This week was a great week considering I had many obstacles that were in place to not make it so. With all four of my children now participating in extra curricular activities, I feel like from 3:30 pm on I am operating at full capacity. Chauffeuring my children from one activity to the next is literally a full time job- I do not know how you working Mamas do it. Sitting down with my family at the end of a long day and enjoying a meal together is sporadic, and trying to shove something healthy into mouths constantly on the move has posed a challenge. I've tried to have on hand plenty of easy wholesome snacks readily available like carrots, celery, apple slices with peanut butter which is relatively easy, but dinner is another story. This week I've made some really yummy meals that are pretty quick and healthy and I'll try to put some recipes together to share.
Today we had some close friends over for a dinner party. It's a tradition with my little family that every Sunday one of the children get to plan the meal, go shopping for the food, and prepare it with me. My eldest daughter had her turn today. Really wanting to impress our friends, she went all out to prepare a early thanksgiving feast. It was soooo delicious but of course we all over ate. For dessert we made carameled apples, but instead of the whole apple cut them up and had yummy things to dip them in. Oddly tonight became the night for me where I decided to have my first taste of sugar in 27 days. I didn't have very much caramel...enough to cover 4 apple slices, but it was enough to make me feel TERRIBLE. No joke. I felt sick, sick, sick to my stomach and spent a good 1/2 hour laying on the couch just trying to get myself right. I've drank one whole 32 oz of water since dinner and plan on drinking one more before bed to try and cleanse my body. Anyways, this experience was enough for me to continue my abstinence from sugar. I'm pretty sure I'll even skate through Halloween (which was the free day I gave myself) and not have any treats. Totally not worth it to me.
Hope you are all doing well,
Megan
This is a HIGHLY MOTIVATING, yet low key, group competition where you set your own rules (mostly) and goals, earn points, and report in here each week. The cost is $10, which ALL goes towards cash prizes for the winners at the end.
How To Earn Points
HOW TO EARN POINTS
5 points for paying $10 and posting your picture with an "intro post with diet plan" on this blog. (I can help if you if you don't know how to post. . .or you can scroll down to the How to Post instructions in RED) Deadline for paying $10 is Monday Sept 30th and deadline for posting intro is Friday Oct 4th.
2 points/day for following your own customized diet plan
2 points/day for keeping a food journal
1 point/day for each 1/2 hour of exercise, max of 10 points per week. (***Not counting extra pop challenge points. Note: you may lump all your weekly exercise points into one day but you risk the chance of loosing pop challenge points. . .see below right)
1 point/per day for drinking at least 48oz of water
1 point/day for taking a multi vitamin
1 point/day for flossing (hey, I'm a hygienist and I'm trying to rid the world of periodontal disease!)
3 points/week for: 1. weighing in (do not post your weight) 2. BRIEFLY recap your previous week in a post on this blog 3. updating your point total in your picture caption BEFORE midnight on Sunday of each week. Our weeks begin each Monday morning. ADD these 3 points in with the "just started week's points
At the end of the challenge you will also have a chance to win additional points for % of weight lost. You can win 1 point for each % of weight lost, IE: loosing 10% of your weight equals 10 extra points! These points will be taken once, at the end of the 12 week challenge.
This challenge will last 12 weeks, starting
5 points for paying $10 and posting your picture with an "intro post with diet plan" on this blog. (I can help if you if you don't know how to post. . .or you can scroll down to the How to Post instructions in RED) Deadline for paying $10 is Monday Sept 30th and deadline for posting intro is Friday Oct 4th.
2 points/day for following your own customized diet plan
2 points/day for keeping a food journal
1 point/day for each 1/2 hour of exercise, max of 10 points per week. (***Not counting extra pop challenge points. Note: you may lump all your weekly exercise points into one day but you risk the chance of loosing pop challenge points. . .see below right)
1 point/per day for drinking at least 48oz of water
1 point/day for taking a multi vitamin
1 point/day for flossing (hey, I'm a hygienist and I'm trying to rid the world of periodontal disease!)
3 points/week for: 1. weighing in (do not post your weight) 2. BRIEFLY recap your previous week in a post on this blog 3. updating your point total in your picture caption BEFORE midnight on Sunday of each week. Our weeks begin each Monday morning. ADD these 3 points in with the "just started week's points
At the end of the challenge you will also have a chance to win additional points for % of weight lost. You can win 1 point for each % of weight lost, IE: loosing 10% of your weight equals 10 extra points! These points will be taken once, at the end of the 12 week challenge.
This challenge will last 12 weeks, starting
TO POST: In the upper right hand corner you will see "New Post" click on it. If you are like me it may take you a second to find it but I promise it is there!!! You will be brought to a screen were you can enter a title for your post on the dash board at the top of the screen. Please put your name and the week the post is for. You can then add your entry for the week whether good or ill we want to hear it! That's how this works in a group competition. We are all here to cheer you on!!! When you are satisfied with the content go ahead and hit publish!
HOW TO POST YOUR PHOTO AND YOUR WEEKLY POINTS:
In the upper right hand corner, next to "new post" you will also see "DESIGN." If you click on that it will take you to "bones" of the blog. On the left hand side you will see a menu under "new post." click on "LAYOUT." It will take you to the actual layout of the blog. In the left hand column you will see a place to click on "add a Gadget" It will then pull up another menu. Scroll down to Image and click on the (+) sign. You can there down down load your photo. Your name will be the title and your weekly point total will be the caption. . . .as I go back and re read this it all sounds very confusing. If you need help just let me know and I will be more than happy to assist you!!!
*****Once your pic is up all you will need to do weekly to update your points is, click on the tool/wrench in the lower right hand corner of your pic. You can then put in your new point total for the week in the caption area.
This site will stay public until everyone who wants to join lets me know and gets me their email address and cell #. After that I will make this site private for our challenge group.
FIRST PLACE WINNER: Gets 60% of the cash
SECOND PLACE WINNER: Gets 30% of the cash
THIRD PLACE WINNER: Gets 10% of the cash
In the case of a tie the winner will be determined by % of weight lost over the 12 week period. So, don't forget to note your initial weight so we can figure it out at the end of the challenge in December
2 comments:
I felt the same way about eating sugar after being off of it for so long. When I say I had some this weekend, it was a cookie one day, and then I had a handful of M&M's, and that was all I could handle.
Your tradition sounds like fun with the kids. My kids help plan meals as well, especially since we are trying new things like quinoa etc. They like to watch the show, MasterChef Jr.", so trying new foods is a fun thing rather than a dreaded thing in our house.
Can't wait to see some recipes!
I was pretty shocked at how sick I was. It's caused me to seriously reevaluate eating habits. I never thought that I would become one of "those" people that was preaching giving up sugar, but here I am, surprisingly.
The tradition with cooking actually came from me feeling crazy with all of my kids wanting to help (and fighting over) lending a hand in the kitchen. I can handle one helper, but 4 drives me a little bonkers. It's turned in to a really great thing, because it gives me one on one time with my children (which is hard in a big family) and is teaching them life skills. Honestly, I'm looking forward to a time in the future when I won't be needed to help and I can put my feet up on Sunday while they do the whole meal! My 13 year old son is getting close!
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