GAG Finale

I can’t believe that the gag challenge is over with. When I first started it back in september, sixteen weeks sounded like such a loooong time. I thought I could get so far in sixteen weeks! I may not have lost as much weight as I wanted, but I actually finished. I actually finished strong! I know that I would have put on weight if it weren’t for the challenge. The past few weeks have been crazy and my posting has been sporadic but I have loved every day of GAG. All the gaggers are such lovely people and I am honored to have finished a challenge with all of them. I hope everyone has had as much fun as I have!

I weighed in at 209 today which means I’ve lost about ten pounds over the past sixteen weeks. I could have done tons worse, but I also could have quit. If I would have quit, then I would have most likely gained ten pounds rather than losing. So overall, GAG to me was a huge success!!!!

(Scale pic for Christine)

Next Seasons Biggest Loser Winner

A few months ago, I mentioned how a friend of a friend is going to be on the biggest loser. He lives a few miles away from me and from what I know about him, he is an amazing person. He went on the show with his mom. Hopefully both of them will go very far!

Weekend Update

This week has just flown by! I am still having troubles with keeping my eating in check. Holiday parties are already starting and customers have brought wonderful goodies into work every single day this week. I will have to remember to take a picture someday next week so I can show all the madness. Rather than focusing on my crummy eating, here’s some happy stuff from this weekend.

Not so happy stuff is what I found when I came home from work on Friday

My poor sweet Sassy just wanted to follow her Daddy to work. Thankfully I have a bank customer that said he would be able to fix the carpet for super cheap. Friday was not a good night. I cried and Sassy whined.

Now Sassy stays in a crate while both the husband and I are gone. A crate that is large enough for an eighteen year old boy man.

We went to my parents where we assembled the kid tree. It still has all of our ornaments that we made or were given to us.

I found this kick ass ornament that I made out of clay with my kindergarten. Erin circa 1990. Unfortunatly, it didn’t get on the tree this year because the husband accidently broke off the bottom.

Sassy got her first experience out at the tennis courts. We went and played with my family yesterday afternoon. Sassy had a great time chasing after the balls. She is still doing great, she didn’t have to stay on her leash at all yesterday. I was able to get a picture of her actually looking at the camera by some miracle.

I hope everyone has a great day. I am going to go back to my parents and help my mom make holiday candy for coworkers. Totally not diet friendly. I will try to be strong though!

Sassy Withdrawal

I don’t understand how pet owners get anything done during the day. We have had Sassy for less than two days and all day I wonder “ Is she okay?” “What is she doing?” The past two mornings I have hated leaving her at home. How do people do it? Thankfully, she has been doing so well! No one has answered our lost and found ad, but I really think she belongs to someone. She still hasn’t made an accident in the house and she hasn’t torn anything up. She accidently knocked down the Christmas tree last night, but we were home and you could tell it was a complete accident.

Having her has definitely affected my eating habits. I have eaten out twice out of the last five meals. Not good at all. Its harder even to cook healthy food because she wants so much love. I need to go to the store and stock up on some quick healthy food. Everything I have at home needs to actually be cooked. Playing with her is just way more fun than cooking!

Today is one of the best days in a loooong time. Hello, unblocked internet at work! This definitely helps me with being able to post and comment. Again, playing with her is more fun than being on the internet. How does everyone find a balance?!?!

Introducing Sassy

Yesterday I recieved a phone call from my husband saying that some teachers found a stray dog on the playgroud at the school he works at. We have been looking for a dog, but the timing never seems right. I went to look at, with the encouragement of coworkers. The little dog was so sweet and loved everyone. You could tell that she was super nice and just needed love. She’s really skinny so I dont think that she’s someone pet. So we decided to take her home with us!

She has done so well. Yesterday she was really timid and shy while she was getting adjusted to her surroundings, but she was a little ball of energy when I took her to potty this morning. I’m sure this is the worst time ever to try to potty train a dog because its so cold. She will be great at it once she gets the hang of it!

