Clear Vision

I finally finished my new vision board this week.

My  Current Vision Board You can change your plan anytime It's up to you.

 I was so excited to put it up and have it there as a physical thing for me to look at. It is very important to lay down a good plan of what I want to achieve. Though somethings my be wants more then needs that is totally fine with me! I have this up next to my TV in the living room since we spend most of our time here. I want it there in front of me all day so when ever I get the urge to eat something bad or not workout I have it there to remind me and motivate me of what I want and why I am doing it. It's discipline hard work and sweat.

Healthy celebs and somethings I want for our home

I love when I am sitting there and think hey I need to eat or workout what do I want then I look up and see my goals. It's helped me stay on track and I hope it can do the same for you. Put what ever you want on here. Pictures of Celebs, food, activities you want to try places you want to go. Anything this is for you so have a clear vision of you want in the long run and not what you are craving right now.

Try new workout and new trends A la headband

 You are and Adult don't give in the the kid inside you that wants everything right now and doesn't know how to wait for things.

I want to take a dance class with Davis and go horse back riding together oh and be a hot mama!

Happy Friday!  

Gabby

Daily Routine.

I know we are 8 days into the new year and you may have already stopped your crazy crash diet or I am giving up grains and going to the gym everyday resolution. Lets face the facts they usually never stick because the are not safe or easy to stick with you can't avoid food forever you know. I think I have tried and failed every diet out there. Until last year I don't think I had ever truly seen the light at the end of the tunnel. I stopped dieting and started eating real food and getting full I might add. Oh and drinking tons of water. I thought I would share what a topical day in my life looks like without any food related resolutions.

Get up around 4:30 am do my T25 workout with my lovely husband who got me up to do this now. So it's done and out of the way. 25 MINUTES later it's done and we have our Shakeology. Yum what a way to start my day off right. We love to have the Chocolate shakeology with a banana Justin's Almond butter and almond and coconut milk. Seriously the best chocolate shakeology recipe.  Charles always wakes up when there is 5 minutes left to the workout like clock work.

Wake up around 7:30 am by this time my husband is long gone to work. Charles usually wakes up first and then lays in bed with me until he gets tired of watching me fake sleep. We get out of bed and head straight for the bathroom wash up and let our doggy outside for a break. I turn on the computer in our office and start with breakfast.
We 9 out of 10 times have the same thing for breakfast unless Daddy is home then I try to make something more hearty for all of us. Charles has Van's gluten free pancakes and some Egg whites with spinach and Munster cheese. I have 3 egg whites & spinach and some oatmeal with sugar free syrup and a hit of cinnamon.
We watch some TV after breakfast some news and cartoons for the baby. around
9:00 am we come into the office check emails, catch up with clients, facebook and favorite blogs. He works on his artwork and by this I mean he draws on the walls because I left a pencil lying around.

 This goes on for about an hour at 10:00 am we head back to the living room to watch Wendy Williams. At first I was not a fan then one day while I was pregnant I didn't want to change the channel and I feel in love with this women. She is awesome so now we watch her mon-fri. After Wendy is over we play with toys, read books and watch some Arthur you know like from PBS! Yes we are super huge Arthur fans in this house how can you not love it and have a snack we have yogurt. He has banana yogurt I have plain organic yogurt with frozen blueberries. Then comes my favorite nap time!!! Charles is still nursing a little for naps and bedtime. He sleeps for 12:00 pm till about 1:30 or 2. He gets up we have lunch and play some more. I wish I could say I got a lot of stuff done while he naps but that would be a lie. I just watch TV or nap. Oh I know I am super awesome mom. Around two is when stuff finally starts getting done. We have lunch  and clean up the house. For lunch Charles has fish, chicken or turkey, kale and brown rice and a sweet potato. I also have ground turkey with veggies and sweet potato and a dash of bbq sauce and sriracha I could eat this everyday oh wait I do. It's that good.

