Today's Meals: June 18th 2016

Meals for today: June 18th 2016

S breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green peppers, radishes, spinach, and 3 sliced sausage links all mixed together. Strawberries. Green tea

S lunch: Chicken salad on a Flax Wasa cracker made with leftover chicken breast, mayo, mustard and seasonings. Mushrooms with a wedge of Laughing Cow Cheese, Green pepper slices. Piece of Trimtastic Zucchini Cake with strawberries.

E dinner: Leftover chicken breast, 1/2 sweet potato with 1 tsp butter and cinnamon. 1 slice Ezekiel bread with 1/2 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese. 4 carrot sticks

Yesterday's Meals: June 17, 2016

Meals for yesterday June 17, 2016

S breakfast: 3 egg omelette, mushroom, spinach, tomato, cheese. 1 piece Trimtastic Zucchini Cake (THM cookbook) with chopped strawberries. Green tea

S lunch: 1/2 can tuna mixed with 1/2 mashed avocado. Cucumber sticks, green pepper slices, cheese. Another piece of yummy cake with chopped strawberries.

E dinner: Chicken and rice soup, thrown together like this: leftover chicken breast, 1/2 cup brown rice, sliced carrot. The carrot was cooked in 1 cup of chicken broth until tender. Then I threw the chicken and rice in, plus some pepper and garlic powder. Nummy

Snack with movie: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup mixed berries. 1 cup Skinny Pop popcorn 

Yesterday's Meals: June 16th, 2016

Meals for yesterday: June 16th, 2016

E Breakfast: Apple Pie Stovetop Granola (from the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook) with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. 1/2 cup cottage cheese (for added protein) with 3/4 cup frozen mixed berries thawed. Green tea

S Lunch: 1/2 can tuna mixed with 1/2 mashed avocado spread on 1 flax Wasa cracker. Spring Mix salad with radishes, green peppers, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese topped with oil/vinegar dressing.

S Dinner: Trim Train Taco Soup topped with shredded cheddar cheese. Grilled cheese made with 1/2 Lavash bread and a mix of mozzarella and cheddar cheese fried up in butter. Romaine with ranch dressing.

For dessert the rest of the family was celebrating Amelia's birthday with boxed chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I took this opportunity to make the Trimtastic Chocolate Zucchini Cake (from the THM Cookbook) for the first time. Yum! I also had several strawberries. 

Today's Meals: May 28th, 2016

Meals for today: May 28th, 2016

S Breakfast: 3 Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, green peppers, radishes, and spinach. Slice of Nuke Queen Bread toasted with butter. 1/2 container vanilla 000 yogurt with 1/2 cup mixed berries. Green tea

S Lunch: Leftover chicken (I had more than what is pictured. Ate some while making the children's lunch). Salad made with spring mix and ranch dressing. Green pepper slices. Nuke Queen bread with butter. 

Dessert was 2 pieces of skinny chocolate

S Dinner: Ended up eating out at Burger King. It was unplanned. Whopper with bacon and cheese, no bun with a side salad and ranch dressing. 

I had 1 serving of Aldi's 85% dark chocolate (Moser Roth) as dessert on the way home.

Today's Meals: May 27th, 2016

Meals for today: May 27th, 2016

E Breakfast: Egg white omelette with mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach with a tiny sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. 2 slices cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread with 1 wedge Aldi's brand spreadable cheese (like Laughing Cow Cheese) with some sugar free berry syrup (from Gwen's Nest) on top. Green tea.

S Lunch: Salad with romaine and spring mix, green pepper, radishes, mushrooms, muenster cheese, 1/2 can tuna fish with mayo, oil/vinegar dressing. Other half can of tuna with mayo on flax Wasa cracker. 1/2 a "serving" of skinny chocolate. 

S Dinner: Leftover pork roast (warmed up in chicken broth), Brussel sprouts with butter and seasoning (I would have loved more, but the children actually like brussel sprouts, shock shock), slice of Nuke Queen bread with butter (first time making it. It turned out a bit dry because I cooked it longer as I thought it wasn't fully cooked. I don't have a glass bread pan,so I used a Corning Ware bowl, so I wasn't sure how long to cook it.)

