Pancakes

Pancakes are like the ultimate comfort food for me. Maybe because they were the first thing I ever learned to cook. We had pancakes for dinner many Sunday nights when I was growing up and I was often in charge. I could gobble up 5 or 6 of them in no time. Soaking in syrup with cheesy eggs and sausage on the side. Yum yum. But not healthy. Not even a little bit.

Lucky for me pancakes are not one of those foods that can't ever be made healthy. A Pinterest search for healthy pancakes turns up some very promising results. 

The one I tried tonight used oats for a base. I couldn't find the source but luckily the recipe was on the photo.

1/2 cup oats

2 eggs

1 banana

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Blend oats to powder in a blender then add other ingredients. Cook on heated griddle sprayed with cooking spray. 

I couldn't resist adding a few chocolate chips. And I did eat them with syrup this time but I think they would have been amazing with a little vanilla Greek yogurt. Also they are officially toddler approved so that's definitely a plus.

Sunday best

Here I am today after church! I just ate my last dessert until Easter. Though I might make a social exception here or there. I haven't lost a single pound this month which is extremely vexing but I can see that my body is still changing. I just need to kick up my resolve a little. Winter is hard but it's almost over.

Pre-pregnancy jeans!

Saturday it was a little warmer than most February days, and I decided to get out my more springy wardrobe. The one I haven't really worn since before baby #1. I mostly got them out for extra motivation, but I was surprised to find out how close I am to being able to wear most of them! And for an extra bonus, my favorite size 12 pair of jeans fit! I was so excited that I wore them all day. There were some other size 12 pants that don't quite fit yet, but these are the smallest jeans I have! That's definitely a big success step for me. To know that I get to buy a whole new pair of jeans when I go down another size is great motivation. My goal is to wear my favorite spring dress for Easter. That's another 8 weeks of hard work ahead!

I've mentioned before that one of my greatest weaknesses when it comes to healthy eating is my love for baking. I'll never be able to give it up, but I've been trying hard to find healthier baking recipes. I found a winner this morning on this blog. Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Muffins. I had to do with plain greek yogurt since I didn't have vanilla. I did add a little vanilla extract but I don't know that it made much of a difference. These were so moist and delicious and my toddler loved them. My husband hasn't tried them yet but I'm pretty sure he will give his approval.

I really need to work on sharing pictures here. I'm sorry I've been a little MIA lately. My husband bought me an ipod touch so that I don't have to pull out my ancient laptop very often. I like most everything about it, but writing a blog post is not very convenient. But sharing pictures is super easy. Or it would be if my husband would set up the icloud so that I could get pictures off his phone.

Favorite Lunch: Creamy Chicken Salad Wrap

I just wanted to check in really quick and share one of my favorite healthy lunches.

Creamy Chicken Salad Wrap

4oz diced chicken breast (I cook a bunch in the crock pot and use it daily til it's gone)
1/4 c cottage cheese
diced cucumbers
1 tbsp ranch seasoning (so like 1/2 the packet)

Mix it all together and serve on a whole wheat tortilla with a slice of provolone if you want. I don't really like cottage cheese by itself (or with fruit... yuck) but with ranch it's great!

The recipe in the Curves book says I can eat it on two slices of wheat bread, but I like it way better as a wrap. Also, I think I'm going to throw in some chopped onion next time.

Jillian Michaels

As I mentioned in my last post, Curves has teamed up with Jillian Michaels starting this year. So as I'm going around the circuit, Jillian is up on the big screen and I follow her moves between machines. It's definitely a lot more intense than jogging in place on a recovery board, which is what I usually do. Suddenly the machines are my recovery from Jillian. My Curves coach said the idea is to work at about 50% of my normal pace on the machines on the days I'm doing the Jillian workout.

Over the last week I have completed 3 full Jillian workouts. My heart rate is definitely through the roof, just like she wants it to be. And I really feel like I've accomplished something when I'm done. I thought I felt like that at the end of all my workouts last year. This is a whole new level of accomplishment. My whole body feels it, but it's getting used to the workload already. I'm not nearly as sore as I was last week. We'll see if I can say that tomorrow though, as today is Monday and I had a whole weekend to recover.

