The Cardboard Box Diet: Week 5

This was a good week. I'm enjoying the last of my time off. I officially go back to work next Thursday but will be spending time there all next week (to get used to getting up EARLY again. Hold me.)

• Weigh-in: 15lbs to go - 10lbs lost! I weighed on Sunday maybe(can't remember) and noticed a 3lb drop. The another pound went this afternoon. I'm at a new low for me!

• Exercise/Physical Activity completed: Exercise on Monday and Wednesday. Missed Tuesday due to storms. Planning to go today. Also worked (slaved) in my classroom for a total of 5hrs on Monday/Tuesday - lots of physical stuff so I'm calling it exercise.

• Average Sleep per night: about 8-9 hours - I had one night that was short and a few nights with a bed-hogging 9 year old - so those weren't quality sleep nights.  But one night I got 10 hours and yesterday I took an almost-2 hour nap! :)

• Splurge/Guilty Pleasure: I'm enjoying dinner daily and sometimes lunch too. Mostly because I'm trying to make the juice in the freezer LAST until pay-day. I'm allowing myself little splurges too - as long as I control the portions. I'll have to clamp down on that when I go back to school because I tend to eat my stress.

This was a dinner. Lactose free chocolate milk, pineapple-orange-grapefruit juice, apple,
and granola-peanut butter-raisin  dip. I gave the pizza to the kids. I was scared of it making me sick.

• Success story: I gave in and went to the bags in the closet - and came up with 5 pairs of shorts that fit! I'm over the moon. I was so worried that they would be too snug and I'd have nothing to wear.  Also at school on Tuesday, a teacher friend I don't see often commented on my weight loss!!! *happy dance*

• Recipe(s): Today I'm sharing a portion control tip. The kids were itching for brownies on Monday night. I decided to cater to that - but I made the brownies in a muffin pan. 1 standard box made 12 generous "cupcakes" but I could have made them smaller (and made more) pretty easily.  I also could have used my mini-muffin pan (if I could have found it.)  This worked well. The brownies would have been super easy to stick in a baggie in the freezer - I might have to do that in the future.

• Photo: I'm leaving you with a silly picture of my girls. They had their bathing suits on and were goofing around in my classroom on Monday. (We went straight from school to the POOL. Awesome.)

The Cardboard Box Diet: Week 4

I've dug myself a hole this week. A rather large one. (More on that in the pictures part.)

• Weigh-in: 19lbs to go - 6lbs lost! Same as last week. {Side note - back in May I weighed myself on the school scale and was the heaviest I've ever been. Today on my school trip, I weighed again (in almost the same clothes) and I'm 11.5 pounds lighter! Seeing that is REAL motivation that even though I've had a rough few weeks, I'm better off NOW than I was THEN.}

• Exercise/Physical Activity completed: Last Thursday, water exercise. Tuesday of this week, water exercise. Today, water exercise. (Barring any pop-up thunderstorms - the YMCA closes the INDOOR pool. Crazy. Never heard of such a thing.)

• Average Sleep per night: about 8-9 hours - I am so so so happy to be home and in my own bed again. I've had a few rough nights but I'm treasuring sleeping in while I can.  (My grade level team is meeting at school at least 2 days next week. Time to start getting up early-ish.)

• Splurge/Guilty Pleasure: Too many to name - most recently a box of Junior Mints and a Diet Sierra Mist when I took the kids to see The Hunger Games yesterday.

• Success story: MANY of my pairs of shorts are obscenely too big. I might try some old pairs on this weekend - or I might take in the waist of the pairs I've got now. Can't decide. (Related to this - wouldn't it be FANTASTIC if they put adjustable waistbands in adult clothes too?? That would totally solve this problem - and if you bloat a big, NBD, let it out! Someone get on this!)

• Recipe(s): I am still juicing for the most part. I've started eating some meals (or parts of meals) focusing on the veggies. I simply miss the act of chewing (and the SOCIAL part of preparing and eating food together.) I'm trying to make good choices and focus on PORTION CONTROL. Also, I was finally able to find some mason jars for the freezer - so I made a HUGE batch of breakfast juice and a smallish batch of lunch juice. See the pictures below.

• Photo: Here are some pictures from my week. If you follow me on Twitter, I've been telling about my adventures in rearranging almost the entire downstairs of my house. Here's what I've done (and the MESS that is left behind. OMG, What have I DONE?!?!?!)

Our new entryway! This antique wardrobe is a family piece. It used to be in the living room (where 11 year old's computer is now.) I'm excited to use it here - shelves inside for stuff - but it is HIDDEN!!! YAY!

This table (minus the pics) used to be our entryway table. In theory, the kids' book bags were supposed to go on the shelf. Never happened. Putting in hooks for them now. Not sure if this will stay here or not but it works for now.

This is across the "library" from the white table above. 11 year old kid had her computer where the white table is. This empty space is where 9 year old kid had her computer.

Better shot of the "library" (named for the beautiful build in bookcases. The TV and couch are also leaving. This room will have a small TV (location TBD), my rocking chair (above, hidden by the plaid body pillow) and my husband's favorite chair. A room for relaxing (and enjoying the MONSTER a/c unit in the window!)

11 year old and her computer in it's new home on one side of the living room. (I'm interrupting her Netflix. Although this is the look I get most days. *sigh*)

The 9 year old and her games. She's across a very large (20+ft) living room from her sister. Hoping this helps settle some of the "tight quarters" issues we had in the old computer room.

