Weigh in - Week two

Yesterday, Monday, Tyler and I weighed in for the second time. Tyler was down another pound and I was down another two. We are so excited about that. Week two is always less than the first week, but to lose any at all means that the loss from week one is solid. We are working out on the Wii Fit and going to the club and I've started doing kettle ball workouts. My legs were sore for 3 days this week after my first workout with that ball. It kicked my butt....but it felt good.
Stayed tuned....

Days eleven thru seventeen

Okay, so I slacked a bit....in my writing, not my dieting. The good news is, everything is still on track and we're doing really well. I added excersize even this week. YAY!
The main reason I haven't posted is that we've been super busy, I've hardly been online this past week...and...I really haven't done any new meals or anything exciting. We have been doing a couple leftover meals with all the cooking I've been doing.
On Sat. night we went out to dinner which is always a true test. Tyler got a 'build your own salad' and I got a 'build your own burger'. Wait though, part of what you can pick is what kind of "burger" you want. I picked a portabella mushroom on a wheat tortilla. I loaded it with veggies and no fatty sauces. It was ssoooooo good. Tyler was a little disappointed in his salad cuz all they had was fat free Ranch and it was not good at all. I told him to take it home and finish it there with our own light ranch on it. That was tons better.
I am posting our weigh in results in a minute. Just wanted to check in.

Day Ten

Today was just like any other. The boys had T-ball so we brought a picnic for lunch. I made sandwiches to order before going. Mine was turkey, cheese, tomato, avocado, and some mustard. I made it on these flat bread buns I've gotten to really like. They make perfect buns for a burger (like the turkey burgers I made on Monday) or for a cold sandwhich like this. Very good and not too thick so you're not filling up on all bread.
For dinner I tried something new....again. It's called Creamy Beef and Onions. It was sort of a take on beef stroganoff, but with some changes and I actually liked it better.

Plus, it was easier to make and had a thicker sauce. The kids really liked it too so that is always a good thing.
For dessert we're going to have some jell-o. The boys are anxious to have that...I never make it so it's a treat for them. I'll add a picture tonight.

Day Nine

This morning I grabbed some string cheese and a bland muffin.....yum.
For lunch we made those darn pizzas again. I know, I know this is 3 times in 4 days but they're really good. Trae and Tony wanted one this time so they made one with just pepperoni and cheese. They didn't really like them. Trae isn't much of a pizza eater, but I think he wanted to be a part of what we were doing so he tried it. They won't have them again, but Tyler and Timmy sure like them. Me too.
The kids were excited all day for snack time. I had told them we would make some chocolate or vanilla smoothies. I used the Melaleuca Attain mixes and added some stuff.
They all wanted a chocolate with peanut butter one, except for Tanner. He chose a vanilla with peaches in it. But....then he didn't like it so he had the chocolate one. I actually loved the vanilla/peach, so I had that one. They were really good. I dressed them up with a stick of licorice and viola....really fun snack.


For Dinner we had all leftovers. We are going to have at least one leftover night every week. Tues. or Thurs. would be best cuz I work those nights. We've been cooking so much that the fridge is full of great food to finish up.
Here is some good news to report. I think Jason is finally on board with this. I think he's seeing how committed we all are and wants to be a part of it. He'll always eat what I make for dinner and stuff, but then he'll do something at night that's not good for him so it ruins the healthy dinner. But on this night, I got home from work and the kids said they wanted a snack while watching America's Got Talent so I made some popcorn for them. Jay didn't want that but asked me if I could make him something healthy to snack on. I made him a plate with a serving of reduced fat Triscuits, 2 wedges of skinny cheese, and an orange.

He really liked it all. He said he couldn't remember the last time he ate an orange, but it really hit the spot. See, this plan isn't so bad.
Oh, and he and Tyler also went to the club and worked out. YAY! Tyler is a rock star and Jay is getting on the bandwagon. Bonus!

Day Eight

Back to Monday...one full week complete. They say if you do something consistently for 3weeks, it becomes habit. Well, I think we're on our way. Tyler's drive in this is unshakable, I'm so proud of him. He's already thinking ahead to a sleepover this Sat. night and what sort of healthy snacks I can pack for him to bring. It's all about planning, I'm really learning that. Nothing impromptu....it just doesn't work.
Okay, so day 8.
For lunch today, Tyler, Tim, and I made homemade pizzas like we had done for dinner the other night. Those are great.
We did fruit for snack.
And for dinner I made turkey burgers. The best turkey burgers I've ever had. They were so yummy! Here's the funny thing.....I always knew that if you're going to go to using turkey to be healthy, extra lean is the only way to go. But what I didn't realize is just how true that is. I had some of that, and I also had a pound of lean turkey. I figured I'd mix the 2 together and make the burgers. Um...I don't think so. That lean turkey was so gross. It just felt fatty. I didn't mix the two..instead I made separate burgers and let the younger boys have that kind.
In my chopper (which I love) I put onion, green pepper, minced garlic,and zucchini.

