Reboot Part 2

Fast forward a few years and another kid and late one Sunday night I was taking a shower before bed.  The sermon that night had been about gifts and using our talents and how they help us live out our purpose.  It had struck a chord with me. I am not trying to insinuate that raising my children isn’t a noble and admirable purpose.   But is that ALL I should be doing? I didn’t really feel like I was maxing out my potential.  I felt much more like I was surviving, not thriving.  And just barely at that.  While I was in the shower that night I was praying asking God to show me how he wanted to use me, show me what I could and should be doing, and give me purpose.  I stumbled over to my bed and jotted a list in my phone of things that I was either passionate about or that I considered to be my talents and I laid them there at his feet.  For several months I began praying about these items. I would think of small things here and there that would encompass some of the items on my list but never saw any real avenue to grow them.  And as time went by again slowly that hope that things were on the horizon faded in my memory and again I seemed to move on.  

The week between Christmas and New Year’s this year I started having a stirring in my heart again. But this time there was a lot of “Oh no, not this again.” I felt very uncomfortable in my own skin. Quite literally the person looking back at me in the mirror was not who I felt like in my heart and yet she had totally taken over me.  I was sick and unhealthy.  I was ashamed. I was broken.  I was trying as hard as I could to live a life worthy of being a mom to Grace, Sophie, Charlotte and Jack but I felt nothing like a role model, not like a mom to be looked up to and admired. Much like Michael Phelps I felt worthless and needed a purpose. I decided then and there, once and for all, I was changing! I put my stake in the ground and I yelled “No more!”  For all the times in my life that I have wanted to make changes and didn’t stick with them, this time felt drastically different and I’m not sure why.  I feel strongly that my stubborn nature is finally working with me. I will never go back to living the way I was, it was not truly living.  

It’s hard to fully describe how I’ve changed in the last 7 months.  I have lost 35lbs and gained a ton of energy, vitality and most importantly that thing I have craved for years, purpose.  I began tracking my food and working out, I enlisted friends to work out with me and I joined online accountability groups to encourage me in my struggle to change quite literally from the inside out.  My friend Sara who has also been my coach for the last 6 months and I planned a camping trip for our two families in June and I knew it was my chance to ask her some questions that had begun burning in my heart, what is this coaching thing all about?  As our kids and husbands went to bed that first night we sat up until 2 am talking about coaching and the ups and downs and she answered question after question for me as we sat staring at the sky and beautiful embers in the fire slowly went dim and we finally realized how late it was and went off to bed.  I did not sleep well initially; I was wrestling with the idea.  One of the main reasons I didn’t know if I wanted to try this was I hadn’t actually even tried any of Beachbody’s products myself yet.  I had been in a 7 week weight loss plateau.  I was still tracking all my food.  I was still working out 6x/week and everything just stopped.  Something needed to change.

A few weeks later I called Sara, “we leave for the Bahamas in 21 days…..I want to do the 21 day fix!” (Nothing like waiting till the last second! Typical me!) so she loaned me supplies to last me until my order arrived.  She set me up to go to a “what is coaching” sneak peek online the next night.  I began to have more and more answers to my questions and thought maybe this would be fun for me, a little extra income.  So I told her why not sign me up for the discount and I’ll see what I think.  Paul Harvey fans, stay tuned for the rest of the story ….

Reboot, Part 1

Everyone needs someone in their family who understands technology, someone to call when you get that blue screen of death and can talk you down off the ledge when you are sure your computer is dying. My brother in law is my person.  Years ago I would call him and it would go something like this: “Hey so my computer is frozen and making a dying cat sound. Is that bad?” or “Hey so the picture on my monitor is upside down, is that bad?” or “Hey my computer flashed a purple light three times and now all the words are in Chinese, is that bad?” His response was always one simple question, “Did you reboot?” Doh! It took me awhile to realize, gotta try rebooting before I panic-dial my bro computer-911. Reboot is magical, it completely somehow restores everything and makes the world back to the way it should be! Love me some reboot. 

