What's on the Menu?

It's 3pm and I'm sipping coffee. I don't normally drink coffee this late in the day, but I'm hoping it warms me up. It's a little chilly, dreary and raining again today :( Yesterday was amazingly warm and sunny, just the way spring should be!

This past Sunday would have been pretty good for a cookout but we were feeling lazy. I cooked turkey burgers on the stove. 

My new favorite thing is to sautee up some sweet onions and peppers and put them on things. Heat the frying pan up on medium/med-high heat, add a dash of olive oil, let that heat up for a min, then add sliced onion, pepper and seasoning. Gotta make sure you keep an eye on it though, and stir it, because I burned it on my first attempt!








 


Sunday, the yummy peppers and onions went on my burger.

 I've never been a big fan of peppers and onions until recently. I just went for it and ordered fajitas at our favorite Mexican restaurant a couple weeks ago and since then, I've been dying for more fajitas full of peppers and onions. They're on the menu for this Saturday!





Yes... I menu plan! I've been doing it for probably almost a year by now. I did it for a couple reasons.

First-- it eliminates the 'what should we have for dinner, we don't have anything to eat' problem.
Second-- it makes grocery shopping a million times easier.
Third-- it's easier to try new recipes if you've planned ahead.


I had this problem a lot: so many recipes on Pinterest that I wanted to try, but never had the supplies to make them.
Or: we feel like having tacos but have no ingredients for tacos.

And how many times am I going to run to the store in a week, just to buy a couple things?


That's not smart.

Here's a fairly typical menu:

I do two weeks at a time. Mondays and Wednesdays (and every third Friday) my husband works late so I don't plan anything. I eat much differently than he does :) The 'options' on the bottom of the menu are for me. I tried planning my breakfast/lunch, but I didn't really follow it. I graze throughout the day and basically eat what I feel like. So instead of wasting time trying to plan for myself, I just make sure I have a couple different ideas so I can be sure I have the ingredients.

While I'm filling out the menu, I fill out my grocery list. I divide it into categories- meats, dairy, toiletries, etc... to make it easier while shopping. Simultaneously, if I'm trying a new recipe, I print it out and clip it to the back of the menu (which goes onto the fridge) so its handy.








When I'm done with the recipe, it goes into my binder.

Divided into categories, of course.









This has been working out so well for us. It can be a little hard at first, but now that I have some good go-to recipes, it's been pretty easy. I honestly used to be so lost. It was a lot of meat and potatoes, Italian food, pizza, tacos... I got so bored!

If you love to cook and like trying new recipes, menu-planning might help you out :)

I don't have to scramble to figure out what my husband will eat for lunch at work anymore either. He almost always has leftovers he can take, and I always have sandwich supplies in case there's no leftovers.

Last two weeks' menu had mostly new recipes, so this two weeks' menu is easy- things I don't need a recipe for, like burgers, meatloaf, fajitas...




What's on the menu tonight?


Lasagna!

Change of Scenery

Happy Friday! Its not a great day... cold, windy, snowy. Blech. Started the day at work. Drove home and napped with Oscar, then met my mom at the gym to log some miles on the treadmill. 3.2 miles today.

This summer I plan on following this running schedule. I used it last fall, just to challenge myself. It'll help get my speed and endurance back up, which is important if I want to run a 10K in the fall and participate in the Warrior Dash!





Let's brighten up the day with some pictures!


My husband and I moved at the end of March. We moved from an upstairs one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom duplex. We are pretty settled by now. There's just some boxes and bins that I need to organize yet. I'll get around to that... sometime :)

When we first looked at the place, I thought it was ugly. Haha. The main problem was the way you were hit over the head by bright pink once you walked in the front door.







Thankfully, the landlord painted for us. He is very nice and let me choose paint colors. So I gave him three paint samples. I found out that he only really meant for me to pick one color for the living room and bedrooms. Whoops! Communication error. But apparently he's too nice to tell me 'no,' so when I handed him three different colors, he just went along with it.


I may as well give you a quick tour. These are panorama shots from my phone so they're a bit blurry and a little wonky but you get the idea.

When you walk in the front door:

If you come in through the garage:

The bedrooms were a dingy off white color. Here they are now:

Probably the best part of the house is the fenced in backyard. We were really lucky to find a place with such a nice backyard. Oscar can run around out there to his heart's content.

We're going to have to learn how to take care of a yard... starting with buying a lawn mower. But there are also random plants growing in very random places. Apparently a previous owner had severely over planted the yard and our landlord spent years clearing out hedges and other plants.

We are happy to get the benefits of living in a house, but also the perks of having a landlord to call when things like this happen. Water in the basement, running in through a window!







