Getting Inspired Again!

It has certainly been a while since I last posted.  I have since been to see the 2nd Divergent movie, Insurgent, and actually thoroughly enjoyed it.  It might have had something to do with constantly looking for Hubs in the background.  I told him there was no way I would see Insurgent, and then he got a gig and THEN he made the trailer.  What the heck?  We had to see it.  I think extremely low expectations really sealed the deal.  Even the children had a great time.  Elementary school kids tend to do a lot less eye rolling than middle/high kids which meant I had no partner in snark.

I decided to dust off the blog as I am getting really pumped about losing some weight.  I've been dabbling here and there, but life has gotten in the way each time.  A few weeks ago I purchased an annual meal plan service from The Happy Herbivore.  It is fantastic.  I love almost all of her recipes (almost because I don't like to cook with tofu), and her meal plan is a good way to get organized.  So, today, I did a massive amount of batch cooking to be ready for the week.  Now that school is letting out, it is time to drop all of the eating out.  When your daughter's family tradition is "going to Taco Bell on Thursday nights" then you know it has gone too far.

I also got turned on to something called It Works!  I was completely skeptical when I bought some wraps from a facebook friend a few months ago.  So skeptical, in fact, that I didn't use them.  I decided to give them a try since swim suit season is here, and it actually worked.  My jaw dropped completely.  I can hardly say that I'm ready to rock a bikini at the neighborhood pool, but I did lose an inch and a half off of what I call tier 2 and a half inch off of tier 1.  If nothing else, it has provided me with some motivation to get inspired again.  As I prefer to not classify my abdominal area into tiers.

So, I'll be posting updates on my progress towards my goal.  To at least be bikini ready by the time we take our beach trip in August.  Bikini ready to me is to lose at least 15-20 pounds and tone up.  I feel good that I can do it with Happy Herbivore and It Works! in my arsenal. After all, we have the Club LaVela bikini foam party to plan for in PCB.  AND, it would be a lifetime goal for me to sew a Kahleesi costume and prance around in it at Dragoncon.  And, by lifetime goal, I mean since we started watching GOT six months ago, and I found a pattern for a $1 and bought it purely to make Hubs laugh as I have yet to learn how to sew with leather.

In other news, Hubs and I had a completely enjoyable trip to Senoia, GA for our anniversary.  The walking tour was absolutely hysterical and well worth the money if you are TWD fans.  It was quite delightful to meet other tv/film fans who are so easily impressed with irrelevant sets.

And, P.S.--The Little House on the Prairie party kicked it.  It was so awesome Helen didn't even ask for a party this year.

Andrea and Michonne sat on this bench...like for real

Not only were Maggie and Glenn tortured behind this all, but Andrea was killed....thank goodness

Prom picture in front of the Safe Zone.

Ma and Pa rocking it.  

Can I enter Ma and Laura in the Dragoncon Young Adult Literature costume contest?  

Wash boards are still a favorite way to waste time.

And, yes, I am making these bad boys.  

Day 2

Yesterday was a great day all around, except for the pesky change to daylights savings.  Beautiful weather, and we even made progress on our next youtube project.  Of course, that means that a million more important things didn't get done, like laundry and cleaning house...but, youtube is so much more worth it.  Sadly, my editor is not a teenager who can edit in 5 seconds.  He is a middle age man who is easily cast as a zombie, so we work a little more slowly around here.

Of course, yesterday's eating all started with my typical oatmeal.

I choose to have my smoothies at lunchtime.  They really do pick me up.  If you haven't heard us sign the praises of our vita-mix enough, then just you wait.  It truly is my all-time fave kitchen appliance.

This is what I call my vegan junk food lunch.  An Amy's burrito and chips with gauc.  It's awfully good, but not that light on the calories.  Of course, I had to use our Darryl glass since it was TWD night (not that we get to watch it--no cable, no Darryl.)

 My downfall in the afternoon came when I let myself get ravenous before dinner.  I got my favorite loaf of bread from Bi-lo and chowed down.  Now, you'll understand why I can't lose weight.  The problem with this vegan stuff is that you are pretty much hungry all day.  I must do better about keeping ahead of it.

And, for dinner, we had what the Princess calls "heaven."  It's the Happy Herbivore mini meatloaf with homemade mashed potatoes with BBQ sauce.  It's super easy to make and tastes great, too.

I finished up the night with 5 chocolate covered pretzels whilst watching another Sunday night show we couldn't watch on cable, Breaking Bad. Thank goodness for Netflix. 

So, I'm doing ok on the vegan, but awful on trying to be a Forks over Knives vegan.  Oil really is awesome after all.  I totally failed to weight myself this morning, so I'll have to update that tomorrow.

We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to book another extras gig for the Hubs.  He is oddly in hot demand.  Sadly, they really wanted him for 4 days which is a no go for us.  As much as he does enjoy making minimum wage, we have to be a little more choosy about how he spends his time.  Otherwise, our youtube video will really never get made, and we keep our priorities straight around here.

Houston we have pancakes...

Hooray!

Finally made those pesky vegan pancakes.  Didn't even set an alarm, so I didn't have a chance to snooze.

And, wouldn't you know, that on the one day that I could sleep pretty late, I woke up right on time at 6:30?  Isn't that how it always happens??  And, just to prove that the pancakes did happen, there are many pictures below.

There has been lots of forced merriment in my house today.  Our top quotes are:

1--The snow is hurting me
2--I hate snow
3--My feet are tired
4--Snow is on my gloves

And my favorite--
5--Snow is touching me

All of those brought to you by the boy child.  Girl child was a little more agreeable, but she also didn't eat an entire bag of Sour Patch Kids in one sitting.  Sour Patch Kids do have the unfortunate ability to make an extremely sour kid about 1 hour post consumption.

Looks like we'll be stuck in again tomorrow.  Wonderful.

Look, Mom, almond milk and maple syrup!

Don't let Vegan Pancakes confuse you.  You can see my snow storm supplies of junk food followed by junk food.

Fave Vegan Cookbook!

Happy Camper.

Evidence of the Forced Merriment.  His feet were too tired to walk, so I had to pull him in the sled.