Tis the Season to be Busy

We are less than a week away from Christmas Eve/Day which may explain why I haven't updated in nearly 2 weeks. Is it just me or did this Christmas season FLY by?? It was like Thanksgiving happened and now BOOM Christmas!

I've been so busy with cookie swaps, shopping, wrapping, a little more decorating, attending Christmas events and keeping up with the everyday tasks (ie. work and laundry) that blogging totally slipped my mind. However, running here there and yonder and being so busy is why Christmas Calories don't count! :)

I wanted to share a few things I've been up to:

We braved the elements to watch the town Christmas parade. It was the nastiest day! Freezing, drizzling mess!! But I don't miss the parade... it's just not Christmas if you don't go! I had on multiple layers and the tailgate umbrellas were the trick!

 

This is my 3rd and FINAL tree this year! It has all my "old" ornaments on it. Some from childhood and some snowman from my tree I had when I was in high school. It's always fun to unwrap the ornaments and remember where they came from. I did get the star at Walmart, made a new bow topper and the stocking was a Carolina Pottery find when I bought the other ornaments for the living room tree. I am going to be so sad when these trees have to come down on the 30/31st. I love coming home every evening and turning them on! It just makes the house so spirited!  

 

Yesterday at work we had our Christmas lunch and exchanged gifts. I made these cute little treats for everyone in my office. It was a just a little something to spread some Christmas cheer! M&Ms and Jesus... what more do you need?

 

Finally, I guess this is our "official" Christmas picture of 2013. We haven't taken any others.. maybe this weekend when we are celebrating Christmas with my family we will get another one. Hopefully outside... anyways, Merry Christmas! Love, Morgan & William

 

Stay Lovely...

5 on Friday

Wow! We finally made it Friday! Anybody else think this week has just dragged? Maybe it was because last week was such a short week because of the holiday. Anyways... really glad the weekend is on the horizon! These weekends in December seem to fly by with all the holiday happenings!

We are headed up to Rock Hill tomorrow to spend time with my college friends and attend our 8th Annual Christmas Party! Woah! Can't believe it's been that long since we started this tradition. This year we are having a cookie swap and I'm making 2 different kinds. If they turn out I'll post them next week! :)
Here is a picture from our first 3 Christmas parties back in college! I love this. The first year was in a dorm, the second year was in an apartment, and the third year was in a house! Love these friends so much!

I thought I'd link up today with A. Liz Adventures for 5 on Friday. There is just so much I'm loving this week that it's hard to narrow it down to just 5 things! :)

One: All of the Christmas music playing!! I have a country christmas station on Pandora that I have tuned to perfection that I listen to most of the day at work. In the car I'm listening to SiriusXM Holly station. And occasionally at work/home I listen to specific albums on Spotify. Some of my all time favorite holiday albums are....

 

 

a. Mariah Carey... a classic tradition for my generation. Best. Christmas. Album. Ever.

b. Celine Dion... yes! I love her and you can not deny that voice!

c. Lady Antebellum... I bought this album a couple years ago and it has some of my new country versions of classic Christmas songs on it, plus some originals.

d. Ally McBeall Christmas... I've had this since I was in my early teens. I loved the show and Vonda Shepard has some great original Christmas songs on here. 

Two: This.



This is the BEST Christmas smell ever! I love my Scentsy smells, but sometimes they are just too expensive and I knew I would need to burn this smell A LOT for the next month. It smells JUST like a real tree, it makes my artificial trees come to life! :) I burn my warmers at night when all my trees are lit and turn them off before bed. When I come home the next day at 5:30 after work and open my door it smells like Christmas tree, even 24 hours later! Can't beat it for $2.00. Seriously.

Three: Holiday TV Specials

Monday night we watched the CMA Christmas show, Wednesday night we watch the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting, and Thursday night we wa
ched The Sound of Music LIVE on NBC.

 

Carrie was Fabulous. That is all.

Four: That I found out I have 2 more days off during the holidays. My last day for 2013 is December 20. So thankful and blessed to have so much time off to enjoy with my family and rest to be refreshed for the start of the new year. It was such a nice surprise. The past two years I've had minimal time off during the holidays. Again, I can not express how much I love my job and where I work!!

