Day 1 - My Weight Loss Journey.

   I'm unsure why I chose 27/09/2012 to start my journey. I've spent the last few weeks gathering healthy snack ideas and Paleo recipes.  I chose simple ideas, that anyone else could follow along with me!.

 I replaced our broken scale with a brand new one, then learned I weighed exactly 220lbs. Which, is better than I though. I was 265 during the last week of my last pregnancy. Even though she's two now, we had a rocky last year and a half, a lot of ups and downs.

Anyway, here we go...

Yesterday morning I started with two boiled eggs and cut up a peach.
A snack, I had a few homemade toasted chili lime almonds.
Lunch, I had a salad with chopped up cucumber, and a tsp of italian dressing.
Snack, I had half of a toasted whole wheat bagel with almond butter.
I had a very late dinner, I ended up having another salad with cucumber and raw carrots on the side.

Lots of water during the day!! I know it's bad but I'm such a sucker for the flavor water packs!

This morning, I haven't woken up enough to make breakfast...
but I'm planning on going with a toasted bagel and water.
Then an hour long pushing the girls in a double stroller.
Then a bowl of assorted fruit!
I took out chicken for supper, which I will probably fry up chunks and throw it on a plain salad.
Apple sprinkled with cinnamon for a snack!





Everyday I will post simple ideas and what I ate for the day. I'm not counting any calories, I'm just starting off slow and making healthier decisions.

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When did that happen?! (My weight journey.)

   I've always been a bigger girl. Growing up, I was the tallest girl in my class, I wasn't wide...but I wasn't skinny, just tall and big boned. They called me the Jolly Green Giant...tall, shy, and happy. (Could of been worse I guess....)
  
   I never had boyfriends growing up either. I was always so shy, no boy ever expressed interest in me so I just shrugged it off. My parents never really pushed me to eat healthy either...in fact they never really ate healthy themselves. Same goes for sports, I wanted to do soccer, baseball, gymnastics...but no one could ever take me to games. I played basketball throughout high school though, that helped me a little. Back to the food...want to see the basic grocery list growing up?

-case of kraft dinner.   -packs of hot dogs.   -packs of ground beef.   -boxes of hamburger helper.

-10lbs of potatoes.   -gravy mix.   -bags of frozen chicken cutlets.   -loads of white bread.

-bags of perogies.   -lettuce, for the hamburgers/chicken burgers.   -mayo.

-ketchup.   -tons of soup.   -cases of salted crackers.   -cans of corn.   -tomato sauce.

-boxes of regular spaghetti.   -cheese.   ...the list goes on.

   The majority of those items...I grew up on. When mom made chicken, she would bake it...in shake & bake mix.  Our salads were usually potato and egg salad, loaded with mayo and pickles. For the love of pickles, garlic to be exact...yum.  Sides were usually mashed potatoes, smothered in gravy.  My 3 top special dinners growing up were moms homemade lasagne, her homemade stew (to this day I love her stew), and perogies with garlic sausage...smothered in sour cream. 

You'd think my mouth is watering...but it's not...

    I met my future hubbykinz about a year after I graduated high school.We went out to dinner a lot just so we could be together, and we partied a lot together at the bar, which of course drank a lot of alcohol. We moved in together shortly after we met, things went downhill with the economy, as soon as that happened we found out we were expecting. Planned of course, we could afford it at that time. We lost everything, and moved into my parents basement. Our grocery list was what they bought (refer to grocery list above).  Then, I got sick when I was 20 weeks pregnant. I had a major gall bladder attack and ended up in the hospital. They discovered I had a bunch of gall stones that were lodged. They wouldn't remove them as I was to far into the pregnancy, so they gave me a healthy diet to follow.

   Darn cravings would take over, and I would suffer the worst attacks and end up back in the hospital, more than a couple times. When our daughter was 4 months old I had surgery and had them removed. Shortly after we moved into a cute little trailer, life was great, we were expecting our 2nd when my daughter was 9 months old. I had lost 60lbs! (Thank you breastfeeding and summer walks!).  I ended up getting very sick due to the trailer we were in during the winter, big alley cats thought under our trailer was a great place for a litter box. We moved out and back into my parents until we found a place,...then hubby went to work out of town...then I had baby number 2.

  I won't lie, we ate terribly. When we were well on our own after two months, we discovered the Paleo diet. Both hubby and I had started to loose a lot of weight!!.  Then my hubby was in his accident on his way to his first day of work at a new job.  He couldn't keep it due to injury, and were in the middle of moving as the house we were in had sold, so back to my parents house we went!. It took 3 months for my hubbykinz to heal..., and another 3 months to find a job...economy was very slow due to spring break up here.

6 months later.
  I'm sitting here, 6 months later. I just got back from shopping for new clothes. I had a major reality check,...I'm bigger than what I thought. NOTHING fit right. Almost left crying, but I pulled my big girl panties up and took that slap to the face.

   Growing up I was always a big capital L. After high school and during my pregnancies, I've always been an XL until baby number 2. XXL doesn't even look right on me now as I still have my pouch. That wonderful kangaroo pouch.

   Today I wanted to find a pair of jeans so bad...it's been FIVE years since I could wear jeans. I can still put my size 34 brand new jeans I bought before I had baby number 1...that excites me...but my pouch hangs over them, as does my ass on top of my ass...excuse the language...(could be a lot worst to...but I'll spare you from the majority of the profanities I can spill out.). Today I left with the biggest pair of jeans I have ever owned. Ouch...
  
