A Food Journey

So, Lesley has encouraged me to chime in to her "Spring Break Shape-Up" series. My eating plan looks a little different than Lesley's eating plan, but there is one huge commonality...NO PROCESSED FOODS! Ok, I'll revise that and say minimal processed foods.  Because I don't think it's realistic for me to say that I won't ever eat anything processed.  I do agree with Lesley that eating and nutrition is a huge part of losing weight and that your focus should be on what you put into your body vs. how many calories you can burn at the gym. If you are feeding your body junk and working out a lot at the gym, I really don't think you are a healthy person.  I have tried focusing on training in the past and didn't really pay attention to what I was eating and I don't think it really had any lasting benefits on my body. So this time around I'm focusing on nutrition, sleep (it's more important than I thought!) and then exercise.

I found this print (you can buy it form the link below) on Pinterest (this will link you to my page!), and I think it really shows the ideal that I am reaching for.

Source: alexxstuart.com via Beth on Pinterest

I don't think that there is one diet plan (or healthy eating plan) that is ideal for everyone. You have to know your body and experiment with different foods to see how you feel and if it allows you to reach your ideal body weight.  So, anyway, I've been doing the Paleo diet since January 2. My first step into going Paleo was giving up Gluten (wheat, barley, rye) just after Thanksgiving. I gave myself a month to adjust to a gluten-free lifestyle and then went full Paleo. I really like Whole 9's description of Paleo:

Whole9′s Nutrition in 60 Seconds

"We eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, healthy oils, nuts and seeds. We choose foods that were raised, fed and grown naturally, and foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.

This is not a “diet” – we eat as much as we need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight. We aim for well-balanced nutrition, so we eat animals and a significant amount of plants.

Eating like this has helped us to look, feel, live and perform our best, and reduces our risk for a variety of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions."

So, there's a lot to it, but basically as a healthy way of eating (and long-term sustainability), I eat meat, seafood, LOTS of vegetables, a little fruit and some healthy oils (coconut oil, EVOO, avocado).  I will be honest and say that I have cheated. More than once. But I still feel better than I did before going Paleo.

So what does a day of food look like for me? Well, I typically have 3 meals and try not to snack in between. I don't have any grains, so breakfast looks a little different for me than a typical breakfast (no cereals, oatmeal, pastries, etc). For lunch I usually have leftovers from the previous evening and I typically either make something in the crock pot for dinner or bake something in the oven.  I will admit that my kids are still eating gluten (although much more limited than previously) but they are also eating a lot more vegetables than they used to. They still won't touch a salad, but they tried roasted red beets and radishes last night for the first time...progress!

*Disclaimer - all of these photos were taken with my tablet and are not great quality, but you get the idea.

Breakfast:

Breakfast typically consists of eggs with some meat. I typically like to scramble up a dozen eggs and then refrigerate them to eat the next few mornings. This morning I had eggs with onions and green peppers and bacon :)

Lunch:

Lunch is usually leftovers or a salad. This salad is mixed greens, baby spinach, some micro greens (found at a local farmers market!), cilantro, 1/2 avocado, leftover pork chop, blueberries, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Yummy and filling!

This recipe is a Tuscan Chicken Soup I found on Pinterest. It was really good...I didn't have any baby radishes, so I subbed some parsnips and daikon (in the radish family) for it and it turned out good (though I think it would be good with the radishes as well!).

Dinner:

Dinner is the one meal I usually make every day...unless our fridge is full and we need a leftover night for dinner (which I really don't mind!!).  Here is a meal where I made some french onion soup and bacon-wrapped chicken with vegetables.  I don't have a recipe for the onion soup...I basically sauteed a couple onions in a skillet and then added some beef broth until it looked good and let it simmer for about 20 minutes :)  The chicken dish was based on this pinterest pin except I wrapped the chicken breasts in bacon and then omitted the Italian dressing packet and butter and just sprinkled some salt, pepper and Trader Joe's "21 Seasoning Salute" (basically just mixed herbs). I used broccoli, cauliflower and green beans for the veggies. Yum!

