I think I quit

When I started this I guess I expected to gain more readers and writing for practically no one to read it makes no sense to me. There are other things I could be doing with my time. So I think I'm done. Thanks to those few who did bother reading.

Finally getting to it

Sorry for the delay. My house was a disaster. I spent all yesterday doing laundry and today I'm cleaning the house. Not that I'm too worried since there are only about 5 people who read this.

I got bananas and grapes for our fruit this week. E as been refusing eggs a lot so we're eating overnight oats and chocolate chip scones mostly for breakfast. He's also become obsessed with cheese, but he still hates milk. So I don't know what is going on there.

OK on to the good stuff. First up, broccoli and rice with onion gravy. Husband is out of town on business for a couple days so I take the opportunity to get in the broccoli. Unlike E, I've gotten tired of cheese so I'm going with the gravy. I know the recipe calls for the vegan gravy, but I already had everything for onion gravy so I'm swapping.
http://myplantbasedfamily.com/2012/08/23/brown-rice-and-broccoli-casserole/
http://www.kitchentreaty.com/vegetarian-onion-gravy/

I love chicken thighs because they are cheap. Cheap is good. It gets me out of eating beef. I swear my husband is programmed to eat nothing that is good for him and it drives me crazy. If it were up to him we would eat steaks every night. Not a fan. Thank goodness I get to do the shopping so we have yummy garlic ranch chicken and bonus: only uses one pan. Cooked with baby red potatoes and carrots (both compromised favorites in my house) this is a hit.
http://damndelicious.net/2015/05/08/one-pan-garlic-ranch-chicken-and-veggies/

Next is burrito bowls. I love them because they are so customizable. Like my husband puts cottage cheese on his (gross!) and I like tomatoes, ranch, and avocados if I can manage them. They're freaking expensive. I did not manage them this week sadly.

My husband likes to buy beer and not drink it. I'm not sure why, but we ending up using it in our food. Speaking of which I may end up making beer bread to go with this...so good. Anyway I'm trying my hand at making risotto and not just risotto, but beer risotto. I know it sounds totally healthy right? As it stand right now I'm sitting on around a 700 calorie deficit every day and that's just from food. That's not even counting my burned calories. I didn't set out to do that and I'm pretty sure they only recommend a 500 calorie deficit. I figure I can afford to up my calories a bit if I feel like being bad. So here's to beer risotto. I couldn't find a spicy sausage like they used so I just got smoke turkey sausage. So it's not so bad.
http://cherryonmysundae.com/2014/03/beer-risotto-with-sausage-and-gouda.html

Ta da! Now to finish cleaning. I have to wait for nap time to mop the floors and then I'm done after that. Yay!

Life in the way

Too much to do so the blog has to wait. Will have it up tomorrow morning at the latest. Small life update: I will be moving sometime in the next 3 months and that will happen really quick so there will be no updates that week. I will also be starting classes in August so there may be a lot more late blogs going on. Just go with me on this. I'm trying my best to get my life together.

New Routine

So I pretty much revamped my workout routine. I actually do like it a lot better and I'm working out 6 days instead of 4. Which sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. I don't know if it's the change or if it was just time, but I lost an inch and a half off my thighs since starting. It makes me pretty excited about my new routine.

So since I did the 30 day challenges last month I decided I should go ahead and do the arms and thighs as planned. I am modifying squats for single leg extensions in all of the workouts. I'm doing them for lunges too, except for the side lunges. They don't bother me. I have to say my knee has been feeling better since starting this with the modifications as well.
http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/post/2092081/4262548677
https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/blogilates-fitness-food-lots-pilates-2092081/30-day-thigh-slimming-challenge-4209049210/

I actually made a few changes to my routine. First of all, I'm now doing full body workouts 3 days a week instead of doing targeted workouts 4 days a week. In addition, I'm also including active rest days in my routine. So 3 days a week I'm doing a light yoga routine. Active rest days allow you to be active while still being kind to your muscles. Yoga is something I've always liked, but if yoga is not for you I'm sure there are other kinds of exercises you can do. I just saw yoga and stopped there. You have to find what's suitable for you. Last of all I added dry brushing to my routine. A lot of people have never heard of it so I'm going to go into detail about it next week.

I like to mix things up so I don't get bored. So I like to have a few routines to switch between. If I get bored I might quit doing my workouts. Variety is the spice of life. I have 2 regular workouts and 2 yoga workouts. I'm switching which regular workout gets done twice each week and I'm switching the yoga workouts from week to week. I haven't really gotten into the habit of doing yoga before bed, but I want to do it. I really want to get my son doing it, but he's rebellious. As most 2 year olds are. He lacks focus.

Let's start with the regular workouts. This one tough, but I love it. I also like it because it has some definitive cardio. Don't forget to sub step ups for burpees here if you have bad knees. I know doing the 50 leg extensions seems like a lot, but it helps to do 25 on each side and split it. So do 10, then 10, then 5 on each side. So much easier that way.
http://ourthreepeas.com/full-body-circuit-workout/

This one is slightly easier, but I do it 3 times instead of 2.
https://drinkthepink.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/motivational-monday-get-fit-2/

Next is the yoga. If a pose is too hard or you can't go all the way down just do your best or try to find a modified version. It's different for everyone. If you keep at it, it will get easier over time.
This one takes me about 20 minutes to do. It's nice and simple. It's also specifically tailored for sore muscles muscles which makes it a perfect rest day workout.
http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Yoga-Sore-Muscles-35243529?slide=11

This one is a group of poses that is geared toward weight loss, but are also ones that I know are fairly beginner friendly.
http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/effective-power-yoga-workouts-to-reduce-weight-fast/?ref=pin

So next week I'm going to go over dry brushing and I have an article to share about the benefits of yoga. Now I need to get my workout in. We've had a rather unorthodox morning and I'm running behind.

