Road Trip Day 2

Hey there!  Not too much to stay today.  I was really not feeling well today.  I drove for about an hour before I switched out with mom.  Dad drove after that and I just finished out the last 2 hrs of today's driving.  We stopped for lunch...guess where - Cracker Barrel of course!  I  had grilled chicken strips, green beans, carrots and mashed potatoes (originally ordered a salad but she never brought it so I changed it.)

Once we got to Columbia, SC - which coincidentally was our designated stopping point for the day - the car started acting up.  It kept acting like it wanted to die.  The check engine light had been on for a while as well so I was VERY stressed out about the car.  We went to the Ford Dealership; it was closed.  They did however recommend Pep Boys and told us how to get there.  They didn't have any mechanics on duty and recommended Firestone.  The mechanics there looked at the car and said there was a leak in a hose but they could not tell which one without a lengthy inspection.  Anyways, he said it is not unsafe to drive the car, it wont break down on me and it wont cause more damage to the car to drive it.  So, we decided to drive the rest the way to Fort Bragg tomorrow and after I check in we will get a rental car and take the car to get looked at.  I REALLY hope that it does not cost a lot of money to fix - I just spent a bunch of money to get it checked out/serviced for the 60K mile check.

Anyways, back to food?  Yeah, we had dinner at Appelbees - french onion soup and grilled oriental chicken salad.  Very yum yum!  We then went to a grocery store to get some fruit - pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, & bananas - to eat tomorrow for breakfast and snacks!

Now its time for some tea and then off to bed with me!  Hopefully I will get some good sleep so tomorrow I will feel better than I did today.  "See" you tomorrow.

Book Review of The Acid Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health

I just finished this book.  It was a very quick read - it took me about 4 days of inconsistent and limited time frame reading.  I decided to read this book because of a seminar that we attended when we were on our cruise.  This book discusses the acid-alkaline balance of the body and how to change it for better health.  A large majority of foods that are common in the American Diet are acidic; this book discusses a plethora of ways to decrease acidity, increase alkalinity and improve the body's processing of toxins.

A lot of tips in this book relating specifically to diet are things I already do because I know that they are healthier.  For instance, eating whole wheat bread instead of white, brown rice instead of white, limiting sugar, and not drinking sodas.  I did however gain a better understanding of nutrients, how they affect our body and how our body utilizes what we eat to do what we do!  Some of the tips I will try to utilize are: eat more veggies, eat less acidic foods, and eat more raw veggies.

The book says that once you fix your diet you are enabling your body to handle the acids/toxins that you are taking in on a daily basis, but you are still unable to process those that have been stored deep in your tissues.  In order to rid your body of these acids/toxins you would need to increase the amount of acids/toxins that your body processes on a daily basis.  There is a lot of options for this, several ideas for lungs, skin, liver and kidneys are all explained.  This is a very interesting book with a lot of nutritional topics that are not normally addressed/not common knowledge.

Road Trip Day 1

So we have settled in tonight to the hotel...thank goodness because I am WORN OUT!  Got up at 5am this morning hoping to get out of town by 7am.  It took us nearly 40 min to load luggage on top of the car and tie it down; final product:

So we drove 515 miles today.  With 3 of us on the trip stops are long and frequent - even though mom and I are purposely not drinking as much water as usual to cut down on bathroom breaks.  We had turkey sandwiches for lunch - we travel w/ a cooler!  I tried a cultured coconut milk for the first time today.

I 

I was unsure of this, but kept eating it to try and make up my mind.  About 1/2 way though I added granola and somehow it seemed worse!  I added some stevia to sweeten in up but man I just couldn't eat any more of it and ended up having to toss it.  Other on-road snacks included a G2 Gatorade, a cheese stick, a fried chicken breast (80% fried skin removed), banana, apple (about 1/2 because it had a bunch of spots), almonds and several pieces sugar free gum!  It was a long day on the road.

