Maintaining Not Gaining!

 

 

 

I went to a Zumbathon a few weeks ago, and the newspaper man was there taking pictures.  This is one that made the online version of the newspaper.  Probably no one but me and maybe a friend who knew I'd be at that zumbathon would recognize that this is me and Anastasia.  Can you see where I labeled myself and Stasia?  Me in a gray shirt, Stasia in black.  Anyways, you'd think that seeing a picture of yourself excercising in tight-ass (literally) black pants in the newspaper might freak a girl out.  Not so much, I am actually quite proud that I don't look too bad at least I don't think I look too bad.  I am proud of the progress I've made so far this year.  I still have pounds to loose and inches to shave off, and I'll continue to slowly work at it, but for now, I'm pleased with myself. 

 

My brother in law is visiting from California, I guess it's been around 15 months since we've seen each other in person.  He told me, kind of out of the blue, (re: we weren't talking about dieting or excercise or anything like that) that he could tell I've lost some weight and that I look good.  It is so good to hear that from someone else.  The people around us see us every day so they don't always notice the changes we make, but for someone who hasn't seen me in awhile to mention that I look like I've lost weight, is Awesome!  I told him "thanks, that is so nice to hear, I've lost around 15 pounds this year give or take, I still have a ways to go but it's getting hard, the holiday's are coming and the pumpkin flavors are out!"  LOL  My MIL was there too and she said for me to just concentrate on maintaining and not gaining.

 

I still haven't replaced the batteries in my scale.  I don't feel like I've gained any and some days I feel lighter.  All of my size 16 jeans are too big, I can fit nicely into one size 12 and one size 10 pair that I have.  I can wear a size Large sized shirt and sweatshirt comfortably instead of an XL.

 

We signed papers to refi our house the other day.  We stand to save around $350/month.  I have not used our credit cards all year, I am looking forward to using that extra $350/month to pay down some credit card balances.  2013 will be a continued year of New Year - New Me with a debt diet and continued work on changing and maintaining our healthier eating and excercising habits.  2012 has been a good start, but I am commited to continuing this process. Maybe 2013 should be more like New Year - New Us.  My husband is hunting this week, hoping to get a cow elk, he used to be a meat cutter at a local grocery store when he was in High School.  We are pretty confident that we can cut up our elk ourselves.  We're looking forward to having a freezer full of lean elk meat that should save some money on food and save some calories too.  

 

For these next 2 1/2 months of 2012 I will concentrate on  Maintaining Not Gaining, both in my weight and my families debt. 

 



5 Days in a Row!

So far this week, I have worked out everyday.  Yep, 5 days in a row!  Monday-Friday.  Oh yeah baby! 

Monday - Yardwork, raking, hoeing, mowing and stacking wood.  It was indeed a workout, my arms, shoulders, and neck were sore and my hands are still recovering.  Also a 2 mile bike ride, kind of leisurly since it was with my oldest daughter, but we did a lot of hills and it's hard work getting up those.

Tuesday - 1 mile walk with kids, 1 hour Zumba class.

Wednesday - 1 hour aerobics class, 1 mile walk with kids

Thursday - 1 mile walk with kids, 1 hour Zumba class

Friday - 1+ mile walk with kids, 30 minutes of various excercises in my room this morning.  Sit ups, Crunches, Pushups, Weight Lifting.  I didn't have the time to go out to the aerobics class, but I did make myself do a bit of excercising this morning.  Worked up a sweat.

The batteries in my scale are dead, so I haven't weighed in this week.  I don't really want to.  I'm feeling kind of PMS'y and bloated so I figure I won't be happy with the scale, I'll wait until the end of next week after all the PMS-related stuff is over for the month, that's always when I get the best results on the scale. 

I've been drinking more water and trying to watch what I'm eating, not been getting seconds on stuff.

Feeling good about myself this week.  We don't have any big plans for the weekend, soccer with the kids on Saturday, Church on Sunday.  Hoping to get in at least a short run with the kids tomorrow, or a bike ride.  On Sunday we'll probably go get a load of wood, maybe a bike ride with the kids in the morning.   Moving and Grooving - that's what I'm going for!

Trying to Re-Commit

This morning I weighed myself, 183.4 is what came up on the scale.  I guess that means I'm still down 10 pounds for 2012, but up 4 pounds from earlier this year, back when I was really working on losing weight. 

I would like to eventually get down to around 150, but at this point I'm going to really aim for 173, that will be a 20 pound weight loss for the year.  Then next year, I will work on the other 23 pounds.  Someone told me, or I read it somewhere, something like "It took longer than a few months to put on those extra pounds, so don't expect them to come off in just a few months".

I'm not excercising as much as I should be, but when I do get a workout in, I really do enjoy it. It makes me feel good, energized and fit, and good about myself.  Last night I realized that I didn't have any of the kids I babysit coming until around 10:30am, so I told my husband that I was going to ride bikes with our kids to school, then go over to the track and get a run in.  This morning I woke up and I really thought about staying home and enjoying a few hours to myself, but then I figured, all I would do probably was sit and watch TV, so I convinced myself to stick to my plan. 

I rode with Graham to school, then rode over to the track, I ran 2.08 miles in 26:20, a little less than a 13 mile/minute pace.  Not bad.  I also probably rode my bike around 1.5 miles.  I'm going to really try to go to Zumba tonight too.  I take my oldest daughter to Zumba with me, she really enjoys it, and she's fun to watch.  She gives me the motivation to keep going to class.

Last night I was standing at the counter in my bathroom, wrapped in a towel and brushing my teeth.  Brian was in there too, I felt his hand kind of go down the side of my body, I thought he was maybe feeling the towel because it looked soft?  So I asked him, "is it soft?"  He told me, "I like that curve, it looks nice."  It made me feel good about myself.  I was not a skinny girl when he met me, but I was closer to that 150 pound mark, I am sure he knows that I'll never be a skinny girl, I don't really think he's want that anyways, I've got curves and I think he likes them.  It was nice to be reminded of that last night, and it's nice to actually see some of my curves coming back instead of me just being a big blob.  Let's face it, there is a difference in being curvy and being a fat blob, right.  I had 3 pregnancies, I gained weight, I tried to get back to myself, everytime I started getting myself back into a routine I would get pregnant again and finally I gave up.  My youngest is 5 now, I really don't think anymore pregnancies are in my future.  No excuses now, I want to get back to where I should be.  I need to just keep reminding myself of that. 

Overall, so far this year, I do feel healthier, I've lost a few pounds, I'm happy about that.  What I'm most happy about though is that I've gained stamina, I've realized that I enjoy excercising, I have more energy, I'm getting a few curves back.  I still love food, I always will, I need to work on portion control and keeping up with the excercise and someday I'll get to where I want to be.

The Color Run Albuquerque 2012

 

Last weekend, I traveled to Albuquerque to do  The Color Run, it's about a 4 hour drive for me, I met my cousin Tracy there, she came from Lubbock, TX and she had about a 5 hour drive.  This is me before the run, all nice and clean.  You start out with a white shirt and as you run, there are color stations where volunteers color you with a substance, kind of like cornstarch with food coloring.

 

It's a 5K race, we got there around 7:30 Saturday morning, the race started at 8am.  I heard that there was 7,000 people there.  They let us go in waves of 500-1000 people.  We were in the 2nd or 3rd wave of people to go.  It took me 38:23 to finish.  When I was getting back to the finish, there were still people starting.  I thought to myself, there was no way I'd want to be in those last groups and see so many people finishing when I hadn't even started yet.  I didn't run the whole thing, I think around mile 2 I started doing walk/run/walk/run intervals.  Tracy ran the whole thing and she only finished about 5 minutes or less before I did.  I told her to go on ahead, I didn't want to make her wait for me.  

 

Here we both after the whole race and festival were over, we're pretty colored up!  So much fun.

 

After the runners start finishing, back at the finish line there is a color throw about every 15 minutes.  All of the runners gather in front of the stage and throw their color packets up in the air, this is Tracy at the end of the color throw, when the dust is still settling.  I like this picture.

 

 

Tracy took this photo, it's right in the  midst of the color throw.  Pretty neat.

Here I am in the color throw, Tracy took this one too, and she had a glop of color on the lens of her camera, so I'm a little blacked out, still a pretty cool shot. 

I had a great weekend, missed my kid and husband for sure, but it was nice to be away from them.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

This run was so fun and all the money raised went towards Ronald McDonald House, I think the Color Run donates to chairities in the cities they hold the runs in.  I saw lots of different people participating, families, teenageres, older folks, novice runners like me, and the more serious runners too.  People were dressed up, lots of long crazy socks, lots of tutu's also.  I'm looking forward to signing up for another one the next time they come to Phoenix.  I think they did one in January in Phoenix, so maybe January 2013 there will be another one and I think I'd either try to get some friends from here to go, or take my kids. 

Way too long

The last time I posted was April 27, it's now August 22.  Wow, the only excuse I have is that I was busy.  Spring gets busy because the kids start Little League and they are ending the school year.  There are always lots of activites going on and I get busy with my PTO stuff.  I also started babysitting around the last time I posted, so that added to the business!  Summer flew by, the kids were out for 10 weeks and we had something going on all the time.  I think from May until now there have only been about 2 weekends when we didn't have plans or something going on.  And even now we have big weekend activities for the next 4, and 4 more after that where at this point all we have schedualed so far are Soccer games.  Before I know it, we'll be rolling into the Holiday season and we all know how that is a crazy busy time.  It just seems as if life is moving way too fast these days.  I need to try to find a way to slow it down.

Most of the summer was hit and miss with the excercising.  I rode bikes with the kids, I swam, I ran about 5 times.  It was hot, stuff was going on, my kids were home, I was babysitting, we went camping, we took a trip to Elko where my parents live, we had family visiting, there were town celebrations, the list goes on and on. 

School has started back up again, we are getting back into a routine.  I am happy to say that I have gotten back to an excercising routine again too.  I hope I can keep it up.  Last week I worked out 6 out of 7 days, and this week I'm on track to do 5 out of 7.  Not too shabby.  I gained some weight back over the summer and I'm ready to take it back off again, and hopefully keep it off this time and lose a bit more.  I haven't gotten back on the scale yet, I'm kind of nervous to see how much I gained back, I think I'll get on the scale Monday morning and use that at my starting point this time around.

