Healthy Living

I go through phases where I have no desire at all to exercise or eat well.  I just want to watch Gossip Girl and eat oreos.  (I can't be the only one, right?!)  But then I get on a health kick like the one I am on now, and I LOVE it.  I feel so much better when I get off of my butt, get on the treadmill, and eat my fruits and veggies.  I lost 1.4 pounds last week, and I'm track for the same or better at my weigh-in on Saturday. :)  I've been:

• Counting Points: I've come to the conclusion that Weight Watchers is the best (and maybe only) way for me to lose weight.  When I stick to the plan and count my points, I lose weight, without fail.  This week I've even passed up most of my bonus points, crossing my fingers that it pays off.
• Fruits and Veggies!: I could eat fruit all. day. long.  I get home in the afternoon and eat a huge bowl of berries and grapes (0 points!) and it completely satisfies my sweet tooth.  My dessert for the last few days has been strawberries and fat free cool whip, yuuuummmm. Also eating apples and bananas like a fiend when my stomach starts growling to tide me over.  Veggies are a little harder for me to eat.  Last time I got a stomach bug, the last thing I had to eat was a salad, so I have a really hard time eating them now.  That means I have to sneak my veggies into a sandwich, soup, or my...
• Green Monster Smoothie:  Breakfast is now my favorite meal of the day.  Every morning I make my green monster smoothie with a special ingredient: Spinach! Tons of spinach.  The smoothie is 6 points, has 32 grams of protein, and keeps me full until lunch.  Plus, two servings of dairy, a serving of fruit, and three servings of veggies in one meal, perfect!

                                   Ingredients:
--1 1/2 Cups Mixed Frozen Fruit (This week I'm using blueberries, strawberries, and peaches.)
--1 Cup 1% Milk
--1/2 Cup Fat Free Greek Yogurt (So much better for you than regular yogurt, it has just as much protein as the protein powder!)
--4 Cups Baby Spinach
--1 Scoop Total Lean Vanilla Protein Powder

• Couch to 5K:  This has to be the best $0.99 app I've gotten.  I've never been a runner before, but this has slowly started working me up to being able to run a 5K.  I'm halfway through the 9-week program, and I can see the end in sight!

It's amazing how much seems to change when I start being more healthy: I sleep better, my house is cleaner (?), I'm generally a happier person.  I usually stay on a kick like this for about three weeks until the oreos start calling my name, but I'm determined to ignore their evil ways and stay on track.  I have nothing but weight to lose! :)

Great at Writing Good Crap

It's 11:30pm, and I'm sitting in my dining room WIDE AWAKE.  Why? Well...like any good fourth-year college student, I procrastinated as long as possible to write a paper.  I hate English classes, everything about English classes, so I talked myself into waiting to write a four-page paper until 9 o'clock the night it was due.  And I hadn't even read the twenty-page article I was supposed to write about. :|  I was exhausted, and so not into writing this paper,  but I was determined to get the paper done by midnight so I wouldn't get marked off for late work.  I helped get Nora ready for bed, downed 16 ounces of coffee, sat down at the table with my laptop, and started plugging away at this stupid, stupid, English paper.

But! Like a great college student, I've developed the skill I like to call, "Writing Down a Bunch of Crap That Makes Me Look Like I Know What I'm Talking About."  I even had the article read and the paper written by 11:06--almost an hour to spare!  I did this for the same kind of thing for a similar assignment a couple weeks ago and got an A.  What can I say...I'm great at writing good crap in a hurry?

Now it's 11:30pm, I'm done with the paper.  The coffee did it's job, kept me awake while slogging through the article, but now, the caffeine won't let me go to sleep.  Probably going to be a late night, at least I'll have time to catch up on Dance Moms and Duck Dynasty. ;)

P.S. Here's some cute Nora pictures for good measure. :)  I can't believe she's 21 months old now, she'll be two before we know it!