My new love...Coconut Oil!

 

 

 

The stuff above, Coconut Oil, is an all natural gift from mother nature.  I have a great fondness and tremendous amount of respect for this jar of awesomeness.  I wish I could tell you how I first learned about it, but I can't even remember.  I just know that I started using it a little over a year ago and haven't looked back.  The benefits and uses for CO are great and endless and did I mention, it's not expensive at all!  So during the next week, I'm going to share my uses for CO and I hope that if you currently use it, that you'll share in the comments.

Tonight I'll share my first use for CO...

 - Eye makeup remover 

It's greasy, so it may take some getting used to, but just put a little on your fingers, gently rub in and wipe with a cotton pad, washcloth or just rinse with warm water and your hands.  It works so much better than any remover I've ever purchased, easily removes waterproof mascara and is soooo incredibly good for your skin!  I'll let you in on a little secret...I no longer use typical face wash.  I wash my face with CO and then leave a little on as a moisturizer at night.  I'll be honest, when I first started this, my skin seemed to get worse.  This was only happening because the CO was getting out the dirt, oil and other impurities.  After about a week, my face was just as smooth as could be and I rarely have a breakout now.  That's huge for me!  Even as an adult, I'm prone to acne attacks.  But using CO, it's really hard to remember the last time I had a breakout. 

Another great place to apply the CO is to your lips...natural lip balm!  Your lips will be kissably soft and smooth in no time! 

So that's it...Now consider yourself fortunate enough to see my before and after pictures from using it as eye makeup remover - or maybe not so fortunate if I scare you to death with my naked eyes (:

Before with makeup on...and yes I realize that I totally need to pluck some brows!  Yowzers!

 

So pretty...



 

 

 

 

 

Next use...a healthy fat in smoothies!

 

 

 

 

 

Clean Eating - Day 1 and counting...

So today is day 1 of clean eating for this couple!  Josh and I have made the decision, for good, to eat clean and change our way of looking at food. Will it be easy? Well for us, not so much. We are horrible enablers of one another when it comes to food! We'll be really good for a couple of days then one of us mentions a craving, we're going to get it for the other and join right in.

Over the years, we have each gained a good amount of excess weight and have a good bit to lose. But we are not eating clean just to lose weight...we both want to feel better! I would like to get my 8 hours of sleep, as I always do, but actually feel well rested and energized during the day! We want to have energy to workout, go for walks with our dogs and just get out of this couch potato rut.

So, as we get started (and we've been great for the 2 hours we've been awake so far!!), please wish us luck and share any experience you've had with clean eating as well as advice. We need all we can get!

Workout for 10/29:
Upper body (weights) and 30 minutes cardio (we're going to do the C25K program)

Here is our menu plan for today (10/29):

Meal 1 - Morning

Lean Protein - 1 Egg White
Complex Carb - Quick Cooking Oats
Complex Carb - Green Smoothie (spinach, banana, strawberry, water, almond milk)
Healthy Fat - Coconut Oil (in smoothie and oatmeal)
Supplement - Ground Flax
Drink - Green Smoothie and 1 Liter Water, Coffee with Almond Milk

Notes:  The liquid egg white was mixed in with my oats then cooked in the microwave (I'm not an egg fan, so this is the easiest way for me to get some egg protein) and I added ground cinnamon, coconut oil and a packet of truvia. 

Meal 2 - Mid Morning

Lean Protein - Roasted/Unsalted Almonds
Complex Carb - Apple, maybe carrots too
Drink - Water

Meal 3 - Lunch

Lean Protein/Complex Carb - Turkey Chili
Drink - Water

Notes:  This turkey chili is AWESOME!  It has ground turkey, diced tomatoes, black bean, white beans, tons of seasoning and can be eaten with brown rice to add more carbs.  If you're working out, you need the carbs!

Meal 4 - Mid Afternoon

Lean Protein - Clean Chicken Fajita Mix (made in crockpot)
Complex Carb - Black Beans in fajita and whole wheat tortilla
Drink - Water

Meal 5 - Post Workout

Lean Protein - Whey Protein Shake: Chocolate
Complex Carb - Oats in the shake or Brown Rice cake with Natural PB

Meal 5 - Dinner

Lean Protein - Grilled Blackened Chicken Breast
Complex Carb - Sweet Potato with cinnamon or Spanish style Quinoa (also a protein)
Complex Carb - Brussels Sprouts
Drink - Water

Other supplements:  Fish oil, multivitamin

Hopefully by the end of the day, I will have consumed at least 3 liters of water, had all 5 meals, worked out and taken all supplements. 

Stay tuned for day 2!

Saturday through pictures...

Yeah, yeah, I know!  It's been a while and blah, blah, blah :)

Anyway, I'm here and this is just a quick post about one of my favorite traditions during my most favorite season...

Our Saturday morning started with me and Josh under an afghan (it was 64 in the house this morning!  brrr), catching up on Tivo from the week and the babies lazin it up on our legs...

 

To this!

 

Ok, I didn't eat the "guts" of the pumpkin, but we did carve them...

 

 

I have to tell you...I LOVE cleaning out pumpkins!  It is therapeutic...I'm not even kidding.  I compare it to weeding the yard...love to do it, love to get my hands dirty and just get it as clean as possible.  Ok, you can stop laughing now :) 

 

Josh on the other hand...the smell of the pumpkin inside literally makes him want to gag...it's sad! 

