Food Fun #2

So today was a big day for our family. My youngest daughter and her husband had a gender reveal party letting us know what their twins would be. The hardest part was I had to make the cakes, so I knew before anyone else. That is a lot of pressure! Even getting dressed was hard because I was worried if I wore anything pink or blue someone would read into the clothing choice ;) so I wore black. Safest color choice I had. It was a lot of fun with family and friends.

As American's, anytime we gather it gives us the opportunity to eat. Usually we make bad food choices at gatherings and eat lots of chips, pop, munchies, etc. It makes it hard to make good food choices when there are more unhealthy foods surrounding you. This is one area I have been working hard on. We have a lot of family dinners. Some of the foods we have used instead of the standards for these gatherings are mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes, more salads, healthy multi-grain chips instead of regular, and instead of candy I try to serve more snap peas, peppers, fruits, etc.  Of course there is on occasion the soda pop or cake. But what I am discovering is there are a lot of healthy, tasty, and filling choices out there.

Today at the party we served strawberry/grape kabobs, and raspberry/blueberry kabobs, and hoagie sandwiches on wheat rolls. That is a huge improvement from the past. I try to have a lot more fruits and veggie choices.It is a start at eating healthier and serving healthier food to my family. I really loved the raspberries, for me that is saying a ton. Just in case you missed it along the way, I have never been a fruit eater!

But the best thing about today was finding out that I will be adding another grandson and my first granddaughter to the family! So yep, I ate some cake. The answer is moderation and control. A piece of cake is not going to ruin your eating habits. A piece of cake daily or even weekly might. So don't deprive yourself, just choice wisely and be happy about your choice. Regretting you ate something general makes you feel worse and doesn't help our self-esteem. So load up on the fruits and veggies and take your cake too, just make it a smaller piece!

 Baby Gender Reveal  
video of the revealing

Healthy Habits #1 - Happiness Is A Choice

I have always believed that happiness is a choice. It bothers me when people say, "I will be happy when...." You can fill in the black with: when I get a job, when I get married, when I loose weight, etc. Life is tough, but most of us can choose to be happy while going though the tough times.

I get it, there are people that suffer from depression that cannot make that choice all the time. My late husband couldn't choose to be happy and after battling extremely bad clinical depression for 27 years, he took his life. One of my daughters will always deal with clinical depression and there are some days the demons of that brain disease, steal her happiness from her. But do not have depression.

I suffer from being overweight, chronic pain, bursitis, a lack of nutritious eating, and just bad habits! So I am taking control of my life. This blog will be about my journey to lose weight so the pain will stop. It will be about finding recipes that help you eat healthy and foods that taste great while promoting good eating habits, as well as exercising and a happy attitude. Basically as a school teacher, I know when you learn a concept, you will retain it better if you teach it to someone else. So this is my way of sharing what I learn and teaching it so I can grasp it even better.

Welcome to my journey!


Areas of concern: Large flabby upper arms, flexibility, large thighs, fat rolls around the middle!
Weight: 222 (can't believe I am actually posting that) was at 210 before I moved to a different state.
Eating: Don't get enough fruits or veggies, I eat mostly starches.
Exercise: try to walk a few days a week, I like to do 5K walks every summer
Mood:  HAPPY and loving life!