Here's my new excercise scheduale

Monday - 1 hour free aerobic class at my church in the morning 8-9am
Tuesday - I usually run and ride bike in the morning after I take my kids to school, then 7-8pm Stasia and I go to Zumba.
Wednesday - 8-9am aerobic class at my church (I could go to Zumba 815-915pm but it's kind of late and I don't go to this class very often if I miss a Tues or Thurs I'd go but, by that time of night the kids are in bed and I'm ready to have some time with Brian)
Thursday - try to fit a run in sometime during the day and Zumba with Stasia 7-8pm
Friday - Aerobics 8-9am
Saturday - off day or bike ride with the kids
Sunday - a run with Brian in the morning

Also, M-F I walk 1 mile roundtrip to go get Graham from school, he's in Kindergarten this year and goes 1/2 days, he rides his bike in the morning with his sister, but he gets out right before lunch and I think he's too little to ride bike home by himself, so I either ride my bike or walk down there to get him.  It just kind of depends on which kids are here those days.  I have one girl I watch who can ride bike with me to go get him, but there are 2 other kids who don't have bikes here so when they are here I usually walk, pushing one in a stroller.  Ther've been a few days when I rode the 1 mile roundtrip 3 times, in the morning to drop them off, midday to get Graham, and in the afternoon to pick up the girls too.  If I don't have extra kids I like to go with them.  They like me to ride them to school and pick them up and it's a good way to fit in a little extra excercise.

The weather is cooling down some, still hot, it can get into the 90's, but the mornings aren't bad.  I'm enjoying riding my bike around town.  Last week there was one day when I rode bike to school with the kids, did crossing guard, rode over to the High School and did my run, then rode over to Ace Hardware to get stuff to can pickles, rode over to the eye Dr to pick up my contacts, came home, had a shower and then rode down to school to pick up Graham.  I think all together that day I rode 5 miles and ran 3 miles.   This past Monday, Brian was off work, so we did a lot of bike riding, we took kids to school on our bikes, I went to aerobics, then he rode with me to get Graham, we all rode over to the grocery store and then back home, then later in the day we rode down to get the girls. 

This weekend, I am going to Albuquerque to do the Color Run with  my cousin.  I am so excited!  I am leaving Friday around 11 and coming home sometime Sunday.  Just me, leaving the kids and Brian home.  My mother in law is coming to pick up the kids Friday afternoon when they get out of school, she's keeping them Friday night and Brian will pick them up Saturday evening after work.  Then he'll have them Saturday night and Sunday.  The kids are really looking forward to a sleepover at Grandma's and a night with just daddy.  I am looking forward to some me time and to seeing my cousin!  She tells me that we haven't seen eachother in 15 years, geez that sounds like a long time, but I think she might be right. 

Hopefully I can blog more often, Monday or Tuesday I'll try to post my weight (EEK!) and pictures from the Color Run.

4-27-12

I haven't posted here in WAY too long.  I don't have a lot of time but thought I'd write a quick little update.

~I finished C25K!  I have enjoyed teaching my body to run and have progressed into running outside now, instead of the gym.  I really like running on this trail at a local park.  I have decided that 4 laps around the trail equals 5K, so I try to run at least 4 laps everytime I go.  I've gotten to where I do a 5K in 29 minutes.  The most I've done is 6 laps (so what's that?  7.5K?), that took me something like 50 minutes.

~I signed up for my first run, The Color Run in Albuquerque, NM August 25th!  It's about a 5 hour drive for me, I'm gonna meet my cousin there and do it with her.  I even think I'm gonna leave my husband and kids home and have a girls weekend!  So excited!

~I've also signed up for 2 more charity runs. 
The first one is this weeknd, a virtual 5K, I paid $15 online to enter, and then I run 5K anytime, anywhere this weekend and post my time online and then I'm entered into the drawing.  100% of the $15 goes to JDRF or Juvenille Diabetes Reasearch Foundation, which is a cause close to my heart since my daugher has Type 1 Diabetes.  For more info, or to sign up go here.
The second one a local 4 mile run, on May 12, it's $20 and starts at 7am at the Snowflake Little League Field (reg at 6am).  This benefits a local boy Zach who has cancer.  My daughter Kortnie is friends with Zach's sister and she wants to do the run with me, so it'll probably be more like a walk for us.  I believe they will also be serving breakfast for $5 at that one.  For more info on that check out the Facebook page Keep Zach in the Game.  (there will also be a bake sale at the Little League Opening day tomorrow, April 28th that benefits him and a Diamondbacks ticket raffle too)

~I'm thinking of doing a triatholon in September which benefits the local pool here, to help them get a new roof.  I think it's something like swim 30 laps, run 5 miles and bike 7 miles.  Yikes!  I hate to sign up for that one because it's so far off and I'm not really sure what we'll be doing then since it's Labor Day weekend.

~Just found out last night that there is a Zumbathon (3 hours of Zumba!) on May 5th which the Show Low PD and FD are putting on to raise money for Special Olympics.  It's a worthwhile cause and I love to do Zumba so my girls and I might do that too.
 
~I have not lost any more weight, I've been stuck around 179-180 for awhile now.  I'm not really working at losing the way I should be though, at least I haven't gained any that I've lost, right!?  I really need to do measurments again to see how I'm going on that front.

I think that's about it for now.  Spring is here, Little League has started, we're down to the last 6 weeks of school, which means between school events, ball games and practices, PTO stuff and other summer things coming up, we are super busy, my May and June are packed!  Gotta love Spring!

50 Day Challenge

Over the Weekend, my cousin Kim posted on Facebook that she was going to challenge herself to work out every day for 50 days in a row. She said even if it's only a 10 minute workout she was gonna do it. She asked if anyone was willing to join her.

I decided to join her. The White Mountain Biggest Loser Competition I was in is over and this is just the thing to keep me in the workout spirit. I admit that the last 2 weeks I've slacked off, I still have been getting in 3 or 4 workouts a week, but not the 5 or 6 I had previously been getting in. I don't have free access to the gym anymore, so for now I'm going to be working out at home using videos that stream on my Netflix, going to the High School Track to run, Riding my Bicycle, or going to the local park that has a 3/4 mile walking/jogging trail which also has excercise stations along it. I'll also continue going to Zumba classes, my friend does 4 classes a week M-Th, I'd like to get myself going to at least 2 per week. Monday's are hard for me to go, class is not until 8pm and my husband has all day Monday off so I hang out with him and we do chores around the house or whatever and by the time 8pm rolls around I am ready to relax. I'm really going to aim for T-TH.

50 Days of Working Out here I come April 9 - May 27

So far my cousin Kim, my SIL Jess, another cousin Tracy, my friend Linda and a FB friend Tara have joined in our Challenge. How about you?

4-05-12

It's been about 2 weeks since I last posted. I've kind of hit a stand still as far as weight loss goes.

Our kids had Spring Break March 26-30, we went camping on the weekend of the 25th-27th. When camping we didn't eat as healthy and LowER fat as we would have at home, so when I weighed in on the 28th I was 180.something so I was up around 1.5 pounds. Yesterday when I weighed in I was 180.6 so still up 1.5 pounds. That's okay though, I'm not too worried about it. I'm still going to keep plugging along and working on it.

I've gotten to Day 2 Week 8 of C25K, a couple days ago I ran 3.1miles in about 41 minutes. I've only been hit and miss with Zumba, but I'm working on getting back to a routine. Spring Break and having the kids home for a week kind of messed up my routine. I've also started babysitting so that kind of changes things up too. I'm going to be coaching my son's T-ball team and our first practice is tomorrow. They are 4-6 year olds and I don't expect to be getting too much excercise with them, but I'll be out moving around with them, so it's better than sitting around, right?

Easter is this weekend, Kortnie and I are planning on making a Cocoa-Almond-Coconut Cake for Easter dinner dessert, we're also having Ham and 3-Cheese Baked Mac & Cheese, so it's gonna be a fatty, carby dinner, so I'm working really hard on being good these days leading up to Sunday. I think it's okay to have a splurgy day every now and then.

I'll try to get better about blogging more consistantly, and I'll try to get back on my excercise bandwagon too. Happy Easter Ya'll!

3/21/12

It's Weigh In Wednesday, and I'm pleased with myself. I also measured myself since it's been a month since I last did it.

Here are the results...

Weight- 179.2 Down 3.2 from the last time I posted maybe 2 weeks ago, and

Down 13.8 for the year

Measurements

Neck 14" Down .25 total

Arm 13" Down .5 total

Chest 43" Up .5 (I'm ovulating and the girls are feeling full or I measured wrong sometime)

Waist 36" Down 3.5 total

Underbust 35 Down .5 total

Bum 45 Down 3 total

Thighs (both) 39.5 Down .75 total

R Thigh 25.5 Down 1.5 total

L Thigh 25.25 Down 1.5 total

Calf 16.5 same

Down 12 inches total for the year!

I realize my 2 individual thigh measurements don't add up to the measurment of both thighs, whatever, at least all the numbers are coming down. I also think it's hard to get a calf measurment to go down. I tried on a pair of those boots that go up your legs and the zipper wouldn't go up over my calf, I maybe need to try on more boots, Brian likes those long boots and he keeps pointing them out everywhere we go....maybe when Fall rolls around again I'll get me some!

I have to say I'm so happy to be in the 170's! When we got married I think I was around 145-155, marriage added weight, each kid I had added weight and then I was finally starting to make some progress, or so I thought, in January of 2009 I told myself I was going to try to lose some weight, I had a job at Walmart. I was working full time, I told myself, no more soda, no more fast food, and no more getting lunch at the Deli (fried food) at Walmart. I was doing good. I didn't have a scale at home, but I felt myself losing weight and inches and feeling better about myself. Of course I wasn't really tracking my weight, but other people were noticing my changed appearance and commenting on it too. And then November 2009,my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She was only 5 and was in 1/2 day Kindergarten, she was taking 5-7 shots of insulin a day and checking her Blood Sugar 7-10 times a day. I (felt) I had to quite my job and stay home and take care of her. Taking care of a kid with a chronic illness is hard, the stress of her diagnosis and the stress of learning how to take care of her, and the stress of having to hurt her killed me. Not to mention the added worries about money, I didn't work anymore and we now had new things to pay for, special food for Kortnie, medical items. I was out of sorts, depressed, angry, sad, stressed. All of that added up to me eating and crying and not sleeping and not excercising, gaining weight. (For the record I don't blame it on Korky, she can't help her disease, it's autoimmune, her white blood cells attacked her Pancreas and caused it to stop producing insulin). You would think that her being dx'd with T1D would make us as a family start eating better. Well, on the suface it did, I would make good meals for my family, but as soon as Korky would go to school in the morning or to bed at night, I'd eat all the things that I didn't want to eat in front of her. Now she can still have sweets and treats, but we do count her carbs and try to limit the amount of carbs and sweets she eats. Just like any person should do. Our bodies aren't meant to eat ice cream and candy every day.

