March Wish Challenge Let it Go or some of us are sick of snow

1. Weather here is not good. We had snow last night with a break during the day today and then a winter storm warning starting at 3 today. We are supposed to get like 3-5 inches of general snow and then lake affect after that. And with lake affect they never know how much snow we will get. I am ready for spring. This will affect me from getting out to the rec as I will not drive in this weather.

2. Planning for the weekend.....Well we don't plan much. This weekend we have karate, basketball, a resource fair, a birthday party and I am having a girls, much needed, night out. This is all on Saturday. Sunday I think we have nothing. We will plan Sunday's dinner Sunday morning before we go shopping in the morning.
 
QOTD:

Weather... overall the climate here is pretty temperate: spring and fall are usually pretty long and summer and winter short. It's rainy a lot, but usually not heavy super wet rain, so for the most part you just get on with it. I think the thing that most impacts eating and exercise is that during the peak of winter the sun comes up around 8am and sets around 4:30pm, so the urge is to go home and crawl back in to bed, not to get out and walk etc. I also crave warm/cooked/comfort food during the winter and light/fresh food during the summer.

Weekend prep... yah, I practically never do this. I do go to the grocery store over the weekend thinking about what I want for the week, but more often than not the food sits around and ends up getting tossed. Unless its ice cream. One thing I really struggle with over the weekends is drinking enough water, and I rarely have breakfast which isn't a good thing either.

Yesterday was pretty stressful... my other project went live, so it was a day of holding my breath and crossing my fingers because this one was a messy challenge. Things did go smoothly up until I found some funky data, then it was a mad rush to figure out what happened. By the end of the day I really just wanted to get home and curl up in to a ball, but my internal parent made me get off the bus early so I could get my steps in... I hit 10,000 again, so now I'm just behind my goal by about 5000. My internal parent also made sure I did a few more clean up things outside before I sat down, knowing full well that once I sat no more movement would be happening.

With my Sister having moved, I now need to get a pet nanny to look in on the cats while I'm out of town... I remembered to get that going yesterday, and she's coming over Sunday to meet them and pick up the keys, so I'm finally feeling like I'm actually going to go to the beach next week. The weather Monday is supposed to be pretty good for the drive down, Tuesday is supposed to be rainy, woohoo rainy winter beach days are the best, and I did get the fancy room with the fireplace. Wednesday is supposed to be pretty nice, woohoo, nice days at the beach are also the best.

Happy International Women's Day!

 


Thursday 8 of March. Happy International Women's Day!

Elsa: Let the storm rage on! The cold never bothered me anyway.​

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Today we have two topics
1. What is the weather where you live, and does this impact how eat and how much you exercise
2. Preparation for the weekend. Sometimes it's easier to prepare for the week ahead. Sunday prep for Monday to Thursday. Sunday to Thursday we either prepare for the week or have something prepare. This leaves Friday and Saturday. The sad reality is two days of over indulging can negate 5 days of healthy eating. For me Friday and Saturday are the trouble days.

Do you have trouble days? Can you do something, even if it's just make a plan - so you make it easier for yourself this weekend? Share your tips to enjoy your weekend but not negate your week. Do you cut more during the week so you can relax more during the weekend? Do you try to move more? Please share your weekend tips​

Except for the wind it is finally warming up as we are getting temps in the 40s though it feels like the teens and 20s with the wind. Still getting below freezing at night but looking at the extended forecast it looks like we should be seeing the ground soon. Hopefully with all the snow that we have it does not melt to fast and we get the snow melt over and a bit of a break before we get the late spring rains. Both so that the farmers can get in the fields and get crops planted and so that we don't end up with a lot of flooding. Things have been rough her starting with drought and fires last summer and fall, heavy snows this winter-they are still digging out the roads on the Blackfoot reservation https://www.greatfallstribune.com/s...cted-blackfeet-reservation-montana/385388002/ *warning some of the pictures on some of the videos that play may be hard for some to see, but this is the reality of life here. Just thankful that we have equipment like snow plows, graders, and tractors to help with the work. https://www.greatfallstribune.com/s...t-endure-unrelenting-winter-storms/359300002/

With the colder weather I am wanting more hot cooked items and heavier soups where in the summer I tend to not want to eat much unless it is light and what we do have is stuff that I can toss in the slow cooker, do quickly on the stove-usually browning burger, making eggs, stuff like that or what I can fix in the microwave or else I end up going for fast food a lot more except when I have extra money and go to a sit down place. This winter has been so heavy with the snow that for the most part I have not had a vehicle since my husband has been taking the truck. He is going to have to dig out the car before Tuesday as we have a 4-H meeting or else we will have to do the drop him off at work, go home and get the stuff for the 4-H meeting-it's demonstration night so we are having pizza, and snack type treats.

