Let's eat our "MUFA's"

What are MUFAs? MonoUnsaturated Fatty Acids. Otherwise known as the "healthy" fats. MUFAs include, oils, olives, nuts and seeds avocados and DARK CHOCOLATE :)

The book Flat Belly Diet talks about MUFAs in detail and explains the importance of having a MUFA at EVERY meal. Eating these healthy fats keeps us more satisfied and keeps us healthier.

One of my very favorite recipes from this book is the DOUBLE CHOCOLATE OATMEAL

It doesn't look amazing when you make it but if you like dark chocolate you should give it a try.

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4-1 cup water

cook the oatmeal for 1 minute 30 seconds; then add:

1/4 cup Dark Chocolate. (they suggest 2 TBS of semi sweet and 2 TBS dark Chocolate chips)

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. pepper (I promise it is YUMMY)

dash of salt if desired

You can eat it just like this for 362 calories OR add 1/2 cup berries (I love the Costco frozen mixed berries) for a total of 392 calories

It might sound crazy but it is SO YUMMY! Well, at least my 14 year old and I love it; my husband wasn't so sure. :) I also love that it is so filling and keeps me satisfied for the next few hours. This is always a HUGE PLUS for me!

Report Your Numbers For Week 1 Here!

It's time to report those numbers...after you accumulate your Saturday points!

Remember we have a short week next week and end on Friday!!!!

I Am Hooked-Agave Nectar

Okay, so I know this is going to surprise you (sense the sarcasm), but I first heard about this through Trainer Momma. Every time she promoted this beauty I thought, "What in the world is she talking about?" I realized it was a natural sweetener and she used it in place of sugar, but I thought, "Really, what's the big deal?" I was at Costco yesterday, and they had the Agave Nectar on display. I thought I'd give it a try. Besides, anything that is healthy is at least worth a courtesy bite.

"Wow" is the only word I have to describe this.

This stuff is incredible. It's a natural sweetener extracted from the heart of the agave plant. It has a low glycemic index sweetener, so it is slowly absorbed into the body preventing spikes in the blood sugar. It has been consumed by ancient civilizations for over 5,000 years. It is 25% sweeter than sugar, so you need less. What does this mean to you? Less calories! You can use this stuff as a substitute whenever you use sugar. It is AWESOME! Definitely worth a courtesy bite.

I scream!

Even one scoop of ice cream can be lethal.... because it's not really one scoop. One scoop is really two. Despite Sue's warning post earlier this week and my easy-to-give-advice-when-not-faced-with-ice-cream, I ate 600 calories of ice cream at a local ice cream joint last night.

It came after a day of hard labor: moving twenty 40 pound bags of mulch from the mini-van to various places in the front yard (that's 8000 lbs!). Lesson re-learned: it's all too easy to give in to temptation when you're already tired and weak. Next time I will order the kiddie cup: a true one scoop!

The Bio Has Arrived

I haven't forgotten about this. Pictures of myself are just not something I like to post.

August 2007

Provo River 1/2 Marathon with my mom

Right as I was starting to put weight on

December 2008
At my heaviest weight
April 2010
Now, downward climb

Here's the outward part of my life: I have three, very beautiful, active children. Brooke is 6, Carson is 4, and Tyler is 2. They keep me on my toes. I've been married to my husband Brent for ten years. We were High School Sweethearts. We live in Salt Lake, four houses away from his parents. We are a very close family. Most of his siblings, all 8 of them, live within a couple miles of us, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love to camp, hike, ski, read, play with the kids, go boating, and especially run.

