How I lost 37 pounds so far (and about 15 to go!)

Eating real & whole foods. That's how I did it.
I think it helps completely that my husband is 100% on board. We are in this together.
(p.s. - has it really been 2 months since my last blog entry?!)

The past 7 months
We have slowly cut out 95% of processed foods (I'll explain the other 5% later), we cut out anything that is a 'diet' product (i.e. fat free, low fat, fake sugar), anything from a food store with more than 5 ingredients, and foods chemicals in their ingredient list. All eggs & whole milk are organic always. All meats we purchase are organic and humanely raised; not fed with antibiotics & grain.There is no comparison in taste from the typical commercial beef (from the food store) to the organic grass fed beef we get from a local farm. We only use coconut oil or olive oil (organic) to cook or bake with. I still use real butter sometimes, but sparingly.
We have easily doubled our intake of fruits & vegetables, and I really try to make more vegetable based dinners such as butternut squash chile, roasted veggie tacos, or big exotic salads.

Why organic?
That's easy. No pesticides, no GMO's (Genetically modified organisms), and no chemicals. Organic usually tastes better. When talking about organic meats & eggs; there are no antibiotics and the animals are humanely raised.
Sure, organic costs more - but prices are getting better as it goes more mainstream and consumers demand it. I told my local Food store that I want to see more organic products & more fresh organic produce. Why don't you do the same? Demand what is healthy for your family, they might just do it if enough people ask. You think nothing of spending $5 on a latte from Starbucks. So why wouldn't you spend $4 on organic lettuce that will feed your family chemical free (pure) healthy food for several meals? I can feed my family organic products knowing I have done my best for them!

I posted THIS BLOG POST a couple months ago about the small changes we have made. A bunch of small changes have added up to some big changes for us!

Why are we doing this?
That's easy. Healthier long term lifestyle.
Sometimes when I am talking to others about our recent life changes, it's hard to convey what we are trying to do. Yes it's about weight loss, but it's also about long term health and setting the best example possible for my children so they make healthy choices for the rest of their lives too. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes is an epidemic in this country and I will do everything in my power to make sure my family is not a statistic. What I thought was 'eating healthy' over the past 10 years was really sabotaging our bodies. Diet foods. Low Fat & Fat free foods (loaded with tons of chemicals and sugar). Fake sugar foods. Super processed foods with zero nutritional value. Fad diets. I think it's very difficult to make anything work where you deprive yourself of basic foods that your body requires, long term.

Read the ingredients
I can't urge you enough. Read the ingredient list on your food before buying it. Educate yourself as to what is in the food you buy and your kids are putting into their tiny little growing bodies. Google it. If there is an ingredient that you wouldn't normally have in your cupboard at home and cook with, then it shouldn't be in your food from the store either. If there is an ingredient that you can't pronounce, then it probably doesn't belong in your food. If the ingredient list is longer than the constitution, then you probably don't want to buy it. Look up the ingredients that are in processed foods - I think you will be shocked at how much of it is some kind of modified sugar, preservative chemical, fat and artificial colors/flavors... and much worse. And why does the food industry think something has to be bright red, purple or coated with some kind of sugar for kids to like it? Yuck! The amount of sugar that is in processed foods is really mind-blowing. We look at the ingredients, not so much the 'nutrition' information.

What I struggle with still
Ice cream. I love my ice cream. Of all the indulgences, I happen to think (or at least I tell myself) this one is not quite as bad; most local ice cream shops carry real home made ice cream.
White rice - It's not that we don't like brown rice, because we actually love it. It's my daughter that won't touch brown rice. So this is a weakness with me, and I am totally at fault here. I make white rice still because she will eat it. Have I mentioned she is picky with dinner foods?!
I sometimes bend the rules when we eat out. I try to make good choices, but it's not always the perfect situation. I have found that most places will accommodate some special requests. I do stay away from anything deep fried or heavy cream sauces, when possible.
Corn tortillas. Yeah I can make my own I'm sure- but we use so many of these that I am sticking to the premade ones for now - still trying to find some made without nasty chemicals though. (Have I mentioned that I pray Whole Foods will open up near us?)

Some of the things I make from scratch
Breadcrumbs - Have you ever looked at the ingredients of commercial breadcrumbs? No bread there. I buy whole wheat bread from the food store bakery that actually only has 4 ingredients. We use this for toast, sandwiches & breadcrumbs.
Granola - yup we love this and I make it weekly - even Julianna eats it! This has replaced our morning 'boxed' cereals. My husband makes his own granola bars too. Yum.
Salad dressings - I make all salad dressings from scratch. Always. I have a few standby recipes that I use over & over again. You can't beat home made dressing; and there aren't any chemicals or bad stuff in it.

