October 27th...Dog Obedience Class (Week 2)

I wish I could tell you that I did great today. I didn't. I wish I could tell you that I plan to do better tomorrow. I can't. You see, it is my birthday week and I say,  "WTH!" I just don't wanna!

Today wasn't very good. I am not very happy about sharing what I ate, but I will because I need to admit to it. Right here, right now!

I was able to sleep in a little later today because Mackenzie was home sick. I woke up, took the boy to school and went back to bed. 

When I woke back up, it was with Maxkenzie in my bed cuddling with the dogs. She was hungry and we only had 2 eggs, so I made her breakfast. I ate half of a left over chicken club wrap with about 10 reheated French fries dipped in ranch. See, I told you it was a bad day!

I sat with my baby girl for a while and got myself ready to go to the grocery store. I didn't have a menu or a grocery list today so I just got my normal veggies, fruits and dairy. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

I went from the grocery store to pick up Mikey. He asked me to pick up Chipotle and since I had week 2 of my dog obedience training I thought that was a good idea. I could feed everyone in one swoop. I got a salad for me and Mazkenzie and a quesadilla for Mikey. Brian started his own diet so I am not cooking for him right now which makes it very easy. 

I picked up Mikey and came home. Put the groceries away and sat down to eat my salad. After I hung out with the kids for a bit I needed to get ready for my obedience class. 

I grabbed some nuts as I walked out the door. Had some cheese too. As I was driving down Hillcrest, I realized that was thirsty and craving some raspberry iced tea. I'm addicted but it is sweetened so I am trying to cut it out. I went to Taco Bell to get a drink and also ordered 2 mexi melts. They weren't good but I ate them anyway. Why? I can't answer that. The tea wasn't even what I wanted, it was mango and not that good. I hope I don't "pay later" with that mexi melt. 

After the 2 1/2 hours of dog obedience (2 classes back to back) I came home to everyone upstairs in bed. The house smelled like chocolate cake. My mind is playing tricks on me. I was then craving something sweet. I dug through Brian's nutrisysten stash of pantry items that he won't eat and grabbed 2 of the carrot cakes. Yes, 2! They are the size of 1/2 a Twinkie. Not good either, but I ate them. I'm not proud. 

Since my birthday is tomorrow, I do not foresee my day being very good. Brian is staying home so I have no idea where we will end up. Only thing I know is that I will not be cooking. Wednesday, I am going out with my birthday twin, Lisa, and we won't be eating well while we are together either. So you now see my dilemma. It is not a week of great choices it is a week of letting it all go and enjoying!

I hope you have a great week and are able to stick to your program. 

Until tomorrow,

Angela

October 23rd...Sleepy Today

I was not really able to get it together today. I have been very tired all day. In fact, I am on my phone typing this blog while on  my bed. <Yawn>

This morning was like every other except for the fact that it was a minimum day. That meant I was able to sleep until 6:20 instead of 6:00 since Mackenzie's class didn't start until 7:20. Yippee

On my way home from taking Mikey to school with my first and only cup of coffee, I went through the drive thru and got some breakfast from Jimmy Dean's. I ordered their avocado omelet with no toast or potatoes, but with added bacon and sausage. I didn't order anything to drink and that was all I ordered. It was $16! What? I was shocked and won't be ordering that again. What a rip off! It is expensive to make substitutions in order to eat low carb. Geez! 

This does not look like a $16 breakfast, does it? 

My sleepy day progressed with some laundry and an early pick up of Mikey since it was a minimum day. When I picked him up Mikey was hungry. Chipotle was totally packed since it was a minimum day and all of the VHS student population was there and in line.  I bailed out and went to El Pollo Loco. Mikey ordered 2 quesadillas and Mac n cheese. I ordered their double chicken Mexican salad. I only ate one today. Tee hee! 

