Grocery Shopping

This weekend I moved in with my boyfriend, whoa that was lots of work and we still have boxes around, but they are slowly being emptied and organized.

On Sunday we started thinking about the week ahead and filling up on groceries.  Ryan asked me about *sides* for dinners.  I said we had plenty of brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta and potatoes, but he felt that was getting a little boring and repetitive...how about some asparagus? I was floored! "Ryan, we already have romaine and spinach salad, are you saying you want asparagus as a side with that?", Ryan says, "I like asparagus that would be great!"

Whoa baby! This started a conversation of him sharing more healthy meals with me and basically putting in a couple requests for our grocery list but leaving the rest of to me! Oh wow, am I a happy camper! No longer having to stare at packages of dried buttered noodles or longing for some frozen mashed potatoes, whoo dog!

Check out some snapshots of our grocery trip (we didn't really need any protein this time, after combining refrigerator/freezers we have plenty of chicken b00bs, steaks,pork chops, and ground beef for now)

Asparagus, Sandwich Thins, Chobani!

bananas, peaches, romaine salad, raspberries!



Better Oats and Chobani!!



oranges, milk, cucumber!

Lean Cuisine Thai Spring Rolls
as a last minute time saver when needed

Kashi TLCs and Smart Ones Mini Cheeseburgers
not a regularly eaten food, but great for cheeseburger cravings!

Do you guys like any of my choices?  What should I add?  Oh and, umm, what's the best way to make asparagus? I don't want them to get mooshy in the microwave, should I broil them? We LOVE the flavor of grilled asparagus!

What did you shop for this weekend?

Run Run Run!

Yesterday I ran 25 minutes nonstop to finish out Week 6 of Couch to 5k!


I looked head to see that week 7 is three more 25 minute runs, so okay its improve my speed week apparently, I can do this!


I've been mostly running on a treadmill, except for one run in Washington last week, it was gorgeous outside and the temp was perfect, that is not happening in Minnesota for awhile, but I want to be ready to run outside when I do!


Things I love about the treadmill
 - controlled environment
 - holds my water bottle
 - holds my music
 - tells me how fast I'm going
 - tells me how far I've gone
 - tells me how much time I have run and how much time I have left
 - great for controlling speed and doing intervals since it controls *me* by how I set it


Things I don't love about the treadmill
 - I feel like a slave to the speed I've set
 - boring when I'm doing long runs
 - I can tell I'm going to get tired of the treadmill when I'm not doing intervals
 - too many people around me on some days
 - I have to go to the gym to use one, fine on weight training days, but I want running to be   more natural


Things that kinda freak me out about running outside
 - I don't know my stats at the end of the run, I love knowing my pace!!!
 - I don't know how long I've been running or how much time left without messing with my ipod
 - I don't know my current pace, or if I've gotten to the pace I'm working towards, etc
 - I can't check my heart rate, if I work to hard, I might not make it through the end if its a time goal
 - I can't stress enough I serious need to know how well I did during my run to be able to keep myself motivated during my run and for future runs, I'm a goals and stats girl!


These are things I think I need:


1. HRM

- so you people that post those awesome maps of your routes and your speeds on each leg of our runs and all that, can one HRM do that or are you using multiple tools? I mean I could run with an HRM on my wrist and carry my phone for map my run I guess?

2. Hand held water bottle

3. Running pants with some kind of pocket cuz I need a place for at least keys


4. Road ID


Where should I get these? What do you have? Any suggestions of things I should add? Also, I'm planning on doing a 5k trail run in September, I need to go get different running shoes for that, right?

Okay so I know this was lots of questions, I hope you guys out there can help me, but I'm also going to do some research and try and answer them, too.

Well hello..

I've been encouraged to share my life via blogging and because I do love to share, I'm here!

Just a bit of background on me, for as long as I can remember I've been a big girl, always choosing what to wear based on my size being available vs what I really want. Choosing not to participate in sports because I would get too tired. I focused on studying and watching TV and going out to movies and restaurants with friends in my free time instead.

I've always eaten healthy at the core, but snacks, treats and portion sizes that are too large have snuck in to cause me to maintain or put on weight depending on the year or the situation in my life.

I've been married and then divorced, I've lived in my parents' basement and been out of work, I've been in horrible relationships, ones that ended tragically and wonderful ones (which I am in now). My life has excellent happy experiences which cause me to eat out of joy,  and sad sad times which cause me to comfort myself with food and not exercise.

I'm pretty much at the highest weight I've ever been and I'm making the decision to turn it around and I would like to share that with whomever wants to read :)

Just to start off, this week I started using MyFitnessPal to track calories, I'm learning to run doing Couch to 5K and I workout with a personal trainer 2x a week, plus my own running/cardio at LA Fitness.   My personal trainer has recently helped me put together a meal plan and I started it yesterday! Oh I have about 55 lbs to lose, and I want to be healthy and I want it gone for GOOD.

I'm going to try and put a weight loss tracker gadget thingy-ma-dinger on here, but I have to figure out one that works, MyFitnessPal has one but I can't get it work here, boo.

I want to thank Misty @ Off the D List  for encouraging me to get my bootay online and do this!

Umm hmm, just to make you smile....what do you call the two sexiest animals on the farm?



Brown Chicken, Brown Coooow!