Here's the inward part of my life: While I love to do these things, my emotional eating habits get the better of me. When I was in high school. I was very conscious of my weight. I played Volleyball, Softball, and exercised any chance I could get. After high school, I didn't care so much, but I didn't let myself completely go. After my daughter was born, I turned toward food for my emotion control. It was hard for me to transition into motherhood. Not that I didn't love it, but I had a lot of guilt and pressure I put on myself. My parents divorced when I was 13, and I was so afraid of messing my own kids up, emotionally, just like I felt as a teenager. (This is in no way intended to downgrade my parents, for they are amazing parents. The circumstances were hard and the age in which it happened was hard.) So, every time I felt like a failure as a mother, I'd turn toward food. In 2007, I decided enough was enough. I looked for a quick fix. A fad diet would do the trick. I lost 55 pounds in 12 weeks. I was a running machine. My mom is a runner too, and I loved running with her. With her, exercise was more than just a run. It was a time to bond and heal from the past. Then I got pregnant with my third. After he was born, my emotions were out of control. I turned to food at every opportunity possible. I packed on the pounds fast. The depression set in, and life seemed hopeless. Then, for some reason, a light came on. I realized the person I was, was not the person I wanted to be. As I started eating healthy, and exercising, I realized food controls my every emotion. When I don't eat healthy, I am tired, angry, frustrated, irritable, depressed, ugly, just to name a few. Becoming healthy has been the key point in having a happy life. There are days that I still struggle. It isn't an easy battle to fight, but it is worth it. My family deserves to have a healthy and happy mom. I am worth it. I'm being selfish here, it is all about me.

Monkey See Monkey Do

Hi Ladies!

My 5 year old was busy cooking yesterday and look what he made with foamies and nerf darts?! A salad with carrots on top! How cool is that?! It's inspiring to me to see my kids emulate my healthy choices because, although I'm embracing these challenges for myself, I am also mindful of how this choice affects those I love.

Keeping Track

Thankfully the rain is stopping (again) and the sun is coming out because it's so much easier to drink water when the sun is out. Maybe it's all in my head. Some days water is delish, some days I am choking it down and it gives me a headache. At work we have a water cooler dispenser that keeps the water cold. Cold water tastes so much better so I drink a lot of little cups of water throughout the workday and this is how I keep track. The cup is 9oz so today wasn't too bad of a water day. I also had some lite popcorn today which really helped with the water intake.
How do you keep track? Can we count crystal light as our water as well?

Thank you all so much for your advice and posts. It's nice to be able to read them throughout the day when work is stressful and I want to stuff my face with pizza.

Here was my dinner tonight. Would have been a little healthier with chicken but I needed to use the steak up. I ate LOTS of veggies though and have leftovers for tomorrows lunch.

Why I Eat Carbohydrates

It's no mistake that carbohydrates are still the foundation on which the food pyramid builds. Although the pyramid has changed over the years this has not. Foundation Good Carbohydrates next Proteins. Then Dairy, Vegetables, Fruits, and oils sparingly. IN THAT ORDER.

Today I'm going to focus on Carbohydrates. Why? Well it's the foundation. It's what gives you energy both immediate and sustained.

Simple Carbohydrates

Simple carbohydrates are shorter chains of sugars, usually coming from food items with a noticeably "sweet" flavor. Candy, fruit and sports drinks are all examples of simple sugars.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Simple Carbs Are Shorter Chains Of Sugars.

They provide short term energy and are quickly broken down by the body. Hence they don't make you feel satiated for very long.

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, are longer chains of sugars predominantly coming from foods without such a noticeably sweet flavor, such as rice, bread, potatoes, oats, pasta, and things of that nature.

Click Image To Enlarge.
Complex Carbs Are Longer Chains Of Sugars.

In general, since the body takes a little longer to break these down, they give you energy for a longer period of time than do their simple sugar counterparts.

It's important to get these complex carbs because you need to have sustained energy and quality energy in reserves. When you put your body into action, any action like getting your kids ready for school or running up your stairs to get something that energy has to come from somewhere.

Adding Good Carbohydrates

For optimal health, get your grains intact from foods such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole grain pasta, and other possibly unfamiliar grains like quinoa, whole oats, and bulgur. Not only will these foods help protect you against a range of chronic diseases, they can also please your palate and your eyes.

Until recently, you could only get whole-grain products in organic or non-traditional stores. Today they are popping up in more and more mainstream grocery stores. Here are some suggestions for adding more good carbohydrates to your diet:

• Start the day with whole grains. If you're partial to hot cereals, try old-fashioned or steel-cut oats. If you're a cold cereal person, look for one that lists whole wheat, whole oats, or other whole grain first on the ingredient list.
• Use whole grain breads for lunch or snacks. Check the label to make sure that whole wheat or another whole grain is the first ingredient listed.
• Bag the potatoes. Instead, try brown rice or even "newer" grains like bulgur, wheat berries, millet, or hulled barley with your dinner.
• Pick up some whole wheat pasta. If the whole grain products are too chewy for you, look for those that are made with half whole-wheat flour and half white flour.
• Bring on the beans. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as a great source of protein.