After a nap (I told you I was sleepy today) I decided to start dinner. Tonight's dinner was a low carb take on Eggplant Parmesan called Eggplant Parmesan Boats.  It was pretty tasty and very filling. I think this one is a keeper too. 

http://www.closetcooking.com/2014/10/eggplant-parmesan-boats.html?m=1

I had a glass of moscato wine and am now fighting reflux due to the sweetness. Blah! Laundry had been folding and the TNF game is on. After the bras are done washing and are hung to dry (TMI?), I will be calling it a night around 7:00pm. I hope you had a great day. 

I will try to do the blog tomorrow even though it is a Friday. It may not be at the end of the night, it might not be complete, and it might not even happen, but I will try. I have to stay accountable. 

Until Tomorrow (?),

Angela 

October 22nd...Surprise Lunch

Today started out like any other. 6:00am wake up, coffee, lunch, breakfast and kids off to school. Once I got back from dropping Mikey off, I came home and made myself some breakfast. Finally! I finally made breakfast for myself. Lisa, you will be proud! I scrambled up 2 eggs, added cheese and served it over cottage cheese. It was a great protein breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with cheese over cottage cheese

I did my normal morning and then I got a call from my girl, Tina. She said, "Get up, get dressed and meet me for lunch!" I loved it! I got up, got dressed and met her for lunch at Eggs N Things! It was so nice to see my friend. I love my Tina! It is also nice that I can get myself ready to quickly now that I have a pixie. Hair is not my issue any longer! I love it!

Once I got to Eggs N Things, I knew exactly what I was going to order. I didn't even need to look at the menu. I was in low carb mode and ordered their southwest salad. Yummy! Oh so good! I was happy and probably could have licked the plate, but I tried to have some sort of class while at the restaurant.

Southwest Salad

Mikey called me and asked me to pick him up from school because he wasn't feeling well. He's been fighting a head cold for about a week now and I haven't been making him stay at school. This morning his cough was so loud, so when he called I felt like I should get him. I picked him up and went through the In&Out drive thru with him for his lunch. I ordered an iced tea.

After we got home, I had some cashew and macadamia nuts. When the time came, I started cooking dinner. Tonight's dinner was from Pinterest and it was called Asian Pork & Cabbage. I served it in romaine lettuce (big mistake it wasn't easy to hold at all!) and I made a pot of white rice for everyone else as well. I only had a scoop of the asian pork and cabbage in a leaf of lettuce. It was pretty good. I liked it.

Asian Pork & Cabbage

The rest of the night, I had a 2 glasses of chardonnay, some more nuts and some cheese. It was a good night. I caught of up on my shows with Mackenzie and now I am sitting here typing to you while I am watching Survivor. The rest of the family has gone up to bed and I still have to clean the kitchen. Poop! Did you have a great day too? I am really feeling good on my low carb way of eating!

Until tomorrow,
Angela

October 21st...Wine

Wine

Wine, yes, Wine! I opened a bottle of chardonnay tonight and finished the whole bottle while I texted back and forth with my SIL, Roxy! We have so much in common and I love her very much.  While we were texting, I was making dinner. Tonight's dinner was a VERY easy dish that I found on Pinterest. It is called One Pot Broccoli Beef. 5 ingredients, ground beef, alfredo sauce, broccoli, Italian dressing seasoning and onion powder. So super easy! You should make it too! It doesn't look tremendously pretty, but it was good and low carb!

One Pot Broccoli Beef

It was slim pickens for breakfast again today. I had coffee and that was it until about 1:30pm. When I finally got myself some lunch, I bought  the El Pollo Loco Mexican Cobb salads. I bought one for Mikey too, but was so hungry, I ate them both. Yikes! Piggy, much? At least it was low carb. BTW, it was REALLY good. Try it, you won't be sad that you did!

