"I Love my Husband"

As my sweet husbands leaves the bathroom I instantly knew he was coming right over to me for his normal lean down and kiss.  As he leaned in I smiled, he glared and said "I'm that predictable huh?" I wouldn't call him predictable always but normally I can tell the simple things I have come to love about this beautiful thing I get to call "real life."
November 4th 2014 one year ago from tomorrow I was excited to get off work and run home for a fast shower and to get ready for a first date.  What I didn't know a year ago was that, that first date would be my last first date.

Let me tell you it was a hot mess.

From fingers in bird crap, crappy prizes (because we hadn't yet figured out the Gay Dolphin was the place to go), long walks from one pier to another, a rocky ride on a sky wheel and being shuffled around because of filming of Magic Mike but I can tell you it was memorable. Every day  from that point  forward has been and will be memorable. Why you might ask? Because the man I thought didn't exist for me showed up.  A sweet friend reminded me today of a conversation we had just days before that first date I had with this man I call {husband} the destress I was in, I was giving up after the countless of dead-in dates, losers, guys not really in it for the same things.  I remember her telling me to just give it up. Let it go. When it was right it would be perfect.  There would be no need to jump through any kind of hoops that God would handle the smallest of all the biggest details.

I can tell you every person who ever told me to "wait" was right. Every person who listened to me say "no marriage for me" or "I don't think I deserve more" thank you! Thank you for listening to those empty words and never judging me.  Most importantly thank you for not saying " I told you so."

I sit here writing this little blog as my husband watches a movie on Spike.  His laughter and the reflection the light hitting his face makes me fall in love over and over again.  His simple glances, winks and curiosity as to what I am sitting here doing- makes me feel the same butterflies I felt on the boardwalk a year ago.  I pray that those butterflies continue for 50 years of marriage.  I am amazed at the people who say marriage is hard.  While yes having someone invade my space has been difficult at times, plus our house is hot mess because we have no where to put anything and the poor boy snores like a chainsaw every other night I wouldn't trade it.  Each day I wake up and I am thankful that this tall gentle giant was waiting on me on the boardwalk in front of the line of flags.  Each day as we grew together it became more and more of the one thing I wanted to fight hard for in my life.

{{He is worth}}
            the fight.
               losing my last name.
                  losing sleep over.
                    more then what I can give him.
                      then any love I have ever felt in my life.

A year ago today, I didn't think I was on my last first date! But tonight I am sure glad I was!

Here's to 1 year with my best friend, love of my life, one day father of my children and my everything!

May our love be one that's written in the fairytales can't wait for 1 Million days of loving you!

I love you!

AD Palmer

Alright! I did GREAT for breakfast and lunch.. Had my bags in my car for the gym but when it was time to go I was itching so bad all over (reaction from new meds) I decided to come home. The rain made it a much easier decisions as well. A good shower can do wonders on the mind. So tonight I am going to share a twist on a sweet treat.

Being that I am southern ill give you ONE guess of something I LOVE.......

SWEET-TEA 

Of course being a diabetic means I let go of that love about 2 years ago! I haven't much turned around again for it since the day I was told NO more! Actually, now I find sweet-tea way to over powering on my taste bugs.  One thing I have missed was a good Arnold Palmer. At the bagel factory they have one not sure who its made by but its incredible.  Best treat I could get with a bacon and cheese bagel. However, at 230 calories..like 40 carbs and 30 sugars.. that just wasn't an option for this gal. Here is my little trick! 2 bags of tea (your choice) and a large 8 cup pack of Crystal light.

Make your lemonade first and fill half way up (don't use more then suggested 8 cups, you will mess up the taste). Boil 4 cups of water and place your 2 tea bags in. Let it sit about 20 minutes then pour into the lemonade.  Now here is my grandma's secret on the perfect not too tart lemonade.....

VANILLA!!

Place a cap full in your mixture. Close the lid and give it a little shake or stir.  You can't go wrong! You won't need any kind of sweetener with this amazing drink. TRUST me! 

Enjoy the AD Palmer! 10 calories for the ENTIRE continuer, meaning all you water haters are just drinking flavored awesomeness (can be caffeinated by your tea so skip the soft drink with all those food dies and artificial sugars). NO SUGARS, NO CARBS!

BOOM! HAPPY DIABETIC!

