Weight loss challenge (low fat/no fat)

Did I ever tell you that I'm certified in fitness and nutrition...you wouldn't know it from looking at me.  But I am.
I studied fitness and nutrition for about a year, thinking it would help me along in my own goals.  I may or may not be still certified, I believe that it is a once a year thing, but I still have the knowledge.  I know that calories in have to be less than calories out for you to lose weight.  I know that you should exercise, and eat well, and eat whole foods, not processed.  I know the things that I need to be doing.  Lately, I just haven't been putting them into effect.

I did well last week, I'm eating breakfast consistently with my coffee every morning.  I find that I'm actually hungry in the mornings, when I wasn't before.  I can tell that I'm beginning to have a little more energy throughout the day.  Maybe it was all that was needed was some breakfast.  My breakfasts are mainly just cereal, even when I don't feel like having cereal.  Its the easiest to get, sometimes making eggs in the morning is just a little too much for me, lol.  Overall, it seems to be working.  I did FINALLY weigh myself on Sunday.  So I have my weight amount, probably due to retaining water, I was up a lot more than I was today.  I'm going to keep a little chart for my Monday weight loss challenge days.

So this week, I am challenging myself to make more low fat/no fat meals.  When I go grocery shopping to get the low or no fat depending on what it is.  I still have some normal items in my cupboards and fridge, but this is a slow process.  I cannot just throw away the food in the house.  Hopefully it will get easier and easier, and we will all ease into this new way of life, slowly but surely.

Monday 2/21: -3.6 lbs

Pictures of encouragement!  This was in 2009, soon after my husband came home from Iraq.  We were at a ball with friends!  It was a lot of fun.  Please excuse the goofy looks, and the bathing suit tan, HA!

Book Lover Friends...

I love my books.
I have a special place in my heart for all books.  Good or bad, old or new, from Childrens books to Encyclopedias.  They all have a place.

A long time ago, I came across this website that you can swap out your older books with ones you maybe haven't read.  I didn't actually try it until we moved back to the states though.  I have been consistently using this site for a few months now, and I LOVE it.  So I wanted to share it with my readers.

Sometimes you don't get the newest books out there, sometimes you don't get the books in the best of brand new shape.  But you can still choose from thousands of books, some that maybe you've wanted to read for a while, some that maybe are newer and you don't mind waiting for.  Overall though, its a great website.

Books should be read, and passed onto others to read, they shouldn't collect dust on your bookcase...just my opinion.

In comes this website:Paper Back Swap

The basic gist of the site, is you input books that you no longer read, but someone may be interested in...I've listed everything from board books, to comic books on the site, and a lot of them are wanted.  Once someone requests your book, you ship it off, that person will tell the site when it has been received, and you get a credit for sending it.  You can then use that credit to get a book that you want.

If you sign up, you can input 10 books onto your bookshelf (doesn't matter what books they are, just books) and you get 2 free credits, so you can try it out for yourself and see if you like it as well.

I thought it was a great site though, and I've been meaning to say something, I just kept forgetting, so go check out the site for yourself.  I have so many books they are coming out of my ears now, and I LOVE it!  Ohhhh...and you can do this from an APO as well!  =)

Now go forth and read, my bookworm friends!

Friday Fill in 2/18

Its been a crazy week, first off, Paul is in this "field" thing right now.  He works from about 9am until almost 8pm every night for about a month and a half now.  This week, since they had worked out that everyone was supposed to get a four day (just in random order), he has been "off" since Wednesday.  I put off in quotations because he's been working.  Wednesday, he had to go into work twice.  Thursday he had to go into work twice.  Both times interrupting our plans for the day.  Yesterday, he had to leave me at Walmart so that he could rush into work.  Only to find out that he wasn't really needed.  So yeah, I've been a little annoyed at the whole thing.  It is the army though, so its just one of those things, sigh....

Okay, so I'm going to take my mind off of all this, and do the Friday fill in this week!




