ONE YEAR!

Sorry guys! I've been slacking on the blog posting lately. This week has been crazy busy! This is actually the first night in about a week that I've actually cooked dinner :/ Oh my gosh, but Wednesday I had dinner with my book group at an amazing restaurant I have talked before called Depot...but between the four of us we ordered about everything on the menu so I got to try some more deliciousness! So anyway, my goal is no eating out this weekend since we weren't very good this week :(

The whole point of this post is to celebrate ONE YEAR from the day I decided enough was enough! I started my lifestyle change (ie diet) on November 29th, 2011 (coincidentally, right after Thanksgiving...) and here it is November 29th, 2012! I wish I had a scale where I could "weigh in" to see what my official weight is at one year exactly but I don't :( I am not ashamed to share my weight because I am so very proud of the weight I have lost and the effort I have put into my journey.

My starting weight was 254 (Biggest Loser moment...). I was not happy with how I looked and looking back, I can't believe I let myself get that big. But everyone's gotta start from somewhere! The past year has taught me that all it takes is a little determination and drive! It really is a commitment to eat healthy and work out...there were no gimmicks for me...just hard work! I can't say that I have been as healthy as I would like since we have moved to Auckland but I am happy to say that I have maintained the weight that I have lost! That is definitely a big fear for me...but now that I know what I can accomplish, I know I can kick it back into gear!

So, this is my "before" picture from November 2011 and the most recent picture I have of myself in my phone! Haha...trying on clothes! (FYI...I didn't buy the dress)

Well, I know you're dying to know my current weight :) As of a couple weeks ago, I was 88.8 kg (haha...see what I did there??) or 195.7 lbs.

That means I've lost (and, more importantly, kept off!!) 58.3 pounds!

I'm pretty dang proud of that! 

Here's another progression picture:

The first picture was taken when I completed my first (and only) day of P90X...the middle was about 50 pounds lost and the last picture is from tonight! 

There are definitely things I still want to work on and goals I am aiming for but I am so much more comfortable now with who I am and how I feel about myself! I love shopping and trying on clothes I could never dream about wearing (like that hot dress up above) even if I can't afford them! Hopefully one year from today, I will be posting that I have met my goal weight of 164! 

31 pounds to go...

Happy Thanksgiving from the Webers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a Thanksgiving "morning tea" at school this morning and it was a success! The older kids (3-5 year olds) love hanging out with my babies and, surprisingly, my babies are WAY better behaved with the "big kids" around! I loved being able to share an American holiday with my school family! Karmia and I also had a little (okay, it was pretty much all day long) photo shoot with the kids, which was a blast! I think if teaching doesn't work out, I'd love to be a children's photographer! I get way more excited about photographing kids than any sort of landscapes or adults.

Anway, back to real life...

Here are the outcomes of my two Thanksgiving baking adventures...

My stuffing did not turn out as well as I'd hoped :( It was not like "Mama made it." Ben said, "In 10 years, you'll have it down." Thanks babe!

On the other hand, my sweet potato casserole was de-licious! In an effort to not eat the whole pan, I am taking almost half of it to school tomorrow. FYI - It's really more of a dessert than a side :)

And my sweet husband brought me a Thanksgiving surprise on his walk back from the grocery store!

Now that may just look like a normal ordinary crate, but I have been searching for about 6 so I can make a bookshelf and Ben found this one just sitting on the street outside of a liquor store! Looks like I'm going to have to spend more time hanging outside liquor stores... Only 5 more to go. I have found them to purchase, but they are at least $20 each! I'm not paying that for a dirty crate!

Now, I've gotta go get my Christmas decorating on! Tra la la la la la la la la!

Successful Pinterest Crafting!

I would like to mark this occasion because for the first time in my 24 years, I am making my own Thanksgiving stuffing! I have eaten it since I can remember (both oysters or no oysters), helped in the kitchen, but have never actually MADE it all on my own. Well, everything changed tonight! As it involves an overnight process, it's not done yet but I can already taste the deliciousness :) And, as it's Ben's favorite part of Thanksgiving, I had better not screw it up!

Along with my stuffing, we are having sweet potato casserole (yum!!! My favorite but not Ben's so I imagine I will be taking a lot of leftovers to school), homemade crescent rolls, broccoli, and steaks! Sounds amazing, huh? I'll let you know how our feast turns out!

We are celebrating Thanksgiving at school tomorrow during our "morning tea" time but other than that, not really doing anything! We have already started decorating for Christmas and today we (by we, I mean I...) made a cardboard box fort and put some Christmas lights inside. Take a look...

Super awesome, huh?? Thank you Pinterest! The hardest part was making the box fort...after that, the lights were done in a jiffy! And the kids (and adults) LOVED it...

Did I mention that I love my job?? Never a dull moment! 

I will see you all tomorrow with the results of my Thanksgiving cooking! 

Who needs a dishwasher anyway?

Every once in a while our dishwasher acts up and the floor in front of it gets a little wet. No biggy! Well, yesterday, I came home to a soaking wet bedroom floor. It just so happens that our bedroom is on the back of the dishwasher and apparently it decided to explode and soak everything while Ben and I were both at work. Here's a little view...

