Day 90: Fiddlesticks!

I feel terrible for missing yesterday's blog. I should have done it in the morning when I was home, but I spent all my time cleaning house. Then I went over to Springfield for a family get together. And then back to my parents' place because Adam is in town visiting. The only problem is, they have used up all of their Internet for the month, so they are operating at a slower than dial-up speed. I don't really understand how their Internet works over there, but if you want to know more about it you can ask my dad; he loves coming up with new analogies to try to explain it.

So today is Memorial Day. We're going to do our traditional family cookout with the Gorbett side, then Adam and I are heading over to Springfield to hang out with the Jeffers side for a while since they haven't spent much time with him. I figure it's important for them to get to know him since he's going to be my husband and all.....

I'm going to try really hard not to overeat today. I don't have to keep eating all day long, but I can focus on enjoying the company rather than having to have a plate of food in front of me at all times.

Sorry for the short blog again today....I'll be back on track tomorrow. I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day.

And I would like to thank you to anyone who has served our country in any way. Your service to our country makes it possible for us to enjoy the luxuries we often take for granted.

Day 88: A Personal Question

Ladies, as most of you know this wedding planning stuff has been a breeze for me. Everything is flying into place and we've managed to stay organized through the entire process and I'm really not worried about anything wedding-related.

However, one issue has really gotten me stressed, worried, upset, and freaked out.....Birth Control!

I've never practiced any kind of birth control before because, well, I've never had a reason to. And once we're married Adam and I are looking forward to having children...probably a lot of children. But we would both like to get a handle on being husband and wife before we start to throw children in the mix. We also want to be in a better financial place because we would like for me to stay at home once kids come in to the picture. So we want to wait at least a little while before we have a baby.

The problem is we're finding a ton of conflicting information and it's all really overwhelming.

Our convictions are that life begins as soon as an egg is fertilized by a sperm, which would rule out many (if not most) popular forms of birth control. From my understanding, birth control pills typically have 3 mechanisms in which they prevent pregnancy: first, they decrease the possibility of ovulation, so that an egg can't be fertilized by sperm, secondly, they change the cervical fluid so that it is impossible for the sperm to reach the egg, and failing those two mechanisms, the pill prevents an already fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. That's where we have a problem. We do not believe it is okay to destroy an already fertilized egg. So we need another option.

Because of that, I started looking into Natural Family Planning and the Fertility Awareness Method. With these methods, there is no need to take any medications or use any contraceptive devices regularly because you pay attention to your body's signals and determine when it is safe to have unprotected sex. The problem is that this method requires copious attention to detail and charting. We only have 2 months until our wedding and I've never kept track of my cycle before, so I'm nervous about determining the way my cycle works with only two months of charting to use as a sample. I'm not sure that my limited experience in charting would be enough to determine my regularity, and to ensure that I'm observing the signals properly. So that has me super nervous.....I mean, really, super nervous!

So we found a website that is written by Christian people who hold the same convictions as we do. They say that there are in fact some birth control medications that prevent the woman from ovulating at all so that there is no chance of an egg being fertilized. And they provided a list of pills that would be "okay" to take, according to them.

The problem is, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. And we don't just want to read one article on one website and determine our course of action from there.

So I'm wondering if any of my lady friends have struggled with this issue before. Does anyone practice natural family planning or the fertility method? What's it like? Does anyone take any kind of birth control? What should I expect with that?

We're just kind of at a loss and we're at a point now where we really need to make a decision either way. So I'm really wanting some advice and some information from women who have been there before.

I have an appointment with my doctor to talk about all of this next week, but I still want to hear from some other women about their experience with their method of choice.

Once again, thanks for reading and responding. It means a lot to me!

Day 87: Survival Strategies - Cruise Food!

So I think most of you know by now that we'll be heading on a cruise to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.

I've heard horror stories about cruise food...how great it tastes, how they have such a variety, how it's available.....ANY TIME YOU WANT IT!

I'm not going to spend every waking hour fretting about how many calories I'm eating, but I also don't want to come back 15 pounds heavier!

Do any of you seasoned cruisers have any advice for me while we're away?

Day 86: The Early Bird Sweats Less

So I've gotten up twice this week an hour early to workout. I have to say, it feels really good to know that I've started off my day by burning some calories. And it's extra special to me because I can go throughout the day knowing that I've already completed that task and I don't have to fit it into my schedule.