 

Olympics are in full swing and our house has nothing but love for MP.  I recently saw a story circulating discussing how after the height of his glory following the London Olympics when Michael got busted several times for DUI’s mentally and emotionally he was at an all-time low.  And feeling like he wasn’t worth anything he contemplated suicide. We have a huge tendency in this country to put our athletes on pedestals and honestly who deserved to be idealized more than the most decorated Olympian of all time. But feeling as though his mistakes outshine all his accomplishments he wanted to end his life.  A good friend of his gave him a shoulder to lean on, picked him up and drove his butt to rehab and when he dropped him off; he gave him a copy of this:

For the first time in his life Michael felt that he had purpose. Again it’s amazing to think someone as talented, disciplined, and accomplished as he is did not feel as though he had purpose.  He made major changes in his life and here he is winning more medals in Rio! He came back with purpose.  He underwent a major reboot. 

 

In 2011 I was attempting a major reboot in my physical health but the changes I made didn’t last.  As much as I worked on my physical transformation that year I did not work on my mental transformation nearly enough.  When challenges arose, I crumbled and gained the weight all back.  During that year I remember vividly feeling unsatisfied deep in my soul with where my life was.  Ever feel like your bogged down in your roles as a wife and mom and that the sum total of your contribution to society feels like wiping noses, bottoms and kitchen counters? Even in my career which has purpose of helping others you often feel as though everyone is cranky and unappreciative (because really people in pain are rightfully cranky) and the greater good ends up feeling a lot…lesser.  I jotted down a job description at the time, for what I wanted to do.  Then I literally tried imagining a real job out there that fit the description.  Then I actually looked for it.  I started with my large employer thinking well maybe they had a better place for me that I could transfer to and even went as far as to inquire online about a position open with the YMCA. The Y never replied, the tide of life and all my demands swept me out to sea and I continued on much in the state I was in, feeling relatively purposeless for several more years.  

Rick Warren actually says in his book, “Trusting God completely means having faith that He knows what is best for your life. You expect Him to keep His promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary.”  I wish I had read that then, I wish I had trusted him more, I wish I hadn’t pushed those hopes and dreams down for so long, but I did. Stay tuned for more about what happened next....

What's up? That's what's up!

So back when I was still pregnant with Jack I bought this:

And had big plans to get to it as soon as he was born........or......6 months later. You know what they say? Better late than never!  I have been desperate to recapture the magic of 2011, when I started this blog, when I was doing great with food and started dabbling in the world of jogging (don't believe that I will ever be able to call myself a runner haha!) and I lost 40 lbs and the accountabililty of this blog was a big part of that successful year.  But 2012 came with my husbands surgery and then another pregnancy and a move and a home building project and another move and crazy crazy insane church split and another pregnancy and another baby and even though they were all very huge life changes each and every one of them, they also felt a lot like a lot of excuses.  I knew we were done having kids so at least all those major weight loss interrupters are over but I also know that life will continue to be busy and wild and things will happen and so I needed to get a handle on myself.  I needed to fight for my health and wellness, not just physically but spiritually, emotionally and mentally as well!  So leading up to New Year's resolution season I thought a lot about how to recapture that magic and part of that was getting back into the swing of things on my blog but I didn't want to make promises I didn't intend to keep.  So I decided to keep it under wraps for a bit.

Starting the week after New Years I began Jillian's exercise program and tomorrow marks the end of 16 weeks that I have been at this! I ended up stretching the 12 weeks out due to flu, my daughters surgery, spring break etc.  But overall for the last 16 weeks I have logged my food on my fitness pal very nearly every day, even when I had influenza! I have also been exercising 6 days a week (somedays twice!) and have felt myself get stronger and stronger and break barriers.  I have resumed the couch to 5k plan again and fallen back in love with how it feels to jog.  I am cooking healthier food for my family again and they have all been so supportive.  My kids need this too!

Mid february I was invited to join an accountability group my beautiful friend Sara has started as she started her own journey in November and is now a Beachbody coach and doing so amazing. She inspires me every single day! I have loved the accountability of talking about what you are eating and what you are doing for exercise and it has helped push me to be better!! Her facebook page is Stronger Everyday With Sara and you should like her page here.  You may even get me a referral point or two!

