Category Archives: clean eating

Fast First Friday aka #7QuickTakes

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Burnout.  7 days in a row of blogging and nada this week, until today, because everyone in my casa is occupied (for the moment), so here I go…all Fast like….on this First Friday in March AND in Lent…woot, woot!  (see what I did there?)  Therefore, jumping back in (for today), with author and speaker of many hours in a row…Jen@Conversion Diary for a weekly wrapup…go see!

  1. So Lent is here, how’s it going for you?  For me, so far so good.  I haven’t felt called to fast from any particular thing but I have been called to prayer.  Lots of prayer….I mean:  Adoration, weekly, and prayer journal for prayer requests.  So, if you are in need of any extra prayer (and aren’t we all), feel free to drop a note in the combox or email me (found on the sidebar).IMG_3716
  2. The other thing I am committed to is finishing some spiritual reading:  Mere Christianity, The power of persistent prayer, St.Monica.  I have a bad habit of having too many books going at once, so this is a great time to actually focus on these!
  3. Meatless meal time.  This year is going to be a little less trying since we have a boy/man in the house interested in veganism and willing to help me out with finding new and fun recipes for the fam.  He’s good in the kitchen and tonight picked out and helped make a (non meatless) homemade version of Hamburger helper with roasted cauliflower and peas.  Makes dinner much less a chore for Mama!
  4. Ash Wednesday ended up being a date night with the Hubby and I.  The only Mass we can make it to is the 7 p.m. and opted to allow the kids to stay home and shower and settle in.  Sometimes you just have to exercise common sense in knowing when it’s forcing too much.  I missed them, but enjoyed the one on one with the Hubs.  We even took a selfie afterward!  Love an unexpected date time with my honey!669831106177617683_3843666
  5. Providing our son wakes up in the a.m. and we make it to the gym, it will have been a full week working out.  Spin this a.m. was with Crazy Courtney (as I like to call her) and I was soaked, so a good workout and start to the day.
  6. Clean(er) eating this week has been going well.  Perfect?  No.  However, definitely have been getting in more fruits and veggies and avoiding miscellaneous crap food at work that seems to show up unannounced and at the most ravenous times.  Planning is key.  Will just keep planning and plugging along.imgres
  7. The end!  Blessings on the weekend and praying all north of Florida will thaw out soon and welcome spring most joyfully.  Until then, I will do my best to appreciate the Vitamin D for you!IMG_1970

Grocery game

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Today I received a text regarding how much I spend a week on groceries.  Always an interesting discussion, to me.  I am infinitely curious as to what people spend at the grocery store.  It’s a barometer of where we are as a family (am I blowing too much on x, y and z?), but also a GREAT way to get tips and such.

I have friends who can coupon like the TLC show (in my eyes), friends who once had a $1000 grocery budget FOR. THE. ENTIRE. SUMMER., friends who cook ahead and freeze and friends who just wing it.  It never gets old to me and so, once again, it was an interesting text conversation on groceries and I thought I’d share a few tips that help us and would LOVE to hear your tips.

  • We shop at Aldi.  We’ve comparison shopped and they are consistently lower than Publix and Walmart.  Downside:  they don’t always have everything I need on my list and they don’t take coupons since they sell their brand (aside from the surplus of various name brand items from time to time).
  • I plan our meals ahead for the week.  I don’t plan specific meals for specific days, but a menu of meals for the week.  I shop for the menu.
  • Our fruits and veggies come from Aldi and the produce store/farmer’s market.  We do have to replenish bananas mid-week (a family of monkeys, I tell you) and I buy the verrrrry ripe ones @ .29/lb and freeze them for smoothies.
  • Eating out is a rarity and a luxury.
  • It’s a dry house.  However, Aldi does have beer and wine—FYI.

Sadly, we don’t have a Costco close enough for regular grocery shopping (I hear they are the bomb diggety!), but we do have a Sam’s Club and a BJ’s.  When we get a stand alone freezer, we will stock up on meats there or possibly look into purchasing a 1/2 a cow or something like that.

We’ve tried to coupon, however, with both of us working full-time outside the house, we simply don’t have the time or energy to really work the system.

Our summer garden was awesome and we’re planning on doing a winter one as well.  (the perks of living in sunny Florida!), However, if I had a big ole garden like Mavis HERE….hooooooey…that’d be awesome!

Eating healthy is a mainstay in our house.  Not to say we don’t have junk around here, because we sure DO.  Meals however, are pretty healthy and we have a wide variety of healthy snacks for the kiddos to choose from…almonds, protein bars, popcorn, fruits, veggies, raisins, smoothies, nut butter.  We also have one who doesn’t seem to tolerate dairy well, so we’ve got almond milk in the house and some dairy free ice cream as well.

Bottom line, for our family of 6 (2 teen boys and 2 growing tween girls, a triathlete Papa and a Mama always in search of healthier choices) we average $200/week.

So, what are your tips, tricks and average spent on groceries each week.  This inquiring mind wants to know!!

A week in Review: 7 QT style

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Had some time in the shade this morning so I jotted down some thoughts for this week’s Quick Takes with Jen over @ Conversion Diary…I’ll certainly clock in at the bottom of the heap around #75,897,430, but, HEY!  It’s a post, right?

