3 Day Sponsorships

Important 3 Day Announcement!!

I'm now offering sponsorships in return for a donation to the 3 Day under my name! This will involve the opportunity to have your business/nonprofit logo on one of the 3 shirts I will wear during the 3 Day walk in November. I have small, medium and Prestige options for logos. Please contact me for pricing information. It's first come, first serve, on which day your logo is worn, so let me know soon if you are interested!

Brain freeze this week?

I realized this morning, I haven't posted all week! Sorry, to my two whole readers...lol It's been an INSANE week at work. We rolled out new software, and I have barely come up for air. Plus, I've been so tired in the evenings, I can't even think.

I've been doing ok with eating, and am down 1.8 lbs this week, which is ok, but I do need to tighten it up more. I'm still cooking at home and really enjoying it, but I've been letting portion sizes go a bit. So that will be very much controlled again this next week.

This past week, I made the Swiss Chicken from the E-mealz and it was delicious!! We are having company over this evening, so I wanted to make the E-mealz meatloaf last night ahead of time, but...I forgot to get egg beaters, and D was already in bed. So I searched online for an eggless meatloaf recipe, and found one that looked good. Yeah, not so much. It's basically salsa-flavored HAMBURGER. :( FAIL. I've been assured that they'll still eat my hamburger meatloaf, but uggh I feel awful about it.

Anyway...in other news, I'm gearing up for some fundraisers for the 3 Day. I've got some great ideas, so stay tuned for news about that, including maybe a raffle or two on here.

A lovely weekend!

We rested, we got outside, we had fun...it was a great weekend!

On Friday, I weighed in for the DFW Area Mom's Biggest Loser competition, and am down 4.2 lbs this week. Go me!

Friday night I hosted an MNI (Mom's Night In) at my house, and a wonderful group of ladies came. We had so much fun...we played a game and talked and laughed all night long. It was awesome!

Saturday, we didn't leave the house even once. It felt weird, since I am so used to us being on the go, but I enjoyed it anyway, and got my workout in. D was in an EXCEPTIONAL mood, and we just had THE best day at home. He was sweet, and funny, and goofy (but not over wild goofy), and gah...I *heart* my kid.

Until he woke up today in an arguing mood. lol Yay! Ok I still *heart* him, but I also considered pitching him out a window a few times. Maybe just a first floor one?

Anyway, we still had a lovely day, I was just definitely ready for him to be in the bed tonite. We hit up Campion Trails for a 3.5 mile walk, and then joined some friends for lunch and a movie. We saw The Tooth Fairy, which was quite cheesy, but cute. And who doesn't wanna see The Rock with no shirt on??? *drool*. D was in the bed right on time tonite since he did not get a nap, and I did half of my workout. After the workout on Saturday and the walk this morning, I was feeling weak so only did one set. But that's ok, tomorrow is a rest day for my muscles, and then Tuesday night, my trainer comes back!

The choices we make...

I had the option and the opportunity to grab fast food this evening. Well, I guess I always have the option...but anyway, yeah, I had a chance to. And a very valid one to most people. I think a lot of people would have been like yeah that's understandable. But I pushed past it.

We took dinner out to a friend who recently had surgery, and stayed longer than I intended. That led to us getting home around 7:45. I very easily could have grabbed fast food instead of worrying about cooking or eating at home. But I wanted, really wanted, to rise above that. So we came home, and had cereal for dinner. lol Hey, its not fast food! I ended up having some toast with I Can't Believe Its Not Butter and some parmesan cheese, later this evening, as I was low on cals. I just kept thinking, that I have foods in my house that I do want sometimes in the evening, like the cereal and the parmesan toast, but I can never have them since I'm usually at my cal limit already. So I was able to HAVE those tonite since I didn't eat other crap. It worked!

This was also great for me considering it was a stressful day. D had another seizure today at school, and those days are hard. It took every bit of control I had in me, to not leave work right then and go get him. But I knew he was ok and that there was nothing I could do. I just couldn't comfort myself with knowing he was with me, nor could I comfort him, which does leave you feeling pretty helpless!

Kick butt and take names?

Not yet...LOL but I think I've found just the right trainer to help make it happen!

My trainer came by tonite and we ended up doubling all my sets, plus adding in reverse crunches, and last week, had already upped my weights. It was a great workout! She's not a Jillian Michaels so doesn't holla at you or anything. But she definitely inspires me to keep going, and doesn't let me slack with it along the way! And she even does the workout with me! How's that for inspiring?

