Unfortunately, we’re running into a bit of a problem because one bridesmaid lives in Canada. The majority of websites I normally turn to for shoe shopping (DSW, Zappos) do not ship there. The only website we know of with a Canadian sister-site is Aldo; however, their shoes are pricier than those I can find elsewhere, and they don’t have a huge selection. After a little Googling last night, I found another site called ShoeBuy, and they do ship to Canada! I sent the link to my friend so she could check it out. Has anyone ever bought from ShoeBuy before? Any positive or negative experiences I should know about? Or if anyone has any suggestions on other sites that will ship to Canada, please share!
In other fashion news, the moms and I spent a recent Saturday afternoon shopping for their dresses! Before we set out, I was a little worried. Neither of the moms dress up very often and when they do, they’re more likely to wear a pantsuit than a nice dress. Plus, my mom doesn’t particularly enjoy shopping. Especially with me, Queen of the Outlets. But we put our game faces on and hit up Eastland Mall in Evansville.
Our first stop was Macy’s, where we discovered that the moms wear the same dress size! That made the process super easy: I grabbed everything I could find in their size that was an appropriate color. Emma Jean (Josh’s mom) didn’t have any luck, but my mom really liked the second dress she tried on – and she looked amazing in it! We put the dress on hold and then went to Dillard’s to see what they had in stock. After pulling out an armful of dresses for Emma Jean, we struck gold with the second dress she tried on! It was a bit small on her so we ordered her size, and then went back to Macy’s to purchase Mom’s dress.
The three of us were so relieved and happy to have found dresses for both of them that they love and look great in – all in less than an hour and a half!
Then last week, we mailed off our Save the Dates! As I mentioned before, I ordered them through our friends at Alstadt Office City, and I absolutely love them! It’s so exciting to know that we’ve officially announced our wedding date to our family and friends!
We have hit one major setback in our wedding plans. Without getting into too much detail, all I can do is advise anyone who is planning their wedding to make sure you read all contracts thoroughly before you sign them. We thought we were being careful but somehow overlooked one very important detail regarding one of our vendors. It’s caused us to have to re-examine our budget over and over again. It’s causing a bit of stress but I’m trying to stay hopeful that we’ll be able to take care of it.
But I want to end on a lighter note! Last month when we met with our deacon, he had us take the test to determine our love language. If you’ve never read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, I strongly encourage you to, regardless of whether you’re in a new relationship or have been married for 50 years. When Josh and I first moved in together I read it and took the test on my own. However, I discovered during our meeting with Deacon Pat that over the years as I’ve changed, so has my love language, to acts of service.
After thinking about it, I’ve found that it’s my love language not just in my relationship with Josh, but also with all my family and friends. And I’ve had some wedding-related acts of service that have made me so happy! I’ve had not one, not two, but three friends offer to throw bridal showers for us! I cannot explain how blessed I feel for having people in our lives who love and support us so much that they want to do this. Dates have already been nailed down for the family and friends shower in Owensboro that will be thrown by my two matrons-of-honor, and for the couples shower our friend Kim is throwing for our Louisville Landsharks friends! Also, one of my good friends at Loft is going to throw me a shower for our associates! I am so lucky to have such amazing, giving people in my life!
Work Out Wednesday
Work Out Wednesday is here! As you may remember from my previous Work Out Wednesday post, one day I got the crazy urge to run. After years of telling myself I couldn’t do it and that I’m not a runner, I gave it a shot and started Couch to 5K .
In my experience, it’s a great program. People constantly ask me how I got my start running, and I always encourage them to check it out.
However, the key thing to remember is that one size does not fit all.
Yes, the program is designed for you to ease into it by running three times per week for nine weeks. Some people have absolutely no problem and can check off each workout week-by-week. But if you find yourself struggling, don’t give up – modify!
My first “this is scary” moment came when I saw the Week 5 Workout 3 instructions: Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking. Did they really expect me to go from jogging 8 minutes to jogging 20 minutes? I had to call in support for this one and asked Josh to join me. We went to Cherokee Park and even though I thought the hills would kill me, I did it!
