It Isn't Just to Look Good

My husband is super into pork tenderloin at the moment. It seems like they have been less expensive lately, so we have been enjoying the other white meat at least once a week.  I will be sad when asparagus is gone from the market...no more playing flamingo in the jungle.

I knew there was a splurge looming Saturday night so I kept the rest of the day pretty simple. Some quick and trusty Corn Flakes with bananas and a sprinkle of pecans.  Lunch was the last of my stuffed poblanos.

I noticed this guy hard at work in the garden. I have never really gotten a good look at a bee's pollen sacs. I have to be honest they gross me out just a bit...not sure why.

Apparently his work is paying off....we have tons of little green tomatoes.  I hope that means we will see plenty of yellow and red tomatoes in the coming weeks.

Saturday evening we went to a local restaurant to celebrate my oldest niece's college graduation. I ordered the crab cakes from the appetizer menu...this does not look like an appetizer portion to me (there is a second crab cake under this one). It was very tasty and I did not regret ordering it. I did regret ordering a side of fries, but I am happy to say I only ate a few and didn't feel too bad about "wasting" the rest. I also ordered fried pickles to share with the table. I liked them, but you can't eat too many of them. We ended up not finishing them either. I didn't mean to get all fried things (I didn't expect the crab cake to be this "fried" from the menu description). Gold thing I had kept the rest of the day light.

The cool evening were so nice this weekend. I relaxed in the hammock.

Sunday morning I copied a breakfast a friend had posted the other day. She actually posted that she was inspired by me to add a side of apples. I guess I didn't realize how often I have apples. They are just a yummy no brainer side dish. I might have bought too much fruit for this upcoming week. In addition to apples, we got pears, peaches and cherries.

After breakfast, it was time to face a task I have been dreading...yard work. It is super easy to take pictures that make your yard/garden look spectacular. Let me demonstrate.  When we were dating my husband gave me this nice little hydrangea bush with delicate white flowers.

Remember the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and the "love fern" she makes into a barometer of their relationship?  Well, this is our "relationship bush" - looks pretty good, right?

When in truth you have this going on. The weeds have been on fire this year and these crazy grow-a-foot-a-day trees have invaded. With the heat I have been staying indoors, resulting in a landscaping nightmare. When I heard the forecast for this weekend, I knew I was going to have to suck it up and the yard some attention. Notice the wild and craziness of the "relationship bush." :)

As you might have noticed, there are no workout pictures in this post....because I didn't not workout. Though not a "workout" per se, yard work is exactly that...work. I anticipate some aching muscles tomorrow, but perhaps not quite as much since I have been building my strength. There is practical value to being stronger and in better shape - it isn't just to look good.

I looked over at these tools and had a random flashback...las herramientas.  After college, I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Honduras to work in Hillside Agriculture. Since then much of the farming vocabulary has been permanently stuck in my head and pops up randomly  I will share more about my Peace Corp experience in a future post.

This is embarrassing to share - my muscles and I cleared out those whole pile from the yard. I think my husband is going to claim some of it as his work ;)  Either way 2.5 hours of yard work is a legit workout in my book.

After a long shower and a trip to the grocery store, it was time for me to play. :) I found a new recipe on Skinnytaste that I have been eager to try - Cajun Shrimp in Foil. The shrimp got a good dose of Cajun seasoning and extra pepper.

 The recipe made four packets. You lay out the foil and just pile up the ingredients.

 Anything that has a sprinkle of fresh basil has my attention.

The recipe was intended to cook in the oven. but who wants to heat up their kitchen with a 425 degree oven in the summer? I decided to try them on the grill since I had some other grilling to do anyway. The other two packets I kept to put in the freezer for another day.

I was happy with the recipe and will definitely make it again. However, I will make a couple tweaks next time. First more veggies - it was a little bit short of a good portion in my opinion. I think I could easily double the zucchini and peppers. I want to take a closer looks at the recipe because the calories (310) were a little more than I expected for shrimp and veggies. I used half the olive oil that was recommended, so there a few 25 calories saved per serving - next time I won't use any. I was also a little short on shrimp - recipe called for a pound and I had a 12 oz. package. I think this would be delicious on a some spaghetti noodles or rice. EDIT: I forgot to mention although everything gets seasoned I think next time I wouldn't put all the seasoning on the shrimp - they are a little intense. I think next time I will toss the veggies in the seasoning too.

