Better Late than Never

I know it has been a while since I was on here I promise I have not been eating junk and given up on my lifestyle change. I have been busy dealing with my son who is Autistic and trying to get him services in school.   I am back and I am 1 pound away from 60 lbs of weight loss!! WOO HOO! My thyroid was off so we had some medicine adjustment and lets just say my weight has sort of flip flopped I was losing 4 lbs a week for 2 weeks and then gained 2 lbs one week and lost  3 lbs last week! So tomorrow is my weigh in since my medicine was changed again last week I am not real hopeful for big things but just that 1 pound to bring me to my 60 would be awesome! I am going to add some of my daily meals on here and I am going to try to come back more frequently and post recipes and hopefully get some pictures up here because I am a huge foodie and I love taking pics of my healthy recipe's! Hopefully I can get some more followers I am not sure how to get my blog out there! Very new to this blog thing!

Mon-Fri Breakfast is 1 cup of coffee (about 8 oz) 1 tablespoon of vanilla all natural coffee creamer and one Stella Doro S cookie
Sat-Sun is usually a Naked smoothie 8 oz sometimes I will do oatmeal I like the Irish Maple and brown sugar stuff its good and all natural or sometimes I go to Mc Donalds and get the Fruit and Maple its a little high in sugar but the calories are good and I love all the fruit and fiber.

Lunch varies: I do 2 eggs 1 1/4 cup frozen shredded potatoes and a ton of bell peppers this is a little over 300 calories for me but so filling and yummy!
 I also do cereal sometimes with some fruit or Half of a pita stuff full of tuna 1 tablespoon low fat olive oil mayo and a TON of pickles! Then I eat carrots or celery or whatever fresh veggies I have

Dinner is always just a smaller portion of what I feed my family, I give them meat in their pasta sauce I will not have meat and add a little extra garlic and parm cheese I have one piece of bread which is 60 calories because it is a baguette , or I make chili and I get myself 2% cheddar cheese for the top, I put more beans than meat in it and I make my own cornbread and use 1/2% milk and omit things that may be super fattening.

This is just some samples I will come back and give some more recipes I have snacks but they are usually fresh fruit or veggies or a piece of low cal string cheese nuts are great too! Pistachios are wonderful and GREAT for you!

The Vow

Going to go a little off topic today, I watched The Vow while running on the treadmill the other day :) It was a very sad movie. I thought it was going to be a little bit sad but I thought for sure she would just wake up and remember everything and they would fall back deeply in love. It did not end up like that! It was sad but Channing Tatum is oh so sexy in that movie! So basically I had one point in the movie that sort of REALLY touched me. It was when her mother said this" "I didn't leave your dad for one thing he did wrong, but I stayed with him for all the things he did right" I know most will not agree and that is okay! Basically I have gone my whole life thinking "once a cheater always a cheater" but as I age I become much MUCH wiser and after being married for almost 12 years and been with my husband for over 13 years now and in a military environment I have seen and been through my fair share of things. I know that some people stay, relationships are not perfect and they take so much work. If you have had a fairy tale life GREAT! I am so happy that there are some people who go their whole lives with no hiccups, but we are not one of those couples. I struggle daily with the things I have been through but I do have to say the good out weigh the bad and I am GRATEFUL for where we are today. I have finally just come to the point where I move forward everyday and I enjoy the things each day has to bring. Anywho the movie just really made me think and reflect on things we have been through and where do I want to be in the years to come as my children become teens and then adults.

Great Week!

I weighed in Thursday but life has been really busy so I am reporting in today! I really beefed up my exercise and added in 8 lbs weights which together makes 16 and its quite a work out! I have also been adding more floor exercises in so I do that before I hop on the treadmill. I lost 4 lbs last week! That is pretty amazing! Its more than I am supposed to lose but I really did not do much other than adding in the bigger weights, I still ate normally, in fact I cheated a few times and had little fun size candy bars 6 to be exact :) but that was over the week that was not all in one day. So now I have lost 53lbs and I have 30 even to lose! Well to get to my first goal weight! Its basically a weight I will be happy with as long as I am able to continue to tone up. My stomach still looks so flabby to me! I am pretty sure I have my work cut out for me over the year! It makes my days go faster though, I always have something to do, something to look forward to, and something to feel good about myself for doing! I love that I fit in regular people clothing, I don't have to look at something and think how cute it is and be ashamed that my fat ass can't fit in it! I am still fat don't get me wrong! 30lbs is still a bit of weight to lose but I look WAY better now than I did 53 lbs ago! I will always be a little bit fat, I am like Bridget Jones, I could never be skinny, I just love food and I don't want to cut it out of my life, but I can have a healthy BMI and be healthy and still eat things I love in moderation. I wanna keep the booty and my boobs I just don't want ALL this extra fat! It's hard not to be ashamed when I look at myself.

