Home

So we've been home for a few days and obviously I still haven't updated my blog.  I've been trying to catch up on the laundry and the household stuff.  Being away from my house just throws me off.  I feel like I get behind.  Alas I will need to be getting used to it though because with Bens mom moving only 3 hours away instead of across the country we will be taking long weekends out there much more often.  I am happy about it all though.  I can't imagine not seeing my mom for so long and I hope the two(hubby and mom in law) can build there relationship. 
Being away from home not only makes me feel behind on my household duties but apparently in the fitness area also.  While the hotel we stayed in had a workout room and I did use the treadmill 2 of the 3 days we were there(yay) I still ate like crap!  Seriously when we returned home my scale was up 10 pounds!  :(   I thought the next day it would look better....Nope.  2 days later and I'm only down a few ounces.  I have got to get back on the right eating track and keep losing!   I feel awful and like a fat slob and I hate it.   I need to learn to make healthy choices outside the home as well as in.  I can do pretty well when I'm at home but get me out to a restaurant and its a free for all.  Good thing we dont go out to often! 

Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures soon!

Life in pictures

We've been busy.  And I didn't wanna go to long without posting so I decided to post some recent pics from my phone for you guys...
Here is Ms Emma hangin cool in the car reading her books

She just looked so darn cute I had to snap a pic!

Here is a pot beans ready to be cooked and transferred into re fried beans without the re fry.   There are pinto beans, a whole onion, lots of garlic and some seasonings. Then I filled up the crock pot with water, turned it on high for 4 hours, then low for about 2 or 3 hours.  Then I drained out just a little water then used a potato masher to mash it all up. .It was delish!!  It made a ton so we froze some and ate some. :)

Here is me.  Ben told me to send him a picture while he was at work on Friday and I was busy so just snapped this one of myself really fast.. He asked how many times I took a pic to send him because he said this is the best looking picture of me in a long time.  lol..  I dont see it.  But its sweet of him to say that.

And here is Gary and Emma, we went to the Home and Garden show with my parents yesterday and they had a little booth with a real live tortoise.  The lady asked Emma if she wanted to pet it and she wouldn't but Gary did!  Arnt they just the cutest kids!

Now I'm waiting for Ben to get home from work, then we are gonna have lunch then hit the gym.   Its day 2 of our free 7 day membership at the fitness center.  It was sooo nice working out there yesterday and having all the options of the different machines.  

30 Day Shred Results

Are you guys tired of hearing about the 30 Day Shred yet?  :)  Well its done so I shouldn't be talking about it for awhile. I'm going to report my progress on it though.  Not huge numbers but still losses so that's good.  I wish there was a way to measure strength cuz I know I'm stronger! I can actually do a real push up now when I couldnt when I started!  I did things on level 2 and 3 that I never thought I would ever be able to do so I would defiantly call that progress also!   So for the numbers...
In weight I went down almost 4 pounds....nothing superb but I guess if you talley it up that's a pound a week.   As far as body measurements goes
My neck stayed the same,,
My waist went down 3 inches! ( I was very happy about that,, i thought my pants were getting loose again!)
My hips went down 1 inch
My right arm,down 1/2 inch
My left arm, down 1/2 inch
Right leg,down 1/2 inch
Left leg,down 1 1/2 inches

I'm pretty happy with these results,, I know I gained muscle in my arms and legs, but I still have a lot of fat on them so I'm glad for the loss.

For exercise now I think I'm just gonna keep mixing it up with different circuit workouts, and dvds.  Next week we are going to take advantage of a free one week membership at a gym that my mom works out at.  That will be different and fun!

New Diet Plan

My husband and I started our "healthier living journey" 2012  probably around February.  While I have lost 48.4 pounds I still have 32.6 to go  before I THINK I am where I want to be.  I say THINK because I've never been this weight in my adult life.  I've always been heavy.  I'm the fat one in the family.   Although I don't think I would call myself that anymore.  But I'm still to heavy.  I'm not in my "healthy weight range".  I'm not comfortable naked (not sure I ever will be).  

