The Held Family Happenings: One Month Check-in

It has been a month since we have set our New Years resolutions and I thought I would update everyone on our progress! We've really changed some of our habits and I am proud of how well we are doing. First off, I am happy to say that I am down 10.5 pounds since January 1st! I still have quite a ways to go to reach my goal, but I felt it was a good milestone to hit. We've stuck to our plan on 'not' eating out unless it was a special occassion. In the past month, we've only gone out to eat twice - once was with my family on the two year anniversary of my mom's passing and the other was for the luncheon after Mason's Baptism. If you ask me - that is pretty good progress considering we literally used to go out to eat at least 2-3 times a week. To be honest, I don't miss it either! Along with not going out to eat, I haven't had any alcohol since New Year's. I am not giving it up completely, but really wanted to watch my consumption. Every time we'd go out to eat, I would usually have 2-3 beers with my meal. All of these calories (from food and alcohol) were adding up and not helping me with my weight loss goals. Since we really haven't gone out, I haven't been tempted to drink. Summer time may be a different story :)

One of my other New Year's resolutions was to cook at least two meals at home a week for dinner. On average, I've been cooking 2-3 meals a week. Usually, I'll prepare something on Sunday that we can have for left overs on Monday. I'll also do some prep work too to have easy meals during the week. We've been watching our portions and I've been conscious of making healthier meals. I've made a handful of recipes from Pinterest. Tonight, I am making this honey lime chicken over cilantro rice. It sounded good to me! There will be enough for us to eat tomorrow. I've also started bringing my lunch to work almost every day too, usually a turkey sandwich with hummus and pita chips or crackers. I'm definitely not snacking like I used to as well. Our grocery bill has gone up since we are eating so much more at home, but at least we are not spending as much as we used to at restaurants!

Rob and I both have been using our elliptical too. It was my goal to use it 4 times per week. This hasn't exactly happened. I would say I am averaging 2-3 times per week. It is hard to get it in sometimes! By the time we get home and eat dinner and spend time with the kids, it can be tough to get in time to exercise. We've been using the weekends to get it in more (since we are not going out - ha!). My life is about get even more busy too. I am going back to school to work towards a Benefits Certification (CEBS), which I guess would be equivalent to the CPA but in the HR world. I've signed up for the first prep class and I'll now be in class on Wednesday's from 6:30 - 9:30 pm for the next 11 weeks! There are then 7 more classes that follow. We'll see how this goes!

As far as the kids resolutions go - Mason has hit one of his goals! On his list was to learn to hold his own bottle. He finally has mastered this skill and is now feeding himself (with his bottle). Way to go Mase (Leah never held her own bottle)! Leah just started her second gymnastics class this past Saturday. We enrolled her in another parent/tot class, but for the next session we signed her up for an independent class where she'll go on her own. We'll see how it goes, as this was one of her resoltions - to do more activities independently. So far in 2013 - all of the Held's are on track to stick to our resolutions!