How Many Ways to Prepare Chicken...Let's Count the Ways

I am committing to more physical activity and healthier eating to get back on track with my weight loss.  This week has been easy for exercise due to Spring break at work.  I have been walking, playing outside with the kids, riding my bike, and I can count Spring cleaning too, right?  I must admit it has felt wonderful to get back into the swing of working out again. It is scary how easy it is to let exercise slide and for how long I let working out fall out of my busy schedule. 

Well, my title is about chicken so let's get to it.  I am not a meat lover.  In fact, I could easily do without meat if it weren't for my family and the hassle here and there for recipes without it.  My go to protein for dinner recipes is chicken, and I think I have fixed it every way possible.  I grill, boil, bake, stir-fry, and use my crock-pot to prepare chicken.  I am always looking for new and healthy ways to prepare chicken. 

For dinner tonight I used a recipe from Pinterest that was labeled as a Weight Watchers recipe:  Honey Chicken  6-8 points
 I used my crock-pot on low for 4 hours and then it switched over to warm until it was dinner time:
2 lbs of cubed chicken
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. soy sauce ( I use low sodium)
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

I then poured in some rice to the crock-pot mixture during the last hour or so.  The meal was finished off with some stir-fry veggies.  I really liked how tender the chicken was for a crock-pot recipe as some of the recipes result in chicken that is tough and dry.  This meal was tender and full of flavor, so I would use it again for dinner.

Any favorite chicken recipes that you would like to share ?

Spring Break is Here!

I was shocked to realize my last post was right before the school year started.  It is now time for Spring break and I find myself wondering where did the time go?  The plan wasn't to abandon my blog for the entire school year, but it just gets neglected with my busy lifestyle as a teacher and mom. 

The kids and I kicked off our Spring break with a long walk and a day of playing outside.  It was so nice to finally have some decent weather.  This winter has been brutal.  I don't think our school district has ever used so many snow days.  It was a constant back and forth of snow and ice days starting in December and continuing into March this year.

 Today, we enjoyed a 60 degree day with a promise of 70 degrees tomorrow.  We are planning on a bike ride tomorrow after we finish some much needed Spring cleaning.

The harsh winter conditions lead to more indoor time than normal and I have put on some weight.  Insert sad face :(  I'm up a total of 7 pounds, so I am determined to make the most of this week with a lot of physical activity.  My eating really hasn't been that far off course but without my usual exercise routines, I let some weight creep back on. 

Back to Work I Go

Well, today is my last day at home with the kids.  I go back to work tomorrow, and they start school on Monday.  Just have to ask where did the summer go?  Seriously.  June went by in the blink of an eye with their baseball and softball schedules being so hectic. I thought for sure our schedules would slow down for July but no luck there either.  Now it is August and  time to get back on my work schedule. 

When it comes to weight loss, there are pros and cons to being back at work.

Pros: 
I have a better sleep pattern.
Snacking during the day is out of the question.
I do salad boot camp for lunch every day.

Cons:
I have a hard time fitting in exercise sessions after work.
When I get home from work I am starving, this can lead to bad food choices before dinner is ready.
Planning ahead for healthy dinners.

I'm going to have to challenge myself to find time to walk and exercise during the first two weeks back to work.  I'm a teacher and those first couple of weeks back are tough!  There are many late evenings throughout the year, but  those first few weeks we return in August make each day lengthy and challenging.  It will all settle down right around the Labor day holiday. 

Veggies and VBS

I am enjoying the abundance of local farmers' gardens.  We have been eating so many fresh veggies every night with our dinner.  The kids absolutely love sweet corn and can not get enough of it.  They've been asking each night if it is being served.  I was told that there is a new variety in our area of sweet corn called "peaches and cream" that doesn't need any butter or salt because of its sweet flavor.  I've never tried it but would like to find a farmers' market that sells it.  I have to be careful about no salt and just a tiny dab of butter on my corn on the cob.  I could overdo it easily.  I stayed up really late one night after church snapping green beans so I could make a big crock of green beans and new potatoes for dinner.  They were so good.  Fresh food is really the best.  It just takes extra time and more work for the preparation, but it is so worth it. 

Bad news on the front is that I haven't made my workouts this week.  I am helped my sister teach a VBS class with her junior high youth group at church and it  kept us busy day and night.  We spent all day planning and running errands and then the class was from 6-9 p.m.  However, last night was commencement, so I'm ready to get back to exercising.  I'm feeling very sluggish from the lack of exercise. 

My sister and I at the church's pavilion for an outing.  She is wearing the bunny ears ;)  I just love her and she does such a great job leading the kids in her youth group.  It was a pleasure teaching vacation bible school with her this year. 

