Green Hill Country :o)

You have walked 18.68 miles.
You have passed Green Hill Country.
It is 8.32 miles to the next landmark.
You have 439.32 miles to reach Rivendell.

After some time they crossed the Water, west of Hobbiton, by a narrow plank-bridge. The stream was there no more than a winding black ribbon, bordered with leaning alder-trees. A mile or two further south they hastily crossed the great road from the Brandywine Bridge; they were now in the Tookland and bending south-eastwards they made for the Green Hill Country.

Sorry for the spotty posting

We are winding down to the end of the school year (four class days plus finals and we're DONE!!) and I've been working on writing my final exam. The dealio is that seniors with an A average for the whole semester are exempt from the final exam. Sadly, three of my six look like they're going to have to take the final (two are only off of an A by less than a point, though!). Either way, I have to have my final written by this Friday. On top of that, I have to finalize my reading lists for both the summer reading program and next year's classes. Woof!

Food has been going pretty well, but apparently coming in under my minimum calories for 3 out of 7 days makes me gain weight (I was up 1/4 pound at Curves today :op). I really have to keep my focus on hitting at least the minimum and continuing to make healthy choices while I do it. You know what, though? It takes a LOT of veggies, fruits, healthy fats and lean protein to make up 1600 calories a day!! Did you know that 8 oz of grilled shrimp only add up to 224 calories?

Okay, off to beddy-bye for me!

A Quiet Weekend

Not too much going on this weekend, really. BuzzBoy and I wanted to go to Paws in the Park yesterday, but rain + outdoors = BIG MUDDY DOG NOT GOING IN MY VAN!! lol It's too bad, too, because I really wanted to see if he would figure out how to play with other dogs. Poor puppy! He thinks he's a giant cat.

I ended up going to Trader Joe's with Bean yesterday afternoon, but there had to be at least 900,000 people in that tiny little store and so we didn't really get a chance to look around at everything as much as we wanted to do. I'm going to try to go back someday in the morning when it might be less crowded.

Today was pretty quiet as well. Hubby took Bean to go buy her first set of adult golf clubs. Golf team practice starts on Tuesday! Yay!

BuzzBoy and I went for a long walk, which was really nice. He was doing his "Old Man Walking" routine again, so it took us a loooooong time to get back home. I think I prefer him dragging me up the hills to that slow pace. It was killing me!

Hubby and I tried to invent a new sandwich tonight, but we think we missed a key ingredient somewhere. We took chicken breasts, butterflied them and rubbed them all over with Dijon mustard. When they were cooked, we layered on thinly sliced ham and provolone cheese and grilled it until the cheese was melted. We put them on our favorite Arnold Select 100% Whole Wheat sandwich thins. It was pretty good, but it definitely needed something: probably salt and pepper! We'll try that again some other day.

Meals for this week are all planned. Now, I just have to make the grocery list and watch Amazing Race.

Oh yeah: SPURS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Subbed today

One of the other teachers at Bean's school had to have her wisdom teeth out yesterday (apparently, you cannot move to Japan with your wisdom teeth still in your mouth. Who knew??). They needed someone to sub for her 3 afternoon classes and they asked me to step in for her.

It was fun! It was neat meeting all the 8th graders who will be in my 9th grade English class next year. They seem like a great bunch of kids and I can't wait to challenge their minds with Literature. :o)

Subbing for her two PE classes (both mine next year) was a little more interesting. There are currently only 4 students in the middle school class and, as a consequence, she pretty much lets them do what they want. However, no matter how they tried to convince me, I'm VERY sure that playing with the fire extinguisher is NOT included in that!

The high school class went a little better, although they did tell me that their regular teacher doesn't ever really make them sweat. Ha!! That will definitely change next year when they enter my House of Pain! LOL Just kidding. There shouldn't be too much pain involved, but there will definitely be SWEAT!!

Have a great day, everyone!

Goodbye Hobbiton :o(

You have walked 8.83 miles.
You have passed Last View of Hobbiton.
It is 9.17 miles to the next landmark.
You have 449.17 miles to reach Rivendell.

As they began to climb its first slopes they looked back and saw the lamps in Hobbiton far off twinkling in the gentle valley of the Water. Soon it disappeared in the folds of the darkened land, and was followed by Bywater beside its grey pool. When the light of the last farm was far behind, peeping among the trees, Frodo turned and waved a hand in farewell.

Spread the Spark!

