Keeping it Real

In reading through my last few post I notice I sound pretty darn happy. Happy, healthy, fit and active. What a great life I must have. Lol. No really my life is just fine but it is defiantly not all those things. Honestly in the last 4 days I have had two major meltdowns where I was bawling and feeling life life couldn't get much worse. I also get teary eyed quite often during my workouts. Sounds silly doesn't it? I don't know what it is but sometimes it just seems so hard and makes me wonder if I will ever look like what I want to look like. Idk but i keep pushing right through the tears because the only way I will ever find out is if I keep on going.

Ben and I the opposite of a perfect relationship, but we try, we push through all these roadblocks life keeps throwing at us. Some days I wonder why did I ever marry this man, he is so unlike me, but i did marry him and I had 3 kids with him. He provides the best he can for me and them. He tries. He would give me the moon if he was able so I have to keep looking past faults.

My kids, I love them so much. I would die for them. They are great, get great grades, but they arnt perfect either. They are just like any other kid. They are mouthy, tend to not listen. Gary keeps disobeying like crazy! For two years Ive told the kid do not get breakfast at school. I feed him here. I cant afford to buy school breakfasts. He continues to eat breakfast at school every chance he gets. SMH. I don't get it. We punish him. He still does it. I told him dont download anything on the ipod without asking me first. He still downloads stuff. We know cuz whatever he downloads automatically goes to Ben's phone. He knew this. But still did it anyways!!! I just dont get it!
I could go on and on with the woes thats is me, but I wont. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't giving anyone the wrong impression. Actually I dont even know if anyone is reading this!
I just keep going, doing the best I can with what I have. Im reading this book right now. Hoping I can learn a thing or two.

A fit family and our menu.

Another weekend come and gone,, almost half way through Feb!!  It really is true that as you get older life just moves on faster.  And the weekends sure do fly by.  Through the week our days are pretty much the same,, get up kids go to school Ben is at work, I babysit until 5:30 every night which then we have dinner, clean up dinner, workout, get kids ready for bed, watch a little TV, wait for 3rd shift babysitting girl to come and then go to bed to get up and do it all over again.  The weekends are always a little different and as of lately working out is part of those also.  I am really happy that fitness has taken over our household.  I cant believe I'm saying this but I am loving being active.  I really cant  wait until the weather warms up some I we can get outside more often and take walks and I"m dieing to go hiking somewhere.  Tennessee and all those hills are really calling my name.  I bet we could tackle them a lot better now than we did a few years ago! 

Jess and I right before doing The Shred.

 

We took a little sneak peak at level 3 of the Shred and since the mats were open Emma decided to do some of the stretches with Evil Jillian.

Saturday the sun was out and even though it wasn't really warm we took advantage of it and the whole family went for a walk. Gary wanted to ride his bike.  We went for 2 miles!  Our ears and cheeks were frozen but its all good.  I loved getting some fresh air. Emma was whining on the way home about being cold and tired but hopefully this summer when its not freezing she will be more into it. 

I really wasn't this far behind everyone, my shoe was untied so I stopped to tie it and snapped a pic while I was back there. 

 

Ive decided to start posting our menus again like I used to.  Keep in mind that lunches are always subject to change, just depends if we have leftovers or not and what the kids and I are in the mood for..I also don't always eat the same thing as the kids in the mornings and lunches,,if you want to see exactly what I eat find and add me at myfitnesspal.com  my user name is everydaymom. 

 

I also always have a veggie or two at dinner but dont always right then down on the menu plan because we just have whatever one sounds good that day. :)   More or less nothing is written in stone,I just like to have a basic plan.  This little markerboard came with a calander set my mom got me for Christmas,, I love it for posting our menus on the fridge. 

If you need some dinner inspiration check outhttp://orgjunkie.com/ There are tons of menu plans there every Monday morning

Saturday happenings

Oh lovely Saturday.. I love them.  No extra kids here besides my own.  Ben worked this morning, and he has to work tomorrow.  He's bummed, but it sure helps out with money.  This morning the kids and I slept in , had breakfast, then Jess and I did the Shred.  Shes been doing it with me, which helps out.  Its always more fun to have someone suffer along beside me :)  Then we all took showers(cuz we were sweaty and stinky), and then Ben came home.  We had lunch, cleaned up, then made our grocery shopping list.  Tomorrow is super bowl Sunday we planned out a fun and fattening filled day for that, then made the menu plan for the rest of the week.  

All our lovely fruit, I love when we get home from the store and have a overflowing fruit basket,, although it wont look like that for long,, This wont even last until next weekends shopping trip.

