Weighing in on "Trim Healthy Mama"

Ok so this post is only my first impression of the book… just got it like an hour ago and instead of doing a workout today I'm sitting on the couch reading it… have I already done something wrong!?!?

First off THANK-YOU to Margi over at her blog for doing a giveaway.  Margi, you look awesome and you seem to be energized even with 4 kids so I was intrigued when you started talking about this.

A huge thanks to the two authors of Trim Healthy Mama as well for sending me this book.  I saw how much you paid for postage which makes me even more grateful... I'm really excited to read it:)  Not only that but it arrived on a day that is fricken freezing outside and I was up all last night with a sick baby so needless to say this really made my day.

Here's a bit about my food background:

I don't have a whole tonne of weight to lose.  My weight story isn't one of those drastic extreme makeover weight loss things.  Basically I would like to feel good in my pre-pregnancy clothes and most of all I would like to be energized and add some variety to my meals.  I LOVE food and I enjoy cooking when I have the energy.  I make time for cooking over most things (like cleaning house or working out).  Heck, I'm a foods teacher, so I'm used to being around lots of food and experimenting.  Now that I don't get paid to cook all day and I don't have the energy to work out as much my enthusiasm for cooking/food has changed.

I have also found with kids I've become a bit of an emotional eater.  If something is going terrible or I'm just so exhausted I go to the fridge and eat whatever is quick and easy (hello chocolate!)  Most of the time I'm not even hungry which is weird.    I want to stop emotional eating because its not good for me.

It is really important for me is to SUPPORT LOCAL INDUSTRY.  I'm a farm girl and very proud of it.  Therefore when someone tells me to not use a little canola oil in my baking I'm all like "what will my Dad think??"  Canola has helped put me through University and helped me live where I am.  Heck, I live right in the middle of a canola field.  So basically I am excited to try coconut oil and other things but I will always support our farmers and, for the majority of time buy canola oil.  This same thing goes for Dairy.  There will be very little almond milk in my recipes.  I feel that it is my ethical responsibility to support our local industry so bring on the milk and the canola oil (well in reasonable amounts)

As I've flipped through the Trim Healthy Mama book I am super stoked to try some of the recipes.  I've highlighted some that I know will work for me and there are others that I'm willing to try even though I'm skeptical.  I think the cauliflower crust pizza sounds awesome and I'm excited to try using cauliflower instead of higher carb foods like potatoes or bread.  I'm also excited to educate myself a bit on Energizing meals vs Satisfying Meals.  I haven't really given much thought towards energizing vs. satisfying but I'm excited to do some learning.    I'm slightly nervous about any sweeteners other than plain ol' sugar so I'm not sure how I'm going to navigate around the amount of stevia mentioned in the recipes.

I have the utmost respect for these two Moms who have obviously spent lots of time researching and thinking/praying about this book.  Whenever Moms go out there and do anything outside of the box I always admire them.  I, however also believe it is important to never look at something as "The Only Way".  I'm going to give this book a good read and definitely incorporate some of the ideas into my life… I"m excited!!!          

How in the heck is it 2014 already!?!?

Quick recap… we had a great Christmas.  Molly showed her first signs of Christmas excitement/understanding which for me (a lover of ALL things Christmas) was very exciting!!  From leaving cookies for Santa, to stockings and giving gifts… that girl had fun with it all:)

In front of our tree on Christmas Morning.  We got a real tree from Ikea this year which was surprisingly amazing and only cost os 20.00 plus we got a 20.00 coupon.  We will DEFINITELY be heading back there next year to get another tree… we loved it!

Molly leaving a cookie for Santa

Nels thankfully had from the 25th morning to the 29th off so we were able to hang out and enjoy some good weather.  I know with his job there will be lots of years where he will be working Christmas Day so eventually I'll hafta navigate around that.  

I added a few new recipes to my Christmas baking repertoire… both I got from Pinterest and they were hits!!  I'm gonna round them up and share them later.  

We decided to start the New Year off with an overnight trip to Banff (Nels worked actual New Years Eve and Day) but due to an INSANE amount of snow and drifting we were unable to get out of our driveway on his days off.  Not gonna lie… its kinda hard to stay positive in January when you are literally snowed in every second day.  

Besides doing a fun little New Years trip we've been racking our brains about some possible New Years resolutions for things around the house.  I always have about a million resolutions because I'm a sucker for new beginnings and making lists… I love it!

We had a pretty unexpected major expense come up before Christmas with the motor in our car dying so any of the big projects planned for our house this winter had to get scratched.  We had wanted to re-do the tile in all of our bathrooms due to a shifting sub floor but I think we're going to put that on hold for now.  

I've been really encouraged by some of the posts over at Young House Love since they've moved into their new house.  They've talked a lot about doing projects in phases.  Mainly making things pretty to look at by using things like accessories or a quick paint job while in the mean time saving up for big projects.  I'm a big fan of doing things in phases especially because it give you more time to truly decide what you're going to do.

Sooooo having said that.  Most of my house resolutions for the New Year involve very little money and are geared more towards small decorative projects.  We usually clump house projects into Summer and Winter because as soon as the weather starts getting nice we pretty much forget about the inside of the house and focus on building the yard up and finishing exterior things on the house.  

Here are our "Winter House Resolutions"… Summer ones are yet to be determined:)

#1. I have a Huge oversized frame that I'm guessing was once a mirror.  I would love to hang it and do a chalkboard inside of it.  Not sure where to put it yet… at first I thought in the kitchen like this but now I'm looking at a few options around the house.  

I will be painting the chalkboard paint directly onto the wall because the frame is so heavy already so I don't want to add wood or something to the back of it to paint on.  I've decided to head over to Benjamin Moore because they do any colour in chalkboard paint so I'm pretty stoked.  I might even take some pics of the process so look out!!

#2.  We have a big space above our kitchen sink that we've talked about using for a shelf or doing a valance but I've decided to try my luck at making a sign using this technique.  I haven't decided what it should say yet but I'm excited to try the transfer paper method because it seems pretty no fail to me:)

#3. We need to address the boring room that is our guest room.  I don't quite know what to do in there but we need some art on the walls or some painting or something… I'll post pics when we start the project

#4. We are continually working on our Master Bathroom which is in need of some trim, curtains, light fixtures, tile and some major organization.  I'm looking forward to tackling this project sometime soon!  This will be one that is definitely done in stages as we have money to throw at it.  Unfortunately baseboards cannot be complete until the floor is done and since the tile floor will take bit more money both flooring and baseboards will probably be the last thing done on the list.  

#5.  Then there's just some organizing that I would like to get done. Our mudroom closet and the office mainly.  

So there you have it… they're written down so now I actually hafta do them right!?!?  Looking forward to trying some new things this year and just enjoying where we are in all aspects of our life right now.