Trip Home....

Thanksgiving was so amazing. I had definitely been missing my family and friends. Turns out six months is way too long. I can't go that long again. I got to see a ton of my highschool friends.  I really love getting to see them.  I also got to meet two of my friends babies.  They are so cute. 

I haven't gotten upset about leaving yet since I will be back for Christmas. I will get to see more KC people and Ryan's family then so that will be good. It will be super busy….but good. The drive wasn't bad at all. We ended up making it in closer to 15 hours then 16. The only hang up was the West Virginia deer. There were seriously like 50 of them. I was so worried we were going to hit one…especially since it was midnight and there were no other cars on the road. Thankfully my husband is amazing and we made it with out any problems.
Speaking of my husband he is out of town for a couple days. Turns out I really don't like being in DC when he is not here. He took the car so I am basically stranded….well except for the metro. Thankfully I don't go any where during the week except work so no problems there. He comes back soon…but not soon enough. Every time he leaves and we have to just talk on the phone it reminds me of when we were just dating. I don't miss the long distance…that is for sure.
I only gained 1.4 pounds over Thanksgiving and I ate a lot. I am pretty happy that the damage wasn't that bad...especially since I hit the Dr. Pepper pretty hard. I am already back in loose weight mode. My new favorite thing….the elliptical (thanks to my parents). I did it in our apartment gym yesterday and felt really good afterwards. I am slowly increasing the amount of time I am on it and feel better each time I do it. I was sweating big time. Oh…funny thing is I don't really fit on the machine that well. It is especially hard to reach the buttons to set what workout I am going to do. I probably look really funny standing on my tippy toes trying to push buttons. Sometimes I am not even sure what I am pushing :-)

- ACK

Catching Up.

It has been awhile since I posted something…mainly because I like to put pictures up and haven't uploaded any recently. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Since we are driving (yes we are crazy) home for Thanksgiving my plan is to bring all of the Christmas presents so we don't have to fly with them. This is good in theory but it was hard getting it all done. We are officially done and Ryan has (in his words) secured a box from work so we can haul them home easily. I am happy with everything I got. Some of it involves my craftiness…yeah didn't know I had it either…and other some searching around. Of course I had some Crate and Barrel action involved and there are also a ton of outlet stores close to us. I took advantage of those too.

Tonight is dinner with my second cousin and her husband. I am really looking forward to seeing familiar faces…especially when they are family. We are going to a Lebanese place so I am not really sure what I am going to order. I agree that I should start being a little more adventurous with my food.

The weight is still coming off even though I have slipped a couple times. I am still working out (even purchased goggles and a swim cap so swimming can start) but I give in to the food sometimes. Girl scout cookies have been a problem. One day I found myself with four of them in my hand. Ryan was like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". I honestly think I blanked out….well that is the story I am sticking too. The other major fall of the wagon was a double chocolate shake at this new burger place we tried. It was so yummy though!!!!! For Thanksgiving I am not going to worry about calories but still try to workout. Then I will hit it hard again once we are back. I plan on having a Dr. Pepper date with my grandma.



- ACK

Yum.....

Wish I was eating this:

Betty's Speakeasy Cupcake -- Philly

Instead I ate hummus and baby carrots.


- ACK

Craisins!!!!

One of the things that I love about Ryan is that he will eat almost anything.  Notice I said almost.  Turns out the things he won't eat are items that I happen to like...of course!  One of these such things is Craisins.  This dried fruit is one of my snack items but they are pretty high calorie so I don't eat them super often.  Ryan refuses to help me out by eating some for me and I didn't want them to be around super long.  My solution....

                                (From Ocean Spray Website)

These muffins were low calorie (I used splenda and applesauce) and used one cup of Craisins.  Also Ryan liked them.  I think by my last count he had six.  Mission accomplished!


- ACK

Gum

I am addicted!

Shrimp Time

Lemony Shrimp with Beans and Couscous:

Philly and Chiefs

We headed to Philadelphia for most of the last weekend. The reason was the Cirque De Soleil show Alegria. It was on Friday and was pretty good. It isn't my favorite of their shows, but I am happy I saw it. Saturday we did some sight seeing, some eating (cheese steaks…yum), and driving. Oh we went to this super cute cupcake place where the owner walked us through the cupcakes of the day. We both chose Black Velvet (basically red velvet cake but with blackberry juice instead of red food coloring). It was so good. The place is called Betty's Speakeasy and if you are every in Philly you should check it out (bakery website).