Oh Hey!! I didn't forget

OKay! Just because I didn't post doesn't mean I haven't been doing the right things.  Truth is I might enjoy my weekends a little more then I should!! However, tomorrow is Monday so tomorrow is the start of a NEW week!! WooT Woot!! And here my friends after a LONG day of church work is my MEAL PREP for tomorrow's awesomeness!

First-Cucumbers!! I have set it once but let me say it again! Cucumbers are AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME and keep your body flowing! If you get what I mean. wink wink. I like to get the seedless, I do not like the bitterness of the skin so I take it off (if only I could do that with fried chicken) and then a put some garlic powered and sea salt on them. Give them a good shake and let them sit over night upside down or right side up YUMMY!

Second-TURKEY! High protein NO CARB

Third-CHEESE! Higher in fat but great in no carbs and good protein count

Forth- precooked bacon. I like to wrap it with the turkey to give a good crunch since I will not be having bread! Yes it has FAT and can make sugar a little higher its worth it with still no carb! These are not fried they are precooked and then pop in microwave.

Fifth-Cotton Candy Low Fat YOGERT! OH HEY! yes these have carbs---9 I believe and 14 sugars but are great before the gym. At least for me because they give me fuel to burn. 

Now GO be AWESOME!! Another meal ready.. gym bag packed for a shoulder day!! Eeekkk who's excited??

THIS GIRL

Pull it GIRL!

Today is all about the burn of the PULL! You got it! Each exercise in the gym was a lovely pull on those arms and back muscles.  But first quick down low of the AM!

I had blood worked done this A.M. and couldn't eat or drink anything. Considering I went to bed at 9:30pm last night you can imagine when I woke up I was STARVING! To add to the stress it was the first breakfast back with the senior high students I work with. O.M.G if you are a southern you will understand how TOUGH this next statement was.... I get FREE yes you read it right FREE breakfast every Tues/Thur at Bojangles because of the size of our groups. All of our adults who volunteer do.  Our students get 20% off and a free Bo-Berry biscuit and I couldn't EAT this morning.  I have found that on these mornings I allow myself more food because I know that I am going to the gym since I get off a bit earlier to offset for early A.M.'s or games at night time.  Normally I don't eat lunch until I get home after the gym. That's normally a shake or just meat (like I had today yummy remember that chicken).  However, I gave my freebee to one of my students and I sat as each of them respectfully without rubbing it in ate there amazing hot biscuits.  Got in my car thankful I didn't break! It's BoJangles y'all! (haha). Went quickly to the doctor before a meeting. The lady taking my blood messed up so guess who had to have blood taken out of BOTH arms! I wasn't happy.  Got over to a meeting with one of my parents at a coffee shop and waited a few minutes for her to arrive.

PAUSE...

while I am waiting a truck delivering food hit a car and kept going. So I did what anyone would do and followed him, got his plate number, left a note on the car... which later led to me talking to the police. In which the police officer said " You are pretty awesome, not many people would go through that much trouble." I am glad I did. The poor guys car was an older man (65-70 yrold) who was working at the fresh market for a few hours a day to make the difference in money he lost last year in retirement. BOOM! You just never know! It felt good to do something right!

RETURN...

I must have screwed up this a.m. at coffee. I got a sugar free but my sugar after checking it was 298 when I got to work! MAN DOWN! (I did have some cheese, fat free yogurt, almonds while I saw the car getting hit).  Apparently my body doesn't even like sugar free and I knew better.

Had some cucumbers with garlic salt. If y'all haven't tried it do it the night before let it sit. You will wanna slap someone its so tasty! 

Here is the WORKOUT! Arms and Back (PULLING) best thing Dave ever taught me when we were training together was ALWAYS do the same motion. So don't go do pulling machines and pushing machines in the same workout.  Stick to the focus group you are working with.

35 min walk workout legs 

Row 55x10 40x10 25lbx 10 (machine)

Rear Delt (pulling) 55lb x10 40lbx10 25lbx 10 (machine its the on that is Row/Rear together)

Pull down -70lb x 10 55x10 40x10

Dip/chin 70lb assisted pull (will kill you at first)

Arm extension 40lbx5 30x5 20lbx20 (multiple machine you can change out equipment)

Row 50lb x20 30lbx10 20lbx10 (multiple machine you can change out equipment)

25 assisted push ups (it's okay to not go all in basically a girl push up)

25 wall push ups (find a wall and PUSH)

10 diamond wall push ups

7 minute yoga cool down. (they have apps for that)

As of now my sugar sits at 144. WOOT WOOT and its date night for this chick! Night something more active.. BOWLING.  

