More Crockpot Meals and 3-day Refresh Results

It's SUMMER!  Well, it's been summer for awhile.  And I live in So Cal, so it's always warm.  But summer to me means tomatoes and cucumbers, delicious salads.  Grilling outdoors.  Well, not so much on the grilling.  I don't really know how to grill. I should learn though.

So this past week, on recommendation from my coworker, I tried the Beachbody 3-day Refresh.  Since the layoff in April, I'd lost my mojo.  Not only did my weight loss stall, but due to stress and lack of sleep, I gained back 8 of the 18 pounds that I've lost this year.  My coworker tried the refresh and enjoyed it.

So two weeks ago, I got PiYo in the mail for my birthday.  It's a pilates-yoga inspired workout that is no impact but really really hard.  So the first week of PiYo (which I did even though I hurt my knee twice in two weeks boogie boarding with the kids) was great and hard, and I lost 1.2 lbs with the workouts and recommitting to my diet.  I decided to start the 3-day Refresh cleanse on a Monday, figuring it would be easier to do it during a work week.  Plus, Sunday was my anniversary, and we enjoyed lunch at the beach with the boys (18 years!)

View during our anniversary lunch

Well, the results were stellar.  I lost 5 lbs in 3 days, including an inch on my waist.  I hope it stays off (it did for my friend).  The Refresh is not cheap - but it was pretty easy to follow.  Here's a summary of what it is:

First of all, half your weight in ounces of water. Start the day with water first thing.
Also, keep workouts light to moderate.  I did 15 minutes of PiYo and 30 minutes of walking on day 1, and walking on Day 2 and Day 3.

Breakfast: Shakeology with fruit
Morning snack: green tea with stevia (there is NO COFFEE on this Refresh, so I started cutting back 5 days in advance.  Of course, I'm back on the coffee.  More on that later.)
Morning fiber drink
Lunch: a vanilla protein shake, a vegetable, a fat
Snack: a vegetable, a fat
Dinner: a protein shake, veggie broth with herbs, 3 vegetable servings, 1/2 fat

It's like a cleanse but with food.  It is very low calorie, and it's vegan.  I generally felt hungry right before lunch each day, but I did feel energized, even on little sleep.  I am at least back to 16 lbs down.  I really enjoyed the veggie broth, and plan to have that with dinner more often.  Also, it's very heavy on veggies, and it's easy to get away from that because of the amount of work involved.

The idea is to use it to bust through a plateau, or get back on track after a bad spell, etc.  Well, my eating went to crap right after.  So I hope I can get back on track again.  The final night, Wednesday, my 2 year old came home with a fever.  That night I went to my quilting potluck (and didn't eat).  Since Wednesday his fever has flared about every 12 hours.  So I've been awake a lot.  Tuesday morning from 3:30 to 5:30 am.  Thurs from 1:30 to 3 am.  Friday from 1:30 to 2:30 am.  Friday night from 10:45 to 11:45 and again from 2:00 to 3:00.

Plus my husband had a busy work week so I took one for the team.  Meaning I took two days off work, but tried to work during nap time.  Do you know how hard it is to be at home full time with a toddler who is sick but energetic?  Well, it's impossible.  For one thing, he wants your constant attention, compared to normal when he can play independently for maybe 30 minutes.  Next, he's sick with an as-yet-unknown illness.  Roseola?  Hand-foot-mouth?  Something else?  So you can't exactly take him to the park or the library.  Or at least, you shouldn't.  Because that's shitty to other parents out there.  And except for the midday fever, he's still his energetic old self.  And the fever means he doesn't nap long, and of course there is the nighttime wakeups.  Did I mention my husband came home late  yesterday?  And that he went out for a beer with the neighbor (totally deserved, don't get me wrong), and toddler woke up then?

Ugh.  Anyway, with those parameters it's really really hard to do anything, much less eat anything, much less keep to a reasonable diet.  And of course I have almost no PTO left.  Somehow I think when we come back from our August vacation I will have 14 hours (HOURS) of PTO and my husband will have 250.

