Thursday, January 24, 2013

Challenge: Days 74-90+

I can't believe I never finished blogging about my 90 day challenge. That goes to show just how crazy things have been. Like I said in the last post, i plataued with my weight loss and was doing good at least maintaining what weight loss I did have. I even lost a few more pounds. At that point I was just doing one shake for breakfast and loving it. I have never been much of a breakfast eater so shakes are perfect for me, although now I am enjoying eating the fruit and cream oatmeal. I have been feeling so much better.

Unfortunately the holidays are SOOO hard for me! I don't know why. Maybe just all the goodies laying around everywhere, and all the chips and dips and the snacky foods. Oh it is all so bad! So I ended up gaining back everything that I lost, so I am basically starting over again. Also among all of this, I ran out of my shake powder. I was getting it from my chiropractor who is a distributor, and we were getting a huge discount through a program through Mike's work and our insurance, so it wasn't costing me much at all. Well, the insurance decided they weren't going to pay for it anymore, so now I have to pay full cost, darn! It really is a great price for what you get, but I have been trying to pay down my credit card from before Christmas spending, so it has been a while since I have had any shake mix. I decided to use Carnation instant breakfast, which has been ok to at least have a shake for breakfast, but it only has about half or less of the nutrients that the Vi shake does. I have also noticed my energy levels are not what they were when I was drinking Vi.

So now that I am back up in my weight, my clothes aren't fitting well and I don't look all that great again. So my goal is to start getting my Vi shake again ASAP! As soon as the card is paid off, I will get my shake again and then stay out of debt!!! We are going to be out of debt minus our house, school loans and medical bills by the end of this year, we are very excited! Oh yeah, my hubby had two major surgeries between August and November last year too, that didn't help with my stress levels, which cause weight gain as well.

Life is just great though! Even though I can't look great, like I want to, right now, I am still happy with myself and my life! I am so overly blessed! The Lord knows exactly what I need and when I need it. I have struggled being the primary, especially with the class I had last year. It just got to the point where I couldn't handle the kids talking and being loud through the whole class. This year I am in the nursery, which is a lot of fun, and very laid back. Addie is in there with me, which is fun to be able to play with her and all the other little kids to. It also works with my stake calling. In November they called me to be on the stake girls camp committee. I am over certification which is pretty much all of camp. It's a huge job, but I have so many people to help me make it great!

We had our winter retreat last weekend, which was great. We have some really incredible young women to help and some amazing leaders that I am getting to know and love so much! I am supposed to be with the youth for some reason, I don't know what that reason is yet, but I know I have so much to offer them and teach them. My life hasn't always been easy, especially as a young woman. Not fitting in and not having many friends is hard for a yong woman. I hope that I can help teach the young women that there is more to life than high school and friends and popularity. I have stuggled with self worth since I was 9, which is too long for anyone to have to worry about that or struggle with it. I have started, just in the last 6-9 months, finally realizing that it's not about me! Yes, it is great to love yourself and be happy with who you are at this moment in time, but more than that, is coming to realize that my Heavenly Father is always there and is always ready and willing to listen and to help, and also learning that he loves me for me! Yes, my Heavenly Father loves me, and He also loves each one of you and knows you personally! When you know this, everything else seems to melt away and is replaced by self worth.

That's just my little testimony. I have always wanted to be a motivational speaker for the youth of the church. I know I have so much to offer them. Maybe it all just starts here with the youth of our stake. Then I need to work on not being so nervous when I speak in front of people. I am slowly overcoming this with having to speak with Mike in the wards throughout the stake with him on occasion. Anyway, I love life and hope that you all do as well, and hopefully you all see that when you talk to me or see me. Have a great day, may God guide you in all that you do!
I don't know when the last time I posted was, how sad is that?! My cousin said I needed to post again, which is very true! I have been so very busy since November getting things ready for Christmas and then for a baby shower for my sister in law, who is having her first, which is a little girl! We are so excited for her!

Need some ideas for Christmas gifts for this year, since it's January and all, it's never to young to start planning, right?

For neighbors, we made about 20 dozen mini muffins including, lemon poppyseed, butterscotch chips, pumpkin chocolate chip and oatmeal. It's pretty easy to make that many when they are small and you double the batch. We ended up taking around over 20 plates to neighbors and friends in the ward.

