Chicken Philly Sandwiches!

I have been searching for easy crock pot recipes lately and saw this and was excited to try it. I can't believe how delicious it was! It was a big hit at our house and I can't wait to make it again!

Now, I'm not a food photographer, so this is just a quick picture I took on my phone before eating it :) If you want to see better pictures check out the link below :) But take my word for it, this was super tasty!!!

I found the original recipe HERE and slightly adapted it.

2 Tablespoons butter
1 large sweet onion, sliced
2 green bell peppers, sliced
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons Dale's Steak Seasoning**
sliced mozzarella cheese (We used swiss)
hoagie rolls

**This seasoning is NOT a powder. It is a dark liquid that you will find near the steak sauce and BBQ sauces. It is more like a marinade. I found it at my local Smith's (kroger) grocery store this week!

Spray a 3-4 quart slow cooker with non-stick spray.
Add your butter, onions and green peppers.
Place your chicken breasts on top and top with Steak seasoning and salt and pepper to taste.
Cover, and cook on low for 5-6 hours (mine needed about 6 hours)

Once chicken is cooked, pull it out and shred it.
Place chicken back into crockpot with veggies.
Serve on hoagie rolls with slices of cheese. (I decided to "toast" mine under the broiler. I topped my hoagie with meat/veggies and cheese slices on one side and left the other side empty and placed under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and toast the bread.)

THIS WAS SOOO YUMMY!!! Hope you enjoy!

Challenge Groups

When I was in high school, I danced on our drill team. Our coach was very fit and would kick our trash during summer conditioning.  We would run a few miles each morning doing crazy drills, such as running backwards for a 1/4 a mile, then doing "grapevines" on another 1/4 mile, then stopping to do bleachers in the middle of our runs and then proceed to finish our miles, CRaAzY things (that I absolutely DREADED doing!). I HATED to run, I always felt like I had "asthma" (although looking back, I was just out of shape!!) which made it more difficult to run long distances.

BUT I was able to run like a crazy person for 3 years in high school because I had an extremely motivating coach pushing me and yelling at me to keep up and to not stop.  She pushed me to become a runner. Pushed me to sprint during our indian runs. She made me a better person and dancer because of it. Do you have anyone like my coach in high school? That pushes you harder, doesn't let you stop, keeps you going when you want to give up???

When I was looking to lose some weight, I would always tell my husband how much I wanted a personal trainer. I knew that if I had someone constantly on my butt yelling at me to keep going that I would do it. However, trainers are ridiculously expensive and we couldn't afford that! Plus, my husband believes we can do anything we put our minds to and just kept telling me that I could do it. (I never believed him!)

When I started my weight loss journey back in October of 2013, I joined a challenge group (as you might recall, from my post here). It was LIFE CHANGING for me! I found one-on-one attention from a woman who was fit and healthy herself, but most importantly who had been in my shoes before! She had been at that overweight stage, discouraged, upset and frustrated with her physical self. She had been down the road of losing weight and building muscle. She had learned all about what foods her body needs and doesn't need. And the best part was, she was willing to share all that she had learned with others. It was so helpful for me! She became my "coach" and has been leading and guiding me through my journey!

I LOVE challenge groups!! What is a challenge group you ask?! It is a group of women who are all working on getting fit and healthy together. Motivating and encouraging each other along the way. They typically last 3-4 weeks. It is such a great place to find

• fitness and nutrition tips
• healthy meal plans that give you results
• accountability and support of a small group
• and so much more! 

As a member of this challenge group, I was able to share my struggles and successes in a private setting with other women who had goals like mine: to get healthy! I NEVER felt judged or misplaced. I felt encouraged and supported. Honestly, I think that is exactly why I was able to lose 18 pounds in one month! That support was AMAZING!!

Challenge groups also encourage some accountability. When you invest your time, self, and money into something, you are much more likely to finish it out and see it through.  As part of the group, we needed to interact with each other. Ask questions. Answer questions. Post pictures and updates. Stay connected to one another. Knowing that I had a group of 9-10 women going through the same thing as me, working towards a goal (regardless of what our goals were) I would think twice about eating some chocolate or splurging on the weekends. I knew that I had a group to report back to and didn't want to let anyone (or myself) down.  I had made a commitment to my coach and my group to stay strong and withstand those temptations and to use them as support when they came. I couldn't let them down!