It really loaded the burger and made it hearty.


I added some whole wheat spaghetti pasta with a touch of sauce over the top and some baked beans on the side. Total hit all around!

Weigh-in Day

Week one weigh-in day. Every Monday morning, I'll be steppin' on the dreaded scale (cuz I can't think of a better way to start the week...ugh) and see if all this madness is paying off. Well, in a word....it IS! I was down EIGHT pounds this morning! Can I get a WOOT WOOT!!? And, even better yet, Tyler was down SEVEN! Double WOOT WOOT! He doesn't believe it...he thinks the scale is broken. But I know better. We have done so well. I saw Tyler pass on donuts after church yesterday and a cookie from Subway. WOW! I'm so proud of him. Then today, he went to the club and worked out while I brought Tony and Tanner to their T-ball practice for an hour. It's so great to see your hard work pay off. Now, I gotta get my butt excersizing....can you imagine if I had been all week??
I'm making some loaded up turkey burgers for dinner so I'll be back with the skinny on that.

Day Seven

Today was Father's Day and I wanted to make nice meals without straying from our healthy plan. Done!
For breakfast we had some eggs, fresh fruit, and some blueberry muffins I made.

There is good news and bad news about the muffins. The good news is, they are only 67 calories a piece. The bad news is, nobody liked them. Not even Jason. I think they're fine, but they are definitely lacking in flavor. For me, they'll be fine for a breakfast or snack cuz they fill me up. So, back to the drawing board on finding a healthy muffin recipe. Other than that, breakfast was good.
For lunch we went to Subway. I got a 6 inch sub with turkey and cheese, but no oil or mayo, just veggies and vinegar. It was very good.
Dinner was delicious, if I do say so myself. I had thawed out a turkey a couple days beforehand that I had gotten back during the holidays. Instead of adding mashed potatoes with gravy and stuffing, I made some healthy alternatives. We had the same twice baked potatoes from the other night and then a really great zucchini side dish.

It tasted like fondue zucchini but without the batter and oil. Bonus! Add a salad and we have a really great turkey dinner.

Day Six

Saturdays I have to go into work so I usually don't eat breakfast and I'm really bad about bringing any sort of lunch. I want to change that so on this morning I packed 2 string cheese for the drive in and some pasta salad leftover from the night before to have for lunch. Then......I left it sitting in the foyer. Plan B: no breakfast and McD's salad again for lunch. No problem, I'm nothing if not flexible. HA!
I got home about 2:30 and Jason had just left to take the 4 youngest boys to a car show down at the Fairgrounds. Tyler was playing golf with my dad so I had the whole house to myself so I started cleaning. It was baaaaad! Tyler got home and we got hungry....time for dinner. Since Jay was gonna be gone until late, we made something really fun and healthy for us, homeade pizzas. We used the wraps that I mentioned a few days ago and loaded them up. A little sauce, and a whole lotta veggies...olives, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, broccoli, some feta and a sprinkle of shredded cheese. They were TO DIE FOR! Tyler and I just kept saying how good they tasted. He added a salad to his and I just had the pizza and we were both stuffed. We'll be doing that again real soon!

Day Five

I'm getting to day five a day late, but I didn't forget. Here goes...
Breakfast...blah, nothing to mention...string cheese. And can I just say, Thank God or string cheese.
Lunch for me was a salad from McDonalds since I work during the daytime on Fridays. I usually get done just in time to have a late lunch. They actually have really nice salads there. I got the bacon ranch with grilled chicken, but picked off all the bacon and got it with low fat balsamic vinagrette dressing instead. It's a Newman's Own brand and it is SOOOO good. I love that dressing and I always really enjoy that salad. Makes me wonder why I would ever go back to a Big Mac that makes me feel all heavy and tired after eating it.
For dinner, we were celebrating the family's June birthdays. We met at a park and brought all the fixin's for subs/wraps and a really healthy and yummy pasta salad.
I got hungry later on in the evening and so the boys and I made some light popcorn which we all like.
Other than that...I gave the boys some grapes for an afternoon snack, I had the same cheese and crackers and yesterday....that's really about it. Kind of a boring day to talk about food, but that didn't mean it wasn't great tasting.