Learning about carbohydrates can be very confusing. There is a lot of information out there. I've given you basic information and really that's all you need to know. But if you want to search more here is a good article to get you started.

Check out the mypyamid.gov worksheets to see how many servings of carbs you should be getting for your calorie range. If you feel like you're lacking energy when it's time to get up and go and it's not from lack of sleep you may be lacking proper energy storage.

Jerk Chicken

Here is one of my favorite go-to meals when I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. It's very popular with my kids and I usually make a big batch so I have some leftover to use on salads or feed my kids for lunch the next day.

Jerk Chicken

8 chicken breast halves (boneless, skinless)

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp. worchestershire sauce

1-2 tsp. Jamaican/Caribbean jerk spice (depending on how adventurous you are)

Combine all ingredients in a gallon ziploc bag and let marinate for at least 15 minutes.

Arrange chicken in a single layer in a 9x13 glass dish.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

{Also tastes awesome grilled}

150 calories per chicken breast half (as calculated here).

I usually serve this with rice and veggies 'cuz all I have to do is fill the rice cooker and steamer tray and press go.

I love this jerk chicken in a salad with salsa. I've found salsa to be a good low calorie substitute for dressing, plus it gives me some extra veggies. I've also recycled the leftover chicken to make chicken tacos the second night.

A Big Thumbs Up From Trainer Momma!

I know you all know I am a HUGE Trainer Momma fan, and I hope I've converted most of you to reading her blog. I think her information is solid, and her posts are so entertaining. One of the things I love about her is I can e mail her questions and she is so quick to respond. She is part of the reason I am doing so well with my weight loss goals. The other reason I am doing so well is all of you at Healthy Wife Happy Life. I can't even express my gratitude for your support. I fell off the bandwagon last challenge and thought to myself, "who's going to really notice, I don't even really know these girls". Boy was I wrong. Your comments are always positive and your posts are so inspiring. I NEED this blog. It helps me stay focused and realizing I am not alone in this health challenge. And yes some days it does feel like a challenge. Breaking years of unhealthy habits is so hard. Anyway, I wanted to share with you something Trainer Momma e mailed me. Keep in mind that she has thousands of fans, and she still has a moment to send me a quick message. I asked her if there was an easier way to navigate through her posts, and here is what she wrote:

"Alicia- I just found your happy wife website and commented about this. I am in the process of making some improvements on TM, so this will be one of them. Thanks so much for the feedback. It helps me tremendously! Sounds like you figured out how to use the find it bar in the right side bar. And there are archives in the right side bar as well listed by month and year. Thanks for the references... I love what you are doing over on that happy wife website."

A big applause goes out to Audrey for starting this. You are all amazing women and if you ever make it out to Salt Lake, I would love to meet you.

In the lion's den

There I was. Alone. Faced with three of these. Waiting 30 minutes for the people to appear. My only weapons: lipstick, a water bottle, an apple and my brain. Didn't want to mess up the lipstick, but finally broke down, ate the apple, then reapplied the lipstick. I used my brain to say this "None of those cookies are worthy... except maybe the homemade oatmeal ones which I made from scratch and had tasted earlier. Feeling good about surviving that, range intact.

Have you guys seen these shoes? I am a bit interested. Here I am researching "barefoot running" and thinking to my self, "this is crazy"! Aren't they so strange looking?

But I am so intrigued! I have been a runner for 15 years. It makes me so happy to run, but in those 15 years I have never found a pair of running shoes that make me feel like I am running on air. One pair gave me a stress fracture in college. One pair hurt my hip. Another gave me pains in my left knee.

About 8 years ago I discovered the little specialty running stores where you go and get your foot and gait analyzed and they fit you for the correct shoe. I love, love, love, getting new running shoes, but still they never feel quite right. Well, my poor running shoes are due to retire this month and I need to find a replacement.

Have you heard anything about these? They are getting great reviews!
I just might have to give them a try. The idea of running almost barefoot sounds so wonderful to me...like being 5 again without a care in the world.

I wish I had a moment to find it....

