Keeping Active

So I said I was going to try to be better at house keeping, I am proud to say that I have done my dishes every day, and been doing at least a load of laundry a day too (that are not cloth diapers) I also decided it was time to lose the 20 some odd pounds I put on after Tiny was born, that's right AFTER I only have 4 pounds to lose from my pregnancy, the rest are from before and after. Le Sigh.

So I know that I am BAD at giving up food, and I remember seeing one of those "the more you know" commercials that said eating a healthy breakfast helps you weigh less, so do eating whole grains, and obviously cutting out "junk" now this is the hard part for me. "Junk" is not just sweets for me, or even potato chips, junk can also be me having a salty craving and eating an entire can of black olives on a whim. Yes I can see you over there making that disgusted look, but I don't say anything about some of the things you think are tasty and I think are beyond retched. But I also LOVE healthy foods like veggies and salads, my sister teases that I make them unhealthy with the amount of ranch I douse them in, and I always assumed she was right, but honestly I don't. I am also switching to "light" ranch as soon as I have finished using the 2 bottles in the pantry. I also stole her "secret" recipe for low cal veggie ranch dip, with is a 16oz tub of fat free sour cream and a packet of ranch dip powder, mix it up and leave it over night in the fridge to "get friendly", as those tv chefs say. I can eat 10 carrots and 10 green olives with a tbls and 1/2. That is a 107 cal snack. 50 of which is my green olives *Heart my vinegary foods*

So to help me on my journey to health I needed help. I am BAD at REMEBERING that I'm on a diet. I know I know I should remember, but then I get bored, or hungry, or have a random craving and find myself zombie like mowing threw something I really shouldn't eat, or should only eat so much of. So I made myself a "sticker chart" of sorts. I get X's in boxes for good behavior and get .25 towards a Mommy only fund. And I get blacked out boxes for bad behavior (junk food, ect) and I have to give up .50 from my mommy money. I also found a website and app called myfitnesspal. I LOVE it!

It helps you set goals and tells you how many calories you are allowed to eat in a day, you add in exercise you do and it gives you bonus calories. I think this is what motivates me. I'm given 1300 calories in a day. This seemed like SO MUCH, until I started adding "recipes" for my favorite foods. Yeah, no wonder I'm fat! If I don't go out for more walks (its summer and hot so our walks have tapered off) or SOMETHING then I don't burn calories and can't eat. Insert sad face here. So I look at that remaining calorie counter as a challenge. Hmm, well I just did house work, how many did I burn. Uh-huh, well I just spent 20 mins in the back yard WEEDING, what now. And then there is a feature that lets you see what fitness pal friends are doing, like Friend burned 700 calories today! and I look at my 300 and think, hmmm. What else can I do today to bump that number up. I am reminded of being in my weight lifting class in high school with 2 of my best friends. We were super competitive with each other. At first our teacher did not believe that we were doing reps of 300-500 calf raises, but we were, we had to one up each other constantly.

So to challenge my computerized nemesis (and new best friend) I chose to take the boys on a long walk today. At first I said 20 mins, then I pushed it to 30. I was SO proud of myself, pushing a 60 lbs load (preschooler and big stroller) and carrying a 19 lb baby on my back. I KNOW I burned more than the app is giving me credit for, but that's OK. I had my low cal veggie and vinegar snack, I am looking at dinner now. Im trying to add in more recipes that I can make quick and easy that are not canned. I also need to see about a few of my FAVORITES for this fall. During the fall and winter we are big on home made ground beef stew (my sister the genius because I hated the texture of beef chunks) and lasagna, shepards pie, ect, ect. These don't sound very healthy to me, I also have a hard time stopping when I start eating these delicious meals.

I guess I need a treadmill, then I can walk as I eat the bad stuff...

So how are all of you keeping active out there?