That was it for food for the rest of the day. It is almost 8:00pm and I am about ready for bed after my encounter with my wine glass and bottle. :)

I hope you had a great day! I had a grey day meeting my friend, Lisa, at Castaic Nails to get our nails done. I love Castaic Nails. It is a family business that is very sweet. I will always be loyal to them

Until tomorrow,
Angela

October 20th...Low Carbing It

I've decided that I have been eating my fair share of carbs lately. Even though it is GF, it is still carbs. I am in no way giving up vegetables or even fruits (but I am being selective with my fruits and trying to eat more that are lower GI), but I am reducing my rice, bread, potatoes, you get the idea.

Today was my first day with this way of eating. I have done it before, with Lindora, but this is the first time doing it while blogging. I went on a hunt for recipes that are low carb and somewhat clean. Pinterest was my site of choice today and I found many recipes. I figured that all out after the kids were off to school.

Backtracking, I woke up this morning and was not as tired as I normally am in the morning, especially on a Monday morning. I was thankful.  Breakfast was made and lunch was thrown together for the girl, after I had to clean out her lunch box that had been sitting with orange juice spilled on the bottom of it all weekend. Yummy! Nothing is better than the smell of aging orange juice. NOT!

Once the kids were off, I sat and had some coffee while I compiled my menu for the week.  I decided that this week I will focus on a protein and a veggie, no starch. It seems odd to cook like that, but it will be good for me. I need to drop some poundage and NOW!

I had some boneless/skinless chicken thighs in the fridge that needed to be cooked, so I threw them in the crockpot with some tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Cooked on low and that was what I was going to offer my family tonight while I was away at my first night of my externship with ABC.

After I picked Mikey up, he was starving, as usual. He wanted to go to In&Out or Jimmy Dean's but I was not for those temptations, so I offered Chipotle. He got a steak quesadilla and chips with guacamole and I ordered a steak salad with guacamole. It was so good. It really hit the spot since I didn't eat anything until that point and it was 3:30pm. :(Today was grocery shopping day so I wasn't able to eat or sit down to eat during the day, so 3:30pm was my first attempt at eating.

Yummy Chipotle Salad!

I got home with Mikey and scarfed down my yummy salad. After I was done, I had to get myself ready for my first night for my externship with Animal Behavior College. I have to observe 6 dog classes in the first part of the externship. Tonight, I completed 2 classes. I really like the way my Mentor Trainer, Beth Harrison, runs her classes. It is in a very large room and the dogs are trained while off leash. They get lots of play time before, in between and after training. It is great socialization as well as training. It is also a rotating class, so it is 6 classes that start again as soon as it is done. Dogs can come anytime and are trained where they are with their skills. Love it!

When I got home at 8:45pm, I ate a bowl of my crockpot chicken thighs with a large scoop of cottage cheese. It was very good and filling. I have to say that I really like the thighs in the crockpot better than breasts. They don't dry as easily. 

Looks like it has a cherry on top!

Once I got home and was opening up the mail, I found a letter from the University of Oregon congratulating Mackenzie on being awarded the Apex Scholarship. This means that they are going to give her $4000 a year for 4 years. This is awesome! Any money is very helpful, of course. It is nice to see that she qualified for a merit scholarship. She has worked so hard.

That's all for today! I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to spend some quality time with your families. I was thankful to be able to spend some time with my mother-in-law and then go to visit my father-in-law's memorial site. I sure do miss him. He was a very special man to me!

Until tomorrow,
Angela

October 16th...Unexpected Night Out

I'm a slacker again, it was a day of eating out for every meal. Not something that I am proud of. BUT, I had a great day and evening with wonderful friends, so I am going to chalk it up to happiness and head off to bed. Sorry for being such a slacker on logging my food. I think I will be much better next week. 

Have a great night!

Until Monday,

Angela

October 15th...Too Tired!

