July 12 weekly post 1

Lunch menu:

• Monday:  Indian food (lunch date with the hubby)
• Tuesday:  Spinach, Goat Cheese & apple quesadilla, berry salad
• Wednesday:  Sandwich and fruit salad
• Thursday:  ~~out of the house meal~~
• Friday:  ~~out of the house meal~~
• Saturday:  ~~out of the house meal~~
• Sunday:  ~~out of the house meal~~

Dinner Menu:

• Monday:  Costco slice of pizza (hubby bought it) and green monster smoothie
• Tuesday:  Pork Chops with Sweet potatoes and pears
• Wednesday:  Turkey Hot Dogs & Baked Beans
• Thursday:  ~~out of the house meal~~
• Friday:  Sweet & Sour meatballs & cauliflower rice
• Saturday:   Summer veggies spaghetti
• Sunday:    Grilled Chicken and balsamic veggies

Snacks:

• Greek Yogurt
• berry salad (just a mix of blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry)
• string cheese
• peach/nectarine
• turkey jerky
• kind bar
• celery with peanut butter
• handful of almonds
• dried fruit (homemade)

Workout schedule:

• Monday: 30 day shred
• Tuesday:  30 day shred + 1 song abs
• Wednesday: 30 day shred + 1 song abs
• Thursday: 30 day shred, boxing class 
• Friday: 30 day shred + 1 song abs
• Saturday 30 day shred + 1 song abs
• Sunday 30 day shred, + 1 song abs

Happy July everyone!

This is what I'm aiming to do this month.  I know I haven't blogged much but here I am.  I am going to chronicle this month on working out, eating (hopefully) healthy and shredded those last few lbs from pregnancy.  I don't want this to sound like a diet thing but more like I really need to stop eating after 9pm and need to get more active.  Also, I have lots of healthy yummy recipes to share with y'all.

Expect Daily updates on how it goes and blog posts with recipes and weekly posts on menu planning and workout schedules. One thing I'm going to try to do is do Jillian Micheal's 30day shred.  I've owned it for awhile but golly gee, I feel rather foolish I never did 1 month of it.  I can do it, just need to actually prove it to myself!  It's one month right?

p.s. I know it's July 2.

The perfect Saturday...

Surprise surprise, I'm updating for the third time this week.  This time I'm laying out on the beach under an umbrella watching the hubby play with kupcake 1.0 near the water while kupcake 2.0 sleeps.   Today has been one of those days that falls into the win category.  We started the day off with a five mile walk to get coffee and a bagel, cleaned up the side patio for a play/lounge area, then off to Malibu for lunch and some sun.  We'll finish the day off with a trip to Sprouts and Trader's and some yummy tacos and a Cervesa.   I'm sure there are tons of chores waiting for me to do and lots of work too but like Ferris said, "life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it." Word.

coconut oil makes all your dreams come true...

okay, maybe I embellished it a bit but seriously, this stuff is all that and a bag of chips. 

A few months ago I was reading through google reader and saw someone was cooking with it.  Then it popped up again to relieve diaper rash (my daughter looks at an orange and breaks out... poor girl, she could eat a whole tree's worth if we let her).  Then read something about fixing cradle cap on newborns (dry scalp on babies if you didn't know what that was).  So one Sunday while we were doing our usual grocery haul at Trader Joe's I saw it and picked up a can.  At first I thought it was weird since it's hard but figured might as well give it a whirl. Worst case I can use it to massage little toes. 

  Coconut oil:

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

 Source

  First think I did was cook with it.  The hubby hates coconut.  HATES.  So what did a good wife do? Just not tell him I used it.  Low and behold he raved about dinner that night, mentioning something about multiple layers of flavor and how good it was (while licking the pan clean...). I kept cooking with it and every meal since he just adores more then before.  Score points for Coconut oil for cooking purposes.

  Next I used it on the burn I got while cooking, like magic the pain went away.  I wonder if this was in that little tin Katniss got (2 points for you if you got it, if you didn't, you must be the only person on the planet that didnt' read the books).  Used the stuff on my daughters and again, magic!  Bye bye citric acid burn/rash. 

  If you are wondering about it, get it.  Not because Dr. Oz did a whole show on it but because you like to cook or want a new massage oil. 

The art of typing with one hand...

That's me, one hand holding kupcake 2.0, the other finally getting around to updating the blog. Having two is both easier and harder than I thought. The harder comes up when I need motivation to go running or workout after they go to bed. Sadly, I didn't do much working out. That half marathon I said I'd do? Well, it's looks like I might be in a lot of pain if I don't start running tomorrow. I just want to finish it without crying now. No breaking personal records here. I need to really use my Bikram yoga pass I have too. I got it as a groupon and hate wasting those things. Last week I let my 9cent smoothies go to waste I was mad at myself the next say when I realized I missed the expiration date. I know, I should have just taken care of it way before but HELLO, I have 2 kids under two. I can't even remember how old I am. (true fact: I had to ask the hubby how old I am and was a little shocked and didn't believe him at first.). Another fun thing going on here t the LMP household is that I'm back on weight watchers because the simple fact is I need a planning tool to keep me regimented on how many spoonfuls of sun butter I can have. I'm a little worried what tomorrow's scale will say. Scared enough to not even do a mid week weigh in. I know I know, I'll lose it all in time, but seriously, I'm done waiting for time when that scale says the same number for 4 weeks straight. In any case, I doubt I'll see a good number since I ate like rubbish while I was on vacation (it was an overnight trip but in my world I felt like I was gone forever!). Fingers crossed right? Oh and the best news, I crested the most amazing new recipe: the gardenilla 1 apple (diced) 2 cloves of garlic (I loooove garlic, you can always add less) 1 teaspoon of goat cheese 2 cups of spinach 2 whole wheat tortillas A little coconut oil for the pan Sautée the garlic, apple and spinach up until the the spinach is wilted and the garlic is golden. Put it in a bowl and mix the goat cheese with it. Then smother it on the tortilla and place it back in the pan, add the other tortilla on top and toss it after a few minutes until the tortilla looks crunchy. Place it on a rack to cool off and get crunchier and slice it up to serve. Great way to get your veggies in and eat something that is ohhh sooo good! Ok, off to bed, until next time. Hoe you enjoyed today's ramblings!

