Our Menu Week 3

Wow, has it only been three weeks?
I've hardly had coffee
Basically had no sugar (except one bite of the delicious cake at Mary Beth's birthday party!)
And only one glasss of wine (I couldn't resist- we went to Woody's for dinner)

Here's the menu for this week:
Breakfast every morning will be eggs - and lots of them. Mark has increased his protein by 1000 grams!
Lunch will be left overs from the night before
Snack will be a high protein, low carb snack. Mark will have sandwiches, I will have a wrap with a unique filling. This week's fillings will be quinoa, portobella mushrooms, or chickpeas.
Quinoa is a grain, but it is a high quality protein comparable in eggs and meat.
Dinner:
Monday: Herbed Grilled Chicken, baked cauliflower, parsley and lime quinoa, salad
Tuesday: Marinated Flank Steak, sauteed broccoli and red peppers, mashed sweet potatoes
Wednesday: Greek chicken with hummus, Greek salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Girls night out! I'm hoping for sushi.
Saturday: Barbecue chicken, pot luck sides with friends
Sunday: Reuben Sandwiches (with turkey pastrami instead of beef)

Boy Scout hiking

How many Boy Scouts can fit in this tree?

The weather, being unusually cool for this time of year, set a nice background for the Boyscout hiking/caving trip. So, throwing a few tents and sleeping bags in the back of the car, we caught up with the troop at Meriwether Lewis Park off of the Trace. The stars seemed so bright, just out of reach. A five mile hike was great for warming up our muscles the next morning. We loaded the cars up again and headed to Kentucky.

Beautiful scenery,

setting up camp,

cook out,

campfires

and early to bed.

Another five mile hike.

Stunning scenery,

rocky cliffs,

shades of green,

the Green River.

Did I mention the cool weather?


-- Post From My iPhone

Meal Plan Help

I haven't had a chance to write out a meal plan for this week. A large part of a successful eating program is planning. I don't know about you, but if I'm hungry and don't have any healthy choices available, I'm much more likely to gobble up handfuls of greasy, fattening chips - and have to run an extra few miles to make up for it.

Here's a website called Short Order Cook that I plan on using this week to cook a few meals. The spinning ingredients make it a fun website to play with. Check out the Spicy Lime Tilapia or the Guiltless Tailgate Wings.

Last night we had a low fat shrimp and pasta dish and tonight we will grill hamburgers with sweet potatoes until I can write out a meal plan for the rest of the week. Snacks - almonds or rice cakes. Lunch - tuna with relish and hickory smoke flavoring (no mayo or bread) and fruit.

A typical day for us

About this picture - I asked the kids to take a picture for the blog of what they were working on during read aloud time. I was hoping for them in the picture. Oh well.

A typical day for us, this week anyway:

So we have almost completed two weeks of school and here is our daily routine right now. We have not added all of our curriculum yet, as I find it takes a little while for the kids to get used to the routine. I am not waking the kids up early - we try to start by 9:30, so they get to sleep in. We do our Bible lesson if Cameron is awake (which she usually isn't) so we haven't gotten Bible in every day. Then we start with History, Science, and writing, our unit study. I have been doubling up on that since we aren't doing all of our subjects - but don't tell the boys. While I read aloud, the kids have things to work on, such as crochet or legos. Cameron has an art project to do during this time. While the boys work on Math, I work on Cameron's reading lesson. We are using Bob books and Sonlight readers until she gets the letters she's already learned down before we pick up 100 Easy Lessons again. Next week we will add in spelling and increase their math lessons. The next week we will add in Language Arts and Typing. The cool thing is that the kids do really well easing into school like this and they are having fun. We are covering oceans and explorers and we finished reading Swiss Family Robinson today. My goal this year - to work more on making school fun rather than just checking the assignments off the daily list. My other goal - to have them learn on their own by investigating and narrating to me what they have found by looking through books, encyclopedias, and websites. Then they tell dad over dinner what they discovered that day.

Oh, and Raeley? Well, she works all day long up in her room, doing her work independently. She loves being on her own. I'm giving her a few weeks to figure out how she wants her schedule then I will review it with her. She works much better if she can plan out her day. So far she really likes the Sonlight curriculum she's using.

Beach time with dad

Because life speeds by us and kids grow so fast...

Taking a break

from our busy, busy life
and spending time on what really matters.
No interruptions here.
Making the most of every moment.
Till the day is done.

Revisions to my food plan

After emailing my food plan to a personal trainer whose opinion I value and whose knowledge of all such training matters I highly respect, I am making a few revisions. I didn't expect to go into this much of a "training" mode, but I've NEVER done it before so I figured now was as good a time as any. He made a few suggestions which are more strict than I was looking at doing, but I've decided to give it my best shot. Here is what he said:

After 3 pm or after your last snack, for you to not take in any sugar or alcohol (I know, I know, but this will work!)

My suggestion is simply a protein and a vegetable at night for dinner. If you have sugar it will simply be stored exactly where you don't want it too.

Water is your choice for a beverage.

If you could eliminate all simple sugar (fruits, candy, refined breads, etc) no matter what time of day, this would include anything that contains sugar as well(sauces like spaghetti sauce,etc) your results will come much faster!

If this is too hard start with just afternoons /evening and eventually reduce your intake of sugar throughout the day. Some people will go into it too Gung Ho and not like it and give up. Just be patient.

Start with this and you will notice a difference withing 4 weeks if you are very strict. The stricter you are the better results you will have. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yeah, I thought, my question is, what is there left to eat? I'm just joking, God has given us abundant resources! I don't know if I can cut out fruit though. I love fruit! But I will limit it to one piece a day. I am going to take some supplements to support good yeast in my system and really watch refined sugar and bread products to strengthen my good yeast versus bad yeast ratio. I might even do the plain chicken breast and a veggie for dinner as much as I can bear. I've seen so many of our personal trainers eat like that through the years.