Have a great evening y'all!

First day is TOUGH...

I am not kidding you when I say the first day back to streaked eating is TOUGH!! Why? Because every little bit of sugar is calling your name.  The dots leftover on my desk from pre-christmas are gonna have to find a NEW home!  So my day was rather interesting. I woke up with sugar level at 198 (TERRIBLE y'all) thought by having my low cal high protein shake this A.M. I could get it down! Ha! Not the case at all! I felt weird round 11:00am so I ate my cheese and check my sugar 298. Which mean't after about 40 mins of my shake my sugar was in the good ole 300's.  Crazy right? What in the world.. at this point frustrated from the high levels, 1000s of emails that came in while gone most of which where JUNK mail and the roofers above my office I was just flat out peed off!

I took action! Grabbed this 32 oz beauty:

Here's the deal! Everyone thinks that when your sugar is high you should eat peanut butter! NO NO NO!! Don't do it! For anyone trying to lose a pound something that is SO important for you to know is this.... Are you READY? CALORIES turn INTO sugar! So when your trying to pick that awesome snack! Stop worrying about the fat in take, focus on whats "good" about the snack.

My check list is this:
Does it have a lot of carbs?
Does it have a lot of sugar?
How many proteins does it have?
How much fiber does it have?
Lastly normally the deal breaker in my food relationship... how many CALORIES?

If you follow these simple questions then your snack guessing won't be very hard! I decided finally at 1:00pm I was starving so I popped in this amazing pre-meal:

oh was it just de-lish! Here's the deal my sweet readers... HIGH protein... low carb (okay I needed some ketchup! ha) which meant DOWN you go sugar! After this meal I waited about 45 mins-hour and checked my sugar again. 234... Lord HELP me! No fruit like I had planned and MORE water! Here's the down side for a diabetic. Two ways you can bring sugar down is drink more water and exercise. Goodness I already pee a 1000 times today. Add 3-32 ouch bottles and 1 18 oz unsweet tea and I am still peeing at 6:50pm. I might add I am now on my 6th 32 oz bottle!

It was GYM time!! Sugar 245 popped up a little with my almond snack not much however! Remember PROTEIN and FIBER are your FRIENDS!

Here's my workout: If you don't understand ask!! My rotation for lifting takes about 45 minutes! TAKE YOUR TIME! Feel the BURN its a good thing! cool down walk and stretch is about 15 minutes

SO HERE is the COOL picture I get to SHOW and BRAG about:

BOOM!! And that my friends is why Diabetics WORKOUT!

Last thing for this evening! Pick your night time battles!! Here is my dinner:

If you go workout! Don't give up what you did!! I will admit sometimes I workout just to eat! But this right here is on point! Fresh veggie.. The pork I made FULL of PROTEIN.. milk and cheese is my real FAT and both have..... PROTEIN you got it! Don't overload your dinner with carbs. That junk SITS in your belly until you move again!

ENJOY! Keep working towards that promise or GOAL no matter what it is that you have set for yourself!!

POST WORKOUT SELFIE :) Hey Snap Friends!

New Blog!! And a new entry!!

Quick intro... 

I'm Amber-Drew I have lost over 95 lbs in the last 2 years and 3 months give or take and gained back a few. :)! However, as a promise to myself (I don't believe in resolutions) I am trying to kick off the last 45lbs to successfully hitting my goal by my 3 year date on October 1st, 2015.  I am a OVER poster normally about what I eat.. my workouts and etc. So instead of blowing up my Facebook page with thousands of those post I am going to blow up my LOVE for all things weight loss and food here!

What you need to know:

1-I am not an expert
2-I am a diabetic (I change up food a lot)
3-Everything I have learned from lean eating, clean eating (rarely do I do fully clean eating) and the gym I have learned from my dietitian, instagram meat heads, Facebook groups and online.
4-What I do might not help your BODY at all
5-YOU have TO EAT to LOSE!! Hard concept but 3 small meals and 2-3 good snacks is how you lose weight.
6-Oh and of course WATER! You need that!