Trainer Momma did a great post a while back that answers Mindy's question about how many calories you should eat to loose or maintain your weight. Most often, the online calorie totals are a little to generous. I've been a follower of Trainer Momma since it started, and I wish I had a moment now to find the post that gives a formula for how many calories you should eat. If you have a moment, skim through her posts to see if you can find it. I know it was last year. Let me know if you find it, otherwise I will see if I can find it later. (Just in case you wanted an answer now, it's there).

Another yummy salad

I've been trying to make one new lunch salad every week so that my palette doesn't get bored. This week's salad is of the Asian variety with coleslaw mix, celery, cucumber, sugar snap peas, red bell pepper, red onion, toasted sesame seeds and toasted almond slivers. The dressing was a mix of different vinegars and oils with some spices thrown in. It was really, really yummy and low cal too. Dressing was only 36 cals a tbsp. I also added a few shrimp on top, leftovers from last night. Did you know that a jumbo shrimp only has roughly 6 calories a piece? If you don't like seafood, try chopping it up to minimize the strange texture exposure. But, in my book, shrimp rocks.


Wha?! That little piggy and piece of Jarlsberg cheese...hey, what are they doing here? It's today's indulgence. Small portions people!

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! POSTING CHANGE

WOWZA!
YOU MUST REALLY LIKE HAVING THOSE EXTRA 2 POINTS EVERY DAY!
I'm so glad that so many of you took my bait to get you all to post and not just comment but I'm going to make an adjustment. I know it's mid session but I think in a couple of days you'll thanks me.

This is why I'm making the changes.
First: I don't want this blog to ever become burdensome. Sometimes lifestyle changes take more time than we'd like and I want to keep you all coming back. I don't want you to feel bogged down by having so many post to read and for those of us who feel compelled to comment so many to comment on that you say forget this. I can't keep up.

Second: Posting on a blog every day is hard. Some days you may just having nothing to say. We all lead exciting and busy lives. Enjoy life, not sitting in front of the computer all day.

Third: This blog is about getting healthy. Not about posting. The posting and commenting is to help build a community and support one another. I love reading what you have to say but I don't want you to stress about this. Stress about eating more veggies :-)

HERE ARE THE CHANGES

You still need to comment (or post) every day to get your 5 points.

The bonus 2 points will max out at 6 points per week. That means you only need to POST three times a week to get those bonus points. Two points per post. (Still need to comment on the other days for get the 5 daily points)
Feel free to post more than that if you so choose but don't feel like you'll be losing points to someone else if you post 5 times that week and someone else post 7.

How's that sound. Better? Less Stressful? Make sense? Questions?

Can I ask a personal question?

What is your calorie range?

I'm wondering how everyone else is calculating theirs. I thought mypyramid.gov was too generous. I also went to livestrong.com, but didn't like the data it made me input. So I used my iphone app, loseit, and I felt like it was just right. I told it I'd like to lose 1/2 a pound a week and it told me to eat less than 1672 calories a day. But it gives you more if you report the exercise you do. For example, if I burned 385 calories it bumps my calories up to 2057. I usually don't get very close to that number, though.

But...

For 5 weeks I have hovered around the same number on the scale. Up a pound, down a pound, up a pound, down a pound. I'm staying well within my calorie range, and I'm exercising 6 days a week. I KNOW I'm not supposed to pay attention to the scale. I wish I would have taken my measurements when this all began. But my clothes still fit the same. So what's up? Am I doing this wrong? I lowered my calories by 100 points this week just to see what happens.

What are you guys doing?

Eating out and Fast food...a way of life

So my family eats out a lot. And I am not just talking about me and my kids. My entire family, uncles, parents, grandparents eat out every day for lunch. This has always been the norm. Is there another way to live? This has been going on for years, it is just the way things are. I know many people find this completely bizarre. Now standing back and looking at it, it is really bizarre. But how do you get out of this pattern? We eat out A LOT!! I work 2-3 days a week, Aaron works some nights until 8, and fast food is just fast and easy!!

I love to cook and I like to think I am pretty good at it. I love being in my kitchen and trying new recipes. How do I find the time? How does it seem so easy for other people to do?

Just an example of my days. Yesterday I took Aydan to breakfast at McDonalds, then we had lunch at chick fil a, then I came home and had a Banana cake with nutella buttercream frosting all ready with candles for him to blow out, then I worked until 8 and had Olive Garden for dinner. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! Then I made myself stay up extra late so as to eat 2 hours before bedtime.

