The next day....

*yawns* Yeah, he got it all done. I'm not sure how "good" some of it was nor am I sure that the teacher had in mind double spacing his answers *crosses fingers and prays that is what she was expecting* but at least he got it done. This last assignment was worth 25% of his grade. He had an "A" going into the last test, so hopefully he did well enough to keep that mark.

The alarm that I was supposed to set didn't go off in the morning. Thankfully, he had asked me to set the alarm on my phone as well. Never good when you are in charge of setting the alarm and you punch in the time and forget to turn the stupid thing on! Oh well, with the alarm on the phone going off he got out of the house one time more or less. Of course, with only about an hour and a half worth of sleep I'm not sure how he stayed awake through all his meetings. After helping him out the door, I went back in to sleep some more. About an hour later, his mom came in and started shaking me and telling me that I needed to get up. She had been asleep when I arrived with the limeaids last night, so she thought I was her son. LoL. I'd have liked to have known what she was thinking when the blob in bed she thought was her son started talking back in a female voice. hehe. She knew it was me as soon as I said something, but it still struck me as really funny.

I continued to sleep until around 9am when I got up with a headache. The next day, the headache is still here and ugly. =0/ I thought for the Vegas trip I'd try to detox from the diet coke so I wouldn't get caffiene headaches while away from home. the diet coke thinks differently. I've decided I'll continue on with the diet coke addiction and just make sure I pack some excedrine to answer my caffiene needs while I'm away from my "supply" =0p

Yesterday was a pretty bad food day. I don't know why I feel the need to confess that here, but I do. When I woke up, I realized it was before 11am which means a 44 ounce cherry limeaid was only $0.99 a great reason to get out of bed. I was feeling kind of grouchy due to lack of sleep and the headache AND because the boyfriend was going out of town. I'm always kind of lost when he isn't around even though I don't physically see him most of the week. So, while I was treating myself to the cherry limeaid I went ahead and got a chili cheese frito wrap as well. Not my best move, but I decided it was probably less fat than the sausage, egg and gravy toaster sandwich. The wrap was yummy, but I dont know if it was the guilt of the grease, but soon my tummy was telling me I should have made a better decision. I did my errands while I was in town, making sure I picked up and dropped off all the stuff my mom and dad asked me to and then I drove the hour back to school.

I did some reading, played some WoW (World of Warcraft) and then decided I was very bored. Since it was raining, I decided to stay in and watch a movie. I popped some popcorn, grabbed some chocolate chips from the freezer and watched Chicago. It was worth the watch, but I don't think I'll stop to watch it again and if given the opportunity to pay money to watch it in the theater, I think I'd probably pass. The story was cute, but the music wasn't as great as I was expecting. Perhaps that's because i'm not a huge fan of jazz or maybe it is because I don't really like callous women. lol. Either way, next time I'll watch the producers (callous men are so much better =0p ), phantom, or good ole' Moulin Rouge.

Thanks for the comments. =0) I hope for a special show of appreciation from the b/f too, but I doubt anything comes of it. Or at least, anything that I notice. We've been together for so long that I think sometimes it really takes stepping back and looking at the situation to realize that the other person is a real sweetheart. *grins* I think the Vegas trip will help those little romantic moments stick out better.

Ooh! That reminds me. Two questions:
1) Anyone Know what happened to the blog "My body is my Temple" She went away to Vegas and her blog disappeared.
2) Anyone have any good restaurant advice about Vegas? Good show advice? Good random advice??

So damn tired

Oh my goodness! I am sooooo tired!!! My poor b/f was told yesterday that he'd be going out of town Wednesday morning. His plane leaves early, so his alarm is set for 4am. Yuck! On top of that little bit of adventure for him, he has a final due Thursday! Well, seeing as he isn't getting back until Friday, he has been working on it frantically all night. I feel really, really bad for him! Being the great g/f that I am *snickers* I drove up from school to bring him some food and help out in any way that I can. I even tried to pack his suitcase for him! However, the absolute lack of sleep (he is getting up in less than 2 hours and he is still typing away on his final!), the excessive warmth in the room, and the stress level of needing to get so much done is starting to make him very cranky and suddenly I find myself wondering exactly why I chose to come up in the first place. LoL

Poor guy. I really do feel bad for him, but I'm so tired my head is about to crash into the keyboard.

My food intake was so-so today. Honestly, I've been feeling a little under the weather with a belly ache for the past couple of days so when I actually do decide to eat, it is either not enough or too much. Speaking of food intake, the South Beach Diet pizzas......Yum! if you don't mind thin (cracker like) crust....so yum in fact that I am having a hard time finding them. I think the next time my grocery store stocks them, I'll have to grab 3 or 4. They make a nice dinner that is very filling.