I am falling asleep! I will post a double day tomorrow. 😴

October 14th...Sesame Seed(less) Beef

Hello my friends!
Why am I starting this like a letter? No idea! Just thought I would mix it up a bit. Not much of my day was different. Coffee, the entire smoothie that I made for Mikey (he didn't even pick it up) and that was it for the morning. The rest of the day was laundry and cleaning around the house.

I was trying to figure out what I was going to make for dinner tonight and had planned on making salmon, but Mackenzie thinks that it is gross and asked me to make something else. She is always so busy, I will just make it on another night that she won't be home for dinner.

Lunch for me consisted of tortilla chips and some verde salsa and a GF granola bar. Yep! Going the healthy way today! Not!

After I picked Mikey up from school, we went to Jimmy Dean's and I got a Turkey Club Sandwich. I didn't get fries today. This is a huge accomplishment lately.

For dinner, I made a Mongolian-beef type dish called Sesame Beef, only mine didn't have sesame seeds. Why? Because it wasn't in my grocery bag from the store. I remember putting it in my cart. I wonder if the bag-guy thought of me when he finally saw that the little bag of sesame seeds were probably hanging out undetected in the bag area? Anyway, sesame seeds don't have much flavor, if any at all, so it really didn't effect the outcome of the dish. It was tasty. After cooking up the beef, I took it all out and then sautéed up some red onions and mushrooms in the juices. After they were cooked down, I added the beef back. On the side, I made jasmine rice in the rice cooker. If you don't have a rice cooker, get one, it makes life so easy!

Dinner! This picture was taken after it was in the fridge as a leftover though. I forgot to take a fresh picture. 

I just love these new bag seals. Not ziplock, more like velcro. I had to share!

After dinner, I folded some laundry and watched TV with my baby girl. The baby boy was up working on a newspaper that he procrastinated on writing. It is for To Kill a Mockingbird! We shall see how that bodes for him. Little slacker!

Mackenzie told me that she is ready for a change in her breakfast and asked if I would make her some of my crockpot oatmeal. I'm not gonna lie! I love that she craves things that I make for her. Crockpot oatmeal is a great breakfast. I normally make a big batch to last her the week in the fridge. I make it 2:1 (almond milk:oats), add some salt and brown sugar and set it to "keep warm" all night. It cooks it very slowly and isn't over cooked by the morning. I think if it was cooked on "low" it might be overcooked.

Crockpot oatmeal set up and ready to go. I shall see you in the morning, yummy breakfast!

That's all for today! Oh ya, I want to come clean that over the weekend, I had a coke. It wasn't diet coke, but it was a coke while I was at the Oregon vs. UCLA football game. I still will not drink diet coke and I know that regular coke has tons of calories, but in a moment of sitting at a football game, I ordered one. It was so good. I love and have missed the taste of a fountain drink. Still DIET COKE FREE!  I'm sorry I forgot to tell you. I wasn't hiding it, I just plain forgot! 

I hope you had a great day! Do you have any recipes to share? Please share them with me! I would love some new ideas!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

October 13th...Crazy Day

This morning started out like any other week day morning. Coffee, breakfast for Mackenzie and the packing of her huge lunch. I think that if anyone were ever hungry at school, they could go to Mackenzie and she would have food to spare. Crazy, I was just thinking about my drive to school this morning and I totally forgot I did it. It seems like it was so far away. That is the type of day I had.

After the kids were at school and moving on with their day, I needed to get myself moving. I found myself on the computer trying to figure out the menu for the week. This week I used the allrecipes.com website and app. It is great because you can add recipes to your shopping cart and use the app while in the store to check off your items. I wish more sites had this option because it doesn't seem like AllRecipes has tons of recipes that I want to use while trying to cook clean. Pinterest needs something like this though. Remember, you heard it here first!

While I was figuring out the menu, I made myself something to eat for breakfast. Since I had some chicken/rice left over from last week, I added some of that to scrambled eggs and enjoyed a very hearty breakfast.

