8 Weeks to a better me!

Well here we are! 8 weeks. Yesterday I ran for a total of 16 minutes. It was a 3 min, 5 min, 3 min 5 min with a bit of walking in the middle to total 31 minutes. It was amazing. I had no idea I could run for 5 minutes. 

I chose the treadmill on the other side of the coffee pot with a view of the front door. I enjoy people watching while I move. The coffee pot was like a carrot on a stick. People would come up and get their cup of coffee and the aroma of fresh brewed coffee would waft over me. It is also right next to the social hour table. It is very inspirational watching over weight senior citizens stuff their faces with donuts and drink coffee. It just made me run faster. 

I don't want to be fat, but more importantly I want to be healthy. I am still 1 pound heavier than when I started.  We have been eating home cooked meals more now than ever. Grocery store trips include a lot more label reading. 

This has been a life style change, not a fad crash diet. I love running and I love making wholesome good food for my kids. 

Week 7

Here we are in week 6. I have advanced with c25k. Tomorrow is my last day in week 3. Then things get intense. Looking forward to 2 5 minute intervals. 

http://m.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/24/another-brawl-broke-out-at-a-florida-publix-a-proving-ground-for-deli-fights

This really speaks to me and I can almost understand fights breaking out in the Publix deli. The Deli has gone through some kind of change. Now you have 4 people doing prep work, 1 person doing sandwiches and 1 person cutting the meat. They used to do the prep work at down times. There I stand with 3 kids waiting patiently for the cranky meat cuter while all people stare at me because my kids are Pokemon roleplaying (not moving mind you) and Alice is singing.

Food for thought.

Let's say you hire a personal chef to cook one meal for you a week. They buy all the food, chop all the vegetables and cook the main course. Then they walk away and instruct you to finish preparing the side dishes.

Would you feel that you were getting your money's worth? Why pay someone else if you are still inconvenienced with the whole cooking?

Week 6

I find it fascinating what our internal image of ourselves is compared to what we actually look like. In my mind I am not a 200 pound woman. I am just me. I don't want to be fat. I don't want to be unhealthy. I do not was to get cancer. I want to live a long and happy/healthy life with my beautiful family. I WILL be healthy and strong. I have been running 3 days a week. It feels good. 

My relationship with food has drastically changed. I no longer shove food in my mouth without thinking. I really do try to eat better food. Unfortunately food has not just changed for me it has changed for everyone else. 

It seems like everywhere I look what ever I am about to eat is sure to kill me or in the least give me cancer. No longer is it all about cooking food in a healthy way. Keeping with a healthy diet just isn't enough. Your food must be organic, gmo free, and quite possible harvested by virgins under a new moon. 

It is almost easier to just grab that quick chick fil-a sandwich and not think about the labels that bombard you in the store. I know that the fast food sandwich is bad for me, but it's about perception. With no label staring at you obviously it's ok. Unfortunately just like calories actually counting at Disney, the food at the fast food place does have bad stuff in it. Each food choice has a consequence. 

All sarcasm aside I am making better choices. We have significantly reduced our fast food intake. I know that should sound like an easy task, but with kids and the constant running for activities it's easy to fall into that rut. 

We have made huge strides with the streamlining of household tasks. It is so much easier to pack our lunch and cook our dinner at home when the house is clean and organized.

We have a great chore system in place. I can really tell when our life goes off track and the clutter piles up again. Yesterday was full of car repairs and grocery store runs. I feel almost twitchy this morning as I look around at the mess of stuff that needs to be done. Even though it is pre 8 am I have even slowly working on things this morning. 

Back to the grind.

Week 5!!!!

Today marks 29 day of going to the Y. I feel stronger. Unfortunately I have gained 1 pound, but gained muscle so I am not worrying about that right now.

The plan is 3 days a week of running and yoga. The other 2 have been bike/elliptical and Pilates. While I have not had a week where all of those things happen I am very close. The pattern of my new life of fitness is set.

I have even been working out with my 10 year old 2-3 days a week. It is so good to be growing together in health.

None of these changes would be possible without my amazing husband!! He has encouraged me and supported me every step of the way.

Hello Fresh!? Or is it?