Some things I will try making soon
Macaroni & cheese
Bread - I need a bread machine. Looking forward to that once I purchase one.
Other kid friendly foods - I have yet to master a 'chicken nugget' that Julianna will eat. She got hooked on Perdue Chicken nuggets (blegh!) and has not liked anything I made for her at home yet. Doesn't mean I am giving up - I will keep trying.

Some things I am not willing to make from scratch.
Simply put, it's about time management. My husband and I work full time and have 2 small children. There is only so much time in the day people! You need to choose what is worth doing and what is worth cutting corners on to manage your time efficiently.
Vegetable or Chicken Stock/broth - I buy organic broths & stock for easier food prep.
Condiments - We still use ketchup (hello, I have kids!!) and mustard, etc. I try to buy the organic brands but not all stores offer this option, especially mayo; I can't find that organic in our food store. So frustrating.

What I am proud to say I have overcome.
Switching to 'real' foods like whole milk and we do not have any store-bought food in the house that resembles 'fat-free' or 'low-fat' except for fruit, the way nature intended it to be.
Making anything I can make from scratch - even whole wheat muffins, which if you know me, I hate to bake. This was a HUGE accomplishment for me.
Removing diet soda & fake sugar from our house forever.  (My husband will still have a diet soda every so often, but he will totally see me glaring at him when he drinks it!)
I used to buy store bought grated cheese, but now I grate my own. Check out the 'preservatives' in some of the stuff in the bags.
We pop our own popcorn using coconut oil in a pan. Delicious.

Things that are out of my control
Our local food store does not have enough fresh organic fruit & vegetable choices. I wish we lived by a Whole Foods or Earth Fare. How do I compensate? I buy fresh if organic is not available. So in other words, if given the choice, I will by from a local farm stand before I buy from the food store. The local farms here we visit use very little pesticides if any. Still way better than your food comes from some other part of the world.
It bothers my daughter comes home from school with candy sometimes (I believe it's a reward for activities they do in class) or that she is offered juice. I have asked for it not to be offered but I won't win that battle. I am proud to say Julianna does not eat candy, however, she is not a robot. If it's offered to her, she is going to say yes.
If Julianna is at a party or special occasion, she can have birthday cake or whatever is offered. I want her to enjoy herself with special occasions and don't want to tell her NO to everything. A few times a year is totally fine with me.

The other 5 percent (I mentioned we eat about 95% non-processed)
Annie's snacks such as;  cheddar crackers, graham crackers, & bunny grahams. I do not load Julianna up with this stuff, but we do allow them as snacks; since we can totally trust the ingredients.
Onion crisps - occasional splurge that I enjoy a little bit as a topping on my salads.
Triscuits - While these totally meet my "less than 5 ingredients" rule, they are still considered a processed food. Fine line.
Cereals - We stick to the "Less than 5 ingredients" rule with this stuff. I buy Barbara's organic cereal for Julianna, although I am reading lately this brand has GMO's and hidden sugars in it. Organic doesn't always mean non-GMO.
Pretzels - I found these 5 ingredient pretzels that are made with Whole Wheat and very good! They are processed but at least under 5 ingredients. And amazingly enough, the food store where I shop, carries them!
Pizza. Yup, we still eat pizza - this is New Jersey after all. 1 slice of plain pizza is not horrible.

Sugar
I use organic sugar in my coffee in the morning. That is the only 'added' sugar in my day, but I do try to keep it under 3 teaspoons total. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day for adults. For kids, no more than 4 teaspoons of sugar per day. Take a look at your kids morning cereal or those supposedly healthy '100 calorie snacks', granola bars or fruit (aka fruitless) snacks. 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 teaspoon. Check out how many grams of sugar are in the servings in processed food. Check out the ingredients on this supposedly healthy Yogurt-Granola bar. One bar has 11 grams of sugar- that is just shy of 3 teaspoons of sugar. It's loaded with corn syrups and soy products, chemicals and other unpronounceable things.

