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!

You can do it!

Vid Blog, 7/19/2012, not 29 like the vid says, sheesh.

How to Plan for a Binge

Yeah, that sounds perfect, right?  I'm totally going to meet my weight loss goals by planning a binge one week into our blog, right?

Today's craving:  Jalapenos, banana peppers, tomatoes.

First, let's talk about breakfast/lunch.  I stayed up late last night, so I really didn't eat until 10:30am today.  I was making a family favorite:


Easy Breakfast Wraps:
1 frozen sausage link (turkey sausage is a good choice, too)
1 scrambled egg
1 multi-grain tortilla
1 moderate pinch of mozzarella cheese
pepper to taste
salsa to taste

(This recipe is for one; multiply it for however many you are feeding.)

Instead of salsa (I'm out - can you believe it?), I was craving some roasted or sauteed tomatoes.  I thought I had a green pepper, but that proved to be my mind playing tricks on me.  Instead I added some mild jalapenos and some banana peppers.  The taste was perfect!

Now, on to the 'binge' discussion...

Let me say I'm talking about planning a high calorie dinner.  I'm not really planning on overeating; I"m really planning on how to AVOID doing so.  We've been watching our intake of calories for a while now and have really been focusing on it lately.  We don't want to ruin the progress we've made for a single meal, no matter how delicious.

Enter a favorite family meal.  Fried chicken and all the fixins.  Pat's mom and dad want to fry chicken and have a get together tonight before they leave in the camper for a week.  Sweet!  We love fried chicken!  The 'binge' part comes in the form of the menu:

Menu:

Fried Chicken

Frozen Yeast Rolls

Instant Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Salad

Corn on the Cob

Iced Tea

Now, after reading all that, it's not that bad, is it?  Well, if we eat too much of anything, it's bad, but it's particularly hard not to overeat when it's a meal we love.

Why do we love this meal so much?  Yes, it's delicious, and Pat's mom makes the chicken amazingly! My personal thoughts are that we love it so much because of all the memories we have that are attached to fried chicken.  When I started dating my husband, I was quickly introduced to the weekly fried chicken dinners. They included the family, the girlfriends (later wives), and various others from the church service and extended family.  The afternoons after Sunday morning service were full of grease popping, finger licking, deep laughter, and family happiness.  I remember loving that tradition; I remember looking forward to Sunday afternoon.  (I also remember gaining several pounds when I became a member of the family!)  I think that's part of why we love a good fried chicken dinner.  We associate it with the togetherness we've all shared and love to continue doing.  (I think love is a crucial gravy ingredient.)

So, we don't want to give up Fried Chicken. And, I don't think one should have to completely give up favorite foods.  I think we need to be responsible and treat ourselves with moderation.  That's what I plan to do tonight.  I'm portioning out my plate right now, before we even make the food, so I know what it should look like.  

I'm planning on keeping my calories in check, because it's so easy for us to sit at the table and keep passing the food as we keep the stories and conversations going.  

What is your family's favorite meal?  Why is it a favorite?  How do you handle the "do you want more" questions?  Chime in below!

  

Oh boy

Well, well, well, google + and blogger are not playing nice for me. Of course our relationship has just started, so perhaps we just all need to learn how to communicate with each other better.

I say this because I'm having trouble getting my next vid up, but hey, you've got something to look forward too. I did hit the scale today, I'm weighing in at 226.5 lbs, which I'm pretty happy with because I've been hanging around 230 for awhile.

Ok, the vid I end up posting will actually be before this blog...so if it's confusing, just go with it.

Peace!

It a video, and it's a blog

(apology for sound...don't know why its off)

Ok, so I'm officially apologizing to blogger, I was about to punch it in the face, if it has one...oh how I like Facebook for that, because I couldn't upload my crappiest looking blog ever. Then, I got on here and hit the video button one last time...and there it was...so lesson learned: PATIENCE, in it you possess your soul (KJV baby).

A Lesson on Playing Hard

Warning:  This is a Proud Mama Moment :)

E had her first All-Star softball game last night.  Her team lost, but she played fantastically.  She was in the starting lineup.  She struck out her first time at bat, but then she went on to tag outs and slam the ball, bringing in a runner.  She then got to come around the bases herself.  It was fun.  I'm one of 'those' moms.  The super-excited, cheer for the whole team, but just a bit louder for my own daughter.  I'll even yell at her if she strays too far from her base (she's a third baseman).  Now, get your panties unbunched, parents:  by yelling, I mean, I'll say loudly "Watch your bases, ladies!" or "Look alive, fielders!"  I don't berate my child or any others.  Have you calmed down, yet?  Good.  I want her to enjoy the game.

E at bat right before she smacked it a good one.
Picture taken by Jeana Davis.

And that leads me to my proud moment.  Yes, I am happy that she played well last night, but I'm super hyped that she had a GREAT attitude into the last inning.  This was one of those games where the other team was up by 20.  (Yikes!)  It demoralized the girls on our team pretty good.  They started to look sleepy and started looking at their manicures instead of the bases.  You know what I caught my daughter doing?  Encouraging her pitcher, "Let's go Abby, you can do this!" from her third base position.  I caught her lifting her arms cheering for her pitcher when she threw a strike.  Why am I super proud of this?  Because she was doing it AFTER they were down by 20.  I caught her talking to her catcher - trying to get her to throw out the runner trying to sneak to third.  In short, I caught my child still giving her best when everyone considered their  team down and out for the count.  

Did she magically rally her team for a movie-worthy comeback finish?  No, I already shared that they lost, but she played like a movie champion the entire night.  I am proud of her ATTITUDE.  She rocks.  :)

A Recap of Yesterday's Choices

Choices.  

