22/365 pop pop popping

this was a treat in my Blissdom goody box from
a sponsor I am starting to love, ConAgra

that my family is in love with...

Kaeden struggled with getting into the bowl, Shelby and I could have helped I guess but we thought his facial expressions were so funny.

Shelby, the popcorn cover girl

~ I do struggle with the chemical nastiness that has been rumoured to be in microwave popcorn and hence why we never buy it. My children would like me to revisit my ban. As ConAgra will be at Blissdom, I will be sure to ask them for their side to this controversy.

As well, there seems to be a Canada issue. Even if I am convinced it ok for my family on a limited basis, it doesn't appear I can purchase it in Canada. I guess it would be added to my USA Target trips!

7/365 it's not easy being green

finally...got it together this morning and made the green smoothie and it definitley lives up to its nameso SO very green!

It was not too bad

and everyone had a

glass, even Kaeden who said

there was no way he was drinking spinach.

just in case you want to give it a whirl

you will need...

a blender

4 cups of spinach

3 1/4 cups water

3 bananas

5 medjool dates

1 tsp Spirulina ( a super food powder, I bought Earth Rise brand at Community Health in Calgary)

SOAK the dates in water (I leave them overnight)

REMOVE the pits from Dates

THROW all ingredients into the blender.

BLEND.

DRINK.

**it made 4 large glasses, apparently it can be left in the fridge and just give it a quick re-blend***

Take Two

Operation Healthy Family has begun...again.

We did pretty good last year but as soon as I stopped organizing meals and buying the healthy food all the great intentions fell apart and we all started to slip.

The question you may be asking is how can I change things this year,
so it won't fall apart again. Ok wait, that is the question I am asking and
I have no easy answers.

It started when I began a project at work that
took a lot emotionally, mentally and physically
and us going to the lake every weekend
where the marshmallows and pina coloda's called our names.

I realized how far I had slipped when I received a pair of jeans a size larger
than I was wearing in the summer at Christmas
and they were way too small.

I had come too far to let myself slip back,
into daily Starbucks,
no water intake,
crappy food,
late night snacking,
just total grossness.

If I stay on track
then the family stays on track.

It isn't possible that I can avoid all
stress,
ok, that was a stupid statment
stress is here to stay,
that is just my genetic makeup

I just need to try again,
hope for the best,
and see how far we can go this year.

One day is better than none,
Two is better than one, Three is better than two,
and so on and so on
so here we go again.

rules, rules, who needs freakin rules?

well apparently me so here they are,

1) Water, Lots of Water (4.25 litres yesterday)
and green tea,
for me, the kids just need to make sure they drink water
at every meal

2) No more lunches out (ok, maybe one or two but no fast food)

3) The white bread was SO good during the holidays but
back to Whole Grains

4) Very limited preseratives (which means no pre-packaged food).

5) Starbucks once a week (this should be none but I am not ready for that,
once a week is hard enough)

6) a green smoothie every morning that was reccomended by a friend. I have EVERYTHING for it but can't seem to get myself together in the morning enough to make it but I have high hopes tomorrow is the day!

7) Meal Plans and once a week shopping (usually Monday)

8) more Operation Healthy family posts including recipes as blogging seems to keep me on the right path

9) no eating after dinner....this one is killing me this time but I am working through it. A cup of tea with a little sugar seems to help.

10) water, did I mention that? and record all food and drinks in my journal.

It's only day two but so far so good!

208/365 terrific Tuesday

~ being back on track
operation healthy family
has been struggling
these last few months
but I am trying very hard
to get ourselves back in the right frame of mind

~ a walk downtown

coming across a play at the plaza

walking down the streets filled with flowering baskets

great window displays

and words of inspiration

~ this smiling face

154/365 a very important message

operation healthy family dee-ann

has swerved a titch off course

due to the mixing of

chocolate, bread, milk, cheese and sugar

with stress/emotional eating

& large portions.

at times it has felt so good

I tell you that Peter's milkshake and

onion rings were oh so yummy

and the lemon squares at Shelby's pre-grad

party... words can not describe.

however

there is an evil side to the yumminess

since I have been off my cleanse

and stricter eating habits

I am...

tired (exhausted really)

irritable

bloated

and have...

heartburn

headaches

wicked sugar cravings

sore muscles

no pep in my step

stopped drinking my water

coincidence?

perhaps,

and I would like to think so

as I LOVE my starbucks, chocolate, bread & cheese

but I have a very sneaky suspicion

that I will not be so lucky and

will need to make a tough decision

and decide if feeling gross is worth it

as we have already determined

there will be no more cleanses in my future

the solution will be to start tracking

my food again, force myself to get back

in the water habit and making weekly

lunch/dinner plans on Sundays

however, it is a vicious circle

this eating badly thing

as I have no energy

to do the things I need to do

but isn't admitting you have a problem

the first step?

hopefully, tomorrow is the day

that I can get it together

or I really may need to give

myself a rather large dose of tough love.