Exercise is a toss up as to if the summer or winter is easier on me. Winter I don't get to the gym much to swim due to the roads and not wanting to deal with them though in the summer my husband works so many hours and ends up sleeping during the day often until it's time for him to get up have a quick dinner with us and then head out the door to work. Now that my oldest is 13 and can do a lot more I might start heading in 2-3 mornings a week leaving around 9 or 9:30 and getting home sometime before noon though I will have to make sure that meals are ready to go for the most part. I can take 13 year old to the pool but the last time and to be honest it's been a while we took 10 year old she can get a good choke hold on your neck and does not let go. I am thinking once swim wear starts hitting the stores and I can get 13 year old a new suit-the one I got her last summer we ended up with some mice chewing a bunch of holes in it-we might have to do a family swim time on the weekend to see how 10 year old does. If she does the death grip she goes to the husband. She loves going in the splash zones and will wade in the wave pool at an indoor water park that we have provided she has one of the floats and will even go on the slide with her dad and she loves the hot tub-pool water deeper than a bathtub even when she can touch is forget it in her book. If it is dry and not a bunch of smoke outside I do like to walk around the property in the evenings provided I can avoid the bugs so timing it so that it is not too hot still but the bugs are not out and biting but there is still enough light to see.

Food prep is the same during the week and the weekends because for the most part I am home. What is difficult is fair week because we are on the go especially on the days that we have shows are are there from around 7 in the morning until close to 8 at night. Between all the show equipment and the show clothes plus other clothes to wear to have on to care for the animals prior to the show it we have plenty of stuff to haul down there not knowing if we are going to catch the gators right by our vehicle or have to walk a distance to catch a ride. We do take a small cooler with some snack items provided we are at an end where we can sneak out the side door or go around a corner to eat since your not supposed to have food near the animals due to safety concerns and even though we know what to keep well away from the animals the general public does not and those do not put fingers in cages signs are some of the biggest ignored ones ever. Most of what we bring is stuff that is high energy foods that is fast like granola bars, nut packets, and stuff like that. Also project days that we seem to have one meeting after another is a fun one. This Saturday is fruit pick up and then at some time we have an art project meeting. The next weekend is ceramics in the morning with an hour to get home grab the rabbits and head back in small animal clinic and the following weekend is art project run home drop off 10 year old though if the roads are good I might have my husband come in with the car and meet us at his parents and then he can take her home. 13 year old has photography workshop in the afternoon. I am no one for cold sandwiches and eating a salad while driving is forget it. If it is nice enough that I can sit in my truck I will grab a salad or make one at home to bring with me but I don't like eating in front of others unless it is a set meal or it's at the fair where everyone just grabs food whenever they can with their show schedule. I try and make muffins for the mornings that I know we are going to have to be out the door early so at least we can grab something, that and orange or apple slices in containers since they are not too messy to eat and are usually available. Making sure that we have full water bottles so that there is less stopping to get drinks and while we are in the drive thru grabbing some food especially since it is next to impossible to get a glass of water and when you do it's a 8-12 oz size if you can get it for free and anything else is 25 to 50 cents when a soda is between 1 and 4 dollars depending on the size and where you go.
 
Oh, motivation... that's a tough one. I think I may have gotten some personal motivation last night, but don't know that it would work for any one else... I was doing a photo purge on my iPhone, something I haven't done since 2013. I don't do selfies, so there weren't many pictures with me in them, but every once in a while something would pop up and I was like "yikes". It was pretty shocking actually... the photo I use for my avatar is literally the only decent picture of me in the past four years, and I'm really not sure how it turned out so well.

The food life coach sent another interesting email, this time talking about the difference between serviceable everyday meals and how we are programmed to think all our meals have to be fabulous "feasts". This got me to thinking about my own frustrations about lack of cooking skills and how I'm probably rating myself on how I am unable to deliver "feasts", whereas I should be focused on preparing simple meals and I do have the basic skill set to accomplish this, I just need to practice more.

Vacation is almost here - yippee! With the time change coming this weekend, I'm going to get longer evenings while I'm at the beach and won't be dealing with getting up an hour earlier (in the dark again)... I think I need to remember this is an optimal week for vacation.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone... I'll be checking back in in a week.
 
