I'm Only Human...

As we are coming up on 20 days of dieting, I figured I would give a little update. One thing I know I need to do, is buy a scale! I think if I could actually see the numbers going down it will help my motivation.

This weekend was NOT good for the diet. I must admit that J and I cheated a few times. AND I haven't been to the gym since last Thursday... I am going tonight though. I think I want to start going in the mornings. I think I will feel more refreshed throughout the day and I won't have an excuse of "being too tired" after work.

I think the biggest thing I need to remind myself is that I am only human. I am going to fail and I'm not going to eat the way I should all day, everyday for the rest of my life. It's crazy to admit this, but when I ate what I consider "my favorite foods" this weekend, they weren't as great as I was expecting. Not to mention I felt really yucky for a few days. I was also disappointed in myself!

I can do this!


Needless to  say, I think it will be quite awhile before I have another cheat day, or at least one like this past weekend. While I feel like I've been dieting for quite awhile, its not even been 3 weeks!

I really think I just needed to get all of this out so that I would feel better. I already feel better and I'm a little more motivated than I was before.

Weekend Recap & Pinterest Anonymous

Well hello blog world, another Monday is upon us. Mondays most certainly are not my favorite, and the only thing to top that are rainy Mondays. Needless to say, all I've wanted to do today is curl up and take a nap!

The weekend was exactly what it was supposed to be: relaxing! Friday night, my good friend Megan asked if I wanted to get a manicure, which I'm always up for! So I rushed to meet her. We got to the place between 6:20 and 6:30. They were closing at 7:00, but we figured we had time. Plus, ever nail place I have EVER went to, stays open way pass closing time to take care of their customers. NOT THIS PLACE!

Now, I'll be the first to admit I hate people coming in at the last minute. However, there was plenty of time for them to help us. I've never been somewhere and felt so unwelcome. She literally asked Megan if she could only do a manicure on her, and ended up rushing through it anyways. If the final product and the prices hadn't been so great, I wouldn't go back. However, my nails look wonderful and it was only $15.00 :)

We grabbed some dinner and then I headed home. Saturday, I slept in till around 9:30. It was yet another lazy day thanks to the cloudy weather. I did get some grocery shopping done. Justin and I then decided to watch One Day, starring Anne Hathaway. BAD IDEA. It was a good movie, however it was way too sad for a Saturday night, especially when I was in the mood for something cute and funny.

Sunday, we slept in even later. I definitely caught up on my sleep this weekend :) Then we headed to Justin's grandparents to take them to lunch. Today is his grandma's birthday. We visited for a little while and then went home and relaxed the rest of the weekend.

We did end up sleeping in the guest bed last night though. Justin couldn't get comfortable in our bed. I believe we will be switching mattresses tonight.

Lastly.

Hello. My name is Allie and I am addicted to Pinterest.

I know I am jumping on the bandwagon late folks, but boy am I happy I'm finally on! I have been obsessed all weekend. My phone has went below 10% battery numerous times. I'm in love and can't wait to do a Pinterest dedicated post!

I just have one question...how do you say Pinterest? Is it like interest with a "P", or is it pin-ter-est? Anyways, I'm in love :)

Oh and one final thing, I didn't get to make the cheeseburger and fries casserole like I planned. I left the ingredient list at home when I went to the grocery store and I forgot to go back. Oh well, maybe another day :)

Happy Monday Bloggies!

Cooking Queen

I will be the first to admit that before J and I moved in together I didn't cook. AT ALL. There were some things I could "cook", but when I say "cook" I mean like bake in an oven "cook" or something of that nature. It wasn't something I made homemade. 


I still remember the first time I made Hamburger Helper. The potatoes were a little on the crunchy side ;) And Hamburger Helper has very easy directions to follow!


I have gotten better and while I'm no Betty Crocker, I'd like to think I can cook more things that I used to be able to, and they actually taste good.


I found a recipe that I really want to try this weekend - giving myself PLENTY of time to prepare it, cook it and make something else if it turns out bad.


I found the pictures and recipes at Kelly's Healthified Kitchen Blog. Hopefully it all works out and I will have my own picture and success story to share next week! Make sure to check out her blog though, there are a TON of other recipes on her blog and the biggest plus they are healthy, but still taste good!

