Healthy Breakfast after unhealthy 2 days

We've had a couple not-as-good days food wise, I'm trying to think back for the past couple days. I know yesterday started out ok - whole wheat vegan pancakes, which turned out ok but Jake says I should get becky's recipe. Here is the link to the: http://www.holycowvegan.net/2008/01/whole-wheat-eggless-and-dairyless.html they were a little gummy in the middle, I think it will help if I use pastry flour... and fresh pastry flour at that. We'll see, Ryan was not a fan. The kids loved them though, Nora ate 2!

That was the extent of our healthy eating yesterday. I was sitting down and my foot fell asleep but Nora wanted something to eat so I decided to pick her up and go into the kitchen. I don't know exactly what happened because my foot was asleep, but I misstepped and my ankle rolled and I heard a lovely "pop" and was down on the ground. My foot swelled up immediately in two spots, and Ryan rushed me to the doctor to make sure I didn't break anything. Turns out just a really bad sprain and I'm supposed to stay off of it as much as possible for 3 days and then ease back into exercise depending on how bad it hurts. Sooo, that sucks. Ryan got me a super-fatty cupcake, which was delicious but not diet friendly. We then got Jimmy Johns, which was super yummy, but they put a lot of mayonnaise on their sandwiches. I got the tuna with sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and no cheese. No whole wheat. But delicious :) Then we picked our kids up from our friends who had ordered pizza and invited us to stay, so we ate that for dinner. I ate 2 slices of the combo so I could have at least a few veggies. The GOOD things I have to say about my eating habits yesterday was that we ate dinner early in the day, and I didn't have anything else after that except 2 glasses of water. I also went to bed early (9pm) even though I tossed and turned all night.

Now on to this morning, I am excited to say we had another healthy breakfast. I made 6 fresh farm fresh eggs, I had 1, the kids each had 1-2, and Ryan had about 2. I didn't make toast like I usually did but made a filling smoothie! I put in 1 cup frozen mango, 1 cup frozen peaches, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries (frozen from the farmers market earlier this year) 4 tablespoons of ground flaxseed, and 100% white grape juice for the liquid. Not the best for sugar content on the last. I ground that up and gave the kids each a cup and then remembered I should put some spinach in, so I put 2 cups of spinach in the remainder left in the blender. So I split that between Ryan and I and I thought it was pretty good! And no yogurt or milk! So hopefully we can make healthy choices the rest of the day from what I can find around the house.

Day 2 of the rest of my life

So today we fulfilled our first goal of signing up for the Y and we did pretty much an entire day of Vegan meals and snacks. Surprisingly we felt good and had energy to make it through the whole day without the need for a nap. Jake made some really good hummus that we now call "artichummus" or "hummuchoke" because he put artichokes in it too. Here is the recipe:

1 can garbanzo beans

1/2 can artichoke hearts

1 Tbls tahini (find it near the whole foods peanut butter isle, oh...and just an FYI- tahini is no replacement for peanut butter. Jake learned the hard way! Haha!)

1 tsp red pepper

3 Tbls of garlic powder or 3 fresh cloves

1/8 cup (or more) of black beans

2 oz. diced roasted jalapenos

Blend all of it together until creamy

We also went grocery shopping and spent $110 on totally whole foods. I was surprised at myself when I looked at the cart and didn't have anything unhealthy in it. That is a first for me. I usually have at least one unhealthy thing. I heard that a good rule of thumb is to stick to the outside isles of the grocery store. That is where you will find the healthier foods, not so processed. I also bought some dark chocolate almond milk and I was pleasantly surprised with the taste. I'm pretty sure I just might be able to replace chocolate milk. I plan to make oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow. We will see if the kids will eat it!

Ryan's Embarassing Weigh In

I laugh at all your starting weights. I could eat all your starting weights for breakfast... But I won't because I'm going on a diet. I am currently bending our new scale at 320.2 lbs. My goal is to do slightly less damage to our scale at 240 lbs. I certainly won't be stopping there, but it's gonna be my first milestone (or millstone). DEAL WITH IT.

Week 1

Okay...I'll do it. Wait...my husband is trying to make out with me. No, seriously. I'm ready and motivated...to lose weight, that is. Started the day off bad by eating Dad's brownies with marshmallow and fudge frosting that he made last night for our New Year's eve. And, ended the day badly with eating an ice cream cone. I'm not off to a good start, but I'm realizing that this will probably be harder for me than I thought. Sugar has always been the party in my mouth that I never wanted to end, but has not been my friend on my thighs or butt. Okay Sugar...you are going DOWN!! Jake made a great dinner of salad, rice, carrots and oranges. I think I might be eating a lot of salad for a while! This week's goal is to start an exercise program. We are heading to the YMCA first thing tomorrow morning, we have appointments set for a physical on Jan. 12, and we have been looking through a book (Forks Over Knives) for recipes. As we try different recipes we will post the good ones. Everyone else do the same too! I'm going to go grocery shopping tomorrow and stock up our fridge with fresh fruits and veggies. Mmmm! Let's get started!

Day 1

Well I guess I couldn't have picked a better day to start losing weight. I only have one pair of church pants that still fit me...and I popped the hook thing off today at church. I now officially have no church pants that I fit into without losing weight. This means I have a busy week ahead of me. We did pretty good with our eating today. had a salad and some rice for dinner with a big pile of carrots, whole wheat toast for breakfast, and a little bit of dessert. We are almost junk food free in our home and don't plan on bringing any more in. My starting weight is 221 lbs. my goal is 180 lbs. Good luck everybody, and be strong. We can do this!!!

Matt and Julia's first weigh in

Well here we are after the break. We really started packing on the pounds over the last couple weeks, despite our best efforts to eat less this vacation. I even swam three times the first week, and played frisbee, basketball, and Just Dance 3 on the wii the second week! Oh well, that's ok, we can work it off!!

According to our Wii Fit:

Matt Merrill, 01/01/12: 187.8
Goal weight: 170

Julia Merrill 01/01/12: 143.7
Goal weight: 125

Here goes nothing!

Aly's Weigh In

Ok! I stood on our brand new Biggest Loser scale at 7:25PM on 1/1/2012. My official starting weight for the New Year is:

200.2 lbs

Can't wait to win!!!!