Frustration!

I am writing very little today.  My computer got a virus, which took up the majority of my day.  Hopefully, this virus has been eliminated, but my frustration is not gone.  So, here is what I ate today.

For Breakfast:  Four pieces of bacon, two scrambled eggs, one half cup of fruit, one slice of 100% whole wheat bread with honey.

For Lunch:  A chef salad with spicy ranch dressing, ham, turkey, and one boiled egg.

For Supper:  Chicken Taco Salad from Los Mariachi's



Naps, Church and Food

Today we went to the early service at church.  Our early service at Second Baptist Lancaster starts at 8am.  Lauren and I try to make it every Sunday, but usually sleep gets the better of us and we end up going to the later service after Sunday school.  I was unable to sleep last night and saw 2:30 on the clock.  So when Lauren tried woke me up at 7:00, I was really not feeling getting up and going to church; however, I am so glad that I did.  The Thin Red Line Midpoints Celebration was awesome.  I could feel the Holy Spirit in the place and was just overwhelmed with a great service.

After we got home we lay down and took a nap.  Lauren sleep for a whopping 4 hours.  I was not far behind by sleeping just under 3 hours.  I HATE napping.  I always have the worse time trying to sleep the next night and I always feel like I have wasted a day.  I especially feel that today, as it feels like summer is ending faster and faster.  It seems so short.

Today, I ate more than I normally do.  I feel like I just couldn't get enough to eat.  I think that it was because we were in such a rush that I couldn't eat my normal large breakfast.  Instead, I had a bowl of Greek Vanilla yogurt with blackberries and a banana.  For lunch we went to Subway and brought home subs.  I ended up getting a foot long sub, because I was so hungry.  I got the alvacodo Turkey and Bacon sub.  For supper, again I was starving.  I grilled a piece of chicken along with some shirmp kabobs, which I served over saffron rice.  Along with this I had sauteed veggies.  I realize now how important the large breakfast is to keeping my hunger down for the most of the day. 



Avatar: The Last Airbender

I am sure that many of you heard of The Last Airbender movie that came out from M. Knight Shyamalan last summer.  I was so excited when it came out, because Griffin and I had found the cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender,  on Instant for Netflix and we loved it.  We spent countless days watching a few episodes at a time until we finished the series.

This summer Griffin decided to watch the series again, and I have gotten to watch some of my favorite episodes.  I forgot how great the cartoon was and how great the characters in the show were.  I am a sucker for a good characters.  It seems that everything (books, movies, tv shows, even cartoons) that I am drawn to have the best characters.  Characters that are not perfect, but believable. 

The movie The Last Airbender was a disappointment.  The truly great characters, which made the animated series feel like it was more than a cartoon were absent in the movie.  So I am glad that I got another chance to watch the animated series.  I recommend it for anyone, whether you have children or not.  It is truly a great show. 

I am also excited about the upcoming extension to the series.  Avatar: The Legend of Korra, which is slated to come out sometime fall 2011.  Its story happens after the death of Aang and with the next Avatar and is set in a more advanced society with a roaring twenty like feel.  Griffin and I are counting down the days until it hits the airwaves.

A Summer of Saturdays!!!

I wish all of the days during the summer were Saturdays.   Saturdays are the only day where Lauren and I are both off during the summer without having a hundred different places to go. Usually Sundays are filled with church, family dinners, and Lauren's infamous naps. 

Today was a great day.  We both stayed home and worked on getting the little neglected house chores completed.  It was a great day!!!

What made it even better was that after all of this I barely had any appetite all day.  The meal plan I am on calls for a huge breakfast.  It is normally the same thing, but I add and take away, so I don't get so bored with the meal.  Today, I ate 1/2 cup of fruit, twoegg whites and one egg, 100% whole wheat toast with honey, and Greek vanilla yogurt (no fat) with blackberries.  I couldn't finish everything on the plate. 

