It's New Year's Eve

It's New Year's Eve and I'm in the party mood.  Okay, not really.  I'm home on my couch watching a movie with my 11-year-old son, Josiah.  Nothing says Happy New Year like Star Wars right?! Samuel has been sick for 2 days, Josiah woke up sick today and I haven't felt well all day either.  We were supposed to go to a party tonight but with all the sickness in our house, I chose to stay home.  The rest of the family is out partying in the new year but that's just fine by me.  I'm not feeling left out at all. I've done enough partying over the past month (and especially over the past week) to last me quite some time.

Ever since Thanksgiving my efforts have been relaxed too much.  Some days I have the will power to watch my habits and other times I just don't care.  I haven't been caring much at all over the past couple of weeks.  We have had at least one party to go for 5 of the last 7 days.  I just need some time to get back into the groove of real life again.  I miss routine.  I miss vegetables. I miss tracking. I miss taking care of myself.  I miss sleep and normal bedtimes.

There is something to be said for routine and when mine comes back into my life I will be glad.  I know that it will not be easy though.  Even though I am looking forward to normal home school days again I know that it will be a challenge to enter into a mindful, healthy lifestyle again.  I do believe that is the key though.  It is a lifestyle that I have been striving for all these years.  A healthy lifestyle is not perfect day to day, week to week or even holiday to holiday.  It's a matter of balance.  My life is feeling off balance right now because of the lack of routine.  I need to work to bring it back into balance this week as we get back our normal lifestyle.

I've gained weight since Thanksgiving and Christmas. I indulged too much but since it's all a part of my life, I'm not beating myself up.  I'm getting myself back on track and the weight will come off in time. It may take a few weeks or even a couple of months.  That's not what's important either.  What's important is that I remember to take it one day at a time as I live this one healthy life that I have.

Happy New Year Everyone.  I hope 2013 is great to you.

Corinna

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." -1Peter 1:3

Party without Food?!?

Tis the season for parties.  Hence...'tis the season for buffet tables full of food.  Here's a thought for you.  What if you have a party without food being the center?  I know, I know, I'll give you a moment to compose yourself.  Ready?

Today I had a phone conversation with a friend of mine.  We were planning a get-together to see another friend and her family since they were in town for Christmas.  We decided to get our families together at 1pm.  That way we didn't have to eat a meal together and make the party more complicated than needed.  We wanted to see our friends and their families.  We wanted to have some time to catch up and talk with each other.  We wanted to get our kids together to run around and play.  We wanted to wish each other a Merry Christmas and share stories with each other about our lives.  We wanted to do all of these things so why do we need to involve a meal?  We decided that we didn't need a meal to do these things.  We just  needed each other and a place.

Our plan is simple.  We will meet at my friends' parents' house.  Thankfully, they are willing to have us since we will have a minimum of 11 kids and 6 adults.  We will eat lunch on our own before we come.  We will bring a small snack to share and we will feed our families dinner after we leave.  This way we accomplish our goal of visiting with our friends but no one is having to cook all morning before we meet or spend a bunch of money feeding us all.  I will admit that this was not my idea.  My friend came up with the idea and I love it.  I wish we could have more parties without food being the center of the entertainment.  We will be attending plenty of parties where there will be more food available than I should possibly partake so I am thankful to have one where I don't have to worry about all of the temptation surrounding me.

Think about doing this with some or one of the parties that you are going to schedule this season.  I think you will find it enlightening.

Have a great day and a great Christmas if I don't talk to you before then,

Corinna

"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." -1 John 1-3

What to do About that Craving

Cravings are not just for pregnant ladies; we all have them.  The question is how should we handle them?

Last night I was having a chocolate craving.  That's not unusual.  Chocolate is a must-have in my life.  As I put the kids to bed I tried to figure out what I could have that would satisfy that craving.  I have done a pretty good job of cleaning out my house lately so there is little junk around to eat - that included chocolate.  I had been having this craving for a few hours and just didn't think it was going to go away unless I satisfied it.  After the kids were in bed and I had time to look and think I spied the chocolate peanut butter cereal.  I had bought it for the kids when Josiah asked for it on our last shopping trip. I had limited the kids to eating one bowl per morning because if I let them they would eat the whole box in one sitting.  We have had it for a few days so when I looked in the box there was just about a half of a serving left.  I decided that it should be just enough to satisfy the craving.