Hopefully it will dry out soon and we may or may not get new carpet...our building manager is coming by tomorrow to check up on it. He is also coming by to install our new dishwasher! The dishwasher that was in our apartment was the original install when the building was finished so they just chucked it after the explosion :) For now, we have this emptiness in our kitchen...

(bleh, looks a little gross...)

I bet you wanted to know how we are managing to sleep with that craziness going on in our room...well, it looks a little something like this...

(check out that super sweet floral box spring! we need a bed skirt.)

I don't even have to get out of the bed to get dressed in the morning! Like I said, hopefully it will be back to normal tomorrow. We'll see. At least we don't have more furniture to move around! I won a floor lamp on Trade Me for our living room that I'm super excited about! Maybe I'll remember to post a picture of it for my Thanksgiving post! Two more days :) I've got some yummy traditional recipes on the menu. I'll let you know how they turn out! 

Gotta go wash some dishes by hand...

Skinny Schminny...

So, I'm always a little weary of healthy sweets recipes...I mean sweets taste so good because they lack any sort of health qualities, right? Well, I have been trying to get back into the swing of dieting after a couple weeks (months :/) off so I thought I'd make some healthy brownies this weekend! And I was very happy with how they turned out. They were moist, fudgy, and I love a good peanut butter swirl! Click the link below if you're interested :)

Skinny Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Now, they're definitely not the healthiest things out there but they're better than regular, old, oil-laden, floury, chocolate chippy brownies. I didn't get a picture but they pretty much looked like the pictures from the link above. And they weren't too difficult either! I ended up giving about half of them away so that I wouldn't eat the whole pan :) 

In other news, the Christmas decorating has begun in the Weber household thanks to my wonderful Mama :) 

I'm hoping to be able to go get a Christmas tree this coming weekend and then we can break out our tree skirt and stockings! We didn't get the chance to use them last year as we were living at the Nixon residence but definitely this year! 

Sorry I don't have more pictures for this post, but go try that recipe and then don't feel guilty about eating two...or three...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :)

I know you're dying to see the next stage of the Christmas decorations in downtown so...here ya go...

We were hanging out downtown when they were putting the antlers on one of the reindeer! We were wondering about the people who live in these apartments whose windows are being blocked out by a giant reindeer...do they have a right to a view? I mean they probably pay a certain amount of rent based on their view...so does it decrease for November/December? 

Okay, okay, enough suspense! :)

There are Christmas lights and all but I haven't seen it at night yet, I'm sure it's a beauty :)

Have I said that I love Christmas?

Anyway, I have finally started trying to decorate our apartment. It has taken me a while but I figure there's no real hurry and I don't want to spend tons of money so...I just buy one or two things while I'm out and about. Here is the start of my picture wall:

I know it's not real impressive but I'm working on it! I had to repaint our "W" (which was hanging in our apartment in Katy) because it fell off the windowsill and broke :( But superhero Ben fixed it for me! And the little "W" is a wedding present from Ben's granny so I'm glad we could hang it up as well! I have printed out a ton more pictures that I'm hoping to put up so if you're not up yet, you probably will be :) I'm just glad to have pictures up!

I have some more ideas that are in the works but the focal point (that I ordered on October 14th) is taking forever to arrive in the mail...so you'll just have to wait and see :)

Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread...mmmmmm

Catch up from last post: I only did that workout for about 3 commercial breaks...300 calories...not too shabby!

So, yesterday I was in a baking mood. Long story short, I didn't get to bake anything so I woke up this morning on a mission. I found this recipe for Pumpkin Pull Apart Bread...looks delicious, huh? Well, I started to pull all my stuff out to make it for breakfast and I didn't have enough flour :( So, off to the store I went (like I said, I was on a mission). I couldn't go out and about on a Saturday morning without a stop for my morning coffee and the other day, I saw that Starbucks has their Christmas cups out so my feet knew where were walking before I had even decided in my head to go there :) And, I did not realize, but Starbucks has a punch card system and I got TWO punches for today! Good morning to me :) Mmmm...Gingerbread Latte...

Saw this little (or big) beauty outside of Starbucks this morning. They were still assembling the presents to go at his feet while I was waiting...I'll have to see if I can get a finished product picture tomorrow!

A good 30 minutes later, I was back home with my flour and my cup of coffee, ready to go! It was a pretty lengthy process to make this bread, about 3 hours in total including all rising and resting times, but it was very worth it. I am never really good about homemade breads with all the rising, kneading, punching, etc. but I am really proud of this product.

That was about as good lookin' as it got. It became a hot mess once I had to take it out of the pan because it stuck like crazy to the bottom (should have just left it in there). The taste was not affected at all but it just looked ugly and I had a little breakdown for a second there.

Needless to say, I have had nothing but pull apart bread and coffee to eat today...yum :)

Workin' on my Fitness

Ohmygoodness...