Sorry I haven't been posting my meal plans on here lately...I joined SparkPeople and have been tracking all my food on there. It's a completely amazing and totally FREE healthy lifestyle website. You can track your food, exercise and weight on there. They have exercise demos, recipes, message boards, and so much more! You can either choose to follow their meal plans or you can just use it like I do to track what you're eating. Check it out!

Walking to Rivendell

I found this walking tracker online and, in honor of my 12th graders studying The Fellowship of the Ring, I'm going to walk from Hobbiton to Rivendell!! Here is my progress so far:

You have walked 4.89 miles.
You have passed Bywater.
It is 2.11 miles to the next landmark.
You have 453.11 miles to reach Rivendell.

Little of all this, of course, reached the ears of ordinary hobbits. But even the deafest and most stay-at-home began to hear queer tales; and those whose business took them to the borders saw strange things. The conversation in The Green Dragon at Bywater, one evening in the spring of Frodo's fiftieth year, showed that even in the comfortable heart of the Shire rumours had been heard, though most hobbits still laughed at them.

Anyone interested in joining me??

A good day!

Breakfast:
Breakfast Sandwich
1 cup mixed red & green grapes
Total Calories: 349

Lunch:
1.5 slices of Papa John's pizza (I'm really losing my taste for non-healthy stuff now--I couldn't even finish this!)
Total Calories: 345

Snacks:
3 cups popcorn at the movies
3 Junior Mints
1 amazingly tasty orange
4 Dr. Kracker 3 seed
Total Calories: 270

Dinner:
8 oz grilled chicken breast
2 cups red-leaf lettuce
2 Tbsp Good Season's Italian made with red wine vinegar and EVOO
Total Calories: 398

Total for Day: 1362 (whoopsies! Notice anything missing? I did a NO DAIRY day again. Argh!!!)

Hubby and went to Whole Foods to, theoretically, see if there were any healthy options we could add to our meal plans. Sadly, he was too tired to spend much time browsing and we didn't really get anything new. I DID find TEXAS grapefruits, though. Yes, I do try to eat local whenever possible, but Texas Rio Star grapefruits are one taste of home that I cannot resist!

Went for an even longer walk with Buzz Boy than yesterday. He was pretty exhausted by the end of it. I really wish we knew how old he is. The last few weeks he's just been acting "older" than usual, especially when we're out walking. But, then 15 minutes after that he'll act like a complete puppy with one of his toys. He's due to go to the vet this week, so I'll have them check him out and see what's what.

Have a great evening!!

Cheat meal day!

Hubby took Bean and 2 of her best friends to a local amusement park today. They had a great time!! I had a nice relaxing day: I went on a LONG walk with the Buzz Boy and spent a lot of time getting to know my way around SparkPeople.

Breakfast:
1 Boiled Egg
Greek Yogurt with Berries & ground flaxseed
1 slice whole wheat toast
Total Calories: 282

Lunch:
5 ounces of grilled chicken breast
2 Tbsp guacamole
1 Mission Carb Balance tortilla
1 tomato
1 cup grapes
Total Calories: 456

Snacks:
1/4 cup guacamole
8 baked corn chips
1 orange
1 boiled egg
4 Dr. Kracker 3-seed
Total calories: 391

Dinner:
This was my cheat meal for this week. Hubby took me to Outback and I let him choose the appetizer. He was in the mood for a Bloomin' Onion (I would've picked the Bushman's Shrooms :o) ). I had the 6 oz Outback Special with a house salad and sauteed shrooms for my sides. It was yummy!!!! I'm totally on board with this cheat meal idea (although, I've got to do better about eating ALL my other meals healthy to earn it--somehow I doubt Papa John's pizza fits into the "healthy" category).

Got 10 minutes?

You have got to try this! It's super fun and Paul will make you smile all the way through. I just did it and I'm sweating like crazy.




Have fun!!

MAJOR VICTORY!!!!

There have been TWO open bags of potato chips (one bag of Kettle Cooked and one bag of Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles) in my house for over a week and I haven't had ANY!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!

An up and down day

Today had its ups and downs, for sure!