I don't know what you think about the way I handled my craving but I was happy with it.  There was a time that I would try to eat something else to satisfy the craving instead of what I was craving.  That rarely ever worked.  The craving would just get stronger and I would eventually end up eating what I really wanted in addition to all of the stuff I ate to make the craving go away.  Also, once I finally would give into the craving I would eat it in large portions. I have learned that if I just eat a small portion of the chocolate or whatever I am craving I will eat less in the long run.  Eating around the craving just doesn't work for me.  I have to satisfy the craving and move on.

This doesn't mean that I eat anything I want at any time but I can tell something is a craving if it just wont go away with water, fruits or veggies.  If I am having a craving for something sweet, a piece of fruit or a non-fat yogurt will often handle that craving successfully, but when I am having a specific craving it's best to satisfy it with that specific food.

Last night after my chocolate craving was gone I realized how far I have come.  I remember the days that I would sit in front of the TV at night and eat a half of a bag of chocolate chips because it was all I could find for my chocolate craving - and that was after I had eaten all of the other junk in the house too.

What do you really crave?  Have some of it in small portions, count it and move on happily - no guilt involved.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, 'Where is your God?'" -Psalm 42:1-3

Little Notes that Help

Wow, has it been a long time since I've blogged.  The time has just gotten away from me.  My computer has been on the fritz so I can only get on the internet when my son's school computer is available.  It's probably not good form for a home school mom to kick her son off of his school computer so she can blog so I haven't gotten to blog.  My oldest son, Jason, switched from home schooling to virtual schooling this year so it has been quite a transition year for us.  He has spent a lot of time on his school computer and I have spent a lot of time helping him get used to his new school habits.  His semester comes to an end on January 11th so we have been working incredibly hard to get him up to date on all of his work. Then, on top of keeping him up to date on his school work there has been wrapping, cooking, baking, shopping, homeschooling the other 3 kids, chasing the one-year-old, cleaning and I don't even remember what else.  It's been a busy month.

That busy time has made it very easy to grab whatever is available to eat at the moment.  After a couple of weeks of eating too much of the wrong things I started leaving myself little notes.  My kids opened the cupboards the other day and laughed.  I was in the living room and had no idea what was so funny.  I heard them discussing whatever was so silly and realized that they were laughing at my little note. I was finding myself opening the cupboards to search for something to eat many times each day. In order to remind myself that I should stay out of the cupboards I wrote myself a quick note. I grabbed a post-it and wrote, "Christmas is coming!"  That is my little reminder that I want to look and feel good for Christmas.  I don't want to eat everything in the cupboards and if I keep myself in check I will be rewarded at Christmas when I fit into my clothes comfortably and don't feel guilty by eating a cookie or two.

Since writing that little note I have seen it often. I have opened the cupboard, read my note and closed it back up without removing anything.  Not only did I keep the food in the cupboard instead of in my mouth but I felt good about my decision because I was reminded of why I was making the right decision.

I have used this "Little Note System" in the past and have found that it works well until the note becomes too old.  When the note becomes so old that I no longer notice that it's there because it's just part of the decor, then I need to change the place and message on the note. For now, it's still working.  Since there is only one week until Christmas, when it comes time to change it, it will be old news anyway.

I hope you are all doing well.  As Jason gets more of his school work done I will try to get more access to his computer and try blogging more often.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." -James 1:19

How to Handle a Party, or Not, You Decide

I had a Christmas party to attend on Saturday evening.  It was for my step-mom's family.  She is part of a huge family so there were tons of people there.  Each of us was supposed to bring a dish to pass.  The meat and drinks were provided.  Since each family was supposed to bring a dish and there was an estimated 70 people at this party, there was plenty of food to go around.  I also noticed that the dishes that people brought were not just dishes, they were DISHES!  You can tell how large someone's family is by the quantities that they cook.  I have found this to be true in my own family as well.  My mom is also part of a large family and you can tell because when her family has a party, no matter how many people are coming, the portions provided are ginormous (This is my daughter's new favorite word.  I thought I would try it on for size. I'm not sure it fits me.)