So.....tired........I hope, hope, HOPE he does okay on this final. It is worth so many points and it really is a bit unfair for him to have to do it without much preperation because he is being sent out of town. =0/

Bleh!

You know those days where everyone you see and everyone you talk to seems to be either sad or in a bad mood? Yeah, that has been my day. I'm emotionally drained and I've eaten way too much. Okay, not way too much, but I'm sure I made it to 1,500 calories today =0)

This weekend was a lot the same as most. I ate out too much, but enjoyed it. hehe. My boyfriend and I have gotten pretty "okay" with splitting a meal when we eat out. I know that might sound kind of odd, but restraunts often send out HUGE portions, so we've found that splitting an entre can often fill us both up. We still get to eat out and have fun, but we don't go home so stuffed that we can barely walk. But we still ate out this weekend. We had a steak, Italian, and pizza. Even though I ate badly, I do believe portion control was excersised.

So, funny story....I bought a bag of spinach and I wanted to try a recipe with it. My b/f offered to make me spinach lasagna. I really resisted this idea because lasagna has two of the food groups that I'm really trying to avoid. My weaknesses.....pasta and cheese. =0) So, long story short, he talked me into it saying that it wouldn't be "that" bad for me. *snickers* yeah, right! I bet there was maybe 1/4 of a bag of spinach in the whole lasagna. There was a whole bag of shredded cheese, 1/2 a tub of ricotta, and about 1/2 a tub of cottage cheese. I'm not thinking it was "good" for me. I have to say though, the b/f is a great cook and it turned out yummy (how could that much cheese and noodles not be yummy?!?!) plus it was really sweet of him to do for me.

Off to bed. I think I'm going to really try to scrub down the house tomorrow. Hopefully everyone around here will be in a better mood. =D

Curious about butter

Thanks for the comments. Now I have a couple other questions for you that I'd love a response on!

1) What is the deal with the spray butter?

I mean, if you believe the nutrition info, it is pretty much nothing...and yet...it still tastes like butter. I like the stuff a lot, but I read a long, long time ago that this stuff was a little too good to be true. Anyone have any information on hidden calories or fats?

2) What is a good thing to do with spinach? No, feeding it to a bunny rabbit is not an option. I bought some at the store and now I'm kind of just pondering what to do with it. I ate some rolled up in turkey lunch meat for lunch today and that was pretty good, but there has to be some fun interesting way to slip it into my meals. One rule, I'd like fairly healthy recipes AND I hate vinegar. I know, I know...for some of you out there reading that I've probably just sinned against everything you and your nation stands for ...hehe...but it is the truth. It is definitely a developed taste that I have yet to develop.

Thanks for all the help!

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I know this might sound odd, but what am I doing wrong?!?! I feel like I'm eating a lot of food. The amount of food I'm eating definitely fills me up, but I'm really struggling to get to 1200 calories. I think tomorrow I'll eat another egg at breakfast --but that is only an additional 30 calories-- and maybe I'll try to drink a glass of milk with my snack instead of water, but I still feel like I need more calories. I literally forced myself into eating the first two snacks. Of course, I didn't have to force myself into eating the McDonald's cone. *giggles*

I may be "off" on the calorie count for the fruit and veggies. I took the stats from sparkpeople, but it is for a 1/2 cup serving. I think I should be fairly accurate, plus or minus 50 calories. Which, I guess doesn't make me too far off of the 1200 goal. I'm just really frustrated at the moment.

Breakfast
Egg Beaters 1/2 cup (2 eggs)
Calories: 60 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 12
V-8 Fruit fusion strawberry banana 8oz
Calories: 120 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 1

Snack
Quaker Oats Strawberry snack bites
Calories: 130 Fat: 2.5 Fiber: 2 Protein: 1

Lunch:
Spinach Artichoke bites (3)
Calories: 190 Fat: 10 Fiber: 2 Protein: 9
Boca Burger
Calories: 90 Fat: 3 Fiber: 3 Protein: 14
Fat Free American Cheese Slice
Calories: 30 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 5
Diet coke

Snack:
Small Granny Smith Apple
Calories: 40 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 0

Dinner:
Shish-ka-bobs! (1 sausage link, 1/2 onion, 1/4 green pepper, 1 pear)
Sausage
Calories: 110 Fat: 4.5 Fiber: 0 Protein: 15
Pear
Calories: 50 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 0
Green Pepper
Calories: 20 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 0
Onion
Calories: 30 Fat: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 0