My choices yesterday were pretty solid.  I didn't choose to exercise, but I'm okay with that.  (shock!)  Why?  Because I have two other very important things that are taking priority.  In my book, that's okay for a day or two.  After that, I need to squeeze in a minimum of 20 minutes doing SOMETHING activity-wise.  

My Haagen-Daaz choice.  Yum!

For our after-game, end-of-the-season treat, we had ice cream on the way home.  Instead of the mini carton of caramel, nutty, chocolaty goodness named 'Heaven', I chose Strawberry Sorbet.  And you know what?  I enjoyed it.  I knew that I hadn't really worked out, so I was extra good with my treat choice. (Yay me!)

I spent a lot of time jumping up and walking and cheering loudly last night at E's All-Star game (more on that in a later post).  I definitely put a lot of energy into what I was doing...  Hey, that counts for something, right?! :)

What choices did you make yesterday that you happy with or proud of yourself for? 

And So it Begins

I'm here!

I'm the crazy husband/dad of this family of four, and darn proud to be so! I'd like to say I'm a little off the cuff, but I really don't know what that means.

I've agreed to do this super awesome blog because my wife is making me... No, when Shirley told me about the idea, at first I was a bit uncertain, but then hoping for an extra motivational push to finally get those hidden six pack abs, I figured, hey, let's do this thing (and perhaps you'll be motivated, too?)!

Man of steel?

I love to write, so why wouldn't I blog? I guess because I figure nobody's interested in what I have to say, although I'm a frig'n genius, so it looks like we'll find out if we have something worth saying.

My main goal for losing weight is to be healthy for my family. I know all that fat and cholesterol isn't good for the ole ticker. I'm 5'11' and somewhere around 230 lbs (I haven't weighed myself in forever; how bout you?). I'd say we all have a scale at our house, but how dusty is it? That's the question. It seems like we know how important watching our weight is, but we push it to the side for easier, or perhaps "funner" things to do. Anyhow! According to the smarty pants guys I should be closer to 180 lbs. Wow, I'd have a beautiful bod if I got down that far...I mean healthy bod (Oh crap, my moms prolly going to read this!).

I've no good excuse to not exercise. Now, I'm not talking two and a half hours of grueling sweat and tears! Even an eight minute workout in the morning is a perfect start! Doing more activity then you would on a normal day is the start to losing weight...I think.

Ok, last paragraph! "Sheez this guys a blather mouth," is what your saying...blather mouth? I mean, what exactly is that? I just want to use this amazing paragraph to restate that we are Christians, and Jesus is a very good friend of mine. Oh, so many things to write on that subject, eh? We'll see what happens next.

Peace!

P.S.: Can you do a p.s. on a blog? My wife said I could do some video blogging, so that may be the way I go at some point. Then you'll get to see my beautiful body being sculpted frame by frame (wow, that's gonna be a long video).

Us

So, who are we?  Knowing who we are will help you understand what this blog is to be about.  Knowing who we are will let you in on how we write and how we'll present things.  If, after reading this, you think you maybe, kinda, sorta, could like this duo, we invite you to join us as often as possible and share the slices of our world that we put up here on the world-wide-web.  We are:

Edited using PicShop, a new-to-me app on my iPhone.

This photo is a bit old (12 months old to be exact), but it shows us as us.  (I have glasses as well, just not in this pic.)  We love life, specifically our life.  :)

A family.

We have two gorgeous daughters.  The oldest is a 'pre-teen.'  She knows it, too. ;)  The youngest is an animal-lover and... well, I was going to say more easy-going, but she's ramping up her 'drama' as she nears the pre-teen age, too.

Our family is a top priority.  We always consider the impact our choices will have on our family.  Okay, we're not perfect, but we really try to limit the number of activities we involve ourselves in that take away from the family.

Disclaimer:  We have opinions about families that not everyone will agree with.  We certainly do not agree with how we see some children being raised.  We will be respectful as long as the child is not being harmed.  Please let it be known that we'll share our opinions on this blog.  It is ours, after all. :)  You can feel free to comment to your heart's content, but be respectful.  Thanks in advance.

We have chosen to home-school.  We use Sonlight curriculum primarily.  We do use several supplements each year.  The oldest (E) just finished softball season.  She'll be playing in an All-Star game Monday night.  (Go, chica!)  And both girls just finished up the adult/youth summer bowling league.

Christian.

We love Jesus Christ.  And to show that love, we strive to live as He'd want.  We want the things we say and do (and post) to uplift Him, or at the very least never disgrace His name.

We are active members of a local church.  I (S) am the director of the Drama Ministry there.  E and A (youngest daughter) are members of the troop.

Desiring to improve our lives.

This blog is born out of our desire to lose weight.  To be more to the point, it is aimed at keeping us motivated to do so.  I have all the right reasons for doing so (see a future blog post), but just can't keep the time to do it.  I can't force myself to start my day with a workout - or to end my day with it - or to squeeze it into my day somewhere.  

Eating healthy is becoming decently easy.  We eat much healthier than we did a year ago, but we still splurge with fatty foods way too much.  I want to eat healthy and still keep within our strict food budget.  That's probably the hardest part about the diet part!

I'm also working on remodeling the house room by room (on a budget, of course!).  See future posts.  And I'm always looking for frugal organization tips.

This may be enough about us to start with.  I won't inundate you with so much that you leave terrified.  :)  

Do you want to know something else about us?  Comment and we'll consider writing an upcoming blog post about it.  Do you want to run away and never come back?  I hope not.  Introduce yourself below; we'd love to get to know our future motivators and family members!