E's - Before! (The "thank heavens its G rated" version!)

Because I can already see a small difference... :) and I want to document the progress, I have taken the liberty to be a poster child for our website. Here are my "before" pictures. As you can see, the figure in this demonstation-although quite fabulous-could use a bit of T.L.C. via the Y.G.G! So please keep posting your many good advices and may the force be with us all!
You go girls!

Do you need some buns with that? HA! HA! Pa-leeese! (OK, back to work!)

Your Diet should be Healthy and so...

This is a very good resource for learning about how what you eat effects you! It is like Biology 101 for how your body works to maintain itself and how appetite works etc. Here are the parts and chapters:

Part 1: What a waist!

3 Introduction: YOU: On a diet
Work smarter, not harder

chapter1
25 The Ideal Body
What your body is suppose to look like

Part 2: The Biology of Fat

chapter2
35 Can't Get No Satisfaction
The science of appetite

chapter3
51 Eater's Digest
How food travels through your body

Chapter4
71 Gut Check
The Dangerous Battles of Inflammation in Your Belly

Chapter 5
99 Taking a Fat Chance
How Fat Ruins Your Health

Chapter 6
127 Metabolic Motors
Your Body's Hormonal Fat Burners

Chapter7
137 Make the Move
How You Can Burn Fat Faster

Part 3: The Science of the Mind

chapter8
155 The Chemistry of Emotions
The connection between Feelings and Food

chapter9
163 Shame on Who?
The Psychology of the Failed Diet

Part 4: The YOU Diet and Activity Plan

chapter 10
193 Make a YOU -turn
How to change what you thought You Knew about Dieting - and Change Your Life For Good

chapter 11
205 The YOU Activity Plan
Physical strategies for Waist Management

chapter12
231 The YOU Diet
The Waist Management Eating Plan

And then there are the Appendices of Medical Options for those who are seriously over weight.

Anyways, it is all very good. The sample ideas in the eating and excersize are very simple and fabulous! And they tell you what kinds of products you should not eat because they are so bad for you...very interesting and eye-opening! Very Good!

Anyways, Thought that I would share too!
E

Another Healthy Recipe

I must say that this is my favorite recipe book. All the recipes in it are good for you and taste REALLY good. (All the ones we've tried that is! :)

Here is one of the recipes. . .

Chicken Minestrone

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Slices Canadian bacon, chopped (we decided a whole box of the pizza sliced bacon is better!)

1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 bay leaf
1 can (15 oz) cammellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (15 oz) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
6 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
6 portions chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch chunks (about 1 1/2 lbs)
3/4 cup Ditalini pasta
1 box (10 oz) frozen green beans
1 bag (5 oz) baby spinach
3 Tbsp fresh basil, sliced (we used dried basil)
2 Tbsp fresh Parmesan, grated (we used the spaghetti shaker kind!)

1. Place a large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil and heat for 1 minuts. Add Canadian bacon and saute for 4 minutes. Add onions, celery, garlic, zucchini and bay leaf, saute for anouther 5 minutes.

2. Add cannellini beans, red kidney beans, chicken broth and water to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then add chicken and cook for 10 more mintues.

3. Reduce heat to medium high; add pasta and grean beans. Cook until pasta is tender, about 8 minutes.

4. Remove bay leaf from soup with tongs or a spoon. Stir in spinach and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute.

5. Ladle a portion (about 2 cups) of minestrone into eacvh bowl. Top with fresh basil and Parmesan. Serve and enjoy!

Once Upon A Thigh. . .

Mom was telling me about her doctor's little website that gives weight loss advice and different ideas to be more healthy. Here is a link. . .

http://www.madisonwomensclinic.com/onceUpon.php


Go enjoy Once Upon A Thigh!

Friday is my day!

I have decided that Friday is going to be the day I splurge and have a delicious dessert of some sort or another. What's not to love about Friday night? No school or work on Saturday morning...then add an ice cream sundae to the mix; one might call it a perfect evening :) Also with it being date night (even if our date is just downstairs watching a movie) I want to be able to revel in the "date" experience and thoroughly enjoy the evening! Not to mention, if I plan my dessert ahead of time then I have a whole week to look forward to the sweet confection of Friday night! Thank goodness for Fridays! -Tiffany

Here We Go!

Ok sisters. We are at the starting line. The time has come. Time to win this race. . .

YOU GO GIRL!!!

The countdown...

The purpose of this picture is not to show you what you should be eating but rather to show you what I have been eating faithfully for the last oh, we'll say 3 months. You see around the time Halloween begins I seem to check out for the entire "Holiday Season." My problem is that everyday has become a "holiday." So, with that said I am looking forward to my new lifestyle come January 1, 2008...and inasmuch as right now is December 27, 2007 I'll enjoy the last few days of my current life and let the countdown begin... By the way I will soon be posting my new years guidelines and I would love to hear any ideas you might have as well! WE WILL BE HEALTHY!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!! -Tiffany

Healthy Waffle Idea

Take Your Homemade Waffle (minus the butter)


Spread Vanilla Yogurt on the waffle:


Cut up your fruit of choice to go on the top!