Before and After

I have a picture I found of myself when I needed to lose 83lbs it is NOT pretty. Before I post it up I just wanted to put my weigh in on here which was another 2lbs this week! 34lbs left to lose! I really wanted to say that you must find a happy balance when losing weight, if you eat to little you will find it very difficult to lose the weight because your body will hoard everything you eat, I learned a very hard lesson when I continued eating 1200 calories and burning probably 300-400 a day my body HATED me and I was so confused why I wasn't losing the weight! I bumped it up to 1500-1600 and such a BIG difference. I have yet to hit a plateau, please remember the more you lose each week the easier it is to gain it back if you slip up! I will lose 2lbs and say I slip and eat one to many rice crispy treats (I did this last week) well the next day I eat good and exercise and still lose 2lbs the next week, If I lost more than 3lbs I can guarantee I would gain some of that weight back. Please allow yourself semi healthy treats, and drink water! I have been putting lemon in all my drinks this week even when I work out and I feel better and its almost been a natural laxative. TMI I know but my thyroid SUCKS! I have some weeks where it will be a week and I still can't go and this REALLY hinders the weight loss! Which is why my Dr is following me closely! I need to make sure my numbers do not get off or it can be chaos! Anywho without further ado my before and after pictures! sorry the new picture is blurry my camera was having issues!

Another Week Down

I didn't post earlier because I was very busy but I did lose 2 more pounds this week. So I have 36lbs to lose. Although I have been looking at my body and thinking I will just make this sort of my Short Term goal, I am thinking I will probably need to lose about 15-20lbs more to get to a real GOAL! So if I lose all that I will pretty much be at 100lbs of weight loss. I have been really hard on myself this week. I HATE hate HATE that I have gotten so fat. I was sitting looking at myself in my XXL sweat pants, and I looked at my husband and said " Its sad that these used to fit" he looked confused and said "don't you mean happy?" I had to explain that yes I am happy that I am losing weight but sad that I was so fat! These pants just hang off me now they used to be like a more fitted fleece yoga pant, its what I live in now days, I look 10x bigger than I am but why would I buy clothes when I am weekly dropping weight? In one month I could lose 12lbs and I can not keep buying clothes. I did recently buy a super cute outfit and its a little snug, well it was a lot snug 2 weeks ago and now its feels just a slight snug and I bet in 1-2 weeks it will fit perfect! I have to have things to treat myself when I hit goals, I am just a few lbs from losing 50! When I hit that I will take pictures and get something non food related! So far things have been great, I am losing weekly and I feel great! I am pretty sure I have added years on to my life.

The Story

Today I weigh in early due to being a girl! Basically when its that special time my body will not show the weight loss.. It hoards my water weight so I weigh in before this happens! 2lbs lost this week! I only have 38lbs to go ! Started out at 83lbs to lose and 15weeks later I am at 38lbs.
  So Why is this girl so fat? Why does she get thin and get fat? ( Go ask Oprah) hee hee Just kidding. Well as a child I had an awful life. My dad did drugs and my mom was just too young to have me and my brother. The things I had to see, the fact that my mother used treats as rewards just really gave me the wrong impression of food. If she was depressed we went to get donuts or cupcakes. I was also on prednisone because my parents were not very cleanly, and I had really bad asthma and so I was on the machine and taking medicine quite a bit. My poor knees could not even take the weight when I hit 8th grade and I was at 200lbs I ended up in knee braces for a while. Anywho you know you get older and get the big picture and I learned how to take care of myself, and get that weight off. Then married into the military and MANY times just ate my problems away! Although right now I am doing great I could relapse after losing it.. I hate that. Food really is an addiction. Especially for people who have just a wide range of issues. Right now I am super strong and I feel like I need to get healthy and I hope that I can keep that up. I need to be healthy for my kids, I need to be a great example for them, no treats like cupcakes we have treats like homemade fruit roll ups, or I hand make things and can omit a lot of sugar and crap. Treats are not given for good behavior, treats are just a treat when we want a little treat! Basically I have to trick my brain and get it out of that old way of thinking. Now it has gotten a bit sick, I almost hate myself for eating anything. When I eat something I think about how many calories is this, should I be eating right now, I usually just eat half or less than half of everything. I realize this could be a problem too, but I am eating, I do hit my calorie goals and lets face it I have a ton of weight to lose. I am tired of being fat. I am still fat when I look in the mirror. I loathe the fat stomach that I see, and nothing looks good on me. There will always be a life long battle of this thinking. When I Was fat I never looked in the mirror and I NEVER took pictures of myself. Now I can look at my face and I see changes its just not how I want to look.

