Shed to Wed Week 1

So Week 1 of Shed to Wed went okay.  Not great, but not horrible.  I did well in the exercise department, okay in the water department, and fair in the calorie department.  I was over my calorie goal a few days, but thankfully, not TERRIBLY over.(Um, correction, I was terribly over one day, only minorly over the rest.)   I ate some sweets, but I managed to say no thank you to a cookie AND a cupcake.  Sadly, I went a little overboard with dessert on Monday night.  I went to a friend's house for dinner and I brought the dessert.  It was cookie dough fudge (look for it in a future blog) and um, it was good, like really good.  So I "might" have had 3 pieces (oops!) and when I messed up that veggie burger (see yesterday's blog) I "might" have had some more the next night.  Sadly, no weight loss, but no gain either.  Hopefully, Week 2 will go better--there will be no delicious homemade desserts so that might help.  :) 

Confessions of a Fake Vegan Returns: Epic Fail!

So as you know I'm attempting to eat healthier.  I thought as part of that I'd do a vegan week again (you may remember I did that a while back).  I wanted to start sooner rather than later, but looking at the calendar, I don't have a full week without dinner plans any time too soon.  I was invited to a friend's house for dinner last night (I wasn't going to be like so I'm being a vegan for one week, can you please replan your whole menu?).  I got invited to someone's house for dinner one night next week.  The following week I have a work party (bought my ticket, plan to eat and get my money's worth and we are not going to a vegan restaurant).   Going to another friend's house for dinner one week the week after that.  Anyway, I decided, well, I'll just do half a week eating vegan and go for a full week later in the month.  I decided to start today and end Friday night (you guessed it, have plans Friday night and not sure there will be vegan options where we're going).  So I was careful, did my research, had a vegan breakfast, had salad for lunch and didn't even put croutons on it because I wasn't sure those were okay.  Switched from my usual dressing to a vegan friendly one.  And then for dinner I ate a veggie burger.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself UNTIL I found out the veggie burger IS NOT VEGAN.  What the heck?!  After that, I got annoyed and ate something with dairy and I drank some milk.  If I've failed, might as well fail all out.  I mean it's my own fault for not looking, but you'd think a VEGETABLE burger would be vegan.  Who knew!  So I will try again tomorrow and see if I can go Wed, Thurs, and 2/3 of Friday (dinner plans Fri night).  Then later in the month, perhaps I will try a full week again.  I don't know how vegans do it.  I could never really be a vegan.  I think I could MAYBE do vegetarian, though I'd sure miss my seafood.  I make chicken meals, which I enjoy, but I could give them up--I think.  Eggplan parm is just as good to see as chicken parm and I could probably substitute zucchini in my chicken crescent roll casserole, but I'm just not sure I could do without my ocas. sushi or fish and chips.  But I tell ya' I could not go without my dairy.  Love my milk and cheese too much.  And a lot of foods have milk and eggs--including veggie burgers apparently, but ironically, not Oreos (too bad I'm not a huge Oreo fan) so I don't think I'd make it as a vegan.  But for 2  2/3 days maybe just maybe I can do it.  And then maybe I can do it for a full week!  I'm sure you'll be reading about it in a future blog.  :) 

The Annual Winter Rant

So if you know me at all, you know I do not like winter.  The only things in winter I enjoy are Christmas and the surrounding festivities, fun Feb work events,  MLK weekend, the few days I have off in Feb, and those few days when it warms up and you think spring is almost here (of course then Mother Nature slaps you in the face and it's freezing again).  Shoveling, constantly being cold, and of course driving in the snow/ice are things I CANNOT stand.  But I decided to jazz up this year's rant on winter with a new little list about why winter stinks (especially compared to summer, I'll take 90 and humid any day over negative something).

