Back to Swell Challenge #3: make a plan to meet a friend for a walk

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Challenge #3 is to make a plan to meet a friend for a walk on 

either Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday of this week

Once you've asked a friend and have a plan, leave a comment below to be entered in this week's drawing for a "birthday" present. Two more options for bonus entries: take a pic of you and your friend out walking, use the hastag #backtoswell and tag @swellmom on Instagram, and/or leave a comment on the daily challenge post over on the FB page.

If we pass out on our walks, please introduce yourself!

Just joining the Back to Swell Challenge now:
Challenge #1: get outside
Challenge #2: pick a book

For Challenge #2, I went for a long walk with my friend, Dawn, from No Kidding Nutrition, and picked two books (overachiever that I am, ha). I went to our local bookstore to peruse their recs, picking out what promises to be a light, fun read by foodie legend, Ruth Reichl, but they didn't have the second title I'd been wanting to read so I bought one locally and ordered the other off Amazon. Here are my amazon affiliate links for both books, in case they've piqued your interest:
Ruth Reichl's "Delicious" 
Rachel Macy Stafford's "Hands Free Life"

Back to Swell Challenge #2: pick a book

Back to Swell Challenge #2: keep up with your :30 walk outside, and pick a book you're going to read in November

Hope everyone had a fabulous walk yesterday! Sometime just pulling myself away from the laundry, computer and errands, even if just for :30, makes a total difference. I thoroughly enjoyed a long hoof around town yesterday with a dear college friend, and today I am meeting up with my friend, Dawn, who runs No Kidding Nutrition.

As for the book, I can't wait to cull through the stack on my bedside table or treat myself to a new book from our bookstore in town.

Don't think you have enough quiet minutes in your day to actually read this month? Here's another option: a friend recently turned me on to Overdrive, which allows me to check out audio books from my local library, download them to my iphone, and listen to them as I walk. Awesome.

Once you've selected the book you're going to read and gone for your walk, leave a comment below to be entered in this week's drawing for a "birthday" present. Bonus entry if you show me you're also keeping Challenge #1 up. Two more options for bonus entries: take a pic of your book, hashtag it #backtoswell and tag @swellmom on Instagram, and/or leave a comment on the daily challenge post over on the FB page.

Just joining me? Here's the scoop on the November Back to Swell Challenge.

November "Back to Swell" Challenge

Today is the first Monday in November, which also happens to be my birthday month. So, for these first few weeks, I have fifteen special challenge for myself-- and any of you who would like to join me. {Yes, there will be parties and presents involved!}

Rather than get caught up in the frenzy of upcoming holidays, or wallowing in the grays that keep springing out of my head, I'm putting a little spring in my step, and making the first half of November a "Back To Swell" Challenge. I'd love for all of you busy moms to join me.

Here's how it will work:

• There will be 15 Back-to-Swell Challenges posted here on the blog between now - November 20th. If you complete the challenge, leave a comment on that blog post, post a pic of you doing the challenge using the #backtoswell hashtag and tag @swellmom on Instagram and/or leave a comment on that day's Challenge on the Meals in a Snap Facebook page.
• I will randomly award a few little "birthday presents" to those moms who are getting themselves Back to Swell. Win-win-- not only will you be taking even better care of yourself, you'll also have a chance to win a little pressie. 

Let's begin!

The Challenge for Monday, November 2 is to take a walk outside for at least :30 minutes.

Remember, comment below once you've done it. Tag a pic of your walk on Instagram #backtoswell or show me a pic from your walk on the Day 1 Challenge over on the Facebook page. 

winning at losing -- the friendly weight-loss competition

If you've been following me on Facebook you know that I just wrapped up Week 3 of an 8-week weight-loss competition* I have going with 10 mom friends. And {drum roll}-- for the second week in a row-- I am in the lead, based upon % of weight lost.

So what's working?

First and foremost, for me, it's my fitbit.

