Do you know how much you are eating?

I did the Fort Lewis Down and Dirty Mud Run 5K on Saturday. I ran with team "ZipFizz". Here is the picture. Take a look and then I will tell you my epiphany.

You see the three healthy looking women on the the left? They are active, healthy and maintain a good weight for their heights. Then look at me, but not to closely please? I am larger then they are, thankfully that shirt was covering my mid-section that was threatening to dunlop over the waistband of my shorts! I saw this picture shortly after the run on Saturday, and my first thought was "wow, I look so much bigger than they do" my second thought was "why is that?" I have been thinking about this a lot, all weekend in fact. I am an active individual, I love to run, swim, chase after my girls and go for walks, why am I over weight? So I decided to do a little observation of myself, and I painfully realized that I eat WAY to much food! My problem is that I have no idea what portions I should be eating. If I am controlling my portion size I can then control my calories, equaling weight-loss. Which is what I want.

I have done some research and found some pretty good information that I thought I would share. I know that I am surely not the only one struggling with this! I want to figure it out now, so I can teach my girls healthy portions and healthy eating habits. I went to Freedieting.com and found their calorie calculator. I put in my information and found out that if I want to maintain my 181 lbs (wow I just said that on the internet, help me!) I should be consuming 2,165cal. If I want weight-loss, I should be consuming 1732cal and if I want extreme weight-loss, 1448cal. Granted, going from 2,165 to 1,448 would most likely send my body into shock and probably not a good idea, I will stick with aiming for 1,732cal. With that in mind I then went to the Mayo Clinic's website and found an awesome slideshow all about portion control and gave me some great visual clues to help me with portion control. Here are some pictures to give you an idea.

This is a medium orange, the size of a tennis ball.

Chicken, Pork, Steak any meat really should be about the size of a deck of cards.

Dairy should be about the size of four to five dice. This one is hard, how do you tell that amount when the cheese is melted all over some wonderful pizza? Please tell me!

Pasta and rice should be about the size of a hockey puck, I guess this means I need to buy a hockey puck so I know what size that actually is!

Here are a few tips that will also help if you are trying to watch your portions and ultimatly your calories.

• When at a restaurant ask the Waiter for a to-go box and put half of your entree in the box, because typically restaurants serve about double what you should eat.
• If you are going to eat fast-food take it home and put it on a plate, you would be surpised and how full your plate will be!
• Then order smaller portions, I mean do we really the king size or the super king size? Come on now.
• If your super yummy evilly tempting treats are easily accessible you will eat them more often. So, out of sight out of mind right? Put the ice cream in the back of the freezer, I mean like behind soemthing. 
• When drinking that must have glass of OJ in the morning, drink it out of a tall skinny glass because you will feel like you have had more. 
• Did you know that dried fruit is 3/4 smaller that their original size? Meaning a cup of grapes equates to 1/4 cup of raisins. 

Now that I have enlightened myself on portion control I am really going to try and use it! That way I am eating better and my family is eating better. I mean, really isn't that what it is all about?

Now that you know a bit more go and test your smarts here......Pop Quiz!

Oh, this is a good one too! WebMD's Portion Control Plate

The Art of Sleep

     Sleep is kind of a big deal in this house. We all love to sleep and we all love feeling refreshed and ready to go after a restful night.  Did you know that Homer (no, not Homer Simpson) said "“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” Sleep is such an important part of our daily life cycle, out biological clocks depend upon it. If a person persistently sleeps too little, they run the risk of becoming overweight, absent-minded and ill. If you have any of these issues it is time to re-evaluate how your sleeping habits and your nightly routine are effecting you. There are several resources that I found on the web that give great insight.

1. National Sleep Foundation's web site
2. Zen Habits web site

     I guess that I am kind of old fashioned in the sense that I am very strict when it comes to what goes into our bedrooms. This all started when I began having trouble sleeping a few years ago and I remembered reading a article that talked about making your bedroom a haven for rest. Which meant that I needed to get the TV out, I also needed to take the exercise bike out as well. We as human beings thrive on routine. I didn't really have a routine set so my body could realize it was time to begin shutting down.

     I would begin my nightly routine by making it darker in the house, turning off a good majority of the lights, about an hour before my Thing 1's bed time. After working through her bedtime routine I would then focus on unwinding myself. When I actually began to feel tired I would get myself ready for bed and fall asleep.

