This for That…

Well once again the past four days have flown by and my blogging has been pretty much non-exsistent. For that my sincerest apologies to the Frontiersman and to you the readers… With full-time work, full-time parenting, managing our home and these major life changes, my days just seem to slip on by even more than they used to…

To start with Friday I turned 32 and even with the changes we are working to make in our lives I was able to celebrate, have foods that I enjoy and still not pay the ultimate price if gaining back weight or sabatoging my plan to be successful with this newest endeavor. On Friday my husband and I met with the personal trainer to complete the body composition testing this is a part of our package deal at the sports complex. This was quite the task for both of us, as we learned on Thursday that we needed to not consume caffeine from 10 am Thursday until 10 am Friday in order to achieve the most accurate results. Additionally we needed to not have anything to eat for 4-5 hours prior to the testing. Well, testing complete and the numbers tabulated — we won't talk specific numbers, but it definitely brought to light that we've both got a lot of work ahead of us, and reminded us that we can achieve what we want to, we are just really going to have to make some major changes to everyday habits to get the total benefits.

Following the personal trainer and a somewhat brief workout we decided it was time to enjoy somehting to eat - so we headed to a local restaurant for a birthday breakfast - we both decided we wanted those delicious omelettes that IHOP has on their menus … but taking into account our endeavors to be healthier - we both ordered our omelettes made with egg beaters…. Truth be told, I didn't notice much of a difference except for the fact that the eggs tasted lighter … not heavy and greasy as they can sometimes be… Yummy … I really enjoyed this new way of enjoying my fave breakfast food.

Friday night saw plans with friends and a good old-fashioned Mexican dinner … again order the smart way … chicken instead of beef … sour cream on the side … order something that was not smothered in cheese… dinner was still great and I left there feeling satisfied.

Today, Sunday was the official celebrate with the family day, as it is the only day that all our family members are off of work and not otherwise committed to other activities and can sit down to enjoy time together. I decided I wanted a steak dinner — and that can be done!! My father-in-law brought us the best Ribeye's I have had in quite some time — lightly seasoned and grilled … and along side of that fresh green beans, a weight watchers homemade pasta salad and of course the stereotypical homemade potatoe salad, but instead of the high calorie, high fat mayonaise that we once would have used, we replaced that with low-fat, Miracle Whip Lite — man oh man was that delcious and light tasting too. Then once the gifts were opened and the dinner settled .. of course part of any decent birthday celebration is the dessert … usually a stereotypcial cake with icing and ice cream… not this year, instead I elected to have my birthday dessert be something fairly healthy and yummy too … I chose to make pudding pies using sugar-free/fat-free jello instant puddings. The first was a banana cream pie and the second was a chocolate-cheescake pie. These of course were made with fat-free milk. The worst part of the dessert was the graham cracker crust, but a pudding pie is not a pudding pie without it. Many folks remarked at how good the pies were and even said if they didn't know I had used the sugar-free and fat-free ingredients that they would have never known the difference.

Well, I think that time has come for me to call it a night - as I have quite an early morning in front of me, if I am going to get a workout in … I think the gym opens at 530 and my goal is to be there for that.. we shall see! Hope you all are having successes as you compete to win the Trim-2-Win purse and change lifestyles in the meantime - I know I am already feeling better and looking forward to the weeks to come - More blogging to come later.

Until then, take care and just try to make some small swaps - this for that - You just might find you like it!!