But then I hit a speed bump in Week 6 Workout 3 – Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 22 minutes) with no walking.
Maybe it was my inner 9th grader telling me I couldn’t do it, but the jump from a 10-minute jog to a 22-minute jog was something I didn’t feel comfortable with. So I decided to veer off from C25K and make my own modifications.
I knew I could run 10 minutes without stopping, so that’s where I decided to start. The next time I ran, I added another minute. The time after that, another minute. Slowly, I increased my time on the treadmill.
Several months later, I was going for 7.5 mile runs. I could hardly believe it, but minute-by-minute, I had become a runner.
So don’t let anything – be it a negative inner voice, injury, lack of support, etc. – stop you from achieving your work-out goals. If you have to start out small, so what? You have to start somewhere! Modify where you need to and before long, you’ll have achieved your goal!
Try It Tuesday
Happy Try It Tuesday! In today’s expanded version, I have a variety of Sherry-tested (and sometimes approved) dishes! Per usual, today’s recipes come from Hungry Girl‘s 300 Under 300!
Grilly-Good Eggplant Bites
Per serving (1/5th of recipe, 3 pieces): 44 calories, 0.5g fat, 144 mg sodium, 9g carbs, 4g fiber, 3.5g sugars, 1.5g protein, 1 Points Plus
Ingredients:
- 1 small onion
- 1 large eggplant
- 3 large firm plum tomatoes
- 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Dash black pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 tablespoon reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping
Directions:
- Slice off and discard both ends of the onion. Cut onion into two thick rings, keeping the inner rings of each intact. Set aside.
- Slice off and discard both ends of the eggplant.
- Cut eggplant widthwise into 15 evenly sized slices. Set aside.
- Cut each tomato widthwise into 5 evenly sized slices, for a total of 15 slices. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
- Spray eggplant slices lightly with nonstick spray. Sprinkle both sides of the eggplant slices with the seasoning mixure.
- Bring a grill or grill pan sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-high heat. Working in batches if needed, grill eggplant slices until soft, about 4 minutes per side. Evenly place on a serving platter and set aside.
- Grill onion rings until soft, about 5 minutes per side. Grill tomatoes until slightly soft, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Remove from heat. Once cool enough to handle, slice onion rings in half. Set aside.
- Evenly top eggplant slices with basil, Parm-style topping, onion, and tomato. Serve eggplant flat, tostado-style, or fold ‘em up, taco-style!
Makes 5 servings.
Grilly-Good Egglant Bites
Josh and I made ours as a side dish, served alongside grilled walleye and baked sweet potatoes. The eggplant bites were good, but they didn’t bowl me over. For one thing, they were really messy. This could have something to do with the fact that we (meaning Josh) grilled the tomatoes longer than necessary, which resulted in a very drippy bite. Like I said, they were ok…but I don’t anticipate making them again.
Basil-icious Chicken
Per serving (entire recipe): 197 calories, 2g fat, 448mg sodium, 1g carbs, 0.5g fiber, 0g sugars, 39.5g protein, 4 Points Plus
Ingredients:
- One 6-ounce raw boneless skinless lean chicken breast cutlet, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh basil or your herb of choice
Spices: salt, black pepper, garlic powder
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a baking pan with nonstick spray. Season chicken with 1/8 teaspoon of each the spices. Lay cutlet in the baking pan.
- Bake in the oven until chicken is fully cooked, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Plate chicken and evenly top with mustard. Cover with basil and eat up!
Makes 1 serving.
Basil-icious Chicken
I was so pleasantly surprised with this recipe! For something so incredibly easy, it had so much flavor! Even Josh (the king food critic) said it was probably the best chicken he’s ever had! Of course, he was probably just excited that I cooked dinner for once completely on my own, and was in shock and that I didn’t destroy it! But that aside, it truly was delicious! I have to admit that I did take a couple of shortcuts. First, I didn’t pound the chicken. What do you even use for that? A mallet? Either way, we don’t own one, so we ate our chicken plumped up. Second, we didn’t have any fresh herbs, so my basil came out of the spice rack. Obviously 1/3 cup of chopped basil looks a lot different than 1/3 cup of spice-rack basil, so I measured with my eyes.
