Tacos!!!!!!

Happy Tuesday to ya!

Last night when I got home my hubby had dinner prepared. He had made turkey tacos with low fat cheese, and low fat sour cream. I had saw last week on Brittany’s blog a way to still have tacos but with a healthier twist……. Use a lettuce wrap instead of your traditional shell! Folks it rocked!!! Thank you Brittany for posting this idea. (Everyone take the time to check out her blog. She always has some quick and easy, yet healthy food ideas!) I really enjoyed them this way and didn’t feel guilty for eating them…… Yippee a way to have Mexican food and not feel guilty, now that’s something (=

This morning I got up at 3:45 a.m. and made it to the gym by 4 a.m. I stayed on the elliptical for an hour and half and burned 744 calories! Once I was done with that I did a few stretches and some core moves with an exercise ball.

I was a little pressed for time this morning because my household had a lot going on. Our pet rabbit, Elliott died. We have had him for close to four years and he was a little older when we got him. So that part of my morning was pretty sucky, but we kind of had a feeling that it was coming….. he hasn’t been acting like himself lately when we let him roam the yard. So I spent the morning taking care of that.

Once I came inside and got cleaned up for work I really didn’t have a lot of time to “make” breakfast, and was not feeling cereal. So I ended up eating the sandwich I prepared for lunch, turkey breast on Jewish rye bread with low fat mozzarella cheese and a few cherry tomatoes. I know this may seem weird for breakfast but it was pretty good!

For lunch a co-worker and I are going to “Salad Express”.
I haven’t been there in awhile but I’m looking forward to taking an actual lunch break for once and getting out the office. I really do appreciate that lately when family & friends want to have lunch or dinner with me they always ask me what or where can I eat. Not that I want them to bend over backwards for me, but it really means a lot that they take my goals and the changes I am trying to make in consideration.

My husband is so on track with me at the moment on what I want to achieve. In the past I would feel bad when he said he just wanted a quick meal, and want to go grab something at a fast food establishment. I would eventually cave in and then the routine of eating “fast” would form again. The past few months have not been perfect but we have really kicked that bad habit. We are both learning how to make the right choices for everyone in our family. Not only are we eating better foods, and feeling better from it, we are also saving money from not going out so much. The other night my husband stated that he wanted to grab something quick, but I told him to go ahead if that’s what he wanted and I will just prepare something from home for me and the baby. He gave me a big hug and told me that he was sorry and then he thanked me for keeping him on track. It feels really good that we are doing this as a team!!!

Well folks have a blessed Tuesday!!!

Being a Winner/Family Fun/Meal Plan

Hope everyone if off to a good week. It’s amazing how my outlook on Mondays have changed in the past few months. My husband and I use to torture each other on Sundays making little comments like…. “you know what tomorrow is…Urgh”. That is me no longer. I love Mondays. You get a fresh start every week !!!! So let’s make this week better than the last!

To start my week off right my girl at KatDoesDiets notified me that I am the winner of her latest giveaway! I was excited to learn that any day I will be receiving the “Hungry Girl Chew The Right Thing” Recipe Cards. I am so excited about winning this giveaway. I just recently heard about “Hungry Girl” from other bloggers and have been wanting to give it a try……. Now I get too! Thanks again Kat, and for the rest of you go check out Kat’s blog. She is very uplifting and you may have a chance to win from one of her giveaways too!

Well now it’s time for me to give you a recap of my weekend boys and girls. On Saturday morning I woke up early for a Saturday. I had a little bit of a headache and to be honest with you, all I wanted was to cuddle my hubby a little longer and get a few more hours of sleep in. I laid there for a second but then my bladder was awake and there is no ignoring her in the morning. So once I got my first morning relief I tried laying back in bed, but then my mind was awake. So my mind reminded me that Bill had to go work later in the day and even though I feel like I have a small tennis ball attached to the back of my head the best way to ignore the pain is to get up and start moving….. so I did. I wanted to start doing some chores in the house but Bill, the baby, and the dogs were still sleeping. So I headed for the gym at 5:45 a.m.

Once I got there and on the elliptical it was 6. I got my book out and boy was it good! I got suckered into it and before I knew it I had went 30 minutes. I was at such a good part in the book I didn’t want to stop so I just hit “quick start” on the machine and went another HOUR! Don’t let the part about me reading fool ya, I was still listening to my tunes and I got a GREAT workout. My hair was plastered to my head (and for ya’ll that know my hair that’s no easy task), and my shirt was a darker shade of pink. For others sake I was glad that no one got on the equipment next to me by the end because my "Bath and Body Works" quit working, I was a pool of sweat…………… but I loved it! Once I got off the elliptical I went and hit a few of the weight machines, and then went home. The rest of the morning was pretty busy.

