Day 83-86 of 100 Days of Health Habit

One day......

 I will have more time for this blog......

{So thankful for the time I have :)}

Okay, so this has been a week of refocus. It has felt good. I am not where I thought/wanted to be as far as weight goes, but I am lighter and think that by the time I count down to 100 I will be able to say that I lost somewhere between 15-20 pounds. (20 being very ambitious)

Today I racked up almost 11,000 steps without meeting with Leslie Sansone. I wore that clothesline out! 11,000 steps worth of house work? You probably think I live in a dump.....no, just a house with 6 people (that includes a 2 year old....they count as five people right?) and a homeschool.

I would like to write more but it is late and I am tired. So, I will go. Have a blessed Sunday!

Day 81 & 82 of 100 Days of Health

I'm just so thankful! "For what?", you may ask. I am thankful that I started this crazy 100 day thing and blogged about it. Had it not been for this accountability then I would be off on the other side of this yo-yo where the scale starts to move in the wrong direction and I go for months without the thought of food journaling or exercising.

 So, as you have read, I have had some trouble with getting refocused in the last few weeks. Who would have seen it coming? Nevertheless, it did and I swayed and faltered but I have not quit. Yesterday, what I will call Day 81, was the day I just jumped right back into daily exercise. (I must do this to get anywhere near 10,000 steps) I got real close and at the end of the day, after a 5 mile walk I had 9500 steps. The biggest thing that I need to change right now is to get this exercise stuff done first thing in the day. That would almost guarantee that I would make my goal every day. HOWEVER, you dear readers, who for whatever reason read this madness on a regular basis, will recall that I am NOT a morning person. It is time to suck it up and just do it! Just get up early and get it on! Oh, how I am trying!! :) Today I did not get up early, but first thing (while everyone was dressing and having breakfast) I did a 4 mile walk. YAY ME!! Can I just say it again? YAY!!!!

Also, I am going to be really focusing on my diet and making wise choices.

Today, so far here is what I have consumed. {note: we are in need of a grocery store run}

Breakfast: 1 C Multigrain Cheerios

                 1 C Skim Milk

Total Calories {196} Can you believe that? :)

After my 4 mile I was hungry so for a snack I repeated breakfast. {196 kcal}

Getting creative I decided to cook a pound of dry beans in the pressure cooker.

I chose Great Northerns (is it not crazy how cheap you can get beans?)

I pressured for 1 hour:

1 lb Great Northern beans

1 C brown rice

1 TBS garlic powder

Some season-all

I love beans, my family does not share my love of them. Cowboy and I enjoyed a lunch of beans and rice. 

1 Cup {225 kcal} and this is worth mentioning NO FAT and 10 grams of fiber! 

YUM!

So here it is 3:00 pm and I stand at 7000 steps. I intend of making that 10,000 today!

{P.S. Here is how I did the four miles. It was a lot of fun and different. And I burned 580 kcal while doing it!} 

O_O

This morning at 12:00 am the alarm on my phone went off. I was startled and grabbed it up to see what was going on. It said "100th DAY!" ..........ugh......

Really? Already? What has happened to me the last 3 weeks?

I did not intend to stall. I have been pressing on and just not had time to blog. Anyway, I am sorely disappointed. I never intended to have a break in these 100 days. Nevertheless, I am going to finish what I started. So, Lord willing, tonight I will report on my steps and calories.

In all honesty, I have said it many times. I am a one-track girl. I have been extremely focused on our homeschool. I have been convicted by letting things slip. I have had too many nights full of guilt or disappointment over things undone. I have reevaluated my priorities. I have refocused on what it is that I am doing here. I have mentally listed the things I that I can no longer allow myself to let go undone. There are books I read to Jessie that I want to read to Jenna. There are nature walks that I long to take with them all. There are nature notebooks that remain blank that haunt me because I bought them years ago. I have right before my eyes the proof that children grow up.....fast. I want to live these days fully. I want to not look back after these wonderful years of preschoolers and sippy cups and wonder why I did not redeem the time. I desperately want to be a good steward over what God has blessed me with.

