Diet Soda Cake

Well, since I am not eating sweets, it doesn't mean y'all can't! (Yes I have been two days free of sweets! YEAH! I'm struggling today though.). So here is a very simple low cal dessert for you to enjoy.

Diet Soda Cake

1 cake mix (any flavor)
1 12 oz. diet soda can (any flavor)

Mix the two together. Pour in a baking dish and cook as directed on the box. Do not add oil. Do not add eggs. Only the diet soda with the cake mix! It's that simple! So basically nurtition wise you are only counting the cake mix. Each piece is usually around 2 pts.

Try different combinations. A know a lot of people like Diet coke or pepsi with the spice cake mix. Or try Diet Orange with a Yellow cake mix. Or Diet Cherry pepsi/coke with a chocolate cake mix. It's only as limited as your imagination. ENJOY!

For more recipes, check out the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap.

New Exercise Plan

So my running guru (Love ya Jen!) gave me a site that basically gives you a workout schedule based on what you want to train for. Well as you all know I am so NOT ready for a 1/2 marathon yet so I figured I should train for a 10k. So I set up my schedule and I'm starting this week. I started tonight actually. 2 miles. It wasn't too bad. I like this schedule. I believe it is doable. I printed it out and it's hanging next to the calendar on the refrigerator so even dh knows when I need to exercise. NO EXCUSES. I can do this.

In other news it does no appear that I will be doing my 5k that I wanted to do March 15th. Instead we are going camping. Oh well. There is another 5k April 18 so I'll plan for that one instead. It's a good thing I live where I do as there a lots of races to choose from. But it is hard to find a 10k I'll tell you!

A Lenten Help

Ok, have no idea if I spelled that right but I'm hoping that Lent may be a help in my weightloss efforts. So I was talkign with my friend M and she was telling me that she was trying to figure out what to give up for Lent. Last year she gave up soda and did awesome! She was thinking of doing that again but I think I talked her out of it as she knows she can do that. So I thought, being the non practicing Catholic that I am, that maybe I need to get to practicing. After all I am TRYING to read the bible this year (i'm only 20 days behind. Not bad I think with my crazy hectic schedule!). So I figured I should give up sweets. I can do that. I don't need sweets. I need to rid my body of them. So that is what I am going to do for the next 40 days. Wish me luck. And hopefully that will help to get me back on track on my eating because it has been HORRIBLE lately.

Menu Plan Monday 2-23-2009

For more Menus Check out Orgjunkie's website

Monday: Tacos

Tuesday: Spaghetti w/ Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Pork Chops w/ Chili (carryover from last week)

Thursday: Chicken Fajita's

Friday: Kung Pao Chicken (carryover from last week)

Saturday: Mexican Pizza

Sunday: Leftovers

I lost

I did lose 3 lbs this week. WOO HOO!! It seems that when we go camping, I lose weight. Probably because I'm so busy running after the kids and attending to them I don't have time to eat. I never ate lunch on Saturday (or Friday I think). I really didn't snack at all. I did get some exercise in as we took the jogging stroller and I put the girls in it and walked around in the dirt for a little. It was hard. Pushing that thing in the soft dirt.

I've got all my meals planned. Hopefully we can stick to it. This is dh's first week on the job. I'm shocked he didn't just want me to go pick up dinner last night becaue he was STARVING since he didn't eat lunch yesterday. But we had steak leftover from camping that never got grilled because it was too windy that we HAD to make yesterday. So I broiled it in the oven. Came out really good. =) That's the first time I've ever broiled in my life. LOL! We really need to get our grill back from my BIL.

I'm figuring since dh gets out of work early now, come the summer, I'll plan more grilling. He can grill while the kids run around outside. And it's much healthier for you too. I just need to find some good marinades and rubs and experiment. YUM!

Well, this week isn't turning out too hot for me. I've come down with a cold and when that happens all I want to do is eat. UGH. Hopefully I don't ruin my good loss last week with an even bigger gain this week. =(

Menu Plan Monday 2-16-09

Ok Yes I'm a day late but I was gone camping. So without further ado:

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Grilled Steak Sirloin (carryover from last week)

Wednesday - Pizza

Thursday - Teryaki Noodles w/ Egg Rolls

Friday - Creamy Horseradish Chicken

Saturday - Kung Pao Chicken w/ Rice

Sunday - Leftovers

For more menus: Check out www.orgjunkie.com.

Another Day . . .

