Eating Like Crap = Sleeping Like Crap????
I’ve been sleeping like absolute crap since last week. At first, I thought it was because of these wonderful allergies I’ve found myself having since we moved to DC. Second thought makes me think it may not be JUST that! This past weekend I’ve eaten, well, not so good. Friday night my ‘sooo not on a strict diet anymore’ husband wanted to go out to dinner. Since I knew we were having company over on Saturday, I gave him his cheat night a day early. We indulged in Mexican food – including real cheese queso with chorizo and I had steak tacos. Absolute yumminess. Although, I fell asleep fast but woke up on the hour after that….then was up for the day before 6 am, not by choice.
Saturday, our friends came over to celebrate Patrick’s birthday with a little surprise lunch! I made my friend Dawn’s recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese. Let me tell you…the stuff is delicious and a serving probably has more than a whole days worth of calories in it! But, it’s totally worth the splurge every now and then 🙂 We also had a fun sub station where we had different cheeses, lunch meats and spreads out – fun- yummy- and easy! Then of course we had to indulge in a little birthday cake! We picked up a “Cheesecake named Desire” from Coldstone Creamery. AMAZING. And I had a box of brownie/cookie bars in my pantry that I’d been waiting to make since we moved here. They were pretty darn good, too, if I do say so myself.
So, that night I also slept like complete crap! Same basic deal of waking up lots and lots of times. Yesterday I had to have some of that leftover macaroni. It’s a very good thing that I gave Patrick most of it to take home, because if I had that whole pan in my house it’d be gone..diet or not!
Okay enough tattling on myself about my horrible eating habits this weekend. What do you think? I’d been sleeping really well these past months on the diet- ya think the sugars and fats in my system are screwing with my sleep? Or is it really just these allergies bugging me? I’m going to be fantastic for the next few weeks and see if I start sleeping better…. I can’t function on with no rest 😦
xoxo
Kim
P.S When (Godwilling) alll goes well today- My good friends Dawn and Walter are going to be the proud parents of their second child, Kate. So, please send your well wishes to their family and to their 2 yr old Noah who is going to be the cutest big brother EVER! ((((hugs to you guys))))
Soooo….. Now What?
I’ve been asked THE question. Now What? My reason behind this blog was to attempt to keep myself accountable while dieting, and it worked. So, now that I’ve hit my goal, do I just drop this whole blogging thing and go back to the way things were? NOPE! I figure I can go on with my life and now tell you all about more than just my dieting. I kinda started with my last post a few weeks ago- Letting you in to my family’s life, and showing you my babies children. So, why not go in further and tell you about my life as a stay at home mom to 2 year old twin girls, two doggies and two kitties. I’ll give you sneak peeks into my craziness and show you exactly why “I’m going to lose it”…my mind that is.
OH MY GOSH! Such a change…seriously a big change!
Okay, so Nutrisystem is having a contest to for their ‘losers’ to enter. I was reading the entry qualifications and noticed that not only do they want your story and your stats, they also want you to submit before and after pictures. Since I’m actually considering entering the contest, I went on the hunt for before pictures. See, I’m usually the one to hide from the camera. I’ve always been that way… I shy away from it, because I really don’t want anyone to remember me this way. Unfortunately, I’ve felt that way for quite some time, so I’m in very very few pictures. It’s sad, because I even shy away from pictures with my girls. It took me about 10 months to finally get pictures of myself with the girls, and that was only because I wanted to surprise my husband for his first father’s day. I regret my actions, but there is nothing I can do about it now.
Anyway…. I went a searching on my ‘puter and this is what I found- ouch. Approximately 190 lbs in this photo.
Look at those arms!!!!
Now, I’ve tried to get a good ‘after’ picture, but I’ve felt really cheesy- I am so not used to being in front of the camera. It’s definitely going to take a while to be comfortable, but I wanted to show you all the difference in ME.
Here is me now- 145 pounds in this photo.
Peyton and I -
I figured the first picture is of me feeding Sydney, so to be fair, my second picture is of me holding Peyton. Not that anyone would have noticed that, but I try to be fair to my girls 🙂
On a side note, we took the girls to Frying Pan Farm Park today, with Allison, Patrick and Quinn! The girls and Quinn totally loved it. In fact, I think all of the boys really enjoyed it. I’ll say that I enjoyed watching everyone enjoy it. I liked seeing the little piglets and it was fun to test our animals sound knowledge between Allison and I- but the one thing that put a damper on my day… animal poop. Yup… it was an actual farm, so there was actual poop. The girls were stepping in all kinds of things and had a few instances where they insisted on mommy picking them up. As they wrapped their little legs around my waist, they’d wipe off all that delicious smelling and looking animal poopie on my clothes. Of course I was totally thinking about what I should wear to a farm- so I showed up in khaki shorts, a white shirt and my usual Reef flip flops. Next time I know that that is not the proper farm attire!