We paid some guy 50 cents to take this picture....well worth it:

That Sunday was Chiefs vs. Redskins. It was super cold and the walk from the metro was a mile….one way. Other then that it was great. It was also nice seeing fellow KC supporters. Ryan and I proudly wore our Chiefs shirts…though mine was covered up by my coat most of the time.

View from the top:

- ACK

Snack Time

My new thing is snacks. I usually have two or three a day. I thought I would share my current favorite ones…

* Hunts Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Snack Pack -- tastes amazing and only 50 cals.

* Light String Cheese

* Baby Carrots -- I've got to be honest, these are not my favorite but are way healthy.

* Almonds -- I don't eat too many of these because they are higher in calories but so tasty!!!!

* Unsweetened Applesauce -- suprisingly yummy and low cal.

* Craisins

* Reduced Fat Cheez-Its

* Cottage Cheese -- can't go wrong with this…but it does need to be the fat free one.

* Fun Size Peanut M&Ms -- ok so this one is kind of a splurge.

* Unsalted Pretzels

I also found online an ice cream company called Skinny Cow (check it out HERE) but I haven't tried it yet. I am sure it will be good and they are super low calorie compared to the other ice creams out there.  The website has a spot where you can find where they sell it near you.

On all of the snacks I pay close attention to the serving size and try to mix it up everyday. I get tired of things easily so it is good to have a variety.


Happy Snacking!

- ACK

Crazy Weekend....

This weekend was absolutely crazy. Saturday was taken up by solar house time. We got to the mall area around 11 and checked out some of the houses and of course UMR's (yeah I am not going to be writing MS&T anytime soon). I really enjoyed California's house. They had a greywater reclamation pond that I loved…ok so maybe it is just exciting for a ChemE. We were talking with one of the students and Ryan asked about the freeze/thaw cycle and she acted like she didn't know what that was. Finally she says that it doesn't freeze where the house is going to be located. Leave it to Ryan to stump them! Saturday night we had an alumni dinner which was really fun. It was nice to be around people from Missouri again. It made me feel more at home.

Picture of Team California (and pond!):

Sunday was race day. The race was called Backyard Burn and it was tough (from what I hear). The race is basically on a trail through streams and wobbly bridges. Ryan came in 10th for the males and 6th for the males under 29. Not too bad for there probably being around 350 men. While Ryan was running and sweating I was volunteering. I did check-in first and then moved on to the food station. The check-in was fine except it was super cold. My hands were freezing. The food station was hard because they had pizza and I love pizza. I would have loved to eat a ton of it….but I didn't. Each piece has about 300 calories and that is for just cheese. Overall everything went well and we were beat. The weekend was too short and too busy.



- ACK

New Table

Seems like everything has to be a little tough out here and getting a new table was no exception.  We fell in love with and bought a beautiful Crate and Barrel dining room table only to find out we couldn't get it home.  Two door civic = not good for hauling stuff.  Long story short we ended up with a huge Penske 24' truck for a small table.  Thankfully they only charged us the hourly rate, maybe because they felt sorry for our situation.  Either way I personally feel that it was worth the trouble. 

Here is a picture of our new table.  The centerpiece is super special because it was our first pumpkin together...aww.  Just kidding....I am definitely not sentimental like that!  It is however our first pumpkin which we actually picked. 

New Table (Don't worry it gets bigger to accommodate guests):

First Pumpkin:

- ACK

The Beginning!!!!

I have recently started to count my calorie intake in efforts to drop some pounds. Turns out that the more I cook the more my waistline increases. It doesn't help that my hubby is super thin and totally into working out. I have been doing it about 2 weeks now with some results. I will say it is super hard to say no to things and even harder to figure out how many calories I have eaten. It is really sad having to count out the number of craisins I can have for my afternoon snack.

I have lost 4 pounds and will try to keep my progress with that on here too. I am also trying to cook healthier in another effort to keep the calories down. I am going to be putting pictures of my meals on here too.

The rest of the topics won't be quite as boring as my weight journey. The posts will be following the ACK and RTK journeys on the east coast.

- ACK