Hello there my little pumpkins. It has been some time since I've written anything useful or meaningful, but I feel a cursory update is in need.
First off, I meal prepped all of Spring Semester 2015. I lost 25 lbs in those four months just with the meal prepping and the exercise. I kind of got out of the habit of meal prepping and exercise during the last month of school due to finals, stress, my husband finally graduated with his dual bachelor's degree.
Good news though, I took two months off from it, but didn't gain any of the weight back. I also didn't eat like I used to either, having learned correct portion control. Now, I am back on the horse, so to speak. Since my financial situation hasn't improved since January, having anything to eat is more of the concern than cooking special meals. But, all things considered, I have taken up trail running or cross country, or whatever people call it. Since I work for the DNR at a state park, I am pretty much outside all day long. I know the people here, and I know this park now. So, I am not afraid to be out there by myself anymore.
Speaking of which, I have dropped my husband as an exercise partner. He did it first when he found someone else that was more interested in his style of exercise. So, being partnerless, I have decided I am just going to get over my absurd co-dependency and do what I want, how I want to. At least when it comes to an exercise routine. I have set myself a goal. I want to run Tough Mudder next summer, and several other obstacle type races. I have already agreed to volunteer in Pittsburgh in August, so that'll give me a taste of what it's like.
I took this job at the DNR to get outside of my own comfort zone, and to actually have a memorable summer. Well, so far, it has rained for a month a half. It kinda sucks when you work outside. But, mission accomplished. It's been memorable.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Brian's Graduating College
Seeing that we are less two weeks away from graduation and Brian hasn't said anything yet, I am going too.
Now, my dear husband is graduating from Marshall on May 9th at 9:00am at the Big Sandy Arena. Consider this an open invitation to all our friends and family. We bought and I even wrote out fancy invitations, but time is short, so this is what we have. Tickets are not needed to get in, but it is recommened to arrive early to get a seat.
And now important braggy stuff. I am super proud of him. He is graduating with a dual degree in Sociology and German. He is also graduating with Honors in German. So awesome! Not only that but he also has been awarded a Who's Who in American Colleges award for students who excel in service leadership. And....! He also has been selected for the President of the Year Award for his excellent leadership of the German Club. The awards ceremony is Friday May 1st, and close family are invited. (It's a formal affair. Tie required).
But wait there's more! He has finally made the decision of what he is going to do with those degrees. Graduate school. Lol. He has decided to pursue teaching language and sociology, but at the collegiate level, and thus needs a masters/PhD. But, while he is in grad school, he will be teaching undergrads. That is all, for now.
I swear that's all for now guys. Hopefully we'll see some of y'all at the ceremony. Inbox me if you need directions, times, attire, etc.
Now, my dear husband is graduating from Marshall on May 9th at 9:00am at the Big Sandy Arena. Consider this an open invitation to all our friends and family. We bought and I even wrote out fancy invitations, but time is short, so this is what we have. Tickets are not needed to get in, but it is recommened to arrive early to get a seat.
And now important braggy stuff. I am super proud of him. He is graduating with a dual degree in Sociology and German. He is also graduating with Honors in German. So awesome! Not only that but he also has been awarded a Who's Who in American Colleges award for students who excel in service leadership. And....! He also has been selected for the President of the Year Award for his excellent leadership of the German Club. The awards ceremony is Friday May 1st, and close family are invited. (It's a formal affair. Tie required).
But wait there's more! He has finally made the decision of what he is going to do with those degrees. Graduate school. Lol. He has decided to pursue teaching language and sociology, but at the collegiate level, and thus needs a masters/PhD. But, while he is in grad school, he will be teaching undergrads. That is all, for now.
I swear that's all for now guys. Hopefully we'll see some of y'all at the ceremony. Inbox me if you need directions, times, attire, etc.
Monday, February 16, 2015
2015 Aspirations
January rolled around and I needed to change my life. I've worked hard for years and I felt like I was just spinning my wheels. I was horribly depressed, I was gaining weight like crazy, I was doing subpar work at my job, and I was super lonely.
So, I changed it all. I am no where near where I want to be in my life, but now I have a plan. I am striving for progress everyday, instead of expecting instant results.
First and foremost, I was unhappy with my weight. Since I quit smoking in 2013, I have gained 45 pounds and I am just not happy with it. Quite frankly it was really starting to affect my husband's and my intimate relationship and that did not sit well with me. Not only is that a problem, but the general unhealthiness that I was living was awful. I constantly obsessed about food. I could put away half a large pizza and then half a tub of ice cream. I didn't really do more than go to class, go to work, and go to sleep. Even though I now had weekends off, I just stayed home in bed binge watching TV series all evening and all weekend. Since homelife really was just blarg, I wasn't into my work as usual. Most people did notice that I quit designing and creating things for about a year there. Even in my day job I was just there to collect a paycheck. I didn't truly so my job - I did not feel the need of desire to make Starbucks Corporation happy with my quality of work, and that is defenetly not me. I am generally a workaholic.