Bill and I made an omelet and shared it together. We used egg whites, fresh spinach, mushrooms and pepper. That sucker was huge, but so yummy after a good workout.

Once we cleaned up from breakfast Bill had to go to work so I decided to do my chores. I dusted (and the crowd boo’s), gathered the trash, did a few loads of laundry and of course entertained my little man. When Evan was down for his nap I took the dogs outside to bathe them, but our back yard is so muddy after the weather we been having. I figured once I got them in the garage I would clean their feet……… wrong. Brutice managed to push the door to the kitchen open so I had them playing keep away (from me) through the dinning and kitchen area……………. It was such a mess! I had mud all over my white floors. So though I did not plan on mopping the floors they got done this weekend too.

Later in the afternoon my brother Nathan, his wife Jessica, Selah (my niece), and my mom all came over. Earlier in the week I was telling Jess about how fun spinning is and how much I think she would enjoy it. So since I have a spinning bike they came over and all gave it a try.
It was really fun getting to hang out with them. Nate and Jess both gave the spinning bike a try and I think they really liked the workout they got from it. While Jessica and I visited (while she was still on the bike), Nathan tried my EA Active game for the Wii…… from the “sound” of it he got a really good workout. My big brother is such a ball of energy! I was cracking up cause he was letting that game know who was boss. Trust me when Nathan is excited about something you can’t help but be excited too! It was a really great visit! Jessica kicked butt on the spinning bike and I am hoping to convince her on going with me sometime to a class at the gym….. I know she will love it! Later my grandma and my aunt Suzanne came over too, it was a little party (= What I really enjoyed about spending time with everyone was we were talking about health & fitness. This new way of life is really becoming a passion and I was so excited to share that with my family. It was so cool to hear their ideas and changes that they are making. Jess and I were exchanging ideas that the family can do together and stay active!

Later that evening Bill and I ate from Masa Sushi. I had a vegetable roll! Yum I love that stuff (=
Before I went to bed I did a thirty minute abs routine to target my lower and upper abs and oblique.

Sunday morning Bill, Evan and I took the dogs for a family run. We went 3.5 miles and was able to run the 3 miles straight. Man it feels so cool to actually be running. I can’t even describe how good it feels to be able to do this now. There are times that I really have to focus on my breathing but it gets a little easier every time! The last bit of the run I wouldn’t say we walked, it was more like a tug of war match with the dogs. They saw some ducks that they wanted to play with, so I got pulled a bit. Once we got home and washed up we went to the grocery store.

We got a lot of good stuff to make for our lunches and dinner for the week. I have been a veg-a-holic lately. Purple cabbage was the veggie of the week last week but I am wanting to learn new ways to prepare eggplant and artichokes. For eggplant all we know to do is fry it, so that’s not going towork. Please peeps if you got any ideas on how to prepare either eggplant or artichokes I would appreciate it?!?!?!?!

Later that evening my hubby cooked while I did and hour workout on my spinning bike. I put Evan in his play pen next to me, it was like having my own personal cheerleader!!

So now brings us to today….. Monday. I didn’t go to the gym this morning but I did walk the dogs and I had some cleaning I had to do before work.
For Breakfast I ate a bowl of Kashi Go lean Crunch with some blackberries & raspberries.

I also packed the following to take to work today. For Lunch I have some honeydew melon,

& a turkey sandwich on rye bread with low fat mozzarella cheese (dry).








For a Snack I packed some hummus and red bell pepper. For those of you out there that love hummus, I am loving this brand and flavor (SABRA -Supremely Spicy Hummus).
I like a little kick of spice with my food, so this flavor is perfect. I can’t wait to have my snack today!!!!

Well everyone I hope you are having a great day!!!!

Finally!

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you all are getting ready for the weekend. Today I got some news from my doctor after a few weeks of waiting. My test results show that at the moment I have some swelling of the brain. At this time they do not have answer on why it is swelling, but they do not feel that it is caused by an infection. He prescribed me a medicine that I am to take for the next few days and next week I am to have some more tests run to see if it has corrected the problem. In addition to the swelling they have found 6 more tumors along my spine and neck, but without doing a biopsy are not sure if they are malignant as well. We discussed the option of surgery(for the tumors on spine), but will not make that call till we know if they are cancerous. At this time I do not suffer really from back pain so my thought on the subject is if they are not causing me pain, and are not going to cause further damage I do not want to go through the surgery. Usually people who have back surgery have chronic pain from then on. My doctor did not seem concern at this time about the tumors on my spine (so know idea of if/when having biopsy), instead the focus is the swelling. So if you guys wouldn’t mind continuing to pray, I would greatly appreciate it!

