OOTD-Week 8/21

I have been on a weight loss journey, and have been able to get back into clothing that I haven't been able to wear in almost a year.

I am more than proud of myself and have been taking a selfie every day at work, to see the progress as it comes along.

As a PS, I also wore some version of green everyday this week.  I usually plan my weeks like that, but this time it was pure fluke!

Food Prep

I have been food prepping for a few years now.  It all started with Kaia Fit.  That program is big on prepping yourself with healthy food choices for the week, especially when you start to get busy and life gets in the way.

I am going to start showing my lunches that I prep for the week.  I find it easiest if I eat the same thing everyday, and it takes all the decision making out of my world.  As I mentioned before, I've actually been food prepping for myself for years, but I recently started prepping for a co-worker about 2 months ago.  I try to make the lunches different and not just boring salads.

I do all my shopping on Saturday, and I will usually prep it once I am home.  I have been thinking weeks ahead for what I would like for my lunch, and then I run it by my co-worker and we iron out all the kinks.

I do try to keep my calories lower for lunch, because I don't like to eat heavy food sitting at my desk all day.  I am also working on my own personal weight loss journey (which I hope to write about soon) and find that if I keep my calories between 250-400 for lunch, I tend to do better for the rest of the day.

I hope you find inspiration in my lunches and maybe even find prepping for the week something you'd like to try.

Below are last week's lunches as well as this week.

Week of  8/21: Chicken Wraps-inspired by the chicken wraps at Buffalo Wild Wings, but with far less fat and calories.
Total Calories: Estimated at 403 (give or take on the veggies).  I don't usually count calories of veggies or fruit and I really only worry with the main ingredients.
Total Cost: $13.00/per person for the week

Tortillas De Harina (soft taco flour tortillas) 130 cal
John Soules Chicken Breast Fajitas (2 oz.) 67 cal
Sargento 4 cheese Mexican Blend (1 Tbsp) 56 cal
Ken's Honey Mustard (2 Tbsp) 130 cal
Cherry Tomato 7 cal
Red Onion 4 cal
Romaine Lettuce Leaf 2 cal

Week of 8/28: Stuffed Shells and Caesar salad
Total Calories: Estimate at 664--I will have to be very careful with my dinner and snacks this week.
Total Cost: $13.00 each

Caesar Salad:
Cooking with Spinach-1/2 cup 27 cal
Romaine Lettuce Leaf-2 leaves 4 cal
Lucerne (low moisture part skim shredded mozzarella)-1 tbsp 20 cal
Kraft Classic Caesar w/Extra Romano-2 tbsp 110 cal

Stuffed Shells:
I lined the bottom of the containers with two types of pasta sauce.
Francesco Rinaldi (tomato, garlic & onion)-1 tbsp 9 cal
Francesco Rinaldi (3 cheese)-1 tbsp 11 cal
Barila Jumbo Shells (the serving is 5, but I prepped for 3 people so we each got 4) 144 cal

Filling: I wish I would have taken a picture of this
In a large bowl, I mixed the entire container of ricotta, half of the remaining wilted spinach (which I tore into pieces and added to my left over pasta water) and ground turkey.  I also added Italian seasoning, salt and white pepper to taste 
Lucerne Ricotta Part Skim (I estimate each shell has about 1 tbsp of ricotta) 21 cal
Cooking with Spinach-1 cup 54 cal
Jennie-O Ground Turkey (2 tbsp) 85 cal

After filling the shells, I then added the remaining 1 tbsp spoon of each sauce (so add an additional 9 cal and 11 cal).
Then I covered the shells with the remaining portion of the mozzarella cheese (1/2 cup) 160. (The nutrition facts on the bag of cheese are incorrect and have the portion size in 1/4 cup as 1 oz, which is incorrect--so I cut the cheese (pun intended) calories in half.

OOTW-Week 3 Army Green

This week was green.  Close to an army green.  We lucked out and had casual week for the last two days!

B.o.B

This was the best concert I have been to in a while.  I love me some Bobby Ray Simmons.  So nothing could have ruined this moment.  I was so close, and I swear to goodness this man looked me directly in my eyes.  Ask Debbie, she thinks he did the same to her, and she doesn't love him like I do.

He is Beau-ti-ful!

