Best ever oatmeal! ... and other amazing products

I tried a few of my VoxBox products and want to share an update. Quaker Real Medleys Oatmeal is (and I'm not even kidding) THE best oatmeal I've ever had. I'm not a big oatmeal person but this was delicious! It is a step up from the "peaches n cream" flavored oats you typically think of with Quaker. This is for grown ups! :) I grabbed this for my lunch the other day and it was easy to make at work. Just add a little water and microwave less than a minute. This is a nice warm and toasty lunch in the winter when it is cold and snowy out! Would I recommend this? Absolutly! I will be buying and trying their other flavors. I checked it out on Amazon.com, and they have 4 different kinds. I can't believe I'm this excited about oatmeal!

I also tried out the Kiss Nail Dress 'nail stickers.' The pros: they looked pretty good and they were quick and easy to apply. I'm fairly artsy, but even I wouldn't be able to do my nails this good in about a 5-10 minute time frame. My favorite part? You don't have to wait for your nails to dry! I HATE spending time painting my nails just to bump them and ruin them while waiting for them to dry. This product is great because you stick, file, and go. The cons: I only have one complaint... they don't last long. I wore them for about 24 hours before they started peeling. I would still recommend these if you want to do your nails for a special occasion or don't expect to wear them more than a day or so. I would buy these again too. They're just too easy and look great. According influenster.com, you can get them for $6.99 at Kmart, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, and Target. So go buy them!

 

Last but not least (for now) my new favorite lip gloss! NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine. I got the color "Nude York City" in my VoxBox and have been wearing it for about two weeks. It is great because it adds some shine and shimmer without color. I don't like lip products with too much color so this is perfect for me. It also doesn't get sticky and wears a long time. I think it smells good  too! This is in my purse now at all times. These pictures don't really do it justice.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has been enjoying time with family and friends. This year seemed to be an extra wonderful holiday... I was able to take some time off work to bake and relax with my fiance and pup, and spent the past two days with our families enjoying their company and delicious food! This was Lyndon's first Christmas so, of course, she was spoiled with lots of treats and toys. She also experienced her first "real" snow on Friday and loved it! She was happy to just sit outside, sniff the air, and eat snow; one of her new favorite activities.

Just in time for the holiday excitement, my very first VoxBox from Influenster arrived in the mail (appropriately) on Christmas Eve! Who doesn't love to get mail, especially a box full of goodies! I'm really excited to be able to test some products and share my reviews with you. In case you're wondering what a VoxBox is, Influenster sent me these complimentary products for testing purposes... I will be trying out everything within the next few weeks and will be posting all about it! Check out what arrived in my VoxBox! 

Diet Summary

I wanted to post a quick summary about the "Eat Your Heart Out" diet. It was successful because I did lose weight. My lowest weight was on day 6. I went up about one pound as of this morning so my total weight loss over the seven days was 6.2 pounds. I'm thinking part of the gain back was as a result of the sodium in the broth for the cabbage soup. This was a tough one and, while I didn't lose the "10 plus" pounds it promised, it still worked pretty good. I'm not sure I would do it again though because of how bad I felt for about a day or two when I had no appetite and just felt blah. I've had just as much success dieting the "right way" even though it may take a little longer.

Day 7! Hooooray!

I made it! Down 7.4 pounds as of this morning. Today was soup day which was made of mostly cabbage in beef broth with some other added veggies. I actually thought the soup was pretty good, so today wasn't difficult at all. I am still craving sweets, though. I will do one final weigh-in tomorrow morning for my final weight loss through this diet.

If nothing else I'm really proud of Erik and I for sticking to this and making it through, even when there were temptations to quit. Going a week without carbs and cheese was also part of the challenge. I have to admit that I didn't miss cheese at all, but I do miss the carbs. I have a serious sweet tooth. :( Just a few more hours go to! I promise I'm not waiting until midnight and pull out a Snickers bar haha...

Made it to day 6!

Today was a much better day... The challenge continues! But thank goodness tomorrow is finally the last day. The good news is I'm down 7.2 pounds and Erik is still at 11. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the 10 pound goal, though. Sadly, my cravings are back and all I wanted today was chocolate cake (I don't even like chocolate cake), ice cream, a snickers bar, and Chinese food. What I actually ate today was a turkey patty for breakfast (same as yesterday) and lunch and dinner was balsamic vinegar chicken topped with tomatoes and mushrooms. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was actually very good. Let the last 24 hours begin!  

Recipe found on Pinterest, follow me!

Day 5 and I'm Still Alive

Today was Turkey/Chicken and tomatoes. While I was down 6.2 pounds this morning (Erik is down 11), this diet is really starting to get to me. At least I think its the diet... I'm lethargic and strangely I'm lacking in emotion, which is completely unlike me. I have next to no appetite and couldn't come close to eating enough today. My calorie intake is growing extremely insufficient; it's not that I don't want to eat, I can't eat.  I really want to finish this out to the end because I only have two more days, but I'm not sure if I can. ...Not because I want to give in to cravings or because I'm hungry, but because I feel terrible. I wish I could tell you I was hungry. Sadly, the first few days made me feel great. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day and I can continue because I really want to make it. I came so far already on this little 7 day journey and I don't want to give in at the end! It will have made the whole project a waste. Erik is not struggling as much as I am and has been able to maintain his appetite and even went to the gym after work today (serious kudos to him). The only thing bugging him right now is how bad he wants a peanut butter sandwich. So, not such a great post today! Hopefully I have better news tomorrow or I may be pulling the plug on this experiment.

The picture above shows lean ground turkey patties with tomatoes... this was breakfast today. Lunch and dinner was turkey breast and tomato chunks cooked in the crock pot. 

The Dreaded Banana Day

The banana day was, as expected, dreadful. The good news is I was down 5.8 lbs as of this morning. I don't have anything too exciting to tell you about what I ate today since it was just bananas and milk (or yogurt). I pretty much hate drinking milk so I opted mostly for the yogurt. I couldn't find the Weight Watchers yogurt, so I substituted Chobani plain non-fat Greek yogurt. I only ate half my allotted bananas and can't force myself to eat anymore. I did just ok on my milk and yogurt too. I added bananas to the yogurt and it tasted good, but I did have to add a little Splenda and a few drops of vanilla to the yogurt. Basically today wasn't the best day and I really couldn't eat as much as I should have.

Erik and I precooked our meals for the next two days, and we are allowed meat tomorrow. To cook the turkey and chicken, we had to use some olive oil and added spices for flavor. If everything turned out ok, I'll post pictures and recipes once we try everything. We are officially over half way done now! Four days down, minus 5+ pounds!