Day 20 for Vee!

Today was a great day again. I had a great work out, awesome meals, I am just feeling awesome!!

Breakfast
I made the egg mug mexicali from the 1-2-3 book.


I love ketchup on my eggs, I have never had salsa on them but this was really good! Definitely different from your typical egg. I love that the hungry girl books have a lot of egg recipes because I don't eat them very often. There are only so many ways that I can think of to cook an egg, but they have showed me 43897 more!

Lunch
Lunch was cheesy beefy quesadilla from the 200 under 200 book.


This was good, I think I like the chicken ones I made before better but this isn't something that I would never eat again. Great flavor and it uses soy crumbles, which I am coming to like a lot more every time I try them!

Dinner
For dinner I made the HG's Best BBQ Chicken Pizza, which is an online recipe that you can find here.


This is supposed to be a CPK swap but I have never had this one when I went to CPK so I can't really tell you if its the same but this was delicious. It was big enough that you didn't really need to eat anything else and the BBQ sauce on a pizza was delicious! My husband ate 2 of these!!!

After dinner we went to the gym. We played tennis for about 30 minutes and then I started to feel really dizzy so I went and ran on the bicycle thing for a mile (which was 4 minutes) and then we went home. It was a small work out but today, I really felt it!

For snack, I had a granny smith apple. I made some peanut butter cups, which I will show you guys tomorrow (which is also an online recipe) because I decided not to have one today, but hubby says they are amazing!

Until tomorrow..

Day 19 for Vee!

Today was a WONDERFUL day motivation wise. The response I am getting via twitter and my formspring about my progress is amazing. To know that people are out there, reading what we have to say and getting motivated from us is absolutely amazing! I thank everyone for reading, following along and giving in your input.

Breakfast
I had some cereal. I really wanted to try the chocolate cheerios but I thought I would get creative and add some fiber one caramel delight. So I had that along with some vanilla silk.


This was delicious. I am a dork but the whole chocolate, caramel, vanilla thing was really tasty!

Lunch
I was going to skip lunch because I haven't been losing any weight lately but I figured I would just eat lunch anyways. I had the perfect pizzas from the recipe and survival book.


These were as good as the first time around. I added some Hormel's real bacon bits for a little taste of bacon and they were yummy!!

Dinner
Hubby chose to have the lean bean cheese enchiladas again from the 200 under 200 book.


This was awesome, just like the first time. I swear these taste like bean and cheese burritos from taco bell.

Today they FINALLY opened up the gym so we went and played tennis for about an hour and a half. I haven't felt so good in a few days since we couldn't really play hardcore like we wanted. Today has just been a wonderful day!

So, since I forgot to calculate how much I have lost yesterday, I made a point to do it today.

Total weight loss since April 1st: 10.5lbs

It is only 1.7lbs different from last week, but I guess thats ok. It's better then nothing. Husband said 10lbs a month isn't too bad. Maybe in 2024 I will finally reach my goal :D

Anyways, until tomorrow..

The Latest w. Dolly.

ok ok, so i know i`m not the BEST blog poster in the world, but i try my best lol, i post whenever i can ya`ll, i`m sorry i`m not an everyday post type of person? i guess? lmao. anywho, this past weekend, i spent it at the beach, me & mamadukes & the pups decided to go stay at the beach for the weekend, to get away & relax, things have been stressful w. me in class & graduateing & what not, so we went to the beach & i was SO OFF my diet there, i know i know but, it was okay to me, yes we ate out, hello we can`t cook in our hotel? & besides who wants to cook on vacation anyways ? lols.

so we ate out & i was off my diet completely, but you know what, we walked everydamn were at the beach not to mention me running with my dog down the beach, i haven`t walked/ran like that in a LONG time, my legs were so sore, so i felt like for the junk i had been eating, i worked off, & i felt okay with that, & when i got home, i was back on my "diet" better eating habits i suppose, & i feel great, i don`t feel like it was a bad idea to go off of it, like my girl vee said, it`s okay to go off track sometimes & i got right back on it when i got home, so all in all, i felt it was an experience to learn from, & i was satisfied in the end!

well that`s all for now ya`ll, i know my posts aren`t as fun as these other girls, i don`t tell ya`ll what i eat & ect. honestly that`s because half the time i don`t remember what i ate that morning, my memory is so far gone lols, but i will try harder to let you all know what i`m eating & such! (: love ya`ll! xoxo

Day 14-18 for olivia

I am really sorry I haven't been updating. I'm just SO busy and am too tired by the time I remember to do anything. I've been doing pretty well although I don't know my weight because 1. my gym scale LIES (lol) and 2. my wii remote things are all dead. :|

I have been eating really well. Here's what I've had today
I woke up at 11ish so I had some rice chex

then I went to bob's big boy with the fam and I got scrambled egg whites with turkey sausage with half of an english muffin and some fruit.
I had a few onion rings because we got them as an app but I didn't want to go overboard....For dessert I had a few bites of hot fudge ice cream cake and a few sips of a milkshake

I haven't eaten since...it was "linner" I suppose and now it's 8
I'll probably eat something soon just so I don't die.

