Day 5....Grocery Day!

I love grocery day. I love getting the piles and piles of fresh fruits and veggies. Here's my fruity booty for today (I still have one more store to go to and am going to get a few more fruits like pears and strawberries.).


I had to literally keep holding my kids back because they would try to sneak in to grab some grapes. LOL! They attacked them after I took the picture.

I did OK today. Since I had to run errands, I didn't eat as I should have because I was running around and didn't plan ahead. Here's what I ate:

Breakfast: A bite of a banana

Lunch: An apple and a few bites of my son's soft pretzel (unsalted, but it was made with white flour, of course...blech)

Dinner: Vegetable soup with about 1/2 c. of rice added

Snack after I got my toddler to bed: Another bowl of vegetable soup with 1/2 c. of rice and 1 c. beans. Then, my older kids came down and were eating some DiGiorno pizza and I used to always eat their crusts. I didn't do that at dinnertime, but because I ate so little today, I was in binge mode and ate 2 small crusts. Oh well. I was craving Cheez It's earlier today, but I didn't give in (I would have had to go buy some!) because I kept thinking about how I didn't want to have to tell everyone that I caved and ate a box of Cheez It's! So, this blog is a great thing to keep the cravings at bay!

I'm down another pound and a half today, so I've lost a total of 5 lbs. and have 10 lbs. to go. I really need to get exercising because I hate being flabby. Before having my 20 mo. old, I exercised 6 days per week. Now, I'm lucky if I get in 1.

I work out at home and it's really tough with a toddler running around and wanting my attention. I do have a jogging stroller, but I have yet to start jogging. I have taken him on fast walks, but not consistently. I wake up in the morning and think about exercising, but then the kids are hungry and then I need to get their schoolwork started, so my chance of exercising slips away.

I'm the type who does better in the morning because if I don't get it done right away, I'm busy all day with other things and don't take the time to work out. I've been thinking about joining a gym, but I'm afraid of putting the money into it and then not going.

I have so many great workout videos from Beachbody and I really want to use them. I have Power 90, Slim in 6, Slim Series, Pour Half Hour and P90X. I've always been a gym rat and never liked working out at home because I couldn't find any videos that I liked. The ones from Beachbody are GREAT and they really give me good results.

We have a treadmill as well that my husband uses a lot, but I don't. My plan was to do my video and then run for 20 mins. (this is what I used to do at the gym....a weight class and then run on the treadmill). Right now, my goal is just to get in 1/2 hour of one of my videos. Maybe I'll shoot for starting my plan on Monday and set a goal of getting a workout in at least 3 days per week.

Day 4 Six Flags

Well, we went to Six Flags today and I'm exhausted! I didn't eat much during the day. We got there at 10:30 am and left at around 3PM. The kids ended up eating their lunch on the way home. I couldn't really eat my salad and drive, so I ate some baby carrots and sugar snap peas to curb my hunger.

Because I didn't eat for a long period and because I was in the sun all day, I have a headache. I was drinking water throughout the day, so I didn't get too dehydrated. I did have one no-no food. On the way home, we stopped at the gas station and I was really hungry and hot, so I got a 12oz. "smoothie." It was more like a slush and it said "All Natural" on the machine. LOL! That was so amusing to me because I wondered how they got that bright blue color for the blue raspberry flavor by using natural ingredients! I looked for a nutrition information label, but there wasn't one on the machine. Oh well. I had it anyways. At least it said, "100% Fat Free!" lol.

Ok, on to my menu for today.

Breakfast: 1 banana and 1/4 apple (I brought the rest into the park for my toddler.)

Lunch: I didn't really eat lunch, but had a small amount of baby carrots and sugar snap peas along with my 12 oz. all natural, 100% fat free blue raspberry smoothie. LOL.

Snack: I had a half a piece of bread to take away the gnawing in my stomach. I know I hadn't eaten enough food during the day and the 1/2 piece of bread really helped until I was able to eat dinner.

Dinner: Red Pepper White Bean Paste from Vegan Family Favorites. I changed it a bit by using a food processor rather than a blender and blending the roasted red peppers in with the beans, rather than laying them on top. I put it on a salad with steamed broccoli and red and green peppers.


The kids had it over brown rice and the toddler had the same, but I cut the broccoli smaller and mixed it up a bit so it would stick to the spoon nicely when he fed himself.


The kids didn't really like it, but they did eat all of their broccoli. They are picky eaters and ended up eating salad slathered in ranch dressing after dinner and one of them had toast (homemade bread) with Earth Balance, sucanat and cinnamon on it. My 14 yr. old is sitting next to me eating a not-so-healthy frozen burrito. Oh well. He did eat all of his broccoli. lol.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm down another pound and a half today! Eleven and a half lbs. to go!

Jodi

Day 3....hanging in there.

Well, it's the end of Day 3 and I'm hanging in there. I still didn't eat 100% E2L with my added bread (I will kick that habit, eventually!), but I didn't eat any chips and salsa that my kids were eating. That's a HUGE accomplishment.

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Grapes

Lunch: Roasted vegetables leftover from a couple of days ago and a piece of french bread with homemade pizza sauce.

Dinner: Vegetable soup with a homemade hot dog bun

I know I didn't get my salad in today, but we got home late after my son's baseball game and I just wanted something quick. So, I pulled out the vegetable soup from last night and had that.

I stopped at the grocery store today to see if I could find some fat free dressing that I liked. After reading almost every label in the dressing aisle, I went home with nothing. So many of them had high fructose corn syrup and I just don't want to eat that. I really need to find a good salad dressing so that I can really enjoy my salads. I know I should learn to enjoy veggies as God made them, but I'm not there yet. It seems that many people following a lowfat, veggie diet have the salad dressing dilemma.