Man, that was some good chicken!
Side note: We loved this recipe so much, I made it a second time! In fact, when Josh got home and saw that I was cooking it, he said, “You made it my favorite way!”
I served it alongside green beans and sweet potato chips. And if you’re looking at those sweet potato chips and wondering how I made them, have I got a treat for you! Bonus recipe!!
One of my oldest friends, LBH, shared a website with recipes to make your own veggie chips. It’s rare that I receive a recipe that I want to try right this instant, but there’s just something about sweet potatoes that gets me excited. I thought it would be the perfect side for our chicken!
Sweet Potato Crisps
Unfortunately, the website didn’t provide the nutritional info, but I used the Weight Watcher‘s recipe builder to figure out the points – 5 Points Plus for the whole serving, or 3 Points Plus for half a serving, which is what I had.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium sweet potato (about 8 ounces), scrubbed
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees and arrange a rack in the middle.
- Slice the sweet potato into very thin rounds (1/16 inch thick; use a mandoline if you have one) and place in a large bowl. Add the oil, paprika, and salt and toss with your hands until thoroughly coated.
- Place the slices in a single layer on 2 baking sheets—the rounds can be touching but should not overlap.
- Bake one sheet at a time until the edges of the chips curl up, the centers are just golden brown, and the tops are dry to the touch, about 12 minutes. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and let the chips cool until crisp, about 3 minutes. Using your hands, carefully transfer the chips to a serving dish. Repeat with the second sheet. Serve immediately.
First of all, cutting the sweet potato into very thin rounds = nearly impossible. Mine more closely resembled triangles, but we’re not going for presentation here. Perhaps this would have been easier if I had a mandoline, but I had never even heard of one until coming across this recipe.
That aside, these were SO good! Once I had the slices on the baking sheet, I actually sprinkled a little extra paprika on them. Also, I’ll try leaving in the oven for a little longer next time. Even though they cooked all the way through, they never reached that crispy texture. They were still great nonetheless! This is something that is so easy that I’ll definitely try it again!
Side note: I did, in fact, try it again. Loves it!
Buffalo Chicken Egg Mug
Per Serving (entire recipe): 180 calories, 2.25g fat, 801mg sodium, 6g carbs, 0g fiber, 2g sugars, 33g protein, 4 Points Plus
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute
- 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
- 2 ounces cooked and chopped skinless lean chicken breast
- 1/2 tablespoon Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
- 1 teaspoon light blue cheese dressing
- 1/2 teaspoon reduced-fat Parmesan-style grated topping
Directions
- Spray a large microwave-safe mug with nonstick spray. Add egg substitute and onion and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.
- Gently stir in chicken. Microwave for 1 minute, or until scramble is just set.
- Allow to cool slightly. Top with hot sauce, blue cheese dressing, and Parm-style topping. Grab a spoon and eat it up!
MAKES 1 SERVING
Buffalo Chicken Egg Mug
I just have to say that I took a few liberties with the ingredients that possibly affected how I feel about the end result. First of all, I don’t believe in buying something for a recipe when I have a somewhat similar ingredients at home. For example, rather than buy minced onions, I simply diced up an onion I had at home. Also, instead of buying the cayenne pepper sauce, I substituted Sriracha , because it’s Josh’s go-to sauce when he needs to spice up a dish (which is all the time). And finally, I searched high and low for light blue cheese dressing, but none of the Kroger’s or Meijer’s I went to had it. So I had to use the regular kind, and just used a little less.
All that said…I wasn’t too impressed. Considering all the ingredients in this egg mug, it tasted a little bland to me. Josh seemed to like it ok, but I didn’t hear rave reviews from him, either.