Once we got checked in to our hotel we down loaded the top of the truck and headed to Cracker Barrel for dinner.  We LOVE Cracker Barrel!  I had a biscuit w/ some blueberry syrup (fully aware that this is not the best choice), chicken n' dumplings (Dad ate some of mine and there was still some left over at the end) w/ carrots, green beans & mac n' cheese.  Shared my veggies w/ mom b/c she was sharing a plate with dad!  We ordered 2 meals and 2 sides for the 3 of us and left w/ 2 to-go boxes. 

After dinner we we exploring and found a really cool place - the Bonita Lakes Damn/Park.

Very pretty scenery and a funny sign:

This place had walking, biking, hiking, & horse trails as well as boat ramps.  We very much enjoyed driving around - it would be a great place to walk/run/whatever if we had not been super tired we might have utilized this find a bit more.

Now, we are all snuggled up and drinking tea getting ready to hit the hay!  Tomorrow will be another early morning again.  Good night y'all!

Last Day Home

Today is my last day home, tomorrow we head to North Carolina - Road Trip!!  We spent the morning time packing all my stuff (I have a LOT!) into the back of the car and organizing snacks for the trip.  For lunch I had some Quinoa mixed with the last remaining green beans

and a spinach salad w/ raspberries, onion, celery and LF Balsamic dressing:

Later I snacked on some pineapple & cottage cheese while reading.  Then we did some more last minute to-dos.  We went to Fish City for dinner:

I got coconut crusted talapia w/ grilled veggies and new potatoes. Very good, as always.  We also went to see Grown Ups and we all enjoyed it - very funny.  Upon arriving home I had a snack and then mom and I did our nails!  Now, its about time to hit the hay - have an early morning tomorrow as we are trying to make it about 600 miles towards N.C. before we stop for the night.  "See" you tomorrow!

Girls Day Out & Syrup Secrets!

Breakfast this morning was an experiment, inspired by another blog I read (sorry, can't remember exactly which one.)  I made overnight oats, which is when you put milk and rolled oats in the bowl then place it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight and then eat it cold when you take it out.  I read about the overnight oats on OhSheGlows.  I first made them with skim milk (the usual suspect in our house) and was not terribly impressed.  Next I made them with Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk.  This came out to be much more tasty, especially when I added strawberries and a TBSP of sugar free strawberry jelly.  So, today's breakfast was another attempt at overnight oats.  I had about 1/2 cup of plain low-fat vanilla Greek yogurt and I added 1/2 cup Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk and the oats (1/2 cup) and this morning I had strawberries and jelly in it again.  YUMMY!  I think if you are an oatmeal eater you should definitely try overnight oats at least a few times.

Today we went to the Cowtown Farmer's Market.  I was a bit disappointed.  The website gave me the impression that it was a large operation and I expected something along the lines of what we found at the Dallas Farmer's Market.  The Cowtown Farmer's Market was pretty small.  If I live in this area I would just go to the Arlington Farmer's Market because its just as good and 30 min closer!

Then on our way home we stopped at an Antique Mall.  It is the biggest antique mall I have ever been in.
Here I am practicing for when I become a red hat lady:

After two hours we were approx. 1/2 way though and dead tired!  We decided to eat lunch in the "secret" tea room.  Here we are waiting for our food:

And here is the food; Mom got a sampler plate and I got a cup of spinach soup w/ a veggie sandwich:

 
I LOVED my food - the sandwich was super good and the spinach soup was good as well.  Mom ended up sending back her Navy Bean Soup and getting the same soup I had.  I would certainly eat that sandwich again!

After that we went to one more antique/crafty shop here in Arlington and then to Walmart to get road trip food (sandwiches.)  A few hours later we hit up Cracker Barrel for dinner.  Cracker Barrel on Saturday is a must-do because vegetable of the day is Lima beans and they are so very good.  I got chicken dumpling with green beans, Lima beans and carrots.  I brought about 1/3 of it home, but I just re-heated it and polished it off! 