Good Morning!!! No waking up early and exercising for me this morning. UGH. But I think I needed the sleep more. I was falling asleep while watching BL. I was re-reading through my blog yesterday and I was doing so well in 2006. I can feel it when I read my posts. There was even a post when I gained weight but I did everything RIGHT that week. But it didn't get me down. I was already well into my 100 days OP streak and I didn't want it to ruin me and it DIDN'T. So I'm determined to get back there. I want to be OP so it's second nature. So I'm not thinking. So I can LOSE THIS WEIGHT.

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

I made this last night and it was YUM. Dh even went for seconds (that's when you know it's good!). I actually used leftover chicken from our fajita's last week instead of the canned chicken. Dh did my grocery shopping so the cream of chicken was not 98% fat free and the cheddar cheese I used was full fat. Oh well. What I would suggest if you wanted to use this as a "family" meal is to use regular cheese on one side and reduced fat or fat free on the other (put a toothpick in the side you know is the lower fat one so you know which side to dish from. :) ). That way everyone gets the best of both worlds and you aren't making more than one dish for the family! I can't remember where I saw this recipe but if it was you - please let me know!!! I found it on someone's blog. Here is the recipe:

King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Serves - 6
Points - 4
1 10 oz. can chicken breast, drained
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel tomatoes
8 corn tortillas, cut into fourths
1 cup fat free shredded cheddar
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, garlic and celery in a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray until tender. Add soups, Rotel tomatoes and chicken; heat and mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spray 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Layer 1/2 of tortillas in bottom of dish. Pour 1/2 of soup mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle 1/2 of shredded cheese over soup mixture. Repeat layers ending with cheese. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and cook additional 10 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition Information:205 cal., 2.4 g. fat, 2.5 g. fiber

I did it

I woke up this morning and exercised. YEAH me. I was virtually wide awake and just laying in bed anyway. That's when I know I should get up. So I did my Turbo Jam this morning. I need to move on to the next video in the series though because I keep doing the same two and I think I've finally mastered them. They get my going and I'll love to come back to them but I need to change it up a little now.

I did not get to run last night. I was busy making Valentine's for the kids daycare yesterday. Took me longer and didn't turn out "quite" as I expected but I've learned the best way to melt chocolate and that I need more than one mold if I want to make a lot. LOL! But they are done. Shoot the kids aren't even going to be at the Valentine's parties since we are leaving Friday to go camping. Oh well. At least they will have stuff there to hand out. I wouldn't care if they didn't get anything because they really DO NOT need anything!!!

I so wanted to just say the heck with it with cooking dinner last night but I did and it was quick and easy and it felt so good to eat at home! It was so much better than our eating out last Friday. YUCK!!! Tonight is a little more complex. It's the King Ranch Chicken Casserole. I'll make it as soon as I get home while the kids are eating and then put it in the oven while we get the kids bathed and ready for bed. Then we can eat afterwards (like normal). I know I know. It was just so much easier in the past to get the kids fed and THEN decided what we are going to do. I'm hoping to change that by the summer time. Now that the girls are getting older they can eat pretty much anything. But with dh's schedule changing we'll have to adjust and get used to it. So this practice will change and evolve as the weeks and months go by.

Organizing Goal - Laundry/Pantry Room

So as part of my goals for this year - I am aiming to organizing my house, one room at a time. (If I don't get my butt in gear this month though I'm not going to get anything done!). So my room in January was my Laundry/Pantry Room. I took before & after photos! YEAH!!! Of course as I'm looking through them trying to order them on my page here - it's kinda hard to tell if they are before or after somewhat. But anyway, my laundry/pantry is CLEAN and somewhat organized and is going to STAY like that!!!!

BEFORE:
Looking through the kitchen to the laundry room (ignore the dirty clothes on the floor)


Washer/Dryer on left and Pantry's on Right





AFTER:
Notice NO dirty laundry on floor. =) or on the washer. We tend to put the girls dirty bibs on top of the washer. Need to find a better idea.



BEFORE:
This is the cabinet ABOVE the washer


AFTER:


BEFORE:
This is the cabinet above the dryer

AFTER:
Notice how much ROOM I have left!!! And my batteries are semi organized. And the plastic cutlery actually found it's way to the spot it was supposed to be in. =)


BEFORE:
This is the cabinet above my first pantry.

AFTER:
Still a mess of plastic bags but we use them to throw out dirty diapers (we found the Diaper Genie to be a joke after the first 3 months). I need a small basket (plastic, wicker, whatever) to put the plastic bags in to keep it looking neat up there. Will be looking for something ;) )

BEFORE:
This is the cabinet above my second pantry. And No we are not really boozers. I've had most of this alcohol (except for the Jack) for over a year.


