feeling better

I am starting my second week of eating  more balanced diet.  So far so good.  I am eating more fruits and vegetables and less breads and sweets.  I made a delicious Ricotta Cheesecake, recipe courtesy of The Queens Dish" that is much lower in fat and sugar.  Topped with a fresh raspberry sauce it taste's delicious.  The secret ingredient is Greek Yogurt!  Most recipes that call for sour cream I substitute plain Greek Yogurt.  It has much less fat, way more protein and is just overall better for you.  So it is just little changes that will make a difference.  Here is to all the little changes that make life better :)

a1c

These two letters and one number are harmless on their own but when you combine them they stand for a blood test to monitor blood glucose levels they become scary.  I have a family history of type II diabetes.  I know of this family history and know of the physical and emotional strain having Diabetes causes on yourself and your family.  I know how to prevent type II diabetes.  Eating a healthy diet, exercising and keeping your weight down.  I have not been good about eating healthy, exercising or keeping my weight down.  So at my yearly checkup my Dr. looked at my a1c level and said hmmmm.  I don't like this.  You see it is at 5.9 which is considered to be pre-diabetic.  I was stunned for a moment and then all these thoughts starting pouring into my head.  How did this happen?  What should I do?  Can I change?  How did I let this happen?  How could I be so reckless with my health?  After I got home from work I came home and just kind of sat down in a quite place and said to myself, you can fix this.  So i have come up with a plan.  First I cannot get stressed because that will not help.  Second I will write down my menu for the week and stick with it.  Third my Saturdays will be set aside making healthy lunches I can take to work so  I am not tempted to go out to eat at lunch.  Fourthly I will leave my wallet in the car so that I do not have access to money if I get tempted to go out for lunch.  Last but not least I will begin to exercise regularly.  It won't be easy but I have no choice.  I must lose weight and get my eating under control.

At first I was so scared.  But I have prayed and prayed and feel at peace with my plan.  I am grateful for the body I have been given and need to treat it with the love and care that I should.

Coffee Cake

Here is a delicous reciepe from my Aunt. 

Pre-heat oven to 350

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream ( I substitute Greek Yogurt and highly recommend it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups flour (You can't go wrong with King Arthur)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt ( I never add)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans ( I use walnuts, it is a matter of personal taste)

Directions:
    Beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar together until fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Stir in sour cream (or greek yogurt), lemon juice, and vanilla.  Beat until well blended.  In a seperate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir into the batter until it is smooth.  Spoon half the batter into a greased 9- inch tube pan.  Combine remaining sugar, nutes and cinnamon and sprinkle two-thirds of it over the batter.  Top with remaining mixture of nuts.  Place in center rack of oven and bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes.  Serve Warm and enjoy! 

April Fools

It is April Fools day and I have no good jokes to play.  That is fine with me because I am more excited about it being April.  I am listening to birds chirping outside and have opened the windows in the house to let the fresh, crisp spring air in.  This time of rebirth for nature is one of my favorites.  It reminds me of my Saviors love for not only me but for all of his children.  He sacrificed all for us so that we could be free to choose to come back to him.  His sacrifice gave us the Atonement which gives us the chance to be forgiven when we go through a dark season in our life.  Spring gives us hope just as the Atonement gives us hope.  On this first day of April I am reflecting on the Savior and his infinite love for us. 

The best Hershey Peanut Butter Caramel Kiss cookies

I am going to share this wonderful cookie reciepe that a friend had given me years ago.  I tweaked a couple of things in the reciepe to make it my own.  I use King Arthur All Purpose Flour. It makes a better cookie. I use a jar of FRESH peanut butter.  If you don't have one that is fine but again the new fresh jar makes a better cookie.   I use the hershey caramel kisses, because who would not want a cookie with peanut butter, chocolate and caramel.  For the pans I use the thicker baking ones or I will use a stonewear pan.  The stonewear pan seems to produce a cookie that stays moist longer. 