While I had the grill going I made a basket of veggies and chicken legs for lunches this week.

Sunday night was the culinary crown on the weekend. As I mentioned, my husband was celebrating the end of the three month workout program he completed this week. He chose to reward himself with homemade pizza. We each made our own pizza. His creation was covered in green olives, cilantro, pepperoni, jalapenos, peppers, onions and pineapple - not something you pick up at your local pizzeria. With that many toppings it is usually best to cook it in the oven. I, however, went lighter on toppings and cooked it on the grill . First, I grill the dough on one side, flip it over and top the grilled side.

Then it goes back on the grill to cook the other side and all the yummy toppings. I went with thinly sliced zucchini, onions, mushrooms, basil, peppers and a couple slice of pepperoni. It looked prettier before there was a bit of a slip getting it back on the grill and the toppings on top of the cheese slid a bit.

It can be a little tricky getting the toppings cooked without over cooking the bottom of the crust. This time was a bit more color than I would have liked. However, it was still delicious!!

I definitely had some treats this weekend, but I am hopeful I kept a good balance. (Full disclosure there was some ice cream too this weekend). Monday it is back to regularly scheduled workouts. I have restocked our fridge and have some delicious prepped food for this week.

This week I will be putting in extra effort to eat healthy and move this body. Next weekend is my birthday, then 4th of July - I see the splurges coming and I am going to be ready to enjoy them guilt-free.

How was your weekend?  How did you balance work and relaxation? Treats and healthy eating?  What are your goals for this week?

Hanging with the Niece

I don't even know where to start so I am jumping in basically chronologically.  Our niece spent the night Friday night.  Our weekend started with watching her softball game.  We took Millie...she was mostly good. She just gets so excited when people come over to talk to her. 

When we got home we grilled a few hotdogs and veggies. My in-laws came over.  We had a nice visit hanging out on the deck eating our dinner. I had an idea that I think I need to do more - especially for potluck type get-togethers.  If you don't record your food immediately it is easy to forget some of the little things you had. I was hungry and didn't want to record my food before I ate so I took a picture.  Made it very convenient to record later.  I do like my hotdogs hotdogs in something, but 2 buns at 90 calories each is significant. I found I can have them in a yummy corn tortilla for about half the calories. 

Dinner was good - sometimes a grilled hotdog just really hits the spot. My mother-in-law brought brownies and I couldn't resist having one. She also brought me a very small piece of the blueberry-apricot pie she had made..and I ate that too. So for the first time, according to MyFitnessPal, I went over my daily calories. 83 calories over - oops!

It wouldn't have been a big deal if I had not skipped my morning walk too. I stayed home and cleaned house like a madwoman because we were having company. So that didn't work out for me so well dietwise, but at least the house wasn't a pit :) There is quite a bit of give and take in this process. 

Saturday morning we all got up early and headed out to the levee.  My husband ran his usual 5 miles while my niece and I rode our bikes. We ended up going a little more than 6 miles - by no means a blistering pace but we had tons of fun while getting decent exercise. 

We park by the base of the bridge. I am not sure what is going on with the steep hill sign. Maybe it is to warn people to slow down because the path crosses a road at this point.

As always I love the scenery along the river. This barge is moving over to head into the lock. The last time I saw one going through the lock it was being pushed through this time the barge was going the opposite direction and was being tugged.  

We saw 6 or 7 herons along the river today, including a couple Great Blue Herons. I love watching them.  The one on the right below was fishing - darting his head in and out of the water. 

The river is quite a bit higher than normal right now. Below you can see where it has come over the bike path - thankfully it had receded before our ride. 

However, it has not completely receded yet. Not sure what a water main is doing out here in the middle of nowhere, but it certainly isn't useful at the moment. 

We made it to the turn around spot and headed back to the start. 

My 12 year old niece would like to point out that her shoes are bigger than mine.  She is on the verge of being taller than me too. I am destined to be the family shorty!

