It's time to "Take out the trash"

Ash Wednesday is upon us and it is time to reveal what I have decided to give up for Lent.

First off, I looked up the time of mass at school and thought it was for 6:30. Little did I know that this was the mass time for a church in CA. After arriving at the church and realizing I had the wrong time I sat in the parking lot for a bit. I decided that if I went home then there was a good chance that I wouldn't make it back!

The priest tonight talked about Lent being a time to "take out the trash" or get rid of all the sinning we have done over the past year. I could really relate to this. He also talked about what we would be giving up. The priest asked us to think about this, is the thing we are going to give up going to make us a better person after or the same. He talked about someone giving up alcohol. If that person stops drinking for 40 days are they going to be a different person after or the same grumpy one. What's the point of giving something up if we are just going to be the same after? Lent ti s a time to learn and grow into someone we want to be!!! I really enjoyed listening to the priest tonight. I thought he had a great message and I was able to relate to it!

With that being said I have decided to do two things during lent. First, I am going to give up drinking! I figured this was a great way to not have unwanted calories on my plan. Second, I am going to volunteer during this time. When I was on a wine tour (ha ha) a few weeks ago, I met a a guy who works for a nonprofit organization called "Playworks." This local organization works with local schools to provide recess games and after school programs. I found it very interesting!!!! I love PE and kids so I think this will be a great chance to give back to others. A few weeks ago I emailed the organization. I recently received an email asking to set up a meeting for find some opportunities to volunteer.

All in all it was a great day!! I am excited about the next few weeks and to keep up with my Lent promises!!

The plan has been good this week!! Feeling back on track :) Went to bosu ball class last night and am going to attempt a 5:45 am class!!!! Hopefully I can make it!!!!

Southwestern Chicken

My house smells so good right now!!!! I wish I could attach something that demonstrates how good it smells.

This was one of the easiest receipes to make!!!!! All you need is two cans of corn, one can black beans, jar of salsa, chicken, and cheese.

Drain the corn and beans and place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup salsa. Add chicken halves in and cover with remaining salsa.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Add cheese for the last 5 min and presto....Southwest Chicken!!! Each serving is 300 calories. I added some brown rice and I thought some mexican rice would also taste yummy!!!

Such and easy receipe and yummy!! While corn is probably not the best option it tastes yummy. Usually I am not a fan of black beans but they sure did taste good in this dish. Enjoy :)

I turned left when I should have gone right...

Let me start off by saying I know it has been along time since I have posted. This by no means correlates with the fact that I have stopped my plan. I find that I am best at blogging when I have something big to write out. I wouldn't want to read a blog about what someone ate everyday. With that being said, let's talk about this week.

For the first time since I have started down this path I was faced with a lot of challenges. To start the week off I was just coming off being sick.  This didn't help matters as I had very low energy. With such low energy it was VERY hard to cook. Breakfast and lunch all week were great. These meals require very little prep work and it was easy for me to grab the stuff and go. Two thumbs up for me during those meals. I only had one cup of coffee this week!!!

Now dinner on the other hand is a different story!! I went out to dinner way too many times. Not only did I not need to spend money, but I would have made better choices had I stayed home. Going out to eat is just so much easier then cooking!! Cooking is hard for me because most times I cook meals for me and only me. If I had someone to cook with then I would probably be more inclined to do it more. Would it be weird to advertise for a cooking partner?

When I was out to dinner I have to give credit to myself for not going for the burger and fries! I went for sandwiches and salads which is more then I would have done in the past. One night I had to go for the pizza!!!!! Instead of ordering water I went for a beer. On the plus side I went for a lighter beer and not a heavy one, and I only had one. The few nights that I was home I thought it was a good idea to have wine at home to keep me from snacking. Bad idea!! Alcohol has just as many calories as food so in the grand scheme of things it's not any better.

I am not sure why this week was so hard for me! My classes this week were completely full so I worked all day. Two days after school I tutored which I am not used to.  If a change in my week can throw me off that much, what will the future bring? It scares me!!!! I knew this was going to change my life all around but I wasn't sure how much!!!

At this point I don't have the answer as to how I can continue to make changes and improve. I am proud of myself for being able to reflect on the week. Also, I am happy with the fact that I didn't turn to fast food.