With those 3 elements, motivation, support, and accountability, Challenge Groups are the KEY to SUCCESS!!!!

Can you lose weight all by yourself? SURE! Can you stay motivated without a "coach"?? Maybe. (I know I personally can't do it, I let myself slip way to easy with just myself around). Can you find nutritional tips and advice online? Heck yes.... but WILL YOU do it? Would you take the time to research and look up and learn something new every day to make yourself better? I know I wouldn't.  Having that group there to provide knowledge, support, motivation and excitement is exactly what you need to push you a little harder, be a little better, and reach those goals!

Are you ready to be pushed and supported? Do you want a coach that has been through the trenches with you, who knows what it's like to feel fat, uncomfortable, frustrated and annoyed with weight and food?? I've been there. I know what it's like. I'm still there sometimes. I have found things that work for me and that are working for a lot of women and I'm ready to share that with YOU! Are you ready to join my next challenge group??  Fill out this application if you are ready to make that commitment and find that motivation and accountability that breads success!

Menu Planning and Meal Ideas

It's 5:00 pm and your husband is about home from work, your kids are screaming all over the house, your living room is a disaster and your oldest child just whined and said, "I'm HUNGRY when are we eating dinner????!!" You open the pantry door and see nothing. You open the fridge hoping a meal was prepped and placed in your eyes sight, yet find nothing. You frantically start wondering what are you going to have for dinner tonight? You're too tired to think properly, let alone create a meal on the spot. So what do you do? Order a pizza. Or have your husband pick up take-out on the way home.  

Who can relate to that?? I know I have been in that spot a time or two :) Life gets busy, there are kid activities going on, errands to run, basketball/soccer practice, etc.  Sometimes dinner comes out of no where!!

If you fail to plan then you plan to fail :) I have found that making a meal plan/menu on a weekly basis (or bi-weekly if that works for you) has helped our family immensely!! I decided to start making a menu to help save some money, thinking that if I knew what I planned to cook that week then I would only have to go the store once that week, so I wouldn't go multiple times buying un necessary things out of hunger.  It has not only helped us save money, but it has created unity in our home by having a set dinner together every night. It has also helped us to eat more healthy, because we aren't frantically out ordering/getting take out all the time. (I'm all about take out every once in a while though!)

This is how I plan my menu: I sit down one day a week (for me that's usually thursdays) and prepare my weekly menu. I don't use any fancy "app" or menu board.  I do have a planner that has a menu/grocery list built into each week, and I often use that, but to be honest, most of the time I use a simple piece of paper that I split into columns for each day of the week and then have sections for Breakfast, Snack 1, Lunch, Snack 2, Dinner. Then I plan away :) I generally use the same meals/recipes. If I'm feeling bored with our past menus I'll hop on Pinterest and see what I can find to "test out" that week.  Then from my menu I make my grocery list. I can see how many pounds of ground turkey I will need, how much cheese, eggs, veggies, etc. I'll need, and then my grocery list comes together so much easier and more accurate. {Don't you hate it when you go to make a recipe only to find out you forgot to buy one main ingredient?!}

Here is a break down of meals I eat in each category: (I try to eat every 2-3 hours)

Breakfast:  I generally eat the same thing every day for breakfast. It's just easier for me and keeps things consistent for me.  I get up pretty early in the morning and do my workout. I will usually eat a banana or apple with a few teaspoons of peanut butter and then workout 30 min later. Within an hour of working out, I will drink my Shakeology.  Sometimes, depending on the day, I will have another piece of fruit or a slice of whole wheat toast along with my shake. 

Snack 1: I also keep my first snack the same every day :) Maybe I'm boring, ha ha! But it works for me! This snack is usually plain greek yogurt (I use chobani) with some sliced fruit (my favorites are strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and kiwi). Super easy and VERY filling!!! 

Lunch: Lunch varies, depending on my mood when I'm meal planning, ha ha! Here are some of my go-to lunch ideas that I use all the time:

     *TBLT (turkey bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich. I use 4 slices turkey bacon and spinach with whole wheat toasted bread.  I then will eat some veggies with that, like carrots or cucumbers.

     * Egg salad- I use 1 hard boiled egg, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, some mustard and some relish. Then I stuff that into a whole wheat pita or whole wheat bread. I'll eat that with fresh veggies as well.

