Day 1

Hello! Happy Monday! As promised, I said I would update on how I've done with starting my diet. Let's just say that I've eaten more veggies than I thought I would.

Breakfast:
1 hard boiled eggs
1 orange
2 pieces of bacon
Overall this was pretty filling. I would have had coffee too, but I forgot it on the stand by the door.

Lunch:
Salad with ham, lettuce, cucumber, celery and green pepper. Of course the homemade ranch too!

Dinner:
Pork ribs
Steamed broccoli with a little cheese
3 deviled egg halves

As of right now I'm feeling pretty good. Aside from having a headache, I feel pretty full.

That's all for now since I'm sitting my butt on the couch waiting for the Tylenol to kick in!

Venison Chili, Homemade Ranch, etc.

It is the perfect time of the year to have chili! Not just any chili...venison chili! My dad was lucky enough to get a deer this year and shared his deer meat with us! In Michigan, and I'm pretty sure half of the country, we experienced super cold days this past week.

It has warmed up some and we are happy to be having a normal winter now. That's probably my first time being happy for a normal winter!

It's a simple recipe and makes quite a few servings. I suggest that if you aren't intending to eat it all right away that you freeze a container of it.

Venison Chili Recipe

Chili Powder
Garlic Salt
Salt
Black Pepper
Onion
1 lb venison (you can use hamburger instead, if you prefer)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans)
1 can of chili beans
Tomato Juice

Brown the venison or burger with the about 1/2 cup of chopped onion. (I like to add green pepper in here as well, but I ran out of them, so I just went with what I had in the house!) Add salt, pepper, garlic salt & chili powder to meat. I normally do a few shakes of each thing. I take it easy on the salt though. After your meat has cooked, drain, if needed.

In a large pot, or crockpot add the remaining ingredients. Add your venison/onion mixture into the crockpot and stir. Add in more chili powder, pepper & garlic salt to taste. I like mine to have quite a bit of the powder since I don't like to taste plain tomato juice.

After it warms up, you can serve it up with cheese, crackers, cornbread or all three!


Health Update:
Today I went shopping and bought a few items for tomorrow, since that is my first day kicking off this diet!

I am making some hard boiled eggs right now for tomorrow morning's breakfast. I'll update tomorrow to show how my first day on this diet is going!

I did do the plank/squat challenge again today. The plank challenge seemed to be a little easier since it was my second day. The squat challenge is most definitely something that I can feel in my legs already! We'll see how far I can make it!

In an effort to reduce calorie intake, I decided to try a recipe I found from Pinterest on making ranch. I tried it today and it is delicious! I like it more than I like the already bottled stuff. Here is the recipe! It's super easy and well worth the extra bucks.

Homemade Ranch Recipe
1 package of dry Hidden Valley Ranch
1 cup of Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt (plain)
1/2 c of 1% milk

Mix together in a jar and refrigerate for at least an hour for best taste.

I've been skeptical before because I really don't care for Greek yogurt. I still don't, but you can't really tell in this. So, I hope that helps with people that may have a problem with trying this recipe! The whole recipe is about 255 calories, which isn't too bad!

Alright, I'll update more tomorrow with how I did with my food and exercise!

It's 2014 already?

I'll spare you the excuses of a busy life and just give you a brief update...where do I begin?

• Bought our very first home on Valentine's day last year!
• Adopted a puppy! (smaller one in the picture to the right)
• My daughter broke her arm! :(
• My mom dislocated her elbow the next day... (seriously...)
• I got a promotion at work...but missed out on my planned vacation with family. I had to stay home while they still went up north.
• Lots of work outside had to be done including a garden, updating the old barn out back, weeding, digging up buried rocks..etc.

Anyway, I'm back! I am still reading although I haven't read nearly as much as I wanted to. I'll get back to do some book reviews. I've also decided to try to use this to keep myself motivated to lose some weight! What more perfect thing to do than share my experiences online for everyone to read? Haha. <--that was a nervous laugh, btw.

I'll break this into a couple of sections for reading and the health aspect.

Health Diary:

January 11, 2013 -

A coworker and myself are going to compete in a weight loss competition at work. This officially doesn't start until February 1st, but we decided to start early. She has previously lost a bunch of weight doing the Atkins diet. Of course, I've heard bad things about this diet and am a little skeptical, but since I'm willing to try anything to help - let's do this! Plus, she is only intending to just jump-start it this way for a week. That shouldn't be too bad anyway.

So, let's start with the first thing I think we should do. Plan my meals for next week. I'm going to go shopping tomorrow to pick up items to help with this Atkins-endeavor. 

It is very overwhelming to choose what to eat. I want to make smart decisions, but I also don't want to end up with half-eaten items that I didn't really care for that cost me an arm and a leg.

I started a couple of the popular challenges out there today. I have done the plank and squat day 1. Today I'm feeling okay because it is the beginning, but I can definitely see where these will be more difficult ones.

Side Note: Working out with a puppy is interesting. He thinks I'm playing when I get on the floor to do some sort of move the DVD has told me...so it adds an element of pushing him away from me.

Book Update:

I've recently read Delirium by Lauren Oliver.

This is a classic dystopian story. At least so far. I'm only one book in so far out of the trilogy. At times during the story it seemed to drag a little. For the most part I was able to guess what was going to happen in the book, but that certainly doesn't stop me from enjoying it! 

I'll do a more thorough book review after I complete the trilogy. I think that would be fair to wait until I can judge how the whole story will turn out.

I'll update tomorrow after I go on my dreaded shopping trip for strictly healthy foods! Wish me luck since I'm taking my 6-year old daughter!