Dessert was another few pieces of skinny chocolate. Which took me 1 piece above the recommended 1/3 of a batch per day. But, it is so good! 

Today's Meals: May 19th, 2016

Meals for today: May 19, 2016

S Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 slices turkey bacon, 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1 cup sliced strawberries. Green tea.

E Lunch: 1 3/4 cup Trim Train Taco Soup (had to share with the hubby), 1/2 serving Baked Tostitos Scoops, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup Caramel Gluccie Pudding (from the cookbook)

S Dinner: A serving of low carb pancakes from Gwen's Nest with some butter and sugar free berry syrup (also from Gwen's Nest). 4 sausage links. 1/2 container 000 banana creme yogurt with 1/2 tbs peanut flour.

Today's Meals: May 17, 2016

Meals for May 17, 2016

E Breakfast: Stovetop Granola- Apple Pie version with 1/2 chopped apple. 1/2 cup plus a little more of unsweetened almond milk, container of 000 strawberry yogurt.

S Lunch: Chicken salad made with leftover chicken breast, mayo, mustard and seasonings, spread on a Wasa Flax cracker. Spring mix with 1/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup blueberries, drizzle of olive oil. Green pepper slices and pickle slices.

S Dinner: 2 cups Trim Train Taco Soup, Grilled cheese made with 1/2 Lavash bread with mozzarella and cheddar, fried in butter.

S Snack: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and some turkey slices

Today's Meals: May 16, 2016

Meals for May 16, 2016

S breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, ham slice, 1/2 container 000 vanilla yogurt with 1/2 cup mixed berries. Green tea.

Deep S lunch: Salad (romaine, spinach, spring mix), green pepper, mushrooms, chicken breast, oil/vinegar dressing, deviled eggs (made with 1/2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp mustard, 1/8 tsp apple cider vinegar and seasonings (I use pepper, mineral salt, garlic powder).

E Dinner: 1 cup Dreamfield's pasta, ground turkey, 1/2 cup no-sugar-added spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Lettuce, carrot sticks, 2 slices Ezekiel bread with 1 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese, 1/2 apple (Picture shows the entire apple, but half of it went to the kids)

Today's Meals: May 15, 2016

Meals for May 15, 2016

S Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs (because I had them in the fridge and didn't have time for anything else), a small slice of ham and 1/2 container 000 vanilla mixed with mixed berries.

E Lunch: 2 slices Ezekiel bread with 1 wedge Aldi's version of Laughing Cow cheese, turkey slices, mustard, spring mix. cucumber sticks, green pepper, mushrooms with 1 wedge laughing cow cheese, 1/2 serving baked Tostitos, 1/2 cup grapes

S Dinner: Grilled cheese made with 1/2 piece of the Joseph's Lavash bread, cheese and pepperoni. Just Like Campbell's Tomato soup (From the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook). 4 strawberries.

Fuel Pull Dessert: Caramel Gluccie Pudding (From the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook)

Today's Meals: May 14, 2016

Meals for May 14, 2016

E Breakfast: Apple Pie Spice Stove Top Granola (from the THM Cookbook) with 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk. 1/2 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup mixed berries. Green tea.

Deep S Lunch: 2 Hard boiled eggs with salad (romaine and spring mix) green pepper, cucumber, mushrooms, chicken, oil/vinegar dressing.

S Dinner: at the truck stop while visiting with hubby's parents: 3 egg omelette with tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, pepper, bacon and cheese. Had them substitute the hashbrowns for mixed veggies (celery, pea pod thingy, broccoli, carrots)

Dessert on the way home: 2 squares 86% chocolate with 4 largish strawberries..

Today's Meals: May 13, 2016

Meals for May 13, 2016

Deep S breakfast: The usual 3 scrambled eggs with veggies, today's were broccoli, green pepper, mushrooms, and spinach. Pan fried radishes. Green tea.

