two pounds

I am sitting here furiously eating a bowl of salad. I've never been this excited to see lettuce in my life. It's 9:30 p.m. and I haven't eaten anything since 3. This is bad, because even though I'm starting off with a bowl of salad, my tummy isn't full and it's saying "just eat more croutons. and a bag of those sun chips you bought for the beach. and some peppermint patties."

yikes.

I was TWO pounds away from my goal weight, and then Chinese happened. And pizza. And Klines. And IHOP (blast my husband and his endless pancakes craving). Plus, I haven't been doing so hot keeping up with p90x. Now I'm four and a half pounds away from my goal. :-/

With our beach trip coming up this Saturday, I would love to see those two and a half pounds fall off. I'd loooove to see the numbers on the scale decrease. I think being back to my old sizes and wearing clothes I haven't been able to wear in a long time have made me feel that I can excuse giving in to my food urges. I have to keep reminding myself that while it is OK to enjoy naughty food now and then, my body will respond better to nutrition and exercise. It's so hard. I love me some chips and chocolate and onion rings and... I should stop.

This week it's fruit, veggies, tuna, chicken and nuts... not tons of toast and chocolate covered fiber bars. It's going to be tough. I know I'm probably eating out with my coworkers one day, so that will be my "free pass" meal. I have a rule at work that I only eat out once every other week. I would probably have gained back all the weight I've lost if I didn't have this rule. I pack my lunch, and I've only visited the snack machine three times since I've started working in February.

If you have some lunch suggestions, please pass them along. I need something easy to put together and something that won't make a mess at my desk.

now I'm off in search of something to eat... 

what's going on w/ the Rennies

We are on week six of p90x. Andy is ripped. I am not. That's OK, though, because I'm not using heavy weights on purpose. I'm hoping to see more definition appear in my abs and arms, but I'm feeling great. I first blogged about p90x here and was down 18 pounds. I'm now down 23 and have only five more to go!

The best part of p90x is how cute Casey is when we're working out. She likes to bite our arms and hands when we're doing yoga, plyo or kempo. She play growls at us and runs in circles around us. She wants a workout too!

Yesterday the women's ministry at our church (Aletheia) hosted a tea. We wore hats, ate yummy treats and got to hear three beautiful testimonies. I finally got to wear my butterfly dress outside of the house (I like to walk around the house in it), and I paired it with my new Seychelles. It was fun to get dolled up.

I've been using our slow cooker quite a bit lately. It's so nice to not have to make dinner at night! Last weekend I put three chicken breasts in the slow cooker with 3/4 of a chopped onion, some chicken bouillon, little water and salt and pepper. I served it over potatoes and stuffing. It could have been more flavorful, but it was still really good. We had TONS of chicken leftover somehow (seriously, some loaves and fishes action was going on in our slow cooker), so I shredded it and mixed it with bbq sauce. We ate the shredded chicken for four days, sometimes for both lunch and dinner. It was really good heated up and put in a salad. Three chicken breasts = 8 servings. Boggles my mind. On Friday I made a big pot of chili and sadly, I'm about to eat the last bowl. I can't give you the recipe because I might make it for the church's chili cook-off in the fall. After I win I will share the recipe.  :)  Today my slow cooker has got some pork shoulder in it for pulled pork. I'm taking it to a couple who just had a baby, but I'm going to use the rest of the pork (Andy got a LOT) for us. I just came across this black bean and barbecued pork soup recipe and since Andy's heartbroken that our chili got eaten so fast, he'll be glad to have another big pot of soup to devour.

check out this list of recipes from a woman who used her slow cooker EVERY DAY for a year! I have to say, some of the recipes don't sound appetizing to me, but I'm really impressed by her accomplishment. She admits she spent more money than usual because honestly, a family can only eat so much (they froze a lot and gave some food away), and she gained eight pounds. 

andy is closing today (1-11pm) so I'm spending this rainy Sunday getting stuff done around the house and doing my workout all by my lonesome. I have coffee with my dear friend Kelly to look forward to, though, and I have some good music to listen to.