Baylor's 100th Homecoming

This past weekend was Baylor's 100th Homecoming. For those that don't know, every year, some of my friends (and their children) from college get together and spend the weekend enjoying the festivities and remembering our college days. This year was no different. We had a great time with coffe at Common Grounds (I went 3 times in 3 days!), dinner at Ninfa's (one of our favorite spots), watched the pep rally, bonfire, parade, and football game. I thought I would share a few pictures from the weekend.

An adorable family and some of my best friends!

At the bonfire!

Our amazing Baylor Bear! Sic 'em!

My favorite float of the parade...Jungle Book (of course by the KOTs)

Bailey and I at the parade! We became best friends this weekend.

With the fun and busy weekend, there wasn't too much time to carefully watch what I was eating. I must admit to splurging here and there, and I became very worried about my Monday weigh in. I am sad to report that I lost no weight this week, but happy to report that at least I didn't gain from the weekend out of town. Hopefully next Monday will bring better results.

Below is my food for today. Today was random workout day and I will report on that later this week.

Waffles

Since the disaster of pancake making, I bought a cheap waffle maker to try and use my pancake mix that way instead. Tonight was the first attempt, and I would say it was mostly a success. The first ones didn't turn out too firm, so I decided to pop them in the toaster, and that actually worked out quite nicely. I did discover though, that I didn't think they were too feeling. Thank goodness I could have IheartYogurt for dessert! They have so many different flavors that average 22 calories an ounce. I had enough calories for 9.5 ounces and tried to guesstimate and went a little over at 11.5 (they weigh it for you and that is how you pay), so 44 extra calories, not too bad.

Tomorrow I am off to Waco for Baylor homecoming! I am ready for a fun weekend away with old friends. I know there will be tempting foods and foods that I am unsure of the calories of....so I will try to be careful! Hopefully on Monday I will have an ok weigh in and fun pictures to share! Have a great weekend!

Jack in the Box

I ventured to a new place for dinner tonight, Jack in the Box. Come dinner time, I had 610 calories left. There is an app on my iPhone called Lose It. It is a great program that allows you to keep track of all of your food and exercise as well as keep track of your weight loss progress. The program stores foods you have created, but also has so many restaurant and grocery store foods built into it. So, I pulled into the parking lot and scrolled through my options. I found on that I could get the Chicken Fajita Pita for 300 calories and a small Natural Cut Fry for 268. I liked the pita so much that I decided to take a picture and post it. I don't think that pita looks like something you would get from a drive thru, Not bad for a place that my sister and used to call Jack in the Crack!

Souffle!!

I don't know what my deal has been for the last few days, but I have just not wanted to blog. I have no idea why, but I have just not been in the mood. It's not that I ate bad things and didn't want to post, it's not that I have or haven't been working out, I just don't know what it is. But, what I realized tonight was, we don't always get to do what we want to do, or we don't always want to do what we need to do. And for that reason, I am forcing myself to blog tonight because it is what I NEED to do. I need to stay strong with posting and keeping myself accountable to everyone out there.

Below is my food for today. As you can see by the chart, there is no dinner posted and there were 770 calories left over for dinner. I met a former co-worker for drinks at a restaurant called Rise, that is right by my house. They might not have the best website, but they do have many other great things. Since our plan was just to have drinks, we settled down at the bar and both order a glass of wine (mine was sparkling, estimated at 95 calories). After talking for a while, we decided we should have a little food and ordered a cheese plate (mine portion I am going to estimate at 300 calories - based off what I know about a serving of Kraft cheddar). As we were enjoying our cheese and wine, the chef came out from the kitchen with a beautiful spinach souffles! He told us that they had an extra one in the kitchen and he would hate for it to go to waste, so we got to indulge for free! If you had asked me before today about the calories in a souffle, I would have had no idea, but luckily, on their menu, they state that the savory souffles have 263 to 413 calories and that the sweet souffles range from 122 to 317 calories. I was shocked! It seems like such a decadent treat that I had no idea had a lower calories content. So, we both ordered another glass of wine (another 95 calories) and shared the souffle (estimated at 178 calories for my half of the souffle if it falls in the middle of the range above), for a total dinner estimated calories of 668, still about 100 calories under the balance. So, when I got home, I had one of my snicker treats that I made last week. I already can't wait to go back, try another souffle, and next time, get a sweet one as well!!

