Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 14 - Still here!

January 25, 2011

Sorry about that! I am still here, really! :D You know how it is... life gets busy and all of a sudden you're way behind in your blog posts.

I'm still on the plan and having fun. I'm down about 4 pounds which is good for me. Slow and Steady, I like it! I kinda-sorta am on Losing It With Leanne Volume 2, but really it's a combination of weeks 1 and 2. I shared my lentil soup with DH and therefore finished it faster (plus I only made a half-batch because my crock cooker is little) so I'm still mostly snacking on the Kashi. I've been keeping my crock cooker busy with Dinner dishes, plus I've been busy and haven't made more soup yet, but I will make more tomorrow. It was pretty good, but I'm gonna try sauteing the onion and garlic before I start and it should be even better!

I've also been trying a new thing with the FLYlady motto Go for seven in 2011! There's a group of us FLYbabies on Facebook chatting and we came up with the idea of daily seven lists. Seven things that you want to do everyday - it's a spin on the FLYlady routines, as we aren't really good at that yet. My daily seven list is: Get dressed to shoes, Swish n Swipe, Devotions, One Load of Laundry (start to finish), Drink my water, Dishes, and Bless my Heart. If I get all seven done in one day I get a point, when I get seven points I give myself a small reward (I chose taking the time to scrapbook one layout) and when I get to 70 points I get $7 extra spending money for fun stuff. The points system is a little more complicated than that (I have other ways to earn points, too) so 70 isn't really that huge of a number for me. I've done six of seven today, and I'm off to do my seventh....right....now! :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 10 - Baking Cookies?!?!

January 21, 2011

I was out at my sister's all day, today. I packed some Kashi, my soup, and a tuna sandwich, so I had my mid-morning snack and lunch covered, but I should have packed two Kashi so I'd have one for my mid-afternoon snack - oops.

I'm not sure if you remember, but I've been a double-double girl for-ever, and today when I bought coffee I got just milk in mine, not a huge delight, but I survived.

It was a PA day, so my niece was home from school and she wanted to bake. (Ahh!!! ) We baked cookies and I used pretty good self-control. I only had a tiny piece of dough (way less than normal) and one cookie, and they are small cookies. Plus I didn't bring any home. I think that is a major victory, not a small failure. Seriously. On a 'normal day' I would have been sneaking bits of dough here and there the whole time plus I would have had 4-5 of the cookies there (they are small cookies, about 1 Tbsp of dough each...) and then maybe taken a bunch home for me and DH for the week. I think I did well.


No wii today, but keeping my nephew out of stuff is a full-time job ;)

Dinner was leftover meatloaf with steamed mixed veggies (lots for me) and DH had my restaurant garlic bread also.  Have I mentioned that I'm loving making dinner for four the first night and then not making anything the next night? This should be my new plan!!

Oh! And I got all four bottles of water in! :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 9

January 20, 2011

Man, flipping your sleep schedule around not only messes with your sleep, but with your eating, too! I followed the plan, but I missed one snack. But that was because I went to bed too early ;) No worries. I'm doing well.

Made SouthWestern Crock Meatloaf. It was easy and delicious.

Went on the wii, still losing more, so that means it wasn't just a fluctuation. - When you don't go on around the same time of day, the wii fit tells you that your weight actually fluctuates up to 1kg (2.2 pounds) in a day due to various bodily processes... But! Anyway, two downs, means it wasn't just a random fluctuation, it's REAL :D

I tried some different routines to change it up a bit. Instead of playing my circuit of games, I did the posture, tummy, and figure routines that were already programmed in to target those muscles. Each was two yoga moves and a game as opposed to mostly all games like I had been doing. I still have my wii fit goal set at a 115 calorie flan per day. And I've been hitting it each time.

Going to be out all day tomorrow, I'll let you know how that turns out. :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 8 - Restaurant victory!

January 19, 2011

Major victory today! I had supper in a restaurant AND stuck to the plan! One thing I've heard Leanne and JJ Virgin talk about is that when you go to a restaurant, you don't HAVE to order exactly what they have set up as the meal combinations - peruse the menu to see what they have in the kitchen and then order what you want to have! Good thing I was thinking about that, or when we were out last night and DH asked me if we could eat out and then pop by his parents' I probably would've said no.

