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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Where has the time gone?

This week is flying by! I can't believe it's already Thursday. And the worst part is that I really don't feel like I've accomplished very much at all and it just makes me frustrated. I always seem to have a mile-long to-do list of which nothing gets crossed off. Have you ever felt that way? When I haven't crossed anything off that list, I tend to feel crappy about myself. It's silly. When I sit back and relflect on what I did this whole week and what made me busy, I see:

1. Monday - worked on bookkeeping and dinner prep in the morning, and ran some errands for hubby in the afternoon. Also shopped for new workout clothes while I was in town. I ran in the evening.

2. Tuesday - worked for the business all morning, did some dinner prep, made lunch, then met two friends for the afternoon. Also went to the chiropractor.

3. Wednesday - tried to get caught up with laundry (my dryer is broken and I have to hang all of my clothes outside to dry), did mass quantities of dishes all day long, made a snack for small group today, made breakfast muffins. Also visited with my MIL over lunch here, and tidied and vacuumed the living room, swept and mopped the kitchen, bathroom, and foyer floors. Also helped hubby do invoicing in the afternoon. I then made dinner, and went for a run.

After looking that the details of my "busy-ness", I realize that I HAVE accomplished things! I've nurtured my marriage, my children, and my friendships. I have also nurtured myself. I guess I've been busy doing good things. My goal is to now start finding joy in those daily mundane tasks! lol

Now that that is all off of my chest, I will give you an update on my weight loss journey. Last week I weighed in at 178, and this Monday my weight was 176.8, so I'm down 1.2 lbs! Not as much as I was hoping for, but I am still struggling to get my eating under control...not that I eat too much...just that I tend to eat junk in carb form instead of the fruit and veggie options that are sitting in the fridge for me to enjoy! I am noticing that all of my clothes are getting too big. And just yesterday I put a pair of capris and a pair of shorts into the Goodwill bag because they are too big and just plain annoying! If I keep them around, it's like I'm telling myself that I MAY need them in the future when I gain the weight back...AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

I talked to a couple over the weekend who, a year ago, had been enjoying a healthy eating lifestyle of no flour, no sugar. The husband had lost 50 lbs and felt great, and the wife had lost some weight too. I had not seen them since last year, so I asked them how things were going and they admitted that they'd fallen off the bandwagon. But they were planning to start again on Nov 1...after football season, because the husband is a football coach. They also admitted that just feel yucky because of the unhealthy foods they are eating. The wife even admitted that her gall bladder has been hurting again...and the pain had completely gone away when they were eating healthy foods! They also had more energy and could sleep better. Although I was elated to hear they were recommtting themselves, I found myself wondering, "why wait until Nov 1?" Why not make the choice to start TODAY? I want to find an eating style that is a LIFEstyle. When LIFE gets in the way, I can still eat the same way.... there is no Plan B. I can't imagine choosing an eating style that you know makes you feel worse, have less energy, and in some cases, more pain. But then again, here I am eating unhealthy foods every day...but yet, I haven't experienced the benefits of healthy eating because I've never done it. It's time to take my own advice and start TODAY!

As far as my exercising goes, Jenny and I have decided to incorporate 1-2 longer runs each week. We normally run 3 miles for our short run (who would have thought I'd ever call 3 MILES a short run?! lol) For our long runs, we plan to run either 4 or 5 miles!! I'm really hoping the number on the scale continues to go down with our increased mileage. We have also decided to run another 5K next Saturday. This one is described as having "a competive course, with rolling hills and beautiful scenery." Translation: it is going to be difficult! We have decided to not really run it to win, but just to run it. We will run together and at a slower pace than the last 5K we ran.

With that being said, I need to wrap this post up and get going on my day. I've been up since 5:30 am and have currently baked 14 dozen monster cookies! And yes, I've eaten about 8 of them. ugh

Thursday, September 23, 2010

We have lots of things to talk about!

Well, I haven't posted anything in two days...and I'm not really sure why. I guess I've just been busy. Tuesday I went grocery shopping with a friend. I got lots of great deals, which is always fun! I love the feeling of having stocked cupboards..it's like the cooking possiblities are endless! When grocery shop, I plan out my menu for two weeks, make a list and buy what I need for those two weeks' worth of meals. (I do go to the store of the off-week if we need produce or milk). I have felt like I've been in a cooking slump lately and I'm really tired of the same old meals. On Sunday night, I sat down with a few choice cookbooks and decided to make all new meals these next two weeks! As I try a new recipe, I will let you know which ones were good...and I'm sure I'll write about which ones were not so good too. lol As I type this, I'm waiting for my new breakfast recipe to be finished baking. This morning I made Egg Muffins and I'm really excited to see how they turn out! Basically they are like little western omelets baked in a mini-muffin tin. It felt good to chop up all these fresh veggies to put into our breakfast! To me, breakfast is either fruit, cereal, or milk...not VEGGIES. But I need to incorporate more veggies into my diet, so I'm excited to have found one way to do that!