So, with that in mind. I will leave this computer now. My "plan" is to continue the health post tonight. I pray that I get better at doing all things well in my life..... all at the same time. :)

Blessings,

Day 80 of 100 Days of Health Habit

No I am not MIA~

I am here trying to get refocused.

First I will admit that without the tracking of my steps it is very easy for me to get lazy.

I have received my new fitbit and today we are tracking away.  

Thanks for checking in and I hope that in some small way these post help someone else. The main way it is helping me is by causing me to press on to the finish line, instead of letting setbacks become total detours that undo all of good that I have done for my health. 

This journey will not end when the 100 days ends. For me, this will be a long journey, but I fully look forward to reaching my goal of being in a healthy weight range with a healthy BMI.

Today I am trying to get in steps by doing 1 mile mini walks throughout the day. 

And, I want to share this timely email I received from Sparkpeople today.

Another Fitness Myth Debunked
Somewhere along your journey to fitness, whether in the gym, reading the latest books, or talking with your friends, you'll hear a lot of advice about exercise--not all of which is true.

Fitness Myth If you can't exercise hard and often, there's really no point.

TruthEven moderate activity is shown to reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. If you don't have 30 minutes in your day to exercise, try splitting it up into 10-minute segments instead. Everyone can find 10 minutes to spare sometime during the day! There are simple things you can do to increase your activity without having to go to the gym: take the stairs instead of the elevator, jump rope or do body weight exercises (push ups, crunches) at commercial breaks, take a short walk after lunch. Remember that any exercise is better than none!

Exercise Extra: Clip on a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps daily, which equals about 5 miles.

So, here's to health and getting refocused! (Which is really, really hard because all I can think about is the HOMESCHOOL CONFERENCE I will be attending this weekend! :D)

Okay, an update.

I'm so sorry I haven't update in so long. As you may remember we took a break from blogging for our revival. Then as I was gearing up earlier this week to update, those terrible storms came in and changed the lives of a lot of people. I just felt very trivial thinking about a "health habit" when so many people were hurting.

I can't decide if I want to just jump back and pick up where I left off or start at day 80 in the morning. I had intended to keep going. But, now I feel kind of out of touch with the whole thing. The last two weeks have just been hectic, although I am not complaining.

Also, during those last two weeks I washed and dried my trusty fitbit!! Although, again, I just can't get that excited over such a small loss. I have replaced it and life goes on. That is a blessing.

Pray for my friend.

Count your blessings.

Have a blessed weekend.

A Recital

This morning we hosted the recital for my daughter. It was a lovely time! Here is a clip of Jessie playing her pieces ,accompanied by her teacher.

Filling Your Home with Beauty

I'm a little late at this, but if you hurry you can still catch the deal on this beautiful cross.

The good people at Dayspring and (in)courage.me gave a wonderful opportunity to receive (free) a beautiful product in return I just had to give an honest review and link it up.

Lately I have been on the hunt to fill my home with scripture and inspirational pieces that are beautiful. When the box arrived and inside was this beautiful  cross I knew just where to place it. It is a great size and has my buzz words of late on it: GRACE, THANKFUL, FAMILY, BLESSED, HARMONY, HOME......

So, go on over to Dayspring and get this while you can save money on it. Fill your home with beauty!  This is really nice and I am sure that their other products are just as well. Browsing through their store site has given me great ideas for the gifts I need to buy throughout the year. :)

Day 73, 74 and a word about days 75-79 of 100 Days of Health

I am happy to report that I am feeling myself come out of the pit of "this just ain't working" to "I can do this!" 

Dear readers, I can tell you that without the blog holding me accountable I would have surely quit by now. It is my pattern: first comes all out excitement...you know, that "I gonna change the world"  feeling, then the new wears off, it is harder than anticipated and boom.....failure. But, because I have a few readers who leave kind remarks and little encouraging notes I am able to refocus and finish. 

This week our church will be in Revival. It is a week long, nightly revival and for that reason I will not blog until the end of the week. There is just too much to do to worry about getting a post up. We will continue our school this week also, so the days are full. Pray that the church will be revived and that some lost wandering soul will come to know Jesus.