Far from deprivation, my eating has been some combination of what I learned during the 10-day detox {though I no longer need to follow it to a "t"}, Bittman's VB6 {though I didn't realize I was eating this way until a friend mentioned it… more veggies = always a good goal} and Eating Rules' October Unprocessed Challenge. Food-wise, I took the pressure off myself to be perfect. Instead, I make an effort to crowd out the bad with good. I allow myself treats, and have enjoyed several meals out {with delicious beverages}... but I also log everything I eat-- both the good and the bad-- into the food journal on my fitbit dashboard. It is powerful for me to understand where I stand, and what exercise would have to happen to balance out that next glass of wine, or dessert, so I can make choices.

While I am by no means perfect, generally speaking, I feed my family well. But for me, exercise was the piece that was apparently missing. I always assumed that whatever walk I took, tennis I played, or time I spent on the elliptical was enough. But I had no way of really knowing how much I was doing. Did it matter?

Plus, I felt like the last thing I needed was another reason to be online. But then I trusted a few friends who swore their fitbits were helping them get where they wanted to be.

Worth a shot.

So, I strapped a fitbit on, committed to taking at least 10,000 steps/day, and from Week 1 it had me swooning {and losing weight}. I began to understand-- in concrete terms-- how much I needed to move if I was going to eat x, y, or z. I'm never going to give up on real, delicious food. I enjoy eating, and I have a family that needs to be nourished each day. But now that I better understand the role movement plays, I am encouraged and empowered to move more. It's simple math, not rocket science.

And I am surrounded by friends doing the same. We see the steps each other is taking and challenge each other to garner more.

My kids know that badgering me to use the iPad will now, more often than not, be met with an idea to get outside and go someplace on foot.

I still love a good book by the fire, a lunch date within a friend, and the laundry isn't going to fold itself… but these days, all that happens after I meet my daily Fitbit goal. I'm hooked.

See the small product that made a huge difference in my fitness journey.

*Since many of you have asked, here are the details on our friendly weight-loss competition:

• We have 11 moms participating, all friends and friends of friends;
• We each put $100 into the pot, making our 1st place prize $600 and our 2nd place prize $500;
• Since everyone came into the competition with a different amount they'd like to lose, you win based upon your % of weight-lost compared to your starting weight {vs absolute lbs, inches, etc};
• We chose to do the competition for 8 weeks in hopes that real, lasting change could occur;
• On day 1, we all went to one participant's house and got on her scale, which became each person's starting weight;
• Each Monday, participants weigh themselves at home {using their own scales} and email their weight to the spreadsheet keeper before 10am. Once all weights are tallied, the spreadsheet keeper emails current rankings out to the group {just %, weights are kept private} so everyone has an idea of how they're doing relative to the group;
• After 8 weeks, we'll regroup live at the original scale we used, and there will undoubtedly be a lot of hooting and hollering as the winners are announced!!!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting the full plate blog. 

the hideous photo that was my wake up call

Have you ever hit rock bottom? Have you been that mom who is burning the candle at both ends? I have. I was… no, I am. {This is the post I referenced earlier, when I said I was going to share the "really great thing". The post has been sitting in draft form for, oh, a few weeks. Anyway, this is it. No, not this photo. But it's the photo that started something positive...}

The photo above was the one photo that I am in from our family trip to my in-laws at Christmas. It rained all week, and we'd taken the kids bowling. It's not my best photo. {Achem, by a long shot.} In fact, when my mother-in-law emailed it to me in a batch of nice ones of the kids, my husband and themselves, my first reaction was, "Are you kidding me? Who sends a totally unflattering picture like that to someone?" And at first I was completely annoyed with her. I mean, really, who does that?

