Week 3- Family Fit Challenge!

This week we wrapped up week 3 of our family fit challenge!! We started out or week meeting with our Soul Coach Mindy Elias from the Chandler Boys and Girls Club. We met her at our new family’s favorite retaurant “Sweet Tomatoes”! Our kids had so much fun at Sweet Tomatoes picking out all the colorful vegetables to make their own individual salads! We went over the week 3 challenges and activities, and prepared for the end of phase one.

When we sat down to make out or meal list for the week we decided we were going to try new things for dinner this week. One of the meals we had as our one vegetarian meal was a ravioli filled with spinach. Our oldest, our 11 year old daughter was in charge of this meal. (with my help) She chose fresh mushrooms, onions and tomatoes and garlic to put on the ravioli, we decided to sauté it in a little olive oil and it was delicious!! The entire family raved about it, and it was the first time during the challenge they wanted to bend the rules about portion control. So we allowed them to eat more salad instead :)

Another great meal we tried this week that our 7 year old son helped to prepare this meal. I allowed him to pick out vegetables he would like to make in a soup! We used low sodium V8 juice as a broth and he put all sorts of colorful vegetables in the pot, zucchini, squash, corn, carrots, celery, onions, green beans, and potatoes. He had so much fun creating a big pot of soup with an assortment of colorful vegetables!

For our family outing we went to watch a football as a family. Again, it was so nice to enjoy time with the kids and be doing something as a family outside. We continued to take nightly walks after dinner, which always is very provoking in good conversation.

What a wonderful experience this has been for our family! At the end of week 2's challenge it mentioned finding a walk to participate in. We found the Chandler Fun walk which we signed up for that is on December 8th, the exciting part is, it benefits our Boys and Girls Club! We also as a family decided our family activity for this week (we are going to continue with weekly family activities despite the end of Phase 1) we are signed up to volunteer at our Boys and Girls Clubs Thanksgiving dinner, they expect over 900 guests and we are going to help seat the guests and bus the tables. We are so excited to be able to do an activity that will be giving back as well!!

 

Week 2- Family Fit Challenge

Week 2 was off to a great start for our family! We celebrated halloween as a family in a family costume, and decided that would be a family tradition because it was so much fun!

This was voting week, so we tied a few activities into voting and explaining the election.

 

Tuesday, we took our family walk to the polling place so the kids could watch us vote first hand, then that night we ate dinner and then watched as results rolled in and had the kids color a map as the states were called.

We also let the kids pick the menu each night. They had to create a dinner that matched the myplate model. It was a great opportunity for the kids to have to create a balanced meal on their own and then help prepare it!

We signed the kids up for basketball at the Boys and Girls Club and they are very excited to start doing an organized physical activity. We decided that Cory (the dad) will coach basketball so he can participate with the kids as well.

This week the kids tried new breakfast items each morning, surprisingly they loved the variety and comment how they weren't starved by lunch time.

Thursday night was our family fun night and we decided we would eat out. We went to Subway and ordered sandwiches and went to have a picnic. We had so much fun!

Family Fit Challenge Easy Peasy Talapia!!

Tell me that doesn't look delicious!! We chopped up fresh onions, fresh green beans and fresh grape tomatoes! We coated them in a splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of mrs. dash seasoning. We put the talapia in tin foil, added our vegetable and a slice of lemon and sealed up the foil like a pouch and bake at 350 for 30 minutes! It was delicious, the kids had seconds and Cory took the left overs for work the next day!!!

The best part? It was so simple to make that our 11 year old daughter was able to help prepare and assemble the meal! It's been great getting the kids involved in the kitchen learning how to prepare healthy food!!

Family Fit Challenge week 1

We are participating in a really fun event "Family Fit Challenge" through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

We will be chronicling our journey and our family transformations as we go.

Week1:

We started our challenge early, by participating in our city's family day of play. We were educated on healthy snacks and activities.  From there we went shopping as a family to help make our family dinner list for the next two weeks. We chose healthy snacks and made sure we incorporated fruits and vegetables into every meal.

Once we were home we took time measuring out serving sizes so we know what it looks like with our eyes, so we are able to make decisions correctly instead of serving with our tummy... 

We had received water bottles from a booth at the day of play event, so we measured how many 8oz cups fit in the bottle. We learned it holds 2.5 cups every time its filled. We keep a tally on the refrigerator. It has become a friendly competition amongst the family, who drank the most each day. As well as a good way to spend some time on math with the kids counting up how many times we filled the bottle and converting it to ounces.

When making our dinner list we decided we would substitute 2 meals a week for vegetarian meals. One night we had a vegetable paella served with baked tofu as our protein and last night we had talapia as our protein. So far 2 new meal choices and they were a hit with the entire family!

We also started taking a family walk together each night after dinner. We pick something to discuss, the first night we asked "what did you do today that helped someone else?" It invoked a great conversation about being selfless. Last night we talked about our best Halloween memories,  we sure did have some fun laughs!

Thursday night we designated our family fun night! We went to Makutu's Island which is an indoor play place. We were there with only 1 other family, so Cory and I were able to play and run right along with the kids. We were on the go for 2 hours straight! We had so much fun!!!

Some great choices we have made as a family is we no longer drink any soda pop. We rarely did before, but we completely made a choice to cut it out. Cory and I also decided to cut 2 days a week out of coffee, because of the caffeine. I also made the decision to switch my coffee creamer to sugar free. Every little choice we make helps us to be healthier in the long run!

This week has been a great experience for our family. Besides becoming aware of the proper things to eat, portion sizes, we have been able to integrate other aspects, working on math, great discussions as a family, and all around family fun.

Although no one has any weight to lose in our family except for me because I am still carrying this baby weight :) After 1 week of making positive choices and doing a physical activity every night, I am happy to say I am down 2 pounds!!

We can't wait for week 2!