121/365 tapping out early...

11 days 11 hours

and that was it

I was done

detox 2010 was officially over

day 10,11 and 12 were tough

and perhaps harder then they were meant to be

I'm not sure,

all I know is that I became someone

I do not wish to be...

basically an emotional mess

mean. moody. non stop crying. out of control.

not usual behaviours for me.

as well, I felt bad.

really bad.

like a mack truck had run over me

backed up, and ran over me again.

after I was allowed to go with

my family to do errands today

(and trust me, I did nothing to

deserve to go out with them)

and cried all the way

down the bowling alley stairs

to take Kaeden to a birthday party

and hid behind my sunglasses

I decided that was it.

enough.

I'm competitive and not one to give up easily

but enough was enough.

I was getting scared

with how out of control I felt

& was shaky, dizzy and

had a brutal headache.

I went to the bakery (Glamorgan)

next to the bowling alley and

bought a package of these...

I then asked if we could go here...

within 15 minutes

I felt better

still dizzy and

still short tempered

but better.

I worked very hard to control my mood

drank about 12 glasses of water

ate a healthy dinner (delicious sushi at Sumo in Eau Claire)

and kept focused on the positive

(found my outfit for our photo shoot

and it was two sizes smaller than in January)

tonight I am still struggling

but am much more stable than this morning

I still feel like that Mack truck has it out for me,

but I am sure as long as I continue to eat healthy

and drink copious amounts of water

I will get back on track.

I don't think I will ever be doing

another cleanse like this one

as apparently my genetic make up

does not react favourably to

either the herbs, the removal of sugar, dairy or grains

or some combination of all of the above.

Next time I am sliding off track I

will just limit my intake of the above foods

and concentrate on increasing my

vegetables and water.

Even though I did not have

an favourable outcome I do

think (now) that there is a place for these

and that any time you focus on eliminating

unhealthy foods from your diet and

re-establishing a healthy eating pattern it

is a good thing.

Even though I definitely could have

live without the last 3 days

(and I am sure my family and friends could have as well)

I am glad I did it.

I'm proud of how focused I stayed,

the willpower I demonstrated

and maybe most importantly,

I developed a water drinking habit

and that is something I struggled with for

the last 30+years.

114/365 I may have wanted to think this detox thing through...

the food available at the scrapbook retreat...

and what I am eating...

I'm away for the weekend with my sister

at our old scrapbooking retreat get-away

in the bustling metropolis of Cypress Hills Saskatchewan

we have come to this one together twice before but it

has been about 4 years

and this time our friend Lisa and her friend joined us.

I forgot just how much I like this one

it is run by sister's best friend, Charlene (since elementary school)

and her mobile store she brings with her

is DANGEROUS

well, so is the food but

I spent yesterday morning

preparing all my food for the weekend

salads, fruit, rice cakes, eggs, almond butter etc...

and we have a kitchen in our condo

so other than the constant taunting of that

junk food table

detox, day 4 and 1/2 of 5

are still on track!

We even made a Starbucks stop yesterday

in Medicine Hat which is like

taking a drug addict to a crack house

and I had Lisa order me a refresh herbal tea

as I was afraid if I went to the counter

I would have ordered my americano misto

but I had the tea and it was surprisingly

well... refreshing.

Today I am working on the announcements for

this bundle of cuteness (see here)

and then the Disneyland journal

for Kaeden!

111/365

stumbled upon this scene when I walked in tonight
and made the following observations:

1. Kaeden looks so much like his dad

2. for the second time this week: when the heck did he start looking so grown up

3. I wonder if the boys decided ahead of time it was wear blue day

4. we have the same amount of laptops as their are rooms and people in this apartment (4)

5. man, could I go for a piece of chocolate

Day Two of the detox and

I am still alive

and have not taken up residence in the washroom

so I will mark today down as a success!

Still have my Starbucks hangover headache

and would KILL for a piece of chocolate but

other than that I have eaten very well

and certainly have not gone hungry.

As we have no micro-wave, I had

Shelby throw a Sweet Potato into the oven

when she got home from school

and I had half a baked sweet potato

with a tsp of butter and cinnamon

oh my gosh....SO GOOD

and another thing that will be

made again and again

way after the detox is done.

We also had chicken grilled in

our new George Foreman grill

tonight - also very good.

in other operation healthy family news

I have start kicked some exercise

by doing the stairs to work every morning

(we are on the 8th floor)

and today Charmaine and I went for

a great walk/stair climb/hill combo

45 minute jaunt after work.

and last (but certainly not least) tomorrow is my mom's birthday and Earth day so

please be nice to both of them tomorrow!