So, for nights when I don't have time to bake for a long time or have forgotten to put something in the crock-pot, I tent to use sausage and roast some veggies. This is an easy dinner to pull together and is what we ate for dinner last night. It's a Chicken Apple Sausage (it's technically not paleo because it has a little brown sugar, but it didn't have any "scary" ingredients and didn't have any added nitrates...basically the shorter the ingredient list, the better and avoid things you can't pronounce or don't know what they are) which was sauteed in a skillet with onions and mushrooms, and then I roasted some baby yellow carrots (organic, from Kroger) red beets and radishes. I also steamed some broccoli, orange carrots and radishes on the stove to compare and see which we liked better (Steve liked the steamed radishes better but I liked the roasted).  This meal was easy because I had my fridge stocked with veggies!

Snack:

We do typically have a before-bedtime snack with the kids. I've been trying to make it healthy and give them some grapes, strawberries or kiwi (or whatever fruit we have on hand).  I also like to pop some popcorn (not Paleo, but I do buy organic popcorn which should be GMO free) in some organic coconut oil and add some Himalayan pink salt (I found a big grinder at Costco, but have also purchased it at Trader Joe's).  Another snack/dessert that the kids enjoy is "Banana Swirl". They saw it on PBS one afternoon and begged me to make it.  Basically you just freeze a banana (either whole with the skin on or you can peel it and chop it up into bite-sized pieces) and put it in a blender or food processor (our food processor works better than the blender) with a little bit of almond milk.  Blend to soft-serve ice cream consistency and serve immediately. You can also do add-ins for a flavor variety: cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate chips, almond butter, strawberries, etc. So good! This is what I gave the kids for snack last night :)

I also love chocolate, so I keep some Paleo chocolate in my fridge for when I get a chocolate craving. I don't have a recipe for this either, but I just melt some dark chocolate (look for chocolate that is soy-lecithin free like the brand Enjoy Life) and some unsweetened baking bars in a double boiler on the stove. Once melted, I add in unsweetened coconut and other add-ins depending on what I have around...dried fruit and nuts are usually what I grab. Then I take an ice cream scoop that is about 1T in size and scoop the chocolate mixture out onto parchment paper sitting on a cookie tray and refrigerate until set. They resemble a traditional "No-Bake" cookie, but don't have any refined sugar or oats.  They are dark, so they aren't super-sweet, but they are sweet enough to give me the chocolate fix when I need it. I keep them in the fridge and then take one out and let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to let it soften a bit.  This helps with portion control as well :)

So, that's what I eat in a typical day. I'll write future blogs about where I find my recipes (great Paleo sources are EVERYWHERE!), things I'm discovering, books I'm reading, some resources I've found helpful, and if my changed eating habits are having any real affects on my health.  I took some before photos on January 1, and while I'm not comfortable sharing them here, I might share them in a few months with some after photos.

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Spring Break Shape-Up Diet Plan

Again I have to start with a disclaimer -- I'm no expert in this area.  I feel really silly to even write these posts because I'm no fitness or diet expert.  But, maybe if I can give someone an idea or two while motivating myself at the same time, it's worth it!

I'm going to share my meal plan for the next week or so.  I have found meals that are pretty easy to fix and that I really like, so I tend to eat them for weeks at a time until I get totally bored. 

First, I calculated my caloric need based on this equation:
1. 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 X age in years)= base
2.  Take that number and multiply by 1.2
3. Subtract 500 for a 1 pound a week weight loss.
4.  This doesn't include calories you expend in exercise, so I usually try to add half of those calories back in (roughly.  I wish I had a heart rate/calorie monitor so I knew exactly how much I burned).  I also add a rough estimate of calories for nursing.

So, I try to eat roughly 1600 calories a day and I try to make it 90% clean.  I will be honest and say that I don't track green vegetables very closely, because their calories are pretty low.  I try to put some into my tracker, but don't stress too much about being exact like I do for things such as peanut butter, oatmeal, etc.

I eat about 5-6 meals a day, every 2-3 hours. I am naturally more of a grazer type person and I'm home alot with a baby right now, so it's feasible.  But most moms that work have access to a microwave too.  Ultimately, just figure out what is best for you to do.