As of this morning I have lost 22 lbs (my lucky number!!!) so if I can repeat these 4 months like 5 more times I may find myself where I want to be! And even though I am still struggling with the mirror, with how I look in clothes, or those weeks that go by when the scale refuses to budge despite all my best efforts, with how far away my goal is, with the food temptations all around me and on and on, I know there are also about a hundred other tiny little changes and victories I have found; how I can walk up stairs without being out of breath (yeah that struggle was real!), how I absolutely MAKE TIME to exercise even when I am busy or exhausted, how the tiredness comes in handy to get me to go to bed earlier but yet during the day I have much more energy for chasing two little ones around, how proud of me my husband is and on and on.  I'm glad to be on this journey and make it last.  I will never give up.  And so I plan to work on this blog more regularly, it is still a little difficult to do it as often as I would like, I guess with 4 kids I am sort of busy or something!?  I hope those of you who used to cheer me on back then will dust off my blog and come back to cheering me on.  Your support means a lot to me as well. 

 

My brother in law Jeff is king of the catch phrases in our family.  I'll never forget the year of "Your heads a shell" after Tommy boy came out! When Sophie was about 2 he tried to teach her to reply to "what's up" with "That's what's up!" and I stumbled across a cute video of her the other day from when she finally learned it!  I have been trying to think of how and when to unveil you of my new way of life and I finally felt like all the pieces came together this week, it was the end of the first time through Jillian's torturous program, the scale had been on a standstill for 3 weeks and finally budged and it brought me to 22lbs which is my favorite number and an even 4 months of me doing this transformation.  So here it is, the new me, what's up with me? That's what's up!!

Superfood Lunch!

Things I learned on Monday: Attempting to blog a recipe which requires some percentage of photography while cooking is purty darn difficult while also serving lunch to a highly emotional and volatile as of late 2 year old and a baby whose favorite impression while in his highchair is that of a cross between a screech owl and a howler monkey if there is even a momentary lapse in food being accessible on his tray.  Bottomline: next time feed them, clean up, then make your food in peace.  Wait, peace? What is this peace you speak of? That reminds me, I love the show Masterchef (I know shocker!) and my oldest really like watching Masterchef Junior with me and it has made her even more adventurous in trying foods so I say bring it on.  Anyways I was watching an episode of the adult version and they were having a "pressure test" and they had a set time limit to cook a meal and were scurrying around like wild people to get it done.  And while I was watching it I too was cooking dinner, I too had a deadline as Craig had a meeting, and as I was zooming around I was dodging a baby who often will crawl up to my feet and bite down hard, just to, you know get my attention! AND a toddler who, well, I mentioned how she is behaving lately! I started laughing quite literally LOL as I pictured Gordon Ramsey giving contestants the ultimate pressure test, when they lift the mystery box...a toddler and a baby who will be climbing all over them and getting into trouble chewing on cords, etc. while they cook.  They have to cook a meal, keep the babies safe, have it delicious enough and healthy enough for the adults and be kid approved and they have 60 minutes...go!!! I still laugh thinking of all those babies under the mystery box lids!!! Go ahead have a good chuckle with me. Of course if you have never watched the show then you are missing out. 

Anyways the POINT IS that sometimes to do all the mom things that we do and even try to excel at certain things we most definitely have to be part mom, part superhero! So what better way to fuel our superhero bodies than with Super Foods!!! I was able to snap a few pictures after all and had a delicious meal, that was vegetarian for those of you into that kind of thing! This recipe has three powerhouse super foods as the stars of the show; spinach, mushrooms and sweet potatoes. Yum, yum, yum.

 

Horseradish Cheddar Mashed Sweet Potatoes

with Sauteed spinach and mushrooms

 

 

Ingredients:

1 med sweet potato

1 portabello mushroom cap

1-2 handfuls of baby spinach

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp prepared horseradish

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Smidge of chicken stock, milk or half and half if needed

A couple of croutons for garnish

 

Preparation:

Peel and coarsely chop sweet potato and place in pot of boiling water until soft. Drain.  Add dash of milk, half/half or stock if needed. (Mine did not) Melt cheese into potatoes and mix in horseradish, salt and pepper, and paprika. (Sorry I didn't get any pics of this part!

