summer and weight loss

Well, so here goes! I'm going to actually TRY to lose some weight over the next month.  I'm shooting for 10 pounds by June 30th. So here's my plan, back to the diet lifestyle change for food, no more soda, and maybe the most important change, no eating after 8pm.  I'm terrible to go and eat practically an entire meal at 9pm... and that has to change! I'll also be jogging/walking 4 days a week.  I have come to the realization that this will not be easy, it will in fact SUCK at points, however the end results should be well worth it.

All that said, the following is my meal plan for the rest of the week:

Wednesday ~ Quesadillas

Thursday ~ Turkey Burgers

Friday ~ Slow cooker chicken and Couscous

All of these dishes I plan to serve with fresh fruit and/or salad.  We'll have lots of fruit, granola and low fat cheese sticks to snack on throughout the day.  Breakfast will be cereal, toast, oats, and breakfast tacos. Lunches I plan on salad, chicken salad and turkey sandwiches.

I hope to be able to stay on blogger as well - it helps me stay accountable. I'll be logging into livestrong.com on a regular basis just to keep track of how much I'm eating a day, it seems to help when I keep a food journal.  If you decide to follow along with me on this journey, good luck!!

I jogged a mile... and didn't die.

I suppose it's obvious my blogging days came to a skreeching hault after I posted a start to get healthy deal.  I won't offer any excuses, I just lost interest in it for a while.  I am back now, and excited to meal plan and share with you some very exciting news!  I participated in the Women Can Run 5k walk/run clinic and this past weekend actually gave myself the Mother's day gift of driving to Conway with my little family and staying the night.  During the clinic the longest I jogged was for 7 minutes and I thought I was really pushing myself in that, but I was wrong.  I was able to jog for 13 minutes during the 5k, the entire 1st mile, I finished the 2nd mile by 27 minutes and the entire race in 40 minutes, 14 seconds!   It was very exciting and I was thrilled the rest of the day.  Here is a picture of me and my good friend Amanda (who ran it in 26 minutes) running me in and encouraging me to go as fast as I was physically able.

So there you have it, the WCR 5k clinic works!

I'll have more on my meal plan later in the week.

trying to stick with it...

Well so my blog is late - again.  I'll just make it short and to the point, I have stayed the same weight wise as I have cheated on my health(ier) eating lifestyle a bit too much this week.  I'm going to get back on it today.  Water, healthy food, or at least healthy portions and back to logging my daily food intake as well.  My menu plan is a bit scattered this week since we have family in from out of town, but here it is.  For more great menu plans and other fantastic ideas go to orgjunkie, for some terrific recipes and reviews try allrecipes.com and for great ideas for food, photography, home and garden and home schooling try the pioneer woman! 

Sunday ~ Fending for ourselves

Monday ~ Out to eat

Tuesday ~ Out to eat

Wednesday ~ taco salad

Thursday ~ Out to eat

Friday ~ something with eggplant and zucchini... I didn't make it last week.

Saturday ~ something with turkey or chicken and sweet potatoes

I hope this week finds you all as blessed as I am, remember God has a purpose for you, you were born for his purpose, and He will make you aware of it in His time if you seek Him.  

eating doing my regular mommy activities and losing wieght!

So last week I blogged about trying to lose weight, and this week I am very happy to report that I have lost 6 pounds!!!  I feel like doing cartwheels, I won't because I'd break something, but that's how happy I am!  I posted some recipes last week that were as close the ones in my cook book as I could get, and I'll post the modifications I made to make them healthy and reviews of each.  I have to note, I was told about a website live strong that helps me keep a food/activity journal and I have cut soda out of my life.  I believe that with these changes I will be able to be successful... now if I can just STICK WITH IT!  My plan to stay motivated is to try to be a lead communicator for the women can walk/run 5k to my friends and family that might be interested in training for a 5k.  This may sound like a lot of change, but I have been over weight, actually if you want to get technical, obese, for 10 years now and I am tired of being fat, pray for me ya'll.  Part of my success in sticking to the healthier eating is due largely to a cookbook my Aunt Pattie put together for me at Christmas. I have been going through the "main meal" section for my meal plan ideas and making each recipe and writing down how well we like each one.  This weeks plan is simple, follow 4 more recipes out of the book!  I'll post reviews of last weeks recipes after my menu plan.

Sunday ~ Turkey burgers and fries

Monday ~ Taco Soup (I added 1 can of beef broth instead water)

Tuesday~ Broccoli quiche  and fruit

Tuesday ~ Eggplant quesadillas and black beans

Wednesday ~ Zucchini two ways crispy zucchini and potato pancakes & sauteed zucchini

Thursday ~ Vegetarian tortilla chili served with chips, cheese and sour cream

Friday ~ C.O.R.N.*

*C.O.R.N. - clean out refridgerator night.

So there  you have it, my menu plan for the week, hopefully I'll continue to see some weight loss.  Something else that has amazed me is my new found energy, I always assumed that once I quit drinking soda that I would see a lack of energy, but it has been the opposite!  Now onto the reviews of last weeks meals.

Chicken artichoke pizza ~ from this recipe I omitted the garlic, roma tomatoes and olives, I added yellow and red bell peppers.  My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe, but my 9 year old wasn't a fan.  I think the next time I decide to make pizza, I will do a mini pepperoni just for her, but I will for sure make this again!

Black bean and couscous salad ~ from this recipe I omitted the red wine vinegar, corn and cilantro.  As it turns out this recipe is a little dry.  My hubby has suggested to me the next time I try it out to leave the spinach as is and add in more lime.  We really like couscous so we'll try this again with more liquid.