I do meal prep 1-2 times a week- on Sunday nights and again a smaller type prep on Wed or Thurs.  I cook my chicken, salmon, etc., roast my vegetables, and make my oatmeal.  I also make the pancakes, quinoa bowls, eggs.  Pretty much every thing.  I freeze some things so I only have to make them once, like the oatmeal, pancakes, and quinoa bowls.  The chicken I just cook twice a week in my crock pot.  Veggies, I pretty much roast on Sunday and then use frozen broccoli or green beans in a bag when I run out of what I roasted.  That way my second prep of the week is usually just the chicken, salmon, eggs.  I also try to keep some extra frozen meals in case I just can't prep again or I had planned to put something together fresh (like a salad) and I'm unable to.  I think this step is KEY to staying on track with my diet.  I'll try to take a picture of this and share next week.  Generally, I think most of the food lasts fine in the refrigerator for 3 days, and I've never really minded leftovers anyway.

Meal One:  Egg white oatmeal with half of a sliced banana and 1 Tablespoon of natural peanut butter and some ground flax seed on top  (Basically I cook steel cut oats with extra water and then when they are done I add 2 egg whites per serving.  Just pour them in slowly and stir like crazy so you don't get big pieces.  I also add maple extract, cinnamon, a little stevia and sometimes another extract like black walnut or banana or vanilla or butter -- can you tell I like extracts?). This photo is without the flax, banana and pb.

Meal Two:  Lemon blueberry muffin protein pancakes with blueberry topping:
I got this recipe from instagram.  Protein pancakes are usually gross in my opinion.  Spongy, weird texture.  I tried these and really liked them.  They are still not quite regular pancakes, but with the addition of the lemon and fruit I like them.  Mix 1 mashed banana, 1 whole egg, 2 Tablespoons plain nonfat greek yogurt& 1 Tablespoon unsweetened almond milk.  Stir well.  Add 1 scoop protein powder, 1/2 cup oat flour (I use Bob's but you can grind your own oats in a food processor), 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix well and add more almond milk as needed.  I also add some lemon extract and if I have a lemon, zest and juice from that.  Then at the end, stir in 1/4 cup frozen or fresh blueberries.  Cook these as you would normal pancakes in a well-oiled skillet (coconut oil is great but don't forget to add the calories to your tracker or use nonstick spray if you want).  For the topping, I use the basic recipe I have on the blog for yogurt parfaits and I don't add any sugar or I use stevia.  I sometimes do it in the microwave -- just microwave the berries for a minute or two and then add a little slurry of water and cornstarch and lemon juice.  Microwave again another minute or so.  I'm not sure about exact measurements, I just eyeball it.  You could also add some sugar free syrup to the top. (This is 2 servings)

This is the protein powder I like in this recipe and in smoothies. I get it at Kroger in the health foods section.  It is unflavored (but not tasteless).  I am not a big fan of protein powder taste!!

Meal Three:  1 fried whole egg plus one white and 1/4 of an avocado, mashed, on a piece of whole wheat/low carb toast.  Salt and pepper on top.

Meal Four:  Salsa chicken, sweet potato (about 1/3-1/2 of one), and a green veggie - roasted zucchini here.  For the chicken, I put frozen breasts in my crockpot with some salsa and then when it is done I shred it and add more salsa.  There is siracha on top of it in this photo.

Meal Five:  Grilled Salmon, Asparagus, and brown rice. 

Meal Six: Apple plus chocolate hazelnut butter or pb2.  This is my dessert.  I love this and I'm addicted to this hazelnut butter!  I eat this post exercise as an incentive.  If I exercise hard, I eat the hazelnut butter.  If it's a rest day or I can't fit the exercise in (life does happen), I eat the pb2.  I also get this in Kroger's health foods section.  Measuring is critical here; natural nut butters are really great for you because of the healthy fats but they are super high calorie.  You can easily get carried away here.

And if I didn't mention, I pretty much eat this same way every day for the whole week.  I may change a meal or two, but I try to keep the same formula- protein, whole grain carbs, healthy fats.  I measure and make my portion size fit my caloric allotment.  It looks like a lot of food, and I guess it is.  If you eat healthy you can eat more -- which is always my goal! :)

I have my exercise plan coming up, as well as some tips to bust cravings and how I handle family meals while staying on my meal plan.

