March of Dimes

I have two children who were born premature, Nathan, who was born 9 1/2 weeks early at 3 lbs. 14 oz. and 17 in. long.


He was in the NICU for 5 1/2 weeks and on oxygen and an apnea monitor for another month after he came home.




He received great care at the hospital he was in, and now...you can't even tell he was born premature! He eats as much as a grown man most of the time and is VERY active!

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Isabel arrived a little over 5 weeks early at 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 in. long. She was obviously at a better place developmentally than Nathan was and luckily only needed a tiny bit of help breathing shortly after birth and was good to go from there. I was allowed to stay an extra day in the hospital with her and then we went home together.











However, you can't tell she was a preemie either! Just today she weighed in at 18 lbs. 6 oz. and 26 in.! She's my chunky monkey. : )

I now walk for the March of Dimes to help raise money for research to help prevent premature birth as well as for the care of preemie babies and their mother's. It's a wonderful organization and I feel privileged to be a part of it.
I thank God every day that I have two GOOD stories to tell in support of the March of Dimes, many families do not. Both of my preemies are very healthy and have NO preemie-related complications. I attribute this to the excellent care they had in the hospital and most importantly God's grace!
In 2010 I walked as a team, Team Tater Tomater (one of Nathan's nicknames). I did two different walks in my area in the same weekend and had a blast. There were 9 of us walking the first day and 8 of us the second day! It felt great to know that my family and friends supported the cause along with me, in turn, supporting my kids!

(This was right after I had lost 40 lbs.)

This year however, I feel like the enthusiasm is missing. Some of my friends are not able to walk because they are having another child of there own just a couple of days before, so I obviously don't expect them to be walking, but I haven't had much response from anyone else who I have asked to walk or even just to donate. I'm hoping that as the walk gets closer I will get more involvement.
This time around we will be Team BellaNater since I now have two preemies to walk for. : ) I'm really looking forward to the walk itself, but also raising more than I did last time. Our team goal is $1,000 and my personal goal is to get half of that myself ($500). So my team only needs to make a cumulative $500 between them (however many that turns out to be) to reach that goal.
I'm hoping to do some kind of fund raiser. I may make some crocheted or knitted items to sell for donations and/or maybe some kind of baked sale. I received my first donation today of $100 from our realtor and old neighbor! I was so touched by her generosity! I hope I can find more like her. ; )

As I've been writing this I have been debating with myself as to whether or not I should include the link to my team page. I don't want those of you reading my blog to think that I'm just trying to get money out of you. However, my final decision is to go ahead and include the link because the money that someone may donate isn't for me...its for the March of Dimes...so I shouldn't feel guilty about it, therefore I won't! : )

http://www.marchforbabies.org/erinvb_7

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I had also debated on whether or not to include the photos of my kids and ultimately decided that there are probably some of their photos out there in cyber space already and I'll just keep how many I post of them to a minimum. That being said...I also don't like favoring one child over another so I'm going to share a couple photos of my first born as well. Jacob was NOT a preemie. I was induced three days before my due date (my doctor was going on a two week vacation). He was 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 20.5 in. long.






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Another awesome thing about participating in the March of Dimes walks is that I get some EXERCISE! : ) The walk on Saturday is 5 miles and the walk on Sunday is 6 miles! Maybe that's when I'll kick start my regular exercise program. : )

I'm thinking my weight loss isn't going to be very good this week...my 29th birthday is Saturday and my in-laws are taking me out to a pizza dinner on Friday and I always get a Dairy Queen ice cream cake for my birthday because I'm not a big fan of regular cake. Hopefully I'll still see a loss.

Don't think its going to happen

I did (re)lose 2 lbs. this week, which puts me back at 10 lbs. lost, and that is a good thing...but I'm pretty upset with myself because I know I'm not going to make my next mini goal of losing 20 lbs. by March 8th...unless of course I can lose a pound a day...very unlikely.

Why does this have to be so FREAKIN' HARD??? I was able to lose 40 lbs. in 4 months back in 2009! Why can't I do that now??? I guess I know of some reasons...but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. I counted calories EVERY DAY back then and was able to stay within my calorie range. I am leery of counting/cutting calories right now because I am still nursing my 9 month old daughter. I don't want to compromise my milk supply so that makes it hard...and because I'm not counting calories its so much easier to overeat. Guess all I can do is keep trying because I REFUSE to give up! Its hard though to keep going when some of those closest to me don't believe I can do it. Part of me is saying "Oh yeah, watch me!" but another part of me just feels defeated and says "You're right, there's no way I can do this, what am I thinking?". I will NOT let that part of me win, no matter what others say (or imply).