HELP ME CHANGE!! I need to set a better example for my kids and help them to understand that it is not "normal" to eat out all of the time.

I GET to run!

I have been frustrated with my running for the past few months. After running a 1/2 marathon in January I couldn't run as fast anymore. Each mile averages about 30 seconds slower; which for someone who cares, is a LOT!

My friends that I run with are so kind but they can only slow down so much for so long. I am now only running with them about twice a week. I start out with them and then watch as they pull ahead. When they realize I am gone they come back or wait saying, "We want to run with you" but quickly pull away as they engage in more conversation.

I had a few break downs at first (pretty silly I know) crying at 5:00 in the morning is such a lovely thing :) I hate holding them back. It's just that my body doesn't want to cooperate.

I was reading an article in Runners World. The lady wrote how as she was running up a hill she was saying to herself, "I HAVE to do this, I HAVE to get up this hill." She then thought of people she knew who were going through trials who would look at the hill and say, "I GET to run this hill!" It changed her life. She decided to start saying I GET to run, I GET to take my kids to school, I GET to cook dinner for my family, etc. etc.

When I couldn't bring my daughter to church for 2 years I remember watching the mothers around me struggling with their toddlers. I remember yearning to be able to do that with my own. I learned how something as frustrating as keeping a child quiet in church is a privilege.

We have a choice; we can make our life full of "HAVE to's" or "GET to's"

Even though I may be frustrated that I am not running like I used to, I can still say I GET TO RUN!!! I GET to wake up every morning and exercise my body. I GET to make good eating choices. I GET to feel better because of these choices. I GET to learn from my challenges!

It's amazing how much joy you can feel when you realize how blessed our lives really are!

New Favorite Vegetable

My grocery shopping list usually includes tons of fruits and vegetables. I've been trying to eat a salad everyday for lunch with a bit of protein. It's hard not to get bored. I'm not a vegetable fan, but I'm learning to love them. Here's a new found favorite: Rutabaga. Have you tried this lovely? If you haven't, just chop off the ends, peel it like a potato, and saute until tender. Tastes a bit like a potato. What ways have you cooked this vegetable? Looking for new ideas to add a bit of flavor.

Doing It The Right Way . . .

I spoke with a member of my extended family yesterday who has always tried the latest fad diet.  She typically loses weight and gains it back.  She is currently on  a controversial diet that involves putting drops under the tongue and a diet restricted to 500 calories a day. I couldn't even wrap my brain around that tiny number, so I had to look the diet up and see what 500 calories amounted to.  This is it:

• Breakfast: Coffee or tea with artificial sweetener and one tablespoon of milk.
• Lunch is 100 grams of lean meat, poultry or fish in addition to one low-glycemic vegetable like spinach, celery, cucumbers or cabbage. One Melba toast and one fruit like half of a grapefruit or an apple is also allowed.
• Dinner is the same as lunch.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this just doesn't seem healthy to me. There are other aspects of this program that just creep me out that I'm not going to go into.  I will say this, in my head, as I was listening to the regimen she is dealing with, all I could think is, "Thank you Healthy Wife, Happy Life". 

I feel really great about what we are accomplishing in this challenge.  I feel very uplifted and supported by all of you and your stories of successes, failures and the reality of trying to live a more healthy life over all. And I truly do believe that eating sensibly and exercising the body on a regular basis are the best steps towards feeling healthy.

Solar panel

I've decided I was a solar panel in a past life. A couple days without sun and I just don't work the way I'm supposed to. My motivation and energy need the sun as a charger. Not that I am a tanner or a regular pool side mom, I just need to feel the sun on my face for about an hour or so, even inside the house. As a result of a rainy Monday, I did not make it to the grocery store and am faced with the dregs of last week's trip. But today, I will visit the grocery with all three kids and they're all going to be sent on missions to find and retrieve this weeks goodies. I'm excited to see what's fresh and on sale!

A little help from the Dr.