On a lighter note……. I am really excited about my next 21 days to keep a food journal of what foods I am eating. Thank you all for your ideas, I’m thinking of mixing some of them together, the key for me is to keep it simple yet fun!


This morning I didn’t work out because my head was really hurting when I woke up so it took me much longer to get out of bed than normal. Though while laying there I was talking to my hubby of a game plan for this weekend to get my workouts in. I know he has to work but we were discussing when I could go . I am amazed how much my thinking has changed in the past few months. Before if I was struggling with something whether it be my health or just some lame excuse….. I would just think, “oh I will make time for it later.” Now I’m like “okay how is all of this drama going to fit into my new healthy lifestyle. “

I’m finding I really prefer to go to the gym in the morning and walking the dogs in the evening. I feel a good morning workout fuels me for the rest of the day, and just starts my day in the right direction. For me I am finding if I start my day with a healthy choice I am more likely to keep up with it for the rest of the day.

I did do one thing I was pretty proud of today. My husband had bought an assortment of candy that you would normally see at the movies. He bought 6 boxes of candy to be exact. He picked it up for last weekend to go with a movie. We didn’t open any of them, and they have been sitting on the counter all week. I usually don’t really crave sweets but I have been known in the past if something triggers that binging cycle that nothing is safe. So I wouldn’t say I was tempted at the moment but I didn’t want to be later. I packed them up and asked Bill if he would take them to work and share them with his buddies. As my friend Angela use to say at work…........ “Set yourself up for success!”

Well I don’t have too much planned for the weekend. I know I will be working out and I desperately need to clean my house. I didn’t dust last weekend and it’s driving me crazy. I am really hoping my sister-in-law Jessica will be coming over to check out my spinning bike. I just love when I get to see her. I saw her this week at my grandma’s house. She has always been that person for me when I see them I just get so excited talking to her. She is always encouraging and though sometimes we are different in so many ways, I love the way she looks at things. I feel bad because I tend to just overwhelm the conversation and after we part I think… “damn did I let the girl talk”? Well I hope she loves me anyways and just knows that I adore her!

Well peeps have a great weekend!

No More Excuses!

Hope you all are enjoying your week! Per my last post I have been thinking on what goal I want to accomplish for the next 21 days in order to form another good habit. I thought of a few good ones, but I have decided on the next 21 days to form a habit of writing in a food journal on what foods I am eating and their calorie count. I started out writing in a food diary, but for one reason or another I didn’t keep up with it. It just becomes so much work. I get frustrated mostly with calculating the calories in vegetables ……….. I know, I know everyone says you can look it up on-line, but I just don’t have the patients. The next 21 days are going to be interesting. I know I will benefit from doing this because not only will I be able to capture an accurate calorie intake, and servings, it’s another way to keep me accountable. I think one of my worst habits I am hoping to break with this is when I'm preparing my lunch for the day or even dinner I will take a few bites just to get a taste, but never really calculate that in my daily intake… so not to bad when it’s veggies but can be dangerous with other things (=


About a week ago I got a membership to a local gym, but I haven’t gone there yet to work out. As most of you know last week wasn’t a really good week for me, and this week when I would plan to go to the gym something would come up. Well that all changed this morning. I got out of bed and made it there a little before 4:30 a.m. Olivia was already there getting her workout on (the girl is a machine), and a little bit later my friend Jeremiah aka “J” got on the treadmill next to me (I love getting to see my friends even if we are not there to really visit). I stayed on the elliptical for a total of 40 minutes. Today I didn’t get to stay as long as I would have liked because I needed to get things done at home before I went to work.


When I got home I let the dogs out, and while I waited for them to eat and do their business I jumped on my spinning bike for a little over 20 minutes. So overall I think I had a pretty good start to my day and I am glad that I past the hump of just getting my butt in there.
I feel blessed that I have so many friends that have been encouraging me and giving me great advise. I love that since I have made this choice I have so many friends that are excited and want to join me. I by no means have a lack of friends that are willing to be my workout partners. As most of you already know because I have talked about her a lot, Olivia has always been there for me. Bill and I have started running together or taking the pups for walks but in addition my good friend Jana told me last night that she wants to start meeting me at the gym like we use to do. J said that he will help me get a weight lifting routine down and my friend Samantha has been more than willing to go with me. Even my sister in law Jessica and I were talking about spinning this weekend. So I think I am covered for the days I may need someone to kick me in gear! It feels so good to know that others believe in me and know that I can do this.

