Make A Difference Monday and More

This weekend was quite productive, not everything was crossed off my list, but it's getting there. Is it just me or is a check list never ending! I managed to clean the house yesterday, but still haven’t gotten to our atrociously messy guest room, good thing we have no guest coming anytime soon.

Hubby and I went to Super Wal-mart after church and got some essentials for the week. As we are trying to budget our shopping, this should be the only trip we need to make for the week. I plan on cooking 5 days this week with the other two days being a birthday party and date night.

SUNDAYS LUNCH DISASTER

Well this part wasn’t so bad just a nice plate of some brown rice chips(these were the bomb) and a gala apple.

Then I decided to heat up a bowl of Campbell's Select Harvest Broccoli and Cheese Soup for a minute and it EXPLODED! Not fun to clean up. I only used half the can so I cleaned up and tried it again.

The Soup was ok needed a little pepper kind of bland. I was checking out the Campbell's website and found this neat tool,

“MyPyramid Menu Planner—This new easy-to-use tool, launched in 2008, generates estimates of your personal nutritional needs. After entering information about yourself (name, age, gender, weight, height and activity level), you can enter the foods and amounts you have eaten or plan to eat, for up to seven days. Your plan will be compared to your estimated needs and you'll see graphic images that help you interpret the results. You can add family members too!”

I also was able to peel some Pomegranates yesterday to have for the week. My lovely friend Carla game me a bag full of Pomegranates and I have yet to at any of them. I plan on putting these in my Salad all week.

Health & Nutrition Benefits of Pomegranates/Pomegranate Juice

• Being rich in antioxidants, pomegranate can keep LDL (bad cholesterol) from oxidizing and thus, prevents atherosclerosis.
• Pomegranate has been found to help keep blood platelets from clumping together and forming unnecessary clots.
• Regular consumption of pomegranate juice is said to be beneficial for those suffering from heart diseases.
• Researches have indicated that pomegranate compounds might prevent prostate cancer and even slowdown its growth.
• Pomegranate juice has also been associated with reducing the risk of breast cancer.
• Pomegranate juice is pretty good for those suffering from diarrhea, but it over-consumption can lead to constipation.
• Pomegranate is said to be good for reducing plaque in the arteries and raising levels of HDL (good cholesterol).
• It has been seen that pomegranate juice helps prevent heart attacks and even stroke.
• Studies have shown that maternal consumption of pomegranate juice might protect the neonatal brain from damage after injury.
• Pomegranate is believed to help prevent cartilage deterioration and thus, keep osteoarthritis at bay.
• Consumption of pomegranate might prevent and even slow down Alzheimer's disease.
• Pomegranate juice is associated with lowering of blood pressure as well as better oral health.

SUNDAY EVENING

Hubby and I went to an hour and 15 minute boot camp class, and kicked eachothers butts, not really. But it kicked ours for sure!!! We are both very soar. In this class you do things like sprints,jump rope, push-ups, sit-ups, 2o minutes with the focus mitts, burpess,jump squats, and more. After class we hit up the Meads for a bbq and more games.

Revay had some healthful eats so it was easy to eat well at this bbq. I had a turkey hot dog  on a WW bun, a huge salad which was covering my roasted red potatoes, and a piece of corn on the cob. I also went back and grabbed a turkey dog all by itself no bun.

We played two rounds of Catch Phrase and then called it a night, we all had to work in the morning.

MONDAY MORNING EATS

This morning I woke up a little later then I wanted but still got out of bed before 7am. I was starved when I got up but knew that I wanted to make a good breakfast to start the week of RIGHT! So I made a bowl of oats with some Agave Plus Natures Path Granola, Pecans,1/2 banana, and a sprinkle of coconut. Love the Granola in there gave it a nice crunch! The oats were a little drier then I like,so added some skim milk to the edges( need to pick up some Almond Milk). I also had a scoop of Barney Butter, this is the creamy version and I am not sure what I like better, the creamy or crunchy?

With a fresh cup of French Press Coffee, in my world cup. The only thing I am not diggin about French Press Coffee is how quickly it cools down in the carafe. I hear there is warmers you can buy for it, I will have to look into that.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE MONDAY

For this Make a Difference Monday I want to share with you something that I saw over at Heather and Marks HangryPants blog.

It is the, General Mills Pound for Pound Program an initiative that encourages Americans to lose weight and feed the hungry. I had heard about this on the Today Show briefly one morning, but didn’t realize what it was until after reading Heather’s post.

· For every pound dieters lose, a pound of groceries will be delivered to a local food bank based on the ZIP code of participants.

· The new Pound For Pound Challenge gives Americans the opportunity to fight the hunger crisis and help families in their neighborhoods by simply pledging to lose weight and get healthy.

There are three ways to participate in the Pound For Pound Challenge:

(1) Pledge to lose weight at www.PFPChallenge.com or www.biggestloser.coand for every pound you lose, General Mills will donate 10 cents to Feeding America – enough to provide one pound of groceries to a local food bank.

(2) Mail-in the Pound For Pound lids and seals from specially-marked General Mills products. For every lid or seal mailed in, General Mills will donate 10 cents to Feeding America. Brands with the Pound For Pound lid or seal include Yoplait Light®, Cheerios®, Honey Nut Cheerios®, MultiGrain Cheerios®, Total®, Fiber One® (Cereal, Bars, Muffin Mix, Pancake Mix, and Yogurt), Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™, Chex Mix® 100 Calorie, Warm Delights® Minis, Bisquick® Heart Health®, and Cascadian Farm® (Cereal and Bars).

(3) Donate directly to Feeding America by visiting www.PFPChallenge.com.

I can’t think of  a better way to encourage Americans to get healthy and help others all at the same time. If nothing else I am excited to participate in any way I can, even if it’s just sending in a check.

WRAP UP

Alright it’s week two of January, well the third full week. How are you doing with those goals of yours??? I am slacking in a couple but so far so good. I need to pick up my Bible more this week and do a lot more YOGA. Tomorrow is the first day of my Marathon training, honestly the hardest part is going to be waking up super early. I am excited about the running! Tonight I teach AKB, so no work out this morning. I am going to do a bit of stretching before work to get my body ready for the day.

JOURNEY TO BOSTON WEEK ONE:

Monday:Off AKB
Tuesday: 30-35 minutes easy 9:30 miles
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: 35 minutes easy with some strides
Friday: 45 minutes with 1 mile tempo 7:25
Sat: off
Sunday: 10-11 mile run

WOW that was a longer post then expected, hope you all have a terrific week. Remember all that you have and be thankful for it. Life is too short to be wasted on complaining.