I will let you in on a secret - Cracker Barrel has blueberry syrup!  Well that is not the secret really, the thing is that the blue berry syrup comes in little 1/4 C bottles which was GREAT for things like almonds (1 oz.), granola (1/4 cup which is 1/2 a serving and granola is high calorie anyways so less is good), salad dressing, salsa, etc. etc.  I now have 3 of those blueberry syrup containers and I am going to continue to ask for them every single time I go so I can build a collection!  One word of caution - the blueberry syrup does not come with a nutritional label, but I am crafty and I researched it.  The bottle is 1/4 of a cup which is 200 calories!  If I used the syrup I generally use only 1/2 of the bottle or 100 calories at a time; this also aids me in not consuming a high amount of sugar at one time.

Cookies!

Hey there!

Today I went to eat at a local deli-style restaurant called the Tin Cup.  It was pretty tasty, and I had some good company so that made it even better.  I got a 1/2 salad and 1/2 sandwich combo and blueberry tea!  I would definitely go there again.  I know I said I would take pictures, but I failed at that - sorry!

I made a trip to the health store on the other side of town to get some VERY good protein bars:

I had one of these on our cruise as "emergency snack" in case I was stuck somewhere without food.
They are SUPER good!  My only complaints are high calories, high sugar and high price!  But they are good for "emergencies" and I know they are tasty!  You can get them at this website.  The bars are wheat free & vegan!

After that I came home and worked on some things I have been putting off because they are no fun.  I shredded papers, worked on packing my stuff for the move, did laundry, did dishes, etc.  Tonight I made baked pork chops, baked sweet potatoes, baked Brussels sprouts and steamed broccoli.  It was very good!

Then, due to some Internet issues that we are having (and thus, Hulu being out of commission) mom and I sat on the front porch and read a bit on an old book my aunt gave her, Fatphomaniac by Joe Blount.  Its the humorous tale of this man's journey to loose weight.  My favorite part thus far has been the definition of Fatphomania.  "Fatphomania is earmarked by a dual obsession - an inextinguishable craze to lose weight...yet, an uncontrollable urge to overeat."  I think its such a great definition, and boy is it true - I am a Fatphomaniac to the core.

Now, due to mosquitoes, we are back in the house enjoying some hot tea and eating our cookies!!  These are the best cookies ever:

Ok, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but I really LOVE these cookies.  I found them at WF when I was doing the sugar detox.  These are spelt cookies and they are sugar free - and chocolate chip w/ almonds!  I thought they were really good so I went back and got another pack!  You can get them here or look at your local WF.  They are expensive, 5$ a pack, but I just eat one w/ a cup of tea so they last a while and I think they are worth the price. 

Well my friends that is it for tonight.  I aspire to return tomorrow and blog some more - wish me luck!

Book Review of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is written by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules.

This book is 201 pages, a very easy/quick read.  It is very interesting as it addresses "nutritionism," a reductionist way of looking at specific nutrients of food instead of seeing the whole or sum. An example of this would be recommendation to get more omega-3s or avoid trans fats.  This book breaks down the science behind these types of recommendations, as well as the political/governmental role behind it. 

It is better to just eat correctly and thereby get all necessary nutrients instead of reaching for fortified products that contain individual "fad" nutrients. How do we know how to eat correctly though?  The author does suggest some very simple rules to follow; if you follow these simple rules you will be eating healthy!  The main suggestion is this "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants."  Of course the author goes in to much more detail than this; he defines food, discusses what is a proper amount of food, and why we should eat mostly plants. 

Also discussed in this book is the typical American Diet, referred to as the Western Diet, and why it is causing so many health problems.  How do we "escape from the western diet?"  Simple, follow the rules!  Here are some of the simple rules offered by the author: Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food; Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamilar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup; Avoid food products that make health claims; Shop the outter edge of the super market; and Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.  There are many more rules in the book; all of them are simple, logical rules to get you eating real food which is the healthiest possible way to eat.

If you are interested in nutrition, healthy eating, and/or health then I would recommend this book.  It is an easy read filled with lots of useful and interesting information. 