Charles lunch this boy loves kale

I finish cleaning up and by this time I get thinking of what we are going to do when Davis comes home. Run errands, go visit family, take a walk or whatever we have going on that week. Davis gets home around 4 and by this time I need like 2 seconds to myself you know to keep sane and wipe all the stuff of my clothes god I hope the was ketchup or bbq sauce. Or maybe a hot shower wow that sounds amazing.
Now it's 5:30 and I start on dinner we will be having talapia with dill, kale and brown rice.
Then we run to the store or stop by my parents house say hi and then head home for the night. We catch up on our shows, South Park and Once upon a time.

Then go to bed around 9ish and have a tablespoon of almond butter.
 We have been trying to be so good about going to bed sooner since we have been working out at 4:30am and it's been going good except for the day when Davis alarm didn't go off and he got to work late. Other then that it's been smooth sailing. 

What does a "normal" day look like in your life. Maybe share some pics for us we would love to know.

Guilt free snacks

1. Sabra Roasted pepper hummus. I have 2 ounces of hummus with a red pepper. Really delicious and you get the bonus of more water in your diet since the bell pepper is loaded with water, I also like putting the hummus in side of hard boiled eggs without the yolk.
 2 Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie packs it gives you the right amount of health fats without eating the bowl of guac. Like I may or may not always do. I like to eat it on a slice of Ezekiel bread.
3. Ezekiel bread. See #2.
4.Keep it clean and eat a green apple. Need I say more.
5. PB2 taste great, low calorie and I use it as a dip for my celery sticks.
6. I love Justin's Almond butter with a banana especially in my Shakeology. But alone drizzle the almond butter on your banana and that will hit the sweet spot. And for extra will power buy the single serve packs because no  one can be trusted with the whole jar. My son and niece walk around together with the jar and a couple spoons. They are both one by the way.

Do you have a go to snack? Damn now I need a snack.

Green Chile Enchiladas

I love green chile enchiladas the are so easy to make and super simple to put together. I made them as a dish for Charles 1st Birthday party. They were a huge hit but those were made with shrimp. For a easier way to incorporate it to your menu I used chicken.

Preheat oven to 350° Once your chicken breast are cooked, cooled, and shredded.

I take about 6 of the tortillas and wrap them in paper towels and put them in the microwave I find that this prevents them from breaking. While they are warming up I layer a coat of the sauce on your baking dish. Once the tortillas are out I start my assembly line. Add your chicken to the tortilla and the tuck in the sides. Place it seam down in to your dish. Repeat over and over until your done. Once you have your whole dish full with one row you top it more enchilada sauce.

 Here you can choose to added a second layer of enchiladas for more of a casserole or just get another dish and do single layers. Top it off with your cheese, cover with foil. Then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes and your ready to eat.

 We pair our enchiladas with brown rice salsa and a couple of slices of avocado. & Being me I added some sauce to my rice. Cause I am awesome like that.

Do you use store bought or make your own enchilada sauce? I tried so many recipes and can sauces and I finally found my favorite will you share yours.

Spicy Salmon Bake

How is it tuesday already? No seriously, Thanksgiving is two days away. We don't go out to eat because 1. I love to cook. 2. It's was cheaper. That said I have an awesome dinner idea for a baked spicy salmon.

Top it off with fresh ground black pepper. Serve it up with a side salad and corn tortillas and enjoy.

Cooking one meal for all

What? Can this truly be done? But I am eating healthy and my family won't eat that. Does that sound familiar? I  as well as many others are  so guilty of this. I am on a diet so I have to cook different for me then what I do for my family. Although that may not always be possible because of health issues or allergies. I get that. In our case this is a non issue for the most part except we don't eat pork. I am allergic so we don't have it. Davis does eat it when his mom makes it but I will not cook it at home. Other then these reasons why is it that when we are on a "diet" we always think that we have to cook 2 seperate meals for your family and then for you?  Davis and I started working out together in September of this year. Before that I was cooking separate meals why? Well it's just what you do when one go on a diet right. Wrong. Or even cooking different things for your family just because your eating healthy and they are not. Yeah make total sense to do double the work. Huh? No makes no sense at all. Some kids are picky or allergies come in and play role but if there is no reason why you all can't eat the same meal simplify your lifestyle and your cooking it will be just that much easier for you to stick to a lifestyle and not a diet.

This is Davis and I when we were dating aww we were babies.