The only problem is I HATE getting out of bed in the mornings. I mean hate it. Almost as much as I hate beans. My bed is so comfortable. And sleep is so good. I just have to absolutely force myself to take off those covers and hop to it.

I think I'm going to stick with my 3 day per week early rising workout schedule for now. Then I want to get in 1 or 2 additional workouts during the weekend.

Actually, I should say that I've done morning time workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I would like to get in a workout with my weights in the evenings. I think this will help me to get a better toned and build some muscle.

When do you guys prefer to exercise? Do you find that it's a better time for you in the mornings when the temperature is a little cooler and you can take care of it first thing? Or do you prefer to wait until later in the day when you've had a chance to wake up and go through an entire day of work so you can come home and use your workout to give you an extra jolt of energy to make it through the evening?

I think I'm starting to kinda like these morningtime workouts. The only part I hate is that first five minutes where I'm trying to convince myself to get my butt out of bed!

Day 85: Wedding Wednesday

Today I can talk about a topic I'm actually excited about, rather than a topic that's been riddled with guilt and shame....I'm slightly joking...sort of.

But I do get excited about discussing my wedding with everyone. I'm really looking forward to the wedding, but more importantly I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with Adam!!

Let me tell you what has happened since last week:
I received a contract for my chairs, only find out that the bill was going to be 66% more than the quote I had been given (nobody bothered to tell me about the delivery charge).

So we're going with a different chair company; I'm going to see some chairs tomorrow and the total bill should be much cheaper than that!

I also met with my florist and I'm very excited about my beautiful flowers! I'm getting exactly what I wanted and I think the flowers make me even happier than my dress! What's even better is that we're going to come in at around half the amount we budgeted!!

Right now we're dealing with our guest list which has become a thorn in our sides lately. We originally said we wanted to have a very small wedding with just immediate family and a few close friends. But I keep thinking of people I feel like I should invite and so the list just keeps growing. Finally I just called my mom and she talked me down. She helped me figure out who I really wanted to be there and who would have to wait for the reception. I just hate to hurt anyone's feelings, but we just don't have the space for 300 people in my parents' yard! So we're working it out. I'm sure there will be a few tweaks here and there, but I think we're pretty set on a total of about 130 people or so, and then many, many more at our receptions.

I've also reserved a block of hotel rooms for our out-of-town guests at a hotel that's only about 10 minutes from my parents' house, so that's exciting.

So that's the haps for now. Thanks for checking in!

I'm so grateful that things are coming together so smoothly for us. It almost seems like it's too good to be true, but I love the way things are falling into place.

Day 84: Weeky Weigh-In

I'm sick of coming on here to make a post and having to confess all of my sins to you guys. I apologize that the blog has been a little bit of a downswing lately.

My mom and I skipped our meeting last night because neither of us had stellar weeks. So we've decided that there's no more crapping around. We are sticking with the program and staying serious about it until at least after Rachel's wedding...hopefully after mine.

I haven't even weighed myself lately, but I'm sure I'm up a pound or two from last week. That's really disappointing and I hate to even have to look at those words as I type them.

But we're getting back on track and staying disciplined with it. I would be so disappointed if my wedding got here and I had gained all of my weight back, or even not lost anymore. Eleven weeks is a long time and there's a lot of weight loss that can happen in that short time. My goal is to have a total of 30 pounds lost by the time my wedding rolls around, which means I have 17 pounds to go from my weight last week.

I'm confident I can do it as long as I get disciplined and make myself behave. It's tough. And it's more fun to eat cheeseburgers and french fries. But my body is going to thank me if I can make healthier choices and become a healthier person.

Day 83: Champion Chow -- Grapefruit

What's better on a hot day than a cold, juicy grapefruit? That was my breakfast this morning, and that is my blog topic today.

Did you know that grapefruits are so named because when they're growing on trees they hang in clusters, like bunches of grapes?

We've all heard the rumors about so-called Negative Calorie Foods. These foods, including grapefruit, are said to require more calories to burn them than it they are actually worth. This may be true on the surface, but that doesn't mean that eating 14 grapefruits a day along with your normal regimen of deep-fried grease and sugar-filled glazed cream jelly donughts will result in weight loss.

Obviously, grapefruit and other vegetables and fruits are astronomically better for you than a hot fudge sundae. But don't count on eating crap, then compensating for it by eating other foods that will burn more calories because it just doesn't work that way.