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Good afternoon. Today's question is what fresh fruits and vegetables are you looking forward to this month. Me we have a bunch of fruit coming tomorrow 10 pound each of oranges, grapefruit, granny smith, and gala apples plus 20 pounds of Fuji apples. I am thinking there is going to be a lot of apples in the future at least for a while. Some of them are getting dehydrated for apple chips both plain and cinnamon. I haven't decided but I might end up canning the grapefruit since I am the only one that really eats it and I don't want it going bad. Between 10 and 13 year old this is what we ended up with for half boxes on their fruit orders between them and enough extra ordered so they sold 5 boxes in order to get a prize since they had 4.5 and only needed that half box each. I have carrots, celery, yellow onion, cabbage, and potatoes on hand along with a little bit of green onion.

For those who are interested this is a list of the top 10 fresh fruits and vegetable buys in most of the US for the month of March. These will be at the freshest and the lowest price since while for some areas they will be shipped in they are in season often right in the US.

Apples
Grapefruit
Oranges
Pineapple
Strawberries
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cabbage
Lettuce
Spinach

Are these foods that you eat and if you have a favorite way to fix them please share.
 
I really want Strawberries and watermelon. Strawberries won't be cheep for us until about June. I do also eat Asparagus, Broccoli, and Lettuce.
 
. Today's question is what fresh fruits and vegetables are you looking forward to this month. Me we have a bunch of fruit coming tomorrow 10 pound each of oranges, grapefruit, granny smith, and gala apples plus 20 pounds of Fuji apples. I am thinking there is going to be a lot of apples in the future at least for a while. Some of them are getting dehydrated for apple chips both plain and cinnamon. I haven't decided but I might end up canning the grapefruit since I am the only one that really eats it and I don't want it going bad. Between 10 and 13 year old this is what we ended up with for half boxes on their fruit orders between them and enough extra ordered so they sold 5 boxes in order to get a prize since they had 4.5 and only needed that half box each. I have carrots, celery, yellow onion, cabbage, and potatoes on hand along with a little bit of green onion.

For those who are interested this is a list of the top 10 fresh fruits and vegetable buys in most of the US for the month of March. These will be at the freshest and the lowest price since while for some areas they will be shipped in they are in season often right in the US.

Apples
Grapefruit
Oranges
Pineapple
Strawberries
Asparagus
Broccoli
Cabbage
Lettuce
Spinach

Are these foods that you eat and if you have a favorite way to fix them please share.

Shred carrots, cabbage, apples (you can add peppers, radishes if you have them) chopp some chilli fresh herbs, dress with lime. Great tasty slaw

asparagus and mint torilla is something I did recently - it was ok, not amazing tbh
strawberries add a lot of happiness to otherwise dull salad
frozen pineapple & banana & lime in the food processor - dole whip anyone? you can add coconut milk too

I love fruit and buy a lot of it. Last week we had nectarines, strawberries, mangos, bananas, grapes, apples, pears and also frozen berries. Vegetables we had brocolli, cauliflower (rice) 3 type of peppers, red and white onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, radishes. I think that's all

I buy what I like in the shop, It's not easy to plan at this part of the year. Strawberries were delicious last week.

Wow! That's a lot of snow sewatpeama. You sound like such a strong lady, I loved reading about it - but not sure I would be able for it! We don't get snow every year in Ireland. Last time was 2010. People often complain about the weather here but we never get too cold or too hot. Well, we do but not often. That's why we aren't prepared for it. Last time we had snow was 2010. I don't know if I would be able to survive winters as you describe!
 
Like Oneanne, I'm from the Pacific NW so my weather is the same as hers. I'm super jealous of her beach trip because I would love to be there now. I couldn't convince DH to take me today. It's only an hour away, so it'd be so easy to pop over. Oh well, we got lots of chores done around the house and I have three loads of laundry on the line I need to take down soon!

In the winter I want heavier foods like lasagna but in the summer I want lighter stuff like salads. I usually plan meals just a few days out so rarely do any big weekend preps. I prefer to shop in the evenings when there are fewer people than on the weekends. I miss being a SAHM when the stores were empty weekdays.

I'm loving the asparagus that's in the market now. It's so good. I roasted a whole bunch and stuck it in the fridge. I'm munching it cold all the time! DH is really into Fuji apples right now.

I've been logging all my food and it has been so ugly. I was even up a couple pounds this week. ugh Weekends I treat myself to a Costco muffin for breakfast instead of the usual Greek yogurt. Today I think will be the beginning of back on track since DS has gone back to college. I don't feel the need to "cook" for DH (poor man!). I tend to just throw stuff together when it's the two of us. Mostly just a protein and a vegetable. Neither one of us is a big eater so it's usually easy peasy.

