Favorite Healthy Recipie of the Day: Cucumber Avocado Salad #Mamavation Monday

I am so giddy right now!  I am actually taking time to BLOG!!!  It has been so long, too long in fact.  So much has changed since I last linked up with my fellow Mamavation moms. 

Before I share my healthy recipe of the day I wanted to give all of you a quick update with where I am in life.  I am VERY happy to share that I have been maintaining my weight since we last met.  But that won't last too much longer, why?  Well, because I am PREGNANT!!!  I am finally over the nausea (I hope).  As of today I am 10 1/2 weeks.  Both myself & husband were shocked to find out that we were going to have baby #3.  I really wasn't expecting it since I have ovarian issues with fibroid & cyst.  But the Lord decided to toss us a curve ball & let us know we are not done yet. 

Needless to say this weeks topic was a home run with me.  I have really been trying to eat healthy this pregnancy.  I don't want to gain too much weight, because lets face it.  I won't have much me time once the baby comes. 

I found the recipe I am about to share while scrolling through Facebook.   I am an advocate for Advocare & one of the members shared the following recipe, which I LOVE.  Its so delicious & I bet you will love it too. 

CUCUMBER AVOCADO SALAD (photo courtesy of Advocare)

 

Ingredients:

3 washed tomatoes, quartered then halved
2 ripened avocados, peeled and chopped
1 large cucumber, sliced in half longwise, then chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
fresh ground black pepper to taste
optional: juice of 1 lemon
Serves 4.

Directions:
Place chopped tomatoes, avocados, cucumber in a salad bowl.
Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice, then lightly mix with tongs.
Add fresh ground black pepper on top, and serve

 

Your taste buds & tummy will thank you.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Wordless Wednesday

Today I was reminded about the happiness you can gain by helping in the kids classroom.  I volunteer once a week at my children's school.  Today's lesson I was working with first graders as they learned how to count by 2's, 3's, & 5's.  A task that most of we fellow parents take for granted.  I'm very fortunate that my Super A is one who is able to grasp this concept quickly, however there are many of her fellow classmates who were struggling.  While working with this one child he reminded me that parents who help in the classrooms do make a difference.  I was helping him learn tricks as to how to remember his 3's.  We were using the 100 number chart & he just wasn't able to grasp being able to count the numbers out. 


Just when he was ready to give up I remembered that I always learned well by music.  So thanks to my handy dandy smart phone I came across this counting by 3 song.  Skip Counting by 3 Song.  After listening & giggling to the penguin a few times all of a sudden he just started singing it. This boy was smiling ear to ear by the end of our session & even shared the song with the teacher.  I was shocked when he came up to me later in the day to give me a hug and tell me that I'm his favorite teacher helper.  Its moments like this that reminds me about how important volunteering can be & how big of an impact we parents have in other kids lives. 

A NEW Beginning

Welcome back to my blog.  I seriously can not believe that I have been silent since APRIL!   Where did the time go?  I honestly haven't been under a rock.  But as you can tell since this is my new beginning I have changed the name & view point of my blog.  I never really cared for my old name...Nosy Neighbor Next Door.  It really didn't fit who I was, nor what I believe.  Its crazy what getting older does to a person.  I truly hope that I am able to get back in contact with my fellow mamavation moms.  Thank goodness for Facebook, otherwise I wouldn't have any clue as to what is going on.  If you personally know me, then you know I have a ton going on in my life & a lot of great ideas I would love to share with all of you.  Please be sure to share my blog with your fellow friends.  Perhaps if I reach more readers, I will be sure to stay on top of the things I want to write about.  There are also a ton of giveaways I can not wait to enter, so be sure to stay tuned so that you too can have a chance to win some of the great prizes other bloggers are giving away. 

#Mamavation Monday : Stop the Negativity

I don't know about you, but throughout this journey to lose weight & get healthy I have experienced negativity.  Negativity caused by me.  There have been multiple times throughout this journey that I have told myself I couldn't do or achieve something.  Only to fall back into old habits.  Its crazy how were our own worse enemy when it comes to over comings something.  I used to tell myself that I couldn't run, or that its too hard to eat healthy, and of course the infamous phrase, its too expensive to eat organic & healthier items.  Thanks to the guidance & learning all the tricks to the trade that I was able to learn from all my Mamavation Sistas (to learn more about our community go to Sistahood)  I was able to overcome those obstacles. 

That's why I am so excited about tonight's guest.  Pete Cohen, the Weight Loss Guru.  I have heard about Pete from other Sistas in their blogs, but this will be my first chance to hear his advice myself.  So be sure to join us tonight on google+ to learn what Pete has to teach us. 

