Week 1 Results

Whew! This is the week of the musical up at school. All four kids are in it and it’s a little crazy. I’ll pick up my food journal again after it is over, but if I have time to throw in a few recipes before then, I will.

I weighed this morning. I had been feeling a little discouraged. I was trying so hard to make good food choices and yet it felt like my body wasn’t changing much. So I stepped on the scale just to see where I was and I am 1.8 lbs down. For one week that is ok with me! It’s amazing how I felt like giving up until that moment and to see a little bit of progress was a real morale booster.

In response, I’m learning a new workout to do during nap time–it’s FYM’s workout of the month from club FYM. It looks super challenging, but I’m ready to kick it up a notch :).

This morning I had a bowl of bran flakes and almond milk with craisins and sunflower seeds. Snack was Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Mousse. Lunch will be some kind of salad with chicken. I’m out of apples and most other fresh fruit. I’ll be super happy for Thursday when our budget starts over and I can restock :). Only two days away.

BOT Day 6 Food Journal

Yesterday was a terrible food day.Ā  But all the cookies are gone now šŸ™‚

This morning I made a new protein pumpkin pancake recipe that went over great with all the kids.

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I made them in the blender and it was thick for my old vitamix, but it worked. Add all the ingredients in the order listed blending well after each one. Then fry on a griddle turned down a little. Between 300 and 325 degrees.

1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
6 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs honey or real maple syrup
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown rice (dry)

This made 21 pancakes and I had 3 with about 2 Tbs of light syrup. I’ll figure out the calories in a bit šŸ™‚

First snack was a dairy free taco salad with hummus instead of ranch.

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Lunch and Snack (I just nibbled in the sewing studio while frantically sewing costumes): A huge protein bar and 2 oz of sun chips.

Dinner: 1 oz Almonds, 1 string cheese and 1 Apple. (Hoping for something better after our evening soccer games are done. I ran home just to unload the sewing stuff before coming here to the fields.)

BOT Back On Track Day 5 Food Journal

Today has been harder for me. I started out ravenous at 5:30am and never felt full until 2:30 when I could only eat half my snack. This is about the time I want to give up trying to eat healthy, but I am determined to keep with it.

Breakfast: Veggie Omelet with winter wheat toast, cream cheese and jam

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First snack: 1 oz almonds, 1 cup fresh strawberries and a splurge of a spice cookie.

Lunch: Taco salad– lettuce, chicken breast, freeze dried corn, half an avocado, lots of salsa and a drizzle of ranch. Yum!

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And then another spice cookie. Oh dear.

Snack: Peanut butter powder, cocoa powder and stevia stirred into plain yogurt–not Greek, needed a thinner yogurt for all the powders. I could only eat half because it was so rich and then had a small Gayla apple.

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Dinner: 1 slice homemade pizza and 1 big salad

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Snack: Other half of mousse snack. I just got back from spending the evening in the costume room for the school musical. We made 4 mice costume and cut out a suit with tails. I’m exhuasted–so glad I’m not the director! I’ll spend the day there tomorrow to finish up, hopefully in time for cast pictures and a full dress rehearsal. Then we have a bake sale in the evening for church and hope to go ice skating as a family after that. I’ll have to plan carefully food for tomorrow so I can take stuff with me.

BOT Day 4 Food Journal

I just got home from exercising with friends. We did Jillian again.

Breakfast was a spinach, mushroom, and onion 2 egg omelet. I chopped and sauteed extra veggies to make another one even faster tomorrow.

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Snack, pumpkin pie mousse: 3/4 cup Greek Yogurt, 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1 Tbs stevia, 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 cup whipped topping.

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Lunch: Leftovers from last night and 1/3 cup of egg salad made with light mayo and mustard with 4 poppy seed wafers.
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Not the best lunch, but the best I could do with all that is going on today.

Snack: 1 pure protein chocolate bar and 1 cup of fresh strawberries.

Dinner: Deluxe Deli Sandwich with nut bread, 2 oz of deli ham, tomato, avocado and spinach. Served with half an apple.

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Evening snack: 1 oz frozen almonds

Totals for the day: 1614 calories; 100 g protein

and 1 spice cookie, sigh.

BOT Day 3 Food Journal

Food I’m not eating today:

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Pepparkakor: Sweedish spiced cookies for my son’s Country project.

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Ham and cheese calzones for the kids’ brown bag lunches made from half the Award winning dough.

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Loaf made from the other half of award winning dough.

For breakfast I had Greek yogurt and strawberries.

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For snack I had a pure protein bar:

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I’m looking forward to another apple salad for lunch while my boys enjoy their calzones and veggies with dip.

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Snack: Greek yogurt chocolate mousse and strawberries. I had to really fight the temptation to take a spoon and finish off the rest of the whipped topping container. I had hummus and carrots instead.
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The foods I’m NOT eating today are causing quite a distraction. I can hear them taunting me from inside their platic wraps. Hopefully some hungry children will come home soon and finish them off.