I went to my Dr. yesterday and expressed my frustration at not losing any weight so far.  In fact I have gained a couple of pounds.  Not good.  I have been religious about doing my P90x workouts and have been pretty good at staying in my calorie range.  She was very helpful and has given me a very specific diet and a little prescription to help jump start the ol metabolism and keep the cravings at bay.  The diet is strict.  Breakfast is plain yogurt, cottage cheese or eggs.  Lunch is salad with a lean protein.  Dinner is a lean protein with broccoli or another green veggie.  I can eat all the veggies I want and most fruits.  The only fruits that are off limit are grapes, melons and bananas.  No carbs at all.  I am hoping this works because not seeing results kind of stinks.  I go back to the Dr. in two weeks to see if there is any progress.  I should state that this is a Dr. supervised program so I don't recommend it to anyone.  If this does not work than I think genetics are to blame :)

Not A Stay At Home Mommy =\

My life never goes as expected. For lunch today I was planning on coming home and having a nice turkey and cucumber sandwich and then grabbing my protein powder for late afternoon snack. I knew I had to run an errand on my lunch hour but would have plenty of time to go home afterward right? Wishful thinking.
I had to run through the drive thru because by the time I was done with my errand I had about 7 minutes left of lunch and I was about 10min from work. I had drank almost all my water for the day {painful. why is it easy some days and harder others? not a big water fan.} so I knew I needed something other than water {and not soda}. I flew to Carl's Jr. {Hardy's?} and got this sandwich that has always been a life saver when needing to go the fast food route.

The Charbroiled BBQ Chicken sandwich on a wheat bun comes out to 380 calories {90 calories more than I thought but still way better than what I COULD have gotten}. This sandwich is yummy. Another thing I love about this place is they have Minute Maid Lite Lemonade. 15 calories for every 8oz, came out to about 35 calories. I couldn't take any more water today. Not too shabby for a drive thru meal that I could have totally bombed because I didn't go home for lunch.
Does anyone else work full time? What do you do in a pinch? What if you forget a snack? Work is stressful and it just makes me want to eat. I think I need to ramp up my AM calories.

What do you do for your morning snack? Today I brought pears for my morning snack and it was good. I wish I'd had some cottage cheese to go along with it.

Super delish, but was it worth it?

This little lovely cost me 10 points last Friday:

A peanut butter cookie dough shake from Millie's in Sugarhouse. I went down to my Mom's for the weekend and as we approached Salt Lake City, I made a conscious decision to blow my points for the day. I mean, how often do I have access to a scrumptious 800 calorie shake? The first several bites were pure heaven. So, so good. As I approached the bottom, I started feeling gross, and yet I couldn't stop myself until I had slurped up every last morsel. When it was all over, I actually had a glimpse of understanding into the temptation to be bulimic.

Pigging out just isn't as fun as it once was. Or, more accurately, pigging out just isn't as satisfying as it once was. I used to pig out, feel gross, but then the next day I just craved more. But now I'm finding the "yuck" that follows overindulgence to be a good motivator for me. The day after, my body is craving good veggies and fruit, protein and whole grain. And I actually feel good about satiating those cravings. This whole health challenge has made it clear to me that it is TOTALLY possible to retrain your body. After enough time, your cravings change and you find joy in eating healthy things, just as you once found joy in gorging yourself on sugar cookies. Well, not you, me.

The 30 Point Goal

I have yet to meet my 30 point goal. During the first round I never got around to setting one, because I couldn't think of anything. Isn't that silly! After I read what some of you were doing I realized it didn't have to be health related. So I thought of a goal for the second round that I really wanted to accomplish, because I've always wanted to make it a habit: say my morning prayers every day. Well, that turned out to be too hard. It's not hard to say your prayers, but it is hard to remember to do it everyday, especially for someone like me who is 'memory challenged.' One little mistake and my 30 points flew right out the window.

This round, I'm going to be smart. I noticed that many of you had task-based goals, like I will finish this household project, or I will iron all the clothes. I think a task would be a good idea for me. I could get some touch-up painting done. I could organize the storage room (YIKES!) I could find a landscaper. I could research and purchase air conditioning units. I would be doing all those things though, even if I wasn't on this blog. I think it needs to be something more. I thought about finally making the time to go redeem that pedi gift certificate Emily gave me for Christmas, but that seems a too indulgent. Hmmm, this requires more thought.

What is your 30 point goal?