I was in the middle of teaching my class and waxing rhapsodic about Tolkien and The Fellowship of the Ring, when I suddenly broke out in an all-over body sweat and my hands and knees started shaking like crazy. I know what that means: low blood sugar. Which, yay me, but uh-oh. Did I pack my little bottle of apple juice in my bag like I promised my kids?? Of course not! I haven't had an LBSI (low blood sugar incident) in SUCH a long time. I sat down and held myself together long enough to get through my class. Luckily, the super sweet parent volunteer in the office today had brought in a beautiful platter of strawberries and grapes this morning. I had 6 strawberries and I felt much, MUCH better. The school administrator said I could bring in some bottles of juice and they would keep them in the office for me. Yay!

Of course, the real downside of the whole thing is that you aren't supposed to work out for 24 hours after an incident like that so that you have a chance to stabilize your blood sugar. So, no Curves, no kettlebells, no boot camp dvd and no walk with the Buzz Boy. :o( I did have a lovely nap, though, after I got home and ate something substantial.

After my success at WalMart, I was all geared up to have a uber-healthy dinner. Sadly, Hubby wanted to enjoy the pizza that the girls were having and I just wasn't up to making dinner for just me. Weirdly, I ended up below my calorie goal for the day.

Breakfast:
Breakfast sandwich (see the one from a couple days ago, the yummy one with the provolone cheese? Yeah, that one!)
1/2 grapefruit
Total calories: 286

Snack:
6 strawberries
V-8 low sodium
Total Calories: 92

Lunch:
Grilled Ham & Cheese
Tomato
1 large orange
8 oz skim milk
Total Calories: 462

Snack:
1/4 cup homemade guacamole
8 baked corn chips
Total calories: 164

Dinner:
2 slices of Papa John's pepperoni pizza
Total calories: 460

Total calories: 1455

Hubby is taking Bean and two of her friends to King's Dominion tomorrow (and my ST: Enterprise, Season 4, Disc 1 arrived from Netflix with a crack in it), so I'll have loads of time to do all the workouts I was supposed to do today.

Small Victory!

So, Bean is having a friend sleepover tonight and we stopped at our local WalMart to hit the redbox and stock up on snacks. I let them each choose a "movie candy" and they got to choose one bag of chips to share. Even in the face of all that junk food, I wasn't tempted to get anything for myself!!! WOOOHOOO!!! Yay me!

They did choose Tostitos with a Hint of Lime and asked me to make guacamole. After I made it, I had my allotted 1/4 cup of guac and 8 Baked Tostitos. It was super yummy, maybe extra so because I know it's a healthy choice to make.

I'm drinking one of my Ayala's Herbal Waters right now. I read about them yesterday on Snack Girl. It's so yummy! I love it because while your taking a swallow, it tastes like plain water, but as you finish swallowing it, you get hit by this amazing flood of cinnamon and orange flavor. I will definitely be buying more of these!!

Had a pretty good day, except when I sat down to fill out my food diary, I realized that I had ZERO dairy products today. Oopsie!!

Breakfast:
1 whole grain English muffin
1/2 grapefruit
2 hard boiled eggs
Total Calories: 310

Snack:
1 orange
2 string cheese
Total Calories: 246

Lunch:
Grilled Ham & Cheese (2 slices whole grain bread, 1 slice low-fat provolone, 3 oz lean deli ham, 2 tomato slices)
1 cup raspberries
2 cups greens with 1 Tbsp dressing
Total Calories: 420

Snack:
4 pretzel crisps
1 tsp natural peanut butter
10 Good 'n Plentys (yeah, yeah, but I'll tell you I *paid* for these with a HUGE headache...won't do that again!)
Total calories: 150

Dinner:
7 oz garlic lemon chicken
12 oz garlic lemon mushrooms
Total calories: 428

Total calories for the day: 1556

Exercise: 45 minute walk/run with the Buzz Boy

I was hoping to try out the Biggest Loser Boot Camp dvd today, but I ended up taking a nap instead. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow!

The next new thing I'm going to try

KETTLEBELLS!! These are a HUGE fitness craze right now. Hubby said that he used them when he was downrange and loved them. We actually own a 15 lb and 20 lb, so I don't have any excuse not to try this.

I'm a huge fan of Shay from the Biggest Loser and she does Kettlebells regularly with her personal trainer. I just found out that her trainer puts a different 5 minute kettlebell workout on her website every week! Yay! I'm going to try this tomorrow:


If you have access to kettlebells, why not try it with me?

Let's get Fit 4 a Lifetime!

New Blog Name

Since we're no longer homeschooling, it seemed kinda silly to keep calling this blog "Bluebonnet Academy", so I've changed the name to better reflect what this blog is all about now. Right now, I'm really only blogging about what I'm doing, but I hope eventually to start adding in more information about nutrition research, DVD and book reviews and links to other blogs about living a healthier life.