After our workout we went to breakfast. That was our planned splurge for the weekend. We planned for it to be within our calories. The calories were higher than we expected - at least as we guesstimated since you can't know for sure at local eateries. I think it might have gotten us off on the wrong foot for eating today. We have been struggling ever since. 

After breakfast my niece and I did a little exploring we found this cool grill.  Yes it is a bull made of metal with a grill in it's back. How cool is that?

The smoke comes out his nose.  The fact we already have a grill kept me from buying it. Well mostly it was the $650 price tag that kept me from buying it. 

When we got back home this happened.

My poor pizza loving husband has been seriously craving pizza, so since we had someone to help us eat it we got one. It probably wasn't the best day to do it after eating out for breakfast. It has been a tough weekend in the food department. I am still in my calorie range...if I have water for dinner. Just kidding. I am actually not very hungry so I think I am going to have a little banana/blueberry smoothie and call it for the day. I can do that and still be in calories. 

So far the weekend has had some ups and downs. Tomorrow is a new day and I know we will be fine. I will be burning up the pavement in the morning and making healthy home cooked yumminess : 

Weigh-In & Date Night!

Today was our 5th weekly weigh-in.  First, I would like to say we have done so much better staying on track this time. Since we've been married we have "tried" a few times to lose weight and always seem to make it somewhere between 10-14 days before we crumble. I am super proud of how committed we both have been. It makes a world of difference to both be on the same page working for the same goal. Now if I could just lose as fast as my husband I would be even happier :) 

So, the weigh-in....2.6 pounds lost. That brings my total to 15 pounds or 20% of my "lose my puppy" goal.  Way to go, me!

I know I have been a bit in the dumps the last week or so about my knee situation. I am not sure when it will be ready for some serious walking again. I will definitely be holding out a little longer on my dreams of starting to run. Tomorrow I am planning to try the biking in the neighborhood for my workout.

Despite not working out like I want I have kept my calories in check. I feel really good about my eating. My calorie range is 1300-1500 - it has not been too much of a struggle. We eat lots of good healthy foods and work in enough "goodies" that we don't feel punished. Although, I might be glad when June is over - we have so many birthdays and events in May & June it has taken most of my extra energy to just navigate all the goodies.

I have made a discovery that seems to help me - I have been entering food into MyFitnessPal in advance. By doing so, I know about how many calories I have for the rest of the day. If I know a that piece of piggy cake is going to cost me 445 calories (see Sunday's post) I make better choices earlier in the day (fruit smoothie for breakfast - no snacks). Also, having a plan of what is a reasonable meal helps control the impulse eating. If I just wait until I eat it to record it I am concerned I won't make as rational of choices.  I'll be honest, I have not been to a party yet where I stuck completely to my plan, but I have stayed pretty close. I knew I didn't have much wiggle room and it certainly curbed the damage I could have done.

To celebrate a good weigh-in, I planned a date night for my husband and me. I didn't tell him anything about what we were doing other than to tell him to reserve extra calories for dinner...pretty romantic, right? We drove to a town about 20 minutes away. I told him we were going 4 places...he was so confused. He is so funny cause he usually likes to be in control and not knowing the plan was a bit disconcerting for him...and super fun for me.

First up...Go Karts :)  I asked for the fastest car, but it turns out speed is wasted on bad drivers. I was bringing up the rear the whole time...well, until my husband practically stopped and waited for me to catch up. I was trying to go as fast as possible with out crashing at every turn. There was another kid on the course and I think he was out to get me. Please keep in mind the following picture is taken from my "speeding" go kart. I wasn't afraid of dropping my camera but I was worried about careening out of control while taking pictures.

After go karts we tried the bumper cars. We were the only two doing it so a couple employees jumped in cars and joined us. It was so much fun! Check out that smile.  I wish he had had a camera too so I could see my face...I bet I was a sight!

