Counting Calories Really Does Work. Huh, Who Knew?

When I was in the Air Force I taught nutrition. Counting calories. Good foods. Bad foods.

You get the picture.

After I rang in the new year I knew that something had to give. I've started and stopped multiple fitness routines. It's hard to find some sort of workout with three little ones at home, one who never naps and the other two rarely nap at the same time. We don't have an elliptical/treadmill/etc so those are out.

The husband leaves for work at 6:15 in the morning and typically doesn't arrive home until 6:00 or even later.

I've tried the workout videos. I stuck with them for awhile, but I had my teenage stepdaughter here at the time who would watch the girls for that small window of time (which, by the way, she was an AMAZING help!).

Nothing worked out for me. Every time I "failed" at some sort of fitness routine I would eat even more. Baking is my weakness--and let me tell you I love nothing more than a warm chocolate chip cookie straight from the oven. They are therapeutic and make me feel good. Until I have to weigh myself and see the number steadily rising instead of lowering.

I woke up one day and started utilizing my food diary app on my phone (MyFitnessPal). I decided that it was time to accept that I need to lose weight.

I have been on a strict calorie routine for two weeks now. In that two weeks? I've lost 7 pounds.

7. freaking. pounds.

Amazingness, really. I cut out a ton of crap from my diet. I no longer eat cookie after cookie.

I smile now when I weigh myself. Granted my numbers aren't where I would love them to be, but they are getting there. I'm eating in a way that adapts to my lifestyle--not some fad diet that is a temporary fix.

And the biggest shock? Seeing what equals out to my allowed number of calories. I truly have to wonder how many damn calories a day was I eating?! It's insane. I told Leo I want to go for a day in my old ways to count how many a day I had been consuming...

I'm not going to lie, the first few days were excruciating for me. I thought I was going to die without some form of refined sugar hitting my lips. It was as if I was having sugar withdrawals (which I'm sure I was...). If there is a cookie and we are out I will allow myself one and it gets recorded on my app. I am holding myself accountable for what enters my mouth.

Are you trying to eat healthier or lose weight? What's your weight loss goal?


*We are hoping to pay off another credit card and then save for an elliptical. Until then I'm just walking the 3.4 miles on our local bridge on Leo's weekends off.


**I am still eating an adequate amount of calories in order to breastfeed. 

Getting My Body Back After Baby

When I got pregnant with Isabella I weighed 135 lbs ( I'm 5'6"). With Madelyn I was 167 lbs when I found out that I was pregnant and when I got pregnant with Brynlie I was finally down to 155 lbs and had planned on shedding the last 20 lbs while Leo was in Afghanistan. Ha! Instead of losing weight during his deployment I gained it--39 whole pounds of it.

For some of you that may still sound like a lot of weight when I got pregnant with Brynlie, but when I saw the scales tip at over 200 during a couple of other pregnancies? Holy cow, 155 was a dream weight.

Now that I've had Miss Brynlie I am determined more than ever to get my body back one week at a time. There are a few things that I want to point out before I lay out my plan and invite you, my readers, to join this journey with me.

*I'm currently breastfeeding Brynlie. She will get the rare bottle of formula maybe one time a week, but that's it. Otherwise it's 99% of my body's milk that goes into her body and I LOVE it. Breastfeeding is great, but I'm not seeing the pounds simply melt away like so many people hyped it up to be like.

*I realize that to get down to my pre Isabella weight I need to lose 40 pounds. Exactly. I'm looking at my weight loss goals in 5 lb increments. To me telling myself  "5 lbs, Chelle, that's your goal right now" is a lot easier than saying 40 pounds. Ya know?

*I love sweets, but am determined to NOT buy them. If they're not in my home they won't be finished. Easy.


So that is a little background on what I'm up against. I'm breastfeeding, love sweets and have 40 lbs to lose to get to my happy weight. How am I planning on doing this? Here's my battle plan--today was day one and I succeeded in my goals with the exception of me not increasing my water amount and cutting out most of the Diet Coke that I consume.

*For 8 weeks I'll be doing Lindsay Brin's Post Natal Bootcamp 2. It is broken up into 2 week increments which is awesome because Day 1? Kicked my ass.

*Do NOT buy the sweets! I have allowed myself one pack of 100 calorie snacks if I must have something to snack on, but that is one pack at the most a day. I'm trying to increase my water intake and snack on nutrient/vitamin rich fruits and veggies.

*Eating healthier foods/eat out even less than we do now.