     * Turkey sandwich- I use low sodium turkey and I love muenster cheese :) I then add spinach and onions and tomatoes with it, so yummy! Sometimes if I'm being adventurous I'll eat this in a tortilla as a wrap instead of on bread. (my FAVORITE tortillas are X-treme wellness high fiber ones, I have seen them at WinCo, Walmart, Smiths, and Macey's). I like a little mayo and mustard too. I use Mayo made with olive oil, it's way low in calories and tastes really good.

     * Leftovers- If I see that one day I'll probably have left overs from dinner I'll put that on my menu to make sure our dinners get all used.  I LOVE leftovers, but I know it's not for everyone :)

Snack 2: This snack varies. Here is a list of snack foods that I LOVE during this time of day:

     * Hard boiled eggs (I usually have 2)

     * Veggies (Carrots and cucumbers are my favorite) with hummus or ranch ( I LOVE yogurt ranch, you can find it in the produce section by the salads and other dressings)

     *Almonds (I try to eat about an ounce at a time, which is about 1/4 of a cup)

Dinner: Dinner varies every day. I try to mix things up and I like to try new things every once in a while. Sometimes I find keepers and others not so much :) Here is a list of some of our favorite {family friendly} dinners:

     * Spaghetti with whole wheat noodles

     * Chicken and veggie stir fry with brown rice or quinoa

     * Grilled cheese and Tomato soup - We use whole wheat bread for our sandwiches and we use low sodium turkey and swiss cheese for our sandwiches without putting any butter on them to fry them. We heat them up on our griddle to melt the cheese and toast the bread. 

     * Broccoli, Quinoa casserole- to keep this one a little healthier, I omit the step of frying the Panko bread crumbs in oil, I just toss them on top of the casserole before baking.

     * Flank steak- we coat our flank steak with our basic seasoning, and broil it in the oven until its cooked through, we will serve it with a steamed veggie and brown rice or sweet potatoes 

     * Chicken Quesidillas- whole wheat tortillas with our seasoned chicken and a little cheese. I like mine dipped in salsa while the hubby and kids like ranch :) We'll usually have a side salad to go along with this meal. Our kids LOVE salads and "decorating" them with all sorts of veggies (peppers, cucumbers, red onion, olives, carrots)

     * Sweet potato shepherds pie

     * Skinny pasta pizza

     * Chicken and Broccoli tetrazinni

     * Skinny sloppy joes

     * Cheeseburger sliders- we use lean ground turkey and swiss cheese (or no cheese) and whole wheat hamburger buns. I like to serve these with homemade fries on the side! Who needs fast food?! 

     * Roasted Veggie mac and Cheese- I eliminated some of the spicy spices to keep it kid friendly. This is a BIG hit at our house!! Great for those garden veggies!!

     * Homemade pizzas- We love homemade pizzas! The kids like to help roll out their own dough and "decorate" them. I make this whole wheat dough and then pinch of a small amount (to make a 6 inch pizza) for the girls to roll out and do. I use the rest to make a regular sized pizza for my hubby and I. We keep it pretty simple with toppings. We use jarred pizza sauce (although I'm sure it's not hard to make your own ha ha!) and mozzarella cheese and turkey pepperoni with some veggies. 

I hope this breakdown of how I menu plan and what we like to eat has been a little helpful.  I find that if I am well planned then the day isn't as stressful. I know what we are having for dinner and about how long it will take to cook (that way I know about what time I need to start cooking it so it's ready when my husband gets home from work). I can pre prep food for that meal during naps or during a quiet moment in the day (like chop veggies or cook chicken and dice it). I find this helps making dinner go more smoothly and less stressful. I don't know about you, but the hours of 4-7 are pretty stressful at our house! If there is anything I can do to make it less stressful and crazy I am ALL about doing it!

When I work out

One of the biggest questions I get is "when do you have time to workout everyday? Especially with 3 little kids?" When I tell them what time I get up they quickly say "what?! I can't do that!!!" My next response to them is to not stress when others are working out. The best answer to when you should work out is this: find a time that YOU can personally commit to EVERYDAY that you know you won't be interrupted. For me that time is early in the morning before any of my kids get up. My girls get up pretty early, so I had to train myself to get up earlier than them. Trust me when I say it wasn't something I did overnight and never looked back. I spent plenty of mornings hitting "snooze" and whining that I didn't want to get out of bed, or worse, sleeping in! Ha ha!!  It took a lot of time to build up to. I get up at 4 am every week day. When I first started to workout I would try and get up at 5:30. However, I soon found that I was feeling extremely rushed and not able to get all the things done that I wanted to before my girls woke up (they wake up between 6 and 6:30 each day). So I began setting my alarm a little earlier each week. Gradually I made it to 4:20 and I felt pretty good. I didn't feel too rushed, I was able to get all my stuff done, and I didn't feel like I was getting up at the butt-crack of dawn :) Then my hubby decided he wanted to get up EARLIER, and that 4 am was what he needed. I don't know about you but hearing an alarm go off TWENTY minutes before you have to get up gets pretty old. So before you knew it, I was getting up at 4 with him every day as well. It is what works for us, but definitely not what everyone has to do.

