The One Where I say Goodbye

Well, it's been a while since my last post.  I've had a bit of a writer's block and haven't really known where to take this blog.  I'm still not sure what I want out of it.  I want it to be about my girls, about some crafty things we do, about some recipes, about weight loss and living healthy...but I still wanted to remain somewhat annonymous so I could feel free to express my opinions without feeling like any of my readers would be offended.  I had a blog before and once I knew more and more people were following me I felt like I had to censor what I was saying.  I don't want that for my blog.  How is a blog an outlet if you can't say what you want? 

I'm not feeling it from this blog since I already talked about my girls, I talked about myself.  I haven't used names, but I've used pictures. 

It's time to wrap up the world's shortest-lived blog now.  I need to organize my thoughts and figure out for myself what I want out of my blog.  It needs to be for me, not to fulfill something that's "expected" from me. 

Oh, and just to let you all know, I'm doing GREAT with my weightloss!!  I'm down 6.5 pounds since I started just over 3 weeks ago.  I'm very happy with my progress and plan to continue living my healthier lifestyle!

Take care, fellow bloggers.  Maybe someday we'll meet again :)

This Week's Menu

Here it is...my meal plan for the week:

It's not pretty, but it gets the job done :)

I'm super excited to try tomorrow night's dinner...the white lasagne!  I just found it online the other day here and I knew I had to try it soon.  The portion size sounds pretty hearty too, so I'm looking forward to that!  I'll let you know what I think about it.

Happiness Is...

Like I told you yesterday, happiness is my babies.  My big girl ended up being sent straight to bed at 5:45 tonight for being nasty.  As nasty as I was tempted to be right back to her, I snuggled her and kissed her and told her I had to send her to bed early so she can learn to be a nice girl.  I always try to emphasize that I don't like punishing, it's just what I have to do to teach her to be a nice friend.  Oh...three year olds! 

She's still my happiness :)  Her hair is crazy and unmanageable, she hates to brush her teeth, she'd rather not wear underwear (even under her tutus!) and she makes a mess with everything.  But she's MY mess.  She has made my life 100 times better than I ever thought it could be.  I love my girls!!

What's your happiness?  Join the blog hop here!

The One with the Meal Planning

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

I've found that if I'm going to be successful with losing weight, I HAVE to know ahead of time what I'm going to eat.  If I just wait to see "what I feel like", obviously I'm going to feel like pulling the mocha fudge brownies out of the freezer and eat them all for breakfast (and lunch and dinner). 

Several years ago I started planning everything I ate, from breakfast all the way up through what snack I was going to eat while watching The Biggest Loser.  It helped a lot when I wanted something but didn't know what I wanted.  I just looked at my meal plan.  This is the sheet I made up to plan with:

I write the date in (this could work as a dry erase, but I print a fresh one every week.) and the points plus values I'm alloted for the day.  As I write in a food, I put the ppv beside it.  I always start with dinner.  I like to cook a nice meal for my family and I want to be able to enjoy it with them so I always make sure I'm going to have enough ppv remaining for the day to enjoy a nice meal.  One day next week I'm having manicotti.  It's 12 ppv for 2 manicotti, plus I plan to have one piece of garlic bread for 4 ppv and a salad.  Since the meal itself is so big, I'll be careful on the toppings on the salad and keep the ppv low.  However, I won't determine the amount of ppv I'll use on the salad until I've planned the rest of the day.  Whew...this is a lot of words! 

On days I have a high ppv dinner planned, I'll take it easy for breakfast and lunch.  Maybe a salad, maybe just a big bowl of fruit for breakfast (0 ppv for those!!)  I just have to make it work.  If I don't have a plan, I'll binge and eat off of the girls' plates and we all know that's not good!

Well, I'm off to work out my meal plan for next week.  When it's done I'll post it, maybe I'll give you some inspiration...I know I'm always looking for new meal ideas!!

The One with the Blog Hop

Hey everyone!  Are you into blog hops?  I'm participating in my first one...go here to join and meet fellow bloggers :)

Enjoy!

The One with all the Bragging

I LOVE my girls.  I mean, I'm so madly in love with them I can't even stand it.  They are the light of my world.  They're the smartest little girls that ever existed.  They are sweet and thoughtful and caring.  I'm taking this post to brag on my babies for a few minutes. 


