One Year

I brag about Mikie's weight loss quite a bit in person, and I've talked about it some in the "Wellness Wednesday" posts of days gone by... but y'all, this is what some dedication and diet control did for him, and for us, in ONE YEAR!!!

December 2010 (2 months into weight loss)

November 2011 (1 year of weight loss, 1 month of maintaining!)

He dropped 2.5 ring sizes... for his birthday, I had his wedding band resized since its been months since he's been able to wear it without it falling off his finger!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (tomorrow) MICHAEL! We won't talk about how old you are today...but just how great you look! : )

Click on the "wellness wednesday" tag right down here to see what I have shared about choices we made with Mikie's journey!

Wellness Wednesday: Overcook

Michael summed it up perfectly last night "It is so much easier to be on a diet when you have extra meals already prepared!"

In making the change in shopping patterns and eating patterns, we are also making changes in our cooking patterns. Since we both work outside of the home and coming home for lunch isn't an option, cooking with the intent to have several meals worth of left overs helps stay on track for more than a meal at a time. Last night, we did skillet chicken (with whole grain wraps, low fat/low salt cheese, honey mustard and onion for dad) and spaghetti for us girls (whole wheat noodles, a mix of no salt added sauce with regular bottled spaghetti sauce). This took care of our dinner last night, our lunches for at least today and possibly our dinner tonight. The hardest part about making the right food choices is being prepared for meal time. If we are rushed or behind or lazy, we make bad choices regading the types and amounts of food we intake. Cooking deliberately ahead of schedule helps us save money (less trips to the Mexican restaurant for me...at least in theory), have the right portions for each meal, spend less time battling meals in the kitchen, and still get a decent meal in for lunch.

Our go-to make-many-meals are:
Spaghetti
Tacos
Skillet Chicken (can go with whole grain wraps, pasta or rice)

Our fall back meals for girls: frozen chicken tenders and mac & cheese. Because sometimes, the best of healthy choices don't make it to every meal time. And that's ok too!

whoops...

Welcome to Wellness Wednesday... on Thursday!

This weekend I attempted to swap up a recipe for Spaghetti Casserole to be more in line with our low salt whole wheat eating ways... I wouldn't say it was an epic fail, because it was edible, but it was not a defined success either.

Good swaps we accomplished: whole wheat pasta, chicken (no salt seasoning), low salt cheeses

Bad swap...as in, bad,bad,bad: no salt added tomato sauce.

Ok, in and of itself, the no salt added tomato sauce was an excellent idea. The choice to use it for the first time as a straight pour on sauce, not such a good idea. The sauce tasted like can. I mean it, like the can it came in can. Michael and I both noticed it right away and it was really overpowering. It might have not been quite as bad if I would have extra seasoned it with some black pepper. It also might not have been as bad if I would have made a true sauce with it (added some tomatoes, paste, spices) and simmered it before assembling into the casserole. The reason I say this is that in using the leftovers I added some of our traditional bottle sauce and it was a whole different ballgame. I didn't have enough sauce or enough flavor in the sauce I used proportionate to the other factors, so combine that and the taste of can... and well, it was a dud.

But its not off the list for round two... just as soon as I forget what aluminum tastes like.

Healthy Choices

We don't run a completely sugar-free non-processed home... but we do try to have more healthy alternatives for snacks and meals for our girls. We also spend more time in "play" than in front of a screen. Often times, our girls go several days without watching a video or early morning cartoons at our house. (What happens at the babysitters, I can't vouch for)

Here are some of our favorites:
1. Whole grain bread. Our girls love it...they'll eat it plain and untoasted.
2. Cheerios and other grain cereals
3. Gerber Puffs (or the generic). These are great because they are made with a lot of natural foods and have low salt.
4.Fresh fruits. These are what typically constitue "dessert" or "sweet" at our table. Hayley's favorite is blueberries and Bowen's favorite is watermelon.
5. Milk and water and occasional juice/lemonade. Most days our girls drink milk all day. Hayley will request water sometimes, and occasionally Daddy shares his Crystal Light lemonade with them...or Big Dave spoils them with chocolate milk.

I really hope to get more creative in getting them a wider variety of the foods that they eat. I usually stick to a lot of the same meals week after week. Especially since we're all relatively picky eaters!

Wellness Wednesday: Making the Swap

I've long be a "branded" buyer... I have my brands, my preferences and I do.not.waver. EVER! There are uncompromisable products on my shelves and in my fridge... that is...there WERE. Some things have been compromised... and even, dare I say it? Permanently replaced!

We're making better choices by adding or replacing other menu items with the following:

1. Whole Grain Bread (no more white for us... well, mostly... I still refuse to give up my brown'n'serve rolls)
2. Whole Grain Tortillas (instead of fried corn tortillas)
3. Unbreaded, Unseasoned Frozen Chicken Breast Tenders (instead of deeply breaded and fried)
4. Sargento Cheeses (instead of my tried and true Kraft...these have lower sodium counts and more low fat options)

We also are not going to talk about all the things that are involved with a holiday weekend at a lake near you and what that means for wellness today. You. Are. Welcome.

Wellness Wednesay: What Daddy Does

As I mentioned previously, my husband has lost right at 70 pounds over the last seven months. He had a bit of a jump start when a wellness visit and checkup turned up some potentially concerning results if his weight didn't decrease... but not only that, we had to improve the good things his body needed as well. Here's what we've done diet-wise for him:

1. No to low salt. Almost everything he eats as a sodium percentage of less than 5%. Now, I know that the percentage is probably not the most effective way to measure sodium intake, but that's our basic guideline for purchase consideration.
2. No sugar. No sweets, no desserts, no goodness. We have tried splenda and for him, it wasn't worth it.
3. Whole grains/whole wheats. If it is not brown, we don't buy it.
4. No packaged foods. Every meal is composed of fresh elements. The only packaged elements are whole grain pastas and frozen chicken tenders (unbreaded, unseasoned)
5. Fiber breakfast. Our go-to breakfast cereals are Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean Crunch.
6. Water, Water, Water, Black Coffee, Water. 95% of his liquid intake is of the previous. We do bring in some crystal light mixes and decaffinated tea (no sugar or sweetners) occassionally.
7. Limited amounts of dairy, with consideration to fat content and salt content. We really love the Sargento cheese. He mostly eats pepperjack and mozerrella as those are the heathiest we can find at our local grocery.
8. Chicken, eggs, fish. Those are the bases to most meals. He eats a fair amount of omelets with peppers and onions. Grilled or skillet chicken and fish.
9. Nothing fried. ever.
10. Fresh fruits, in moderation.

Now, we spent the first 3-5 months in STRICT lockdown on these meals. There was no compromising. No eating out. No snacking. Only designated portions at meal times. Over the last 2 months, he has allowed some flexibility for special events, but we are still really careful not to overexpose to previous lifestyle foods. We don't want to undo all his hardwork.

Wellness Wednesday

My kids and I are picky eaters. It is something that I am working on, more so in my children than myself. Needless to say, I'm always looking for simple ways to jazz up our menu basics and looking for simple new recipes to add to the mix. Last year my husband began a new weight loss project (70 pounds down in 7 months, maybe he should be the one blogging on Wednesdays!) which has also affected how I shop and what we cook.

I saw this lovely piece of summer inspiration this week and its definitely on the meal plan for Big Girl's birthday coming up.

Fruit Kebobs (and I think she links it back a few places to!)

I think I'm going to add strawberries, bananas and pineapples to ours.

Doesn't that sound like a great treat for an outdoor summer party?