SSS - Day 38

Breakfast was a good sized breakfast salad and a small glass of smoothie, same as yesterday.

For lunch I asked David to go out for a little quiet. It was nice. We go to a local diner and I order their home fries with spinach, mushrooms, and broccoli.  It's cooked with oil and lots of salt, but it's a great way to enjoy a meal out and still stay close to plan.

This is the little bit that was left on my plate when I remember I forgot to take a picture. ;)

For dinner I made a pot of Kole's Creamy Cauliflower Soup.  I added mushrooms and cut the onion in half. There is just no way I can imagine putting FOUR cups of onion in a pot of soup. And I replaced the tamari with Bragg's aminos cause that's what I had. 

I poured my soup over some roasted Brussels sprouts.  I also had a large plate of salad (romaine topped with raw broccoli, carrots, and seed-based Italian dressing. 

I have been snacking while we ring in the new year. We've got chips and buffalo chickpea dip and that's just too hard to resist.  I also had two date balls. 

I'm feeling awfully full tonight. Even more, I'm awfully tired.  I'm trying to stay up with my older kids but, man, I'm really feeling those midnight feedings tonight. 

Such is the life of a mom of many to love. ;)

SSS - Day 39

Breakfast was a medium breakfast salad and a small glass of smoothie (frozen grapes, melons, strawberries, ground flax, cashew milk, vanilla, and an orange) that I made for the children. They LOVED it. It was pretty good. Reminded me of an Orange Julius creation. :)

 

 

 

Lunch was two helpings of an amazingly simple and delicious new soup recipe my dd made today, Cream of Broccoli.  We added a can of navy beans to the blender while processing.

 

Really, it was so good I was afraid there wouldn't be leftovers. ;)

 

 

Dinner was a Double Bowl Delight! I made myself a salad of romaine, cauliflower, carrots, purple cabbage, raisins, raw pumpkin seeds, and stone ground mustard. I had that with a bowl of green beans sautéed with mushrooms, dried shallots, minced garlic, and vegetable broth.

 

I ate every bite. ;)

 

 

Almost forgot about dessert! Chocolate-Cherry Nice cream! (frozen bananas, frozen cherries, cocoa powder whipped in food processor)

 

So, this was fun today. A very special friend phoned me over the weekend and said she wanted to come and be a blessing to me this week. She offered to come and help me in the kitchen!! BFF!!!!

 

We worked on prepping some Soup Bags and Bean Bags for my freezer. Yep, more of those babies. They are one of my favorite time savers I ever thought up. 

 

We got to chopping, utilizing my food processor, and then set up the assembly line to fill bags. Easy peasy and really fun when you have someone to chat with while you do it. :)

 

 

And now I have a drawer of Ready to Dump bags of veggies for soup starters and G-Bomb beans.  Yay!

 

 



SSS- Day 40

Breakfast of Champions at my window seat: Chocolate Green Smoothie (frozen melon/grapes/strawberries, swiss chard, cocoa powder, cashew milk), decaf coffee

Lunch was a little late and I was HUNGRY.  Lovely salad of romaine, broccoli, corn, raisins, raw pumpkin seeds, stone ground mustard, and carrot sticks, orange for dessert

Dinner was supposed to be soup. David wanted to take me and our boys out so I picked Uno's Grill because they have a low-fat vegetable soup that I like.  I checked the menu because last time they were phasing it out. It was there, but then it wasn't. The store menu doesn't match the online menu and I was stuck. :/ 

I scrounged the menu and couldn't find anything I really wanted.  I ended up ordering their special of a salad and pizza. I had a ceasar salad, no cheese, dressing and croutons on the side and a 5 grain flatbread pizza with broccoli and mushrooms, no cheese.  It wasn't great.  Oh, I also had two onion rings for an appetizer.

So, when we got home one of my guys warmed up the leftover tomato soup for me. So, I'm happy because I was able to finish my day sticking to my SSS plan. :)  Thank you, dear boy.

 

Did I tell you how I made this soup? It's the recipe from the Vitamix recipe book for Tomato Onion soup, only I replaced the cheese with cashews and nutritional yeast.

 

I'm pretty bummed about dinner, but I did my best with what I had to choose from.  I'm feeling so great this week, though. So good to be back to eating normal again. 