Yesterday was relay for life and I probably walked around 1.5 miles around the track and then just random walking around. I was there from 11:30-11pm so it didn't involve much rest.

Today I went to my sister's volleyball game and afterwards played vball for 20 minutes. then after big boy we kinda just played volleyball for 2 hours so thats really good!

tata for nowwwww. hahah <3

Day 18 for Vee!

The last few days I have been feeling very munchy-y. It is really bad but I never feel hungry so I will have a light snack and it will be bad cause I just gain more weight. DEUHSJHFKJKDH anyways..

Breakfast
This morning I had the cheesed-up pepperoni pizza scramble from the 200 under 200 book.


I don't like tomatoes so I left that out and I had some toast on the side since it turned out to be pretty small. Really good, I am liking turkey pepperoni so it wasn't something that I was dreading making.

Lunch
For lunch I had a salad with some fat free italian dressing and butter crunch peanuts or something. I was trying to make up for the weight that I had gained yesterday (I think it was .5lb) but that apparently didn't work LOL

Dinner
For dinner, I made the HG's Spicy Chicken Crunchtastic Supreme from the newsletter, which can be found here.


We failed big time at picking out tortillas and there was NO WAY we were going to get this wrapped like they said we should do it, so we just ate them as tacos. Very delicious, a little spicy but very good. Great alternative to taco bell as the recipe suggests.

Dessert
For dessert I made the Cocoa Loco Krispymallow Treats from the newsletter (I think it was last week) and the recipe can be found here.


These were super easy to make and taste really great so I suggest these to anyone (even if you're not on a diet), as they are really good. I have never tried chocolate cheerios before and I am not really a fan of cheerios period, but I got over that with these!

So we figured out why our gym has been closed. In order to get to the gym, you have to go through the pool area. They are cleaning the pool and there is no water in it so out of safety (which I don't understand AT ALL) they keep the door locked. They are pressure washing the pool tomorrow so hopefully we can get back to working out soon.

We went to the park tonight to play tennis, it was about 8:15 and all the lights were out, which I assumed is because its Sunday, boo.

I also forgot to do my total weight lost since I started so I will try to include that in tomorrow's blog.. Until tomorrow..

Day 18 for Mel

Sunday..You always make me sad.

Breakfast;

I had the "Big bowl of breakfast" from the 1-2-3 book. I had to modify it just a bit since I forgot to get potatoes O'Brien and canadian bacon. Instead I left out potatoes and used 3 slices of turkey bacon crumbled. This was literally a "Big Bowl" cause there was so much food. I felt like it would be a bit odd since you use cauliflower. Not that I don't love cauliflower I just never had it in my eggs. It really made it so hearty and delicious. This def goes on a fave list. Although I don't think I would do to well eating this on the go. Maybe more of a weekend idea.

NF; Unknown due to modifications. Per book NFs; Fat 3.5g, Calories 262

1. Would you make this again? Oh ya

2. Would you change/add anything? Not to the way I made it this morning but I would like to know how it tastes with potatoes and Canadian bacon.

Lunch;

Since breakfast was so huge I ate a late lunch. I finished my steak from last night and some of Cam's salad he didn't want. I had to pick out all the cheese and it had regular ranch on it. Luckily he didn't drown it so it wasn't to bad.

Dinner;

The hubby made "too-ez mac 'n cheese" from the 1-2-3. The recipe looks pretty simple but I thought I would make sure so I asked him and he said yes, very easy. I haven't eaten whole wheat pasta on a regular basis and don't recall ever giving it to the kids but we all loved it. The texture is a bit thicker and there is some taste of wheat but definitely not noticeable. I specifically asked the kids to tell me how it was different so those were my answers. Again it used the cauliflower in cheese sauce like I used for my breakfast this morning. It made it very chunky and of course more filling. We really couldn't believe with all the cheesyness that this was okay to be enjoying. He also made some ham steaks for added protein so I had one of those as well. Oh and the 1 cup serving size is plenty. The recipe says 4 serving but giving everyone a generous 1 cup serving we had one left over. Yay for me taking my lunch tomorrow.

