2017 = Healthy Here We Come

So, I have a confession. For the last year of my life, I have struggled with something I will call a food addiction. I love food, hence the reason for this blog. But I have been having an unhealthy relationship with it. When I'm stressed, or anxious, or emotional, the first thing I want to do is eat food. Because of it, I have gained more weight and body fat than I like to admit in the last year. Even with all the running//exercising I do. I am not comfortable in my body and I am very upset that I let myself get this far. So, I am kick starting 2017 with a low-carb diet to start shedding weight. I am confessing this to the social media world so I have people to hold me accountable. My Instagram story might be more full of food now, more so than usual so there's a warning for you.

Here is what next week's menu looks like: You'll notice there is only meat, veggies, and dairy products. Crossing my fingers that 2017 will help me me break my addiction to food.

	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Eggs	yogurt/oranges	lunch meat//pickles// cream cheese//salad	carrots	Eggroll skillet
Tuesday	Eggs	String cheese	lunch meat//pickles// cream cheese//salad	Beef Jerky// String cheese	Chicken Fajitas
Wednesday	Eggs	yogurt/oranges	Peppers and mushroom stirfry	Cottage cheese cucumbers	teriyaki salmon
Thursday	Eggs	string cheese	asparagus// mushrooms stirfry	snack peppers	ham and cheese salad
Friday	Eggs	string cheese	Cream cheese lunch meat	Snack peppers	Pork chops// Green beans
Saturday	Eggs	Apple//oranges	Cream cheese pickles	Almonds	Alice Springs Chicken
Sunday	Ham/egg cups				Straatman's

Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas! I'm sitting blogging from my blogger app (yay!) in my in-laws house. Feet warmed by a fire, breakfast wafting through the room, and Christmas pajamas as my wardrobe. Christmas church as been canceled due to snow and ice and drifts. Welcome to Idaho! 

I decided since we didn't do Christmas cards, I'd write up a newsletter on the blog. 

2016 was a year of up and downs for us. Good times, bad times, fun times, hard times, they all happened. 

Connor started a new job in May, after being let go at his machine shop. He now works as a tile installer. Con also began his first year at USU, carrying on the Aggie tradition in our family. He is pursuing a degree in finance. I am always amazed that that stuff makes sense to him. He still enjoys shooting, snowmobiling and four wheeling. Classic boy. 

I also started a new job at Duo Marketing Group and started my last year of school. So happy to be almost done! I have enjoyed running and gardening this summer. In August I ran my first 1/2 marathon and fell in love with racing. Connor has gotten me into sledding and we will definitely be enjoying this new snow together. 

We've done a lot of camping this summer including a road trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. Our favorite shows have been The Office, Friends, and Chuck.  We love going to movies, eating good food, and spending time together. 

Our tiny apartment gets smaller everyday, and as much as I hate it, we are learning to appreciate this time in our life. 

We wanted to say Merry Christmas to all our family and friends and a Happy New Year!  

Christmas Week (12/19-12/26)

I have gotten out of the habit of writing up meal plans. My bad.

Christmas is a week from today. Eeek!! Do you have all your shopping done? I think I have all mine, but you never know right?

Here's what our tentative meal plan looks like. I'm learning more and more the importance of being flexible when someone asks "What's for dinner?" Sometimes I just want to eat Ramen. And sometimes a beef and broccoli stir-fry sounds great. It all just depends. So I've left a few days blank expecting the unexpected.

S-Teriyaki salmon
M-//
T-Fettuccine Alfredo
W-Beef and broccoli stir-fry
R-Baked potatoes
F-//
S&S- With family.

I'm going to be experimenting with a BBQ chicken quesadilla this week so finger's crossed it turns out yummy! I'll post the recipe if it does.

Groceries .... ya... I forgot. I'm so sorry I slaked these last couple of weeks. With finals and family gatherings, I honestly have had a hard time to blog. But this time I promise to do more of it. :)

Break Down/Tour of Our Apartment

Once upon a time I HATED college. Not really, I love school. But on this particular night I'd had it with picky professors and stupid papers that didn't amount to any of my worth at the end of the day.