To Run or Not to Run

To run or not to run that is the question. I'm still struggling with the last 15 or so pounds that I want to lose, so I thought  I should add some more jogging into my walks. Who knows it might help speed up the weight loss. 

Well, a month ago I managed to sprain my right ankle which took a long time to heal.  I have no patience.  I couldn't stand just sitting around with my leg up and iced.  I finally thought it was completely healed.  However, after a long day at the zoo and climbing way too many hills, it started to swell and throb.  I wore my brace and propped it up for a day and the pain went away. 

Last week was when I decided to start jogging more and dang it my ankle started to act up again.  I've about had it with this pain in the rear ankle.  I think next time I might try wearing my brace when I leave for my walk and then try some light jogging.  If the brace is on, I might not have the swelling and/or pain afterwards. 

I'm staying in my calorie range of 1200-1500 per day and I think I need to up my exercise routine.  I average around 1500 per day on the weekends and get closer to 1200-1400 during the week.  But I'm just stuck - for a really, really, really long time.  In fact, I think I'm going to go down in the record book for the person that took the longest time to get to her goal weight. 

Any opinions out there about sticking to the same meal for too long?

 I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning during the week: Special K with skim milk.  Think I need to change it up more often?  It is just easier for me to know immediately what I am going to eat. 

NSV: Active Summer

One of the many benefits of losing weight is being able to stay active with my kids.  This summer we have done so much as a family.  In my previous post I discussed our jammed packed summer vacation.  This past week we have stayed just as busy at home.

Last weekend my son's baseball team had their end of the year party.  Someone had the idea to do a mother/son baseball game to celebrate the end of the season.  This very idea would have struck fear into my heart when I was extremely overweight.  I'm positive that I wouldn't have gone.  However, even though I have more weight I want to lose and don't have the "perfect" body, I was up for running the bases in front of everyone.  I'm so happy that I didn't miss out on this experience with my son.  It was so much fun!  I did hit the ball and make a run home :)  On the flip side, I screamed and jumped OVER a ball that was hit towards me at short-stop.  

I also went fishing with my kids on a 100+ degree day with our church youth group.  Again, this is something I wouldn't have done when I was at my heaviest.  I wouldn't have even wanted to go outside at that temperature let alone go fishing all day with 50 kids.

This is a picture of my son's catfish he caught that morning.

We are now enjoying really nice weather.  Today it was only 79 degrees, so I headed out early for a three mile walk.  I'm thinking that I will take the kids on a bike ride after dinner tonight. 

I had already written this post today when I saw this NSV link up on another blog: http://ktjweighingin.com/  I linked up with her page so go check out some other non scale victories :)

Need Another Vacation

Whew! We are back from a hectic week of vacationing and now I need a week of a relaxing vacation to feel relaxed.  You know how some families go on relaxing vacations and just soak up the sun?  Well, not us - not ever.  Even when I was young, my mom always had our vacations jam packed with activities and we always came home exhausted.  I always said when I get to be an adult, my vacations would be relaxing but you know the old saying, "we all eventually turn into our mothers."  Love you mom :) 

My husband was off work for a week and we ended up being at home for one day.  That one day was spent pulling weeds, doing yard work, and washing the cars.  I know just too much fun. 

We went to St. Louis with the kids and caught a Cardinals game.  The kids were able to get autographs of a few of the pitchers, so they thought that was really cool.  Not cool was the weather.  It was 90+ degrees with high humidity that night and I think I sweated off the naughty ballpark nachos that were my dinner.  We also went to the Science Center and enjoyed the latest exhibit with the kids.  Our son loves anything science and so does my husband.

By chance, we ended up at  a local restaurant that has its own TV show.  We didn't know anything about the show when we decided to try it out.  I had searched on my phone for restaurants near the science center with positive reviews and found Sweetie Pie's.  Do not visit their page or check it out  unless you have saved up around a million extra calories!  Seriously.  The soul food is out of this world and so are the calories.  After we left the restaurant, we saw a sign that by entering you agree to be taped for filming purposes.  We then did some research and found out the restaurant has a reality show on OWN.  I had the fried chicken, corn, and mashed potatoes which I split with my husband with plenty left over.  I thought this meal would do me in for weigh-in day. 

We also managed to fit in a trip to the zoo, a party, and a trip to a state park where we live before the week was all over.  We are all exhausted and needing a vacation from our vacation :)  I did manage to get in a lot of walking.  One good thing about a city vacation is all of the walking.  When I weighed on Saturday I was up 4 ounces from the previous week.  Bad news but not terrible news considering all the restaurant meals consumed for the week.  The only thing that saved me was all the walking in the city.