I also went to the gym tonight when the kids were getting ready for bed. I missed all of their excuses to prolong the process, and got to have some time to myself watching Mystery Diagnosis while I got more cardio in. I could get into the routine of that!

High Protein, Low Fat Menu Plan

For the next 4 weeks I will be weight training and eating a high protein, low fat meal plan.



Here is my menu for this week:

Monday

Breakfast: Eggs and English Muffin (280 calories, 17 g protein, 13 g fat)

Lunch: Sandwich wraps or leftovers and fruit

Snack: Mixed Berry Couscous (362 calories, 11 g protein, 1 g fat)

Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie, Salad, Rolls, cantaloupe and Honey dew melon, cake - This will be as low fat as I can make it! It is Raeley's birthday and this is what she requested. I will add hard boiled egg to the pot pie and I won't eat the pastry crust.

Tuesday

Breakfast: eggs and sauteed spinach (170 calories, 12 g protein, 11 g fat)

Lunch: Sandwich wraps or leftovers and fruit

Snack: red bean dip with melba toast crackers, pita bread, or baked chips. (Dip is 80 calories, 3 g protein, 2 g fat)

Dinner: Spaghetti, green beans

Wednesday

Breakfast: Muesli (315 calories, 10 g protein, 4 g fat)

Lunch: Sandwich wraps or leftovers and fruit

Snack: deviled eggs (170 calories, 10 g protein, 8 g fat)

Dinner: Cod with dill, green onions, and soy sauce over noodles, carrots, canned pineapple (271 calories, 34 g protein, 1.5 g fat)

Thursday

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs (155 calories, 13 g protein, 11 g fat)

Lunch: Sandwich wraps or leftovers and fruit

Snack: Rice paper rolls with shrimp (322 calories, 24.9 g protein, 1.8 g fat)

Dinner: Grilled chicken, broccoli, sweet potatoes, salad (391 calories, 31 g protein, 3 g fat)



This weekend we have other plans and will not be cooking that much.

I am estimating that the sandwich wraps will be 220 calories, 18 g protein, 5 g fat On the wraps I will have the following toppings handy:

spinach, low fat ricotta, onions, red peppers, mushrooms, salsa, lentil and tomato paste, tomatoes

My goal is to have 60 grams of protein a day and after I work out I will drink a protein shake (310 calories, 33 g protein, 4 g fat)

SanDestin with the Ross's year 2

The Beach

Sand


Sun

Surf

Searching for shells

Sandcastles

Fine Dining
with friends

(and a waiter who knows his stuff!)

Relaxation

Reading

Playing

Being Entertained






That about sums up our last minute trip to the beach!

Rambling thought on a busy life

Schedules, time, lists, checkmarks. I lead a very full life. I don't know what I would do with myself if my schedule didn't challenge me. I like to get the most out of life, stretch every minute, evaluate every opportunity.

There are many problems that go along with being busy, most of them having to do with stress and priorities. Decisions, importance, life goals, daily needs. That's not really a good thing. When I get stressed I get angry and take it out on my kids. I heap the shame on myself over that. When I get busy I get stressed. If busy=stress and stress=anger, then busy= anger.
This was really on my mind last week because I have been very busy, so I'm going to let that demon lay and move on.
I like to live life to the fullest, but in my quest for that I am missing out on a whole other aspect of life. Last week, as I was rushing to do laundry, I took a moment to teach my six year old how to fold towels. No excuses, I ignored her pleas that the towels are too big, her arms are too tired, it's taking too long. Today she was faster than her big brothers and did a great job at folding the towels.

I'm evaluating our family's schedule this fall and trusting God that our overcommited schedule will work itself out.

-- Post From My iPhone

A visit from a friend

Friends over many miles
Planned trips interrupted by pregnancies
Pregnancies delaying unplanned trips
Cards and gifts through the mail
Thoughtful and loyal friend
We were in each other's weddings
She came to visit, my friend Shannon.
I felt like I knew her children,
so it was nice to finally meet them.

First Day Back to School

I wasn't ready and I'm OK with that. I was ready enough for TODAY. Next week or the week after we will be in full swing. That gives me a little more time to think of something fun to start the year off with. I also haven't ordered the math books yet (oops! It just slippped my mind). Today was fun and we did everything I had planned with the boys, which is really impressive considering we started late and have misplaced some of the books.
I thought I knew where all the books were, but I have lost Cameron's reading book. I'm sure it's here somewhere and I am hoping we can find it tonight because her other reading book is BORING! I can't believe I made Raeley read every page. But you know, it was part of the curriculum. And back then I couldn't imaging not doing every page. I might miss something.
We didn't start school till 11 because I had to drop Mark off at the airport. I left the boys with work to look over so they'd be ready when I got home.
Well, I'm not actually finished for today. After the reading lesson with Cameron, we did a game then she needed a break, so hopefully I'll get a little more in tonight. Also, Raeley asked to finish her work tonight because her friends from the neighborhood came over to hang out. I'll give her that freedom and see how she steps up to the plate.
I must admit, at one point during the day I had to take a break and lay on the bed to calm down. When sports start up, I am dreading what our day will look like.
Tonight is leftovers so I have some time to finish preparing for the school year we have already started. But first I'll go to WalMart because my labeler stopped working and I don't want to hand write on their notebooks and divider tabs. I feel like it's my luxury. Maybe one day I'll even invest in an automatic pencil sharpener. Then I'll really feel spoiled!
As I said, we started school, and I wasn't ready, but we started anyway, and just like last year (remember this post? My first one?!!) it went just fine.