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Spring Break Shape-Up

I know we say we're back and then we're not and then we are.... Life is just really busy so I'm not sure if I'm back.   I go back and forth as to whether I want to post or not.  But, I need some fitness motivation and accountability, and I'm sure many of you do too.  So I thought I would start a little spring break shape-up plan.  It would be great if people want to post their own ideas and tips, either here or on the facebook page.  I am not trained in any aspect of human diet or health, so anything I post here is just something that is working for me or that I have read somewhere. 

I had a baby in July.  I've lost all the baby weight, but I'm still not in the shape I want to be.  We have 3 weeks until spring break, and I started trying to really tighten up my diet and exercise more.  I'm going to try to do 4 weeks of "spring break shape-up posts" here.  I'm not brave enough to post any before pictures or anything, but I will tell you what my goals are and how I'm doing.

I'll post my diet and exercise plans but if you are interested in participating you have to find what will work best for you.  That may not be what works for me.

So, I will post both of those soon.  For now, if you're interested in participating, here are your "assignments":

1- Set goals.  My goals used to be "lose xx pounds".  That's no longer effective for me.  Hydration status can make your weight fluctuate up to 4 pounds a day (according to my brother-in-law who has a BS in kinesiology and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy).  I am using inches.  I measured my waist, hips, left thigh, left arm, and left calf (some may want to add bust but number one I'm nursing and number two I'd prefer to keep every inch I can there).  I am not going to weigh myself at all, but I will remeasure every week. 

Although using inches is good for longer term goals, you honestly can't control how much you lose where and at what rate.  For that reason, I think it's good to have goals that you can control 100%-- such as "I will eat clean every day this week".  And try not to have too many goals.  I am guilty of making my goals too high and then I get discouraged when I couldn't exercise 5 times a week for 50 minutes.  I get super annoyed when I hear people say things like "There's no excuse for not exercising.  An hour a day 7 days a week is only such and such percent of your time".  As a mom, I know that any percentage is high, when you spend most of your time taking care of kids or cleaning the house or making lunches for the next day. (And in my case getting up 4-5 times a night still to nurse a baby).  So, I think exercise is really important but I know as moms we are already stretched to the max and sometimes sleep needs to win.  Overall, my personal opinion is that diet is about 70% and exercise is 30%.  So if you can only do one, focus on what you're eating.  That being said, I didn't watch much tv before, but I've given it almost completely up now that I've kicked up my exercise.  I DVR a couple of shows and watch them while I'm doing weight training but other than that I am making exercise a priority over tv and reading.

2- Decide on a tracking method- Keep track of everything you eat and all your exercise, including taking a walk with the kids.  I like the app Lose It.  Old fashioned paper is great too.  Just pick something that works for you.

3- Decide how much time you can devote-    For the next few weeks, I am going to try to do cardio 4 times a week for 45 minutes and do weights (at home) at least 3 times.  Honestly, that's alot for me and I am sure some laundry will slide.  Also, some of your time will be used for food prep so think about how many hours you can realistically devote.

4-Make an Inspiration Board-   You could cut out pictures/quotes from magazines and put them on some posterboard so you can hang it up in your exercise area.  You could also go digital (this is what I do and please someone destroy my phone if something happens to me so people don't wonder why I have so many photos of women's abs/thighs.)  Great online sources are pinterest, instagram, and Fitness Magazine's website.  Even google images.

5-Take a Before Picture-  Okay, I haven't done this.  It's painful.  You can hide it, but just take one and I promise I will too!

Is anyone willing to commit? You can do anything for 4 weeks (the goal is to turn this into a lifestyle of course, but a jump start does wonders! :))

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Easy Pizza

I'm coming back to the blogosphere because I've missed it!  Since I've been gone, I've:

• successfully survived a year in a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 kids
• built and moved into a new house (not that I built it, but you get what I mean)
• worked a little on and off in my job-before-mommy
• gone to numerous cub scout, football, and other school events
• and, had a baby!!! Whom I sort of adore.  Isn't she cute?

So needless to say, I've been a little busy and have neglected this blog.  I'd like to start posting again, as time permits.  Mostly recipes, because I love to cook and I'm always trying new recipes.  But maybe some other stuff too.


