Weigh In, New Recipe & Birchbox Goodies

Happy Monday everyone! Since I don't blog over the weekend, we are just going to backtrack by day for this entry.

__________________________________________________________
Friday:
I received my December Birchbox and I was so excited! It really is so fun opening them up to see what goodies they send.

Top Left: Number 4 Non Aerosol Hairspray
Top Right: Chuao Chocopod in Honeycomb flavor
Bottom Left: Color Club Nail Polish in Dark 'N Stormy
Botton Right: 29 Cosmetics Skincare Sampler

Top: Salt of the Earth Whipped Body Crème in Cabernet & Neroili
Bottom: Salt of the Earth Aroma Salt in White Ginger










I've used everything and LOVE everything. Would I purchase any of the products? Yes. The nail polish and the whipped body crème for sure. The skincare sampler is $175 for the entire collection so... no... it is nice, but just as a sampler. The chocolate was delicious too. If you buy the Assorted Chocopod 8-Piece Gift Set it is $9.95. It is expensive for chocolate but it is very delicious!

And here is what the nail polish looks like on:

I do like it a lot. I will get quite a few uses out of that tiny little sample bottle. I love nail polish. 

________________________________________________________

Saturday:

We got a lot of snow/sleet on Friday night into Saturday so the morning was spent at home trying to keep warm. Andrew had 3 piano tunings he was supposed to do but 2 called off due to the amount of snow and the church wasn't until 2:00 in the afternoon so he kept that one. 

Saturday Weigh In:

Weigh In: +3.9

Total Lost: 7.6

Pounds to Lose: 93.4

Remember how the week before I had that stomach bug and lost 11.1? Yeah, I'm not surprised by this gain at all and in fact I am quite happy because I really didn't do too bad at all. Only gaining about 4 of that 11 back? I think I did pretty damn good. 

I tried a new recipe for lunch and I am in love with it and will probably make it again in the future. Of course it is from Gina's Site. This was the recipe. 

Tuscan White Bean & Roasted Garlic Soup:

Absolutely to die for delicious. Seriously. I could eat this every day and it is super filling. 

Andrew and I planned on going to Red Robin for dinner on Saturday so I was sure to save up some points for that. I did end up going in the negative (because of beer and a peppermint mocha from Starbucks) but I have already earned 5 APs for this week and just need to earn 13 more to be in the black again. 

I ended up joining Andrew for his church tuning too. 

It wasn't the best piano in the world but after he was done with it I got to play a couple of songs on it and then we left. Even though the quality of sound wasn't the best, he did do an excellent job tuning it!

_____________________________________________________________

Sunday:

Lazy day. Super lazy day minus going to the fitness center and having dinner with Andrew's parents at a local pub. I was really frustrated at the fitness center because I couldn't get my foot pod to sync up with my Garmin. I finally realized the battery must be dead and sure enough as soon as I got back to the apartment and changed the battery it found the pod just fine. *sigh* Technology is a pain sometimes. I had to go by the results of the treadmill which I know aren't always accurate but it was OK. I was on there fore 36 minutes and earned 4 APs.

We watched a lot of Christmas movies this weekend which was wonderful. Andrew's work schedule is going to start getting really crazy this week so I was glad to have the two days to spend with him. We watched The original cartoon Grinch, Christmas Vacation, The Muppets Christmas Carol and Rudolph. Some of my favorites. I really love The Muppets Christmas Carol. I used to watch that one a lot when I was younger. I'm just sad that certain versions of that movie cut out the "When Love is Gone" scene. I like that song but understand that children grew restless during it so they cut it out of some versions. The version we have doesn't have it. Sad face. 

________________________________________________________________

Well, that was all the excitment from my weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

And so does Walter:

He's getting SO BIG

Why Have I Never Roasted Garlic Before?