I got a spur the moment call from my friend, Julie, for lunch and I was so happy that I was able to make it. In addition, our friend, Kim, joined us! Seeing their lovely faces always makes me happy.  We enjoyed a yummy Mexican lunch at Las Rocas. I had lots and lots of chips and salsa and ordered a carnitas tostada. I didn't eat the shell though, don't worry.

After I left lunch, it was time to pick up Mikey. I picked him up and headed to Ralph's because I still hadn't gotten my groceries for the week yet. Mikey walked over to get a subway sandwich while I shopped. I did some serious speed shopping. Once I was done, I walked out to there car where Mikey was listening to his music. Unloaded the groceries into the car and started the engine. Click click click! The car would not turn over. Ugh!!!!!! Car full of groceries and a car that wouldn't take me home. 

I called my friend, Chris, and he dropped his plans and came to my rescue. We got a new battery and he installed it and even made sure we checked it to make sure it wasn't my alternator. It was nice to know that I was in good hands. Thank you to Chris, and his driver, Jesse! 

I was supposed to go to my first externship class tonight, but was unable to swing it with my car issues. :(

I finally got home and organized the groceries into the fridge and started dinner. Tonight's dinner was roasted chicken thighs with red potatoes and roasted green beans. It was a whole lot of roasting. All mixed in olive oil, salt, pepper & garlic salt. The chicken was tossed in Italian dressing seasoning. It was all cooked together at 400 degrees for about 50 mins. Yummy! 

That's all for today. I am exhausted and about to head up to bed. I hope you had a great start to your week. 

Until tomorrow,

Angela

October 9th..My Pace Is Slow But Steady

I keep thinking that because I am in a boot that I am invincible and can do anything. But, I am wrong. The pain is still there, just in different places. The boot is heavy and I can't relax the way I am used to doing. Wahh! What a baby, I am! Sorry! Just had to vent for a second.

Today, was a pretty normal day. Mackenzie skipped first period, so we got to wake up a bit earlier and she drove Mikey to school. That was nice. I made her breakfast and packed her lunch. Made Mikey a smoothie and they were out the door. I found myself back in bed when they left. I feel a bit guilty about it, but I was tired. Who isn't in the morning?

I slept for a little while and then started on my chores. I folded laundry, did laundry and got myself ready to be presentable outside the house. I went to Walmart to get the dry goods that I didn't get when I went to the store on Tuesday. Toilet paper, paper towels, soap, that type of stuff. After I was done there, I went to ToGo's to get sandwiches for me and Mikey. I hadn't eaten anything prior, so I was a bit hungry. I also had a small bag of Doritos. I love the #24 (turkey & avocado) at ToGo's on sourdough. Yummy! I thought I was going to need to bring Mikey to the doctor because he has been complaining about a sore throat, but the medicine I gave him for the day helped. No doctor for us today!

After I left Walmart, Mackenzie texted me and asked me to get some pillowcases for Sports Med. They put their ice packs in the pillowcases when an athlete is using it. So, after I got Mikey, I went back to WalMart. All of that walking exhausted my foot, but I am sitting now with my foot up.

We came home and I cleaned the guinea pig's cage and gave our bearded dragon, Keith, a bath. He won't poop in his cage, so I give him his baths and he poops there. Silly dragon! It does keep his cage clean without smell so I won't complain.

Keith looks like he is wearing a turtle neck that is also a muscle shirt.

It was time to start dinner. Tonight, was a new recipe called Chicken Parmesan Rice Bake. The recipe that I am linking only gives you the recipe for one serving. I didn't necessarily quadruple the servings, I just made a bunch of each thing and threw it together. I had a rotisserie chicken that was pre-cooked. I boned that and chopped it up into bite size pieces. Sautéed the chicken in olive oil and onions. Added garlic and italian seasonings. Once the onions were cooked enough, I added a can of chopped tomatoes, greek cream cheese and fresh spinach, stirring the spinach until it was wilted. I then threw in the left over brown rice that I had from last night. It is always helpful to make extra rice when cooking it for just this reason. Made my dinner much easier to make tonight. Once it was all done, I threw it all into a greased corning wear bowl, added parmesan cheese on top and baked it at 400 for 25 mins.

