I did it!

I went walk/jogging for 3 miles today!! And I didnt die! It was incredible, it was really hard but at one point I said to myself "I can do this" once I got into my groove I felt like I could have run the whole thing, and then.......the bladder. Having kids has done awful things to my bladder and the muscles that keep me from embarrassing myself. I wish I would have thought of that before I left because I think I could have run the whole thing. In the end I think I ran at least half of it if not a little more. But now it won't be as scary the next time because I know what to expect. Wish me luck!!
P.S. Biggest loser was awesome last week or whenever the finale was, and last night where are they now was pretty good too. It got me motivated.

A little winter recipe

I havent updated for a very good reason, I'm lazy. More like embarrassed that I havent exercised in something like 4 months. I know, bad me. I however havent done too bad on my eating habits. I have had a lot of bad days but I always make up for them with good days. I have done better the last few weeks but its not much good without exercise. I watched biggest loser finale last night and it inspired me to see the finalists at the end and how amazing they looked. I promise myself this season to limit my intake of sweets and donated goodies to a bare minimum and make sure my kids eat them to hike up their sugar levels to create holiday cheer and craziness. I will be sure to make sure they run circles around the house to work off all the extra calories and to brush extra hard. Now coming to my point, I have a really good soup recipe. It's almost like chili but not. Its called 3 bean soup and its pretty low fat.

Here is a picture of the final product. I added another can of chicken broth to make it more soupy and so did my mom. It makes plenty, for leftovers. (You might want to make it in a bigger pan than I did)

Just a quick update

I have been terrified to weigh myself because I have not, NOT, been exercising. So I have had good and bad days of eating healthy but still I did not want to weigh myself. Today I took Patrick to the doctor and I was staring at the scale in the exam room and I decided to bite the bullet. Turns out I am two pounds lighter! Weird!! I'm not complaining, in fact now I am more determined to keep going. Hopefully I can make the effort during our big move.

New recipe ideas

I have tried a couple of new things, I dont think I have kept track of them all but here are a few ideas. First, I am a new convert of Tabouleh and couscous. Its healthy and very tasty. It much more filling if you put it in a salad or a lettuce wrap.

Another thing I made the other night was Spinach and Parmesan cakes. I thought they were pretty good but Jesús felt maybe they needed a little something. I made some rice pilaf to go with them and I thought it was perfectly filling.

I loved how colorful they were. A perfect St. Patricks day dinner!
I also got on the scales yesterday and found I had bounced back to 183 which isnt too bad considering how badly I have been eating and not exercising. So now I plan to get back on track and drop those 33 lbs I still have to lose. After that, maybe a new goal? But first I need to tackle the task at hand.

I need to post, badly

Okay, its been a tough couple of months. I started working out about 3 times a week and I was feeling much better about my progress. Unfortunately I got sick and so is everyone else in our house. My chest is so congested that I cant breath, if I start to get my heart rate up I cant seem get enough oxygen. So I have had about 3 weeks of absolutely no exercising besides cleaning and chasing kids. I hope I am getting better, I feel that its not nearly as bad as it was and my cough is almost all gone. Hopefully I can use this one more week to get all better and then next week I am going to start again. I know it will be difficult because I will have to go through being sore again but it will be worth it. My husband got the date for his 10 year reunion next year, so now I know my cut off line to be my hottest. I even have the dress I want to wear picked out in my sisters J.Crew catalog. I can do it. I just have to push it.

On my way!

I have lost 2 lbs since last week. HOT DOG. I just have to keep exercising.

I weighed myself this month and to my surprise I hadnt gained anything or lost anything. Good. At least I wasnt doing terribly bad. I however have been inspired by several things. I was watching the Bachelorette and I cant believe how stinkin skinny she is! Im so jealous because she can wear so much cute clothes. I think being over weight limits what I can wear and even if I find something cute and it fits, it looks like a tent. After losing so much weight that problem seems to be going away but I still see it in the old clothes I have. So I want to lose weight to not only be healthy but to wear cute clothes. Dont we all? Another thing is I have my ten year reunion coming up next year and I want to look hot. I have always wanted to buy a dress but with such a poochy stomach that just isnt possible. So I plan on losing weight so I can look hot at my ten year reunion and at my husbands ten year reunion. She should definitely have some arm candy. Last is my sister. She lives an extremely healthy life. And as a result she has a body that I envy. She has the occasional treat, but I bet it makes it so much worth it to know you have done so well you deserve such a tasty indulgence. Dont you think? Luckily she has let me work out with her the past two days and it is such a help to me to have her there to push me. I need that. I have some yummy meals I have made. One is Couscous with sundried tomatoes and feta cheese and artichoke hearts. I added eggplant but I probably wont do that next time.Really good with some steamed veggies on the side. Another thing was Fried green tomato BLT's. So good. I dont have a picture, probably because I ate it too fast but I highly recommend trying it out. Click here for the recipe.