Snack:
McDonalds Ice Cream Cone
Calories: 150 Fat: 3.5 Fiber: 0 Protein: 4

Totals:
980 Calories
23.5g Fat
10 Fiber (with fiber pills added in)
51g protein

Spinach Artichoke Veggie Bites

So I went to the store and looked over the Morning Star foods available to me. Honestly, the grocery I shop at down here is pretty small in comparison to those I shop at in Kansas City. The selection wasn't that large, but I decided that the Spinach Artichoke bites didn't sound too frightening. After all, I like spinach artichoke dip, so this would be about the same thing, right?

hehe. WRONG! But I wasn't wrong in a bad way. When I took them out of th box, they looked a lot like chicken nuggets to me. I chose to cook them in the oven because I've always enjoyed anything with breading to get that extra crunch. I wasn't too thrilled with the fact that these small little nuggets had to cook for 16 to 18 minutes, but I patiently waited for them to be done.

When I bit down on the first one, for some reason I was sure I was going to encounter spinach artichoke dip inside. Needless to say, I was a tad disappointed. Seeing as spinach artichoke dip contains yummy cheese in mass quantities, it probably isn't as good for me as these bites. After busting through that mental image, I went on to take another bite. The nuggets are stuffed with spinach, (I'm talking, you bite down and are greeted with green shredded spinach trying to escape its crunchy breaded outsides) but I didn't see that much artichoke. The taste isn't bad at all. It doesn't have a strong spinach flavor, in fact, I couldn't tell you what type of flavor these things have! I'll be the first person to admit that I am a very, VERY picky eater. In the past, if it was green, it wasn't coming near me. But I will buy these again.

I could see trying to feed these to an amaeture veggie eater --like a kid or a picky adult-- If you can get them past the idea that what they are biting into is green, I think the taste will have the picky person eating up the rest of the nugget. One caution, as these started to cool, I didn't think they were nearly so good. Definitely the last part of the meal that needs to be cooked. One other down side, I thought they were awfully high in fat. I think artichoke is naturally high in fat, and there is some cheese inside, so those two things combined with the breading probably are the cause.

Serving size: 3 pieces
Calories: 190
Fat: 10g
Fiber: 2
Protein: 9

Boca Burger, what are you?

So, I had my first Boca Burger today. As I've said before, I am from the midwest, so beef has been around me my whole life. No seriously! Every school I went to up to college had a cow farm right next door. =0p Anyway, with a tiny bit of nervousness, I cracked open the package and took my first peak inside. First off, let me say that I LOVE the fact that patties were individually wrapped. How smart! This way I'm not trying to eat an entire package of hamburgers in a week just to avoid freezer burn. My second thought upon seeing the patty was that it was a bit small. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it just seemed little to me. I chose to fry my burger in a skillet. Mostly because I was lazy and didn't want to go outside and fire up the grill for one burger. The patty turned out really easy to cook. It went from being frozen to cooked in no time AND great thing about this particular burger, it didn't shrink down. I think I've been cooking beef so long I just expected the slightly small patty to turn tiny after adding in a little heat. Not so with this burger. I put the burger on my plate with a slice of non-fat american cheese on top, fished my corn on the cob out of the boiling water and sat down to my first boca burger.

Hmmm....I'll be honest and tell you exactly what I expected this burger to taste like. I thought it would be much like the burgers that school used to serve. We used to make fun of them because the beef was "cut" with soy to make them cheaper. Hmm...I wonder if that is still true now that soy products have gotten to be so popular. Anyway, I digress. The burger wasn't anything like that. It had kind of a squishy texture, not at all like meat. Generally I would say that disgusted me, but somehow, for some reason, the boca burger didn't offend. Now, I wouldn't say it tasted like a hamburger exactly. Nor would I try to "pull a fast one" on friends of family members and try to switch a real beef burger with a boca, but I am definitely okay with the idea of incorporating this food into my weekly meal plan.

As I check out Boca's site I notice that I had the All American Flame Grilled version of the boca burger which has cheese listed in its ingredients --just a warning if anyone is trying to walk down the vegan path.

Overall and final thoughts: A very quick, very easy option for protein. I wouldn't eat it on a day that I was "starving" or I'd go ahead and cook two patties. But I really enjoyed this change of pace --said with the caveat that this is not your "normal" burger experience.