S Lunch: 1 can tuna fish mixed with 1/2 mashed avocado. 1/2 on a flax wasa cracker, and the other half over some lettuce with cheese. Green pepper slices. 1/2 vanilla 000 yogurt (Oikos from Dannon) with 1/2 cup mixed berries. Couple small pieces Treeces (Recipe in the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook page 378).

E Dinner: Made a yummy E soup with veggies, chicken, and rice. Will be sharing the recipe in a bit. 1 slice Ezekiel bread with 1 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese (there new asiago flavor is yum). Lettuce and tomato salad.

Snack: What was left of the soup with a container 000 vanilla with 1 tbs peanut powder mixed in. Half a bag skinny girl popcorn.

Weekly Weigh-In January 13th, 2016

I found this Wednesday Weekly Weigh-In Linky over at From the Desk of Adena F last week. 

I have been fully on the Trim Healthy Mama plan for a couple of weeks now, and I am quite encouraged by the results. I have been eating 100% on plan. I finally found some Lavash bread, which is on plan and tried adding that into my meals a couple of times. Unfortunately, I think that is what caused me to feel bad on Sunday night. I was gassy and my stomach was hurting. I decided to stop eating it and go back to eating almost exactly what I ate the first week. I plan to add the Lavash bread in again in a couple of weeks to see if I have the same reaction. I'm sort of hoping not, because the wraps I made for lunch were delicious. 

I have exercised all but one day this week. I was going to exercise in the evening on Sunday, but as mentioned above, I wasn't feeling well, so I passed. We have been to the Y a few more times since last week. We went on Saturday, Monday, and again tonight. I have been using the treadmill for 20 minutes plus 5 minutes cool down, the recumbent bike for 10 minutes plus 5 minutes cool down, the hand bike for 5 minutes the first time, and 10 minutes this past time. I have also started some weight training, but don't ask me what all the exercises on those machines are.

The Winter Whiteout at the Y starts next week, so I will be able to share about that next week.

I know I promised pictures of my meals, but at this point I am a bit tired and want to get to bed and I don't really want to grab the pictures from my phone. I will try taking pictures with the camera this week, if I can find the batteries. 

Here is my beginning weigh in:

And my weight from last week:

And here is this week's weight:

Down 2.2 pounds from last week

Total weight loss from December 28th: 7.3 pounds

Weekly Weigh-In January 6th, 2016

I found this Wednesday Weekly Weigh-In Linky over at From the Desk of Adena F. This fits in well with my other challenge in my one Trim Healthy Mama Challenge Facebook group, so I will be sharing my updates on Wednesday. 

I have been fully on the Trim Healthy Mama plan for about a week now, and I was thrilled when I stepped on my Wii Balance Board and discovered I had lost 5.1 pounds. That is 5.1 pounds in just one week! I couldn't believe it. I am not expecting that rate to continue, but it sure has given me another boost of motivation. 

Along with eating on plan, I have been exercising almost every day. In the morning I exercise on the WiiFitU using one of my routines, and at night I use the Free Step on the WiiFitU to step while we watch our show. The hubby has also gotten us a membership at the YMCA, so we went there to exercise this past Monday. I have to say, that was way out of my comfort zone, but I did end up enjoying it. I spent 25 minutes on the recumbent bike and 15 on the treadmill. Neither of which I had used before. I have also signed up for their Winter Whiteout Wellness and Weight Loss Challenge. It runs from January 18 through March 13 and I am looking forward to the extra motivation and help.

I will share pictures of some of my favorite meals next week. I am hoping to add a bit of variety into the dishes I prepare, as I have been eating a lot of eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, and a lot of salad for lunch and dinner. 

Here's a little looksie. 

I made this yummy meal tonight for dinner. Cheeseburger with sauteed mushrooms on a bed of lettuce and spinach leaves with green beans on the side. Doesn't it look tasty.

Here is my beginning weigh in:

And my weight from Monday:

Down 5.1 pounds!

