I can’t believe how fast the end of the year is coming. My daughter Claire turns 10 on Monday, so we are gearing up for a birthday weekend! She is super excited to say the least.

I haven’t really mentioned it much on here but I’ve still been losing weight, s-l-o-w-l-y, but I had a non scale victory this week – I fit into size 14 pants! My twin sister Biz gave me some pants of hers that were too big (don’t worry Biz – I’m going to catch up to you!) and yesterday as I was getting ready for work, flipping through my closet, I saw a pair and was like “what if????” And sure enough they not only fit, but weren’t so tight it would cut off the circulation throughout the day.

I mentioned I’ve been re-reading a book called The Gabriel Method. I’ve liked some of the things mentioned in the book – one of which is just being more aware of what you put in your mouth and focus on nutrition first then you can still have a treat here and there, but the better you eat, the less cravings you have for the bad stuff.

I’ve also thought about doing the opposite of what I would normally do. For those of you who are Seinfeld Fans, there is an episode where George said everything in his life would be different if he just did the opposite of what he normally does. Here is the video, it’s super funny. It’s only a minute long.

George Costanza – The Opposite

So, what is the opposite of what I normally do?

No sugar – no candy, no treats at work, no cookies at home!
Walking – I purposefully stayed a few minutes late at work so I would miss the bus, forcing me to walk 30 minutes home.
I didn’t put as much sugar and cream in my morning iced coffee
I was offered food several times and said NO THANK YOU!

So, I am at the lowest weight I’ve been in a LONG time. I don’t want to jinx anything, so I’ll just leave it at that.

So now that the Holidays are around the corner, what is your goal – maintain or to lose weight by New Years??

Don’t forget you have until SUNDAY to submit a recipe for BSI this week. Here are the details in case you missed it.

This summer has flown by so fast! Yesterday I had a half day of work, so my oldest son Paul got a hair cut (which looks great!) and then it was off to Walmart where I think every other person had the same idea…school supplies! It was mobbed. I got about 3/4 of what they needed and decided to go back another time when it wasn’t so crazy!

I think the best time would be right when they open at 7 AM! Then you could just take your time to get what you wanted.

Have you done any back to school stuff yet for your kids?

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I’ve posted this recipe a few years ago, but it is worth talking about again.

You don’t have to buy already made won ton wrappers, you can just make them yourself. You need 2 ingredients: flour and water – that’s it.

1 cup flour
1/4 cup warm water (plus 1-2 TB. to help the dough come together -if needed)

In a kitchen aid mixer or food processor, add the flour and warm water and let it run for a few minutes until the dough starts to come together and let rest for about 30 minutes.

It should be soft and silky.

Now for the filling. I use whatever leftover meat and veggies I have. It could be chicken, ground pork, ground turkey (all cooked) and chop up whatever veggies, normally I use carrots, broccoli slaw, chopped garlic, chopped celery, etc…

Just take a small amount of the dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface.

Fill it with the fill and fold over and pinch the edges so the filling stays in.

Once all the potstickers are done, place them in a large skillet coated with a little cooking spray or oil. Brown them on both sides, the add about 1-2 tablespoons of water, place a lid on top and let them steam for about 5 minutes.

Then I will usually add a little more cooking spray or oil and turn the heat up high so the outsides are nice and crunchy.

So good! I could eat these every day.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yep! Bob Harper – Yoga. I’ve done Billy Blanks – Taebo – P90X and this was one was definitely a work out. 60 minutes long. One good thing is it had a timer in the lower left hand corner, counting down the workout. The bad thing is me looking at the time thinking there is no way in hell I’m going to finish this thing. I of course had to do some of the modifications (there was one person who you could follow doing the modifications). And they did NOT have Biggest Loser contestants – there were two ladies who looked like that had done yoga their whole lives, they were super flexible and super strong.

But I finished it and I was SUPER happy about that.

Now onto the next day’s workout. Last week I did 10 minute solution – 5 (10 minute) workouts. I ended up picking up the 10 minute solution Pilate’s. Another HUGE challenge – you have to be strong to do some of the moves they did! I was able to do about 90% of it – and I did all the sections! Wahoo

The good news is my weight loss for the week was 1.6!!!!

My goal for the rest of the holiday weekend is to just stick to eating healthy foods. We’re grilling out so there are lots of great options out there. I plan to grill lots of veggies.

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend!!!!

Since it was so nice out yesterday we walked to the park and back, which counted as part of my exercise for day 9 out of 100 of exercising. The other part was from Fitness Magazine 20 minute upper body workout. It was surprisingly hard. Check out the work out here.

Fitness Magazine has tons of work outs you can do at home, and most are with no special equipment, all you need is your body!!

So I planned ahead this week, got lots of fruits and veggies and healthy choices to stay on track this week.

What workout are you going to do today? I have a softball game right after work, so I’m lacing up my gym shoes and heading out for a brisk walk during lunch today.

Have a great one!