Muffin Tin Lunch

To celebrate their new thrift store table and chairs, the kids got to eat lunch at it (well, and most lunches since.) BTW, I'm loving this new-to-us wooden Dora table.  It's quite durable. and $6 for the table and 2 yellow little tikes chairs -- um, I couldn't pass that up. I'd love to have more childless time to explore our 3 in-town thrift stores.  I love finding good deals.  Maybe I'll start going Saturday mornings now that football has started.

I wish, wish wish, we had two 6 hole muffin tins, so each kid had their own "plate." But we only have a 12 and our walmart only has a 12.  So the search continues.  And they shared well.

Anyway, they had garden tomatoes, apple slices, mandarin orange slices, carrots, celery and cheese sticks sliced up so they fit in the tins.  And because my kids cannot eat celery or carrots without it, dip in their own bowls.  And when I say DIP, I just mean Ranch Dressing.  Nothing fancy here, folks.

I was pleased with how lunch turned out.  They ate a little more than normal and a much bigger variety of healthy foods than normal.  Usually it's a sandwich and a fruit or something similar.  a main thing and one fruit or vegetable side.

If only I had an equally healthy lunch! I think I had a couple of handfuls of raw almonds and a handful of reece's peices.

I love: No Pudge Fudge Brownie Mix

And even more than my love for No Pudge Fudge Brownie Mix is my love for the dear friend that introduced me to it.  sigh.  We go way back. And I trust her completely especially when it comes to the important things in life. Like no guilt chocolate, for example.

just add VANILLA YOGURT.   no, seriously.  JUST add vanilla yogurt

I hate all things DIET.  I hate the word.  I hate diet colas, I hate reduced fat or fat free anything and everything.  seriously, I don't waste my time on any of that.  I'd rather have a piece of fruit and a glass of lemon water than fat free cheez-its and a diet coke. 2% milk is the closest thing to "diet" that you'll ever see me willingly touch.

So, why, you ask, do I like these fat free brownies?  Well, for starters they taste great -- absolutely no chalking, bitter, reduced calorie taste involved. Second, and this is just as important, they aren't very rich.  I can eat a brownie and not feel like I need a half gallon of milk to wash it down.  It's light and really tastes like chocolate.

Also, my third favorite reason I love these things, is you can make single servings in the microwave in about a minute.   SUPER.  You don't want to bake a whole pan of brownies even if they are fat free?  grab a ramecan or another microwave safe dish and 1 minute later ... you have a brownie.

sigh.  I love Tina and I love No Pudge Fudge Brownie Mix.  Now I just have to find them so I can buy my own!

It's a measuring day ...

... but I'm not measuring today. So instead of looking at some names of body parts and their corresponding numbers, look at these cute kids.

Why no measuring today? Well, because for the last few weeks I have been such a slacker. I can tell ZERO difference in my body and I'd rather not take the chance of getting down because the numbers went up.

I've spent drastically less time on the weight bench and the elliptical. But on the up side we've been outside A LOT.

We've gone hiking twice. Walking (a 5k) three times and running (the couch to 5k program) three times. The weather has been too nice to stay in on the elliptical. But My knees and hips have been begging me to just sit and crochet instead of getting on the elliptical on non-running days.

I ordered some new running shoes. So that's nice. Nothing fancy or special. Just a pair of New Balances that are in the "performance running" category. And they were on sale and I had a coupon. So that makes it better too. I'm excited for them to arrive and hopefully I'll get a little relief on my knees and hips.

I have scheduled (but not signed up for) my first 5k of the season. March19th, It's the Clay House 5k in the Bham area if anyone is interested in joining. I will definitely not be ready in the sense that I will be able to run the entire thing (I'll only be on week 6 of C25K by then) but it'll be the last 5k I can enter before my 30th birthday. I'd like to give it a go.

3 week "measure in"

Yesterday was my scheduled day to take my measurements again.

thigh: -1/2 inch

hips: -1/2 inch

waist(not where my pants sit, but my actual waist, where my torso curves in): -3/4 inch

chest: didn't measure.

arm: no change. (boo)

to tell you the honest truth, I was disappointed. I just expected more out of 3 weeks of working out and lifting weights. Not that I was on the elliptical 3 hours a day and maxing out on weights every other day. I did take a less aggressive route.

30 minutes on the elliptical 5 days a week and weights every other day.