Check out her website if you need some help accomplishing some fitness goals, getting into fitness for the first time, or just need some help gettin a great looking butt!

http://www.wellnessformama.com

I did good for dinner tonite. I've been CRAVING Red, Hot and Blue's pulled pork nachos, so...I made my own healthier version! I used baked tostitos scoops, pulled pork that I'd let sit in the crockpot overnight, some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, reduced fat shredded cheese, and fat free sourcream. Oh and PLENTY of salsa!! MMMMMMMMMMM It wasn't near the size of the portion that Red, Hot and Blue gives, but it was just perfect! (Though, it does help that I knew Janie was comin over, and didn't want to be puking during the workout, so that REALLY helps keep portion sizes down!!)

Manic Monday

So...today is a holiday. Martin Luther King Day to be exact. I knew it was a school holiday but was sure that D's afterschool care would be open, and hadn't heard otherwise. Yeah, not so much. We showed up to a dark, locked down church. And D got to join mommy at work. He LOVED that, except for one point he said "mommy, this is just boring" lol that's life, kiddo.

He made it til about 11am, which was fine. I was able to at least get SOME work done. We headed out from there to enjoy the rest of our day. And of course, we enjoyed the nice weather! Well, my allergies didn't enjoy it much, but the rest of me did.

I did great on food today, despite the abrupt schedule change. We had sandwiches and apple slices at Beth's house for lunch, while hanging out with them. And then cooked one of my E-mealz over there...beef and broccoli...YUM!! I had been wanting to try it, but was abit overwhelmed at the amount of meat. It CALLS for 1/2 a lb. But its sold in a little over a lb packages. Don't laugh, I really do get overwhelmed very easily in this. So we made it a fun dinner with all of us, and now that I've DONE the meal, I feel more comfortable with splitting that meat up, or just cooking all of it at once. Progress is good!

Starting over weekend

Well, it felt like it anyway. We hit the trail for a bit this morning (the first trail walk of the new year), and only did 2 miles, but to me, it felt like I had basically started completely over in walking. I felt every one of those footsteps, and every pound that I have gained. I hate that feeling! But I'm using it as more encouragement to get back into the 3-4 mile walks every other day or so...esp as it starts staying light longer, and the weather changes some.

We had a busy, active weekend tho, which felt great. On Saturday, D had a dentist appt, which he did pretty good at. After that we walked around the mall a bit, met some friends for lunch (my eat out day!!! We did Aparicios which is some delicious mexican food!), and then spent 3 hours at IKEA. Yeah, 3 hours. And then we hit up a house party for a bit to top off the night! We ate there, so only ate out once on Sat.

Today was just as busy. We had the 2 mile walk in the morning, then lunch at my grandma's. After lunch, we hit up the zoo for a couple of hours! We did eat out again for dinner (Jasons Deli tho, and both of us can eat there for 10 bucks or less). And then this evening, we joined my best friend and her little boy for a grown-up (although PG) movie. We didn't get home til late, but it sure was fun!

Whose idea was this???

So, my trainer came by on Tuesday night, and we discussed upping my light weights from 3 lbs to 5 lbs. Well, I worked out Thursday night with the 3 lb weights, and really, yeah, they are too light now. So I decided to do my workout again tonite. Mainly because I doubt I'll do it tomorrow (Saturday) and I don't want to miss two days in a row. And I decided to use the 5 lbs weight. Yeah...I struggled. It's amazing what just 2 extra lbs in each hand will do! For the most part, it wasn't awful, but in the shoulder raises, I barely made all my reps!!! It doesn't help that I do those reps while standing on one leg. lol I have a feeling, I'm going to be a bit sore. BUT, it's done. YAY.

Dinner tonite would have been SO easy to pick up something again, but I thought ahead this morning. I pulled the container of baked ziti that I set aside last week from the freezer and let it defrost all day. So...we had a yummy, easy dinner of baked ziti, salad, and garlic bread (bread with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray, garlic salt, and a bit of reduced fat parmesan cheese).

Tomorrow is eat out day, woohoo!!! I made it another full week of no eating out!!

E-mealz Fantastic Enchiladas

Ok, I'm no Pioneer Woman, so these pics are not great at all. But I really wanted to document these and the recipe. Tonite's dinner was another E-mealz.com wonder. Fantastic Enchiladas. First of all, they smelled DIVINE. OMG my whole house just made me drool. These are creamy, with a bit of spice to them, and both D and I devoured them. I purposely made exactly enough for us because I had a feeling they would be dangerous. D cleaned his plate too! The meal plan actually called for a side of tortilla chips, but I decided I wanted a 3rd enchilada instead, so no chips for us! This was plenty!