Happy birthday eve Mom (totally covering my backside in case I get busy tomorrow and forget to call, which of course would NEVER happen but as an insurance person it is always good to have a back up plan : )

110/365 Operation Healthy Family goes to detox...

well at least 1/4 of the family.

today I made the questionable decision to

start a herb detox/cleanse for 12 days

why you ask?

because I think detoxes are stupid

and dangerous

and don't do any good

and starving yourself is crazy

ummm, yes then based on that

it makes perfect sense that I

have started one today.

well those thoughts are actually

one of my motivators for this adventure

I have learned in Operation be authentic

that is it good to have opinions, strong ones

but that they need to be balanced and when

possible you need to make sure you have examined

both sides of the argument clearly

so you know exactly where you stand

so with that in mind

my hatred of cleanses/detoxes

was an unfair and uneducated opinion

I have never done any type of program

or even googled about it

and I google everything

so with a desire to have better informed opinions

I went to a local organic market

and had a wonderful women help me out

with one destined to get things "moving"

which is a bit worrisome but at the

end of 12 days I should feel cleaner

more energized and healthier

and maybe as a perk, lose a few pounds

So I bought the package and

then spent 4 hours

researching all comments

concerns and details on the net

and reading the included booklet

front to back a hundred times

and stocked up on some "allowable" foods.

I was undecided about doing it until

breakfast this morning

and finally decided I would give it a whirl

as after my research I couldn't find any

real concerns with this particular regime and

other than the medical community thinking

that a cleanse/detox have absolutely no benefits but

neither were there the scary dangerous warnings

I thought there may be.

As well, there is no starving involved

the allowable foods are

the ones I have been trying to

concentrate on anyways

I will miss the dairy,bread & sugars of any kind

but it is only 12 days and

at the very least I will have an informed opinion

One of the other reasons I started this was

because I was starting to slip a bit with

my food choices and the scale

has hit a plateau for the last 3 weeks

so the concentration on vegetables

and weaning me from my sugar weakness

is well timed.

So far I am one day in

and other than a wicked headache

most likely thanks to the absence of my

1 or 2 a day Venti Vanilla Americano Misto habit

& afternoon dark chocolate

I am doing ok

no severe bathroom issues...yet anyways ;)

I am just taking it one day at a time

and see how far I can go

and to prove there is no starving involved...

breakfast

~boiled egg, strawberries, multi-grain rice cake, almond butter, herbal pills

~there is also a liquid you put in your water (breakfast and dinner) and it doesn't taste wonderful but so far so good

dinner

if this post wasn't already so wordy I would post the recipe for the dinner as

it was so good.

Detox or no detox we will make this many times as Scott & I really liked it and it was very filling with many tasty good for you foods.

It is basically a combination of lettuce, rice, black beans, red peppers, orange peppers, ground lean chicken, taco seasoning, avocado, tomatoes and cilantro.

20/365 a sloppy what's for dinner with Joe

day 4 of operation healthy family

got sloppy with a side of yummy

I was NOT going to do yet another food post

but this was SO good you must give it a whirl

and I don't even like sloppy joes and I ate

the whole thing and packed more for leftovers tomorrow.

Sloppy Joes with Creamy Coleslaw

first up the sloppy joes:

ingredients

lean ground beef (1 lb)*large onion, finely diced (1)*chopped white mushrooms(2 cups)* diced tomatoes (2 cups)*flour (2 tbsp)*water (1/2 cup)*cider vinegar(1/4 cup)*heinz chili sauce (1/4 cup)*ketchup (1/4 cup)*whole wheat hamburger buns (8)

the how:

in a large frying pan, COOK ground beef, onions, mushrooms for approx 8-10 minutes (until all moisture has evaporated)

ADD tomatoes and flour. STIR.

ADD water, cider vinegar, chili sauce & ketchup

BRING to a SIMMER

REDUCE heat to LOW and stir occasionally until sauce is thickened (about 8-10 minutes)

SERVE WARM on the buns

~ 233 calories, 6 grams fat, 31 carbs, 5 grams fiber

the Coleslaw:

ingredients

reduced fat mayo (3 tbsp)*non fat plain yogurt (3 tbsp)*dijon mustard (3 tbsp)*cider vinegar (2 tsp)*sugar (1 tsp)*salt&pepper (to taste)*bag of coleslaw (approx 5 cups)*raisins (1/2 cup) *silvered almonds (1/2 cup) * chopped apple (1 - I like Granny Smith)

the how:

COMBINE mayo, yogurt,mustard,cider vinegar & sugar in a large bowl

SEASON with salt and pepper

ADD coleslaw mix, raisins, silvered almonds, chopped apple & MIX

SERVES 6 (3/4 cup servings)

~ 123 calories, 14 grams carbs, 4 grams fat, 3 grams protein

19/365 it might just be a What's for Dinner Week

a whole lot of crazy curry chicken deliciousness

yep, that's really what I am calling

dinner on Day 3 of Operation Healthy Family.