Hope you enjoy the new content!

Hump day!

Today has been pretty good, so far. At least, it didn't start out with slimy, rubbery oatmeal! LOL

I didn't get to work out at Curves today, but was able to stop by long enough to weigh in. Since my last time, I have lost 1 1/4 pounds!! That brings my total weight loss up to 7 1/4 pounds since the 1st of March!!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

Breakfast:

Breakfast Sandwich (Arnold whole wheat sandwich thin, 2 slices Canadian bacon, 1 egg, 1/2 slice of provolone cheese)

1/2 grapefruit

Total Calories: 300 (much better, and definitely more satisfying!)

Snack:

1 reduced fat Colby Jack cheese stick

1/4 cup grapes (the rest were mushy :p)

12 oz V8

Total Calories: 200

Lunch:

1 Fajita Taco (3 oz fajita steak, 1 Mission Carb Balance Tortilla and 1/4 cup guacamole)

Total Calories: 370

Snack:

1 cup strawberries

1/4 cup guacamole

8 baked corn chips

Total calories: 200

Dinner:

I can't believe my plan failed!!! I totally spaced on buying a key ingredient for tonight's dinner. Guess I'm headed to Wegmans AGAIN tomorrow for the THIRD TIME this week.

Five Guys Little Cheeseburger

20 Five Guys fries

On top of that, I had so many meetings at school today that I was exhausted when I finally got home and ended up taking a nap instead of taking Buzz Boy for his walk.

Back on plan tomorrow!!!

In honor of cats everywhere

The episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that they showed at 0400 this morning is not one of my favorites, except that it starts out with Data doing a reading of some of the poetry that he has written. Here is my favorite:

"Ode to Spot"

Felis catus, is your taxonomic nomenclature

An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature?

Your visual, olfactory and auditory senses

Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations

A singular development of cat communications

That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection

For rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents

You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance

And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion

It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion

Oh, Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display

Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array

And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend

I, nonetheless, consider you a true and valued friend

Why can I cook almost anything BUT oatmeal?

Oookay, I have made several attempts over the years to cook oatmeal on the stovetop. None of them have ever turned out right and all have ended up in the garbage. Yeah, yeah, I know that regular oatmeal is better for me than the instant, but at least the instant kind ends up being edible.

So, with that in mind, and knowing that steel cut oats are even better for me than the regular (and thus at least twice better than instant), I decided to give it one more try. I tried it two ways. First, I tried following the instructions in the newest Biggest Loser cookbook. Supposedly, once the oatmeal reached room temperature, all the liquid would be absorbed. They said it would take "about 1 hour". Here we are 2 1/2 hour later and there is still unabsorbed liquid in there.

The next method I tried was to cook them according to the instructions on the actual package. I cooked it JUST LIKE IT SAID and there are still hard little oat things floating in a sea of unabsorbed liquid. So, if the grit-cooking guy in "My Cousin Vinny" had magic grits that absorbed water faster in his kitchen than anywhere else in the grit-eating world, does this mean that I have the opposite problem? Do I have evil, non-magic oatmeal? How do I manage to pick up the containers of non-magic oatmeal every time? Since we've moved several times and even changed cookware, my conclusion must be that the problem is me. Wah!!!

I managed to muscle this morning's oatmeal down, but I may actually have to resort to calling the Quaker people to find out what I'm doing wrong. And, on top of everything else, this breakfast ended up being WAY more calories than I wanted.

Breakfast:

1.8 oz Canadian Bacon

1 cup skim milk

1/2 grapefruit

1 serving oatmeal (1 cup steel-cut oats, 1/4 cup sliced peaches, 1/4 cup milk, 1 Tbsp almonds)

Total Cal: 420

Lunch:

Grilled Chicken Pita (4 oz grilled chicken, whole-wheat pita, 2 tomato slices, 1/2 roasted red pepper, and a smidge of dijon mustard)

apple

1 cup milk

Total cal: 434

Snack:

10 baked corn chips

1/4 cup guacamole

Total Cal: 146

Dinner:

1 oz whole wheat pasta

6 oz grilled chicken

1 cup mushrooms

1/2 cup sugar-free marinara sauce

2 Tbsp shredded parmesan cheese

Total Cal: 470

Total Calories: 1540 (goal 1600)

Workout:

45 minute walk with the BuzzBoy

Today was a pretty good day. I'm disappointed in the breakfast I tried today, not just in the taste, but in the amount of calories. It cost me my evening snack and I was starving ALL DAY! Pheh.

