Medifast Week 2

I am so very proud and happy to report that I lost another 3lbs this week!!! I believe that is 6.4 pounds total in 2 weeks!

I find that I am more in control of what goes in my mouth and my portion sizes. I am not eating out of emotion any more and I am stopping when I am satisified instead of full. I continue to drink my coffee each morning and eat out ocassionally. I have even had Jimmy John's more times than I care to admit over the past two weeks. (Hey, its right across the street from work and they deliver right to our door!)

This plan is great and I feel like the weight is just melting off. I mean, there is nothing better than that!

Medifast Week 1

After my first week on Medifast, I feel great!!! I think I am starting to get the hang of it. Total this week I lost : 3.4 pounds! I am super excited! 

I don't find myself getting super starving, but I can tell when I am hungry. I also feel satisfied instead of full all the time. My clothes are fitting better and I have a lot more energy. I don't feel weighed down from eating too much anymore.

I am really liking the bars, shakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and the brownie. Oh, the brownie! It is actually really good. Oh, and the tomato soup is pretty good as well. I'm finding I can still cook for my family and keep on track with Medifast. I even resisted the real brownies my Hubby made the other day. Now that  is a shocker!! :)

But I am encouraged to stay on track and keep up with it! I really like that feeling.

Today is the day...

This was on my doorstep yesterday when I came home from work! Today is my first day on Medifast and so far it has gone pretty well.

I had Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal for breakfast. It wasn't that great, but I choked it down. :)  I ordered a variety of items to try and then I will know next time what to get and what not to get. I had one of the peanut butter crunch bars and it was decent. Much better than the oatmeal.

For dinner, I made Alice Spring Chicken and it was yummy!! I would make it even if I wasn't on a diet.  The nursing diet for Medifast is a little different than the regular 5 and 1 plan that most people do. With the nursing plan, you only eat 3 Medifast meals per day, have unlimited fruits and veggies, and 3 servings of dairy per day. The idea is to eat something every 2-3 hours. I will have one of the shakes tonight as my 3rd Medifast meal for the day. I haven't felt super hungry all day. A nice feeling of satisfied. I like eating so often. It really doesn't allow you to get super hungry.

So, first day was a success!

Medifast

Well, I broke down and joined Medifast! I really like Weight Watchers, but I just don't have the time (or energy) to count and look up everything. I figure i will try it for a month and see how I like it. I have read so many blogs that are using it and have lost weight. I hope the same holds true for me! I like that it adapts to a nursing mother at any stage.

I think this will be easy for me to take with me to  work and on the go. I think it will be easy to have a meal fast on the nights Hubby works until 7:30pm and I have 2 kids going in different directions and the baby screams when you put her down.

I used one of the codes from a fellow blogger to receive $50 off my order. Which made it slightly more affordable.

I am setting my goal at 50lbs to lose. I need to get back to a healthier weight and stay there. No more excuses!

I hope to get the package this week and will start as soon as I get it.

Such and Such

Things have been busy around here lately. Hubby returned home after being gone for 3 weeks with the military and I've picked up some more hours at work. The boys are in school and trying to juggle it all is a little chaotic at times.

With hubby gone, it was hard to focus on my weight loss because most days I was only able to eat what I could grab. I haven't been tracking my food lately and I need to get back on board with that. I gained back 3 of my 5lbs lost, but I am still 2 lbs pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. We have family pictures coming up on the 11th, so I would like to lose a little bit before then.

Speaking of family pictures, we are once again having our pictures taken by Rebekah of Studio Rebekah Photography. I actually grew up going to school with Rebekah. She is such a sweet person and great with the kids! We got some great photos of the boys last year. Here are some of our pictures from last year:

I can't wait to see how this year's turn out,  especially with the new addition!

Speaking of Avonlea, she keeps growing! Like a weed! She is short, but she has quite the gut on her. She is outgrowing a lot of her things around the middle. She has outgrown most of her woolies and the ones I saved from Bennett are still too big on her.  So, I ordered her some woolies from Sustainablebabyish (Sbish) and I just got them in the mail. I absolutely love them and the color. they are super soft and thick.

I ordered a small so that she could wear them longer. As you can see, they fit her in the waist just fine, but are still a little long on her. At least I know the length will last her a while.  My sister ordered the pink ones and I love the color of them, too.

I might just order those as well. A girl can never have enough cute woolies! (although my husband would beg to differ! ha!)

Avonlea has been sleeping really well at night, averaging only one or two feedings a night. Currently I am trying to get her on a more regular nap routine. She is sleeping longer stretches during the day, so I am trying to get a good morning and afternoon nap from her. We'll see how it goes. 

Two Months Old

Guess who is two months old already?! This little girl! I can't believe it!

Avonlea went for her two month check up today. Her stats are:

Weight: 10lbs 4oz
Height: 21.6 inches

Here is what Avonlea is up to these days:
--wearing mostly 0-3 month clothes but starting to fit into 3-6 month
--wearing mostly one size diapers and smalls. Fits in size 1 disposable diapers
--lifts head for short periods of time and looks around
--socially smiles
--coo's and grunts/groans
--makes eye contact and turns toward your voice
--sleeping in a crib in her own room
--sleeps anywhere from 3-7 hour stretches at night
--loves music, especially Lady Antebellum and Jason Aldean (good choices!)
--likes to look at her brothers and watch what they are doing

Our sweet girl is growing and changing so much! I want her to slow down a bit. She is such a good baby, even during her fussy time in the evenings, she is such a joy to have in our family!

Mocha

I am surely addicted to iced coffee with mocha from Starbucks. I roll through Starbucks probably 5 times per week, sometimes more. And at $3.16 a pop for a venti, it starts to add up! Starbucks has come out with the iced Via coffee packets which aren't too bad, but just not the same without the mocha syrup. Starbucks does sell their syrup, but of course, Mocha is one of just a few that they are not allowed to sell. WTH! I was thoroughly disappointed when the lady told me this. Seriously, I about cried. (ask my sister, ha!)

My sister came to stay with me for a week while my hubby was gone and so we went on a manhunt for mocha syrup.  We couldn't find it anywhere in stores, so I went to the internet to see if I could find a recipe or something.  I came across this recipe for Mocha Syrup.  I cut the recipe in half and cooked it up on my stove, leaving out the vanilla syrup and just using regular vanilla extract. I let it cool on the stove because it was quite thin and I thought it might thicken up if I let it cool down.  After cooling, it was still pretty thin. I put it in a tupperware container and put it in the frig.  The next morning it was nice and thick like a syrup should be.

This is what it looks like while still hot, right after cooking it all together. It is still thin like water.

Now, this doesn't taste exactly like Starbucks Mocha syrup, but it is darn close and it is a great substitute. It would be really good over ice cream or used as chocolate syrup for chocolate milk. A great alternative to the store bought version.  It's super easy to make and I think most pantries have all of the ingredients needed to make this.  I just add as much as I want to my homemade iced coffee and off I go. A lot cheaper than getting Starbucks everyday.

*You can half the recipe and change up the kind of cocoa powder that you use.  I've used regular cocoa only, and also used mostly dark with just a bit of regular.  You can totally customize it, which I like. Enjoy!