Weight Loss #4 Week 1

was 225

now 221

-4lbs

So, I've had a pretty good week until now. Hubby JUST brought some Christmas chocolates home from work, and my self discipline is 0. Yup zero. Anyway, moving on....

I've meal prepped and eaten 5 x day. I've been satisfied, not left hungry at all. You can look at what I've been planning to eat HERE

 

 ((Freezer meals))

To the right, I have several freezer bags filled with taco mince (lean meat) ready to go. However even though the package read 'lean beef', I still strained the fried meat and this is how much fat dripped out. It's a LOT! The bowl was nearly half full...

I should maybe come up with some other foods, but I do love yams with taco mince! I can't get past it. Yeah, looks boring, and maybe unappetizing... but the taco spice makes the food go down, he he!!!

Darn those chocolates! Eating popcorn as I type,-ha ha!-  ready for a movie with hubby.

Grace and Peace

You should Quit Your Job!

Have you ever happened to have a rough day at work? Or even a whole week or even a whole season of hard times at work?? If your answer is 'YES'... then,

YOU SHOULD TOTALLY QUIT YOUR JOB! Seriously. Just quit!

Yeah well, if I told you that I get that advice at times, would you believe me? No really, I do.

I am a mother of 4. I homeschool 2 of them, grades K and 3. That means that I have a toddler and baby to take care of too. I also need to cook, clean and take care of my mental and physical health on top of the other million things that need doing. To top it off, my pregnancies can be quite testing to say the least, and I have been in situations at times where I've had to rely on other people's help. Yes, I've humbly asked or accepted a hand, to tackle my busy life.

I get a lot of advice and I hear a lot of opinions on how people think I should do things i.e. live life. When I've had a testing time in my life, as short as a hour or as long as a month (pregnancies for example), people tell me to give it up. They tell me we'd be better off putting our kids into school, stop having kids and to go get my life back (whatever that means???) To that I feel like saying,

-When the next tough time at work or in whatever you love to do happens, just give it up and quit! Life is supposed to be easy peasy all of the time, don't you know?? There are no trials, no testing, no growth, no negativity, no mistakes, and everything should be just great! If you don't have it good all of the time, you're obviously doing something wrong or don't know what you are doing, putting yourself into these situations... hello!

and that is what I feel like saying... but since I think before I speak type...

Okay, what I mean to say is that, life will always be hard at times in someway or another. We all have our trials, our bad days and we grow from them, we mature and we become more wise. We know the good days outnumber the bad by a zillion and we all make different choices in life, even though they may happen to have a hard journey to the destination and we may even have to ask and/or accept help to get there. Sometimes the journeys feel like they last forever! Hard work pays off. In my case, my pregnancies are hard, but they pay off, oh so well...

Children are a blessing, NOT a burden. My body might ache, my mind might be tired at times, well a lot perhaps, but my soul and heart leap for joy! Our children do not hinder our marriage but bring us closer together as a team, as husband and wife. 

This is my job. I am a mom. I homeschool them. I'm beat at the end of the day and cannot wait to put my feet up. There are days when I don't want to go to work, but I have to. There are days, I'm so tired, I moan about it and have a sour attitude about it, but it passes. There are times, I am so overwhelmed that I need to plug into the Word and prayer so that I can survive another hour... and I'd do anything for someone to just give me a hand. There are times I just want to scream... And it passes.

But guess what, I love my job. I love my calling. It's a holy calling. I love my family. Everyday I am taken aback by how blessed I am with all I have. I love teaching and spending time with my kids. I love watching them discover and grow. I love to menu plan and cook for them. I love taking them to activities and field trips. 

I love my job.

With or without kids, life can be testing.

"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise" -Oscar Wilde

Weight Loss #4 Day 1

I know, I know, baby is only a month old and I've already embarked on weight loss #4. To some of you who do not know my history, I gain a lot of weight during each pregnancy and I have quite a challenge to lose my pregnancy weight afterwards, yet somehow I manage to do it,  even if it's a slow process. More on my previous weight losses, HERE.

So here I am once again. Over weight with a newborn. 

I am nursing, so I have to be extremely careful that I don't hinder milk production or stop it. My baby is my priority. I won't let myself go hungry. I won't limit my vegetable intake either. I'll make sure my calorie intake is sufficient.

