Haircut Help, New Meal Plan, 15 Best Between Meal Snacks Article and Product Questions!

Before I get into yesterday's crap day and meal planning... I have a burning question. Should I get a LOB??!! Ladies, I've been rocking my current hair style since 2000... seriously! And don't get me wrong. I love it and it's served me well. But i'm OVER IT. At my last hair appointment I asked the girl if she could do anything to my hair what would she do? She said, honestly, that she would do it how it is but if ANYTHING she would do a LOB ala Paltrow. I was excited... what ELSE?! She said nothing. My jaw was too masculine. WTF?! Anywho... i'm been eying the LOB... what do we think?! I made a hair appointment for Friday at 2 p.m. Holla back!!

P.S. I don't rock a middle part...

Looking forward to your thoughts!!

Backing up... Yesterday I felt like a zombie. I looked like crap, felt like crap, the weather was crappy, and work was crappy. I was so busy I had to work through lunch, and after work I headed straight home. Yes, no workout. BLAH. And I had TONS of treats. True story. I was basically like whatever and just ate my way through the day. Shockingly, I ended up at 1,726 calories, 230 carbs, 57 fat grams and 80 protein grams. Here’s what I ate. I thought it was worse….. Still – the calories were from crap, not whole foods by any stretch of the imagination. But…. That’s okay! It happened and I got on track last night, cooked a bunch, put my meals in spark people BEFORE eating them and feel better already. Sometimes I worry I’ll be using Spark People forever. I just have no concept of feeling full, when to quit, willpower, etc., lately! I blame it on the season change. Hehe

Speaking of meals, this was my meal plan for the week – so I made a packet based on this:

Monday: Breaded Breakfast Chicken Sandwiches (b); herbed Greek chicken salad pita (l); beef and bean enchiladas (d)

Tuesday: Bacon/Egg/cheese Muffin (b); Enchilada Casserole (l); pasta with sundried tomato pesto (d)

Wednesday: Breaded Breakfast Chicken Sandwiches (b); herbed Greek chicken salad pita (l); beef and bean enchiladas (d)

Thursday: cereal (b); Enchilada Casserole (l); Ricotta and Beef Manicotti (d)

Friday: Bacon/Egg/Cheese Muffin (b); southwestern chicken & white bean soup (l); pasta with sundried tomato pesto (d)

Saturday (out of town): English Muffin Breakfast Pizza (b); Ricotta and Beef Manicotti (l); OUT (d)

Sunday (out of town): English Muffin Breakfast Pizza (b); southwestern chicken & white bean soup (l); Lemon Pepper chicken with artichokes and mushrooms (d)

But, as you know, life happens, so I had to push this out some as we ate Austin’s mom’s meals rather than our meals so we have leftovers! Here’s is the revised version… and flushed out into next week.

Tuesday: Bacon/Egg/cheese Muffin (b); Enchilada Casserole (l); Green Salsa Chimichangas (d)

Wednesday: Breaded Breakfast Chicken Sandwiches (b); herbed Greek chicken salad pita (l); pasta with sundried tomato pesto (d)

Thursday: Bacon/Egg/cheese Muffin (b); Enchilada Casserole (l); Green Salsa Chimichangas (d)

Friday: Breaded Breakfast Chicken Sandwiches (b); herbed Greek chicken salad pita (l); Ricotta and Beef Manicotti (d)

Saturday (out of town): English Muffin Breakfast Pizza (b); beef and bean enchiladas (l); pasta with sundried tomato pesto (d)

Sunday (out of town) English Muffin Breakfast Pizza (b); Ricotta and Beef Manicotti (l); beef and bean enchiladas (d)

Monday: Sausage/Egg/Cheese Muffin (b); southwestern chicken & white bean soup (l); Lemon Pepper chicken with artichokes and mushrooms (d)

Tuesday: Potato/Egg/Sausage Burrito (b); sweet & sour chicken (l); Chicken Picatta (d)