Here's to another week of weight loss and learning how to eat better! : )

Food Log

Breakfast: Two slices of Ezekiel bread, toasted with one serving of Jif peanut butter

Lunch: McDonald's Cheeseburger...let me explain...lol...I had to take my grandfather to his doctors appointment over an hour away with all three of my kids in tow. I was very good and packed our lunches (PB&J's for all three of us not on baby food (: Cheez-its for the boys, a serving of cheddar pretzels for me, apple, orange, and grapes). The kids were not happy by the time we got to the doctors office, so I dropped my grandfather off (his idea) and went to the nearest McD's so they could play in the playplace. I was not planning on getting anything and the kids were fine with that. However, when we had to leave a lot sooner than I anticipated they started whining about how they wanted a cheeseburger and not their sandwiches...because I needed to get them out of there quickly and because I figured a cheeseburger wouldn't kill them I agreed to get them one if they got into the van quick. I got them each a cheeseburger and a small fry. Neither wanted them after I bought them (of course). Nathan ate his PB&J sandwich and some Cheez-its. I did talk them both into eating their fries and they each ate a fruit (grapes and the apple...leaving the orange...yuck...wasn't eating that). I didn't want all that food to go to waste so instead of eating my PB&J sandwich I had ONE of the cheeseburgers. Don't get me wrong...that second cheeseburger was SCREAMING my name the whole way home...but I didn't give in. : )

Dinner: Leftover chicken breast with caramelized onions and some tater tots with ranch dressing
Snacks: Schwan's Chocolate Frozen Yogurt and a Coke Zero.

I wanted to share a food log to show what I've been eating and I was pretty proud of myself with how I handled the fast food situation. As always, I know that there is room for improvement. I could have ignored both of those cheeseburgers screams of "ERIN...EAT ME...PLEEEEASE!!!!" and went for the PB&J sandwich..that went to waste instead...hmmmm...guess "not wasting" the McDonald's was just an excuse to eat it! See, I learn new things all the time...how crazy though...to realize that I lied to myself about WHY I should eat the cheeseburger. I didn't consciously realize at the time that I was just making an excuse! Guess I'll need to analyze my 'reasons' more in the future. : )

Appraisal

Tomorrow is the appraisal on the house we're going to buy. As long as everything checks out we will then be able to set a date to close! : ) I'm very excited and nervous about this. Once we close, things are going to get VERY CRAZY!!! There will be so much to do to get the house ready to move into (mostly minor things...but things that have to be done nonetheless) and almost as much to do to move out of our current place. We want to make sure we get our security deposit back!

Since I'm suppose to be talking about my weight loss issues here (it is after all a weight loss blog) I guess I should update on how I'm doing this week. Monday went pretty good. I did get really hungry between lunch and dinner, but I think that was because I couldn't find anything that I wanted to eat for lunch and ended up only eating a yogurt with granola and some baby carrots with a serving of ranch dressing. I desperately need to go grocery shopping...but I DON'T WANT TO...will someone do it for me??? Please! Oh, you have to coupon/ad shop too! : ) Today I didn't count calories (I didn't really count yesterday either) but I think I did relatively well. I didn't snack a lot, but I did make some cupcakes because I wanted to bake (and get the cake mix OUT OF THE HOUSE). I LOVE cake batter so I ate some of it (probably a little too much of it) and I did eat one cupcake...it was gross...I'm not a big cake fan anyways and the frosting was GROSS! So I know I won't have a problem not eating anymore of them. Plus, I told my husband to take them into work with him. That won't make my boys happy but they only eat the frosting off the cupcake anyways.

I'm believing tomorrow will be even better, and that I'll finally get motivated to do some grocery shopping so I'll have a variety of healthy food choices in the house again. Wish me luck. : )

This week took a toll...

and I'm back up 3 lbs.!!! I will not dwell on this or make excuses...I will just except that I had a setback and I will move forward from here.

