Meet My Nemisis- The Little Black Skirt

I completely accept that I will never weigh what I did in high school, and in fact that comes as a relief due to the fact I was actually ridiculed for being TOO skinny back then- hello irony. I didn't even get to ENJOY it at the time and the thought of all those wasted opportunities to prance around in my one piece like Kate Moss on a juice fast makes me a little sad. In the Reader's Digest version of the story of my body would continue from High School to the freshman 15, slow weight gain to first baby at 21, continued weight gain to second baby at 23, a reality check and loss of 35lbs maintained for 2 years at 30, slow weight gain to unexpected baby #3 and finally a complete.emotional.breakdown at 36.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired I finally found a nutritional program that gave me ENERGY, easily fit into my schedule, and most importantly PRODUCED RESULTS. Over a period of 90 days I dropped 23lbs and 23" and have continued following the same program and maintaining those results for over a year now- which has been awesome and is DEFINITELY worth celebrating. Which I have! I've had the fat pants party, tossing the maternity jeans I had been wearing for a year and half AFTER my youngest was born. Gone are the belly bands, hippo thongs, and having hair ties on my button fly's so I can fasten my pants. I've busted out those in-between sizes between the body I had when I met my fiance and the body I was drowning in 9 years later. I've been living it up being able to move back down the sizes in my closet. I've found confidence, built a business customizing nutrition and helping other people take back their health, their closets, and their skinny jeans. I still have areas that aren't my favorite, but with the right clothing I look pretty dang good for 3 kids and I only break out the spanks for "special" occasions, so in my book I'm still winning the battle! And yet there's that ever so subtle piece of attire hanging innocently on the bottom bar to the far right of my closet that says nothing but speaks volumes....

Enter the Little.Black.Skirt. SHE has a story. SHE was carefully selected for a very special date with the man across the street who had finally asked to take me out to dinner. SHE was the perfection that made my simple black top and my favorite heels scream "Sexy, with a side of CLASSY". I wore her that night, fell in love shortly after, and grew well beyond her delicate yet unforgiving 26" hidden zipper waist.

Today I decided to see how far apart we really were...I've lost 23lbs FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, surely I can at least get the zipper like half way up....

......enter BODY REALITY CHECK #2

Conclusion... The year of celebrating 23lbs is over, cause I can do better. In all honesty I quit holding myself accountable after losing 23lbs. I quit pushing myself. I quit giving it 100% effort. I never took it to the next level. I bought into the lie that I had lost so much without "having" to exercise to mean "I don't NEED to exercise". I guess I don't NEED to wear that Little Black Skirt again in my lifetime either, BUT I WANT TO. A friend of mine shared some wise words today- He said "Don't drink that average juice. Be GREAT".

No more AVERAGE juice. No more EXCUSES. Taking it to the NEXT LEVEL cause..

THIS Mommy Wants Her Body Back!

"Everyone Can Make A Difference, We All Matter"

Shopping Simplified for Eating Clean in 2014

Check out the full shopping list on my "Eat Clean" Page tab above

Resolution Solution--Set GOALS

Year after year I "resolve" to do x,y,z, which means I resolve to lose weight, save money, be a better Mom..pretty vague hence how do I even know if I've succeeded? I don't, so even if I've made progress I mentally wrestle with the feeling that it wasn't enough, all because I resolved (which sounds icky and like someone is ripping something precious away from you finally just give up and let them have it) rather than laying out a PLAN.

 I love the fresh start of a brand stinking NEW Year all laid out ahead of me like a chose your own adventure game board- the Year is my Oyster right now- delicious! So THIS year I resolved to toss the resolutions and set some GOALS- even though I have no idea what awesomeness this year holds, by mapping out where I'd like to GROW I will have a better basis for making choices in harmony with my heart!

Happy Goal Setting in 2014!

Courtesy of AdvoArmy

Healthy New Year 24 Day Challenge Virtual Coach

Healthy New Year Challenge 2014

New Year New You: Transformation Challenge Look and Feel Better in 2014

Healthy Holiday Tip #12: Simplifying Your Journey to Health

Healthy Holiday Tip #11: Ditch the Diet with Variety

Healthy Holiday Tip #10: Reducing Stress & Getting Rest

Healthy Holiday Tip #9: Survival Guide for Avoiding the Seasonal Seven P...

Melanie Morton AdvoCare Healthy Holiday Tip #8

Melanie Morton AdvoCare Healthy Holiday Tip #7

Melanie Morton AdvoCare Healthy Holiday Tip #5

Melanie Morton AdvoCare Healthy Holiday Tip #4

Gluten Free BLTT~ A Healthy Family Recipe by Sparkedmom

Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Turkey? Halleluiah! So simple and tasty, great idea for kids, lunch on the go, any day, every day- you decide!