Aqua Fitness Gloves, Veggie BBQ and Oatmeal ; )

Hey there!  Man, I feel terrible that I have not been writing much, but seriously life has been a bit boring this week; I needed a few days between postings to have something to talk about!  Ive been having some trouble with my leg lately so I decided that I needed to take it easy for a bit.  All I have done this week for exercise is walk or go to the pool.  My last physical therapist (in Korea) was adamant that the pool is the best type of exercise for me, and I know its so low-impact that I can do it almost daily and not suffer any as a result.  Anyways, i posted earlier in the week that I bought the Speedo Aqua Jogging Belt.  It is working great so far.  I had never used a Speedo belt to pool run before so I didn't know how it was going to work, but it is going well!  I didn't mention it before, but when i got the belt, I got these:

Those are gloves to wear in the pool for water aerobics (or exercise on your own) and they help you get more resistance to get a better workout.  I figured if I am going to make pool workouts a consistent thing then I might as well get the most out of it.  I used them yesterday for the first time when I went to deep water aerobics - it was also my first time to attend a water aerobics class that was specifically deep water.  Anyways, I think the gloves did a good job adding resistance - I can tell if you do arm exercises with them on (later raises, front raises, bicep curls, etc.) you would get a great workout.

Now, on to the food part of this blog.  As I said earlier in the week - I leave for N.C. on Monday so we are trying to eat up already purchased food items.  So, I have been eating a lot of spinach salads.  They are pretty darn good, but I have not been taking photos of them - sorry!  I think the best creations were the ones with fish: Spinach, onions, celery or cucumber, tomatoes, and a piece of fish (talapia or salmon) shredded up so it mixes throughout the salad.  For dressing I have been using salsa - about 4 TBSP which is 2 servings.  If you use organic salad this is only between 10-30 calories total!  I don't know how I never though of using salsa as a dressing before - it taste great and is WAY fewer calories. 

For dinner last night I had some Smart BBQ:

This is my go-to item when I want some BBQ.  Its a veggie product, but it is tasty and the entire package is only 210 calories!  I smeared it on a piece of jalapeno cheese bread from the farmer's market and it was yummy!  I did not take a picture because it was not pretty, but it did taste good and that is what counts, right?

Today I started off with oatmeal, as usual about 99% of the time!  I did try a new combination today though:

Peanut butter & Banana Oatmeal!  Oatmeal made w/ skim milk, 2 TBSP Flax Plus, 1 scoop Chia Seeds, 1/2 ounce walnuts, 1 banana and 1 TBSP peanut butter!  It was pretty darn good!!

Today I am meeting an old high school friend for lunch at a local deli-style restaurant called the Tin Cup.  I have never eaten there, but he suggested it.  So, I will make sure to take pics and let you guys know how it was.

Book Review of The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

Hi readers!  I just want to preface this review with the fact that this is my first book review, so keep that in mind as you read it!  

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite is written by David A. Kessler, MD. I began to read it because it addresses topics like why people have a tendency to over eat, eat past satiety, eat when not hungry, and eat when they know they shouldn't.  This book also talks about the food industry and how it impacts individuals.  There is a lot of discussion about salt, fat, and sugar and how eating them makes you want to eat more.  Reward power, emotional connections, and habits with food are all discussed.

I mostly found this book interesting from a psychological point of view, although I did learn a bit about how the food industry targets what we desire in order to get us to eat more.  This is not a book to read if you struggle with overeating and are looking for a program to help you change your habits.  The book does address steps to take to assist with changing overeating, but the book is not written for that purpose.

I do believe that some of the things I learned from this book will assist me in my attempts to eat in a more healthy manner.  I know it will definitely impact my choices at restaurants as I consider how dishes are "loaded" with sugar, fat and salt.  The book also recommends making food rules for yourself, i.e. "I do not eat french fries."  The book says that the more specific the rule, the easier it is to follow.  After some consideration I made some rules for myself.  One such rule is that I will avoid all un-natural sugars whenever possible (I say whenever possible because w/ the Army sometimes we get put in situations where we have no control.)  I will allow myself to have natural sugars such as fruit and honey but in moderation (remember, Sugar is the devil!)  Another rule is that if I am not 100% certain that I am hungry due to hunger (and not boredom, or emotions) then I will drink water and wait at least 20 min before  I eat.

If you are interested in the food industry, healthy eating, or psychology I would recommend reading the book, you will probably learn something new and interesting.

