Motivation

Thanks for your posts Carrie! They've been really helpful. You're so positive which makes me feel bad posting this, but maybe somebody else feels more like me and this will be helpful to them...

I'm really excited to get healthy and fit better in my clothes, but I'm having hard time staying motivated to work as hard as I need to. I eat better than I did, but not great. I'm exhausted so much of the time that I don't have the energy to get up and work out before the kids are up. They get up at 6:30 (and that's after playing in their room for at least half an hour). By the time they're all in bed at 8 I just want to straighten the house or relax, so exercise doesn't work out then either. I'm at the point where I get dressed in the morning and it just makes me feel yucky and instead of motivating me to work harder so that my jeans don't create rolls over the top, I get depressed and want to give up.

Sorry about the downer, but I'm still working on it. I got rid of the junk in our house, so when I feel snacky I'm snacking on healthy things. I'm hoping that a while of doing this will make enough of a difference that I'll start to feel like its not a losing battle and I'll regain some confidence and motivation.

All that being said, my current go to breakfasts are...

Egg Mcmuffins: egg whites and turkey sausage on sandwich thins (found in the bread isle)

some people use english muffins (which is probably a better idea) and canadian bacon

About 250 calories (depending on how many eggs you use)

Whole Wheat Bagel with fat free strawberry cream cheese (I spread mine pretty thin because that's how I like it)

About 280 calories (depending on how much cream cheese you use)

More healthy breakfasts and my two cents

I'm starting to get compliments on the way I look and I feel a lot better in my clothes. I also have more energy for everything I have to do in a day. I just bought a new pair of black TIGHT jeans to reward myself and I'm absolutely loving the pay off from eating right. On the scale I've maybe lost 2 pounds (I fluctuate back and forth so sometimes I don't even think I've lost ANY), but I don't care too much about the scale. My jeans tell me I look good and that makes me happy. I've tried a few more healthy breakfasts lately. Here's the rundown on what we thought and where you can find the recipes:

Biggest Loser Oatmeal Pancakes.

I was so impressed by these pancakes. They're very healthy. No flour and only two T. of sugar! Healthy healthy! I was so surprised that my boys LOVED them and wanted more when we ran out, and little Penelope (1 year) loved them too. She had 3! I opted out of syrup and just had a couple frozen (thawed of course) strawberries on the side.

Brownie Batter Pancakes. These definitely TASTED healthy, but I used wheat flour instead of 'spelt flour', like it called for. I looked up spelt flour and it supposedly has a sweeter flavor, without the added calories, so maybe that would make a difference. My family and I DID like them, however, just not as much as the Biggest Loser ones. AND we all agreed that these ones NEEDED the fruit to taste good, but the boys preferred the Biggest Loser ones without fruit, so I think that's a good sign.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich (I used Almond Butter instead).

I actually had this for lunch, not breakfast (it's like a replacement for grilled cheese). I thought it was surprisingly tasty. I've had banana/peanut butter sandwiches before, but I like that this one was grilled, because there's that extra crunch that I love AND it melted the [almond] butter, which was really tasty. Also, it was nice that the recipe didn't call for a bunch of butter (like grilled cheese usually does). Just give a little spray with fat free PAM! Another, similar option, is the french toast in my previous post.

Bottom line: I will be making all of these again. Especially the biggest loser pancakes.

Biggest Loser Oatmeal Pancakes. Recipe from Biggest Loser Recipes. I need to spend some time trying more of the recipes on this site.

Brownie Batter Pancakes. Recipe from Skinny Taste.

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich. Recipe from 1 fit chick.

The most important meal of the day

We all know that "BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY", right?

Here are a few of my favorite, healthy breakfasts that keep me moving until it's time to eat again. I try to work out in the morning, BEFORE breakfast.

GREEN SMOOTHIES

I've heard people say they've tried green smoothies but they can't get them to taste good. That surprises me because every one I've tried is delicious. Some of my favorites are this, this, and this.

There's one recipe I eat the majority of the time, because it's fast and easy, and I usually have the ingredients on hand:

one frozen banana (peel a RIPE, ie brownish, banana and stick in the freezer over night. note: I've made it with a banana that hadn't been frozen and it wasn't as good, fyi.),

one T. almond butter (or natural peanut butter),

one cup soymilk (or cow's milk),

two big handfuls of spinach,

and a couple ice cubes.

FRENCH TOAST

My boys have their favorite breakfasts that they like us to make, and I have to find ways to change them up to be a little healthier for me.

This morning they wanted french toast.

Instead of white bread---wheat bread

Instead of syrup----almond butter

Instead of whipped cream----fat free honey greek yogurt

and some sliced almonds for some added crunch

It was tasty

CREPES

Again, one of my boys' favorites. We had crepes yesterday and I did pretty much the same things I did with the french toast.

YOGURT and GRANOLA

Pour some of your favorite granola into your favorite fat free greek yogurt and voila! A nice, EASY and HEALTHY breakfast.