NF; Fat 4.5g, Calories 202

1. Would you make this again? Definitely especially on days I don't feel like cooking a whole lot.

2. Would you change/add anything? Nope!

Dessert;

Since the only book I have is the 1-2-3 Vanessa will occasionally send me recipes as well as we both get the newsletter. I've been horrible about reading them on the computer and printing them vs just checking them on my phone. Luckily Vee pays good attention and snagged the banana muffin one. I had a small bunch of 5 bananas that was already turning and I needed to use them in a healthy recipe. There are only a few recipes in the 1-2-3 book that call for a banana but I wanted something more like a muffin/bread. These were fabulously delicious! Last time I checked there were 2 left. The hubby especially enjoyed them. They were also very easy to make.

NF; Fat 3.75g, Calories 143 calories.

1. Would you make these again? I'm going to have pretty quick since they are almost gone!

2. Would you change/add anything? I did add one more small banana than it called for b/c we love bananas. I will prob make half the recipe for frosting since I still have a huge bowl left. I only put a thin layer and everyone liked them like that.

Day 17 for Mel

Saturday was our day trip. I was worried that because we would be traveling I would fall off the wagon. Since I missed gym on Friday and was obviously not able to go for our normal Saturday trip I made extra effort to pay attention and drink plenty while in the car to avoid "road trip munchies" haha That should be marketed some how.

Breakfast;

We woke up late (we needed to leave by 6am, and that is when we got up) so were in a super big rush which made me so glad I made everything and packed it all the night before. We were gonna stop for breakfast anything so that was no big deal. We stopped first at Starbucks for coffee. I didn't want to eat breakfast there even thought I love their low fat coffee cakes. I'm not actually sure how "low fat" they are. (I should prob look that up huh?) They are very sweet and I wanted something with more protein to last since we had several more hours until lunch time. Oh for coffee I got a non-fat, no foam, vanilla latte. We decided to get Twisters which isn't too too bad. ;) I ordered a number #7 which is the "Taos" burrito. It comes with tortilla, cheese, green chili, ham, potatoes, and egg. I had them put the egg, and cheese on the side and gave that to Camron for his breakfast. So I ended up with ham, potatoes, and green chili. It was delicious and while the potatoes still carried calories/fat it did make it a bit better. If you have ever had a burrito from them you know they are huge. Leaving off just the egg and cheese believe it or not made it a lot smaller.

NF; Unknown

Lunch;

After we were done with the show we ate our packed lunch in our truck before heading back on the road. I made my sandwich on a toasted English Muffin. I used a whole laughing cow wedge, 3 pieces of turkey bacon broken in half, and deli style roast beef. It was one of the most amazing sandwiches I've ever eaten. No lie. I also made everyone a pre-measured bag of pretzels with the serving size in them.

Snack;

Friday night I made up 2 batches of cookies. One was the "Peanut butter softies" from the 1-2-3 book which I had already made prior to then. The other batch was the "Oatmeal raisin softies" also from the 1-2-3 book. I chose to have an oatmeal raisin one which is my fave cookie anyways. It was so amazing. Def of the top 3 cookies I've ever eaten.

Dinner;

Once we got back into town we decided to eat out since we haven't in so long. We chose Texas Roadhouse which at one time was a 1-2 time a week occurrence. I went over in my head on the way what I would order/leave off/ and so forth since the food is amazing but not skimping on calories. I fought the urge not to eat the bread for the longest time but I broke down and cut one piece in half. Luckily I found one with little to no butter on the top. After that I decided to get a diet coke and So Co with lime to avoid any more break downs lol. I ordered an 11 ounce sirloin to split with Cam. (splitting is such an easy way to cut back on portions and save $$$) For my sides I chose a house salad extra tomatoes, lf ranch, cheese and croutons on the side. I gave the cheese and croutons to Cam who also ordered a salad. (IKR a 4 yr old who loves salad!!!!). For my other side I ordered seasoned rice.

When they brought our food we asked right away for to go boxes. I cut my oldest's burger in half and put that along with half of his fries in the box and sat it on the bench. I took half of my rice and 1/3 of my steak and put it up right away. I've done this before for myself but according to my 10yr old he said he really liked it. He didn't feel like he was "leaving" any food on his plate and that the half was more than enough for him. So there ya go. Another quick tip. :)

Day 16 for Mel

Friday!!