Mexi-Licious Shrimp & Corn Fandango Salad
Per serving (entire recipe): 260 calories, 2g fat, 622mg sodium, 39g carbs, 8g fiber, 15g sugars, 24g protein, 6 Points Plus
Ingredients
- 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 cup dry coleslaw mix
- 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped cucumber
- 1/3 cup chopped red onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
- 1/2 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoon Mexican hot sauce
- 1/2 cup frozen yellow corn
- 3 ounces cooked and chilled ready-to-eat shrimp
Directions
- Combine lettuce with slaw mix on a large plate or in a large bowl. Top with tomato, cucumber, onion, and cilantro. Set aside.
- To make the dressing, combine vinegar, lime juice, and hot sauce in a small bowl, and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
- Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to high heat on the stove. Add corn and cook until thawed and slightly blackened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the large plate / bowl.
- Add shrimp and drizzle dressing over the salad. Grab a fork and dig in!
MAKES 1 SERVING
Mexi-licious Shrimp & Corn Fandango Salad
A very simple recipe, and it’s great if you like spicy foods! Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan. However, I could have easily modified this by easing up a bit on the cilantro. I only encountered one road block with the ingredients, and in this case it was the dry coleslaw mix that I couldn’t find. After searching the grocery store without any luck, I Googled it and found that it’s usually sold in Amish stores. I made do by finding some of the ingredients that I already had at home, and sprinkled them in a little. I used salt, celery seeds, and onion powder. And like the previous recipe, I just substituted Sriracha sauce instead of the Mexican hot sauce. All in all it was fairly decent. It was certainly a nice change from the standard grilled chicken salad, but I don’t know that this is one I’ll fix again.
Rockin’ Roasted Corn Guac ‘N Chips
Per Serving (1/8th of recipe, about 1/3 cup guacamole with 9 chips): 160 calories, 4g fat, 456mg sodium, 27.5g carbs, 4.75g fiber, 4.5g sugars, 5g protein, 4 Points Plus
Ingredients
Guac
- 1 cup frozen sweet yellow corn
- One 15-ounce can early / young peas, drained
- 1/2 cup mashed avocado (about 1 medium-small avocado’s worth)
- 1/4 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
- 3/4 cup chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- Optional: chopped fresh cilantro, chopped jarred jalapeno slices
Chips
- Twelve 6-inch corn tortillas
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to high heat on the stove. Add corn and cook until thawed and slightly blackened, about 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Place peas in a medium bowl and mash thoroughly with a potato masher or fork. (Or puree peas in a small blender or food processor and transfer to a medium bowl.) Add avocado, yogurt, lime juice, garlic, and dry seasonings. Continue to mash until blended.
- Stir in corn, tomatoes, and onion. If you like, mix in cilantro and / or jalapeno. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- To make the chips, divide tortillas into two stacks and cut each in half. Cut each stack of halves into three triangles, for a total of 72 pieces.
- Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick spray. Evenly lay about one-third of the tortilla triangles flat on the sheet.
- Cover triangles with a generous mist of nonstick spray, spraying for about 2 seconds. Evenly sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Flip triangles over and sprinkle with another 1/8 teaspoon salt.
- Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Carefully flip tortilla triangles over on the sheets. Continue to bake in the oven until crispy, about 5 minutes longer.
- Repeat baking process until all the chips are baked. (If you have extra baking sheets and a large oven, feel free to do it all at once!)
- Once cool enough to handle, transfer chips to a serving bowl. Serve with chilled guac and enjoy!
Makes 8 servings
Rockin' Roasted Corn Guac 'N Chips
So, so, SO good! I was super excited about making guac for the first time! It was incredibly easy to make, and I thought it tasted pretty good! My only roadblock here is that even though I bought some garlic, I couldn’t find it when the time came to make the recipe. I think it would’ve added a little something nice.
The chips took a little longer to make than I expected. Be sure to allot enough time to make those. However, the wait was definitely worth it, because Josh absolutely raved about them! In the past, I’ve bought baked tortilla chips and he wasn’t crazy about them. But these – he couldn’t stop talking about how great they tasted, and kept wanting to know how I made them. Little does he know how easy it is 
Meandering Monday
201 days to go.
