What Connects Us....

Things like this just stand as a reminder that the world really isn't that big of a place; that we are more alike than different.

Baby, you need to sweep off your own porch first…….

This is was one of the gazillion sayings that I remember my maternal grandmother using when I was a child. Some of the ones she used make no more sense today than they did 30 years ago when I first heard them, but this one, I think of often. Basically it means, take a look at yourself before you criticize or have something to say about others. As a child, I remember her using it on either me or my brother when we were in that annoying tattletale mode. I can remember rolling my eyes in annoyance because of course I wanted her to take my side and slap the taste out of my little brother’s mouth. After all, HE was the pest, not me!!! No, seriously, he really was.

Most recently I was reminded of this saying during an exchange regarding diet/training/adherence etc. For the most part when it comes to diet and exercise, I’m not very helpful. I don’t offer a lot of specific information about what I eat, how I train etc. I don’t do this for a multitude of reasons. It’s not that don’t want people to succeed or that what I’m doing is top secret, it’s mainly because like my Nanny said, “I haven’t sweep off my own porch yet.” I think it’s easy after dropping a few pounds and sticking to whatever program you’re doing for a few months, to start feeling like you are qualified to give advice to others when you feel as if they aren’t “serious” about making changes, are whining, just don’t want it as badly as you think they should or you feel that their methods are just plain stupid. This behavior reminds me of the behavior of a “born-again Christian” who just found “religion” a few months ago and now thinks they are qualified to point out all of your “sins” when in fact they were the same sins they were doing even to a higher extent and sometimes still falls back into the “sinful” pattern more than they'd ever admit. I feel strongly that everyone must find out what works for them regardless of the number of times they slip up or the method they choose .There are many paths to this goal and yes some of them are stupid, but that’s why we have the power of choice and the ability to research. I may not choose to starve myself on one meal a day and 2 hrs of cardio, but it’s not my place to criticize either, being that some days I’m a hot fudge sundae away from eating enough to bust through the seams of my pants. If asked directly what my methods are, I will direct someone to certain websites so they can do their own research or I will give a brief overview of what I’m doing. Sometimes my information is of benefit to them, sometimes it’s not and that’s ok. I choose to share information, not advice because I still have way too much dirt on my own porch for that. A 20lb weight loss and a few months dietary adherence does not an expert make.

Share all the love you can today, for tomorrow isn't promised to any of us.

Friday - Sept. 10 Milestone

This is a picture of my newest toy. It's weight matches the number of pounds I've lost as of today.

Getting in touch with my creative side

I swear I have one somewhere. I used to use it all the time. Grrrr!!!

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting back into some old hobbies and also starting some new ones. I've been spending some time on Etsy and came across this girl's store. She has some really cool accessories all made from recycled items. Here are 2 of my favorites.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltSewGood

The brooches are made from recycled sweaters. I think this is a great idea for old sweaters that have stains or holes in them.









The cosmetic bag is made from a recycled blazer and sweater for the bottom. I swear I have the matching skirt somewhere in my closet amongst the variety of different sizes.





This weekend I'm going to hit some yard sales in search of some goodies for Ebay. The weather is supposed to be nice so hopefully I can hit several before all of the good stuff gets away.

I'm thinking that my Christmas present to myself this year is going to be a sewing machine and some sewing classes. It's been a long time since high school Home Ec. I've seen some really interesting things at places like World Market and Etsy that I know I can make with some practice and I've seen lots and lots of cool fabrics and patterns on my yard sale treks. Who knows, this time next year I might be running my own Etsy store. One can never have too many accessories.

When the Cheater Feels Cheated

OMG, I had the WORST cheat ever on Friday!! Don't you hate when that happens? I didn't overeat, but the cheat meal I chose was HORRIBLE. What a waste!!! Isn't it funny how your perception of what's "Good" changes when you limit yourself to eating certain things. Probably a few months ago, I wouldn't have even noticed how crappy my cheat was because I was eating that sort of thing all of the time.

For the past few months, I've been using Chipotle as my cheat as well as a piece of strawberry cake with strawberry/cream cheese frosting from a local bakery. I decided to do a change up on Friday because I was in the mood for french fries, or just something fried. My original thoughts were to go with a cheeseburger and fries from 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, but at the last minute I changed to fried butterfly shrimp, fries and coleslaw from a local chain. Bleech!! What a waste. I ate half of it and left the other half in digust. I definitely felt cheated. Next time, I will definitely go with my cheeseburger and fries or back to Chipolte. I'm really sad because the strawberry cake was only around until Labor Day and I missed my last opportunity until Valentine's Day for a piece. I'm going to try and find a good copy-cat recipe online in hopes that I can replicate it in cupcake form and freeze or bring to work the left overs.