Sift:  3 1/2 cup flour    
         2 tsp baking soda  }Set Aside
        1/2 tsp salt
In a seperate bowl:
Cream:    1 Cup Peanut Butter and 1 Cup Shortening
Add:       1 Cup white sugar and 1 Cup brown sugar
Add:        2 eggs, 4 Tbsp milk and 2 tsp vanilla

Combine the creamed mixture with flour mixture and shape into balls. Roll in sugar.  Bake on Ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Place the unrwapped hershey caramel kiss on top so the cookie cracks.  Return to oven and bake 2 to 3 more minutes longer.  Cool on a cookie rack and then Enjoy!

Seattle

It is that time of year in Virginia!  Our weather patterns resemble more of the rainy pacific northwest weather.  I must say I do enjoy it for a couple of days.  Then I am ready for the sun to make her appearance again.  I am ready for the flowers to start blooming, the tree buds to pop out and am so ready for the longer days.  Spring is here and you can smell it in the air, feel it on your skin, welcome back humidity, and the added spring to my step definatley indicates the new season.

seasons

Spring is just around the corner and I could not be happier.  I have had a very difficult winter season for many reasons that I have kept to myself.  I cannot wait to shed my winter coat and welcome in spring.  With the new season approaching I am already feeling a sense of relief, a sense of peace and a sense of renewal.  So as the the flowers and trees start blooming I hope my spirit will do the same. I hope that as the sun stays out longer and shows us those beautiful sun rays that I will as well become more of a light to those around me in all places in my life.  I am grateful for this approaching Spring season and am grateful for the past difficult season because it gave me an opportunity to grow and become a better person.

boring

I have decided that posting about my daily workouts is not only boring for me but boring for anyone else who might possibly read this little blog, which I am pretty sure is noone but me.

day 10

Last night was a cardio intense workout!  My lungs were burning and I felt like my heart was going to pound out of my chest!  I am starting to feel better and am noticing I have more energy.  Eighty more days to go!

new week

Last night started a whole new week of the p90x cycle.  I actually was able to keep up a little better last night.  Time will tell. 

days 5 and 6

Days 5 and 6 were a bit challanging.  The legs and back workout was hard.  I can't even do one pull up! What I like about the legs and back is that the instructor alternates between the two so that you don't get bored and so that your legs are shaking so bad that you can't keep going.  Yesterday was a cardio kickboxing like workout.  It was ok.  I think i need to put more effort into it because I was not really breathing that hard or breaking much of  a sweat.  Today is my day off and the I start week 2 tomorrow.

missed a day

I did not do my yoga workout yesterday - whoops - sometimes there are parts of my life that are much more important than exercise. 

I am getting ready to do my workout - legs, back and abs.  Should be interesting.

day 3

I am again posting about day 3 on the morning of day 4?  I have some time management issues at the moment.  I had to cut my workout short last night because I had to get my daughter to her youth activity.  But what i did was tough.  It was shouldars and arms and boy were they burning in the 35 minutes I did workout.  Tonight is Yoga so I am hoping that will be a little bit of a rest for me. 

Day 2

I am writing about day 2 of p90x on the morning of day three.  The reason being that I was so tired after the workout last night I went to bed!  I am definately feeling musles in my body that I have not felt since doing a "Boot Camp" class years ago.  This is good but also somewhat painful.  My daughter joined me last night for the cardio x 45 minute workout.  This made it much more fun.  My heartrate was definately up there, at one point it was 179, and it felt great.  Tonight is going to be tougher because it is upper body work and I have a weak upper body.  Hopefully I will be able to type when the workout is done!

p90x

I have just started the p90x workout program.  Today was my first day and it was hard.  Not exagattering here it was really hard.  Did I mention how hard the first workout was?  Before I began the program I was suppose to take a picture for before and after.  So not going to happen.  I will take measurements and store them in a sacred place and hopefully after 90 days those numbers will be smaller. 

My goal is to blog about this experience.  Should be interesting since I am probably the most random blogger on the face of this planet.  Here is to sticking to goals.   