It doesn't look too appetizing, but it was good, filling and healthy.

Aside from iced tea and a hard cider, that is all I had today. I was surprised to see that I was down some more poundage today. I am now down a total of 4.8 lbs. I still have a long way to go, so it really isn't that great, but it is moving in the right direction and that makes me happy.

I hope you all had a great day! Tomorrow is Friday and it will be a busy day. I'm getting my hair did and that is always fun. I love my hairdresser, Kristy. She has been doing my hair since my senior, Mackenzie, was in Kindergarten. Crazy! She is a miracle worker, that's for sure! Outside of it being my hair day, it is VHS Football day too. This week, Sports Med needs some help with transportation, so I will be driving some of those babies. Love them all and I am always completely impressed with their skills.

Have a great night! I am not sure if I will be blogging over the weekend, starting tomorrow, so I may not be back until Monday. Not sure yet.

Until Monday?

Angela

October 8th...Lazy Day

The morning came quickly and I was not happy about it. I stumbled downstairs and made myself a cup of coffee and turned on the news. Made Mackenzie a breakfast sandwich and packed her lunch. After I walked her out to her car, I woke Mikey up and made his smoothie. I made a pumpkin smoothie, per his request. Little did I find out later, he didn't like it today. He choked down a little bit of it on the way to school because I was frustrated that he would ask for a smoothie and not drink it. Whatever!  I liked it. I drank what was left after he walked into school. It was about 3/4 full.  That was my breakfast.

With my foot in the boot, I pretty much laid low today. I didn't sleep well last night, so I tried to do some resting today. I was not very lucky with sleeping, and not very productive either. I finally got myself ready for the day and picked up Mikey. We were both starving, so we went into Ralph's and each got one of their made to order deli sandwiches. It was so good. We had turkey sandwiches on marble rye (made me think of Seinfeld, Ha!)

Doesn't this look good? So good!

Mikey also bought a bag of chips that we both ate. <opps!> It is so hard to be in the grocery store when you are hungry. It becomes very easy to get food that it not always a good idea. We also bought some guacamole and tortilla chips, but didn't eat that, so yay! 

For dinner, I tried a new recipe and I thought it was a winner. My rice didn't come out perfect, but that was my fault (I used the lines on the rice cooker for water instead of measuring it out. Duh!) it was an added element to the dinner. The recipe is Clean Eating Roasted Shrimp and Green Beans. It had a kick that Mackenzie didn't enjoy, so I would scratch the cayenne pepper, it didn't necessarily make it and won't break the recipe without it. 

Roasted Shrimp and Green Beans with Brown Rice

That's all I had for the day. I am down 2.4 lbs and am happy to see the scale start to move. I hope my little bit of cheating today didn't hurt me too much.

I hope you had a great day! I will leave you with the image I saw in my mind when I ordered my marble rye sandwich.

Seinfeld's Marble Rye scene in a picture

Until tomorrow,
Angela

October 7th...One Big Meal

Today was pretty nonexistent when it comes to food. I had 2 cups of coffee, cleaned the bathroom, did some laundry and got myself ready for the day.  The kids were off of school for another day, so it was an easy day when it came to them.

I was going to be going to the podiatrist, so I thought that I should go and get my feet scraped and my toes beautified before I put my feet into the face of my podiatrist, Dr. Franson. He is such a great guy. He has been Mackenzie's podiatrist for about 9 years and has made Mackenzie the person she is when it comes to helping people. Mackenzie has major issues with her feet when she was a youngin'.  Dr. Franson helped her every "step" of the way. Hahaha! I made a silly!