Most of my recipes are just normal, family recipes.  I grew up with old-fashioned home cooking, and that's what I like to stick to, but I usually try to make it a little healthier.  And what kids don't love pizza, so I thought I'd share my easy method for pizza.  We have 1 pizza place in our little town now that we've moved to a pretty rural area.  It's about 7 minutes away and I'm more than a little tired of it.  We have a couple more in the next town, 15 min away. 


I typically use frozen bread dough for my crust.  I just thaw it, roll it as thin as possible and top it.  I have learned it has to be really thawed, not still cold, or it's too rubbery and too hard to roll thin.  One day my father-in-law came on a Saturday to play with the kids.  I didn't have time to thaw dough and I was just trying to think of something to make them really quick.  I tried a quick, no rise dough recipe which I think I'll stick with.  My favorite pizza sauce is LaRosa's (although I'm not a big fan of their pizza), but other members of my family are sick of that sauce so for this I used Classico tomato and basil marinara sauce and it was really good.   You can do so  many variations on the topping - taco pizza, chicken/black beans/cilantro/onion/bbq sauce, buffalo chicken, veggie, thai, etc.  And of course kids love to do the make-your-own so sometimes we make individual ones.


Dough:
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (approximately) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
Butter, for greasing the pan


To make pizza crust, combine warm water and salt in a mixing bowl. Add about 1.5 cups of the flour along with the yeast and stir. Add remaining flour and knead into a smooth dough (add enough flour, beyond the 2.5 cups if necessary).  I use a stand mixer and the dough hook to mix this together and knead it.  Cover and set in a warm place (but you don't have to let it rise).  Roll it out to your desired thickness, put on your greased pan, add toppings and bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes. 

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Space-Saving Coat Storage

My husband thinks I'm crazy sometimes, but I think I'm genius!  Ok, let me explain.  See, we had our home built about 6 years ago.  We basically went with a house at the top of our budget, at least the budget we wanted, not the bank.  That was when the housing market was booming, so they approved us for much more than we actually felt comfortable with.  Good thing we had some common sense (thanks, parents!), 'cause it probably wouldn't have been good.

Anyway, back to the genius part.  Our builder wasn't a custom builder.  As in, we had a few choices but not many.  We picked our flooring, countertops, cabinet style, and siding color from a limited selection.  Most things were upgrades that we would have had to pay extra for, so for the most part we stuck with the basics.  We didn't even have a choice in paint....everything was painted flat white.  My mom and I painted almost the entire house in the 2 days before we moved in.  Fun times!

One of the great things about our house is that it is a perfect DIY house!  Everything works and there is nothing we had to do, but there are lots of things we (or at least I) want to do.  One such project was to add storage near the main entrance.  Our front entrance and garage entrance are close to each other, and there is just a small 2x2 coat closet in between.  Not enough coat storage for a family of 5!  So, I started googling (this was before I knew about Pinterest.com!) and found a couple inspiration photos that I thought would be good for our situation.

Here's the project:

Basically, when you open the door from the garage, there is a blank wall that is just not doing anything.  Here it is in the photo below.  The door you see in the background on the right is our 1/2 bath, behind me is our front door, and to the left is the coat closet.

Anyway, I decided the best solution would be to add a coat rack behind the door.  My parents have a 103 year old farm house, and it has coat storage flat along the wall, so I kind of use that as my inspiration as well.  I would have loved to add a "locker" or a bench or something, but obviously there is no room for something like that.  So, off to the hardware store I went.  I basically just purchased some 1x6 boards.  I picked the pre-primed composite ones, because I'm pretty new with woodworking and didn't feel competent to work with raw wood.  If I had to do it over again, I would choose the raw pine wood because it's a little nicer material than the composite ones I chose.  The only extra step is to sand and prime the wood before you paint it, but that doesn't take very long to do.

So, basically once I purchased my wood, I came home and cut it to the length of my wall, painted it, put construction adhesive on it and then screwed it into the wall.  I wanted 5 hooks on each board, so I measured them out equally and put the screws in so they would line up behind the hooks.  No patching... genius!