In other news, I should be cruising into the -20lb mark on my next weigh-in on Friday. I was at -18 at the end of last week and I'm tightening up my diet in some areas so I should hit the mark without any problems. I've also changed up my training program. I did the last one for 3 months because I liked it and didn't want to mess up my 5-6 sessions per week stride. I started my new one last week and really like it. I'm finding that routines suit me, so I'll probably do this one until the end of the year and then ping Noel for some new ideas come January 1st.

At some point this month at work, we will be having our first quarter weigh-ins for the wellness program my company has implemented. I can't remember if I ever went into great detail in the blog because I so over everyone talking about it at work. Anyway, my company is giving away 4 $10,000 prizes next July for the people who have met the quarterly weight loss requirements throughout the year. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have met my requirements a month ago. I can honestly say that is the first time that's happened EVER. Unfortunately the contest isn't about who loses the most, but every quarter that you reach the set goal, your name goes into the hat for a chance to win one of four $10,000 prizes. 4 quarters = 4 chances. The odds will improve over time because if you are disqualified the first time you don't reach the goal. I will be really annoyed though if someone qualifies once and then never qualifies again and they win one of the prizes, but oh well, what can you do? It's a lottery. I can only control me and make sure I do everything I need to do in order to qualify all 4 times.

The Truth to Success

Thelma and Louise Go'in For Teh Tone - 155lb Deadlifts

What an awesome week this has been. One of my nearest and dearest friends came down from Canada-land to pay me a visit. The visit went so fast, but not to fear, we'll be doing it again shortly and then hopefully in the not so far future, I can pay her a visit and see what kind of mischief we can get into up north. Luckily her hubby is a cop, so maybe we'll get a pass if we get into too much trouble. Anyway, I'll post more about her visit later, but just wanted to post some videos of one of the high points of her visit...going to the gym together. We went with Noel, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's sister Rachael. Ana also tanned, but I passed on that part.

Anyhoo, here is yours truly (Louise) Sumo-Deadlifting 155 lbs!!

My lifting style is as follows:

(1) Wear a shirt that is just loose enough to get caught behind your elbows and show not one but all three rolls of your belly fat.

(2) Don't breathe until the very last rep, effectively making your eyes look like they're going to pop out AND you're suffering from a thyroid condition. Hey, I was focused and besides, breathing is for sissies!!




Next is Thelma's turn. Thelma's a wee one, but she's lifting those 155lbs like nobody's business. Her lifting style includes looking constipated on the last rep but hey, at least she remembered to breathe unlike me.



Again, had a fantastic time and learned a lot. Noel is very generous with her training knowledge. I can't wait until we all get together again!

Found an Awesome Blog

I love this blog!! It makes me really wish I had paid more attention in high school Home Economics. It's never too late to learn though. I love creativity and this girl's creativity is through the roof.

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

Waaaaaaaa!!!!!

Ughhhh, what an annoying day this has been.

As soon as I get to work, I walk into this from one of my coworkers.



Supposedly I don't speak to her enough. I stop and chat with everybody around her but not with her.

First of all, "Bitch please, we aren't in kindergarten. Who does this? We are coworkers, not friends. I am nice to you because we have to work together and because I don't want anything negativo on my evaluation. I am nothing if not professional, but again, that does not equate me wanting to be your friend."

She's really lucky she didn't catch me before my EC kicked in or I would have shared these thoughts with her; evaluation be damned, I have a whole year to recover from any minor slip-ups. Fortunately, I had already "eased" into my morning when I got this little confrontation and spiel.

Second, she's exactly right. I don't talk to her other than the customary greetings. I've tried the idle chit-chat, but 9 times out of 10, I'd get forced into having a 20 minute conversation about the constant streams of drama she has swirling around her at any given point. Trust me, it's better to have me ignore you than you have this look:



See, the thing is, in addition to constantly being involved in some kind of personal/work-related drama, she's one of those people who need constant reinforcement that they are liked and are doing a good job. A few years ago, I probably would have indulged her, but these days, I am sooooo not the one. I have been around a person in the past who constantly needed validation and proof that you were a good friend. Nothing was ever good enough. You could never show enough that you were a friend all the while you got nothing in return. These types of people suck the very lifeblood out of you and drain away any joy you might have. No thanks, been there, done that, don't need another T-shirt. Luckily for me and unfortunately for her, I can now see those familiar red flags a mile away and make it a point to distance myself. I guess she picked up on it, but I really don't care because until my job description says that I have to be everyone's friend, my treatment of her will not change. In fact she may get less since she made it an issue today.