Josh and I went to Evansville for the Easter weekend and while there, I started reminiscing about the beginning of our relationship. For the first fourteen months or so, I lived in Owensboro and Josh was in Evansville. Almost every Friday when I got off work, I’d drive up to Evansville and stay the weekend, leaving on Sunday evenings at the last possible minute. It was six years ago, but it seems like far longer!
While in Evansville, we took care of some wedding business and finished up our registry. We don’t even need that much, but it was such an overwhelming experience!
A couple of weeks ago, we picked out the tuxes for Josh, the groomsmen, ushers, and dads.
The bridesmaid dresses came in, and 2 of the 5 fit well. The third was a simple switch with the fourth, whose didn’t fit, which left me with two exchanges by mail. Of course, I managed to screw it up by sending in the wrong dress. A phone call and an email later, I think I was able to fix the situation. I may be a little biased because I’m an employee, but I have to say that the Ann Taylor customer service is exceptional and efficient. Everything that a bride-to-be can appreciate!
The next big item to cross off the to-do list is send out Save the Dates! I’ve been anxious to mail them out since I ordered them in January. Our friends Heather and Jason (one of Josh’s groomsmen!) work at their family’s business, Alstadt Office City, and helped me pick out our Save the Dates. I absolutely love them! They’re simple and classic, with a hint of a vintage touch – the very theme that I’m hoping to convey with our wedding. The next couple of weeks will keep me busy as I stuff the envelopes, gather addresses, labels, stamps, etc. For some reason, sending out our Save the Dates will make it all so much more real to me. We’re officially announcing our wedding to our guests!
Only 201 days to go…
Featured Success Story in today’s Weight Watchers email!
I was so excited to see my success story featured in today’s Weight Watcher‘s email:
Betting on Success
How fun! If you’re interested in reading my success story on WW’s site, just click here!
Fearless Friday
One of the things I struggled with most while trying to lose weight was my insatiable sweet tooth. I love anything and everything sweet: cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, and above all else, any combination of chocolate and peanut butter. Does there exist a better marriage than the one between those two? I’ve yet to find one.
The awesome thing about Weight Watchers is that it’s not a diet. I was still able to indulge myself here and there, but for me, the hard part was knowing when to stop.
That, and figuring out when it just wasn’t worth it. About six months after I joined Weight Watchers, I came across something that immediately became my mantra regarding my struggle between my sweet tooth and losing weight:
Don’t trade what you want most for what you want in this moment.
Let that sink in for a minute. What do you want most? For me, I wanted to reach my goal weight. Josh and I were engaged at that point, and I wanted to walk into a bridal store and fit into the sample sizes. For the first time in my life, I wanted to wear a bikini. I wanted to be able to bend over and tie my shoes without losing my breath. To be able to call myself a runner. Although it wasn’t an initial goal, I wanted to lower my blood pressure. I wanted my parents to be proud of me. Considering how active Josh is, I wanted to be able to keep up with him. I want to feel beautiful on my wedding day. I wanted to be able to control an area of my life that I let get completely out of control. Never again did I want to worry that people were whispering about my weight. I wanted confidence. When I stepped on the scale at the doctor’s office, I wanted my doctor to congratulate me. Most importantly, I didn’t want my weight to hold me back from doing anything. What I didn’t want was for my weight to be an excuse anymore.
These are the things I wanted – and still want – the most.
When I was still trying to lose weight and faced the temptation of a red velvet cupcake (or two), or double scoops of cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone, or Reese’s Cups, I kept that mantra forefront in my mind, along with all the things I wanted most. For me, achieving them would be far more satisfying than any sweet in the world. It simply wasn’t worth it.
That’s not to say that I don’t treat myself sometimes. If I want ice cream, I have ice cream. When Josh and I went to our cake tasting a few weeks ago, I savored those cupcakes. And when I go to the Butterfly Garden, there’s absolutely no way I’m passing up their gooey warm chocolate peanut butter cake. But now I know how to keep myself in check in with portion control, and to balance my indulgences with gym time.
If you find yourself struggling with your weight loss and a constant desire to overindulge, try telling yourself:
Don’t trade what you want most for what you want in this moment.