The girls loved it, though! Here are a few pics-
Peyton driving the tractor
Sydney looking for more fun farm stuff
loving the piglets!
Yummy yummy in their tummies!
So, there you have your before and after pics- for all of you that have been bugging me, hehe. I hope these serve alright. I’m trying to find some more before pics, but they are very few and far between! I’ll search out a few more, I’m sure-
Have a wonderful and safe Labor Day, everyone!
xoxo
Kim
G O A L ! ! !
Today was the day…. I did it- I hit my final goal on Nutrisystem! I got on the scale this afternoon, and I weighed in at an EVEN 145 LBS! !!! wow….I am amazed with myself, lol. Actually I’m amazed with the diet, and so thankful that it was so easy for me to stick to. I lost 28 lbs, and I am so proud of myself 🙂 I will probably fluctuate a little this weekend, since it’s my girls’ 2nd birthday, but I think I’ll do one more full week of hardcore NS, and then start the maintenance plan.
Yay!!! 28 lbs gone forever – Thats ONE HUNDRED TWELVE sticks of butter!!! When you put it that way it’s just mind blowing for me – and gross, hehe.
Whatcha Think?!?!?!
Okay, so I know that this is completely contradictory to the purpose of my blog- BUT, let me first please explain. Thing is- I love to bake. I love to make and create sweets. I love Christmas because it’s an excuse to give homemade goods away to people that I make in huge batches! I’ve always loved to bake and in actuality, the reason (so my husband says) that my husband gained so much weight is because he can’t say no to my baked goods. He was never a sweets eater until I came around- so he says 🙂 I, on the other hand, love to bake it, but don’t HAVE to eat it. I will, and I do… but I can say no. I actually love to create things for other people to eat and enjoy- that satisfies my sweet tooth! That being said- don’t put a bag of sour gummy candies in front of me! It will be gone in no time, no joke! Several years ago, when I was doing the Suzanne Somer’s diet and lost a bunch of weight- I worked as an Emergency Operations Operator at a big police department. I’d eat all of my diet foods but to satisfy my sweet tooth, I’d bring in a big cake, or cookies or homemade candy. I didn’t have to eat it- just make it, and I was fine. I lost over 40 lbs on that diet, while I brought yumminess in for other people, and got them fat, lol.
Since we moved up to NoVa, I’ve gone to some classes that the county puts on for anyone who wants to pay. I’ve really enjoyed them, and it’s brought back my love for baking, that I kinda swept under the rug since I’ve been taking care of the girls- I’ve tweaked a few recipes and played around with learning a bit about fondant. A neighbor friend of ours’ puppy turns a year old today. So, in honor of Miss Bella Rae’s birthday, I offered to make her some cupcakes suitable for human consumption. See, our neighbor, Brittany, already ordered a huge sheet cake for all the doggies that will be in attendance! So, I thought, why not cupcakes!?!? The party is at a dog park, so there’s not much room for cake plates and knives and forks- and who doesn’t enjoy a homemade cupcake!?!? Check these out!
Happy Birthday Bella!
I have to admit that I did taste a little here and there. Since the chocolate cake was a new recipe, I had to make sure that it was alright to serve to strangers! I’m hoping that maybe bringing these to a public gathering would show people what I am capable of, and maybe they’ll ask me to create something for them, for a child’s birthday or for a holiday. I already have lots in mind to do for Halloween! Anyway, I apologize for getting off of the dieting topic for a bit, but please tell me – what do you think of these?!?!? Oh, and since you can’t taste them through your ‘puter screen, let me just tell you- they’re complete yumminess!
Over and Under Indulgence
Yesterday, I had two different indulgences- It was my friend Allison’s birthday on Friday and we had made plans for massages at the spa. It was so nice to get away sans kids- and have a day of relaxation and adult conversation. We really had a nice relaxing day, and then we sat and talked for over an hour in the spa after our hour of massaging. I could have spend like six more hours there, and gotten a facial, and a mani/pedi- so even though it was a wonderful experience, I’m going to say that I under indulged there- unfortunately, I don’t think my pockets could have quite afforded much more than what I got!!!!
