"When you do your part the Lord add His power to your efforts."  Henry B. Eyring

"We must have the courage to be imperfect while striving for perfection." Patricia Holland

These are the phrase this week that I am going to love.  Like I said, life happened and that menu plan that was supposed to last a week ended up lasting two weeks with a lot of eating out in between.  While eating out I strove to eat the healthier options.  For example, at McD's I ate the egg mcmuffin.  At BK I ate the salad.  Of course, at Little Caesars I ate the pizza, but with great strength passed up on the bread sticks.  Yesterday my son and I were super sick so at the end of the day after not eating all day I ate 1/2 a  loaf of the bake/warm bread from Walmart.  He had some too, I am happy to say.

I have been pretty good at working out and/or walking daily.  On Sunday we went for a beautiful walk.  I love Oregon in the spring--except for the allergies, but I thrive on the beauty.  I hope my kiddos love beauty as much as I do.

I hear movement downstairs. I guess it is time to get to work.

Meal Plans for the Next Week

Friday
B: Oatmeal, PB, 60% cacao chocolate chips
L: Sammy and berries
D: Instant pot pork carnitas
Snack: apple, string cheese, yogurt

Saturday
B: Eggs, Turkey Bacon, and 4 ingredient flourless banana-nut pancakes
L: Egg Pizzaiola with whole wheat Italian bread (if I can find it) Family loves this one.
D: Zucchini lasagna and salad

Sunday
B: Oatmeal, banana
L: Quesadillas and salsa
D:Stuffed baked pork chops with prosciutto and mozzarella with roasted cauliflower

Monday
B: Oatmeal, banana
L: Turkey Sammy with fruit of choice
D: Skillet Lemon Chicken with olives and herbs and green salad

Tuesday
B: Oatmeal
L: Sammy with fruit of choice
D: Salsbury Steak Meatballs and skinny garlic mashed potatoes with roasted broccoli

This is all I have time to record for the day. Usually what ends up happening is we suddenly decide that we need to eat right away and/or someone gets food for the family. So who am I kidding, I am planning on this lasting the week.  I am going to stop writing about leftovers--W, my husband, takes those to work.

A Week In . . . Paradise

Well, as much as I would love to say that I followed the menu plan to the letter and had no slips that would be a unabashed "No!"

There were three days I couldn't get myself to workout. Three, one with a  migraine and one was a recovery day.  Right now life is like a whirlwind and though I am loving every moment (as much as in my ability to do so), I feel like I over-planned my workout.  I am sticking with the MuTu workouts and guess what?! I am beginning to develop abs, even my  husband noticed.  My saddle bags  are still there, but significantly smaller.

One thing that helped me was listening to the bit that I filmed. I did the sounds separately hoping to get better sound with my new microphone (it didn't work too well).  In the bit that I filmed, I went back over my motivations. Turns out if you have your motivations repeated over to you as you're listening to music, it helps. Who knew?! Ha!

Another thing I think that helped me was giving myself a 10-15% mistake treat area.  I'm not perfect and putting on a facade of perfection really makes me feel overwhelmed and unable.  But I am able and I refuse to kick myself over that pretzel (the soft kind) that I ate yesterday.  I am still trying to stick to the meals I planned.



Sometimes it helps to me to have a reward program in place. So I am thinking of what I want/need.
One of my goals with my family is to teach them to love and serve others.  Where I live there are many homeless people. I am planning on enlisting the help of my kidlets and making mini-blessing bags.  It is pretty wet where I live, so I was thinking of adding socks, a tiny bit of cash, a pack of gum, a granola bar, and maybe one other thing that all fit into a sandwich bag.  That is my reward for this week.

During the week I was able to go to Sephora and get some make-up products that I really wanted.  That was nice.  But, as it turns out my regime was slightly improved, but not to the extent that I wanted.  Ha!  As in all things in my life, baby steps are an appropriate term for this.   I am grateful!  My daughter, K, even got a mini-makeover (some lipstick) and tried several eye shadows all over her face.

I love my life!