Hi... Some pictures and some food:)

Long Time no see....I know I've been missing but that is only because I can't seem to catch my breath lately :)  We've been running around non stop and that means that I get to have tons of fun with my peeps but not so much on the blogging side of things.  All is good, I promise :) 

and I've even lost a pound and a half :)

Lots of my time has been absorbed by the cutie pies and their baseball schedule.

Mason as a catcher :)

Dom and Livie lovin on each other at the baseball field :)

One of the greatest pleasures as a mom is watching my little people love and play with each other.  I'm so content at this point in my life...Work? check, Crazy/Lovable Hubby? check, ADORABLE kids? - check...

YUP life is good :)

Like the hands on her hips?!?  :)

Mase is No. 6 on the bench...he and his buddy are chillin

Now onto food?!?!  This was yesterday:

Dinner was an unpictured turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with some pasta/veggie salad :) Mmmmm

I love summer time because that means I don't have to cook dinner every night any longer...DJ cooks dinner most work nights on the grill - WOOT! 

That is all I have for now...I'll try to check in more (luckily baseball will be over soon)

TTFN

(193.5)

Getting Old

You know you're getting old when you can't remember what you're weight was just a few hours ago.  It is really bad because I honestly can't remember it by a variance of 10lbs.  I'm sure that it is exactly what it has been this week, up a bit...but for some strange reason, my visual memory remembers seeing 188.  Is that odd???  I'm sure it wasn't 188 and I know that tomorrow when it says the number I'm afraid it is going to say...I'll be disappointed and for nothing except that my mind is playing tricks on me. 

Oh well...

How was everyone's day yesterday??  Good?!?!  Mine too...

Do you see these cupcakes??  They were on my news feed from a company I "like" in Bel Air called Flavor Cupcakery...OMG!!!  They are chocolate cake with strawberry butter cream, dipped in chocolate and topped with a strawberry...I HAVE GOT TO TRY TO MAKE THESE :)

Neighbors & Clowns

What an amazing weekend!?!?!

The weather was outstanding

This was the forcast ALL WEEKEND and it was a good thing b/c almost everything we did was outside!!!

Saturday we had shortie baseball with the cutie pies...they are getting so good!!!  Mason pitched and all :)

Then we came home and couldn't bring outselves to go indoors so we stayed outside ALL day/evening!

Around 7pm we were visited by some dear friends from down the street.  The kids got to play and we had a blast that included these yummy treats (Mexican Mudslides)

A bit later we walked to Julie's house to collect a few things and started recruiting people to come back with us to my house...it was awesome!!!  We ended up with 8 kids playing together in the back yard and the adults sitting on the deck by the fire pit just chillin....IT WAS A GREAT NIGHT and the start to what I think we will an awesome summer!!!!  YAY Marywood, so happy to live in this neighborhood:)

Sunday was another gorgeous day and it was a good thing b/c we celebrated the boy's birthdays at Annie's Playground (outdoor venue) with 24 kids and tons of adults!!! We had a great entertainer for the event.  I'm not sure who laughed harder at times, the kids or the adults :)

The party was a huge success and the kiddos were completely exhausted by the time we got home :)

GREAT WEEKEND!!!

Today it is back to normal for mama apes :) 

Below is my food journal and I'll be walking with the girls tonight rain or shine :) 

I love adding PB to my oatmeal it makes it so yummy

 Bean soup I found in the freezer...YUM and perfect on this rainy day :)

I'm getting all my snacking in today b/c we are starting a half assed "game" tomorrow and I'm focusing on 3 of the rules (instead of all the crazy stuff the real game entails).  I'm focusing on:

• Water, drinking 100 oz each day
• Exercise, at least 30 minutes 6 days a week
• NO SNACKING, outside of meals

We'll see how this goes but today was snack fest :)

Tonight I made crockpot chicken and I'm really looking forward to it already.

That's it for now

TTFN

My Job ROCKS!

I had the MOST AMAZING work day Thursday...

We celebrated Armour Day...here is the bucket list from the day:

• Matching shirts (that looked like Batman)?  Check
• Work day ending at 2pm?  Check
• Picked up by Yacht as transportation to Pier 6 in Baltimore? Check
• Free Snowballs while we waited for the "show to start"? Check
• Sitting with my buddies while one of our directors irritated us with a noisemaker?  Check :)
• 2800 Teammates celebrating together? Check
• Show starts and KP (CEO) provides motivation and inspiration to all?  Check
• Then announces our Guests for the event which include John Harbaugh and RAY LEWIS!!  CHECK

(note I girlly screamed during Ray's entrance b/c I heart him)

After the show - walk to Power Plant Live for a private UA teammate only event with my buddies, drinks and delicious food?  Check

GREAT GREAT GREAT DAY!

Blond

I'm a blond again :)  LOVE IT!

How do you like this look??  LOL

I'm struggling...I can't seem to get my act together :(  No excuses but I need to figure this out.  I'm not going to talk about what I'm "going to do" anymore...I just going to do it and let you know when it happens, sound good?  Ok then...

Today at work we are having a HUGE employee event that begins at 2pm...more on that later :)

I'm really psyched about it though...

Yesterday my food?!?!

These soups were too pretty not to take a picture of.  Mine was a melon gazpacho and the other one was a carrot soup.  Aren't the colors GORGEOUS?!?! my steak salad is missing :)  whoops

 note to self: stop eating at night...

You don't feel good after you do it and you aren't exercising enough to allow it

MOVE YOUR A$$!!!