Tomorrow is random workout day....so stay tuned!

Oh, I almost forgot! Today is results day since I didn't post yesterday. As of yesterday morning, I was down another 1.5 pounds for a total of 13 pounds! Finally, a week at over 1 pound. Let's see if that streak can continue!

Is It Over Yet?!?

So, remember how in yesterday's post I talked about how my stove didn't work last night? Well, after discussing the situation with a co-worker, it was decided that the reason my stove wouldn't heat up is because, most likely, that my pilot light was out (not unlike your hot water heater). We then looked up how to re-light it to see if I thought I could do it myself. As I walked in the door, there was an overwhelming gas smell that met me as I entered! Because the pilot light isn't lit, the gas is just escaping into the air. I immediately opened all the windows, turned on a fan, trying for the house to air out. So, after about an hour of panic, not being able to turn it off, being scared that the house was going to blow up, and thoughts of calling the fire department....I talked to a couple of friends and figured out, finally, how to get the gas off.

Due to all the panic, I didn't end up working out today. I need make sure I work out all weekend. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!! Hopefully this week can break the one pound a week pattern. Below is my food for the day. I made a couple new sweet treats yesterday and today. I will try and post at least once this weekend and give the recipes.

This is not my week...

Apparently this is not my week for trying to cook new foods. Today, I decided I wanted to have a BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner. I looked up all my ingredients while I was at work and calculated my calories and portion sizes. When I got to the store after work, some of my ingredients weren't there, but I was able to improvise and make it work. I got home, cooked the turkey (one of my last minute changes), preheated the over, shredded the meat, mixed it with the BBQ sauce, laid it all out, went to put it in the oven....and it was COLD! At first I thought that I had forgotten to set the temperature, but no, it was set at 425, but there was no heat at all. I turned it off, let it set, and then turned it back on. I guess I thought maybe the gas didn't catch or something, but no, my over no longer works! Luckily, I live in a duplex and called my neighbor and asked her if she could pop it in her oven...after all, it only needed about 10 minutes to bake. So, after all of that, I finally had a cooked pizza. I decided that I needed to take a picture of it after all that work! This recipe is super simple...shred cooked chicken or turkey (you could even use the rotisserie chickens from the store for even faster prep time), mix with 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (I used Kraft's Light Original and it still has a great taste, even for a light!), spread on top of a pre-made crust (such as Boboli - they make a whole wheat one), top with 1 cup mozzarella (of course, mine was with 2% milk - and it still melted great). Pop it in the oven at 425 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes, and you are set. My version (with turkey) came in just barely over 450 calories for 1/4 of the pizza. Not too bad! Good thing now I have leftovers and don't have to cook tomorrow!!

Breakfast for Dinner

I decided to try something new for dinner tonight. I love breakfast food, but hardly ever have the time to actually make breakfast in the morning. Last week at the store, I picked up Fiber One pancake mix and some lite syrup. Tonight was the night to try the new pancake mix. I heated my skillet, mixed the mix (and even added some mashed bananas), and dropped the first spoonfuls of batter onto the skillet. Apparently, I am horrible at making pancakes! I am blaming it on the gas stove (because I never remember having this problem before). The first pancake almost immediately burned on the outside and was completely doughy on the inside. Pancake two stuck to the pan and I couldn't flip it. Needless to say, I did not eat pancakes for dinner as indicated on my food log below. For those of you that don't know, I put together my log at work because I plan ahead for the day which is often how I figure out snacks and desserts. So, instead of my great breakfast for dinner plan, I had a salad with lettuce, 1/2 cup of black beans, 1/2 cup of brown rice, some salsa and two tablespoons of light sour cream for a total of 315 calories. For my remaining 85 calories, I drank part of a Dr. Pepper (I had been craving a soda today).

For today's random workout I did a Cardio Dance workout on my On Demand. It was pretty good. I liked it better than last weeks Hip Hop Cardio, so at least that is something. I think next week I need to switch back to some kind of strength and toning random workout. We will see what I can find. Any suggestions are welcome!!