Renewed Motivation

I'm sitting in a blessedly quiet house.  I miss the boys, who are spending the night at Grandma's tonight.  I'm so thankful they haven't gotten to "cool" to spend the weekend there!  Although, what's not to love?  I hear they made home-made donuts tonight which I will not be able to enjoy when they come home tomorrow! 

Anyways, the blessed part of my quiet house is that Brian is GONE!  He's been so hyped up all day about the OSU game that he was driving me crazy!  He was walking around the house shouting like he was actually in the locker room getting psyched up for the game and kept smacking me on the butt saying, "Good game!"  I was so happy when it was time to drop him at his brother's for the game.  I'm finally able to get caught up on my DVR'ed shows--the ones I never get to watch because it's never my turn to watch TV and I'm usually too busy to watch anyways.

I finally had time to actually cook today.  I wanted something that I could use for a quick dinner and pack for lunch, too, so I made chicken vegetable noodle soup.

vegetable stock
1 small can of tomato sauce (Hunt's is SUGAR FREE!)
carrots, baby white potatoes, peas
chicken (I baked a couple of Market Day chicken steaks with garlic salt)
gluten free spaghetti noodles

With a cucumber-tomato salad and some gluten-free crackers, it was pretty decent!

My only problem now is the sugar cravings I get at right about this time every night.  My substitute treat is tortilla chips with a bean dip I made.  It's very tasty, but it's definitely no cookie!  When the 21-Day Challenge is over, I do plan on making sure I limit my gluten and sugar, and I already have a cookie in mind.   It uses evaporated cane sugar and honey as sweeteners...from what I've read, evaporated cane sugar contains the same amount of sucrose but goes through less refining than regular sugar.  So as far as sugar goes, it's still in there, but if you're good at making justifications like I am, it's better for you.

How about an update on my goals?

• running 2-3 times a week (in training for my 1/2 marathon?  still not sure about that!)
• haven't cut my hair yet
• made a new recipe this week
• blogging = journaling
• reading...well, grading seems to be getting in the way of that, but as soon as I'm done with tonight's post, I'll be curling up with my Nook to wade further through The Fountainhead
• shoes NOT in the closet - FAIL
• I have been entering foods into My Fitness Pal, which has helped a lot.
• I have been drinking PLENTY of water
• haunted hayride on schedule for next weekend
• still biting nails - FAIL
• Words with Friends - a little inconsistent there, but I'm trying to play my words when I'm blow-drying my hair in the morning 

I really want to go enjoy some of my solitude and read, but Channing Tatum is on TV right now--reading may have to wait! 

Oh!  I almost forgot!  I lost a couple pounds when I stepped on the scale this morning, hence the renewed motivation (I've noticed that the hardest part of blogging is coming up with a creative/catchy/relevant title each time!).

Have a great weekend--I know I will!