Guest Posts Wanted!

Yay! It's Thursday! Which means only one more day until the weekend. AND it also means that I leave for Hawaii in a week!! A week everyone! 

With that being said, I am looking for a few bloggers to guest post while I am away. I am looking for three to five bloggers. And since the first day of Fall is on the 23rd and my guest posts will start going up on the 24th, I thought it would be a fun idea to have my guests write about what they love about Fall.

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year, next to Christmas of course, so I think it will be a lot of fun to see what everyone else likes about this time of year. 

If you are interested in guest posting for me while I am gone, either reply to this post or you can email me at mdvervaecke@gmail.com for more details. 

Thanks in advance to those that are going to guest post. I really appreciate it and can't wait to see what you are going to write!

Weigh-In Wednesday

Happy Hump Day everyone! It's time for my weekly Weigh-In Wednesday post!

I am so excited to report that I actually had a great week! I have felt so great about all of the decisions that I made this past week. I mean I went to Chick-Fil-A and got grilled chicken nuggets and fruit for lunch one day. Usually if I would go there I would just get breaded chicken nuggets, fries and ranch to dip them in. So the fact that I did such a great job at getting something that was a million times healthier for me was a big win for me!

I have also been tracking and logging my food in My Fitness Pal every day! This has helped a lot! It really makes me look at what I am eating. And if I go over by a few calories, and I mean less than 50 over, I am not getting mad at myself. I know that it is going to happen occasionally, so I am trying to not let it affect how I feel about how well I am doing. 

As far as my food goes this week, I haven't really been able to eat a whole lot. Like I said yesterday in my post, I had oral surgery on Monday so I have been having to eat a lot of soft foods like mashed potatoes, oatmeal, soups and applesauce. And not only that but I haven't really had much of an appetite because of my mouth hurting, so it has kind of been a blessing in disguise, haha!  

Okay, let's get down to the numbers. When I stepped on the scale this morning, I weighed the exact same as last week. Which is really frustrating because I have been down all week long until today when I jumped back up. And although I haven't been able to work out, I have barely been able to eat, so it really doesn't make any sense! Oh well! I am not going to let this get me down. I have made some great progress this week with some of my habits and even though the scale isn't showing progress, I am going to hold my head high and be proud of what I have accomplished!

My Weekend Recap

Hello my lovely readers! I hope that you had a great weekend! Sorry this post is a day late, but seeing as how I didn't have to work yesterday, it was still technically my weekend. But I promise you shouldn't be jealous of why I didn't have to work, but I will get to that in a little bit. 

Friday I got off work about an hour early. My boss told us all that we could leave early if we wanted, so of course we were all running out the door. I went and did a little bit of shopping before I had to go pick up the Husband. Oh, which reminds me, I never told you guys that my car has officially taken a crap, so we are down to one vehicle until we can come up with the rest of our down payment for a new car. But anywho, I picked up the Husband, we ran a few errands to Petsmart, World Market and King Soopers and then headed home to make dinner. 

We made some delicious grilled chicken with grilled portabella mushrooms and grilled veggies. It was soooo good. Then we just sat around and watched TV and some movies for the rest of the night. 

Saturday morning I slept in til about 11, which felt amazing. And then after spending the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon watching nothing but Harry Potter on ABC Family, Aran and I headed out to run a few more errands. We went to Petco where we bought Louie and our kitties some awesome Star Wars toys! And then we headed to Target where I spent at least an hour in the dressing room trying on shorts and swim suites(gah!) because I am in desperate need of a few more pairs of shorts and new suite to take to Hawaii in a few weeks. 

After about an hour and a zillion items of clothing later, I found a few that I was comfortable with and called it good. After we went through the checkout, we stopped and grabbed some food and then headed home. As soon as I got home I decided it was time for a nap. So I proceeded to pass the eff out for a few hours and then woke up around 7 pm. 

After waking up I got ready to head downtown to meet my friend KB to go watch the Rapids play the L. A. Galaxy. It was a great game and we won 1-0. After that I went home and headed to bed. 

Sunday was a somewhat lazy day for us. We got up and ran to the grocery store to do our grocery shopping for the week. After that we sat around the house. We watched some more Harry Potter along with some football. Even though the Broncos played on Thursday and whooped some Raven ass, we watched more for our fantasy players. Eli Manning was giving me a damn heart attack! Three interceptions! Three! But I guess I can't be too mad because I still got almost 44 points out of him. But, I digress.

I also made a couple of batches of Rhubarb Rhumble Sunday night and it turned out so so so so good! And of course I cleaned up the kitchen and did a few other things around the house. 

Monday morning I got to sleep in a little bit later than usual. Not much, but a little. And then I had to get up and get ready to head to the Oral Surgeon. A little bit of a back story, last year I had to have a tooth pulled because of some issues with a root canal that I had when I was in High School. Because of where the tooth was and the type of issues it could cause if we didn't put anything in it's place, I elected to get a dental implant. So Monday was the day that I was scheduled for it. 

I got to the office about fifteen minutes before my appt, got checked in, paid an outrageous amount of money and then waited for my name to be called. Once I got back there they put an IV in my hand and started the meds to get me sedated. I wasn't looking forward to this part. But honestly within five minutes of that IV being in, I was out! I don't remember anything until I started waking up about an hour later.