Luckily it was an easy fix (gutters were clogged which led to water building up in the window well) and there's been no problems since. Which is good with all the rain we've been getting.


So my projects for the house include finishing up unpacking and organizing, getting some stuff to hang on the walls, and cleaning up the yard- there's dead plants and sticks and stuff like that.


Well, the snow seems to have stopped for now and the sun is peeking out!! I hope everyone has a great weekend! Not much on my schedule this weekend except a hair appointment and grocery shopping tomorrow, and a gym date with my husband on Sunday. Maybe the weather will cooperate enough for a cookout? We'll see!

Adios~

About me and my blog

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I've been meaning to start a blog for some time now. Finally got around to it. I started this blog for a few reasons:
1. Keep friends and family updated on my life.
2. Help people by sharing my experiences with health, fitness, weight loss, and whatever else I end up sharing. I intend to be as open and honest as possible.
3. Share recipes and DIY projects, whether of my own creation or something I've found on Pinterest.
4. And, if all else fails, I at least hope to entertain you a little :)


Basic stuff about me:
I am Michelle. Married to my wonderful husband, Patrick, since October 2008. No kiddos yet... This is us this past Thanksgiving.

 

We are pet parents to a sassy, lovable Dachshund, Oscar. His face will most likely be plastered all over this blog, cuz he's just so cute :)

And a cat, who came with the name Tarah, but we just call her Kitty.













Background on me...
Last year I decided to take steps to live a healthier life. I was overweight and very unhappy with myself. I am proud to say that I have lost 30 lbs since then, and I am down 40 lbs overall from my highest weight about 4.5 years ago when I got married.

I gained what I like to call 'happy relationship weight.' You go out to eat a lot, eat what he eats, sit around watching movies, and before you know it, you've gained 30 lbs. I was not an overweight child or teenager. I was actually a very involved kid, participating in pretty much every sport and activity I could- softball, track, cheerleading, basketball, volleyball...

But as an adult, I never stuck to anything. My husband and I joined a gym. After about 2 months I stopped going. I got 'bored.' We started P90X and didn't even make it through the first month. I also got 'bored' with that too.

I say I got 'bored' but the truth is that I just got lazy and whiny and quit. As soon as I didn't feel like it, or it got hard, I quit. If it didn't come easy to me, then I thought I shouldn't be doing it. This was true with weight loss and everything else in my life.

Somehow I managed to lose about 10 lbs and keep it off without really trying too hard.

The last straw for me was last year when my brother got married. I was in the wedding and had wanted to lose weight beforehand. As a bridesmaid (actually I was a groomsmaid!), I obviously knew I would be in those pictures forever.

The wedding itself was wonderful!!

As soon as the pictures came out though, I was wildly disappointed in myself.

Its not just the physical aspect, either. I was a quitter. I complained about how I looked without actually doing anything about it. And that carried over to other parts of my life. I finally came to the realization that if I wanted my life to be different, I had to be the one to step up and do something about it.

February 2012 my husband and I joined a gym. I took a look at my diet. Typical American diet- lots and lots of carbs and hardly any fruits or vegetables. That was where I started. I just tried to eat more fruits and veggies, and get to the gym about 3 days a week.


At the time I was working a job that stressed me out to no end. I still work for the company-- working with adults with developmental disabilities. The job I had then was Mon-Fri full time PLUS lots of unexpected overtime and being on-call and eventually I just couldn't do it anymore. I stepped down, dropped to part time, and never looked back.






Fast forward to today. Right now I work full time overnight 10-12 hour shifts, BUT 8 of those hours I am paid to be asleep. SO... I have the majority of my days free. I have the time to work out 5-6 days a week. I cook a lot from scratch as well. You won't find many 'meals in a box' in my kitchen.



Last summer I saw a show called Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. I highly recommend the show. The trainer helps individuals for a year at a time- each episode is dedicated to a particular person and their year long journey. There was an episode about a man that inspired me. He wanted to participate in a triathlon. His goal was to do it at the 6 month mark. He still weighed over 300 lbs, I believe, but he still did it and FINISHED it. The best part was the last part of the race- the 10K. He didn't even stop to walk. He kept on and he finished it.

Wow!

I always made the excuse that I can't run. I just can't! I tried cross country in 5th grade and HATED it. In track, the most I did was 400m hurdles, but I didn't like it. This guy inspired me though. If he can do it, I can do it.









Now... I participate in 5Ks.
Turns out, I can do it!
I plan on running more 5Ks and maybe a 10K this year. 
















I'm now at a healthy weight for my height, according to the BMI scale and I am a happier, more productive person.
It took me awhile to get here because I struggled along the way. But instead of giving up, I carried on and pushed through.


And that, my friends, is key.