Now, I will not give you my start out weight and goal weight because thats just between me, the curves on my belly, the pants I squeeze into and the scale (which is about to go away, when I get back into weight training).  Lastly and then we will get started... I suck at writing! Grammar is normally off the charts terrible and my spelling well can be shameful as well! Ha! Now, are you ready?

Meal Prepping Week 1

I like to prep on Saturdays! However, I had Sunday off today so I did it today instead!

I went to Costco for the big stuff... (price rounded off)

$19.00 Pork Tenderloin (cut at home, 12 pork chops and 2 tenderloin breast)

$10.00 2 Whole Chickens

$17.00 4bls of organic ground turkey

$3.05 can of Green-beans (LARGE but I like the greens)

$6.50 bag of frozen mixed veggies

$10.00 Cooked Bacon

$17.00 Frozen Chicken

ETC
as you can see its expensive to eat good but I like freezing meat and getting it cheaper per a pound! You do you! Total bill was $185.54 (lots of stuff not listed that will last for the next 2 months)

Meat One--WHOLE CHICKEN
Clean
Place in a Crock-Pot low 8 hours high 4-6 hours
8oz of water (or chicken broth)
1/4 cup of BBQ Sauce (this mostly cooks off so you don't have to worry about a lot of calories.. really just for basic favor to keep the meat from drying out)
cook and serve

Meat Two- Turkey Hamburger Meatloaf Muffins
1lb of ground Turkey
1 Egg
1 cup of bread crumbs (your choice) I used 1/4 panco 1/2 reg and for change up 1/4 of stuffing mix
1 cup of grated cheese (I mixed my cheeses)
2 strips of cooked bacon (chopped)
1/2 onion (chopped)
1/2 bell pepper (chopped)
Mix with hands
Place in greased muffin tins
Bake 350, 25-30 minutes

(If you want to freeze for later you can place in the muffin tins and then in the freezer for any hour uncooked, or I cooked mine let it cool to room temp, flash freezed for an hour, place in a freezer bag when you are ready to eat put in the frig and then re-heat.. would be good as a meat ball with some spaghetti  squash)

Meat Three- Apple Bacon wrapped Pork Tenderloin (CROCK-POT)

1- Pork Tenderloin

1-2 Apples (depending on size of meat)

6-slices of cooked bacon (depending on meat)

1/4 cup of brown sugar

3 tbp of natural honey (helps make a glaze, most recipes have a glaze but its just to much fat)

Cut your meat about every 2-3 inches thick... place a piece of sliced apple inside and sprinkle brown sugar (still part of the 1/4 cup you don't need a lot).. wrap in bacon, place half your apple slices in the bottom of your cockpot, place your meat on top, put the additional apples, sugar and honey on top. cook for 3-4 hours on High and 8 hours give or take on low. (Can cook in the oven at 400 for 1.15 hour depending on your cut)

TRICKS and quick CHEATING

Bob Evans makes easy 3 minutes and your done sweet potato great for lunches and your carb count!

31 Has the BEST lunch box!! I know someone who I am working with in the New Year that SALES it! I can hook you UP!

What does my lunch look like for tomorrow? How do I know the right sizes?

PROTEIN is your best friend! EAT IT!

VEGGIES are low in cal and carbs

1/2 a starch (I barely can eat 1/4 cup of BE SP)

1/2 a fruit

1/2 glass of SKIM (you read it right) SKIM milk 

Target or Walmart has containers like you see below that have what each size is.. on the side it has the liquid potion of everything!! Go get them! They are on sale at Target right now!

Here's my lunch/snack tomorrow I am rocking about 335 calories for ALL of this! only about 40 net carbs, 25 sugars, 55 proteins! Needless to say I am gonna feel ALIVE tomorrow by the time I go to the gym!! 

I will have this same meal on Wednesday lunch (skip a day so it doesn't get old) 

Tuesday ill have Green-beans, salad, chicken

LASTLY-- Cucumbers are basically FILLERS (they are SOOO okay to stuff your face with) Almonds GO for it as a salty snack! CHEESE--> NO CARBS! WHAT??

Breakfast I will have a protein shake with organic greek yogurt, with a little fat free jello powder for favor (less sugar then fruit)!

Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!