I may have been pushing my luck yesterday with the whole wheat pasta

and spinach snuck into their Mac and Cheese but

today it was a love fest all around.

this recipe will be in our regular line up for a long time to come

ingredients:

chicken broth (2 cups)*water (2 cups) * boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 1/2 pnds, approx 6 small ones) *reduced fat mayo (1/2 cup) * non-fat plain yogurt (1/2 cup) * mango chutney (1/2 cup) * curry powder (approx. 2-3 tsp) * granny smith apple/cored and chopped (1) * raisins (1/4 cup) * silvered almonds (1/4 cup)

BOIL broth and water in a large shallow pan

ADD chicken and reduce heat to LOW

SIMMER (partially covered) until the chicken is no longer pink (approx 15 minutes)

PUT cooked chicken in a shallow pan (I used a 9x13 glass pan) pour cooking liquid over the top.

REFRIGERATE until chilled (at least 1 hour, but I left it overnight)

AFTER it is chilled, REMOVE from liquid & DICE (throw out the liquid)

MEANWHILE,

STIR mayo, yogurt, mango chutney & curry powder in a medium bowl until blended.

I made this the night before as well and covered it.

OK, now we are FINALLY ready to put this yumminess all together.

MIX chicken, dressing, raisins, almonds & apples together

STUFF into whole wheat pita - we served with spinach and alfalfa sprouts.

~ my Sobey's apparently is not very "worldly" and they (2 young teens) had no idea what chutney was "umm, well...umm Mangoes are in the fruit section" yes I realize that but I am looking for mango chutney? "uhh yeah, I am not sure what that is" so someone else says she will go find it... she brought me back mango jam, she says "uh sorry I could only find jam, not the jelly" I started to say again that I was actually looking for Chutney but decided I would just make it work with the mango jam.

~ this recipe was also adapted from Eating Well, they have a great website with numerous good recipes (click here)

~ recipe serves 6 (so sad though, no left overs for me! it was gobbled up very quickly)

~ one serving has 279 calories, 8 grams fat, 27 grams carbs, 24 grams protein, 1 gram fiber

18/365 a return of What's for DInner?

Baked Mac and Cheese with a twist of healthy

day two of "Operation Healthy Family"

and I am glad I had to run out of bowling

while my family ate dinner tonight as I am not

sure what the feedback was on this

healthy overhaul of a family favourite.

If it counts for anything,

I really liked it and

it is nice and healthy

& there is lots for me to take for lunch tomorrow!

the ingredients:

dry breadcrumbs (3 tbsp) *extra virgin olive oil (1 tsp)* paprika (1/4 tsp)* whole wheat elbow macaroni (2 cups) *frozen spinach-thawed ( one 16oz package) * 1% milk (1 3/4 cups)* flour (3 tbsp)* shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (2 cups)* low fat cottage cheese (1 cup)* ground nutmeg (1/4 tsp)* sliced tomato (1 medium) * salt & pepper to taste*

the how:

BOIL large pot of water.

PREHEAT over to 450 degrees.

SPRAY an 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

MIX breadcrumbs, olive oil, paprika in a small bowl. SET ASIDE.

PLACE spinach in a strainer and press out excess water. SET ASIDE.

COOK pasta for 4 minutes (or almost tender), it will continue cooking during baking. DRAIN when done. SET ASIDE.

MEANWHILE, HEAT 1 & 1/2 cups of the milk in a saucepan until steaming.

WHISK remaining 1/4 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons of flour in a small bowl until smooth. ADD to HOT MILK and COOK, STIR constantly, until sauce thickens.

REMOVE from HEAT and stir in cheddar cheese.

STIR in cottage cheese, nutmeg, salt & pepper.

ADD cheese sauce to cooked macaroni. STIR.

POUR half of macaroni/cheese into the sprayed baking dish.

SPOON the spinach on top.

PLACE half of the sliced tomatoes.

POUR remaining macaroni/cheese on top.

PLACE remaining sliced tomatoes.

SPRINKLE breadcrumb mixture on top.

BAKE for 25 to 30 minutes.

~ I may try fresh spinach next time, not sure it will work, but I found the thawed spinach to have a strong taste.

~ this recipe was adapted from the Eating Well website (here)

~ per serving: 576 calories, 22 grams fat (11g sat) 63 gr carbohydrates, 37 grams protein, 9 grams Fiber

~ not an everyday meal due to the amount of carbs/fat but a real nice substitute to Kraft Dinner!

~ it states it makes 4 servings but I think it is closer to 6. I gave Scott a larger portion and still had enough for lunch tomorrow.