Turning My Life Around in 2016

I can not believe it has been 2 years since I posted here. Poor neglected blog. Unfortunately, my last post was about turning my life around in 2014, and it didn't happen. It also didn't happen in 2015. What did happen is that I gained more weight. I am so upset and disappointed in myself right now. But, it is a new year. A new year means a new start. I am going to put the past behind me and start fresh. Not only that, if I mess up one day, or one week, I am going to remember that it does not mean my entire year is ruined. As the Bible reminds us in Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23:

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

The Lord is merciful and gracious. I need to remember that. He doesn't give up on us, and I can not give up on myself.

I also need to remember the promise in Philippians 4:13:

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

This year is about me getting healthy. "Healthy" is my word of the year.

There are some things I want to get back to and some changes that are going to be new. I have started reading the Trim Healthy Mama book that I was given early last year. I had read a small portion of it last year, after a friend gifted me the book. However, I tried to start without fully understanding the plan, plus I wasn't able to get all the different foods needed. It's not that there are a whole bunch of fancy foods needed. In fact there are those who follow the plan without any special ingredients. I just didn't know that at the time. This week I discovered there is a Trim Healthy Mama group for those who are following the plan without any special ingredients. I also found a Trim Healthy Mama who had a blog titled Gwen's Nest and shares a Quick Start Guide. I am hoping these new resources will help me to stay faithful this year.

Here are my goals for this year.

• I am going to drink my green tea regularly. Just once a day for now.
• I am going to make sure I drink at least 8 cups of water each day.
• I am going to stay as close to on plan as I can when it comes to the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
• I need to exercise at least 5 times a week.

So, what are your goals for the new year?

I will be sharing monthly updates on how my goals are going, plus I am hoping to share a weekly update, but I am not going to promise that. The weekly update will share what I have been eating during the week and what my weight has been doing (hopefully going down). My monthly posts will also share pictures.

Turning My Life Around in 2014

*This post contains my affiliate link

Really? 7 months since I posted here? How can that be? I just reread all my posts from 2013 and am so disappointed in myself. I have stopped juicing and exercising and have just about reverted to my previous diet. I know I have gained weight back, I just don't know exactly how much as I haven't gotten on the balance board recently. I did get on it for a while a month or so ago when we got the WiiFit U and I was getting active again and losing weight. But I think I am back to where I was this time last year. So very frustrating.

The new year is drawing near and I guess it is time to refocus. There are some things I want to get back to and some changes that are going to be new.

Here is what I would like to get back to:

• I am going to drink my green tea regularly, at least once a day, preferably twice.
• I am going to make sure I drink at least 9 cups of water each day.
• I am going to go back to eating eggs with veggies for breakfast with a half a grapefruit (or another fruit) on the side.
• I am going to go back to eating salad for lunch.
• I need to exercise at least 5 times a week.
• I am going to try really hard to juice for my dinner meal at least 3 days out of the week to start with. In fact, I just found out about All About Juicing's 21 Day Juicing Challenge and I am going to attempt one juice a day from January 11th through the 31st. 

Along with bringing back these healthier eating goals, I am also going to be getting wheat out of my diet and keeping it out. I have been eating wheat-free off and on since the beginning of November. I slipped a bit at Thanksgiving and then the week before Christmas and Christmas itself was a disaster when it came to eating wheat-free. It was a disaster in two ways. First, I gave in to way to much wheat, a sub, pumpkin roll, cookies, sausage rolls, dinner rolls and I am sure there were more. Second, by giving it to these temptations I was painfully reminded of my big reason for going wheat-free in the first place. My tummy has been killing me. And I haven't seen to keep completely wheat-free since then (pizza yesterday, grrr).

I will be sharing some details about why I am going wheat-free later this week, but I will share that reading the book, Weeding Out Wheat by Luke and Trisha Gilkerson has made a huge impact in my life.

So, what are your goals for the new year?

Blogging Through the Alphabet: E is for Exercise

As I continue down this healthy living path I have been attempting to increase my exercise again. After each baby I get lazy, sit around too much, eat unhealthily and gain weight. Not only am I trying to improve my diet, I know I have to get moving to burn calories. 

Really, I have no excuse for not exercising now. No excuse but pure laziness. 