Here are some great tips to help you get up earlier!
* Sleep in your workout clothes (this was HUGE for me to be honest, I felt silly if I woke up and changed OUT of my workout clothes without working out in them!!)
* Set an alarm that you have to WALK to in order to shut off
* Get a buddy to wake up with. My husband is mine and without him I most definitely wouldn't be getting up so early!! He helps me get out of bed each morning and some mornings I'm HIS motivation to get moving, we work as a team (doesn't have to be a spouse; it can be a good friend that you text or call each morning to keep each other accountable) **I think this one is the most important one to be honest!**
* Find something you love to do in the mornings (for me, my ChaLean extreme workouts are my favorite and I love to do them so I don't feel like I'm dragging my feet in the morning cause I'm not dreading my workout)

Where I began!

We are constantly bombarded by the media on how they *think* we should look and act. We see it in movies, videos, shows, articles we read, magazines, etc. It is so easy to get lost in those expectations and forget that we are each individuals who have different goals, priorities, and possibilities. What works for one person won't work for another. What fits one person won't fit everyone.  I could go on and on! I found myself in this situation A LOT! I would see articles on pinterest or Facebook that talked about what *good* moms do with their kids. I would see pictures of friends doing fun activities ALL THE TIME. I would read status updates of friends' trips to the gym and how awesome they were at getting fit. It was depressing. Reading and seeing all these things made me feel like I was not a very good mom and that I was lazy. I was always surprised at the things other moms were able to fit in their day. I would ask myself "how is that possible?" or "How is it that she always looks so perfect?" I didn't realize how often I was putting myself down and comparing myself to others. It wasn't until one day my husband told me to stop it. He put it in a very simple {and somewhat shocking} way, he told me this, "you need to stop beating yourself up. That is my beautiful wife you are talking to, whom I love very much. Stop being so mean to her." Talk about a wake up call. I am sad to admit that it wasn't then that I decided to make changes in my life. My appearance and confidence had always been something I struggled with. I honestly thought that I would always be fat. I would never get fit. My husband and I would talk all the time about how much I hated being big and how I just wanted to lose weight. He always told me the same things: that he KNEW I would be able to do it and that I needed to work at it. I was always annoyed with him. He stayed fit and trim way easily! He went to work everyday and that gave him such a great workout that he has a 6 pack without doing ANYTHING to maintain them! (so unfair!!) I always thought to myself that it was easy for him to say all those things because he didn't struggle with them. Health and physical appearance was always a sore subject between us. I hated talking about it and didn't want to make the effort the changes I wanted needed.

After having my second child, my weight didn't come off as easy as with the first. I was more tired and stretched thin. My physical appearance took a strain and was moved to the back burner. When we started talking about having another baby I told my husband I wasn't ready (our second child wasn't even one yet, no joke!). I wanted to lose weight and get in shape first, so I told him not right now. I started running and using the couch to 5K program (which I HIGHLY recommend for beginning runners!) I was amazed with myself as I started being able to run minutes without dying. My husband brought up having another baby a few weeks into my running program and said he knew it was time for us to have another baby, I was stubborn and didn't want to (selfishly). He helped me see that I could keep running and getting healthy even while pregnant. A couple weeks later I realized my husband was right and that it really was time for another baby and no joke, we got pregnant within a couple weeks! I was determined to stay fit with this pregnancy and so I kept running and ran my FIRST EVER 5K when I was 2 months pregnant!!!!! My goal was to run the whole thing without stopping and I did it! I felt amazing!! It was the greatest accomplishment for me. But.... then pregnancy woes kicked in. I was exhausted with my other 2 girls and my hubby was out of town all the time and I let the exercise slip up. When I went to deliver my little guy I was well over 200 pounds.  I thought for sure the pounds would come off quick and easy like they did with the other 2 but I was wrong. Weight just kept coming and so I started my running again. For some reason I couldn't lose any weight. I was up to running 3 miles straight a few times a week and my weight stayed steady. I was discouraged. After all the effort I was putting in to run and do my Jillian Michaels DVDs I wasn't seeing ANY results :( talk about depressing!! Then I got hurt in May 2013 and had to stop running and totally lost all momentum and became discouraged. Then I met my *angel* who has transformed my life.

