Don't Scare me Valentine!! 227.5

Happy Valentine's Day! Since I'm single I had nothing better to do tonight than to post a couple of creepy food related vintage Valentine's Day Cards. Enjoy!

A Little Nutty 228.5

A little nutty, a little fruity-- what more could you ask for? I came across this "breakfast blend" trail mix a couple of weeks ago! It's so incredibly yummy and satisfies my morning snack.. and 240 calories (for a HUGE bag) it continues the nut/ fruit theme for the morning and further boosts the metabolism with a touch of protein.

The store has 4 of 5 different varieties of these breakfast trail mixes-- I've only tried this variety-- but have toyed with the idea of the tropical fruit and berry blend. This pack has dried applies, granola, walnuts, almonds and cranberries, yogurt covered rasins-- very delish (even if I do say so myself) the one thing I wasn't crazy about is the box shows the calories but doesn't do a great job of indicating there are 2 servings per bag-- if you're going to give me a little pouch-- just count it as one serving! (pet peeve)

Anyway this helps me continue my great start to the day-- 6 bags for nearly $4-- not bad.

Smooth out the Start of your Day 229.5

As promised here is the first of a few "diet" foods I find utterly delicious. Every morning for the past 4 weeks or so I've been having a smoothie for breakfast. I've been using Yoplait Smoothie blends-- I especially like the strawberry, mango and pineapple -- The directions call for the entire bag and 1 cup of skim milk (this is 2 servings). Since I'm a single gal I only make half the bag and put 1 cup of Light Vanilla soy milk (I've been switching around brands but find that the Silk brand *with the vanilla taste* to be the best)-- by using a whole cup of soy milk I'm making my smoothie thin enough to drink directly from the cup -- and to be honest if you only used half a cup of milk or *given liquid* you can barely get it to come out of the blender. Now for an added diet boost I've been putting a shot of Acai Berry juice (I use Genesis-- a little pricey around $7.00/ bottle-- BUT I'm still on my first bottle and I've been making these for a month) it-- all in all this works out to be exactly 16oz and around 200 calories.

Now my brother is also on a diet and he actually buys the individual frozen fruits-- he's trying to stick with fruits high in anti-oxidants such as blueberries -- he'll blend about 4 fruits (all in 4 oz increments *he actually bought a digital scale to weigh it out*-- he also uses soy milk and a shot of Acai or pomegranate juice-- his is less expensive to make overall (and since it's twice the size of mine ends up being 400 calories)-- I found that I like the yoplait for the chunks of yogurt they have in there already-- it just takes less effort and in my opinion tastes better. -- honestly the yoplait smoothie is not that expensive. The 2 serving bag runs about $2.60-- soy milk runs around $3.00 so for a daily cost it's about $1.75.

What's great about a smoothie in the morning is it's less mess, I can drink it while I'm getting ready for work.. takes literally 1 minute to prepare-- AND boosts my metabolism with the fruit. Next post will be what my AM snack is.. and it's super yummy! Stay tuned. :o)

OH update on the biggest loser-- even though I've "Gained" 1.4 pounds this week (which honestly I think is water weight) I'm still in 1st place! that's 1st place 3 weeks in a row! Yay!

Violet Colored Glasses 228.5

So here is my "new look".. I started noticing my right eye is super blurry recently.. especially at night after work. The reason this is/ was concerning is that my right eye has an astigmatism AND has had the retina detach and reattach itself before. When I went to the eye doctor-- sure enough my eyesight had gone from nearly perfect 20/20 to about 20/40-- which means that although I had glasses BEFORE -- I could wear them when I "wanted to" or "needed to"-- which was a nice fashion statement from time to time. This time around it was suggested I start wearing glasses all the time (and I can really tell now when I go to the gym how bad my eyesight is without my glasses.. granted 20/40 is not super bad vision.. but there is a noticeable difference in sharpness)

So since I'm an artist I went out on a limb with some dark purple glasses with the light purple on the edges of the face of the glasses (it's kind of a lilac purplely marble look)-- it never really occurred to me before.. but I guess purple really is a neutral.. it can be warn with pretty much ANY color-- although I wouldn't really choose red to wear with it--but I could (and look like a huge valentine).