In no particular order, here are some reasons I do not enjoy winter: 

-I nearly need a walking stick to get to the mailbox (it's so darn icy)
-Potholes ('nuf said)
-There is not enough parking at the gym because when they plow the snow they feel the need to cover an entire row of spots (and let's not even talk about how hard it is to get a decent machine at the gym in Jan, I applaud everyone for working out, but it's annoying when you're used to getting the machines you like)
-Salt+black pants (really?  How do I manage to get salt on my pants every winter?)
-My job only involves being outside for approximately 30 minutes a week, which isn't that bad, except when it's cold then those 30 min feel LONG
-Snowbank Roulette (my street is narrow and though this year is better, there is limited space to put the snow so I have to decide do I want to hit the snowbank behind me, the one to the left or the one to the right when I pull out of my driveway)
-I can't get warm (car takes a long time to warm up--like I'm half way to work before it warms up, house isn't that warm though I sure try to crank that heat, and I swear they turn the heat off at 3:30 at work and I'm often working at the computer next to the drafty window 'til well past 3:30)
-My heating bill is nearly as much as my mortgage
-There are times I literally don't feel like going out because it involves being cold
-My fiancé waking me up at 4:00 in the morning because his car is frozen shut (good thing I love him because I do NOT love 4am)

Mother Nature, can you PLEASE send us warm weather soon, like NOW?  PLEASE.  Thanks!  Stay warm everyone.  If I weren't saving for a wedding, I'd be researching a warm vacation right now. 

Random Wedding Planning Blog

Many aspects of wedding planning have been fun, but some have been stressful.  One thing I'm kind of enjoying right now is honeymoon planning.  Okay so I am not enjoying how much stuff is going to cost because flights are expensive as are hotels, but trying to plan where to stay and what activities to do has been kind of fun.  I love planning trips and I usually try to go on one big trip each year.  This year that trip will of course be the honeymoon.  And given how cold it's been lately, the thought of being warm and sitting on a beach is extremely appealing. 

Pre Shed to Wed Prep Continues

So I'm starting to get in the groove for Shed to Wed.  Today went okay, but I still ate too many calories.  I did, however, manage to say no thank you when someone offered me a cookie today.  Unfortunately, then I ate one at home tonight.  My fiancé had some left from his "last sweets run."  I was able to unload my leftover Chocolate Crunch Bars on my co-workers at lunch time today.  Tomorrow, I will bring them some leftover sea salt chocolate covered caramels--or something like that.  Someone put them in my Christmas stocking and I ate some, but if I'm going to get real with this healthy eating thing, I need to have fewer sweets around.  I absolutely hate wasting food so I can't bring myself to throw these sweets away, hence why I keep bringing them to work.   I am also contemplating doing one vegan week again.  You may remember I did that awhile back (well, I almost did it, I unintentionally ate a few pieces of non-vegan food that week, two things I thought were vegan weren't, I broke down and had a glass of milk, and there was one other thing, which I forget). The problem is trying to figure out when to do it.  I've been invited to a friend's house for dinner early next week and that weekend I signed up to go to this pizza dinner thing.    And I just got invited to another dinner the following Monday.  So it may be February before I give it a go.  Maybe I'll do half a week of vegan eating next week and try for a whole week after my dinner engagements.  We'll see.  I love seafood, but what was hardest for me when I tried going vegan for a week (two years ago) was the dairy.  I eat/drink so many things with dairy.  I'm pretty sure I could never be a real vegan, but once in a while as a cleanse type thing is okay.  I did exercise again today.  I was SO LAZY this past weekend, that I haven't worked out since Friday, but today it was back on track.  Now if I can just drink two more glasses of water and walk 900 steps (both are totally doable) before bed, I'll be off to a good start in the water dept and 10,000 steps daily dept.  Until next time, have a good one all! 

