kicking UP a notch

I always have such a hard time starting out these posts. I have SOO much to say and I dont want to make it overwhelming when it doesnt need to be! So I will try to keep these short and sweet!

Thank you all who have emailed me or personally given me your input and your own success stories! I will be posting along a few ideas out there that I will be trying out!

So, I totally LOVE my results from the little things that I have changed. With that, I am going to kick it UP a notch because I want MORE! (who doesn't?)

So my weight update:

I have lost 9 pounds so far! I am one away from my first goal.

I haven't posted as of yet what my weight was when I started out....
I'm afraid to say it out loud, but I think that IF it is said, then MAYBE it wont be such a horrible number (at least it feels that way in my mind). But thats ALL it is. A number. IF numbers were truely scary, then most kids would not want to watch Sesame Street AND would cry horrified when they heard :"Brought to you by the number 9." Right? RIGHT????

Ok, here is the break down:

2004 (High School): 125 lbs

2005 End of 1st yr. College: 135 lbs

2006 Post Baby #1 weight: 185 lbs (ouch!)

2008 Post Baby #2 weight: 198 lbs (double ouch!)

2010 Post Baby #3 weight: 215 lbs (kaBOOM!)

(Technically that was new years day 2011 :D)

2011 Before this blog started: 205lbs

CURRENT WEIGHT: 196 lbs

Keep in mind, maybe thats not a BIG number. But for my stature, it is definately NOT healthy.
According to a BMI calculator I used, this current weight is still OBESE... with at LEAST 46 pounds to go to be borderline "overweight", and 76 pounds to be "NORMAL"

Reality check. After having kids, there is no way that weighing 120 pounds is "NORMAL" for my height. My body is NOT the same. I do not fall for the cookie cutter programs, and I dont think anyone else should either. BUT, it is a good standard to go by.

My goal: to eventually weigh 140-150

What am I doing now? starting today:

I have come to the point where I need to mix things up. I have decided to double my daily water intake. This is ok for me, because I was NOT getting the recommended 8-12 glasses a day (Keep in mind that your water intake should be over an entire day and not all at once. Drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time can result in water intoxication thereby flushing out necessary electrolytes. So yes, it is possible to drink too much water too...)

Im waking up earlier in the day, and going to bed earlier at night. This may sound obvious, but I have kids that are sleepers like mom and dad and they do not get up early, so I get to sleep in, and they go to bed early so I stay up to get things done :) getting up earlier will help my metabloism, AND (crossing fingers!) I am hoping to do these 10 minute workouts I have on my instant queue on Netflix before starting the day. This, hopefully, will give me the energy I need and of course will help tone muscle!

One more thing: Im going to start recording everynight what I ate and keep track of it on http://www.sparkpeople.com/

It is free and it is a great tool where you can actually see what is bad for you (things you would never know were actually bad for you!) My Mother in law has been using this tool and has lost over 50 lbs. SuPeR AMAZING!

I think that anything is POSSIBLE one step at a time. I will get fit and healthy. I will NO longer feel that I'm ok the way things are.

My request to you: When you feel the need to change, change no more than 3 things at a time, and slowly add on another 3 things to change. It is too hard to do a HUGE revamp and turn your life upside down. I did that. And all it accomplished was anger and defeat. I just quit trying every time. If you can drop 10 lbs, then why not another 10lbs, your already did it? small quantities will give you HUGE results!

Happy pinching everyone! Keep sending me your feedback, I love hearing from you!

Health and Nutrition

I am NOT a dieter.

I LOOVE food.

Really. I love that I know that I can eat whatever I want, when I want it.

My physical appearance reflects this mentality...

This has made me feel pretty bad. Not only do I feel like I don't look good, but I also have little to no energy (that may also be because of my three little ones+working...)

Having a Pizza delivery place on your speed dial or saved on your favorites on your phone's browser is NOT the way to go.. It seems to be

obvious, BUT it is so easy to fall in that trap.

Take us for an example:

1. the kids love it

2. mom and dad love it

3. easy dinner ready made delivered to door hot (heavenly!)

4. did i mention how delicious it is?

5. it is overly marketed, T.V., online, radio...

and MOST importantly, we thought it was EASY...

Now, dont get me wrong. We did not eat pizza every day... However, this is just one vice out of many...

We have made small improvements since starting this blog, what a difference it has made! We have already been loosing weight and saved quite a bit of money!

The first thing I can tell you is that MENTALITY is everything. Dont think about being on a DIET. Think about those cute clothes you will be wearing soon because you are eating differently!

When I first sat down to see what menus to plan and shopping lists, it was a nightmare! I searched online for healthy menus. I found some that I was totally and willing to follow EVERY step of the way, but looking at it, I knew our kids would not have the same opinion... (I could just hear in my head "ewe, what is that mom?")

So, ok, I thought I will make them a separate meal for them.... I printed out calendars with Mom and dad's menu, and kids menus...Like I said, a total nightmare. I literally cried, and wanted to pull my hair out after staring for hours at my computer monitor and the ridiculous looking menu plan.

Guess what was running through my head at this point...

GIVE UP, MARIA..........................................

You CAN'T do this

After this, Justin walks in the kitchen. Saw my frustration and how ridiculously frustrating it was to me. He said: "It doesn't need to be this complicated".

I laughed, and said, yes it does, look at this. If we want to change, this is what needs to happen.