Ingredients:

Inside Mixture:
1/2lb cooked/drained extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup thawed frozen spinach
1/2 cup salsa
4oz (half a package) of fat free cream cheese, cubed
dash of cumin
dash of salt

Other:
6 Fat free Tortillas
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded 2% cheddar cheese

Mix ground beef, spinach, 1/2 cup of salsa, cumin, salt, and cream cheese in a saucepan until heated through. It should look like this:

Spoon 1/3rd cup of mixture into each flour tortilla, roll up tightly and put in lightly greased pan. I made 6 but had enough for 7. Pour a cup of salsa over top and spread all over.

See our plates? Cute, huh?

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes to heat through, then spread shredded cheese on top and put back in oven to let cheese melt. Enjoy!!!

More lessons learned and a bittersweet moment...

We decided to skip Awanas for D tonite so that I could go grocery shopping and continue to make sure I'm doing ok on food without eating out. Next week, I think I'll be more prepared with food that D and I can eat on the way to church, but this week, I needed the freedom to not have to be anywhere. I just don't want to chance relying on fast food right now!

I did good again at the store. Stuck to my E-mealz list, plus food for lunches and breakfast. Right now, for breakfasts, I'm doing oatmeal and fruit. And then a frozen meal with some kind of addition to it (more fruit, nuts, something like that) for lunch, and then a yogurt for an afternoon snack. Then whatever I cook for dinner. Tonite I chose the Hawaiian Bacon Pizza to make. But...I don't do bbq sauce or pineapples on my pizza, so...I made bacon/spinach/cheddar pizza and added a salad on the side...lol It was YUM but I ate too much...:( Totally killed it on portion size. I'm still "ok" on calories but I was disappointed in myself. I should have wrapped the rest of the pizza up IMMEDIATELY and stowed it away...oh well, another lesson learned.

Funny story though. On the way home from the store, D asked what we were having for dinner, and I told him I was going to make pizza. He goes "how bout we order it?". And I told him, no...we're going to eat at home and Mommy is going to make it. He asked me why, and I said "so we can make our bodies stronger and healthier, with better food. You want to be STRONG, right?" He goes "yeah! I'ma lift sumthing!!" lol Silly boy. But it's also bittersweet to me.

I've made sure the last 3 years that D be very much exposed to veggies, as I didn't want him growing up like I did, and he has no problem downing bowls of steamed broccoli/carrots/asparagus, whatever. But the fact that he immediately assumes we need to order or eat out, hurts me. So I'm glad I'm doing this, he's one of my biggest motivations.

A new week of Emealz

I was excited today to get this next week's Emealz. And it turns out, the recipes look pretty good! One or two, I'm not real sure about, but I'm definitely willing to give em a shot. I can't wait to go grocery shopping this evening and get all the items together, then figure out what I can go ahead and cook ahead of time. That REALLY saved me last week, getting several meals mostly done at once. We enjoyed the baked ziti I'd already cooked tonite for dinner with a salad.

I'm happy to say that I've lost 8 lbs (8 LBS!!!!) since last Tuesday, and have only eaten out once in that timespan. Go me! I'm planning on the same thing this week, eating in all week, and enjoying a meal out on Saturday. I think this could really work! I'm excited to see how the weight keeps going with this.

My trainer came over this evening and I got in a great workout with her. I hadn't seen her since before the holidays so it was a much needed visit. We're getting back into regular weekly sessions so that should start showing in the weight loss as well.

Glad to have a meal plan

I'm keeping this short and simple since I'm about to go to bed, but I'm SO glad I already had most of a meal ready for tonite. Some late afternoon stressing about D could have made my eating go downhill, but just knowing that I had that there, kept me from saying screw it all and grabbing fast food. I feel like this past week, I've been presented with all the different situations that might make me bomb in eating, and so far I'm pulling through it. That gives me confidence to keep going in this. And I like that.

Another tough situation conquered

In the past with the diet, I dreaded weekends. With us being so much on the go, its hard to not cave to it and grab fast food. Plus, on Sundays at my grandma's, you never know what she's going to make, BUT its reasonable to assume there will be butter involved. It's all good home cooking.

So, I've been good all week, was good yesterday on Saturday, and here comes today. But...I made a plan. I can't control what my grandma makes, but I most assuredly could control what I eat there. And while it was still semi-higher in cals, I did good on portions, and even turned down dessert.