After we played for awhile we headed off to location 2 & 3.  Location 2 was a restaurant we've been to a couple of times. I love, love their Gyro Salad. My husband thinks the place is okay, so I got a salad to go and we headed to location 3 - one of his favorite pizza places. I had called in an order for his favorite (sausage jalapeno).  I ordered a small pizza - gasp!  Earlier in the day I had worked my geometry skills and figured out the calories for a small pizza based on a slice of the large pizza.  Yes, I was pretty impressed with myself :)  Once we had gathered our food we drove to a park where I whipped out the picnic stuff from the trunk. My husband was very surprised and happy.

I took a picture of my salad, but turns out it is NOT photogenic. It was delicious and the ambiance of the park was perfect. We had a shady spot on top of a hill overlooking the lake. There was a light breeze. Seriously perfect.  We both had food we loved. Guilt free because we worked it into our daily calorie allowance. After we ate we fed the ducks and geese by the lake. I even remembered the bread. Loved this baby goose getting its grown up feathers. I will say for a baby it was a bit of a bully...bad goose.

The obligatory selfie and our date was complete....

It was the perfect evening and exactly what we needed. We have both been so caught up in the calorie counting and exercising (or not exercising in my case) it was nice to just relax and enjoy each other The whole reason we are doing this thing is to maximize our health so we can enjoy our life together even longer.

5 Pounds!

My schedule was thrown off a bit by a last minute field trip with my niece.  I meant to post this yesterday. 

Tuesdays are our weigh-in day.  Yesterday my weigh-in showed a 5 pound loss!  No, I am not brave enough to tell you how much I weigh.  Maybe in time when I want to brag about how much I have lost :)  Okay, here is my struggle.  I always seem to make some excuse when I have a good weigh-in.  For example, this time it is that we had gone away for a day or so right before we started and after eating out my start weight was artificially high.  Why do I do this to myself?  It is so hard for me to accept my success or compliments.  Instead of just being happy/proud of the 5 pounds I am almost looking for reasons to question it.  Honestly I was hoping to have lost 6 pounds - you know, the big fast start because I know it won't be that much per week from here on out.

I am a constant weigher.  I will weigh will myself in the morning (which I consider most accurate).  Then I will sometimes check during the day and most nights before bed.  For the record, I usually weight about 2 pounds more at night than in the morning.  The problem is when you weigh yourself constantly the progress is so slow or you fluctuate and discouragement is at your door.  Since I was a struggling with my feeling about this week's weigh-in I decided I need to try something different.  I made a pact I would not weigh myself until next Tuesday...A WHOLE WEEK!  I guarantee that will be a more difficult challenge than eating or exercising this week. I know I won't since I promised my husband, but I will be thinking about it constantly.

Last night we had our oldest niece and her fiance over for dinner.  We had been looking forward to this for days.  Yes, because we love hanging out with them.  Okay, I confess we were excited because PIZZA was on the menu. My husband could live forever on pizza and never tire of it.  However, being just the two of us ordering pizza is a bit problematic.  First, if we have a take out pizza I am not sure we would be able to eat just a couple pieces and save the rest for the next day.  Even eating just a couple of pieces of pizza takes some serious calorie budgeting.  Say we succeed in eating just a couple pieces, we still have half a pizza constantly calling us from the fridge.  If we do manage to  save it for the next day we are doing back to back days of trying to make a higher calorie dinner work in our budget.  For now, I don't think either of us are that strong.

Good news - we have options.  Last summer we discovered grilled pizza and have become obsessed.  I have done calculations after calculations and have come up with a plan that I think will work for us.  The best part of homemade pizza is having exactly what you want on it.  For example, my husband loves a pepperoni pizza with jalapenos, green olives and cilantro - not something you would find in most pizza places.  I don't want to mislead you, the calories are still on the high side for a meal.  But there is great flexibility.  Last night we both had the same amount of pizza, but since I chose to do mushrooms and basil pizza mine was almost 200 calories less than my husband's pizza.  We both thought our pizzas could not be any more delicious and we had a quantity of pizza that satisfied us and no leftovers.  And neither of went over our calories for the day!!

The bottom line is that with some planning we can have both delicious food and a healthy lifestyle.

Full disclosure - this is pizza we grilled last summer, but the size is accurate.  This time we carefully measured toppings.  I used 1/2 cup of cheese on each.  My husband used half as much pepperoni and cut each piece in half to spread the flavor over the whole pizza.