My goal is to not get on the scale until the end of the week. I don't need anything to get me agitated like that piece of glass and metal can. I just want to come through this week taking care of business and keeping my mind  on Christ.

Have a blessed week!

{Here is a link to the first post that tells about this 100 days, just in case you missed it! 100 Days of Health
You can click on the Labels "100 Days of Health" and "Weight Loss" to get to the post that are focused on this health habit.}

day 71 & 72 of 100 Days of Health Habit

72 days.....

When I started this 100 days where did I see myself being at day 72? Oh, I always have the pie-in-the-sky ideas. I am sure that I thought I'd would at least be 30 pounds lighter and running marathons by now. Well, maybe that is a stretch, but I did see myself a little bit different from where I have been. The sickness of last week really set me back more than I expected. I have also dealt with the scale not moving like I was sure it would. Okay, I am not whining.. I am just typing as the words come. So, what does one do when the motivation has fizzled? There is really only two choices. {As dear hubby reminded me this morning during a much needed heart to heart} I can just quit because my body has not acted like I thought it should or I can keep on. It is that simple. Logically, I know that I must keep on. Poor-pitiful me wants to cry about how long she has not had a Grande White Chocolate Mocha {I'm sorry, I can't stand the "skinny" drinks at Starbucks...I'm spoiled)  I also am perfectly happy saving those calorie splurges for every so often and not three times a week. It is just when you get down you see all of the negative. 

I have a choice. Not really, I don't. It is not a choice to be healthy, it is a must. I MUST continue on this journey no matter how unmotivated I feel. I MUST press on. There are too many reasons not to. The first one being that today God has blessed me with the health and strength to move, the brain to think through meal planning and learning healthy ways, the support of family who love me. I don't want to live disappointed in myself for failing, yet again.  

I told you before that I am a "one-track mind" person. Well, lately my mind is just on school. The yearly homeschool convention {aka Homeschool Mommy heaven on earth} is coming up. I am so into getting ready for that and plugging away at our lessons. I am learning to focus on all of these and do all of these things well every day. I want to cook healthy meals, exercise, get all of our lessons in and keep the house clean and running......WHEW! No wonder I am ready for the conference! It is a the shot in the arm I need right now.

So, it is late. I got my 10000 steps in by cleaning and doing laundry. We have revival all week next week and I can't stand going into that with dirty laundry and a messy house. I actually work better under pressure....go figure! We did have a lovely morning fishing with some of our church family and the kids had a little egg hunt.

Sweet!

Cowboy caught a turtle!

Me and my dear Jessie...I just love her!

Day 70 of 100 Days of Health

Day 70 was a day of trying new things in the kitchen. The last thing you want to do is get stuck in a rut with only a few choices of "healthy" meals that you like. My kids love to experiment with food so that helps out greatly.

Today we started with a lightened up version of French Toast that used Egg Beaters instead of eggs. I found it on the Spark Recipe site. They really liked it, kids like anything with a little powered sugar on it.

For lunch we tried a recipe from a Weight Watcher's cookbook that Jess and I have been going through for the last couple of weeks. It was WONDERFUL and pretty!

I changed it only a little.

Here we go, making a small mess.....I am a messy cook.

We used

French Bread, cut in 1/2 inch slices
Deli sliced Mozzarella Cheese
tomatoes
Baby Spinach
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
1 T. Olive Oil
1T. Red Wine Vinegar

So you mix the salt, pepper, oregano, oil and vingear together and brush it onto the bread.
Layer the cheese, tomato and spinach and then place a heavy object on top. Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip, weight and cook the other side.





It was wonderful and fun!





I got my steps in (YAY!!!) 10,120 to be exact!

Have a great day!

Day 69 of 100 Day's of Health Habit

Okay, here I am and i'm in a rush....again.

Today has been a day of getting back in the groove after an illness of a few days left me trying to get it all together this week. Yesterday I felt great, we were just very busy. So, thankfully, today has been more like "normal"...whatever that it...