We had a scheduled playdate after that, which could have been a toss up on eating. But it was at least at the other person's house, not at like a McD's or CFA. And I already had that baked ziti I'd made this past week, defrosting in the fridge. Planning ahead is a wonderful thing, isn't it? So our playdate was at 2, I grabbed a Sonic unsweet Iced Tea beforehand to tied me over (D had a small snack there). We left a bit after 5 and were home by 6 to eat dinner and get D in the bed. It worked out great! And while at times my thoughts did turn to grabbing fast food on the way home, knowing I already HAD food ready to go there, was a huge help.

So yay...weekend 1 of the New Year...conquered. Done deal.

Eat out day...and go Cowboys!

The Cowboys just won against the Eagles (AGAIN, YEAH!), and I am ecstatic. But this evening was much more than that. I decided we were going to go out to eat this evening, since we did great all week. Well, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat with some friends. I prepared for it. I ate a light lunch, and planned out my calories well ahead of time for what I wanted to get, and stuck to it. BUT I was also faced with a tough decision. As the Cowboy game started at BWW, my friends had to head out to go to a Moms Night Out painting thing. I had two choices. 1) Stay at BWW with just D, watching the game...or 2) Go home and watch it. The problem with Number 1. If we had stayed there, just the two of us, the odds of me ordering more food, went WAY UP. I did so good with ordering what I had planned on. I got the Grilled Chicken Buffalitos (basically, grilled chicken tacos, no sauce, just ranch on the side which I didn't use much of it, I mainly dipped it in the salsa), and they were fantastic.

So...we made the best decision, I believe. We left BWW when Casey and Shana did, grabbed a "bessert" as D calls it, from Braums, and headed home. I had room in my cals for a little treat, just not what I would have eaten if we had stayed at the restaurant...lol That was definitely the right thing to do for tonite. And the Cowboys pulled off the win!

Pieces of a puzzle

So I'm starting to figure out how some of these food puzzle pieces fit together. I've made some realizations the last few days of some things, and I'm liking it. This evening (after letting the pork loin cook all night in the crockpot, and then tossing it in the fridge this morning), I took half of it, shredded it and mixed in some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, added some scalloped potatoes and a salad with fat free ranch, and ooooooooooooh boy was it DELISH! I had two servings of bbq pork. Holy cow, it was so tender! That will definitely be in our regular rotation now. The other half of the pork is going to be bbq sandwiches at some point either over the weekend or early next week. And that's what I love about this! The key thing, is that these recipes are keeping it manageable for me, so I don't get overwhelmed and go straight back to the crap food.

Tonite marks 5 straight days of eating dinner at home. I'm so proud of myself!! Monday for lunch was a breakfast burrito and a banana at Sonic, but other than that, I've not eaten out even ONCE this week!!! Go me! So, this weekend, I'm planning to go somewhere out to eat with D, maybe during the Cowboy game to go watch it, I dunno. But this might work, to eat out once on weekends, and be good during the week. I like it! And can't wait to get the new Emealz menu on Tuesday to see what is coming up next!

In other news...AF is wrecking havoc right now, which I am NOT happy about as its curtailing a lot of the working out I want to do to go with the better eating. But hopefully, it will ease up by Sunday, and D and I can get in a good walk. And if this chest cold/allergies/drainage would clear up, I'd be SET. I am SO freaking tired of coughing, and esp with AF! Bad timing, very bad timing. BUT, if AF and a nasty cough/cold are all that I have wrong with me, I'm doing pretty darn good.

Oh goodness...

So...grocery shopping with a good list yesterday. Today...I modified one of the recipes into something even healthier but SO much more delicious. And then this evening...I put a freakin pork loin into the crockpot. The world might just be ending. lol

First, our meal tonite...was going to be "Easy Beans and Rice". It consisted of a mixture of ground beef, black beans, and Rotel, served over rice, with fat free sour cream on top, and then a side of Baked Tostitos Scoops. But the rice just didn't sound appealing to me. So I threw the tostitos on a plate, and topped it with some of the beef/beans, then added abit of 2% milk mozzarella cheese, and added the fat free sour cream on top. Instant nachos! A side of sliced oranges completed the meal, and both D and I thought it was a huge success! Score one for mommy! (Can you tell I was proud of myself?? lol) And saved probably around 100 calories by eliminating the rice. Woo!

TWO of the Emealz for this week include shredded pork. So tonite, I busted out the crockpot that NEVER gets used, and tossed a pork loin in it.