Still ravenous, so I ate 1 oz of raw, frozen almonds. I love to eat frozen nuts! They are sooo crunchy!

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I primed all the trim in the dining room today. It took forever and is taking even longer to dry, but I’m really going to like it. Everything is so much lighter and cheerier. I didn’t have a lot of time to fix dinner and I finally got tired of apple salad šŸ™‚ So I ate what the rest of the family had: Ground beef Lo Mein with whole grain pasta. It was delicious and even my picky eaters devoured it.

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I was still hungry after my one cup portion so I added a huge salad with 1/2 cup mandrain oranges, 2 Tbs of honey roasted peanuts and 2 Tbs of fat free French dressing.
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Totals for the day are 1602 calories and 100 grams of protein. I feel fantastic!

Dinosaur Party

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Cake made from 2-9 inch round cakes. The eyes are one marshmallow cut in half. Pupils and nostrils are chocolate chips. Orange slice claws and eyebrows and chocolate covered grahams cut in half for spines. I found the directions on Pinterest.

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Posterboad Dino cutouts, paper mache volcano, and felt dino beanbag toss, all made by my mother. She made the volcano base from and oatmeal carton with crumpled paper around to build shape. This was displayed in the entry with green streamers hung at the doorways like moss. And a dinosaur sound effect clip playing in the background.

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Cousins getting ready to compete in the beanbag toss.

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The birthday boy, hunting for dinosaur eggs. Those crazy dinosaurs will lay eggs anywhere!

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My nephew, Sean, showing me his “only 2 left!” Face. This was a cousin only party, per Brandon’s request.

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Dino helium balloons, inspiration from Family Fun Magazine.
We also played hatch the dinosaur. I placed small rubbery dinos inside balloons and the kids had to pop them as fast as they could to get the dinosaurs out.

And we played musical foodprints– marching around paper dino tracks to the tune of “We are the dinoaurs.” When the children were “out” I gave them a dinosaur sticker scene craft to work on as their prize.

We also planned a dino egg (water balloon toss) and a dino dig in the sand pit out back, but we ran out of time. I just passed out coloring books and squirty dino head prizes instead.

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Enjoying the grub. I missed getting a picture of the buffet. I hope my mom took one. We served Dinosaur Meat Chili (Tastes like beef.) Dino Bites (Tastes like chicken,) Dinosaur Teeth (sliced green apples,) Dinosaur claws (bugles,) Prehistoric trees (steamed broccoli,) and mixed swamp ferns (gourmet salad blend.)

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Grant preferred the chocolate covered grahams to the cake or icecream. He’s my chocolate lover šŸ™‚

Happy 5th Birthday, Brandon!

BOT Day 2 Food Journal

Breakfast:Ā  7am Blueberry oat custard: 1 cup almond/coconut milk, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1 packet stevia, 2 small eggs, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1 cup wild (frozen) blueberries and a dallop of fit and active whipped topping.

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After I drop off kids at school, I get to exercise with my friend Pam and SIL Erica. (Update: We did Jillian’s 30 day shred, level 1. I haven’t converted them all over to FYM’s exercises yet, but am working on it :).)

I had trouble yesterday getting my updated dining room pictures to load from my phone. Trying again:

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You can see the new blue and gray colors. Today I will sand and paint trim, chair rail, and crown molding. Then hire my BIL to hang it if he has time.

Snack: Greek Yogurt chocolate mousse with 1 cup fresh strawberries. 6 oz fat free plain Greek Yogurt, 1 packet stevia, 1 Tbs cocoa powder (stir until smooth) then fold in 1/4 cup fit and active whipped topping.

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Lunch: Apple chicken tossed salad with zucchini chips. I tried the chips with a different recipe (lower temp 225 for longer time) and they never did get crisp, even after 1 1/2 hours. So I’m going to try again later at 350 and see what happens.

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Snack: 1 cup plain lowfat yogurt (Mountain High brand from Costco) 1/4 cup protein plus brand peanut flour, and 1 Tbs stevia. Stirred until smooth. Topped with 1 chopped Gayla apple.

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For dinner, we had cornbread topped cowboy casserole: 1 can of Aldi baked beans undrained, one can black beans, rinse and drained, 1 12 oz turkey keilbasa (fit and active brand from Aldi) halved and sliced. I stirred all this together and spread in the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole. Actually, I just mixed it right in the dish. Then I mixed up a cornbread mix (from Aldi) according to package directions, spread over the top and baked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. It was a hit.
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I ate 1/12 of the dish which was 212 calories and 12 grams of protein. I also added 1 cup of mixed peas and carrots; and 1 cup of homemade unsweetened applesauce (Taken from my freezer from last year’s harvest.)

So far for the day I’m at 1,618 calories at 98 grams of protein. If I need a snack later, I will choose something High Protein since I’m a little low for the day for my muscle building goals. I’m playing my calorie levels by ear and so far around 1600 feels pretty good.

