Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Do you ever feel like you are drowning in your own life? I kind of feel that way right now. Between school, being a full time mom, a household to keep up with, and my future staring me in the face I am overwhelmed. Just me self pity for the day. Enough of that.
So I woke up yesterday and drank my tea but within a few hours had a pretty mean headache. I gave in around 4 and had my coffee for the day. Headache fixed. I did well but kind of low on calories because I just felt nauseous and not like eating. I ate nuts and fruit but kind of felt gross. I had a yummy salad for dinner with avocado, chicken, eggs, spinach and a vinegar dressing. I cleaned and did laundry so I burned more calories. At the end of the day I had burned 2700 calories and took in 1300. I did however make my family walk to a school function to get in extra exercise. I ended the day with 10000 steps.
All in all a successful day.
Well I am up to my eyeballs in homework so off to my homework chair I go.
Have a great day,
Ali

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

before i forget Cody is getting an award for scoring 100% on his math standard testing last year in school and highly advanced in all other subjects. This is a huge deal and not many students in California do it. So yay for Cody.
Day one down
I got up yesterday and started my day with black tea, it's not coffee but it has half the caffeine until I can break caffeine all the way. Even if I make tea for the rest of my life I haven't ever heard of tea addictions. For breakfast I ate 2 eggs over a piece of Ezekiel toast, and a banana. I was doing great and felt really full.
11am I remembered I had to eat a snack so I grabbed some raw cashews (raw is healthier than roasted it keeps all the nutrients) and some dried apple rings. Something that I ate triggered my hungryness because all I wanted to do after that was eat more.
Lunch I made the yummiest salad and I am sure I will eat the same one again today. It had chicken, fresh motz cheese, some tomato, cucumber, avocado, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. It was fresh and so good. The avocado made it. It filled me up and I was good once again.
My afternoon snack was a coconut milk yogurt (it's easier for the tummy to digest than milk) and some dried mango's. I am trying new things and mango's was one of them. I always say I don't like fruit and fresh mango's are not my thing at all. Dried mango's taste like candy. I was pleasantly surprised.
For dinner I had a taco in a bowl, I had chicken, brown rice, beans, sour cream, and all the veggies, topped with lime juice. I didn't miss the tortilla or cheese at all.
Now last night after baseball Shawn and I were chilling on the couch watching Castle (one of my fav. shows) this is the time I normally have a Pepsi, popcorn, ice cream, basically my yummy relaxing treat for the day. I was DYING. I wanted to eat sooooo badly. I even went back and added my calories up again to see if there was any wiggle room. I checked my bodybugg arm band to see how many calories I actually burned through the day. I burned 2600 because i was sitting a lot of the day doing homework. I ate 2100 calories. I couldn't really afford to eat anything else so I pouted and then went to bed at 10.
Here are my accomplishments for the day.
- I didn't drink any coffee (ok little lie there, I did take one sip after buying creamer that I can have, it was so bad I dumped it out)
- I didn't drink any soda.
- I took my vitamins and drank 100 oz. of water.
- I didn't give in and eat on the couch.
- at baseball practice instead of sitting on the bleachers and freezing I walked to warm up. It was only about a half of on hour but it was something.
So I made it through day one ( I feel like I say this all the time)
Sorry if this post was boring I needed to journal and keep a log of my food, plus it gives you all ideas, right?
Anyways here's to day two,
Ali

Monday, February 22, 2010

day 1

Well day one is here. I went to Henry's yesterday and stocked up on everything I am going to need to be successful. I am stoked to start getting healthy again. I weighed in this morning and after a weekend of eating and drinking a ton of soda I am actually not wanting to write my weight on here today. I am within a few lbs of where I started in July 2007 when I lost 60lbs. so i may write it later but I don't want to today. So here are the basics of the plan
- no white flour instead you eat sprouted Ezekiel 4:9 bread, English muffins, tortillas, etc.
- no sugar or sugar substitutes. I have purchased stevia which is a natural sweetener that doesn't have many calories and doesn't give you craving like sugar sub.
- I am giving up coffee and taking up tea. I have decided that the amount of cream that I use hinders my calorie intake so off it goes.
- to figure out tour daily calorie intake you take you current weight and multiply it by 13 if you sit a lot or have an office job, 14 if you work out 3 times a week, and 15 if you are really active. Take that number and devide it by .80 and there is your calories for the day. You get a little more than a typical diet but the hope it a lifestyle change and ease instead of killing you. So my daily is 1664 calories.
- I also have a meal plan I must follow so breakfast I get 2 carbs and 2 proteins basically 2 eggs and some veggies in an omelet, and a piece of fruit. or 1 egg, lean bacon, and a piece of toast with sugar free jelly on it. Each meal you have a different amount to follow and they add fat to dinner and lunch which could be avocado or salad dressing.
- last you try to drink half of your weight in oz. each day so a 200 lb. person drinks 100 oz.
I think that is the basics of it.
Anyways I got ready yesterday and made the yummiest chicken to get ready so here is the recipe. I will let you all know how I did tomorrow.
Ali