 

Five: The top of my Christmas trees. Again, not to brag but I think I did a bang up job! Seriously, I should do it professionally! 

 

I really can't stop staring at them.

Have a lovely weekend! 

 

Whole30 Wrap up & Unwrapping Christmas

Let's briefly discuss the end of my Whole30 challenge....
Towards the end I got real slack. With the holiday it was just near to impossible to stick to it. I integrated back in some bread and cheese Thanksgiving day and about 20minutes after eating I was regretting it. So that has led me to the conclusion that gluten and dairy are bad for me! I haven't done too great this week either, been super busy and haven't had time to go to the store. I finally got that pizza I'd been craving for a month and that too made me feel awful. So again, bread and cheese must be awful for me. Which is truly tragic because they are two of my favorite foods! Bummer. In the 30 days I lost 7lbs. I think I would have lost more if I had exercised everyday, and not let go towards the end. That being said I'm going to get back on the horse during the week and then because it's the holidays not be so hard on myself on the weekends since we have so many events etc. to attend. When January comes however, it is on! Me + WHOLE30 + the gym = skinny by May! Hooray!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday! Will and I both had Wednesday before off, we didn't do much. In fact after we ran a few errands he took me over to my parents and I stayed there for the majority of the day helping to cook some of the yummies we ate Thursday. It was nice to spend time with my parents and gmas. Then on Thursday everybody came to my parents for the big meal. We ate and then sat around. It was nice and relaxing!

Here is a pic of my immediate family...


Somehow Will & my other gma got left out of this picture... I really didn't take any pics that day. I have ONE decent one of Will & me, but I look gross so it's not making it on the blog! :)

After Will & I recovered from our big meal, we headed out to Walmart for some Black Friday shopping on Thursday evening. It really wasn't that bad and I got everything I went for & more! Christmas shopping is almost complete! We got there at 5:40 and got out by 7:30. I love our tradition of picking one or two stores to tackle. We don't go to shop though, we go with specific items to get and we like to see how quickly we can get in and out! I know I was "part of the problem" by shopping on Thursday, BUT because it wasn't the middle of the night and people were full and happy the crowd didn't seem to be too mean or aggravated while shopping.

Friday, Will had to go back to work and my parents took the gmas home. I actually had a nice relaxing day mostly to myself. I cleaned my entire house and even cleaned out some cabinets and closets. Made a Goodwill donation pile and found a few items I'd been missing. I mainly cleaned the house because Will's parents were coming to visit for the weekend, and I needed to make the house overly presentable. Plus I wanted to clean up all the usual clutter so I could drag out my Christmas decor! Friday night we had "thanksgiving" with Will's parents (ground sirloin burgers, baked/sweet potatoes, & green beans.)

Saturday morning Will helped me get my nutcrackers out and all the other decorations before he and his dad left for the USC/Clemson game. Will's mom and I started putting out some decorations and then I realized I needed a few things before I could continue so we headed to Carolina Pottery. For those of you who aren't from SC and don't know about it, it's like a christmas explosion of garland, lights, decorations, ornaments, trinkets, etc. Not sure if you remember a couple posts back I mentioned I had a vision for what I wanted my tree to look like, well I think I achieved it!

 

I got ribbon, deco-mesh, a few ornaments and some more doo-dads to stick in the top of my tree. I LOVE IT!! I couldn't have done it without Will's moms' help! She purchased a few items for it that really set it off! I can't quite looking at it! :)

 

This is a close up of the top! After we went to Carolina Pottery we went and ate lunch at a new restaurant in my town called Chicken Salad Chick. They have about a dozen different kinds of chicken salad. It was SO delicious!! They also had yummy broccoli salad as a side! I will definitely be going back!

Finally we rounded out the trip by going to Walmart! I had some odd & end type items to get there to complete my tree. The big balls on my tree were at Walmart and they were cheaper than ANY at Carolina Pottery. I also got a few things for my "girly tree." 

