Multitude Monday

It's Multitude Monday! Can you believe that I haven't written one of these posts since December?! No Multitude Mondays in 2011?! Bad me. I am thankful, though... honest. I just have a hard time keeping track.

It's the beginning of April, and boy, do I love a fresh start. One quarter of this year is gone already, so it's time to make the rest of 2011 count - in a lot of ways. I'm giving weight loss slash getting active slash being healthy another shot. This Multitude Monday will reflect the all of things that I have going for me... instead of being caught up in all that I have going against me.

This week, I'm thankful for:

140 - access to fresh, healthy ingredients

141 - a great treadmill in our basement

142 - a quiet (!) safe neighbourhood where I can go for walks without being afraid

143 - a supportive husband

144 - a group of ladies who have teamed up with a similar goal to hold each other accountable

145 - a wealth of healthy recipes online and in my cookbooks

146 - lots of spare time to work on my goals

147 - a giftcard sitting in my wallet, waiting to be my first reward

148 - a super sweet digital scale that will help me keep track of my progress

149 - a young, healthy body that is still adaptable

What are you thankful for this week?

Foodie

Daniel and I took the time to make a yummy summer tonight, and I thought I'd share a few simple ideas with you.

We buy salad mixes fairly regularly (with our schedules, it's a real pain in the butt to buy various leafy greens, tear, and wash them) and add our own yummies to the salad. Tonight we added green onions, pecans, and basil - delish.


We're both hooked on sauteed mushrooms - this time we did them with onions, a little soy sauce, and some freshly ground pepper. I could eat a bowl of this alone.


Daniel barbecued some steaks for us - he marinated them for a few hours, then grilled them with some store-bought barbecue sauce. He's the master of the grill.


We also had maple sweet potatoes, and cinnamon-y carrots... no pictures, though. The carrots kept steaming up the lens :), and the sweet potatoes were ready right before we ate, so no time for a shot. We enjoyed our supper immensely!

I haven't weighed myself in a while - I like to do it right away in the morning, before anything else, and this week has had some crazy mornings. I've been feeling good - a little exercise here and there, but nothing too intense yet. It's so hard to make the time - and that's what it is. The time is there, it just needs to be set aside... I need to realize that exercising is just as important as anything else on my daily schedule. I have the day off tomorrow, and we've got some fun plans that will include outdoor activity. Stay tuned for pictures :)

Happy Thursday - and thanks for reading!

Recipe Time

I have a super-duper delish salad dressing recipe to share with you. Be prepared to inhale anything that comes into contact with this stuff...


You need:

1 c plain yogurt
1/2 c olive oil
1/3 c honey
1/2 c lime juice
salt and pepper
fresh basil or cilantro, chopped

Of course, if you know me, all measurements are approximate. I only use measuring spoons and cups when baking - exact amounts is for sissies :)

Place all of the ingredients in a mason jar, cover, and shake it silly until it's combined.

We made a simple pasta salad with the dressing, using egg noodles, green onions, celery, and green pepper. It's super light though, so it would be perfect for salad greens as well. Mmm... pair this with something from the barbecue, and you'd better invite me over!

In other (semi)food related news, I'm down two pounds since my last weigh-in. It's been a really slow process, but I know I'm not putting my heart and soul into it. I've got to up the exercise-anti... my August deadline is coming quickly! Anyway, here are today's positive choices:

• Drank lots of water... also, missed my mouth and spilled it down my dress at work - classy.
• Walked with D and Sage for 20 minutes

Happy Wednesday!

The Road Ahead

Today's the day. The day that I share my current state with you. Confess it all, hold nothing back state with you.

I'm on a mission. I'm tired of carrying too many pounds on this frame. It's time for me to stop. I have always had a weight problem, and at 23, I know that I need to deal with it now so that I'm not dealing with it for the rest of my life. I have some health issues that make it challenging to lose weight, but if I do lose it, it will help decrease my other symptoms... so that's a huge reward!

I want to have a healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise-wise. In order to achieve that, I've come up with the following guidelines:

• Eat a healthy breakfast every morning
• Drink lots and lots of water
• Cut out treats and desserts - have one once a week as a treat
• Add lots of fruit and veggies to my diet
• Watch my portion sizes
• Stop eating after 8 pm
• Check my weight and body fat weekly
  
• Exercise regularly - and feel the burn :)

I came to the end of my chaotic, no-rules ways two weeks ago. So far, I've stuck to my new guidelines surprisingly well... of course there were a few cheats here and there - for example, yesterday was Mother's Day, so I saved my weekly treat for that day. But, I celebrated with my mom and D's mom... so I had two desserts. It's not like I chowed down, though.

Exercise is my main focus right now. I'm planning on walking and doing exercise videos until I'm comfortable enough to bring this body to the gym. My goal is to exercise 4 -5 times a week, but I'm not near that yet.

Each week, I'm going to share a healthy recipe that I've tried with you, and also give you an update as to weight-lost. I'm the type of person that needs to be held accountable by more than one person, and I also need a lot of encouragement. I'm planning on being honest with you - and I hope that I can get some positive feedback. I need the support :)

So far, in two weeks, I've lost five pounds. I have a short-term goal of 30 lbs by August... and once I've lost enough, I'll share my long-term goal :)

To close, I'm going to follow in my friend Janelle's footsteps and share two good choices I've made with you in each post.... Here's tonight's:

• I had unsweetened applesauce and water as a snack at work
• I had a ham sub with lots of veggies (and low fat dressing) for supper

Happy Monday!