So onto the changes I implemented into my life!
First Change - Quit my day job. And since I have adequate savings, a month later, still okay and not freaking out and getting another job yet. And at the same time, I reopened my Etsy shop with my husband. We now make things together. This has added to our relationship.
Next change- Quit eating crap! My husband and I have really gotten into meal prepping. We fix breakfast, lunch, and snacks a week in advance. This appeals to our ultimately lazy side but also allows us to eat healthy yummy food such as grilled zucchini, roasted eggplant, grilled chicken, homemade fruit snacks, etc. We both count our calories everyday. I literally takes 5 minutes before bed to log them in. We use the MyFitnessPal app and we find it fairly accurate and very handy.
Next Change - Move my butt! I started working out six days a week. Since membership to my college's fitness center is billed into my tuition if I use it or not, I use it as much as I can. It's a great facility and those in the Huntington Area can also join too. It has 3 floors of exercise equipment, 4 full size basketball courts, 3 swimming lanes, a swimming pool, hot tub, 3 raquetball courts, an indoor climbing wall, an indoor track, and not to mention private studios, and classes. It's really great place and I feel really motivated when I am there. My workout plan is 3 alternating days of cardio (usually elliptical) and three days of weightlifting. I use an app called JeFit like it's my personal trainer.
One month in and everything is going as plan. I am seeing progress every week. I plan to do more detailed posts as I have time, and with progress pics and meal prep plans, maybe some exercise routines I am using.
So, I changed it all. I am no where near where I want to be in my life, but now I have a plan. I am striving for progress everyday, instead of expecting instant results.
First and foremost, I was unhappy with my weight. Since I quit smoking in 2013, I have gained 45 pounds and I am just not happy with it. Quite frankly it was really starting to affect my husband's and my intimate relationship and that did not sit well with me. Not only is that a problem, but the general unhealthiness that I was living was awful. I constantly obsessed about food. I could put away half a large pizza and then half a tub of ice cream. I didn't really do more than go to class, go to work, and go to sleep. Even though I now had weekends off, I just stayed home in bed binge watching TV series all evening and all weekend. Since homelife really was just blarg, I wasn't into my work as usual. Most people did notice that I quit designing and creating things for about a year there. Even in my day job I was just there to collect a paycheck. I didn't truly so my job - I did not feel the need of desire to make Starbucks Corporation happy with my quality of work, and that is defenetly not me. I am generally a workaholic.
So onto the changes I implemented into my life!
First Change - Quit my day job. And since I have adequate savings, a month later, still okay and not freaking out and getting another job yet. And at the same time, I reopened my Etsy shop with my husband. We now make things together. This has added to our relationship.
Next change- Quit eating crap! My husband and I have really gotten into meal prepping. We fix breakfast, lunch, and snacks a week in advance. This appeals to our ultimately lazy side but also allows us to eat healthy yummy food such as grilled zucchini, roasted eggplant, grilled chicken, homemade fruit snacks, etc. We both count our calories everyday. I literally takes 5 minutes before bed to log them in. We use the MyFitnessPal app and we find it fairly accurate and very handy.
Next Change - Move my butt! I started working out six days a week. Since membership to my college's fitness center is billed into my tuition if I use it or not, I use it as much as I can. It's a great facility and those in the Huntington Area can also join too. It has 3 floors of exercise equipment, 4 full size basketball courts, 3 swimming lanes, a swimming pool, hot tub, 3 raquetball courts, an indoor climbing wall, an indoor track, and not to mention private studios, and classes. It's really great place and I feel really motivated when I am there. My workout plan is 3 alternating days of cardio (usually elliptical) and three days of weightlifting. I use an app called JeFit like it's my personal trainer.
One month in and everything is going as plan. I am seeing progress every week. I plan to do more detailed posts as I have time, and with progress pics and meal prep plans, maybe some exercise routines I am using.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
21 Days and I Feel Fine!
I am three weeks into my new lifestyle and I'd like to share my adventure in meal prepping this past Sunday. I have been pre-making breakfast, lunch, andd my snacks for three weeks now. It's kind of addicting. This week I am having red potatoes, grilled chicken, blanched green beans, and some long grain wild rice.
One of my favorite parts of meal prepping is all the cutting, dicing, and cleaning. And the colors. I love how colorful all of the veggies and fruits are.
