Eating without being miserable

Hey everyone,

     Not blogging much today since it's Wednesday and I have tons to do.  I just wanted to let you in on a website that I found last week.  Since my attempt to eat healthier it has become harder to eat out unless I'm going to Subway.  I ran across this website last week that is operated by licensed dietitians.  www.healthydiningfinder.com.

     Enter your zip code.  The website will then pull up all the restaurants in/near your zip and show you the items they have deemed the healthiest for you to eat.  It shows you calories and tells you how to order that item.  I think this is really helpful.  It won't list locally owned restaurants (that I know of) just chain restaurants.  Thought it might be helpful to those of you who are eating out and trying to do it in a healthy way.

    Hope you all enjoyed Tuesday.

Winter Jammed Out

I spent this weekend attending Winter Jam with our 4th and 5th grade students.  We had a GREAT time sledding on the best sledding hill I've ever gone down, ice skating, playing games, watching the Olympics, sleeping in a cabin etc.  I had the opportunity to speak one night of main session and really enjoyed that.  I hope our kids got something out of the weekend.  I had a great and exhausting time.

I jumped right back into life at noon when we arrived back the church yesterday (just in time for me to help clean up classrooms etc).  My great hubby went to JJ and got us sandwiches for lunch.  I ate as soon as I got home and then fell asleep for a 3 1/2 hour nap.  I was SO tired.  I woke up and went to our service @ 6 and then came home to get ready for bed again.

Today was a busy day at work.  I need to finish writing the preschool curriculum for Mission: Possible by Wednesday.  I'm not sure if it'll happen or not.  We've got a staff meeting/lunch tomorrow.  There's a pretty good chance that I'm going to stay and work instead of going to lunch so that I can get things done.  

I desperately need to work out tonight but already feel no desire to do so.  Maybe after the Bachelor!

Here's my calorie count for today.

Breakfast= 2 muffins- 220 cal.

Lunch= 1/2 an orange (35 cal), a turkey sloppy joe (287 cal), mashed potatoes (100 cal), sugar free raspberry jell-o cup (10 cal)- 432 cal. 

Snack= mini kit kat, 2 Starbursts- 80 cal.

Dinner= taco casserole and mandarin oranges and 2 choc. chip cookies- 355 cal.

TOTAL for the day: 1007 calories  

NOT BAD!

It's been awesome to hear from many of you of your weight loss success, getting fit success, and of you achieving your goals.  Keep it up!

Never quite catching my tail

Have you ever watched a dog run in circles in an attempt to get their tail?  My dog does this every once in awhile.  And I feel like I've been doing that the last two weeks as well.  Ok I don't really have a tail (obviously) however I've been constantly running in circles in an attempt to get all sorts of things done only to see that my to-do lists are just as long as always!  I have 4 lists at work right now.  I've accomplished nothing.  Maybe next week right?

Besides the fact that things have been busy we've been doing really well.  Today I slept in (LOVE IT) and then awhile later headed out to meet with the girl I mentor from the college.  We had a great time chatting and catching up.  It was very fun.  Then I got to see my friend Alyssa and pick up a few things from them. She and her husband Drew are moving to Lamar to take the youth ministry position there.  I think Lamar Christian Church is super lucky to have them and that they are super lucky to be there!  I went and got a smoothie at Scooter's, went to the library, and drove around town enjoying the sunny day after that!

I also spent some time thinking of some goals to accomplish:
1.  Repaint family room (color suggestions would be helpful, readers).  Spencer wants a warmer, darker color.  We have a dark tan sectional down there.

2.  Have dinner with a whole bunch of friends.

3.  Re-design kitchen and price that plan out.

4. Finalize payments and plans for our trip overseas.

5.  Buy a dark-wood trimmed round mirror for our bedroom.

6.  Get a pair of sweats like Alyssa was wearing today.

7.  Get new clogs.

8. Go bowling.

9. Keep working out (my legs are still killing me from plyometrics on Tuesday).

10.  Do something really special for my husband (suggestions are welcome here too).

One last thing,  I've written some about all the snow we've gotten and how much I've loathed it sometimes.  And then today I remembered this verse from Job 37:6-7 "He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'  So that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man from his labor."

