Chicken Healing Soup

I didn't do anything CRAZY different, in fact mine is pretty basic but OOOOH Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is SOO amazing, especially now that it's starting to feel fall like! AHHH

Ingredients

Water (enough to fill the pot once the chicken is in)
about 2 1/2-3 lbs of chicken (dark, light, whatever)
some carrots sliced
some celery sliced
a small onion chopped
box of large shells (or pasta of your choice)
about 2tbsp butter
extra organic chicken stock if needed
pepper
salt

Put your chicken in a pot and fill with water. Boil until chicken is cooked through. Pull chicken out and place in a bowl and skim off any fat you want off the top. Keep water boiling. Put in veggies (the amount really depends on how much you want in it... I also like to have frozen peas in mine... mom always did that). Once that has had a moment to cook add pasta. Begin shredding chicken from the bones and place the chicken (not the bones) in the pot. Season with the butter and salt and pepper to taste. Wha La! This makes a lot, but the noodles REALLY soak up the broth, so if you want yours more soupy the second time around add in more chicken broth, but don't forget to season more!

Fall Sunflowers!

My circle in my neighborhood had a BBQ so that we could all get to know each other. We were all asked to bring a dish so I brought deviled eggs (forgot to photograph) and these cupcakes! I tried my best to copy Katie, but alas mine needed more practice. I followed her instructions except that I used a gluten-free cake mix and I nixed the Lady Bugs because it was all I could do to make the freaking petals! Anywho, I will improve and they tasted great and were a huge hit!

For those of you who are gluten-free I used the Cocoa puffs for the center and I had to pick them off... I couldn't find the Cocoa pebbles! Enjoy!

Downfall of the weekend

WOW! I WAS doing so well this weekend with my eating, etc but then da da da... it all went down hill!! The important thing is though not to feel like a failure, even though i know i'm just hurting myself!
Saturday I had an egg and cheese sandwich on gluten free bread. I had wine to drink during the BBQ and Chris and i had hot dogs and chicken. My neighbors even had potato salad for me and dips with corn chips! But alas once to the wine was gone the beer turned on! AH!
Sunday was just hateful over all! I had flour chips with my dip and my chicken casserole, which i found out through further investigation has gluten in it. Then i didn't have any wine and so i drank beer... and finished it all off with a burger with the bun! After all that my body went into shut down mode and we had to go home. I was asleep by 8pm!

So here's the plan for the next two weeks.
1. NO GLUTEN!
2. More Veggies
3. Only water and green tea to drink (no sodas, no coffee)
4. No alcohol.
5. Eat only on a small plate, to try to limit my portions.
6. Walk the dogs.

When i finish the next two weeks i know i'll feel SOO much better when all is said and done because of this. So any support and watchful eyes would be great! Thanks!

Italian Fish

I got this recipe from Kraft.com. It was incredible. I would eat it again and again and it's also pretty healthy!

Ingredients

1 large frozen white fish Fillet (I think mine was flounder)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 reduced fat mozzarella cheese
2-4 tbsp of Zesty Italian dressing (or Fat Free Italian Dressing)
Fresh Parsley (I used dried b/c it's what I had on hand)

Preheat oven to 450. Drizzle Dressing over fish and cook frozen fish uncovered for twenty five minutes.
Then top with mushrooms then Cheese and lastly with the Parsley.
Bake an additional five minutes!
Wha LA!

I served mine with butter and garlic asparagus and gluten free mac and cheese!
Yum!

Day Two: What kind of choices have YOU made?

Hmmm... well i did NOT walk the dogs yesterday... BUT i do have a reason besides my DVR was full and i needed to catch up on the TV watching. On the way home from work i had the WORST stomach pains, even going around and up my back... weird gas?? Don't know b/c eventually it just went away. BUT I had a decent eating day:
Breakfast: okay bombed this one with gluten free french toast sticks and syrup but whateve!
Had coffee with fat free creamer and splenda!
Lunch was Fat Free and Gluten Free Veggie Soup (YUM!) and a small salad with Fat Free Italian dressing.
Snacks: Carrots and a can of peaches in pear juice (120cals for the peaches)
When i got home i had salsa and corn tortilla chips
Dinner was AMAZING!!
I cooked flounder (i think that's what it was) in the oven with Zesty Italian dressing topped with mushrooms, low fat mozzarella cheese and parsley! With it we had gluten free Mac and Cheese and Asparagus. It was incredable... go to my food blog for details!

After dinner i laid down until i had to go to choir practice. I HAD to go because we were auditioning for the different solo/trio etc parts for the Christmas production and BOY am I glad i went!!! I think I might be getting the part I want! I sang and he seemed really impressed! YEA! He even told my friend (who went in next) how impressed he was with how I sounded on the song! OKAY enough "bragging" I was just so shocked because I wasn't expecting much since I'm the "new kid" at this church! YEA!

Today I've had oatmeal with I can't believe it's not butter and splenda and I've had a morning tea. The Tea was caffine free so I'm sure I'll make my coffee soon!

My Goals for today are:
1. Not to over eat at lunch (getting taken out for my b-day)
2. Get in my water for today (I was told to drink half my weight in oz... so i weigh 157/2= 78.5)
3. Walk my dogs this afternoon before i go to my cake decorating class.

You MIGHT be looking at #2 thinking hmmm... but i weighed myself this morning and that's what the scale said! NOT that i lost 8lbs over night... i was actually just assuming that i weighed 165 since i have this INCREDIBLY SEXY muffin top... but guess I was wrong!
Hey small victories right!?!?

"It took a while to develop a bad habit; it'll take a while to develop a good one"

Most recent Pic

So this isn't a full frontal of nastiness but you get the jist of the double chin beginnings, etc. Use your imagination for the rest~

I told you change was coming!

SO here it is! My weight loss blog. That's all this will be (well i MIGHT vent especially when someone stupid MADE me eat a whole bag of chips!) So here it goes!

The gruesomeness begins!

Height: 5' 6 1/2" (don't forget that half!)
Weight: 165 ish (cringe)
BMI: 26.6 (= officially overweight!)
Measurements
Bust:40
Waist:31
Hips:39.5
Rt Thigh:24.5
Rt upper arm: 12
neck:12.75

Now here are my long term goals

Weight: 135
Bust: can stay the same but going down an inch or two would be GREAT
Waist: 28
Hips: 38
Thigh: 19
Arm: 9
Neck: 11

Short Term: Meaning By January
Weight: 153

My Fitness Goal for now is to walk my dogs every.day.! They NEED this and it's good for me too. Once I am doing this on a regular basis I'll add in more.

Another important part of my journey that you will see is that I need to be Gluten Free... details being...

I have over half of the symptoms of Celiac's disease. I have been blood tested and it was negative but i was told that i could still have it. Also i could just have a gluten sensitivity. Which i have found that to at least be true because i feel much better when i go gluten free! So part of this weight loss journey will also be adapting to this disease.

I need ya'lls support and accountability. Help me out, ask me how i'm doing, and PLEASE don't offer me gluten free cakes. HAHAHA! So here we go~