Week 4

Crazy how it's already week 4. I was thinking this morning about how life has changed in the last month...here are a few examples...

Before: breakfast...for the kids: sugary cereal, pop tarts or no breakfast at all, french toast sticks with syrup MYSELF: cereal and coffee or McDonald's
After: for the kids: whole grain waffle with peanut butter, protein shake, or scrambled Egg Beaters with whole wheat toast MYSELF: Kashi waffle with Egg Beaters, Flatout with almond butter and preserves or Kashi granola bar with Greek yogurt

Before: Lunch...the kids: school lunch, normally pizza or nachos with chocolate milk and ice cream or chips MYSELF before: sandwich, chips, or burger and fries, school lunch maybe, After: (for Megan, the boys are still eating school lunch but are making better choices) low-sodium turkey on whole wheat bread, light cheese stick, fruit, water and maybe a granola bar or rice cakes MYSELF: after Flatout with almond butter and preserves or leftover fish with veggies, salad with tomatoes and lite dressing, grapefruit wedges.

Before: snacks for the kids: pop tarts, Cheeszits, cereal, cookies MYSELF: vending machine candy or chips, pretzels After: kids...cheese sticks, apples, rice cakes (really limited snacks in all honesty) MYSELF: Kashi bar

Before: Dinner for kids and myself: fast food drive thru...usually cheeseburger and fries or soft tacos, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, toquitos, usually no veggies of any kind.

After: grilled chicken or fish, brown rice, broccoli, carrots or green beans, white chicken chili, chicken and cheese quesidillas on whole wheat tortillas (for a quick dinner), homemade chicken nuggets, squash.

As you can see, things have changed greatly. It will be interesting with the holidays coming up. Halloween means candy, and I will need to be on top of that. We did try and eat out yesterday for the first time. We went to Applebees, which I thought would be a good choice due to their 550 meals. Little did I know the sodium content on the meal! OMG! Megan's mini cheeseburgers were almost 500 calories EACH! (she only ate one). The meal was undercooked, overpriced and wayyyy disappointing. I walked away so disgusted, and now I realize why it's just not worth eating out.

So tonight is our first challenge...a bike challenge. I'm pretty sure I won't do well. My knees have gotten the best of me, as have Megan's, and I'd rather not injure myself. I'd rather stay in the competition than be benched for an injury, so while I will do my best, I'm not going to push myself over the edge.

It's been a good 4 weeks. I wish I would see more of a difference on the scale. 10lbs so far...wish it was more...a lot more, but 10 lbs is 10 lbs. Ben's grown 1/2 an inch and gained 4 lbs so that's great!