And then, I realized that, while completely unflattering, if I was honest with myself, this photo also summed up the way I was feeling-- and to some extent still feel. Bloated. I'm trying to put on a happy face, but I'm exhausted. I don't feel pretty. No, I definitely don't feel pretty. My clothing is too tight, but I refuse to go buy anything new in a bigger size. So, instead I wear loose tops to cover my muffin top, and big necklaces to hopefully distract you from the butt that's gotten big sitting in front of a computer working from home. I'll eat and drink anything I please, because I'm already so far gone that it doesn't matter. Which, of course, simply perpetuates things.

But this is not the mom and wife I want to be. I miss feeling good. I miss feeling pretty, and energetic, and clear-headed. I know there's a way to dig out… but sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom to realize you want to change things. 

I know how to take care of myself. Or at least I think I do. It's been a while… 

I know what I should be eating. Or, at least I know what I shouldn't be eating… but oh those cookies/chips/pick your sugary/floury/processed vice, they call my name. 

Anyway, this isn't a pity post. I let myself go, lost sight of priorities, and got myself in this pickle. And it sucks. And now I'm going to have to get myself out. 

 

These first few weeks, I've been trying to get the wheels back on the bus on my own. It's taken discipline, creativity, research and planning. I've made it delicious, but I'd be lying if I said it was easy. I've kind of ebbed and flowed, which is why I put my name in the hat when I heard Mark Hyman MD was looking for a few bloggers to beta test his new 10-Day Detox {available for pre-order now, due to be released on February 25, 2014}. And he picked me. We start Monday, and I can't decide if I am absolutely thrilled or slightly terrified? What I do know is that I really want to feel happy, energetic and svelte again. And I hope this helps get me there.      

P.S. I debated whether to share this personal story with you at all, since the expectation is that this blog will focus on make-ahead meals {and besides, who wants a hideous photo like that floating around?}. But the notion that I do it all, and do it well, is sometimes smoke and mirrors. I can stock a freezer like nobody's business, but I struggle, just like many of you may have at some point in motherhood, to juggle it all. So, consider this a "coming clean" post, on many levels. 

Take me to Day 1 of the Detox!

Note: I was given an advance copy of The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox, and given the opportunity to participate in daily calls with Dr. Hyman, and/or an RD from Dr. Hyman's staff, and a life coach from The Handel Group, as part of my chance to review the book. I was not compensated in any other way for participating in the program, and all opinions are my own. The above links will take you to Amazon. When you click, it takes you to their website, and anything you purchase there will help support swellmom and the full plate blog. Thanks in advance for the support.

what I'm reading right now...

It's been a little quiet on the blog, hasn't it? I have a really great-- and pretty darn personal-- post to share soon. Maybe. Depending upon how it works out. I need another week to make sure I'm on track...

In the meantime, here's a little peek into what's stacked up on my bedside table {alongside the angel pillow my younger son made in school a few years ago and recently re gifted}. While I haven't been blogging too much since the New Year, I have been reading a lot. Here's what's in the current stack, top to bottom:
Hands Free Mama
The Little Book of Thin
Me Before You
Beat The Market
and
In The Kitchen With Westy (a local school fundraising project that I participated in)

Looking for other book ideas? Here are some of the other books I've recently read and enjoyed, and here are the ones I hope to get to.

What are you reading now? Do you have other suggestions I should add to my "can't wait to read" list?

This contains amazon affiliate links, meaning the amazon price is the same to you, but The Full Plate Blog earns a small commission of sales, which go towards operating expenses of the blog. If you plan to make a purchase, thank you for considering doing so via these amazon links!

if there's a bare patch on the playground, you'll know the Johnsons are eating well

This morning, my younger son hopped into my bed and flopped his Dragon Slayer's book over to my side. "Mommy! Guess what?!! After you're done reading to me I have something very special for you. You are going to love it. It's a secret!", he said with the mystery of a dramatic 6-year-old... but then it was breakfast time, time to get dressed, time to catch the bus... and off he went.

Then this evening, as I was heating dinner up from our freezer stash {reveling in the fact that all I had to do was turn the oven on}, he excitedly runs to the fridge and whips out a ziploc filled with a piece of copy paper and... what is that?