Those are my week one goals. I'm planning on working out Mondays-Fridays with weekends off. Wish me luck and if you think that you'll be interested in getting your body back let me know! I would LOVE to do a weekly blog hop so I can have people to cheer on and people to cheer me on. Let me know what you think...

Get Your Fiber On with Fiber One...{Review & Giveaway}

As I have recently written, I am attempting to lose the baby weight. Running around all day isn't my problem--it's constantly go, go, go in this house at the moment. So what does that leave me with? My eating habits.


I have found that since Brynlie arrived I don't pay attention as much as I should to what I'm putting into my mouth to eat. Sometimes I can chow down on a bowl of cereal, a sandwich and some cookies now and then. What I need to work on is this: having fresh fruit easily available for myself and increasing the amount of fiber in my diet.

When I was offered the chance to try out the new Fiber One 90 Calorie Brownies I jumped at the opportunity to test them for myself. At just 90 calories and 20% of my daily fiber in just one brownie this was a perfect snack and a much healthier alternative than a handful of chips or cookies.

***What I Thought***

I got to test out the Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies as well as the Chocolate Fudge Brownies. I had Leo test out the Chocolate Fudge and I claimed the Chocolate Peanut Butter for myself. The brownies definitely helped satisfy that need for something sweet and chocolatey. They were good--especially for only 90 calories! The one thing that I noticed was that they weren't as moist as I thought they could be. But other than that? They were a good, healthy alternative to having a quick and easy snack. Perfect for my weight loss journey!

***Win It***

One lucky winner will receive a Fiber One gift pack! The gift pack contains one box each of Fiber One 90 Calorie Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie, a duffel bag, water bottle, jump rope, snack case, headband and bracelet.

To win simply leave me a comment below telling me your favorite healthy eating tip. This must be completed before any/all bonus entries will count.

***Bonus Entries***

1 entry each  Be a follower of my blog, subscribe via email and/or subscribe in a reader

1 entry each  "Like" Winey Mommy on Facebook and/or follow Winey Mommy on Twitter

1 entry daily  Click the retweet button at the top of this post. Leave the url to your tweet in comment

1 entry  Tell me why you want to win the Fiber One Brownie gift pack.

2 entries  Place my button on your blog

2 entries each  Add this giveaway to a blog or website giveaway link up. Leave a link to site where you added this giveaway

 ***Rules***

Giveaway will end on July 7th @ NOON CST. Any entries after end time will not be eligible to win. Open to all US residents 18+. To be eligible to win you must do mandatory entry. If you do not follow that rule all entries will be void. Leave a valid email address in comment or available on profile. Winner will be drawn via Random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to notification email. If winner does not contact back w/full name/address a new winner will be picked. All winners will be posted on blog when picked. This blog is not responsible for prizes not being delivered, getting lost, etc. I will try my hardest to work with the  company if something should go wrong. This blog is not responsible for anything regarding to your use of product. 

I was given one Fiber One prize pack thanks to My Blog Spark and Fiber One. No other compensation was given. All opinions above are my own and were not influenced by anyone other than myself.

Healhty Choice Steaming Entrees

Lunchtime is always difficult for me--both when I had a job outside of my home and now that I am a full time stay at home mom. A lot of times I will make the girls both something to eat and by the time I am done preparing their meals, getting their drinks, cleaning spills, cleaning up the lunch mess I have no time for myself to think about what I should eat.

Healthy Choice meals has a new line of entrees that are making it easier and less complicated for us all--perfect for those of us who do not have a lot of time to try and guess all of the ingredients in a frozen entree. The all new Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees have cut out the guess work for us all. They include fewer ingredients in their all new entrees--and the ingredients that are included are easily identifiable. Perfect! How many times have you popped a meal into the microwave only to take it out to find out that you can't recognize all of the ingredients--and a majority of the ingredients that you do see are wilted and don't taste well?


What sets the Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees apart from others is that they use steam to cook your meal. For my Rosemary Chicken & Sweet Potatoes meal I didn't have to slit the cover, peel the back of the cover back or anything. I simply popped into my microwave for the allotted time, let it sit for a minute or two and then I could eat. It was really, really good, too! The vegetables were crispy, the food all tasted fresh. And the best part? The ingredients were all recognizable and no hidden ingredients greeted me upon me opening the meal. Yay!


You can purchase your own Healthy Choice Steaming Entrees meal at your local grocery store for the low cost of $2.50. Also be sure to go and check out the Healthy Choice Facebook page to learn more about their products, tips on losing weight and more!


I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Healthy Choice and received samples of their new steaming entrées to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central also sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.