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS TO JILL AND MELISSA. Way to go. You are very deserving. Melissa, I love all the fun food ideas. You remind me of my best friend that moved away that was always trying new healthy dishes. I am throwing away half a cake today. I had the missionaries over for dinner and I should have sent it home with them but I didn't and I dont want it in my house. If you knew me that is a hard thing to do. You don't waste food but I don't need the "food waist". Good luck to all in the next round. Thanks Audrey for stopping before Mother's Day. LOL

Getting Enough Sleep?

I was up at 5 for an early morning spin class and I've decided to hit the sack early.

New studies have found that sleep is connected to healthy lifestyles and can actually prevent you from losing weight even if you are working out and eating right. They recommend 7-8 hours a night. Less is bad, more is bad too! Apparently the hormones that are related to weight loss are directed effected by sleep.

Are you getting enough sleep? How many hours are you getting? I know that there are some new moms out there that aren't getting enough but what would you be getting with a normal sleeping child?

This is my first post on this blog. I have been reading it for about a week and love hearing about everyones fitness goals. My name is Emily Shafenberg. I live in Thornton, CO and have lived here my entire life. I married my high school boyfriend. We have been married for almost 7 years and we have 5 kids! Crazy, sometimes I don't believe it. My oldest son is Aydan, today is his birthday and he is 5, my daughter Lilia would be 3, she is with us in spirit, Asher will be 2 this Friday. My biggest adventure is having my baby twins who are now 2 1/2 months old, Ella and Cruz. Life is pretty chaotic and busy, but we have fun and just take each day as it comes. I love being active but currently don't have the time. My husband works crazy hours and some days I feel like a single mom. This challenge is something for me to do that isn't about my kids. I don't know how the counting calories will go, I am constantly hungry. I am hormonal and trying to accept this post twin-pregnancy body. I don't usually eat dinner until 8-9 at night so I guess I will be going to bed later:) I love that this is a competition, I am extremely competitive, so here I go.

Missing in Action

I'm back, and sad to admit I bombed the last challenge. Here's the excuse: we just spent a week on vacation with the family. Here's the real reason: there is no excuse. It's just my own laziness. I fell back to old habits. Vacations have always been an excuse to pig out for me. So in all honesty, that's what I did. What's the result? I feel so sick to my stomach. Lesson learned: I no longer enjoy the pigging out. Today, I'm fighting a whole bunch of emotions that's going along with it. I'm trying not to, but it's always been my natural reaction. But, here's a different tactic I've never done before, I'm going for a run with the dogs. I'm going to get out and be active today. I'm not throwing in the towel from a week of really bad behavior. While the vacation was a blast, I'm excited to be back in my old environment where I feel in control of my behavior. Do you have any tricks to stay healthy while on vacation? I could use some. The husband and I have a big happy anniversary trip coming up in the future.

Elusive Before Bed Point

My challenge with the Before Bed points is this: I determine if I'm in my range in the evening and if I'm under, I don't have much time to enjoy the difference before my two hour limit kicks in. So, I'm thinking I should follow Audrey's advice and eat more early in the day. Roughly how do you break down your day calorie wise? For me, it's been, on average, breakfast 18%, morning snack 7%, lunch 23-29%, afternoon snack 7%, dinner 29-34%, leaving me with between 5 -16% after dinner. Too much late in the day, right?

AND THE WINNER IS...

Jill & Melissa

Wow! This was our closest race so far. Our second runner up was only short one point and there were two others within 10. It's amazing.

You are all doing wonderfully! I'm impressed and it keeps me on my toes. The little competitor in me really wants to win. Although I'm ending this next challenge the Friday before Mother's Day, it's killing me because I'm doing a 50 mile bike ride on that Saturday. Think of all those points!!!!

Check out the new points! I've added them on the side. There are only two big changes.

1st) There is only one free day this time because it's less than two weeks. Remember it's a calorie range. If you're getting a hard workout in you need to add a few calories. Hopefully that will help you get through those though days.

2nd) I've added a 2 point bonus for actually posting on the blog. That's in addition to the other points. You can get 5 points for commenting still. If you comment and post you get 7 points.

How does that sound? To high? Should I make it 1 point? Just trying to encourage people to post.

The other changes come from additional points for some of those things that may be a little harder for some of us to do, fruits & veggies, not eating before bed to name a few.

I want your feed back so we can decide if we want to keep this or go back to the old point system.


Have a great week! Good luck to all of you and have tons of fun!!!!

LOVE TO YOU ALL!