Voila! A healthy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is my new favorite. It is like a treat, but actually good for you! So there you go sisters, skip the butter and syrup and make it a healthy start of your day! Let me know what you think -Elisa

Relationship 101 - The gainful sacrifice of self

Due to a recent reminder of relationship hardships from a newly married friend of mine, I thought that I would share some of my relationship tips just for fun information sake...

(These opinions are based on my own personal experiences and belief and in no way constitute a claim to any result, it is just the way I found things work for me.)

I just thought that I would share, because this is a self improvement workshop blog.

We will all face it! Those days or moments where we are just plain mad! Those times when our special someone seems to just not get it! The insensitivity monster creeps up from time to time. It is at those times that we feel like they do not see us for more than the maid, or the nanny, or the laundress or the etc. etc.... It is part of life to have to deal with feelings of anger or frustration, feelings or fear that we are not loved or respected by those we need it from the most. At times we may be taken for granted and not noticed as much as we would like to be. When these unhappy feelings appear against those we love most, it is often hard to know what to do with it. We stuff it because it is not worth the contention, or we feel guilty for feeling bad inside, or we think "I'f I am mad then I can't have the perfect relationship". Frequently we cannot accept failure, we simply do not believe that anger or frustrations are acceptable emotions. So we are helplessly wallowing in grief and misery, thinking that there is no way out.
We trap ourselves with our denial by sweeping things into our corner that begin to clutter our hearts and minds. (If you want proof of this, then just wait until the next time you have an angry moment and see what else tumbles out of your minds closet! past angers, or grudges, or additional reasons to be angry etc.) Our problem is not our emotion, but rather, what we do with our emotion.
Not knowing this causes the problem we think we have to begin with.
So what do we do?
First step in any "fix it" program is awareness.
Know that if you feel angry or frustrated it is coming from somewhere REAL. Even if the other person is completely innocent and unaware of your plight, if you feel sad inside it is a real thing.
Part of awareness is understanding. This part can be our biggest obstical because it requires us to step way out of our own misery and into the position of the person or situation that has us angry or frustrated. When we can truly grasp this ability it will be a blessing as well as a responsibility. (The responsibility we will discuss in a moment.) The blessing of being able to see things from someone elses perspective is that it allows us to overcome selfishness in a genuine way. Nobody likes to pretend when the stage is their own life. Fake lasts for such a short time and leads to sorrow. Truly being able to live, accepting the vast variety of obsticals and emotions in a real way is worth every effort in gaining the habit. Why do we care? Because when you are in a selfish state of mind it is impossible yes, impossible to fix your problem! But what if it is the other persons fault!!!
Rule 1 in understanding any relationship is the fact that: YOU CANNOT CONTROL ANY PERSON BUT YOURSELF, your spirit possesses one body and not two. So change has to begin with YOU, like it or not. Selfishness, it is the first obstical of healing. So back to our good habit of stepping out of ourselves (mental possession :) ) This habit can take time to develop properly but it is actually simple to perform. You can do it by; a. observation, looking at the situation or person as if you were doing a character sketch for a novel, who are they, what are they doing, why are they doing that, etc. decide what makes them tick, openly define them with movable perameters that can change with more information. b. realize that you do not have all of the information. This part is a key to any successful relationship. Realize that even though you may know a lot, you do not know it all. Try to give the other person or situation the benefit of the doubt if at all possible. (If you had all the information 99.9% of the time you would not be upset.) c. Pray for understanding - remember that there is A Scource that does know everything. Ask Him for help to understand. Charity is the ultimate in this kind of knowledge and understanding.
d. have the discussion with yourself before you have it with someone else. Sometimes writing it down so that you can organize it first will help you unclutter your mind so that you can see it from anothers point of view. If you do this on paper or in your mind, make sure that it is a two way conversation with the other person or situation. Make their argument as believable and as sincere as yours. Use your best judgement as to what they would honestly say or feel.
e. Evaluate your own health, often the problem is US entirely and not the other person or situation. You can discover if this is so by asking, am I tired? am I stressed? am I hungry? am I sick? If the answer to any of these is yes then please simply take a nap, take a load off, eat a meal, or get better. You may find that it is all you needed. (The only thing more human nature than displacing blame for those we love, is displacing blame for ourselves. An argument in this state would be disasterous at best and humiliating.)
If you answered no to all of those health questions,or feel that your yes answers to all of them are due souly to the person or situation for which your anger is directed then continue...
Practice the "seeing it from another persons perspective" habit until you become its master.
Which will lead you to the second part of the understanding step in the workshop. The responsibility.
I call this responsibility: The gainful sacrifice of self. This is where you can work the magic of your new habit by, "Gaining more from the sacrifice than from the victory." When you can separate your own feelings, your own will, and your own desires, from those of another person and treat them as equals, then you can put them side by side and do something wonderful. You can salvage anything that is compatible from both sides, and throw the rest of YOUR side down on the alter of gainful sacrifice, leaving the whole of the other alone. I will explain using an example.