All American Flame Grilled Burger stats:

90 Calories

3g Fat

3g Fiber

14g protein

Know of any other products I should try? As long as I can find it at a local grocery or health food store, I'll give it a try and report back here. Of course, there are some restrictions considering I'm a broke college kid, but I'm willing to give any product at least one try. I'll report back my thoughts here. If you have additional questions about a product I tried and reviewed, post a comment and I'll try to get back with you as soon as possible.

These are just my thoughts/feelings about a product and should be taken with a grain of salt. I'm not you and you aren't me, so maybe you'll like something that I don't =0) I'm just doing this to try to spice up my food options and reinterest myself in losing weight.

Have you given up on me yet?

I've noticed that I've gone from posting every day to every-other-day. That kind of saddens me. I think the lack of posts goes along with my lack of weightloss though. The scale isn't moving. I haven't gained back the approx. 10 pounds that I've taken off, but I sure haven't added to that number either. It is disheartening in a way.

My boyfriend keeps telling me, "if you've stopped losing, you have to (1) burn more calories or (2) eat fewer calories. Well, needless to say after all our time together, he knows that option 2 isn't really going to work for me. I actually struggle to get 1200 calories in a day. I don't generally eat when I get bored, instead, I grab a book (yay for trashy-romance novels!! Nora Roberts, you are my hero! *giggles*) and don't eat for an entire day. I know, not healthy, but food seems like a major nusicance when you are only cooking for yourself. I've really been working on hitting 1200 calories a day though because actually eating more is what got rid of those initial 10 pounds. Now that I have that part of the "weightloss journey" almost nailed down, I guess it is time to start getting serious about burning some calories.

So, for the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to get my b/f to come down and show me how to work out at the gym. LoL. I briefly worked out in a gym before, but he literally tailored the workout for me. He told me what machine to use, when to use it, and how many reps to do. He was my own personal trainer! Of course, I got in trouble and quite a few fights started because we have different workout philosophies. So different in fact, I was actually banned from working out with his mom (on the few occasions she worked out at home with us). That is basically because I figure a constant stream of good giggles makes the aches and pains of the work out much less noticable. The boyfriend, on the other hand, is a very serious person when he steps into the gym. Hehe. So, working out together might not be too good of an idea on a daily basis...but I would really love for him to show me around this new gym AND make sure I'm using all the machines right. Because honestly, just going off the little pictures printed on the side of the machine, that is dangerous!! I hurt myself trying to chew gum and walk at the same time! How can I be expected to operate those strange torture devices?!?!?!?

I've got a funeral to go to on Friday or Saturday. I have really mixed feelings about going to the service. I actually met this family member, and I do remember her, but there was no deep connection between us. The mixed feelings actually come from the fact that my dad called me today and said, "there will be a funeral you need to go to this week" Now, I come from a large family. I have lots of siblings, but somewhere along the line my parents have chosen me as the "family ambassador" That means, if there is a funeral, I'm nominated to go (with one of my parents). If there is a family "emergency" I'm the one that is supposed to talk to the rest of the family to let them know what is going on. If someone needs a babysitter or a ride, it is almost always "Oh, VegasGirl can do it for you. I'm sure she won't mind" Now, in some ways I look at this as an honor. Truethfully, most of my siblings don't chat with eachother more than on holidays and I generally talk with everyone at least once or twice a month. I've really worked to open up those relationships, so I can understand why I am chosen to go out to represent the family. BUT --always a but =0) -- in other ways it is a major inconvenience. I had plans for this Friday. My boyfriend took off of work this Friday, so this won't only be ruining my plans. *sigh* I know I'm being ungrateful and selfish. I'm not the person that died. (always a plus!) But darn it!! I hate the fact that I will be the family member there this Friday and that it is expected of me. I think that is the part that I hate the most. It is expected whereas I am sure none of my other siblings have even been informed. I have fond memories of this aunt, but I haven't seen her for at least 10 years, probably 15.

I don't know when my next post will be. Sorry for those of you that stop by on a daily basis. I'll try to make 100% sure I post next Monday. **hugs** Until then!

Monday

Can you see the pictures? I keep getting an error message why I try to post.
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Well, what can I say? Today was just another ordinary day. So, to spice this post up a little bit, I decided to slap in some photos. Maybe they will distract you from the very little that is going on in my world. Speaking of spicing things up, blogger hates me when I try to put in photos. Sorry, I shrank these down and chose "small" but they are still huge. Hope they don't screw up anyone's PC too badly.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about whether or not I want to move out of Missouri. I'm getting fairly close to completing my Masters degree now, so I need to be doing a little bit of planning for the future. I've always thought I'd move away. I've always dreamed of living somewhere other than here, but as the time approaches for me to really make that decision, I find myself thinking about all the things in Missouri that I'll miss. Being able to drive an hour and go out into the country will be one of those things.