"I picked you spring onions at school! You can make dinner with them!!"

I looked at this bundle of limp-- um, I'm no expert, but I am pretty sure it was overgrown grass-- he held out to me expectantly.

"They're not as fresh as yesterday because they were in my backpack. But when you were out last night, I put them in the fridge... to keep them fresh." {He holds the green wad up to his nose and inhales deeply... then frowns.} "They do not smell like onions now, but I think if we cook with them we will taste the onion," he says with authority.

First thought: boy, he's cute. Next thought: there's no way I am eating grass he found on the playground.

"Wow. Um, ok, so where did you find these special onions?" {I feel guilty wanting a glass of wine and have to stifle a giggle, picturing him foraging while the other kids are playing tag.}

"At school! They grow by our building! I can pick more for you tomorrow!! If we have some tomatoes, we can make a salad. I thought you would love these onions," he says looking at me expectantly.

And so we did. We made a salad with tomatoes, some fresh mint... and grass from the school playground.

Then, he decided "the salad would be even better if we cooked it!" {And I thought, yes, and the heat will kill whatever's on the grass that the water didn't get.}

While his brother did homework, he proudly seasoned the tomatoes, mint, olive oil and grass onions,

and we sat down to {a special} family dinner.

keeping a pinky toe in... learning from home

Now that my {awesome} integrative nutrition program has wrapped up, I am craving another learning opportunity... something that I can also do from home.

When the homework is done, the kids are outside hammering away, the laundry is being completely ignored, and the make-ahead dinners are doing their thing, I wanted to find another opportunity to expand my knowledge.

So, I gin up the computer and find a way to learn + grow from the nest. Next stop, Denmark. Would any of you like to join me?

getting my groove back

Well, this is embarrassing. You'd think I'd be checking in, after my few week break from blogging, feeling all relaxed and svelte. Nope. See, even though I took a few weeks to dial things back and prioritize spending quality time with my family, that was only half of what I needed to do to feel swell. I know the food part is important. Of course, I know this. Sometimes {achem} it just takes takes my shorts getting snug to remind me that I need to pay attention to what I am eating. Either I can admit that, or I can give the dryer stink eye... even if the dryer settings haven't changed in the past month.

So, what happened? Well, let's see... I started the summer off with too many balls in the air, and between (the craziness of) day camp shuttling and lots of afternoon activities, the heat of the summer (which makes this CA girl absolutely wilt), a few work projects, the bevvy of normal home/mom responsibilities, and seemingly 'no time' to shop, we ate out too many nights. Don't get me wrong, eating out is fun. I love it.

As a family, we frequent local Mexican, Indian, Korean, Thai and Japanese places that whip up meals different than those I make at home. The problem with eating out is that you don't really know what the ingredients are in your meals... and then there's the cocktail (or two...) that always seems a part of a meal out. And while the notion of having someone else cook/serve/clean up is hugely appealing to me as a busy mom, it's time that I take my own advice so I don't feel like a sausage stuffed in casing come August.   

I am determined to get back on track, but this is going to take a little more organization/planning than I'm used to, if I am going to keep all the balls in the air, be present for my family, and take care of myself. I have a wealth of amazingly delicious-- and simple-- recipes here on the blog, in my head, and filed away in notebooks. My goal is to create a simple program for myself so I can easily stay on track. As I muddle through this 'return to swell', I am taking copious notes. If it works, I look forward to sharing my plan, recipes and tips with all of you! How does that sound? Have you gotten yourself in a similar rut this summer? Leave me a comment and let me know your biggest stumbling block to eating well when you're super busy. I'd love to hear I'm not alone... and please do share any tips you may have for getting back on track! Together we can do this!!

taking a little break...