Anyway.. what do you guys think? I LOVE them for glasses.. I think I'd still rather not have to wear glasses period.. and I'm not brave enough to try contacts yet. They are Prada-- I also have a pair of red and black Ray Ban's..not that labels mean much to me-- but I'm noticing I have a thing for frames made in Italy (or is it just all frames are made in Italy.. who knows?)

We had a big snow storm here today-- I thought I'd be able to make it the gym up until the moment I got off the exit by my house and realized the roads were covered in slush that was turning to ice and and there were no plows in sight. I figured better safe the sorry-- but I do need to go back to the gym and I promise I will!

Tomorrow morning (weather permitting) I'm looking at 5, yes count them FIVE houses-- followed by an appointment with my friend to hopefully help ties up the lose ends to my website so I can get it up and going as soon as I find a house (I have to wait for the house because I can't sell without a license AND the license is specific to STATE and COUNTY so... that remains completely up in the air for both instances.)

Happy Friday night everyone (how pathetic I'm in on a Friday night I know) :o)

Whatcha Gonna Do With All That Junk? 229

As promised-- here are the most fabulous pair of jeans I've ever owned. They are Seven7 jeans which I purchased at Lane Bryant. I was so excited with how these fit (I normally have a bunchy crotch issue with all pants.. I think that's from the way my pelvis is tilted)s-- anyway "Look ma, No Bunchy Crotch" Then jeans are a little pricey @ 79.99 BUT with the Lane Bryant Coupon I was able to save $25 on a purchase of $75 or $50 on a purchase of $150.

If there is one thing I've learned.. if you love something (clothes or shoes) buy more than one because once it's worn out.. it's gone. In my case.. once I lose more weight they are gone.. so I took advantage of my coupon and walked away with a size 18 and a size 16 :o) A fabulous investment even if I do say so myself.

I took this opportunity to do another "line up photo" I haven't done one of those in a long while! The original line up is from 01.10.09 when I was 260.5 ... so this is what 33.5 lbs looks like... Sorry about the quality (or lack there of) of the photos.. it was darker this time when I took them AND I used my iphone instead of my regular camera. If I get some time I'll take sharper ones and share. So without further adieu..Ok the booty shot is slightly embarrassing but I wanted you to see the pockets.

Next post is either going to be about some awesome foods I've found.. OR about a change in my look. Stay tuned.

The Biggest Loser! 227

Ok-- so you've probably thought that I fell off the bandwagon-- to be completely honest I did for a while. I got my weight down to 227.5 and then from about Halloween to New Years I ended up putting about 9 lbs back on

About 3 weeks ago my work decided to do a "biggest loser" competition-- I knew it was time to start back on the track-- a little disappointed that I had a) not lost any weight in a long time and b)put back on weight. -- there are about 20 people who each put in $10 -- the pot will be split evenly between the top 2 losers in June.

I was reluctant to go back to the gym -- only tonight did I drag myself there for the first time in MONTHS (what a waste of money @ $48/ month)--

ANYWAY the first week I was in 4th place-- the past 2 weeks I've been in 1st place-- I have lost 7.8 lbs (according to the work scale) and I've done that all by keeping track of my calories on my iphone ap "Lose it!" -- it works pretty well-- it was a tool I used before but for whatever reason (maybe the upgrade) it seems to be more accurate this time around

Tonight I went to the gym and walked for 35 minutes-- burning 360 calories

Here recently I've also found several excellent foods I'm going to share with you in the next few posts.

You guys are my accountability so I'm going to try and be better about posting now-- even though my life has in fact sped up instead of slowed down over the past few months.

The jewelry website isn't up yet-- I'm meeting with my friend this weekend for a few hours to try and get it close to up and running-- I doubt we'll finish it this weekend but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I'm ALSO in the process of looking for a new home-- I want to get one before the deadline for the tax credit which is April 30th (for a contract) and I think June to close. So wish me luck, send a few prayers my way and we'll all get through this together.

Tomorrow I'm going to post a couple of photos of me in my new SEXXY jeans and tell you about where to get them etc. I'm so excited about them-- but that my friends is a story for tomorrow! :o) Until then!