Here's how it looked with the screws, before adding the hooks.

And here is the finished product:

It's the perfect place to hang the backpacks as well as some of the jackets that we use the most.  It also turned out to be a good place to stash a couple of baseball caps.

Here's a close-up of the hooks I used.  I found them at Lowes.  But unfortunately there was a supplier issue and I had to go to 3 different Lowes to get all 10 of my hooks :(.  But I really wanted hooks with two places to hang things on.  Plus I didn't want something that was tiny or huge since the door would hit them if they stuck out too far.  These were the perfect size.

So, those 10 hooks added a lot more storage room in a previously unused wall space.  For a little extra shoe storage, I hung a closet organizer on the back of our closet door...it's the perfect size for all of those toddler and little boy shoes. Plus our adult sandals fit in there as well.

Hope this post gives you a little inspiration for a totally easy DIY project!

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No, really...I am back :)

So, I wrote a blog post with the reasons why I haven't posted much over the past 9 months. And then I promised that I would write more.  And it's been an entire month since that post and I haven't written anything.  Ugh.  I'm such a good blogger :)

I do have several posts to write on projects that I've been working on...but for now, I'll share a recipe that I tried for breakfast this morning.  It was really good, but totally not healthy by any stretch of the imagination.  But it's great for a special occasion.  And today's special occasion was that it's Monday and my youngest had her 15-month check-up (3 shots!) today. Which, in my book, requires something special for breakfast.

If you are looking for a quick, no rise cinnamon roll that tastes good, try this recipe:

No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls (click for the original recipe & wonderful photos!)

source: http://www.pipandebby.com  

Preheat your oven to 425. Pour 1 tablespoon of melted butter into a 9-inch round cake pan. Brush to coat the entire perimeter of the pan.

Filling:

In a small bowl, combine:

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Add 1 tablespoon of melted butter and stir until crumbly. Set aside.

Dough:

In a medium bowl, combine:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, combine:

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until the liquid is just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth, 3 to 4 minutes. Roll the dough into a 9x12-inch rectangle. Brush the surface of the dough with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.

Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough. Gently press the filling into the dough. Starting at a long edge, roll the dough to form a log.

Cut the log into eight equal pieces. Place one roll in the center of the prepared pan, and the seven remaining rolls around it in a circle. 

Brush with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 28 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow rolls to cool for 5 minutes.

Glaze:

In a small bowl, combine:

• 3 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Whisk first 2 ingredients until smooth. Add 4 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk until a smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds.

Enjoy!

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I'm BACK!

Ok, so it's been almost 5 months since my last post.  I'll be surprised to see if there is still anyone following my blog :) I've missed blogging and hope to be back!

There are a couple reasons why I decided to take an "unofficial" break the last few months.  First, there's a fine line of knowing what to share and what is too much.  I don't want to offend people or make people think that I'm going to write about EVERYTHING that happens in my life...some things are private and I don't want the entire world to know. Just like on Facebook.  I still get on there, but my postings have been fewer and fewer.  I like to find out things from people by running into them at the grocery store and catching up or meeting for lunch.  When I share things on the Blog or Facebook, I feel like everyone already knows what is going on in my life so they don't ask how things are (same with me towards people).  Does that make sense?  I just feel like it's impersonal.  And like I said, I don't share everything online, so if the posts you see make you think that I have a perfect life or perfect kids, that's totally not the case.  So I'm trying to balance telling enough about me and my family to make us seem like real, normal people but also not over-sharing :)

The other reason why I chose to take a break is because the last few months, I have just felt off.  I'm still not sure what is totally going on...it's frustrating.  Ever since my 3rd pregnancy, my Type 1 Diabetes has been out of control.  Still, 14 months after delivery, my body is super-insulin resistant.  I'm working with my doctors to get this under control, but it's taking much longer than I ever expected.  Needless to say, that's been affecting my exercise and training as well as numerous other areas of my life.  I won't go into all the details here on the blog, but I will share some of what I've learned.

So anyway, I'm back.  I'm excited to share some of the things that have happened in the last 5 months, some upcoming home projects I want to do, some diet and exercise stuff and lots of other things...hopefully I can stay on a roll and keep up :)

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