Friends

I am blessed to have such amazing friends. As strong as family. Always there. I love them. 

It's an entirely other experience to watch your child work on creating her own friendships. Lessons are being learnt and lifetime memories are forming.

Here is to the road ahead.

Where I Do My Thinking

Where do you do your thinking?

For me these days, it's in my car while I am waiting for the school bell to ring.

Today has been interesting. I have come full circle in the last few minutes. 

I recently completed the first round of the 21 day fix and felt amazing!!!! Then this little thing called life happened.

I am sitting here today realizing that I don't feel good. I feel stressed. Not overly happy. I'm worried about my five year old. She is struggling at school with certain friends. Long story and this isn't the place. But, the result is that I feel like crap because I am allowing the stress to control me. It's just way too easy to let life take over and just float along. 

For me, when I am stressed, this means not eating anywhere near enough to care for my body. If it wasn't for shakeology every single morning without fail I would be in trouble.

After a few days of this I am realizing how awful I feel. I feel burnt out. Done.

Well, since I had the ability today to recognize what is going on. To take the above photo and see the weight coming back on my face I am taking control back.

I can't help her if I feel like this. So back to the fix I go. Properly tracking my food intake and feeling good so I can give my baby what she needs from me.

I am owning this. No more excuses. When I can't do it for me, I will do it for her.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

You know that old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words"? It's so true. I love pictures. I love the captured moments and the memories that are literally felt when you see the photo years later. Photos have the obvious and the not so obvious. Never to be taken at face value and never to be judged. Having said that, they almost always are.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was a selfie that my hubby and I took on our little family trip to Tofino back in 2014.

I love it because, it holds a huge story for me. My memories hold happiness and heartache. This photo represents so much. None of it is visible. 

Here is what the picture doesn't show:

- We had just lost a baby. We still carried one, but had lost the other. 

- I was having loads of pregnancy complications.

- a heart murmur

- migraines

- high, and I mean very high, blood pressure

- extreme dizziness, almost the spins

- I struggled to walk and to function 

- it was shortly after this trip that I was placed on medical leave.

Here is why I love it so much:

- we had each other

- we had a healthy four year old daughter

- we had a healthy developing baby

- we supported each other through our loss 

- we communicated our grief

- we had time together in a beautiful place to appreciate what we had

- during this time we became very aware of who the supportive people in our lives are, and who they were not. I am not bitter about the people that should have been supportive but weren't. I am thankful to know. 

I say all this to remind myself and others that just because something appears a certain why, it doesn't make it so. Our society in general, is extremely judgemental. I strive to remember this time in my life when pictures painted a picture that was no where near reality. 

You look at it and see surface value. I see the story, feel the loss, the love and the learning.

We are all walking through our own stories. We don't often share. We all have struggles and heartaches that others are not privy to. We just need to remember to be kind and above all, non judgemental.

This is my reminder.

Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad

I love the fix! It has given us such an edge on our health. Empowered us to make good decisions and has nicely shown us where our issue where. It's not that we ate very unhealthy at all, but you can certainly over eat on healthy foods. You just don't realize it because they are "good for you foods". This is tricky business! Lol

I love all the fresh produce that is coming into our house and is being consumed daily. I am pushing myself to think outside the box of my normally very boring selection of meals and really get creative. This often means just making things simple again. It's just so funny how that goes.

Here is a goodie for you to try! Suggested from none other, then Autumn herself!

Here is Autumn’s raw kale and brussels sprouts salad recipe. The 21 Day Fix container equivalents are: 3 Green, ½ Orange, 2 tsp.

Total Time: 15 min.
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cooking Time: None
Yield: 4 servings, about 3 cups each

Ingredients:

1 large bunch kale, washed, thoroughly dried, stems removed, finely chopped
(6 to 8 cups chopped)
8 brussels sprouts, finely shredded
1½ medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
½ tsp. Himalayan salt
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. raw cider vinegar
24 whole almonds, chopped

Preparation:

1. Combine kale, brussels sprouts, cucumbers, and bell pepper in a large serving bowl.
2. Season with salt.
3. Drizzle with oil, lemon juice, and vinegar; toss gently to blend.
4. Refrigerate, covered, for 15 minutes.
5. Sprinkle with almonds and enjoy!