When I was trying to lose weight years ago, the only exercise I could really do was walk. Walking around town before work was my daily exercise. Unless it was raining, then I had that excuse not to exercise. Then I purchased an aerobics DVD from First Place, which helped me to exercise when I couldn't get outdoors. This was years ago, before I met Harold, while I was still working at the Montessori. 

In recent years I have been alternating between the DVD, walking and our new toy, the Wii Fit Plus.There was a time when I was doing a bit of the WiiFit Plus and the DVD, though that has been a while. I love the WiiFit Plus, but it is hard to get a good cardiovascular workout in as even with the "aerobic" exercises you constantly have to stop and wait for the program to go through giving you your points and telling you how many calories you burned and then you have to choose a new exercise. I'm not knocking the WiiFit Plus, it has been there for me quite some time, but there are definitely some things that could be improved upon. It is great for a beginner though. 

I have been following my own made up routine these last couple of months, though I have been sporadic and that needs to change. I like to start with My Routine, where I can select my yoga and strength exercises. I do about 18 minutes of this for warm up purposes. Then I move on to the Stepping and the Rhythm Boxing. I follow that with some bicycling and the Obstacle Course. Then I cool down with some more stepping and balance activities. 

I like to get my exercise out of the way before the children wake up, otherwise I rarely find time to fit it in. When I do exercise with the children up, they tend to distract me and I don't do as well. Especially when a certain little boy keeps getting underfoot. But the constant bickering doesn't help either when it comes to me being able to concentrate.  

So, here is the plan for the next 30 days. We are finishing up the first round of our Biggest Loser Challenge in our Facebook Weight Loss Accountability Group in two weeks. Then we will be starting up another challenge. These challenges really do keep me motivated. To help me along with this challenge I have accepted Amanda's "Spring into Fitness" challenge. Amanda blogs over at Honor Your Health and she is starting this neat little challenge to exercise for 30 minutes every day for 30 days in an effort to regain the habit of exercising. I think I will take a picture of my activity log to share daily here on the blog. Maybe I will include what I have eaten during the day on this post, but maybe not. It takes a lot more time to write down what I am eating than it does to upload a picture of the exercises I completed. We'll see.

If I exercise using the DVD or take a walk I will log that to share. I am really hoping to alternate between all three so I can keep from getting bored. 

If you would like to join in on this challenge, head on over to Amanda's blog Honor Your Health to see the details and her reminder of exercise precautions. 

Here's to getting moving and improving our health!

Blogging Through the Alphabet: D is for Diet

Diet...not in the terms of "I'm on a diet."

But, from dictionary.com- the food and drink that a person or animal regularly consumes. 

I have tried going on different diets in the past. But, as is quite common, once I was off that diet, the weight came back. I really, truly want to be able to change my eating habits and be able to continue with a healthy lifestyle. I've heard it said that it takes 21 days for a habit to form. When I looked it up, I discovered that time frame is actually a myth. I read that it could take closer to two months or even a year (or more) to develop a habit, to make it a part of your life. 

I have to say, that took me by surprise. I figured, if I could consciously work toward making these healthy lifestyle changes for 3 weeks it would be easier and easier to continue with them. Now, it appears, that the conscious decision making is going to be a lot harder. 

So, what habits/lifestyle changes am I wanting to change in regards to my diet?

I have started to juice again and I would like to continue. It surely would be easier if I didn't have to prepare food for the rest of the family and if it didn't take me so long to prepare the juice. But I plan to persevere. My first week and a half were great. I lost 7 pounds in one week. I was juicing in place of eating dinner. Then it started to go down hill with family coming over bearing food and wanting to make sweet desserts. Oh, and going to the movie and chowing down on popcorn probably didn't help. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to stay faithful to my healthier diet since that weekend. 

Here is what I want to get back to.

Breakfast:

2 egg whites with veggies (spinach, mushrooms, bell pepper and grape tomatoes)

This is either served with a fruit (preferable blueberries) or in a wrap. 

Green Tea

Lunch:

Big salad (If I had a wrap at breakfast, I have the salad with salad dressing. If I didn't have the wrap at breakfast, I make my salad in the wrap which I first spread with hummus.)

