What a cool day!

Literally, it was a beautiful day but really, we got to do something really cool! One of my co-workers, works full time at Forbs Field in Topeka and he offered to give us a tour AND a ride in a fire truck!



Will got to wear his helmet. I think it fits!

This is the truck we got to take a ride in. This truck is their new truck that helps with plane crashes. It was really cool to see everything in there and Will got to talk to Larry though the head phones like a real fire man. He always tells me, "Logan, Brogan and me are fire men, and Kenna is a fire girl" (all daycare kids) So he got to be like a REAL fire man! 

Larry and Will! The sun was in his eyes so I didn't get a real good picture but it was great!

 

While we were there, there were these two fighter jets making a stop. Not every day you get to see those! 

Will wanted to ride in each and every fire truck. He got to sit in this one.

Fighter jets taking off!

 

Thanks again Larry! Will and I both loved it and it was really fun to see everything! I of course enjoyed seeing the behind the scenes since I work where I work. :)



When it's 105 on September 8th

You have pop cycles before supper.

 

 

And it melts before you get it eaten!

 

 

Food Prep 101

And by 101 I mean, 101! I am leaning so much about nutrition and foods right now that I am FAR from being an expert. Let me tell you though, I have a good system down right now. As long as I know the macro-nutrients of the foods, I'm doing okay. I've screwed up a bunch the last few weeks and I'll delve into that in a minute. For right now, I want to show you how easy it is to prep for a few days so that you can ensure you are eating the right foods. First, let me say that you need to know your own macro-nutrient needs for your own personal goals. Do not use the macros I use. With that being said, here we go.

I weigh out all my food. I know the exact measurements but don't want to bore you with that. Lining the pans with tin foil and drawing boxes on them is a trick an online friend gave me and I love it! With things like sweet potatoes, you can't cut the exact amount of potatoes each time so cutting into smaller pieces and just pile them up in that box works great! I always put a lemon pepper seasoning on my fish. It's yummy and I stick to what's good. The potatoes I did spray with spray butter, more for it not drying out than any other reason. I'm fine with plain ol' potatoes but it gets tough sometimes when baking them.

Once baked, you put those little boxes worth of food into some Tupperware. And this is truly about it. If I had more time, I would have made a few more just so I don't have to do it again in 3 days but time with the kids is few and far between so I voted to do it again later.

Eight meals that will last me two training days. It's not much but 8 meals of the same thing, you get tired of it by the 6th or 7th meal so it's time to mix it up anyway.

Only thing missing is my fat intake.

I measure these out what I need and it's easy to just grab a bag with the meal and go. (Yes, boss man, I checked, same as plain almonds :)) BUT, with the meal I just prepped, I like to have almond or peanut butter on my sweet potatoes... Have you tried it?? You should, you'll be introduced to a little piece of Heaven!!

So I have my MEASURED out peanut butter on my sweet potato and enjoy!

With all this being said, I'm going to jump up on a soap box for a minute. "Eating healthy is sooo expensive!" Ya, I've said it too. Problem is, 1.) I was buying the wrong things. 2.) I didn't do the math!

Well, with what little spare time I had today, I did the math.

Peanut Butter- Has 26-8g of fat portions for me... that = $0.13 per meal (sometimes I have 16g and so $0.26, still don't see a problem do you?)

Those SO expensive almonds- $0.39 a meal. Ya, it's worth the splurge.

I haven't checked almond butter but I'm guessing, I could say it's worth it too. BECAUSE IT SO IS!

Fish- at about $1 a fillet (I think it was $2.89 a pound) and using less than 1 fillet per meal, I'm GUESSING it's about $0.75 per meal. I did get the tilapia on sale, but even if it wasn't on sale, it's still not that bad.

Don't like fish? Chicken- at $5.99 per bag (on sale but you can get it for $4.99) and 12 servings in a bag, your looking at $0.50 a meal.

Sweet potatoes, I didn't know the exact price so I was over guessing at $1.29, I know I've gotten it for like $0.69 a lb. But going with the higher price, that makes it $0.66 per meal.

Another healthy option, brown rice. $0.75 a BAG! That makes 6 meals at $0.13 per meal!!!

So this meal I just showed you that I'm eating for the next several days totals to be $1.54 per meal, times that by 5 (not counting a no-carb meal) and you get $7.70. If you think that's expensive, then go for the cheaper options, brown rice, chicken and peanut butter, $0.76 a meal, times by five, $3.80 a DAY.

Don't tell me that eating healthy is expensive. No, I don't eat many veggies or fruit. Sure they are a bit more, but if your measuring out the right amount of carbs for your activity level then my guess is, it's not much more. So sure, splurge on an apple or grapes if you want, just count the carbs and do the math, it's not that much!!! No, these prices do not count the seasonings or the price of the electricity to bake them but your going to have to use those anyway to eat whatever else you would have eaten.

Now, getting off that soap box, I want to explain why I say I am so very new at this and leaning sooo much myself. I had no idea that ground turkey was the same % of fat as ground beef!!! That is, unless you buy the specified 99% or 93% or whatever lean ground turkey. So for the last several weeks, I have been eating twice the amount of fat I was supposed to. This I believe, is 100% the reason I didn't see the results I was hoping to for the last 3 weeks. Now that I know, I'm doing it right and I'm excited to see the results again. There is so much about nutrition that I don't know but I'm leaning and love learning about it. Just wish I learned before I did!!!