Throughout this whole thing I haven't really wanted to consider myself on a "diet".  Ive done that before and ended up gaining half the weight back that I lost.  I have really tried to not tell myself that I can't have any certain food, reason being then I'm constantly gonna want that food. That's just how I am.  But since I've been playing around at this back and forth 5 pounds for months now I think its time to stricken it up.  I've been trying to figure out how to do that without being miserable.  I Love food!  And I enjoy eating.  I normally stay within my calories too, but for some reason I' m not losing anymore so here is what I'm going to do for the time being.  No more crackers/chips for the next two weeks at least so I can see what the scale does.  If I really feel the need for something of that nature then I will pop some popcorn with coconut oil.  At least that is "clean".  I was getting a little crazy with the flavored peanut butter also so I'm going to limit myself to only "real" peanut butter or the PB2 for the next little while also.  Also I will be keeping trying to incorporate more veggies into the mix.  I'm finding a lot that I didn't even know I liked!  I am still going to allow myself one "cheat meal" for the week.

As far as exercise I have been rocking it better than ever with that.  I have 2 days left of Jillian Michaels the Shred and then I can move on with my life. LOL   Not stop exercising but just adding new and different things.  I really do enjoy the circuit type workouts though.  I'm defiantly gonna incorporate lots of those in the mix.     I'll keep Ya ll updated!  Here's hoping for big loses!

Mason Jar smoothies

It doesn't take much to get this mama excited.   Someone really should have been here to here the scream that came from me today.  I was minding my own business, killing some time browsing pintrest(which by the way if you haven't discovered yet I highly recommend it!  I came upon this picture,,, showing a mason jar on top of a blender..hmmmmm,,,  I immediately started feeling the excitement and had to get right up and find a mason jar.   I found a regular mouthed one and walked my curious self right over to our blender..   Unscrewed the bottom blade part from the regular container and tried to screw it on the mason jar.   That is when the scream came out... Screams of joy!!!!!!  I really wanted to try it out right then but had to wait until later after my workout when I was going to have my protein shake.. (have to use my calories wisely).

Finally it was time,, first I put my goodies in the mason jar, one frozen banana, one scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, a few ice cubes, and some water.

Then I screwed on the blade part being very careful not to stab myself :)

Sit it right on the blender and tada!!!!!

Yummy!(That would be the arm of my husband in the background wondering why he married such a crazy freak that gets excited about using Mason jars on the blender)  He loves me!

Pure happiness right there... Who doesn't wanna drink right out of the Mason Jar(must be my southern roots showing there),, and I didn't have to dirty up the blender and this jar can easily go right into the dishwasher!  Sorry I look so utterly horrid,, this was after my workout remember and I never look pretty after all that sweaty-ness! Speaking of workouts,, only 6 more left of Jillian Michales Shred! Yay!  This level is a killer!

And in all the excitement Emma kept bugging met to take a picture of her with the lanyard on and with her little bear she found in her toy box today that her brother and sister got her when she was first born in the hospital.  Isn't she the cutest?

Whats the silliest thing you have gotten excited about?  I know I'm not the only one....

For more kitchen tips visit Tammy's website She always has great tips!

Level 3

Today was day one of level 3 of The shred.. .. I know I've said it at the beginning of every single level but OH man, this one is rough!  Traveling push ups, sumo squat jumps, regular squat jumps, rock star jumps!!  The list goes on.  I am doing things I never thought in my life I would be able to!  I'm so proud of myself, and of Jess.    
 So 9 days left of this and then we will be on to something else.  I'm loving my heart rate monitor that I ordered. Its so nice to see how much I am actually burning and how hard I'm working from day to day.
Its late and I'm tired but I just wanted to check in here..

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.

Homemade is the only way

Oh, I really need to start doing better with this blogging business. . I just cant decide if I wanna do it or not, I can totally write the post in my head while I'm folding clothes or making dinner, but to actually take the time and sit down to type it out and upload pics is hard.  

Anyways we have been doing fabulous not eating out and  making things from scratch.  In fact if I mention buying something from the store, for example tortillas, Ben about goes crazy.  He says why buy something when we can make it ourselves.  Its all good and dandy, but geez it sure is a LOT  more work and a LOT more kitchen clean up for me!  We have been making all kinds of pizzas, we've done tortillas

, I made some breakfast hot pockets that went in the freezer for a quick and easy breakfast for the the kiddos before school.  We made homemade egg rolls the other day and they were delish!!!  All this yummy food and we are still trying to lose the weight.  Its coming off still, slowly but surely.  43 pounds down,, it was 50 but I gained some over the holidays.  We try to fit in our exercise most days.  I've decided without it I wont be losing any weight.  So elliptical and weights it is along with some exercise videos thrown in here and there.  And counting my calories on myfitnesspal.com  feel free to add me on a friend on there!

