Just Checking In

Hi Everyone!

I was hoping I'd have time to blog yesterday, before things got crazy (busy), but we ended up being at a car dealership until 12:30AM! There's something about the car buying experience that makes you want to dive straight into a chocolate cake!!
Good news: I DIDN'T!!
It's so stressful! Luckily, it's over!!

Today I have to clean my whole house, because my father-in-law is coming TONIGHT! Anyone want to come help me clean? ;D

I'm having slight anxiety about eating healthy, while we have company over. The fact is, is that this is a part of life. I'm going to have visitors, curve balls, and face situations that don't make it easy to live a healthy lifestyle, but I have to learn to adapt and work around them. It's the only way I'm going to be successful. Life can't be put on hold, while I lose weight, and figure this whole healthy lifestyle out. I need to go into this challenge believing that I can do it, and with positive thoughts! So, even though a little voice inside my head is telling me that this is going to be too hard, and even though I'm nervous as to what this week holds, I'm going to press on. I'm going to tell myself that it's going to be an awesome, deliciously healthy week with my father-in-law, and that I can totally do this!!
Wish me luck! ...Although I seriously don't think I need it! ;D

I wanted to acknowledge, and say thank you to the WONDERFUL, and FABULOUS CBG Blog, who awarded me 2 blog awards!!
THANK YOU!!

I'll do a blog post in the next day or two, about it. I'm excited!

I also wanted to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for all your sweet comments on Fridays post. They gave me renewed strength, helped me believe in myself (a task that is hard sometimes, so I appreciate your help!), and touched my heart! You guys are awesome, and I mean it when I say that I heart my blog readers! (I want a shirt that says that;). Thank you to everyone who stops by my little blog, and for everyone who gives me support! It helps me more than you know!

On Monday I did my weigh in, even though I really didn't want to! It had me at 181. I'm actually happy with this, because when I weighed myself after all my rebellion, I was 182. I managed to lose the extra pound I put on, and got back down to where I was before I decided to be bad! ;D My goal is to be 179 next week!! I'm SO excited to be in the 170's!! It's going to be a good goal to keep my eye on, while my father-in-law is in town!!

Sorry if I've been a bad blog friend! Life has been a little busy these past few days! I've still been reading along, but sometimes it takes me twice as long to leave a comment, than it does to read your posts (because I obsess over what I'm going to say;), so I've been skipping that part lately. I should have time this week, to keep up on my blog, and yours! :D

XOXO

Children’s Miracle Network Easter Basket

Meg, at Two Pounds a Week, gave me a virtual Easter basket for a great cause (thank you Meg!) — helping raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. Per her blog: This year, Hershey’s wants to make a difference up to $5,000 to Children’s Miracle Network with the help of bloggers. CMN is a non-profit alliance of children’s hospitals dedicated to providing state-of-the-art care, life-saving research and preventative education across North America.

Post a few words on your blog, and Hershey’s will donate funds for your participation. Easy (and free) for us; priceless for the children in need.

Sounds like a great cause, no? I’d like to pass virtual Easter baskets to:

From Fat to Fab

Slim Shopping

Anonymous Fat Girl

Corletta

Fatty Patty No More

And if you would like to play along, here are the rules:

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.

Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.

Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.

Leave your link HERE in the comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.

Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).

Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

Thanks to all who participate!

Lately I've Been...

~A blog slacker. Still.

~An emotional wreck. Look at me funny, and I'll cry. My poor hubby. He's so confused. Hormones?
~Rebellious. I don't know why? If I see a brownie, I'll eat it. Why? Because I'm being rebellious. Well, and because it's yummy ;)
~Annoyed at myself. Some of the naughty little things I ate, weren't even good. I just ate them because I wanted to prove some kind of silly point. I didn't believe in myself. I think the success I've been having scared me, in some weird way. I sabotaged myself.
~1 pound heavier, due to my rebellion.
~Excited to have family come visit.
~Anxious and nervous to have family come visit. I was pushing myself to be a certain weight before my in-laws came, which resulted in me rebelling against the entire thing. If you can't beat em, join em.
~Lazy. I haven't put together a grocery list, or gone grocery shopping, which is a recipe for disaster.
~Sad. I feel like I had a pretty little vase (my healthy living, and diet plan), but I dropped it, and it shattered.
~Optimistic. I have some crazy glue, and all the little pieces from my pretty little vase. I can put it back together, and it'll look prettier then ever before! I've only had about 3 days of rebellion, and they weren't full days of bad choices. Just a bad meal here, and a bad snack there. Surely I can turn this around, right?
~Excited to cook up a healthy storm again! I'm seriously craving it! I ate a hamburger from Wendy's a couple nights ago, and that thing was seriously gross! Afterwords, I felt sick, weighed down, and I had heartburn all night! Can you say, not worth it? My taste buds have seriously changed. They've gone Deliciously Healthy, and they're never going back! ;D
~Grateful. For the support my husband gives me. How he believes in me, even when I don't.
For my blog readers, who I heart!