A friend gave me a free trial of Hello Fresh so I had to give it a try. https://www.hellofresh.com

Since we are a family of 5 I upgraded from the free 3 meals for 2 to 3 meals for 4.

$129 is the cost for 3 meals for 4 people. I paid $60.

For our box I chose the Cornflake and Honey Crusted Chicken, Pan Seared Salmon, and Smoky Sloppy Joes.

The box arrived via UPS. The packaging was very unique and appealing to the eye.

 One of the gel packs broke so the packaging at the top was wet and slimy.

For our first night I cooked the Cornflake and Honey Crusted Chicken.

This is a screen shot from their website showing what the dish is supposed to look like.

Moments after arrival I opened it and took to cooking the first meal. The broccoli was bad. Discolored and slimy. A lot of the florets were yellowed. Thankfully I had ORGANIC frozen broccoli in the freezer so we were able to have a balanced dinner anyway.  I called the company and they gave me a $10 credit towards my next purchase. 

Here is a view of the ingredients. Each meal has a white box with all the goodies in side. Packaged separately are the meat items. 

I am extremely disappointed that Hello Fresh chose to use KELLOGG'S corn flakes. There is nothing healthy about corn flakes or the Virgo Yellow rice. 

According to their website: 

"Always Fresh & Healthy

Fresh is not only in our name, it's our promise to you. We bring you the freshest and healthiest food, with a dash of fun, a sprinkle of learning, and a dollop of deliciousness, all for a great price."

The BHT and GMO corn is a deal breaker for me. We have not eaten Kellogg's in years. 

I cooked the chicken according to the directions but it was still raw in the middle. So we had dinner in a few courses. The meal was well received and most popular among the children. My questions and concerns mostly involve the chicken and the rice/cereal ingredients. Where is this chicken from? What is the country of origin? It says natural but what does that mean? Are there plans to use rice that is organic and free of artificial colors? Maybe a rice with no trans fats?

For our second night I gave the Pan Seared Salmon a try. It was an interesting experience mostly because I had never eaten nor cooked salmon before.

This is a screen shot from their website showing what the dish is supposed to look like.

I was very pleased with the ingredients for this dish. I liked that it was real whole foods. The only thing that could make this better would be all organic produce. Also labeling if the ingredients had been washed or not. 

I am quite pleased with how lovely the salmon turned out.

This was also my first time having quinoa not in something as a filler. I really was not impressed with the flavor of this dish. No one enjoyed it, I think that was mostly due to the arugula. My kids eat spinach and kale raw so we are used to greens. We just don't like the bitter taste of arugula. It turned out very pretty though.

All in all a very pretty plate. A nice healthy dinner. Except it was really hard to get the arugula down. I think you either love it or hate it. At lease now I know we just don't like it.

The final dish! Smoky Sloppy Joes.

This is a screen shot from their website showing what the dish is supposed to look like.

 Tonight's menu called for a a salad. Too bad the cilantro and the lettuce were rotten.

The meat turned out very nice. It had a good flavor. There was way too much meat. We barely ate 1/2. 

Only 4 buns for 1 lb of meat so we will be using sandwich bread on the left overs.

The final product! The husband says manwich (which I won't buy because of the rubbish in it)  is better but this was a solid good meal. My concern again is where did this beef come from? Was it grass fed? Made in the USA? These are important bits of knowledge that would play a factor in me deciding to purchase again.

If all the food arrived fresh and stayed fresh long enough to eat it (3-5 days isn't a huge expectation) this could be a valid option for good food. It is quite expensive. We could eat out to Olive Garden 3 nights and feed our family of 5 for the cost of this box. If the food was Organic I could see the extra cost. I can shop at Publix/Costco and buy organic food for the same or less. I understand this is a convenience to have food dropped at your door, but I would rather drag myself to the store and have a better quality of food. If I want quick and convenient for a comparable cost I would rather go to Olive Garden or Perkin and not have to do the dishes. I did not call and report the bad salad and cilantro as I don't plan on ordering again so another $10 credit isn't enough for me to try again. $130 is a lot of money for 3 meals. I am very glad I had the chance to try out this product. I think it could be amazing for people with very busy schedules. If the food was organic I would be willing to try it again in the future if I was too busy to shop.