SSS - Day 41

Food:

Brunch was a berry, kale, flax seed, cashew milk, cocoa powder smoothie and a smallish breakfast salad.

Dinner was a taco salad and a bowl of Tomato Onion soup made in my Vitamix. So cool!!  I also had some slices of pita and pita chips/crackers with hummus. 

We hosted a party tonight and I didn't do a very good job skipping the treats. I had a rice crispy treat and, later, had a couple of chocolates that a friend gifted to us.  Honestly, though, I don't feel guilty about enjoying them. Maybe I should but I'm just being thankful for the treat and moving on. 

Overall, I feel great about how the day went with eating. I loved my salad and smoothie at brunch and was pretty excited about how the soup turned out at dinner.  I want to adjust the flavor but I think it will be a good, quick go-to soup for crazy days. My guests and the family members that tried it also liked it.

We are getting snow tonight and all day tomorrow. Will be another great day for the SSS!!

The SSS Plan

Okay, so I think I've devised my plan for the next 6 Week Challenge.  I'm titling it, SSS.

Simple
Simple
Simple

Which translates to...

Smoothie
Salad
Soup

That's it. That's my daily plan for the next 6 weeks.  Bonus? I'll be using my Vitamix for nearly every meal. Yay, me. :)

I started well today. I had a simple smoothie made with a frozen mix of berries, cherries, and kale. I added some ground flax and used water to blend. 

My salad was lovely. Chopped romaine, purple cabbage, broccoli, and shredded carrots. I added sunflower seeds and raisins and topped it with a strawberry poppy seed dressing I made earlier this week.

(this was for myself and three of my girlies. In fact, I'm just realizing now I forgot to even eat my fruit with lunch. *oops* )

For dinner I mixed up a pot of Winter Lentil Vegetable soup. The recipe for that is on my Recipe Tab at the top of my blog.

I used my Vitamix to chop some of the veggies. I wanted to play with that feature.  It worked pretty well for the celery and onion but I wasn't crazy about how the carrots and cabbage turned out. I prefer the food processor or hand chopping for those.  But, it was still fun to try. 

And, even if the cuts weren't how I like them, the soup turned out beautiful.

 

Now that my kitchen work is done, I'm sitting with a cuppa and working on a new SSS menu plan for the week.  You can check that out here or click on the menu link on the left side bar.

I will still be serving other foods with the S...S...and...S...to make sure the fam has enough to fill their bellies. But I'm eager to try some new smoothie, dressing, and soup recipes throughout the week. I'm really excited about the soups, chowders, and stews. Perfect for the cold weather that is moving in. 

As for my reward, I need to check with upper management to see if I can make this happen, but, what I'd like to do is plan to enjoy 2 hours of ALONE time each Sunday afternoon.  I'm telling ya', I will work HARD to earn that each week. :D

So, that's my plan. Anyone else care to join me? It's going to be a crazy start to the new year. Activities will be starting up soon, new adventures await, and the Flu and Cold Season is already upon us.  I am eager to keep the basics Simple while still nourishing my body, mind, and soul with the best of the best!

First Session of 2016

Blah. What a terrible month for eating. Such a bummer.

But, I'm ready to take on the next Six Week Session. This will welcome in the new year, which I plan to work hard to make a great year.

Clearly I don't do well with not logging my food each day. I need the accountability so I'm going back to doing that.

And....I'm armed with the best new tool!! I've finally got a Vitamix!! Wahooo!!!

I'm excited to highlight this awesome tool for my next session. I plan to use it at least once a day (though I know it will likely be used more often).  So, look for ways that I experiment with this lovely machine.

This morning I enjoyed a simple, tasty smoothie. I love the smooth, creamy texture that it creates. I love, even more, how the self cleaning feature. Boy, do I love anything that cleans itself easily.

So, I guess I'm marking Sunday as my starting day. I may as well. I keep putting it off and messing up. In fact, I've already eaten off the 6-week plan this morning, but I'm still counting today as my start day.

I won't be rewarding myself with tools this time around. I've got the best tool and need to keep the spending down.  I do, however, want to reward myself with some time alone. I've got a lot of learning, studying, and reflecting to do in the coming weeks. I need some time alone to do it. So, even though I'm starting off track for the week, I'm determined to stay strong and work for my Sunday afternoon alone treat. 