I came home from school today after eating relatively healthy and have done nothing but cram food into my mouth from the moment I stepped through the door. I mean it's pretty "healthy' food (maybe not all of it) but...food that I'm not even hungry for! And I wanted to go work out today but I was too sore from my boxing class yesterday! Sidenote-I had the day off of work yesterday so I managed to go to a workout class at 12:15! Wonderful! I'm working my way around all the free memberships at all the gyms in Auckland trying to find my favorite. The one I'm at right now I really like but after my 30 days runs out, it's pretty pricey :/ I'm going to try one next that is pretty close to where I work and it has an Olympic sized pool! Doesn't swimming after a long day of work sound relaxing? And it's a heated pool :)

Anyway, back to my binge eating. I'm going to do this...

...during all the commercial breaks while I watch New Girl and How I Met Your Mother...now I just hope they're new episodes! Now I get to watch my fave shows AND workout :) My kinda Tuesday night...

Gotta go put my workout clothes on :)

I thought of a witty title...and then I took a nap...

This is my absolute last post about Halloween! We went to a Halloween party at my friend, Karmia's, house so we actually got a chance to dress up! I wish I had a picture of Ben's whole costume but I didn't get one :( It was hilarious! Here are a couple pictures from the night...

(Sorry for the crappy iphone quality)

So, I was a jellyfish...can you tell?? Ben was Moss from "The IT Crowd" or, more generally, a nerd. Here is a little bit better picture but you still can't see the high water pants and sneakers :)

I was so proud of him for dressing up for the first time since I've known him!!!

And here's a close up or my super awesome new necklace...

Love it? Me too :)

In honor of it being less than three weeks until Thanksgiving, I am thankful for technology that allows me to keep up with my friends and family in the States! It also lets me share all of our adventures on this lovely blog! :) 

Happy November!

Love, The Webers

It's Book Review Time!

A couple weeks ago, I posted a list of books that are on my "to read" list. Well, I finished one of them! I was so excited to read this book because it was on several "must read" book lists that I've found, one in particular labeled "Books Every Girl in Here 20s Must Read"! So, I got hubby to find it online and download it to my Kindle so I could read on my morning/afternoon bus rides.  

I would like to be able to say that I loved it and would recommend it to everyone...but I can't :( It was a quick read, entertaining for my bus rides, and relatable but it didn't make me think and it definitely didn't make me want to go out and buy all of Jennifer Close's other books (unlike all my other faves :) The story was about a group of girl friend's as they travel through their lives from college to marriage, kids, etc. The plot was a little jumpy, each chapter started or continued the story of a girl, and the many characters were hard to remember. It's hard to get into a story if you are continually looking back to try and remember what happened previously with this chapter's particular character. There were three reoccurring "main" characters that I definitely wanted to continue reading to see what became of them but everyone else just kind of blurred together. 

The biggest thing that I disliked about this book was the girl's descriptions of their significant others. They made it sound like you need to "settle" for a man the older you get. They end up with men simply because they are tired of looking and they can stand being around this or that particular person. One of the characters, Isabella, even goes so far as to state that she "hates" her boyfriend but she'll move with him to Boston because she would rather be around him than without him. I feel like this is a very sad way of looking at relationships and I definitely wouldn't want to endorse this with "Every Girl in Her 20s." 

Final Note: Don't read it. There are so many better books out there. 

Next on my list is "Novel About My Wife" by Emily Perkins. I'm reading this one for book club this month but I was in charge of picking so I am excited to see how it turns out! 

PS-I just realized that both of these books covers look similar. Weird. 

Adios!

Happy Halloween!

I know it's officially November at this point but I wanted to show off our pumpkin carving and tell you about our first Halloween in Auckland! We had some friends over to carve pumpkins (they had never done it before!!) on Sunday. I can see why they've never done it because it was hard enough to find pumpkins that were big enough to carve! After about four fruit and vege stores, we finally found ones big enough! Here's the "before" picture...

It's a little green and, yes, we are using table knives! No special carving utensils for us!

And, the finished products!

Here is mine and Ben's! Classic...

Karmia's pumpkin!

Karmia's boyfriend, Caleb's, pumpkin! It's a taniwha, a creature from Maori mythology. We agreed it kind of looked like Dog the Bounty Hunter :)

Halloween is not a huge deal here in New Zealand so I didn't see a whole lot of costumes and we had no trick-or-treaters. We do live in the city, so that might have been why! One day, we will have our very own house with our very own trick-or-treaters! We will not have our very own house in New Zealand though :( They require non-residents to put 50% down, and I just spent my $250,000 on something else... I was a little sad when I heard that news. But oh well!

I attempted to make dinner in my new crock pot (yay!!) and it didn't turn out as well as one would have hoped...I know one pin that will be deleted from my boards...don't worry, I still love my crock pot. I made some potato soup the other day that was delicious!! Recipe here...

We are going to a Halloween party on Saturday so be on the lookout for a post about my costume...I'm actually pretty proud of it :) I've gotta find the final details tomorrow and put it all together but I'm almost done!

Happy November! :)