Then I started on teacher gifts. I don't usually do these because of the time and money that you have to put out. Guess I'm just cheap, and always forget until the last minute. I decided to do something that maybe they didn't have already. I know some of you have made these before or have even received them as gifts before. This was my first time trying these out and I have to say, they were very easy!

I found some little terra cotta pots at Michaels for less than $1 each and had the kids each paint one. Then I made flower pens. The pens I had gotten for free with coupons sometime last year, which helped me to use quite a few of them. I got flowers and floral tape from the dollar store and then wrapped pen with tape and a flower. I also had some little wooden letters that we painted and put on the pot for the teachers initial of their last name and then we glued a butterfly on the side as well. I put popcorn kernals in the pot to hold the pens in. They turned out so very cute and from what I hear, the teachers just loved them! So yay for us!

I just had tons of little projects that I did up until Christmas. The next one is an upcycling project.  I have wanted a necklace holder for quite a while now and have tried to figure out the cheapest and easiest thing to do. Since we finally finished our shed out back, we had some scrap wood left over that we werent using. Cedar 2X4s to be exact. So I had my most wonderful and handy husband, cut it down for me. I painted it with some acrylic paint that I have had for a long time now. For the knobs, I kept them from a dresser we had that our kids destroyed, but I just couldn't throw out the knobs, they are so vintage. So here is the finished necklace holder. It hangs in my closet and I just love it!
So my final project that I finished was a rag quilt. In trying to decide what I wanted to do for my sister in law for her baby, I remembered I had a bunch of girlie flannel. I googled and looked on pinterest how to make a rag quilt. I found one pattern that I just loved. It doesn't have a back on it, you make each square with batting inbetween each square and then sew them all together. I started cutting out what flannel I had and then realized I really didn't have enough to make the whole blanket, and I had way too much pink in it. My sister in law is not a fan of pink, so I didn't want it to have too much, so I ran to the store and way able to find some really cute blue fabric that had kittens on it and a green check fabric, these turned out so cute with the rest and went very well together, especially for being random. It was time consuming, probably took me about 10+ hours start to finish, but it was easy, all straight stitches, so it sewed up pretty easy, the worst was trying to cut all the edges so they will fray when you wash it. I dear friend of mine let me borrow her sharp scissors, which went really well, but I cut for about 2 hours straight and must have damaged a nerve in my thumb or something because my thumb was pretty sensitive for a couple weeks after, so if I were to do it again, which I hope to, I will take a break every 20 minutes or so. It turned out great though and she just loved it and I hope she gets some good use out of it!

So this was my month before Christmas. 2013 has been busy and fun as well. So many more projects, not so many sewing, but crochet. I learned how to make round scarves. I did make a little tote bag for a girl I babysit that she can take to church and keep her things in. But more on that another time. Have a great day everyone!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Challenge: days 62-73

Yeah, it's been that long since I last posted! What is wrong with me? I guess I just feel like I didn't have much to write about lately. But here is what has been going on lately...

My challenge has been going ok. I decided to start eating lunch and dinner and just do a shake for breakfast, which was going pretty well, i was doing salads and chicken at lunch and then just slimming down my portions at dinner. Was doing good until we went on vacation last week, but I'll get to that soon.

Mike took a day and went elk hunting. He spent all day walking and looking, didn't find any elk but came within 100 yards of a huge bull moose! He was excited and a little scared at the same time. He was planning on three days to go out, but one day of walking did him in, we are all out of shape at our house and can't walk for to long before you just have to stop.

Last week was fall break for my kids, so we took off and went to Evanston where we stayed in a hotel for three nights, which we realized was one day too long for the kids. We took one day and just hung out and went shopping and took a drive to a ghost town where they have charcoal kilns that you can walk through. My kids loved it, and we saw tons of deer right off the road. It was lots of fun. Friday we were supposed to go to the Uintas and take ATVs out. I ended up staying back at the hotel with two boys that had had stomach bugs and my daughter that had a cough. We walked down the street to a flying j and got some drinks and lunch and just hung out and watched movies all day. Mike and the two boys that went had a lot of fun though and even saw a momma moose with a baby. We love the Uintas they are so fun.