We named her Sassy which is cute by its own, but combined with our last name is really adorable. I knew whenever I married my husband that whenever we got a dog I would want to name her Sassy. He had other plans, but he told some of his teacher friends my name and his which is Zultan from Dude Where’s My Car? If you have seen the movie then it might be a little cute. But his teacher friends decided Sassy was a better puppy name. Thank goodness! Here are some pictures of my little sweetheart. We dont know what she is, we are guessing german shepard and something else.

Getting My GAG On

1. Women who lift weights will get bulky muscles. False

2. “Spot reducing” (focusing on one area with exercises to see faster results in that one area) is possible. False

3. Exercise boosts brain power. True

4. No pain, no gain. True

5. Movement melts away stress. True

6. Exercise requires a hefty time commitment. False

7. If you exercise, you can eat whatever you want. False

8. There’s a magic bullet (quick fix) out there somewhere. False

9. Exercise gives you energy. True

10. All excuses aside, it’s actually not that hard to find some amount of time for fitness daily. True

11. You need a gym membership if you want your exercise routine to be most effective. False

12. People who have exercise partners stay with their programs and reach their goals more often than those who try to go it alone. True

13. Exercise helps ward off disease. True

14. Exercise is good for the heart. True

15. Pound for pound, muscle burns more calories at rest than body fat — so you can eat more calories and still lose weight if you exercise regularly. True

The Secret to Rainbow Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of some cupcakes that I did for a friends birthday. Last week I made a cake for a birthday. Both are pretty cool in my opinion and would be great for any celebration. I think everyone loved the cupcakes and the cake, both young and old. So here’s what you need

Cake mix. Yes, out of a box. If I make the cupcakes I use one (which makes about 12 cupcakes). I make the cake, I use two. I get the reduced sugar because normally my icing has a ton of sugar. Old habits die hard.

Wilton Cake Icing Colors. I got mine at Hobby Lobby, but I know walmart carries them along with michaels. I dont use regular color dye because then your cakes will turn out more like pastels and I dont like pastels. Your colors are bright with the icing and you only have to use a little. A box of these suckers last forever.

Here is where my pictures fail me, because I didn’t take any.

1. Make the cake according to the directions
2. Divide the cake into six bowls. If you are making the cake with two boxes, its about one and a half cups.
3. If you are making the cupcakes, put your liners in. I always use the liners because its more of a surprise and lets be honest, who doesn’t love a surprise? If you are making the cake, spray the crap out of your pans. If one cake gets stuck, its no bueno. I used the same two pans because thats all I have.
4. Cupcake- Start layering your little hearts out. I think I used a heaping tablespoon. Cakes- Pour the batter in the pans like you normally would.

oh, look. I found a picture. its blurry and shady, but you get the picture. this is what your cupcakes will look like before you bake them.

I baked the cupcakes according to the box. The cakes take about twelve to fifteen minutes. Once they get done, let them cool. If you are making cupcakes, you are done except for icing. If you are making the cake, you will need to cup the dome part of the cakes off. This makes a very happy husband (and I’m sure kids). The husband looooves him some cake scraps. Once you get the domes off, layer your little heart out. Rainbow style. You cane make homemade icing, or the stuff out of the box. I always change, depending on how much time I have, how lazy I’m being and how much I love the person. Joke.

You will get some crumbs in your icing. I normally dont care about the crumbs in the icing in between the layers. Once I have all six stacked, I do a thin layer, then put it in the fridge for a while. That way it seals it all in. Then slap on as much frosting as possible as you want.

Once you peel away the wrapper and bit in, its a huge surprise!

The cake looks like a normal cake….

until the first cut!

My red layer always looks hot pink. I like it that way!

Thats all folks! It is a little time consuming, but I think its totally worth it once you see people’s faces. Most of the time I make my cakes the night before so it doesn’t take as long. Hooray for moist supreme cakes! I’m sorry if you are trying to watch your weight and read this. If it makes you feel better, I posted almost a three pound weight gain this week!