This is particularly true if you're like me and you can't resist pourin' some sugar on your grapefruit. Just a teaspoon or so per half, to give it a little sweetness and crunch.

In addition to being super low in calories, grapefruit is also high in vitamins like Vitamin C.

Be careful of grapefruit juices and juice cocktails, though. There's a reason why the grapefruit juice is mysteriously so much sweeter than a grapefruit itself. Fruit juices and especially juice cocktails are loaded with extra sugar that pretty much cancels out any nutrition you'd be getting from the fruit.

If you want more information on the myth of Negative Calorie Foods, click HERE.

Day 82: Shortie

Well today was yet another crazy chaotic day. And this whole week is already booked up for me! I'll be looking forward to when my life settles down again and I can take a breather.

Once again I have no recipe for you today. All I have is to offer sincere congratulations to my brother and all of his friends who graduated from MacArthur High School today. He has a great group of friends and I'm glad they all got to celebrate together.

Day 81: A Day in the Life

Today was yet another crazy day! My brother's graduation party, paired with a ton of family to visit with, and another big graduation party to attend this evening.

I didn't stop until 9:00 tonight!

I did take some sage advice and start off my day right by reading my Bible first thing. That was a good way to set the tone for my day. I need to keep up that habit. If not reading the Bible, at least starting the day in prayer, thanking God for everything that's going on in this crazy life of mine, and asking him to help me to keep my priorities straight throughout the day.

The eating and exercise, on the other hand, fell by the wayside once again. One of these days I'll get it straight.

I've been dealing with a little bit of...how shall I say....being stopped up lately, and I'm trying to figure out what to do about it.

I'm thinking I may try a raw diet or something just for a week as a little bit of a cleanse. I never deal with these kind of issues, so I really don't know what to do. Any advice from frequent "irregular bowelers?" This is a strange thing for me as I'm usually on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Obviously, getting my eating back on track will help, but I feel like I need to do something more than that. I'll keep you posted on what I decide to do.

Day 80: Priorities

Oh boy. This has been a crazy week, and especially a crazy last couple of days. I feel like I'm running around constantly. It's good because I'm getting things accomplished, but it's bad because I've allowed my priorities to fall a little out of whack.

My first priority can't be all wedding all the time. I have to make myself remember that life continues even after my wedding is over, and so I need to continue to adopt the same priorities I should have during my "regular" life. Wedding is an added responsibility, but it shouldn't take away from other responsibilities.

God
Adam
Family
Friends
Health
Work
Etc.

I need a realignment of my priorities.

I think the things that are suffering in my life right now are two of the most vital aspects of my life I should focus on: my spiritual heatlh and my physical health.

I need to get back in the Word. It is a lamp to my feet and light for my path.

And I need to get back on the bandwagon with my exercise and nutrition. They are what gives me energy and the ability to do everything else I need to do.

I have only exercised once this week, and I ate horribly yesterday. And I feel bad for it. I feel like I could be a couple pounds lighter than I am right now, had my priorities been right.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how you balance it all? I'm not usually a high-stress person, so I'm not really used to having to juggle all of these crazy things in my life. I'd love to hear from you about how you maintain your sanity and your priorities when life gets hectic.

Day 79: Short and Sweet

I'm hanging out with Adam today so I'm not going to take a lot of time to make a post.

We went to Conan last night. It was awesome. My face hurt from laughing so much.

I have done well this week except for today when I overate by a long shot. I'm going to be good over the weekend, though, so I can have a successful meeting on Monday. It seems like I've fallen into a pattern of losing one week then gaining the next, and I want to break that cycle.

That's about all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by. I'll have something better for you tomorrow!

Day 78: Wedding Wednesday

Well things are still coming together way more easily than I thought they would. At the rate we're going, we're going to have the entire wedding planned and ready to go by the end of next week!

That's a great place to be considering how overwhelmed I felt at the beginning of all of this.

Adam has all the honeymoon arrangements taken care of. He is so good to me! We're going on a cruise to the Bahamas!! And he got a really good price! I'm really excited to spend my honeymoon with my honey, Moon! I've never been on a cruise before, so I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be a lot of fun!

We are also officially ready to announce the dates. We will have a very small, intimate ceremony on August 7th. And we'll have follow-up receptions where we can celebrate with everyone. One in Tennessee on September 4th, and one in Illinois on September 11th!

