Cupcake Vs Carrot

Working in retail really makes me dislike Easter, and all of the terrible candy it's trying to make me eat. I've been very good, I must say. But it's hard when you spend your 8 hour shift staring at a bunch of Lindt Bunnies, and asking every customer if they want to buy one because your job wants you to sell more in order to be profitable, and then you have to pretend as though you actually eat said Bunnies..which in turn makes you want to eat one! Ah! What a cycle. I can't wait until Easter is done, and we get rid of it all. Then it's time for summer things, which is a huge motivator because summer = bathing suit. And more importantly summer = wedding. Yeah.

So I'm at my parents waiting for Easter Dinner..and I think they are finally on board with my new health lifestyle. For a while, it was like they were secretly trying to sabotage me when I came here, by having cake and fatty take out. But I convinced them to swap out the uber fatty butter mashed potatoes for some baked root veggies and rice for Quinoa for tonight's Easter dinner. Hurrah! Plus I figured out how many calories the Ham is going to be, and if I only take a bit I should be sitting at about 140 calories. Which I can do, since I've been good the rest of the day.

One of the best things about coming to parents house is the elliptical. I went on for 30 minutes, busted my ass and burned me some good calories! I'm starting to feel like I have more energy, which is a plus. I just need to be as focused as I can and not let myself slide when student teaching starts up again tomorrow.

I am down to 212 pounds :D Which yes, I know is still fat. But is less fat! If I can be down to 200 by the time I get married in July, I will be the happiest little bride on earth.

We sent out our wedding invitations yesterday. Whew, it was a big job printing them all ourselves, but it was worth it because we saved some serious money. They were small enough that we only needed one stamp, and all the RSVP's are being done by phone or to our e-mail, so that saved us on that too! I'm hoping everyone comes, and I'm hoping there's no drama. I don't know if I could deal with any more right now. I know some people are going to be upset I didn't invite them..but as one of my good friends told me, "you don't want people there who don't support you." And some on the no-invite list haven't been very supportive. They even went as far to say that I'm probably going to end up divorced.

I don't need any of that. Bah.

I wish I was married now.

Ok. Well I had my whoa is me entry..now to just suck it up and do it. I got back on track, and decided that maybe the Wii Fit scale isn't totally accurate. Plus, how can it account for the fact that...

I bought size 14 pants yesterday!!!!

Yeah! I was out with Nick, and I said, "for fun, can I go try on smaller pants, just to see?" So I went into Ricki's and found a pair of hot black boot cut pants in a 14, and tried them on. I was actually pretty surprised to see they fit! So, as a present and motivator for myself, I bought them.

Nick and I have been doing pretty good on the food train. I bought the new Hungry Girl cookbook when it came out, and we've tried a few things so far. The best has been this one:



Yes, it looks like barf, but it tasted AMAZING. Instead of making rice or potatoes we baked Turnip and Rutabega with olive oil, thyme, rosemary and mustard powder in the oven. Then the main dish is cherry tomatoes with chicken, sauce and spice. It's called a Summer Skillet and man, it was tasty!

I am worried about this weekend though. I'm having Easter Dinner at my parents house..and my family is mostly Ukrainian. Which means lots of startch and huge portions. I need to come up with a game plan. Hmm. Game plan.

In workout DVD news if you want something that's going to leave you sore for a good 2 days after the fact, pick up the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Now I'm not in shape, but I did level one for 20 minutes a few days ago..AND I'M STILL SORE TODAY.

We shall see. Time to clean the apartment!

My Dinner!

Well as we all know, Valentines Day isn't really the healthiest day on the planet. We attempted to make it less bad by making our own dinner last night instead of going out somewhere. We did up a marinade for chicken with honey dijon mustard, cayenne, lemon juice, rosmary and basil that was awesome! Then we tried this weird thing where you make a lemon dill glaze for carrot, put them in the fridge for a couple of hours and eat them cold. It was weird, but tasty. It made up for the fact that we had some fondue later..not the healthiest, but I did so well last week I thought I deserved a treat!


Today's plan is to head to Michael's to check out some more things for my DIY Wedding Head Table. I have a bunch of jars and stuff, just need to find things to tie them together. I don't know if I mentioned it, but one of those decorating places quoted me $1400 for a head table decor and cake table decor package. I swear I almost died right there on the spot. Also, they made me feel very weird and uncomfortable by asking me about "my vision" or "words that describe my wedding".

Want to know what my words are?

1) Married to Nick
2) Friends & Family
3) Fun Times
4) Frugal

Yup, that's the plan. I don't think that's what those wedding planners are going for though. I think they wanted weird things like "post modern fairytale" and other junk. Not from this kid they won't!

