Happy Belated Valentine's Day Bloggers!

Valentine's day is soooooo made-up and over-commercialized, YES?  YES.  But, with that being said, who doesn't love the ever-so-cliche lovey-dovey gifts from their significant other??  I think the kiddos have the most fun with it - I know I did back in the day!  My husband did a fab job this year  . . . annnnd I'll leave it at that! ;)  Is anyone else annoyed by the people on FB who took a million photos of their V-Day gift(s)...{AND their xmas gifts..AND their birthday gifts...AND any-frickin-time they spend a dollar?!} It's ironic that the people who want to prove soooooooo bad that they're doing financially well, or in a happy relationship (and sometimes marriage)...are the ones that are fulla shizz!  I've come to realize that bragging about something on FB tends to mean one thing:  You're overcompensating big time!  When you know you've got something good or you're doing well, you don't have to try to remind/convince everyone around you or rub it in people's faces.  Plus, with today's economic state, and the sad misfortune of a lot of people, it's in really poor taste to post that kind of stuff ..... Ahh, yes, I feel another FB deactivation coming on SOON....

Anywho!  I'm  onto Phase II of Operation: Get Dead Sexy for Summer.  Phase I was all about droppin' pounds the old-fashioned and easy way... counting calories and using body wraps! NO, I didn't exercise at all, because I felt like that would be too much of a life change and I would give up. I am L A Z Y, people!  I've lost as many inches/pounds as I can for my body type to remain in the healthy category, but the last time my scale saw this #, I SURE don't remember having all this saggy skin, these two saddle bags and lots and lots of CELLULITE.  Ugh.. Not cool.  So now, in order to firm my skin and vanish the cottage cheese on my thighs, it's time to get off my butt a bit.  But I'm still doing it the easy way.  I bought this gel that tightens/tones/firms AND gets rid of cellulite (its basically the same stuff in the wraps, but you can just use it daily) and I'm also doing a litttttttttttle weight lifting.  Okay, and I'm also taking a fat binder/carb inhibitor so I can feel a little less guilty about eating crappy food sometimes.  NO cardio though, cardio is my mortal enemy for realsies.  I'm really digging the ItWorks line, and so far everything has worked as advertised!  Oh, and I took a before pic of my butt & thighs (w/ a swimsuit on of course!) so that way when I'm finished w/ the gel I can see if my cellulite is gone.  I couldn't stop laughing!!!!!!!!  It's terrible.  Really, REALLY terrible.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to post it on here but i'll keep ya posted on my progress!  (But don't expect a model-esque photo of me looking PERFECT in a bikini in a few months... I'm just trying to work w/ what I've got here... there's only so much you can do w/o plastic surgery... and, you know, working out for real and stuff...)

New Club!

Sooooooooooo....today I had my first meeting with Jake's new department's Police Wives Association!  No lie, I was totes nervous about going.  I'm like snappppppp what if I screw this up and everyone HATES me??? Eeekk!  I'm happy to report it went well! . . Like, reallllllly well!  The meeting seemed so formal with an agenda and discussion topics and everything!  I was even comfortable enough to speak up throw some of my genius ideas out there!  (I'm usually totally silent around new people!)  All of the ladies were extremely nice and welcoming to me.  I didn't even feel like the "new girl."  I can definitely see Jake's new department as a place that we will forge even more close friendships -- this is EXCITING for us!  Ever since Jake has switched departments, it seems a lot of his former co-workers are thinking about coming over too.  How awesome would that be??  A month and a half into 2012 and I'm feeling really good about it!  I'm ready for Jake to head back to shift work so we can just get back to a regular routine, although, I will sure miss getting to have dinner with him every night AND getting to go to bed together!

Low Cal Meals I LOVE

I'm all about finding easy to whip up meals with super low calories.  I eat the following three meals pretty frequently, and they are all UNDER 200 calories.  Each one takes less than 5 minutes to make.  EASY!  Sometimes I have to make my hubs' lunch and dinner, so it's nice that my meals are so quick and effortless. 

Low Calorie {Soy} Grilled Cheese {130 Cals}
~ 2 Slices of Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Wheat Bread (90 Calories)
~ 1 Slice of Soy Vegan American Cheese (40 Calories)
~ Olivio Buttery Spray (0 Calories)
Make this the same way you would a regular grilled cheese.  Spray the butter on the bread, and grill it on a skillet with the cheese slice in between.  Typical grilled cheese sandwhiches will cost you 300 calories or more.  This one is only 130 Calories and tastes soooooo good!

