"Most obstacles are imaginary; the rest are only temporary."

BREAKFAST

The picture isn't fantastic I know, but it's a banana split for breakfast. Mmm. After browsing KERF's tribute to oatmeal I was inspired.

1 medium banana sliced in half (Had to break off the end for it to fit in the bowl)

Stuffed with 1/4 cup Bear Naked apple cinnamon granola

Topped with 1tbsp Skippy's Natural crunchy PB

All over a bed of 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

Sprinkled with cinnamon

Things to do today:

• Get a good work out in
• Make an eye appointment, I need a check up 
• Finish studying chapter 3 and 4 in the driver's manual for my permit
• Eat a yummy Wendy's chocolate m&m twisted frosty without guilt
• Make something with the avocado I have
• Spend time with Matt
• Clean up my room...how does it get so messy?
  
• Be positive and stay motivated!
• Try going to bed at an earlier time

LUNCH/DINNER

Cell phone picture...

Sirloin steak

Wild rice

Green beans

Crescent roll

I didn't have gravy over my sirloin, but I added a dap to my plate to dip my roll into. Chipotle brown gravy as a matter of fact, it was good.

Turns out I am not doing well with my list of accomplishments. My avocado was bad. =[ I am not familiar with them and I suppose I bought it too ripe and it went bad quickly. Oh well. Silly me cut my finger while cutting the avocado in half and I didn't think it would ever stop bleeding. Ugh!

"Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present."

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup Bear Naked apple cinnamon granola 
1 medium apple

I added a dollop of peanut butter today and oh my I want PB in my messes ever day! I wish I added more, but I wasn't sure if I would like it or not...who was I kidding?

AFTER WORK OUT SNACK 

Half of an orange from yesterday. Need that vitamin C!

I managed not to skip a work out today. After reading The Chic Life's post about squashing work out excuses I told myself "I can do this! Do the best you can! It will pay off!" My work out plan is a bit too challenging for me, but I stick with as much of it as I can do. My abs are sore, but it will pay off and I will only get stronger.

I did say that I would take my measurements and weight today for my challenge, so here it is:

Smallest part of waist: 27 inches

Waist at belly button: 33.5 inches

Hips: 35.5 inches

Weight this morning: 119.8

I'm not concerned with my weight anymore I am mainly concerned with my waist to hip ratio. When I lose around 2 inches off of my waist I will look much healthier and toned. Also, I have come to realize that I do have a pear shape. Pear is a good shape and I must learn to embrace the curves that comes along with it. 

LUNCH 

Okay, this was more of dinner because I ate it when my parents had dinner. I wake up late what can I say? I am a little embarassed by this one, but I have become an extreme fan of bowl messes. They had sloppy joes, maccaroni and cheese, and peas. My equivalent is 1/4 cup sloppy joe, 1/2 cup Kraft mac n cheese, and about a 1/2 cup of peas. Does this sound gross? I don't care. =]

DINNER

I took a light approach for dinner and had to feed my peanut butter and banana craving I've been having all day.

Arnold thin

1 tbsp. Skippy's Natural creamy PB

1/2 banana

Cinnamon

Side of...

6 Seneca Gingerbread Apple Chips

Only $1 at Big Lots! Normally we buy the cinnamon, but these taste almost the same to me. Only 140 calories for 12 chips and they aren't doused in grease. Seneca has a wide variety of apple chips and also carry sweet potato chips, which I have yet to come across. Pick them up if you happen to spot them.

I wanted to talk to you about NuVal if you haven't heard of it yet. NuVal is nutritional value listed along with the price of items. They take calories, fat, carbs, etc. into consideration when giving a rating from 1-100. The higher the number, the better for you. Simple, right? Unfortunately only a select few stores have this for their customers. If you would like you may suggest stores near you where you would like to see NuVal. Many people are not educated in nutrition, even those of us who think we are may be surprised by their scores. Having NuVal can take out a lot of guess work plus lead the busy and slightly lazy into a healthier life style. Although they do not have wide selection of grocery items listed with their scores on the website they do have some and update frequently. Do you think this is a good idea or should people rely more on their own nutritional education?

 

"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools."

Saturday update

BREAKFAST

3/4 cup yogurt

1/4 cup Bear Naked apple cinnamon granola

1 small apple

Extra cinnamon is always a must

SNACK

While watching the Penguins play Matt made some popcorn so I decided to have about a cup. It was Orville's microwave butter popcorn.

