Operation Summer Bikini!!!

A couple weeks ago I was feeling frustrated about my fitness goals/progress.  I reached out to some fitness and nutrition savvy friends for help. And they generously came back with an abundance of it! A new eating plan, still vegan of course and a new workout plan.  I am focusing more on strength training and less cardio and taking more rest days to all ow for muscle recovery. Working muscle groups in rotation instead of whole body all the time. And I get to eat more!!! 1600 calories a day! It feels like a million calories after eating 1200-1400 for years. I am focusing on increasing my protein intake and cutting back on grain and carbs. Not cutting entirely, everything in moderation. I am not eating wheat bread at all any more as I discovered it really makes me bloat, my body just doesn't digest it well. But switching to rye was no big deal, I have always liked it. And I am drinking protein shakes after my workout. Thank goodness since I was getting really tired of bananas and peanut butter everyday. It was a struggle to find a vegan one local and I am not super happy with what we got but it is a good starting point.
I was warned that my body would go thru an adjustment period during this change, I would see bloating, might gain weight, and it would totally mess with my head but if I just stayed strong and followed the plan I would see big changes by week 3 or 4. And I would/could see leaning out, muscle definition and hopefully fat percentage dropping. My goal is to drop from 21 to 18% so I can see ab definition. But ultimately my goal is to be fit, strong, healthy and to make a bikini look good!
I am 14ish days in and I am still bloated but I think it is starting to go down a bit. I can see my abs peeking thru and the workouts are totally kicking my butt which is pretty awesome. I committed to a month long process with weekly progress photos, tomorrow is picture day #2. I was really disturbed by pic day #1 as I looked squishy all over! But am getting great support from a group of friends in my online fitness group. Thank goodness to because they weren't kidding when they said it would mess with your mind. When you feel like you are going backwards in a journey like this it is devastating! I am working hard on staying off the scale and focusing on the plan and the end game.
Speaking of that it is time for today's workout!
Have any of you had experience with the eat more to lose fat and gain muscle process? It seems so backwards to me after years of living on 1200 calories a day to be slim. Tell me about it if you have, I could use the encouragement!

Mt.Laundry Oh How I Hate Thee

I know y'all probably get tired of hearing me complain about laundry but I have a serious loathing for folding and putting away. I thought I would share the enormous pile of clean laundry from this week that I had to tackle!

See???? That seems worthy of a little fussing and whining to me!

Pinterest Sucess/Failure

Good morning lovelies,
I did a little pinning before Easter for our menu items and decorations. I loved these adorable little bunny shaped dinner rolls I found and some Pastel colored deviled eggs. So both of those things got added to our plan i addition to a slew of other delicious tidbits.
The deviled eggs turned out absolutely perfect and lovely. But the bunny rolls were a huge FAIL!
My husband said they looked like shoes.

Do you see bunnies???????

Happy Hoppy Easter

Hello readers,
I want to wish you a wonderfully happy Easter day. I wanted to share some of the fun food we had for Easter today with you!
The menu:
Breakfast
Morningstar Bacon
Bunny cinnamon rolls

Appetizers
Lemon garlic hummus with carrots, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, celery, vegetable crackers
Marmalade and pineapple Tofutti cheese ball with graham crackers and vanilla wafers garnished with peeps

Early Supper
Tofurkey asparagus rolls with soy cheese sauce and roasted mushrooms
spinach salad with dried cranberries and sunflower seeds
carrot salad with pineapple an red cabbage
cinnamon pickles
multi colored deviled eggs
mashed sweet potatoes sweetened with pineapple juice or baked potatoes with herb butter and chives
bunny rolls with cinnamon vegan butter

Dessert
Banana vanilla "ice cream" served in chocolate bowls with a white chocolate dipped strawberry and a fat free brownie

and of course their were chocolate bunnies and Reeses eggs and way to many jellybeans floating around the house!

So much food! Some fun new recipes too! Not all of my endeavors turned out quite like I expected though! I will share more of the details on that tomorrow!!

Mama needs a change!

Hey y'all. I noticed in a selfie I took the other day that I was looking a little pale and washed out so I picked up some home hair color. I decided to go with a dark mahogany brown as a base then add in honey/cinnamon highlights to put a little color back in my cheeks for spring. I am sure blonde will make an appearance closer to summertime but I was ready for a bit of a change. Oddly I colored it on a Tuesday and on Thursday morning one of my boys looked at me with a quizical expression and said, "Is there something different about you? Did you change your hair?"
 I think my super power is invisibility.
The one thing I notice when I color my hair dark is that it makes my eyes look very blue! My mama always likes it a darker brown with a bit of red highlights, she says it makes my eyes pop, she may be biased cuz I think she likes me.
Well, I got the dark base color on but haven't gotten around to the highlights yet. That's how it goes some weeks isn't it?

here it is dark, shockingly dark. I think it makes me look OLD!

and with some fresh highlights!!

and a little fun editing for my fb profile!

Spring has Arrived!!!

NO MORE SNOW DAMMIT!

I am sooooooo over winter! If I don't see snow till next Christmas Eve that will be fine by me! I pulled the bins of plastic eggs and bunny statues out and I am all in! Spent part of today in the yard gardening, well really just cleaning up the mess of winter but you should have heard me when I found that some critters have been diggin up my tulips and eatin up the bulbs!!! My kids said I was being to aggressive when I threatened the damn things with a taste of daddy's pellet gun! But you don't mess with my flowers!!!!!! Especially after what feels like an eon long winter!
I was over joyed with the brighter colors of spring, cheerful and happy colors!!! Here is a sneak peek at some spots in the house that got a little spring perk em up!!

My Favorite Cowboy

When I was 20 years old I knew this cowboy, he held my heart in his hands. From the top of his tiny little hat to the tip of his tiny little boots, I was completely his. He loved Woody from Toy Story and when we went anywhere he would tip his hat to every passing female and say,"Howdy yittle yady!" with a big sunny smile. 2 years later I was at a loss as to where my sunny smiles little cowboy had gone. 19 years today I have walked around with my heart outside of my body. I have subjected my heart to the first day of kindergarten when his eyes filled with tears when I left. I gritted my teeth at the fear of him driving away on the bus to summer camp. I yelled and screamed and fought for him as years of doctors visits left us wondering why?? Where did my happy little sunny smiles cowboy go? But absolutely and completely I have found joy in being his mama all 19 of those years. The last year I have watched him take leaps and bounds towards independence and his future. Steps I wasn't sure he would ever take. I am thankful that I was given me this amazing child who would push me to be more then I thought I could be. That it is me who has had the opportunity to watch him struggle, fail, succeed, strive. That it is me who has had to push him, comfort him and most of all love him especially on days when he wasn't so loveable. I am a mama. And I am blessed with a child with special needs.