Day Four in Pictures

In school today, we had so much fun learning about and then building a diorama of the Tabernacle as it is described in the book of Exodus. The children and I have been really enjoying our entire study of history this year.
I added a page at the top of my blog with our current curriculum choices in case anyone is interested.

I have had an absolutely wonderful day...I am a wee bit sore after lasts night hockey game but I love the feeling.

For something different I thought I would show you what I ate today.

Breakfast~ 2 eggs scrambled with lots of vegetables

 Lunch~ Plate of veggies, roasted red pepper hummus and a banana/strawberry smoothie

Snack~ Coffee, an apple and  2 pieces of Clean Mint Fudge

This is a picture of the fudge I made the other night.

Supper~ Taco Salad (greens, ground beef meat, hot sauce, cheese, nacho chips and Greek yogurt)

Snack while watching Survivor tonight will be a tall glass of water, fresh pineapple and a handful of almonds.

Tomorrow is weigh in!!! I have had a sneak peek and it looks good.

Day 3~ Challenge Me

Today is a good day!

I came out of yesterday feeling stronger and more excited about facing each day and everything it has for me with out giving those circumstances the ability to determine my fate as far as food goes. I can control how I am going to react to any given situation. 

I can choose to eat and hide in that or I can choose to face it and work through whatever it is...I plan to practice working through it.

Today's exercise was playing ice hockey for an hour against my son's hockey team. Now that was a workout!!! You now that burning in the lungs and can't stop coughing afterwards kind of kick your butt workout, it was great!
Tomorrow will be a rest day for working out and much deserved I think.

Food Journal

• Steel Cut Oats with a banana and natural peanut butter
• Greek Yogurt
• Cauliflower crust Pizza with loads of vegetables and a half a sweet potatoe made into fries (baked in coconut oil)
• Fresh Pineapple
• Taco Salad (lettuce, red pepper, onions, meat, cheese, salsa, 8 nacho chips and Greek yogurt.)
• Smoothie (Frozen banana/strawberry blend, spinach and almond milk) this was after playing hockey

"Challenge Me" Day 2

I probably have said it before but I am going to say it again, "I HATE stress!". It seems as though stress is a huge part of my life lately and I really don't cope well with it.
In spite of the stress that is present right now I have remained focused today.


Exercise was 2 Mile Walk Away the Pounds dvd by Leslie Sansone.

Today Food Journal

• Steel Cut Oats with fresh berries
• Handful (small) almonds
• Tomatoe Soup, Red Pepper Hummus and a large Carrot
• Apple with Peanut Butter
• BBQ Pork Chop, Roasted Vegetables and Spinach salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
• Handful (small) of Cashews and dried Apricots

A Challenge

I am going to be the BIG 40 in twelve days so I thought what better way to end my 39th year than to challenge myself to do something I have not done consistently this year!

So for the next 11 days this is what I am doing....I will call it Challenge ME

• Eating whole foods.
• Limited to no wheat and no added sugar.
• Exercise at least 6 times.
• Do at least 4 things just for me (ie. paint my toe nails).

My starting weight this morning was 189.4lbs and I am looking forward to seeing that number drop.

I did a 30 Day Shred workout this morning before school with the children and then went for a walk after supper with baby in stroller.

Food Intake

Breakfast~ Steel Cut Oats with fresh berries.

Snack~ Greek Yogurt

Lunch~ Roasted Red Pepper Hummus with a plate of raw vegetables & 1 oz. of cashews.

Snack~ Apple and peanut butter.

Supper~ Cauliflower Crust pizza with loads of vegetables and a little bit of cheese.

Snack~ Clean Fudge

Stressful Week

This week is not how I would like my life to be!
It has been one stressful situation after another and it still isn't over....plus I am super weepy with hormones!

Eating has been not that great this week and the scale was reflective of it, this mornings weigh in had me at 190.6lbs so a gain of 0.4lbs...this is not acceptable for a weight LOSS journey.

I hope to get through this time of dealing with difficulties and get back to normal living soon and then I will see the scale go down.

