Oh My! Oh My!

I have been bad!  I think it started last weekend and it's just kept a going.  I haven't been worrying about calories, clean, or too much exercise.  To be honest, I probably would not have a problem with the exercise part, but swimming lessons that are in the middle of the day really put a damper on our schedule.  Although, these two little girls just love them!  It has just been hard to get everything done in our day.  Should I list out all of my bad foods!  Oh, I don't want to, but I'm going to.  Maybe it will make me second guess myself the next time I want to just eat.

1.  Fruitty Pebbles with skim milk
2.  El Chico beef and chicken fajitas
3.  Sonic Mozzarella cheese sticks with Ranch dressing (too many times to count)
4.  Sonic Cheeseburger with MAYO (Yikes!) and jalapenos
5.  Chick-fil-A waffle fries with honey mustard
6. Chuy's stuffed avocado
7.  Cupcake that the girls and the babysitter made last night (and it was GOOD!)
8.  Pringles
9.  Hot Fudge sundae from Braums (I think its better than Dairy Queen)

I'm sure there is more, but I feel super guilty right now!

So what's for dinner tonight you ask?  I went on my Spark Recipes which is an App on my Iphone.  We will be taste testing Easy Slow Cooker Beef and Mushrooms.

We shall see if it's any good and then I'll share.

Happy Thursday!

My Fitness Pal

Do you track you daily food intake?  Well, I didn't either.  That is, until my trainer had me start doing it.  She gave me a minimum and maximum for my daily calorie intake.  So, because I was paying for results and I didn't want her to fire me, I started tracking every single thing that went in my mouth.  She suggested using http://www.myfitnesspal.com/.  There is also an app for the Iphone.  That means, that you are able to enter your meals wherever you are.  And there are a lot of restaurants and meals already in their system.  So, if you eat the Panera Bread, Thai chicken salad...Type in, "Panera Bread Thai Chicken salad.."  It then asks you how much you ate.  For instance, 1/2 or 1 serving.  And then you click add and it is added to your daily calories consumed.

At first, it's a little time consuming.  Why you ask, because I cook a lot of my meals at home and I would have to enter each ingredient and amount that made up a recipe.  It does have a nice feature that lets you enter a meal though.  So, I would enter Spinach, cucumber salad with balsalmic dressing.  Then, I'd enter each ingredient and save it in my meals.  The next time I ate it all I had to do was go to my meals and click the Spinach, cucumber salad with balsalmic dressing.

This app is very handy.  I've been very watchful lately of my fat intake and sodium intake.  It tells you all of this too.  It keeps track of how much protein you take in, which is helpful if you are trying to get lean.  That is one of my goals!  It also lets you add in your workout activity.  Supposedly, then you can eat additional calories, but I don't do this.  I workout a lot...So my weakness is going to be my diet.  And that's what I want to keep in check!

Of course, I don't do this everyday.  But it is so helpful when I do.  A handy tool in my journey to health.

The 100/100 Challenge

So, I have completed 7 days of the 100 pushups 100 crunches challenge.  Now be it, some days I've finished at 11pm, but I finished.  After the first day, I was super sore in my chest, back, and triceps.  Now it seems like they are much tighter...Hmmm, maybe I'll see a difference in my arms in a few weeks.  Well, a girl can hope, can't she?

The trip to my parent's house proved to be trying in the food department.  I did pretty good in the mornings,  ate my oatmeal, had my egg whites, and some fruit.  Then lunch was hit or miss.  I did cook a few dinners and ate them.  But, we did have wine and we had cupcakes for Daddy's birthday.  I ate sushi with my hubby on his birthday.  So, there is my confession!  Ahhh, I feel better now.

Now that we are back home, I'm back on track and working out like a mad woman.  I borrowed my friend's DVD the 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michaels.  I hadn't done it till Tuesday.  The girls were napping and I didn't have a chance to go to the gym, so I did the Level 2 video.  It was 20 minutes and I sweated pretty good!  My abs were sore the next day and I felt as though, at least I did something!  So, I think it will be a good thing to have when I can't make it to the gym!