For Lunch, I cooked two 10oz ribeyes for Lauren and myself.  With mine I had a small salad and crumbled goat cheese on top.  I barely finished half of my steak.  It was good, one of the best I had ever grilled, but I just got full so quickly.

For supper I took the second half of my steak, warmed it up on the stove top and made a Mexican steak wrap with salsa and sour cream.  Again, I found myself getting full long before I finished the food.  I ate maybe 3/4 of the wrap.  I am hoping that as I have been eating healthier and eating so much of my calories in the morning I am starting to crave less food during the day. 

Also, I meet my 30 minute goal with Billy Banks!!! Woohoo!!! 

I will not get on the scales again until Monday.  I am hoping that I will have lost more weight by then, but if I have not, I will still be very excited to have lost my first four lbs.

Resisting the Fundido

I gave in today and got on the scales.  I felt like I had lost weight since Monday and the temptation to get on them and see if the lbs had come off was to great.  Cautiously, I got on them, telling myself over and over that if I had not lost any weight it had only been five days.  As I peered down  fearing what I would find, I was surprised.  I had dropped four pounds.  What a great start too my weight loss journey!!!! 

So, to keep up with this photography diet. 

For Breakfast:  Two scrambled eggs, a 1/2 cup of fruit, four slices of bacon, and a piece of whole wheat toast drizzled with local honey.

For Lunch: A southwestern style salad, with pico-de-gallo, sour cream, salsa, cherry tomatos, and chipotle dressing

And for supper, the true test.  I had passed my first test on Tuesday when I abandoned my all so favorite doughnut.  However, as anyone who knows me knows.  I love Mexican food.  Lauren and I went there today after dropping Griffin off for a birthday party.  I usually get one of three meals with the Fundido being my favorite. I am glad to say that tonight I held out and just got two simple chicken quesadillas.  I was very proud that I was able to resist the amazing and delicious fundido.

June 23- The End of the Day

I had a hard time getting up and going today, because I stayed up until 3:30 last night. However, I continued to eat well.  I had a little more supper than I intended, but for the most part I think the day was  a good day.

For Lunch:  A Chicken Salad Wrap with a low carb tortilla and a small salad.

For Supper:  Two Blue Cheese Sliders with a side of grapes.

The Hunger Games

I love to read!  I read daily, but usually it takes me a while to finish books, since I don't have as much time as I would like to get into a book.  However, the benefits of being a teacher are that I get to read as much as I want to in the summer. 

The beginning of the summer found me struggling to get through a few books that I wanted to read, but had found difficult to get into.  However, that all changed as I took the next book off my "To Be Read" shelf in the office.  The book was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I had been hearing some talk about how good the book was and I had bought it back in April.  I thought "this is just a young adult novel, so how good can it be?"  However, that was the wrong assumption.  It was great. 

Many people will probably turn away from this book, because it is in the science fiction genre.  But, don't be mistaken.  The setting is only a distant backdrop to a world with amazing characters, exciting plots, and a twist-and-turn romance that will keep you flipping the pages in your book (or e-reader) with haste.  Find the synopsis and picture of the book below.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival.

The Rest of June 22 and June 23 Breakfast

June 22 was probably my best day, since starting the healthier lifestyle.  I ate Japanese leftovers for lunch and a chef salad for supper.  And although I know that you are suppose to snack during the day, I didn't have any of my snacks.

For breakfast this morning, June 23, I needed something beside the same meal I have eaten for the last few days.  I cut up some fresh fruit and made a fruit salad (no sugar added).  It was delicious.

Confessional

I must start this morning with a confession.  Late night snacks have always been my weakness.  I am allowed to have one late night snack, which includes fruit or 1 oz of chocolate.  Monday the fruit held me over; however, last night was hard.  After eating the fruit I found myself scouring the fridge for something else.  I ate some more of Lauren's left over chicken salad and some tortilla chips.  :(

But, I know that today is a new day.  So, I am once again back on the wagon and trying to be strong.  This whole eating healthier food thing is not so bad, but I really need to work on portions. 