Reality is, in most restaurants, you should be able to get a grilled chicken breast and salad, so there is always something for you to have when you eat out. I had a garden salad to start (I totally wasn't thinking and should have asked for non-iceberg, but that's OK), I had oil/vinegar for salad dressing on the side, they had a lemon-pepper grilled chicken meal that looked good and came with steamed vegetables, and I just asked for double vegetables instead of my potato-side. I made good choices, and I was rewarded. Everything was good and I didn't feel deprived, and we got to eat out and have a nice visit with my in-laws afterwards. (Now my meal actually came with TWO chicken breasts and garlic bread also, but I just brought the second breast and the garlic bread home. DH can have the garlic bread and the chicken is good, but there was too much.)

I was really busy, so didn't exercise and my water intake was a little low, but I'll get back on the horse tomorrow! :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 7 - Weigh In

January 18, 2011

OK! A whole week on the Losing it with Leanne plan, and I'm loving it! I feel good physically, I feel good about what I'm eating, I'm not hungry, and I don't have to think very hard when it comes time to eat! That can be a problem you know, you're a little hungry, you want a snack, you're looking in the pantry and the fridge, nothing looks good unless it's bad for you.... Well, LWL definitely solves that problem!

Weigh in! OK at the end of the day I quick went on the wii just to weigh (more shoveling, so I didn't need to exercise). And I'm down 0.6 of a kg (1 1/3 pounds) and my BMI is down to 26.96 from 27.18. Making progress, that's not too bad for a week. They say it's healthy to lose 1-2 pounds a week, so I'm happy with this. Plus, I'm really at a good place to start with, and I was eating good food mostly (with a few too many treats thrown in... but it was Christmas not that long ago). It's not like I was eating horribly and then lost 5 pounds of water-weight. That's different.

Eating was weird today. Since we're switching back to days, but are totally wiped from 12 hour shifts, we slept in and went to bed early, so I only had breakfast and lunch and two snacks, no supper and no third snack. But that's fine, I was awake for less time and not hungry. But I did drink my water very well! At the end of the day we were watching tv and every time the episode finished, I was getting up to go to the bathroom and re-fill my water bottle. :D

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 6

January 17th, 2010

Last night shift! YAY!! Wait... that means I have to switch back to days... ouch, that's hard. Switching from days to nights is much easier. Oh well, I'll survive. :D

Let's see... I'm drinking my water! I finished my fourth bottle early and actually drank about a third of the 5th bottle! Wow. That was easy! Leftover shredded beef today...mmmm! Plus I finished the egg salad for lunch, maybe I'll switch to tuna tomorrow.

No wii-ing today again, but shoveling definitely counts as my exercise for the day! Plus I went to the grocery store. I'm not done the stuff I bought for my suppers, but I was out of milk (and you need milk on this plan) and both Kashi and chicken breasts were on sale so.... :D I was a very good girl and I didn't buy any more cream for my coffee even though I'm almost out. I'll switch to milk and see how that goes. Hey, if I can cut sugar out of my coffee, I can handle anything! ;) Because of night shift I got to the store an hour before closing, it was nice and quiet, but they were almost all out of chicken... I only got one club pack... and I was going to get three since they don't go on sale too often... oh well. Days off coming up, so maybe I can go again before the sale ends :D

I really like that I'm cooking 4 portions, then every other day, I don't have to cook! Even though I do like cooking, I'm pretty busy, so it's good.

I can't believe tomorrow is day 7 already! I'll have to do a weigh in and see how I'm doing. (Since I've been doing 'alternative exercising' I haven't weighed myself on the wii for a bit.) I know I do feel a lot better. I'm on a crazy schedule, and I had to get up at 11am (after going to bed at 7am) for a meeting. I was really surprised at how easy that was to do. I don't know if I could have pulled that off before. (And yes, I did go back to bed after the meeting.) It's the end of the day and I felt no side effects from that.