Well, hate to admit that he was absolutely right.

WHY does it need to be complicated?

So I threw the calendars away. I wrote out a grocery list of things we normally purchase. Then I crossed out things that we could live without. For example, soda pop (sniff sniff!), chips, those hostess cake snacks... you get the idea.

We replaced those things with crackers, granola bars, baby carrots, broccoli, string cheese and such.We eliminated the junk and brought in fresh snacks.

We also are testing out using ground turkey instead of ground beef, a healthier option. My opinion??? It is actually a great substitute! We have so far made delicious turkey burgers and hamburger helper, the only trick is you need to make sure it is well seasoned, since compared to beef, it is nearly tasteless. We will probably substitute 25% of our meals with ground turkey.

Since starting this blog, I have lost 7 pounds!!! And my secret? Was to do something different. I chose different and healthier foods to buy. I didn't even go crazy and get every thing low fat/ fat free, or "diet". I changed what I did and not what someone else did... And the best thing about it, I don't go hungry and I still eat what I want, without really going out of my way to make a huge effort!

It was simple and uncomplicated to just make a change. I truly believe, if you aren't happy with your results, its time to change your actions!

This is just the beginning of our journey of Pinching our Fat. As we try new things, we will update our success and failures!

If you have your own success stories, or have any word of caution about Health and Nutrition, send me your story at celesteandersen@gmail.com to be shared!

Moist Turkey Burgers

I made these for us last night. Another success! Little Justin ate the whole burger (something that doesn't usually happen!) I added bacon and cheddar as well, and cooked it on our George Forman Grill.

INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup finely chopped onion 1/2 teaspoon canola oil 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon reduced sodium soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/8 teaspoon ground mustard 1/8 teaspoon pepper Dash salt 1/2 pound lean ground turkey 2 hamburger buns, split 2 lettuce leaves 2 slices tomato

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place onion and oil in a small skillet; cover and cook for 3-4 minutes or until very soft, stirring occasionally. Cool.
2.	In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, mustard, pepper, salt and onion. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix just until combined. Shape into two patties. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
3.	In a nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, cook patties over medium heat for 4-5 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees F. Serve on buns with lettuce and tomato.

Pot Roast Casserole

I tried this tonight for dinner, and it was great! Took less than 25 minutes to make, from prep to the dinner table!

Ingredients:

§ 1 Can Rich & Hearty Pot Roast Soup (Progresso)

§ 2 baked potatoes, diced (microwaved, unpeeled)

§ ½ Cup baby carrots

§ ½ Cup frozen corn

§ 1 can ready-made crescents (Variation: use ready-made biscuits)

Preparation:

Pre heat oven according to crescents packaging.

Heat soup, add baked potatoes, carrots and corn. Bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. If soup is too runny, and cornstarch or flour to thicken. Once soup is at a good consistency, pour into a casserole dish, I used a 10 x 10. Unroll the crescent dough over the casserole. Cook in oven as directed on dough packet (10-13 min)

Cook the left over crescents not used. Feeds 2-4 people

French Breakfast Puffs

My friend shared this on her blog and I'm in LOVE with these muffins! It was a hit with the fam. Since we are a small family, I froze half of what it made, so I can pull it out the night before we have to run somewhere early, viola! Instant breakfast!
Thanks Tiffany for sharing this recipe! (http://bakingattiffanys.blogspot.com )


Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman(http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/french_breakfast_puffs/)I

Ingredients
■3 cups Flour
■3 teaspoons Baking Powder
■1 teaspoon Salt
■½ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg
■1 cup Sugar
■⅔ cups Shortening (Crisco)
■2 whole Eggs■1 cup Milk
■1-½ cup Sugar
■3 teaspoons Cinnamon
■2 sticks Butter

Preparation Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

(Maria's Variations: I used only one stick of butter for the topping, and also filled some of the cups less for a smaller muffin for my kids, since I dont have a mini muffin baking pan yet!)

Privacy

I have decided to make this an open blog for everyone to read and get ideas and SUBMIT them! I will be posting shortly some links and recipes you will LOVE! I will slowly post them up as I try them out for our family : )

Coupons or full price?

I rarely buy anything at full price. What can I say... I'm very frugal. With the new hype of couponing out there, makes me wonder if it is worth all the time spent in clipping coupons? Anyone out there with couponing stories? I am a infrequent coupon user. I do it when I remember. I dont price match at walmart and dont stock up when something is on sale (mainly because I dont have much storage space!) However, IF it is worth my time, I will be buying my Sunday papers like hotcakes for those coupons. Here are some websites I like to read from time to time for ideas.

www.mylitter.com (I also liked the facebook page and get notice on deals. There are a lot daily, so if you dont want this populating most of your facebook news feed during the day, you may not want to do it!)

www.iheartthemart.com is also a good one on tips of the wally world. If you shop there frequently, you might want to know the tricks on how to get the best deal there!

Welcome

I have decided to start a blog to share our road to success (crossing fingers!XX) about our family's trial and error on tricks to save money and changing our diet to becoming more healthy. Our family is "on the run" quite frequently, with work and school for both Justin & I, so its been too easy and convenient to stop at a fat/fast food restaurant. So we desperately need to make a change!!! I will also share ideas of others on this blog, if you have one you would like to share, email me at celesteandersen@gmail.com