New Foods

How often do you try new foods?
How about new recipes?

I used to be one of the pickiest eaters out there. I wouldn't eat much out of my comfort zone as a kid, a teen; and dare I say, as a young adult too.
I've said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, I didn't learn how to cook until I was 24-25 years old. I had a desire to be able to provide for my family. That meant learning how to roast a chicken instead of ordering in KFC. I learnt how to make pork chops with a rice medley and veggies instead of cracking open a couple boxes of KD. I learnt how to make fresh orange glazed chicken instead of zapping the same thing found frozen at the grocery store in the microwave.
I've come a long way from where I used to be.
And with that came the desire to try new foods.
And with that came the desire to try new recipes.
I have cookbooks galore now. I owned two before I learnt how to cook. Cooking for Rookies and Cooking for Kids. I could barely make anything from them. Now I have about 20 books. I love pouring over them, looking for something new. Or even finding an old favourite we had forgotten about.
I love my Weight Watcher cookbooks because they offer yummy recipes and the points are right there. I don't have to calculate them; although that isn't a hard task to do. I have the newest cookbook that came out last December when the new Points Plus program got started. And I've been collecting the small books that have been coming out with the change of the season. They're found in the magazine area of your local stores. They offer quick and simply recipes. Most are 4 or 5 ingredients and less than 30 mins to make. I have Winter, Spring, Summer and now Fall 2011. I flip through them all the time.
I also love the recipes on Weight Watchers online. Tonight's supper is from there. I am making a favourite of Hubby and mine. Slow Cooker Potato and Canadian Bacon Chowder. It is so good! And totally comforting. It's a staple recipe here in my house.
I try to use a new recipe each week so Hubby and I don't get bored. Last week, I made a mixed mushroom and feta pizza. It's a Weight Watcher recipe from the Fall 2011 book - I really should take a picture of it for those who have no idea what book I'm taking about. It called for roasted tomato sauce instead of pizza sauce. I didn't have any on hand, but I did have a can of fire roasted tomatoes. I tossed them into my bullet to make my own sauce. Wow! I am never buying pizza sauce again! From now on, I use fire roasted tomatoes zapped in the bullet. Amazingly good. I also added garlic to my pizza only because Hubby and I are huge garlic fans. We're making the same pizza on Friday night, but we're adding spinach to it.
Last night, I tried my hand at stuffed tomatoes. Again, very yummy! Made a great side to the steak Hubby grilled up.
I have rack of lamb in my freezer, awaiting me to try out a new recipe next week to cook it up.
Are you inspired to try a new food or recipe this week?

Life

Life has happened.
I got caught up in daily chores and living.
I haven't taken the time to post.
Blogging is at the bottom of the pile everytime.
Taking care of the boys; taking care of my self; cleaning the house and everything else in life comes first. And I'm okay with that.
So, the weigth loss journey continues. I couldn't help myself this morning and stepped on the scale. Today is weigh in day. I normally avoid the scale all day long until about 20 minutes before my meeting. Then I hop on and see what my scale says in comparison to the scale at my meeting. Today, I stepped on that scale almost as soon as I woke up. My scale says I'm down about a pound. Now to wait until tonight's meeting to see what their scale says.

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On another note, I went shopping the other day. I went looking for a pair of jeans for Muffin. He's has a growth spurt and suddenly his pants are all too short. I managed to find some pants with the adjustable waist. Perfect for my super skinny, tall boy. I can buy size 18 months to get the lenght, and then tighten the waist so they don't fall around his ankles whenever he moves.
While I was out, I looked at pants for myself. Most of my pants are falling down around my ankles too. I've read many blogs about women who never would have thought they could fit comfortably in skinny jeans. Then one day they decide to try on those dreaded skinny jeans and discover they fit beautifully. Inspired by those women, I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans to try on. Maybe my "wow they fit" day had come too.
Yeah. Not so much.
But that's okay.
I got a good laugh at myself. And I know my day will come. Someday I'll fit comfortably in skinny jeans.
Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'm not a skinny jean sort of woman. That's okay too.
I ended up walking out of the store with pants just for Muffin this time around. Maybe next time, I'll walk out with something for myself too.
Until then, Hubby is just going to have to go on being embarassed by my baggy bottom.

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Speaking of Hubby; I just want to put it out there how proud I am of him. He started his weight loss journey about the same time as I did. He doesn't go to Weight Watchers with me, but he eats the way I do and he exercises like a mad man. He is now 45 pounds lighter than he was last year. His clothes are falling off him too. I'm very proud of how far he's come.