Let me explain this "girly tree." If you notice the pot it's in is pink with white polka dots. I got it from Victoria Secret the Christmas I worked there. I had to work the day after christmas starting at 4am and we had to clear out anything that was Christmas before the store opened. They were going to throw this out, I asked if I could have it and they said sure. I got off work about 10am and I carried the tree through the crowded mall only to get to my car and realize that the traffic was horrendous. I waited and hour to get out of the mall parking lot. Then I went to Target and bought bright colored ornaments for it! I took this tree to college my Jr. and Sr. years for my apartment. I love this tree, but this year I decided to give it a face lift! I haven't put it up in 2 years. Last year I was just too busy with grad school. I bought some new ribbon for it, the deco-mesh and some stuff to stick out the top. It couldn't have turned out any better!

 

Here is a close up of the topper! 

Here are a few of my 45+ Nutcrackers on display!

Finally here is a picture of my center piece. I'm so proud of it! I got the idea from Pinterest, of course. These are REAL antique milk glass vases from my grandmother. The branches came from Walmart, but I think they make a nice minimal centerpiece. I'm not a fan of garland on the table and I don't like centerpieces that obstruct the view of people sitting at the table. I can't wait for my gma to see how I used them. I think I'm going to use them again in January with real brown branches come out of them. Love love love!!

 

Here is a look at the outside decorations!! 

 

It's a Christmas explosion at my house! I have one more tree to put up. Will's mom got a new tree and is giving me her old one so I can put the ornaments that normally go on my living room tree somewhere. The majority of those ornaments are snowmen so that tree may actually stay out until January.. not sure yet! :) I really enjoyed decorating this year even if I went a little over the top! I could seriously make a side job out of decorating for other people. Maybe next year... Have a great rest of the week!

Stay lovely...

Weekend Round-up

Happy Monday Lovelies...
It is definitely a Monday! However, it's a 2 day work week for me so I'm trying NOT to have the Monday blues. After all this week has SO much in store! Not only is it a 2 day work week (for the first time for me since 2008), my grandmas are already in town, the rest of the family is coming Thursday for yummy food, then shopping, putting up Christmas decorations and a rivalry football game! Seriously, what more could you ask for in a week? The first week of December is going to be a let down after all those shenanigans!

This weekend was what I would call productive! Friday after I got off work I met the parentals at the mall because mom called me at 4:30 and said that Belk was having a huge sale on boots. This was an acutual phone conversation with my dad when I called to say I was on my way...
Me: On my way to meet y'all at Belk to find boots
Dad: Well they have a ton and they are on sale so you better get your booty over here!
#thingsdadssay

Unfortunately, boot shopping proved to be unsuccessful. Between Friday night and today at lunch I have probably tried on 35-45 pairs of boots and NONE fit! I have been everywhere in the Columbia area. I have tried on wide calf boots, stretchy boots etc. nothing! So frustrating to have big calves. I was at one shoe store and the MALE clerk said he felt sorry for the women with small calves because the boots gap and are too bit and don't look right. I shot him a look and said "well, sir, you are a man you don't really get to have an opinion on that." I realize that was a bit harsh but at this point I had been to so many stores and tried on about 15 pair.. I really didn't need his commentary on the situation, just please direct me to the wide calf boot area.
This is what happens to me:

I think I'm going to write a song called "Fat Calf Girls" instead of "Fat Bottom Girls..." Maybe when I lose some weight the weight will come from the calves too... #wishfulthinking

I digress... moving on to the more positive portion of the weekend. I was productive around the house Saturday morning while Will worked. I cleaned the kitchen, straighten several cabinets in there, cleaned out a cabinet in the guest bath, reorganized my sweater storage, got a hook for my purses in the kitchen and made the pinterest project with shower curtain rings on a hanger to store my scarves. Loving it! Just a few more things to re-organize before I can pull out the Christmas decor!!

Sunday we went to church and then afterward had a Sunday Funday at the Columbia Art Musuem. We went to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. She is extraordinary American photographer that has taken pictures of iconic images and pictures of our culture. The exhibit was about her pilgrimage into photography as a profession. This picture of Niagra Falls was the start of it all...