Well come to find out, they weren't able to do the implant. When they got in there, the bone graft that was done on my jaw last year when my tooth was pulled wasn't in the proper shape to be able to do the implant. So the oral surgeon had to re-do the bone graft, stitch me back up and call it good. So now, I have to wait another four months before they will be able to see if the bone graft healed correctly so that I can go ahead and get the implant done. 

Top Left: Right after I woke up. Bottom Left: In the car on the way home. Top Right: Last night once I started feeling better. Middle Right: My IV and hooked up to all the machines. Bottom Right: Asleep on the floor while Sheldon snuggles up next to me. 

This whole process has been a long and frustrating process and I thought I was going to be one step closer to being done with this, but nope. I have to wait longer. Oh well, I would rather it be done correctly than not done at all. So I spent the rest of my Monday coming out of the anesthesia, sleeping, trying to eat and being in pain. Thank goodness for pain meds or omg I would be in a world of hurt. 

So that was my weekend. Some fun and some relaxation along with some not so much fun, but overall it was a good weekend. It was way too hot here, but that looks to be changing this week. Eeeek!!! Fall weather is coming. How was everyone else's weekend? Do anything fun?

Food Frustration & Cooking Nights

Recently I was having a conversation with my friend, who I will call KB, about how we are frustrated with food. We are both trying to eat healthier and exercise more, so naturally this topic comes up quite often. 

We started talking about how we get so burnt out on the healthier foods that we do know how to prepare and then feel like we don't have anything to make for dinner because we are so sick of the same thing over and over again. We also discussed how we have to give up so many things that we like to eat like Taco Bell or Chick-Fil-a and that without anything good to replace them, we still find ourselves wanting those types of food in our life. And obviously if you are wanting to eat healthy, exercise and actually lose weight, you can't have those types of food in your diet. 

After talking about these things for a while, we decided to start having a cooking night once or twice a month. We are going to start searching the internet(probably Pinterest) for healthy recipes that could act as alternatives to some of the foods that we miss and crave on a regular basis. We will make these recipes, maybe even tweak them a bit, and see what we like and don't like. And if we do find a recipe that we like, we can then add it to our repertoire of meals that we can make, enjoy, and not feel bad about eating. 

Here is where I would love to hear from you guys. I would love for you to submit your favorite healthy recipes for us to try our hand at. The only two things that I ask is that they 1) don't have bread in them or have some type of bread substitute and 2) they don't contain potatoes, unless it is sweet potatoes. Those are two of the main things that we have both tried to take out of our diets so we are trying to find alternatives to these even. 

If you have a recipe to submit, please email it to the address that is listed on the Contact link on the top of this page. And of course if you submit a recipe and we cook it on one of our nights, I will definitely be blogging about it so that you guys can see how it turned out. 

I can't wait to see what we come up with and how many great new recipes we will find in the process. 

Weigh In Wednesday

It has been two weeks since I did a Weigh In Wednesday post. Probably because I know that I have failed miserably over the past few weeks.

I don't know what has gotten into me but recently I just can't seem to keep up with the healthy eating. Even though every time I get on the scale I want to kick myself. You would think that would be enough of a wake up call, but for some reason it hasn't been. Probably because I haven't been getting on the scale every day like I should. Again, failing miserably.

Instead of sitting here and pouting about it, I am just going to suck it up. I have to realize that I am not always going to do the right thing or eat the right things in this case. But being pissed at myself isn't going to change that. I need to push past it and just remember that tomorrow is a new day. And I can only try again to become a better me.

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I did get on the scale this morning. 217.2. Which means I am up 3lbs. Bleh! But at least I got on the scale. That is a feat in itself. I just need to keep getting on the scale.  The more I get on the scale and don't like what I see, the more likely I am to do something about it.

Okay, I am done sounding like a broken record for the day. Hope you guys are having a great Hump Day! And I hope to have better news to report next week!

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Miss Rylei's 1st Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated my Niece Rylei's 1st Birthday!

To her it was probably just like any other day. But for the rest of us we sat back reminiscing about the day of her birth. We also sat there in awe at how quickly the last year has gone by and how much she has grown. 

Once everyone had arrived it was time for her to open presents. She wasn't quite sure what to do with this at first, but then when she realized that she was the one getting stuff, she loved it. It was especially cute watching her take one piece of tissue paper out of the bag and then walk it over to someone. Then she would return to the bag and repeat. And then watching her dive into the bags to find the presents was just adorable. 

After she was done opening presents. It was time for the cake. They gave her a small cupcake and let her go at it. It was so cute! And of course there was pink frosting and cupcake everywhere! As there should have been. 

Even though Miss Rylei probably didn't understand the significance of the day, it was a pretty important one to the rest of us. Seeing how much she has grown in the past year has been incredible. She is starting to become her own person with her own personality. And that in itself has been so much fun to watch. 

Miss Rylei,

I have enjoyed every second of you over the last year and I can not wait to watch you grow even more. You are getting so big and developing quite the personality. You are such a little ham and love that about you. Just remember how much Aunt Megan loves you and that I will always be here no matter what. I love you big girl and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope that you are all having a great weekend and hopefully enjoying an extra day off! I know that I am!

Stay safe, enjoy a good BBQ and just remember to relax and enjoy your time with family and friends!

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