I got my book at Borders or Barns and Noble - sorry, I cant remember which one.  The cover says it was $25.95.  The book is also available here (for less money, but w/ shipping costs) on Amazon.com.

If you would like to know anything else, ask away and I will try to answer your question as best as possible!

Next up is In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto by Michael Pollan.

2 New Purchases & a Tea Review

Hello there!  Sorry I've been kinda MIA this last week or so.  I really have been having some issues - dunno how I missed the connection, but I think they were caused by hormones.  Part of it all is frustration in that when I was thinner (about 18lbs ) I never felt thin, I never believed people when they told me I was "skinny."  I was finally starting to let go of the inner fat girl last year when all the craziness happened with Mark.  Then after 6 very emotional months of dealing with the aftermath of that event I had hip surgery.  So, the perfectionist that I am says those are just excuses - I should have kept a better control on my diet, I shouldn't have partied so much, etc. etc.  So, now 18 lbs later (although I have lost some weight so it was worse; and also not all the weigh came in 1 year, its been slowing accumulating since 2006) the inner fat girl is back with a vengeance.  Part of my struggles this last week has been trying to deal with her - to shut her up - I am not doing too well, but I am trying.

Another issue is my leg is acting up.  I must have over done it a bit one day or stepped wrong or something because I was hurting pretty bad on Saturday.  I took Saturday and Sunday off from exercise, and still felt a bit sore yesterday.  While out shopping yesterday I found a Speedo Aqua Jogging Belt:

I purchased the belt so that I can go pool running whenever I want.  The physical therapist told me numerous times that working out in the pool is the best thing for me.  I am not really able to swim yet - a length or two of the pool and I get a cramp in my leg, but I can pool run for like 20-30 min and not cramp.  So, now I can do it whenever I want because I own the belt!  I did go yesterday and was in the water for 30 min.  Tonight is Water Aerobics with mom so I will go pool running tomorrow - don't want to over do it and hurt myself worse!

I also got some KT Tape.  Most likely you have seen this on Olympic athletes - swimmers, or beach volleyball players is where I have seen it.  The website says it reduces muscle pain, increases mobility and enhances athletic performance.  I have not used it yet.  The package comes with instructions for common injuries - my injury is not common though.  I have some ideas on how to adapt the taping for quad strain to suit my needs - I am going to try it out and I will let you know of course!  Oh yeah, I bought the tape in Pink!

Lastly,  I have a Tea review for you!!  Might Leaf Vanilla Bean Black Tea.

First of all I want to say that I enjoy black teas - if you don't then this one might not be for you.  Anyway, the tea comes in a silk tea bag that is 100% biodegradable (according to the website - www.mightyleaf.com.) The first time I made a cup of tea with this product I made it like I normally do - pour hot water over the tea bag and come back in a few min.  It was SO very strong I could hardly drink it.  I kept the tea bag to see if I could make another cup from it; I made 4 cups of tea from the same tea bag!  That was last week, today I opened a new one and made the first cup of tea from it - I only let it steep for about 30 seconds.  It was better that way, not nearly as strong.  You can definitely taste the vanilla flavor, but it still tastes like black tea which is why I said if you don't like black tea then this one isn't for you.  I got this box of tea on sale at Target - it was 3 or 4$, I can't remember exactly.  I think, if you like strong tea, or are willing to keep the tea bag and make multiple cups of tea from the same tea bag it is a very good tea to get!  Also, if you just like vanilla favored tea then have at it.  Do any of you have a favorite tea?

Sorry that there is not much food talk - I visited the Arlington Farmers Market on Friday and the Dallas Farmers Market on Saturday and cooked all the veggies.  So, food around here has not been terrible interesting - we are trying our best to eat all those veggies and empty out the fridge.  Also, I leave for North Carolina next week so no more grocery buying - we are trying to eat up what we already have!  Still working on The End of Overeating, but I am pretty close to the end now, so book review any day now!

Thur-Sat Catch-up Post

So I have been in a kind of funk lately.  This week I just don't feel right - I have no motivation to do anything.  I think its partly because I know soon I have to go back to work and I am dreading it.  Also my leg has been acting up, and my sinuses are going CRAZY.  And then to top it off today, after spending 540$ at the car dealership to get the car serviced, they tell me that there is something wrong with my engine.  I'll tell you guys more whenever I finally know what is wrong with it. 