Cheeseburger & Fries Casserole 

Cheeseburger and Fries Casserole

Recipe adapted from Lauren’s Kitchen

Makes 4 Servings

1 pound 96/4 ground beef 

¼ tsp salt and pepper 

¼ tsp garlic powder 

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup

8 tbsp fat-free sour cream

8 oz. frozen French fries

2 oz. 75% Cabot reduced fat cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Bake french fries on baking sheet for 10 minutes while preparing beef. In a skillet over medium heat, brown beef in half of Worcestershire sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally until beef is no longer pink. Drain excess grease, and add seasonings and remaining sauce. Return to heat, and stir in the cheese soup and sour cream until blended. Heat through, 3 minutes, and remove from stove. Transfer to an 8x8 inch baking dish. Cover the ground beef mixture with a layer of partially cooked French fries. Bake for 10  minutes. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle cheese on top. Return to the oven and bake until cheese has melted, 5 minutes.

Now what I want you to focus on is the next line...

Nutritional Information: 403 calories, 26 carbs, 17 fat grams and 31 protein grams. 

Do you see that! Only 403 Calories! I'm a mad calorie counter so this definitely caught my eye, plus it looks extra yummy!

Make sure to check out all the other delicious recipes on Kelly's blog :)

Happy Thursday! Only one more workday until the weekend!

My Old Habits

I figured that since yesterday's post was so short, and was really just to be funny, I'd do something a little longer and more meaningful today.


As you all know I am on day 9 of by diet. Gosh that's all?! I really wish I was further along, but I know these things take time. As in I didn't gain this weight over night and it surely isn't going to come off over night. MY weight is 23 years in the making and its going to take some time to shed some pounds and see a difference.  I saw a post similar to the one I am going to do on a blog I skimmed over. They described their old habits, prior to starting their diet. 


I had some bad habits, really bad ya'll. Almost to the point where I am embarrassed to share them, but then again this is my blog and if I can't be honest and real on it, then I'm just kidding myself.


I have always been on the larger side. I have tried diets. I either do pretty well and then end up giving up, or I just give up. I think the most I have ever lost during a diet is 20lbs. What the hell was I thinking about giving up? 20lbs is a lot, and I think that diet took place in high school!


I thought by getting my old habits out there, I would have a checklist of what to not do...EVER again.


1. Fast Food. I want you to know that I loved me some fast food, or eating out period. I would much rather spend the money to eat something at one of my favorite restaurants than spend the money at the grocery store and THEN come home and cook it. Not to mention until recently and I didn't cook much at all. Most times at a fast food place I would get a combo, make it large (large fries & large coke) and if I was at somewhere like Chick-Fil-A, I would add a 4-piece nugget on to the order and eat those in the car on the way home. Not to mention, I've gotten a large combo before and added another medium order of fries to eat on the way home. 


2. Sit Down Restaurants. The worst thing I could do when it came to eating out was go to a place that gave away free bread. I would eat that bread like it was going out of style. Then, I'd get a meal and instead of getting a side and a salad like most places offer, I'd get two sides of fries. 95% of the time, I got cheese on those fries. I never knew eating to get full, I was eating because it was just so good. I have left restaurants miserably full more times than I can count!


3. Clothing. I want to say in high school I probably wore a size 12 to size 16. I seemed to still be able to fit into the XL size at American Eagle when the graphic tees were popular, and thank goodness Old Navy offered sizes above that, especially in jeans. Now at 23 years old, almost 24, I wear a 22-24 and/or XXL. I don't think I have ever admitted that to anyone, especially not my blog that is open to the world. I don't let other people buy me clothes. I buy my own and try and hide the size from even Justin.


4. Working Out, or Lack There of. The last time I worked out was probably when the gym was free at college my freshman year and that was almost five years ago. I hate to sweat and I hate to be out of breath. I'm to the point were I get out of breath walking up a flight of stairs. Going to the gym has been one of the hardest things for me. I am very self-conscious when it comes to other's around me. I have always, and still find myself trying to find someone in the room "bigger" than I am so that hopefully the skinny people are staring at them and not me. Last night at the gym I did a mile on the treadmill and then did five minutes on the elliptical. Five minutes people. I was too tired and my legs hurt too much to keep going. That is pitiful.


5. Other Eating Habits. My most recent eating habit that beyond baffles me is my fourth meal. What is this you ask? This is when we have dinner at a normal time and are hungry again around 9PM so we go to McDonalds and get another meal, again large all the way around. Now technically it isn't my fourth meal because I never used to eat breakfast, but it was way too late to be doing that. Or the fact that I would drink so much soda! Especially when out to eat. Soda at a restaurant is expensive, like $2.99 expensive and I was gonna get my moneys worth. Or the fact that Justin and I could finish a 2 liter in one day. 


