Skip to main content

Cleaning out the cabinets

I have started taking summer classes toward an autism endorsement. I am not sure what is wrong with me, but I cannot seem to get into the routine of yet another semester. I think after having completed an MA Degree, you reach this point of hitting a funk about taking any more classes. I think I've completed about 240 credit hours now. I have a lot going on between classes, volunteering, working as a sub to finish out the school year, trying to find a permanent full time position and juggling all my kids' activities.

Today, we received some not so good news. Avery, at the age of 10, despite being in normal weight ranges, has a triglyceride count nearly double what it should be. Michael and I are committing to changing our lifestyle for all of our kids. Sophie was mad at me because I would not let her eat french fries or buy a cookie or candy today while we were at the store. Sophie is small for her age but we still need to watch what she eats as well. If not, she could struggle later with her weight because she will have developed poor eating and lifestyle habits.

I know what we need to do, having lost over 100 lbs myself before. It's just keeping motivated long term and trying to keep my family from revolting on me. I was telling Michael that although we do not buy a lot of chips, cookies and junk, even eating convenience foods like rice-mixes, mac-n-cheese, etc or those breakfast or granola bars as just as bad as eating candy bars as they contain high amounts of sodium and sugars. That is the hardest part--watching out for foods with "healthy" labels that are really just packages of sugar, sodium and even hidden bad fats.

I miss running. I used to do 5 miles a day, but my accident has left my knees in bad shape. I also need to devise more activity for the kids. My goal is to get the kids in bed by 9:00 pm (my dream) so we can get up extra early and do a family walk (minus Michael because he won't roll out that early even if the house was on fire).

I checked out a book today on clean eating. I know that this is the best approach, but how do you balance eating healthy with keeping peace in the family? I'm determined to take that challenge.

To me, this is more than just about losing some weight. I see so many people take short cuts by doing diet pills, herbal drops, detox diets (extreme ones), to fasting, etc. The problem is, that while they may lose weight, they are not feeding their body the right amount of nutrients to develop healthy muscle or to fight heart disease and cancer. They end up with sagging skin, hair loss, bad teeth, body odor, etc.

This is about teaching my children long term health benefits of eating healthy and exercising. Today, I picked up some stuff to make 2 dinner menus:

Thursday: Rolled Lasagne bake made with spinach, fat free cottage cheese, light pasta sauce and lasagne noodles. There are many varieties of whole wheat pastas out there. I'm going to serve this with a side salad and 2 lasagne rolls. We have a Girl Scouts program tonight.

Friday: Since my schedule is jam packed for Friday, again. I have to observe an autism class, pick up Sophie from daycare, pick up Kaitlyn from dance, take Brad to work and somewhere in between, make dinner and take the kids to children's church. We are doing Boca flame grilled veggie burgers, with romaine lettuce and tomatoes served on 1/2 of a oat bran pita, carrot sticks and apples as sides.

The plan I am following is based more on WW with as much geared toward clean eating as I can. Clean eating means trying to eliminate as much processed stuff as you can.

Let's see how this goes.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping Up with the Keeping Up

This week has been a non-stop week.  I had 2 overtime days, working 11 hour shifts, followed by 3 normal shifts that were crammed with non-stop issues to deal with.  My job is fast paced and often filled with problems to solve, and on occasion, challenges to overcome.  Despite this, the hubs and I worked out 6 days this week between the gym (4x) and walking laps at the mall (2x). For the month of March, we managed to work out 27 days of 31.  My fitness goals for April are to workout 5-6 days per week, lose 5 lbs and to focus more on strength.  In addition to that, I want to hit platinum status on my Go365 health plan.  During March, I kept bouncing between up and down 5 lbs, but finally managed to be 4 lbs down by the end of the month. My financial goals for April are to cover my 1st qtr taxes, which I am set to do this coming week.  I also want to pay off the remaining $130 balance of our JCP card.  This weekend, I put $30 toward that....

Anniversary Week

This past week was such a lighter week workwise, but I was very busy at home.  I usually spend my weekends playing catch up, running errands, working out, taking teens to jobs and running out for coffee and groceries.  This weekend was no exception. Added to all the normal stuff, I found an error in my pay slip, received a cell phone bill over double what we expected when we upgraded 4 phones this month and one of my teens may have lost his local job.  Things happen.  I am not stressing over it. In the past, this would have been a freak out.  Now, I am learning to deal. I corrected my pay, and I will see it next payday.  I reviewed my phone bill and discovered 4 errors and the phone company corrected it today. As for my teen, he is going to either hope he still can get back on the schedule or he is going to have to find another job.  That falls on his shoulders to work out. My youngest daughter and I have posted all of her clothes online fina...

Music To My Ears

I had all these goals this week to be more active: hit the gym, tackle more stuff around the house, accomplish more physically.  Then I lifted a laundry hamper and threw my back out.  It is an old auto accident injury that flares up at the most inconvenient times.  Yesterday, instead of hitting the gym, I finished the evening by walking laps at the mall before they closed when it was quiet.  Then completed my evening with a quick massage.  My back is still really sore today.  Instead of letting it get to me, I am focusing on what I can do.  As long as I am moving forward, I am progressing.  The hubs and I ended up walking laps around the mall again. My goals for this week are to sign up for more learning opportunities.  I am signing up for technical classes to refresh my experience in Excel and Access. I have also signed up for a nutrition class as well as a wellness class.  I really want to use 2019 as a growth year: mentally, p...