Almost a year

Holy Moly its been a long time!!  Almost a year since I have blogged!!  Life...it has been busy, crazy, good, bad, and everything in between.  So much has happened in the last year, so many plans, things I thought were going to happen, and yet here we are, right where I left a year ago.  Everything is pretty much the same, accept for the fact that I am now almost 50 pounds lighter!  That's a good thing. I still have more to go and its been a real struggle lately.  I fight with my inner self constantly,, what to eat, when to exercise.  See I know the answer to all of this, its just mind of matter and its also a fact of me not wanting to be so obsessed with everything I put into my mouth.  I want there to be a happy medium.  I want to be able to eat healthy but still let myself enjoy some of the bad for me stuff also.  Its a happy balance and I'm trying to find it.   The exercise things is just me needing to do it, stick with it and get it done.. When I don't exercise its just my pure laziness.  I'm working on that.  Anyways, as far as blogging I'm just gonna start again and take up where I left off.  Its a good release for my mind and I kind of miss the outside communication with the world. :)

Salads!!

As I'm sitting here typing right now I am trying to convince my brain that I am NOT  hungry!  I ate a perfectly fine lunch and do not need to eat right now.   I am trying very hard to get back on the right track with my eating and weight.  I need to shed some pounds,,, I feel like a lump, and when I see pics of myself it disappoints me.  Granted I'm still 70 pounds lighter than I was 3 or so years ago but I still need to lose quite a bit more to get back to where I started before I got pregnant this last time. 

I bought fresh veggies over the weekend and made up them all into a salad so it was all premade for me and ready to eat for lunches and dinners....even the kiddos have said the salad taste yummy!  I think already having it cut up and ready to go is the key for me cause during lunch time I'm to busy to cut up all the veggies, this way I can just dump them into a bowl and add a little dressing. 

I know its possible!  I've did it before,, Its just so much harder this time!   Anyone have any good healthy snack ideas that will not give to many calories, but still make you feel satisfied for more than 30 minutes?

The gym

The whole Y/gym/fitness center ,,,,is a whole new concept for me. I've never been big on exercising, and especially not in front of other people!!! I am to much of a worrier. Worrying about what people will think of me,, but then I joined belly dancing class and loved it, and realized there are people out there in this world that are bigger than me... and certainly if they can do these things than so can I. After all isn't it really all about what makes ourselves happy? So I decided the only way I am ever going to start really losing weight again is if I start exercising, but it proved to be to difficult at home. When I"m here Emma demands all of my attention and when she doesn't have it, she is screaming!! (anyone have any suggestions for that?)
So I decided that I would join our local YMCA,, they have the workout room, free childcare while you workout, and all the programs are discounted that they offer for the kids! I love it! And the big kids love it too! Even hubby, who was very sceptical likes going now too!

Its funny though,, as I'm working out so many things are going through my head. It's usually when I'm doing cardio, cause when I'm using the weight machines my full concentration is on lifting, but there I am working away at the elliptical,, sweating my hinny off(I never knew I was such a sweater until I started working out too) and these things are running through there,,I'll just list them,that will be easier
-why am I doing this?----so I can be healthy and get in shape
-will I ever be skinny?---will I ever be happy with the way my body looks?
-will I ever look like that girl?----remember Jill, the big goal is to be healthy
-I wonder why that guy is here? or that girl? I wonder how long they have been coming, they are still big,,,,,, will I be big forever?
-look how skinny that girl/guy is, are they only skinny because they workout---do they have an eating disorder?
-will I stick with this----YES
-I wonder what they are thinking about right now.
-will Bennie stick with this????
-I wonder what my body will look like at Dawn's wedding
-Man I'm tired
-wow only 5 min left
-I'm so happy I'm doing this!


I know now ya'll think I'm crazy,, but those things really run through my brain pretty much ever time I'm there. And it may sound like I'm judging other people, but I'm not,, I'm really just comparing myself to them. I shouldn't do that, but I do.

I really do enjoy it though,, I look forward to that hour of alone time(even though I'm not really alone), it is a great stress relief for me.

What do you guys think about when you workout?