This weekend was great. 

My niece Kendall and I went to her very first swimming lesson. She did amazing and I was so proud I almost burst into tears while in the pool took her to the park to play as a reward.

The was a good amount of Hubster time.

 

There was fire pit time time with the Garcia side of the family.

During which I discovered my sister in law Alex has freaky insane amazing control of her toes and can do things like roast marshmallows with them.... 

Today ended with a pizza party to celebrate Memorial Day. This weekend was not the best diet wise, but I've already got my gym clothes set out for tomorrow morning.

4:45 AM is gonna show up sooner than I'd like, but I'll be ready! Bring it Monday TUESDAY!

     

Weigh In Wednesday, Week 1

I weighed myself this morning. I decided that every wednesday, I would weigh myself. No matter what scale said, that's what it would be. I'd celebrate my accomplishments, big or small, because this is a slow jog not a sprint. 

So I ramped myself up, got on the scale, and recorded a whopping ..... 1.6 lb weight loss. Sad times!

Was I hoping for more? Of course. 

Did I give myself 100% this past week? Not really, maybe like 75%. 

Did I drink enough water like I am supposed to? Nope. 

Did I get to the gym? Not once. 

Am I going to wallow in self pity and give up? 

NO WAY. 

I am chalking this week up as a learning experience, and moving on. It's a new day, new week, but not a fresh start. I'm gonna keep on keepin' on. I am not giving up because I know I'll have just as many low weeks as high weeks. I'll deal with it and I'll succeed. 

Suck it up Buttercup!

With that, I'll leave you with some photos/videos from the couple hours of Auntie and Kendall time on Sunday:

Happiness is swingin'. Pure and simple happiness. I also got several videos, but the video below was too precious not too share. Apparently, Kendall knows she is cute and adorable. According to her, boys are not.....

"Good thing there's no boys in there!"

Good thing Kendall, cause we didn't even go in the sand! Keep thinking boys aren't cute until you are 25. Thanks. HA!

     

Morning Coffee

I am a self proclaimed Starbucks addict. Every morning, I go to get my venti raspberry mocha without fail. Oh yeah, and of course the whipped cream! I have been doing this religiously for several years. Its quite convenient there is about 59 coffee  shops between my house  and my office.

Not only has this been harmful for my pocketbook (at $5.16 a time!) I hadn't realized how many of my daily calories I am drinking for breakfast!!  I am doing weight watchers currently, and I looked up the points value of my usual....I stopped adding it up when I saw the tally was over 14 points!!!!! Holy crap. To put it in perspective, I get 38 "points" for the day. Using that many points for a coffee is personal sabatoge!!!

This morning I came up with a (much) lighter alternative, that still tastes decadent! I modeled it after the Starbucks Skinny Vanilla Latte and am thrilled to tally my morning coffee up at 3points+!!

1 cup of 1% milk 

4oz of espresso brewed coffee
Sugar free vanilla syrup
Splenda for extra sweetness if ya need it!

That's it! I don't have a milk frother, and the frothed milk is what makes a latte in my opinion. I actually heat my milk up in the vitamix. It heats the milk quickly and infuses so much air it makes it so velvety and smooth,  you will totally forget you are drinking lowfat milk! Plus, the vitamix creates a killer layer of the best foam around! If you dont have a frother or a vitamix,  heat your milk in the microwave then dump it into a blender on high to get that froth!

Last Beginning

This is it. My fresh start. My clean slate. My do-over. 

Do you know how many times I've said this to myself (and to everyone around me)? Too many times to count. I am the queen of starting over in the diet department. I am also the queen of slipping a little, which turns into an epic downward spiral, and then quitting. Yup, I've been a quitter. At least I'm being honest about it right? 

I'm at a point in my life where I am not only unhappy with my weight, but I am unhappy with myself and my self image of who I am. I know, deep inside, I am capable of so much more. Capable of a better, amazing me. I also know that the number on the scale shouldn't be my end all be all. It shouldn't dictate the way I feel about myself. I know all of this. But, it does. 

My size dictates the way I feel about myself. The way I feel others feel about me. What I'll allow myself to do. When I think of flying somewhere on vacation, my very first thought should not be - if I go, this time I might need a seatbelt extender. 

I've always jokingly said I am a skinny girl trapped in a fat girl's body. I've recently come to realize, I am a fat girl trapped in a fat girl's body. No one has force fed me all the processed crap I've eaten to get this way. No one and pinned me down to the couch, and forced me to win the gold medal in being lazy. 

It's on me. I cannot blame anyone but myself and that's a really sobering thought. It gets overwhelming when you finally own it and process it all - all the fault, blame, anger, sadness, and self loathing.

Luckily, I have an amazing husband and family that loves and supports me no matter what size I am. I know I can succeed, and having a support system like I do, I know I truly am blessed.

So here's to my new beginning. The very last new beginning I will have on my weight loss/self loving journey.

The Helpers

I was gonna blog about the 7 days of Vitamix (which I am way behind on) and the new health program I am doing, but that can wait.