Things I've learned:

~ I have to believe in myself. Nobody else can do this but me. I have to be on my side, be my own cheerleader, and do this for me. Like I said before, I didn't even want to eat some of the things I ate. I simply wanted to sabotage myself. Why? Because I didn't believe in myself.

~Not putting together a grocery list, and going grocery shopping, is like totally stupid. I need to plan out my meals, and stick to them.

~I need to blog more. It lifts me up, and holds me accountable.

~One mistake leads to the next. It started out small. Not doing something I should have, or eating a tiny little piece of something I shouldn't have. Before I knew it, my bad decisions were getting bigger, more disruptive, and I was headed to Wendy's. I need to recognize when I'm getting off track, even if it's just a tiny little step, and do what's needed to make sure I stay ON track.

And there you have it folks. I've been bad. I had one of those stupid rocks in my path, and it totally made me trip! I've dusted myself off, and I'm continuing on, hoping no one saw...that's always embarrassing ;) After all, this is one of the most important walks of my life. It's beautiful, and it has many, many rewards along the way. A little rock isn't going to take those away from me.

I'm going to have a very Deliciously Healthy weekend, and I hope you all do too! ;D

Weekend Recap, and a Weigh In! Fun! ;)

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I meant to do this post yesterday, but my husband had the day off, so it ended up being a long weekend! It was awesome! ;D

Over the weekend, I made 2 new Deliciously Healthy recipes, that I'm so excited to share with you!:

I woke up Saturday morning with the weirdest craving for french toast! So, I went into the kitchen to see if we had everything, without having to make a run to the store (the grocery store should be avoided at all costs on Sat.). Guess what? We did! Shocker! So, I made
Crunchy Cereal French Toast!! :It was crunchy, and yummy, and the perfect weekend breakfast!!
I wanted to use Cinnamon Life cereal, but we didn't have any, so I went with Strawberry Special K cereal. You can use any cereal you like! The strawberries on mine got a little burnt. I thought I would have to pick them off, but they didn't taste burnt at all, so I left them on. They added a sweet tartness to the french toast!

Here's What You Need:

~6 slices of whole wheat bread
~1 egg, and 2 egg whites
~1/2 a cup of low-fat milk
~1 1/2 cups of crushed cereal of your choice
~salt
~cinnamon

This is What You Do:

Crush in a plastic bag, a cereal of your choice. Pour cereal onto a plate. Beat together in a bowl 1 egg, 2 egg whites, milk, salt and cinnamon. Pour mixture into a deep plate. one by one, dip your bread into the egg mixture, coating both sides, then dip into the cereal mixture, coating both sides, and then into a hot pan. Cook on med/high until the egg has cooked. About 3 minutes, depending on how thick your bread is. You could also place the bread slices on a cookie sheet, and cook at 450 for 15 minutes. Add a topping of your choice, and dig in!

Here's What I'm Thinking:
~6 servings
~Serving size: 1 slice of french toast
~About 200 calories per serving (it can range, depending on the kind of bread you use)
**I had 2 slices which put me at about 400 calories. A tiny bit of a splurge for breakfast, but I like to splurge on the weekends! ;D

On Sunday, my Husband and I were excited to watch the new series, LIFE, on the discovery channel! Did anyone else watch? It was so awesome! While we were watching it, my husband and I kept saying things like: "What?!" "Really!" "Dude!" "Cool!" "Whoa!" "Did you see that?" "Gasp!" "WOW!"
It was pretty funny!
It's amazing how beautiful our world is, but it's a shame how much we (I) take it for granted. The sunset is one of the most beautiful things, but do I ever take the time to look at it? Not really. And it's right in my backyard! Watching the show definitely helped me to remember how grateful I am to be living in this beautiful world! It was an 11 part event, so we recorded it, and every Sunday, we're going to watch a couple episodes together! I'm excited to watch the rest of the series!

We wanted something quick and simple for dinner Sunday night, so we could watch the show!