Cheeky snails

My son told me he was one as I was thinking of a title. It's one of his favorite things to say. He loves Peppa pig. So my husband decided to take it upon himself to cook me a birthday dinner. The problem with my husband is he's kind of like. He thinks that because it's something he would want, other people want it too. So we had porkchops, italian sausage, and french fries. I wasn't entirely thrilled. I'm not a huge fan of pork and I would have rather had what I had planned on cooking. I ate it. It was nice that he made the effort. He's just excited about his new grill. I've taken that into account this week and offered him a healthier alternative.

Now I had actually planned on some pork this week, but I just can't get thrilled about them now. So I revamped the grocery list.

Sesame noodles are so easy and we all love them so made the cut this week.

I'm picking up dried apricot and white chocolate chips to put in my scones. They say that sweets in the morning helps curb cravings later in the day. My son is also boycotting eggs again so I have to get stuff he will eat. I had trouble getting him to eat eggs for the longest time and he apparently doesn't like them again.

Also doing beans rice and veggies again. I enjoyed it and it's really cheap. Using different veggies this time tho.

Next up is chicken kebabs. I'm using red peppers, green, peppers, onion, and mushroom. Use whatever veggies make your family happy. I believe I'm using a balsamic honey marinade which is just that plus garlic. To your own taste.

Last is some teriyaki chicken casserole. This is a new recipe, but it sounds so good. I'm doubling it. We like Chinese food in my house and my husband likes to stack his noodles with his rice so it's perfect. I figure grabbing a big pack of chicken breasts will work for both meat meals.

http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/teriyaki-chicken-casserole.html

I think im getting apples and grapes for fruit, but those mangos were delicious and there's a grapefruit recipe I want to try so we will see. Well I actually need to get our lunch for today so I'm off.

Last, but not least...Legs

So even tho I've completely changed my workout I'm still giving you my target area workout. Somehow I managed to have sunburn, a cold, and cramps on the same day so I put it off an extra day, but now I'm right on schedule. I'll be working through the week to make it up.

I know I'm bad with the sunburn. I didn't bother with lotion because I hadn't intended to be out as long as I was and just didn't think about putting any on later. I can't even guess how I ended up with a cold.

Legs are a problem area for a lot of people. Thighs specifically. I can attest to that. My calves look phenomenal. My thighs look like cake batter.

I realized my leg workout was probably too intense for me after a couple of weeks so I changed it. So now I have 2 workouts for you. Legs can be difficult. I have a bad knee so lunges, squats, and burpee kill my knee. I can do side lunges fine. Reverse lunges aren't so bad, but my balance sucks so I'm constantly falling trying to do them. They say replace squats with lunges, but if you're like me and lunges are just as bad, you can do single leg extensions. It's basically a short bridge with your leg out straight. I use them for squats and lunges. Burpees also suck. Like a lot. So I do step ups instead. My house has no stairs and my chairs are too high (cuz I'm short) so I just use a stool.

So for beginners I suggest using this workout. I do everything on both sides and add 10 secs. to each of the wall sits. I ran through this twice. Could have easily done it 3 times.
http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/post/53230433760/a-reader-pointed-out-to-me-today-that-i-have-no

This one is harder. I might like it more if it didn't hurt my knee, but I can only get through it one time.
http://m.tone-and-tighten.com/ezvviyj/articles/42852/Thigh-Pyramid-Workout

I like doing the individualized workouts because it's definite focusing on toning the specific areas. Remember though that you can't spot treat fat loss. You can workout your abs as much as you want, but you won't lose more weight from that area just because you work it more. Since my goal is fat loss I'm switching to full body workouts.

I'm doing 2 different sets 3 days a week with 3 active rest days and one full rest day each week. I'm alternating which set I do more each week. I'll tell you more about it next week. Otherwise I'll have nothing to talk about.

Oh my birthday is tomorrow too. May make my husband take me for sushi, but I haven't decided yet. I haven't been there yet, but they do have vegetarian options. I'm just not sure if that's what I want to do. I thought about going to the Toledo zoo, but there is a crazy mayfly infestation going on and I'm not so sure I want to be outside for very long. I almost just want to stay home and watch movies, but that's probably a lame birthday.

I was bad this week...

My husband brought home cookie dough ice cream and fried chicken, which I had been craving, this week. My resistance level is not high. I'm not in any hurry to lose the weight. Not preparing for a wedding or anything. So I'm putting us on a stricter set of meals this week. Only one of which has a recipe at the moment. But I have a plan.

I'm going to make a meatloaf and mix in shredded zucchini and serve that with mashed sweet potatos. I do put a little butter on mine, but I don't add extra salt. My attempts at meatloaf have failed miserably, but I'm going to try again.

I'm going to make some brown rice with a mixed veg, beans, and cheese. Just use whatever is your preference.

Doing something similar except I'm using ground meat and barley. I figure I'll do one at the beginning of the week and one at the end I'm being a little frugal this week because my birthday is coming up and I'm making country style pork ribs that day.

Last of all I'm going to make some white bean soup. I actually think using dry beans is easier and it's definitely cheaper. I believe the recipe calls for dry, but there's really no reason you couldn't use canned. Just remember that a pound of dry beans is not the same amount as a pound of wet beans.

And I think I'm getting apples and mangoes today. Might get bananas instead of apples. Actually I probably will, but we'll see. Usually when I write this I've already been to the store, but I woke up early today and found myself with some peace and the time to write.

Breakfasts this week are going to be overnight oats and egg sandwiches. Picking up some English muffins for those.

So that's it for today. I want to get done early and take E down to the splash park again. We made friends on Wednesday when we went and it's supposed to rain the rest of the weekend.