Graduation!

I have a few minutes and thought I would post some pictures of my wonderful son on his graduation. This picture is of my parents and the graduate. They drove to Illinois from Upper Michigan to be here for the big day!

The picture of the handsome men in my life! They all hold a very special place in my heart.

They truly do love each other. They may give each other grief from time to time but they have shared a special bond this past year going from college to college search for the right school for my son to play college football at. I envied that bond from time to time but I am glad they were able to share it. It is something they will have fond memories of.

Mom and Dad with the graduate. Love this picture. And I thought the dress was just perfect for the occasion. Thanks Pam so much for you help picking it out.

The special girls in my life!! We are all unique in our own way and share a closeness only special girls can fill. I will truly miss my daughter this fall when she also heads of to school.

Oops! Didn't realize that I had already download this one. Grandma and Grandpa with their oldest grandson and now a graduate.

So glad we were able to have this picture taken because once they head off to school our time together will be limited. It is so hard to believe that this time has already come. It seems like just yesterday they were little sitting in my lap. Oh that makes me so SAD! got a little teary eyed for a minute.

Here I am with the two most important people in my life. The two that I strive for each and every day to be my very best. I treasure both of them and am honored to call them my children.

Me and my "little" boy. I told him today in his card that he will always be my little boy. Today I often reflected on the wonderful journey we have shared together and I look forward to supporting him 100% on his journey to come.

One last picture of my two great kids!

It has been an emotional day. I have not focused on food and have eaten what I have choose maybe not the best choices but I am OK with that. Tomorrow is a new day.

To all who still have smaller children cherished every moment because this day will come before you know it. Hug them and kiss them and tell them you love them often.

My son, Steve who graduated today. He will be attending college and Truman State University in Missouri and will be playing college football. He is a great son and I am honored to be his mom.

It has been a hard year for our family but we stay strong and bonded and nothing can break that. Our love and support for each other continue to keep us hopeful for the future!!

TGIF!

It is a beautiful morning and I was happy to get out and do my walk at 6:30 this morning. Actually I didn't want to get out of bed but once I got up and going I was glad I did. Here is a recap of the good eats from yesterday. I started off my morning with Muesli. Have any of you tried this? It is so fabulous and with the warm summer ahead is a great alternative to warm oatmeal. I like to prepare this the night before so it is all ready for me in the morning and I always look forward to it.

Swiss Apple Muesli

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup skim milk or soy milk (I used unsweetened almond breeze)
1/2 small apple, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sliced almonds
1 teaspoon honey

Mix raw oats with milk. Stir in apple, almonds and honey. Let sit 10 minutes or overnight in the fridge.

291 calories, 7g fat, 1g saturated fat, 2mg cholesterol, 54mg sodium, 47g carbohydrates, 6g fiber, 12g protein

I have been looking forward to giving this one a try and since I just bought eggs I thought I would have this for lunch today. Egg Salad Sandwich. It made a nice big bowl of egg salad and I couldn't even fit it all on the bread. It was quite mess to eat but I didn't mind. The egg salad contained: 1 whole hard-boiled egg plus 2 hard-boiled egg whites chopped, 1 TB light canola mayonnaise (I used eggless TJ mayo), 2 tsp mustard, 1 stalk celery, 1/4 cup finely chopped cucumber, dash of black pepper on 2 slices of whole-grain bread. Have to remember this one it was a nice change and I enjoy eating eggs. I nice lunch for summer.

There was a little of the mousse left since no one in my family will even think about touching it. Daughter doesn't care of chocolate. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Crazy! I had did a little shopping and bought some more raspberries and I was happy to add it to my mousse. It was fabulous!!

Dinner tonight, Pinto and Cheese Poblanos. I have never even heard of a Poblano pepper before and was eager to give it a try. Poblano peppers have a little heat but are fairly mild. Just be sure to take out the veins and seeds to decrease the spice. It was stuffed with pinto beans, quinoa, cumin and a little shredded cheese. I cooked the quinoa mixed in the the rest of the ingredients and stuff into the peppers. I broiled them for about 15 minutes turning so they didn't get to brown in one spot.