Update: I just took the egg muffins out of the oven and tried one...and they are pretty good! I think I would like to make them in the larger muffin tin though....they are pretty small! Here is the recipe:

2 whole eggs
6 egg whites
about 1/4 cup each: sweet onion diced, button mushroom diced, green bell pepper diced, tomatoes diced
1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp real bacon bits (I used turkey bacon)
non-stick olive oil spray
Kosher salt & pepper
Dried parsley for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Dice all veggies and set aside. Crack eggs in med bowl and set aside. Mix the Parm cheese and bacon together in a small bowl; set aside. Hat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add all veggies and sprinkle with salt and pepper; sweat for a few mins until soft and the flavors merge. Beat the eggs with a little salt and pepper. Spray a 24-cup mini muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place about 1 tbsp egg mixture in each muffin cup. You will have some left over.

Scoop about 1/2 tbsp of the cooked veggie mixture into each muffin cup. Using the rest of the egg mixture, top off the muffin cups making each one about even. Sprinkle the cheese bacon mixture on top.

Bake for 10 mins; remove from oven and sprinkle with parsley for garnish. Run a butter knife/toothpick around the edges of each muffin before removing from the pan.

Nutritional facts for 1 serving (6 mini egg muffins):
Fat - 4g
Calories - 85
Fiber - 1g

All in all, these are a healthy way to incorporate more veggies in your breakfast!! I even had a bit of cooked veggies left over, so I combined them with the egg yolks and some milk to make a batch of scrambled eggs for hubby! No wasting food here today! lol

Ok, confession time. Yesterday I slacked off on my healthy eating a bit. My meals were decently healthy, but I snacked way too much. Thanks to my grocery shopping this week, our snack cupboard is full of goodies! Not necessarily anything horrible to snack on...but I just ate too many snacks in general. Our electricity was off for 2 hrs yesterday, so as I sat a book, I snacked. And I felt horrible afterwards! I really felt yucky the rest of the evening. It's amazing how different you feel when you put good things into your body! Yesterday I also didn't not get a run in. It looked like it was going to rain, so my running buddy and I decided it would be best to cancel last night's run. Honestly, I didn't feel the greatest and I knew that running would be difficult b/c of that fact.

On the flip side...there were some good things that happened yesterday! First of all I got my very first massage! It was wonderful! I have been having issues with my right collarbone/rib/shoulder area and the chiropractor recommended that I get a massage...boy was I thrilled to hear that!! I have been wanting to get one for quite some time, but could never justify spending the money on myself. Now that I've had one, I am a firm believer in getting them whenever you can! I didn't have the normal massage, but one that concentrated on the area I've been having issue with...but it was still great! I am convinced that my hubby or a close friend of mine who go to massage therapy school...mainly so I can get them whenever I want and for free! Any volunteers? lol

After my massage I stopped by the local thrift store. I like to stop by every now and then to see if I can find some nice jeans or shirts. This time I found neither, but I came home with 4 books that I'm really excited about! The one that I started reading yesterday is called, "Perfect Weight" by Jordan Rubin. He is the author of "The Maker's Diet". I started reading that book a few years ago and just could not get into it at all. But last weekend a neighbor stopped over and somehow we started talking about his son who had had health problems and the doctors gave him no hope for improvement. After a ton of prayer and research, they started making changes in their diet and started eating wholesome foods. (think health food store types of foods) This just baffled me. It's so funny how God works in our lives because I have really been wanting to make a change in my eating and really wanting to rid our house of prepackaged foods, etc, but not really having the knowledge of HOW to do it. And here my neighbor is, in my yard, telling us that they eating nothing but whole foods....and I never suspected it! When you feel God nudging you to do something but you don't know how to do it, just pray that He will send the materials or the right person to you to educate you! Anyways...he recommended Rubin's book and said that they used certain parts of that book in their lives, along with other information, and their son started getting better! When I came across the Perfect Weight book, I knew I had to get it! So far, it's been a really good read! Mainly Rubin would like to educate people on how to change their lives and stop the obestiy crisis in America. In this particular book, he went to Toledo to start a healthy living campaign of sorts. I can't wait to keep reading and find out all about it! I should also add that Rubin himself experienced first hand how what you eat can change your live...and even save it! He was suffering from health problems when he was a young adult and even was down to 110lbs and the nurses and doctors didn't think he's make it through the night, then started eating whole foods and now lives a normal life. It's just amazing. Literally what most of us eat is not really food at all, but fake food if you will. It's full of chemicals and has been put through so many processes that it no longer contains any nutrition. Eating food like this over long periods of time has got to have negative effects on our bodies...with obesity being just one of them. And with obestiy comes a ton of other health problems. The statistics in Rubin's book are just shocking to me. Here are a few: 2/3 of American adults age 20 years of older are overweight (defined by having a BMI of 25 or higher), and the number of those who are extremely obese (at least 100 lbs overweight) has quadrupled since the 1980's. If people keep gaining weight at the current pace, US researchers at John Hopkins University predict that 75% of US adults will be overweight (and 41% obese) by 2015, which is just around the corner.