Making myself accountable

So there I am, sitting on the floor with a pair of very groovy jeans with the realization if I ever want to fit into them again I need to really start paying attention to what I eat. It isn't like I chocolate all day and never get off the couch, it's quite the opposite in fact but when your nursing and running around a toddler, you forget to eat. So here I am, back to tracking my food intake to make sure I do eat reasonably again and even track my exercise. Something that I'm happy to say I'm finally getting beck out there. Last week I walked 14 miles and did Bikram yoga! Now, let's plan for this week, shall we?!

Sunday: dinner with the birth families
Monday: balsamic chicken and sautéed squash
Tuesday: BBQed pizza (mushroom) and salad (reminder to go walk to get salad)
Wednesday: taco salad
Thursday: tamales
Friday: food truck night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday: pork roast with veggies (YUM!!!!)

Now to plan my exercise routine:

Sunday: running 3 miles
Monday: walk 4 miles and Bikram yoga
Tuedaay: walk 5 miles and weight lift
Wednesday: walk 3 miles and Bikram
Thursday: rest (actually moving stuff)
Friday: walk 4 miles and weight lift
Saturday: rest (big event and then SPA day with my momma)

Phew, I'm going to be beat! But all in all, I think this is pretty easy to accomplish, if I can remember it (hence me writing it all down).

I'm excited for the week, lots to look forward to like movie with my birth mommas, new paint and carpet in our guest room, great cloth diaper change event I'm co-hosting, and lots of spa treatments! I can't wait to tell you hoe real or unreal these weekly goals will be. I'm crazy busy with business appts on top of it all but I know by the weekend I'll be done with the majority of it all.

Just another manic monday...

So another post done via iPad. Kinda weird to post from here but hey, when I finally sit at the computer these days I'm working and don't get to take time to blog. Blogging comes at the wee hours of the day.

This past week had some great ups and downs. I went on walks with the my little girls (high) which resulted in some pain (down). We got to see my mom who is doing a million times better (yay for road to recovery) and my grandma and aunt. They got to hold kupcake 2.0 which made my month! We finally stocked up on groceries so now I really have to start cooking again. I'm relishing the last few days on the month before I start working out (thankful it's lap yea, one extra day to prolong it).

Now onto things I'm excited about this week:

- cool weather (it's been spring/summer here, somehow I missed the memo that there wasn't going to be a winter)
- making it a priority to take the girls on 4 walks this week. Going to make them easier walks since I don't want to hurt myself more.
- dinners for the week:
- spaghetti, pot stickers, BBQ chicken, meatless meat tacos, fish
- playdateS with our birth group. Excited to see the little boys and their parents
- gymnastics class and gymboree for kupcake 1.0. She loves it!
- dinner with old room mate and his family. Excited to meet his daughter!
- finally working out again!

I'm sure there's more but I can't remember. Is it just me or did this month go by uber fast?

Miss me?

Well, I'm back and ready to start blogging again. Lots of happened since I last checked in and now ready to start writing more. The biggest thing is the birth of our second daughter, cupcake 2.0. She was born a few weeks ago and perfect, just like her sister. Her birth was absolutely perfect and finally got my med free natural birth I wanted. So proud to say I did it! She's laying in front of me, being a patient little girl.

Now I find myself,cgi ally feeling like I can workout again, something that I couldn't do since I had some complications with the pregnancy. I'm excited to get myself back in fighting shape. I'm excited to start cooking healthy again. I'm excited to start running and gardening and just be me. I'm just excited for this year.

Time to make my yearly list of things to do before 2013:
1. Run 3+ half marathons
2. Do one triathlon
3. Travel somewhere new
4. Get garden up and going
5. Finish wall in garden
6. Finish converting side patio into play area (clean up random stuff)
7. Make a big dent in car loan
8. Lose baby weight plus a little extra.
9. Fit into cruise shorts
10. Go two weeks without sugary desserts
11. Blog at least 1x a week till summer
12. Sign up for 5 races
13. Finish one race with a 11 minute mile (I'm a turtle, not the hare)
14. read hunger games finally before the movie
15. Run/walk 100 miles in one month
16. Get bike going
17. Do MS ride in my area
18. Make one new meal a week
19. eBay old handbags I will never use again
20. Read peaceful warrior again
21. Enjoy life (currently doing)

Yup, that's about it. It's basically centered around gardening and getting back in shape and get healthy. I know there are a lot of things I need to change so here I am admitting I need to change things. I'll post weekly updates on how the fitness things go.

One could say these are resolutions but I don't believe in that. I think you can change your life whenever you want to. What are you doing to better your life?