EFY

I must admit when I first signed Christina up for EFY I was very nervous. I have never been away from Christina for more than a couple of days. There was some sadness because she is a wonderful child and I knew I would miss her greatly. I have had a hard week without her. I miss her terribly. She has been calling me every night to chat and say good night. Tonight when she called there was such an enthusiasm in her voice I knew something great happened. Something wonderful did happen. She bore her testimony for the first time in her life. While she was on the phone with me describing how EFY has helped her find her testimony and how it has changed her life spiritually I knew I had done the right thing. Letting go is hard but in this case it is worth it. She just could not stop talking about how happy she was to finally feel the spirit so strong and how happy she was to bear her testimony and share those feelings. So through tears of complete joy I chatted with her about her experience at EFY. I am grateful she has had this opportunity. I can't wait to go pick her up Saturday morning. I am bringing tissues because I know I am going to need them.

It is all about Perseverance

Christina has been trying out for a solo in chorus since she began middle school. Each fall and spring she would try out for a solo and each fall and spring she would not be picked. She never gave up though. She kept trying out and all that perseverance paid off! She had her first solo of her middle school chorus years tonight. The spring concert of her 8th grade year. She was so excited when she came home from school yesterday that I knew something really good happened. She was so hyper she could barely get the sentence out to tell me she got the solo. Her voice teacher and good friend of mine Kristen and another good friend of mine Tianna came to watch her performance. I am grateful for friends who willingly sit through an entire chorus concert of which none of their children are participating in.

I am so proud of Christina for not giving up! She never got down about not being picked for solo's she just said I will try harder next time. So all of her hard work has been rewarded and I have a very happy 8th grader this evening.

Mothers Day

It is hard to believe I have been a Mom for 14 years. It really does seem like yesterday that Christina was born. It is funny how your appreciation of Mothers increases ten fold when you in fact become a Mother. Although it is the hardest job in the World it is also the most rewarding.

This morning my wonderful daughter made me delicious Blueberry Muffins. They were my Noni's recipe and my favorite. Here are some pictures of the yummy muffins.

And here is the recipe as written by Noni, my Italian Grandmother. Enjoy!

1 cup berries

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 egg well beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup melted shortening ( which really means butter)

Wash and drain the berries. Mix and sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside. Combine egg, milk and melted shortening. Add all at once to the flour mixture. Stir till liquid is absorbed. Gently fold in berries. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full. Heat oven to 400 F. and bake for 20 minutes or until brown.

I hope all my wonderful friends have a fabulous Mothers Day!

Christina's first Church Dance!

Christina turned 14 back in March and this is the "magical age" that the youth are allowed to start going to dances. She was really excited to go and apparently was having a good time before the dance even started. She got asked to dance by one boy and that was good enough for her. Her secret crush was not there so she was slightly bummed. When I peaked in the last couple of minutes, because as a parent I just can't help myself, she was skipping around the gym without a care in the world. She did not stop and think, people are looking at me I should act "normal". She just kept skipping and twirling and having a great time. I love that she has not lost the ability to just have fun and be herself. I hope that she keeps that for a long time. I hope her spirits are never crushed by someone making fun of her because she is having a good time and maybe not dancing "cool" like everyone else. Sometimes our children teach us valuable lessons. As I was watching her I thought why do we let what other people might think from holding us back from skipping when we want to. She reminded me that being ourselves is a great thing. So thank you Christina for having the strength and courage to be yourself.

Cherry Blossoms

Every year in early spring my daugher, my Dad and I go to the tidal basin in Washington D.C. to see the Cherry Trees in full bloom. If you live in the Washington Metropolitan area and have never been I highly recommend going. We go very early Sunday Morning, we leave Leesburg at 6am, so we can beat the crowds and get into D.C. around 6:45. By the time we park, which does not take that long because my Dad works for the F.A.A. and can park at their building which is only about 5 blocks from the tidal basin, we are usually at the basin by 7:15 a.m. It is wonderful that we can take our time walking around because there is hardly anyone there. It is peaceful, beautiful and a great way to spend time with the family. We always visit the Jefferson Memorial and walk up the steps to read the words written so long ago and need to be remembered more often. This is my absolute favorite thing to do in the Spring. To me it represents the start of Spring a new Season where we can come out of our Winter doldrums and start anew.