Well, I'm happy to say that I have finally gotten my act together, I am back to a Pre-Korky'sDiabetes weight! I am making good changes. I still enjoy a treat every now and then, but not in excess, I don't eat crap that's bad for me when no one's looking. We as a family are eating more veggies and fruits, less processed sugars. We still enjoy our carbs, I mean we LOVE pasta, potatoes, and bread around here, but we are limiting it. We only eat pasta once a week instead of 3-4 times a week. I haven't had much soda since the beginning of the year. I have had a sip of Brian's soda maybe 3 times and I've had a Cherry Limeade from Sonic twice. I don't really crave soda anymore either. I love ice cream, but I have it more as a treat, I think I've had it maybe 4 times that I can think of since January. I've not had a whole candy bar in forever, but I have had a few individual pieces of candy here and there. I've been drinking tons of water too. Excercise used to be something I would say "Me, no, I don't do excercise, nah, excercise and I don't get along" but now, excercise is a part of my daily routine. I feel good when I excercise and I'm glad it's a part of my habit now. I read this quote somewhere "No one is ever sorry after a good workout" and it's true.

My ultimate goal is to get down around 150, I realize that at the rate I'm going it's going to take a while, maybe the whole year, but that's okay, I'd rather do it slow and steady, changing bad habits into good ones, and still enjoying treats every now and then. Also, excercise builds muscles and muscle weighs more than fat, but takes up less room, so if I'm losing inches and not pounds I'm okay with that. I don't expect I'll be looking fabulous in a bathing suit this summer, but who ever likes themselves in a bathing suit anyways?

3-9-12

I finished Week 5 of C25K this morning. I was really kind of nervous about that 20 minute run, but I did it! I had told myself that I'd try and run 10 minutes and then if I had to I'd stop and walk 1 minute and do the other 10, but I got to the 10 minute mark and I was okay so I pushed thru. I didn't run too fast though, I kept the treadmill around 4.7-5.0 MPH. I ended up doing 2.2 miles in 31 minutes. Pretty happy with myself. I also did 15 minutes fat burn program on the elliptical. I did not plan on doing the elliptical but when I go to the gym the treadmills were all being used, so I figured while I was waiting I'd do the ellpitical for a little while.

After I finished my run I went over to stretch and I was talking with a lady who also goes to the gym pretty much every morning. I don't really know here, I don't even know her name, but we've shared conversations. Anyways she asked me if I've been losing weight and I told her some (around 11#'s since Jan 1), and she told me that I was looking good and slimming down. I told her that I've lost inches and I feel slimmer but the weight doesn't come off as fast as I want it to, but overall I'm feeling good about my progress. She agreed with me that the actual weight is hard to lose, but as long as we feel good about ourselves and are also feeling healthier that's all that matters. We also talked about that irritating "Mama Pouch" that women have after having babies, and how it's the hardest part to get rid of. It was a good talk and it left me feeling good, it's good to hear that someone else can see the changes my body is making.

It's Friday and so that means that I won't really be doing much for excercise the next 2 days. I don't go to the gym on Sat/Sun, I might do a workout video on Netflix tomorrow morning, my Saturday isn't that jam packed this week. I have to pick up my Bountiful Basket tomorrow, and that's all I really have to do. I want to work on the girl's bedroom too though, so that will take up a large portion of the day, it really needs to be cleaned out, go through all of their clothes and get rid of the torn and stained ones, pass on or yardsale the too small ones. And go thru all of their junk, my girls collect so much stuff, they're like hoarders, I think it's genetic, their dad, their Grandma and their Great-Grandma all seem to "hang on" to too many things. (no offense if you are reading this Linda or Brian, you guys aren't bad hoarders or anything, you just like your stuff, LOL....you're not as bad as Grandma, but I can see where if Brian didn't have someone like me to make him throw stuff out, it could get crazy). I also want to finish painting the playroom today and tomorrow so we can put the floor down on Brian's day off which are Sun/Mon.

I'll be back at the gym Monday morning to start Week 6 of C25K, I looked ahead an I know day's 1 & 2 will be okay, but day 3, that has a 25 minute run in it, but hey if I can do the 20 minute run I can do the 25 minute one and I'm sure Week's 7-9 will have more and more long runs in them. I am going to finish this!

Have a great weekend Ya'll!

3-7-12

Wednesday Weigh In today, I was 182.4, so down 1.2 for the week. I'm slowly inching my way towards the 170's, I am anxious to get there!

I haven't been blogging quite as much, but I have been keeping up with my housework. Brian and I just pulled up the carpet in our "playroom", we're going to put down a wood laminate floor, this week I am painting before we put in the new floor. I really cleaned out that room and put a bunch of stuff in the yard sale pile. We have floor to ceiling shelves in there along one whole wall, about 1/2 of the shelves were full and I got them cleared up, so now only about 1/5 of the shelves are full. What I want to do is clean out the computer/arts&crafts room and move all of that stuff to the old playroom, then I'll make the computer room into a dining room. So that's what we're working on. Plus I'm going to do some Spring Cleaning over the next few weeks too.

I have been going to the gym faithfully Monday-Friday and I'm proud of myself for that, sometimes I do a workout video at home too. I have been doing this Carb Burn and Yoga video that is streaming on Netflix. My son Graham likes the Yoga video, he's pretty good at it, way more flexible than I am. It's cute to see him doing the excercises with me. This morning at the gym I did a 23 minute Fat Burning program on the Elliptical and Week 5 Day 2 on C25K. Tomorrow I am supposed to do Day 3 of Week 5 and I'm nervous about it. It has a 20 minute run. Not sure if I can make the whole 20 minutes, but I'm gonna try.

Since I weigh in on Wednesday morning, I use the rest of Wednesday to be my cheat day, but I didn't really go overboard today, I think I'm really starting to form new habits!

Breakfast: Hot Tea
Workout: Week 5 Day 2 of C25K, and 23 minutes on the Elliptical
Lunch: Turkey and Pepperoni on 9 grain toast, mustard and a Spicy Chicken Cup-O-Noodles (I guess that's pretty bad for me, but I like it), I also had some spicy cucumbers that I made
Snack: Hot Chocolate, 1oz Cocoa Rosted Almonds
Snack: 1 Ferro Rocher Hazelnut Chocolate thing
Dinner: 2 Cheeseburger Egg Rolls, 1 bowl of Broccoli, Potato, Cheese Soup
Dessert: 1,2,3 Cake with Berries and Whip Cream (not sure if I'm gonna have it or not)

Here are a few recipes

Spicy Cucumber (my mom makes these, low in calories, high in sodium probably)
take 2 or 3 cucumbers, peel and slice, put in a container, pour over the top 2 parts vinegar, 1 part soy sauce to cover cucumbers...example 1 cup vinegar 1/2 cup soy sauce....add 1 tbsp pepper flakes, or a chopped up jalapeno, cover and let sit in fridge overnight, eat and enjoy, they last quite awhile in the fridge, they're kind of like pickles I guess, to make them non-spicy just don't add the pepper flakes

Cheeseburger EggRolls (just found these on Pinterest, they are a Rachel Ray recipe)
12-14 egg roll wrappers
1#ground chuck
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp worsteshire
1/2 onion chopped
salt and pepper
Brown beef and onions in skillet, salt and pepper to taste, drain well, let cool a bit, stir in cheese, mustard and worsteshire. Lay egg rolls down brush water on all 4 sides. Put 1/3cup meat mixture on center of wrapper, fold 2 corners in and wrap up. Put seam side down on a baking rack (which is set on a cookie sheet), spray with cooking spray, sprinkle with sesame seeds (I didn't have sesame seeds so I didn't use any), bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, turning egg rolls over 1/2 way thru cooking.
Pretty sure you can make these and freeze them as well, just freeze before baking :)

3-2-1 Cake (my SIL Jess posted this recipe on Facebook)
1 bx Angel Food Cake Mix
1 bx any flavor Regular Cake Mix
Mix 2 cake mixes in an airtight container.
When ready for a treat, put 3 Tbsp. Mix in a microwave safe container (I use a coffee cup), add in 2 Tbsp Water, stir until combined, Mircowave 1 minute.
Get's it's name from 3Tmix-2Twater, 1minute cook
*I used Butter Pecan cake mix, but Jess used Strawberry and my Mom used Devil's Food, they all got great reviews** I served with mine berries and whip cream, I microwaved some frozen triple berry mix. The cake comes out kind of spongy, it's really good, easy enough for the kids to make and pretty low in sugar and carbs. It's good all by itself too, without the berries and whip cream. Delish!

2-29-12

Weekly Weigh In.

According to the scale at my house I am 183.6, so down .8 for the week and 9.4 for the year.

According to the scale I weigh in at the gym I am up .8 for the week. Weird, last week, my scale at home and the gym were the same, but this week they're off, Whatever, LOL..I'm going with the scale at home, that's the one that I can stand naked on and it gives me a better weight, I like it better.

Brian's been out of town since Sunday and I'm finding it hard to follow a good eating routine while he's gone. I don't feel like cooking every night, so we've been having leftovers. However, I have been eating a lot of salads and fruit, with him gone, so I guess my diet has been okay. Sunday night I put the kids in bed and went to watch a chick flick movie. I wanted something to snack on, what I really wanted was a bowl of cereal, but we had no milk. So then I looked around and I saw cookies and ice cream, but I didn't really want those (weird!) so I ended up having a bananna with peanut butter. Have to say I'm proud of myself for not having cookies or ice cream or I'm proud of myself for not really even wanting those things. I guess my new habits that I've been trying to form are sticking!