Back on track

So now that we are down one motorcycle, the only car left is mine and since Jesus cant drive, Im driving him to work. I wasnt too excited about this but it has given me a chance to get up early and exercise before the kids are up. Patrick woke up about 5 minutes after I did this morning which means I dont get to work out but I was at least able to stretch and lift weights a little bit. Hopefully I can continue to use this new development to my advantage. Our eating has gotten a lot better and I have collected a lot of good recipes to use. So wish us luck!!

With no time

So having to take care of two kids and a damaged husband has been stressful and time consuming so eating healthy eating has been difficult to commit to and exercise has been put on the back burner until my schedule has thinned out a little. I will try my best to be as healthy as possible and now that its not as crazy as it was the first few days, I can cut out the fast food and soda and go back to making all of my meals (except for those ones that people have dropped by and will drop by. Those people are awesome!) However I wont be surprised if I dont do very well this month. Maybe with the husband home for a while, he can entertain the kids while I go walking or something. Cross your fingers!

Failure

I got up really early this morning to work out, the first time in 28 days. I was excited to be up early and I turned on my Wii fit and it weighed me. I was so disappointed. I have gained weight. Yep, I messed up. I guess the breast feeding thing where I lose weight from eating healthy and breast feeding has come to an end. I have also been doing really bad at eating the last week. I have had a root beer float almost every day. How bad is that??!!! I was just asking for it. I had too much pasta and cheese and ate too much chocolate. So back to living life completely healthy and hopefully this is day one of many of getting up early and working out.

mmmmmmm

I have been on a veggie kick which is a good thing. I have been making most of our dinners with vegetables and I have collected a few yummy recipes. I have one that I tried the other night that Jesús loved (which is usually my ultimate goal). The recipe was chicken and summer veggie tostadas, Jesús said that he loved it and I actually believed him this time. I changed it up a little to make it the way we like it. Click here for the recipe.

Woot!

Okay so I am 4 days late on weighing myself. However Im down from 181 to 177!!!! Hooray!! I cant remember the last time I was in the 170's! Now if I can just get an exercise schedule maybe it would happen even faster. I cant seem to get up early and I cant seem to remember to do it while the kids are napping. Its hard when I get that time to myself, I would much rather sit down and relax rather than start moving around even more. Maybe I can start walking in the morning. I love walking in the morning and I miss my walking partner from two years ago. Katy, you should move over here! So I am still losing weight and I am not even exercising, other than chasing after kids all day, so all I needed to do was change my diet. Now that I am getting the healthy eating down my body is just naturally getting down to the weight it should. Yay!! Feeling healthy!

Its Almost that time again

I've decided I will weigh myself monthly, I like to see big changes and thats the best bet. Once I am sure I am doing things correctly then I will start weekly. The last few weeks have been a little tough because of holidays and family has been in town and then last week we all got the stomach flu. Fun! Im pretty sure I lost few lbs the day I was sick because the only thing I ate was water and 4 crackers. I have been doing pretty good with eating healthy, its just the exercising that I cant seem to get on track. We have had some pretty good dinners. Jesús made Eggplant Parmesan the other night and it was really good. I made something yummy a couple nights ago. The original recipe was Asparagus and Shrimp Penne but I didnt want to buy shrimp so I made it a vegetarian meal. I cooked the Asparagus in some Garlic and herb salad dressing then added thin slices of red pepper, chopped artichoke hearts and fresh chopped spinach. I cooked 2 cups of Penne and then added it all together and added some mozerella cheese and let it melt. It was so dang good, the only problem was to only have one bowl.

I want to be a loser too!

A Biggest Loser That is!! Yeah, I really enjoy watching that show. It gets me all inspired to eat better and be healthy. I guess a lot of people weren't really happy that Helen won but you know what, I love that she lost all the weight and I totally love Tara!! She looks so amazing and Mike!! Wow!!! Now he can enjoy life as a thin hot kid! Ok and when Jerry walked out I almost cried. I honestly started tearing up.

So thats good, just more motivation for me. The most difficult thing for me lately is getting on an exercise schedule. We have Wii fit so that makes it easier for me to do it at home and I have gotten a really good workout with it. Its not the same as going running and lifting weights and all that but it teaches Yoga, strength training, it has step aerobics and other kinds of calorie burning techniques. I am sore from doing hula hoop exercises yesterday. Ouch!! So my biggest goal is getting on a work out routine. I want to get up at 6:00 when Jesús gets up and go work out. That way I can get it done everyday without worrying about the kids.

My other problem is my chocolate craving, which was non-existant until after Elena was born. Now I have it all the time. I have found a way to indulge without feeling guilty.