 

 

My witch!

 

Joshs' arching back cat...err, bat!  Clearly looks like a bat, right???

 

I just think my witch is pretty cool!  I'm ready to carve another!!

 

And to finish off the evening...chili that Josh made and cooked in the crockpot for 6 hours today.  It was great!  Football and chili...a perfect ending to a beautiful fall day!

 

 



About Mother's Day from "The Messy Middle"...

My friend, Teale, sent me this blog post from The Messy Middle and I literally felt like the author was speaking my thoughts!  It is wonderful for those who are wishing we could celebrate as "mother's" on Mother's Day, those who have lost their children, those struggling with their children and may not feel like the "perfect" mother...those who have issues with their own mothers and those that are just not in a "typical" situation and don't know how to feel on Mother's Day.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did...

CLICK HERE

Weight Watchers, Week 1

"Here I go again, on my owowowown!" That song just popped into my head...not necessarily on my own, but here I go AGAIN! I have rejoined Weight Watchers Online and am so excited about it! If you've been reading from the beginning, you know that I joined a few years back and lost 54 lbs in 9 months! I was ecstatic and kept it off for a while, but now I've gained it all back plus some. That's why I've come back...this worked before and it WILL work again!

I did something that I've never done before and made a video documenting my first day...don't laugh if you watch it! I never realized how much I blink and roll my eyes when I talk, lol! It's borderline ridiculous! But anyway, I thought it would be neat to do a weekly video on weigh in day to note my progress and to actually SEE the progress. I always lose weight first in my face, so you'll be able to see the difference once the weight starts coming off too! I'm not comfortable putting my actual weight out there yet, but eventually, I will. Right now I'm just focusing on 5 lbs at a time.

 Here's my "before"...

 5/7/2012

And my weakness...DONUTS!  These babies are 7 Points Plus for 2...eeekkk!  Moderation, moderation (:

My next blog about WW will be about the mobile app scanner...it.is.AWESOME! So, so, so cool! Can't wait to share my experience with it, with you :)


 

A little bit about Me!

Hi! My name is Amanda...I'm 30 and live in Central Alabama with my husband of 8 years, Josh, and our 3 furbabies. I'm an admin. asst. for a local school system and my husband is a policy coordinator for a title company.  We have been dealing with infertility for 7 years, but our struggle has only brought us closer to one another.  Here are just a few other things to know about me:

- My husband is my best friend
- I have an awful addiction to reality tv
- I have an awful addiction to tv in general
- I always wanted to be a country music singer...to be more specific, when I was younger I wanted me and my mom to be "The Judds"
- I love my furbabies and wish that I was able to rescue all types of animals
- I still have no idea as to what I want to be when I "grow up"
- I'm always on some sort of diet, then I break down after about 3 days and eat an entire loaf of bread - I just started Weight Watchers online for the 2nd time...the first time was a few years ago and I lost 54 lbs...it found me
- Money burns a serious hole in my pocket
- I don't like to spend money on myself, but I love buying for others and things for my home
- Pickles are my favorite food
- I had my very first fluffernutter sandwich this past week and fell in love
- My husband says that I know every song on the radio and for the words that I can't understand, I can make it sound like I do :)
- I change my mind...often...all the time
- I love sour candy, snowcaps and hot tamales
- I'm really bad about keeping my toes polished
- I'm a huge fan of the Pioneer Woman
- My husband and I love going to the movies, especially midnight openings...popcorn and a coke are a must for me
- I love my two nephews with all my heart
- I have the best of intentions but don't always know how to go through with them
- My dream is to live on a farm and to have a pet pig named Maude
- If you mention something and neither of us has an answer, I MUST look it up or else it will drive me nuts
- We would love to get a small RV and travel across the country for a solid year
- We have dealt with infertility for 7 years and pray that we'll become parents when the time is right - I love taking pictures of family and pets, so here are a few to finish up this post...enjoy!

Can you tell I'm an Instagram fan??


 

Update on life through pictures...

It's been a while since I've had subjects to take pictures of, so when I get the chance, I just have to share! Here are some pics that I posted on FB from our weekend celebrating my cousins' birthdays...

This is a pic of me with my cousin Lauren...isn't she pretty???  It's hard to believe that she'll be 15 this year...she was our flower girl :(

Cause we're cool like that!

My brother and sil...I was so happy with how this pic turned out...aren't they adorable together???

One of the birthday boys, Nathan.  He's Lauren's youngest brother and turned 6 :)

John-Bradley having fun!

Rushton and JB bouncin around...

Takin a breather...

My cousins' new puppy, Charlie...is she cute or what???  I tried to put her in my purse, but she moved around too much for me to sneak her out :)

Who's that dude??  Oh, it's Josh acting all GQ!

That's the men in, that's the men in...

Josh...pondering life...

I told him that this looked like a senior portrait pose, so...

I had a little fun with it!  Josh said all it needed is the "Olan Mills" signature in the corner ;)

Both birthday boys...Jackson turned 11...he was one of our ring bearers :(  They are just growing up way too fast!

Ice cream sundae's with the cake...can't pass that up!

Then we played volleyball...check out my (not so) mad skills :)

And a couple of shots of sweet Rushton...he's starting to look more and more like John-Bradley.  These two are also growing up way too fast!

It was great spending time with family and turned out to be a beautiful day to spend outside!