The plentiful food made this party especially challenging for me.  Everything looked so good and it was tempting to try each and every dish.  If I had tried each and every dish I could have filled 2 plates full of food and two plates full of food is not the best way to handle the party in my eyes. In retrospect I handled some things at the party very well.  The appetizers filled every inch of a 6-person kitchen table.  The choices were chips, dips, crackers, sausage, cheese, veggies and more. I started with veggies. I’ve gotten myself pretty used to plain veggies so most of the time, I need little to no dip to still enjoy them.  I think it’s important to start with the veggies because the veggies will fill me up and I am less likely to eat them at all if I save them until later. I then moved on to having some chips and some of the dips too – probably a few too many but I’ve certainly ate worse in the past.

One benefit to my current life is that I have a built in distraction at parties – his name is Samuel.  He is 18 months old and goes 18 miles per hour non-stop.  I have not found his off button yet.  He checked out his surroundings for about 10 minutes slowly and then decided that he felt like he was in a fabulous home where people still decorated at his level.  I chased Samuel around this rather large house catching the picture frames, remote controls, pencils and nutcracker displays he insisted on touching.  This kept me from eating the main meal until I was good and ready.  After chasing Samuel for 30 minutes and most people had already eaten I hoped that my choices would be fewer.  I had hoped that most of the bad choices would be gone.  No such luck – this is where that big portions thing comes in.  I’m pretty sure that most of the people took home half of the food they brought.  It was amazing!

One thing that helped me was that my dish to pass was fruit salad.  With all of the parties I always offer to bring a healthy dish.   This way I know that no matter what else is offered, I have my healthy dish.   I am proud to say that although my bowl of fruit salad wasn’t as large as some of the other dishes but it wasn’t small either and I only took home a very small portion. That tells me that I am not the only one that appreciates a healthy dish at parties too.  So as I was looking at all of my choices for dinner I had my fruit salad to fill half of my plate and then put the rest on the other half. The turkey and gravy looked delicious and was probably the leanest meat offered.  I skipped the bun because I was more interested in the pasta salad. I can have a bun any day buy rarely have pasta salads.  There was also a large pot of veggies. I started to scoop some onto my plate but changed my mind. They were swimming in butter.  I decided that I just didn’t need all of that extra fat, even if was covering veggies. I shared my plate with Sammy.  That always helps with portion control too but he doesn’t really eat that much.

Another benefit to my healthy habits is that I always carry a bottle of water with me.  They only had soda, juice and alcohol at the party so I got my bottle of water out of the diaper bag and was able to eat my calories instead of drinking them.  I’m not much of a drinker – I never have been – so ignoring the alcohol is no big deal to me.  I have also gotten used to drinking water all of the time. I almost never drink soda anymore so it doesn’t even appeal to me at most parties.  I just want my water.  I would much rather save my calories for dessert.  That’s my downfall.  There was a whole nook of desserts.  There were some lovely chocolates that looked great and tasted even better.  I could have ignored the desserts and have left the party happy but I didn’t think of that at the time.  It’s a good thing it’s still so early in the Christmas season. I have many more parties to go to so eventually I will get it right.

Have a great day,

Corinna

"Besides this, you know what time it is, how it s now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably  as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy." -Romans 13:11-13

Planning Meals Ahead

I am a person who likes to plan.  I like to know what is going on in my life.  My calendar is written on regularly and is quite full.  Without it I am lost.  I don't have a smartphone so keep my calendar the old fashioned way - paper and pen hanging on my wall in my kitchen.  If you are too young to understand this concept, Google it;)

In addition to my calendar hanging in my kitchen I have a magnetic pad of paper on my refrigerator.  That pad has my meals for the week listed on it.  This may sound incredibly anal but I can assure you that it is quite handy and doesn't take nearly as much time as you would think.

