Weekly Weigh In

This past week has been good and bad for eating...a few good days followed by a couple of bad days and then finally another good day! Hopefully my streaks of good will start to out weigh the bad...no pun intended!!!

I got in two workouts (Tuesday and Thursday) only but I am good with that...two is better then none!

I only lost 1 pound this week...down anything is good at this point!

Give Away

Check out this give away from Home Educating Families.

I use and love the Well Planned Day, it keeps me organized and it has a place for EVERYTHING you need to put on paper!

I would recommend it to any homeschooling parent.

Smoothie Challenge Revisited

After careful consideration, and some deeper self examination I have to share with you that I will not be eliminating whole foods from my diet.

I know better then to go to extremes with my eating but it still happens. At least it is usually momentary and I recognize it...like I did after posting yesterday. I need to have balance in this area of my life, it is coming...slow but sure!

It is so easy for me to indulge in a piece of sweet whatever and then be overwhelmed with those feelings of failure which then leads to a full blown binge by eating a truck load of useless calories.

Or going to the exact opposite extreme of fasting from all food to lose weight.

I have used fasting in the past and even calling it a spiritual fast to lose weight....and it is something I struggle with almost daily, when I have had a bad eating day even now!

I have finally admitted it. What a relief!

My plan to get back on track and break these nasty cravings......

I am going to still enjoy a BIG green smoothie each morning for breakfast, eat unlimited amounts of fruit and vegetables throughout the day.

Lunch will be an Ezekiel English Muffin with natural peanut butter.

Supper will be a normal size serving of whatever I am making for the family and a large salad.

If I am having a lazy day and the children are having something like nuggets & fries or frozen pizza then I will resort to a homemade Whole Wheat Pita Vegetable Pizza for my supper.

That is my plan and I will stick with it!

Sorry if I have sounded wishy, washy the last two posts....

just trying to get my feet rooted again!

Onto other news, I have been getting up with my husband early in the morning (5:40am) and after he leaves for work (6:30am) I have about 45 - 60 minutes before any of the children begin to wake up.

I have been taking that time for devotions and a quiet coffee followed by checking in on the computer; blogs, Facebook, emails and other such things. Today after he left I thought, "Why not do the 30 Day Shred while the children are sleeping?"...I had no good reason to not so I popped in the dvd and got in my workout clothes at 6:45am and met with Jillian for a kick butt session.

Man, did it ever feel good to have that accomplished this morning!!!

New School Year

Today was the beginning of our new school year.

I am trying a year round school year for the first time.

With my husband working seasonally right now it makes sense to me. So for the summer we will school for 2 weeks on and then 2 weeks off using a new curriculum to us from My Father's World.

In this study we will 'travel' around the world exploring different countries and cultures.

Today the children had to fill out passport applications and have their pictures taken for the 'passport' they will need to go on this adventure.

I am excited about this all!

On the eating front...well some days are still better then others.

Tomorrow I am going to begin a green smoothie challenge for an undetermined amount of time.

I will drink green smoothies that will be of all different mixtures of any kind of fruit or vegetables as much as I want, whenever I want.

This is for many different reasons...

1. I need to cleanse my body of toxins. It has been years since I have done this, I guess it was before I was pregnant with my first child...so over 13 years ago. I think it is time!!!

2. I hope to break the cravings that are killing my will power.

3. I want to focus on my relationship with the Lord.

4. I hope to diminish the belly fat that hangs over the top of my shorts.

Spring Update & Where I am At Now

WOW!!! Has it really been well over 3 months...crazy!

I have had a busy and uneventful last three month.

Just living every day life...teaching, cleaning, supervising, exercising and eating.

My husband is back at work now so my workload is doubled but I am SO thankful for his employment.

For the where I am at right now part..............I hate to say it but I must admit that my eating has not been all that great on a consistent basis since like Christmas time.

I have spurts of eating healthy, good for you, clean food but then I have more days of eating really bad for you, calorie and fat dense food.

I weighed myself this morning for the first time in a long time and I am up by 15 pounds from my lowest weight of 147.

So my official recommitment weight is 162lbs!!!

I know what I need to do and plan on doing it CONSISTENTLY!!!!!

Workouts are a wee bit tough to get in but right now with my husband gone from 6:30am until 7:30pm but on days that the baby naps twice I will get one in.

The eating part has got to be where I focus because I can totally control it.

Clean mostly vegetarian diet is what I will be eating....and I am going to try to blog again with at least an update or two a week and a weekly Thursday weigh in.

I am going to add a ticker and watch it go down to my goal 142lbs, so how long will it take to lose 20 pounds?!?!?!? I don't know but I know it is doable!