The next few months are going to be full of stress and I need to learn how to deal with that stress without over eating. Why can't I be like those people who DON'T eat when their stressed or emotional??? I would LOVE that! ; )

I don't think I've mentioned that we are going to be moving when our lease is up at our current place. We are buying a home for the second time in our lives. The first time, we didn't know what the heck we were getting into and got screwed by the mortgage company. We also bought right as everything started going into the toilet with the housing market. We ended up selling our house as a short sale our home and living with my Grandfather for 8 months (with two kids two and under...my poor Grandpa). For the last two years we have been renting a manufactured home (read double-wide trailer), but we are ready to have a place of our own where we will have more space both inside and out. Our kids (and dog) need a yard to play in. We found a home that we really liked low in our price range that we felt we could fix up. However, that house was a short sale and AFTER signing the purchase agreement for our offer we were told that we should be "ready to wait 16-18 months" to hear anything back from the mortgage company!!! Our lease ends April 30th...we can't wait that long. So we continued to look at other houses and found one that we fell in love with that was slightly above our price range. We knew that the house was worth much more than they were selling it for (it is bank owned), so we jumped on it, but we were still one of three offers that came in for the home, so we were asked to come back with our highest offer. After discussing it with our financier we put in an offer quite a bit above our price range, but that we knew we could still afford comfortably. The very next day we got an answer from the selling bank...WE HAD THE HIGHEST BID!!! WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

We are very excited about this, but are trying to stay responsible. We had the home inspected and are waiting on the appraisal before we commit to buy! I'm really looking forward to moving, but at the same time I'm not. Its going to be very stressful...packing everything up here while at the same time painting and cleaning the new house, then moving our stuff and cleaning up our rental before turning in the keys...then unpacking everything and getting it all ORGANIZED!!! I am not an organized person and I've been able to deal with it, but now that I have three kids, and probably the fact that I'm a little older now, I can't stand being unorganized anymore...it stresses me out, but thinking of getting everything organized stresses me out too! lol Oh yeah, and did I mention that all of this has to happen with three kids too!!! I think I did, but I need to stress this fact because the last time we bought a house it was just the two of us so we could go over to the house and paint whenever we had any free time, which will not be the case this time around. I'm getting stressed just thinking about it! :/ I'm really concerned that all of this stress is going to really mess with my weight loss. Any tips or words of encouragement would be great right about now.

I'll probably be talking more about the house than weight loss for the next few weeks because its going to be consuming my life. Please don't give up on me though. I will keep you informed of how its all effecting my weight loss and eating habits. Hopefully I'll continue to learn more about why I overeat.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. : )

I Care!

I know I said I was going to stop being so down...but I feel like everything and everyone (not literally everyone) is against me and I don't understand why? I pride myself on being there for others and doing what I can to help anyone and everyone that I can. I'm a giver and always have been, but I also give my opinion FREQUENTLY...sometimes when its not asked for...but my intentions never come from a place of righteousness. I know that sometimes it comes across that way, but I would hope that if I explain myself that those I offended would accept my intent. I need to learn that I can't please everyone, no matter how hard I try.

I'm not going to go into any detail here because this is a public blog and its just in poor taste to air my dirty laundry here with specifics. All I will say is that due to negative, hurtful, and mean spirited comments made, I have left the weight loss challenge that I helped to start. It really upsets me that I felt the NEED to do this. I really was enjoying helping other ladies with their weight loss journey and it had inadvertently gave ME the push I needed to get serious. Now I don't have that support from others in the same situation as me. All I have now is this blog and my few followers (which I'm so grateful for).

I just hope that being in this funk doesn't mess with my weight loss. Its hard to not want to eat for comfort right now. Ugh, listen to me...I sound so pathetic (and I'm sure that's what some of you are thinking as your reading this). I really shouldn't care what other people think of me...ESPECIALLY those who don't really even know me at all...but I DO CARE!!! Sorry I'm such a downer, yet again. I feel like everything is being thrown at me so that I fail...and I don't want that to happen!

Sunday Weigh In

I lost one pound! : ) I'm going to be happy about that because its a LOSS!

My goal for this week is not to beat myself up so much. Its detrimental to my weight loss. If I slip up...I just have to accept that it happened, move on, and try harder the next time.

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

Experimenting

...with food that is. I had my first taste of Ezekiel bread yesterday and I must say I really liked it (toasted with peanut butter...of course)!

For dinner I tried something else new, quinoa, I used it like rice and make my own variation of a fried rice. My husband and I both agreed that the flavor was AWESOME, he however, didn't really care for the texture of the quinoa (Its a little more chewy than rice).

