Getting there...1/2 a step at a time.

I'm slowly working more clean eating into my families routine.  It's really hard to change up to 30 years of bad choices.  My hubby's parents and my parents are not clean eaters.  They know what healthy food is, just choose not to eat it.  We both grew up eating mostly cheap, easy food.  Not necessarily healthy and not always tasty.  Our parents were trying to fill bellies most of the time. He grew up in a military family on army budget.  I grew up in the backwoods of the Ozarks. I would say dirt poor but I think the dirt was wealthier then us.   My siblings and I got garden veggies and foraged goodies(poke greens, blackberries, etc) in the summer and lots of carbs in the winter (beans and cornbread) not exactly unhealthy.  Just cooked in a way to make it unhealthy.  A lot of our foods were highly processed items because processed stuff is cheap and you can buy lots of it(boxed mac and cheese anyone).
Anyway, I'm trying to change what we were used to growing up.  I think Hubby ate more junk then I did but that's neither here nor there.  Right now what is important is what we are currently putting in our and our kiddies bodies. 
So slowly, very slowly things are changing.  I'm noticing less junk food (minus this past holiday weekend) in the house.  I'm buying more fruit and veggies. I'm losing pants sizes (weight is going to just not this week).  Hubby mentioned his pants being looser, too.  Kiddies are not losing weight because they don't need to.  My kids are all kinda scrawny as it is.  I just want them to be healthy and if I notice I'm getting healthier then they must be as well.

Thai Barley

I'm being really generous with the Thai label.  I thought I had some curry powder so that I could of made some sort of curry paste to put into this recipe.  I didn't, but I did have a lot of seasonings commonly found in Thai food so I added those. The result was a pretty good side dish.  Thai Barley could also be a main dish for a meatless night (use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth for a vegan dish).

Thai Barley
1 cup of pearl barley
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 med. onion
3 cloves garlic
2 sticks celery
4 med. potatoes
1 can of corn
1 can of peas
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp turmeric
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 cups water

1. Bring chicken broth to a boil, add barley.  Cover and simmer for 35 minutes
2. Dice and saute garlic, onion and celery
3. Dice potatoes
4. Add 2 cups of water to barley, and then add onion mixture and potatoes.
5. Add all the seasonings
6. Stir well and add corn and peas.
7. Cook until well heated

This dish had mixed reviews with my bunch.  I liked it, Hubby didn't try it, Daughter said she thought the flavor was weird and only ate half her serving.  The boys all picked at it and didn't tell me one way or another if they liked it or not.  Barley is brand new in my household and before tonight no one had tried it before.  I think it will be good for a side once in a while. Especially since it's a pretty cheap dish.  The barley was only 0.82/lb, potatoes were bought at 3.50/10lb, celery 1.29/bunch, onion/1.50 a bag, garlic 1.00/2 heads.  If I was to try and figure the cost I could reasonably say it would of been around 0.25 a serving (give or take a penny).

nutriontal data:
Calories: 378
calories from fat: 27
Total fat 3g
saturated fat 2g
trans fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 443 mg
Total Carbohydrate 81g
dietary fiber 15g
sugars 5g
Protein 11g

A Family That Workouts Together...

My oldest son is in Civil Air Patrol. It's an auxiliary of the Air Force created in 1941.  Their main mission is search and rescue.  Anyway, he's been a cadet since last October and all he needs to do to move up in rank is pass pt. However, my boy is scrawny.  He's about 5'8"-5'9" and 104lbs fully dressed (to the shoes).  He's okay at the mile run.  He can do the push-ups and curl-ups now.  He has trouble when they do the shuttle run (a 30 foot sprint, picking up a small-ish object from one side running back placing it on the other line then returning to pick up a second object).  He's suppose to do it in 10.5 seconds and his time is 15 seconds.  So I'm trying to help him shave the 4.5 seconds off his time.
So yesterday we started the One Hundred Push-ups program and the Two Hundred Squats program.  My son has no problems with  push-ups, he's been doing them at least once a week for several weeks now.  I'm trying to get him to exercise more often to build muscle. He can probably out push-up me easy, even if his form is awful.  His squats surprised me.  I can do 30-40 squats no problem. My 14 year old son could only do 8 before he said his thighs were sore.  So I'm making sure he keeps with this squats program. I'm trying to teach him that squats will strengthen his legs and help him run faster.  I was sure that he could do at least as many as me if not more.  I'm guessing the pt they do at the C.A.P. meetings focuses on upper body and core moves and not as much on legs.  
When my husband isn't out-of-town, we'll work on a 3-day a week running plan as well.  Not only am I getting fit, I'm encouraging my children to be fit as well.

