Thursday, July 21, 2011

Something Doesn't Belong Here

Can you tell what's in the pool?



That's right! TOADS! We had an invasion of toad in our basement window wells earlier this summer.

Chris and Tommy saved them all and stored them in our pool until they could move them to a better location. We had NINE toads! Crazy. Thankfully they have all moved to better homes now.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sauteed Summer Veggies over Pasta

So I don't know about you, but this summer has been busy! I can't believe we are almost through July. With that being said I bring you a healthy recipe today. Since things have been busy, it seems like we just have been eating well, unhealthy lately. We have been enjoying cookouts, takeout, ice cream, all those wonderful things that go along with summer. But man, I'm starting to feel it. I was starting to feel sluggish so I knew things had to change.

Now, I do workout regularly, this I have under control. I joined our local gym earlier this year and have really started to like working out, something that I never thought I would say. I have made some good friends there and we enjoy working out together, which of course makes it much easier. I joined a boot camp class that I do twice a week and then workout three other times during the week. So working out 5 days a week, you think you might be feeling good? Well, I do, but I need to work on my self control with eating! We all go through these phases, but I feel like since vacation back in June I have really let the diet thing slide. So I'm putting in all this time in the gym, yet not seeing results on the scale....hmmm something has to change. So we are going back to our healthy eating. If I'm working my butt off at the gym I want to start seeing results! So it's time to buckle down for a bit and live healthy.

I always set goals for myself when it comes to wanting to lose weight, sometimes I think I strive for too much and when I don't reach it, that's when I reach for the chocolate or chips. So this time I am keeping things realistic. Our anniversary is coming up, August 7th. We will be celebrating 7 years together. So my goal is to continue to eat healthy until then, allowing myself one cheat meal a week. Now this is a meal, not a day...working on that self control thing. By August 7th I want to feel like I have more energy, a little less flab (especially in the tush and belly area), and hopefully have lost a few pounds along the way. We'll see how it goes, but so far so good. But I do highly recommend setting goals for yourself with your weight loss. I have used 5k races in the past, it always got me to the gym because I knew I always wanted to beat previous race times so I had to practice. So now the goal is to tone up, more energy and hopefully lose a few more pounds before the anniversary.

I made this recipe the other night wanting to get a break from chicken. It was delicious and so easy! I picked up some summer veggies sauteed them in garlic and olive oil and threw in some whole wheat pasta. I sprinkled just a bit of parmesan cheese on top. Wow, it was good. Even Chris enjoyed this meat free meal. So here are the ingredients I used, but you could use any fresh veggies you like:

1 zucchini
1 yellow summer squash
1 vidalia onion
1 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
olive oil
whole wheat pasta (I used roughly a cup per person)
salt and pepper (to taste)
crushed red pepper (optional, I added it for a bit of spice)
parmesan cheese (optional, again I used just a bit on top)

Sautee all your veggies together while your pasta is cooking. Season the veggies, add your pasta and about tbs. of olive oil toss, and enjoy! It was yummy!


I will report back occasionally to let you all know how I'm doing on my goal, and definitely by our anniversary! If you have any healthy recipes or snack ideas please share, always looking for ways to change it up!