Obesity really is an epidemic. And unfortunately, Americans just tend to accept their obesity instead of deciding to live healthier lives. Rubin even writes about a company who manufactures larger scaled furniture to accomodate people who weigh up to 700lbs!

I hope Rubin's book continues to shock, encourage, and inform me...and I will pass that information on to you too!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

YIKES!

I'm up and ready to face the day. Before stepping in the shower I decided to hop on the scale because I just feel...well, skinny. I can't explain it, but the past day or so I have just felt like my body is thinner...mainly because of the way my clothes fit. So I step on the scale and brace myself for the momet of truth...and it says 174.6! YIKES! That is down 3.4 lbs from yesterday morning's weigh in! Yes, I realize that this very well could be too good to be true, but I'm totally using it as motivation to keep moving in the right direction! The true weigh-in will be next Monday, where I'm hoping to see at least 177 in order to stay on target with my Nov 30th goal.

This week my workout plans are as follows:
Monday - run 30 mins - done
Tuesday - walk 30 mins
Wednesday - Run 30 mins
Thursday - walk 30 mins
Friday - walk 30 mins
Saturday - run 30 mins
Sunday - run 30+ mins (not sure yet how long we will run)

I would also like to do some strength training on the days that I walk. I read somewhere that strength training can make you 10-30% more efficient with your running. Oh yeah...and Jenny and I have decided that we are going to run another 5K on October 9th...one with "rolling hills and beautiful scenery"...which means it won't be flat or easy! But we are up for the challenge.

Ok, I've rambled on enough this morning! It's time to feed the kiddos their breakfast and corral them to the bus. Then I'm heading out to meet a friend so we can get some great coupon deals on groceries! I'll let you know how I did!

Monday, September 20, 2010

A Successful Day 1!

I'm still breathing after a BUSY day...so I would call that successful indeed! The girls are in the tub so I thought I would give you a quick update on my progress for the day. All in all it was a good day! I didn't accomplish as much as I'd like to around the house, but I got quite a bit accomplished for hubby's business as well as the errands I needed to get done. I did well with my eating too. My eating is where I really struggle normally. I just sort of graze all day or mindlessly eat...most of which are carbs. I still ate some carbs today although overall I ate less than I normally would. For breakfast I wasn't all that hungry, so I drank a chocolate Slim-Fast shake. For a late morning snack, I had an apple. For lunch I wasn't hungry much either, but managed to develop enough appetite to devour two whole wheat chocolate chip muffins. (I think they are by Duncan Hines...and ULTRA yummy btw) Before I knew it, it was time to head to town to pick the kids...who were famished, so I gave in to a moment of weakness and found myself in the drive-thru at McD's...where I proceeded to order McDoubles for everyone...along with waters. lol No, I should not have had a sandwich, however I justified it by telling myself that I hadn't had any lunch to speak of. When we got home we all had dinner, which was cornbread and brown beans & ham. Then I went for a 30 minute run...and here I am! Tomorrow I am going to get groceries with a friend, so my plan is to stock the house with lots of wholesome fruits and veggies.

I realized that I didn't post today's weigh-in in my earlier post today. The scale reported 178 lbs. Not proud of that number, but it is 8 lbs less than my starting weight last November. so no complaints here. The last couple of months I have managed to hover between 175 & 178, which is very frustrating at times. My lowest weigh since last November is 173, so I would love to see 170-172 eventually! My wonderful husband continues to remind me that if I lose the weight slowly then I will keep it off...but man, I was really hoping to reach my goal weight by the 1 year anniversary of my weight loss journey. I still have 2 1/2 months, but I am not sure that is enough time to lose 33 lbs (right now my goal weight is 145). Maybe I should set an anniversary goal weight....how about 168? That means I will need to lose 2 lbs in Sept, 4 lbs in October, and 4 lbs in November (btw - I started on Nov 30th). I think that is doable!! I will keep you posted on my progress!

