Awesome Grocery Deal!

I'm a coupon girl and when I see a decent deal on groceries related to my lifestyle, I have to jump on it.  

Vitacost is offering free shipping on all grocery orders over $25 through August 29th.  

Plus, if you are a new customer with Vitacost and you first sign up through this referral link, you will receive an email with a $10 credit code which you can use to make your purchase. 

Therefore, if you put $35 worth of groceries into your cart, then apply your $10 credit, with the free shipping, it's a great deal. 

I couldn't pass this up to stock up on healthy cooking and baking items for my pantry.  Since I started this eat clean lifestyle, I eat a lot "crunchier" than I used to. 

My cart included: 

• SunSpire Unsweetened Carob Baking Chips

• Arrowhead Mills Organic Flax Seeds

• Edward & Sons Let's Do... Organic Gluten Free Coconut Flour 

• Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Sucanat Brown Sugar

• Madhava Organic Agave Nectar Vanilla

• Vitacost Extra Virgin Certified Organic Coconut Oil 

• Bob's Red Mill Long Grain Brown Rice 

• Bob's Red Mill Gluten and Wheat Free Pizza Crust Mix 

My total after the $10 credit code and with free shipping came to $33.38! I can't wait to bake and cook with these items.  

Football drills

This morning in boot camp we did football drills.  Running in place as fast as we could, then down for a floppy burpee.  She wouldn't let us do one of each of those things for very long and just when you thought you knew how long you were going, she would switch it up. Plus a bunch of weight training and our run.  

It was very hard and I definitely had to use my mental strength to pull through.  I just kept thinking about the success I'd been seeing on the scale and how I want to keep seeing that number go down.

For lunch, I had a sandwich made with Ezekiel bread, half of an avocado and a tuna salad packet.  Delicious, I know.  I also spent my lunch break watching Extreme Makeover, Weight loss.  I like to watch things like this to keep me going.

Waist to Hip Ratio Update!

I just measured myself to update my hip to waist ratio and I'm stoked.
I've now hit the low-risk area!

.78!

Just a reminder, here's how you calculate*:

Calculating Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio

1. Use a measuring tape to measure your hips at the widest part of your buttocks. Then use the measuring tape to measure your waist at the smallest point, usually just above your belly button. Record the measurements in inches.

2. To determine your WHR divide your waist measurement in inches by your hip measurement in inches, eg. 30"/40" = 0.75

Male	Female	Health Risk Based on WHR
0.95 or less	0.80 or less	Low Risk
0.96-1.0	0.81-0.85	Moderate Risk
1.0 or more	0.85 or more	High Risk

*Via The Eat Clean Diet

Boot Camp, Bruises and Butter

We were outside this morning in boot camp and in order to keep the mist on my mat from making my hands slip, I did my workout on the concrete. This results in sore hands that look like this:

After boot camp, I went home and made a tasty breakfast as my reward.  Egg Whites, Turkey Bacon and Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel toast. 

 I found this new butter last night at Fresh Market and used it to make my breakfast.  I picked it up because it's made with all good fats; coconut, flaxseed, palm fruit, canola and sunflower oils.

I do have to say that I've been dragging all day today and I'm soooo glad it's Friday! I'm sleeping in tomorrow and watching movies.

New Recipes!

I love when I find new healthy/semi-healthy recipes that I can get my husband to eat, so I thought I'd share my two new favorites....

The first one is Chipotle Chicken and Rice from Martha Stewart's daily e-newsletter.

Just a warning, it can be a little spicy if you aren't used to heat.  I added in fat free sour cream to cut the heat.  

The other recipe was from Clean Eating Magazine.  Their Chocolaty Cookie recipe was so tasty! I felt like I was being really bad, but it wasn't nearly as bad for you as you would think and it's all considered "clean".  

There are a few ingredients that I had never bought before.  Sucanat, which stands for Sugar Cane Natural, is something I had never had.  It's a healthier version of sugar because it hasn't been refined or processed taking out the nutrients.  There are still calories in it, but it's better for you than regular sugar.  You could also use Stevia or something else if you wanted to, but I liked the sweetness of this.  You can find Sucanat in the baking aisle or in the bulk foods area at Whole Foods.  

Also, there was Arrowroot Powder, which I found in the baking aisle at Whole Foods.  It was really expensive, but I can't see me needing to buy that for a really long time.  