While the above is very embarrassing to me, I feel so much better getting it out. I was doing GREAT before this past Sunday came around. Even at dinner with my parents and brother Saturday night I got the smallest steak they had (6oz), and fries with cheese, but no soda. Sunday I got chicken fingers, cheese fries and coke. The coke was SO sweet. To the point where I followed up with a water. Not to mention Sunday night I got a chicken selects meal from McDonalds. It was large, well at least the coke was and I think I took maybe 5 sips and didn't finish the rest. While I am unhappy with  myself about these things, I am not letting it happen again. I truly felt that if I had soda, I would give up and I'm proud that I haven't. Even the fried food did a number on my stomach. 


Hopefully I've learned my lesson and that from here on out I am on the straight and narrow towards a healthier me!

Gym Day 2

Today is Gym Day 2. Remember me blogging about the first day where I did freaking 5 miles? Well today I'm headed back and I'm going to try to do more on the treadmill, maybe on an elliptical. The elliptical though is kinda hard to me. I get the concept, but somehow I end up looking dumb, or at least I feel that way. Sorry today's post isn't longer, or more interesting for that matter. I promised to try and blog everyday and I didn't get much of a lunch break! I will leave you with one hell of a funny picture though :) One of my friends pinned it on Pinterest and I stole it from Google!  Happy Tuesday Bloggies!

My Weekend

Three words to describe my weekend: 5 miles, spoons and tattoos :)

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Monday morning. According to my Facebook everyone there is off work today, according to blogger, not so many of you are. I'm at work, which I'm not fond about, but its already lunchtime and the day is half over! Justin of course had the day off with his bankers hours so he met up with a friend from high school in Charlotte last night.

Now to explain my three words ;)

Friday night Justin and I both got home from work and were both ready to just relax. We ended up going to bed pretty early for us, on a weekend anyways.

We woke up Saturday and went to try out a new gym. When we first got there the doors were locked even though there were people inside and the hours said they were open. Come to find out the desk guy is also a personal trainer and since it is a 24/7 gym, you have to have a card to get in - PLUS #1.

We got a free trial and I love it! The gym is on the smaller side, but I like that. There weren't a ton of people working out and I didn't feel like everyone was staring at me. I did a mile on the treadmill and then four miles on the bike, yes I said four! I was so proud of myself! My legs were very sore on Sunday, but definitely worth it!

After the gym I got ready and headed to Greenville to have dinner with my parents and brother. We had a very relaxing afternoon and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I had a 6oz sirloin, fries and water. I did add cheese to my fries, but I figured after the 5 miles I did at the gym, the fact that I didn't eat lunch and that I was having water (instead of coke) at dinner I could splurge a little. It was SO good! Texas Roadhouse just has the best steaks :)

Before dinner mom and I went to Target while the guys watched football and she wanted to buy me something. I love when my mom wants to do this, but I always feel so bad about picking something out. I ended up getting new spoons. All of Justin and I's spoons seem to disappear so this was not only something I wanted, but needed too!

We slept in Sunday morning and then I got ready for a girls day with my friend Megan. Justin was heading to Charlotte about the same time I left. We had lunch at Carolina Ale House. I'm not going to describe what I ate, just that I cheated, and I cheated bad at both lunch and dinner yesterday. I paid for it this morning when I woke up feeling sick and I'm back to the diet routine today.

However, we decided to get tattoos! I have three already. Angel wings with my grandma's initials on my back, a cross on my right foot, and a daisy on my left wrist. I decided to get a cursive "T" on the outside of my right wrist. It seriously took him longer to set up, then it did to do the tattoo, plus I'm in love with it :) Megan's was a little more extensive. She got a feather with birds flying out of it on her ribs...seriously a trooper.

We finished up the evening with some Golden Globes. Pictures of our newest tattoos are below! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!



Mine on the left, hers on the right :)

Movie Review & Weekend Plans

Happy Friday!!

It's finally here :) Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this week has went by SO slow! It's probably because I'm just adjusting to coming back and working a full five days. Anyways, I'm just glad it's here!

Today I am going to do a movie review and share my weekend plans. What better way to celebrate a Friday?!?

Justin and I watched this movie last night. It's What's Your Number? It stars Anna Faris & Chris Evans. It was a really cute movie and her name is Ally so that's always a plus :) The only problem I had was that it was just.like.every.other.chick.flick. The storyline was the same, the characters were the same just with different names and the ending was the same. It's out of the theatre so me telling you to not go watch it there is out of the question, but IF it were still there, I'd tell you to wait until it comes to RedBox/Blockbuster/Movies OnDemand whatever you use to rent movies.