I seem to be 'making up' recipes more lately, and I'm really enjoying that! I never thought I'd be a decent enough cook to think "hmmm, these things will taste good together." Sometimes it has been because I just want to try something different, other times its been because I desperately needed to go grocery shopping and I'm trying to make a meal out of the odds and ends I had left.

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I started off doing better yesterday. I seriously need to change my mindset though. You know how smokers who've quit say that there are certain situations when the craving to light up is worse...like when drinking or while driving? I'm like that with fast food! Anytime I'm in the car driving anywhere the thought pops in my head. "You know, I think I'm hungry, I better stop at [insert any chain fast food place here]". Yesterday was no exception. I took Jacob to preschool and when I left I had decided I was going to go to McDonald's (again...see previous post...apparently I hadn't learned my lesson)! I was even in the left turn lane to head there. I thank God that it was a red light because it gave me just enough time to fight with myself over it and realize that I didn't NEED to go there! Also, I'm thankful that there weren't a line of cars next to me blocking me from squealing (yes I did) my tires and getting over to the right turn lane to go home. I felt really good about changing my mind...empowered...and I know if I had gone to McDonald's then I just would've felt defeated and depressed for the rest of the day. Fast-forward three hours later and I'm taking my kids to get Timbits at Tim Horton's. Ugh...I did eat about 7 Timbits, which I did feel bad about, but not nearly as bad as if I had gotten the McDonald's. Of course, I don't know how many calories were in those 7 Timbits...ugh...guess I'll check now and write it below. *Accountability Erin...ACCOUNTABILITY*

Ok, the website doesn't show pictures of what eat Timbit looks like, so I'm kind of guessing here...
1 Lemon-filled Timbit: 60
1 Honey-dipped Timbit: 60
5 Sour Cream Glazed Timbits: 450
Total Calories Consumed: 570

Can you tell which ones are my favorite? Of course they are also 90 calories each instead of 60 like the other ones. Just like me to favor the junkier foods. Well, that number does make me cringe a little bit, but the damage would've been MUCH worse if I had gone to McDonald's.

I'm not really liking this accountability thing...lol...I'm use to eating all the junk with no one around and then never saying anything. Wow, I just realized how much like a drug addiction it is! Hiding it from your family and friends, overwhelming cravings...and here I thought I had dodged a bullet and NOT inherited both my parents addictive genes! I just chose something else besides the 'norm' for addictions. The difference is, I CAN'T stop eating! I will have to deal with my vice everyday for the rest of my life.

***Come on people (It sounds like I'm being bitchy, but I swear I'm not...its in a joking tone), can't you see I'm in a funk? Part of the reason I started this blog was to get encouragement from others. If you've been reading my blog but haven't responded in a comment...please leave one and tell me how it is for you!!! I need to know I'm not alone here...that I'm not just a disgusting slob. Right now I'm feeling like I'm the only one who does the things I said above...feeling the need to stop at a fast food place every time I'm in the car, etc. Hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow after my weekly weigh in. Sorry I'm not very inspiring or uplifting at the moment...but this is tough and I'm really just starting down a never-ending road and it looks so daunting.

Curse you McDonalds...

...for making the most delicious 'coffee' drink EVER!!! Of course...just because they make it doesn't mean I have to DRINK it! However, I hadn't had one in about a month (I think) and the excuse I gave myself for going to McDonald's was that Jacob (my 4 year old) had a good day at preschool. He listened to his teacher and cleaned up after himself. So we headed to McDonald's...my intention was to get myself a small caramel frappe and THAT'S ALL!!! Jacob requested a cheeseburger, fries, AND chicken nuggets!!! I knew that he would only eat one or the other, but Nathan wanted chicken nuggets too, so I got a 10 piece chicken nugget, two small fries, a cheeseburger, and a small shamrock shake *for tomorrow (yeah right)* along with the small frappe. Jacob ate the top bun off of the cheeseburger and his fries, Nathan ate his fries...NEITHER boy ate their chicken nuggets!!! I DON'T LIKE wasting food...which I HATE because in order to lose this weight I'm going to have to throw some away at times. I was raised in a "clean your plate" household...which could be part of my problem, but let's not start pointing fingers at anyone but myself. Soooo...that being said...I ate the rest of the cheeseburger, about 10 fries, and four nuggets, ON TOP of the frappe! The shake is in my freezer, I swear! Now that I write this I realize that it's not all THAT bad. It use to be that I would get my own meal...usually the Big Mac, PLUS a medium caramel frappe, AND then I would finish what the boys didn't eat! Wow, I've never shared that...its sounds so horrible and disgusting!!!
I still feel horrible about what I did eat though...and to be completely honest, I'll probably end up eating that shake tonight after the kids go to bed as well. All I can say is today I was/am weak...but tomorrow I'll get back on track. I didn't expect that I would be able to change over night. Geez, this is a depressing post, sorry about that.

