4/18/16: New Week, Renewed Commitment to my Health

12 Week Challenge, Week 1, Day 3:  Weight 163 pounds

It's Monday morning.  In half an hour or so I will head to work to put the final touches on March financial statements, send them to the auditors as the final piece of information they are looking for to finish our year-end financial statements audit, and work on a huge project that we are going to use for the basis of pricing our products for the next year.  All in a day's work.  But more importantly, I will not lose focus on my commitment to my health and my 12 Week Challenge.  I won't eat any candy from the candy dishes which seem to be all over the office, I'll say no to the donuts that pop up in the break room, and I will drink a lot of water.   The only food I will eat is food that I have cooked myself.

I weigh just slightly more than I did yesterday morning.  Not a big deal.  I ate a later dinner because of kickball.  I weighed earlier because it is a weekday morning.  I was a little surprised but I am neither disappointed nor worried.  I feel great and I am content with the fact that I am solidly on program.

I spend a few hours every weekend preparing all of our food for the week.  I save a ton of time by cooking all of our meals at once.  I started cooking yesterday at 9:15 in the morning and by noon I was finished.  We now have, in our refrigerator, all of my lunches and all of our dinners for the rest of the week.  Not only does this save time, it also makes it so much easier to stay on program.  I don't have to cook dinner when I come home from work hungry, tired, and cranky.  All I have to do is heat it up.  This also works great for Jack.  If I'm going to be late getting home from work, he has a healthy meal waiting for him in the fridge.

Here is what I fixed yesterday:

Beef Stir Fry with Snow Peas:

Here are the fixings for the Beef Stir Fry - minus the carrots.  I didn't remember them until after the photo.

Beef Stir Fry - complete (with carrots!)

Crockpot Chicken Chili - with Cauliflower:

These are the veggies that go into the Chili.  Add chicken thighs, a jar of tomatoes, and spices.  8 hours later, Chili!!

One of our mainstays:  Roasted Chicken and Vegetables:

I cook this every week.  The chicken and the roasted vegetables are delicious!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Pablano Peppers

Before Roasting:  This is my favorite way to prepare Brussel Sprouts

Green Beans with Peppers, Onions and Mushrooms:

The green beans are so green because they have been blanched.

Green beans cooked and ready to eat

 Homemade pork and turkey sausage - ready to mix and roll into a log.  After it has been refrigerated for several hours, I slice the log into medallions and freeze the individual medallions for future breakfasts.  I often use the homemade sausage in an egg scramble with spinach, mushrooms, and onions.

A 1/2 pound each of ground pork and ground turkey and a lot of spices make a pretty decent breakfast sausage

The only meal I did not cook yesterday was our salmon.  It's simple to cook and tastes best straight from the oven.  I will cook it tonight, after dinner.

I was supposed to run this morning.  I got up at 4:20, ate breakfast, looked at the clock, sighed, and walked back to the bedroom to change into my running clothes when what did I hear?  Rain!  Ugh.  I checked the forecast and the rain is supposed to be done by evening, so I decided to wait until tonight to run.  When it gets a little warmer I may decide it is OK to run in the rain.  I have a very bad habit of saying I am going to exercise in the evenings and not doing it, which is why I get up so early in the mornings to exercise.  Tonight, I will run.  It's part of my challenge, after all!!

Kickball yesterday was a lot of fun.  We lost the first game due to some really sloppy defense, we could seem to get it together.  We got it together for the second game, and won that one with a walk-off in the 7th inning.  Fun times!!

Here's to our health!!