Yummy! I love quinoa texture and with the pinto beans and a little cheese and spice from the cumin it was delicious! I really enjoyed this one. It probably only took a total of about 30 minutes to get this one ready to eat. Loving having quite and easy recipes.

That is the eats for yesterday and I was able to keep my eating in check and of course the scale was happy to respond, loving that.

Have a busy day of prepping for graduation. I am going to bake the cake today throw it in the freeze and will frost it tomorrow. I also want to roast up some tomatoes because I am going to make Marissa bean salad and think I will used roasted tomatoes in it. So it will be a fun day spending some time in the kitchen. My parents will arrive some time later today and hubby will be making a baked whole chicken for them. I have leg training today instead of tomorrow so I will run to the gym for that at 4:30. I will take lots of pictures tomorrow so you can see my handsome son and family.

Hope everyone has a great day and I will attempt to post my eat for today either later tonight or early tomorrow morning!!

Better Late than Never!!

Good Afternoon Everyone!! I have changed my cardio time until the morning so I have difficult getting these posted early now. But here I am to recap the wonderful food I had yesterday. Breakfast was a spicy burrito. It was made with one egg, 2 egg whites, diced green chilies, little cheese and black beans put in a tortilla. I wasn't sure about having beans mixed with egg in a tortilla for breakfast but it was quite tasty and keep me full for quite a while.

How beautiful this salad looks? I just love the look of the beets and the goat cheese. As you can tell this was a beet salad. Since I have never really eaten much beets I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this recipe.

But again I was quite surprised. There was quite a bit of beets but with the goat cheese, walnuts and balsamic vinegar with olive oil made for the perfect salad. And like I said it was so beautiful just to look at.

I had bought some Silken Tofu a while back to again make this mousse and I almost forgot about it. But since I have been trying to keep the frig cleaned out. I found this today and thought it was the perfect time to make it. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I was a little disappointed to find out that my daughter had eaten the raspberries so I put some blueberries on it. You have to try this one it is quite good and I love the smooth texture from the silken tofu.

I am sure you are surprised to see this bad boy on a healthy blog!! No it is not mine. This is for my son. Like I said before he is a big boy and can eat A LOT!! My husband made this huge calazone for him. I can only imagine how delicious it was. Ok.. I don't really want to think about it. Let's move on to much healthier eats!!

That is more like it. This is a Tuscan bean soup. I start eating this and had forgotten that the recipe said to put the balsamic vinegar last on top and it sure made a big difference in the taste of the soup. It was a nice huge bowl and was SO filling.

I served it along with a nice whole-grain roll for dipping. This soup had garlic, onion, garbanzo beans, dice tomato. You cook it for ten minutes and then I put it threw a food processor just until the garbanzo beans were a little chunky. I nice filling dinner.

I must admit I am having a difficult time emotional with my son graduation from high school. This is the last for myself and my husband and it has been very difficult. I guess you just never think they are going to grow up and leave. You say you can't wait for it to happen but when it is finally here it just isn't that easy. He will graduate this Saturday and I am making last minute plans. My parents will be arriving here from Michigan on Friday and Saturday morning is graduation. We will just have small cook out with just the family. He said he didn't need a big party so I have not planned anything as of yet. But I see myself might wanting to throw a little something later.

Last night we went to a meeting at the school about the German Trip my son will be taking in July. I am so excited for him it a once in a time opportunity. I am so glad we were able to save up the money before my husband lost his job so that he is able to go.

After the meeting I came home and I guess I was just emotional about things and of course what do I turn to ? you got it food. It wasn't terrible and in the past I have done a lot more damage I guess I get upset with myself because I continue to do it. Instead of focusing on that I must focus on how much better I have become with it. I have moved on and today is a new day!!

I look forward to sharing with you all the wonderful things I had today.

Good Afternoon!!