Next up, weekend plans.

We are on diet day 5, whew thank goodness! I'm just glad we are making some progress. Normally by this time in a diet I am ready to throw in the white flag and be done.

Tonight Justin and I will probably rent a movie and pop in a frozen pizza (actually not THAT bad for you). Tomorrow we are going to go get a gym membership at Snap Fitness which is near our house. Wish me luck on my first day working out in oh 1051353051098105years a long time!

Tomorrow night we are meeting my parents for dinner, our semi-cheat day...still no soda though.

Sunday I desperately need to clean some, but I will probably end up in my pajamas watching TV, just being honest :) Then I am having dinner with Megan. Justin is headed to Charlotte to meet a high school friend in Charlotte for a boys night since he is off on Monday for MLK day. Lucky me, I get to come to work.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :)





Thursday Randoms

I am planning on starting a "Thursday Randoms" post. Why you ask? Well, Thursday in itself is random. We all know how much MOST of us hate Monday's. Tuesday's are only one day closer to Friday, Wednesday is Hump day and finally the middle of the week & gaining speed. Thursday is only one day away from that glorious day of Friday :) It just make sense to me to have a "Thursday Randoms" post!

I watched "Are You There, Chelsea" last night and it is HILARIOUS! As I mentioned in my post from yesterday, it was set to premiere last night on NBC at 8:30PM EST. J and I have our TV lineup for Wednesday nights as I also talked about in my post yesterday - sorry for being such a TV junkie ;). Normally at 8:30 a rather new show called Suburgatory comes on. It's okay, but it just doesn't do it for me. So I flipped over to NBC at 8:30. This show is funny! It's funny to see Chelsea Handler play Sloane the mature, married, pregnant, older sister and not the one getting the DUI and working at a bar. Definite must see!

I feel like I'm doing fairly well on my diet! Of course, today is only diet day #4, but I feel like I'm doing better than I have before and I don't have the "I wanna give up" feeling. I actually feel like I am changing my life. We have cooked at home every night this week, I've taken my lunch every day and I haven't touched soda. Justin and I are even planning on getting a gym membership to a local gym near our home on Saturday. We may treat ourselves to a little McDonald's, but nothing too crazy.

A certain brown colored delivery company is starting to piss me off! I won't name names here, but I think we can all figure out who I am talking about. They give some of the most ridiculous answers I have ever been given in my life! Things like "we don't offer that, I'm sorry" and "No I do not have a supervisor you can talk to". What the hell! Yes you do, everyone does! Or my favorite "her name wasn't listed at that address so we did an internal search and came up with this completely different address". When asked why they didn't call the shipper (us) or send it back there response was "we don't have enough people to do that for every package". Oh but you have enough to search for a new address! And the kicker...they had the nerve to act like I was the crazy person when I said well the person that received the shipment (a class ring) probably pawned it by now if they didn't say something in the past THREE MONTHS since it was shipped. I WAS HOT!

Tori and Dean make me smile. Like all the other reality TV shows I'm addicted to, Tori and Dean's Home Sweet Hollywood makes me smile. Their kids are freaking adorable, she's so pretty, he's soooo hot and they are so sweet to each other. It make it seem like their lives are a piece of cake and fun all the time!

Justin is visiting a friend in Charlotte Sunday-Monday and I'm staying home. Actually I HAVE to stay home since I am not off on MLK Day due to the 17 glorious, now awful days I got off during Christmas and New Years. Let me start by saying, I'm not upset that he gets to visit a friend, I just do not like staying at home over night by myself. I've never ever lived alone. I even go stay at my parent's house if he has to be gone overnight. However, I can't do that this time and I am seriously freaking out! There will be some major lights on in my house 24/7. Thank God it's only for one night!

And that is all for today, I think. I warned you, it was gonna be random :)

TV Round-Up

As part of my "blog more" resolution, so far I am two for two :) All morning I've been brainstorming for ideas of what I should write about. I should probably start planning these things out so as to not get repetitve/boring. So here goes nothing...