I just expected the numbers to change a little more. BUT, again, I know I'm going to see less movement taking measurements than I would on a scale. My jeans are looser. So there's that.

It definitely pushed me yesterday to have my most intense workout thus far. So I made yesterday's workout the minimum goal of what I want to make my workouts feel like.

Plus, I know my metabolism has kicked up a notch because I am hungry ALL THE TIME. So, I've picked up some healthy snack options

AND I'm not afraid to have a glass of coke if I really feel like I need it. little things like that add up ... on the negative side.

I'll tell you right now, that I've been avoiding that fabulous bread I love to make. between garlic bread, nutella, butter, roasted tomato basil, and olive oil dip I could eat an entire loaf in a day. SO, it's just easier to not bake any.

I'll have to give myself a break and have some in the next month or so.

SOMETHING I LEARNED THIS WEEK BY READY LABELS: 1 tablespoon of white sugar has MUCH few calories than 1 tablespoon of clover honey. (I guess I'll slow down my search for raw local honey as a sugar substitute in my hot tea)

popcorn ... a healthy snack.

No. Not microwave popcorn. That's gross. Hot air popped pop corn. Fluffy fresh popcorn faster than in the microwave AND way better for you.

Meet my pop corn popper. Its name is Presto Poplite

There's also the question of what kind of kernels to use. Yellow kernels are standard. They're the ones you see most often at the grocery store. Publix sells white kernels. I love them. They pop into smaller pieces but they taste better. But the holy grail of popping corn is the purple/red/black kernel. You know the kind companies make dark corn chips out of. Those kernels are fabulous. They pop even smaller but they've got such a good taste, I don't have to add ANY toppings.

ah. Toppings. Daughter loves a little (or a lot of) parmesan cheese.

I like about a tablespoon of melted butter, a little chili powder and a little parmesan cheese. Unless I can get my hands on red/blue/black kernels -- then it's plain.

I've also heard that the packets you use to make ranch and Italian dressing are good too.

yes, yes, I know. The more toppings you add, the less healthy your snack becomes.

lentil sprouts growing and growing

this is what happens when you say, "I'd like to make egg rolls with lentil sprouts in a few days."

and then you overestimate and grow twice as many as you actually need for the egg rolls.

and then you leave them in the jar and don't eat them.

they grow and grow and grow.

and now I have to admit, I don't want to throw them away because they'll die. It seems I've somehow developed an unnatural nurturing tendency toward things I grow.

"healthier" doesn't always taste better

eating healthier.

it's good. right? and tastes good too? um, I'm going to be honest. no. not always.

My friend, Lauren's Mommy, has been writing about making healthier choices at the grocery store, like switching from white bread to whole wheat and buying more fruit for snack time. GREAT choices. and while I'd love to say we only buy whole wheat, sometimes we buy white wheat. [it's true] we are pretty good about eating fruit fruit fruit. both kids love apples, blue berries, raspberries and peaches.

Another friend was having some prediabetic issues and had gained about 50 pounds. She eliminated white bread, pastas, rice and sugar and in a year has lost all the extra weight.

WAIT.

I love pasta, rice and potatoes. eeek. it would definitely be healthier if I served my family less of this stuff.

but seriously. give up white pasta, white rice, and white potatoes? ... oh and white flour.

sheesh. no pain, no gain. That's for sure.

Well, how about limiting our intact? I can do that. we can limit. cut back, restrict. yes. we can do that.

ok, well I need a first step. my first plan of action.

What do I eat the most of that I can cut back on first?

sugar. plain and simple sugar. not for my family. for me. sugar.

sugar.

SUUUUUUUGGGGGAAAAARRRR ... in coffee.

two tablespoons of sugar and a splash of milk. in my big mug.

I went to the grocery store to look for a respectable substitute. Truvia won the grocery store challenge. made from the stevia plant. I'm familiar with it from my working days at a dietary supplements company.

This morning Husband made coffee and he decided he'd join me in the "eat less sugar challange" [He's even worse than I am because of his love for sweet tea] We got our mugs out, measured our Truvia, poured our coffee, added the milk, stirred, sipped.

yuck. Husband said it didn't taste that different, but he uses more milk and less sugar than I do. It left a bitter taste similar to Nutrasweet in my mouth. NOT AS BAD, but it was there.

I ended up adding one spoon of sugar to the coffee and now it tastes respectable.

For a positive spin on the situation I have officially cut my sugar in coffee intake in half! And that's a step in the right direction. ;-)