Hey Bloggies, its update time

Ya ya ya, tis been awhile! I figured that since it is the first of a brand new month I would attempt to start off with a new post. My goal will be to update at least weekly but this month that may be a bit hard to do since Paul COMES HOME FOR R&R IN ONE WEEK! I am so thrilled to say the least. He is scheduled to leave Iraq the 8th so any prayers you want to lift up for him to have a safe journey would so be appreciated. We arent planning a bunch of things to do. He wants and so do I time to just reconnect. Being apart for over six months is hard and so quality time just chatting, and loving on each other is what is really important. We are going to go up to the mountains for four days and stay in a cabin. We planned a day hike in the Smokies while we are there. It is completely guided but we think it will be fun and romantic. It is catered and so we will have snacks and lunch which will consist of some cheeses, hard meats, crusty warm french bread, fruit, nuts and chocolate as well as sparkling cider. I think we will have a wonderful time. After the hike we are going to go back to the cabin, get cleaned up and go to dinner and then come back and soak in the outdoor hot tub. Tres romantic! Aside from that day we are just planning on doing some relaxing, sight seeing and and just chilling in the cabin. When we come back to Fayetteville we will be doing routine things like going to church, the movies, bowling and just hanging out. Sounds boring but its what we want to do and what we like to do. Paul is also going to come to my cross fit workouts with me. Yay!

So far so good with counting calories. My weight is solidly in the mid 140's now. I am so thrilled. I dont feel deprived and in fact there have been a couple of days I have not been able to even meet the calorie requirement. I have even switched back to r/f versions instead of ff versions of foods so that I can meet the calorie requirements and fat requirements per day which tickles me to no end. I hate ff things and so I often did without things like cheese because I hated them ff. Now that I am counting calories and doing SF/Core again I can reintroduce them back into my diet and they dont kill me. In fact they assist me in my weight loss efforts. I am still not eating a lot of grains. This is a personal choice for me. I do believe what John taught me about them. I find when I eat them a lot, even the healthy ones I feel sluggish and bloated. I dont discount some of the health benefits and I dont discount the fact that they create a satiety in people. For me though I have found that my body does so much better with less of them. If I want oatmeal for breakfast I have it but I then try to limit the rest of my grains during the day because I end up feeling really icky if I eat more later on. I often wonder if I have some sort of an intolerance like some people do to dairy? The other day I made pumpkin lasagna. I used whole wheat pasta. That evening I ate it for dinner. Earlier in the day I had a bowl of cereal, (shredded wheat) for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. My bread was whole wheat. That night, actually before dinner my gut was killing me. After dinner it was even worse. Looking over food journals I see this pattern with grains... If anyone has any feedback I would surely appreciate it.

The weather here has been hot/cold. We had gorgeous weather a week ago. In the 60's. Then, Friday it was 30 and on Saturday we got an ice storm which shut down everything in the town. I havent been out of the house since Friday afternoon. I am going to the movies today though with a friend and her little girl. I have to get out or I will go mad. This next week is busy busy busy for me. I have lots of activity to help with the time passing. Tomorrow I have a sushi lunch date, Wednesday I am painting the walls in the house that need touched up and hopefully getting my DL. Thursday is lunch at Subway with a friend and then hair appts, Friday is the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert with a couple of girlfriends and Saturday is the race and baby shower for Ashley. Of course Sunday is church and then Monday should be Pauls day to fly out:) It takes about four days travel so God willing he will be home Thursday or at the latest Friday the 12th! Woohoo!

Thats all for now!