Kashi makes some really good snack food. I have recently purchased some of their granola bars and they are really yummy. I had one today that was pumpkin pie, HOLY HEAVENS!!!! It was quite yummy. They also have chocolate and peanut butter and whole bunch of other kinds. Special K also makes really good snack bars that satisfy my sweet tooth.

Snacking can be a diet breaker so before you open that cupboard and find something that will make you weep like a little girl later as you stare at the numbers on the scale(I know, I've done that before), make sure the cupboard is only filled with healthy but yummy things. The only hard part then will be to only eat ONE!

The good and the bad

Well we took a road trip to Disneyland and in retrospect I have discovered something else I need to work on. I still need to eat healthy even on road trips! We ate when we got to the hotel, pizza. But I think I did ok, I only had 2 pieces which is good portion control, but the fact that it was pizza makes me feel like I didnt do a very good job.

When we got into Disneyland I think I did well, for lunch instead of getting a burger or fried french fries I got a turkey sandwich on Focaccia bread and as a side, apples. We drank a lot of water that day, mostly because if we didnt we were going to pass out from the heat but I didnt buy any churros or chocolate covered anything.

On the way home we did stop at Jack-in-the-Box for dinner and I got a hamburger with fries. Not a good idea since I was going to be sitting in a car for the next two hours and not doing anything to work it off. I do feel better knowing that we were walking for most of the day and I was carrying a 16lb baby around the park.

I havent updated my recipe for the day because I wanted to post this recipe I got from epicurious.com. Its Penne with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and baby arugula. The only real fattening part about this meal is its made with a type of bacon and you are supposed to make it with heavy cream. I did use the bacon which in the future I probably wont which will make it a good vegitarian meal and I used whole milk instead of heavy cream. It was really yummy, and I dont think I have ever used arugula before. It was actually arugula and spinach mixed. I didnt use as much parmesean as it asked for and it was still really good. And there was enough left over for Jesús to take to work. I think this meal was a 4 Star meal!! Go HERE for the recipe.

A picture of the finished product

Tip for today:

I’ll Have a Small, Please

Never order anything larger than a “small.” This goes for sodas, movie theater popcorn,
ice cream cones, fries or anything else that is sized-up for sale. You may be surprised to find
that a small is just as satisfying as the “super” or “jumbo.” Try to eat slowly and savor the taste
and texture of every bite. An added benefit is that you’ll find yourself saving money as well as
calories.

Comments

If you have tried to leave a comment, Im sorry for some reason it wasnt working. I have hopefully fixed the problem but email me if you have any further problems.

On another note, I received a great comment from Rachel Hansen. Veggies!! Eat everything with veggies. It will fill you up without the calories. Find a veggie you like and use that as a side for your meals. If you fill up on veggies than you won't eat so much of the unhealthy stuff.

P.S. Watching biggest loser is inspiring me even more!! Love that show!!

First Mistake

Yesterday, I did pretty well. Then dinner hit and it all went downhill. So I guess thats what I need to work on. Breakfast was good and healthy, Kashi makes really good natural food. I recently bought their Strawberry fields cereal and its natural and healthy and most important, it tastes good.

Lunch was a tasty black bean and chicken salad. My sister gave me this idea. Canned black beans and canned chicken (or fresh chicken if that sounds better) put a little bit of taco seasoning, and I like to add some salsa verde for a little kick and more flavor. Chop some lettuce and add a little(keyword- little) shredded jack cheese. Very tasty.

Another good lunch idea is the frozen Smart Ones meals. You know exactly the portion you're eating. My favorite is the Sante Fe rice and beans and its even better over lettuce. Yummy!

Then dinner hit and with Jesus being out of town I made the mistake of making fattening pasta and that means I made enough for two and practically ate enough for two. Bad plan. So I guess thats something I need to plan on, when Jesus is out of town I need to make sure I make smaller portions and probably no pasta. A portion is only 1/2 a cup so I ate way too much. Portion control is an important key to losing weight.

So I need to work on a few things but if I put them out there I will know what my mistakes are and I can fix them.

Maybe trying to measure out a few meals I will know just how much I should eat. So thats my new goal.

Welcome

After staring in the mirror I came to a conclusion, I want to be healthy. It just so happens that I am overweight and I am dedicating this blog to the road to my transformation. My heaviest weight, not being pregnant, is 217. Not good. I am currently at 181 which is a weight I havent seen since 2004. I am not proud of posting this weight but its a reality that I am facing.

I am on track but the point is to stay on track. I am a busy wife and mother and making sure I live healthy is difficult when its easier to just stop at a fast food place to grab a quick bite to eat on the way to my next errand.

I will post recipes and exercise tips that work for me. We all know the way to healthy weight loss and it shouldnt come in a pill bottle. Sure a pill might get you to lose weight but it doesnt teach you how to live a healthy lifestyle to keep the weight off.

So visit here for tips and ideas and hopefully my progress will inspire someone.

Now go have a glass of water!!