(2 hour break of typing)
   I just got back from a very long walk tonight, girls enjoyed the fresh warm air in their double jogging stroller. I hit the flat land first then hit the incline all the way home. Feeling good!. I'm excited to share my journey with you....I'll start posting healthy recipe ideas as well.  After typing my story out, I knew I had to do something about it, so I went and started my journey tonight!.

On the move again!

Woohoo!!

Such great news for our family!. We will be on the move back to British Colombia! I'm beyond excited. We can pretty much move anywhere we want, but we wanted to make this move more about the kids. I have a lot of family and friends, plus friends with little ones the same age as my little ladies. Hubby and I both know the town and city nearby well as we tried to make this move before. There are far more activities to keep the girls involved in the community, as well as make new friends

The moving part doesn't excite me as much, considering we have to go 6hrs back to our old town, pack a u-hual and move everything another 6hrs to a new home...with two little girls. AHHH. The worst part, is hubby can't take time off of work to help, so this may be a stressful move for me.

Other than that, Caylee starts preschool soon, Terra turns 2 next month, Halloween and Christmas are around the corner...this winter will fly by!! The girls will have their great grandma and great aunties around a lot as well which means the world to us! Hubby has been talking about joining the army and fulfilling a life long dream of his, which I fully support. As long as the girls know they have family they can turn to if they ever needed that extra shoulder, I know I did!

So that's my updating news, I'm very excited, but not looking forward to doing the move myself. If I could just snap my fingers and be there already LOL!.

5 Delicious Breakfast Ideas.

First up...you're guys are going to love this I swear...

Chocolate Banana Baked Oatmeal!

 

Oh yeah, how good does that look. Head over to Budget Bytes for the recipe!

Secondly, Coconut Crusted French Toast

I'm such a sucker for coconut! Head over to Two Peas and Their Pod for the how-to!

Thirdly, delicious Poppyseed Waffles!

Oh yeah, I love poppy seed cakes and pastries, this is a healthy version, just in waffle style! Head over to PaleOMG for the recipe!

Fourth on the list...Eggs baked in ham cups.

Simple, but so good...my children love this meal, I found this one on Babble.com!

and lastly, breakfast pizza.

 

Nothing says breakfast like pizza..so amazingly good. Head over to Tasty Kitchen for the details.

Gifts for 2 year olds girls.

My sweet little Terra bean is turning 2 in September. All I have been thinking about is what we could buy her for her birthday. Here's a small list of some things I think she will love!. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment and let me know some things you're little ones loved at that age! Remember, it's in September, so winter will be coming shortly after so something for indoor play!


1. Little Mommy Combo from Step 2.

 

 My little girl would love this set, she's becoming quite the little mommy herself!. My 3 year old would probably enjoy playing with her little sister and this as well!

2. Cupcake Kitchen from Little Tykes.

 

What little girl wouldn't love this little cupcake baking kitchen!. I even love this little kitchen, how super cute are those little cupcakes?

3. Tag Junior Get Ready for Preschool Bundle from Leapfrog.

My oldest daughter has the tag reader and she loves it. She reads along so well with it, so I think this would really improve our youngest vocabulary skills.

4. Doodle mat by AquaDoodle

Recently our almost 2 year old has discovered coloring, and let me tell you, she loves it. The walls and toys could tell you how much she loves it. I think this water mat would be perfect, the water dries in a few minutes for a whole clean slate to redraw on. All you need is water for the water pen.

Those are just a few things I could find that would be perfect for her. I can't believe how fast time flies by, amazes me!.

Update...including the Army?!

Hey lovelies...

Just giving everyone an update. Some of my wonderful followers already know that my hubbykinz was in an car accident in February...It's been a long long road to recovery and to get back on our feet....

like SIX months long. Work has been so incredibly slow in our area, and we've taken over my parents house, but I am so so happy to say my husband has found an amazing paying job and leaves this Sunday for awhile. As much as I will miss him, I'm so incredibly excited. This momma needs a hair cut and eye brow wax, but better yet, we need a home, and two vehicles. Our van we just bought three months ago died on us, of course. I'm so blessed to have family that will lend him a truck to take to work until we can find something more reliable.

Things are looking up, it's been extremely stressful around here, not only for us but for our girls, and even my parents. Once we get our belongings out of storage, it'll be like Christmas for us, especially the girls and all their toys. Just have another two months to stay strong enough and wait for a home to come up. CAN I DO IT?! I hope so.

Now that we've been making plans..., another one from the past has come up. Joining the Army. My husband dream was to join the army. I held him back though, I couldn't let him go while I was pregnant or the girls were just too little to be without daddy all the time. Now they're old enough to know who he is and all the love he has for them, I have let go of holding him back. For now we're taking things day by day, we have a lot of bills to catch up on, girls need new clothes, new toys for their age, and preschool soon. Oh I shutter at the sounds of preschool. STAY LITTLE FOREVER MUWHAHA. Okay not forever, just slow down. After a year or two of hard work and saving money, he can sign up, that way the girls and I don't have to worry so much as their pay isn't the greatest in the beginning. I've been a researching machine lately, finding every bit of information on being an army wife/mother. It's a tough job, but I have so much respect for someone willing to do something so amazing for his country. Plus my man, in army gear, yum...I'll do what I need to do!

Anyways, I'm back, and I will be back to blogging way more (until the big move)...so stay tuned.