In my years on Weight Watchers I have found meal planning to be a key to my success.  If I don't plan my meals ahead of time I don't eat as healthy. I also find myself eating out too often that way.  That is not an option in my house because not only is it less healthy but it is really expensive for a family of 7 on a tight budget.  Therefore it has become my habit to make a list that keeps my mind at ease.

This is my process.  Each week when I go grocery shopping I make a list.  I start with my menu list from my refrigerator.  I look through my cookbooks and find recipes I would like to make that week.  It doesn't take long.  I don't stress over it or look too hard because there is always next week to make that other recipe that sounded good.  I then write on my menu list which recipes I am making with page numbers, cookbook name and recipe name.  As I write each recipe on my menu I check the ingredients  list and make my grocery list.  This is done easiest while in my kitchen so I can check the cupboards and refrigerator but occasionally I am in a hurry running errands and just take a few cookbooks and my lists with me and do this in the parking lot of the grocery store.  I have a pretty good idea of what I have in my kitchen so this works in a pinch.  So by the time I have my menu planned I also have my grocery list.  I never shop without a grocery list, I would spend way too much money and forget to get way to many things.

I typically eat the recipes in the order that I write them down on my menu but have no problem changing it around it if I find myself wanting to make something else one night.  This is helpful because when it gets to be 3 o'clock and I need to start thinking about dinner, I don't have to think that hard. I just have to look at my menu and make what's on it. I've already done the planning.  I only do this for dinners.  We eat lunch and breakfast with whatever I have in the house that day.  Those meals are not as tricky for me so I don't feel the need to plan them most days.

Not only does this meal planning help keep me on track for my dinners but it helps us eat all of the food in the house instead of throwing it away or keeping it in the cupboard for months.  I shop for what is on my list. We eat what is on my list.  So when the list is all crossed off, I look to see if there is one or two last meals that I can throw together from the food that is left.  If not, I go shopping.  If so, I make what I can with what we have and go shopping when it's gone.  I can't stand grocery shopping.  I don't know why.  It's just not my idea of a good time so the easier I can make it the better.  Also, the fewer times I have to do it the better.

If you are not a planner, try this.  You will find that it helps you in more ways than just your body's health.  It helps your mind's health too because you don't have to stress about what to make the dinner.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:4-7

Own it.....No Matter What it is

I remember back in college days one of my friends would say, "If you drink it through a straw, it doesn't  have any calories."  I loved that one.  I could drink a number of chocolate shakes for no calories.  Funny how those chocolate shakes started showing up on my hips though.  I've evolved since college.  Now, I just think that if I eat it really fast it wont count.  Okay, I don't really think that.  I do find myself eating things really fast if it's something I know I shouldn't eat.  It makes no sense. It's truly like I think that if I eat it fast enough that I don't remember it and no one sees me, then it didn't really happen.

It's sad that I do this but it's good that I have realized it.  I don't do it often anymore.  It used to happen more often but then I became aware of it.  Now that I am aware of it, I know that it's going to happen.  When I find myself in the mood to shove food in my face, I have to stop myself.  I know that if I am suddenly eating at the speed of light, there is a problem. That said, I stumble from time to time.  I don't even know what happened sometimes.  I eat too much and I regret it later. What do I do then?  Own it!!

It's going to happen.  We are not perfect, no matter how hard we try.  When it happens and your willpower gives in to tasty treats, own it.  Admit what happened, remember what you ate, track it and own it.  You may have consequences.  You may gain a little weight. You may not feel well.  You may learn a lesson for next time.  It's all okay. We can learn from our mistakes and own them.  They are no one's fault but our own. At this time of the year I used to find myself ready to blame anyone and anything but myself.  I used to blame the people who brought the food into the house or the person who dared to bake the cookies or even the holiday season itself.  Get real, a holiday season cannot be to blame for our own choices and mistakes.

Own what you have done, learn from it and move on.

Have a great day,
Corinna

"Give these commands as well, so that they may be above reproach. And whoever does not provide for relatives, and especially for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." -1 Timothy 7-8