Fast, Fast, Ways to Make Healthy Meals

Everyone wants fast and fast food leads to a larger waistband.  Here is a link to some very quick 20 minute recipes for all of you “Rushed” moms.  Trying to plan meals around busy schedules and late hours at the office can really stress out just about anyone.  http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/Recipes/20-Minutes-or-Less.aspx

Clean Eating magazine offers a great amount of wonderful recipes from quick and easy to truly extravagant meals.  Let’s keep the extravagant for special occasions and not a Tuesday night.   Crock pot meals are another way to really cut time out of your evening preparing meals.  Instead you can do homework with the kids and all the other things on your list, but still have time to sit down and read a book to your kids before bed or maybe watch something on television.  There is a great Facebook group page called Healthy Crock Pot Meals and the recipes are also for people with gluten intolerance, diabetes, high cholesterol and much more.  Also Crock Pot Girls are on Facebook under groups not all of their recipes are good for you so please be sure to really read the ingredients before making a decision.  Also check out the Skinny Mom Challenge Group page. 

People ask me about recipes a lot.  During the week I don’t make a lot of items that take a lot of effort.  If I do make a recipe I only make something I am familiar with.  Another helpful way to cut down on time is prepare meals over the weekend like; vegetable lasagna, soups, chili and freeze them for later in the week.  Grill a large batch of chicken breasts; put half in the freezer and the other half in the fridge.  You can use the chicken for salads, soups, etc., then in the middle part of the week or the following week thaw out the remainder of cooked chicken breasts and use them.   Prepare double batches of soups, chili recipes and freeze half for another time.  I do this with sauces, chili, and soups.  You can grab a bag of your frozen meal of choice, thaw it in the refrigerator and then throw  it in a pot once you get home. 

Remember it really isn’t as hard as you think.  Sometimes we just need to hear ideas from others and if you have fast tips then pass them on to other moms.  They will really appreciate it!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

God Bless You and Your Family! 

Preparing for the Mini

The alarm clock went off at 5:15 this morning and I hit the snooze button only once, while thinking to myself, do I really want to do this? Today is the first day to help me reach my next goal. My goal is to run the Mini Marathon and finish it.

Going to the car I realized it's cold and drizzling rain and I am going to soon be running in this. I was nervous about how far I could even run. I do cross training cardio but I don’t run long distances. I love spinning, kickboxing and HITTS but this is the extent of my cardio. I am not a runner! I get to the gym and meet up with a few of my friends from there and we head out. My goal is to make it the 3 miles they have determined we are running. At this time I have butterflies in my stomach because I get a little nervous running outside and I'm more nervous because it's dark. I suck it up and off we go. We're running down roads and into neighborhoods, by about the 3/4 mile mark I am huffing and wondering what the heck was I thinking? I don't have running shoes and I am going to run 3 miles! I stopped to walk for about a minute and I continue on while Penny is saying, “you can do this, you're doing great”! I keep pushing and I'm pushing myself past my comfort zone. I think I walked about 3 times during this entire run but never long enough to really get my heart rate down. It really helped having someone encouraging me along the way and someone to talk to while running just to keep my mind off of running.

I didn't love the run but I loved the feeling of accomplishment knowing I just ran 3 miles for the first time in my life. I ran 3 miles and walked very little of it. Like I said before I want to achieve many more goals and this next goal is to finish the Mini Marathon. I believe with the group started at the Community Life Center and all of us training every Saturday morning I can reach this goal. Having others to encourage me and push me during our run makes me really push past my limits. I am looking forward to my next run!

When you are trying to lose weight you really need to set goals. Set physically challenging goals to help you accomplish what you are setting out to do. Losing weight is one goal but breaking your journey down into several goals will help you reach your potential and realize you can do so much more then you really think. I honestly don't run and I have always hated running but I know I have wanted to run the Mini Marathon and always put it off. Not anymore! New me, new life!

Break down your BIG goal. If you want to lose 55 pounds then take that number and divide it by 2. It should take you an average of 27.5 weeks to reach this goal. Now all you need to do is break this goal down by 8 week goals. This is about 3-4 Skinny Mom Challenges! During your 8 week goals set goals to accomplish a fitness goal you have wanted to achieve. Like taking up spinning and completing 8 weeks worth of classes. You will be amazed at what you will lose by adding spinning to your workouts on top of eating healthy. Try this out and let me know what kind of goals you are setting and how you are reaching your goals.

GOOD LUCK!