As far as my own weight loss journey, I am more focused on what I am putting into my body.  I need to be more aware of what I am choosing to nourish my body.  I am unable to workout, other than moderate walking, at the moment & I am extremely worried about gaining all the weight back.  Here's to hoping that my weigh in next week goes well.

“ This post is sponsored by Pete Cohen and Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention & weight loss for women and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway ”

THANKFUL TO BE ALIVE #MAMAVATION

I first want to apologize to the Mamavation community, for my lack of support to them over the past couple of weeks.  I work on Monday's now, and by the time I get home from work, and get all the normal everyday household chores done I am too exhausted to even think about my blog.  So for that I apologize. 

This week's topic of conversation - Raising Kids with a good work ethic- is a great one, but I am going to go in another direction for the week. 

Today, I want to talk about God & second chances. The bible often talks about second chances.  I am not going to preach and act like I am an expert on the bible, in fact until recently, I never read it.  However in my search regarding second chances, I stumbled upon this line....
 1 Timothy 2:4 - Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 


The truth.  What is the the truth.  For each & everyone of us we hold our own meaning to that simple little word "Truth"  When I think about the above phrase, I imagine all those who want solid proof that God exist.  With so much evil in the World its no wonder that there are more & more non believers in the world around us.  As for myself, I always knew that there was a God, but I didn't know what my purpose was to him. I have a few people in my life however, who don't believe.  Who have tried to cast doubt into my belief.  I feel it is because of those people that I am still here, after the car accident I experienced last Thursday.  I don't mean I am hear to preach or read them the bible, but to show the photo I am about to share with you & say to them, "here is your proof that God exist" 

If your friends of mine on Facebook you already have seen the photo & know the story.  But for the rest of you here it is.  I was on my way to the Chiropractor (funny enough to deal with an injury from the accident at the beginning of the year) when someone ran a red light & only stopped because my van got in his way.  Take a closer look at that photo, The main impact was only inches from my head.  Praise the Lord that my kids were just dropped off at school, so they weren't in the van.
I can't explain, why or how I am still here let alone able to write this blog post, but I am. Why?  Because of the truth.  God.  God wants me here.  He wants me to raise my kids, & maybe even have more if I am so lucky.  God protected me from that accident. 
Some of you may be wondering what kind of injuries do you have?  Honestly, I was able to be released the same day from the hospital with only a few cuts, and lots of bruises as well as severe whiplash.  And yes, I am in pain.  Each waking minute of the day I have pain, but I try to tell myself that the pain is to remind me that I am alive.  I can live with that. 
I am so thankful to all the witnesses, firefighters, police officers, and EMTs who also helped to save my life that day.  I may never fully understand how they got me safely out of that van, but I am glad they did. 

#Mamavation~ What's your inspiration?

Do you ever feel like your on a constant roller coaster & that life is passing you by...quickly?  That is how I've been feeling lately.  As well as one of the many reasons why I haven't been as active as I would have liked with the other Mamavation moms.  I really feel like the last two weeks went by as quick as one day normally does. I often wonder how do we, as moms, do it all.  The cooking, cleaning, supporting our spouse, all the kids after school activities, and if were lucky take a little time, besides grocery shopping, for ourselves.

Which brings be up to the topic of the week.....whats your inspiration.

I don't feel like any one thing or any one person is my "inspiration"  but, rather the entire net-work of people I have met thanks to Mamavaion as well as AdvoCare.  Its all the wonderful people who I have met & saw with the same struggles that I have had who inspire me on a daily bases.  Some of those individuals had more struggles & while others had less, but no matter who you were or what your goal to accomplish for the week was, none of us gave up.  We all work every day to pick each other up on the bad days & to cheer each other on during the good ones.  I've been one who has given up one too many times in my past. At the beginning of the year one of my resolutions was to never ever again be the one who sees a road block & to use that as an excuse.  Instead, I told myself,  I would be the person who finds a way around, that road block, & get to the finish line.  So far, with that thinking & by admitting the faults that I have, I am now closer than ever to the final stretch.  I owe that all to you.  Each and everyone of my readers & online friends work together, with out ever knowing it inspiring me to be the best person possible. 