The rest of the living room. The ping pong table will go over toward 11 year old. The TV will go in its' place. (And all the toys and CRAP will get picked up!)

The couch will go back on this wall (where it used to be.) This table will go in the library under the window. Might put a small TV on it (or maybe on the white table.) Can't decide.

This is a new-to-us cabinet that my parents' gave us. We set this up last Friday - and this is what really got us talking about doing "something" with the downstairs.

 I forgot to take pictures of my bedroom - there was a change in there too. But it'll have to wait til next week. Short story - got rid of my TV, flipped the dresser around to hug the foot of the bed (and hold the computer for watching Netflix in bed!) I'll grab a picture later when I've swept and folded clothes :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

The Cardboard Box Diet: Week 3

Here we are, another week gone! I spent Friday-Wednesday in Atlanta visiting my parents, so this week will be a bit different.

• Weigh-in: 19lbs to go - 6lbs lost! I only lost 1lb this week - I was not exercising and was eating solid food for dinner daily.

• Exercise/Physical Activity completed: Last Friday - water exercise for 60 minutes. Lots of walking while shopping :)

• Average Sleep per night: about 7 hours - and it really wasn't quality sleep. The beds at my parents' house are waaaay too hard for my liking. I'm happy to say I slept from 1am to 10:45am in my soft comfy bed at home last night! :)

• Splurge/Guilty Pleasure: Dinners with the whole crew while on vacation. Brownies, banana bread, Trader Joe's Chocolate Chip Brownie & Oat bars.

• Success story: Shopping for clothes - being able to come down a size in some things, being able to buy shorts that are slightly tight now - and know that in a few weeks they'll fit perfectly. Being able to put away a few of the pairs of shorts that have gotten ridiculously loose in the last few weeks!

• Recipe(s): I did very little cooking. My wonderful mom did it all. I mixed up a box of brownies one night. And made banana bread (from here) another night - it was ok, but not great. My plan of freezing my juices worked FANTASTICALLY and I'll be doing that when school starts up again (in 3 weeks!)

• Photo: Here are pictures of a few of the new outfits I've gotten. I'm really excited for school to start so I can wear them!

Came from an Atlanta-area Goodwill. Was new with the tags! It has spaghetti straps which is why I'm wearing the white shrug. Has wonderful flower details at the hem. (I'll try to get a better picture when I wear it for the first time.) Not sure about shoes for this, I've got several options.

This is my favorite! AND - it is a MEDIUM!!!! Which I haven't worn in FOREVER. The black band under the bust ties into a bow at the back. Very comfy. I'll wear it with my black ballet flats. This also came from an Atlanta-area Goodwill store.

I bought this a few weeks ago at a local Goodwill. I adore it because of the ruffles and because it has POCKETS! So rare on a cute dress.

I got some amazing tops and a few pairs of shorts too. I'll get pics of those as I wear them.  I know we aren't supposed to get "new" clothes on the diet - but it is tradition when I go visit my parents. Their Goodwill stores are amazing (a benefit of living near a major metro area, I guess) and we always find great items.  The only things I really need now are new socks and a new pair of sneakers for school. (Which we won't think about starting in 3 weeks!)

I hope everyone had a great week! I'm excited to get back to 3 juices a day and 4 days a week of exercising. Vacation is fun but I love my routines :)

The Cardboard Box Diet - Week 2

What a crazy week! I'm finally seeing results and am super motivated. I'm also preparing to go out of town to visit my parents. I'm wondering how to keep juicing without looking like a crazy person.  Lots to think about this week.

• Weigh-in: 20lbs to go - 5lbs lost!

• Exercise/Physical Activity completed: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday (today): 60 minute water exercise class. Last Friday: 30 minutes on the Gazelle (water class was cancelled)

• Average Sleep per night: about 9 hours - have given up the early morning class in favor of sleeping in. I also like the instructor of the afternoon exercise class (and the morning instructor was fired. Oops.)

• Splurge/Guilty Pleasure: Steak, twice baked potato, corn, strawberry shortcake on Sunday (our 4th of July celebration), several (ok, 4) donuts Wednesday night (new tradition - donuts and fireworks!)

• Success story: Being down 5lbs. I'm already seeing a difference in how some of my clothes fit!

• Recipe(s): My favorite juice - Spinach-apple. I run a boatload (2 big bags) of baby spinach through my juicer, mixed in with about 8 granny smith apples. I usually mix this juice with something else - more apple juice, pineapple juice (OMG - YUM!), and tomorrow with orange. In a crunch I've used store bought apple juice, but I usually make those juices too. The next time I make a batch, I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the process - it is so fun!

• Photo: We had a surprise when we woke up Sunday morning! A big branch off a black walnut tree had fallen during the night. And we had no storms, no wind... finally too many walnuts or crazy squirrels on it I guess!  Thankfully even though it was leaning on the power/tv/phone lines, it didn't pull any down.  Even better, since we rent this house, we didn't have to pay for solve the problem! A call to the landlord on Sunday evening and on Tuesday morning, a crew came out! After looking at the situation, they just took the entire tree down. Which has opened a whole new can of worms! (We need curtains in the kitchen since we've lost all that shade.)

Hope everyone else had a wonderful week! (And if you have any ideas on how to manage juicing when I travel to my parents' leave them in the comments!)