I wanted to get to this earlier but it has been a little crazy this morning but wanted to make sure I posted my eats for yesterday. Yesterday morning I was going to have egg to find out there was only two and I need one egg and two white for what I wanted to make. So I ended up having polenta with cherries, hazelnuts and agave nectar.

For lunch I had been eyeing this recipe for a while and I decided to give it a try. It so didn't not disappointed I really liked this one. I guess I was hesitating to try it because chick peas are not my favorite but I decided to cut them up smaller and that helps a lot. I will definitely be having this one again. It was nice because it make a nice big salad. It had spring mix green salad, 1/2 cucumber chopped, 1/2 cup chick peas, 1/2 ounce feta cheese, 2 TB fresh dill and vinaigrette dressing. It was topped with a whole wheat pita that was cup up and toasted. It was great!!

For dinner I had bought some cauliflower to try this recipe and just hadn't gotten around to it until today. It was Cauliflower Cashew Curry. I thought it was a nice combination of ingredient and nice in filling how I like it.

The recipe was cauliflower, peas, curry, raisins, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans and topped with green onion and cashews. It was nice satisfying dinner.

I have been really good the last few days with no snacking in the evening which is my down fall. I cut back the cardio a little and even gave my self a rest day on Sunday. These are all big steps for me since I have the all or nothing attitude. I has nice to see the weight coming down even with the cut back this just gives me reassurance that I do know what I am doing and I can control this. Weight was down to 147 this morning which I am thrilled with.

I was up early this morning it is so darn muggy outside thought it was going to rain so I got out and did my walk at 6:30 this morning. I have to tell you this because it is very exciting for me and some of you who don't know me well may not know this about me. About five years ago I slipped and fell on the ice and broke my patella (knee cap) I have had over five surgeries on it and of course it will never be the same. It is so much better than it was and I am truly grateful. I figure that I would never be able to run again and I had not planned on even attempting. But the other day when I was walking on the path I got this idea that I should try to run. And I did! It wasn't much but I was thrilled that I was able to do it. I am not sure what the odds of me being able to run long distances but I was thrilled none the less. So I have been doing a little interval running walking on my walk now. I only do the running on the path so know one sees me!! I can not express to you what a victory this is for me. It has been a long way in the making and I couldn't be happier.

I have had some good eats today and I am excited to posted about them tomorrow.

Gaining Momentum!!

Good Morning Everyone! It was a nice long weekend but am looking forward to getting back into my routine. Yesterday was a great day of eats! I started of the morning with a nice bowl of oats cooked in almond breeze and milk. After it was cooked I added some flaxseed meal and two figs. I nice filling breakfast!

Doesn't this look fabulous? It was quite delicious. I stayed home all day yesterday and just enjoyed being home. I had some cherry tomatoes sitting in the refrigerator so I mixed them with olive oil and a little brown sugar and baked them in the oven until soft and sweet! Love my tomatoes like this. I had some left over beans in the refrigerator so I made this delicious lunch.

White beans, roasted tomatoes and pesto stuffed into a whole wheat pita! Simply delicious and so quick to put together. Who said eating healthy has to take a lot of time?

While reading a lot of blogs I have seen people drinking these "Green Monsters". I thought I would give one a try for a mid afternoon snack. It contained a half frozen banana from the banana yesterday, a handful of cut up mango, spinach and some almond breeze.

Look how beautiful? I was kind of freaked out about drinking spinach but it was quite good and I think I would like to experiment with it some more. I do think I would put some peanut butter or some protein powder. It didn't keep me full very long. I have noticed that I do stay a little bit fuller when I actually eat food than drinking a beverage but that is just me. But I was proud of myself for giving it a try.

Since my daughter likes to have rice quite a bit and I like having it on hand in the refrigerator I cooked up a big batch today. I love being home cooking. So dinner tonight I had this delicious dinner. Doesn't it look great with the bright green edamame and red peppers? Another quick and easy meal.

This meal had grated ginger, garlic, pineapple juice, sesame seed oil, edamame, red pepper, pinch of red pepper flakes and brown rice. I nice delicious, quick and filling dinner.