We also walked around the other galleries which displayed various pieces of art dating all the way back to the 1300s. Incredible that they still exist much less in great condition. One of my favorite works was this chandelier... it took 10 years to make and it was made from 1880-1890. I mean seriously, it's made of glass and it's been around since the late 1800s crazy! It's absolutely stunning in person!

 

Our museum also has an original Chihuly hanging in the foyer. It is STUNNING! I love how it looks like it's on fire!  

After the museum we took a brisk walk down a block to the Mast General store and got some sugar free candy, well Will did. I got my favorite grapefruit gummies. So delish. I had a few, but not the whole bag so I'm not counting that as a cheat! :)

Speaking of Whole30, I did pretty decent over the weekend but not as good as I had been doing. Still eating lots of fruit and protein, but I had some cheese this weekend. It was delicious. I guess I fell off the wagon a bit... but I'm right back on today. I will weigh tomorrow morning, I forgot to this morning and when I remembered I was already dressed. I plan to stick to it for the most part this week except on Thursday... I mean Thanksgiving is only once a year.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday week! I'm certainly looking forward to the festivities, but not the COLD! Stay warm and stay safe in this crazy winter weather that is sweeping the country!

Stay lovely...
MG 

Gleeful it's the Weekend

Friday! Made it. It's been a week for sure! So much so I have NO food porn to share. Oops! I swear I have been sticking with Whole30 diet though! To prove it I'll continue to list what I ate, again, accountability!

Tuesday Day 19:
Dinner: Had the mango chille chicken at Chili's. It was pretty good, I subbed out the rice for sweet potato fries. I didn't eat them all either.

Wednesday Day 20:
Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled & ham, grapefruit
Lunch: Left over chicken from Tuesday night, turkey burger patty, fruit
Dinner: Tomato Soup & Asparagus (I realize that this isn't exactly Whole30, but I didn't eat the whole can and I was craving it) there are worse things I could have eaten.

Thursday Day 21:
Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled & ham, grapefruit
Lunch: We had our Thanksgiving lunch at work. I was pretty strong. I had collards, green beans, a deviled egg, ham and  turkey. I had a little bit of a bite of pumpkin cake. This is like the first bit of pure sugar I've had. I paid for it all afternoon, my stomach was like WTF mate?
Dinner: Was still full from lunch so I had an apple before babysitting, then I got the munchies while babysitting, but she had some cashews so I had that.

Friday Day 22:
Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled & ham, grapefruit
Lunch: left over collards, turkey patty, apple & mandarines
Dinner: I'm making a surprise chicken dish for Will to eat, it's not Whole30, so I will just bake me a piece of chicken. Broccoli and some fruit for the sides.

I won't be weighing again until Monday morning. I'm going to have a low-key weekend of chores around the house and getting it ready for company next week and putting out Christmas decorations. Plus I don't want to spend my days off next week cleaning/organizing. I'm actually getting really excited to decorate for the holidays!
Last year since I was in graduate school my decorations basically just got slung up and I didn't go all out. I wanted to, but didn't have the time, energy or will to care. This year is different! Except I need to find a money tree so I can afford to buy some more decorations for my tree. In my head I have a picture of what I want my tree to look like, but don't know how to achieve it cheaply!
I have started shopping... in fact, I'm DONE with my 3 cousins gifts and I think I'm done with Will's gifts, unless I find something he just can't live without. I am going to attempt to tackle black Friday shopping on Thursday at Walmart at 6pm. I really hate to shop on that day, but they have several things that are on my list to get for gifts at great prices so I really can't not go!
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend if for nothing else to know that next week is a short week & my favorite holiday!! What can I say... I LOVE to eat! :)

It's Friday so that means we need to get on to #backthatazzup! I have been watching Glee on netflix from the beginning. It was one of those shows I always wanted to watch, but it came on at the same time as another show I watched and I couldn't take on another show. (Obviously this was before I had a DVR, netflix or HuLu) Anyways, I love it! The story lines are cheesy (mmm cheese) but the music is great! So I thought I'd share one of my favorite songs from the show. I have actually been a fan of this song since RENT, but the duet from Rachel and Mercedes renewed my love for it! :)

 

Stay lovely...

