That's Life

You know how it goes, you've been on a healthy eating plan for a while and feeling great, then life happens. It's your birthday, someone bakes you cookies, or you eat at someone's home and the dinner menu doesn't quite fit your new habits. Yep, I've been there. 

Two weekends ago Jason and I decided on a cheat day. We had both been dreaming about pizza and decided to make a day of it and have a pizza date! I'm not gonna lie, it was awesome! And we both ate more than we should have. 

Over the last week I had plenty of extra stress, busy work days, and somehow made it to school several days in a row without my healthy snacks and lunches. Let me tell ya the week was set up to fail from the start. To top it all off we went home for the weekend to spend some time with our families where they served mostly things we should not have had. Let's face it. It's football season in the south! What do you expect? 

That's life folks. It happens. It can be difficult to say no when thrown into a world of situations you didn't plan for. 

One thing that I try to do after having several cheat days in a row is to convince myself I'm excited to eat healthy again! This is usually done by switching up my recipes to try new things, or braking out some oldies that I haven't had in a while. If I can get excited about a healthy meal that has been planned then I'm less likely to desire the chocolate as I walk by the candy dish. 

Today, was another day full of stress which made it perfect to play some mind games on myself. 

I had part of the day off which allowed me to spend some additional time eating breakfast. It was awesome if I do say so myself 

Breakfast consisted of two eggs, some green pepper, and spinach. Yummo 

I also had a honey and nut bar with my coffee. 

Lunch was on the go and at a time when I didn't feel like eating. So I just grabbed an apple and green grapes to go with almond butter. 

Have you guys tried this? Oh my I could eat the whole jar! I actually bought this out of weakness. It's pretty dangerous to keep in the house. I crave it when I know it's in the pantry. 

Dinner was a quick and easy go to staple. Salsa verde chicken salad. 

Couldn't be easier. Just add chicken and a jar of salsa verde to the crockpot. 6 hours later put it over a salad mix of your choice and done. We have also done this with regular salsa and adding taco seasoning or ranch dressing mix. These are also very good, but Jason and I both decided the flavor of the salsa verde was the winner in our home. 

So that was me tricking myself to get back into the groove of things. Hopefully the rest of the week will go as smoothly! 

I have some new recipes that looked fall inspired to me that I can't wait to try pinned on my Pinterest board. I'll be sure to post if they're winners! 

Question of the week:

What do you do to stay healthy when life happens?

Big Day for the Pup!

Today was a big day for me and my sweet puppy! 

She passed her canine good citizen test! It was also her last day of puppy training with our sweet trainer Ms. Jane! 

When we first got Georgia she through my life for a loop! It didn't take long to realize that she was a sweet, smart, loving puppy, but that she also had severe  separation anxiety. 

Since I had never seen a dog with this type of problem before I was clueless on what to do and it actually started giving me anxiety! I had no clue how to help her and wanted so bad for her to just be comfortable in our home all the time. 

God is so good and answered my prayer in many ways. One of the blessings that he gave us was Ms. Jane and her dog Pep. 

Pep is a certified therapy dog who has worked her magic on Georgia and the two have become best friends. 

I love the idea of getting Georgia to also be a certified therapy dog, and that is our next goal! 

Georgia was a small puppy when she was separated from her family in the May 20, 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornado. After that she was in a couple foster homes before coming to Texas with us. So her anxiety is completely justified. But it also gives her a story that I think a lot of kids would be interested in. 

I have always loved the idea of working with children in the hospital. (True story: before becoming a teacher I was under much debate about going back to school for my masters in child development so I could work with the children's hospital full time.)

I think this could be an amazing opportunity for Georgia and I to bless children that are going through a hard time, while also sharing God's love with them on our visits! 

If that is the road that He wants us to go down then I could not be more excited! But if He wants to send us down a different road I'll be excited to see that happen as well. I do know though that God has blessed me in many ways with this adorable puppy's face and I could not be more thankful for her! 

You Got To Move It

The most crucial and rewarding part of weight loss is exercise. You can join in with friends, try things you never thought you would, and completely watch your body transform. It's pretty amazing! 

Learning to run has been an accomplishment for me that I never thought would come. I use to hate to run!  I would beg my dad to write me a sick day pass when it came time for the fitness test in PE. And when he said no I refused to even try. I would walk the entire mile just out of spite. I hated running! 