Today for breakfast, I had the same high energy breakfast.  Plain yougurt with fresh strawberries on top, 100% whole wheat toast with drizzled honey, one egg and two egg whites, and 1/2 of fruit.

And the rest of June 21st

For a mid morning snack, I ate 1 cup of watermelon cubes.  The watermelon was not as sweet as I wanted and I am beginning to learn a lot about portion size.  A cup is so small, and this was a heaping cup.

For lunch, Lauren made a light chicken salad with cranberries and pecans.  I put this over a bed of lettuce and a serving of ranch dressing.



Lauren cooks again!!!! For supper tonight, she made smoked Tilapia and shrimp with sauteed vegetables.  I am not really a fish kind of person, but this was a great meal.  We will have to see if we can get Lauren in the kitchen more often.

As far as exercising goes, I got up to 23 minutes with Tae-Bo.  Hopefully tomorrow I can complete the whole video.  I am fighting the urge to get on the scales.  The scales have always been my enemy.  I have religiously gotten on them daily and when I am trying to lose weight the fact that it isn't coming off fast enough is always discouraging.  I am attempting to only get on them on Mondays.  Let's see if I can stick to it and stay off of them.

Morning of 6-21-11

One of the most challenging things I have faced in overcoming my bad eating habits has been having a wife who is naturally very skinny.  Lauren is one of those people who basically eats whatever she wants and doesn't gain a pound. 

Today, she took our dog, Sprout, to the vet.  She happened to go by Perks Coffee shop on her way there and decided that it would be rude not to at least bring me and Griffin something back.  Below is a picture of my first temptation. One I am happy to say I avoided.  Griffin became the lovely receipent of my doughnut as well as his. 

Instead of the all tempting sourcream doughnut (my favorite by the way). I stuck to the high energy meal plan.  I had two egg whites mixed with two regular eggs. A half cup of banana, strawberry, and blackberries and 100% whole wheat toast drizzled with honey. 

I changed up the egg thing from yesterday.  Four egg whites is disgusting!  After researching the bad and good of eggs, I found that two eggs a day is not bad for most people, so I did a mix this morning.  Already it is a much better breakfast.

June 20- Exercise and Supper

Okay...the true form of my out-of-shapeness showed itself today as I started an old school workout routine.  Billy Banks made it real with his 1990's Basic Tae-Bo.  I only made it through 18 minutes of the 30 minute video.  SHAMEFUL!!!  My goal is to at least finish the 30 minute workout by the end of the week. 

My supper tonight probably wasn't the healthiest choice, but it works for getting some of the food out of the house.  It was  a spicy chicken salad (the chicken was left over from supper last night), topped with pico-de-gallo, homemade guacamole, and ranch dressing and six whole-wheat tortilla chips.

Lunch June 20

Lauren and I love Japanese.  It was one of our favorite places to eat when we were living in Greenville.  Shoguns in Spartanburg was one of our favorites.  Since we have been living in Kershaw, going to eat at a Japanese Steakhouse does not happen as often as we like. 

However, the other day while Griffin and I were at Food Lion, we came across Yum Yum sauce.  It is meant to taste just like the shrimp sauce at a Japanese Steakhouse.  So, after adding up calories and seeing how healthy this little snack would be.  I decided to make homemade Japanese for Lauren and I for lunch.  Griffin had a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. 

So, today for lunch we had pan seared shrimp and chicken with a little soy sauce.  Sauteed peppers, squash, red onions, mushrooms and zucchini and a fresh salad with lettuce and carrots.  All of this was served with a side of yum yum sauce.

Breakfast June 20

Okay, so I am starting a healthy eating plan this week.  I needed something to keep me accountable, because in the past all of my attempts to lose weight have been futile.  Since I love food and making it, I hope that keeping a daily post of my food will help to keep me accountable.

Today for breakfast I made four egg whites, plain yogurt topped with fresh blueberries, a piece of whole wheat toast with local honey drizzled on top, and a 1/2 cup of slieced bananas.