Happy Valentine's Weekend

Well after making it through Thursday it was nice to have a Friday.  We got our taxes done and were happy to find that we'll be making the big bucks.  Hurray for being students and buying a house all at the same time.  HUGE tax benefits.

We broke our "healthy" eating rule for one time to celebrate Valentine's Day together.  We went to Cold Stone and got ice cream.  Probably our only Valentine's celebration and we had a great time.  We also watch the Olympic opening ceremony last night which was really cool.  I loved it.  Spencer kept falling asleep!  Haha oh well.

Then today our friends Nick and Hannah (from Manhattan) came over for lunch.  They didn't drive all the way here just for lunch but they actually needed to pick up Hannah's ring (it was being sized) and get measured for tuxes.  We loved seeing them and showing them our house.

Today we've had more snow, cleaned the house, done laundry, played with our fantastic dog, and chatted with friends.  It's been a fun time.  I hope that you have a great weekend and enjoy your time with someone special!

PS: I've lost 2 more pounds!  Yay!

Catching UP

Sorry for my absence or delay of post or whatever.  Do you ever have one of those days?  Yeah me too.  Well, it's been one of those weeks.  I was literally only in the office for an hour today.  The rest of the day was spent in meetings.  Basically my brain is scrambled and I'm tired.

We went to small group on Tuesday.  I also made homemade beef stroganoff.  I meant to take a picture.  I forgot.  I ate 1360 calories on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I got to see my friend Nicole.  We had lunch and talked about ministry etc.  We went to Jason's Deli.  It was my first time there.  I would've loved to have had a huge awesome sandwich but stuck to eating the salad bar instead.  I ate approximately 1000 calories yesterday.  Yes, I'm not kidding.  I ate that salad for lunch, a Kashi bar for breakfast, chili, 100 calorie crackers, a fruit cup, and a chocolate for dinner.  I went to bed hungry, just to be honest, but it was late enough that I didn't care.  I didn't work out yesterday because I had to go into work earlier than normal.  When I got home from work last night, Spencer and Preston were already working out.  It took them until 11:00.  I would've been up till after midnight to do it.  I just couldn't.

Today I had Life Cereal for breakfast= 160 cal.  Then I went to work and had a meeting for our annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Then I went to a lunch meeting.  For lunch I had a french dip sandwich and fresh fruit at a restaurant=  668.  Then I went to an afternoon area CM meeting.  They had cake.  Wedding cake I might add.  NO, no one got married.  They just had it for dessert.  Are you kidding?  So good.  I split a piece with a friend.  Probably 300 calories.  YIKES.  Did I mention how fantastic it was?  For supper I had 2 hard shell turkey tacos and brown rice= 388.  So today it looks like I've eaten a grand total of= 1516.  HOLY SMOKES!  I most definitely should NOT have had that wedding cake.  However, If I averaged today and yesterday (yes, I'm making myself feel better) then it's only an average 1258.  Not SO bad I guess.

I also would like to make an announcement!  My jeans are super loose AND I finally lost weight!  It's hard to imagine that after 5 weeks of working out I'm just now losing weight but I had 0 muscle mass and probably spent much of that time building muscle.  I've only lost 4 pounds but for goodness sakes I'll take it where I can get it.

Also in even more exciting news, Spencer has lost 25 pounds now and even got to buy new jeans yesterday in a smaller size!  He's doing so well.

How are you doing at achieving your goals?