 Shopping took forever!! The stores were packed,, guess people were stocking up for super bowl?? When we came home we had dinner, then decided we needed desert.  So Jess was looking online for a recipe and I suggested we look at momto9's blog.  She has yummy deserts  We found this recipe for heavenly bars.. 

Cooking at home makes for lots of dirty dishes

 The bars turned out just as heavenly as promised!  Jess did a great job as always.  I don't even want to know how many calories were in that little square I ate. Good thing we exercised this morning!  

My nice clean shiny sink! (wanted to make sure everyone knows I don't leave a  messy kitchen for to long!)

PS..   For the whole entire time I've been typing this Miss Jessica has been sitting beside me making fun of me and the way I type and write and spell and talk,, and shes laughing right now..  Good thing I know she loves me deep down.

Shred update and a date night

Yummy sushi oh how I love thee

Honestly I could eat it every single day!  Ben and I finally got out for a date night Saturday night...We went to Noa Noa, it was our first time there and I loved the atmosphere and the food was delish!  Plus we only had to pay less than $10 because I had a gift certificate from one of my childcare families!  yay!  It was nice to just be us.. Ben said it was nice and quiet,, no kids fighting, screaming, no one saying ewww that looks gross(something Emma has been saying quite often since I've been trying to cook healthier lately).  We just left the kids at home(something I feel blessed to be able to do now that Jess is older and can watch Emma).  We dont stay out long when we do that just in case and Jess had a phone to call us if she needs us. 

 

 

Here is sweaty old me after doing day 6 of the 30 Day shred!!

The soreness is getting better even though I feel like need a hand rail to get up and down off the toilet most days because my legs are so sore. LOL   Its so worth it though.  I'm feeling stronger everyday!  I feel so good and actually look forward to the workout!  I cant wait until the weather gets nicer here so I can get out and take more walks again.. I'm contemplating attempting to jog again this summer... It hasn't worked out before but I'm willing to try again.  I'm just happy,, happy to be taking better care of myself!  Oh and finally the initial gain after starting the program has came off,, I'm pretty positive it was my sore muscles retaining water.  So I've been drinking lots of it to keep it moving along,,, the only problem with doing that is I have to pee all the time!!!  ugh

Sore!!

Ok so Ive done 2 days of the Shred Its day 3 morning and Im so sore! The front top half of my legs are on fire. My rear end is sore. Chest and arms a little. But I know that all a good thing because that means my body is changing for the better!
The bad thing is the last two days I have stepped on the scale my weight has gone up a pound. Each day!!! Ive been staying in my calories so Im not sure whats going on. Im guessing its because my muscles are swollen? I hope thats it. I took measurments of my body this morning so I can track that on top of the scale. I dont want to get discouraged. I wanna be a hot mama!!
Tonight me and Ben are going out to dinner with a gift certificate I got for Christmas from one of my babysitting kids parents. Gotta love a free meal and a mini date night!!

Fitness

Ok, so I'm getting a little excited.  I've decided that I'm going to restart Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred!  I've tried it once before but never even got to level 2.  So I"m gonna start and I WILL  make it through the 30 days!  I feel that I should be in better shape than I was the last time I tried it and I know I weigh less so I know it wont be easy but I'm gonna try again!  Yay!  And then I'm gonna move onto another program.  I was looking on YouTube and there are a LOT  of options on there!!   So now I just need to figure out a start date.......   I could wait until Feb 1st and that would be easier to track the days.  Oh why put it off,, I will start tomorrow.  Better do it while I'm still excited about it!:)  Ill keep my progress updated on here

Weekend birthday party



We had a great weekend.  We had family over to celebrate Emma and Gary's birthdays.  We had the party here at our house and I made food and Jess made the cakes!

 

 

She did a amazing job!  She wants to study culinary arts in school! Its nice having someone else that likes to cook around the house although she prefers to make deserts I think,  Which is fine and dandy unless you ask my waistline. LOL

It was nice to have everyone over to our house.  I'm so glad everyone could make it!  The kids both got things they wanted and everyone was happy I believe. 

 

My family has been begging me to make granola bars again... that's right, we don't buy those anymore either.  this is the recipe I have been making.  Everyone likes it accept for Gary, not sure why.  I cut them into 24 bars and they come out to 120 calories.  I do want to try some different things out and see if I can make them healthier.  This recipe uses butter,, I'm wondering if I could replace it with coconut oil.   Here are the bars setting up before I cut them

 

 

 

And here they are in the "cookie jar". (which we never have cookies in)