Being cooped up in a small room all day made me a little crazy, so I decided to go grocery shopping
in Evanston. Yeah, kind of a funny thing to do on vacation but smiths had a great sale and some of the things I wanted didn't need a freezer, so I just left them in my car. I love when I can get a killer deal on groceries, and in wyoming, they don't have a food tax, so I didn't even have to pay tax when I was there. This sale was so good, with tons of free items! I bought 122 items: betty Crocker cake mixes, cookie mixes, Mac and cheese, boxed potatoes, general mills cereal, fiber one bars, Chex mix and sodas. So before tax and coupons my total was $173.69. In the end, I ended up paying $53.99 and still have $20.75 in Catalina's to use next time I go! I saved $119.70. When you average the cost and items together, each item cost me less than 44 cents a piece! Not to bad at all! 

So now I am home, enjoying being back, even though my house looks like a war zone with everything from vacation everywhere. And I got a touch of the stomach bug my kids had last week. I have just had a rolling tummy all day. I don't feel sick, just the tummy.

This challenge seems to have been to long for me. The first month wasn't to bad, I did pretty good, but then I just plateaued from there and didn't feel like sticking to the plan. At least I haven't gained tons of weight, especially after eating continental breakfast every morning for three days plus lunch and dinner out those days to, I didn't gained but a couple pounds, now back to life and hopefully back to eating better and doing better! I hope you all are doing well and enjoy life as much as I do. Until next time!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Challenge: day 61

I think I have a tendency to get frustrated and down on myself to often. I really am pleased with the results I have been seeing with this challenge. I haven't lost as much weight as I was hoping, but I also haven't been as strict as I should have been, so for what I have done, I have been losing pretty well.

Yesterday morning I ran out of shake mix, so I had my shake for breakfast and the some rice with olive oil and some broccoli and a sautéed chicken breast. Not bad, it was a pretty good lunch. Then for dinner we had chicken tacos, which were really yummy, especially the chicken.

Last night was enrichment night. It was fun. They did a fashion show of modest clothing. It was fun. And then sandwiches, veggies and cupcakes for a snack after. So I over did it a little at enrichment, but was still down a pound this morning when I weighed in, so not bad.

I just need to keep trudging along and enjoying life and everything will be the way it needs to be. Everything happens in its own time and for a certain purpose, so who am I to mess with the Lords plan! So to all you, love life and be happy with what comes your way in life!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Challenge: days 57-60

So here it is, 60 days in, I can't believe I have been doing this for two months now!i started out this challenge really good. So pumped and excited and ready to lose some weight, now I am at a plateau and seem to get more frustrated than anything. Maybe now is not my time to lose all the weight I want to, I don't know. I know I don't eat enough veggies, and that is a big problem, and I like to have a cookie or dessert here and there when I decide to make them or have them, and I don't exercise nearly as much as I need to, but I do feel like my health is much better!

So far I have lost 10 lbs, which is not bad, but for as long as I have been going, it's awful! I also keep making justifications about it, thinking that when I am finished with the 90 days, I will cut back to one shake a day instead of two. And since we eat a lot of casseroles and things like that, I will probably gain back everything I will have lost, right? And obviously I am not going to make a completely separate meal for myself when I already cook for 6 other people! So I won't be eating grilled chicken or fish and a salad every night for dinner, so I feel that for our lifestyle and what we eat, I am doing ok. Just need to add more salads and veggies to my daily menu.

Anyway, this weekend was great with general conference! We started a tradition a while ago that we would go out to breakfast Saturday morning before conference, which was fun. We usually go to Golden Corall where the kids can pick anything they want to eat. I did pretty good eating eggs, bacon hash browns, fruit, etc. even though most of those are cooked in butter or oil. And I had to have a doughnut, which I don't think I even finished, it was to sweet, and I didn't even finish everything I took, so I listened to my body and felt good during the day. It has been a long time since I have had energy to make it through all the things I need to get done in a day, and Saturday I felt great, the only thing I can figure is just eating a big breakfast helped.