My day to day inspiration
100 Days of real food. The information on this website has really just amazed me. It's my daily guidance.
Hearing my husband tell me how great I look (and I think he looks great as he has lost 30+ lbs too!).
Getting to donate ALL of my big clothes and buying a whole new wardrobe. There is no feeling like buying smaller clothes and they fit!
Looking at older pictures of myself; seeing how big I really was, and how far I have come; knowing that progress takes time. There will be setbacks and bad weeks; weeks where I gain weight, and weeks where I lose weight. It's a marathon.

What kind of healthy eating habits do you have in your household? 
What tips can you share for others?

Tyler is One Year Old!

I really can not believe my little boy is One year old. It doesn't seem possible we have been through an entire year since he was born. It's been a year of random ups and downs, happiness & emotional times. Overall it's been a great year to look back on. My little beautiful baby boy is ONE. We are blessed by the happiness he brings into our lives. It is so true what they say about Moms and their baby boys. Little boys are so special with their mamas!

Here are some of Tyler's milestones at one year old.

Walking
Sooo close. Not there just yet. He furniture surfs and can stand on his own briefly. Soon he will be walking/running/climbing. (Oh wait he already climbed up on Julianna's chair!)


Crawling
He's been crawling for 3 or 4 months ... he's an expert. Fast little bugger too.

Eating & his routine
Since he only has 3 teeth, he's not eating much more than pureed foods, puffs, and a few mushy finger foods, like small diced bananas. Breakfast is oatmeal with a mixed pureed fruit. Lunch is 2 pouches of mixed veggies/fruits. Dinner usually consists of oatmeal, veggie mix and fruit. Now he is able to eat diced up mushy fruit, we're doing that too. I'll try veggies next. He has a small snack around 11am and then at 3:30 with his milk. The idea of pureed meat in a pouch kind makes me cringe, so we have been staying away from it. Tyler eats some kind of bean every day, so he still gets plenty of protein. The pediatrician said she would like to see him have some meat though, so I am going to start giving him some mushy white fish or chicken. I think he will like it, even with his 3 teeth! We eat meat, so I am not against it, I was just not into giving him pureed meat (yuck!).


What brands of food & milk do we feed Tyler? 
His pureed baby food has been either Ella's or Plum Organics. His puffs are Plum Organics also and his crackers are Baby Mum-mums. Those are the best crackers for babies without a lot of teeth that are more than able to eat snacks. His milk is organic whole milk. Pretty much anything I put into him is organic, along with my daughter too!


Formula/Milk
No more formula. Yay! Tyler drinks whole milk now and had no issue moving to milk. He has an 8 oz bottle when he wakes up. Then some milk with lunch. He has 6oz of milk at 3:30 with a snack, and then 4-6 oz of milk before bedtime.  I am working on weaning him over to the sippy cup for milk. He loves water in a sippy cup - and has it with dinner and lunch and morning snack.


Naps & Bedtime
Tyler takes 2 pretty solid naps a day. One in the mid-morning around 9:45-11ish, and the other mid-afternoon around 1:30-3ish. He goes to bed at 8pm and doesn't make a peep until 7am. He is a great night time sleeper just like Julianna. Not as good as a napper but almost.


Teeth
He has 3. That's it. More are coming really soon!


Speaking
Not much. He has his own baby talk. Lot's of it. He babbles on and on and tells us a bunch of stuff in his own language. He does say Mama and dada. He has his own communication with Julianna - baby talk that I think she understands more than we do.

Can you tell he likes his life-jacket? HA! (We will be getting him a new one that is not so stiff)

Weight
Tyler weighs 20 lbs 8 oz. He is about 20th percentile in weight & height. (What's crazy is, I have lost 30 pounds since January - that is one of him plus 10 lbs!)


Other things
He loves to play Peek-a-boo (Where's the baby?!) and laughs hysterically. He likes when someone claps, but he is not clapping yet. He is not waving bye-bye yet - but likes when someone waves to him. He likes pat-a-cake but is still learning how to play it. He is able to figure out shape-sorting toys - he gets the ball in the hole, and is so proud of himself. He also likes to push any toy with wheels; his trucks, school bus, train, dump truck, wheel loader, etc.


The Scar
Tyler's scar from his Open Heart Surgery (from 8 days old) is healing up beautifully. It will never go away, but it won't be as noticeable. (Click here for his story)


Party Time
We threw a combo birthday party for the kids this past weekend, since their birthdays are a week apart. We had a small party at our favorite local pizza place - just family and some close friends. It was fun, the food was great and the kids had a nice time.

Me and my baby boy! This was Mother's Day weekend. 