I am so proud of how I have been able to turn things around. This gives me momentum to not only keep pushing forward but to also show myself that I can do this. I can some times get crazy with the exercise and I even gave myself permission to just take the whole day off. I have to admit it was quite difficult for me and at one point I was going to go walking but I didn't. Guess what? Nothing bad happened. Go figure! Mmmm... I always have this thought go threw my head that I have to exercise everyday if I want to lose weight and if I don't I will never achieve success. But as time goes on threw trial and error I am learning so much. If I stick to a healthy well balance diet and do a moderate amount of exercise all will be good. And yesterday gave me a good example of that. My weight is back down under 150 which I am thrilled with and I am beaming like a little kid so proud of what I have been able to do.

Anything is possible if you feel like you are worth it and you know what? I am.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Happy Holiday Monday! It looks a little cloudy today. I should have planned on doing my cleaning today unsteady of yesterday, oh well! It felt so good to tackle some of the house cleaning that I have been putting off way to long. I started of yesterday morning with some brown rice that was leftover in the refrigerator with almonds and 3 dried apricots and maple syrup. Love brown rice for breakfast!! Plus there wasn't much left in the refrigerator and I knew if I didn't get it for breakfast it was going to be gone and I was right. Daughter came home from work and ate the rest of the rice for dinner. Note to self make more brown rice today.

I spent most of the morning cleaning and staying very busy I was determined that I was going to have a good eating day today. I had one last bean burger in the refrigerator so I made this bad boy! Love it! Bean burger with broccoli slaw mixed with vinaigrette dressing and BBQ sauce along with a side of red grapes. Can you say delicious!!

I bought banana the other day and they have been calling my name. I decided on having a slice of TJ sprouted bread with PB2 and a half of banana. Yummy!! I froze the other half of the banana and I may make some kind of shake with it today. So far so good with the eating. By mid afternoon I was ready to be done cleaning. I decided that I needed to get my walk in. So I went for a hour and 15 minute walk in the late afternoon. Which worked out well because it was dinner time and I was ready to eat. I had prepared the boys dinner in the afternoon so I didn't have to worry about cooking for them which was nice all I had to worry about is my dinner.

I started off with cooking some fresh veggies on the grill. I had never done this before and what was I waiting for? I love it and it was pretty quick and easy. I chopped up yellow squash, zucchini, plum tomato and red onion. I mixed them with olive oil and crushed rosemary, pepper and salt. I grilled them for about 10 minutes. While they were cooking I cooked up 2 ounces of whole wheat penne pasta.

I cut up the veggies and made a pasta primavera! Daughter came home from work and ate the other kabob of veggies. I was hoping to have some left over for today. I still have a little veggies to cook up so maybe I will throw them on the grill today for lunch. It was delicious I think I have a new love. Grilled veggies perfect idea for the long grilling season ahead. The pasta had the veggies, pasta, 1/4 cup beans and a tablespoon of pine nuts. Perfect dinner and very satisfying.

And the best part of the day is that it didn't include any ice cream, chocolate or any other non planned food!!

What have I learned? I can control this. I read Cara's blog and she made a comment that it is Me versus Me! I thought that was so true. In this journey that I am on is it is all up to me. I have some come far in this journey and I will not just lay down and give up this is NOT what I do.

The victory I had yesterday with food only makes me want to do even better today! Thanks to everyone who has support me on this journey to health and happiness.

One Positive among the bad!

Good Morning! Looks like it is going to be cooler today which is fine by me. As you can see by my title I continue to struggle but I am blogging and will keep trying to pull it together. Yesterday for lunch I had a great salad out on the back patio. It has green onion, red pepper, garbanzo beans chopped on spring mix greens the dressing was sunbutter, white vinegar, water and a dash of crushed red pepper flakes. A great and filling lunch. I also had a greek yogurt for a mid afternoon snack topped with berries and a little sliced almonds. So far I was doing great!