We are really looking forward to the wedding and enjoying our special day, but even more than that we're just ready to be married and do life together every single day.

Today Adam and I are going to Chicago to see Conan O'Brien! And we've both decided that we're not going to discuss wedding stuff at all!

Day 77: Weekly Weigh-In

I'm not sure what happened with the scale, but my weight this week was up 3 pounds from my weight last week. This week I weighed in at Weight Watchers and last week I weighed in at home. Plus, I don't remember for sure, but I probably weighed in the morning last week, whereas it was about 4:30 yesterday.

I didn't really track my foods properly and I didn't have many chances to exercise, so that may be a contributing factor, as well.

All I know now is that with my sister's upcoming wedding and my impending nuptuals, it's time to really be serious about getting healthy.

I'll tabulate my results for you this week according to my Weight Watcher's record, which indicates my weight loss from 2 weeks ago, since I skipped last week:
This week: -2.2lbs.
Total: -13.0lbs.

I also reached a milestone in the program, which I can't really tell you about because it will give away my actual weight. Everyone knows that is a closely guarded secret

So, I need to keep on going. I really want to have lost a total of 30 pounds by the time my wedding rolls around. I feel like that's an achievable goal, but I won't achieve it if I keep doing things the way I have been for the last two weeks.

Here's to starting over! And thanks for reading...some days my only motivation is knowing that I have people checking in on me.

Day 76: Champion Chow - Ground Turkey

Most people think of turkey as primarily a Thanksgiving food, or a light deli meat for sandwiches.

But I have grown to love using turkey as a substitute for other meats.

Turkey is much leaner than ground beef; it has half the fat and 30% fewer calories.

Turkey even comes in sausage and bacon forms so you can still enjoy those breakfast meets we all love, but in a much healthier way.

But I want to talk about ground turkey today. I usually buy the Honeysuckle White brand, which you can find at Wal-Mart for sure, and possibly Kroger and other stores.

Ground turkey has a good flavor. It's light; it has a light flavor. It doesn't taste like the roasted turkey you eat at Thanksgiving. It just has a light, meaty flavor and texture. Because it's so lean, you will want to use some olive oil if you're browning the meat in a skillet because it doesn't have enough fat to keep it from drying out.

I made turkey spaghetti the other night, and you would have never known it was turkey. It tasted just like regular ground beef spaghetti, only it contained much less fat and fewer calories.

I also use ground turkey in my Asian lettuce wraps, tacos, meatloaf or even hamburgers.

You simply season the meat like the same way as you would with ground beef and your meal will be just as delicous as ever.

This is a very simple swap that can help you on your way to great results. Give turkey a chance!

Day 75: A LARGE Victory

I had a wonderful experience today. I decided it was time to do a little clothes shopping because I'm going to need some casual dresses for upcoming wedding showers and other events.

So I went to Kohl's (it is slowly becoming my favorite store) and I walked straight to the plus size department, where I have shopped for the past several years. I looked around at their meager selection of dresses and found one or two that I didn't hate. I thought to myself, "Well, I guess this will have to work," and decided to go try them on.

On my way to the fitting rooms, though, a couple of "regular sized" gowns caught my eye. I picked up several of them, figuring that they wouldn't work, but I might as well give them a shot.

Well, the plus size dresses were too big for me, and some of the regular ones looked great! I actually ended up buying a really pretty maxi dress in a size....get this.....Large! This is the first time in my adult life that I've bought a clothing item without an "X" in the size! What an incredible feeling!

Now granted, the maxi dresses are stretchy and I probably could have fit into a variety of sizes, but I'm counting this a LARGE victory and it's going to keep me motivated on the way to my goal.

This morning when I weighed myself I was exactly 20 pounds lighter than my starting Weight Watchers weight. I'm not expecting these results tomorrow because I always weigh a few pounds less in the morning than I do later in the day.

But I feel so good to have been able to shop in the departments with the cute clothes and that I was able to fit into a large!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Day 74: Woopsie!

Guess who forgot to make a blog post yesterday! Aww man, I feel like someone punched me in the gut! I can't believe I missed my first day. I'm sad.

This week has been crazy. There is so much going on and unfortunately my diet and exercise have fallen by the wayside. I'm glad, though, that this hasn't reflected on the scale.