AFTER:


BEFORE:
First pantry that is on the left - top shelves


AFTER:
(Any ideas on a BETTER way to organize my spices??)


BEFORE:
First pantry that is on the left - bottom shelves


AFTER:
(Mental Note: Need to bring stryofoam cups to work)

BEFORE:
Second Pantry on the right - top shelves


AFTER:
(Not having to store baby food freed up a whole shelf for me!)


BEFORE:
Second pantry on right - bottom shelves


AFTER:




BEFORE:
The top of my pantry's.


AFTER:


So there you go! YEAH!! One room down. Many more to go. But I do have a wish list for this room of what I still need:

1. fabric covering for the top of washer & dryer to make it look pretty
2. basket for plastic bags in top cabinet

My Crappy Weekend

I was so tired this weekend. Dh and I went out for dinner and a movie on Friday night. UGH! We've decided from now on to eat at home and just do the movie. The food sucked and the service sucked and it cost us $60!!! Oh well. It's hard to find good service these days. We saw Gran Torino. Good movie!! (although I slept through a lot of it!). We didn't home until after midnight and then of course the kids were up at 6am. (we do make them stay in bed until 7am and they are usually fine with that).

Saturday we were stuck inside all day because it was raining. Sunday we had a birthday party we all went too but that meant Emily never napped (at least Taylor did) so it was a cranky night after we got home. It felt like I had been at home with the kids for three days and it was really only two. I even took like an hour nap Saturday afternoon AND another one Sunday morning. I guess the waking up at 4am thing is really killing me but I don't know what else to do. I'm hoping I get to use this and SOON!

So needless to say this weekend was a BOMB. This coming weekend shouldn't be since we are going camping and I'm restricted to what we bring. I'm going to map out what I'm going to eat the whole weekend - breakfasts, snacks, lunch and dinners - and it will be successful!! I did work out all but one day last week!! I did not wake up this morning and exercise. I woke up around 2am, went to the bathroom and when I laid back in bed, when my head hit the pillow I had a massive headache. Weird, It's still partially there now. Ugh.

I did WI this morning and I'm down .4 lbs. So basically I lost 1/2 lb. I'll take it. Better than gaining. I was thinking last week I NEED to lose 50 lbs. If I lost 1 lb a week (which SHOULD be doable) I can lose it all within a year (you know with 52 weeks in a year and all). So can I lose it by the end of December? Well we've already gone through 6 week. So 52 - 6 weeks is 46 weeks. So I have 46 weeks left to lose 50 lbs. I think that is totally doable! So I guess I'll redo my goals. I was supposed to be at 170 last week and I am SO not even close so I need to redo. I'm tired of redoing my goals. I need to get serious. What is it going to take for me to get serious????

Menu Plan Monday 2-9-09

Monday: Nachos
Tuesday: King Ranch Casserole (carryovered from last week)
Wednesday: Creamy Spinach & Chicken Enchilada's
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: Hot Dogs
Saturday: Hamburgers
Sunday: Steak House Grilled Sirloin Steak

For More Menu plans check out: Orgjunkie

Food Journal for 2-6-09

Breakfast:
Apple Fritter Donut

Lunch:
Tortilla Chips
Quick Fix Burrito Skillet (leftovers) w/ salsa & sour cream

Dinner:
King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Food Journal for 2-5-09

Breakfast:
Vitatop
Diet Hot Cocoa

Snack:
Grapes

Lunch:
Salad w/Chicken & RF Ranch Dressing
2 pieces of Chocolate Cheesecake (DAMN Coworker)

Dinner:
Hot Dog w/bun
Doritos
1/2 cup Reese's Peanut Butter ice cream

Rough yesterday

I am SO tired today. I still got up and did Yoga this morning. That felt good. =) I have no idea how these ladies though do it without a.) falling over or b.) so straight! I'm not that flexible. I hope to become that flexible!

I so wanted to stop by the snack bar on my way up to the office. I did not though. Mostly because all I have on me is a hundred dollar bill and I don't think they can break that. Better for me. I have my deep chocolate vitatop and I'm going to have diet hot cocoa and that should be better for me and taste just as sweet. Yum!

Oh I didn't do too hot last night. Dh bought ice cream when he went grocery shopping and it's not the good kind (low fat). So I had a bowl of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream and then I was still starving so I had a handful of bugles and then i went to bed. I think I was more thirsty than hungry. Today WILL be a better day.