I'm taking a little blogging break. For how long, you ask? Maybe just a few days, maybe the month of July, maybe the whole summer... We'll see. This magazine excerpt from Dr. Harley Rotbart's book pretty much sums up the way I feel right now: wiped out. I told a friend that "I need more summer in my summer", and she replied, "If you feel frazzled you need to cut. You can't be full on every day. Summer is when u recharge for the coming school year...Could u take a pause... without losing ground? I guess another way to look at it is, at the end of the summer, what kind of memories do u want to have? Driving frantically around in the car or relaxing... What r your actions teaching your kids? Always be busy?" 

Ouch. So, baby steps. Last week, I did a clean eating week. (More on that when I get back to blogging.) And I decluttered the house some while I decluttered my eating. There's still work to do on both those fronts, but it's good enough for now. I feel more in order, more like I'm ready for a clean start...

And this coming week I'm setting aside time just to read. I'm delving into two books that have been on my can't-wait-to-read list for a few months now. {If you'd like a peek, click here for the books I look forward to reading, or here for the ones I've recently read and enjoyed.}

In my case, it took a dear friend sending me a zinger of an email to make me step back and regroup, then this excerpt from Dr. Rotbart's book drove it home.  

So, until the next post, hopefully you'll find me with my kids, putting more "summer" into our summer.

p.s. Have no fear, you can still use this blog as a fabulous resource. Simply scroll down the right side here and perform a search for something specific, or peruse the categories. Cheers.

simple homemade gift + rainy day activity: lemon sugar scrub

School's out for us... and last week was a very rainy week. Normally I would just have my kids bundle up and go play in the rain, but my older son is in South America on an adventure with my parents for 10 days, and, well, call me a scrooge, but I'm not a huge fan of playing in the rain. Two days into summer break, I'd had my fill of Sorry and Totally Gross board games, and was feeling pangs of guilt that the last weeks of school had seemed so busy, and we hadn't done an end of year gift for all of the 'extra' (non-lead) teachers that play such an amazing role in my children's school lives. My 6-year-old overheard me mention this to a friend and excitedly announced that we should "make something!" So, we spent Friday morning making enough Lemon Sugar Scrub to pop in the school mailboxes of his Extended Day teachers, the Head of Early Childhood, her right-hand-gal assistant, his science, art, Spanish, and music teachers, the Head of School and his speech therapist (my child's... not the Head of School's). Because we now have our go-to Lemon Sugar Scrub down to a science, I am jotting the latest and greatest recipe down (with exactly what to buy, using brands and sizes readily available at your local market) here for you all looking for  a simple rainy day activity, or easy teacher/hostess gift, that your children can help make. Order the jars now (while you're thinking of it), and have the other ingredients in your pantry, and you too can the win mom-of-the-day award...

Lemon Sugar Scrub

(makes a dozen 8.5 oz jars)

twelve 8.5 oz jars (I get them at Container Store)

two 2lb boxes Sugar in the Raw

25.3 oz bottle olive oil (we used Filippo Berio Extra Light)

15 oz bottle pure lemon juice

zest of 3-4 lemons

{If you are making this with little ones, I highly recommend putting a towel down.} Combine all ingredients in a large bowl or pot. Divide evenly among jars and seal tightly. Let gift recipients know it's a beauty products, not an ice cream topping...

Here are action photos, since I know some of you like to follow along this way:

measuring sugar

now we know a box is 4 cups, so dumping sugar...

olive oil (yes, this makes me nervous on our brand new kitchen floors...)

lemon juice (yep, even more nervous about those kitchen floors...)

zesting lemons (I let him do one side of each lemon, then I did the other sides since they get slippery)

mixing

scooping (and I'm not going to lie: I was thrilled when he tired of scooping... at that point I had the remains of several jars worth of lemon sugar scrub running down my arm)

this photo's a little out of order, but I'm going to keep it here just to remind you to put a towel down... you can thank me later

voila! i wish i'd thought to take a photo with the ribbons and tags, but I didn't. you get the gist though!