Lunches

When i decided to stop eating sugar back in january, i realized i needed to do a better job planning my lunches.

my mom feeds my boys lunch every day. and tim has this amazing cafeteria at work that serves breakfast AND lunch. so shopping for lunch stuff was never really on our radar when doing our weekly grocery trip. 

i also would be so busy taking care of everyone else in the morning, that i would run out the door and go to work with no lunch. i would buy a diet coke from the vending machine. i would buy a turkey sandwich with cheese in the kids' cafeteria. i would buy doritos to munch with the sandwich and for dessert... a bag of skittles from the vending machine. 

when i went to the store, i decided to buy food that was easy to pack. i don't have the energy to prepare salads and make sandwiches. i needed quick, healthy and easy to throw in a bag snacks. i've been packing veggies and dip, fruits, cheese sticks, almonds, cheese and crackers, olives, peanut butter, turkey, and yogurt. i try to find something new and exciting at the grocery store every week to add to my lunch. this past week, it was a pickle!

lunches and snacks have been my main priority with grocery shopping now. i realized if i can have easy, delicious options to choose from, i am less like to crave sugar and eat junk.

what are some quick, healthy lunch ideas that you pack in your lunch bag?

Kid Free Weekend

Tim and i had a wonderful kid free weekend together. i was looking forward to the weekend away and a break from everything.

we dropped the kids off at my parents house around 11. we were heading to the beach to find the perfect beach house for our vacation in June. in the past, we would buy a box of donuts holes and eat them the whole ride down to the shore. this time... i had nothing! i ate a healthy breakfast and knew it would hold me over until we got to the beach around 1.

for lunch, i ordered a bowl of french onion soup and had a few nibbles of Tim's crab cake sandwich and fries.

after our lunch, we picked out our beautiful beach house. then we decided to stop by the candy store and buy some sweets for my mom and dad. they love salt water taffies and we thought it would be a good way to thank them for taking care of the boys. well... holy moly. the minute i walked in the door, my mouth started drooling. the smell... was amazing. candy of all kinds were everywhere. every corner i turned, i saw more and more favorites of mine. chocolate eggs. fudge. malt balls. candy bars. circus peanuts. chocolate pretzels. jelly beans. gummy bears of ALL flavors. it was a beautiful sight.

i went straight for the salt water taffies and ran to the front desk to pay for them. it was probably one of the hardest challenges i had in the past few months... but i made it! by the skin of my teeth... i decided to put the dark chocolate coconut egg down at the last minute. 

tim and i then drove to king of prussia to have dinner at one of our favorite places... Capital Grill!

i prepped a little before hand and told myself i was not going to eat any bread. i didn't want to stuff myself before dinner!

i ate a delicious wedge salad. 

and enjoyed my fillet dinner. as much as i could... i was stuffed halfway through! 

tim finished the weekend off by using the leftovers in a salad tonight for dinner. 

it was a relaxing weekend and much needed. i wish we had the opportunity to go away together more often. life is so busy and when we are together we are doing a thousand other things, especially with the kids. it was nice to be just the two of us and made us realize why we fell in love with each other in the first place. 

Leggings.

leggings. i love leggings. they are the coziest pants i own. i have five pairs of black leggings. two pairs are maternity. one pair is from old navy. and the last two are from kohl's.

once the weather got cool in the fall, i went straight to leggings. i wore leggings with my dresses. and i wore leggings with my longer tops. heck, at home i would wear leggings with a sweatshirt.

i love leggings... until i went to put on my dress pants a day in december and realized i no longer could button them. any of them.

without even being aware of it, i stopped putting on a pair of pants with a button. at work. at home. out with friends. i was only wearing leggings. lovely, beautiful, STRETCHY leggings. those things fit PERFECT every time. like a glove!

when i could no longer button my biggest pair of black pants, i knew i had a problem. those pants were already known as my fat pants.  i knew that i crossed way over the line and i needed to start making changes sooner than later. there was no way i was going to buy even fatter pants!

so... i was determined to start wearing dress pants again during the week. a goal i had was to fit back in my dress pants by february. and by the beginning of february... the goal was met!

i also decided that i had to wear real pants during the week at school. i couldn't wear leggings ALL week anymore. but i could definitely wear them at night for bedtime!

i love my leggings so much that i made a small goal. for every month i went without sugar i would buy myself a pair of lularoe leggings.  i heard great things about how soft they were, and i thought this would be a great motivator!

and it has been... i love taking off those dress pants when i come in the door and slipping into a cozy pair of leggings. i had to figure a way to wear leggings, but not all day... every day. because these beautiful, amazing, stretchy pants are so comfortable... but dangerous.

Favorite Healthy Foods.

I hit the 70 day mark of no "fun" sugar. 10 weeks. about 2.5 months. i can honestly say, it is so much easier now! and this is coming from someone who is addicted to sugar. i definitely have moments when i all i can think about is a cadbury egg. or a manger special donut from Dunkin... but it feels good when i walk away and snack on other things.

i realized for me to give up some of my favorite foods, i had to substitute those foods with other foods that i love that do not have sugar.  one of my favorite things to eat is an olive. yep. an olive. i love ALL olives. olives have no sugar!! so i buy a new kind of olive every week. and pack them in my lunch every day. and snack on them after work all the time.

(Blue Cheese stuffed olives are my favorite! I can eat them like candy!)

something else i LOVE are veggies and dip. the dip has to be a GOOD dip. i buy a ranch veggie dip every week as well. i cut up celery, carrots, cucumber, and broccoli and place them in the plastic bags for the week. i take a small container of dip and veggies to lunch every day. i am always so excited to eat it! this is also easy to grab and snack on when i get home from work while i wait for dinner.

