Updates and Poppyseed Dressing

Started off my day right, with a 30 minute run.  Didn't stop ONCE.  (I know.  I can hardly believe it myself!)  After that I did Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD.  Felt great to begin my day that way, and it's helped me to be more productive and organized too!  I love being organized, makes me feel so much better about things!  And I think I forgot to tell you that I ran in a 5K on Saturday.  In the rain of all things!  I had a goal time in mind, but I must have been setting myself up pretty high, because I didn't make it, by a long shot.  I was hoping to run it in 35 minutes.  Took me 39.  Oh well, it felt great doing it!  Running just may be my thing for awhile....

Summer is flying by.  Less than 2 weeks left before I head back to work.  I'm loving being home with the kids, although as the days and weeks wear on, they are trying my patience more and more.  Gee, once they go back to daycare then I just get to deal with other people's children all day long....I'd rather deal with my own!

Here's a few pics of the kiddos getting in some swim time in the backyard, followed by some pizza!

My baby girl turned 3 last week.  Holy cow!  I'm loving each stage she is growing through, and what a little lady she is becoming.  Here she is with a picture of the homemade cake (done by me and my sister!).  She had to have a butterfly theme, so everything was pink and butterflies!  Maybe I'll do a post with some of those pictures soon, so I can show off all of my hard work! 

I felt as if I had been in a rut with my food choices there for awhile.  Nothing sounded good and I was sick of the same old thing.  My mom makes this SUPER yummy salad with a homemade poppyseed dressing that I absolutely CAN'T get enough of, so I decided to treat myself one day.  It's definitely NOT healthy.  But man oh man is it good!!!!  There's something about the combination of the ingredients and dressing that just taste so delicious!

Here's the dish: 

Lettuce Cashew Salad
Romaine Lettuce
Shredded Swiss Cheese
Cashews
Bacon Bits

Poppyseed Dressing
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar (add more if you want/like it sweeter - the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup)
about 1 teaspoon mustard (I think I add more?)
1 teaspoon onion salt or powder
1 teaspoon poppyseeds
1 cup canola oil

Combine all ingredients except oil into a blender. Blend on low until mixed. With blender still going, slowly add oil in a steady stream until dressing becomes thick and creamy.

Pour desired amount over salad ingredients and mix just before serving. (Less is more!)
Now, I made this salad for my book club and we gobbled it up!  I saved the dressing that didn't get used and decided to try it on a different salad.  Here's what I came up with:

You are looking at spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, slivered almonds, and the same dressing mentioned above.  TO. DIE. FOR.  This was just as good as the other one!  And the salad ingredients are a bit better for you too!  I've had this two days in a row for lunch now and it is so very yummy.  I just wish I knew the proper calories and serving size.  It's hard to know when you make it homemade.  I suppose I could figure out how many tablespoons are in a cup, since that's how much oil was used in the recipe, and go from there.  (Does anyone REALLY know that off the top of their head?  I'll google it and figure it out).  I've used just a tablespoon of the dressing each time I've used it. 

Go ahead, give it a try.  YOU'LL LOVE IT, I just know it!

New!!

New computer! FINALLY! New blog design! FINALLY! Both things I've been wanting for quite some time now! YAY! Hope you like the new look - in time hopefully I'll have a new look myself. If only it were a matter of a short amount of time and a few clicks...ha! I'll be back tomorrow with a new post, some picture updates, and a new recipe or two! YAY! Feels good to be back!