Scary Situation

For the last couple of weeks the flu has been going through our house.

First it was a stomach flu that everyone but my husband got hit with.

This time it is a fever and sore throat flu and since Friday 4 out of the 6 children has come down with it. It seems easier on the body because there is no vomiting but it is just the opposite. These poor little ones have not an ounce of life in them and it is lasting 3-4 days.

Last night was the scariest thing I think as a parent I have ever had to deal with....a little background information...I spent many years working with people with developmental and psychological disabilities. Here is what happened....

I was sleeping in the bedroom with my son (7) and daughter (5) who were both sick. At 2:30 am they were up, went to the bathroom, I got them each a drink of water and gave them a dose of Tylenol. They both fell asleep quickly again.

From a sound sleep at 4am, I was awoke with my daughter screaming and crying uncontrollably. She sat up and started scratching at the wall while still screaming. I tried to get her to stop by calling her name and shaking her shoulder, thinking she was sleeping, . She did not respond to this so I turned on the light and again called her name, at this point I realized she had her eyes open. Her brother tried calling her and told her to stop....still no response. Then suddenly she stopped, looked straight into my eyes with a glazed over look, almost like she was starring through me and said "I want you Mommy!" I took her in my arms and cuddled her but again she started crying and scrambled out of my arms...she went face to face with her brother and grabbed him by the shoulders and looked at him.

Again she turned to me and said, "I want you Mommy!". By now I was scared, I sent my son to get their Dad, when my husband came into the room my daughter just starred at him again, like she had to me. Then he reached for her and she climbed into his arms. I thought , Oh good it is over! but then she started asking us silly questions like, "Is the wood in the bathroom yet?". After a few minutes of the questions and her speech trailing off in mid sentence, she stopped acting strange and she asked to go back to sleep...I slept with her and before allowing her to go to sleep I spent a good long time praying for her and then conversing with her about events that are coming up for us and she was totally fine and coherent.

That is a very long story and I don't know if it came across as terrifying as it was to me as a Mom to see a child of mine obviously in some kind of hallucinogenic state but this experience has left me a different kind of woman.

I have cried today just thinking about how precious my children really are and being truly thankful for there overall good health.

Today she does not remember all the events that happen last night but also does not seem to be effected by what happen....for this I am thankful but fearful for tonight!!!

If this is jumbled and not making much sense, I apologize, I am still trying to process it all myself!

Mmm Muffins!!!

This week we will be eating up all of the leftover meals that I have been stock piling in the freezer and since my prep time for supper will be eliminated I plan to use that time to do some baking to put in the freezer for snacks.

I am doing the muffin route again because I find that I am always buying snacks that are full of yucky ingredients and I do not like to feed my children that...so back to having muffins and fruit or yogurt and fruit for snacks....we have all been eating too much sugar lately and in order for me to succeed in losing my last 10 pounds I need to get the processed 'stuff' out of my house.....again!!! After today all of the boxed snacks except for a bag of Goldfish Crackers will have been eaten and we can start the week with fresh, healthy snacks!!!

I have posted our menu for this week in the tab at the top

and here are recipes for the muffins I plan to bake.

Corn Bread Muffins

• 1/2 cup Cornmeal
• 1/2 Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 cup Applesauce
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/4 cup Honey

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Lightly grease pan.

3. Combine dry ingredients then stir in wet ingredients.

4. Bake 15 -20 minutes

This recipe only makes 6 muffins but can easily be doubled , tripled or quadrupled.

Zucchini Muffins

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup sour milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup Sucanat

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a muffin pan, or use paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and sucanat and agave nectar. Stir in baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in milk, eggs, zucchini, oil and vanilla. Fold in walnuts. Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with brown sugar.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Red River Oat Bran Muffins

1 1/3 cups	boiling water
3/4 cup	Red River Cereal
3/4 cup	natural bran
2 1/2 cups	Spelt Flour
2 1/2 tsp	baking soda
1/2 tsp	salt
1/3 cup	Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Apple Sauce
1 cup	Agave Nectar
2	eggs
2 cups	buttermilk
2 cups	Oats
1-1 1/2 cups	raisins, chopped dates or dried cranberries

1.	POUR boiling water over Red River Cereal and bran; let stand.
2.	COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
3.	CREAM oil, agave nectar, eggs and buttermilk together in large bowl until blended. Add flour mixture with bran mixture, oats and raisins. Mix thoroughly. Spoon into greased muffin cups,filling almost full.
4.	BAKE at 375°F (190°C) for 18 to 23 minutes, or until top springs back when lightly touched.
	MAKES about 2 dozen muffins