Another Week, Another Pound

My 4 day hoilday was awesome. I haven't been up north in so long, and yet the memories were just rolling in. It was great to see my sister, see her house and for her to see the boys.
I tried to be good. I didn't touch the Halloween candy they had sitting out. But I did the peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes my sister baked. I only had one and I shared it with Muffin. He only had the chocolate part though.
We ended up eating out a lot more than we thought we would. We planned on one dinner out and ended up eatting out for one meal every single day. Twice on Sunday; once for lunch with my sister and her boyfriend and then again for dinner on the way back home. Monkey asked nicely, then stayed awake to keep reminding us, to go to McDonald's in Orangeville. They have a play place there. Muffin was more than happy to eat most of Monkey's Happy Meal while playing with Monkey's toy as Monkey played. I did get Muffin a carrot muffin to eat, which Monkey ended up eating....Hmmm...Did you follow that okay? I realize it can get confusing to who I am taking about, especially since I call one of my boys Muffin and then write about giving him a muffin that the other boy ended up having.
Why do I call my boys Monkey and Muffin? Well, Monkey has been Monkey since I was pregnant with him. I've always called him that. He's gotten a few more nicknames along the way, but Monkey has stuck. As for Muffin; he used to be Nugget when I was pregnant. Once he was born and got his name (I went into the hospital knowing he was going to have one of three picked out names), a shorten version of his name followed by muffin became a nickname. So here I just drop his real name and keep the muffin part.
When we went to Disney World a couple of months ago, some people smiled as I counted kids (our two plus Hubby's older two) and called out "A, B, C and D, let's go" and all four kids would follow. It was easier than calling out their names. Good thing we have some very well behaved kids. Most of the time.
And now I have gotten completely off topic.
With a lack of exercise and all the restaurant food I enjoyed this past weekend, I went in to weigh-in a little nervous this week. I was surprised to see I was down a pound! Now I'm only 45 pounds away from my goal and 7 pounds away from getting my next charm for my bracelet.
The ladies who run the show at my meetings are really awesome. My leader is wonderful. She's super funny, personable and keeps me motivated. The other women who do the weigh in, put out the Weight Watchers merchanise and take money are motivational too. The one who weighed me in yesterday celebrated my little victory with me and then reminded me to be good this week. Get in my exercise and eat well or my weekend might creep up and bite me in the bottom. She reminded me to keep focused.
These ladies seriously rock.
Hubby asked me if I would look for a job with Weight Watchers once I get to goal. If there's a spot for me, I totally would. Once I am a success story, I would love to share my journey with others in hope to motivate them get healthy too. Who knows, maybe once I'm down to my goal weight, maybe we can get enough lifetime members to have another meeting day in my community. I think we have enough members that we could easily have two meetings a week. But that's not up to me to dicate.
Who knows. Maybe one day I'll work for Weight Watchers. Maybe not. All I know is the program is working for me. It's not for everyone, but it was what I needed.
Now to go forward with my week. Hopefully there will be another lost pound next week. I'm aiming for it.

November is...

Lung cancer awareness month.
I don my pearls with pride this month.

Two years ago, my world was turned upside down when my aunt passed away from lung cancer, quickly followed by my mother's diagnosis.
Two years ago, while mourning my aunt, I watched my mother go through 15 chemo treatments and 45 radiation treatments. I listened to her doctors claim she wouldn't make it through the treatment.
But she did.
A year ago, as I got ready to welcome Muffin into our lives, I watched my mother deal with a cancerous tumour in her brain. Lung cancer is famous for heading up to the brain.
Only days before I gave birth, my mom underwent brain surgery to remove the tumour.
Three months later, she underwent gammaknife radiation because something showed up in her next brain scan. Her doctors weren't sure if they had gotten all the tumour out. It had broke into pieces durning her operation.
Today, her lungs are still looking okay. Her brain is looking okay. She will be going in for a scan this week to check her bones. She's been complaining about a back/hip pain. It's not due to her lower back injury (she slipped a disc years ago which led to her discharge in the military). It's either arthritis, osteoporosis or, worse case scenario, bone cancer.
Being a cancer survivor, she can't rule anything out. She has to have it checked out.
I'm doing my best not to think about the what if's of my mother's health. I consider myself lucky that I still have her in my life. She drives me completely bonkers sometimes, but she's my mother. She's one of my best friends. She's my biggest cheerleader.
I know our time is limited. Really, if you think about it; our time is limited with everyone in our lives. My time with my mom just has a shorter time line than I would like. I've come to accept that. I have no other choice. I don't want to dwell on the end when it's not here yet. When it comes, I know I will deal horribly with it. Hubby knows it too. He'll be here to pick up the pieces.
Until then, I know I am blessed to still have my mother in my life. And it doesn't matter how crazy she is; how nutty she drives me; or how mad we can get towards each other. I am grateful for the past 30 years I have had her. She's my mother and I love her to the moon and back a million times over. I am proud of how she's kicked cancer in the butt.
I wear my pearls with pride.
I wear my pearls for hope.
I wear my pearls for my mother.