Addiction

I've come to realize that I think I understand addiction. Like a true, serious problem that does your body no good. I once had to do a counseling session in college. It was for some class requirement. We were to attend a few sessions by another student who was practicing to be a counselor. There wasn't much I needed coumseling on. She asked me lots of basic questions about me, my family, stuff like that. Alcohol was a topic of conversation at one point. I suppose, young college girl, it was only assumed that I went out and partied. Which I did do my fair share of. She asked if anyone in my family had issues with alcohol addiction. I responded truthfully with a "yes." Then she said something that I took major offense to. She told me that addiction was hereditary and that based on how much I told her I drink, I could consider myself an alcoholic. I was furious by that. I knew there was no way I was an alcoholic. I don't think I went back for my final session. Looking back, I know I wasn't addicted to alcohol. That was just a time in my life where I was young and dumb. I know I wasn't addicted because I didn't think about it constantly. I didn't crave my next drink. I didn't drink all alone when no one else was around. I didn't have one drink and then not stop until I made myself sick (ok, I might have done that a time or two...but it was because I was dumb, not a drunk.) I didn't look for liqour in odd places like cough medicine. But, looking back, I can honestly say I have an addiction. Just not to alcohol. I've come to realize that I have a serious addiction problem to sugar. No joke. I get a craving and it's all I can think about. I find sugar in odd places like a bag of chocolate chips, my kids' fruit smacks or sugary breakfast cereals. I don't buy hardly any candy or cookies but I can find something to curb my sugar addiction if I have to. And then I cant stop. Once I've had one tiny taste I will eat the entire box. I will have the entire bag of chocolate chips. I will eat the entire loaf of banana bread. I will eat it when no one is watching so I don't get judged. And I cant stop until I have this disgustingly gross feeling in my stomach and am practically sick. It's. A serious addiction. There should be an AA meeting for that. I started this journey and was sugar-free for five weeks straight. I felt awesome and lost about 14 pounds. The last two weeks have not been so great. I've indulged in sugar and sweets more times than I want to admit. A bag of M&Ms. Not a treat sized bag. The large bag that you buy to set out in a candy dish. An entire bag of rolos. Probably 3/4 a loaf of zucchini bread. Countless bags of fruit snacks. Three or four chocolate chip granola bars in one sitting on more than one occassion. My daughter's birthday cake in the form of one GIANT piece. Oh and dont forget the cake batter and spoonfuls of frosting as I was making it. Yuck. It's giving me a headache just thinking about all this. But no more. I'm stopping cold turkey. I've done great today and will continue like this from now on. I'm not sure if there will ever be a time where I can control it and just have sugar in moderation. Hopefully some day bit for now it's mist something that I wont eat. Somehow through all of this I managed to maintain my 14 pound loss. But I'm ready to see the scale move again in a downward direction! Thanks for listening to my crazy disgusting sugar addiction habit. It feels good to be honest!

Losing momentum

I desperately need a computer back. I need to get back to regularly blogging. I feel as if I am losing momentum and losing my support from you, my loyal followers. Letting the blog world know what is going on in my daily life makes me feel like I am being held accountable. And I need that. That computer purchase needs to happen immediately! Just make make that purchase tonight... I've had a busy last week. We spent most of our days preparing for Leahh 's TWO birthday parties. With all that party planning came a lack of meal planning. Which led to poor food choices, mindless snacking on more than one occasion, and a piece of birthday cake...or two. The workouts held strong but my choices in food were less than stellar. I feel as if I am in a rut with meals. I'm running out of ideas and nothing sounds appetizing. Except for sugar and grease and carbs. How gross is that? Yuck. All diet disasters that's for sure. I do feel as if I'm living in reality and know that such is life. I'm gonna have days where I cave in to my cravings. Not every day is going to be perfect. And that's ok. A bad day or two is not going to sabatoge all of my efforts. Because I wont let it. I'm still continuing on this journey and going to try my best, bad days and all. I've stayed pretty steady at a 12 to 14 pound loss the past 2 weeks or so. It fluctuates from day to day. I'm feeling great about that! I'd love it if you would leave me a comment or send me a message and let me know that you are still following. And if you have a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack option to share that is one of your favorites, I'd love to hear that too! Here's to a better day tomorrow and a promise to get a new computer so I can blog more regularly!

week 5 results

Another pound gone and feeng good! I changed up my workout some this week and veered away from the Insanity. This second half is HARD and almost an hour long each. I was feeling DEAD by the end of that hour and most of the time couldn't even finish the hour because it hurt so bad! I'll get back into it. So instead I did a few days of jillian Michael's ripped in 30 and a few days running. I ran a new route this week. The first time I ran it I finished in exactly 30 minutes. I knew I was kind of taking it slow. The next time I ran that same route I finished in 26 minutes! I felt really good about that! I feel like I am starting to figure out more what my body needs. If I go too many days without limited carbs, the weight loss starts to slow up. I've also figured out that my body goes into starvation mode quite quickly. If I eat too few calories even just one day, I hold on to the little calories I've eaten and lose nothing. It's refreshing to realize these things now that I am paying attention! Still no computer but hopefully that will change next week. Then I can get back into more interesting posts! Take care my friends and thanks for reading!

Month One Results

Well due to a broken computer, thanks to a certain 15-month old, it's been hard to post. There should have been a week 4 results post on Saturday, so I appologize for those of you that have been waiting on pins and needles. Today marks the beginning of month two on his journey. June 9 was my official start date. So hard to believe it's only been one month! I still feel incredibly motivated and am anxious to keep this up. I am motivated to learn more about healthy food choices and am constantly trying new recipes. (Although you may not get a post about that until my computer is fixed). In my eyes I am loving how everything is going and I sincerely thank you all for your support and encouragement. Now for the news you've all been waiting for...as of this morning, the official weight lost is 13.2 pounds! This even includes some bad choices on Saturday (think ice cream, bagel, and chocolate granola bars...) I'm pretty darn pleased, to say the least. I'll post when I can but don't forget about me if I don't post as much. It's pretty hard to type all this out on my kindle. Until next time all!