Weekend oh so Fun

    I had a great weekend!  GORF was this weekend and Spencer was a sponsor.  I got to go to one of the main sessions on Saturday morning and see some great people (Like Mike, Cody, and Cristina).  It was so nice to see my "fam" again.
     Then Sunday I got to see my great friend Hannah and her fiance Nick at a Super Bowl party at our church.  So that was great again.
    I don't know if I had a terribly successful eating weekend or not.  I did great on Saturday.  I think it totaled 1240 for calories or something like that.  Yesterday was kind of tricky with the Super Bowl party and all.  I ate Life Cereal for breakfast and then had lunch with Spencer at Applebees after church (Garlic Herb Chicken=370 calories).  For supper I had some Super Bowl grub (one piece of pizza, 1 slice of summer sausage, 1 chocolate chocolate chip cookie, a teeny tiny frosted brownie, and 1/2 an orange).  I also had a fruit cup when I came home.  Calories for Super Bowl Sunday= 1248.  That's right!  It was a good day!  I rocked the Super Bowl Party!
     Today was so super busy.  I was in meetings from the time I got to work until almost noon.  I ate lunch while working and kept going strong all afternoon.  I felt like everytime I started a project I'd think of something else I needed to do and get started on something else.  I'm a task-finisher.  Dr. Leman (look him up) says in his book "Birth Order" that it's part of the characteristic of a first-born child.  So spending a whole day starting stuff and not finishing anything is VERY hard for me to tolerate.  I had no choice.  I was feeling good about how much I was getting done.  Then Sandy said, "oh crap it's 3:00".  I couldn't believe I only had 2 more hours of work.  I worked really hard for the last 2 hours and left the office feeling a bit encouraged.
     Today my eating was so-so.  I probably felt like I could reward myself for having good self-control at the party yesterday.  Not actually a good excuse.  So breakfast- Life cereal= 140 cal.  Lunch chili, tortilla chips, 1/2 an orange, a chocolate chip cookie (they were sitting in the office and I didn't resist) and 2 tiny chocolate chocolate chip cookies= 598 cal.  For supper we had Fiesta Lime Chicken (SO GOOD) w/ rice and baby carrots, (I also had a mini cheesecake... see reason for that below.)= 649  DAILY TOTAL= 1387.  For eating all the CRAP I ate today that's not the worst but it's def. not where I should've been.

     Ok about those precious cheesecakes.  We are making them for all of our children's ministry volunteers for Wednesday and Sunday as a Happy Valentine's Day/We Appreciate You Gift.  We were trying out a recipe to see how it went.  I had to make sure it was alright.  It was.
     Well I hope you all had a great weekend!

Desert Song

"All of my life.  In every season.  You are still God.  I have a reason to sing.  I have a reason to worship."

I can't get these lyrics out of my head today.  I've heard the song a lot of time and yet for some reason today these words really stick.  It just amazes me that no matter what happens to us, around us, and in this world God is still God and that is reason enough to worship Him.  How great is it that we have been given the honor of praising Him?   Just a thought.

Found out today that my Grandpa B is in the hospital.  His heart stints slipped somehow.  Sounds like they'll need to be replaced sometime tomorrow.  This isn't a big deal medically.  But my grandpa is over 80 and on his own in Scotland (his sisters all live at least 7 hours away).  Please pray for him to handle surgery well.  I also ask that you ask God to continue to soften his heart.  My Grandpa is not a Christian.

Well not much to report today.  I worked all day.  It snowed another 5 inches (yes you read that correctly). My husband's at GORF.  StoneBridge took 100 junior highers which is awesome!

I made pancakes for dinner.  I should explain.  I came home from work and couldn't get in our driveway.  The plow and taken care of the road but in doing so it left a large pile of snow in front of our drive.  So I parked in front of the neighbors, put my boots on and went out to shovel.  30 minutes and a lot of sweat later the driveway was good and I could pull the car up and into the garage.  However, all this hard work made me want comfort food... breakfast food.  So pancakes it was.  Since it's just me and Sampson I made him two pancakes as well.  I even put peanut butter on them.  He loves me.

Calories DAILY TOTAL= 1371  Supper- 2 pancakes + 2 pieces of turkey bacon + 1/4 c. blueberry syrup= 586 calories.  Lunch- Healthy Choice meal+ fruit cup+ 2 brownie minis= 530.  Breakfast- 2 muffins= 240 cal.  Popsicle to cool off after scooping snow= 15 cal.