As some of you know over the past 3 months (72 days) I took part in Advocare 24 Transformation challenge. and also given an amazing opportunity to join AdvoCare. By joining the company, I was able to see, and learn for myself what the company was all about.   I don't want to use this as a sales pitch, (don't worry, that will come soon) but rather I want to tell you that my results are great! During the challenge I was given support from a dear friend, Jamie, as well as from a local gym TNT fitness, now I want to point out that I did not workout at this gym.  Simply Derek Toshner, the owner, is a true believer in the products, and he uses them himself. With both Jamie & Derek's guidance I learned the value in food.  I began eating a cleaner diet, which most of you know that already, but I also realized that I was not getting nearly enough protein in my system. I did take a few supplements, such as meal replacement shakes, which I now LOVE.  These shakes were my lifesaver on the days when time was running short & I normally would have skipped the meal.   They also reminded me about the good fats vs. bad fats and how to sneak veggies into almost any dish.  In fact, Jamie gave me a cookbook where every recipe from your main dish to your desserts have a vegetable incorporated into the recipe.  Derek also shared with me his 8 rules for healthy living (which a lot are like the ones from Mamavaion .... Such as NO alcohol...ya that was a hard one.
1) 1/2 body weight in water or tea daily
2) 2 fruits a day
3) 4 cups vegetables a day
4) 1 gram fiber for every 50 calories
5) increase the omega 3
6) increase protein to 1/3-1/2 body weight in grams daily
7) Keep a journal for habits
8) 8 hours of sleep

I'll be completely honest when I say that it took me until around month 2 to finally get the hang of everything.  Taking the vitamins and the Dietary supplements was the easy part.  Working out and keeping the journal was the hard part.  Once I became accountable for the food I was ingesting, I started to see all the results that were promised.  Sure, I cheated once in a while, such as on St. Patrick's day I enjoyed a few drinks.  But I was more aware of it, and was sure to compensate the following day.  I'm not going to sit here & tell you that it was only these products though that helped me get the results you are about to see.

I also had an fantastic option of joining some of my fellow mamavation moms to do a 2 week workout challenge that was created by Mr. Bookieboo himself.  This challenge definitely helped kick up the workouts for the last two weeks of the Advocare Challenge.  By eating healthy, doing all the workouts I was able to drop 5#s alone in the two weeks of the Mamavation 2 week challenge. (please note that the "before" pic is not the original one taken for the AdvoCare challenge, try as I may I couldn't locate it so these are "before pics taken about 3 weeks in)

So....drum roll please.....

So...if you are keeping tabs this means I have lost a total of....

24 pounds!!! and 23 inches!!!

I am still speechless.  It takes a lot to get me that way & these result are amazing.  As you know, I already faced several hurdles along the way.  My brother suffered a brain injury, I was sick, in a car accident and just dealing with life in general.  If I can get these results with all those obstacles nothing will stop me.  Starting the Monday after Easter I am jumping in again, with the hope of dropping another 24 pounds. 

A Matter of Trust: A Mia Quinn Mystery

A Mia Quinn Mystery

By Lis Wiehl, with April Henry
Published by Thomas Nelson

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

When life is murder, who can you trust?
One minute Mia Quinn is in her basement, chatting on the phone with a colleague at the prosecutor’s office. The next minute there’s a gunshot over the line, and Mia listens in horror as her colleague and friend Colleen bleeds to death.
Mia’s a natural for heading up the murder investigation, but these days she has all she can do to hold her life together. As a new widow with a pile of debts, a troubled teenaged son, and a four-year-old who wakes up screaming at night, she needs more time with her family, not less—and working Colleen’s case will be especially demanding. But Colleen was her friend, and she needs to keep her job. So she reluctantly teams up with detective Charlie Carlson to investigate Colleen’s death. But the deeper they dig, the more complications unfold—even the unsettling possibility that someone may be coming after her.
Lis Wiehl’s signature plot twists and relatable characters shine in this absorbing series debut . . . with an intriguing cameo from her best-selling Triple Threat series.

IN MY OPINION:

As a recent widow Mia now has to play both mom & dad to her teenage son as well as her 4 yr old daughter.  Now raising her kids on her own Mia discovers that her husband was not the man she thought he was.  She was left to discover that he was not as well off in the finance department as he lead her to believe ranking up high credit card bills.   Leasing a vehicle way out of their budget and she is now is faced with the fact that she may never get out of debt.

On top of this she is also a full time prosecutes in the DAs office.  While on the phone with her co worker & best friend she listens as her friend is shot dead.  Mia is used to working with murder investigation but she soon discovers that its not as easy to investigate her friends murder.  She is also paired with a homicide detective whom she feels is untrustworthy.  Charlie isn't always the first to follow procedures by the book.  But he proves himself over & over again to Mia as they face hurdles with every lead they have. She also asks him to help her with another case that she wants to take on.  Its a case that involves a boy who committed suicide in response to cyber bullying. 


I am so impressed with Lis Wiehl for this amazing book.  I could not put it down as it kept me pulled to the pages each and every turn.   I personally love a good crime scene show & as I read it felt like I was watching a great movie.  Also,this book had modern day issues such as Face Book, and cyber bullying.  I recommend this book to anyone who likes to solve a crime.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”