At school when a student has poor behavior we put them on a behavior contract and then reward them when they meet their goals and have a successful day. It may be silly to say but I feel like I need to put myself on a life contract. Everytime I cook a healthy meal or workout I reward myself. Who knows!!

With lent coming up I was trying to think of what to do. Should I give something up, should I make an effort to do something more? Here are my thoughts so far.....
1. Give up alcohol
2. Get to the gym more
3. Go to church once a week

These are my thoughts so far. I will keep you updated on my final decision!

Hooray moment of the week!! 
I went to David's Bridal to buy a dress for a wedding I am in in June. I went 3 weeks ago to try on dresses and found I needed to order a size 16. When I went back today to buy and try on, I found out I needed a size 14! Might be a small accomplishments but at least it is something!!!!


Check back tonight for another blog! I know what you are thinking....two in one day!!! Tonight I am trying a new recipe in the crock pot. Plus I need to update all the amazing quotes my sister has been sending me :)

Happy Reading!

I was stressed today so I decied to....

2011-Eat, eat, eat
2012-The gym!!

Big step today!! Instead of grabbing food and sitting in front of the TV, I went to the gym and tortured myself with the bosu blast class again!! During class I was so focused on not falling off and keeping up that I didn't think anything about my day!! When I got home I made dinner and thought of how proud of myself I was!!

I would definitely characterize myself as a stress/emotional eater. Now I am calling myself a stress gymer!! It felt so good to let out some steam. The class was a big help as I didn't have to think about what exercise to do. There was someone else there to show me what to do. In this situation I think it helped to have a class tonight.

(Sorry if this post rambles. I am trying to type during the commercials of Glee!)

What are your thoughts? What do you do to let stress out?

Plan is still holding strong. This weekend was not quite where it should be, but I didn't eat as bad as I used to. My problem this weekend was I didn't really balanced the diet out. I slacked on the fruits and veggies. Saturday night was our staff party and I had a healthy dinner before hand and then only 1 cake pop! Since I ate before hand I didn't find the need to eat just to eat at the party!! Wahoooooo

Superbowl Sunday had to be the one exception!! My team, the Giants, were in it and I was going to celebrate!!! I cooked a Palermo pizza which has a thinner crust and whole wheat which means less calories. I made some tomato, mozzarella, basil, and low fat balsamic. Using my crock pot I cooked cream cheese potato soup. At 220 calories per serving it was amazing!!!!!!!! The fridge has been stocked with random beers so I told everyone they had to help me get rid of them. I indulged in a few wheat beers just to help out the cause :) Overall I keep my portion sizes down. Too much of my time was spent pacing back and forth that I didn't have time to eat!

Cream Cheese Potato Soup
5 medium potatoes diced fine
1 small onion, chopped,
1 cup ham, diced
1 8oz. package low fat cream cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper and dill weed
3 cups water

Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on high for 4 hours. If you need to make the soup thicker you can add a little more cream cheese! This is a yummy recipe and I highly recommend it!!

Quote of the day: "You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be."

Sunday Quote: "The elevator to success is out of order. You'll have to use the stairs....one step at a time. "

February 4th: "Can it be a mistake that 'STRESSED' is 'DESSERTS' spelled backwards?" This one should really be the quote of the day as in the past that is what I would have turned to!!!

My favorite quote of the past few days from the lovely AA is "Everyday is a GIANT step forward!!" I had to add to colors :)

MyFitnessPal

For the first 10 days of my plan I was keeping track of the foods I ate in a little notebook. While in theory that was a great way to see what foods I was consuming, this was not an accurate way to count my calories. Counting calories is the whole idea! 

I remembered a while back I had downloaded this app called MyFitnessPal because it was one of the top apps. At the time I hadn't really explored it too much. I knew it was a place to enter food, but I had no idea how much it could actually do! I had an extra break today so I decided to explore. I was amazed at how many brand name foods they had! Other calorie counters I looked at have a generic food name and number. This app is so specific that it had my exact brand and flavor of yogurt. As I explored more I quickly realized how specific the foods were! Incredible! 

The settings page allows you to enter goals for calories, weight, workout days, and much more. I was able to enter my 1700 calories a day goal. As you enter your food you pick whether it was for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack. The program will deduct the calories you have and break it down by each meal. I am able to see exactly how many calories I have had and where! 