Ok, rant over. Other than that and a few minor but correctable annoyances that actually were in my job description today was overall a pretty decent day. I give it a C+/B-. My boss has been on vacation so I've had a pretty laid back week. I also had a fantastic cheat meal today. I went to Chipotle's and had a



Now it's time to kick back, relax and watch the Braves play. Go Braves!!!!

Winding Down with Week 8

Week 8 is coming to a close and I have settled nicely into my routine. Earlier this week I was sick and missed training on Monday and Tuesday. Normally, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but I found myself in addition to feeling sick, feeling “off”, like something was missing. It then hit me that my “new” routine had officially become my “now” routine. I used to resent routines because I saw them as tedious and smothering, something that suburban soccer moms and middle aged men did. Remember the Dunkin Doughnuts commercials…”Time to Make the Doughnuts”. I enjoyed “living in the moment”, “flying by the seat of my pants” etc. What I’ve now learned is that anything negative can be changed to positive with a shift in mindset. I really think this key point is what has been missing in all of my other failed attempts. Well, that I wasn’t on a man-hunt all those other times. LOL. Anyway, I digress. Now, I view the time spent prepping food, packing my gym bag, going to the gym, etc. as the small daily goals that I need to meet in order to reach the big goal. I no longer have to worry that Facebook, Maximum Fitness Consulting (www.maximumfitnessconsulting.com), Ebay, and all of the other places I used to spend my nights hours with will crumble and implode if I’m not around. Most nights I don’t get home before 7pm and I’m perfectly OK with it. I remember a few months ago complaining in another blog post about how much crap I have to carry into and out of my home each day (purse, lunch tote, gym bag, water bottle, etc.) Now I’m like the momma duck with all of her baby duckies lined up at the front door. I know what goes where, (purse over left shoulder, lunch tote on left wrist, water bottle in left hand, gym bag on right wrist, keys in right hand). It actually feels weird on the weekends when I just have my purse). Funny the things we (I) find to bitch about. I have definitely been guilty of letting the small things get in the way of the bigger and better things. I’m actually still fine tuning my weekend routine. For me weekends = sleeping late/multiple naps, but after all of these years I’m finally coming to the conclusion that this is no longer working for me. I’ve really starting developing an interest in yardsaling, mainly in search of vintage items. FYI: Vintage items are HUGE sellers on Ebay. Although I don’t make it out every Saturday morning, I am increasing the number of times per month that I do get out.

Coming Up:
One of my closest girlfriends, Ana H. will be coming down for a visit at the end of the month. We haven’t seen each other since several of us made a trek up to Canada in 2007. My goal is to lose another 10lbs before she gets here. I’m really looking forward to her visit. I know we’re all going to have tons of laughs. We have so many old stories that no matter how many times they get retold are still sooooo funny. I know there will be lots of treats and cheats too. I can’t wait!!!

The ABC's of Me

A
- Available: Depends on who’s asking.
- Age: 41
- Annoyance: arrogance and liars
- Animal: Dogs are my favorite but I don’t own one yet.

B
- Birthday: July 1
- Body part on opposite sex: Chest and butt
- Best weather: 80 – 85 degrees, breezy and no humidity
- Burial or Cremation: Cremation

C
- Candy: Hershey’s Cookies and Creme
- Color: Pink (all shades)
- Chinese/Mexican: Mexican
- Cake or pie: Cake! I hate pie!
- Cheese: Cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, American – nothing too pungent

D
- Day or Night: Night
- Dance in the rain?: yes
- Dog/Cat – Dogs!! Love all of their little sweet faces.

E
- Eggs: scrambled and hard-boiled
- Ever failed a class?: oh yeah

F
- First crush: Erik Estrada and Mr. Smith – my 7th grade history teacher
- First thoughts waking up: I need more sleep
- Food: a love/hate relationship

G
- Greatest fear: stalkers, being buried alive, someone I care about being wrongly accused and then convicted of a crime.
- Goals: to be the best me possible and live the best life possible
- Gum: Bubble Gum, Cinnamon, Mint (in that order)
- Get along with your parents: Mother: Yes!! Father: It’s a work in progress
- Good luck charm: don't believe in them. I create my own luck.