Microwaved bacon strips for 3 minutes, sliced tomato, layered the lettuce boats and inserted into mouth- my kind of easy! Enjoy!

Oatmeal Apple Advo-Crisp~A Healthy Family Recipe by Sparkedmom

Got me a big'ol'bag of Coach's Oats at Costco last night and Advo-fied the recipe on the back to work with the five apples I had on the counter pushing their prime- WIN!

Filling:
4 Apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)
1/4 C Blue Agave Nectar

Topping:
1/4 C Oats
1/4 C Coconut Flour
1/4 C Coconut Oil
3/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice



Preheat oven to 375 and grease bottom of 8" or 9" square pan. Spread apples evenly and pour Agave Nectar over apples. In a separate bowl mix oats, flour, oil, and pumpkin spice (mixture will be moist, more like a batter than crumbly). Pour over apples and bake 30-40 minutes until topping is golden brown (mine took the whole 40 minutes). Serve warm:) Happy Fall!

The Prayer Circle, A Poem

Healthy Family Meals Made Easy; 2hrs-7 Crockpot Meals

In brainstorming things I could improve to reduce stress in my day it became apparent to me though I have really great intentions of having healthy food in the house for dinner- I fail when it comes to anything resembling an action plan. Like packing for a trip, I like to have many options available even through I may not actually use some of the choices this actual week. I figure if I have a big enough variety eventually everything gets used. The problem is though I am great at freezing things, it doesn't become handy at 6pm to cooked with a rock solid protein, and I have a HUGE habit of not using all my produce before it goes bad and that makes me a little nuts...

- enter crockpot frozen meals-

I've been intending to do these for a while, so after scoring a bunch of discounted meats at the local store last night I decided to make a different choice and actually freeze the meals, not just the meat and see if that helps me stay sane this week.

A couple of them were my own recipes, just prepped and tossed in a freezer bag, and the others were Pinterest finds- if you are eating Advo-friendly and on Pinterest then you will definitively want to follow my Sparkedmom Challenge Friendly AdvoCare Recipes board. Here are the recipes I pulled from there:

Super Easy Crockpot Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs
12 Paleo Crockpot Meals


Pot Roast Beef:
Roast
Rub Seasoning (1T salt, 1/4T garlic powder 1/4T pepper)
Vegi's; cut up onion, potatoes, baby carrots, celery, garlic (or other vegi's) to liking
~ rubbed down the roast with seasoning, and tossed all vegi's into the bag- wrote on it to add 1C broth

I particularly liked this idea because by the time I get around to actually making a roast I froze at some point the vegi's have gone south or I'm missing some on hand and it's so irritating!

So that's it- one Spark, 2 hours (including shopping) and I was done cooking for a week- I call that a win! Fingers crossed that it becomes my saving grace! Happy Monday =D

Perfection Is A Myth

It's a myth so big sometimes it actually paralyzes people from taking any action at all. I've lived many a day myself failing to move in any direction until I have it all figured out, till I know exactly how to proceed, until I have convinced myself I must surely be able to guarantee success- and if you've followed along this journey at all it's pretty self explanatory where that led...a long, hard, disappointing circle right back to where I started.

In this second half of my journey through life I have COMMITTED to success, and my first lesson was to make different choices. By making the same choices I had always made I kept ending up in the same  situations I was desperately trying to get out of. If you want different in life you have to DO different. Different choices, actions, attitudes, mindsets- and depending on your particular situation and goals it may mean different EVERYTHING, that's just the way it is. You can cry about, fight it, ignore it, deny it, and STAY THE SAME, or can accept it or better yet EMBRACE it- and move onto greener pastures..it's your choice.

CHOICES = CHANGE

So if you are preparing to make a different choice than you have in the past, it is reasonably expected that this may throw you into unfamiliar territory- GREAT! That means you are headed in a NEW direction so get EXCITED and stay in motion. Don't get freaked out that you don't know where the "end" is, that you don't have every step of the path marked out in advance, don't spend time imagining everything that could go wrong and all your contingency plans for these imaginary roadblocks- JUST TAKE ONE STEP AT A TIME. Your mind will throw a million and one "what if's" at you everyday regardless...the only one you should allow to reside is-

"WHAT IF I SUCCEED?"

-will it be because your journey was perfect?
-will it be because you had every contingency plan carefully planned out years in advance?
-will it be because you spent hours-days-months studying, researching, and quantifying information?
-will it be because every single person in your circle of influence supported your every decision, every single day with love and words of encouragement so you just KNEW you couldn't fail?
-will it be because you never made any mistakes, never took a wrong turn, listened to bad advice, or just plain got lost at some point?

- or will it be because none of the above happened, but you were focused on your goals, committed to your purpose, and you made the CHOICE every single day to JUST.KEEP.MOVING