1 Month Follow-up to "Putting it out there..."

A few days late, but better late than never I say!  I did weigh myself on the correct day (June 27th) just to give myself an accurate reading.  Sadly, I only lost 2 pounds...1 pound short of my 3 pound goal.  Without sounding like I'm making excuses, because I don't want to be that kind of person pushing blame onto other things, it was a busy month full of a lot of eating "out" (ie: be it restaurants or other peoples homes, parties, etc).  I need to have better restraint in these types of situations.  I am allowing myself one reasonable cheat day a week and I think that's fair, otherwise, I just really need to focus on making healthier choices.

One thing that I've been doing is tracking pretty much everything I've been eating and drinking on Sparkpeople.com.  If you're looking to lose a few pounds and need to see things in black and white, sign up!  It's free to join and easy to follow.  I use it strictly to track my calories and water intake and it helps a ton to see it everyday and know where I succeeded (did I get enough protein?) or failed (did I go over my "fat" goal?). 

I am pretty proud of myself, though, for really sticking to my goal of upping my water intake.  I've read that you should be drinking half your body weight in ounces of water per day, and then for every caffeinated and alcoholic beverage you consume you need to drink an equal amount of water (in addition to your "regular" intake amount).  While I haven't always stuck to that rule of drinking additional ounces to counteract the caffeine or alcohol, I have been drinking my required ounces and that's a huge step for me.

I've been exercising, but not nearly as much as I should be.  Again, I really need to push myself and get into a routine.  It is getting easier though to want to go for a power walk in the evening... daylight until at least 8:30pm and lackluster Summer television help ;)

Overall, I'm ok with only losing 2 pounds, but really wanted to lose more.  Baby steps.  Hopefully month 2 will bring me better results!

Birthday Recap

I had such a great birthday this year!  Totally makes up for last year and then some.  In fact, my birthday was kind of celebrated throughout the whole weekend and yesterday, my actual birthday, was just the icing on the cake. 

Saturday my in-laws took us out to dinner as a combo birthday/Father's Day celebration.  Afterwards we went for ice cream and then back to their house for gifts.  They know that, with me, cash is never frowned upon, and at times it's actually preferred ;)  They even threw in a yummy smelling Bath & Body Works candle so I'd have something to open other than a card.  Way too generous, but I'm very thankful that they care so much to make it a special day for me.  Now I just need to decide what I want to spend my money on, hmmmm.....

Sunday the hubster pampered me at home, making me breakfast, lunch and dinner and helping me with things around the house.  My dear friend Jen even surprised me with a few gifts...the to-go coffee cup and wine preserver I blogged about a month ago.  Both awesome and are already being put to use! 

Yesterday we decided to go see Toy Story 3 instead of SATC 2 (re: this blog post)...I'm so glad I changed my mind!  Toy Story 3 was so, so awesome and it even made me cry.  I've loved this whole series of movies and would even venture to say they're some of my favorite animated movies of all times (after The Little Mermaid, of course).  The theatre wasn't crowded at all (we went to a matinee) but we weren't the only adult couple in the there, which made me feel a bit better :)  I highly recommend going to see it if you're a fan of all the other Toy Story movies, it's worth the ticket price!

Before we left for the theatre, the hubster surprised me with a cake, card and another gift!  The cake was not expected at all and I loved that he went through the trouble.  The gift was the perfume I had also mentioned in that blog post from a month ago, Eternity Summer (it even came with a free beach towel, too).  After the movie we went to dinner and then just came home to relax and eat a slice of my cake - it was super yummy!  He did a great job, couldn't have asked for more and I sported my new watch and perfume the rest of the day.

I also got lots of phone calls, emails, texts and Facebook messages from family and friends wishing me a Happy Birthday and it really made me smile.  My 30th, take two, will not be forgotten!

Happy Birthday to...ME!

It's the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year, and MY birthday :)  Whoo hoo!  Mother Nature came through with an awesome birthday gift this year...it's to be absolutely beautiful today.  The hubster took a half day (originally for a different reason, but that "reason" was postponed, but still worked out in my favor) so we have plans to have an early dinner at a new restaurant that just opened near us, and then head to the movies to see SATC 2, finally!  I know he would never admit it, but I know he's looking forward to seeing it too, maybe not as much as I am, but still... 

Last weekend he let me pick out the watch I wanted because he knows how super duper picky I am and have to try things on and touch and inspect and go back and forth a million times between a few different styles and drive the salespeople (and him) crazy!  I ended up going with the Fossil Stella Skinny White Glitz Watch, but the face of mine doesn't look nearly as "mother of pearl-y" as it does on the Fossil website, which is a good thing in my opinion.  And because I'm a thifty shopper and the hubster is too, after the sale price and a coupon, we saved $30 off the price of the watch :)  And because I know my husband and know he has/had a "birthday budget" set in his mind, it only means I have money leftover towards something else ;)  So I'm not completely sure if he has anything else up his sleeve, but fingers crossed!

Healthy Snacking

I've been trying to cut down on my snacking and desserts, but when I do snack or am craving something sweet, I try to make it as healthy as possible.  One of my favorite healthy snacks/desserts, that I kind of forgot about until a few weeks ago, is a fruit and yogurt parfait with granola.  Very rarely do I actually make it pretty and layer it in a fancy glass, but it's still the same ingredients and idea, just in a bowl.

This day I was using vanilla yogurt, strawberries and vanilla almond granola.  I use 1 cup of yogurt (the recommended serving size), add about a cup of sliced strawberries, then sprinkle some granola on top.  Easy peasy.  It's filling, low in fat, a good source of protein, and it's yummy! I also love it with blueberries too :)

Any healthy snacks or desserts you enjoy that you'd care to share?  I'm always looking for new ideas.

Redness Relief

I need to take a minute to rave about a new product I've been using for the past two weeks.  It's the Clinique Redness Solutions Instant Relief Mineral Powder. 

I've seen the product at the Clinique counter a few times before and I wasn't really sure what to think of it...it's a yellow powder, for God's sake!!!  None of the reps ever mentioned it to me or talked about it, and I never felt the need to ask about it either.  But I saw it mentioned in a Youtube video by Sardun1 and it peaked my interest.  I have redness issues, maybe this could work for me?!  So I picked it up and tried it out the very next day.  I'm sold.  I definitely see a difference when I use the powder.  It doesn't completely, totally, get rid of the red, but it tones it down a significant amount.  No matter how fair my foundation was, I never felt like my face, neck, and chest "matched"...but it does now :)  This is my new finishing powder, all the way.  It feels wonderful on my skin and it has a nice cooling effect too.  You can reapply throughout the day if you need to, and in my experience, if you use a light hand, it won't get cakey or give your skin a yellow cast.  It's a little pricey, at least for me, but you use a very small amount that the jar should last a pretty long time.  I highly recommend checking it out if you have redness issues!