Grateful for 1000 days!!

For me, it used to be that Mother's Day was all about celebrating my mom for the great woman she is and how she's been a wonderful example to all of us kids. Then, as I became a mom myself, things shifted a bit, we still celebrated my mom, of course, but now I have the chance to reflect on how grateful and blessed I am to be given the opportunity to be a mom myself. Soooo, in light of Mother's Day, I am launching my brand new HUGE challenge to myself and everyone else!!!

 

You've probably seen the #100dayshappy posts, and I think they're such a great idea! What an awesome way to spread your daily happiness with others and inspire them to find happiness in their day as well!! I want to go one step further though. What does it take to be grateful for 1000 days straight? I think it's going to take a LOT! 1000 days is a long time!!! To be grateful each and every day takes a lot!! It will very likely be life changing for me and hopefully others as well!

So, what do you say? Are you with me?? Can you be #1000daysgrateful?? All you have to do is post a photo daily of what you're grateful for and use the hashtag #1000daysgrateful on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. I'll be sharing my posts on Instagram @1000daysgrateful as well as on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/challengeyourselfhealth so leave a message here or send me one on Facebook to let me know you're in!!!

 

Some Favourite Clean Eating Recipes

Here are some of my favourite clean eating recipes that I've tried and love! Most of these I make on a regular basis :) 

These pancakes are AWESOME!! You can make extra and freeze them :)http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229066012995/

Delicious brownies (I found with the salted top they were a tad too salty:http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065828055/

I love THIS cake recipe, it's a little more of a fall recipe, but I'll be making it all year long :) And I find that there's no need for the almond drizzle either if you don't want. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065837867/

My go-to bread recipe. It's easy and delicious!! 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065828056/

You can't go wrong with a warm quinoa salad!!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229066012996/

I love this jambalaya recipe, it's a little spicy though, so you may want to adjust accordingly. Oh, and you can just cook it on the stove in a pot as well :)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229066122139/

Another brownie recipe...who would have thought that black beans would make good brownies? I love them!! 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229066032334/

There are so many healthy soup recipes out there, but this one is hearty and can be used as a full meal (at least we do, with some warm bread on the side...yum!)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065817643/

These cookies are sooo easy and good!! You can add whatever mix ins you want too!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229064294311/

Love this banana bread recipe, I usually had some pecans or walnuts for a little extra flavour :)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229064211259/

Super easy and delicious side, cucumbers are always good! 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229064350684/

Another yummy soup!! It's creamy without the cream :)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229063918693/

This ice cream is so easy and so good!! You can use any fruit. I like to mix in a bit of cocoa powder and peanut butter...you will need to add some milk to help blend it though. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229063864285/

This salsa is super easy and sooo good!! 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229064626288/

This overnight oatmeal is awesome!! When hubby works day shift he's out the door by 6, so I usually have a few of these jars ready for him to grab and go. It's like a dessert :) The banana & pb is our fave!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229064931382/

I've made these stuffed peppers and they're sooo good!!!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065184212/

It's strawberry season...make this jam! Seriously!!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065278986/

One of my favourite sweet snacks...omit the choc chips. I love pb & honey & a tad vanilla!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/252694229065685526/

For more healthy recipes, check out my clean eating board on Pinterest. I haven't tried a lot of these recipes, but there are a lot of great ideas!!

http://www.pinterest.com/1kat/clean-eating/ 

What I love about being at home...

What do I like best about being a stay at home mom who also works from home?
Well, there really isn't one thing I like the best, it's a LOT of things!!

*I love that I was the first one to see Zander's gums break so his first tooth could come out.

*I love that Brielle repeats things that we say instead of (maybe inappropriate) things from others like "You found this for me mommy, you're such a big helper to me!" or "How's your dinner mommy?" or "I love your shirt daddy" or "thank you for saying hi to my dolly".

*I love that I have the opportunity to have a hot meal on the table for Arnold when he comes home after work (it doesn't always happen, mind you).