Oh TGIF has never been more true. This week was especially long. I was sick yesterday which really made it drag on longer.

Breakfast;

English muffin (whole) with a teaspoon of sugar free preserves. I never knew that sugar free jelly/jam was so good and get this.. Only 10 calories per TBSP. A few hours later I had about 1/3c of pineapple.

Lunch;

I skipped lunch today. It was something noodly and creamy which is sure to be not good for you. (Unless of course it's from HG :))

Snack;

After work I had a small bowl of "Upside down pineapple crush" from last night and some raisins.

Gym; I skipped the gym today b/c we had a day trip planned for Saturday morning. We were having someone coming to sit the house/dog so I needed to get floors done and such. It really sucked cause Friday nights are my second Zumba class. It happens sometimes so I try not to dwell on it. I just know that I won't be missing any days this week if it kills me :)

Dinner;

I feel like each entry is the same "ooh I love this it's amazing" but it's been so true. I know that healthy eating can be tasty but I've never been so consistently impressed with recipes. So sorry if it's getting to be redundant but I'm pleased. I made "Fiesta bites" from the 1-2-3 book. It's basically a mixture similar to what goes into the taquitos but also has cream cheese (ff of course), rice, black beans, and taco sauce. They are wrapped in a crispy wonton wrapper. Okay, now you see why I'm so loving this book! Basically you mold the wonton wraps into a muffin pan crisp them a bit (sprayed with cooking spray) in the oven and add the mixture, then bake again to heat it all and continue to make the wraps crunchy and crispy. I've always been a fan of crab wontons from PF Changs so I was being kinda skeptical at first to the crispiness of these babies. Let me tell you they stood the test and kicked ass! (sorry for the language, it was necessary). I will be making these all the time. I'm going to explore new filling for them as well. Maybe I'll try to do my own cream cheese, crab mixture. Yum!

NF (1 "bite"); Fat .5g, Calories 55

1. Would I make these again? Heck yes! Everyday if I could.

2. Would I change/alter anything? I would def double the recipe and I did add more of the dry taco seasoning as well as twice the amount of taco sauce it called for. I used Taco Bell sauce which we keep in the fridge when they give us to much cause it's so good.

Day 15 for Mel

Thursday...

We went grocery shopping to stock up on ingredients needed to get back to more of the recipes. The one thing about trying to stick to recipes is shopping is a bit more complicated. It's also more expensive to eat healthy. Better for you? Oh heck ya, but expensive definitely. The husband and I paid extra attention to how much more we were paying for a low fat or healthy items vs the regular version. In some cases it was only $1 others it was upwards of $3. This isn't meant to be discouraging at all just our observances.

Breakfast;

I woke up with a Texas size migraine so needless to say I stayed home from work. While I didn't feel like eating whole lot I did anyways just b/c I didn't want it to get worse. I had a Sara Lee mini bun (they are the cutest little things ever), half a wedge of laughing cow cheese, and a slice of thick cut lean ham.

NF; Fat 2g, Calories 140

Lunch;

Once we arrived home with groceries I made "Chili cheese dog nachos" from the 1-2-3 book which I had my eye on for a while now. We couldn't find baked tortilla chips at the store today so I made them with regular Mission tortilla rounds. They were really simple to throw together and the fact that you bake them in the oven made them super crunchy and gooey from cheese! As I make diff recipes I find that there may be some things I would do differently for the next time.

NF (book recipe) 1/7th of recipe Fat 3g, Calories 218

1. Would I make them again? Definitely

2. Would I change/substitute anything? In this recipe I would add more of the chili. The recipe calls for 2 cups which is almost a full can so of course I threw the remaining in. We would've preferred them to be more chillier! (if that is even a word lol) So if you like chili you might wanna go for 1 1/2 to 2 cans.

Gym;

I was feeling so much better by the afternoon thankfully so I went to the gym. I did an hour of cardio, 6 sets of 25 trunk twists (see day 14 for explanation), weighted sit ups (see day 14 for explanation), legs, and the sauna. Totaling about an hour and 45 mins.

Dinner;

Another recipe I have been really wanting to try was the "Exploding Chicken Taquitos" from the 1-2-3 book. I know Vanessa has had these and really likes them. I have never been a fan of taquitos which is one of the reasons I really wanted to try them. I found that they were always greasy and had less than satisfactory ingredients. (just my opinion okay no yelling). Now this book changed my mind forever on this issue. They were so delicious. So thank you to HG for another amazing choice. I expected them to be softer and not crunchy like typical taquitos but spraying them with cooking spray while baking crisps those babies right up! As far as the inside goes it's just chicken, cheese, salsa and seasoning. Overall like I said they tasted amazing and were very so simple to put together.