roasted chicken.
1 whole chicken 5-6 lbs is typical. I use foster farms because there is no added salt.
rinse the chicken and lay it in a roasting pan.
take 1 lemon cut it in slices, place the slices under the skin next to the meat. If you look near the opening you will see that you can life the skin away from the meat and slide you hand in, that is where I am talking about.
take the remaining lemon and place it in the cavity.
next some springs of fresh thyme. Place some under the skin with the lemon and put the rest in the cavity.
next 1 onion, cut in in half and put in the cavity
1 head of garlic cut in half to expose the middle of the garlic ( basically the wrong way) put that int he cavity.
next using butter or coconut oil ( it's better for you and tastes great) slather on the skin of the chicken about 2 Tablespoons.
Last sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
Bake at 400 degrees for 1 and 15 min for a 5 lb bird and 1 and 30 min for a 6 lb. bird.
I swear it is sooooo good you will make it again.
Cody and Garrett loved it.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

New eating ideas

Ok so if you read my blog you will find a few things 1. I have done low carb 2. I have done weight watchers. 3. I have failed on both of them. I have been really wanting to come up with a good carb, lean protein, and fruit and veggie way of eating. I find that I am starving or don't eat enough on diets. I have been doing a lot of research for some kind of plan that takes everything I want and rolls it into one. After much debating I found something I think is worth giving a try. Monday I will start a new way of eating. It is going to take a little extra work on my part. The "way of eating" doesn't really have premade meals so it's alot of cooking required.
It seems pretty straight forward. Each meal you do 40% lean protein, 50% healthy carbs, and 10% healthy fats. I think it will take some getting used to but I am going to give it a go.
4 months until the annual beach trip and I am nowhere near ready.
Trying to do this healthy and long term.
Ali

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sorry I haven't posted. I have been super busy with school this week. So I wanted to give you all another Grandpa update. On Sat. morning the nurse at the home tried to wake my grandpa up and they weren't able to. The called 911 and had him taken to the hospital. Once at the hospital he was awake and ok. The hospital says he had a stroke. He spent a few days in the hospital again. He wasn't able to go back to the home he was in because he is higher needs than they thought. He is now living in a home with on site medical in Temple City. He is ok but looks terrible. His health is deteriorating really quickly. I am worried but he keeps saying that he is ready to be done. He says he has lived a long life. It makes me sad to hear him talk like that. So that is the newest and I will keep you up to date on anything else I hear.
So for my 32nd birthday Shawn and I took the boys to Disneyland. We had a great time and the kids loved it. We were there for 14 hours and hit everything at least once. The cook thing is we got free tickets to go to California adventure in the next month. Never been there either so Whoo hoo.
Ok well I am off to school yet again.
Have a good rest of the day.
Ali

Thursday, February 4, 2010

gardening and movies

What a great week I have had so far. Sunday we went to our good friends Chris and Ali's new house. They bought a house on Monrovia with an amazing yard. Let's just say that after seeing all the work they have done it made me come home and eye my front garden. Monday morning I woke up with a mission. Pj and I went to Home Depot and picked all kids of pretty flowers. We came home and then I looked at the area and remembered I haven't done anything with it in like 2 years. It was so much work but I love it now. I have however spent much of the week trying to recover. My muscles hurt worse than any workout.
     Tues. Pj started preschool. He wasn't thrilled when I picked him up but adjustment time I figured. Well turns out he got in trouble the first day and the teacher yelled at him because he was sticking his tongue out with another little boy (Pj knows him from church and they came to our home bible study) needless to say Pj woke up yesterday and cried because he didn't want to go back. What genius teacher yells at a kid his first day? anyways we pulled Pj from the school after 2 days. The program also prided itself on lots of outdoor time. There "playground" was a cement slab the size of a bathroom with no toys.  So Pj and I are going to be homeschooling for preschool until he starts kinder in the fall.  
     Yesterday I watched a movie that I loved! I honestly think it is my top 5 movies now. It is called Julie and Julia, It is about Julia Childs (the cook) and a woman who vows to cook and blog her way through one of Julia's cookbooks. I highly recommend it. Shawn like it too.
Other than that we are trying to plan something fun for my birthday on Sunday. We figure that since it is superbowl we might be able to go to Disneyland or Knotts and not hit nearly as many people. Well see.
     On a great note my Grandpa is out of the hospital. He was released yesterday and is now living at a more lenient home for senior citizens. It isn't an old folks home. He has his own room with a beautiful patio. His meals are all served in a dining room and they have lots of activities like poker. I hope he is happy there. My grandpa is an punk some times and isn't ready to let go of his independence.  
I am off to work on homework. Shool is going well. I have some great ideas which make it more bearable. I woke up this morning sick with a cold and cough so I am hoping to get stuff done early and maybe email it to a friend to take to class for me. Well see how I am feeling at the end of the day.