Spinach Salad with LOW CAL Ranch (YES, it exists!!){134 Cals}
~ 1 Cup of Organic Baby Spinach (4 Calories)
~ Salad Spritzers Ranch Vinaigrette, 10 sprays (ONLY 15 Calories!)
~ Garlic & Butter Croutons, 2 tbsp (35 Calories)
~ 1/4 Cup of Shredded Mozzerella (80 Calories)
Toss everything together in a bowl and eat!  This recipe is totally filling and only 134 Calories!

Almond Butter Toast {180 Cals}
~ 1 Tbsp of All Natur al Almond Butter (90 Calories)
~ 2 Slices of Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain Wheat Bread (90 Calories)
Toast your bread in a toaster and spread on the almond butter while still hot.  I eat this for breakfast often, and it's enough to keep me full for a while.  I love toast with just about anything on it though!

Heyy shawtyyy!

WELLLLL, with summer approaching-- uh, okay, so technically its a few months out, but this is Texas so naturally it feels spring-y now.  Anyway, EVERY summer I have the hardest time finding SHORTS!!!!  I'm 26-ish so wearing shorts that cover less than underwear is definitely a faux paux.  (Wait, is that okay at ANY age??)  Personally, I like shorts that DON'T require a bikini wax.  Anyone else notice that the less material the more the price?? RIP OFF ALERT!  I also don't want to wear mom shorts, aka shorts that are made from a cheapy looking denim, especially if pleats are involved.  You know the kind, they're not quite bermuda, not quite daisy dukes. Long. Awkward. Ill-fitting.  (None of my mom-friends even wear these!)  Last summer I  was lucky enough to stumble upon some cute twill shorts at Jcrew with the perfect 3" inseam.  3 inches seems to be a respectable length with just a smidge of sexy.  I literally bought them in EVERY.single.color. -- I even bought 'em in khaki twice {on accident}.  The downside to twill shorts though, is that they wrinkle easily and need to be dry cleaned after one mayyyybe two wears.  Ugh - maintenance...on SHORTS!  *So redic.*  Anyway, this year I have spotted a new trend:  Retro-inspired shorts.  First, let me say I typically love anything modern with a vintage flair, but retro shorts are HO-rrendous for realsies.  They are high waisted, (with an awkwardly long crotch area) and are mega short.  Plus, EVERY photo I've seen on models gives them a camel toe!  No thanks!  I don't think I'll be following this trend, how bout you???  Anyone else have pure hell finding the 'perfect' shorts??

Too Short.  Told you underwear covers more.



When I imagine mom shorts....



My Faves: JCrews 3" shorts! LOVE!

Retro. Camel toe much?

Here's a longer version.  I guess they even make skinny people have a FUPA!

Note the XXXXXXL crotch area.

My Short-Lived Chubby Phase

Okay, so {A LOT of} people are all, 'ohhh myyyy Goddddd, why are you counting calories and doing body wraps, you don't even NEED to lose weight...blah blah blah' and I'm all, "I was 15+ pounds heavier two months ago, I swear" and they're all "PSH, whatever you're totes  exaggerating" ...... or you know, something to that effect.  I know some of my posts seem weight-obsessed, but it's time for me to reveal my "before" photo so you can see that my obsession was for good reason!  Nobody believes that just a couple short months ago, I weighed my personal 'heaviest' at 140 pounds.  Don't get me wrong -- that's not obese or even a remotely high number to a lot of people...and I'm definitely not saying anyone that weighs that or more is overweight ~ but for someone who usually fluctuated between 126-130 lbs for a solid 8 years, it was quite a shocking increase. I freaked a bit and then IMMEDIATELY began limiting my caloric intake to 1200 cals per day so I could just get back to a good healthy weight... one that wouldn't cause me to BUST out of my jeans! ;) 

Anyway, I decided to show a clothed photo of me at my heaviest...  When I saw this November 11th photo, (along with a few others) I was horrified.  BTW, that's no spare tire hidden under my shirt.  I'm sure a lot of you will be like DAYUMMM, because you didn't ever see me looking like this. (HA, like I would post this photo ANYWHERE online!) (Well...uh, until now.)  I even made the photo XL so you can get a good look at my jelly roll/muffin top and my bloated azz face. You're welcome.  I also included two after photos (I gotta have SOME dignity left) that I took on January 23, 2012 ~ simply to prove that calorie counting REALLY works if you stick with it! 

