Yogurt Cereal Bars

Healthy eating for me translates into healthy eating for Cooper. As I try to cut out processed foods in my own diet, I'm also trying to cut them out in his.

He loves NutriGrain bars. He would eat NutriGrain bars and bananas and nothing else if I let him. There is soooo much sugar in those bars (and all sorts of other crap). So, I found this recipe on Wholesome Toddler Food as a substitution.

Yogurt Cereal Bars

2 cups corn flakes (I crunched up the flakes a little, otherwise I thought they were too big)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I didn't use this)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flavoured yogurt (I used "YoBaby" Mixed Berry)
1 egg slightly beaten
2 tablespoons flour


Combine cereal, 3/4 cup flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Cut in butter or margarine until coarse crumbs form.

I had a little helper making them for the first time tonight :)

 Press 3/4 the mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 8inch square pan.

Mix yogurt, egg and 2 tablespoons flour in another small bowl.

Spread over cereal mixture in pan and then sprinkle the remaining cereal mixture on top

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown; cut into bars when cooled.

These were super easy to make. It would be simple to make a giant batch at once to freeze. I tasted one, and they were pretty good. They would probably be better with the brown sugar, like the recipe says. My little taste tester had to go to bed before they were cooled, so the final test will be to see what he thinks.

CrossFit Day 60

I'm down 1.4 pounds this week! Hopefully cutting out soda, drinking more water and the green monsters gave me the extra boost I needed. I'm back where I was 3 weeks ago after all my crazy gains, and 10.6 pounds away from goal.

CrossFit: Before & After

Seeing these side by side really helps me when I'm down about the scale not moving much. From Day 1 to Day 60 I've lost about 10 pounds. I'm grateful for that, but as much as I'm sweating ..... I thought the weight would be melting off. Pictures speak louder than numbers I suppose :)

As I was taking the 60 day picture, I was thinking.... I bet I haven't changed that much, I bet you won't even be able to tell a big difference, until I put them side by side with Day 1. I honestly can't believe I've stuck with it this long. I've never participated in a workout that I enjoy, and want to do. And, working out with my husband and friends helps too.

Also, when Philip was taking these pictures of me, Cooper was watching. And when I put my arms up for this pic, he put his up too (like he was flexing his muscles) and went "Uuuuuuurrrr!!!" LOL! Philip tried to get a picture, but he stopped before we could get one. It was so stinkin' cute.

Here is my overall weight loss progress in pictures. What a difference a year can make!

Do you like my face in the "before?" LOL. I guess I wanted to look as disgusting as possible.

Day 6 - NO SODA

It is Day 6 of no soda. It's been relatively easy, actually. There was one day where I REALLY wanted a Cherry, Vanilla, Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic. You know what stopped me? Knowing I would have to come to my blog and report my failure. So thank you to all of you reading this. You're helping me keep my goals!  Drinking 64 - 80oz of water a day has been pretty easy too. The first 2 days I was running to the bathroom every 30 minutes, but now my body has adjusted. I actually enjoy drinking water. I used to drink the Crystal Light mix-ins with every bottle, but I hardly ever use them anymore. I'm not sure why, I'm just not liking the way they taste anymore. Too fake. Too chemically. To much after taste. Just good ol' water does the trick!


With my past few weight gains, I've been reflecting on my tracker (WW term for food journal). My WW leader was perplexed by my lack of weight loss, so she asked me to email it to her. Before I sent it, I was reading over it.

I didn't send it to her. I didn't need to. I saw the problems myself. I had 2 entire days with nothing written in them. Days with little or NO vegetables eaten. Days where I ate out for lunch and dinner. Writing down my food has become so important. If I didn't write things down, I would never know where I went wrong. Now I can easily look at my mistakes, and fix them! Meal planning is also huge. When I have groceries in my house, and ideas how to fix them I am much less likely to eat bad things.

Tuesday is my 2 month/60 day CrossFit anniversary, pictures coming soon!

Until then, here is my little man helping with chores today :)

Weekly Goals

I'm going on 3 weeks now with ZERO weight loss. I technically weigh in tomorrow... but I know I didn't lose much (if anything). I suppose now that I'm 10 pounds away from my goal weight I need to mix things up. It used to be as simple as "calories in, calories out".... but I think now is when I really need to take a look at what I'm feeding my body. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, but I also eat a lot of 100 calories packs and sugar free jello. And diet soda. Ugh. Now it's time to really get serious about what I'm eating so I can get rid of these final stubborn 10 pounds.

The first thing to go is my morning oatmeal. It's instant oatmeal, and pretty much total crap. I liked to eat it because it's low in points and it fills me up. I know it's one of the things that has to go....

The past two mornings I've had a Green Monster  for breakfast. It is SO yummy and SO filling. I originally heard about them from my friend, Dani. Although I never tried one until this week.

To make a basic green monster is quite simple....

• 1 banana
• 1 T flax seeds
• 1 c. non-dairy milk (or dairy if you prefer) *I use Silk with no added Sugar*
• 1-2 c. of spinach (I cook it in water in the microwave for about 3 minutes first)
• Ice

Throw it all in a blender....

Looks yummy huh?!

Blend it all together...

Green Monster!!

I know it sounds somewhat revolting. Spinach and banana?! But, you cannot taste the spinach at all. The banana flavor completely over powers it. Give it a try! It might be your new favorite thing.  

(Oh, and for you WWers, the way I made it in the recipe above it's 5 points. But it depends a lot on what milk you use.)



The second thing I'm changing this week is..... No more soda.

This really shouldn't be too difficult. I don't drink a lot anyway... but I need to just completely cut it out. It serves no purpose. I read a very good article recently about how important water is. It really motivated me to drink a lot of water and cut out the caffeine that I do not need.

These are my goals for the week. Writing them down and telling all of "you" will hopefully help me stick to them!

What are your goals for the week?

Learning from mistakes

Here is what happens when you do 120 turkish get ups in 2 days, fail your last few (of 100) box jumps....

And here is what happens when you attempt an overhead press, fail to bailout when you should and the 100lb barbell falls on you ....

I'm strangely proud of these bruises. They seem to symbolize how hard I've been working.... the last one was because I'm an idiot who doesn't completely know what she's doing... but still. I'm trying. I'm working at being better and improving. Even if it means failing a box jump here or there :)