3 pounds!!!

I lost 3 pounds during my first week being back on Weight Watchers!! I am so proud of myself! I was so sure I was going gain this first week because I am definitely still getting used to the difference in eating!
I even went out to dinner this week, I just made sure to save up my points before hand. WW gives you 35 "extra points" for the week that you can allocate how you wish, most people just add 5 extra points on to their day. I saved up those points plus my points for that day, and I had 32 points to "spend" to splurge on my meal out! Man, did I SPLURGE!!! We went to BJ's new restaurant on Broadway and Craycroft and they are my new favorite restaurant!!
I don't know if my meal was really that amazing because the food was amazing, or if it was because I had worked so hard during the week, but it was AMAZING!!
My hardest thing is snacking. I noticed that I am using a lot of points on snacks because I'm hungry throughout the day. I want to have some snacks that are low in points, but are also low in preparation...any thoughts??

Weight Loss Journey

I have decided that I'm sick of being overweight. This past week I re-joined Weight Watchers. That's right, I'm a previous WW drop out, but this time I'm determined to succeed!
I need to healthy and happy for my kids. They deserve a healthy mommy who is going to be around forever!!
Not only am I counting points for what I eat, I'm in search for healthy and easy recipes to cook for my family. My family needs to be eating healthier, not just me. As I search I will post any recipes I find here for everyone to enjoy! If you have any recipes, I would love for you to share! I do still plan to have freezer cooking days, so my recipes also need to be able to freeze well, or keep for a few days in the refrigerator. How is this possible all while working full time? Well I don't know that yet, but I'm going to figure it out! :)
This time around in the WW world I have a friend who as joined for support as well! It is so nice to be able to go with someone who understands what I'm going through. I also love that I can text her and she can text me before thinking about ruining our day on something frivolous! Nicole is the best WW partner I could ask for!
Of course I want to be healthy and feel good, but I definitely want to LOOK good as well! My goal is to lose 40 pounds! I'm not going to give myself a timeline because I will just be disappointed if I don't make it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to slack off though! Any helpful hints and tips would be much appreciated!
Hang around and watch my journey! Join in if you'd like!

The FAT girl

Whenever you go to the party there are always "those" girls: The skinny ones, the trendy ones, the popular ones, and the fat ONE. There is usually always ONE fat girl there, and the other night I was the FAT girl at the party! That night I cried myself to sleep because I don't want to be the fat girl anymore, thus I am starting a new diet and exercise goal!
I am searching for healthy, protein rich dinner recipes online and am finding a few I'd like to try. My husband is very picky and most of the recipes I'm finding online are fancy-like or have too many ingredients that he just won't eat, so I'm asking all you blogging ladies out there, what is your healthiest, most normal recipe that you make??
Obviously we're going to be eating a lot of chicken now, but do you have any favorite lean beef recipes I should try?
What should I eat for snacks? I did WW in college, but can't remember all of the ins and outs of snacking, and I'm sure things have changed in the past 7 years!
So my weight loss journey begins now...
any tips of the trade? anyone want to join me?

No more babies :(

No more babies in my house!! Addison is ALMOST officially walking! She did a lot of walking on her own today! We have been working with her, holding her hands while she walks, and she has been using the walker more. Today she kept letting go of the walker and would take a good 10-15 steps on her own, walking toward Ben! Soo cute!! I am so excited because we have been waiting for this milestone for quite some time. She'll be 17 months next week!
Even though this is an exciting time, it is a little sad as well. This means that I will no longer have any more babies around! Of course they will always be my babies, but they are growing up too fast!
Addison is on her way to 2 years old and becoming a toddler now that she's walking, and Aiden is starting kindergarten in August! Where does the time go?

My sister's pregnant!

So my baby sister (even if she is 25) is having a baby of her own! She found out last week and is due sometime in February! So excited to be an Auntie!! She's now able to understand why I always told her she couldn't pay me enough to carry her children! She used to try to tell me she was going to pay me $1 million to carry her children...all I ever did was laugh! I hated being pregnant! Twice was enough for me! ;)
She's really hoping for a girl, so we'll see! I can't wait for Aiden and Addison to have a cousin!!

My cooking day!

So I did it! :) I spent the whole morning cooking this morning!
I started by chopping up all the onions and bell peppers I needed. Then I divided the ground beef up for all the meals I was making.
I started with the roast first because I needed to get that in the crock pot. That is going to become shredded beef for 2 different meals, BBQ Beef Sandwiches, and burritos.
Then I started on the chili. While I was sauteing the veggies and ground beef for the chili I started browning the ground beef for the taco meat. While all of that was cooking I separated the last of the ground beef into 2 different bowls for my meatloaf and meatballs.
I seasoned both batches of the ground beef, molded one into the meatloaf, and then made the balls and threw it all in the oven!
Then I finished off the chili to let that simmer for awhile and finished the taco meat.
Finally I chopped all the chicken I needed for the spicy chicken recipe and the fajitas and got it cooking.
I let everything cool before packaging it up to put in the freezer!
Tomorrow I'm going to put a pork roast in the crock pot to shred for carnitas for another meal!
So excited to see if everything freezes okay when we start taking the meals out!

Freezer Cooking

I've started my planning for my big day of cooking to stock my freezer!
I have written out the recipes I want to cook and made a list of ingredients I already have on hand. Then I wrote my list of ingredients I need to buy, I was going to go to the grocery store today, but didn't get over there...what else is new right?!?! So I'm going to the store tomorrow!
My goal is to start cooking on Wednesday and finish up on Thursday! I'm so excited to have meals on hand to make night time easier! :)
My recipes:
Meatloaf
Meatballs
seasoned ground beef for tacos
Shredded beef- enough for BBQ sandwiches one night, and shredded beef burritos another night
Shredded pork for carnitas
Spicy Chicken
Cooked chicken strips for stir fry
Cooked strips of steak for fajitas
chili
So that's 10 dinners to hold me over for about 2 weeks! We'll probably do some left overs and going out or take out for a few other nights. I'm so excited!
This will be my trial run. If everything works out well my plan is to do this once a month to keep work nights easy! Wish me luck!
If you like this idea and would like the planning pages I used check out Money Saving Mom's blog!