Diet

Yep, I'm on a diet.  It's only been 3 weeks but so far it's going really well.  Wanted to jot down some thoughts so that later I can return and revisit. 

First I quit drinking my calories.  My mom recently lost a bunch of weight and as we were talking one day she made the statement "I don't like to drink my calories."  This really resonated with me.  I was a Mountain Dew kinda gal.  So, no more Mountain Dew.  As a matter of fact, I am only drinking water.  I have some reservation about drinking anything other than, like a slipper slope right back to the Dew.  I'm treating it like when I quite smoking.  With drinking though I might feel comfortable to have something other than water down the road but now it just seems like it's too tempting. 

It's all about the calories.  I found a site online to calculate how many calories I should eat daily to achieve my goal weight.  That was a start, I then found this app to track my calories and my weight.  The nice thing about this app is that it recalculates your calories as you loose weight.  I love this.  It's gradual.  It seem more fail proof.  Setting me up for success rather than failure. 

I currently don't eat a lot of veggies or fruit.  I don't dislike them but prep time is hard with having 2 small ones at home.  I know that this will be something that I will gradually incorporate more of in my diet. 

I have lost 6 pounds so far.  Not much when compared to the 60 I want to loose but it's some rather than none. 

I'm not a prepper...

...but I sure want to be.  Well maybe not to the extent of having underground bunkers and getting military trained, but I sure would like to make life easier for my family if SHTF.  I'm starting small as to not tax the budget too much.  I found this list and it's just the starting point I needed and it appears manageable.  I'll also add water to the list.

This is not about economic collapse or shutting down of the grid, this is about being prepared for whatever may happen.  I have little ones and the thought of looking at them in distress because they are hungry and I have nothing to feed them horrifies me.  Whether it's a hurricane or job loss, I want to be able to feed my family.  If I can stock up on food to prep for an upcoming vacation then I can stock up on food for unforeseen hardships. 

The above linked list is a beginning.  I'll add and tweak items as the years go by but I need to start somewhere. I had already planned on doing lots and lots of canning this year anyway so now I have a more urgent reason to do so. 

2/03 - 2/09 Goals

No, I still haven't gotten my cards out.  It will be the first thing I do from this new list of goals.  Let me just say, planning a theme for lunches has been the best idea for lunch prep so far.  This week being Japanese (or general Asian) week will include things like onigiri, and lots of veggies and some fish, and I'm most excited about picking up some unagi. 

I also finished Paul's hat but it's too long so I'll need to pull back a few rows and fix that, boo.  I haven't yet started spinning the rest of the fiber for James sweater, I'm in more of a knitting mood than a spinning mood.  It happens.

Family / Wifery / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending
• Send January and February birthday card
• plan Valentines dinner

Feed my Soul

• Continue to work on Paul's hat
• Start spinning the remaining fiber for James jacket

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Decide on weeks theme
• prep lunch stuffs
• SAM's stock up trip

Not planning much for Sunday Yumday, we might have hubbies mom over for dinner so there will not be much time for a large canning or prepping adventure.  SAM's to stock up on some chicken, pork chops, and beef. 

Week of Salads 1/27 - 1/31

It's was salad week so Monday I put together a taco salad using leftovers from Sunday night's tacos.  Just let me say...I Love our tacos.  Restaurant tacos are fine but I loves the ones I make at home.  No special recipe.  Just the box kind and my own fav toppers. 

Didn't do lunch at work Tuesday. 

Wednesday was my BBQ Chicken salad. Well kinda. It was inspired by the BBQ chicken salad. 

Thursday's lunch was a deconstructed BBQ Spring roll. 

This is by far my favorite "salad" of the week. The veggies are on a bed of vermicelli rice noodles and the chicken is covered with hoisin sauce. Yum!

Loved this week of salads. They were yummy and filling and nice since I started a diet on Wednesday. 

Next week: Japanese Cooking Week. I love Japanese food. 

1/27 - 2/2 Goals

Got a little more done this week.  A very little.  I did have some sick wee ones so my time was very much needed for cuddling and soothing.   