That's it for now

TTFN

Back to the Basics...

Today I've made the executive decision to get back to the way of life I love...no more calorie counting no more stressing about not losing weight.  I was re-reading some of my earlier posts and realized I've forgotten some of the things that really worked for me early on.   Reminder on Intiutive Eating...

Intuitive Eating Principles

1. Reject the Diet Mentality. Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger. Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.
3. Make Peace with Food. Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.
4. Challenge the Food Police. Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.
5. Respect Your Fullness. Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?
6. Discover the Satisfaction Factor. The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you've had "enough".
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food. Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.
8. Respect Your Body. Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It's hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.
9. Exercise--Feel the Difference. Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.
10. Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition. Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don't have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It's what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.

That is it :)  No more my fitness pal, no more negativity to April...just eat, love, pray...LOL

I'm also going to get back to food pictures :)  I really like to do it so I'm going to continue...

Have a GREAT DAY!

TTFN

Sharing Speical Days

I don't mind (luckily neither does he)

Dom and I shared this weekend: His 6th Birthday/Mother's Day!

He is SO ADORABLE!!!

We ended up at Chuck E Cheese

although it isn't my favorite place on earth...the kids had a BLAST!

Mother's day was wonderful...GREAT DAY WITH THE FAMILY!

Now for some cutie pics...

Being honest...here was the scale from Friday morning :(

We should re-title this blog to "BORING BLOG" b/c that is about all I have today.

I will be more exciting tomorrow (I hope)

TTFN

Photos

I'm not really happy with the scale this week...for some reason I've been an angel with my food and rocking my workouts but the scale is staying steady...Grrrrrrrrrr  Oh well...Hopefully something magical will happen today before WI tomorrow :)

My food journal from yesterday??

Looking at my journal I see that my salad dressing probably isn't right (60 calories)??  and I'll have to fix that but everything else looks perfect...:(  If this doesn't work I think I'll go back to intuitive eating b/c it isn't worth feeling starving all the time if it isn't paying off and I hate the way I'm feeling disappointed.  Note to self (and all): this is why DIETS DON'T WORK!!!

Moving on...

I decided that I still need pictures in my blog, even if I'm not posting all my food pictures so below are the pictures I've chosen to share :)

Look at the engagement picture behind us...we were so young :)

Baby Sohpia...isn't she just precious?!?!

 My little bird...she only walks on her tip toes in the grass...it is adorable!



MyFitnessPal

When was the last time I checked in with ya'll???  I think it was Friday!  WOW!  and today is Wednesday.  Obviously I've had a really busy week and the best part of all?!?  I've really jump started my running and eating better again.  I'm so happy about this.  I really owe this re-connect to MyFitnessPal.  It is an app on my iphone and I've used it before but this time, for some reason, I'm really into it...it ROCKS!

When I started this whole weight loss thing over a year ago, I decided I wouldn't worry about counting calories...I would just make healthy choices and move on from there.   That worked for over 60 pounds but as I've been stalled for the last few months, I knew I needed to get my butt movin and start counting calories...even if just for a few weeks.  So this is what I'm doing...

Below is my food diary from yesterday...I LOVE this thing...you can't cheat it!  Sometimes I would find myself estimating this and estimating that...but this is really great and keeps me honest!!!  Not to mention keeps me in check in terms of carbs/fats and protein!!  (wish there was a spot for fiber on this summary). 

It also makes me really really think about whether something is worth it or not.  This is the benefit of tracking in any format...Weight Watchers, Daily Plate...anything.  My advice?!?  If you really want to lose weight...write down EVERYTHING you eat for a full week.  You will make healtier choices just becuase you had to write it down :)  trust me...

What you don't see here is the additional 450 calories I earned (already showing in my Daily Goal Total)due to my extensive workout with Lynn last night.  We hit the road for more than 3 miles (2 of those were running).  We had a great night on a new path!!  Can't wait to do it again tonight :)

I didn't see the results on the scale this morning but that's ok...Friday is the weigh in that counts and honestly...how much does the number on a scale really matter anyway?! :)

I like the motivation this tool gives you too...when I completed my entries yesterday on the app, it shot me this message (GREAT MOTIVATOR)

Oh hell yeah!!!  I'm gonna be skinny mini in no time :)

I have to talk about just one more thing that happened this weekend...

We celebrated Mason receiving his first communion...Isn't he adorable?!?! :)

Alright...time for me to get to it...

Question: Do you like food pics??  should I continue posting pictures of what I eat??  Just wondering if it is getting old and boring (you know how to reach me), or comment here :)

TTFN

She's BACK!

Promise

I'll be back tomorrow!!!

No Excuses

No Excuses...It just happened.  Next week is a new week, right??

Highlights from my food in the last few days??

This week I'm going to TRY to track everything on My Fitness Pal.

This is a great website/app where I can track everything I eat and do to keep myself in check. 

Fav features on this app/website??  I can't cheat the calories, it breaks out carbs/fat etc. 

Now I know that counting calories goes against my intuitive eating theories but I have to do something to jump start this weight loss again.  I have maintenance under control!!

Here are some screen shots from today.  Note: if I'd have realized Nutella would cost me 100 calories, I wouldn't have added it to my oatmeal this morning...oh well.

I'll post my progress and decide if it was helpful at the end of this week, I'll continue :)

This weekend will be NUTS!

We have Mason's First Communion and some family time...it will be busy but wonderful and fun :)

That's it for now...

TTFN