Favorite recipes

Here are some of my absolute favorite recipes lately since we've started eating a lot 'healthier'.
Eating real {organic}food & healthy doesn't mean you have to give up taste. Go here to see what changes we've made as a family to our lives due to food!  Click Here to read about the small changes I've made lately that are making a big difference.

• This Chicken Piccata is to die for. I am a huge fan of Piccata anything, but not a fan of the fattening sauce and calories that go with it. I decided to try this recipe half-heartedly because I thought it couldn't possibly be as good as the real thing that I used to make with 8 tbsp of butter and 4 tbsp of olive oil!  Well I was wrong. It was incredible. p.s. this website has some incredible recipes! 
• I never made or tasted vegetable tacos until I tried this delicious recipe for Roasted Vegetable & Black Bean Tacos. Holy cow these are seriously incredible - and the taste is amazing! I can not say it enough how incredible these are! Try them out. I promise you will love them.

• If you like buffalo chicken anything - but not the fattening sauce & wings, then you can try this recipe. It is seriously incredible. My husband, who loves buffalo wings, fell in love with these healthy Buffalo Chicken Lettuce wraps. No kidding! Check it out - and you make it in the crock pot, even better! 

• I have started making my own salad dressings lately. I love Blue cheese and blue cheese dressing. I found this recipe for incredible Blue cheese dressing when I made the above Chicken wraps. Holy moly it is so tasty, creamy and blue-cheesy... and not super artery clogging either! Love it. 

• We've been trying to eat more fish lately. I found this incredibly healthy & fresh recipe for Flounder Milanese. The arugula & lemon mix makes this recipe. This is the first recipe I used my home made breadcrumbs on. Yum. Make it for your next fish recipe. My husband loved this one too. Well, he likes anything I make! 

• We've been trying to eat more vegetables as part of our daily regimen. Luckily Brian and I both love salad, so we've been having big salads for dinner at least once a week. This Avocado Strawberry Spinach salad is so full of taste, flavor and color! We put a big star by it for meals to bring on the boat this summer! Oh and the poppyseed dressing is incredible. I make this for my regular lunch salads because it is so good. This is a keeper! 

• I like rice. Yup I do. Fried rice is even better... but let's face it, fried rice is.... just that- Fried. Not healthy. Well.... guess what. I found this super duper (healthy) Fried Rice recipe that I could just eat every single night. The smell of it cooking alone sold me! Try it - you won't regret it. 

p.s. I am down 25 pounds ... from eating just 'real' food. No low-fat, fat-free, fake sugar, or processed stuff. 

Can you share some favorite recipes or healthy websites you frequent? 

I would love to try some new ones!

Small changes

Before I start this post, I would like to add something about the post I wrote earlier this week; 10 things I've learned in the first year of raising a baby with a CHD. One of the absolute most obvious thing I totally forgot to write was the friendships I have made in the past year with other CHD parents. The compassion and caring in the CHD community is just incredibly beautiful. I have made some close friends and talked to so many other moms in our same situation. We all support each other - there is no room for hate, negativity, jealousy or gossip. It's just pure honesty, emotions, & sharing. What a great bunch of moms I have met locally through my support group and online through my Facebook CHD and TAPVR groups. Simply amazing. 

Here is my original post for today about SMALL CHANGES:

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that our family is undergoing a big change towards our goal of 100% healthy living. (Go here to see that post). It's a process that can't happen overnight (I feel) and needs to be transitioned over slowly, which we've been doing. I find myself focusing on a few foods, recipes & ideas each week to substitute or changeover to. For instance, we are trying to cut out most or all processed foods. Due to the fact we don't live near a Whole Foods store and our Shop-Rite (food store) severely lacks in the organic and healthy department, we can't really cut out 100%, but I sure want to try! There are many reasons for switching our lifestyle, none of which I will get into right now (again) because everyone has their own causes, and I don't want to turn into a preacher. Everyone does what they do for their own reasons. We have ours.

So, one of the things I am really focusing on when buying store-bought (premade) food is the "5 ingredient or less" rule. Reality is, we do have a busy life; my husband and I work, and we have 2 kids. We do need some quick snack alternatives - so this is where the '5 ingredient rule' is going to come into play for us, when purchasing things from the food store. When anything has 5 ingredients or less, it usually is free of artificial junk, sugars, preservatives and chemicals. This past week, I was trying to find some breadcrumbs at the store that met this requirement. I couldn't even come close.
Every can of crumbs had loads & loads of chemicals and not even any real bread in it! So I thought- heck with this - I am going to make my own.
(Click here to see the instructions I followed to make breadcrumbs - It's SUPER EASY folks!).