Like my Aunt Cindy said, I may not be doing perfectly with my diet and exercise, but at least I'm not sitting around eating all the time. I have other things to occupy my time.

I just need to learn now to balance everything going on in my life. I need to MAKE time for exercise every day...even if that means I need to get up an hour earlier. And I need to REQUIRE myself to record points values for anything I eat.

It may not be convenient. But I'll be really disappointed if my wedding gets here in 12 weeks and I'm the same weight or more, and 12 weeks of my life will have been wasted.

I know I'm not going to be perfect with Weight Watchers; I never have been. But I need to force myself to be more diligent with my health regimen. That means it needs to be a priority over the wedding stuff. Maybe I'll need to save a couple of phone calls for the next day. Everything will get done (we already have A TON of stuff accomplished so far), and it doesn't all have to get done right now.

Part of my problem is that I'm a very task-oriented person. When I get a roll I don't like to stop until it's all finished. But I just have to overcome that.

My goal for this week is to workout 5 times, and it has to be a GOOD workout! Another goal is to be diligent about my tracking. Starting Monday I want to track every morsel of food that enters into my mouth throughout this next week.

I'm going to do it. No question. Check back with me next week to see!

Day 72: YIKES!

Ok everyone, it's time to make a confession: my blog and my fitness have taken a back seat to wedding and marriage preparations this week!

I have GOT to get myself back on track. I want to look and feel great for my wedding day, and I need to stay focused on my goal, which will need to be something I continue even after I'm married.

I haven't been following my challenges very well this month. And I've been eating okay, but not tracking my foods.

It's time to get my butt back in gear, people! Here we go!

Day 71: Wedding Wednesdays

I thought I would change things up a little bit on the blog here, and take one day a week to talk about how the wedding plans are coming along. That way I will be able to stay focused on my health goals, as well as share a little bit of the information about what's going on with the big plans.

We have a date that's almost firm. But we're not officially saying it yet. I will say it's August.

And the location is a little bit of a sticky situation, but it should be worked out pretty soon.

I never knew how much wedding planning consumes of your life! Adam and I talked on the phone last night like we always do, but we didn't realize until 40 minutes into the conversation that we had ONLY talked about wedding stuff. It's a huge wake up call and I'm trying to make sure I focus more on the marriage and the happiness that comes with it, than planning out one day of my life.

We do have a photographer almost set, too, which is really exciting. This photographer is excellent, and she comes with a videographer as well, which is something that's really important to us since not everyone will be able to be at the wedding.

Right now we're working on formulating a bridal party. And I'm almost set on my color motif for the day.

I have a cake mostly squared away, too, which is nice.

So that's where we are with the planning....it's a big job that we have to do in a very short amount of time, but it will all be worth it when I'm married to the man I love.

More announcements to come soon!

Day 70: Weekly Weigh-In

Sorry for the late post today. My life has suddenly become chaotic!

Somehow I managed to still lose weight this week. I'm down about 5lbs. from last week, which puts me at a total loss of 15.8lbs.!!

I'm really not sure how I was able to lose that much over the past week because with all of the busyness and the stress, I really didn't make exercise and tracking a priority.

I chalk it up to the fact that I was SO busy, and didn't have the time to eat as much junk, while my body was still able to burn off the calories I was consuming.

I know that weeks like this won't always happen, though, so I need to make sure to get myself back on track. I've still had a rough time of it this week. I can't get back into a consistent schedule and I desperately need to make a trip to the grocery store.

So I'm grateful for the loss, but staying mindful of the fact that I need to get my butt back in gear. I have all the more reasons now to get myself looking and feeling better.

Day 69: Champion Chow

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you're like me, though, breakfast is usually an afterthought that occurs somewhere between realizing you overslept and rushing out the front door with wet hair.

I would say that on about 4 out of every 5 mornings I grab an English muffin and head out the door for work. I always buy the whole wheat variety because they are packed with fiber and much more nutritious than the enriched flour ones.

They're low in calories and fat, and, depending on your topping of choice, they can make a deliciously filling breakfast.

I use reduced fat peanut butter, apple butter, or just good old-fashioned light butter.

The whole-wheat English muffin by itself will cost you about 2 points for most brands. Most regular bagels will set you back 5 or 6 points, and that's without toppings! Even the whole-grain bagels are 4 points.

If you're in need of an occasional bread fix I would highly recommend English muffins. They're quick and easy, they taste great, and they won't bust your gut!