Promise I am still alive!

I have been a total and complete blogger slacker/failure!
But I am back!!
So since my last post a LOT has gone on.
First and foremost, I married the most wonderful man just last week and I am now Lauryn White :)
Second, I have been preparing for the wedding, which took up about 98% of my spare time...maybe I should have done a wedding blog?!
Third, I have been having fun decorating for the holidays around my house.
Fourth, working, working, and working.  Anyone who teaches knows that it is not easy keeping kids attention from October- December (Halloween and Christmas!)



(Picture is courtesy of my amazing photographer and friend Anna for AnnaK Photography)

Since my absence and while preparing to try to look my best on my wedding day, I have lots of new tricks and tips I can't wait to share :)  However, I have to admit, since the wedding a week ago, I have been eating terribly!  But I need to change this quickly, for we are leaving for our honeymoon this Friday, so back to living my favorite quote..."You are what you eat!"

Today I am just going to share a little yummy meal I discovered while trying to eat healthier when eating out.   Salads, a lot of the time, bore me so I was excited to see this.







Chick-fil-A now has where you can choose to get grilled nuggets instead of fried!  Of course, I also try to switch out the fries and replace with the fruit cup.  I know it may sound kind of boring, but it is very good, and the fruit is extremely fresh!

I do ask for a Chick-fil-A sauce, but use it sparingly (when I order fries, I can go through two packets of it...talk about wasted calories and a lot of them too)



With that being said, I am going to say good night!
Promise not to leave this blog hanging again for over 3 months :)

xoxo

True Confession: I am an addict to Diet Coke

There is nothing more I love than a cold Diet Coke, especially if it's from the fountain.  However, I think we all know that Diet Coke, or any Diet soda for that matter is not exactly the best thing for our bodies or weight loss.

I am the first to admit that I still struggle with giving up Diet Coke.  In fact, I just drank one!  Before this past March, I drank NOTHING but Diet Coke...maybe a Crystal Light here and there or tea, but probably 80% Diet Coke.  I then decided to do the Advocare 24 Day Challenge and that requires you drink a ton of water.  I no desire to drink water and if I opened a bottle, I would  maybe take two sips and be done.  

Slowly, but surely, I gave up Diet Coke for 24 days and only drank water.  I really didn't lose weight from switching, but did feel better from the extra H2O intake.  

Here are some tricks I learned from learning to love water a little more...

-Drinking it over ice is way more refreshing for me than just out of the bottle

-Add a tiny bit of Lemonade to top it off (this might be cheating a TINY bit, but it is so refreshing)

-Mix in an Advocare Spark (my personal favorite) or a Crystal Light packet

- To get rid of the craving for the bubbly taste, mix in a crystal light with 3/4 packet of Crystal Light and top off the rest with Club Soda (another favorite)


Now not to forget about the Diet Coke...

For those of you who are little addicts like myself, I looked up some statistics on the pros and cons of drinking Diet Coke.  (Info. found on livestrong.com)  This is what I found:

Pros:
*Not too many ya'll :(
1. Short term weight loss
2. Low in calories


Cons:
1.  Can cause long-term weight gain 
2.  Bad for your metabolism
3.  Cancer causing properties (was praying this might be a myth)

So I think I will keep working on weening myself off the Diet Coke for good!  Wish me luck, this will be quite a feat!

  











                                             instead of.....






 

Keeping Up with the Cals...

Usually when I am trying to lose weight, I am all about tracking my calorie intake.  This time, however, I am trying to just eat clean.  But it is still good to write down everything you are eating just to be able to keep up with it because once you write it all down, you can see exactly how much you are eating.  

Therefore, I always journal it.  I just buy a little, cheap notebook (the one I am using now is from Target) and write away!  On the first page I try to set my goals and write them out.  Then on each day, I log what I eat and what work out I did.  This helps so much!  You can add calories too!

Now, I also have an awesome app that works great for tracking food, calories, and exercise.  It is called My Fitness Pal (it cost very little).  You can literally look up any food, even from different restaurants.  It tracks everything, right there on your phone!  I still use my journal just because I like to write things out better thank enter them in, but I do love this app :)

Happy Journaling!

To Drink or Not to Drink?

 I just posted, however, I feel like I need to add a little helpful and healthy things for the day.

Since it is the end of the weekend aka the hardest time to turn down yummy foods, treats, and drinks, I thought I would try to highlight on the drinking side of things.

At the end of the week, most of us love a yummy drink to unwind.  I admit that this past Friday, I did not make a very good drink choice.  I couldn't resist and ordered a frozen strawberry margarita, which is basically all sugar.  Then last night, we celebrated with our Engagement party.  However, all I could think about as I sipped my wine was the calories from the strawberry margarita the night before.  

So...I decided to do a little research to help me out and I hope it can help you to!

                                                              Drink vs. Drink

Strawberry Margarita= 300-500 cal. (regualar size)                   Skinny Margarita= 90-200 cal. 