Family / Wifery / Friends 

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending
• Send January and February birthday card

Feed my Soul

• Continue to work on Paul's hat
• Start spinning the remaining fiber for James jacket

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Decide on theme for lunches - this seems to really help with lunch planning
• prep lunch stuff

I have no intention of trying to can Sunday, it is Superbowl Sunday after all and I'll have a Puppybowl to watch and comercials to enjoy. 

As a note: I didn't mark off that I prepped a weeks worth of lunches from last week's goals but I didn't get a bit done.  I did prep veggies and roast some chicken breast.  Tonight I'll roast some corn and bell pepers. 

Salad week

Theme for a week of lunches? Why not.

This is going to be Salad week. No...I'm not trying to loose weight, I've just seen so many yummy looking salads lately that I want to try. Maybe it will be easier to prep for lunch when I have a theme? Let's see.

Here are my salad inspirations.
BBQ Chicken Salad
BBQ Chicken Cobb Salad
BBQ Chicken Spring Rolls - deconstructed on a bed of rice noodles

Also thinking tacos salad type thing.

Prepping:
Roast frozen corn
Rinse black beans
Chop lettuce
Grill and cook chicken
Chop veggies
Prep dressings
Boil eggs

Now...to take a nap. Been up with sick kids all night. Then I'll start prepping and cooking dinner. We are having tacos, then I'll be using the leftovers for my taco salad lunch.

Snotty week

Sick kids sure do have a way of putting a stop to all productivity. They also have a way of sucking all the energy out of parents to where not even simple daily chores get done. So it's now Sunday and before I could even think about pressure canning some chicken I have to clean the kitchen, go to the farmers market and prep food for lunches. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be a productive person.

1/20 - 126 Goals

This is getting a bit ridiculous.  I can not seem to get motivated to do anything.  I did purchase all the birthday cards but that is it.  I didn't even get laundry done this weekend.  I barely spun anything, not even an ounce.  I didn't pressure can on Sunday nor did I prep anything.  Not sure what is up with my slacking behind but I've got to get this corrected.  I did start Paul's peradiddle hat but didn't do a project bag or anything. 

Family / Wife / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• General spinning and knitting
• Take purge yarn to store to give away

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken
• Prep week's worth of lunch stuff for me and the kids

I'm going to put a little pressure on myself to get some Sunday Yumday task completed this week. 

1/13 - 1/19 Goals

I didn't accomplish most of the goals I set for myself last week.  I totally lost the wind from my sails.  Let's see I can do this week.  I did get our family vacation to Walt Disney reserved and I got a little crazy planning for that.  But can ya blame me?! 

Family / Wife / Friends

• Sign and prep birthday cards for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• Sew another project bag
• Fill that project bag with a kit for Paul's Peradiddle hat which includes needles that I might need to buy
• General spinning and knitting

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken

As planning relates to our vacay I did plan all the meals that we will have for our trip.  We will be gone 4 nights but staying in an RV so most meals will be had at "home".  I made a list of all the planned meals and ingredients for those meals.  I marked the meals that I can start stocking up on so the cost of food will not hit all at once.  I purchased a bin to store our trip stockpile of food items.  More about trip planning in a later post. 

1/6 - 1/12 Goals

This week I'll be getting back into the swing of things as the first full work week of the new year.  I'm going to go easy on myself.

Family / Wife / Friends

• Purchase birthday cards for everyone. Sign and prep for sending.
• Send January birthday cards

Feed my Soul

• Sew another project bag
• Fill that project bag with a kit for Paul's Peradiddle hat which includes needles that I might need to buy
• General spinning and knitting

Homesteading / Sunday Yumday

• Sunday Yumday - pressure can chicken

Sunday Yumday

Today was very productive and I'm feeling real proud of myself. I was able to put together 8 meals, 1 of which we had for dinner.I made 3 of this Baked Teriyaki Chicken.  I also made 3 of this Salisbury Steak recipe. And I made 2 meatloaves which is from my own recipe.

I did not however get to the farmers market and I know I'll be regretting that this week but the first part of the day was spent sleeping in which never happens for me anymore. But Scooter Bug was with the grandparents and hubby took Pea Pod to the coffee shop with him so mommy enjoyed some extra zzz's.