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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Weekly Weigh in #20, #21 and #22




Consistency in blogging is good so that people know when to expects posts. Great advice that I don't follow. Just like in trainer school when we learned never to write on the board and talk at the same time because you're talking to the wall. I failed that part too. Except now when I do train I tell my class all the things I'm doing wrong. Breaking down that 3rd wall.

So, I haven't done a weekly weigh-in recap because I haven't really had much to say. Since coming back from DC, the scale has been a little bitch. My food has been pretty decent, I've limited my non-Jenny food to only the weekends and last week I had sushi lunch on Monday.  I expected to see a little more movement, especially since I'm only down one net pound for September.

I think everyone who's working on losing weight goes though this and it can be weeks of no movement on the scale even though we're doing what we're supposed to. That's when a lot of people give up, but I still have 31 pounds to go and stopping now doesn't get me there.

Workouts
Every week I worked out at least 3 times. Well, most weeks were on;y 3, not 4. I have a dumb injury right now that I got in yoga class. Yes, yoga. I was in the triangle pose, straightened my left leg and heard a pop and it's been sore and unhappy for the last 3 weeks.
Really, who does that? It's not terrible but my leg wasn't thrilled when I ran the North Hills 5k on September 10th. I've still been going to kickboxing and lifting weights. I ran a little and it's not awesome the next day. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and showed him where it was and he said it was probably my hamstring. Ugh..

Last week:
Saturday - Garage Sale No workout
Sunday - Yoga
Monday- Body Comabt
Tuesday - Meeting at NCSU
Wednesday - I convinced Kev to take me to the movies. We saw Sully and it was a lot of Tom Hanks looking pensive.
Thursday - Body Pump
Friday - My jeans were too big and I went shopping for new ones

What I'm eating this week

I apparently deleted all my food pictures. Last week I had sushi lunch and it was delish. I also rediscovered my love of JC cheeseburgers which is interesting because burger meat scares me. I had food poisoning from a burger several years ago and it takes a LOT for me to eat one. For some reason I love the JC one. I swear there's crack in the food.

Picture

Weeks 20, 21 and 22 in order.

I really think that one of the best things I've done this time is to take a picture each week to see the visual difference even when the scale isn't moving.

I felt a difference in my pants the last 3 weeks and there was a pair that buttoned and was wearable but not great, that went to fitting pretty well the next week. Then on Friday I went on a hunt for new jeans and it went surprisingly well. I found 3 pairs of jeans, all in a 10, that fit well and didn't make me sad. Yay.

I guess the moral of the story is that the scale can be a jerk and to keep pushing because it'll eventually catch up.

Oh, and don't forget there's still a few days left to sign up for the GYPO Style challenge! It closes Friday and the outfits start on Monday!

Have a great week!

Monday, September 26, 2016

Anniversary Weekend pt. 2


Well, it's been a few weeks, but here's part 2 of the Anniversary Weekend recap! Warning, there are a crap-ton of pictures. 

For the weeks preceding out trip, Kev kept telling me not to worry about Sunday because he had it all planned. I could try and guess what it was, but I probably wouldn't get it.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday and he finally told me, we were driving to Baltimore and going to the National Aquarium because he called and .... THEY HAD AN OCTOPUS! 

I might have mentioned it a few times (just a few), but over the last few years, I've been a little obsessed about seeing an octopus. 1. I love them and 2. All of my attempts to see one have been thwarted. One of the last times we went to DC and stopped at the national zoo, the invertebrate room had closed the day before, the Carolina aquarium had one hiding, and there have been other places that just didn't have one. Knowing my obsession, Kev hunted down an octopus for me. I was SO EXCITED.

We drove to Baltimore, got to the aquarium and we headed straight for the octopus!

SHE WAS SO LITTLE AND CUTE!

I literally have about 50 pictures of the octopus, but I'll spare you. 

OK, here's another

Then we walked around to look at more fish.


This was the Finding Nemo tank


I have 10 pictures of this fish and I swear it was trying to tell me something. Isn't there a Doctor Who episode where the fish tried to warn you about the aliens coming to invade or something? If not there should be.


SCUBA STEVE! I kept exclaiming that it was Scuba Steve but Kev hates Adam Sandler and he didn't get the reference.

Oh, did you think that I wouldn't make a second trip to see the octopus and hog a prime spot and not let little kids around me? If you guesses yes, you are correct.


Then I took even more pictures and she did all kinds of octopus things and it was perfect.



My fellow KDs will get this, but look, it's a chambered Nautilus! While it's still alive. :)


Kev loves the jellies

I could have spent all day there. It was definitely a great way to spend the morning and I finally got to see the octopus! We were getting pretty hungry and decided to Uber it over to a place that had the Baltimore famous pit beef sandwiches. Kev had a sandwich, I had a salad.

Mmmm Salad.

We'd left our car in the parking garage and took an Uber around the city. After lunch we headed over to the new Baltimore Casino, the Horseshoe. It was fine. I didn't win anything but it was kinda new and I don't know, there just wasn't much ambiance. I like my casinos a little seedy. We stayed there for a few hours and left.