6 pounds down & a zipped skirt

We had a busy but yet, relaxing weekend.
Friday night I babysat my boys. Being in their house with lots of yummy snacky foods and tons of Halloween candy was tough! I resisted and ate my spaghetti squash.. bleh.

Saturday morning after a slow wake up, we went to Waffle House (at Will's request.) I wanted a waffle SO bad but again, I resisted! I ate 3 eggs and 3 slices of bacon. It was yummy, but waffle house is always yummy. They really do have the best eggs and even if I've had eggs in some way shape or form for the last 19 days, these were the best. Maybe because I didn't have to cook them! :)

 

After breakfast we made a mad dash through the dollar store to get items to pack our shoe box for Operation Christmas Child. Somehow I let it slip up on me this year and so it was a bit last minute, but it got done! We chose to do a little girl age 2-4. I found some of the cutest things to put in my box for a pre-schooler. The bad blogger that I am, didn't take any pictures of my box. :( However, we included: a coloring book with crayons, 3 toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, a full size towel, a bath book, play food/dish set, and of course a doll. Precious! I know these boxes reach millions of children around and bless their Christmas. I love that something so simple means so much.

 When we got home from running errands, I got busy prepping our food for tailgate! So busy in fact that I forgot to eat lunch so I had an apple. When we got to tailgate I unpacked our healthy snacks.. cashews & grapes to munch on. Then we grilled our burgers and warmed up our veggies and potatoes. It was a delicious meal! Tailgating with class I tell 'ya!

USC won the game, it was close as FL clearly had USCs number and the refs made some horrible calls. I speak so highly of the Gamecocks this week... forget that come Nov. 30!

Sunday we went to church, I skipped bfast. Ran out of time getting ready! Oops! After church we went to Lizard's Thicket. It's a local country cookin' type of restaurant. Sounds awful, but is decent. I had pot roast, collards and green beans and I may or may not have had a piece of cornbread. #cheat

 

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed binge watching our favorite shows, Nashville, Grey's and Parenthood. It was nasty and rainy outside and it felt amazing to ignore house work etc. and just spend time together being lazy. I also had a headache and felt crummy so that made it even more excusable!

Sunday night I became a fruitarian and had an apple and grapes for dinner while I watched Glee.

Monday: I weighed. Again, I know I'm not suppose to. BUT it's so encouraging and reminds me why I'm doing this in the first place. DOWN SIX LBs since day 1!!! So exciting!!
Breakfast: Eggs and OJ
Lunch: This delicious salad from Subway. 

 

Dinner: Hamburger steak, mushrooms, sweet potato.

Tuesday- Day 19:

Breakfast: 2 poached eggs + 2 pieces of ham

Lunch: turkey burger (patty only) + sweet potato

Dinner: I have a dinner meeting at Chilli's so hopefully I will be able to find something. Stay tuned.

Cravings:

Still craving cheese like a mad woman. Seriously, would probably kill for it at this point. 

 

Look how happy this little mouse is eating his yummy cheese. In 11 days I will be this mouse!

I'm also still craving bagel bites, or really any pizza for that matter. Probably b/c it contains cheese.

Also last night I had a craving for chocolate (for the first time) I blame this on female issues... I may have caved with a fun size dark chocolate. Oops. I couldn't help it, the hormones won out!

 

This morning was the highlight however. I put on, zipped and I am comfortably wearing a skirt that would not zip just 26 days ago! I wanted to wear said skirt when I went to see the local production of Grease with my parents and Will October 25th and it wouldn't fit. I have it on today, it looks great and I'm comfortable! Woo hoo! *Insert happy dance here* Although it probably looks like this...

 

Oh Kim... your hiney is so big... bless. I feel ya.

Stay lovely...

MG

Whole30 and Weekend Update

I realize that it's Thursday and I'm just getting in an update! I've been busy this week and haven't had time to blog! I've been too busy cooking... more on that in a bit.