H
- Hair color: Dark brown. I’m doing wigs as protective styling right now until I can grow and thicken up my own. Talk about a work in progress!! Whew, it’s never-ending.
- Height: 5’2
- Happy: most of the time
- Holiday: Christmas
- How do you want to die: I prefer not to.

I
- Ice cream: Ben and Jerry’s Strawberry Cheesecake, Chubby Hubby, and Chocolate Fudge Brownie (In that order)
- Instrument: Does the recorder in 2nd grade count? If not, then none
-Icing: Buttercream
-Iphone or Blackberry: Love my iphone!

J
- Jewelry: I’m really into making my own right now. I’m not very good at it, but getting better
- Job: Insurance (Vision) – Strategic Planning
-Juice: Tropicana Orange with Extra Pulp

K
- Kids: I’ll just enjoy a select few that belong to others. I don’t see them in my future.
- Keep a journal: I have 2 blogs, one public and one private. The private one is my journal

L
- Love at first sight?: I think it’s possible, but I’ve never experienced it.
- Laughed so hard you cried: many times

M
- Milk flavor: Chocolate
- Movie: Not a huge movie fan. I watch more TV
- Marriage: Some day
- Motion sickness: Nope

N
- Number of siblings: 1 younger brother: Marc
- Number of piercings: 2 holes in each ear

O
- Overused Phrases: too many clichés out there to even begin to mention
- Onions/Garlic: Love them both!

P
- Place you’d like to live: Anywhere near the beach or NYC
- Perfect Pizza: Lots of cheese, meat and veggies. No ham or pineapple
- Pepsi/Coke: Diet Pepsi
-Pedi or Mani: Mani

Q
- Questionnaires: don’t mind answering if I have the time

R
- Reason to cry: I don’t cry much, but hearing about animals and the elderly being mistreated will make me cry in a heartbeat
- Reality T.V.: hate it!
- Radio station: Prefer satellite radio
- Roll your tongue in a circle: no can do
- Ring Size: 8 – I have fat fingers

S
- Shoe size: 8.5
- Salad dressing: Ranch
- Sushi: Bleech!
- Shower daily?: Definitely
- Sing well?: Can’t carry a tune in a bucket
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries

T
- Time for bed: During the week, shoot for 11-ish, weekends: whenever I get sleepy
- Thunderstorms: indifferent as long as my power doesn’t go out
- TV: probably watch too much, but love CSI and Law and Order
- Touch your tongue to your nose: No can do

U
- Unpredictable: sometimes
- Umbrella: Always have one close. I’m not a fan of getting soaked

V
- Vegetable you hate: Cooked cabbage and squash
- Vacation spot: anywhere tropical

W
- Weakness: sleep
- Wanted to be a model: that dream ended when I stopped growing at 5’2
- Which one of your friends acts the most like you: None. I am an original
- Worst weather: Sleet and cold rain.

X
-Xtreme Sports: Not really interested in them.

Y
- Year it is now: 2010
- Yellow: like the darker variations like deep gold. Pastels are my favorite.
-Yelling or Whispering: I prefer quiet, but each one has it’s time and place.

Z
- Zoo animal: Lions and Gorillas
- Zodiac sign: Cancer

It only took one.....

I went to my first "real" professional baseball game last weekend and I am officially hooked AGAIN. I used to be a fan, but somehow I got disinterested in the game. Now I'm officially back. GO BRAVES!! It was a fun day. Things started off a little wet. When we all arrived, we were smack in the middle of a downpour. After a 35 minute rain delay, the game started and the temps cooled off considerably to make the majority of the game quite pleasant. The temps started rising again around the 7th inning but was still tolerable. We had great seats; 2 rows behind the right hand batter's box. I'm officially spoiled.







Braves Dugout



My man Martin Prado at bat!! Yummy!!



Catcher - Brian McCann - My quads would be on FIYAH if I had to squat for that long. Hmm..I wonder how much he squats in the gym.



Jason Heyward - what an amazing rookie season he's having. So young and so talented.



Loud,unattractive, obnoxious drunk lady who insisted on harassing one of the opposing team members.



Another of the loud, obnoxious drunk lady. Someone needs to tell her how to sit in a skirt. She was showing her goods "I use the term 'goods' lightly" to anyone unfortunate enough to walk by. Yes, a skirt, not a skort. Trust me when I say I posted the non-retina burning photos of how she was looking.