I bought fresh whole wheat bread from the store bakery (which has 4 ingredients) and I made my own breadcrumbs for the first time ever this weekend. And you know what- it was very EASY - almost too easy - and they came out great. I pan fried some fresh fish covered in our fresh crumbs, and it was excellent. It's so easy to make the breadcrumbs - I am SO DONE with the store bought ones. I want to know what's going into our bodies and my kid's bodies. I also am taking on the task of making home made chicken nuggets for Julianna. This is her weakness, like every 3 or 4 year old child. Again, when I look at the ingredients for the ones in the store, I cringe. We buy the Perdue naturals for her - but still - that stuff scares me. Since this is a staple in her diet, I am going to make my own big batch of them, freeze them, and pull out 3 or 4 at a time as needed. HERE is the recipe I am using for her nuggets. Can you tell I am in love with the "100 days of real food" website?! Great stuff there.

One huge 'change over' I made with the 5-ingredient-or-less rule is this; We love the tiny thin pretzel sticks. I think they are usually called 'Amish' pretzels sticks. Once I really read all the unpronounceable stuff they are made with, I tried to find a healthier choice- and I did! I found THESE at our local Shop Rite (which is amazing that they carry them). They taste great and only have 5 ingredients, without any yucky stuff! Score big time. Yeah they are a little pricier, but so what. When I used to commute to work (I work from home now), I thought nothing of spending $5+ a day on coffee. You can justify any cost if you really want to, for the right reasons.

One thing I am having a hard time with making a healthier choice with is Deli cold cuts. I still buy our cold cuts from the deli. I have tried the "pre-packaged" organic cold cuts by Applegate farms and they do not taste good and kind of slimy I think, along with enough salt for a lifetime. So, I have been begrudgingly buying the normal fresh cold cuts from the deli with tons of God-knows-what in them, and who knows where the meat comes from (it's sure not from my local farm!). I do try to get the natural stuff without nitrates, etc - but still, I know they are not good. Again, this is where living by a Whole Foods or Trader Joes would be terrific. I could also make my own by baking up a ham or turkey and slicing them - but that honestly is just too time consuming for me, not to mention I don't own an industrial meat slicer. Here's my solution for this week: I just found out that Applegate makes fresh organic (uncured) cold cuts for our Shop Rite, so I am going to give that a shot. Baby steps, right. My daughter and husband like their sandwiches too much - I'm not giving up on them yet.

No thanks... 

I am going to be posting some of my favorite websites and recipes later this week. 

Do you have any favorites you would like to share? (leave in comment area)

Food

My name is Skye & I'm 43. I've been a food addict for about 5 years now.
I always considered myself to be a pretty healthy person for my entire life. When I was younger, I played sports & worked out at the gym 4 days a week. I ate very healthy and clean. I felt good about myself, always weighed a healthy weight, but then my weight slowly went up after I turned 30 with the onset of a new relationship, longer work hours, lifestyle, etc.

Before I got pregnant with Julianna, Brian and I ate pretty healthy, worked out and lived a relatively healthy lifestyle. We went for walks and even started running some nights on our walks. Once I became pregnant, I stopped most activity and I started eating A LOT of not-so-good-for-me food (no shocker since I felt great with my first pregnancy). After I had Julianna, I stopped caring about how much I weighed (since after all, I just had a baby!). I never really lost much of my pregnancy weight and then we decided to try to have another baby. So, I figured why bother losing weight? I'm going to just gain weight with another baby anyway. It was a horrible way to think, but it was my excuse to eat. Then I got pregnant with Tyler and felt so sick the entire time, which I'm sure you've heard me say here many times. (One thing to note; once I found out I was pregnant with Tyler, I did cut out most or all products with 'fake' sugar like aspartame, and have kept it out of my diet since then - all diet products scare me - I pray that all the years I used fake sugar and drank diet soda didn't harm me).