I posted this rice recipe but actually the recipe I followed is this:

Green Chile-Black Bean Chicken

cooking spray

chicken (I used one boneless skinless breast I roasted earlier in the week and one can of chicken)

1 cup chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste

1 can black beans drained

1 cup grape tomatoes halved

1 can chopped green chiles

1 cup reduced fat sour cream (optional)

heat large skillet over medium heat.

spray with cooking spray (I added a bit of olive oil too)

add chicken and onion to the pan

sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

cook 7 minutes stirring occasionally, until cooked thru.

add black beans, tomatoes, and green chiles to chicken.

cook 2 minutes stirring until everything is thoroughly heated.

garnish with cilantro, hot sauce and sour cream if you like! 

This was a big 2 thumbs up from everyone in the family! This was by far the best recipe of the week. 

Turkey Picadillo the only thing that I added to this was a package of taco seasoning and it was great!  I added the left overs to some taco soup and it was fantastic, even the kids ate it up!

Well there you have it, new recipes, and hopefully by summer, a new me!!! 

New year and new menus

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas with family and friends, we sure did! One of my favorite gifts this year is a personalized cookbook from my Aunt Pattie. She took all kinds of healthy recipes from different places and then catorgorized them into 5 sections for ease. My ambitous brain wheels started turning and I have decided to take on a new project. Project get healthy is what I have just now decided to call it. PGH for short. So here's what I was thinking, the book has a large main dish section so why not use at least 3 of those recipes in my meal plan each week?! I can combine the cookbook idea with the quick fix meal show on food network and maybe just maybe I'll have enough motivation to stick with it long enough to see some real weight loss! I'll try to track my progress each week on blogger - with the hope that I'm not setting myself up for failure. I have also decided to just go in order of the recipes in the book so that I don't get too bogged down with choices. With that said it looks like our first week will be a week of chicken. I think I'll get a great big package at the store and do what Robin Miller does and fix it all at the same time then just freeze it for the rest of the week. I'll try to find similar recipes online so that I can add links in the hopes that someone else may want to go along with my crazy idea, or maybe just try one or two of the recipes. Alot of my other meal ideas will be from the wonderful women/men who visit the Org Junkie and share their meal plans, and alot will come from my favorite blogger POW!  Those aren't the only websites I'll search to gather new recipes and great ideas, but they are the ones I frequent most.

I guess in order to see if this will work I should give a general idea of my size now and then add a new picture each week or maybe monthly to track progress - you all will know if I fall off the wagon if there aren't any pictures for a while. I would post my weight, but I'm not that brave yet, let's just say, I'm not at a healthy weight right now. If this works I'll post my begining weight and ending weight. Now to find a picture.......

Well here it is, me and my girls. I'm curious now looking at the picture what was going through my head when I got dressed that morning! Anyway, this is a starting point, maybe my fashion will improve as my weight goes down. And I suppose I should give something more concrete for a before reference, I'll go with size of pants - I am now in a size 18, and I'm 5'4 ...not healthy.

Ok now onto the actual meal plan for the end of this week and next week! All of the junk/holiday food has to be gone by the time next week starts so in order to get rid of the 6 packages of cream cheese, 4 lbs of shredded cheddar, cake mixes etc. I'll be making sweets and treats and having the girls over! I'll include those links too.

Wednesday ~ leftovers take 2! sweet potato casserole repurposed and Restaurant-Style-Hashbrown-Casserole

Thursday ~ Cheeseburger-Quiche and fries

Friday ~ out to dinner

Saturday ~ blackeyed peas, cabbage and cornbread

Sunday ~  Italian-Rice-Pie and salad

Monday ~ Chicken-and-Artichoke-Pizza 

Tuesday ~ Black-Bean-and-Couscous-Salad I'll be adding chicken and spinach too!

Wednesday ~ sandwiches and veggies and ranch

Thursday ~ Southwestern-Rice

Friday ~ Turkey picadillo wraps turkey picadillo

Saturday ~ left overs?

So there it is!  I will be posting updates each week as to how each of the recipes tastes and any alterations I make.  I hope you all find your new year full of blessings! 

cooking, cleaning, and getting ready to head outa town!

So this week has been jammed packed with things to do, unexpected and expected alike.  I am up to my eyeballs in to do lists with no check marks, my blog included...  We will be headed out of town this Friday and won't be back until Christmas eve!  My week has also been cut short cooking wise because my Dad has been in town and taking us out to dinner, Yay for Dad!!! I will be back tracking my blog to Monday, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. 

Monday ~ Poppy-Seed-Chicken, green beans, rolls and icebox cheese cake with blueberries

Tuesday ~ Out to eat :)

Wednesday ~ Soup and Sandwiches

Thursday ~ Cola-Pork-Chops (new recipe for me, I'll be following suggestions from other reviewers), serving over rice with purple hull peas and carrots

Friday - Christmas eve ~ Out of town

Remember This December, That love weighs more than gold!    ~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

healthy between the holidays

This time of year can be a daily calorie fest from Thanksgiving to New years.  That's why this year I'm going to attempt the near impossible and plan out healthy meals in between each holiday, and I'm starting this week.  For more meal plans visit Orgjunkie.

Monday - Turkey spaghetti and salad

Tuesday - Meat-Pie-Tourtiere green beans

Wednesday - Chicken salad sandwiches, chips and fruit

Thursday - PW Quesadillas and black beans

Friday - Healthy-Crockpot-Chicken and steamer veggies

Saturday - F.F.Y./C.O.R.N. *

*For those of you who don't yet know, FFY is fend for yourself and CORN is clean out the fridge night. 



And regardless of what else you put on, WEAR LOVE. 

 It's your basic, all purpose garment.

  Never be without it. 

Col. 3:14