I'm not even stepping on the scale until I get some momentum built up. I know I'm going to be completely depressed with the numbers I see on the scale. I don't need to do that to myself.  So far, I'm still fitting in the next size down clothes I moved into from the last session. That's good enough for me to know I can keep going and stay motivated to do well. Hopefully I'll see another new size and decade after this session is completed. 

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Breakfast: Berry, cherry, kale & flax smoothie (made with water), two slices toast with home made currant jam

Phase 2 - Day 1 & 2

Ummm, I'm sort of lost.

I'm not even sure what I'm posting about anymore.

My last two days have been chaotic and messy.

I think I still need to log my food. I feel like I'm all willy-nilly about what I'm eating after this weekend *off*.

Saying that I'm going to start focusing on poor habits seems to have brought them to the surface in full force. Sigh.

Habit #1  Develop healthy and nourishing sleep patterns

I haven't been working as hard on this as I ought. I've been getting to bed early but not going to sleep at a consistent time.  I've also been feeling so unbelievably tired all day long the last two days. I do feel as though I'm recovering from something. I could likely give a list of things but, honestly, I'm pretty sure it's just life. 

Habit #2  Develop healthy and nourishing ways to deal with stress

THIS is my huge downfall.  These last two days I've battled incredible stress and frustrations. My constant battle when this is going on, especially relationship stress, is to grab some kind of junk food. I've been able to stay away from that, mostly, but...I've taken to having little fits by raising my voice, emotional drama, and just hiding away in my room. Sigh. Nothing healthy or nourishing about any of that.

Habit #3 Set aside laziness

This seems to be connected to #1 and #2.  When I'm tired and stressed I want to ignore my work and my responsibilities.  I want someone else to do it all for me. I want to get away from the stressors.  That more than not means that I step away from those duties that would actually help me deal with the stress correctly.  I zone out instead of pray and read.  I push off my work to another who isn't going to do it well.  I look for *easy* when it comes to food and then feel guilty and angry for making that choice.

So, there I am.  I guess I'm working on those habits. But, honestly, I need to see how they are connected and work on one for now.  And, the one that doesn't seem so scary is the sleep habit.  I'm choosing a 10pm (latest) and a 6:30am wake time (latest, unless I'm up with baby in the night) and just focus on that directly. 

I know I need to have these other things in check, but I'm not sure how much this tired brain of mine can handle at this point.  The Lord is gentle with mothers that have young. I'm choosing to be gentle with myself.

And as for what I'm eating, well, it's not much to talk about.  The last two days I've done good with breakfast and lunch. But, I get to dinner and seem to struggle. It's not awful, but it could be a lot better.  And, I've taken to allowing a little creamer in my coffee again.  A little sugar in my trail mix. These are the slow, sneaky habits that kept me from losing weight all last year. WHY would I want to go back to that? Especially when I'm focusing so hard on breaking bad habits? I spent the last 6 weeks breaking free from those poor choices.  I know it's because I feel like I deserve a reward or something for my hard work. But, truly, I need to stop looking to food as my reward. Argh.

So, rebooting myself with tea in place of coffee on a daily basis.  No more convenience store junk. Back to being excited about what I put in my mouth and what I see on the scale.  I hope and pray.

Phase 2 - Day 1

I've decided to take the time to go back and read through the journal entries I wrote during my Daniel Fast two years ago.  I know the Lord taught me important truths during that time and it's obvious I need to revisit those much more regularly than I have been.

This first entry reflected on a couple of verses in the book of Job.  Such words of conviction, humility, promise, healing, and hope.  As I read through those words I was referenced to this passage in Hebrews.  This is where I know I need to land right now.  This idea of discipline is hard, heavy, and something I desperately work to run from in most every area of my life.  Discipline. Just the word makes me cringe.

Definition:

activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.

the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.: behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control:

I will say this regarding discipline and habit training. My first area I need to work on is my sleeping habits.  "Early to bed and early to rise" has always proven to bring greater health in my life. I'm going to be working this week on building a better habit of healthy amounts of sleep as much as it is in my control to do so.  And, silly as it sounds, even that simple act of discipline rubs against my flesh that wants to have *freedom* and *control* and cries out *what about me?!* as though getting more, regular, consistent sleep would somehow bring harm to me in some way. 

Such foolishness wrapped up in this heart of mine.