                








Calories in a glass of Red of White wine= 120-150 cals.                           Calories in Light Beer= about 100

           

                                









 Cranberry and Vodka=170               vs.          Vodka and Soda with a SPLASH of cranberry= 80

Add caption

    

My favorite...White Russian= 260 calories                                 Sugar Free White Russian= 174 (recipe found on link below)

                                                                                                             http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/alcoholicbeveragerecipes/r/whiterussian.htm

                                  

  

        

It is getting a little late and I have to rise and shine early in the morning, but I will definitely be on the look out for more low cal drinks to end your work wieek!  Cheers!

My Little Piece of Heaven...

I know this is an "eating healthy" blog, but decorating is one of my favorite things to do!  So I thought I would share some pictures of my house that I had so much fun decorating this spring...this is my little piece of Heaven :)



This is the view coming in from the foyer hall.




Love the kitchen...where I am trying to learn to become more domesticated :)



This is one of my favorite pieces.  I found all of my "rustic" looking pieces at a local store, Chic or Shabby.  They have some great finds!

        

These are pictures of the bedroom.  I wanted something very neutral and calming.  The full length mirror is also a Chic or Shabby find.  My bedside table are also from there, but didn't get them in this picture.  However, they couldn't match the bedding more perfectly!

 

Pictures from the living room.  The sun burst lamp came from the Clermont Trading Post.  They had some cute and unique pieces.  
The zebra chair, blue center piece bowl, and the picture of the church are from one of my favorite places ever...TJ Maxx Homegoods.  
Zebra ottoman is from the one and only Target.  
And the beige chair is actually from Sam's dad's office so not too sure where it came from.  





Here are the dining area shots. Comliments of Chic or Shabby, Pottery Barn, Home Goods, Target, and Kirklands. (Notice that pre-wedding, don't have any china in the cabinet yet :)




There are 5 picture similar to this that hang in the hall in the foyer.  I love these because they are all drawings of local North Georgia places.  This one happens to be the Sautee Store.
I found these at a place in the North Georgia mountains called Mark of the Potter.

So those are a few tid bits from my house.  I still have things that need to be done, but I am loving my cozy little townhome.

Promise next post will be more health related!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

3 favorite healthy and fun things I thought I would share.  

1.  Advocare Spark...could not live without this stuff.  It is an energy mix that you mix with water.  It really does give you extra energy and for me, it curbs my appetite.  It comes in many flavors, but Fruit Punch is my fave!

2.  Love my Mizuno running shoes!  I am very picky about my running shoes and I love these.

3.  Average Joe Boot Camp...FREE work outs that are the BEST!!  Contact me if you want to know locations!

It is very early....but way worth it.

Hope you all are having a wonderful and healthy day!!! 

Retail Therapy

Whew! Today was a long one.  Running late (which makes my whole rest of the day stressful), dealing with my little ones at work (always a handful), and then leaving straight to go spend some quality retail therapy with my girls (aka my mother and my grandmother Nonna, we are 3 generations of identical genes).  I got some really great stuff, which I want to share in a bit, but first things first.

So today I found something I am very excited about.  During my lunch break, I always like to go to Starbucks just because it is a great relaxation escape from my preschool world. Usually I always bring my lunch and order one of their Passion Tea Lemonades, which are amazing, but sadly filled with sugar.  So today I went in and found something there I loved...and it was food, not a drink!  It was their Cheese & Fruit Bistro Box...delicious! 

The box came with a mix of cheeses, multigrain crackers, apples, and a mix of roasted almonds and dried cranberries.  

   Deliciousness...480 cal. for all

They also had other boxes similar that looked great too!  Protein, Chicken and Hummus

and Tuna Salad.

For dinner, I got one of my favorite things from one of my favorite places- Chik-fil-a.  Mmm.  I

ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, which is served on a whole wheat bun and is only 270 

calories.  It is so very good!  Trying not to miss my waffle fries I usually have to accompany 

with it.

All in all it was a good day!  I am sad to admit that I was in such a hurry this morning I didn't

eat breakfast...which no one should ever do!  When your teachers told you in school that

it was not good for you to skip breakfast...they were right.  It is definitely the most important 

meal of the day.

Now on to the good stuff...retail therapy session.  My first shower for my wedding is coming

up in two days and I have been stressing about what to wear, therefore we make a shopping

trip out of it.  I ended up with lots of cute dresses, most being from Belk.  I love Belk...

their stuff is so southern and classy.  

While I do LOVE clothes, I love makeup just the same and had to make a Sephora trip.  I 

bought several items, which I can't wait to try.  Here are some of the things I got...

  Benefit Boi-ing concealer

Make Up For Ever- HD Foundation

I also got this little guy, but I have been a faithful customer to that one for a while :)

 Best mascara award in my book!

Got to get to bed , but hope you enjoyed today's post... You Are What You Eat :)