Wednesday Blog FAIL

     Well, if you actually read this every day you already know that my effort to blog daily failed Wednesday.  I have a feeling this trend will continue each Wednesday until we're finished with our regular Wednesday programming.  I'm just beat by the time I get home at the end of the evening.  We have an awesome program on Wednesday nights where our kids learn to serve others through a variety of projects. They do an outstanding job.  This week one of the group surprised Sandy and I by making chocolate covered pretzels for us.  Not great for the diet, but I will admit they were some of the best chocolate covered pretzels I've ever had.  Way to go Cooking Team!
     I feel like I'm in the middle of a time where I have so many things on the "to do" list and none getting done.  Part of it has to do with our trip.  If you don't know yet, Spencer and I are traveling with my entire family to England and Scotland at the end of May for almost 2 weeks.  We are very very excited about our trip.  Trips like this don't just happen though.  There is much to get done and that's where I'm getting hung up.  We've got to go get our passports.  However before I can get mine I have to go get my name changed on the social security registry.  Yeah, never did that when I got married.  Then when that's done I can do the passport thing.  I've still got to pay my dad for our plane tickets from London, England to Glasgow, Scotland, we've got to buy our tickets from Omaha to Denver (where we'll meet the fam) and we've got to save for all the fun stuff we want to do there as well as the cost of housing and food.  It'll be so fun, it's just a little overwhelming right now.
     Another thing I have to do is file our taxes.  It's my first year filing minister's taxes and I was too nervous to do it myself.  So, I set up an appt with H&R Block for next week.  I had no idea being "clergy" would mean so many things to the tax world.  I've got to keep track of mileage, housing allowance, pay taxes four times a year, and all that, and then wager in the part of the year I worked for Kid's Club plus the housing allowance and Spencer's W2= too much work for me.  I'd rather pay Mr. Tim Tobias of H&R Block to do it for me!
     Today was fantastic.  I real lazy day which is something I don't feel like I've had for a long time.  I slept in for a long time.  I won't tell you how late it was when I got up because I'll either make you jealous or you'll make fun of me for it.  I made lunch (spaghetti= 419 cal) and caught up on Biggest Loser from Tuesday.  Then I read my book for awhile... loving that.  I had a 2 blueberry muffins for snack (240 cal) and went to the church for a little while to finish up stuff from last night.  I should probably explain that Thursdays aren't normally my day off... Fridays are.  While we wait for our new office manager to start we've all been taking turns covering on Fridays.  So tomorrow is my day to cover and I got today off instead.  I came home and was down right productive.  I put away laundry, started more laundry, did dishes, cleaned up the kitchen and dining room, and started getting the guest room ready for Preston.
     Then I made dinner, Pesto Chicken roll-ups (185 cal), sugar snap peas (40 cal), applesauce (100 cal), and brownie minis (75 cal)!  Yum!

Total calories for the day= 1059.  Maybe waking up late and not eating breakfast paid off! 