I remember as a kid, I loved making little pizzas out of English muffins! I thought I could easily make a Deliciously Healthy version, and it would be a fun, and simple Sunday dinner! Boy was it ever!! My husband and I both bought things we wanted on our individual pizzas, and it was a fun little activity to do together in the kitchen! This recipe is perfect for a fun, relaxing night at home!
Healthy English Muffin Mini Pizzas:
Here's What You Need:

**You can add any topping you like. Italian seasoned ground turkey, chicken, or any kind of veggie combo, would all be great on these mini pizzas. This is what I put on mine:

~1 package of whole wheat English muffins
~1 Jar of low sodium marinara, or pizza sauce
~1/2 an onion, chopped
~1 bell pepper, chopped
~1 cup chopped mushroom
~1 can of black olives, sliced
~1 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese

This is What You Do:

Preheat oven to 375. For each English muffin half, spread 1 tablespoon of the sauce over the top. Then, evenly spread out 1/4 cup of cheese, over 3 halves. Repeat for each trio. Then add the rest of your toppings. Place pizzas on a cookie sheet, and place in the oven for about 13 minutes, or until the cheese is melted, and the muffins are crispy. Enjoy!

Here's What I'm Thinking:
~Servings: 4
~Serving size: 3 English muffin halves
~Calories: About 355 (If you use the toppings I did;)

****

Now for my weigh in:
My weigh-ins were on Tuesdays, but I thought I'd switch it to Monday. That way I could start out my week knowing where I stand, and so I could blog about it every Monday. I'm trying to have a little bit more a of a schedule on this little blog of mine ;). So, I switched it, and then I didn't blog about it yesterday! ;) Oh, silly me!
Okay, enough of the stalling. My weigh in had me at 181. (My clock is broken!;) Awesome. Again, I'm happy with it. I lost a pound and that's something to be proud of! I also have a few possible explanations rolling around in my head, that make me feel okay with the 1 pound loss:
1. I usually find that I'm down 2 pounds every Tuesday. Maybe I lose that last pound ON Tuesday? If that's the case it will show up in either my sneak peak weigh in, or next Monday's weigh in.
2. I think TOM might be thinking about showing up this month. I've been crossing my fingers all month, that my healthy eating will show, by having 2 periods in a row. Come on ovaries! You can do it! Last month I think I started around the 8th ( I ought to write that down;), so if it does show up, it's obviously late. But the phrase, "Better late then never", has never been so true, in this case! So, if it is going to make an appearance, I don't care if I don't lose weight...heck, I won't even care if I gain weight, if it means that Aunt flow payed me a visit 2 months in a row!

So, that's where I'm at this week. 181, happy, healthy, and anxious! ;D

I Enjoy Being Deliciously Healthy

Hello!(I'm a nerd;)

I'm still being a complete blog slacker aren't I?
I'll do better, I promise ;D

Tuesday was my weigh in (is it Friday already?). It had me at 182. What do you know, I'm down 2 pounds from last weeks weigh in. It's like clock work!! Because of the (crazy) goals I set for myself a while ago, this 2 pound loss every week, may have caused steam to shoot out of my ears by now, but it hasn't (I promise;). I'm happy with it. I'm at peace with it.

This week, I think something finally clicked:
I'm not on a diet!
Seriously. I'm not. LOL!
I'm simply making healthy choices, and living a healthier lifestyle. This week, the majority of my focus has been on putting Deliciously Healthy fuel into my body, and figuring out how I can eat cleaner, by making simple changes. Eating healthy, and being healthy, came way before thinking about calories, and weigh-ins. This week, it's been a lifestyle, NOT a diet! I'm eating Deliciously Healthy, and I'm loving it!

Who knew you could live and be healthy, love what you eat, AND lose weight? Being healthier is gratifying and worth it, all by itself! Losing 2 pounds a week on top of that, feels like a little extra bonus. I'll take that little extra bonus with a smile on my face, and be grateful for it! :)

I'm not saying that this journey isn't hard for me, and that I don't still day dream about cupcakes, and chocolate donuts with pink sprinkles (MMM).
This is my new lifestyle. A lifestyle that is healthy, and has more meaning, then simply the numbers on the scale. I see the bigger picture now, and seeing the big picture, gives me the strength, knowledge and motivation, to eat Deliciously Healthy, and enjoy doing it.

So, that's where I am this week. 182, happy, healthy, grateful, and content!
I'm not making any promises for next week! I kid. I kid ;D

Now, it's time for a Deliciously Healthy recipe!
Are you ready for this? Because it's awesome!

I had a few things in my fridge, that were going to go bad if I didn't use them soon. I had low-fat ricotta cheese left over from my stuffed shells, spinach, mushrooms a friend gave me, and 1lb of turkey my husband put in the fridge for some reason, so I had to cook it soon. Hmmm.... What can I make, that uses all of those ingredients?