Make a list of the things you want most, and use it for your motivation and inspiration.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday Ramblings
Here we are – 219 days until our wedding day! I keep wondering when the stress is going to overtake my life, but so far I’ve been lucky – except for the occasional wedding nightmare.
Two nights ago, I dreamed we were at our rehearsal dinner (which for whatever odd reason was at the house my grandparents lived in when I was a child). I stepped out for a minute and when I came back, discovered my mother had uninvited all the guests who were not family members. I was absolutely livid, and could not stop yelling at her. However, that was the least of my worries because then it occurred to me that even though we were at our rehearsal dinner, Josh and I never scheduled the actual rehearsal at the church! The next thing I knew, I was screaming at him to find Deacon Pat.
Thank God I woke up shortly after that.
In the last couple of months I’ve had two other wedding nightmares, both of which involved us running late on our wedding day schedule. If you know me well, you know that is a true nightmare for me!
Bad dreams aside, we’ve made a little more progress with our plans. I found a bridesmaid dress I like at Ann Taylor. A lot of brides say they want their bridesmaids to be able to wear their dresses again, but having been in so many weddings, this is something I felt very strongly about. Luckily, one of my maids of honor, upon seeing a photo of the dress, said, “This is something I’ll definitely wear again!” Mission accomplished!
Josh and I also had a cake tasting recently. One of my friends from college, Krista, and her mom have a small business on the side called K’s Kreations. Throughout the years, I’ve gone to them for birthday cakes, mini-cakes for showers, and cupcakes. They taste amazing, and Krista and her mom can do any design you want! Naturally, they were my first choice for our wedding cake. Josh and I met with two of them and discussed what we were looking for, and showed them some designs we’d (I’d) found. With their input, we decided on our flavor and design, and I can’t wait to see the finished product! It’s going to taste incredible!
Things are slowly starting to come together, and it feels great. In the next few weeks we’ll shop for mother of the bride and groom dresses, create a registry, and send out save-the-dates. Cross your fingers the stress stays far away from me!
Work Out Wednesday!
In my previous Work Out Wednesday! blog, I wrote about how important it is that you start exercising with something manageable. If you dive headfirst into a work-out that you’re unfamiliar with or uncomfortable with, it’s easier to lose your motivation and tell yourself that you can’t do it.
As you know, I began exercising with simply walking around Cherokee Park. Once I tackled one loop, I moved on to two loops. After becoming comfortable with those two loops, I suddenly had a thought: I should try running.
Wait – where did this idea come from? I absolutely abhorred running. My high school freshman gym class scarred me and left me thinking I could never be a runner. When it was nice out, we ran around the track. Four laps equaled one mile. Those were the longest laps of my life. I was never able to run a full lap, and suffered from painful shin splits.
When it grew colder, we moved inside to the gym, where 11.5 laps was the equivalent of a mile. Of the entire class, I was in the bottom third when it came to pace. The majority of the class would fly by as I alternated jogging and walking. I had it down to a science: run 6 laps, walk 1.5, run 2, walk 1, run 1. I clocked in at 11:35 for my first mile. Talk about mortified! When you’re 14, nothing is more embarrassing than walking to finish your mile when half of your class is already done and watching you struggle. Even worse was our gym teacher, who made a habit of jogging along beside you to point out how slowly you were moving.
Did I mention how scarred I was?
Obviously, I was completely crazy to consider trying it again. But I knew I was ready to push myself a little more so I Googled a program I had heard about, Couch to 5k. It has basically the same run / walk concept I used in gym class, but with more thought put into it and an end goal of running a 5k (3.1 miles).
If you’re ready to push yourself a little harder but aren’t sure where to start, check out Couch to 5k. It makes a lot of sense and breaks a 5k down into smaller, achievable goals for beginners. There are also tons of apps out there that allow you to listen to music, and will tell you when it’s time to run and when to walk. Give it a shot! Good luck, and don’t give up – everyone has bad running days, so don’t let that stop you from reaching your goal!