Comfy and Cozy

     It's been one of those days full of events.  Maybe the week has been like that.  Yeah, I know it's only Tuesday.  I attended a funeral this morning for an elder in our church.  He'd battled health problems several times during his life.  This time, he finally won!  It was a great service and I think Jerry would've been so honored to have heard the things people said and to have seen all that were in attendance to remember him.
     It's also the month for planning things and beginning meetings.  Since I'm in charge of all children's ministry events I'm in the middle of planning the Easter Egg Hunt, a 4th and 5th grade service weekend, preschool camp, soccer/cheer/volleyball camp, and Music and Drama Camp.  I'm gonna be all camped out!
   To add to all that's going on, Spencer and I are getting a roommate.  Preston (Spencer's college roommate) is moving in with us for a short time.  He has accepted the position of office manager @ StoneBridge and needs a place to stay.  His wife Lauren is going to remain in KC until their apt lease is up in June.  If you think of them say a pray.  I think it'd be hard to not see my husband Monday-Friday of every week for the next 4 months.
     And finally I feel like a failure of my healthy eating today.  I haven't added up my calories yet... and I'm not sure I want to.  I'm not an emotional eater, or a stress eater.  Thank Goodness!  But there are just certain times when I have the munchies.  I'm actually constantly hungry for a few days at a time sometimes.  I try to tell myself I'm not... myself never listens!
     All this just goes to say that when I got home from work today, all I wanted to do was put on my tea kettle and curl up in bed with my book and read.  I've rediscovered the library.  Turns out that you don't just have to go there to research a paper or work on a lesson.  They have enjoyable books there too!  Alright I'm being a little sarcastic, but I truly stopped reading for enjoyment when I started college and decided I was going to start reading again.  I went to the library about 2 months ago and checked out some books by my faves (Beverly Lewis and Judith Pella).  They both write Christian historic
romance-y novels.  Beverly Lewis writes a lot about the Amish people.  Her books and the history in them fascinate me.  The last Judith Pella book series I read was set in the 1800s.  Also great reads.

Alright, I better get on with my calorie count.  Breakfast- Cereal=180 cal  Lunch-Turkey on wheat, fresh fruit, pasta salad, angel food cake=318  Afternoon snack- fruit cup and rice cakes=200  Supper- Two turkey tacos w/ shredded cheddar, fresh pineapple, one brownie mini= 505  GRAND TOTAL= 1203!  Holy Moly!  I'm surprised.  My lowest calorie intake day and I felt like I'd done horribly.  Hmm.... maybe I'll have to treat myself to something... we'll see.  Can't reward good calorie counting with food now can I?

Oh the Inspirational Blog

     Small disclaimer as I begin... I had in mind what I was going to blog about before my friend Hannah commented on my previous blog.  I was just realizing today how motivational reading other people's blogs can be.  Everyone seems to have their own theme or twist to blogging.  My friend Miranda is doing something awesome by taking a picture for every day of the year.  Then she posts the picture and blogs about it.  She also comments a lot about her battle with keeping her dishes clean.  Miranda, I feel your pain.  As a result of Miranda blogging about her dishes, I've tried so hard to stay caught up on mine.  I've run the dishwasher every day and taken care of the rest by hand for 3 days.  In Miranda's honor, I've taken a picture of my clean dishes.

   My friend Stef has been blogging about her adventure with weight watchers.  I read her blog to inspire me to continue eating healthy because I know she's doing her best to eat healthier too!  Not to mention that she's doing all this while still being WAY busier than me.

     My friend Hannah is training for a triathlon.  Yeah, a triathlon!  I could run... if something were chasing me.  I could swim... if it was to save my life.  And I could ride a bicycle... if it were for a lazy Sunday afternoon outside, but compete in a triathlon?  I can't imagine.  Hannah is my workout HERO!  I continue to do my workouts... not to achieve any fantastic goals such as completing a triathlon, but simply to take better care of my body.

     I guess all I'm really saying in all of this is that you may not know who you are inspiring by simply journaling a little every day.  But, I find encouragement, sincerity, and motivation in all of the blogs I read daily.

PS:  Please don't be offended if I didn't list your blog.  I only mentioned a few.

Another PS:  My husband has lost 20 pounds already.  He's doing an amazing job!

     Now for my calorie counting today.  Breakfast was a bowl of cocoa wheats.  If you're not from Nebraska you probably don't know what Cocoa are.  They are good.  Think chocolate cream of wheat but way better.  Cocoa wheats=190 cal.  We had a staff meeting all morning @ Fox Hollow.  I had a 12 oz. non-fat caramel macciato= 190 cal.  Lunch was 4 oz chicken and 2/3 c of green beans= 140.  For an afternoon snack I had a fruit cup= 80.  Honey-Chili Chicken, corn, grape juice, and biscuits was for dinner= 621.  One brownie mini for dessert= 75 calories. DAILY TOTAL= 1296!  I love a day under 1300!  Success