I read some blurb that in some study of weight loss the people who ate more vegetables lost more weight and kept it off. Asparagus here I come!!
 
Remember to record your progress towards your goal over the weekend.

Also those in the US remember that daylight savings starts this weekend so adjust your clock unless you just have your computers, tablets, and phones set automatically and just set the few other clocks whenever over the next couple of days. Guilty of that for the clock on the stove and the microwave.

I've got cinnamon apple chips in the dehydrator and can't wait for them to be done. Sadly not till tomorrow. Now to go and make up some orange water because I forgot that I ordered 1.5 boxes of oranges instead of just a box so I have 66 oranges. I am going to make the husband place one box in the basement since I doubt he got that done while I was taking a nice long nap today even though I mentioned they needed to go down. Along with the half box I did not put in the fridge, the grapefruit I did not put in the fridge, the apples I am not putting in the fridge though I only have the granny smith and the gala upstairs. He also didn't get dishes done and I need to have 10 year old practice making her fruit pizza she is doing for her demonstration on Tuesday.
 
I feel in better frame of mind this week! The weather is back to normal and helped. It's true - you can't wait on motivation.
 
How is everyone doing with their goals this past week. So far for the month I am at 100% at drinking my water. I used some of the oranges and grapefruit and made both the pitcher and individual water bottle-a nice 32 ounces of citrus fruit infused water. I ended up with some left over grapefruit and oranges from the 1 grapefruit and 2 oranges that I used so I had a nice small bowl of fruit sections. The apples turned out wonderful though I think next time I am going to but a bit more cinnamon on them. They were good though and I have only eaten the half quart bag so far. Today for dinner we had a ham that I made a brown sugar and honey glaze for, scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob-out of our freezer, a simple pasta salad-that came in a box with some seasonings so we just cooked up the past and add the seasoning along with a little bit of oil and water. Plus for dessert we had fruit pizza. OK that is what DH, 13 year old and I had. 10 year old said a loud N O the pasta salad-that was the only item she had a choice on other then dessert, ate her ear of corn, picked at her ham a little bit, and refused to touch her potato slice. She did eat her piece of fruit pizza and finished off all but a few edges of the rest of it minus the pieces the rest of us had for dinner. I am not worried about her gaining weight because 10 year old doesn't seem to gain weight. I started this post last night but got frustrated because the letters were lagging behind my typing so I went and had a nice soak in the tub and went to bed. I also discovered that 10 year old had 2 bags of fruit snacks. Maybe that is the secret to weight loss pick at all the stuff you don't like (at least for that day) and eat only what you like even if it's dessert. The problem is I am not as choosy about what I eat unlike 10 year old.
 
Eating on the run is never good for me. I eat pop tarts (the smores ones) or I grab fast food. Sometimes I just don't eat. I was running all day Saturday and the first thing I ate was at 12:30 I had some carrots and peppers at a birthday party for DD's good friend.
 
Grapes. I love to eat them on the run. There's no peeling, just pop them in! We also used to eat a lot of granola bars when the kids were home and we were running all over the place. And of course the boys during baseball season had to have sunflower seeds. The oldest still eats them when he has long drives. Just have to make sure you have your cup to spit the shell into!

I'm feeling a bit blue because we talked to DS2 tonight and he did not have a good first day back at college classes. He didn't sleep last night and then his anxiety kicked in and that was that. He did reach out to people there so that's a good sign. I really wanted to dive into a bowl of ice cream but instead ate an apple. Not nearly as satisfying, but so much easier on the waist! As soon as DH quits doing push ups behind my chair I'll grab the free weights and pump some iron!
 
I also discovered that 10 year old had 2 bags of fruit snacks. Maybe that is the secret to weight loss pick at all the stuff you don't like (at least for that day) and eat only what you like even if it's dessert. The problem is I am not as choosy about what I eat unlike 10 year old.

This is very interesting. I think only eating foods you like is important as increases your chances to maintain. But also - I lived on chocolate or chocolate ice cream as teen and was skinny. I think at age of 10 and 20 you can get lucky and eat really poorly and still remain slim. I was underweight until age of 19. I never meat anyone age 50 who looks slim/fit and eats a lot of junk and doesn't care for it much. We can't get away with things as easy as we age. I mean - fall down when you are 10 and you recover in 2 days. Fall down when you are 50, recovery is much bigger deal.
 

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