On the plus side, I cooked dinner both nights and did the grocery shopping, because I was home.  The second night I didn't cook until late because I was waiting for the husband, who didn't materialize until very late because of the last minute project.

First night: baked chicken tenders with Tuscan herbs.  Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, and steamed veggies.  (I got really used to the steamed veggies on the 3-day refresh).  I'm still not great with the chicken tenders.  They were dry and overcooked.

Second night: stir fried onions and peppers with the leftover chicken, leftover veggies, and cooked flageolet beans.  And corn on the cob.  Which took an hour to husk.  5 ears.  No pictures, but got two thumbs up from the hubby.  Kiddos aren't eating much these days.  The corn was delish, on sale for $1 for 5 ears.

Anyway, on to the meal plan and the use of the crockpot, because I suck at grilling:
Saturday: chicken tenders and TJ's Island Soyaki in the crockpot, with brown rice (pressure cooker recipe) and sauteed snow peas (leftover from Refresh) and broccoli.

Sunday: tri-tip with beans, peppers, onions, and salsa in the crockpot, with kale chips, leftover rice, and guacamole.

The rest of the weekly meals include:
sandwiches.  It's hot.  I bought turkey.
salads.  See above.  I have lettuce and radishes.
beet salad with feta
roasted vegetables.  My niece in SC is a monster - you should check out her blog - she's lost a ton of weight and is training for a fitness competition.  She's in the early phase of being a total cheerleader and a "no excuses" kind of attitude, and I totally remember being the same way.  When I was her age anyway.  Now I'm 44, with too many injuries to count, and not enough sleep. So. There's that.  Anyway, Sunday is her meal prep day and her instagram last week had three large trays of veggies roasting, so I bought cauliflower and broccoli to roast this week.

Fast and Easy Meal for a busy day - crock pot! And, vacation budget.

So, I took a day off work this week to take the family to the water park.  We got sunburned.  (Sunscreen washed off, and you know that white stripe you get from your flip flops on your feet?  Yeah, mine's red now.  So our 4th?  Not going to the beach.  Even though the water is supposedly SO WARM this year.)

Before we left, I decided to throw some food in the crock pot.  I had these raw chicken tenders in the freezer from Trader Joe's.  I found a great recipe for sesame honey chicken. But decided it would be MUCH easier to just use the TJ's Island Soyaki.  So, two ingredients: chicken, and TJ's sauce (which, you know, is made of a bunch of ingredients.  I realize this.)

Cook on low all day.  Now, with small tenders, they got overcooked.  But they were tasty (bone in or dark meat or larger pieces would be better).

When we got home, late, I got out the rice cooker.  But our rice cooker, and brown rice = 1.5 hours.  Instead, I pulled out my trusty Pressure Cooker cookbook from Lorna Sass.  I toasted up the rice, added water, salt, and voila!  45 minutes later (including heat up and cool down) rice is done.  Simple steamed broccoli finished the meal.  The boys were SO HUNGRY they mowed through it, including the toddler - he was mostly into the rice and broccoli, opposite of normal for my little meat lover.

The total cost for the water park was about $100 for 5 people (we took a friend).  Entry into the water park was $12/person, plus $10 for parking = $70.  We picked up sandwiches on the way, took bottled water and snacks - that was about $30.  It's a fairly pricey day.

As far as vacation days though, it's not too bad.  I used to be a lover of great vacations - Hawaii was my friend!  But with kids, it's different.  I read recently that mothers don't take vacations, they take trips.  So true.

When it comes to vacations, I now try to substitute cheaper options.  I love Hawaii - why?  Pool, beach, tropics.  How do I get that cheaper?  Go to the beach at home, in the summer.  Water park will take the place of the pool.  Or perhaps take a vacation to San Diego - save yourself the $800/person airfare.

So the water park is a substitute for Disneyland or Hawaii, not a regular thing.  Hiking or the zoo is a substitute for day trips to the water park...a slow decrease in the expense of the vacations.  As opposed to pre-kid days, when they get pricier and pricier!