That being said, our grocery store just put in an Ice Cream Counter, 16 different flavors of Blue Bunny Ice Cream, hand scooped. YUM! I told my kids that if they got their rooms clean yesterday I'd take them out for ice cream tonight after dinner. I will probably get a scoop. Usually if I'm gonna have something like that, I try to do it Wednesday, that way I have all week to work it off before my next weigh in.

Happy Leap Day to everyone. I guess my Leap Day celebration is to eat Ice Cream, are you doing anything fun today?

2-22-12

It's Weigh In Wednesday.

I went and weighed in this morning for that Biggest Loser Competition that I'm in.

I weighed in at 184.4, so from last Wednesday I'm down 4.4 and from Jan 2nd I'm down 8.6.

I also did my measurements this morning, I'm pretty satisfied

Today Jan 2 +/-
Neck 14.25 Neck 14.25 0
Waist 37.25 Waist 39.50 -2.25
Hips/Bum 45.5 Hips/Bum 48 -2.50
Thighs 40.25 Thighs 41.5 -1.25

Arm 13.50 **Did not do measurments for these in Jan**
Chest 42.5
Underbust 35.5
Calf 16.5

I'm plugging along and happy with my progress so far, I keep telling myself, "Slow and Steady, Keep Going" I guess this is my mantra these days.

Yesterday was a good day eating wise

2-21-12
Breakfast - 1 Grapefruit
Workout - C25K Week 3 Day 2 burned 279calories, stair step machine 10minutes burned 125calories, Weight Lifting 15minutes burned 143calories, Situps 4minutes burned 44calories, total burned 591calories
After Workout - Protein Shake 180calories
Lunch - 100calorie English Muffin toasted and topped with Albacore Tuna, fresh Salsa, and Pepperjack cheese, then broiled 310calories
Afternoon Snack - 1/2 a PBJ sandwich 180calories
Dinner - Broiled Pork Chop, 1/2 cup Ranch Style Beans, Salad 360calories
Oh and in the afternoon I may have squirted some whip cream in my mouth, so let's add 50 calories :)

So all day I ate 1149calories and burned 591calories.

I didn't log food over the weekend.

Saturday was a BUSY day, Graham was at Grandma's house, so Saturday morning we cleaned house a little and got ready for the day. We had a Girl Scout Cookie booth at the grocery store in town from 12-4, in the middle of that we went to Anastasia's basketball game 2-3pm, then after we cleaned up the cookie booth we headed over to St Johns to pick up Graham, we visited with Grandma for awhile and had dinner and then came home to hang out with Brian. I think Saturday I ate...
1 Grapefruit
1 Beefy Crunch Burrito from Taco Bell
2 Tagalong girl scout cookies
1 oz smoked almonds and 1 oz cocoa roasted almonds
1 hamburger with avocado, 2 slices bacon and sauted mushrooms, 5 cheese doritoes
1 grapefruit

Sunday we did church and then came home and made chimichangas I think that's all I ate all day, 1 Chimichanga and a salad. I probably ate some almonds too, I've been snacking on those lately. I think I had a handful of Goldfish crackers while teaching our Sunday School class also.

Monday was President's day and we headed off to Flagstaff for shopping. I had a frozen bagel egg sandwich (well I warmed it up in the microwave) for breakfast, for lunch we went out an all you can eat Chinese Buffet, then on the way home I had some cocoa roasted almonds, we got home, unloaded the car, put the cold stuff away, got the girls started on showers and then I headed off to my Zumba class, came home and had a grapefruit for a snack. Oh and at Sam's Club I had one sample of popcorn shrimp, 3 little shrimpies.

2-18-12

Dear Blog, I haven't written in awhile, not because I have nothing to say and not because I'm slacking in my diet and excercise but because I've been busy. What's new?

I weighed this morning and I was 185.6 only down a pound from the last time I blogged about my weight, but down 7.4 for the year. I wish I was losing weight faster, but as long as I keep losing I'm making progress, right? I am feeling lighter and thinner and good about myself so that's all that matters. I really need to do my measurments so I can see if I've lost some inches, I think I have, I sure hope I have. :)

I was talking with this man the other day at the Gym, he goes to my church and is a neighbor. He was asking about The Biggest Loser competition that I'm in. I told him that basically I just wanted to get to go to the gym for 2 months for free, told him that I wanted to see if I could actually stick with it before I go shell out the money for it. He asked if I was losing weight and I told him I'd lost some, but mostly I feel like I'm getting back in shape somewhat and doing something for myself and just feeling good. That I think as mom's we get into a rut of taking care of our kids all the time and putting ourselves on the back burner. I'm not blaming anything on my kids for sure, but just in general, mom's, wives, women tend to take care of everyone else and forget about themselves. So now it's my time, my time to start taking care of me. So that's what I'm striving for, just a better feeling about myself, and the ability to run around and play and have fun without getting out of breath. And, another thing, excercise actually makes me feel good, I guess it's true what they say about it releasing endorphins and easing stress.

I also have been seeing where my excercising is taking me away from some of my duties around the house. Now, I am a stay at home mom, and all the SAHM's out there say they work just as hard as working mom's. I think that is true, I honestly think that I do more and am busier than I was when I was a working mom. When I worked, I didn't have time for extra stuff like PTO, volunteering at school, church work, helping out with Girl Scouts, Coaching sports teams, etc. We also were away from the house a lot more, Brian and I at work, the kids at school and babysitters, so my house stayed cleaner. Now that I don't work I have time to do extra curricular's with my kids, cooking healthier meals, my life is busy and full, and adding in going to excercise in the morning has shifted my routine. My house has been messier, so for the last week I've been working on getting the house back in shape instead of blogging. Yes, my husband could help with this and he sort of does, but come on, he works 50-55 hours a week, he leaves home at 710am and gets home at 7pm. He does what he can, he reads stories to the kids and hangs out with them when he gets home until around 8 or 830 when they go to bed. He hangs out with me when I clean the kitchen, sometimes he helps, sometimes he just sits and visits with me, if I ask him to do something he does it. He'll help me fold laundry on his days off, he chops wood for our fireplace, he does oil changes in our car and trucks, or he'll help me with bigger jobs, so he does help, but the brunt of it housework, shopping, paying bills, balancing checkbooks, making appointments for the kids, dr's, haircuts, buying them clothes, doing homework, taking them to girl scouts, dance, baseball, soccer, basketball, church group, playdates, that's all mine. I don't mind it, he contributes by going to work and making the money, and I contribute by taking care of the house and kids. So, like everyone else I take pride in my work, and I want things to look nice when he gets home, I want him to have clean socks and underwear every day and I want to have dinner for him when he gets home at 7pm. I also want to look good doing it. I'm working on finding a balance between my duties as a homemaker and my duties to myself. I need to maybe start fly lady again, or get myself into a cleaning routine. Right now it's kind of been like this...

M-F- Monday is Brian's day off, so it's a varied day, but basically most of the same stuff
6am-8am get kids and Brian out the door and off to school and work
8am-11am MWF Zumba 8-9am and gym 9-10ishAM, T TH, Graham has school 9-11am so I drop him off and go to the gym, then pick him up. In between I try to do little things around the house, laundry, dishes, bring in wood for the fire
11am-12pm Lunch for G and I and a shower
12-2pm Housework, pay bills, balance checkbook, or look around the internets (there's my problem)
2-5pm Kids are home, we do homework, I take them to their activities, they have friends over, I encourage them to do their chores, play with them, etc
5-6pm time to start thinking about dinner
6pm-8pm dinner, baths, reading books, sometimes a little TV watching with the kids, sometimes I'm still running kids around, on Thursday's I have Volleyball, all together family time when Brian gets home at 7
8pm-1030pm MW I go to Zumba 8-9pm, hang out with Brian maybe watch a movie, or play pool, look at stuff on the computer together, play a video game, clean up the kitchen, check Kortnie's BG at 1030pm and go to bed
230am wake up and check Kortnie's BG give her sugar or insulin if she needs it
6am wake up and do it all over again

Saturday
630am, wake up check Kortnie's BG, let her sleep in, make Brian's lunch and hot chocolate, start his truck for him, bring the computer back to bed until kids wake up
8am-12 kids usually are up, breakfast, chores, quick clean up, make a plan for the day if we don't have one already
12-4pm errands, visiting friends, maybe a trip to Show Low, basketball games, yardwork, free time
4-6pm time to start thinking about dinner, free time
6-9pm dinner, baths, hang out with daddy, sometimes a date night, hang out with friends, watch movie, family time, whatever
10pm if kids aren't in bed yet they are now, check Kortnie's BG
Brian and I will sometimes stay up, sometimes go to bed
230am up to check Kortnie's BG

Sunday
630am up to check Kortnie's BG, it's Brian's day off, so back to bed
8am kids are usually up, go make breafast, Sunday is a cooking breakfast kind of day
8-10am breakfast cleaning family time
10-11am get ready for church
11am-2pm church
2pm-530pm Free time, or Family time, Brian works on the car or trucks if they need it, he chops wood, messes around with his dirtbike, Graham helps him, the girls play in their room or do video games, I watch a movie or make meal plans for the week or both
530-8pm dinner and family time, kids in bed at 8
830pm-1030pm, Sunday bath night (we have a big jacuzzi tub, Brian and I make a hot bubble bath and relax!)

See, I am busy, Saturday and Sunday aren't too bad, but I'm having a hard time fitting everything in. I guess I need less Facebook in my life. So Dear Blog, I'm still here and still working on myself, but I might not be blogging as much as I orginally planned. You'll forgive me won't you?

Tuesday and Wednesday Feb 7 & 8, 2012

Tuesday 2-7-12

I had decided that since Tuesday was the day before my weigh in, I'd go lite on calories and try to shed a pound or two before that weigh in.

