Healthy Attemps

In accordance with the Bretzke family schedule thus  far--
I'd be pregnant again by now.

With three "active" (total euphemism for CRAZY!) boys  and a bunch of praying, we've decided to enjoy where were at for just a tad longer before adding to our family, slightly extending the 2 year gap we've had between  our kids thus far.

The problem? Once I stopped nursing Levi, I quickly realized how many extra calories that boys was sucking outta me, and when I didn't adjust my eating habits (hello holidays!) and I didn't have a new pregnant belly to hide behind, I realized I was gonna hafta make some effort.

Ben was also feeling a need to get more healthy and admittedly my track record so far for supporting him in such efforts has not been great (what is it about a spouse trying to eat good that makes you so darn snacky?!?)


We've had better days and weeks than others, but in general it's been a move in the right direction. I'm super proud of Ben who walks every morning now (he's so much better as being consistent then me!)


We'd got home late from date night (around day 12 of our 20 day shred--hence the title of this post is "attempts" right?) and I was ready for bed! Ben starts putting on his workout cloths. Seriously? Yup we did it at 11:30 at night. 

President Thomas S. Monson, a counselor in the First Presidency, quoted an important principle when teaching about the impact of reporting progress in reaching goals: 


“When performance is measured, performance improves. 
When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 107).

This handy little app, helped me be accountable.
(Plus it let me save up for when I really wanted brownies and ice cream!)

Funny enough one of my best motivators, or ways to "report" my progress/efforts was posting pictures of the food I was eating. Healthy food is so pretty!

Snagged some awesome recipes form a friends cook book 
(although I never follow exactly)

This was our made up recipe to replace our 
traditional after-church nachos.

One of biggest changes was giving up all our yummy sauces.
Instead of BBQ sauce on our steaks we tried grilled grape tomatoes.

All the produce in our fridge I think encouraged our kids to eat healthy too.

I should wrote this post back when I was doing good (maybe I'm looking for more motivation)
cuz lately there's been a lot more hotdogs than salads;)

Again-- healthy attempts.

I have loved running more.

I never go very long--there's this little window after Aaron's off to school and Ben goes to work, that  I go run around the Sunridge lake.

Another handy app to help push myself.

I wicked wanna do this colour run when it comes to Calgary!

So those are my attempts.

I remember a talk where the speaker related a time when he offered a class of relieving guilt. Not sinful guilt--- more the nagging voice in our head that reminds us of all the things we wish we were doing. Tons of people showed up. And he realized he'd hit a chord.

He taught a lot of principles but one I remember was how he encouraged his students to pick one thing they feel guilty about not doing and do something about it for 10 minutes a day. So the goal was not finish 10 years of scrapbooking, or complete 10 generations of family history. Just do something. It wasn't about what his class ended up accomplishing,  as much as it was about how they felt about their efforts. Instead of feeling bad about the tasks they kept putting off, because it seemed to overwhelming, they felt good that they were actually trying.


So maybe my runs are measly, and maybe we could be stricter about our diet, but I feel good that we're at least trying. That it's on the radar. Ya know.

Ah I can hear Jillian yelling at me know calling this post a "false message of lethargy."

Too bad Jillian.