Routine... routine... routine...

Summer is winding down for us and we have spent the last month in Portugal! It has been glorious! We spent time with Mike's family, my parents joined us for two weeks, we spent a lot of time relaxing on the beach, we went sightseeing, we ate, we ate, we ate! The weeks leading up to the trip, I tried to be really good about our food choices and drinking fruit smoothies at breakfast time. While we were in Portugal, we really wanted to try all the food and the pastries! I don't think we over did it too much, since we really just tried the pastries in the different areas. The main dishes we ate were mostly grilled with potatoes (sometimes rice) on the side. My favourite dish was lulas grelhadas (which is grilled squid). It is usually done very basic with a drizzle of olive oil, served with boiled potatoes and veggies. So yummy! I think I had at six different restaurants!

We walked a lot! One of my favourite moments was when Mike and I got to walk from our end of the beach in Peniche all the way to another town Baleal, all along the beach. It was about a 6K walk. We also did a lot of walking just in the city centre. It was so hot so drinking a lot of water was easy.

Now that we are back, we are looking forward to routine, routine, routine!

My two goals have been:
1. Move more
2. Eat more veggies

The third thing I am adding is
3. Cutting back on Starbucks & fast food.

With school just around the corner, it would be too easy for me to fall back on Starbucks and Wendy's, which is more about our social routine than the food we are eating. I think I need to find other social things to do with the girls that does not involve eating out at those places. My hips will thank me and so will my wallet! As much as I am loving spending time at home and realxing with my kids, I am also starting to crave routine. So here begins the countdown to our normal routines...

PS: Getting the crockpot ready to make healthy freezable meals for the whole family...see ya later summer, I'm ready to bring on fall!!

Summer's Here!

One of the best things about being a teacher is that we get the summer off! Woohoo! Officially the students were off on Wednesday, but teachers are still packing up and cleaning up. I am hoping to be done by next week. Now I really don't have any excuses. I have time on my hands to kill (HAHAHA! Yea right!) Mommy duties are priority, but I WILL be going to the gym. Like I said in my first blog post, I have to learn to put time aside for myself so I will. I have some time until we leave for vacation, but hopefully I will be in a routine and will continue while we are away. I am looking forward to a lot of walking while we are away.

June was a bit tough. There were lots of stress due to report cards and tons of planning for end of the year things, so YES I admit I overate and had one too many starbucks fraps. Hubby and I are now doing shakes for breakfast and one with lunch. I have time to cook healthier dinners too! Woohoo for having time to make dinner from scratch and not a box (or from a restaurant!) I have been hooked on Pinterest and have some recipes that I've been waiting to do.

Here is a Broccoli Salad recipe but I substitute Greek Yogurt for the mayo.

Fresh Broccoli Salad

This is shake recipe that I want to try, but I don't know where to get powdered matcha... does anyone know?

Matcha Shake

I can't wait to blog about all the freshly grilled seafood and veggies from the beaches in a few weeks!

More recipes to come soon!

Busy life... busy wife!!!

Yes! I realize that the blog is called "No Excuses" so I don't really have any to offer as to why I have neglected blogging for almost two weeks now! The school year is winding down and I am looking forward to summer vacation! Woohoo!!! Along with that I am excited for more family time and "me" time.

In an attempt to keep moving, I have been running around with my students at school. There is this game they like to play called "grounders" and they asked me to play along with them. Normally, I stand on the sidelines and supervise their activities outdoors. Some times they come to me to chat with me, but usually they go about playing their games until I call them in. I was glad they wanted to include me so I asked them to tell me the rules so I could play along. They had these convoluted rules and I tried to keep up. One of them was if you are "it", which I became at one point, you have to keep your eyes closed... even when you are on the "big toy" (aka the play structure"). I had a fun time and was glad when my cool points went up a few notches! Next up I will play tag!!!

Last weekend, we enjoyed the glorious weather by going to White Rock and taking a walk before dinner. It was a fun stroll, but I think the dinner at Uli's afterwards negated any calories burned off... and then some!

The new goal now is to add more vegetables to every meal. So that makes TWO goals:

1. Keep moving, at least a half hour activity daily.
2. Add MORE veggies to every meal.

Now for my mommy-ism...
Last weekend, my son says to me, "Mom, I know it's not Mother's Day any more, but you and I can still celebrate it every day!" and then gives me a kiss... he sure knows how to sweet talk his mom!

A Recipe

There has been not a lot of movement in the weight loss department, however, I have been moving more and enjoying it. Also I have found a new salad recipe so I will share that. It's great now that the weather is warm! Yay!

Spinach Salad
-young spinach leaves
-cherry tomatoes cut in half
-cucumbers
-yellow peppers
-kalamata olives
-Greek salad dressing

Cut the veggies chunky. Toss all together and add dressing. YUM! (You can also add pumpkin seeds or grilled chicken).

Enjoy and get moving!

Another thing to keep me motivated

So the food thing has not been on track as I wanted... BUT my co-workers and I have a "get moving" plan. I got moving yesterday by walking/slow jog for 20 minutes. Tomorrow, I have to get move again for at least 20 minutes. The plan is to do something at least 3 times a week. (Like Charlotte Diamond says... 4 hugs a day is the minimum, well moving 3 times a week is the minimum not the maximum).

On Saturday, we stocked up at Two EE's with lots of fruits and veggies. I have been trying to eat one more veggie and fruit each day. My favourite fruit is mango so I've been eating that. YUM! but the sugar content is a bit high. Tomorrow's choice will be orange and broccoli. Obviously, not together.

I've been having fun looking at recipes and pinning them on Pinterest. The one recipe I used was Breakfast Pasta. I used some leftover pasta with cheese sauce and added ham, scrambled eggs and green onion. The kids gulped it down. I enjoyed the taste that I had, but refrained from eating a whole bowl. Next time I will toss more veggies in it.

I will blog some healthier recipes next time after trying some more!

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!