Have a great evening!

Day 1 of my new life

Oh. My. Fage! I am completely and totally in love with Fage (fa-yeh) Greek-style yogurt. I had it this morning and it is SO different from "american" yogurt. It's super-thick and creamy, not gelatinous at all. I will never go back!!!

Breakfast:

2 small boiled eggs

1 piece whole-grain toast with 1/2 tsp whipped butter

Berries & Yogurt (1/2 cup Fage, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 Tbsp ground flax seed, 1 pkt Truvia)

Lunch:

Roast beef wrap (3 oz lean roast beef, 1/4 tsp horseradish, 1 slice tomato, 1 Mission carb-balance tortilla)

3 thin slices of avocado

1 cup red and green grapes

1 small square dark chocolate with mint

Snack:

Banana Smoothie (3/4 cup Fage, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 frozen banana, 4 Tbsp vanilla protein powder)

Dinner:

Well, as I feared, we did indeed hit a stumbling block with dinner. The recipe I had planned originally was a Greek Orzo and Shrimp Salad. It *sounded* healthy, but when I plugged the recipe into Calorie Count, it came up with a count of 832 calories per serving!!!! Yowza. Axe that. I'm sure I'll find something else to use that orzo for at a later date. Luckily, it's not a fridge item. So, since my avocado hunt today was super successful, we had last night's scheduled fajitas (and, at Bean's request, I did both steak and tonight's originally scheduled shrimp -- that girl is having the BEST ideas!).

1 fajita taco (Mission Carb Balance tortilla with 3 oz steak and 2 Tbsp homemade guacamole)

4 fajita'd shrimp

Snack:

1 small orange

1 string cheese

Total calories for the day: 1545 (goal was 1500-1600). Yay me!

Workout:

30 minute walk with the BuzzBoy.

I can see from my diary, though, that I missed quite a few veggie servings today (1 out of 4 isn't such a great percentage, eh?). I'll have to figure out how to get them into my breakfast and dinner (other than just a salad).

Hope everyone had a great day!

Oookay, there were no avocados at the store (what is up with THAT?), and since I cannot eat fajitas without guac, we ended up having other stuff for dinner. I had a grilled steak and salad (organic red leaf lettuce and sliced shrooms with a lovely red wine vinaigrette dressing).

Bean invented a new sandwich that she made for herself and Hubby. She seasoned a sirloin steak with taco seasoning, grilled it, then sliced it thinly and made grilled cheese sandwiches with the steak, sourdough bread and shredded cheddar. Hubby pronounced it DELICIOUS!!

And this, ladies and gents, is why I fill out my meal plan in PENCIL. ;o)

Okay, so the meal planning done for the week and, since I'm sick, Hubby & Bean have gone to the grocery where I get my produce to stock up on yummy fruits and veg for the week. I simply refuse to buy the produce at the local commissary (unless it's apples, onions or potatoes). Their other stuff is just too icky and I've put my fingers through too many furry tomatoes there. I'm not kidding. I really miss the lovely Spanish produce we used to get at the commissary in Germany.

A couple of things I'm trying this week for the first time: steel cut oats, almond milk, homemade Truvia-sweetened lemonade and Greek-style yogurt with fresh berries and ground flaxseed (I've used Greek-style yogurt in my smoothies in the past, but I haven't eaten it as, you know, yogurt).

On tap for dinner tonight: grilled sirloin fajitas with homemade guacamole, sauteed onions and Carb-Balance tortillas. Mmmmmm. Oh, and that Truvia-sweetened lemonade. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's been such a long time since I've posted here!! Our lives have changed SO much since December 2008. We moved to a whole other continent. Bean has stopped swimming and we've stopped homeschooling. It's just been SO much.

I've decided to revive this blog to document our lives and the changes we are making. We're all committed to becoming more healthy (or "healthy at all" in my case) and just making better choices about the things we put in and on our bodies.

We've made some small changes already. We're already trying to limit the amount of processed food that we eat. We've also switched to an all-natural detergent. Bean said something to me the other day and it really struck me: "Don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't put in your mouth". Interesting notion, huh?

Anyway, I hope you'll stay posted and I'll try to be better about keeping this up to date. :o)