Breakfast: Equate Ultra Weight Loss Shake, Strawberry 170calories
Snack: Starlight Mint 20calories
Lunch: Equate Ultra Weight Loss Shake, Chocolate 180calories
Snack: Almonds 170calories, Smoked Chicken Lunchmeat 45calories (on the way home from Walmart)
Dinner: Lettuce Wraps and Asian Pasta Salad 402calories
Excercise: Walking, I walked to school to pick up the kids, then walked around delivering Girl Scout Cookies with them 280calories burned

Total for the day Calories eaten 980, burned 280

Wednesday 2-8-12
Weigh in Wednesday, I weighed in at 186, down 5.6 for the week, 7 for the year, not too bad, but not what I was hoping for.

Breakfast: Nothing (Bad me!)
Lunch: Top Ramen 190calories, Turkey, Swiss, Avocado, Lettuce on Wheat Sandwich, 446calories (that's kind of alot, it was the avocado I think!)
Snack: Almonds 170calories
Dinner: Taco bites and Avocado 716calories
Dessert: Bryers Snickers Ice Cream 340calories

Excercise: Zumba 65 minutes 638calories burned, weight lifting 15 minutes 144calories burned, sit ups, 65 of them, 5 minutes 56calories burned, C25K Day 4 198calories burned, bicycling 20 minutes 224calories burned

Total for the day 1862 calories eaten, 1260 calories burned.

Monday 2-6-12

And, here's Monday, look at the post below for Saturday and Sunday. Monday is Brian's day off so it's typically kind of a lazy day, sometimes we work on stuff around the house, sometimes we just lay around. Yesterday was a little of both, I went to the Gym and worked out, Brian changed the oil in the truck, we brought in some wood, cleaned the kitchen, folded laundry, messed around on the computer, handed out Girl Scout cookies to some parents, went to the school to be crossing guard, helped the girls deliver some cookies. Just working around the house type stuff.

Breakfast: Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats Strawberry Delight, 2% Milk 250calories
Lunch: Nachos- Tortilla Chips with Colby cheese melted on them 390calories
Dinner: My PTO was having a Sonic Night Fundraiser, Sonic Drive-In was going to give my PTO 10% of the sales from 5-8pm, so we went for dinner. I had chicken strips, tater tots and a Cherry Limeade, 816 calories (WOWZA!)
Dessert: Sugar Cookie 80calories (Stasia's church group made homemade Sugar Cookies in the afternoon,s he brought them home for dessert)

I ate 1536 calories and burned 433 calories. My workout that morning was Day 3 of C25K (202 calories), sit ups (168 calories), weight lifting (63 calories).

So, Saturday morning there was a small private plane crash, the people that were on it, own a bunch of local car dealerships around here, they've been members of this community for a long time. Brian works for these people and is friendly with them. 2 of them were killed a husband and wife, and the other couple - the son and DIL of the killed couple were critcally injured. So we were thinking about this all weekend, not just us but pretty much the whole town. Last night Brian was really dreading going back to work this morning, the man who is his boss is the brother of the man who died and the uncle of the injured ones. I think yesterday was one of those days where you think life is too short. I wasn't planning on getting dinner at Sonic last night, I was just going to let Brian and the kids get something, but I ended up thinking about life being short and I got the dang fast food and soda. I enjoyed the Cherry Limeade, but not the chicken strips or tater tots so much, I didn't really finish eating them. I don't know, it was just kind of a sad day/weekend. Even though I ate more junk than I wanted, I still stayed below my calorie goals according to Livestrong.com, but I am not happy with the food choices I made. I'm going to work harder. I'm not blaming my bad choices on the tragedy, but rather I'm aknowledging that I tend to make those bad choices when I'm feeling blue. That is something I need to work on.

Weekend in Review

It was a busy whirlwind weekend. Lots of things going on. Here is a quick recap.

Saturday 2-4-12

Breakfast: Blueberry Strawberry Smoothie 150calories, 1 ChocChip Cookie 90calories

After breakfast we did a few chores and spent the morning getting ready for Zumbathon and Stasia's basketball game. Stasia's game was at noon, so we left around 11:30 to get there a little early. She had her game and it was a terrible loss 25-5, but she scored 3 of the 5 points. Not sure what was going on there, they've never won a game, but they don't usually play that bad. Oh well...It had been "one of those mornings" already, we woke up later than I planned, took us longer to get ready with all the nail painting and hair fixing (we were trying to be a bit crazy/colorful for the Zumbathon), then about 5 minutes into the game I got a call from Brian's grandpa who was bringing us a load of wood. I had forgotten to move the car away from the gate to the backyard, so I had to rush home and move it, lock the dog in the house, then rush back to the game. After the game, we came home quickly and opened the doggy door, then we were off again. We stopped at Taco Bell for a quick lunch.

Lunch: 2 Chicken Soft Tacos, 20oz water 380calories

We headed to Show Low for the Zumbathon, it started at 3 but we wanted to get there early to set up. We got there around 1:45pm, dropped some stuff off, then went to get bags of ice. We set up and started having people arrive around 2:45, Zumbathon went from 3-6pm, the girls and I did most of the workout. I ended up doing about 2 1/2 hours, Stasia did the whole 3 hours and Kortnie did about 2 hours, the other hour she spent running around and playing with Graham and her cousin Cheyanne. There was a great turnout, I don't have the final numbers on money raised yet, but I think we did pretty good and it was fun and we got in a great workout too. During the Zumbathon we had a few breaks for water and snacks. We served Orange's cut into quarters, and bananna's cut into thirds. I think I ate 1 whole bananna during the breaks.

Snack: 1 bananna 110 calories, water, water, water, I think I drank like 50oz of water during the Zumbathon
Workout: Zumbathon, burned 1523 calories, (Yes, 2 1/2 hours of Zumba, burns 1,523 calories!)

Brian came from work and met us at the end of Zumbathon, he helped clean up and talked to a few friends, then he went with us to pick up Girl Scout Cookies. I am cookie mom, so my job is to pick up the cases of cookies for the whole troop, so we went and picked up 200+ cases of cookies. Brian stacked them in the truck while the girls and I carried them out, I'm sure I burnt some more calories during that. Then we went out to dinner at Native New Yorker. We were all hungry and tired after the Zumbathon, Kortnie's blood sugars were pretty low the whole time and it was time to get some real food into her system.

Dinner: I had a Californa Burger which is a burger with Avocado and some homemade chips, they slice potatos really thin and fry them, I love the chips at NNY. 560calories, (that's a guess, could be closer to 700....not really sure)

Saturday, I ate 1290calories and burned 1523

Sunday 2-5-12
Sunday is church and family day. We went to church in the mid-morning, came home, sorted Girl Scout cookies, then went to Walmart

Breakfast: 1 ChocChip Cookie and 1 Peppermint Green Tea 90calories
(I was a little sore from Zumbathon and WAY crampy from "Auntie Floe"), shouldn't have had that cookie, oh well
Lunch: I didn't really eat lunch, I did have a few snacks while working in the Nursery at church, I think I ate 2 goldfish, 2 pretzel sticks and 1 teddy graham. Then at home I had a packet of 4 PB crackers. I guess 100-150 calories
Dinner: Lasagna and Caesar Salad 790calories and 2 Tagalong cookies 150calories

Sunday Total, I ate 1130calories and burned 0 calories (no workout on Sunday)

Well, this post is getting long and it's time to take Graham to school and go workout. Then after I pick him up, we're off to Show Low, got our taxes back, so we're going to go pay the mortgage, pay some Dr and Dentist bills, do some shopping and spend money. Also gotta deliver some Girl Scout cookies, then hurry home to get the girls from school and take them out to hopefully deliver the rest of their cookies. Busy, busy, busy. Seems like I'm always running around. I guess it's better than being a couch potato though. I'll have to post about Monday a little later.

2-3-12

Well, yesterday I woke up feeling like crap. I couldn't figure out if I was feeling bad because I was gassy and crampy or because I was sore from all of the sit ups. I really wanted to stay in bed, but I had to get the girls ready for school and I was supposed to be at the school for Lobo Friday at 8am. My plan was to go to Zumba after I was done with the PTO stuff even if I was going to be a little late. So, I got dressed in my work out clothes. Honestly though I wasn't feeling it. We got down to the school and it was a Flag Ceremony day, the Kindergartner's were doing the program, so we went to watch. They did a great job and sang the Arizona song, it's Arizona's 100th Birthday on Feb 14, so they centered their Flag Ceremony around the Centennial. After that we went around and handed out the candy, my friend and I decided that instead of just giving a candy to the kids in school colors, that we'd give each one of them a piece. Sometimes you have to give everybody a treat, ya know!

We got done and it was 8:46 already and Zumba was over at 9:15, so I didn't go, I told Graham that we weren't going to go to Zumba but then asked him if we should go to the Gym or home to watch TV. He said we should go to the Gym, you know I was hoping that he'd want to go home. Haha.

So off to the Gym we went, I did C25K Day 2 on the treadmill, then lifted weights for about 35 minutes, and I also did 65 sit ups. First I did 55 situps, but Graham was watching TV, he came around the corner when I was just about done weight lifting and he wanted me to try the sit up chair. I told him that I had already done it, but he wanted to see, so I went and did 10 more, of course I made him count. Turns out he's my little motivator.

After we got home, our day was spent running around doing errands and cleaning house some. Let's see, what did I do. I had to make a last minute PTO flyer, so I got that ready on the computer, emailed it to the copy center at the High School, I had a friend pick them up and then I met her down at the Primary school where we sorted them and handed them around to the classes and talked to them about our next Fundraiser. Kortnie was having a party in her class, they were having popsicles so I went to the store and picked up a lower sugar popsicle for her and took it to her at school. I also went to the post office and mailed out a package. I saw on FB the other night about a lady who had lost her insurance and doesn't have very much money and some of the DOC (Diabetes Online Community) was putting together sort of a supply drive for her. So I sent her some boxes of test strips, I think I had like 10 boxes of strips that we don't have a meter for, so I sent her those, some lancets (pokers), and some syringes. I cleaned the kitchen and mopped it, did a few loads of laundry, made cookies with Graham (he's been asking me to help him make cookies for awhile now), made Fried Rice for dinner and ran Stasia to/from Basketball practice. Just kind of busy mom type stuff. :-)

Here's the breakdown of my eating and excercise for the day.