OK people, potty talk! If you don't want to hear about it, you can go read something else now ;) I just want to say that DH and I have only been switching between nights and days for a little over a month, and my body was rebelling. I had some constipation issues a couple of times already, but since starting the Losing It With Leanne plan, I haven't had any problems! In fact, I think I'm getting better quality out than I was before-before (when I was on a normal schedule, but not on the LWL plan). OK, I'm done. No worries, I won't do that often!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 5

 I'm using that crock cooker!! On tonight's menu is shredded beef. MmmmMMMmmm!! Man, it was easy and delicious! I was a little wary because it called for soy sauce and I don't like soy sauce (and of course I forgot the tip to substitute Worcestershire sauce until I'd already put the soy sauce in, so I used both) but man, oh man! I never should have doubted Leanne! It was fabulous!! I'm eating great and I'm on a diet!! - Go figure!

I did my meat trick that I mentioned in Day 1 of the Challenge I had an almost 3 pound roast, but I only needed 2 pounds for this recipe, but later I'm going to be making another beef recipe that calls for 3/4 pounds, so I cut a little less than a third off the roast for the other recipe, trimmed the fat like I was supposed to and, since I was a 'gicky' anyway with touching all the raw meat and having a 'contaminated' knife and cutting board, I cut the extra third of the roast into the 1-inch cubes that that recipe calls for. When I'm ready for that one, I'll only have to dump the meat out of the bag, I won't even have to touch it! :D

OK, here's a Crock Cooker tip for you: Get your manual and look up this statistic for YOUR slow cooker! My crock cooker's temperature settings are such that 1 hour on high equals 2 hours on low. What does that mean? Well, I was running a little late and I put the roast on at 7, and I was going to need it for 12, but the recipe calls for 6 hours on low, but I only had 5 hours.... so, for one hour in the middle of cooking, I turned it up to high, then turned it back down to low to finish. Then I could take an hour off the timer, because that hour on high did twice the work! Now, unless you have a recipe that has times for low and high, you won't want to change the temperature for too long. This dish was 'designed' to be cooked on low, so if I had cooked it for 3 hours on high, it might not have turned out so nice... Just sayin'. So go look up what the stats are for your crock and the next time you get your cooker turned on a little late, you won't have to sweat it! (And if you don't know where your manual is, google it!)

I didn't do my wii exercises, but I did do another coat of paint in DH's office, and that totally counts.

Oh! I totally got my sides backwards this week. I should know better. You're supposed to cook your sides in the order they'll go bad, and I did it completely backwards! LOL. (Squash and Brussels sprouts last longer than lettuce and spinach.) Oh well. My Romaine is in pretty sad shape, but everything else is holding up OK. I'm gonna be having salads as my sides for the next bit though. 

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 4

On nights I'm having lunch-supper-breakfast because we go to bed right after we eat at the end of our 'day' and I think that's working out well, although it's a little weird having the soup and my coffee at the same time, but that's just being silly. I should set the coffeemaker up the day before and have the coffee with my pre-breakfast.... Hey! I like that idea! I should do that.

Supper tonight was leftover Pork Diane mmm mmmm! DH likes it also, even with the Cilantro-Parsley mix up ;)

I've been OK with my water, drinking about 3 FLYlady (16 ounce) bottles a day but I really should be drinking 4 or more. Shouldn't take to much to pull that off, I just need to make the effort to drink it up! I have my bottle with me most of the time, that's a good start. Plus, me telling you is good motivation for trying harder!

You know what I realized today? The biggest part of my weight problem is portion sizes. Before I started this plan last week, most dinners I'd make close to 4 servings worth for 2 people and we didn't always have leftovers. What I'm discovering now while making myself follow the Losing It With Leanne plan I'm eating less, but I'm not hungry. I work for Leanne, so I know that a meat portion size is about the size of a deck of cards, I've heard her say it and read her writing it many times. But I never followed it. I think I was kind of afraid that if I ate 'normal' portion sizes all the time, it wouldn't be enough for me. But you know what? It is. I'm following the recipes and directions quite closely, and I'm splitting each meal into the correct number of serving sizes and just having one serving and I'm not hungry! Go me!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 3

January 14, 2011

Seriously, if I'd known I was going to pick the egg salad so many days in a row, I would have just made one big batch! It's too funny! There are several lunch options and I keep picking the same thing, LOL! Oh well, it's good and I haven't had egg salad in a while. I don't know why DH and I both like it. I guess it's just that I don't remember to boil the eggs ahead... Maybe I will now.

