Crazy week ahead!

Hey everyone! I've got a crazy week ahead of me and I'm way too excited about everything that's coming up!

1. Today my sister's and I are going to make cookies, Cake balls, Pretzel Treats and some other goodies for me to take to Andy's parents house tomorrow night!

2. Tomorrow night Andy and I are driving to San Diego. (Andy's from San Diego.)We are going to spend a few nights at Andy's parent's house with Andy's sisters, their significant others and Andy's nieces and nephews. I guess that makes me an aunt! :) We're going to have Christmas a few days early with them which is going to be a blast! Can't wait!

I am also really excited that Andy gets 2 weeks off to spend with me. Being a teacher is awesome.

3. Monday we're going to....

Disneyland! With our friends Brett and Adina. I'm pretty stoked as I love Disneyland around the holidays. Andy and I used to have a season pass but it expired last year and we haven't renewed since.

4. I'm excited for Christmas with my family. Hands down. It's always a good time. My youngest sibling is 8 this year and it's still magical to him. So I really love being able to watch him get excited about presents and the tree and etc.

5. Then after Christmas, we're going to VEGAS with Andy's parents. YAY!

Pretty much BOMB.com. I definitely need some excitement in my life.

Today's going to be a busy day but I'll post pics of all of the yummy treats we bake and etc. Afterwards I have my orientation at school. I can't believe I'll be a credential student in 3 weeks!

Taking a serious look at my life

I lost a pound this week. Not terrible but not exactly what I wanted. That means I have three weeks to lose seven pounds. It can be done...but the holidays are RIGHT around the corner. How am I going to tackle this?

My plans are to track what I eat down to every bite, lick and taste. I am going to run today immediately after I hit publish on this post for about 45 minutes. After my run, I'll try some of the weight machines at our apartment gym out. Question: Do you weight train before or after cardio?

As for the eats, I could always do better!



The people over at Vitalicious sent me and Andy some vitamuffins and brownies to sample. (For free, I was not paid to write about their product.)



As soon as the box arrived on my doorstep, I froze the muffins and brownies. When I was ready to eat one, I plopped it in the mircowave for 30 seconds.



Then I topped it with light whipped cream, vanilla ice cream (I actually measured out a proper serving size of 1/2 cup) and some caramel. Including the muffin, this dessert ended up at about 300 calories. I think next time, I'll put only half a muffin with my dessert. I was super full afterwards.



I also received these noodles from the folks at Al Dente Pasta. While Andy cooked the turkey italian sausage, I started boiling the water for the noodles. Once the water is boiling, you throw in the noodles for a mere 4 minutes. Our noodles weren't done until about 6 minutes.



Look, there's no way to make a sausage look attractive. (TWSS!) But I digress, I served up the pasta with some tomato sauce, a turkey italian sausage for protein and some roasted asparagus. The flavor of the pasta was great. I love whole wheat pasta but this didn't even taste like whole wheat. My only gripe about these noodles is that they stick together easily. (Maybe operator error?) Anyway the stats for this meal aren't terrible...about 400 total with tons of fiber from the pasta and the sauce.

I am going to a Weight Watcher's meeting tomorrow so I'll post my weigh in stats from that and let you know how it goes. I think it will be good for me to sit through a meeting right before the holidays start. I'm hoping that increasing my workouts and decreasing my caloric intake works for me. Otherwise I'll be one disappointed girl come January 5th.

So tell me, any tips for me? Remember I'm trying to lose the healthy way. No cabbage soup diet, slim fast or mystery maple syrup drinks for me. Less ice cream might help though!

Christmas!

Christmas has been fantastic so far.
Last night we came home from my parents and checked the mail. Look at how many cards we have! Most of them are from Andy’s students.
Andy and I opened our stockings first thing this morning.
Andy got me some of this Italian red wine, I’ve never tried this kind. I’m pretty excited about sampling it.
I put it in the wine cabinet with the rest of the liquor.
My parents got us a blender! I was so thrilled to open this gift. It comes with a food processor attachment!!! I will be making smoothies and salsa! Woo!
I almost don’t want to show you breakfast because it was so so fatty.

Bacon, sausage, a cinnamon roll, sourdough toast with butter, potato pancakes and scrambled eggs. And I had a mimosa. I am pounding down ice water as I write this entry. Tis the season!
The big family gift was a Wii. Now we’ll have to visit my parents more.
My little brother and sister pose with the wii.

I love how ridiculous the living room gets during the holidays. So much fun!



More to come later! Enjoy your day!