Breakfast: Nothing again, gotta get better at that, I did have a 20oz glass of water
Lunch: I had one of my Egg/Bagel Sandwiches 186 calories
Afternoon Snack: Dreyer's No Sugar Added Fruit Bar 30calories (Kortnie's popsicle, I had one too) Chicken Breast 130calories, Wheat Thins (I had a double serving) 280calories
Dinner: Fried Rice 330calories
Dessert: 2 Chocolate Chip Cookies (Graham told Brian that he made them all by himself, LOL) 360calories
My total water for the day was 80 ounces

So for the day I ate 1291 Calories and I burned 525 in my morning workout. So, less workout yesterday and a little more calories. I could blame it on my crampiness lady business, or my laziness, but honestly I am okay that I didn't do both Zumba and the Gym and I don't think it was too crazy of an eating day. I should have only had 1 serving of the Wheat Thins I guess, and I could have skipped the cookies, but who's gonna skip cookies made by their 4 yo old son, "all by myself" LOL

Today is the Zumbathon, so I know it will be a big calorie burning workout afternoon. I was going to go the Gym this morning and do Day 3 of C25K, but I think I'll stay home and hang out with the kids. It's already 8:30 and they're begging for breakfast, and it's already 2 hours past Kortnie's normal eating time, I better get on it! LOL...Stasia has her basketball game at noon, and after that we're heading into Show Low to help get stuff set up for the Zumbathon. I'm so excited, it will be fun to do it with my girls, my friends, and to raise money for JDRF. I think afterwards we'll meet Brian for dinner and hit the Walmart since we'll be in town anyways.

Have a good weekend ya'll!

Feb 2, 2012

Today was another good day. Graham goes to school from 9-11am so this morning while he was at school I went to the Gym. I went ahead and decided to do C25K, so today I did Day 1. I downloaded an app on my phone and all I do is click on Day 1 and then it will keep track of the run/walk for me. It starts counting down the first portion, which today was a warm up walk for 5 minutes, then when it gets to 0 it beeps at me and starts counting down the next section. It has a pause button if you need to stop and when you finish it records Day 1 as being done. I was on the treadmill, so I did the brisk walk at 3.0 MPH and the running part of it as 4.2MPH. It was a 28 minute walk/run today. After that I did weights, I did my arms, legs and abs, then I did 50 sit ups in a sit up chair thing and finished off with a 17 minute treadmill walk at 2.0 MPH with a 6% incline.

Here is what I ate today

Breakfast: Peaches and Cream Oatmeal and 1/2 Tbsp Margarine 180calories
Lunch: 3 scrambled eggs with green onion, mushrooms, candian bacon. A mini whole wheat bagel with 1 tbsp peanut butter, 2oz red grapes 473calories
Dinner: Chili 407calories (did you know you can input your recipie at livestrong.com and it will calculate the nutrional info for you?

I'm getting ready to go play Volleyball in a few minutes, so that will end my day for me.

So here are my totals:

I ate 1060 calories and I burned 932. That's pretty good.

I got on the scale at my house this morning and it said 189 (at the gym yesterday it said 191.6)
I felt kind of yuck today, girl stuff, and I'm feeling bloated. Hopefully it'll pass in a couple days and next week I'll feel really good. As far as being sore, my legs are a little sore, but not too bad, I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow.

I planned on doing Zumba tomorrow morning 8:15-9:15am, but I have to go to the kids school and do Lobo Friday, on the first Friday of the month we go give a candy to every kid dressed in school colors. We're usually done by 8:30, so I'm planning on going to Zumba a little late, then to the gym if Graham is being patient with me.

Biggest Loser Contest (White Mountain Version) Weigh In Wednesday

Today was Day 1 of the White Mountain Biggest Loser Contest. Weigh in Wednesday.

After I got the kids off to school this morning, Graham and I headed to Zumba class. We had a fun time and great workout as always, then it was off to the gym here in Snowflake to weigh in for the first day of the contest. I weighed in at 191.6 on their scale. That kinda sucked because on Jan 1 I was 193, so last week I apparently gained some back, but I'm still down for the year I guess. The lady recorded my weight and off I went to work out a little. I had Graham with me, so I didn't plan on staying long. First I did the treadmill at a 4% incline at 3MPH. I did that for 20 minutes and I did work up a sweat, but not so much of a heart rate increase. Graham wanted me try the stationary bike next, so I did that, but I don't think I had the seat set right, so it wasn't very fun. However, I did ride for 6 minutes and got up to 5 miles on it. Next I did some weight lifting machines and worked on my arms. I did that for another 20 minutes or so. By then I was hungry, since I hadn't had anything but water all day. I never had enough time for breakfast. So we went to Dollar Tree and Basha's (the grocery store) since the gym is in the same parking lot as them. Did our shopping and headed home. I put away the groceries and then made lunch I had a big salad, lettuce, green onion, green pepper, brocolli, tomato, cucumber and a whole can of albacore tuna (in water). I used probably about 20 sprays of Balsamic dressing. It said serving size was 10 sprays. After lunch I had a quick shower and did some chores. When the girls got home from school we had grapes for a snack. Then for dinner I had 2 Chicken Fried Steak Patties, 1 cup White Rice, 1 cup of steamed Broccoli, and 1/2 cup of Country Gravy. (I should have had only 1 pattie and 1/2 cup of rice, I was hungry, need to plan snacks better througout the day). Then I got the kids ready for bed, changed Kortnie's site (the tube in her stomach that delivers her insulin from her pump) and went to another Zumba class. So according to Livestrong I ate 1414 calories and burned 1517. Not too bad, so I'm under for calories today. Yay Me! I'm also working on my 7th cup of 20oz water for the day. Phew, seems like kind of a long day, but it was a good day. Now we'll see how sore I am tomorrow. I plan on going to the gym for most/all of the 2 hours that Graham is at school. I looked up the C25K program on the computer today and downloaded an app for my phone, I'm thinking of doing the treadmill one. Seems easy(ish) enough and I can do 30-40 minutes on the treadmill 3 days a week. So maybe Zumba and weights on Wed and Fri, and then C25K and weights on Tues, Thurs, Sat? I don't know, I'm not much of a runner, I like walking, but running, I'm kind of "Meh" we'll see if I stick with it.

Now time for a shower and bed, onward to day 2!

1-31-12 and a Recipe Hawaiian Style Shredded Pork

It's the end of the Month, I made it! No soda and not fastfood for a whole month. I've lost 5 pounds and I'm happy with that. Now, for the next couple of months I'm going to change things up a bit. I've entered a contest, White Mountain's Biggest Loser Contest. It's put on by a local radio station. It was free to enter and from Feb 1-April 4 we get to workout at a bunch of different gyms in Show Low, Snowflake, Pinetop, White River, St Johns and maybe a few other towns for free. We weigh in every Wednesday and the results are recorded and sent to the radio station. I guess there will be different prizes each week, sometimes for the person with the most percentage of weight loss and sometimes for the person with the most pounds lost. At the end of the contest the person with the highest percentage of weight loss will win $500 and then the Man and Woman with the highest percentage of weight loss (grand prize winner not eligible) will get a new outfit from JCP and a makeover. My Mother In Law and Brother In Law are also entered into the contest. It should be fun and give me a bit more motivation to keep going. I mostly joined so I could go to the gym for free for 2 months. The free membership does come with certain times that you are allowed to go, M-F 8am-12pm and 1pm-5pm, and Saturday's 8am-11am. So, starting Wednesday here is my plan

Wednesday: Zumba 8:15am-9:15am, Gym 9:30am-10:30am, Zumba 8pm-9pm
Thursday: Gym 9:15am-10:45am (Graham is in school 9-11am) Volleyball in the evening
Friday: Zumba 8:15am-9:15am
Saturday: I'll try to go to the gym maybe 8am-9am (if I get my neighbor to keep an eye on the kids)
Sunday: Church and Family day
Monday: Monday's should be like Wednesday's but it's Brian's day off and it's hard for me to go do stuff, I always want to stay home and hang out with him
Tuesday: Gym 9:15am-10:45am (Graham is at school 9-11am)

If I like going to the gym and keep with it the next 2 months during the competition then maybe I'll get myself and Brian a membership.

Part of the contest is that I have to go to the Gym and weigh in every Wednesday, so I'll just record my weight on the blog on Weigh In Wednesday.

I am going to continue with the No Soda and No Fastfood, and I'm going to keep working at keeping our dinners LowER Carb and eating more fruits and veggies. I also want to get back to buying our Bountiful Basket every 2 weeks. The week we get them falls on the weekend before payday and the past month I haven't had money to spend so I haven't gotten one in awhile. Tax money will be coming soon and that will help me get back to our budget.

I also have gotten discouraged with keeping a food diary. Because of my daughters Diabetes I am always counting carbs and keeping track of her blood sugar numbers, insulin intake and what she eats so I can spot trends with her and keep up with her insulin sensitivity. That takes a ton of work and by the time I get that done, I don't really want to log what I ate too. I think I'm going to get signed up with Livestrong and try to do it that way, also I'm going to buy a little notebook to kind of carry around and write stuff in there, I'll have to see if that helps.

Here's another recipe, I found this one on AllRecipes.Com, it was called Crock Pot Kahula Pig, I've had Kahula Pig before and Brian had it for the first time when we went to Hawaii. So, when this recipe came in my Inbox, I thought, heck ya, let's try this. I don't know if it's exactly like the orginal Kahula Pig (Pig burried in the ground and steamed/cooked all night), but it's great and easy.

Shredded Pork Roast

Pork Loin Roast 1.5-3 pounds
Rock Salt
Liquid Smoke

Put the Roast in the crock pot, sprinkle with Rock Salt, maybe a tablespoon, throw in a couple dashes of Liquid Smoke. Cook on High 6 hours for a defrosted roast. Cook on High 10 hours for a frozen roast. Shred meat and eat. Serve with Pineapple and Rice

Leftovers are good in tacos, sandwiches, quesadillas.

Last night after we shredded it we pourd in a half bottle of BBQ sauce and had it on sandwiches with Homemade Mac and Cheese for a side and Broccolli. Yum. Low Carb, Low Fat. We had enough to serve the 5 of us and leftovers for 3 lunches for Brian.