(Light bulb moment)

Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna!!It was delish! My husband loved it! My husband always says he doesn't like "diet food". His taste buds are my Deliciously Healthy, gauge. If it's healthy enough for me, and delicious enough for him, it can make it onto my little blog. He licked his plate (it's sad, but I'm not kidding), so it passed the test!

Here's What You Need:

~8 ounce package whole wheat lasagna noodles
~1 pound lean ground turkey
~1 cup chopped onion
~1 1/4 cups low-fat ricotta cheese
~4 egg whites
~1 cup chopped mushrooms
~1 package of spinach, cooked. Or you can use 1 10 ounce package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained.
~3/4 teaspoon salt
~1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
~1 14 ounce jar of low-sodium spaghetti sauce
~3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

This is What You Do:

Heat oven to 35o. Cook noodles according to package. While noodles are cooking, cook turkey, and add the chopped onion to the turkey. Mix together in a bowl, the ricotta cheese, and next 5 ingredients. Pour 1/2 cup of the spaghetti sauce, in a 11X7X1 1/2 baking dish. Lay 4 of the cooked noodles on top, overlapping each other. Spoon out half the mushroom mixture, and spread over noodle layer. Poor half the turkey and onion mixture, over the top. Lay down 3 noodles, to create a new layer. Spoon out remaining mushroom mixture, and spread over the noodles. Pour the remaining turkey and onion over the top. Lay down 3 noodles, and pour the remaining spaghetti sauce over the top. Cover loosely, and bake for 50min. Uncover, and bake for an additional 10min.

Here's What I'm Thinking:
6 servings
~About 390 calories, per serving.

****

Deliciously Healthy Tip:Since I've been cooking healthy, I've noticed that I seem to be getting rid of a lot of egg yolks! It seriously pained me to dump them down the drain! That was until I learned you can give them to your dog! Egg yolks are easy on their stomachs, helps their metabolism and muscles, and it makes their coats nice and shiny! We have 3 dogs: A Cairn terrier, Lab, and a Greyhound. I read that egg yolks are especially good for Greyhounds, so I give the majority of them to her. I would check to make sure that it's okay for your specific breed, but if you have a dog, and hate wasting egg yolks, this can be a great alternative! :D
(Note: It's not healthy however, to give your dog only the egg whites. You either want to give them the egg yolks, or a whole egg.)

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!!
And remember: It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle.
Whoever came up with that phrase, is a genius. Probably a skinny genius ;D

YAY!!

I Chose "YAY!!" To be the title of this post, because I have a lot of things to celebrate, and be happy for! :

Remember how I told you that I had some business I needed to attend to, and I promised I'd tell you all about it, when I was done? Well, I'm finally done!

A few weeks ago, I got jury duty. Big whoop right? Well, as my luck would have it, I got picked to be on the jury for a murder trial! Out of 300 people! What are the odds?! It lasted 3 weeks, and it's finally over! YAY! I had planned to tell you all about it in more detail, but I think it's smart to keep quiet for a while...

I'm happy to be back to life before this whole thing began.... and back to blogging again! Thank you for sticking by me, even though I've been a total blog slacker! On most nights, I just wanted to eat dinner, and crawl into bed. Towards the end of the trial, the judge ordered us to stay off the Internet, so I couldn't even blog if I wanted to!

During this whole trial, I had some :Deliciously Healthy triumphs, that I'm pretty proud of! :
1. When I first found out that I was definitely on the jury, the thought came to my mind, to go of my diet, until the trial was over. I wanted comfort food! But then I remembered, that life throws you curve balls, and you have to learn to work around them. I was determined to not let this curve ball, throw me off track! I'm happy to report, that over the course of this 3 week trial, I lost 5 pounds! ...And I'm pretty darn proud of that!
2. Everyday on our lunch break, we would walk around downtown Denver, and get lunch. It was a lot of fun walking around the city, but there weren't a lot of healthy options to chose from. My 2nd triumph, is that I learned how to eat out, while sticking to my diet! This is something I never thought I had the strength, or willpower to do. I thought for certain, if I had to chose a salad, or a big juicy burger, I would always chose the burger! It actually wasn't that hard! I just said to myself, "Brittany, you deserve more then a greasy burger! You deserve to be happy and healthy!" It worked every time! ...YAY!

***

My 2nd big YAY, goes to the fact, that I've passed up my first 20 pounds lost, milestone! YAY!!

Last weekend, the oh so beautiful scale said "186" Which meant I had lost 20 pounds, since around October- 09' when I weighed 206!

This weekend I weigh 184! The scale has definitely lost some of the beauty it had last weekend, but I'm still very happy with my 2 pound loss this week! I seem to lose 2 pounds every week. I wish it were 3, but hey, at least it's something! ;)

Before meets After...

