Small Changes

I'm trying to ease into my new lifestyle. This way I can figure out what works for me and what doesn't. Today I tried a few things and it seemed to go well.  For starters, I passed on the coffee for a glass of orange juice. I know orange juice is loaded with calories, but they aren't empty calories. I had a small breakfast, which I usually skip.  At lunch time, I didn't put any mayo on my sandwich. I was offered jellybeans this afternoon, and I passed them up. And finally,  I made potatoes for the kids with dinner tonight, I had a second veggie instead of the potatoes.  I'm feeling pretty happy with my choices.  The next step is to make these little changes permanent.  I can do that.

Eating Clean

I've been doing some online research about what it means to eat clean.  I'm thinking I may try to change my eating to be closer to this type of eating pattern.  Here's the basics of what I found:

A person that eats clean generally practices the following:

• Eliminates refined sugar (This change may take time, but I'll try.)
• Cooks healthy meals (with easy to follow online recipes, this should be easy)
• Packs healthy meals (I already do this for my lunch.)
• Makes healthy choices when dining out (I don't eat out much, but I can certainly make better choices.)
• Drinks a lot of water (I can increase my water intake.)
• Eats 5-6 small meals per day (This could be a tricky thing for me. We'll see.)
• Eliminates alcoholic beverages or significantly limits it (I already don't drink much.)
• Always eats breakfast (This would be a big change for me, but I can do it.)

So tonight, with chicken breasts in the fridge, I'm trying to find an easy recipe. I'm thinking simple BBQ chicken and grilled veggies.  Sounds perfect to me, we'll see if the kids agree. 

Doesn't look great in the picture, but it tasted really yummy. The bonus, the kids ate it too! 

Parenting: the dreaded room cleaning

Along my journey to make changes, I'll be looking to to many resources for advice and tips on how to be better at certain things. Today, with my kids playroom a disaster, I went looking for a better way to get them to pick up after themselves. I found a useful article on webmd.com.

I'm formulating a plan to help the kids get their playroom clean.  We'll start with the basics. Let's get all the toys up off the floor and into their containers. I'm going to try to make a game out of it. Perhaps a race, a counting game, or a game of tossing. Next, let's get the trash. I think this'll be a race to see who can pick up the most. Hopefully there isn't that much, but you never know with my boys.  Then, it's broom time. I think that'll have to be my job, but I'm okay with that. The boys love to use those anti-bacterial wipes, so that'll help in getting the surfaces clean. Oh, there's one thing I didn't mention; music. I'll let them pick it and we'll crank it, dancing along as we go.

A cleaner playroom equals less time being unhappy with my children and more time doing positive things together. I'll let you know how it goes.

LATER:
The room is clean AND we went through all the toys and got rid of the broken ones. Now the boys are playing and coloring, and waiting for dinner. Imagine, they aren't screaming and fighting and we had a good time cleaning. Go figure, the experts actually knew what they were talking about. Who knew?

Starting Workouts

Today I discovered, through a mutual friend, a page on Facebook that I found inspiring. A fellow Beachbody coach, Barbie has posted pictures and blogs of her amazing transformation. She has lost weight, toned her body, and changed her life.  As you already know, I have been thinking a lot about making serious changes in my life and Barbie's Facebook page and website/blog came just at the right time.  I can see the skinny bitch in me again. She is there and she wants out.

I am walking the Avon Walk next weekend with my daughter and therefore need to postpone the workouts for a little over a week. I don't want to be workout sore while trying to walk 26 miles.

In addition to adding a workout routine to my daily life,  I will look to make better choices about what I put in my body. I'll be starting with a cleanse to kick start my healthy eating.  Check back on May 17th for more details.

Feel free to check it out here: http://www.shakenutrition.com/shakeology-cleanse/

Intro

Well, I guess this is it. Time for the cold hard truth about who I am and why I'm writing this blog. Now I just need to figure out where to begin.

Back in 2006 I had breast cancer, but let's not focus on that right now. They say after you survive cancer you make serious changes to how you live your life. I suppose to some extent that was true for me. I started living a happier and to some extent healthier life. But the truth is, I really have no idea whether or not I'm living any happier a life, in fact, things feel worse, not better. Let me explain.

I am the mother of three kids. A 16-year-old girl, and two boys, 5 and 7. They love me a lot, they hate me a lot.  Lately, I feel like I spend more time punishing them for misbehaving than I do sharing in fun times.  I have an almost permanent scowl on my face. Sad, but true. I have the wrinkles to prove it. I'll post a picture some time.  Anyway, this is unacceptable to me. I want to spend more positive time with my kids. How? Who the heck knows? Guess we'll be finding out together.

I have been with my husband for 14 years, married for eight of those years. Things haven't always been easy, not by any means. We somehow always manage to get through it, whatever "it" may happen to be.  Don't get me wrong, my husband is my best friend. He is the one I think to call when I want to share something, good or bad.  I suppose you could say I want more out of my marriage and I figure if I put more into it, I'll get more out of it. I just don't know how to go about that...yet.

There have been issues with friendships as well, but I'll save the details another day. For today, let me just simply say, I've lost people who I once felt close to.  People whose parting words, "I can't be friends with someone like you." have left me reeling. Someone like me how? What is it about me? So, here I am, soul searching trying to figure it all out.

That's the character part I want to improve upon. Be a better mother, wife, and friend. Basically, find that happiness. Stay with me and we'll see how it goes.

Then, there's the physical me.  I am 38-years-old and no where near in the shape I want to be. Currently I'm 190 pounds. This fluctuates from 188 to 192 depending on the day. My goal weight is 140. I want to be able to run after my kids and dog without wanting to die after 20 minutes.

I was in a much better place almost two years ago. I had gotten down to 178, was working out six times a week, and had motivation. As it turns out, I was motivated by an external source and when it went away, so did my motivation.  No more. Now, I'm doing this for me.

My ultimate goal: Be the Me I was always meant to be!