Day Four

Today was one of those crazy days that makes you grateful for the convenience of fast food.....but since that doesn't quite fit into this new plan, we improvise. I'd like to say I improvised by bringing a snack in the car as I ran from appointment to appointment, or that I got a salad at McD's....but dang it, I caved. I got something for Tony and Tanner and then ordered myself a southern style chicken. ARGGG!! It's not even a grilled chicken. The one good thing is that it's small, has no mayo or bacon or anything, and I didn't even get fries.
So, I had 2 options at that point. Beat myself up and say 'screw it' to the rest of the day.....or stand up, brush myself off (remember that I'm human) and make the rest of the day great. I chose option 2.
For a snack, I opted for some cheese and crackers. I found these really yummy crackers that are sesame and wheat. I love sesame anything.

Here's the thing, they are only 115 calories for a serving of FIVE crackers....and the crackers are huge.

Five of these is probably the same as at least 10-12 Ritz, plus they fill you up more because they're more hearty. So, I only had 3 crackers, and then 2 wedges of Skinny Cow cheese (only 35 calories each and 1 point).
For the boys snack, I did something a little more exciting. I let them make their own fruit and cheese kabobs. I cut up apples, cantaloupe, strawberries, cheddar and pepper jack cheese and let them put it on their own skewers.

They thought that was pretty fun, and of course, yummy.

For dinner, I made something I've never made before...chicken parmesan. It was great and the boys loved it. I did a side of whole wheat pasta with a little sauce over the top and some broccoli. A perfect meal.

I think I'm getting the hang of this. I used to wake up and think about what sort of garbage I would eat today...now, I wake up and start planning out my whole day of healthy choices. YAY!

Day Three

I've decided to not bother saying anything about breakfast unless it's something worth mentioning.....and considering I just had some string cheese today, I'm thinking that's not exciting enough to mention.

For lunch today we had wraps. The younger ones had it on bread, but Tyler, Timmy, and I had a wrap. Turkey or ham, cheese, tomato, pickles, and my favorite thing to add...some avacado. We also put a little bit of light ranch dressing.
I found these wraps that I absolutely love! They are not only great tasting, but very good for you. They're rectangle too which is so much better than buying a round tortilla. They have only 110 for the whole thing, 4 gr. of fat, and 7 gr. of fiber. This makes them 2 points if you're doing WW, but with 7 gr. of fiber, you could almost call it less.


Where I have to be careful is in the avacado. I try to put no more than about a quarter or third of a small one on my wrap. They are very high in calories and fat, but it's the good fat.....whatever that means. Heck, I'll take it.

For dinner, I put a roast in the crock pot at about 12:30pm. In the pot I started with a mixture of beef broth, sour cream, garlic, and fresh horseradish...quite a bit. I love the flavor of horseradish with a pot roast. I set the roast into the mixture and added onion and roasted red peppers from a jar. In few hours, I added baby carrots. I was going to add some potatoes, but forgot until it was too late in the cooking time and they never would have gotten finished. This ended up being a good thing because I tried a recipe that I found on a Weight Watcher's Blog called Broccoli and cheese skinny potatoes. By the time it's all done, all I'll need to add is a salad and we're set for a really great dinner (with great leftovers for Jay's lunch tomorrow).



I made a dessert for later in the evening that I knew would be a hit and be healthy. Bonus!
Berries were all 'buy one, get one' at the grocery store this week, so I loaded up. I think I might go back before the sale ends on Sat.
I made some instant, sugar free, vanilla pudding....covered it strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and bananas

and topped it with some cool whip

Some had it made with everything, some picked only a couple things. I actually had all of it....that never happens. I've always said I'm not a big fruit eater, but....I'm gonna work on that. So far, so yummy.

Day Two

Day two has started well. Breakfast was non-eventful. The kids mostly had cereal or toast and I just had 2 pieces of string cheese. I've never been much of a breakfast eater, which isn't a good thing, I know.

I had told the boys yesterday that today for lunch we would have make your own omelets. They were pretty excited for today's lunch. I went grocery shopping this morning to get all the stuff I needed in the house for the week's 'menu'. The idea for lunch was to have everything you might want on an omelet set out and let them fill a plastic cup with their fixin's. You may look at this and think.....eggs, cheese, bacon...that's not healthy. But ya know, for me, it is. It is because it's a hot, high protein meal for growing boys that doesn't involve white bread with white chips or a drive through. Plus, when you have something of substance like this....they aren't bugging me for a snack an hour later. They are satisfied longer...and so am I. Besides...would you believe that a 2 egg omelet with 2 pieces of microwave bacon and 1/4 cup of shredded co-jack cheese (not to mention all the veggies) came to only 260 calories? Now, take out one of the egg yolks, some of the cheese, and all of the bacon and you're left with 167 calories. That was my omelet.....and it was great!
Here's what we had......