 

Then in a separate skillet add oil and chopped mushrooms.

 

Saute on high heat until they begin to shrink down. 

 

 

Then in a few handfuls of spinach, you could also substitute kale (another super food!). Add the minced garlic, be sure to keep stirring as burnt garlic is bad bad bad!

 

 

Season with thyme and nutmeg

 

 

Plate veges over potatoes and garnish with a couple of crushed croutons which added a nice little crunch.

 

 

It was very yummy!!! And satisfying. The whole thing was only 348 calories but very filling, I could only eat about 2/3 of it! I shared with my Boo

 

 

Baby Approved!!!

 As I type this, the monster, er I mean toddler, is having another very VERY rough day.  It's hard being two! So I better go dust off my cape and find my super powers so we can make it through the day and keep the city safe from destruction!!! Good luck to all cooking with little ones underfoot, you are Super, you can do it!

Jumpin' Jar Salads!!!

About as long as Pinterest has been in existence or at least as long as I joined it anyways, I have wanted to start making mason jar salads, so this week I decided no time like the present! Here are the first 4 I have concocted and they were all fabulous! I may be sending a bunch of these your way in the next few months! I bought a rotisserie and chopped it up to use for these. Ideally it would maybe a little more variety but I used chicken for all these this week.  All the salads which are packed with produce ended up being between 200-300 calories and were super filling! First up....

Red White and Blue Berry Chicken Jar Salad

 

 

Layers bottom to top:

Homemade Greek Yogurt Poppyseed dressing - 2 Tbsp

4 chopped strawberries

3 Tbsp chopped chicken

2 Tbsp crumbled feta

1/4 cup blueberries

1 cup romaine lettuce

1 Tbsp almonds

 

263 calories per jar

 

 

Homemade Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 sweet onion

1 cup vanilla greek yogurt

1 Tbsp Honey

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp poppy seeds

salt and pepper to taste

  

 Next....

 

Southwest Jar Salad with Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing

Layer from bottom up:

Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing - Tbsp

Black beans - 3 Tbsp

Corn - 3 Tbsp

Chopped tomatoes - 3 Tbsp

Chopped orange bell pepper - 2 Tbsp

Chopped rotisserie chicken - 3 Tbsp

Chopped Avocado - 2 Tbsp

Chopped cilantro and green onion - Tbsp ea

Chopped Romaine - 1 cup

4 Tortilla Chips

(my kids had a sprinkle of shredded cheese - totally not necessary)

 

291 calories per jar

 

I love that these salads offer portion control by the confines of the jar but are such a large filling spread on your plate!

 

 

Also my magic bullet has been getting some action making these homemade dressings

 

 

Avocado Cilantro Yogurt Dressing:

1/2 avocado

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

handful cilantro

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 sweet onion

salt pepper garlic salt to taste

3 Tbsp milk

2-3 Tbsp olive oil (I did 2 to save calories but it was thick dressing)

 

 

 Next...

 

Apple Cherry Chicken Jar Salad

 

 

Layer bottom to top:

3 Tbsp Homemade Poppyseed Yogurt dressing

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/3 chopped apple

3 Tbsp chopped chicken

2 Tbsp dried cherries

3 Tbsp chopped green onion

1 Tbsp shaved parmesan

1 cup baby spinach

1 Tbsp pine nuts

 

295 calories

 

 

My oldest is going crazy for these salads, she wants me to pack them for school now! Probably won't do glass though!

 

Seriously eating this at work makes me so cheery!!

 

Lastly...

 

Peanut Ginger Jar Salad

 

 

Layer bottom to top:

Peanut Ginger Dressing - 2 Tbsp

Broccoli/Carrot/Purple cabbage coleslaw 1/4 cup

Sugar snap peas roughly chopped - 5 peas

Red bell pepper chopped - 1/4 cup

Green onion - 3 Tbsp

Cilantro - 3 Tbsp

Chopped Chicken 3 Tbsp

Cooked vermicelli noodles - 1/3 cup

Baby spinach 2/3 cup

Honey roasted peanuts - 1 Tbsp

 

302 calories per jar

 

 

 

This was such a colorful beautiful plate!!!! The salads this week were all incredible but this one got voted #1!