Here's a calorie breakdown of my McDonald's Fiasco (I'm just now adding this up so I'm sure its gonna shock me):

Cheeseburger: 300 *The top bun was missing, but I can't imagine its more than 50 calories difference
4 Chicken Nuggets: 190
Sweet n' Sour Sauce: 50
French Fries: 76 *Best guess...estimating that a small fry has 30 fries and that I ate 10.
Small Caramel Frappe: 450
Small Shamrock Shake: 540 *They didn't have the info for the shamrock but I figure they're just adding some mint flavoring to the vanilla.

Total: 1606 CALORIES!!!! That's around what I allot for the WHOLE DAY!!! ugh

Buying a House...

...or at least we hope we are! I almost don't even want to write about it for fear of jinxing it! We had an offer in on a house we really liked but would have to put some work into before we could even move in. Also, it was a short sale...which meant waiting FOREVER to hear back from the bank. We waited almost a month and during that time continued to look at other homes. Well, we found one that we absolutely LOVE and its HUGE! It was priced a little bit above our price range, but was in WAY better condition than anything else we had looked at...move in ready!!! So we jumped through what hoops we needed to in order to get out of our offer on the cheaper fixer-upper home and to get pre-approved for a loan through the bank that owned the house. *We are already pre-approved elsewhere, but they wanted us pre-approved through their bank...silly...but whatever! So we quickly got the pre-approval and put in an offer. I should probably mention that there was already an offer in on the home so we were in a rush. Well, today we were told that someone else put in an offer too! Now there are THREE offers on this house and we have to give our highest offer by 5pm tomorrow!!! We really want this house, but we don't want to break the bank trying to get it.

Despite all this stress...OH, I also called about the schools of choice program in our area because I want our children to continue going to the school district we live in now and this house is just out of it (figures). So...like I said...despite all the stress of the day I did NOT snack on every imaginable junk food in site! In fact I think I did rather well and I didn't even count the calories. Here's what I had to eat today.

Breakfast: Old Fashioned Oats cooked in coconut milk with coconut butter mixed in and toasted pecan pieces and shaved sweetened coconut on top.
Lunch: Turkey Chili with saltine crackers
Dinner: Salmon with red skin potatoes and broccoli
Snacks: PB & J sandwich; Schwan's Frozen Chocolate Yogurt

*I should probably mention that I am still nursing my 8 month old daughter so I find it hard to count calories because I'm not really sure how much is too much to cut out, so I just eat when I feel hungry (not bored or stressed...well maybe when I'm stressed).*

Making a little progress on my 30 X 30 List

I finished my first book of the year, called The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. (1 down...19 more to go!)

It was my book club's February pick. It was a quick read and very interesting. I'm not quite sure if I really liked it or not, but it was different. The narrator of the story is autistic, which made it a very interesting read because you got to see inside the head of someone with autism. However it also made it drag on and on in parts and emotionless most of the time.

Now to decide what to read next...I have three other books I checked out of the library.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave, which is my pick for March's book club meeting.

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
I'm not sure if I'll even be able to read this book. It deals with two young girls being kidnapped and the book is about trying to figure out what happened to them. I love crime "who-done-it" shows and such, but since I've had my kids, I cannot handle watching or reading anything where children are the victim. So I'm probably setting myself up to get really upset with this book. The exception to this is the book The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. For some reason, probably the perspective, I was able to thoroughly enjoy (LOVE) that book! Hmmm...I really need to read that one again!

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
I LOVED LOVED LOVED The Time Traveler's Wife and this book is by the same author so I thought I'd give it a try.