*I love that on days where I've slept only a few hours (many days since Zander was born), I don't have to be out the door, showered, dressed and looking presentable at an early hour while packing the kids up and dropping them off somewhere.

*I love that Brielle has to kiss and hug Zander EVERY time he goes for a nap.

*I love going to his room after every nap and seeing that big smile on his face.

*I love that I have the chance to participate in a weekly woman's Bible Study in the mornings.

*I love that I can arrange for playdates whenever I want.

*I love that I can make my own hours.

*I love that I've been able to see the relationship build every day between my kids, it's really heartwarming.

*I love hearing Brielle make up songs on her guitar "No you don't, yes you do".

*I love that I have time to serve others with hot meals or babysitting, etc on occasion.

*I love that Arnold and I don't work opposite schedules, so I get to see him whenever he's off.

*I love that I can take time off for special occasions like mini trips, vacations or even just a rest day without anyone telling me that I can't.

*I love to see her and Arnold twirling around the living room dancing together (shhh, don't tell him I told you that he does this).

*I love that my job at home includes building relationships with women who are sometimes hurting, struggling, and in need of a helping hand.

*I love that I can see real transformations in weight loss, increase in health and help other women to work from home and earn an income as well.

*I love that I've found my passion, even though I had no idea it would be my passion until I started this journey exactly a year ago.

*I love that I'm able to help pay off debt and start saving for a downpayment.

7 week fitness challenge results!!!

So today was the 7 week mark since I started my fitness challenge to lose the baby weight. I will admit, I was nervous to get started because I hadn't seriously worked out in well over a year, and although I didn't eat too bad, I never really paid attention to what exactly I ate and how much of it. I knew giving up sweets would be the biggest challenge for me because I have a huge sweet tooth!

I chose this program because I loved the fact that it was only 25 minutes a day, I knew this was something that I would be able to squeeze into my busy day, even with a newborn and toddler. I ended up falling in love with it!! It didn't take me long to start noticing some changes either, and not just losing weight, but also gaining energy…funny how that works, right? You workout hard and have more energy then before you started! The shakeology really helped to curb my cravings (especially for sweets) and gave me energy!!

So was I successful? Absolutely! Did I have challenges? Of course I did!! Did I give up all 'unhealthy' food? No, I allowed myself treats! What helped me was my accountability group. If I was thinking about what to snack on that afternoon I reached for an apple instead of a cookie because I knew I would have to confess to my group later that day. The motivation and support of my challenge group was really what helped me to stay on track!!

So I lost a total of 12 lbs, 9.5 inches (chest, waist, hips, thighs) and gained .5 inch on each arm!!!!

Now to decide which program to do next…oh wait, I already did! This is the program I'm starting on Jan 6, and I'll be doing a brand new challenge group again!!! I'm very excited…and yes, nervous again, it takes a lot of hard work and determination to stick to it, but so worth it in the end!!

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Mousse

So this past week I've really been craving sweets. I think I'm going to blame it on the fact that I'm nursing a little guy that's growing waaaay too fast and has been eating every 2 hours for the past 5 days (even through the night!).

It could also have something to do with the fact that I've been doing a clean eating challenge for 5 weeks now and avoiding refined sugar as much as possible. Either way, I have been needing something sweet lately.

What I wanted to do was bake, but I've just been too busy…plus I'm not really sure what to make. I need to look through all my pins on my "Clean Eating" board, and that might take a while!

Anyways, to satisfy my sweet craving for the day, I made this healthy Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Mousse, and it's really good!!!

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Mousse

1 banana
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp honey
2 tbsp peanut butter (I used all natural crunchy )
3 tbsp milk (I used regular almond milk).

Add all ingredients to blender for a few minutes, transfer to bowl once blended well. Cool in fridge for about half hour (if you can last that long). Enjoy!!