What happened in Boston yesterday is horrific and unbelievable. As more details emerge, I cannot process what the people affected are going through. Parents lost a little boy who hadn't even been old enough to explore who he wanted to be. Another set of parents lost a daughter who was beaming with pride waiting for her boyfriend to cross the finish line. Many people lost arms and legs. Many more will have injuries they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Countless people who were at the scene and watching this all unfold through the media will have emotional injuries and scars they will carry with them.

I have read several articles that mention this attack is scary, but shouldn't be this big of a "news getter". Are you kidding me? Sure, the total amount of people physically injured was relatively low when you compare this tragedy to September 11, 2001 or the Oklahoma City bombing. The reason this attack, and all attacks like this one, are so scary, is no one could have ever expected it. Ever. When you can't participate or be a spectator of something so non-political, and non-controversial as a marathon, that's when it becomes truly bone chilling. There was no statement to be made by doing this above the fact that it is now abundantly clear we can be attacked in a horrific way, either by foreign or domestic terrorists, at any time in any place. Plain and simple. No place is safe.

I hope they catch who ever is responsible and they are punished. Severely.

A photo was being shared all over Facebook yesterday that I had to repost. It puts tragedy in a new light... there will always be hate and evil. But there will also be hope, love and care. I hope I remember this quote when I have children and have to explain to them why things like this happen.

Photo from Huffington Post Online

Vitamix Series: Day 1, Chicken Tortilla Soup

Last night, we tried out the Chicken Tortilla Soup from the cookbook that came with the Vitamix. Let me just talk about the cookbook for a sec here. Its HUGE. We're talking 350 PAGES HUGE. Smoothies, soups, ice cream, sauces, dips, breads, (yes, I said breads) breakfast treats - so many choices! I can't rave enough about this spiral bound beauty. 

After posting a photo of the Chicken Tortilla Soup on Instagram and Facebook - lots of people requested the recipe to this soup. Super easy. Dinner was done in 10 minutes total, starting with pulling the veggies out of the fridge down to pouring the soup into the bowl. 

The cast of characters are as follows:

Soup Base:

• 1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth (or Veggie. Add more if you like it super soupy...see what I did there?)
• 1/2 Roma Tomato (I used a whole cause I just didn't want to cut one in half..it was small)
• 1/2 Carrot
• 1/2 Stalk of Celery
• 1/4 Jalapeno (add the seeds and/or more of the pepper for a good kick)
• 2 Tablespoons of Onion (I added more like 1/4 of the onion - don't judge me!)
• 1 Garlic Clove (or 2 if you're feeling fancy)
• 1 Teaspoon (roughly measured) of Taco Seasoning
• Dash of Cumin

Add all the ingredients above in that order (that's what the cookbook says - for the Vitamix, I doubt it matters too much) and let her rip on the soup preset. If you have you have the Vitamix but no preset option for soup, start the blender at variable 1 and slowly increase to variable 5. Leave on for 5 minutes or until heavy steam escapes the vented lid. If you didn't know, the Vitamix actually COOKS the soup while blending. The friction of the blades with the contents is so powerful your soup will be steaming hot! 

For those of you without a Vitamix, blend all ingredients until you have a soup base, then transfer to a pot to simmer until hot or you can use the microwave. 

Add your chicken, (please pre-cook- can be done in the time the blender is running for the soup base!) corn, beans - basically whatever you'd like into the hot soup base and turn it on for 5-10 seconds until you get the consistency you'd like (chopped or shredded).  Pour into bowls and top with cheese (I used the weight watchers version), sour cream (light for me!), and tortilla chips (if they are stale, even better!) Pretty low cal right?

Total recipe will yield about 3 cups - or two giant bowls in the Garcia household!

THAT'S IT! See, so easy. I'll have to figure out the calorie content and/or weight watchers points later. All I know is it tasted fabulous, I used low cal options where I could and it was a whole bunch of veggies and protein! 

I'm crazy and I know it

We did it. Well, actually I did it. I've been obsessing over one of these for the better part of 2 years......

Disclaimer: Please ignore my
hideous/no makeup/very tired face!

Yup. That's right. The big daddy of blenders, the Vitamix. I strolled (or as mom said, skipped) through Costco with a wad of cash ready to buy the basic Vitamix. But, when I saw the new version demo, I knew I had to have the latest and greatest. Preset timer settings for smoothies, ice treats, and soups? Gotta have it. No question. After some internal debating and a phone call to the hubster, (and of course his usual response "get whatever you want my love") the Vitamix 6300 was in the cart. If you wanna look this bad boy up - just know I did NOT pay the amount on the website. I did get a deal. The purchase at the end was upwards of $500, but I don't care. My mom thinks I'm insane, as does my husband but he wants to make me happy. ;-) 

In honor of my new purchase and the multiple people who have asked me what would possess me to buy a blender this expensive, I'll post a new series on my blog - The 7 Days of Vitamix. I'll share recipes I've either made up myself and/or out of one of the many recipe books/websites available.  Of course, nothing short of driving to your house and firing it up in your house will truly show how awesome this thing is, but I'll give it a try anyways!