Week 7 coming to an end....

This was me yesterday










after I weighed and saw I had lost




Actually, this morning I was down 1 more pound but I'm only counting the 10 since it was my official weigh in day. I refuse to get into the habit of weighing myself every day and letting the number determine what type of day it will be; that's my yahoo co-workers' job. Hahaha!!

The Receipt, Part Deux

So anyway, picking up where I left off; that was 6 weeks ago and today I can happily say that I feel fantastic and I've lost almost 10 pounds and close to 3 inches off my waist. My other measurements have gone down as well. I'm still not able to look back and that day and laugh, but I know one day I will....one day when I'm sitting across the table staring into Mr. Hotness's baby blues..Hehehehe!!!

You know, that day did something else as well, it made me look back and evaluate what my dating pool has been like over the past year. These are people who approached me, not people that I actually went out with. Let me share:

Potential Date #1: The vending machine guy. Ok sorry, this will probably sound snotty but it's my blog so whatever. I am 41 yrs old. I'm not trying to date someone who's career is stocking pork rinds and Skittles throughout the metro Atlanta area. He may be the nicest guy in the world, but that's just not what I'm looking for. I've invested a lot in my education and my career so I'm looking for the same. Sorry, but that's the truth.

PD #2: Now this is someone who I went to high school with who now lives in the area and we connected on Facebook. Again, very nice from what I remember in school. He currently has 8 kids with 5 baby-mamas. These kids range from 22 yrs old to 8 months with the 22 year old having a child himself. So basically, I would have to deal with 5 baby mamas and potentially become a grandmother without ever having given birth myself. Ugh, no thanks. Again, I'll pass.

PD #3: Now this guy is the most recent and I actually considered meeting him for coffee, that is until he told me that he couldn't drive because his license was suspended, which means I'd have to do all of the driving. Geez, this is exhausting.

Anyway, I started thinking. Seriously, is this what my future holds as far as available men? Why am I not attracting "normal" men like my Mr. Hotness. Simple. The men that I'm interested in simply are not attracted to fat women. Harsh, but true. Hell, I'm not attracted to fat men, so why should my expectations be any different. If I want to improve my dating pool, I need to improve myself. You see, there are men out there who think that because you are fat and single, you should be happy to have anyone pay you some attention. Do you really think Mr. Vending would approach someone who looked like Halle Berry? Maybe, but probably not. Unlike Halle, I'm am non-threatening. Now this is just my perception of things. I could be way off, but I don't think so.

Regardless, here I am 6 weeks later, still going strong, with no intention of stopping. Actually, I have some new motivation (not male related) that I'll blog about separately.

I think when I reach my goal and if Mr. Hotness is still single, I'll take him to Captain D's for lunch to celebrate. LOL.

The Receipt That Launched a Thousand Workouts

I never in a million years thought a 2pc fish and fries and a sweet tea from Capt. D’s would be a defining moment in my life. Up until now, I really hadn’t had any of those type moments, but boy was that about to change. Ok, let me back up. See, there’s this man at work (yeah, it’s always about a man) that I’ve been admiring from afar for a few months now. You know, the typical stuff, making small talk in the breakroom/hallways, walking past his office a few times a day to smell is cologne, mentally undressing him in my head, blowing up my computer so he’ll have to send someone over to fix it…just kidding on the last one, mentally undressing him in my head…errr, sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, back to Capt. D’s. Well, for those of you that know me, you know that I’m a sporadic dieter at best. I never seem to keep my motivation going for over a week at a time. I’ve been like this for a while now and the June 1 (the date on the receipt) wasn’t any different. I left work to go grab something to eat since as usual I didn’t bring anything from home. I decided on Capt. D’s since it was close. I go trudging inside and low and behold, who do I see standing in line? Yep, Mr. Hotness himself!!! Normally, this would have been a good thing, but it was hot outside so of course I was sweating and that would be the one farking day I didn’t’ wear any makeup so I was looking pretty much like a hot mess. I really wanted to turn around and leave but before I could, Mr. Hotness saw me and struck up a conversation. Mmmm, he smelled soooo good. I swear I don’t remember too much of what he said up until the point that he said “So, do you want to join me for lunch or are you getting yours to go?” Errrr….what!?!?!? LUNCH!! JUST THE TWO OF US!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!! MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! THE UNIVERSE IS SMILING ON ME!! TODAY I AM THE WINDSHIELD AND NOT THE BUG!!!..or so you would think. The next seconds will be forever etched into my brain. My response was, “Oh, I’d love to, but I really need to get back to the office. I’m just getting mine to go” What in the Sam Hill just happened? Who said that? Why did you just let a golden opportunity to get to know him better pass you by? You.are.a.RETARD!! Well the reason I did was “simply-complex”. The first thing I thought was “What if I can’t fit in the booth?” Yep, sad but true. My life had come to this. What's even sadder is that if you look at the receipt, you'll noticed that clearly I wasn't too devastated and digusted with myself to walk out of there with a 2 pc fish and fries dinner and a SWEET tea.