The weekend in Rock Hill was so much fun! We got there about 8 Friday night and ate dinner with my friend, she fixed a healthy dinner of terriyaki baked chicken & stir fry veggies. I appreciate her being so accommodating! :)
Saturday- Day 9: 
Breakfast: scrabbled eggs & ham
Lunch: tailgate! below is our table of goodies! My friends made low-country boil, which I didn't eat, but we had plenty to eat with munchie food! The university also gave Chic-fil-a to alumni.. I gave mine to Will because I'm the best girlfriend ever! :)

Dinner: Went to White Horse and I cheated a bit and had the apple sticks that I bragged so much about! It was only b/c I haven't eaten them in 5 years and probably won't for quite sometime. I'm ok with my decision to cheat a bit. I had a hamburger steak and sweet potato for my actual dinner. Yum!

Here is a pic of Katie (to my left) and Jessica (to my right)... this is one of the last pictures w/o babies! Crazy! This time next year there will be 2 in this picture! So amazing!!

I went and visited my sorority tent.. and talked to some other alums that were there and some current sisters. None of my close sisters were there this weekend, but can't pass up a pic with the letters! :)

Will & I after the game! We won! Which is always good!

Sunday- Day 10: 
Breakfast: eggs and ham
Lunch: we went to Katie's in-laws and had lunch after church. I didn't want to be rude so I had to eat. We had country fried steak (I scraped all the flour off), carrots and green beans. I'm sure it had butter in it and other things I shouldn't have but I didn't eat much, just enough to be full.
Dinner: On the way back to town we grabbed Subway. I had their new double chopped chicken salad. VERY GOOD! & They have a new balsamic vinaigrette dressing! Delish!

Monday- Day 11:
Breakfast: again eggs (poached) and ham plus a banana

Lunch: Will had the day off in observance of Veteran's day and actually ended up on my side of town where I work near lunch time so he took me to Hu Hot. I ate there about a week ago, but I can get meat and veggies and go light on the sauce so that was perfect!!
Dinner: We grilled out! Filet's, sauteed mushrooms and peppers and a sweet potato! It's meals like this that I can't believe I'm "dieting." Honestly, I'm not, I'm just eating healthy!

Tuesday- Day 12:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs & ham
Lunch: I had brought left over chicken soup from last week, but I couldn't eat it. So I kinda snacked through lunch. I had some cashews, grapes, apple and the left over peppers and mushrooms from the night before. Not the best lunch but I couldn't stomach the soup!
Dinner: I attempted to roast chicken and broccoli, and cook a butternut squash. Yes, it look appetizing, but my chicken was dry, the broccoli was salty and the squash tasted disgusting. I'd never had butternut before and I won't be having it again. Ick!

Wednesday- Day 13:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs, ham, banana
Lunch: left over dry roasted chicken and sweet potato, apple
Snack: raw peppers
Dinner: "Spaghetti" I made the sauce from scratch, it was decent! I added ground turkey and mushrooms then we ate it over spaghetti squash. It was edible and I have it for lunch again today. It made a TON! This is probably what we will eat Sunday after church.

 

Let me take the opportunity on Day 14 to share my thoughts and feelings about Whole30. 

Here are the ways I can tell it's working:

• I go to sleep easy, I sleep like a baby, and I wake up refreshed and ready to go!
• My acne has cleared up significantly. Face, back etc. I can tell a HUGE difference in my skin. Now, I know it has to do with the diet, but not specifically the foods I'm eating. I've only been drinking water and unsweet tea so that always helps skin and I haven't eaten greasy fast-food processed food in 14 days. Also a major factor in the cause of acne. 
• Energy. I don't have an afternoon slump. And this weekend when I needed to stay up late it was hard, but I was able to w/o falling asleep on the couch! :)

Here are ways I can tell it's not working the way I want it to:

• At last check (which I know you are suppose to check at all) on Monday I weighed 4lbs less than on day 1. I'm weighing every 5 days, so let's hope another 2lbs is gone on Saturday morning. Although I haven't had time to walk/exercise this week. Too busy flipping cooking! Ugh! 
• My pants are freaking tighter than last week. I have on a pair of pants I had on last Wednesday or Thursday and the buttoned, to day they are uncomfortably buttoned. #ridiculous Although the guide/timeline says this is expected until sometime next week. #hurryupandpass
• Cheese. This diet needs cheese. I'm dying w/o it. Last night that spaghetti would have been excellent with a little sprinkled Parmesan, instead it was just so-so. Cheese WILL BE the first thing I add back in! 

