Where I am - Week 1 weigh in as well

While trying to figure out if I qualify for military benefits through the YMCA, I discovered a program on Military One Source called Living Lean. Is it an 12 session program designed to help you break the addiction of binging, overeating, etc aka munching. I am behind on the calendar, but for the most part I have found the tidbits I am getting are helpful. I was proud of myself yesterday when putting the chocolate chips in the pancakes that I didn't grab a handful for my mouth in the process of putting them away. I used my sentence for the week: 'I want to eat __________ and the choice is up to me.' I was able to choose not eat them.

For the most I haven't had much temptation to munch, but I've become aware of the nibbling I do while I prepare meals and also the times I want to eat because I am avoiding something that needs to be done instead. Right now I want to make the blueberry zucchini bread I've been planning to make since last Thurs because it sounds so good. I am craving it. The program says telling myself that I can't have it gives my power away. Instead I should rephrase it, I want to eat __________ and I have a choice. I can choose to live lardy or to live lean.  "My purpose for taking this program is to be continually in the vision of the benefits of Living Lean and to transform my relationship with food and eating so that Living Lean becomes a natural way of living." 

In my summer reboot, the boys said they wanted to exercise with me. Well, Jared said he did but Aaron has to go along with it because he can't stay home by himself. Together we are working on the 5 week to 5K rookie run/walk program. We are on day 4. For the last two days the boys have ridden their scooters in the process while I walked and ran. I figure that is fine because they are still getting their exercise. Today was the first time that Aaron didn't give up and complain about how tired his legs were. He actually woke up at 5 am to go potty. I woke Jared up to go potty too and went back to my room. The sun rises about 5:30 so it was starting to get light out and the birds were waking up. I decided it would be a great time to run and went back to the boys' room. No surprise, they were both sitting in their beds wide awake. As soon as I opened the door Aaron said, it's morning! The birds are awake. I made the proposal for doing our run, they both whole heartedly agreed. It has made for a long day, but I think we'll finally make it to bed on time and the run was great. We all had great energy. It turns out it was a good thing we went to because it has rained the rest of the day.

We've strived for cross-training on our off days. I am grateful we chose the community with a pool because it is well utelized. I had no idea swimming would be so hard on my abs :p They are SO sore. I am not sure if it was the exercises I did on the Wii Fit or the swimming or a combination of both. This was Thurs and today they are finally not so bruised and sore feeling. We went to the pool Saturday and I couldn't believe how hard it was to float because my muscles were so achey. I didn't realize I had even used them to do that. If I can just keep it up all summer, I should be in pretty great shape by Labor Day when the pool closes.

One of the ideas I've been toying with is the raw food movement. We joined the CSA (crop share association) with the farm across the street and have so many fresh vegetables coming in weekly that I needed a way to consume them all. Juicing has been something I've been thinking about anyway, and figured if I have the resources coming in to do it, now is the time. With a little research I came across Rebootwithjoe.com. He has free meal plans ranging from 3 days to 15 days.   Today is the first day that I've really tried to follow it though not strictly. For the last two weeks I've made a green smoothie every day using the kale, collard greens, and kohlrabi leaves from the farm. I guess you could say I am leaning more toward the 'natural' side of things. EX I bought mayo over the other options because it was the most natural state despite being higher in calories and fat. I had been making my smoothies using protein powder and got to thinking that eggs might be a better option. So, I've been adding an egg or two depending on if I am sharing with the boys. It adds a lot of good flavor. Returning to my morning green smoothie has helped me feel a lot better. My skin even seems to be improving. My normal state of acne seems to be clearing - not completely, but I had some pretty large cyst starts going on. I also happened to quit using my lotion on it so that helps too I'm sure. But I feel like there is a healthier look to it all around. Jared seems to enjoy them as well.

So for today's menu, Joe's plan had a berry apple cinnamon bake for breakfast and a carrot apple ginger juice for a snack. Well, the bake takes 45 minutes so i made the juice (smoothie) for breakfast after we got back from the run and did the bake for a snack. It really satisfied that need for warm food. Lunch was a salad and sweet potato fries. I had also heated a pepperoni ham & cheese stromboli from the freezer but it had to cook longer than we thought so by the time it came out of the oven I was feeling rather full. I ate it anyway (power give away?) and felt stuffed. I found myself feeling muncher a little bit later because I was wondering what to do with the boys. Well, they've spent the last 2 hours downstairs on the computer while I've been upstairs on mine. Great family togetherness though in my defense, we've been doing stuff together since 5 am and Aaron wanted to fall asleep at 3:30. This way he is certainly staying awake :p

I like how many fresh fruits and vegetables I - we- are getting right now, but I don't know how sustainable it is long term. Some of my recipes have been a hit (no roll rolled cabbage) and some were a one hit wonder (stuffed quinoa and veggie peppers). With Matthew not helping us eat dinner, there are a LOT of leftovers to go through.

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lost my train of thought due to a telephone call. So for now, here is my weigh in

176.6 (down .4 from last week when I weighed)