I was doing so great posting every day for a month – then on our out of town trip yesterday, the car broke down on the way home. I think it ended up taking us almost six hours to finally get home. So of course I didn’t eat well.

It’s a bad habit but if I’m getting even a tiny bit tired when I drive, I pull over and buy sunflower seeds. Talk about a massive salt attack! And in the stress of it all, I ate the whole little bag I bought.

We got the car fixed today (another bad eating day!) and as I like to remind myself, it is a new day. My goal is to stick to my LA Weight Loss plan for breakfast, lunch and snacks, and not overeat or eat junk for dinner or if I snack after that. Thanksgiving is not a freebie, but I will just not overeat that day. I love turkey sandwich leftovers and potato patties, oh so yummy!

Do your eating habits change on the weekends? Or when you drive? We all typically eat in restaurants when we travel out of town so that’s a given. Oh and we had Denny’s for dinner last night – I did have a salad but it was a huge salad.

It maybe an hour to hour and a half before bedtime – and I really want popcorn.

Bad.

It is taking a lot of willpower to not go stick a bag in the microwave.

I know we’ve all had days where we just were not in the mood to watch what we ate. I did good for breakfast and had a couple of eggs and a toast – then I got to work on a new project and focused so much we didn’t have lunch until 1:30! The kids are good snackers though so they are never hungry. For dinner we had mac and cheese. I was so tired by that point I just wanted to sit on the couch. I haven’t even had eight glasses of water today, though I know I’m close.
Tomorrow I’m going to a workshop and hopefully will be able to stay away from fast food for lunch. I don’t consider Zaxby’s fast food – I know fried chicken and french fries are probably the original fast food – and oh it is SO good, we may give in.

It feels odd that Thanksgiving is next week! This year is very weird because we don’t have anyone coming over. Last year we had I think 19 people, including all the kids. I loved it. I couldn’t even say a prayer at the beginning because it was so overwhelming. It will be odd to just have us be here.

We have a full weekend ahead! My college roommate is going to be here Friday night, then the family is headed to Atlanta for the day while she goes to visit a friend, then Sunday she will probably stop back by on her way home. We are just a couple of hours away from each other but in two years have only visited twice! And they were both super short visits.

One of my pregnant ‘things’ when I was expecting Alice was anything I ate that was supposed to be cold, had to be really cold. As in if Chris was making us a salad he would make mine and put it in the fridge while making his – I just wanted it cold. My drinks had to be cold too, I always used a lot of ice but I had to use a straw because while I really wanted it to be cold, I had to use a straw because it bothered my teeth. I got over needing to eat my food cold, that was just a funny pregnancy quirk, but I still have to use a straw. The only time it really annoys me is when we go out to eat because once in a while the wait staff doesn’t bring straws and then I’m left waiting.

I received this sample of Biotene sensitive toothpaste and have been using it for the past few days. Biotene uses Potassium Nitrate with a patented ingredient called Enzyme LP3 Complex™ which helps heal rather then just mask the sensitivity. One thing that is just a preference of mine is the lack of frothiness this toothpaste has, something you may have to get used to. The taste is good, sort of like bubble gum but definitely not as sweet, sometimes toothpastes have an overbearing sweetness to them.

My teeth don’t bother me enough to bring it up with my dentist but I’m keeping this on hand because some days I wake up knowing they will bother me that day and other days I am fine.

This may to TMI for some people, but what the heck. Knowledge is power.

Those of us who had the pleasure of relying on an IUD for birth control, may have experienced the side effect of never having your time* each month. I was one of those. During the three plus years I had an IUD, I may have only had my time once a year. It was very odd at first but something you get used to – and then start to take for granted.

A couple of weeks ago when my time was here, I was left with little in the house to actually use. This meant a shopping trip for various female necessities – necessities I hadn’t shopped for in years. So I take the kids to Target and end up standing in the aisle for at least five minutes ~ I had no idea what to buy! The packaging has all changed and everything has new names. Finally I just had to pick something as I knew I was standing there for way too long.

Lesson to everyone – be prepared! Especially if you used a birth control that stopped such things!