 

 

On our trip to California in 2010

Before our Church Wedding in 2011

6 Months post baby. Yup not pregnant here. This was such a low point for me. But I am happy to have moved past this.

Now since Davis is as committed as I am to our new lifestyle it is so easy to cook. We have our set meal plan, We eat the same food. Cooking is a breeze and packing his lunch takes minutes not an hour at the end of my long and crazy day. I just take my cooked brown rice, pick a protein and some fruit and nuts get his Shakeology ready and I'm done. In the morning he grabs it and goes. It really takes the guess work out of it. He has lost a little over 20lbs in 2 months! I am so proud of his hard work and change in his eating habits. He was a huge fan of soda and gave it up cold turkey. What a champ.So go ahead and try this make a meal that is clean and healthy and cook it for everyone in your family. Guess what if you make it there is a good chance they are going to eat it  just because it's cooked and they are hungry.

My reason why

I am a momma of a one year old little boy. Charles is my life. Words cannot express how much I love him or my husband. After the birth of my son on my 25^th birthday via emergency C-section I was in the worst shape of my life. I am 5’4 and a half.  When I got home I weighed 224 lbs. I went in weighing 212. I spent the first 2 months of his life feeding him and making sure he was taking care of. I am still breastfeeding and he is almost 13 months. I completely forgot to take care of myself. I would eat anything. Because well, with breast feeding the weight will come right off. MYTH. It does not it takes work, hard work to get it back. I didn’t start getting into shape until July of this year. Our birthday was only a few months away and I didn’t want to look bad at my one year mark. That’s when I found Kati, she is my Beachbody  coach. She is amazing super supportive and helped me get where I am today.  I started eating better and then started P90X then Shakeology. In just four months I had lost 30lbs. Then I joined a challenge group and am down 40lbs. I am not where I want to be yet but I am getting there. I want to be your coach and help you get your dream body. Here I will be blogging about our family and our lifestyle. You can expect honesty and accountability. You will be finding recipes, financial tips and how we are getting out of debt we just finished Financial Peace University the Dave Ramsey class. Fitness info galore, and fun with family and friends.  Now my reason behind my motivation is my family. I want to be here for them for a long time. I want to keep up with my son. He is already a bullet and so smart. I need the best chance to keep up with him and I intend to give this my all. 100% on my part are you ready to give your all? What is behind your drive? I would love to know.  Here are some photos  from my life and my current progress.   

 

D.I.Y. Body Scrub

Hi my name is Gabby,I had a baby and got stretchmarks. Well to be fair I had some prior to baby. I tried my hardest to always put on belly lotion while I was pregnant.But  I  still got a few from Charles and then more from the tugging on my skin from the C-section. I have been using oils and lotions to help the appearance of my stretchmarks but by far the best thing I have done is this body scrub. It's a combination of things that I had at home and mixed them up and started using it in the shower. I interned with a skin specialist moons ago and I took inspiration from there. This is the recipe I have used I use what I have but I'm sure you can substitute for what you have on hand. First off I go to Starbucks inside of my local Target. No seriously that's were they lovely workers give me their ground up used coffee. Seriously and free. You can use it for your garden too. They always give me a huge bag. It's awesome. I then take about 4 cups if the coffee and put it in my mixer.

Then I gather the rest of my ingredients: Baby oil, Olive oil, Kosher salt, Turbinado Cane sugar, Vanilla extract (I used Imitation because that's all I had.) and you will need some jars and a measuring cup and measuring spoon.
I take about half a cup of kosher salt and a little over 1/3 of the cane sugar in the measuring cup and put it in the mixer.

Then add 2 tablespoons of  baby oil and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I add the vanilla for the scent only just because I got strong grounds. and I only used a tablespoon. Then I mix it all up I have a Kitchen aid mix and use speed 2 I don't usually go any faster cause this could get messy. In about a minute it's done.

Then I scoop it out and place it in some old jars. I put one in the shower and the other two in the fridge so they don't go bad. The jars last about 2 weeks each depending on how much I use and how often. I always apply it on wet skin and in a circular motion for about 2 to 3 minutes on my stretchmarks. Then wash it off. When I'm out of the shower then I just put on lotion this scrub has really help me.

My finished body scrubs. Happy scrubbing.