The salad may consist of: Romaine, baby spinach, mushrooms, pepper, onion, tomato, cucumber, sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower,with some dried fruit on top. I add a serving of vinaigrette dressing.  

Dinner:

A few cups of veggie/fruit juice which I juice with my Champion Juicer to get those living nutrients out. I have been using a fellow blogger's recipe for Kid-Friendly Green Juice (though the girls don't like it).  Marcy at Juicing Momma has several other recipes that I would like to try. Plus I have found some other recipes online that have intrigued me. I plan on sharing more about those at a later date. I actually found an article titled, "Best Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss." After I read through it some more I will start implementing and sharing.

Then I may have a bit of the dinner, though I have been known to not have anything besides the juice. 

Throughout the day I drink lots of water. The goal is at least 9. If I feel really hungry between meals I have allowed myself to eat some crackers. The problems start when I give in to the unhealthy choices. 

As you can see, I am trying to cut out meat and dairy again, along with limiting the carbs. I would slowly like to get rid of sugar, salt and white flour as well. These are some things I did without when I was following the Hallelujah Acres "diet" several years ago. 

Hopefully, I can start to be more faithful to my plan.

Time to Refocus and Get Healthy

I hadn't realized it had been so long since I had posted on this poor neglected blog. So, I guess it is time for a little update. Baby Harold was born Feb 17th via c-section. Yes, that is 3 1/2 months ago. Would you like to see a picture of him?

So, he is now 3 1/2 months old and I am almost as heavy as I was when I went in to have him. NOT what I wanted to do. I have tried talking myself into eating better and getting off my duff to exercise, but I just haven't  had the motivation. I am not sure what happened yesterday, but suddenly I was looking for weight loss challenges on blogs again, because I know that accountability and little bit of competition are what helped me before. I know I can't lose a whole heck of a lot too fast as I am nursing, but eating the junk food is one of my big downfalls right now and that isn't great for the baby anyway. So, I figured, if I start eating healthier, don't snack and get moving I will not have any adverse effects on the nursing as it is what I should be doing anyway. And it should lead to weight loss. At least I hope so, seeing as I am joining in on one challenge with a partner.

Anyway, a little bit of a summary of my weight ups and downs.

I was at my lowest weight on July 11, 2011- 217 pounds exactly. 

I started gaining weight with the pregnancy. Gaining a bit more than I wanted to because of the inability to exercise how I wanted to and eating poorly.

Right before the baby was born I weighed in at 246.3 (ouch! The only good thing is I didn't get near as heavy as I did with Hannah. I had been up to 261 with her.)

I lost a good bit giving birth. When I weighed myself when I got home I was down to 228.6.

I had one more week of loss-225.1 before I started gaining weight.

I went from 225.1 to 245.2 between February 27th and May 28th. I was averaging about 2 pounds of weight GAIN a week. That is worse than when I was pregnant for crying out loud. 

I think seeing these numbers and realizing where I was headed is what brought me to my senses. I refuse to get to the same weight I was when the baby was born. No way, no how. Yes, I was a pound away from being as heavy as I was the day before I went in to have the baby. So, I decided it was time to take action and FAST. Time to find some blog challenges. Time to stop the SNACKING. Time to start MOVING. 

I decided I needed to make some small goals. Here are my plans for June. I am so hoping they are going to work.

1. No snacking after dinner. (Only exception is Saturday for movie and popcorn night.)
2. Get to bed by 11:00 or soon thereafter depending on baby (yes I know I failed on this tonight).
3. Get moving somehow everyday.
4. Dessert at lunch is fruit.
5. Dessert at dinner is a healthy snack. Like today we had graham crackers and fat free cool whip. 
6. I will allow myself a unhealthy dessert once or twice a week (if I am making something with the girls.)
7. I will write down everything I eat. I am not going to attempt to sit down and figure out my calories at this point. But I will keep a record of what I eat.

So, my starting weight for this summer of weight loss is 242.1

I am still 18.8 pounds lighter than my highest weight in Dec of 2010.