Tuesday

Early walk with Michelle, haircut, eye appointment for Ben, lunch at Burger King (Ben's choice), bit of shopping, singing with Ben in the van, and back home again. Full day but it was nice to spend the day with Ben.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - BLT salad with chicken and balsamic vinaigrette, a few fries
Supper - beef, veg and barley mix
Snack - banana

Monday

Michelle and have started walking in the morning before the boys get up. That's when I like walking the best. I'm definitely a morning person.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal, orange
Lunch - salad, grapefruit
Snack - some nuts
Supper - beef fajita

Saturday

Oh boy, I love this weather. The kids and I went out this afternoon to the tennis/basketball court just down from our house and we played for about an hour. First we had a little basketball game and then we hit around a tennis ball for a while. Meanwhile Josh was out snaring gophers. It's spring all right!

While the boys went to a father/son breakfast at the church (they used Ellwood as their father since Paul is away), Michelle and I went out for lunch and did a bit of shopping. We both ordered a small meal and then shared them.

Andrea

Breakfast - grapefruit
Lunch - 1/2 chicken and salad wrap, 1 pc fish, some fries
Supper - salad
Snack - a few cookies

Friday

I've felt much more in control today. The last few days haven't been too bad but there were definitely some food choices I should have avoided.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal, orange
Lunch - salad, banana
Supper - eggs on toast, 1/2 grapefruit
Will probably still have some popcorn (popped in a pot with a bit of oil on the stove, no butter, just salt, that's the best way to have it)

Wednesday

Michelle has 11 more weeks and her braces come off. The countdown begins!

The kids and I saw an excellent movie tonight that just came out on DVD. Blind Side. Very worth it!

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal with milk
Lunch - awesome salad with chicken
Snack - a few dried apricots, orange
Supper - pizza and salad

My Own Personal Trainer

The last 2 days have been much better. Sunday after church was potluck and I find those are easy to stay on track. I always make sure to bring a big salad and a healthy dessert, this time I brought a fruit salad. Then we headed to the "big city" to play around at a hotel for the night. We picked up some food at the grocery store on the way. So I had 1/2 a wrap, some salad and a bit of chips. I brought my cereal for in the morning and we went out for lunch. It was a bigger meal than I normally have for lunch but then supper was a banana and 2 turkey bites. We also spent hours in the pool. While the kids played I jogged in the water. So a pretty good 2 days.

Michelle and I have decided that we need to get out walking more. We went out tonight for a bit and she really pushed me. We would walk at a fast pace and then every few minutes she would push me to power walk for a minute. She's my very own personal trainer.

Andrea

Hard

Why does this have to be so hard???? And why do I give in so easily???

Wednesday

Last night I had a half a piece of pie with supper. Then I said no to ice cream at Dairy Queen. Wasn't very tempting even.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal with milk
Snack - banana
Lunch- bowl of soup
Supper - roast beef, bbq'd veggies, Chinese salad, about 1/3 of a roasted potato, 1/2 a piece of apple crumble pie - definitely didn't overdue it!

The Weekend In A Nutshell

Friday was a good eating day. Saturday would have been good if I hadn't eaten all those sugar cookies with icing that the kids and I made and decorated. But Sunday was back to normal again.

My daughter, Michelle, seems to be in high demand these days. A few months ago a lady in town that caters mentioned that she had her eye on Michelle and would like to start training her within a year to help her at functions that she caters. Then the other day the friends of ours that own the restaurant up the street asked me if Michelle was interested in working. They said they've had their eye on her to run the ice cream window out of their restaurant for the season, probably starting in a few weeks working afterschools and probably through till September. Wow, pretty popular girl, she's going to be rolling in the dough!! The only thing is getting a permit for her to work since she is still 13 until October, but hopefully that isn't a big deal. She's pretty excited!

Any ideas for satisfying my sweet cravings. I think that's why I eat cookies because I don't have anything else (that I want) when I'm just craving something sweet.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal with milk
Lunch - 1/2 a BLT salad with chicken at Burger King
Snack - banana, turkey bite (thanks Dawne for reminding me of one of my favorite snacks)
Supper - chicken veg soup (again, thanks to Dawne for the recipe which I have below, it's soooo good!!)

Leftover Turkey Chicken Soup Recipe

2 tsp. canola oil
1 pound leftover turkey chicken, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups chopped celery, carrots (each)
1 cup chopped onions
4 cups chicken broth
1 large can tomatoes, cut up
1/3 cup pearl barley
3/4 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp each thyme, ground sage, salt and pepper
1/4 chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in large saucepan, add vegetables and saute. Add spices. Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to low. Cover and simmer 30 - 35 minutes, until barley is tender. Enjoy your left over Thanksgiving turkey chicken!