1.What is your favorite MilSpouse blog (not including Wife of a Sailor who we all love, or your own)? submitted by Our Crazy Life

There are many great blogs out there...it would be really hard to choose just one.  However, I can tell ya one that I've recently come across that I really enjoy reading.  But I follow probably about 100 blogs that I read consistently.  This is just a newer one that I've added to my blogroll!  The Annoyed Army Wife.  She's funny, she's witty, and she's very entertaining to read.  If you haven't checked her out yet, go!  =)

2.What are your favorite perks about your s/o being deployed (we all know there are perks)? submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife

Perks, what are you talking about..there are no perks, this is madness....okay,okay... I'll admit there are a FEW perks, but they NEVER outweigh the downsides to my husband being gone!  I would definitely say that its cheaper around here, we don't have an extra person eating, I get a discount on insurance, I don't have a cell phone of his to pay, we also don't have to pay for his gas.  Then there is the cleaning aspect...my bathroom doesn't get as dirty, my laundry pile isn't so big, I don't have to wait for him to get to something, I have to rely on myself (that's a good and a bad thing, lol.)  I am also more independent when he's gone, I get out of the house more, and do more things because of it being a little cheaper around here, and the fact that he can't tell me he doesn't want to go, lol.  Yeah there are perks, but they don't ever come close to outweighing the perks when he IS here!

3.How long did you date your before getting engaged? Married? submitted by Utterly Chaotic

Our situation is different.  We met online, talked for a good two months before we even met...started dating when we met, September 2001, I found out I was pregnant, we got married December 2001.

Basically just three months between dating and marrying.  No engagement here.

4.What do you think your would do if s/he wasn’t in the military? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared

Paul would be in computers, just like he is now.  It may not have started out that way, but it would have ended up like that.  He loves his job, his networking and all, and he would do it on the outside as well.

5.If you could talk to the Secretary of Army what is one suggestion you would like to bring to their attention in order to improve the lives of military families? submitted by My Life as His (Air Force) Wife

I have no idea?!  Probably I would ask for more time with my soldier.  2 weeks during a 12-15 month deployment is NOT enough...make it three please!  Oh and these mini vacations that they can take through the year that they are home...they just don't give them enough time to be home, to spend with their families.  Its disappointing, but it is what it is.  I would love more time, but I chose this life with him, and I'm willing to deal with it for him.

The end!  =)

Weight loss challenge (breakfast)....

I haven't had much in the way of motivation lately.  I've gotten HUGE...at least by my standards....and most dr.'s standards.  I have all of the tools to lose this weight, but motivation has been waning.  So I'm going to take this week by week, and do ONE challenge a week to incorporate.  This week I'm working on BREAKFAST.

I've noticed that since I started drinking coffee, I tend to skip breakfast, even if I am hungry.  So I am going to try to remember to eat breakfast, even if its just a small bowl of cereal, or oatmeal.  Just something, yogurt, fruit.  Whatever works.  This morning I had some honey nut cheerios with ff milk.  Measured, and actually ate less than the portion size.  I feel satisfied enough, and I feel a little more awake surprisingly now that I ate some breakfast.  Weird.

I am going to weigh myself tomorrow.  Which means its probably going to be a very BAD day for me tomorrow, lol.  I tend to be very depressed when I weigh myself.....SIGH. =(

Instead of being all mopey today, I decided to just incorporate my challenge instead.  I need some sort of motivation, and maybe eating breakfast will give me the energy I need to go on with my day.  

Did you know that most successful weight losers...eat breakfast on a daily basis.  Its good for you.

Eat Breakfast to Lose Weight  (check out the article).

AND please, wish me luck!!  =)

I want to look like HER again!!!!! 

Under water, and nose bubble and all!

 

Feb. 14

Happy
Valentine's 
Day
My
Loves!

I wish you LOVE, HUGS, KISSES, and COMFORT.  This Vday.  OH and of course, chocolate, flowers, and jewelry!!  =)  I hope you all have a great day.

