Starting the weekend off right!

This week, my goal is to move a little every day. I went for a walk this morning for half an hour by myself. I tossed the guilt aside that I wasn't cuddling with my kids on a Saturday morning and let them watch tv instead while I was out. It felt nice to so something for myself plus it is a gorgeous day! I came home, prepared them breakfast and a smoothie for myself and now we are watching Gnomeo and Juliet (again!). Cuddles achieved :) I think this afternoon, we will head to the park and enjoy some active time together.

I have had a bad week food wise, as it is so easy to go and join my coworkers for fast food after work. Food is such a social event for me. This week, along with the moving daily, I will try and go with them for walks and such, instead of food runs! I have given up my Starbucks mochas (which I always get with toffee nut syrup so it's 220+ calories) in favour of steamed soy milk. THEN i just realized while doing the research on their website that the steamed soy milk is about the same calories! SO, now my drink of choice will be steamed skim milk with sugar free syrup or the skinny drinks. I know it sounds like I am making this out to be a big deal, but Starbucks is a big part of our social ritual at school. I even have my gold card :) Maybe limiting this to twice a week will be good for my waistline and the wallet!

This weekend I am also working on the meal part of our plans as well. When Mike and I worked with a trainer at Fitness World, we were given menus and such to incorporate in our lives. A lot of things that are good choices, not just to lose weight, but to eat healthier. I guess it is time to dust that binder up and put it to good use. I have also tried a sample of a meal replacement shake. I am not sure how I feel about taking a shake at lunch time since again sitting in the staffroom at lunch is such a social ritual. The shake tasted really good though. I tossed in some frozen mangoes and skim milk with the powder. I have some friends who are on Body by Visalus and have sent me some information. If anyone is interested, you can visit my friend, Christine's website.

Where does the week go???

So I have been trying to stock the house with healthier food, despite challenges during the hockey playoffs. However, with the way the hometeam is going, I may get rid of the "game day" foods much quicker than anticipated. I found this great granola cereal from Costco (Heritage brand) which makes the Greek yogurt much more palatable. I do enjoy this one brand I found in the States, Chobani, that has awesome flavours like mango, pineapple and passion fruit. We had guests for the last two games and my hubby has been bbq'ing smokies. I have opted for turkey dogs, but I did have one smokie on Friday. It was delish! I just tried to not think about how much sodium it has. Don't worry, the scale reminded me of that the following day as I retained a lot of water to make up for the sodium intake!

The second day that we had smokies, I made a chicken breast and nine-bean dish that I loved when I was on Herbal Magic. It is low in fat and really filling. Next time I think I will add spinach or carrots to add veggies. I also bought some mango-peach salsa from Costco and it is quite low in fat per serving. It is a great treat to have on baked potatoes as an alternative to the sour cream and bacon! I am hoping that the food changes and the trips to the gym (which have been spotty at best! BUT I am trying!) will start to show some difference.


On another note:
My kids continue to make me smile, despite the fact that they are CONSTANTLY on each other's nerves! They are three years apart at almost 3 and 6. The love-hate relationship is driving us mad! Any advice from parents out there? Much appreciated!

Mama-Fail and Mama-musings

So now that I feel some accountability to people who read my blog, I must admit that Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and well, I guess I could count today as Easter Tuesday have been cheat days. I have been pretty good leading up to the holidays, but as celebratory dinner, followed by breakfast, lunch... well, you get the point... So while I do not want to classify it as a "Fail", I have not been en pointe. I have to remember, that holidays are not an excuse for over-eating or for not losing weight! Today we had a Filipino pot luck at work, thus the reason I have been trying out recipes at home. I had a big lunch today, followed by a Starbucks treat so for dinner tonight, I am going for a walk and then having some veggies and fruit.

I feel like I have a deadline. We will be going to the beach a lot this summer and want to wear my fun summer clothes. Now that the goal is in focus, I hope that it drives me more!

 

We were enjoying the weather this weekend. My 5-year old son got his training wheels taken off and my two and half year old learned to pedal. I was teaching her the finer points of steering her bike and we had this conversation:

ME: You need to point your wheels to where you want to go.

DD(Darling Daughter): But Mama, the bike is telling me where to go!

ME: Sweetie, you have to tell the bike where to go.

She looks down at her bike and says in an authoritative tone: "Bike, go that way!"

Then she looks up at me with her big brown eyes and says,
"Mama, my bike has no mouth! It can't talk back!"

Precious moments like these, I wish I could freeze time!