Seriously!? As much as I like to cook and try new things it baffles my mind that I have never in my life roasted garlic. I found a soup recipe that I want to try and it calls for roasted garlic. Well, the way that Gina does it requires taking apart the garlic before roasting it and I hate working with garlic. So, I found this page that gave a really simple way to roast garlic. Basically idiot proof.

It is so good and the garlic is so soft. I have a ton of it now and plan on using it for multiple things. Especially in pasta. YUM. 

______________________________________________________________

New Recipe:

Last night I made this recipe of Chicken and Lentil Soup. I did not put chicken in it though and rebuilt it in my WW recipe builder and it is 4P+ a serving. 

I've always wanted to make lentil soup and finally had my chance. It smelled SO good and tasted just as wonderful. The cilantro really adds something special to this soup. Because of Gina's site I have been using cilantro in things I never thought to before and have been pleasantly surprised by how good things can be with it. 

Now, the reason I didn't add chicken was because ever since being sick the thought of meat makes me ill. If you put a piece of chicken in front of me right now and asked me to eat it I would probably dry heave or puke. No joke. I was talking to Anna yesterday about her dietary preferences because I know she doesn't eat meat, except for fish, and she explained that she is a Pescetarian. Basically the definition is: "Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood, but not the flesh of other animals. A pescetarian diet typically shares many of its components with a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet and includes vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs, dairy, and insect byproducts (such as honey, carmine, orshellac), but unlike a vegetarian diet it also includes fish and shellfish." (Wikipedia) It can also be spelled Pescatarian. 

I am thinking I want to kind of adopt this way of eating just because of how I'm feeling right now towards any other meat. It is easy enough to make recipes meatless these days and also, I still love fish and want to be able to enjoy that from time to time. Luckily for me my husband isn't a huge meat eater either so it will be easy to adjust to the changes. Plus, my grocery trip last night was cheaper that usual because of my lack of purchasing meat products. The only thing Andrew really won't give up is bacon. Haha. He loves his morning bacon on the weekends. 

______________________________________________________________

WeightWatchers & Stuff:

Things are still going OK. I think I am in the negative a little bit though due to my peppermint candy obsession. I need to scale back on that a little bit. 

Today's Menu:

B: 3 HB Eggs, 1 c FF milk, coffee

S: String Cheese

L: Lentil Soup, Spicy Black Bean burger on a light english muffin, WW mini bar

S: 6 oz Chobani yogurt, 1 T PB and 1 T Jelly mixed in

D: 5 oz Salmon and broccoli

Activity: Nothing

Springfield, IL is in a winter advisory for this evening going into tomorrow and I feel like it is the type of night to cuddle up on the couch with my husband and the dogs and just enjoy the warmth of the apartment. 

Tomorrow is my meeting/weigh in day. I always say I am going to sleep in on the weekends and go to the 9:00 meeting but my body hates me and is usually awake by 7:00 so I just go to the 7:30 meeting. I don't know what to expect. I had my 11.1 pound loss from the previous week after being ill but I don't count that as a serious loss because it wasn't. It was a fluke of me being ill. Bascially I want to go off of the weigh in before last weeks to judge my actual loss/gain. 

I guess we will see! 

No Pictures Today

I must have been lazy yesterday. I didn't take any pictures. Oh well. You'll just have to deal with my rambling.
________________________________________________________________________

New Recipe:
Last night I made Baked Chicken Parmesan from, you guessed it, Gina's Site. It was fantastic! I stole her picture which is a lot prettier than mine turned out.

Mine was a melted cheesy mess and absolutely delicious. It is 6P+ a serving and it makes 8 servings! That is a lot for Andrew and I and I didn't think this one would freeze very well so I invited mom and dad to have lunch with me today here at work and I packed some up for them. Now I only have a few servings left at home for Andrew and I. I put mine on top of 1 c of linguine (5P+). I added a vegetable too for some greens. It was a very filling dinner and I do recommend it!