Doesn't this look yummy? Unfortunately, this is not my dinner. This is my eighteen year old sons dinner. That is two big delicious turkey meatball subs. e loves them. How I envy how he had eat some times.

Not this is more like what I would eat for dinner. It was nice because it was quite delicious and I LOVED the sweet potato fries (note to self have these more often for a treat!)

The sandwich was tempeh that was cooked in a skillet with a half of a onion and 2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce. Yummy! The only thing that took a lot of time to cook was the potato fries. It was great!!

Marissa, I thought of you when I was cooking it because I think you made something like it with your tofu the other day. This is definitely one I will be visiting again.

Well by looking at my meal you would think all was well. NOT!! I did of a Kashi granola bar and some almond before I took a nap lat yesterday afternoon. Then we were invited over to our neighbor to visit. I was fine the whole time we got home about 12:30 and what did I decided to do instead of just going to bed? You got it snack!! SIGH!! I have put on five pounds the last week and it scares me. But I must let that go and refocus on what I need to do. I know what I need to do and I don't have to make a big thing out of it like I want to do. I don't need to exercise like a crazy women or deprive myself of food to fix it. These thoughts have been running threw my head and I DO NOT want to fix it that way. So I will take a hour walk today at a nice pace eat and move on.

It seems like a lot of us are struggling right now. And I read a comment on someones blog that it could be do to the changing of the season. I don't know but I do know one thing that we can all support eat other here in blog land and get threw this!! Care to join me?

P.S. The positive thing that happen yesterday? I didn't have any chocolate or ice cream! I will take that one small victory. Now to eliminate the snacking for now just until I get my weight down to my "happy" weight!!

Struggle continues

I might need someone to search me out when I don't blog. This is usually an indication that things are not going well. I continue to struggle with finding my balance but I am a fighter and I refuse to let this win. Here are a few pictures of some of the "better" thing I ate. I had a delicious yogurt and fruit one day for a snack.

It was so nice on Thursday that I ate outside on the back patio. I had a pear and swiss cheese salad and a side salad. I had never really had a fruit sandwich before but it was quite good. Pear, mustard and swiss cheese.

After my strength training and cardio I ran to trader joes. It was almost 5 before I headed home so I snack on this bar on my way. I didn't want to be starving when I arrived home. I nice delicious little snack.

Dinner Thursday night was a delicious tofu stir fry over brown rice. Quite tasty. After this meal is when things went bad and I have struggle for two days now.

I wanted to make sure I shared this sandwich that I had yesterday. I had it in my mind that I was not going to like it but yet again I was So surprised. I loved it and would have it again. I don't have the recipe in front of me but it had chopped up garbanzo beans, red pepper, green onion, celery, lime juice and Old Bay seasoning. I bought a whole wheat roll and empty out the the bread and left the shell. (less bread that way and more room for the filling) I have to remember this one because I really enjoyed it. I had some difficult before this meal because my husband adnd dod I decided to do the grocery shopping. We didn't get home until 1:30 and I was starving. While preparing this meal I snacked on guiltless corn chips and hummus. (not a bad choice but it is extra calories non the less)

We went to my son's last track meet and came home and yet again I was starving. While preparing this meal I started snacking, peanuts, almonds and TLC crackers. I didn't care for this diner. It was zucchini fritters on top of lettuce with dressing. I don't know if I should have added more flour or what because they were still mushy inside. Next time I will pull out the cauliflower fritters I have in the freezer.

So here it is Saturday morning and my weight is up to 150.5 so I am ready to get back on track. I strength trained early this morning (7:00) and did 30 minutes of the elliptical. I brought to protein muffins I had in the freezer for breakfast. I have all my meals planned for the day. My goal is to do no snacking just meals. I know I can get my weight back quickly if I stick to it.

I am excited to try two new meals today and will share them with you.

Does anyone want to hunt me down when I am not blogging? I can tell you I am mostly like struggling if I am not blogging! Thank you so much for you support! Here is to a new great day!