Alright...my girls are probably prunes, so it's time to sign off for the night and get them washed and tucked into bed. Thanks for listening to my ramblings!! :)

Here I Come...The New ME!

Yes, it has been FOREVER since my last post. I apologize. Not sure what happened, but I guess I just lost interest or the energy...I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm back!!! I decided yesterday that I am going to start blogging faithfully. Why, you ask? Mainly because I need accountibility....I need your input...and, oh yeah, I think it will be FUN! God has created me to be a creative person (I guess I take after my Father, huh? lol) and I think this may just be a nice little outlet with which I can use my creativity!

Here's the deal...I'm stuck with my weight loss and it's my own darn fault. I've gotten into a run with cooking and with eating and I just have not really cared if my consumption has been healthy or not. The flip side to my story is that I've been running since April of this year. When I say running, I mean running...2-3 miles 3-4 times a week. I started running because a friend of mine wanted to run a 5K but didn't want to do it alone. So I volunteered myself as her running buddy. A 5K was so far out of reach for me that I honestly needed HER in order to run it myself! Long story short, she wasn't able to run it with her busy schedule, and by that time I was halfway into the training, so I stuck to it. And God did an amazing thing during this time...He brought me another a running buddy! One that lives close by and who had already ran a 5K race...and the rest is history. We've been running together faithfully and just two days ago I ran my first 5K race. It was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment! I had run 3.1 miles prior to the race and had done so in 32 mins. My original goal for the race was to do it in 30 mins, but sort of gave up on that goal because I didn't feel like it was realistic. As I was running the race, I kept thinking about how it felt like I was running so slow and wondering what my time would be, etc...and then I saw the finishline....and the close set up beside the finishline. And it read 29:50!! That was the only motivation I needed, so I started sprinting towards the finishline with a vengeance! I did not want to see that clock say 30 mins! I ended up finishing in 29:56! Once I could breathe again, I was really proud of myself! lol

Now that my Run-A-5K-Race Goal has been met, it's time for a new goal! My new running goal is to run a 10K in that same race a year from now, but in the meantime, my current goal is to shed these unwanted pounds and reach my ideal weight (although not sure what that is right now). And I want to be healthy. I want to learn what REAL healthy is...not what magazines or commercials tell us. I want to be physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. Hey...and why not add financially healthy to that list too? And I would like to include you on my journey. I am no Wonder Woman...I am an average gal with an average life and the average struggles. It is my prayer that through my blog, I can motivate and encourage you to be the best you can be for who YOU were created to be as well. What I mean is, strive to be who God made YOU to be and do it well!

So...what can you expect from my blog? First of all...pictures! Pictures of me as I lose this weight (notice I didn't say IF!!), pictures of random things that happen in my life. I've realized that just looking at all of this text can get quite boring! Now that I am typing this, I realize that I don't even know how to post pictures on this blog...I will have to figure that one out. lol Secondly, RECIPES! I am going to be trying LOTS of new recipes and will post any faves along the way. Thirdly, I will allow you to glimpse what is going on in this crazy head of mine. Maybe it will be more than you care to know! I plan to post how I am feeling, what I am eating, my workouts, my current weight, spiritual findings that has opened my eyes and enlightened me, any awesome coupon deals I come across and anything funny that occurs in my life (again, notice I didn't say IF). Funny things happen to me all the time...I guess it's God's way of not letting me get bored with my life! lol

Wow, this post is getting to be quite long already. Time to wrap it up, I guess! Today is going to be my first official day of becoming healthy. I am going to try to be conscious of what I am eating and to make healthy food choices. I am going to tackle my to-do list for today, which means doing some work in the garage for my hubby's biz, trying to learn our new accounting software, putting dinner in the crockpot (brown beans, ham, and cornbread...can't wait!!), hanging laundry on the line (our dryer is currently broken, so my prayers for rain have ceased until I can get caught up), picking up the kids from school, heading to the bank to make a deposit and sign loan papers (we are refinancing and cutting 9 years off of our mortgage...as well as over $60,000 in interest...all for the same payment we have now!), then take Evan to his hair cut appt. After all of that, we'll come home, eat dinner, do homework, and then I am going to run with Jenny at 7. Then back home, get the kids bathed and into bed. Whew what a day!