OK, there were 2 casinos we wanted to check out and see if they were any good and might replace our annual trek to Atlantic City. You know, closer...

We stopped for dinner at Pappas, which is said to have the best crab cake around. It's one of Oprah's favorite things and OMG it was AMAZING.

It was totally a pile of heaven.

After dinner we headed over to Maryland Live Casino (damn, this makes it sound like we have a problem, I swear we don't) which is attached to Arundel Mills Mall. Let's take this in for a minute. The casino is attached to the MALL. Oh, AND there's a Medieval Times there as well. A mall, slot machines and jousting. It's like all of my favorite things. 

Now Maryland Live, totally seedy, busy as heck, lots of action and plenty of characters. It gets two thumbs up from me.

We weren't there too late and soon it was time to drive back to DC and the Jefferson.

The next morning we had more sightseeing to do, but first breakfast.

This was some sort of waffle egg sandwich goodness.

We went back to the National Archives and looked at the rest of the things that we didn't see the other day when we really only saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. You weren't able to take any pictures inside, but it was a great museum. I highly recommend it. 

We killed some time there before going to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That was the one place Kev really wanted to see.We wanted to see how the $ was made. Again, a quality experience. 

You can't take any pictures in there either, but I was able to grab a few in the hallway leading up to the entry. 

Money...

We had a later lunch and I made Kev go to Nando's. It's a Peruvian Chicken place and when I was in Edinburgh they LOVED Nando's. It was the one place they took me for team lunch.

I had another salad and it was yum.

On our way back we stopped at this place and bought these things. It was layers of meringue and whipped cream and chocolate shavings. It was pretty but I just don't like whipped cream. annnd chocolate gives me a stomachache, so there's that.

Still pretty.

We got back and Jefferson judged us a little, for what, I don't know. Glass Houses Thomas, Glass houses...

Just a little.

That evening we headed over to Georgetown to do a little shopping and have dinner. We ended up at John Strongbow's tavern, which has something called Medieval Madness with a live dinner show. But not on Monday.

Instead I had some cider

And a pretzel.

It was fine, I'm sure it would have been more fun if the Madness was going on. Out waiter was on the struggle bus. I assume he was still coming off the weekend's Medieval festivities.

We headed back to the hotel for dessert. The hotel bar had a cupcake flight. 

Yaaasss

The aftermath. I really hate icing. 

I needed to walk off the cupcakes and since it was our last night, we walked over to the White House for one last look.

one last selfie.

Peace out Hamilton

We got back to the room to this sweet note.


And the bed was turned down, 

I could get used to this

 Soon it was Tuesday and it was time to go home. We first had to stop at Tyson's Corner Mall to return my bracelet. I was really unhappy that a Tiffany bracelet tarnished in one day. When I showed them what happened they weren't very concerned and thought it was no big deal. Yea, no. I'm going to return it and get something else.

We had breakfast at Founding Farmers.

Yum.

Double Yum.

We walked around Tyson's Corner and I got my replacement bracelet at Bloomingdale's.


And that concluded or anniversary weekend! It was pretty awesome and a great way to spend our 10th anniversary! Thanks for making it through the 8000 picutes!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND
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Friday, September 23, 2016

Five Thing Friday - Rando Edition

Yesterday was the first day of Fall and I am seriously so excited. I mean, it's still warm here, but you know what? Long sleeves, tights, booties and PSLs are here and I am embracing all of them right now.

So what's been going on? It's pointless to talk about my busy schedule, because it never gets and less busy, instead I'll talk about some other random things that are happening.

1. I haven't posted a weight loss update for weeks 20 and 21, not because I didn't lose anything, but because I couldn't get my blogging self together. BUT, I have lost more weight and I had a nice non-scale victory yesterday when my jeans officially became too big. I was able to pull them on and off without unbuttoning them, which was pretty nice. I guess I'll have to find a new pair. Shucks...

Really though, I have another post planned about this, but what do you do when you're not at goal, but you need clothes, but you don't want too much because you still have 30-ish pounds to go.

Anyways, here's a picture from last year, when I was apparently doing the GYPO work wear challenge and yesterday. I know I gained over the holidays after the picture on the left was taken, but I can definitely see a difference between last year and this year.

Glad I ended up keeping this shirt after I out grew it last year.

2. Some of my favorite artists are releasing albums this fall! Bon Jovi drops "This House is Not for Sale" in October (pre-order now available) AND Meatloaf released "Braver than We Are" on September 16th. Now, we all know that I love me some Meatloaf. 

 This kind

And this kind.

All of the songs on the album were written by Jim Steinman who wrote the whole Bat out of Hell Album, Bat out of Hell 2, he wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "It's all Coming Back to Me Now", this list goes on and on. Basically, any sweeping epic 11 minute song, Steinman probably had a part in it. Needless to say I was pretty excited to listen to the new album.

Do yourself a favor. Don't.

It's not good. I'm sad, but it's not good....

