Hey Joe! Why are you so sloppy?!

Just a quick blog update. Dinner last night the whole family loved! Sloppy Joes...With a healthy twist!!
I like to take things we all love to eat and make them a little bit better. Firstly 99% of the meats we eat are lean meats. This recipe is made with 97% fat free ground turkey. You also can pick your favorite barbecue sauce too. (Mine is Sweet Baby Rays) But I think I will be making my own for the summer to get it a little bit healthier.For the bun (when I do rarely eat bread)I use the Sara Lee's 100% Multi-Grain Thin Bakery Bread. Here is how to make your quick delicious dinner.  

Turkey Sloppy Joe's

1Lb Lean ground turkey.

1/2 Red Bell pepper

1/2 Green pepper

1 Small purple onion

2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive oil

1 cup of Barbecue Sauce

4 buns

6oz Tomato paste

Chop peppers and onions, add to frying pan with olive oil cook until tender(about 5 min). Add Turkey to pan and cook until brown.(about 8-10 min)Add Tomato paste and Barbecue sauce. Heat until warmed through. Serve warm!

So happy to have something wrong.

Me and my soon to be 6 year old!

This is going to be a crazy busy week so I figure I will update the 3 of you who want to know whats going on in my life. Tayler turns 6 in a few days. Though I LOVE Pintrest, and use ideas off of it almost daily (Sewing, Crochet,Cooking,Crafting). Does anyone else feel the pressure that Pintrest puts on you? I am doing my son's birthday party Nerf themed. This is not really a theme I can go and buy at Party City.

Pintrest Inspired Invitations.

 So what do I do? I Pintrest! Now I have 6 days before the birthday party and have a list longer then my arm of crafts and ideas I need to put together. I am the over doer birthday mom, so this is kinda of normal. Every year  I would be able to complete last minute NO PROBLEM with my usual 4 to 5 hours of sleep. I feel at the moment I am being tested. My patience, My sanity and, My pain threshold. I provide in home child care 7 days a week, and for the past 2 months I have has "Something wrong" with me. I went to the Dr no less then 10 times in the past 8 weeks. Had dozens of test done and FINALLY they find out my Gallbladder is not working properly(I diagnosed my self with WebMD Weeks ago they should just listen to me). It doesn't contract like it should so it basically over flows. When we got the last set of test back my Dr called me litteraly the second she got them in, I had just walked in the door from the hour drive to Seattle to get the test done. She said "Amanda! You will be happy to know there IS something wrong with you! You are not crazy!" So I get to have it out (Thank God) on the 24th. SO Besides being in pain everyday, this is actually a blessing. See being in pain is a huge damper on my positiveness. (is that a word?) Therefor I have made an effort every day to find a positive thing in my day. It really is quite easy, It helps a ton, and I feel better about all the bad stuff. Yes my back, shoulders, neck, side and stomach hurt..but only really bad when I eat anything fatty. So what do I do? I eat low low fat. Which helps in my healthy eating! Guess who is down 30 lbs NOW!! Woot! It also makes me super tired. This may seem bad but I sleep at night. That is rare. The other night I fell asleep at 10 pm and my handsome, harry, husband woke me up at 8a.m. To tell me one of my babies I watch just rolled over! My first thoughts are OMG I didn't move? How did I miss my alarm?KIDS...SCHOOL!

Handsome, Harry, Husband.

Sean see's my panic and tells me our kids are at school, and the other kids are already dropped off here and fed(me staring wide eyed) ......whaa...no..words. It really made me appreciate him that much more. That is not his job, that is my job, but he said he never sees me sleep like that so he let me be. I need it. (Swoon) Weird how that is what is romantic now, after only 8 years of marriage, it use to be bed and breakfasts and nights out..now its sleeping in. Now I am thinking, what if my faulty gallbladder is a good thing? Can I leave it? No I think its my crutch (or slap in the face) Stay positive, appreciate more, eat healthy, be a good example. So i will take it for that instead of a faulty organ and in a few weeks after its gone I hope to keep it up.

"The test we must set for ourselves is not a march alone but to march in such a way that others wish to join us." -Hubert Humphrey

A little less padding makes a fat girl happy!

Motivation from Pintrest!

Well Hello procrastination. I would be lying if I said "I just forgot" to update my blog, or "I didn't have time." After I hurt my knee running and let it heal, I started riding  my awesome pink bike, as my last Debby Downer of a blog (4 months ago) told you. Well I fell in to the same routine of life that seems to happen after a few weeks of "Diet" or "Exercising" goes, and life went on. I felt so bad about my epic fail that was my personal motivational blog I would not even look at all the blogs I love to read so much. So what changed?

My Zumba friend!

I had a sweet friend who needed to stay with me a few months, as her family was moving to Alaska and she needed to tie up some loose ends here in Olympia. She told me that she was going to lose a bunch of weight. She would be away from her husband for this time and wanted to knock him off of his feet when she saw him again. She is an in shape woman, and a runner lucky for me she decided to get her Zumba instructor certification. We would wake up early in the mornings around 5:30-6 am and would go on a long walks around the lake. The city was dark and quiet it never seemed like a "workout" at all. I did it just because I got out of the house, got coffee and to relax. I know your thinking WHAT THE HELL AMANDA?! 5:30!?!  Really my Mother told me this a few years back and its so true (GASP!! MY MOTHER WAS RIGHT?!) "The hardest part of getting up early is physically getting out of bed after that its done and your up." So really the hard part is..what..5 seconds? Anyways.. We did that for a few weeks and played the Zumba Wii game every evening. She also introduced me to the WONDERFUL world of Protein shakes!  I felt great after a few weeks, never thought about loosing any weight it just felt good to have a healthy routine. Then one day I did the UNTHINKABLE...I stepped on the scale. I always assumed it was bigger then I thought but gah! That day it clicked for me. I don't want to loose weight. I want to be healthy. I wan't my whole family to be healthy. Where do I start? Well first I joined Weight Watchers online, I use it as a way to track what I have eaten, it also has THOUSANDS of recipies. Then I got rid of all the crap in the house. Then I did what I never though was possible. I started cooking 6 sometimes 7 nights a week (GASP!!). Mostly cooking with Lean Turkey, Chicken, Seafood, and VEGGIES! We all love them so we may go to the grocery store every day, or every other day but we eat lots of fresh veggies. Anytime we would go out to a restaurant I would look online and find things to eat before going. So I could make the best decision, and not be overwhelmed in to an unhealthy one. Long story short I started logging my food and tracking my weight 8 weeks ago today. I lost 25lbs and am ecstatic! I don't see much of a difference on myself yet, but other people are noticing so that give me hope! I think with my renewed motivation I will try C25K again. Running sounds daunting but summer is coming and the weather can only get better from the weeks of cold wet we have had the past few months! It has helped having friends who are also doing Weight Watchers little things like "Oh man how many points do you have left today?" Or "Wow that walk added enough points for me to have some of that pie tonight!" Helps so much. My next goal is another 25 lbs, then I am conquering the world!

Me 25lbs Less!!