Hey Guys…
Well, tonight’s winding down and I’ve gotten the kitchen cleaned up from dinner and lunches packed for tomorrow. Jason gave the girls a bath and has since left for his meeting.
Here’s what happened since we last met…
I did the 30 day shred with Jillian Michaels. YOWZA!!! That DVD kicks my…EVERYTHING! It is an intense circuit training work out for sure. My new work out plan for the next 30 days(since it’s freezing outside and my sidewalks are still frozen over) as follows…Mon, Wed, Fri Crunch Pilates (mat style) Tues & Thurs Jillian’s 30 day shred and either Saturday or Sunday try to run between 30 minutes to an hour outside. Keep me in check guys!!!
Jason was still at the laundry mat so Linsey and I had some lunch. Hers was basically just like mine, but she had some yogurt too.
I am falling madly in love with open faced pb&j topped with bananas for sure! I used 1 slice of Pepperidge Farms whole grain bread (lightly toasted) and smeared about 1 T of Peanut Butter & CO’s White Chocolate Wonderful (it’s totally growing on me), 1 T grape jelly, 1 T sliced almonds and 1 banana sliced on top and 1 large carrot sliced on the side. To drink I had an Ocean Spray Cran-Pomegranate on the go in an Evian bottle. YUM!!
Then I spent the rest of the afternoon (or Regan’s nap) working on the computer. I realized that Chicago Week Part 3 hadn’t posted after I finished uploading all the photos so I had to figure out what that was all about???
Then I made a decision…
I haven’t tracked my calories in a very long time, but over the last couple months I’ve gained about 6 or 7 lbs. Not a huge deal, I know, but when I put on a pair of jeans today they were much tighter than the last time I wore them. 
So, I’m back to tracking calories on livestrong.
REVIEW*****
I really like the format there because it allows you to put in all of your information and then tells you how many calories you can consume to maintain your weight, lose a certain amount of weight per week or even gain a certain amount of weight per week…yes there are some people who need to gain weight – I’m not one that has any trouble with that!!
Once you’ve calculated how many calories is best for you to consume per day you track your food right there on your “MyPlate” page. The calculations are done for you throughout the day and you can see how many calories you have left or how many you may have gone over.
Livestrong also allows you to track all your workouts and tells you (based on your information) how many calories you burn doing a zillion different exercises. And no exercise is too small – they ALL count!! The calorie burn really adds up the more you move.
I’m a person that needs to see the numbers every day. So livestrong works really well for me. If I go over one day I have it all there for me so I can see where better choices could have been made or how different meal combinations make a day better than another.
The best part is that it’s totally free to use the site. There is an upgrade portion that does cost, but I’ve never used it and gotten great results with the free portion. Everyone should go and take a look at livestrong so that they too can – Live Strong!!
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Dinner was simple and tasty. I made a caesar salad thanks to Trader Joe and then made a big pot of whole wheat rotini with red sauce. Regan does better with stab-able noodles as opposed to twirl-able noodles. It makes for less mess that way. 
After dinner we all had a small dessert of a Trader Joe’s Almond Windmill cookie and two squares of the pink wrapped Trader Joe’s swiss milk chocolate…OMG!!! I always want more, but if I wait just a few minutes and drink a glass of water I realize rather quickly that I’m just at the right level of fullness. Then I feel good because I didn’t gorge myself and feel sick.
Like I said, Jason gave the girls a bath tonight which is my least favorite thing to do because Regan screams while you was her hair and Linsey is quite whiny about it as well. So…while he was enduring all that madness I cleaned up the kitchen and made lunches for tomorrow.
I also did something that I do every Sunday night, but have never shown you guys how it goes down. Well, tonight that changes.
Sunday oats are my favorite breakfast on the planet (in case you didn’t already know that) and making them is a ritual in itself. I bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil and then add 1 cup of organic steel cut oats. After that has cooked for quite sometime and been stirred a ton I add in 1 VERY ripe banana chopped up and let the oats cook some more. Once they are almost finished I add 1 egg white and let it cook for about 10 more minutes and then this happens…
I line up these cute little dishes I got from Jason’s aunt and divide 4 servings off oats evenly into them and cover with their matching lids. Cute right?! This way I have breakfast for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (Wednesday’s are too busy to cook the oats so I usually bring something else that day).
The containers have their own little home in the fridge and that’s where I can find them every morning.
I have a small Tupperware container that I put my oat fillings into such as almond butter, pumpkin butter and whatever else I want that day. It’s a great system and a fabulous time saver for the rest of the week.
Well, Jason’s home and the girls are in bed. Time to get my clothes out for tomorrow and drag myself to bed because -ugh- 5:30 comes very early…
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~ Zig Ziglar
