Sharing my favorites!!

Hello everyone! I know it's been a few days since I posted, but I've been so busy. Between Jeff's nephew's t-ball games, exercising and work it's been hard to find time to post. Since everyone already knows I'm hard core into this diet and exercise regimen of mine, I thought I'd take some time to tell you some of my favorite foods and drinks that I have been eating/drinking!!

Before this diet, I said I would NEVER drink diet colas...ever. I'd drink water and that was it. I'd do without my carbonated goodness. Well, thankfully I broke down and tried one and now I can't even stand regular Dr. Pepper...WHAT??! Yes, it's true. I took a drink of Jeff's and the result was my "ewww face". Now that I have opened myself up to trying new drinks, here is a list of the one's I absolutely love! (No particular order)

• Vanilla Coke Zero-Yum yum yum!! Just enough vanilla, but not too much. Not a strong diet taste at all. It's so smooth, so fizzy, sooooo goood!
• Pepsi Max-WOW! This stuff is good!! It has Ginseng added to it to give you extra energy. Thanks to a girl at the courthouse where I live, I am obsessed with it! She gave me one to try the other day and now I'm hooked.
• Sprite Zero-Really, seriously...it tastes sooo close to regular you'll never know the difference.
• Pepsi One-Okay, so it has ONE measly calorie. It's sweetened with Splenda and it may just be my new favorite...above Vanilla Coke Zero.
• Coke Zero-has a great taste! Much better than regular diet coke which I think is horrid.

I know if you're like I used to be, you'd never touch any of these but you have to trust me...try them! You may just like them.

Okay...now on to snacks!! Here's my lineup of the best ones, ever! LOL:

• South Beach Diet Fiber Fit Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies. They have 20% of the daily amount of fiber you should have and are only 100 calories a pack. These are so good. They're a little hard finding them in the store...I guess people are figuring out how good they are.
• 100 Calorie Pack Baked Cheetos. Mmmm...just like the crunchy ones I love but with way less fat or grease. They are soooo good!
• Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop 100 calorie packs. OMG...these are so good. My favorite night snack. You fill satisfied, but not stuffed. After it's popped there are 61/2 cups of popcorn in the little bag. And here's something you may have not known, popcorn is a whole grain. I was really surprised to find that out. Smart pop comes in light butter and also Kettle Corn. Both versions are great and I really am not even a fan of kettle corn.
  
• Kellogg's Fiber Plus with Antioxidants Chewy Bars (chocolate chip)...these are so good. They have a layer of chocolate on the bottom and are so chewy. There's even chocolate drizzled on the top...seems almost like a candy bar. I can't live without these!
• Weight watchers ice cream sandwiches...WOW! That's all I can say. Only 120 calories.
  

Best Breakfast food/Cereals...[[I am a Special K freak!!]]

• Special K Vanilla Almond...um....wow. I don't really even like vanilla and I love this (and vanilla coke, weird). This is hands down the best cereal by Special K. 3/4 C. serving=100 calories.
• Eggo Nutra Grain Blueberry Waffles. So good they don't even need sryup. I eat them plain, which is an added bonus because syrup is going to tack on extra calories that you don't need. I always pair these with a serving ofSpecial K...every morning!
• Special K Blueberry-If you like blueberry cereal, you'll love this! It's really really good!!

TV Dinners:

• Smart Ones by Weight Watchers Three-Cheese Zita Marinara...everyone that knows me knows I have a love for italian food. This meal allows me to still have pasta! It's so cheesy and great!
• Lean Cuisine Canelloni-Again, another great pasta dish. It's very similar to manicotti. Actually I think it's the same thing.
• Lean Cuisine Cheddar Potatoes with Broccoli-I love potatoes, I love broccoli...how could I ask for more? The cheese sauce is great.
• Lean Cuisine Three-Cheese Chicken with Broccoli-only 210 calories and there's enough cheese sauce on the chicken to put on the broccoli...yum!!
• Weight Watchers Chicken Parmesan-the chicken is great and it's really filling!

Okay, hopefully I have shed some light on some great food for your diet. If you've tried some good TV dinners, snacks, etc. let me know! My diet and exercise is working...I've lost 11 pounds so far!! Woohoo!!

Nine pounds and counting!

Just wanted to share with everyone that I have lost a total of nine pounds! I'm so thrilled! I need to lose 15 more to reach my goal weight! I'm thrilled! I stepped on wii fit the other day and I was in the normal BMI range! Ha ha...I was Overweight before! LOL

This weekend was pretty crazy. I ended up staying at the Arlington with my cousins for Kimmie's birthday. I totally ate all the wrong things. I mean, I ate Italian, junk food, tater tots, bad things for breakfast and still came out weighing a half a pound less than when I left for the weekend. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did! I gotta tell you, my body has gotten used to eating healthy things and when I got home Sunday evening I felt nauseous from eating all that crap! Funny thing is, it used to be all the stuff that I would normally eat! Eww...I popped a Zantac and luckily fell asleep!

How was everyone else's weekend? I can't wait to get off of work today--I get to see Jeff and then I'm trying out my new mini trampoline =) I can't wait!