I used egg whites from the box, but next time I think I'd use regular egg whites to see if they turn out fluffier.  

Childhood dreams realized...

Last Friday I got to meet one person I've been dying to meet since I was a young awkward, greasy-haired teenager, Rob Thomas.  I'm going on 16 years that I've loved Matchbox Twenty and have tried just about anything I could to meet him (before college that is).

Now, I have to act like a grown up and pretend that it wasn't one of the most exciting days of my life.   A good friend through work helped make my childhood dreams a reality and I will never forget it.

That's me in the white dress right next to Rob.  Kyle Cook is the tall blonde with the shades on the right.  

Here's one of the video's I took at the station event.  Unfortunately, because they had been rehearsing so much, Rob's voice was a little tired.  I'm not faulting him for this, because I really liked the song.  There are many reasons to love them and their sense of humor is definitely one.

Anniversary Week

This week we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. Time really has flown by and I feel like every day with Jeremy has been the happiest of my life.  Sunday, he took me on a scavenger hunt to places around Nashville that reminded him of us.  We've been married for 4 years, but have been together for almost 9 years. There are a lot of places that remind us of dates with each other and from the scavenger hunt, I can tell that most of them are food related.  ; )

Before we started the scavenger hunt, we ate at my new favorite BBQ joint in Nashville, Edley's.  I definitely splurged on a brisket sandwich, cheese grits and mac & cheese.  Then a few hours later we got gelato at a new Gelato place that was delicious, called Legato Gelato.  

After that day of eating you would not believe my surprise when I stepped on the scale Monday.  NOTHING gained! Miracles do happen.  I barely did boot camp the week before too.

Tuesday was our actual anniversary date so I got a good steak from the grocery store, made a zucchini/brocoli bake and we shared a flourless chocolate torte from Whole Foods.  Again, not the best decisions, so when I weighed myself 2 days later, I was shocked again! 1 more lb lost!

It's been a slow journey and from that kind of eating, you can see why, but I've lost a total of 14lbs since March.  I haven't done my measurements, so I'm sure I've lost a bunch of inches too b/c all of my pants fit better too.

I'll post the scavenger hunt later, but for now here are a few food photos from this week.

Peaches and Cream (or Coconut Milk) Steel Cut Oats 

4 year wedding anniversary 

Confession

As I confessed in my previous blog entries, I get off track on my diet.  I'm human.  This past month, I've been trying to go to boot camp like normal and watch what I eat, but I've gotten off track.  I have no one but myself to blame, but I definitely let circumstances get in my way.

All this month (except 1 week), my brother, niece & nephew have been in town.  I went to see Fiona Apple in concert and went to a water park one day.  Tonight, I'm going out with my husband and friends and it's our anniversary weekend (4 years!).  I haven't been eating as great as I usually do, but luckily, as of 3 days ago, I had not gained any weight either.

I'm going to have fun and enjoy myself tonight, but starting ASAP, I'm getting back on my eating plan. Some promises I am making to myself:   I will not change my boot camp schedule in the middle of the night to cancel the next days session (yes, I did that).  I will think before I eat.  I will not eat unnecessary sweets that come into the office.

I went to Anthropologie today to buy a top.  Anthro is one of my favorite stores, next to Jcrew and Ann Taylor Loft.  All of these stores have a problem.  They do not stock certain sizes in the store.  That's why I've been an avid online shopper for so many years.

Lately, I'm finding that I can fit into things at these stores.  I've been wearing Ann Taylor and Jcrew tops for a while, but Anthropologie is one store that very few fits me.  Until today.  I went in today to check out what few XL tops I could find on sale.  Now, I'm finding that the L tops are fitting me better than the XL tops.  Sure every top is different, but this gave me a really great feeling.  I'm starting to see changes in my body that I hadn't seen in a long time (since High School).

I'm noticing that I like my stomach.  It's not flat and I'm def not skinny, but I see the improvement in it and I'm proud.  My arms are SLOWLY getting smaller and when I flex I can see muscle that I can't remember seeing.  I'm proud of these features because however imperfect they still are, I know what I did to get them.  I know how hard I've been working and that's for me.

As I type this, my arms are aching because of all the weight reps we did on Thursday in class.  While it sucks to be sore, it also is a reminder that I actually tried and I should be proud of myself.

That's all.