Coming up this summer in June...

Patience Girl Scout group is going on a outing to a Water Park.
A couple summer's ago I had a very difficult time finding a suit that would fit her. At that time she was wearing a Ladies Large shirt.  So all of the bathing suits were made for a lady on top. And she wanted to be like the other kids and wear I Carly or Hannah Montana suits :( It was tough.

Yes Patience is still larger than the other girls but it is so much easier now. At first I admit I was thinking oh no swimming. And in the past we did hear rude comments. :( ( mostly from teens) I remember a time in particular.

Even though I still have improvements for myself to make we have all decided to go as a family to the water park. I don't want deny Patience her fun.  Patience would like to wear a bikini like her sister but that is just something we tell her maybe when she is older.
And I usually buy her a new beach towel or something to make up for it. Or flip flops. I feel a small amount of guilt she cannot be like her sister. But I also tell her Momma cannot wear those type either. And I try to make over what ever one she gets and say it is way more fashionable. It's just a fact Patience inherited my big girl genes. All I can do is work with her on being healthy. Doing this together. To me she is always beautiful.

I never want her to look back on her childhood and think it was terrible because she was larger. I want her to remember I tried to help her. I was chubby as Little girl and when I became 13 my mom tried putting me on diet. It wasn't easy at that age.

And oh Ugh when we were going to doctor's trying to find out the reason for Patience weight gain. (3 doctors here in Tn at a well known research Hopstial.) They would make it seem like I was obsessed with her weight. One actually wrote in Patience file mom was over weight as a child seems obsessed!!!! Uh well yeah my child is gaining 30 pounds in a year. I really have to wonder why they did not think to check her insulin. Makes me mad thinking about it. Telling us to feed her baked potato for dinner. And those fat free products that were making her gain.

Anyway...we found help and Patience is going to her outing. We plan to have a fun time.

Day 1.... Veggie week

I have not decided yet if I am going to give up eggs/dairy but I'm going to slowly try to in the future. Depending more on fruits and veggies for food. I take multi vitamins also. In many of my meal plans your going to see stir fry, stir fry, and probably think. Is that all they ever eat. Well its one of my favorite things to eat. I feel like I'm eating at a Chinese restaurant without the guilt. So I guess my thoughts on that are if you really enjoy eating veggies in a certain recipe it doesn't matter if you eat it every night. It's OK. Because your supposed to enjoy what your eating :) But I will try to include new recipes we have adopted from our vegetarian cookbook.

Breakfast- whey protein shake, 1 tablespoon of all natural peanut butter,  ( almond butter is good also)1 Banana, and 3 frozen strawberries.

Snack- Apple

Lunch- Salad: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots, And I have decided to not yet give up cheese. (a limited amount) Banana peppers. And Homemade yogurt dressing.This looks alot like one of Jerry's salad without the chicken.

Snack - Plum with 12 almonds


Remembering to always have a water bottle by my side. Water is the key to weight loss.

Cabbage, yellow peppers, mushroom, carrots, And hot sauce.

Yep I plan on eating this whole plate for dinner!!!!

 It was stir fried in a small amount of olive oil.

No guilt in this meal. This stir fry is not something we buy from a package. And we used our own seasonings. Onion powder, garlic, chili powder.

All veggies :)

This coming week....

My goal for myself is to eat 100 % vegetarian. Besides the fish and chicken our diet contained mostly
veggies.
Of course for the protein I'm going to keep my protein shake, and natural peanut butter. And I will add dark beans to the diet and nuts. And i love using my juicer.


For Patience of course I'm not going to do this. Her diet is mostly veggies fruit protein. I feel like she needs
 the fish and poultry to give her energy. We just  got a vegetarian cookbook so it gives me a reason to
learn a new recipe. And like i said Jerry and i want to start doing more with tofu.


We  only use soymilk. I have so much respect for the vegetarian lifestyle and would really like
to adapt in most of our menu's. From Saturday to Saturday is my goal. Im hoping to see a good move on the scale also.

Starting to make Juice for Patience...

This is a image of the Juicer we got at Walmart for alittle of nothing last year.

This morning Patience seen me making my celery, tomato, apple juice. And wasnt to keen on the

celery. So I made her  apple. Of course it didnt look or taste like the apple

juice from a store but she liked it.

So to make sure she is eating enough I am going to start to make her homemade juice.

Since she has been eating healthier I can tell her skin shines. :)

Spring Break And a preview of The store aisles

The girls are on spring break this week :)

I had Jerry pick up some food coloring so we could color some eggs. We eat hard boiled eggs for snack anyway. So Jerry will be eating pink/purple eggs at work...LOL

Thought it would be fun, and keep them busy. We may plant a herb garden in the window also. Patience has planted some parsley and it is growing so nicely. I want to teach her the beauty of growing your own herbs and using them in recipes. I used some of her parsely for a dish and she had the biggest smile. And we will probally get a topsy tervy for Tomatos for her to do.

And about the store aisle,,,If you go to the store this is what you would see. A nightmare for a child with a insulin problem.

Thankfully Patience goes straight for the little dolls, bubbles, books, pens, Easter clothes. As I go along I am slowly getting little trinkets

For the basket. We have decided to maybe put a few pieces of sugar free candy but no big bunny.

Patience loves clothes... and loves to collect different flip flops. So im not to concerned she will be disappointed. It has become a second nature to her now.

Mock Mac and cheese

Cauliflower cooked or steamed, after cooked chop to resemble mac noodles, Add  2Tablespons of Mayo, 2 Teaspoon of mustard,(small amount of butter)
Monterrey jack cheese and cheddar, and Little grated Parmesan cheese on top and put under broiler till top is browned.  I never have been crazy about mac and cheese but Patience and Jerry love it. And we all loved this. Just a small replacement that saved our family the calories.

At a later time i will post a photo of mock potato salad, very close to this recipe. Using Cauliflower also.
We always explain to Patience not every mac and cheese is good for her and we used veggies to make it. So she will not be confused. Kids adapt so much easier than adults. :)

My dh made us lunch, Tofu

Shredded Cabbage, carrots, onions, celery, cauliflower, Broccoli. And Tofu.

I never thought i would like tofu but it wasn't bad. With added seasomgs. Chili powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes. Jerry ate the tofu steaks and really did not care to much for them.  In the future we will just dice them.

We plan to eat more tofu instead of meat.