I spent a lot of time in my garden today. Just hanging around outside. As awful and cloudy as the sky looks in the pictures, it never even sprinkled on me. Oh yeah, speaking of the pictures....sorry that they are a little bit blurry. they were taken while I was driving and through my windshield, so the picture quality is a bit interesting. But I still think they will give you the idea of how nice it is to be in the country =0)

I'm off to bed. **hugs** Have a great day everyone!

Breakfast: Chex 100 calorie pack (strawberry) and a diet coke

Lunch: 1/2 Goodcents sub and a diet coke

Dinner: Fish sticks TV dinner meal and 1 liter of water

Tomorrow: Grocery store!!!

Back!....again!

All right, I'm back, again! hehe. The fishing trip was great fun. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was about 75 degrees outside with a lovely wind blowing over the water. When we go fishing with my dad, we don't bank fish. We actually stand in the water. The place we go is someplace he used to go as a kid (near his uncle's farm) so I think it is a really great time for him as well as us.

I didn't catch very many big fish, most of mine were throw-back size (1 lb or smaller), but dad and the little sister caught a huge mess of fishies. Everytime I put my line out in the water, my dad or my lil sis was hollering for a net. I've never seen such big catfish coming out of the water! Normally I'd be really competitive and upset that I hadn't caught anything, however, I don't know if being older has mellowed me out, or if I just really needed the time outside away from the city, but I was completely okay with just sitting on a rock in the middle of the river just listening to the noises around me. *takes a deep breath* It was a much needed body/mind/soul relaxing trip.

As a side note, we used the coppertone sport spray sunblock and that stuff is yucky! My boyfriend said it was because we chose the "no rub sport" formula....but it looked like we'd sprayed hairspray on ourselves. I was so sticky and shiny!! I don't think I'll ever buy that particular formula again.

I haven't been tracking my food very much lately. Since I was in town on the fishing trip with dad, we ate McDonalds twice in one day. *gasp* I know, awful!!! What is worse, I enjoyed it, but couldn't help myself from looking at the fat content. Since I ate there twice in one day, I'm almost guessing I had something like 60g of fat in one day...maybe more. *shakes head* Incredible.

The scale says I'm 183.6 this morning. So, I'm pretty sure that is overall a loss for me. I've really got to figure out some way to track my weight. I know it is still down from the orginal starting weight of 198, so I'm happy for now.

Have an awesome weekend everyone. I'm thinking, I may even go work out this weekend. *gasp* what will they do when they see me at the gym?!?! Probably faint!

Back...

I'm back!!!!!! And I caught a fish THIS BIG!! hehe. Literally, that big and about that color too. hehe. I'll write more later. But for now, I need to mow the lawn before the rain starts coming down.

Hello....

Hiya fellow bloggers! For those of you that stop by here often, sorry I haven't been writing much. I've had a major case of "the lazys" here lately. It all stems from that evil car out in my garage demanding an oil change! Okay, that and the weather hasn't helped much lately. It has been almost non-stop rain here all week long. Bleh! It is kind of funny actually because even though the sun has been shining, the rain is still coming down. LoL.

So, I chose not to weigh myself this week. I don't think it has been a particularly bad week, nor has it been a good week for me. The rain has kept me inside, so I haven't been doing much excercise, but I have been trying to eat fairly well. I find myself wondering about foods that are prepackaged. Wondering how many calories/fat/protein/fiber they come out to be. My mom sent me with a ziplock bag of roast this week. Which was awesome, because it gave me quick and easy meals...but I have no real idea what I was consuming. that bothered me a little bit. I tried looking it up online a few different places, but even though they had approx. calorie intake, I still wasn't really satisfied with their stats.

Speaking of stats, since I live alone for the summer, I put this up on my fridge. Everytime I go into the kitchen I am reminded how much I've eaten that day. It is helping me keep my calorie count up where it belongs. I've found myself doing a lot more little snacks in between meals. Mostly, I have kept it healthy. Bananas, quaker snacks, jello cups, and other yummy treats like that. Along with the snack, I'm really trying to drink at least a 1/2 liter of water. That way the snack is more filling and I get my water requirement in for the day. Unfortunately, drinking so much water really has me doing the potty dance.

I'm off for the weekend. Have a wonderful time everyone! =D I'll be sure to get back to blogging and leaving messages for everyone on Wednesday. Yes, I said Wednesday because Tuesday I'm Gone Fishing! As long as this rain stuff doesn't ruin the fun!