Will you help me?

I’m on a mission, and I need your help. PLEASE. PRETTY PLEASE. PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON TOP. My mission is to be COMFORTABLE in my own skin for the first time in a LLLOOONNNGGG time.  We are talking since middle school maybe—20 some years ago. For as long as I can remember, my weight has always been an issue for me.  In middle and high school I think it was more of a negative self image thing than really being overweight, but that still prevented me from being comfortable in my own body.  So, here I am, entering my mid-30’s (Can’t believe I’m going to be 34 next month; I feel like I should still be 23.), married with 2 little kids, &  part of a family chalk full of diabetics.  It’s time to change things. NOW.  Here’s what I  want to do:

1.  Be comfortable in my own skin. I’m realistic. I am never going to be a supermodel.  I just want to be halfway comfortable in a bathing suit.

2. Not be diabetic.  My family is WONDERFUL and I have inherited their sense of humor, their love of family, and their boisterousness. I, however, do not wish to inherit their diabetes. No thanks!

3. Be able to play and run around with my boys and not be out of breath.  I want as much energy as they have. Okay, I’ll be realistic and say half as much energy as they have. There no way at my age I’ll have the energy level of them. They’re crazy! (You moms of boys know what I am talking about and are nodding your heads right now.)

That being said, now I need a plan.  This past week and a half  I have started implementing one (and am already feeling the difference).  Here’s what I have been doing:

1. Drinking WATER.  Yes, I know it is a novel concept, but I was drinking 64 ounces of Diet Dr. Pepper a day.  Now I know this is stupid, but I have a 32 ounces mug I got in the hospital when I had one of my boys and, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I will drink water out of it and not anything else. (I think it reminds me of how thirsty I was when I was breastfeeding.) I’m talking will GULP it down if water is in it.  So, that’s what I did. Got it out and started drinking up! Pretty sure in the past few days I have drank no less than 3 mugs full each day.  And I haven’t totally dropped the DDP, but I have limited it to one a day about every 2-3 days. (Drinking my first Sonic DDP in probably a month while I edit this post, and it is SOOOOO good. I’m sorry if you are reading this and don’t have Sonics where you live.  You really are missing out. But I digress.) 

2. South Beach eating.  I know, I know, some people thing this low-carb thing is from the devil, but let me tell you why this is right for me.  With me already being predisposed to diabetes, I decided to look at this diet a little closer because it focuses on leveling out your blood sugar.  And it makes sense to me.  The focus isn’t on NO carbs; it’s on GOOD carbs.  And the way your body processes the good carbs. In fact, my mom’s diabetic doctor told her this is the way everybody—especially those with diabetes—should be eating.  That all being said, I also believe the saying everything in moderation. (And confession here. I took a break from blogging to eat dinner and I ate WAY TOO MUCH tonight. I feel sick. I’m pretty sure the three pounds I lost in the past week and a half are back. Back on the horse tomorrow.)

3. Exercise. I’ve discovered I really like running.  When my husband and I where dating, he introduced me to running. (I had never been a runner—still wouldn’t consider myself a runner but working on it.)  I actually worked up to about 2 miles at that time.  We also started bike riding.  I’ll never forget the time he took me on a bike ride from our house to Yukon— a 30 mile round trip ride.  I had no idea it was that far and he acted like it was just a little jaunt down the road.  I almost killed him halfway through the ride. Then life happened, the kids came, and now here I am still needing to get my rear up and moving. I needed to quit using the kids and no time as an excuse not to exercise. So, this past week I picked up running again.  I ran one whole mile without stopping yesterday. Yay me!  And that being said, I promise I will go run as soon as my 1-year-old wakes up from his morning nap.

So, here’s the part where I tell you how you can help me if you’d be so kind.  I’d like you to just randomly ask me how it’s going.  If I’m drinking my water. If I’m eating right. If I’m running and riding my bike.  I tend to do better if I know people are going to be checking up on me. Because (Here comes the sarcasm.) believe it or not, this isn’t the first time I’ve said I was going to lose weight and get healthy. BUT I really would LOOVVVEEEE it if it were the last. Will you help me along the way, please? Tell me your tricks? Send me a message on Twitter? Come back to this post and leave a comment every now and again?  That would really mean a lot to me. :)

The Best No-Name Dinner

I remember walking into our former babysitter’s house to pick my boys up on a few occasions and smelling the aroma of something wonderful for dinner.  Come to find out it was roast.  Now this wasn’t your typical potatoes and carrot roast.  It was roast—Mexican style.  You see her mother-in-law is Hispanic, and this was a recipe she taught to my sitter. So, based on the smell and the rave reviews she gave it, I had to make the roast. 

And that was what my family had for dinner tonight. The only word I can think of to describe it is PHENOMENAL. No exaggeration.  It was easily one of the best meals I have ever cooked.  And it gets even better. It is also one of the easiest meals I have ever cooked. Score!  The only downfall is it takes all day to cook, so you have to babysit it a little bit.  But if you are going to be home all day anyway, you might want to need HAVE to make this for dinner.

Note: I’m sorry I have no pictures of this.  I was too excited about making it and then way too excited about eating it to remember to take pictures. Next time I make it, I’ll add some shots to this post.

Here is how simple this is.  Get a roast ( I don’t think the type of roast really matters, but you might find one cut is better than another.  I don’t even know for sure what kind I used tonight; I think it was a rump roast.) Put the roast in a Dutch oven and cover it with water. Chop 4 or 5 or 6 garlic cloves and add to water along with a healthy amount salt and pepper.  Put the Dutch oven on a  burner set on medium-low-ish heat. You kind of, sort of cover the pot with a lid.  Don’t put the lid on all the way; put it on kind of crooked-like.  Leave it so that some of the steam is able to escape. Hope that makes sense.

Now you babysit it.  Let it simmer for 5-6 hours adding water to the pot every so often to keep the roast covered throughout the process.

Isn’t this difficult so far? (Hope you sense the sarcasm there.) Now here come the hardest part. Get ready. You might need a nap after this part. Here we go…

After the 5-6 hours (or when the roast is tender and done) take the roast out and shred it. Pour off some of the water. Put the shredded meat back into the pot. Slice up onion and bell pepper—as much as you like—and add it to the pot .  You should have just enough water to cover the meat and veggies.  Do the kind of cover the pot thing again and let it simmer for 1-2 hours longer.

Make sure you have a margarita while it is cooking because you know you have been slaving away over this meal all day.

When ready to eat, serve in tortillas (We liked the corn best.) with guacamole.  We had sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice with ours too. Yummy!  Go crazy and figure out what condiment-type things you like to serve this meal that doesn’t have a name with.  What should I call this meal???