I actually won a giveaway!

This week Sue and Christine over at GAG did a giveaway for Prior Gat Girl’s new e-cookbook. I entered because I am a contest whore and I actually won! I never win contests, so I was extremely shocked. I think the last thing I won (contest drawing wise) was in the seventh grade when I won a set of encyclopedia’s. So thank you Sue and Christine, for having such a great giveaway. I can’t wait to start busting out some new recipes. I will take pictures and post reviews, because ya’ll know I love me some new recipes!

This week I have also found out that my friend Sue is a huge fan of bribery. Soooo, tomorrow will be a post dedicated to cake. Dont open it unless you want to see the wonderful cake. You have been warned!

Thanksgiving Week Picture Recap

I hope everyone had an amzing Thanksgiving (and break if you had one)! The husband and I had a blast with friends and family. We traveled almost fifteen hundred miles in four days! We celebrated my birthday with friends, thanksgiving with my grandparents and the weekend with his grandparents. We ate, we shopped, we had a ball. Here’s some pictures of the highlights. This may be the point to add that I dont put pics on the blog with people except for the hubby and me. Just the hubby knows about my blog and I wouldn’t feel right putting peoples pics out there without them knowing. Enough rambling…

The break started out with birthday cake. It was a suprise birthday cake, but thats a whole post by itself.

The husband and I on Thanksgiving. No worries, we dont normally match when we dress. We were rushing like crazy thanksgiving morning to get out the door. The husband is color blind and he thought that he was grabbing a blue shirt.Oops.

On one of the drives we saw “The Largest Cross on the Western Hemisphere”. It was huuugge! This picture doesn’t even describe it. I was trying to make the husband go slower, but we were on the interstate.

We helped family members decorate for Christmas

We went to this amazzzing grocery store where I got tons of healthy food. It was like food blogger central! I couldn’t believe all the healthiness that was in such a small store. My little town cannot even compare to this. For instance, at my grocery store you can get one kind of Annies pasta. Plain ol mac and cheese. Natural Grocers has almost every single Annies product! Pasta, crackers, cookies, dressing, it was crazy! Some of my purchases will probably be showing up here as reviews. I can’t wait!

My fav part of the whole week was going to Orange Tree Yogurt. If you have one of these near you and haven’t checked it out, go now! This was my first time at a serve your own frozen yogurt place and I love it.

All of their flavors were either fat free or low fat. I got an itty bitty but of cheese cake and then some pomegranate. They trick you with big cups so you will want to fill it all the way up, but I resisted and only filled mine halfway.

Sooo many yummy toppings. I told the husband I just wanted the fruit because it all looked so good. The other side had chocolate, cereal,sprinkles and all the toppings that I tried to stay away from.

The finished product! I had cheese cake and pomegranate frozen yogurt topped with strawberries, cherries, raspberries, walnuts, coconut and pomegranate seeds. Delish!!! The husband had peanut butter yogurt with Reese’s pieces. I loved that we could both have what we wanted. I always hate being picky when ordering things, so serve your own yogurt was perfect for me because I got exactly what I wanted. A plus side to Orange Tree is that we went there after thanksgiving dinner with his family, so we didn’t eat all the yummy desserts at their house.

I hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday that is filled with love, family and a feeling of thankfulness. Today the husband and I will be driving three hours to see one set of grandparents for an early t-day lunch and then five hours to see his grandparents. Once we get to Amarillo, (our final destination) we will be staying there until Sunday.

My plan for today is to have a healthy breakfast before we go and to not consume a lot of mindless eating food. Note to self, there is a difference between a taste of something and a whole serving before the meal! My “just a taste”s can add up really quick. I hope everyone has a plan today.

Silly fact about me: Whenever I was younger, I thought Thanksgiving was a big birthday party for me. Since my birthday falls so close to Thanksgiving, I thought that everyone was together and having a big dinner as part of my party.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Be safe!