Photo Dump Wednesday: Making healthier choices

The last week has been somewhat more mellow which has allowed me to get some much needed things done. 
First up was doing JOE's hair after we got back from our trip. This was a PAINFUL experience. During our vacation, she REFUSED to let me comb or do her hair and since I only do her hair once a week, that meant that by the time we got back from vacation, I had 2 weeks worth of shed hair and matting to contend with. 
During our vacation, all I did was rinse off her hair everyday afterwards and mid-way through the week, I added some moisturizing conditioner to it before rinsing it out just to make sure her hair didn't try out.

Below is a picture of her hair. What you don't know is that THIS took 3-hours yes, 3-hours of time time! There was A TON of bribing, pleading, screaming, crying, hugging, promising and so many more "ings" just to get her hair to look like this. I asked JOE if she wanted to cut her hair afterwards and she said no. I asked her why and she said "because I like my hair long momma." But for real though...if you like your hair long, why don't you like getting it done? Needless to say, that is NOT an experience I want to re-live anytime soon. 3-hours of my labor day holiday!
That's one area I'll have to do better with as far as planning for when we go on vacation and she spends a ton of time in the pool.

   

The day after the hair debacle, JOE said "momma, I want you to see something outside!" JOE always wants me to see something outside and often, it isn't much but something that intrigued her. I guess to me, I figured "I see it all the time so what's the big deal?" But I have to learn to appreciate that she is often seeing things for the first time. 
Anyways, this is what she wanted me to see. I must say, THAT is a sight I haven't seen before. My camera didn't capture it very well. It was the sun coming through the clouds and casting a purplish glow underneath. It was rather spectacular!

Last week, someone posted that Daniel Tiger was going to be at a new pharmacy not too far from us. Because JOE loves to watch Daniel Tiger on PBS, we decided to take her there to meet him. 
I don't think she was as impressed. She was a little scared and didn't want to shake his hand but since J was holding her, she agreed to take a picture next to Daniel :-). 
I have to admit though that Daniel was a little scary looking because his head was so dis-proportionately large! 

Of course, I too wanted a picture with Daniel :-). 

This is our usual Sunday car selfie. Whenever JOE sees me bring out my phone to take a selfie, she'll smile and/or make faces.

My birthday this year officially kicked off a new milestone for me. I am officially in my 40th year of life! WOOHOO!!! In other words, I turn 40 next September and have decided to seriously focus more on being healthy. 

Since "diets" have not worked for me long term in the past, I am now doing more portion control and making healthier choices. 

I often cook our lunch for the week on Sundays and also something on the side to compliment dinner during the week. 

Well, this week was supposed to be Nigerian rice and stew. I LOVE LOVE LOVE rice and stew. But since I am trying to do better, I decided to make some black eyed peas to go with the stew.   

All I did after cooking the beans/black eyed peas was to add some of the sauce to it. It tastes soooooo good. I didn't completely do away with rice. I made rice for J and the kids. I also added a couple of table spoons of rice to my lunch so I didn't feel like I was depriving myself.

In addition, I am trying to fall in love with salads. I am NOT a fan of salads and feel like to make it taste good, you have to add a ton of different things which in essence defeats the purpose. To change that, I am adding just a few items I love to give it some taste without loading up on calories. Here, I added some strips of grilled chicken, a table spoon of cranberries and 2 tablespoons of honey mustard. I wanted to add more but decided to skip that. 

It isn't as filling BUT add in cold water and that helps.

Oh and here's my snack of choice. I have been having some peanut butter and celery and carrots. Although, this week, due to a 1200 calorie SALAD lunch from Red Robin, I have had to skip the peanut butter. 

How does a salad have 1200 calories before adding dressing? Well, my salad was a crispy chicken (Translation fried chicken) salad with bacon and eggs. :-/

I've also set a daily 7,000 step goal for myself in addition to going bike riding 4-times a week. So far, I am down 5-lbs. WOOHOO!!! Prior to last week, I hadn't been on my bicycle in 4+ years!!!

I am trying to do more water but that's been a bit of a challenge. I'll take baby steps on that.

Anyways, I hope you are having a good week so far. What new things are you doing this Fall?