Happy 4th of July!

What a hot hot day!  Despite the crazy heat, our day was filled with lots of time outside with good friends and family.  We started the day with a trip to Lennox to spend some time with good friends Rob and Becky (and crew) and their son Carter.  We enjoyed your typical small-town 4th of July parade (think LOTS of fire trucks), where Leah was a SCAVENGER for all the candy they threw!  It was a blast to watch her having so much fun.  After the parade we enjoyed a nice lunch and let the kids play, both inside and out (with a sprinkler, of course!)  


After some nap time at home, we headed to my mom's house for our traditional family dinner on the 4th of July, as my oldest of my two little brothers (it's weird to call them "little" brothers, because they aren't very little anymore!) celebrates his birthday each year on July 4th.  Today he turned 21!  We did a few little fireworks before we took 2 exhausted, dirty, sweaty, and smelly kids home for bath and bedtime.  An all around good day!


Now, here is where the truth comes in.  I veered off the wagon today a bit.  But I don't feel bad about it.  Because I controlled myself and listened to what my body needed.  I didn't work out today, or even yesterday for that matter.  I've been feeling very tired and worn out, and my muscles are quite achy.  So I took two days to rest and relax.  It's what I needed, and I'm not beating myself up over it one bit.  I think it will make my workouts the next two days that much better, because I've been able to let my muscles rest up to push them back into the grind.  It actually felt really nice.  And I'm going to give myself a little credit - in the last 27 days, which is how long ago I started this blog, I have worked out 22 times.  I think that's pretty darn good.  (My brain immediately went to a percentage on this one:  22 out of 27 is about 82%.  I'm good with that!)


And as far as food goes - I feel like I am still doing great!  Did fine yesterday, stayed within my calorie goal, drank plenty of water, etc. etc.  Today was great until dinner with my family.  I had an awesome smoothie this morning, complete with berries, Greek yogurt, almond milk and spinach.  Lunch was some delicious homemade white chicken chili, some cold veggies, fruit, and a small turkey sandwich (I probably could have done without that, but I was still hungry).  I steered clear of the chips and chocolate chip bread even!  My snack this afternoon was 1/2 an avocado, kashi crackers, and cottage cheese.  So far so good.  Then dinner came.  Remember when I posted about my family's tradition on birthdays about having the birthday individual chose their birthday meal, and it's pretty typically always the same each year?  Well in my brother's case, the menu is this:  Bisquick taco bake, corn-on-the cob, watermelon, red white and blue (of course!) jello salad, and watermelon.  This year my mom threw in a new item as well - a taco salad made with beans, crushed Doritos, western dressing, and I don't even know what else.  I was only planning on having some corn and watermelon.  But, once again, I was VERY hungry and starting to get a headache.  Now mind you, I used to get a headache ALL THE TIME if I went to long without eating and let myself get super hungry.  Key words:  "used to."  That hasn't happened to me at all in the last 3 weeks.  But today it did.  So I took that as a sign that my body needed some more fuel that what I was planning.  So I had some corn and watermelon, but also had 1 piece of the taco bake (which my mom made with grass-fed beef and her own homemade taco seasoning) and some of her new taco salad.  Both were delicious and kept my headache at bay.  Now considering the other choices, I think those were ok foods to choose.  I did not have the jello dessert, nor did I have the homemade sugar cookies with homemade frosting or the homemade lemon bars.  So even though I ate a bit more than I planned today, and they may not have been the healthiest, I am ok with my choices and ready to conquer tomorrow in full force!


Hope you all had a great holiday and were able to relax and spend it with family and friends!

Off topic...

I don't "tweet", do you?  Never even logged on to twitter to see what it was about.  There's this blog that I follow for a lady named Angie who makes AWESOME jewelry.  I have a few of her pieces and LOVE them.  Well she's doing a super fun giveaway, and I WANT TO WIN!  I could enter the giveaway up to 9 times by doing various tasks - it was quite simple and easy to do.  However, I was only able to enter 8 times, because I don't twitter...or tweet...heck, I don't even know the correct lingo!

Anyhow, you should check out her blog {HERE}.  (This is the link to the giveaway.  Enter by July 8.  Wait - DON'T enter.  If you enter this giveaway too, that decreases MY chances of winning!  Just kidding, enter if you want...)

And check out her etsy site {HERE}.

For anyone out there who ever wants to get me a gift for being so awesome, you could always remember that I like this jewelry!  ;-)