1-26-12 and a Recipe or Two

SICK! Yep, I'm sick and the kids are too. We have stuffed up noses, scratchy throats, coughs and general tired and crankiness. Brian says that we're sick because we've been EATING TOO MANY VEGETABLES! Haha, what a dork, I told him we're sick because one day it will be 30-40 degrees and the next day it will be 60-70 degrees. Ugh, I hate being sick and I hate when the kids are sick too. It's going to be a lazy weekend full of rest....I hope.

Wednesday I went to 2 Zumba classes, one in the morning and one at night. I was a little sore yesterday and still am today, but it's not too bad. That was the day I started getting sick. Last night I did Volleyball, then today I went to watch the 3rd Grade Poetry Contest at school instead of going to Zumba. My oldest daughter was an alternate in the contest, she didn't end up having to do her poem, but Murphy's Law says that if I would have gone to Zumba instead then she would have done her poem. Anyways, it was a cute and fun contest and both the boy and I enjoyed getting to see it.

Thursday 1-26-12
Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito, 20oz Water (recipe below)
Snack: Hot Chocolate (my husband forgot to take his Hot Chocolate with him when he left for work, I didn't want to pour it down the drain, so I drank it. I think that's a mom thing)
Lunch: Nothing
Snack: I was cutting up veggies that I had gotten at the store in the morning, so I was snacking on them, I didn't keep track of what I ate, but I was cutting up Broccoli, Carrots, Green Pepper and Cucumbers
Dinner: I had 1 1/2 Club Sandwiches, Wheat Toast, Turkey, Bacon, Swiss, Lettuce Tomato, Avocado (I only used 2 slices of bread on the sandwich instead of 3 and no Mayo) Also I had 1 Tbsp. of Ranch dip, 4 carrot sticks, 3 cucumber spears, 4 Broccoli's, and 4 green pepper strips
**Our Dinner last night was supposed to be BLT's and Veggie Dippers, avocado's were on sale so I got some of those too, and I figured while I was adding stuff I'd get out the Turkey and Swiss too, so it turned into Club Sandwiches, or "make your own sandwich", I think Kortnie just had a BL sandwich no T, and Graham had a Turkey and Mayo sandwich with a piece of bacon on the side**

I also know I had my quota of water for the day, because I drank a whole gallon, I also had one Emergen-C somewhere in there. When I'm sick and have crud in my chest and throat I love to have a carbonated soda it seems to cut down on the phlem, for me at least, but instead I had that Emergen-C, it's a little fizzy and it seemed to help.

Yesterday was kind of busy, Graham went to school 9-11am and that whole time I was running errands, I went to Basha's and IGA (local grocery stores, shopping the new sales for this week) also I went to Dollar Tree and wandered around in there for awhile, I picked Graham up, came home and made a few phone calls, was on the phone with our Insurance Carrier FOREVER, then I got a call that Korky had a low blood sugar at school, 31, that's way too low, a bit of a panic there, I went down to the school and brought her home and left instructions for Stasia to just walk home. Then Stasia and her friend got home and I got busy with homework and preparing lunches for the next day, then I took them to Girl Scouts, came home and started dinner, they got home from Scouts and it was time for showers and dinner, then Stasia had Basketball practice at 6 and I had my Volleyball game at 6 so that was a mad dash to drop her off and get to my game on time. Brian picked Stasia up on his way home and I had Korky and Graham at my game with me. Got home around 715ish and we watched a movie together, "Spiderwick Chronicles" it was pretty good as far as kid/family movies go. Stasia was excited to see it since she had read the book last year. Anyways, all the Low Blood Sugar mess in the middle of my day is what caused me to not have lunch. Busy, Busy, Busy, that was me yesterday.

Freeze-Me Breakfast Burritos **I saw this on Pinterest**
1 Dozen Eggs
1 #Sausage (I use pork)
Cheese of your choice (I used Cheddar)
Tortillas of your choice (I used 8in Flour)

Brown your Sausage, breaking up into small pieces, (like browning hamburger)
Remove Sausage from pan and drain, Scramble Eggs in same pan, in the last few minutes before eggs are fully cooked, stir the sausage back into the eggs. Warm up your tortillas in the microwave for 20 seconds, lay one tortilla flat, put 3-4 Tbsps (bigger tortillas use more) egg/sausage mixture on the tortilla, top with cheese, fold up burrito style, wrap individually in foil, place in Ziplock bag and in the freezer.

To reheat, unwrap from foil and microwave 45seconds.

We ate 4 of these yesterday and froze 10 of them. With the 8 inch tortillas we made 14 of these, they are kid sized, but one satisfied me just fine and they are only 20 Gram Carbs (which is good for Kortnie) the kids each had 1/2 cup of yougurt with theirs. I think next time, I'll make a few bigger ones for my husband and I'll maybe get some Turkey Breakfast Sausage too. You could also use bacon or ham, say if you have leftover ham after Easter, you could put in hashbrowns too, but that would add carbs.

This is what I made this morning for breakfast, I also saw this on Pinterest

Homemade Fast Food Style Breakfast Sandwiches
1 dozen eggs
Canadian Bacon
Cheese I had Cheddar Sandwich Slices, I cut each slice into quarters and used 1 quareter on each
1 Dozen Mini Bagels (Sara Lee Whole Grain Plain, is what I used)
Butter or Margarine (optional)

Get out your 12cup muffin tin, spray with Canola or other Oil Spray, Cut your Canadian Bacon rounds into 4 pieces, put 2 pieces in the bottom of each muffin cup, crack one egg into each muffin cup on top of Canadian Bacon, break yolk with a fork, sprinkle with salt and pepper, bake in oven at 350 for 25 minutes. Meanwhile open each Bagel and put bottom on a cookie sheet, spread bottoms with butter, top with 1/4 slice of cheese, when eggs are done cooking they should slide right out of muffin cups in the perfect round shape, put one egg on each bagel bottom, top with bagel top, put the whole cookie sheet into the freezer, once they freeze, wrap them in foil and keep in a ziplock bag in the freezer. To reheat, unwrap from foil and microwave 1 minute.

These are 21 Gram Carbs each. Of course your Carb count will depend on the type of bagel you use. The orginal idea I saw on Pinterest did these without the Canadian Bacon and used English Muffins instead. I think the eggs fit better on the mini bagels, they would also be good with biscuits. You can subsitute the Canadian Bacon for turkey, cooked bacon, ham, or leave off the meat entirely. Also to save calories you could leave off the cheese or the butter too.

Anyways, some mornings we sleep in late and I love having these quick meals in the freezer. They are cheaper than buying pre-made, healthier than going to a fast food, and easy to make.

Here's a breakdown of what I spent

$7 for 5 dozen eggs (only used 2 dozen=$2.80)
$2.28 for 10 slices of Cheddar Cheese (I used 8 slices for both meals+$1.82)
$2.50 for a bag of 12 mini bagels
$2.98 for a bag of 24 tortillas (I used 14=$1.74)
$1.98 for the Canadian Bacon (I used 1/2 the pkg=$1)
$2 for the Pork Sausage
had on hand the Spray, butter, salt, pepper, foil and 2 gallon sized Ziplock bags
so $11.86 for 26 servings (that's .46cents per serving)

1-25-12

It's been a good day! Woke up this morning, woke up the girls, went out to start Brian's car, made his lunch and hot chocolate, made a fire and got the girls off to school; just like normal. Then I broke my routine of getting back in bed to watch TV. Graham and I went to a morning Zumba class at 8:15! It was a fun workout and there were a lot of people there. This was my first time at this particular class, but I caught on okay and got a pretty good workout. After that we came home, paid bills, balanced the checkbook, and did our taxes. Then I cleaned up the house and did some laundry, picked the girl s up at school, went to Walmart, came home and had dinner then went to another Zumba class. Yes that's right, 2 Zumba classes in one day! I bet I'm sore tomorrow.

Breakfast:
Mini Bagel with butter, 8oz Blueberry Pom Juice, 20oz water

After Zumba Snack:
20oz Water and an Apple

Lunch:
20oz Water, leftover shredded pork, 1/2 cup of stuffing, and 1 piece of toast

Afternoon Snack:
1 Dove Milk Chocolate with Almonds, 20oz Water

Dinner:
Healthy Choice Steamer Teriyaki Beef

After Zumba Snack:
Peanut Butter Sandwich

I'm hoping tomorrow is a good day too!

1-22-12

Weigh In today 187.6 down .4 from last week with a total of 5.4 down for the year. I thought it wasn't going to be a good week for weight loss, but .4 down...hey I'll take it!

Saturday 1-21-12
Breakfast- Cereal with Milk
Mid-Morning Snack- 20oz water, 1 cookie, white chocolate chip macadamia nut
Lunch- Lean Cuisine Chicken Enchilada and Rice, 20oz water
Mid-Afternoon Snack- 2 Dove Milk Chocolates with Almonds, 20oz water
Dinner- 1 cup Beef & Barley soup, 1 Grilled Cheese Sandwich, 20oz water
Before Dinner- 20oz water

Sunday 1-22-12
Breakfast- Homemade Egg McMuffin Sandwich, Hot Chocolate, 20oz Water
Lunch/Snack- 20oz Water 2 Heshey Minatures Mr. GoodBar
Supper- 2 Tacos, Taco Salad (No Sour Cream, less cheese), 2 big 20oz glasses of water
Dessert- Homemade Cinnamon Roll
On the Way home- 20oz Water

Today we went to my MIL's for supper. She is a baker and always has tons of treats. Tonight she had homemade freshly warm from the oven, Giant Lemon Creme filled Cupcakes, and Big Sugar Cookies, and ice cream too! Dang her! Sunday is supposed to be my "cheat" day so I had one of those cinnamon rolls, it was so good! But now I'm kinda feeling yuck, I think it was way too much sugar. She sent home a whole pan of cinnamon rolls and 6 cupcakes with us. I was going to have a cupcake too while watching TV tonight, but now I'm feeling sugared out so I guess I'll not have one. Also this morning I decided on a hot chocolate, I used to have one every morning, but since the new year started I've only had it once. This morning I had a small cup of it instead of my regular bigger mug. I drank about 1/2 a cup and then I went to have a drink and got a tickle in my throat, I ended up spitting it all over the place. After that, I didn't finish it. I also I really considered getting a soda today when Brian went to Maverick to fill his mug, but I resisted. So overall even though I had that Cinnamon Roll, I don't think I went totally overboard.