To be continued……

Leaving work and heading to the gym for workout number 37/1000.

An Open Letter to S. Phillips

It has been recently brought to my attention that someone by the name of Sarah or Sariah Phillips has been sending "naughty" emails to my two favorite blog subjects. Now while I support anyone's efforts to make their lives a little more miserable, Boo, I'm going to have to ask you to stop this tomfoolery with a quickness. You see, the problem is that I'm being mistaken for you and basically your style of writing sucks monkey balls and I can't allow myself to be associated with it. Your writing style is choppy at best and your vocabulary is limited. You seem to have a love affair with incomplete thoughts and run on sentences. You see Boo, my literary shit flows. My sentences are complete thoughts with correct punctuation. My vocabulary and grammar exceeds far beyond the average seventh grader, while yours does not. Actually in my year of editing much of the female blog subject's correspondence with the male blog subject, I pretty much recognize this style of "writing" but that's neither here nor there. I'm actually pretty damn offended by this nonsense. I'm offended that after numerous years of correspondence and blog posts that this raggedly mess is being attributed to me. Surely I've presented myself as being more educated than this. Clearly the drunken yahoo is looking at content vs. quality on this one. I'm actually shocked that his deductive reasoning skills aren't sharper. I always prided him on that. Hahahaha, in all seriousness, if the quality was good, I'd probably shut up and take the credit for being a pest, but this is so bad that I just cannot be silent. Besides, when have I ever been anonymous and private in my thoughts on this subject? That alone should be a red flag. Clearly someone's reasoning skills are amiss. The bottom line to S. Phillips is this....STOP!.... Pump your brakes!!.....Stay in your lane!!...... Recognize that sharing your thoughts through the written word is not for you!!!.... Some of us are meant to be READERS and not WRITERS...Ask for some help next time!!


OKThanxbai!

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this thing. I took a little break from blogging. I just wasn't interested in doing it anymore. Now, I'm ready to start again. I guess it was just one of life's ebbs and flows. I love how things usually tend to work. One area ebbs while the other flows. Over the past month, I've had some really good opportunities come my way both in my work, financial and personal life, so I've really been focusing on those things. I've had some "defining/not.so.good" moments as well (ugh...Captain D's and the $7 accounting mistake that cost me almost $300) but as always, you can either learn from them or let them derail you. After a mini pity party, I chose the former and things are really on track right now in several areas of my life. Sometimes I guess when we get a little too comfy in one place, we need a little kick in the pants to get us moving again. Unfortunately, I got two, straight in the ass!!!! BooooHisssssBoooooo!!!! Anyway, I'm in the process of implementing some of those opportunities so I definitely want to document my progress in my blog.

My new favorite song...

I'm loving this song. I have it in a continuous loop as one of my Ipod playlists.

Homemade Apple Butter

Mmm..this is so good! I made a batch yesterday. It takes a little longer to cook than I'm used to but to me it was worth it. I'll post the recipe as I found it, but I added more spices to suit my own tastes. Next time I'm going to try it with one of the flavored unsweetened applesauces like maybe peach or pear. I had some on a bagel but I'm thinking it would be really good on some egg white french toast.

I was able to get 20 tbsps from my batch but this will probably vary depending on how thick you like your apple butter. I'll post the macros for the entire batch and then it can be divided by the number of tbsp you get.

Homemade Apple Butter

1 (14-oz) can unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup (2-oz) apple juice - I used juice boxes (Eden's Harvest) so I wouldn't have to buy a large bottle of apple juice

1/4 c. Splenda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 40-50 minutes or until thick and smooth, stirring occasionally.

After cooling, refrigerate in a closed container for up to 3 weeks.

Total calories: 198

Total carbs: 52