Sunday we took a drive over the mountain to see where Mike will be hunting this week. It was a great drive. We even went over into Hardware Ranch, where we were hoping to see the elk, but they must not be coming down from the mountains yet. It was just nice to get out and see such bright reds on the mountain sides. I love fall time for all the beautiful colors and the cooler weather, and especially all the yummy fall food to make!  It is finally soup season, that is one of my favorite foods!

Well, until next time, hopefully I will have more enthusiasm about this challenge and be more motivated to exercise and move and eat better! Until later....

Friday, October 5, 2012

Challenge: day 54-56

Day 54 was pretty good. Did pretty well with my shakes and eating. For dinner I had a bean and cheese burrito with mashed avacado, salsa and sour cream, with some carrots on the side.

I stayed pretty busy. Didn't get the muffins made that I wanted to, but got a much needed adjustment from the chiropractor and went to Logan to pick grapes to make juice. We have tons of grapes now to juice. Mike did stop at Burger King on the way home and got a meal, which I ate some of the fries, so I didn't do well, but that was all I ate that night.

Day 55 was busy with all the kids I watch and things I do. I finally got banana chocolate chip muffins made, the kids have been asking for them. My kitchen was finally clean, until I made dinner and started to juice grapes. Did my two shakes and then made my very yummy curry for dinner. It was so good and I was so good not to over eat!

That night came juicing grapes! We love canning! I gives Mike and I some fun time together, plus we are benefiting our family greatly this way. But with canning comes the inevitable eating to give yourself energy to stay up and something to do to keep you awake. I wasn't to bad that night, we split some nachos of tortilla chips, cheese, avacado, salsa and sour cream. Yum, and some pretty good things that are good for you on there. We only made it through two batches of grapes before it was 1 o'clock in the morning. We called it a night, but didn't make much of a dent in the grapes that we had.

Yesterday, after juicing grapes, I decided to make my shake purple cow, with fresh juice. It was pretty good, a couple tsp of grape juice to my shake and a banana was pretty good. I should call it purple money though, since I use almond milk and then a banana. So no cow, and definitely monkey!

Anyway, yesterday was not very good for eating! I got in my shakes, but was just awful in between. The only thing I can figure is that it's partly because of lack of sleep. I don't know though. But I definitely know when I've had a bad eating day, my insides protest and I just feel run down and crummy all day, which was definitely yesterday! I don't feel like I have a lot of energy most days anyways but the days I just do really bad, are so much worse!

My mentor chiropractor got me a new supplement to take. This is just something that you add to waterr, has lots of B vitamins and really good stuff for you, I just started, but hope that it will help me to feel better each day. I think that if I just start eating better and exercising/moving a little more, I will be able to feel better and lose the weight I want to. Plus my family will thank me, because with good health comes a happy attitude and then comes loving and happy wife and mom. So I will strive to eat better and move more! Thanks for keeping me on the road to my goal, for all the encouragement and allowing me to rant about life, and be boring, for without friends and family to listen and love us, we would be nothing! Enjoy your weekend and a wonderful general conference. Until Monday...

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Challenge: day 53

Weekdays are supposed to be earlier than yesterday. I was busy with babysitting and cleaning. I got my kitchen pretty much clean, at least to the point where there wasn't much on the counter. I was able to get our daily supplements organized on the counter where we can get to them everyday.  That was an accomplishment.

As for my challenge, I had my two shakes, but had a piece of chocolate cake left over from our anniversary dinner. We had tuna sandwiches for dinner, because we were supposed to have gone to Logan to pick grapes, which didn't happen, we didn't have enough daylight. But I had a salad later that night and some crackers and cheese and a weight watchers ice cream bar, so over all, I didn't do well, but I can always do better today and work harder. I really need to get out to the gym, but just can't find the motivation. I want to go a couple times a week, but I don't like going by myself, so that makes it tough.

Today, I need to make some muffins. I have bananas and pumpkin to use up and for us, that's the way to use up those. Yesterday I made whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for my kids. They loved them and said they were really good. I didnt try them, but they looked and smelled good. Pretty healthy and very filling.  I found the recipe on my allrecipes app.  So today I will try harder and be better so that when I weigh tomorrow, I can still say I am losing weight. Mike started doing shakes for breakfast with me, so we are working together to be better. I love when we can doing these together, it helps us do better and keeps us close to each other.

Well, until tomorrow, love life and stay happy!