Well..I'm not doing as well as I could be doing right now. I yo-yo back and forth between so motivated, then so not. I have to just suck it up I think. I do really well and go to the gym for like...4 days in a row then nothing for a week, thus negating the work I've done. I know I haven't gained pounds, and I have lost inches, I guess it's just frustrating. Especially when I come home drained from these education classes, and I don't want to take the time to make something healthy, I just want fast, greasy comfort food. Then I really fell off the wagon when we went for our wedding food tasting...

It was amazing food..but so not what I should be eating right now. The chicken was breaded, and covered in sauce, with a huge potatoe, a cheesecake, peach melba..then last night after a particularily terrible day at University we ordered Chinese food. Then this morning I had a BK Breakfast sandwich because it was free.

When will I learn.

***Edit*** Bask in the glory of my dinner! And pretty table colours :D

Yay! I am happy to report a change over the last three weeks or so. Last year, when I was going to the gym and eating good I bought myself a pair of Joe jeans from Superstore. I hadn't been able to fit into that brand in a while, so they were a (cheap) treat! After a while, they stopped fitting..which just depressed me, but marvel of all marvels they fit again! I haven't lost a lot pounds wise, but I am down 7 inches overall. I was pretty excited.

The meal planning is going really well too! The chili I mentioned before from The Biggest Loser diet was THE BEST. I even managed to fool my dad by bringing some home to him, and he HATES healthy food. I'm planning on making more soon. I have also discovered the wonder of Hungry Girl, and her love of Fibre One. Instead of having fatty chicken with shake a bake I can pre-make my own coating and add my own spices, and instead of using egg whites to make the coating stick I have low-cal yogurt salad dressing or BBQ sauce.

The gym is coming along, this week has been a bit trying but last week I went for 4 out of 7 days, and did a home workout twice. I have gained back my favourite gym buddy of all time though! V renewed her membership, and she was always the best to go with. Especially since she's in the wedding, we can kick eachothers asses into looking sexy ;)

I am off to make some tasty chicken strips, the man should be home from work soon. Mayhaps I will post a photo so everyone can revel in the tastyness of the Fibre One chicken.

Peace!

I had my first major food test yesterday...sheesh day 1 and I'm already stressed. We had a New Years dinner at my grandmas house. Keep in mind, my grandma is old and Ukrainian and doesn't really understand the concept of dieting. So I said no to the wine, opted for a glass of water, piled my plate with veggies, a bit of meat and no potatoes/bad things and said no to desert. Then I went home and had pecans and a banana as my own personal treat. Ugh. And today I got to work, and a very sweet regular customer had left me 4 buttertarts as a gift. As much as I wanted them (and believe me, I did) I gave them away to one of my supervisors.

Today's food looks as such:

Breakfast:
- Small black coffee
- Low fat cranberry orange muffin

Snack:
Banana and an Apple

Lunch:
George Forman Grilled Cheese
Tomato Soup

Snack:
Hummus and Red/Green Peppers

Haven't exercised yet, as I worked from 5am-11:30am and I am exhausted. I'm hoping to do some tonight and for sure get up tomorrow morning. Plan for dinner is "Doc's Chili" from the Biggest Loser Jump Start. It looks good, I shall report on it later.

Ugh. So here we are again, another New Years Eve. I enjoy yet hate New Years because it reminds me of half the things I said I'd do last year, but clearly didn't do yet. The FH is at work till 6, and I think we're just going to have a quiet evening in, because that's how we are.

We went on a mega clean-a-thon the last few days and the place is actually looking pretty good. We sorted through boxes, through out about 8 bags of garbage, gave away 5 boxes and a bag to Sally Ann and just re-organized our stuff. We actually have some space left over, it's nuts!

We're going to try a meal plan for the new year as well, so we spent yesterday pouring over recipe books and finding tasty things. I picked up The Biggest Loser Jump start, so we're taking a lot out of there. We made this absolutely tasty Ham/Cheese/Egg muffin thing this morning, so I felt like I was eating fast food, but it was way better! We've had the last few days off together, so we made a conscious effort not to eat out, and to make something healthy. Yesterday we made this low cal chocolate monkey oatmeal, which was awesome! You'd think it would be bad for you, but made right..nope!

I am excited, yet scared for the new year. I'm getting married in 7 months. I need to plan more stuff, and get it in place, I'm just feeling so overwhelmed by it all. We went to Moores and got the tuxes picked out, and I'm going to go to Safeway and book the flowers soon. I just don't even know what else I need. This sense of panic plus the fact that I'm back to school on Tuesday, have another practicum in March, need to get un-fat..it's going to be tough. I always find I get really frustrated and overwhelmed then just shut down and binge on everything, like food, sleep, booze, you name it. I really need to find a better method.

Goal today: Get lazy butt on the Wii Fit.