Another Day!

After my 3lbs weight loss last week my weekend was a little on the BAD side! Although I got some good exercise in I did partake in some not so good food! Like Yates Cider mill Donuts and cider! I only had one donut and about 4oz of the cider but I had a few other pit falls like Wine (I love a good red wine) and french fries! I thought I could just eat 6 fries and that was it but they were homemade they were sooo good! So Bad weekend but Monday I started fresh and new and that's how the cookie crumbles! If I ate good all the time this would just not work. This does account for my wide range of weight loss from 1-3lbs if I am REALLY good I can get a 3lbs weight loss if I am not so good I can expect to lose 1 lbs probably meaning I gained back 2 lbs and then lost 1 lbs later in the week LOL. I have always battled with my weight, 10 years old I was fat and it just sort of escalated from there I was probably about 215lbs in high school when I decided to do something and although I never weighed myself I went from a size 18 to a size 10 so I lost some serious weight I looked awesome and kept it off until I got pregnant, even after pregnancy I dropped a ton of weight and then I must have been like 260lbs when she hit a year old. I had to buy Men's XXL sweatpants... I dropped down to 230 and got pregnant with my son about a year later and then I dropped a TON of weight after I had him and put it all back on until he hit 2 and I got serious. I lost 50lbs and was in a size 14 no not skinny but I looked great! I kept that off for a year and gained it all back, got pregnant again and put on another 33lbs.. So this time around I have 83lbs just to get to that size 14 weight, although this time once I hit my goal I will not just stop! I will continue doing everything I do now except I will knock down my work out to 3x a week instead of 5. That way I hopefully can maintain and maybe lose a few lbs here and there over the months. My goal is probably unlike most, everyone wants to be skinny, lots of people get to that point but I like a little weight on myself, I just want to be healthy. Curvy yet healthy. Eating should be healthy AND tasty!

Weigh In

Fridays are generally my weigh in days except if I go to the Dr. and get weighed by her. I only weigh in 1x a week though. This is a MUST! Seriously I have weighed myself more and my weight fluctuates up to 5lbs! That's quite a bit of difference. Anyway today brought my weight loss to 43lbs! So if you do the math I have lost a total of 3lbs this week!  WOO HOO! I am going to say this is probably due to my added strength training this week. I thought I would bring a quick little recipe over here it is a Treat because everyone has a sugar tooth and you need treats.. You will FAIL if you take all treats away.


Faux Ice Cream Sandwich

2 Vanilla pizzelles
2 Tablespoons Reddi whip

Put Reddi Whip on one cookie and then sandwich the other one on top (don't squish) place in freezer for 20 minutes and pull it out and enjoy! This little treat is about 65 calories and less than 3 grams of sugar!