My Newest Exercise Addition

Well...today was payday, so I decided to hit up good ol' Wal-Mart to pick up some hand weights that are heavier than the ones I have at home. While over in the fitness section I noticed they had mini trampolines in stock! I've been thinking about getting one for awhile. When I was in my freshman year of college, I took some life fitness class for general ed. My instructor told us that the mini trampoline was one of then best things that you can work out on- it works just about every muscle in your body and is a great cardio workout. Ever since she told us that it kinda stuck with me and I always thought I should get one. Well, since they were there in front of me, I had the money, I just went ahead and got one, with my weights! Here is a picture of the trampoline I bought:

Cool, huh?! It came with an electronic thingy for counting jumps, calories and timing, the resitance bands on the side and a workout DVD. Walmart.com has a lot of great reviews on this thing, most being 5 stars. The best thing...the price! I got it for around $35.00. It's small, easy to store and easy to assemble. I can't wait to try it out. I plan on jumping on that, working out on my mini stepper and eventually get a step thing for step-aerobics and just rotate doing them all for about 50 mins. I bet jumping on this won't be so bad on the knees and ankles either.

So...has anyone tried a mini trampoline? If so, what did you think about it?

Quick post

I (like everyone else in Arkansas) am sick of all of this rain! For real, is there no end to it? This weekend I was so tired of it I just went running in it..that is, until my ankle started hurting and my knees and I had to hobble the rest of the way home. Grr...I'm going to stop being a woose-y tonight and Shred again. I know I won't be able to move tomorrow but whatever!

Seriously though, I'm thinking about starting on building an arc (you know, like Noah?) tonight...may be a good idea with all this rain. Anyone want to join? LOL...

Have a great rainy night...(for my Arkansas lovlies) If you're a reader and you don't live in Arkansas, I hope you aren't cursed with rain like we are!

Love ya all,

I haven't forgotten

I also wanted you all to know I haven't forgotten about my product reviews. I promise to get you one, soon!!

Raise and manicotti

I'm sitting here at work, actually supposed to be off already but I'm sitting around waiting on Jeff...seems like I do that a lot! I thought it was the men that were always waiting on the women?? Not in my life! Ha ha...

My honey sent me a text saying we are going out to eat with all of his co-workers tonight! We went out to eat last night and I was very bad. We ate at Angel's, my favorite Italian place. Yeah...I kinda slipped up and ate Manicotti and two small pieces of garlic bread with butter, however; somehow I ended up weighing a whole pound less this morning than the day before?! I can't think of a reasonable explanation for this, but hey...I'm not complaining! Anyway, back to eating out tonight--Jeff is killing me with this eating out two nights in a row!! I told him I think he is trying to sabatoge my diet! LOL...that's not true, but gosh...it makes it so much harder to eat right when you have a menu full of goodies up in yo' face!

For a Wednesday, it went pretty good. My boss told me that he's giving me a raise, and insurance. God bless him! That really made my week 100x better and then we're also halfway through the week, which also makes me happy!

I've got to cut this post short today, gotta go meet honey and try to eat healty! Just wanted to post something quick for you all! I hope everyone had a great day.

Healthy snack share and more!

Happy Tuesday everyone...lol. Three more days until the weekend! Yay! I wanted to update everyone on my exercising. My legs are still killing me from that dang Jillian Michaels (I now know I should have listened to you, Ace)...(for Kasey's question, I still haven't tried Cardio Max due to my knees and all but I will try soon).Well...It really got me upset that I missed about 3 days of exercising so you know what I did? I got my happy butt on the exercise bike at home and rode for 25 mins straight and THEN I went in and turned the TV on the XM Dance music channel and did some cardio of my own--Tara style! I did some boxing because it is great cardio for someone with lower-body injuries (such as mine) or so Jillian says. I have to say, it did elevate my heart rate. Then...I added some hand weights. I did that for another 25 mins, so I worked out for a total of 50 mins yesterday despite my leg pain. No leg pain is gonna get me down, darn it! LOL! I was so proud of myself that I rewarded myself with a piece of fresh pineapple. If you haven't had pineapple that is fresh and only the kind that is in the can you are definitely missing out! After working out I took a really hot bath with some muscle ache oil in the water...it helped a little and then slathered myself down with Icy Hot! LOL!!

I gotta share some of my newest, healthy snacks with everyone.
100 calories of pure goodness...Newton's Fruit Crisps. I don't like Fig Newton's at all and I love these. They come in Apple Cinnamon and Mixed Berry. I have had the Apple Cinnamon ones and I heated mine up for about 20 seconds...tastes like Apple Pie, no kidding! The crust is crispy and in the middle is fruit-filled goodness...I can't believe they're only 100 calories! And...there are two in a pack! Can this be true? Surely they are lying about the calories in these?!

OMG!! These things are sooo yummy! They're popcorn clusters with caramel, chocolate cookie bits and pecans. I feel so bad when I eat these cause they're so good! I feel like I'm going back on my diet, but no fear...only 120 calories! You can find these at Wal-Mart.

Now, I don't always eat stuff like this, only when I want something sweet. I try to include a lot of protein in my diet now so I feel fuller, longer. I like to munch on almonds alot and I eat a lot of veggies and fruit.

As for Dr. Peppers, I have quit them...but thanks to Coke Zero I can still have my carbonated goodness. If you hate diet drinks, you have to try Coke Zero...it's seriously the best diet cola I have ever tried. I always said I would never drink diet drinks but I actually crave this stuff!

So, could you all recommend me some healthy snacks you eat and what about diet drinks? Am I missing out on some good ones that I have been too scared to try!? Let me know!