My new favorite website

I want to share with you a website I have been using for the past couple weeks.  It was really helped me understand how many calories I am and should be eating.

It is called Livestrong.  Right now I am signed up for the free version.  While you don't have access to all of the cool features the website has to offer, there are enough free features to make it worth while.

First, you set your calorie goals.  This is based on your height, weight, age, weight goal, and activity level.  It estimates out a calorie number you can strive to meet each day.

Now this is tracking website that helps you determine how much you are eating and what the nutritional value of the food you consume.  If you don't like writing down everything you eat, then you will not like this website.  I always thought I wouldn't need to do that but it really isn't too hard.  There is a great database of foods with all of the nutritional value already plugged in.  Anything from fruit to brand name products to Walmart's Great Value Brand.  It is all there.  They even had my gummy vitamins!

It then keeps track of what you ate.  Although a big portion of what you look at is the calories, it also gives you an indication of nutrient goals such as fiber, sodium, protein, and sugars.  This was the part that surprised me the most about the foods that I ate.

You can also keep track of how many glasses of water a day you drink.

You can also put in your exercise and the amount of calories you burn.

As you can see in this last screenshot, the top of the page totals your daily calories and tell you how many you have left until your reach your daily calorie goal.  If you exercise at all, it subtracts those calories from your total.

Another fun feature is that you can enter in your recipes into the website, and it will generate a nutrition label.

This is my recipe for Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna Roll-ups.  If you want to full recipe and directions, head over to Beth's Journey where I found this recipe.

This is really helpful for people who like to make their own recipes, or for recipes you find online or in a book that don't have the nutrition labels on it.

When I first tried this website a couple weeks ago, I was not a calorie counter at all. However, I was frustrated that I was working out and trying to eat better but seeing very few results.  I was scared of getting obsessive about counting calories and thought I would just enter in a few days worth of food to see where I was.  Since then I have tracked my calories every day and have enjoyed seeing my progress.

Since I have started logging in every day, I have steadily begun to lose more weight.  I am not on a strict diet at all.  I still eat dessert and go out to eat, but I am realizing that it starts to add up and you have to make choices if you want to indulge yourself.  Some days I go over and I don't beat myself up over it.  I just start again fresh the next day.

Livestrong is a great tool and it even has apps for your iphone or smartphone.  Since I don't have one I still have to do it the old fashioned way, but luckily I am around a computer all day to enter my food.

I am still figuring out how to best utilize this website, but I think it would work for anyone trying to lose weight, maintain their weight, or just seeing how healthy they are eating.

On a similar note, I had a surprise last week.  I came home to an opened package sitting for me on the coffee table.  The hubby saw his name on the package and was curious, but it really for me.  My mom sent me the Rocco DiSpirito Book I mentioned a few weeks ago.

The recipes look amazing! It is so interesting to see what foods to use in place of unhealthy ones.  I bought some ingredients to try a few recipes this week.  However, I am really looking forward to making some of his desserts because he uses some very unconventional ingredients for desserts.  If I make them I will let you know if I give them my seal of approval!

So thanks Mom (since I know you read my blog religiously)!

Graduation, Dessert, and Other Happiness

Hi all!

I bet you have been wondering what has been going on with the Pickel's lately.

Lots actually.  We have been busy, busy, busy.

First of all, my dear hubby graduated from college last weekend.  He officially has his Master's Degree and is done with school, forever!

Okay I cheated.  That is a picture from his undergraduate graduation at Ohio State.  But in my defense he didn't walk at graduation this time but I still wanted to post a graduation picture.  Who wants to sit at a graduation ceremony on a Friday night?  Not these people.  Instead he celebrated by hanging out with some fellow grads, eating yummy food, and visits from parents.

On Saturday, Nate's parents stopped by for a quick trip.  And by quick I mean less than 24 hours.  They were on their way back from his sister's Junior College National Tennis Tournament in Arizona, and decided to take a detour to Columbia to congratulate the hubby on his graduation.  We had a nice evening of a home cooked meal, lots of stories from their vacations, pictures of the Grand Canyon, souvenir presents, yummy dessert, and our favorite card game, Monopoly deal.

This is the dessert I made for the occasion.

No I didn't get really great at taking pictures of a sudden (But mine looked similar except I may have drizzled a little more chocolate on than suggested).  That is the picture from The Kitchen and check out the link to see how easy this recipe was!  Seriously, it was easy and so very delicious.  We definitely had seconds.

Sunday we had church, followed by a yummy dinner out to D. Rowe's.  If you have been to Columbia, Missouri and have not eaten at this place, you are crazy!  Best baked potatoes you will ever have in your life. No joke!  The portions are big enough you can get at least 2 meals out of it, 3 if you can actually exercise some self control and eat normal portion sizes.  Then we watched some of the Cardinals game before they headed home.  It was fast, but nice to see them again.

I somehow managed to make it out of the weekend without dying.  Remember those allergies I was talking about?  Yeah they only got worse over the weekend.  I polished off over one full box of tissues, and consumed I don't remember how many pills.  However, I am glad to report that I woke up Monday morning feeling very alive and could breathe (which let me tell you - trying to consume that D. Rowe's baked potato was pretty hard when you can't breathe).

Work has calmed down after a busy few weeks.  Another confession - I tend to blog at work, which is why the frequency in my posts decreased as my work load increased.  True story.  So the end of the semester brought with it all kinds of stuff to finish up at work.  Now I am getting into the summer, which is absolutely dead around here.  While we usually have a few summer classes, even those enrollments are down.  At least this time last year I was planning a wedding, honeymoon, and second honeymoon.  Now I am not sure what I will do all day!

Therefore, I am offering up my services as a free wedding planner/ wedding consultant.  Need ideas? Need a timeline? Need help choosing music for the ceremony? I am your woman! Just kidding ... kinda ... but not really.  I always love an excuse to talk wedding.  It is my dream job after all!

On a different note, my car is finally back into my possession.  It is so nice to be driving it again! I missed it so much.  While I have never been one for naming your vehicle, I really feel like she/he? could use a name of affection.  Never have the roads been so smooth, or have I been able to reach my cruising speed on the highway!  Its been just happiness driving home from work, sun shining again finally, and blasting my favorite music while I sing like a crazy person in my own car.

Anyways wrapping up, I plan on sharing how the hubby's job search has been going and some possible plans for the future.  Happy Hump Day!