Not a diet a Lifestyle change

So I was going to make this into my MI eats everywhere blog, but shortly after I started this I started my lifestyle change! Last week I hit my 40lbs mark. Tomorrow will be week 14. So Daily I am going to come on share my strengths and falls (We all have them) and share my progress! It seems like everywhere I go when I tell people I have lost weight they want to know how I do it! All I can say is I wish I could tell them I sit on my behind and eat chocolate cookies everyday and the weight just melted off! Lets face it everyone wants the miracle diet and there just is not one. I work my behind off everyday, I focus on what goes into my  body and I am always thinking of new ways to make the next day better. I still have 43lbs to go do not get me wrong. I am a big girl, I have a lot of weight to lose but I think I have a lot to offer! Especially since I have a thyroid disorder and it makes life that much harder! The week I step on the scale and I lost nothing it was heart breaking, but you go in and visit your Dr. and learn your numbers are off! I changed my meds and lost 4lbs the next week! All I can say is go in, get a physical and talk with your Dr. What is a good weight loss for you? My Dr. said at my age I can lose 3lbs a week safely! That does not mean I will lose that amount of weight, in fact most weeks its 1-2lbs which is normal, especially for a lifestyle change! This week I added extensive strength training as I looked at myself really well in the mirror and seen some sag in the arms and the belly! GREAT weight loss, boo for saggy skin! Heavy weights, and push ups, sit ups, and leg ups! I have to work all parts of my body. Although after having 2 children one 10lbs and one 11lbs and then a 3rd oddball at 7 lbs sad to say my stomach will never be the same as it was before babies came! But my fat has a story and everyone's does! I do not want to be skinny, I want to be healthy. I love my curves, I am not ugly but too much of anything is never a good thing.

Mackinac Island

After 11 years my husband and I took a vacation without our children. It was so nice, I always just feel so high strung when I have all 3 kids around, always worrying about something! It felt nice to just be carefree for 4 whole days! So I am here to blog about places we ate and things we did! We took the 75N and stopped in at the birch run outlets, they are just stores nothing really exciting but I got some shopping done and it was so peaceful not telling my children not to touch things! Frankenmuth is less than 10 minutes up the road from the outlets so we headed there for lunch and a quick look at the cuckoo cuckoo clock shop! We ate at Zehnders, they have great food and the atmosphere is awesome! Being German myself it brought me back to when my grandma used to cook for me! The spatzle was amazing and the german pickles were sooo good! I have to say they are known for their chicken and I thought it was mediocre to say the least, but my husband got the sausage and it was fantastic!
      We lodged at the Bridgeview Hotel, it was great! Although we just slept there it was very clean and comfortable, and the breakfast was really good and there was a nice selection of foods. Our first night in Mackinaw City we ate at Nona Lisa's, they have great food and the prices are decent. I would have to recommend the fried ravioli! Yummy and total diet breaker! We also ate at Dixie Saloon, service was super crappy but I had the fish and chips and it was amazing! So light and tasty! My husband had the roasted chicken and red potatoes and it was great! The portions are huge! When our food came we realized we should have just shared because we wasted a lot of food! The last night there we ate at Cunninghams Family Restaurant and the service was great and the atmosphere was so wonderful it was like being home for christmas! I just had a sandwich while my husband had their perch and it was amazing! Seriously if you like fish get the perch! Then we shared a slice of Lemon Meringue pie and that was also fantastic! They have a ton of pies so if lemon is not your thing they had well over 10 varieties.
    We ventured over the Mackinac bridge and into the UP, it was a beautiful drive. We headed to the tahquamenon falls. I wanted to bring this up because we got a flyer from the Mackinaw city website that had some confusing information on it. It said it was 55miles from the city. It was about 72 miles total. Also it talks about it taking 2 hours to get to the falls but what  it fails to tell you is that you can just park at the park pay 10$ for parking and walk just a short distance to the falls.. LOTS of stairs though so be prepared! But do the stairs because the view is amazing! There is also a microbrewery there and it has GREAT food! I also had their Blueberry Ale and it was sooo good! It was like drinking a blueberry pie. The pasties are amazing, and so are the nachos.
   It really was a fabulous trip. The Island was beautiful. It was very expensive so we did not eat on the island but we bought our weight in fudge :) I can't wait to go back and the alone time with my husband was amazing! We brought no electronics and we probably watched TV for a total of 1 hour the whole time we were there.

The 24lbs Present

I have had a picture of a tattoo I wanted for quite a while. Well I had some things happen and lets just say I needed some real pain to mask the heartache! So Off I went to American Pride Tattoo's, I seen an artist named Austin and he took my Tattoo virginity away so to speak. It really does look awesome. It hurt like HELL, no way will I get another but it's symbolism is my everyday life,my children asked how long it will be there and I said until I die and go to hell.. LOL. I will post a picture and I will be posting a link to American Pride Tattoo's  facebook page, in case anyone out here in MI has a hankering for some pain and beautiful art!

https://www.facebook.com/americanpridetattoos

Losing weight

I promised myself once we got settled here in Michigan I would be losing this weight and eating right. Not a diet but a lifestyle change! I have taken most the crap out of our cupboards, but this did not mean I could not over eat. I feel like I just woke up 5 weeks ago and it snapped! I had no clue what that felt like, I have read it in books, and blogs on line, but never experienced this for myself. Well it happened! I am no longer hungry everyday, I am working out and feeling great! 21lbs down. I thought I would share some of my foods and exercise plan. Most people seem to be interested in this. I do not deny myself treats, I will say that I have had small portions of ice cream and I make small cookies so I can eat 3-4 and feel satisfied without breaking my calories.