Now all this sounds very simple, but to me, this is HUGE for me. The majority of our meals consisted of processed foods, boxed meals, drive through, eating out, etc, and so this is a novelity to me, to really be putting together foods. And while a lot of this is probably nothing to most people, it's big to me. I'm not saying I'm going to completely cut out the rest as I love to eat out and be social, but at least I'm enjoying this cooking stuff. So...progress is good. And yummy too. *grin*

Proud of me!

Today I decided to sign up for E-mealz.com. It's $5 a month and it basically sends you a dinner menu plan for 5 days every week, complete with grocery list! I figured it was only $5, that'd be worth it to test it out. I ended up choosing the Lowfat Walmart option for 2 people. So I got my menu plan for this week and really liked it! I went shopping tonite and got everything, plus the staples it asks for, and then stuff for my lunches, D's lunches, and snacks.

We got home a bit late, and sadly enough, even with all those groceries in the car, I still considered grabbing a quick dinner on the way home...lol But I held off that impulse. Our first meal tonite was "Cheaters Chicken and Dumplings". It certainly wasn't my grandma's dumplings, but it was passable and we both filled our tummies.

The part I'm proud of the most, is that I went ahead tonite and made two MORE of the meals, and got them ready to go in the fridge, withOUT eating them! lol One is baked ziti which is a weakness of mine with all that cheese. And then the other used part of the meat from the ziti in a beans and rice dish. They are currently all cooling on my counter. One thing I like about this, is that since they are geared towards two people, its not huge amounts of food, so I have less risk of overeating. That's HUGE.

Needless to say, no workout tonite, as I've been moving around all evening and just now sat down (plus a load of laundry, load of dishes and cleaned my kitchen up after all that cooking!). AF started today so the rest of the week/weekend will be interesting but we'll see how it goes. At least I have a few meals made to tide us over, and the food for several MORE meals!!! Woohoo!

Day two down...wavered bigtime but came back strong...

I did really good today despite leaving my tunafish for my lunch at home. Disappointing, sure, but I worked it out, and made up for the protein lack in both my snack and dinner.

My biggest wavering though, came at the grocery store this evening. Originally, dinner was going to be made FOR us in return for some computer work. But that got canceled, and I had no meat thawed or anything, so we went to the store to get salad stuff, and ground turkey. Well I always get the 93/7 tube of turkey, and they HAD NONE...and the 83/15 turkey was a dollar more. I was like crap...went to look at ground beef...the 93/7 of that is TWICE as much as the turkey...so...we went wandering around the store. I kept thinking, well maybe I could make something else, went down the canned chili aisle, the pasta aisle...skirted REALLY close to getting so frustrated that I almost said screw it and went with standard crap food. I was already off track since original dinner plans were sunk. But finally I made myself go back to the meat section...and get the 85/15 turkey (I prefer ground turkey now which is why I wanted to stick with that) Yeah...it was a few more cals...but I stuck to my menu plan...we had chili and salad for dinner...so proud of myself!!!!

I didn't get in a work out tonite but I did do my devotional. (And the next TWO nights will be workout nights so I'm good).

Overall today, I felt stronger with my choices. I have very few choices to make with this plan, so the ones I CAN make, make me feel empowered. And I like that.

Day one down, some lessons learned

Well, today was the first day of my official DOWN year. I weighed in this morning and it was not a pretty picture at ALL. I don't even know if I want to post it on here yet...lol I did tell my trainer though.

I did decent on eating, but learned that I am definitely a people pleaser. I didn't stand up for myself assertively in a situation today and it led to me struggling quite a bit this evening. I am so thankful that I made those meal plans, as I was able to stick to it for dinner, and not cave in to my cravings due to me not wanting to decide on dinner. I've learned that too many choices, is no bueno for me. I need NO choices or as few as possible. So I do think that the plan I made for eating is going to work very well. I'm also working on having a few "contingency plans" in a note on my phone. Basically, a few fast food places, the one or two things that are healthier there, and calorie counts for them, plus calorie counts for the "bad" things I want at those, to keep me from wanting those. lol Since we are out and about so much, or on road trips, etc, I want to make sure I'm prepared for the event that we'd need to stop somewhere.

I got in 20 minutes of cardio earlier, as well as 20 minutes of my devotional book, plus I'm still working on decluttering my house. Two big bags of stuff got taken to the Collin Cty Children's Advocacy Center's drop off today, and I have lots more to go!