Tomorrow, we're going to Six Flags to celebrate my 9 yr. old's birthday (It was yesterday.). It's thundering out right now, so the kids are looking out the window and hoping the storm passes us by. I'm sure it'll be ok tomorrow, though. I don't think it's supposed to rain.

My dilemma is what to bring for lunch. I think I'll pack a salad for myself. I'll be making the kids PB and J with baby carrots and fruit. The fruit flies have ruined the oranges, so I won't be bringing those. I'm SO sick of fruit flies!

I haven't put my fruit fly remedy out yet and I know I should. I take a cup and fill about an inch deep with apple cider vinegar and cover it with plastic wrap secured with a rubber band. I take a fork and poke holes in the plastic wrap and the little buggers get stuck in there and drown in the vinegar.

It's not a nice way to die, I know, but I don't want them consuming all of my juicy fruit! I already keep my bananas in ziplock bags and I think I'll do that with the rest of my fruit. There's really no room in the fridge because it's stuffed full of my veggies. :)

Day 2

Well, today was a better day as far as my attitude goes. I still didn't eat 100% Eat to Live, but I'll get there.

It is my 3rd son's birthday today. He's 9. We celebrated it on the weekend and are going to Six Flags on Thursday to celebrate some more, so today was a low key day.

I woke the kids up and said that I'd take them to the donut shop for a breakfast treat. They've never been there before and I know it's bad, but it's a birthday, after all. I've never taken them out for breakfast donuts before, so they were really excited. I didn't have one...I didn't even want one. I'm not really a donut person, so it was ok.

I weighed myself this morning and am 2 lbs. lighter than yesterday, so 13 lbs. to go. I know it was probably just water weight, but I'll take it!

Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: Grapes

Lunch: Salad--Lettuce, carrots, green pepper, red pepper, great northern beans and salsa for dressing. I really need to find a fat free dressing that I like because salsa gets old after awhile.

Dinner: Veggie soup with 3...ok, maybe 4 small pieces of homemade bread. I know...I know... It's better than the bags of tortilla chips and Klondike bars I was eating over the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures of my food today because I just didn't have the time. My toddler doesn't sleep much and I got him down for a nap before I went downstairs to chop veggies for my salad. I got them all chopped up and my salad made and heard him crying. He only slept for about 1/2 hour, but I'm happy I get some time to myself.

Tomorrow is here!

Ok, so, I started today and my attitude is really bad. I'm rebelling like a child! I've been thinking today that I think I might rather be fat than not be able to eat ice cream and Cheez It's anymore. I know, it's really not very inspirational of me to talk that way.

Here's what I had to eat and it's not 100% Eat to Live, but I'm taking baby steps.

Breakfast: Pineapple

Lunch: Salad--Lettuce, refried beans, sugar snap peas, carrots and salsa for dressing....it was a boring salad and I was wishing I could just eat a bag of tortilla chips with it. I couldn't finish the whole thing, though, because I was stuffed!

Dinner: I made french bread pizza's for my family. They had ground turkey on them, although I had planned to make them veggie. I started making the bread late and the roasted veggies were still cooking when the bread was done. Everyone was starving, so I grabbed the ground turkey out of the fridge (leftovers...they had to be eaten some time) and made their pizzas with that. I had roasted veggies (potatoes, carrots and broccoli) and had a piece of french bread with homemade tomato sauce baked into it (I know it's not "legal" to eat bread....baby steps...).

I'm so excited, though! I started gardening this year and have a small garden. I've been preparing the soil for about a year and a half and have been burying our kitchen scraps there. A couple of months ago, I noticed something coming up that didn't look like a weed. I decided to keep it and tried to find a picture of the leaves on the internet. I thought it might be cantaloupe and was excited at the thought.

A friend of mine is an avid gardener and she came over one day to look at it and said that she thought it was a pumpkin. Not as exciting, but it was fun to know that we'd have free pumpkins this year to carve.

The other day I went outside to see if any pumpkins were growing yet and here's what I found!

It's taking over the whole garden...LOL!

I start tomorrow

Ok, how many times have I said that I'm starting my diet tomorrow??? I'm really going to get back on the Eat to Live wagon tomorrow and hope that keeping this blog will help me stay on track.

I am trying to plan my meals, but with homeschooling 3 boys (14, 11 and 9) and having a toddler (20 mos.) underfoot, it's been tough. Usually, I'm planning separate meals for me. My family all eat meat and cheese at times, but I would like them to eat more fruits and veggies. Well, the fruits aren't tough, but the veggies sure are. They do enjoy salads, but only when they're slathered in ranch dressing.

So, I'm going to be trying to improve my family's eating habits as well as my own. Ok, so I have no idea what I'm going to eat tomorrow, but I need to stop eating tortilla chips and...............ice cream. Ok, I admit that I let ice cream sneak into my diet. I've never been much of an ice cream fan, but my 3rd son is having a birthday in 3 days and we went to Dairy Queen and I got a Blizzard. I really enjoyed it, too. We went shopping at Sam's Club last week and I actually bought ice cream bars for my kids! What was I thinking? I NEVER buy them junk like that! I have eaten about 3 or 4 of them, too! I've got to do something!

So, I will weigh myself tomorrow....even though I probably don't want to know the number. I was 6 lbs. away from my prepregnancy weight when I was following Eat to Live religiously. My size 12's fit me nicely, so I know I've gained at least 10 lbs. :( I'll post a before picture once I get one of my kids to take one.