What I Ate Monday: Jan 5

Hello! Today, I wanted to share what I ate earlier this week as I worked to get back on track with my nutrition and back to tracking it.

I started out the day with a cup of tea, and a tsp. of sugar. I was drinking water most of the morning and wasn’t hungry for breakfast.

After I took my daughter to preschool, I cleaned up the house and checked my work emails while walking on the treadmill. I told myself I’d walk for 15 minutes and ended up walking for 25 minutes! After my walk, I sat down for a stretch and of course the dogs had to join me.

I noticed I was starting to get hungry just as it was time to pick up my youngest from “pretty school” (as she calls preschool) so I grabbed a Premier Protein for the road.

For lunch, I made myself a make-shift meatball sub with a slice of rye bread, three meatballs, and a slice of pepperjack cheese melted on top. I hand a small handful of green beans on the side, too.

For my afternoon “snack” I had a butter pecan latte made with my husband’s homemade simple syrup and oat milk.

I also had a Fresca as the afternoon went on.

As I was making dinner, I was craving something sweet so I snagged a few Hershey kisses from the cupboard.

For dinner, I made chicken pot pie soup and drop biscuits. The soup was so creamy and delicious! It was packed with vegetables, too!

After dinner, I made some homemade chocolate chip cookies while the kids and my husband built a snowman outside. I ate 2.

My entire day came out to about 1700 calories, which is a great calorie deficit for my current goals!

New Year Challenge: Week 1 Recap

Let me tell you, week one of the New Year Challenge was rough. I remember now why I don’t really challenge myself during the week between Christmas and New Year. 

Getting through that week is a challenge enough as we work through holiday leftovers, celebrate my husband’s birthday, and snack on all the good snacks during New Year’s Eve! See: photo of the NYE spread I made!

Regardless, here’s the update:

Challenge Tasks:

• Drink 90-120 oz of water daily

I certainly wasn’t perfect but I did this most of the time!

• Walk for 30-60 minutes/week

We went to a water park and I definitely got my steps in!

• Track nutrition daily, 5/7 days each week

Definitely did not do this during week one. Oops! I did stay mindful, though.

• Blog weekly challenge updates

Week one done!

Weight Loss Goal:

My first goal of this challenge is to get back to 224 lbs and maintain that weight until my next challenge starts. My “shoot for the moon” goal is to lose 7 pounds because, why not?

Challenge start weight: 227 lbs.

Week one weigh-in: 226 lbs.

Challenge goal weight: 224 lbs. - 220 lbs.

Week one, I hung on for dear life and still lost a pound. I’ll say all of the swimming and walking around the water park helped. 

Week two is already off to an awesome start and I’m excited to see how it turns out. Let’s keep going!

The End of Winter Break

Happy Monday! Today is the first day back to a normal schedule for our family since Christmas break began two weeks ago! It’s a bittersweet feeling to have break come to an end.

We had so much fun during our break together as a family. We celebrated Christmas, of course, which had us visiting a lot of family. I am reminded of how much of a blessing that truly is to have family to celebrate with this time of year.

We also celebrated my husband’s birthday, and rang in the New Year with a small family gathering at our house. 

After that, we had a two-day family vacation where we stayed overnight at Splash Lagoon. The hotel, and restaurant where we ate at were all connected to the water park. It was such a gift (from my mom) to be there during some of the coldest and snowiest days of winter break!

Now that we’re back to our normal routine I’m going to be focusing more on my New Year Challenge. Week one’s update is coming up next!