Monday Morning~A Menu and An Update

Monday: Spaghetti, sweet peas, garlic bread
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Pecan Salad, Salad, rolls
Wednesday: Spaghetti Pie, Garlic Cheese Toast, Strawberries and bananas
Thursday: Lemon Pepper Grilled Fish, Wild Rice, green beans, apple turnovers
Friday: leftovers

Today is our clean up and laundry day. We spend Mondays recovering from the weekend and getting the house cleaned up. We work on laundry all day long, too. Right now I am taking a break while the baby is sleeping, the laundry is washing, and the big kids are busy doing their assigned jobs. All is calm, for the moment.

I have been walking twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. DD12 and I are out the door around 6 a.m. and we usually walk for 20 minutes. I jog a little bit, but mostly walk. This morning dd did not want to get out of bed so I went with Baby Girl and ds9. Hubster and I have been walking each night for 45 minutes. We take the babies with us, Baby in the Baby Bjorn carrier and Baby Girl in the jogging stroller. Needless to say, I am getting lots of exercise. It is fun!

I have to tell you what ds4 just said. He is holding Baby for me and he just said, "Uh oh, his head's falling off!!" He meant that his head was falling to the side. LOL

Last Christmas I bought a book called The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene. I read it then and decided that when the baby was born, I was going to use that diet to lose the weight. Well, here I am with a 6-week old baby and I need to lose about 35 pounds. I have lost all of the pregnancy weight and my old clothes fit me, although some of them are a bit tight. But I was overweight before this pregnancy.

The Best Life Diet has 3 phases. I am in Phase One. These are the guidelines for Phase One:

• a minimum of four weeks
• weigh to get your starting weight, then no weighing for at least four weeks
• focus on moving more and changing your meal patterns.
• increase your activity level
• stop eating at least two hours before bedtime
• eat three meals, including a nutritious breakfast, plus at least one snack daily
• stay hydrated
• take daily supplements (multivitamin, omega-3, calcium)

I like this plan because it makes sense. It focuses on things that are healthy and subtle. I have done other programs in the past that worked really well, but were too hard to follow for life. I want to lose this extra weight but I also want to make lifestyle changes that I can stick with.
I really recommend this book. I also bought the journal to go along with it because I do better when I can write down my progress and have something to look back on for motivation in the weeks to come.

Oh yeah, he also suggests that you quit smoking during Phase One and stop drinking alcohol for now.

Baby is now awake and I have kids telling me they are bored. Looks like it's time to assign more jobs. This house is far from clean. Don't worry, I do my share of the housework! I know it sounds like my children are my slaves, but believe me, they are far from that!