Here's me at 206:
( This one's pretty telling, isn't it? ;)
And Here I am now, at 184! (22 pounds lighter):This is a milestone, that a little voice inside my head, told me I'd never reach. But guess what? I totally did! When I stepped on the scale the morning that I found out I had lost my first 20 pounds, I gave myself a little pat on the back! Literally ;) Everything has been worth it, to feel the way I felt when I stepped onto the scale, and saw that I hit that beautiful milestone. Those cinnamon rolls that I turned down, the donuts I had to pass up almost every morning while on jury duty, the pizza add I got in the mail that made me drool...NONE of those things could have brought me the satisfaction, joy, and the complete sense of accomplishment that I got from reaching my first 20lb milestone! ....No cheesecake in the world could have compared to the joy I felt when I got my period last month, or the way I felt when I got my very first compliment, or how rewarding it felt when I bought a size 16 pants!
It's so worth it! I'm so worth it!

THANK YOU
to everyone who stops by my blog, and gives me support! I know that my blog is one of the major reasons why I've (finally) been successful this time around! I heart you guys!

***

My 3rd big YAY, goes to the fact that I've been feeling great lately! I can definitely feel a difference in my knees, now that I've lightened their load! I first went on this diet, because I wanted to be healthy. To be healthy so that we can have a baby. To be healthy so that I can function with less pain. To be healthy, so I can stay far away from even more health problems, like diabetes. And to be healthy, so I can hold off on knee replacements as long as I can.
It's working. I can feel my body changing, and becoming healthier... I feel healthier! I realize more and more as the days go by, that the numbers don't define my journey. I'm a healthier person now, then I was before, and next month I will be healthier then I am now. But, since the scale doesn't have a brain, it neglects to tell me that part ;)

Eat Deliciously Healthy. Be :Deliciously Healthy.

***

And lastly, I tried a delicious new recipe! YAY!

I heart Italian food. After seeing one delicious Italian restaurant commercial after the other, I decided that I had to do something about it!

So, I made, Jumbo Stuffed Shells!
And it was everything I hoped it would be! :
You Will Need:

~12 jumbo pasta shells
~1 cup fat-free ricotta cheese
~1 1/4 cups finely shredded low-fat mozzarella
~3 tablespoons reduced fat parmesan
~1 large egg white
~1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh parsley
~1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh basil
~1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
~2 1/2 cups low sodium marinara sauce
~1 tablespoon reduced fat parmesan
~Salt and pepper

Here's What You Do:

Cook pasta according to package. Drain, and place shells side by side on wax paper. In a bowl, mix Ricotta cheese, and next 6 ingredients. Evenly spread out 3/4 of a cup of the marinara sauce in a 10 inch round, or 11x7 baking dish. Spoon in, or use a pipping bag like I did, 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each shell. Place stuffed shells in a single layer, in the baking dish. Spoon the remaining marinara sauce over the top. Sprinkle parmesan over the marinara sauce. Cover with foil, and bake for 20-25 minutes.
**This would be awesome with some Italian seasoned lean ground turkey! You could either make meat balls, or mix it in to the marinara!

Here's What I'm Thinking:
~About 100 calories per stuffed shell.
**I had 3 shells, and a side of steamed asparagus. I rounded it all out to be about 350 calories.

***

I'm headed to bed.
Tomorrow I have A LOT of catching up to do on all my blog friends!
I can't wait to see what you guys have been up to!

XOXO

I Have A Couple Quick Questions For You...

I'm starting to notice some weird things going on as I'm gradually getting smaller. I'm wondering if anyone has ever experienced these types of things, while losing weight:

First of all,
Where the heck are my boobs going?!?!I was a DD, but after I had lost about 12 pounds, I realized I was a D! I knew that my boobies were going to get smaller, but I wasn't expecting to lose a whole cup size, after only losing 12 pounds! Am I going to lose a cup size with every 12 pounds I lose?! I'm not going to have any boobies left!
Anyone?

2nd of all,
I've lost 1 love handle, and not the other!
Seriously.
What the heck people?!I'm not losing weight very evenly here. Not in the sense that I'm losing it in my arms, and not my legs, I mean my left side, isn't quite catching up with my right! Is this common? Has this happened to any of you? If so, does it eventually work it's self out? Is my body playing a joke on me?

Thanks!

On a side note:
My Tuesdays weigh in, had me at 187!!! That means I'm down 2 pounds since last week! I'll admit, it wasn't what I wanted to see (I was wanting to see 186-185), but I'm happy with it. I'm happy for every ounce I lose!