(This is by far my favorite veggie dip!)

when i am hungry before bed at night, i pop a few blue diamond almonds. i buy a new flavor every week. these are delicious and i love the flavoring on them. i figured some flavored almonds before bed is healthier than a handful of m & m's!

(I haven't found a Blue Diamond almond flavor I don't like!)

what are some your favorite foods that are healthy?

Cheers!

Many of you know that i am not a fan of water. in fact, i hate it. i hate the way it tastes when you drink it with food. if i drink water, it has to be ice cold water. it can't be room temperature. it tastes horrible that way. i am jealous of anyone who loves drinking bottles of water. and then continuously refills it during the day... i wish it was me!

because of this, i have very limited options of what to drink. i have always hated the idea of drinking calories. so i don't drink juice. or lemonade. or anything else with sugar. so to solve this problem, i really only enjoyed and drank diet coke.

i love a diet coke. an ice cold diet coke... even better if it pops out of a vending machine or served in a restaurant! i know diet coke is not good for me. i have read the research and i understand it, and yet... i still love it. i was starting to drink way too much diet coke too. i had a feeling this had to do with my love for sugar, so i decided to give the diet coke up as well. i did it both times pregnant with the boys... i knew i could do it not being pregnant. 

this meant that i had to find something to drink in place of diet coke that i could enjoy. i have a couple friends who drink sparkling water... so i thought i would give it a whirl. i bought many boxes (and by many... at least 15) of different flavors and different kinds of sparkling water. it took about a month, but i finally found it. WEGMAN'S sparkling water! it can ONLY be the orange flavor. but i can drink it and feel like i can stick with it! 

i miss diet coke. it will always be my first love. and first drink of choice. but, i needed to step away and look at other options. see what else was out there. wegman's mandarin orange sparkling water... you have BIG shoes to fill!

Exercise

Exercise is so hard for me to find time to do. it requires time to change into workout clothes, workout, and then clean up afterwards. i'm thinking it would be about an hour of my day. sometimes more. sometimes less. it just sounds so exhausting to do after a long work day.

i could work out when Landon goes to bed... but that would be around 8:30. i considered it one time. i even got changed into workout clothes. but then i sat on my bed to put on my sneakers...  and the pillow looked awfully cozy. so i rested my head and ended up going to bed in my sweatpants and a t-shirt.

i could work out before nolan wakes up in the morning which is around 5:30ish... hmmm. never mind. that makes me tired and miserable just typing that idea.

i will say that being a working mom of two has kept me the busiest i have ever been. i am on my feet all day. walking hallways. walking around my classroom. walking up and down my steps. bending up and down with a baby. chasing a baby. i am always on the move.... i am thinking this should totally count as exercise!

(This guy has been keeping me REALLY busy!)

How do you fit your exercise routine into your day?

A Guide

wow! thank you to everyone who reached out to me over the past week or so! i've had many people ask if i cut ALL sugar. or if i followed a guide...

i'm going to be honest, i was wondering if i should look into different programs like the 21 day fix or beach body. and i was questioning whether i should jump back into weight watchers. i did WW about 8 years ago or so. it was a great program, but i knew i didn't have the time to commit to meetings and counting points. i also brought up the idea of buying a treadmill to tim. but then i didn't want to pay for one of those and end up not using it due to working ALL day and then being with my kids. i don't have time. i am nonstop from 5:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night with not a second to myself.

so to answer the question about following a guide. no i didn't. i kind of made up my own guide. i just knew i had a big sugar problem. i finally realized and came to terms with it over the holiday... but i definitely have had a sugar "addiction" for YEARS. my grandmother will be the first to say she is addicted to sugar. maybe genetic? so i gave up all the "fun" sugar. cake, cookies, candy, ice cream, danishes, lattes, etc. i did stop eating rolls and white bread. i also stopped adding sugar to things like coffee and teas.

i have not given up sugar completely. i love ketchup. i love salad dressings. and even my half and half i add to my coffee has a gram of sugar. i eat fruit every day. i know some diets require to give up EVERYTHING sugar, but i couldn't do that... it would be way too hard to stick with and keep track of.

i decided to try this for 100 days... just because i like the number 100! see... my own guide!

there very well could be a diet/guide i am following, but i have no clue what it is...

have you heard of a diet plan similar to the no "fun" sugar diet? Have you ever tried giving up the "fun" sugar and seeing results with your weight loss?

A BIG loss.

Stepped on the scale today for the first time since january. i saw a number that I haven't seen in 5.5 years. since i was pregnant with Landon. i am in a new decade. 169.4 pounds. i lost a total of 25.4 pounds over the past two months.

holy moly. that is a little less than what nolan weighs... and that kid is HEAVY.

this explains why i can cross my legs a little easier when i am sitting. this also explains why i can roll over in bed at night a little easier too! i have over 25 pounds off my body!

i haven't been in the 160s since December of 2012. i was about 16 weeks pregnant when i went into the 170s... and i remember cringing at the scale around christmas time. i remember thinking... once i have this kid, i'll go back to my old weight... little did i know how hard it would be for me five years ago. i still have 14 more pounds to go to get to my pre-pregnancy weight BEFORE landon.

scale is put away until April 3rd. i'll be almost to my 100 day mark of no sugar at that point... i went to wegman's tonight... and let me tell you... that easter candy was SCREAMING at me. ugh.

Happy Friday!

March!

I remember back in January that i thought March 1st would be a great milestone. it seemed so far away and yet it is already here. i wore a dress to school this week that i wore the first week of being sugar free back in January. i couldn't believe the difference in the photos.

I really like doing a picture a day way better than stepping on the scale every day. no obsessing over a number. no getting frustrated when the number doesn't move. or getting angry when the number goes up after eating healthy all week. 

have you ever took pictures of yourself during a weight loss journey?