______________________________________________________________________

WeightWatchers & Stuff:

I am definitely back on track. I got off a little bit over the weekend, as usual, and that carried over into Monday but yesterday I had a serious conversation with myself about how I needed to get back with it and stop having the mindset that I can do what I want and only be good 90% of the time and still lose weight. That isn't how it works. 

I am still doing my 30 Day Shred Challenge. Today is Day 13 and I did switch to Level 2 on Sunday. I don't know if I pushed harder or what last night but today my back is SORE. There are a lot of planks and shoulder exercises in Level 2 and I'm really feeling it. That is a good thing since my body was getting used to Level 1.... but man. I'm a bit uncomfortable. I don't even want to know how I'd be feeling if I wasn't soaking in Epsom salts at night. Andrew and I really like those. We ordered a huge bag off of Amazon and they are already almost gone. Great stuff! I got lavendar scented ones so they would be relaxing at night. 

My menu I have planned for today is:

B: Tuscan Herb bagel (plain), 1 c FF milk, coffee

S: Cheese Sticks and a banana

L: Leftover Chicken Parmesan, 1 c noodles, SF jell-o pudding

S: Bell Peppers with light ranch

D: TBD

Activity: Day 13, Level 2 of Shred

I haven't been running recently and I really should try and go out tomorrow. That 5K is sneaking up on me. Haha. I'm hoping that by doing the Shred it has helped improve my performance somewhat. 

_________________________________________________________________________

Tomorrow night I will take my measurements and progress photos. I sure don't feel any different but the tape measure and photos don't lie! We will see what happens and I hope to have some awesome results for Friday's weigh in post. 

Trying New Recipes

I'm just going to jump right in. Last night I made this compliments of Gina.

It is Cilantro Lime Cauliflower "Rice".
*drool*
Absolutely amazing and delicious. I want to go to the store and buy more heads of cauliflower so I can make this again. What I love about her site is the food is so simple, so delicious and she gives you the nutritional information for everything she makes! This is something I could eat by the bucket full. Haha. I'm having a cup of it (2P+) with my lunch today.

If you do not like cauliflower you will not like this recipe. If you do not like cilantro you will not like this recipe.




In order to make this recipe I did have to buy a food processor. That was totally OK with me though because I have always wanted one. This is the one I picked out from Meijer:

So cute. I love it. I love KitchenAid products. This only set me back $39. I now have it set up next to my KitchenAid mixer. My other favorite kitchen toy. 

________________________________________________________________________

WeightWatchers & Food:

I switched back to counting Points+ for this week because I am going to be trying many new recipes and it will just be easier. I am still eating only filling foods like before, but counting instead of just tracking and not worrying about a number value. This morning I got this recipe ready in the crockpot for tonight. I am so excited to try it. When I was mixing together all of the ingredients it smelled so good. Even Andrew, who isn't a huge chili fan, is excited about it. I'm going to put a few jalepenos on it and sprinkle on some FF Cheddar and have a delicious 6 point dinner. YUM! You get a pretty decent serving size too. 1 & 1/4 c. It will be filling too with all the beans and chicken breast. Mmmm..... 

I did not exercise last night since I went to the store. I got home close to 6:00 and by the time I got everything put away and made the cauliflower recipe it was 7:00. I had the cauliflower, a little brown rice and some air popped popcorn later on in the evening. It was a sporadic "dinner" but I didn't binge or go crazy. Even though I didn't exercise, I earned 1 AP! Grocery shopping is a good workout. Let me tell ya.... Tonight I hope to do something. 

I would love to try and do early morning workouts. I toy with this idea in my head a lot. I always think that if I just got it done right away then when I got home from work it would be done and over with and I could just relax. Problem is, I'm such a lazy ass in the morning. Haha. If I made it a habit though it wouldn't be an issue..... I don't know. Andrew gets kind of upset when I wake up too early too... even though he can go right back to sleep.... 

________________________________________________________________________

I do not have much else to update. Work is going well, our debt free plan is going well and things are good. I'm content and loving the cooler weather. Happy Tuesday, everyone!