Sometimes the problem is convincing myself that I can do this and that I deserve it. So many times have I focused on the fact that I don’t want to be fat anymore, but never really put the effort in to get the results that I want. When I look back I have no one to blame but myself. Yes, I know I have had a baby, and a few medical setbacks but there will always be something that comes up. I guess I’m to the point I know I need to push myself. I look at it like this, when I would go to a Chinese buffet or to my favorite Mexican restaurant I didn’t hold back, so why should I when it comes to getting my life back?

I'm Back!

Happy Monday everyone! I want to first say thank you to everyone that has been praying and leaving me such encouraging messages. At this time not all of my test results have come back so we are still playing the waiting game, but I am feeling much better.

So to get back into the groove of things let me fill you in on what I have been up to. This weekend was my husband’s 30th birthday. He didn’t really want a party and we didn’t feel that we had the time to go out of town, so instead we had a nice weekend of just us. My brother Matthew and his wife Nancy watched Evan for the entire weekend! They are so incredibly good with him, and my six year old nephew enjoys anytime he can spend with his little cousin. So I knew he was in good hands, but man did I miss that little guy. I cried when I was packing up his stuff for the weekend, I cried when we left their house, cried when we came home, cried when I woke up……. I felt like so ridiculous cause I knew he was fine, but I wanted him with me (= My husband laughed a little at me, but not much…. He felt the same way too. So other than missing our boy we had a really good time together and realized how much we needed that time. We went out to eat, and did some shopping. Nothing major but it was really nice not to have a schedule. We got up the same time as normal but we didn’t feel rushed to start our day. Instead we got a chance to lounge a bit…… it was a very peaceful weekend. On the down side I really didn’t get much exercise in and for the first time in months I didn’t calorie count. Overall I did fine with keeping it in line, but I did stray from what has become my normal diet. We splurged on a few sweet treats, and ate Mexican food one night, and I drank a coke……….. again I have been staying away from this stuff for months. After splurging over the weekend I have a couple of concerns. ONE: will I go back to my old ways from one weekend? Answer: Absolutely not. As it was nice to have a few of these things, I have to say I feel much better with the foods that we have been eating and I was very happy to plan my breakfast, lunch and dinner for today to get back into it. My other concern was I had decided at the first of the year not to judge my success strictly by weight loss and by watching the scale. I factor in other things such as my ability to accomplish physical task that have been difficult, or on how does my body & health feel over all…so with this I decided to only weigh myself once a month, the first of every month. So today being February 1st it was weigh day…….yuck, after this weekend when I didn’t exercise or really eat right, plus I have the not so lovely monthly visitor in my life at the moment. Oh well I did it anyways. So for the month of January I lost a total of 9.5 lbs. My goal is to lose 10-12 lbs a month, but I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed with this loss. I mean it is a loss after all and I am focusing on changing my lifestyle and not just my body type so I am happy with my progress this month. I have to say that this month I noticed that my workout routine has gotten a lot easier, and I am ready to intensify my routine. I am going to start incorporating swimming and more weights. In addition I am going to increase my distance of walking/running. I am still staying on a daily 1500-1700 calorie intake with a target deficit of 1000. So with upping my workout routine, this should be attainable!

Here is a list of either things I have tried for the first time or I accomplished for the month of January:

- Worked on my 21 day challenge of not saying anything negative about myself or my weight. This was a very difficult challenge, but I have to say it is getting easier! (Stay tuned this week for my next 21 day challenge).

- I am now able to walk 6-8 miles in a day. Not something that I do every day but I now have the ability to do so.

- I attended a 2hour belly dancing class, and learned some new moves (=

- We have broadened our selection on fruit/vegetables and the way that we prepare them (so long butter).

- Walking the dogs is now a part of our daily routine.
- I am able to run 2.5 miles without stopping.

- My husband and son now go for walks/runs with me, which give us a fun family activity.A family that sweats together, stays together (=

- As cheesy as this may sound I feel victorious when we grocery shop……. All of the right things are in our buggy! Our grocery cart reflects a healthy lifestyle.

- I am a water drinking machine!

- I am learning healthy ways to avoid eating out of boredom or eating because of emotions. A big thing that I have learned this month is when I think I am wanting to go raid the kitchen I ask myself if I am really hungry and is it worth the hours of work for a second of satisfaction.

- I see an improvement in my hair and skin.

- I am learning to find time for me!!!! The month of February I want to concentrate on giving me that “me” time. I want to get back to taking at least (1) 15 minute break a day at work.

Well folks I can’t wait to see what the month of February will bring! At the start of my journey I was 247 lbs and now I am currently at 214.5 lbs!!!!! Reaching my goals one pound at a time (=