Can you tell I just learned to strike out words!!!

Thursday

I have been forgetting to track my exercise lately. We have been going for more walks because of the nice weather. Still a lot of snow but it's warming up. And some days I still do the exercise video.

Andrea


Breakfast - cereal with milk
Lunch - salad, a bit of cooked chicken
Snack - banana
Supper - homemade soup, biscuits
Exercise - 1/2 hour walk outside

Wednesday

Weighed in yesterday morning and I am back down to where I was about a month ago. So that's good. Today I got to spend the day with Josh in town. He had an orthodontist appointment so we went out for lunch afterwards and then did some shopping.

Andrea


Breakfast - fibre one cereal with milk
Lunch - out for chinese
Snack - 2 cookies (I keep having these for my snack, really it should be fruit or yogurt but .....)
Supper - banana - I was still full from lunch

Monday

Breakfast - Fibre One cereal with milk, slice of ham
Lunch - homemade soup at the bar (who knew they had homemade soup, and it was so good)
Snack - small handful of nuts
Supper - pork and beans, salad
Snack - 2 cookies

Busy Weekend

This weekend has been really busy. Friday Paul made it home from a 2 week trip so he made it to one of Josh's curling games and then we all headed to bed early. During the day on Saturday we headed to a nearby small town's trade show and in the evening we went to our rink's 3rd annual dinner and fundraiser auction. And because I am on the rink board as well as their treasurer, I had to work most of the evening. But it was fun. They raised just over $25,000.00. So for the 3 years we've been doing it we've raised about $90,000.00 which is amazing for a small community. Our rink would definitely have closed down with out this help.

Then yesterday it was off to church for the morning. Sunday afternoon is usually when we try to get a nap in but that didn't seem to happen yesterday so Paul, Michelle and I went over to visit some friends for most of the afternoon. In the evening we headed out for a walk but stopped to visit with an elderly man from our town who drives around in his car for what seems to be hours. He said if we were just going to stand there talking we may as well hop in and he'd take us for a drive. So we drove out of town and he showed us where he used to live and farm and all kinds of interesting things that only an 84 year old local would know. We enjoy visiting with people like him and just hearing his life experiences. He is someone who is probably pretty bored and lonely usually being by himself and really, how hard is it to just spend time with him. Not hard at all. I think we just have to look for those kinds of opportunities everyday in the people around us and we'd be amazed at what we'd find.

This weekend hasn't been too bad eating wise. I can barely remember what I ate Friday and Saturday but I'll write down what I ate yesterday.

Andrea


Breakfast - Fibre One cereal with milk
Lunch - leftover soup with a bit of cheese and crackers
Snack - banana, 2 cookies
Supper - slow cooked beef, chinese salad, cooked veggies
I skipped ice cream in the evening!

Sick

Two sick kids home today. One with just a bad cough that almost makes him throw up and the other one feeling like he could throw up. Although now they both feel much better. They even felt up to baking some cookies and squares. The cookies will be thrown into the freezer so I won't eat them and the squares will go to Ben's 4-H project meeting tonight.

Andrea


Breakfast - Fibre One with milk, banana
Lunch - salad, fresh bun, banana
Supper - homemade soup, a bit of Josh's cookie dough
Exercise - I went out and shoveled snow for over 1 hour, at different times during the day. We're trying to get an old car out from the very back of our property. Right now it could make it about 1/2 way to the driveway so we'll have to shovel the rest tomorrow.

Accountability

Accountability, that's what I need. I do ok at first when I try to do it on my own but I slowly get off track. So I really need this blog for the accountability. So even though I might not write anything interesting everyday, I need to just write out what I'm eating. It won't be very exciting but that's what I need to stay on track. So that's what I'm going to do!

Yesterday I added a new friend to my facebook. He's a young man that we had living with us here for about a year. We had kind of lost contact with him and weren't sure what happened to him after he left our home. Things hadn't ended so well when he left, so it was nice to reconnect with him and we look forward to dropping in to see him this summer when we head back to Ontario for a visit. It will be interesting to see what has happened in his life this past year.

Andrea


Breakfast - Fibre One cereal with milk
Lunch - chicken blt salad with balsamic dressing and a diet Coke (at Burger King)
Snack - banana
Supper - chinese salad, ice cream