I got home from work and ripped apart my house. Growing up, I rearranged my room probably every other month. I can't handle things being the same way for too long. My sister told me she was surprised that I had lasted this long in our house. But once I got going, I realized I couldn't do it and started crying. In the middle of my torn apart house. (See pictures below)

Normally the TV is on my bookshelf and the couch is the facing the other way

All our stuff was everywhere and the desk sat in the middle of the room

Check out our poor table

After calming myself down, I went to D.I. where I wandered around for a good 20 minutes wanting to buy something, but finding nothing to help my retail therapy. I ended up getting a corn dog from Article Circle and BAWLING in the Lee's parking lot as "O Holy Night" came through my radio. I went home, made homemade fried chicken, got in the bathtub,and watched The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Connor got home from work at 1 am so I never talked to him about the disaster.

The next day I saw this blue sticky note on our mirror:

I love what you've done with the place ;) -Love you <3 

I didn't have time to clean it up so I rushed to work. I came home to this: 

My husband had put everything back AND made it look good. He'd rearranged just enough to make it look nice, without making it feel cramped. 

I know I brag about my husband a lot, but isn't he just the greatest thing? 

And now you have an understanding of how much I am looking forward to this break. Thank you school for driving me to this amount of insanity. 

We are ready for Christmas! 

Now you get a cute little tour of our tiny 800 sq. ft. house. 

Love, Alisha 

   

Breakfast To-Go

The alarm goes off at 6:30 am but I actually don't get up till 7:20. It's that way A LOT of the time. I love breakfast foods but often don't have time to make something.

Once I tried the smoothie deal but cutting up all that fruit took so much time. I gave up eating breakfast and that just made it hard for me to concentrate at work.

Until I remembered this bad boy that I drank the morning before my 1/2 marathon:

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie

• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tbs cocoa powder
• 1/3 c. yogurt (optional)
• 1-1/2 c. milk (I like mine more liquid-y)

It's sweet but not sugary. And it gives me protein, which is definitely needed in the morning. Put it in my pink blender bottle and I'm off!

I WON!

I have awesome news!!

I won the Dating Diva's #30ThankfulDays challenge and with it came a WHOLE load of stuff. With $100 to spend, I bought a few things from their website that I am excited to use. I plan on updating you and doing a report on how the date went/what we thought of it to hopefully help you in planning dates.

I purchased date packages that I hoped would be cheap, easy, and fun for this time in our lives. 2017 will be the year of dates! No more "Netflix and Chill" dates (although those are necessary) but we plan are really reconnecting and doing more together than just share funny memes. To share what we've done I'll use the #2017DateYourSpouse and encourage you to do the same. I want to see how you guys still date while going to school and living life.

#2017DateYourSpouse here we come!

FINAL WEEK (Dec. 5-10)

ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL! So so excited to be done with classes.

Here's the menu for the week-

M-Pork chops and sweet potatoes
T-Tereyaki steak and rice
W-Baked chicken
R-Baked potatoes
F-At Parents
S-Date night!

My groceries were interesting this week but include:

pork chops
bananas
avocado
oranges
bagels
corn chips
salsa
chicken thighs
frozen chicken strips
milk
string cheese

Stay tuned on my Instagram for some delicious food pics!

"Matchmaker" - A Review on Adventure

Lately I've been home alone many nights, because of Connor's work schedule. I didn't want to be alone AGAIN so I took myself on a date to see Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder performed by the USU theater department. And let me tell you, it was amazing!

For those who don't know, here is a brief synopsis of the play, which was the basis for the Tony Award winning musical Hello Dolly:  http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-matchmaker/

I laughed almost the entire play. And not just the courtesy laugh that one gives to be polite, but literally LOL-ing. The wit and humor of each individual characters really made for an enjoyable evening. Now, I will admit, the play started off slow, but not because the actors were bad. The story was a little eccentric to get into. But in Act II the humor and farce of the play really shone through.

I walked away tonight generally impressed with the talented group we have on our college campus. Earlier in the year I attended a play done by the same company, and although I didn't enjoy the play itself, the acting was amazing.

Why is this on a married blog? Mostly because the play was free. If you're looking for a date night or something fun to do, many colleges and universities have free-for-students activities. Sometimes they even include food!

But also for this quote:

I think that having adventures is important, and that we should have more of them. In the play, whenever Barnaby thinks they are in an "adventure" he yells out "Pudding!" I loved it.

My goal for you is to find an adventure with your spouse and then GO ON IT! Do something sporadic like a drive up the canyon or stay home and have Nerf gun fight. Just have an adventure this next week and see where life takes you.