Since it was Allison’s birthday on Friday, we decided to celebrate her birthday with a nice meal afterwards. We both have kids, so it’s just sooo nice to be able to out to a nice meal with no kid, no highchairs, no kiddie meals nothing kid related whatsoever! We FINALLY decided on a Mexican restaurant in Tyson’s Corner Mall, called, La Sandia Mexican Kitchen. My husband looves mexican food, so I knew he was going to be jealous. We started with a Queso Fundito with some awesome tortilla chips! Then I enjoyed skirt steak tacos, with cheese and bacon. Yes, that meal was sooo not on the Nutrisystem Plan! But, portion control was in effect. I definately ate much more than my stomach wanted to eat! I only ate one of the taco fillings and didn’t even touch the tortilla. Afterwards, I was uncomfortably full- very uncomfortably full. The funny part of that is that a year ago, I could have probably eaten the entire plate and licked it clean, hehe. But by doing NS and portion controlling for the last few months, my belly has changed a lot in it’s likes and dislikes how much it can take. Let’s just say that my belly wasn’t thrilled with all that cheese and fried chips that I took in… I was extremely full like all night.
Anyway…wonderful news this morning. I am down to 147.6- 25.4 lbs lost so far. My goal is about 2 and a half more… but I’m honestly thrilled with where I am right now. The last two and half pounds are just to be able to say that I hit my goal, but in my mind, I’ve hit it already and I couldn’t be happier. I’m fitting very comfortably into my size 10 jeans – that’s all I asked for and that’s what I got. Yay!!!!
Bad Server, oh how you frustrate me so…
Dear Bad Server,
My husband arrived from home from a business trip last night. Our daughters and I decided to pick him up from the airport to greet him with smiling faces. We were excited to go out and celebrate his homecoming with a nice celebratory dinner at one of our favorite restaurants- Lebanese Taverna. It also didn’t help that his flight arrived at 6pm at Regan National and we didn’t want to get stuck in DC rush hour.
When we arrived at the restaurant it took us FOREVER to get greeted by you. We had so much time to look over the menus and knew exactly what we wanted- but you only wanted our drink orders! You were upset when I asked to place our food orders as well- AND even more upset when I asked you to actually write it down, since I was ordering several different mezza (appetizer) plates. So, when you grabbed the bar menu and starting writing our order down I was slightly amused, but a little irritated. I don’t appreciate it that after 10 minutes of waiting after we ordered, that I still had to flag you down to get our drinks delivered. You’d think that the very upset toddler at our table would have caused you to look over and remember that you’d brought nothing to the table, but apparently it was easier for you to ignore the crying. I had also assumed that since you wrote our order down that you’d get it right, but I was wrong! You brought out an extra plate that we never ordered, then you failed to realize that my husband’s meal wasn’t delivered to the table. After waiting about 10 more minutes, we appreciate you AGAIN needing to be flagged down to ask about the missing meal. Thank you so much for finally having that plate delivered.
I seriously do not understand how you could hate our table so much. Do you hate kids? Do you hate your job? Are you just an unhappy person in general? You knew we were upset, but you never once apologized for all of the issues with our meal. I just don’t get it- You really put a damper on my feelings for one of my favorite restaurants. During my diet, I’ve really craved this restaurant and now you’ve put a bad taste in my mouth! THANK YOU for that, rude crappy server… thank you.
I hope you enjoyed your 10% tip- in all honesty, I think you deserved even less than that. I guess you pegged our table as bad tippers from the get-go. And boy were you right-
Hopefully we’ll never meet again-
Kim
**on a side note** My family used to be big social eaters. We enjoy going out to good meals and don’t mind spending money on good food. We’re also normally very good tippers, especially since we’ve had kids. We realize that kids make messes and we clean up as much as we can and still tip very well on good service. But, when we have crappy service, I have no problem leaving a crappy tip. My husband actually said he read an article in the Washington Post about how even when you have crappy service you should still tip 20%, because if the server is having a bad day, a bad tip is going to make them even more upset and have him/her treat the rest of their tables badly as well. I tend to disagree… if you’re having bad service, I think the way to make them realize you weren’t happy is through their tip. If you’re a crummy server, you shouldn’t be in the business! * and yes… I have waited tables before! *
*back on the diet train full force this moring 🙂
My Likes and Dislikes…
I’ve gotten a request or two about what my favorite foods are with Nutrisystem… I figure I’d go through a few things about how the diet works, as well as what foods I enjoy. In all honesty, there is only one thing that I’ve tried that I haven’t liked!
The diet varies a little if you’re a man, or if you have 100+ pounds to lose, so everything I tell you is for a woman with less than 100 pounds to lose.