Anyway, I've been battling plantar fasciitis and morton's neuroma for about a year now. I went to see Dr. Franson about 5 months ago and he shot my foot with cortisone and that helped for about 4 months.  Once it wore off, there was nothing that I could do to help it. I've been going to PT twice a week and we haven't been able to help it. I decided to go back and see what else we could do. Dr. Franson, shot my heel and the top of my foot between the 3 & 4th toes with cortisone and put me in a boot. I am hopeful that this will help reduce the pain and let my foot heal. I'm sure that my weight doesn't help it at all, which is a catch 22 since I can't really exercise with my foot in so much pain. Ugh!

After I left Dr. Franson's office, I went to the grocery store to do my "Monday" shopping on Tuesday. Having the kids off for 2 days is really screwing up my routine! I didn't chop the veggies yet, but I did get the fridge all set up and organized for the chopping that will come tomorrow. To be honest, my foot was killing me and I was exhausted.

Brian was with Chris and wanted to know if I wanted to meet him at Las Rocas. I thought that would be a good idea since I was too tired to cook. I drove over there and ordered an avocado omelet with rice and beans. I had loads of chips with table side guacamole and 2 patron margaritas (to cut the pain, per Brian's suggestion).

That is all I had to eat today. Not much, huh? I was down 1.4lbs from yesterday, so that makes me happy. I'm sure my margaritas will work against me on the scale. No doubt!

Oh ya, I ate a little after my blog was sent yesterday, I had a couple handfuls of TJ's trail mix and 2 small oranges.

I will be trying a bunch of new recipes this week. All pretty high veggie and protein, low on carbs.  I hope they are yummy!  That's all for today! I need to get myself in bed, my foot it throbbing and I am tired. It will be an early day tomorrow with the kids back at school. I hope you all had a great day! Good things are on the horizon.

Until tomorrow,
Angela

October 6th...I Had A Good Eating Day!

I had a good eating day because of YOU! I was not going to be a flake and have another cheating day. I was exposed to things that my weaker self would have crumbled on, but not when I have you by my side keeping me accountable.

As you may know, the kids a 4 day weekend, which makes it harder to stay on track. My boys came home last night from Indianapolis, they flew there for the Ravens vs. Colts game. Today was supposed to be a regular day but with my kids home, but Brian stayed home too. Him being home is cause for bad eating. It shouldn't be, but it is. He and our friend, Chris, tend to go to bars to eat and then there is beer and bad bar food. See what I mean? Bad choices.  Today, Mikey wanted to go out to breakfast with some friends, so he needed a ride. Since Brian was home, he suggested we go out to breakfast too (at a different restaurant, of course). As we were leaving, our friend, Chris, called and needed a ride home from the car dealership, so we picked him up and he joined us for breakfast. It was around 11am. We dropped Mikey off at IHOP and we went to Coco's. I asked for the lunch menu and ordered a cobb salad. Remember when I was addicted to that salad? That was when I was doing good things with my diet, so I thought I would jump back on that bandwagon.  I had iced tea and no coffee for the day.

Later, when I was hanging out with Mackenzie, I had some grapes. I actually stuffed myself on grapes. Yummy! More iced tea was consumed.

As for dinner, I made some GF pasta with sautéd onions, orange bell peppers, mushrooms with olive oil. After the pasta was cooked up in a separate pot, I added it to the iron skillet with the veggies. I mixed the veggies and pasta together and added some GF Barilla pasta sauce and mixed it all up with some shredded cheese.  When I served my bowl, I added cottage cheese to my bowl with my pasta and viola! Dinner was made!

GF Pasta with Fresh Veggies and Cottage Cheese

That's all for today! I am pretty proud of my good eating today. Brian and Chris wanted me to go with them to watch the MNF game, but I didn't want to tempt myself with beer or bar food, so I stayed home and made pasta. That was a good choice. I knew that I was going to make sure that I was proud to share my food for the day with you. Mission accomplished.  I hope you had a good day too!