LUNCH

Later after watching Indian Jones Matt and I were really hungry and we invited his sister along. We decided to go to IHOP. I have only been there a few times and was never very impressed...until today! I never had their pancakes and decided I would go all out. I had multi-gran and nut pancakes with apple comote and whipped cream. Mmmm, mmmm, mmm. Best pancakes ever. The pancake alone was good, much better than the usual buttermilk pancake. I ate 3 of the 4 and had absolutely no regrets. I probably would have eaten all  if I could. ;p

DINNER

When I came home there was Little Caesars pizza calling my name. Would I dare say no to Little Caesars? No way. They recently opened up a shop right in town so expect to see it more often on the blog. Normally I am not much of a pizza person, but who can resist a delicious $5 medium pizza and crazy bread? If you don't have one of these in your town I am sorry. I ate a slice cold and heated up a crazy bread stick. My cousin stayed over and we played Guitar Hero for awhile and somehow I managed to eat another slice...opps.

TODAY

BREAKFAST

 

Eggs:

1 egg

1 egg white

Tomato, onion, pepper

1 medium/large apple sprinkled with cinnamon

LUNCH

Again, my parents made a ton of sauerkraut and I hate seeing so much of it go to waste. No one ever eats the hot dogs it seems, so I had 2 with sauerkraut and spicy brown mustard in Arnold Thins.

DINNER

Sammie:

Arnold Thins spread with 1/2 Laughing Cow cheese wedge

Lots of iceberg lettuce, tomato, and onion

I also have an obsession with ground black pepper

1 cup Amy's black bean and veggie soup 

This was my first time trying Amy's soup and I really enjoyed it. Personally the flavor was that of chili and re-fried beans mixed with veggies. The consistency was creamy, not watery like most canned soups. Amy's brand just may become a new favorite.

Currently I am working on an exercise plan with Shape.com and from various blogs I have been reading. I am not sure how much my body can handle so this is difficult. I will be starting out simple, so you won't be impressed when I begin recording them. In all honesty too I am thinking of saving for an elliptical or treadmill, any recommendations? In general do you have any recommendations for work out beginners?

"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of."

Holiday/Post-Holiday Recap aka Mega-post

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I've been a bit too busy to think about wiping out my camera every moment. I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday and hope everyone else did too. I'm excited to wear all of the new clothes I got. =] It's a big confidence booster to fit into the sizes I wear now and such a motivator to stay this way. 

Christmas Eve 
BREAKFAST
I kept it super light due to the fact we were eating "dinner" so close to us waking up and didn't want to be too full to eat the goods. I had a banana and a cup of coffee with a tablespoon of cocoa, a teaspoon of nondairy creamer, and a packet of Splenda.

LUNCH

Mashed potatoes, tons of mixed veggies, and a giant dinner roll! I don't eat ham, so I didn't exactly have a way to incorporate any meat or protein into my meal. After I finish my plate I took some time to socialize before digging into my Dad's wonderful decadent homemade dark chocolate mousse. The recipe he uses is by far some of the better, if not the best chocolate mousse I have ever had. If my body could handle it, I just may have eaten to entire bowl. ;) But, mousse is rich, especially dark chocolate mousse, so I may have had about a half cup.

DINNER

This is when I realized my eating was getting a bit out of control....I had about a 1/4 piece of my paps kaibasi on an Arnold Thin (Which I have recently tried and absolutely love! How have I lived without these babies?!) and some spicey brown mustard. Well, for dessert I had a nice big slice of my grandma's pumpkin roll.

Day after Christmas

BREAKFAST

A banana, which was ripened to my perfection, Danon Light and Fit yogurt, and some Special K Protein Plus. Mix together and yum. 
LUNCH

Matt's aunt had a big Christmas party and this woman is a fantastic cook! She use to own a Cornucopia, but now she just does catering. No, she does not do the ordinary rigatoni and fried chicken catering. I should have taken a shot of her fabulous buffet if nothing else. I had the best roast beef I have tasted on a roll, lots of fresh veggies, and two giant slices of my favorite fruit...cantaloupe. Of course I couldn't pass up the table of sweets either! The first thing that caught my eye was toffee cheesecake. I could have went with the usual piece of chocolate or cookie to save on calories, but I figured what the hey. Delicious! Man, I sure was stuffed. We didn't stay long because we had some things to get done, but it was a nice short visit. Sometimes Matt thinks I don't enjoy doing things with his family, but I'm really shy when I don't know people. I love that he's a family man and would do anything with his family.