NF (2 taquitos); Fat 2.5g, Calories 197

1. Would I make them again? Absolutely

2. Would I change/alter anything? Yes I added more than the 1/4 tsp of dry taco seasoning that the recipe called for as well as a little of salt and pepper to the "mix".

Dessert;

"Upside-down pineapple crush" from the 1-2-3 book. Yep it's as good as it sounds. This was so simple to throw together. It is full of yogurt, pudding, nilla waffers and pineapple. The recipe says it makes 8 servings but I made a huge bowl and still have plenty of left.

NF (1/8); Fat .5g, Calories 135

1. Would I make this again? Yes

2. Would I change/alter anything? Yes. It was really sweet not that I don't like sweet things but it was almost to much to eat more than a very small bowl at a time. When I make it again I am gonna use plain ff yogurt instead of vanilla ff yogurt, and no sugar added pineapple since you need the juice for the pudding mix. It wasn't bad just sweet.

Day 14 for Mel

Wednesday...

I skipped breakfast this morning because I was running really late. Horrible yes I know.

Lunch;

I had a half of an English muffin pizza at work which of course was loaded with cheese so I had to remove some. NF unknown since I didn't prepare this myself.

So after work we did our normal child exchange so the hubby could go to work and Camron wanted McDonalds. I did so well resisting the urge to order anything. Go me!

Gym;

I did my normal 35 on the elliptical but I ran into an old friend of mine and went to do weights and such with him. We did trunk twists (hold a 30lb or so kettlebell, lift your feet off the ground while leaning slight back on your bottom and twist. It works your obliques.) Then we did weighted sit ups (same kettlebell), and pyramids to work our abs yet again. (1 minute each holding your self up with only your feet and elbows middle, side, side). To finish off we did sauna for 15, steam room for 15 and sauna again for 10. I never made it back to finish my last 30 on cardio as this put me just before my 2 hr child care limit. Oh and I almost forgot I lost 1lb!! Yay for me!! I talked briefly with a trainer and unfortunately he said when you start a new diet/weight loss plan the first lbs you drop are water weight. So far I've lost 5 lbs of water weight. This kind of made me discouraged but it's better than nothing.

Dinner;

We stopped by Subway for dinner. We (the boys and I) each had a 6" chicken breast on wheat, american cheese, fresh spinach, tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, mustard, lf mayo and salt and pepper. We split 2 bags of baked lays one in sour cream and the other in bbq.

Day 17 for Vee!

Still going strong. I have a banana cupcake waiting for me, so I am going to make this fast!

Breakfast
I made the choco-monkey oatmeal from the 200 under 200 book.


When I first saw a pic of these, I was thinking to myself, NO WAY will I eat this. It just didn't look right. When I actually read what was in it, I knew I had to try it. Its chocolate and banana, FOR BREAKFAST! The taste of this reminds me of when I used to eat cocoa pebbles with bananas on top. Its yummy! I think that kids would love this too.

Lunch
I made the cheesy beefy supreme wrap from the chew the right thing recipe cards but I think this might also be in the 1-2-3 book.


You can't see whats in it, but its an amazing blend of soy "meat" crumbles, cheese, taco sauce and amazing sauce. This was so good, this is another recipe that reminds me of taco bell!

Dinner
I am not too big of a fan of chili, never really have been but when I saw this recipe online, I knew my husband would love it. So I made it. This is the HG's Neat-O Chili-Frito Burrito, which is an online recipe you can find here.


Hubby loved it, it was just ok to me. If you like chili then this might be your thing but it's not something I am dying to eat again. I also had a salad with it. MMM..

So we went to play tennis in the gym and AGAIN the door was locked, even though my husband called the apartment office this morning and told them it was locked. They told him they would unlock it (considering we pay for a key to get in there 24/7) and they didn't. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed.

We remembered that there were some tennis courts down the road from us, closed. Then we remembered there were another set of them a few blocks more, closed. We randomly drove by a park and found that there were tennis courts there and its only about 2 blocks from our house. We got there about 9:15 and they closed at 10 but they didn't turn the lights off until about 9:20 so we got a pretty nice work out.

I do prefer to do it in the gym because it gets hot and I feel like I am sweating out more but it was pretty fun.

So that's it for tonight. Hope everyone had a fabulous Saturday! Until tomorrow..