Yesterday was rough. I had been used to 2500 calories a day or so and I was hungry a lot yesterday. Today I never felt hungry and just ate when the clock said it was time.

I’m mixing up a batch of homemade bread right now since I’m too busy with children to go to the store and we need to pack lunches tomorrow. I’m trying a new recipe: http://realfoodliving.com/recipes/award-winning-bread-2-loaf None of her recipes have ever disappointed so I have high expectations :).

Real Food Living: Award Winning 100% whole wheat bread

Oops, I just licked my finger and the spoon after measuring the honey in the bread, old habits die hard.Ā  But to stay honest I have to write it down.

BOT Day 1

BOT is something I learned from Fit Yummy Mummy and Stands for “Back On Track.” My food choices have been all over the place. I’ll have a few days of good choices and a few days of bad that undo everything I worked for. My lack of consistency has kept me from reaching my fitness goals, so I decided a little extra accountability might help. For 7 days I won’t eat anything unless I write it down here.

Breakfast: 6 oz of Fage plain fat free Greek Yogurt (Costco) sweetened with 1 packet of truvia and topped with 3 oz of fresh sliced strawberries (Aldi) sprinkled with a little more stevia.

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Planning ahead: Check in later for updates and more pictures.

Snack 1 at 9:30 is to be a spinach, peanut and banana smoothie. Lunch is a chicken, apple, mixed green salad.

Today at 10 two of my sister’s in law are coming to help me paint my dining room. Here’s a before shot:

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EWWW!

I hope to faux leather the floor to last 5-7 years until we can afford wood look tile. But that is a week long project–one step at a time. I’ll have other things to share with you as I carve out time–like our cool Dinosaur party this weekend.

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Smoothie: 1 cup almond/coconut milk, 1 scoop designer whey, 2 Tbs peanut flour, 4 cups spinach, and 1 frozen banana.

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Apple chicken salad: 1/4 can chicken breast (Aldi), 4 cups torn mixed greens, 1 chopped apple, 2 Tbs sunflower seeds, 2 Tbs craisins, 2 Tbs raspberry vinagrette.

Progress! The blue is done. Will paint gray below after lunch.
Afternoon snack, around 3pm. 1 fit and active pumpkin yogurt with 1/4 cup fit and active whipped topping. 1 banana and 1 protein bar.

Dinner: 5:30–another chicken and apple salad–love these! and 1/2 cup each fresh broccoli and baby carrots with 2 Tbs hummus

It’s 8:00 and I’m typing my food into my fitness pal to see if I can have a snack. I’m super hungry which is a good sign that if I choose carefully tonight I could burn some fat :). Heidi just brought the presidential debates up on Youtube streaming live. We still don’t have regular TV reception so I’m glad youtube is providing this service.

Munchies are getting the best of me, so I have zucchini chips baking in the oven. I underestimated how long these need to cook. They take over an hour to crisp up..I’ll be super ready. Thankfully they have very few calories. I’m at 1632 calories and 111 grams of protein for the day.

Fall Colors on a Missouri Drive–Plus guess the answer

Darren preached in Macon yesterday. It was a 3 hour drive. We left home with 3 kids in tow at 6:30 so I slept most of the way. My eyes popped open when we were 30 minutes out and I was overcome with how beautiful the trees were.Ā  I snapped sone pictures:

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Grant enjoyed the drive too šŸ™‚

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The older children stayed home and went to our regular church for the first Christmas program rehearsal. It’s hard to believe it’s already that time of year. Speaking of Christmas, do you know when the cheapest prices are for buying Christmas gifts? Put your guess in the comments below and I’ll reveal the answer later this week.

More pictures from Front Sight

I can’t wait to go back to Front Sight Next Year.Ā  What an amazing experience!Ā  I was definitely not a gun person before I went out there. (I had only shot once and had never fired the gun I took with me.) Every time my husband asked me to go target shooting with him, my heart would sink. Now I’m not afraid of handling a gun anymore.Ā  I know how to use it; how to unload it and make it safe; and I’m on my way to having decent aim. On the other hand, I’m also more aware of how much skill I have left to build.

Practicing what to do when there is 4 bad guys and just me.

Slowly re-holstering. Trying to get comfortable doing this without looking, but it's one of the more dangerous gun maneuvers. No sense in rushing and losing a foot.

Darren and my brother competing in the last man standing competition. They are waiting for the fire command--and looks like they are in a western showdown, lol. Darren ended up winning 2nd place in our range. Not to shabby for his first time in class.

 

My Ammo Box. Looks too messy to me, but I move so fast normally that I don't take time to stay organized. My SIL snapped this picture because my sparkly lip gloss tickled her funny bone. I was the queen of sparkly lip gloss on the range. It helped me keep my girly edge during a fast draw. And we were in the desert--can't have too much sparkly lip gloss in the desert.