We all have our favorite tv shows that we absolutely do not miss and if we have to miss we DVR it or catch it On Demand (Time Warner Cable users). Justin and I have our nightly routines of what we watch, sad I know. It seriously reminds me of an old couple. We come home, eat dinner and start on our shows. Here is a list of what we watch on a regular basis, I've bolded my absolute favorites:

Sunday Nights:

9:00 - Shameless - Showtime
9:00 - Desperate Housewives - ABC (I catch this on On Demand)

Monday Nights:

8:00 - How I Met Your Mother - CBS
8:30 - 2 Broke Girls - CBS
9:00 - Two and a Half Men - CBS
9:30 - Mike & Molly - CBS

Tuesday Nights:

8:00 - NCIS - CBS
8:00 - Switched at Birth - ABC Family (I catch this later on On Demand)
10:00 - Teen Mom 2 - MTV

Wednesday Nights:

8:00 - The Middle - ABC
8:30 - Suburgatory - ABC (not my favorite)
9:00 - Modern Family - ABC

Thursday Nights:

We don't have any "must-sees" this night so we normally have movie night :)

Same thing with Friday & Saturday, except for the movie night thing. We either have plans or find other shows to watch. Some of our favorites are Diners, Drive-In's and Dives, Lizard Lick Towing & Recovery, Jersey Shore, and random reruns.

There is a new show that premieres tonight called "Are You There, Chelsea?" I am completey excited for this one.

It's roughly based of off Chelsea Handler's book "Are You There Vodka, It's Me Chelsea". It stars Laura Prepon (That 70s Show) and a few others, as well as Chelsea Handler. It premieres at 8:30PM on NBC. Replacement for Suburgatory...here I come :)

I think tomorrow's post will be a review for "Are You There, Chelsea?" and maybe reasons why I love my top 5 favorites :) Hope that's not too boring!

What are your must see shows?

New Year's Resolutions!

Here it is folks! A BRAND NEW YEAR :) I'm not exactly sure why I'm so excited, or why it seems that way. I know this is a little late but things have been hectic around our house, so better late than never.

I know everyone always has those New Year "resolutions" that we plan on sticking to once the new year arrives. Let's be honest people, who really sticks to their resolutions for any long period of time? I know I sure don't!

It seems like every year my #1 resolution is to lose weight. I'm taking a new approach this year. See below:

I am planning to get healthy. I know myself better than anyone, and I know it isn't realistic for me to start a diet and quit EVERYTHING cold turkey. If you can do that, more power to you :) Below is a list of things I am doing on my journey to "Get Healthy"

• Stop drinking soda. I know I said I wasn't quitting cold turkey, but if I don't quit this cold turkey, I never will. I'm not a diet-soda kinda girl, therefore it's all H20 coming my way in 2K12 :)
• Stop eating out. This will help my #2 resolution (to save money). Being a family of just two it is so easy to just stop by McDonald's and grab some dinner instead of cooking when we get home. However, it's not always a "stop by McDonalds" that might cost $10-$15 its $40.00 dinner to a steakhouse, more than once a week. Don't get me wrong, J and I make good money, but if we ever want to see that money add up to something, we have to stop!
• Get my lazy butt out of bed and eat breakfast. Justin and I have timed it just right that we can sleep until 7:30 and still make it to our jobs on time at 9AM. It doesn't take that long to eat breakfast, therefore our alarm now goes off between 7AM & 7:10. Also, eating breakfast will get my metabolism started for the day.
• Take my lunch to work. This will help with #2, but it will also help my stomach not begin to eat itself at 10AM and have me counting down the minutes until lunchtime. Better yet, on those afternoons that I just don't have the time to pull myself away from my desk to grab lunch, it's here and ready for me.
• EXERCISE. I know I am going to start walking around our neighborhood nightly. Although, last night was a bust because it was rainy. I'm not sure if I want to get a gym membership or not yet, but it's on my to-do list for sure.

#2 Resolution - SAVE MOOLAH!

Justin and I make pretty good money for our ages and education. Unfortunately neither one of us finished college, but we would both like to do so. We have nothing to show of it! If we stop going out to eat so often and I stop shopping for unecessary things ;) we can put some cash in the bank for a rainy day!

#3 Resolution - BLOG MORE!

I have had my blog for almost a year now (well in May) and it's just lame. I can see why I don't have many followers. I need to spruce up it's look first of all and could definitley use a tutorial from all of the pretty blogs I follow. I also need to blog more. I haven't blogged since right before or right after Christmas, which is just sad. So from here on out, while I am eating lunch at my desk, I will also blog. I need to participate in more link ups as well, maybe that will help the look.

So to recap, I have given myself 3 resolutions: GET HEALTHY, SAVE MOOLAH, AND BLOG MORE.

Here's to 2012 and knocking these resolutions out of the park :)