My three year old is so imaginitive.  Give this kid a cardboard box and a wooden spoon and she'll take you on adventures you never thought possible.  She's a princess, a ballerina and a mommy.  She's a pirate, she's a firefighter, she's an animal rescuer.  She will cook you a gourmet meal in her toy kitchen, pack it up and take you on a picnic.  She will fix you up in her doctor's office if you ever have a boo boo.  She takes such good care of her puppies in her vet clinic.  She colors pictures in such detail and tells the story that goes along with it.  She dances and plays and runs around like crazy, all of it with purpose.  She savors every minute of her life.  She loves who she is.  She sets a good example to me.  She shows me how to love, how to appreciate the little things, how to "stop and smell the roses"...literally! 


My one year old shows love with a passion.  She is the most affectionate baby I've ever known.  She greets me in the morning with a big smile, a sweet kiss, and a hug that I can feel in the core of my soul.  This is honest love.  This is how everyone should love.  She loves me for me.  She doesn't care if I'm a few pounds overweight, she doesn't care if I fix her mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for dinner every night (I don't!), she doesn't care if my kitchen is a mess and laundry is left unfolded in baskets for weeks.  She just loves.  Unconditionally.


My girls are such a blessing to me.  I'm so blessed that God loves me enough to let me be their mommy.  I don't always remember how blessed I am with the day-in, day-out routine that gets very mundane, but I always know it.  I've been trying so hard to set aside time for my girls.  It's easy to get wrapped up in being a homemaker.  I need to remember what I call myself...a stay at home MOM.  I need to be a mom first.  These babies mean the world to me and I need to show them how much they mean to me, just like they show their love for me.

One quick quote from my big girl:

She was outside playing with ice (which quickly turned to water) and she told me, "Mommy, I sawed a bug in my water in my red bowl so I hit it with this spoon. And that bug said, "ouch, M. That hurted me." And then the bug stopped being alive. He died."

And a quote from my little one:
"go go go go go go" (to the dog)  :)

Self Control

I know it's only day 3 of my weight loss journey, but I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself!  I've tracked everything I've eaten, avoided the girls' leftovers like they're covered in cooties and haven't had another diet soft drink.  Go me!  But...I did get on the scale this morning.  I know you're only supposed to weigh yourself once a week because your weight can fluctuate so much within a week.  However, I just couldn't resist.  I woke up this morning feeling skinnier.  One look in the mirror, I knew I wasn't, but at least I felt a little lighter...must be all that fiber I'm consuming!!  Anyway, back to the scale.  I was exactly 2 pounds lighter than I was Sunday morning!  What?!?!  If I keep losing weight at the rate of a pound a day I'll be where I want to be by Halloween!  HA!  If only it worked that way...

So, I'm off to a good start and I couldn't be happier with myself.  Here's a recipe for the soup I had for dinner tonight:

TGI Friday's Black Bean Soup

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 c diced wiht onion

3/4 c diced celery

1/2 c diced carrot

1/4 c diced green bell pepper

2 Tbsp minced garlic (I use 3 large cloves)

4 15 oz cans black beans

4 c chicken broth

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp liquid hickory smoke (all I could find at my grocery stores was mesquite and it worked too...just might not taste like TGI Friday's, which I've never had anyway so I don't know the difference) :)

Garnish: shredded cheddar/monterey jack cheese blend and chopped green onion

1. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a large saucepan over medium/low heat. Add onion, celery, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic to the oil and simmer slowly (sweat) for 15 minutes or until the onions are practically clear. Keep the heat low enough that the veggies don't brown.

2. While you cook the veggies, pour the canned beans into a strainer and rinse them under cold water.

3. Measure 3 cups of the drained and rinsed beans into a food processor with 1 cup of chicken broth. Puree on high speed until smooth. (2 cans of beans is about 3 cups, so if you just drain/rinse 2 cans first, then you can puree those if you don't want to measure out the 3 cups)

4. When the veggies are ready, pour the pureed beans, the whole beans, the rest of the chicken broth, and every other ingredient in the list (down to the liquid smoke), to the pot. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes or until soup has thickened and all the ingredients are tender. Serve the soup topped with a couple tablespoons of the cheese blen and a teaspoon or so of chopped green onion.

Makes 6 1 cup servings.

I was also thinking if you didn't want to puree the beans in a food processor you could use one of those immersible blenders (hand blender) and puree some of the soup right in the pot. I HATE having to wash my food processor and I'm thinking of buying one of those little blenders just for this soup...ok, I have other uses for it too, but I REALLY love this soup so I think I'd make it more often if I didn't have to use the food processor.

 

1 Cup of this soup has 6 WW PP values (be sure to recheck your ingredients as some may differ, these are the values for my particular brands).  I added 1 oz of shredded cheedar cheese for an additional 3 PP.  Also served with a piece of frozen garlic bread for 4 more PP.  A nice, yummy, healthy, full of fiber AND protien dinner for 13 PP values.  Not bad, eh?  (no, I'm not Canadian)