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I made turkey chili last night...yummy! I started making it before I pulled out all of the ingredients (a big problem of mine) and realized that I didn't have any red kidney beans! I ALWAYS have kidney beans on hand...but not today. However, I did find a can of black beans and a can of cannellini beans...so we had a 'black and white' turkey chili! : ) It was still delicious. I really think I prefer my chili made with ground turkey instead of ground beef.

I didn't count calories well yesterday. I started off good, but then we had a lot of stressful stuff going on with this 'new' house that we are trying to get and I noticed that I started snacking on whatever was out on the counter...Cheez-its and Ritz crackers mostly...I think I've learned something new about my eating habits. If I'm stressed and/or if a snack food is right out in the open and accessible...I'm probably going to eat it! I'll have to work on making sure I put everything away after giving the boys a snack.

Well, I've got to go do some laundry...trying to get the mountain broken down...wish me luck!

10 Pounds Lighter!!!

I stepped on the scale this morning to see this ---------------------------------------------->
*Please don't mind my barely there nail polish on the big toes...I have three kids...should be enough said.*

I'm SOOOO happy about this. I was starting to get really worried that I wasn't going to make my 10 lbs. by Feb. 8th goal, but I got there today! I was so relieved! My weight hadn't budged in two weeks so I was becoming less and less optimistic, but there it is. *Breathes a sigh of relief*

Now, onto my next goal...to lose a total of 20 lbs. by March 8th. I figure that 10 lbs. a month is pretty doable especially since I have to much weight to lose. I'm almost into a smaller size jeans, but not quite yet, maybe another five pounds.

We're going to a super bowl party today, and I'm bringing a veggie tray and salad so I have some healthy options, though I do plan on treating myself some today. Things are looking up. : ) Feels good to accomplish something.

Movie Night

My friend Kari came over last night to have a movie night!!! We hadn't had one in quite awhile. Last night's movie was Abduction...with the tasty (but way too young for me) Taylor Lautner. Really looking forward to it.

So...Wednesday was NOT good! I ate what was left of the Schwan's frozen chocolate yogurt (probably 3 servings) and two servings of Chex Mix in the evening after dinner. Thankfully I was so tired that I went to bed at 8:45pm or I probably would've done even more damage.

I did alright yesterday, but got a snack attack about an hour after dinner. I had some Chex Mix...I can't remember now if I had 2 or 3 servings. I really need to stay on top of things today because my next weigh in is Sunday and I haven't seen the scale budge in almost two weeks! Its getting pretty frustrating. I absolutely HATE how hard this is!!! Why can't I just not eat junk???

Feelin' Good

I'm feeling pretty good about myself today, even though I didn't count calories yesterday.

I had to take my Grandpa to U of M hospital to get a procedure called an electrocardioversion to try and changed his heart rhythm. I had to get up way earlier than normal so I set an alarm, but I slept through it and David woke me up when I only had 12 minutes before I was suppose to leave! I had to get myself and Isabel ready since I was taking her with me. David took the boys to his parents house for the day before he headed into work. So, I didn't get to have breakfast or pack a lunch like I was planning on doing. I snagged a yogurt w/ granola to inhale on the drive there, and filled canteen bottle with water. Isabel wore her pajamas.

My Grandpa's procedure was going to take a few hours from start to finish, which was mostly prep and recovery. I forgot (actually didn't have time to get) my stroller and carried Isabel ALL THE WAY to the U of M cafeteria! I had to get to the main building, we were in the cardiovascular building connected to the main hospital. I had to stop every 50-100 ft and switch arms...I had her in her infant carrier. I even had two men (one on the way to the cafeteria and one on the way back) ask if they could carry her for me, but I knew I was going to be eating an unknown amount of calories and figured the exercise was just helping me burn a few.

I decided to get a burrito. I had one last August when my Grandpa was there having heart surgery. They're delicious but HUGE! However, when I got one last year, I also got chips, a dessert, and a 20 oz. of regular Coke (mmmm...Coke). This time I got ONLY the burrito and a diet Coke. : ) I figure the burrito was about 600 calories or so, but I only had the yogurt for breakfast at 190 calories.

So I didn't feel too guilty when I had homemade pizza, grapes, a few crackers and cheese, and a slice of red velvet cake (Its my good friend Kari's 24th birthday today...I know...she's still a baby). I didn't even finish the piece of cake. So I'm relatively confident that I stayed close to my calorie range yesterday. However, its time to get back to tracking the calories today. I hope everyone feels as good as I do today. : )