But hearing other's stories can be so motivating! I have a cousin who started running about 10 or so years ago now. He is amazing and has completely transformed his lifestyle! 

He is now a marathon runner and such an inspiration to me and the rest of our family! After hearing about the benefits for years I wanted to give running another shot. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it! 

I started out running on my lunch breaks at work. Due to the need to shower afterwords this meant I only had time to do a 30minute run. And after doing this routine about 4 times a week for 3 months I loved seeing myself change! I then completed my first 5K with my bestie and was on top of the world. 

We Did It!!!

Since accomplishing this goal I have tried to set small Fittness goals for myself along the way. The only qualification is it has to be something I haven't done before, or I'll need to take it farther than I ever have. 

This last spring I got back into running and worked my way up to 8 miles! This was a huge day! Huge.

Over the summer I took a body pump class and built muscle I wasn't aware that I had. 

And currently I am participating in an online boot camp with The Workout Momma! (Read her blog. It's good!)

Jason and I have also been going on morning jogs together with Ms. Georgia dog. Usually around 2 miles. 

This is the Best time of the day! I love my extra time in the morning with the hubs and I love that he is pushing me each and every time. 

(Excuse the evil eyes)

I really enjoy switching things up and not allowing myself to get bored! 

Question for the day:

What is your favorite way to exercise?

foodie

I love to eat, but have had to learn some tricks over the last few years to help me not over do it. So, one thing that I wanted to do with this blog is post some of my daily meal ideas. It will be a source of accountability for myself, but also help throw out some ideas if you're looking to get out of a food rut. 

Tonight's dinner...

Garlic shrimp and green beans with roasted red potatoes...mmm...

 Confession: this is a picture of Jason's plate. I did not eat the potatoes. 

I have a habit of drinking coffee after work when its been a stressful day, and then I'm not as hungry for dinner. 

Lets just say today was one of those days. 

This is one of my favorite easy weeknight meals! Throw frozen green beans and shrimp in the skillet with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. And roast some red potatoes in the oven covered in olive oil and seasoning. This potato recipe is one that Jason found and he really likes it! Gotta love when the hubby finds dinner ideas for ya! Here is the link if you want to give them a try http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/tastier-8211-prettier-8211-alternative-baked-potatoes-143900235.ht

I get a lot of questions also about my eating plan. And for the most part I just try to be healthy. Jason and I have tried many diets along the way and have basically taken what works for us from them and this is what we stick with 90 percent of the time...

-no gluten

-no dairy

-no sugar

-as few processed foods as possible

So basically we eat...

-all the veggies we want

-fruit, fruit, fruit! (We might have both been born with a sweet tooth)

-lean meat (preferably organic)

-nuts!!! Neither of us can even imagine what it would be like to have a but allergy. They help us get through the day. No lie

Now let me throw in a disclaimer. I love my coffee and refuse to give it up. And I cannot drink coffee without my coffee mate creamer! So I do have a little dairy and sugar each day. 

We also break the rules about once a week or so, and don't stick to any kind of  plan when it comes to birthdays. 

What can I say...sometimes I'm weak! But I'm fine with that! 

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Lets Get Started!

To start off I would like to say I am an avid blog reader, but I've never been much of a writer (you've been prewarned). I have thought about starting a blog for about 3 years now. My darling husband had started encouraging me to write one right after we got married, but I never took it too seriously. I thought I wouldn't have much to say and thought if I did write one there wouldn't be one person that would follow. 

Now I'm not saying that I suddenly have great stories to tell, or that I know I'll now have a strong following. Probably there won't be many that read this, and that's great! But what made me want to finally start a blog was the constant question "how do you do it?"

Most of you that know me well, know that over the last 3 years I have lost 40lbs. This has been a long road and not one that I have done on my own. But I still have people that think that I either don't eat very much, or think I have the same meal every night. I'm constantly asked "how do you do it?"

So this is not a step by step plan, or something that is intended for others to copy. It's simply me answering the question of what I do. I'll also throw in a little info about my life in general because let's face it, I don't like blogs that only stick to only one topic :)

I hope you enjoy, and that I might be able to encourage one person the way my daily blog reading encourages me. 

Happy reading!