Lots of the ladies I work out with were worried that they would hate this, because it's Jillian Michaels. Yes, she has a very strong, intense, in your face personality. But you know, I wonder if she's like that all the time. I've only ever seen her on the job. I'm a little afraid of her but she is exactly what I need. I have been impressed to see pretty much everyone at Curves at least giving her workout a try, even though the average age for the 7am group is probably 60. I would love to know when the "moms" work out. Maybe I'm more special than I think I am.

As far as the results go, I lost 3 lbs last week! I'm down to 196.5, and feel like I'm off to a great start for the new year.

Time to begin again... again.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

So it's been six or seven weeks since my last blog post. I'm happy to report that I maintained my weight over the holidays. Heck, I even lost a pound. But I have to confess that it was not because I tried. I did not even pretend to try. I was in fact completely surprised when I stepped on the Curves scale for the first time in over 6 weeks and saw that I had lost a pound. I wish I could look back and say, "Hmm, maybe I didn't eat so badly afterall", but that would be a lie. My little family and I spent the holidays at my parents house, and Santa went a little overboard with our Christmas stockings. Apparently he was challenging himself to literally fill the stockings my mom picked out for her fireplace, and they are really big.

So I have a few healthy goals for this year. I'm dead set on losing 50 lbs. We'll see what happens after that. It would be nice if I could lose most of it before summer starts, but I think that's probably pushing it. But my goal for summer is to fit into my summer clothes. They are size 12s. That's only one dress size away and a totally reasonable goal. Two healthy foods I want to try for the first time and use in all sorts of recipes are quinoa and spaghetti squash. Also, I would like to finish the new Curves workout without feeling like I'm going to DIE. They are doing this new thing where we do a Jillian Michaels workout on the recovery stations between machines. Suddenly I feel like the machines are my recovery from the recovery station. I did the whole thing this morning. My heart rate was through the roof. I'm telling myself that it will be better when I can breathe through my nose again, but I think I'll stick with my smart tag tomorrow.

That's all for now. Another goal I have is to keep my blog updated, so you'll hear from me soon!

Winter

This definitely has the potential of turning into a whine-y post, so proceed with caution.

This is the first year I have really felt the full inconvenience of winter. And yes, I know that winter doesn't actually start for another week. This is going to be the longest 4 months of my life to date. Why? Well, because it's cold outside. To start at the beginning, my car is not especially reliable in the cold. Every day last week when I got up at 6:30am to drive to Curves, it's been below 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Monday the car wouldn't start. It's a good little car. It tried. Every day after that my husband has gone out to start it for me so that it will be a little warm by the time I leave. I have an awesome husband who has pretty much always felt the full inconvenience of winter.

Next, it's hard enough to "just leave the house" with kids when I don't have to bundle them up. When I do have to bundle them up it takes FOREVER. So basically I don't leave the house. Last year that was no big deal. I was pregnant and baby #1 wasn't mobile. She didn't care about being cooped up in the house all day. This year she is not happy about it at all.  Also, our apartment is on the third floor. That was ok for a few weeks... but now that it has snowed I can't let my 1 year old climb the stairs on her own anymore. Late afternoon walks used to save my day, and they are out of the question at the moment.

You may have guessed that my motivation to be completely healthy has gone down hill pretty far since the challenge ended. I haven't gained weight, but I'm not being as watchful as I should at this point. To be honest... a lot of that has to do with the lack of fresh food in my house. It's hard to be healthy as the wife of a poor college student.

But I am still working out M-F when my car starts. And when it's not snowing. Our snow tires are still in Idaho.

So yeah, lots of excuses, lots of whining. And lots of feeling yucky because there aren't enough vegetables in my diet. Or even fruit. It's sad. Winter is hard. But don't give up on me. I haven't quite given up yet.