SNACK

Matt decided after not really eating any of the fabulous food his aunt made he'd go to Taco Bell after our crazy day returning things at the mall, shopping, and going to Sam's Club. They didn't have the apple empinada so they gave him two cinnamon twists....guess who ate a bag? Me.

DINNER

Alright, lets pretend this section does not exist. I told myself after today I would get back on track so i went crazy eating everything! I had some sandwich spread on an Arnold Thin, a piece of leftover crazy bread, and a piece of pumpkin roll. No...it didn't stop there. As I was passing the living room I noticed my bag of Lindor truffles and took them with me upstairs....this is the part where I get disgustingly sick. I will be saving my 60% cocoa heavenly truffles for a time in the future where I can begin to handle sweets again.

All in all I feel good that I can blog what I have eaten to motivate me to do better in the future. We all have our slips, even major ones. I am doing my best to stay positive with this and get back on track. Recently I have found many great blogs and really feel inspired! Food blogging is helping me more than you may know. 

Today--December 27

BREAKFAST

1 medium banana

1/2 to 2/3 cup Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt

(I scraped out the last bit so it would all be used before pitching it)

1/4 cup Bear Naked apple cinnamon granola

Bear Naked All Natural Granola Apple Cinnamon (12oz) All Natural Granola

Made with REAL whole grains.
Hand-crafted in small batches, yielding unique, soft-baked texture
Voted "Best-Tasting Granola in the Country" (Men’s Health, Mar 2005 & Organic Style, Nov 2004)
All-Natural, Bearly Processed and Utterly Naked Ingredients... that you can actually pronounce!
Vegetarian friendly
Kosher certified
Bear Naked products are priced at a premium level, because Bear Naked sources the best-tasting, highest quality ingredients they can find. For example, they use whole almonds and walnut halves, not almond and walnut pieces. In addition, Bare Naked granola is still made by hand, which is labor intensive. Bear Naked products are all natural and, by definition, all natural products cannot contain preservatives. As a result, Bear Naked does not use any artificial ingredients or preservatives, including MSG.

Bear Naked® is naturally sweetened with just a kiss of honey. They selected to use honey in their recipe because studies have shown it is low on the glycemic index, providing a long, steady source of energy instead of a spike and crash. Honey is also a natural source of antioxidants.

I give this product a big thumbs up! The taste is unbelievably good and sweet. The granola is in tiny clusters, some is broken up though, and I love the dried apples. I actually got my bag for only $3 at our local Big Lots store. This product usually runs around $5 a bag. 1/4 cup is 140 calories so I enjoyed mixing mine with the yogurt and will continue to use their line of products. If you check out their website: eatbearnaked.com you can view their product information and order if you like. By saving bags you can earn points to cash in for a t-shirt or a reusable bag. Nice.

LUNCH

Turkey sammie:

1 toasted Arnold Thin

Peppered deli turkey

Lettuce

Tomato

I can't wait to have another one of these tomorrow. I'm boring, I could eat these every day.

1 small/medium apple

1/8 cup walnut halves

Cinnamon

1tsp vanilla extract

SNACK

Sorry for the terrible photo. I need to run these back downstairs because they tempt me. I had only one and it was delicious. Lindor truffles are one of my ultimate chocolate favorites!

DINNER
I was in the mood for eggs tonight and I came up with this tasty combo...

Sammie:

1 Arnold Thin (I'm on my last one. Oh no!)

1/2 cup egg beaters with onion and ground black pepper

2 slices of tomato

1 slice yellow American cheese

Side of small apple slices with cinnamon

My fruit choices with cinnamon are repetitious, I know. This is the first time using this sandwich combo and it just may become a regular. Mmmm so good. I love sandwiches and never find them boring as most people do. Personally, I don't need very much variety in my diet to be happy.

As much as I don't like to admit it, I was a coach potato today. Naturally I go to bed late so I will be working out tonight. Yesterday I took a day off of working out, although I don't have much of a routine anyway. One thing I'm working on is becoming knowledgeable about exercise. Baby steps!