The 100/100 Challenge...I've decided to do!?!

A friend of mine on Facebook is doing a 100/100 challenge.  That means, 100 crunches and 100 push-ups every day for a month.  She is doing her's in the month of May.  I've been thinking about doing this for about a week.  I totally missed the whole month of May thing, but I am going on a beachy family vacation at the end of June.  So, I came to the conclusion that I would start on Saturday.  However, I decided this at about 4pm.  I finished my 100/100 at 9:30pm and after we ate at Pizza Hut!!!  So what do I do, I start at about 8:30pm and in my cute jeans, and my new white tank top from Old Navy.  Moral of the story...You can start something at any time, if you REALLY want to!

I have now finished day 3.  And boy am I sore, both my chest and back.  I hope it pays off and my arms look leaner and my tummy looks flatter.  I'll be doing this for 5 weeks.  My sister said she is going to be doing hers, included also are some leg lifts.   I think my Mom is even going to try to do some.  Although, she is having a problem with the crunches...But I know she'll keep on plugging away and master them.

Vaca at the parent's house

We came down to my parent's house for Mother's Day weekend.  The girls and I are staying for the week.  This has caused me some stress.  When we come down here, it is extremely hard to be good and eat clean.  My parents do not follow this way of eating and when we come here, I always want to eat at places that I don't get to at home.  For example, pappasitos, Mr. Gattis (I know, Yuck to some of you. But the one here has an awesome salad bar), and Cafe Adobe. 

So, last week I prepared a frozen healthy lasagna and we ate that.  Tonight I made something that was so easy, that I was giddy.  I was praying as it was in the oven that it would be good.  Because if it was that easy, there was no way it would be good.  Well, to my surprise, it was pretty good.  Definitely something to throw into the rotation of meals that I cook regularly.  If any of you have eaten this Lean Cuisine, it is very similar minus the potatoes.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

1 lb. boneless skinless Chicken Breast pounded thin
1/2  pkg. Great Value frozen Broccoli ( I probably used 3/4 of bag)
1 can of low fat or FF Cream of Mushroom soup
3 TBLSP. FF (fat free) Mayo
1 cup low fat shredded cheddar
Garlic Powder
Crushed Red Pepper
1 TBLSP. Olive Oil

Season chicken with garlic powder and crushed red pepper.  Heat 1 TBLSP. Olive Oil in a pan.  Place chicken in and cook on medium for about 6-7 minutes.  Try to get a gristle on the chicken. (I had a hard time because my mom only had a non stick pan).  Then let cool and cut up into chunks.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a square pyrex place the can of Cream of Mushroom soup and mayo, mix together.  Place chicken, broccoli in and mix with the soup.  Put the shredded cheddar on top and cover with some foil.  Bake for 30 minutes.  After about 20 minutes, remove foil and let cheese melt really good.

Me and my girls on Mother's Day

Keeping Me Sane

These little things challenge me in so many ways.  As they are getting older, the difficulties are becoming more mentally challenging as opposed to just physically draining.  But I have to realize that they watch everything that I do and are taking note of my actions.  This is why me keeping everything emotionally in check is very important to me. 

Achieving health is multidimensional to me.  Eating healthy and working out are a given.  But what keeps my mind sane?  Well, many things do.  But lately, crafting has been a calmer for me.  I bought a new small camera a few months ago.  It didn't come with a camera bag, so I decided to make one.  This is what I came up with...

I thought it turned out pretty cute.  And my camera loves it!

Why oh Why Mr. Easter Bunny?!?!

Oh, Mr. Easter Bunny!  What have you done to me?  Well, for starters, you brought a ton of candy to my two beautiful little girls.  But you must have missed the memo that they don't BOTH eat Hershey kisses.  Only one does, so there wasn't a need for an entire bag.  Second, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup mini's were not a good idea at all!  They hate peanut butter.  So, please stick to Skittles, Starburst, M&M's, Nerds, and Lollypops next year.  I'm pretty sure those types of candy will not be calling my name inside my pantry!  Have a great year Mr. Bunny!