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.