Artistic Antics

Today was our final "build" day for pottery. Starting next week, we'll begin glazing everything we've made so far. Our teacher, again, complained that we were making too big of pieces and that she would only be able to fire them once (so, no glaze). She's fabulous. So, instead of building something new in fear of being scolded, I put the finishing touches on my owl spoon holder and called it a night. In spite of all of her condescension and rudeness, we had a good time hanging out together. I'm actually excited to start painting my pieces. Hopefully they all turn out well!
After class, we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. I ordered the grilled tilapia instead of the cheese-covered chicken I normally get. Weigh-In Wednesday is tomorrow, and I'm so close to meeting my 10% goal. Hopefully I'll get there tomorrow! Weight Watchers is still going slowly, but I guess it's still going, so that's good. Slow loss usually means you'll keep it off much better than fad diets that drops pounds too quickly. Here's to hoping for a good result from the scale in the morning!

Tomorrow is Weigh-In Wednesday!

Phenomenal Foods

Today's Phenomenal Food is:

Kale!

Kale is delicious! I love it in salads, in smoothies, and just cooked by itself. I've been making my breakfast smoothies for a little over a week now, and kale is by far my favorite greens to make them with. Spinach is good, but kale is sweeter and doesn't have stringy bits that don't get completely blended. My favorite combination so far is: 1/2 scoop of vanilla whey protein powder, 1 cup of Trop 50 orange juice, 2 cups of kale (blend first 3 ingredients until smooth first before adding the frozen fruit), 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries, and 1/2 cup of frozen mangos (with some chia seeds added in for that extra omega-3). It's really sweet and really filling!

According to an article called Kale: Natural Weight-Loss Food from health.howstuffworks.com, "For a green, kale is unusually high in fiber. This helps create the bulk you need to fill you up and to keep you full for a good amount of time. Kale is also an excellent source of nutrients, especially vitamin A and calcium. With a combination of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, kale is a dieter's dream food."

It also says, "Not only is it one of your best sources of beta-carotene, one of theantioxidants believed by many nutrition experts to be a major player in the battle against cancer, heart disease, and certain age-related chronic diseases, it also provides other important nutrients.

In addition to beta-carotene, kale posses other important carotenoids: lutein and zeaxathin. These carotenoids help keep UV rays from damaging the eyes and causing cataracts.

According to recent research results, kale is an incredible source of well-absorbed calcium, which is one of the many factors that may help prevent osteoporosis. It also provides decent amounts of vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B6, manganese, and potassium.

The manganese in kale helps your body's own antioxidant defense system, superoxide dismutase, protecting you from damaging free radicals. Its folate and B6 team up to keep homocysteine levels down, which may help prevent heart disease, dementia, and osteoporosis bone fractures."

Kale seems to be a bit of a superfood! I never realized all the great health benefits this tasty green has! I'll definitely keep putting it in my smoothies and salads!

Click the photo for a recipe for kale chips!

2 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!

Weekend Warrior

Yay, successful weekend! I did quite well both days staying within my points range even with going out to eat and having a birthday dinner for Austin. Hopefully Weigh-In Wednesday will show the restraint I used this weekend!
In other news, my mom and I went back to Sam's Club today because we needed healthy snacks for our upcoming trip to Alabama for my cousin's wedding. We also officially bought the Ninja blender that I saw yesterday and researched and started looking at patio furniture and deep freezers for our new house.

In other news, our boxer Cleo sliced her foot open pretty badly somehow while she was outside and bled everywhere. So, Austin and I doctored up her foot; we cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide, put Neosporin on it, and put gauze and a bandage on it. She wasn't a huge fan of the bandage at first, but she got used to if after a while. We still had to clean blood stains out of the carpet and bed sheets where she was lying.

3 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!

Shopping Shenanigans

Well, I forgot to post yesterday. Oops! Anyway, here's a recap of what we did: my mom, my grandma, and I went to Walmart and Sam's Club, we celebrated my brother Austin's birthday with a family dinner, and then we went and saw the new Captain America movie (which was fantastic).