After I had Tyler, I made up for all the time I couldn't eat and spent the first few months of celebrating being able to eat again. I totally "emotionally ate" for the few months after Tyler was born when he was recovering from his open heart surgery (Click HERE for Tyler's story in case you missed it). What is a better fix for sad mom? Ice cream right? Ugh! I also went through an unimaginable tough emotional and mental time due to pre-menopause. I knew I was unhealthy and very overweight, but for several months, I wasn't emotionally ready to do anything about it. It's always a mental thing for me. None of my clothes fit me and I felt so terrible about myself. I knew I needed to do something but had to wait until I was 100% mentally ready to take this on. Knowing WHAT to do was never an issue (I've never believed in goofy fad diets like drinking celery juice for 2 weeks to lose weight!). For me, weight loss is totally mental mindset. Brian and I made unhealthy dinners almost every night and enjoyed big-calorie dinners regularly when we ate dinner out. We had Ben & Jerry's after the kids went to bed every night - ugh - talk about big fattening mistakes! Large portions did me in. I have never been a candy or fast food person. I just ate too much regular food all of the time.

Finally, towards the end of 2013, Brian and I had some very long discussions about 'being ready' to finally start being healthy and changing our lives. We needed to be good roll models for both of our children. We have always encouraged and given healthy & fresh foods to Julianna (not counting chicken nuggets lol). She eats very healthy, but we, as parents, need to set a much better (long term) roll model for healthy living for them.

One fabulous thing Brian and I already changed once we had Julianna, was to switch all 'fresh' foods to organic. We started buying organic chicken & beef, eggs, milk, fruit & veggies. I'm so glad we did that and focused on Julianna eating healthy foods. Let's get one thing straight, organic and fresh doesn't mean weight loss. The focus was there on organic, but I cared less about how much I ate daily (clearly!).

As of this past January, Brian and I made a conscience decision to make a change. We decided to eat ALL organic, pesticide-free, pure & healthy foods. We continue to buy organic 'fresh' foods, but now stepped it up to include everything else we buy (when possible). Our local food store does not offer the best organic selections, but we can usually find most things we need. I would love if we had a Whole Foods near us. The closest one is over a half hour away, and not convenient for shopping. In the summer, we plan on visiting our local farmer's market, as we do every summer.

We made the decision to cut out all or most processed foods from our diet immediately. Brian and I read all ingredients and try not to allow any foods with chemicals or artificial anything in the house. If organic is not an option when shopping, then I'll choose the 'cleanest' product I can get, i.e. I get the bakery to slice fresh whole wheat bread (that has 4 ingredients) instead of buying the packaged bread that has a ton of 'preservatives' in it. In the past, we never really bought sugary foods or candy for Julianna anyway, and luckily now she prefers fruit or carrots as a snack over to sugary treats (pat myself on the back for that!). We have never bought juice for her since day one and she doesn't even like it - she likes water. Tyler will be on the same track.

Our life goal now is to eat nutritious & pure food, make smart food choices, be healthy, be a good roll model and lose weight. We are also taking vitamins daily (which we never did before). Brian and I are trying to focus on adding more vegetarian meals to our diet and trying some new (healthy) recipes. We plan out most of our meals for the week and have managed to make everything we make taste great and it has been keeping us very satisfied. This change takes work and is working out better than we ever imagined, especially since we are both 100% committed. It's a marathon, not a sprint (cliche, I know!) and we look forward to the long haul. It's time for life change. It's been a LONG time coming. I can't change what I did for the past 5 years, but I can change the future.

I am down 21 pounds since January. Yay me. Oh and I still use real sugar in my coffee. Sugar in small amounts is not the enemy like the diet industry will have you believe!
Brian is down about 25 pounds.  I am so proud of my husband and he looks great!
We are both using Weight watchers (online) for guidance. I need something to help me keep track of what I eat and be accountable. Weight watchers has worked for me in the past (many moons ago).

Oh and p.s. - I dropped my overall cholesterol down about 50 points to a very good number. My cholesterol was pretty high (totally self induced) last fall, and one of my personal goals was to lower it. I had my well visit with my doctor a few weeks ago, and discovered it had gone way down. Yay me again.

I still have a lot more to lose, but I am very satisfied with my results so far, and really looking forward to trying on clothes that haven't fit me in 5 or 6 (or more!) years. I am looking forward to boating season where I won't have to cover up and be ashamed of how I look.

One thing I hope to add to my life in the near future is exercising. I would love to have that back. That's one downfall right now with 2 small children, working full time and everything else that goes along with our crazy life right now. I will get more active once the nicer weather is here.
One thing at a time, right?

I'll share some of our recipes here next week. We have discovered some great food blogs!

Here is my inspiration (photo taken October 2013)