This is just a tiny blurb of the evening as it went.  I am working to upload the rest of the videos to my youtube channel.

OOTW-May week 2

I am back with an outfit of the week post.  I unfortunately missed the first week of May, but I at least have week 2.

Enjoy.  Inspired by the color aqua.

Monday: White twill capri pants. Sheer aqua floral 3-quarter sleeved top.  Navy blue flats.  White hoop earrings.  Turquoise beaded necklace ,with white beaded bracelet.

 Tuesday: Brown wide leg pants, aqua knit short sleeved sweater.  Aqua Jessica Simpson heels. Handmade flower hair pin, paisley beaded necklace and earrings

  Wednesday: Brown twill skinny pants, one shoulder sleeved aqua print top.  Matching 3-quarter sleeved cardigan, with brown wedges.  Brown wooden necklace and small turquoise stone earrings.

 Thursday: Black skinny twill pants, multi-print aqua shirt, with black cardigan.  Orange/rust colored wedges.  Gold horn necklace with beaded turquoise and orange bracelet.  I don't remember what earrings I chose.

 Friday: Khaki skinny twill pants.  Navy and aqua striped shirt dress, with a navy blue cardigan.  I wore flats this day, instead of the wedges shown.  With a handmade necklace and multi beaded necklace.

Rookie Cross Fit

Saturday April 23, 2016

Rookie Cross Fit Competition 

There is swearing and inappropriate gestures...viewer beware...

Changing Me

I have been going through the process of life changes. I am working at bettering myself to be the person I've always envisioned. And with that comes a lot of stress, tears, laughs and need for constant self motivation.
I first started with going to church. I have found great relief in going every Sunday knowing that I will hear a message that somehow always pertains to me. I started back at the end of October 2015, and have been ever since. I have only missed 2 Sunday's so far and am proud that I am making a positive change to enrich my life. I've even started attending singles night on Thursdays and am now in a financial class Monday as well. Just opening up my life to something different and maybe meeting a new set of people with more positive outlooks has been great for me. I am the definition of pessimistic, so to try and work on being optimistic has been challenging.
While I am working on this journey with church I have also changed the way I eat. I think having a positive outlook in life can't be successful if I am eating poorly and miserable in my body. So I slowly started to eliminate all the crap out my life. It is an adjustment to remember that sugar is a drug and I am addicted to it. It is slowly killing me, and I have to give up the control. After the holidays I cut most of my candy eating down to one mini piece of caramel Milky Way a night. I mean, I was still eating candy, but not like I usually would. We have a huge candy bowl at work, I would buy candy anytime I was at Target or the grocery store. So one mini piece was incredible. However, at this same time I was dealing with swollen feet, chicken skin, dry skin, stomach pain and cavities. So I decided to cut candy at home and occasionally have a piece at work if the mood so touched me. Now I can say I don't crave candy like I used to and can go weeks without it.
I also decided to research gluten and lactose intolerance. I already know I have a lactose intolerance, so there wasn't much else to research, but I did cut the added dairy and already noticed a huge difference in my constant stomach bloating and headaches.
I am going to start adding back the gym, but I haven't made it there yet.  I am still finishing the last of my master's degree so I have to find time to complete school, work, and make time for my self without going too crazy.
I will say I already notice a huge difference in how I feel about my life and myself. I can get down on myself and how I think things should be going, even when they aren't.

OOTD Week 4

Week 4, was pretty lazy.  I didn't even paint my nails.  Enjoy anyway.

OOTD Week 3

So, I have gotten a little lazy when it comes to my outfits for work.  Usually, I have my outfits picked for the week on Sunday.  (We even had a 3-day weekend, and I still slacked off)  I have a system.  I paint my nails, and whatever color strikes me is what I try to make my outfits match along with.  Week 3 didn't happen like that.  I didn't even take a picture of my nails.  I only painted them a solid color, no designs, and took it off before I remembered about the blog.  Oh well, I at least have a picture of the nail polish itself.  Grey Area, by Sally Hansen.  One of my favorite colors.

Enjoy Week 3

OOTD WEEK 2

This is Valentine's week, so I tried to stick with a burgundy/pink theme.  The nails as usual were the inspiration. The last pic is my $7.00 dress I wore to the Brik Party, which was crazy fun!

 ENJOY!!