First step was joining Myfitnesspal.com I track EVERY calorie. Now that I am on week 5 I pretty much just log it all in at the end of the day and I am usually well within my range. I know what to eat and how much of it I can eat.

Second Step: Removing ALL colored sodas, I drink sprite 1x a week as a treat to myself, all other drinks are water and I drink a glass between meals and with every meal.

Third Step: Removing half the carbs your allowed everyday. I make sure at the end of the day I have only eaten 1/2 of what I am supposed to eat, according to Myfitnesspal.com.

Fourth step: Add tons of fruits and veggies!

Okay so these steps I added slowly, not all at once, I just became more conscience of what I was eating and then came the last step! 

Step # 5 EXERCISE, yes I added this LAST! I hate exercising, being a big girl its not fun, boobs flying everywhere, butt jiggling, sweat rolling within 5 minutes, yeah it is not cute! So I got a good sports bra, compression shorts to tuck that jiggle booty, and I started doing Zumba Rush with the kinect 5 days a week! At first I could barely make it through 4 songs week number 5 and I am doing 8 songs! On the weekend I lift hand weights and do  sit ups. 

 This is my routine! I have learned to love it and its just another day. Just to let you know I tried to eat a hamburger the other day and I got very sick because my body was not used to that fat, lesson learned, I can not eat like that anymore! Anyhow I have my own recipe that I tried today and it is very yummy! 

Black Bean and Cheese Quesadillas

2 corn tortillas (Small)

1/4 cup black beans

2 Tblsp cheese

Just put them in a frying pan with nothing spread the beans and the cheese between the two when it gets soft fold it over like a taco! I put a little cholula on mine I like it spicy! They are yummy and filling and you will only cost yourself about 300 calories!

We are for equal rights

Lots of Chick Fil-A posts have been going around, I had the pleasure of reading a nice debate about the news that spilled out. I have always known CFA was Christian based. That's fine, you can believe that same sex marriages are a sin all you want, its when you put money from your business into supporting anti-gay rights, that really gets me going. This is America and we can all think whatever we want, but when you take your own way of thinking and want to take other peoples rights away, this is when I will boycott the CRAP out of CFA! First off we need to keep religion and state separate.. There is no reason why people should get to vote on anyone's rights as a human being, just because their religion states its wrong! I got news for you, they don't want to get married in your church anyway, and they certainly don't want to raise a family with your views! So yes I will no longer eat at CFA, because they openly came out and said they gave BILLIONS of dollars to support anti gay groups. So no, my money probably won't stop much, but I can rest assured I am not contributing to hate.

Pete's Coney II

My Husband and I have been to Pete's ConeyII about 3 times since we have gotten to MI. The service is wonderful, the staff is GREAT, and the food is like home cooking without having to mess my kitchen up! The first time I went I had to get a Coney dog, their chili is wonderful! We have been to some other Coney's and theirs has really made an impression. My husband gets the gyro every time we go, he just loves it that much! Price is very reasonable, and they have a great variety! I will attach a link to their facebook page, they have coupons and information there!
Pete's ConeyII

Dog Collars

My brother makes fabulous dog collars! I invite you to take a look at his wonderful work. He has a ton of fabric to choose from, and he ships just about everywhere.

Doggy Couture

My name is Nichole and I have recently moved to Michigan! We are a military family and have been moving around for 11 years. My husband got stationed in Michigan and we are finally near family. I decided to start a blog about my adventures. We have bought our first house, and I am feeling like I can plant my roots here and as I learn my way around I hope to share my expierence.
     I have a lot to write about, my son has Aspergers and I hope to help bring information to my blog for others who need help or support, my husband and I have been sampling the lovely Coney Islands here and I would love to report back on all the great places and food we have tried, and finally I have transitioned my home to all natural and hope to share my tips and recipes!