During my final weeks of pregnancy, I refused to be weighed at my check ups so I don't actually know exactly how much I weighed before birth, but I'm guessing 250lb ,or even more. Currently I weigh 225lb and that is 2lb less than two days ago. So here I am at 225. What is my goal? Well it's of course my pre pregnancy weight, which is 145lb. Some say I am too hard on myself and should aim for a smaller goal..  Buuut I don't want to.  Call me stubborn. 

My weight day 1 = 225lb

My plan is to prep and precook my lunch and dinners for the next two weeks. If I have the $, I will consider doing it for the next four weeks. This will save me time and protect me from temptations.  

My menu for the next 4 weeks is

2 WEEKS FREEZER MEALS

100-150G MEAT, 100G CARBS, 200G++ VEGG MEAL PLAN

3L WATER, OMEGAS, VITAMINS, OILS

7.30 BREAKFAST OMELET, WW TORTILLA, SPINACH, CHEESE AND SALSA Or oats with cottage cheese and berries

11.00 LUNCH PREPARED MEAL

1.30/2  SNACK GREEK YOGHURT AND BERRIES

4/5 DINNER PREPARED MEAL

*post workout shake

8 ILTAPALA (evening snack) APPLE AND PEANUT BUTTER

4 X CHICKEN, BROCCOLI, QUINOA
4 X MINCE, BEANS, SWEET POTATO
4 X CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS, BROWN RICE
2 X MINCE, QUINOA, BEANS

SHOPPING LIST

·         8 CHICKEN BREASTS

·         1KG MINCE AND TACO SPICE

·         1KG BROCCOLI CROWNS/FROZEN

·         QUINOA (600G COOKED QUINOA)

·         4 SMALL SWEET POTATOES

·         1,2KG GREEN BEANS

·         1KG ASPARAGUS

·         BROWN RICE (400G COOKED BROWN RICE)

·         7 X 0%GREEK YOGHURT

·         PRECUT FROZEN BERRIES

·         2X TRAY EGGS

·         WW TORTILLAS

COTTAGE CHEESE 0% AND 14 X ZIPLOCK BAGS MEDIUM / CONTAINERS WITH LIDS, MICRO AND FREEZER SAFE

  

I will weigh myself weekly on Fridays starting December 19th. I will also post photos of  start and present. I won't be working out until I go to my 6 week check up,  and I will begin with only cardio, kegels and Stott pilates to strengthen my body before I hit the weights. 

So, any suggestions or advice you want to give me?

Until my next weigh in,  

Grace and Peace

Slowing Down

One of my biggest sought after desires in life is to slow down. As a human being, in this time and age, never mind being a homeschooling mother of four, I find it very very very hard to do. All I want is to live "here and now" with my family, to truly see and to truly hear my children. To be child mind like again, to learn how to make a day last forever. Time flies, my mind keeps on racing like a speed train and my desire to slow down is like me lassoing this speeding train, trying to stop it with mere human strength. Impossible.

My heart aches. I think about it, I dream about it while life happens around me, while I homeschool, while I cook, clean and try to keep on top of things, while I read about the topic on other blogs and articles, while I drive to and from, from appointments. And then, the day ends and I'm rushing my kids off to bed, because I've had a long long day (which flew by so quick) and I'm running on empty. I end my day with massive guilt. I yelled at my kids today. I wasn't fully giving my children undivided attention -I didn't have the patience to listen to their story, because they or I weren't done with a chore that needed checking off our daily cleaning list. I didn't hear my daughters imaginative dream, because it wasn't good timing, as I herd my kids into the car. I pretend to listen, and I even smile at them saying "how cool!"... But truly, I'm stuck in this speeding train and I can't exit.

I know I need to reprogram my brain, but I don't even know where to begin. I know I can begin now, I just don't know how to. I know what I need to do, but I just don't. I'm desperate. 

I don't know what I am doing, but I'm going to start with these 5.

1. start my day reading the Word and pray
2. check my email and facebook after the kids go to sleep
3. use the crock pot and make sandwiches for dinner often
4. purposefully read more books out loud to my kids
5. say "no" more to other things, so I can say "yes" to spending more time with the kids

Let's see where these take me.