Your day starts out with breakfast. Along with your Nutrisytem prepacked breakfast, you also get a protein or dairy serving as well as a fruit serving. I like to spread my foods out a little, so I tend to enjoy my breakfast and fruit serving and then an hour or so later, I indulge in a yogurt as my dairy serving. My favorites for breakfast are the Apple Cinnamon Scones, Cranberry Orange Pastries and the Pancake Mixes. The pancake mixes are so versatile, you can make muffins and scones out of them, and of coure regular pancakes, too! I love berries as my fruit serving, and my favorite yogurts are the Dannon Light and Fit 60 calorie yogurts. I usually have a cup of coffee with my breakfast, with splenda, no sugar! I enjoy most of the breakfast pastries that NS has to offer. My husband loved the eggs on the stove top, but not microwaved, and the granola bars are okay. The chocolate chip was my fav of them. The cereals are very good, BUT they are a true serving of cereal. You know…the size serving that you’re actually supposed to eat. Since learning portion control is a huge part of this diet… I h ave decided to stay away from the cereals (except the granola ..yum!) because my mind still can’t wrap itself around the tiny serving of cereal. But, my husband loves the bran flakes, with raisins added in as his fruit serving!
Then comes lunch… you’re supposed to have a prepackaged NS lunch, a salad with FF dressing, and a protein serving. My favorite lunches are in order of yuminess… the bean and ham soup, the vegetable beef soup, any of the lunch bars, and the split pea soup. Most of the soups are good. Oh, and the chicken salad is good-COLD! I love to have a hard boiled egg as my protein serving on top of a HUGE salad with kraft FF catalina dressing. Or, cooking up two 97% FF Hebrew National Hotdogs and cutting them up into the bean and ham soup (helloo beanie weanies) or the split pea and ham soup (with sorta ham). Now, if I do the hotdogs, I can’t have my egg on my salad, but that’s a decision I’ll make when I’m eating lunch. Again, I’ll split up my lunch so I don’t eat too large of a meal at once, and stay fuller longer by smaller meals more often.
Next comes your afternoon snack. You’re allowed a dairy or protein serving and a fruit. I’ve come to really enjoy greek yogurt. They make a delicious Fat Free plain greek yogurt made by FAGE, which is amazing with some strawberries and splenda mixed in. Or you can have a lowfat string cheese and a small apple. I usually have some cheese my favorite new find- Trader Joe’s Freeze Dried Mango!!! D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S !!!
Now it’s time for dinner. Here is where my most unfavoritist meal comes in. The vegetable fajitas, in my opinion, are yucko!!! I tried…and will never again. Other than that- besides the fact that you’re eating what look like very small portions, everything I’ve tried, I’ve really liked. Pizzas, flatbread to be exact, are delicious in the oven. Believe it or not, the hamburgers are very good. We found some 100% whole wheat buns made by Pepperidge Farms that are great for them. I love the lasagna- and have to laugh that there are beans and corn inside of it. The beef tacos are my absolute favorite- I add a dollop of FF greek yogurt to the top like sour cream and it’s awesome. They come with 3 corn tortillas, and I feel like I’m in a mexican restaurant when I eat them. You’re also supposed to eat two vegetable servings AND a salad with dinner. To be honest, it’s gotten hard for me to have the salad with dinner every night. I do try to get in my veggies where I can…but since I’ve lost the weight, it’s been harder for me to get so much food in, sometimes. You’re allowed to have a fruit serving in lieu of the salad with dinner. That has helped me quite a bit * see dessert section. Oh, and you’re also supposed to have a small fat serving with dinner. I forget about it, because I choose to have my fat serving as dessert. I have a tsp of peanut butter every night!! It’s so satisfying to me. My husband chooses to use his fat serving for Mayo for his burgers. The nice part is that there are choices… you do what you like.
Now for dessert/snacks. I’m a sweet person. Very rarely do I crave salts. so, I choose mostly sweets as my snack. Men are lucky, they get a snack and dessert daily. But, as a woman, you only get one. My absolute favorite is a NS fudge brownie, topped with my tsp of peanut butter, half a banana *saved from my dinner fruit, if I dont’ have a salad. Sometimes I do strawberries instead of the banana, but whatever I choose, it’s darn yummy!! I also enjoy the Mint Chocolate Crunch bars, the Chocolate Crunch Bars and the cookies- esp the Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Desserts are my favorite. They’ve come out with a few new ones in the last month that I haven’t been able to try yet, but I’m very excited to do it. My husband’s absolute favorite dessert is a NS homemade ice cream sandwich. I will slice a NS brownie lengthwise and then put about 20 calories of FF cool whip on top and place the top of the brownie back on top. Wrap it up in saran wrap and re freeze. and Viola – an ice cream sandwich. He eats one every night. Says he looks forward to it!!! So, that makes me happy 🙂 Of the savory snacks, I enjoy the honey mustard pretzels and the zesty herb snack mix!