Steph 

PW newest picture challenge...

This week PW (aka Pioneer Woman) is doing another photo challenge.  Her latest request is "love."  One of my favorite pictures I decided to crop, add things to, and mess with the color.  I am going to show you the original, and the new version.  Please tell me what you think.

 I really don't like to use photo shop too much on my pictures.  I'm not comfortable with it, and I think that sometimes pictures are beautiful without it.  BUT- I love how this one turned out.  It just adds a bit MORE to the photo.  Please tell me your thoughts, positive or negative, really I want to hear your opinions, I take criticism well, and would love to hear it!!

Friday Fill in!

Hey everyone!  So Wife of a Sailor wasn't able to get to the fill in this week!  Everyone has things that come up, so its understandable.  So I decided to back track and do one from a few weeks ago that I didn't do.  Here we go:

1. What do you usually want to know about someone when meeting them for the first time?
That depends.  I am actually a bit shy when I first meet people, so all I want to know is a name.  Once I warm up to people, I ask questions.  One of the first is if they have kids, or are married.  Those are two things that I would look for in commonalities.  Not to say that if you don't, that I won't be your friend, I have many friends who are single and childless, or one or the other, but if you do, and are, then I can start from there.  I find that I do hang out a lot more with people in the latter, especially the married ones.  I've found that sometimes singles are a little too wild for my tastes.  I need friends who are calmer and will encourage good things and positivity in my life.



2. Would you rather know everything about your spouse, or be regularly surprised?
I think I would rather be surprised.  Knowing everything about your spouse can get old.  But I surely know who my spouse is as a person, but I don't think I'll ever know EVERYTHING.  Will anyone ever truly know everything.  I mean unless you grew up in the house with your spouse, and you were with your spouse every waking second of every day, you might know everything, but still you are not in his/her head, and will never truly know EVERYTHING.

3. If you could live in one city for the rest of your life, where would you live?
This is a tough one.  I would have to choose Colorado Springs.  I haven't lived in many places in my lifetime.  The bulk of my life has been in Texas, with 4 years in CO, and 3 years in Germany.  Now I'm back in TX.  While TX is where I grew up, I have a love for CO, and would love to go back someday.  Its where we would like to make our way back to eventually.


4. When you go out of town, what one material thing do you ALWAYS take?
My laptop.  I cannot live without it, and don't know how I survived this long without it.  Or at least some sort of internet connection.  LOL.  TG for Smart Phones!  =)



5. Using no more than 10 nouns, and ONLY nouns, describe yourself.
Hmmm...this is a hard one.  
Wife, Mother, Sister, Daughter, Texas, Army Spouse, Fun (counts as a thing right?), Colorado, Germany, Internet, Blogger, Addict (only to the good things, no bad things addict, lol)

Well, look at that, I actually came up with more than 10, well just in case some of those aren't really classified as nouns...I'll leave it up, lol. 

Never thought...

that I would admit to this.  Germany wasn't sunny all of the time.  As a matter of fact it rained a LOT.  A lot more than I wanted to deal with.  It was depressing.  I am solar powered, and needed that sun.  But MAN- when it was sunny, it was GORGEOUS.  You cannot get that everywhere.  In Texas, its sunny most of the time, but its not soooo pretty.  =(  Colorado was just about perfect for me (weather wise), but still....I miss the beauty that was in Germany, on good days, you could look at your surroundings and feel at peace.  Sigh...

Numbering comments on my blog...

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to number my comments on my blog!  Yay!  =)

If you would like to know how to number your comments here is the link that finally allowed me to do this: How-To

Please bear with me, as I'm trying to get my blog updated a bit, I just added new font to it as well.  I am still learning my way around the blog hemisphere, so I promised that I would try to update something every day!  I updated 2 today, so I guess I'm good for two days, HA!  Thanks for reading!

Stephanie

Short n sweet.

Found this, and thought some of you may be interested:
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