My protein powder came in today! Man those are big containers (2 pounds each), but that's OK, I'll just put some in one of my zipplerware containers and call it good.

Made Pork Diane tonight. Do you know what's really funny? I'm prepping the veggies, and I realize I bought cilantro instead of parsley! The silly thing is that I wasn't even going to bother with the fresh parsley except that two of the recipes I picked called for it... oh well, they're just gonna be cilantro-y ;)

And I made steamed Brussels sprouts for the first time. You'd think I'd look it up since I didn't know what I was doing, but they turned out fine. Actually, they taste like cauliflower kinda. I really don't understand why some people dislike broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts so much, they taste pretty plain and it's easy to spice them up to a flavour you DO like! I tried the Saving Dinner way of having steamed Brussels sprouts with a little unsalted butter and nutmeg... not bad at all! I think I'll make it again someday, although DH only likes them raw, apparently.

It's interesting, all these foods that I've been meaning to try at some point, and he doesn't like them to start with. Oh well. At least he's nice about it. Even the other night when I made acorn squash, he ate most of it before telling me that it's not his favourite. But I did talk to him about it and we figure it's just that this stuff is kinda plain, and he's not opposed to trying, say, a squash dish even though he doesn't like squash by itself. I've made spaghetti squash before and that was fine, but it was loaded with butter and Parmesan and/or spaghetti sauce. And he's OK with cooked broccoli and cauliflower if they're in a frittata.

I think eating on the plan is better for me than what I was doing. With switching between nights and days, I sometimes get a little light-headed if I haven't eaten in a while. On the Losing It With Leanne plan, I have snacks scheduled in already, so I don't have to feel bad that I'm eating 'extra' and there's a plan of what to eat, so I'm not eating random stuff that may or may not be so good for me.

I've been doing my 'circuit' on the wii fit everyday. Depending on what games I play more than once it takes 20-30 minutes. I've been going over the 90 calorie goal of a 8 oz glass of coke, so I'm changed it to a 115 calorie piece of flan for tomorrow (I burned 120 tonight anyway).

I know I 've only been doing this for a few days, but it already kinda seems like a way of life. Mornings are so hectic and the tiny bowl of Kashi is great to have quickly right after I get dressed to shoes, and then I can get DH's lunch together and do what needs to be done first thing.

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 2

Jan 13th 2011

OK! So last night I got the soup together. It was pretty easy my only problem was that I discovered a little too late that it wasn't all going to fit in my little crock pot, so I just made a half batch, and I have extra veggies chopped up in my fridge. I think I'll just make another batch tomorrow or the next day and freeze potions :D It is good soup! I had it cooking overnight and had some with lunch today.

I'm doing pretty well with my coffee. I usually make about 3 mugs worth and have it double-double (that's two creams and two sugars for those of you who don't speak Canadian) but I've cut it back to just cream, and I'll probably try and switch over to milk soonish. The thing is, I don't mind the taste of coffee with cream and no sugar, I just never knew it. Plus I've been making less in the mornings, Just enough for two mugs or so.

I'm liking this plan, I'm not starving myself at all, I'm eating well. It's not the type of plan when you're hungry all the time, and the food tastes bad. Come on people, this is from Leanne, the food is GREAT!! And the best part is, it's all REAL food that you make yourself from regular, non-processed groceries. Yes, there is a shake with protein powder, but that's only one of several breakfast options, and everything else in the shakes is real food and as long as you get a good protein powder that isn't full of sugar, it's wonderful tasting and great for you!

I made enough of the apple chicken yesterday for two nights, so I'm having it again tonight, making it easy for myself.

Starting on night shift tomorrow, so that will be 'interesting'!!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you!
It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!
Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com
Have great day!
Valerie :)
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Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1

Jan 12, 2011

Losing It With Leanne Challenge Day 1 :D
First of all, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while... I got a job at Saving Dinner of all places (after I was fawning all over them here) and I got busy, and distracted... Typical SHE ;)

So I'm back, and Saving Dinner is doing a Losing It With Leanne challenge right now! In fact, the whole staff is doing the challenge right along with everyone else!