     To have my bedroom be my sanctuary I had to make a few sacrifices. I took out the TV, this was hard for me because I loved snuggling down in bed and watching TV. I removed my exercise bike, I forced myself to begin exercising out in the TV room or outside. I also re-decorated it so that it felt more relaxing to me. For instance I added several star lanterns like the ones found on Amazon. I made the curtains heavier as well so they worked like blackout curtains helping my room to be totally black at night. I also re-vamped my bed. There is now a foam mattress topper on my bed, and my oh my do I love the comfort that thing has brought me. I also went to IKEA and bought a down comforter. I never knew how utterly fantastic my bed could be until I got that comforter on my bed.  So with the darkness in my room and comfort of my bed I was able to let my body shutdown and sleep.

     Truthfully, we don't do much else other than sleep in our bedroom. I think that is the way it should be. I don't keep a book by my bed, I don't have music in my room, I don't let Thing 1 and Thing 2 track their toys into my room either. 

     I made sure that Thing 1 and Thing 2 also have very comfortable beds. They have bedtime routines that we stick to. They love cuddling up and reading Goodnight Moon, it is a family tradition. When Thing 1 was three she had the book memorized. We would get her stuffed cow, bear and mouse and we would re-enact the whole book, she also insisted that we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when we got to the page that says "Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Air". Then we had to whisper, "Goodnight everywhere". I love the book, it has always been one of my favorites ever since I was a little girl and it warms my heart knowing that Thing 1 and Thing 2 love it as much as I did.

     In case you were wondering no, they do not have a TV in their room. We have actually began to see the benefits of not having a TV in the bedroom, so we have slimmed down the number of TV's in the house all together. There is only one, in the TV room, and that is the way we like it, in fact we don't even have cable anymore. I have enjoyed shifting the priorities for our family, we strive to be more Christ like and to make our home more like a bit of heaven on earth. Really, I think that is where our ultimate happiness will lie, but being well rested sure helps a lot too! Have a great day all!

How 'bout this Blogging thing?

       My name is Alex. I am an avid follower of many blogs. I love the insights, the experiences, the photos, the stories, the projects, the recipes and their lives that they share. I love that the women I follow reached out into the great wide internet and creativly claimed a piece of it. Well, I want to claim my piece.

       This is very intimidating to a newbie such as myself. I realize that this endeavor is going to require a certain level of commitment from me. I need to be interesting, I need to show you pictures and I need to keep you coming back. I fear that I may not be interesting sometimes so for that reason I need to always have something pretty for you to look at. I have found many things that intrigue me, inspire me and make me want to do more. I am going to share those things, let me know if you like them.

       So, now that I have shared with you why I have wanted to start this adventure, let me tell you about me. I am a Momma, I adore my two girls who will herein will be referred to as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

 
Thing 1 is four she is full of energy, full of love and full of curiosity. She makes me become a better mother every day. Thing 2 is 18 months, she gives me a run for my money. She is full of energy, vim and vinegar, and boy o'boy does she love her Momma! I just know that she is going to try me and teach me things that only she will be able to teach me. My loving husband is my high-school sweetheart. We met on January 5, 1998 our freshman year in third hour ROTC (yes, I was one of those). I know this, because he tells me this tid-bit as often as he can, he doesn't remember my favorite color, my shoe size or the girls birth weights, but he does remember the day we met. He also keeps on his calendar a count of the days that we have known each other as of today it has been 4,506 days. I love this about him. He also remembers our anniversary, sometimes, honestly we both have a hard time remembering if it is December 22nd, 2003 or if it is December 23rd, 2003 (it is the 22nd by the way, I just checked, he he he). We go round and round trying to figure this out until one of us just goes and looks at the marriage certificate!

      My husband and I have two anniversaries that we celebrate. We celebrate December 22nd, 2003 the day we made our earthly commitment to each other.  We then, also celebrate December 22nd, 2010 the day we made our spiritual commitment for time and all of eternity together. I love knowing that we now have a forever family, we will always be together, we will always help one another, we will always love one another. I love how I can use the term always and it actually means something.

      A few more things about me......I love to run. I would run everyday for miles and miles if my feeble legs would let me, but truth be told I have to let them rest. I also like to follow Jillian Michaels, I adore her workout videos and I hate them at the same time. They push me, they make me sweat and they make me hate her! So for that I am grateful. I love to cook. I make my own tortillas, I make my own bread, I make my own yogurt (and it is fantastic), I make salad dressing this is because I love to eat. I hope to share some delicious things that I come across along the way. Finally, I love photography. I feel this is my passion, I love the idea of documenting everything around me with pictures. I live in a beautiful world and I see many beautiful things that I think it would be a shame if I didn't try to capture that somehow.