not the easiest week..,

This week has been a bit rough on me with continuing to do everything I need to do for my 'journey' to losing weight and healthy living. I have been fighting being sick (fatigue, sore throat, body aches, fever, dry mouth - I may have a slight case of strep but I refuse to take more time off work to to go the Dr). I'm sure it doesn't help that the temp was 62 yesterday and 30 this morning - either way I am trying to continue to do my BEST and work my way back up to challenging myself.
I feel like I'm improving when it comes to food; honestly we have a budget when it comes to groceries, and I have 4 of us sometimes 6 of us to feed. So everyone knows processed foods tend to be cheaper then organic or natural -but I've been working on it.

Last nite I made ground sirloin and black bean tacos.
I had a few ppl ask for the recipe, so this is what I did - pretty simple since it's me. LOL
This was for 4 of us to eat on, so you can adjust the recipe accordingly
1 lb. of ground sirloin (better for you , less fat, etc. We don't eat a TON of red meat, so this was kinda a treat)
You will need:
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed well
2 cans of ro-tel diced tomatoes & green chilies
whole wheat tortilla's
any addtl toppings of your choice (fat free sour cream, low fat shredded cheese, or even better shred your own!)

-I browned the ground sirloin, then rinsed it with water in a colander (this rinses off the excess fat)
  add taco seasoning & water and cook per directions on taco seasoning package.
- Drained the black beans and also drained the excess from the ro-tel tomatoes & green chilies
    - cook the beans & tomatoes on the stove for about 15 minutes; I drained these after they cooked
       to avoid the excess liquid for our tacos

Add to your whole wheat tortilla along with  toppings of your choice, and enjoy! I used minimal amounts
of cheese and added extra salsa. I also had a LOT more beans then beef but my kids enjoyed the opposite.
This was a quick inexpensive meal, and it was tasty! Even my kids enjoyed it!

For a 'snack' later that nite we all ate a few blueberries and strawberries. My kiddos love 'fruit dip' but I
am trying to avoid extra sugar and calories (it has cream cheese and marshmallow fluff), so I bought
some light whipped cream for them to dip it in. I am working them up to dipping it in yogurt, but I feel
like we've made some great changes - lifestyle changes.

I actually did make a 'quick' trip to the grocery last nite - Trying to make better choices, not just for me but my kids as well. My oldest daughter and my son was with me at the store so of course it's "mommy can we have this? Mommy can we have that?" but I was able (and strong enough) to offer alternative suggestions,
and it went over well. Not that I am going to deprive my children of sweets and snacks. .., but instead of
being a regular occurance in their lives, we are going to have it be a special treat. Maybe on the weekend; or a special occasion. But I want them to learn that treats are exactly what they are called - TREATS not meant for daily consumption.

I have been continuing to do the 2 week challenge exercises, but not to the full extent. Like I said my body still aches, and I literally have a hard time breathing. But I'm doing SOMETHING - I hate that on my first week 'on my own' that I can't go full force, but that's life. It's going to happen. As soon as I'm feeling better we will kick it up a notch and go at it! And I am determined to have as good as results as the Mamavation Mama's!
















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