Some chopped green pepper

some bacon....

a little spinach....their favorite ingredient

some mushrooms....fresh are best, but canned work just as well

some chopped onion

a little bit of cheese...

and some hungry boys.

Best thing is...Tanner, who rarely even likes to eat scrambled eggs, made one and loved it. He and Tony both wanted more.

Snack was fun. At the store this morning, I found some individual graham cracker crusts for mini pies. Add to that some sugar free instant pudding and a dollop of Cool Whip, topped off with a blackberry just for fun and Viola....a snack the boys thought was very cool!


Dinner was an easy dish for Jay to throw in the oven while I went to work tonight. Hawaiian Chicken...and the boys loved it! Bonus! Cooked up some cauliflower and whole wheat noodles with a little garlic powder and Parmesan cheese on them to go along side. Jay was sweet enough to make a plate for me to have when I got home. My tummy is now satisfied.

Day One

I started my first day with a great breakfast of homeade peanut butter cookies...two. Hmmm....not exactly heading into this on the right foot. But, I made several dozen on Friday and they're just sitting there. They are almost done (thanks to me downing some before bed last night too) and I'm doling them out to the boys so they can be 'outta sight, outta mind'.
Lunch was better. I set up the table in a "make your own sandwhich" sort of style. I had a wrap with turkey, cheese, tomato, pickle, and some avacado. Yum! The boys made their own and we sat and ate.....and we talked. I told them the plan for our new healthy lifestyle. They laughed at the thought......just kidding. They think it sounds fun because of all the neat, new ideas mom found online last night.

Snack time was kinda fun. I took the time to slice some fresh strawberries and put them on crackers with a touch of light cream cheese. For myself, I used a hearty wheat crisp. These were really good and a refreshing summer snack. The boys loved them. We had the idea to try it next time with peanut butter and bananas.


For dinner I tried something from a cookbook that I would have earmarked in an instant cuz it was just thing that the family would like....a taco casserole. Today, however....I read it with the eagle eye of a health conscience mom and lemmetellya, it suddenly wasn't so appealing. But, as the daughter of someone who, long ago, mastered the art of substitutions, I improvised. And, actually, I think I did pretty darn good. The original recipe was 540 calories and 30 grams of fat for 1/6th of a 8 inch pan. I doubled the recipe to fit a 9x13 pan and got the calories to 440 and fat grams to 17....and this was with a serving size 50% larger than the original recipe. Yay!

Here is the finished product....


...and here is the recipe if you're interested. Enjoy!

Day one....check.

The Rules

I've set up a list of rules, so to speak, about how we're not having 3 different lunches and 5 different snacks every day.
Here they are so far....
1. You have to at least try what has been prepared
2. If you don't like the snack, you get an apple.
3. If you don't like the lunch, you get a PB & J.
4. If you don't like the dinner, you go to bed hungry...either that or load up on whatever veggie has bee served with it.
5. You must eat breakfasat by 9:15am....which means you need to be up by 9am. No sleeping until 10:30 and wanting breakfast an hour before lunch. If this happens, you get an apple.
6. Kitchen is closed after dinner. Mom and dad will decide if there are popcorn nights or a treat like the occasional ice cream cone.
7. Absolutely no complaining or saying "ewww...or gross...." at the site of food I've made for you. You don't have to like it, but you have to be respectful at what I did to prepare it.
8. Dig in!

Here goes nothin'

I've had this blog waiting in the wings for about a month now. Working on it, tweaking it, changing it.....everything possible to avoid actually using it. Ya see, this is my new healthy eating and living diary.
I'm pretty sure I could manage to find some other things that would make it better and cuter. I could come up with some totally lame excuse about how I have to wait until next week to start because there's a full moon coming or the house isn't clean enough to organize a healthy lifestyle. But....then it would be next week and I'd have to think of new excuses and more reasons to put off what desperately needs to be done.
So, I'm here. Cringing, really, because it's almost 12:30am and all I can think about is how I didn't have a good, high calorie, dripping in butter meal for my "last supper". Don't laugh, you know we all do it. The night before we start a diet, we eat our way though the most obnoxious things...as though, somehow, that's going to make eating healthy...easier. On the contrary, all it does for me is remind me of how much I really love food and how I can't wait until I fall off the wagon (again) and eat my little heart out.
I tried giving up fast food for lent with the logic that if I made it a promise to God Himself, I'd stick with it. That didn't work so well. I cheated, God cried.
So, in my twisted thinking I figured......"If I start a blog about my eating and exercising...and people I know actually READ it, I'll just HAVE to stick with it".
Oh my Lord, don't get your hopes up.