Pre Shed to Wed

This past weekend I went away for the weekend with some good friends to celebrate a friend's birthday.  The weekend primarily involves:  eating, drinking, relaxing, eating, playing board games, movies, reading, playing games on phones or other electronic devices, hanging out, talking/laughing with friends, and did I mention eating?  Pretty much every couple of hours someone is preparing breakfast or lunch or dinner or some snack or other.  It's a great weekend to relax, spend time with friends, and escape the real world, but a bad weekend for a diet.  My fiancé and I wanted to start getting in better shape for our upcoming wedding.  We contemplated doing what everyone else does and start a New Year's diet.  But then we figured there was NO way we'd eat healthy this weekend so we decided to wait until after this weekend is over to attempt what I am calling Shed to Wed.  Well, let me tell you I lived it up this weekend with cookie cake, Oreo balls, Chocolate Crunch Bars, chips, Tostitos, dips--basically all kinds of (delicious) junk food.  My fiancé made one last sweets run when we got home today.  He bought cookies for himself and a cookie cup for me.  After unpacking, cleaning, etc. I began cleaning out the kitchen cabinets.  I put all of the sweets in a pile on the counter.  I plan to bring some of them to work tomorrow.  Some of my co-workers and I have this habit of unloading leftover junk food (and healthy food too from time to time) on each other.  I have a small candy bowl on the coffee table that I usually don't eat from often, but my friends' kids tend to like it so I may keep that there for them or I may bring that to work too.  So basically this week's goals are to try to get rid of the sweets (don't make me give up sweets AND salt at the same time--one thing at a time people) and drink eight glasses of water a day (I seem to be stalling out at 6 or 7 each day--they say you should drink 8 if you want to lose weight).  I'm doing well with exercising--this weekend excluded, but exercise has not really been a problem, I just get in ruts where I do the same exercises instead of mixing it up, so I want to keep that up and make sure I walk 10,000 steps a day (I have a pedometer).  I figure if I put all this in my blog, I'll have some accountability.  So wish me good luck.  I have my first dress fitting in a little over a month--thankfully that is just for a hem so I don't have to panic quite yet.  In the mean time, unless you are inviting me over for dinner and want me to bring a dessert, I am not baking again until my annual St. Patrick's Day party.  Here's to getting healthier.      

Dress Shopping, Screws, and Beowulf

In early December, I went shopping with five of my six bridesmaids (one lives kind of far away) and Mom for bridesmaids dresses.  I was expecting just a fun, carefree shopping trip, but boy can dress shopping be stressful.  I had NO idea what I wanted the girls to wear except that the dresses should be dark purple.  The salesgirl wanted to know if I wanted long or short?  I don't know.  Does it matter?  Satin?  Chiffon?  Something else?  I have no idea what chiffon is.  I also don't know what empire waist, organza, A Line, etc. mean.  Actually, I think I know what A Line means, I think I have dresses like that.  And the only reason I know taffeta is because my wedding dress has taffeta in it.  How do people know all of this stuff?  I mean I do go clothes shopping.  There were periods in my life when I REALLY liked to shop.  But I simply tried clothes on and if I liked them, they didn't make me look fat, and I could afford them I bought them and if not, no thanks.  But I never paid attention to stuff like the aforementioned things.  It's not like the tag says this is an empire waist dress.  Maybe I need to read fashion magazines.  I'd like to think it's not because I'm stupid--maybe I am, but I did go to college and grad school and I got good grades in both places.  It's kind of like Saturday when my fiancé's dad came over to fix my kitchen heater.  He needed a certain type of screw so I found some, but none of them would work not just because of their size (I was like ooh this is the size you need) but because that one is for sheet rock, that one is for metal, that one is for--you get the point, at least I hope you do because I forget what the others were for, but I didn't have one for drywall.  How does he know this?  Why don't I know any of these things?  They should make you take classes about clothing, construction, home ownership stuff, affording weddings, etc. in college.  Those would be a lot more useful than that class I took on pre-1800 literature (No offense intended, but let's face it, I can't remember a thing I read about Beowulf--I don't even think I spelled it correctly, but I will tell you, I did not enjoy discussing that book at 8am on Tuesdays and Thursdays).    Oh, and for the record, we did eventually find dresses (that same day) that everyone agreed would be okay.  I don't know if they love them, but none of them complained and I don't think anyone wanted to deal with me and dress shopping again since I was on the borderline of having a dress induced breakdown.  Sadly, the dress didn't come in the shade of purple I wanted, but I learned a new word, lapis.  It's apparently a shade of purple.