One day I was steaming mad at Greg. I cannot even remember now why, but I was going to blow up at any moment. Yes, believe it or not, me at Greg! It can happen! Every little real and fake injustice that I could conjure up I added to my boiling pot of rage ragu. I was going to be heard and it was going to be fierce and ugly and horrible and justice was going to be paid and reeked out! Ha! It seems all so dramatic now, but I was really mad. It had stewed for several days or even longer, and I had finally reached the day when I would no longer stir the pot. He was about to get a taste of everything that I had worked so hard to prepare. It was 4:00 and he would be home at 5:30. Victory was at hand. And then my habit of seeing the other persons point of view kicked in, I anticipated how Greg would feel, I imagined how hurt and even surprized he would be when he saw my unusual choice in evening meal of regal revenge, I began to weigh the cost versus the justice, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake in my calculations of the mixture in the pot of anger. Did I put in too much loathe and not enough patience? Did he really hurt me on purpose, did he even know that he had hurt me at all? Did I make some of it up, was this really the recipe I had started preparing in the first place? I began to give him the benefit of the doubt and suddenly I had no ammunition in my pot. Suddenly I realized that during all of this mad cooking I had misjudged him and had assumed the worst listening to the wrong voice telling me lies. I suddenly was left with a pot that nobody was going to partake of but me. I had to do something quick but what? What could I do now? It was almost 5:00, I prayed that the anger could be destroyed and that I could get rid of the awful taste and bitter feelings that this nasty concoction had made. I felt bad, I had wasted time being mad at someone I absolutely adore. A person I promised that I would bring happiness to. A person that I wanted to love and not feel anger towards. Suddenly I was shown a new recipe, my thoughts changed from getting even to giving more. I began to think of ways that I could make him happy. How could I comfort him in case he was also feeling stressed or sorrow or anger? I began stirring a new pot and the ingredients were rich and sweet. I started making an actual dinner, I helped get the kids settled in to a movie downstairs, I waited for the garage door to sound, and my anticipation for that sound was one of love and excitement and not one of bombs, guns and daggers. When he came in I took his things and put them away, then I took his hand and led him into our room, I positioned him at the center foot of the bed and then I pushed him so that he fell backwards onto the bed, I helped him take his shoes off and I threw him a pillow. The only words out of my mouth were something like, "you cannot move until I call you for dinner". I shut him happily in the room and finished making dinner and then we all ate together and the rest of the evening was fabulous! Later we talked late into the night and he confided some of the stresses of his day and things that were on his mind, things that he had been concerned about, burdens that I would have added to 10 fold, had I dished for him brim full of my first pot. He had no clue the peril that was almost his that day, and I shrink thinking of the agony I may have caused him knowingly and unknowingly had I gone through with my attack. I did not have to re-live those angry moments, I did not stuff them. They flew into oblivion with the mercy that only Jesus Christ can provide. Later, after I had repented of my thoughts of retaliation and when we were both in a happy and energized mood, I presented him with my simple need and desire. Something that I had wanted, something that would help prevent those feelings of anger or neglect. Something I should have done in the first place. I asked for this without swords and the results were successful, miraculous and amazing, something daggers and bombs would have never produced. Love is so much more powerful than force. Every time. Justified or not. I learned another valuable thing in this experience. Most people cannot read your mind. You have to kindly let other people know what your needs are and then patiently allow them to meet them or not. You have to be satisfied either way. You also have the reponsibility to meet the needs of those you have stewardship over when you become aware of them. We can all see miracles in our own relationships if we will stand up for ourselves by being in control of our actions. We will never be judged by the behavior of others. But we will most certianly be damned or blessed by our own.
This way is NOT being a doormat! Being a doormat is when you let other people control you. This way IS being meek, it is giving kindness to those whom we have the ability or option to destroy. It is power that will produce results to astound you.
Love, E
P.S. Greg may or may not be perfect, but he most definately IS perfect for me!

Getting Started-The hardest part!

I just returned home from the grocery store and what do I find? A new blog on which to post my tips on general health and physical upgrading. Does that mean that I cannot have my root-beer float tonight? NO! It just means that I have a terrific opportunity to re-evaluate my current personal healthcare program. Or at least I have been invited to get one! I am in it to win it! My current goals for myself?

1. Move more (ie: no more making the kids run and get it for me!)
2. Treadmill (until spring!)
3. Scriptures (everyday)
4. Balanced diet (no more skipping veggies and fruits during a meal!)
5. Portion control (I mean really! I will probably eat again, its not my last meal!)
6. Kindness and not Grumpiness (I was not born to be one of the seven dwarfs and I am not fair enough to be considered snow white! Except my legs, when I shave them.)
7. Make-up! (I have to say, I have made great strides in this category! Keep up the A+ work!)
and finally...
8. Bend down and clip those tonails!!!
I love you all and I am so excited to join! This is like an I.Y.A. meeting or something! (Improve Yourself Anonymous!)

My name is E. Brooke and I have been improving for 15 minutes now! And I feel fabulous!!!