The coolest thing about the app so the bar code scanner feature. Tonight I was able to scan the code on the lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream, and chips I used for my taco salad. When you scan the bar code it will bring up the calories based on the serving size on the package. From there you can adjust the serving size to fit what you had! This is an amazing tool because it takes time away from searching through a list of foods (not that searching the list takes forever). 

Another fun feature of the app is that once you have entered a food, you will be able to select it again. I also have the app on my iPad so anything i enter on my phone is shared and sent to the iPad app. These are the features I am most familiar with at this point. 

Today was a great day food wise! I am really getting the hang of this:) I am excited to start cooking next week! I spent a little time tonight going through and looking for some recipes! 

Quote of the day: Everyday do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow! 

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Butt Kicking and Re-Assurance

Tonight's post is going to be about getting my butt kicked yesterday and the re-assurance that I am on the right path to a healthier lifestyle!!

Bosu Blast was what kicked my butt yesterday! I went to the YMCA to take this new class. I have never done it and thought it would be fun! Well it was fun meeting new people who helped me get set, not so fun on my calves!!! For those of you who don't know what a bosu ball is.....here you go!

This fun little squishy blue thing may look friendly, but it's not!!! Man o man did it give me a good work out! I have used a bosu ball with a trainer before. I would do push ups by putting the blue side down or balance on it and do some squats. We did both of those in the class so I was able to do that!!!! The first part of the class felt like a step class. I couldn't quite get the basic step down, but the other ones were not a problem. After ten minutes of trying to gain my balance I finally felt like I was keeping up! I started at with a very squishy bosu and at some point in the class the lady behind me offered to switch bosu's with me since hers was a little studier. She thought it might help me and it did!!! After class was over my face was as red as my Camry!!! I felt great after and was excited to take the class again!! My feeling is that with some practice I will be in much more control next time :)

After school I headed over to meet with my nutritionist for the second time. Going into the meeting I felt really confident about my work over the past 10 days. We sat down and she asked me how everything was going. After admitting that the first weekend was a total wash, I informed her of my progress. I showed her some of the choices I was making, talked about the timing of day, and how the prep was going. She was very pleased at my progress!! Wahooooo!!! We didn't talk about all the foods I was eating which was nice. Today we focused on dinner. After the first meeting I had indicated that sometimes it was easier to go out and grab something then cook a meal for one. My trouble with cooking is that I would have all these leftover and then either forget to eat them or not feel in the mood for them! One of her many great suggestions today was cook meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday then have leftovers on Thursday and Friday and then for lunch! I loved this idea!! Even though it meant cooking for three days, I liked that I would have leftovers days later and not feel like I was eating the same meal three nights in a row!!

We came up with meal ideas for three weeks!! She started by giving a suggestion and then having me say yes for I would eat it or no I won't eat it. At first I thought I was going to have a lot of no's. The only one I said no to was meatloaf!!! Maybe I am not such a picky eater!!! We didn't go through and make specific recipes but talked about how to make most of them. She even gave me some suggestions to make some of the healthier!! 

Week 1-spaghetti (whole wheat), stuffed red peppers, roast beef in crock pot, grilled shrimp on a salad, BBQ chicken, Palmero ultra thin crust pizza.

Week 2-tacos (cummin and chilli pepper in place of taco seasoning) soup and grilled cheese ( on whole wheat bread), grilled salmon, pork loin, chicken in a crock pot.

Week 3-chicken fajita, chili, steak, Mrs. Dash marinated chicken, chicken casserole, chicken soup.

I hope as you are reading these you are saying "wow these seem easy to make." I liked the fact that a good amount of them can be made in the crock pot and then frozen for later!! Next week I hope to blog about my cooking experiences with the week 1 meals.

In week three you will see something called Mrs. Dash. We talked today how Mrs. Dash is seasoning and marinade that was created after a study was done. Mrs. Dash has no salt added. My nutritionist raved about how she uses this stuff on everything! Meats and veggies!! She gave me some great ideas for green beans and asparagus!!!

Overall it has been a great few days!! I am excited to go shopping this weekend for some of my new dinner ideas!

Goal Update: Cook new meals next week and blog about the experience!!

Book Recommendation: Healthy Homestyle Cooking by Evelyn Tribole 

Tuesday's Quote: "My advice is to go into something and stay with it until you like it. You can't like it until you obtain expertise in that work. And once your are an expert, it's a pleasure."

Wednesday's Quote: " You've got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It's called perseverance."

Have a great Thursday!!!!!