*Disclaimer – I’ve never liked calling a woman’s time of the month a ‘period’ – I don’t know why, it just irritates me. I also don’t like listening to other women complain about their time – yes cramps suck but your time is a gift, you get to create life. I’m not an airy fairy kind of person, but it is just the truth. Women are powerful people and yet we pick to complain about it. I’ve also heard it called your moon, which I switch with ‘time’ often enough.

Is that it is basically impossible to stick to a food plan when you are babysitting two kiddos and thus having to entertain four kids. Four kids who will eat dinner and then because it is too cold (and dark) to play outside, will dress up and run around your house until someone gets hurt. Of course being hurt only stops them for a matter of minutes.

Whew, I’m tired. And yeah I strayed from the plan.

Earlier this week on Mom’s Morning Show someone said something about grocery shopping – forgive me, I am pretty sure it was Monday, but that’s all I remember!

We went grocery shopping this weekend. We shop at Costco and we all know that is bulk shopping. We don’t think we have the greatest storage in this house, but we do have a pantry so for food storage we have the fridge/freezer, pantry and another small freezer in the garage. I usually buy bread at the bread outlet so we store bread there as well as extra eggos and meat. You need extra storage if you shop at Costco – the toilet paper goes upstairs in a hall closet and maybe that’ll be my next picture because we have a lot, oh and paper towels, those are in the laundry room on a shelf.

So here is the pantry that could be a mini store. I used to get so annoyed that Chris wanted the shelves so stocked up – but last week our fridge got pretty bare and we were still able to cook entire meals. Even though I did it, I was still impressed. We also have a fair amount of seasonings so that helps spice things up.

And I’m very proud to say I stuck to my food plan exactly today! I had tuna the past three days for lunch and I’m definitely tired of that so tomorrow will have to be something new!

I did so great all day today – until about 9:30PM. Then I went downstairs to get a glass of orange juice and for some reason opened the pantry. Where the kids halloween candy is stashed. And I grabbed a couple of pieces.

I have got to quit! I can’t go all day doing great and feeling good about being back on track only to mess up in the evenings. I’ve been drinking a lot of water but maybe I should just get water instead of grabbing a candy bar. The chips are all gone and we have no popcorn (my usual vice).

I did exercise via finishing painting the bathroom so I suppose that counts as burning calories and I’ll be forgiven. I just want to lose 17 pounds – what I had lost this past spring. I think I gained back 14 so okay I’ll be happy to just lose the 14. I felt better then – and after that I can set a new goal.

Here is to a new day tomorrow – and another glass of water.

Today I started my LA plan back up again. I felt good about it until dinner – then I was starving! I did another crockpot meal and it wasn’t quite done (that’s what I get for the roast not being all the way thawed!) so we had to wait about 45 minutes from our ‘typical’ dinner time.

I did great though. I ate what I was supposed to eat, drank lots of water…and then put the kids to bed and had a bowl of Doritos. Ugh I know! So horrible. But once that bowl was gone, there were no more so I know it won’t happen again tomorrow! I have that to be proud of at least.

I bought an exercise ball and it came with an instruction book and a dvd. So far the kids have used it more then I have. They say they are going to exercise then do something with it for at least a half hour before they move on to something else. Fairly impressive for little ones.

Tomorrow I plan on trying the basic section of the dvd. And I’m going to stick with LA. Losing weight with the plan is easy, you just have to stick to it.

I’ve been amazed that we have had meals the past few days – the fridge was empty. Empty as in we were down to a half gallon of milk, mozzeralla cheese, celery, carrots, and condiments. Maybe there was a couple other things, but I don’t think so. But we still had meals because of our very well stocked freezer and pantry! The chicken in the crockpot the other night? All from the freezer/pantry. Don’t tell Chris but he was right about keeping them stocked up!

So today we went grocery shopping and the fridge is full and the pantry and freezer are looking like mini-stores again. I don’t really mind because it does get eaten but with us possibly moving soon (I know, I haven’t said anything! I will soon, I promise) I wonder what to do with it. When we moved the last time we just ate what we had and right before we left we gave our can food to a friend. This time we could be looking at A LOT of food left over. I am just thinking of the money side of it – we spent so much buying all of it, having it left would be a waste of money. Who cares if we would eat it, I have no idea if they will move it for us though I am sure if they did it would keep.

I have to stop thinking about the money. Moving is stressful enough without thinking about non-moving related things! This move will be so different then the last.

Of course we could just have a big going away party and eat it all.