  1. Top crisis of the week (aside from Hubby’s crazy busy work week and my just crazy regular week), my gym.  Best workout I’ve ever had.  Love them so much I put a humongous sticker advertising for them on the back of my truck.  They are cancelling the 6 am class, which leaves me with evening classes.  I’m not a happy camper.  I’ve stomped my feet and protested and they assure me it’s  a”trial period” while they are trying new things.  I’ll give it a month, but I can tell you right now, evening classes don’t work for me long-term.  They just don’t.
  2. Facebook.  I’m back on.  Sort of.  Only on the laptop, not on my phone.  Mainly just to keep in touch with my friends and keep up with a few businesses.  I only checked it about three times this week.  Still need to go in and streamline a few things, eventually.  A good compromise I think.
  3. Our kids are sliding into a cleaner eating lifestyle, of their own accord.  Which is great.  And expensive.  On the upside, with less crap in the house Mama is doing better as well.  Win-win, I guess?
  4. I’ve been reading “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer;   a book I snatched off Anne’s reading list @ Modern Mrs. Darcy.  It’s given me a lot of interesting perspective on a character trait that I do NOT have:  Adventure!  Fascinating insight into a tragic story and at the same time a tremendous respect for those who follow their passions/obsessions rather than live a life of “what if” and regret.   I’m almost done, but I can honestly say I highly recommend this book, if nothing else it gives quite the cross-section of American people during Chris/Alex’s journey as well as a view from those who follow their heart regardless of what anyone says.
  5. Downloaded ESPN College Football App.  I love to follow the scores and rankings of college football and I don’t always get to watch, so Yay!!  Super excited!!  Go Noles!!
  6. Date night tonight.  It’s been a week y’all and I’m absolutely looking forward to it.
  7. This weekend’s highlights at Casa E include a Pop Warner football game (over now…we won, but I’m certain I sweated a ridiculous amount of weight off), A 14yo birthday celebration of subs for dinner and homemade cheesecake, chinch bug killer applied to our lawn (creeping over via the neighbor…), Mass, exercise, and somewhere along the way, relaxation, gratitude and joy.

Go enjoy yours!

Beach workout Saturday

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Saturday morning, bright and early!!  Enjoying a few quiet minutes until I wake up the big boy–he’s getting some volunteer hours in at the Church Thrift Shop before a day filled with skateboarding with his buddies.  Hubs is off to his Saturday morning meeting and Adoration and all the kiddos are still snug like a bug in their beds.  I will be off to my last workout class for the contest.  This morning it’s at the beach!!!  Don’t hate!

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A little update on the contest and such.  First of all, the 6 week contest was actually a 4 1/2 week contest when it comes right down to it….buuuuuuuuut……at last count I was down 6 pounds.  I didn’t weigh in last weekend and I’ll hold off today since we have our official last weigh-in on Tuesday.  HOWEVER…..on a measurement scale, I am definitely down.  Clothes are feeling better and I’m creeping seriously close to the next size down…from a 10/12 to a 10.  Not to mention, I’m seeing a little more muscle definition and having more energy.  Win-win!

The 3 key things that have brought me the biggest results have also been my biggest struggles this past week:

  1. Planning and prepping meals.  I work full-time out of the home  pre-cooking on the weekend is huge.  I enjoy cooking, however, sometimes I really don’t want to be in the kitchen for a couple of hours on my precious free time on the weekend.  The truth is, without that prep and planning, it’s challenging to stay on task and not get tempted throughout the week.
  2. Writing down what I’m eating.  I’ve been using the app “My Fitness Pal” and it works great.  Only downside?  We have a pretty strict no cell phone use at work which they’ve suddenly decided to enforce and so logging has become more of a challenge.  I guess I need to just jot it down throughout the day and log in later.
  3. Planning exercise.  It’s May.  I may have mentioned that the other day…..crazy, crazy, craziest month of the year. All the more important to plan it and DO IT.  For me, that will mean getting my rump out of bed in the a.m. because aside from these classes at night, it just doesn’t happen once I get home from work.

And so, with the contest almost over and a good jumpstart for me….I’m ready to keep on keepin’ on because it is bathing suit season, people and there is no hiding from it.

I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished this past month and look forward to seeing my overall results.  Our contest’s presentation to the winner is the next weekend so I’ll keep you posted on the final results for everyone!

Have a great weekend!!

Five Favorites…

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Last week was fun for me, so I say…do it again!!!  Joining in the Baby-Mooning Mama, Hallie @ Moxie Wife for 5 Favorites…

This is week 3 for me in my Clean Eating/ Paleo / no processed crap.  Basically, I’ve not had bread (unless you count Ezekiel bread–of which I’ve had 4 slices in 3 weeks); no snacks/sweets/candy/soda/chocolate (unless you count chocolate protein powder in a smoothie and 6 chocolate chips in a spoonful of almond butter).  I’m here to tell you….holy cow, I’m surviving!!!!  I have energy!!!!  I’ve lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks!!!!  I mentioned a few things last Friday and here’s a few more…..5 to be exact:

  1. Hard boiled eggs.  Mix in some baking soda into the water to make for easier peeling.  Great snack!!!!imgres
  2. Avocado.  Mix it in my eggs.  Mix it in my smoothie.  Mix it in my salad.  One avocado goes a long way!!imgres-1
  3. MyFitnessPal.  I’m actually logging my food and exercise in aaaaaaaand it can be done on the phone or the ‘puter.  Snap!! (now you know my user name if you want to follow/join/encourage)Screen shot 2013-04-23 at 9.28.16 PM
  4. Paleomg.com    I’m getting so many great recipes off this site and my family even loves them.  FOR THE WIN!!!!
  5. Clean Eating magazine and website.  Another great resource for family friendly recipes.  If I can’t get them on board this isn’t going to work and I refuse to be a short order cook making separate dinners for them and myself.  Nope.

There it is.  5 quick and easy things I am loving these past few weeks, let’s hope I keep loving them!!!!  Have some good clean eating tips???  Bring it!!!

Now go check out Hallie and all the favorites!!