Until tomorrow,

Angela

Day 112...October 5th

Day 112
I've decided that since I have been such a slacker blogging lately, that I would start posting the date, instead of the day number to head my posts. I don't want to be a slacker, but it seems to be that I am falling into that pattern. I seemed to have fallen off the bandwagon of healthy eating. I really want to get back to it, and I will, but until I do it embarrasses me to share my bad eating.  Just sharing that helps me. I really think it does help. When I know that someone is reading this blog and knowing that I am doing good and bad things help to keep me accountable.  I find that lately, I am all about keeping my kids eating well, but not necessarily myself. Does that make sense? I want them to have all of the nutrients they can get to succeed during their day, but for me, I don't put that much effort. I take the easy way out. I have an obsession with Mexican food. I have been being pretty good when it comes to eating GF, but not always. As we all know, just because it is GF doesn't necessarily mean it is good for you.

I have had some major foot issues that I made worse by going on a nice walk with my friend. I really wanted to get out and walk, but it has set me back with more pain in different parts of my foot. Ugh! Off to the podiatrist I go on Tuesday. It feels as if I have a stress fracture, but I hope not. It's really strange how one pain can take over and the pain you feel somewhere else can disappear while you tend to the other pain. I have a gym membership and have yet to go because my feet have been in so much pain. Plantar fasciitis sucks! It really does!

Wow, I have spent this blog complaining. I don't like to be that type of person, but I guess I had to get it out. I have to stop sniveling and start stepping up and fighting for myself and my health. I must do this. Do you ever go through slumps like this? What do you do to get out of it? I have so many things to be thankful for in my life. I have a husband that works very hard and has climbed through the ranks within his career that has enabled me to stay at home with my kids from the time they were born. I have 2 children that are on the right path in life.  My daughter has exceeded my expectation for her in high school and is now waiting to find out about whether or not she was accepted into the college of her dreams. My son is getting healthy and it makes me proud everyday to see his successes. They both do well in school and I couldn't be more honored to be their mom. They are good humans that have the world at their fingertips. I have 3 dogs, 2 guinea pigs and a bearded dragon that love me.  I am now in the hands on portion of my dog obedience college and am excited to start moving forward with that adventure. All good stuff.

This blog has helped to keep me accountable on my quest to be diet coke free. I haven't had a soda for 112 days in addition to being diet coke free. This is a huge accomplishment for me. I would love to have a large icy fountain diet coke at times, but knowing that you are reading this keeps me on the right track. I don't ever want to tell you that I went back to drinking diet coke. Strange how that is so important to me, but eating large portions of fat leaden foods don't have the same committment. I need to have the same commitment. It is what I have done for so long and it is really hard to stop it. Why can't I feed myself like I feed my kids? I wake up and pack Mackenzie a huge lunch every day with 2 fruits, 2 chopped veggies, a salad, some yogurt, GF protein bar and something crunchy and GF. Why do I feel that I am not important enough to have that type of lunch or why don't I snack on food like that each day too? No idea! But, it needs to change.

The one thing that I have committed to is buying groceries and chopping up the veggies for the week that day. This has helped me to make last minute salads (like for Mackenzie's lunches) and enables me to add veggies to other dishes that I am making. I was talking to a friend of mine that is a nutritionist and she was saying that chopping veggies all at one time and keeping them handy is a great step to good nutrition. Yay! I'm on the right track. One step at a time. I have to say that the chopping of veggies has become a habit for me. I feel out of sorts if that isn't done after I go grocery shopping for the week.

I know that I haven't talked about the food that I've eaten today and I'm not gonna. Tomorrow is a new day and I will be back on track and ready to hold myself accountable again. Thank you for reading and for letting me get that all out. I really appreciate your support. By knowing that you are reading, it helps me to stay accountable to you, if I can't be accountable to myself.

Until tomorrow,
Angela