Here are my goals this week, Zumba Monday night, Wed morning and night, and Friday morning. Volleyball Thursday night and a few walks in the afternoons if our weather stays so nice.

1-21-2012

Yesterday was not a very good day for me eating wise. I am kind of getting tired of eating healthy. I really argued with myself about ordering Pizza for dinner. But I did stay strong and did not get the Pizza. Yay Me!

1-20-12 Friday

Breakfast: I got the girls off to school and then Anastasia was in a Poetry competition at 8:30, so I quickly got myself ready and went to wake up Graham. He was stubborn and didn't want to get up, finnally by bribing him with the chance to go in his jammies and to get a donut at the store afterwards we headed out. I hadn't had breakfast yet, but I did take my 20oz water bottle with me. Stasia got picked to go to the big all 3rd grade competition as an alternate. It was fun to sit and watch the kids of her class do their poems. Some got really into it and some just got up there and said their poems as fast as they could. After the competition I took Graham to Basha's for his donut, he got a chocolate long john with sprinkles. Man, those donuts looked good, but I didn't get one. Instead I got a chorizo breakfast burrito. Honestly the chorizo breakfast burrito was probably just as bad as getting a donut. Well, maybe not, eggs and chorizo provide protein, chees for dairy and a tortilla for carbs. I don't know, probably just rationalizing here. :-) We brought our food home and ate here. I had another 20oz water with it.

Lunch: 20oz Emergen-C....that's it I guess, I had a meeting with some Girl Scout leaders at noon, so once again I was running out the door. I am cookie mom for the girls' Girl Scout troop, so I had a meeting about that. While I was at the meeting this guy game me a whole baggie of Dove Chocolates, milk chocolate with almonds. I ate 3 of them. Came home and called my MIL to help her finish her taxes over the phone. Then Graham and I walked to the girls school to pick them up. It was so nice outside. Total round trip, maybe a 1/2 mile walk. I even got a little perspiration. Can't believe how warm it is in January! Spent the afternoon cleaning and doing laundry. After school I had half of a White Chocolate Chip Macadameia Nut Cookie and a 20oz water.

Dinner: I never made a plan for dinner, the kids wanted chili cheese dogs. I have a can of Nacho Cheese in the fridge that needed to be eaten up. I sent Brian to the store for hotdog buns and chili on his way home, he was going to the store anyways for a Friday only store, a 24pack of Pepsi for $5. Not for me, but for him, he's addicted to soda. So I made them turkey hotdogs, turkey chili (Hormel from a can) and warmed up some of that nacho cheese. I very rarely eat a hot dog, so I thought I'd have some nachos. We had some generic cheesy corn chips, leftover hamburger in the fridge and I used shredded Colby cheese with El Pato. I cooked it up and went to watch a movie with Brian, but my nachos tasted a bit funny, finnally we figured out that the Colby cheese was moldy in the container. YUCK! I threw it out and didn't eat anything else. I did have a 20oz water with dinner though and I finished it. Oh and then I had a whole WCCMN Cookie.

So, I ate a bunch of junk yesterday pretty much, lets recap
Breakfast Burrito
3 Dove Chocolates
1/2 of a cookie
a little bit of Nachos
a cookie
80oz's water
20 oz Pink Lemonade Emergen-C
I did go on a walk though :-)

Tomorrow I'm supposed to weigh in. Honestly I don't think it's going to be good. Happy Weekend Ya'll!

1-20-12

1-19-12 Thursday

Well, what did I eat yesterday, I didn't write stuff down again. I know I was kind of hungry in the morning, but I couldn't really find anything to that I wanted to eat. I finnally settled on yogurt. I topped it with a little bit of chocolate chips and 1/2 of a bannana sliced up. I spent the morning re-doing my boards on Pinterest and I blogged a little too. For lunch I had a Smoothie. I found a website with a bunch of different smoothie recipies on it. I didn't follow the recipie exactly but used it as a baseline. I put in 1/2 cup of Almond Milk, 1/2 cup of Pom-Blueberry juice, 1/2 cup of Vanilla yogurt, a handful of blueberries, and a bananna. Oh and ice. It was good and made more than I thought it was going to, it was pretty filling. The afternoon was spent running kids around and cleaning up the house some. While the girls were at Girl Scouts, Graham and I came home and made dinner real quick. I made a Broccolli and Cheese soup and Tuna fish sandwiches. Keeping with our lower carb dinners the soup had 60 carbs total, so 1cup=6gc, and for the sandwich there was only carbs in the bread, I had 2 slices of bread so that was 20gc. For the tuna I put in a little mayo, some mustard, pickels and salt and pepper. The kids opted for Peanut Butter on 1 slice of bread, so Kortnie's sandwich was only 15gc, Graham liked the tuna fish. All this time I never thought that Brian liked tuna fish sandwiches, but he told me last night that yes, he does like tuna sandwiches, he did add more mayo to his though. I am not a big fan of mayo but he is.

I went to my Volleyball game last night too. I reffed a game at 6 then played in one at 7. We lost, but that's okay, we always lose and for our team it least it's just more for fun. We actually had 9 people show up to play last night, last week we only had 4 show up. It was a good time, I think I probably got more excercise laughing than playing.

1-19-12

Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't do so well at writing down all of my foods. It is a pain and I kind of took a break from it. Let me see if I can remember what I ate.

Tuesday 1-17-12
Kellogs Carmel Pecan Crunch Cereal with added fiber, 1/2 a bananna
Cheesy Tortialla Chips, with hamburger, colby cheese and El Pato
Popcorn
For Dinner I made Meatloaf and roasted Veggies, Red Potatoes, Golden Potatoes, Green Peppers, Green Onions, Carrots and Mushrooms
I'm pretty sure I drank my quota of water

Wednesday 1-18-12
A mini bagel with Brummel & Brown Strawberry Spread
Leftover Meatloaf and Potatoes
2 Hershey Milk Chocolate with Almonds Nuggets
For Dinner I made Stirfry, Chicken, Broccolli, Bamboo Shoots, Water Chestnuts, Pea Pods, and Carrots. Served with White Rice, also I warmed up frozen egg rolls, I only had one.

I have a Volleyball game tonight and I'm looking forward to it, but so far besides Volleyball, I still haven't gotten into an excercising regimine. The weather has been great here in the afternoons, I think maybe I should get a new tube for my bike and then I can go bike riding with Graham. It's never a big workout riding bikes with him but it's excercise and being out in the sun getting that Vitamin D. Also with these great temps in the 50's and even some 60's maybe I should get out in the yard and start cleaning it up? I was also thinking of finding a (or a couple) streaming work out video on Netflix to do in the mornings. I just need to get myself on a routine! Definitly next week on Monday I'm re-starting Zumba.

I think I mentioned before that we're trying to cut our Carbs down. For all kinds of reasons, because of Kortnie's Diabetes and her Dr suggested that would be a good thing, because it's good for us. Well, that's not "all kinds of reasons", but they are good reasons. So, my main goal has been to cut down on the carbs at dinner M-Sat and then have our big carby dinners on Sunday afternoons after church. So, Monday we had Nachos on Monday, Meatloaf on Tuesday, and Wednesday it was Stir-Fry. Tonight I am thinking Broccolli and Cheese soup with tuna salad. I still need more ideas. I guess it's time for a "Low-Carb Dinner" board on Pinterest.

BlackOut

For more info on the Sopa Blackout see here http://sopastrike.com/

To Sign the petition go here https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

1-16-12

I got on the scale this morning and weighed in at 188.0! 5 pounds down from the beginning of the year. I'm pretty happy about it.

Saturday 1-14-12

I didn't really write everything down, it was a busy day. First of all we slept in. I had a bananna for breakfast then we went to a yard sale. Graham got a Wii game for $10, he's pretty happy with it. Then we came home and I had the leftover Taco Soup from Thursday night for lunch. Went to Anastasia's basketball game and straight to Walmart after that. I got a few things for the girls lunchboxes, some mini bagels, frozen veggies. Just a few things on my list. I also got Kortnie's new prescriptions to the pharmacy. That was my main reason for going to Walmart. The kids were hungry so I got them some popcorn chicken from the deli to share on the way home. I ate a bananna on the way home, (flashback from when I went to Walmart earlier in the week :-) We got home just in time to make dinner. We made tostada's. Put the tostada shell down on a cookie sheet, spread 1 Tbsp of Refried Beans on the shell, topped that with about 2 Tbsp of ground beef, then a little bit of shredded cheese. I put them under the broiler for about 3 minutes. Then I topped with lettuce, El Pato, and cilantro. I left off the sour cream to save calories, but I did eat 3 tostada's. Usually I would make rice or something for a side dish, but since we are cutting carbs, I didn't make any. I had water all day, pretty sure I had my quota of water.

Sunday 1-15-12
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with ham, 1 pancake with Brummel & Brown Strawberry spread
Went to Church
Air popped Pop-Corn
Had a meeting at church (we were asked to Serve in the Nursery and released from our Service in Cub Scouts!)
3 Little Smokies (Turkey)
Bowl of Cereal.
**I made breakfast and then after we got home from church we had a "fend for yourself" day**

I didn't really eat much or snack much on Saturday or Sunday. Kinda nice.

Monday 1-16-12
It's another lazy kind of day, it's MLK day, kids are home from school and it's Brian's regular day off of work.

Breakfast: Water
Lunch: We made Nachos, browned hamburger, corn chips, nacho cheese, cilantro, El Pato, Green Onions (I had 2 bowls of them)
I also had a few Black Olives while I was chopping them up.

Now it's 2pm, the kids want to go to Dairy Queen to use the gift cards they got for Christmas, I will probably end up getting a small Blizzard. We already deceided to just have leftovers or nachos again for dinner. I have some lettuce in the fridge, so I'll probably just have a taco salad, instead of nachos again.

My friend Sandy is doing a Zumbathon to raise money for JDRF and Kortnie's Krusaders in a few weeks. I'm so excited, this will definitly get me back to Zumba starting tonight so I can know some of the new dances before the Zumbathon! So, that's what I'm going to work on, going to Zumba every Monday and Wednesday evening until the Zumbathon on Feb 4. Oh, and Volleyball on Thursday nights!