WoW (Workout Wednesday)

This is where I'll talk about what I'm doing exercise-wise.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I found this Pin and thought I'd incorporate it.  What, no crazy hard routine, you ask?  Nope.  That's what I usually do:  Throw myself into a new workout and I'm sore for the first week and struggling to find the motivation to continue by day 9.  Not this time (or so I say).  I've completed through day 3 so far, and I have to admit that jumping jacks are enough to get your heart rate going a bit.  Here it is.

Found on Pinterest.  Original link not working, so unknown contributor.

Do you think this might be something you'd consider?  What workout plan do you have?  Do you have a plan?  Again, I think it's better to have a plan.  With a reminder of, "Hey, I need to do this," I'm far less likely to wimp out or forget. So, schedule a workout.  Put it in your phone even; set an alarm.  Then, when it goes off, do it.  Something as easy as this workout can be done just about anywhere.


I added 20 minutes of Gazelle time on Monday.  Why? Because I sit on my patootey to work, and I know I need it.  And that's not too much.  I can set my timer and oversee the girls doing chores while I swing away.  I'll do that as many times as possible this week.

This is a solid plan for my current week because we started school Monday.  We homeschool, and that takes a good chunk of the day.  The girls are becoming more and more independent in their work, but I still must get my own work done (I'm a freelance contractor, editor and internet specialist...bahaha that last one makes me laugh.).  So, hence the smaller routine.  It would have been easy to say I don't have time this week, but I didn't do that.  I told myself Icouldn't.  That's just an excuse and my husband already vlogged about that, didn't he?  So, no more excuses, I've started working out - whatever fits into my schedule, whatever I can cram in.  It will be beneficial, so I must.

What are your workout goals this week?  Please share!

Munchies and Menus

I was hoping to start a weekly Monday's Munchies series yesterday.  I ran out of time, so here it is on Tuesday.  :)  It's still basically the same thing, so bear with me.  Life.  It's crazy sometimes.

My idea with this series is to post at least an outline of what our menu will look like each week.  I'm hoping this keeps me on target and keeps me accountable for what I'm consuming (and preparing for my family to consume).  I highly suggest a menu, at least a simplified version, like what I have below.  My menu is mostly filled out.  Not completely, but it's there.  Some meals may be completely written out, while others are not.  I used to stress over elaborate meal plans and every 'squinch' of food being written down, but I don't have time for that kind of attention, so I'm not going to do it.  This is what I have.

Menu making goals:

• Stay within weekly budget.
• Easy to prepare
• Include daily:  1-2 fruits and 3-4 veggies.  

Some weeks it's harder to incorporate fruits and veggies into the budget than others, but it's necessary.  Prices are not atrocious right now because it's summer.  Makes me wish I had time to get my garden back in working order.  That's another topic, and one that will wait until next year most likely.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack(s)
Monday	Honey Nut Cheerios, 1% milk	Leftovers & Chips (Pizza Rolls)	Chicken Tenders, Mashed Potatoes (instant Baby Reds), Side Salad	Brownie Frozen Yogurt (TCBY Strawberry)
Tuesday	Honey Nut Cheerios, 1% milk	Leftovers & Chips (Pizza Rolls)	Pork Steak (thin, seasoned and pan-grilled in olive oil), Yeast Roll, Side Salad	Banana Frozen Yogurt (TCBY Strawberry)
Wednesday	Honey Nut Cheerios, 1% milk	Turkey Sandwich or Wrap (Whole Grain White or Multigrain Wrap) With lettuce and tomato	*Out*	*Out*
Thursday	Scrambled Egg with Green Pepper	Mac-n-Cheese (whole grain noodles) w/Hot Dogs	Pork Steak (thin, seasoned and pan-grilled in olive oil), Side Salad	Banana
Friday	Scrambled Egg with Green Pepper	Mac-n-Cheese (whole grain noodles) w/Hot Dogs	Chicken Frozen Veggies Homemade Bread	Banana Homemade Popcorn
Saturday	*Kids’ Camp*	*Kids’ Camp*	*Kids’ Camp*	*Kids’ Camp*
Sunday	Pancakes, Scrambled Egg	--	Chicken Frozen Veggies Yeast Roll	Homemade Popcorn

Many may want to shout at my lunch for yesterday and today.  Pizza Rolls?!?  How in the world is that on your diet?  I laugh at that thought.  See bullet point 1.  We had other kids over for dinner on Sunday and we got Pizza Rolls to feed them.  Apparently my kids don't like the Three Meat ones, so there was a bunch of those left.  Do you know how much Pizza Rolls cost?  Yeah, I'm not throwing those suckers away.  So, I'm eating them over the course of a couple days.  Reheated and adding a small amount of chips (also leftovers) to complete my middle of the day meal.

I usually get turkey hot dogs and that is what we have with our mac-n-cheese (an all-time favorite with my girls).  I didn't this week, so I'm making sure to watch my sodium everywhere else, too.  (More on sodium in a later post.)  I don't think anything else is blatantly awful.

Easy ways I make our meals healthier:

• Choose whole grain or multi-grain foods whenever possible.
• Choose fresh or frozen veggies.
• Buy small packages of fruit for Pat's lunch.  I refrigerate them and then pop one in his lunch box every day.
• When possible, make an extra serving of the evening meal and immediately set it aside for Pat's lunch the next day.  This keeps him from eating canned foods much of the time.

The idea with this blog is accountability.  Food and exercise are the primary areas where I need accountability.  We eat much healthier now, but it's good to have a direction, and then we're less likely to splurge on a pizza when I'm too scattered to think about what to cook.  I'll report back to you next week on how well this week went.

What are you planning for this week's meals?  Share in the comments below.