Chili Recipe - 21 Day Fix Approved

I am loving the fix and the flexibility that it offers. You get to eat so much food every day. It's just crazy!! At first it was fun to play with salads. We ate a lot of salad for the first week but we soon found out that we are happy to eat salad during the day, but we really aren't a huge fan of it for dinner. So it's time to get creative. The other thing that matters to me is that I am a Mom. I seem to be busy most of the time and there are nights that making dinner is super hard. Not to mention that our sweet baby seems o be a little on the needy side at the same time as I need to be making dinner. Sigh. The solution for me is the crock pot. Thank goodness for the crock pot. It saves me so often.

Here is yesterday's dinner. We loved it and it's one red, one green, one yellow. Perfect.

Chili Recipe - 21 Day Fix Approved

Ingredients:

Two 14.5 oz cans of low sodium diced tomatoes - 4 Greens

1 large onion - 1 Green

1 16 oz Cans of Kidney Beans - 5 Yellows

5 Red Containers of Cooked Fat Free Ground Turkey - 5 Red Containers

3 tbsp chili powder - Free Spice

1/2 tsp garlic powder - Free Spice

1/2 tsp cumin - Free Spice

1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes - Free Spice

pinch of black pepper - Free Spice

1/2 cup of water - Free

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot and stir.

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Separate into 5 equal sized servings. Each serving counts as 1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow.

This freezes very well:-)

My Personal 21 Day Fix Results

It's not easy to share these pictures. No one likes to have the world see them so vulnerable. I am going to share them anyways. My reason is this. I share them for all the Mom's out there. Mom's are supposed to support each other. Let's be honest, parenting is hard enough without us being judgemental of each other. Having said that, there is a lot of Mom shaming that goes on. As much as we try not to be judgemental it seems it's almost impossible to avoid.

So here I am. Sharing the REAL goods with you. The part that I would rather keep hidden. What my body looked like at 5.5 months postpartum after my second csection. 

I am also sharing with you have it now looks like. Just a mear 21 days later. These 21 days have been pretty good. I have NOT been on a diet, just eating healthy. Following the portion controlled plan. I am a chronic under eater. Always leaving my body in a slightly panicked state. Setting it up to store the extra weight and save it. Following the 21 day fix helped me to make sure that I gave my body what it needs each day. It was easy to meal plan for the entire family following this system.

Jeff and I both had crazy results. So we are starting over on day one again. We love this new lifestyle. Clean eating and 30 minute at home workouts that can fit into any day.

If you want to chat about my experience or you are at all curious about the 21 day send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. Tbennallack@gmail.com

The Final Day! 21 Day Fix - Day 21

First things first. Today is day 21. Wow did that ever go by fast!!! Jeff and I both decided in an instant that we are starting all over again tomorrow!! We feel way too good and have made way to much progress to stop now!

I will post before and after photos and measurements for you in a day or two once I have a chance to get that all documented. For now I will say that Jeff has lost 13 pounds. I have lost 8. I am wearing my old pants. By old I mean, the pants that I wore BEFORE I got pregnant!! Oh yes, that feels good.

For those of you that are wondering what the colours mean. Here is an example.

Tonight's dinner for me was 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green and 1 blue.

Here are the containers.

I created a pork tenderloin dish tonight. It was pretty good.

Here is what it looks like after it has been measured out using the containers.

Steamed broccoli with melted cheddar cheese. Pork tenderloin sautéed in garlic and onion with homemade chicken broth and tomatoes over brown rice.

The workouts are so good!!! Tonight after the kids went to bed I dragged myself downstairs and pushed play. It's only 30 minutes and it was yoga fix. Feels so good after a long week to get in a good stretch!!