A few days of not exercising will make one lazy......very fast. It was hard making myself carve out the time to focus for 45 minutes just on getting some steps in and my heart rate up. It was also a little bit harder than I expected it to be.

I am still a little disappointed at the total weight loss, but I am fervently trying to focus on my main goal and that was just to be consistent and create healthier lifestyle. I know that I am still losing faster than I ever did on Weight Watchers. I guess I figured that for all of my sweating I should be getting a huge payoff.....you know, a 2 pound weight loss every week! :) I can honestly say that I have never been this consistent to physical activity. And if that crazy bout of ill health had not sidelined be last week I would have a huge record to be proud of. But, you just go on. I am not going to dwell on last week and what I did not do. I am going forward and being more thankful for the health that I do have. 

Today is almost a success with 9,500 steps....

Health??

No, I haven't fell off the face of the earth or the health habit bandwagon. I got sick. Then, as all homeschool moms know, I got behind. That, my friend, equals stress. Today I finally feel better with some energy. We hit the ground running! I hope to resume my heath post tomorrow!!


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Day 63 & 64 of 100 Days of Health Habit

Where do I start without sounding like I am whiny?

Day 63 had a great and promising start. We parked in town and walked to a friends house, had a great day and walked back. Then suddenly, without warning what I think is a nasty UTI hit me hard. All night and all day has just been yuck and nausea....

This is life. Setbacks happen. I really missed my workout and the energy to do them. I did notice that the last one I did felt like I was having to force myself through every moment. I felt just like I was lifting my legs through quicksand. Now I understand why.

In other news, we are still schooling and will continue throughout the summer months. That is just how we like to do it. Little Jenna is doing so good with her reading. I am enjoying teaching her more, I am sure this has something to do with 11 years of homeschooling under my belt. She loves books. We went to the library yesterday and she got all the books she could carry. Little Janie is just as taken with books and pushes a buggy full of them all over the house.

I must also say a little thanksgiving for the oldest two who are just like the men who held up the arms of Moses. They keep everything going and are so careful about me and how I feel. So precious. This homeschool lifestyle has blessings so much beyond academics. These relationships and this time together, I have no words to describe my gratitude for what God has worked in our home.

See, now that is something to be proud of!

Day 61 & 62 of 100 Days of Health Habit

I feel so out of touch with this blog....like I just can't keep up. I have been so focused on school and just keeping up with the house work and this health habit that actually blogging about it just get pushed to the back burner. There are also other things that I ponder on that I would like to write about...but between all the other things going on I just haven't gotten around to it. On a positive note: I have been spending a fair amount of time clearing out my homeschool items and selling some on eBay. I have a good little fund to take to my WONDERFULLY, EXCITING homeschool convention that is coming up real soon!!!! *happy dance* It truly is the most wonderful event and I just look forward to it every year. If you just need some encouragement and a shot in the arm then you could ask for nothing better!

Back to the health habit. Well, I don't do well with normal routine and waiting, so these last couple of weeks have been rather dull. That could have been helped along with that little plateau (that I am not so sure I have broke). It's the second half of a double-headed ball game......long....:) Day 62. Have I really been doing this for 62 days? I am surprised at myself.

I could write more. I have a couple of new things that I have found I like to eat. Also, I have some thoughts on just how many calories  you should  eat to lose weight. But, right now I have a cute little blonde headed girlie that is asking to go "night night on my shoulder"

I can't tell you my steps because the fitbit is on the charger!

Consistency.....I am counting on you!!

Day??? I've lost count (58,59 & 60)

I have not actually lost count. Boy, have we been busy!!!

Fun,fun stuff. Every day I'd think about blogging as my head hit the pillow.

So, the last three days I have got in 29,905 steps!

The calorie count hit a little snag at a homeschool event we had. Tables full of finger food. How in the world to count those calories? I had some fruit and veggies, that was good. I had only consumed 370 calories before we arrived and I did a workout that burned 580 calories. Surely, it was not a meal to ruin any day...just very hard to count. Those pralines could have sent me over the edge! (Thanks Mrs. Catherine!)

I also look forward to blogging about something other than health. :)

But for now I'm going to bed!