I hope you enjoyed this and I REALLY hope it will help someone else with their personal nutritional goals. It is so much easier to eat healthy and not snack on the wrong foods when you have meals ready and waiting for you in the refrigerator.  Trust me, I still fail. Mac and cheese is still one of my biggest enemies and what did I make for the kids the other night??  Luckily, one bite won't hurt too much of progress but it was still one bite and I knew better.

Blake Shelton would be proud!

In case don't know the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXAgv665J14

And here's Will's version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Ik_aiJLfc

Family update

Dennis is now finally chopping full time. Can you believe that it's the later part of August and now getting to this full time? This has been one odd summer as far as weather goes. He has quite the dilemma now. Take Will or Lillian for the tractor ride? When chopping though, he can't really hold Lillian so she only goes when I go. That doesn't make Will happy. We take his seat and well... that's not cool. Although Lillian loves those few rides around the field, Will is begging us to leave.



Since they both love to get rides, Lillian and I rode in one of the trucks and that's how it might have to be for a while.

I don't think I have ever said much about Teddy Bear, their daycare that they have been at for close to a year now. They both LOVE it. Will has his best buddy Brogan there, he always says his friends are his cousins and includes Brogan in that list. It's pretty funny. Another funny that he does is that he must play with a headlight on at night before bed. We do our nightly routine and say our good-nights and then he plays. Some nights he plays for five minutes and other nights, he plays for close to two hours. In the mornings we will find him with the headlight still on. The other night I was telling him he has to turn it off before he falls asleep or the batteries will die. He still doesn't turn it off so before work one night, I peeked into his room and well....



He still had it on. He still sleeps with big puppy as a pillow and still uses that blanket that he got when he was a baby. A few nights before this, I was working early so I had to get up at 4:30. Lillian at some point in the night was up and fussing around but I always try to lay there and see if she really needs something or just woke up and will fall back to sleep. I laughed so hard when I saw her that morning, I thought I was going to wake her.



She was on her back but my camera made her turn over. Don't worry the shirt is not over her face, just on her head. Not sure if you can tell or not but we think her birth mark is starting to lighten up. This makes me a little sad. I love her "little piece of Papa's heart". I'm sure if it stayed with her she would have hated it when she was 16 but I still loved it. It'll take years to fully disappear, I'm sure.

Lillian still doesn't talk much. Just this week she really started saying "Bye-bye". Mama and Dada is about it otherwise and even then, it's usually when she's mad. At 17 months, she still only has four teeth. I keep thinking I see some top nubbins but they don't pop out. It's a for sure that she will have that paci until those are all in!

Will is going to start learning that I break promises all the time. Three days in a row now I have promised him a ride with Dad in the chopper and something has happened that it didn't work out. So last night, we baked some cookies for Dad and painted some pictures. I hope doing some fun things makes up for it. Breaking promises to my kids is the last thing I EVER want to do.

I am starting to get some clients and so excited about it. I am nervous about how busy I will be in the next few months but I'll make do and yes I will love every minute of it.  I am loving this new program I am on. No, it's not my own. While I know about fitness and can direct others, I do better with someone else telling me what to do. Especially when reaching my goals requires different ways of training than the way I have ever trained before. My diet has been 100% compared to how I've eaten in the past. I now meal prep for a few days. It's usually the same thing over and over again but it's food I enjoy and it's easy to prep. This is still new to me so I know there are better ways of doing what I do. I'll get it figured out one of these days. I have been on this program for three weeks and I can tell a great difference already. I look forward to seeing the end of it and where my figure is then.

Usually going to the gym is not work. It's something I enjoy and look forward to. For that hour or hour and a half that I'm in there I think of nothing else but pushing that weight and singing to great music in my head. It's fun. I have encountered a few times though that I really struggled with. Going home was the only thing I wanted to do. Usually it's those straight legged single leg dead lifts. I curse them. Every time. Diet is what is hard. It's not that I'm hungry, it's I want to eat. I want to eat every thing in sight. Did someone say chocolate?? I just have to remind myself that 1.) It is worth it. I can see it in just 2 weeks and feel the difference in 3 weeks. 2.) If it wasn't hard then it wouldn't be all that exciting to get there and everyone would do it.

Posing

Mr. Future bodybuilder! Well, maybe I can at least get him in the gym to lift with Mom some day. Now he wants to but not sure it would be productive for me! He was doing all the poses for me. Now, I don't know them all but from my recent obsession with figure competitions and bodybuilders I know a few, here's Wills take on some. ^ Front double bicep.



Not sure what this one is, he just said, "Mom, take a picture of me like this!"



Side chest



Back double bicep



Gotta have Lillian's pose too!!! She quit too soon so this was the best shot I got, Sorry Will, your only half way in it!



I guess she was working on her side pose. We'll get her there someday. :)

Last week

Last week, Lillian had a bad bout of sickness. Will did this so often. Whenever she would lay down, he'd lay next to her and just rub her back. He is such an awesome big brother. Of course I tell him that and when he is done he gets up and says, "I'm a good big brother, right?"



Papa Don learning what you can not do on the swing set. Love you Dad!!!



She's a smart girl, only eats the peanut butter off the crackers!



So, I gave her a spoon full of peanut butter and she was happier.