Wednesday: Sausage/Egg/Cheese Muffin (b); southwestern chicken & white bean soup (l); Lemon Pepper chicken with artichokes and mushrooms (d)

Thursday: Cereal (b); sweet & sour chicken (l); Crock pot chicken tortilla soup new! (d)

Friday: Potato/Egg/Sausage Burrito (b); Cheesy Stuffed Shells new! (l); Chicken Picatta (d)

Saturday: Breakfast Sweet Potatoes new! (b); Crock pot chicken tortilla soup (l); Cheesy stuffed shells (d)

Sunday: Country Egg Scramble new! (b); Slow cooker sweet & spicy chicken tacos new! (l); Wasabi Salmon new! (d)

I’m so excited – I've picked all of my new recipes and can’t wait! (yes, this is the weekend we’re in town ALL WEEKEND – woo!). I still need to make a packet for the second week – but the original first week packet is ready to go so if you want it just shoot me an email! (unless someone knows a way to link to word documents on here??!!)

BTW - I came across a great article today in my Eat This Not That newsletter: 15 Best and Worst Between Meal Snacks. I liked how it divided it up by different types of snacks, then showed what’s better or worse. And of course I always like when products I eat on the reg are in the “eat that” category. Where’s my gold star?! I got info from it – I want to find Dr. McDougall’s Ramen Chicken and popchips!! Anyone had these products? Like/dislike? Know where I can find them? Holla!

I’ll post today’s stats/exercises tomorrow – for now, I’m out!! TTYL!

Catching Up, Great BP, Interesting Calorie-Counting News Piece

Yeah. Rainy Mondays. Blah. I'm in no way going to catch up until tonight (sad!) but I do want to share a pic from the weekend AND a little tidbit I came across this morning in my Hungry Girl e-newsletter (which I love).


(from l-r: Lindsey, Megan, Me and Emily)
We had a GREAT time at Megan's mini BP - wow! Despite the weather (cold and rainy) it was great to be back together!! I'll post more pics and more about the weekend tonight!! And I finished Lethally Blond Saturday morning (couldn't sleep) so I'll tell ya about it (hint: loved it!). I'm now reading yet another Kate White book (from earlier in the series) Over Her Dead Body. AND I bought some cutie cute new clothes! GREAT weekend. Oh and the girls got to see the house - loved it - yay! And quick house update: our due diligence period was extended to Tuesday (still trying to negotiate who will fix what) but we ARE submitting our 30-day notice to our awful apartment complex today. I'm not going to lie.... I have MAJOR butterflies about all of this and am probably going to have to be sedated in a couple of weeks... I just can't believe it's happening. It's the 16th and we could be moving in like less than 20 days. OMG so much to do.... okay.... enough about that! Here is the interesting tidbit from Hungry Girl, and i'll write more later and can't wait to catch up on your blogs!!

Calorie-Counters Got It Goin' On!

We've been saying this for a bazillion years (okay, since May of 2004), but there's no magic bullet that can change the simple facts of weight loss. The formula is pretty simple, chewers: It's calories in vs. calories burned. And a recent study (the largest of its kind) has confirmed this. Participants followed various diet plans (low-carb, high-protein, etc.), but each plan cut the same amount of calories from the participant's normal intake. Turns out that it really didn't matter what they ate, just how many calories they consumed -- every diet group lost about the same amount of weight. We say, if you're trying to shed lbs., it's up to YOU to figure out what helps you achieve a lower calorie lifestyle. We're all about eating, so we tend to stick with stuff we can eat large portions of without taking in a huge number of calories. More protein, less starchy carbs, less fat, more fiber -- all great ways to get more bang for your calorie buck. The takeaway here is that cutting calories, along with finding the stuff that keeps you satisfied, is the way to go for weight loss. And, while we're on the subject of calorie-counting, here's a friendly reminder that our new book, Hungry Girl 200 Under 200, (out 4/14/09) features 200 recipes, each under 200 calories per serving. To meet your calorie needs while chewing LOTS of delicious food, mix and match 'em 'til the cows come home!