However, I want to move on to better things.  I've read a lot about Tempeh (a fermented tofu thing that vegetarians use for protein) on blogs lately so I decided to give it a try when i saw it at Whole Foods.  I sauteed it with onions, garlic, spinach and asparagus.  I put the Tempeh on a sandwich and at rest as a side.  I made the sandwich with jalapeno cheese bread and put hummus on it and veggies and thought it would be de-lish!  Wrong! I guess I didn't cook it right?  Who knows, but I slathered on a lot of spicy mustard and finally it had enough flavor to be good. 

I only used about 1/2 the package for the sandwich.  I used 1/2 the remaining today as crumbles on my salad for 2nd lunch. 

You cant see it in the pic, but I swear the tempeh is in there!  The rest is: spinach, black beans, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, onion (that would be the large white pieces on top), 1/2 ounce shredded cheese, and 4 TBSP of two types of salsa!

Last night for dinner we made home-made pizza and it came out pretty good.  I messed up the directions so the crust was not as crispy as it could have been but it was still good none the less! 

My pieces (in the pic!) had: yellow tomatoes, red grape tomatoes, red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, onion and garlic....oh yes, and fake peperoni!  I used a vegetarian product that looks and tastes (?) like peperoni.  It really didn't make the pizza taste like peperoni pizza but it didn't make it taste bad either.  Next time will probably just leave that part off.

This morning I made pineapple pancakes for breakfast.  They were good, but the recipe was too labor intensive to be worth it - they were not that much better than regular pancakes.  We did have quite a few left over though so I will probably have them tomorrow for lst or 2nd breakfast!

After we ate breakfast we went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  I got these goodies:

Tomorrow, to use up some of the goodies I am going to make beans, rice, okra, and sausage!  mmm, I can't wait!  Not sure what the name of the squash on the left is, just that it is squash (which I love right now!)  The squash in the middle is "8 ball" squash which is supposed to be sweeter than regular squash.  Of course the pic on the right is green beans.  I also go some granny smith apples and a big bag of spinach but those pics did not turn out well.

After washing veggies and resting we went to dinner and to a movie.  I had a Thai Coconut Shrimp Salad which was good.

We saw A-Team and we all thought it was good as well.

Two quick things I want to add in!  1) I drank an entire green monster shake yesterday.  I made it with 2 hand fulls of spinach, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 scoop syntha6 vanilla protein powder, 1 chocolate amazing grass powder, and 2 packets of sweet n' low!  2) Today I tried a new protein bar (no pic, sorry!) - It was a peanut butter "think thin" bar.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE peanut butter so I thought this would be good but WRONG WRONG WRONG.  I give these a big FAIL.

 Alright, Its bed time for me soon!  "See" you tomorrow!

I'll be back

Hey blog readers!  Good early morning to you!  I just wanted to let you know that I am up early to make pineapple pancakes - healthy, whole wheat ones w/ sugar free syrup - and then we are headed off to the Farmer's Market in Dallas.  I have some pics to post from the last few days and I am sure I will have more to talk about after we go to the market!  I just wanted to say I didn't forget about you, and I will post today, promise!

Slacker

Hello there!  So, yeah I kinda was a slacker this past few days when it comes to blogging.  I am not sure what happened but we got back Sunday and Monday morning I was sick.  It got worse Tuesday & Wednesday and now seems to be getting better.  Today is the first day I was able to drag myself out of bed before 9am.  Nothing too interesting going on.  I ordered a luggage rack for my truck because pretty soon I have to drive cross country and take a bunch of stuff with me.  I am pretty sure I own more things than any one person could ever need.  I blame it on the Army.  Also the fact that I am an artists & a runner (or a former runner?  so sad to say that).  See, the deal is that I have to have Army possessions, art supplies, running things, and then I need all the regular people things.  Add to that the fact that I have lived in Germany twice, Korea once, Oklahoma and Texas all in the last 5 years = I have a lot of stuff.  Maybe once day when I am bored in N.C. I will go through some of it and have a garage sale.