Food Journal for 2-4-09

Breakfast:
Vitatop - Deep Chocolate

Lunch:
Lasagne

Snack:
Grapes

Dinner:
Chili & Cornbread
1/2 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream
handful of bugles

YEAH!!!

I'm horrible about blog titles so forgive the title today. =) I ran last night. Felt so good! I have 6 weeks until my next 5K (i need to sign up for it but I'm spending too much money lately so I need to wait a couple weeks). So I decided to jump in the c25k program at week 3. Doing that for me isn;t bad because I've been running. Maybe not consistently but I've been running. I'd really like to get faster but not sure how to train to get faster (mental note: look that up). So anyway, I also figured out that if I want to run a 10k this year that I also need to up my mileage each week so I decided to run 3 miles last night. Well I don't run the whole thing it's a jog/walk thing. Since the c25k was over right around 2 miles I switched my iPod to my music vs. the cues that Suz's podcast provides (check her out at http://kissmyblackass.org especially if you like hip hop music!) and continued jog/walking. Finished in about 41 mins which included my warm up and cool down. YEAH!!

Then I also woke up at 4am (almost wanted to hit snooze for another 3 times but didn't) and decided to do my Turbo Jam again. I'll do yoga tomorrow morning. Connor wanted to exercise with me last night. I'm hoping to go for a walk/run with him tonight after dinner. Dh can put the twins to bed and we'll head out. I'd like to see if he can handle 1/2 a mile. If he can, I can sign up both up for the next 5k since they have a 1 mile kids run. Every kid gets a medal at the end and I KNOW he would LOVE that. I just love that I am instilling in him a love for exercise!!

And I also like to shout out to Hayley over at Happy Hawkeye Homeschool House. We are going to be keeping each other accountable and GETTING TO GOAL TOGETHER!!!! So keep checking back for our progress. =)

Food Journal for 2-3-09

Breakfast:
Yogurt
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
Granola

Lunch:
Three Cheese Penne Pasta

Snack:
Popcorn

Dinner:
Grilled Cheese
Handful of Bugels
100 calorie snack pack of cookies

Food Journal for 2-2-09

Breakfast:

Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt
1/2 Banana
1/2 cup Bluberries
6 mini Rice Cakes (Cinnamon Flavor)

Snack:
handful of peanuts

Lunch:

Stuffed Shells
50 cal pack of pretzels
1/2 banana

Snack:
Cheese Stick

Dinner:
2 tacos
Chip & Guac (about 1/4 cup)
2 fried tortillas (darn they taste good!)

Menu Plan Monday 2-2-09

Menu Plan for the Week 2-2-09:

Monday: Tacos

Tuesday: Grilled Cheese

Wednesday: Chili & Cornbread

Thursday: King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Friday: Hot Dogs

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Pork Chops w/ Green Chili Corn & Potatoes

For more menu ideas: Check out Orgjunkie.com

2 lb GAIN

UGH. It's because I am NOT portioning. I am not counting points or calories. I'm just eating. Maybe not necessarily bad things. Just A LOT. I need to get my portions UNDER control. I've got the exercise thing down pretty much. I go back and forth between running at night and waking up at 4am to exercise in the morning. I did wake up and exercise this morning so yeah me. =) It's not necessarily habit yet but it's getting there. Baby steps. I need to journal and get my portions and eating under control. I can do this!

My 5K

My 5K went pretty good. Especially considering I didn't really train for it. I finished 2 mins FASTER than my last 5K. YEAH! It was pretty cool running along Pacific Coast Highway with no traffic on it looking out at the ocean. And I got a cool surfboard medal. So I'm happy. I'll definitely do this one again next year. I just like the medal! My shins were KILLING me about 1 mile into it. Probably because we are running on asphalt? Don't know. I do know I had to walk 4 times during the race. =( Not too happy about that. But again, I did NOT train right for this. I also screwed up at the end. They were telling us 5K women to the right and 5K men to the left and we went through that area and I thought that was the end so I started walking. Look up and there is the big 'ol finish line banner about 200 yards ahead. Oh well. Maybe I would have finished under 40 mins had I not screwed up. Live and Learn, live and learn right? Here are my finish details:

5K
Runner Details
Race Results
Bib: 17755
Name: Heather Singh
Gender: F
Age: 32

Overall: 1819 out of 2508
Women: 1085 out of 1621
F 30-34: 214 out of 290
Age/Grade: 35.90% Place: 1918
Finish: 41:20 Pace: 13:19
Tag Time: 41:20
Gun Time: 44:34

Now I have 6 weeks to GET ready for my next one. I'm hoping to finish in under 40 mins this time so I need to get going! No more slacking off!!!!