It's exciting to know I'm nearly half way through! Unfortunately the later half of the month is where most of the poor food choices could come into play, ie. office Thanksgiving lunch, Thanksgiving with family and then the BIG rivalry football game on the last day of the month! I intend on keeping this up after the 30 days have passed. But just not as strict. I'm definitely going to continue to stay away from fast-food/processed food and keep drinking only water. I haven't even had unsweetened tea since Monday! So I think I'm over the caffeine withdrawal.

I have another tailgate to attend this weekend, but it's just me and Will and we are taking a portable grill so more hamburger steak it is! :) If it weren't for beef, eggs, sweet potatoes and fruit I'd be starving 90% of the time! :) Have a great rest of the week... I'll probably have a song to #backthatazzup to tomorrow!
Stay lovely...

 

Go Eagles Go!

It's nearly the weekend & we have an exciting one on deck, but first let's get this Whole30 update out of the way!

Whole30 is still going great! I had so much energy last night I stayed up until 11:45 cooking, cleaning and packing! The only time I sat on the sofa was to fold clothes! Yay! For being productive!
Day 6-Wednesday:
Breakfast: Egg Mc-Nuthin, Fruit, Unsweet Tea
Lunch: Chicken soup (again), g-beans, apple
Snack: Banana & Cashews
Dinner: Tillapia, Rutabaga, Acorn Squash and Cabbage

Day 7- Thursday:
Breakfast: Egg McNuthin, 3 Scrambled Eggs, 3oz OJ
Lunch: Wendy's Apple Pecan Salad (picked off blue cheese), Unsweet Tea
Snack: Banana & Cashews
Dinner: Steak, Sauteed Mushrooms and Peppers, leftover Rutabaga

I mean look at all that delishiousness!! Am I really on a diet??

We are off to Rock Hill, SC for my Alma Mater's Homecoming! We don't have football but basketball & since I graduated they have moved homecoming festivities from February to November. Not really sure why other than now students/alumni can tailgate for this game and for obvious reasons November has better weather!

Obviously my friends are not on a diet so I have already had to plan out & cook some of my meals for the weekend!
Breakfast: Egg Mc-Nuthin's & banana (I really hope I don't get tired of them!)
Tailgate: Fruit- grapes, apples, mandarin oranges, pineapple
           Veggies- green, orange, yellow, red peppers, carrots, broccoli, guacamole to dip it in
After game dinner: We are going to one of my favorite local restaurants that I ate at EVERY weekend in college (probably why I'm now on a diet!) It's called White Horse and they literally have everything on their menu. I can get a steak and a sweet potato and salad so I'm good! They have a famous appetizer that I love called Apple Sticks and they are like fried apple sauce dipped in whip cream. Unreal. So good. To cheat or not cheat?? It's apple....
Sunday I will have the same breakfast as usual, but not sure of the plan after church. At least most places have salad as an option so I think I'll be ok!

Last night I got crafty and made this cute pin to wear to tailgate! I LOVE it! Sometimes I forget how creative I love to be and don't have time for it. This little project only took me about 45 minutes to make, but then I made a second one for my BFF and that one only took me 20min. It's a perfect addition to my outfit for tomorrow's game!

                                         

It is #backthatazzup Friday over at I Wore Yoga Pants so I will post a song that has been my jam this fall and Miranda and Keith performed it LIVE for the first time on the CMAs the other night! I LOVE this song!! The lyrics and story don't really apply to me, but I love the beat!

 

Wishing everyone a safe and lovely weekend...