Last night we went to water aerobics and were too tired to cook so we went to Mimi's Cafe to eat dinner.  I had never eaten there and mom used to go there all the time with my Aunt Kay so I told them I wanted to try it.  I had corn chowder which was super good but probably not very healthy.  I also had the sweet n' sour chicken (it was baked not fried!) from the fit menu.  Mom let me have the blueberry muffin that came with her dinner; I brought it home and I just had half of it with my breakfast.  It was good as well!

This morning I am going to step aerobics; hopefully I can make it though the entire class!  Later maybe the Arlington Farmers Market?  Tonight we are making homemade pizza for dinner and maybe going to see a movie.  Tomorrow, Dallas Farmers Market which I am REALLY excited about! 


I should have a nice long post with pictures for you tomorrow!  Have a great day & "see" you soon!

Back from the Cruise

Hi everyone!  Did you miss me?  I was actually back yesterday but too busy to blog.  I am currently waiting on all the pics from the cruise to load to facebook so I figured I would come blog a bit.  So, the cruise was awesome!  Day 1 was boarding and heading out to sea, day 2& 3 were fun days at sea, day 4 Jamaica, day 5 Grand Cayman, day 6 Cozumel, day 7 fun day at sea, and day 8 back to Galveston and disembarking.  The ship had a deck that was full of food!  5 buffet stations, a grill, a stir fry station, a pizzeria, and another grill on the other end!  It was crazy.  They had sit down dining options for every meal as well, but the whole food schedule took us a few days to get figured out and sometimes we had to eat at the buffet because we didn't have time to get to the sit down meal (which took a lot longer to complete and was only open limited hours.) Here is a look at some of the goodies:

So, looking at all that deliciousness, is it any surprise that I gained 11 lbs?  Yes, you read that right, 11 lbs in one week!  I did however loose 4.4 lbs from yesterday till today so you know that was just water weight.  Here are some more random pics from the trip:

The cruise was a blast!  If you have never cruised, I highly recommend it to you.  There are ways to eat healthy, but be warned you have to go above and beyond in order to stay on any certain diet or restricted (like low sugar) diet.  It was worth it though, we had a great time and it truly was a once in a life time experience.  

While on the cruise I attended two lectures at the spa/gym.  One was "burn fat fast" and the other was "detoxing." I learned a lot of good information and they really did spark my interest in learning more about PH levels and alkalizing the body.  I am doing their detox program right now.  It includes the following things:  eating healthy (and at least 6 times a day), aerobic (to where you are breathing heavy) exercise two times a week at least 30 min, go to sauna 2-3 times a week if possibly, drink lots of water, and take vitamins.  The vitamins are natural algae and what not that help your liver process out what is toxic inside your body.  The body composition analysis they did on the ship told us exactly how much fat we had (i.e. lbs of fat), how much toxic water we had in our body (I would explain this concept but its VERY long), how much our basil metabolic rate is (something I've always wanted to know and it said mine was 1642), and how much we should weigh to be healthy (or how much lbs of fat we need to loose lol.)  Anyways, mom and I both had the test done and we were happy to find out that it only recommends a 9 lb weight loss to us and the guy said we do not have nearly as much toxic water in our body as most of the people he screens.  I decided to do the detox because I will try anything at this point to help my leg heal quicker- and if I am holding a bunch of toxins in my body then getting rid of them might help! 

So, back to eating good again, did some grocery shopping yesterday at Walmart and today at WF.  Got a few new items to try out - so this weeks food should be good and interesting!  Not much planned for the rest of the week.  I feel like I am starting to get sick so I am going to medicate and relax and hopefully this cold/sinus infection (which btw the seminar said was caused by toxicity) will go away.

Now that I am back and on schedule I should be blogging regularly - woo hoo, right?  I made it a good way though The End to Overeating so I should be writing a blog on that book soon!  Alright, hope I did not bore you to death.  If you want to see more pictures of the cruise then visit my facebook page!  Have a great day everyone, "see" you soon!