It Hurts When You Fall Off the Wagon

The no sugar wagon hit a bump and I went tumbling down.   I've been having reese's peanut butter cups, a mountain dew and not only in one day.  I'm tired, I have no motivation and just have been blah.  I'm trying to pick myself back up again and get back on.  It's hard, I'll do it. Maybe not today, hopefully tomorrow.  Hubby doesn't help when he brings junk food in the house.  My nutrition/health plans would be much more successful if he went a long with them.  He sees no reason to though or at least he sees no reason for him to.  He's all for me eating healthy and kids eating healthy.  He just doesn't realize that I need him to try a tad bit too.  Try getting kids to eat healthy when their daddy is eating Little Debbies, potato chips, candy bars, candy and all other kinds of crap food is hard.  So starting tonight I'm cleaning out a cupboard to place his crap food.  Right now it sits on top of the fridge, on the counters...wherever it can be grabbed easily.  No more, when he gets home in the morning(he's been working overnights this week) he'll find all his "lunch stuff" has been put away.  I don't have the willpower to see something that I used to gnaw on and walk away.  Especially when stress levels are climbing (finals are coming up in 3 weeks, so yep stress levels increasing on a hourly basis).  Soda used to be my go to when I was feeling overwhelmed and I really need to not have it around right now.  In a few months, a year, when I've conquered all my addictions for something sickly sweet then maybe.  Not now.
So plan making in the works.  Need to get in the habit of making some sort of menu plan.  I don't really like menu planning, but I need to learn to like it.  Also need to get a fitness plan worked out.  Going to have to make it a home fitness plan I think.  This summer I probably won't be able to go the gym, so I need to make my workouts center around what I can do at home.  I have dumbells, swiss ball, bands, dvd player, a quiet street, nearby parks, a big yard and a small garden, even a kickboxing/punching bag stand thingy(10.00 dollars at the flea market...just need to fill it with sand or something to weigh it down).  I can do this.

Banana Biscuits

Banana Biscuits serves 6
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup milk
1 med. banana
1 lg egg(slightly beaten)

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, flaxseed in large bowl
2. Cut in butter until dough is crumbly( I try for no larger then pea-size crumbles, however I'm not too picky)
3. Add egg and banana and milk ( a little less milk or little more flour may be needed depending on how dry or wet your dough is).
4. Mix well and kneed about 8 times.  Roll or pat out dough; shape biscuits however you like.  Today I just cut mine into squares with a pizza cutter.  Usually I take a biscuit cutter and make round biscuits.
5. Bake at 400 degrees about 10-15 minutes or until golden.

This is a very adaptable recipe.  You could use non-dairy milk; I used 2% today.  You could replace coconut oil instead of butter.  If you want a sweeter biscuit you could add a tablespoon of agave nectar or honey to it.  My kids put some jelly/honey on theirs.  Mine I ate plain because I'm attempting a no sugar challenge (and failing miserably...will tell more in next post).  These were good, but a little plain tasting.  I'm thinking next time I'll add two bananas or some other fruit to give it more flavor.  They would make a good side to a more flavorful dish.

Nutrition Data:

Calories 165

calories from fat 79

Total fat 9g

saturated fat 3g

trans fat 0g

Cholesterol 27  mg

Sodium 237 mg

Total Carb 19g

dietary Fiber 3g

sugars 2g

Protein 4g

No Sugar Challenge Part Deux

The wonderful ladies of The Gracious Pantry and Fit and Fabulous Forever are again doing the No Sugar Challenge.  Click on the links to view the their Facebook pages for hints and tips and rules.  Don't be afraid to join in, it's worth it.  I'm doing it again because while I did real good on the last the one, it wasn't enough for me to kick the sugar habit.  The rules are posted HERE  and are super simple to follow.  Basically no added  sugar what so ever.  Sugars that occur naturally in foods are okay (for example sugars in milk, yogurt, fruit...only two servings of fruit a day though). No adding stevia or honey or agave to your coffee, tea, oatmeal etc.. No molasses or maple syrup in your cookies. That sorta thing.  Easy enough and after a while you don't miss it much.  While I've not quite kicked the habit, I'm eating and craving sugars a lot less.  I want to end the craving all together though.  I want to get to were I can enjoy a sweet treat maybe once a week and see it as a treat.  Not as something that I think I must have everyday.
Other goals for the next two weeks are to lose some weight and inches and to work out more.  I want to do a 5k in August and need to get working on that.  I have a bodyspace on Bodybuilding.com that shows my current stats and some of my goals.  I try to keep these as reasonable as possible and as long as I get close to meeting them then I'm happy.  Since beginning of February I've lost 6.6lbs.  I wanted to lose ten but I think coming within 3.4 lbs of that is okay.