So anyways. I ordered my protein powder a week ago, and it's not here yet, but I'm done waiting! (I'm in Canada, and I ordered from the States to get the specific one that Leanne recommended, so it's nobody's fault it's not here yet.)

Today, I sat down with my grocery list, Losing It With Leanne volume 1 (well, I have the whole thing printed off in my binder, but I'm starting at the beginning), and my Saving Dinner recipes that I already had printed out. I flipped through the Body Clutter menus that I had and picked dishes based on what sounded good and what meat I either had or was on sale. (That's how I usually shop, except I'm not always in the BC recipes.) I picked 6 recipes that look SOOO yummy even though they're good for me ;) and noted what I needed to get to make them (mostly produce, you'd be amazed at how little time I needed to spend in the middle of the store).
Sirloin tip roasts were on sale this week for half price, so I bought 3! You'll love this trick: they were on for $2.00 a pound and I had 2 beef recipes, one called for 2 pounds and the other for 3/4 pounds... So I looked for a roast that was as close to $5.75 as I could find :D Actually, I ended up buying three roasts and froze 2!
After I did my mains, I went through the rest of the daily eating plan and picked my options. There are 7 breakfast options in the LWL plan and 6 lunches, and I didn't want to buy for ALL of them at once, so I picked - again, based on what I had and what's good. Now I have most of the stuff for the breakfasts and stuff for 4 lunch options plus the soup! And I added some stuff to the list for my DH, he's not officially going on the plan with me, but I'm not cooking separate dinners for us. I jut told him that the recipes look good in and of themselves and he's fine with that. But I did get him 'regular' cereal and Black Forest ham for sandwiches, because he likes that.
That's the great part about the Losing It With Leanne plan, it's not all that different from regular eating, we just really need to make the healthier choices (low fat, not full fat dairy products, lots of veggies, less carbs (not no carbs, less carbs), and watch our portion sizes. It's more regimented for the people on the plan, but it's not the type of plan that turns you into a short order cook because your family "won't" eat it.
When my grocery list was done it was almost 50% produce, with a LOT of stuff around the outside of the store, and I only had to go down 4 centre aisles and that was for: Picante sauce, Kashi (and regular cereal for DH), bay leafs, tuna, white beans, and diced tomatoes. In my opinion, that's a pretty good list! And the best part was, I got to the cereal aisle and Kashi was ON SALE!! I love it when I'm going to buy something anyways and it's on sale! :D I really didn't spend any more than usual, especially considering how much nutrition was in my cart, plus I was buying 3 roasts instead of just the one I needed. So it cost about the same as normal with a little extra for all the meat, but that is normal :D
OK, so that's groceries... Got home, put everything away, had my 'mid-afternoon snack' of Kashi and then did all my measurements, then went downstairs and got on the wii fit to weigh myself. Today my BMI is 27.18 the wii wants me to aim for 22. It's a little high, but it has been slowly but surely coming down with me making good choices and learning by osmosis while working at Saving Dinner. I set my goal to lose 3 kg (6.6 pounds) in the 4 weeks of the main plan. I think that's doable. I've been slowly losing weight already, but now I'm going to be putting an effort into it!
I even did my circuit on the wii and burned a glass of coke and then some! (I have a list of about 8 of the activities that I 'always' do.) And I even hit a new high score in boxing, guess I'm not that rusty after all. I'm gonna plan to stay active through the duration of the Challenge, no easy task in the winter when you work from the computer ;) But I ran through my circuit today in 28 minutes, and I repeated some activities, so I should be OK. Plus, I'm committing to all of you and putting this our in cyberspace so I will be held accountable!
Dinner tonight from a past Body Clutter Menu-Mailer was Autumn Apple Chicken with acorn squash. What an easy and yummy recipe! I asked DH and he's all for us having it again someday (although apparently he's not a squash fan).
Hope to see you here more often as well as on the Losing It With Leanne facebook page!