*** I do want to say that these are totally my opinions and tastes only*** It’s amazing how different some people’s tastes are. Even just my husband and I are so different… If you go on the NS message boards, you’ll see people asking for recommendations and what some people love, some hate. I think you need to try everything out and see for yourself. It’s also nice that they give you a free week with the first few orders. It gives you even more of an opportunity to try things out. After ordering for a few months, I’ve continually tweaked my orders and only wind up getting like 4 different dinners and 3 different breakfasts! I like what I like… and that’s all that I like, lol.
I hope those who asked~
xoxo
Kim
140’s – TaDa… Here I am !!!
Any Doodlebops watchers know where my title is coming from, lol. My girls love The Doodlebops and every episode the orange Bop, Moe, hides and waits for the other Doodles to find him. Once they do, he jumps up and yells “TaDa… here I am”. So, now my girls attempt to say it, too. It’s kinda funny to see an (almost) 2 year old try to say that.
Anyway, enough of that…. This morning I got on the scale and it had FINALLY dropped below 150! I weighed in this morning at a wonderful 149.4 🙂 Yay!!!! I’ve been reading on the Nutrisystem message boards that the last few pounds creep off slowly, so I’m fine with that. I’ve technically reached my goal now… now I am shooting for my adjusted goal weight of 145. Who knows, I may even try to go a bit lower once I hit that, since my body is still not pretty. But, what do I expect? My belly carried twins… and at my heaviest during my pregnancy, I was over 75 pounds heavier than I am now. Not to mention the fact that I’ve never been ‘toned’ in my entire life.
Speaking of… not long after Kelly and I got married I was standing in our bathroom realizing that I’d gained weight since we got married and I’d like to lose it. Back then, I was nowhere near my heaviest, I think I was 160 or so. But, my husband (who is and was by no means thin when he said this..) says my new nickname was Titleist. So, I looked at him and thought for a moment, and said “huh…like the golfballs?” Then I realized what he was talking about- He was calling me a golfball butt- because of all it’s indentations… my cellulite!!!!! I started to laugh… and cry… and he felt horrible. He apologized up and down and just felt horrible. I joined Curves the next day. And, in the course of 3 months or so, gained 11 pounds !!! And I promise it wasn’t 11 pounds of muscle! I’m so not a fan of exercise….
K… enough with the stupid stories- I am now officially 23.6 pounds lighter than the day I started Nutrisystem. My current BMI is 24.2 still in the normal range- but I just typed it into some other BMI calculator and it said normal- but marginally overweight. I hate these stupid BMI calculators!! I’m happy, and no longer think I’m overweight, so there!
Please read if you’re considering ordering Nutrisystem !
A good friend just emailed me and said that I (and Tori Spelling, Love Her) inspired her to join Nutrisystem. I am so excited for her and really hope that she enjoys the plan as much as I do!!! I feel badly, though, because I may have caused her to miss out on a discount to the program. You see, Nutrisystem has a program called Buddy Bucks. It’s basically a coupon code that current NS users are able to send to their friends and family (and anyone else for that matter) and they are eligible for $30 off of their first or second order of a 28 day program. It’s nice because once your friend signs up for the program, NS also sends the referrer a $30 discount code.
I’d been procrastinating telling people about this because while I’ve done very well on the diet, and so has my husband; everyone is different. And I just hate pushing my views on people…. I’m always afraid to disappoint people, and afraid that they’re not going to have as much success as I have. Kinda like being afraid to recommend a restaurant that you love to people, for fear that they’ll have a bad meal and think you’re crazy for loving it, hehe.
So, without further ado, if you’re considering ordering a 28 day plan, comment here, or email me with the email address that you’d sign up for the plan with . I will have the code for the discount sent to you- for use on your order. I’d also be more than happy to discuss my favorite foods (and why I like them) and my most unfavoritist foods (and why I don’t like them). I’d also be happy to tell you all about the add ins I use to make the diet the yummiest for me! Just ask- anyone who knows me knows I love to talk…
EDITED TO ADD : Apparently people are seaching wordpress and using tags such as Nutrisystem and it brings you directly to this post. Stupid me- as new to the blogging world as I am, didn’t realize that even though I typed an updated post a few days after this original one, that if you only look at a specific post, you own’t see it!! So, without further ado, here is the link to the “likes and dislikes” post-
https://iamgoingtoloseit.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/my-likes-and-dislikes/
Hopefully that will assist anyone who wants to know my favorites 🙂
I'm going to lose it...my mind that is. 