Me - Kev, let's listen to the first song
Kev - OMG, you paid money for that? It's awful
Me - It really is bad
Kev - Spotify things first before buying them.
Me - Maybe $5 will make it to Meatloaf to help pay rent or something.
Kev - If you want to give Meatloaf $, just Paypal it to him.

3. Still eating my JC food... In my last post I showed how to use JC tacos to make "Nacho Mama's Fajita's". There's a JC contest where people who make-over their JC food can win prizes or free JC food, so fingers crossed the like my creation!

In the mean time, I ate this JC cheeseburger the other day with a drizzle of Salsa Ranch Dressing.

4. Last weekend I knocked an item off my bucket list and went to Drag Bingo. It was a fundraiser for the Alliance of  AIDS Services and such a blast. The girls looked amazing and I got to play some bingo.
Sadly we had to miss the cabaret show after the game, Kev and I both missed dinner and were hungry. If we waited until it was over, there would be no food, and no food is no bueno. 




5. Now that the weather is getting cooler, and mu ass is getting smaller, It's time to start resurrecting the fashion side of this blog. I've been in this weird place where some of my clothes fit, some don't and it seems like I'm missing a chunk of sizes. Like, what did I wear the last time I was this weight? According to my time hop. I'm tracking about the same weight to the day, that I did when I lost it all 6 years ago. I "should" have clothes from 6 years ago and probably from 2 years ago when I was about this size and I can't seem to find any. I guess I donate them? IDK. 

But what that does mean is that I might have to do a little shopping and I signed up for the GYPO Fall Style challenge. I figured a capsule wardrobe was just what I needed right now. Minimal pieces, 3 weeks of outfits, fewer things to buy as I get off the last 30 pounds. 


I've done these challenges before and I LOVE them. I took off the spring and summer since I didn't want to buy new clothes then, but I'm back. I highly recommend the challenge to anyone who loves fashion and shopping. It's totally worth it for your own "personal shopper" and the support from the rest of the community. Shopping with a purpose has really changed my shopping habits. I get to look for specific things instead of wandering around not knowing what I'm looking for. 

You can sign up using my affiliate link HERE and I get a few $ when you do. 

Really though, I LOVE this capsule so much and can't wait to find all of my pieces!

One of the items on the list is a black and white striped shirt. These are just the 3/4 sleeve and long sleeve ones.
I have a problem when it comes to stripes....

Have a great Friday everyone!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

"Nacho" Mama's Fajitas



Y'all know it's me and my Jenny Craig food for the foreseeable future. It's totally fine and I really like eating their food because 1. I can't really cook and 2. When left to my own devices I'll at the same thing for 4 days in a row. Jenny actually provides plenty of variety in my diet and if I really want something they don't offer, I'll figure out a way to fit it in. I even had 1/2 a bagel and some egg whites after my run Saturday with my consultant's blessing. But I'm not here to talk about that. Today it's all about the nacho.

Recently Jenny introduced the "Chicken Street Taco" and I cried tears of happiness, because tacos are life. The tacos are like traditional street tacos and each taco has 2 corn tortillas. I guess this is a thing, I always got flour tacos. But 4 corn tortillas and chicken taco filling opens up a whole new world of experimentation. One of my favorite JC foods was a Chicken Fajita that was discontinued and I decided to pay homage to it's greatness, but in nacho form.

JC also happens to be having a recipe contest and "Nacho" Mama's Fajitas was born. I didn't see a disclaimer that I shouldn't post it, so here you go!

1. Take the Chicken Street Tacos and heat them in the microwave for 1 minute. Scoop the filling out of the tortillas and put it in a separate container.

2. Cut each of the tortillas into 4 quadrants. Spray with a little cooking spray and sprinkle with some salt. Place in a single layer on a pan and put in the toaster oven on "toast" until lightly browned.

lightly browned

3. While the tortillas are crisping, chop the peppers and onions into small pieces and saute in a pan until cooked. I was lazy and steamed them in the microwave for 2 minutes, then put them in the pan. Otherwise, it's like 10 minutes to cook some peppers and onions on the stove. 

4. When that's all ready and the tortillas are crunchy, it's time to assemble that -ish! 

5. Move the tortillas to a heat resistant plate. Spread the warmed chicken over the nachos.


6. Top it with the peppers and onions


7. Add your cheese! OK, cheese is kinda not on the JC plan as an extra, BUT, there is a line in the JC book that says that if you're lactose intolerant, you can sub one of your milk servings for an ounce of cheese or some lean meat. I've never liked milk and I hate yogurt so I've been eating a light cheese stick every day for my milk. It's apparently just fine because I've lost 26 pounds. Because I knew I wanted cheese, I saved my milk serving and used 1/4 cup of FF Cheddar Cheese for dinner.

8. Sprinkle on top and put back in the toaster oven on "broil" until it's all melty and yum. My plates are oven safe, so I threw the whole thing in there.


9. Chop up some lettuce or buy a bag of the shredded stuff and put it on top of your nachos!

10. Serve with all the salsa you want, because it's a free food!

Nachos!

11. Enjoy!

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