Sacred Influence

I just finished reading "Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands" by Gary Thomas. I am not much of a reader-haven't been since junior high, but I am trying to change that. I have read three books in the last 3 months and have four more waiting on me.

So back to Sacred Influence. I think all couples should read this book. It has great spiritual insight on the role a woman plays in marriage. It describes the woman's role as a helper to her husband to encourage him and support him. In doing so actually helps her marriage and herself in the process. I learned a lot from this book and although I would love to pass it on to a friend I think I'm going to hang onto it to read again someday.

Looking Great in 2008

I did manage to brave the scale this morning and am logging a 1 pound gain. One pound is not bad considering the last four days! YIKES! I don't even want to think about the calories that have gone into my mouth the last four days! I am starting fresh tomorrow and hope to get as close as I can to my goal before Tuesday-the first of January. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal weight-but I am on my way. Of course with the new year comes the custom new years resolution to exercise more-which will surely help in my weight loss. I have got to get into a good exercise routine.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas-we sure enjoyed ours. Hope to see less of each of you in the new year-myself included!

Tales from the Scales-Looking great in 2008

Well it isn't Wednesday-but I am down a pound so I wanted to document it. I am 14 pounds away from my initial goal and ten pounds away from my "revised" goal. Hopefully if I don't overdue it the next few days, and I really step it up the days between Christmas and New Year's-maybe, maybe, maybe I can still lose 10 pounds before the end of the year.

Hope everyone enjoys spending time with friends and family this Christmas!

Christmas Festivities

The Christmas festivities have started at our home. My Aunt and Uncle came into town Thursday and we had a good visit. We opened presents from them Thursday night-and I guess that got J interested in the presents under the tree-he has opened three since then. There have been presents under our tree for two weeks and he hasn't touched them. So I guess opening presents the other night sparked his interest.

I left J upstairs playing yesterday while I was cleaning the kitchen. I walked upstairs to find him asleep on the floor with one of my uncle's gifts open. My uncles gifts were in the rocker where he had left them the night before, J had pulled it out of the chair and opened the box. It was a fish for the hitch on his truck. So cute and so sneaky!

So we will be busy the next few days!! Merry Christmas to all!

Looking Great in 2008 weigh in #13

Seems I always end up going to dinner with my husband on the night before weigh-in. We ate at Logan's last night with his parents and it was wonderful. But I paid for it today. The scale showed no gain but not loss either. I really should not have been surprised, I haven't been eating well lately. Not getting my fruits and veggies in, haven't been exercising and certainly not getting my water in. I have done better today with the water.

So with all that said this next week I am not going to worry about weight loss, however, I am not going to over do it. I have a family gathering Saturday, another get together on Sunday to make Christmas sweets and treats, Christmas at my in laws on Christmas Eve and then Christmas with my family Christmas day. So 4 days of Christmas activities filled with plenty of sweets, treats and lots of other fattening foods.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas. Remember the true meaning of Christmas and be thankful.

Weigh In #12

Well I have been on the scale this morning and was up a little-but I haven't nursed yet. So I will wait until late morning to do my "official" weigh in. I won't be surprised to see no loss this week-after the chocolate chip cookies and dinner out last night! Gotta get to it though-only three more weeks left in the year and I really want to lose 10 more pounds before January 1st. I know I can do it I just have to get back to eating fruits and veggies and drinking water.

So for this week my goal is to drink nothing but water. Even though I drink diet sodas I am sure cutting those out will help tremendously. I also need to exercise. My three year old son and I did Taebo one day last week. It was very tiring but also fun. I use to love doing Taebo many years ago. So I plan on getting that out and doing it again this week. I'd really like to start running-I actually enjoyed that during high school. I was never fast but I did enjoy it. So I plan on running at least twice this week and Taebo at least twice. Hopefully that will be enough to get me where I need to be to finish off the year 10 pounds lighter!

Good luck to everyone through the holidays-I know this is a tough time to stick to a healthy diet.

Weigh In #11 12/4

WOOHOO! Two more pounds down! I weighed Tuesday and was down two more pounds!! (I also weighed Wednesday morning but after eating close to a dozen chocolate chip cookies on Tuesday I was no longer down 2 pounds-so I opted to go with Tuesday's weigh in!). Up until Tuesday, I was making much better food choices and had exercised once. Not nearly exercising enough but still working on that. At this rate I still won't meet my original goal but I hope to lose at least 10 more pounds before the end of the year.

My husband says it's cheating to go by Tuesday's weigh in-but I don't care. I'm countin it!!

Good luck to everyone in the coming week.

Menu Plan Monday 12/3

Well we have eaten out more this week than we have in a while. So I really need to stick to the menu this week if I want to have a nice loss on weigh in day. These one pound losses each week are driving me crazy. I'd like to lose ten more pounds before the end of the year-won't meet my original goal (seventeen pounds to go for that)but I'll just have to set a new goal. I did much better sticking with the menu last week so hopefully I'll do the same this week as well.

We tried a few new recipes from the Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook last week. The 'grilled honey balsamic salmon' wasn't my favorite. Maybe I cooked it too long but it wasn't nearly as good as the Orange glazed salmon recipe I tried a few weeks ago. The Philly steak and cheese sandwhiches were really good. We will have to do that again. The terriyaki pork loin and terriyaki chicken I have cooked before and again they were good.

This weekend I sat down and planned my menus for the month-don't gasp yet it may seem organized and it'd be great if I'd follow my monthly menu for a full month but I never do. But I still sit down at the first of every month, plan my menus for five days a week, and even make out a grocery list for each week. Then every weekend I'll check the menu for that week and see what we already have and add the items we need to the main grocery list which is on the fridge. But there are days we might eat out or eat elsewhere, or there may be days I forget to defrost the meat and the menu gets a little jumbled. But I enjoy planning and even if I don't follow it perfectly it is much better than not having a plan at all.

Monday: Baked potatoes and salads (back to my easy Monday menus)
Tuesday: Tex Mex Pepper Steak
Wednesday: Skillet Ziti & veggies
Thursday: BBQ meatloaf-never made meatloaf before so we'll see how we like it
Friday: Taco Chicken tortilla wraps

All the menus are from the Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook. I cannot rave enough about this cookbook. I just love it! I've been using a lot of recipes from it the last few months. I borrowed it from my mom, and she had borrowed it from someone else. So I will have to return it someday. I am hoping to get one for Christmas!! *hint* *hint*

Hope everyone has a great week and happy planning!