Goals and Rewards

Hi, All!

I know, I know; it's been a few days since I posted anything.  The end of the month is a hectic time for me, so please forgive me.  Here we are at the beginning of August, the hottest month of the year around these parts, usually.  I'm really hoping that isn't the case this year, because WOW, that would have to be CRAZY!

On this Thursday in August, I wanted to share with you all our goals and the reward system that we've set up to help keep our motivation up.  I have to admit that this blog is helping quite a bit with motivation already.  Just knowing someone else is reading the updates can keep the pep in your step, so to speak.

(I ramble a lot.  Have you noticed?)  Anyway, goals.  I need to lose 70 lbs.  Yep, to be at a healthy weight range for my height, I need to lose 70 lbs.  That's a LOT.  My husband needs to lose about 55 lbs.  We've read a bit about how rewards keep motivation up.  And haven't we seen that to be true with our children?   Yes, yes, we have.  So, here's our plan:

Weight Loss	Pat’s Reward	Shirley’s Reward
Down 10 lbs	Ear buds	????
Down 25 lbs	Web cam	Shoes
Down 40 lbs	RAM (for PC, not the animal.  That’d be weird, even for Pat.)	Manicure
Down 55 lbs	WOO-HOO! Goal reached! ????	Monitor
Down 70 lbs		WOO-HOO! Goal reached! Weekend Road Trip!

We'll start with very small rewards for our small amount of progress.  We're not denigrating the loss of 10 pounds - that's something to be proud of - but we wanted to start small and have a sense of progression that parallels the progression of our weight loss.  After the first 10 lbs, every 15 pounds lost equates to another reward.  Again, the first ones are cheap (or can be), ending with the bigger prizes.

If you want, do something similar for yourself.  Let us know about it. I'd love to hear your ideas.  (Particularly for those ??? areas... We haven't decided on those yet.)  One warning:  Don't use food.  Don't reward yourself with a meal at your favorite restaurant.  That can really hurt the weight loss because seeing food as a reward tends to lead to overeating.  Food is something to give us energy, and I am all about enjoying it.  But don't use food as your reward during weight loss.

How do you keep your motivation up when it flags?  Do you have boundless motivation?  Are you one of those internally motivated people that makes those of us who need external rewards jealous?  :)  Leave a comment about motivation below.  Start the chatter and let's start motivating!

Be on the lookout for Munchie Monday Menu, Workout Wednesday, and Freestyle Friday, my soon-to-be weekly posts.  I'll post about my menu plans for the week on Mondays (and how well I stuck to the previous plan).  I'll talk about my workout plans on Wednesdays (we all need a pick-me-up in the middle of the week, don't we?).  I'll also discuss tips, failures, and how I've progressed in endurance.  And that leaves Fridays to cover anything else I want, like remodels, DIY projects, school stuff, decorating, shopping, couponing, etc.

Excuse 2: Falling off the band wagon.

I'm pretty sure the most exciting part of this vlog is that thing my hair does... riveting.

Adventure Time with the Young'n

Gave LadyA the Android, let's see what happens.

Become an Encourager

At the start of this here blog, I weighed myself... (eek!)... and I was a little disappointed.  I had gained some of the weight back that I had lost.  My husband came to the rescue and said, "That's not too bad," and he pointed out that I hadn't gained ALL of it back.  :)  Maybe you can't tell from the typing, but it really was encouraging.  It had felt like an accomplishment to have kept off those other pounds even while some of them had slipped back on.


We feel good after accomplishment, right?  I weighed myself this morning. I had lost 2.5 lbs.  Yay!  That's right on target with a healthy weight loss.  What did I do this week?  Ate healthy and small portions, walked a bit more when grocery shopping, got a 24 hour virus that had me in the bathroom all day.  I don't recommend the last for weight loss.  It sucks.

A hastily cropped image to show Pat & I
at what I think is at or near our heaviest weights ever.
2007

 I do recommend easy things like parking farther away (but NOT in this heat!).  My husband already shared with you the fact that the air in our car is not working currently.  And we are in our second or third heat wave of the summer.  100+ temperatures for days straight.  When I get to Wal-Mart, I'm parking in the first available spot and hurrying inside.  Once I've cooled off in there, I walk around and look at stuff, shop, and walk a bit more.  Just a few extra calories burned, but that's more than yesterday, right?

So, back to the discussion.  Become an Encourager.  Especially to yourself.  We humans tend to work harder when we feel good about ourselves.  Working out helps fight off depression, but it's so much harder to start that beneficial workout at that point, isn't it?  So, find something, anything, to 'hooray!' yourself about and use it as fuel to keep it up.  Did you lose any weight this week?  Did you keep extra pounds off?  Did you finally clean out your car?  Did you finally get a long overdue chore done?  Did you finish a great book series?  Did you reach a max level in a game?  Did you make a new friend?  Did you just give your life to the Lord?  Did you tell a friend about Jesus?  Did you help raise money for a good cause?  Find something to congratulate yourself for and kick it into high gear.

So, I encourage you to become an Encourager.  Be a source of encouragement to yourself and to others.

At a costume party.  Let's be glad the black
cape hides my thighs.... what was I
thinking??  2010

A word about the pictures:
These are pictures from years ago.  I tried to mention the years they were taken in.  These are some of the biggest pictures I had on FB for easy upload.  There are worse pictures, and I just may upload them sometime.  I don't feel that brave yet. Maybe after a few pounds down, I'll do just that.  I encourage myself right now by saying:  "I weigh less now than I did then."


What is your encouraging word for yourself today?  Share it in the comment below.

First Excuse: Not Enough Time!

Yeah! Erase those Excuses, one by one, baby!