Well... Can't believe I'm putting my "chub" photo out there for the world to see, but here it is!! 



November 11, 2011 ~ @ 140 lbs
My face is so big my eyes can't fully open!

 

January 23, 2012 @ 123 lbs

 

January 23, 2012 @ 123 lbs



Patience is a Virtue

Had a little spare time before I head into work so I figured I would tell yall a litttttle story that happened to me the other day.  Okay, so it's kind of a long story. 

Remember how I mentioned that our computers were in the shop for 11 days??  Well, it all started when I was surfing the net and I acquired a virus.  It was one that wouldn't let me open internet explorer so I could download a virus killer. (KICKING MYSELF for not renewing my subscription to Norton!)  Anyway, I figured I would just pop on over to BestBuy and they could fix it all quick style. Phewwwwww I was wrong.  The nice guy at the desk told me he would hook me up and I could bring BOTH laptops in to get fixed (our old one had a virus too, but we ended up just buying a new one, rather than fix that one.) (BTW, the new one was purchased on the CHEAP @ Black Friday.. We don't TYPICALLY just go buy something brand new when something breaks.) Back to the story! ~ so the geeksquad told me my computers would be out in 5-7 days MAX and even that was a stretch; most of the time they were finished in 3.  After day 7 I began to call daily (Okay, maybe 2x daily) to try to figure out the hold up.  The old one's hard drive is blown, so that computer might as well be tossed.  The "new" one supposedly had just ONE virus that kept showing on up the scan and I was repeatedly told it would be ready in half an hour.  TWICE I actually showed up to pick it up and of course it wasn't ready.  Finally on day 11 I went in and was told yet again that it was ALMOST ready, just 10 more minutes.  30 minutes later an over apologetic tech guy came over to tell me that he had accidentally super-jacked up my computer and it wouldn't even TURN ON.  He also told me that more than likely I would lose all my data -- un-backed up photos and docs.  This is a pretty big deal considering 2 years of my life in photos are on there, along with all of my created business docs.  I suspect the tech guy was under a lot of pressure being that he crashed my computer and surely had a ton of other electronics that needed work as well.  He kept perpetually apologizing, to which I kept telling him it was okay and it wasn't his fault..even though maybe it was. 

In the past few days in my frequent visits I had seen lots of people in line, and most people were very unfriendly, short and just plain rude to the techs. Throughout all the run-around and even after the BIG mess up, I remained friendly and didn't go all psycho on anyone. (It WAS, however, tempting at times.)  Once it was all said and done, the man helping me got all teary eyed and thanked me for being so nice and patient.  I was kind of taken aback, I mean, you don't see a grown man cry everyday, right?!  I hoped I was mistaken, but no.  Tears LITERALLY ran down his face as he told me that his sister had past away in the last few days; and he was just stressed to the MAX.  I think he had so much pressure on him both in his personal life and at work that he just needed to let out for a second.  I felt terrible that I wasn't NICER but it was a great reminder that everyone you meet could be fighting their own personal battle.  Yes, it's his JOB to fix computers and do-so quickly and correctly, etc. but I think it's a great lesson that we should all be a little more patient and kind to others.  There are so many more important things in life than material goods. 

Okay ~ Just thought this story was worth sharing because it really inspired me. It's crazy to think we each have the power to make or break someones day. Sometimes, an encouraging word, a helping hand or a friendly smile could be all it takes.   

Gotta love 75° in January!

What a beautiful day in North Texas today!  Sunshine, blue skies, nice breeze, oh my! 

And, okay, so I KNOW it's technically 'winter' and people get all bent out of shape when it's not winter weather.  But this is Texas: The Bipolar state.  Plus, it's not like it was a hot sweaty get third degree burns when touching your steering wheel; or a take a dip in the pool kind of day.  But it WAS a sit on the back porch with a light read; play fetch with the doggies; lounge on the couch with all the windows open kind of day.  Regardless of what the weather is supposed to be like this time of year, how can you possibly complain about the awesome alternative?? 

Pleasant weather and fresh air make me feel oh-so-good!  So yes; Ahhhh, what a beautiful lovely day that put me in the brightest of moods!  Hopefully this is an omen for a good week. :)