Snow Ice Cream (no sugar added)

For some reason this was the first winter I thought about the snow ice cream my mom used to make for us, probably because I have a toddler now and I thought she would really enjoy it. We didn’t have any money growing up, so snow ice cream was a great treat for us!

I wondered if snow ice cream was a real thing or something my mom had invented.  Where to go and see if a recipe exists? Pinterest of course! Sure enough, Pinterest has everything, including recipes for snow ice cream!

I looked at several and they either all used sweetened condensed milk or milk and sugar. I wanted to do mine without sugar, so here's my recipe:

¼ cup milk

¼ tsp vanilla

¼ cup maple syrup

Mix these together then go get about 5 cups of fresh snow and pour the liquid over the snow, mix well and voilà, snow ice cream! This makes about 2 cups of ice cream. You’ll want to be sure to eat it right away because it melts pretty quickly and doesn’t re-freeze well. Enjoy!!

It was a hit!!

Zander's Birth Story (Part 2)

If you missed part 1 of the birth story, find it here.

Arnold texted back that he got a hold of her (what a huge relief) and he was now on his way back!! He got back around 4:30 or so, put his swim shorts on and hopped in with me. What a relief!! Soon my midwife asked me to let her know once I felt like I needed to start pushing so she could call the backup midwife. It wasn't long until I told her she should probably call her. 

Around 5:20 or so, I started to push and shortly after that my waters broke. At this point the contractions didn't want to stop, there was barely any breathing room between them. I pushed quite a few more times and then finally my midwife told me that with one more big push his head would be out. Sure enough, with the next push his head was out and with the one following that he was out completely @ 5:44am! She whisked him up and put him straight on my chest.

I remember I couldn't stop smiling and laughing, in almost a giggle like way. I was just so happy that he was here and that it went sooo fast! It amazed me how alert Zander was as well, just looking around and content. From the time I woke up with contractions to the time I was holding him was just over 4 hours! With Brielle from start to finish I was about 36 hours…yikes! After a few minutes Arnold got to cut the cord, which was also really special since he didn't get to do that with Brielle. 

After delivering the placenta, I got cleaned up while Arnold and Zander had some bonding time, and then they weighed and measured him. Our big boy was 9.8 lbs & 22 inches long!! I had totally thought he would be at least a pound less when I was holding him, he was so curled up that he didn't seem that big. 

This whole birth was just so amazing, from the care the midwifes gave right from the beginning, to the time we went home. I just loved having him at the centre with no doctors, no medical equipment and no one but me, Arnold and the 2 midwifes there, it was so peaceful and quiet!! We had a few hours of alone time in our nice, beautiful queen size bed while they made a scrumptious breakfast for us! It didn't take long for Zander to have his first feeding either, he latched on very well! 

Zander and I were both doing so well that we got to leave around 9am. Once we were in the car, Arnold confessed "now don't be mad at me, but I stopped to get a coffee on the way to the centre". I said "I already saw your cup there, good thing you didn't miss the birth because you had to have a coffee!". To his credit though, we both didn't think the birth would be nearly that quick!!

We stopped by to pick Brielle up on the way back home, her babysitter was shocked that we were on our way back home already…with a baby (they had just gotten up and had breakfast)!!

So Arnold's mom was due to arrive around noon, so we decided not to tell her that Zander had arrived, we wanted to surprise her! Arnold's brother and his family was driving her up from Calgary, so it was going to be a surprise for all of them. We had just talked to them the night before when nothing was happening yet, so they didn't suspect anything. I'll never forget the looks on their faces as they walked in and I was sitting on the couch with Zander sitting on my lap. My mother in law said she thought I was babysitting because he was so big!  

*On a side note, on the way to drop Brielle off, Arnold had been praying that she would pick up her phone if he tried to call one more time. She said that it was like in her dream someone was trying to get a hold of her and it woke her up, she looked at her phone and saw about 20 missed calls. Can you say that the power of prayer works and God woke her up? I have no doubt!!