Also, Austin and I are moving into a house next year and have a spare room in the basement that we've decided to make into a movie theatre room! I'm super excited! We're hopefully going to buy some nice recliners on a garage sale this summer, my grandpa gave us his old big-screen TV, and I bought an air-pop popcorn maker at Sam's yesterday. Yay, healthy popcorn! Then, I decided to buy a Ninja blender system to make all sorts of goodies! Austin also has my old mini fridge from college, so we'll have drinks, too! Plus, he's setting up a sound system and an entertainment center. We get to start moving in June 1, and I can't wait! A month and a half is going to seem like forever! Especially since my neighbors still have their dog that barks outside all the time and my upstairs neighbors recently bought Satan's cats. Seriously, it's demonic. It fights and screams all night with another cat or something. I don't understand. Let the countdown to moving begin! (55 days!)

3 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!

Exercise Escapades

Another week to check off the list! I worked out every weekday this week. I changed it up a bit because I was getting bored with T25. After our pottery class, Robin and I worked out with Brittany at her apartment. Then, Thursday, I went up to Warrensburg again to just hang out, and Robin, Brittany, and I went to the UCM track. They are legit runners, and I tried. There were also a bunch of baseball players on the field, and I don't do audience-viewed runs. I downloaded the Nike Run app. so that I can track my progress! Also, I am NOT a fan of Jillian Michael's DVD workouts. She just isn't as motivational as Shaun T, and honestly, she scares me a bit. Anyway, here's this week's workout schedule:

Monday: 1.75 Mile Walk/Jog around Concordia (30 min.)

Tuesday: Focus T25 Upper Focus (Beta)

Wednesday: Jillian Michaels Cardio

Thursday: 2 Mile Walk/Jog around the Track in Warrensburg

Friday: Focus T25 Speed 1.0 (Alpha)

After Monday's Run/Walk

Concordia Run

Warrensburg Run

Fastest Mile! (Walking/Jogging)

5 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!

Recipe Report

So, today's Recipe Report is kind of a fail. I tried a recipe that both my mom and grandma make and mine turned out totally wrong. I'll get it right eventually. But anyway, the recipe is for Applesauce Jell-O. It's supposed to have a thick texture and fills you up way faster, but I added in too much applesauce and too much water, so mine turned out to be just strawberry-flavored applesauce instead of thick Jell-O. My mom's and my grandma's turned out wonderfully. It was just like really thick Jell-O. I'll have to try again soon. Mine tastes good, but it's the wrong consistency. They just told me to dump in the applesauce, but I went a little overboard, so the recipe link above should make it turn out correctly. Oh, well. . .Live and learn! Anyway, when you use sugar-free Jell-O and unsweetened applesauce, this delicious treat is 0 Points Plus!!

6 days until Weigh-In Wednesday!

Weigh-In Wednesday

Today's Weight:

294

Hello, blog world! Happy Weigh-In Wednesday! Well, following my pattern of losing a lot one week and then hardly anything the next, I only lost 0.2 pounds this week. I'm still happy I'm losing, don't get me wrong, but it's just annoying when I can lose 3 pounds in a week, then do the same thing the next week, and then lose way less than the week prior. Oh, well. I'll just take it one day at a time! I did get to move a stone over to my "Pounds Lost" jar, so that felt good.

Total Weight Loss: 28 pounds

Only 114 to go!

Artistic Antics

Well, today marked week 4 of our pottery class! We were met with snide, condescending remarks and were told we were doing everything wrong again. So fun, guys. . .so fun. However, we have been attempting to keep to ourselves and just make things, so here's what happened in today's class: I "accidentally" broke my weird-shaped bowl because I didn't like it, then I decided to make an owl spoon holder for my stove, and then I used a balloon I found above the cabinets to use as a mold for my owl dish and got weird looks from everyone in class. Overall, it was a pretty good pottery class.
Afterwards, we all went to Mexican for dinner and then worked out after that. Whoa, late! But we got it done, and I didn't skip a day of working out! (I had a parent meeting after school, so I didn't have time to do my video before I headed to Warrensburg.) Hopefully tomorrow's weigh-in will show it!

Tomorrow is Weigh-In Wednesday!