This week, I chopped 3 pounds of red potatoes, and roasted them on 400 for an hour. I seasoned them with some lemon pepper. The ones on the bottom became nice and crunchy and the top ones are really silky. I also cooked 2.5 pounds of green beans. I cleaned them and trimmed the tips. I didn't go all out on the green beans this week. I blanched them in boiling water for 10 minutes. They are still firm and a really bright green. I learned my lesson last week with soggy green beans. Ick. The green beans will fully cook and become tender after reheating for lunch time. The blanching really brought out a bit of sweetness in the beans.
While my beans and potatoes are cooking, I mixed up my fruit snacks, started the wild rice, and set my husband to grilling the chicken. This week, grapes and raspberries were on sale, so I added them to my fruit cups. One note though, I did find out that the raspberries don't hold up too well being mixed and then frozen and then unthawed. They go mushy. On the other hand, frozen grapes are a treat all unto themselves. The rice is a rice-a-roni long grain and wild rice mix. It's 190 calories per serving of 1 cup. I cut it in half, using only a half cup for my meals. My husband seasoned the chicken with smokey mesquite. He grilled 16lbs of chicken at once. It was on sale at for $1.99 a pound, so we stocked up on some extra for his protein snacks.
One of my favorite parts of meal prepping is all the cutting, dicing, and cleaning. And the colors. I love how colorful all of the veggies and fruits are.
This week, I chopped 3 pounds of red potatoes, and roasted them on 400 for an hour. I seasoned them with some lemon pepper. The ones on the bottom became nice and crunchy and the top ones are really silky. I also cooked 2.5 pounds of green beans. I cleaned them and trimmed the tips. I didn't go all out on the green beans this week. I blanched them in boiling water for 10 minutes. They are still firm and a really bright green. I learned my lesson last week with soggy green beans. Ick. The green beans will fully cook and become tender after reheating for lunch time. The blanching really brought out a bit of sweetness in the beans.
While my beans and potatoes are cooking, I mixed up my fruit snacks, started the wild rice, and set my husband to grilling the chicken. This week, grapes and raspberries were on sale, so I added them to my fruit cups. One note though, I did find out that the raspberries don't hold up too well being mixed and then frozen and then unthawed. They go mushy. On the other hand, frozen grapes are a treat all unto themselves. The rice is a rice-a-roni long grain and wild rice mix. It's 190 calories per serving of 1 cup. I cut it in half, using only a half cup for my meals. My husband seasoned the chicken with smokey mesquite. He grilled 16lbs of chicken at once. It was on sale at for $1.99 a pound, so we stocked up on some extra for his protein snacks.
We're getting close to the end. I bagged all my fruits into 4oz snack bags, and chopped the chicken up to be weighed into 4 oz sections. And my potatoes are yummy! Finally I set out all of my containers. I use the small 2 cup rubbermaid and ziploc containers. The rubbermaid ones are my favorite and they seals hold better and they also microwave easier. I found the ziploc ones flimsy, but hey they were on sale too. I first laid out my 4oz carbs into each container. Seven got potatoes, and seven got rice. Then I just divided the green beans evenly into each container. It worked out to be about 3 oz per container. Green beans are healthy all the way around, so you really can't have too many. Then on top, is 4 ounces of grilled delicious chicken.
Very delicious! I let them cool with the lids off on the counter before I put the lids on the and froze them. I found that if we freeze hot rice, it crystallizes the whole bowl and isn't very tasty after it's reheated.
So, if you guys are really interested for the cost of these, here's the breakdown:
3.5 pounds of chicken @ $1.99 pound = $6.97
2 boxes of Rice-a-Roni @ $1 box = $2
3 pounds of green beans @ $1.29 a pound = $3.87
1.75 pounds of red potatoes @ $1.99 a pound = $3.48
4 pounds of grapes @ $0.99 a pound = $3.97
1 quart of strawberries @ $2.98 per quart = $2.98
1 pint of raspberries @ $2.29 per pint = $2.99
Total cost of shopping trip = $26.26
Cost per lunch = $1.17
Cost per fruit snack = $ 0.83 (I got 12 snacks out of the mix.)
This week, I price shopped around, and had a list of sale prices from different places with me when I went shopping at Wal-mart. I love their price-matching. All you have to do is tell the cashier that so and so has what ever you are buying on sale for a specific price and they'll match it. They don't match percentage based sales, BOGOs, or 10 for , but if grapes are on sale at Target for 99 cents a pound and they have them for 2.48 a pound, they will change the price for you. I love saving money.
Diet is only part of the equation for effective weight loss and my change of lifestyle. Next time, I will introduce you guys to my six days a week workout. It's working well; I am down six pounds!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)