Opps

I've been doing well with keeping out of the kids' candy stash. I say that like both kids are eating the junk, but Muffin has only had a few cheesies on Halloween. I would dip in and not go over three chocolates.
Yesterday was a mess! I nibbled on at least 4 treats during the day. My mistake for bringing some stuff upstairs and leaving them on the counter.
Then Hubby and I totally raided the stash last night right before bed. So bad! Two bags of chips and 4 mini chocolate bars...Each!
Tracked, but feeling totally guilty about it.
Today, the boys and I head up north for four days. Up north to where my sister has informed me she has "leftover Halloween candy, cupcakes, a cake and other treats" for me and the boys. No, no...I'm going to go walk laps around the track near her house while the boys get sugar highs and comas.
With the guilt I'm feeling about my weakness yesterday, I doubt I will even have wine with my sister.
I know we're going to this one awesome burger joint while we're up there. My parents have come back raving about the place. I'm going to have to plan well on whichever day we're there.
I can get through this 4 day holiday without gaining.
I know I can, I know I can, I know I can.....

Winter Blues?

Is it possible to get the Winter Blues in Autumn? If so, I think I have them. I'm getting an early start this year.
I was full of motivation, determination, inspiration and had a general love of life just last week. I was working towards my weight loss goals. I was getting in a little creative me time. I was enjoying my family. This week, although I still love my life and those in it, I am struggling to get through the day.
I feel sluggish. I don't want to do anything. Getting my lazy bottom off the couch is hard. I want to sleep the day away.
I'm feeling so blah that even the Halloween candy holds no temptation for me. Which could work in my favour.
Tomorrow I'm packing up the boys for a four day getaway. We're heading up to north to visit my sister. I'm hoping being up North will get me out of my funk. I haven't been up that way since my college days. I'm planning on heading over to the college so Monkey can see my old school. I'll show him the little dorm house I use live in with five other girls. And maybe we'll go by the townhouse I lived in with two other girls my other year up there.
Proof it's a small world: I lived up north 10 years ago for school. My sister, who is 9 years younger than myself, now lives up there with her military officer boyfriend (we're a military proud family. My sister and I were base brats). My neighbour is orginally from up north. My sister and her boyfriend moved into the same condo complex my neighbour used to live in when she was growing up.
I'm hoping seeing my old school, remembering life as an 18/19 year old, seeing my sister and getting in a nature walk or two will help perk me up.

Candy Hiding

Monkey made out like a bandit last night! He trick or treat-ed farther than we thought he would. We have a pumpkin container full of chocolate. Another one full of candy. And a huge bag full of chips. Plus we have leftover candy from the stash I bought to handout. I bought enough for 50 kids. We got about 30. Even after handing out extra stuff to late trick or treaters, I still have stuff leftover.

Like a good mother, I sorted through Monkey's stash when we got home. Removing anything open or homemade (He got some homemade fudge. Really? Who does that? Don't the realize every parent out there is throwing it away because of the unknown?). I also had to taste test stuff/ For quality control purposes, of course. I taste tested a Baby Ruth (because I've never had one before), half a bag of chips (Hubby test tasted the other half), a handful of cheesies (because Muffin insisted on putting them in my mouth; you can't refuse a baby), an Oh Henry (because the package was wrinkled and I had to make sure it was okay) and another Baby Ruth (to see if they taste like an Oh Henry because I thought it did and had to double check. I still say it does. I like it).
Yes, I tracked it all.
After the boys were in bed, I hid the treats. Sort of. We have a little area in the basement where we store extras. We have extra toilet paper, kleenex, school snacks, crackers (we go through goldfish crackers like crazy between the two boys! I stock up), my mom's jarred veggies and jams and salsas, ect. I put all the Halloween treats down there on the top shelf. If anyone wants anything, they have to go down there, get out the stepping stool (unless it's Hubby) just to have a treat.
Out of sight.
Out of mind.
Out of my mouth.
And if I do want a treat...I have to work for it. 
Works for me!