All in all, it was good day. I really felt strong most of the day itself in what I am doing, and though this evening has been tough craving-wise, I've been coping with it well. On to day two!

Our New Years Weekend

So we hit up Oklahoma City from New Years Eve til today to see my dad, his wife Liz, and family up there. We had a great time, and stayed busy, so I'll just summarize our long weekend.

New Years Eve: played in the snow (the drifts left from CHRISTMAS and the 14 inches they got), got reacquainted with Molly (the dog). We then hit up the OKC Thunder vs Utah Jazz game. Right before the game, someone my dad knows invited us into their suite. Well, part way through the game, the mascot Rumble came into our suite! He did scare the bejeebies out of us by slamming the door, but D was in HEAVEN that he got to meet him!!! It was totally the highlight of the trip for him. After that, we hit up downtown to see the ball go up and the fireworks at midnight. Happy New Year, y'all!!!

New Years Day: D and I slept REALLY late...lol it was nice. After that, my half brother/his wife, and half sister joined us for a New Years Day lunch complete with blackeyed peas. There was quite a bit more snow play after that, plus a visit by my grandma's house up there. And once it got darker, we went to go see Christmas lights, specifically a street that has 15 houses set to lights, so amazing! Then back to the house to put D to bed, and the adults played some Farkle!

Jan 2nd: Off to drive by the Train museum (which was closed so we just drove through it), and then to the Firefighters Museum. It was neat to see the old fire engines. D ate his weight in pizza after that...lol and then later, he helped Liz make a cake for my dad, and then we watched my dad play some soccer! And finally, we hit up that chocolate cake (since we left early today), so D could sing to him, and after D was in bed, more Farkle! (I won that game...lol woohoo!)

Jan 3rd: Home, home, again. D and I slept most of the way home while my bro drove. It was uneventful. After that, we had some Chera pics in Deep Ellum, and topped it off with hanging out with Beth and her family for dinner.

This evening I'm getting my mind all set for tomorrow New Year DOWN kickoff. I didn't really have time or $$$ to go big grocery shopping like I had planned on, but I grabbed a few items that will keep me on track for a couple days, so I'm ready to go. My fridge/pantry was already cleaned out mostly, so it too is ready to go. Time to get this new year started off right!

Welcome to 2010

So here we are. 2009 is done for, and 2010 has just begun. As I posted in my last one, 2009 was so full of ups and downs. Well, I have one goal for 2010. That is, for it to be all downs. Down in weight, down in eating, down in spending, down the trails, with blessings coming DOWN from Heaven, and down on my knees in prayer. Down is the key word this year.

With that in mind, I am writing DOWN some plans for all this.

1) Down with weight/eating: I have been working on set meal plans. 12 set meals that I rotate every 2 weeks, leaving one day a week for eating out. Once a month, I will remove a recipe if we are really tired of one, and add in a new one to the rotation. 2 of the meals are ones that can be frozen, taken out, nuked and eaten in the car (fully portable) to help us not rely on fast foods for Wednesday church. The meals aren't necessarily super healthy BUT I will be modifying them with healthier things as I go. The key for me was to get the meals down on paper (well, spreadsheet) with the key ingredients to more easily make shopping lists. This will also help with spending as we won't be eating out near as much.

2) Down the trails: As the days get longer again, we will be starting up our evening walks, as well as starting back the early Saturday morning long walks. I miss those dearly, and really enjoyed having that time for reflection, prayer, communion with nature, and it just felt good. I also have planned several half marathons, and one 10K, plus various 5Ks thrown in, as I can afford it. I definitely am planning on both of the H&H Halfs, one in May and one in September, plus I would like to do the Rock N Roll Half if I can afford it before it sells out (assuming it will, it might not though). And in part with this: down on the floor. I will be continuing with my personal training with Janie, and working to enhance my body as the weight comes off.

3) Down in prayer: one thing I have also slacked on lately has been my devotionals, my Bible reading, aspects of my spiritual life that I feel are vital to my wellbeing. I have two devotionals already that I kept "intending" to do, and will be starting the first one "Lord, is it warfare? Teach me to stand." on January 4th. I'm going to treat it like spiritual exercise, alternating nights with my workout.

SO there you have it. All my plans for this new year. I will be starting this on January 4th, which is a Monday. The majority of Jan 3rd will be spent cleaning out my fridge and pantry, along with a grocery shopping trip to stock up on the good foods.

I can't wait to get going on this! I have a feeling that this year is going to have quite a few surprises, but I'm praying they are all good ones, as I continue along this journey.