I'm ba-ack!

Last week was certainly a busy week! Alex and Aly came home from Michigan with their Ella, the best  and most beautiful (living) golden retriever.

We put on many miles with that girl! We must have worn her out with all the walks, the cats to chase, and the big back yard to play in:

Alex was sleeping on the couch when Ella jumped up and crashed with him

The kids had appointments with several of their wedding people (caterer, florist, jeweler, and photographer), but got to top off the fun on Friday night with a couples' shower, complete with The Nearly Newlywed Game. It's been a long time since I laughed that hard! Dwight and I are so lucky to have such good friends! Erin and Tim were able to make it after school and their long drives from Bloomfield and Knoxville, so we were ALMOST all together. (Darn conference in LA that kept Emily from attending.) I THOUGHT I had taken some really good photos of the event, but alas. But look at how cute some of the decorations are:

Aly and Alex are two of the most fitness-minded people I know, and when I was discussing my workout plan with Aly, I included the pushups I was doing. She asked if I did girl pushups because boy pushups hurt my body, and I told her no, I did them because they were easier. Duh. Guess who will now be doing boy pushups?! She said to do as many as I can on my toes (which was ten before my form started suffering) and then to go to my knees and do as many as I can. Her personal trainer back from when she worked at the gym had told her that pushups are one of the very best exercises you can do, and I believe it.

Then we started talking about how I was keeping track of what I ate and the exercise I did on My Fitness Pal, and Alex said that those programs grossly over-estimate the calorie expenditure on some of the exercises, specifically long bike rides and golf rounds. (Dammit. Two things that I love to do.) He feels it's pretty accurate on walking and running though. He suggested NOT eating the extra calorie allotment for the exercise, but just to have a Gatorade and maybe a bar to replenish, keeping my other meals the same. That actually falls in line with articles I have read; people tend to over-estimate their calorie expenditure and when they try make it up, they actually eat more. So I guess that means no more having cupcakes because I rode for a long time.

And speaking of cupcakes, my favorite local shop won Cupcake Wars last night! Congrats to Jones Brothers!

But I digress. Aly thought that 1200 calories was way too low for my daily intake. She suggested upping it to 1400-1500. So starting today, that is my plan: eat a bit more of the good stuff, work out five times a week - including boy pushups, and don't eat my exercise calories back. I definitely need a change; I'm plateaued at fourteen pounds gone. I've lost some inches over the past month, but no more weight. Maybe this will start the scale going in the right direction.

To start, breakfast was Oats in a Jar, mainly because we had an empty jar of Jif. Instead of making it on the stove with milk, a banana, an egg, and other spices, I just made regular old rolled oats, mixed in a little big of the almond/coconut milk, and ate it out of the jar.

Looks disgusting, tastes great

And to leave you with a smile: Did you ever wonder how far you walk when you shop, and what the bird's-eye view of your route might be? I turned on MapMyFitness when I was out at Village Pointe the other day: