Bruises, Pain, and Triumph

Last Thursday I was holding Nate and heading down the stairs to put my shoes on. My socks slipped on the carpet and my feet went out from under me. I put my elbow out in an effort to keep Nate from hitting the stairs and managed to keep my own head from hitting the stairs. Whoo! However, I did land on, and subsequently bruise, my tail bone. Unfortunately, this is not my first tail bone injury, but they are by far the most unpleasant thing when you work a job like mine where you sit for six hours at a time. Joy. I've been trying to take it easy and yet I didn't want to stop working out because I'd been doing so well. Needless to say my workouts have been slightly less flexible, but I'm glad I didn't give up. Sitting hurts worse than standing and the action of sitting/standing hurts the worst. Everything else is kind of low key. I'm taking pain medication also as needed. Pray for a speedy recovery!

In awesome news, I have been on my "eat better and work out" kick for 3 weeks now and I've lost a total of 7.5 pounds! Here's to being another 2.5 pounds lighter by my birthday!! I feel awesome!

How to Make Spritz Cookies

Around the holidays, spritz cookies are my absolute favorite treat. This past Christmas I wasn't in Ohio for the first time in my life during the holidays, so I had to make my own spritz cookies. I borrowed a spritzer from my neighbor and they turned out great! I posted somewhere (Facebook, maybe?) a picture of my Christmas spritz cookies and my brother mentioned I should explain how to make them, so I made them again for a friend's birthday, and this time, I took pictures. Enjoy!

Grandma's Spritz Cookies

1 Cup Butter, Softened

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

2 1/3 Cups Flour

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Food Coloring of Choice

Sprinkles of Choice

You can use any butter or butter substitute you would like; in fact if you're looking to cut calories, I would recommend something less fattening.

However if you're looking for optimum taste, go with Salted Sweet Cream Butter.

I only use this for baking, but I notice a difference in my cookies. Oh, and a word about softened butter: I read that it is important that you do not over-soften your butter. If the recipe, like this one, calls for softened butter, the best option is to leave it out overnight. Try to avoid microwaving it if possible because it is easy to melt. The consistency of the cookies can be compromised if the butter is too hard or too soft. Learn something new every day!

The first thing you need to do is cream together the butter with the powdered sugar. It's best to use an electric mixer for this. After the butter and sugar are well blended, add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. It should look like this:

Then I take this opportunity to add whatever food coloring I'd like. For this batch I chose blue, mostly because during the holidays I almost always use red and green. The blue turned out pretty, but it was more turquoise. You can add the food coloring later, but I find it easier to mix if it's added before the flour.

The next thing you want to do is add the flour and salt. You can continue to use the electric mixer, but this might be more easy done with a wooden spoon or something along those lines. When you're finished, your dough should look like this:

Here's where you need to have your spritzer. If you don't have one already, you can get one anywhere where cake supplies are sold. I saw them at Michael's the other day, although they look a lot newer and nicer than the old ones I've always used.

The one my grandma has is an old, metal, hand crank kind! Anyway, follow the directions on your spritzer to make sure it's put together correctly and you have the desired tip connected to the end. This particular spritzer is electric. After its all put together, load it with dough as directed. A side note: If you would like to make the dough ahead of time, this is a great time saver, especially during the holidays when you may be really busy the day you plan to bake. Store

the dough in the refrigerator, but make sure you take the dough out the night before or the morning you plan to bake. The dough MUST be soft before you load it into the spritzer!!

Put the bottom of the spritzer on an ungreased cookie sheet and pull trigger or pump the hand

pump until the desired amount of dough is released. This may take some trial and error at first as you won't be able to see how much dough is coming out without picking the spritzer up to look. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it quickly! Fill the cookie sheet with cookies. Sprinkle a complimentary colored sugar over the cookies.

Bake at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes or until the bottom of the cookie just starts to brown. The cookies will be soft! Let cool for about 5 minutes before using a spatula to remove cookies.

Enjoy the finished cookies! They will go fast!

Go You Chicken Fat, Go Away

So I didn't want to say anything right away, but I figured it's time to spill the beans. That dreaded four letter word...you know the one I mean...diet. I have never really been a big fan of diets, especially weird fad diets like Atkins or South Beach or anything like that. The idea of points and counting keeps me from trying something like Weight Watchers, but I've become more and more unhappy with my weight. I decided around New Years that I wanted to lose weight, but I knew if that was my focus I would fail like I always have before. So I decided I just wanted to get healthier. I figured if I could just change my eating and exercise habits a little tiny bit and start making healthier choices, then I could go from there. I decided to start small so that I wouldn't get totally burned out and lose my motivation before I even got anywhere.

Through the month of January I just tried to use my Wii Fit for ten minutes a day at least 5 days a week. I knew it wouldn't do a lot, but I just wanted to start a habit of being more active. Up to that point I really wasn't doing much activity aside from housework. My job actually encourages inactivity because I just sit there for 6 hours at a time. Aside from an illness in the second week, I did pretty well. I think I was able to hit my "workouts" at least 20 out of 28 days (I started on Jan. 3). So far so good, but I wasn't losing weight, so now it was time to eat better.

I decided I was going to use the month of February to "diet", just as a way to lose some initial weight and get motivated to work out more and make better eating choices. I have started a modified version of the "Special K Challenge" and so far it is awesome! I starting eating Special K cereal with skim milk for breakfast most days, and supplementing some lunches and the occasional breakfast with Special K Protein Shakes and Protein Bars. Other times I eat salad or a can of Progresso soup for lunch. For snacks I eat low fat yogurt, low fat string cheese, a Special K cereal bar, or fruits and veggies. For dinner I still eat all the normal things I've always eaten, I just eat smaller portions and I try to include more fresh veggies. I've cut out soda (for now...I don't think I could cut it out forever!) and basically just try to stick to water most of the time. When I was pregnant I received a large water jug from the hospital that holds 32 oz. I fill that with filtered water (the tap water is seriously gross here!) and try to drink at least one a day, although a few times I've been able to drink 1 1/2. I should be able to drink 2 a day, but right now I just can't drink that much. I also write down everything I eat. A piece of chocolate cake here and there won't hurt, but if I write it down it helps me keep track of what I'm consuming. I also bought some Weight Watchers Strawberry Smoothie bars for desserts....those are actually amazingly good! Love. On top of that, I have bumped my Wii Fit workouts up to 30 minutes a day.

I realize I have only been doing this for 1 week, but I am happy to report that it is working! I have been diligent in paying more attention to what I'm putting in my body and I am very excited with how I feel. I have only lost 3.7 lbs so far, but I feel better, too. I have more energy and I've suddenly found myself wanting to work out. That has NEVER happened before. Now I'm hoping that I can expand my workouts to include other cardio and aerobics exercises. I would love to find a good dance workout but I want to try something before I buy it. I've heard good things about Zumba and I'm trying to borrow "Just Dance" from a neighbor (her kids lost it!). Hopefully I can try one or both of those and then add them to my collection if I like them. I've also found that by eating smaller portions more frequently, I've lost my "snack happy" mentality. I used to feel hungry almost all the time and would snack pretty frequently. Now I'm happy just having a little something every few hours. I don't feel like I have to keep eating and eating until I'm full. This is a totally new concept to me, but I love it.

I told myself I wanted to lose 10 lbs by my birthday. If I achieve this goal, I'm rewarding myself with a new pair of jeans! After that I will make another goal and go from there. Ideally I want to get down to a healthy weight and BMI so that I can eat what I want but still be a healthy because I know how to control my eating and portions. I could never go through life without pizza, burgers, fries, cheesecake, alfredo sauce, and all those wonderful things, but if I can teach myself how to manage my intake and stay active, I won't have to.

I also have a great Facebook group for support. If you read this and would like to offer support, I would greatly appreciate it!!