 

 

Don't have a picture of just the dressing for this one but the recipe:

 

Peanut Ginger dressing

 

3 Tbsp sesame oil (or olive oil)

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp peanut butter

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp minced/pureed ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp lime juice

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp siracha (didn't do because of kids but I added a pinch of red pepper flakes to adults salad dressing)

 

There you go, 4 delicious salad recipes just for you!  Even though it is snowing this spring break here in bleak Michigan, I have sunshine and spring in my heart with all of these colorful produce packed recipes! Feeling great! And today is another important holiday in this house so I'll leave you with this greeting:

 

 

 

Easter Leftovers Makeover

So the week of Easter we had like crazy amounts of eggs; hardboiled, egg salad, over easy, scrambled....eggs eggs eggs.  Plus I got sent home with left over honey baked ham on Easter.  I needed to clean out some of the random stuff in the fridge so I did this weird trick I do sometimes where I type in random ingredients and see if the internet can incorporate them all or at least give me an idea that I can roll with.  So I found a really cool recipe that I modified and you can call it Easter Leftovers Hash.  I never knew this would be so good and that I would be blogging it so I didn't take very many pictures.  Here's how it went:

Easter Leftovers Hash

Sweet potatoes diced

Bell peppers diced

Leftover ham diced (could substitute bacon)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 black pepper

1 tsp lime juice

Chopped Cilantro

Chopped Avocado 

Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream

Diced tomatoes

Shredded Cheese (I honestly don't think we even added this!)

4-5 large eggs

Saute in large skillet (that can go in oven) peppers, sweet potatoes and if you want onion in a little oil and garlic 7-10 min until potatoes are starting to soften, add cooked ham (or bacon) and spices. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir in cheese. Make indentations with the back of the spoon in potato mixture and crack an egg into each indentation. Place skillet into oven 10-15 min until whites of eggs set (depending on how you like your eggs).  Garnish with combo of cilantro, avocado, greek yogurt and diced tomatoes with dash of lime juice.  Transferring the eggs to the plates was a little tricky. It was flavorful and delicious! I wish I could have added more chili powder but I wanted the kids to eat it but a little bit of heat counteracted the sweetness of the honey baked ham well.  It was really really good! And we often eat breakfast for dinner so this was a fun new twist! Enjoy!

A delightful spring salad

Hey everybody!!! Long time no blog! I have a lot on my plate with 4 crazy busy kids and it's practically impossible to wrap my mind around the fact that before I know it Jack will be one!!! I have had a few things I wanted to share with you all the last few months so I am going to take baby steps back into the blogging pool and share a delicious recipe with you.  I have been making this for years and made it again this Easter in an effort to make sure I had something healthy and delicious I volunteered to bring the vegetable.  This is photocopied out of a cookbook, I got it from my mom YEARS ago but I don't even know what cookbook it is from to give credit! I of course always tweek things a little because I am always bad about leaving things alone.

Wild Rice Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

 

 

1 cup chicken broth

1 box of quick cooking wild rice pilaf

4 cups broccoli

1 bundle of asparagus spears cut into 1 inch strips

1 cups grape tomatoes, halved

1 cup chopped or shredded carrots

Basil Vinaigrette

Basil sprigs

Feta cheese

Pine Nuts

Prepare wild rice with chicken broth and butter per directions on the box. Set aside.  Lightly steam both broccoli and asparagus until just tender and let cool.  Combine rice, cooked veges and carrots and tomatoes in a large bowl. Add prepared vinaigrette and toss gently. Garnish with sprigs of basil, more feta and pine nuts. 

 

Fresh Basil Vinaigrette

 

2 Tbsp minced fresh basil

4 Tbsp crumbled feta cheese

4 Tbsp white wine vinegar

4 Tbsp olive oil

4 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp italian seasoning

This recipe is seriously yummy! I made a huge double batch and I had lots of leftovers and ate it over the next 3 days! It's a perfect spring recipe, you need to add it to your next menu plan! I will keep it short tonight and leave you with this face, she LOVES broccoli and this salad was a big hit with her!