One of my friends I had worked with was losing a lot of weight. She was posting her updates on Facebook and her blog regularly. I was very proud of her (alright, and maybe a little jealous!).  One day she posted this link about a fitness challenge she did with a blogger. So I clicked on it and "liked" her Facebook page. Little did I know that that simple "like" would change me!! A few months later this blogger, TheFitHousewife, posted something about her next challenge which was called "drop a dress size in 30 days". I was intrigued and my instincts had me respond to it and tell her I was interested. She responded back and was super friendly and asked me some questions about why I was interested and what my goals were. We talked quite a bit and I learned that she had been the same weight as me and had lost 90 pounds!! I was shocked and it hit me that if she could do it then why couldn't I?? My husband and I talked and I told him how much I wanted to do this and that it just felt right and what I needed. So we paid the money to get a new fitness program (I will share about that one a little later) and a supplement drink and I got all signed up for the challenge to start in October. I was way excited and super nervous that I would fail. Little did I know that I would very much succeed and fall in love with working out and find a new passion for healthy food and sharing these things with others!!!

The challenge started October 14, 2013. We were given food guides and menu plans. We were given tools to find out how many calories we needed and how to track them. We were given guidance through the whole process.  I then weighed myself and did all my measurements so I could keep track of my progress. I then took the *dreaded* before pictures.  Was it depressing to see all these numbers and pictures? Yes. I hated every second of it, but lucky for me, I have one heck of a supportive husband who did all of it for me without an ounce of judgement in his eyes.

  I started my new fitness program that week and my life changed. I started this circuit weight training program put out by Beachbody called ChaLEAN Extreme. It is THE BEST thing that has happened to me in the fitness department. (and trust me when I say that I have used plenty of programs and products in hopes of losing weight).  The program is 3 days of weight lifting and 2 days of cardio. Nothing more than an hour. Nothing that a 300 pound person couldn't do, honest. I picked a time that would work for me to get up and workout each morning and committed to that. I have learned that working out MUST be made a priority and it MUST be scheduled into your day or YOU WILL NOT DO IT. Guaranteed.

The first week of the challenge and my program I lost 9 pounds, NINE!!!!! I was FLOORED!! and ecstatic to say the least!! By the end of the 30 day challenge, and 4 weeks into my program I had lost 18 pounds and 6.5 inches throughout my whole body. It was exciting! I learned a lot about nutrition and calories and realized how much I was over eating and the bad habits I had created. Those 30 days gave me so much knowledge and help to see how I had let myself get the the point I had been, overweight and depressed.
I took pictures again so I could see my progress. (love the nifty technology we have to put pics side by side almost instantly to compare)

I knew I was going to keep at it. I couldn't wait to complete the whole 120 day program and see what kind of results I could get! I kept at it and the only time I missed workouts was during Christmas/new Years where I took 2 full weeks off due to crazy schedules and relaxing with the family. By the end of the 120 days I was down 33 pounds and 19 inches! Since finishing, I have started the program again and I'm down 7 more pounds so far! I have about 25-30 more pounds I would like to lose and I know that the way to do it is eating healthy and working out and enjoying the process!! I can't wait to reach my goals!!

I feel like a completely new person. I am wearing clothes that I haven't been able to wear in over 2 years. I weigh less than I did after having my first baby.  I have more confidence in myself. I am more excited about life. I enjoy eating WAY more than when I was 40 pounds heavier. I have learned about healthy habits and made lifetime changes for me AND my family.  I have become passionate about fitness and actually look forward to working out each morning. I miss it when I can't do it.

I have signed up to be a beach body coach now. My hope is that I can help change someone else's life just like my life has been changed. I was given a ray of hope and some knowledge and guidance that has truly changed my life. If anyone is interested in doing a challenge or buying a beach body program or Shakeology I would LOVE to help! There are so many great programs available (not just the one I am doing).