Arena Food

This winter I have spent the best part of every Sunday afternoon and evening in the local arena for my children's hockey games. Their games happen to fall over the supper hour and my oldest two girls are timekeepers and are often there from 12:30 until 7pm.

This means that they eat snacks and one meal at the arena each week. I have tried to get them to take meals from home but the novelty to eat out has won plus because they are time keeping they make money and enjoy buying something for themselves.

My problem with it is, at our local arena there isn't any healthy options for them. The menu consists of hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, chips, chocolate bars, candy, cookies, pop, gatorade and hot chocolate....all the junk food children love to eat!! I know these items sell but I just wish there were other healthy options too. Some fresh fruit, yogurt alone would be awesome. Call me an idealist!!! go ahead.

I on the other hand packed my snacks and would eat supper either after the games or do a quick run home between games, I think it was only twice that I have bought a 'treat' while there. Two times out of 4 months isn't bad!

Today's Food Journal

• Hard boiled egg and 4 watermelon slices.
• Apple with peanut butter.
• Whole wheat wrap with hummus and vegetables just like yesterday.
• Greek yogurt, blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.
• Spaghetti with meat sauce and salad with ranch dressing.

Finally day of regular season hockey for us, play offs start on Tuesday. 

Our Sabbath

Every Saturday we take the day and relax!
Time is spent together as a family doing things we would not always do during the week because of other commitments. We spend time praying and reading the Bible together and individually, playing outside or in the house, go skating, visit family/friends ...basically we just have no plans and do not do any kind of work.

On Friday, I make a supper for Sabbath that can easily be heated or baked and make cold sandwiches for lunch. For Saturday breakfast we have cereal or heat up leftover oatmeal. This prep on Friday frees me up to be out of the kitchen on Saturday, a nice break even for me who likes cooking/baking!

Today was extra special because I went for a nice, brisk, cold walk with my eldest daughter, she is 14. It
really was a special time because we rarely get a chance to do something just the two of us and she is growing up so fast and so many things are happening in her little mind that it was nice to have that time to connect.

Today's Eats

• Steel Cut Oats with raisins, craisins, pecans, cinnamon and a splash of almond milk.
• Apple 
• Whole Wheal wrap with hummus, lettuce, red pepper, zucchini, onions, avocado and cracked pepper, YUMMO!
• Hot chocolate and 10 plain chips.
• Chili and salad with a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and cracked pepper.

An all round fantastic day!

A Hard Post to Write

This is a hard post to write tonight because I have to be truthfully honest and vulnerable.

I have been searching for the last 5 months for the perfect program, key, solution, whatever you want to call it. I wanted success and didn't want to work to achieve it. I thought if I could just find the right way to eat and follow a program to the 't' I would be happy, healthy and trim! but instead of finding the perfect program I have done some soul searching and come to realize there is not a perfect program. What may be perfect for you may not be for me and so on. This is basic stuff here, no great revelation but it has been life changing for me this last week or so.

I started out in the fall just trying to eat healthy, I felt good and content!
Late December and early January I tried eating plant based, I felt amazing but found it SO hard to stick to it 100% of the time and the perfectionist in me would sabotage myself if I veered from the course at all. In came the self condemning thoughts, feelings and actions that I have had to deal with ALL my life! It is a brutal cycle that I am determined to overcome, I know my freedom to enjoy life and all it has to offer is wrapped up in this so I look forward to facing this head on.

I sit here now in February trying to find the BALANCE in my life and eating!
Hence the reason for opening back up this blog and getting out of the extremist mode...I know I can and will do this and I want to thank all of you who have prayed, sent messages and have been there rooting for me while I have been in the 'desert' so to speak!

My focus and plan is to eat clean, healthy foods with a majority of my intake being plant based.
I will also be increasing my exercise to hopefully at least 4 days a week.

In the last 6 weeks even though it has been a real time of reflection and dealings for me I have managed to lose 8lbs which is AWESOME and a really great start!